2009 Was A Very Good Year

If the number of posts is any indication, 2009 was wonderful for blogging. It was also the year of bread, so much so that in March I created a new blog Bread Baker's Dog, to take up some of the extra bread recipes I wanted to blog about...why?...because I wanted Feeding My Enthusiasms to reflect ALL my enthusiasms, not just my passion for bread baking. 

Many of my recipes this year came from cookbooks, often tweaked a bit as I like to do. Do you have favorite cookbooks or do most (or all) of your recipes come from the internet...or hand written recipes from a recipe box...or a combination?

Another great thing about 2009 was that my loved ones realized that cooking and baking were taking a more prominent place in my life, so they gifted me with culinary laurel leaf wreaths, shears to chop herbs, foldable colander,  a good scale, a digital thermometer and more.

A lot of thought goes into each post and then more time writing and editing photographs and putting it all together, then proofing (usually but not always) the post before posting. Dishes that we have as part of our normal life get posted once then are not posted later, so what you see are in some ways extra things that I want to make. Every now and then I will repeat something, but I try to keep it fresh and new.

One of the Christmas cookies that we have every year has been posted a number of time or has been linked to. It is Sweetie's favorite because of all the molasses. It's the Swedish Ginger Cookie recipe and I love it, too because it's a roll-out and cut-out cookie that is easy to roll, keeps it's shape when baked, and is delicious. I usually decorate the cookies with white Royal Icing, which contrasts nicely with the brown cookie, and maybe a few cinnamon red hots for a pop of color.

In 2009, towards the end of the year, I did my first post with suggestions for Thanksgiving, including links. I had a number of positive comments, plus a comment from No Handle on making a brined turkey with great gravy. Since it has been just a bit over a year since he died, it was a jolt to read the comment...I had forgotten that he had written. Rest in peace, Brother No Handle.

The fall also brought a few good recipes for squash including a fairy cake that is really a kind of pumpkin muffin, a two squash soup, and pumpkin pie made with sugar pie pumpkins. Truly there is something special about using locally grown fresh squash to make these fall treats.

October included two French treats that I have made again over the years...macarons and French yogurt cake. Both are fairly simple, but the results are wonderful. If you get a chance, follow the links and try them yourself.

Of course October is also my blog birthday. Here is what I wrote for the third birthday:

"One of the best things lately to start in the fall is this blog. Three years ago I barely knew what a blog was and there were far fewer food blogs.

I checked back to the brave folks who were the first few to comment here. The first four or five no longer are blogging. I guess it didn't match their needs in the same way that it matched mine:

I love the fact that I have 'met' people from all over the world through blogging...and that we are mostly the same...food obsessed :)

I love that blogging brings out my creative side. I get to play with food. I borrow lots and lots of cookbooks from the library and sometimes even bring the librarians samples of things I've baked to enjoy, especially of the sweets. I love that my photography has improved. I love that I have come under the sway of the magic of bread baking, seduced by all things baking, inspired by combinations of flour and butter and sugar and seeds and grains. Most of all I have been amazed that I can sit down at the computer, find words to fill the Blogger template time after time, and create something that other people actually read and look at and are occasionally inspired by.

As Sweetie would say (in jest), "Not bad...for a girl." He is actually my biggest fan and promoter, telling perfect strangers that they have to go visit my blog. Sometimes they even accept the URL from him.

I love hitting the Publish Post button and I especially enjoy the comments...and wish that there were more. You CAN comment anonamously as Natasha did recently. If you give me hints and I already know you I can even figure out who you are...a sort of puzzle. However, even if you never comment, I do hope you will continue to visit now and then. The place to click on to comment is usually at the bottom of the post. Try it...you might enjoy it.

Believe it or not, I don't have a clue how many people actually visit this blog. I could find out easily, but I guess I'm not really interested. Recently one of my sisters assured me that many family members stop by and read to see what I am up to. I suspect that there are a few folks beyond immediate family...and I welcome you all!

This is the 360th post. I think that comes out to an average of something like a post every third day."

One of the advantages of having this be a blog that includes a few things other than food is that I can get creative. In late September one post included a Land of St. Honore' story, a recipe for vol au vents as part of a Daring Baker challenge, and a photo and explanation of a set of model World War II ships that Sweetie made and created a display case for, too. My Mom had asked for a photo (we talked every week on the phone on Saturdays) and I knew that she would be looking for the St. Honore' story, so I included the photo. I suspect that I might have had more followers if I had stuck strictly to baking or baking sweets, but what fun is that?

September also brought the first Index for the blog. Since there were at least 300 recipes by now, that was a good thing. Now there are well over a thousand recipes and a multi-page Index. I still need to migrate the old index recipes into the new one, but maybe that will happen in January when the weather is usually rainy and it's a good time to hunker down inside.

Although I usually try to write out recipes so they are like those in cookbooks, sometimes I just write them out as I would if I were giving you a recipe on a piece of scratch paper...in narrative form. A good example (and a delicious recipe) is for bruchetta, a great recipe for harvest time.

This is the year that I began baking with the Bread Baking Babes, my longest running blog group. I still bake bread with them and post it on or after the 16th of the month. First I baked as a Buddy and eventually was invited to join. The group kept the number at 12, so I had to wait until there was an opening. These days we hardly ever get Buddies and our numbers have been reduced, but the challenges are still fun and educational and the results are usually delicious! The first bread was in February for the Babes first anniversary. It was 5-Grain Bread with Walnuts by Carol Field, an artisan loaf (or two) that was really hearty and delicious. 

