A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

St. Lucia Day: St. Lucia Saffron & Raisin Wreath

 

St. Lucia Day is celebrated throughout Scandinavia and in Italy where St. Lucia was born and died a martyr under the Roman Emporer Diocletian, circa 300 A.D.  The story goes that while she was carrying food supplies into the catacombs to hiding Christians, she needed her hands free so she fashioned a wreath of candles in her hair to light her way.

That story, combined with Medieval superstions about the winter solstice being a night of evil lurking in the dark giving way to the light and goodness of morning, transcended into a celebration of St. Lucia, the girl with the lighted wreath in her hair leading the people out into the literal and philosophical light, freedom, and goodness, by having the oldest daughter of the family dress in a long white dress with a red sash and a wreath of candles in her hair serve saffron buns and coffee to her family on the morning of the holiday.

The story has always appealed to me.  As the oldest daughter, I like the idea of serving my family and if part of that is cooking, then I'll be there with bells on.  Or candles on. Or a mag flashlight or anything that won't burn me alive in the process of the fun.

To mark the day two years ago I made individual swirled saffron buns. They were lovely tasting but I wasn't crazy about the way the raisins looked. No big.  This year, though, I went for a different presentation method and loved the results!

Dough in the Fridge: Easy Cut Outs, Cinnamon Horns, and Candy Cane Cookies on the Fly

For me, one of the keys to the Christmas season is to be prepared as far in advance as I can so that I'm not sweating out the small stuff during the rush of parties and get togethers and folks dropping by. That's usually my theory. This year I've gotten most of the cooking done but have yet to pull a single decoration from the attic and only half the presents are bought. But hey, the Christmas cards are out!!

One of the cooking shortcuts I've been faithful to, though, is keeping refigerated cookie dough on hand to be able to bake off as needed.  I've also learned to take one dough and make a couple of variety of cookies to save myself the monotony of cut out cookies in a line so endless I want to throw cookie cutters in the garbage, but the dough is a very versatile base.

I haven't even gotten to the cut outs yet but for the neighborhood Christmas party tonight I"ve worked up these two winners: 

Oh Fudge!: Peanut Butter Fudge, Egg Nog Fudge, and Opera Fudge Two Ways

The bottom layer is Kraft Fantasy Fudge substituting peanut butter chips for chocolate chips, the top sqare is old-fashioned (no marshamallow cream) Egg Nog Fudge from Jan McCracken's cookbook A Taste of Ozark Mountain Christmas, and the rose is fashioned from homemade soft caramels.  The gingerbread men sugar decorations are a gift from the wonderful folks at The Amish Country Store in Branson. 

Holiday baking is all about the family.  When I was growing up, and I mean this in no way disrespectfully, my mother was a little difficult to live with.  She died when I was in my early 20's and my brothers and sister were teens, but if she were alive today I am convinced she would have been diagnosed as Bipolar.  One of my biggest regrets is that she was not able to get the medical help she needed.  I have mentioned it a few times, not because I want to dwell on the past, but because it helps explain MY love for the holidays.  When I was growing up, our home was filled with lights and laughter, music and good will, and lots and lots of baking and smiles from Halloween through New Year's Day.  The rest of the year was a little rough.  We loved the holidays because it was when Mom was at her best and we all genuinely cherish those memories, they were the best of Mom and we loved her for the joy she brought to us through knitting, cooking, and being happy.

It's no surprise that I love all those things too.  Knitting and cooking for others are the ways I was taught to show love and I am very grateful for those lessons and being able to continue those traditions.

Another family secret I've talked about before is that only a very few of us are big chocolate eaters (James! ) with the exception of dark bitter chocolate.  Most of us could walk away from milk or semi-sweet chocolate any day of the week.  But Peanut Butter? That's a different story altogether.  We'd walk on beds of nails for peanut butter fudge. Same goes for white chocolate or good ole vanilla.

Today happened to be Make All the Cookie Dough and Get It In the Fridge to Chill Day along with Oh Fudge! Day.  On the list to make was a double batch of our traditional peanut butter and then I wanted to make a new recipe from Jan McCracken's cookbook A Taste of Ozark Mountains Christmas for Egg Nog Fudge. I know it will be a huge hit.  What could be better than mixing the silky spiceful taste of eggnog with the sugar meltiness of homemade fudge?  Not much!

