From Denny: The Secret Service took a beating this week as well they should have, how lame can you get? Tiger Woods took another beating, this one from his irate wife fed up with his sleeping around. You go, girl! Send her to Afghanistan to win the war suggests one cartoonist. :) Obama announces his controversial plans to escalate in Afghanistan while the rest of us are war weary. And plenty of Santa cartoons to get you in the mood for the holiday season...
Secret Service and their lame excuses as to why they did not protect the President or the Prime Minister of India adequately... It might as well have been Bart Simpson in charge of security.
Obama's Afghan War controversial strategy that's just wearing out the public patience after eight years of expensive wars burdening the taxpayers and costing jobs:
Tiger Woods getting beat up by his irate wife for having an idiot affair. It's bad enough the guy is known for being a bad tipper, emotionally stingy and cheap on philanthropy. "Do ya think?" Karma is on his case...?
From Denny: This is such an unusual idea - and - easy! What a spectacularly simple way to create a lot of inexpensive gourmet food for a crowd. I can just see this cooking over a tail-gating fire at a local football game. Oh, the wonderful smells... :)
Here's the video link as The Today Show is doing a special holiday guide of particular videos that are not available for embedding and this happens to be one of them: Spaghetti in Foil.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Boil 8 quarts water.
While water comes to a boil, melt butter in a saute pan. Add minced garlic and cook two minutes. Add heavy cream, salt, pepper, tomato sauce. Cook for four minutes on high flame.
Add spaghetti to boiling water and cook for eight minutes. Drain pasta and add to sauce.
Add shrimps, proscuitto, cognac and Parmesan cheese. Stir and cook for two minutes on high flame. Remove from heat and put pasta in a bowl lined with aluminum foil. Seal foil in the shape of a Hershey’s Kiss. Put in preheated oven for two minutes.
Remove and serve immediately.
*** Thanks for visiting and Bon Appetit! All clip art and animations are FREE for use on your blog or site!
From Denny: Hey, if you really want to go upscale, this guy advises us how to choose wine for takeout meals, even pizza to french fries! :) Have you ever tried champagne with french fries? Find out why it works so well. From Ray Isle, Food and Wine Magazine editor...
From Denny: Nigella Lawson, the cooking beauty from Britain who is also hilarious, has a new holiday season cookbook called "Nigella Christmas." I always enjoy her and you will too! Take a look and recipes are below:
• 10 (or 5 linked pairs) chorizo sausages (not the salami sort), approx 1 1/4 lbs. • 3 1/4 lb boneless beef shank, cut into 3/4 inch cubes • 3 onions (about 1 lb), peeled • 3 cloves garlic, peeled • 1 fresh long red chile, seeded • 1/4 cup vegetable oil • seeds from 3 cardamom pods • 2 tsp ground cumin • 1 tsp ground coriander • 1 tsp ground cinnamon • 1 tsp dried pepper flakes • 1/4 cup tomato paste • 1/4 cup tomato ketchup • 4 x 15oz cans red kidney beans, drained • 3 x 14oz cans diced tomatoes • 1/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chips • 1 cup water (swished out in one of the diced tomato cans)
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2. Finely chop, or process the onion, garlic and chile.
3. Heat the oil in a large ovenproof pan (with a lid) or cast-iron or enameled Dutch oven and fry the onion, garlic and chile until soft, on low for about 10 minutes, then add the cardamom seeds, cumin, coriander, cinnamon and red pepper flakes.
4. Stir the oniony spiced mixture together and then add the chorizo, sliced into 1/4-inch coins, letting them ooze their paprika-orange oil.
5. Drop in the cubes of beed, turning them int he pan with the chorizo and onion mix, to brown the meat.
6. Stir in the tomato paste, ketchup, drained kidney beans and diced tomatoes. Add the water and bring the chili to a boil.
7. Once bubbling, sprinkle the chocolate chips over the chili and give it a good stir. Put on the lid and transfer to the oven.
7. Cook at this low heat for 3 hours. Once cooked it is best left overnight to improve the flavor.
I love the accurate names she gives her recipes... :)
Girdlebuster Pie
From: Nigella Lawson
INGREDIENTS
For the base
• 1 x 14oz box graham crackers • 3/4 stick (6 TSB) soft butter • 1/4 cup bittersweet chocolate, chopped or chips • 1/4 cup milk chocolate, chopped or chips
For the ice cream filling
• 1 quart coffee ice cream
For the topping
• 1 cup golden syrup, such as Lyle • 1/2 cup packed soft light brown sugar • 3/4 stick (6 TSB) butter • pinch of table salt (optional) • 2 TSB bourbon • 1/2 cup heavy cream
DIRECTIONS
1. Process the graham crackers with the butter and chocolate pieces or chips until it forms a damp but still crumb-like clump.
2. Press into a 9-inch pie plate or flan dish. Form a lip of cracker crumbs a little higher than the plate or dish if you can. This process takes patience as you need ideally to form a smooth even layer. Sorry.
3. Freeze this crumb-lined layer for about an hour so it gets really hard. In the meantime, let your ice cream soften, just enough to be scooped. in the refrigerator
4. Spread the ice cream into the hard-crumb-lined dish to form a layer. Then cover in plastic wrap and replace in the freezer.
5. Put the syrup, sugar, salt (if using) and butter into a saucepan and let it melt over a low to medium heat, before turning it up and boiling for 5 minutes, then turn off the heat and add the bourbon, letting it hiss in the pan.
6. Add the cream and stir to mix into a sauce, then leave to cool. And once the sauce is cool, but not set cold, pour it over the pie to cover the ice cream layer and then put it back in the freezer. Once frozen, cover with plastic wrap again.
7. When ready to serve, remove from the freezer, take the whole pie out of its dish and cut into slices. Should you have any pie left over, slip it quickly back into the dish and return, covered with plastic wrap, to the freezer.
Beat together butter and sugar on low speed of mixer until light and fluffy. Stir in flavorings and egg. Mix. Stir in flour and baking soda.
Using a small cookie scoop or two spoons, shape dough into balls. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet, 2 inches apart. Press cookie down slightly to flatten. using the bottom of a glass that has been dipped in sugar. Colored or white sugar may be used.
Bake for 9-11 minutes, just until cookies have set. Remove cookies to a wire rack to cool.
Variation: Substitute 1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar for the cup of sugar in above recipe. Cover and refrigerate 2 hours (or overnight). Roll dough out 1/4-inch thick on a lightly floured surface and cut out shapes. Sprinkle with colored sugars or frost. Bake on ungreased cookie sheets, 2 inches apart in a 375° F oven for 7-8 minutes, or until edges are lightly golden brown.
Tips: Do not overbake cookies; watch closely near the end of baking time. Bake on parchment paper for easy cleanup. Use two cookie sheets and have one ready to go into the oven as the first sheet cools (or just transfer parchment paper). For softer cookies, add a tablespoon of sour cream, yogurt or buttermilk.
Makes approximately 4 dozen cookies, depending on size.
*** Thanks for visiting and have fun trying out these easy recipes!
