Home Again Cookies

Time to own up.

I've decided to write a blog post every day in November. It's part of something called, alternately, NaBloPoMo or NaMoWriMo – a country cousin to the National Novel Writing Month. I don't know if I need to sign up somewhere, or if there is a website organizing the movement. All I know is, I'm going to try to blog every day. Just for the sheer exercise of writing on a daily basis.

I started this blog as a way to journal my way through a confusing year. The year of stepping into the kitchen in some sort of meaningful way. And I get lazy at times, or think I have nothing of interest. This daily-blogging for November will keep me moving. So, let me apologize now for some less-than-stellar posts that are likely to come from this activity. I missed one day, and already am wracked with guilt, but hope to have a two post day soon.

These cookies are delicious, and that seems reason enough to post.

We were away this weekend. I was so happy to see my kitchen tonight. Really, more than usual. From the moment I woke up in the hotel room early this morning, I thought about what I would make for tonight's dinner. Roasted sweet potato and chickpeas and grilled brussel sprouts - two fantastic, easy, tasty recipes I found on the internet this week.

The recipes were so easy, and I really wanted to spend more time in my kitchen, so dessert was in order. I was limited to what was in the pantry, as we had travelled much too much already, and I was not going to the grocery store.

I love oatmeal cookies - they feel almost healthy - whole grains, right? Tonight, I wanted a salty, sweet, soft cookie and I wanted chocolate, and this is what I put together.


Oatmeal Cookies
adapted from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook
makes 3 doz 2" cookies

4 oz butter, room temperature
1 c sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1.5 c flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ceylon cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/4 c whole milk
1/3 c crystallized ginger, chopped
2/3 c golden raisins
2/3 c semi sweet chocolate chips
2/3 c salted peanuts

Line two baking sheets with parchment.
Preheat oven to 350•
Cream butter and sugar in the mixer.
Add eggs one at a time, mixing well between additions. Add vanilla.
Whisk the dry ingredients together.
Add the dry ingredients in two additions, add the milk between the additions.
Stir in the fruit, nuts and chocolate.
Drop about 1 Tbls of the cookie dough out on the parchment, placing about 1" apart.
Bake 15 minutes, until just turning golden.
Cool on a rack.

List Making

I'm feeling the pressure of the holidays already. It's less than three weeks until Thanksgiving and I haven't started making my lists. I've got the menu pretty well figured out (considered an Ode to the last Gourmet magazine - cooking their entire Thanksgiving dinner, but can't give up my favorites.) Now, it's time to get organized.

There will be a list for grocery shopping, a list of serving dishes and utensils. Lists of table setting needs, flowers, vases. Lists outlining breakfast and dinner Tuesday and Wednesday, as we have houseguests. And a timeline of what must be done in the kitchen every day of that week.

Thanksgiving is relatively easy. Only seven at the table, all good friends and family.

Friday is a whole different animal. It's our annual party - The Dead Poultry Society. It's always a great get-together, with somewhere between 50 and 75 friends, friends' families, out of town guests, and, pretty much anyone who shows up at the door!

The DPS was begun years ago by my parents and their Berkshire-weekend-home neighbors, who would have Thanksgiving at their own homes, and then gather on Friday sharing leftovers .

We've expanded the idea. While we encourage attendees to bring any leftovers they want to add to the table, mostly they bring wine. And, I plan the cooking with both days, and all those people, in mind.

Frankly, I'm so exhausted by the time dinner is on the table Thursday, I can barely taste anything. I enjoy the food so much more on Friday. Certainly, there are foods that are prepared just for Friday's get-together. Most specifically - the SANDWICH BAR. Who doesn't love a Thanksgiving leftover sandwich? I bake breads and rolls, put out the pickles, sauerkraut and chutneys put up over the summer, and we all belly up.

There's one other reason to host the Dead Poultry Society. Eight desserts. I can never decide between cherry pie, pumpkin cheesecake, pecan pie, cranberry tart, lemon meringue pie, and heaven knows what else.

Today, we're attending a family wedding in Michigan. We'll head home tomorrow and I intend to start those lists on the plane. While I have already ordered two turkeys, I'll place orders with my favorite farmers for fruit, vegetables, fish, and dairy, butter and cheeses this week. Sadly, this will be the last time I see most of the farmers until next Spring.

