No Secret Recipes Here - Sorry!

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Our topic this week was a recipe for a dish we’d take to a holiday party. Okay, my warning to you is that if you invite me I’ll be bringing pizza or Kentucky Fried Chicken, or yummy cheesecake or cupcakes from the local bakery….there will be no original cooking or baking done. I’m not much interested in cooking aside from the serviceable things one feeds a growing family and once or twice a year cranking up to do the big turkey dinner with all the fixings. I learned to bake a few specific desserts that I loved because my mother hated to cook or bake and refused to do so beyond the meat & potatoes type menu my father preferred, and one birthday cake each per year and a lemon meringue pie for my Dad.

I have no sekrit yummy recipes to share in this post, alas...

Wishing you a very Happy Holiday season!

Author's own photo, from her collection

Holiday Recipes for a Crowd

I like to experiment in the kitchen. Just like I like making stuff up on paper, I make stuff up with food. I especially love trying new, complicated recipes. They have to be complex. I get a charge out of that complexity, like I might be in the kitchen building my own culinary nuclear bomb, but only if I get Every Last Step exactly right. There should probably be a drug for that.

Sometimes the results aren't so great. Most times, we end up with something passably edible - you know - no one complaining, but no one raving, either. Then, every once in a while, we'll try something and everyone's eyes roll back in their heads (in a good way!) and we have a massive hit on our hands. From the ranks of those winner recipes, a few exalted get requested year after year, thereby attaining legendary status.

This is one of those recipes. It's our Solstice tradition. It takes three days to make (to achieve the greatest flavor.) Added bonuses: It requires power tools, and it's messy.

Doesn't this look appetizing??

This is Cherry Ring. The recipe comes from the December 1998 Vegetarian Times

3 Cups unbleached white flour
1/2 Cup sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 TBSP unsalted butter, cold, cut into small pieces
2 Eggs
1/4 Cup milk
1/4 Cup oil
1/4 tsp Almond extract

Filling
1/2 Cup blanched almonds toasted
2 Cups dried cherries
1/3 Cup honey
1/4 Cup orange juice
1 tsp orange zest
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp cloves

Put all of your try ingredients into the bowl of a mixer. Add the butter and start the mixer on low to cut the butter into the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk your eggs, milk, oil and extract together. Add to your dry ingredients. Mix until the dough forms. Turn out on lightly floured waxed paper and knead a few turns until everything holds together. Wrap your dough well in plastic and refrigerate overnight.

Filling
Put all ingredients into the bowl of a food processor and process until coursely chopped. Cover and let sit overnight.

To assemble: Preheat oven to 375. Roll dough out between two sheets of waxed paper. Roll into an 18x9 inch rectangle. Remove top sheet of paper. Trim a one inch bit of dough from either end and set aside. Spoon filling in a 2-inch wide strip lengthwise down the center of the dough. Lift your bottom sheet of paper along one long edge and fold the dough over the filling. Repeat for other side. Press the edges together to seal. Invert seam side down on a cookie sheet. Coax into ring shape on the cookie sheet. You'll have to do some dough repair, but a few cracks won't hurt anything. If you're really ambitious, roll out your scraps and cut out holly leaves and roll berries to use for decoration on the ring. Paint with food coloring for extra effect. Brush with egg white and bake 30-40 minutes.

You want this baked the day before you need it. The shortbread layer softens and turns melt-in your mouth lovely for sitting the extra time.

Holiday treat? Always bake a favorite...pie.

My all time favorite dessert is pie. Pie you say? Which is what most people say when I tell them my go-to dessert or dish to pass. And my answer is always; you’ve never had homemade pie. 

I’ve tried countless slices at diners, restaurants, and even pie shops, hoping for heaven and instead getting tough crusts with tasteless filling. No wonder people aren’t clamoring for pie! 

But, I aim to change that and introduce you to a flakey, melt-in-your-mouth crust that holds bold fruit flavors with a hint of sweet inside. It’s fairly basic and after a couple of attempts, because doing anything well takes a few trial and errors, you’ll be pulling your own piping hot pastry from the oven.

Click to read on for the recipe...

Confession of a kitchen incompetent

I’m just going to go out on a limb here and guess you’ve either been to a party, hosted a party, or planned a party recently. This does seem to be a time of year to get folks together indoors and share germs. Or holiday cheer, whatever. At any rate, those parties inevitably come with what I like to call YikesMustFood. This is a state of panic characterized by the shoving of things that were formerly in the refrigerator into a pan or pot or appliance, adding ingredients that might have once been tasty in a dish, and hoping for the best. In my version of reality, this process almost never works out well.

To be fair, me entire life as a mother is all about YikesMustFood, so adding that extra level of holiday anxiety is just frosting, sprinkles, and nerves. Pot lucks, as you can imagine, are my very favorite things.

Kidding. I hate them. Avoid them when possible. 

