Birthday and Holiday Gifts

I sorted and wrapped Danny's holiday and birthday presents today. Lucky kid, an inter-faith family that celebrates both Christmas and Hanukkah, and a birthday smack in the middle-how cool. I don't like December to become a big month-long toy fest, so I always make sure he gets educational presents as well...like these animal kingdom cards, for example. We bought these in a second hand store before Danny was even born. I've waited five long years to see the look of wonder on his face Christmas morning as he tears away the wrapping paper and sees his early 1970's treasure.



Then again, movies make a swell gift. I must admit, I got a laugh wrapping this in Disney paper-like I've comitted some sort of heresy. In case you're wondering (I'm sure you are) I bought Danny the dubbed version because although he can read fairly well, subtitles is asking a lot of a five year old.
Vintage board games are nice too.

Before you assume I'm the world's cruelest parent, let me assure you he is not going without toys and enjoyable gifts. For Christmas I bought Danny a Thomas The Tank Engine flashlight, snowshoes, story tapes, playing cards, and a vintage light-brite knock-off I found for three bucks. For his Birthday, Danny is getting my microscope (supervised use only, of course), a recorder (instrument) bongo drums (yeah, I don't know what I was thinking either) and a tambourine. He's also getting some movies. Hanukkah, we stick to small gifts-two yo-yo's (yes, they were mine and yes, they are real Duncan yo-yo's), some light-up lollipops, stickers, a set of pick-up-sticks, and a mancala set. So here's the fun part-everything (granted, some of it was mine as a child) including the er...gently used wrapping paper, came in around twenty bucks. The flashlight was the most expensive item. I'm a firm believer in buying things when you see them, and then hiding them in the attic. I have some sturdy metal shelving upstairs (where Danny is not allowed) where I keep my sorted toys, learning materials, etc. I'm never without a gift for Danny or anyone else, really. I also detest holiday shopping, malls and the like.

Now I have two weeks to focus on the birthday cake.

Depression Era Griddle Cakes

One more recipe from The Calumet Book of Oven Triumphs.

These were nice, not terribly fluffy if that's your expectation of pancakes. I folded in cut up banana and mini chocolate chips at the last because that's how my family likes them.

You Will Need:

1 cup sifted flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 egg, well beaten
3/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons melted butter (let it cool a bit before using)

Heat griddle. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Beat together egg and milk and mix into flour beating only until smooth. Add cooled shortening and mix . Bake on a hot, greased griddle. Makes 12-15 according to the directions-I got eight medium sized cakes. I think the huge pancakes we see today would have been odd in the 30's.

Depression Era Baking

This is one of my vintage booklets I managed to save after the tornado by drying it out on my wooden drying rack. I'm so glad I went to the effort-now it can hang around for another 70+ years.


Look at this photo from the back cover. I totally want to bake that one next-it is so beautiful.

I really like one paragraph recipes.

I split and filled the layers with spiced pear jam, but you could easily skip it.
Of course I frosted this by setting the cake on a rack over a baking sheet-what sort of an idiot do you take me for? As I always tell Danny, "Cleaning a pan is easier than cleaning a counter." Words to live by.



The recipe for the cake comes from a booklet published by Calumet baking powder in 1934. I get the sense, looking at recipes from that time that eggs were quite expensive as most recipes will note how many were required, and sometimes offer more economical substitutions. Butter and cream were apparently cheap and abundant.

I had some cream that needed to be used, and since the previous owner had marked this recipe in the booklet, I decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did. I spent five whole minutes making this cake, and then fifty minutes in the oven. Straightforward, clear instructions and standard pan sizes go a long way towards influencing me to try something new. I skipped the chocolate frosting in favour of a cooked penuche style ( oh, let's be honest-I wanted the leftover frosting to chill and eat like fudge. I like penuche fudge.) that I dressed up with some holiday jimmies. Lookin' pretty damn festive around here, eh? Indeed it is.

I'll save myself typing out the cake recipe as it is legible in the photo and instead give you the frosting details. I split my cake in half, and filled it with spiced pear jam I canned last Fall. Oh, that's good stuff. Anyway, you could certainly skip filling it and really, even frosting seems unneeded. Danny helped me polish off the scraps from trimming and leveling the cake, and we were both pretty pleased with it, "as is."

