Christmas Cookies

My most favorite dessert on the planet is cookies.  Forget cakes, pies, even ice cream; nothing holds a candle to cookies and Christmas cookies are the BEST because they are made from scratch and there are so many varieties to chose from.

The only cookies my Mother ever made were Christmas Cookies with our neighbor, Mrs. Mixter.  We never got to actually see her make them as she did it at the neighbor’s house while we were in school.  She would bring them home in blue Maxwell House coffee tin cans lined with wax paper and hide them in the cupboard over the oven behind the Charles Chip can.  But we knew where they were.  My favorite was the rum balls dusted with white confectioner’s sugar.

She loved chips over cookies (and I have always loved cookies over chips) so we had a can of Charles Chips delivered to the house, regularly.  It lived above the oven in a cupboard by itself, except at Christmas.  When our house was robbed, my Mother told all of her friends to hide their money and jewelry in the Charles Chip can.  The kitchen, she discovered, was the only room not ran-sacked.

I loved baking cookies with my
girls when they were little!

My first encounter with making homemade cookie goes back to Mrs. Greene in 8^th grade Home Ec. Class. After my first baking experience with Mrs. Greene I decided I would master the art of cookie baking and never have to deny my sweet tooth again.  Our Mother liked a clean kitchen, so messing it up with baking was not a welcome prospect. My Dad went out of town quite often and sometimes my Mother got to join him.  Since we did not have family in town, she would hire a grandmother-type matron from the yellow pages.  Our favorite was Mrs. Reeves.  She taught us to play pinochle and let me bake cookies.  My first batch rose bigger than the other cookies in Mrs. Greene’s class.   I was delighted, but quickly deflated as the taste test brought ruin to my endeavors.  Mrs. Reeves knew immediately what I had done.  Lifting that little orange box in the air she asked, her face contorting as her mouth frowned in bitterness, “How much baking soda did you use?”  “One half cup”, I replied.  Upon inspection of the round canister of oats, I realized it had called for ½ teaspoon.  I wondered why they used such a little box.  I had cleaned it out trying to fill that half-cup measure to the top, leveling it off with the blunt side of a kitchen knife, just like Mrs. Greene had taught me.  I quickly learned that the carpenter's adage, “measure twice, cut once” could be revised and applied to baking, “read twice, measure once”.

I have tried many cookie recipes over the years and oatmeal raisin with nuts remains my favorite.  Unfortunately to make a good cookie, sugar is a key ingredient to give it the perfect balance of chewy and crunchy.  As a nutritionist I preach against sugar as something that we can easily get addicted to, adds to weight gain and can weaken our immune system.  So you can see my great values conflict! But like all things in life there are what I call "worthy splurges".  And sometimes the benefit outweighs the cost, and Christmas is one of those sometimes.  

When my children were little we made Tasha Tudor’s Christmas Cookies every year.  They were simple sugar cookies made with real butter.  We rolled them out and cut out shapes and made a mess in the kitchen.  It was so fun and the cookies were delicious.  My husband’s Aunt Betty loved cookbooks and gave me Tasha Tudor’s Christmas book, Take  Joy! as a gift my first Christmas in their family.  I think the main reason that Aunt Betty loved Tasha Tudor so much was because of their common bond of Welsh Corgis doggy owners.  Her book shares many of their Welsh Christmas traditions, including cutting a live tree on Christmas Eve.  We have always cut a live tree, too and make sugar cookies.  Now my daughters continue the tradition with their little girls.  What are some of your traditions at Christmas? 

Tasha Tudor's Sugar Cookies

1 lb. butter

2 eggs

5 c. flour

2 c. sugar

1 tbsp. vanilla

1 tsp. baking soda dissolved in 3 tbsp. milk

Mix all ingredients together by hand. Chill thoroughly. Roll thin on parchment paper and cut out

with cookie cutters.

Bake on ungreased cookie sheets at 350 degrees about 8 minutes or until light brown around

the edges. Makes about 80 cookies.

We kept them simple and slightly dust them with nutmeg. 

