Tortillas and Oranges » holiday cooking

Christmas Cookies: Mexican Wedding Cakes

admin — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 18:38:56 +0000

Friends, it’s that time of the year.

I bought my first batch yesterday.

Yes, clementines are here. But I’m talking about Cookie Time. There are so many possibilities and we all have our favorites. But I’ll start with the most simple cookie. They go by so many names: mexican wedding cakes, russian tea cakes, snowballs. It doesn’t matter what you call them, they are addictive.

All you need for a beautiful, simple cookie.

Ingredients:
1 pound butter (yes, that’s right…one whole pound;4 sticks)
1 cup powdered sugar (plus extra for rolling)
4 cups flour
3/4 cup chopped pecans (when no one’s looking, I use a lot more)
1 Tablespoon vanilla

Place all ingredients in a bowl.

Mix well.

Make 1/2" balls and place 1" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes.

While still hot, roll in powdered sugar. Roll again when cool. Both parts here are crucial. When the cookies are hot, they get their first coat that sticks, but over time that turns to a sort of frosting. Hence the second coat, to give the cookies their snowy appearance.

Enjoy! Hope you have some cold, fresh milk in the fridge.

Appetizer: Pumpkin to beat all Pumpkins

admin — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 17:26:48 +0000

Are you in charge of the appetizer on Thursday? Have I got a gem for you. Ruth Reichl has a tale invovling this recipe. I don’t remember much but I do remember how her friends raved and raved. Years ago in Berkeley, my good friend SB came to a party bearing this gift. We about died. So of course I’ve been making it ever since. The Stuffed Pumpkin fills so many requirements for me. It is fairly easy, calls for reasonable ingredients, looks pretty on the table, really wows your friends, and it tastes better than almost anything else. Sometimes I feel awkward bringing the stuffed beauty to other parties because I’ll just stand by it and eat from it the whole time. People will give me funny looks. Do not lose this recipe. It is a keeper. Once you eat it you’ll see why Dorie Greenspan calls it The Pumpkin Filled with Everything Good. I couldn’t agree more.

Salad: Roasted Butternut Squash, Onions, and Fresh Greens

TandO — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 15:49:06 +0000

Is a green salad included on your Thanksgiving table? I rarely hear of green salads as part of the holiday must haves. But, I’ve been wrong before. A few years ago, I created a Holiday Salad that I now include in most of my holiday meals. But that beloved salad has some competition. My girlfriend brought over a salad the other evening that knocked my socks off. I’d like to share it with you. But here’s the deal–this salad requires a little more than just throwing a few things together. It involves a lot of olive oil and roasting. So don’t make this unless you are planning on spending a bit of time in the kitchen. If you do, you will be the talk of the town. I copied my uber cool girlfriend and made this salad last week. For a few minutes, I felt very popular.

Roasted Butternut Squash and Onions with Fresh Greens and Apples

Fresh Greens With Roasted Butternut Squash and Onions

Ingredients:
4 cups Butternut squash, peeled and diced
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 apples,diced, peels kept on (You decide the type of apple. I use honeycrisp or gala.)

Romain lettuce (or spring mix or baby spinach), hand torn into bite sized pieces

Additional add ins: (I won’t give you measurements so you can decide how much flavor you want)

homemade croutons
crumbled blue cheese or gorgonzola
sliced almonds
crumbled bacon

Toss diced butternut squash and sliced onion with ¼ cup good olive oil. Spread squash and onion on greased jelly roll pan and roast in 450 degree oven until vegetables are tender and slightly browned. While veggies are in oven, make croutons (those directions can be found here). Once bread and veggies are completely cooled, toss with greens, and other add-ins listed above. Dress salad a few minutes before serving.

On my girlfriend’s advice, I use Ina Garten’s dressing for this salad, found here. If you don’t know about this dressing, you should. It is a basic dressing that turns any blah-blah-salad into a can’t-stop-eating-it-salad.

Thanksgiving: Stuffing

admin — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 14:53:00 +0000

Thanksgiving is in three weeks. Are you prepared? Do you have plans? What are you making?

If you are in charge of the stuffing, don’t forget about this perfect recipe.

And while we are here, what is your favorite, absolute must have Thanksgiving dish? Mine is sweet potato casserole. But more on that later.

