On the third night of Chanukah I baked Macadamia Coconut White Chocolate Shortbread cookies for my true love. This is a Martha Stewart recipe, from her lovely Cookie Book. Her recipe used coconut and macadamia nuts, but I added white chocolate to mine. These tropical shortbread cookies are buttery and crumbly, everything a good shortbread cookie should be.
Certain foods just belong together. I learned about the magic combination of white chocolate and macadamia nuts many years ago when I worked at The David Wood Food Shop in Toronto. I was pregnant at the time and consumed a very large quantity of pastry chef Daphna Rabinovich’s Macadamia and White Chocolate Chip Cookies.
I find it much easier to roll out the dough right after I make it, before chilling. Roll it out between two sheets of parchment paper. Then stick it in the freezer for about 30 minutes before cutting it into shapes. I love these fluted square cookie cutters. They remind me of Nice cookies from my childhood.
On the second night of Chanukah I made my true love Oat Pistachio cookies. I have been wanting to make them ever since I saw these cookies on Natasha’s beautiful blog, Butter Baking. Based on the traditional English cookie, The Hobnob, they are an oat based digestive cookie, coated in chocolate.
Buttery, crumbly and a bit chewy in the center, they are the perfect cookie to have with tea at bedtime. Some people even like to dunk them in their tea. I have never understood the appeal of this. Why would you take a perfectly good crunchy cookie and make it soggy?I decided to amp up the crispy factor by adding some finely chopped pistachios to the dough. Their delicate nutty flavour is a great partner for oats and whole wheat flour. These cookies call for Golden Syrup, which helps with keeping the texture a bit chewy. Golden Syrup is quite common in the U.K. It is not exactly the same as corn syrup, but if you can’t find it, corn syrup is ok as a substitute. I actually found it at Walmart!A coating of bittersweet chocolate takes these buttery, crumbly cookies to the next level.
On the first night of Chanukah I baked Pecan Toffee Squares for my true love. He thought they were pretty fantastic. I mean, what’s not to love? Buttery, crumbly shortbread base, crunchy toasted pecans in a sticky toffee filling, topped with a drizzle of milk chocolate and a light sprinkling of coarse salt, because that’s how we roll around here.Here’s a quick tutorial on how to line a baking pan with parchment paper.
Because the holiday of Chanukah lasts for 8 nights, I thought it would be fun to post sweet treats for 8 days in a row. The true meaning of Chanukah has nothing to do with sweets. The celebration of Chanukah is beautifully explained by Rabbi Andrew Jacobs, on “Blog Shalom”, “The Maccabees were a tiny group of Jews who should not have been able to defeat the powerful Greeks. But they did! And because of this miracle, Judaism survived and did not become consumed by Greek culture. This story of miraculous survival repeats itself many times throughout Jewish history. Despite tremendous powers that have raged against us, nothing has stopped the Jewish people. This is a miracle.”
In our family, gifts are not traditionally exchanged, although there was one year when my husband shocked me by giving me one perfect gift after another for each of the 8 nights. I was going through a bit of a dark time and he thought the gifts might cheer me up a bit. By the fourth night I became suspicious, and realized he had a bit of help in choosing the gifts. He had enlisted the aid of his sister to be his shopping elf! In all honesty, the best gift he gave me that year was an introduction to a great therapist who helped me work through this difficult time. I am forever grateful for that.
Just as I think I really don’t need another cookbook, poof, next thing you know, there I am buying just one more. I seem to have no willpower when it comes to cookbooks. That, and black jumpsuits. I need a black jumpsuit intervention! A bit more about the latest cookbook purchase in a minute. As for as my black jumpsuit obsession, well, no need for you to know any more about that!
We were in Washington D.C. for a wedding a few weeks ago. We only had time for one meal out, so I did a little research and and the restaurant Founding Farmers kept coming up. Everyone raved about it and it was just a 10 minute walk from our hotel.
