Happy New Year's Eve, dear readers! Tonight's the big family New Year's Party. We start off the evening with a vast appetizer spread at my place, with parlor games (scattergories, guesstures, pictionary, etc.) for the young and old. After a couple of hours, when everyone starts to wilt or get wild, we have a change of venue and head to my mom's place for a taquito extravaganza. My favorite part of the night is a little game my mom started decades ago. Everyone writes down the three very best things of the past year on a 3 by 5 card. The cards are collected and read aloud by noisy me, and we all try to guess to whom it belongs. My mom saves all the cards so we can still read about the time that my best memory was an Adam Ant concert. It really was a great concert, I tell you. The toughest part of my mom's game is limiting the three best things to THREE best things. For this year, I'd have to include our recent trip to Europe, a family reunion this summer, the births of the newest babies to our evergrowing family, getting the Quiet Man one step closer to his doctorate, watching my daughter dance in the Nutcracker or with her nose in a novel, seeing my little boy overcome his fears and play his violin in public and also his current obsession with his villainous ability to raise one eyebrow, and just living everyday knowing that I have enough of everything that I need to be healthy and happy. And of course, starting this Prudence Pennywise blog, which has brought me truckloads of fiber, vitamins, minerals, calories and unabashed joy in 2008. 
And here's a quick appetizer for your big parties tonight:
Spread out a sheet of saran wrap on a work surface and lightly coat it with cooking spray.
Take an 8 ounce block of cream cheese from the fridge.
Pat it onto the saran wrap into a 8 by 6 inch rectangle.
Spread about 3 tablespoons filling to within 1 inch of the edges. I've used raspberry chipotle jam here, but I love hot pepper jelly, fruit jam, cranberry sauce, barbecue sauce, chili sauce, red or green salsa, chutney, or even sweet and sour sauce.
Gently roll it up, using the saran wrap to roll it along.
Store it in the fridge until serving time...
or serve immediately with crackers, chips, or bread. Garnish with fresh herbs, chopped scallions, nuts, or spices. If you were able to get your cream cheese for $1 a block, then this appetizer won't cost you much more than that!
Gently roll it up, using the saran wrap to roll it along.
Store it in the fridge until serving time...or serve immediately with crackers, chips, or bread. Garnish with fresh herbs, chopped scallions, nuts, or spices. If you were able to get your cream cheese for $1 a block, then this appetizer won't cost you much more than that!Have a very very Happy New Year. Here's looking forward to an economical but magically delicious 2009.
Knowing that something gigantically tremendous wouldn't be necessary, I scaled down Dorie Greenspan's recipe to fit into a 5 inch springform pan. (You can make cheesecake in just about anything-paperlined muffin cups, pie plates, ramekins, loaf pans, 9 by 13 baking dishes. ) The cheesecake was exactly as Dorie described it, "big, beautiful, lush and creamy." In fact, it's the most delicious cheesecake I've ever eaten, with just the perfect amount of sweetness and the smoothest texture. Dorie's advice to beat the batter "vigorously until satiny," is the key to meltingly smooth cheesecake. Here's my scaled-down version.
Tall and Creamy 5 inch Cheesecake
First of all you'll need a filling. Begining in November, I make extra pot roasts, shreded chicken, etc knowing that these babies will be waiting in the freezer until the last night of the year. But don't worry if you didn't start in November, it's still not too late. I'm making some today too, since I make approximately 300 for my giant Italian family. My favorite fillings are green chili chicken, and a red chili beef, but I also do a vegetarian filling with black beans, mushrooms, jalapeno, etc. You'll need about 2 scant tablespoons of filling for each taquito. Heat corn tortillas on a dry hot griddle, or in the microwave between damp paper towels. 
Wrap the tortillas in a dish towel to keep them hot. Then place the filling inside the tortilla 
and roll it up and place it on a cookie sheet. 
Place the finished taquitos in the freezer. 
After a couple of hours, separate them and place them in zip top baggies back in the freezer, where they will patiently wait until needed. On New Year's night, you fry them in hot oil (or you can brush them with oil and bake them like the ones above) until golden brown and crispy and serve them with guacamole, salsa, and sour cream. And then you wake up on New Year's Day and repeat. And repeat. Indefinitely. And you'll think you're starting the New Year in paradise.
But it does seem a little late. 
After all it is Christmas Eve, and chances are, you already know exactly what you're making for dinner. And breakfast. And for dinner tomorrow. Etc. 
