Category — Recipes

A look back on the Best of 2013 from LesPetitesGourmettes.com.

Plus a bonus recipe from way back in 2012 that I just have to add – because I love it and because I am going to make a big batch of it today! And… just because.

I know the question you are asking yourself, “Linda, how on earth did you compile your top 10 list of best recipes from 2013?”

Very scientifically, that’s how.

Here are the exact criteria needed to make the top 10 list:

1. Most feedback and comments are here on the blog.
2. Most often pinned on Pinterest.
3. Most shares, “likes” and/or comments on the Les Petites Gourmettes Facebook page.
4. Most loved by me – in other words, a recipe could make the cut because I really like the recipe!
5. Finally, the last criteria were that it was not one of the recipes from a three-week period in February when I did that stupid 3-week life-sucking cleanse. Not one of those would ever make any Top 10 list. Nowhere! Never! Not Ever!  I only wish I could get those 3 weeks of my life back.

On to the TOP TEN –

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I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.
We did.
Of course, the best part is having all my loves home with me!

For Christmas Eve, we brought back a tradition we began last year (when I had a fractured pelvis and could not stand up in the kitchen to cook) and we once again had blue cheese fondue. We are all in love with the new simple, fun, and communal approach to a special family meal. The kids voted that we add in chocolate fondue for dessert in 2014. Dave and I made that vote unanimous.

This was our Christmas day tablescape.

For our Christmas day dinner, the main course was something I taught at Les Gourmettes, individual beef Wellingtons.

You’ll notice that some of the photos below were taken while I was prepping for that class.

I purchased a full beef tenderloin and cut it into 16 pieces. This was the most economical way to feed a crowd.

For our holiday meal, I purchased already cut filet mignon.

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The following four ingredients take 5 minutes to assemble…

The resulting meat will be feeding your family and guests for days on end…

And they deliver the most versatile, easy, meal-making thing you’ll have had in your refrigerator in a long time.

Tender, juicy, and tantalizing Kalua Pork is amazing as is. Stuffed into a toasted roll – pretzel rolls being my personal favorite – is a meal in itself.

But there is so much more you can do with it; add to omelets or frittatas. Fill a wrap or toss into a salad. Pile into tortillas or crisp lettuce leaves, garnished with tomatoes, guacamole and salsa, for sumptuous tacos or lettuce wraps.

You get the idea – this stuff is versatile!

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This recipe came from the food section of our newspaper and was provided by our local dairy, Shamrock Farms.

We didn’t trim our tree until Saturday, once the kids and my mother-in-law arrived. So the night before, I put together this breakfast dish while I waited for Marissa’s plane to get in from San Francisco. It was scheduled for midnight but delayed until 2:00 AM. I made good use of the extra two hours and wrote out all my Christmas cards as well… blurry-eyed, but I got it done!

We all enjoyed breakfast and tree-trimming, with carols playing in the background and coffee and hot chocolate mugs in our hands.

I made a few changes to the recipe; using actual rum instead of rum extract and subbing cinnamon bread for the firm white or whole wheat that was suggested. Additionally, I’ve decreased the number of eggs used in the mixture.

This eggnog French toast was a huge hit with the family and will likely become a new holiday tradition for us.

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As I’ve told you many times before, I am NOT a baker.

I don’t like to bake.
I don’t have the patience to bake.
I am not skilled at baking.

That being said – I baked these cupcakes… and they are The BOMB!

Seriously! I gave Connor one to sample and his eyes rolled back in his head with delight! He made me promise him that I would make them for his birthday in May. That is a promise I intend to keep!

The recipe came from HERE.

If every recipe on bakersroyale.com is as scrumptious as these cupcakes, and if YOU love to bake, you should be going to this site every day from here on out!

All I did was change them from standard cupcakes to mini cupcakes. Otherwise, I followed the recipe almost as written and they were perfection! So much so, that I could eat the caramel frosting, with a huge spoon, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

OK, maybe not! The frosting alone has a pound of butter – but to be fair, there was quite a bit of frosting left over, even after all the cupcakes were made.

To prevent me from using a spoon to eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, I put it in the trash and then dumped the nasty contents of my Roomba on top of it!

I can’t have that sort of temptation around here!

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I served this appetizer at the Christmas Craft Party and I’ll be bringing it to a family Christmas party next this weekend. (I think I may be in denial that Christmas is a week from Today!)

It is chicken nachos, minus the chips!

In the place of chips are those adorable mini bell peppers you can find in most grocery stores and always at Costco.

