Homemade Edible Christmas Gifts: Make Your Own Monday #43

Well, here it is.  November.  Already.  The holidays are just weeks away.  For me, it is definitely time to start making lists; a list of what I will be giving, a list of what I will be cooking, and maybe even a list of what I might want.   The list of what I will be giving is always two-fold.  There are the presents that I give to family and then there are the gifts for neighbors, friends, teachers, etc.

The gifts we give our neighbors and friends are homemade treats from the kitchen.  They range from cookies and candies to home canned jams and chutneys.  For this Make Your Own Monday, I thought I'd share some of our favorite gifts, so you can, in turn, have time to plan and make your own.

9 Bean Soup: (this is a delicious soup)
1 pound barley pearls
1 pound dried red beans
1 pound dried navy beans
1 pound dried lentils
1 pound dried black beans
1 pound dried black eyed peas
1 pound dried pinto beans
1 pound dried great Northern beans
1 pound dried split peas
Mix all the legumes and divide them into 10 pint jars.
Attach a tag with the following recipe and directions:
2 cups 9 Bean Soup Mix
2 quarts water
1 pound ham, diced
1 large onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 28 ounce can chopped tomatoes
1 4 ounce can chopped green chilies
Wash beans and place in a large pot.  Cover with water to 2 inches above the beans.  Cover and bring to boil reduce heat and simmer 2-3 hours or until beans are tender.  Add remaining ingredients and simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.   Makes 8 cups soup.


Other yummy gift ideas include:
Mint Hot Chocolate Mix (with a tag, "to our friends who are so dear, we wish you all a cup of cheer!"
Hot Fudge Sauce (with a tag "fudge a little on the calories and enjoy the holiday season!")
Homemade Wassail Mix (tag "Orange you glad it's Christmas?")
Popcorn Balls (tag, "hope you have a ball this holiday season")
Sweetened Chex Mix with Almonds (remember Santa always "chex" his list twice, so be good!")

Some non homemade, easy, and fun ideas:
Give a 2 liter bottle of Sprite with a tag saying "May your days be Merry and Sprite!"
Give a wire whisk filled with Hershey kisses with a tag saying, "We whisk you a Merry Kiss-mas!"
Give a bottle of sparkling cider with tag saying, "Wishing you a sparkling holiday season"
Give a log of cookie dough (uncooked) with a tag saying, "Rolling out a batch of Christmas cheer"
Give measuring cups or spoons with a tag saying, "Wishing you joy beyond measure!"

If you make homemade gifts, do you have a signature homemade treat you make every year or do you vary what you make?

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Saturday Stories: Halloweens of Yesteryear: More Tricks than Treats

I thought it would be fun to write about Halloweens of yesteryear. In the 1920s, Halloween was a night of tricks more than treats. When my grandparents told stories of Halloweens long ago, they never dwelt on the candy they received or even on the costumes they wore. They giggled and laughed over the pranks they pulled or had pulled on them.

In the small upstate New York town where Bumpa lived, families still had outhouses. One of the favorite things to do on Halloween was to tip them over. I am still not sure how they did it without being caught. I would think that the noise of the outhouse going over would have brought the homeowners running out to investigate. Appparently this was not the case,though. Instead, those homeowners wouldn't find out their privies were gone until they needed to use them. All they would find was a big stinky hole in the earth and a shack on its side. It was bad enough to have to go outside on a cold night to use the "necessary," but to find it gone must have made some people really mad.

A short distance from Bumpa's house was a hospital. It had a long curving driveway with one way in and one way out. Late in the night, Bumpa and his friends went down there with shovels and dug up the one way/do not enter signs and switched them. The next day, patients drove up to the usual entrance and met a sign saying "do not enter" and cars coming the opposite way. The guys had a lot of fun watching the confusion. Nowadays, they'd be rounded up and prosecuted.

Mamie's mom loved Halloween. Gram would send her kids out to trick-or-treat and then put a sheet over her head and hide behind a nearby row of quince trees. She would jump out and scare them on their way home. Knowing she would be hiding somewhere, they were on the lookout for her, but one year, a horse whinnied nearby and that scared them worse than Gram ever managed. They ran straight home and she didn't get a chance to frighten them that year.  They all used to laugh and laugh about that night, though.

It really is a shame that the simple fun of yesteryear has been lost. Tweet

Pumpkin Spice Raisin Cookies

In a week of Halloween filled activities, pumpkin cookies seemed inevitable.  I have three parties to get ready for....My husband is going as "yes" and I am going as "no."   Pretty much sums up what our kids think our answers will be.  Always.  Princess Pat is going as a princess fairy (not a fairy princess...you have to say the words in the right order), The Thinker will be, as always, some sort of military personnel.  The other three have decided to be zombies of some sort.  All I have to do is supply the make up and hair dye.

