Holiday Baking and More

Baking Christmas cookies with Grandpa Wally somehow seemed to signify the start of the holiday season for me. We would have a whole afternoon devoted to cranking out dozens of cookies, and then freeze them in batch varieties to eat at various holiday dinners.

My favorite holiday cookie is a Russian Tea Cake. Some people know these cookies as Mexican Wedding Cookies, or Crescents, but I've always called them Russian Tea Cakes. A delicious walnut, or pecan, studded butter dough is baked in small rounds to a very light golden brown. Then, the cookies are cooled slightly, and dropped into a Ziploc Bag filled with Powdered Sugar. Because the cookies are still warm, the powdered sugar sticks to the outside of the cookie, and creates this beautiful white crust. They are magical.

Once I moved 3,000 miles away from my immediate family, there was no telling what each year would bring for me. Snow often factors into my travels plans, but this year it was my vacation time and finances that kept me from baking with Grandpa Wally. Next Year Grandpa-I promise!

Left to create some of my own holiday baking memories, I decided to surprise my cousins with this snack mix that has been discontinued from Trader Joe's. This is not your garden variety trail mix-this is culinary bliss. Trader Joe's donned the name Nuts About Chocolate and Coconut. For me it was my culinary crack! Besides a lightly salted deluxe variety of mixed nuts-meaning no boring peanuts-there are chunks of chocolate and paper thin shavings of freshly toasted coconut.

If I was going to re-create a mixture like Nuts About C&C, I had to make it even better than I remembered it. So, instead of one kind of chocolate, I used three: dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and milk chocolate with almonds. I also amped up the amount of coconut in the snack mix.

Now toasting fresh curls of coconut was not in my forte, so I turned to my pal Martha Stewart to guide me along. After draining the coconut water, and cracking the coconuts in half, I rinsed the insides out, and lay the shells flesh side up in the oven-all according to her instructions. Now, I have to say that I love Martha to pieces, but it took nearly an hour to pop the flesh from the shells, as opposed to her quoted time of thirty minutes. It's okay Martha, I forgive you!

After successfully cracking the flesh from the shells, I peeled off the dark leathery brown skin. I began to shave ribbons of coconut into a large bowl. After each coconut half was successfully turned into ribbons of white, I lay it all out to be toasted in a very low oven.

Being careful not to burn, or even over-brown the coconut, I kept a watchful eye on my handy kitchen timer. I started out with 12 minute intervals, tossing and rotating the coconut on the sheet tray. As the coconut took on a golden hue, I decreased the minutes on my timer. Eventually I was down to checking every 6 minutes. This took me nearly an hour, but was well worth all the effort.

I let the coconut cool completely, and gently tossed it together with the nuts and the chocolate. I found these great gift bags at Target, and my home-made version of Nuts About Chocolate and Coconut was complete!

Jury Duty! uh, I mean Soup and Salad!

As I am sitting here in the DC Court House, I thought to myself that this would be a great opportunity to FINALLY catch up on my blogging. Sorry to my avid readers, but I completely fell off the wagon this fall. But, I wanted to start the New Year, and New DECADE off right.

So, while I haven't been blogging, I have still been cooking, and I have been conjuring up new recipes. Years ago, I was working at this amazing restaurant where we used only organic ingredients. We would have a new soup every night, and one of my favorite soups was a butternut squash soup. What made this butternut squash soup so special was the addition of coconut milk. It added a subtle sweetness, and a richness, without the addition of dairy. It was a way to keep the soup vegan, but also get the creamier consistency that the addition of heavy cream would have yielded.

Every once in a while, I divert my carnivorous taste buds to savor the flavor or vegetables for a while. Since I was having friends over for dinner at this time in my life, they were subjected to a meat free dinner as well. But guess what? No one really missed the meat!

In addition to my Butternut Squash Soup, I made a salad of Butter Lettuce, Marinated Roasted Beets, Blue Cheese, and Toasted Walnuts. I originally was going to candy my walnuts, and had this grand idea to try caramelizing Brown Sugar. From past experience I knew that brown sugar needed to be dried out a bit before the attempt in caramelization.

So, I proceeded to caramelize the Brown Sugar in a small pan. This was just a plain disaster! I added some of my walnuts into the pan to become coated in the liquid golden sugar. The color turned quickly from golden, to dark amber, to BURNT! I decided right then and there that I was simply going to add toasted walnuts to the salad.

Sometimes these kinds of mistakes in the kitchen open my eyes to the notion that less is more. With the marriage of the slightly tart Marinated Beets, the creamy Blue Cheese, and the richness of toasted Walnuts, I had a harmonious combination of ingredients atop my favorite salad green-Butter Lettuce. I didn't really need the addition of caramelized sugar. I just thought I did.

