Ending the year with food

The end of a year often signals several important developments: cold weather, holidays, and the tail end of football season. These seemingly unrelated things often collide to one activity in my household: cooking. So I figured; what better way to end the year, than to show some of the recent dishes/confections that have been brewing in the kitchen?

Fajita night! Sauteed steak with accompaniments (qtips not included!)

Assembled fajita. It was tasty.

Stir-fried Shanghai noodles, with chicken, shitake mushrooms,
and bean sprouts. Hm. Should have added something green, huh?

Instead of buying gifts for Christmas, I ended up making edible gifts for some friends. I had an idea to make a chocolate truffle lollipop; I was an old hand at making truffles, and thought it would be adorable if I put it on a stick. No problem, right? Then I had the bright idea of having a caramel center. Gooey, delicious, what could be better? At least... that was the idea. My caramel centers were certainly gooey... and had the darndest time staying on that stick. I ended up having to put the caramel in the freezer to harden up, and even then ended up with quite a few un-giftable results.

Caramel centers, chilling in the freezer

Pool of ganache

Growing lollipops

End product. Yayyy, they're so pretty!

On the other end of the spectrum, one the coolest gifts I received this year was also technically home-made. One of my friends in New York is involved with urban farming and actually had a couple beehives this year. I was thrilled and impressed when I got this:

New York honey from my friend Michael's
very own bees!

 Sometimes, I'm too lazy to cook. And it's so easy to bring this to a party!

My contribution to Christmas dinner. 24-month old prosciutto,
bresaola, and a nice hunk of parmesean.

Finally, I've been cooking up a storm lately, thanks to my parents gift: a Whole Foods gift card. Yay, groceries!

Two pieces of richly marbled ribeye steak

Sweet potatoes, being glazed in a skillet

Dinner is served!

Dinner #2. Pork tenderloin is seared over the stove before being
put in the oven for about 20 minutes

Tenderloin, sliced and served over a bed of couscous with
sauteed garlic spinach.

A mad scientist approach to brunch: layers of crispy pan fried potato
cubes, spinach, and sausage... topped with fried eggs and cheese. It
all went into the broiler for a few minutes to get melty.

Not the healthiest meal, but so very yummy.