These lovely cookies (with special decorated pumpkin provided by Princess Pat.  She named it Sal.  She named our other, large pumpkin Sal also, but he is a boy, as in Salvador,  and this pretty one is a girl, as in Sally....she has told all her brothers not to even think about eating little Sal....She knows big Sal is headed for the oven as soon as Halloween is over, I'll have to do it while she is at preschool to spare her feelings, though) Anyway, these lovely cookies are brought to you from Gabriel's Desserts.  I can't very well review a cookbook and not bake/cook out of it!  I skipped  frosting them like  I'd originally planned, because they were so sweet on their own, but the frosting (browned butter with orange zest) would be amazing.

Pumpkin Cookies: (adapted from Gabriel's Desserts by Johnnie Gabriel)
2 cups butter
2 cups sugar
1 can pumpkin puree (can I tell you how mad I was when I opened a can of pumpkin and threw it into the bowl only to discover that somehow a can of pumpkin pie filling had entered my house?!  Long story, saved the cookies, though)
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cloves
2 cups raisins
In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the pumpkin, eggs and vanilla, mixing well.  In another bowl, combine the dry ingredients and add to the wet ingredients, mixing well.  Stir in raisins.  Drop the batter by the teaspoonful onto a cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.  Makes over 5 dozen....

http://verygoodrecipes.com/pumpkin

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Tag You're It and You Get An Award, Too!

I guess I have been remiss.  Okay, I don't guess.  It's a fact.  If you were to scroll to the very bottom of this blog, beyond the last post, you would see the awards sweet friends have given me over the last two years (yes, exactly two years ago this month I began this blog with a very odd post ~ Oh how far I have come!).  Anyway, after strictly playing along with the first two or three awards, I realized that a lot of bloggers don't have the time to continue with these chain letter like treats.  Don't get me wrong, I am completely honored each time someone considers my blog worthy of an award and I totally appreciate the efforts those people made in listing me and the others included with each award.  Now, after ignoring the guilty feelings created by ignoring the awards (such a vicious circle!) and after having been tagged in a delightfully different kind of chain, I decided to combine the two.  So, each person being tagged at the bottom of this post is also being awarded

The Happy 101 Award: Thank you Sweet Friends.  Add : Kind Words, Mix In: Sweet Thoughts, Enjoy: Good Times (One of the advantages of collecting awards is the chance to resurrect one that hasn't been passed along in a while....just to keep things interesting).  I have no idea what the original rules were with this award, so just pass it along as you see fit.

So, on to the Tag Game: JillyAn over at The Homegrown Gourmet tagged me yesterday.  If we were playing a real game of tag, I'd have been out eons ago because running fast has never been one of my talents.  However, in this game, bloggers are asked a series of questions and are then in turn asked to think of a set of their own questions to pass on to another group of bloggers.  

Here are my answers:

1. What is your "cringe" food and why?  Already, I am having a hard time answering these questions and I am only on #1!  I am going to have to say "anything I don't like served with a glass of milk to wash it down."  When I was a little girl, I had to eat everything on my plate.  If Mom knew I didn't like it, she'd only give me what she considered one bite, but which I always made into two or three because I didn't want to put that stuff into my mouth.  Usually, I ended up gagging as I tried to wash it down with milk, but Mom always figured I was being overly dramatic and still made me eat the food.  In particular, I remember with distaste liver fried in onions and rutabaga whipped with sharp cheddar cheese.

2. You are on an episode of "Chopped" and your mystery basket includes a durian fruit, langoustine, panetone and a bottle of Jagermeister.  Since drinking the jager and passing out is not one of your options...what would you make?  After making a lovely cheese sauce with the Jagermeister and some "crab" cakes with the panetone and langoustine, I'd say the durian fruit has me stumped.  I spent part of my childhood in Thailand, so I have met many a durian first hand.  Picture a tropical fruit that smells like limburger cheese and you are on the road to experiencing a durian.  I am afraid I'd be gagging over the smell and then everyone else on the set would start gagging (I find really violent gagging to be quite contagious, don't you?), so I'd be chopped simply for making everyone throw up.  I'd better not go on a show like that.

3. If you had to compare your life experience to an episode of  Dr. Phil or Jerry Springer...which would it be and why?  Anyone who has read my blog for any length of time would say a resounding "Dr. Phil."  Click on any of the posts labeled "My Harried Life" and you will understand.  Here's an example.

