xoxoxoxo!

Click through. I promise you want to.
http://jurgenzuvols.livejournal.com/52447.html

I addressed a lot of them today, but I'm still missing a significant number of addresses. Please comment if you would like one from me & J! (comments will be screened to protect privacy, of course.)

First sentence from the first entry of each month in 2009... ( not much to see here. )

Boar Hunt was a blast. Else let me head up team garnish in the kitchen. Decorating food is fun. Much eggnog was consumed.

Yesterday was supposed to be spent finishing the decorations on the tree, but we slept in, ran a few errands, and had lunch at Cafe Rouge (including a miraculous salad of mache, paper-thin slices of watermelon radish, sliced sunchokes, shallots and walnut oil. I'm still trying to figure out the vinegar, since it wasn't very acidic. Maybe a white basalmic?) Anyway, we got home took naps, started a fire, and realized at 7 PM it was just too late in the evening to start. So we'll decorate the tree for date night tonight, and we'll have crab for dinner again. (It's been on sale at Andronico's for $3.99/lb. This will be my fifth crab dinner in less than two weeks. Happy piggy, that's me!) ( And then there's more about food. )

( Dyeing fun )

Yesterday I scheduled the GRE, got materials, and started studying. This morning I emailed professors to make arrangements for meetings.

This means almost no sewing progress, but that's OK.

Pistachio Cranberry Icebox Cookies. I didn't change a thing.

Mexican Chocolate Cherry Rounds. What I changed: used a dried cherry on the top instead of a candied one.

Cardamom Butter Squares. What I changed: used freshly-ground cardamom and doubled the amount. Skipped the espresso icing entirely, instead drizzled with a (melted) dark chocolate orange from Trader Joe's.

1. Cardamom Butter Squares, updated with icing. To quote Ali, "Le nom-nom." They're very good plain, but drizzled with a melted dark chocolate orange, they are, in fact, devine. I have found my cardamom cookie, I really have.

2. Coconut Orange Snowballs. Not worth it. Even if they were totally delicious (and they aren't very exciting,) I am not making these again. The chilled dough is too hard to work properly (it broke my professional-grade cookie scoop!) And when I tried to soften it, it just melted. I'm sure there's a magic temperature to work it at somewhere, but they aren't good enough for me to try to go find out what it is.

1. Mexican Chocolate Cherry Balls. These are a new take on the chocolate crackle cookie. The cloves add a nice depth, and the cayenne gives them quite a kick. They are softer and chewier than I expected, but that's a good thing. I used a dried cherry instead of the candided cherry the recipe calls for, and that's just fine. Not too sweet. Worth repeating if I'm in the mood, but probably not an every year thing. (Unless they are a total hit at the party.)

2. Pistachio Cranberry Icebox Cookies. Crisp, butter cookie texture, excellent flavor, and great presentation. These totally go on the repeat list.

3. Citrus Pinwheels. Another one from the new cookie book that's a little too sweet for my taste. I used lemon oil and orange oil instead of extracts, which worked fine. I like the lemon ones better than the orange. But they could use a little acidic zing to balance the sweetness, so next time I'll use zest. They're certainly pretty to look at.

4. Cardamom Butter Squares. Are not at all square, though they were when they went into the oven. Freezing the dough might help. The recipe also calls to slice them 1/4" thick, but I'll make them thinner next time. I doubled the cardamom and used freshly ground, and boy oh boy, they are strongly cardamom-y. next time, either use the fresh or double the amount, but not both. They still need to be iced, though.

Request for a favor from the locals...

Does anyone happen to have a lemon tree or an overabundance of lemons, who could possibly get them to Bellatrix practice tomorrow? I need 4 cups of fresh lemon juice, and I hate buying that many lemons... please?

Thanks!

ETA: hrj to the rescue! Thanks, all.

Huh. Why is it that after a hectic day (starting at 6 AM,) I still don't feel like I got all that much done? I thought I would get something done on Red Dress 2.0 today, but nope. So, what did I really do?

1. Baked the White Moravian Spice cookies. Granted, these are rolled and cut, and the batch is huge. Almost 10 dozen.
2. Ordered some linen
3. Took care of fabric/costuming-related email
4. Paid bills and balanced the checkbook
5. Planned mom's x-mas present
6. Pulled out leftover fabric and planned more Christmas aprons
7. Made dough for pistachio cranberry cookies (and ran out of sugar.) Did all related dishes.
8. Went shopping: Xmas presents for J!, more sugar, and ric-rack for aforementioned new aprons
9. Iced 102 cookies. Three hours. I don't enjoy icing cookies, but Aine came by and talked at me, which helped mightily.
10. Took empty Xmas boxes to the basement.
11. Made dough for cardamom butter cookies, and did more dishes...

I'm feeling rather boring at the moment, but logistics are taking the brain-space normally used for insight and inspiration. Your regularly-scheduled-Wendy should return sometime next week.

The cookie posts will continue until Thursday, when mom gets here and party-prep overdrive is going to set in. For now, I have two new ones to review:

1. Peppermint Stars. These are Alton Brown's basic sugar cookie recipe with 2 tsp of peppermint extract and 1/2 c crushed candy canes. The batch gets split in two, and one half colored red. Then they are cut into concentric stars, and small stars of one color set into the large stars of the other. They're pretty, and the texture is ok (I don't usually like the texture of sugar cookies, but these aren't tough.) I did learn that the candy canes need to be very finely ground so that they don't melt and cause holes. Also, my peppermint extract (Simply Organic, alcohol free) is sub-standard in the flavoring department. If I do these again, I need to go get the Boylan peppermint oil.

