Christmas Cookies and Cats

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is taking excessive amounts of photos of cats cooking with my mom. We make a very traditional Polish Christmas Eve dinner of borscht and pierogi. The pierogi requires A LOT of work – make the dough, make the filling, roll the dough, stuff with filling, freeze…. Wait patiently… Cook and cover with butter.
 
We also make cookies. This year, for whatever reason, I had a hell of a time with my lemon cookies. We tried and failed a few times to no success whatsoever (although my improv team enjoyed them, they tasted fine) and finally I went home and made them myself.

The photo above is what happened when I showed up at my parent’s house with dozens of unfrosted cookies in tow. My brother and I frosted, sprinkled, and decorated (while a cat ate the ribbon of one of the packages under the tree). If you zoom in you can see the negative snowman and a few other fun things. Kids these days, so emo.

A few other fun things:


The restaurant at the Ace Hotel in NYC - the livestock were decorated for the season

My favorite Christmas ornament, purchased in Poland in 2010

A coffee shop in Albany

A mammoth!

 

(We are now members of the Museum of Science.)

Apple Rosemary Pies

Sometime around a few months ago, we had some holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas... About a year and a half ago, I actually wrote this post and I only just found as a saved draft. The recipe was good, so I made the pies again this year. Also, you'll see another post soon talking about how awesome the team at Dave's Fresh Pasta are for hooking me up with spare herbs. I thought this recipe came from the New York Times although I can only find it in my email. So, it's below. I'm a mess, seriously!

You know I love pie, and I love baking pie, so when we had a thanksgiving work potluck, I decided to make a pie. The story of pie #1 is as follows.... Wednesday night I couldn't find rosemary at the grocery store, so I stopped in to Dave's Fresh Pasta and asked nicely at the counter. I was rewarded with several sprigs of rosemary at minimal cost, so I went home to start the pie.

Then it turned out I didn't have enough regular flour, so I had to make a partially whole wheat crust. And then I went for a run.

My pie strategy is as follows: make crust, refrigerate, go for a run. So I did, but I discovered I needed flour for the filling and I had to go out to the store to buy more anyway. Sigh....

But the pie still came out delicious!

Anyway, it was just a practice for Thanksgiving, when I had to make two apple rosemary pies! My parents were nice enough to come over and help peel 18 apples and roll dough ( pre- made the night before thankfully) but still it was a struggle to get the pies in the oven in time to go to Thanksgiving One at my husband's house. After we went to Thanksgiving Two with my family, where I proceeded to screw up the popovers by doubling every ingredient except the eggs. Oops.

Rosemary Apple Pie

Prep: 1 hour
Bake: 55 min.
Stand: 30 min.
Ingredients

1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
2 large sprigs fresh rosemary plus 1 tsp. finely snipped fresh rosemary
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
6 cups cored, peeled and sliced Granny Smith apples
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
3 Tbsp. whipping cream
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup butter
1 Recipe Rosemary Pastry, see recipe
1 egg white, beaten
2 tsp. granulated sugar
Directions

1. For rosemary syrup, in small microwave-safe bowl combine 1/4 cup granulated sugar, the water, and 2 sprigs rosemary. Microcook, uncovered, on 100% power (high) for 2 minutes. Let stand 30 minutes; remove rosemary sprigs and discard.

2. In small bowl combine brown sugar, flour, salt and 1 teaspoon finely snipped rosemary; set aside. In very large bowl toss apples with lemon juice. Add brown sugar mixture; toss to coat. Add whipping cream, vanilla, and rosemary syrup.

3. In large skillet melt butter over medium heat; add apple mixture. Cook over medium heat for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and set aside.

4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. On lightly floured surface, slightly flatten one Rosemary Pastry ball. Roll it from center to edges into a circle 12 inches in diameter. Wrap pastry circle around the rolling pin. Unroll pastry into a 9-inch pie pan or plate. Trim pastry even with rim of pie pan; spoon in apple mixture.

5. Roll remaining ball of pastry into a circle 12 inches in diameter. Cut large slits in pastry. Place pastry circle on apple filling; trim to 1/2 inch beyond edge of pan. Fold top pastry under bottom pastry. Crimp edge as desired. Brush with egg white and sprinkle with 2 teaspoons sugar. To prevent overbrowning, cover edge of pie with foil. Place on a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake 35 minutes. Remove foil. Bake 20 to 25 minutes more or until fruit is tender and filling is bubbly. Cool on wire rack; serve slightly warm. Makes 10 servings.

Rosemary Pastry:Food processor method In a food processor combine 3 cups all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon sugar and 1/2 teaspoon finely snipped fresh rosemary leaves. Add 1 cup chilled shortening. Pulse until mixture resembles cornmeal. In a small bowl combine 1/3 cup ice water, 1 beaten egg yolk, and 1 tablespoon vinegar. Add liquid mixture, 1 tablespoon at a time, to flour mixture and pulse until a soft dough forms. Divide in half; form into balls. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill 30 minutes.

Coming Out of Hibernation

Well, blog, it looks like I've been in hibernation throughout the winter. I'm putting together several posts to help us all get through the next few weeks of winter. With any luck they will make you feel warmer and cozier and generally of a good disposition.

In pictures, things you can look forward to:

Halloween Recap

Just before Halloween, I came across this recipe from Bon Appetit for Halloween Peanut Butter and Toffee Bark. Hold on to your insulin guys, this thing is outrageous!

This recipe calls for 2 Heath bars, 3 Butterfingers, 8 Reese's cups, a pound of chocolate chips, Reese's Pieces AND white chocolate. The original also suggests honey roasted peanuts and peanut M+M's. Holy moly you guys. That is an insane amount of chocoalte - just look! 