4. What is your most embarrassing food related moment?  This one was easy.  I am still mortified when I think about it: As a young married (age 19), I was in a dessert line after a church function.  The treat was pumpkin pie, served with squirty whipped cream.  I was talking to the gal behind me as I picked up a slice of pie and a can of whipped cream.  I shook the can and started squirting.  Instead of getting the cream on the pie, it went all over my friend.  I am still SO sorry!!!

5. If you were placing an ad in a singles web site, what would you say about yourself?  Well.  That would be a challenge.  After having been out of the singles' scene for over 20 years, I would probably be a poor sell.  If something were to happen to the Good Guy, I would probably choose to remain by myself....who would take on a harried family like mine?  But an ad?  Well it would start something like this: Fortyish mid-sized brunette-out-of-a-bottle with five rambunctious children....(sounds like an ad for a minivan)

6. Complete the following sentence with one word: The most important thing in life is ....family.

7. The sorting hat would probably put you in which "house"...Slitherin, Gryffendor, Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff?

Hufflepuff because of

My answer to number 8.  Which, in your opinion is your most admirable trait?  I am a hard worker...thanks entirely to my parents' work ethics.

Now, here are  my new questions to pass on: 

1. How old were you when you cooked your first meal all by yourself?  What did you make?

2. Eggs: over easy, over hard, scrambled or deviled?

3. Has a movie ever made you leave a light on at bedtime or kept you looking over your shoulder? Which one?

4. If you were on 'Iron Chef' challenge Cheese, what would be the first five cheeses you'd grab? What would you make with them?

5. What food were you really reluctant to try, but found you loved after eating it?

6. If money and time were no object, where would you spend your next vacation?

7. What "______for Dummies" book would you be most qualified to write?

8. Do you make a point to vote at each election? 

Okay, the award-ees and tag-ees are: 

1. Min at The Bad Girl's Kitchen

2. Sommer at A Spicy Perspective

3. Colleen at Cooking This and That

4. Megan at Delicious Dishings

5. Dave at My Year on the Grill

6. Tracey at Tracey's Culinary Adventures

7. Kelli at Joseph's Grainery 

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Cookbook Review: Gabriel's Desserts

Did you know that not only are Paula Deen and her sons great cooks, but Paula has a cousin in Marietta, GA that also has a restaurant/bakery/cookbook? I found Johnnie Gabriel's Cooking in the South at my local library and had a ball reading through it.

She and her husband, Ed, started baking out of their home in 1989. Before long, they were so busy that Johnnie quit her day job and moved the business into a place of its own. She and her husband have been running Gabriel's ever since. It is now a full service restaurant as well as a busy bakery. Her specialties range from cakes and cookies to soups and sandwiches.

I tried her Chewbilee cookies, coconut pound cake and pumpkin cookies. Some of them made it to the freezer for future meals, but most were eaten as fast as they cooled down. Although most of her recipes have been modified for the home cook, a few still contain large quantities of ingredients. I had to do my own math on the Chewbilees because frankly, I was not going to make a recipe that called for 8 sticks of butter!!! I am still anxious to try some of the other recipes I found, like her Parmesan Rice, Cherry Pork Loin and Cheese Grits with Pancetta.

Overall, this was a nice cookbook. Most of the recipes are for family favorites: macaroni and cheese, baked chicken, bbq ribs, chicken salad, minestrone, etc. A few are definitely Southern in nature, but anyone anywhere could find something fun and delicious that would suit their tastes. The baked goods in the back were what caught my eye.

Often, when I read a cookbook and the recipes inspire me to start thinking in terms of variations, I will keep the book simply for that reason. I put post it notes on pages and make notes of my ideas. This book was one of those. After reading through her four or five different pound cake recipes, I started having visions of a baking day filled with loaves of exotic cakes. One of these days, when time and family allows, I will fill my freezer with a dozen or so loaves of goodies.

Here is a link to Johnnie's home page.  While writing this review, I also discovered that Johnnie has a new cookbook called Second Helpings that has recently been released.  I am definitely going to have to look and see if I can get my hands on a copy!

note: I received no compensation for this review and all opinions are mine.

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Mummy Cookies

In keeping with the Halloween spirit, here is a fairly easy treat to make.  Chocolate cookies are shaped into a mummy form and then coated with white chocolate.  Before it sets, you use a toothpick to mark the bandages.  To speed up the process, put them into the fridge to harden.  Be creative, there are no wrong mummies. These were a big hit with my kids!

