Some of my successful experiments from Thanksgiving and Christmas:
From the top, clockwise: Triple Brownie Cookie Bar, Spinach Hand Pies, Turkey Not-Pot Pie, Yorkshire Pudding, “spoon” roast. (c)2018
Recipes forthcoming in future weeks. (See Monday’s post for the Spinach Hand Pies.)
This past holiday season I went through all of those pinned posts, saved Tasty videos on Facebook, and thought that I would try one or three new recipes out. As it turned out, between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, I tried out eight new recipes, some from the internet (Facebook and Pinterest) and a couple that I created on my own. Others I combined elements from more than one source.
If I do say so myself, they were phenomenal! I would make almost all of them again.
Even though the New Year’s parties are over, some of us are still eating appetizers for dinner, and the Super Bowl is not that far off. I thought I’d share this first experiment that my family absolutely loved!
I got the idea from a Tasty video for stuffed meatballs as well as my love for Cornish pasties that I developed a taste for on my first trip to England.
I let an 8oz. block of cream cheese soften. (I actually didn’t use a full block; this one had been started but it was mostly all there)
I then added in 1/2 a bag of frozen chopped spinach, 1/2 teaspoon (or your preference) of garlic powder, and 1/4 cup of cheddar cheese (again, use your preferred cheese).
Mix well.
I then took a box of Pillsbury pie crusts and rolled them out one at a time. I used a 1 cup measuring cup to cut the dough into circles, then balled the dough and did it all over again until there was no dough left, only a pile of circles.
I placed a small spoonful of the spinach mixture in each circle, covered it with another circle, pressed it closed with a fork, and brushed them with an egg wash. (Another option is to put less mixture and fold the circle over into a halfmoon shape, sealing and brushing it in the same way. This will give you twice as many hand pies if you’re serving several small items).
Bake at 350° for 10 minutes or until a golden color.
My family couldn’t get enough of them.
Ingredient List
1 box Pillsbury (or preferred brand) pie crusts
1 8oz. brick of cream cheese (I use Philadelphia brand)
1/2 bag of frozen chopped spinach
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 cup cheddar (or preferred) cheese
1 egg (for egg wash)
Follow the directions as outlined above.
A new year means new beginnings, new goals, new intentions. I haven’t come up with everything I want to focus on this year, but I’m starting out slowly, going one month, one day at a time. From now until April, I have started a series of posts with the focus on a central theme. January’s theme is new year, new beginnings, and I wrote a blurb on the first. This weekly series will begin on the 1st of each month (from now through April when I’ll reassess how it’s going along), and then each week after, there will be a related post. The categories that I’m using for those weekly posts include: the introductory blurb, a recipe or food related item, a quotation, photograph or artwork, and a reflection.
I’m excited to begin the year this way.
Following this introduction is the second post for January: a new recipe.
Food makes the world go round. When we travel, the first thing we do when we get off the airplane or park the car is to find somewhere to eat. I know we’re always looking for that perfect, quintessential local food that we can instagram and taste, and talk about when we get home. Maybe that’s just me.
The holidays are also a time of food; not always trying new things, but having the old things – the things of our childhoods, of our in-laws, of that Pinterest thread that we’ve been promising ourselves we would eventually try.
Here are a few of mine:
1. Candy canes for Christmas and Gelt (chocolate gold-wrappered coins) for Chanukah.
2. Latkes. Confessional time: I make latkes more during Passover than I do during Chanukah. Passover has an overabundance of potatoes, and by mid-week, it gets a little tiring, although celebrating our Exodus from slavery is never old.
3. French Toast. I happen to make the best French toast. Plain, unadulderated, egg, milk, white bread with butter and Aunt Jemima syrup. Mmm. On occasion I will make a French toast casserole that needs to refrigerate overnight, and then bake in the morning, and that is also amazing, but I think that has less to do with me than with easy French toast on a weekday morning!
4. Green bean casserole. Yes, the Kraft one. Or is the recipe from DelMonte? I think the recipe calls for milk, but my mother never used milk to keep it somewhat kosher-like. Again, simple: 2 cans of French-style green beans, drained, mixed with one can of condensed cream of mushroom soup, mixed with half a container of French’s fried onions and baked for 30-35 minutes on 350. Sprinkle the fried onions on top, and bake for another 5 minutes or so. Voila!
5. Orange Marmalade. I’m not sure why I think of orange marmalade at Christmas time. Possibly because my mother-in-law is British/Irish and that’s a very British food to have during Christmas (or any tea time) with scones or English muffins or biscuits.
What are your holiday favorites that you really miss or can’t live without?
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Grand Opening
Fall of 2017
I don’t know about other parts of the country, but fall is filled with fall foliage, back to school, sweater weather, and of course, applepicking.
A few scenes from the apple orchard. (c)2017
Clockwise: Sampling different varieties of apples, from under my umbrella (it was raining off and on the whole time, but our time in Ireland made it tolerable), flowers in the bench planter, bright flowers on a dreary day, Bear with apple statue that greeted us when we arrived at the orchard’s store, hanging planter. (c)2017
L-R: 1. Apple Blossom, 2. Apple Crisp Cookie, 3. Cider Donut, R: 1. Snapdragon apple*, 2. Apple Cider.(c)2017
*I first discovered snapdragons when one of my writing group members brought one to try. It was perfect. Bright red, creamy white inside, crisp. It snapped when you bit into it. I’m not sure if that’s where its name came from, but it fit.
I always try to get a few snapdragons. They are good for pies or just to grab one for a snack.
