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Name That Dish!

partysugar — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:15:13 -0700

The menu for my Heroes season premiere party features a dish similar to the one pictured below. Do you know the name to this TV-dinner staple?

Come Party With Me: Heroes Season Premiere - Menu

partysugar — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 09:00:05 -0700

When hosting a viewing party of any sort, there are two options for planning a menu. You can serve foods inspired by the show or popular dishes classic to the TV dinner. For my Heroes season premiere party, I've decided to do the latter and offer friends a tasty re-interpretation of the 1950s TV dinner. Guests will be greeted with shot glasses of spicy tomato soup. Mini grilled cheese sandwiches are an excellent companion. Beef, mashed potatoes, peas, and caramelized onions make up the main course that looks scrumptious served on a TV dinner tray. To get these comforting, delicious, timeless recipes, read more.

Spicy Tomato Soup
From Gourmet magazine

Ingredients

2 (28- to 32-oz) cans whole tomatoes in juice (preferably organic)
1 large onion, coarsely chopped (2 1/4 cups)
2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh jalapeño chile including seeds
2 teaspoons finely chopped peeled fresh ginger
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
2 1/4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth (18 fl oz)
1 tablespoon sugar, or to taste
2 teaspoons salt, or to taste

Directions

Drain 1 can tomatoes, discarding juice, then purée with remaining can tomatoes (including juice) in a blender.
Cook onion, garlic, chile, and ginger in oil in a 4- to 5-quart heavy nonreactive pot over moderate heat, stirring frequently, until onion is softened, about 8 minutes.
Add cumin and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Stir in puréed tomatoes, broth, 1 tablespoon sugar, and 2 teaspoons salt and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, 20 minutes.
Working in 3 or 4 batches, blend soup in blender until smooth (use caution when blending hot liquids). Transfer soup as blended to a sieve set over a large bowl and force through sieve, discarding seeds.
Stir in sugar and salt to taste. Reheat in cleaned saucepan if necessary.

Serves 4.

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Grilled Mozzarella Sandwiches
From Martha Stewart

Ingredients

1 pound fresh buffalo mozzarella, cut into 4 equal pieces about 3-inches by 4-inches
8 1/2-inch thick firm white sandwich bread
2 large eggs
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
1 teaspoon coarse salt
A grating of nutmeg
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Directions

Place the mozzarella on 4 slices of the bread. Cover with the remaining slices to form sandwiches. Trim the crusts off to make perfect 4-inch squares.
In a wide shallow bowl, whisk the eggs. Add the cream, thyme leaves, salt, and nutmeg. Whisk until well blended.
In a 10 to 12-inch nonstick saute pan, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high heat until smoking. Add 1 tablespoon of the butter and cook until the sizzling subsides.
Dip 2 of the sandwiches into the egg mixture, turning to coat, place in the pan, and cook until golden brown on the first side, about 2 minutes.
Flip over and brown on the other side. Transfer the sandwiches to individual plates and repeat the process with the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 tablespoon butter, and 2 sandwiches. Cut in half, and serve immediately.

Makes 4 sandwiches or 16 triangles.

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Beef, Potatoes, and Peas
From Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine

Ingredients

2 large baking potatoes (about 1 1/4 pounds total)-peeled, quartered lengthwise and sliced 1/2 inch thick
3/4 cup heavy cream
Salt and pepper
1 pound ground beef sirloin
1 tablespoon flour
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 onions, thinly sliced
1 cup beef broth
3 tablespoons steak sauce, such as A.1.
One 10-ounce box frozen petite peas

Directions

In a small saucepan, combine the potatoes and enough salted cold water to cover. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain, return to the pot and mash with 6 tablespoons cream, 1 teaspoon salt and a pinch of pepper. Set aside.
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine the ground sirloin with 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Shape into 4 oval patties about 1/2 inch thick. Coat with the flour.
In a large, heavy skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the ground sirloin patties and cook until browned, about 2 minutes on each side for medium-rare. Transfer to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm.
Add the onions to the skillet and cook over medium heat, stirring, until slightly softened, about 5 minutes. Pour in the beef broth, steak sauce and remaining 6 tablespoons cream and bring to a boil. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens, about 4 minutes.
Meanwhile, cook the peas according to package directions.
Return the meat patties to the skillet and let simmer in the sauce for about 4 minutes.
Arrange the patties on plates and spoon the sauce on top. Serve the mashed potatoes and peas alongside.