Mummy Cookies:(adapted from Parents magazine October 1996)
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
2 squares unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 1/3 cups AP flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 package white chocolate chips
1 Tbsp shortening (it has to be shortening if you want them white)
Place the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and melt in the microwave.  Cream butter and sugar.  Add the egg and vanilla.  Add the cooled chocolate.  Combine the remaining dry ingredients in a small bowl and add to the chocolate mixture until well incorporated.

Form little balls for the mummies' heads and longer thicker rectangles for the bodies.  It's about 1 tsp for the head and 1 Tbsp for the bodies.

Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until done.  Let cool on a wire rack until completely cold.

Melt the white chocolate chips and shortening in a microwave safe bowl in the microwave...1 minute at a time, stirring well after each minute.  Place a cookie on a table knife and spoon the chocolate over the cookie, letting it drip off the sides.  If the chocolate isn't runny enough, add more shortening and reheat as needed.

Let it cool slightly, so it's just barely pliable and make the bandage markings with a toothpick.

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Homemade Candy Corn: Make Your Own Monday #42

Regardless of how many people across Blogland have made homemade candy corn, I had to jump on the wagon and make them, too.  It is Halloween after all.  And it's a great activity to do with kids....I had four ready helpers (the fifth actually decided to take a nap....I love teenagers).

The entire process only takes about 45 minutes from start to finish.  Because none of us apparently passed Play Dough 101, we didn't make tiny ropes and hence tiny, store bought clones.  No, our candy corn were mighty, genetically altered, super-sized even.  We still ended up with two plates full for friends and an extra large pizza pan full for us.  This recipe makes a lot of candy, so be prepared.

The only thing I did differently from all of the myriad of others who have posted candy corn is to add butter flavoring for half of the vanilla extract.  Also, I waited to add the flavoring until after the cooking process.  It seemed weird to me to add it before the mixture boiled....don't you think?

Homemade Candy Corn: 

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup corn syrup (I wanted to use agave nectar here, but it doesn't substitute cup for cup with corn syrup)

5 Tbsp butter

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp butter flavoring

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup powdered milk 

1/4 tsp salt

red & yellow  food coloring

Bring the sugar, corn syrup and butter to a rolling boil.  On low heat, boil for 5 more minutes.  Remove the pot from heat and stir in the vanilla and butter flavorings.  In another bowl, combine powdered sugar, milk and salt.  (If your powdered sugar has lumps, sift...believe me, the lumps are hazardous to successful candy corn.

Stir the dry ingredients into the sugar mixture.  Let cool at least 10-15 minutes, so you don't burn yourself.  Divide into three littler bowls.  Add the yellow color to one bowl and both red and yellow to another, leaving the third white.  If you have food grade plastic gloves, wear them, otherwise, a zip sealing plastic bag can be used to protect your hands as you knead the coloring evenly into the candy "dough."  When the candy is sufficiently cool, cut a fourth of each color out of each bowl and roll them into long ropes.

It's best to plan ahead when you start making the ropes.  They don't travel well, so if you don't put them yellow-orange-white, you may end up with strangely unfamiliar candy corn.  The color order matters.  Once the ropes are made, slightly squish them together and cut them into triangles.

Continue forming ropes and cutting corn until you have made four separate batches.

The family's verdict: they tasted remarkably like real candy corn, but the texture was a little off.  They liked how big they were, I liked how much fun they were to make as a family.

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Saturday Stories: Eating What You are Served

When my kids start complaining about having to have peach jam instead of strawberry or being served corn or peas instead of carrots or broccoli, I wish I could send them back in time to live with their great grandparents.  My grandparents used to talk about having the same food to eat every single day.  When there was little or no money, whatever was served was eaten....and appreciated.  A full stomach was better than an empty one and my grandparents and their siblings knew it.

My German grandmother, Granny,  grew up eating onion sandwiches.  Onions were cheap.  They grew locally and were a sweet variety called Bermuda.  A couple of slices between two pieces of bread made for a good meal.  And if you think about it, it wasn't all that bad for them either.  Onions, though potent are full of good things.  When there was meat in the house, Great Granny would make her hamburger stew.  It was a meal that could stretch to feed as many as was needed.  Another thing they was warm up leftover vegetables  in milk.  To this day, my father cannot stand the thought of any vegetables in milk because Granny cooked that same way when she was in charge.

Bumpa, my maternal grandfather, grew up about 30 miles away from my paternal grandparents.  He grew up eating milk toast.  He continued to eat it the rest of his life.  He'd toast a piece of bread and pour milk over it. Sometimes, as a special treat, he'd sprinkle a spoonful of sugar over it, too.

Mamie, my maternal grandmother, actually caught frogs with her brothers and sisters to supplement their diet. They were so poor that onions and frogs were often all that was on the table.  Can you imagine how one of today's kids would handle a diet like that?