The penuche frosting recipe comes from the little red book...no, not that little red book-I mean the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook, 1950. Chairman Betty suggests you sing "Raise The Red Flag" as you stir because it almost sounds like "Oh Tannenbaum" .

You Will Need:

2 2/3 cups brown sugar
2/3 cup milk
2/3 cup butter
1/3 teaspoon salt

Stir constantly over low heat to a boil, then boil rapidly to 220 degrees F. Remove from heat and beat until it is lukewarm and reaches a spreading consistency. Pour extra into a buttered pan and chill, then cut into squares as candy. For god's sake, don't throw it out.

Sun Maid

Holy crap, they made the Sun Maid raisin girl look like my sister-big boobs and all.

How freaky is that going to be for her kids to see mummy's likeness staring at them from a bag of dried fruit? I mean, her kids are all grown adults, but I'm a grown adult, and I wouldn't want to look at my mother's face every time I baked oatmeal cookies.

Really, I understand that the goal was to update the logo, but she looks just like my sister circa 1975. You don't get hair like that without hot rollers. And that tan-hey, did I ever tell the story about the time my sister burned her eyes using a table-top sun lamp without goggles and woke us all up in the middle of the night screaming:
"I'm blind!"

Good times, good times. Apparently that was a common enough mishap that the emergency room doctor laughed and told our dad to buy her some goggles, and everything would be fine.

Yikes, I wonder if she's seen it yet. She should look into getting some money for them using her likeness.

Painted Bread

When I saw the beautiful breads at Chef Tess Bakeresse, I knew I wanted to try the technique. I have a (very) old cookbook that deals with a similar technique, but employs the use of food colouring and stencils. I liked this better.

Not bad for a first attempt. I can see using this quite a bit through the holidays. Gifts of homebaked bread anyone?

OK, go on and get out of here and look at Tess' creations.

Eat Your Orange Veggies

Carrots and garnet yams might sound like overkill, but they came together nicely in this dinner.

When I soaked the chickpeas last night before bed, I knew I wasn't going to feel like cooking today. Through the day, I sliced carrots, then rested. Chopped an onion, rested. And so on until dinnertime when I was able to toss everything together. The one thing I did differently that's worth noting was removing the skins from the chickpeas. I always do this, but usually, before cooking. Today, I removed them shortly after cooking and then let the chickpeas sit in the fridge all day in the reserved cooking water. This had the effect of softening the chickpeas, without turning them to mush. It made for a nice stew-like consistency to the main course. I would certainly use this technique again.

I made quite a bit-you can easily cut the amount of beans and carrots called for since I pretty much approximate as I go anyway. I served this with some stale apricot challah that I grilled on the stove in some clarified butter, and cous cous filled with chopped, dried apricots and raisins. Pita was my original plan but I I just couldn't manage it. Maybe for the leftovers tomorrow (and the day after...I told you, I made a lot of it).

For the Yams:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Slice yams into spears, toss with a couple tablespoons of olive oil and sprinkle with coarse salt and pepper. Bake 15 minutes, then turn and contine roasting until nicely browned and softened.

For the Chickpeas:

Night Before: Soak 3-4 cups of dried chickpeas.

In the Morning: In a heavy pot, place chickpeas with enough water to cover well. Add three bay leaves and nothing else. Seriously, this is how I cook chickpeas. Bring it to a boil, skim any scum that accumulates and reduce heat to a steady simmer. Cover with lid vented to permit steam to escape. Cook about 1 hour or until soft. Drain, reserving liquid. I removed the skins at this point (tedious) but you can obviously do it later, or skip it altogether. Place beans in one or two large, shallow pans and cool rapidly. Then, chill. When cooking liquid has cooled, use it to cover beans and keep chilled until ready to use.

