Some of the Best of 2010

2010 has been quite a year for learning about my blog.  When 2009 was closing, I had just reached 100 followers.  I can remember doing the happy dance as those numbers reached triple digits.  It meant that .00000000145 of the world actually found my blog interesting.  Maybe not the biggest number, but still better than plain old 0.

I learned however, that all of those followers weren't coming round for the same reason.  If I talked about having a son who is bi-polar, I might gain a follower or two.  The same went for talking about adopting my four sons, having a transracial family, having 3 sons on ADHD meds and so on.  But those aren't the reasons I blog, so some of those followers came and went.  It about sent me into paroxysms of despair when a follower left until I realized that a) some people follow indiscriminately and then realize that they cannot keep up with 500 blogs, b)some people follow you based on one post until they realize that you rarely talk about that subject, c)some people follow you just to have you follow back and d) you cannot please everyone all of the time, so you may just as well concentrate on making yourself proud.  I still hate to see the numbers fluctuate, but I have learned not to feel completely rejected when a reader leaves.

As 2010 began, my son begged me to try making homemade poptarts.  It took a little bit of research and a morning with a very late breakfast, but I did it.  Everyone who ate the brown sugar/cinnamon  Homemade Poptarts loved them.  Make Your Own Monday was born.

Which included Homemade Fig Newtons: 

Homemade Corn Dogs

and Homemade Pizza Rolls:

This was the year that I learned not to be afraid of a deep fryer, too.  After making the corn dogs and the pizza rolls, I continued my frying frenzy with donuts like

Carrot Currant Donuts with Cream Cheese Filling: 

and Buttermilk Cake Donuts: 

(Princess Pat and half eaten donut)

As I had played around with creating original recipes in 2010, I came up with quite a few that will be on my rotation for a while.  (Being a food blogger, however, means the rotations can be mighty long)  Some of my family's favorites were:

13 Schmears (flavored cream cheese spreads)

Summer Ham Pasta Salad

and Cream of Tomato Bacon Soup

My photography has improved over 2010, too.  I actually had four photos accepted at Taste Spotting and /or Food Gawker this year.  Yeah, I won't be taking the world by storm any time soon, but it's a relief to have figured out where in the house I can take good pictures.  I have no natural light in my kitchen or dining room as they are in the very literal center of the house.  There are sky lights in the family room and my sons' bedroom has a pretty good window for afternoon shots.  The boys think it's hilarious when I clear a spot on their carpet and bring in an entire place setting to photograph.  I am hoping to guarantee that there will not be any more photos like this one on my blog again.

(May very well be the all time ugliest food photo ever)

(Cheerio Jell-O bars....maybe not my finest recipe, either!)

So, now, here we are on the verge of 2011.  Who knows what culinary adventures the new year will bring.  There are so many foods I still would like to make, so many challenges to set and meet, so many new friends to make, so many new blogs to find.    I am excited to start cooking my way through all of the recipes I have found on other blogs and featuring them on Mondays with "Your Recipe, My Kitchen."  I am also toying with weekly themes, a bread feature, continuing the cookbook reviews and of course the Saturday Stories.

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Count Down to 2011

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Cookbook Review: The Frankies Spuntino

First of all, let me tell you, I have never seen a cookbook that looked like a limited edition of a Charles Dickens novel.  This book had gilt edges, a beautiful hard cover with gold lettering and it was the size, not of a coffee table book, but of an oak paneled library tome.  However, it was not the intention of the authors to create a book that would be shelved.  The contents of this Kitchen Companion are worthy of food spatters and  folded corners.  It is a book meant to be used.

I was completely charmed by The Frankies Spuntino Kitchen Companion and Cooking Manual by Frank Falcinelli and Frank Castronovo.  With a down to earth writing style, both Franks' stories of growing up in Italian-American families are woven through their recipes.  The book is filled with recipes calling for easy to find ingredients made in a simple family style; just like Italian Grandmas used to make for Sunday dinner.

