Rookie Cookery

The Christmas Cookie Book

I am a book lover, including an old charmer like this vintage tome I picked up for a few dollars at a used book store a couple of years ago.   It is in remarkably good shape, given its publication year of 1949,  with very few of the smudges and stains that usually decorate a cook book that has been well loved. 

The Christmas Cookie Book was written by Virginia Pasley and illustrated with line drawings by Barbara Corrigan. The text describes in glowing detail the author's family tradition of baking a huge variety of Christmas cookies, often starting right after Thanksgiving and continuing through to Christmas day. The contents feature Cookies that keep, cookies that keep a little while, cookies in fancy shapes, cookies that won't keep, and more.

Our family has a Christmas cookie tradition too, although not nearly as elaborate as the one described in this book.  We've done the cookie routine since our sons were little boys, skipping some years when we let life get too busy. The recipe was always the same: a basic sugar cookie from my Good Housekeeping Cook book,  which we cut into shapes using the cookie cutters my Mom had used, as well as a few new cutters I had purchased here and there. 

The real fun was in the decorating, though.  A big bowl of white frosting was divided into four smaller bowls, and colored with red, green and yellow food coloring.

Then the four of us-- my husband and our two sons Evan and Ethan, would spend a couple of hours "painting" the cookies with colored frosting, nibbling and talking until every flat surface in the kitchen was covered with a tray or plate of cookies.  Here's a glimpse from a batch we made in recent years:

This just never gets old, even when the boys are now grown.  Did you ever see the Simpson's episode where Marge chastises Bart for making the Christmas tree cookies look like "bloody arrow heads"...?

That's our son Evan (now age 22) demonstrating this concept with my husband Jim.  I was tempted to leave the "red eye" artifact in the photograph in Evan's eyes, but thought better of it and edited it out. But you get the idea.

Christmas cookies are fun! At any age.

Last weekend I went to my first ever Cookie Swap, hosted by my pal Garrett of Vanilla Garlic.  We had a blast, and my own cookie baking will never be the same.  Traditions are wonderful,  but I am learning that just because something is a tradition, doesn't mean that it has to be exactly the same year after year.  Twenty years of sugar cookies and colored frosting is enough!  I aim to hunt down several of the recipes I enjoyed from the cookie swap (I'm looking at you, Kate!)  and make them part of our tradition here at home. They were SO GOOD!

I made persimmon cookies for the swap, and I was quite relieved that they came out just fine, having narrowly avoided disaster when my recipe failed me the night before. Cooking with fruit pulp can be tricky, and I had to add flour and increase the oven temperature significantly before the cookies came out right. That was a little scary. 

The moral of the story is: Bake cookies! And don't be afraid to update your traditions, or start new ones this very day.  It's never too late to start.

(Above: Ethan, me, and cookie, 2 years ago)

Book Review: "Cheese and Wine; A Guide To Selecting, Pairing and Enjoying" by Janet Fletcher

The photograph above was not taken from my visit to the Quixote Winery in Napa last Sunday, but it is because of that day that I made sure to stop by the abundant cheese department at Whole Foods on Wednesday and make a selection.   And while my initial pairing of wine and cheese was not perfect,  it made a delightful interlude for my husband and I to enjoy while the Thanksgiving turkey finished roasting and before we began the traditional feast with our family.

Janet Fletcher, the author of Cheese and Wine; A Guide To Selecting, Pairing. and Enjoying  has converted me.  I will no longer walk wistfully past the cheese department,  waiting for a special occasion to prompt a purchase.  Much of the European world (France, Italy, Spain, Greece)  where milk and grapes are abundant, enjoy a daily ritual of wine and cheese, and it is my pleasure to join them--with Janet's blessing and guidance.

I had the good fortune, along with a group of other food bloggers, to meet Janet at the Quixote Winery and to enjoy her intelligent pairing of  three distinctive cheeses to accompany the Petite Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon we were tasting.  She chose a Zamorano, a Pecorino di Grotta, and an Erhaki (which sounds like "air hockey", making it easy for me to remember!)

Each cheese was delicious, a festival of textures and flavors, creating a kind of dance on the palate as I nibbled and sipped back and forth between the cheeses and wines. 

