Now that my daughter is getting a little older (almost 3 1/2) she likes to spend time in the kitchen and “help” Mommy and Daddy. And by “help” I usually mean “hinder.” Not that she doesn’t have the best intentions, but, well…. she’s 3. She is a really good stirrer though so we often task her with that job, even if there is no stirring required for what we are making (a note to all parents out there who haven’t discovered it yet, but a bowl of flour and spoon will keep your kid occupied for quite awhile, though keep a close eye out or you will end up being occupied for quite some time cleaning up the flour!).

This past weekend Genevieve got to help Mom make one of her favorite things: Banana Snack Cake. The recipe comes from my mother (not sure where she got it) and was one of my favorites, growing up. Since we often have bananas around (Genevieve’s favorite fruit) this cake gets made a lot, and Genevieve is quite fond of it. She was very excited to get a chance to help make it this time.

Banana Snack Cake

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk*
1 cup (2 medium) bananas, mashed
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup quick oats
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
6 oz. semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional) (we like ours without)

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a 9×13″ pan. In a mixer, beat the butter until fluffy then add the sugar.

Add eggs, one at a time, then the buttermilk, vanilla, and mashed bananas, mixing well. Stir in the flour, oats, salt and baking soda. Mix well and gently add the chocolate chips. Spread batter into prepared baking pan.

And don’t forget to give the mixer’s beaters to your kid!!!!

Not doing so can lead to some serious consequences, including major temper tantrums! Sprinkle the top with nuts (if using) and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.

*If you don’t have buttermilk you can substitute with 1/2 cup regular milk mixed with 1/2 Tbsp. of white vinegar.

Okay, it finally happened. I succumbed to the holiday cookie mania sweeping blogs and the web this time of year. I feel guilty… and kind of dirty, like when you fall prey to one of those forbidden pleasures, but these cookies are so good I have to share them with everyone. Rich, chewy, decadently fudgy, with a crisp exterior and a soft, moist crumb, what’s not to love? Just writing about them makes me feel a little sinful.

Seriously, these are great, little cookies, eaten as is or sandwiched together with a little raspberry jam, these little morsels are usually on of the first things to disappear off of any cookie platter. The key to them is to not over bake them. Pull the cookies from the oven when they still look slightly underdone. This way you will end up with that crisp exterior, and fudgy, brownie like interior.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

2 cups sugar, granulated
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp. vanilla extract
4 squares (1 oz each) unsweetened chocolate,melted and cooled slightly
4 each eggs
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 pinches salt
1 cup confectionery sugar

Combine the sugar, oil and vanilla in a stand mixer. Add the chocolate and mix to fully incorporate. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add flour, salt, and baking powder and just mix to combine. Don’t worry, the mixture will be more like a thick brownie batter than a cookie dough.

Chill batter for, at least, 3 hours or overnight. When ready to bake preheat the oven to 350. Scoop approximately 1-1 1/2 tablespoons of batter into a ball. Roll in the confectionery sugar and place on a cookie tray.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until almost no indent remains when touched. Allow to cool on pans for 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack. Serve as is or sandwich the cookies with raspberry jam for an extra special treat.

Yesterday we got as far as cutting and baking the gingerbread pieces. Today it is time to assemble and decorate. But before we can do that we need to make some Royal Icing to use as our glue.

Royal Icing
1 each egg white
1 tsp. cream of tartar
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Beat egg white just until it loosens up. Add cream of tartar and powdered sugar. Stir until fully incorporated. You may need to add more sugar, to get a thick, frosting like consistency. Using just enough icing to adhere the pieces, build the base of your house, like in the picture below, using heavy cans of food to hold the pieces together as the icing hardens. This probably won’t be enough but I prefer to work with smaller batches and make it more often.

Use only enough icing to hold the pieces together, initially. This helps the icing dry more quickly than when it it loaded on. After it dries and the pieces are somewhat secure, you can then go back and reinforce the joints with more icing. Only after you have a solid base, with joints that have dried, can you then add the roof. The same rule applies here; add only enough icing to cement the pieces together to speed the drying process, then go back and reinforce. As you can see from the picture below, I have found it easiest to place the roof flat on the counter top and prop up the house. This works for small houses, but not large structures.

