Two of my best friends and I had a little holiday happy hour tonight to celebrate the season. Peggy, Anne, and I have been friends since our kids were in elementary school. You know how that goes, when the kids are little, you see each other, if not daily – at least weekly, and then as the kids grow, it becomes less and less frequent. So getting together becomes more and more of a treat. Tonight was definitely a treat! Merry Christmas “besties”, love you both!

I found the blood-orange sparkling drink at Costco, and Peggy said she has seen it at the grocery store as well.  If you can’t find it in your area, just use a mix of fresh blood orange juice and sparkling soda as a substitute.
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My friend and co-worker, Kim Howard, makes the very best toffee every Christmas. I was a lucky recipient of a tin of her toffee this year – but after days of picking away at it, it’s all gone. I was at her beautiful home yesterday and saw 4 new pans of the detectible toffee sitting on her counter, ready to be cut and packaged for her other happy friends and family – darn, why did I eat all of mine already?!  There is an upside though, it reminded me of the recipe for these wonderful toffee scones and I just knew I had to share them with you!  Kim, “The Toffee Queen” would want me to!

Barbara Pool Fenzl and Kim Howard at our amazing spa trip at Rancho LaPuerta in 2008

If you don’t have the good fortune to be in line for a tin of Kim’s toffee, or if you have sadly already eaten your share – Trader Joe’s sells a couple of great options. The type of theirs I like the best is not only chocolate-covered but also covered in nuts. If you don’t have a Trader Joe’s in your area (I am truly sorry and feel your heartache), Heath bars work perfectly well for these scones.

The only liquid in the scones is cream, whipped to stiff peaks. The way to find out if the whipping cream has stiff peaks and is ready; while beating, once the cream begins to look fluffy, remove the whisk attachment from the mixer, dip it into the whipped cream (or egg whites, when whipping them for a recipe) pull out the whisk and turn it upright. If the peak flops over, you have soft peaks.

Return whisk to machine and continue to beat. If the peak stands straight up, you have stiff peaks and are ready to fold the whipped cream into the dry mixture.

Another fantastic thing about these scones – is they qualify as “easy-breezy”!
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Quiche is such a versatile dish. It is perfect for breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner. It’s wonderful on it’s own or alongside a salad, drizzled with a vinaigrette. Delicious served hot from the oven or at room temperature… No wonder real men not only eat but love quiche! Bake this the day ahead, reheat and enjoy on Christmas morning as gifts are being opened.

Believe it or not, I’ve never used a frozen pie crust before. I really enjoy making crust from scratch, but a friend told me that the new pie crusts at Trader Joe’s were as good as homemade, so thought I’d give them a try with a quiche recipe.  Here’s what I’ve discovered; the frozen crusts look great, you can see the little bits of real butter in the dough, just as with homemade dough, a good start! After reading the ingredients, found there is palm oil… not good… but it is the third to the last ingredient listed with only water and salt after it, so I’m hoping it isn’t too much in there. The crust shrunk quite a bit more than a homemade one would during the blind bake, but the real test – the taste? Pretty darn good, I’d give it about an 8 out 0f 10, with the homemade crust being a perfect 10.

So what exactly is blind baking? It is when you bake and brown a crust without the filling. Blind baking a crust is necessary when it will be filled with an unbaked filling or when the filling has a shorter baking time than the crust needs to become cooked through.  Blind baking also helps prevent the crust from becoming soggy from its filling. To accomplish this you can either poke the uncooked pastry with a fork or line the pastry shell with foil or parchment paper and weigh it down with ceramic or metal pie weights. This allows the steam created by the butter to escape in the case of poking or prevents the crust from puffing up, when weighted. If you do not want to invest in pie weights, no problem, just weigh down the shell with dry beans or raw rice.  You can use the beans or rice a couple of times for this purpose, but after that, toss them in the trash. As they bake over and over, they will lose their natural moisture and no longer be heavy enough to be effective.

