Parsnip Bread Pudding

Parsnip bread pudding might sound weird, but it's quite tasty.  It's a creamy, warm, savory bread pudding, with nice yeasty bread and roasted parsnips.  I'm not going to lie, I originally got this recipe from Martha Stewart.  I just made it a little less complicated.


Recipe:
1 pound parsnips, peeled and sliced
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 onion, chopped
1/3 cup white wine
2 cups heavy cream
5 eggs
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 loaf bread, cut into 1-2 inch cubes


Preheat oven to 425°.
Drizzle parsnips with oil, and season with salt and pepper to taste.  Arrange on a rimmed baking sheet.  Roast, shaking occasionally, until caramelized and tender, about 25 minutes. Let cool. Reduce heat to 375°.
Heat 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat in a medium saute pan until melted. Add onion, and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 5 minutes.  Add wine, and simmer until reduced, 1 minute.  Season as desired (thyme, Italian herbs, etc.).  Stir in roasted parsnips.  Set aside.
Whisk together melted butter, heavy cream, eggs, and 3/4 cup Parmesan in a large bowl.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add onion-parsnip mixture, then fold in bread.
Butter a 2-quart baking dish, and pour parsnip mixture into dish.  Cover loosely with parchment, then foil, and bake until golden brown, about 50 minutes.  Remove parchment and foil.  Sprinkle with remaining parmesan, and return to oven.  Bake for 10. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

This was my contribution to Christmas dinner this year.  I've made it a couple of times and I love it - it's rich, buttery, and parsnips are one of my favorite root vegetables.  It's a delicious and unique side dish, and a great alternative to stuffing.  It's also a fairly substantial vegetarian side dish, which is something to consider for a large group meal.


As far as the bread goes, the original recipe calls for brioche.  I usually use a French or sourdough bread, since a) brioche is hard to find, b) it's just bread pudding, and c) I'm not Martha Stewart.  I think any good quality bakery bread will work for this.  I look for something with some crust, a good flavor, and a little more body, so it holds up in the pudding.

Eggnog Sugar Cookies

Nutmeg is one of my favorite spices.  For me, it's one of those delicious comfort food flavors, and one that I always associate with winter.  So these cookies are super festive for me, and I love them because they have a more complex flavor than the average sugar cookie.

Recipe:
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/3 cup eggnog

Preheat oven to 350°.
Stir together flour, baking soda, salt, and spices.  Set aside.
Mix together butter and sugar until creamy.  Add egg, vanilla, and eggnog and mix well.  Gradually add the flour mixture and mix until combined.
If dough is too soft to roll out, refrigerate for 1 hour.
On a floured surface, roll dough out to 1/8 inch thick.  Cut out with cookie cutters, place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake 8-12 minutes, until the edges are golden brown.  Cool and frost with eggnog cream cheese frosting.

Frosting:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
6 ounces butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup eggnog
3-4 cups powdered sugar

Mix cream cheese and butter together until creamy.
Beat in vanilla and 1/4 cup of eggnogg.  Gradually mix in 1 1/2 - 2 cups of powdered sugar.
Add remaining eggnog.  Mix in remaining powdered sugar until it is a good spreading consistency.  If it gets too stiff, add a little eggnog.


These cookies are so good!  I love the slightly custardy flavor and the spiciness.  They're perfectly festive, and fun to make.

Pot Roast

This started with the traditional pot roast recipe in Nourishing Traditions, but after the first few steps I took it in my own direction, since it was mostly seasoning-related.  This takes some planning, since it really needs a couple of days, but it is totally worth it.

Recipe:
3-4 pound pot roast
2 cups buttermilk (or Saco buttermilk powder and water)

1 bottle Guinness
1-2 bulbs garlic
1 onion, sliced
Salt
Black pepper
Seasoning such as English Prime Rib Rub, celery seed, thyme, rosemary

Place the pot roast in a 9" x 13" baking pan, pour the buttermilk over it, cover and  refridgerate it for 2 days, turning at least 3 times.

Heat oven to 350°.  Pour the buttermilk out of the pan, season the roast as desired, cover with garlic and onions, pour Guinness over it, and bake, uncovered, for 1 hour.  Baste with pan juices.

