I sometimes feel like I’m running perpetually behind. Is it 5:00 already? Is it February already? How am I suddenly six months pregnant? Remember that vacation we took to Paris last July? I never shared it with all of you because I just finished editing my photos in DECEMBER. Expect a post in about April.

The nice thing about being behind on things is that reminders can feel like discoveries. When editing my Paris photos, I found the pictures I took at a wonderful meal we ate in the Latin quarter at Bistro y Papilles. Located in a small wine store, with a different set menu every night, it was the kind of wonderful meals that makes you feel like you’re really in Paris. The menu that night started with a velvety cauliflower soup, served at the table in a big tureen. We were presented with shallow soup bowls that were garnished with a “salad” with lardons, croutons, cauliflower, herbs and creme fraiche, and the hot soup was ladled over the salad. All the garnishes brought a wonderful textural contrast to the soup, and it was one of the best things we ate that week.

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It’s very strange being pregnant in January. It seems like everyone is going on a diet, vowing to lose weight, committing to a high-intensity exercise plan. Me? I’m craving hamburgers, and trying to decide if it’s a good idea to go to a once a week yoga class. I do hope to lose weight this year, but not before I gain a bunch, and I’m just trying to keep up with my protein needs. Oh, and I plan to eat more vegetables.

This time of year has proven to be difficult, anyhow. My dad died a year ago, and while I steeled myself to face the date itself, I’ve found myself feeling a bit more fragile than I normally am. A year is the traditional period of mourning, but while there is a lot of happiness and even joy in my life, I haven’t stopped tearing up unexpectedly, and I still miss him fiercely.

So instead of salads and superfoods, I’ve been seeking out comfort. One of my favorite Friday night dinners is Toad-in-the-Hole — a British classic that’s basically a Yorkshire pudding with sausages. It’s not health food, but it IS comfort food, and it’s made from scratch (OK, I buy the sausages, but you COULD make them from scratch) and there’s a place for that, too.

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I have waxed rhapsodic on this blog about my love of a traditional Christmas fruitcake, a classic holiday dessert, but my love of fruitcake extends beyond the Dickensian Christmas cake. During my first year of law school, my parents spent the year living in Florence, Italy, and the Christmas I spent with them that year was the only Christmas I have spent away from home (whether home was in California or New York.) What I remember from that Christmas was the cold, damp air, the lights everywhere, but most of all the food. We went to the Mercato San Lorenzo and loaded up on Prosciutto, Grissini, Pecorino, and even, memorably, whole black truffles that we shaved over pasta for New Year’s Eve. But what I loved the most were the sweets. Panettone in every bakery, and even better, panforte, a fruitcake like confection which may be the best thing I’ve ever tasted.

Panforte, a specialty of Siena, a hill town near Florence, dates back to the middle ages, when it was paid as a tax to monks and nuns, and was reportedly carried by Crusaders on the crusades. A combination of fruits and nuts, honey and sugar and spices, it is a cross between a caramel based candy and a cake. It is also utterly addictive, with a satisfying chew from the fruits and the caramel, and a crunch from the nuts.
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© Kate for Savour Fare, 2011. | Permalink |
Post tags: cake, candy, Christmas, holiday

I’m trying to go just a little easy on myself this Christmas season. It’s one of the busiest times of the year at my job job, and with all the shopping, decorating, travel planning, and crafting, not to mention the whole “growing a human thing” which has me exhausted by 9 pm each night, I don’t need to go baking a bunch of cookies I probably shouldn’t be eating anyway.

At least, this is what I tell myself. The reality is that last Saturday I found myself with 3 dozen cookies to deliver for a bake sale for charity, and 5 dozen to deliver for a cookie swap. I guess there’s no escaping the cookies.

