I'm five...or six...or seven. It's 6:00 AM on December 25th and I'm awake but I'm the only one awake. I go knock on the door of my grandparents' bedroom, then my mother's, and then my great aunt. The adults don't really want to get up, but they don't keep me waiting for too long. I don't go downstairs. I know the rules. We can get up this early to see what Santa Claus brought but I have to wait till my grandfather goes downstairs to check to "see if Santa Claus has been here." To this day, I'm not sure what that was really about. As far as I know, he only turned on the lights before I was allowed to come downstairs.
The Christmas tree was surrounded by all manner of wrapped and be-ribboned (is that a word?) packages.
While the adults finished brushing their hair and teeth (why bother with that when there are presents to open???). I was permitted my stocking which was hung by a gold hook on the mantle piece and filled with small, wrapped presents AND an apple and a big orange in the toe of the stocking.
I resented that fruit in the bottom of the stocking. I mean, afterall, it was taking up precious present space and I could get an orange out of the refrigerator anytime I wanted -- and, I wasn't terribly fond of oranges anyway. So, I always casually tossed it aside and my grandmother would put it back in the refrigerator.
Evenutally I learned that Christmas was the only time of the year when my grandparents got an orange as neither one came from a privileged background. No more resentment about the Christmas orange after learning about that and another lesson from the grandparents who left such a profound impact upon my life.
My grandparents are still alive -- both aged 90 right now -- and living in their own home with my mother, their oldest daughter.
I doubt they meant the orange in the stocking to be a lesson in gratitude for their grandchildren but it was for me. This reminds me that we can never truly understand the impact we have on others even when we are not interacting with them directly.
Another Christmas come and gone -- another remembrance of that orange in my stocking from so many years ago.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Cookie Making: A Retrospective
One dark and stormy night...no, that's another story...When I was a little girl, I was surrounded by my female relatives: grandmother, great aunts, aunts, first cousins, second cousins, third cousins, and women who weren't blood relations but were addressed with the title of "aunt". When the holidays came, they cooked and cooked and cooked. It started before Thanksgiving with the annual night of cranberry sauce-making (a messy affair) and just went on from there. Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas dinner differed only by one factor: dessert. Thanksgiving was for pies and Christmas was for cookies. The dessert worlds were not allowed to collide!!!
Sometime around the second week of December, the Christmas cookie making process would begin. I don't remember the order but the baking consisted of a number of different kinds of cookies with the crowning glory being the "Gingies" which were a large soft gingerbread cookie that was rolled, cut, baked, cooled and frosted. This whole shebang took three nights to pull off. The first night was the mixing of the dough which needed a night to rest. The second night involved the rolling, cutting and baking after which the cookies were set on the dining room table on large sheets of waxed paper to cool and then on the third night, we tackled the decorating.
The decorating of the Gingies was a very elaborate process. Several colors of icing were mixed: red, green, yellow, blue and white. The icing was confectioner's sugar with a bit of milk and vanilla. At our disposal were different colored sugars, sprinkles and small silver balls that were like BB's and were used to top the christmas trees and as the clapper for the bells. After the base icing was applied, next came the sugar and sprinkles. Then, someone with a good steady hand would take up the charge of outlining the cookies with white icing in a pastry bag. The santa was especially heavy on the outlining. He needed to be completely outlined and given a beard. The cookies were beautiful and delicious and to this day, I've not encountered anything like them anywhere else. I still make them although not every year. The memory of making those cookies is one the strongest Christmas memories I have from my childhood.
The cookies were packed up in old tins with waxed paper and sequestered to the basement of the house. Each day during the holiday season, enough cookies were procured for the day. Of course, I also took extra trips to the basement and helped myself.
When I was 14, my mother remarried and set up house with her new husband. My mother was a fiend for cooking and would often binge on making particular things. How well I remember the "chocolate mousse summer"!!!! She could get crazed over cookie making at Christmas. Whereas my grandmother ritualistically made the same few, but excellent, recipes each year, my mother would try scads of new recipes and her basement was full of a wild assortment of all kinds of treats. I am not kidding when I say that one year there must have been a dozen different types of cookies stashed in the basement, all in large quantities. And, they were all pretty good. Two in particular stand out in my mind: cream wafers and the brazil nut cookies. I have the recipes for both of them. The cream wafers were a buttery, simple sandwich cookie with a yummy cream center. The brazil nut cookies were a complex, layered cookie that involved a buttery crust, a creamy orange filling, and a nut topping.
After I married, I was then exposed to my mother-in-law's repertoire. Her cooking style followed my grandmother's: a set of tried and true recipes that she'd been making for years. Her iced butter cookies were TO DIE FOR. And, then there were the peanut butter balls...lord, have mercy, I went wild over those too. And, from those years, I acquired those recipes and still make them.