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One of my favorite pastimes during this season is making Gingerbread houses.  I have made all kinds of Gingerbread houses from the very large and ornate to the small and simple; I love making them all.  I have created a number of large “centerpiece” houses for various functions and benefits, my favorite being the large church I created as the centerpiece for the gift table at my own wedding.  It was over 2 feet long and the steeple stood almost that high.  With large, candy “stained glass windows, Golden Grahams as roofing shingles and a full array of bells in the steeple the project took weeks to complete, but I enjoyed almost every minute of it.  Then there was the time, as chef of a country club, when I had to make 30 mini Gingerbread houses for kids to decorate.  I didn’t take the simple way out and make them out of graham crackers but cut out and “glued” together 30 of the little things.

Look for Part II where we put the house together and let my daughter have her way with it.

It’s been a few years since I last made a Gingerbread house, but this year my daughter is 3 and I figured it would be a good time to restart the tradition. Of course she is still too young to help Daddy build a Gingerbread house, but she would be more than capable of decorating one, so I set out to build a couple of houses, one for her and one for the neighbor boy who I thought would also like to decorate a house.

The making of Gingerbread houses is not a single day task, unless you want to drive yourself insane. I find that I like to spread it out over 3-4 days, if making an average sized house, many more if making a large or elaborate structure. Day 1 – make and chill the dough. Day 2 – roll out, cut and bake the dough. Day 3 – assemble the house. Day 4 – decorate the house. Of course some of these steps can be combined into single days, but as a working stiff, I find that breaking it up this way makes each step easy to accomplish while still allowing me time to do other things after work.

Gingerbread Dough

2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup molasses
5 1/4 cups Flour, all purpose
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground clove
2 pinches salt
3/4 cup water

Cream together the butter and the brown sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add the molasses and mix well. Sift together the flour and baking soda and add, along with the spices and salt. Once well mixed add the water and mix to incorporate. Chill dough at least 3 hours, or better yet, over night. Meanwhile draw out your template for your house. For a basic Gingerbread house you will need 2 sides, a front and back and 2 roof pieces for a total of 6 pieces or 3 template pieces.

To make a house with the same dimesions as I have pictured your side template should be 3″ tall x 4″ long, the template for the front and back (same template for both, just no door or window cut out for the back) is 5″ wide, a side height of 3″, and a roof slope of 5″. The roof template will then need to be 5 1/2″ tall (the extra 1/2″ for overhang) by 5 to 5 1/2″ wide (again to provide some overhang in the front and back and taking into account the width of the gingerbread pieces on the front and back).

After you have let the dough chill for the appropriate amount of time you then need to roll the dough out. Use plenty of flour to dust the dough with, to prevent sticking and roll it out on parchment paper cut to fit your cookie trays. The reason for this is once you cut the pieces it is easier to move the whole parchment paper so that you don’t accidentally stretch the dough out of shape. For a smaller house like this, roll the dough out to about 1/4″ thick, for larger structures you will want the stability of dough rolled out to 1/2″ thick. Place your templates on the dough and cut out the pieces cutting about 1/8″ larger than the templates. Bake in a 350F oven for 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool, for 5 minutes on trays before transferring to a cooling rack. While still slightly warm shave the pieces down, using a serrated knife, to the exact size needed.

If you want to created glass windows or stained glass windows, use a hammer to crush up hard candies such as Jolly Ranchers. When the dough has 5 minutes more to bake, fill window with crushed candy, mounding it up in the center. Return to oven and finish baking.

A quick word about edibility. This recipe makes a great dough that provides both a good flavor and good stability. If you are not so concerned about edibility then there are few things I would recommend doing. First off, I would double all the spices. Doesn’t make for great eating but all those added spices helps keep the Gingerbread house fragrant for quite a long time. Also I would lower the heat to 325F and bake the dough for about 35-40 minutes. This will dry out the dough even more making it more stable, but also much tougher on the teeth.

