The dandelions have begun to re-appear in our lawn. That can mean only one thing:: time to re-rerun this post from way back. Don’t throw away the green leaves - they make a great tea or salad green!
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Wouldn’t it be glorious to have a beautifully manicured, weed-free lawn?

NOT A CHANCE! Give me a pretty lawn sprinkled with johnny jump-ups and English daisies anyday. Of course, we don’t have English daisies here in Massachusetts. At least, we haven’t got wild ones, you need to plant them on purpose. We have dandelions, and LOTS of them. They’re practically the same as English daisies in form and proliferation, but a lovely shade of golden yellow - which just happens to be my favorite color.

Have you ever smelled a dandelion? It’s beautiful. Rich and warm. Dandelions are wonderful to have around. They are used as a liver tonic in tea, the greens can be eaten in salad or cooked like spinach, it’s made into wine and… into jelly. Yes jelly. Some say it tastes like honey - we say it tastes like sunshine. What a wonderfully exotic gift to give a friend - perhaps with some homemade muffins or biscuits. Here’s how:

4 cups dandelion blossoms, packed (yellow only - be careful to separate them from any green, which is quite bitter)
3 cups water
4.5 cups sugar (I like natural sugar - it has a lovely golden color and richer flavor)
2 T. lemon juice
1 pkg. pectin

Bring the water to a boil and add the dandelion blossoms. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Strain blossoms through cheesecloth and squeeze as much liquid as possible from the blossoms. Add more water to equal 3 cups. Return to pot and add lemon juice, sugar and pectin. Bring to a boil stirring constantly, stirring sugar down from the sides. When sugar is completely dissolved, boild hard for one minute. At this point, you can add a bit of yellow coloring, or yellow and orange. Pour jelly into hot jars within 1/8 in. and seal.

Mmmmm

Today is the feast day of St. Scholastica - one of our family’s patron saints. She is the twin sister of St. Benedict of Nursia. To celebrate, we’re having an Umbrian-style dish and dove biscuits for dessert.

Pasta a la Scholastica

1 lb. whole wheat pasta shells
1 lb chicken breast, cubed
1/4 c. butter
1 medium onion, sliced
10 oz. baby portabello mushrooms, sliced
1/4 c. flour
1 c. white wine
1.5 c. chicken stock
1 tsp. dried tarragon
1/2 c. cream
Salt and pepper to taste
1 T dried parsley

In a large electric skillet, saute onions in 2 T butter until translucent. Remove and set aside. Add chicken cubes to the skillet and brown on all sides. Add remaining butter, melt. Add flour, salt, pepper, and tarragon. Stir to completely incorporate, cook for 2 minutes. Add wine and stock, stirring well. Add mushrooms and onions. Reduce heat to low and let simmer for 20 minutes. In the meantime, prepare pasta shells to package directions. Add cream, parsley, and cooked pasta shells. Serve with shaved parmesan cheese.

Delish! This is excellent when served with a dark green salad and asparagus or broccoli.

Scholastica’s Almond Dove Biscuits

3 c. slivered almonds
1 T. sugar
1 1/2 c. butter
2/3 c. sugar
2 tsp. almond extract
4 c. sifted flour
2 eggs
2/3 c. cream
2 egg whites

Set aside almonds and 1 T sugar. Cream butter and remaining sugar. Add eggs and beat until light and fluffy. Add flour alternately with cream and blend well. Divide dough and chill.

Roll each disc out on a floured board to a thickness of 1/4″, and cut with dove-shaped cutter. Brush each biscuit with egg white, arrange almonds for feathers on the wing, sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 350F for 8-10 minutes, or until just golden at the edges.

Have a blessed Sunday!

Often involves cooking and baking in our home. Or making last minutes gifts, or making ornaments for the tree. There’s lots of fun, lots of good conversation and lots of anticipation. Once again, we made salt dough ornaments. They’re so much fun, and so easy - even for the littles.

Salt Dough
This recipe makes a nice, smooth dough that works up nice in the hand and bakes really well to a secure, dry finish. Paint the finished products with acrylics and seal with varnish.

