B-day Sox

Huzzah! Alyson knitted me socks for my birthday. The pictures cannot convey the soft plushiness I feel on my size 8 1/2s.

Check out the heel stitch and the generous gussets. Nothing but the best for me.

Jim cooked the dumplings for dinner.

For an after-dinner treat I made myself a low-sugar batch of shortbread topped with sugar-free chocolate.

It's snowing now. We are expecting another 10 to 20" over the 22" we got last Friday/Saturday. I'm sleeping in my sox tonight!

Comfort Food

Everybody in the co-op today was buying comfort food, so I got a four-pound chicken and proceeded to roast it casserole-style. Instead of Poulet en cocotte au Bonne Femme, I went for the simpler Casserole style and instead of Tarragon flavoring, I used Rosemary, which I vastly prefer.

I think tarragon tastes bitter and I have had enough of bitterness.

This is what I call 'informal serving' instead of fetching one's own from the filthy kitchen. Sauce flavored with sherry, peas and rice to accompany - it was real nice.

If I don't go to work tomorrow, I'll make chicken stock.

We are expecting another snowstorm tomorrow (my birthday) starting about noon and lasting 24 hours or more. Another 5 to 10 inches are expected on top of this (picture above: around the corner of the hose looking towards my neighbors yard, his three-bar fence half buried and his little SUV a mound) and more power outages anticipated.

Blessings on you, wherever you are. May you stay snug and comfortable - and safe.

snowbound - where are the sweets?

I'm not buying cookies or candy anymore, in an effort to get my eating/weight under control. That's why, when Jim asked if there were any cookies in the house last night, I baked him some shortbread.

2 oz. sugar, a stick of butter and six oz. flour. I used vanilla sugar and grated in some fresh nutmeg for flavoring. (Baked 35 minutes at 300 degrees, cool before breaking.)

It's quite good. So good, in fact, that I boxed up what was left and put it on his desk. Even before breakfast, it was calling my name.

Tonight, Roast Chicken Bonne Femme.

Cold night, warm soup

I'm ashamed that I haven't posted since before Christmas. And I made SUCH a great Christmas dinner, too.

But now, the first of February, I HAD to have some soup and make it quick. It's cold, snowy, icy and I didn't want to wallow in fat. I had onions and potatoes at home, also boxes of chicken broth, but no leeks. Thus, Leek-and-Potato Soup becomes Onion-Potato Soup and I made meatballs with ground turkey to up the protein count. No cream, butter or eggs, and nobody missed them.

I may have added too much herb seasoning to the meatballs, but they're palatable. Thyme, salt and pepper for the soup, which I made with half water and half boxed broth. I cooked it in the pressure cooker for five minutes and simmered it afterwards for 20.

Oh, yeah. I also added the last couple of tablespoons of chopped sorrel from the freezer. Yum.

Thank you, Julia, for the recipe. Thank YOU, Alyson, for the peeling and chopping. We make a good team.

Nut Cookies

Happy Birthday, James!

He's here. Safe home from China. Tomorrow is Jamie's birthday. We'll have homemade Gingersnaps (among other things).

Gingersnaps

Yield: 10 dozen

1 ½ cup shortening 4 teaspoons soda

2 cups brown sugar 2 teaspoons ground ginger

½ cup molasses 2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 eggs 1 teaspoon cloves

4 ½ cups flour more granulated sugar

Cream together; shortening, sweeteners and eggs, until light and fluffy. Sift together dry ingredients, stir into the creamed mixture. Form into small balls (1 – 1 1/2 “ dia.). Roll in granulated sugar and place 2 inches apart on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375° for 10 minutes.

Snow Day = Baking Day

Lenox Fruit Cookies - A Family Heirloom - yields about 8 dozen 2" cookies

1 cup butter ½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups sugar 1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 eggs, beaten 1 cup nuts (I use broken Black Walnuts)

1 teaspoon baking soda dissolved ½ cup raisins

in 1 ½ Tablespoons hot water ½ cup currants

2 cups flour 1 ¼ cups flour mixed with dried fruits

Cream butter, add sugar, cream well. Add eggs, then soda in water. Add flour, salt and cinnamon. Add nuts, fruits mixed with flour. Mix well.

Drop in small spoonfuls on greased cookie sheets. Bake 10 – 12 minutes at 400°.

These improve with aging and ship well. It wouldn’t be Christmas without them.

Digression:

In 1901 Methodist ministers went to Conference every spring and received their assignments for the coming year. They and their families expected to be moved from town to town within their conference every year.

If a minister was well-liked, his congregation would ask the Bishop to assign him a second year, perhaps even a third.

In 1903, my grandparents arrived in Hillsboro, the first time they had moved since their marriage in 1901. Their next-door neighbors gave them this recipe – which bears the marks of a old one, even for that time.

Dissolving the baking soda in water hearkens back to the time when NaHCO3 was a large, hard crystal, not a fine powder. And the practice of mixing the dried fruit with flour dates from the common occurrence of ‘seeded’ raisins.

Seeded raisins were large and sweet, but had hard seeds which had been removed by squeezing them out between rollers. This made a large, flat sticky raisin. Recipes calling for them frequently specified that they be quartered. Sifting them between the fingers with flour kept them from sticking together.

I frequently add a little freshly grated nutmeg to the dough, equivalent to a quarter-teaspoon or so. I think it compliments the Black Walnuts.