Serves 4.

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Off to Market Recap: TV Dinner Tray

YumSugar — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 03:00:43 -0700

With new seasons of all my favorite shows coming back on the air, I've been doubling up on the dining and viewing. I asked for your help looking for organized yet cute TV dinner trays. You saved your finds in the Yum Market on TeamSugar with the keyword tag TV Dinner Tray.
Look at this vast array of charming, compartmentalized trays to choose from! I love this stylish Lappers tray that shelleymonster found, especially its contemporary color scheme and kitschy dots. Browse the entire collection below.
Learn how to bookmark by reading geeksugar's directions.

Off to Market: TV Dinner Tray

YumSugar — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 03:00:25 -0700

I don't know about you, but with new seasons of The Hills and Mad Men, I've been spending a lot of mealtimes in front of the tube. I think it's time I got myself some TV dinner trays to fit in with my couch dining experience. Can you help me find some choice picks? Bookmark the trays in the Yum Market on TeamSugar with the keyword tag TV dinner tray. Happy Hunting!

To learn more about the bookmarking feature please read geeksugar's explanation.

Don't know where to start searching? Check out a list of my favorite online stores when you read more.

Bed Bath & Beyond
CB2
Cooking.com
Crate & Barrel
Ikea
Linens 'n Things
NapaStyle
Pier 1
Plum Party
Pottery Barn
Sur La Table
Target
Restoration Hardware
Williams-Sonoma
Wishing Fish
World Market

TV Dinners: Hell's Kitchen - Beef Wellington

partysugar — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 11:53:39 -0700

One of the dishes the wannabe chefs on Gordon Ramsay's reality show, Hell's Kitchen, must produce on a regular basis, is beef Wellington. A traditional British dish, a beef Wellington is a perfectly seared piece of beef tenderloin encompassed by a light puffy pastry shell. After watching the chefs repeatedly burn, overcook, undercook, and ruin beef Wellingtons all season, my conclusion is they're not the easiest dish to make. But if you are feeling up to the challenge, and want to give beef Wellingtons a go, you'll find Ramsay's recipe after the break. Oh and if you aren't exactly in a culinary adventurous mood today, you must check out the video demonstration of Ramsay making Wellingtons. Set to music, it's pretty hot! read more

Gordon Ramsay's Beef Wellington
From Food TV Blog
Image Source

400g (3/4-1 pound) Beef fillet
400g ( about 1 pound) Flat mushrooms
4 slices Parma ham
English mustard for brushing meat
200g (or 1 sheet frozen) puff pastry
2 Egg yolks

Pre-heat the oven to 200c/375f.
Heat some oil in a large pan and quickly fry the seasoned beef all over until it’s brown. Remove and allow to cool. The point of this is simply to sear the beef and seal all those juices in, you don’t want to cook the meat at this stage. Allow to cool and brush generously with the mustard.
Roughly chop the mushrooms and blend in a food processor to form a puree. Scrape the mixture into a hot, dry pan and allow the water to evaporate. When sufficiently dry (the mixture should be sticking together easily), set aside and cool.
Roll out a generous length of cling film, lay out the four slices of Parma ham, each one slightly overlapping the last. With a pallet knife spread the mushroom mixture evenly over the ham.
Place the beef fillet in the middle and keeping a tight hold of the cling film from the outside edge, neatly roll the parma ham and mushrooms over the beef into a tight barrel shape. Twist the ends to secure the clingfilm. Refrigerate for 10 -15 minutes, this allows the Wellington to set and helps keep the shape.
Roll out the pastry quite thinly to a size which will cover your beef. Unwrap the meat from the cling film.
Egg wash the edge of the pastry and place the beef in the middle. Roll up the pastry, cut any excess off the ends and fold neatly to the ‘underside’. Turnover and egg wash over the top.
Chill again to let the pastry cool, approximately 5 minutes. Egg wash again before baking at 200c for 35 - 40 minutes. Rest 8 -10 minutes before slicing.

Serves 2.

