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whole wheat bagels
I am just now getting around to making my New Year’s Resolutions. One of them is to eat healthier. I am sorry I am just now starting off the year on sophistimom. If I’m not mistaken, it’s February 1st.
On that note, I just want to thank you all for being so patient with me. I know I have been gone for awhile, but I have not stopped thinking about my readers, and I have not stopped thinking about the blog. Life has just been crazy.
Speaking of crazy things, I have recently moved into a basement apartment, and sadly, it has no natural light. None at all. And so for these bagels, I took some instructional pictures, but they kind of stink. White balance on even the nicest of cameras, surely cannot make up for fluorescent light. I want to cry. So, after today, I think I will be skipping the instructional pictures unless I make the food at a friend’s house. I live in Utah, so if there are any volunteers . . .
Okay, down to business. Homemade bagels are delicious, and worth every second it takes to prepare them. White bagels would have been good, but my bloggie friend Kamran at the sophisticated gourmet made some awhile back. When I make white bagels, I like to refer to his recipe. They’re amazing.
Though I am a sucker for white bread, I am trying to be healthy right now, and that’s why I made these. My kids prefer white bread too, but let me tell you, trying to wrangle that one in the picture out of the house so I could photograph it at my friend’s house was nearly impossible. My kids kept begging me for more. So if you want to get your kids to eat healthier, you may want to try these.
chewy ginger molasses cookies and the winner of the challenge dairy shortbread challenge
After much baking, and deliberation, a winner has been chosen for the Challenge Dairy Shortbread Challenge! A panel of judges, which included a chef, chose the Bleu Cheese Currant Shortbread Rounds! So, congratulations, Kristen! Well done! I had not even considered anyone would enter with a savory recipe. This one was sweet, and savory, and sweet again. It was very inventive, and quite delicious. This little swirls of flavor would make an easy and elegant little appetizer.
If you have not already looked all the entries, though, please click on all of them in the comments section and take a look. All were delicious, and finding a winner was very difficult.
I’d also like to thank Challenge Dairy who has sponsored this contest, and who will be giving Kristen a year’s supply of Challenge Dairy Butter. If you didn’t win, don’t worry, you can still go to their website to print off coupons.
And now, on to these chewy ginger molasses cookies. Awhile back, Brooke gave me a plate of gingerbread men. I think they were meant for my family or something, but all I remember was that I ate almost every single one.
They had this hidden flavor I couldn’t put my finger on. So I had to keep tasting them. Again. And again.
When I finally realized the flavor was orange zest, I had to eat a few more, just to be certain.
Coming up with a chewy cookie when you don’t use shortening is very difficult, as far as I am concerned, so I usually don’t take chances. That’s why I generally take a chewy cookie recipe, that is already tried and true, and then make it my own. Though these are pretty different from Martha Stewart’s Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread cookies, I used that recipe as a guide.
we have a winner!
Congratulations to . . .
Cassidy,
the winner of the 3 month subscription to the Cookie of the Month Club from Platine Cookies!
vanillekipferl and a giveaway!
Aren’t you glad you came to my blog today??? This is my post for the Baker’s Dozen Ultimate Cookie Exchange! Yea!!!! Some other bloggers and I are sharing cookie recipes today, and all of them can be seen by clicking here. Be sure to check them out, since many of them will be having giveaways—including me!
Let’s get to that first, shall we??? One lucky reader will not have to lift a finger to enjoy some scrumptious cookies for the next couple of months. Platine Cookies of Los Angeles has offered to award one very lucky reader a three month subscription to the Cookie of the Month Club (I am seriously tempted to enter the giveaway under an alias).
The Chef and owner, Jamie Cantor (her name is Jamie, so she’s already cool, as far as I’m concerned) started Platine Cookies awhile back, and her cookies and bakery have been mentioned in People Magazine, Vogue, LA newspapers, and all over the web.