Tweeners

The weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas can put on a lot of pounds in between the shoulders and the knees. We call these tweeners. This is not what you want to get for Christmas. For Christmas we want leaners – leaner abs and a leaner derriere. To achieve this goal you have to stay away from the tweener-bites.  These are the snacks that we graze on in between meals throughout the month of December because, well just because. Sometimes the tweener-bites become the meal and it becomes a foggy memory of calories. The grocery store shelves call our names, actually not just at the grocery store anymore, the drug store, the gas station, and the office.  There is no privacy anymore, all the cakes, candy, cookies, chocolate know your name. Forget credit card fraud, your identity is not safe anymore. It is time to change your name! Wear your sunglasses into the grocery store and maybe the holiday treats won’t recognize you and leave you alone.

It’s time to prepare for battle! Now, not in 2012 when the armor will no longer fit. Get a strategy to survive the onslaught and your tweeners will turn to leaners and you’ll leave Santa in the dust. Poor Santa, he has to eat cookies at EVERY house he visits, but you don’t. You get to choose! After all, not ALL the temptations in the month of December are really worth it. It used to be that everything was made from scratch around the holidays. Not so anymore. So why waste your calories on what is not a “worthy splurge”?

Even Santa has to take a little time for
himself to exercise and fight those "tweeners!"

When at a holiday party or in your kitchen, peruse the joint and decide what is really worth it. Then just take one small portion, eat slowly, enjoy and then move on....to the gym the next day and the day after that until when January comes you are not one of the newbies, but you are one of the regulars wondering where all these people came from. Movement is the key to not gain the 2, 4 or even 7 pounds that appear out of nowhere on January 2^nd. Start your New Year’s resolution NOW! 

When you go to a party or dinner, bring something healthy, so you can be sure to have at least one healthy choice.  Surprise your friends and family with a new recipe. Below is one I enjoyed once in Napa, California and again in Beaune, France. The crème de cassis is made from black currants that are grown in Burgundy.  It can only be purchased at an ABC store. I put the two experiences together and came up with my version of Poached Pears. 

EASY Poached Pears – 12 servings

6 pears – I prefer Bosc

1 cup dried fruit – I use raisins, cherries, cranberries and sometimes dried apricots – Mix and Match

1 cup liquid – water, apple cider and crème de cassis – 1/3 each or ½ cup water and cider (or juice)

1 ½ tsp cinnamon

¼ cup chopped pistachios

1 - 80% dark cocoa bar melted (I like the Lindt or Green & Black’s organics)

My Poached Pears right before I add the
chocolate sauce and pistachios! Delicious!

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut the pears in halve lengthwise and scoop out the seeds and stringy part to the stem. A melon baller works great for this. 

Spread the dried fruit on the bottom of a rectangular glass, baking dish. Place the halved pears upside down on the dried fruit. Combine the liquids together in a measuring cup and stir in the cinnamon.  Then pour over the pears. Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes or until the pears are soft (pierce with a fork). Riper pears take less time than harder pears. Meanwhile melt your chocolate and chop your pistachios.

To serve:

Place a pear halve right side up in a dessert bowl. Fill the hole where the seeds were with soft dried fruit.  Pour some of the juice over the pear.  Drizzle chocolate on top and sprinkle with nuts.

Voila! Bon Appetite!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my most favorite holiday! First of all, it is a time to gather your family around the table, even if the reality doesn’t always match the vision; it still creates a Norman Rockwell moment! Second, you get to eat great food! Everyone brings out his or her best and favorite recipes at Thanksgiving and it really is the christening of the holiday season. But most important we really do push the pause button, collectively, and look inside our hearts and meditate on what we are thankful for. 

Thanksgiving took on a deeper meaning to me as an adult when I home schooled my 5 children and we read the story of Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims, together. He became the perfect tutor to teach the Pilgrims how to live off the land in Massachusetts and fish, hunt and plant corn, after their first winter of near complete starvation. One Thanksgiving our first course was 3 kernels of corn, to remind us of our many blessings. 

I can’t think of Thanksgiving and not remember my father. He was a self-made man, hard working and taught me the value of faithfulness and integrity. Our Mother took us to church every Sunday where we learned catechism and the prayers that we could recite from memory, the incantations necessary to beseech favor while candles were lit and incense was burned. But on Thanksgiving, standing at the head of the table in his Camel blazer, with carving tools in hand, my Dad would offer a prayer of Thanksgiving. It was always simple, but straight from the heart. “Thank you for my family, for which I am eternally grateful.” It was his yearly display of emotion, and I hung on every word. 