With a hearty loaf of homemade bread, it was a truly Autumnal inspired meal.

When Life Hand You Lemons. . .

With an out of town wedding, and a myriad of fall activities on my plate, I found that the month of September came and went. Hence, my precious food blog became neglected. No worries loyal fans I am back, but not up to my full capacity yet.

About a week ago, I was in a car accident. I do often wonder why we call it an "accident." Because from my point of view when a guy makes an illegal left turn across on-coming traffic, and hits my car, where is the accident in that scenario? That is just blatant disregard for road signs.

Now you all know how to finish my title phase by saying "Make Lemonade!" Well, I am choosing to take a little liberty with that phase and say, "Make Lemon Bars!" You know what I am talking about, those delicious bars with a crisp-buttery crust, tart lemon filling, and dowsed in powder sugar.

I've had plenty of other people's version, or attempts over the years, but for me there are two steps that make my lemon bars stick out among the rest.

1. Baking the crust until it is a medium golden brown.

2. Baking the bars long enough so that the filling is really set up.

I've had some lemon bars where the crust was so under baked that it tasted raw, the filling was so oozy and gooey that it ran over the edges of each cut piece, and it was so cloyingly sweet I felt like I might have developed a cavity after just one bite.

The most perfect lemon bars from the bottom up consist of the following:

~A golden brown crust that crumbles slightly like a good pie crust.

~A tart lemon filling.

~A generous dusting of powder sugar on top.

These elements combine for the prefect bite of sweet-tart with a wonderful crunch, and are one of my favorite "comfort" style desserts.

Beef, It's What's for Dinner

I love a good piece of steak. I'm not so particular on the cut, this depends on my mood, but if it's more than Medium when I sink my fork into the middle, you will see a tear run down my cheek.

So, when I got a craving for some red meat this afternoon, I told my roommates I was cooking. As the summer months begin to wind down, I feel this urge to use my grill as much as possible before the summer is officially over.

Now I know people have their preferences when it comes to Gas or Charcoal, but I truly like both. I use a Gas Grill at work, because, well that is what we have, but it is also much easier to control the level of the heat on a Gas Grill. When I am grilling at home though, I use my Weber. I love my Weber, but I love whomever it was who invented the Chimney Starter even more. Whenever I have friends over, they usually ask me what it is, because most people light their charcoal with lighter fluid, but once you try a Chimney starter, you will never go back, I promise! I've also tried the Matchlight, no lighter fluid need, charcoal, and while it does light up fast, it doesn't burn very hot. So, I'm sticking with my Chimney Starter.

I got mine at my local hardware store, but when you see it, you will be confused. Here's the gist of how you use it(I'll take a picture of mine and post it tomorrow):

1. There are two main compartments inside the cylinder, one is below a wire rack, and has some openings on the side. This is where the crumpled up newspaper is to be placed.

2. The upper compartment is for the charcoal. I use Kingsford, but use what you like.

3. I like to place the Chimney Starter with crumpled newspaper in the bottom of the grill before I pour in the charcoal. This way if you spill a little, it will eventually light with the rest of the charcoal in the grill.

4. Light the newspaper, and wait a few minutes to make sure some of the charcoal begins to ignite.

5. When all the charcoal is grey, with a bright orange glow, you are good-to-go.

6. Using gloves, an oven mitt, or some towels, pour the charcoal into a nice mound in the center of the base of the grill.

7. Place the top grate on, and you are ready to grill with the best of them.

Marinating is my middle name. Okay, okay, you caught me. It's actually Marie, but pretty close don't you think?? Well, tonight was an impromptu invite for my roommates to join in my steak centric dinner, so my marinade was more of a rub with Cumin, Chili Powder, Garlic, Scallion, and Lime Juice. Usually I marinate my meat overnight for the best flavor, but today I had about an hour, not eight. I decided to make guacamole and a corn salad as well.

When I figured out a "theme" for my dinner, I finally settled on Flank Steak, and bought some corn tortillas to throw on the grill as well, to make my version of tacos.

The steak was juicy, the salad crisp and fresh, and we did have a little pre-dinner snack of chips, salsa, and guacamole. I had enough for leftovers, so this will be my dinner tomorrow night.

Plus, you all know by now that I love chocolate, but I am a firm believer if you are having people over for dinner, you have some dessert or a little something sweet to end the meal. So, I bought some vanilla ice cream, butter waffle cookies-these taste like a waffle cone, and these milk chocolate macadamia nut lace cookies! Ahhhh. . . bliss!