The recipes included in this cookbook include a wonderful basic tomato sauce which we tried out.  With simple ingredients like tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, salt and red pepper flakes, it became amazing after using it to cook meatballs.  I didn't grow up with any Italian friends, so I had no idea how great a sauce could be when it became the means of cooking all sorts of meat.  The sauce only got better with time, too.  The next day's leftovers were supreme.

Other recipes include Gnocchi, Braciole, Meatballs, Homemade Pastas, soups like Fagiola, Roasted Butternut, and Lentil with Bacon and desserts such as Olive Oil Cake, Hazelnut Panna Cotta and Chocolate Tart.  I had such a wonderful time drooling over all of them.  I think eventually, I will have to add this book to my collection.


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Mint Brownie Cheesecake Bars

    

You know those brownies with the thin layer of green frosting covered with a chocolate glaze?  These aren't them!  You know the brownies with the cheesecake swirl baked in?  These are closer to them.  With mint.  And a glaze.

 I put some green food coloring in that minty cheesecake layer, but you could color it orange for fall, pink for Valentine's, red for Christmas, or not at all for the rest of the year.  I suppose you could change out the flavoring, too.  Add orange, lemon, almond or coconut flavorings for lots of variations.  Add nuts, chocolate chips or coconut to the brownie layer for some added texture.

Mint Brownie Cheesecake Bars:
Brownie layer:
2 sticks butter
4 squares (ounces) unsweetened chocolate
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup flour
1 Tbsp vanilla
Melt the butter and chocolate in the microwave in a good sized microwave safe bowl.  Stir in the sugar. Stir in the eggs (if the mixture is really hot, let it cool a bit before you add the eggs).  Add the flour and vanilla.  Pour into a greased 9X13 pan.
Cheesecake layer:
8ounces + 3 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp mint extract
4 drops food coloring (you choose the color!)
Beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth.  Add the egg, flavoring and color.  Spread over the unbaked brownie layer.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45-50 minutes or until firm.  Remove from oven and cool in pan 30 minutes on a cooling rack.  Refrigerate another 30 minutes.
Glaze layer:
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp corn syrup
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar (sifted if lumpy)
Heat butter, water and corn syrup in the microwave until boiling.  Heat 1 minute at a time until you achieve that as all microwaves differ slightly in power.  Stir in chocolate chips until melted.  Add vanilla.  Beat in powdered sugar with a spoon.  Spread on cooled brownies.  Store in refrigerator.

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Homemade Pita Chips and Hummus: The Final Make Your Own Monday

The year has come to an end and so have Make Your Own Mondays.  I have had a wonderful time making different "store bought" foods at home all year long, but frankly, there was a lot of pressure to meet the Monday deadlines each week.  In all honesty, I am a bit relieved to see the year come to an end.  There are still a lot of things I want to attempt at home, but without any obligation to do so, it will be a lot more fun.

I have wanted to make pita bread for a long time.  I made naan in 2009 and it was wonderful.  I thought pitas wouldn't be too much trouble.  I was wrong.  It may have had something to do with the recipe.  It may have had something to do with the holidays and a house full of people.  It may have had something to do with the fact that I was in the middle of a rousing game of "Encore" while I was baking them.  Whatever the reason, I rolled the first batch of pitas too thick and ended up with little round foccacia's.  The second batch turned out just right.  The third batch turned into pita chips.  I think we were trying to come up with songs with the word "apple" in them.

Because I had made up a good sized batch of hummus, I decided to just bake all of the pitas too long on purpose and turn them all into pita chips.  All 8 adults in the house loved them and the entire batch was gone in minutes.  It was a relief that the "oops" was saved.  

Hummus (from Cooking Jewish by Judy bart Kancigor)

1 15 ounce can of chickpeas, drained

1/2 cup tahini

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

2 heaping teaspoons minced garlic

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground white pepper

1/8 tsp cayenne

1/2 cup water

Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.  Open up the processor and scrape all the stuff that splashed  down into the hummus and blend again, just to make sure it's all incorporated.  Transfer to a bowl, cover and refrigerated until ready to serve.  Will keep for 1 week

This tasted just like the stuff you buy at the store.  It was the perfect combination of ingredients.