Our server came over to our table and introduced herself as Myers. I asked, “like the lemon?” She laughed and nodded. I loved that our server had a food name. She brought us the menu and explained a little bit about the restaurant. It’s a very cool concept. It is owned by over 40,000 family farmers of the North Dakota Farmer’s Union, and is supplied daily by hundreds of family farms everywhere. Everything is cooked, baked and mixed, from scratch on site, with high-quality, responsibly-farmed food.
I wanted to order one of everything on the menu. Myers said that the home baked farm bread was one of her favourite things on the menu. She suggested we start with the Apple, Brie, and Onion Jam Crostini. Fantastic suggestion! If you go, it is not to be missed. When good bread is on the menu, I feel a responsibility to sample it.The onion jam was sweet and tart all at the same time with a surprising depth of flavour that you can only get with low slow cooking. I asked Myers if the chef would share his recipe for the onion jam, and she said they had a cookbook with many of their recipes. Of course I bought it and came home to recreate this delicious dish. I served it as an appetizer with drinks, but it would also be perfect with a salad for a lunch or a light dinner. The onion preserve recipe makes more than you will need, but it keeps well in the fridge for a week, so use it up in grilled cheese sandwiches, on toast with goat cheese and as a pizza topping.
As always, start with good bread! Kudos to you if you plan to bake your own baguette. I have tried, and it’s not easy. But, there are so many great bakeries crafting excellent Artisan loaves now, it’s just so easy to buy great bread.
Traditionally panzanella salads are made in the summer. Created in Italy, as a way to use up stale bread, toasted croutons are tossed with juicy ripe summer tomatoes, perhaps some cucumbers, onions, olive oil, and maybe some cheese. Everyone knows that a salad with bread is always better.
But an Autumn panzanella salad??? I know! The first time I heard of it , my mind was blown too. This salad was inspired by Chef Michael Symon. He made this one on The Chew a few weeks ago. This is my riff on it.
The most important rule of this salad, (yes, I have rules) is that you must use good quality bread. I used the multi-grain ciabatta from Ace Bakery. Tear the bread, don’t cut it. Douse in olive oil and liberally sprinkle with kosher salt. Toast in a hot oven until golden brown and crunchy. Craggy irregular shaped croutons are way more satisfying to eat. All those nooks and crannies to soak up the dressing.An autumn panzanella salad requires the quintessential fall vegetable, Brussels Sprouts. No roasting required. Just thinly slice. Add some Honeycrisp apples, toasted pecans and gruyere cheese.Juicy sweet-tart pomegranate seeds add a pop of colour and some great crunch.Toss it all together with an apple cider vinaigrette, and summer panzanella salads will be a distant memory.
With party and holiday season just around the corner, I thought I’d share with you a twist on the classic gin and tonic. Recently on the last night of our holiday in Newfoundland at Fogo Island Inn we were treated to a Cocktail Tasting Session. Assistant Food and Beverage Co-ordinator Bryan put us under his spell as he crafted four special cocktails using classic spirits with the addition of roots, herbs, fruits and berries that grow on Fogo Island.
For our first cocktail, Bryan taught us how to make “Some Shockin Good”, a vodka based cocktail featuring foamed egg white, tart cherry juice, marinated cherries and liquorice syrup. Bryan disappeared into the walk-in freezer and returned with a huge hunk of ice broken off a 10,000 year old iceberg, a giant mallet and some safety goggles. I got to work out my aggressions and smashed some chunks off the iceberg to pour the finished cocktail over. According to Bryan, as an iceberg forms over thousands of years, air becomes trapped between the thin layers of snow. Eventually, that air must find it’s way out, so when you pour a drink over iceberg ice, it snaps,crackles and pops. That’s the sound of gas being released, after being trapped inside for 10,000 years. We happily sipped to the Rice Krispies soundtrack.
The second drink was a cocktail crafted from Screech. My recollection of what else went into that drink is a bit fuzzy. I do recall that for the third cocktail, some kind of smoking gun apparatus was brought to the bar and Bryan smoked some spruce buds (I think?) to add to a whisky based cocktail.
For our fourth cocktail, my husband requested a gin and tonic based drink. Bryan got to work and created a delicious concoction, which we promptly dubbed “The Captain”, my husband’s nickname.
