Advent 2010, Weeks 3 and 4

We are closing in on Christmas here and looking forward to celebrating with family soon.

Our Advent celebrations hit some snags last week, but we're picking up some steam now.

3rd Sunday in Advent: We had guests in town for J's birthday and didn't plan an activity for Sunday. We did have our weekly candle lighting at supper.

Monday: The task was to finish the little ornaments the kids were working on, but we got caught up doing other things and didn't get around to it.

Tuesday: Same task as Monday, since we didn't do it, but the kids decided they were not interested.

Wednesday: We were going to make homemade playdough and use it to build snowmen, but ended up doing some Christmas shopping instead. The kids were ok with that and had fun getting the gift for their dad.

Thursday: Turning the week around and getting back on track! We had a lot of fun making our own playdough. It's just flour, salt, and water! The kids played for a long time. R made snowmen and then used cookie cutters to make other shapes. J pretty much just made piles of dough. We let everything harden and now it is all sitting on our table as decoration. Definitely going to do this again!
Friday: We watched White Christmas with a picnic snack in the living room. Always a favorite!

Saturday: Rice pudding for dessert by the light of the Christmas tree. Then we read a few Christmas books out loud. I'd like this to become a tradition each year.

4th Sunday in Advent: The kids and I spent much of the afternoon baking and frosting sugar cookies. They were both excited to help! That evening we lit the 4th candle during our short supper ceremony.
Monday: Today's task was to help me wrap a few gifts. R got home early from school because of the snow and now is playing outside. We'll see if we end up doing our project today.

Tuesday: We plan to drive the kids around town after supper and look at all the house decorations.

After Tuesday I don't have any plans made. We'll be traveling at the end of the week and so maybe we'll have an activity here or there, but we'll just have to see.

I have lots of photos of various gifts I've made for Christmas this year, but we'll see if I get around to posting them before we take off!

Baking with Sunbutter

J is allergic to peanuts. We haven't had trouble avoiding foods that could cause him trouble, but I do sometimes feel bad that he won't get to have a classic PB&J or a delicious Monster cookie (peanut butter, oats, M&Ms, and more...)

We purchased a jar of Sunbutter hoping it would give us more lunch options. Neither he nor I really liked it. It isn't bad, but it does taste very strongly like sunflower seeds.

I had been meaning to try baking with it. Maybe we'd be able to keep a few of those family favorite cookie recipes alive for him.

A friend of mine from my college days posts every year on her blog about one of her family cookie traditions - owl cookies!

You can find her post with the recipe on her blog: Owl Cookies by Saroy

Her cookies always look so cute and I did have that sunbutter waiting in the fridge, so I gave it a try. I replaced the cup of peanut butter with a cup of sunbutter. I cut the baking powder in half so that my cookies wouldn't turn green. I also replaced the yummy cashew nose with melted butterscotch chips to avoid any nut cross contamination.

The end result wasn't a failure. My husband really likes PB cookies and said that these were a good substitute. Fresh out of the oven I found the sunflower taste overpowering, but I had another today and it had better balance. The kids both ate their cookie yesterday, but haven't asked for seconds. This might be partially because the Halloween candy influx has already started.

The texture of the baked cookies is a little dry and rough. I wonder if the dough needs some other modifications due to the Sunbutter.

I'm definitely going to try this substitution in a few more recipes and I can see owl cookies becoming a tradition here too. They were easy, the kids helped out, and the cookies are so cute!

*Additional notes*
I stored our owl cookies in an air tight container and it has improved them! They are not as dry or crumbly now and the flavors have really mellowed nicely. Instead chalking it up to an interesting experiment, I now totally would make them again.

I'm very excited to try monster cookies with sunbutter now. I think the oatmeal and sunflower taste will go well together.

Food finds...

The town where I went to college had a small shop that sold Cornish pasties. It was just far enough from campus, with hours that catered to the state employees, that it was a treat to eat there. The shop had many choices for fillings, all wrapped in a flaky crust, but I always went with the same one - burger and potatoes. The pasties were absolutely huge and the leftovers were a big treat to a busy college student.

In a recent issue of Real Simple magazine I found a recipe for meat and potato pasties! I've already tried them a few times and they are very close to what I remember about pasties in college. They are easier to prepare than they look and very filling. Yum!
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Last week my husband offered to make any dessert I wanted for my birthday. I am a big fan of tiramisu, but after trying the decadent version that Buca serves I wanted to be sure we could create something as delicious.

We found a great recipe for tiramisu at Cooking for Engineers. Many recipes we found had raw eggs, which I wanted to avoid, or used substitutes for mascarpone. We wanted to be sure our tiramisu had the rich flavor we expected and were willing to splurge on the ingredients.

The recipe went together fairly quickly and tasted (and looked) amazing. Next time we might experiment with the cake element a little. The lady fingers were in the frozen section at the store and were a little too squishy.

Scones, glorious scones!

I've become a big fan of baking scones in the last year or so. I think it is because you can use frozen or cold butter and don't have to think far enough ahead to soften it. But, I like the texture and process of working with scone dough. And what could go better with a cup of coffee?

Today I have Whole Wheat Apricot Scones in the oven. I tried them over the weekend while my parents were visiting and we gobbled them up. I noticed today that I had quite a bit of half and half left and it just wouldn't do for it to spoil! They are made with whole wheat pastry flour, which gives them a hearty, yet light flavor. The dried, diced apricots get warm and soft in the oven.