For the rest of the chickpea dish:

Olive oil-about 1/4 cup
6 large carrots, sliced thinly on the diagonal
1 large onion, chopped
1 large garlic clove, chopped
1 tablespoon preserved lemon peel-pith and pulp removed and finely chopped
4 large dried apricots, chopped
1/4 cup raisins
Cooked chickpeas, skins removed (use as much as you like)
A handful of coarsely torn baby rocket (arugula)

Spices:

1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon dried mint
2 teaspoons dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
Black pepper-a few good grindings
Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a heavy pan (I used an enameled Dutch oven). Add the carrots, onion, garlic, and lemon peel. Cook until carrots soften. Do not let the onions brown, or the garlic burn. Add the chickpeas and spices and cook until well blended-about ten minutes over medium low heat. In the last few minutes, toss in the rocket to just wilt.

Serve with cous cous, thick yoghurt, and bread.

My Favourite Cake, Ever

HERE.

Yeah, that was me. Who did you think baked it, Dorie Greenspan?

I thought about reviving the Dewey blog again this year, but I have so much other stuff to do, I couldn't give it the attention it deserves. Besides, how could I ever improve on that last post? I couldn't, really.

I half expected to get an angry letter from the John Dewey Society at some point, or at least the Lab School-but I never did.

Sage

I have two gigantic containers of sage that I bring in from the garden each year to overwinter in the sunny window of an unused room. The plants were very productive this year, so I gave them one final cutting last month, and tied them in bundles to hang dry in my kitchen. That's a whole lot of dried sage-an herb where a small amount goes a long way. Today, I stuffed it into jars, and vowed to use it for something other than chickpea salad and mushroom sauce. Surely, there must be other uses for sage.

Earlier in the season it was uncharacteristically wet in our part of Nebraska, so I decided to dry a batch of sage in the oven. Bad idea. Very bad idea-unless you want your kitchen to smell like cat pee (hey, I'm not judging or anything if you do). I'd forgotten about that. Years ago, I had a landlord that burned sage in some sort of new-age-I'm Gilda the Good Witch-type ritual (Raymond remembers) that was supposed to keep people from breaking into the house (didn't work) and attract stray cats (worked). I came home one night from work and the stairway reeked. I'd never heard of burning sage at that point, and I was sure there was an unnoticed family of cats pissing their little kitty bladders all over the stairwell. I know you'd assume that I was relieved to know it was just the landlord burning sage to protect the building from break-ins, but oddly enough, I found the fact that someone believed burning sage would protect their property better than say, oh I don't know...working locks on the doors, for example-much more upsetting than the prospect of being robbed. We didn't have anything worth taking-no one breaks into a house to steal books.

So anyway, if you possibly can, tie the sage in bundles and hang them to dry. If you live in a place with a great deal of dust, place a paper bag over the herbs and punch holes in it so the herbs may breathe. Dancing in fairy rings is still completely optional.

Prize Brownies

I don't quite believe these brownies were worthy of a prize, but they are rather good, even unadorned. I'm glad I had the sense (laziness) to skip the frosting-they are rich and sweet enough as they are.

The recipe has no leavening-no baking powder or soda, and doesn't even call for salt. I added salt. I expected them to be heavy, but they were surprisingly light-not quite cake-like, but not dense and chewy either. I skipped the walnuts and tossed in a handful of milk chocolate chips, but it really didn't need them.

I've yet to find a brownie recipe that I feel is extraordinary, but you could honestly do much worse than these. Perhaps I just don't like brownies, though the fact that I've already eaten 1/4 of the pan alone would seem to contradict that. Come on, you know how it is. A few always break coming out of the pan-it isn't like you can stick the broken brownies onto a serving platter, right? You know I'm right, because you do it too. Don't you? Of course you do. So as I was saying, you should probably pass on the frosting...

From Better Homes and Gardens Cookies and Candies, 1966

You Will Need:

1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup granulated sugar (I used vanilla sugar and skipped the extract)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
1/2 cup AP flour
Dash of salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I omitted and used chocolate chips instead)

Grease an 8x8 pan. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Cream butter, sugar and extract together. Beat in eggs. Blend in chocolate, then flour and salt. Mix well. Fold in nuts or chips. Pour into pan and bake 30-35 minutes. Cool before cutting. Frost at your own peril.

Spice Mixes

When I cook, I often prepare my spices ahead of time and have them mixed in a bowl, waiting. I don't prepare jars of mixed spices as my cooking tends to be somewhat improvisational from day to day and sometimes I like to go wild, and use extra cumin or something. Still, for people that don't cook every day, and don't have two kitchen cabinets devoted to spices, a jar of mixed spices can be a thoughtful holiday gift.

