angry chicken

and the brittle was a success.

The cooking/baking/candy making mojo has been really good this year. This brittle, made from the Craft of Baking, was a huge success and was frighteningly easy. No thermometer—just a watchful eye is needed. I will say, a good pot and patience is helpful when heating it up. I have learned to bring it to a boil slowly and then put it on high heat after the sugar is totally dissolved. I didn't use cashews for this brittle but almonds. The almonds were roasted and salted, which has made the brittle quite salty although really tasty nonetheless. Next time, however, I will use unsalted nuts.

We are well prepared for Solstice—the girls are done with the gifts they have made for each other and I made 3 fancy skirts for them with plenty of sparkle and gauzy magic. I have made our Solstice cake, which I made last year and will make every year from now on because it's the perfect cake in my book—it's in the freezer now. On Christmas Eve I will make the Swedish Braid. I love holiday baking, especially Christmas breads. Also, I need to switch up my baking. If I make any more cookies I will really lose my mind. I made a lot this year and while it was fun, I am so done with cookies.

We had a family trip to the mall last night to watch the ice skaters and see the decorations and lights downtown. An added bonus, we also saw some public vomiting while watching the ice skaters. The unfortunate episode took place between the Cinnabon and the kiosk for the pre-paid law services, all to the music of an Air Supply tune blaring from the ice rink. I felt bad for the young woman, but she sure seemed ready to go party after she was done. Good for her! What a trooper.

Okay, I sure hope everyone has a safe, relaxing, and un-vomit filled Holiday and New Year. See you in 2010!

and I did make marshmallows again, too.

They worked like charm. I used the recipe I linked to in the last post. These are peppermint marshmallows dipped in semi-sweet chocolate. They are oddly refreshing!

A few things:

• The recipe (I think) calls for a 9" x 12" pan. I used an 9" x 9" to make them extra thick—so they are almost perfect squares when cut.
• I used about 1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract.
• I used an alarming amount of natural red food coloring to turn these pink. But they aren't pink at all. They are sort of an undead looking grey/mauve. How appetizing! Either I need to bust out the real food coloring, synthetic dyes and all, or just go with the uncolored white and let people use their nose to tell them they are peppermint.
• I dipped them in melted chocolate chips and then added the sprinkles on the top, popping them in the fridge to help the chocolate set up.
• These are so good, but I can't eat them unless they are at least a day old and have been chilled in the fridge, which is where I store them if I dip them in chocolate. I like the chocolate crunch with the soft marshmallow—if they are too fresh, they make me gag. I know, I'm not doing a real good job of selling these—they are really good though!

There are an insane amount of wonderful ideas over at Everybody Likes Sandwiches for holiday food gifts from the kitchen, including links with recipes and cute labels to print out. Outstanding. (Via Poppytalk, I think?)

next up, brittle.

This has been a banner year for baking books.

I have had this book, The Craft of Baking: Cakes, Cookies, and Other Sweets with Ideas for Inventing Your Own, by Karen DeMasco and Mindy Fox for a few months now and it's just getting better and better. Melissa blogged about it, and has made quite a few things from it with great success. Grammie borrowed it kind of permanently and loves it too—especially the biscotti. It's got cakes, candies, breads—quite a bit of variety. I'm going to try the brittle and caramel corn this week.

There is a very helpful review of it here along with a recipe. I'm thinking last minute gift ideas with this book. Family and friends, act surprised when you get a copy, okay?

I'd like to mention that this book was sent to me as a review copy by my lovely publisher, Random House.

another notable cookie

I went to a cookie party last weekend and these cookies are what I brought. I have mentioned them before, they are the Apricot Crumbles. They are sick with love. A ton of butter and apricot jam with ginger added. The only change I made was to decrease the butter by about 3 tablespoons and double (or even triple) the amount of fresh ginger. I love them so very very much, I only make them about once a year.

The cookie party was a wonderful event because it's just for consuming cookies on the premises. Of course there is extra to take home, but the no-pressure quality of this is genius. This pie was in attendance and I can't say enough good things about it. Really.

• I just got word the the AM Northwest show I will be on this Thursday will not be airing in the morning, live, but later that evening, between 7-8 on Comcast channel 302. They will have it up to view on their site right after 8pm Thursday, but you don't even need to remember this because I will link to it as soon as I can and also put it up on my YouTube channel if possible.

• If you are out and about this Sunday the 13th Crafty Wonderland here in Portland is having a huge holiday event with really great vendors. It's sure to be stellar. Details are here.

leftovers.

Happy day after Turkey Day!

I am totally going to make gnocchi with the leftover mashed potatoes that Grammie made—which were crazy good. I'm going to use this recipe here. I'm not sure why I haven't tried this before with leftover mashed potatoes. It seems genius. AND I'm also going to try it with the left over sweet potatoes that I took home, which are whipped already with egg and cream, so I'm thinking all I need to add is a little flour. I saw a similar recipe here which has ricotta, but I'm going to leave that out and just go for it—cause' I'm crazy like a fox.

The newest issue of Small is here. I flippin' love this online kid's mag so much.

speaking of chocolate—

I was the lucky recipient of Blair's chocolates recently and for research purposes, had to eat a lot of it. My findings are as follows: It's crazy good. I like the Ramen Noodle the best, but really they are all so very tasty. Perfect for stocking stuffers (I get a little sick of the standard Toblerone in my stocking every year, you know?) and they are sold at this super-duper wonderful Portland shop, The Meadow (which I have blogged about before) but wait—the Meadow also ships, so do not fret! Might I suggest some salt and this other amazing bar of chocolate to add to your order? These items seem to be what comes home with me every time I go by there.

• And in other chocolate news: I am making and freezing my batches of cookie dough again this year and am reminded why this cookie is a household favorite. (Not with the kids). It's really the only cookie I would make if I had to choose, so that's saying something.
• Unrelated (maybe, depends on your menu) have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!
• And truly unrelated (well, not really because I will be giving away some chocolate at the event) I will be in Seattle next Thursday at The Quilting Loft for a book signing, so please come by and say hi! It's December 3rd at 7pm, and I will of course be mentioning this again next week. And possibly I will be mentioning chocolate again, too.
• For real unrelated, the aprons for Tie One On are due soon—the end of November. I have posted the book I will giveaway to one of you lucky apron makers who join in the fun.

Sincere Shrimp Sandwiches

Sadie is obsessed with peanuts (as am I) and she was given this book recently (thank you Emily) and it's so good on so many levels, I can't stop looking at it.

It's used, this hardback copy is from 1970. Oh, the book design packs a wallop. Outstanding.

It's got a recipe and comic per page.

 

It's taking all my will power to not hide this away. I think I need to get a mommy copy.

soup report

Many soups have been made in the last month. The recipes made from Love Soup are as follows:

• Green Soup with Ginger (very good, my favorite so far)
• Green Soup with Sweet Potato and Sage (quite good, but I like the first one better)
• Black Bean and Squash (amazing!! even better the next day.)
• Corn and Cheese Chowder (also amazing!)
• 3-Grain Bread (good. The girls think it's lame, but I love it as toast.)

