Wonderland

Manly
Originally uploaded by etjarrell

Here's a picture of Frenchie throwing wood in my mother's backyard. Merry Christmas.

Frenchie and I actually arrived in Portland very early Tuesday morning despite the countries travel troubles! I have never felt so lucky. All weekend I had been worried about our trip and sure that we were going to get stuck in an airport somewhere. I was actually more afraid of being stuck somewhere than not getting to Portland at all. I definitely would have picked having the holidays alone in Boston over spending days in airports. We saw a lot of people sleeping in the airport and heard some crazy traveling stories.

The reason for all this trouble was of course the Winter Wonderland that is occurring on the West Coast right now. They had 2 feet of snow in Portland which NEVER happens. There is no snow plan here and it is very hilly so getting around is tough. We are going to brave the weather tonight for our families annual Christmas Eve dinner at Hunan's Chinese restaurant. This has been a family tradition for who knows how long on my mother's side of the family.

What are your Christmas traditions?

My Day

Today I:

- Bought a 12 pack of Classic Pate Friskies cat food
- Went to see Four Christmas's alone. I was the only person in the theater!
- Ate primarily chocolate and potatoes
- Saw an entire buttcrack of a Best Buy employee
- Got hit on by a "car" guy at Auto Zone. "You gonna change that oil yourself?"
- Got full service at the gas station (screw you Boston, I'm not pumping my own gas!)
- Moved my blog!! I am now going to post at startinginthebasement.wordpress.com

Sorry about the change but wordpress is about 8000 times easier to use than blogger. Sorry blogger. I also apologize if there are a million change daily on the new site because I'm still figuring it out.

Why Mars and Venus Collide

If you are in a relationship I suggest you read this book. I got it from the library but I think I might buy it so I can read again and again (as needed).

John Gray goes through how men and women react differently to stress and how that affects relationships. That part is interesting with a lot of "I TOTALLY agree with that!" moments but the best part is that he gives you actual solutions and tips on what to do. I've already put a couple of these tips into action and it has totally worked!

Needing a partner is not a weakness. It is why we partner up. Men and women just have different primary needs. Men need to feel needed, and women need to feel they are not alone. Just as a woman is happiest when she feels she is getting what she needs from her partner, a man is happiest when he feels successful in meeting his partner's needs. This is an important distinction. We certainly need each other, but for different reasons.

The book is called, "Why Mars and Venus Collide: Improving Relationships by Understanding How Men and Women React Differently to Stress" by John Gray. Seriously, you need this book.

Why do cupcakes always look so yummy?

Cupcakes in ramekins
Originally uploaded by etjarrell

But sometimes don't taste that great? I made pumpkin muffins with honey cream cheese frosting. They taste okay but I think I need a different recipe for the muffins. These were a little weird but the frosting is good and I had fun decorating them!

Cheesy Onion Cornbread

I think I managed to make the most unhealthy cornbread yesterday. Sometimes you just need some greasy bread to go with your healthy chili though, you know? I modified this recipe from simplyrecipes.com.

Cheesy Onion Cornbread

1 cup minus 1 tablespoon cornmeal
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
3 tablespoons melted butter
1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese
3/4 cups cooked corn, either frozen or from a can
1/2 cup chopped onion (red or white)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 9x9 pan (or cast iron skillet if you have one, which I don't) with a generous amount of butter for extra crispiness and saturated fat

Mix together dry ingredients

Add remaining ingredients and mix until all dry ingredients are incorporated. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown. Cut into 9 pieces and serve warm or room temperature. Just try to eat only one piece. You can't do it.

Like the Corner of My Mind

Last night I went to Frenchie's lab Christmas party. I used to be a member of this lab so I am very familiar with how these parties work. Boss buys lots of booze. Scientists drink booze. Scientists play some bad pool. Boss buys lots more booze. Scientists do some crazy dancing.

My memories of these parties were not only of the good times at the party but a Saturday in bed recovering from the never-ending flow of free alcohol. This year was no different! I spent all day before the party trying to figure out how I was going to keep myself from feeling like crap on Saturday and went in armed. However, as soon as I arrived I was a little nervous because I didn't know very many people and was not really looking forward to having to explain my job situation...so I downed 3 beers and ate no food. Classic. By the time we got to the bar my good intentions were out the window and I think a couple shots of tequila were in. Oops!