By the way, I ordered three more copies of this cookbook to give as Christmas presents. I don't think there was a recipe in it I didn't want to try.  It's a "Christmas" cookbook but it had everything from candy and cookies to a whole section on cheesecake, plus all the normal categories like entrees, appetizers, etc. The book is laid out nicely with great downhome recipes with simple, easy to find ingredients, and easy to follow, uncomplicated directions.

Better Than Paula Deen Buttermilk Pie: Choo-Choo's Buttermilk Pie by Crescent Dragonwagon

 

For the 1,000 folks who clicked on my blog yesterday specifically looking for Paula Deen's Buttermilk Pie, I have a better recipe for you.  No offense to Paula, whom I love dearly and whose recipes always get me compliments, THIS buttermilk pie recipe from The Dairy Hollow House Cookbook by Crescent DRagonwagon is da bomb and it is the recipe I have used for years. I did try the Paula Deen recipe the one year I blogged it but I immediately went back to my Crescent recipe. Is the best I've ever tasted and tha'ts saying something considering I, and my family members, are huge buttermilk pie fans!

Choo-Choo's Buttermilk Pie from The Dairy Hollow House Cookbook

by Crescent Dragonwagon

A New Generation of Thanksgiving Pie Makers: Pumpkin and Straight Up Pecan Pie

 Jordan's pie baking debut! She volunteered to be in charge of desserts for the family Thanksgiving party this Saturday and did a wonderful job. Her only request was that she wanted to make some of the pecan pies in smaller mini servings (chicken pot pie pans) just for fun. No prob.  I sat in a bar stool at the counter while she did everything. 

The only thing I "did" was explain why certain things are done a certain way, like running melted butter down the side of the bowl when it's time to add it in while mixing so as not to cook the eggs or why I check the pumpkin and pecan pies with a meat thermometer to test for done-ness.  Eggs set at 140 degrees so at 135-140, you can safely remove the pies from the oven and the little jiggle left in the middle will firm up as it cools.  To bake until the entire pie is set solid is overbaking it and the fillings won't be as tender and moist as they could be if it had been pulled right at the "just done" point. The same is true for quiche.

Great job, Jordan!  We all thank you so much and can't wait to dig in!

 Jordan's pie baking debut! She volunteered to be in charge of desserts for the family Thanksgiving party this Saturday and did a wonderful job. Her only request was that she wanted to make some of the pecan pies in smaller mini servings (chicken pot pie pans) just for fun. No prob.  I sat in a bar stool at the counter while she did everything. 

The only thing I "did" was explain why certain things are done a certain way, like running melted butter down the side of the bowl when it's time to add it in while mixing so as not to cook the eggs or why I check the pumpkin and pecan pies with a meat thermometer to test for done-ness.  Eggs set at 140 degrees so at 135-140, you can safely remove the pies from the oven and the little jiggle left in the middle will firm up as it cools.  To bake until the entire pie is set solid is overbaking it and the fillings won't be as tender and moist as they could be if it had been pulled right at the "just done" point. The same is true for quiche.

Great job, Jordan!  We all thank you so much and can't wait to dig in!

Great Potluck Recipe: Cream Cheese Brownies

 

(For you, Barb!)

This is one of those great potluck recipes where you can keep the main ingredients in the pantry on hand for any time you need it.  It's basically Chocolate Ooey Gooey Butter Cake, a church basement recipe made from a cake mix and a few things from the fridge, quick and easy. I took it last night to work for our going away party for Tom and ended up not only sharing it with the dept but we had one mom in Peds who'd had a really looooooong week with her sick child so after he went to sleep I snuck her in a small plate with a large square of this and whispered "Better than valium" as I handed it to her.

Welcome Fall: Apple Pie in Finnish Cream Pastry

  

Welcome Fall!  I love fall with it's cooler days, smells of leaves and fireplaces and a bazillion scents of different apples in the produce section.  Yesterday, I decided to celebrate that apple smell in a big way. I also decided to take a new cookbook out for a walk around the block.

I've lately been thinking about my heritage, Swedish on both sides with lots of Norwegian, and a little Irish and Scottish mixed in.  I guess I can't regret something I didn't have a hand in, so instead let's say that I miss that my family has no Scandi recipes handed down from the Great-greats.  I wish I had some little "My great-great grandmother's sweet buns" or some such recipe in my repetoire but since there isn't I decided to explore on my own and find some new traditions based on other people's old ones.  One of the books I chose was The Great Scandinavian Baking Book by Beatrice Ojakangas.  Finnish by birth, her parents immigrated to the northern states where she lived in a primarily Scandi community.  She's since traveled and lived in several Scandi countries, collecting favorite recipes along the way.