Relating to food making—a bit back I posted about my favorite kitchen gadgets. One of them was a LamsonSharp Turner.  Several weeks ago the fine people over at LamsonSharp sent me this mini-masher as a thank-you and how I ever lived without it, I know not. I use this new mini-masher for making banana bread, guacamole, potatoes and sweet potatoes in soups—I even use it to partially mash beans sometimes. It's small, fits perfectly in my hand (it's shorter than a wooden spoon) and crazy strong, you can really work it. I never busted out my old masher because it was just too big and a fork, well, kind of sucks when you really need to mash something. It would have been prefect for baby food. So, I am thrilled to have this, needless to say.

Scones and a van.

These were made last week and I thought about baking only 4, then freezing the other 4. But, I didn't. So 8 were eaten in one day. Some were taken by Pete to work, but many were not. They must be eaten the day they are baked, I think. It's a recipe I altered years ago from this little scone book, Simply Scones that I think I actually got when I was still in high school. It's not really a book anymore—but pages falling out of a cover. I think I have made every scone in this book.

Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Scones (altered slightly by me)

Pre-heat oven to 400ºF

• 2 cups flour
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 Tablespoons butter (chilled)
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup toasted chopped hazelnuts

In a bowl, mix the dry ingredients and add the butter in small chunks. Cut in the butter using your favorite method, I like a pastry cutter. Add the liquids and stir just a bit. Add the chocolate chips and the nuts and stir more. It will make a mess with little shape. Dump onto a cookie sheet and pat into 2 circles—these should be thick, about 1/2 high. Cut the circles into quarters and separate, making 8 scones. Brush with milk or an egg wash if you want to and fancy sugar if you are feeling extra special. Bake 17-19 minutes and then let them cool at least 10 minutes (this will be hard to do).

Heaven, I tell you. I love Oregon hazelnuts with a passion. Worth every penny. They are the first item I get at the farmers market.

Unrelated but extremely important:

I have a huge soft spot in my heart for Portland's own zine shop, Reading Frenzy. They have been around forever, have a great shop, support local artists and writers, and their existence just makes me happy about the world. Chloe, the owner, needs some help converting a van to make it wheelchair accessible for her son Henry and there are many things we can do to help.

1. Here's info about Wheels for Henry and a bit about Reading Frenzy.
2. There is a 2 week online craft bazaar where a percentage of proceeds will go to Wheels for Henry. You can sign up to participate as a vendor. Here's a list of participating vendors so far.
3. Please shop at this event! To shop, click on a vendor listed here, look around the sites and buy something. For convenience you can also sign up for the Wheels for Henry RSS feed. This event runs from Sunday, October 18 - Saturday, October 31.      
4. You can donate directly. There's a Paypal button at Wheels for Henry.
5. Here's the blog and facebook page.

that soup cookbook I was talking about—

This book hasn't left my hands in the last 48 hours. It's that cookbook I was writing about a bit back, Love Soup, by Anna Thomas—and it's better than I had even hoped for. They have a stack at Powell's, for you Portland folks. That's where I bought my copy.

It's got 160 soup recipes (almost half are vegan) and then the added bonus— there are chapters with wonderful breads and rolls, seasonal side salads, and lovely desserts in the back. It's organized by season, which I love. No photos—but really, soups aren't the most photogenic of foods. She also puts together a few sample menus (all the recipes are in the book, with the page numbers, which is so handy). Here's one that looks very tasty to me right now:

• black bean and squash soup
• oatmeal molasses bread
• red cabbage and apple salad
• greek yogurt with honey and walnuts
• roasted persimmons

Yum and yum and yum. My girls probably won't eat any of this. Well, the baby might. I don't really cook for them. I cook for Pete and I. I try to serve them what we eat first and then deal with whatever happens. I figure that's the only way they will ever try new stuff—and then I don't freak out about making grilled cheese and mac & cheese for every meal.

Unrelated:

The Tie One On apron gallery is up—Mad about Plaid! Please take a gander. And the new theme is set. It's due the beginning of December, for those of you who want to play along. I feel like I have about 100 other things to mention and link to—but they are all slipping out of my brain and I can't catch them. I am very excited to see Whip it. I know that.

popovers.

I made these popovers for breakfast and while no amount of butter in the muffin tin seemed to prevent them from sticking, they were so delicious. I remember this recipe floating around blogs a few years back and at that time I had a terrible sticking-in-the-pan episode. This time around it was much better, even though they didn't just fall out by any means. I need a cast iron muffin pan I think. Even with the sticking issue, these were really quick and easy (and much less messy) because this time I made the batter in the blender, whirled it a bit, and then just poured the batter straight from the blender into the muffin tin.

The girls had theirs with powdered sugar, I had them with powdered sugar, lemon juice and jam. Yum and yum. I enjoyed them more than they did but they did eat them. They said they were "pretty good."

New on the wanty list:

• One of these satchels from the Cambridge Satchel Company (and in my fantasy world—3 matching smaller ones, one for each girl.) Sigh. This link came from Sarah, who is such the temptress.

• These decorative masking tapes from Japan are making me crazy and I feel I can justify the purchase with all the homemade envelopes I am making, right? (Link from eggplant.)

book signing this sunday!

Okay, I will be at Powells this sunday for a book-signing. I'm pretty excited. There will be a question and answer portion (Questions don't have to be limited to this new book of mine, by the way, they can be from my first book too, or whatever you want to ask, actually, as long as it's not really hard questions about science or something.) I also will have the real life projects from the book to look at and discuss and I will also be hosting several cakewalks. Fun! They are small cakes, but still big enough to feel very special as long as you don't share, which I wouldn't.

The details:

• Book signing—Powell's, September 20th Sunday 7:30-9 PM, downtown location.
• Cakewalk*—to enter in the cakewalk (of which there will be many, like more than 10) you must either bring my new book or buy one. I know, kind of tricky, but hey.
• I will also be giving away 2 boxes of Bend the Rules Labels to anyone who brings a project made from my newest book. If there are several of you, I will have my daughters choose—you can take it up with them.

*Cheating is encouraged, if you can figure out a way to cheat in a cake walk, more power to you. That doesn't mean not buying my book, yeah, I'm on to you. Mariko, our cakewalk DJ, is accepting bribes. I suggest you bring sour candy and/or colorful mechanical pencils and pens.

labels and stuff to do with them

I am so stinking excited to have these Bend The Rules gift labels on hand for gift giving. These are the ones I wrote about a bit back. I have been using them for all kinds of things—like here on a box. This one says "I totally want to get one of these for myself, so let me know if you don't want it."

on tags, boxes, and cards—on the tag it says, "It's a gift for you! (But secretly for me.)"

And "I made this, just so you know. So, don't say anything mean about it." They are very handy.

They are published by Potter Style and are available in gift shops and book stores and also right here. I say, stock up for your holiday gift giving!

I am giving away a box of labels—leave a comment with your worst gift giving or receiving experience. Preferably handmade in nature. Like, I had a knitting teacher who would knit sweaters for her boyfriends, they would take months and months, and then they would always break up with her right after she finished the sweater.

One of my favorites which is not a handmade gift story, but still amazing, is a dear friend who gave her dad the soundtrack to O' Brother Where Art Thou, but knew he hadn't seen the movie—so she gave him the movie too, but rented it. So, he had to return it to the video store after he had watched it. Classic!

Okay, I will leave this up a couple days and then we will do a random number generator to choose the winner. Thanks!! (And I will be giving away 2 more boxes at my book signing at Powell's on the 20th, too.)