Pita Chips (from King Arthur Flour's Whole Grain Baking)

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp instant yeast

1 1/4 cups warm water

2 Tbsp olive oil

Combine all the ingredients and mix and knead them together until you have a soft, supple dough, about 8 minutes by hand or 5 minutes by mixer.  You want a soft dough that feels tacky to the touch.  Cover the bowl tightly and let the dough rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees. After the dough has risen, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and cut it in half.  Divide on half into 4 equal parts and form each into a rough ball.  let the balls rest for 10 minutes while dividing the second half of dough in the same way.  Using a rolling pin, roll out each ball into a really thin circle about 8 inched in diameter.  Try not to use much flour when rolling it out.  Place them on a baking sheet and bake for about 3 minutes on each side.  There will be little brown speckles on the crust.   After you have baked all of them, cut them into triangles, place them back on a baking sheet and return them to the oven for another 5 minutes or until they are mostly crispy.  Serve with hummus when cooled.

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Merry Christmas and a Saturday Story

Starting in 1980, my parents have had a big Christmas Eve dinner, followed by a talent show.  When our family was just us kids and the folks, they tried to invite another family or two over to share the evening.  The menu varied for years, but after I got married and just my younger brothers were home, they settled down on an oven barbecued beef brisket, twice baked potatoes and of course, pies.  The side dishes still vary a little, even to this day, but don't get in the way of that BBQ'd beef!

The talent shows have often brought out the hilarious.  Guests were always warned that they'd have to share a talent.  Even the most untalented were required to perform.  We have had kazoo duets, bubbles blown while someone sang, jokes told, and babies with pillows in their little shirts saying, "ho, ho, ho."  I often played the piano and my parents usually sang or played combs with waxed paper.  Stories and jokes have been told and dances performed.  We have laughed until we cried some years.

After all of the fun and wonderful food, Dad always brought the evening to a close by reading the Christmas story out of Luke 2.  With a reminder of the reason we had gathered, we said our good nights and settled down to wait for morning.

And so, to all of you, my friends wherever you may be, I wish you a blessed and safe Christmas.

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Fig Bars

 I posted a recipe for jam bars a few weeks back.  This is a variation on that theme.  Instead of  using jams, though, I used dried fruit.  In this case, it was figs, but you could use dried apricots, plums, apples, pineapple, mango, mixed berries or anything you happen to have on hand.  The principal is the same.

The bottom layer is a shortbread.  The top is more of a crumble.

 Put it all together and you have an irresistible treat.  YUM!

Fig Bars: (adapted from Betty Crocker's Christmas Cookies)

crust: 

1 stick butter

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 cup flour

filling: 

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup water

1 cup chopped dried fruit

topping: 

1/4 cup flour

3 Tbsp brown sugar

3 Tbsp cold butter

1/4 cup oatmeal

1/4 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Grease a 9X9 square pan.  For the crust: in a small bowl, beat the sugar and butter and vanilla.  Add the flour and mix until a soft dough forms.  Press dough into the bottom of a the prepared pan.  Bake 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until center is set.  For the filling: In a sauce pan, combine the sugar, water and chopped dried fruit.  Cook/boil for 5-10 minutes or until fruit is soft, liquid is mostly absorbed and the consistency is fairly spreadable.  Stir often.  Spread over the cooked crust....carefully!  For the topping: Using a pastry blended or fork, combine the flour, sugar and butter until crumbly.  Stir in the oatmeal and nuts.  Sprinkle over the filling.  Bake another 15-20 minutes until the topping is golden brown and filling is bubbly around the edges.  Cool completely before cutting.

This has been submitted to Foodie Friday, Food on Friday, Friday Feasts,  Friday Favorites,  Crafty Friday,  Food Fight Friday, Fantabulous Friday, What's Cookin' In the Kitchen, Feature Yourself Friday, Everything But the Kitchen Sink Friday.

