Sugar cookies for decorating

My Mom's standard sugar cookie recipe, especially for Christmas. These are perfect for decorating. Courtesy of First Presbyterian Church, according to Mom, but I don't know if that's my First Presbyterian Church of childhood or not. It seems to me that an inordinate percentage of Presbyterian Churches are First.

½ cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 Tbsp. milk
¼ tsp. anise oil
3¼ cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt

Cream together shortening and sugar, then add eggs, milk and anise oil. Sift together the dry ingredients and add to the sugar mixture. Divide into 3 balls, shape into flattened disks, and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firm. Using one disk at a time, roll to ⅛ inch, using powdered sugar instead of flour for rolling. Cut into shapes using cutters, and transfer to a greased cookie sheet or one with parchment. Bake at 375 degrees F for 7-10 minutes or until very light brown.

If desired, paint before baking with egg yolk and 2 or 3 drops of water and cake coloring. Or, sprinkle with colored sugar before baking, or decorate with frosting after cooled.

Apple Cake Cockaigne

I am considering cooking my way through all of the cockaigne recipes in the Joy of Cooking. Why not? They are supposed to be the favorites!

1 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. sugar
5 to 6 Tbsp. butter
1 egg
½ tsp. vanilla
milk
4 cups sliced pared apples
1 cup sugar (white, brown or a mix)
2 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Grease a 9- or 10-inch round pan. Do not use a springform one, or protect the oven underneath from dripping sauce. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and 2 Tbsp. sugar. Cut in 2 to 3 Tbsp. chilled butter until it is crumbly like pastry dough. In a measuring cup, beat 1 egg with the vanilla, then add enough mild to bring it up to ½ cup. You will have a very sticky dough. Pat it into the greased pan with a floured palm or greased spoon or spatula. Arrange sliced apples on top (if they are dull, sprinkle them with lemon juice first). Combine the cup of sugar and cinnamon with 3 Tbsp. melted butter. Sprinkle on top. Bake about 25 minutes.

Turkey tetrazinni

This alternates nicely with the great after-Thanksgiving turkey enchiladas. Recipe from the Joy of Cooking.

2 to 3 cups shredded cooked turkey
½ pound pasta
½ to ¾ pound mushrooms
5 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 clove garlic
3 Tbsp. dry white wine
2 Tbsp. flour
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup cream (or half and half)
salt and pepper
grated parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Clean and slice mushrooms. Melt 2 Tbsp. butter in a pan with 1 Tbsp. oil, and saute mushrooms on medium. When they have started to release liquid, add 1 clove of garlic, minced. Continue sauteing, adding the wine and allowing most of the liquid to cook off. Meanwhile, boil salted water for the pasta. While the pasta is cooking, make a roux of 3 Tbsp. butter and the flour, slowing mixing in the chicken stock. Season it with salt and pepper, then remove from heat and stir in the cream.

Drain the pasta, then mix half the sauce with the pasta, stir in the chicken and mushrooms, and mix all together. Grease a baking dish, pour in the pasta mixture, then pour the remaining sauce over it all. Sprinkle the top with grated Parmesan cheese, or a mixture of cheese and breadcrumbs. Bake until lightly browned and heated through.

Chocolate Orange Cake

This recipe is from Nigella Lawson's Feast. Susan had remembered it as a clementine recipe, and we had some, so that's how we made it. It was good but I didn't love it as much as I'd thought I would, maybe because it is classed as a flourless chocolate cake, but is not so decadent as what I had in mind, though quite nice.

2 small or 1 large thin-skinned orange, approximately 14oz total weight
6 eggs
1 heaped teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
2 cups ground almonds
1¼ cups superfine sugar
½ cup unsweetened cocoa
orange peel for decoration if wished

Put the whole orange or oranges in a pan with some cold water, bring to the boil and cook for 2 hours or until soft. Drain and, when cool, cut the oranges in half and remove any big seeds. Then pulp everything -- pith, peel and all -- in a food processor, or see below if you're proceeding by hand.

Once the fruit is cold, or near cold (though actually I most often cook the oranges the day before I make the cake), preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and line an 8 inch springform pan.