It was pretty much Nirvanna for the taste buds, and I privately vowed to stop neglecting these powerful opportunities for pleasure in the future. Life is too short to drink crappy wine and dull, uninspired cheeses, I thought. Not when these affordable luxuries are so close at hand. 

At the Quixote Wine tasting, we were also gifted with a signed copy of Janet's latest book (named in the title of this post), which delivers on its promise to guide and educate the reader who, like me, can be overwhelmed and bewildered by the array of offerings at a well stocked cheese counter.

Janet Fletcher can be your guide too not only through her books, but through her weekly column on cheese published through the San Francisco Chronicle. (Here is the url for her Cheese Course article archive. You won't want to miss her current article on Splurgeworthy Selections for the Cheeseboard). Her advice and writing has been awarded two James Beard Awards, and has been featured in magazines such as Food and Wine, Bon Apetite, Fine Cooking and Metropolitan Home. 

What I appreciate about Janet's book is her very straight forward,  informative style of writing that is precise and helpful in its descriptions of the character of the various cheeses,  as well as pertinent information on why a cheese would work better with some types of wine and not so well with others.  Her introductory chapter is richly  inspirational but quickly moves on to instruct on how to store, serve and enjoy cheese in a variety of settings.   Cheeses are categorized in terms of milk source (cow, sheep, goat, or mixed), how they are made (fresh, aged, pastuerized  or not, and other such considerations) and other relevant details to quickly orient the consumer.  The book is well indexed, and each cheese profile is accompanied by a simple icon to indicate milk source (cow, sheep, goat, etc.)  as well as a pronunciation guide for foreign words which I find enormously helpful.  Finally,  Cheese and Wine is gorgeously illustrated with photographs by Victoria Pearson of cheeses, wines and serving pieces and makes it an absolute delight to turn the pages. In short, it makes me want to eat the book. (Memo to holiday gift givers: this book or others by Janet would be welcome under the tree).

In my foray into the cheese department at Whole Foods, not having yet read Janet's book, I chose a sheep pecorino stagionato, which was a safe choice because I already knew I enjoyed pecorino.  Then I went to the wine section and, at the advice of the head of the wine department, chose a Loosen Brothers 2006 Riesling from Salem Oregon to enjoy at Thanksgiving dinner. 

At home, I turned to the page in Janet's book on "Pecorino Toscano" and learned that this is an Italian  sheep's milk cheese that has been produced for  2,000 years.  The kind I bought, "Stagianato",  is a type of pecorino that is aged for at least four months in a cellar.  I found it to be buttery, chewy, dense and salty, and very delicious. 

The wine I chose was also very good, although a bit sweeter than I prefer,  and perhaps too sweet for the pecorino.  The wine was juicy and tasted brightly of the grapes, exploding in the mouth. The finish was brief and added to the sense of surprise, as the sweetness and acidity of the wine both spoke at the same time with each swallow.  This is a low alcohol wine, slightly over 8 percent, a very light straw yellow in color.  In the future I would probably prefer to pair it with a fruit dessert after the meal.

I served the pecorino with a rather unremarkable brie.  Incidentally, Janet's book suggests that instead of  chopping off the tip of  a brie as it is consumed,  (as I did with the one pictured above), one should slice off thin wedges along the edge in order to preserve the triangular shape of the brie.  That's just one of many helpful suggestions that Janet makes in order to enhance to pleasure of  eating cheese, even though it doesn't affect the taste per se. 

Sitting next to Janet at the cheese and wine tasting, I told her I am the grand daughter of  dairy farmers on both my mother and father's sides of the family.  I was born in Cuba, New York, home of the locally famous Cuba Cheese Shoppe,  and I have always wondered if my grandparents' dairy products provided the source of milk that the cheese makers used.  On many occasions Cuba Cheese has been a coveted Christmas gift, mailed out to we in the family who migrated west.  Now I want to taste it all over again and learn more about it.  (My favorite is the white cheddar). 

Tasting the cheese and wine last Sunday, and in the days since then, has felt like coming home to me. Coming home to my heritage in a new way, and to a recovery of pleasures lost and rediscovered.

Not a bad way to celebrate Thanksgiving. Not bad at all.

