Snow Pie and Crimson Pie

January is a beautiful silver-white, crisply cold month which happens to feature National Pie Day! Today is the actual day, so naturally the pie for such an event posed a challenge; should I choose a pie that was warm and colorful or try to find one that mimicked the frozen white landscape? I couldn’t decide until I came across a recipe for a frozen concoction aptly named Snow Pie.

The pie was featured in a Bon Appetit magazine RSVP column (1981) and was requested by Lily A. Burnham who wrote:

The Kennebunk Inn 1799 is quaint and charming and a delight for visitors to this old New England town. Chef Gerald Goodwin prepares his fabulous Sno-Pie, but the recipe is a secret. Could Bon Appetit pry this recipe from him for the benefit of all pie lovers?

The “pie” is really a cross between a cake and a pie, but the combination of a frozen, white dessert with the tropical flavors of a Pina Colada intrigued me. So I set out to make it. Several problems cropped up in my trial run, so I had a little juggling to do to the original recipe. Here is my version with some of the changes noted.

Candlelight Inn Snow Pie

1 ½ cups graham cracker crumbs*
4 Tbsp. butter, melted*

3 cups sour cream*
2 cups sifted powdered sugar
1 8-oz. can crushed pineapple, well drained*
½ cup cream of coconut
1/3 cup white rum*

1/3 cup chopped pecans, toasted (garnish)
¾ cup shredded coconut (garnish)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine crumbs and butter in medium bowl or process graham crackers in food processor to make crumbs and pour melted butter through feed tube. Pat mixture evenly onto bottom and sides of well-greased 9-inch springform pan. Bake until set, about 7 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool completely.

Combine sour cream, sugar, pineapple, cream of coconut and rum in large bowl of electric mixer and beat on low speed until blended. Be sure to use flat beater rather than wire whip beater. Cover mixer with a towel to prevent spattering (warning: do not omit this step—I spent 30 minutes cleaning up my machine and counters); then increase speed to high and continue beating 3-4 minutes. Pour mixture into prepared crust. Sprinkle with nuts, then coconut to cover for an all-white appearance. Freeze until firm, about 6 hours or overnight. Let stand at room temperature about 20 minutes before serving. Run sharp knife around crust and remove springform. Cut pie into wedges.

I cut the amount down from 2 cups; the crust was too thick
I cut butter to correspond with above change
The original recipe called for imitation sour cream—I’m not sure that it is even available anymore.
The original recipe did not specify draining the pineapple—but the mixture was on the soupy side, so I made the change.
Original called for ½ cup—raw taste of alcohol too strong for us. You could use rum extract as well, which would also make the mixture freeze to a firmer consistency.

Just to complement the all-white frozen Snow Pie, I found a recipe that spoke to me with both its name and its ingredients—plus it’s a traditional pie. This is wonderful and was well received by our guests at breakfast. Why not surprise your friends or family on National Pie Day (today) and bake both of these wonderful pies?

Crimson Pie

½ small seedless orange (unpeeled),
4 cups frozen blueberries
12 ounces fresh or frozen cranberries
1 ½ cups sugar
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
Pie crust dough for double-crust pie
2 Tbsp. butter
1Tbsp. half and half
Sugar for sprinkling

Coarsely grind orange in processor. Transfer to medium saucepan. Add blueberries, cranberries, 1 ½ cups sugar and cornstarch. Boil mixture over medium-high heat until thick, stirring constantly about 3 minutes. Cool completely. Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 400 degrees. Roll ½ pie dough out on lightly floured surface to 12” diameter. Roll dough up on rolling pin and transfer to 9-inch-diameter glass or stoneware pie pan. Gently press into place. Trim edges with ¼” overhang; reserve trimmings. Spoon berry filling into crust, mounding slightly in center. Do not over-fill; see below for extra filling. Dot filling with butter. Roll second half of pie dough out on lightly floured surface to 12-inch-diameter round. Roll up on rolling pin and unroll over pie. Trim edges. Pinch edges together to seal; flute edges to make decorative border. Make several slashes in top crust to allow steam to escape. Brush crust with milk. You can take reserved trimmings and make decorative dough designs to place on top of pie, or roll out and make 2 small tarts with extra filling. Brush decorations and pie top with half and half. Sprinkle top of pie with sugar. Place pie on rimmed baking sheet covered with aluminum foil for spill-overs. Cover edges of pie with aluminum foil to keep from over-browning. Bake for 35 minutes; remove foil from edges and bake for 15 minutes more.

