Unpretentious Passion

Comfort Food Just When We Needed It Most....

When a cookie is this good, you tend to want to keep it to yourself.  The gift of knowledge is the greatest gift, however, and when it comes topped with jam it really needs to be shared.

One of the best Christmas Cookies around, courtesy of my Mom and tested pretty much every year I had a working oven:

Angel’s Thumbprint Cookies

1/2.c butter
½ c softened shortening
2/3 c. brown sugar packed, (Mom uses ½ c. plus)
2 egg yolks
½ t. salt
1 t vanilla
1 t. almond extract
2 c. sifted flour
1 c. finely chopped nuts OR MORE
Jam or jelly

Beat together butter, sugar, shortening, egg yolk, salt and flavorings until fluffy.

Add sifted flour and mix to moderately stiff dough.  Use level Tablespoonfuls of dough for each cookie, roll dough into small balls about 1” diameter.

Dip balls into slightly beaten egg whites and roll into chopped nuts.  Place about 2” apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Using thumb, make depression in center of each ball.  Fill with jam or jelly.

Bake in moderately slow oven 325 degrees F, for 20-25 minutes.  Cool thoroughly before storing.  2 ½ to 3 dozen cookies.

P.S.  These cookies won't last long.  Not because they're delicate...because they're delicious. My non-sweets-loving spouse even ate them for breakfast.

Happy Holidays!

The Straight....Well....Poop.

Okay, I don't normally go Cat Lady Psycho over a new cat product.  Well, unless it has feathers on it and runs around making squeaky mousy noises.

This product doesn't do that, but DAMN does it make life easier on cat lovers.  I never wanted to invest in the "automatic" litter box cleaners, cats  usually look at those contraptions like you just asked them to walk over hot coals.  These freakish litter boxes are usually expensive, they often break when you look at them sideways, and the cat just won't use them.  So why bother?

Omega Paw has a Roll and Clean cat litter box that is darned near perfect, however.  You roll it, the stuff you really don't want to touch goes into a little pull-out drawer, you tilt it backwards to sift the unused litter back into the tray....and you're done.  You pull out the tray, toss the junk and you can get back to War and Peace, Dance With the Stars or whatever floats your boat.

I try to consume less and less as time goes by....but when a product has few moving parts and works so darned well, it deserves a little love.  In keeping with the spirit of this blog, it can be ordered internationally online through amazon.com and also through radiofence.com.  For those in the U.S. you can find it at Petco and Petsmart.

The only drawback:  you need a little room to "roll" the thing over....but even in our current itty-bitty apartment it still works GREAT.   Somebody put some thought into this thing and our noses are ever-so grateful.

Quin...What?

Quinoa (pronounced: Keen-wah) is a food full of muscle.  Once you get over trying to pronounce the name, you're usually wowed by it's delicious taste.  Quinoa is a South American grain that's earned the United Nation's title of "supercrop" for it's incredibly high protein content, complete with a balanced set of amino acids.  Apparently they don't call it "the Food of the Gods" for nothing.

With it's mild, nutty taste and firm texture, this stuff is like Play-Doh in the Kitchen -- you can throw any culinary creation at it and it will usually stick.

Here's our recent excursion into a cold Quinoa salad for Easter Dinner:
...the deviled eggs were a last-minute holiday addition.  Thanks to the great fortune of growing up in my Mom's creative kitchen, I wasn't shy about adding an unconventional Japanese touch (edamame soy beans).  Mix and match unique ingredients and have some fun.

Quinoa & Orange Summer Salad

Ingredients:

• 3 oranges, peeled, segmented, and cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 cup baby carrots, sliced thin
• 2 cups cooked quinoa
• 1/4 cup salad dressing
• 3 tbs. fresh lime juice
• 1/4 cup fresh mint, chopped
• lettuce leaves or spinach leaves
• ¼ c. cooked & shelled edamame (Japanese soy beans)
• ¼ c. sliced almonds
• 2 T. chopped scallions

Dressing:

• 2 tbs. olive oil
• 3 tbs. orange juice
• 2 tsp. grainy mustard
• 1 tbs. corn syrup or maple syrup
• Can add 1-2T White Wine Vinegar as well to make slightly less sweet….

Directions:

1. Wash the quinoa in a sieve using cold water. Wash it well, as during storage it gets an oily coating which tastes bitter.
2. Put the washed quinoa in a small pan. Cover with water and cook until soft, about 10 minutes. (Or place in rice cooker, one part quinoa to 2 parts water).
3. Meanwhile, peel and finely slice the baby carrots, prepare remaining ingredients.
4. Chop the mint/scallions and make the salad dressing.
5. When the quinoa is cooked, drain and place in a serving bow.
6. Put the quinoa in the refrigerator to cool down.
7. After 10 minutes- half an hour the quinoa is cool and you can add all the ingredients together.
8. Mix well and return to the refrigerator to season.
9. Serve the salad on a bed of lettuce/spinach, or alternatively in orange cups with a garnish of mint leaves.

Notes:

You could also use canned mandarin oranges as an alternative. They are milder than the fresh oranges but quicker when short of time.

