Easy Baked Crab and Artichoke Dip

( you can see all sorts of stuff going on in here, and you can't wait to eat it! )

During the New Year’s sales at our local Shaws we bought two cans of fancy crab meat, which were on sale for almost 50% off. These are the ones that are packed fresh, must be refrigerated and don’t have a long shelf life. We used the first one at our New Year’s brunch and crab cakes the next week, but the second can’s time was counting down. What to make?

I know. A baked crab and artichoke dip! The recipe below is adapted from several past experiences, both versions we have made and those friends have shared with us. It is really easy and can be ready in a little over 30 minutes.

Easy Baked Crab & Artichoke Dip

1 - 16 oz can fancy crab meat
8 oz of artichoke hearts, chopped
1 package 1/3 reduced fat Philly cream cheese, softened at room temperature
½ cup regular mayonnaise
½ cup fat free mayonnaise
¾ cup fresh grated parmesan cheese
4 green onions, sliced (white and light green part only)
1 tsp garlic paste
1/8 tsp smoked paprika

( these were screaming for a close up! )

Pre heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Whip the cream cheese, garlic paste and mayonnaises together. Add the rest of the ingredients and spread into a glass baking dish that has been coated with cooking spray. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes until bubbly.

Serve with pita chips, crusty bread or whole wheat crackers. This dip freezes and reheats very well.

We enjoyed the dip for lunch yesterday and with that meal happened upon a great pairing with one of our homemade wines. Margot made a wine from the Symphony grape in early 2010. The wine was tasting very well a few months later and we have shared it with friends several times. We opened a bottle this week and found the fruit was popping with intense flavors of peach. The wine is crisp with a shortish finish, a good all around drinker.

We added a small handful of oak chips to this wine for 3 days during its clarification phase. The effect was to create a slight smoky underpinning. Our initial impression was that it tasted like grilled peaches. This is still present, but has mellowed to just the right place. The creaminess and mix of flavors in the dip went together with the wine perfectly. I’m sure both of us could have eaten all the dip and drank all the wine in one sitting if we hadn’t had other things to go and do!

Cheers!

--Jason

Crab Dip

Home Winemaking (Kits, WinExpert & You!)

( a Cabernet, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc fermenting, May 2010 )

You don’t have to spend much time in the world of home and amateur winemaking to come upon a debate about kit versus grape winemaking. The conversation is often fierce and heated, and if you don’t have a thick skin you might get pissed off with some of the feedback freely offered.

Just a bit of quick background for those unfamiliar with making your own wine at home. Wine can be made from grapes and many other fruits (both fresh and from juice), usually with the mere addition of sugar, acid, water, and of course yeast. Traditional grape based winemaking involves the crushing and pressing of grapes before vinification. Along the way quite a few smart companies have gotten into the business of packaging pressed grape juice along with all the necessary adjuncts and instructions for folks who don’t want, or don’t have the means to process grapes. This product has made home winemaking accessible for a great many people.

The debate is whether using kits (and juice and fruit is often lumped in) is really winemaking. Of course it is in the strictest sense. My fresh strawberry wine is made using similar steps, and I pick and process the fruit myself. Kit winemakers generally don’t have to worry about testing and balancing for acid and sugar levels, and are able complete wines more quickly since the volume of solid matter (grape skins, etc) is much lower, thus requiring less clearing time. There are several things that you do learn whether you make wine from grapes or a kit that do qualify you as a winemaker. With time and experience this knowledge can even help you become a very good winemaker!

• Sanitation – keeping your equipment and work areas clean is key
• How fermentation is monitored and what the process looks like
• The development of your senses of sight, smell and taste that guide the progress of your wines
• Siphoning/racking of wine between containers
• The use of oak and how aging affects wines
• Bottling,corking and finishing

So for me the debate is bullshit. I’ll dump my competition medals (for wines, meads and ciders) on the table in front of fierce opposition and ask if the judges were wrong all 28 times! My recipe for award winning strawberry wine was posted last year and has been used by several of my winemaking friends since. Mine is still better!

I don’t exclusively make wines from kits, but the majority of them had been from kits, juice or fresh fruit up until 2010. My first batches of wine from Chilean grapes are still aging and I have high expectations for them. These wines took more effort, required me to purchase new equipment and will take much longer to be ready for enjoyment. Thankfully I am not averse to making wine from our sources and have many other wines available to drink while I wait!
 

( Chilean grapes forming a cap on the top of fermenting juice, May 2010 )

The process for making wine from a kit is pretty straightforward. There are lot of bullets below, but read on and you will see that is not a technical exercise; and much like cooking.

• Kits come with a bag of juice. The higher quality kits come with more juice which means less water will be used to create target 6 gallons you will start fermenting with.
• Generally you will mix warm water with an additive called bentonite (derived from clay) that will help your wine to clear later on. The juice is then added, and water is used to fill the bucket up to the 6 gallon mark. Home brewing buckets have a marked scale on them making this very easy to determine.
• Stirring to mix the juice and water is the big effort here, and you want to get that right. The fermentation will begin and proceed better with a well mixed base.
• At this point you need to add some science to the process and take a gravity reading. A simple device called a hydrometer is used to determine the amount of sugar in the solution. This measurement will be used several times to monitor the progress of the fermentation.
• Some red wines will come with packages of oak which are generally added now, before pitching the yeast. Mixing in fine powdered oak products is a cruel instruction as they don’t get water logged that easy!
• Yeast is provided as a dry packet much like you might buy at the store for bread making. Some kits recommend you rehydrate the yeast, others have you pitch it into the bucket dry. Following the instructions is important for beginners. (I wrote about some yeast re-hydration and nutrition techniques that I added to my process in 2010 when I started my Chilean wines.)
• You will wait 1-2 days for the fermentation to start. The tops of homebrew buckets are provided with gaskets to affix an airlock to. The outgassing of CO2 once fermentation begins will be obvious in the airlock.
• The hydrometer is used to measure the fermentation looking to get to a secondary stage where the fermenting must (that is the proper name) is transferred to a glass carboy to complete its fermentation. The instructions will give you the gravity target you are monitoring for. Some or all of the thick sediment at the bottom of the bucket is left behind during the siphoning process.
• Fermentation continues and once again the hydrometer is used to determine when it is finished.
• At this point additions of potassium meta-bisulphite, potassium sorbate and a clearing agent are made. The fermentation will cease and the wine will clear over several weeks.
• Once the wine is clear it can be siphoned into a bucket affixed with a spigot for bottling.
• Clear and stable wine is bottled and corked resulting in what you recognize from commercial bottles you buy. You can make or buy labels and foil tops to finish or dress your bottles of wine.
• The wine needs to be aged for a minimum of a month to allow the wine to adjust to the bottle.White wines generally are best left to aged for at least 3 months and red wines will require 6 months or more before they begin to drink well. Red wines will often benefit from additional age, but that depends on the variety and how well the wine was made.

