a child’s creativity

he played with that paintbrush and cup of flour for long enough for me to knead the whole batch.
and then some.

sunshine

the way it sneaks around the corners in my home

the way it warms the winter sky

bright colors

they make even a messy house feel cheerful

naked babies

just because

my kitchen

and trying new recipes.

What’s inspiring you today?

You know that I Love Lucy episode where Lucy and Ethel get jobs at the chocolate factory and the conveyer belt is moving faster than they can work?

(The punch line is that the chocolates end up all over the place—under their hats, in their dresses, stuffed into their cheeks, etc.)

That’s how my life feels right now. The projects are piling up.

Every year before the holidays it’s as if someone yells “speed it up” into the control room.

Those of us who value handmade seem to put rather a lot of pressure on ourselves to make. Everything. All the time.

For me, it’s partially about living up to holidays past where everyone got a personal handmade gift. Some of it is due to my general distain for the holiday commercialism in our culture and not wanting to literally buy into it. Add to the mix that we celebrate Chanukah around here, which falls in early December this year, and the heat is on.

No matter what the reason—when it gets this way I lose some of the pleasure in the process of making.

So this year: I’m only going to do what I can do.

And I’m going to be okay with that. I have kids that need my attention—now. And web sites that need designing. And a husband who needs attention—now. And a body that needs sleep. And a house that needs attention.

I’m letting myself off the hook.

And if this sweater magically gets finished

all the better.

But these cookies needed making.

and I have no regrets—well, almost no regrets (I may have eaten too many).

Have you ever had a moment where everything was just exactly as it was supposed to be?

When it happens to me I try to remember what it feels like so that in the tougher times I have a feeling to focus on. Sometimes I even ask Niall to remind me of how It was when I feel like it’s all falling apart.

This afternoon for just a few perfect minutes I had such a moment.

Jake came through the door at exactly thirteen minutes past three, like he does everyday. He was bouncing and smiling and holding Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets which he has been plodding through since sometime during the summer. (If you have one of those children for whom reading is a joy then you may not be able to understand the huge accomplishment and happiness in what he said to me next.)

“I’m about to read the last line Mom.”

He stood there in the doorway, all middle-school hair and baggy jeans and read it aloud to Quinn and I. Quinn ran to him—as he does everyday—calling his name and wrapped his chubby toddler arms around Jake’s legs. They continued tangled like that into the kitchen where we all shared snack.

And when I say snack, I really mean it. We weren’t digging through the Halloween candy today! We had amazing (almost-healthy) cookies (which had just come out of the oven). We sat around the table like that for a while. Talking. Laughing. Eating. No one was complaining or wanting or whining. They were talking to each other and to me and just for those short moments I was the perfect mother.

Before it ended (and believe me, it did) I managed to get dinner in the oven and all the dishes washed. And then life came knocking and homework came due and moods went sour. But it didn’t matter today because I remember how it felt.

There were lots of you who liked the idea of participating in a blog-ring of sorts where we pledge to show more of our real-life on our blogs. So I give you: Moments. If you’d like to participate, here are the guidelines: try and be as authentic as you can. You don’t have to post photos of your messy house or tell us your most embarrassing moment (unless you want to). I’m just asking that you keep reality in your mind when you post. That’s it. Feel free to send me your link if you haven’t already and I’ll add you.

Here’s my entry for today.

I’m feeling a little vulnerable about the sharing so go easy on me. (If you look closely you’ll see, Spongebob and Elmo on the floor, My copy of Portland Through the Lens, a hat on the knitting needles, a big-boy computer and a little-boy computer, my reading glasses and Ginger-the-Cat’s hind leg.)

Now, onto what you really want (even if you don’t know it yet). The recipe for the cookies in the picture. Do yourself a favor, make these cookies. These are the chewiest spiciest ginger-iest mollasses-iest butter-y most delicious cookies. Ever. The recipe was shared with me a few years ago by my friend Heather (who is famous in certain circles for said cookies) and since then they have become the epitome of fall baking in our house.

