Sweet Potatoes with Grand Marnier in Orange Cups

I don't like sweet potatoes. They are already sweet and people insist on piling on brown sugar and marshmallows until they are sticky and just candy-like. But CD does such a good job selling these that I made it for one of my dishes to pass at my family's Thanksgiving. To add to the pressure, my mom said if I was making sweet potatoes, she wouldn't make any at all. Great. However, I knew this was a winner when I first whipped them. The orange-y taste is refreshing and unexpected. It just begs you to take another bite. I made them the night before and toted them on the train Thanksgiving morning. Upon arriving at my parents' house, I put them in a bowl, sprinkled the rest of the Grand Marnier on top along with the butter and brown sugar and popped it in the oven. There was too much Grand Marnier on top and it didn't have a chance to all burn off (the oven was set at 350 instead of 375 but we WERE trying to cook six different things at once) so the top layer had a definite tang to it. Luckily, we stirred it up before serving and solved most of that problem. Next time I'll just sprinkle the rest of the Grand Marnier on top and stop when it's well sprinkled - even if there is some left. Otherwise, these were a hit. There were none leftover so I think it's a sign I should make them for Christmas, too!

Chocolate Bread Pudding Maurice with Raspberry Sauce

My mother used to make bread pudding for me when I was little. With raisins and lots of cinnamon, it was delightful. If you're looking for that same, bready moist taste, steer clear of this. But if you adore chocolate and want a rich (and I mean RICH) chocolate goodness with the sass of the raspberry sauce, MAKE THIS DESSERT. I made it for my family's Thanksgiving as they are all chocolate lovers. I bought a dense, European, unsweetened bread from the the Breadsmith here in Chicago. It was very easy to make (even if I did have to look up what CD meant by "scald the cream") and I just trusted that CD was right when she said "it WILL set up". I made Strawzberry Sauce instead of Raspberry (75% Strawberry, 25% Raspberry) to go with the bread pudding. My families decision: DELICIOUS. So good, in fact that no one would take any home. I know in the rest of the world that means it wasn't good - but in my family, everyone seems to think if they love it, they should stop eating it or it will make them fat. So every time I tried to pawn some off on someone, they would say, "Oh, I can't - I'll eat it all!". My mom is going to visit the Crazy Oven Lady (dear friend of the family) today and said she would take the rest to her. My only advice to make this creamy, lovely dish better: Cut the recipe in half.

Dessert Nachos

My sweetheart thinks these sound gross. Akin to "Dessert Pizza". There are just some things that shouldn't be eaten as dessert and, for him, nachos are one of them. For me, they sounded better than they turned out. They were rather time consuming to make and I will probably only make them again for a big party or something. They are low-ish in sugar (especially if you omit the "Sour Cream") so I may use this for future times when low sugar is desired in a cookie. As far as working my way through the book goes, I killed three birds with one recipe. I had to make Fruit Salsa, Dessert Nachos and Pecan-Cinnamon Parchment Triangles to do the whole thing. Once I got the hang of the rolling out of the dough (which by the way I had to do with a bottle of Sherry since we didn't get a rolling pin like we registered for and, for now, I'm too cheap to buy one) it went fairly quickly. And, I have to admit, when the lemon custard boiled and turned clear (just like CD said it would) felt like a gourmet chef! I arranged everything on a plate to look just like nachos and my sweetheart did manage to eat three. Out of about 130 cookies, he ate three. I guess I know what I am bringing to the potluck at work tomorrow.

Casserole of Slow-Cooked Calypso Beans with Orange and Onion

This was one of two recipes that I wanted to make from the very first time I flipped through this book (the other was Ned's Firey Oven French Bakes). I imagined it was more of an all-in-one meal. It is clearly a bean dish (hence its location in the bean chapter) so it needs a little something with it. We had corn bread muffins. But the beans - great! They are sweet and tangy with just a hint of an after-kick. CD is right about being heavy handed with the black pepper - it even out the sweet so that your dinner doesn't end up being too sweet. I may very well make this for my family's Thanksgiving dinner. We shall see. I used Great Northern beans in lieu of Calypso to no great detriment. I should have used our huge, oval slow cooker though so that all the onions could saute at once. Our smaller, round one only let some cook at once, meaning that the onions were quite strong and I cooked the beans the full 4 hours to even that out. But they were great. I even used the leftover orange concentrate as a glaze (as CD recommends in Dairy Hollow Soup and Bread) on the muffins. Fantastic if a bit over kill on the sweet orange. My sweetheart has renamed these "Apple Beans" since he thinks they taste like apple (despite the healthy dose of orange juice concentrate). Oh well, at least he liked them!

Steven's Spicy Black Bean Soysage Stew

YUM! This stew was great. It was cold outside and my sweetheart had just gotten home from tour and I wanted to whip up something hearty in a hurry. This was perfect. Surprisingly few ingredients combine to make a delicious, warm stew with just a spark of heat to it. The sweet potatoes are a nice touch and, though CD suggests serving this over rice with a soysage patty on the side, we served it over quinoa (you're not surprised) and ground up the soysage and just threw it in the pot. The soysage is just spicy enough to provide a little kick throughout the stew. I wish I'd doubled the batch - it was so, so good. Sometimes vegetarian eating doesn't provide that meaty part of the meal (for lack of a better phrase) but there is absolutely nothing missing from this meal. In that vein, I was thinking while eating this that people often ask me, "So, what do you eat?" I suppose I wondered the same thing before becoming a vegetarian. However, this one meal alone had me eating a much wider variety of foods than I ever did before I became a vegetarian. I know I am much more healthy now than before and, as long as I'm touting the benefits of vegetarian eating, I recently had my bone density checked (I don't drink cows' milk and eat very little dairy). It was the highest they had seen at the health fair at Navy Pier. I was 3.4. I was so high I was off the charts. -.7 and higher is considered okay. As you can probably tell, I'm pretty pleased with myself.