My husband has carried on the role of the turkey carver over the years, including stuffer and roaster. Having been a vegetarian for over 3 decades, I don’t do meat. Not eat or prepare. I prefer the baking of the bread and the pies. Two recipes that have been a tradition at our house for over 30 years are No-Fault Pumpkin Pie from The Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen and Thanksgiving Cranberry Bread from Recipes for a Small Planet by Ellen Buchman Ewald.

Moosewood Restaurant
A Vegetarian Foodies Dream Come True!

Having been a huge Mollie Katzen fan for years, I was elated when my sister took a sabbatical at Cornell University.  Yes, I wanted to visit my sister, sure I wanted to see the Finger Lakes, but at the heart of the matter I wanted to eat at the Moosewood Restaurant.  Walking in there and experiencing a vegetarian cuisine from an establishment birthed in 1973 was similar to the feeling a Duke fan gets when they walk into Cameron Indoor stadium and experiences the synergy of the Blue Devils and the Cameron Crazies under the passion of Coach K.

Both experiences are like walking into a shrine, a place where the things you strongly believe in, with passion and conviction, you hold with awe and respect. Our hearts have the opportunity to pause every day and hold what we value.  Hopefully gratitude is in the recipe, not just once a year, but each and every day.

Bon Appetite!

No-Fault Pumpkin Pie from The Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen

3 cups pumpkin puree
3/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons molasses
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs, slightly beaten
1 (12 ounce) can evaporated milk
Directions: Mix in order given. Pour into whole wheat pie shell and bake 10 minutes at 450, then 40 minutes at 350, or till set. Variation: For a delicious pumpkin pudding, omit pie shell. Bake filling in buttered baking dish. If whipped cream is your fancy – whip it with real cream!

Thanksgiving Cranberry Bread from Recipes for a Small Planet by Ellen Buchman Ewald

¼ cup butter (I use soy butter)
2/3 cup honey
2 organic eggs
1 cup orange juice
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 cup chopped raw nuts (walnuts or pecans)
2 cups fresh whole cranberries
Directions: Cream the butter and the honey together; beat in the eggs and the orange juice.
In a separate bowl sift the dry ingredients together (flour, baking powder, soda, and salt). Add the nuts and then fold in the cranberries. Turn the batter into a greased and floured 5 X 9 loaf pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour.
Variations: You may also fill muffin tins ¾ full and bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes. OR you can fill 4 mini loaf pans and bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes. Great mini gifts at Christmas time!

What’s Not to Love about Oatmeal?

Oatmeal is the breakfast of Champions, not Wheaties.  When I was a kid my Mother set the table for breakfast and had the cereal boxes out for us with the milk in a pitcher.  God forbid if you ever set the milk container on the table!  The choices were Life or Wheaties.  Once in a while we could splurge on Rice Krispies.  But my favorite mornings were the ones she cooked oatmeal.  Yes, cooked on the stove and stirred with a spoon, oatmeal that came in the round cardboard canister bearing the smiling face of the Quaker himself on the cover.  I am not sure if it was the warmth of the meal that I loved or the warm feeling it gave me to know my Mother spent a few more minutes preparing my breakfast.  If love poured out was warm mush in my bowl, I was down for that! 

I still love oatmeal and it has become a staple breakfast in my life over the years.  Best cooked on the stove top, not in the microwave.  Studies show that microwave oatmeal increases your appetite by 35% over the cooked method.  Here is my quick, easy method to make a delicious bowl of oatmeal: Bring a cup of water to a boil and then add ½ cup dry rolled oats.  Reduce heat to low and set your timer for 8 minutes.  This is plenty of time to pack your lunch, pack your gym bag or feed the dog.  Get your favorite bowl and fill it with the warm cooked oatmeal and top with 2 TBLS of walnuts, 1 TBLS of ground flax seed meal and some of your favorite berries.  I add 1 TBLS of pure Vermont maple syrup and a few TBLS of soy milk.  This breakfast keeps me fortified all morning with 400 calories, 10 grams of protein, 7 grams of fiber, Oat bran to keep my bad cholesterol low, walnuts and flax to keep my good cholesterol high and berries to help fight cancer. The low glycemic index of oatmeal helps keep my blood sugar stable, too. What's not to love about oatmeal? It is one food that will love you back!   