The party was a lot of fun and I got to talk to people! It didn't even matter who they were, although of course I enjoyed every single one of them, I was just so excited to talk to people. Even strangers, which is usually not my thing. Oh, and also the freakin' most adorable baby ever was there and I got to entertain her while her parents played pool. Frenchie gave me the "don't get any ideas" look while I happily bounced the baby. After almost 11 hours of drinking and dancing, it was time to go home.

Frenchie always thinks it is a little weird that I like visiting him in the lab and going to his functions but it is entirely to boost my ego. See, people there love me, or at least they act like they do. I am always met with lovely compliments and smiles when I go, so why would I not enjoy it? Plus I feel SOOO comfortable around science types. Maybe because my dad was a scientist so I grew up in that environment but I really feel like I can be myself. Not always true around lawyers. I often feel like I'm trying too hard when around lawyers and end up with that not so good feeling the next day. Like maybe I said or did something inappropriate. Hopefully that will change with time and spending more time in the legal world. If that ever happens.

New name

I'm thinking of changing the name of my blog to something more catchy and perhaps related to cooking. But I don't want it to be only a cooking blog. Arg. Decisions are hard!

Any catchy ideas?

Hazelnut Tea Cookies and Chocolate Snowflake Cookies

The last two recipes from my baking frenzy. I took both of these to my last French class yesterday and people went NUTS over the hazelnut cookies. I mean, absolutely insane!! Especially crazy P, the Franco-filly, who asked me if I made them from a box. A box? My people do not make no cookies from a box lady!! I got the hazelnuts from my grandparents farm, roasted them myself, pureed them with the kitchenaid resulting in a thin layer of hazelnut dust all over the kitchen (don't tell Frenchie). There were NO boxes involved!! (no offense if you make cookies from a box, I'm sure they are wonderful, just not my thing)

Hazelnut Tea Cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon table salt
2 sticks butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar, plus additional for coating
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups hazelnuts, toasted and finely chopped

Directions
Heat oven to 325 degrees F and arrange racks in upper and lower third. Combine flour and salt in a medium bowl and whisk until aerated and evenly combined; set aside.

Place butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add sugar and vanilla and continue to mix until whipped and light, about 2 more minutes.

Add half of the nuts and mix until evenly incorporated and nuts are broken up, about 1 minute. Add flour and mix until well combined, about 1 minute. Remove bowl from mixer and stir in remaining nuts.

Shape dough into 1 tablespoon balls and place on baking sheets, spaced at least 1 inch apart. Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until underside of cookies are brown, about 25 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool 5 minutes on baking sheets.

Meanwhile, place some powdered sugar in a medium bowl. Once the cookies have cooled, roll them in the powdered sugar until just coated and tap off excess. Let cool completely and recoat in powdered sugar, tapping off excess sugar, before serving. Makes about 45 cookies.

I happen to love the Chocolate Snowflake Cookies more and these are made in our house every year. However, last year there was an unfortunate mishap that have soured these cookies a bit. I slaved over these in the midst of finals last Christmas to bring to a holiday party at the icebox. I made them and prepared a plate covered in foil and left it on the counter while I went to class. In the evening I grabbed the plate and ran out of the house for the party. I took the foil off and the first layer of cookies were fine and people raved. Apparently though, when the second layer was revealed it was infested with ants!!! The hosts were incredibly cool about this and did not make a big deal and dumped the cookies but I was still mortified!! It still makes me cringe.

So, if you have an ant problem, please wrap these cookies well because those little guys love the powdered sugar! The dough needs to be chilled so make it ahead of time.

Chocolate Snowflake Cookies

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 (1 ounce) unsweetened chocolate squares
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sifted powdered sugar

Directions

Mix oil and chocolate in microwave proof bowl and melt in the microwave about 2 minutes, checking often and stirring. Add the sugar and beat until blended. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.

Add about one-fourth of dry mixture at a time to chocolate mixture, beating after each addition.