Good Old Days 2 The Vernon Avenue Days

We moved into our own post-war house in the suburbs (St. Louis Park) in the spring of 1949. I remember the numerous trips back and forth to watch the progress of our house being built. Going south on Highway 100, there was a hill on the east side with what seemed like hundreds of little pine trees, newly planted. I go by that same area occasionally today and see fully mature trees along there--just another reminder of the passing years.





On one of those trips I was playing in the lot next door which had a foundation covered with tarpaper and a family living in what we termed a "basement house." It became a complete house by the next year and I spent a lot of time in it playing with the little girl living there. Janie and I spent a lot of time together, but she moved away a few years later and I have lost track of her. Not so the other little girl that I met that Spring. Mary Anne came down to see who had moved into our house one day in late spring. After discovering that we shared the same birthday and other similarities, we became fast friends. She is still my BFF--Some sixty years later!





Shortly after we moved in, sidewalks were built on our block. First the trenches were dug to fill with cement and they were roped off to keep the kids out. One hot, sultry summer day, the ominous but always exciting dark clouds gathered, signaling a storm. It poured, filling the trenches with warm, muddy water. All the kids donned their bathing suits and went out to "swim" up and down the street.





Oh, that neighborhood had fun! All of us kids--The Divine brothers, the Johnson sisters, Susan Martinson, Mary Anne, the "boys" (brothers of us girls and a few others), roamed freely in the summer from early morning until a dash for lunch and back out to play until exhaustion or dinnertime--whichever came first. Mostly Mary Anne and I played with our dolls. We both used our mothers' names as our own and had a "family" of dolls that we wheeled in their buggies up and down those now-finished sidewalks. We "rode bikes"-sometimes across the overpass bridge to "Monkey Island" on the other side of Hwy 100--our brown lunch bags in our baskets or dangling ffrom the handlebars. I don't even remember what we did all day; only that it was fun and we were free. Nobody's mother ever worried that we would get abducted.



On Saturdays my Mom had a car. My Dad belonged to a carpool that gave my mother the car(we just had one) one day a week. She used that day to do all sorts of errands but not grocery shopping; Saturday was the day for that because the stores had specials on Saturday. The women were mostly at home in the '50's and so Saturday was an odd day for shopping--things have changed! Anyway, to the Piggly Wiggly we went. I always went along if I could--I loved grocery shopping (still do). Saturday was also a special day for food. We almost always had hamburgers for supper and everyone got a bottle of pop. Saturday was the only day were allowed to have pop. Mom's hamburgers were delicious; she formed thick patties of ground beef mixed with a little worcestershire sauce and sprinkled a layer of salt on her cast-iron skillet. When the skillet was hot, she put the patties in, along with very thinly sliced onions. As the hamburger gave off its fat, the onions cooked in the fat and juice and finished about the same time as the medium-rare meat (a no-no today.) The buns were then buttered and fried quickly on the cut side; a little butter rubbed on the tops made them toasty and buttery, then the fried onions were piled on the buns, hamburger patty and a round dill pickle slice. Catsup, mustard, lettuce, cheese, relish, horse radish--all were side options. Delicious!! We hadn't even heard of McDonald's yet.

That house on Vernon Avenue was a three bedroom colonial. Because it had two full stories unlike the many small ramblers and story-and-a-half houses on the block, we thought we lived in a mansion. Other amenities that we had that made it special were a screened porch, a formal dining room, a breakfast nook off the kitchen, two fireplaces (one in the basement--unfinished at first, but later made into a recreation room by my dad), and a one-car attached garage. But even though it was small, the kitchen was still the heart of the house.

In winter, after school, I would put on my skates and rubber skate guards, head for "Sunshine Park's" skating rink where Mary Anne would already be skating (she went to Holy Family Catholic school and got home sooner than I) and stay until the rink lights went on when it was time to go home for supper. The warmth of the kitchen with its delicious smells of cooking welcomed me home. I would take off my skates and go into the dining room where I would pull off my socks and put my frozen, pale feet over the floor grate. I would rub them until they turned pink again and started to hurt like the dickens. This painful ritual never kept me from going back to the rink--after supper if I could!

