Bellingham Show and Tell

Show and tell!

The weekend before Christmas my husband and I bustled out to Bellingham, Washington for the wedding of two friends of ours. Bellingham is my college town, and if you haven't heard me extolling the many virtues of the 'ham, you haven't met me. Aside from its streets being paved with indie vinyl records and post-post modern graphic t-shirt designs, Bellingham is a haven for foodies. It has the diversity typical of Northwestern urban culture, but the many surrounding farms give it an edge on locally grown food (that includes pork, dairy and beef!) that is almost impossible to beat.

My favorite is the sushi. I snapped a shot of my favorite combo at Tokyo House on Garden Street:

Salmon skin rolls, squid nigiri and salmon nigiri.

Here's what R has to say about the town's favorite "hippie" breakfast cafe:

Incidentally, Bellingham also houses (last time I checked) the second highest coffee shop per capita ratio in the continental US. Avellino Espresso is my all-time favorite coffee shop, for ambience, food and, of course, for bean. Avellino attends to the details, like using shaved Belgian chocolate instead of chocolate syrup and real whipped cream (local, of course).

Just look at it. Isn't it the most beautiful cuppa you've ever seen?

The Avellino mocha (two shots please).

Bellingham also has a thriving arts community, most notably (imho) pottery. Good Earth Pottery is a shop in Fairhaven that houses a co-op of potters, and their work is stunning. I'm not going to lie, I spent a large chunk of our wedding present money here, and I'm so glad!

That's it for show and tell. I've cooked and baked so many things in the last week I couldn't remember to blog about it if I tried. Our trip to the 'ham was the kickoff of a mad, frantic dash of holiday events, the last of which we get to enjoy on New Year's Eve. Will likely spend January hibernating with my new copy of - you guessed it - Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". I'll be sure to let you know how that goes.

Stained Glass Window Cookies - Look Like a Christmas Cookie Goddess the Easy Way

So much cooking, so little time for blogging. Reagan and I are wandering around our favorite Puget Sound city today: the infamous Bellingham (home to Death Cab for Cutie!), and I had the chance to snap some pictures of some of the local wonders. But alas! They will have to wait for another post. The expiration date on Christmas cookie posts is coming fast!

Stained glass window cookies have become my all-time favorite Christmas cookie recipe. They're way easier than the traditional cutouts with elaborate frosting, they're arguably prettier, and they're very unique. Mom and I discovered them in a seasonal cookie magazine years ago, and I've tended to make these rather than frosted cookies to cut back on time.

Use the Cream Cheese Cut-Out recipe from my previous post for the dough and roll out as directed. Now, using either small cookie cutters or a knife, cut small shapes out of the centers of your cookies, being careful not to cut out too large of a space.

I have tiny sun, moon and stars cookie cutters at my mom's house I usually use with square or rectangular cookies, but this year the only Christmas-y cutter I had was a star, so I cut the centers out by hand.

The rest is easy. Lay the cookies out on parchment paper (the parchment paper is an absolute must! Otherwise the candy will melt to your pan and you'll never get them off in one piece). Grab a bag of jolly ranchers, unwrap and separate the candies into their respective colors. Place the colors one at a time into a zip lock baggie and smash them into very small bits with your rolling pin. This is the part where my husband always pokes his head out of wherever he is and asks if everything is okay. Just making cookies!

Once you've got your candies smashed, divvy them out into the holes you've cut in your cookies. The cutouts don't need much candy, and of course it depends on the size of the cutout; as a rule of thumb, a little pile of candy pieces which takes up most of the hole will be plenty. Don't use too much, or the candy will run over the top of the cookie.

Now Bake them in the oven at the same time and temperature you would regular cutouts. Generally, you can tell the cookies are done when the candy in the center starts to bubble and boil. Let them cool for a few minutes before peeling them from the parchment paper.

Stained glass window cookies!

I have pictures for a thumbprint cookie recipe also, and I have yet to make my signature peppermint biscotti. It seems like the holidays whiz by faster every year! With any luck I'll get a few more posts in before Christmas...

Happy Holidays!

Cracked Sugar Cookies & Cream Cheese Cutouts for Lindsey

No pretty pictures this time, Lindsey asked me for a recipe on Facebook and rather than post a comment there, I'll put the recipes here where everyone can read them (and Google can see them!).

You said dinosaur-shaped sugar cookies Lindsey, but sugar cookies are drop cookies rolled in sugar, so I think you mean a rolling cut out cookie dough. I'll give you my favorite of both:

This is one of the older recipes in my box.

Cracked Sugar Cookies:

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened (my mom swears by the unsalted part, so take heed)

1 1/2 cup sugar

3 egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla

As usual, cream butter, sugar and eggs then the soda, tartar, vanilla and finally flour. Roll 3 tblsp into balls and roll in white granulated sugar. Bake on parchment paper (preferably on a baking stone) 350 for 10-12 minutes. Don't let them brown.

Cream Cheese Cut-Outs:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 package (4 oz) cream cheese
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

*I typically double this recipe and use a whole container of cream cheese; if you're going to spend the time to make them, you might as well make a decent-sized batch.