A few years ago my sister discovered Oatmeal from Snoqualmie Falls near Seattle, WA.  She orders it by the case now and sends our entire family bags, which we gratefully enjoy throughout the year.  This summer on a trip to Seattle I rented a car for a day and drove to see Snoqualmie Falls, and ate at the Lodge perched at the top of the falls.  Since it was lunchtime I did not order oatmeal, although I did think about it!  It was raining so I ordered hot green tea and an arugula salad.  The table was set with these beautiful smooth black stones sitting on top of my napkin.

Snoqualmie Falls - Breathtaking!

When I eat my oatmeal now each morning, I think of the power of that water coming over the falls, hitting the rocks with such force and deafening noise and see the beauty of the water spraying off the rocks, smoothing them over and over with time.  When I see the smooth little black stones (that somehow made it back to my indoor rock garden!) they remind me of where I’ve been and where I’ve come from.  That kitchen in Connecticut, with the strawberries and vines growing on the wallpaper, and the warm oatmeal in my bowl, always reminds me that I am loved. 

Food from Scratch

A scratch golfer has no handicap.  A scratch foodie uses no processed foods.  We make everything with ingredients that are as close to the way they have been harvested from nature as possible. 

I certainly did not grow up that way.  My Mother was a product of the post WWII generation of homemakers that could make dinner from a box.  Hamburger helper, frozen TV dinners, canned cream chip beef on toast, eggs over hash from a can, and instant pudding that you did not have to stir over a stove.  This was the fare I grew up on.  My Mother had one cookbook, “I Hate to Cook Cookbook” by Peg Bracken.

How surprised I was in 8^th grade when Mrs. Greene at Sedgwick Jr. High School in West Hartford, CT taught us to make applesauce from apples!  I stood there in wonder at the simple process of transformation! That started my love affair with cooking and the desire to always start with ingredients you can imagine growing outside in a garden, on a tree or in a field. 

So I offer to you my simple, delicious and feel good applesauce made from apples in our back yard from a tree my husband planted 2 decades ago.  It needs no sweetener.  Mother Nature has already taken care of that!  You will feel good after you make it because you made it from scratch.  You will feel good after you eat it because it tastes so wholesome and fresh.

Feel Good Applesauce

Stainless steel pot – the heaviest and largest one you have.  I use an 8-quart all clad. Apples, apples and more apples – as many as you can fit in your largest, heaviest pot. Get them from a local orchard if possible - they are fresher and sweeter. Find a good pairing knife that fits comfortably in your hand.  I like the OXO brand because the grips are good.  This is important as the juice will run down your hands and wrist and make the knife slippery.  Some people like to use an apple peeler you hook onto your counter top and crank.  I like to hold the apple in my hand. Rinse it, cut it in half and then into quarters.  Cut out the seeds, hulls, stem, and then peel the apple last, it’s easier that way.   If there are any spots you need to eliminate, now is the time for final quality control.  Once you have the apples filled to the top of your pot, fill about ¼ of the pot with water.  It won’t be much water, because you have stuffed the pot full of apples so there is not much space in between.  The goal is to not burn the apples.  Cover the pot and turn your burner on med-high and wait for the contents to be brought to a boil.  When this begins to happen, take the cover off and turn the heat down to low.  Let it simmer a few hours, stirring the apples and as they get soft and mushy, you can mash them with a potato masher.  When you get the desired consistency, not too runny, you can add cinnamon, to taste.  I add about 1 Tablespoon for 4 quarts of applesauce.  The apples will cook down to about half of where you started.  Stretch your hand several times while your applesauce is cooling.  

Bon Appetite!  

Welcome to Jeanie's Blog!

I’ve decided to blog.  I love to write, I love to eat and I love to tell stories.  What a better venue than blogging!  Everyone asks me to share my recipes, so I finally concede.  Why keep it a mystery? My cooking is not fancy; it just uses real ingredients, no cans, no packets, and no boxes.  The ingredients are simply pure unadulterated food, with stories of people, woven into a tapestry of real life. 

Bon Appetite!