And now you have made 30 bottles of wine. I have shared this process with several friends who now enjoy doing this at home for themselves. Having a “house wine” is pretty cool!

( strawberry wine, secondary fermenation - July 2009 )

WinExpert is my favorite manufacturer of wine kits for home winemakers. The selection offered is quite varied in both types and quality. I have never been disappointed with a wine I have made from a WinExpert kit. It is fair to say however that some have been better than others. They are constantly coming out with new styles and travelling the world to source the best possible juices to put in their products.

Their kits come complete with everything you need, including instructions to get even the most novice winemaker going. An added bonus is that their Technical Manager, Tim Vandergrift, is very active in online forums for winemakers. His knowledge of winemaking and the WinExpert product line is an asset for anyone who dips into this hobby. I met Tim at the WineMaker Magazine Conference in May of 2010 and his energy and passion for winemaking was obvious. Ask a question and you’ll get a solid answer you can run with. Offer him a glass of wine and you’ll get a chance to spend time with a great guy.

Check out my recap of the conference from last year. We have already signed up to go to the 2011 conference in Santa Barbara, CA.

By now you might think I am shilling for WinExpert, but alas no, I am saying these things because my experience has been that good. The company has a program that rewards competition entrants for their wins using WinExpert products. In each of the last three years I have won two free kits each year. This has been a wonderful add-on to the competition wins and has helped me add new types of wine to my homemade lineup. They get the advertising bump and I get free wine. Works for me!

Last week I happened upon the website for The Unreserved, a new online community for winemakers and wine & food lovers. And guess what? WinExpert is behind the site. Clearly they are trying to bring together members of their customer base, and wine lovers at large, to connect and share their passions. Jackpot! I signed up right away and posted a few of my recent blog entries for folks to check out. I also sent messages to several of the community management staff about the site and how I could help it grow. The feedback has been extremely positive and clearly my experience with my blog over the last year is going to payoff big here. And much to my surprise, I didn’t read the whole page on the community benefits before signing up, I was notified that a reward for the most popular post each month in the form of a free wine kit had my name on it. I signed up and posted 3 days before the end of the year and I had the two most popular posts for December. Thank you WinExpert!

Making wine at home isn’t for everyone. Hopefully I have shared some insight on the process that at least makes it less mysterious and potentially approachable. There are several home brewing stores in New England who have all the equipment and ingredients, including kits from WinExpert, that you will need to try this at home. And don’t forget, I’m here to ask questions of. Believe me when I say that I still have a lot to learn, and that helping others to make their own wine is one of the best ways to ferment (awesome play on words) my skills!

Cheers!

Jason

Falernia Pedro Ximenez 2009 – Elqui Valley, Chile

I picked up a bottle of Falernia Pedro Ximenez 2009 at Bottles in the North End of Boston in 2010. I wrote a bit about my trip to Bottles in a post last year. It was actually that visit and the conversation I with Peter at the shop that got my wine region project started.

The aromas from the wine were definitely fruity with some white peach and green apple. A floral note was present, but subtle. The predominant flavor for me was lemon and the sweetness I detected was surprising for what is billed as a dry wine. Upon researching the wine it would seem others have said the same thing and the actual residual sugar is very low. There was a mild hit of acidity in the middle of the taste and the finish was of moderate length.

Unfortunately I felt like the wine was falling apart before I even got to the bottom of the first glass. The aromas and flavors seemed to come unhinged. The serving temperature is suggested at 50 degrees so I threw it into the fridge to see what some additional chill would do. It was pleasing again after it cooled down, but it seemed to degrade fast with as it warmed up.

The Falernia page at Wine-Pages has some interesting information about the Elqui Valley and how grape growing and winemaking go started there.

The funny story I was told about the wine is that is made from a red grape traditionally used to make Sherry in Spain, that is grown in Chile, and tended to by a guy from Italy. Oh, and it is a dry white wine. Talk about a state of confusion!

Wines of Chile has a page on the Elqui Valley with a map showing its location in relation to other winemaking regions in the country. The valley is at the southern edge of the Atacama desert and has some serious elevation (6,000+ feet) where grapes are successfully grown. The region is better known for the grapes grown for the distillation of Pisco. Red wine grapes dominate by a large margin these days.

While I didn’t find this particular wine to be exceptional, I will be back for more adventures in Chilean wine. In 2010 I had Chilean wines made from Torrentes as well as one from a blend of Carmenere and Cabernet that were both excellent. Later this year I will be bottling my homemade wines made from Chilean grapes. Recent tastings of them suggest that I will be happy with the effort put into my Cabernet, Syrah and Malbec from Chile.

Cheers!

Jason

Christmas at the Wentworth

( Christmas Day 2010 - White Mountains, NH )

Earlier in the year Margot asked me what the plan with my family for Christmas was. Since we first got together in 1995 we have tried to switch off the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays with our families. Some years we are home and everyone comes to our place, and some years we end up travelling for both. This year we would spend Christmas with my parents, but where? We hosted Margot’s family for Christmas the week before and as a result didn’t HAVE to be at home for the holiday. Margot suggested we go away. Margot floated this idea to my mother who thought it was a fantastic plan, and asked Margot to find a place and send along the details.

Margot hit the jackpot with this idea! She found the Wentworth Inn in Jackson, NH right up in the heart of the White Mountains we are so famous in NH for. They had a Christmas package which included two nights, two dinners and two breakfasts for a reasonable rate. We booked it right away and then got back to other things. The week before we were to leave Margot found they had posted the Christmas dinner menu and sent it along so we could all see what we would be in store for. I saved both the seasonal dinner menu served on Christmas Eve and the special Christmas Dinner menu to PDFs so you all could see the full menus.

Margot surprised me and booked us into a suite with an outdoor hot tub. We got rid of our hot tub at home a few years back and I do miss it from time to time. Margot was amped up to sit in the hot tub and watch A Christmas Story on Christmas Eve. And we did.