Let me give you a little background about the cookie-eating-habits of my family. It’s all chocolate chip all the time around here. I make something else, they ask where the chocolate chips are. I stray from my usual recipe, they ask why I bothered. Three nights a week, without fail, Sean (Jake’s father) comes over for one reason or another and walks directly to the cookie jar. If there are no chocolate chip cookies in the jar he emerges from the kitchen with a sad puppy look on his face and goes about his business all pouty-like. When he finds cookies, it’s a different story entirely. The problem here is that I’m not as big a fan of the chocolate chip as they are. I like them fine on occasion, but my heart belongs to the oatmeal raisin. But I digress. The point is that even with all that chocolate chip love, they give it a rest for a while when it’s ginger molasses season. Even Sean.

Here’s the recipe. A few notes: this recipe makes a lot of cookies but don’t bother halving it, you’ll eat them all. Or give some to your neighbors—they’ll take in your trash cans for a year. There’s lots of butter in these cookies. Don’t skimp or substitute. I promise, you won’t regret it. That’s it. Now go make them—you can thank me later.

If you think it sounds lovely to take your two boys and one of their friends to the local orchard on a day off from school, you’re right. It does sound lovely. When you arrive to find that every other person within forty miles of said orchard also thought the same thing you might start rethinking your decision. No problem. We’re flexible. Let’s grab our apples for the afternoon’s pie-baking bonanza and scram. (For these boys the fun is in the kitchen anyway.) Car. Won’t. Start. %&*@. Breathe. Still flexible.

How does one remain calm and cheerful in the face of such adversity? Two words: cider donuts.

I guess there are worse places to be stranded.

Applesauce Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cups rolled oats

Directions

Beat butter and brown sugar until combined. Add cinnamon, cloves and soda and mix. Add egg and applesauce and beat until smooth. Gently beat in flour and mix. Add oats and mix. Drop by rounded teaspoons on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake in a 375-degree oven until lightly browned.

I neglected to mention during my Passover post yesterday that during the eight day holiday we don’t eat any leavened food. In its strictest interpretation this means no barley, wheat, rye, oats and spelt. In it’s most common interpretation this means no bread. It also means no cookies, cake or donuts.

This can be an excuse to make that flourless chocolate cake you’ve been dreaming about or if you’re slightly less ambitious you can try these. There’s no need to wait until next Passover—they’re good enough for all year!

Chocolate Chip Meringues

or Chocolate Matzoh Toffee Crunch.

Both couldn’t be easier and are decadently delicous. I’ve heard of people making the toffee using saltine crackers (not during Passover of course) and I’ve been tempted, but they are so sweet that once a year is all I really need. (Although adding that salty dimension might put this over the top and make it the perfect craving-buster…)

Chocolate Chip Meringues
(Makes 3 dozen 1″ cookies)

Ingredients
4 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
Pinch of salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup sugar
12 ounces miniature chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. (does anyone know which key makes a degree symbol on a Mac?)

Beat egg whites until they are foamy.

Add the salt and cream of tartar and beat the mixture again until it holds soft peaks.

Gradually add the sugar beating the batter until it has stiff peaks.

Gently fold in the chocolate chips.

Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.

Bake for 25 minutes. The bottom of the cookies should be slightly golden.

Chocolate Matzoh Toffee

Ingredients
4 to 6 sheets unsalted matzohs
1 cup unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1 cup firmly-packed light brown sugar
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil, making sure to cover the edges. Cover the foil with a sheet of parchment paper.

Line the bottom of the sheet with matzoh, breaking extra pieces as necessary to fill in any spaces.

In a 3-4 quart heavy saucepan, melt the butter and brown sugar together, and cook over medium heat, stirring, until the butter is melted and the mixture is beginning to boil. Boil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat, add the salt and vanilla, and pour over matzoh, spreading with a heatproof spatula.
Put the pan in the oven and reduce the heat to 350 degrees. Bake for 15 minutes. As it bakes, it will bubble up.