Later, as an adult, Mamie made hamburger gravy three or four nights a week for dinner.  A small amount of ground beef was cooked up and then put in water thickened with flour.  This was served over bread or boiled potatoes. The question of the night was always "who is going to peel the potatoes?", not "what's for dinner?"  After she started her in home restaurant, she didn't cook separate meals for the family.  Leftovers were all there was for the family.  Although the menus varied slightly from night to night, it was tough not to get sick of eating the same thing over and over and over again.  That may be why my mom taught me variety in meal planning.

How much more grateful my kids would be if for a month they had to eat like their forebears!  "Oh Mom!  You made curry over rice!   Lasagna for dinner?  Yum!  What? We are having clam chowder?  Pass it down!"  Yeah, I can dream. Tweet

Apple Cheddar Sticky Buns

These rolls have been a long time coming.  Last fall, my mom and I were talking about apples and what would taste good with them.  Mom said, wouldn't a cinnamon roll with apples and cheese be delicious?  I knew she was on to something, but time and life put the idea on the shelf until this week.  With nothing more than a vague idea of how I wanted them to turn out, I gathered ingredients and went to town.

Along the way, I realized that these rolls could lean either sweet or savory.  I decided to do both, but would really recommend that you only go one way or the other at a time...I went a little overboard in my exuberance.  By putting a cream cheese glaze on the top, they became dessert (or breakfast), but by adding a little rosemary to the apple filling, they went savory.  See what I mean?  It just may have been too much all at once.  Then again, maybe it wasn't.  They were really, really good.  And different.

Apple Cheddar Sticky Buns: 

for the dough: (adapted from Mott's applesauce)

4 cups AP flour

2 tsp instant yeast

3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup milk

2 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp butter

1/2 tsp salt

1 large egg, beaten

Combine milk and butter in a microwave safe bowl and microwave until the butter is melted.  Pour into a large mixing bowl and add the applesauce, sugar and salt.  Stir to mix.  Add the egg.  Add the yeast and let the mixture bubble slightly.  Using a dough hook attachment, mix in the flour and knead until smooth.  Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in size (about an hour).  Punch down and roll out into a large rectangle.

for the apples: 

6 apples, peeled and chopped into small pieces

1 stick butter

2-3 tsp cinnamon (according to taste)

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup agave nectar (or 1/2 cup brown sugar)

Melt the butter in a skillet.  Add the apples, cinnamon and salt and saute until starting to soften.  Add the sugar, stir and cover.  Cook, covered, for another 5 minutes.  Turn off the heat, uncover and let cool.

to assemble: 

Using a slotted spoon or sieve, transfer just the apples (not the sauce) to the rectangle of dough.  Spoon them on evenly.  Chop up an 8 ounce block of extra sharp cheddar cheese into tiny cubes and sprinkle them over the apples.

Roll them up, jelly roll style and cut.  Pour the remaining syrup from the apples into the bottom of a greased 9X13 pan.  Place the cut rolls onto the syrup (if there are a few apple pieces that end up remaining in the syrup, don't worry).  Cover and let rise another 30-45 minutes.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove the buns from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes in the pan.  After 5 minutes, invert onto a platter.

After another 10 minutes, separate them and serve.  If desired, drizzle with a powdered sugar glaze (powdered sugar moistened with vanilla and water or milk until runny).  They are plenty good without it, but some in my family don't understand the concept of a cinnamon-y roll without frosting.

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***CLOSED*** Old El Paso $10 Visa Card Giveaway

The winner is #6 Classic Kitchen Twist

Old El Paso and My Blog Spark have teamed up to bring you a family taco night.  They will send one lucky winner a taco seasoning packet, a cactus shaped bowl, some disposable red chile plates and a $10 Visa gift card for you to use as you please.

Perhaps you have a killer taco combination of your own, or perhaps you'd like to try some Easy Fish Tacos or some Halloween inspired Tarantula Tacos.  Maybe you'd even like to play ElTacodor, a taco themed family game created for taco enthusiasts.  Oh yeah, these people take taco night to an all new level!

For all of you, here is a link to a $.60 cent off coupon for taco seasoning.

I received a package with the same things in it that the winner will get.  I must say, I grew up with Old El Paso.  Whenever we had tacos, the shells and seasoning came in yellow packages.   Now that I am a grown up and live in the real Southwest, I still enjoy those Old El Paso products for a quick and easy dinner.

So, the nitty gritty: 

1. Leave a comment.  Maybe tell me what toppings you like on your taco or whether you prefer soft or crunchy tacos or maybe what protein you put in your tacos...anyway try to make it taco related if you can.

