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A Common Dish

This is a common dish around here — I learned the basics of it right after college, when I was working as a secretary for Fetzer Vineyards; they sent us home with a bottle of wine every Friday, and they had these little recipe cards that went with their wine. I didn’t actually use a Fetzer chardonnay for this — just a random white wine I had around. Still yummy. Good quality Italian sausage takes it up a notch!

This is a great meal for feeding a family of four dinner, and usually makes enough that everyone gets either lunch or dinner the next day too. Reheats well!

Basic process (about 20 minutes):

– cook some pasta (we like spinach rotini to get some extra veggies into the kids), drain, and set aside

– while pasta water is boiling and pasta is cooking (remember to set a timer so pasta doesn’t overcook — rotini takes 7 minutes), work on the next steps

– chop an onion or two and sauté in olive oil

– if you feel like chopping garlic, do that, and add some in; garlic powder also works

– cut up some mild or spicy Italian sausage (take off skin first if it’s already formed into sausages) and add it to the pan, brown for a few minutes on medium-high, stirring occasionally

– cut up a couple chicken breasts and add to the pan, brown for a few minutes on medium-high, stirring occasionally

– stir in 1/2 t. salt & 1 c. of white wine; cover and turn down to medium high and simmer 5-10 minutes, so chicken and sausage will cook through

– chop up some bell peppers (ideally a couple different colors), remove lid, and add them in

– add some frozen peas for more veggie goodness

– stir in 1/2 – 1 c. heavy cream, turning down to medium-low, so cream doesn’t curdle

– taste sauce and add more salt if needed, but usually the sausage adds sufficient

– add cooked pasta to pan, stirring to coat with sauce

– if sauce is a little thin, you can simmer it down a bit to thicken

– if you want, grate fresh Parmesan in (don’t use shaker Parmesan, as that has additives to prevent clumping that will also keep it from blending smoothly into the sauce); alternatively, serve with shaker Parmesan, which is frankly what we’re likely to do most of the time, because the kids love it and it’s easier during a busy week

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Mood! 🙂

But I will bake this batch of dragon cookies (are they not the cutest?) for the Interstellar Patreon treat boxes, and then switch to grading & writing, because deadlines, alas.

(t-shirt reads: “I just want to bake stuff and watch Christmas movies.”)

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Dragon S’more Marshmallows

• Homemade vanilla marshmallows = good.

• Homemade vanilla & smoke marshmallows = better. (More interesting flavor, with that hint of smoke.)

• Homemade vanilla & smoke marshmallows sprinkled with sea salt = even better. (A touch of salt adds a great contrast and really wakes up the marshmallow.)

• Homemade vanilla & smoke marshmallows dipped in dark Callebaut bittersweet chocolate = better yet. (Because chocolate — also the slight bitterness helps the marshmallows from being overwhelmingly sweet.)

• Homemade vanilla & smoke marshmallows dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with graham cracker crumbs = best. (If you can’t be sitting by the campfire, or having a dragon toast your marshmallows for you, this will have to do.)

Dragon S’more Marshmallows

3 packages unflavored gelatin
1 c. water, divided
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup corn syrup
1 T vanilla extract
1 t. smoke extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
powdered (confectioner’s) sugar
butter (for greasing the pan)
sea salt for sprinkling
1 c. bittersweet chocolate chips

1/4 c. graham cracker crumbs, crumbled

1. Add 1/2 c. water and gelatin to the bowl of stand mixer (whisk attachment). Stir briefly to combine.

(NOTE: If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can make marshmallows in a large bowl with a hand mixer — you just have to be willing to hold and beat it for 12 minutes. Prep the pan and spatula for the marshmallows ahead of time.)

2. In a small saucepan (a bigger one will be heavy and hard to hold steadily at a later stage) combine 1/2 c. water, granulated sugar, corn syrup, and salt. Cover and cook over medium high heat for 4 minutes. Uncover and cook until the mixture reaches soft ball stage (240 degrees if you have a candy thermometer), approximately 8 minutes. Once the mixture reaches this temperature, immediately remove from heat; if it continues, it will swiftly turn into hard candy.

3. Turn mixer on low speed and, while running, slowly pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl into the gelatin mixture. (Be very careful with the sugar syrup, as it is scaldingly hot and will burn you badly if it gets on your skin.) Once you’ve added all of the syrup, increase the speed to high.

4. Continue to whip until the mixture becomes very thick and is lukewarm, approximately 12 minutes.

5. While it’s whipping, butter a large 9 x 12 pan and dust with powdered sugar. In the last minutes, add vanilla and smoke extracts. Prepare an oiled spatula.

6. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan, spreading it evenly (and swiftly) with an oiled spatula. Sprinkle with salt.

7. Dust the top with enough of the remaining powdered sugar to lightly cover. Reserve the rest for later. Allow the marshmallows to sit uncovered for at least 4 hours and up to overnight.

8. Turn onto a board, cut into squares and dust all sides of each marshmallow with the remaining powdered sugar, using additional if necessary.

9. Melt chocolate in double boiler or at half power in the microwave, then dip marshmallows in them, letting dry on a piece of parchment paper. (If you want chocolate to stay glossy, you’ll need to temper the chocolate, rather than simply melting it.)

