The Perfect Winter Pastime

In a place where snow falls on October 5 (!!!!!), finding pleasant, engaging and warm wintertime activities is of the utmost importance!  Baking is a very popular among Alaskanettes, including my friend Hannah who has been rigorously pursuing pie making perfection for a decade!  “A decade?” you say.  “How can that be?  She’s so young!”  I know.  Very few of us settle upon such an ambitious goal at the young age of 15 and stick with it!  As a teenager Hannah noticed that no one really made pies from scratch anymore.  This was especially apparent to her at Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Hannah saw pie making as a rare and estimable skill.  “I thought it would be cool to be a Grandma who makes really good pies.  So I figured if I started at 15, by the time I was a Grandma…” – she’d be feeding more than just her grandchildren!   No wonder this determined, hardworking young woman thrives up here on the tundra!

I think the most important lesson I gleaned from Hannah is that it’s all about the perfect crust.  First, you have to find the recipe for the perfect pie crust.  Hannah selected her favorite recipe (which uses 1/2 butter, 1/2 shortening) from among 25 pie crust recipes in Pie: 300 Tried-and-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie by Ken Haedrich.  Not only must the crust taste delicious, it must look delicious!  So Hannah taught me the art of fluting (pictured above).  After trimming the dough to the edge of the pie dish (using kitchen shears), use your index finger to press pretty little indentions all around the edge of the crust as pictured above.

After Hannah demonstrated making 1 crust, she had me make one.  I tell you, learning in person is so much more empowering than watching the Food Network!  Just like the pros on the Food Network, Hannah had previously-made pie dough standing by in the fridge so we didn’t have to wait 10 minutes for the dough to firm up in the freezer, but rather could instantly move on to the next step: making the pie filling.  We made 2 pies this day: a chocolate cherry (Black Forest) and a chocolate raspberry (pictured below).

Here are Hannah’s most useful tips for pie making…

Hannah’s Top 10 Tips for Perfect Pies

1. Keep all pie crust ingredients cold (i.e. in the fridge) – except for the shortening
2. Don’t use too much water or flour as it makes the crust tough
3. Don’t handle the crust too much as it warms up the dough
4. After fluting the pie crust, set the crust in the freezer for 10 minutes.  This will prevent the crust from sliding around and potentially breaking once in the oven.
5. Use canned cherries instead of canned cherry pie filling.
6. Use a marble rolling pin – if you are so fortunate as to have one!
7. When you bake a fruit pie with a top crust, make sure the pie is completely cooked by looking for these two indicators:
   1. Juice bubbling thickly around the edges and through the steam vents.
   2. The top crust is slightly moving because the filling is boiling underneath.
8. Half way through the baking time, transfer the pie from the bottom rack (nearest the heating element) to the top rack and rotate.  Placing the pie first on the bottom rack enables the crust to set promptly.
9. Reserve and bake crust trimmings for a delicious snack while you’re waiting for the pie to finish baking and cooling (pictured below).
10. When in doubt, buy Pampered Chef baking utensils (e.g. the personal-sized baking sheet below and the saucepan and spatula above)!

It didn’t take much begging on my part (okay none at all), to get gracious Hannah to share her Black Forest Pie recipe with us!

Black Forest Pie

Ingredients:

3/4 c sugar

1/2 c baking cocoa

2 T flour

1/3 c milk (Hannah used coconut milk)

1/4 c butter, cubed

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 can (14 1/2 oz) pitted tart cherries

1/3 c sugar

1 1/2 T cornstarch

1/4 t ground cinnamon

1 unbaked pie shell (9 inches)

Directions:

1. In a saucepan combine sugar, cocoa, flour and milk until smooth.  Add butter.  Bring to a boil.  Cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.  Remove from heat.
2. Sir a small amount of hot mixture into eggs.  Return egg mixture to the saucepan and mix well.
3. Meanwhile, drain the cherries, reserving the juice.  Set cherries aside.
4. In a saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch.  Gradually stir in cherry juice until smooth.  Bring to a boil over medium heat.  Cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.  Remove from heat and stir in cinnamon.  Gently fold in cherries.
5. Fold cherry mixture into chocolate mixture.
6. Pour into pastry shell.  Bake at 350º for 35-40 minutes or until filling is almost set.
7. Cool completely on a wire rack.
8. Store in the refrigerator.