But I still wanted to wish you a very Merry Christmas and tell all of my readers how much I've enjoyed sharing my recipes and random ramblings with you. I have so much more that I want to share in the coming year. (Even in the coming week, and if the Quiet Man doesn't hold me back, even tomorrow.) Thanks so much for being my friends, for trying my recipes and for being interested in my sweet and savory minutia. It's no fun to be thrifty alone; I need my fiesty gang of penny pinchers here at Prudence Pennywise.
PS Happy Birthday to my Irish twin sister Michelle, the Christmas Eve baby that came home in a giant stocking. I was always so jealous of that big giant stocking. I still am. A little. 
you might be dead wrong. At least I was. I was about as excited to make butterscotch pudding this week as I am for my monthly credit card bill. But I was dead wrong. (Not about the bill; oh, mama.) Leave it to Dorie Greenspan to make a butterscotchy believer out of me. This decadent pudding is warm and buttery, with brown sugar and caramel undertones and a luscious creamy texture. Take it from me and plan to serve this one in front of the fire place-warm, with a dollop of whipped cream and sugared pecans. 
They're the best for parties that include kids of all ages, from one to ninety-two. Speaking of ninety-two, that's about how many I almost ate. And I betcha Santa Claus might like his own little set of ninety-two tomorrow night. 
I have to hand it to my mother again. Growing up, it was not unusual to have a lesson on Hanukkah and latke-making from some of our Jewish friends. We grew up celebrating Hanukkah in our Christian household, learning to appreciate the Festival of Lights and its beautiful origin. Later I gained a greater appreciation for the meaning of the holiday, while living in Jerusalem as a study-abroad student. I'm just kicking myself for not buying a dreidle when I was there! That's why I have to post these cartoon dreidles, and not my own lovely wooden dreidle.
After the Menorah is lit, games are played, including the spinning dreidle game. I'm so mad at myself for not getting a dreidle in Jerusalem, but that hasn't stopped us from playing the game. I made myself a ramshackle little paper dreidle and wrote the characters on the side. It's such a humble little squished-up construction paper dreidle, that just this moment, I've decided to buy a dreidle on line. Today. On with the game: To play, you'll need a bowl of pennies or little candies. Divide them evenly among the players. To start everyone should put a candy in the bowl. Whenever a player takes a turn, no matter the outcome, each player will add another candy to the bowl. If the a player lands on Shin.... 
he will put an extra candy in the bowl. If a player lands on Hay....
he will take half of the candies in the bowl. If a player lands on Nun...
he will do nothing. If a player lands on Gimel...
then he takes the entire bowl. Remember to have each player add a candy to the bowl on every turn. The game is over-kind of like Monopoly-when there is nothing left or else everyone is bored of playing.
Be sure to hand grate your potatoes for a truly authentic latke. If you have time to make homemade applesauce, they'll be even better. Happy Hanukkah- starting tonight!
It's so easy, in fact, that my five year old made a batch for his Sunday school teachers. Other than pushing the buttons on the microwave, he was a lone, proud cowboy of candy making. Tomorrow we'll be back to Christmas Around the World. I think. In the meantime, I've been churning out cookies, candies, cakes, not to mention dinners galore, and I haven't really even shared them at all, thanks to this month's international Christmas crazy bonanza. 
But this one, dear readers, this one I just couldn't keep to myself. If you haven't made anything for your neighbors, your hairdresser, your spiritual advisor, your mailman, youre genealogist, your recently unemployed financial advisor....this is it. I'm off to rush around madly in circles with the rest of America. Just five more days till Christmas!
After the last 
It didn't seem like the 
I filled some tamales with shredded chicken that has been simmered in 
You can fill it with whatever your heart desires!
IN the bowl of the blender, combine broth, half of the corn kernels, cheese, and baking powder.
Process until smooth. In the large bowl with the 
Put about 2 
Wrap tamale dough over the top and around to form a cylinder of dough with filling completely enclosed. 
Fold up ends of corn husks around tamal dough.
Fold waxed paper around tamal into a little bundle. (I don't bother tying the tamales, since wrapping in waxed paper works just as well, is faster, and it keeps them fresher afterwards.)
Repeat process with all tamales.
Pour in about 1 inch of boiling water. Place about 10 tamales in a pot. 
Cover the top with extra corn husks. 
Place the lid on tightly. Over low heat, steam tamales for about 90 minutes to two hours. Add more boiling water to bottom every thirty minutes. (I pour the water just down the side of the pot.) Tamales are cooked when they no longer stick to the husk. Store cooked tamales in refrigerator, in a plastic bag. Remove waxed paper and place husk-covered tamales in microwave for about 1 minute each. Remove husk before eating-you probably know that, but just in case...