cook - holiday breakfast bread

This bread has become the traditional Christmas morning breakfast for my entire family. It also makes a lovely holiday gift for co-workers, teachers, etc., as it is a little more unusual than the ubiquitous cookies and candies of Christmas. I have fond childhood memories of my mother's kitchen filled with the smell of allspice and yeast and the countertops lined with rows of lovely golden brown loaves. This bread makes delicious toast, spread with a little butter or cream cheese.

Holiday Breakfast Bread

3 packages yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
1 tablespoon sugar

Blend together and set aside to proof.

While yeast mixture is proofing, mix together the following in the bowl of a mixer:

4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup powdered milk powder
3 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons allspice
1/2 cup melted butter

Gently stir in yeast mixture, then add an additional 2 cups of warm water. Beat well for two to three minutes. (Covering your mixer with a tea-towel prevents splattering)

Allow dough to rise for 30 - 45 minutes, until bubbly and puffy.

Beat in:

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups raisins
1 1/2 cups citron or fruit-cake mix or other candied fruit

Gradually add about 2 more cups of all purpose flour, until the dough is starting to hold its form a bit and is climbing the beater.

Turn out onto a well-floured surface and knead by hand for about five minutes, adding more flour if the dough is very soft (but you do want it to remain quite soft. Place in a greased bowl, cover, and allow to rise for 45 - 60 minutes.

Punch dough down and divide into four equal portions. Gently knead and shape each portion of dough into a round loaf. Place on two baking sheets (two loaves per baking sheet) and cover lightly. Allow to rise for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350º. When loaves have risen for 20 minutes (they won't uff up much at this stage) bake loves for about 30 minutes, switching positions in the oven halfway through. Remove loaves from oven and brush with a glaze made by mixing together 1/4 cup sugar and 2 tablespoons of water. Return to the oven and continue to bake for about 10 minutes longer, until loaves are a deep golden brown.

These loaves keep well in the pantry for several days, and can be frozen for several months. To serve, slice and then toast bread lightly. Spread with butter or cream cheese.

cook - rosemary caramel popcorn

I have no photo of this because it was eaten so quickly. Suffice it to say, it is lovely to look at and utterly, addictively delicious. The recipe came from the December 2010 issue of Martha Stewart Living (on newsstands now!) which had a ton of great holiday entertaining recipes, but this caramel popcorn is superlative. The hint of rosemary turns a childhood favorite into a sophisticated treat that will please grown-ups and kiddos alike.


Rosemary Caramel Popcorn
Martha Stewart Living Magazine
December 2010

2 tablespoons safflower oil
1/2 cup popcorn kernels
1 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves
1 teaspoon grey flaked sea salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Heat oil and a few popcorn kernels in a large stock pot, covered, over high heat. When the kernels pop, add the remaining popcorn kernels. Cook, shaking pot, until pooped. Transfer popcorn to a large bowl.

Preheat oven to 250º. Heat butter, sugar and corn syrup in a small saucepan over high heat. Cook, stirring more or less constantly, until butter and sugar melt and a candy thermometer reaches 250º (top end of "firm ball" stage). Immediately remove from heat and quickly stir in salt, rosemary and baking soda. Pour over popcorn, then stir or toss thoroughly. (oiling the spoon you use for stirring keeps the caramel from sticking to your spoon.) Transfer to a large rimmed baking sheet.

Bake, stirring occasionally, until dry to the touch, about 45 minutes. Let cool before serving.

cook - butternut squash, lentil & quinoa salad

This hearty, autumnal main dish salad was a success for supper - even the children ate it - (albeit reluctantly). I was inspired by the recipe for Spicy Squash Salad with Lentils and Goat Cheese at SmittenKitchen.com, but I decided to make it a little heartier to stand alone as a main dish. The goat cheese definitely adds a necessary tart-creaminess here, so I wouldn't want to go vegan with this and omit the cheese, but it is otherwise vegetarian and delicious!

butternut squash, lentil & quinoa salad

Take 3/4 cup tiny green or black lentils (sometimes called "french lentils"), rinse well in cold water, then soak in a pot of cool water for ten minutes.

