Champagne and Truffles

Today's post brought to you by fun things to do to impress others. On tap today is sabering champagne bottles open. Now there is a way to show off at your New Year's Eve event.  Just promise me that you will do it while still sober.

Take one of your bottles of champagne - preferably a cheaper one, just in case - and get it cold. Almost freezing.  So, if you are here in Alberta this means you can just leave it outside for an hour or so. Then you can take one of your solid kitchen knives if you don't have your own sword handy.

With your cold bottle in hand and look for the seam in the glass.  Your target for your knife/sword is just below the lip of the bottle right at the seam. Remove the foil, but you canleave the wire on. With a firm, but not heavy hand slide your blade against the bottom of the lip of the bottle.  Don't hack or whack it. With a really cold bottle the right pressure will simply cause the entire top of the bottle to pop off.  With the pressure of the bubbles no glass falls back into the bottle.  Straight to the enjoyment.

Traditionally, this was done with a sword and on horseback. In the modern world I am thankful for truffled popcorn and a dishtowel to catch the popped cork. We won't be sabering tonight, but we will enjoy bubbly with friends. Thanks for the folks at Sumac Ridge for the demo and opportunity to impress.  And for the champagne/popcorn combo. 

Happy New Year!

Lessons Learned

While Christmas Day has come and gone, the season continues on in our house for at least another week. I can't resist sharing this photo of our stockings.  We have no fireplace so The Monster decided that our hallway laundry basket was where Santa would visit us. I'm not going to argue with a three and a half year old on Christmas! Oh wait, I did.  That would be the first lesson we learned.

Lesson #1

Do not insist on the Christmas Pajamas you bought when she dresses herself, entirely by herself, for the first time.  Instead, cheer for her and let her go to bed with two Pull-Ups on and summer PJs that are too small.

Lesson #2

Do not trust a three and half year old to keep a present a secret.  I knew my present within a hour of her returning from the mall.  She was just so damn excited to share with me.

Lesson #3

Three and a half is not too young to learn how to vacuum properly. That's what she got for deliberately throwing rainbow sprinkles on the floor.

Lesson #4

Hubby is the best dad/cousin/uncle for letting a 17, 12, 8, and 3 year old girl do his make-up and hair.

Lesson #5

Santa is apparently supposed to eat ALL the cookies you leave out for him, even if it is a dozen or so.

Lesson #6

Beef Wellington is fantastically delicious.

Lesson #7

A child can indeed survive on nothing but pork in various forms, oranges, cookies, and chocolate.

Lesson #8

Christmas with a child is seriously the best thing ever.  Everything was an adventure and sheer excitement. She still wakes up in the morning, plugs in the lights on the tree and tells me, "Mama, it's amazing!"

Potluck Recipes

This morning I had the pleasure of cooking on Breakfast Television. I also had the pleasure of meeting Santa! The segment was on what to bring to a Holiday Potluck.  Break free from Spinach Dip in Sourdough and Sweet Potatoe Casserole!

Here are the recipes for the savoury items - Cauliflower Gratin, Mushroom Pate, and Cranberry Sauce. The desserts can be found here.

Cauliflower Gratin

This is based on a Martha Stewart recipe that I first tried years ago.  To be honest, I never found it again, so I had to make it up the next time I tried it. The original is actually now in The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook: The New Classics. I'm not too far off, just a little bit less of everything. My recipe serves 4-6 as a side (depending on how many other sides you have) or 3 of us at lunch, eating it straight from the pan.

1 head cauliflower

Juice of 1 orange

Water

2 tbsps flour

salt and pepper

6 ounces goat cheese (1 and a 1/2 grocery store logs)

2 tbsps fresh thyme

50-75 grams thinly sliced pancetta or proscuitto

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Butter an 8 by 8 casserole dish.

2. Cut cauliflower into bite size pieces.  Steam for 5 minutes.  Set aside.

3. Combine orange juice and water to equal 1/2 cup.  Combine water, flour, 4 ounces (1 log) crumbled goat cheese, and thyme.  Mix well.  Combine with cauliflower and pancetta/proscuitto. Season with salt and pepper. Pour into prepared pan.