I love this time of year. And I love Thanksgiving most. It's such a nice holiday - no religious significance, no gift-exchanging awkwardness, nothing but the celebration of food. My kind of day.

Packing for a Trip

We're heading to Michigan tomorrow for a wedding. It's a very quick trip - we're both busy with work and life - so we'll be back on Sunday.

We've done these trips before, for other family functions, and it's always important to carry some snacks. Everybody's happier when there is something to munch on. Tonight, I did a little prep work and made some roasted almonds and some granola for the trip. And I bought some dark chocolate almonds at Trader Joes. This is our road food.

Sweet and Salty Almonds

1 lb. raw whole almonds, skin on
2 Tbls honey
2 tsp canola oil
3 Tbls tamari
2 Tbls turbinado sugar

Preheat oven to 325
Roast almonds for 10-15 min, until they smell nutty and are toasted.
In a large heavy skillet, heat the honey, oil and tamari until bubbling, then toss in roasted almonds and cook until dry.
Toss into a bowl, sprinkle the sugar over and stir around until well and very lightly coated.
Spread on a parchment lined sheet pan to cool.

That's Fresh

I spent a great day today at Springfield Farm in Sparks, Maryland. I have a lot to say about the visit, but have to organize all my notes.


In the meantime, here's an amazingly cool thing that occurred. I was walking among the turkeys with Farmer David Smith, and there were two eggs, just lying on the ground. David picked them up and handed them to me. I slipped them in my pocket and brought them home.

I decided on that bistro favorite, salad with eggs. One of my favorite combinations. I had a bag of the most lovely arugula (from Red Bud Farm), tossed it with fig vinegar, olive oil, shallot, pepper and fleur de sel, then fried the two turkey eggs in olive oil until the edges were crispy and browned. Add a few baguette slices with aged goat cheese, toasted - chevre chaud. It was heavenly.

Eating Like A Peasant - Onion Soup

I've not really been in the mood to cook the last two days. When I feel this way, I turn to the old stand-bys and onion soup is certainly one of the easiest, cheapest, tastiest dinners around. Here's an quick, incredibly easy, dinner using one of those 6c bags of stock in your freezer.

I started making this recipe back in college, when I was living on a very tight food budget. Tonight, I supplemented with an arugula salad with crispy bacon, minced shallot, olive oil and lemon juice. And a lovely fresh baguette baked up earlier today. Oh, and a Cote de Rhone. That was critical.


It's renewed my zip and I'm going to be ready to cook dinner again tomorrow.

French Onion Soup a la Julia
Serves 4

2 lbs. onion
4 Tbls butter
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
3 Tbls flour
1/2 c white wine
6 c rich chicken stock
2-3 Tbls Cognac
8 Baguette slices
1/4 lb. Parmesian Cheese, shaved with a vegetable peeler (shredded will work here, but grated will not)

Equipment: four oven-proof bowls

Cut the onions in half vertically. Lay the onion halves down on the cutting board and slice across the onion, into half-moons, as thinly as possible.

Heat the butter in a large, heavy stock pan. Add the onions and get them sweating and breaking down. Sprinkle salt, pepper and sugar over the onions, toss and allow them to caramelize.

Add the flour and cook until everything turns nice and brown - about five minutes.

Add the wine and deglaze the pan, scraping up the good bits.

Add the chicken stock and allow the soup to simmer for 45 minutes.

Add the cognac and bring back to a simmer.

Preheat the broiler.

Slice a baguette and put two pieces of bread in the bottom of each bowl. Place the bowls on a sheet pan lined in parchment paper.

Fill the bowls with the soup and place the shaved cheese across the surface of the soup/bread.

Slip under the broiler for two or three minutes, watching carefully, until the cheese bubbles.

Talking Turkey at Smith Meadows Farm

Just a few days ago, I spent a wonderful morning with the Pritchard family at Smith Meadows Farm in Berryville, Virginia. The farm has been in the family, and producing, since the early 19^th century. A few years back, Betsy and Forrest made the decision to focus full time on running the farm. It’s a family affair, for sure, with their mother running the B&B (and joining in the farm work between guest stays); and, Forrest’s wife, Nancy, making delectable pasta and sauces.

Driving through an ancient orchard along the driveway, sheep raise their heads to see who is coming. The pigs are having a fantastic time under the trees, finding windfall apples - snarfling and snuffling. I had to stop, open the windows and listen. So tame, they came to the fence, clearly looking for goodies.

