request and a tale of four butters
Request: Does anyone have any first hand experience with CSAs in Chicago? Any info is appreciated, we're trying to choose one to join for next year.
A Tale of Four Butters.
For Thanksgiving, my boyfriend and I were cooking for his family. He seemed to have most of it under control, making two kinds of rolls, mashed potatoes, the bird, the gravy. His family was bringing the the stuffing and green beans. So all I could find to make was the sweet potatoes and the cranberry sauce. Neither of those takes a huge amount of time or effort to come out fabulously, though.
My Mother's Sweet Potato Casserole
Ingredients: 2 large cans of yams (drained), 3 eggs, 3/4 cup flour, tsp baking powder, 1 cup raisins, 1 cup chopped pecans, 1 can crushed pineapples, 1/2 stick of butter, 3/4 cup brown sugar, cinnamon to taste (2 tsp), topping
Tools: casserole dish of some sort, masher or mixer of some sort
Preheat oven to 350 or 375 (whichever you have to cook other stuff at)
a. Mash the yams (or buy them that way).
b. Stir in the eggs, flour, baking powder, raisins, pecans, pineapples, sugar, and cinnamon.
c. Melt the butter and stir it in.
d. Grease the casserole dish and dump everything in.
e. Top with topping (1/4 cup of butter, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1 tsp cinnamon mixed together until resembles coarse meal)
f. Stick in oven until done. You'll know. Think about 40 minutes. Maybe up to an hour, maybe longer.
Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients: 1 orange, 1 bag of fresh cranberries, 1/2 cup sugar (more if tart berries), cinnamon (to taste, 1.5 tsp),
Tools: Sauce pot (or small soup pot), zester (microplane style for the love of...), spoon, serving bowl, knife
a. Wash berries and put into pot.
b. Juice orange, ideally this will yield one cup of liquid. Add concentrate if you must or fridge OJ or water but you need 1 cup of liquid.
c. Zest orange.
d. Add zest, juice, sugar, and cinnamon to the pot.
e. Raise to a boil over medium heat and then simmer until all the berries have popped. Again, you'll know.
f. Simmer extra for a nice, thick sauce, say 15 minutes. Maybe 20.
g. TASTE. Adjust if necessary (berries may be extra tart), cinnamon may not be coming through, whatever.
h. Move sauce to serving bowl to cool.
k. Refrigerate and serve.
But they were both so quickly prepared that while my boyfriend would be toiling away all day, I would be left to sit around the house. While that's always fun, I wanted something more to do. So I came up with the Plan of Four Butters.
While Boyfriend made various preparations, I used the mixer to make a pint of heavy whipping cream into butter. (Whip until thoroughly whipped, then switch to the paddle and paddle until butter.) I poured off the buttermilk for pancakes the next day and used some cheesecloth to catch any spare buttery bits from the buttermilk. Then I divided the butter into four parts and began to figure out what to do with them.
There was a lot of discussion: I wanted to leave one plain and make two savory butters but the boy wanted to make two fruity butters. Ultimately, we didn't have a plain butter.
The butters were:
1 tsp of cranberry sauce mixed in.
1 tsp of apple butter mixed in.
1 tsp chopped rosemary, cracked black pepper, and 2 tsp grated Parmesan
1 tsp thyme, zest of 1 lemon
We only had three ramekins, so the fruity butters and Parmesan butter were in those, while I cleaned out half of a lemon to put the lemony thyme butter in.
In the end, the butters were a huge hit! Everyone was completely amused by the addition of flavored butters to the holiday. We paid super close attention to if the savory butters or fruity butters were more popular, kicking and elbowing each other the table when someone said they liked our butter better, but in the end I think it was a draw. Next time, boyfriend, my butters will reign supreme!
A Tale of Four Butters.
For Thanksgiving, my boyfriend and I were cooking for his family. He seemed to have most of it under control, making two kinds of rolls, mashed potatoes, the bird, the gravy. His family was bringing the the stuffing and green beans. So all I could find to make was the sweet potatoes and the cranberry sauce. Neither of those takes a huge amount of time or effort to come out fabulously, though.
My Mother's Sweet Potato Casserole
Ingredients: 2 large cans of yams (drained), 3 eggs, 3/4 cup flour, tsp baking powder, 1 cup raisins, 1 cup chopped pecans, 1 can crushed pineapples, 1/2 stick of butter, 3/4 cup brown sugar, cinnamon to taste (2 tsp), topping
Tools: casserole dish of some sort, masher or mixer of some sort
Preheat oven to 350 or 375 (whichever you have to cook other stuff at)
a. Mash the yams (or buy them that way).
b. Stir in the eggs, flour, baking powder, raisins, pecans, pineapples, sugar, and cinnamon.
c. Melt the butter and stir it in.
d. Grease the casserole dish and dump everything in.
e. Top with topping (1/4 cup of butter, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1 tsp cinnamon mixed together until resembles coarse meal)
f. Stick in oven until done. You'll know. Think about 40 minutes. Maybe up to an hour, maybe longer.
Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients: 1 orange, 1 bag of fresh cranberries, 1/2 cup sugar (more if tart berries), cinnamon (to taste, 1.5 tsp),
Tools: Sauce pot (or small soup pot), zester (microplane style for the love of...), spoon, serving bowl, knife
a. Wash berries and put into pot.
b. Juice orange, ideally this will yield one cup of liquid. Add concentrate if you must or fridge OJ or water but you need 1 cup of liquid.
c. Zest orange.
d. Add zest, juice, sugar, and cinnamon to the pot.
e. Raise to a boil over medium heat and then simmer until all the berries have popped. Again, you'll know.
f. Simmer extra for a nice, thick sauce, say 15 minutes. Maybe 20.
g. TASTE. Adjust if necessary (berries may be extra tart), cinnamon may not be coming through, whatever.
h. Move sauce to serving bowl to cool.
k. Refrigerate and serve.
But they were both so quickly prepared that while my boyfriend would be toiling away all day, I would be left to sit around the house. While that's always fun, I wanted something more to do. So I came up with the Plan of Four Butters.
While Boyfriend made various preparations, I used the mixer to make a pint of heavy whipping cream into butter. (Whip until thoroughly whipped, then switch to the paddle and paddle until butter.) I poured off the buttermilk for pancakes the next day and used some cheesecloth to catch any spare buttery bits from the buttermilk. Then I divided the butter into four parts and began to figure out what to do with them.
There was a lot of discussion: I wanted to leave one plain and make two savory butters but the boy wanted to make two fruity butters. Ultimately, we didn't have a plain butter.
The butters were:
1 tsp of cranberry sauce mixed in.
1 tsp of apple butter mixed in.
1 tsp chopped rosemary, cracked black pepper, and 2 tsp grated Parmesan
1 tsp thyme, zest of 1 lemon
We only had three ramekins, so the fruity butters and Parmesan butter were in those, while I cleaned out half of a lemon to put the lemony thyme butter in.
In the end, the butters were a huge hit! Everyone was completely amused by the addition of flavored butters to the holiday. We paid super close attention to if the savory butters or fruity butters were more popular, kicking and elbowing each other the table when someone said they liked our butter better, but in the end I think it was a draw. Next time, boyfriend, my butters will reign supreme!