We were out of town for Christmas, so we had it a little late. :)

A lovely brunch of mimosas, hashbrown casserole and Brunch Egg Casserole.

(I forgot to snap a picture before I started serving!)

I also got Twain’s Feast for Christmas!

I hope everyone had wonderful holidays and a fantastic New Year.  In 2011, hopefully you’ll see more posts!

FROM SCRATCH!!!!!!!!!!!  This is not something that has worked well for me in the past, which is why I’m so excited.  They were AWESOME.

Took 2 russet potatoes, peeled & chopped up into SMALL pieces and put them in boiling water. (I had thrown some onions and crushed garlic in the water before bringing it to a boil.)

Brought it back to a boil and then boiled for 10 minutes.

Drained them, threw them back into the pot for a few minutes to steam off any leftover liquid, and then put them through my nifty potato ricer.

Mixed in about 3Ts of butter and a couple spoonfuls of sour cream.

Put it all in a casserole dish and put it back in the microwave for about a minute and a half (the sour cream cooled things off.)

Topped with some cheddar jack cheese and put it under the broiler for a few minutes.

Awesome.  REALLY AWESOME.

I really do.  When I gave my brother a choice of baked or fried potatoes with dinner and he chose baked, I certainly couldn’t argue it.

So easy, so simple, so good.  Prep time of a whole 2 minutes of washing them off, poking them a couple times with a fork and tossing in a pan. An hour in the oven at 400 degrees and that’s that.  Even twice baked are easy, another 5 minutes of mashing them up and a couple minutes back under the broiler.

They’re healthy (even with toppings – just don’t use an entire pint of sour cream) and easy and one of my favorite sides.

All hail the lovely baking potato!

In my fridge there is a 7.92# Shady Brook Farms turkey breast!  The first market I went to last evening had at least a dozen of them.  Much better than the year I had to go to 3 different stores to find one.

I always get the biggest one I can get my hands on, because the leftovers will NOT go to waste.  I like turkey, but don’t eat it a whole lot.  My brother LOVES turkey.  Last year he had 8 meals in a row of turkey sandwiches after Thanksgiving.  We’ll see if he can break the record this year.

As it stands, we will again have enough food for a small army, even though it’s just my brother & myself.  But I won’t have to cook for at least 3 days afterwards!

The cheese & sausage plate will be a meal in and of itself.  I’ve got summer sausage, hard pepperoni and…  There’s one other thing and I can’t remember what it is off the top of my head but it’s in the fridge.  For cheeses, we have good old sharp cheddar, pepper jack, salsa jack (never heard of it before, but it looked interesting,) smoked gouda and dill havarti.  I also have a roll of Salame Panino.  (Salame rolled in mozzarella!) It just looked really yummy.

Can’t wait!

Basically, I cheated.

Instead of using a shallow pan, I used a small saucepan – and a lid.  Sauteed the last of my shallots (had to use them  up anyway…), added the risotto and let it soak up the butter.  Added the first course of liquid, lowered the heat and covered it.  Let it sit for about 5 minutes, just stirring a few times until the liquid was soaked up.  The second two courses of liquid took longer (~8 minutes) to soak up, but again, just stirred a few times and kept it covered.  It was just right and I didn’t spend the entire time stirring it.  Added some Parmesano-Reggiano at the end and it was lovely.

For what it’s worth, this is the risotto I’m using:

I also use their Sushi Rice.  I like the fact that it’s grown in the USA and you don’t have to buy 5 pounds of it at a time. :)

Shallot Parm Risotto, 1/4 cup of uncooked risotto used, 1/8 cup parm = 1 serving. Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 316 Calories; 12g Fat (34.1% calories from fat); 11g Protein; 39g Carbohydrate; 0g Dietary Fiber; 29mg Cholesterol; 846mg Sodium. Exchanges: 2 1/2 Grain(Starch); 1 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 2 Fat.

No pics, it looks just like last night except without the asparagus. :)

I wanted to give it another whirl to see if I could make it a little softer using lower heat.  It did seem to make a difference, and adding the salt & pepper before the 3rd addition of liquid gave it a nice seasoning.

The shallots went a touch too long and were kind of carmelized, but it just added to the goodness of it all.

Made for a nice little lunch.

I’ve had risotto in restaurants before, but I’ve never actually made it.  I’m not really sure why, but perhaps there was some subliminal intimidation going on.  Let’s face it, watch 3 episodes of Hell’s Kitchen and it seems everyone has a pan of risotto that becomes a disaster at some point.

