Hygge Night

This evening I'm hosting my second annual hygge night, from the Scandinavian concept of coziness.  A few friends are coming over in their comfiest clothes to eat hearty food, sweet desserts, and warm drinks.  I don't do more than straighten the house and prep a few food items.  Tonight, we have popcorn, IKEA Swedish meatballs and gravy with noodles, and a spiced gingerbread bundt cake.  I am also hoping to make homemade Irish cream and perhaps whiskey caramel as a treat, to take home with some candles I bought.


Smitten Kitchen's Gingerbread from Gramercy Tavern

1 cup oatmeal stout or Guinness Stout
1 cup dark molasses (not blackstrap)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Pinch of ground cardamom
3 large eggs
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
Confectioners sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350°F. Generously butter bundt pan and dust with flour, knocking out excess. (She is not kidding about this. I used a nonstick pan with a butter/flour spray and still lost a chunk of cake. I will be more generous next time.)

Bring stout and molasses to a boil in a large saucepan and remove from heat. Whisk in baking soda, then cool to room temperature.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and spices in a large bowl. Whisk together eggs and sugars. Whisk in oil, then molasses mixture. Add to flour mixture and whisk until just combined.

Pour batter into bundt pan and rap pan sharply on counter to eliminate air bubbles. Bake in middle of oven until a tester comes out with just a few moist crumbs adhering, about 50 minutes. Cool cake in pan on a rack 5 minutes. Turn out onto rack and cool completely.

Serve cake, dusted with confectioners sugar, with whipped cream.

This gingerbread is better if made a day ahead. It will keep 3 days, covered, at room temperature. I am sure it will keep well-wrapped in the freezer even longer.

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Homemade Irish Cream from Smitten Kitchen

1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup (235 ml) heavy or whipping cream

1 (14-ounce or 415 ml) can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup (235 ml) Irish whiskey (I used Jameson)

In the bottom of a pitcher, whisk cocoa powder and a spoonful of cream into a paste. Slowly, whisking the whole time, add more cream a spoonful at a time until the paste is smooth and loose enough that you can whisk the rest of the cream in larger splashes. Once all of the cream is in, whisk in condensed milk, whiskey and vanilla. Cover with lid or plastic wrap and keep in fridge for up to two weeks, possibly longer.

Serve in a tiny tumbler filled with ice, or splashed into coffee.

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Whiskey Caramel from Food52

2 sticks butter
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup whiskey

Mix everything but the whiskey together. Heat until golden and bubbling. Boil for 3 minutes. Take off heat and stir in whiskey, stirring well.

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Cooking Dinner

Cooking dinner every night is not one of my strong points; it never has been.  And our tastes and preferences keep changing.  Just when I've settled into a few new recipes, someone doesn't like one of the ingredients.  But we keep trying.

Some recent attempts:

Stove-Top Brisket via NYTimes

Ingredients:

2-pound first-cut brisket

4 large white onions

1 teaspoon olive oil

Paprika, salt and pepper to taste

Loosely dice the onions and set them aside in a big bowl.

Pat the brisket dry and pour a very generous amount of salt, pepper and paprika on the less fatty side. Pour oil into a high-sided pan with a lid to coat the bottom. Turn the stove to medium-high and place the fattier side down in the pan for 7 minutes. When the meat is browned, flip it so the spiced side is down and generously sprinkle more salt, pepper and paprika onto the fatty side. Let cook uncovered for 4 more minutes.

Pour in the entire bowl of onions; they should cover the meat and reach up to the top of the pan. Cover with lid and turn down to a simmer.

Cook for 3 to 4 hours, or until tender.

Slice and serve brisket immediately; it’s great with rice.

Braised Pork

2 pounds pork shoulder, cut into 6 large chunks

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

1 clove garlic, roughly chopped

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 cup red wine

1 1/2 cups beef stock or broth

1 bunch parsley stems, tied with string

2 bay leaves

1 cup water

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Pat the pork dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper.

In a large Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat, and working in batches brown the meat on all sides until a golden crust forms. Transfer the pork to a plate. To the pan add the onion, celery, and carrot and sweat until softened, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic and sweat another 2 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 3 minutes to cook off the raw flavor and caramelize it. Sprinkle with the flour and cook another 2 minutes to cook off its raw flavor. Whisk in the wine and reduce it by half. Return the pork to the Dutch oven, then stir in the beef stock, parsley stems, and bay leaves. Add the water if liquid does not come up to the top of the pork. Do not cover the pork with liquid. Cover the pan and place it in the oven to braise until the meat is fork tender, about 3 hours. Taste and season with more salt and pepper, if needed. 

Transfer to a serving platter and serve.