I tend to buy my spices in small, ethnic markets where they are less expensive and move off the shelves regularly. That isn't to say I'm above grabbing a jar of mustard seeds at Hy Vee, in a pinch, but I do pay a premium for doing so. As I said, cooking all our meals at home, I tend to go through spices before they lose their strength. If a large bag of ground coriander is more than you'll use in a year, why not find someone to share with, or turn the excess spices into a thoughtful gift-provided you put some thought into it. A jar of curry spice isn't much of a gift if the recipient does not make curries.

The measurements I'll give here should make mixes that will fill a jar with between 2-4 ounces of mixture. Baby food jars are perfect, but so are empty jars from salad cherries, olives, and the like. Ball Jars are nice, but expensive and they tend to take up quite a bit of room in a cabinet, so unless you are making something in a quantity, stick to smaller, easier to handle jars. Fabric remnants and ribbon make an attractive decoration. If you're feeling inspired, print out a few recipes using the spices to go along with the gift.

Here are some ideas:

Madras-Style Curry Powder:

4 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon fenugreek
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/4 teaspoon dill seed
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon mace
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
Pinch cinnamon

Garam Masala:

1 tablespoon whole peppercorns
16 whole cloves
6 whole cardamom pods
1 piece cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon small black cumin seeds
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons whole cumin seeds

Grind everything together. I have a dedicated electric coffee grinder I use for Indian spices and another for chillies. You can pick up electric coffee milks, often unused for a couple dollars at the Goodwill and other thrift stores. Don't buy a new one for this sort of thing.


Refried Beans/Chili Mix:

You can make this hotter if you prefer by adding more red pepper flakes. When getting ready to grind whole chilies, heat a dry frying pan (cast iron works well) until quite hot. Toss the dried chilies onto it and cook until they puff a bit. Remove, cool slightly and then cut open and remove seeds. Grind well. Obviously, you don't need to remove the seeds, but it does tend to make for very hot seasoning if you don't, depending on the variety you use.

4 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons ground coriander
4 tablespoons mild chili powder (I like Ancho chillies)
2 teaspoons dried epazote
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/2 teaspoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1-2 tablespoons sweet (not smoked) paprika


Let me know how you like them.

Test Prep For Three and Four Year Olds

I'm at a loss for words, so I'll just link to the story.

More Thoughts on the Birthday Cake

I have three weeks to get one heck of a "wow", birthday cake completed. Like last year, I'm going to need to make dozens of cookies ahead of time for decorating. Here's what I'm planning.

The Day The Earth Stood Still -in cake, cookies, and sugar paste.


Two cake layers baked in pie pans, and stuck together to fashion the flying saucer. Green tinted coconut for grass. The Washington Monument and Capitol building constructed from sugar cubes and sugar paste. I cheated and bought a bag of plastic army men. Tanks, other artillery made from decorated cookies, Klatu, Gort, the Patricia Neal character, and that "gee whiz mister" kid, from cookies, and a candy-constructed fence around the perimeter of the ellipse. For the sake of research, I went ahead and bought a VHS of the movie for.50 cents plus shipping on Amazon. I'm happy about that-everyone should own a copy of The Day The Earth Stood Still.

The problem with decorated cookies (for me anyway) is that I end up decorating five of each before I get one that looks good enough to use. Mr. Eat The Blog is happy enough to eat the mistakes, but that ends up being a whole lot of cookies. I figure I'll need about 15 tank cookies, but god knows how many I'll have to make to get them. Worse, I'll have to make them after Danny gets to bed in the evening. Last year, I was up until midnight for weeks before his birthday baking, and decorating. Then, I had to get up super-early and hide the dried cookies in the morning.

So tonight I'll begin making the templates on heavy card stock and mixing up a few batches of butter cookie dough for the fridge. Thank goodness I was able to get butter for a dollar a pound, and loaded up the freezer. Mr. Eat the Blog thinks I'm insane to shop that way, but he isn't a mama. Mamas know how much butter goes into a proper birthday celebration.

