Archive for December, 2009
Top 10 for 2009
I thought it would be fun to wrap up the year with a Top 10 List of the Most Popular Posts of 2009 on SFTF. I bet all the little blog posts out there in the world wish they could grow up to be on this list one day. Okay, so I’ve had a little too much holiday punch, but the truth is that you lovely readers have really helped me this past year to hone my recipe instincts and broaden my creativity. It has been wonderful sharing yet another passing of the seasons and their produce with you. I do hope you’ll make a resolution to eat more local food in 2010!
We’ll start from the bottom up…
Oh, I’m so glad this made it into the Top 10 Most Popular Posts of 2009 as it’s certainly in my own personal Top 10 Recipes of All Time List. I love how moist and fragrant this loaf is and how much it reminds me of my grandmother.
#9. Tatties and Neeps (Potatoes and Turnips with Bacon and Cream)
A Scottish dish, this recipe came from one of my favorite new cookbooks in 2009, Eat Feed Autumn Winter by Anne Bramely. It’s a great dish for the deep dark days of winter ahead of us.
#8. Strawberry Vanilla Ice Cream
So fruity and the perfect way to showcase in-season strawberries, I couldn’t stop gobbling up this ice cream made with cold rich raw cow’s milk.
Ah, this makes me miss summer and homegrown cucumbers so much! This classic Greek dip is creamy and brightly flavored…how many days until spring?
I am so glad I made this Top 10 List as it reminded me about this amazingly scrumptious cupcake recipe! So moist, so tender, so full of flavor! And you can practically convince yourself that these are “healthy” enough to not dislodge any of your New Year’s resolutions to eat better.
Multigrain Pumpkin Pancakes
Here we are on the eve of one of the biggest holidays of the year and I thought I’d give you a little recipe that you can use to feed all those guests popping their rumpled heads into your kitchen each morning (or, if you’re a guest and you want to do something nice for your host). Who doesn’t love a big hot stack of made-from-scratch pancakes? You’ll be an instant hero to everyone at the table.
Several years ago I was inspired to throw a combo New Year’s Eve party and a New Year’s Day brunch…the idea was that guests would come, drink, be merry, crash on the floor, sleep, wake up to the smell of amazing food and dark coffee, and come gather in the kitchen to nurse their hangovers in style. Well, I have to say, the plan worked beautifully and everyone had a blast starting the new year right. While planning that brunch (with a huge menu that I might have been wise to par down had I contemplated my own hangover that morning), I developed a recipe for multigrain pancakes that would really soak up the rest of the alcohol in everyone’s stomaches. The pancakes that New Year’s morning did their job beautifully and I’ve made them my go-to ever since.
Last weekend, while snowed in (yah for “real” winters!), I got a hankering for pancakes and had a bit of thawed-out pumpkin puree left over from another batch of those delicious Pumpkin Pie Truffles. I thought I’d throw the pumpkin in the pancake batter and add some warm spices to accentuate the flavors and make these filling flap jacks even more delicious. The result was a tall stack of beautifully hued, thick, dense discs that are not terribly sweet…perfect winter comfort food for a lazy day.
Now, I realize there has been quite a parade of pumpkin recipes on SFTF as of late. If you’re not the passionate pumpkin promoter that I am, you could easily adapt this recipe to include other delicious flavors…toss in a cup of frozen blueberries you picked last summer to remind you of warmer days; pop in a generous handful or two of fresh cranberries if you can still find them to fit this red-bedecked season; use up that bunch of overripe bananas that have been sitting unloved thanks to all the holiday sweets on hand (mash them up like you would to make banana bread and mix it into the batter); or make a plain batch and slather them with some local pear or apple butter and a drizzle of honey.
A great time-saver for me, since this recipe calls for a good number of ingredients, is to mix up all the dry ingredients in ziplock bags (labeled and dated of course) and stash several of these away so in the mornings when I want to make them, there’s a lot less measuring to do. This is especially important when you’re also trying to drink that first cup of coffee to get your engines running so you can do a decent job of flipping these babies.
Dare I be predictable and say MERRY CHRISTMAS to you all? May you all have flavorful feasts with family and friends!!
Grandma’s Pumpkin Pie
I write a lot about my grandmother on this blog and for good reason. She’s an amazing cook who, next to my mother, influenced my culinary sensibilities the most. This is a woman who, for better or for worse*, defines herself almost entirely by her ability to make and serve delicious food for her family and community. My grandfather was the best fed man from the moment he met my grandmother until the day he died. When my grandmother lost her eyesight several years ago, she initially was dejected by her worries that she wouldn’t be able to cook and bake anymore. Wouldn’t you know, her desire to be in the kitchen was so great that she somehow taught herself how to cook by touch alone. She hasn’t used a recipe or a precise measuring device since but you wouldn’t know it because everything she makes is still perfect.