How To Be A Better Foodie

How's your foodie cred?  Can you hold your own in a conversation where the culture of food is the passionate subject?  If you could use some help, or better yet if you are fascinated by food ephemera and want to add to your store of lore and trivia,  get your hands on a copy of the small but packed little volume titled How To Be A Better Foodie; A Bulging Little Book For The Truly Epicurious by Sudi Pigott. 

Even if you don't identify with the term "foodie",  the book lives up to its title by providing the reader with page after page of interesting food facts that only a lover of food would appreciate.  Like a cross between a dictionary and a personal encyclopedia, the information contained is lovingly culled more from the author's own food explorations,  than an attempt to be as comprehensive as the giant and classic Larousse Gastronomique.  As I peruse the pages, I feel I am receiving the distilled wisdom and advice from a knowledgeable foodie friend about "where the really good stuff is". 

The book does have a chatty "be in the know", magazine-style vibe, with chapters on cooking must-haves, wish lists for the kitchen, and a consistent focus on the avant-garde and trendy, such as  "Trophy extreme seasonal delicacies". But again, rather than offend me with a snootier-than-thou attitude, the author goes on to provide the goods in terms of cutting edge information that was truly new to me.  She seduced me with her ability to satisfy my inner food trivia geek, and make me turn the pages for more.

Some of the information is admittedly obscure. Here you can find out where they eat lamprey as a delicacy, (Finland), what other foodies eat in the far-flung corners of the globe, and a detailed list of offal that, by another name, is a gourmet treat. But there are handy lists too, such as movies that every foodie ought to see, (naming several titles that were beyond the obvious), how to select high quality foods, and what constitutes good table manners in a variety of settings. The author answers questions I would never have thought to ask. Bottom line, it's a fun read.

This is not a coffee table book plastered with luscious food photography. In fact, there are no pictures other than minimal illustrations,  and pages punctuated with lively quotes.  The book is cleverly designed in a two-tone chocolate brown, pink and white color scheme that suggests a box of chocolates.  The design is fitting--this is mind-candy at it's best:  serving up delicious little morsels to be nibbled at over time, the reader finding it hard to stop at just one page. 

With the holiday gift giving season approaching, this little tome could easily go on your  "good to give or get" list. 

A Literary Feast

Now that I have finished reading Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, my self-imposed media blackout has been lifted, and I can read blogs again. Yes, it's paranoid, but I was so afraid that I would stumble across a plot spoiler on the internet, on TV, or in the news, I swore off media for a week until I had a chance to finish the book. My son Ethan was reading the book too, while I was at work during the day. It was fun to watch our two bookmarks play leap frog over one another as we both worked our way through the chapters, first my being in the lead, then my falling behind, then Ethan, then me again, until we both finished and could speak freely about the story. Unless my husband Jim was in the room--then we clammed up again. We were all very careful, asking "where are you now in the book?" before saying anything, or simply nodding with an enigmatic expression, betraying nothing.

One of the most enjoyable elements of the Harry Potter universe was, of course, FOOD. Whether it was a chocolate covered frog, or Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans, a feast at the Hogwarts dining commons, or a stew cooked up by Mrs. Weasley, food and drink were an integral part of wizarding life. Are you wondering what pumpkin juice or butter beer really taste like? Here are some recipes, although I think I would prefer some "Cornelius Fudge".

Mark Bittman's Quick And Easy Recipes From The New York Times; Book Review

If you are looking for a cook book that will teach you to cook home-style meals that are simple, delicious, versatile and as wonderfully varied as world cuisine itself can get, look no further than Mark Bittman's Quick And Easy Recipes From The New York Times. In a moment I'll tell you why I chose those adjectives for the book, but first let me say a few words about this extraordinary and talented food writer.

Mark Bittman has been writing his food column for the NY Times called The Minimalist for the last decade or more. It can be found online here, and I recommend you bookmark the page and visit it weekly, as I do. Bittman's articles usually profile a specific recipe, and feature a short three or four minute video in which he demonstrates the cooking technique or assembly of the dish in a refreshingly straightforward style (and often a bit of tongue in cheek humor from Mr. Bittman as well.) If I were The Grand Poobah, I would ordain that the NY Times make a compilation of these short videos available for sale. I would purchase it over anything on offer from, say, the Food Network. Links to recipes are available too, but after a few weeks the online Minimalist articles are archived and one must become a paying subscriber to have access.