Add the eggs, baking powder, baking soda, almonds, sugar and cocoa to the orange in the food processor. Run the motor until you have a cohesive cake mixture, but still slightly knobbly with the flecks of pureed orange. Or you could chop the fruit finely by hand, and with a wooden spoon beat the eggs one by one into the sugar, alternating with spoons of mixed ground almond and cocoa, then the oranges, though I have to say I've only ever made this the lazy way.

Pour and scrape into the cake pan and bake for an hour, by which time a cake tester should come out pretty well clean. Check after 45 minutes because you may have to cover it with aluminum foil to prevent the cake from burning before it is cooked through, or indeed it may need a little less than an hour; it all depends on your oven.

Leave the cake to get cool in the pan, on a cooling rack. When the cake is cold you can take it out of the pan. Decorate with strips of orange peel or coarsely grated zest if you so wish, but it is darkly beautiful in its plain, unadorned state.

Makes about 8 slices.

Last box: Finally the kohlrabi arrives!

Honey Brook Organic Farm made it into the New York Times regional section again today, this time in an article about locavore Thanksgiving. This picture was of a couple gathering pick-your-own herbs at the farm.

Today was the last box of the season, which is always a bit sad, while also something of a relief to not have to figure out what to do with a surfeit of daikon and kohlrabi! Speaking of which, I'm sure we got more kohlrabi last year - this is the first and only time this year. And we got four little heads of lettuce on the last day of the farm share in mid-November! The carrots, cauliflower and sweet potatoes will keep us eating our veggies for a while.

• Carrots
• Cauliflower
• Celeriac
• Kohlrabi
• Baby Lettuce
• Parsley
• Radishes

Peanut butter cookies with chocolate chunks

I made this recipe from epicurious, but would make it with a few changes next time. I might increase the peanut butter, but would definitely decrease the honey or sugar, as it was a little too sweet for me to really get that nice balance of salty and sweet that's so good with pb and chocolate things.

• 1 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup old-fashioned oats
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup old-fashioned chunky peanut butter (about 9 ounces)
• 1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

Mix flour, oats, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat peanut butter, brown sugar, butter, honey, egg and vanilla in large bowl until well blended. Stir dry ingredients into peanut butter mixture in 2 additions. Stir in chopped chocolate. Cover and refrigerate until dough is firm and no longer sticky, about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 2 heavy large baking sheets. With hands, roll 1 heaping tablespoonful of dough for each cookie into 1 3/4-inch-diameter ball. Arrange cookies on prepared baking sheets, spacing 2 1/2 inches apart. Bake cookies until puffed, beginning to brown on top and still very soft to touch, about 12 minutes. Cool cookies on baking sheets 5 minutes. Using metal spatula, transfer cookies to rack and cool completely.

Sauerkraut

About ¾ head of cabbage, over 3½ weeks, made 3 pints of sauerkraut. This is truly mysterious biochemistry with food. As I understand it, you just control the salinity of the solution, keep it out of contact with oxygen, and maintain a reasonable temperature range, and the right bacteria (Leuconostoc mesenteroides) will win. And it seems to have worked - I just put some cabbage and salt water in the basement for a few weeks, and it tastes like sauerkraut, so it definitely fermented, and presumably the good bacteria won. I canned a couple pints and kept one for the fridge.

See a recipe, and look up the science in On Food and Cooking.

Salad returns

Lettuce is back, I hadn't expected that. Carrots and sweet potatoes in quantity. Another daikon to find something to do with. Spinach and cauliflower has been nice to have lately.

• Arugula
• Carrots
• Cauliflower
• Celery
• Daikon
• Endive
• Baby Lettuce
• Radishes
• Spinach
• Sweet Potatoes

Oven-dried grape tomatoes

Based on the recipe from Barbara Kafka's Vegetable Love, for plum tomatoes--grape tomatoes are sweeter.

Clean tomatoes and cut them in half lengthwise. Arrange, cut side up, on a baking sheet that holds them comfortably. Sprinkle kosher salt lightly and evenly over tomatoes. Let stand at room temperature for roughly 30 minutes.

Place in a 200 degree Fahrenheit oven, on a rack in the middle. Dry until firm but still pliable (not hard and crispy). Set a timer for every hour or so, at first, and every 30 minutes when they get close to dry--depending on size, this can take 2 to 5 hours.

Tomatoes freeze well and we use them all winter long from the freezer.