Her cookies are all natural, and perfectly wonderful, so if you want to win some, click over to PlatineCookies.com, decide which cookies look the most delicious to you, and tell us about them in the comments section. Only one entry per person please. I will choose a random winner on Monday morning, December 14.
If you don’t win, that’s totally fine, since I will have their link over there in the sidebar for whenever you get a craving and need to order some.
In the meantime, if you’d like to whip something up on your own, try out my recipe for the cookies in the picture. They were pleasantly addictive.
vanillekipferl
To be honest, I have no idea how to pronounce these. You’d think, since I have some German heritage, I might actually know a tiny bit of German, but I don’t.
I decided to make these back in the summer when I was rereading my favorite book, The Morning Gift
the challenge dairy holiday shortbread challenge! win a year’s worth of free butter!
I can’t tell you all how excited I am!
A few weeks ago, I had this idea that it would be fun to get together with some other food bloggers and challenge them to take a list of ingredients and their measurements, and then just see what they would come up with.
When Challenge Dairy started following me on twitter, I thought how fun it would be to get them involved with my idea somehow. They are a California based Dairy, and I’ve been using their butter over the years. It’s my favorite brand.
Here’s the scoop:
The Challenge Dairy Shortbread Challenge
Win a year’s supply of butter from Challenge Dairy!*
Here’s what you have to do:
Simply take ingredients in my basic shortbread recipe, then make it your own!
2 sticks butter
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups all purpose flour
You can add in whatever you like, roll it out, cut it out, press it into a pan, or bake it up however you want. When you have made your shortbread, take a photograph, and post it on your blog along with the recipe that includes what you added, baking time, temperature, etc and a link back to sophistimom.com and Challenge Dairy. Then post a comment on this contest blog post, stating the name of your shortbread recipe, with a link to your entry post on your own blog.
All entries must be posted in the comments by December 18th at midnight.
Entries will be judged on creativity, flavor, and visual presentation. The winner will receive a year’s supply of butter from Challenge Dairy.
Although a purchase is not required, all valid entries must include a link somewhere in the post to Challenge Dairy’s website. Here is the link: http://www.challengedairy.com. The site has recipes, and a $.50-off coupon!
The winner will be selected on December 22nd and will be awarded the prize and will have their recipe featured right here on sophistimom.com.
*If the selected winner is outside of the Challenge Dairy market (see website for all states that sell the butter), that person will be awarded with a $50 cash gift card.
how to make your own perfect mashed potatoes
Well, here’s the thing: I really can’t give you the exact recipe for perfect mashed potatoes, but I can tell you all the tips and tricks I’ve learned over the years so that you can make your very own mashed potatoes that you will deem perfect.
The only thing I stand by when making mashed potatoes is this: MASHED POTATOES SHOULD NEVER COME FROM A BOX!!! That is an absolute rule with me, and I never bend. I have never eaten potato flakes/potato pearls and been duped into thinking they are a) real or b) good. Oh, how I struggled my freshman year of college when that was all the cafeteria served!! But listen, if you like potato pearls, or potato flakes, that’s okay. We’re still cool.
But, you know, maybe you never make the real thing because you’ve only ever had a cruddy potato peeler. Here’s my solution: an Oxo Good Grips potato peeler. They cost about 8 bucks, but will be making you a happy potato/apple/vegetable peeler for years and years. Mine has lasted over ten years (which is more than I can say for some other things in my life).
(Is it just me, or does my son wear this shirt an awful lot in these pictures?)
much to be grateful for: a thanksgiving with friends
This year, as my family’s new life twists and unfolds in ways we never expected, I reflect on the ways close and true friends are absolutely vital. My three children and I recently moved into the home of friends who have willingly and unselfishly opened their doors to us. I can never repay them for as long as I live, but I will most certainly try. Angie, the friend I am staying with, was a roommate in college, and over the years, has invited me to join with her in countless family gatherings. Those experiences meant the world to me when I was thousands of miles from home.