The Minimalist moniker Bittman has chosen is not only pertinent for his style of cooking, it represents the essence of his food philosophy, which is: Good food need not be complicated, exotic or baroque in it's ingredient list. Rather, good food is that which relies upon good, fresh ingredients, time honored techniques, and which Bittman prefers to reduce to it's simplest components to deliver the biggest and most essential flavor of the dish. Thus " the Minimalist. "

One might think that a minimalist approach to cooking would yield a paltry list of standard fare, but in Bittman's approach just the opposite occurs, because with each recipe he often provides one two or three variations on the theme (an added ingredient here, a substitution or two there), to yield a fantastic variety of flavor possibilities and an education in cooking while you are at it.

As a home cook, a self named Rookie Cook even, I have come to deeply appreciate what Mark Bittman's approach is teaching me about food. And I love that he draws upon the wisdom and respect for home cooks the world over for inspiration and recipes. He has literally opened up the world of cooking for me, in a way that is approachable, not overwhelming or arcane like many other cook books. Following Mark's "themes and variations", I find that learning a basic dish can be something I build upon, whether it is a soup or a saute or a dessert. ... the possibilities are endless.

Here's an example from the section on soups. He shares the theme and variations on "egg drop" type soups, then shares variations from Asia and Italy. Then he gives his formula for any cream soup: Three parts liquid stock, two parts vegetables, one part dairy such as cream, milk, yogurt, etc. Simple and brilliant!

This new book includes virtually all of Bittman's Minimalist articles, which were previously published in three separate volumes titled The Minimalist Cooks at Home, The Minimalist Cooks Dinner, and The Minimalist Entertains. If ever there was a cook book to add to your library, this is it. I have a feeling it will be my "go to" book in the coming year when I want to put something on the table for my family that I know they wil enjoy and maybe even be surprised by.

Book review: Educating Peter: How I Taught A Famous Movie Critic the Difference Between Cabernet and Merlot, Or, How Anybody Can Become an (Almost) Instant Wine Expert by Lettie Teague

I love, love, love this book. Now that I have gotten that off my chest, let me tell you why it deserves to be purchased, studied, underlined and used as a guide to your next foray into a well stocked wine store.

Don't be put off by the breezy title and very readable text. This book is packed with not just information about the world of wine, but the author's deep and appreciative knowledge of wine. Using her ongoing conversation with Rolling Stone movie critic Peter Travers as a ruse, Teague treats her readers to a mind expanding and encyclopedic approach to the subject that goes far beyond naming the six Basic Grapes and how to recognize and pair a balanced wine with food.

What I loved most about this book was the fact that the author took me on a fascinating tour of every place in the world where wine is produced, and explained in detail why that region is important, how the wines are (or are not) organized for the consumer, and what makes them distinctive. But this is not just a geography lesson; this is the meat of the book and this is what will enable the reader to make informed purchases at the wine store. Amazingly, Teague manages to convey this information in just the right amount of detail, in a highly readable and simple (but not over simple), way.

The first of these chapters covers France, beginning with a lesson on the Bordeaux classification system of wines and how to navigate it wisely today. Here were the names of famous wine producing chateaux I recognize, but for the first time in my life Teague puts those names in a context I can begin to understand. She describes the differences between the left vs. the right bank of the Gironde estuary, their chateaux wine styles, the first through fifth growth classes of wines and what it means. She then goes on to describe the other major regions (Burgundy, Cote D'Or, Alsace, the Loire Valley, the Rhone Valley, Champagne), with notes on specific producers of wines she recommends in each area.

The section on France alone is well worth the price of the book. But Teague goes on to describe the complex and fascinating wine making environments of other Old World Wines of Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria and Hungary. The next section of the book treats the New World Wine regions: Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile, New York State, Oregon and Washington State, and California. Throughout, she gives her readers the inside scoop on where to look for good value wines at affordable prices.