Was there anyone that didn't have to be home at 6:00 for supper? I didn't know anyone. We didn't have all kinds of activites that our parents had to drive us to at the dinner hour. Everyone was home eating. We usually ate at our dining room table where, after saying grace, we commenced to learn mealtime manners. My father was a very kind and mild-mannered man, but one who insisted on manners at the table. Let my brother and I begin to giggle incessently or, God forbid, raise a fork loaded with a morsel of mashed potatoes and use it as a launch toward the other and we would be in for it. He might have warned us once, I don't remember, but when he'd had enough, he'd raise his arm up threateningly and say, very loudly, "That'll do!" And that was that. I don't remember ever being struck (maybe one spanking on the backside) in my childhood, but I remember distinctly believing he might actually do it. At any rate, there was no more nonsense that night.

My mother was very proper about our eating habits. For one thing, she insisted that we "eat in a circle," as she put it. That meant that you ate one bite of meat, followed by one of potatoes, followed by one of vegetables, salad, bread, etc. according to what lay next to what on your plate. It was a circular progression, even if you had a salad or bread and butter plate to the left of your dinner plate (and we often did) you went in a clockwise rotation. To this day I'm not sure what the purpose of this was--but I know that I am unreasonably annoyed by people who eat all of one thing before going on to the next. I suppose it was so that we wouldn't fill up on our favorite food and not want to eat our vegetables.

Speaking of not eating unfavorite foods, it amazes me to watch many of today's youngsters demanding certain foods and refusing others. At our house we had a rule that we could "hate" one food. One. When it was on the family dinner menu, we were exempted. Not only did we not have to eat it, but a special substitute was made for us. Mine was beans. I really hated all beans and peas and any other food with a skin on the outside and a mushy inside. There were a number of other foods that I didn't really care for when I was very young as well--but I only got to avoid one. When the family was having chili--a favorite--I was given chili with rice instead of beans.

Mom was a primary school teacher at one time and a master psychologist of young children. If we were having peas, or rutabagas or squash or one of the other disliked foods of my youth, I would be served the tiniest amount (maybe three peas). When I would question why I had to eat those peas her stock answer was, "As you get more grown-up, you will like everything; therefore we always have to have a little bite to see if you're that grown up yet." As adults, my brother and I like everything--or keep it to ourselves if we don't!

Mom's Chili with and without Beans

1 pound lean ground beef
1/2 yellow onion, chopped fine
2 large ribs celery, diced
1 large can (28-oz) tomatoes, with juice, cut up (or use diced)
2 cups tomato juice
2 cans red kidney beans, with juice
Salt and pepper
Chili powder to taste

Brown beef and onions and celery; drain. Add tomatoes, juice, salt and pepper and chili powder. Cook for one hour. Meanwhile prepare rice according to a standard recipe. After one hour of simmering, remove to another saucepan the amount of chili you wish to serve with no beans. Add cooked rice to that saucean and the kidney beans to the original pan. Simmer for five minutes. Serve and pass additional chili powder around.

Cornbread

When you mention cornbread, the responses are immediate and varied. Mostly, opinion is divided by the Mason-Dixon Line. Northerners like yellow corn meal with more wheat flour and more sugar than the southerners. Southerners (who really claim ownership of cornbread), often use mostly white corn meal and less sugar.

Actually, the colonists were the first white people to use cornmeal for baking quick breads, gems (muffins) and jonnycakes—but they also baked yeast breads using part cornmeal. One of the best known and most popular is Anadama bread. The story goes that a New England fisherman, whose wife was named Anna, came home from the sea to find no cornbread. Not being a knowledgeable cook, he made his own, throwing in white flour and yeast and muttering, “Anna, damn her!”

A third type of cornbread I made with masa harina, the Mexican cornmeal which is richer than regular cornmeals because it is made from hominy (hulled corn) instead of the whole kernel. The white corn kernel is soaked in lime to remove the hulls, then ground. Everyone is familiar with the much-loved tortillas, tamales and other Mexican specialties made from masa harina.

The best cornbread that I have found is from the Dairy Hollow House—a country inn in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, the heart of the Ozarks. You can use white cornmeal and the smaller amount of sugar if you hail from the south.

Dairy Hollow House Skillet-Sizzled Cornbread

1 cup stone-ground yellow cornmeal
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. baking soda
1 ¼ cups buttermilk
1 large egg
2-4 Tbsp. sugar
¼ cup vegetable oil
Pam cooking spray
2-4 Tbsp. butter

Preheat the oven to 375. In large bowl, combine the cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt. In small bowl, stir the baking soda into the buttermilk. In a second bowl, whisk together the egg, sugar-to-taste and the oil, then whisk in the buttermilk. Spray an 8-or 9-inch cast iron skillet with Pam. Put the skillet over medium-high heat, add the butter and heat until the butter melts and is just starting to sizzle. Tilt the pan to coat the bottom and sides; add the wet ingredients to the dry and quickly stir together, using only as many strokes as needed to combine. Scrape the batter into the hot, buttery skillet. Immediately put the skillet in the oven and bake until golden brown, about 25 minutes. Cut into wedges to serve.