Another fun, new thing this year was that I did a journal of our first trip to Ireland, with most of the posts being in June even though the trip was in May. These included little maps to show where we were. There are also lots and lots of photos and usually a recipe at the end, often not really related to the Ireland story. Here is the first one (and it has a recipe for Irish Brown Bread) that is set up as a real journal, although there were a few I wrote while there that can be found in late May...you can follow the rest on your own.

Sometimes there is a recipe that becomes a favorite with you, dear readers. One of these is Spinach Rice Casserole from the Moosewood cookbook of 1977, so it really is an oldie but goodie. It can be a main dish since it has milk, eggs and cheese along with brown or wild rice and spinach, but it can also be a great side dish if you have someone in your family, like I do, who really likes some meat with their meal.

Another milestone from 2009 is one that from 2020 looks almost quaint. In January Barack Obama became our President and many were very hopeful that we had turned a corner in our nation and could put racism behind us. We celebrated at my work and arrived early enough to watch the inauguration on TV...and I baked and brought bagels for part of the celebration. They are a lot of work, but so delicious. As it turned out, racism just went underground and grew in the dark. People of color knew that the election had not changed much for them, but it took the rest of us a long time to realize that so much of it was systemic that it still blights our nation. That needs to change.

I'm going to end with a pair of recipes that are perfect for this time of year. I just picked the first two Meyer lemons from the shrub by the barn. I have quite a few this year, so look for more lemon recipes in the next few months. The one is a link to a post that has both gingerbread and my Mom's clear Lemon Sauce. They go really well together!

If you have read this far, you are a trooper! 2009 had 135 posts, most of them with recipes, so feel free to wander around and discover the ones I didn't include in this round-up.

Continuing The Walk Down Memory Lane

I thought that by Christmas I would have reviewed all 15 years of blogging, but that is not going to happen. We'll just have to see how long it takes...maybe into the new year.

2008 was a great blogging year for me. I averaged almost 10 posts a month, so at least two a week, sometimes three. In January I started my Cookbook Corner posts, exploring various cookbooks, old and new. Most avid cooks and bakers I know love cookbooks, even now when wonderful recipes are easily available over the internet.  Good cookbooks also include tips and tricks, alternate measurements or ways to play around with the recipe, plus, usually these days, great photos to show you what the dish or baked good should look like finished. When I had a muffin business in Berkeley moons ago I scoured bookstores for old cookbooks and found various variations on methods to make muffins as well as interesting flavor combinations. I guess that is one of the values of cookbooks...they are an endless source of new learning and inspiration.

The first recipe in Cookbook Corner is one that I still use often, especially in the summer. It's for Creamy Coleslaw Dressing, which is a simple recipe but one that has a great flavor balance between sweet and tangy.

I continued to write Land of St. Honore' stories for Daring Bakers posts and made some classic recipes like Julia Child's French Bread and a Coq au Vin recipe that I think is hers. There were also some new ideas like a gingerbread donut filled with lemon curd and dark chocolate truffles enhanced with bacon...I think bacon was having a moment in 2008!

One of the things that I became more and more comfortable with was changing recipes around to suit myself or to create something new. I took the British Bakewell Tart idea and changed it so that the filling was an almond-enhanced chocolate and the jam changed from berry flavored to quince, since I've found that quince and chocolate go really well together. To get to that I combined elements from four or five Bakewell Tart recipes and kept going...to St. George Chocolate Quince Jam Tarts.

Although I still had savory recipes, the blog began to trend towards sweet baked goods. I fell for blondies bar cookies and created a number of different variations over the years. The first, most basic, recipe is HERE. It came from the same book, Jill O’Connors wonderful book called ”Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey.”, which I used when it was my turn to be a co-hostess for the Daring Bakers. We made a very fun dessert, Cheesecake Pops, and I had fun with the illustrations, too. That was in late April 2008 and was my 201st post!

Although they were delicious, I never made the cheesecake pops again, but in April I posted two recipes that I have returned to again and again. One is for Lemon Chicken for a Crowd and it is one of the best chicken recipes ever with garlic, mustard, lemon juice and rosemary giving it outstanding flavor. Even people who don't much care for chicken love it. The second on is for Molly Katzen's Amazing Overnight Waffles. Imagine how great it is to know that you can wake up in the morning and have the best waffles ever really quickly since the batter only needs the addition of some melted butter and egg; the rest has been done the night before and the overnight hours have added great flavor to the batter and allowed the yeast to grow. I've made these with sourdough starter, too.

In May I wrote my first Land of St. Honore' post that wasn't connected to the Daring Bakers posts. My Mom always enjoyed these flights of fancy stories, so I wrote one for Mother's Day and included a Swiss roll with a frozen berry filling, just for Mom which you can fine HERE.

In early June I tried something different...I catered a party for 20 with a theme...Greek Night. I really enjoyed the challenge, but it was exhausting and I also worked two part-time jobs and was a non-profit President with a meeting to run a few days before the party. Still not sure how I did it all! It didn't help that I had never made the main dish and that an extra 5 people showed up. Fortunately I made extra. Around that time I also tried putting a mini-journal graphic in my posts, but that didn't last too long. The blog posts themselves were enough to do. This link is also for a decadent chocolate layer cake, Sin City Cake.