Remove from oven and immediately cover with chocolate chips. Let stand 5 minutes, then spread with a spatula.

Let cool completely, the break into pieces and store in an airtight container until ready to serve. It should keep well for about one week.

I can’t remember how I came to have

this box.

It belonged to my grandmother, Pearl and has been in my possession for years.

Pearl died died in 1986 when I was seventeen. Her husband, my grandfather, Fred, died when I was six. After that she married once and moved to Montréal from New York City for a brief time. When she returned, I remember her as being sad. During my high school years I had dinner with her once a week in her apartment on East 73rd Street. (I think it was Tuesday nights.) She always cooked for me. The meals were basic and delicious. One dish that stands out in my memory was something she called Chicken-in-a-Pot. Her salad bowl was wooden and before loading it up, she was in the habit of rubbing it’s inside with a garlic clove. She had embossed green glass goblets that we drank our water out of and velvet upholstered dining chairs. She once showed me the scar from her mastectomy. My mother was furious, but it didn’t bother me. I’m told I look like her.

I don’t know exactly why I’ve let this box sit closed for so long or what compelled me to finally open it, but last weekend I did.

I knew it was her recipe box but I was unaware of exactly what treasures lay inside.

The papers were yellowed and musty and almost too brittle to unfold. The writing, familiar and foreign, only partially legible. Niall suggested that perhaps my father (her son) would be able to decipher the codes.

She collected recipes on little bits of clues about her life. One written on notepaper from The Hotel Webster Hall on Fifth Avenue in Pittsburgh. I like to assume that she was visiting my father who went to college there. Another written on a page torn from a date book marked — Thursday, April 30, 1964. The year of my parents’ marriage. Still more written on old checks and curious receipts.

The recipes fall into three major categories: Jewish cooking, recipes passed along from friends and those cut out from newspapers. Some fall into multiple categories.

Among the Jewish recipes I found:

Easiest Potato Kugel
Cauliflower Pudding
Matzo Brie
Charoses For Seder and Kneidlach for a Meat Meal (New York Post Monday, April 1 1968)
Potatoe (this is how she spelled it) Soup
Potatoe Pancake
Sour Cream Pancake
Mother’s Matzo Balls

Some of her friend’s recipes:

Pot Roast – Miriam
Baked Chicken – Lois
Chocolate Cake – Ruth
Chicken Fricasse – Irma
Goulash – Mrs. Schaer
Veal Cutlet – Jenny
Veal Loaf – Esther
Cold Slaw – Faith (Faith, I suspect, is my mother)
Dip – Ruth
Cake – Edith

There were also multiple recipes for types of ‘moulds’ (also her spelling) including: Beet and Horseradish Mould, Apple Mould and Strawberry Mould. I vaguely remember these being all the rage in the seventies.

A list of recipes I hope to try one day:

Sunday Morning Coffee Cake
Cheese Cake
Chocolate Bar Cookies
Icebox Cookies
Banana Cake

(Notice a theme?)

Here is something she called

Cookies Charlotte

1/2 pound of butter
1/2 cup cream cheese
4 cups flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 egg yolks (put whites aside and brush on top of cookies)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Roll into shape of salami (Yes, that is exactly what it says. Salami.) in wax paper and chill for about two hours. Cut cookies. Brush on egg white and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar or chopped nuts.

I never did find the recipe for Chicken-in-a-Pot.

Thanks for visiting.

This recipe comes from Sunset Magazine and is a bit different from most other pumpkin breads I’ve made. It’s a little spicy and includes mashed banana for extra fruity flavor.

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice or ground nutmet
3/4 cup (1/4 lb. plus 1/4 cup) butter or margarine, at rooom temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 large eggs
3/4 cup each canned pumpkin and mashed ripe banana
1/2 to 1 cup chopped walnuts, pecans or dates

Instructions
In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice. In another large bowl, beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition; then stir in pumpkin and banana. Add flour mixture and stir just until dry ingredients are evenly moistened. Stir in walnuts.

