Christmas Gifts for A Cook Too Poor to be a FOODIE

Merriam-Webster's definition of a foodie is :foodie noun food·​ie | \ˈfü-dē : a person having an avid interest in the latest food fads. This is not just because I am relatively poor; I love traditional comfort foods. The only thing I would like to do is have some of the equipment and ingredients I see used on the food shows. My wife and I have for years gone Christmas shopping together and we just pick out things as we walk through the store. No surprises, no returns. It has worked well, but this Christmas I started looking for things earlier than usual and found a couple of items I thought we would like and could use. These are not the price or quality used by chefs on TV shows, but practical kitchen items we can use.

❶The first item I bought, is much the same as the one we use and love, so this is a backup with improvements. It happens to be an "as seen on TV" item. What does it do? It cooks EGGS. it is the Copper Chef Perfect Egg Maker. I first discovered this little gem under the name DASH Rapid Egg Cooker on clearance at Wal-Mart and we fell in love with it. In case you are unaware, boiling is not a heat, rather a function of air pressure. At our altitude, 4,488 feet, water boils at 180℉, NOT 212℉ as you were taught. All of this science-y stuff means if I want a boiled egg, it must cook LONGER. Steam, however, carries 5 times the cooking energy of water. These cookers use Steam to cook the eggs! Shown at left, are the 3 ways it cooks eggs. Hard boiled, omelette-like, and poached-like. The improvement over the original is adding a ring and a second tray. It can now cook up to 14 eggs! (my original -  only 6). It was at a reduced price and now we have an improved model. If you get one, 2 things - to cook the eggs properly, you must PIERCE the shell on the wide end, and you will need so experiment to get it to how hard you want your eggs cooked. For my wife's liking, that meant 2 extra minutes in the steam after it shuts off. This may be the most used small appliance we own.

 ❷This may be my favorite gift this year. It is the Hessler Gourmet Series Surgical Stainless Steel Cutlery Set. I watched a demonstration in Sam's Club while shopping and I am a sucker for cutlery, but only when I can get a deal. The deal here is it is GUARANTEED for LIFE. The set included a VERY sharp chef's knife, 2 carving knives, and 2 paring knives.It also came with what they call a Robo Wisk, a small, spring action wisk, which my wife said was "cute".

❸We love fresh ground pepper and salt, however, my wife (a.k.a."Turkey") likes her pepper finely ground and I like coarse grind. For her I bought this gravity activated Salt & Pepper Mill set. Tip it over and it grinds! Fresh pepper makes almost every savory dish complete and is a requirement on egg or potato dishes. 

If you think you may be over doing it with salt, try fresh ground pepper! You may find that you reduce the need for it because of the great flavor added by the fresh ground pepper. Not the pepper ground so fine you can barely see it. Fresh ground pepper and a nice, course salt can add so much. "...but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men". This is from Matthew 5:13 KJV. I think it means bad salt is only good to be used as ice melter.😀The same goes for pre-ground pepper!

 

❹This next item may be the most foodie item, and is a gift from Daughter #1. It is a Brie Cheese Baker Set. We love Brie, but have never baked it. It is just the right size for a small wheel of brie, but I have the warehouse store large economy size wheel. When I bake some, I will keep the blog updated.

❺There was a time when mere mention of "Trader Joe's" evoked thoughts of foodiness. I had never been in one. Finally! One opened nearby! It is just plain fun! The people are great, the prices are reasonable, and they have products hard to find or non-existent in other stores. This year 3 items caught my eye:

• Stroopwafels - a Dutch caramel waffle  cookie. YUM!
  
• Cocoa Batons - much like Piroulines. Creamy and crunchy,
• Taste Test of Caramels - This one intrigued me most. It is a selection of 12 caramels, and the task is to guess which flavor is which. It is a lot of fun and one of the tastiest tests I've ever had. We make a game of it and see who's taste buds are best!

❻This next one is the most thoughtful. My dear mother-in-law, knowing I like to cook, bought me a Veggetti. If you haven't seen the infomercial, a clip of it is on the right. We have a Veggetti Pro, and a Veggetti, but the thought was what made this special.

❼Lastly, we watch a lot of PBS cooking shows and my wife became enamored with the measuring cups Annabel Langbein, a host from New Zealand, uses. I found some quite similar in the Pioneer Woman collection at my local Wal-Mart, and knew she would like them. They have what I call a flea market look, each having a different design and trim. They are porcelain and the measurements are marked on the inside. I gave this to my lovely wife and will never be able to use it, but thought it needed to be included here.