Cassoulet

More good elite election party food. This is from epicurious as well. It is extremely rich if you actually cook up the duck skin into cracklings.

Makes 6 to 8 servings
Active time: 1¼ hr
Start to finish: 12 hr (includes soaking beans)

1 lb dried white beans (preferably Great Northern)
8¼ cups cold water
2 cups beef broth
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 cups chopped onion (¾ lb)
3 tablespoons finely chopped garlic (6 large cloves)
1 (3-inch) piece celery, cut into thirds
3 fresh thyme sprigs
1 Turkish or ½ California bay leaf
3 whole cloves
3 fresh flat-leaf parsley sprigs plus ½ cup chopped leaves
¼ teaspoon whole black peppercorns
1 (14-oz) can stewed tomatoes, puréed or finely chopped with juice
4 confit duck legs (1¾ lb total)
1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil (if necessary)
1 lb cooked garlic pork sausage or smoked pork kielbasa, cut crosswise into ⅓-inch-thick slices
2 cups coarse fresh bread crumbs (preferably from a baguette)
1½ teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon black pepper

Preparation

Soak and cook beans:
Cover beans with cold water by 2 inches in a large bowl and soak 8 to 12 hours. Drain in a colander.

Transfer beans to a 6- to 8-quart pot and bring to a boil with 8 cups cold water, broth, tomato paste, onion, and 2 tablespoons garlic. Put celery, thyme, bay leaf, cloves, parsley sprigs, and peppercorns in cheesecloth and tie into a bundle with string to make a bouquet garni. Add bouquet garni to beans, then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until beans are almost tender, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Stir in tomatoes with juice and simmer until beans are just tender, about 15 minutes more.

Prepare duck and sausage while beans simmer:
Remove all skin and fat from duck legs and cut skin and fat into ½-inch pieces. Separate duck meat from bones, leaving it in large pieces, and transfer meat to a bowl. Add bones to bean pot.

Cook duck skin and fat with remaining ¼ cup cold water in a 10-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat, stirring, until water is evaporated and fat is rendered, about 5 minutes. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until skin is crisp, 3 to 6 minutes more. Transfer cracklings with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain, leaving fat in skillet. (You should have about ¼ cup fat; if not, add olive oil.)

Brown sausage in batches in fat in skillet, then transfer to bowl with duck meat, reserving skillet.

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Make bread crumb topping:
Add remaining tablespoon garlic to fat in skillet and cook over moderate heat, stirring, 1 minute. Stir in bread crumbs and cook, stirring, until pale golden, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in chopped parsley, ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon pepper, and cracklings.

Assemble casserole:
Remove bouquet garni and duck bones from beans and discard, then stir in kielbasa, duck meat, remaining teaspoon salt, and remaining ¼ teaspoon pepper.

Ladle cassoulet into casserole dish, distributing meat and beans evenly. (Meat and beans should be level with liquid; if they are submerged, ladle excess liquid back into pot and boil until reduced, then pour back into casserole dish.) Spread bread crumb topping evenly over cassoulet and bake, uncovered, in lower third of oven, until bubbling and crust is golden, about 1 hour.

Cooks' note: Cassoulet can be assembled (but not baked) 1 day ahead. Cool casserole before adding topping, then top and chill, loosely covered. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes before baking.

Sun-dried tomato and pesto torta

I made an approximation of this recipe (via epicurious, from Bon Appétit in December 1999) as East Coast elite food for our election party. I used pesto from our freezer, roughly half regular pesto and half garlic scape pesto. The tomatoes were our own oven-dried ones. Since we keep these in the freezer (not packed in oil), I added enough oil until I liked the consistency. I didn't make quite as much cream cheese layer as the recipe calls for, and had two layers of each filling, in a loaf pan. Apart from the first layer on plastic wrap, they were easy to spread with a spoon or spatula sprayed with nonstick spray. I popped the pan in the freezer briefly, for perhaps 10 minutes, between each layer.

You can make this up to three days ahead; be sure to start at least one day in advance.

Ingredients

4 garlic cloves
1½ cups (packed) fresh basil leaves
¼ cup pine nuts
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
2⅔ cups cream cheese, room temperature (about 21 ounces)
¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1⅓ cups drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes
⅓ cup tomato paste
¾ cup butter, room temperature
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
Fresh basil sprigs
Toasted pine nuts
Baguette slices, toasted

Finely chop garlic in processor. Add basil, 1/4 cup pine nuts, oil and lemon juice. Process until well blended. Add 1/3 cup cream cheese and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Using on/off turns, process just until blended. Transfer pesto to medium bowl.

