Merry Christmas Yumminess: Winter Delights

Our book "The Lazy Woman's Guide to Just About Everything" redefines the word lazy.  Yes this Christmas feast took hours to prepare but it brought me such JOY to do it.  Therefore it was lazy.  If it fills your heart with joy, and does not add stress, then that's a damn good lazy thing.

This was a great feast and I'm sharing all the recipes because some of these are super duper easy to make, others more time-consuming but profoundly worth the effort, and all of them are delicious for the winter.

The trifle was a huge hit.  I had some leftover Gingerbread Cake (I have used the Silver Palate recipe -- with lemon glaze for over 30 years because it never ceases to impress) and I thought "Hey why not make a trifle out of that?"  So I made lemon curd, which I adore making because it's so fun to zest and juice the lemons and then watch as it slowly thickens over heat.  So I did layer of gingerbread, splashed with a few tablespoons of whiskey (or liqueur of your choice), then a layer of lemon curd, then some whipped cream (with vanilla and just a bit of powdered sugar because you don't want it to be sweet), and then some raspberries, and repeat until you make it to the top which is finished with whipped cream and berries.  It's so fricking easy and best to be done at least a day ahead so all the flavors soak in.

I found this recipe for Beet Risotto and built the menu around it.  Even Dan, the guest who hates most veggies and fruits, wanted to take leftovers home.  This is a super healthy and yummy risotto.  Check out that color!  I made it as people arrived and had cocktails just outside the kitchen so I could engage with them but still cook.  It's really fun to make.  I prepped the beets ahead and had everything pre-measured so it was stress-free. Here's the recipe: Beet Risotto

I sauteed broccolini in olive oil and garlic.  Finish with fresh squeezed lemon and salt.

I googled Italian Christmas dishes and found this beauty.  This is a very labor intensive dish but you can do it the day before and throw it in the fridge.  I will tell you it is worth every single moment of prep time.   It is scrumptious! Here is what it looked like when I put it in the fridge.  Below is when it came out of the oven. Here is the recipe:  Celery Root and Mushroom Lasagna.

NOTE: I left out the prosciutto. Yep, I completely and totally left out one huge ingredient. I don't eat meat so it was a selfish move, but the recipe flavor did not suffer.  I did add extra shaved parmigiano on top and next time I will drizzle the top with a good dose of olive oil because although it was fantastic I think that addition would make it perfection.

Here's some Lazy Woman Good News.  I had leftover Silver Palate Thanksgiving Potatoes so I threw them in the freezer to see if they could be frozen.  Well, I put them in the oven with the lasagna at 350 for about an hour and a half and they came out great!  I put them out even though they didn't really go with the theme because Dan doesn't like mushrooms so the lasagna was largely lost on him even though he valiantly picked out mushrooms and ate what he could.

The salad is my new fave because you can make all the ingredients ahead or buy them prepared:  lettuce, roasted squash (I did the day ahead with olive oil, rosemary and salt), fresh pomegranate seeds (I prepped the day ahead but you can just buy seeds), shaved parmigiano, toasted pecans, lemon, olive oil, salt.  I forgot to take a picture before it was tossed.  It's gorgeous pre-tossing with all the wintry colors.  It has all the right textures too.

And then the Laziest Move of the Christmas Season?  I ordered a smoked turkey from Burgers Smokehouse.  Last year my friends Rene and Leanne brought a smoked turkey breast to dinner and it wow'd everyone.  Go here to order:  Burgers' Smokehouse

Big props to my favorite magazine for recipes -- Food & Wine, and, as always, the tried and true favorites of the Silver Palate Cookbooks.

Buon Appetito and Buon Natale a tutti!   I hope you get to use some of these recipes this winter. I promise you won't be disappointed!

Lazy Winter Morning Pick Me Up! Orange Oatmeal

Check out the LAZY recipe I accidentally posted on the other blog! LOL! http://superherooflove.blogspot.com/2015/12/orange-oatmeal-for-wintry-mornings.html



 



Leftover Cranberry Sauce?

                                                 

Every year since my grandma died, I've let my mom contribute the homemade cranberry sauce, to carry on grandma's traditional recipe.  And every year my mother goes way overboard on how much she makes and always brings at least TWO batches of the stuff, very likely in an effort to one up my sweet grandma in heaven. Hahaha!  