While the lentils are soaking, peel one medium butternut squash and chop it into one-inch chunks, reserving the seeds from the squash. Toss the butternut squash pieces with about a tablespoon of olive oil, a couple of teaspoons of cumin, and one teaspoon of smoked spanish paprika (or you can use sweet paprika, but you might want to also add a dash of cayenne for heat). Put the squash on a rimmed baking sheet and roast in a 400º oven for about 30 minutes, stirring and flipping the pieces of squash once or twice during their roasting time.

While the squash is roasting, put the pot of lentils and water on the stove and bring to a gentle boil. Simmer for about 30 minutes, or until lentils are cooked through.

If you want to include toasted squash seeds in the salad, clean off the reserved seeds, rinse thoroughly, and pat dry with a paper towel. Toss with a teaspoon or so of olive oil and a generous pinch of salt, and place on a rimmed baking sheet and pop in the oven with the roasting squash. The seeds will need to be stirred around every few minutes to prevent them from burning, and should be golden and crispy after ten to fifteen minutes. Remove from oven when done and set aside.

While lentils are simmering and squash is roasting, take about 1/2 cup quinoa, rinse thoroughly, and place in small pot with 1 cup water. Bring to a boil, and then simmer for about fifteen minutes, or until quinoa is cooked.

When the squash is roasted, the lentils cooked and drained, and the quinoa cooked, combine all three in a large salad bowl, and drizzle with a tablespoon or so of olive oil, a tablespoon or two of red wine vinegar, a pinch of black pepper and a teaspoon or two of dried mint (or finely chopped fresh mint, if you have it). Toss the vegetable and quinoa with the dressing.

Place a generous handful of arugula on each plate, top with a portion of the warm salad vegetables, and garnish with crumbled goat cheese and toasted squash seeds.

This served two adults and two small children as a main course, with a generous amount of leftovers, so it would probably serve four adults as a main dish.

This salad would also make a lovely first course for a fall dinner party, especially if you omitted the quinoa, which I added to the original recipe to make the dish a little more substantial.

cook - vegan chocolate cupcakes

The recipe for these cupcakes came from the exquisite cookbook Organic and Chic by Sarah Magid. Absolutely full to the brim with amazing recipes for beautiful treats, this cookbook is a delight. For the chocolate icing, I wanted to go vegan as well, but did not have vegan margarine on hand. I'll share what I did, but according to the gods of chocolate, it really should NOT have worked, but it did, and was delicious and beautiful too. If you don't want to risk my crazy recipe, the internet abounds with simple vegan chocolate icing recipes.

"easiest chocolate cake" from "Organic and Chic" by Sarah Magid:
makes two 8 or 9 inch layers or 24 cupcakes

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Butter and flour two 8 or 9 inch round cake pans or place liners in muffin pans for 24 cupcakes.

In large bowl, sift together the following:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups cane sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda

In smaller bowl whisk together:
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2/3 cups canola oil
2 teaspoons white vinegar
2 cups cold water

Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, being careful not to overmix. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 30 minutes for cake layers, about 25 minutes for cupcakes.

Cool in the pans for ten minutes, then remove from pans and cool on wire rack.

"emily's really weird this-should-not-have-worked vegan chocolate icing":

I melted two squares of unsweetened chocolate in a small sauce pan, then poured that into my mixer. With the mixer running I poured in about 2 tablespoons of canola oil, a generous teaspoon of vanilla, and started beating in some powdered sugar, a bit at a time. What resulted was icing-like, but way too thick to spread. I added a splash more oil, but that made it really oily looking, and not a nice texture, and I thought this was a failure. But, before I gave up, I tried adding a little bit of lukewarm water, a spoonful at a time, while the mixer was running, and suddenly, I had icing! And it was lovely, delicious, shiny and really chocolatey. Definitely use this icing right away, since as the melted chocolate cools the icing "sets up" a bit, but it did remain spreadable long enough for me to ice the the cupcakes. Please note, this made enough icing for only a dozen cupcakes.

For the decoration I tinted some marzipan with violet icing color, and cut out little flowers, then sprinkled the cupcakes with violet edible "cake sparkles."

craft - jack-o-lantern chandelier shades

This craft is something I saw on Martha Stewart's website and thought would be a fun, kid-friendly craft. It turns out that papier mache is kind of tricky when you do it with tissue paper! Not at all as simple as old school newspaper papier mache. But, we prevailed, and ended up with some adorable little jack-o-lanterns to make our dining room more festive for Halloween!

