My husband wonders where the Roasted Mash will show up next. The container in the refrigerator that was holding the leftover roasted squash, carrots and sweet potato is finally empty, so he no longer needs to wonder and worry.
Friends joined us last week for a late-at-night light bite to eat. In about 20 minutes the pasta with creamy Roasted Mash-spiked sauce was ready to eat.
If you still need the master recipe for Roasted Carrot, Sweet Potato & Butternut Squash Mash that I shared in a recent All About Food newspaper column, just click here.
This will be my last post on this blog until next week. I’m off to New York for a long weekend of fun in the Big Apple.
Enjoy the last bites of Roasted Mash.

Cook pasta according to directions on package just until al
dente, probably about 8 minutes. While pasta is cooking, heat olive oil in
large skillet over medium heat. Add minced onion. Cook about 3 minutes or until
onion is softened. Add leftover Roasted Mash, chicken broth and milk. Reduce heat
to medium-low and cook about 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until sauce is
slightly thickened. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Keep warm on lowest
setting.

Drain pasta and add to sauce. Stir in 2 tablespoons of grated
Parmesan. Divide pasta among four individual plates and sprinkle each serving
with the remaining 2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon
broken walnuts over each serving. Great served with some steamed broccoli on
the side. Makes 4 servings.

There are some cookies that
are destined to become a holiday tradition. In my family’s case, the traditional cookies were
those that had become favorites – my dad loved the thumbprints that his mom
made each year and then they became my favorite. My brother loved the Chocolate
Shot Cookies. My mom would make dough full of powdered sugar and oatmeal and
then roll it into logs. The logs would be rolled into sweet decorating
sprinkles that she called shots. I don’t see that word printed on the plastic
containers of colorful decorating sprinkles I buy at the grocery store, but
that’s what she called them.

These shot cookies would
decorate my mom’s holiday cookie platter each year. I must admit they added
great color, but they certainly weren’t one of my favorite cookies. But my
brother loved them. I can still see him squirt frosting from a can onto each cookie before
he popped it into his mouth.

This is the first time I
have ever made my Mom’s Shot Cookies. And I like them – even without a dab of
frosting.

The cookies are crunchy and
tender and just a little bit sweet. The logs can be formed, coated with
decorating sprinkles and kept in the refrigerator for a few days before slicing
and baking or kept frozen for a couple of weeks. The logs are nice to have on
hand for times when you need to contribute cookies to a school function or a
social at the office. Just slice and bake. Easy and yet, full of potential for becoming part of your own family holiday cookie tradition.

Mom’s Shot Cookies

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1-1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup quick-cooking rolled
  oats
• 2 (3.5-ounce) containers
  decorating sprinkles

Beat butter and sugar until
light and fluffy. Add vanilla and blend well. Mix in flour only until it is all
incorporated into the creamed mixture. Stir in oats. Shape dough into two logs,
each about 1-1/2 inches in diameter. Pour sprinkles from one jar onto a piece of
waxed paper large enough to roll up one log of dough. Roll log in the
sprinkles, pressing the sprinkles lightly into the dough and covering the logs
completely. Wrap the log with the waxed paper and refrigerate. Repeat the same
process with the second log of dough. Chill the logs at least three hours or
overnight.

When ready to bake, preheat
oven to 325 degrees. Using a sharp knife, slice 1/4-inch-thick rounds from the
logs. Place the cookie slices on ungreased baking sheets. Bake for about 20 minutes
at 325 degrees.

I’m not saying you’ll have any Roasted Carrot, Sweet Potato & Butternut Squash Mash leftover after the big meal. But, if you do, stir some into muffin batter and serve them hot from the oven the morning after Thanksgiving. And if you don’t have leftovers, these muffins make it well worth the small effort it takes to roast up another batch. After making the Mash to serve along side a roast pork, there was just enough left to make some muffins.

These muffins are full of flavor. They’re very moist, even the day after baking them. I had several taste testers and not one of them had even an inkling that the muffins contained a little roasted garlic. Garlic becomes oh, so sweet when it is roasted and loses its sharp flavor, becoming almost like a melt-in-your-mouth caramel.

I stirred some chopped dates into the batter. Dried cranberries would also be a good choice.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Mash Muffins

• 2 eggs

• ¼ cup buttermilk

• ½ cup butter, melted

• ¾ cup leftover Roasted Carrot, Sweet Potato & Butternut Squash Mash (click here for recipe)
• ¼ cup granulated sugar

• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1½ teaspoons baking powder

• ¼ teaspoon baking soda

• ½ teaspoon cinnamon

• ½ teaspoons ground cloves

• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

• ¾ cup packed light or dark brown sugar

• ¾ cup coarsely chopped pecans or walnuts

• ¾ cup chopped pitted dates

• ¼ cup granulated sugar mixed with ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly coat a muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray.

Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg into a medium bowl and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs, buttermilk, melted butter, leftover Mash, granulated sugar and vanilla extract. Stir in sifted flour mixture and brown sugar, mixing just until blended. Fold in pecans and dates. Fill greased muffin cups two-thirds full. Sprinkle each muffin with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon-sugar mixture. Bake about 20 minutes or until wooden pick inserted into center of muffin comes out clean. Cool muffins in tin for 5 minutes before removing and cooling on wire rack. Makes one dozen muffins.

More than once during my
lifetime of Thanksgiving feasts, I remember scraping up the last bits of
turkey, dumplings, and sauerkraut from my plate (my dad was German) and being
startled by my mom’s voice as she yelled out, “The cranberries! We forgot the
cranberries!” And sure enough, the cut glass dish that always held the bright
red berry sauce would be on a shelf in the refrigerator. If only my mom had
thought to use that forgotten sauce in another way. She could have mixed the
sauce into a jello salad to go with the sandwiches we made the next day with
the leftover turkey. Or she could have simmered some little smokies in the
sauce for us to nibble on during the television football games. Or she could
have made an impressive meal of chicken breasts with a creamy cranberry sauce.

When combined with sautéed
shallots and then simmered in chicken broth and whipping cream, Sweet
Apple-Cranberry Sauce that goes so well with the Apple Baby Cakes that I
featured in my All About Food column, becomes an elegant buttery blanket for
moist, golden chicken breasts. Just enough cranberries along with tangy
raspberry vinegar give fresh tartness to the creamy sauce.

If you’ve never tried
raspberry vinegar, you’ll enjoy experimenting with it. I bought my first bottle
of Thomson Berry Farms raspberry vinegar years ago when a friend shared a
recipe for Strawberry Spinach Salad with a creamy poppy seed dressing that
called for the special vinegar. And that’s when I got hooked. I use it often to
make simple vinaigrette. It’s delicious splashed over fresh asparagus hot off
the grill. When you make your holiday cranberry sauce, use raspberry vinegar to
replace half the water in your recipe. It produces an extra fresh fruity tang.
Just don’t forget the chilled sauce in the refrigerator.

Sweet Apple-Cranberry Sauce
is no more difficult to make than the traditional cranberry sauce that you are
used to cooking up. I love it nestled up against the Apple Baby Cakes (click
here for recipe). It’s decadent stirred into a bowl of hot oatmeal.

Turn it into a savory cream
sauce and it’s irresistible.

I served the Chicken Breasts
in Sweet Apple-Cranberry Cream with wild rice. After cooking the rice in
chicken broth, I stirred in a little olive oil, orange juice, chopped fresh
parsley, grated orange zest, chopped green onions and chopped pecans, and then
seasoned it with salt and pepper.

Any leftovers keep well in
the refrigerator and heat up nicely for lunch the next day.

Chicken Breasts in Sweet
Apple-Cranberry Cream

• 1 cup Sweet Apple-Cranberry
  Sauce (click here for Sauce recipe)
• 3 tablespoons Cognac
• 2 tablespoons Triple Sec or
  other orange-flavored liqueur
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken
  breasts
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground
  black pepper
• ¼ teaspoon paprika
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons unsalted
  butter
• 2/3 cup raspberry vinegar
• 2 large shallots, minced
• 1½ cups chicken broth
• 1½ cups heavy whipping cream

Combine Sauce, Cognac and orange liqueur
in a small bowl. Cover and let stand at room temperature for at least 30
minutes.

Fold a large sheet of waxed
paper in half. Unfold, and lay the waxed paper on work surface. Measure flour,
salt, pepper and paprika onto the waxed paper. Mix with a fork until blended.

Rinse chicken breasts. Place
the chicken breasts in a heavy freezer-strength zip-top bag. Use a meat mallet
or rolling pin to pound the chicken breasts so they are an even thickness.
Remove chicken breasts from bag. Dredge each breast with flour mixture on waxed
paper.

Heat olive oil and butter in
large skillet over medium-high heat. When it is hot, add chicken breasts and
cook abut 5 minutes on each side until done. Use an instant-read digital
thermometer to check temperature. Poke thermometer halfway into each chicken breast. When the temperature registers 160 to 165
degrees, transfer chicken breasts to a plate, leaving drippings in the skillet.
Cover with aluminum foil and keep warm in a 200-degree oven.

Add shallots to hot
drippings in skillet and sauté for 2 minutes. Add vinegar to drippings in hot
skillet, deglazing by scraping up the particles that cling to the bottom. Add
Sweet Apple-Cranberry Sauce mixture. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer,
uncovered, 5 minutes. Add chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and
simmer, uncovered, 15 minutes or until broth reduces by about half. Gradually
add whipping cream, stirring constantly. Cook over medium heat, stirring, for
about 10 minutes or until mixture is thickened and bubbly. Spoon sauce over
chicken breasts. Serve immediately. Makes 4 servings.