Holidays

I didn't post about Thanksgiving because there was nothing to post.  Except three of us got a virulent stomach flu, we canceled the meal, and sent my mom, who was visiting, back to Texas. 

We had some good memories before the flu--Gommie got to watch Sis ride her horse and even do some jumps.  She observed a whole kung fu class.  We really liked going to see Frozen 2, which was lovely and bittersweet.  More mature, maybe acknowledging that first-generation of fans has gotten a little older.  We also took a photo with Santa, the ones the kids have visited since their very first Christmas.  At home, Gommie watched a lot of movies between our illnesses.  She especially liked Into the Spiderverse and Spiderman: Homecoming.  The kids played Rummy with Gommie, and she also joined us for a special edition of D&D.  She really got into it and was imaginative with her acid-spewing, dragon-speaking wizard.  Bud was DM and was fabulous at it.  Maybe I'll have to turn over my DM duties to him!  Gommie left the next day to avoid flu and snow. 

Otherwise, this is what we've been up to:

• Over the weekend, Bud attended a special dance conference, Monsters.  He hip-hopped for three days, having a fabulous time.  And he got a special scholarship of $600 to attend Monsters in LA!  We are so proud and he is so excited.  He loves loves loves to dance.
• Meanwhile, Sis and I hung out, ate out, and chilled out watching Gray's Anatomy, our current show now that we've finished House (and the Fosters and Gilmore Girls and Switched a Birth and Glee and Sherlock and Elementary and I know I'm forgetting one; we like to watch tv together.)  We also went to our old church's cookie cafe where Sis and I got huge tins-worth of cookies.  And I got to chat with several old friends (quilters M & M!), a few of whom I'd lost touch with because they aren't online.  It was absolutely lovely to see them.  And I'm going to try to do better.  We also went to see our pony, who was glad of the treats.  It was too icy to ride, but Sis did get Patience to wear her Christmas antlers for a few minutes.  
• We have had a few snow days and delayed openings.  I even had my first snow day, with my Monday night class canceled on December 2.  I'd put a spoon under my pillow, a local superstition about snow days.  I spent it doing homework, but it was still nice to watch some of the snow.  
• I did finish my semester, turned in all my term papers, finished off my last reflections, did all my final posts.  I learned quite a bit this semester, though some of the professors were more involved than others.  Indeed, one class was essentially a self-study.  And I hear he is a tough grader.  And he's made a lot of excuses, though they were relatively valid.  Still . . . And I loved my Monday night class on Quantum Spirituality.  The people. The agape meals.  The conversations that challenged me.  It certainly gave me a better understanding of the diversity of beliefs of people.  Just as my sociology class studied, there can be a huge gap between official beliefs and personal meaning systems.  My beliefs haven't changed, but I am finding more metaphorical ways to express them.
• It was my birthday, not yet the big one, but almost.  It was pretty low-key.  Bud decorated the downstairs with dozens of photos of BTS taped all over.  Plus purple streamers and a special picture drawn by Sis (an optical illusion of BTS.)  They left me with a 3+ hour playlist of BTS performances on YouTube, which I watched all day while not doing much.  I did have lunch at Panera, where I got a special birthday pastry.  And I do a few errands, nothing much.  We had pizza from a new place--mashed potato, Philly cheeseteak, clam, and chicken and broccoli pizzas.  Perfect.
• Orchestra concert was this week.  I didn't realize that this is the very first orchestra for his high school; all strings used to go elsewhere.  So it's small and rough around the edges, but they held their own, especially in the Nutcracker selections.  
• We had Friday night dinner at IKEA, at their holiday julbörd.  Mama and Bud were glad for the salmon, though Bud likes mustardy pickled herring too.  Sis and I stuck to potatoes and meatballs.  I liked the sour cream beet salad too.  Plus the almond rice pudding and of course the little green marzipan rum-like logs.  Yum!!!
• Sis made big batches of cookies this weekend--mini-chocolate chip snowballs, chocolate crinkles, toffee "crack" . . . the house smelled wonderful.
• On Saturday, We had lunch at a new local seafood place that specializes in Maryland-style seafood boils.  Mama and Bud shared a mussel, crawfish, and lobster boil.  Sis had chicken fingers (which were really good), while I had a shrimp po'boy.  We also really liked the hush puppies.  Definitely a do-again.
• On Sunday, Bud and I went to see the Nutcracker, performed by many from his dance school and even a kung fu teammate.  It was nicely done, with lovely costumes.  And I love seeing all the little kids dance.  I don't like the racist Orientalism of the Chinese dance or the Arab dance (I don't recall the exact names), with little girls in black wigs and a very sexy harem girl dance.  But both Bud and I have a better understanding of the work, dedication, and skill to perform.