Happy Hollandaise!

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What's cooking in the A2K kitchens this holiday season?

Got any cool new kitchen tricks or tips to share with the rest of us?

What is your indispensable cooking tool?

I'm cooking a prime rib roast with au gratin potatoes and ..... something green... I don't know what yet. It's just the three of us so I'm not going overboard though I did order two whole pies from the wonderful neighborhood bakery.

I learned a new kitchen trick recently that I can't believe I'd never heard before: use your corkscrew to hold a potato while peeling it. Amazing!

My indispensable tool is a good sharp knife. I treated myself to a new one this year and I won't let anyone else in the house touch it. I was hoping for a new range for Christmas because mine is literally falling apart but that looks like it's not to be.

What's up with you?

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Type: Question • Score: 6 • Views: 3,529 • Replies: 24

@boomerang,

Quote:

use your corkscrew to hold a potato while peeling it.

I don't peel potatoes anymore but I'll use that trick to slice an onion thin-like.
Thanks boomer and enjoy your roast.

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My latest cooking tool is a lemon press gadget from Mexico, found at Brooks' Market. It's not quite indispensable but very handy. Indispensable would be my red rubber spatula/stirrer, now at least a dozen years old. The item I would grieve for, should it ever break down, is a sort of low end ice cream maker from Cuisinart, thus all my a2k talk about making gelato - which oddly I tend to do more in winter than in the summer.

Holiday food? Diane and I will probably meet at the local shop one of these days for coffee and donuts. My family and most friends are back in California, so Christmas and New Years tend to be times for phone calls or emails at home, friendly days for catching up.

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@boomerang,

My local grocery store brings in duck breast for Christmas. The King Cole ( http://www.kingcoleducks.com/Our-Farm-Fresh-Store) duck breasts are in the store for hours after delivery ... then they're gone. I managed to snag one yesterday.

It's killing me not to cook it right now!

Set will be in charge of making burgers today. I'm looking forward to that - I bought an avocado and tomato, as well as Smithfield bacon, so I can have a banquet burger Smile

Christmas generally means fun food products in the stores. Last night I picked up smokey bacon flavoured maple syrup - no artificial flavours (? Idea

? ). The stuff smells weird but it was tasty on blueberry waffles last night.

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Christmas dinner always means bone-in Prime Rib roast.
And my fave: Yorkshire pudding

http://nutritionfor.us/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Yorkshire-pudding2.jpg

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@panzade,

I'll go and look that up. I've probably only tasted it once, think of it in connection with popovers, which I used to just love.

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@panzade,

mmm Yorkshire pudding

that was one of the things I was allowed to make as a tween/teen when my mother was making old-skool Sunday roast dinners

my mother didn't trust me with the prize roasts, but I made some good side dishes

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@ehBeth,

Quote:

but I made some good side dishes

Roasts should be left to Mom but side dishes are prized too.
Give us some side dishes you prepared

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I tried to look up my lemon squeezer, but no luck. Mine was a tad more elegant and way less expensive than this ebay sampling, but it gives you the idea..

http://thumbs4.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/mFzGHyZjO93ZCf1gIM3l2XA.jpg

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@ossobuco,

EZ Peezy, lemon-squeezy!
The spirits are about to speak.

Are they friendly spirits?

Friendly? Just listen:

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@ossobuco,

I adore cooking gadgets. It's hereditary -- I get it from my mom. I never met a kitchen gadget I didn't like.

A friendly day for catching up sounds good. Are you creating a special meal for yourself?

1 Reply

@ehBeth,

I cooked duck for Xmas last year and I'm embarrassed to admit that it was merely mediocre. Now I'm scared to try it again. How do you cook your duck breasts?

Bacon maple syrup sounds divine. There is a southern restaurant here that reportedly serves fried chicken on waffles with a jalapeno maple syrup that I'd love to try but I can't see myself waiting in line for two hours to do so.

1 Reply

@panzade,

Yorkshire pudding is one of Mr. B's favorite things and now that you've mentioned it I feel like I should attempt it.

Do you have a favorite recipe?

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@boomerang,

My mother always cooked wonderful duck and/or goose at Christmas. The key was having the bird elevated in the pan so that the fat would drip drip out. There's really not much simpler than preparing duck.

http://www.kingcoleducks.com/whole-roast-duck

I've stuck pretty much with the recipes from the King Cole website, other than one adventure that involved cherries, or maybe cherry jam?

I was going to say I used this recipe for the duck breasts last year

http://www.kingcoleducks.com/pan-seared-duck-with-fig

but realized that I cheated - I replaced the fig preserves and balsamic vinegar with this mustard

I always drizzle some vinegar over poultry before putting it in the oven. I find it makes the skin extra crispy.

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http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/6454/roast+duck+with+cherry+sauce

this was the cherry/duck recipe I used

I found it very good - the tip on poking the duck to get the fat to drip out was useful

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@panzade,

as I think about this, I realize that other than yorkshire pudding almost all the sides I worked on were cruciferous vegetables - cauliflower with cheese sauce, buttered cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts with hazelnuts or shaved almonds. I was also responsible for dressing up red cabbage when we were having it with a roast. Whether my mother made the red cabbage or we bought it in a big jar from Poland or Holland or Germany ... I fried onions, sauteed apples ... mixed it into the red cabbage with a little apple juice and let it schmorr (is there an English word for that?) together.

I think I need to cook some buttered cabbage.

1 Reply

@ehBeth,

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/blanched_cabbage_with_butter_and_caraway/

we made this with the caraway seeds in a tiny cloth bag so we got the flavour without the actual seeds

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@boomerang,

I 'm thinking polenta, sausage, and this and that.
I don't trust the market polenta, bunch of little specks... oh, never mind.

Diane is with me on this being at home stuff.

Happy Hollandaise!

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