We have a winner! (+ Cranberries!)

Congrats to Barbicide43 of the blog SweetBee/43!!! you have won the book give-away! I just need your e-mail address so I can have the publisher contact you. THANKS to everyone who participated....

 I love to cook the Thanksgiving day meal..and this year I am preparing the turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, fresh baked onion rolls, and 2 kinds of cranberry sauce. I always make plain cranberry sauce---as a child in Alaska we always picked wild lingonberries for our cranberry sauce--so I prefer home made cranberry sauce. In addition to the traditional cranberry sauce I also make my own very own Ginger Orange Cranberry Sauce---which is always a hit.

Here is my recipe for:

Ginger Orange Cranberry Sauce

 4 cups fresh cranberries
1 orange
a handful of crystalized or candied ginger
1/2 cup orange juice
1 cup sugar

Chop the candied ginger into small pieces. Grate the orange (make zest) and then peel the orange and chop the pulp. Put all ingredients into a pan and cook until the berries pop and everything is cooked together about 1/2 hour? ---taste and add more sugar if you like your sauce sweeter.

Sauce will still be somewhat runny but that is ok. Pour sauce into serving dish and chill and it will set up nicely. Serve with turkey and trimmings...yum!

optional: you can add raisens, chopped pecans, and spices like cinnamon and cloves, but I prefer the above combo ;-)

Mom's extra good Holidaze (Egg)Nog

This is the best best eggnog ever--and the eggs are cooked in this eggnog--so no danger of the dreaded food poisoning. WARNING: if you make this eggnog you will never buy commercially made eggnog again!

Note** the "Mom" here is me. also--if you like your eggnog spiked, add some brandy or rum to your taste for that delicious holiday drink.....


This is my very first blog post from my new hometown of Portland, Oregon (AKA Stumptown)---created using my daughter's computer since it will be some time before I have my computer all set up and I am back online....more on the wonders of Portland to come in future blog posts.

Today's Quote: "Blessed be the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love."---Anon

Traveling Sourdough (and cactus)

I have two living objects that have traveled with me through all my moves and journeys for over 30 years--my sourdough start and my cactus plant. The cactus I bought in tiny Petersburg, Alaska in about 1970 from an itinerant hippie girl who had traveled from Arizona to Alaska--and brought with her from the Arizona desert numerous small cacti to sell. This cactus sports lovely pink blooms in the spring.

The sourdough start was a gift from another Petersburg resident--long dead now---the purple lady--Ruth Sandvik. Ruth was the school librarian and earned her purple lady status by painting her house purple, wearing mostly purple clothes and having a purple car. This particular sourdough is an old Alaskan start--Ruth told me when she gave this sourdough to me that this sourdough came from Nome, Alaska in the 1890's--which makes this sourdough about 118 years old!

When I was growing up we frequently had sourdough pancakes for breakfast--and the big treat was adding tart Alaskan blueberries to the pancakes--and then dousing them in real maple syrup...ummm.

I always save about a cup of starter from each batch of baking--whether I'm making bread or sourdough pancakes. I keep the starter in a glass jar in the fridge.



Old-Fashioned Sourdough Pancakes

The night before remove your 1/2 to 1 cup sourdough start from the fridge, and mix it with about 2 cups warm (lukewarm--not to hot--too hot and you kill the sourdough) water and 2 cups flour---use a ceramic or glass bowl. Mix well and cover the bowl with some plastic wrap and a towel and set it in warm place to work overnight. In the morning, this should be all bubbly and smell like sourdough. To prevent any contamination---I always wash the jar I store the sourdough start in--and then scald it by pouring boiling water over it and the lid. Now remove about 1/2 cup (or more) sourdough and put in the sterelized jar to save for the next time--this is your "start."


to the remaining sourdough add:

1 tablespoons brown sugar or mollases
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt

and mix well. Heat an oiled cast iron skillet--and when the skillet is hot sprinkle
1 teaspoon baking soda over the mixture in the bowl. Only add baking soda to batter just before you are ready to cook the pancakes. Fold gently into the sourdough batter (do not beat). This will cause a gentle foaming and rising action. Let the mixture bubble and foam a minute or two.

Drop batter in your skillet and cook---when the pancake is covered with popped bubbles, turn it to brown the other side. Best served hot with butter and maple syrup or homemade jam.

WANT AN AUTHENTIC ALASKAN GOLD RUSH SOURDOUGH START?
I try to share my sourdough start with anyone who is interested--since it is a venerable old start which I value---and just in case mine dies for some reason, I can always get it back from someone I shared it with. I am happy to share a start with anyone who is interested--but I am not sure how it would survive getting sent via the mail?? but go ahead and e-mail me, if you are interested in a start and we can perhaps figure out how to send you one.

Sourdough is the oldest form of leavened bread--dating form the Ancient Egyptians. Sourdough was the main bread made in Northern California during the California Gold Rush. The bread became so common that "sourdough" became a general nickname for the gold prospectors.