• If you prefer not to use
  alcohol, replace it with ¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice and the grated
  zest of one orange.
• Shallots are often used in
  French cooking and are favored by cooks because they combine the flavors
  of onion and garlic in such a delicate way. You will often find them in the
  produce department of the grocery store in small mesh bags with two or three in
  a bag. If they are unavailable, substitute the white part of green onions.

I’ve never cared much for leftovers. The second time around,
food just doesn’t have the same appeal to me that it did the first time.

There’s one exception – leftover pot roast, diced up and
simmered in tomato-based liquid with barley, potatoes and vegetables becomes a
delicious stew.

This recipe can be prepared in a slow cooker or in a pot on
the stove. I served the stew with fresh-from-the oven cornbread.

If you have any Beer-Braised Pot Roast leftover, turn it
into Second-Time-Around Beef with Barley Stew. You’ll find the recipe for Beer-Braised Pot Roast in my most recent newspaper column. Click here for the recipe.

Second-Time-Around Beef with Barley Stew

• 1½ pounds leftover Beer-Braised Pot Roast, diced
• Vegetables leftover from Beer-Braised Pot Roast
• 1 cup leftover sauce from Beer-Braised Pot Roast
• 5 cups water
• 1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce
• 2 cups diced potatoes
• ½ cup uncooked medium barley
• ½ teaspoon dried basil
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 (5/8-ounce) box Pillsbury brown gravy mix

Put all ingredients in slow cooker. Mix well.
Cover slow-cooker. Turn on high heat for 1 hour. Turn heat to low and continue
cooking for 6 hours, or until potatoes are tender. Remove cover and turn heat
to high. Ladle some of the juices from the pot into a 4-cup glass measure until
you have about 1 cup. Whisk in brown gravy mix. Cook on high until mixture
thickens slightly. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove bay leaf before
serving. Ladle into bowls and sprinkle with chopped green onions, if desired. Makes
8 servings.

To make the soup in a pot on the stove, mix all ingredients,
except brown gravy mix, in a large soup pot. Cover pot and simmer for 1 hour.
Ladle some of the juice into a 4-cup glass measure until you have about 1 cup.
Whisk in brown gravy mix. Add brown gravy mixture to soup pot and simmer 5 to
10 minutes longer.

• If you don’t have enough vegetables left from the pot roast
  meal to make your stew hardy, just add more raw carrots chopped into small
  pieces.

As we all get ready to turn
back our clocks on November 4th, Green & Black’s chocolate is inviting
us to “Appreciate the Darkness” by experiencing the intensity of
Green & Black’s cocoa-rich chocolate. We can simply log on to www.appreciatethedarkness.com to
receive complimentary samples of Green & Black’s Dark 70% and Milk
chocolate bars. This Web site will go live on Saturday, November 3
at 6 p.m. EST and the special offer will only be available until Sunday,
November 4 at 6 a.m. EST.

I find Green & Black’s
dark organic chocolate bars at my local natural foods co-op and in the natural
foods area of some grocery stores. I had two of the bars in my chocolate basket
in the kitchen cupboard. One was their dark chocolate bar with hazelnuts and currants, the other had orange and spices in it. I decided to use them to make Micah’s Truffles, a
recipe I found at Green & Black’s web site. Click here for the recipe.

I
added some other dark chocolate I had in my pantry to come up with the
full 12 ounces called for. The rich chocolate ganache
mixture does not take long to mix up. And don’t worry, you won’t need a candy
thermometer. Hot whipping cream is poured over chopped chocolate and a little
unsalted butter is stirred in. After chilling in the refrigerator for at least
a few hours, it’s ready to roll.

This morning, my chilly kitchen (we still haven’t turned on the furnace) was at a good temperature for making truffles. Rather than using my hands to form the truffles, I scooped the mixture with my #100 potion scooper. From the scooper, I plopped them right into some sifted cocoa. Once they were coated with cocoa, I gave each truffle a gentle shake in a small sieve. The back and forth motion helped shape the little truffles into a smoother round and got rid of any excess cocoa powder.

These rich dark chocolates are not for wimps. They are to be appreciated by those who love smooth dark chocolate melting on their tongue. Next time I think I’ll add a
little bit of dark rum to the chocolate ganache and pour the warm chocolate
into a chocolate crumb crust in a tart pan. Thin slices of Chocolate Truffle
Torte with a dollop of whipped cream nestled beside it would be an elegant
dessert.

Remember to turn your clocks
back this weekend and appreciate the darkness!