At the end of the drive is a Dutch/Federal style Manor House with narrow buildings on either side – dependencies -all fashioned from bricks made on the premises. It's a picture-perfect Virginia farm. Across the 400 acres, there are rolling pastures where cattle, sheep and pigs graze. I head up to a large fenced area that holds all the poultry in a grassy field. When I visited in July, there were ducks, turkeys and chickens. Today, it's just turkeys and chickens. (See my Duck tales.)

I’ve been a customer for several years, but this year, I wanted to know more about the bird on my Thanksgiving table, and that's why I am at the farm.

Betsy and I walked up the hill to the field where the turkeys were grazing on grass behind a small, makeshift fence. The fence is a new addition, moving with the turkeys as they are relocated for fresh grass (they really do a number on the grass in a very short time!) The fence had to be erected recently when coyote and fox started taking young birds. Sadly, one coyote killed nine turkeys, eating only one, leaving behind eight bloody corpses. Serious frustration for the turkey farmer!

Smith Meadows raises two commercial breeds – the broad breasted white and the broad breasted bronze. When asked why no heritage breeds, the answer came down to dollars and sense. Heritage chicks cost more than twice as much as commercial chicks, and they have a higher mortality rate. All I know is Betsy’s got some tasty birds. They’ve graced my holiday table for the last five years.

Betsy says she learned some good lessons this year with her brood of 300. Chicks arrive in the mail in June and July, staggered across a few weeks. In fact, those started in July did better than those started earlier. Better weather, more consistent warmth. The birds are raised to a particular weight, not for particular number of days, aiming for 10-14 lbs. Evidently, with smaller families, the days of the 25# turkey are over. I say, good riddance to dried out turkey - roast two smaller birds instead! Betsy calls and talks to the turkeys as we walk among them. They're definitely interested in us, chattering and preening.

Betsy and Forrest started selling directly to the customer in 1996 through farmers markets around the Washington, DC metro area. They currently raise about 4000 chickens each year, as well as the turkeys. At any time, they might have 200 cows, 125 hogs and 800 laying hens. And lamb. Heaven. Their lamb is some of the best I've ever tasted - I assumed it was due to the rich green pastures, but Betsy explained the efforts she's made to balance the minerals they take in - minerals that are critical to a lamb's health.

We walked down to the processing house where turkeys were meeting their maker. It was quick and humane. That's all I need to say. No screaming. No anxiety.

Once dispatched, the bird is quickly scalded and then put in a gentle tumbling plucking machine. When the feathers are off, the bird is passed back to the stainless steel processing tables. Here, the two farm interns (hard to believe that's the same smiling face I see every Saturday at my market) are cleaning up a nice looking turkey.

I watched as the birds were processed. Great care is taken to clean and prepare the turkey for the customer, all done by hand to limit any bruising or tearing.

Here's Betsy doing the final inspection - getting all the pin feathers and feather pins out.

After watching for awhile (I wondered later if I should have jumped in to help, but...) I walked down the path to visit with Nancy in the kitchen. Smith Meadows has a brisk pasta and sauce market business. I have my favorites (Sweet Potato Ravioli, Apple Cheddar Ravioli, Oat & Winter Wheat Fettucine.)

In this sweet little storefront, Nancy and her two worker-bees were cranking out noodles and pesto, supervised by her Nancy's son, Linus.

There were great heaps of green garlic scapes, nuts, cheese and oil ready for the food processor. And rectangular slabs of freshly made pasta dough ready for the pasta machine. I will admit to pasta-machine-envy.

When we were parting company, I asked Betsy a question that's been on my mind since disassembling the ducks. Do her customers want cut-up chicken? Yes, of course they do. But she encourages them to watch the videos to see how it's done. Here's one I like linked here.

I always buy whole chickens and will admit that I most often roast them whole, but recently, after the duck education, I decided to break down two chickens for various dishes - eight leg quarters for my new favorite go-to dish from food52, Rosy Chicken, breasts for some charcuterie (post to come) and carcasses, necks, wing tips and scraps for stock.

Above all, I think I most appreciate the nose-to-beak benefits of homemade stock.