************************************************************************************************************************

Okay--WOW that was a lot of stories! I laughed, and some were so sad! Kind of like a big long This American Life segment. You all are amazing.

Alright—the Random Number Generator has chosen #168. Congrats Cay!

pumpkin ginger waffles

I made these ginger pumpkin waffles over the weekend. I got the recipe in the October Country Living and it was so very good. I didn't put in the crystallized ginger because I knew the kids would balk. They were plenty ginger-y anyway. And I always use yogurt instead of buttermilk, which I did here as well. The girls like them just hot dusted with powdered sugar eaten out of their hand. The recipe doesn't appear to be on the Country Living site yet, but a very similar one is here. I told the girls they were gingerbread waffles because if I had said pumpkin waffles, one of them might have had misgivings. They were devoured. I made a double batch and keep them in the freezer and will pop them in the toaster oven during the week.

Soup!

The weather is turning and I have soup on my mind and am thrilled, more than thrilled, that Anna Thomas (her book, The New Vegetarian Epicure, is in my top 3 cookbooks of all time) has a new book coming out—Love Soup. Again, this was all in the October Country Living and they have published 5 recipes from the books here. Very, Very exciting. I forget to cook from magazines sometimes, you know? And then when I do, I get so happy. One of my favorite all time recipes is this one from Real Simple—Apricot Crumbles. They look innocent, but they are not to be trusted. You have been warned.

breakfast on sunday

I had some pluots* getting a bit soft on the counter so I cooked them up and had them over my oatmeal. I try to do this as much as I can remember because the effort it requires is so minimal but the taste in my mouth is so outstanding—it always surprises me at how easy it is and just how good and fresh it tastes. Here's what I do: (Although it's a bit different each time depending on what my hands touch first.)

Serving 2 (or one very big serving)

• Cooked oatmeal for 2 (Rolled or cut oatmeal.)
• 2 pluots sliced (Or any other fruit. One apple is good, too.)
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/8 cup orange juice (or water)
• wee bit of salt
• Grated nutmeg, not very much, like a pinch
• 1/8 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

First I start the oatmeal cooking. If it's a rolled kind, this is all done about the same time. If it's steel cut, I cook it first and then make the fruit topping in the last 5 minutes. I slice the pluots and set aside. Then in a sauce pan I add all the other ingredients (except the chopped nuts) and bring to a low boil, add the fruit, and stir it a bit until the fruit softens and the mixture thickens. It takes less than 5 minutes. That's it. I spoon it over the oatmeal, add a little milk and the chopped nuts.

It feels so special and fancy, but it's actually just a super easy and very tasty way to use up fruit. Double goodness. Baby loves it. The older girls are all still about the blueberries. They have to be frozen so they act as cooling agents on the oatmeal.

*or plucot, or plumcot, depending on your plum-apricot hybrid of choice.

And the little pitcher. I use these a ton, but they belong to the girls. They use them to add milk to oatmeal and soups, mac and cheese—anything that needs a little cooling off. They run to the table when they see them set out, so it's pretty rad. Baby can even use hers without spilling. I introduced these as a way to have better meals together. I am less fussy about when they come to the table to eat because I never have to add the milk to anything, they do, so it doesn't cool off too much or get soggy, in the case of syrup and pancakes. Also, they are pretty into their own portion control, understandably, so that takes care of that. I actually have been known to pack these pitchers—they are such a big part of our meals. I think I got them at Cost Plus. They are actually creamers for coffee. Just the right size so if they spill, there's not a ton to clean up.

Unrelated to oatmeal:

We are pretty crazy into the Girl's Little League Softball World Series, which is going on, live and in real life, less than 3 miles from where we live. It runs all day and evening until through wednesday. Under the lights, candy and snow cones, the girls are riveted. The joy it brings me to see them watch older girls (age 12-14) play in such a bad-ass way is priceless. The girls love it. Oregon played Latin America on friday. Asia Pacific was having a rough go, and we haven't seen Canada play yet. The uniforms have changed a bit since I played. I don't remember matching glitter headbands being standard issue. We always had the horrible foam hats. Oh, those were so awful.

kerchiefs

These kerchiefs for small heads were made a few weeks back and have been a huge hit around here. I made the same size for all 3 girls, with FOE, just like these here that Melissa made (and has great tips for, please check it out) minus the fancy hardware which I was too lazy to use. They are a great use for fabric scraps. Very satisfying. I made no less than 8, and I have no clue where any of them are now. What do they do with these? When I do find one, I always think it's a napkin. So does baby, since the last one I found had jam smeared on it. sweet!

feeling foolish

I needed to use up just a handful of berries before I frozen them all. These got added to some whipped cream for dessert. That's it. Barely sweetened whipped cream added to mashed berries and then more whipped cream on top. It's really tart like this, which I love, but you could add sugar to the berries to take the edge off. It's basically this blackberry fool recipe. And here's a healthier version that sounds good. wait— I think it does. Hmmm. Does yogurt seem like an odd pairing with whipped cream? Not sure about this. And if you make a fool with mostly yogurt at what point is this just a smoothie? Anyhoo, the 100% whipped cream fool was very very good.

And a random food story-

We were eating at Humdinger (an old-timey burger joint with 4 tables and is still cash only) which has barely changed since I was 5 and they have this challenge where if you eat a HUGE soft serve ice cream cone in less than a minute, you get $20. So, this 14-year old kid tried it and failed miserably—but then his buddy wins $20 by eating, get this, an entire stick of cold margarine. God! The dude working there asked the diners if we would be offended is he tried, 'cause it was so sick and wrong. I said no, but told the kid that he should at least try it with butter because margarine isn't even food, but he just laughed. Oh, the youth. I'll bet he had a bad day the next day. Sorry for the gross out. Humans are funny and weird.

a fruit-filled cookie-cake type of awesomeness

This is a teacake from this book I keep mentioning, Rustic Fruit Desserts, and it is noteworthy for many reasons. It's kind of like a cake, kind of like a cookie, the dough can be easily frozen, almost any fruit can be used, and it requires no rolling. You make the dough, press half into the bottom of the dish, add the fruit, and then add the remaining dough on top. That's it.

 

This is so insanely good because there is no sugar added to the fruit—the sweetness all comes from the dough, which isn't even that sweet, so you can eat it for a meal. Which I do. I like it hot, cold and room temp. You can add vanilla, or even a little almond extract to the dough. In the book I believe it's called Stone Fruit Teacake, but because I go to the Baker and Spice Bakery almost every week (yup) I know they make it with all kinds of fruit, right now it's raspberries—which is heavenly. The bottom crust browns to make a firm cookie base, oh man. I know I'm getting weird here, but really, it's so good. I'm going to stop now and just say I like it a whole lot—for both how easy it is to make and how good it tastes in my mouth.

more stuff in a jar-part II

We went to Jade Teahouse again a bit back and can I just say, again, how much I love this restaurant? I love it. Anyhoo, the Thai iced coffee was so very good and I have been craving it ever since. I made some at home and while it wasn't nearly as good, I haven't given up hope. I am still tinkering with the recipe. I am thrilled to be keeping it in a mason jar, so it's making friends with all my concentrated tea blends.