Who knows, maybe one day Fairbanks will have its very own pie shop owned by Miss Hannah and/or all of Miss Hannah’s friends and grandchildren will clamor to sit in her warm cozy kitchen waiting for her delicious pies to come out of the oven.   Either way, Hannah inspires me to find my baking forte.  Will it be cookies, sweet breads or muffins?  Do I have the attention span to focus and buckle down on just one thing?  Maybe I’ll find out this winter – it’ll definitely be long enough to make some progress and test my desire and tenacity!

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=lithouonthetu-20&o=1&p=12&l=ur1&category=kitchen&banner=0FNCR9B2J7F8PHAZGG82&f=ifr

Fruit and Fried Chicken Complete Me

My second day in Los Angeles, I found a little piece of food paradise in the California countryside.  I have a wise girlfriend who once enlightened me with her travel philosophy: “I like to plan my trip around good food and everything else falls into place.”  Well said.  Well said.  My perfect food day began at the Underwood Family Farm in Somis where you can pick your own blueberries.  Three girlfriends and I plus a bunch of enthusiastic kids walked around the fields for hours gleaning and, yes, grazing the perfect berries.  Despite my idyllic hopes, we did not all get to grab a colorful handwoven basket (modeled in navy and pink by my beautiful friend Lily above) to put our freshly picked berries in.  No, you actually had to buy those!  Who would’ve thought?!  If I ever own a blueberry farm, everyone will get to pick their berries with pretty baskets free of charge!  (Coincidentally, the Homegrown Market in Fairbanks sells those same cute baskets!)

Pretty basket or not, the berries were delicious!  Big and plump and sweet as can be!  The little lady below can certainly attest to that!

The farm also had a fruit stand brimming with fresh vegetables and fruit – and my lovely friend and soon-to-be mommy Becca!  Now that I’ve seen her in person, I actually believe she’s pregnant!  It was her perfect food day too – seriously.

In the fruit stand, they were selling fresh figs.  I’ve always wanted to taste a fresh fig, but have never seen one at a grocery store.  So I seized this golden opportunity.  Could it really be better than the newton?….

Oh yeah, baby!  They’re sweet like a fig newton, but plump and juicy and bursting wiht flavor!  Forget the newtons, give me fresh figs!

So what could top off my perfect food day?  What else but a trip to Chick-fil-a!  Rather than eating at the Mexican restaurant right next to the farm since it was after 1pm and we were all starving, we decided to drive 10 miles in the wrong direction (away from home) in search of a Chick-fil-a.  Thank you iphone.  Only for Chick-fil-a would 2 moms with 6 famished, exhausted kids plus an 8+ month pregnant lady agree to go on a 30-minute wild goose chase through the country to eat lunch at a fast food restaurant they’re not completely sure is actually there!

It did not disappoint.  I got the #1 meal and instantly drifted a little closer toward heaven.  Plus I had the special joy of introducing my friend Lily to Chick-fil-a!  I’m not sure she was totally convinced it was worth all the effort to get there, but give her a year and a few Chick-fil-a cravings and she’ll come around.

Oh yum.  I’m homesick.

Rose Petal Jelly, Who Knew?

In my quest to improve myself as a domestic diva of the tundra, I joined my friend Jen in making rose petal jelly.  That’s right I said rose petal.  I didn’t even know the petals were edible!  Up until that point, all I had tasted of the rose was the rose hip (the fruit), which is GROSS, so I concluded the petals had to be better.  I’m quickly learning, thanks to Jen and my hometown honey, that much of nature is edible!

Jen is one of the most go-getter, ardent, industrious women I have ever met.  She is a very good influence on me.  I highly recommend everyone have a friend like her.  Jen’s knowledge of plants, herbs and natural concoctions and rememedies is astounding!  I hereby crown her Mrs. Go-Getter of the Tundra.  But her friends, you and I, can call her GG, GG Jen or just Jen.  We’ll see what sticks…

Case in point, GG Jen didn’t just pick rose petals, she picked petals with her baby hanging on her and her toddler Gabe, though very helpful, at her heels.

My in-laws’ driveway is lined with bushes and bushes of roses.  We were a little worried about taking away my mother-in-law’s beautiful view of the flowers, but there were so many that we barely left a dent in the purply pink plethora.

The petals were extremely easy to pick.  You could pull off all the petals in one gentle grasp, leaving the yellow middle behind.  Just look at my pretty petals.  Wouldn’t this make a nice centerpiece?

Okay, here’s where it gets a little crazy.  GG Jen was the Captain in the kitchen and I was her Gilligan – trying to help as best I could despite being rather confused and distracted by taking photos to document this process.  But I was confused for a good reasons!  GG had 3 different pectins, 4 differnt recipes and 5 different batches of jellies going all at the same time!  And the recipes were all in her head!!!  So forgive me if everything doesn’t make perfect sense.  The take home lesson is that rose petal jelly is delicious and definitely worth making, so do it!

