FFD CTY Blizzard Booty - What are Chowhounders making to cope

[jfood]

With about 15" of snow looks like another indoor activity day.

What are people cooking today to cope.

Me...I am looking at a batch of Hazan Green Lasagne and little jfood wants some of the steak I have stashed in the freezer. Fortunately the grill is 3 feet outside the back door...shovel, shovel.

What about others.

[JerryMe]

Well, I'm not in the FFD CTY area - I'm in Phoenix AZ - and yeah, we have freezing rain. Ok - It feels like freezing but it's pretty close. Roads are starting to get ice on them.

Making a beef stew - just pulled it out of the oven (1st time I've tried that method ). Going to serve w/ egg noodles ilo the usual potatoes that I normally put in.

Have leftover pumpkin cookies w/ semi-sweet chips in them for dessert. Everybody raved about them but I don't get the buzz. At All!

One more notice - um, the TV crews are out down the street as the street sewer is sending flooding water out onto the street.

Oh, yeah - I have a clue about living in snow but, it's been a LONG time.

[Maggie19]

Here in Minnesota - first of all, about 19 inches on the ground, and another 8-10 coming on New Years Eve - it's going to be chili. Dried ancho/ and New Mexico Red's diced with cubed beef, cumin, celery, white onion, and pinto beans. A couple of frozen tomatoes from the garden, garlic, and beef stock. SImmer for a couple of hours and serve w/cornbread.... Local craft beers and we'll be set.

[mickeygee]

we were at relatives so I couldn't go to wild in the kitchen, but I did make some meatballs and gravy during the storm. Although I was itching to make rosemary, cheddar, black pepper muffins that have become my staple snowstorm baking.

[chefathome]

Really thick proper Scottishs shortbread.

[blue room]

I know I'll feel dumb after I see the answer, but what is FFD CTY ?

[buttertart]

Fairfield County, CT. I guess.

[blue room]

Oh, thanks!

[Euonymous]

Don't worry, I grew up there and just figured it out. Fairfield County.

[bushwickgirl]

Made a big pot of mixed mushroom-barley soup. Baked a chocolate cake, ate some cake, ran out of milk, needed more for the cake, no stores open in mostly unshoveled or unplowed walking distance, bah, blizzards!

[cheesecake17]

what kind of cake? can you use something you have in the house? maybe orange juice?

[bushwickgirl]

Chocolate cake, the one cake that requires milk to drink while eating. I used a goodly portion of milk when making the cake and mrbushy drank the rest.

That's ok, that was yesteday, the local stores are open today.

[buttertart]

Make a chocolate icing with orange juice - really great. My mom's trick. Takes away the mwuh cloyingness.

[bushwickgirl]

Will try, as a sub for milk! The orange-chocolate connection is always a winner. It was the icing that screamed milk more than the cake itself.

[buttertart]

You won't be disappointed.

[cheesecake17]

Lucky that the stores are open today! I think some local stores are open.. but no way to get there.. car is stuck and no plows came by yet.

I was in Costco on Sunday so I stocked up. Now I just need something to do with 3 egg whites.. any ideas?

[HillJ]

I just got back from the market; some streets were awfully high with snow still but even the PO was in full swing already. I'm making pumpkin custard right now. With 3 egg whites I'd make a milkshake in the blender with yogurt, bananas, maple syrup and cinnamon.

[cheesecake17]

MIlkshake sounds good.. but unfortunately no raw eggs for me.

It'll prob be meringues... again.

[kattyeyes]

No, no...try flourless chocolate cookies. You can make them spicy if you like (I like!!!). It's the Payard recipe and I learned of it here:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/651981#5452859

And successfully baked batch two (not rocks as I baked the first time) here. Proof in the pictures. Even when they came out like rocks, they still tasted good. :) http://kattyskitchen.wordpress.com

Cheers to Danna and Caitlin once again--these are very tasty cookies!

[cheesecake17]

Oooh those cookies look good! I think I'm going to make those (instead of *more* meringues!)

Two questions though-
- can I sub choc chips for the white choc?
- can I skip the raspberries?

[kattyeyes]

Yes to both! The original cookies have no chips in them at all--I threw in white for contrast. Trust me, they are very chocolate-y on their own without any additions. :) I hope you enjoy them!

[cheesecake17]

Thanks! This will be my activity for tomorrow!

[buttertart]

Meringues?

[c oliver]

Can you find milk in those tetrapacks (?sp)? That's the only way they sell milk in Brazi, that I'm aware of, and it's sold at room temp. I can find it at WalMart and try to keep one on hand for just such occasions.

[bushwickgirl]

We have Parmalat brand widely available in grocers here. I should really keep a few around for these storm related milk shortages, just slips my mind.

[buttertart]

We don't drink milk at home, sometines we have some around, but the Parmalat things are v useful for baking. I like the 3 8oz ones packaged together for baking, no waste.

[susanl143]

I've been keeping around the dried goats milk. It's richer tasting than the dried milk and doesn't ever seem to have that stale flavor dried milk can get.

[buttertart]

That's a good idea. The dry whole milk from Holland you can get in Chinese stores is good that way too. Brand is KLIM, get it? ;-)

[coll]

I was going to say that too but I'm lazy! I got a nice big can of Meyenburg's (I know that's not right) dry goat milk at Fairway and have used it a couple of times in a pinch. I will always have a can on hand going forward. Also found aseptic almond milk at Trader Joes and already used one of the cartons. This is the way to go, I swear.