Purchasing Quinoa: 

• Most health food stores carry Quinoa in the grain section (locally to San Diego: try Trader Joe's)
• Online for International Orders and FPO/AP: Eden Foods

Uncontrollable Sugar Cravings

Two hot holiday sugar-infused recipes follow to satisfy your sweet tooth:

Mocosito Cocktail (created on-the-fly by Josh in Marathon Key)

experiment with different parts of:
--Midori Liqueur
--Pineapple Juice
--Malibu Rum
--Bacardi premade Mai Tai mix

It looks green and runny, but it's darned good!

Swarthout Family Carmel Corn

Start with 6 Quarts Popcorn

Note: 1/2 pound (1 cup) popcorn will make 6 qts popped. Pop 1/2 cup at
a time in a 3 qt heavy pan in 1 tbsp. canola oil, shaking pan often to prevent scorching. Pour into large turkey roaster (supermarket type)

For caramel coating use:

1 cup butter (I use 1/2 real butter, 1/2 margarine)
2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed (1 cup dark and 1 cup light)
1/2 cup light karo syrup
1 tsp. salt

Using same pan after popping corn, mix butter, sugar, syrup and salt;
Bring to a boil STIRRING CONSTANTLY.  Adjust heat so it boils well and let boil for 5 minutes WITHOUT STIRRING. Remove from heat and stir in:

1/2 tsp. Baking soda
1 tsp. Pure Vanilla Extract

Pour caramel evenly over popcorn, mixing well to coat evenly. Bake at
250 degrees for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

Allow to cool, break apart and store in airtight container.

The Vesper Martini

"I never have more than one drink before dinner.  But I do like that one to be large and very strong and very cold and very well-made."
~James Bond
Casino Royale (the novel)

The Palm Pilot came out after seeing the movie Casino Royale and I madly jotted down the recipe.  It's confirmed via a little online research, so here's a beautiful variation on the standard martini -- complete with links.

THE VESPER MARTINI
"Casino Royale" 

3 parts Gordon's gin
1 part Smirnoff Red vodka
1/2 part Lillet Blanc apéritif 

To finish: lemon peel

Shake well with ice and strain into an ice-cold martini glass. Garnish with the thinnest slice of lemon twist.

The toughest part for some of us is finding Lillet Blanc.  We can find it in most wine shops here in the U.S. 

The online ordering magic of today's technology gives the rest of us a little boost in this department.

Online orders for Lillet Blanc:

United States and beyond

United Kingdom

My Japanese friends can find it prepared at Volga in Roppongi, it's a Russian restaurant and they put a nice twist on it.  Here's your link from Metropolis.

Shaken, stirred....whatever.  Enjoy!

To Die For (Or Even To Kill For)

Pizza is my food-pellet of choice.  It's also my Italian husband's food-pellet of choice when we're spending an entire weekend off (I actually don't remember the last time we had this rare opportunity, but it's a nice trip down Memory Lane).  When we did have this mystery time, we would call for take-out.  When it arrived, it was often hard to distinguish which was more edible....the pizza or the box it came in.

Compared to Pizza's East Coast cousin, sunny So-Cal has never been able to keep their crust crunchy.   That was, however, until my niece Hannah had her 10th birthday last week.  On this celebratory day I finally tasted Jason's Pizza -- on the finest home-grown pizza crust this side of the New Jersey Transit.

My brother-in-law Jason has kindly allowed me to reprint this Ancient Secret so you can avoid eating the pizza box out of sheer desperation.  The best recipes are the ones that are "handed down" from Mom, and his was no exception.  His mother Sue (far right in photo) found the recipe in a newspaper many years ago....and now the recipe has all the necessary fingerprints, foodprints and sauce spots that make a recipe so much fun to read.  Jason's Pizza Dough recipe is reprinted below (you'll have to add your own sauce spots).

Don't let recipe-simplicity fool you.  It's always in how you handle the dough. After watching him work It dawned on me that "practice, practice, practice" was also an essential ingredient.  And patience.  You can't buy that, but you can cultivate it.

Jason's Pizza Dough

• 3 c. flour
• 1 c. lukewarm water
• 1 package dry yeast (not quick rise)
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. olive oil

Pour water in bowl and dissolve yeast.  Add salt and oil, mix well.  Add flour a little at a time until flour stops sticking to fingers and form into a large ball.  Put dough in bowl and cover with a dish towel.  Put in a warm dry place (like an unheated oven) and let rise for at least an hour.  Roll out dough...don't knead too much.  Makes one large pizza or two medium sized pizzas.  Cook at 500 degrees, 8-10 minutes.

He topped them with creative and delicious toppings....you're only limited by your imagination.

Happy Birthday again to a very lucky little girl who has a Pizza-King Daddy!

Creme Fraiche -- Not Just For the French

Creme Fraiche seems to be quite versatile.  I originally used it assist my Niki's Kitchen students last June (see Swim Three Times) when making the Swedish creation called Lohikiusaus:

Download lohikiusaus_salmon_casserole.DOC

There's a distinct possibility that it can be used, for my Japanese friends who are trying to re-create the California Burrito, as a replacement for the often hard-to-find sour cream.