Even toddlers can help make jelly.  Here’s Gabe rinsing off the rose petals in a collander.  We tried our best to remove all the dirt and bugs, but we definitely missed a few!

I also brought over some early rhubarb from my yard to make rhubarb jam and to mix some with the rose petals.  I used a recipe for rhubarb jam from Every Day with Rachel Ray.

Rhubarb Jam

1/2 c water

1/2 c sugar

1 tsp fresh lemon juice (we used bottled)

In a medium nonstick skillet (we used a metal stock pot), combine 1/2 c water, 1/2 c sugar and lemon juice over medium heat.  Cook, stirring, until the sugar dissolves.  Add the rhubarb and simmer until very thick, stirring to break up the rhubarb and scrape the skillet sides, about 10 minutes.  Then we transferred the jam to clean jars, sealed them and flipped them upside down to set the seal.

Meanwhile…we made some rose petal jelly.  We made 1 batch of Rhubarb Rose Petal Marmalade (you could call it a jelly, but I like the way marmalade sounds and there were little chunks of rhubarb and petals just like a marmalade) where we loosely followed the recipe above but just replace 1/2 the rhubarb with rose petals.  It came out delicious!  I like eating it in peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!  So tangy and yummy!

Here’s a recipe for infusion rose petal jelly which Jen found on www.cooks.com.

“Infusion” or “Hot Pink” Rose Petal Jelly

3 c. rose petals, packed down

3 c. water

3 c. sugar

1 tbsp. lemon juice

1 box powdered pectin

Bring water to a boil – remove from heat. Add rose petals.  Cover and steep for 30-60 minutes.  Pour through sieve, discard rose petals, keeping juice.

Make sure you have 3 cups juice if not add water to make 3.

Place in pot then add pectin. Stir until dissolved, then bring to hard boil.

Add sugar and lemon juice, stir and bring to hard boil again for 1-2 minutes.

Skim off foam and pour into jelly jars, sterilized. Flip jars upside down to set seal.

When we added the lemon juice, our light pink, slightly brown rose water turned a fabulous hot pink!  So pretty!  Not to mention the sweet, cotton candy like smell!  I just might have to make some of this jelly every week so I can indulge in the smell!

Oops!  I told you things were getting confused and out of control!  This is what happens when you try to make 5 recipes at once with 2 babies and a not-so-on-top-of-it assistant.

I know these look red, but they turned out the beautiful hot pink color I keeping gushing over.

Lastly, we made 2 batches of rose petal jelly involving no cooking – just a blender!  Well, you had to heat up the water and the pectin, but besides that!  We used the “No Sugar” pectin so that we could reduce the amount of sugar the recipe called for.  Plus this recipe is already a healthy version of jelly because you don’t cook the petals and denature (is that the right term?) the loads of Vitamin C in the petals.  Did I mention rose petals are an excellent source of Vitamin C?!  Now you’ll all think twice about eating PB&J for lunch every day like me.  Okay, maybe not every day, but every other day?

Blender Easy Rose Petal Jelly

3 c water

2 c petals

3 c sugar

1 box no sugar pectin

splash of lemon juice

Blend together 3 c water and 2 c petals.

Combine box of pectin and 1 cup of water.  Bring to a boil and cook for 2 minutes, stirring.

Add sugar and pectin to petals and water in the blender.  Blend together.  Add 1 T lemon juice and pour into jars.  Must freeze or refrigerate.

This recipe was definitely the most fun to watch!  What kid wouldn’t want to help out in the kitchen when you’re making these dazzling colors in the blender?!

It’s like a lava lamp!  I never had a lava lamp, but I spent many hours admiring my cousins’.

The blender was filled to the brim!  The final color is a bubble gum pink – one batch was darker than the other.  So lovely and delicate.  This jelly would be perfect on scones or toast.  One batch we made was runnier, like a thick sauce which turned out to be my mother-in-law’s favorite!  It would taste fantastic poured over pound cake, ice cream or pork chops, not to mention just about anything!  My mother-in-law prefers to eat it by the spoonful – in a pretty, dainty silver spoon of course!

And here we are: Gilligan and the Captain after over 4 hours of hard work (just look at my forehead vein – gasp!) harvesting rose petals – braving all those thorns! – and slaving away over a hot stove and blender in the kitchen!