[jfood]

shoveling took a little longer to get the pups a path out back, so the lasagne was delayed. Made the spinach pasta from Hazan with some of my canned marinara. Plus a few defrosted filets from Fairway.

[c oliver]

Seven hour power failure and we did chili dogs on the grill and side burner. We snowshoe paths for the dogs.

[buttertart]

Sloth set in - was planning to bake and make an elaborate beef daube, but found a recipe in the big yellow Gourmet cookbook for beef in tomatoes and garlic (rolled chuck roast + 1 28 oz can of tomatoes cut up with juice + 1 head of garlic separated but not peeled, s&p, 3 hrs at 300 deg F) - I had 2 lb of chuck blade steaks, browned them, did the tomato and garlic (1 1/2 heads), then couldn't leave well enough alone so put in a bay leaf, some oregano, and probably too many hot pepper flakes, was a bit dull so added a few squirts of fish sauce and a glug of Chinese black vinegar. Smells v good approaching end of hour 3. (Sloth involved extensive perusal of the cookbook it came from, lots of nice things in it.)

[buttertart]

PS the beef thing is really good and so easy. The pepper flakes mellowed in the long cooking.

[iluvcookies]

Just over the border from you in NY, we got about 18". Last night I made a turkey and a double batch of cupcakes, and today I made braised tofu for lunch.

[Rmis32]

Put up some vegetarian chili, last night, in my recently purchased slow cooker. Went a little heavy on the chile chipotles in adobo, so while it might be cold outside, I'll be warm inside. Glowingly warm.

[HillJ]

Ditto on matzah ball soup. Printing off a beer cake recipe right now to use up the holiday brew.
Later today I'll bake bread. Need the house to warm up.
Btwn the wind & the lack of city plows, shoveling snow is pointless right now.
Stay safe CH's!

[cheesecake17]

beer cake sounds really interesting!

I want to make chocolate cupcakes with frosting.. do you have a good recipe?

[HillJ]

hey cheesecake17!

http://shewearsmanyhats.com/2010/12/beer-cake/
this is the beer cake, I didn't add dried fruit (ran out) but it smells wonderful.

my go to on cupcakes & frosting is always this baker: http://cupcakeblog.com/

[tito]

Luckily I made it to Bon Ton Fish Market yesterday before they closed. I have some gorgeous swordfish that I will grill and serve with a winter salad of celery root, carrots, fennel and a parsley vinaigrette. I have a bottle of Walter Hansel Chard chillin to wash it down.

Luckily the wind blew all of the snow off of my back patio so no shovel needed. The driveway was a different story though!

[small h]

On Saturday night I was kicking myself for buying waaaaay too much food for Christmas brunch with the family. By Sunday afternoon I was congratulating myself on my excellent blizzard preparation. We're good for a few more days, but we might get pretty sick of bagels & lox.

[coll]

Christmas leftovers (lasagna, meat and fish etc) enough to last til the New Year weekend. Excellent timing as far as food, for this storm.

[chefathome]

Where we live in northern Canada it's not a matter of coping, it is just a very normal part of our very cold and long winters. However, I still take advantage of it and bake bread, make condiments such as barbecue sauce and mustard, grind whole spices for blends and make chocolate chip cookies, reserving some of the raw dough to eat myself.

[buttertart]

Wishing I had more butter in so in could bake more. Down to my last stick!!! Crisis. May resort to Crisco.

[chefathome]

Since our butter (reg. $6.49) came on sale for $4.99 last week we bought ten pounds and still had 20 pounds in our freezer from the last sale. Being without butter is indeed a crisis!

[cheesecake17]

Yesterday made chicken matzah ball soup for dinner. Also made choco-coconut-nut bars, which came out really good.

For today...
- noodles with meat sauce (1/2 for dinner and 1/2 to freeze)
- red lentil soup
- chex muddy buddies
- bran muffins with pears
- magic cookie bars
- cutout sugar cookies

But first... making breakfast for myself and husband. French toast with sauteed apples and maple syrup.

[Gio]

It's snowing like the dickens here. Daughter will arrive soon to help with the shovelling (No sno-blowers for us. Oh No. Sturdy stock, etc. ) I'll make a spicy tomato sauce with left over lobster bodies and pretend it's Lobster Fra Diavolo, using linguine for the pasta. Might just throw some beer bread into the oven. It's nice hot with butter oozing...

[bear]

Made a big pot of tomato sauce and a batch of eggplant rollatini yesterday afternoon. Good comfort food, and I have another pan of that to cook tonight if we don't make it out for our planned western Mass. getaway. It's not looking too hopeful right now!

[BostonZest]

I have the remains braised lamb shanks to turn into something wonderful. With local Stillman's farm sausage in the freezer, I'm thinking Cassoulet or a lamb and barley soup. Either one will be welcome on a cold day.

Penny
http://www.bostonzest.com/

[susanl143]

Snow still falling here and will be for the rest of the day. I'm going to mull some left over Christmas red wine to go with leftover Christmas turkey (home grown and perfect) for lunch today. The breeding flock of turkeys are inside their own house for the storm but will be getting chopped apples and kale later today.

[junescook]

Think I'll bake some bread. Not that we're desparate for it, but we have so much other food in the house there's just about no room left for anything else.