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Cookbook Review: Fat Witch Bakery

This week, I found Brownies, Blondies, and Bars from New York's Legendary Fat Witch Bakery in my library. As a lover of all things brownies or bar, I just had to see what kind of goodies this little (it's only about 7inches by 7 inches) book had in store for me. I wasn't disappointed.

Patricia Helding left a job on Wall Street to open Fat Witch Bakery in 1998. Today, her bakery sells more than 2500 sweets a day. Her desserts aren't fancy, but from the recipes in the cookbook, they sound delicious. She tested all of the recipes in her book at home in her kitchen so that all of them would be accessible for the home cook. There are no funny ingredients that need to be ordered on the internet in this collection. All of the recipes make 9X9 pans.

One of the best tricks I gleaned from this cookbook is to flip the entire pan of brownies or bars out of the pan and “with a sharp knife and a fast chop, trim off the crispy edges to make the sides even and clean looking.” She collects the edges and sells them in a bag as “witch's ends.” She says they “fly out of the store without broom-power.” In my house, my kids vie for the middle pieces of all brownies. By trimming off the edges, everyone can have a middle piece. My husband who enjoys the edges, eats the trimmings in a bowl.

Fat Witch recipes range from the classic Chocolate brownies, Lemon bars, Congo bars and Blondies to more decadent Caramel filled brownies, Maple oatmeal bars, Pb&j bars, S'more bars, Banana bread bars to unusual sweets like Lavender treats, Earl Grey brownies and Lemon cheesecake brownies. There is something for the careful cook as well as for the experimental baker. The instructions are easy to follow and there are plenty of beautiful colored pictures to get your mouth watering.

Note: I received no compensation for this post and all opinions are mine alone.

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Lemon Bars

I went to one of my local thrift stores this month and everything in the entire store was 50% off.  I immediately went to the cookbooks. I picked up two old Cook's Illustrated magazines for $.12 each.  What a deal!

 One of the recipes in one of the magazines particularly caught my eye.  It was called "The Best Lemon Bars."  Lemon bars have long been one of my favorite desserts.  The buttery crust, the tart filling...it all goes so well together in this popular dessert.  I had to try this recipe and see if it really was "the Best."

 Luckily, I had to bring a dessert to a Christmas party.  It was the perfect excuse to make these bars and see how popular they would be.  The recipe differed from my usual Lemon bars in that there is cornstarch in the crust and whole milk in the filling.  The filling was really creamy and lemony.

 The crust was a perfect shortbread; thick and buttery.  I believe this is indeed the best Lemon bar recipe I have tried.  It is worth giving it a shot to see if it stands up to your own favorite recipe for these bars.

The Best Lemon Bars: (slightly adapted from Cook's Illustrated):
crust
1 3/4 cups AP flour
2/3 cups sifted powdered sugar (mine clumps so I always have to sift it...don't if yours isn't clumpy)
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 sticks butter
filling
4 large eggs
1 1/3 cups sugar
3 Tbsp flour
zest from 2 lemons
juice from 4 lemons
1/3 cup half and half
1/4 tsp salt
For the crust: Line a 9X13 pan with parchment or foil up all four sides.  Pulse flour, powdered sugar, cornstarch and salt in food processor.  Add butter and pulse until mix like coarse meal.  Press into the bottom of the lined pan and refrigerate 30 minutes.  Afterward, bake 20 minutes in a 350 degree oven.
For the filling: Whisk eggs, sugar and flour in a medium bowl, then stir in zest, juice, milk and salt.  Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees.  Stir filling mixture to reblend and then pour onto warm crust.  Bake until filling feels firm when touched lightly; about 20 minutes.  Cool in pan 30 minutes.  Remove bars from pan by lifting foil or parchment.  Peel back foil and cut into serving sized bars.  Dust with powdered sugar.