Anyone have a favourite cake recipe that will hold up to being frosted and decorated? I'm open to suggestions.

OK, I'm going to go put my feet up and rest tonight because with the start of Monday morning, operation Danny's Birthday is in full-swing. Poor kid, it is rough having a birthday five days before Christmas, so I really want to make it special.

Hee, hee. I'm so excited!

Easier To Roll Gingerbread

Oh look, the gingerbread man is wearing a yarmulke...how's that for inter-faith holiday cookies?

I'm submitting this post to Season three of Eat Christmas Cookies, Susan the Food Blogga's yearly feature of the sparkliest, prettiest, most festive cookies from around the world. Oh yeah, they taste pretty good too.

Food Blogga's cookie round-up HERE
Want to participate? Info HERE

I put up the tree last evening (don't worry, we have an artificial one, it will last all month) and thought it would look better with some cookies. That's kind of my personal philosophy anyway-that most things are better with cookies...and don't skimp on the edible glitter. I had some cute cellophane treat bags, so in the cookies went, and then onto the tree. It really helps to make the dough ahead, but a few hours in the fridge will do the trick.

I've always relied on the rolled gingerbread recipe in the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook from 1950. Mind, that is an excellent recipe, and for constructing houses, models, etc. probably superior to this one for sheer durability...but gosh, you sure need upper body strength to roll it out. I don't have any-at least not this year.

Following on the success with the gingersnaps from my Better Homes and Gardens Cookies and Candies book from 1966, I went ahead and tried their rolled gingerbread recipe. Know what? It rolls beautifully. So well, in fact, I could have gotten by using the small rolling pin rather than the heavy beast I employ for normal gingerbread. Also, unlike ordinary cookie dough, this one rolled better after warming up a bit. It did not spread or puff up too much in the oven either. On the other hand, it contains an entire cup of Crisco, so by golly, it ought to roll easy. I did not need extra flour for rolling out the dough, which is almost unheard of with gingerbread which is notoriously sticky. Again, I credit the shortening. The lack of extra flour helps keep the cookies from becoming tough as well. Overall, this may be my new favourite gingerbread recipe.


You Will Need:

1 cup solid shortening
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 cup full flavour molasses
2 tablespoons white vinegar
5 cups AP flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves

Cream shortening with sugar. Stir in the egg, molasses and vinegar. Mix well. Sift together dry ingredients and add. Mix well. Wrap in cling film and chill at least three hours.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets (or use silicone pads). Roll out cookies about 1/4 inch thick. Decorate as desired with sanding sugar, glitter, etc. Bake roughly ten minutes, but you'll need to keep checking. Cool slightly on pan, then remove to a rack and cool completely before icing.

You Want Me To Bake a What?!

I finished putting together Danny's Advent calendar this morning, and the conversation turned to gingerbread houses.

Me: I want to bake a gingerbread house, but I can't think of anything unusual to do with it. I want mine to be different.

Mr. Eat The Blog: Why don't bake a gingerbread uterus? That's everybody's first home...well, except for the test tube babies. I wonder if you could do a gingerbread test tube?

For better or worse.

Cranberry Stuffing/Dressing

For the past month, I've been saving stale ends of bread in the freezer waiting for today. I'm glad I did-my own white bread makes better dressing than anything I've ever bought in a box.

You Will Need:

2 cups vegetable broth
6 cups cubed, stale bread
1 tablespoon dried sage, crumbled
1 teaspoon thyme, dried
1 tablespoon dried parsley
6 tablespoons butter
1 small onion, chopped fine
4 stalks celery, chopped fine
3 tart apples, chopped fine
1/2 cup dried currants
1 cup fresh cranberries, chopped well
Salt and pepper to taste (depends on how salty your broth is)

Cook the onion and celery in the butter in a large, heavy pot. Add everything else except the broth. Cook a bit until well coated. Add the broth gradually until moistened.

Cod Pot Pies With Salt Cod

That's Danny wearing a sweatshirt that has been in the family roughly forty five years-maybe more. It belonged to my older sister before I got it. The front pocket fell off about twenty years ago. The really scary thing is that I can still fit in it, though it is short in the arms. Yikes-ever notice how when you get sick and lose a ton of weight it is all in your shoulders and boobs? I mean, if you have boobs. Man-boobs don't count. Anyway...Danny has inherited the Madison School sweatshirt now.

