FOUND TIME

It looks like my internet problems have been solved and I will once again be able to connect with the world at large. On days when I couldn’t log on, I discovered “found” time to do some of the other things I love.

I finally uploaded garden photos taken two weeks before.

I began to win the war on weeds.
I designed a new front staircase.

I had more time to plan and cook for a lavish retirement party to celebrate my husband's retiring from government service.The grand antipasto was a big hit with his co-workers.

I baked homemade muffins from fresh-picked fruit for my son (who is in town for his dad’s retirement festivities).

I finished knitting a gift for a friend.
I spent time watching my backyard wildlife.

And I read a lot about the Amalfi Coast and Campania region of Italy, where I am heading in early July.

Perhaps, I’ve discovered the riddle of modern life. Can a person be too busy communicating to actually do things worthy of communicating about?

*** BLOGS DU JOUR ***

Take a trip without leaving home.

Travel the coast of Italy at Ciao Amalfi with expat travel writer Laura as your guide. Her sense of adventure and lovely photos will keep you coming back for more.

For a French connection visit Tara at Paris Parfait. A talented photographer and woman of many interests, Tara is an American living la vie Parisienne since 2001. C’est bon!

WIN! WIN! WIN!

It's not too late to win a free copy of my new book Waterside Styles. Visit www.watersidestyles and Join My Mailing List.

One lucky name will be chosen to win a free copy of the book (winner to be chosen the day I receive the books from Gibbs Smith).

If you've already ordered a copy and win, I'll refund your purchase price or you can request the prize copy for a friend.

How's that for a good deal?

ON THE LAST NITE OF CHANUKAH

Since my mom’s Gingerbread Men recipe already appeared on my blog last year (see the December 24th post)...

Here’s a recipe for making a different -- yet equally delicious-- type of dough suitable for use with cookie cutters and icing.

If you love to bake, chances are you have a collection of cookie cutters. I have dozens. Some are vintage. some are flea market finds. Some are handmade in copper. Some are brand new.

In the same way, Christmas cookies are often baked in the shape of wreaths, trees and Santa Claus, my Chanukah cookie cutters resemble the symbols of the season—a menorah, a star, and a dreidel.

My recipe for Cut Out Cookie Dough works for every faith, holiday, and celebration. Enjoy!

DOUGH FOR CUT OUT COOKIES

1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp almond extract
3 to 4 cups of flour
1 tsp baking soda
Cookie Cutters
Tubes of colored icing

Beat butter at medium speed with a mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating well. Add eggs and almond extract, beating well. Mix flour with baking soda, then add to mixture.

Divide the dough into 4 to 5 rolls. Wrap each one in wax paper and refrigerate overnight, or for up to 4 days.

When you are ready to bake, let dough reach room temperature.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Roll out dough to a 1/4-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface, then use cookie cutters to cut out cookies. Transfer cookies to a greased cookie sheet. Bake for about 9 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack before decorating with icing. Makes about 4 dozen medium to large cookies.

ON THE SEVENTH DAY OF CHANUKAH

My mother has been baking and decorating “spritz” cookies since the 1940s. Spritz cookies come in dozens of shapes, colors, and flavors. One thing they have in common is that they are all made using a cookie press.

Even as a child, I understood the beauty of my mother’s odd-looking metal cookie press… it let you produce dozens of pretty cookies super-fast. I always begged to use the press instead of baking other kinds of cookies.

Tonight, I’m turning over “the cookie story” to my mother Ruth. It was her story before it became mine.

(The family photo, below, is of my mother Ruth, my father Fred, my grandmother Jenny and grandfather Sam.)

RUTH’S STORY BEHIND THE HOLIDAY HEARTS

“One day when I was about twenty years old, one of my aunts came to visit my family and brought a plate of beautifully decorated cookies.

“My aunt was known as a great baker. The cookies were cut into all different shapes and were sprinkled with colored sugar and sprinkles. My aunt told my mother Jenny that she made them.

But when my aunt left, my mother Jenny said that she thought my aunt was lying and that the cookies came from a bakery. They are were too beautiful to be homemade.

Several months later, when my mother and I were shopping at a department store, I spotted a cookie press for sale. On the box was a photograph of cookies (made using the press) that looked very similar to my aunt's!