So, this last weekend of cookie making with my SO and his gang, I channeled all of these memories and influences as I moved through the process of producing Peanut Butter Kiss cookies (thanks to my aunt), iced butter cookies and peanut butter balls (thanks to my former mother-in-law), chocolate chip cookies (thanks to my grandmother), and something new, lemon bars for my SO (thanks to my mother for teaching me to always break tradition at least a bit).
My SO complimented me late on Saturday afternoon when the gang was leaving, each with a large container of cookies, on how everything had gotten done and worked out well. I smiled and said, "Thanks...I've been to this rodeo before."
Of course, you can see that the thanks belongs to all those dear women who showed me how, each with their own process and style. I am so grateful to have had all of those experiences.
Sometime around the second week of December, the Christmas cookie making process would begin. I don't remember the order but the baking consisted of a number of different kinds of cookies with the crowning glory being the "Gingies" which were a large soft gingerbread cookie that was rolled, cut, baked, cooled and frosted. This whole shebang took three nights to pull off. The first night was the mixing of the dough which needed a night to rest. The second night involved the rolling, cutting and baking after which the cookies were set on the dining room table on large sheets of waxed paper to cool and then on the third night, we tackled the decorating.
The decorating of the Gingies was a very elaborate process. Several colors of icing were mixed: red, green, yellow, blue and white. The icing was confectioner's sugar with a bit of milk and vanilla. At our disposal were different colored sugars, sprinkles and small silver balls that were like BB's and were used to top the christmas trees and as the clapper for the bells. After the base icing was applied, next came the sugar and sprinkles. Then, someone with a good steady hand would take up the charge of outlining the cookies with white icing in a pastry bag. The santa was especially heavy on the outlining. He needed to be completely outlined and given a beard. The cookies were beautiful and delicious and to this day, I've not encountered anything like them anywhere else. I still make them although not every year. The memory of making those cookies is one the strongest Christmas memories I have from my childhood.
The cookies were packed up in old tins with waxed paper and sequestered to the basement of the house. Each day during the holiday season, enough cookies were procured for the day. Of course, I also took extra trips to the basement and helped myself.
When I was 14, my mother remarried and set up house with her new husband. My mother was a fiend for cooking and would often binge on making particular things. How well I remember the "chocolate mousse summer"!!!! She could get crazed over cookie making at Christmas. Whereas my grandmother ritualistically made the same few, but excellent, recipes each year, my mother would try scads of new recipes and her basement was full of a wild assortment of all kinds of treats. I am not kidding when I say that one year there must have been a dozen different types of cookies stashed in the basement, all in large quantities. And, they were all pretty good. Two in particular stand out in my mind: cream wafers and the brazil nut cookies. I have the recipes for both of them. The cream wafers were a buttery, simple sandwich cookie with a yummy cream center. The brazil nut cookies were a complex, layered cookie that involved a buttery crust, a creamy orange filling, and a nut topping.
After I married, I was then exposed to my mother-in-law's repertoire. Her cooking style followed my grandmother's: a set of tried and true recipes that she'd been making for years. Her iced butter cookies were TO DIE FOR. And, then there were the peanut butter balls...lord, have mercy, I went wild over those too. And, from those years, I acquired those recipes and still make them.
So, this last weekend of cookie making with my SO and his gang, I channeled all of these memories and influences as I moved through the process of producing Peanut Butter Kiss cookies (thanks to my aunt), iced butter cookies and peanut butter balls (thanks to my former mother-in-law), chocolate chip cookies (thanks to my grandmother), and something new, lemon bars for my SO (thanks to my mother for teaching me to always break tradition at least a bit).
My SO complimented me late on Saturday afternoon when the gang was leaving, each with a large container of cookies, on how everything had gotten done and worked out well. I smiled and said, "Thanks...I've been to this rodeo before."
Of course, you can see that the thanks belongs to all those dear women who showed me how, each with their own process and style. I am so grateful to have had all of those experiences.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
One and One Make Three
If you've been to San Francisco, you probably have seen this scene of the sea lions lounging together on the pier -- comfortably piled alongside and almost on top of one another.
Last night, my SO and I were putting together a couple of large pans of lasagna together for the weekend and at one point he said something like, "I'm probably in your way." My answer was, "no, you are never in my way". The moment reminded me of the sea lions. Maybe it looks like they are in each other's way but they know that they are not. They know it's the way it's meant to be.
One of the reasons this blog exists is it's a way for me to talk about my cooking experiences and cooking with someone else is an entirely different experience than cooking alone. I've done a lot of cooking alone and because of it, I have acquired some skill and knowledge. Unfortunately, sometimes people will shy away from cooking with me because of it. If they only knew that deep in my heart, what I want most is someone to cook with me. Everytime I step into the kitchen, I learn something and with someone else there, it doubles the opportunity for that and the fun quotient goes way up.