Since no one takes more than a tablespoon at Thanksgiving, I always get really upset about the waste....until now.I had a second Thanksgiving, a Friendsgiving on Sunday and really wanted to make another apple pie, particularly since we had a visitor from Australia.  He's a vegetarian so we had all the traditional foods minus the turkey.  I used this Smitten Kitchen Apple Pie Recipe, although I used all Granny Smiths.  Also, I added about 1/2 cup of sour cream and about 1/4 cup of brown sugar when I made it on Thanksgiving.  But for Friendsgiving, I added an extra apple, 1/2 cup sour cream and about 3/4 cup of the leftover cranberry sauce.  Oh. My. God. Yum.

This is what it looked like before i added the cranberry sauce (actually pictured is sauce above and cranberry covered apples):

Then I added the sour cream and poured into the shell:

The finished product is, of course, at the top of this post.  My mouth is watering for it as I type this!

Another thing I did with the leftover sauce was add it to my Australian house guest's oatmeal.  It looked so good I had to have some too!  Now I'm considering making a batch to always have in the fridge!  It's quite possible cranberry sauce is good in everything!  It is now my favorite accent for oatmeal.  With a few toasted pecans thrown on top - perfection!

I didn't grab a pic of it with nuts on top but it was lovely and colorful!

Grateful now for the leftovers that used to feel so wasteful.  I will now forever covet the leftover cranberry sauce.

Thanksgiving Turkey -- Before + After

I have been mostly pescatarian for about 30 years.  I've had a few poultry-friendly months when my body craved it for a bit, like now.  I've been eating chicken and turkey for a few months now.  Still, I'm not really all the way back in the poultry game so the turkey and I had a bit of a tussle on Thanksgiving, me being a near-turkey virgin, and both of us nearly ending up on the kitchen floor.  But, he ended up being the juiciest, most flavorful turkey I have seen or tasted -- oozing with flavor!  The secret:  brine + butter. 

I brined him for 24 hours, per the Alton Brown's Thanksgiving Turkey Recipe.  Then I took a stick of softened butter and chopped up a bunch of fresh herbs (and salt) to make a nice herb butter.  I lifted the turkey skin and put it all over him!  Inside the cavity I put my favorite herbs -- thyme and parsley, a bunch of lemons and onion and one apple.  I followed Alton's cooking times as well, 500 degrees at first, etc. as noted in the recipe.  I also put in the pan under the roasting rack, a potato, some carrots and onion.  They were crispy delicious at the end of the roasting time.  

The turkey was so juicy and flavorful that even days later you could bit into a turkey leftover and it was moist and delicious!

Then I went all the way in. I made a broth out of the carcass and then created this soup.

Recipe for Turkey Leftovers Soup:

• Sautee Onion, Garlic, Celery, Carrots - to taste + whim
• Add 8 to 12 cups of broth
• Add fresh peas (I used about 1/2 bag of Trader Joe's fresh peas)
• Add about 1/2 bag of Trader Joe's Roasted Corn
• Add one container of store-bought sliced mushrooms
• Add about a cup of Farro
• Then I added a bunch of the leftover turkey AND the piece de resistance, the scraps of roasted potato and carrot from the bottom of the turkey roasting pan (chopped up).
• Add fresh or dried herbs, including a couple by leaves.  
• Simmer to ultimate yumminess

For one of my bowls I added a little leftover stuffing on top for even more recycling pleasure!

 Buon Appetito with Molto Gratitude!

Lazy Happy Birthday Cake -- Easiest Homemade Cake Ever!

 

 

This is the easiest bestest most deliciousest chocolate cake on planet earth. I've mentioned it a few times before.  It's from the best food blog on earth, Smitten Kitchen. If you have time to make the whole recipe of the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake your guests are very lucky.  I have made it for several birthdays or important celebrations and every time someone in the crowd says it's the best cake they have ever had.

 

Well, when you don't have time to do the whole thing, like I didn't this weekend for my friend Elisa's birthday dinner, I used the cake part of the recipe (super fast in one bowl with just a whisk!  No mixer needed even!), whipped up some cream with orange rind and orange liqueur, and did a little decorating to make it look a little more impressive. 