Cover and let chill at least 2 hours.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls, and roll in powdered sugar

Place cookies 2 inches apart on parchment lined cookie sheets

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. The cookies will still be soft when you take them out.

Try not to burn your tongue when you stuff one immediately in your mouth. Enjoy!

Chocolate Panaforte Candies

I made these candies for Frenchie. They are chocolate on the bottom with a fig, hazelnut and orange topping. This is not my favorite type of candy because I'm not a big nut fan, but they made Frenchie really happy and impressed. Don't worry about me. I have a tray full of meringues to eat.

Guess where I got the recipe? December's Bon Appetit magazine of course.

What are your favorite Christmas recipes? Or what have you been hoping to try?

Meringue mountains

I always assumed that making meringue candies would be difficult but it really wasn't! This is definitely a new favorite. I probably didn't make these before because you kind of need a stand mixer. I mixed them for about 10 minutes total so you're hand would get tired with a hand mixer. I stole this recipe from food network 12 days of cookies but changed the name and wrote it myself. Is that a copyright violation? Abra?

Chocolate Dipped Meringues

4 egg whites, room temp
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar (the recipe said to use superfine sugar but I couldn't find that so I used regular sugar and it was fine)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix egg whites on medium until frothy. Add cream of tartar and mix until combined. Slowly add the sugar and vanilla while beating. Once all sugar is added, turn speed up to medium high and mix for about 6 minutes. The meringue will be firm and shiny and look like heaven!

If you have a pastry bag and tips you can make pretty little snowpeaks, but I don't have that kind of fancy stuff so I put the meringue in a ziploc bag, cut a tip out of the bottom and squeezed it out into ugly snowpeaks while getting meringue EVERYWHERE. In my hair, all over my shirt, all over the counter. Actually, that's what happens whenever I cook but meringue is a little stickier than most things.

Bake in a 225 degree oven for 1 hour and then turn off oven and leave them overnight.

Meringues in the oven


To dip in chocolate, melt a cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips in the microwave or over a double boiler and dip each snowpeak in the chocolate. If you want, crush some candy cane and have some sprinkles ready and dip in there after the chocolate. Place on wax paper to dry. Store in airtight container (not in the fridge). Be super impressed that you made these pretty meringues.

I tried to make this one below look like the ones you get in a Parisian boulangerie. I've got a ways to go.

Help others

Hangry Pants blog is giving 5 cents to buy food for the Rhode Island Community Food Bank for every comment on this post.

Baking Fever

Pear Hazelnut Crumble with Crystallized Ginger

I bought some Bartlett pears at Russo's last weekend and needed to use them. What better occasion than a Friday night to celebrate my husband's legal status in this country? I combined a couple Bon Appetit recipes for this Pear Hazelnut Crumble with Crystallized Ginger. It turned out delish. It is not super sweet so add more sugar to the pears if they are tart or you like your desserts a little sweeter.

Crumble

1/2 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup hazelnuts, toasted and husked
5 tablespoons (packed) dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, but into pieces
pinch of salt

Filling
4 firm but ripe pears, peeled, cored and cut into pieces
Juice from one lemon
Zest from one lemon
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons minced crystallized ginger (skip if wanted but don't add ground ginger)
1 tablespoon flour

Process all the ingredients for the crumble topping in a food processor until clumps form.

Mix together all ingredients for the pear filling and place in a buttered 9x9 glass baking dish. Cover the pears with the crumble topping. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes until the pears are bubbly and the topping is a little browned. Serve warm with lightly whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Save the Last Dance

Frenchie and I have been taking a dance class at the Brookline Adult Education center called Club Latin. Apparently this was to prepare us for dancing in a salsa club so on the last class a few of us headed over to Ryles Dance Club for their latin night. I thought this would be a fun opportunity to dress up a little bit, out of my usual lounge pants you know. I put on a cute skirt and tights and we headed out.

You know that feeling when you walk into a room and everybody is wearing jeans and you are wearing a frilly skirt? At that moment you feel like, well, the only person wearing a skirt in a room full of jeans. EVERY female in the club was wearing tight jeans, a slutty shirt and strappy sandals. I am not even exaggerating. OK, one woman was wearing a dress but she was about 65. Umm, maybe the dress code could have been part of the curriculum of the Club Latin dance class?