Coarsely chop tomatoes in processor. Add tomato paste and process until mixture is almost smooth. Add 1/3 cup cream cheese and blend well.

Using electric mixer, beat 2 cups cream cheese and butter in large bowl until fluffy. Season with salt and pepper.

Spray 6-cup soufflé dish with nonstick spray. Line with plastic wrap, extending plastic over sides. Spread 3/4 cup cream cheese-butter mixture evenly over bottom of prepared dish. Top with half of tomato mixture, then 1/2 cup cream cheese-butter mixture, then half of pesto mixture. Repeat layering with 1/2 cup cream cheese-butter mixture, remaining tomato mixture, 1/2 cup cream cheese-butter mixture and remaining pesto. Top with remaining cream cheese-butter mixture. Cover and chill overnight. (Can be made 3 days ahead. Keep refrigerated.)

Invert torta onto platter. Peel off plastic. Smooth any uneveness with a hot knife. Garnish with basil sprigs and toasted pine nuts. Serve with baguette slices.

Mousse au chocolat

Chocolate Mousse
Six to eight servings

From Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, adapted by David Lebovitz.

Doubled by me. That's a big dessert.

12 ounces (340 g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
12 ounces (340 g) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
½ cup (120 ml) dark-brewed coffee
8 large eggs, separated
1⅓ cups, plus 2 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons (60 ml) dark rum
2 tablespoons (30 ml) water
large pinch of salt
1 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Heat a saucepan one-third full with hot water, and in a bowl set on top, melt together the chocolate, butter and coffee, stirring over the barely simmering water, until smooth. Remove from heat.

2. Fill a large bowl with ice water and set aside.

3. In a bowl large enough to nest securely on the saucepan of simmering water, whisk the yolks of the eggs with the 1⅓ cups of sugar, rum, and water for about 3 minutes until the mixture is thick, like runny mayonnaise. (You can also use a handheld electric mixer.)

3. Remove from heat and place the bowl of whipped egg yolks within the bowl of ice water and beat until cool and thick, as shown in the photo above. Then fold the chocolate mixture into the egg yolks.

4. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with the salt until frothy. Continue to beat until they start to hold their shape. Whip in the 2 tablespoons of sugar and continue to beat until thick and shiny, but not completely stiff, then the vanilla.

5. Fold one-third of the beaten egg whites into the chocolate mixture, then fold in the remainder of the whites just until incorporated, but don't overdo it or the mousse will lose volume.

6. Transfer the mousse to a serving bowl or divide into serving dishes, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, until firm.

Storage: The mousse au chocolat can be refrigerated for up to 4 days.

Sweet Potatoes

I just wanted some carrots for cole slaw yesterday. Now we have lots. The sweet potatoes are huge! We have some arugula for our "East Coast Elite" election night party.

• Arugula
• Carrots
• Cauliflower
• Collards
• Daikon
• Leeks
• Sweet Potatoes
• Spinach

Japanese curry

There was an article about Japanese curry in the New York Times Magazine this weekend. It's got a recipe, but that's a lot of work since I can buy pints of curry sauce to bring home directly from Go Go Curry on 38th Street in Manhattan.

I am interested, though, in trying to make something like the red pickles they serve as a side dish at Go Go Curry: fukuzinzuke. A Google search doesn't come up with many recipes, but this one is simple and promising, and this one looks interesting. We've got two daikons to use still, even after I made the Korean pickles from Quick Pickles.

Molto radicchio

A lighter box, and mostly greens. We have 3 or 4 radicchios now, we're not even trying to use it anymore, at least until we've eaten all the stuff we like more.

• Arugula
• Broccoli
• Cabbage
• Daikon
• Kale
• Leeks
• Radicchio
• Spinach

End of Salad Days

Lots of leafy greens keep coming, but for the first time in a while, no tomatoes or lettuce. Our remaining salad greens will probably carry us through this week.

