For this EU Night Russian Stuffed Eggs caught my eye as they are a twist from the common Deviled Egg, which is one of my favorite appetizers.
The recipe is easy to follow and the ingredients are all quite common. My only suggestion would be to chop the onion super fine, maybe even in a food processor or Magic Bullet. I hand chopped mine and they were a bit chunky.
Thanks to chef2mom and her professional chef skills I learned the proper way to Quenelle the egg mixture and place it in the egg. You could also use a small melon baller to fill the eggs.
This recipe was interesting as it has a mayo and sour cream sauce to go with it. I ate the eggs with and without the sauce and the sauce definitely adds to the whole flavor.
Another amazing EU Night down. Hawaiian Night will be coming next month. So, stay tuned!
Due to Tele falling ill this week, I was in charge of the Thanksgiving meal. I had no choice but to step up and accomplish the task. So, I did. I made the whole meal.
I forgot to take pre-eating pictures of the Thanksgiving table, but I did get you the after pics.
The left side of the table in clockwise order: mashed potatoes, Praline Yams, Whole Cranberry Sauce, Cranberry Relish, StoveTop Cornbread Stuffing, and HoneyBaked Ham.
The right side of the table starting from the back of the table and moving forward: Dutch Apple Pie with Never-Fail Pie Crust, Sweet Corn Muffins, Cranberry Salad, CornBread, Honey Maid Cinnamon Sticks and Bees for the fluff, Fluff with fresh strawberries, PineCone Spread with Original Triscuits.
Not pictured but included in the food lineup of the evening: Corn on the cob roasted under the broiler and Chatham Village Cranberry Herb Stuffing.
The only thing I didn't get to make was my grandma's Pumpkin Cookies. But the apple pie was so yummy it was okay that the cookies were missing.
Several years ago I found this recipe for Pinecone Cheese Spread in Kraft's food & family Magazine. This is another make-ahead recipe and is my favorite appetizer to make. LittleRoq loves it, too.
I prefer to serve this with Triscuit Crackers as they are more sturdy than Ritz. The Garden Herb Flavor is excellent. Also, rather than buying the Mexican Style cheese they suggest I use 1 cup of shredded Monterey Jack plus 1 cup of shredded Sharp Cheddar.
If you don't feel like forming this into the shape of a pinecone then you could just make a ball and pat the almonds around the outside of it. The pine cone shape is festive, but the taste will be great either way.
Zabaglione. It sounds like a post-modernistic WWII dictator running about the house screaming of Germans and meatballs. (note: I can make fun of Italians, because I am, in fact, Italian) But in reality is an Italian custard that is many times used as an appetizer or a component of many of the fabulous and artery assaulting desserts that make up Italian post meal cuisine. Notably, this is a side component of quite a few Tiramisu and Zuppa Inglese recipes. Although its not the real way you're supposed to make Tiramisu, just a faster way.
My personal favorite is to make this custard in ramekins and top with fresh berries, as a breakfast or dessert concoction. Of course, there are hundreds of ways to bastardize this custard, substituting Auslese or other German Eiswein, Sherries, or Ports for the Marsala. you can let your imagination run wild.
(Dammit. Every time I write an article I try to put as much schtick as I can into it, but it always inevitably falls back down to a hum drum cooking article. I could emulate tourrettes and just stick a random obscene word in the sentences somewhere I guess. Maybe I'll write a filter.)
Anyway, back to the custard at hand.
To make Zabaglione, one needs the following stuff from your local grocer (or, if you live in Vegas, your local 7-11):
- 5 egg yolks
- 1 whole egg
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup Marsala
Easy, no?
- In a batter bowl, whisk the egg yolks and the egg together with the sugar, beating until it turns a lemony yellow color.
- Whisk in the Marsala, until fully combined.
- Microwave (?!) for 30 seconds.
- Whisk
- Repeat steps 3-4 until it is desired thickness.
But it has raw eggs! I'll die!
If your eggs aren't pasteurized then you just may. But if you're living somewhere that doesn't have pasteurized eggs, you may want to move. Or at least get checked out for tapeworms.
Microwave?! BLASPHEMY!
True, Microwaves are evil. They are the incarnate of Lazy Americans(tm) everywhere, and they usually botch things up like no tomorrow. However. This prevents you from having to make it the old fashioned way, using a double-boiler (or a glass bowl on top of a boiling pot of water, my favorite). You can still make it that way, just be careful it doesn't cook too fast, otherwise you'll have an omelette. And a nasty omelette at that.
It is dark here!
You and your custard have been eaten by a grue.
That about sums up Q&A. I hope I've enlightened you, the viewer, to a world not unlike that of custards. Perhaps someday we will be privy to a custard takeover and have to bow to custard, and when that day comes, you can say you helped birth the enslavement of the human race. Until then, custard will remain our friend as ...
GOOD EATS
swanky music plays
(GOOD EATS is copyrighted somewhere by Food Network or Alton Brown, and because I love them like family, I hope they don't get mad)