By the time we went picking this year, combined with the summer weather not cooperating, there were very few of them in the field. We walked about halfway down the aisle, and I was about to give up when a young boy, about twelve on the other side of the fencing heard me, and offered that there were snapdragons further down, and pointed out where we should go.We thanked him.
And then, he turned back and offered me the apple that was in his hand.
Really? I asked.
He nodded, and I took the apple.
I thanked him profusely, and added that snapdragons were my favorite. All the rest of the day, I thought about his generosity, and I enjoyed that apple more than any other that I’ve had in the past few years.
That is the apple in the bottom picture.
It’s perfect.
I love tea.
Not only do I love tea, I love the idea of tea.
It cures all ailments.
All ills made better.
Whether it’s taken like coffee – a caffeine pick me up – or a cup alongside a candle – for either prayer or writing time – or High Tea with finger sandwiches and mini pastries, it doesn’t matter to me.
I do draw the line at most herbal teas preferring my infusions to have actual tea leaves in them, and my preference is black tea rather than green, white or others.
I visited a group of friends a few years ago, and one was an immigrant from Wales. He brought me proper tea to wait on my bedside before I even got up for breakfast. While I was visiting, after my Welsh friend and his wife went to sleep, another friend put on the kettle to make us two cups of tea or hot chocolate or something that needed warm water. When the kettle whistled, we were a moment too slow, as my friend, while more or less still asleep or very groggy, came out of his bedroom, went straight to the kitchen without saying a word, turned off the kettle, and fixed the tea for us. Then he went back to bed. If there was ever any doubt if the British have tea in their veins, this settled it for me.
I am the kind of person who brings tea with me when I travel even to retreat weekends. I have loose leaf tins and an infuser that goes with me as well as investing in a travel tumbler with infusion attachment. It keeps my tea hot for a ridiculous amount of hours.
As I made my packing list for my last holiday to Ireland and Wales, I began to write “tea” under the space I left for food until I very quickly realized that to bring my own tea to Britain would not only be insulting, but redundant.
While my son needed ot buy an extra carry-on for his candy (truly, I am not exaggerating), I saved what little space I had for two large boxes of Welsh tea and two boxes of biscuits to go with them. I like candy as much as the next guy, but I do have my priorities.
Whenever comfort food is brought up, whether it’s a writing assignment or discussion or online meme, my head goes straight to chicken noodle soup and/or Kraft Macaroni & cheese in the blue box, although not eaten together of course. I will eat the mac & cheese as a leftover, but there is nothing like the taste of the macaroni from the blue box, hot and creamy, right when it’s first made.
Out of the pot even.
However, for real comfort, my heart goes to an evening that I was probably about eleven, maybe as old as twelve, where I am sitting in my mother’s bed, my legs sticking out from a nightgown that I hated wearing, with my back against the headboard.
The only light coming brightly from the hallway and that dim blue from the television just beyond the end of the bed. I was watching whatever happened to be on. There were not many options for change before remote controls, and with everyone else in the family downstairs, I was stuck with whatever it was.
On my lap was a plate, and on the plate, I am using my fork to smoosh around a thick piece of butter melting on a warm, soft, sweet potato. The orange flesh absorbing each bit of butter dripping off the pat. Long after this day, I’ve seen people put cinnamon and brown sugar, even caramel and marshmallows on sweet potatoes, but for me all it needs is the hot insides and the sweet, melting butter.
Even today, the perfect, succulent, sweet potato brings me back to that sick day in bed, the smell, the taste, the warmth from the plate on my legs still warming me decades later.
I had never heard of champ before asking about it in a quiet restaurant in Glenariff, Northern Ireland. It was listed as a choice of side dish alongside chips, crisps, and veggies. It turned out that it is a mashed potato dish with scallions and a few other things that I couldn’t hear her say.
Mashed potatoes?
In Ireland?
I’m there.
At first I thought it was colcannon, but champ originates in the North and is a Northern Irish dish, and it was delicious.
It was also different than any of the country mashed I’ve gotten in the US (think Cracker Barrel with gravy) or any I’ve made myself. It wasn’t that I’d never thought of combining these ingredients together, but I was just used to the simplicity of mashed potatoes – butter, milk, salt, crushed under a masher until smooth – ish.
It wasn’t until I did a quick Google search that I saw how simple champ really is to make.
As for our masher, it is almost always at the bottom of the sink or at least it seems that way when I need to use it so I have a few alternative tools to use as mashing tricks.
Large forks are good mashers.
So are large spoons if applied with the right pressure.
And last, my most recent discovery, a copper one-cup measuring cup. This really did a great job.
For my version of champ, I washed, cut, and boiled about seven medium-sized potatoes. I did not peel them, but they can obviously be peeled if you prefer them that way. The ones we had at the restaurant were peeled. Their mash was a perfect creamy white.
After the draining and mashing, I added one stick of unsalted butter, about two tablespoons of salt, three scallions diced as finely as I could get them, and a scoop of sour cream. You could use more scallions if you like. I also didn’t use milk, but it could be added or used instead of the sour cream.
Just before the rest of dinner was ready, I added about 1/4 cup of shredded, sharp cheddar cheese. I used white to keep the color of the potatoes. The topmost photo was taken in bad lighting; I’ll have to correct that when I make them again.
Only the usual suspect (the picky eater) complained despite loving them abroad. Everyone else loved my rendition, and I’m sure they’ll make it into regular rotation.
AllRecipes has a recipe to follow if you like measurements. Usually, I do, but when I’m cooking (rather than baking) I like to gauge how it looks, feels, and tastes.
Griffins and Ginger Snaps 