Because this is a blog, not just a recipe book, the posts include things about the rest of my life beyond cooking. In July Sweetie and I thought we were repairing/replacing a first floor window. In the end we did work on three floors, used scaffolding, discovered pink mold, jacked up the house and more. A friend of mine heard about all this and started calling me Pioneer Woman (this was a bit before THE Pioneer Woman had her blog I think) but while all this was going on, on the south side of the house in July heat, I had also said I would bring three! desserts to an anniversary picnic. 

One of the hits were white peach hand pies, but my favorite were the brownies with ganache on top and colorful M&Ms.

I know exactly when I took up golf for a time because it's in the blog for August 2008. The post also included a great recipe for Chocolate Dipped Lemon Butter Cookies (which are also good without the chocolate).

Just as people were getting used to seeing all kinds of sweets on my blog, I began to put more savory dishes in. Part of the reason was it was September and with harvest comes all sorts of veggies, especially tomatoes. I think my favorite of the half dozen or more in September was Grilled Cheese and Basil Polenta which I served with a nice tomato sauce.

October brought a whole new thing to my life and to the blog...sourdough! It became an obsession for me. I made the starter using grapes from my property using a recipe in the Macrina Bakery and Cafe' Cookbook and then the fun began. With sourdough, you feed the starter every week. When you do, you have some starter that is the 'toss off' which can either be tossed, or can be used to make bread. Of course I wanted to use it to make bread because this was new, new, new and very exciting. In November I made herb bread, English muffins, pancakes and more using sourdough starter. I even started a whole wheat version to go with the white flour version...which produced even more toss off. I think my favorite was a whole wheat starter loaf with seeds kneaded in. Another is a fine-grained oatmeal bread with white flour starter.

Right near the end of the year I made a recipe that still floors me...a frozen French Yule Log. It was an amazing learning experience to make with something like six or seven layers of different kinds including frozen mousse, ganache, a crisp layer, a crème Brule' layer, an almond dacquoise and more. It was a showstopper and very delicious, but a stressful thing to make, too.

There are dozens and dozens of additional 2008 recipes but you are probably reeling by now with all of these. Feel free to wander through the year and discover your favorite recipes. If you go to web view and look to the right, there is a list of years. Head down to 2008 and open it up and browse.

Happy cooking and baking!

2007 and the Daring Bakers

By 2007 I'd gotten my feet wet by participating in a number of events and blog parties. I'd figured out how to use natural lighting to get better photos and I began to develop my photography and writing styles. I didn't bother with analytics, but I was getting more comments so I knew that there were readers who were looking at my posts...always exciting by the way...and I suspected from comments from friends and family members that there were even more 'lurkers' who never commented. I love the lurkers, too.

In late 2006 or early 2007 I noticed that some of the blog I visited on a regular basis were buzzing about making Hot Buttered Pretzels on the same day at the same time, with emails whizzing around as they group baked. The next month the same women (it was all women at first), plus a few more, baked Chocolate Biscotti, also as a group bake. In January it was Croissants! I was interested and asked one of the the bloggers about it. She told me who to contact, so I asked to join the group. There was one more bake, of a decadent flourless chocolate cake, before I joined. By then the group had grown to something like 14 bakers. My first month we baked Red Velvet Cake. I was amazed that you could put a whole bottle of red food coloring in one cake! The group was the Daring Bakers. It grew like a wildfire and eventually had at least a thousand people in the blog roll, although I'm not sure that all of them baked any one month. It also grew so that there were Daring Cooks, rules, organized ways to take turns selecting the recipe or the month, etc. The guiding light for all of this organization was Lis of La Mia Cucina and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice. At first it was really exciting...all those blogs and variations of the recipe. Eventually it really became too large so that there was no way to visit even a fraction of the blogs participating, so you tended to go to those you already knew about, which was sad for the newbies.

One of the best things about the Daring Bakers, beyond Lis's hilarious posts, was that it really, really expanded my horizons and forced me to grow as a baker. As I have watched the Great British Baking show it always amazes me to see recipes that we baked as Daring Bakers which are new to the bakers in the tent. Nothing was too difficult for us to try including Gateau St. Honore' which is one of the bakes that are given to students finishing culinary baking programs because you have to create puff pastry, choux pastry, pastry cream as part of Chibost cream, caramelized sugar work and whipped cream. You have to use a pastry bag, fill cream puffs with pastry cream and then dip filled cream puffs in caramel (while making sure to attach them to the base while the caramel is still hot enough for them to stick to the base), know how to make puff pastry stay flat but still baked, and how much or little to whip cream for decoration. As I go through the years I'll point out some of the Daring Bakers recipes so that you can see what an education it was in the pastry arts to participate. One of my favorites was made in the summer, Strawberry Mirror Cake. When those bakers in Britain get overheated in their tent, it makes me think of making this gelatin based dessert in summer heat, too. Still, it was very delicious and gorgeous!

Another new experience for me in 2007 was participating in memes. One happened right before the Gateau St. Honore' post. Peabody, who blogged at Culinary Concoctions by Peabody (now Sweet ReciPEAs)was interviewed on her blog and then she had to interview other bloggers, and I was one. She gave me five questions to answer. Here is what I wrote about the reason I joined the Daring Bakers: I was inspired by the croissant three-day marathon. Not only was the challenge daunting and exciting, but it was clear that a lot of fun happened among the bakers, too. Each one of the participants except one had blogs that I regularly visited, too, which made it even more fun to read about. Guess I wanted to have some fun with the girls and see if I could meet the challenges. Not only has it been fun and forced me to try things outside of my comfort zone, but I’ve started to bake more and have ‘met’ a wonderful group of very supportive, generous people.

