When the cheese stands alone...

I had a little bit of Irish cheddar left after a couple of weeks of using it on sandwiches. Lauren Chattman's recipe for cornbread-cheddar muffins used it up perfectly this gray-ish Saturday morning. Buttered for breakfast--eh. With jalapeno jelly or spicy tomato jam and chili, now you're talking!

Goodness Gracious!

In honor of the new episodes of "Upstairs Downstairs," which debuted on PBS "Masterpiece Theatre" Sunday, April 10, I made a Victoria sponge for tea. Poor Victorians! The cake is dry and flavorless; the best part is absolutely the strawberry jam, fresh strawberries, and whipped cream sandwiched in the middle. Not fit for a queen, but certainly good enough for the Queen's corgi!

Say "no" to a cookie?!

In the annals of innocence, the home-baked cookie is way up there with Ivory soap and newborn kittens. Unless you’re gluten-intolerant, in which case, the cookie compares to barbed wire and Idi Amin. Luane Kohnke, a lifelong baker, recaptures the cookie’s essential goodness for all of us with GLUTEN-FREE COOKIES (Sellers Publishing, March 2011).

Luane and I, her editor and publicist, had lunch last week at Candle 79 here in Manhattan, a vegan restaurant that proves vegan chefs know what they’re doing when it comes to satisfying, delicious food. Over "live" avocado tartare (a redundancy, but it assures raw foodies no heat has changed the avocado's enzymes), vegetable and quinoa nori rolls, a black-bean-pumpkin-seed burger with polenta fries, and grilled-vegetable-wild-mushroom-stuffed tempeh, she told me the story of how GLUTEN-FREE COOKIES, her first book, came into print. Seven unsolicited submissions of a completely different cookbook resulted in three responses: two nays and a “how about a book on…?” query from Megan Hiller at Sellers which re-directed Luane to create the 50 recipes in this book.

Think of the sheets and sheets of test cookies it must take to create 50 publishable recipes. Who are her testers? She herself takes a bite, puts a couple aside to test later for freshness, and takes the rest to her office (yes, she’s still employed full-time). She says her colleagues are opinionated and appreciative, a creative bunch, some of whom even volunteered their talents to start her blog and take her author photo.

Luane made every cookie in the book herself and shipped them from New York to the book’s photographer, Stacey Cramp, in Maine. Yes, the gingerbread men arrived decapitated and the meringues melted in the summer heat (note to aspiring cookie-book-writers: do the meringues in the winter and spring!), but disasters were corrected and the photos in the book show off each cookie’s unique charms.

With its recipe for a gluten-free flour mix you can keep in the fridge, GLUTEN-FREE COOKIES puts this simple pleasure back on everyone’s plate.

RX for Winter Hangover

It was FREEZING this morning. I'm sick of it. My remedy? A sunny winter squash soup. From DK's lovely SOUP, this is a recipe for 4 (a nice change from most recipes that make 8 servings) with so few ingredients and such simple instructions, having made it twice, I have memorized it:
1 lb butternut squash, seeded & chopped into 1-inch pieces (1/2 of one medium squash)
1 onion, chopped
1 garlic, smashed
Saute these in 1 1/2 tbsp butter in a large saucepan for 15 mins, with the cover on. Stir occasionally.
Add about 1/2 tsp of nutmeg and cook with the lid on for another 5 mins. Add 2 cups hot chicken stock and bring to a boil. When squash is tender, add 1/2 cup Half-and-half, simmer for one minute. Puree in blender and season with s/p.

This from an Internet search on the nutrients in butternut squash:
"Winter squash emerged from our food ranking system as an excellent source of vitamin A (in the form of beta-carotene), a very good source of vitamin C, potassium, dietary fiber and manganese. In addition, winter squash emerged as a good source of folate, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B1, copper, vitamin B6, niacin-vitamin B3 and pantothenic acid."

Take that, Old Man Winter!

Going Green

In the food world, "green" is the new black. All of us must consume fresh foods acquired direct from small farms or artisans or via an expensive, trendy restaurant in which the chef/owner sports extensive, complicated tattoos. But I never cared about being trendy: green here is a silly nod to St. Patrick on his feast day. Those carbs helped to soak up the fresh pint of Harp I had a Rosie O'Grady's at lunchtime!

Irish and Soda II

With the addition of one cup of whole wheat flour, a teaspoon each of baking soda and salt, and a couple of splashes of milk to help the dough come together, the small dark loaf came out of the 400-degree F oven after 25 minutes fragrant with lemon and sweet with raisins. The wheat flakes keep it from being too dense. Right size, terrific taste--it'll do!

Irish and Soda

Making a wholegrain fruit soda bread this weekend from an unusual recipe: you make your wet ingredients out of wheat flakes, milk, lemon juice, lemon zest, and raisins and leave it in a cool place overnight. It was so beautifully spring-like today, I could probably put this on the windowsill, but the pigeons would get it before I could! Having seen "Mary Poppins: The Musical" today with Daddy's friend Lucy Phillips, I'm in the mood for nursery food: a thick slab of bread with "lashings" of butter and orange marmalade.