Lame Ducks and WikiLeaks-Episode 2
Political Cookin’ Christmas Edition from Vinny Minchillo on Vimeo.
THE POLITICS:
Political Cookin family members met for the holidays to exchange gifts and beat up on each other for their political orientations. Don’t worry, it was all in good fun, and fun we had. The discussion is short, fast and furious, just like the lame duck session. You will hear a glimmer of hope in my brother’s voice as he gets a false sense that I am leaning more towards the right. Unfortunately, I missed my opportunity to throw it back at him when he expressed satisfaction with Obama. Wow, how did I miss that.
Since most of the cooking on this show was pre-prepared by guests and/or studio audience members, we offer recipes and suggestions for this meal. At least you get to see more of my front side instead of my back side in this episode, as well as my demonstration on how to fill a cannoli shell.
Last, please “Take a WikiLeak” below and vote; or comment on our episode; or let us know if you would like to be a guest. We would love to hear from you.
THE FOOD:
We served Antipasto, Champagne Punch, Beef Brisket (by Joey), Baked Ziti (by mom), Green Bean Casserole, Candied Yams, Garlic Bread (by Joey), Red Velvet Cake (by Jamie), Cannolis and Coffee. Let’s start with Cannolis!
Cannoli is a Sicilian (Italian) pastry. It is a hard tube shaped pastry filled with ricotta cheese and powdered sugar. There are lots of variations of the Cannoli like chocolate dipped pastries, adding chocolate chips or dried fruits to the filling, and many more. It takes a couple of days to make the filling properly, so for this episode I opted to purchase the filling from the premier supplier, Ferrara. I am lucky in that I can purchase these items here in Dallas at a small Italian grocer called Jimmy’s Food Store http://www.foodstore.com/. You can order the filling and shells from Ferrara Cafe in Little Italy in New York City at http://www.ferraracafe.com/. **The key to a good Cannoli is to fill it right before serving so that the Cannoli shell will not get soggy.
Antipasto is exactly what it sounds like. It is an appetizer salad or platter of everything salty, cured or marinated excluding the pasta. Antipast is traditionally made up of gourmet cheeses like marinated mozzarella, Parmesan, feta, brie; meats like salami, prosciutto, and ham; marinated tidbits like olives, roasted bell peppers or tomatoes, garlic and artichoke hearts just to name a few items. It is whatever you want it to be without the pasta, and most grocers sell everything you need to put these together.
Beef Brisket, always a Texas favorite. Not your traditional Italian dinner, but that is the way we like it. A large brisket usually takes about 8 hours to cook, so for this show Joey provided a pre-cooked brisket that was frozen and purchased from Dickey’s Barbecue http://www.dickeys.com/ to support the Plano West FFA Booster Club. Joey removed it from the freezer and thawed it in the refrigerator for a couple of days to have it ready for Christmas. The brisket was warmed in a 275 degree oven for about an hour or to a meat temperature of 175 degrees. Please check all cooking instructions on any meat you purchase.
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
- Place sweet potatoes in a medium baking dish. Distribute butter pieces evenly over the sweet potatoes. Sprinkle with brown sugar. Layer with miniature marshmallows.
- Cover and bake in the preheated oven 25 minutes, or until sweet potatoes are tender and marshmallows have melted.
Green Bean Casserole
Ingredients:
1 (10 3/4 oz.) can CAMPBELL’S® Cream of Mushroom Soup
3/4 cup milk
1/8 tsp. black pepper
2 (9 oz. each) pkgs. frozen cut green beans, thawed*
1 1/3 cups FRENCH’S® Original or Cheddar French Fried Onions
Directions:
BAKE at 350°F for 30 min. or until hot.
STIR. Top with remaining 2/3 cup onions. Bake 5 min. until onions are golden.
There are lots of recipes online for all of these items listed above, and you can choose the one that works best for you.
See you next time. And “If you can’t stand the heat, then get out of the kitchen!”
Cynthia
Political Cookin' 