Another thing I did in 2007, which I did variations of later, was to post every day for a period of time on a theme. In February I posted for 14 days...until Valentine's Day and each day's post was based on that day's number. Some of my favorite recipes are here, including Maida Heatter's 86 Proof Chocolate Cake on day 9 with 9 kinds of chocolate displayed, and Lemon Curd on day 11, with a photo of eleven tea pots...I often serve lemon curd when I serve scones for tea time.

My garden has always been a big part of my life and the advantage of blogging is that I was now able to share not only recipes made with garden fresh ingredients, but I could share my photography of the garden and the produce from it. In August not only did I have a recipe called 'Walk Through The Garden Pie", but the same post showed other ways I prepared fresh tomatoes from the garden, with photos. Photos in March showed the early garden and later in the year showed the mature plants and produce.

The blog sparked my creativity in a number of ways. I used my Illustrator skills to create elements of October's Bostini Mini-Cakes. I used my graphic arts skills to make a nutrition graphic for chard in early December. Perhaps the most lasting was my creation of the Land of St. Honore', where baking is a birthright. Posts about that imaginary Land include a short story that I made up and many of the posts were also Daring Bakers posts...as a matter of fact I started the short story idea because there were by then so many Daring Bakers posts all over the blogosphere and I wanted mine to be a bit different. HERE is the first one. Note that is is only seven months since I joined the Daring Bakers...the growth really was explosive.

Sometimes my posts were sort of educational like the one on making Quince Jelly. It is still a popular post and it uses photos and text to walk you through making quince jelly and shows the lovely shining results. Too bad it can't capture the almost floral fragrance. I also did a post at Easter on how to color hard cooked eggs the old fashioned way with food coloring, vinegar and boiling water. That post still gets hits around Easter time all these years later.

On occasion the blog becomes a travel journal, usually food-centric. A good example is a trip Sweetie and I took to Virginia to visit family and install a pedestal sink for my Mom.  These Lemon Bars are outstanding.

If you find these glimpses of the 2007 posts interesting, do check out that year. In web version you will see a list of years and if you change the arrow next to the year to point down, you can go through the months and discover your own treasures.

Two Squashes and Two Mushroom Galette

About a week and a half ago our local paper published a recipe by Jacques Pepin, one of the great chefs and cooks, and one who is very approachable. The recipe was for a root vegetable galette, or rustic pie. It sounded delicious and was the inspiration for the dish I baked for dinner tonight. The only matching ingredient other than salt and pepper was the egg wash, so it really is my own recipe, but I appreciate the inspiration.

My galette has delicata and butternut squash, yellow onion, Portobello and button mushrooms, and Greek yogurt, plus a store-bought pie dough round from Pillsbury. I grew both of the squashes, so it was fun to finally be able to use them. Usually I don't peel the delicata squash but I did this time since I wanted it to be easy to eat. For flavor I used black pepper, garlic salt, dried thyme, zatar, cayenne pepper and minced Italian parsley. This may be the best savory galette I've ever made. The butternut and Portobello both contributed a sort of meaty mouthfeel and plenty of flavor, while the delicata squash, caramelized onion, and browned button mushrooms added both flavor and texture of a lighter sort. The yogurt brought a mellowness and the pie crust held it together and added another, flaky, texture.

Because squash come in all kinds of sizes, some of the measurements here are approximate. I had enough slices of the butternut squash to cover the bottom where the yogurt had been spread. The thinly sliced raw delicata squash filled a sandwich bag. Even the measurements for the spices are approximate because I like only a dusting of cayenne, but you might enjoy more heat. I guess this recipe is for experience cooks who know how much seasonings and fillings they like.

If you use a pie dough made with vegetable shortening, and use a non-dairy yogurt, this makes a great vegan entrée. If you're not vegan, you could use regular yogurt, pie dough with butter, and throw in some cooked sausage or bacon. Use this for inspiration like I did and make it your own!

Squash and Mushroom Galette
Makes one galette to serve 6-8 people

The mushrooms and onions:
1/2 yellow onion, peeled and very thinly sliced
6 button mushrooms, wiped clean and thinly sliced
1/2 large Portobello mushroom, gills removed, stem removed, sliced 1/4-inch thick
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon each garlic salt and ground pepper
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme

The squash:
1/2 delicata squash, peeled, halved, seeds removed, very thinly sliced
1/4 butternut squash (I used the neck end),seeds removed, peeled and steamed until barely tender, sliced 1/8-inch thick
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1/2 teaspoon each garlic salt and ground pepper, divided
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme, divided
a dash of cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon zatar

The pie: 
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 round prepared pie dough (I use Pillsbury ReadyCrust)
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon minced Italian parsley
1 egg, whisked or beaten with a fork in a small bowl

For baking: a sheet of baking parchment paper and a baking sheet or pizza pan, pastry brush

For the mushrooms and onions: 
In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Stir in the onions and cook, stirring often, for two (2) minutes, then stir in the mushrooms and garlic, garlic salt and pepper, and thyme and cook for a few seconds, then turn heat down to the lowest setting, cover, and let cook another two (2) minutes.  Uncover, return heat to medium-high, and continue cooking, stirring often, until onions are lightly caramelized, about another 4-5 minutes. (This process releases the moisture in the mushrooms so that you can cook it away and create more flavor at the same time.) Set aside to cool.