Fortunately, some kind soul long ago invented the bar cookie, which have the advantage of being delicious, baking up in one batch, and easily cutting up into 3 or 4 or 5 dozen individual bites of goodness. These hazelnut blondies, inspired by things like Nutella and my favorite condiment, are simple and a little individual. You don’t see them everyday, and the rich taste of the hazelnuts just make these a perfect holiday cookie.

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My father didn’t just love tradition, he loved ritual. He wouldn’t just visit the same city over and over again, he would stay at the same hotel, visit the same restaurant, and order the same dishes off the menu. He was especially particular about holidays: not just turkey gravy and stuffing — GIBLET gravy and this bread stuffing. (Although he called it dressing, even though he also insisted on stuffing the turkey with it.) If we were eating Thanksgiving dinner at someone else’s house, my mom always had to roast her own turkey (usually for charity) so we could make giblet gravy and bread stuffing. The man was obsessed.

Thanksgiving morning would see our family gathering around the kitchen table. My father and I would each have a cutting board and a knife — my mother would be standing at the stove, presiding over a large pan of sauteeing vegetables. Dad and I divided up the chopping duties — I took celery and onions, he cubed the loaves of white bread. The kitchen smelled of sage and onions, and we would snitch bits of stuffing — a crust of bread, a cube dipped in the oniony, celery sage butter, before it was ceremoniously added to the turkey, when the smell of poultry and sage would sneak out from the kitchen and fill the whole house.

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Post tags: dressing, holiday, stuffing, Thanksgiving

Holiday dinners, holiday parties, intimate gatherings with family and friends — cooking is key, but you have to decorate too. You could buy the obligatory bunch of grocery store flowers and stick them in the vase that those roses came in last Valentine’s Day, or you could exercise a little thought and creativity and come up with a simple centerpiece on a budget.

I’m no whiz at floral arranging, but I have a few tips on designing your own centerpieces:

• Keep it low. The last thing you want at a dinner party is to discourage conversation by plopping a giant arrangement in the middle of the table! Let your guests see each others’ smiling faces!
• Forget the flowers. Flowers can be great, but they’re also a little expected. There are all sorts of other interesting items you can use in an arrangement. See below for some ideas.
• Move away from the mixed bouquets. If you do use flowers, avoid those bouquets of 10 different types.  Either they cost a fortune or they scream “grocery store!”  Stick to one or two types of flowers with interesting colors and textures.
• Go crazy with your container. There’s a place for a simple glass vase, but other containers can also lend some pizzazz to a plain arrangement.

Below are ideas for five simple centerpieces you can recreate at home or adapt using the materials you have:

1. A pumpkin we will go

A hollowed pumpkin makes a great vase that lends any arrangement a seasonal air.  Here, I combined tiny yellow mums (from the grocery store) with purple Mexican sage (which is taking over my garden).  These are combined in a glass jar that’s placed inside a hollowed-out pie pumpkin. 

2.  A study in scarlet

Seasonal fruits are beautiful and always appetizing on a table.  Here I’ve arranged a few pomegranates — one of my favorite, striking fruits — on a bed of cranberries, with their deep red shine.  To give this an extra holiday flair, I’ve used a green dish.

3.  Chestnuts roasting and an open fire

I always think chestnuts are beautiful and seasonal, and I want to buy them but I don’t want to peel them.   Using them for decoration solves this problem.  Here, I’ve arranged several chestnuts on a low white tray and placed tealights among them.

4.  Citrus Shine

A large bowl of fruit is beautiful and seasonal, and guests may be tempted to help themselves after dinner is finished!  I always associate clementines and their scent with the Christmas holidays, and the bright color is welcome on a dark day. I think a simple silver bowl sets off the shining orange beautifully.

5. Christmas Classic 

Most arrangements have all the color up top in a rather plain container.  Placing cranberries in a glass vase and arranging greens in the berries (here, sprigs of rosemary, which offer a lovely piney scent and also grow like a weed in my garden)  inverts expectations and provides holiday colors and fragrance. 

All of these took less than five minutes to put together, and would add to any holiday table.  What are your favorite holiday centerpieces?