For this batch I added heavy cream to the super strong spiced coffee, but I need to try it with condensed milk next time. The spiced coffee is already sweetened by the time I add it to the jar and put it in the fridge, so I can't just add condensed milk to it now without having some sort of glycemic freak-out. I found some recipes but realized in researching there are many many ways to make this coffee. I think I need to add more sugar (I bet agave would work too) because it still doesn't taste right yet. The recipe I made is based on the first recipe I list below with a lot less sugar. But now I think it needs more sugar, so I am still tinkering with it.

• How to make Thai Iced Coffee
• Thai iced coffee from Recipe Source
• Thai iced coffee from RecipeZaar (this looks very good to me)
• Thai iced coffee from Epicurious (I'd use normal sugar, not Splenda.)

**update: After drinking this for about 2 weeks now, we have decided that using whole milk is better than the heavy cream or condensed milk. At least for this daily at home version. I like the richness of the cream once in awhile, but not everyday.

favorite canning/preserving resources?

Hey you all,
I just got an e-mail asking about my favorite canning how-to books, with recipes for all that canning and preserving goodness. I don't have a ton of experience doing this really. I freeze a ton of food (I have Grammie's huge freezer in our garage packed full) but love the idea of canning and preserving more, with equipment and all that, especially pickling. I really love brine-y salty foods. I have checked quite a few out of the library and they all seem good. I got this book from the library and loved it.

Any more suggestions? Thank you!

**Update~!

Oh, thank you!! Seriously, how amazing are you people!? It makes me want to just hug you all and make pickles at the same time. Thank you for such awesome suggestions, links, and book recommendations!

the pitting of the cherries using the new gadget

So, this was made, a cherry crumb cake, after the following gadget was used in the amusing and mildly boring video below—with much enthusiasm, I might add. If you can't film the use of random kitchen gadgets and upload it on your blog—what good is it for, anyway? Baby was at it the longest. She's got a real strong work ethic, that one. The gadget was a hit. It works great and made the girls very happy. And this recipe was so very tasty. I divided it between two 6" round pans, one to eat right now and one to freeze for later. I added 7 minutes to the cooking time and used about 1/3 cup fewer cherries. I will be making this again.

tea in a jar

I was fretting about fridge space while making 3 different types of iced tea and thought of a simple solution that has given me much pleasure. Instead of making large amounts in big jugs that are unruly, cumbersome, and seem to strain my wrists, I make 3 small batches in mason jars, highly concentrated. Very highly concentrated. Then I just pour a tiny amount in a glass with a ton of ice and water. Done! The jars of this concentrated tea last about a week in our house because really, you only need a tablespoon or so. And the beauty here is 3 mason jars take up no room in the fridge at all. I like to make a peach/hibiscus batch, a green tea/peppermint batch, and a berry/black tea batch. I also am crazy about jasmine tea, and love it iced just as it is. I am trying to have less of the iced latte kind of afternoon snack and more of the iced green tea kind. It's better for me—so they tell me. And I swear coffee (and fried food) are getting harder for me to deal with as I get all old lady. I find this tragic, but true.

*Updated:

More specific information about the water/tea ratio has been requested. I think it's "to your personal taste" but to not be totally annoying here's what I do (which varies every time, but this comes close.)

I put 5-6 bags of tea in a mason jar that is size of that one there in the photo. How big is that? Not sure, but it's a normal mason jar size. Sorry. Then I fill it with cold water and let it sit in the fridge overnight. Then I squeeze the heck out of the bags and use about 2 tablespoons of this concentrated tea per 12 ounces of water. If you like it stronger you can add more of the tea, or less water, you get the idea. I like it unsweetened. If I wanted sweetener, I'd add that to my glass, not to the master batch. I also love to use loose tea, so if I do that, I use about 3 teaspoon of loose tea and about 3 teabags. I strain the next day when I take out the bags. And regarding creepy tea funk, we drink it pretty fast and don't leave the bags in, nor do I let it steep outside the fridge, so no barfing yet! (Sorry if I made it all sound gross, it's really really good, I promise.)

Unrelated:
-I loved this article about vintage sewing machines over at The Collectors Weekly.
-I really really think this needs to be made as soon as raspberries are here. Imperative.
-The Tie One On aprons are coming in and look awesome—and so do the pie recipes. So rad. I have posted the book I will giveaway to a lucky apron maker for this theme, so take a peek.

a very cute cherry pitter

 

This cherry chomper is going to get used very soon. For something like this. Or this.

We got ours here in town at New Seasons. I know that the cleaning/de-cluttering/simplify-your-life experts are all anti kitchen-gadget-with-only-one-use, but what's the fun in that? My pineapple cutter and apple slicer are the best gadgets ever and we are all very excited by this ridiculous new one. I actually didn't have a cherry pitter, just a paperclip unfolded and a lot of swearing. And this pits olives, too. So there!

Plus it looks like my daughter, so I had to buy it.

summer soup

I made this summer soup this morning. It's based on a vegetable root stew that I made long ago from a copy of The Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook which I got from the library after posting about my favorite cookbook. There are wonderful suggestions in the comments of this post, which is where I learned of this author.

I only made this soup once, and it was over a year ago—almost two actually, so I have no idea if it's very close, but I do remember I liked it a whole lot and this soup I like a whole lot—so there you go. It's an excellent cookbook. I should buy it. I actually am not a huge Italian food fan. I could never have pasta again in my life and be just fine, but this cookbook is about a different type of Italian cooking that is very exciting to me. Anyhoo, here's what is in this soup:

-1 fennel bulb sliced super thin
-1 onion sliced
-1 carrot diced
-2 leeks sliced
-3 new potatoes diced
-5 cloves garlic sliced
-3 radishes sliced
-a bunch of fresh herbs and a can of diced tomatoes (fresh tomatoes would be best, but they aren't ready here yet.)

I sauteed the fennel, onion, carrot, leeks, garlic, and radishes in olive oil and salt and pepper for about 15 minutes. Then I added the can of diced tomatoes in their juice, covered it all with water and simmered it for about an hour. Then added about 1 cup corn and chopped herbs from the pots outside-rosemary, basil, dill and oregano. I served it with little toasts from the homemade bread from Friday and a lot of grated Parmesan on top. It made a boatload, about 4 mason jars full. Really yummy.

We have a crazy week ahead of us. 3 b-days (including Grammie and Liddy!), 2 doctor appointments, father's day, summer solstice celebration—and I know I"m forgetting about 3 more things. More homemade bread, butter, and jam will be needed for sure.

Unrelated, I saw Hangover and laughed hard. It's no Anchorman, but really, what is?

strawberries in a bowl with stuff added

I am a fiend for fruit, fruit desserts, and fruit paired with chocolate. I get a little hoard-y about chocolate dipped strawberries and was looking for a lighter (and quicker) version and found it. This is a bowl of sliced strawberries (no sugar added) with the tiniest amount of chocolate sauce drizzled on top. I added a sprinkle of fancy salt and one thinly sliced basil leaf. Pure heaven.

I would never serve this to friends because many many people I know would feel the salt and basil ruined a perfectly good bowl of strawberries. That's fair. A bit of brown sugar and a finely chopped mint leaf would be nice too. The chocolate sauce was not homemade but some hippie organic stuff I had on hand. I need to make some, though. Maybe something like this? There are so many recipes for chocolate sauce out there. I'd steer clear of the corn syrup ones. What say you? Any favorites? It would be rad if it didn't require heating to use. I'm thinking pourable—not a glop that needs to be heated. Many things to consider. I could put it in a squeeze bottle and get all 1980s with my dessert garnishing. Remember when every desert was plated with that chocolate sauce drizzle? Sometimes in two colors even, if it was extra cool. So what if I just wrote about food trends from 1986.