When it’s not possible? I can’t share the disaster of YikesMustFood with a dozen or more potential critics! Cooking for others is like publishing a story: it’s a gift that is almost certainly gross and will make someone sick, and they are guaranteed to either leave it on the tray and save themselves (smart!) or grab a serving, choke it down, and complain about it afterward. So... I don’t. Cook, that is.

Instead I buy cheese and wine. I know a little bit about both and can select decent combos, and its less vulnerable and crazy-making than cooking. If you are a fellow sufferer of YikesMustFood, this party-and-potluck season, be kind to you and just make a pretty plate full off purchased goodies. No one will even know the difference.

Panic Party Sangria

Have to attend a Holiday Party Potluck? Run out of time to whip up Gram's Golden Souffle? Dying to make a positive impression yet standing in the grocery store trying to choose between tortilla chips or potato chips? Is the cold sweat of panic slithering down your spine?

Back away from the junk food and head for the boozy aisle, with a stop through the kitchen supplies for a cheap pitcher--glass, plastic, whatever. Oh, also, take a left into the freezer section for a 10oz bag of frozen blueberries, raspberries, or berry blend--yes, frozen not fresh (you're using them as flavored ice cubes).


Panic Party Sangria Recipe:

• 1 Bottle (750ml) Cheap Red Blend (twist top, unless you're buying a bottle opener)
• 1 can or 1 20oz single-serve Ginger Beer (from the soda cooler would be great, but no worries if that ain't happening)
• 1 10oz/single-serving bottle of tart Fruit Juice (Cranberry, Cherry, Pomegranate) 
• 3/4 cup fruit-flavored liquor (Triple Sec, Blackberry, Cherry, Cranberry)
• 1 10oz bag of frozen berries 

While sitting in your car in the driveway of the host's house, dump the ingredients into the pitcher (yes, washing the pitcher first would've been ideal, but hey, alcohol kills, right? Sure.). To measure the fruity booze, fill the juice bottle halfway (or all the way if you need to). Gently swirl the pitcher on your stroll up the front walk.

Voilà! Enter the party with a drink that elevates you from the "Frank the Forgetful" to "Sam the Swanky."

*Note: Sangria is a blended drink in which all ingredients can be swapped out for something similar. Don't like reds? Try a bubbly prosecco. Ginger not your fav? Grab a Sprite or tonic water. Fruity liquor just too...too? Go for spiced rum or the classic brandy. The only thing you don't want to do is make it too sweet, which is easiest to achieve by keeping the wine medium-dry. Everything else is already sugary.

Happy Holidays! 

Raise a glass to making it through another party!

Jeffe's Sparkly Sugar Cookies

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is "Holiday Potluck Dish: If you had to bring a dish to a winter holiday potluck, what would it be & what's the recipe?"

My holiday must-have are my Sparkly Sugar Cookies. I make a big batch of them and they serve as my standby to take to parties, give as impromptu gifts, and simply nom for pure holiday joy.


Instructions:

1 ½ cups unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups white sugar

2 eggs, room temperature

2 egg yolks, room temperature

4 teaspoons vanilla extract (use the real stuff, not the imitation flavoring)

2 teaspoons almond extract

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt (if you used salted butter, skip this)

1 teaspoon baking powder


Beat together butter and sugar until fluffy. On this step, it’s hard to go too long. Let that sugar really melt in. Add in the eggs and egg yolks, one by one, mixing until smooth. Add vanilla and almond extracts gradually, mixing until smooth.

In another bowl, combine the flour, salt (if you’re using it) and baking powder. Gradually sift this mixture into the creamed butter mixture, beating constantly.

Cover the bowl with an airtight seal or wrap the ball of dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Working with a fist-sized ball of dough at a time, on a flour-sprinkled surface, roll out the dough with a floured rolling pin to about ¼” thick. (Keep the rest of the dough in the fridge while you work, so it stays nice and cold.) Use cookie cutters to cut out fun shapes or, if you don’t have them, a drinking water glass will work to make simple circular cookies. There's nothing wrong with a classic!

Bake each batch for 6-8 minutes and let cool on a wire rack. When I get a good rhythm going, I can roll out and cut one batch while the other batch bakes.

Let the cookies cool completely before frosting. To make the (very basic) icing:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon milk (I use skim or 2% and it’s fine. Not that it matters with all that butter, but it’s what I usually have on hand.)

1 tablespoon light corn syrup

Mix together in a bowl. You want it to be very thick, so if it turns out runny, just add a little more powdered sugar.

I love the white and gold look for Christmas, because it adds a nice touch of glamour. So I leave the frosting white and use gold, silver and pearl decorative sugars.

Just smear the icing on the cookie—you can see I do spots on some and whole cookies on others, since everyone likes different amounts of frosting—and immediately sprinkle with your sugars.

There are lots of fun color schemes to play with, if you’re feeling frisky, too.

Enjoy!

This Holiday Season Is My Favorite

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is our #1 Thing to do to keep our sanity this holiday season.

Personally I LOVE this time of the year and actually don’t get stressed over anything which happens around these holidays.

