DIY: Egg Nog
My Sigma Alpha Iota sorority sisters put together a cookbook to raise money for our service projects when we were in undergraduate school (back then, in the olden days, it was called North Texas State University).
The NTSU Flying Worm
The project did very well. At one point, to boost sales, we entered people’s names in a drawing for a dinner we’d cook for them (on a night of their choice in the Green Room) out of recipes in the cookbook. That was a talker, too.
I’ve kept that cookbook, as have others I know, because it has some rockin’ good recipes in it.
My roommate submitted her excellent egg nog recipe, but in the Texas, anything-worth-doing-is-worth-overdoing, spirit, I’m offering up Elena’s. When you see the first two ingredients, you’ll see why.
Elena’s Egg Nog
12 eggs (very fresh, from a supplier you trust), separated
1 bottle cognac (a fifth)
1 1/2 quarts milk
1 c. sugar
1 pint heavy cream
Cinnamon or nutmeg for garnish
Beat egg yolks until light. Continue beating as you gradually add sugar and beat until very light. Stir in milk and cream. Pour in cognac, stirring slowly to mix. Cover and refrigerate one to two hours. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold in with yolk/cream/cognac mixture. Sprinkle with spice. Yields 20 servings.
DIY: Hot Buttered Rum
Yesterday afternoon I had occasion to share a version of this recipe. One of the co-owners of Beth Marie’s, an awesome ice cream shop in Denton that makes its own, was talking about how tough the past week of the ice storm has been on business (I believe the exact phrase was “selling ice to Eskimos”)
Beth Marie’s Old Fashioned Ice Cream Parlor, Denton
Folks around him started brain storming about ice cream drinks, and then adult ice cream drinks, as a way to help and then just because it was fun to talk recipes. Beth Marie’s is a family friendly place, so that’s not going to happen. But it was fun to share this one my mother made occasionally.
Hot Buttered Rum
Base recipe
1 c. butter, softened
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. powdered sugar, sifted
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 pint vanilla ice cream, softened
Cream butter, sugars and spices. Fold in softened ice cream and re-freeze in a sealed container.
To serve
Spoon 2-4 tablespoons of the mix into a mug. Add jigger of rum or brandy (“or brandy” is always an option with people from Wisconsin) and 1/2 cup boiling water. Stir with cinnamon stick and serve.
Adaptation
A friend warned us after Dixie was diagnosed with diabetes one month ago that she would go blind. I wish I’d known how fast that would come. She already had cataracts going into this (an early sign, perhaps) and last week, before the ice storm, she got an infection in one eye.
By the weekend, her vision was completely gone.
Dixie, Spring 2013
I saw my home in a new way. It is not, by any stretch, an age-in-place kind of abode. But I downloaded a primer with 65 tips on how to help a dog that has gone blind. We’re doing what we can.
What’s been tough for Dixie is the speed of the loss. She hasn’t had a lot of time to adapt, the way you might if your vision slowly fades from aging. The ice storm didn’t help either. She has the most confidence when we get the leash and go for a walk outside, but the ice is cruel. It hides important clues under the feet and yields unexpectedly.
The storm allowed me time to observe her closely and make changes we needed to make quickly and speed her adaptation. But, for a few days, I also watched her wake up each morning, and from naps, having forgotten for a brief moment that she was blind.
Just like other December mornings some years ago, when I woke up each morning not remembering, for one or two glorious seconds, that Mark was gone.
Comfort in the storm: Chicken and dumplings
We are socked in after a bad ice storm because the one thing you can usually count on about Texas weather — it’s changeability — isn’t happening. We’ve been below freezing for about 50 hours and we still have about 20 hours to go. And that non-frozen window is only supposed to last a few hours tomorrow afternoon.
So much sleet fell it looks like snow.
Time to get out great-grandma’s chicken and dumplings recipe. Seventy years later, the notepaper she used to write it down for Aunt Regina is just about as interesting. I’m going to have to consult other recipes on making chicken and dumplings. I’m finding I’m having to do this with some of the recipes Regina kept. During our last visit, Regina, Patti, and I were talking about the skeletal information she had on her recipes and she admitted, “Yes, we wrote them out for people who already know how to cook.”
(I started the fruitcake last weekend. It’s like an Irish soda bread or other boiled fruit cake. The cloves and cinnamon smell so good, as does that brandy.)