We bought the cookie press and took it home. After reading the recipes that came with the food press, we bought everything required and made our own beautiful cookies.
My aunt hadn’t been lying, after all.”

(this is not the original press)

HOLIDAY HEARTS

A cookie press

For Dough
1/2 lb butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla, almond or orange extract
A few drops of food coloring (pink for hearts, green for trees, etc.)
3 to 3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder

For Decorating
Sprinkles, colored sugar or other cookie trims

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, vanilla and food coloring. Mix 3 cups of flour with baking powder and add to mixture. Add more flour, if tough is sticky. Add more food coloring, if needed.

Insert a heart disc into the bottom of the cookie press, then fill the press with a narrow tube of dough. Hold the press perpendicular to an ungreased cookie sheet and press out the hearts.

Decorate, as desired.

Bake for about 12 minutes. Makes about 80 cookies. FAST!Tonight's tiny menorah belongs to my mother. It was the first one she and my father bought after they were married. It holds small birthday candles.

ON THE SIXTH DAY OF CHANUKAH

Now that you’ve tried Italian, Sicilian, Finnish, European, and Chinese cookie recipes, it’s time for a regional American one.

THE STORY BEHIND MY AMISH RAISIN COOKIES

For some strange reason, perhaps because it was a short drive from NYC where we lived, or perhaps it was because the farm-fresh food was so unusually good, my family frequently took vacations to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

The area was known as Pennsylvania Dutch Country (PDC) because it was home to the oldest and largest Amish and Mennonite populations in the United States.

Unlike NYC, PDC was rural. We would spend our days slowly driving along scenic roads behind horse-drawn buggies (the Amish do not own or operate cars).

From time to time, we would stop at farms where you could buy everything from homemade ice cream, fresh pies, and bags of cookies to patchwork quilts, stone-milled oatmeal and hand-forged tools. My two favorites were raisin cookies and shoe-fly pie.

Each night we would eat dinner at a family style restaurant. Some were wrap-around farmhouse sun porches that had been converted into an eating area. Others were large commercial endeavors. The food was always simple but it tasted amazing because everything was grown within a few miles and made from scratch.

My father would always come home with a new Amish cookbook and I would always search for a recipe for the Amish raisin cookies. I never found one.

Then, in the same December 13, 2006 Food Section that supplied me with the Fourth Night of Chanukah’s Pecan Crescents, there was a recipe for Amish raisin cookies. It also came from came the personal files of cookbook author Elinor Klivan.

According to the Washington Post, “You might pass over these plain-looking rounds on a festive holiday platter, but they have a subtle spice flavor and an especially tender, almost biscuit-like texture -- studded with soft raisins -- that makes them unique. The unbaked cookies should have a rough, rather than smooth, texture so they form bumpy mounds.”

I made a batch and the minute I bit into one, I felt like Marcel Proust tasting a madeleine. I was a kid again, sitting in the middle of a cornfield munching on a raisin cookie. Since Proust’s recollections are infinitely more literary than mine, click here and read the power of a humble cookie.

AMISH RAISIN COOKIES

1 cup seedless raisins
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg, plus 1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Place the raisins in a medium saucepan cover with water. Bring the water to a gentle boil and cook for 5 minutes. Drain the raisins and set aside to cool.

Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and all spices and set aside.

In a large bowl, using a mixer beat the butter, sugar and eggs. Add the vanilla, then stir in raisins. Add the flour mixture, mixing just until incorporated. Add the pecans. Drop tablespoon-size pieces of dough onto prepared baking sheets. The cookies will look like rough mounds. Bake for 9-11 minutes until the bottoms are light brown. Cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes about 36 cookies that taste exactly as they should!

AND THE PRIZE IS…

A RECIPE SCRAPBOOK by British food writer, Caroline Brewster.

Fans of The Jolly Postman, a series of children’s books featuring letters and postcards that can be pulled out to read, may find the Scrapbook's concept vaguely familiar but no less interesting.

Aerograms and postcards are tucked into cut-away pockets and provide fascinating travel notes and cultural tidbits.

The scrapbook contains 80 recipes from around the world, but there’s also plenty of room for you to stash your own recipe clippings and notes.