Spread batter evenly in two greased, floured loaf pans. Bake in a 350 degree oven until a wooden skewer inserted in centers of loaves comes out clean (about one hour).

Let bread cool in pans on racks for about five minutes; then turn out onto racks to cool completely.

Thanks for playing along with me on Project Quick-Bread. Now the work begins. This weekend my plan is to make many many loaves of the recipes I’ve posted this month and the gift giving begins. My thought is that each gift will contain three mini loaves. I’m a little stumped about how to present them cleverly. Jessica suggested baking boxes, which I like, but need to locate and don’t want to spend too much money on. If anyone has any thoughts, please share them — I’m open.

We’re in snow day mode here and this Mama can’t wait. My plans involve taking Quinn for his first snow walk and serving hot cocoa to Jake while he sits at the kitchen table in his long johns and wet clothes dry on the heater — pink cheeks all around. I’m heading into the garage now to look for the sled. If I’m not back in a few hours, send in the troops!

Oh, one more thing: happy birthday Niall. I love you.

Quinn is against hats. (He doesn’t much care for shoes either, but that’s a different post.) So I knit a pilot-style cap thinking that a tie at the chin would be enough. Wrong. Enter necessity, the mother of invention.

(It’s hard to take a photo of an unsteady, newly-walking toddler.)

I’m calling this an Astronaut Hat and so far his objections have been limited. Here’s a link to the pattern if you’re so inclined. I’ve written it in two sizes ’cause that’s just the kinda gal I am.

On to Project Quick-Bread.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to quick breads. There is oil or shortening as a ‘wet’ base or a dairy (i.e. buttermilk or yogurt) ingredient. After years of trying different recipes I’ve concluded that for my money, sour cream is the way to go in a banana bread. You can’t beat the moistness and it adds just the right kick. As loathe as I am to admit it, Martha Stewart’s recipe has become my go-to. And without further ado I give you my favorite banana bread recipe:

Oven:
350 degrees

Yield:
1 loaf

Ingredients:
1/4 pound unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed very ripe banana (about three bananas)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (I leave these out)

Instructions:
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, beating well. Sift the dry ingredients together and combine with butter mixture. Add the bananas, sour cream and vanilla. Stir in nuts if using. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean (about one hour). Turn out loaf onto cooling rack.

Tomorrow: Fruited Pumpkin Bread

So last night my husband (not so) gently said “Honey, this carrot raisin bread recipe posted on your blog is getting old. Don’t you need to post something new?” Truth is: I’m not much for the holiday season and I often try and glide through it without actually acknowledging it’s occurrence. I was kind of afraid to admit that here to you my festive, holiday-loving friends but couldn’t think of a way to post at this time of year without acknowledging it. After years of considering why I feel this way, my conclusion is that it comes from growing up in a household where Christmas wasn’t celebrated (if you’ve been reading for a while, you know I’m Jewish). On some level I always felt left out and a teeny tiny bit resentful. Over time I’ve reconciled it and found ways to participate in the spirit of the season, but my general distaste for the commercialism of the holiday has remained. We do what we can to “put the Christ back in Christmas” as it were, but that’s all the more difficult when you don’t actually celebrate Christmas.

So, that’s why I dropped off the face of blog-land. And thanks to those of you who checked in on me. I’m probably going to hold my breath until January at which point I plan to come up for air and be really really cheerful. In the meantime, let’s rejoin our quick bread project already in progress.

Today’s recipe comes to us courtesy of Andrea from The Little Collection. This is her Orange Nut Bread recipe. Thanks Andrea.

Oven: 350 degrees
Yield: one loaf

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups unsifted flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
1/2 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons grated orange zest
2 tablespoons water
1 cup chopped nuts (Andrea’s mom used walnuts, but she prefers pecans)

Instructions:
Grease and sugar a standard loaf pan.
In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, combine eggs, butter, orange juice, zest and water.
Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir to combine. Add nuts and incorporate.

Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean (about one hour). Remove from pan and cool on wire rack.