The inn was decorated beautifully for Christmas. It dates back to 1869 and was one of the Grand Hotels in New England at the turn of the 20th century. The main building has been maintained as true to its origins, with the lobby fireplace as the centerpiece when you first arrive. It was cold outside and the fire wall kept well stoked all weekend.

As I ventured around I found holiday decorations in all sorts of places. There were also lighted cases containing period pieces that are lovely any time of year! They had ingeniously placed decorations (with light for nighttime of course!) outside the back windows of the dining room and lounges. It felt so festive!

The skating rink out back wasn’t seeing much use, but I did get lucky enough to snap a few photos of some skaters enjoying it on Christmas Day. I don’t skate and Margot forgot her skates, which was probably for the best on a holiday weekend!

On Christmas Eve we joined my parents in their room for happy hour. We cracked open a bottle of Pinnacle Iced Cider from Queubec and a bottle of our homemade Riesling Ice Wine. Laughs and smiles floated us to dinner where knew we were in for a treat.

( me, mom, dad )

The dining room was dimly lit and when the menus came with blue backlighting behind the opposing pages I remarked at the genius of it. The pictures I took of the menu didn’t catch the lighting so they aren’t worth sharing. Except for my Christmas Day dessert I opted not to take pictures in the dining room. I didn’t feel like the interruption would be appropriate on Christmas. Believe me I wanted to!

For a starter Margot had the Duck Confit Dumplings with an Acorn Squash Puree. I had the Boneless Pork Ribs, my mother the Smoked Salmon Flan and my dad the Steamed Mussels. The ribs were soft and lightly covered in a sweet and smoky sauce. I had a taste of the Smoked Salmon Flan and couldn’t believe how creamy and light it was.

For a wine pairing I went with the 2009 Robert Michelle Vouvray. I was surprised at how much residual sweetness was perceptible, but that worked to be an asset for enjoyment amongst the four of us. I have already acquired several bottles of the 2008 vintage from my local NH Liquor Store.

Margot and mom went with the Harvest Salad for the second course, dad with the Baby Iceberg Salad and I opted for the Bacon & Beluga Lentil Soup. The Harvest Salads had poached cranberries, pistachio nuts and a Ice Wine vinaigrette. Margot raved about it. The soup was smoky and salty and I am pretty sure I could pick up the Beluga influence, not a flavor I am familiar with. For dinner Margot went with the Mushroom, Spinach & Fontina Ravioli, mom with the New England Fisherman’s Stew, dad with the Pepper Beef Sirloin and I chose the Pork Tenderloin. Margot’s ravioli and the wine were the perfect pairing. A great balance of flavors with enough acidity to bring out the flavors in cheese being backed up by the earthiness in the mushrooms. My mother was coveting the broth/sauce from her stew and my pork with the cider reduction was tender and flavorful. My dad didn’t say much about the beef, but it was gone so I suspect he enjoyed it very much.

Ahhh, dessert. Margot had the Chocolate Bomb (surprised?) and mom & dad ordered the same. I opted for the Warm Apple Gallette with vanilla ice cream and a Calvados caramel sauce. Margot also ordered the NH Maple Liqueur which she ended up passing off to me. The liqueur went great with the warm slice apples, pastry and ice cream. The Chocolate Bomb got rave reviews. I am sure I had a piece, but I don’t recall it now.

On Christmas Day we got a lazy start, had breakfast and proceeded to camp out near the fire. Margot mom, and I were reading and dad was dozing off. My brother called to say Merry Christmas and let us know that some kind of stomach bug his wife had was pretty much killing his Christmas. That and the storm we ended up getting the next day ensured their prior plans were completely wiped out. Not fun! In the early afternoon we took drive up route 16 towards Pinkham Notch, Mount Washington and Tuckerman’s Ravine. The contrast of the snow, mostly at elevation, and the green of the pines down below made for some great views. I snapped a lot of photos, including the one of the four of us with the mountains behind us. We couldn’t think of a better way to spend Christmas Day.

( Tuckerman's ravine )

Christmas Day dinner was preceded by happy hour at our place which included a viewing of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. We opened a bottle of Muscat Canelli from Chateau Ste Michelle and had some cheese & crackers. Once again lots of laughs got us primed up for a fun evening.

( Merry Christmas Mom & Dad! )

There were carolers in the lobby and with our reservation at the middle of dinner service there were lots of people around enjoying holiday cheer. The dining room was more lively and louder than the night before. Having to serve many more guests meant that the service was not as attentive as the night before, and the food felt like it may not have gotten as much love either. Nothing was bad, and we did not feel underserved. It was just something we noticed. Ultimately we were all enjoying a gourmet meal and a relaxing night away!

I true the Maine oysters on the half shell for my appetizer. This is a first for me. Finally coming around to this later in life is simply an issue of not liking fish when I was kid and passing up most everything that came from the sea. I also ordered a glass of the house sparkling wine (Mumm Prestige, Napa) and a bottle of 2009 Marie Antoinette Vincent Pouilly-Fuisse for enjoyment with dinner. I can’t say I figured out what the big deal with oysters is. They were good and the sparkling wine made for a great palate cleanser between oysters. All that said, I was left thinking that they weren’t so overwhelming that I have to have them all the time though! Margot, mom and dad all went with the Lobster Dumplings which I heard wonderful things about. I was so focused on unlocking some secret about oysters that I didn’t pay much attention during this course.

( reporting live! )

( who's that cute chick? )

For our second course dad went with the Smoky Tomato and Shrimp bisque and the rest of the salad. I didn’t collect comments here as we were deep in conversation about the intricacies of our families. That’s real Christmas conversation!

( looks like Mom was hitting the wine. not really. )

( wearing Clark's Christmas tie!! )

For dinner Margot, mom and I went with the Turkey Dinner. This selection is always hard for me to turn down and at the last minute I opted for it over the steak. My father did have the steak and remarked that he preferred the cut and preparation from the night before. A study in steak! The turkey dinner was wonderfully prepared. There aren’t often many surprises with this dish (we all know it so well) but when the turkey is moist and flavorful, the potatoes are light & fluffy and the stuffing has great flavor you know it wasn’t just thrown together. All three of us slowly made our way through it. The wine wasn’t a top match, and wasn’t as heralded as the prior night’s bottle, but I am the primary red wine drinker so picking a safe selection worked out well all the way around.

Between us we ended up trying all three of the desserts on the menu, all of which were exceptional. The Yule Log looked to be carefully prepared and tasted exceptional, the Lintzer Berry Tart had immense berry flavors and the Dark Chocolate and Chestnut Torte was layers of chocolate edged in nuts. The Crème Anglaise brought the whole thing together.