Although I loved having 5 different batches of jelly to take home and enjoy, next time, if I’m cooking alone, I think I’ll probably just make 1 batch at a time.  Baby steps.

Challah Egg Bread-Oh Sweet Victory!

Yesterday, I tasted the sweet victory of successfully making homemade bread.  A while back I wondered if making bread from scratch was worth all the effort.  It is if the bread turns out alright!  Delicious homemade bread is the perfect reward for a hard “day’s” work.  An unrisen lump of dough, on the other hand, is quite deflating, take it from me.  I’ve yet to attempt making sourdough bread again since my first failure.  But, I still love homemade bread and the idea of me making it!  So I persist!  I’ve learned from my mistakes – like using a thermometer to measure the temperature of the warm water in which to put the yeast, because it really does matter.  And I’ve learned that I need to start with the easier, “fool-proof” recipes such as those found in Beth Hensperger’s Bread Made Easy: A Baker’s First Bread Book which I happily discovered at the library.

Besides realizing the dream of being the “ideal” housewife, there are other important reasons for making your own bread.  For one, it is way cheaper than buying similar quality bread from the grocery store or a local baker.  Secondly, if you live in a remote place like me and don’t have access to lots of local bakeries, your selection of bread at the store includes french, sourdough, sandwich bread and not much more.  If you want different varieties so you can make the fabulous Rachel Ray recipe for instance, you’re on  your own!  That was my case.  I wanted to make Rachel Ray’s Turkey Monte Cristos and I needed challah or pannetone bread.  So I turned to Bread Made Easy and made her “Classic Challah Egg Bread.”

The cook book is very detailed and includes directions for making the bread by hand or using a Kitchenaid mixer as well as color photographs of the steps.

I made one sandwich loaf for my Monte Cristos.

And one classic braided loaf, which made me feel like a pretty French baker!  I’m not sure why baking bread makes me feel pretty – it just does.

I let the bread rise and sit for almost a full day – much longer than the instructions directed – and the bread still turned out soft, sweet and tasty!  It really made my Turkey Monte Cristos and would make scrumptious french toast.

This bread recipe is definitely a keeper, so I’m going to share the slimmed down handmade version with you so you can enjoy too!

CLASSIC CHALLAH EGG BREAD

Bakeware:

3 9 x 5 – inch loaf pans or 2 11 x 17 – inch baking sheets

Ingredients:

2 cups warm water (105°-115°)

1 1/2 Tbsp (2 pkgs) active dry yeast

pinch of sugar

8 to 8 1/2 cups all-purpose or bread flour

1 Tbsp salt

4 large eggs

1/2 cup honey, slightly warmed for easy pouring (I didn’t do this)

2/3 cup vegetable, canola, or light olive oil

1 large egg beaten with 1 Tbsp water, for glaze

2 Tbsp sesame seeds or poppy seeds for sprinkling (optional)

Instructions:

1. Pour 1/2 cup warm water into a bowl.  Sprinkle in the yeast and sugar.  Stir to dissolve.  Let stand till foamy about 10 minutes.

Place 1 1/2 cups of flour and salt into a large bowl.  Make a well in the center and add eggs, honey, oil and remaining 1 1/2 cups of warm water.  Beat vigorously, with a whisk, for 1 minute.

Add yeast mixture and beat, with a whisk, for 1 minute.

Add remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time and mix using a whisk then a wooden spoon.

2. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until dough is firm yet still springy and doesn’t stick to your hands – about 5-7 minutes.

Dough should be smooth, soft, elastic and never stiff.

3. Place dough ball in a greased bowl, turn once to grease top, and cover loosely with plastic wrap (I used a warm damp dish towel).

Let rise at room temperature until double in bulk, 2 to 2 1/2 hours.

4. Gently deflate dough by inserting your fist into the center, re-cover, and let rise again until double in bulk, 1 to 1 1/2 hours (My husband did this step for me – obviously, I wasn’t measuring how much the dough had risen).  In a pinch, this step can be skipped, but the flavor is better if you do it.

5. Turn dough on lightly floured surface.  Grease baking sheets.  For braided loaves, divide dough into 3 parts and roll into cylinders then braid together.

6. Beat the egg and water glaze with a fork until foamy.  Using a pastry brush, brush the tops of the loaves with some of the egg mixture.  Do not let the egg glaze drip down into the sides of the pan or it will make the bread stick and inhibit rising in the oven.  Refridgerate extra glaze.

7. Cover loaves loosely (I forgot to do this) and let rise at room temperate until the dough is almost double in bulk (I did not see my bread rise in this step), about 45 minutes.