 

So, here's how to make a super easy birthday cake:

 

1. Soak Orange Slices (or berries!) in Orange Liqueur while you make the cake.
2. Make the Smitten Kitchen Chocolate Cake (click on the above link)
3. Whip up two (2) pint containers of heavy whipping cream with orange rind of two or three oranges (to taste), a splash of orange liqueur and some powdered sugar (to taste). 
4. Once the cake is completely cooled (seriously, completely -- don't learn the hard way, like I did! LOL!) slather whipped cream on first layer.
5.  Add orange slices (or berries!) and a sprinkle of toasted pecan pieces.
6. 
7. Proceed to the next layer.  This is a three layer cake so you have one more layer to do before you get to the top!
8. Slather the entire cake with the whipped cream -- which is so much easier to spread than frosting, so it's super fast!
9. Decorate as you see fit! 

   

 

Lazy Delicious Goat Cheese Spread

Last weekend I went to a lovely party and my friend Karl brought a most scrumptious goat cheese dip buzzing with oregano and garlic deliciousness.  It was the perfect cheese dip/spread, the fresher-far-more-amazing version of Rondele Garlic & Herb Cheese Spread from my childhood. 

It was so incredible I asked for his recipe and decided to make it this weekend.  I went to Trader Joe's to get the ingredients and ran into the Pita Crisps with Cranberries & Pumpkin Seeds and was immediately inspired on a twist to Karl's dip specifically designed to got with these Crisps. 

 

 

 

 

Pumpkin Goat Cheese Dip

 

• 1 11 oz. package of Trader Joe's SIlver Goat Chevre
• 2 Garlic Cloves, minced
• 3 Tablespoons Thyme, minced
• 3 Tablespoons chopped Sprouted Pumpkin Seeds (or regular ones if you can't find sprouted ones)
• Drizzle of Olive Oil
• Salt and Pepper to taste

 Put goat cheese in the microwave for 10-20 seconds to soften.  Mix in all the rest of the ingredients. Decorate with a few whole pumpkin seeds.  I served with a few different kinds of crackers and carrots, but the Cranberry/Pumpkin Crisps with their sweetness against the savory garlicky dip is pretty awesome. 

 

 

Karl Hamann's Goat Cheese Spread

• 1 8 oz. package goat cheese
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon fresh oregano, minced
• ½ teaspoon fresh ground pepper (+ more to taste) 
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Microwave the goat cheese in a small bowl until it warms up and softens. Add garlic, herbs, pepper, and one tablespoon olive oil. Whip ingredients together until creamy.

 

Add more olive oil if necessary – mixture should be nice and creamy.

You can add more garlic and more pepper to taste.  Best served warm with toasted slices of fresh baguette.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lazy Lovely Tomato Soup

I was in D.C. last week. I had a mighty delicious tomato soup at Founding Farmers.  I highly recommend it.  The tomato soup/grilled cheese lunch is divine.

But the following day I ended up at Fiola and the chef sent out a small elegant oval bowl of tomato soup that made me swoon.  Look at this gorgeousness!



When I got back to LA I immediately got to work trying to recreate it, and I got very damn close. Close enough for my taste buds.   And it's super lazy!!!

I've now served it to two different groups of friends and they all asked for the recipe. Here's how I did it:

Ingredients

2 pounds heirloom tomatoes (mixture of yellow, green + red)
1 pound baby roma tomatoes
2 medium onions
6 cloves garlic
1 28 oz can tomatoes (San Marzano or another good Italian canned tomato)
1 quart chicken or vegetable stock (or water + a splash of red wine -- see below) 
Olive Oil
Salt, Pepper, Red Pepper Flakes, 1 or 2 Bay Leaves, Dried Basil (or fresh at the end of the cooking process)
Fresh Herbs and/or Cheese

Chop the large tomatoes, slice the onions and peel the garlic cloves.   Don't go crazy with how you chop. This should go fast. It's all going to be blended in the end so no need to make it pretty!

 

Toss with generous olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast at 450 for about 40 minutes 

Once roasted, toss it all into a pot.  Add the canned tomatoes, the stock, bay leaves, dried basil and red pepper flakes(if you don't like spicy, leave out the red pepper --I used between 1/2 and 1 teaspoon in mine for just a little kick). 

NOTE:  When I made this a second time, I found my pantry stock-less so I was stymied for a second.  Then in a super-lazy-I-refuse-to-go-to-the-market move,  I added filtered water and a big splash of red wine instead and it came out great! 