( my only food pic. Dark Chocolate Chestnut Torte. )

As we talked on the ride home, and since, we all agreed that the food was definitely some of the best we had ever had, and the quiet dinner on Christmas Eve was the highlight. My mother has since raved about the weekend (both the food and location) to friends whom I suspect will be looking at the package come next Christmas!

Margot and I felt relaxed when we got home, despite having to pack up and leave the inn in a rush due to an impending blizzard. With a couple of additional days off we had time to reminisce about the relaxing times and great food. My parents had never spent Christmas away like this before and said that while they wouldn’t do it all the time that it was a nice change of pace. Margot and I have been in Jamaica for Christmas before and truly believe that every few years spending the holiday in a new location keeps it exciting.

We hope you all enjoyed your holidays with family, friends and lots of food & drink. From the many Christmas and New Year's posts I have read it would seem so.

Cheers!

--Jason

What’s Up With Food Trend Predictions for 2011?

Posts with predictions for food trends in the new year are everywhere. After a review of a healthy list of articles (all my references are at the bottom) from a number different outlets a few things became clear:

1. The Epicurious.com article “Food Trend Predictions For 2011” is the basis for many of the other articles and few of those derivations provide any additional context for the trends.
2. For hardcore foodies, food-city dwellers and in many cases regular folks, there really isn’t anything new here.
3. The majority of the predictions are focused on people eating and drinking outside the home.

Food Trend Predictions and Context

After reading all the articles and drawing the conclusions above I got to thinking about how I could present an interesting and thought provoking review of the predicted trends and what they could mean for 2011.

How do we put these food trends into context? While I was reading a few articles jumped out, either because they provided additional context or they presented a unique take that is worth looking at.

The Fresh-Picked Seattle blog took several of the Epicurious.com predictions and paired them up with upcoming Seattle area food events related to the trend. Making the predictions real for readers in this way is a great example of context. Leslie Seaton, the author of Fresh-Picked Seattle and other sites, even remarks that she already thought Macarons were a big trend. So did I! (More on that when we get to point number 2).

The list for 2011 from Food Channel (not the TV network) had some interesting predictions including several I didn’t see anywhere else. Their independent thought is surely refreshing. Men’s aprons, the corporate mindset being bad for the food business and “Eating for Sex and Other Things” all show that the folks at the Food Channel are actually thinking about what real people are doing in their relationship with food.

Most of the other articles merely presented the predicted trends, but didn't necessarily provide any reasons why we should expect them to get attention or how individuals might expect to be influenced by them.

Why Isn’t There Anything New Here?

Most of the food trend predictions don’t represent new activities and even the least food-informed person will recognize that for some of the trends. Why is this?

I think a couple things are at work here. Firstly, the inspiration for these predictions primarily comes from activities that are already underway but are going on at a dull roar. These predictions boil down to guesses on what activities are going to blow-up, go mainstream and be sound bites on the national news at some point in the new year.

Macarons are a good example for of the conclusion above. Starting in the spring of 2010 I saw macarons showing up on foodie blogs everywhere, and I kept seeing them. Funny thing was I had never seen them before and didn’t know anyone personally who could tell me what the big deal was. Just last month I finally asked a fellow food blogger at the Eat. Live. Travel. Write. blog (thanks Mardi!) what was going on. The answer came in two parts, obviously not having ever had them I was missing something AND they represent a challenge to make. That seems reasonable, and I can clearly say based on the year I saw macarons have, they aren’t new!

The foodies that are already pioneering and enjoying the trends that are ready to blow up are already well known in the underground and with luck will be rising stars as the trends reach primetime. Remembering that we all must be careful what we wish for seems to be prudent here however.

Secondly; eating, drinking and entertaining are trending up across the whole of our society making prediction much more difficult and nuanced.

I took a look at articles from some of the same outlets for their predicted 2010 food trends. What I found was interesting. In 2009 Epicurious shared both the front burner (2010 up-trend) and backburner (2010 down-trend) ideas for the then new year. Mixologists and Mad-Science Cocktails were both on the down-trend list and the supporting statements actually seemed laden with a personal dislike of the trends rather than a genuine feel for where the masses would go. And guess what, both trends saw new heights in 2010! Notice for the 2011 the format of the predictions from the same outlet is absent of the sinking trend predictions.

Swapping one trend for another isn’t a good play in the current food context. With rising tides across all the food and drink oceans we should expect trends to have more longevity and die slower deaths as more and more people cycle through them in their food relationships.

Let’s try out an example of putting an ongoing food activity in context for a potential trend. Based on my food perspective I could predict, like others already have, that canning and preserving is going to go mainstream in 2011. But I don’t think that makes sense. Canning and preserving works out to be a cash-flow friendly activity. This makes it very attractive to some in a down economy, but for most people it represents effort they don’t want to expend. The novelty of having your own home-canned goods alone isn’t enough. For those who do can and preserve we should expect they will continue to do so. My prediction for the trend here is that those who already embrace this activity will develop stronger bartering links, maybe even informal co-ops, to share the varied bounty. You should also expect some of these folks to spin off small businesses to sell the locally canned foods to everyone else.

Where Food & Drink Can Be Really Exciting

In my informal survey of friends, family members, co-workers and fellow food bloggers I found that we all enjoy food and beverages at home a majority of the time. By extension food trends can have the most profound impact and on the most people when they prepare exciting meals and drinks at home. A review of the published predictions doesn’t exactly hold up here. The majority of the trends, like food halls, one ingredient restaurants, pop-up cafes, mini-plates, food trucks, etc have to do with eating and drinking outside the house. The exceptions are of course:

1. Local ingredients, farm markets, CSA’s, foraging, etc
2. Individual ingredients like sweet potatoes
3. Swapping out meat for vegetables

A couple predictions are definitely positive for our restaurant dining experiences. Let’s hope they come true.

1. Minimalist menus. Stripped down jargon and clear descriptions of what will be on the plate.
2. New self-financed, “mom & pop” restaurants with highly involved owners.

