White Fluffy Icing

Musings of a reasonably competent home cook.

Archive for November, 2009

Dear Santa…

Nov 30

Posted by Laura in Food of Love | 15 Comments

Okay folks - fortunately or unfortunately, Thanksgiving is behind us.  Whew!  Time to put up your feet and relax a bit before plunging into whatever’s next on your project list.  (Christmas cookies?  Holiday party planning?)

While you have your feet up, let’s talk about Christmas gifts.  Specifically, gifts for home cooks.

I’ve mentioned before that receiving kitchen-related gifts generally makes me break a sweat.  This is because I am a bit of a miser when it comes to storage space in the kitchen – I reserve room only for things I actually need, or want really badly, or am guaranteed to use.  So, for example, I don’t have a meat mallet because I can use either a rolling pin or a heavy skillet instead.  I don’t have any chopping gadgets because I actually like working on my knife skills (or I use the food processor – there’s no in-between).  Someone gave me one of those really cool rabbit-thingy’s for opening wine, which is great, but I am just as adept with a flat waiter’s corkscrew.  Every time I see the fancy one, I think about the real estate it takes up in that nice wooden box with all those crazy attachments. 

So, while I love all the gadgets – really, I do – I don’t actually want to own them unless they offer some sort of functionality I can’t otherwise replicate.  Instead, I occasionally visit them at Williams-Sonoma.  An hour there usually scratches the itch.

That being said, the tools I do have in my kitchen are terrific.  And a few people who really know me have hit it out the park with some really REALLY great cooking-related gifts.  (I won’t name names, but you know who you are…)

I’ve tossed out a few gift ideas that I personally think would be great for any cook, even a Scrooge like me.  Here goes, starting with the budget-busters: Read the rest of this entry »

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Lagniappe: Lessons Learned, and Leftovers

Nov 27

Posted by Laura in Lagniappe | 19 Comments

Look at the unintended alliteration in that title. Lovely. (Ha!)

I mentioned in my previous post that I’m always muttering on Thanksgiving morning about what I’ll do differently next year.  Here’s my list of lessons learned from 2009:

  • I wish I’d thought to clean the oven before Thanksgiving week.
  • I should not have gotten distracted with setting up a Twitter profile on Tuesday night - I should have stuck to the plan and made pie crusts instead.
  • NEVER boil sweet potatoes, per my friend Andy, in comment #7 on the Thanksgiving post.  I baked mine this year and they turned out great.  Plus it was easier.  Thanks, Andy!
  • Grocery shopping at 6:20 am on Wednesday with my eleven-month-old was… well, enjoyable.  We shoppers all exchanged pleasantries and knowing glances (“I’m not fighting that crowd later”) while we sipped our coffee, and my son was charming all the store employees with his grins and giggles.  I sailed through the empty checkout thinking about how different the ambiance would be a few hours later… a WWF smack-down is what came to mind.
  • I don’t know how many decades of baking I will need under my belt for me to learn to set the timer, for Pete’s sake!
  • I made a list of completed dishes as I went along, so that I wouldn’t forget to pack anything.  Great idea, right? Almost.  Next year I will not check anything off the list until it’s in the car, ready to go (instead of checking it off because I’m about to load it in the car).  The apple pandowdy is still here, untouched.  (grrrr!)
  • And finally, true to form, I dropped my purse on top of my cupcakes during the car ride.  Smoooooooth.

How did everyone else do??  Any successes you want to gloat over?  [Insert end-zone dance.]  Any regrets?  [We'll cry with you.  Or at least I will.]

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Here’s one of my favorite recipes to use with leftover turkey.  It’s light on calories and fat, comes together quickly since the turkey is already cooked, and the Mexican flavors are a welcome change after all the traditional comfort food on Thursday.


Turkey Tortilla Soup
Adapted from Cooking Light

1 ½ teaspoons olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 cups fat-free, low-sodium chicken broth
2 teaspoons chili powder (preferably salt-free)
½ teaspoon ground cumin
1 (14.5-oz) can Mexican-style stewed tomatoes with jalapeno peppers and spices, undrained
2 cups shredded cooked turkey breast (about 12 oz)
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
¼ cup (1 oz) crumbled queso fresco (or whatever cheese you prefer)
Tortilla chips

Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion; sauté 4 minutes or until tender. Add garlic, sauté 1 minute. Stir in broth, chili powder, cumin, and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes. Stir in turkey, cover and simmer 5 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in juice and cilantro. Ladle 1½ cups soup into each of 4 bowls. Top each serving with 1 tablespoon cheese and about ½ cup broken tortilla chips. Serve immediately.

Serves 4.

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Ready… Set… Gobble

Nov 23

Posted by Laura in Food of Love | 17 Comments

Ah, Thanksgiving.  The Olympics for home cooks.

It’s the only occasion for which going out is generally considered a second-rate alternative to cooking at home.  The pressure’s on.  Who will host?  What’s on the menu?  How long does it take to thaw a turkey?  Who’s invited?  Everyone except that weird uncle that smells funny?  What’s in mincemeat pie, anyway?