4. Bake for 30 minutes, covered with foil.  Bake another 30 minutes uncovered.

Mushroom Pate

One of the bridal showers hosted for me back when Hubby and I were getting married was an in-house cooking class.  Brad Smoliak came to my in-law's house and shared an amazing repertoire of appetizer recipes with all my girlfriends. The mushroom pate he shared has made the rounds of nearly every party any of us now attends.  It takes the creaminess of spinach dip that we all like and turns it around into a richness unlike anything else. Like the recipe for Cauliflower Gratin, I couldn't find the original and made it up as I went.  Today I made it with a surfeit of chanterelles a neighbour left me, but it can be made with any combination of mushrooms.

1 pound finely chopped mushrooms

1 large shallot or 1/2 a small onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

1/4 cup cognac, brandy, or whiskey

3 tbsps cream cheese

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 tbsp fresh thyme

Worcestershire sauce

Salt and Pepper

1. Combine mushrooms, shallot, and garlic in large frying pan. Drizzle with olive oil and a generous pinch of salt.  Cook over medium heat until the liquid from the mushrooms is evaporated, approximately 10 minutes.

2. Pour in alcohol of choice.  Cook until the liquid is evaporated.

3. Stir in cream cheese until melted in to mushrooms. Add cream, thyme, and a few splashes of worcestershire sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Cranberry Sauce

Unless you have a nostalgic fondness for the ridges on the wiggling cylinder of canned cranberry jelly I strongly recommend that you commit to making your own cranberry sauce. It is ridiculously easy and the flavours can be customized to your own taste.  Here is the basic recipe, but you can change it up any way your like.  What about using pomegranate juice instead water or orange juice?  How about throwing in some cardamom and cloves? Or, using molasses and ginger with some pears and dried currants?

1 bag fresh or frozen cranberries

1/2 cup brown or white sugar

1/2 water or juice

Combine the ingredients in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until the cranberries have popped and the mixture is slightly thick.  It will thicken more as it cools. 

Christmas Desserts

It was always my job, from about the age of 13 on, to make dessert for Christmas dinner. So long as I was baking away I was relieved of all other Christmas dinner duties.  As far as I was concerned, that was a good deal, but I'm not sure how my brother and sister felt about it. All would be forgiven as soon as the cheesecake, torte, or even zabaglione came out.  A rich, over the top creation to fill our already overflowing tummies.

Things sure have changed.  Now I do all the work - dinner and dessert - and am stuck with most of the clean-up too.  Not that I'm complaining if it means having a lovely, albeit raucous dinner at home. My desserts have changed too.  Gone are the rich, chocolate affairs.  Those are still good, but after a rich, starchy dinner I've trained myself to want something lighter.

Last year it was Key Lime Pie.  Oh, was it pie!

This year I am opting for Panna Cotta.  Appropriately, the first time I had it was at a Christmas lunch for the office. I have no idea what was served for the rest of the meal, but I can still taste that first bite. While it is not exactly light considering that it is made with loads of cream, the perception is of something lighter.  Still an indulgence, but a slightly more refreshing one.

Panna Cotta is essentially Jello for grown-ups.  Made with cream and flavoured with lovely essences like vanilla, orange, or raspberry is takes jello far beyond any layered, Cool-Whip concoction you've ever had. Oh, and it is so very simple to make.  So simple that after you've made it you wonder why you ever thought gelatin was a scary thing.  Trust me, I can't make Jello, so this was indeed a scary endeavour. But all you do is let the gelatin bloom - a fancy word for get activated by a liquid - and stir it into your sweetened, flavoured cream. Then chill.

In fact, undo your pants, pour yourself a glass of sherry, and definitely chill in the post-feast bliss.

Merry Christmas!

Orange Scented Panna Cotta

(serves 6-8)

3 cups heavy cream

2 oranges

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

3 tbsp unflavoured, powdered gelatin (1 1/2 packets in Canadian grocery store availability)

water

1. Prepare a mold or 6-8 individual ramekins/bowls/glasses by cleaning thoroughly and letting air dry.

2. Zest oranges.  Stir zest into cream along with sugar and vanilla.

3. Juice oranges.  Add enough water to equal 1 cup liquid.

4. Place a few tablespoons of the juice/water into a small bowl and sprinkle with the gelatin. Let sit for about 5-10 minutes. Mixture will feel like a very firm gelled substance.

5. Heat cream mixture until just simmering and sugar is well dissolved. Remove from heat. If you do not want to see the zest in your finished panna cotta strain through a fine-mesh strainer at this point.