2. Make sure I know how to reach you if you win.  Leave an email or a link to a website or something.

3. This giveaway will end Sunday, October 24 at 10pm PDT.

4. US residents only, sorry.

5. I will contact the winner on Monday morning by email, asking for your mailing information.  If I don't hear from you within 24 hours, I will pick another winner.

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Old Fashion Applesauce Cake

If you have an extra minute, would you hop over to Marxfoods.com and vote for my butternut squash and lobster mushroom filled ravioli?  The button is just above this post.  Thank you!!  Really.

Sometimes, in the middle of trying new recipes, I just feel like making something tried and true; a recipe that has stood the test of time and is still great....without any tweaking.  That's what happened last weekend.  I baked all day and filled the freezer with loaves and cakes and cookies.  In the middle of it all, I turned to this applesauce cake.  The recipe comes from a cookbook called The American Woman's Cook Book.  It was originally published in 1938.  My copy was a reprint from 1944 with an added section at the back that included cooking during rationing.  It's a gem.  

 I opened a #10 can of applesauce to make this.  Those huge cans of applesauce are so much cheaper to buy than the regular sized jars available at the grocery store. "So much applesauce!" You say?  Well, I made three cakes, that took 3 cups of applesauce.  The rest fit into a regular sized Tupperware mixing bowl.  The next day, I got it out at lunchtime and my family polished it off.  I knew they would....5 growing children love applesauce (even the unsweetened kind!).

Applesauce Cake (makes 1 loaf) (from the American Woman's Cook Book edited by Ruth Berolzheimer):
1/2 cup butter
3/4  cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 cup raisins
2 cups sifted cake flour (or 1 1/2 cups AP flour + 1/2 cup cornstarch)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
Cream butter and sugar.  Add eggs and mix thoroughly.  Add nuts and raisins.  Combine the dry ingredients and add alternately with applesauce.  Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until it tests done.  This freezes nicely.

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Homemade Entenmann's Cheese Filled Crumb Coffee Cake: Make Your Own Monday #41

Phew!  That is quite a title, but it's exactly what I set out to make on Saturday night.  My family has had a love affair going with those Entenmann's cream cheese danish things for years.  We had an outlet store close by us when we lived near Seattle.  At least once a month, if not more often, we'd stop by and pick up 2 or 3 of the cream filled coffee cakes to eat for breakfast or dessert.  My boys always would ask how much they'd have.  I'd hold up my youngest son's hand and say "The Comedian's pinkie length," (of course, I don't actually call him the Comedian in real life).   The other boys would take their thumbs and first fingers and measure the Comedian's finger and then carry that measurement through the air to the cakes.  Not surprisingly, the space between their fingers grew as they got closer to the cake.   We were lucky to get five quasi equal pieces cut out of one cake.

Once we moved out of the Northwest, we were faced with retail Entenmann's prices.  At over $3 a cake, we had to seriously cut back on our cream cake purchases.  When I was thinking about what to make this week for this series, it suddenly hit me that I could make our old favorite at home.  It was actually one of those Duh! moments, as I wondered why I hadn't thought of it before!

First of all, though, I had to figure out what was in those Entenmann's cakes.  I decided that they were really a kuchen.  After all, the original Mr. Entenmann was a German immigrant.  What else would they be?  So, I needed a sweet yeast dough for the cake.  Then, I needed a thick cheesecake like filling and a good, streusel  for the topping.  There are no good copycat recipes out there, so I had to combine and tweak three different recipes to get the desired results.   If you really want a store bought taste, include some lemon rind in your yeast dough.

Homemade Entenmann's Cheese Filled Crumb Coffee Cake: (makes 2)
the dough:
4-4 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup milk
6 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup warm water
1 1/2 tsp yeast (I always use bulk yeast...I think that's 1/2 a packet)
2 large eggs, beaten
1/2 Tbsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
Combine the milk and butter in a microwave safe bowl and heat until butter is melted.  In a large mixing bowl, combine the milk mixture with the sugar and salt and let cool.  In a small bowl, combine the water and yeast and let foam. When the milk mixture is cooled a bit, add the eggs and yeast (the point of the cooling is to not kill the yeast, so don't let it get cold).  With a dough hook, mix in the flour.  (If using a wooden spoon and elbow grease, mix in the flour and then knead on a floured surface until dough is smooth and soft - about 5-10 minutes).  Cover and let rise until double in bulk; about 1-1 1/2 hours.  After rising, punch down and divide in half.  Roll out on a large jelly roll pan to fit the length of the pan and almost the width.  Spread the filling down the middle of each cake and either fold over the outer halves or cut strips and braid it over the filling...it's your call. Sprinkle the streusel equally on top of the two coffee cakes.  Cover and let rise another 20 minutes and preheat your oven  to 375 degrees.  Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.  When cooled, dust with powdered sugar.

the filling: 

1 8 ounce brick cream cheese

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp lemon juice

1/3 cup flour

Mix all ingredients until smooth.

the streusel:

3/4 cup flour

1/3 cup sugar

4 Tbsp butter

1/2 tsp cinnamon

In a bowl, mix the streusel ingredients with a pastry blender or fork until crumbly.

