Beneath the Surface

Out of the kitchen for a bit, have been making food for tomorrow night (we only have a very small gathering on New Year's Eve but I always overcook--that way we can have the leftover for New Year's Day dinner :).

I skipped the wings this year as just Too Much Work when we've just come back from a trip. So we're having:

• meatballs in sour cream sauce
  
• sausages in weird-but-good tangy sauce
  
• shredded beef (in the oven right now, hope it works out because I changed the recipe quite a bit this time)
  
• bread for the beef, also rice for the beef and/or the meatballs
  
• cheesy potatoes
  
• broccoli/raisin/bacon salad
  
• three kinds of finger jello (green, orange, purple), made with much help from younger daughter
  
• rice krispie treats
  
• assorted cookies made earlier (frozen at the moment)
  
• Clementines because they are the best fruit EVER!!!
  

When I've finished with most of it, I'm going to play Marvel Ultimate Alliance, or else play with my new toys :).

Tacos for dinner, applesauce cake with caramel frosting for dessert :).

The caramel frosting is a new thing, and I'm not sure I made it exactly right; it's good but (note to self) spreads poorly and it would be hell on any cake less firm than this one.

Browned butter frosting isn't quite as good on chocolate cake as it is on spice cake.

Chocolate mayonnaise cake is tasty and has a wonderful texture, but you shouldn't tell your husband there is mayonnaise in it, because although there's nothing in mayo that isn't in cake as well, he will find it strange.

Being around knitting people can make you start knitting, even though it's winter and you should really be quilting instead.

I don't want to do the Nohari window thing, either for myself or anyone else's, but there's the linke if you want to. (In case you missed the ubiquitous Johari window, there's that link as well. :))

I just finished making the deviled eggs; didn't have enough dry mustard to make them so I used prepared mustard, and the prepared mustard I had most easily on hand was honey mustard, but they're pretty good anyway (younger daughter will like them). Younger daughter and I made not just the blue jello but some red (strawberry banana) jello as well. Finger jello disappears pretty quickly around here :).

I'm working on making food for New Year's Eve; starting with a chocolate pound cake (it's my favorite recipe,the one that all too often collapses into an inverted volcano, but it's yummy so try, try again...). Can't make anything else until Dan gets home with the ingredients, so I'm taking a break after cleaning off the kitchen counters (within reason).

Winter snow advisory tonight, supposed to be over tomorrow at 6 AM. Up to 5 inches, they say (we often get more where we are).

So today was a day to make chicken soup--not quite fall weather but close. And then I got the chicken out and discovered that it was spoiled. (My rule for chicken should be that, regardless of the sell-by date, I should use or freeze it within 24 hours of purchasing. Chicken is just too prone to spoiling.) So we are having bean-and-sausage soup instead.

I've been working on a prayer to Bragi; this is a personal thing based on the premise that writing prayers for gods is the best way I've found to understand them. It isn't done yet--well, it needs editing. Technically, if I were going in alphabetical order (a good way to ensure that you don't skip over those deities you might not be as comfortable with) I should be starting with Balder, but I need to do more research on him first and think about his place in the pantheon, his purposes. But I'm not going in alphabetical order.

1 lb. butter (NO, margarine is not acceptable!)
2 c. sugar
1/2 c. water
2 c. mixed nuts
1 12-oz pkg chocolate chips

Melt butter in a heavy 3-quart pan. Add sugar and water, bring to a boil. Lower heat to medium (not low), add nuts. Stirring frequently, bring to 300 degrees F.

(Recipe books always say to stir toffee constantly. I don't. Just keep an eye on it--if your pan is heavy enough it'll be fine. If not, maybe you should stir constantly after all. I'm just trying to save you some work here.)

Pour into am ungreased jelly roll pan, spread the mixture around until the pan is covered. Don't lick the spoon, you'll burn your tongue. Immediately fill the pan with hot soapy water and start it soaking, along with the spoon--you'll be glad you did in the morning.

Scatter the chips (the better the chip, the more evil the toffee--maybe Ghirardelli instead of Hershey's?--but still pretty evil with store-brand chips as long as they're real chocolate) around the toffee while it's still hot. Wait a minute or two, then spread the melted chips around with a spoon.

Let cool enough for the chocolate to harden, then break into pieces. The toffee layer will set first, so you can eat it sooner if you don't mind licking melted chocolate off of your fingers.

You don't have to use mixed nuts, I just happen to like them. You could use pecans, cashews, macadamia nuts, whatever.

Because, traditionally, candy must never be begun before 10 PM. :)

I made my first intentional attempt at making toffee tonight. It's tasty, Dan says it's more like Skor than Heath. So flavor is fine.

But I need to either cook it to a slightly higher or a slightly lower temperature next time. The texture isn't what I had in mind. It's firm enough but quickly goes all chewy. Which is cool, ot just isn't quite toffee.

Made a pumpkin pie.
Made spinach/mushroom/cream cheese casserole to throw in the oven tomorrow.
Made mashed squash with maple syrup to throw in the oven tomorrow.
Made cheese grits casserole to throw in the oven tomorrow.
Made a pound cake which is in the oven now.
Still have to make a raspberry/strawberry sauce for the pound cake.

Winternights is this weekend; I have a piece I wrote for Hella last year that I want to use again, and we are moving our honoring of the dead to the sumbel, so that's not a prepared thing anyway.

I think I'm making corned beef and cabbage, and probably a cheesecake of some kind. Yeah, I know, it's always cheesecake! So I'm going through the Kraft site looking for something good--if nothing strikes me, I'll go with one of my old stand-bys, but I'll look around first.