He earned this moniker many years ago, before we became parents. We would visit friends and family with children and inevitably, driving home after the visits, he would comment that when he had kids they would be better behaved than our nieces and nephews. He joked that his kids would salute him and answer “sir, yes sir, daddy sir” when he told them to clean up their toys or go to bed. I know you will be shocked to hear that it didn’t quite go that way with our own.
For this drink, gin and tonic are joined in the glass with lime juice, simple syrup, St. Germaine Elderflower Liqueur and a splash of Chambord liqueur. Should you decide to splurge on a bottle of Elderflower Liqueur, here are a few more great cocktail ideas.Poured over ice, “The Captain” is sure to mellow even the toughest parent at your gathering.
Ever notice how some winter vegetable soups taste a bit flat and one note, resembling baby food that’s been thinned out with a bit of water or stock? Depth of flavour is often noticeably absent.
This soup is anything but boring. Roasting the squash really contributes to a deep flavour profile. Sautéed leeks add a delicate subtle onion flavour and apples add a welcome sweet-tart juiciness. Ancho chile powder contributes mild smokiness and heat and cumin powder jumps in adding an earthy, nutty, pungent bite. The additional time it takes to roast the squash is well worth it. Plus, there is no need to peel or dice the squash. Just cut it in half, lengthwise and set it on a foil lined baking sheet while you prepare the other ingredients. For a gorgeous finish, add a touch of maple cream (mix 1/3 cup sour cream with 1 Tablespoon maple syrup). To make the pretty swirl I show here, put maple cream in a squeeze bottle and drop a few small dots of the cream on top of the soup. Take a wooden skewer or toothpick and run it gently through the center of the dot, to make the elegant pattern. Finish it off with a light dusting of smoked paprika and a few toasted pumpkin seeds for some crunch.
Apple orchards, pumpkin patches, haunted houses, whatever your version of autumn joy is, I hope you’re out there, savoring the season. Have you heard about leaf peeping? My niece Rachel, who is up on all the latest trends, informed me about it. She lives in Seattle now, but grew up in Florida. I told her that those of us who live in the Northeast have been peeping for years!
As for me, my fall bliss involves cauliflower. I’m having as bit of a love affair with it this autumn. But who can blame me when stunning beauties like these keep popping up at the market. A tuna melt is my default go-to when I return home from holidays and the cupboard is bare. I always have some kind of bread in the freezer, a can of tuna in the pantry and a small wedge of cheddar in the fridge. Bonus points if the cheese is mold-free and the tuna is packed in olive oil.
Truthfully, even the humblest of ingredients are more special when served on toast, and this fact is celebrated in Jill Donenfeld’s new book, Better on Toast. I took her Cauliflower Melts recipe and tarted them up with the addition of Italian tuna in olive oil. Slice the cauliflower into slabs, brush with garlic kissed olive oil and roast until golden brown. Pistachios add crunch and golden raisins add a welcome hit of sweetness. Tuna in olive oil just tastes better than water packed tuna. Look for a Spanish or Italian brand if you can find it. Unlike water packed tuna, which can be dry, olive oil packed tuna is exceptionally moist, so no mayo is needed. If you have access to some really good artisan bread, go for it. Slice thickly please and give it a light toasting before assembling.I love the addition of nutty Gruyere cheese, but feel free to use cheddar or any great melting cheese. Hot and bubbly, these are hearty knife and fork sandwiches, that help soften that abrupt hard landing that inevitably occurs when coming home after a holiday.
It’s time to stop the pumpkin spice insanity! Is it just me or have have you also noticed the proliferation of pumpkin spiced products at this time of year? People are out of their ever loving gourds with pumpkin excitement. I blame Starbucks. They started the trend in 2008 with their Pumpkin Spiced Latte. Breaking news kids, Starbucks has added real pumpkin to their latte this year. Which begs the question, what exactly was in it before? Tim Hortons jumped on the band wagon with a pumpkin spice bagel and latte to guzzle it down with it.
