Oui, Chef

Triple Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

 

Do you remember the post a few weeks ago about the favorite holiday cookie we baked this year, the incomparable Chewy Ginger Cookies ?  Well these little lovelies ran a close second in the race for Christmas cookie dominance, so I thought I'd share them with you today.  The good news is that they're not like a bûche de noel, or a gingerbread treat that seem totally out of place once the holidays have passed.  These sugar bombs are a welcome treat regardless of season.

An Impromptu Chili

 

The pork shoulder roast used to make this chili was originally scheduled for a little "low and slow" oven love before being served up to the gang as a Sunday roast.  However, mid-way through prepping it for this purpose I had a change of heart, prompted by my need to get our fridge and pantry inventory below the level that would feed a small country (you think I'm kidding?).  Turns out this lovely chili allowed me to use up not only the shoulder roast, but also a box of baby spinach, all the carrots, onions, shallots, celery and cilantro left in the fridge, a can of crushed tomatoes and a bag of flageolet beans from the pantry, and a cooked bag of bacon shards in the freezer.  

How's that for a kitchen sink recipe!

Almost Teddies Apple Cake and an OXO Egg Beater Giveaway!

A few weeks back I had the good fortune to attend the Boston book launching party for the The Food52 Cookbook .  My friend Emily (fiveandspice for all you Food52ers) and her husband hosted a pot-luck gathering where each guest made a dish from the book to bring, it was great fun and a delicious afternoon.  As you might imagine from a gathering of such food fanatics, we brought way more food than we needed for the gang assembled.  In fact, as the afternoon wore on I started to get a little concerned that we had not properly paced ourselves and would be unable to have a go at the beautiful desserts decorating the sideboard in their dining room.

A lesser group would have called it a day I’m sure, what with the sheer volume of savory tarts, salads, dips, breads, and charcuterie that we all consumed.  Many would have slipped into a food coma and curled up in the corner for a little snooze, but not this stalwart group.  No, the siren’s song of cakes and cookies took care of that, and as we emptied the last bottle of wine, our hostess took her leave and retired to the kitchen to gather things for dessert.

Parchment Baked Fish with Fennel

Baking fish in parchment is a fabulous technique that I'd read about for years but didn't try myself until just the other day, inspired by having seen my chef-friend Jody Adams cook some this way in a recent cooking class I attended.  Jody, who along with her husband Ken write and shoot the fabulous home-cooking blog, The Garum Factory, prepared a similar dish in her class, and from the first bite I was hooked.

3 Layer Guinness - Chocolate Cake

A page is turned, a chapter ended.

Ever since I was a student at LCB and learned to make a Bûche Pistache, a delicious chocolate-pistachio log shaped cake, it has been Arthas’ choice of birthday cake.  I still clearly remember my initial shock when a few months after he had tasted the one I made and brought home from class, he asked that I make another for his birthday.  

Twice Baked Curried Sweet Potatoes

My never ending quest to turn the kids onto sweet potatoes in a form other than french fries had me crafting these twice-baked darlings the other day.  These are a breeze to put together, are infinitely customizable to your tastes, and offer a nice mix of flavors and textures that our kids really liked.

Lemon-Poppy Pound Cake

This is the first recipe that Muppet and I have baked from the cookbook I bought her for her birthday this year.  The book is the first from one of our favorite local pastry chefs, the delightful Joanne Chang.  Joanne's book is named after her bakery, "Flour", and is a beautifully produced collection of many of the confections that have made her famous, and her bakeries Boston institutions.

I've had the good fortune to have met Joanne at a couple of Share Our Strength events (she is a huge supporter of the organization) and found her to be very warm and charming.  She was kind enough to inscribe the book for Muppet, so cooking from it was an extra special treat for our young baker.

Pomegranate Pork with Gingered Kale

Happy New Year Everyone!

This recipe was inspired by one I found in a Whole Foods magazine recently.  I was excited to play with it last week not only because of its lovely green and red holiday appearance (the greens look a bit like a Christmas tree, don't you think?), but because kale and pork are always welcome guests at our table.  I love recipes that offer a simple sauce to accompany pork because let's face it, plain pork tenderloin is a yawn.  As for the kale, it is so versatile and SO GOOD for you, it is something I'm trying to incorporate into our diet more and more.  So much so that I'm thinking about a kale based new year's resolution.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

No recipe today, just a few festive shots of Muppet's Gingerbread Village to brighten your day.

Regardless of what holiday you celebrate this season, all of us here at Oui, Chef wish you festivities full of love, laughter, and of course, lots of great food!

 See you in 2012!

Like they say...."It takes a village", preferably one made entirely of SUGAR!

 

And the Winner is......Chewy Ginger Cookies!

This is the year that my sibs and I finally cried uncle and decided to suspend holiday giving between our families.  We did this for a couple of reasons.  First, all of our kids are now teens and are basically impossible to shop for, preferring to receive cold-hard cash (large denominations, please) in lieu of any creative gift idea we stupid adults might arrive at on our own.  Second, we stupid adults are so fortunate as to have all that we need or want, and so the whole idea of braving the hordes of holiday shoppers to buy token offerings seemed a bit nutty to us all.  We decided instead (full credit given here to my brother) to arrange a cookie swap between our three families, with each sending the other 4-5 dozen cookies of various types.  

It was such a brilliant idea that I wish it were mine.