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Wheat Meat: Make Your Own Monday #50

This post is going to show you how to go from this (whole wheat berries):

to this (taco flavored gluten or wheat meat): 

This is probably something that most of you have never even considered.  Wheat as meat?!  However,  as a meat substitute, using the gluten in freshly ground wheat flour is a pretty frugal thing to do.  I saw a 25 pound bucket of wheat at my local Sam's club this week for about $15.  You could get about ten meals out of that bucket.  How often do you spend $1.50 or less for the meat in your meal?

Gluten is where the protein is in wheat.  It's the thing that so many people have trouble with.  If you don't have any intolerance, you may want to experiment with it. I was once told that 1 cup of raw gluten has 72 grams of protein in it.  That's like 12 ounces of hamburger or a dozen eggs or I don't know how many cups of cooked beans!

All you need is

8-9 cups freshly ground whole wheat flour (that's about 6-7 cups of whole wheat berries to begin with)

4-5 cups water

1 Tbsp of meat base (beef, pork, chicken)

Mix the flour and water for about 10 minutes straight.  I use my heavy duty Kitchen Aid at speed 4.  If you want, you can do this by hand, but you will probably need to take some breaks.  This is a great workout!  After ten minutes with the mixer (or maybe 20 minutes by hand, counting rest time) it will be really  elastic.

Using the same bowl, cover the wheat mixture with water.

Leave the bowl in the sink and with your hands, vigorously knead the dough.  It will feel sort of like play dough.  When the water is really tan and thick (because you are working all of the bran out of it), remove the glob of gluten from the water and transfer to another bowl. You can save the bran in the water.  I know it's possible, but I haven't had any luck.  Otherwise, just save the liquid to use in bread, stews, gravies, desserts or to water plants...they love it.

Back to the gluten.  After saving the first water, just start rinsing the gluten under the faucet (with that second bowl under it to catch pieces that may fall out of your hand.  Keep moving it, squeezing out the bran with your fingers until it resembles an alien mass (fibrous, stretchy, with no tiny brown flecks in it).  Drain off all of the water (use a sieve or colander).  Place the gluten glob back into the bowl and grab that 1 Tbsp of meat base. You are going to work it into the gluten and if you thought anything before this was hard, Ha!  This is the really hard part.  Stretch the gluten, mash the base into it, keep going until the gluten seems to have changed color a bit and most of the base is worked in.

Stretch out the gluten on a jelly roll pan (or large cookie sheet with a lip) and add 1/4 cup water.  Bake it at 350 degrees for 1 hour.  Add more water if the top seems to be crisping. 

(I added the liquid left in my bowl from adding the meat base)

This is really weird looking stuff...the entire way through the process.  At this point, it is springy, but firm instead of gloppy like it was before baking.  To make a ground meat substitute, tear the gluten into smaller pieces and run it through a food processor.

At this point, you can use it just like hamburger.  You can also freeze it to use later (but after all of that work, you may just want to enjoy the fruits of your labor).  You can cut it half and half with real meat or use it by itself.  I like it in chili or tacos.  The stronger the seasoning you add at this point, the harder it will be to tell that it isn't real meat.   My kids took one look at it and asked if I was using steak for the tacos that night (I had a hard time not giggling, but I kept a straight face and said,  "No, it's not steak.")  They all raved at how tasty the soft tacos were that night.  Not one suspected he wasn't eating beef.  

You can also cube the gluten when it comes out of the oven.  Use it in pot pies in place of chicken or turkey or in stews.  I wouldn't recommend using it in pieces bigger than cubes.  I have heard of people cutting it into "steaks" but I don't think I would like the texture.

I plan to use a lot of wheat meat in 2011.  

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Saturday Stories: Over The River and Through The Woods

When I was a little girl, there was no question of us travelling to my grandparents' house for Christmas.  Even when my father was overseas during the Vietnam War, Mom packed me in the car and headed from Massachusetts over to New York to her parents' house.  The weather hardly ever made for an easy trip.