Simmer for about 30 minutes.  Remove the bay leaves and use an immersion blender to smooth it all out into genuine soupy goodness. I added another bit of olive oil and simmered a bit longer.  

If you like creamy tomato soup, just add a splash of cream toward the end of the simmer.  But, before you do that, taste it, because you'll be amazed at how "creamy" it already is.  In fact my dining mates in D.C. all thought the soup at Fiola had cream in it, but I don't believe it did. I have no idea what their recipe entailed but I do know that roasted onions create a lot of creaminess when blended.  So, just give a quick taste before adding cream.

 

If you have fresh basil, you can add that at the end of the cooking process, instead of dried basil before the 30 minute simmer.  Also, if you don't like the tartness of tomato seeds you can put the soup through some cheesecloth after you blend it.  The texture will be spectacularly smooth and even!  I left it the way it was myself, but I have strained tomato soups and sauces in the past and it's easy and does give an excellent pristine texture.  I am guessing Fiola strained theirs because the texture was flawless.  I like mine with a little more heft and tartness, so I didn't strain it.

 

Final step, sprinkle some fresh herbs on top -- basil, flat parsley, dill, scallions -- whatever you've got and think will hit the mark for your taste buds.  For a second bowl -- after you've experienced the many layers of tomato flavors -- it's great with a little shaved parmesan on top.

 

Buon Appetito!



 

 

 

Lazy Back to School Desserts!

I leave my house at 5:30 a.m. for a five day vacation, so I've been hustling to get an enormous amount of things done.  I'm still hustling, but taking a brief moment to share these two LAZY ASS recipes because it just occurred to me they are PEEEEEEERFECT for back to school time.

Today is the 5th birthday of my precious sweet neighbor boy.  I asked his mom to ask him what he wanted me to bake him for his birthday treat.  She said they had made him vanilla and chocolate cupcakes for his birthday party on Sunday but that his last minute request for lemon cupcakes couldn't be granted.  The first thing that popped into my head was this amazing lemon cake my mom used to make when I was a kid, which I then started making.  I couldn't remember the recipe, or from whence it even came so I googled lemon cake with lemon glaze and found this one: Glazed Lemon Cake

As soon as I saw it I knew it actually wasn't the exact recipe but that the magical ingredient of the recipe of my childhood was, indeed, lemon pudding.  I read the notes on the recipe and saw that a woman accidentally put the 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice meant for the glaze into the cake, so I did the same thing because I can't bear an overly sweet cake.   Also, FYI, I was in such a hurry I didn't see that I was supposed to mix everything except the lemon-lime soda.  I threw it all in but mixed it far less, but just enough and it rose perfectly and turned out absolutely great.

Obviously a glazed cake doesn't lend itself to cupcake development so instead I did two 9" rounds and put whip cream between them -- and yes I glazed the top of both layers.  I was in such a mad dash to deliver the cake last night (a day-before-your-birthday-treat) before their dinner time that I didn't catch a picture, but please know that this is a fantastic cake recipe. 

One final note on the cake -- I added extra lemon juice to the glaze.  I really wanted it to taste lemony.  Turned out great.

NEXT -- and this is just a twist on the old recipe I posted long ago --Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Ever.

I had to also bake a batch of cookies to take to North Carolina with me for someone who LOVES these cookies.  But I did a twist - hope he likes the twist!  I added the grated rind from one orange and finely chopped up a bunch (probably 1/2 to 3/4 cup) of the Trader Joe's Dried Mandarins.  

Two weeks ago I made homemade mango ice cream and made these cookies to go with it and added dried mango and it was awesome, so when I saw the dried mandarins in the cupboard I thought this could be a marriage made in heaven -- it IS!  Not too sweet because the rind offsets the sweet of the dried mandarin.

So make the recipe like I instruct in the first blog post (link above) and then add rind and dried mandarin.  Oh my god they are fragrant and delicious.   I made this batch with semi-sweet and dark chocolate, pecans, almonds and salted peanuts.  To. Die. For.

Enter Heaven Here: Lazy Supreme Delicious

No exaggeration. I have entered heaven.
 
Sweet potatoes roasted in olive oil and salt with generous lemon juice (one whole lemon to three small sweet potatoes) and fresh chives (not scallions -- you need the subtle onion).

Looking around from my dad and grandparents. Gotta be close.

