Christmas Morning Bread

One of the things I love about the holidays is the foods that to me just say Christmas. I love how families eat the same meal every Christmas year after year and when someone suggests a change it always ends up that everyone really wants the same meal as last year. Well one food tradition in my family growing up was eating homemade Cinnamon Swirl Bread every Christmas morning. Our parents would give us a certain time that we were allowed to go downstairs and look in our stockings. Shortly after we pulled everything out of our stockings our parents would come downstairs and see what Santa brought and start a pot of coffee for my Dad. We would eventually all sit down at the kitchen table to a breakfast of eggs, fruit and the most wonderful warm cinnamon swirl bread. It was one of the best times of the morning as we were all right there together and enjoying Christmas morning. Now we all have our own homes and consequently our own Christmas morning traditions. I know Russ and I look forward to Christmas morning with just the two of us and Cash as our time together to share presents, sit by the fire, and enjoy a quiet morning together in our pajamas. As much as I love our Christmas morning together I still miss the cinnamon swirl bread, so this year I have decided to bridge the old and new traditions and make small loaves of it for everyone.

To make the bread be sure and allow ample time for rising. The dough rises three separate times during the process. Aside from that it is a fairly straight forward yeast bread. I happen to love yeast breads and this is my favorite. The combination of cinnamon and sugar with the yummy yeast bread is just perfect. It is great at room temperature, warm, or toasted. Russ rates the bread a 9.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread, based on a recipe from Better Homes and Garden cookbook
(makes 2 large loaves or 6 small loaves)

1 pack active dry yeast
2 cups milk, scalded
½ cup sugar
½ cup shortening (Crisco)
2 t. salt
7 and ½ cups sifted all purpose flour
2 eggs, beaten

Filling:
¾ cup sugar
1 and ½ T. cinnamon
Soft butter

Active yeast in warm water. Pour scalded milk over ½ cup sugar. Add shortening and salt. Stir to dissolve and then cool to lukewarm.

Add 3 cups of flour and mix well. Stir in the softened yeast and beaten eggs. Add enough remaining flour to make a soft dough. Let dough rest 10 minutes. Knead until smooth and elastic. Place in a lightly greased bowl, let rise until doubled. Then push down and let rise again. Punch down and divide dough in half (if making two large loaves). Let rest 10 minutes. Roll each half into a rectangle and spread soft butter on dough. Sprinkle half of the cinnamon / sugar mixture on each and sprinkle with water. Roll up and place seam edge down in greased loaf pan. Sprinkle top with cinnamon / sugar and let rise until doubled (covered, in a warm place). Bake at 350 F for 30 to 35 minutes.

Better Neighbors...

While it isn’t quite the new year and I do have a few more days I have not decided what resolutions I am going to make for 2008 yet. In fact I am not sure what my 2007 resolutions were… Anyway, one that I am considering for 2008 is being a better neighbor. Russ and I love our house and our street and we know the neighbors around us and speak to them when we see them and there are a few others down the way that we say hi to when we see them and others we wave to in passing, but we don’t really know that many of them. We are not looking to find new best friends in our neighbors, but I feel like we should know a few more than we do. It is not that Russ and I aren’t great neighbors because we really are in the sense that we keep our house and yard up and Cash is friendly and not a barker, but we don’t really go out of way to meet new neighbors or go see any of the approximate million new babies that have been born on the street since we moved in almost two years ago. This is mainly because Russ and I are both relatively shy especially around people we don’t know or don’t know well. We have broken out of shells to go to the annual Halloween street party the last two years, but it is hard to meet neighbors who are all chasing their toddlers and tending to crying infants and the only neighbors who come to the street party besides us are those who have toddlers or crying infants. I am not exactly sure how we will try and become better neighbors, but I thought a good start would be to deliver a small holiday baked good to the neighbors on either side of us and across the street. So, I made small loaves of my mother in law’s recipe for pumpkin bread and Russ sweetly delivered them only to discover that the neighbors on either side were out of town and the one across the street who was at home and appreciated the bread is also trying to sell their house and will probably be gone soon anyway… Oh well, at least we are trying, right?