© Kate for Savour Fare, 2011. | Permalink |
Post tags: Centerpieces, Decor, Entertaining, holiday

The holidays are so much more than a single day. They’re an excuse for gatherings of friends and family, shared stories, and shared meals. A cook during the holidays is always looking for recipes to feed a crowd — for dinners, buffets, lunches, brunches, cocktail parties. Turkey is an obvious choice, roast beef a luxe one, but another great (and economical) dish that will feed a crowd with a lot of payoff for a little effort is a baked ham.

Farmer John is a name practically synonymous with hams, but what I didn’t know is that they are based right here in Los Angeles, and have been for 80 years. I love supporting local businesses and industry — one of the things I love about living in Los Angeles is how economically diverse the region is. Furthermore, Farmer John really emphasizes their local ties and origins. When they approached me to develop a recipe using Farmer John ham and local ingredients, I was happy to work with them.

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I wasn’t sure what to call this. The recipe that I adapted it from is called a pie, and it bakes in a pie pan, but we all know a pie, and this is no pie. Cobbler would have a higher proportion of fruit, crisp would be, well, crisp. Torte seems too highbrow. This combination of sweet tart cranberries, caramelized sugar, crunchy nuts and a dense, sweet buttery dough is definitely not highbrow. It takes maybe 10 minutes to throw together (if you move slowly) and is homey and delicious and beautiful. Cake is perhaps the closest approximation, though light and fluffy this is not.

It’s always nice to have this kind of dessert around for the holidays. Something you can throw together for a dinner party, to keep around the house for visitors to nibble on, or to serve as an alternative to pie on any groaning dessert table. This is particularly good — the cranberries and pecans are pure Americana, making this a perfect dessert for Thanksgiving, and the cranberries are a gorgeous red color that sets a festive tone for Christmas. And butter is good any time of year. The tartness of the cranberries cuts the sweetness from the butter sugar topping, but the butter and sugar do give the cake a delicious sticky crunchy texture in the crust.

I like this flavored with cardamom — my favorite baking spice around the holidays — but if you’re of a more traditional bent, don’t be afraid to use cinnamon and nutmeg. Mine is flavored with vanilla, but almond extract or even a bit of rum or brandy would also be nice. You can serve it straight from the pan, perhaps topped with some whipped cream or vanilla ice cream — or turn it out onto a plate for a showstopper dessert. It’s rich, forgiving, and beautiful – just like your favorite relative — and perfect for the holidays.

Recipe
Cranberry Pecan Upside Down Cake
Adapted from Laurie Colwin’s Nantucket Cranberry Pie. Seriously, have you bought all her books yet? Why not?
1 cup melted butter, divided
1 1/2 cup sugar, divided
2 cups cranberries
1/2 cup toasted pecans (do not skip the toasting. Toasting the pecans is essential!)
2 eggs
1 cup flour
pinch salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon ground cardamom

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a 9″ glass pie plate, melt 1/4 cup (1/2 stick of the butter) and combine with 1/2 cup of sugar. Add cranberries, then pecans.

In a separate bowl, mix remaining 3/4 cup melted butter and 1 cup sugar with eggs, flour, vanilla, salt, and cardamom. Pour over the cranberry pecan mixture.

Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool slightly, then loosen the edges with a thin knife and turn out onto a plate.

© Kate for Savour Fare, 2011. | Permalink |
Post tags: Christmas, cranberries, desssert, holiday, nuts, sweets, Thanksgiving

I like Halloween, I do. Costumes and candy and creepy crawlies are all lovely. But when the calendar turns to November, my heart starts to beat a little faster. We’re into my favorite time of year — the Holidays, Thanksgiving and Hanukah and Advent and Christmas and New Year. A time when my kitchen is filled with warmth and laughter and the smell of wonderful foods cooking and baking. And a time when our focus turns on gathering — with friends and with family, to warm up this dark time of the year.