The technique for caramelizing the onions for this quiche is different than the methods I’ve posted here before. Adding water and bringing the onions to a boil, allows the onions to completely soften without a chance of burning. Once the water has dissipated, the onions caramelize evenly and easily.
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For Christmas I make one big dinner on Christmas Eve for my mother and our family and then another big dinner on Christmas day for my dad and our family – yes, my parents are divorced, so multiple big dinners are a must. Like many of you, there are many different “family” dinners that take place over the season. Thankfully, (at least for this time of year) my in-laws don’t live in town (Illinois) so we don’t have to go from one house to another for all that family time! All those big dinners produce a lot of leftovers. On one of those nights, I generally serve a crown pork roast, which leaves plenty of leftovers. But if you serve, turkey, beef, or ham, whatever; use that cooked leftover meat for this dish! After all the traditional Christmas recipes, Asian stir-fry is a perfect change of pace for any palate!

Here it is December 15th and my garden is still producing herbs and cherry tomatoes. We’ve had a couple of nights of freeze, but the garden is still holding on, gotta love Arizona!

I also love using broccoli in stir-fry, but not only the florets. The stems are wonderful too, don’t discard them! Cut off the florets, then peel the stems and cut them into matchsticks. The stems are crispy and delicious!

When stir-frying, be sure to prep all the various components and set them right next to the stove. Stir-frying happens quickly and having everything ready and at hand is more than important, it is a necessity!

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If you have an upcoming cookie exchange or you’re just looking for a little something different for your own cookie tray, these gingerbread blondies will fit the bill.  It’s hard to find an aroma or flavor that stirs up more Christmas memories than gingerbread. These pretty bars come together quickly and yield 2 1/2 dozen per pan. That’s hard to beat!

White chocolate can be such a pain to work with. The reason? It’s not real chocolate. White chocolate is a confection of sugar, cocoa butter, and milk solids. It first appeared in the 1930s in Switzerland and was invented by Nestle to use excess cocoa butter.  Nestle introduced it to the United States in 1948.  It burns even easier than real chocolate.  To melt white chocolate, place it in a microwave-safe bowl and cook on high for 1 minute. Stir, return to microwave, and cook on high 1 more minute. Remove and stir until completely melted. I prefer Ghirardelli brand white chocolate chips, I find them the best tasting and easiest to melt.
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Kitchen Christmas Tree angel topper

There will be no recipe today, because if I don’t finish getting this house decorated today, well, it’s not going to happen! How it is even possible that Christmas Eve is only 10 days away, I do not know! So instead, a few pictures of the decorations I have been able to get up so far.
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Another December birthday for another important person in my life. Today is Cyndi Greening’s birthday. Cyndi is a filmmaker, teacher, writer, webmaster, and my dear friend!  I first met her when we worked on a fundraiser for Phoenix Children’s Hospital called the Beach Ball, some Without Cydni, there would be no Les Petites Gourmettes blog! I’d had my website for about 10 years and was itching to turn it into a blog. Thanks to Cydni, that became a reality and 125 posts, and nearly 4 months later, here we are. Cyndi, thank you, and Happy Birthday! xoxo

Love this picture of Cyndi as a kid – she’s in the kitchen! So cute!

Way back on September 16, Cyndi made a comment about a mango and chicken recipe she had gotten from me years ago. I’m not quite sure if this is the recipe she was talking about, but it’s a great appetizer and can be either passed or be used as part of a buffet at a Christmas or New Year’s Party. It is also perfect alongside a salad for a light lunch or dinner. So in honor of Cydni, I shall share it here today.

For the chicken meat, I purchase a rotisserie chicken and use the breast meat for this and the dark meat for something else, maybe chicken salad sandwiches or stir-fry.
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‘Tis the season… family, friends, and celebration are in the air. When I’m hosting a party, I like to have a welcome cocktail and a small nibble to greet guests as they come through the door.  For a Christmas party, it’s particularly festive to serve the colors of the season; red and green.  And there is a bounty of red and green fruits, vegetables, and herbs to choose from; tomatoes, peppers, beans, apples, pears, berries, grapes, artichokes, broccoli, endive, cucumbers, avocado, limes, asparagus, celery, honeydew, currants, watermelon, cherries, pomegranate, beets, radishes, parsley, thyme, rosemary, and so on…

This recipe calls for two items that you may or may not be familiar with; piquillo peppers and smoked paprika. Piquillo peppers are small tangy peppers native to the village of Lodosa in northern Spain. They are fire-roasted then hand-peeled and packed in their own juices. The piquillo’s firmness makes them perfect for stuffing. They are also enjoyed “straight” with a drizzle of olive oil. The name piquillo is derived from the Spanish word for “little beak”.  Happily, they are available at Trader Joe’s.