Luckily, in my family, I’m a supporting cast member.  I help coordinate the menu, do most of my cooking at my house, then tote several dishes to the event to finish and reheat on-site.  Which suits me perfectly.

If you think about it, most people are supporting cast members.  Let’s say that the average guest list for Thanksgiving dinner includes eight adults.  This means that only one out of eight people is actually spit-shining the baseboards and paying attention to those articles titled “Let’s Talk Turkey”.  The rest of us are just showing up – some, like me, with dishes in tow, and others with a bottle of wine, or a little something from the House of Pies, or just their appetite.

So let’s discuss strategy for us lieutenants, shall we?  I have learned in my few years that, in late November, organization is just as important as inspiration.  It wasn’t long ago that I was literally in a shopping-cart traffic jam in the produce section of Central Market on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  I had a monster grocery list, thinking that since CM carries everything I could possibly need, I would make one big trip and be the paragon of efficiency.  Instead, I am quite serious when I say that I could not move my shopping cart, and all I could think of was that giant incessant stopwatch from 60 Minutes: TICK-TICK, TICK-TICK, TICK-TICK.

Oh, young Padawan, what were you thinking?

So, I’ll share with you my current modus operandi, and I’m hoping you’ll share yours with me. Read the rest of this entry »

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Throwing Down the Gauntlet with Bon Appétit

Nov 19

Posted by Laura in 2010 Bon Appétit Covers | 17 Comments

I love Bon Appétit magazine. For me, it’s kind of like that friend who’s definitely cooler than you, but not so cool that you’re uncomfortable being around them.  BA’s material is challenging and interesting, but accessible, and I have a lot of luck with their recipes.

I especially enjoy their cover recipes.  I wind up making most of them, but it’s sometimes weeks, months, or even a year later.  Not only am I one of those cooking dorks that has hundreds of recipes torn out from various magazines, I am one of those cooking dorks who keeps said recipes in three-ring binders (yes, plural) and divides them into sections based on seasonality, course, and occasion.

(The cosmic purpose of this blog is coming into focus… it’s clearly steering me towards seeking help with my OCD.  But I digress.)

So the cover recipes are filed away, waiting for an excuse or an occasion.  Sometimes they are utilized quickly (I often make the December cover for a Christmas party), but usually they sit and wait.  And wait.

In other news, I’m also big on New Year’s resolutions.  Realistic and fun ones, not crappy ones about losing weight and breaking bad habits.  Last year, my resolution was to be more neighborly, and I’ve made some really great friends since then.*  So this year, I was considering making a commitment to make every recipe I saved, so that only the good stuff would make the cut.  But… nah, that’s kind of boring.

And then it hit me.  I’ll make all twelve Bon Appétit cover recipes in 2010.

What?!

The December 2009 cover of Bon Appétit.

The December 2009 cover of Bon Appétit.

I took the December issue with me to discuss the idea with Mom, two nights before she passed away.  It was the last time I saw her perk up about anything.  She was so engrossed in flipping the pages and reading the recipe that she only half-listened to what I was saying.  Blah blah BLOG blah RESOLUTIONS blah blah blah.  When she finished looking at the magazine, I told her again.  Great idea, she said.  A little risky for you, but fun for the blog.

Risky?, I asked.

Well, yeah – you don’t have any idea what they’re going to put on those covers.  You’re making a blind commitment.  And you know you’ll have to cook a turkey in November.

Oops.  I don’t do windows, and I don’t cook turkeys. There’s no real upside. If you do an amazing job, no one remembers the turkey.  If you flop, everyone remembers the turkey.

It’ll be good.  You should do it, she said.

And so I am.  I’ll let you know when the January issue arrives!

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Holiday Jumper Cables

Nov 16

Posted by Laura in Food of Love | 13 Comments

A few years ago, I was doing something very un-Christmaslike on the morning of Christmas Eve.  I can’t remember exactly what it was, but it was along the mundane lines of closet organization or bill paying.  I wasn’t feeling Grinch-ish, but I certainly wasn’t singing Deck the Halls at the top of my lungs either, if you know what I mean.

That day, I realized that the spark was gone out of the holidays.  Not just Christmas, but all of them.  I was punching the clock on all the special times of the year, putting in my hours without really caring.  My “ho ho ho” had somehow evolved into “ho ho hum”.  The Easter bunny had no hop.  The fireworks were gone from the Fourth.  (Okay, okay. I’ll stop now.  Unroll your eyes, please.)

At this point, I sought out my husband to tell him about my self-realization.  It went something like this:

  Read the rest of this entry »

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Lagniappe: A Tremendous Loss

Nov 14

Posted by Laura in Lagniappe | 11 Comments

Most of you know that my mother passed away, a week ago today, and life has been a whirlwind of activity and emotions since then.  She was very sick for a long time, so in many ways I feel relief.  But I miss her terribly.  Many of her girlfriends have been a great comfort to me, especially the ones that have lost their mothers.  They knew my mom in ways I did not, and they know my loss in ways I have yet to discover.  And the one thing they have all told me is that I will think of her every day for the rest of my life.