I’m pretty organized when it comes to doing cards, buying gifts and wrapping things. I listen to my favorite Christmas carols constantly – I enjoy the country-flavored versions on the ‘Smokey Mountain Christmas’ album, I love “Joy to the World” and many of the other songs on the ‘Christmas with the Gatlin Brothers’ album, I have several Celtic and exclusively bagpipe Christmas albums of carols, the Straight No Chaser ‘Christmas Can-Can’ song is hilarious, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir does full throated justice to traditional carols…well, you get the picture. I have maybe six versions of “We Three Kings” which is one of my alltime favorite carols, by different singers, on my iPod.

I also have a collection of plates that I use from Thanksgiving through New Year’s. A lot of them are from Pier One and feature dogs or cats in holiday hats but also some traditional winter themes. I thoroughly enjoy bringing those out and taking a break from my year round ‘Butterfly Meadow’ dishes with flowers, birds and butterflies. I have five or six Christmas tea cups that I use during this same time period.

So I kind of immerse myself in the holiday and enjoy the heck out of it, watch the Rose Parade on New Year’s Day and pivot back to normal life thereafter.

It probably started when I was a kid and the entire Christmas season seemed so magical. I really love Autumn and Winter, as my two favorite seasons and I feel so much more alive in the colder weather.

Frankly, I loathe summer and hot weather. Just not my thing. Come talk to me about stress in July!  I’m all about the cozy indoors of winter with a blizzard raging outside, metaphorically speaking.

I used to take my annual vacation at Christmas time because at the old day job there would be quite a few official days off and so I could take two weeks without actually using up all my vacation days. I’m sure that helped with stress levels too.

My daughters have told me they were stressed because I did all the wrapping of gifts for the family on Christmas Eve and basically disappeared for the entire day. If I’d know that then, I would have handled it differently!

There were some years when I remember stressing over whether I could get them THE toy they most desired in the entire universe. I think I managed for the most part, although there were a few years we made a quick trip to Toys R Us after the holiday to sift through the wreckage in the aisles and see if we could find whatever it was or something to be a ‘consolation’ gift.

I should probably add that our holidays are pretty low key. We don’t do giant family dinners, I’m not a party person, I do everything I need to do for myself to minimize stress, which as an introvert primarily means avoiding those occasions where a ton of people gather. I did the office parties and the company parties back in the day when I was required to by my job or my late husband’s job. Being a fulltime author requires no group gathering with egg nog and white elephants, thankfully.

Give me a good Regency Christmas romance to read, Jake the cat to purr, my cozy blankets, a cup of tea in that holiday cup and I’m happy!

Wishing you a happy holiday season…

(By the way, I’ve been sharing photos of my extensive fashion jewelry Christmas earrings and pins collection on my author Facebook page and my Instagram, if you enjoy such things…)

All photos are Author's own.

Beware the Ghost of Holiday Stress

Happy Friday the Thirteenth.

It's two weeks before Christmas and I'm on one coast of the state at a specialty hospital being evaluated for handling the migraines. My father is in another hospital on the other side of the state with his heart rate through the roof and yet another heart procedure in his near future. Welcome to holiday stress.

How are you supposed to survive this nonsense anyway? If you have the ability (and this is definitely a skill) release what you cannot control. Ask for help. Accept that help. Connect with other people. Mix enjoyment into some of the moments of madness. Find a little hole in the wall restaurant that makes that thing you love. Seek out stories. Especially those that connect you to something larger than yourself.  Case in point: In the parking lot of the hotel, a huge brown tabby and white polydactyl cat greets hotel guests with head bonks and purrs. It seems the hotel helps manage a colony of feral and abandoned cats on property. When the last hurricane blew through, the hotel put the colony cats up in one of the hotel rooms to keep them safe. Did that not restore a little faith and lower your stress a tiny bit? (PS: The cat's name is Nala.)

Most of us think in terms of stress being a bad thing. But in the dark of winter when most of us in the northern hemisphere want to retreat from the cold, the gray skies, and from life itself, stress kicks us back into gear. Our blood moves faster. Stress warms us a touch. Chronic unrelieved stress is bad. That’s not the holidays, that's siege. So if your family situation feels like standing up on the barricades, it needs to be addressed. Preferably with a professional. Your well-being and peace of spirit aren't worth days of torture and anguish.

For run of the mill 'too many things on the list and not enough time' kinds of stress, ask for and accept help. Got to change that light bulb way up in the ceiling? Ask for help bringing in the ladder. Or holding the ladder. Don't let the cat talk you into letting her scale all the way to the top. She'll just show off and then bite you when you try to keep her from falling off. Ask me how I know.

Put a silly holiday show on the TV. Or a decorating show. Or a shoot-em up. Whatever is your holiday jam. Rock through that list of yours in the company of people you actively enjoy. If someone is in the kitchen making treats while you finish up the holiday card list, bonus. And don’t forget the power of exercise to keep you from murdering your nearest and dearest. Channel a little holiday spirit with a bracing walk in whichever winter wonderland you occupy.