8. Brush the surface of the loaves a second time with the egg glaze and sprinkle seeds.

9. Bake for 40-45 minutes at 350° until loaves are deep golden brown, the sides have shrunken away from the pan and the bread sounds hollow when tapped on the top with your finger.  Immediately remove loaves from pans and cool to room temperature before slicing.

Store in a plastic bag at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the freezer for 2 months.

Recipe by Bethn Hensperger

Bread Made Easy: A Baker’s First Bread Book

© 2000

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=lithouonthetu-20&o=1&p=20&l=ur1&category=books&banner=0YM0V4GHQ57EK3WYRZR2&f=ifr

Swap Party!

Say the word “party” and I’m there.  Add “shopping” to that and I’m like “when can we start?!”  Why I didn’t think of hosting a swap party, I don’t know.  But I’m sure glad my lovely friends did!

A swap party is basically a girlified garage sale – but everything is free!  Everyone brings items she no longer uses and picks from other people’s “castoffs.”  One woman’s junk is another woman’s treasure.

But as much fun as it is to make a great “find,” the best part of the swap party – is the party!

And no girly party is complete without delicious “fancy” food!

The two hostesses made an assortment of healthy and tasty salads including an orzo dish (below) which was hearty and yummy!

As all gals know, the best thing about eating a salad for dinner is getting to splurge on dessert!  I’m sorry to say that  I was supposed to make cake balls (my friend Gretchen’s recipe that I have been aspiring to make for over 2 years!) and even convinced another gal to make a similarly complicated and time-consuming dessert.   However, I ran out of time and opted for oatmeal raisin cookies while my friend spent her entire Saturday baking her chocolate covered Oreo balls – which were DIVINE!  At least her Oreo balls didn’t have to share the spotlight.  I wish I had taken 12 home with me instead of 2!

Between feasting, we shopped through each other’s clothes, purses, shoes, books, picture frames and other odds and ends.

I picked up a few things, but the truth was I didn’t need any more stuff!  I am so blessed.

Once we’d picked over the selection several times, we decided to put the unwanted items (which were later donated to Goodwill), to one last use…in a fashion show!  First, we had to help select and approve each other’s outfits – the ladies were very insistent that you not look cute!

Once in costume, it was very easy to get into our supermodel characters and strike a pose for the camera.  I even made it into the photo (in the neon yellow vest)!  Laughter is wonderful.  Laughter at oneself is the best.

Yes, we definitely need to have another swap party.

"My Life in France" Book Club

In October, the Alaskan Arctic Royalty (my book club) jumped on the Julia Child bandwagon and read My Life in France.  Some of the Queens actually read Ms. Child’s delightful memoir while others opted for the film Julie & Julia.  (I haven’t seen the film yet – although I’m eager to do so!  How can it not be a gem when it stars Meryl Streep and Amy Adams?!)

As expected, My Life in France recounts Julia and Paul Child’s life in France from 1948 to 1956 and her subsequent journey to cookbook and television stardom in the United States.  I admit, I didn’t actually finish the book.  It was entertaining, but it didn’t compel me to keep reading – perhaps because I already knew the ending.  Nonetheless, I read enough to be quite inspired by Ms. Child: her instant love for Paris and France, her zeal for life, and, of course, her discovery, passion and mastery of French cooking!  How I long to love Fairbanks and Alaska like Julia loved her new country.  How I desire to follow in Julia’s footsteps by making the most of every day – doing what I love with the people I love.  How I hope that some day I too will discover my own secret passion/craft and have the discipline to master it!

Finding her forte and calling in life seemed so simple for Julia.  She basically stumbled upon cooking and excelled at it so easily, having the time and money to do so.   Of course, maybe the real key is not that Julia was uniquely gifted at cooking, but that she had the necessary focus and discipline to reach her level of mastery.  I do take solace in the fact that Julia was in her late 30s when she discovered her penchant for cooking.  Not only was she just realizing her life’s passion at that age, but she was also still figuring out who she was in terms of her worldview, beliefs, opinions, likes and dislikes.  So I don’t feel so bad that I don’t have it all figured out at 28 – even though I’d like to!  I know: life would be so boring then!

Whether or not most of us have a vocational calling in life, it is immensely fun to be inspired by someone who does.  Ms. Child challenged all the Arctic Queens to get in our kitchens and push ourselves to new heights – at least, for our book club meeting!  I decided to make Julia’s chocolate mousse for our “My Life in France” party.  Of course, I waited until the last minute to make it and only bought the exact amount of ingredients called for in the recipe.  When I burned the chocolate and beat in the egg whites instead of the egg yolks in the first steps of the recipe, I was ready to throw in the towel.  So much for being inspired by Julia!