I tried to make this cornbread in a round stoneware baking pan (Pampered Chef). Usually, the stoneware makes everything better, especially bread; but not this time. The edges weren’t as crisp, buttery and tender—and the overall color of the bread wasn’t as good. You can use both stone-ground and regular cornmeal with good results. If you are looking for more fiber and more crunch—the stone-ground is better.

Minnesota is the home of a wonderful cook and cookbook writer, Beatrice Ojakangas. She has written many, many cookbooks—especially about baking. Ojakangas is of Finnish descent and lives in Duluth now, but grew up on the “range” as we call the iron-ore mine area of Minnesota where there are many Finnish people. She won many accolades and even some prizes at the Minnesota State Fair and local fairs, as well, but none as large or exciting as the Pillsbury Bake Off Second Grand Prize of $5,000—and that was in the Fifties! The prize was for “Cheesy Picnic Loaf” made from her Anadama bread.

I experimented with different recipes for Anadama bread and finally came up with one that we love—using sourdough starter.

Sourdough Anadama Bread

1 cup warm water
1 cup sourdough starter
4 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup stone-ground yellow cornmeal
½ cup molasses, preferably sorghum molasses
1/3 cup butter (softened)
1 Tbsp. salt
2 eggs
1 Tbsp. yeast

Bread-maker method:

Spray bread-maker with Pam spray, then put all the ingredients into container in order listed. Put bread-maker on dough setting. When done, take out and shape into two loaves and bake in 375 degree oven for 30-35 minutes.

If you’re adventurous, here’s a recipe for corn tortillas:

Makes 12

2 cups masa harina
1 ¼ cups water
Dash salt (optional)

In a mixing bowl, mix everything together with a fork, then with your hands to make a stiff dough. If you have a food processor, put everything into it, using the steel blade. Process until dough is very smooth. Divide into 12 equal balls. Roll each ball on an unfloured surface or between sheets of waxed paper, to 1/8 inch thick, 6 inches across. Trim edges with a knife or scissors. Heat an ungreased griddle to 450 degrees. Cook tortillas one at a time for 2 to 3 minutes on each side. Stack as they are finished and then wrap in plastic or store in a plastic bag.

The Good Old Days

I think every older generation has said to the younger, "Things were much better when I was young." The young (including me when I was) roll their eyes and chalk it up to old age. Well, this time I think it may really be true.

I was born in April, 1944, just as the Second World War was coming to an end. I was born in a hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota and brought home to a large, Victorian, red brick house on the corner of Olsen Highway (Hwy. 55) and Russell Avenue. The house has been gone for a long time, but back then it was the Queen of the block. It stood on a hill and besides being red--a standout color--it had a turret that towered over the smaller, more modest homes on the block. It had been purchased by my parents and turned into four apartments. Ours was on the main floor and the biggest--housing my mother, a homemaker who had left her teaching job when she was married in 1939; my father, a mechanical engineer for Honeywell and my three-year-old brother, Billy.

We lived in that house until I was four and I still have vivid memories of it. I can picture the interior precisely--and share this ability with my brother (my only sibling). My parents called me a few years ago because they were having a disagreement over what the kitchen table looked like in that house. Somehow, they knew I would remember--and I did. (It was a wooden, drop-leaf table with a Pennsylvania Dutch tulip design painted on one of the leaves). I also remember the neighborhood--and the neighbors. Across the street was a family with whom we became very good friends. And at the end of the street another family made a trio of us who socialized and were close. Those of us who are still alive keep in touch.

All the memories I have about that time were happy ones--making leaf houses in the fall, taking a penny down to the corner store and buying candy lipstick or wax coke bottles filled with sweet syrup, shopping with Mom at a small, family-owned grocery store on Lyndale Avenue, attending church every Sunday at Calvary Methodist Church. But the most potent memories center around food.