This weekend we will be making a lot of Christmas cookies which I love to do as a group. Some friends and I got together several years in a row and had a system for doing this. Then, we all had life changes and we were no longer able to do this. I miss them and our cookie days. One year I made ugly aprons for everyone (the worst fabric I could find from the discount table at the fabric store and I made them reversible so everyone really got two ugly aprons!) and that was really fun too.
So, I'm looking forward to making new memories this year. We've got a big line up of cookies coming: Chocolate Chips, Sugar, Peanut Blossoms, Lemon Bars, and my favorite, Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls. I wish I'd had time to whip up some ugly aprons -- note to self: make ugly aprons sometime during 2010 so I will have a stash ready to go next year. I've got my Christmas CDs all organized and ready to go though.
Never enough time to do all the things you want to do, is there?
Thursday, December 3, 2009
The Pizza Interview You've Been Waiting For
Behold! This is a pizza ready for the grill made by my own SO:
A number of years ago, he had his own pizza shop -- I bring you THE pizza interview you've all been waiting for:
(1) What made you decide to try your hand at having a pizza parlor?
I was working for an engineering firm that was struggling in a declining market. With the addition of my son to the family, I also was looking for a way to move closer to family. I knew I was going to need a change. By providing pizzas that you bake at home, it reduced overhead costs, which was good because I didn't have the financial resources.
(2) I love the concept of having the pies prepared so that they could be baked at home -- how did you come up with that idea and how did you develop the recipe for the dough?
I actually had visited a similar pizza shop. They were very protective of their recipe for dough, which was understandable. I would like to say it was an original idea, but it was "borrowed". The area that I was from was a more rural area. Many people had never had pizza at home unless it was leftovers from a "sitdown" pizza parlor or a carryout pizza. What they had at home was always semi-soggy or warmed up. I wanted to give the option for them to pick up a pizza while they were "in town" running errands and they could cook it in 20 minutes when they were ready. The pizza would also keep in the refrigerator for a couple of days if they didn't want it the day they picked it up. The quest for the dough recipe was a trial and error process that took place in a friends kitchen. Many, many attempts were failures. It turned out that a bread dough was the best for cooking in a traditional home oven. The real secret is that I always, always, ALWAYS, butter the exposed crust. Who doesn't like buttered bread? I also use fresh ingredients and three different cheeses to add to the taste. The name of the shop was "Garden Fresh Pizza". I hoped to evoke the concept of veggies other than just the typical pizza ingredients. I think it was an idea ahead of it's time. The concept might have a greater opportunity for success in today's health conscience environment.
(3) What is your favorite pizza?
Actually my favorite is not a pizza but instead a stromboli. A stromboli is the same ingredients as pizza except that everything is completely enclosed in the crust. Of coarse the entire outside was brushed with butter and sprinkled with parmesan cheese.
(4) I understand that you've started experimenting with cooking the pizza on the grill -- what are your thoughts about doing it that way versus the oven?
This is as a result of my girlfriend buying a pan for this purpose. It gives a different taste from a pizza cooked in the oven. Be sure to cook on low heat to allow the upper crust to brown before the bottom burns.
(5) What is the best thing about pizza?
The variety of what you can make. It can be the appetizer, the main part of the meal or the dessert. You can use almost ANYTHING from the traditional ingredients to fresh veggies to fruit as toppings. As a dessert you modify the dough to be a little sweeter and use fruit, chocolate or anything that strikes your sweet tooth.
6) What was the most fun part of having the pizza parlor?
Several things come to mind. Getting to have pizza or stromboli anytime. Also, my son always wanting to grab a handful of cheese from the cheese bucket. I asked him if he remembered the pizza shop and he said he thought he did. He was two years old at the time.
(7) How do you make your sauce?
I make it thick and to my taste. When we would go out for pizza, my kids always ask for "light on the sauce" because it is so thin that the ingredients slide off the slice. They never ask for "light on the sauce" when they have mine. It is a combination of tomato sauce and tomato paste to which I add Italian herb seasoning to taste.
(8) Who are your pizza heroes?
Pizza was something I had never tasted until I was probably 12 years old, so I really didn't have a point of reference of a "pizza hero". The first pizza I ever had, I believe, was Pizza Hut. At that time, all that was available was their thin crust. I knew it had to be better with something other than cardboard for a crust. In relation to my own business, I did have one customer that was a "hero". Since I also didn't deliver, this customer loved the pizza that I made so much, he would send a taxi to pick one up and deliver it to him. To him the cost didn't matter.
(9) What does making a pizza teach someone about life?