Danny is also drinking from a jelly glass that I had when I was his age. If you're getting the idea that I tend to take care of my things, and keep them a really long time, you'd be correct.


I made this recipe before HERE. If using salt cod, just make sure to soak it well for a few days, rinsing thrice daily and for heaven's sake...don't add the salt called for in the recipe.

This is such a quick and impressive dish-I don't know why I save it for holidays and special occasions.

Spinach, Peas Shoot, and Rocket Timbales

Pretty fancy, huh?
Sure, they looked better in the magazine. I think it has to do with the chopped hard boiled egg on top...because the five eggs in the recipe clearly weren't enough.

I based the recipe on one using only spinach from the March, 1972 Gourmet Magazine. My timables are shorter, and I skipped the tomato slice and hard boiled egg topping, but it was still a lovely way to serve green vegetables. I just couldn't face a green bean casserole, even with fresh beans, and homemade sauce. Mr. Eat The Blog likes it, and for years I would make it for him. After sixteen years I figured it would be OK if I skipped it this year. I don't think he noticed.

You can do this with all spinach, but I wouldn't do all pea shoots, or rocket. I think that would be too assertive. I used about a cup of each, and that provided a good balance.

After cooking these kept warm in a toaster oven until I was ready to serve them without drying out or becoming soft. That's convenient when you're trying to time an elaborate dinner. I kept them warming a good fifteen minutes with no ill effects.

You Will Need:

3 cups cooked, squeezed and dried spinach-chopped well. Or substitute other greens as you like.
1/4 cup finely minced onion
1/4 cup butter
1 cup light cream (half and half)
4 large eggs plus 1 yolk
Salt, Pepper, Nutmeg to taste


Butter 6 large ramekins generously. Place them in a deep pan. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and set some water to boil for the pan-it will need to come 2/3 way up sides of ramekins.

In a heavy saucepan, melt the butter and cook the onion until it softens. Add the dried greens/spinach and cook until well-coated. Add the cream slowly and cook until cream is reduced and thickened. Spinach should absorb most of it.

Remove to a bowl and cool ten minutes.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs lightly and add the salt, pepper and nutmeg. Add the spinach and mix well. Spoon into ramekins and set in pan. Pour water in carefully and bake about 25 minutes or until they are set and puffed. Remove from water and keep warm until ready to serve. Unmould by running a knife around the edge and inverting onto a plate

Happy Thanksgiving

Pumpkin cheesecake with homemade graham cracker crust
No, I didn't serve a slice this size. This is at least three servings.
I went ahead and filled some croissants with chocolate...just because.
This is what you get after ten years practise making croissants. Still not perfect, but pretty darned good. They came up feather light, with thin, beautiful, flaky layers.


My sleep-deprived brain had me up before dawn rolling a block of chilled butter into dough. It was after the third turn that I happened to catch the end of a Pillsbury commercial on the television.

"Oh no. I was supposed to make crescents, not croissants."

I think I like the idea of Thanksgiving better than the actual execution of the meal. Thankfully, no one expected turkey.

Three days ago I prepared the graham crackers for the pumpkin cheesecake base. I baked it yesterday, and today I held my breath as I removed the ring from the springform. With 32 ounces of cream cheese and five large eggs, I didn't want to have to toss the entire thing into the dustbin. It came out beautifully.

I had extra batter that wouldn't fit in the pan yesterday, so I baked it in a small bowl along with the larger cake. Then, I formed it into balls, inserted a popsicle stick and froze them. Then, I dipped them in white chocolate and returned them to the freezer. I was very pleased with my discovery, but somewhat frightened at just how easy it is to turn leftover cheesecake into a frozen dessert bar. I think this almost has a Faustian element to it, I mean, it ain't base metals into gold exactly, but cheesecake into a frozen bar is a sort of alchemy. Sort of. You know how it is, the Devil offers you cheesecake at the ready and it sounds so great until you wake up weighing 500 lbs. one morning...stupid Faustian bargains with the Devil with their stupid catches. Anyway, don't say I didn't warn you about the frozen cheesecake thing.

