Winter food and flowers.

Last night the women’s book group of my parish met at my house to discuss Summer Lightning by Wodehouse, and The Holy Angels by Mother Alexandra. I cooked up two pots of soup, and the other women brought rustic loaves of bread and salad and dessert.

Long ago I had got the idea of Cuban Black Beans from the Laurel’s Kitchen cookbook, and devised a soup with the same name to eat in winter, when the fresh and raw veggies the book’s authors suggested for a topping weren’t available from the garden out back. Now in the era of internet recipes, I discovered several recipes for the soup, and they used a sofrito, added in the last stage of cooking, made up of the peppers, garlic and onion sauteed with olive oil and bacon, topped off with vinegar and spices. This is what my sofrito looked like:

The beans in this case are cooked with ham hocks at the beginning, so it ends up a meaty and flavorful bowl for a winter’s evening. Mine was just the amount of spicy I wanted, but I’m not sure I could replicate that next time, if there is a next time. I had printed out three recipes from online, and concocted a unique stew, using parts of all of them and my old recipe, too. It took two pounds of beans, and I had plenty to send home with a few guests, as well as to put in the freezer. Because we also had Florentine Spinach Soup, which I have posted about before. Overall the women liked the soups very much.

Thanks to our member who enjoys coming up with appropriately themed foods for our meetings, we ate angel food cake last night as well! I hadn’t read the Jeeves book that was discussed, but I did read The Holy Angels, and I plan to share a bit about that soon. We all thought it was a treasure.

This morning I actually took my walk before breakfast — that mostly because I ate breakfast so late. Now that I’m putting a high priority on walking, I need to keep re-setting it at the top of my mental list, so I don’t forget. One of these days I’m sure I will forget, and then (note to self) I’ll need to take a quick spin around the block in the dark, just before bed. I wonder if this is one of those behaviors that becomes a habit if you do it every day for three weeks?

I worked some more on Psalm 89 as I walked, and the beauty of its poetry did not distract me from the startling sights along the way, whose images I have shared here. One line from the Psalm:

So make Thy right hand known to me,
And to them that in their heart
Are instructed in wisdom.

Amen.

Between the temple and the kitchen.

For the last week or so, I’ve been spending a lot of time in the kitchen, and an equal amount in church. It was quite the experience to attend Divine Liturgy three days in a row: First for Sunday, the usual Resurrectional Liturgy — though the cathedral had been so brightly decorated on Saturday, it was far from the usual visually. Plus, at the end of the service the choir sang several carols with great zest. We returned for a short Festal Matins in the evening, and sang the glorious “God is With Us!”

Then Monday, which was Christmas, the Nativity of Christ, and the church was full again, with lots of families with babies. My baby goddaughter has had stranger anxiety for several months but that morning she was okay with me carrying her up for Communion, after which I toted her around for a while and showed her off to everyone.

Today is the Synaxarion of the Mother of God, she who was so essential to the event we celebrated yesterday. Of course, the church was not as full of people as on Christmas Eve and Day, but it was surprising how many of us came back for more of the rich spiritual feast — and there was certainly more than we could take in, more than enough to fill our cups to the brim, with a holy elixir.

Cranberry Jellies

My cookie tins have been filled to their brims, too, with more worldly contents, and then partially emptied as I give them for gifts, and then filled again. I made several kinds of cookies before the First Day of Christmas, and I am continuing now on the Second Day, and have plans for a few more, days and flavors.

Salty Licorice Brownie Cookies

I have friends who will be celebrating according to the old calendar, which means they won’t have Christmas until January 7th, which means more opportunities for gifting cookies that I bake “late.”