For the squash:
Put the prepared delicata squash in a ziploc bag and add 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, 1/4 teaspoon each garlic salt and pepper, 1/4 teaspoon of the thyme. Close bag and shake well to distribute the seasonings and oil. Set aside.

Lay the slices of butternut squash out on a tray or plate, sprinkle with the remaining olive oil, garlic salt, pepper, dried thyme, cayenne and the zatar. Set aside.

For the pie:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Sprinkle a clean work surface with the flour (I use a large, clean cutting board I use only for baking).
Lay the pie dough round on the floured surface and gently roll, if necessary to make a round 14" in diameter. Place the baking parchment on the baking sheet or pizza pan and carefully transfer the dough round to the parchment. Use a rolling pin to help lift and transfer the dough if needed.

In the middle of the dough round, spread the plain Greek yogurt using the back of a spoon or a spatula. Work carefully so that you don't put a hole in the dough. Leave the outer 2-3 inches of the dough bare. (See photo above.)

Take the prepared butternut squash and make a layer over the yogurt, then spread the mushroom-onion mixture over that, then add the delicata slices over that, mounding in the middle. Sprinkle the minced Italian parsley over all. Bend the uncovered dough up and over the filling, pleating as necessary. Using the pastry brush, brush the egg wash over the folded up dough.

Bake in the preheated oven until filling is sizzling and dough is deep golden brown, about 25-40 minutes, depending on the amount of filling. Start checking at the beginning time and keep checking every few minutes until galette is baked.

Let cool on a cooling rack for 5 minutes, then serve while still warm.

The Days To Christmas

We have old carols that talk about the twelve days of Christmas and their is a play called Twelfth Night, too. In days gone by Christmas was really celebrated between Dec. 24th or Dec. 25th and January 6th, Epiphany in the Christian tradition. These days people start taking down their tree on Dec. 26th, so celebrating Christmas as a season happens now, after Thanksgiving, or at least starting Dec. 1st.

I've finished 15 years of blogging. Hard to believe sometimes, but other times when I use the index to find a recipe I'm really glad I've been at it for a while because it's become a digital recipe box that I use often.

When my photo app on my iPhone came up with a collection of 'Tasty Bites' showing food photos from 2017 I realized that I have some great photos of food on the blog, too. It got me thinking that maybe I should take a walk down memory lane and highlight a year at a time between now and Christmas. It will be fun for me and might give you some ideas for things you might like to make or bake between now and then...or it might bring back memories for you, too, if you have been following this blog for a while. Blogging has become passe' now and the hoardes no longer do it, having moved on the other platforms like Twitter, Instagram, SnapChap, TicTok and more. Still, if you want my take on blogging since I got in the game fairly early one, read on.

I started in late 2006 when blogging was still kinda new. Today there are probably hundreds or thousands of food blogs and lots of gorgeous photos of food, but back then people were still finding their way. Blogs had for a few years been a growing way to express yourself and to record your life...kind of like a slow and wordy version in some ways of Instagram or SnapChat. 

The idea of focusing on food was still relatively new and unexplored. There weren't a lot of super blogs with high ticket prizes...The Pioneer Woman blog hadn't started yet, for example. There was an interest in using blogs to connect with others around the world, so one of the things I found pretty quickly were the challenges and blog events. 

Some that had some history already when I started surfing around were Stephanie's Blog Party and Sugar High Fridays. Both of these encouraged you to make a dish to match a theme and then blog about it and send the URL to the host (or hostess) of the sponsoring blog. It was a great way to both have a focus for what to make and blog about and a way to 'meet' other bloggers interested in food and in baking. It was rare to have a prize, although some bloggers created badges that they would email to you to put on your blog if you participated. Because there were usually only a handful of participants it was fun to go around and visit the blogs and see what the others had done. 

As the number of food bloggers increased geometrically that became harder and harder to do as larger numbers participated. I think the early days were more fun! I'm sure that those who were true pioneers thought that when I started there were getting to be too many...it works like that. Anyway, during the first year and a half that I blogged I 'met' some amazing bloggers, some of whom I'm still friends with.

So what did I cook and bake in 2006 that you might be interested in? A lot of the recipes were for blog parties or blog events. For example for the Retro Recipe Challenge in mid-November 2006 I made Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, for the Souper Challenge later in November I made Butternut Squash Soup, for the Blog Party #16 I made Focaccia and Pesto Chicken Triangles and for Sugar High Fridays #25 I made Cognac Prune Truffles, which sound strange but were delicious.

In December I really got started on the blog as recipe box with posts on various cookies that were later included in cookie assortment tins that were mailed to family for Christmas. Recipes included Chocolate Shortbread Hearts, Saucepan Fruit Bars, Viennese Linzer Bars, Applesauce Spice Cookies, Persimmon Cookies, Santa's Whiskers and Chocolate Biscotti. Many of those are still favorite cookies to bake for the holidays.

Along the way the readers got to meet Sweetie, my dear husband, also K, our daughter, Grandma L, and they were given snapshots of my life, which is what blogs are for, really.

I hope that you find a cookie recipe or another recipe to make from the 2006 offerings, even though it only encompassed less than three months. Next time we'll have a full year to look at and we'll find out about The Daring Bakers phenomenon and you'll be introduced to more family.

A Simple Thanksgiving

Although I dearly love a gathering at Thanksgiving, there is an advantage to having Thanksgiving dinner with just Sweetie. The menu that we started the day with kept getting simplified and simplified so that by dinner time we had just what we wanted. I won't say there was no work involved, but it was still a much easier meal than usual.