Continue to bake the roast at 250° for another 5 hours.  Check and baste it every 45-60 minutes.  When the meat starts to brown, cover it (for me this was into the second hour of cooking).

About 1 hour before serving, add vegetables to the pan and continue baking.

For gravy: remove the roast and vegetables to a serving dish.  Pour the pan juices into a sauce pan and bring to a low simmer.

Place 1/2 cup of juices and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch in a lidded container and shake until cornstarch is dissolved.  Add to pan of juices, and stir until slightly thickened.  Add seasoning as desired.


Obviously I only had carrots.

This came out so good.  At one point I was basting the roast and I poked it with the spoon to see how it was coming along and it started to fall apart.  A spoon!  So yeah, this was melt-in-your-mouth tender.  The flavor was great too, the earthiness of Guinness really compliments the beef's natural flavor, and herbs like thyme and rosemary are really fantastic with it.  If you need comfort food, here it is.

Cinnamon Roasted Almonds

So, as promised here's the second recipe for roasted almonds (the first being cocoa roasted almonds).

These are more traditional cinnamon roasted almonds, like the delicious smelling ones they make at the mall around Christmas.

Recipe:
2-3 pounds raw almonds
1/2 stick (4 Tbsp.) butter
1 Tbsp. vanilla
2 tsp. sugar

1 Tbsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 cup sugar

Spread almonds in shallow baking pans or rimmed cookie sheets.  Place in the oven, then turn heat to 350° (don't pre-heat) and bake 5 minutes.  Stir almonds and bake an additional 8 minutes.  Remove from oven.

Melt butter, stir in vanilla and 2 teaspoons sugar.  Pour over almonds and stir until coated.

Mix together cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and 1/4 cup sugar.  Sprinkle over the almonds 1 tablespoon at a time, stirring after each addition.

Spread almonds on parchment paper or foil and cool 1 hour.

These are nice and spicy, I used mostly Penzey's Vietnamese Extra Fancy Cinnamon, which is a very bold and spicy cinnamon.  The ginger and nutmeg help round out the flavor, giving these a very warm, comforting spiciness, like pumpkin pie or ginger snaps.




And, again, I'm packing these up into decorative gift bags:

So festive, and a fairly easy homemade gift.  I figure that each of these cost under $4 to make, counting the almonds, other ingredients, bags, decorative paper, et cetera.  So really, these are great gifts - homemade, festive, economical, and edible!

Cocoa Roasted Almonds

I love roasted almonds.  You know around Christmas when they put that almond roasting booth up in the mall?  I can't get enough of that.  It just seems so festive and I'm not entirely sure why.  There's absolutely no reason to only have roasted almonds around Christmas.

A few years ago I came across a recipe for roasted almond and it was great, but these days I don't feel inclined to boiling almonds in honey and then coating them in sugar.  I've been experimenting in small batches and here is the first of two recipes for roasted almonds.

Recipe:
2-3 pounds raw almonds
1 stick (1/4 pound) butter
2 ounces dark chocolate
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup sugar

Spread almonds in shallow baking pans or rimmed cookie sheets.  Put them in the oven, then turn heat to 350° (don't pre-heat) and bake for 5 minutes.  Stir and return them to the oven and bake for an additional 8 minutes.  Remove from oven.

Melt butter and chocolate.  Pour over almonds and stir to coat.

Stir cocoa powder and sugar together and sprinkle it over the almonds 1 tablespoon at a time, stirring well after each addition.

Spread almonds out on foil or parchment paper and cool for 1 hour.

Pour the almonds into a large bowl, sprinkle with 1 additional tablespoon each of cocoa powder and sugar, and stir to coat.

Mmmm...toasty chocolatey almonds!

The combination of dark chocolate and cocoa powder gives them a nice chocolate truffle sort of flavor.  You could easily modify this to suit your own tastes, for example using milk chocolate instead of dark, adding cinnamon or other spices, or adding more or less sugar.

And of course homemade treats like this make lovely gifts:

All you need is a quantity of coffee tin tie bags (which is what they're called, you're welcome), decorative scrap booking paper, an attractive paper punch, a glue stick, and labels with an ingredient list.

And of course the time to punch out decorative shapes, glue them on bags, roast the almonds, and fill the bags.

Voila!  Thoughtful, attractive homemade gifts!