Many other of the trends that will likely play out in the restaurant & bar scene should also be expected to get continued attention from hardcore foodies and food bloggers at home. A few examples are:

1. Breads
2. Unique ice creams and frozen yogurts
3. Smoking both meats and vegetables
4. Alcohol infusions and aged cocktails
5. Homemade beers & wines

A local outlet, the Boston Globe’s Boston.com, lists local ingredients and sustainable foods in their top 3, and micro-distilled/artisan liquors and locally made wines and beers toward the bottom of their 20 food predictions for 2011. All of these things are already happening and are more mainstream than these predictions would suggest. Thankfully all of these trends are accessible to everyone for their eating and drinking at home.

My goal when I kicked off my new blog format in 2010 was to find a sweet spot where I could be the glue between food & beverages and people who wanted to try new things at home and when they entertain. This idea is important to me not only because of health and economic forces, but also because some of the most innovative, creative and interesting results come from regular people who are empowered to try things for themselves. Professional chefs have training, access to considerable resources and lots of money backing their activities. They have the time and location to do amazing things, things that will never be as interesting to me as what one much less trained person can do on a limited budget and in their own kitchen.

So for 2011 you should expect me to continue this trend, embrace others who do and share all of it far and wide. My hope is that each time someone steps up to their home stove they consider trying something new or have plans to do more of the “food processing” themselves. What an exciting prospect!

Cheers!

--Jason


{ References }

Epicurious.com

2011 Trend Predictions - http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/blogs/editor/2010/12/food-trend-predictions-for-2011.html

2010 Trend Predictions - http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/blogs/editor/2009/11/epicurious-predicts-top-ten-food-trends-for-2010.html?mbid=synd_shine1_foodtrends

Trends for the next decade - http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/bestof/toplists/foodtrends10foodtrendsforthe2010

The Rest of the List

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/food/food-trend-predictions-for-2011-2428460/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/25/2011-food-restaurant-trends_n_773800.html
http://cookingwithamy.blogspot.com/2010/12/2011-food-dining-trends.html
http://www.foodchannel.com/articles/article/top-ten-food-trends-2011/
http://nutritionunplugged.com/2010/10/2011-food-and-restaurant-trends/
http://www.jamesbeard.org/blog/index.php/2010/12/on-the-menu-2011-food-trends/
http://cookingblog.partiesthatcook.com/2010/11/23/top-food-trends-for-2011-parties-that-cooks-forecast/
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/food/dishing/2010/12/the_biggest_foo.html
http://www.freshpickedseattle.com/freshest/2010/12/13/epicuriouss-2011-food-trends-korean-food-macarons-foraging-m.html
http://mobile-cuisine.com/features/2011-food-truck-industry-trends/
http://blog.cookingchanneltv.com/2010/12/29/top-food-trends-for-2011/
http://blog.foodnetwork.com/fn-dish/2010/12/29/food-network-kitchens-forecast-top-trends-for-2011/
http://blog.foodnetwork.com/fn-dish/2010/12/30/food-network-kitchens-forecast-more-2011-trends/
http://blog.foodnetwork.com/fn-dish/2010/12/31/food-network-kitchens-forecast-more-2011-trends-2/
http://www.delish.com/food/recalls-reviews/fast-food-predictions-for-2011
http://www.ranker.com/list/2011_s-top-11-tastiest-food-trends/mollie
http://blogs.laweekly.com/squidink/2010/11/food_trends_2011_mintel.php
     2010 Trend Predictions - http://blogs.laweekly.com/squidink/2009/12/food_trends_2010_new_years_pre.php
     2010 Restaurant Trend Predictions - http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/restaurants-will-have-to-serve-two-masters-in-2011-the-government-and-their-customers-107057198.html

What’s For Dinner? Five Spice Shrimp!

Shrimp was on the list for dinner last night. I had a choice. I could use a packaged marinade and broil them like I often do or come up with something else. Serendipitously I saw several recipes that included Chinese Five Spice yesterday, and it got me thinking.

I took a quick look around and found several recipes that combined Chinese Five Spice, garlic, salt and pepper to season shrimp for pan frying. I added some homemade 2009 Viognier for additional flavor and to ensure the garlic paste I was going to use wouldn’t burn. I had already planned to serve a mushroom couscous and steamed broccoli with the shrimp, but that didn’t seem complete.

I continued thinking about Asian influences and figured that with a couple teaspoons of Five Spice and some black pepper the shrimp might have a little heat. I could throw some sweetness at the shrimp to keep things in balance. Plums! Something I had on hand to eat which would work nicely here. A plum and onion compote is where I landed.

Plum & Onion Compote

3 purple plums, cut into ½ cubes
½ medium onion, chopped
2 tsp ginger paste
1 tsp garlic paste
¼ cup of water
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp coriander powder
¼ tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
2 oz spiced simple syrup (2x syrup spiced with cinnamon, clove and allspice)
1 tsp rice vinegar
Additional cinnamon & clove to taste

Using a medium saucepan sauté the onions in the oil over medium heat. Add the plums, water, ginger and garlic and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the coriander, salt, pepper, spiced syrup and vinegar. Mix well. Continue to simmer until the plums are soft but not falling apart. Add additional spices, salt and pepper to taste.

Five Spice Shrimp

30 raw large shrimp, deveined and shells removed
2 tsp Chinese Five Spice
½ tsp kosher salt
½ tsp black pepper
2 tsp garlic paste
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 oz dry white wine

Clean and pat the shrimp dry. Toss the shrimp with the Five Spice, salt and pepper. Allow to sit for 15 minutes. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the shrimp and toss to coat with oil. When the shrimp begin to get pink Add the garlic paste and gently mix it in with the shrimp. Add the wine and cook the shrimp through. Immediately remove them from the heat and the pan to prevent overcooking.

For the plating I placed the shrimp overtop the plum/onion compote. The broccoli was steamed using a bamboo steamer and the couscous was the handy boxed kind found in the rice section of your local grocery. We generally season our broccoli with spray butter (Smart Balance to I Can’t Believe It’s Not) and grated parmesan cheese, although that isn’t shown in the photo.

I paired the meal with the 2009 Viognier that I used to cook the shrimp. This particular wine was not as aromatic as I had hoped, but in its later age and mellowing the flavors have come out a bit. It is a great middle of the road wine for a dish that isn’t very rich, spicy or complex.

Cheers!

--Jason

Sparkling Cocktails for New Year’s Celebrating

When I say champagne cocktails most non-cocktail nerds think mimosas. I like a good mimosa, but somehow I see them as a morning-time drink; a drink fitting for brunch on New Year’s Day. For your New Year’s Eve celebrations I offer three sparkling cocktails that are easy to make and sure to please.

