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We Were Christmas'd SO HARD!
by: Renée via Baking Experiments on Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:51:00 -0600

That's what our friend Pat told us the other day. He sent Chris a message that said 'I Christmas'd you SO HARD!' And it's true, we were. Now I'm not trying to brag or anything, and try not to get too jealous now, but here's what my Mom got us for Christmas:
Uh yeah... I've wanted one of those since I was like 12. It's so beautiful, even covered in flour like it is in the pic :P I've already made another loaf of Challah Bread and two cakes.

The first cake was for our friend Vina's birthday. It was a red velvet cake with white chocolate cream cheese frosting and homemade cannoli cream in the middle. Yes, I did say homemade cannoli cream. One of our friends gave us the recipe a while ago and I forgot (I know! How could I?!) that we had it. Let me just say, YUM!

The second cake was for our Potluck at work. It was a Chocolate Guinness Cake with Chocolate Ganache and yep, you guessed it, cannoli cream. (It made two pounds! I couldn't waste it!) I can't tell you how well the cannoli went with this cake. Oh. My. God. It was perfectly balanced between sweet and spicy (there's cinnamon in the cannoli cream). I put the absolute thinnest layer of ganache that I could to avoid making it too rich. I'm talking less than 1/8" thick.
I dusted cocoa powder on the top for some decoration but by the time I got to work it had seeped into the ganache. I think it may have made it better.
Ok that's not the most appetizing picture ever but that's because the leftover cake has been in the fridge since Monday and I forgot to take a slice picture until tonight (Thursday). I don't care, it's still delicious (of course, I had to eat the slice :P)

Back to being Christmas'd so hard:

These are gifts that some of our friends got us. Pat and Courtney got us the Silpat and the 8" chef's knife. Tom got Chris the CIA cookbook and me The Cake Book. Wow. Just wow. Awesome gifts. We are so excited to use all of them.

Now, not all of our awesome gifts were of the cooking nature....

If you read my other blog We Cook Together, you may already know that we are HUGE Giants fans. Anthony got us these awesome jerseys! Brandon Jacobs (27) for Chris and Eli Manning (10) for me. We already wore them on Sunday :)

I can't wait to use everything!!! And of course we are going to have to whip up some yummy goodies for everyone :)
Holiday Cookies!
by: Danny via We Cook Together on Sun, 14 Dec 2008 12:04:00 -0600

Keywords: Cookies
(NOTE: BIGGER slideshow on dannyburbol.com)

We're going to a cookie exchange party, so we baked lots of surgar and peanutbutter holiday cookies!

Our Favs are:
- #7: that G-Bread man got hit in the head by a peanut butter cup flining ninja!
- #8: just simple and classic
- #13: cute star!
- #14: Tiff was going for height!
  be sure to check out #19 :)
- #15: Yeah Baby!
- #19: of course, this one is our top pick :)
Stuffed Pork Loin
by: Renée via We Cook Together on Fri, 05 Dec 2008 06:18:00 -0600

Keywords: Dinner , Chris , pork

Mom came over for dinner. Chris decided to make stuffed pork loin. We have made this before and it is so easy and yummy.

First take your pork loin and cut it so that it is flat. You kind of have to go in a reverse spiral.

Next season with salt and pepper and place your fillings on. We used fresh mozzarella, fresh basil and roasted red peppers.

Roll it up and bake in a 350° oven for 45 min to 1 hr. We use our stoneware bread pan because it helps keep the shape without skewers. We served it with butternut squash puree and roasted potatoes.
Beef Provencale
by: Renée via We Cook Together on Tue, 25 Nov 2008 05:48:00 -0600

Keywords: Dinner , Chris , Renée , beef

When I was a kid, my mom was always getting these 'join our recipe club!' packages in the mail. With the invitations they would include a sample of the recipe cards. Mom never joined the clubs, but always kept the free cards. I have mostly inherited these cards since Mom doesn't really cook that much anymore. This recipe was from one of these sets. The set is called 'Simply Delicious'.

We decided to make this recipe during Thanksgiving week, since Chris and I both had off. We were going to go out on a 'date' but decided that we would probably have more fun and have better food if we just stayed home and cooked together. We also spent about half of what we would have for dinner.

The recipe is easy, but a little pricey. You take a beef tenderloin (go to the butcher, not the supermarket!), brown it in some butter on all sides and season with salt and pepper. Cover and let it cook over low heat for about 10 minutes. Remove it from the pan, cover it with foil and let it rest for about 30 minutes. Slice it into 1/2 inches slices, put it in a dish and spread with some garlic butter (6 Tbl softened butter, 2 cloves minced garlic, 3 Tbls finely chopped flat leaf parsley, mix together until smooth) and put into a 425° oven for 8 minutes.

Now you may notice the potatoes in the picture above. You should ignore them. They were part of the recipe that was annoying and should have been called 'Simply Bland'. I would serve this with a good gratin or mashed potato and some steamed veggies.

Now, this dinner (minus potatoes) was delicious. This is a very, very good cut of meat (1 1/2 lbs filet tenderloin cost us $35.00). It was tender and practically melted in your mouth.

The next day we decided to make lunch with the leftovers. Now dinner was good. We had fun making it. What Chris did with the leftovers was just simply the best sandwich I have ever eaten in my whole life.

He cut up the beef, mixed it with the garlic butter and basically made a grilled muenster cheese and beef sandwich out of it. The kicker? He toasted garlic in the pan before adding the bread. I know it sounds so simple but really it could not have been better. There was not one thing that either of us said 'oh next time we should....'

Yum!
Handmade Challah Bread
by: Renée via Baking Experiments on Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:24:00 -0600

Keywords: Challah , Bread

We were having my uncle and his girlfriend over for dinner last night and I decided to make some homemade Challah. I got this recipe from the Macrina Bakery and Cafe Cookbook. I don't have a stand mixer so I made this by hand. 15 minutes of kneading dough is very good therapy!

After its first proof (2 hours) you form the loaf and then let it proof for another 45 minutes. I don't know if you can really tell but the loaf in the above picture is much smaller than the one below (after proof).

It only bakes for 30 minutes and comes out so beautiful!

I have to say that this has been my proudest moment baking. I made a delicious loaf of bread, by hand, for the first time. I really just want to run back to the kitchen and make more!!