Hurricane Sandy Supper

Since the hurricane has been all everyone is talking about lately, and we have been stuck inside our apartment for the last couple days, I decided to do a hurricane blog post.  We couldn't go out to the grocery store for ingredients, so we created a drink, dinner, and dessert using only the random ingredients we had in our apartment.  For a last minute, "Chopped"-style dinner, it turned our quite nicely!
Drink...

Lemon Meringue Pie Martini
*recipe from Pinnacle Vodka
I think Hurricane Sandy may have introduced me to a new favorite drink! We still have cake vodka from my birthday in April (vodka doesn't expire, right?) and I never quite know what to do with it.  I found a bunch of recipes on the Pinnacle website for and happened to have all the ingredients for this one.  It is delicious - it's like drinking dessert!
Ingredients:

• 2 oz of cake flavored vodka
• 1 oz lemon juice
• 1/2 oz simple syrup
• splash of cream

Directions:

1. Pour all the ingredients into a shaker with ice.  
2. Shake and strain into a martini glass.

Dinner...

Sausagey Storm Supper
Doug created this dinner out of random things we had leftover in our fridge and it was excellent.  I would definitely have it again.  He used Trader Joe's sweet apple chicken sausage (left over from my stuffed squash blog post), but he says you can use any kind of chicken or pork sausage.  
Ingredients:
(serves 2)

a good way to use up random leftovers 

• A few strips of bacon
• 3 chicken sausages (we used Trader Joe’s apple-maple syrup chicken sausage)
• Butter
• 1 tsp flour
• 1/3 lb. haricot verts (green beans)
• ½ white onion, diced
• 3–4 oz. white wine
• Dash of maple syrup (the real stuff)
• Salt 

Directions: 

1. Cook the haricot verts, put aside.
2. Heat a pan on medium heat, add bacon, remove when crispy. Reserve bacon; when you have a free minute, chop the bacon.
3. Cut the sausages in half lengthwise, place in same pan, cook over medium heat until heated through (or cooked if using raw sausage).
4. Remove sausage from pan. Make a roux by adding a couple pads of butter (approx. 2–3 tablespoons) to the hot pan, and whisking in 1 tsp. of flour. 
5. Let the sauce bubble, and when you’re happy with the consistency, add the wine to the pan, scraping up any bits of bacon fat or sausage from the bottom of the pan. Let the sauce simmer for a couple minutes.
6. Add maple syrup, stir.
7. Add the onion, let cook for 3–4 minutes, being careful that sauce does not reduce too much. Add salt to taste.
8. Having chopped up the cooked sausage into bite-size pieces, add it back to the pan, along with the haricot verts.
9. Stir to thoroughly combine all the ingredients in the pan. Simmer for 3–5 minutes to meld the flavors. Add salt if needed.
10. Place mixture in bowl or on a plate, and sprinkle with chopped bacon. Bon appétit! 

Dessert...

Maple Creme Brulee
I have made creme brulee many, many times before and have never had any trouble with it.  Sadly though, this recipe was a failure.  My creme brulee never set properly and therefore was liquid in the center.  We were very disappointed we couldn't eat it.  I'm not quite sure what went wrong.  Since I have never had this problem before, I'm going to blame it on hurricane Sandy and say it was because of the change in atmospheric pressure or something (although, I have never made it with maple syrup, so it could be that too).  So, if you're making creme brulee, don't do it during a hurricane!  
Ingredients:

• 6 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup of granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 3/4 tsp maple syrup
• 6 tsp granulated sugar (for the caramelized tops)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until the sugar it dissolved and the yolk mixture is thick and light in color.
3. Add cream and syrup and whisk until blended.
4. Fill a creme brulee pan halfway with water.  Put the filled ramekins into the water bath.
5. Bake until the edges are set and the center is still slightly loose, 50-55 minutes.    
6. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
7. Put ramekins in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
8. Sprinkle sugar on top and use a torch (or a broiler) to caramelize the sugar.
9. Enjoy! Hopefully you won't find a liquid center in yours like we did!