“I’ll just make brownies out of the box.  After all, I am hosting the party,” I told my husband.  “You can’t do that, Libby!  The whole point is to make one of Julia Child’s recipes.  What are you going to tell the other ladies?  You have to make the mousse!” my husband insisted, much to my chagrin.  “But I don’t have any more chocolate,” I explained.  “Have Sarah pick some up from the grocery store,” my husband suggested.  Once again, I was saved by my sister-in-law, who bought me more chocolate and, more importantly, helped me make the mousse.  Thank goodness she was there to explain the difference between light traces, curved and stiff peaks!

Here is the recipe for Julia’s classic chocolate mousse.

Julia Child’s Classic Chocolate Mousse

8 oz sweet or semi-sweet baking chocolate, melted with 1/4 cup strong coffee (I used semi-sweet)

1/4 cup strong coffee (brewed coffee)

6 Tbsp unsalted butter

3 eggs

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup instant (finely ground) sugar (I used regular white sugar)

extra heavy whipping cream for whipped cream (optional)

1. Beat the soft butter into the smoothly melted chocolate.  One by one, beat in the egg YOLKS. (Bowl 1) (Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or make your own using a bowl in a strainer on top of a shallow level of boiling water in a pot.  Do not melt the chocolate directly in the pot or it will burn!)

2. Beat the cream over ice until it leaves light traces on the surface (or curved peaks). (Bowl 2 sitting on ice in Bowl 3)

(Curved peaks pictured below.)

3. Beat the egg WHITES until they form soft peaks.  While beating, sprinkle in the sugar by spoonfuls and continue beating until stiff shining peaks are formed. (Bowl 4)

4. Scrape the chocolate mixture (Bowl 1) down the side of the egg-white bowl (Bowl 4) and delicately fold in the whipped cream (Bowl 2).

5. Turn the mousse into attractive serving bowls.  Cover and chill for several hours.  Decorate or pass the mousse with whipped cream (optional).

That’s enough about my mousse!  Here’s more photos of the fabulous French food made by my fellow Queens as well as some of the Queens themselves!  After painstakingly helping me make Julia’s chocolate mousse for over an hour, my sister-in-law whipped up mini brie and prosciutto popovers in about 5 minutes!

Everyone agreed they were divine!

Queen Cherry tantalized our taste buds with lobster bisque – so gourmet!

And, of course, we had plenty of wine!

We had so much fun eating our fancy French food, I almost wish we could have a Julia Child book club every month!

Pumpkin Cookies Recipe

When I was a kid, I had a friend whose birthday was close to Halloween.  Every year, her mom made the most delicious pumpkin cookies for her birthday.  They weren’t ordinary pumpkin cookies either.  Brightly colored icing and candy transformed them into festive jack-o’-lanterns!  My family loved the fun cookies so much that we made them our own Halloween tradition.  I hope you will too!

PUMPKIN COOKIES

1 c softened butter
1 c brown sugar
1 c sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 t cinnamon
½ tsp ginger
½ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp cloves

1 c pumpkin
1 c oats
1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream sugars & butter.
3. Beat in egg and vanilla.
4. Mix together dry ingredients.  Add dry mixture to wet ingredients and beat.
5. Beat in pumpkin.
6. Stir in oats.
7. Stir in chocolate chips.
8. Bake medium-sized cookies for 10 minutes.  Bake large cookies (1/4 cup) for 15 minutes or until done.

Now for the fun part…

DECORATING!

Buttercream Icing

*For the orange pumpkin and green stem. For a classier “Martha Stewart” version, try white icing topped with orange sprinkles and a green stem.

1 lb powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 c milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 c (2/3 stick) softened butter

1. Mix and beat with an electric mixer or heavy spoon until smooth and creamy.  If too stiff to spread, add a few drops of milk.

*Adjust amounts to suit your desired level of sweetness and thickness.

Writing Icing

*For the green stem – as a quick and easy alternative to the buttercream icing, but for the stem only!
Candy Toppings

Body – Icing topped with orange sprinkles.  This is the first time I used sprinkles on these cookies and I loved the extra boost of sparkly festivity!

Eyes – M&Ms – plain or peanut

Nose – Candy corn

Mouth – Plain M&Ms (my favorite, but I didn’t have any) or chocolate chips

After decorating your yummy cookies, store them in the fridge or freezer and serve chilled – this is my family’s secret for perfect pumpkin cookies!  They won’t be too hard, but just right!