I am not posting the pumpkin bread recipe as this is a family recipe that may well be put to good use one day when Jane opens a restaurant or café or writes a cookbook. It is very yummy and the perfect blend of pumpkin and spice. Russ rates it a 9.

Holiday Treats for Cash and his Buddies

Russ and I knew we wanted a dog before we got married, but we decided to wait until after we were married and settled into our new house to start looking for one. After a couple months of settling in to married life and our new home we started looking through dog books. We looked up all sorts of pure breeds including some rather unusual ones where the closest breeder was in Wisconsin. While Russ and I agree on most things we couldn’t come to an agreement on a breed as they were either too small, too big, too much of a herder, too active, not active enough… After much deliberating we decided that what fit our family best would be for us to adopt a shelter or rescue dog. Since most shelter / rescue dogs are mixes and not much is known about their background we couldn’t be as picky, so our list of what we were looking for was much shorter – a sweet, male puppy that would grow to be a medium sized dog.

Like most of our searches we turned to the Internet to start our search and were pleased to find that all the local shelters and rescues have their pets listed online. We found a few puppies that fit what we were looking for and emailed for more information. The one we grew fondest of was a sweet looking little lab mix with black fur and little white paws. He was housed with a foster parent through the West Alabama Animal Rescue (WAAR) and was the last of his litter waiting for adoption. We emailed back and forth about his story, health, and temperament for a couple days with the WAAR contact. The more we learned the more we fell in love with this little guy. We finally set up a meeting time for us to pick him up. As it came closer to the time we were supposed to meet him I started to panic. We were about to adopt a puppy we had never met before, so I emailed her back and she calmed my nerves by saying that if after the weekend it wasn’t a match to let her know and they would relocate him. Well, as soon as we set eyes on him I knew that there was no way we would be returning him. Cash has been a part of our family since October 2006 and we have loved having him every minute… well except a few like when he dug up part of the new sod or chewed a chair leg….

Cash shows up on the blog fairly frequently and I have mentioned several times how he is my constant cooking companion. He just loves being in the kitchen while I cook and is usually either sprawled out on his bed, under my feet licking up anything that might have dropped, or playing tug of war with Russ. Since he is such a good little kitchen helper I decided to make him some holiday treats that he could also share with his buddies – Hugo, Wagg, Chester, and Kilkee. Based on Cash and his friends’ feedback I think these were a hit with two paws up!

Apple Peanut Butter Biscuits (recipe found online source unknown)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons canola oil

2 tablespoons honey

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, whisk together flours. In a medium bowl, whisk together applesauce, peanut butter, water, oil and honey until smooth. Add the dry ingredients, one cup at a time, into the wet and stir until combined. Scoop the mixture out onto a floured surface and knead a few times until it completely comes together and is smooth, adding enough additional whole wheat flour to keep it from sticking. Roll the dough about 1/4" thick - cut out as many shapes as you can and place them on parchment lined baking sheets. Repeat rolling and cutting until you have used up all of the dough. Bake until the biscuits are golden, about 25 to 30 minutes, rotating the pans halfway though. Remove and place on a wire rack to cool completely. Depending on your biscuit cutter size, the recipe can make a couple to several dozen biscuits.

A Frozen Gift

I am sure many of you can almost impossible to buy gifts for my Mother. She always says she doesn’t need or want anything and she truly doesn’t want any “stuff” for the house or clothes for her closet. So, as December rolled around this year Jessica, Will, and I were back to trying to figure out what to get Mom for Christmas. The only things that Mom ever needs are more hours in the day or more energy to get through them. Since we can’t exactly give her either of these we decided we would go out on a limb and try a new gift idea for her – homemade frozen food. She and my Dad both love home cooked meals, but some days it is hard for Mom to find the time or energy to make them. This way she will be able to have a few stored up in the freezer for days when she wants a break, but doesn’t want to pick up Chinese food or go out to eat. After running the idea past our Dad and Mom’s sister, Aunt Judy, we decided to make one frozen meal each for her and then supply her with coupons for more meals at later dates.