2. Almond-Raspberry Thumbprints. The story of these cookies begins with a confession. I am inordinately find of Weesper Moppen, which are made with tinned almond paste. And almond paste in a tin is difficult to find. So, when I thought I saw it at the Pasta Shop last summer, I bought about 10 cans. (Operative word is "thought," see where this is going?) As it turns out, I bought a million cans of almond filling. About all that's good for is frangipane tarts, so I'm stuck with six cans of the stuff (I pawned four of them off on my mom.) Might as well use one up, right? (I love Google-cooking!) The only substitution I made was organic raspberry jam instead of their raspberry filling. And these are delicious. Definitely a do-over. Things I learned for next time: do use your hands to form the balls if you want nice round edges. And use a jam (or filling) high in pectin, or the insides may get soggy. (I didn't, so these might just have to get eaten quickly and a new batch made - oh darn!)

The other new ones on the schedule to try this can all be found on Epicurious:
Pistachio Cranberry Icebox Cookies (Gourmet, December 2006)
Cardamom Butter Squares (Gourmet, December 2004)
Walnut Acorn Cookies (Gourmet, December 2000)
Coconut Orange Snowballs (Bon Appetit, December 2003)
Mexican Chocolate Cherry Rounds (Bon Appetit, December 1996)

Had a lovely time at Ysa's T-day. Warm welcome, good company, amazing food, and lots of love. I brought two chocolate bourbon pecan pies, and madbaker brought a not-chocolate one. Lots of pecan pie, and no pumpkin, which seemed to be just fine for everyone there :-) (I like pumpkin pie, but it's not easy to do well.) I also brought some of the St. Catherine's cookies to see how they went over - folks seemed to like them, so maybe they'll be a repeat after all. The turkey and the mashed potatoes were excellent - Bri has some cooking skillz! I am grateful to have such good friends.

In the meantime... I did nothing yesterday, since I was still feeling pretty sick. Sat on the couch and watched season 2 of Heroes, and that was about it. I went to bed (and to sleep!) at 7 PM. But... I'm feeling much better today. So in the morning...

Rum balls, done. Bourbon balls, done. Hungarian Xmas balls, done. And Red Dress 2.0 is finally cut out.

The second set of new recipes has been pretty disappointing - there's only one repeat from these.

1. Cinnamon ducks. I'll make these again. Basically a snickerdoodle dough, though not as sweet. Texture right out of the oven is crisp at the edges and cake-y in the middle. Very good as a basic cinnamon cookie.

2. Hazelnut and chestnut pinwheels. Basic nut shortbread with filling. The ones from the new cookie book are OK, but a little bland. I suspect there are more flavorful pinwheel cookies out there. Not a repeat.

3. Whetstone cookies. The flavor is lovely, but the texture is terrible - hard and tough. I will see if they soften over time. If not, these aren't worth repeating. I will lift the rosewater and caraway as a combo, though.

4. St. Catherine's cookies. Pretty boring butter cookie with currants, and difficult to shape. The ground almonds don't really add much. I have better recipes for currant cookies.

Next up: the requisite rum balls, etc. No more new recipes until Wednesday or so.

And I can't get through to them. I have a continued claim for extended benefits here, that states I have a remaining balance. I have a notice of a new claim (which I did not file, so they must have done it automatically) and and award of benefits. And now I also have a denial of the new claim, sent to me without the appeals paperwork (from DE1000M) they say is included. (I'm denied because I didn't work as an employee in the last year. Dude, that's *why* I'm getting extended benefits, right?)

And they do not answer their phone, and I cannot even get to the part where I would go on-hold. This is really, really weird. No answers on their website either. I guess I'll just send in the claim forms and see what happens?

I really hate this stuff.

It's really worth watching all the way to the end.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgbNymZ7vqY

I think I have caught J!'s cold. I had managed to fight it off until this morning, when I woke up with a sore throat. (I blame yesterday's lack of sleep.) There is a high likelihood that we will not be at practice tonight, which sucks. But I want to kick this thing quickly so I can go to Turkey Day tomorrow without getting anyone else sick.

LJ-Foodie-HiveMind, please help? I'm looking for a source for real currants (dried.) I can get them fresh when is season at Berkeley Bowl, but have had zero luck finding them dried.

I am tried of using the raisin they call "zante currants." They just don't taste like the real thing, and with the number of English recipes I'm doing this year, it's worth an investment.

Yes, astg, that title was especially for you. :)

ETA: real currants of both the black and red varieties are an entirely different botanical family (Saxifragaceae, Genus Ribes) from zante currants (Vitaceae, Genus Vitis. Zante grapes originally came from Corinth.) They taste completely different. Currant cultivation was outlawed in the US by an act of Congress in 1911, as they were a vital carrier in the spread of a disease that was decimating the white pine lumber industry in the US. New, disease non-participants have been recently hybridized, so US currants *should* be available.

American recipes almost mean zante currants when they call for currants, British and Northern European ones usually mean real currants (Ribes.)

And many many happy returns!

I just raided our pantry because a student at the local HS came by to ask for donations for a canned food drive. I do realize the irony in that fact that I just got done telling J! that we are low on funds for the rest of the month and need to be careful even in the grocery shopping, but I'm OK with that. There are always people in the world less fortunate than us. What's more, I know J! knows this, too. I am blessed.