If you check out that link, stay a while and read Orangette's blog. A friend passed it along to me months ago and it's so well written and fun to read. She has a great caramel corn recipe that I made a few times around Christmas. And her post on polenta reminded us that we had been meaning to figure out what the fuss is all about with polenta. Based on her suggestions and some of the links she posted we tried it both as a breakfast dish and leftover and fried for supper. It was so buttery and lovely. It has definitely found a place in our rotation now.

Mini soda breads

R wanted to make a special treat for St. Patrick's day today. Several of my friends make Irish Soda bread in March, and I like it, but have never tried to bake it myself - I've heard it is difficult to avoid making it dry and heavy.

We did a little web searching and found a great recipe for soda bread scones at Smitten Kitten. Apparently it is "American-style" Irish soda bread, but having little soda bread experience, I wouldn't know the difference.They are delicious - crunch on the outside, fluffy and soft inside. I liked the shorter cooking time compared to one large loaf and the mini-loaves make it easier to eat. She recommends splitting each between two people and we agreed with that. We left out the raisins and caraway that she recommends. I could see these being great with jam at breakfast or with some fresh strawberries for a treat.

Once the scones were in the oven, J continued to cook with the crumbs and flour left behind. He's a cowboy chef in training!

Pasta!

R and I had some extra time in the kitchen this weekend while my parents were here and we broke out my pasta maker. I haven't used it in probably 10 years! We used Grandpa M's noodle recipe and they were delicious. It is a tradition to have them every year around Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa M's house - freshly made and mixed with lots of butter.

I have a hand crank pasta machine and R did the majority of the cranking while I guided the pasta. It really goes smoothly with two people. The pasta machine takes care of the rolling and cutting - so it is a speedy process. I can see R and I trying out a few other types of fresh pasta this winter.

Grandpa M's noodles

• 2 c. flour
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/4 to 1/2 c. water

Measure flour into bowl, add eggs and salt, mix. Add water 1 Tbsp. at a time. Mix to a stiff dough. Knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Cover and let rest 10 minutes. Divide dough into 4 equal parts and roll 1 part at a time into a paper thin rectangle. Roll rectangle around rolling pin. Slip out rolling pin and cut dough crosswise into 1/8th inch strips. Cook in boiling salted water for 10 to 15 minutes.

Pumpkin treats!

During the fall and winter I really like pumpkin baked goods. Today Joe, my 2 year old, helped me make pumpkin muffins while his sister watched TV. He hasn't really gotten a chance to help like that before, and I forgot what an exercise in patience it is to have that kind of help. But it is fun too and he was so excited to dump in measured ingredients, stir, and try the finished muffins.

Here are my top two favorite pumpkin recipes.

• Pumpkin Scones (from www.joyofbaking.com) - I typically leave out the raisins and pecans. I also use plain milk instead of buttermilk and only use the egg wash about half the time. I do use the double pan method that the recipe suggests and the scones have a nice texture.

• Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins (24 muffins) - a favorite at an on-line forum that I read

2 C. white flour
1 C. whole wheat flour
1 ½ C. sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground cloves
½ tsp. allspice
½ tsp. salt
4 eggs
15 oz. can pumpkin
1 c. butter, melted
1 ½ c. chocolate chips

Mix dry ingredients and set aside. In a large bowl, beat eggs, stir in pumpkin, butter, and chocolate chips. Slowly add dry ingredients. Spoon into greased muffin tins.
Bake 20 – 25 minutes at 350 degrees

These muffins are delicious with any ratio of white to whole wheat flour. The more whole wheat flour used, the more hearty their flavor. I've had success using apple sauce for all or a portion of the butter, and I also have decreased the sugar at times. They are great for breakfast, but also snacks or dessert.

Zucchini Bread

I found a delicious zucchini bread recipe for book club last week. A friend of mine tipped me off to the allrecipes.com site. She has found that she has a lot of success with recipes that have many, many reviews combined with 4 or 5 stars.

I made a few substitutions to the recipe. I used half whole wheat flour and half white flour. I also replaced half of the oil with applesauce and cut 1/4 cup of the sugar. I didn't add in any walnuts and only used 2 tsp. of vanilla instead of 3 tsp. because that is what we had left in the bottle.

The bread was light and not too wet. The crust tasted more like a cookie than a traditional bread. Yum!

Bread pudding!

I read a short article in Time that mentioned how Americans throw away a lot of old bread. Who are these people? We are big bread fans here, often picking up a loaf of Italian bread from our favorite bakery and on the rare occasion that it does start to get old we are at no loss for what to do with it - french toast, garlic toast, grilled cheese, bread pudding...

Over the weekend I saw this recipe for bread pudding with bananas. I glanced at it, but what were the odds that we'd have old bananas and old bread at the same time? Pretty good I guess, because today we did!

We mixed up half of a batch and loved this bread pudding! In this recipe, unlike our standard version, you toss the bread in butter instead of mixing the butter into the liquid. Each bite of bread was nice and buttery. Also, it has a good amount of vanilla extract and the white sugar gave it a lighter flavor than the brown sugar that we had used in the past. I sliced the bananas into 1/4 to 1/2 inch slices and they had a bizarre texture - squishy like tofu - but really nice flavor. In the future I might dice them or slice them thinner so that they aren't as noticeable. We used 1% milk - I imagine that this would be very good, but also very rich with the half and half.

It made a lovely dessert, but also reminded me of a baked french toast or other decadent breakfast food. Yum!