For my frozen meal I decided to make a version of my mother in law’s Beef and Vegetable Soup. To make the soup you use either leftover roast beef or brown ground beef with some onions. You then add any mix of vegetables (canned, frozen, leftovers from the week, fresh), some canned tomatoes, a can of Rotel, salt, pepper, and a little Tony’s and let is simmer away. You can also add rice or pasta if you like. I used ground beef and a mix of frozen and fresh vegetables. Russ and I did a taste test and thought it was yummy and would make a great gift for Mom. I divided it into three containers and froze them. (This is pretty much the recipe, but I'll post the full recipe shortly.)

Mom loved our new gift idea and will hopefully love the soup when she tries it in the near future! The soup is hearty and filled with lots of yummy different flavors from the various vegetables. I really like the vary the sizes of the vegetables which not only gives the soup a good look, but a nice variety of textures. We served it with a piece of cheese toast per Russ' request. It is delicious for lunch or dinner and freezes and reheats very well. Russ rates the soup a 10. (I didn't get a picture of Mom from Christmas, so instead I included one of her favorite child, Bernie.)

The Manly Sandwich

Early on when Russ and I were dating I learned that he is without a doubt a meat and potatoes kind of guy or more specifically a cheeseburger and French fry kind of guy. I am pretty sure that there is nothing that Russ prefers to eat over a good cheeseburger with a side of fries. If he let himself then he could eat them several nights a week without getting tired of them. I too enjoy a good burger, but for me it is more of an every now and then kind of food. Despite Russ thinking I try to sneak vegetarian meals in on him we eat meat at most every meal, however, I would not describe our diet as a meat and potato one. While I know Russ enjoys the meals I make ever now and then I try to make something that I know caters to his meat and potato side. Tonight it came in the form of a sandwich that I knew not only Russ, but also Allen would more than appreciate.

Seeing as I have a blog I do enjoy checking out other blogs especially other food blogs. I ran across The Pioneer Woman Cooks a while back and have enjoyed following her food and non-food blog ever since. This is her husband’s favorite sandwich and I think it may now be my husband’s favorite too. To make the Marlboro Man Sandwich you sauté onions (and I did mushrooms too) in a cast iron skillet with butter. While the onions cook you cut cube steak across the grain and sprinkle it with Lawry’s season salt. Once the onions are cooked you remove them and add more butter to the skillet. Then you add the beef and once it browns you add Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, and a little more butter to it. While it finishes cooking you butter the buns and toast them on a buttered skillet. Once everything is done you layer the beef, onions, and mushrooms on the bun and I topped it with some of the sauce and sliced mozzarella cheese. To try to put something a little healthier on our plates I served it with a simple salad of mixed greens and homemade balsamic vinaigrette.

Let’s just say Russ and Allen fell in love with the sandwich and said they would be just fine eating these every day for the rest of their lives… well not the rest of their lives, but they did say they wouldn’t mind having these at least once a week. I’m pretty sure we don’t need to eat this much butter once a week, but I could see these becoming a traditional beer brewing dinner. Russ rates them a 10 and if our rating scale went higher I imagine so would the rating on this sandwich.

Holiday Cookie Baking

In elementary school I would each invite all the girls in my class over for a Gingerbread House and Cookie Decorating party every December. Mom made gingerbread houses out of graham crackers using a melted sugar mixture as glue and sugar cookies in different holiday shapes in advance. Each child would get their own house to ice and decorate with colored hard candies, gum drops, and candy canes. We would also ice and decorate sugar cookies with different colors of icing and sprinkles. This was a holiday tradition in our house for years that not only I participated in, but also Jessica and Will and there classmates. After elementary school we no longer had the individual parties or decorated gingerbread houses. However, my Mother would still make her holiday sugar cookies along with her fudge and my Dad would make his famous peanut brittle and Aunt Bill’s (a candy similar to blonde fudge). As the years passed and we all went to college and moved out of the house many of these traditions became a thing of the past. A couple years ago Jessica and I decided to begin a new family tradition of having a Saturday in December dedicated to holiday baking. For the past few years we collect different cookie recipes and narrow it down to a select few to try. The past two years Dad has joined us to help make his famous holiday candies. It has become a day that Jess and I both look forward to and enjoy spending together. From what we hear it sounds like our family and friends who are recipients of some of the goods enjoy it too!

This year we decided on three cookie recipes and two candy recipes. Apparently we were being a little overzealous as we didn’t end up having time to make one of the candies. In order to have plenty to share we tripled one cookie recipe and doubled all the others. We really put Jess’ Kitchen Aid mixer to the test this year, so next year we plan to use both our mixers to accommodate the larger quantities. The selections this year were Linzer Cookies, Chocolate Butter Cookies, Nut Crescents, and Dad’s Peanut Brittle.

Russ gave me an early Christmas gift of a Christmas Linzer Cookie set. It had a recipe that came with it that looked really yummy with only four ingredients including orange extract. The dough did require lots of chilling in the fridge at different stages, so despite the few ingredients it took a while to have it ready to roll out. Once they were baked we decided that we probably should have rolled it a little thinner. The flavor with the hint of orange and the buttery texture were wonderful. We used apricot (homemade by Elizabeth) and raspberry jam in between the two cookies which added both great color and fantastic flavor that worked with the hint of orange. I love the beautiful look of linzer cookies with their window effect and the color of the jam contrasting with the dusting of powder sugar – picture perfect!

Both the Chocolate Butter Cookies and the Nut Crescents came from the holiday baking issue of Cooks’ Illustrated. The Chocolate Butter Cookies started out well with the dark dough coming together and forming easily into smaller portions to chill in the fridge. When the dough came out we rolled it out attempting to get it to be 3/16 of an inch thick. The problem is that the dough is very difficult to work with and has to stay cool in order for you to cut the cookies out and move them to the baking tray. As you roll it out in order to get it that thin the dough warms up too much and becomes very sticky and soft. It was quite an ordeal, but in the end we rolled them slightly thicker, cut them out, put them back in the fridge to chill again and then removed them and placed them on the baking sheet. Once they were baking we had two trays with silpats and two with parchment paper (the recipe calls for parchment paper). Well, the cookies on the parchment paper burned on the bottom making them inedible…. So, we only baked them on the silpats from then on and were thankful we had doubled the recipe since we had to throw out the burned ones. The next night we go to decorate these with melted white chocolate. Let’s just say that turned into a sticky mess, so we opted for undecorated cookies. The flavor was delicious with a distinct chocolate and espresso flavors and the texture was perfect from the butter. All in all these cookies were a huge hassle and consequently we won’t be making them again which is a shame as they were quite tasty. On the other hand the Nut Crescents (usually called Mexican Wedding Cookies) came together without any trouble. We used pecans in our batter and then formed the dough into rings instead of crescent shapes. They baked up perfectly and looked pretty with their powder sugar dusting. If I don’t say so myself I think this may be the best Nut Crescent style cookie I have ever tasted. They were not dry at all as I sometimes find this kind of cookie. They had a wonderful somewhat crumbly texture that was still moist and full of flavor from the pecans. These are definitely a recipe to be repeated! So, Cooks’ Illustrated is currently 1 for 1 which means we’ll probably still seek out their holiday baking issue next year, but we’ll keep an eye out for pesky recipes!

Dad has been our guest chef for two years in a row now and we love having him join us. This year he came and made his homemade Peanut Brittle which is his Dad’s recipe. It is a fairly simple recipe with only a few ingredients, but it comes out with a great crunchy texture and tons of yummy peanuts! He hasn’t made it in several years now, but it tasted just as we remembered it.

Russ gives the Peanut Brittle a 10, the Nut Crescents and Chocolate Butter Cookies 8s and the Linzer cookies a 9. It was a very fun afternoon and a tradition that I look forward to each holiday season.

Linzer Cookie Recipe

1 cup butter
2 cups sifted Cake Flour
1 tsp. Orange Extract
1/2 cup Powdered Sugar
1 jar Raspberry or Apricot Jam

Mix butter, orange extract and sugar. Stir in 1 cup of flour at a time, mixing well. Chill the dough at least 2 hours. Roll out 1/2 the dough on cookie sheet to 1/4 inch thick and chill 30 more minutes. Cut with the Linzer Cutter without an insert. Remove excess dough and bake immediately at 350F for 12 minutes. Roll out the other half of dough on a second cookie sheet and chill for 30 minutes. Cut with the Linzer Cutter with your choice of the 6 inserts in place. Remove excess dough and bake immediately at 350F for 12 minutes. Cool completely. Dust tops with powdered sugar. Spread 2 teaspoons jam on each cookie bottom. Place tops over bottoms to create the sandwich effect. Makes 10 - 12 cookies.

Other recipes and more pictures are coming soon. The pictures above are not great since my regular photographer was out of town duck hunting. The good news is he brought home duck... so stay tuned for my first attempt at cooking duck!

Fish as Comfort Food

For the past couple of years Russ and I have stayed fairly healthy. I'd like to think that this is in part to the fact that we eat pretty healthy with a few exceptions for wings and Jelly Bellies from time to time and we run pretty regularly with a few off weeks every now and then... However….when it comes to the first week in December I am cursed. On December 1st Russ and I ran the Jingle Bell Run and while I was running I was contemplating how good I felt as opposed to last year at this time when I stood on the sidelines with Cash because I was under the weather. Well lo and behold I wake up on Sunday and I am feeling a little under the weather. Just like last year I have a bad cold that turns into a pesky cough that takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r to go away. All this to say that I can’t wait until the first week of December next year…

On a more positive note, Russ did take great care of me and picked up every kind of take out soup that Birmingham has to offer in the last week and a half. I am still coughing and don’t have all my energy back yet, but I am back to cooking at least for tonight. Since I have had a lot of soup recently I decided against my first instinct to make a warm pot of hearty soup. I still wanted a comfort food type of meal, so I decided on Giada’s Salmon Baked in Foil which is as simple to prepare as its name makes it out to be and very yummy. You simply slice two shallots, drain a can of diced tomatoes, add some lemon juice, olive oil, dried oregano, dried thyme, salt and pepper in a bowl. Then tear off a piece of aluminum foil and rub the salmon fillet with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and place it in the center of the foil. Then spoon some of the tomato mixture over the top of the salmon and wrap the foil up sealing it off. Let the salmon packets bake at 400F for 25 minutes. When they are done you open them up to find perfectly cooked, moist salmon with tons of yummy goodies on top.

This may not be comfort food to everyone, but to me tonight it is perfect! I served it with green beans and couscous. This meal is so easy to make and it comes out perfect every time. While the recipe is for four servings I don’t half any of it except for the salmon when I make it for the two of us. The shallot / tomato mixture is so tasty that I like having tons of it. This would be a great meal for entertaining as the packets can be prepared up to six hours in advance. Then when your guests arrive you can simply toss them in the oven. If you like eating fish, but are nervous about cooking it then I highly recommend this as a great recipe to try. Actually if you like fish at all I think you should try this recipe. If you don’t like salmon you can use another type of fish as long as it is not too delicate or thin of a fish. We have done this recipe with swordfish before which worked well; however, we prefer the salmon with this one. Russ rates it a 10!

Salmon Baked in Foil

3 tomatoes, chopped, or 1 (14 oz) can diced tomatoes in juice, drained
2 shallots, chopped
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from about ½ lemon)
1 ½ teaspoons chopped fresh oregano or ¾ teaspoon dried
1 ½ teaspoons chopped fresh thyme or ¾ teaspoon dried
1 teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 salmon fillets (about 5 oz)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. In a medium bowl, stir in the tomatoes, shallots, 2 tablespoons of oil, lemon juice, oregano, thyme, ½ teaspoon of salt, and ¼ teaspoon of pepper. In the center of each of four large sheets of aluminum foil, spoon ½ teaspoon of oil. Place 1 salmon fillet atop each sheet of foil and turn to coat with oil. Sprinkle the salmon fillets with the remaining ½ teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Spoon the tomato mixture over the salmon. Fold the sides of the foil over the fish and tomato mixture, covering completely, and seal the packets closed. Place the foil packets on a large, heavy baking sheet. (The salmon packets can be prepared up to this point 6 hours ahead. Refrigerate until ready to bake.)

Bake until the salmon is just cooked through, about 25 minutes. Using a large metal spatula, transfer the foil packets to plates and serve. (You may want to unwrap and plate the fish in the kitchen before serving.)

My Notes: I use canned tomatoes and dried herbs and in this recipe as they work just as well as fresh in this recipe in my opinion.

Recipe from Everyday Italian by Giada De Laurentiis