Unrelated but important to mention:

• Two wonderful zines out there—the newest Mixtape #9 is available, with a beautiful cover design by the ridiculously talented Lisa Soloman. And I always look forward to the newest Small. Very cool.

kefir & quark

I got this wonderful book, The Home Creamery, last week and it's pretty awesome. It's very simple and clear. There are no photos inside, but I don't mind that in the least in cookbooks. At different times, I have made creme fraiche, yogurt, sour cream, butter, buttermilk, yogurt cheese, and paneer, all from recipes I found online and in various cookbooks, and loved them all. But it's so nice having them collected in one book. Also, the trouble-shooting guide is helpful, detailed, and offers alternate methods. I want to try the mascapone, farmer's cheese, kefir, cream cheese, goat cheese, ricotta, and mozzarella next. The bonus in this book comes after all the cheese-making recipes. You also get recipes, savory and sweet, using all these dairy items--and they look so flippin' good and there are over 70. Seriously, I counted.

Here's some sour cream sitting next to some buttermilk. Labeling is so important, as I discovered, 'cause all this stuff is white, man. (The labels are from here, and I love them dearly.)

I use either Noris or Strauss whole milk or cream, I haven't  tried any of this with raw milk. I don't have a source right now. I've heard making dairy products with raw milk is much less predictable, and the book confirms this--so of course I feel compelled to try it. I'd like to get a source for raw goat milk, too.

I love the idea of all these homemade dairy products, but in reality I find that we really eat only the homemade yogurt and butter on a regular basis. The rest is more for special occasions. The yogurt I make about every 5 days. I'm convinced my family is made of yogurt. There are worse things to be made of.

 

It's sort of a cookie.

I made these cookies this morning and they are really tasty. They do have that "this is a hippie cookie" taste, especially the first bite, but after that they are quite nice. Not too sweet, more like a muffin-top than a cookie. I used milk chocolate chips because that's what the girls like. They ended up liking them okay. I suspect they will like them more the second time around. These don't have the super-sweet zing that "normal" cookies have, you know? So, it takes awhile for the kids to get used to that. I'd add cinnamon next time. Actually, orange zest, nuts, dried fruit, and different spices would all be good mix-ins. The recipe is cobbled together from 3 different vegan/low-sugar recipes I have, except these aren't vegan and do have refined sugar, so go figure. Still, they are a nice sort-of-healthier version of a normal cookie.

Pretty Dang Good Cookies That Aren't Horribly Bad For You

• 2 cups whole wheat flour (or pastry flour, or white whole wheat)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• pinch salt
• 1 cup applesauce (unsweetened)
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoons oil (or melted butter)
• 1 egg (or ground flaxseed, about a tablespoon? Not sure, you might have to experiment.)

Pre-heat oven 350 degrees fahrenheit. Mix all this stuff in a bowl—it will be pretty sticky. Drop about a tablespoon of dough onto your cookie sheets (these are prone to stick, so grease or use a silpat) and bake 12-15 minutes. They are better over baked than under baked, because they are so cakey. I feel coffee or tea is a mandatory accompaniment. Makes about 22.

possibly my favorite type of food.

I bought a signed copy of Rustic Fruit Desserts: Crumbles, Buckles, Cobblers, Pandowdies, and More, by Cory Schreiber and Julie Richardson over at Sweet Wares here in Portland last week (they sell it for 20% off the cover price) and have been reading it like it was a summer novel. I have so many recipes like these already, but not in one book and not with the utter perfection of these combination of flavors. I am basing this on the fact that I frequent Baker & Spice quite often and have tried just about every dessert they have and they are all outstanding—and quite a few of them are in this book. The desserts are organized by season, which is brilliant, and there are so many good tips in here for this style of down-to-earth, homey baking. The authors suggest freezing a lot. Both before you bake and after—which is key for me when I want to make something but don't want to eat the entire dessert in 2 days. Better to bake and freeze half, or make 2 smaller ones and only bake one—freezing the other for later. For that unexpected brunch party I am known for throwing together. (heh.)

Here's the Rhubarb Buckle with Ginger Crumb Pete made for Mother's Day. Good lord.

Some other desserts in this book: Fresh Strawberry Ricotta Tart, Rhubarb and Bing Cherry Brown Betty, Double Crusted Plucot Crisp, Stone Fruit Slump, Quince and Apple Brown Butter Tart, Pear Cobbler with Shingled Hazelnut Biscuits, Caramelized Pear Bread Pudding, and an Apple Pandowdy.

Better than a birthday cake! (Which I should be receive in about 2 weeks). Can I ask for a birthday pandowdy instead?

cobbler.

hey, thanks so much for the new book props!!

I got the first rhubarb of the season and was all set to make hand pies, and then thought, no—a regular pie, and then changed my mind to a crisp and then, at the very last minute, switched to making this outstanding cobbler. I just think this recipe is perfect. I followed it exactly and am now ready to add a cobbler topping to every fruit imaginable. I would suspect that you could use arrowroot powder instead of the corn starch, if that's your preference. I'm going to try that next time. Look out fruit—you all will be wearing biscuit hats soon.

baked eggs

Here's a very tasty dinner made from the April 2009 Everyday Food. I love it when they post the recipes from the current issue. Here it is and if you like eggs, it's just crazy good. But crazy hot! I burnt my tongue really bad, which almost ruined the dinner for me. I didn't technically make it, husband did. Everyday Food is his go-to for cooking. Clear, easy, one page, and pretty dang solid. We have had very few misses. It would be a nice dish for an Easter brunch I think, a bit different, but still egg-y. Speaking of Easter brunch, I need to make the yummy dough from the bread book (I have been using this book all year, I pretty much have it memorized) for the hot crossed buns for this weekend. Or maybe a braided bread. Can't decide. Both?

I forgot to mention that the children thought this was the stinkiest dinner ever and they almost started crying because it smelled so bad (it didn't). At one point Sadie said it smelled like Liddy's dirty diaper and Delia said it smelled like her vomit. Wow. Tough crowd. Needless to say, they didn't try it.

friday cake

I made this cake last Friday and am tempted to make it today. It is incredibly light. It has no butter, just eggs, a little flour, sugar, and almond paste—which is where I got the recipe.

It's just heavenly with a strong cup of coffee at about 2:30 pm, right before the back-to-back ballet classes. The thing is—it's so light and airy it's not filing in the least, so eating half the cake seems like a reasonable thing to do. I used restraint and it was wonderful for breakfast the next morning with berries on top. I should try to make my own almond paste. I usually buy it, but I'm sure a little internet research will yield some homemade options. And I know someone out there has made it, right? It's basically almond butter with sugar added? I have no clue, but plan to find out.

smallish pies

We got back from the coast last week and the re-entry was hard. A short week always feels long, you know? It was pretty nice weather considering it was the Oregon coast in March, but there were a few rainy episodes, so I found myself baking. These small apple pies were made with Sadie, whose New Year's resolution was to learn how to make pies. For real. So, we did. We used 3 apples and these sweet Pyrex bowls I found in the kitchen, which were so perfect I was tempted to take them home. Different than hand pies, but equally life altering.