1 1/2 c. salt
1 1/2 c. flour
2 T. oil
1 c. water

Combine all ingredients. Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes. Roll out and cut with cutters, or shape by hand on a lightly floured surface. Bake at 225F for 2 hours. Cool before decorating.

I pray that your Christmas preparations are bringing you comfort and joy!

**** Good Heavens! I had the wrong temperature. It has been corrected now to say *225F*. Don’t want to burn those precious ornaments!

Cooking class! We’re making sourdough. The old-fashioned type. That means no commericial yeast and a whole lot more time.

Each of the children will be interested in different aspects of sourdough making. Jack and Cate will be interested in the chemistry of sourdough, Carrie and Will will be interested in the art of forming loaves, Sophie will be interested in mixing the starter, and Louis will be singing over all. I’m sure we’ll be poring over all the possibilities for the use of our sourdough and dreaming of what we’ll try first. Brian will be thinking about sampling the fruits of our labour, perhaps with a nice bowl of soup…

We do eat lots of bread here. It’s great with salad, soup, and toasted with jam. A slice of home-baked bread makes a lovely snack when you’re feeling a bit peckish and is especially satisfying when spread with a soft cheese like brie.

And NOTHING compares to the smell of fresh bread baking in the kitchen. I can remember what Nana’s house smelled like when she’d been baking. I couldn’t wait to get a slice! So, we’re making a starter this morning. It should be ready for using next week. A nice way to start our new year - with a good sourdough starter that could last a generation - and a tradition of baking breads the old fashioned way.

There is a bakery in a neighbouring town that makes wild yeast breads. That doesn’t mean that they go out foraging for yeast, it means that they have let it grow in their bakery and use their sourdough to make all kinds of delicious breads.

If you’re interested in starting a sourdough, visit this site. It’s excellent.

For Thanksgiving Dinner. An international flavour this year.

For Starters:
Souffle au Fromage (sounds so much prettier than “cheese souffle”)
Homemade Tomato Soup in a Cup
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For Mains:
Turkey with Chilis
Clapshot
Cabbage and Onion Pierogis
Homemade Cranberry Sauce
Maple Glazed Winter Squash
Green Salad

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And afters:
Cherry Upside Down Cake with Double Cream
Custard Pie

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Hot Mulled Cider
Egg Nog

All the receipts are available here. And they’ll all be in the cookbook as well!

I’m off to the market… Enjoy!

For Thanksgiving!

A friend made this beautiful Cherry Upside Down Cake for our church’s annual Thanksgiving dinner. It is going to be on our dessert table later this week. It’s scrumptious when served still warm with double cream (whipping cream) or vanilla bean ice cream and a cup of coffee.

Cherry Upside-Down Cake

¼ c. butter
¾ c. light brown sugar, packed
1 lb. sour cherries, halved, pitted
1 ½ c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
1 c. sugar
½ c. butter,
2 large eggs, separated
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
½ c. milk
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour 8” square cake pan. In a medium saucepan, melt ¼ c. butter over low heat. Add brown sugar; Stir until blended. Remove from heat. Spread mixture over bottom of cake pan. Arrange cherries, cut side down, in single layer in bottom of pan. Set aside.
Combine flour, baking powder and salt in medium bowl. In separate large bowl, cream 1 cup sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and egg yolks 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in dry ingredients alternately with milk.
In a large bowl (preferably a copper bowl), beat egg whites with a balloon whisk, adding up to ¼ tsp cream of tartar if needed, until stiff but not dry. Lighten cake batter with spoonful of whites. Gently fold remaining whites into batter. Spoon batter over cherries in pan. Bake cake until wooden skewer inserted into center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Cool cake in pan on rack 15 minutes.
Loosen sides with knife and invert onto serving plate. Serve with whipped cream.

So pretty! It looks just like little rubies atop a golden pillow. This recipe will surely be included in the Simple Gifts Cookbook!

Mmmmm!

Today is the Feast of St. Martin of Tours. St. Martin is known best for his great act of charity, when he tore his cloak in half to give to a beggar.

Traditionally, swine were slaughtered to be eaten on Martinmas, and lanterns were made from turnips and carried in procession after dark, led by a man on horseback (who represents St. Martin).