I was in a super time-crunch for the craft party so I used a new product I found at Costco, rotisserie chicken breast meat. It came in a 2 1/2 pound package, I pulled out what I needed, and froze the rest.

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At last night’s cooking class, one of the dishes I made was a Caramelized Onion & Apple Tart. What was different and a little special about it was that instead of caramelizing the onions in my usual way, I made them in a slow cooker.

It takes more than half a day, but once all the onions are peeled and sliced, the work is essentially done.

Plus it makes a ton, so you can freeze them and keep them all to yourself … or be generous and give them as gifts. If you are so sweetly inclined, you’ll end up with about 10 half-pint jars. Not much effort to put in – and end up with 10 presents and happy friends!

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If there was one food, dish, or recipe that you could eat for the rest of your life; as much as you want, as often as you like, from now until eternity – without gaining an ounce – what would it be?

If you would have asked me that question a few weeks ago, I would have said, “Ice Cream!”

Ice cream is my go-to answer to any question that begins with “What food would you…”

I love ice cream; the coldness, the smoothness, the creaminess, the richness, the pure happiness that ice cream brings. And that is why we rarely have ice cream in our house!

But ask me that question today – my new answer is, “Chile, Cheese, and Chorizo Bread Pudding.”

I developed this recipe for my classes at Les Gourmettes and I could not love it more! I am quite certain it is as calorie and fat-laden as ice cream, if not more so. It’s full of bread, cheese, chorizo, more cheese, eggs, and milk. And it is SO GOOD!

Perfect for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It is just perfect, in every possible way. It is amazing! Well, except for the calorie/fat count – on that front – it sucks!

I made it twice last week. First for the class and then again for a dinner party the evening before Thanksgiving that we had with our family and Marissa’s boyfriend, Jeff’s family. One of the guests was vegetarian, so for the dinner party, instead of using a 9×13-inch pan, I made two 8×8-inch pans. One with the chorizo and one without.

The recipe is for the larger pan but the images are of the two smaller pans … just to clarify … so you aren’t confounded by the instructions vs. the photos.

Oh, and if you don’t have time to make the red pepper sauce, it’s still delicious with out it. Just saying!

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The final Thanksgiving leftovers recipe of the season is a dessert, using up the last of your mashed sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and whipped cream. It’s a wintertime take on strawberry shortcake.

If your sweet potatoes weren’t mashed, mash them before making these biscuits.

Oh, and did you know that you can buy powdered buttermilk? I’m not certain if I’ve mentioned this product before, but it sure is handy to have when you have all the ingredients for a recipe … except buttermilk. And isn’t that the point of using up leftovers – being able to use what you have and not having to make a special trip to the grocery store? It’s simple to use. Just as with powdered regular milk, you just mix it with water.

One last note – One of the secrets to light and flaky biscuits is to not overwork the dough. When handled with a light touch you should be able to see specks of the fat, whether that is butter, as in this recipe, or vegetable shortening or lard. Less is better when it comes to biscuits.

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I usually use the leftover Thanksgiving turkey to make enchiladas, chili, or tacos. This year… Turkey Gumbo!

The thing about gumbo is that you have to start with a roux. The thing about roux is that you have to stir constantly … for a long, long, long time! And the thing about stirring constantly is that I hate having to do that!

Several years ago I received an automatic pot-stirring thing-a-ma-jiggy, called the StirChef Saucepan Stirrer. It has sat in the box and never been opened … until yesterday when I made this gumbo. I’ve had it so long that the batteries that were included – were corroded.

Guess what, I should have left it in the box. It was useless. It only fit into the smallest of my saucepans and the paddle turned so slowly, seriously ridiculous!

Here are some of the reviews I found on Amazon:

“I spent one dollar on this at a thrift shop and I still feel like I was ripped off. It is no surprise they are already out of business. The thing doesn’t even fit on all but one of my saucepans.”

“I just set this up for the first time to make a roux… what a joke!
It fit the pan and that is THE ONLY thing that was a positive. As soon as those worthless paddles hit that hot oil and flour, they began to dissolve!”

“Attaching the StirChef to my new 4qt saucepan, I turned it on to stir some chopped vegetables for 10 minutes at low heat. After about 4 minutes the flimsy plastic blades began to melt, adding an interesting but unwanted taste to the vegetables.”

Evidently this lame product is a collector’s item of some sort. On Amazon, it sells for nearly $90 new and $60 used. Mine has only been used once. I’m willing to sell it for a mere $45.99.

Are any interested buyers out there? No? OK, maybe you’ll be more interested in my Gumbo recipe.

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