That actually makes me happy.  I don’t want to forget.  That’s the one thing I’m most afraid of, that I’ll forget something about her, or something she said, or something she asked me to do.

My mom and my son, a month before she died.

My mom and my son, a month before she died.

A few people have asked me: “You’re going to keep the blog going, right?  Right? ”  Of course I am.

The blog was something that Mom and I talked about for a long time before I actually put any words to it.  At first she didn’t really get what a blog was, or why anyone would read it, or even if they wanted to read it, how would they find it?  I wound up asking her to pretend I was going to write a food column in the local paper.  What should I write about, I asked?  What are people interested in, you think?  And so it began… instead of talking about radiation and tumors and pain meds, we were talking about whether every entry should include a photo (only if you have a good one, she said) and a recipe (definitely – people love reading recipes, even if they don’t ever plan to make the dish).  It gave us something fun to talk and laugh about.

Mom was really sick when some friends prodded me to actually go through with it, so I threw caution to the wind and made my first post.  I wanted Mom to see it, while she was still up to using a computer.  I wanted her to understand what a blog was, and see how I was going to weave nostalgia into it.  And she loved it.

If Mom had been in better health, White Fluffy Icing would have been a joint project.  She was such an innovator – ideas just bubbled up and were yours for the taking.  Two days before she died, we had our last talk about the blog.  First, she agreed wholeheartedly with an idea of mine to inject some excitement into the project.  More about that in a post to come.  Second, she said I should research making homemade jerky – good jerky, made without any special equipment – and share the secret.  People love jerky, making it at home would allow them to customize it to their liking, and man, it’s sure expensive to buy.  I was skeptical, but after floating the idea by a few people, she’s right.  There’s a ton of interest.  So Mom, it’s on the long and ever-growing list.

Come to think of it, this is still a joint project.  She’s with me, now and always.  I have so many stories to tell and recipes to share, and putting them in writing will help me capture them, so that I can’t help but remember forever.

I hope you’ll all stay tuned.  This is going to be fun.  Mom wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

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Lagniappe: “OMG Meatloaf”

Nov 5

Posted by Laura in Food of Love, Lagniappe | 8 Comments

As many of you know, I’m a wannabe lexophile.  I like words.  I especially like words about other words, like malaprop and eponym.  (I fought my geeky nature for years, then long ago made peace with it.)

Lagniappe, like irony, is one of those words I definitely know the meaning of, but have a hard time explaining it off the cuff.  So I looked it up for you:

Main Entry: la·gniappe
Pronunciation: [lan-yap’, lan’-yap]
Function: noun
Etymology: American French, from American Spanish la ñapa the lagniappe, from la + ñapa, yapa, from Quechua yapa something added
Date: 1844
Definition: a small gift given a customer by a merchant at the time of a purchase; broadly : something given or obtained gratuitously or by way of good measure


Lagniappe is always a good thing.
Like the extra doughnut in a baker’s dozen.
Like the prize in a box of Crackerjacks.
Like the complimentary dessert from a restaurant on your birthday.
(I just realized that all those examples are food related.  I clearly need therapy.)

For a while, I wanted to name this blog Lagniappe.  But I realized I’d be doomed to constantly spelling and explaining it, so that idea was quickly kicked to the curb.

And then, about a week ago, some friends requested that I cover meatloaf here.  I have a meatloaf recipe that I love, but I’m not really prepared to write a full post about it – not yet, anyway.  So I needed a way to squeeze in requests and other off-topic items (like Kacie’s best of show photo), and aha!  Lagniappe was born.

It’ll be a sub-series within White Fluffy Icing.  A little unexpected extra, for your reading pleasure.  It may or may not have a photo, or a recipe… but that’s okay, because it’s lagniappe.  Bonus.  Gravy.  The real meat happens on Monday nights; this is just extra.

Okay, we get it.  Move on to the meatloaf, already!

Read the rest of this entry »

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Opening Weekend

Nov 2

Posted by Laura in Food of Love | 6 Comments

In my part of the world, the first full weekend of November is referred to simply as “opening weekend.” Only after I left my hometown did I realize that a very natural response to this statement would be: “opening of what?”

The opera? No.

Ski season? Nope.

Some widely anticipated blockbuster flick? Wrong again.

It’s the opening weekend of deer hunting season. Oh.

I didn’t grow up in a hunting family, but I knew that there were never any weddings or family reunions during opening weekend, for the simple fact that no one would show up. The dance halls were empty. Everything was vewy vewy quiet, because half the population was in central Texas trying to kill a deer (and not themselves).*

A few years ago, the guys in my husband’s family started planning for the upcoming season, and I asked if I could come along. Okay, so I accused them of being afraid to take a female on the trip. They thought I was bluffing. I wasn’t. The next thing I knew, I was in a pickup truck headed west on Interstate 10, wearing camo and eating jerky. (Gulp.)

Read the rest of this entry »

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