Cream butter, sugar, eggs, powder and cream cheese before adding flour. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour, then cut into sections and work dough on well floured surface until 1/4 inch thick. Cut out in desired shapes (cookie dough can be recycled if mixed well and refrigerated again), bake on parchment paper at 350 10-12 minutes (do not brown!).

Cookie Frosting:

2 sticks (1 cup) butter, cold

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

3 tblsp cream or milk

Beat powdered sugar into the butter until stiff, then add vanilla and cream until desired consistency. Add food coloring if you want (beware your clothes!).

That's it!

The Subtle Art of Megalithic Holiday Meals: Appetizers & Desserts

Ok, indulge me in a little family history. My mom's mother, Marjorie (my namesake), was a queen of hospitality and traditional cooking. She grew up third in a family of four girls (like Jo and the Marches!) farming through the Great Depression, and - needless to say - they made everything from scratch. Clothes, blankets, tools, lace, dairy products - everything. It blows my mind to think about the quiet dedication and skill of my grandmother and her peers. My mom loved the economy of making food and household items from raw materials; after all, buying and grinding the wheat berries to make whole wheat bread cost far less than buying healthy bread from the store - it's also a great thing to do with your daughter on a Saturday. I love the environmental and economical sustainability of living from raw materials, not to mention how it makes us more capable and less dependent on the food industry. Also, it builds beautiful family traditions.

Anyway, fastforward to my mom's Thanksgiving food traditions. It's easy to see the roots of my grandmother's Depression-era training in the amazing appetizer display my mom puts on every year. There are pickled watermelon rinds, homemade kosher dills, homemade cranberry relish and dips straight out of a 1950's Betty Crocker cookbook.

Mom has a list of items she makes for Thanksgiving dinner appetizers. The list goes like this:

- Relish tray (cranberry relish, pickled watermelon rinds, bread and butter pickles)

- Pickle tray (pickled beets, baby dill, green olives, black olives, and canned apple rings.

- Veggie tray (to appease the guilt of what you are about to partake: celery, carrots, broccoli, red peppers and green onions and radishes with homemade dill dip)

- Bread and dip bowl (her favorite is to carve the center out of a round black rye loaf and fill it with spinach dip)

- Crackers and cheese or dip (this year mom made smoked salmon dip, which was every bit as good as it sounds)

- Shrimp bowl with cocktail sauce (because we all want it)

Then there's always the random extras. The homemade fruitcake my mom compulsively made 20 jars of last year, bean salad, more shrimp.

See for yourself.

Ok, so you get moderately full from appetizers then stuff yourself on carbs at the dinner table, but you still look forward to Dessert. At our house, it's the main attraction: pies. Mom has a list of staples for pies, but she lets me add a few new each year.

The pies are:

Apple

Rhubarb custard

Pumpkin

Berry (blackberry, blueberry or mixed berry)

I usually add a mousse or custard pie. This year I took the leftover dregs from the pumpkin pies and made pumpkin cheesecake.

You can read my recipes for pumpkin pie and rhubarb custard pie on my previous posts. My blueberry recipe is straight out of Betty Crocker's Cookbook, and the apple is as follows:

6 medium to large apples, peeled cored and sliced

3/4 cup sugar, 1/2 brown 1/2 white (or all cane sugar, or sub. honey or maple syrup for 1/2)

1 tblsp cinnamon

1 tsp. ginger

1/2 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp nutmeg

5 tblsp butter

Toss dry ingredients first. Cut butter over top.

Dough and assembly:

1 cup flour to 1 stick butter (1/2 cup) ratio. Cut butter with flour until fine, add 1/2 tsp salt, one egg yolk and 2 tsp lemon juice, then 4 tblsp of water, or until it forms dough. Roll on floured surface evenly until 1/8 inch thick, lay in pie shell and cut with 1 inch excess around edges. The secret to rolling pie dough is...patience. That and continually turning over and flouring your dough. Also, lift the dough by rolling it halfway on to the rolling pin, then re-place by gently laying it in the shell. Be sure to wet the lower crust's edge lightly with water before gluing the top and bottom together.

Place fillings inside, then lay another layer of pie dough over for the crust. Cut excess leaving 1/2 inch. Fold the shell inward with your thumbs and index fingers, pinching the two layers into an even crust around the edge. Pierce the crust top in at least 6 places. Bake at 350 for 45-60 min, or until bubbling in the center.

Voila!

The pumpkin cheesecake was easy. I'll refer you to Sarah's recipe on Half Hour Meals for the cheesecake recipe; I simply added about 1 cup of pumpkin pie mix into the bottom layer.

This is actually a blueberry-elderberry pie. Cinnamon, lemon juice, maple syrup, flour and just enough tapioca made this pie stand up beautifully. I like lattices on berry pies, although cherry are the prettiest.

Pie time is when all my friends crash the house after dinner with their families hunting for pie. Lindsey brought me a present to mix with my apple cider though, and we rated it a stellar day. Because we're children of the 90s.