Pumpkin spice m&m’s (just weird), Pumpkin spice Pringles (just plain wrong – cloves and cinnamon have no business sticking their nose into salty chips!), Pumpkin spice doggie treats (no comment!), and Pumpkin Spice scented motor oil (ok, now I’m just messing with you!).
My blogger friend Wendy, over at The Monday Box, loves all things pumpkin, but I don’t hold that against her. Check out her adorable 3-2-1 Pumpkin Spice Chai Latte Cake. She alerted me to the fact that Trader Joe’s has over 40 pumpkin related items this year. If you happen to be a pumpkin lover, head on over and check them out. Let’s celebrate fall the correct way, with apples. This gorgeous multi-grain apple cake was inspired by whole-grains maven Kim Boyce’s Apple Graham Coffee Cake. With three kinds of flour, the texture of this cake is outstanding. Graham flour adds flavour and a pleasant sandy texture, all-purpose flour helps to lighten the graham flour and whole wheat pastry flour adds a tender crumb and nuttiness. Kim sautéed sliced apples in butter, sugar and cinnamon and added them as a topping to the cake before baking. I decided to dice the apples and toss them, raw, in sugar-cinnamon and mix them into the batter.I used my fancy Bundt pan, because really, who couldn’t use a bit more fancy in their life?
The final change I made to Kim’s coffee cake recipe was to add salted caramel. Everything is better with salted caramel, right? I made a quick sauce with brown sugar, butter, whipping cream and salt. I drizzled some of the sauce right into the raw cake batter and saved the rest to serve on the side. This is a very cozy cake, tailor-made for a cool fall day. The graham and whole-wheat pastry flours add a nutty grain-like flavour. Super moist, thanks to the apples and drizzled caramel sauce, this cake is made for snacking. Take that, Pumpkin Pie Pop Tarts!.
Apparently, cauliflower is the new “kale”. I am thrilled to see kale unseated as the “it” girl in the vegetable world. She can be a bit tough and has a reputation for being high-maintenance.
Finally, cauliflower is getting the respect she deserves. Pretty much a blank canvas, cauliflower can handle being pureed, boiled, roasted, fried and mashed. I especially love it raw, thinly sliced in a slaw, with almonds, capers and golden raisins, although I made this salad so many times this summer that my husband politely requested that we take a break from cauliflower slaw.
“Cauliflower steaks” are popping up on menus everywhere lately. By cutting the cauliflower into thick slabs, the florets stay attached to the stem and you get a flat wide surface area for charring. This trend of “vegetable butchery” is elevated to an art form at Blue Hill. Chef Dan Barber’s Cauliflower Steaks with Cauliflower Puree is pure genius.
I have been known to call a bowl of Baked Cheetos and a glass of Sauvignon Blanc dinner when dining alone, but lately I have been craving something a bit more comforting, and these cauliflower cheddar stuffed potatoes make me very happy. Plus, they’re much healthier than my bowl of baked cheetos!
If you need further convincing about the health benefits of cauliflower, check out this comprehensive cauliflower compendium (say that 3 times fast!!). Helen over at Well Being Secrets has 28 reasons to give cauliflower the love it deserves! Bake the potatoes until tender. Boil the cauliflower in heavily salted water until it is quite soft. Scoop the flesh out of potato skins and get yourself a big bowl for mashing. Add milk, salt, pepper and cauliflower and get busy. My masher is spring loaded and so much fun to use. No need to make a smooth puree here. Lumps are acceptable and welcome. Fold in the cheese and spoon back into the shells. Bake until hot and melty!
This is a Martha Stewart recipe, from her lovely Cookie Book. Her recipe used coconut and macadamia nuts, but I added white chocolate to mine. These tropical shortbread cookies are buttery and crumbly, everything a good shortbread cookie should be.
I find it much easier to roll out the dough right after I make it, before chilling. Roll it out between two sheets of parchment paper. Then stick it in the freezer for about 30 minutes before cutting it into shapes. 
I love these fluted square cookie cutters. They remind me of Nice cookies from my childhood. 
J
