Bacon and bourbon pecan pie

I had a Pie Fail yesterday.

I know, you're thinking, "Aren't you like the cooking expert or whatever?" Yet, even I mess up recipes from time to time. It happens to the best of us.

I was originally going to make this Bacon and Bourbon Pecan Pie. But I was out of bourbon, and the only bacon in the house was primo wild boar bacon, which I didn't want to waste on a pie. So I made regular pecan pie instead.

Only, turns out it's a bad idea to put both blackstrap molasses and dark corn syrup in the same pecan pie. It was so molasses-y that it was pretty much inedible.

Fortunately the dessert wine I was going to drink with it was pretty good all by itself.

Beef and butternut squash stew

1 chopped onion
a few minced cloves of garlic
olive oil/bacon fat
1-2 lbs stew beef
a handful of chopped sundried tomatoes
1 roasted butternut squash
rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper
1 cup port
beef or chicken broth

Heat the few tablespoons olive oil or bacon fat, and saute the onion and garlic until soft. Add the rosemary and thyme. Add the beef, and cook until browned on the edges (maybe five minutes). Deglaze with the port. (Red wine would work well, too.) Add the already-roasted butternut squash, diced into big pieces, and the sundried tomatoes. Add enough broth to float the whole thing. Cook down, covered, for about an hour. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

This is a great winter stew. Last time I made it, the butternut squash essentially fell apart after roasting. I threw all the mush into the stew pot, and instead of chunks of beef and squash, I got chunks of beef. The squash virtually disappeared into the sauce, but it gave the whole thing a really divine sweetness.

Also, check out these other butternut squash recipes on Foodista!

Butternut Squash

Acorn squash stuffed with bread, cheese and bacon

Happy Black Friday, everyone!

My husband and I spent Thanksgiving dinner with some of his co-workers, who were graciously hosting an "Orphans' Thanksgiving," for people who had nowhere else to celebrate. Today we'll skip the retail madness, and I'll fix our own little Thanksgiving dinner here at home. Here's the menu:

Roast chicken
Acorn squash stuffed with bread, cheese and bacon, recipe courtesy of The Kitchn
Green beans with proscuitto and balsamic vinegar
Sweet potato fries
Some sort of pie (I'll share that recipe tomorrow)
And of course, a bottle of good wine

And we'll eat it in front of a blazing fire. We'll have to, since we don't have a dining room table yet.

And the winner is...

mathmahna! (I love Ree Drummond, too!) Send an email to brokefoodie@hotmail.com with your name and address and I'll get your copy of America the Edible to you just in time for the holidays!

Oyster stew

My grandmother served this at the beginning of every Thanksgiving dinner. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

1 cup milk
1 cup half and half
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon grated onion
salt and pepper to taste
1 pint drained oysters (save the juice)

Scald the first five ingredients, and keep warm. Frizzle the oysters in a little more butter in another pan, just until the edges start to curl in, and add that to the milk mix. Add the oyster juice, and cook another 2-3 minutes. Add 1-2 teaspoons lemon juice OR 2-3 tablespoons dry white wine. Add paprika to taste and serve.

Cookbook review: America the Edible by Adam Richman

Full disclosure: I’ve slept with this book’s author.

Not recently: not even in this decade. This was at least…13 (?) years ago, long before he had his own TV show and book deal. We were both poor interns, I was carrying on a miserable and scorching-hot affair with someone else, that’s pretty much the whole story. We dated (ahem, “dated”) for a grand total of about two weeks. That was that, and I don't think I ever thought of him again until I turned on the TV one day and had an epic “WTF?” moment.

(He is now the host of the Travel Channel’s “Man Vs. Food.”)

“I know that guy,” I thought. “Where do I know him fro—oh. OH."

And then:

"WAIT. How the hell does HE have a TV show and I don’t?”

Then I told all my friends I’d had carnal knowledge of a celebrity. And that’s my Adam Richman story.

So of course I had a vested interest in reading this book. Because we all get a vicarious thrill in checking up on our exes, don’t we? I confess, I’ve watched his show and it’s not for me. He travels to various BBQ joints, dives, etc., and eats their epic food challenges—72-oz steaks, 8-lb burgers, pizzas the size of Subarus, that sort of thing. It’s less a show about travel, or food, and more a paean to gluttony. Why eat any size burger, I think, if you’re shoving it down your throat too fast to actually taste it?

Fortunately, the book is not about how to eat 72 ounces of steak in under an hour without hurling. Actually, it's not really about his show at all. (I was surprised by that.) His book is more a collection of loose travel essays about nine different food cities: LA, Brooklyn, Honolulu, St. Louis, Cleveland, Austin, San Fran, Savannah, and Portland, ME. What he ate in those cities, why, which restaurants he'd recommend.

At least a quarter of the book is dedicated to the many nameless women accompanying him on his adventures, and at times he sounds like he's writing a bad romance novel. ("I braced for the arrival of this switchblade-sexy rockabilly baby who couldn't have weighed more than 105 pounds yet flattened me like a 17-ton tidal wave...Her sudden, summer-storm flashes of passion or petulance captivated me completely...She made me a lion, and for sport would slaughter me like a lamb.")

However, purple prose aside, the book is actually pretty good. I love reading about other people's food adventures, especially in cities I know/have visited/would visit, and Adam Richman is nothing if not well-traveled. It's also peppered throughout with recipes (including one from his mom), random bits of information, and lists like "Great Food Songs" and "Top Ten Eating Streets in the US."

So, the real question: would I recommend this book? Yes, of course. I would have enjoyed it, even without the salacious backdrop. But I knew him a realllllly long time ago, during a particularly sad and fucked-up time in my life, so I can't really think of Adam/watch his show/read his book without remembering how sad and fucked up I was once. I like to think I've improved a bit in my old age.

So, in the interest of good-ex-karma, I'm giving away my copy to one lucky reader! Leave a comment about your favorite food celebrity by midnight tonight (Wednesday), and I'll choose one at random!

Official Thanksgiving cocktail: Mulled apple cider with Calvados

I picked up a jug of apple cider last week, in preparation for Thanksgiving. (Alas, it isn't fresh. Also, it's pasteurized, which means it has basically no apple taste and a faint chemical afterburn. Boo.) So this weekend, I decided to do a little experimenting with it, to find the perfect Thanksgiving cocktail.

I tried dark rum, gin, lime juice, a number of different combinations. The clear winner was this one: mulled, hot, with Calvados.

Calvados, for those of you that don't know, is a fancy French version of applejack. Kind of like apple brandy, only not brandy. Apple booze + apple cider = apple goodness!

3 cups apple cider
A few whole cloves and whole allspice berries (or a pinch each of the ground versions)
A little fresh nutmeg
A couple of cinnamon sticks, broken apart
2 tablespoons brown sugar (I used a bourbon-vanilla infused sugar)

Simmer all that down for about 10 minutes, or until hot. Add 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup Calvados and heat through. Serve with Granny Smith apple slices as a garnish.