It’s December 1st, and that means only 24 days left until Christmas, my favorite holiday of the year. Not only is it Christmas, but my wife and I celebrate our anniversary right around that time (Dec. 30th) along with my parents and grandparents. So, as you can see the holiday is a very special time for me.

I figured I would start the Christmas season off with a simple pie recipe. While it may be simple, it packs quite a punch in the flavor department. I tend to not drink a lot of eggnog. I’m not a big fan of it though I do like Tom & Jerry’s, which at their most basic are a frothy, warmed up version of eggnog. I also tend to use eggnog as a flavoring agent in many recipes this time of year, but I just can’t bring myself to drink more than a glass or 2 during the holiday season, and then only if spiked with copious amounts of bourbon.

My wife on the other hand loves eggnog and will drink a considerable amount over the next few weeks. Because of her love for eggnog I dedicate this recipe to her.

Eggnog Pie

1 each Pie crust for a 9″ deep dish pie
1/2 cup Sugar, granulated
1 pinch Salt
2 cups Eggnog (store bought)
4 each Eggs, large
Nutmeg, freshly ground

Preheat oven to 425F. Par bake pie crust for 7 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool while making filling. Reduce oven heat to 350F. In a large bowl beat eggs. Add sugar and salt and stir until mostly dissolved. Add eggnog and continue to stir until all sugar is dissolved. Try not to beat too much air into filling. Pour into pie shell, coming just below the edge of the crust. You might have a little extra filling. Don’t over fill the crust. Sprinkle with fresh ground nutmeg and place in oven, on a cookie sheet in case it overflows. Bake for 40-50 minutes. To check a custard for doneness, jiggle the pie. The custard should still wiggle like softly set jello. Don’t overcook the pie or it will lose its smooth, satiny texture and become grainy. Allow to cool on tray for 20 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack. Allow to cool completely before cutting. I even prefer to refrigerate it for a couple of hours to make sure it has set completely before cutting.

In my last post, I said I wasn’t going to offer up any Thanksgiving recipes. Well, I lied…kinda…sorta. I am not going to offer up any recipes for dishes to be served during the holiday dinner, though I guess you could serve these then if you wanted to. They would make a great change from the standard dinner roll. But what I really wanted to offer up is a wonderful breakfast treat you could serve to any overnight guests you might have.

Let’s face it, we all try to avoid breakfast on T-Day, in anticipation of the huge, gluttonous feast we plan on consuming later in the day, but if you are like me there is no way you will make it until then without an sustenance, especially as all those heavenly aromas waft through the air, igniting your hunger. Besides, as a host to those overnight guests I feel bad if I don’t offer up something for breakfast.

These popovers fit the bill quite nicely. They are light, but flavorful. Just the thing one needs to just take the edge off of the hunger until dinner is ready. If you have a full house consider doubling or tripling this recipe as they go quickly. Also serve immediately as popovers are best when still steaming hot.

I chose to use sage in these popovers as a little preview to the dinner ahead, but you could substitute out any herb you like. Both rosemary and thyme make nice additions.

Not many people own popover pans any more so I made these in muffin tins. If you have popover pans feel free to use them though you might have to add just a few minutes to the final cooking and you might not get 12 popovers out of the recipe.

Sage Popovers

2 each eggs
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
1 Tbsp. melted butter
1 Tbsp. fresh sage, finely chopped
1/2 tsp. salt

Heat oven to 450F. Generously grease muffin tin. In medium bowl beat eggs slightly. Blend in remaining ingredients just until smooth. Fill cups about half full. Bake at 450F for 15 minutes then reduce heat to 350F and bake for 15-20 minutes longer or until golden brown. Makes 12 popovers.

If you haven’t realized by now that Fall is my favorite season and that apples are one of my favorite foods then either: 1. you haven’t been paying attention, or 2. you are new to this blog and haven’t yet read many of my previous posts. Either way I am not going to bore you today with a rehashing of my previous sentiments. Read a few earlier posts from the last few weeks and you’ll get the picture.

