New Resolutions, New Toys, New Year!

So, it's January, 2009, and my first post of the new year. I really hope to be more consistent with the posting...just like I hope to be more consistent with running and less consistent with beer drinking. Seriously. I promise...really gonna try to get it together.

First, I must show off the newest member of my household--the Series 600 Professional Mixer from KitchenAid. (see above) It was the best Christmas present a girl could get. (Thank you, thank you, thank you, DF!) Below is the first thing(s) I made with it--a honey-wheat bread braid and a herb-garlic boule. They turned out quite well (I just used the basic bread recipe in the book that came with the mixer and then tweaked the ingredients), and are yet another step on my road to mastering bread baking.

Also, a quick recap of Christmas (for posterity's sake). I made the black cherry and chocolate macaroons pictured below. The recipe is from epicurious--it's here, but since I couldn't find raspberry extract, I went with cherry. They were delicious, although you can see in the picture that the less pink/more brown ones cooked about a minute longer than they should have. Moral of the story with macaroons: when they look like you should leave them in for an extra minute or two, that's when you should take them out--they'll keep their color better, and have that addictive texture with the crunchy outside and soft inside.
Christmas Eve in the Ham Sandwich family has recently seen the Italian tradition of the Feast of the Seven Fishes. This year was year number two, and with a scaled down group, I had to be a little more creative with packing 7 types of fish into a managable course load (only 6 people were on hand for Christmas this year). Appitizers included sardines marinated in olive oil, herbs, and lemon juice; a smoked salmon spread made with cream cheese, sour cream, and dill; crabcakes (frozen from Whole Foods but quite delicious); and shrimp marinated in olive oil, garlic, and rosemary. (That's 4 fishes for those counting at home.) The last three fishes--mussels, scallops, and cod--were in a cioppino that we made last year. The recipe is here, and, simply put, it's the bomb. I think it's going to be tradition every year. Finally, I made a cheese and basil lasagne as the main course.

Christmas Day dinner centered around the ham brought home courtesy of dad's company. It was not a sprial-sliced, bone-in ham, but one of those ham logs that are usually too salty and not that exciting. Mom and I remedied the situation by soaking the ham in the sink full of water for a couple of hours. Then we popped it in the oven for about an hour or so, to let it heat up. We pulled it out of the oven, scored the top and sides in a cross-hatch pattern, then slathered the ham with a paste made of ground pecans, brown sugar, bourbon, and mustard, and apple juice. Back in the oven for another half hour and voila!--delicious, considerably more interesting ham. Paired with steam broccoli tossed with garlic and mashed potatoes mixed with parmesan cheese and sauteed mushrooms, it made for a great Christmas dinner. Yay! And now, back to figuring out what to make with the new mixer...