And another holiday season winds down…

I’m always torn at the end of the holidays. I love the holidays. I love the sparkle, the theoretically good cheer, the food. The chaos of it gets old after a while, though; we went to four holiday celebrations between last Wednesday and yesterday and we are tired. We’re starting to look for a return to normalcy. But I hate the idea of taking the pretty tree down, and the lights strung around the house. I suppose, though, that what makes them special is that they’re only up for a little while and we have to enjoy them while we can. Unless, of course, we want to become one of those crazy people who leaves up a dead tree until March, and really, that’s not what I’m going for.

I’m not a huge fan of New Year’s, despite my love for end-of-the-year holidays. New Year’s Eve celebrations always seemed to me to just be license for people to drink like fish, and while that has a time and a place, it’s not enough for me to care. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that I’m an early sleeper. I tend to doze off on the couch well before the ball drops. It’s kind of pathetic. I also am not keen on feeling like I need to have plans for the evening when I really don’t feel like going out. This year this feeling of hiding on my couch is compounded by the fact that they’re predicting snow–up to 5 inches–in these parts that night. Chinese food and a movie sound pretty good to me!

But if you’re going out or throwing a party and need a little munchie, I do have a suggestion. I made these almonds right before Christmas and gave away a couple of jars with gifts; they are delicious and easy and rather addictive.

You’ll need:
4 c almonds
1 egg white
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c white sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon, well-rounded

Start by beating the egg white until it’s very frothy, about 3 or 4 minutes. You don’t want to beat it until it has peaks, but you do want to really work it. Beat in vanilla. Add nuts and stir until everyone is coated. Toss sugars, salt, and cinnamon together and pour over nuts, tossing to coat. Spread on a well-seasoned cookie sheet that has been lightly greased and bake for an hour in a 350 degree oven, stirring every 15 or twenty minutes. They’ll become crunchy as they cool. Good luck staying away from the bowl!

Oh no!

I host Christmas in two days, and my coffee grinder just croaked. I came in from some last-minute shopping and needed a cup of joe; I got the pot started and then put some beans to grind for the morning. I started to do a second round and nothing. No whir, no buzz. I bought my grinder for $14.99 at Trader Joe’s probably in 2002 at the latest so I can’t complain, but it’s timing could be better!

Cranberry-Pistachio Biscotti

One of my favorite cookies of the season is cranberry-pistachio biscotti. A variation of a recipe found on epicurious.com, they’re easy to make and don’t require a lot of ingredients or a lot of fuss to assemble. They’re festive and delicious dunked in a mug of hot coffee, which, if you live in New England or a lot of other places right now, is sort of a staple as the temperatures plunge. I had one for breakfast yesterday.

You’ll need:
3 c flour
2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 c sugar
3 eggs
2 T canola oil
2 1/2 t almond extract
3/4 c shelled unsalted pistachios, measured then chopped
1 c dried cranberries
1/2 c chopped chocolate: the original recipe calls for white, but I had some semi-sweet chocolate chips in the house, so I just used those

Preheat oven to 350 and line a cookie sheet with parchment or silpat or something.

In your mixer, blend sugar with eggs, oil and extract. Add flour, baking powder, and salt. When smooth, use a spatula or wooden spoon to add chocolate, nuts, and berries.

Plunk onto cookie sheet in two long logs. Wet your hands and shape logs into 12″ strips, about 3″ or so wide.

Bake for half an hour, and then cool for half an hour. Resist urge to cut into these and eat them just yet.

Heat oven to 325.

Next, place logs on cutting board and using a big sharp knife, cut into 1/2″ slices. Place these slices back on your cookie sheet so that they stand up (sometimes easier said than done). Bake for about 20 minutes. Tada!

The original recipe calls on you to then dip the cookies in melted chocolate, but though that might be lovely, we like them as-is.

Did you miss me? and an enchilada recipe.

I do hate being sick. With a passion. The cold I picked up a week or so ago was a particularly evil cold, at least to begin with. It knocked me down pretty quickly and did not care that I had a lot of grading to do. As such, I was quiet here. I had little to say, and little time with which to say it. Meals were simple affairs of recipes we know by heart. But now I’m back!

And sadly, with these enchiladas, a little disappointed. They’re made from an Everyday Foods recipe I found online. First you make a sauce for them, which is quick and easy; then you make the filling, also quick and easy. Then you warm the corn tortillas and roll these suckers up, which, for us, is always a dreaded thing as they crack and break seemingly no matter what we do to try and change that. Pfft.

