Meat and Chinese Chive Dumplings

Another awesome dumpling from Andrea Nguyen’s “Asian Dumplings” book.  I had wanted to try one we’d never made before.  These are actually pot stickers, and as bad as I am at pan-frying, I still gave it a go.  Verdict – filling is awesome, but I should stick to steaming or boiling our dumplings.  I overcooked these bad-boys like whoa.  But they were still good, which stays pretty much everything you need to know about how ridic they are.  Luckily, we have another 30 or so dumplings from this batch frozen for another day, and I am super excited to steam them next time!

poststickers

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Spinach Gnocchi

We had a little farm sleepover party for the horsey friends this past weekend, and I used it as an excuse to cook a couple of elaborate meals and talk endlessly about horses. 😉  I liked this gnocchi recipe, although I made a couple of errors – 1) should have baked the potatoes longer, it was an effort to really mash them and 2) I overworked the dough and they were a bit dense.  But all in all, still a fun meal and worth making again when I don’t beat the dough into oblivion. 😉  I served this with my fresh tomato sauce that I canned over the summer.

spinachgnocchi

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Meatballs in Brown Gravy

Pretty much traditional cocktail meatballs, and they were awesome.  The recipe I was using pointed us to the slow cooker, but we ended up using the dutch oven and that worked out fine.  Definitely about to be a party staple.

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Pistachio Cranberry Icebox Cookies

These were pretty little cookies that made a nice addition to our holiday tin.  They were not super sweet, but still had a lot of flavor and the red and green from the pistachio and cranberry was obviously very festive.  They were small cookies, but made a lot, so they were worthwhile to add some interest.  They are also very quick, which is quite welcome during holiday cookie-fest!

cranberrypistachio

 

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Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

So it’s possible we ate a lot of these before we got a picture (and I forgot to take one while packing the holiday cookie tins this year).  These were outstanding.  I cannot resist anything peanut butter, and could pretty much have eaten the batter and said ever so sorry to the cookie tins. 😉  This is an America’s Test Kitchen recipe, and the only change I made was to use smooth peanut butter instead of chunky.  I like it better that way, but it will clearly work whichever way you prefer!  A definite winner.

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Peppermint Mocha Cookies

These were the definite winners for the Christmas cookies, IMO.  Really excellent, and I am no fan of chocolate.  I messed up the first batch by not soaking the espresso granules, and they were still great, but they were exceptional when done correctly.  Definitely one to make next year.

peppermintmocha

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Roasted Herbed Beef Tenderloin

We decided on roast beef tenderloin for Christmas dinner this year, and we were VERY happy with the results.  I didn’t do much to it – it stood out on its own for sure.  A little compound butter and in it went for what I would say was by far the best Christmas dinner I have ever done.  We’re swimming in leftovers, but I’m not complaining.  This method came from Chow.

roasttenderloin

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Brussels Sprouts with Cranberries and Pecans

This was a festive side dish to go along with a tenderloin roast for our Christmas dinner.  Quick and easy, but it was definitely a hit – my Mom even asked for it at every holiday meal from now on!  As much as we like sprouts, I think we can make that happen. 😉  This is a good old Alton Brown recipe.

brusselscranberries

 

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Sriracha Baked Chicken

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts have never been my forte (unless grilled or a crockpot), but I’ve had some luck with baked versions.  I caught this on some list of Sriracha recipes and decided to give it a try.  We liked it a lot, and it was good for a quick weeknight meal.  I think next time I might marinate the chicken for a while, just to give it even more depth of flavor.  We had this with some sauteed bok choy.

srirachabakedchicken

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Pear Ginger Pie

This would really have made a lovely Christmas pie, letting pumpkin or apple shine on Thanksgiving, but I was talked into it…and no regrets, it was a nice pie, worth making again for sure.  I think that next time I make it, I will double or triple the crystalized ginger.  I used multiple recipes to get to this, and though I waffled on double crust or streusel, I’m very glad I went with the latter…made the pie. 🙂

peargingerpie

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