For this craft you'll need some small round balloons (I got a bag of miscellaneous water balloons), some orange and yellow tissue paper cut up into small (one to two inch squares), some white glue and some black paper (not tissue paper though).

Blow up the balloons. You'll want your finished product to be big enough that they fit over your chandelier bulbs generously. Mix some glue with water in a shallow bowl until quite thin, like maybe the consistency of heavy cream. Dip pieces of the cut up tissue paper into the glue mixture and place them all over the balloon, overlapping the tissue, so no balloon peeks out (except at the base around the balloon's knot. Leave that area bare for the extraction of the popped balloon later on.) The trick here is that you want to thoroughly cover the balloon with tissue paper, but you also don't want too many layers of paper, since you'll want lots of light to shine through! Don't worry if you have problems with the tissue tearing, wrinkling, etc. It won't really matter to the finished product.

Once your balloons are all covered with tissue, place them on a cooling rack to dry. This takes time. A long time. Like maybe a day, or more, if your weather is cool or damp. When they are thoroughly dry they'll feel slightly hard and crispy. Now is the time to add faces. Martha's website had a template for a cute little face, but we just winged it. In fact, L. was very proud of the shapes she cut out for eyes, nose, mouth, etc. and even J. got in on the shape cutting action. We then glued the face shapes on (remembering that the bottom of the balloon, where the knot is, will be the bottom of your shade as well). Once the faces were completely dry, we popped the balloons, pulled them out through the hole in the bottom of the shade, and popped them on our chandelier. The children were enchanted with the finished result!

Fire Hazard Disclaimer - I don't know how fire safe these little beauties are. To be safe, I would not use them with a bulb higher than 40 watts, and even at 25 - 40 watts, I'd be inclined to keep a close eye on them.

craft - little flower vase

These little bottles were a craft idea from the brilliant book Kid Made Modern by Todd Oldham. In addition to some great craft projects the book gives a little background on a handful of key modern designers, discussing how each of these designers changed the world through their designs. It is thought provoking and good creative fodder, and if nothing else it is fun even for the littlest of people to browse through the great photos.

This project was so simple, we (one grown up, one three year old, one five year old) were able to complete the entire project within the course of about 45 minutes.

Here is what you need:
a clean, empty glass bottle (we used empty herb bottles, but you could use a larger bottle)
masking tape
shoe polish
a rag (or paper towels) or two

Here is what you do:
Start tearing off small pieces of masking tape - smaller is better. Working from the top of the bottle, cover the entire bottle with little pieces of masking tape, overlapping the tape so no glass peeks out. (Do cover the mouth of the bottle, but don't let the tape go too far down the inside of mouth - you don't want the tape to get wet if you put water in the bottle for flowers.)

Once the bottle is completely covered with tape, use your fingers to smooth down any little edges of tape so the bottle is totally smooth. Get a little shoe polish (you can use any color - we used tan and cordovan) on a rag or paper towel, and gently apply it all over the bottle. Take a clean paper towel or another piece of rag, and wipe away any excess polish, then let bottle dry overnight.

You can put water in the bottle for flowers, but be careful not to get the tape wet if possible.

cook - tuna & pasta salad

This is our go-to summertime make-in-advance pasta salad recipe. It couldn't be easier to make, it's healthy, and the children like it! Like most of my favorite recipes, I don't really follow a recipe here, just a general guideline, and the salad is a little different every time we make it, depending on what sort of veggies we have in the fridge. Like today, for instance, we were out of celery, so there is none in the salad today, but when we serve it this evening we'll put it on a bed of romaine lettuce, so it will be even prettier on it's bright green bed.

The ingredients are, more or less:

8 oz of whole grain pasta, cooked to al dente, then rinsed with cool water and drained
1/4 cup mayonnaise or to taste
a couple spoonfuls sweet pickle relish
capers (totally optional, but we love capers)
finely chopped onion (we used red, but you could use any onion) to taste, for us about 1/2 cup
one or two stalks celery, chopped
1/2 cup or so of purple cabbage, shredded or chopped
one or two carrots, finely chopped or coarsely grated
sweet bell pepper, chopped
tomato, chopped


Toss all of this together, season with salt and pepper, cover and chill, or eat right away. We like to serve it on a bed of lettuce or baby greens of some sort. It keeps nicely in the fridge for about a day. This recipe serves four generously.