Mom was a great cook. She grew up in North Mankato, MN and belonged to 4-H and Campfire Girls. In those days, those organizations really taught young people skills. Consider her times--The Great Depression--people needed to know how to cook, sew, raise livestock and can and preserve the produce from their gardens. She did. When she was sixteen she won a blue ribbon at the county fair for her white bread. This qualified for a week's trip to the State Fair in St. Paul, all expenses paid. It was the highlight of her young life and she delighted in telling us the stories of that wonderful week. Once, about twelve years ago, she and my Dad were at the state fair, looking at displays under the stadium. Mom looked up and said, "Burdette, look at that!" It was a picture of my mom, age 16, (1926) posing in her white apron and cap with a beautiful loaf of bread. She hadn't ever seen the picture before. The fair people were very gracious in giving her that picture, which I own today.

When I tell people that I began cooking at age three, they tend not to completely believe me. But I really did. My mom doted on my girl-ness. She had three brothers, her mother had been the only girl of 6 children, most of her cousins were boys--as they wheeled her out of the delivery room after 36 hours of labor in the transverse position birth of my brother, she told my grandmother, "I supposed all my babies will be boys". In our family, being a girl was the most desirable. Many years later in a college Marriage and Family class, the subject of Gloria Steinem and Womens' Liberation was hot. I had a hard time digesting the idea that girls had been oppressed. For me, the opposite was true.

Well, back to the kitchen at age three. Mom would get me a step-stool and an apron and settle me right beside her at the counter. Anything she was baking (not other kinds of cooking), she would show me how to do. I had my own small dishes, pans and utensils. The one I remember best was my own small rolling pin. Pies and cookies were the the things we started with. She would show me how to mix my own dough and then tell me how to roll out and cut the cookies or the pie crust, always emphasizing not to handle the dough too much. I know that I didn't listen to that advice, at least not at first, because my doughs were dirty and tough. When mom would take her pie crust or cookies out of the oven and they were pretty and yummy; then mine, which were ugly and tough, I learned to listen.

New Diet

Well here it is again, a new year chock full of promise and those pesky resolutions. This year I’ve decided to center my good intentions on enjoying life, and that includes food. I’ve made my peace with the idea of cutting out whole categories of food in order to slim down and instead am onto the concept of slowing down, enjoying each mouthful of whatever I’m eating and stopping when I’ve reached satiety.

The Slow Down Diet by Marc David is a great guide for improved health and the enjoyment of food, which I consider even more important.

A quick review of the main points of this “diet” follows: The book is divided into an eight-week program to change your food habits for life. It is a week-by-week program to change your thinking about food rather than your actual food intake, and is about relaxation, enjoyment, awareness, rhythm, quality, thought, story and spirit.

I must admit, however, that even this non-restrictive “diet” requires frequent review and effort to become second nature. Our world is fast, stressful and runs counter to most of the tenets of this program, and so vigilance is necessary.

A good start is to cut portions. Tell yourself that you can eat whatever you want whenever you want and then take a small piece or serving, knowing you can have more if you want it. It really works.

Eat often. Take food with you when you are on your way to somewhere; keep food at your workplace; fix favorites and put them in the refrigerator to snack on whenever you feel the need. Make a list of your favorite healthy foods and make a point of having them at the ready.

Try to eat with someone whose company you really enjoy. Smile and laugh at mealtime and ban subjects which cause angst (politics, discipline, etc.).

One of the greatest discoveries I’ve made this year is that eating four meals every day is much better for me than three. That isn’t necessarily true for everyone, but it really works for me. I eat at 6:30 am, 11:30am, 3:30 pm and 6:30 pm. I’m not an evening eater (for one thing, I go to bed too early), but I always seem to be ravenous about 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Another discovery is that chocolate is one of the great foods for health (really)! So the 3:30 meal is usually chocolate. That way I have no need to eat desserts at other times; but on the occasion that I do indulge, I can change the afternoon meal to something else. Never allow yourself to feel deprived.

Have you noticed the trend of restaurants to offer half portions? I love it. Now, when I go somewhere where everything on the menu appeals to me, I can order a half entrée and then an appetizer or dessert as well and not go home with lots of Styrofoam boxes which usually end up in the garbage. Splitting is not as satisfactory since you and your companions may not agree on what to have and one is always a bit hesitant to ask the server to split entrées.

In keeping with the idea of eating quality and chocolate—best together—here is a really wonderful, healthy, relaxing recipe from Bon Appetit for February 2009.

