Tea

One of my weaknesses is that I am easily enticed by things I see in magazines. Without even knowing what it tastes like, after I saw Lisa Edelstein’s "B,L,D" in the November 2006 issue of "Everyday With Rachael Ray," I’ve wanted to try Guayaki Yerba Mate organic tea. Often if I wait long enough, the impulse will pass...but then I saw it offered in the Vitamin Shoppe catalog, with free shipping. I had a cup this morning. It’s supposed to have caffeine in it but I didn’t get that jittery feeling like from coffee. It has an earthy taste to it. I added some vanilla soy milk to the last few sips, and that was yummy. The package had a recipe for a "latte" with strong-brewed yerba mate and vanilla soy milk. See what I mean…I’m a pushover for anything in print.

Anyway, it was fun to try it. One of my resolutions for 2007 is to drink more tea. I don’t like to drink the same kind of tea each day so I’ll add this to my rotation of teas and see if it has any effect on my sense of well-being. At the very least it’ll help balance out the other things I eat everyday, like cookies! We just watched "Stranger Than Fiction" with Will Ferrell and Emma Thompson today. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s character is a baker who wants to make the world a better place with homemade cookies. I like her thinking!

Mystery Pecan Pie

This recipe is from Paula’s Home Cooking, although the same recipe is all over the internet. They vary in using light or dark corn syrup, and the baking time & temperature. It’s also called "Alligator Pecan Pie" because the top is lumpy like an alligator. As for the "Mystery," the bottom layer is a cream cheese mixture, then pecans are sprinkled over, and a pecan pie filling is poured over the whole thing. When it bakes, the cream cheese rises to the top.

Paula’s recipe says to bake at 350 for 45 minutes. My pie was still very liquid (although brown) at that time, so I ended up keeping it in for 55 minutes total. It could have gone longer (still jiggly) but it was getting pretty brown. I guess I should have covered it with foil and baked it even more.
My pie was "alligator" was that the custard part was still runny and the pie looked like a swamp after it was cut. Everyone seemed to like it, though.

Two of my all-time favorites are cheesecake and pecan pie, but I think I would rather have one or the other instead of the two combined into one pie like this was. One comment I got was that it wasn’t as sweet as pecan pie, which was a good thing. I thought this would fulfill my cheesecake craving but I guess I’ll have to break down and make the real thing. I went all the way to Florida and didn’t have key lime pie…so I’ll have to search out a key lime cheesecake recipe.

The Celebrity Pasta Lovers Cookbook

This week on Rachael’s show, guests Mario Batali and Kristin Davis promoted the "The Celebrity Pasta Lovers Cookbook" from Barilla. Barilla teamed up with 10 celebrities and asked Giada DeLaurentiis and Mario Batali to take the celebrities’ recipes and transform them into Italian creations. The best part is that the cookbook is a free download! And Barilla donates $1 to America’s Second Harvest (the nation’s food bank network), up to $100,000 for each person that downloads it. The response has been so overwhelming that they have already reached that goal. The cookbook will be available online through the end of February.

I love projects like this that are fun, and it doesn’t cost you anything but a few minutes to download (1 or 3 MB, your choice), plus you give a little back in the process. If you are a Food Network junkie like me, it’s a must have. Check it out at www.celebritypastalovers.com.

Recipe #2 - Smoky Turkey Shepherd's Pie

This one has a bunch of good ingredients in it, yet they didn’t come together in a good way, at least for me. I made this last night in order to use up some leftovers (chicken broth, mashed potatoes, turkey burgers). As I was putting it together, I tasted it and thought "yuck." I added some worcestershire sauce in hopes it would brighten it up a little. (I also forgot to add peppers and had no sour cream.)

The casserole looked tempting in the oven, with the gravy bubbling around the mashed potatoes. I was hoping the spices & flavors would come together as it cooked. In the meantime I threw together a salad in case it was inedible.

It wasn’t much better than I thought, although some sour cream might have helped. I was surprised that Don thought it was OK and might even be better the next day. I doubt I will make it again, definitely won’t make it from scratch. I should have remembered what Debbie had said about it when she made this awhile back.

One of the aspects, of being the cook, that worked against me is that I knew what spices were in the dish so they were very prominent (especially the thyme and paprika, and I used less than the recipe for both). After it cooked, the paprika toned down a little but the thyme was still overpowering. I didn’t sprinkle paprika on top since I don’t much care for the taste.

I was itching to make something from "365" since there is someone else out there who is attempting to cook their way through the book. They are almost up to Recipe #50. I like how they’re cooking recipes in the order of the cookbook, anyone that follows their blog will know what’s next on the menu. They also have photos that look "real" vs. the staged ones you see in magazines (I mean that in a good way).

I really enjoy the honesty in what they write. I feel comforted in knowing I am not the only one put off by the kitchen messes that some of the recipes create. They’ve also mentioned that some recipes are rather expensive, for the kind of (mediocre) meal they produce. I don't mean to sound overly negative! It's just that these sorts of details are often passed over.