Normally I am not very concerned with my clothing and "fitting in" but since I was already self conscious about our horrible dancing, having COMPLETELY the wrong outfit did not help. These dancers were amazing and we looked like, well, beginners. By the last dance I did finally chill out and just have fun but that required me to not look down at my outfit at all during the night.

Ugg, brought back horrible memories of pre-teen years when I was a foot taller than everybody in my class and Tiffany Berger made fun of my side ponytail.

Frenchie gets to vote in the next election

Frenchie and I had our interview for the green card today, which, incidentally, is not green but actually pink. I was hoping it would be exciting so I would have a good blogging subject today but it was actually quite boring and easy! Better for us, not so good for my blog. The "adjudication officer" asked us for some evidence to show that our marriage is genuine. After we gave her insurance stuff and bank account information she said, "I'm satisfied," so we held off on the pictures documenting our five years of love. That woman was missing out! Then she made Frenchie promise he's not a terrorist or prostitute. We were approved immediately! Thank goodness we don't have to fill out any more paperwork! Frenchie is allergic to forms.

The waiting room was much more interesting. Many of the other people in the room had attorneys with them so it was interesting to see them at work. For example, one couple came out of the interview area, sat down with their attorney and handed him a GIANT wad of cash. They were being discrete but luckily I looked over at just the right time. That was one happy old attorney. At that moment I decided I wanted to be an immigration attorney.

Seriously though, I think it would be really cool to work in immigration. The process is SOOO confusing, even for me, so I can't imagine being a non-English speaker and trying to navigate the system. Plus, this might be coming from nothing, but I got the idea while eavesdropping on other people's interview experiences that ours was much easier. I can't help but wonder if it is easier for people with a certain education level or from certain countries to become residents and citizens of the United States. OK, I guess I'm not really wondering, I'm pretty positive this is going on and I would love to fight that prejudice.

Giveaways!

Win a FLIP camera from Common Sense With Money.

Yummmmmmmmmmmmm Sauce

Some of you know about it, some of you probably think that I'm crazy to be this obsessed with a sauce, others are allergic to nuts and can't enjoy (sorry Marie!). Cafe Yumm is a restaurant that was started in Eugene and is spreading across Oregon. Their signature dish is the Yumm bowl which is rice, beans, some other stuff and YUMM SAUCE. I was pretty convinced that this sauce had crack in it because it is totally addictive. While I was in law school in Eugene I would crave Yumm bowls and went there at least twice a week. Usually more. I found the recipe online, probably stolen by an employee, but it doesn't mention crack as an ingredient. Strange...

After what was hopefully my last turkey lunch (SO sick of turkey!), I trekked to Whole Paycheck to find almond flour and nutritional yeast. It turns out both of these ingredients are insanely expensive so I decided to splurge only on the nutritional yeast (I know, it sounds gross but it is essential to the sauce) and use some slivered almonds I had instead of almond flour. Here is the recipe I used.

YUMMM SAUCE
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup almonds (for a creamier sauce use almond flour)
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 cup chickpeas or garbanzo beans
1/4 cup soybeans, cooked (from a can, not edamame)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup lemon juice
1-2 garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried cilantro

Directions:
Blend everything together in a food processor or blender. Cover and let sit in refrigerator overnight (or a couple hours if you can't wait). Don't cover too tightly because it may expand with the yeast.

I made it last night and then realized this morning that I totally forgot to add the oil. Strange because I usually look forward to adding the fat to any recipe, so I had to put everything back in the blender to add some oil.

and...THE VERDICT IS IN. It smells and tastes like Yumm sauce! There is something a little off, maybe the texture with the almonds instead of the almond flour? But wow. Totally brought me back to the good 'ol days.

This sauce is great with rice and beans, chili, vegetables, salad dressing, and basically on everything!

