Mama's Christmas 2011 via Instagram and Camera +

For those of you who do not follow on instagram or twitter and those who ignore me on either.  A little of my Christmas via my iPhone. Instagram is my favorite app, and I share a lot and the folk I follow inspire me tremendously. Hope you enjoy!!

Pre Christmas
1st day of Christmas Chewy Sugar cookies from www.cooksillustrated.com

So good they were gone in less than 2 days....

Mincemeat mixed up- I shredded the apple this year also added some of the syrup from my homemade candied clementine peels.


Rich Brioche Ingredients


My little man the Tony Montana of flour. Seriously the leftover flour after I kneaded the dough he went to town on...sigh


Made delicious Buttered Pecan Scones from Dessert for Two. Helped my husband get in the mood to wrap some pressies...he really enjoys wrapping presents.


Some truffle prep (before i covered them in chocolate) for How Sweet It Is's Crispy Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Truffles. Soooo good. I used cocoa crispies as well as rice krispies in the dough. They were gone in an hour. Sigh



We did a lot of crafts and spruced up our living room this month. To reward my family, I made Joy the Baker's Red Velvet Christmas Cupcakes. Really good, so good I only got one!! Thank you family ;)


Random bath time 'take a picture of me mommy' flick.


Some of the interesting 'snowmen' from one of our craft night. We are proud anyway and display them...in the main bathroom, but still...people will see them.


Homemade Potato Thyme Rolls ready for the oven!


Cranberry anxiously waiting to be turned into cranberry sauce!


On to the goose aka Bertha Mae!

The toasted star anise, szechuan peppers, cinnamon stick, cloves, and fennel ready to be turned in a powder in the coffee grinder (i don't use it to grind coffee just spices!)


The goose all massaged with orange, lemon, lime zest, and my 5 spice powder! Inspired by Gordon Ramsey! Must work on my scoring technique, though!


I then stuffed the bird with a pricked apple, foie gras, rosemary, sage, orange, and of course seasoned with salt.


Put in the fridge, then sat at room temp about 30 minutes before roasting the next day


More prep
With my homemade brioche loaves, I made savory bread pudding with brioche, bacon and leeks!


First time ever making collard greens because they're usually ALWAYS out at the commissary! Not this year and I put my foot in them!


Oh Christmas tree


My Santa Man enjoying mince pie and a spiked mug of homemade eggnog!


Our living room featuring another craft!


As close to a white Christmas as we were getting this year...


Faking on Christmas Eve...can't fool santa!


LOVE my footed pajamas! Bought these from Walmart back in November and they actually fit my tall self!!! Santa likes them a lot ;)


Hamhocks and Collards....mmmmmmmmm. I put way more collards in, by the way, this is half way through.


Bertha Mae! If you enjoy the dark meat on an poultry, you will enjoy goose. So damn good and the fat that drips out is amazing. It's a gift that keeps on giving!!! More people need to get on the goose train ;)


Crunchy on the outside and fluffy on the inside goose fat roasted potatoes! We will make this again with the saved goose. If you don't have goose fat, use crisco. What makes goose awesome is that it has an insanely high smoke point so no disgusting fumes and it gets REALLY hot.


Dinner!


Spiced Goose w/ honey
Goose Fat Roasted Potatoes
Collard Greens and Hamhocks
Slow Cooker Sweet Potato Casserole (i had a photo of the process the iphone literally died I had to run to the repair dude's house. Luckily he fixed it for me quickly!)
Savory Bread Pudding with Brioche, Leeks, and Bacon
Orange Cranberry Sauce
Potato Thyme Rolls

I also made A chocolate mousse pie, but we were too full to eat it. Still waiting for us in the fridge! I also took a lot of photos with my camera and a even more video. Look for a video from me after the new year!!

Thank you all for reading! I really hope you all are having a grand holiday!!!! 