Nearby to where we currently live, are friends I have made over the years who are just as good and true as Angie, and have been my safe haven these last several months. They have given me advice, called me several times a week to be sure I am doing alright, taken me to dinner, or simply been a listening ear. In addition to these friends are the ones I left behind in my last home, who were equally faithful. I don’t believe I have done anything to deserve any of these people’s friendship, but nevertheless, there they are. And I love them.
I have mentioned Shannon before on my blog. She is an amazing person. I love her home. It is lovely. She and her husband have made it into something special that is all their own. From the wood shop in the back, to the tree fort in the side yard, to the garden and the chickens they keep, I observe their life in admiration every time I visit. She and her husband are endlessly talented, and I feel it a privilege to know them.
Last week they agreed to let me have a little Thanksgiving at their house for the blog. Shannon and I cooked all day, and had a great time. The kids played, helped with the meal, and even chased the chickens back into their pens. To my delight, just before dinner, Shannon lit a fire in the fire place. As she did, I felt a pang of longing for my home in Massachusetts. But really, when I am with any of these my friends, who mean so much to me, I am home.
For our menu, which I will be sharing throughout the week, was the artisan bread stuffing with sausage and apricots, braised Brussels sprouts with caramelized shallots (listed below), mashed potatoes and gravy, and sweet potato mash with candied pear (also listed below). Shannon made the turkey, and I will share her techniques later this week. For dessert, we ate a pumpkin crème caramel, which you won’t want to miss.
In case you were wondering, Shannon took that picture of my hands grating the orange zest into the cranberries, and if you’d like that recipe, click here.
artisan bread stuffing with sausage and apricots
A certain family member used to always beg for a certain kind of stuffing every year. Oh, don’t worry, he didn’t insist on Stove Top or anything (cranberry sauce was a different matter entirely, but we won’t go there—or maybe we will. You can’t marry someone who grew up 20 minutes away from where the Pilgrims landed, who had a bus stop at a cranberry bog all through high school, and then expect her to condone cranberry sauce from a can. I’m sorry, you just can’t! In case you’re wondering, my cranberry sauce can help cure people of cranberry sauce aversion, and addiction to canned cranberry sauce. Click here for the recipe).
Anyway! He actually used to insist on Martha Stewart’s Cranberry Cornbread Stuffing, which I made for the first time back in 2003, and made every Thanksgiving up until last year.
In light of unfolding events last Thanksgiving (if you’re out of the loop, click here), I felt at liberty to finally try out a new recipe that had been brewing in my head for some time.
Remember that movie Hanging Up
The first people to taste this stuffing outside last year’s guest-less Richardson Thanksgiving table, were the fine folks at For Your Kitchen in Ogden, Utah. Last Saturday I taught a little class there on Thanksgiving side dishes, and it was great to meet lots of people, cook, share ideas, and eat. If you’re in the neighborhood, I’ll actually be teaching another class in December on time saving Christmas cookies. It’ll be fun, so if you want to come, sign up as soon as you can!
citrus twist doughnuts
I thought these were going to be a sort of filler doughnut to help stretch out doughnut week. But they were actually a huge hit and everyone’s favorite.
The inspiration came from my citrus pancakes I did ages ago.
I used the same dough as I did for the Vanilla Bean Boston Cream doughnuts, so if you want to double the recipe, or even cut the recipe in half to make both kinds, be my guest.
french crullers
French crullers are probably one of my favorite kinds of doughnuts. They aren’t too sweet, and have a texture and flavor all their own—eggy and light on the inside and sweet and crispy on the outside.
It had never occurred to me that I could make my own until last summer I came across an old Martha Stewart Living that gave instructions on how to make them. I don’t recall the recipe they used exactly, but I do remember they used a pâte à choux—that wonderful, easy to make, easy to use French pastry dough—and piped it onto little squares of parchment paper with a large star tip, then lowered it slowly into the hot oil.
For my own version, I basically did the same. They were exceptionally easy, and were a great variation of texture and flavor from the other doughnuts.