I couldn't get even that much candy on here. If I make this again, I would stick to one bag of chocolate chips and maybe only 2/3 of the recommended candy. The white chocolate and Reese's Pieces on top are actually quite nice. This would also be great with some pretzel sticks.

In order to avoid gaining 5 pounds in a day, I sent this off to my brother. He's in college and shouldn't have any problem finding people to share with.





 And by sheer coincidence, this is the mug I grabbed on Halloween.

Coconut Banana Bread

Banana bread is one of those things that you'll do crazy things for, like buying green bananas and leaving them out to get overripe and brown while fruit flies start to invade your kitchen.

This banana coconut bread combined one part crazy with one part leftovers. I recently received a crock pot (courtesy of an awesome contest at Kiss My Broccoli) and made a sweet potato and pea curry that left me with 3/4 a cup of coconut milk. I decided I would make banana bread using the coconut milk, so I took to the internets for a recipe. I found one that gave me an idea of the right proportion of coconut milk to flour and then I poked around some more.

This banana bread was so perfect - it had good texture and was sweet (chocolate chips) but not excessive (there's 3/4 cup of brown sugar). If you've never used coconut milk before, shake the can really hard until you hear liquid then shake some more before you open it. The next time I have leftover coconut milk, I realllllly hope there are bananas in the house.

Coconut Banana Bread

3/4 cup coconut milk
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
4 ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
2 cups self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
a pinch of salt
3/4 cup flaked coconut
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional, but really?)

Whisk together coconut milk, brown sugar, eggs, honey and vanilla. And mashed bananas and stir.
In a separate bowl combine dry ingredients - oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Add the dry mixture to the wet and stir until combined. Fold in coconut and chocolate chips.

Pour into a greased 9x5 loaf pan, sprinkle with raw sugar if you have it, and bake at 350 for about an hour and 15 minutes.

Brunching at Foundry on Elm

Wow, so the Boston Brunchers made it back out to the Davis Square neighborhood and went to brunch at Foundry.

Admittedly, this is not my first time at Foundry. It opened right about the time we moved to the Davis area and we go here a lot. As in, my Davis Square go-to. So, apologies is advance for a biased review.  

I've had brunch here before - the first time was the day after our wedding and it was before Foundry got a new chef, so let's toss that from the record. The second time was after an 11 mile run. I nearly fell asleep at the table! But I did have a preview of our starter - these delicious beignets! I'll tell you, they are just as delicious when you aren't willing to eat your own hand. The beignets are dusted in cinnamon sugar (brings back memories of the french toast at Catalyst) and they come with a lemon curd and a chocolate sauce. The nice part about these sauces are that neither is too sweet - the chocolate is a bittersweet and the lemon curd is nice and tart.  Everyone had to hold back on these.... Because.....

Sunday was the launch of Foundry's French country buffet brunch. We all walked over and checked it out. There was so much variety - eggs, breakfast sandwiches, potatoes, little scones and breads. I tried the blueberry cream cheese crepes which were excellent as well as the pain perdu bread pudding - which, you guys, we all raved about! It was lovely and definitely worth going for the buffet if you can't make up your mind at brunch.

Every morning for me starts with coffee, today we added a mimosa.

The vol au vent (bacon, spinach, poached egg, mornay sauce, flakey pastry bowl) and the breakfast flatbreads were the raved about dishes at the table. And, veggies - the vol au vent can be made without bacon.

I had the breakfast sandwich (also without sausage) and apparently was too excited to get a clear picture. Oops! Every time I brunch I debate between the sweet and the eggy. Today I went eggy, which was clearly the right choice based on the aforementioned beignets and pain perdu and crepes... I was pretty happy with my egg sandwich although I could have used some kind of vegetable on this plate.

 

Like I said, I debate between sweet and eggy, so I was pretty happy that we ordered the dutch baby for the table. It was a perfect sweet end to brunch. It also is served with ice cream, which is a bit much for me in the morning. (Put that on record, I'll never say it again.) The apple and blueberries on top were delicious though.

So... Brunch a Foundry? Will I be back? Resounding yes.
Also, I encourage you to try dinner or head over here for a drink. My favorite gnocchi & squash dish is on the menu and is a great winter dish.


And just in case it wasn't obvious by my raves over this great local spot, brunch was free of charge but my opinions are my own.

Garlicky Swiss Chard

I'm going to do something different and post a veggie recipe tonight.

After going for a run this morning, I took the longest drive ever to get to the Union Square Farmers Market. Seriously, I should never drive through Powderhouse Square on a weekend. Or ever.

I got there with 15 market minutes to spare, but luckily everyone still had plenty of goodies. (Although I may be the only one who still has tomatoes.)

Drumlin Farm had beautiful rain ow chard that I picked up along with broccoli and potatoes. I also got apple's and carrots and met Dan of Dan's Brick Oven Bread. I am a bit of a bread connoisseur (I eat a lot of bread) and Dan's and Mamadou (in Winchester, can be found at farmers markets and Whole Foods Fresh Pond) are my favorites.

Anyway, with this fresh beautiful chard, I made my go to chard recipe. So easy, fast, and yummy. Make sure you wash your greens and stems thoroughly so you don't end up with grit on your plate...

Garlicky Swiss Chard

Heat about 1 T oil and 1 T butter in a pan until butter is melted
Add 2 (more or less depending on how much chard you have and how much garlick you like) cloves chopped garlic and a shark of red pepper flakes, let saute until fragrant
Add swiss chard - I toss the stems, then cut the leaves into ribbons about 3/4 inch wide
And saute until wilted, 5-8 minutes, sprinkle on a little salt while they are cooking

I ate this straight up while waiting for the rest of dinner to cook....