The sourdough tradition was carried into Alaska and the western Canadian territories during the Klondike Gold Rush. Conventional leavenings such as yeast and baking soda were much less reliable in the conditions faced by the prospectors. Sourdough was an important part of every Alaskan gold rusher's stash---since with a good viable sourdough start and some flour the oldtimer could always have pancakes or leavened bread or biscuits.

The sourdough starter, however, had to be kept warm to survive in the minus zero temperatures of the Alaskan gold fields. Experienced miners and other settlers frequently carried a pouch of starter either around their neck or on a belt and were often fiercely guarded. At night the sourdough start shared their beds so the precious start would not freeze. Old hands came to be called "sourdoughs", a term that is still applied to many elder Alaskans.



For an excellent book on sourdough, with numerous recipes --which do not use any additional yeast, I recommend: Classic Sourdoughs: a Home Bakers Handbook by Ed Wood.

More Cookies!

Now that the packages are in the mail...it is time to bake cookies...here is another of the cookie recipes I bake every year --this one came to me from my (Great) Aunt Esther. Aunt Esther was my Grandma's sister---and in their later years (after my Grandfather died) Grandma and Aunt Esther lived together---it was like having 2 grandmas in the same house and they lived about a block away from us, so I saw them often. They both baked the best cookies ---and my Grandma had an old cookie jar on her kitchen counter--which ALWAYS had homemade cookies in it (just like her purse always had Chicklet gum for us kids).

Orange Crispie Cookies

2 cups sugar
2 eggs beaten
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 cups flour
5 tablespoons frozen concentrated orange juice
grated rind of 2 organic oranges

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar, beat in eggs. Add flour, baking powder, orange juice and grated peel--mix well. Chill dough. Make the dough into small balls, place on a well greased cookie sheet, and flatten each small ball of dough with a glass dipped in soft butter, then sugar. Bake at 350 degrees about 8-10 minutes, until cookies just begin to brown on the edges.

Someday, Perhaps

It begins long before the first frost -
Somewhere between memory and reality.
It touches us with compassion
and whispers to us of hope.
It tiptoes into our hearts with elation
and opens our souls to faith.

Its name is Christmas and we have yet to learn
How to keep it close for more than
this one brief, shining moment.
Someday, perhaps... with love.

------Judith A. Lindberg

Holiday Elves in the Kitchen

Not content to stay in the art studio, the holiday elves have now taken over my kitchen! they are "helping" me bake cookies, and cook up some candied orange peels. Ummm...the whole house smells delicious!

I have learned over the years that the very best cookie recipes are those handed down from generation to generation through families. When I taste someones cookies--and they are yummy, yummy---and they tell me it is an old family recipe--I always ask for the recipe. Tried and true---old family cookie recipes. Here is an old family recipe of mine from my Grandma: CHEWY MOLASSES COOKIES. My Grandma got this recipe from her Mother and so on down the line...so it is a simple recipe, with simple ingredients.

Now these are not just run-of-the-mill molasses cookies--these are really nice and soft and chewy and tasty! and they have no fat--yes--you read that correctly--zilch fat of any kind!--yet they are so good...this recipe makes a big batch, but watch them disappear.

CHEWY MOLASSES COOKIES

Preheat oven to 300 degrees

1 cup molasses
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons soda
2 teaspoons powdered ginger
1 teaspoon salt
about 3 1/2 cups unbleached white flour

In a saucepan heat the molasses and sugar, but do not boil. (Note : heat this enough to dissolve the sugar, though) Cool until just warm. Mix the soda, ginger and salt with 1/2 cup flour and add to the beaten eggs. Add this mixture to the warm molasses mixture---this will foam up some. Then add enough flour to make a soft dough--about 3 cups. (Note: This is the tricky part--if you add too much flour the cookies will be crisp instead of chewy---they will still taste good ---but will not be that nice chewy cookie we are looking for.) Roll out the dough--but not to thin, about 1/4" thick---and bake. Use as little flour a possible in rolling--the dough will be very soft and the board for rolling the cookies out must be well floured. (Note: also flour the rolling pin) Cut into triangles or circles, place on a well greased cookie sheet and bake at 300 degrees for 10 minutes. Cool a few minutes on the pan before removing.

If you hate rolling out cookies--you may roll the dough into 1 inch balls with your hands, and place on a cookie sheet, then flatten each ball with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar. Bake the same.

Of Turkeys and Cranberries

I live in a (small) city--surrounded by more cities---Berkeley, California. There are hills---called the Oakland hills--on the edge of our neighborhood ---which are pretty much wild and overgrown. This past fall, a flock of wild turkeys wandered down from the hills and traversed our neighborhood for several weeks....yep, here in California we do have wild turkeys--but it was rather weird to see them in our city neighborhood....and they seemed rather nonplussed to find themselves on the cement sidewalk or street--"where is the brush?" you imagined them asking each other.

