Skip to main content

Toasting Nuts = Not Hard

I really had no intention of doing anything special, food-wise, for today's holiday.  However, after an excellent night of sleep and two hours of invigorating yard work, I was suddenly compelled to whip up an Easter feast.

The 2.5 lb ham was at attention, defrosted, in my fridge.  An allrecipes.com recipe for "Apricot Brown Sugar Ham" saluted me from in my inbox this morning.  Two elderly, valorous zucchini cried out to be used.  A bag of frozen green beans waited at the ready to march into culinary battle.

Okay, enough with the military metaphor.  You get it.  I was able to piece together the following meal:

Apricot Brown Sugar Ham
Green Beans Amandine
Mashed Potatoes
Zucchini Cake with Vanilla Glaze

I confess, the potatoes were instant.  I don't feel guilty - everything else was from scratch.

For the green beans, the almonds were to be toasted.  Now, I've never toasted nuts.  It daunted me.  What if I toasted them...wrong?  Burned them?  Here's the thing I learned today: toasted nuts are like high school freshmen - you never really should turn your attention away from them, even for a moment.   When you turn your back on twenty-some fifteen-year-olds, it's just a matter of time before someone is punched in the nuts.  And, when I stepped away from my dry, medium-heated skillet for a minute, my almonds were quite toasty (not burnt, tho).  When the recipe says 'stir constantly,' I'm here to tell you, they quite mean it!

And after toasting a pan full of nuts, chucking in a pound of cooked green beans, salt, pepper, butter, and lemon juice was a cakewalk.  Green Beans Amandine.  Pretty simple dish, but sounds REALLY FANCY!

Oh, and on the topic of cake, tonight's dessert was a Zucchini Cake.  Because it's been a zany kind of day, I opted to use a Bundt pan.  And when I use a Bundt pan, I am inclined to drizzle or sprinkle or spread something over the cake, if only to watch the icing et al. stream gracefully down the side of the perfectly rounded confection.  However, I wasn't feeling like plain powdered sugar and I certainly wasn't going to go buy frosting.  So I found this gem at (where else, natch?) allrecipes.com: Vanilla Glaze.  Had I not cut down the recipe, my final product would have resembled this:

Photo courtesy of Normailed at allrecipes.com
Instead, my glazed cake came out like This (pic down near bottom of today's entry).  While the cake was delicious, it did not have the beauteous rolling lines of icing this cake here has.  Thus, my second lesson of the day: when it comes to icing, make the full amount the recipe specifies.

There are certain things I simply do not question anymore:

1. Halloween candy is available in stores right around the first day of school.

2. Home-baked bread is always better.

3.  Shake your nuts constantly.  When toasting them, that is.

4. Full icing measurements are meant to be followed...to the number.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

(She) Blinded Me With...Citrus

Excuse my attempt at tying today's blog entry with an iconic Thomas Dolby song.  What a terrible pun-ishment. Har har har. So, we're on the backside of Winter Vacation/Christmas Break/Holiday Hiatus here.  The kids return to school tomorrow, the freshman and I start back to our respective colleges next Monday. The clock is ticking and suddenly, I am whipped into frenzy to Get Work Done.  I suspect this phenomenon happens to many, many educators who try to avoid that panic-stricken night before they go back to work. And believe me when I say, I had the deepest, most earnest of intentions to write lesson plans, write quizzes, and generally prepare for the restart of my classes next week.  Like, really. And then...I was distracted by...citrus.  This happened. Okay, so....the lemons on the far right are no big deal.  They're available year-round.  But Meyer lemons...MEYER...I only find around here in the winter.  I first read about them i...
Post a Comment
Read more

In Which I Suspect I Have Latent Tendencies...Much Like The Hulk, Or Similar

I find in most normally functioning families, the members have a distinguishing role or legacy or skill of some kind. Like, he's the smart one.  Or, he's the religious one.  Or...she's the glue that helps the fam together.  Or, she's the savvy one, so she's the Power of Attorney. In my family, that system went something like this: My dad was The Dad.  Cantankerous, crotchety, and especially tight with daughters' curfew times.  Also, not a fan of driving in Big Cities. My mom was the long-suffering, patient, reserved one. My brother was the baby, the one who got away with murder, the namesake, and also, Frosty Hoarder. Me?  My legacy?  The Ruiner of Remote Controls.  No lie.  Although I've repressed the memories, my parents claim I destroyed at least two remotes in my tenure as Child Under The Roof.  Remote #1: milk spillage; Remote #2: applesauce spillage. So, now you see why my younger brother was the favorite. Anyway, t...
1 comment
Read more

New Year's Solutions

I've never been a fan of resolutions at this time of year.  Usually, a resolution is what a person makes to "solve" an old recurring problem ( this year, I really am going to quit smoking, eat better, or stop reading Nicholas Sparks novels, etc. ). And usually, a resolution is vague.  As in, I'm going to get healthy!  But, I have no real plan of action of how to do it!! Despite my cynicism about making NY Resolutions, I do feel the need every end-of-year to come to make some kind of decisions about the year ahead - plans, goals, visions, etc.  2013 has been the year of indecision and immobility.  For me, anyway.  2014 will very likely be the year of movement...it's been looming on the horizon now for some time. I'm not much of a planner...I never really have been.  I've just sort of let things fall into my lap...and well, things have worked out okay for me, most of the time.  Professionally speaking, that is.  But now, I've been having ...
1 comment
Read more