On January 1st, I'll pick one lucky winner from everyone who has left a comment from now until midnight on the December 31st. Good Luck!
Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed that there are only five candles in tonight's Maccabbee menorah. Moments before I took the photo, there were 6, as there should be. Look carefully and you'll find the missing candle that fell out!

THE ALMOND COOKIE CHRONICLES

Several months ago, I read an engaging book called The Fortune Cookie Chronicles.

It told the stories of people who simultaneously won a multi-million-dollar lottery (because they all bet on the numbers found inside of fortune cookies) interspersed with the saga of how Chinese restaurants spread like wildfire across America. It's a very interesting book.

Today, I hope you’ll try the other great Chinese restaurant dessert-- The Almond Cookie.


THE STORY BEHIND MY CHINESE ALMOND COOKIES

Every year ever since I can remember, people have always asked me “What do Jewish people do for Christmas?

I usually answer, “Nothing special,” or “They sit around complaining that all the restaurants are closed.” But, that’s not entirely true...

It’s become kind of a cliché (there are even a few songs on YouTube about this), but many Jewish people eat Chinese food and go to a movie. Why?

It's probably beacuse many Chinese people are Buddhist and do not celebrate Christmas either, so most Chinese restaurants are open!

I’d always assumed this was a New York custom, but when I moved to Virginia, I found out it was more widespread than I imagined.

This year, my family is having a joint Christmas-Chanukah dinner with friends on Christmas Day, so I decided to serve a Chinese dinner (take-out) on Christmas Eve instead.

The dessert, however, is home-baked.

I started baking almond cookies in the 1980s. I was freelancing for Dover Publications and found it in their Around-The-World-Cooky Book .

It was a reprint of a book published in 1948 and each recipe is attributed to the person who submitted it. The original recipe came from Jessie Wong of Cleveland, Ohio. It called for shortening instead butter and all of the ingredients were beaten or kneaded by hand.


WONG’S ALMOND COOKIES

1 cup sugar
1 1/2 sticks butter or shortening
3 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 Tbsp almond extract
1 egg, lighten beaten
34 whole almonds


Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease a baking sheet.

In the bowl of a food processor, cream the butter and sugar. Add flour, baking powder and extract and mix well. Turn dough out into a large bowl. Dough will be dry and crumbly. Knead it a few times, then pinch it to see if will hold together. If it crumbles, add a few drops of water.

Make small balls, then flatten them either by placing them on the cookie sheet and flattening them, or flattening them in the palm of your hand.

Use your thumb to make an indentation in the center of each cookie, then brush each cookie with the beaten egg.
Quickly place an almond in the center of each indentation.
Bake for 25-30 minutes in order to develop their characteristic hard crunch. For those with sensitive teeth, bake only 15 minutes for a softer cookie. Remove from oven and let cool on the pan. Makes about 34 cookies.

I like to serve the cookies with Jasmine tea.


HOLIDAY GIVEAWAY UPDATE:
On January 1st, I'll pick one winner from everyone who has left a comment from now until midnight on the December 31st.
Tomorrow, I will be announcing what the fabulous prize is!

ON THE FOURTH NIGHT...

Tonight marks both Chanukah’s halfway mark and Christmas Eve. What better time to treat your family and friends to one of the world's most popular Old World cookies?

THE STORY BEHIND MY PECAN CRESCENTS

My family loves European style nut cookies, and through the years, I have baked Polish rogaliki, German pfeffernuessen, Hungarian Nusskipferl, and dozens of other variations.

Some use walnuts, others almonds or a mix of nuts. Since discovering a recipe called “My Mom’s Pecan Crescents” in the Washington Post’s Food Section on December 13th, 2006, I’ve been hooked on using pecans.

The recipe for these Old World treats came from the personal files of cookbook author Elinor Klivan. I changed the recipe slightly to make it quicker and easier.

PECAN CRESCENTS
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup pecan pieces

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Put butter and confectioners' sugar in the bowl of a food processor and mix. Add the vanilla and almond extracts, stopping to scrape down the bowl as needed. Add the flour, salt and pecans and mix again.

Roll a rounded teaspoon of dough between the palms of your hands into a cylinder with tapered ends. Place it on the baking sheet, then curve it into a crescent. Repeat with the remaining dough, placing the cookies 1 inch apart. (They do not spread much during baking.) Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the cookie edges and pointed ends are light brown. Cool on the sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Makes about 24 cookies.