The only thing I will say, before moving on to the recipe for today is that this recipe rocks!!! I know I should be more humble but really, I really liked these when I came up with the idea. I’m sure there have been plenty of others who have thought of stuffing an apple with caramel before turning it into a dumpling, but I haven’t come across any recipes. Besides, this recipe gives you the best of both caramel apples and apple dumplings. What isn’t there to like? I hope you enjoy this as much as I did!

Caramel Filled Apple Dumplings

1 recipe Your favorite pie dough for a double crust pie
4 each Apples (choose a good baking apple such as Granny Smith, McIntosh or Gravenstein)
10-15 each Individual Caramels
3/4 cup Sugar, granulated
1/2 cup Water
1/2 cup Cider or Apple juice
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
1/4 tsp. Ground Ginger
2 Tbsp. Butter

Preheat the oven to 375F. Peel and core all the apples, leaving just a bit of the blossom end intact. Roll out the pie dough and cut into 4 7″x7″ squares. Pack the cored apple with the caramels, packing it in lightly. Wrap the apples in the pie dough. There are 2 ways you can do this. 1. Bring the corners of the dough up, over the apple and pinch them together in the center. Then pinch together the seams giving yourself an elegant little package, or 2. wrap the dough around and over the apple, forming it to the apple so that the package maintains an apple shape. I then use some of the scrap dough to form decorative leaves “glued” in place, on top, with a little water. Place in a 9×13 pan and bake at for 30 minutes. Meanwhile combine the remaining ingredients in a saucepan, bring to a boil and cook for 3 minutes. Remove from heat. After the apples have baked for 30 minutes pour syrup over dumplings and bake 20-25 minutes more, basting the dumplings with the syrup every 8 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5-8 minutes before placing in a bowl with a little of the remaining syrup and a couple of scoops of vanilla ice cream.

It has been about 1 1/2 months since I wrote about my dismal macaroon failure here. In that time I have done considerable research on making French Macaroons and have finally tried my hand at them again. As you can see by the above picture, they aren’t perfect yet, but I am a lot closer to creating something I am happy with. I think I have the recipe pretty well conquered, now I just have to my piping techniques. The macaroons turned out shatteringly crisp on the outside and still chewy on the inside but they were too tall and not quite smooth on top. I think just a little adjustment to my piping technique and I will be set.

I was amazed, while doing my research, at the large variations in the recipes for French Macaroons. There are a lot of bad recipes out there, and not just on the internet, but in cookbooks also. I was also amazed by the number or recipes that claimed to be based off of the recipe from Laduree, the name in Parisian bakeries specializing in macaroons. With such a wide swing in baking techniques, meringue making techniques, and in the duration to let the macaroons sit before baking, someone (or better yet someones) is lying. The recipe below is one I came up with based on my research and on my experiences last time.

French Macaroons

1 cup Almond flour
1 1/4 cup Confectioner’s Sugar
3/4 cup Granulated Sugar
1/4 cup Water
3 each Egg Whites, room temperature
Pinch Salt

Combine the granulated sugar and water in a sauce pot, bring to a boil and cook to soft ball stage (240-242 degrees). Meanwhile, in an electric mixer whip 2 of the egg whites and the pinch of salt to stiff peaks. When sugar has reached soft ball stage remove from heat and, with the mixer going, add the sugar, to the egg whites, in a slow steady stream and continue to beat to stiff peaks again. In another large bowl combine almond flour and confectioner’s sugar. Add remaining egg white and mix together to form a stiff paste. Add 1/3 of the whipped egg whites to the almond mixture and stir to combine and lighten. Gently fold in the remaining egg whites and well combined.

Cover 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Place batter into a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2 inch pastry tip and pipe onto cookie trays into 1 1/2 inch circles. Allow macaroons to sit for 30-40 minutes to allow a skin to form over the mounds of meringue. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 325 degrees. With the door of the oven left open a crack bake the macaroons for 12 minutes. Spin and rotate the trays and bake another 12, again with the oven door slightly ajar. Remove from oven and allow to cool on trays until completely cool.

Fill with your preferred filling. I used caramel as we had some lying around waiting for me to make caramel apples with my daughter. Buttercreams, ganaches, and fruit curds all make great fillings, though just about anything can be sandwiched between the cookies. This recipe makes approximately 40 individual macaroons.