Smoked Spanish paprika is also known as Pimenton de la Vera, Dulce. It is a popular ingredient in many Mediterranean recipes and its flavor is essential for authentic Spanish cooking. The peppers are dried, slowly over a smoldering oak fire for several weeks. The result is a sweet, cool, smokey flavor. Using smoked paprika provides a great way to add a smokey flavor without the heat. You can find smoked Spanish paprika at high-end grocery stores such as Whole Foods, specialty stores, or at Penzey’s Spices online.

Instead of using a baguette as the base for this easy appetizer, I sometimes use red and/or green apple wedges. Then, there is no need to even turn on the oven!  Instead of toasting, as you would with the bread, rub with a little orange or lemon juice to prevent apple slices from browning, and then proceed with the spreading of the cheese and dolloping of the toppings. With the help of a food processor, this is another “easy-breezy” recipe.
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The original version of this recipe is from Tyler Florence of the Food Network.  I made his recipe for a series of classes I just finished teaching at Les Gourmettes Cooking School. With Tyler’s Twice Cooked Potatoes, the second cooking is achieved by deep frying the potatoes, and are they delicious! But after serving 33 students in two nights, I came to the conclusion that using the original version as part of a buffet doesn’t work well because of the final frying step. The potatoes are best eaten immediately, as most fried foods are.  What made the potatoes so wonderful was the crispiness achieved by deep-frying.  My double roasting technique results in a similar crisp texture, but without the extra fat, plus the potatoes can now be served hot or held at room temperature, without becoming greasy. Not only are these potatoes a great vegetable side dish, but they also make perfect little party nibbles!

Aïoli is a garlic and olive oil sauce from France, with a texture very much like mayonnaise. Aïoli is sometimes called the “butter of Provence” because it is such an integral part of their cuisine. In Provence, usually, two cloves are used per person, which may seem like a lot, but roasting the garlic as done here, mellows out the garlic considerably.

The Cuisinart has a special feature just for the purpose of making fresh mayonnaise and aïoli. The lid has a spout (a feed tube) with a “food pusher”.  The food pusher has a small hole in the bottom that allows oil to drip slowly into the work bowl at just the right rate, a “slow and steady stream” allowing the mayonnaise to emulsify perfectly.

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The secret to managing the holidays? Just remember the two “P’s” – Preparation and Planning!

For a party or a big holiday meal, always make a game plan. You need to know more than just what dishes you want to serve. Time management and prepping, as much as possible ahead of time, are the keys. Once you have a menu in mind, the first thing to figure out is what time you would like to serve the meal or what time the party is to start. Take that time and work backward. If you need an example of what I’m talking about, look at my Thanksgiving timeline by clicking here.

Next, always look at your recipes and figure out what can be done in advance. I can’t think of even one occasion where I have cooked all the dishes for a large meal or the food for a party on the day of the event. Of course, some an item needs to be made or finished at the very last minute, just be sure to create the menu so that there are only one or two (at the most!) such items, not three or four, or you will be a frazzled wreck before the first guest rings the bell.

Don’t pull a Martha and believe that every single thing must be homemade. If you love the bread or pastries from the bakery around the corner or think that the butternut squash soup from the deli is the best you’ve ever had, purchase those items and serve them with pride, as they do in France! Speaking of soup, smooth and creamy soups make great hot or room temperature hors d’oeuvres. Purchase inexpensive shoot glasses at a store such as Cost Plus World Market and garnish with a few minced chives – so easy, impressive, and fabulous!

Finally, and most importantly, Have Fun! People want to celebrate, spend time together, and relax. The best way for your party or meal to be a success is to be sure you do the same. Enjoy!

Easy Gift Guide
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