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=1E1E1E&lc1=014674&t=lithouonthetu-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&m=amazon&f=ifr&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&asins=0307396444

Cranberry Banana Jam

Alaska is the place for berries! In September, the cranberries ripen. But you don’t want to pick the high-bush cranberries which are a light red and smell like poo – although my husband LOVES the smell! I was advised by one local woman that “high-bush cranberries are only good if you want to make ketchup.” For all other purposes, you want the low-bush cranberries which have the “typical” deep burgundy color and dark green leaves. These cranberries taste delicious in sweet breads, bagels, sauces, juices and jams!

Here is a recipe for a new friend’s delicious cranberry banana jam. The sweet bananas perfectly complement the tartness of the cranberries. You can eat this jam on just about everything – especially warm buttermilk biscuits. My friend Lilly has been making this jam for 25 years and uses the same recipe for her blueberry jam.

CRANBERRY BANANA JAM by Lilly Morrall

3 cups cranberries
1 1/2 cups water
2 cups banana, mashed
6 cups sugar
1 1/2 pouches liquid pectin

Clean the berries and then run them through the blender with the water for just a few seconds. Simmer in an 8 quart pot for about 10 minutes.
Add the bananas and sugar.
Bring to a hard boil (one that cannot be stirred down) for 1 minute.
Remove from heat.
Add pectin.
Stir, skim and jar.

This jam makes a great gift for Christmas or anytime of the year!

Making Bread – Is It Worth It?

Like any woman, I LOVE bread. The idea of making my own bread has always appealed to me for a number of reasons. My first reason being I simply LOVE bread – especially really fresh bread with great flavor. I also like unusual varieties of bread: rosemary, cheddar focaccia, baguettes, etc. A girl can only eat so many slices of boring whole wheat sandwich bread and English muffins before her mind strays to thoughts of other breads…But those “gourmet” breads from the grocery store, local bakery or farmer’s market are expensive! And who really knows what all those ingredients are on the nutrition labels, anyways? If you bake your own bread, you can use pure, healthy ingredients and skip all the scary sounding chemicals (e.g., additives and preservatives). Yet, I think the most compelling reason to make your own bread is the utter satisfaction in making something from scratch with your own hands. Anyone who has ever attempted to make bread before knows how hard bread making can be which only heightens the sense of accomplishment that accompanies a successfully baked loaf.

On Sunday, my sister-in-law helped me get started on baking my first loaf of bread – excluding sweet breads – since my disaster with a sourdough loaf over a year ago. I needed some moral support to get started. We got a little too excited, however, and destroyed the yeast by using too hot water. After an hour and a half of watching my dough ball not rise in my 76-degree sauna – I mean, kitchen – I decided to give it another shot. Instead of going back to one of my fancy cookbooks from the library, I opted for the recipe on the bag of flour – those seem to work well for me. I didn’t have bread-machine yeast (can someone please explain the difference between all the varieties of yeast?!) or a baker’s stone like the recipe called for, but after about 5 hours, I had a real fully-cooked loaf of bread! Hallelujah! Upon examining my hard, Frisbee-esque loaf, I decided I should have formed the dough into more of a sphere before fully baking it. Nevertheless, it still makes great open-faced sandwiches, ciabatta style sandwiches and dipping bread for soups.

After my day-long bread extravaganza, I decided to continue my quest for delicious homemade breads and bake my own pizza dough! As pizza is one of my favorite foods, I have been trying to make homemade pizzas for the 4.5 years Dave and I have been married – I did not cook before then sadly. Yet, in all my attempts – and there have been many – over the past 4 years, I have never successfully baked a homemade pizza on anything other than a tortilla. My dough – whether Pillsbury or Trader Joe’s – has never come out fully cooked. (I know now that I need to completely cook the dough before adding the toppings – no matter what my husband recommends!) Not surprisingly, I didn’t even try to make dough from scratch…until yesterday.

Earlier in the week, I had bought all the ingredients for making a pizza except for the dough so that I would be forced to make the dough myself, but I kept stalling. Yesterday when I offered my husband the choice between turkey Monte Cristo sandwiches or pizza for dinner, he chose pizza and I was stuck. I decided to make a recipe for flat bread on cooks.com which required buttermilk instead of yeast – a very good sign! I didn’t have whole wheat dough, so I used all-purpose flour plus some bread flour. The instructions were rather vague, so I didn’t even mix the dry ingredients together first before adding them to the dough, even though I probably should have. Despite my reckless baking protocol, however, my flat bread pizza crust baked beautifully and tasted even better! My husband was quite impressed – and, I think, rather shocked. I too was shocked and immensely proud of myself! I topped the yummy, individual pizza crusts with an Italian blend of cheeses, jalapeno peppers, red and yellow bell peppers, mushrooms, onions and chunky tomato sauce. And Dave added ground moose meat on his. They were hands down the best pizzas I’ve ever made and I dare say better than Papa John’s!