Our celebration will begin by gathering outgrown coats, hats, and mittens which will be delivered to our church. This afternoon, we will settle down to a meal of ham (a rare treat in our home!), applesauce, turnips, and green beans (recipes follow). After luncheon, we will welcome Grandma and carve out lanterns from pumpkins, while enjoying hot cider, coffee, and horseshoe cookies. Later this evening, we will attend Sunday night Mass at our church and thank God for all the blessings we have been given, praying especially for those who are cold, hungry, homeless, lonely, and grieving.

Mustard Glazed Ham
For this recipe, I recommend good English marmalade and mustard. You can find Dundee and Chivers marmalades in many grocery stores. You’re after that large chunk and dark colour. What you do not want is the pale, shreddy, over sweetened stuff. As for mustard, you’ll want strong English pub mustard. That can be a little more difficult to find, so a good spicy brown one should do.

1 fully cooked organic ham, 5-6 lb
1 jar orange marmalade
2 T. dry mustard
½ c. English mustard
1 clove garlic, minced
½ tsp ground ginger

Place ham in roasting pan. Combine remaining ingredients in a small bowl, stirring until well blended. Brush ham with half of the glaze, reserving the other half for basting. Cover the roasting pan with its lid, or use heavy duty foil. Bake ham at 400° for about 1 hour, or until a meat thermometer registers 140° F. Pour remaining glaze over the ham, leave the cover off, and roast for 5-10 minutes more, until the glaze is bubbly.

Applesauce

Cortland apples are my favourite for applesauce. When we lived in England, we were fortunate to have a local supply of Bramleys, big as footballs! Those were lovely things to hollow out, stuff and bake. And it only took two r three to make enough sauce for our small (at that time) family.

½ Peck apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
½ c. brown sugar, packed
1 T. fresh lemon juice

Place all in a heavy bottomed pot over medium high heat, with a closely-fitting lid. Cook for at least 10 minutes, until apples have gone soft. Mash with a potato masher and serve.

French Turnips

This is an adaptation of my mother-in-law’s receipt. She makes these lovely turnips at Christmas and Easter. When we moved away, I missed them at our special meals. Because Brian wasn’t fond of turnips, I tried something just a bit different with his mother’s receipt and it was a hit! Now he looks forward to them, too.

2-3 lb turnips, peeled and cut into cubes
¼ c. butter
¼ c. brown sugar
1 tsp. dill weed
¼ c. crisp bacon, crumbled

Bring turnips to the boil in a large pot of salted water. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until tender, 10-15 minutes. Drain, return to pan. Add butter, sugar, and dill and stir until sugar is dissolved. Place in serving bowl and top with bacon crumbles.

Creamed Green Beans

This is a delicious, creamy compliment to the sweet, acid flavours of the rest of the meal. The cream sauce can also be used on corn, which is a favourite with our extended family at autumn and winter pot-luck dinners.

2 lb. green beans, tipped and tailed
¾ c. pearl onions, peeled
¼ c. butter
¼ c. flour
2 c. whole milk, scalded
4 oz. cream cheese, cubed
Salt and pepper to taste

Place beans and onions in a pot of salted water. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5-7 minutes, or until vegetables are fork-tender. Drain and set aside. In the same pot, melt butter, add flour and stir. Cook roux for about 2 minutes and slowly add hot milk, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to medium and add cheese, stirring constantly until melted. Season sauce to taste. Return vegetables to the sauce and serve in a pretty oval bowl with a sprig of parsley.

Horseshoe Cookies

These are delicious shortbread biscuits which have been shaped like horseshoes. The horseshoes remind us of St. Martin’s trusty steed.

2 c. butter
1 c. brown sugar, firmly packed
4 ½ c. unbleached all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
Cream butter and brown sugar. Add 3 to 3 ¾ cups flour. Mix well.
Sprinkle board with the remaining flour. Knead for 5 minutes, adding enough flour to make a soft dough. Roll to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut into 6 inch strips, 1” wide. Keeping the strip flat on the board, bend it into the shape of a horseshoe. Using a drinking straw, make the nail holes of the horseshoe. Place on ungreased baking sheets.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until just golden.