While I departed from her apple pie recipe when it came to filling, I absolutely loved, highly reccommend, and will use again the cream pie crust.  Rich but very flaky, the pastry was the perfect counterpoint to the crisp clean taste of the apples.

Happy Fat Tuesday! --- King Cake w/cream cheese & cherry filling

 

My first King Cake!  Not only do I love this cake, which is much more like a pastry than a traditional cake, I have to pat myself on the back and explain that not only did I start this at 5pm tonight (and finish about 8:30pm), that was AFTER finishing up a two day very stressful certification course for work called PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support).  I came home with a fried brain, took a nap, and got up in such a good mood that I don't have to recertify for two years that I decided to not only make stuffed pork chops and twice baked potatoes with steamed zucchini for dinner, I made this cake too.  No.  I don't know where the energy came from but I'm really glad I made it. Gene will enjoy it with his coffee for the next few mornings and there will still be plenty to share with the neighbors. 

By the way, the meanings of the colors of Mardis Gras are Purple = royalty, Green = friendship, and Yellow = Purity.

Moving on into Lent...what are you sacrificing?  Personally, I've chosen to give up all words that DON'T start with "F" and all foods whose main ingredients AREN'T sugar.  It's worked well for me in the past.

The Path to His Heart is....Bread Pudding?

 

 

(The first pic is of the regular bread pudding with cherry sauce that I took to work. The second pic is the Evan Williams Egg Nog bread pudding Gene, Aunti Miranda, and I shared...with a little extra floating pool of EWEN, of course!)

Hope everyone had a lovely Valentine's Day. I could say that I spent all day Saturday in the kitchen whipping up a gloriously gourmet meal for Gene but that would be a lie, although we had a lovely evening nonetheless.  I slept in all Saturday morning and then we hooked up with friends Corbin & Jennifer and James & Lynn to go to Rodizio's for dinner.  Rodizio's is one of those Brazilian themed restaurants where they serve a cold salad bar and then carvers come tableside with a dozen different grilled meats "on a stick" as Gene says. The boys were in heaven, and although I'm not normally a huge meat eater, lamb is one of my favorites and they do a couple of beautiful fish dishes and a grilled pineapple that's to die for. We all ate a wonderful meal and then came back to our house to sit and chat for a while.

Lynn stayed over at our house since James had to be at work at 4am which I greedily offered her the chance to stay with us so we could girl talk until 4am while Gene slept and then we napped and got up and went to breakfast at Ziggie's.  Hey, it's a girl thing but made for a really fun Valentine's Day for us.

On the other hand, the week before was filled with two, TWO, different huge home-made bread puddings so it's not like Gene didn't get his sweet tooth on last week!

I had a box full of stale croissants and a loaf of french bread I didn't want to waste so I ended up making an Evan Williams egg nog bread pudding and one regular with cherry topping.

Like a lot of people I don't really use a recipe anymore for bread pudding because there are so many choices that depend on what's in my pantry but I'll walk you through how I do it.

Mmmmm...Peach Cobbler Made of Brandied Peaches from the Amish Country Store

 

When you have fruit this good on its own, you don't need a lot of accoutrement.  Gene and I both love the brandied peaches we get from The Amish Country Store in Branson. We like to eat them straight out of the jar with a fork but if I pick up an extra couple of jars when I go I try to also save one to throw into a cobbler.  One quart is the perfect little cobbler for Gene and I for dinner and then  some leftovers for Gene's breakfast.

Here's the recipe:  remove peaches from the jar and slice.  In a bowl, mix the peaches with a Tbsp of all purpose flour, and a couple of Tbsps of juice from the jar.  Turn that into a greased 8"x8" pan or even a 9" or 10" round cake pan.  Then cover it with a pre-made pie crust from the freezer (my own or commercial).  Last night I got a little artsy and decided to roll roses and cut leaves out of the leftover crust. Brush egg white over the crust and sprinkle with sugar.  Bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes or until crust is browned and peaches bubble.

It's that simple.

 

Check the blog Foodie Rachel out.  For one, it's a great blog, and for two, she also is a southwest Missouri blogger who's a big Amish Country Store fan.  Loved the baby marshmallows she bought.