So far I have made:

Cranberry Jellies
Apricot Macaroons
Ginger Spice Cookies
Salty Licorice Brownie Cookies
Chocolate Almond Macaroons
Fruity Meltaways
Rolled Gingerbread Cookies
Lemon Poppyseed Sandwich Cookies

 

The end of Christmas Dinner

And I’ve started on:

Flourless Mandarin Almond Cookie (my invention)

…and still plan to make:

Salted Anise Butter Cookies and
Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies

I’d like to replenish the supply of Ginger Spice Cookies, because the first batch I made with einkorn flour, and I didn’t know one needs to use more of that type than of regular wheat flour; the cookies came out flat flat flat. Still yummy, but they don’t present so nicely…

None of my own family were able to come spend Christmas with me this year, except for my grandson Pat and his wife who spent Saturday with me. But I have other guests for a month, a family with three children, and the children do not speak more than a few words of English. It’s surprising how little one needs to talk, to bake cookies together. I added the rolled gingerbread cut-out cookies to my list for their sake, and well, for my sake, too, because it’s a lot of fun to help them have fun.

Fruity Meltaways

So… today I boxed up some more cookies on Boxing Day, and put them out in the garage to stay cool. Tomorrow is St. Stephen’s Day, and if I weren’t ironing altar cloths (we are going back to gold now, after the Christmas red) I would consider driving to our sister parish where they will commemorate the first Christian martyr with another Divine Liturgy.

But, I will stick closer to home, and hopefully bake a few more cookies, and/or help the children to decorate the gingerbread with Royal Icing. And I will visit some dear church friends to share some Christmas cheer, which may or may not include — cookies!

Happy St. Stephen’s Day!

 

Lemon-Poppyseed Sandwich Cookies

My story from 2012, about the wonderful Glad cookie from that Christmas:

Last week I finished baking the last of the Christmas cookies. Encouraged by the happy eaters of the Lemon-Poppyseed Sandwich Cookies at previous holiday gatherings, this year I had made a double batch, and then ran out of time to complete more than half of them. The remaining dough and filling waited in the fridge until I got back some strength, and a plan for where to send the finished product so that I wouldn’t eat them all myself.

With so many young, even teen-aged, folk around here at Christmas, I expected to see the cookies go faster than they did. But never during the week of feasting did I spy anyone who might vie with me for the Cookie Monster title, and there are certainly no other contenders remaining in this house now. So when I found a willing person to be my delivery man, I sent them to Soldier and Joy.

The recipe (based on one not longer on the Epicurious site) starts with sugar cookies that are heavy with poppyseeds and two sources of lemon flavor, and finishes with the crunchy cookies enclosing an also lemony cream cheese filling.

At the epicurious.com site one can read comments from many readers detailing what happened when they tried the recipes, and the various changes that we daring cooks insist on making.

Most people who had made these cookies thought there should be more filling than planned for in the recipe as given, and I also ran out of filling at my first trial, so this year I doubled the cookie part, but tripled the filling. Not that it’s a problem to have leftovers of either. The cookies are wonderful by themselves, and the filling would be awfully nice spread on toast.

The majority of bakers also liked the cookies better after they had sat in the refrigerator and softened up, though the original recipe said to fill them not long before eating to keep the cookies crisp. I prefer them soft, as did most of the people I fed them to. They are good straight from the freezer, too, I found out!

Here is my version with the extra filling, and a couple of other changes, cut in half so that no one has to assemble 60+ cookies to find out if she likes them.

Lemon-Poppyseed Sandwich Cookies

COOKIES:

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 tablespoons poppy seeds
4 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract

FILLING:

12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon lemon extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

FOR COOKIES:

Mix flour, salt and baking powder in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until light. Gradually beat in sugar. Beat in egg, then poppy seeds, lemon peel and extracts. Mix in dry ingredients. Gather dough into ball, divide into two parts and flatten each into a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill at least 2 hours. If wrapped well, it will last in the refrigerator over a week.

Preheat oven to 325°F. Butter 2 large baking sheets. Roll out 1 dough disk on floured surface to 1/8-inch thickness. Using 2-inch-diameter cookie cutter, cut out cookies. Arrange cookies 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheets. Gather scraps; reroll and cut out more cookies.

