Christmas Goodies and Thursday Dinner

The first thing I worked on today was Spicy Orange Pecans. This is a different recipe than I’ve used for the last few years for gifts. However, as I was packaging them up, Jim was eating them as fast as he could and thinks they are very good. The recipe came from a Penzeys flyer.
Ingredients:
4 C plain pecan halves
2 T orange juice, fresh is best
1 large egg white
2 T fresh orange zest (requires 2 oranges)
½ C sugar
1 ½ t kosher salt
1 ½ t cayenne pepper
Pinch of black pepper
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 225 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine the pecans, orange juice and eggwhite and toss to coat.
3. In a small bowl combine the orange zest, sugar, salt and spices.
4. Add to the nuts and toss to coat evenly. Spread evenly on the baking sheet and bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

Next I made Double Chocolate-Peppermint Crunch Cookies from the December Bon Appétit.
Ingredients:
2 Cups to melt plus ½ C to add later of bittersweet chocolate chips.
1 ½ C all purpose flour
¼ C unsweetened cocoa powder
1 t baking powder
1 t instant espresso powder
½ t salt
½ C unsalted butter, room temperature
1 C sugar
1 t vanilla extract
1 t peppermint extract
2 large eggs
4 candy canes coarsely crushed
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Stir 2 cups chocolate chips in a metal bowl set over simmering water until melted and smooth. Measure 2/3 C melted chocolate for drizzling later. (I put mine in a glass measuring cup and set it in the water in the pan and warmed up the water later.
2. Whish flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, espresso powder, and salt in a medium bowl.
3. Using an electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until cram. Add sugar and both extracts; beat until smooth. Add eggs; beat to blend. Beat in the melted chocolate from medium bowl.
4. Add dry ingredients; beat to blend and add the remaining chocolate chips. (This took Jim to get it blended. It is very stiff dough.
5. Measure 1 level T of dough; roll dough between palms to form ball. (I used my medium ice cream scoop to form the balls.) Place on a baking sheet 1 ½ “apart.
6. Bake cookies until cracked all over and tester inserted into center comes out with moist crumbs attached, 8-9 minutes. (I only had 33 cookies instead of 50. Should have used the smaller scoop, so my cookies took longer.)
7. Cool on baking sheet 5 minutes. Transfer cookies on parchment paper to racks to cool completely. Using a fork, drizzle chocolate over cookies. Sprinkle crushed candy canes over. I drizzled again. Let cool.
These can be made 3 weeks ahead and frozen. They are as good as they look.

On to dinner, I made Steak Diane from my old New York Times Cookbook. In 1901 when I got the nerve to make comments in my cookbooks, I commented that I had made this several times and it never fails.
The recipe says for one. One includes a 10 oz. steak. Who besides Jim eats 10 oz. of steak? We had 2 small steaks near a pound. I cut each in half as they were too thick and proceeded as follows.
Ingredients:
1 10 oz. steak
1 ½ T butter
1 T cognac
2 T sherry
1 T sweet butter
1 t chopped chives
Directions:
1. Trim the meat well and pound very thin with a mallet.
2. Heat the 1 ½ T butter in a flat skillet. Add the steak and cook quickly, turning once.
3. Add the cognac and flame. Add the sherry and the butter creamed with chives.
4. Place on plates and pour the pan juices over it.
With this I served Artichokes Flan from a recipe supplied in a Wegmans flyer.
Ingredients:
1 T EVOO
1 12 oz. pkg., frozen artichoke hearts, thawed
1 C seasoned croutons
2 C heavy cream
5 large eggs
1 t sea salt
Black pepper to taste
2 t chopped Italian parsley
Directions:
1. You will need 6-8 ramekins, depending on the size. (I used a special pan that I found at Williams Sonoma for making breakfast dishes where you fold bread to make a holder for eggs, etc.) A large size cup cake pan would work also. Depends on how many you want to serve.
2. Preheat overt to 350 degrees.
3. Spray ramekins with cooking spray. Spoon the artichokes and croutons in the bottom of the ramekins distributing evenly.
4. Make Custard: Whish together heavy cream and eggs in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in parsley. Top ramekin mixtures evenly with custard. (This is the tricky part. The pan I used, each cup was 3 ½”. I got 8. Smaller, make more.)
5. Bake 35 minutes until knife inserted comes out clean. The tops should be lightly brown. Serve in ramekins or cool about 10 minutes to unmold.
Jim loved these. Luckily we did not have company as we only have 2 left.  I know what you are thinking, heavy cream and eggs?!  Well we were having steak.  Get your heart attack meal over in one night.
Jim served a fabolous Saint-Emilion Grand Cruse call Gracia, 1997.