We seem to have brought back a flu-barfing thing. I thought it was some funky clam chowder, and am still not convinced it wasn't, but now that 3 out of 5 of us have been ill in the last 4 days, I wonder if it was also a bug. Sorry to mention barf and pie in the same post.

Unrelated—I am sewing belts. More soon on this development, but I am very excited. I also just found this site, Goop, by Gwyneth Paltrow, which I can't stop reading. It's new to me (did everyone know this was out there?) and I especially am fascinated by this post about her clothes. Slightly unrelated but still about clothes—I really want these shorts. There's a sentence I really never thought I'd write—shorts?? But really, these are so vintage-y cute. I have already had trusted friends completely veto these, but they are so good in the 1940s/80s way.

butter was made and eaten

Thanks so much for all of your tips about making butter! You all rock. So, I made this fabulous butter today and have since whipped about half of it with honey, which tastes amazing—especially when the butter is lightly salted. Here it is all made (I was a fancy-pants and gave it an extra whipping after washing it which is why it looks nice and fluffy) along with the buttermilk which I saved.

I went with the food processor method. I wanted to be all prairie-cool and do the mason jar thing, but was impatient and to be honest, wanted to try it first fast-style, just to see what it was all about and know when it was really done, etc. before I set the kids to shaking a jar—which I fully intend to do. For the cream, I used Strauss, one 16 oz jar, and left it on the counter to warm for about 2 hours before I started. It must have made a huge difference, because instead of 15-20 minutes, this butter was made in about 2 minutes, seriously. I am really glad I went with this method, because the kitchen-aid thing seems a bit messy, and this wasn't at all.

Here it is after washing. Okay, seriously yummy.

I need to research more about the buttermilk left over. Is this buttermilk, like the kind you buy? I am curious, because I have made my own buttermilk by adding buttermilk to scalded milk and letting it sit, but I have only done this using purchased cultured buttermilk, which I am assuming is different than what I have here left over from the butter making process. Clearly, I need a dairy making book or need to befriend a cow owner.

And the husband got the wrong size of weck jars, but they will be exchanged, and the butter willl be housed in the smaller size soon, don't you worry.

who has done this?

Terribly excited to make butter. I know you all have done this. Tips? It looks too good to be true. And I just got a tip that Weck jars are in Portland at Canoe! Oh, it's a good day, can't wait to put some homemade butter in a Weck jar!

when you have these, why leave the house?

I made these macaroons last week with the girls. I had never made them before, or macaroons of any kind really. It's was the easiest recipe ever. A little coconut, sugar, egg whites and chocolate chips. They were really really good.

I would have never even thought to make these 2 years ago. I never liked coconut when I was little. I always thought it tasted like I was eating sun tan lotion. I loved the smell, but didn't identify it with food at all. And then after a few attempts at trying to eat almond joys from the bottom of my halloween bag (way too sweet) I was done. But a few years ago, I started to dabble in coconut. Just barely—mostly with the unsweetened flaked variety. And coconut milk, for curries. It's been a slow attraction, but it has grown steadily.

As it turns out, the girls won't eat these, so it was just Pete the baby and I eating these all week, which was sort of crazy, but yummy anyway. I saw this Martha recipe today which I might have to try, they almost look too good. Almond orange and coconut, is that too good? I must test and find out.

Grammie, I found out, loves coconut. I never knew that. Isnt that weird? When you find out a type of food your parents love, but you had no clue about it? We never had coconut anything in the house. I also just found out she always hated fig newtons, which we always had in the house. Hmmm. I know what kind of cake she is getting this year for her birthday. (And it's not fig newton.)

shortbread love

Chocolate hazelnut shortbread was made for a friend and shipped out—it keeps really well so it's one of my favorite cookies to mail. The recipe is here on my cheat sheet. I used the shortbread recipe and then sprinkled about 1/4 cup chocolate chips on the top while it was still warm. After about 5 minutes I spread the chocolate in a thin layer (it melts beautifully) and then I topped it off with chopped toasted hazelnuts and a little fancy salt.

The new apron theme is up over on Tie One On, and I spruced it up over there too—with a new banner, links, and books.

clouds

I finally made little meringue thingies. What should I call them? The girls call them clouds. I guess little meringues works, or mini Pavlovas? Anyway, I made them for the very first time and they were really tasty and fun to make. I had to make an emergency call to someone who has more experience with these than I do to talk about doneness, but they all went well. Crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside.

I drizzled chocolate sauce on the plate and then spooned a raspberry sauce on the top. Heavenly— although I wonder if this style of garnishing is too 80s/90s when it seemed everything was garnished with a squeeze bottle.

The meringue recipe is similar to the one I used here, the raspberry sauce is just frozen berries stewed with a bit of sugar over heat and then mashed through a strainer, and the chocolate sauce came from a bottle.

Completely unrelated, I am worried about my Australian friends and thinking of them all a ton. I wasn't sure what to do and was told about this great site—2009 Victorian Bushfire Appeal that provides ideas on how to help. Thanks to those of you who e-mailed me about this.

so bad, yet so good.

A heaven log. A loaf of happiness. It's zebra cake—or chocolate wafer icebox cake. We made this a bit back and I forgot how incredibly good it is. I found myself thinking it was my favorite cake ever. I think this about many types of cake. This one is dang good, though. It's also perfect for kids to make if they don't mind a little whipped cream on their fingers.

I followed the recipe on the famous chocolate wafers box. I use real whipped cream just barely sweetened, not cool whip or some other freaky stuff. You just layer the whipped cream between the cookies. I used the cookie wafer as a scoop for the whipped cream and pressed another cookie on top—much easier than using a knife and trying to spread it. Then let it sit overnight in the fridge. Slice it on an angle, drink a cup of strong coffee, and get ready to get totally sick. It's not very sweet and very rich, so it's completely awesome. The cookies are very dark and almost bitter and if you just barely sweeten the whipped cream, it's actually a pretty sophisticated tasting dessert. And the retro appeal goes a long ways with me, of course. Don't get impatient and try to eat it before it has completely softened—wait at least overnight. Not that I have done this before (ha.) but it doesn't slice. I'm just sayin'.

I am waiting for some hippie company to make these chocolate wafers without hydrogenated what-all, but I haven't found any yet. I think I might have to make my own chocolate wafer cookies if I want them less junky, but making these thin enough would be a challenge. I might try it. I have heard these cookies are hard to find in some parts of the country, but I seem to find them easily here in Portland, so I am less tempted to make them from scratch. Plus, the beauty of this cake is the simplicity and ease. Like 'smores, you know? Here's a lovely round version, I have only made the log style, but this might even be easier. Here's a nice one too, along with a recipe (it's double the quantity I usually make) but I still stand behind my log shape. It's what is on the box and I just love it.

I think this would be such a good Valentine's Day dessert and I might even get all crazy and tint the whipped cream a light pink. Oh, and lightly flavor it with peppermint! That would be very tasty.

And thank you so much for all the new banner love.

more stuff in a jar-

More random food in jar photos. This one has really made me happy this week. It's pureed chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. I always see this called for in recipes and it's always in very small quantities. Straight from the can, it's a mess. It's hard to save, a pain to freeze, and so I leave it out and just add cayenne pepper. But the taste so different than cayenne pepper—so nice and smoky, I needed to stop avoiding it out of sheer laziness.