Bake cookies until edges just begin to color, about 18 minutes. (If you use insulated sheets as I did they might take longer.) Cool cookies on sheets 3 minutes, then transfer to racks and cool completely. Repeat rolling, cutting and baking with remaining dough. (Can be made ahead. Store in airtight container at room temperature up to 2 weeks or freeze up to 1 month.)

FOR FILLING:

Beat all ingredients in large bowl until light and fluffy. Spread 2 teaspoons filling over bottom of 1 cookie. Press second cookie, bottom side down, onto filling. Repeat with remaining cookies and filling. (Can be made ahead. Cover and chill.)

Some of the cookies in this later batch are a bit wrinkly, a result of the dough having dried out a little. I did add a few drops of water when I re-rolled the scraps and that helped them look better. But the wrinkly cookies were otherwise fine.

After my last post featuring a photo of lemons, Jody asked how I like to use these fruits. I consider myself a good person to ask, because my father raised not only oranges but lemons, and until a few years ago when someone very stupid — yes, I mean it — took out the two large trees that remained from ten acres of lemon grove, I used to have as many lemons as I wanted for free.

Lately I’ve been using a lot of lemons just to add the juice to hot water for drinking on cold days. But of more elaborate recipes, some that I’ve loved over the years are Lemon Curd, Greek Egg-Lemon Soup, Lemon Chicken, and Lemon Pudding Cake. And now — Lemon-Poppyseed Sandwich Cookies!

When winter is coming on: Comfort Soup

Last week I made Comfort Soup with lamb instead of beef. I couldn’t find the written recipe fast enough, so I gave up and made a version from memory. And I see, now that I found the recipe, that I had forgotten one of the few ingredients. But the lamb made it superb nonetheless.

This morning I looked here to see if I had ever posted the recipe for this soup that was a mainstay of our menus from the beginning of our family. Though I had mentioned twice the eating of it, it appears I never shared the recipe itself, which I had clipped from Mademoiselle magazine when in high school, and saved in the three-ring binder that I used for all those ideas I hoped to use “someday.”

More than any other product of our kitchen, this recipe was requested by friends to whom we served it, and many of them mention it years later, telling how they continue to make it in their own homes. I wish I had the original magazine clipping, but I think it was becoming unreadable, at which point — I don’t want to say how long ago, because it’s mind-boggling — my oldest, Pearl, wrote out our family’s most recent adaptation, which you can see in the picture. But this is the original:

COMFORT SOUP

1 quart chicken stock
2 boxes frozen chopped spinach
1 # lean ground beef
2/3 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg
ground black pepper

In a soup pot heat chicken stock and add spinach, frozen or thawed. Heat to a simmer (this will take longer if you are defrosting the spinach at the same time) while you make tiny meatballs (about ¾” in diameter) from the ground beef, cheese, and a dash of ground black pepper (which you have first mixed together). When the broth is simmering and the spinach is defrosted, add the meatballs and simmer for 10-15 minutes.  Lightly beat the egg and swirl it around in the soup. Serve.

Serves 2-4. Good with French bread.

I don’t see spinach frozen in boxes anymore. The other day I made my lamb version with a pound of frozen chopped spinach and about a pound and a half of ground lamb. I forgot the egg altogether, and didn’t measure the Parmesan cheese. In the past I have made it with (a lot of!) fresh spinach. It’s very adaptable.

Just now I searched online for Comfort Soup to see if anyone else in the world had used that recipe from the 60’s, but if they did, they haven’t featured it on their website. In the era of food porn, something this “plain” does not have the right features to endear it to cooking site hosts, and there is not even a photo of anything resembling it. You’ll have to make it yourself if you are to experience in better ways than the visual, how Comfort Soup is a winter-warming pot of coziness.

Albert Anker – Girl Eating Soup