Love Sommer and Family


spent most of the day in our jammies! well my daughter in the play dress we got her for Christmas.


from my own camera- Me and my son. He's with his family again for Christmas :(

Spiced Tomato and Coconut Soup

Growing up you couldn't get me near tomato soup. My parents would warm up a can and serve it to us. Nothing else, no cream, chives, crusty bread, just tomato liquid as I called it. My disdain for tomato 'liquid' carried on until I met my husband. He loves tomato soup and would buy the canned version regularly early on in our courtship, because I was for damn sure was not going to make it for him! But the more I learned about food, I knew I had to face past food dislikes of certain foods. One of the first I tackled was tomato soup. I made my first tomato soup from scratch about 2.5 years ago and it was amazing. This soup had body, flavor, and not just a wet red glop o' liquid. My husband was very pleased and impressed as was I! So since then, I've made all kinds of different versions of tomato soups, including another favorite I made this past summer I blogged about. No more canned soups went inside my kitchen cupboards.

This soup is by Gordon Ramsay from his  book and series on Channel 4 Great Escape. Where he journeyed throughout Indian exploring one of England's favo(u)rite cuisines, Indian food aka curry. I caught a few episodes of this and it was a great learning experience and man it made me hungry. This book was also a Christmas present from the husband. I just cracked it open last Friday night, and when I saw this recipe,  I knew I had to make this tomato soup ASAP. I also found a few dishes for my upcoming and first Indian-themed dinner party with my pal Becca!

This soup is delicious, bursting with flavor and it can be made very quickly. To cut prep time, substitute canned whole tomatoes (drained) and use hot madras curry powder instead of the ground cumin, fenugreek, chillies, turmeric. I made this recipe almost exactly as he did, only I added less chili peppers as my daughter loves soup but can't stand heat!

This would make a great starter or a main course. Easily doubled and tastes even better leftover.

Spiced Tomato and Coconut Soup

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 lb Tomatoes

2 T vegetable oil

1 large onion, chopped

1 inch ginger, peeled and chopped

2 large garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

Kosher/Sea Salt and freshly ground pepper

2 red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped (add more peppers or don't deseed for more spice)

1/2 dried fenugreek, crushed with a pinch of salt

1 bay leaf

1 t ground tumeric

1 t ground cumin

1/3 cup tomato puree

1 can of coconut milk (i used light coconut milk)

1T cumin seeds

pinch of asafoetida (optional)

handful of coriander/cilantro leaves for garnish

toasted coconut for garnish

Directions

Bring pan of water to the boil. Lightly score a cross at the top and base of each tomato then lower them into the boiling water for 15 to 20 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon and refresh in a bowl of iced water. Once cooled, peel off the skins of tomatoes and then roughly chop.

Heat the oil in a medium sauce pan and add the onion, ginger and garlic. Add a pinch of salt and pepper and sweat for 4 to 5 minutes until onions begins to soften. Add the chillies, fenugreek, bay leaf, turmeric, and ground cumin and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes. Tip in chopped tomatoes and tomato puree and stir well.

Pour in coconut milk and use the can to measure out an equal amount of water. Add this to the pan and bring to a simmer. Cook gently for about 15-20 minutes until tomatoes are very soft and have broken down.

Puree the soup using a stick blender, or pour soup into a blender. If you really want a smooth result push puree through a sieve. I didn't do that, I like a little body to my soup :) Season with salt and pepper and set aside. 

When ready to serve, reheat the soup. In a small saucepan, heat oil (coconut or vegetable) and add cumin seeds and asafoetida if using. As they begin to pop, take pan off the heat and pour spiced oil in soup. Stir well!

Ladle into warm bowl and garnish if you want. This photo shoot was quite short as this soup was too hard to resist!!! Hope you try this!! It's perfect for this weather. The best thing is you don't need perfect tomatoes which you will not find this time of year in Germany. The sourness of the tomatoes adds good flavor to the soup :)

Enjoy!!