Dad and Mom sang songs to help make the miles seem shorter.  Dad has always had a knack for making up verses to songs and for remembering just about every silly camp song he has ever sung.  Combine those two talents and you have the makings for some very entertaining lyrics.  On top of that, Mom and Dad were big Peter, Paul and Mary fans, so I grew up with "Old Stewball was a Race Horse," "Leavin' on a Jet Plane," and "Oh, I wish I were a little can of paint" sung mile after mile.  Mom sang harmony to Dad's melody.

One year, I must have been about seven, Mom and I traveled alone once more.  We had our German Shepherd, Susie, in the way back of our station wagon, too.  There was a lot of snow as usual in New York winters.  We were driving down the thruway when a big semi cut us off.  Mom lost control of the car for a bit and we ended up in the ditch.  Neither of us or our dog were hurt and we were able to get back on the road again without any trouble.  Mom had spent a lot of summers working as a waitress in a thruway restaurant and had often overheard truckers bragging about causing accidents for smaller cars.  Forever after our experience in the ditch, she was positive that the semi had put us there on purpose.   I was too young to know.

When I was in third grade, we lived in Ohio.  It was the year of a huge blizzard.  We managed to get caught in it driving home after Christmas.  I remember how completely the world was blocked out as we crept along at a snail's pace on the highway.  I was much too young to have realized how tense and nervous my folks were as we drove.  Just as it seemed the storm was going to win and we were going to have to find a place to wait out the snow, we came upon a snow plow.  Dad got right up in back of it and slowly, that big, wonderful truck led us through the worst of it.  We made it safely home, but that was the end of holiday trips for a few years.

By the time I was 15, my grandparents had all moved into retirement homes and it was easier for them to visit us at Christmas time than for us to go there.  The long and sometimes scary trips back to the old stomping grounds of my parents' youth became a thing of the past. Tweet

Key Lime Pie

 Although this pie is refreshing enough to hit the spot on a hot summer's day, winter is citrus season, making this a more affordable time of year to make it.  Not only that, sweetened condensed milk goes on sale for the holidays, too.  It's almost as though the grocery stores want us to make key lime pie in December.

 If you have access to key limes, use them.  If, however, you count yourself lucky just to find larger limes on sale, don't hesitate to use those instead.  Many key lime pies are no bake, but this one needs a zap in the oven to reach perfection.  It is by far my favorite recipe for this delicious pie.

Key Lime Pie (adapted from allrecipes.com)
2 cans sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup sour cream
3/4 cup fresh lime juice
2 tsp lime zest
prepared graham cracker crust (or melted butter mixed with 1 package graham crackers [that's not a whole box, but one package within a box] mashed into fine crumbs pressed into a 9 inch pie pan and baked for 5 minutes at 375 degrees...turn down the heat to 350 when you remove the crust from the oven)
Mix the sweetened condensed milk, sour cream, lime juice and lime zest in a bowl.  Pour into the prepared graham cracker crust and bake 350 degrees for 5-8 minutes (watch it, you want it to have tiny little bubbles forming on the top of the filling).  Let pie cool for 15 minutes on the counter and then refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.

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Christmas Time in My House

As in most homes, Christmas is a big deal in mine.  The excitement runs high as the days pass and the 25th looms closer and closer.  Here are a few traditions that we try to keep each year.

1.  The tree is up by Thanksgiving.  Putting the tree up a day or two before the turkey day is a huge thing checked off my list.  In my mind, there is something about seeing the tree up, lit and  ready to go that takes all sorts of stress away.

2. When my sons were little, I didn't put any presents out until they were in be on Christmas Eve.  It was so much fun to see how big their eyes got on Christmas morning.  All the presents from grandparents and us as well as Santa's gifts usually made a pretty big pile.  Now, my little girl helps me put all of the presents under the tree.  I still have to "slap a few hands" when the boys try to shake their presents to determine the contents.  I have gotten smarter, though, and I pack things in odd shaped boxes with lots of packing peanuts so shaking is unproductive.

3. About 10 days before Christmas (earlier if I am lucky), I bake gingerbread men and hang them from the dining room light fixture.   The cookies fall periodically and it's a mad scramble to see who gets a piece to eat.

