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The Christmas Fudge

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Dec. 12, 2010   Leave a Comment  

my favorite Christmas treat!

I just love the movie Eloise at Christmastime.  Eliose is just such a spunky, nosy little thing – just like everything I strive to be.  And on Christmas Eve, her and Nanny eat their fill of Christmas fudge.

There are so many wonderful things about the holidays, but arguably one of the best things are the treats only eaten once a year, like Christmas fudge.  It is terrible for you, and Michelle Obama might not approve; but eating this fudge makes Christmas so much sweeter.

My mom always made her fudge a few weeks before Christmas and packed a lot of it up to give to  Sunday School teachers at church.  When I moved to Boston and started attending Emerson, I began a holiday fudge making tradition of my own.  I made the fudge for the office I was a work study in before I left for Christmas break.  The first year I just dropped it off.  Last year everyone’s plates were full of fudge and pizza at the Christmas party.  This year – my final year -  I am again bringing the fudge to the Christmas party.  And because I just adore my classmates in my Online Publishing class, I’ll be bringing some fudge to our last class this Thursday night.

Fudge is just such a happy Christmas tradition and, while I just adore Eloise, I am not a fan of that sick-I-ate-too-much-fudge-feeling, so I am a big fan of sharing my holiday fudge.  Of course I only make my mom’s recipe, because it is the best.  Did I mention it makes a great gift too?  You should probably go make fudge now.

Peanut Chocolate Fudge

4 cups of sugar
1 large can of evaporated milk
1 stick butter

Combine in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook to soft ball stage. This means when you drip put it into a bowl of water you can form a soft ball. Most candy thermometers have the stages on them, but if you don’t have one just try the water test, or it will be about 8 minutes after mixture comes to a full boil.

12 oz. bag chocolate chips
7 oz. jar of marshmallow crème
20 oz. jar peanut butter
1 tsp. vanilla

Add the rest of the ingredients, remove from the heat, and stir until smooth.  This part is easier with a helper, so one person can scoop and pour and the other person can stir.  Pour the mixture into a 13×9 greased pan. You can add walnuts or pecans on top. I personally like it without the nuts.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

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The art of the fry

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Dec. 11, 2010   1 Comment  

Doesn't this look so healthy and back-to-nature like?

Yesterday I made a beeline for Wendy’s for lunch.  I had heard internet murmurings about the new fries being sold at Wendy’s, and I needed to give them a try.  How else would you all know if they were worth trying?  I am especially self-less when fast food is involved.

So I went to the Wendy’s at Downtown Crossing in Boston.  Two girls glared at me instead of asking what I would like to eat.  No one was in front of me.  No one was behind me.  I was just standing there and they were glaring.  Five seconds into this ridiculousness a man walks up and just starts telling one of the derelicts his order.  She literally glared at him like her job was just to stand behind the cash register and he was TOTALLY ruining her day.  The man got his order, which made me even more frustrated.  So I glared back at the girl in front of me and told her my order, much to her dismay.  All the while I was laughing  to myself thinking, I’M TOTALLY BLOGGING ABOUT YOU!

Finally after all of that nonsense, I received my fries and my bacon cheeseburger deluxe and my small Dr. Pepper.  I shuffled over to a table and plopped everything down.  I bit into one of the hand-cut sea-salt coated fries and I regretted the whole trip to Wendy’s.  They were greasy.  The container itself was spotted in oil.  Some of the fries were underdone and the salt was a bit much.  After eating a small fry, I felt like I had a ball of fat in my stomach.

I have no idea how  Wendy’s is promoting this new french fry campaign as if it is “healthier,” because the fries are cut from a potato and sea salt is being used.  I have never left Wendy’s feeling sick from the fat, until I ate these new fries.

Dear Wendy’s,

Go back to the frozen fries.  And fire those girls at Downtown Crossing – they are awful!  Please and thank you!