Earl Cooks 2 Dishes and a Snack for a Christmas Feast at Daughter #2's House - Funeral Potatoes

We have always gotten together Christmas day with my Dad and Mom's family. Sometimes it involves travel, sometimes it simply involves scheduling issues, but we have always done it Christmas day. The kids hated leaving their new gifts behind, but the anticipation of opening new ones was always an attraction. Last year Mom's health had declined to the point where she could not make it, so we went to her. This year she is no longer with us. Kindly my second daughter offered her new home as a gathering place for Christmas. She and my baby sister organized everything. My daughter's home is made for entertaining...a great open plan where the kitchen/dining/living spaces combine so everyone can gather and mingle together while they eat and then open gifts and play games. This year we were 22 people, with one home ill and 2 almost 300 miles away, with another 4 out of state. It was a potluck affair with everyone doing what they wanted to do and it was wonderful! So much food and such a great variety. I chose to do 2 favorites and a snack. Let me start with the one that I considered the least successful.

Earl Cooks 2 Dishes and a Snack for a Christmas Feast at Daughter #2's House - The Snack

This time of year is about holiday traditions. It is also the first Christmas since our mom's passing. My daughter #2 wanted to celebrate our mom's life this Christmas and I thought that was great!

One of those traditions from my youth was Mom making the original Chex "party mix" for a toy party she was hosting at our house in the late 60s, much like the Discovery Toys or Tupperware parties. They had the coolest toys to demonstrate, and as a young boy, I hoped one of them would be mine. It never happened, but what I do remember was watching Mom make the mix. The recipe was from the back of the 1966 Chex box. Every other “original” recipe I've found is not how it was then and not how she made it. A version is still on the boxes today, but I have always loved the original. 

The ad (pictured here) is a bit small so I will list the ingredients & Instructions here with the modification I make to enhance the flavor to match my memories, and I think it makes it closer to what mom made.
CLICK BELOW FOR RECIPE(S) and a printable version

Earl Cooks Christmas Eve Turkey for "Turkey"

When I lived in Mexico in the mid 70s, I was impressed with how humble and simple their Christmas Eve celebration was. It was truly a family affair, with the whole family gathering around the table. The mother usually roasted a chicken very simply, and at midnight the family would put the baby Jesus (Jesús in Spanish) into the manger bed. They would also usually gather for a religious service or mass at their local church, chapel or cathedral. There was no worrying about being naughty or nice, pressure giving gifts, or a commercial side to the celebration. I'm sure that has changed somewhat today, some 40+ years later, but it left a lasting impression.

I wanted to bring a bit of that simplicity to our Christmas Eve this year for my wife (A.K.A."Turkey). I didn't have a whole chicken to roast, but I did have a turkey breast...close enough!

I started with a roasting pan large enough for the 7 lb. breast and covered the bottom with the same vegetables I would use in a mirepoix, carrots, onions and celery. I left them whole to support the weight of the turkey. I seasoned the veggies with seasoning salt and pepper to add flavor as they roast.

I decided to cook my turkey breast almost frozen. I seasoned it with pepper and poultry seasoning. It would be roasting quite awhile so I seasoned it liberally. The breast I bought was strangely shaped, so I had to flip it to make certain it cooked evenly. I added about 1 cup of stock to the pan and covered it with foil. It would be in there several hours since it was partially frozen, and I wanted it to roast thoroughly.

After it reached 165℉-175℉ throughout (about 3-4 hours), I removed the foil and alowed it to brown. It turned out very nice and was very simple.The vegetables were rich with flavor and the turkey was juicy and savory. I let it rest for 30 minutes. I prepared some riced sweet potatoes to go along with everything and dinner was complete.

We spent the night watching Christmas specials and listening to Christmas music, which is a great way to bring simplicity and light to a sacred celebration. I hope yours can be a spent remembering Christ and forgetting your cares.

Feed How Many? A Christmas Breakfast Strata for 12

Anytime a request starts with a double-digit number in the servings I am a bit out of my element (mind?), not to mention that it is to be prepared in a HUGE disposable aluminum serving tray and to be served buffet style...well new adventures are good adventures, right?
Well after reading a slew of recipes and not finding one I liked, I did what I  normally do with recipes, I made my own. It was for a neighborhood Christmas Party, a brunch of sorts and I would be just one of many, but I couldn't let mine be just another casserole. My mind went back to the first time I remembered eating a breakfast 'strata or stratta' (layers) was 40+ years ago, and it is not a good memory. It was cold in some places and overcooked in others. I had never heard of a 'strata'at that time, norI had I  ever thought I would be making one. I have since tasted some that are fine, and in fairness, in the truest sense of the word, lasagnas, frittatas and even some quiches are stratas (stratum), since they are layered baked dishes. As my wife pointed out, casseroles are meant to make feeding many easier, but that was not in the cards for me. It had to be good first, use ingredients I had on hand second, and lastly, be breakfast-like. I am going to present this dish, it's ingredients, and it's instructions in the the order the layers went into the pan and what I did to prepare each layer. The good thing is, I now know what I did right and what I should have done differently. As a PLUS, my wife said mine was by far the best tasting of any of those she tasted! I couldn't agree more and I tried many of them. For details, click below

Refrigerated Jumbo Biscuits  —  Biscuits Baked  —  Layered Biscuits Halved