Some New Year's culinary idea for ya

For those of you hosting some form of New Year's event at your house here are some suggestions.

1.  Invite me

2.  Have you ever tried fondue?  You can buy a fondue set and they aren't very expensive.  Fondue is easy to make and interactive.  You can do either a cheese fondue or a dessert one, such as chocolate

3.  Home made pig in a blanket.
Buy some frozen puff pastry sheets and wrap a whole sausage with it and then bake it.  Find a nice sausage like a chorizo or something.  Make sure the puff pastry is large enough to cover it.  Don't worry about sealing the sides as you will cut them off.  Brush the pastry with egg wash and then bake in the oven at about 350-375F.
slice into bite size pieces and serve with dijon or whole grain mustard.

One of my favorite questions

I was in the dining room the other night and a guest signaled for me to come to the table.
He asked, "what is good on the menu?"  I have heard people ask that question before and I never quite understood it.  I mean, I am the chef, what do they think I will say? "Everything on the menu is lousy and you should eat somewhere else?"  Now I understand sometimes people don't know how to ask questions and that is fine. 

Today's Christmas tip

Here is another Christmas tip for your holiday dinner.

For dessert try a chocolate fondue.  It is very easy to make, more interactive and not very expensive.  Of course you would need a fondue pot but they are not very expensive. 
You can put it in the middle of your holiday dinner table and everyone can help themselves.
I like to take brownies and pound cake and cut them up into bite-sized squares to be used for dipping.  Then, make a small plate of the cut up brownies and pound cake and maybe some cut fruit for each person to facilitate their dipping.

Merry Christmas

Today's Christmas idea-beets

Here you go.

I know many people eat beets during the winter and while they may not be the most appealing vegetable but that is because it gets a bad rap.  Most people are familiar with the canned beets but have you tried roasting or boiling fresh beets? 

Go to the market and get some beets.  Boil them whole in salted water until a thin knife is inserted in the center of the largest one and comes out easily-just like when you cook a potato.
While the beets are cooking, julienne some red onions and cook them over medium heat in some oil and butter until cooked. 
Take some fresh rosemary and chop it fine.
Take one orange and zest it.
Once the beets are cooked and have cooled down until they can be handled, peel the skin using a towel by simply rubbing the skin. 
Cut the beets into wedges.
Take a pan large enough to accomodate the beets and put some olive oil, the onions, rosemary, orange zest and a bit of the juice from the orange.
Heat this up and add your beet wedges to it. 
Saute this over medium heat until the beets are heated.
Add salt and pepper.
Taste.

The beets can be made up to a few days ahead of time so when it comes time to serve them they are already cooked so all you have to do is saute them with the flavoring.

Enjoy

Christmas Ideas

All
For those of you celebrating Christmas here are some twists to traditional holiday items.

Sweet potatoes roasted with orange, paprika and cumin
Cut each sweet potato into six to eight pieces, toss them with enough olive oil to coat, salt and pepper, a dash of paprika and cumin and roast at 400F until done. 
While the sweet potatoes are roasting, zest one orange.  Melt enough butter in a small pan with the orange zest to coat the sweet potatoes.  Once the potatoes are done, toss them with the orange butter and some chopped parsley.  The juxtaposition of the sweet, citrus flavor of the orange with the earthy flavors of the cumin and paprika work quite nice.

Stuffed turkey breast with giblet gravy
Make sure you have a sharp boning or cook's knife.
Take a turkey breast and lay it skin side down laying perpendicular to you. To help you visualize, imagine you are looking at a turkey.  You want the turkey's rear facing you, that is how the breast should be laying.
  You will be butterflying it.
Make and incision from one side to the other, down the middle of the breast lengthwise. 
NOTE you not want to cut all the way through the turkey breast otherwise you will have two pieces.
After you have made the incision,  place your knife where the incision ends and slice towards the outside of the breast, cutting parallel to the cutting board.  Think of an upside down letter "T"
NOTE you do not want to cut all the way.  You only want to cut about half an inch or more away from the side.  You only want to cut enough to open up the breast.
When cutting-do not push, let your knife do the work using a gentle sawing motion.
Repeat the same motion with the other side. Open the breast and season the inside with salt and pepper

For the stuffing:
Get some ground pork and add some fine chopped white onion, garlic, herbs (I recommend something like thyme, rosemary or sage) and mix together with some salt, pepper and if you can find it some chorizo spice.You can even use a bit of cajun spice to.

Take the stuffing and spread it over the butterflied turkey breast.  You want it to be about a half inch thick. 
Take the turkey breast and turn it a quarter turn so it would be parallel to you as opposed to how it was before.
Roll the turkey breast up as if you were rolling a jelly roll cake or perhaps even a joint if that is your thing.  Make sure it is fairly tightly rolled.
If your turkey breast was not turned in the right direction before you stuffed it it will be much fatter and not as long. 
Tie butcher's twine at every two inches and place in a roasting pan and cook at about 350F-400F depending on the size of your breast.
Cook for approximately 40 or more minutes.
Once cooked, let it rest about fifteen minutes prior to slicing.
Serve with giblet gravy as you normally would.

Today's tip-goat cheese and Sancerre

Here is a quick tip for you all.  I am in the market for a new computer so getting on to my blog hasn't been easy.

For those of you who like cheese and wine here is a perfect pairing:  Goat cheese and Sancerre. 

Generally the rule of thumb is the best pairings come from food and wine from the same region but if you can't find wine and cheese from the same region get a nice goat cheese and Sancerre or nice Savignon blanc and you can't go wrong........................unless of course, you do go wrong.:)

Enjoy

A simple point on seasoning

All
OK, typing is a pain.  I have a band aid on my finger due to a cut so it is twice the size.  The saying "trying to fit a round peg in a square hole" comes to mind when trying to type on this keyboard.

Here is a tip for you about seasoning. Whenever you make something to be served as an accompaniment (such as a dressing for salad, sauce, a dip, sauce for sandwiches) to something else, make sure you over season it. 
Try it.  Make a sauce to go on a sandwich.  Season the sauce as if you were eating it alone.  It will taste fine.  Then put it on a sandwich.  The reason for this is because you have to impart that flavor to something else.