Soft Chocolate Cookies with Grapefruit and Star Anise

Makes 40

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
¼ cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, diced
1 tsp. plus ¼ cup sugar
3 whole star anise
¼ cup flour
1 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
½ tsp. coarse kosher salt
¼ tsp. baking powder
2 large eggs
2 Tbsp. honey
2 tsp. finely grated grapefruit peel

Combine chocolate and butter in medium microwave-safe bowl. Microwave in 10-second intervals until chocolate is almost melted; remove and stir until melted and smooth. Finely grind 1 teaspoon sugar and 3 star anise in spice mill or small coffee grinder. Transfer to small bowl; whisk in flour, cocoa, coarse salt, and baking powder. Beat remaining ¼ cup sugar, eggs, honey and grapefruit peel in large bowl until thick and smooth. Fold in chocolate, then dry ingredients. Cover bowl; chill batter until cold and firm, at least 45 minutes and up to 1 day. Preheat oven to 375. Line 3 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Drop batter by tablespoonfuls onto prepared sheets, spacing mounds 2 inches apart. Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until dry-looking and tester comes out with moist crumbs still attached, about 10 minutes. Cool on sheet 3 minutes, then transfer to racks and cool completely.

Homemade Pasta

Homemade pasta is definitely not quick and easy; it is not greatly economical and it doesn’t necessarily taste a lot better than dried, commercial products; but—it is a lot of fun to make. And if it is done right, it really can taste better. Besides, you control everything that goes into it, impress your friends and family and feel really creative in the process.

I have owned a pasta machine for years and it has sat in its box in my storage room for all that time, mainly because I had it in my mind that it was a long and complicated process to use it; the instruction booklet alone was about 25 pages long. When I’ve made pasta, I’ve used the attachment to my Kitchen Aid mixer. My Kitchen Aid conked out in the middle of making pasta to write about in this column and I decided to get the pasta machine out. I had to laugh at myself; the instruction booklet that came with it was so thick because it was written in 6 languages. The actual English directions were so easy they took up less than one page—the rest was instructions and recipes in all six languages. A bonus: the results were better and the process was easier than the Kitchen Aid, although I will still use my new mixer (yes, I had to replace it) for some shapes of pasta that the machine doesn’t make.

I looked up several recipes for pasta dough and checked the instruction booklet recipe as well and after some trial and error I came up with this recipe:

3 ½ cups unbleached white flour
4 eggs, room temperature
1 Tbsp. olive oil
½ cup water

If using a mixer, break eggs into mixer bowl and beat to mix slightly. Add olive oil and ¼ cup water. With mixer on low speed, add flour until dough makes a ball and cleans the sides of the bowl. If dough is too dry and stays crumbly, add remaining water, one Tbsp. at a time until dough comes together. Take dough out and knead on lightly floured board until firm but pliable. Let rest wrapped in plastic wrap for 30 minutes. Proceed with making pasta according to shape and method.

I decided to make fettuccini, spaghetti and ravioli. The fettuccini and spaghetti were so easy that I just dried it a little while and froze it. Fresh pasta takes much less time to cook than totally dried, so I kept it nearly fresh. The ravioli was a bigger challenge, but turned out to be so delicious that I will really do this again.

All the great cuisines of the world (and the minor ones, as well) have some form of stuffed dough. Some, like Latvian Pirogi use a yeast dough wrapping; some use a short pastry, like Cornish pasties and empanadas, but many use a noodle dough like Chinese wontons and Italian ravioli. All were invented, I’m sure, to frugally use the scraps and bits of meats and vegetables or cheese or even sweet fruits that were on hand. Ravioli is such a dish.

I happened to have a lot of scraps of meats and so I made this filling—you can substitute or add anything you happen to have and think would taste good. I made my own sauce, too, although I guess a respectable sauce can be purchased at the store. Homemade sauce is easy; but it takes a long simmering, so you have to start it at the beginning of the pasta making.

Sauce:

1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
1 8-oz can tomato sauce
1 6-oz can tomato paste
3 cups water
½ cup dry red wine
¼ cup roasted sweet peppers
1 Tbsp. olive oil
½ medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 Tbsp. sugar
Salt and Pepper to taste
2 tsp. dried basil
½ tsp. dried oregano

Empty cans of tomatoes, sauce and paste into large saucepan. Add all the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil, stirring to mix ingredients. Turn heat to low and simmer for at least 3 hours, tasting from time to time and correcting seasoning according to taste.

Filling:

1 small chicken breast
3 ounces sausages or ham
1 ½ ounces hard salami
1 medium clove garlic
8 ounces ground beef
¼ cup fresh parsley
½ cup (packed) fresh spinach
2 large eggs
¼ tsp. salt

Wash:

1 large egg yolk
1 tsp. milk

Put all ingredients (except wash ingredients) in food processor or through meat grinder and process until consistency like sausage stuffing. Refrigerate, covered, until ready to use.

