Christmas Day Dinner

Every family has its own traditions.  On the Lindquist side we always have a Christmas meal of Swedish meatballs, potato sausage, rice pudding, fruit soup, Swedish cookies and several other signature dishes which make the holiday fesive, memorable and distinct.  It is one of my most anticipated meals of the year.  I'm always too busy eating to think of taking pictures!  But next year I will!

On the Curry side, we have had a variety of amazing meals over the years.  Dad often smokes some amazing and delicious cut of meat, or Mom makes lasagna...

But this year "we" (term used loosely) outdid ourselves.  As far as I'm concerned, this can be our Christmas Day Dinner Menu for the rest of my life.  It was amazing!

My brother Tim brought his propane boiler to make it all simple.

One pot...you'll love seeing what's inside.  But first for the sides!

Roasted potatoes.

Crescent Rolls.

Homegrown corn...the best in the world, by the way.

Now for the pot!

Check this out!

THIS IS MY NEW SCREENSAVER!

YUM!

Recipe for Spaghetti Squash

Check out the spaghetti squash which landed in our garden!!!  We only got one squash.  Thankfully!

I made spaghetti squash back when Tim and I were first married as a low calorie alternative to pasta and served it with spaghetti sauce, but, with three teenagers and two "willing to starve if necessary" munchkins, I didn't think that basing my family's whole meal on a "low calorie substitute" would be a good idea.  So we went with the side dish approach.

I must mention that this is Katie's squash.  She picked out the plant at the nursery back in June, but unfortunately, though she tended it regularly, she wasn't around when the time came to cook it!  So Lily stood in her place!

First pierce the squash several times to keep it from exploding. :)

Then it goes in the microwave...I am glad I have a huge microwave (by today's standards...remember the first microwaves that came out and how HUMONGOUS they were?  I think they made them smaller after the manufacturers saw Gremlins and had nightmares about getting "nuked.")

So anyway, cook the squash on high power for as long as it takes to get a little bit soft.  Remember the rind will remain stiff, but you can squeeze and see if the flesh is cooked.  I think this one took about 20 minutes in the microwave.  You can also do this in the oven, but it takes longer.

Then cut it open and inspect the fun!  If it's not soft, just put it back in the microwave for another 5 minutes.

Scoop out the seeds.  You can roast them like pumpkin seeds if you like.  I didn't like.

Scrape out the flesh.  For spaghetti squash, the flesh comes out in long strings when you pull it with a fork.  It's worth doing just for this part.

At this point, you can serve with your favorite pasta sauce if you like.  The squash has a mild, creamy flavor that pairs well with just about any italian application.  But since that would have been too controversial, I just added some butter, salt and freshly ground black pepper, and called it a dish.  And it was delicious.

The spaghetti squash which you find in the grocery store are much smaller than ours...just so you know what you are looking for!

A Very Scary Fairytale

Halloween is just around the corner. It's a holiday I prefer to ignore. I ignore all the evil, creepy, occultish decorations. I ignore the world's fascination with all that is dark. You can't even find anything to watch on tv at this time of the year, because it's all ghoulish....and I've made a couple of vows in my life: one...never to set foot in the CVS on Century Avenue and E again, and the other is never ever ever let shows or music that glorify the dark side play in my house. I have theories about that. BUT, I'm about to make an exception with the following post. Although this true tale took place in our kitchen a couple of months ago, it seems that now is the perfect time to tell you this frightening story, but take heed, the following images may be disturbing. You might have bad dreams....

Once upon a time....


...there was a sweet little princess (you've met her before and before that) who put down her crown long enough to help her kind beautiful mother bake a cake for her handsome fun dad, who was about to have a birthday.


Alas! The cupboard was bare! There wasn't a single cake mix to be found in all the castle! There was an obnoxious number of half eaten bags of potato chips and at least seven boxes of half-eaten, stale cereal, and lots of old jello....but not a single box of cake mix with which to make a birthday cake.
Despair was about to descend.... but then the kind beautiful mother had a brilliant idea! There WAS a box of brownie mix! The little princess and the kind beautiful mother immediately set about baking the brownies in round cake pans just like they would a cake...but when they turned the brownie cake out.....



Disaster! It was a disaster of huge magnitude! Pieces of brownie were everywhere!

This is the horribly distorted, quivering mass that was supposed to be the cake!

"Eeeaaaaaaeeeeeeaaaaaeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaeeekkk!"

Quickly the kind beautiful mother realized that time was of an essence. While the monster was still slightly warm she risked her dainty hands and mushed the whole thing together in a shape that was slightly reminiscent of a cake.

"I don't believe you did that! This can't possibly work! And now icing?" the little princess exclaimed!

Icing was indeed poured over the mass of chocolate goo. It ran in the cracks. It gooped down the sides!

But the brave little princess now realized that all would be well. Chocolate icing can cover a multitude of evils.

OK, not COVER exactly...but hey...this is a fairy tale...with a wave of the magic wand....

...and a few grimaces of disbelief.....

....the candles were set.....

....and the party guests appeared.....

...and all the people ate the nasty looking cake and a good time was had by all.

The End.

Moral of the story: The brownie cake is a great idea, but USE PARCHMENT PAPER!

Cheesecake Rules

Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake

I used this scrumptous recipe to snag my husband twenty years

ago...this, lasagna and fried chicken. That's all you need girls...

learn to make these three things and you can have any man

you want begging to marry you in no time. It's true! Well, almost.

Sometimes.

OK, well, even if the doorknob doesn't propose after the first

bite...hey, you have 10 more pieces of chocolate swirl cheesecake

to console yourself with!!!

Note: the chocolate shavings should be put on when the

cheesecake has cooled. I did it when it was warm. Mistake.

...but still wonderful....delightful....delicious...

Just ask Andrew. He eats a cheesecake a week these days.

Trying to "bulk up." Yeah.....I know....despicable. He gave

this recipe a thumbs up. In fact, I believe his words were,

"You can make this? Really?"

You see, I haven't made this in many a year... because I have

no longer been trying to get a husband. But now I can at least

impress my son....who is distracting me right now by giving me

his birthday wish list (he turns 16 on Thursday)> He either wants

a car (no), a jet ski (not happening)....or a slinky. I guess he's getting

a slinky!

Anyway, here's the recipe which is sure to win you rave reviews:

___________________________________________________________________

Chocolate Crumb Crust:

1 Cup Vanilla wafer crumbs (30 cookies crushed)

1/4 Cup confectioner's sugar

1/4 cup cocoa

1/4 Cup melted butter

__

Combine ingredients. Press into bottom and 1/2 inch up side of 9-inch springform pan.

Bake 8 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool.

__

Cheesecake:

3 packages (8oz. each) cream cheese, softened

1 Cup sugar, divided

1 Cup sour cream

2 1/2 tsp. vanilla, divided

3 Tablespoons flour

3 eggs

1/4 Cup cocoa

1 Tablespoon oil

1 jar of hot fudge topping (optional)

Chocolate bar for shaving chocolate curls (optional)

__

Make crust. Set aside. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In large mixer bowl, combine cheese, 3/4 cup of the sugar, sour cream and 2 tsp. of the vanilla; beat until smooth. Slowly add flour. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each.

*

In a small bowl combine coca and remaining 1/4 cup of the sugar. Add oil and remaining 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla and 1 1/2 Cups of the cream cheese mixture, and blend well. Spoon plain and chocolate batters alternately over crust, ending with dollops of chocolate on top. Swirl with butter knife for marbled effect.

*

Bake 10 minutes. Leave oven door shut and reduce temp. to 250 degrees. Bake 30 minutes. Then turn oven off and leave in oven 30 minutes more still leaving the door shut!

Loosen cake from rim. Cool. Chill.

*

If desired, warm hot fudge slightly and spread over top of cake. With a carrot peeler, peel chocolate curls off of candy bar and place on top.

____________________________________________________________________

This cheesecake is just as good the next day, or even the next, so you can make this ahead if you like! If you are a cheesecake lover, you have to try this one!

Bacon Cheddar Biscuits

My friend Lisa got me started with adding savory ingredients to biscuit recipes. Thankyou friend! (These are cheddar cheese and pepper bacon!) It's a great way to fill out a menu with something that is different, hearty and can be made with things onhand (yes we always have bacon and cheese in the house...it's how I grew up.) Just take your normal biscuit recipe...either by scratch or a mix, and add your extras before you stir in the liquid. Green onion goes well, or ham bits, any kind of grated cheese of course, even sausage or browned ground beef. Another approach and one which I'd like to try is called Chop Block and can be found here . I've just never had the bread dough on hand. I'm thinking of trying it up at the cabin this summer since I tend to make bread dough more often up there. Anyway, just wanted to add a little more food to this blog!

Product Review: Mashed Potatoes

Three cheers for those refrigerated mashed potatoes you find in the dairy aisle! With a little doctoring up, I can't tell the difference from homemade from scratch potatoes. While they obviously cost a little more than if you started with a bag of spuds, they aren't the thing that's going to break your budget and you won't end up with half a bag of rotten potatoes that you didn't use....They are often on sale as well, which is when I tend to buy them, but with the holiday coming up, here's a quick shortcut on a sidedish that will certainly be admired.

For my family of 7:

Take 2 packages of the mashed potatoes and put them in a deep casserole dish. Throw in cream cheese, butter :) and sour cream to taste (I use one block of cream cheese, half a stick of butter :) and no sour cream because my kids don't like it too tangy.) Microwave it until it's all nice and hot and the extras are melted. Stir until blended. Top with grated cheddar cheese. Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes until the cheese melts and browns and the potatoes are piping hot. Done! No peeling involved unless you count peeling the cellophane back from the potatoes. So good!