 

I got a tip from a great cookbook (which I will blog about soon) to dump the whole can in a cuisinart, puree it, and then just keep it in the fridge—scoping out what you need. It's so good. Now it's in eggs, soups, stews, rice and beans—all that. I'm sure I will burn out on it soon, but I haven't yet. A little goes a long way and this method makes it so easy to not use too much. This is the brand I buy, the only type I know of, actually. An amazing soup recipe using this will be coming soon, but right now I am dealing with a diaper-less baby who is suspiciously quiet.

Thanks for all your eMailorder #9 orders!

old bread

So. Old bread. I have tried making croutons before, but they weren't perfect. Just not crispy enough. They are so easy, but I just never got the system down. Now I have it. I am addicted to these and it is so pleasing to use up the last 3-4 old pieces of bread. I save bread bits all the time—freezing them usually, but then only want to make bread pudding. The problem with this is I am the only bread pudding eater in the house, so it's not good for me. The bread bits sit in the freezer forever and get all gross and freezer burnt. I know I can make breadcrumbs too, but I seem to never use them, to be honest. Now croutons— I use those, but can't justify buying them, of course.

Okay, this is so simple, but the key for me was adding olive oil and baking it in the toaster/convection oven.

I cube up 3-4 pieces of bread, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper (and garlic salt, cheese powder, or some other nasty thing is you are feeling crazy—but plain is really nice too) and bake for 20 minutes in a 350° oven. I use a 9" x 9" pan and never use more than 4 pieces f bread in this size. I don't stir, just bake, and let it cool. Perfect. I use these on salads and in soup. I feel a bit silly writing about this, because you probably already do this, but who the heck knows—it's made my life better.

easy yummy dinner.

the sticky orange stuff

I found myself inundated with oranges in the last few weeks (a good problem to have) so I was thrilled to see the orange themed January Martha on the stands and boldly tried the marmalade recipe. I have never made marmalade before. I like marmalade, I don't love it, but I like it a lot. One recipe called for a split vanilla bean and so I made that one, and now I do love it. A lot. Okay, can I just say I got a ridiculous thrill out of making this stuff? The 8 oranges made a ton of marmalade. More than I know what to do with. I have about 8 jars in the freezer. I gave some to mom and great grandpa, both of whom like marmalade, but not a lot of people do, so I think I will have a lot extra. Even my one good Canadian friend didn't help me out by taking a jar. Bad.

There's the vanilla bean—the sticks in there. So, you use the whole orange to make this, peel, rind and all— you just cook it with some sugar for a bit. That's it. I mean, read the recipe in the magazine, but that's really all there is to it. Amazing and so wonderfully frugal. Celebratory scones are in order.

I liked marmalade as a kid, at least I think I did, we never had it much in the house. My first introduction to marmalade was from the Paddington Bear books, which I haven't read since I was little. I need to revisit these, I have no copies in the house. I remember really liking them, but that's all.

And why are there no shops locally that carry the coolest canning jars ever, Weck jars? I am trying to get a great new baking shop to carry them here in town and I think I may have convinced them—I will report back.

a new tradition for the holidays

This is our new Christmas cake. It's an almond bundt cake made using this crazy almond filling and a recipe from the inside of the label on the can. It's amazing. I found it at New Seasons here in Portland when I was looking for almond paste. I was struck by this can and am a sucker for recipes on cans, so I ended up with this in the cart instead. Even my not-so-into-almond-flavor husband said it was amazing. I served it Christmas Eve to my family with softly whipped cream and stewed berries and it was lovely, but the real treat was eating it the 2 days afterwards as a moist hand-held-coffee-cake-type thing. It got better each day and then was declared a once a year treat, because it's that good.

Here's the can of happiness. I love the way the logo looks more like an airline company than a food product. The recipe is here. I wouldn't try this with any other almond product, this is not almond paste nor is it marzipan. The almond flavor is not too strong and no almond extract is used in the cake (and I didn't use any in the glaze either, even though it called for it) so there no almond-y bite that can get overwhelming at times. I think this is the best site ever, by the way, it's way high on the random scale.

Happy 2009!

cookies and the like

I have been baking. I made a chocolate gingerbread and it was heaven, but was slightly overcooked by me. The recipe was in our local paper in FOODay, but the link won't work, sorry. Today I made these linzer style cookies with raspberry jam. This is a standard sugar cookie type dough with an egg yolk and the addition of allspice and cinnamon. It's one of those doughs you can use for like, 101 types of cookies. I have a huge lump of it in the fridge and am making different types of cookies with it in between unpacking boxes.

And here's a little group in martha's scalloped cookie boxes that are so stinkin' cute. You can see the same boxes here as well, looking even dandier. Just two kinds are in this box—some Russian teacakes (XL-style) and some milk chocolate marshmallow fudge. Simple and sweet. I actually have yet to give any away. The weather has been dicey causing holiday visits to be spotty. The post office has been hard to get to as well. So, they are being eaten in-house. The dark chocolate salted walnut fudge is totally gone. Oh, well.

I need to point out the holiday goodness over here, which caused much envy and made me both super inspired and wishing for a clone.

chocolate hazelnut spread—a case study

This is not salted caramel sauce, which is what I had planned to put in these swell jars. (They came from the Meadow, here in Portland, and are super heavy and very pleasing to hold.) I opted for this chocolate hazelnut spread instead because 1. Grammie made some and it was delicious. 2. My kitchen mojo isn't good right now and couldn't face using a candy thermometer 3. I had all the ingredients already *sort of.

I realize looking at this photo now that it looks a bit—turdy. Like turd in a jar. Well, nothing like homemade gifts. Moving on—

I found 3 different recipes for this homemade nutella type stuff. All pretty different. Here's the lowdown:

1. This recipe is what Grammie used. It's basically a chocolate ganache with hazelnut paste in it. The flavor is excellent. You actually use melted chocolate, not cocoa powder, and heavy cream, not oil, so the mouth feel is really nice and smooth. (Mouth feel? Sorry, that sounds pretentious.) It's from a New Seasons flier, which I can't find online so here it is:

1/3 cup toasted hazelnuts (use the toasting directions from the next recipe)
3 oz chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt

Pulse hazelnuts in a Cuisinart forever. Like a long time, about 5 minutes, until it makes a butter. Then add the chopped chocolate and pulse again. Meanwhile, heat up the cream, sugar, vanilla, and salt in a saucepan until just boiling. Add this to the pureed nut and chocolate mixture and pulse again until it's super smooth. It will firm up as it sits and then you can store it in the refrigerator.

2. This recipe is what I have photographed here. This version is the easiest to find and seems the most common. It uses cocoa powder, powdered sugar, and a little oil, blended with hazelnut paste. It's fine—but really, doesn't compare at all to the recipe above. The chocolate flavor just isn't there and the powdered sugar taste is too sweet. It is vegan and because there is no dairy it might be a better candidate for shipping. It is good, it's not like I wouldn't eat it, it's just not as smooth and powerful as recipe #1.

3. This version uses melted chocolate and sweetened condensed milk, much the same way my favorite fudge recipe does. I think it's my favorite because I do always have a can of sweetened condensed milk on hand, but not always heavy cream, and it uses honey, which tastes really good, I think. I really like using melted chocolate in recipes rather than cocoa powder. I always think the taste is much better.