I keep chicken, duck and other stock in 6 cup measures, in ziplock bags (freeze flat on a sheet pan for best storing!) in the freezer. Six cups is the perfect quantity for one batch of soup.

Chicken (or duck or turkey) Stock, makes about 8 cups

Two chicken carcasses, necks, wing tips and scraps (about two pounds)

3 quarts cold water

2 onions, quartered (onion skin can go in the pot, too, as it helps color the stock)

4 carrots, cut in thirds

2 celery stalks, or the celery leaves from the stalk

1 T peppercorns

6-8 fresh thyme stalks

2 rosemary stalks

1 bay leaf

Cook for at least four hours, covered. Sometimes I cook mine for six hours.

Strain and cook another hour.

Cool quickly in a bowl held over an ice bath to retain the best flavor.

Refrigerate overnight. Skim the fat. Freeze.

Make a batch today. You'll love how the house smells and you will thank me at Thanksgiving.

PS I don't salt my stock so I can control the salt in soups and sauces made from the stock.

Sunday Roast Chicken Dinner

We're still cleaning up around here. The house has been in a complete uproar since the basement was drywalled. Today, with the clocks falling back, rain steadily falling, and no need to go anywhere, we took on the clean up.

First we had breakfast to fortify us. Buttermilk pancakes and Sauteed Spiced Apples. Served up with hot strong coffee and the New York Times. The Obamas were profiled in the magazine. Some seriously good reading.

In order to clean the garage and basement, we had to start upstairs in the bedrooms. Can't quite explain why... There was a lot of carrying big plastic storage boxes from one floor to the other, moving furniture, setting up the second guest room for holiday travelers and organizing all our stored belongings.

It's always confronting to realize how much stuff we've accumulated. And even while confronting some issues, there were pockets of untouched detritus. Some boxes with my mother's things. Those I'm not ready to deal with, so they get moved around and then back to the same spot they've been in for five years.

I had to face up to having a lot of kitchen equipment. And entertaining stuff. We set up one of those big stainless steel shelves in the basement and put all the overflow there. The big Le Creuset pots. The icecream maker. The deep fryer. The huge roasting pans. All the extra plates & flatware. The boxes of wine glasses. It's good to get it organized and I'm committed to using it, or moving it along. I discovered two attachments for the Atlas pasta maker - had forgotten all about those!

Oh, and if you see me at Costco, remind me that I already have three of those large 24-roll toilet paper packs. That's 72 rolls. Way more than two people need, even if we do entertain a lot.

In the end, we had a few things to give away and a few things to sell, and with the help of our neighborhood listserv, everything was claimed in an hour.

We moved things around. Packed and repacked storage boxes. Dusted and washed and scrubbed. Took out the trash. And now the house is all put back together. Very satisfying, I must say.

To reward us, I made one of our favorite Sunday dinners. Roast chicken. Roasted potatoes. Bok choy sauteed with mushrooms, onions and fennel. And for dessert, we'll enjoy the rest of a fantastic pumpkin apple bread from food52.

Our Favorite Roast Chicken, adapted from Thomas Keller's Bouchon

3.5 lb roasting chicken
2 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp black pepper, freshly ground

Brine
1/2 c kosher salt
2.5 qt water
generous sprigs of fresh thyme, parsley & rosemary
1 lemon, zested, then cut in half, squeezed and added to the brine
1/2 head of garlic, about 6 cloves, crushed
1 T black peppercorns
1/4 c maple syrup

Heat in a pot large enough to hold the chicken. Bring to a simmer and stir until salt has dissolved. Cool completely.

Add the chicken to the cooled brine and refrigerate for at least four hours and up to six.

Roast The Chicken

(We use the gas grill to roast, heating it to 500, then reducing the heat to 450 when the chicken is added.)

Preheat oven to 475 or light the grill.

Remove the chicken from the brine, rinse well and pat dry.

Allow to air dry for 30 min. then generously salt and pepper outside and in.

Heat 1 Tbls olive oil in a cast iron pan. When quite hot, add chicken, breast side up.

Place pan on the grill or into the oven and roast the bird for 40 minutes, or until the leg moves freely and a thermometer registers 165-170.

Allow to rest for five minutes or so before carving.


And here is a pic of the 'taters. They're so incredibly good. Nigella Lawson's Feast has all the secrets to perfect roast potatoes.


Back tomorrow with the post I've been polishing for days.