Yeast Spotting

Homemaker Monday

Mouth Watering Monday

Made By You Monday

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Saturday Stories: Giving Up a Habit

Just about every relative of mine in my grandparents' generations smoked cigarettes.  It was the thing to do.  No one thought it was a disgusting habit.  No doctors warned of the health risks.  In fact, all of the famous people of the day were seen in newspapers, magazines and movies smoking.  How could anyone not want to smoke too?

Both of my grandfathers and all of their siblings smoked.  My paternal grandmother and her sisters smoked.  My maternal grandmother and her sisters did not, but all of the men in their families did.  Most of them started in the 1930s and went on to smoke until the 1970s or longer.   Surprisingly, the only person who ended up with a cigarette related disease was my grandfather's twin, Alton.  He developed emphysema and had an oxygen bottle trailing behind him for the last decade of his life.

After my aunt Marilyn was killed in a car crash, Bumpa started smoking more and more.  One day he went to work at 6:30am.  At 8am, he reached into his pocket for a cigarette and realized that his pack was empty.  In 90 minutes, he had smoked an entire pack of cigarettes.  He was so disgusted with himself, that he crumbled up the empty package and threw it down with an expletive.  He vowed to never touch another cigarette again.  And he didn't.  He was able to quit cold turkey.

My father didn't smoke, but thought perhaps he'd take up the pipe when I was a little girl, more for the aura of academia then for pleasure.  One afternoon, he was sitting at his desk, puffing away on a pipe.  I was playing under the desk with some toys.  I must have been about five years old.  Suddenly, I poked my head out from under the desk and said, "Daddy, that sure stinks and it's really bad for you."  He looked at me and looked at the pipe and said, "You're right, Kristen." And he gathered up all of his tobacco, pipes, cleaners, etc and threw them in the trash.  He never smoked again, either.

By the mid-1970s, after the surgeon general officially declared tobacco a health hazard, my parents asked that guests smoke outside our home.  By the 1980s, most of our friends and relatives had quit...or died.

Note: This post was not intended as a judgement of anyone who smokes, it is simply a record of what happened in my family.  I recognize how hard it is for most people to quit smoking and that both my father and grandfather were lucky. Tweet

Fancy Pizza: Prosciutto Fig Pizzettes

A few weeks ago, for my Make Your Own Monday series, I published a quick puff pastry recipe.   I used the dough to make these fancy pizzas for my son's fourteenth birthday party.  I didn't tell any of the boys who attended what they were eating.  I simply put one of these babies in front of each of them and let them go to town.  All of them devoured them.  One boy left a few figs on the side, but not one of them asked what was in the "pizza."  I wonder what they'd have said if I mentioned the goat cheese.

It is my opinion that they'd have run for the hills.  Luckily, they were on their best behavior and didn't ask about any of the food I made for them that night.  

Prosciutto Fig Pizzettes (makes 8)

1 recipe puff pastry (or 1 box frozen store bought)

4 ounces goat cheese

2 Tbsp dried figs, chopped

4 thin slices prosciutto

5 large slices Asiago cheese

Divide the dough into 8 sections.  Press it into 8 4inch tart pans.  Divide the goat cheese into 8 parts and spread it on top of the puff pastry.  Sprinkle the figs and prosciutto over the goat cheese.  Top with broken slices of cheese (if you get it from the deli like I did, the cheese will be larger than the tarts...if you are slicing your own, slice 8 pieces).   Bake 12-15 minutes at 450 degrees or until golden brown and bubbly.

Foodie Friday

Food on Friday

Friday Feasts

GCC Recipe Swap

Friday Favorites

I'm  Loving It Friday

Crafty Friday

Friday Potluck

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The First Apple Pie of the Year

 Autumn is pie season as far as I am concerned.  Throughout the long hot Arizona summer, I avoid turning on the oven as much as possible, but as soon as the temperatures dip below 80, I am back in the kitchen.  When the temperatures dip below 70, I do a dance and spend most of my time baking.  It's really hard to be so dependent on the weather, because Mother Nature hardly ever plays fair.  This fall, for instance, has been just an extension of summer.  We had a teaser weekend of 60 degree weather in September, but mostly it has remained in the upper 80s and lower 90s.  You can bet I made an apple pie during that cool snap, though.