They were not really afraid of us humans, though---and we could approach fairly close to the flock. After awhile we got used to them, and would patiently stop our cars to let them cross a busy street, and hardly bat an eye when they invaded the sidewalk in front of the house. Then---after becoming part of the hood, no longer talked about much--just one of the crowd---one day they just disappeared---they went back up into the hills, we supposed.

Now--bear in mind, I was raised in Alaska in a hunting family---hunting for meat on the table was serious fall activity in my family. Also butchering and wrapping (for the freezer) the game you shot was a fall activity. So I just could not help myself--every time I saw those wild turkeys I thought, "There goes dinner!"

Another Alaskan fall and Thanksgiving memory for me involved visiting the local "wild cranberry" patch. Actually, I think they were lingonberries--but in Alaska we called them "low bush cranberries," and they grew in a bog or wet mossy area---termed the "muskeg." One crisp, cold blue sky fall day my Mom would get the berry picking pails, tell me to put on my rubber boots and off we would go to pick cranberries--so we could have fresh cranberry sauce/relish (to go with the wild goose my father had shot) on Thanksgiving Day.

Aurora's Cranberry Relish

4 cups fresh cranberries
2 cups sugar
1/2 to 1 cup fresh apple or orange juice
3 oranges
1/2 cup candied ginger
1 cup raisins

Put cranberries, sugar, juice, ginger, and raisins in a pan on the stove. Slice one orange and chop the slices in small pieces and add. Grate the skin of the other 2 oranges and add. Cook on medium heat until the cranberries pop ---stir frequently so is doesn't stick---simmer about an hour. Cool slightly and pour into a nice serving dish--best if refrigerated overnight so flavors may mingle.

Note: Any or all of these ingredients may vary--I usually make this with what I have on hand--sometimes I add other dried fruit if I don't have raisins, or a chopped fresh apple. Don't worry about this not being sweet enough--taste it---if it is too sour for your taste, just add more sugar.

Holiday Cookie Recipes

"Something precious is lost if we rush headlong into the details of life without pausing for a moment to pay homage to the mystery of life and the gift of another day." ---Kent Nerburn



Over the years, I figured out the very best cookie recipes are ones which have been handed down through a family from generation to generation. This makes perfect sense--the best tasting cookies would be the ones you would want the recipe for and you would remember with the most fondness, and yearn for when the Holidays came around--right? Most families (at least the ones that still cook) have these secret family recipes---and mine is no exception. In fact, my maternal grandmother was a great cook--and really did ALWAYS have homemade cookies in the big fat cookie jar on her cookie counter. When I was about 12--one day she told me, "You come over next Saturday--it is time you learn how to bake a pie." When I dutifully showed up at her home the next Saturday, she taught me her method of pie baking. Since she lived close by, I visited her frequently and as I grew up, she taught me much of what I know about baking and cooking. She grew up on a farm in Wisconsin, so her cooking reflected that upbringing and farm life.

So, here is her old fashioned recipe for CHEWY MOLASSES COOKIES---which my (now grown) children always request we bake during the Holidaze--a family favorite, for sure. A curious fact about these cookies---they have no fat of any kind in them--but still are delicious! Enjoy!

CHEWY MOLASSES COOKIES

1 cup molasses
1 cup brown sugar
2 egg, beaten
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground ginger (best if this is fresh---not ginger you have had on your spice shelf for months)
1 teaspoon salt (or less, if you prefer)
about 3 1/2 cups unbleached white flour

Heat molasses and brown sugar in a saucepan--but do not boil, remove from heat. (I think the idea here is to melt the sugar). In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a wire whip; mix the soda, ginger, and salt with 1/2 cup flour and add to the beaten eggs---mix well. Now add the warm molasses and sugar to the egg mixture gradually, stirring all the while (at this point, you do not want the eggs to be cooked by the warm molasses mixture). Then stir in enough flour to make a soft dough--about 3 cups.
Roll out cookie dough on a well floured board--cut out with cookies cutters and bake. Don't roll the dough too thin---the rolled out dough should be rather thick. This dough will be soft and somewhat tricky to handle--but use as little flour as possible in rolling, as too much flour makes the cookies hard (not chewy). Bake on a well greased cookies sheet--with plenty of room between cookies---at 300 degrees for about 10 minutes. (if you over bake them they will be hard, so don't wait for them to brown)
If you prefer, instead of rolling and cutting the dough, roll the dough with your hands into balls, place the balls on the greased cookie sheet, and flatten with the bottom part of a glass dipped in butter, then in sugar. My Grandma would place a small slice of fresh apple in the cookie jar with these cookies to keep them soft and chewy.

If you have a favorite family cookie recipe--I would love it if you shared it by leaving it in the comments...