But Teague's book is not simply a superb world tour of winemaking (and it is that). She begins with brief but vital chapters that address such questions as "What makes a wine great?" and "How to Taste Wine". Instead of distracting the reader with a laundry list of scent and taste descriptors to search for in a glass of wine, Teague puts even the act of tasting into a context of the total experience, and how to maximize that experience. There is real wisdom here.

There are little bonuses of information I can use throughout the book. For instance, Lettie Teague informs us how the shape and color of the bottle gives important clues about the type of wine it holds. Is the bottle neck wide, or narrow and sloped? Is the glass clear or deeply opaque? I will never look at a wine bottle the same way again, and now can read it's clues at a glance as I wend my way through a store.

I love wine, but I confess that walking into a wine store has, in the past, filled me with a sense of being overwhelmed and intimidated by the bottles on offer. Now, after reading Teague's book, I feel excited and curious. I can hardly wait to make my next visit to a well stocked wine store. I feel ready to begin to explore the world of wine in a completely new way, with a sense of context and anxious to discover that elusive sense of "terroir" in a wine I keep hearing about. Now, instead of thinking merely "red or white, and which grape variety will complement my menu plan?" I will think "Which region of the world do I want to taste, and which apellation is likely to please my palate as well as my budget?" I plan to use Teague's book as a guide for my exploration.

At the end of Teague's book, there is a multiple choice quiz for her friend Peter (and the reader) to test what we have learned. Through the test, the author winks at us but also indicates the enormous amount of ground covered in the book. And although I was not always charmed by the use of Peter as a learning companion, his metaphors from the movie business as an art form to help me understand what Lettie was saying was useful and at times entertaining.

My one suggestion to improve the book would be the inclusion of maps.

Highly recommended. Buy it here.

Mimosa Soup from "French Women Don't Get Fat"

Here's my third post on soup before I change topic. Last Spring I picked up a copy of "French Women Don't Get Fat" by Mireille Guiliano. It was the subtitle of the book that caught my eye: "The Secret of Eating For Pleasure". The book attempts to answer the question of the "French Paradox"; namely, Why is it that French people enjoy a diet of rich foods without the national obesity rates that plague Americans?

While I think the author's answer is a bit too simple, (for example she does not fully address the profound impact of food industry additives and agribusiness practices that have undermined the quality of American food), the book does address other lifestyle issues that give the French a healthy advantage over Americans. This is what makes the book worthwhile, making it less a diet book per se and more of a primer for living more consciously and enjoyably. From snacking, to walking, to eating fruit for dessert and indulging in chocolate, the author does an admirable job of describing the French habits which tend toward health, while avoiding the obsessions with counting calories and severe diets that are so prevalent here in the United States. And even though I am an American, I can say that my own personal habits and experience bear out the truth of this philosophy.

Now for the Mimosa soup. The ingredients pictured above illustrate that this is a vegetable soup meant to cleanse and nourish the body during a day or more of semi-fasting, as a means to getting back on track with a healthier lifestyle. I decided to try it largely because it called for several ingredients new to me: celeriac (celery root), leeks ( a new favorite), and turnips. The recipe calls for a couple of hard boiled eggs for protein. All the veggies are chopped and cooked in a big pot of water.

Then the vegetables are run through a food mill or blended into a thick broth. The author advises that you eat a cup of this broth hourly for the few days in order to avoid hunger. This is meant to help someone drop a few pounds as well as inaugurate a new lifestyle of more moderate but normal eating habits.

So what did I think of the soup? (Drum roll, please). Sadly, I was underwhelmed. I found it surprisingly bland, perhaps because I was still expecting it to taste like a "regular" soup, not a diet food. I added salt (the recipe did not mention spices) but it barely made it palatable. My conclusion is that it is the base of water instead of stock that made this a disappointment for me.

It was a bummer to use all those fresh ingredients and be unhappy with the results. I was not serious about losing weight with this, (I am not a proponent of fasting per se), but if I was desperate to lose a few pounds and begin a new lifestyle I suppose this might work. But my advice would be to stick with a much more flavorful soup, because otherwise the temptation to throw in the towel and quit would be too great. Eat real food in more frequent, smaller quantities, and excercise, is my motto. That should keep a person reasonably fit, unless their body is out of whack hormonally, (synthetic estrogen dominance)--which is another post entirely!

I still think a tasty soup is a great choice for eating light.