Soft Gingersnap cookies, filled with candied ginger and given a sweet crunch with a sugar coating The Holiday Home Tour is tomorrow and what was I thinking when I said they could show my house? Did I realize it was one week after Thanksgiving which meant my legion of decorations must be up and the house cleaned to suit my relentless eye which can always, always, find a spot of dust, a smear, or a tiny piece of lint that I missed? And that I would have less than a week to do it in? Well I got it done and there will be no cooking in my kitchen tonight so that it will look as good as I could ...
TEA AND SPICE SHORTBREAD
For many of us, with Christmas comes cold weather. It’s a time for cups of tea and hot chocolate. And tea and hot chocolate are always better with something to nibble on (or dip!) along with our drinks. This recipe makes a rich shortbread, flavored with a winter spiced tea and topped with an orange drizzle icing. It comes together quickly, keeps well and meets both the criteria above. You can nibble on it but I like it best dipped into my tea or coffee! It starts with the tea. When I think of spiced tea my mind goes back to my past and Constant Comment Tea by Bigelow. This is a ...
CHRISTMAS COOKIE SERIES: KEY LIME KRACKLES
Zesty Key Limes are the base for this melting bite of cookie with crackle crust. Thanksgiving has come and gone and we can move from pies to cookies. The Christmas cookie is a tradition beloved by bakers and eaters alike. It is a tradition of long standing. Cookies came into being as a part of the Winter Solstice Celebrations when people would gather to celebrate the changing seasons. As Christianity flourished, the cookie became one of the traditional foods served at Christmas feasts. Queen Elizabeth I is credited with inventing the Gingerbread man when she had gingerbread cookies made ...
MESSING WITH TRADITION: A LAYERED PECAN PIE FOR THANKSGIVING
This layered pie marries two of our favorite Thanksgiving pies: Pecan Pie and Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake. A top crust of pecan pie sits on top of a rich pumpkin spice cheesecake layer and ends with a delicious and gooey pecan filling. Woof! Thanksgiving: a meal so laden with tradition that there is little room for new dishes. At least that’s the way it is in my house. It’s perfectly fine to ADD a new dish but you can’t subtract or fool with any traditional item. That works out okay when one is feeding ten to fifteen people, but this year we are going small; there will be just four of ...
BRAISING MEAT: LAMB SHANKS TO DIE FOR
Did you ever make a meal that was pick-up-your-plate-and-lick-it good? One that was a slam-dunk to serve for dinner? Would you like to? Come with me to my kitchen…We are slowing cooking Lamb Shanks for a tender and savory meat with a rich red wine infused gravy. A little known fact about Asheville is that we have a good sized Greek population. The first Greek arrived here in 1900 and opened a restaurant. He was swiftly joined by others and in 1920 the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church was established to serve the Greek Orthodox population of Asheville. Every year the church holds a ...
HOLIDAY BAKING: BOURBON AND BROWN SUGAR MINI CAKES WITH MAPLE PECAN GLAZE
Holiday baking, it’s what I do. It’s who I am. As soon as Halloween is out of the way I get started making cookies, cakes, pies and all the other special sweets of Thanksgiving and Christmas. There is no magazine that I won’t buy, no TV cooking show I won’t watch and no blog or e-newsletter I won’t read. And the recipes start today. This particular recipe for a bourbon and brown sugar cake topped with a maple pecan glaze had two different sources of inspiration: last year’s Food Network Halloween Baking Championship and a gift of special baking pan from my daughters. On the ...
FRESH MARINARA SAUCE, OR NOT.
Fresh tomatoes are paired with carrots, onions and garlic with a hint of Vermouth in this easy to make Marinara Sauce. The sky is a brilliant blue and the leaves are vibrant reds and yellows. The final tomato harvest has taken place and my raised beds have been covered with mulch for the winter. The job of cleaning out last winter’s ash and dirt from my fireplace has finally been completed (yes, I procrastinated on that all summer long) and tonight’s freeze warning seems like a good reason to start this year’s wood burning season. The seasons are so much fun and autumn’s ...
FROM PIG TO PLATE: PORK LOIN WITH HORSERADISH CREME FRAICHE, SAUTEED APPLES AND A RICH DEMI-GLACE SAUCE
Pork Loin is slow cooked then served with a fresh horseradish cream, butter-sauteed apples and a rich demi-glace sauce in this blog post which takes us from the butchering of the pig to the final dish on a plate. Did you ever learn something that changed the way you saw the world? It's that moment when something you knew intellectually becomes something you fully understand and can use. One of those moments came for me last week when I went to a whole hog butchery demonstration at Hickory Nut Gap Farm. (Quick disclaimer: this post relates the life the animal lived to the way the meat we eat ...
MOVE OVER PIMENTO CHEESE, THERE’S A NEW KID IN TOWN! JALAPENO CHEESE
Way up north, In Alaska, there is a very popular cheese dip known as Kenai Cheese Dip, or Jalapeno Cheese Dip. But I didn't actually find it when I was there, I found it later in The Alaska from Scratch Cookbook by Maya Wilson which I brought home as a reminder of my trip. The recipe caught my eye because it looked a lot like that Southern favorite, Pimento Cheese, altered to fit the tastes and available produce of the north. It also caught my eye because I have three pounds of jalapenos needing to be eaten or preserved in some form. The cookbook version calls for store-bought ...
BROWN BUTTER SAGE APPLE BREAD
Forsaking the traditional cinnamon flavoring, this quick bread uses the savory flavors of Browned Butter and Sage for a fresh take on Apple Bread. October is here. I am not sorry to say good-bye to September. My September was pretty eventful: from hurricanes to a wedding to a funeral, it pretty much spanned every type of stress. As a friend put it to me recently, I have been living in a deep end of emotion. Which might explain my obsession with baking these days. Homemade muffins and breads, pies and cookies, cakes and desserts, they all speak to me of comfort and stability. So ...