Last year I had to eat only soft foods for Thanksgiving due to oral surgery, so this year I was determined to have a roast turkey...which we did. I roasted a ten pound fresh turkey in a Brown-in Bag, which makes it really simple to do and the results are always moist and delicious. I sprinkled salt and pepper and poultry seasonings over the bird and put a little white wine in the bottom of the bag. That, plus some stuffing in the cavity, is all I did. The oven did the rest while we took Pi on a walk at the Laguna.

For the stuffing I used my Mom's classic recipe, with a little corn bread thrown in and a half of a Granny Smith apple, chopped, mixed in at the end. Sweetie and I prepared everything but the apple and broth the day before so on Thanksgiving it took hardly any time at all to mix those two ingredients in and to stuff handfuls into the turkey cavity, while putting the rest of the stuffing mixture into a baking dish to bake on the side.

Originally the sides were going to include roasted butternut and delicate squash from my garden, a new green bean recipe with lemon and pecans, and a green salad with my own salad dressing. Instead we kept it simple by having just the salad. Even that was pared down to a handful of fresh raspberries and a half an avocado scattered over a mesclun mix. We did get the toasted pecans...in the salad.

I made the cranberry sauce a day before to let the flavors meld. It was the kind of recipe where you cook part of it, taste, add something else, taste, add something else, taste, and so on until it is the way you like it. I prefer mine pretty tart, but you may want to add additional maple syrup or some brown sugar if you like it sweeter.

Without mashed potatoes, I decided to skip making gravy and just spooned some of the turkey juices over the stuffing and slices of turkey. It was all delicious and lighter than our usual Thanksgiving meal, but still seemed like a feast to me.

Last, but not least, was the pecan pie. I baked two in the morning...one for us and one for our neighbors who lend us their sheep. Since Sweetie had two helpings of stuffing and I had a lot of salad, we decided to have our pie for breakfast this morning...and it was great that way. A tip to make the pie look professional, after you pour the pecan mixture into the pie shell, turn all the pecans so that the curved part is up. It takes a few extra minutes, but looks great. I also added about two tablespoons bourbon to my filling this year.

Hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, too, even with all the troubles that beset the world at this moment in time. Thankful for you and praying for peace, good health, and prosperity for each of you. 

Fresh Cranberry Sauce for Two

1 cup fresh cranberries
1/3 cup apple cider 
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
zest from 1/2 an orange
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons maple syrup

Put the first three ingredients into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, turn to low and cover. Simmer for 10 minutes, uncover, stir and add the remaining ingredients. Stir to combine. Turn off heat, cover and let sit for 20 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings and sweetness to taste.

Comfort Food for Chilly Weather - Bread Pudding

So many moons ago that I don't even remember the date, I was given a delicious recipe for bread pudding by a friend in Fredericksburg, MD. She sold me on it by telling me that when she brought it to church suppers that it was the first dessert where the casserole dish was emptied and that happened every time. Who could resist a recipe like that?

Bread pudding is basically french toast in a custard pudding...lots of bread, milk and eggs, a little sugar and flavorings, and the added delight of crusty pieces on top that contrast with the soft, custardy interior.

Gale's version used a can of drained dark sweet cherries mixed in gently just before the mixture goes into the casserole dish. I like to make it even simpler and just use some lemon zest and raisins, which is how my mom made it. I guess most comfort foods have links back to our childhood. I suppose you could make this version and fold in the drained sweet cherries, too. I also know that it is yummy with chopped peeled apple. For that version, add a little cinnamon or pumpkin spice.

The best bread pudding uses stale bread because it soaks up the custard mixture. It also is best to allow plenty of soaking time for the same reason. As for the casserole dish, a lot depends on if you prefer the soft, custardy part or the crusty, browned part...if the former, use a deep dish with a narrower opening, if the latter, use a wide, shallow casserole so that more of the bread crusts up. The water bath is really important, so make sure that you can bake your chosen casserole in a larger water bath casserole or pan.

Bread Pudding with Raisins and Lemon      

A recipe from  a Fredricksburg, Maryland friend, Gale 

5 cups dry bread cubes          1/4 teaspoon salt           

3 cups milk, scalded               1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon butter                1/4 cup raisins 

4 slightly beaten eggs            

3/4 cup sugar                         

½ teaspoon lemon zest                                 

                       

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2) Melt the butter in the milk. Add a little of the milk to the beaten eggs, then add eggs to rest of milk. Stir in the sugar, lemon zest, salt, and vanilla.

3) Put the bread cubes in a large bowl. Pour the egg/milk mixture over, stir gently, and let sit 15 minutes.

4) Butter a large baking pan. A deep one will give a softer center, a shallower one will give more crispy crust. Gently stir raisins into bread mixture and pour into baking pan.

5) Bake in a pan of hot water until firm, about 1 hour. Serve warm.

Babes Bake Potato Focaccine

With the cooler weather coming in October and early November, I find myself drawn to baking again. Between now and late November there are usually plenty of occasions to have adult beverages and this Potato Focaccine from Italy is perfect to accompany them. As Kitchen of the Month I was able to choose the recipe challenge for November, so I hope you enjoy these!

