On Eating and Loving Food

Chocolate pecan pie, and other awesome, fattening stuff

Wed, 12/27/2017 - 11:45am

So, it’s the day after Christmas.

I woke up this morning and resolved to stop eating crap for the foreseeable future.

I headed to the kitchen and started dictating this column to the email on my iPhone.

“Time to stop eating crap,” I said to my phone.

That was how this column began exactly a year ago today – the day after Christmas.

And it’s odd. I thought that very thought when I woke up this morning, before I resorted to looking back to see what I had written for last year’s New Year column.

Needless to say that resolution fell by the wayside. Again.

I really don’t do resolutions.

And after almost two years of writing this column I have not lost a pound. I just keep packing them on. And the reason is pretty clear when I look back at the 52 columns I’ve written since Dec. 26, 2016. Ugh.

If you have a desire to gain some extra weight to get you through the coldest time of the year, that’s now upon us, go back and look at some of them.

They included: Horseradish roasted salmon, Czechoslovakian curried chicken, Chicken Cynthia; burgers and fries, ployes, lasagna (with the Witts), shrimp scampi (with the Maryellenz), Clams Casino and boxed wine (with the twins), baked beans, lemon cake (with raspberry mascarpone, lemon whipped cream and raspberries), lemon posset, creamed asparagus on toast, chocolate biscuits (warm, flaky ones :-), rhubarb custard pie, sour cream rhubarb cake, strawberry rhubarb cream pie (yep – I was on a rhubarb roll there for a while – it was free!), petits fours (thank you Alex Tallen), Foxtrot cardamon cake (kinda made that one up), chocolate zucchini cake, olive oil cake (OMG NOW I see where all the extra weight came from – CAKE!!!), cranberry brie bites, macarons (that was a fiasco), spags ’n balls, grilled swordfish, steamed clams, chicken soup, fish chowder, creamy mac ’n cheese, and lots of other fattening stuff.

And I don’t think I have to tell you a manhattan was drunk while I made each and every one of them. Which, of course, added to the fun, and the waist.

And just to be sure I don’t start losing weight anytime soon, I made a chocolate pecan pie to take to my brother’s on Christmas, and it was so good I made one for myself yesterday. With whipped cream. So, so good, yet so, so bad!

Here’s the recipe: 1/3 cup butter, melted with 2 squares unsweetened chocolate; 3 eggs, beaten, and mixed with 2/3 cup sugar, 1 cup corn syrup, and ½ tsp salt. Stir chocolate mixture in. Throw in a cup of pecans – halves, pieces, or a combination. Pour into a pie crust – homemade (my recipe for Barbara’s pie crust is perfect for this one-crust pie) or Pillsbury (which is what I used this time). Bake around 45 minutes at 375.

Whip up some cream, and you have a very yummy, elegant, fattening dessert.

And now on to gingerdoodles. I usually make gingersnaps for Christmas, but this year not only did I not make them, I didn’t even have a Christmas tree. I was on vacation the week before Christmas, and I spent a good part of it painting my kitchen floor. Talk about fiascos. There were a few Ruby-2-Shoes kitty prints in the forest moss glossy green paint that had to be painted over. Try painting your kitchen floor in December with a small dog and a cat demanding constant attention.

Anyway.

When I made what were supposed to be gingersnaps LAST Christmas, they came out of the oven looking mysteriously light – more like snickerdoodles. I was perplexed. They didn't taste right either. But they tasted good, like a snickerdoodle gingersnap. The next morning I looked at the recipe. I had forgotten the molasses. I made another batch. They were perfect.

But the gingerdoodles were so good I’m thinking I’ll make those instead. For New Year’s Eve.

P.S. Another not so healthy or slimming indulgence I indulged in over Christmas was eggnog, with a shot of bourbon and a sprinkling of nutmeg. I’m telling you. That is absolutely ridiculous. I want one right now!

Happy New Year.

See ya next week!