Meyer Lemon Cranberry Scone

Meyer Lemon Cranberry Scone
Originally uploaded by etjarrell

Meyer Lemon Cranberry Scones

2 tablespoons freshly grated lemon zest (from about 3 lemons; preferably Meyer)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar plus 3 tablespoons additional if using fresh cranberries
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
1 1/4 cups fresh cranberries, chopped coarse, or 1 1/4 cups dried cranberries or dried cherries
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup heavy cream (I used milk)

Preheat oven to 400°F. and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

With a vegetable peeler remove the zest from lemons and chop fine, reserving lemons for another use.

In a food processor pulse flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, salt, butter and zest until mixture resembles coarse meal and transfer to a large bowl.

In a small bowl toss together fresh cranberries and 3 tablespoons sugar and stir into flour mixture. If using dried fruit, add to flour mixture.

In another small bowl lightly beat egg and yolk and stir in cream. Add egg mixture to flour mixture and stir until just combined.

On a well-floured surface with floured hands pat dough into a 1-inch-thick round (about 8 inches in diameter) and with a 2-inch round cutter or rim of a glass dipped in flour cut out as many rounds as possible, rerolling scraps as necessary. Arrange rounds about 1 inch apart on baking sheet and bake in middle of oven 15 to 20 minutes, or until pale golden.

Serve scones warm with crème fraîche or whipped cream. Scones keep, individually wrapped in plastic wrap and foil, chilled, 1 day or frozen 1 week.

My first attempt at scone making. It was sort of a disaster, especially since I did it before having any coffee.

Note to self. Do not bake before coffee.

The cranberry's I had were frozen so I tried defrosting them with water. This made them all mushy and difficult to cut. The mushiness in turn made the dough super wet so I had to keep adding flour. Until I ran out of flour (probably for the best) and just plopped the sticky mess onto the cookie sheet. And they turned out OK! Not wonderful, but definitely edible, especially if warmed up a little.

Franco-filly

I have to vent about my French class a little. We had a makeup class this week so I had class Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. It's like I was in France this week! Ok, maybe not, but it was a lot of crazy French teacher. Our teacher is pretty nice but not such a great teacher. She doesn't speak any English so she asks us to do things in French but we have no idea what she is asking so she just keeps repeating herself. Lady, you can repeat that sentence 57 times and I'm still not going to know what you are saying! Eventually she'll just give up and ask something else or do some pointing. She gets obsessed with certain things, like teaching us the difference between types of kisses and pointing to her tongue to explain, what we call, French kisses. Gross!

Besides the weird teacher, one of the students is equally strange. I'll call her P. I told her near the beginning of the course that I was married to a French man and she started to get excited and suggested he give her private lessons. Ok, that's a little weird, but whatever. Then a couple weeks ago we went to an open house at the French Library and P was there. I introduced P and Frenchie and she got very excited and talked to him the whole time, asking him many things about France and French movies. This was a little strange but she is obviously a Francophile and kind of socially weird so didn't think much of it.

Yesterday, though, she took it a little further. Two of us in class are married and the two others are single so we were talking about our statuses and all of the sudden, P says, "I'm waiting for Emily to divorce her husband so I can marry him." Huh? Seriously lady? I mean, she sort of laughed while she said this but isn't that a totally inappropriate thing to say? Then, today after class P wanted to go out for coffee so, seeing as I had nothing else to do, I joined her. Twice in our conversation she said she wanted to marry Frenchie. I had no idea how to respond to this so I just sort of ignored it. What would you have said? I mean, I barely know this woman and she keeps saying she wants me to get divorced and steal my husband. I spent the whole conversation trying to think of something witty and equally as weird to say to her to "get her back." But, as usual during these opportunities in life, my mind went blank. We have two more classes so if you have any suggestions let me know.

Our tiny Christmas tree

Our tiny Christmas tree
Originally uploaded by etjarrell

We found a Christmas tree in a pot at Russo's. We wrapped the bottom in a cape that Frenchie had. Yes, he owns a cape, you have a problem with that?

The tree is a Dwarf Alberta Spruce which we unfortunately found out later will not survive inside for long. So we will be rotating it outside periodically because it would be really sad if it died! Although it will probably die anyway because I have that effect on plants. Unlike the rest of my family, I was born without the green thumb.