These are like tiny focaccia. I found them on the blog My Pinch of Italy and they sounded just right for the November challenge. You can eat them the same day or save for a day in a paper bag, but beyond that they probably become stale. They are made with potatoes, which give them some keeping ability, and are flavored with olive oil and sea salt and sage, but you can use another herb like rosemary or thyme as I did. The flour is O Italian flour or a mixture of that and durum wheat flour but again, a small substitution of another flour will probably be OK, just keep a large quantity of the O flour (I used OO pizza flour and unbleached white bread flour).

Here is what Fiorenza of My Pinch of Italy says about the Focaccine: "Potato focaccine, as they are the little version of focaccia, they suit perfectly as an aperitif with friends, as a starter or for a picnic, or even simply because you like them and have a craving for them. They are usually flavored with rosemary or thyme which are perfect, but we decided to use sage, just as good and we are so happy with it.

Their peculiarity is not only in the size, is especially in the dough, as potatoes add softness to it. Adding potatoes in the dough is not unusual in the Italian baking product at all, especially in the South of Italy.
Here is another example with potato in the dough with this Apulian Focaccia – apulian-focaccia"

I decided to go with a more traditional rosemary version since I have a bush the size of a Volkswagen van of rosemary, so an endless supply.

 The recipe calls for 1 centimeter rounds, but that is less than 1/2 an inch, which seems pretty small. I used a piping tip to cut mine out and they were just about an inch (2.54 centimeters) in diameter. That allowed me to make far more than a dozen of them at that size. It also turns out that I was reading it wrong. The thickness of the patted out dough should be about 1 centimeter, but the focaccine themselves should be wider, about the size of a biscuit or small roll. Not knowing that, I made the little ones and  I loved them...a delicious little morsel...and it makes it easier to eat many at a sitting. Went great with a cup of apple cider, spiced, with a bit of bourbon added.  These are a bit crisp on the outside and soft on the inside and quite addictive.

Photo below by the recipe shows what mine looked like using that size (1 inch). I recommend going heavy with the final drizzle of olive oil.  The rest of my dough was baked in a 9-inch cake tin as a regular focaccia, which was wonderful, too. 

Do head around to the other Bread Baking Babes sites to see what they did...I suspect that their focaccine are biscuit shaped and sized and equally delicious.

Karen of Karen's Kitchen Stories HERE
Kelly of A Messy Kitchen HERE
Cathy of Bread Experience HERE
Judy of Judy's Gross Eats HERE
Tanna of My Kitchen in Half Cups HERE
Elizabeth of blog from OUR kitchen HERE

If you would like to be a Bread Baking Buddy, just bake by November 29th and send me an email with a photo and the URL where you posted. I'll post the round-up as close to Dec. 1 as I can. My email is plachman at sonic dot net.

Potato Focaccine

10-12 focaccine, Preparation 25 minutes + 2 hours and half of leavening, Cooking time 25-30 minutes

• 150g of yellow or white mealy potatoes
• 400g of Italian flour ‘0’ (Manitoba flour) – or 200g Italian flour ‘0’ (Manitoba flour) mixed with 200g durum wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• Fresh yeast, 15 g or dry instant yeast, 8 g
• 3 tablespoons of Evoo – Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Lukewarm water, 200 ml
• 7-8 fresh sage leaves, chopped
• sea salt, to taste

Method

Boil the potatoes in plenty of unsalted water. You can peel them or boil them with their peel and then pass them in the potato masher.

When the potatoes are cooked, remove from the heat, drain and let them cool, but not cool them completely or it will be difficult to mix them to the flour. Once lukewarm and crushed, reduce them to mashed and add the puree in the bowl with the flour. Dissolve the dry yeast in lukewarm water, about 100 ml, or the fresh yeast.

Tips: the water must not be hot or it will kill the yeast. Instead it must be lukewarm, this will help it.

Chop the sage leaves with a knife or with scissors. In Italy we also use a kitchen tool called ‘mezzaluna’.

In a large bowl put the flours and add the freshly chopped sage. Add the water with the melted yeast inside and mix with a wooden spoon. Pour the Evoo and start kneading the ingredients with your hands.

Tips: You can dissolve the salt in the remaining water so that it does not cancel out the work of the yeast. Yeast and salt should never be joined together at the same time.

Add the rest of the water with the salt dissolved in it, and knead well for 10 minutes until you get a soft and moist dough that will be a bit sticky as well.
Cover it now with a plastic wrap or a cloth and let it rise for at least 2 hours in a warm and dry place.

When the dough is doubled, roll it out with your hands, no rolling-pin (these are focaccine and not pizza). The tip of the fingers will help create the characteristic dimples where the oil collects in little puddles.  Add a bit of flour on the chopping board or the kitchen table so you can work it better. Form discs of about 1 centimeter with a pastry cutter or with an upside-down glass, place them on a baking tray covered with parchment paper and leave them for another 30 minutes. Once also this last leavening is finished, press focaccine in the centre to form the edge and brush with Evoo.

Bake at 180 ° C (160 C fan) (350 F) for about 20-25 minutes, depending on your oven. When cooked, flavor your focaccine with a drizzle of olive oil and rock salt. 

How to keep them?
Potato focaccine are good to eat freshly baked, however you can store them in a paper bag for a day.

Elle's tip: Use some of the water you boiled the potatoes in as your water to dissolve the yeast...after it has cooled down to lukewarm...and your dough will be even nicer.