I have experimented with many other champagne and sparkling cocktails in the past including what I called the “Off to the Islands” that I wrote about on Global Champagne Day. A simple blend of St. Germain, brut champagne or sparkling wine and grapefruit bitters, this drink WILL transport you somewhere warm and sunny. The full recipe is at the bottom.

When using bubbly specifically to make cocktails I use inexpensive sparkling wines from outside the Champagne region. The reasons are simple. Firstly, cocktails are blends of flavors and using premium champagne means you won’t be able to taste the premium flavors and are wasting your money. Secondly, using lesser expensive selections mean you can buy more and thus make more cocktails. Once you start making them your fans line up quickly and running out is not something you want to have happen!

I had seen some print ads for Barefoot Sparkling Wine and knew from experience with their other wines that Barefoot offers excellent quality everyday drinking wines for a great value. When you can get them on sale at your local store you will do even better. As luck would have it their sparkling wines have been on sale at my local grocery store in the last two weeks, selling for $8.99 per bottle. Three styles were available to me, a Brut Cuvee, a Moscato Spumante and a sparkling Pinot Grigio. So far we have only popped the Brut. They also make a Rosé Cuvee and an Extra Dry.

Last week I saw a tweet about a sparkling cocktail named the “Jolly Old Elf” at the Celebrations At Home blog. (click for the recipe) The drink contains amaretto, cranberry juice and brut sparkling wine. Not having had the combination of cranberry and amaretto before the drink intrigued me. I bookmarked the link and with a trip to the grocery store already planned after I got off the bus, the bubbly I needed would be in my hot little hands very soon!

The “Jolly Old Elf” is a tasty drink with a luscious combination of fruit and nut flavors. I found I liked a bit more sparkle so using a larger glass worked better for me. Margot was on board with these from the first sip.

In preparation for this post I worked through two other simple sparkling cocktails including a replay of the “Off to the Islands” from above. I can’t get enough of St. Germain and sparkling wine. I think they are some kind of weird non-identical twins seperated at birth. They don't look alike, they don't taste alike, but they make you smile when you see them together.

The third one is a Sparkling Chambord Cocktail jazzed up with some orange bitters. The flavors of berry and citrus blend perfectly with dry sparkling wine. The color of this cocktail is an attractor, a deep purple with columns of small bubbles drifting up from the bottom of the glass.

Any or all of these cocktails will jazz up your New Year’s celebrations. If you normally have a bottle of bubbly waiting for the final stroke of the clock and the debut of the new year, these cocktails will be a nice warm up. In my experience bubbles promote conversation so these types of drinks also work well in mixed groups where not everyone knows each other.

However you imbibe this New Year’s Eve I hope you have lots of fun saying good bye to another year. Whatever you do please be safe. Starting a new year with a calamity from bad drinking choices is definitely never a resolution of mine!

Cheers!

--Jason

p.s. Before I could even get this posted I got an e-mail from Food & Wine Magazine with a list of champagne cocktails. Most are a bit more elaborate than mine, but if you need more ideas…

{ Recipes }

Off To The Islands

1 oz St. Germain
4 dashes Scrappy’s Grapefruit bitters
Barefoot Brut Cuvee Sparkling Wine
Lemon twist

Mix and serve.

Chambord Cocktail

1 oz Chambord
4 dashes Regan's Orange bitters
Barefoot Brut Cuvee Sparkling Wine

Mix and serve.

St-Germain Liqueur

I Am Giving a Scotch Cocktail for Christmas

I bought a bottle of Johnnie Walker Red two weeks ago. When I buy scotch I usually go for the single malts and mostly because I am going to sip it with my dad who loves scotch. He actually gave me my first drink of it many years ago. I still remember how surprised everyone was that I didn't hate it. That must have been a sign of things to come!

I bought the JW Red specifically to make cocktails with. There are several very well known scotch cocktails including the Rusty Nail and the Rob Roy. Being the spirits adventurer that I am I felt I needed to pull something together myself; challenging my mixology skills and adding an element of surprise. What I came up with is clearly a twist on a Sazerac using scotch instead of bourbon or rye.

My Little Ginger

3 oz Johnnie Walker Red
1 oz ginger simple syrup
4 dashes Regan's orange bitters
1 ice cube

Mix the scotch and ginger syrup in a rocks glass with one ice cube. Remove the ice and add the bitters, mixing slightly.

The ginger syrup was made by steeping slices of fresh ginger in boiled water. After extracting intense ginger flavor I removed the ginger and used the liquid for a 2x simple syrup.

The balance of spicy, sweet and smoky is excellent. It reminded me of the warmth of a crackling fire with the aromas of Christmas treats in the air. This drink is potent to be sure but I suspect that might be an asset during upcoming family gatherings where the noise and number of people can easily induce headaches!

I wish a very Merry Christmas to my faithful readers!

--Jason

Ancient Fire Mulled Wine

This mulled wine has it all! Aromas that fill a room, great flavor and lots of warmth for celebrating with family and friends on cold winter days.

Ancient Fire Mulled Wine

1 bottle red wine, good but inexpensive
½ cup water
¼ cup superfine sugar
3 oz brandy
2 large cinnamon sticks
3 cloves
3 allspice berries
2 lemon slices
1 orange slice
3 dashes orange bitters

Boil the water, sugar, spices and citrus and then take it off heat and allow it to steep for ½ hour. Add the wine and slowly reheat to below boiling. Add the brandy and bitters and mix. Strain and serve hot.

This recipe can easily be multiplied and never seems to last long.

Happy Holidays!!!

--Jason

Local Sips December 19th, 2010

Southern New Hampshire has lots of beverage action these days. I caught two events this past week, a bubbly tasting at The Drinkery and the grand opening of the new space for Moonlight Meadery.

I realized I had a broken camera lens this week and my backup point-and-shoot and other lenses weren’t doing it for me. Lighting also challenged me. While I am learning a lot as a take each new batch of photos, it sure can be frustrating!

A Bubbly Tasting at the Drinkery

Joan at The Drinkery has been lining up events to showcase her inventory and provide opportunities for local makers and distributors to engage her patrons. This past week she lined up five different bubbly’s just in time for holiday entertaining.

Mumm Napa Brut Prestige
This was the only of the lineup I had had before and I never turn down an opportunity to taste some bubbly! This sparkler has flavors of sour green apple with lots of small bubbles.