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Happy Hour: Butterbeer (Hot & Cold)

YumSugar — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 13:18:39 -0700

In case you haven't heard, the latest Harry Potter film opens this Wednesday. Since PartySugar and I are ~~total dorks~~ big kids at heart, we're hoping to find ourselves in line for the midnight screening. However, it's bound to be chilly, so I thought it would be nice to pack a flask or two of warm delicious drinks - specifically warm, frothy butterbeer (if you have to ask what that is, then either do yourself a favor and start at book 1, or run as fast as you can to the next post). If you'd like to whip up your own batch of butterbeer (we've got two versions - hot & cold), just read more

Image Source

Hot Butterbeer
From Elanor Isolda at The Leaky Lounge

1 litre cream soda
2-3 tbsp butter
2-3 tbsp brown sugar
200ml single cream
4 or 5 Werther's Originals

Put the cream soda in a pan to boil.
Melt the butter and sugar together until the sugar has dissolved.
Pour the butter and sugar mixture into the pan of boiling cream soda (make sure the soda is boiling, or the butter and sugar will solidify).
Add the cream.
Add the Werther's Originals and stir continuously until they melt.
Serve hot.
You can also add a couple of shots of Butterscotch Schnapps for that extra kick!

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Cold Butterbeer
From Britta Blvd

1 cup butterscotch schnapps
7 cups cream soda (almost one 2 liter bottle)

Carefully mix just before serving, adding the schnapps to the soda then stirring gently to mix well, or the fizz will dissipate too soon.

Serve in beer mugs and enjoy!

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TV Dinners: The Tudors - Birds Baked In a Pie

YumSugar — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 06:57:39 -0700

This week's TV Dinner is a little bit spectacular, and unfortunately one that you're not going to be able to make at home (at least not easily and not without getting the health board, peta and animal control upset at you).

I have a thing for older cookbooks, and recently I came across one by food historian Esther B. Aresty called The Delectable Past (1964). In it, Aresty shares several recipes from her collection of rare and collectable books - including recipes dating back to the middle ages. While reading it, I came across a recipe for a pie that would have birds fly out of it (just like the nursery rhyme). I thought it was pretty interesting, but didn't think I'd ever have any reason to bring it up. I was wrong.

This week I was watching the second episode of The Tudors and during the episode Jonathan Rhys-Meyers presents the king of France with a large tart. The king doesn't seem that amused until he begins to cut it open and PWHOOSH! out flies a bunch of birds. When I saw it I honestly flipped out and got really excited, I honestly had to rewind it and then squeal, "Wah! I just found the next TV dinner!"

To check out the ye olde recipe for live birds in a pie, and get a link to a video clip, read more

Sorry no clip this time, but you can find it at Showtime's website - click videos then choose episode 2, "A Surprising Gift").

To make Pies that the Birds may be alive in them, and flie out when it is cut up.
From Epulario, 1598

Make the coffin of a great pie or pastry, in the bottome thereof make a hole as big as your fist, or bigger if you will, let the sides of the coffin bee somewhat higher then ordinary pies, which done put it full of flower and bake it, and being baked, open the hole in the bottome, and take out the flower. Then having a pie of the bigness of the hole in the bottome of the coffin aforesaid, you shal put it into the coffin, withall put into the said coffin round about the aforesaid pie as many small live birds as the empty coffin will hold, besides the pie aforesaid. And this is to be done at such time as you send the pie to the table, and set before the guests: where uncovering or cutting up the lid of the great pie, all the birds will flie out, which is to delight and pleasure shew to the company. And because they shall not bee altogether mocked, you shall cut open the small pie, and in this sort you may make many others, the like you may do with a tart.

TV Dinners: The Breakfast Club - Pixy Stix Sandwich

YumSugar — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 07:52:11 -0700

In honor of national candy month, I thought I'd pull out a classic candy-related TV Dinner clip for us all. Do you remember the lunchtime scene in The Breakfast Club? Molly Ringwald confuses Judd Nelson with sushi, Emilio Estevez has enough food for a large family and Ally Sheedy perplexes everyone by tossing the pimento loaf out of her sandwich and replaces it with Pixy Stix and Cap'n Crunch cereal instead? If so, then have I ever got a treat for you! Not only do I have the recipe to recreate your own Pixy-Stix sandwich, but I've got the clip as well! To check it all out, read more

Pixy Stix Sandwich
From The Breakfast Club

1 slice white bread
1 slice wheat bread
butter
2 Pixy Stix (flavored sugar in straws)
2 handfuls of Cap'n Crunch cereal

Butter slice of white bread. You can also butter the wheat slice if you want.
Pour contents of one pixy stix evenly onto white bread slice.
Pour contents of one pixy stix evenly onto wheat bread slice.

Sprinkle handfuls of Cap'n Crunch evenly onto white piece of bread. Smash cereal down with your hands.
Repeat with wheat bread.
Carefully put slices together, and enjoy!
Wash it all down with a Coke!