4. On normal years (this one isn't normal), I make up many, many goodie plates the first week of December and we deliver them as a family on the first Monday of the month.  The kids fight over who gets to go to the doors to hand out the plates, so I usually have to make a detailed route map and assign kids to houses before we even step one foot out the door.  This year, I am late and the plates are still a work in progress.

5. These are out of order, I am writing these as I think of them.  On Christmas morning, the stockings that were set out in the living room "mysteriously" end up on the foot of all of the kids beds.  When they get up, excited and anxious to open presents, but usually too early for the grownups, they can sit on their beds and look in their stockings.  This is usually good for 20 more minutes of sleep for us.

6. Christmas Eve is the big dinner day.  On Christmas morning, we eat cinnamon rolls that have been made to the point of the last rise the night before and then brought out and baked that morning.  The rest of the day is leftovers.  It's a day off for the cook.

7. All CDs in my car are changed out for Christmas varieties at the beginning of December.  I have a big variety of music from the Nutcracker to saxophone, from Bing Crosby to Charlotte Church.  It's the only time of the year that there are no complaints about not getting to listen to "cool" music.

8. My Christmas tree is decorated almost entirely with homemade ornaments.  As I get them out each year to decorate, I am transported back either to when I made it or to who gave it to me.  Each one has a special meaning to our family.  I give my daughter a new ornament each year.  None of them are homemade, but they signify something in her life, like a move to AZ or an obsession with Tinker Bell.

9. I make more treats in December, if that's possible.  The month isn't complete if I don't make cutout cookies.  Everyday for the last week, my oldest has asked when I am going to make them.  On top of the plates of treats that come in, I try to keep a good supply of my own on the counters.

There are probably a few traditions that I am not remembering; things that I just do without realizing it's tradition.  These recurring events that happen every year help to make it a memorable day.  I keep trying to get my kids to understand that Christmas is something to look forward to not because of presents, but because of family, traditions and of course, the REAL reason we celebrate, the birth of the Savior.  It's a work in progress. Tweet

Cookbook Review: The Lost Art of Real Cooking

I want a copy of this cookbook.  It is actually on my Christmas list.  The library is great for screening books.  Usually, I end up copying a recipe or two, but in the case of  The Lost Art of Real Cooking by Ken Albala and Rosanna Nafziger, I want it all.

I loved the introduction of The Lost Art of Real Cooking which is addressed, “Dear Gentle Reader,” much like a book in the eighteenth century may have started. Among other things, the authors say they want to, “break free from the golden shackles of convenient ready-made, industrial food.” They also warn “if you cannot abide by long hours in the kitchen, this is no book for you.” With that warning in mind, I read through the small, but highly entertaining tome, The Lost Art of Real Cooking.

Written by two fearless cooks, this book takes you on a journey back in time. Interspersed between their recipes are actual excerpts from recipes written in the 1600 and 1700s. The only equipment needed to cook and bake these recipes are cast iron skillets and Dutch ovens, a baking stone, a big stockpot and some smaller saucepans, sharp knives, stout wooden spoons, mixing bowls, a few glass jars, a metal and a rubber spatula, a whisk, meat tenderizer and a sturdy mortar and pestle. With these few things, Ken and Rosanna have set out to conquer the world. Did you notice there was no mention of a Kitchen Aid stand mixer or a Cuisenart food processor? Nope. Not a single appliance made their cut, except of course an oven and a refrigerator.

There is no set cuisine in this book. They roam from sauerkraut to miso, from dolmas to corn tortillas. With their easy to read recipes, I ended the book ready to make pickles, capture wild yeast, render some lard and make a round of cheddar cheese. They made it all sound do-able!

Really, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It contained page after page of useful information; not just for the urban homesteader, but for anyone looking to wean themselves off of commercially made convenience foods.

Check out their blogs, too: Ken Albala's Food Rant and Paprika.

Note: I received no compensation for this post and all opinions are mine alone.

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