A few tips:

-Don't overcook your hazelnuts when you toast them. It will make a burnt tasting spread.
-Don't try to substitute half-and-half* for heavy cream in recipe #1, it won't ever set up.
-Don't try to use hazelnut flour (like what they have at Trader Joe's) instead of grinding your own. The flour is too dry and won't make a paste when you pulse it, so it will always stay a bit grainy.
-You might try a little less salt if you use recipe #1.

Yum. Thanks for your help, grammie!

not a tooth breaker, I swear.

I am not on my A-game this week. I have made a coffee cake forgetting 3 cups of flour (Oops. I threw it back in the mixing bowl and added the flour when I noticed the batter seemed to be the consistency of water, and no one was the wiser, thank god.) and then I botched a half-batch of gingerbread cookies today (forgot salt and was crazy/metal with the oven timer. Curses. I blame my new kitchen.) However, I did successfully make this candied ginger orange biscotti last week and it turned out great. Better than great. I changed the mix-ins but it's based off of this lemon anise recipe. So, I think I will be making more of these. Hopefully no recipients will chip a tooth, which has actually happened before. Not with my cookies, but I think with my fudge. I know that sounds really bad.

We got our Christmas tree at Loch Lolly this weekend with my brother (toting an amazing pocket chainsaw!) and Grammie. It was really fun and we magically missed the rain. Here's my husband-woodsman cutting down the tree with the pocket chainsaw and the impervious-to cold little helpers. They have a very strong jacket aversion. (It covers up their outfits, which is lame, they tell me.) The tree is up and decorated and hasn't fallen yet. Woot!

During tree activities we put on a little of John Fahey's Guitar Soli Christmas Album and it felt nice and cozy. And how rad is this cover art? Rad.

Thank you so much for all your very informative comments on the last post. So, I will say yes to adding the moonshine to the homemade vanilla extract and adding a vitamin D supplement to my body. It's good to have a plan. Also, for you bloglines folks, I have a new holiday banner up.

apple crisp from before the move

We made it. This house we moved into is so cool. It's like tree house. Every view looks into trees. And we have a broom closet. And a coat closet. Our old house had neither of these things and this created terrible clutter. Actually, the storage here is amazing. I keep feeling like we won the storage lottery until I remember we loaded up an huge POD 2 months ago and we keep forgetting about it. Like, "Oh where did the 4 chairs and table go? Oh yeah, they are in the POD." So, we still need to face that. I did some sewing already, of course. Straps on a new tutu needed to be repaired.

This crisp (from the cheat sheet) was the last baked item in the old house. Goodbye old house! We loved you and you were only 7 minutes from IKEA!

We haven't baked yet here, but I feel it coming on. Pete made this last night (thanks Hillary) and it was surprisingly good. Definitely add the chocolate chips and don't burn your mouth. And I am still geeking on the music suggestions! Thank you so much. Grammie is now obsessed with Fleet Foxes. For reals.

again with the soup.

Homemade tomato soup. So easy, yet it's taken me forever to start making this. Growing up, I was in love with the too sweet weird taste of Campbell's, but now I make it from scratch, mostly because I always have canned tomatoes, an onion, and milk in the house—but not always tomato soup. Also, it's so basic, easy and healthy made from scratch, now I feel kind of guilty buying it. Got to keep up with the guilt, you know.

Here's the basic recipe-

-1-3 cans of whole tomatoes (depending on how much I want. I often use one can of fire roasted canned whole tomatoes. I sometimes add a can of tomato sauce if I only have 1 can of whole tomatoes.)
-1 big yellow onion, diced
-3 cloves of garlic
-olive oil, salt, pepper and a bit of homemade pesto, if I have some
-milk (whole tastes best)
-a little honey

Dice the onion and garlic and saute it in olive oil. Then after 10 minutes, add the canned tomatoes and cover with water if needed, and bring to a boil. Then reduce to a simmer, cover, and keep it on low heat for about 20-45 minutes. Puree it with a stick blender (or throw it in the blender) and add enough milk to make it a nice light red color, probably about 1 cup or so. Season with salt, pepper, and pesto (only about a tablespoon) and a little honey if it needs it.

I make this in big batches and freeze it because my family gets really sick of it after day 2 (I don't) so I have to give it a rest for a bit and bust it out later. Ina has a good recipe for a tomato soup also. And there are a ton of other tomato soup recipes on this link. Like—how many variations can there be? A lot I guess.

sweet potato goodness

I got my seasonal sweet potato fries last week at Burgerville and they were so good but made me feel not so good. As I get older, I realize (with horror) that fried foods don't agree with me. Fried dough of any kind is so close to my heart, so this has been hard to accept, but I have learned my lesson. Fried vegetables? I figured I was still safe—but not so much.

So, after receiving a copy of Ina's new book, which is really great, and seeing a recipe for baked sweet potato wedges—I made these homemade baked sweet potato fries, with homemade blue cheese dressing. (The dressing wasn't in this book, but she has a great recipe here.) The blue cheese dressing is the real key in enjoying these, for me anyway. Since they are not fried, I have to get sick somehow.

One large potato made enough for 2 servings, which I had for lunch and then dinner. No shortage of beta carotene in my body now. Once again, the blue cheese dressing is kill, please make it or at least buy a good one, 'cause these just aren't the same with out it.

I have Ina's first 3 books and they are household favorites. I skipped the next 2, but this newest one, Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics: Fabulous Flavor from Simple Ingredients, is really great. Simple and straight forward. Like many good cookbooks, she reminds me of things to cook, not just supplying a ton of hard recipes with too much text. And her whole gig is about little prep in the kitchen, but with stellar ingredients, so that's great. I will say, some of her dishes are so over-the-top rich, (this is true in all her cookbooks) they seem almost criminal—but it's pretty easy to cut the fat/salt/sugar from many of her dishes. Usually her super rich recipes are reserved for parties around here anyway, so it's fine to go whole hog. This new book is already at Grammie's in time for Thanksgiving.

Unrelated, thanks for the new banner love! The scene is heavily borrowed from a wonderful illustration in this book.

a sort of cake-like cookie

I don't make frosted cookies very often. Except for the standard frosted sugar cookie for easter or Christmas, I usually don't think to make frosted ones, but why not? They are so over the top. I actually think they are better for you because they maximize the sugar-sick feeling so much, you eat less. How's that rationalization?

These are insanely good pumpkin spice cookies with a cream cheese frosting. With hot cider or coffee, they are the food of the gods. The girls chew off the top layer and leave the gross decapitated cookie hidden in cupboards around the house. At least they tell me this, so I can find them right away. The recipe is here and the frosting I used is pretty much the same glaze they list with the addition of cream cheese.

I can't believe Halloween is so soon, I feel very unprepared, except I spookified my banner. We only just got the Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack out 2 days ago. We did see the spooky NW Children's Theater production of Hansel and Gretel Sunday and it was so good—nice and creepy, the girls really had a good time. They were too warm, so there was lots of lying down in the seats and removing of shoes and tights and all that.

I broke down and got this dress that I have been eyeing for about 2 months now. Here's the thing—I couldn't have sewn it, not with all the ruffles and details (zoom in please, it's really great) without going crazy. That's what I have told myself. And the seams are bound on the inside with such a lovely fabric. And it looks killer on. Photos soon.