To make ravioli: Using pasta machine, put dough into rollers through number 7. Cut into 4” by 12” strips. Work with one strip at a time, keeping others covered by plastic wrap. If making by hand, roll out ¼ of the dough at a time to a thickness of 1/16th inch or less. Place 1 rounded teaspoonful of filling along one long edge of each strip at 2-inch intervals. Brush dough on long edge and between filling with wash. Fold dough over filling; press firmly between filling and along long edge to seal. Cut ravioli apart with fluted pastry wheel. Cook a quarter of the ravioli at a time in large pot of boiling salted water just until al dente, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove with slotted spoon draining well. Place about ½ cup sauce in bottom of casserole dish; put ravioli in one layer, then sauce, ravioli, etc. Heat in oven just until hot. Grate Parmesan cheese over top and pass more at the table. Serve.

Cocoa and Hot Chocolate with homemade marshmallows

When January brings in the New Year and its icy, silver landscape, I always think of cocoa as the ultimate comfort food. Whether you’re curled up in front of the fire covered with Grandma’s afghan and enjoying a good book—perhaps Whittier’s Snowbound—or stomping off the snow after the fun of skiing, sledding, skating or making snowmen, a cup of hot chocolate or cocoa with marshmallows floating on the rich bubbly surface is the epitome of comfort and decadence.

It’s also a drink that spans the child-adult chasm unlike hot toddies or even coffee. It’s a great transitional food between the holidays—still sinfully good but a little more on the nourishing side than the eggnogs and cookies and other overly rich foods we’ve been eating and drinking. Cocoa (or is it hot chocolate?) is both a nursery food and an après ski staple.

Hot chocolate or cocoa—do you know the difference? I wasn’t sure I did, exactly. We serve one or the other here at the Candlelight Inn as a morning hot beverage choice. I usually offer it verbally as cocoa and sometimes people answer back that they’ll take hot chocolate. So, of course, I set out to find the difference. It turns out that it’s too obvious—one is made exclusively with cocoa powder and the other with chocolate squares or chips.

Our daughter who is visiting from Boston and a chocolate lover eagerly agreed to help with a taste test. We made five recipes and rated them all—some were hot chocolate and some cocoa. I am including the two top winners and some delightful homemade marshmallows to serve with them. (Hint: they’re easy).

Breakfast Cocoa

6 Tbsp cocoa
6 Tbsp. sugar
Dash salt
½ cup water
3 ½ cups 2 % milk

Mix cocoa, sugar and salt; add water. Cook and stir 3 minutes. Stir in milk; heat to boiling point but do not boil. Beat with wire whip to froth right before serving. Makes 6 servings.

Variation: To total mixture, add 2 Tbsp. milk chocolate chips and 1 Tbsp. whipping cream.

Hot Chocolate

2 ½ 1-oz. squares unsweetened chocolate
½ cup hot water
2/3 cup sugar
Dash salt
½ tsp. vanilla (optional)
½ cup whipping cream, whipped

Heat chocolate and water over low heat, stirring until chocolate melts. Add sugar and salt and bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for 4 minutes. Add vanilla. Cool to room temperature. Fold in whipped cream and store in refrigerator. When ready to serve, place 2 heaping Tbsp. in each cup and fill with hot 2% milk. Stir well.

Marshmallows (Martha Stewart, dontcha know)

2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
1 ½ cups sugar
2/3 cup light corn syrup
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pure vanilla
Cooking spray

Coat a 12-by-17-inch rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray; line with parchment paper. Spray parchment; set aside. Pour 1/3 cup cold water into the bowl of an electric mixer. Sprinkle with gelatin; let mixture soften, about 5 minutes. Place sugar, corn syrup, salt and 1/3 cup water in a medium saucepan. Cover; bring to a boil. Remove lid; cook, swirling pan occasionally, until syrup reaches 238 degrees (soft-ball stage) on a candy thermometer, about 5 minutes. With mixer on low speed, whisk gelatin mixture, and slowly pour the syrup in a steady stream down the side of the bowl. Gradually raise speed to high; beat until mixture is thick, white and has almost tripled in volume, about 12 minutes. Add vanilla and beat 30 seconds to combine. Pour mixture onto prepared baking sheet; smooth with an offset spatula. Let stand at room temperature, uncovered, until firm, at least 3 hours or overnight. Coat a 1 or 2-inch snowflake-shaped cookie cutter with cooking spray to prevent it from sticking. Cut out as many individual marshmallows as possible; coat cutter with more spray as needed. Sift confectioner’s sugar over both surfaces of marshmallows. Use marshmallows immediately or store in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.