**These recipes will also be available in the Simple Gifts Cookbook

I hope you have a blessed day!

For the birthday boy (whose birthday was on the 25th!). Another one from the cookbook!

Apple Cake

This is an easy autumn cake that can be served alone, or frosted with maple frosting, like my grandmother used to do. It does not call for milk, which makes it a perfect dessert in a pinch. It’s so lovely with a cup of coffee or tea.

4 c. apples, grated
½ c. vegetable oil
2 c. organic sugar
¾ c. walnuts, chopped
2 eggs, slightly beaten
2 tsp. pure vanilla
1 c. unbleached flour
1 c. whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp. salt

In a large bowl, combine apples and sugar.. Add eggs, oil, nuts, and vanilla.. In separate bowl, combine dry ingredients, being sure to thoroughly incorporate baking soda. Add to apple mixture, and fold together. Pour into greased and floured pan or pans and bake at 350F – 30-35 minutes for 8” layers, 50-60 minutes for 9×13” rectangle.

Maple Frosting

¼ c. butter, or coconut oil
½ tsp. salt
¼ c. pure maple syrup
2 tsp. pure vanilla
3 c. confectioners’ sugar
¼ c. cream (or milk)

In a large bowl combine butter, salt, syrup, vanilla and half of sugar. Add cream and remaining sugar alternately. Mix until smooth. Frosts 8”-9” layer cake or 9”x13” rectangle

My family waits all year for butternut squash to be ready. We eat it all sorts of ways - even baked in a pie like pumpkin. Butternut squash is loaded with vitamin A. This soup is a great way to warm your family and fill them up. Served by the cup-ful, it’s a nice introduction to the cranberry chicken that follows.

Butternut Squash Bisque

This soup would be beautiful garnished with halved cranberries and a sprig of parsley!

1 butternut squash, halved and cleaned
2 T. olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
¼ tsp nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
1 qt. chicken stock
½ c. heavy cream

Bake squash in 400F oven for 45 minutes or until soft. Scoop flesh from the shell and pass through a food mill. In large soup pot, sauté onion in oil until translucent, about 8 minutes. Add spices, squash, stock, and cream. Gently heat through. Serve.

I’ve seen recipes for cranberry chicken all over the web. Unfortunately, the ingredients are laden with corn syrup - a no-no on our list. I have nothing against corn syrup on it’s own. It’s just that it lurks in all sorts of places like salad dressings, sodas, and condiments. There are also all sorts of hidden nasties like preservatives and lots of sodium.

So I offer you what I think is a much better recipe.

Cranberry Chicken

Whole chicken, giblets removed
2 c. homemade cranberry sauce** see recipe below
1 c. homemade French dressing ** see recipe below
1 med onion, sliced thinly
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
1 T. parsley
1 tsp. thyme
Olive oil

Preheat oven to 350°F. Saute onions and garlic in oil, over medium heat until caramelized. Combine with remaining ingredients, and pour over top of the chicken.

Roast at 400F in a covered Dutch oven or roaster for approximately 60 minutes. This roasting method should take 10-12 minutes per pound. Check with a meat thermometer – it should register 165-170F.

Cranberry Sauce

12 oz. fresh cranberries
¾ c. organic sugar
1 c. water
1 cinnamon stick
4 whole cloves

Combine all ingredients in large saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook for 10 minutes, or until all berries have popped. Pass sauce through a sieve to remove spices, skins and pips.

French Dressing

¼ c. Dijon mustard
2 T. fresh lemon juice
1 c. extra virgin olive oil
1 ½ tsp. tarragon or marjoram
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine mustard and lemon juice in a bowl. Slowly whisk in olive oil to emulsify. Season with herbs, salt and pepper. You can also use a blender or food processor, or you can shake ingredients together in a glass jar with tight-fitting lid.

These recipes will also be in the upcoming Simple Gifts Cookbook!

Just what the doctor ordered…

Hot Homemade Chicken Soup:

Hot Biscuits, fresh from the oven:

Served with this beautiful jam, made by our friends, the monks at St. Joseph’s Abbey: