BRANDIED HAM AND DAUPHINE POTATOES w/a side of green beans

Since Bob's birthday is Christmas eve we celebrate with homemade sushi, saki and a good time.  So for Christmas night I wanted to make something a little more…well, comfy-type food.  So when I was at the grocery picking up some more fruit the other day there was this deal on meat:  buy a ham get a turkey free!  Well, I was overcome by my thrifty upbringing and gave into the urge to buy factory farm meat.  Oh well, once in awhile is not so bad.  Right?  I'm a good citizen, I buy most of my food from local farmers.  I'm GUILTY!  OK!  I"M SORRY!  What can I say - I like a good bargain and I'm cheap.  (Cheap when it comes to bargains - not cheap in the sense you are thinking.  Get your mind outta the….)

Ok back to the food….

I saw this spiced brandy and herb marinade there at the store too - ok! I'm not going to the store anymore, I promise!  But really, I looked at the label and it didn't have anything in there I couldn't pronounce so I thought I was pretty safe.  It seemed non-toxic.  And I like brandy.

So I decided to marinate the ham for a day to give it that real brandy flavor.

BRANDIED HAM

I mixed together the mix as stated on the package, except I added more brandy, it seemed the logical thing to do.

Poured it over the ham:

Then set it the fridge to bake tomorrow night.











And the compliment to ham?  What else?  POTATOES!  I know - I'm not supposed to be eating potatoes either but IT"S CHRISTMAS FOR GOODNESS SAKE!  Ya gotta have the comfort food at this time of year, you do!

DAUPHINE POTATOES

Now, when I was working at a restaurant way back when, they had these awesome Dauphine potatoes as a side dish offering.  But when I was looking on line for an example they showed these deep fried potato puffy looking thingies when I remember them being a casserole type potato dish.  That's when I learned that the actual name of the one I remembered (way back when) is called Dauphinoise.  But that's too bad because what I remember is fact.  They will be called Dauphine Potatoes here in my world. That's just the kinda rebel I am.

The cast of characters:

1 TBS butter
1 1/4 lbs Potatoes - I used the fingerlings from my garden this year but yukon gold or some other creamy type of potato will do
1 1/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup whole milk (I used goats milk of course!)
1 garlic clove, mashed
Salt & Pepper to taste
4 ounces Asiago or Gruyere cheese
1/8 tsp nutmeg (optional)


Heat oven to 400* and butter a two quart baking dish.

You can peel the potatoes if you'd like but I like the skins in my potato dishes, I think it gives a nice added texture.  Slice the potatoes thin (like 1/8") and place in a bowl of cold water for few minutes.  Drain thoroughly.

Bring heavy cream, whole milk and garlic to a simmer in a large, wide saucepan. Add potatoes, salt & pepper and continue to simmer, stirring occasionally until the potatoes are tender - about 20 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer half of the potatoes into the buttered dish.  Top with half the cheese.

Then grate some more cheese because you already ate half of it, I know I did.






Add the rest of the potatoes to the dish and pour enough of the milk/cream mixture to cover the potatoes.

Then top with the rest of the cheese.


Bake for about 45 minutes or until brown.  Top with a little grated nutmeg if desired.



Then add some green beans to complete your meal,

and WALAH!

MERRY CHRISTMAS DAY 2012

Ha!  It was a wonderful day, in spite of not having my baby girl, Madison here.  She's living in L.A. now and had no money to come back home for Christmas.  Waaahhhhh!  But lucky for me, Sam came over for Bob's birthday on Christmas eve and stayed the night, so she was here in the morning, just like the old days!  That made me very happy! : )

This was the start of Christmas morning:  an asiago bagel with artichoke and spinach cream cheese ( a new find) onions and cucumbers. Nummy!  and a real treat for me since I don't eat much bread anymore.

NO!  I do not have too many cats!!!

So all the animals got their special treat:  the pig - a whole apple

the cats - cans of cat food

The horses:  extra hay

 Edy got one of those smart toys that you put treats into and they have to move the little nobs around to find the treats.  She figured it out right away, of course!
Percy and Louie got a bone that they immediately unwrapped.  Edy got one too.

This was my pile, which included this really cool coffee mug:

it's even purple too!  (I now it looks black here but trust me it's purple)

and my new awesomest Carhardt Jacket!  Now I'll really look cool riding the tractor!

Here's Sam's pile!

and here's Bob's!  See that Life Is Good shirt?  It has Bob on it, with a dog and a cup of coffee and a barcolounger.  Which is Bob.

Then Edy had a moment of selfishness and rage:

 Louie got too close to her bone.  Although Louie denied the whole thing!  Look at that innocent face!

I'm warning you!

I'll eat you alive!

So Louie went and hid by grandpa.

 Cashew's first Christmas!  Not quite sure what's going on.

 We offered Edy some food and water because guarding your bone from the evil Louie can be tiresome.

The carnage!

And then it was over.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY HUBBY!

Yes, he's a Christmas eve baby, poor guy, must've been rough growing up and having to celebrate your birthday at a time when others are celebrating Christmas, not you.  So I've done some mighty nice things for the boy over the years and most were surprise birthday parties.

But what I do every year is bake his favorite cake: red velvet!  I used to bake it from scratch, cuz I couldn't find it in a box… that is until now!  Yeehaa!  although homemade is my way to go for the most part of life, Christmas time is a pretty busy part of the year and a box cake sounds pretty easy to me and it was.

So here ya go - my version of the red velvet box cake:

First the cast of characters:

I replaced the oil with applesauce, not because it cuts fat and calories (well sort of) but because I have found that cake tastes moister with it instead of oil.  And I added another tub of frosting because they never give you enough frosting, you can never have enough frosting. Period.

Next add 2 eggs, 1/4 cup applesauce and 2/3 cup water. Although the cake mix looks like a chocolate cake mix when coming out of the bag, as soon as the wet ingredients hit it, it turns bright red!  My fill of F D & C Red 40 for a lifetime.

I rubbed crisco on the inside of the pans and then put some flour inside and coated the pans so the cake wouldn't stick to the pans.  Old trick.

I mixed it all together and poured it into three pans.  I like a good three-layer cake for the boy.  Plus that's another layer of frosting which is necessary.

be sure to lick the bowl.  Not very often one gets to lick the bowl so I highly recommend it!

Then take a look at how red your tongue is from all the food coloring.

Put pans into a 350 degree oven and bake for 20 minutes.

Soften 1 stick of butter and beat until creamy.

add the packet of frosting mix and beat slowly adding 4 tablespoons of water as you go until it is the right consistency.

Put frosting into supplied pastry bag.

cut the end off and to make it into a start cut two triangles out.  Will make your outer frosting prettier.

Remove cake from pans when done and let cool.

Frost the first layer, then put on the second layer.  Be sure to add lots of frosting here.

top with third layer.

Then get out that pastry bag and start frosting the top and sides.

when is looks all pretty (ok, I don't excel at cake decorating - sorry), put a candle in it for the birthday boy!

and don't leave the room for a second - or the cats will try the frosting.  See?  this is why you need lots of extra frosting! It's precautionary.