Other cutout shapes, like stars or snowmen would be fun as well and making this is a great activity for the family to do during Christmas vacation. Our guests at the inn were charmed by these floating on their hot chocolate/cocoa.

Bread Pudding

In France it’s called just “pudding” and in Belgium it’s known as “bodding,” but the British really began the tradition of using stale bread for a bread pudding
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All cultures seem to have some form of bread pudding. A comfort food for centuries, there are many ways to make it. Sometimes savory, more often sweet, it can be a main dish for supper, breakfast, brunch, a dessert or an item on your party buffet. My friend came back from a holiday party raving about the apple and cheese bread pudding cooked and served in a miniature crock pot. Delicious, she said.

I couldn’t resist. I looked on the internet and through many cookbooks looking for an apple-cheese bread pudding and came up with a few. I didn’t find any that were meant to be cooked and/or served in a crock pot, but I figured bread puddings should adapt to that appliance beautifully. Here are the winners of my very tasty and comforting foray into a lovely dish which we often serve at the Candlelight Inn Bed and Breakfast.

Apple Cheddar Bread Pudding (adapted from Food Network.com)

I made this in both individual ramekins and in a larger soufflé dish. The ramekins can be frozen after baking and brought out for the number of people you are serving. The ramekins can be placed in a larger baking pan lined with a kitchen towel. Pour hot water to come up halfway and bake for 45 minutes at 325 degrees or until thoroughly hot. Uncover and top with a small amount of grated cheddar. Put foil tops back on and turn oven off. Leave for 10 minutes before serving.

5 or 6 slices of whole-wheat bread
¼ cup brown sugar (packed)
½ tsp. cinnamon
1 cup grated sharp Cheddar cheese
2 large tart and crisp apples or 1 apple and 1 ripe pear, cored, peeled and diced
3 large eggs
1/3 cup white sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 can (12-oz) evaporated milk

Preheat oven to 325. Coat 2-quart soufflé dish or 8 individual ramekins with cooking spray. Trim crusts from bread and cut each slice to fit bottoms of ramekins or to fit into soufflé dish bottom. Fill with any leftover bread. Coat top of bread with cooking spray, then sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon. Scatter cheese over bread and top with fruit. Whisk together the eggs, sugar and vanilla until blended. Whisk in milk. Pour mixture evenly over other ingredients. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Serve warm or cold, plain or with a dessert sauce.

Crock Pot Apple and Cheese Bread Pudding

1 cup brown sugar
½ cup water
Cooking spray
6 slices French bread, Italian bread, or any firm bread, toasted and cubed
½ cup golden raisins
1 thinly sliced, peeled apple
¼ cup melted butter
2 large eggs
1 ½ cups milk
½ tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. nutmeg
1 cup grated Cheddar cheese

In small saucepan, combine sugar and water and boil over medium-high heat until thick and syrupy, about 5 minutes; set aside. Spray interior of small crock pot with cooking spray. Layer half of the bread cubes in bottom of crock pot, add half the syrup, raisins and apples; repeat with remaining cubes, syrup, raisins and apples. In mixing bowl, combine butter, eggs, milk, cinnamon and nutmeg. Pour over bread mixture. Cook on low setting for 3 hours. Lift cover and sprinkle with cheese; replace cover and watch until cheese is melted. Serve from crock.

Here is a dish that would really make a good impression at a brunch. Bread puddings are perfect for buffet service, as they hold heat well and are also good at room temperature with a heated sauce. Here the apple-cheese theme is carried out with the apples served separately.

Cheese Bread Pudding with Caramelized Apples

2 cups stale bread, cubed
½ pound Cheddar cheese, shredded
1 ½ cups whole milk
3 eggs, beaten
3 Tbsp melted butter
½ tsp. salt

2 medium apples, cored, peeled and sliced thickly
¼ cup butter
½ cup brown sugar (packed)

Butter a 1 ½ quart baking dish. Layer half the bread cubes in the dish. Sprinkle with half the cheese. Repeat with remaining bread cubes and cheese. Beat remaining ingredients together and pour over bread and cheese. Let stand one hour. Place baking dish in a 9” x 13” pan and pour water into pan to a depth of one inch. Place pan in preheated 350 degree oven and bake one hour. Meanwhile, saute apples in butter. Sprinkle brown sugar over apples in skillet and continue to saute until apples are tender and caramelized. Serve on the side of Cheese Bread Pudding