I have always been a pet lover. I got my first cat when I was 2 years old and had her until I was 15. As a kid I also had gerbils (can’t count how many or how many the cat got) a few fish, a dog, a lizard and various toads we captured. That love of animals has extended into adulthood. When I was single and living in Chicago I had ferrets. Man, are those little creatures a blast! We used to go “ferret bowling,” sliding them down a long, hardwood floored hallway, trying to knock them into each other or various obstacles, usually socks. They loved it and would coming running back and wait to get slid down the hallway again. We often tired out long before the ferrets did. When I met my wife, she added her to cats to the household. Currently, our house is home to not only three humans, but 2 dogs, 2 cats and an aquarium full of fish. It makes for tight quarters, sometimes, in our small house, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

We try hard, to treat our animals well, and that means keeping table scraps and feeding them “human” food to a minimum. Of course we don’t always succeed and our 2 dogs have become pizza hogs, willing to do almost anything to get their grubby little paws on a slice or 2, or whole pizza. They have also quickly learned the joy of having a 2 year old around. She often walks around with food dangling from her hand that just screams to be snatched or she will often walk away from a bowl of snacks, leaving it unguarded, and in the dogs minds, fair game. As treats we usually try to give them dog biscuits (aka Milkbones), usually store bought, but on occasions we have made treats for them. Luckily the web is full of recipes for healthy dog treats. Just make sure that the recipes don’t include a lot of added sugar or salt, which can be unhealthy for dogs. The recipe below is one my wife found a few years back. We haven’t made them in awhile, but when we have the dogs go nuts for them. In fact, when I came up with the idea for this post it reminded me that it was time to treat the dogs to these again, besides I think the 2 year old would enjoy cutting them out.

Cheddar Dog Biscuits

1 cup boiling water
1 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup butter
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
3/4 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup milk
1 each egg, beaten
1 Tbsp. Sugar
1 teaspoon chicken or beef bouillon granules
2 1/2 to 3 cups AP flour or whole wheat flour

Stir together water, oats, and butter and allow to sit for 10 minutes. Add cheese, cornmeal, egg, sugar and bouillon to oat mixture. Add flour, 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well after each addition, until a stiff dough forms. Knead dough for 5 minutes, adding more flour if sticky. Roll out to 1/2″ thick. Cut into desired shapes (of course dog bone cutter cutters are cute, but your pooch won’t care what shape you cut them into) and place on a greased baking sheet, 1″ apart. Bake at 325 for 35-45 minutes, until golden brown. Allow to cool and dry on wire racks.

While somewhat bland by our tastes your dog will love them. Heck, you might even like them too. They’re not bad, and they are definitely a good source of fiber. So go ahead and try one yourself!

I remember that this time of year was always a busy time when I was a kid. Of course, school was starting, which was always exciting and busy, as my parents hauled my brother and me all over to buy school supplies, new school clothes and new school shoes. Growing up in a small town in Vermont, this usually proved to be quite a production with a big family trip down to Burlington, an hour away, and the closest mall in the area. In addition, there was plenty to do in the garden with harvesting all the late summer produce and watching after the vegetables that would be harvested later in the fall. On top of all this there was lots of canning and freezing going on. Corn needed to be removed from the cob before freezing and green beans needed to have the strings removed before they could be processed for canning. While I am sure that there were a number of items my parents canned, I can only vividly remember three of them: tomatoes, green beans and peaches. What I remember most about the green beans is the boring job of having to snap off the ends and pull the strings. After canning I can remember listening for the “pops” as the jars cooled and the lids were pulled tight by the vacuum created.

The tomatoes were the worst, from what I remember. While Mom and Dad may have canned whole and diced tomatoes, what I remember most was the tomato juice they canned. I loved the tomato juice, but I remember just hating the way the house smelled as my parents cooked, peeled, pureed, and processed those tomatoes. If I was lucky, it was nice outside and I could escape the odoriferous confines of the house. If luck wasn’t on my side it rained on the days my parents canned and my brother and I were stuck, having to bear the assault on our olfactory nerves all day long. (continue reading…)