Seasonal Pumpkin Bread

It seems like a long time since I last posted, but I have been a busy bee. While the weather held, I was prepping and painting a room in the farmhouse. Glad I kept at it because today the rain came...YAY!...and so painting is out for a while. There has been enough steady rain since about 11 am today that our fire danger is probably done until late summer 2021. I was also blessed with two unexpected visits on Thursday. One was a good friend whom I haven't seen since June. We text and talk, but it was good to see her smiling face...six feet away while we had warm spiced cider and pumpkin bread on the front porch. It was a chilly afternoon Thursday, so the visit was shorter than I would have liked, but still a delight.

The second unexpected visit was my good friend Shelly. She has been sort of mid-way between her home and my house as she cares for her Mom as her Mom has her final days on earth. The reason she was here was that she has a medical condition that requires periodic doctor's visit. I'm an hour or two closer to where she is with her Mom than her home, so she came to Santa Rosa for the medical situation, then came and stayed in the farmhouse (our impromptu B&B!).

So today I'm sharing the pumpkin bread. Dede enjoyed her slice, so did Sweetie (well, he had more than one) and I sent the rest with Shelly back to her Mom, who loves sweets. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did, if you choose to make it. There are lots of reasons to bake this treat: it's moist and seasonal with warm spices and even some chocolate chips, it keeps well, it makes your house smell delicious while it's baking, and it's easy!

Sweet Pumpkin Bread

makes 1 loaf

 2 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup canned solid pack pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1 cup brown sugar, packed
¼ cup milk
¼ cup light (mild) molasses
2 eggs
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x5x3 loaf pan.

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl (both flours, soda and powder, spices).

Put the pumpkin, brown sugar, milk, molasses and eggs in a mixing bowl and mix until well blended.

Add the dry ingredients and begin to combine. Add the chocolate chips and mix just until all are well blended.

Pour into the prepared pan and smooth the top.  Bake in preheated oven 45 to 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool in pan five minutes, then turn out of pan and cool on a cooling rack, right side up.

(Sweetie likes to cut a slice while the chocolate chips are still warm and gooey...and who is to say he is wrong?)

Calzone To Enjoy

A comfort food for Sweetie and me is pizza, including the hand-pie version, calzone. Last night I made some for our dinner. We also had a nice big green salad.

For the calzone, I defrosted the last of the pizza dough that I had in the freezer. I used THIS recipe to make the dough in the summer, used some of it then and froze the dough in portions just enough for two personal pizzas.

I cut the dough into two pieces, about 145 grams each, and then rolled them out, one at a time on a lightly floured board.

The day before I used my smaller slow cooker to make caramelized onions (thinly slice a peeled onion, cut in half, and toss with about a tablespoon of olive oil. Put into a slow cooker and cook on high for 4-5 hours until caramelized). All the rest of the ingredients were prepared just before I filled the calzone. 

After they were filled and sealed, I let them sit for about an hour to get a bit more puffy and preheated the oven to 475 degrees F. I forgot to also preheat a pizza stone, but, as it turned out, I didn't need it. The crust was pretty thin and cooked very well on the pizza pan set on the oven rack.

These were delicious! Mine had non-dairy ricotta, mixed with chopped Italian parsley, spices like oregano and basil, pepper, and some garlic. On top of that were thinly sliced fresh tomato, salami, and pepperoni. Sweetie had the ricotta mixture, the caramelized onions (I forgot to put them on mine!), some grated Parmesan, the tomatoes, salami and pepperoni, then some mozzarella cheese.

Once the oven was fully heated, I brushed a bit of soy milk on the top dough, cut a couple of steam holes, and put the loaded pizza pan into the oven.

The fragrance was wonderful after about 12 minutes! Baked crust, salami and pepperoni were the dominant notes. We ate every bite!

Calzone

makes two

about 300 grams pizza dough
1/2 cup ricotta cheese (I used Kite Hill non-dairy ricotta)
2 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley
1/4 teaspoon each oregano and basil, dried
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup caramelized onion
1 medium fresh tomato, ripe, thinly sliced, stem end removed
12-14 slices salami
10-12 sliced pepperoni
optional: Parmesan cheese (about 1 tablespoon) and mozzarella cheese (about 2-4 slices)

On a lightly floured board, divide the dough into two pieces, each about 150 grams.

Roll out one piece of the dough into a circle, approximately 8" in diameter.

In a small bowl mix together the ricotta cheese, Italian parsley, dried oregano and basil, garlic and pepper.

Spread half the ricotta mixture on half of the dough circle, leaving 1.5-2 inches around the edges free of ricotta. Spread half the onions over the ricotta. Top with half of the tomato slices (about 2-2.5), half the salami slices and half the pepperoni slices. If using, top with the mozzarella and sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese.

Fold the half of the dough with no ingredients over the half the dough circle with ingredients, edges meeting. Press down edges. Starting at one end, fold over the edge, then fold that over next to it, and continue until whole half-circle has been folded to seal. Place calzone on a greased 12-inch pizza pan.

Prepare the second calzone just as you did the first. Place it on the other side of the pizza pan. Lightly cover with oiled plastic wrap and sit in a draft-free warm place for an hour.

About 15 minutes before the hour is up, preheat the oven to 475 degrees F. When oven is hot, remove the plastic wrap from the calzone, brush lightly with milk or soy milk using a pastry brush, and score the top at a diagonal in two places on each calzone.

Bake in preheated oven for about 12-15 minutes. Calzone will have a browned crust, and the juices from the meat and tomatoes will be seeping through the slash on the top. Serve at once, after using a pizza cutter to cut each calzone into four pieces.