Well, recently I became posessed by something at the supermarket and I found myself with a container of risotto.  And this afternoon, I got a bit of a wild hair and decided I would make some up for dinner.  Had to go to the market for milk anyway, and decided I’d let something jump out at me as to what to put in it.  And no sooner did I walk through the door than I found it – asparagus!

After much stirring, and stirring, and some more stirring – I had dinner.

Overall, not too bad at all considering that it was my first go at it.  (I couldn’t get the asparagus to look artful, I tried, LOL.)  Still needed a little more S&P when I dug into it, and it wasn’t quite as soft as I thought it should have been – I think that can be remedied easily next time by having the heat somewhat lower and giving the liquid more time to soak in. (It also could have been that I cut the usual serving in half.  Time will tell.)

I sauteed 3 chopped up shallots in butter until they were nice and soft.

Added a 1/2 cup of risotto and let it soak up the butter, about a minute or two.

Added 1/2 cup of heated chicken stock, stirred until it was soaked in.

Repeated that with two more 1/2 cups of stock.

Once the last of the stock was soaked up, I stirred in about 1/4 cup of grated parmesano-reggiano cheese, and then folded in the roasted asparagus.  (I just roll them in some butter and cracked pepper and put them under the broiler of the toaster oven for about 5 minutes.)

Added salt & pepper to taste.

I did it all on medium heat, I think next time I will do it on medium low – it will take a little longer, but I think it will be a bit softer that way.

Overall, it really wasn’t that difficult – just somewhat time consuming and it’s not the type of thing you can easily walk away from while it’s cooking.  Even though mine wasn’t perfect, it was certainly tasty and something I think that anyone could make with some patience!

It’s also insanely rich – I could only finish about half of it.  So, if you’ve been hemming and hawing over making risotto – give it a go.  I think next time I’ll be going for a low-country version.

If you like ham, and you like green onions – get yourself over to Just Bento today and check out the Ham Negimayaki recipe & pics that have been posted.

I’ll have to give this a whirl myself sometime, because it just looks great.  Thing is, I don’t remember ever having anything like this when I was in Japan, but it’s also been a very long time since I was there, and I wasn’t exactly a foodie at the time.

In my mind, my reasons for giving them a go were quite sound.

– I love yakisoba.
– We don’t exactly have a plethora of Japanese restaurants in the area.
– It’s a traditional Japanese food made by a Japanese company, so in theory they should be able to get it right.

Couldn’t be quicker or easier.  Add the veggie pack and a cup of water.  Microwave for 4 minutes, let it sit for another minute.  Add the flavor pack, mix up and it’s done.

The verdict?  I am horribly torn.  It wasn’t the worst thing in the world, but it just wasn’t really right, either.  The cabbage in the veggie pack does make it smell like you’d expect it to (if you like yakisoba, then it will be a familiar aroma), but the flavor packet is kind of weird.  There isn’t much water left after microwaving, so it sticks to the noodles.  Perhaps it’s by design, but it doesn’t seem to dissolve as well as it should.  The noodles do have that familiar ever so slightly oily mouth feel to them (it’s hard to describe), but overall, something is either missing or overdone, but I just can’t say for sure what it is.

Maybe my expectations were too high, having eaten a decent amount of yakisoba when we were stationed in Japan.

However, everyone’s tastes are different and I’d say it’s worth buying one and giving it a shot to see if you like it, it’s not at all expensive and won’t take up half your day to prepare it.  Myself, I doubt I’ll buy it again, though.

I think it will be worth my while to get hold of some real soba noodles and hunt down a good seasoning recipe, even if it does take longer.  (But doesn’t it always seem to work out that way?)

Ramen. Poor maligned, mocked ramen. What is it about ramen that provokes people to cast a downward eye on it?

Often the rallying cry that I hear against it is “Sodium!!” Yes, the sodium content in it if you use the little seasoning packets is basically through the roof. But – do you know anyone that actually consumes the entire cup and a half of broth that is produced in the process? I drain off most of the broth and end up with maybe 2 tablespoons of it at the very most.

Too cheap? Well, it does go for 5 packs for a dollar at my local market. Maybe it’s too stark a reminder of starving student days for some folks.

Personally, I still like it. Perhaps because I didn’t overdose on it in college. I find it’s great for breakfast. (Maybe a subconscious nod to my days when I lived in Japan?) You can doctor it up all kinds of ways – toss in veggies, make a different sauce for it, add some protein – basically anything can work. And frankly, if it’s good enough for Alton Brown, it’s good enough for me.