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

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A cup of tea

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Dec. 9, 2010   1 Comment  

the other me, the I'll be more complete me, the sappy me

I lead a double life.  One night I’m working into the night on a school project, eating questionable mac and cheese, and considering if I care enough about the final exam in my interdisciplinary class to study when I could be sleeping.  Then the next night I look down at my left hand and see a ring, I look at my facebook and see I’m engaged, and I look at the NY Times and almost cry.  Yes the last one has an explanation.  The sheer presence of the NY Times really does not make me cry.  But tonight while I was sitting on the bus, I flipped to the op-ed section of the paper.  John Lennon and Yoko Ono sat in the middle of the page, looking so incredibly happy.

Yoko Ono had written a piece about John for the 30th anniversary of his death.  It really was just a memory, a night where her and John discussed how to properly make a cup of tea.  After years of telling Yoko the tea bag goes first, John’s Aunt had told him the water comes first.  That night they laughed over a cup of tea.  It was the memory she remembered on the night of John’s assassination.

I lead a double life.  The still-fighting-for-an-A me loved the sweet simple writing Yoko used.  And that me just loved her closing graph.

“They say teenagers laugh at the drop of a hat.  Nowadays I see many teenagers sad and angry with each other.  John and I were hardly teenagers.  But my memory of us is that we were a happy coule who laughed.”

And the almost-married me, that me would have balled my eyes out if I were not sitting on a public bus with crazy old ladies that scream STOP at the bus driver, who may or may not be confused as to what route he’s driving.  Yoko’s story was just so sweet.  Discussing food and tradition, those times when being with someone is wonderful just because they make you laugh, that is why I am getting through the next week of school and that is why almost-married-me exists.

Oh and who does not love a food memory involving tea?

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

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Macaroon appetite

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Dec. 7, 2010   Leave a Comment  

toasted bundles of coconut

Friday night, after gathering content all day for my capstone class, I had this serious craving for coconut macaroons.  So I came home and made them.  I ate one before bed, and was so happy.  The weekend was going to be chalked full of homework, and I knew the macaroons would be a great treat throughout the days.  Then Saturday happened.

Saturday morning I woke up kind of sniffly.  I kept sneezing and much as I tried to ignore it my throat was getting more and more sore.  I knew it was a cold, but that didn’t make my body ache any less when the fever started.  Sunday I slept most of the day.  When I got up to make some lunch I looked at the container of macaroons in the fridge and actually felt my stomach churn.  I had absolutely no desire to eat them, which was rather unfortunate because I hadn’t really bought extra snacks to nibble on during homework.

Today I had to dress in real clothes and face the land of the healthy.  Either everyone is lying about the freezing cold weather, or my fever has decided to stick around, because everywhere I went today felt like 80 degrees and humid.  I’m guessing it was the fever after watching the snow fall on my walk home tonight.  Either way my desire to eat those macaroons has not changed.  I may have to pawn them off on someone tomorrow, so they get eaten.  And somehow I doubt anyone being enthusiastic about eating cookies from a Typhoid Mary who is carrying around a whole box of tissues in her bag.

I feel like I would eat the coconut macaroons if sick me offered them to healthy me.  But that is mostly because only healthy me appreciates coconut macaroons for some reason.  Sick me is SO over them.

Either way it is high time you made your own coconut macaroons.  They are terribly delicious, super easy, and naturally gluten free.  This makes them great for Christmas parties, where possible allergies are present.  Here’s the link (link) to the recipe I used.  I’m not a fan of chocolate dipping an already sweet cookie, so I just ignored that part of the recipe.  Otherwise they turned out delicious; at least healthy me thought so.

I hope you are all staying healthy and avoiding the horrible colds that prey on poor susceptible college kids this time of year.  Oh and I hope you still have a healthy appetite for coconut macaroons, because they are so delicious.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

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Happy Hanukkah!

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Dec. 4, 2010   Leave a Comment  

Mexican-Puerto Rican-Jewish latkes

What country are you from has to have been the most memorable question I have received about my heritage.  I think my response was Pennsylvania, which depending on who you’re asking could very well be considered a separate country (there are fainting goats living in my back yard).  I always love the smiles, when I tell people my mom has blond hair and blue eyes and I’m half German.  Even the realization that I’m Puerto Rican does not entirely satisfy most people’s questioning.

“Oh I thought you were Italian.”

I was never quite sure how to respond to that answer, because it was almost as if they would have been happier if I had said, “Oh yeah, just kidding, I’m Italian.”