There is nothing "wrong" that can be used, that you can imagine. It embraces the variety of life, allowing you to use whatever you like, just use your imagination. But as a side note - stick to what you know. I really wasn't prepared for the problems associated with the food industry, i.e. labor, being open every day, etc. My children always want my pizza, and my girlfriend encourages my kitchen forays. It is a pleasure to be enticed to still venture into my pizza making mode. I don't take to many "shortcuts" and they seem to appreciate the effort.
TBD: We sure do appreciate the effort! This pizza is great and such a treat. The butter on the crust is oh-so-yum-yum good...:-)
A number of years ago, he had his own pizza shop -- I bring you THE pizza interview you've all been waiting for:
(1) What made you decide to try your hand at having a pizza parlor?
I was working for an engineering firm that was struggling in a declining market. With the addition of my son to the family, I also was looking for a way to move closer to family. I knew I was going to need a change. By providing pizzas that you bake at home, it reduced overhead costs, which was good because I didn't have the financial resources.
(2) I love the concept of having the pies prepared so that they could be baked at home -- how did you come up with that idea and how did you develop the recipe for the dough?
I actually had visited a similar pizza shop. They were very protective of their recipe for dough, which was understandable. I would like to say it was an original idea, but it was "borrowed". The area that I was from was a more rural area. Many people had never had pizza at home unless it was leftovers from a "sitdown" pizza parlor or a carryout pizza. What they had at home was always semi-soggy or warmed up. I wanted to give the option for them to pick up a pizza while they were "in town" running errands and they could cook it in 20 minutes when they were ready. The pizza would also keep in the refrigerator for a couple of days if they didn't want it the day they picked it up. The quest for the dough recipe was a trial and error process that took place in a friends kitchen. Many, many attempts were failures. It turned out that a bread dough was the best for cooking in a traditional home oven. The real secret is that I always, always, ALWAYS, butter the exposed crust. Who doesn't like buttered bread? I also use fresh ingredients and three different cheeses to add to the taste. The name of the shop was "Garden Fresh Pizza". I hoped to evoke the concept of veggies other than just the typical pizza ingredients. I think it was an idea ahead of it's time. The concept might have a greater opportunity for success in today's health conscience environment.
(3) What is your favorite pizza?
Actually my favorite is not a pizza but instead a stromboli. A stromboli is the same ingredients as pizza except that everything is completely enclosed in the crust. Of coarse the entire outside was brushed with butter and sprinkled with parmesan cheese.
(4) I understand that you've started experimenting with cooking the pizza on the grill -- what are your thoughts about doing it that way versus the oven?
This is as a result of my girlfriend buying a pan for this purpose. It gives a different taste from a pizza cooked in the oven. Be sure to cook on low heat to allow the upper crust to brown before the bottom burns.
(5) What is the best thing about pizza?
The variety of what you can make. It can be the appetizer, the main part of the meal or the dessert. You can use almost ANYTHING from the traditional ingredients to fresh veggies to fruit as toppings. As a dessert you modify the dough to be a little sweeter and use fruit, chocolate or anything that strikes your sweet tooth.
6) What was the most fun part of having the pizza parlor?
Several things come to mind. Getting to have pizza or stromboli anytime. Also, my son always wanting to grab a handful of cheese from the cheese bucket. I asked him if he remembered the pizza shop and he said he thought he did. He was two years old at the time.
(7) How do you make your sauce?
I make it thick and to my taste. When we would go out for pizza, my kids always ask for "light on the sauce" because it is so thin that the ingredients slide off the slice. They never ask for "light on the sauce" when they have mine. It is a combination of tomato sauce and tomato paste to which I add Italian herb seasoning to taste.
(8) Who are your pizza heroes?
Pizza was something I had never tasted until I was probably 12 years old, so I really didn't have a point of reference of a "pizza hero". The first pizza I ever had, I believe, was Pizza Hut. At that time, all that was available was their thin crust. I knew it had to be better with something other than cardboard for a crust. In relation to my own business, I did have one customer that was a "hero". Since I also didn't deliver, this customer loved the pizza that I made so much, he would send a taxi to pick one up and deliver it to him. To him the cost didn't matter.
(9) What does making a pizza teach someone about life?
There is nothing "wrong" that can be used, that you can imagine. It embraces the variety of life, allowing you to use whatever you like, just use your imagination. But as a side note - stick to what you know. I really wasn't prepared for the problems associated with the food industry, i.e. labor, being open every day, etc. My children always want my pizza, and my girlfriend encourages my kitchen forays. It is a pleasure to be enticed to still venture into my pizza making mode. I don't take to many "shortcuts" and they seem to appreciate the effort.
TBD: We sure do appreciate the effort! This pizza is great and such a treat. The butter on the crust is oh-so-yum-yum good...:-)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)