I'll get the recipes up tomorrow, since it is already too late if you were planning to make anything.

Thank you again for a wonderful year of your visits and comments and friendship.

Salt Cod

The dried piece waiting to be cut




These two pieces will go a long way. As I'm making cod pot pies, I'm using the tail end and saving the larger pieces for meals where I want the pieces to be served intact.Covered with water and soaking in a bowl in the fridge for three days.



We don't eat much fish, save for special occasions. With the holidays coming up, I bought a large salt cod that can be cut into pieces and re-hydrated as needed. The boys want cod pot pies for Thursday, so I started soaking the pieces today.

The nice thing about salt cod is that it can be kept indefinitely at room temperature. I stick mine in the fridge anyway-just so I know where it is, but salted in the bag it doesn't take up much room at all. The smell seems less intense to me as well-more marine than fishy. I always think it smells like dulse when I pull it from the bag. As it re-hydrates, it can get a bit stinky, so keep a plate over the bowl as it sits. You'll want to re-hydrate it in the fridge.

Keep in mind that it will double in bulk as it re-hydrates, so a little salt cod goes a long way. I like to soak mine three days changing the water thrice daily. You can do less days with more water changes, and depending on what you have in mind, it may need more or less soaking-so check your recipe. I've found that three days is about right for using salt cod as a substitute for fresh in most recipes. Just remember not to add the salt called for in the recipe you are adapting (been there, done that). The fish will still be adequately salted.

So why use salt cod when freezers are available? That's a fair question. It isn't like we need this method of preservation anymore. I suppose it is much like eating beef jerky, or dried fruit. The end result has a different taste, born of necessity, but still enjoyable.

I'll try to remember to post photos over the next few days so you can see how it looks at various stages.

Squash and Chickpea Coconut Curry

Another curry born of what I had lurking in the fridge. I doubt I've ever made the same curry twice, but the boys thought this one was good enough to post.

You Will Need:

6 cups cooked chickpeas, skins removed
1 large acorn squash, seeds removed, peeled and chopped into cubes
4-5 tablespoons ghee
4 large carrots, chopped
2 large onions, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon stem ginger, chopped
1 cup dried flaked coconut
1 tin coconut milk
Salt (If using chickpeas from a tin, omit)
A very generous grinding of black pepper

Spice Mix:

3 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon fennel seeds

Mix together the spices and set aside.

In a large pot, heat the ghee over medium heat and cook the onion, carrots, garlic and ginger until softened. Add the coconut flakes, squash, and chickpeas. Cook a few more minutes adding more ghee if needed. Stir in spice mix and fry for a couple minutes to well-coat everything. Stir in the coconut milk. At this point, you will probably want to add a cup or two of water. Start with one, and cook everything down over a good boil. If you think it would benefit from another reduction after tasting, go ahead and do it.

Serve hot over rice.

Curried Kale

A reasonably simple vegetable dish to serve with other curries.

You Will Need:

1 large bunch of kale
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3-4 tablespoons cooking oil or ghee
Salt to taste
1 tablespoon Madras curry powder
Water

Strip the kale leaves from the stalks. Cut them finely. In a large pot, heat the oil, onion and garlic and cook until softened. Add the kale and cook a few minutes to coat the leaves. Stir in salt and curry powder.Add 1 cup of water and increase heat to a boil and cook until water evaporates. Do this 3-4 more times, using a wooden spoon to mash the kale as you go. Cook off most of the liquid before serving.

Chocolate Cherry Muffins and Martians

I've been notified by the Martian ambassador that the only thing that can stop their planned takeover of Earth is a batch of double chocolate cherry muffins. He was pretty specific. Semi sweet and white chocolate chips-none of that imitation crap. And real butter. You don't want to know what Crisco does to the Martian intestines.

OK people of Earth-you owe me.

The ambassador said we're cool for now, but he sees some chocolate cornstarch pudding being the key to detente.

You Will Need:

1/2 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 large eggs
2 cups AP flour
1/2 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped cherries
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
Coarse sugar for sprinkling

Preheat your Earthling subsistence heating machine to 450 degrees F. Grease the top of a 12 cup muffin tin and line the cups with paper. Set aside.