Crescents can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for about two weeks (ha!) or frozen, well wrapped, for up to 2 months (yes, they’re even good frozen).

Bake a batch, and in the future...
I guarantee your kids will always request their “Mom’s Pecan Crescents” at holiday time.

ON THE THIRD NIGHT OF CHANUKAH

Most folks think of cardamom as a spice found in Chai tea and Indian curries, but did you know that cardamom is used in many Finnish baked goods?

THE STORY BEHIND MY CARDAMOM DROPS

New York City is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the world. On the other side of Sicilian-born “Cuchidati” Joe, lived Madi, Steve and their three sons, second and third generation New Yorkers with roots in Eastern Europe and Russia.

Madi, a talented quilt designer, was the person who convinced me to move from a small apartment in Brooklyn Heights to a three-story house in West Midwood (an area further south in Brooklyn.) She even found me the house I bought.

As a "welcome to the neighborhood" gift, Madi gave me a copy of The Ellis Island Immigrant Cookbook.

Ellis Island is a small island in the middle of New York harbor very close to the Statue of Liberty. From 1892 to 1954, it served as the main immigration station for over 12 million immigrants entering the United States. Today it is a historic site and offers tours.

The Ellis Island Cookbook features everything from Irish soda bread and Italian Easter egg bread to Austrian sweet and sour cabbage and Finnish cardamom cookies.

Through the years, I've changed the recipe several times. I removed the egg, changed white sugar to brown, and increased the amount of cardamom.

The cookies are best when you make them with freshly-ground cardamom, so before you try my recipe, go out and buy fresh cardamom pods, then remove and pulverize the seeds OR buy a fresh jar of ground cardamom.

Then, get a copy of the Ellis Island cookbook. Try the recipe as printed and do your own taste test, or try some of the other fascinating recipes in the book.
CARDAMOM DROPS
1 1/2 sticks butter
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp ground cardamom seed
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Currants

Place butter, sugar and milk in the bowl of a food processor. Mix well. Add remaining ingredients, except for currants, and mix until barely blended. Do not over-mix. Dough should not be tacky.

Roll into small balls and stack in a large mixing bowl. Cover with plastic wrap. Place bowl in freezer for no more than an hour or refrigerator for 2 hours (overnight in the fridge is fine.)

When you are ready to bake the cookies, take the bowl out of wherever it is and preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place balls on a cookie sheet, leaving a bit of room for them to spread. Bake for 7 to 10 minutes. Cookies should still be very pale and slightly soft. As soon as you take them out of the oven, press a currant into the top of each cookie.

Makes about 3 dozen mysteriously delicious cookies.

ON THE SECOND NIGHT OF ...

Tonight’s treat is Cuchidati—Sicilian fig cookies.

THE STORY BEHIND MY FIG COOKIES

In the 1980s, I lived in a 1903 Victorian house in Brooklyn.

One of my next door neighbors was Joe, a man in his seventies, who was born in Sicily.

He was a terrific gardener, cook and baker. Despite the fact that I wasn’t Italian Joe was determined to teach me how to cook like a proper Sicilian wife.

He shared his recipes, demonstrated techniques and sometimes peered from his living room window into my kitchen when I was cooking to make sure I did it right.

Imagine my surprise the first time my phone rang and Joe’s voice on the other end said, “needs more salt.”

Every fall, Joe would bring me a small plate of his fabulous Cuchidati. Fresh from the oven, they smelled as good as they tasted and disappeared in a flash.

One October when I was having a cup of tea with Joe, I asked if he had any cuchidati. He answered, “No, but it’s time you learned to make them.”

Minutes later I was up to my elbows in flour while Joe chopped figs and nuts with an oak-handled knife. He taught me to knead the dough, the way his mother had taught him to do it.

More than 20 years have passed since the day I learned to make fig cookies. Nowadays, I cheat and use a food processor.

CUCIDATA
(Sicilian Fig Cookies)

I always make 3 orders of filling and 2 orders of dough. This makes about 125 cookies. It sounds like a lot but once you try them, you’ll realize it’s rarely enough. The cookies keep well but are a bit fragile for shipping.