For the record, I am half Puerto Rican, which I am possibly a little more Spaniard than Native Puerto Rican considering my very olive complexion; and I am half German, Austrian, and possibly English.  My dad likes to throw a wrench into the confusion my mom and he created in my brother, sister, and I and our mutt-like genealogy, by suggesting somewhere down the line we were also Jewish.  See there’s this street in Spain, my dad will tell the story, and it’s named Juertas after a Jewish family that fled there.  And we are related to anyone with the last name of Juertas (it was my grandmother’s maiden name).  I am not sure who it was that told my dad this story, but he remembers it.

If there is any ounce of me that is Jewish, I am sure it is a tiny bit and questionably so.  But one thing I do know for sure, I inherited my dad’s love of culture and every yummy bit that goes along with it.  And ever since the blogs and sites and newspapers have been posting latke recipes, I have been dreaming about their fried potato goodness.  After a busy day of work, I knew it was time for a taste of Hanukkah.

Of course I hardly ever follow tradition when it comes to cooking.  And my good friend’s traditional latke recipe called for grating onions.  I can hardly cut an onion without crying.  Can you imagine how awful it would be if you grated an onion?  So I julienned two onions and fried them in a little oil until close to caramelized.  I then mixed them with about 2 cups of frozen shredded potatoes – I already had them and didn’t want to grate potatoes.  I added 3 eggs maybe an 1/8 of a cup of flour and adobo.  I heated a pan with oil and began frying.  The first batch were eh ok, but once I got going I was getting perfect little potato latkes.  I drained them and lined them on a sheet pan.

I didn’t exactly have time to make dinner tonight, so I knew I had to make the latkes a little more hearty.  I drained a can of black beans and dropped 6 or 7 beans on each latke.  Then I topped them with a Mexican blend of shredded cheese.  I threw them under the broiler until the cheese was melted.

The wonderful thing about being multicultural is that I have a lot of palettes to create new traditions with.  And basing it off of the 5 latkes my roommate tucked away.  I’d say my latkes were a wonderful success.  Just please don’t ask what country they are from.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

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Wednesday

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Dec. 2, 2010   Leave a Comment  

Today Scruffy wiped his face on the floor to dry it off. I think he understands Wednesdays.

Every Wednesday I get out of class a little too late.  I dig in my bag for any bit of food that might be leftover from the day.  Tonight it was 7 peanut butter M&Ms.  Why 7?  Well I can only fit 7 into my hand, and lord knows I had no where else to put them, while balancing my bag and my thoughts on the bus.  I actually had trouble balancing the 7, because the bag of M&Ms was tied with a hair tie and I didn’t want the hair tie to drop so I was balancing that as well.

After the bus, I begin the mad rush home.  My thoughts normally range from – why didn’t I go pee before I left? – and – goodness gracious what will I eat?  The bathroom dilemma is easily solved as I enter the apartment, but the dinner problem ugh that is hardly easily solved.

I knew one possible part of my meal tonight, shaved steak leftover from my steak sandwich I ate for lunch.  Unfortunately I don’t think that really helped my meal problem, more like aggravated the problem.  What does one make with steak meat?  Crunch time came two minutes after I walked into the room.  I put on a pot of water and boiled some noodles.  Then I dug out some nubs of cheese in my fridge.  A tiny bit of smoked Mozzarella, some Parmesan that may or may not have had an unknown white substance on it that wasn’t cheese.  I told myself it wasn’t mold and grated it in.  A handful of Mexican shredded cheese that had not been opened.  I smelled and analyzed it before throwing a handful into the pot.  And then came the milk.  I knew the mac and cheese needed milk.  So I looked in the fridge.  A carton I bought before leaving for Thanksgiving stared back at me.  I looked at the expiration date, 11/29/10.  I smelled it, sweet; I smelled again looking for a sour note.  Then I poured some into the pot.

The plastic container of steak sandwich meat sat next to the pot of what was becoming mac and cheese.  I added salt and pepper then poured in the meat.  Without so much as a taste for seasoning, I poured half into a bowl and the other half into the same plastic container the meat had been in.  The meal possibly tasted like hamburger helper.  I can’t be sure on that since I have never tasted hamburger helper, but it was probably close and possibly less safe (curious cheese and outdated milk).