Salad: Christmas Salad 2008

admin — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 03:36:00 +0000

Some friends of mine have this one special Christmas dinner every year. This year, I volunteered to bring the salad. As I stood in my favorite produce market last week, I had a sudden fit of pride. I was going to bring a darn good salad, and I was not, I repeat not, going to look at any recipe. I decided to let the season inspire me. What kind of salad is really a Christmas salad? Is there such a thing? Well, if there isn’t I just made one. And I like it. And everyone else at the dinner liked it as well. Make it and tell me what you think. If it needs improvements (and I think the dressing really does), please improve.

Christmas 2008 Green Salad (for lack of a better name)

boston lettuce
candied pecans
homemade croutons
stilton cheese with apricot
dried cherries
white wine vinegar and cider dressing

1. Make the candied pecans. Toss 1/2 pound of halved pecans in wash (1 egg white, 1 tablespoon of water), then coat with spiced sugar (1 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon cinnamon, dash of nutmeg, dash of ground cloves, dash of ginger). Spread coated nuts on greased cookie sheet and cook in 250 degree oven for 1 hour, turning every fifteen minutes. You won’t use all of the pecans for the salad. But, I used what I wanted and put the rest in a pretty bowl on my table…that is until P crawled onto the table and poured the bowl of pecans on the floor. I swore when he did that.

2. Make the croutons. Tear a day old baguette into bite sized pieces (I usually make about four croutons per person. You don’t need to tear the entire baguette apart). Toss the pieces in olive oil until each piece is good and soaked. Roast pieces of bread in 400 degree oven until they are browned and crouton-like, about 15 minutes. Set aside to cool.

3. Make the dressing. In the interest of full disclosure, I was unimpressed with this dressing. It needs something, but I don’t know what. Let me know if you figure it out.

1/4 cup apple cider
1/8 cup olive oil
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
scraped sugar bits from pan I used to make candied pecans
1/2 Tablespoon minced shallots
bit of salt
more sugar if you want a sweeter taste

4. Tear butter lettuce into bite sized pieces. Wash and dry.

5. Assemble salad with everything but dressing. Crumble the stilton/apricot cheese onto and within the lettuce. Toss dried cherries, cooled pecans and croutons in.

6. Two minutes before serving, add dressing and toss.

Breakfast: Fake Cinnamon Rolls (Or Orange as the case may be)

admin — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:26:00 +0000

I believe in a lot of things. I believe in being nice. I believe in forgiveness. I believe in Hot Breakfasts. As my daughter G used to say, “for real life, I do.” However, mornings are tight at our house. The bathroom is in heavy demand, people are practicing instruments, almost all major appliances are up and running. Speaking of running, I am usually back from my run and instead of running on the street, by 7:30am I am running around my house barking orders to play the right note, start the dishwasher, or get out of the bathroom. So, given the morning craziness, my strong belief in Hot Breakfasts suffers dearly. Enter Fake Cinnamon Rolls. My dear friend H introduced these to me a few years ago. She brought this towering gooey mess of Orange Rolls to Easter Dinner. I couldn’t stop eating them. I took four just for myself. When my daughter asked me if there were any more of H’s orange rolls, I lied and said, “I don’t think so”, when in fact there were about seven left. I wanted them all for myself. Whenever somebody reached for one, I gave their hand a dirty look. I resented H for not making these sooner, and I told her so. She said, “well, I didn’t think you made things out of a can.” “What?” I replied. “These are just canned biscuits dipped in butter, sugar and orange peel, then baked in a bundt pan.” “Oh.”, I humbly replied. Fast forward a few years later. I make these fake cinnamon/orange rolls all the time. When I have an extra fifteen minutes in the morning, I pop these puppies in the oven and wha-la, the girls treat themselves to a yummy breakfast dessert (post scrambled eggs, mind you). And if any of you are grossing out that I in fact use biscuits from a can, too bad. I guess that means you can’t come over and try one. Just kidding. I said I believe in forgiveness, and for real life, I do.

Marilyn’s Orange Rolls (including a cinnamon roll variation)
3 cans prepared biscuits –Pillsbury Biscuits (buttermilk)
1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup sugar
grated rind of one orange

Mix butter, sugar, and rind. Dip biscuits in mix, then stand on end around greased bundt pan. Pour extra mix on top (I add a bit of the orange’s juice as well). Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes.

For Fake Cinnamon Rolls, I use 1 teaspoon of cinnamon instead of orange rind. I also use 1/2 cup white sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar, but be sure to watch closely because the brown sugar causes potential gooey-ness to drip over the pan.

Finally, I don’t use all 3 cans of biscuits for my girls in the morning, I reduce the whole recipe and use one can, and bake it in any sort of small baking dish. Yummy.