Ham and Split Pea Soup

Dad this one is primarily directed at you, but I am always open to everyone else' ideas too.
I'm sure this isn't too hard, but how about that split pea soup recipe that you had leftovers of last time we had lunch together.  I saw all the Christmas hams in the store today and thought of how good that soup was and started getting excited.
Thanks
Andy

Sticky-icky-icky

Alright.  The lazy kitchen manager at the coffee shop don't get sticky buns.  She's giving it an honest try, but she just isn't there.  I need some help here.  Molly, Maggie...An hints for altitude would be appreciated too.
Andy

Roasted Garbonzos and Chard. Seriously, try this at home...

This one comes to us from Bon Appetit, once again.  Man those guys really nail it sometimes.   I serve this over rice.  I also throw in any extra veggies I have, tonight I used carrots in the roast and extra mushrooms in the sauté.  Also used old wilty kale instead of chard, either way, a hit.  Lastly, to make it vegetarian, substitute veggie broth for chicken stock.  Don't skimp on the garlic, and an extra fennel seed or two won't hurt.  Enjoy.  Andy.  Lastly (really this time) don't grab your roasting pan, a cast iron skillet in my case, after it comes out of the oven unless you have a pot holder, figured that one out the hard way.   Guess I'm not check steamed milk temps with my left hand tomorrow.
Andy

Garbanzo Beans:

• 2 15.5-ounce cans garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained (about 3 cups)
• 10 garlic cloves, peeled
• 2 large shallots
• 3 small bay leaves, preferably fresh
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1 1/4 cups extra-virgin olive oil

Chard:

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 6 garlic cloves, peeled, crushed
• 3 small bay leaves, preferably fresh
• 2 shallots, sliced
• 2 bunches Swiss chard, center stems cut out, leaves coarsely torn
• 2 cups low-salt chicken broth

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preparation

Garbanzo beans:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine first 5 ingredients in 8x8x2-inch glass baking dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour oil over; cover dish with foil. Roast until garlic is tender, about 45 minutes. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cool slightly, cover, and chill.

Chard:
Heat oil in large pot over medium-high heat. Add garlic, bay leaves, and shallots. Cover; cook until shallots are tender, about 2 minutes. Uncover; add half of chard. Toss until chard wilts and volume is reduced by half, about 2 minutes. Add remaining chard. Toss until chard wilts, about 2 minutes. Add broth. Cover and cook until chard is tender, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Season chard with salt and pepper. Transfer chard mixture to large sieve set over bowl and drain. DO AHEAD: Can be prepared 2 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.

Drain garbanzos and reserve oil; discard bay leaves. Combine garbanzos and chard in large skillet. Add 2 tablespoons oil reserved from garbanzos. Toss over medium heat until warmed through, moistening with more oil by tablespoonfuls if needed, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Roasted-Garbanzo-Beans-and-Garlic-with-Swiss-Chard-241110#ixzz2FB6pqQHT

Dinner for Teenagers

I'm having my officers and section leaders over for dinner on Wednesday night to thank them for all their hard work this semester.  They are ridiculously excited to see my house and to eat "free food."  This gives me a good kick in the butt to get my house cleaned, which is good.

However, I need to come up with something to make.  I'll have three teenage boys and five girls over.  We have a gig earlier in the afternoon, so I won't have all day to cook, but I should have enough time.  The kids say they aren't picky (I've noticed recently that they really do just inhale almost anything).

This is where you come in...what should I make these kiddos?  One thought I had was chicken parm with salad and garlic bread.  A downside to that is that most won't be sitting at a table to eat and that could be tricky.  I also saw that ham is on sale for a good price this week, so I had considered making ham and potatoes or something.  Oh or maybe I should just make my ridiculously bad for you mac n cheese.  Anywho, any ideas??

Also, it will be the birthday of one of the kids, so if you had a dynamite cake recipe I need to try, let me know.

Molly

Swiss Chard

OK, I am the first to admit that in the middle of summer with the garden whizzing along producing more vegetables than we can eat every night, I don't think much about the Swiss chard at the end of the row.  But come December with the rest of the row turned under by the tiller that chard starts to look pretty good.  Today, I went to the store to buy salad makings for dinner.  When I got home and was taking the bag in from the truck, I just took a walk out to the garden and was able to cut enough young chard leaves from the center of the plants for tonight's veg.  Chopped, lightly steamed, and dressed with tarragon garlic vinegar (tarragon and garlic from the garden), it was a wonderful, fresh, green addition to a near-solstice dinner.  Can't beat that: fresh greens from the garden on 12-12-12.

Beets with goat cheese

I'm not a big beet person.  But, we keep getting them in our CSA box, so I keep looking for new ways to eat them.  We went to a birthday party for one of the kids in Will's preschool today.  Definitely not my idea of how I wanted to spend a weekend afternoon, especially a weekend in December, but Aleks is a big believer in being sociable and friendly and all that stuff.  We were pleasantly surprised when we showed up to a low key party that included beer, and it turned out that the kid's mom made a bunch of food herself and she's a really good cook.

One of the dishes on the table was a beet salad.  It included watercress, I think, and cheve, and I really enjoyed it.  Later, while putting away groceries and making dinner, I discovered some roasted beets sitting in our fridge (I roasted them last week maybe, in an - apparently now successful - attempt to get us to eat them.)  Aleks sliced an orange to see if it was any good, and it was nice and juicy.  And we had some cheve sitting in our cheese drawer.  So, I decided to test this idea that goat cheese is good with beets.  Sliced up the beets, squeezed an orange over top, and added some little lumps of cheve.  It was really good!  I could take or leave the orange juice, but the cheese and the roasted beets go really well together.  I would recommend it and would be interested to hear of any variations and additions you come up with.

-Maggie

Lets talk turkey

Alright, so who did what?  I brined mine, and it was awesome.  It was good enough to win over my most skeptic, biggest critic, Ben.  He thought I was foolish to cook a bird at 500 degrees for half and hour, and then put on the "turkey triangle," and triangular piece of tin foil which protects the breast meat.  So 48 hours after starting the brine making process, it was time to test the theory, it worked.  I cooked for 6 people, one of which was a professional chef and former fine-dining restaurant owner, and all agreed it was the best bird they'd had...ever...After all that, it still seems pretty white and northern, so I'm excited to hear about what the rest of you did, since your other halves are of somewhat southern descent.