5 minutes later I was full and happy.  The odd mixture of cheese and the tender seasoned steak sandwich meat melded together in a way maybe only a college student could appreciate.

I love Wednesdays.  From searching in my bag for a possible bite to hold me over to finally resting and checking my email, I can’t help but feel blessed.  I had cheese in my fridge.  I had milk.  I had noodles.  And that silly bit of steak meat.  All of those wonderful things made a meal.  Of course I’m also glad Wednesday only comes once a week.  One can only mix scraps and bits together so often before you run out of ideas.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

Filed Under: Newsy musings

Oh hey December

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Dec. 1, 2010   Leave a Comment  

now if only I can figure out what to get Matt for Christmas

This morning my status on facebook said “is it really December tomorrow?  I vote for a 2010 redo!”  I then proceeded with my day completely neglecting the fact that my T-pass for November expired today, and I needed to pick up my December pass.  I realized my error as I was sitting on the bus ready to go home.  I guess I was more in denial than I originally assumed.

But December means Christmas – WHAT WILL I GET FOR PEOPLE – and finals and packing all of my stuff and moving.  Those last two things aren’t stressing me out as much as they should.  But Christmas presents, those are really stressing me out.  I hope you are not in the same – I haven’t started my Christmas shopping – boat, but in case you are I thought I’d put together a foodie Christmas list.  It’s probably not going to help any of my shopping dilemmas; but I am totally and completely selfless and would prefer to help you all, rather than actually do something productive like that paper that’s due Thursday.

Glass Teapot/ Tea press:  Any lover of tea will appreciate this beautiful pot.  It will brew a perfect cup of tea and you can accompany the pot with some delicious loose leaf tea.  But the best part of this tea pot is the wonderful Saturday mornings you and the person you are giving this too can spend sitting and chatting with a warm cup of tea in hand.  Here’s the link to a pot on Amazon.com (link).  There are many varieties and price points, but remember to save some of your budget on buying some loose leaf tea to complete the gift.

Knife Sharpener: Do you know a fabulous foodie whose knives just seem a bit dull?  There are a lot of knife sharpeners out there, but the ones used by my peeps in the kitchen the most are the good old fashioned stones.  It takes a little bit of practice to sharpen a knife with a stone, but getting the hang of it will really pay off.  You won’t know what happened to your knives.  Here’s the link to a sharpener at LLBean (link).

Y Peeler:  This will be the stocking stuffer your foodie will never forget.  The Y peeler just works so much better than those other peelers.  It has an easy grip and it is almost impossible to cut yourself with it.  The Restaurant Store is a great place to buy all sorts of foodie finds.  Here’s a link to a Y peeler on their site (link).  Of course you could just visit one in person too, but you might spend more time there than you think.

Torch: Whether your foodie is making creme brulee or just needs to toast some fluff to make the perfect smore Gelato, a torch will definitely come in handy.  They also make a great solution for fruit flies.  Here’s the link to a torch at Williams-Sonoma (link).  You could probably find it more reasonable somewhere else, but Williams-Sonoma stuff does tend to be fairly solid and I’ve picked up a lot of flimsy torches that worry me.

I’m going to have to make this post a to-be-continued, because tomorrow’s December and finals are too close for me to consider them without having a panic attack.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

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Obama and McDonalds

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Nov. 30, 2010   Leave a Comment  

370 calories to be exact

A meal at McDonald’s happens to be full of calories.  If you haven’t known this fact up until this point, you will soon be very aware, sort of.  Thanks to the new health care bill all restaurants with 20 or more locations need to add calorie counts to their menu.  And I finally witnessed the McDonald’s version.  And it’s pretty pathetic.  In fact I stood in front of the McDonald’s at Philadelphia International Airport and literally stared at the sign for 5 minutes till I realized the McDonald’s yellow numbers were not the cost, and the little blurry C stood for calories.