The problem with these enchiladas is that they’re rather bland. This is partly my fault, as you need 12 oz of cheddar for them and I only had 8. We were thus missing a lot of cheese, and that undoubtedly would have made a difference. They also lack some zip. Mr. Pea added some green salsa and garlic powder to the leftovers and reported that they’d improved greatly. So take that for what you will. The nice thing about this recipe is that it makes 2 pans of enchiladas. We have some in the freezer, which actually remedies my “we’re snowbound for a third day and we’re out of food!” problem today.

Anyway, here’s our slightly modified version of the EF recipe:
Start by making the sauce. In a smallish saucepan, add
2 T olive oil
1 tsp cumin
1/4 c flour
1/4 c tomato paste

over medium heat. Cook, whisking, for a minute. Then add:
1 can vegetable or chicken broth and
3/4 c water

Whisk away and simmer 5-8 minutes until thickened.

For the filling, thaw
1 box corn kernels
1 box spinach (and squeeze it dry)
and drain and rinse
1 can of black beans.

Mix these things with
1/2 an onion, chopped
1 tsp cumin

Shred 12 ounces (or 8, if you’re me) of cheddar or jack and add 2/3 of it to the mixture.

Place 16 6-inch corn tortillas on a plate, covered with a damp paper towel. Heat up for a minute to soften.

Make an assembly line: Have two greased 8″ square pans at the end, and take each tortilla out individually, adding 1/3 c of filling. Roll gently up and place in pan. Try not to holler, like I do, when they crack. Figure they’ll still all be tasty later, if not as pretty. Once they’re in the pan, pour the sauce over them, and add the rest of the cheese. Bake at 400, 15-20 minutes.

Now if I were making these again, I’d change a couple of things. I’d add some garlic to the filling and a fair amount of salt and pepper to give it some zip. We also discussed how they’d likely be tasty with a little sour cream mixed into the filling, as well. They definitely need *something*, something to give them a little more oomph. If you try these, let us know what you did to add oomph and we’ll give them another whirl.

The NYT on the proper handling of butter

Think you’re a terrible baker and can’t figure out why? The New York Times thinks you just can’t handle butter correctly.

DINING & WINE
Butter Holds the Secret to Cookies That Sing
By JULIA MOSKIN
Published: December 17, 2008
When baking cookies, the most common mistakes made by home bakers, professionals say, have to do with the care and handling of butter.

still ill….

though i hope to make dinner later…will keep you posted!

Ick.

I have a touch of the illness going around. My face is a little achy, my nose a little congesty, my throat a little icky. So precious little cooking today–more later!

Gingerbread troops

Yesterday we made cookies. We made a double-batch of cookies. We made so many cookies, it’s ridiculous. The gingerbread cookie recipe we used said it would make two dozen. Sure, if you have huge cutters. We easily have far, far more than that. Eight dozen, maybe? In the photo you can see them packaged up: the jar has some, there’s a bag of two dozen for my students today, after I took a dozen for other students yesterday. There’s a bag of another two dozen, maybe more, to take to Mr. Pea’s aunt’s tomorrow night; and another bag of probably three or four dozen in the freezer. So. many. cookies.

But they sure are fun to make, at least for the first hour or so. This is the recipe for one batch.

Start by creaming:
6 T of butter, softened
3/4 c dark brown sugar, packed
1 egg

Add:
1/2 c molasses
2 t vanilla

Add, slowly:
3 c flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
3/4 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1 T ground ginger
1 3/4 t cinnamon
1/4 t cloves

Once this is all blended, let it chill in the fridge a couple hours to let the flavors meld.

Preheat oven to 375.

Roll out cookie dough. 1/4 inch will yield a chewier cookie; thinner will yield a crispier cookie. Cut with assorted cutters and bake 7-10 minutes. But watch out for zombies and evil moose:

Check out Mr. Pea’s blog for some awesome zombie cookie photoshopping.

cookies….

so many….more tomorrow, if gingerbread men don’t revolt….

What I really want for Christmas….

Is pumpkin bread pudding. Here’s the epicurious recipe, from a backissue of gourmet. If you’d like to send me some, I’d be happy to receive it. You could probably cut back on the butter, too

1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs plus 1 yolk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
Pinch of ground cloves
5 cups cubed (1-inch) day-old baguette or crusty bread
3/4 stick unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle.

Whisk together cream, pumpkin, milk, sugar, eggs, yolk, salt, and spices in a bowl.

Toss bread cubes with butter in another bowl, then add pumpkin mixture and toss to coat. Transfer to an ungreased 8-inch square baking dish and bake until custard is set, 25 to 30 minutes.