6. Stir in the gelatin to the heated cream mixture until smooth and all the gelatin is dissolved. Pour into molds, ramekins, cups, or bowls.  Chill 10 minutes, stir gently.  Chill 3 hours or overnight.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

The holiday season is in full swing with the requisite baking, tree chopping, and last minute mayhem. I'm sewing a little - an apron and a stocking for Smilosaurus - and finishing off some quilts for the Joy in the New Year Challenge.

There will be so much to share, in good time. And so much to do, in very little time.  

Here is to a merry season, warm laughs with family, treasured moments, and just a little peace for every one of us.

Backseat Adventure - Chopping Your Own Christmas Tree

You would think that after a trip where we got lost in the forest and ran out of gas on the way home in minus 30 I would be smart enough not to want to ever chop down my own Christmas tree ever again. You would think that after not checking the Junior Forest Warden's site and mistakenly assuming that the chopping spot was in the same location you've been to three times to discover it is an hour away we would take the girls and dogs back home. That would be a safe conclusion, but our annual Christmas tree chop is the one holiday tradition that I simply can’t do without.

The tradition is an inherited one from my husband’s family. They would load everyone into the classic Aspen Wagon and trek out to the forest on the last weekend before Christmas. Following a romp through the woods there was the inevitable debate over just the right tree. Was it full enough? Were the branches strong enough for all the lights and ornaments? And, most importantly, was it tall enough?

With more than a few years experience of tree chopping under my belt, and subsequent decorating, I can safely tell you that the answer to those questions in the forest always seem to be no, but they are a resounding yes once you get home.

Your first clue that the tree is just a bit too big is when the branches hang over the sides of the car when you strap it down and you are required to put a fluorescent orange strap to the end of the truck so the cars behind don’t hit it. Oversize Load.

Then you get it home. And it’s at least 6 feet too tall for your living room and you have to remove more than the side table to just find a spot for all the branches. So you cut off about half of what you brought home (from the bottom so you preserve the integral shape of the tree) and plunge into decorating. And if it’s my house you eat cookies and watch Will Ferrell in Elf while you do it.

Even if you do run out of gas and are left running from farm house to farm house to call the other party – hey, this was a few years before everyone had a cell phone – the exuberance of running through the forest on a single-minded mission is worth it. It is worth it for the long-standing and memorable family tradition. It is worth it for the freshest and most local tree you can get. And it is worth it for the hot chocolate and cookies that come at the end of the journey.

Aside from a few new and old favourites I tried the trendy Butterscotch cookies I've been eyeing in my original Five Rose Cookbook. To me, they were a perfect dough and a lovely fireside and snowsuit compliment to our day.

Butterscotch Cookies

(Adapted from Five Roses Flour Cookbook)

1/2 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cup flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1. Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, mix well.

2. Sift together dry ingredients. Add to wet and mix well.

3. Roll into a log and chill in fridge 1 hour - overnight.

4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Slice cookies from log roughly 1/4 inch thick.

5. Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Bits and Pieces

Life is a bit all over the place right now.  I'd hoped to have wrapped up the Quilt Along by now. My sincerest apologies.  But if you've been following along then your top should be done. And if you've been following, but not keeping up, then you are probably happy for the break to catch up. Or, the break to actually deal with a hectic holiday season. We'll return to wrap up the Quilt Along (or start it) in January.

Lately it seems like everything I do - whether it is life or quilting - is happening in bits and pieces.  We're knee deep in dust and noise as the basement reno is in full swing - new furnace and water system, walls, and concrete Oh My! Between work, writing, and family there is only time for snippets of life and creativity where one can get it.  That explains the above picture.  I was sorted small scraps while the girls played in the tub. I thought it was bad enough sharing those stylish, but horridly coloured bathroom sinks, so I spared you the charcoal/mustard combo on a 50 year old bathroom! But don't my piles look pretty.

I've been turning those piles into these blocks.

Single colour blocks of scraps, with that one bit of white thrown in for fun.

These blocks are so cathartic to make.  I can simply sit and sew, grabbing as I go. There is no plan to them.  I trim pieces relatively square and start sewing them in pairs.  Then I trim the seam allowances, press, and keep adding pieces.  After I have a couple of sections made I square them up and start playing with overall block layout.  Then I add or trim as necessary until I have a block big enough to trim to 16 inches square.

I say they are cathartic because there is no prep to them.  No cutting, no precision, no purposeful thought.  It is simply sewing.  And when life is throwing you so much it is nice to break down your creativity into simple processes to nurture the soul. No pressure either, just action. Little bits when I can steal little bits of time.