A Dinner With Your Valentine

I love fondue.  And I love crème brûlée.  And for some reason, both of these foods seem romantic to me.  I know, you're thinking . . . fondue, I could never make that!  Crème brûlée, certainly I could never make that!  Well, guess what . . . you can!  These two things might seem difficult to make, but they are actually two of the easiest recipes I have blogged about so far.  Not only are they easy, but they are sure to be so delicious that they will trick your valentine into thinking you are a gourmet chef.  :)

Drink...

Kir Royale

Champagne is a great Valentine's Day drink.  This is a classic cocktail with champagne and crème de cassis, a blackcurrant liqueur.  In France, it is usually drunk as an apéritif (before dinner).  We decided to drink some before and during dinner.  It was really good and went well with the meal.
Ingredients:
(for 1 drink)

• 1/2 shot of crème de cassis
• 4-5 shots of champagne (I preferred more champagne since the crème de cassis is very sweet)

Directions (order of steps is important):

1. Pour the crème de cassis into a champagne glass.
2. Add the champagne and drink!

Dinner...

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE fondue!  What's not to love?  Coating everything you eat in melted cheese cannot be bad.  But, I not only love the taste of fondue, I also love the experience of eating fondue.  Usually our meals are so fast.  We eat quickly and then shortly thereafter leave the table.  However, fondue forces you to slow down and enjoy everything.  This is a fondue recipe from my mom and it's a classic fondue recipe.  I am sure you could use other types of cheese, but I just love the classic Swiss!

Classic Swiss Fondue (AKA "Mom's Fondue")

*recipe from Maureen K.
Ingredients:
(serves 2)

• 3/4 lb of Swiss cheese
• 2 1/4 tbs flour
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 1/2 cups of white wine (we used Chablis which works well in the fondue and is also a traditional wine for Kir [the drink we made, but with white wine instead of champagne—the champagne is what makes it "royal"]
• 3/4 tbs lemon juice
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• dash of pepper
• Dipping ingredients (We used bread, apples, and garlic chicken sausage. You could use so many different things!)

Directions:

1. Cut the cheese into cubes.
2. Toss the cheese with flour in a bag.
3. Rub the fondue pot with the garlic clove.
4. Pour the wine into a pot and set to medium heat.
5. When the wine simmers, add lemon juice and cheese, stirring constantly.
6. Bring the cheese to a bubble, then add nutmeg and pepper.
7. Put the mixture into a fondue pot if you have one.  If not, you can eat it out of the pot in which it was cooked.  It should stay hot long enough for you to eat!

Dessert...

Crème Brûlée

*recipe from Chicago Metallic 
This is one of my favorite desserts.  Before I knew how to make it, I thought it would be very complicated, but as it turns out, it is ridiculously simple!  My parents knew about my love of this dessert and gave me a crème brûlée set a few years ago.  So, I actually have a torch to caramelize the sugar on top.  However, the recipe says you can just put the ramekins no less than 5 inches under the broiler to caramelize it if you don't have a torch. It's good with fresh berries on top as well.
Ingredients:
(serves 4)

• 6 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream
• 3/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 6 tsp granulated sugar (for the caramelized tops)

Directions:

Before Baking

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk egg yolks and sugar together until the sugar is dissolved and the egg yolk mixture is thick and light in color.
3. Add cream and vanilla extract and whisk until blended.
4. Fill a baking pan a little less than halfway with water.  
5. Pour the brûlée mixture into ramekins and place the ramekins into the water bath.
6. Bake until the edges are set, but the center is still slightly loose, about 50-55 minutes.
7. Remove the pan from the oven and cool.  
8. Remove the ramekins from the pan and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
9. Before serving, sprinkle 1 1/2 tsps of sugar on top of each and torch until the sugar is caramelized.

Torching - the scary part!

After a couple bites