• Baby Bok Choy
• Broccoli
• Red Cabbage
• Chard
• Collards
• Daikon
• Parsley
• Peppers
• Spinach
• Radicchio
• Red Turnips

Jim and Monika Lasagna

Ok, not really, but at their wedding recently the food was really good. The thing I wanted to make at home, though....? Butternut squash and mushroom lasagna. Here's my first attempt, informed by this recipe on epicurious and a number of its commenters, and also by my very vague memory of theirs. Kels says it had less squash and more sauce (this actually makes roughly one cup more sauce than I used tonight). No doubt he's right. For reasons that aren't clear, I loved the lasagna at the wedding but didn't pay as much attention as I normally would have to ingredients and how it was put together. Probably the good company and fun time we were having, but my attempt at re-creating it is now suffering.

Sorry for the rough recipe, but hey, this is what you get when I really do it off of the top of my head.

Start with two butternut squash. I don't know how many pounds, because our scale only works when it wants to, which is rarely when I want it to. Biggish. You know, a little more than average. Cut them in half, scoop out the seeds, and roast them. Scrape out the innards. Melt about 3 T. butter in a saucepan, put in the innards, with about 5 frozen chicken stock cubes (ice cube tray sized) and heat everything up. Puree with a stick blender. Add water as necessary. Season with a fair amount of cayenne pepper and freshly-grated nutmeg, a moderate amount of ground ginger, a dash of ground clove, and salt to taste. Cook until pretty thick. Cool. You should have what looks to be way more than you need.

Chop a Vidalia onion fairly finely, and clean and slice 10 ounces of crimini/portabello mushrooms. Mince two cloves of garlic. Melt 3 T. butter in a pan over medium, gently sauteeing onions for several minutes. Add garlic, a very generous sprinkling of thyme, salt and pepper, and saute for another minute. Add mushrooms and cook for a long time, until most of the liquid cooks off. Set aside.

Make a bechamel sauce with 4 T. butter, 4 T. flour, and 3 cups milk. Stir in about a half pound of shredded fontina cheese.

Shred about a pound of mozzarella.

Assemble, using no-boil lasagna noodles, in a 13x9 pan: put a little sauce (about 1/4) in the bottom, then add a layer of noodles. Top with 1/3 of the squash, 1/2 of the mushrooms, cheese, 1/4 of the sauce, and then noodles. Repeat a full layer. Top with remaining squash, remaining sauce, remaining mozzarella, and then grate some parmesan on top. Wish that you had more sauce and fret that it isn't saucy enough for no-boil noodles. (Don't despair, it is.) Bake about 40 minutes at 350 degrees.

Hmmm....tempted to tag this with "comfort food" as well as the obvious ones. Dense but good. Shows promise.

Brassicaceous!

We often get only small amounts of broccoli from the farm, enough for a small side dish for two, but rarely enough to do much else with. Today we got two small heads of broccoli, and we still have the one from last week, so we have plenty. We also got cauliflower, and since we have from arugula from last week that we still need to use up, it is perfect for Marinated cauliflower salad with arugula. Sometimes the necessary recipes are forced upon us by what we get in the box.

With chinese cabbage this week, and a big head of cabbage from last week, I am threatening to make both sauerkraut and kim chee to use them up.

The tomatoes that looked green last sunday ripened nicely, so I expect this week's to do the same. Hard to believe that we're still getting decent tomatoes. This is a good thing, since salads are once again mandatory.

• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Chinese Cabbage
• Dandelion
• Daikon
• Kale
• Lettuce
• Parsley
• Peppers
• Radicchio
• Spinach
• Butternut squash
• Tomatoes

Fall is here

Tons of greens, and real winter squash. The pumpkin is quite small (dwarfed by this week's cabbage), but we were among the last to pick up veggies in South Orange this week, so they were presumably picked over (the pumpkin was outside the box).

• Arugula
• Beets
• Broccoli
• Cabbage
• Chard
• Cilantro
• Kale
• Lettuce
• Peppers
• Radicchio
• Spinach
• Winter Squash - Butternut + Sweet Dumpling
• Tomatoes
• White Turnips
• Pumpkin

Pickled beets

With another batch of beets today, it was time to pickle them. Canned 6 half-pint jars, plus part of a pint jar for the fridge, using the USDA recipe. Made cold beet borscht with the cooking water, although I got the proportions off a bit and it was waterier than usual.