With your Earthling combining centrifuge machine (or a strong arm) cream together the butter, sugar and salt. Do this for about three Earth minutes. Rest your arm. Do ten jumping jacks. Blow your nose, wash your hands and continue. Wait, don't forget to face North while you do all this. Still with me?

Add the baking powder and eggs and mix well. Add the flour, vanilla and milk and mix again. Don't overbeat the batter. Stupid Earthlings always want to over-beat the batter. Fold in the chocolate and cherries. Spoon into muffin tin and sprinkle tops with granulated sugar.

Bake five minutes and then reduce the heat to 375 degrees F. Bake another 30-35 minutes. Cool before giving to little Martians as they tend to burn their delicate little Martian tongues on hot chocolate chips.

Conversations With My Husband

If you happened to be in the Salvation Army thrift store on 84th street in Omaha today and heard the following exchange-that was us.


Mr. Eat The Blog: You know, a factoid.
Me: Oh, you know that was coined by what's his face...
Mr Eat The Blog: Who?
Me: You know, the asshole writer...you know, the guy who shot his wife.
Mr. Eat The Blog: Burroughs?
Me: No, the other asshole...he just croaked...god, I can picture his big ugly head...
Mr. Eat The Blog: Oh, Mailer.

Vintage Saturday -Food and Fashion Edition

As promised, here's my booklet from 1948 chock full of tips for re-styling old fur, leather and felt. I like the idea of recycling, let's have a look at some of the fashion ideas...

"Bureau of Human Nutrition and Home Economics." I like that, because when I'm re-styling my leather fur and felt, I don't want to mistakenly make a pair of mittens for the goat. Seriously though, I wish they would just bring back the old names. "Department of War" was so much more honest. Sounded pretty badass too.



I'll bet little Butchie got his ass kicked every single day on his way to school in his homemade cap. I don't know if his name was really Butchie, but there was a kid in our neighbourhood that wore caps like this named Butchie.




Big sister Mabel got a new hat as well. And gloves. Too bad they smell like a barn.

A fraulein needs something to hold up her skirt. You'll say, "Jah!" to these snappy suspenders.

Now, the cookbooks. I bought these today.


It looks decent enough from the cover...how horrible could the recipes be?


Oh. Well, that really is pretty horrible, isn't it? Chicken, eh? I guess maybe you need to use your imagination.

"When friends come to lunch and you want to fuss a bit."

The funny thing is-I want to make this. Mr. Eat The Blog promised he would eat it if I went to the "fuss". I love the tinned peas floating in the cream sauce. Elegant.

You know it will be special if it has both hard boiled eggs and cherry tomatoes.
I want to make this one too. I think it is a "frozen" salad. Admittedly, in the 50's, freezers were still somewhat of a new thing to people, so you get all these oddball recipes for frozen fruit cocktail salads and such. This one has green olives with pimentos inside. Damn, I do love olives with pimentos.
I don't think a "Hobo Lunch", is as much fun as it sounds; drinking cheap Tokay from a bottle in a brown bag.


"Dad's ready with the whopper burgers...break out the buns!"

I had a pretty successful day thrifting. Danny has a ton of new books, the ugliest vintage sport coat you've ever laid eyes on (I'd guess 1940's or 50's) and I laid in a stock of tins for shipping Christmas treats across the country. I also scored a beautiful (heavy) ring mould made in Germany that still has the original price tag on it. I paid $1.99. Nesselrode pudding, anyone?

Gingersnaps-No Rolling

These were a breeze to make, and delicious too. Make them larger for puffier, softer cookies, smaller for flat crisp ones.

From Better Homes and Gardens Cookies and Candies, 1966

You Will Need:

3/4 cup shortening (I used half butter)
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses (I used full flavour)
1 large egg
2 1/4 cups AP flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
Granulated sugar for rolling

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease 2 large baking sheets

Cream together shortening, sugar, molasses and egg. Sift together dry ingredients and mix into butter mixture. Combine well. Form into small balls and roll in sugar. Place 2 inches apart on baking sheet and bake 10-12 minutes. Cool on racks. Makes about 5 dozen.