Gerard Metz Cremant d’Alsace

There was a flavor here that I could place. I conjectured quince and Joan had some quince spread handy for me to compare the flavor with. It wasn’t conclusive. Several of the tasters, myself included, agreed there was some bitter almond in the finish. I had never had a cremant before and I am naively assuming the differences from other sparklers are due to style.

Mumm Napa DVX 2000

This sparkling wine was a real treat. The aromas coming off this glass were truly intriguing. One sip and I realized I was tasting something unique. Fruit flavors were in wonderful balance with vanilla. I also found flavors of buttered toast that I often associate with oaked Chardonnay that I never expected to be there.

G.H. Mumm Brut

This was the only Champagne in the lineup and had well balanced flavors of herbs and citrus. The level of dryness made with think it should be an Extra Brut, but that may have been due to fatigued taste buds.

Petalo Il Vino dell’Amore Proseco

A wonderfully sweet sparkling wine to finish the tasting with. A very perfumed nose and lots of peach flavors made me smile.

Any of these sparklers would serve you well for holiday celebrations. If you live in the Londonderry, NH area and need any of these items be sure and pay Joan a visit at The Drinkery.

Moonlight Meadery Opens in Londonderry

I don’t have a lot of experience with mead so it is with much excitement that I can say a new meadery has opened 3 minutes from my house!

Michael Fairbrother is the proprietor of this new business and based on the information on the web site he has over 15 years of mead-making experience. I also know that he has been a long-time member of Brew Free or Die (BFD) a New Hampshire based home brewing club. Getting to know the members of BFD is on my 2011 agenda.

I popped in during the grand opening of the new space and tasted a couple of meads.

Michael suggested that I try their Sensual, a traditional mead. I found it dry and refreshing with a some nuttiness and a bit of alcohol in the finish. I had heard he makes a pretty mean blueberry mead, named Wild, which reminded me of a light, dry red wine. I am betting it could be paired similarly to a Chianti or a Beaujolais. To cap off my short visit Michael suggested the Desire, made with black currants. I have made black currant influenced wines in the past so I was very excited to try another variation. It smelled like sautéing fruit with plenty of sweetness to go around. This style of mead was the Northeast Regional Homebrew (hosted by BFD) Best in Show winner for 2009. Seems well deserved.

I took home bottles of Desire and Madagascar for future enjoyment. A gift, because he can’t legally sell it yet, of a bottle of a braggit a honey brew made in a Russian Imperial Stout style was included with my purchase. I have already enjoyed this and have to say that the blend of beer and mead ingredients makes for a wonderfully unique experience, one a might have to attempt to recreate.

I also asked Michael if I could contact him in the new year to talk about what he went through to launch his business, something Margot and I have been thinking about for a number of years now.

Check out the Moonlight Meadery web site for the mead lineup, location, hours and special events.

Cheers!

--Jason

Homemade Macaroni & Cheese w/ a Beer Pairing

Margot is the mac & cheese aficionado in the house. Since college I haven’t been a big consumer of pasta or noodles. No aversion, just a lower than average desire to eat it.

After last weekend’s open house there was leftover cheese. I tend to squirrel this away in the fridge so I can eat it for the next week, but I really didn’t want to do that this time. My first inspiration was mac & cheese in the crock pot. It’s easy and something I could do in parallel with a day of work at home. Margot was quite surprised at the idea, but wasn’t going to turn it down! She actually took the opportunity to the fullest and switched her offering for her holiday pot-luck at work so she could share it with them. I also think getting out of the work of cooking played a part in that decision!

I had a good idea of what would go in it and that I would be keeping it simple. Lots of cheese wrapped around elbow macaroni.

Ingredients
1 pound elbow macaroni, cooked to below done
8 cups shredded/diced assorted cheeses, divided (6/2 of cheddar)
2 cans (24 oz) evaporated milk
3 cups milk
4 eggs
¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
½ tsp dry mustard
Breadcrumbs & paprika for garnish

Directions

Coat the inside of the slow cooker with cooking spray. In a large bowl, beat eggs with milks, and spices, pepper and salt. Mix in cooked macaroni and cheeses. Transfer to slow cooker and cook on high for one hour, strirring frequently. Sprinkle remaining 2 C. cheese and turn down to low. Cook for 2-3 hours or until flavor and consistency is as desired. Serve garnished with some paprika and bread crumbs.

Margot has made a similar recipe for me in the past and I have always enjoyed it. The mix of cheese used this time, cheddar (mild and sharp), dill havarti, jalapeno, swiss, parmesan/romano and horseradish, really killed it! The aged cheese flavors are easily accessible and since it wasn’t baked there aren’t any burnt or dried out edges. Margot’s co-workers were happy and my work-time lunch on Thursday caught the attention of a few noses.

On the night I made it I tasted a new beer, the Sam Adams Infinium. Serendipity created a beer paring that I was not expecting to experience.

This newly released beer was made in partnership with the Weihenstephan brewery, the world’s oldest. The goal was the making of a Champagne-like beer using traditional ingredients and processes as approved by a 1516 German beer purity law, the Reinheitsgebot.

The beer is golden/orange in color with sweet yeasty aromas. The carbonation was definitely reminiscent of Champagne with thin columns of small bubbles rising from the bottom of the glass. The flavors of sweet bread are blended together expertly with a nice long finish of malty grains. I enjoyed each sip and could see this style of beer being a great aperitif or a closer for a meal. For everyday drinking it is a beady heady, and at $20 for a 750ml bottle it is pricy, but worth a try. The sweet flavors blended extremely well with the rich cheese and creamy macaroni & cheese. The slight acidity in the mac & cheese was carried along in the finish with the beer extending the pairing. Exceptional!

I hope that made everyone sufficiently hungry. East coast, lunch is on! West Coast, only a few hours to go until you can enjoy some for lunch.

Cheers!

--Jason

Fifth Annual Holiday Open House

For the past five years we have opened our home for a day in December so friends could come and enjoy some holiday cheer. We consider it the best group gift we could give. With contributions of food and drink from friends (some insist) we also get gifts in addition to the joy of spending the afternoon with people we love. We get the house decorated, holiday music on, all the lights on and we party!

Each year we try to include different elements, whether it is homemade foods, unique beverages, or activities. This way the party never gets stale and the invite is viewed with some anticipation.

This year we decided to focus on beverages and created an activity from one of our ideas. We took the easy road with food so we could focus on socializing and get the most out of our plans.