Apple pie in our house is a simple affair.  Only cinnamon is allowed to grace our apples.  This little pie (and it was little compared to some of the 10 inch pies the are produced around here) was sweetened with blue agave nectar; just to see how it worked.  In fact, unlike the normal apple pies I bake, I only put a scant 1/3 cup of sweetener in it.  I used some Gala apples, as well as Granny Smiths to increase the sweet factor.  A mix of apple varieties in a pie always makes for better taste.

I have already posted my apple pie recipe, but I wanted to celebrate the first pie of the season.  It was such a treat.  In fact, I am heading out to the kitchen to make another one today.  How about you?  Do you celebrate Fall with apple pie?

Here is my pie crust recipe, too.

Recipe Swap Thursday

Recipe Spree Thursday

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Cookbook Review: The Comfort of Apples

Wednesdays are so blah around here that I decided to devote them to cookbook reviews when I don't have anything more exciting (like giveaways) to post.  I am starting off with The Comfort of Apples by Phil and Lauren Rubin.  

Here is the official press release, including a recipe:

Butternut Squash and Apple Soup
by Philip & Lauren Rubin,
Authors of The Comfort of Apples: Modern Recipes for an Old-Fashioned Favorite

Soup should be a smooth, friendly spoonful, which is why this is a lasting combination. Some ingredients just work well together: Butternut squash and apples have a complementary, mellow sweetness. Sweet potatoes and apples have a similar agreement, hence our sweet potato side dish

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 yellow onion, coarsely chopped
• 1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cubed
• 4 cups apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
• 4 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 quart chicken stock
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
• Salt and pepper
• ½ cup walnut halves
• 4 ounces goat cheese, sliced in ¼ -inch rounds

Procedure:

1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until translucent about 3 minutes. Add the squash, apples, carrots, stock, and cinnamon and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low, cover the pot, and simmer until the vegetables are soft when pierced with a fork, 20 to 30 minutes.

2. Ladle the vegetables and half of the broth into a blender or food processor. Puree until very smooth. Return soup to the pot and stir in the remaining broth, one ladleful at a time, until you reach the desired consistency. Season well with salt and pepper.

3. To serve, place a few walnuts in the center of a soup bowl. Shingle 2 slices of goat cheese on top of the walnuts and ladle the soup around the goat cheese. The idea is to have the goat cheese visible atop the soup. (Hint: it may be easier to ladle the soup into a large measuring cup with a spout and pour from there.)

Serves 6

The above is an excerpt from the book The Comfort of Apples: Modern Recipes for an Old-Fashioned Favorite by Philip & Lauren Rubin. The above excerpt is a digitally scanned reproduction of text from print. Although this excerpt has been proofread, occasional errors may appear due to the scanning process. Please refer to the finished book for accuracy.

Copyright © 2010 Philip & Lauren Rubin, authors of The Comfort of Apples: Modern Recipes for an Old-Fashioned Favorite

Author Bios
Philip and Lauren Rubin, authors of The Comfort of Apples: Modern Recipes for an Old-Fashioned Favorite, and graduates of the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City, own 2 Peas & A Pot, a Manhattan catering company. They previously worked in several restaurants, including Cafe Luxembourg, Union Pacific, and Tribeca Grill. Lauren has also worked as a personal chef and recipe tester at Good Housekeeping. They have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, and were the subjects of a full-length feature in BizBash, the premier trade magazine for event planners. They live in New York City with their son, Henry.

MY TAKE: With all cookbooks, I first read through the introduction, then flip through and look at the pictures and then finally, I sit down and read all of the recipes from start to finish.  This book contains only pictures of apples.  Not one of the pictures is of any of the finished recipes.  That was a big drawback.  I mean, the pictures are beautiful, but I'd much rather see German Apple Pancakes or Apple Tzatziki than a Granny Smith.  

I marked a few recipes that I wanted to try.  My favorites were Cider Aioli, Apple Risotto, Grilled Cheese and Sprouts Sandwiches, Apple Chips, the Butternut Apple soup posted above and Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes.  I made the Cider Aioli.  It was great,  but I ended up adding spices and salt to it.  Overall,  I would recommend getting this book from a library and not purchasing it yourself.  

Disclaimer: I was given the cookbook for this review by FSB Media, but was in no way compensated to publish this post.

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