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TV Dinners: MTV's Made - Penne with Vodka Sauce

YumSugar — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 10:58:32 -0700

Today's TV Dinner comes from TeamSugar member celebrity_soup. She wrote to tell me about how she was watching an episode of MTV's Made (you know the show that "makes" people into things they're not) and the folks on it were making a penne with vodka sauce, she also included a recipe for it. The episode, from season 5, is the one where they try and turn Ian into a salsa dancer in order to woo the girl of his dreams. Along the way he discovers that she loves penne with vodka sauce, so he sets about making some. In the end, he actually doesn't get the gal, but it's not from his lack of trying. And hey, at least he got a great meal (not to mention salsa dancing lessons) out of the whole thing. To check out a recipe similar to the one Ian uses on the show (thanks again to celebrity_soup for finding it for us), read more

Penne with Vodka Sauce
From Giada De Laurentiis

1 quart Simple Tomato Sauce, recipe follows, or store-bought marinara sauce, blended until smooth
1 cup vodka
1/2 cup heavy cream, at room temperature
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 pound penne

Simmer the tomato sauce and vodka in a heavy large skillet over low heat until the mixture reduces by 1/4, stirring often, about 20 minutes. Stir the cream into the tomato and vodka sauce. Simmer over low heat until the sauce is heated through. Stir in the Parmesan cheese until melted and well blended.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente, tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Drain the pasta and transfer it to the pan with the sauce, and toss to coat.

Simple Tomato Sauce:
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
2 (32-ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
4 to 6 basil leaves
2 dried bay leaves
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, optional

In a large casserole pot, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic and saute until soft and translucent, about 2 minutes. Add celery and carrot and season with salt and pepper. Saute until all the vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, basil, and bay leaves and reduce the heat to low. Cover the pot and simmer for 1 hour or until thick. Remove bay leaves and taste for seasoning. If sauce tastes too acidic, add unsalted butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, to round out the flavor.

Pour half the tomato sauce into the bowl of a food processor. Process until smooth. Continue with remaining tomato sauce.

If not using all the sauce, allow it to cool completely and then pour 1 to 2 cup portions into plastic freezer bags. Freeze for up to 6 months.

Yield: 6 cups
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes

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TV Dinners: Seinfeld - Chocolate Babka

YumSugar — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 07:58:32 -0700

For some reason I've been staying up late these days, it's not doing wonders for my skin, but it is allowing me to catch old episodes of Seinfeld. The other night the episode "The Dinner Party" was on and I don't know if you recall, but it's the one where Jerry and Elaine stop off at a bakery on their way to a dinner party. Their intention was to buy a chocolate babka to bring, however the couple ahead of them scores the last one and they're left with a "inferior" cinnamon babka. Now I've seen this scene before and I've never thought twice about it, but this time I stopped and wondered outloud, what on earth is a babka?

Well turns out that a babka is a polish coffee cake that is traditionally made with fruit fillings, such as raisins, and is glazed with a fruit-flavored icing. However modern day babkas are filled with cheese or chocolate. And according to Elaine the chocolate babka is where it's at.

To see if it's worth the hype, you can order a chocolate babka online, or you can check out the recipe and make one of your own.

To see the Seinfeld babka clip and get the tasty recipe, read more

Chocolate Babka
From All Recipes

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter a 10 inch tube pan. Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and salt; set aside.
In a medium bowl, beat the butter and 1 1/4 cup sugar with an electric mixer on high speed until light and fluffy. Change the mixer speed to medium, and beat in the vanilla. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. With the mixer on low speed, alternately beat the flour mixture and sour cream into the creamed mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Beat only until just blended.
For the topping: In a small bowl combine the chocolate, pecans, 1/4 cup sugar, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon to make a crumb mixture. Spread half of the batter in the bottom of the prepared pan. Sprinkle with half of the crumb mixture. Pour in the remaining batter, and sprinkle with the remaining crumb mixture; press the crumbs in lightly so they adhere to the batter. Quickly, but gently cut through the batter and crumbs in an up and down motion with a knife. Lightly rap the pan once against a hard surface, to settle the batter.
Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes. Cover the top of the cake with aluminum foil. Continue baking until a skewer inserted halfway between the side of the pan and the tube comes out clean, about 20 minutes longer. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Carefully loosen the cake from the sides of the pan. Invert cake onto rack, and cool completely.

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