It’s Furious Balancing

One of my co-workers is an excellent cook, and she doesn’t skimp on the butter and cheese.  When I decided to do a rib roast for Christmas dinner, I knew I wanted a calorie-laden, decadent potato recipe to go along with the (pretty basic) roast meat.   She says she’s prepared this several times and that it’s a 5-star recipe.

I believe this comes from Cook’s Country magazine.  The photocopied recipe I have doesn’t say, but I’m pretty sure that’s the source.

Delmonico Potato Casserole

• 3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 onion, chopped fine
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2½ cups heavy cream
• 1½ cups low sodium chicken broth
• 2½ pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into ½-inch cubes
• ⅛ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• Salt and pepper
• 1 teaspoon grated zest and 2 teaspoons juice from 1 lemon
• 5 cups frozen shredded hash brown potatoes, thawed and patted dry with paper towels
• ¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese
• ¼ cup finely chopped fresh chives

1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees.  Melt 1 Tablespoon butter in Dutch Oven over medium-high heat.  Cook onion until softened, about 3 minutes.  Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Stir in 2 cups cream, 1 cup broth, Yukon Golds, nutmeg, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper.  Bring to boil, then reduce heat to medium and simmer until potatoes are translucent at edges and mixture is slightly thickened, about 10 minutes.  Off heat, stir in lemon zest and juice.
2. Transfer potato mixture to 13 x 9 inch baking dish and bake until bubbling around edges and surface is just golden, about 20 minutes.  Meanwhile, melt remaining butter (2 Tablespoons) in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Cook shredded potatoes until beginning to brown, about 2 minutes.  Add remaining cream (½ cup), remaining broth (½ cup) and ½ teaspoon pepper to skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid has evaporated, about 3 minutes.  Off heat, stir in ½ cup cheese and 2 Tablespoons chives.
3. Remove baking dish from oven and top with shredded potato mixture.  Sprinkle with remaining cheese (¼ cup) and continue to bake until top is golden brown, about 20 minutes.  Let cool 15 minutes.  Sprinkle with remaining chives. Serve.

The recipe also states that this can be made ahead through Step 1, cooled completely, transferred to baking dish and refrigerated (covered with plastic wrap) for 1 day.  To serve, proceed as directed in Step 2, increasing baking time to 25 – 30 minutes.

One of my favorite poems, holiday season or not.

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A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times when we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities dirty and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wineskins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

While my absence from blogging primarily is due to a heavy work load at the office, knitting under a deadline, and not a few problems with my home computer, I am, for the most part, Doing Quite Well — at least as far as my depression is concerned.  I enjoy the dark, cold winter nights.   I crawl into my den with my books, cats, yarn, and computer games, and I am Very Content Indeed — happily and cozily cocooned.

There’s a passage in Moby Dick, when Ishmael and Queequeg are under the covers at the boarding house, prior to their sailing on The Pequod, which describes this comforting warmth and well-being perfectly:

We felt very nice and snug, the more so since it was chilly out of doors; indeed out of bedclothes too, seeing that there was no fire in the room.  The more so, I say, because truly to enjoy bodily warmth, some small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast….[I]f like Queequeg and me in the bed, the tip of you nose or the crown of your head be slightly chilled, why then, indeed, in general consciousness you feel most delightfully and unmistakably warm….[T]he height of this sort of deliciousness is to have nothing but the blanket between you and your snugness and the cold of the outer air.  Then there you lie like the one warm spark in the heart of an arctic crystal.

No Seasonal Affective Disorder here, thankyouverymuch, at least not the “normal” kind.

We have a Christmas tree up for the first time in two years.  Two Christmases ago, I lost Gregor and I had new kittens to care for.  Last Christmas, a combination of Teh Husband’s work and mine (and a few bouts with head colds) kept us from doing much.  This year I finally have the energy for a little celebration and relaxation.

I am officially off work until Monday, December 29th.  I know it might not seem like much to some of you, but to me, I have four consecutive days of freedom and pleasure.  No traveling.  No relatives.  No must-attend parties.  No Christmas shopping.  No craziness.  I have four days to call my own and I have no intention of doing anything I don’t feel like doing.  I think the most stressful activity will be doing the grocery shopping tomorrow to get the missing odds and ends for our Christmas Day Feast.

Le Menu (so far)

Foolproof Rib Roast. Teh Husband and I are going out in the morning to pick up a 6-pound standing rib roast at Knight’s Market.

Steamed Asparagus with Real Hollandaise Sauce. This involves whisking egg yolks and lemon juice over a double boiler as you incrementally add melted butter, whisking, whisking, whisking all the way.  There is no comparison between Real Hollandaise and That Blender Crap.

Delmonico Potato Casserole. If you’re nice to me, I’ll type out the recipe.  The recipes I found online for Delmonico Potatoes left a lot to be desired.  One even called for — I kid you not — cubed processed cheese food. I’m certain there is a time and a place for cubed processed cheese food, but my Christmas Day Feast is not it.

An As-Yet-to-Be-Determined Dessert. Maybe.  Teh Husband picked up the Williams-Sonoma Peppermint Bark for me today, and I’m satisfied to call that our dessert.  This is assuming I don’t eat it all in the next 36 hours.

More later, cats and kittens.

More in a little while…

These are screenshots of Laiane, Elven Ranger, in Dragon Age: Origins.    I’ll do a longer post when I’ve played a bit more and have a better feel for the game.