With all the holiday entertaining, it’s nice to have a couple of good appetizers up your sleeve — something that can be served to guests or brought along to a party. Something that can liven up a meal of leftovers, or even make for lunch on the day when a festive dinner is taking up your attention. This chicken liver mousse is one of my absolute favorites. It can (should) be made ahead, is just decadent enough, and is cheap to make. I buy organic, air-chilled chicken livers at Whole Foods (because they always have them) and they cost $1.50 for the whole recipe’s worth.

I wish I could take credit for this recipe, but it 100% belongs to Michel Richard, who is one of those great chefs (at least based on this recipe, my favorite from his cookbook). The technique is a little eyebrow-lifting — pureeing raw livers is probably more worthy of Halloween than the Holidays, but the absolutely smooth and creamy results are worth it. Richard calls this “faux-gras” because the texture and richness is reminiscent of foie gras, and he’s right on the money. Foie Gras for the 99%, for Californians after the ban takes effect. Try it — I suspect it will become a mainstay for you, too.

Recipe
Chicken Liver Mousse
The surface of the mousse turns a funky gray color when you cook it. Richard includes a recipe for a parsley gelee to top it with, but I never get around to making it, and nobody really cares about it. Baking it in a cute jar, instead of a ramekin, aids in presentation. I like to serve this with baguette, apples slices and cornichons.

1/2 c. finely chopped onions
1 stick butter, divided
1/4 c. cream
pinch salt
1/2 lb chicken livers

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

In a small saucepan over low heat, saute the onions in 1 T of the butter until the onions are translucent. Add the cream, cover, and simmer over low heat until the onions are soft, about 5 minutes. Add the remaining 7 T butter, and return to the heat until the butter is melted. Let the mixture cool to warm. This mixture will make your kitchen smell like heaven, and also will taste divine. Try to leave some for the mousse.

In a food processor or blender, combine the butter onion mixture and the raw chicken livers, and process until smooth. For ultra smoothness, strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a 16 oz. ramekin or canning jar (I often skip the straining because I’m lazy like that).

If using a ramekin, cover tigthtly with foil, and if using a jar, seal the lid, and place into a baking dish. Add boiling water to half way up the container, then place in the hot oven and bake for 30 minutes. Let cool, and chill in the refrigerator until serving.

© Kate for Savour Fare, 2011. | Permalink |
Post tags: appetizer, chicken, Entertaining, Hors D'oeuvre, make ahead, offal

The first time I ever went apple picking was my senior year of college. Ken had his car on campus that year — a little blue Ford Festiva, that had been spray painted, and had no air conditioning or radio. We were celebrating one year of dating, still shiny and happy and young and new, and decided to head off into the wilds of Connecticut to pick apples. I wore my appropriate apple picking attire — a red and green gingham shirt, and we discovered the joys of fresh air in an orchard, of plucking apples off the tree, of cold pressed cider and hot apple cider donuts.

After that first year, we went every year we lived in the Northeast. When we lived in New York, we borrowed my father in law’s car, or rented one (we could barely fit ourselves in our tiny Manhattan studio — where were we going to park a car?), and hit New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut to get out of the city and load up on apples. Apple picking was never about the apples — they’re readily available at the Greenmarket after all — but about simple entertainment, fresh air, getting out of the city. And donuts. Don’t forget the donuts.

When we moved to Los Angeles six years ago, I thought my apple picking days were through. Our climate is too warm to have apple orchards — we can pick oranges in our own back yard, but the autumnal fest was lost to me. Until this year. We piled into the little blue car (now, so many years later, a Prius, with air conditioning and an iphone connection), with the Nuni in tow and headed into the mountains, into the “mile high” town of Oak Glen. Nestled in the San Bernardino mountains just east of Redlands, Oak Glen boast six or seven apple orchards, and the crowds that go with them.
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Post tags: Apple Picking, Southern California, Travel