So no my sausage egg and cheese McMuffin was not $3.70; it was 370 calories.  Which brings me to the next failure of the McDonald’s method of posting calorie content.  I didn’t care.  That McMuffin could have been 1500 calories and I probably would have eaten it.  I went to McDonald’s because it was closest to my gate and I was hungry.  I happened to be at the airport 2 hours early, so I had the time to stare at the sign for 5 minutes.  Almost any other instance where I find myself at McDonald’s, I really don’t have the time.

Will other restaurants make this whole calorie posting thing work?  I really don’t think so.  People who are conscious of their calories – you know the ones that will actually pay attention to that number – already know what food is high in calories and what isn’t.  And those of us who are just too busy to care, well I don’t think that little number will do much.  I actually thought it was more of a bother than anything.  I could hardly tell the price with all of those bight yellow numbers cluttering the signs.

And in case you were wondering, that sausage egg and cheese McMuffin was one of the best egg sandwiches I have had in a long time.  The muffin was soft and fresh.  The egg was not an egg patty, but a real egg -  white with a yolk center.  It wasn’t greasy or slimy.  I looked at the wrapper like 5 times to make sure I had just purchased it at McDonald’s.  370 calories of fast food deliciousness.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

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Welcome to the jungle

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Nov. 27, 2010   2 Comments  

the peanut butteriest of pies

Three dogs, two goats, my sister, Matt, my mom and around 20 of the most marvelous people I know made for quite a busy household over the last two days.  It sort of went like this.

Matt, your job is Scruffy – Emily

Matt, where is Scruffy? – Emily

Mara, Scruffy pooed on the floor – Matt

Emily, I wanted the white tablecloth not the blue one – Mom

Mara, Scruffy peed on the floor – Matt

Basically Scruffy – our new dog – decided Thanksgiving was a good day to show his lack of house training.  And my dad was working so all of the house stuff had to be done so mom didn’t stress out too much.

Despite all of this dinner went without a hitch.  And Matt got to try peanut butter pie for the first time.  I don’t know how he went so long without trying it.  My cousins don’t let me come to the holidays without it.  And it happens to be the easiest dessert I make.  My cousin wanted to know if Matt was marrying me for the pie.  Little did she know I have other qualities other than an amazing peanut butter pie.

Because I want you all to find husbands and be invited to holiday parties because of a dessert you bring, I am going to give you the peanut butter pie recipe.  You should probably try it, as soon as possible.  You weren’t going to lose that holiday weight till after New Years anyway, right?

Peanut Butter Pie:

6 oz. of cream cheese
3/4 cup of confectioner sugar
2 tablespoons of milk
1/2 cup of peanut butter
Container of Whipped Cream

Cream the sugar and cream cheese.  Add the milk and peanut butter.  Fold in the whipped cream.  Pour into an Oreo crust.  If you have the time, make your own crust.  It always tastes better that way, but in a pinch a store crust will do just fine.  In fact I feel like you could probably just scoop this into a cup and sprinkle with crumbs.

Happy Eating and Greetings from the Zoo!!!

Emily

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Open faced grilled cheese

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Nov. 22, 2010   Leave a Comment  

the soup was my second course, after the open faced grilled cheese

Tonight I was starving.  My roommate and I had gone out to try to jump start our Christmas shopping, but I had quite obviously forgotten to eat anything other than chips SINCE BREAKFAST.  It was a total food fail.  And after one peek in the fridge, I knew the situation was dire and a solution needed to present itself or I was going to wither and die.  I was feeling terribly dramatic.

So I pulled out a baguette I bought yesterday and some sliced American cheese.  I put the cheese on the baguette, placed it on a sheet pan and threw it under the broiler.  Less than 5 minutes and I was eating a toasty sandwich and silently congratulating myself on a job well done.  When my roommate asked me what I was eating, I told her they were open faced grilled cheese sandwiches.  In her starving state she took one and ate it.  Sometimes brilliance is born out of necessity.  And sometimes you’re just too darn hungry to care.

In other news my bags are sort of packed and I am ready to head home for Thanksgiving.  And I am still drooling over recipes online and imagining what I should make for the big event.  The Pioneer Woman posted this recipe for pumpkin bread pudding today (here’s the link).  And I am hungry just thinking about it.  Maybe I should make another open faced grilled cheese.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

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