Yam Gratin

So you might have thought my love affair with the cuisinart couldn't have possibly run deeper, but I discovered that it has a slicing attachment.  Needless to say we've been eating a lot of gratins lately.  Cause not only is it a belly-warming comfort food, it's really cheap, and now with my slicer it is really fast.

2 yams, sliced thin

put half in shallow baking dish.  pour about a cup of heavy cream over it, salt and pepper, dried minced onion, nutmeg (few pinches), sprinkle layer of shredded Parmesan cheese, add second half of yams, more cream, more salt and pepper, cover in cheese. 

My downfall was that i added pats of butter here and there,  but this melted and pooled and just looked disgusting.  It tasted good, but looked terrible and I don't think the butter really added anything to it.

Chocolate Mousse Pie, tofu all the way

This thing rocked the table all the way, not to be boastful, but sersly.  You'll want a big glass of milk or a nice cup of coffee to cut the richness of this delectable treat.

I got this from the Gourmet Sleuth.

fyi I used store-bought refrigerated crusts for all the pies this year.

Pie Ingredients
1(16-ounce) package Azumaya Silken Tofu (drained)
12 ounces good quality semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate cut into small pieces
2 to 4 tablespoons sifted powdered sugar if desired
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 Whipped cream or non-dairy whipped topping Chocolate shavings or curls

Puree tofu in food processor; add melted chocolate and powdered sugar; process until completely blended, scraping sides down. Add vanilla; blend well.

Turn mixture into crust.

Chill 1 hour or until set. Garnish with whipped cream and shavings. Let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes, uncovered, before serving (to enhance the flavor). 

Pumpkin Pie, with a tofu kind of orientation

So, as part of my son's now apparently hallucinated-by-me egg allergy, I felt compelled to provide for him an egg free pumpkin pie option.  He never did touch the thing as far as I know.  But, I liked it.  So fine.

I followed a super easy recipe by Rita on Food.com

*special note - when a recipe says at the end to "chill"  I like to take this to mean, "now calm the hell down and enjoy a glass of white."

 

 

Ingredients

Servings: 10
10 10

• 1 (16 ounce) can pumpkin puree or 1 (16 ounce) canfresh pumpkin puree or 1 (16 ounce) canfresh pureed butternut squash or 1 (16 ounce) canfresh pureed acorn squash or 1 (16 ounce) can fresh pureed sweet potatoes
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 allspice
• 1 (10 ounce) package soft tofu, do not use low fat
• 1 9-inch pie shell, unbaked

Directions

Prep Time: 10 mins
Total Time: 1 1/4 hr

1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
2. Cream the tofu, pumpkin and sugar in a food processor; add salt and spices, and mix thoroughly.
3. Pour mixture into pie shell and bake for 15 minutes.
4. Lower heat to 350 F and bake for another 40 minutes.
5. Chill and serve

Mashed Yam and Potato Casserole

I have yams and russet potatoes uncooked and taking up too much space.

1 yam
2 russet potatoes

cut and boil

with hand mixer, mash the roots and add 2 tbsp butter, a generous handful of shredded cheese (i had colby jack on hand), about a 1/4 cup of heavy cream (still working through the literal GALLON of heavy cream in the fridge).  add garlic salt to taste.

Now I accidentally added some extra cream and it was a bit smoother than I prefer, so I decided to crown the thing a Casserole, topped it with the rest of our left-over stuffing and baked it on high for about 10 minutes to toast up the topping.

yum.

Gnocchi in Pumpkin Cream Sauce

Long time no write.  Serious slump in cooking mojo but I'm climbing out of the spiral of anxiety-produced last-minute crap dinners.  Last night though was one of those rare dinners for me that was delicious, wholesome, well-received by children and husband alike, and was a last minute inspiration.

Whole wheat gnocchi (2 packages for us)

Heat: 1 tbsp EVOO, 3-4 cloves garlic (chopped), 1 small/medium onion (till onion is almost translucent)
Add salt and pepper
Add chopped rosemary (1 tbsp?)
Add 1 cup heavy cream
Add 1 cup broth (I used vegetable broth)

heat to near boil
bring heat down a bit

Add 1 can pumpkin,whisk it in slowly
check seasonings add more salt if needed.

dump over cooked and drained gnocchi.

yum.

Theme Time: Left overs

Not just left-overs from Thanksgiving dinner, I have left-over ingredients that didn't get used last week.

In a fit of pre-thanksgiving psychosis (an inherited quality from the hostess with the most psychosis) I stock-piled ingredients like the Thanksgiving Apocalypse was coming.

This week is focused on using up lots of these things.