Update: Here’s a complete recipe. The kids give it two spoons up.
Chicken and Dumplings
Inspired by Great-Grandma Minnie Dillard and Gourmet Magazine
2 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon each salt and pepper
1 whole chicken
1/2 cup carrots, diced
1/2 cup celery, diced
1 onion, diced
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
6 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup apple cider
2 cups flour
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
½ cup buttermilk
½ cup milk
2 Tablespoons butter
Wash chicken and cut into serving size pieces (wings, legs, thighs, breast cut into quarters). Mix salt and pepper into flour, dredge chicken pieces in flour.
In Dutch oven, melt butter and oil. Brown chicken on both sides and set aside. (may need to do this in two batches)
Saute diced onion, carrots, and celery in the oil, butter and chicken bits for several minutes. Add thyme and turmeric and stir a few seconds until it becomes fragrant. Pour in chicken broth and apple cider. Mix well and then gently return chicken pieces to the broth. Cover and simmer 20-30 minutes.
Combine flour, salt and baking powder in bowl. Stir baking soda into buttermilk. Add ½ cup to ¾ hot broth to buttermilk. Stir into dry ingredients and make a rather stiff dough. Roll out thin and leave 10 minutes to rest. Cut in strips and peel off pieces, putting a few at a time in the hot broth until all are added.
Finish the broth with milk and butter.
Overheard in the Wolfe House #255
Sam (to himself, upstairs): It’s a big day today. That’s right. It’s MY day!
Peggy (after he comes downstairs): Happy Birthday, Sam!
Overheard in the Wolfe House #254
Peggy (on the way home from seeing Frozen): Did you enjoy it?
Sam: Well, it wasn’t too bad.
It’s gonna be a Merry Christmas y’all.
Sam is one of Santa’s best elves.
Day:
Night:
Ways with bird
About this time every year, Mark and I would be negotiating over the spot where the turkey fryer would go. When the boys were younger, he often deployed it those evenings we made venison burgers on the grill and we needed to make as many French fries as a fast food restaurant fryer holds. That turkey fryer helped feed those boys with hollow legs. If Mark kept it close to the grill to manage the job as I worked in the kitchen on the rest of the meal, that was fine with me.
But the second or third year we made a fried turkey in it, Mark splashed. If he hadn’t been so swift at turning off the gas, we would have had a real problem. And by that I simply mean meat too randomly charred for consumption even by Wolfe family standards.
The incident didn’t phase my slightly pyromaniac husband. But I still reminded him each year that this wasn’t the way to share Thanksgiving dinner with the good folks of Emergency Services District No. 1 and it might be best to move that fryer just a little further away from the garage.
After Mark died, I gave the turkey fryer to my sister and brother-in-law, who raised two professional firefighters. They use it a lot for shrimp boils. And, I went back to this collection of Thanksgiving dinner recipes I started when the Fort Worth Star-Telegram would talk a local chef into helping a hapless reader — usually someone who barely cooked at all — develop a menu and practice it once before the big day.
I always admired the many ways those chefs could come up with a way to roast turkey. But I was collecting recipes for the sides and desserts to go with that big fried bird. The first year I made the pepita brittle, it almost didn’t make it to the table for its intended purpose garnishing the pumpkin flan. The soups were marvelous. And so many inventive ways to serve the cranberries. It’s a nice collection.
After a few years without our turkey frying guy, the kids and I appear to have settled on a favorite way to roast that big bird, a recipe that uses just the breast. Tonight, it just occurred to me why it may have become the favorite. Here’s the recipe for a hint:
The house is filled with the smells of smoky chile and maple. Texas plus Wisconsin. They go good together.
Turkey in the oven
Pecan Pie
This is only the recipe for the filling. Roll out your favorite crust before putting this together. (I would add a splash of Wild Turkey bourbon to this mix. I’ll bet Aunt Regina did from time to time, too.)
Mile High Strawberry Pie and Cherry Torte
If you want to make pies that defy the season, try these keepers from Aunt Regina. Although, it is possible to grow strawberries in the fall in Texas, if you’re a real gambler. Mr. Lynn Remsing, down there at Gnismer Farm near Arlington in Dalworthington Gardens, has been known to plant “holiday” strawberries. I wish I could afford to buy his farm. It went up for sale in August.
I have my own “heirloom” berry pie recipes here.