In my holiday wine advice post I presented a recipe for a mulled red wine. This was new for open houses and it was a hit. I drank the very last glass of it while I was cleaning up. I couldn’t even use the ladle to extract the last bit from the crock-pot meaning my guests had gotten all they could from it. I was so happy. The only tweak to the recipe I made was to add 3 ounces of brandy. I also made a double recipe, requiring two bottles of wine. I used my early bottled (no MLF and limited oak) Chilean Malbec made in May of this year.

The second beverage idea was a holiday beer tasting. Every year breweries all over the world release limited production beers to celebrate the end-of-year holidays. Prior to my research and this tasting I had minimal experience with these seasonal brews. In all of the reading many of the descriptions of the brews intrigued me. The styles span quite a range, with some made merely to celebrate the passing of another year and others representing beers typically consumed during the colder months; with flavors evocative of Christmas. Could I really go wrong?

Some of these beers are not widely available and/or sell out quickly so finding them can be challenge. I lined up the following beers after 6 weeks of searching.

Rogue Yellow Snow
Sierra Nevada Celebration
Rogue Santa’s Private Reserve Ale
Samuel Smith’s Winter Welcome
Delerium Noel
Ayinger Celebrator

The order above is the order we tasted them in. I prepared some horseradish cheese and candied pecans to samples with the beers. I always find something to pair add excitement but also helps transition.

( now don't they look happy together! )

A quick break for some food and guest shots.

( Amy's cheese crisps with avocado mousse and roasted red peppers. )

( Ed, Jim, Brian & Margot. Must have been a serious comment about the food... )

( Missy's carefully prepared veggie plate. )

( our tree )

OK, back to the beers.



The overall winner was the Delerium Noel with the Ayinger Celebrator and Sierra Nevada Celebration closely behind. I had more fun than I had hoped and really enjoyed getting to know some new beers. Everyone who tasted had the chance to see what they liked and didn’t, and having had fun at the same time there were no complaints. We are all quite sure Ed does not like hoppy bitter beers!

Here are my notes on the beers:

Rogue Yellow Snow – definitely a golden ale with a nice head and tons of hop aromas. The flavors of citrus were right there for you. It has a bitter finish, but not surprising for an IPA.

Sierra Nevada Celebration – this pours red/orange with a great aroma that isn’t too aggressive. I got great flavors of orange peel, pine and bitter herbs. A bit of spice on the finish.

Rogue Santa’s Private Reserve Ale – this beer has a nice balance of malt and hop flavors with a milder disposition that you might think at first. I didn’t get the spicy flavors I expected, but wasn’t disappointed.

Samuel Smith’s Winter Welcome – this is an amber ale with sweet malty flavors and spice that is easy to find. This went down very well.

Delerium Noel – this is a light brown ale with a ton is spiciness and sweetness. Truly makes you think of Christmas. One of the tasters suggested it reminded her of baked beans. This beer is wonderfully balance and shouldn’t last long!

Ayinger Celebrator – this beer is dark brown in color with lots of malty aromas and flavors. It reminded me of Russian Black Bread. The sweetness is there but not beyond beer standards.

( this bottle is so festive! ) 

We didn’t break out the ice shot glasses that I had prepared merely because we didn’t have a second wave that was looking for something new to drink on their way through. We had peppermint schnapps ready to go. Next weekend!

( Melissa and Betsy )

( Wayne & Meredith )

( Andrea and Kristy )

( Paul and Margot )

Everyone who came had lots of fun and some even went home with leftovers!! We had lots of cookies left, but those were shared with Margot’s co-workers.

Cheers to another successful holiday open house!

--Jason

p.s. I realized when going through the pictures that there weren’t any of me or Margot and I. We failed on that one!

International Blogger Holiday Cookie Recipe Exchange

( it is too early to leave these for Santa, but it sure is a nice idea! )

What foodie doesn’t love a good cookie swap? But how do you do that amongst food bloggers all over the world? You swap recipes and ask each blogger to post their experience with another participants recipe. When I first saw this I immediately thought “that has to be the coolest idea I have seen in some time.” I threw my cookie chops in and a few weeks later received an e-mail from Joanne from Eat’s Well With Others with the recipe for Maple Brown Sugar Cookies.

Maple Brown Sugar Cookies
Makes 24, adapted from Indulgence Cookies

1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1 cup soft brown sugar
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 egg yolk
2 cups AP flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cardamom

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2. Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add the maple syrup and egg yolk, beating until just combined.
Sift in the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and cardamom. Stir with a wooden spoon to form a soft dough.

3. Shape the dough into a flat disk, cover with plastic wrap and put in the freezer for 20-30 minutes or in the refrigerator for at least an hour. (The book tells you to put it in the fridge for 20 minutes. And let me tell you, this was nowhere near enough time. Basically just refrigerate until chilled and slightly hard.)

4. Roll out the dough between two pieces of parchment paper until it is 1/4 inch thick. Cut the dough into 2-inch round cookie cutters. Or if your dough is too soft to do any such thing because you are impatient and refuse to wait until it is cold to work with it. (Not that I would know anything about that.) Roll it into balls and then flatten them slightly with your palm. Place on the prepared sheets 1 1/2 inches apart and bake for 8 minutes or until lightly golden. Allow to cool on the sheets for a minute and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat until all the dough is used up.

Cookies and I are no strangers and this time of year I always make some and I try to make new and different kinds for a little holiday fun. Last week I posted about making cookies with my Mom, something she and I had done quite a bit since I got interested in cooking. I can recall marathon cookie-making days in preparation for swaps that had so many participants we had to bring boxes to cart our haul home. We would end up with so many cookies I swear we could have fed an invading army!

These cookies are spicy, but the cardomom offers a twist that makes them much less like a Snickerdoodle than you might think. The rooty, earthy flavors from the maple syrup makes a New Englander real happy.

For a second serving of the cookies I went with a twist, ice cream sandwiches! I used pairs of the cookies, vanilla ice cream and Demerara sugar to create a treat for a holiday dinner with friends. The sugar was dusted over the edges of sandwiches before letting them rest in the freezer for 20 minutes before serving.

Another holiday season and another successful cookie swap. Lori from Fake Food Free (the organizer of the exchange) was my recipe recipient and posted the story I shared and her experience with my Mom’s recipe for Russian Teacakes last week. I read the post to my Mom while I was down for a visit. She laughed when I said that her recipe and story were making her famous on the Internet. I could tell she was happy and that made the experience complete.

I hope you are taking some time to enjoy holiday foods this year. If you try something new and would like to spread the word, let me know. I’m always up for trying new holiday treats!

Cheers!

Jason