Family Favorites

  Thursday was yet another perfect stay at home day. I finished up my laundry, gave the bathroom a good clean, cleaned the upstairs hallway and staircase including wiping down all the walls.  Next week my room (the attic) is getting a good clean, it has gotten very messy up there and I want to go through my clothing and put some aside to donate to charity. I also want to dig into old photos to get ready for a couple of picture boards for youngest son's grad party. I also intend to take down and wash all the curtains in the house.
Once I'd gotten all the chores I set myself done I turned to my kitchen. I'd invited eldest son and DIL and newest grandbaby over. It was Miss E's first visit to Grandma's house! I figured a meal cooked by someone else and including family favorites would be appreciated. And this granny needed some snuggle time with her newest babe.
I know that DIL loves flan (or creme caramel as we've always called it) so I turned to my favorite resource for this recipe, The Joy of Cooking. I had this dessert for the first time back in college at a restaurant and was blown away and I immediately began searching cookbooks (this was before the internet <gasp>) for how to make it myself. The Joy never lets me down, there it was, I gave it a whirl, and this recipe has remained my favorite ever since.
Creme Caramel (The Joy of Cooking)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
Bring to a boil in a saucepan, cover and let gently boil for 2 minutes. Uncover and let cook until melted sugar becomes a deep amber color. Immediately pour this into one dish or 6 ramekins swirling dish to coat sides. Place dish or ramekins into a 13x9 pan and preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Warm
3 cups milk
 until it is steaming. Whisk together in a bowl:
 5 large eggs
1/8 tsp of salt
 3/4 cup sugar.
Slowly add milk whisking continually. Mix in
3/4 tsp vanilla extract.
Divide evenly into ramekins or pour into dish. Add boiling water in 13x9 dish halfway up the sides of the pudding dish or ramekins. Place in oven and bake 1- 1 1/2 hours until set. Cool on a rack then place dish or ramekins in the refrigerator. Allow to cool at least 4 hours before serving.
After getting the flan in the oven I turned to making a pasta salad. I had a bag of tri colored wacky mac in the cupboard which I cooked, added some broccoli slaw, diced carrots, celery, red bell peppers, cucumber, and green and black olives cut in half. I doctored this up with a healthy dose of McCormack salad supreme seasoning and then dressed it with homemade White Balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

Into the fridge went the salad. Then having taken out a london broil earlier in the day I mixed together my favorite marinade, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup Kitchen Bouquet browning sauce, 1 tsp. McCormack Montreal steak seasoning blend and 1/2 tsp brown sugar. I poured this over the steak in a large ziplock bag and stuck it in the fridge to marinate.

 

Once Son & DIL and Miss E arrived I preheated the grill, cooked the london broil to medium rare, sliced it thin and served. With three sons at the table there was no steak left behind although we do have a small amount of pasta salad leftover. As for the flan it is nothing but a sweet memory.