Sure I could have baked a batch of my own cookies, or made brownies to go with the ice cream, but I believe it's okay to have somethings that are not homemade and from scratch every once in a while. It's helpful to have one less thing to worry about when you are having people over, and well those cookies are just so damn good!

Chocoholic Not So Anonymous

I am not sure there is a day that goes by, in which I don't indulge in my purest addiction-CHOCOLATE! For me, the darker the better. Some days just a few chocolate chips will cure the craving. Other days I need to sink my teeth into a chocolate cupcake with whipped chocolate ganache frosting.

When I am in my hometown in Oregon, it is the semi-sweet hot chocolate from our local coffee shop that starts my day off just right. Internationally, It was the Pain aux Chocolat in the South of France, the Chocolate-Hazelnut Gelato in Italy, the Chocolate Truffles in Belgium, and the Churros con Chocolate in Spain that left my heart aching for future trips across The Atlantic.

When I was in elementary school, long before I knew I wanted to cook for a living, I would often come home and experiment in our kitchen. I think one of my first successful attempts at any experimentation would have been these chocolate-peanut butter frozen candies. It was nothing mind-blowing, but rather, simple, straight-forward, and just plain good. If I can figure out how to make these tasty little confections cookbook worthy, I will.

Once, I gave up Chocolate for Lent, and I think that could have been the most willful experience of my life! Please wipe that look of shock off your face all you chocoholics out there. It was only 40 days, I did it, and I will never attempt it again!! From that experience there is one thing I know for sure: There will be some killer CHOCOLATE recipes in my book.

De-stressing with Mojitos

My love for Mojitos started several years ago when I dated a bartender who made really tasty ones. He's no longer in the picture, but I certainly still love a good one-a Mojito that is-I'm through with bartenders!

So, anytime I have a really stressful week at work, I like to snip some mint from my garden, and make that magical drink. If you've never had a Mojito, it's a Rum based cocktail from The Caribbean, with hints of lime, mint, and a great balance of tart and sweet. I use a golden rum, because that is what I like, but you are welcome to try my recipe with any rum you like. Here is the recipe:

Hayley's Mojito

Servings: 1

1 each Fresh Lime

1/4 cup Simple Syrup, recipe follows

1 Sprig Fresh Mint

2 shots Golden Rum, such as Mount Gay

Soda Water

Crushed Ice

Muddler(this is the wooden stick used to make the drink, you can also use the handle of a wooden spoon)

Shaker

Tall Glass

1. Squeeze the lime into the shaker.

2. Add the Simple Syrup and Mint, and begin to muddle everything together by bruising the mint leaves to release their essential oils.

3. Pour in the shots of Rum, and add a small scoop of ice to the shaker.

4. Shake, shake, shake!

5. Pour the cocktail into a tall glass, and top it off with soda water.

6. Garnish with a sprig of mint, and enjoy!

Simple Syrup

2 Cups Granulated Sugar

4 Cups Cold Water

Makes 1 Quart

1. Combine sugar and water in a 2 quart sauce pot, and stir to dissolve sugar.

2. Place sauce pot on burner on High heat, and bring to a boil.

3. Boil for 1 minute, remove from heat, and cool to room temperature.

4. Place in an air-tight container, and store in the fridge for up to one month.

Thank Yous and Baking

When you have little disasters in life, and people do amazing things to help you out, the best way, in my opinion, is to say thank you with some home baked goods! I am testing out my sweet skills in the pie department today. I've had several pie dough recipes handed down to me over the years, but in all honesty, the best ones have at least a bit of butter.

To have a super flakey crust, I like to use Crisco or some kind of shortening. I don't feel as guilty using shortening anymore, because they have changed their formula and are now Trans Fat Free. I am still not a fan of hydrogenated fats, and I would much rather use all butter and all natural ingredients. But, the best crust has butter, shortening, good quality flour, a pinch of salt, a tablespoon or two of sugar, and is barely bound together with the iciest of all ice-waters. I heard from one of my grandma's about adding in a splash of white vinegar to the dough, so I am going to try it in my pie dough this time.

Some people like to use a Cuisinart to mix pie crust together. Others like to use a pastry blender or a fork. When I was in Culinary School, my Baking and Pastry Intructor, Kim Smith taught my class to use a box grater. Once I tried this trick, I was hooked. Keeping the butter and flour in the freezer only ensures that the crust will stay cold.

Well, talk about dry dough! I had the hardest time rolling out my dough. It kept cracking on me just as I was about to place it in the pie pan. I think I am going to re-work my recipe with a bit more fat and a bit more water. I did manage to make a decent looking Blackberry Pie, even with the cracks- those can be covered up by extra pieces of pie dough cut into pretty little leaves. I'll let you all know how the pie tastes when I hear from my cousin. The pie is for him!