10. Sprinkle with graham cracker crumbs. May be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks, or frozen.

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Milky Way

Shipping out the “Milky Way” Patreon treat boxes today, $20 / month, shipped quarterly, so I was aiming for $60 value. Honestly, I think this is more like $100 value or a bit more, if you were buying these items separately, but I want my Patrons to be blown away. I think the recipients will be happy. 🙂

These include (roughly left to right):

– a Serendib Home tea towel (this recipient picked “Plaid-ish,” part of the Chess Battle collection)
– 8 oz. curry powder
– an assortment 5 dragon greeting cards (drawn by me and Kavi)
– mini bookmarks (I think I did two sets of 5 flower and 5 food)
– a large bar of knitted dark chocolate with cranberry
– two medium bars of Dragonfruit Nebulae chocolate (dragonfruit, citrus, white pepper) — one of the recipients doesn’t like white chocolate, but I included these in hers anyway because they really don’t taste like white chocolate, which can be a little sickly sweet on its own — these are Kavi’s favorite chocolate bar, and she’s a little annoyed with me that I’ve posted the recipe and didn’t keep it secret to pass down to her, oh well, sorry kiddo, your mom is good at sharing and terrible at keeping secrets…)
– an little confection assortment with cayenne chocolates, milk toffee, blood orange toffee and a little more Dragonfruit Nebulae chocolate (nice for gifting on if you are feeling like this is a lot of sweets for you…)
– spiced hot chocolate mix (with dark chocolate Callebaut chips and mini marshmallows to mix in)
– homemade marshmallows: strawberry-rose, mulled apple cider, dragonfruit/passionfruit
– two big pieces of cashew milk toffee
– two little jars of candy-coated fennel seeds in holiday colors
– crystallized blood orange shortbread
– a few cardamom-rose knitted shortbread cookies
– a few chocolate-cayenne gingerbread dragon egg cookies
– two pieces of Sri Lankan love cake
– two iced rose-pistachio dragon cookies
– one test tube of jasmine & rose black tea
– one yarn ball candle

– five different soaps: knitted mitten (pomegranate-vanilla), knitted tree (fir), ice dragon crystal (sweet orange & naiouli), dragon’s blood egg soap (rosewood, clove, and cinnamon), dragonheart knitted soap (pettigrain and cassia cinnamon)

Whew. Kavi said, as she watched me pick them up, “That’s a lot!” Yes, yes it is.

There’s one more level above this, “Interstellar.” I just need to make a few more items for it… 🙂

Join now to get the “Unicorn Garden” treat box in March… link here.

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Stretching Leftovers

Had some Thai seafood curry sauce left from takeout a few days ago, and some rice that was starting to dry out. Sauteed a filet of red flapper in a tiny bit of oil, added the sauce, added some frozen peas, stirred in the rice — that’s dinner, breakfast, and lunch, all v. tasty.

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Thank You Gifts

Finished up the knitting-themed treat boxes (employee thank you gifts) and sent them off. They include:

– Rose & cedar soap (rose scent)
– Knit mitten soap (pomegranate & vanilla)
– Candy-coated fennel seeds
– Sri Lankan pistachio & cashew love cake (2 pieces)
– Sri Lankan gilded cashew milk toffee
– Dragonfruit chocolate bar (white chocolate with dragonfruit, citrus & white pepper)
– Knit dark chocolate bar with dried cranberry
– Pomegranate and cayenne chocolate (2 pieces)
– Cardamom & rose shortbread cookie (with sheepies)
– Jasmine & rose black tea in test tube (caffeinated)
– Thank you postcard (that they can mail)

– two little flower bookmarks

🙂

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Composing the Dragon Box

This was nice to put together — someone contacted me and asked about treat boxes for their employees; I put together 7 dragon-themed boxes and 4 knitting-themed boxes for them. I can’t scale up to doing this kind of thing in bulk (not without hiring a lot more staff), but doing a few orders like this is fine, and it’s fun composing the boxes.

This is what goes in the dragon box (I couldn’t figure out how to photograph it so you could actually see everything):

– Ice dragon soap (sweet orange & niaouli)

– Bronze dragon soap (cedar leather)

– Blood orange taffy (4 pieces)

– Sri Lankan pistachio & cashew love cake (2 pieces)

– Dragonfruit chocolate bar (white chocolate with dragonfruit, citrus & white pepper)

– Pomegranate and cayenne chocolate (2 pieces)

– Sri Lankan gilded cashew milk toffee

– Chocolate-gingerbread with a touch of cayenne gilded dragon egg

– thank you card (also a postcard they can mail)

– two little food bookmarks

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Not Completely Off-Base

Sometimes you have an idea, and you get all excited, like — oh my gosh, wouldn’t it be great to have a pumpkin curry tea towel to sell along with the Sri Lankan cookbook!!!

So you design it and Kavi draws you a pumpkin, and you get it printed, and you sew it up, and all the while, you’re wondering if anyone will actually think it’s as cool as you do. Cool enough that they’ll want to actually spend real money on one for a gift, along with a cookbook and maybe some curry powder?

And then yes, someone actually orders it. Whew.

I am not going to get rich off pumpkin curry tea towels, but it’s still rather nice to know I’m not completely off-base with the concept. 🙂