January
is the traditional month for new diets. I get kind of amused reading
this week's Time magazine which chose 3 of the new diet books to
review. The first one disallows wine, salt, sugar and artificial
sweetener. The second forbids carbonated drinks, coffee, gassy foods
including cabbage. The third forbids dairy, white rice, and processed
foods. And the last one forbids volume. Eat anything you want but just
choose small portions.
Are you beginning to see a pattern here? Why does every new diet start
off by telling you what you cannot eat?
People
have had problems with excess weight ever since mankind began to grow
food. The hunters and gatherers weren't fat. They spent a lot of time
just searching for food and were grateful for what they could find. And
the game and berries they found also spent time searching for
nourishment and water and didn't store fat either.
But that was then. This is now. We are besotted with food, drink,
choices, and chance. What on earth can we do?
Holiday Goodies
Holiday Goodies
A New Year's Eve Cocktail and Appetizer All-in-One
I enjoy spending hours cooking in the kitchen. Doing the prep work soothes my frazzled nerves. Watching a dish slowly come together as the various ingredients combine their flavors calms me down.
Being in the kitchen is a great escape from a contentious world. Pulling together appetizers, a salad, main dish, and a couple of desserts, gives me a lot of pleasure. Good food promotes good conversation and well-prepared dishes tell our friends that we care about them.
I like to have the meal completed before everyone arrives, but sometimes, like this New Year's Eve, I know I'll still be cooking. The best solution is a colorful cocktail that refreshes and entertains while I'm finishing dinner.
Because there are edible pieces of fruit at the bottom, including a spoon means the cocktail is a drink and an appetizer all in one.
Fourth of July Traditions
The “old timers” in Maine always eat salmon and peas for their fourth of July family feast. This tradition was started a long time ago when salmon still came “up river to spawn” and people still rushed in the Spring to plant their peas so they would have the first peas of the year, hopefully by the 4th, if the weather was good. (I still have customers that plant their peas in the fall so they sprout when they are ready come Spring.)
The old tradition is to bake a center cut chunk of salmon at 350 degrees till it is less than moist, (so all the relatives like it) than nap it with a white sauce, better known as a béchamel sauce to which you add in chopped hard cooked eggs. And peas, lot of peas cooked with butter, salt, pepper and a little water. The rule of thumb was to cook them till when you blew on a spoonful they wrinkled.
A Premium Holiday Thumbprint Cookie
For as long as I can remember, Thumbprint Cookies have been my favorite holiday cookie treat. My paternal grandmother started the Thumbprint tradition. The cookies soon became a favorite of her little son Ronny (my dad.) So, of course, my mom had to learn how to make them and carry on the Thumbprint tradition. My mom’s been gone for many years, so the Thumbprint tradition was left to me. I’m certain the tradition will be carried on for generations. My daughter-in-law makes them now, too.
Our Thumbprint cookies are made of a rich, buttery dough that is rolled into a ball, coated with coconut and poked in the middle to make a bowl to hold creamy frosting — red and green, of course. Long ago, my grandma may have used her thumb to push a shallow indentation into each little ball of cookie dough, thus the name Thumbprints. Somewhere along the line, though, my mom began using the end of a wooden spoon for the job. It may have been because the thumb-pressing process doesn’t take place until the cookies have baked for 5 minutes. It makes for a very hot, steamy thumb. Ouch! The end of a wooden spoon creates a space for frosting much too small for my taste. Over the years, I’ve started using the end of the handle on a small Swedish butter knife made of wood. It’s the only thing I ever do with that wooden tool. The rest of the year it stays tucked in a kitchen drawer. The end of that knife makes a large basin to hold lots of frosting. Perfect!
Hazelnut-Espresso Truffles
For me there is no bite of chocolate more satisfying than a truffle. Named after their likeness to the rare underground mushrooms, truffles are simply made of chocolate ganache, chocolate melted into hot cream. The ganache is chilled, becoming malleable, and pieces are formed into balls that truly resemble black truffles. Then the truffles are rolled in cocoa, powdered sugar, coconut flakes, or crushed nuts. They're the perfect little chocolate dessert bites, making them ideal for a party, especially one to celebrate New Year's Eve. Enjoy one with a cocktail or a glass of bubbly, and it's the perfect ending to an evening looking toward a new year filled with hope and prosperity.
These chocolate truffles are very easy to make with no cooking or baking required. Hot cream is poured over chocolate to melt it, and then combined with sugar and pulverized chocolate wafers for a bit of texture. The mixture is then flavored with hazelnut and coffee liqueurs along with espresso powder. After chilling, the truffles are formed into balls and rolled in crushed hazelnuts.
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