Filling
1/2 cup dried black figs, stems removed
1/2 cup dried currents
1/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup walnuts
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp cocoa
1/4 tsp each cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg
2 tablspoons fresh orange zest
Splash of sweet sherry or port
1/4 cup honey

Put all ingredients, except the honey in the bowl of a food processor and chop finely. Pour mixture into a bowl and stir in honey. Cover and refrigerate overnight or for up to 2 days.

Pastry
1 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 egg
A few drops of whole milk

Put flour, baking powder and sugar in the bowl of a food processor and mix well. Add butter and process, then add egg and a few drops of milk. Dough should be very firm (like a pie crust), but if it’s downright stiff, add a few more drops of milk. Divide dough in three pieces, and pat each one into a rectangle. Wrap each piece in wax paper and refrigerate for at least 24 hours.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees. On a lightly floured surface, roll one rectangle out slightly, then put one third of the filling along one long edge of rectangle. Fold dough to cover filling. If you have extra dough, cut it off and re-roll. Press lightly to seal seam, then place seam side down on a greased cookie sheet. Repeat for other 2 rectangles.

Bake for 12-15 minutes until slightly browned, then cool on a rack or wooden cutting board. Use a serrated bread knife to cut each roll into slices. Wash the knife frequently to prevent sticking.

Try one and say thanks to Joe.

THE MAD BAKERS

For those of you who read my blog for its coastal content and decorating ideas, I'd like to apologize in advance for the recent and upcoming glut of recipes... but it's that time of year!

I promise the more usual topics will re-appear in a mere 8 -10- days.

Tonight, we celebrated the first night of Chanukah at my house with noodle soup and potato latkes with apple sauce.

For years, one of my mom's traditions has been to hand out plates of homemade cookies to family and friends and for the last two weeks, the two of us have been baking up a storm.

We also mailed a tin to my son Fred, who has far less time off now that he has a job. Since he was home for Thanksgiving, he'll be in celebrating Chanukah in Los Angeles this year.

As a little holiday gift to all of my friends in Bloglandia...

I'm going to post one of my favorite cookie recipes for each of the
8 Days of Chanukah.

* Betty's Cookies
* Sicilian Fig Slices
* Cardamom Drops
* Pecan Crescents
* Chinese Almond Cookies
* Amish Raisin Cookies
* Holiday Hearts
* Gingerbread Men

I hope you'll try them and vote for your favorite.

On January 1st, I'll pick one winner from everyone who has left a comment from now until midnight on the December 31st.

THE STORY BEHIND BETTY’S COOKIES
For several years when I was in elementary school, my father worked in an Italian salumeria (an Italian deli) in Brooklyn. For Christmas, each of the store's two partners would invite all of the employees to their home for a party. Each owner's wife tried to out do the other one.

It wasn't much of a competition though. One woman, whose name was Betty, made wonderful cookies.The other wife, whose name I've mercifully forgotten, made cookies that most reminded me of rocks.

Fortunately, Betty shared her recipe with my mom who has been making these cookies ever since I can remember. They are irresistible right out of the oven, keep for weeks and get even better with age.

Everett, by the way, recognized these cookies instantly the first time my mother made them for him. He remembered them as his great aunt Julia's cookies, which his mother once explained to him were actually made by his great uncle Jack.

BETTY'S COOKIES
1 pound butter
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs, separated (you use yolks first but save whites in the fridge as, you will need them later)
Cinnamon
About 4 cups of flour
A 1/4 cup of Cinnamon Sugar or a mix of cinnamon & sugar to taste
Chopped walnuts

Bring butter to room temperature, then add egg yolks, sugar and a pinch of cinnamon and mix together until tacky.

Add 3- 1/2 cups of flour and mix well. Add more flour, as needed until dough is no longer sticky.

Divide dough into 4 pieces, then make each piece into a long roll. Wrap rolls in wax paper and refrigerate overnight or longer.

To bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl, beat egg whites. In another small bowl, mix chopped nuts with cinnamon and sugar.

Cut cookies into 1/4-inch thick slices and place on a cookie sheet. Brush tops of cookies with beaten egg whites, then sprinkle with nut mixture. Bake until very lightly browned.