Yet, even while I was still basking in the glow of my success, I wondered, “Is this really worth all the effort? Shouldn’t I have something better to do with my time? Is this what housewives do?” Since quitting my full-time job as the Director of Process Improvement at Fuller Theological Seminary to move to Alaska and take care of our home, work on my photography and writing, and help my husband with our production company, I haven’t been quite sure how to best use my time. I’m so used to thinking in terms of being productive and efficient, which bread making and washing dishes by hand seemingly is not. But then again, I can’t discredit the value of making something by hand and simply working hard. So I believe if my family and I enjoy eating homemade bread and I enjoy baking it, then it is worth it…as long as none of my other responsibilities are terribly neglected or I get grand visions of starting my own bakery.

Alaskan Rhubarb-Raspberry Crisp

My 1st experience cooking rhubarb! I picked it right out of my own yard (see photo above). You just grab the stem (the part you eat – below), pull and it pops right out. We have more rhubarb than I know what to do with! Just don’t eat the leaves or roots because they’re poisonous!

Rhubarb is a popular ingredient in Alaskan desserts. Its tartness is often paired with a sweeter flavor like that of strawberries and raspberries. I picked the raspberries I used in this recipe out of my father-in-law’s big garden. I feel so green!

In all the dessert recipes I’ve seen, the rhubarb is always cooked as raw rhubarb has the consistency of celery – but MUCH tougher – and so bitter it will make you pucker your face and spit it out – at least that’s what I did! Although, true Alaskans dip raw rhubarb in sugar and call it dessert! I soaked some in sugar, but I never got up the courage to eat it…when I do, I’ll let you know.

But for now, here’s a recipe for a refreshing, “healthy” rhubarb-raspberry crisp. I say healthy because I used less sweetener than most recipes do. Plus, I substituted my father-in-law’s fireweed honey (made in his backyard) for sugar. When baking, try to use honey with a mild flavor so that it doesn’t change the flavor of your dish. I suggest going with less sweetener – especially if you eat this with vanilla ice cream. Also, look for “healthy” non-hydrogenated shortening with 0 grams of trans fat in the natural food section of your grocery store. I found some made by Spectrum at Fred Meyer.

ALASKAN RHUBARB-RASPBERRY CRISP

Ingredients:

1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp butter
1 tsp (heaping) cinnamon
1 cup honey (add 1/2 cup if you prefer a really sweet taste)
1 egg
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup plain yogurt (whole fat)
1 cup oatmeal
1 1/2 cup chopped rhubarb
1/2 cup raspberries

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9″ x 13″ baking dish.
• Melt butter on the stove then remove from heat and mix with brown sugar and cinnamon until crumbly. Set aside.
• In another bowl, cream the honey, shortening and egg.
• In a separate bowl, mix the flour, soda and salt.
• Add flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with yogurt.
• Stir in oatmeal.
• Stir in rhubarb and raspberries. (It’s okay to mix in the raspberry juice as well – it provides a deeper pink color!)

• Pour mixture into baking dish and sprinkle with sugar crumb topping.
• Bake at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes. Let it stand for 15 minutes. Serve warm or cool.

Tastes great by itself or à la mode with vanilla ice cream or homemade whipped cream!

ALASKAN RHUBARB-RASPBERRY CRISP

1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp butter
1 tsp (heaping) cinnamon
1 cup honey (can add 1/2 cup)
1 egg
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup plain yogurt (whole fat)
1 cup oatmeal
1 1/2 cup chopped rhubarb
1/2 cup raspberries

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9″ x 13″ baking dish.
2. Melt butter on the stove then remove from heat and mix with brown sugar and cinnamon until crumbly. Set aside.
3. In another bowl, cream the honey, shortening and egg.
4. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, soda and salt.
5. Add flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with yogurt.
6. Stir in oatmeal.
7. Stir in rhubarb and raspberries. (It’s okay to mix in the raspberry juice as well.)
8. Pour mixture into baking dish and sprinkle with sugar crumb topping.
9. Bake at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes. Serve warm or cool.