*I mention worse because she recently nearly put herself in the hospital because she, at 90 years of age, was bending over and peeling bushels upon bushels of granny smith apples to make jars of her famous apple pie filling that she puts up every autumn to use for pies at the church’s fundraiser turkey supper and pie stand at the town’s 4th of July celebration. Her poor old back just couldn’t handle it, and she was in a great deal of pain and experiencing a lot of nasty problems from all the bending and had to be forced to give up her paring knife.
I grew up with my grandmother’s delicious pumpkin pie and was doomed to despise all other pumpkin pies in the world once I left home. You see, my grandmother’s pumpkin pie does not have a crust. It is simply the most moist and delicious custard you can possibly imagine, baked to perfection directly in the pie plate. No, it’s not fair to judge all other pumpkin pies by this one, but it can’t be helped once you’ve tasted the unadulterated pumpkin-y-ness of this version.
Every visit home, since the day I left for college, has been an opportunity for my grandmother to bake me a batch (nearly always at least two and sometimes three!) of pumpkin pies to take back with me. I can’t say I’ve ever protested (at least not with any real sincerity), though really I probably should have when asked to eat three pies all by myself! Hmmm, yes, well…
Nowadays I have D to help me eat them, and he loves them just as much as me. This led to a serious depletion in my annual pumpkin pie consumption, one that could not be tolerated any longer. So, I asked for my grandmother’s coveted pumpkin pie recipe and, just like my mother’s mac and cheese, I undertook making it my own with equal parts uncertainty and determination. Wouldn’t you know, this has turned out to be probably the easiest recipe on this entire blog and I didn’t bother to do a thing with it as it actually tastes just like my grandmother’s when I make it myself.
This pie is absolutely best when served with a dollop of freshly whipped cream. But don’t be ashamed if you find yourself grabbing a fork and the entire pie to sit in front of the TV and eat it straight from the pan. Yes, I have done that. Don’t laugh or raise your collective eyebrows at me until you’ve made this pie. Then you’ll understand.
A New Feature on SFTF
a christmas tree made out of delicious kale!
Well, it’s the holiday season, a time of giving, and I wanted to give you all a little present. It’s not much, really. But I think it might make your time spent here on SFTF a little more productive. It’s a new button you’ll find embedded in forthcoming posts (assuming I am with-it enough to remember to put the necessary code in each new post) that says “Spring It!”. This handy button is connected to a site called Springpad that has all sorts of apps (gosh, I hope I’m using the lingo correctly), including putting SFTF recipes on your iPhone or other on-the-go-gadget so you can take it with you to the store and make you’ve got all the ingredients in your shopping cart.
Don’t have such an on-the-go-gadget (don’t worry, neither do I)? This new “Spring It!” button can still be very handy. By using it, you can save all your favorite SFTF recipes (and others from your regular reads) to one online filing cabinet that you can then use to print recipes (yes, finally a print function for my recipes!) and create quick shopping lists that you can then print and take to the market with you the old-fashioned way. There’s also some “productivity tools” that I have yet to explore on the Springpad site that might be of use. If you know of one that you already use and love, please do share it with us so we all know to look for it!
So, hopefully that helps you out a bit. If it doesn’t, just ignore the button. It’s pretty inconspicuous. You do need to sign up for a Springpad account (quick and painless, I promise) to use it. When you click on the button in one of my posts, it will take you to a new page. However, just look closely and find the blue “Spring It and Go Back” link to return to your beloved SFTF.
Preserving Pumpkin
Here’s a quick and dirty little post on how to make your own pumpkin puree to freeze and use throughout the winter. I happen to be using the large crop of butternut squash that I harvested from my garden to make the batch of puree I photographed for this post, but you can use any type of eating pumpkin. Butternut squash, by the way, make a great substitute for pumpkins (really, you’ll never be able to tell the difference in the final dish) and are usually available much longer in the season, both earlier and later, than pumpkins.
I find it’s best to go at the puree-making process in big batches as it is a bit time-consuming and messy whether you’re making a little or a lot so you might as well make a lot, right? But the effort is worth it as fresh pumpkin puree is notably different from the canned stuff you’ll get at the store. The puree is much more vibrant in color, contains a lot more “juice” that adds moisture to your dish, and retains all the amazing vitamins that pumpkin has. Did you know pumpkins are rich in vitamin A, potassium, and fiber? The addition of pumpkin to just about any dish can be considered a very healthy one indeed. This pumpkin puree can be used in pumpkin rolls, pies, smoothies, ice cream, truffles, bread puddings, risotto, soup, sauces… once it’s in your freezer, you can let you mind go free to dream up all the possibilities.
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