So here's the details, it takes some work but it's a great taste and would be a fun substitute for sour cream:

Crème fraîche

Dairies in  France actually make this cultured cream, but anywhere else you'll have to make it yourself. It not only adds great flavor, but keeps much longer than plain old cream. Add a spoonful to soups, sauces, or anything that needs a just a bit of creamy nutty flavor, or drizzle a little over grilled veggies, salads, crab cakes, fresh fruit, etc.

In a nonreactive container (glass or stainless), stir together 3 parts heavy cream and 1 part plain yogurt or buttermilk. Buttermilk works, too.  Quite a few recipes mix cream and sour cream, but that seems pointless (sour cream is already cultured...that's what we're trying to make here).

Mix well, cover, and put some place warm. If you have an old gas stove with standing pilot lights, set the container on it over the pilots. Otherwise, the top of the refrigerator or anyplace where it will stay warm is okay.  I usually cover mine with plastic wrap, tie it with a rubberband and place it overnight on the top of the refrigerator where heat rises.  In the morning I put it in the refrigerator.

Let it sit overnight or at least 12 hours. When it looks thick, put it in the refrigerator; it will keep for at least a week or two.

Macho Gazpacho & The Cool Cucumber

Nope, it's not an exceedingly strange superhero duo.  It's also not a retro-50s singing duet, but the scorching weather around the Northern hemisphere does have me thinking about the old Martha & The Vandella's tune Heatwave:

"It's like a heatwave burning in my heart
I can't keep from crying
Tearing me apart"

So I'm figuring that hot soup sounds pretty darned unappetizing about now.  This is why, during the relentless Kanto Plain summer humidity, I've been obsessed with cold soup creations.  The heartiest of which is Spain's cold "liquid salad" or gazpacho. 

After a little tinkering, I fell in love with "Macho Gazpacho".  Warning: it's cold but spicy.  So spicy that in the attached recipe I have an addendum on the hot ingredients to make "Mini-Macho Gazpacho" so you can adjust your heat quotient.

Great toppings: cold corn, sliced avocados, cilantro and roasted pine nuts.

Recipe -- "Macho Gazpacho":
Download macho_gazpacho.doc

Cilantro, which is used liberally in this recipe, isn't always easy to find here in Japan.  A great substitution (no matter where you live) is recaito -- which is quite delicious, comes in a jar, and can be ordered online.  Recaito is a yummy blend of ground cilantro, peppers, olive oil and garlic and can be used in soups, stews and just about any meal where the snappy Latin taste of cilantro is a definite requirement.

Cold soup #2 is much milder, but so darned good that I'm keeping pitchers of it in the refrigerator (which don't usually last long but only because it gets eaten so fast).

Recipe -- Cool Cucumber Soup With Dill:
Download cool_cucumber_soup.doc

Enjoy the summer snacks, and keep cool -- no matter what continent.

Lingonberry Love

Turning this scrubby bush.....

Into this fine and delectable Swedish condiment.......

 

....isn't as easy as I imagined. This stuff is good!  The Lingonberry (also called the European Cranberry, Foxberry or Partridgeberry) is a die-hard staple in Swedish cooking.  Tart (but just a little sweet too) this jam makes an amazing compliment to everything from Swedish meatballs to Lohikiusaus (salmon and potato casserole).

Different brands definitely taste radically different from each other.  Felix brand pictured above is our all-time favorite -- the kind of "tart" that makes your mouth explode but doesn't do any lasting damage to your teeth.  It's the kind of wild taste that made me wonder why I hadn't thought of this sweet & sour marriage with meat earlier.  Now that I've discovered it, I can't keep enough jars on my shelf.

As we're currently in Japan, my Mom sent my first shipment from the states.  Fortunately, you can find it even easier below.

Here's the online ordering link:
The Northerner - A Piece of Scandinavian Soul at Your Home

Just for fun here's the two referenced recipes that use this mouth-watering jam:
Swedish Meatballs:
Download swedish_meatballs_with_lingonberry_sauce.doc

Lohikiusaus Salmon Casserole
Download lohikiusaus_and_creme_fraiche.doc

Enjoy!

"As Natural As Eating...."

"In Europe we thought of wine as something as healthy and normal as food and also a great giver of happiness and well being and delight.  Drinking wine was not snobbism nor a sign of sophistication nor a cult; it was as natural as eating and to me -- as necessary."
   ~Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

If you think this wine bottle is tilting a little bit, well....you're absolutely right.  Proving that consumer packaging is well worth every dime they pay those guys in the ivory Marketing Towers, it's the tilt that drew me to this unique bottle planted in Sotetsu Rosen market in Yokohama the other night.

Here is the link to Jeanjean Vin de Pays D'Oc -- and a great website that shows some remarkable photos of the largest vineyard in the world.  Can you imagine 790 acres (320 hectares) of nothing but grapes?   This Chardonnay was fun, fresh, sharp and reminded me of summertime picnics in San Diego's Palomar Mountain. 

Here is the link for ordering bottles online.  For my Japanese friends -- I have spotted it at Sotetsu Rosen and Union on Motomachi street. 

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, and welcome to sharing great loves with friends at Unpretentious Passion!