Laziest Kick Ass Impressive Summer Dessert -- For the NON-Bakers!

 

 

 

I've posted trifle recipes before but it just struck me after getting a bunch of comments about how people loved this most recent one that I needed to write another Lazy Woman post about them.  

 

 

I have a lot of friends who say they never bake and therefore they shy away from doing any kind of homemade desserts.  They label themselves as "cooks" and not "bakers" so they don't do anything.  There are just so darned many easy deserts to make -- some that you bake and some that you don't -- that I'm going to try to TURN some of you into dessert masters! 

 

Start with this because, people, you CANNOT SCREW THIS UP!  And you can completely customize it for anyone.  And, this is a NON-baker's Lazy Woman dream!

 

This one I made for someone who likes strawberries, coffee and chocolate.  But you can do ANYTHING!

 

1.  Get a glass vessel that will show all your beautiful layers.

2.  First layer -- a soft light cake-y thing -- sponge cake or lady fingers work really well.  Dip the cakey thing in a liquid -- liqueurs or coffee work great.  You can also brush or drizzle the liquid over it, if you are afraid of over-soaking.  In this case I put a couple dashes of Kahlua in the coffee

3.  Second layer -- a pudding-y thing -- for this one I used vanilla pudding, but I had prepped chocolate pudding too.  I wanted to strawberry and coffee flavors to pop though so I chose vanilla.  YOU DON'T HAVE TO MAKE FROM SCRATCH.  You can buy the pudding-y thing pre-made.

4.  Third layer -- a fruit-y thing - I usually soak the fruit in a liqueur but because I didn't know if anyone in this crowd was abstaining from alcohol, I soaked the strawberries in balsamic vinegar for about 20 minutes.  Yes, shocking, but they do not taste like vinegar once drained.   It was great, but my personal preference is liqueurs, like Grand Marnier, for instance.  You don't have to soak it in anything though!

5.  Fourth layer -- whipped cream.  I make mine because I don't like it too sweet.  I add a little powdered sugar and liqueur usually, but this day I did vanilla.  YOU DON'T HAVE TO MAKE IT FROM SCRATCH.

6.  Fifth Layer  -- This is usually a sprinkling of chocolate or nuts or other candy (Heath Bars work great too)

7.  REPEAT Layers 1 through 4!   End with whipped cream no matter where you are in your layers and throw a little decorative touch and voila super impressive dessert.

 

When you are assembling it, just pay attention to what is showing on the outside.  But even with this  -- you can't screw up!  The layers themselves make it beautiful even if you are sloppy!  

 

So for this trifle I did:

 

• Ladyfingers brushed with strong coffee + Kahlua mixture.
• Vanilla Pudding
• Strawberries soaked briefly in Balsamic Vinegar
• Whipped Cream
• Chopped Chocolate -- I threw a little chopped chocolate on top of all the whipped cream layers



Sassy Lazy Sunday Scones

Last night I found out my new neighbors were going to come over in the late morning so I decided to make some scones.  I decided I wanted mango scones even though I'd never had such a thing.  I found this fabulous recipe on this mighty adorable blog  -- Lovely Little Lunch Box's Mango Coconut Scones -- had all the ingredients, and like most scone recipes saw it was super easy so I made them.

For the first batch I followed the recipe and ended up over-mixing them accidentally.  The second batch came out perfectly, but you may want to heed at least the first of my notes/changes to the recipe:

• Do NOT mix in the diced mangoes with those last ingredients as it states.  Make the dough and fold in the diced mangoes at the end.
• You do not need to sweat over fresh mango which I find infuriating to cut.  I used frozen mango and let it thaw in the fridge over night.  For the second batch I just thawed more in the microwave, and it tastes just as good as fresh.
• 75 grams of butter = 5 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon.  Now you don't have to look it up!
• Kick it up a notch.  I thought "Hmmmmm....coconut, mango?..... How about adding some Trader Joe's Thai Lime and Chili Almonds?"  Unreal!  You don' t need many, and I only put them in some of my batch to check it out, but they are a yummy addition and I will do i again...and again...and again!
• I didn't have pecans but next batch I will be adding because pecans + mangoes + coconut are a mighty lovely threesome.

I had enough left over to put in bags to deliver to other neighbors.  These can't be left in my house. I would have eaten all of them if left to my own devices.