2nd Cookie - Pebbernodder

Okay - so it doesn't look like much now, but this is just the dough that I mixed up last night.

This is 2 cups butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
5 cups flour
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
4 teaspoons ground cardamon
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

I really like these with a nice cup of tea.  Crisp. Spicy.  Little gnocchi puffs of cookie!

I'll bake these off tonight and mix the next batch up - and no, I haven't decided what.  Probably snickerdoodles.

Oh!  And just an FYI.  I don't know where the recipes came from.  My mother taught me them when I was very young and I wrote them out on recipe cards - so I don't have the original sources to credit.  So if you know that and would like me to add that to the post - just drop me a comment or email.

Also - since most of the cookies take a day or so to finish, I'll edit the original recipe post to add the finished photo once they're done.

Yay cookie time!

First Cookie - Rum Balls

So tonight I start baking for the holiday.  Usually my DH and I gift cookies - and it has to start somewhere.  What better place to start than with rum balls?  They have to age a little bit to mellow the rum - then they turn practically into a cordial - crisp sugar outside, chocolate walnut inside and a rum center.  Personally, I'm not a fan, but he says they're good - so I will make them.

2 boxes Nilla wafers - crushed
2 cups chopped walnuts
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
2/3 cup dark rum
2/3 cup corn syrup

Crush the wafers, add the cocoa and walnuts.  Mix it up to get it all incorporated.  Start adding the rum and syrup - a couple tablespoons of each at a time.  Depending on the humidity you may use it all or not.

Roll into balls and coat with colored sugar.  Place in airtight container and let them sit for at least 3 days if not longer.

Enjoy!

In Memorial

Yesterday was Memorial Day, so as we do every year, my DH and I made our way over to the services to remember the veterans who died fighting for our county.

I've always found this a hard holiday. I certainly don't see it as a celebration. I view it as a day of mourning. Many of my family have served in the military. Many are serving now.

On Memorial Day I think about my family and my neighbors families and all that we have lost. Not a happy occasion.

But a good time to reflect and remember.

Pink and blue

The bridge was washed in pink tonight even though the sky was blue. It's that time of year when the sun sets at just the right time to make everything pink.

I think it has something to do with Valentine's Day.

So do you think that if Valentine's Day was in the fall, the official colors would be yellow, red and gold?

Hey, it could happen.

Boo!

With all of the storm action, we totally forgot about Halloween.  It's on a Wednesday this year.  Last year we had no trick or treaters.  This year we didn't even give it a second thought - until our pup started barking like someone was at the door while I was making dinner.  (Still no trains - loving my 10 second commute!)

My DH went to check on it.  One of the neighborhood children - the cutest little princess fairy you've ever seen! - was trick or treating.  "Honey, we've got a trick or treater!"  Uh oh!

I quickly scanned the pantry - surely there was something to give this child!  Oatmeal ... flour ... saltine crackers ... tomatoes.

Things were looking grim.  Then I spotted the apples leftover from my pie-a-thon. (Picture courtesy of nyapplecountry.com)

I polished one up, handed it my DH and wished him luck.

Fortunately, the princess-fairies' mom was near.  Fortunately she knows us.

My DH apologized for the healthy treat and the princess-fairy was slightly mollified.  (It was a really big apple.)  He chatted with the mom for a few minutes and then waited as they made their way back to the street, then quickly doused the front porch light.  Oops!

It wasn't until later that I remembered that old tale about the razor blade that someone supposedly stuck into an apple - an article in the New York Times that turned out to be a hoax.  And yet, after almost 40 years of repetition, the hoax part is forgotten and the only thing that remains is the tale - believed by many.  The end result - pretty much the worst thing you can give a kid on Halloween is an apple.

Tootsie Rolls - most often on the worst candy to give on Halloween lists - would have been a much better choice.  Any packaged candy.  Any packaged chocolate.  But an apple?  Oh dear!  (For the record, I love Tootsie Rolls - especially the mini ones you get a Halloween!)

I guess the even worse thing was that our house is known for having a cooler full of chocolate candy on Halloween.  Every year when it falls on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday, we fill a huge cooler to the brim and any child brave enough to get to the porch is welcome to dig in with both hands and take as much as they want.  I say "brave enough" because our driveway is dark and lined with arborvitae - and frequently my DH hides in the arborvitae with a scarecrow and then pops it out just as the kids are passing by.  Not the little kids - that wouldn't be nice!  You can hear the kids as they approach daring each other to be the first to go down the drive - boasting how they aren't afraid - then laughing and screaming when my DH surprises them.

But all the little princess-fairy got was an apple.  I felt like the Wicked Witch of the West - or the Evil Queen in Snow White.

It'll be 2 years before Halloween falls on a Friday again, but next year I think I'll have to put aside a special little bag of really yummy candies for a little princess-fairy.  It's only fair, right?

1st Blog-a-versary

A year ago - for some bizarre reason known only to the me from a year ago - I decided to start writing this blog.

I was driving past Farmer Sophie's place and the cows were out grazing - it really summed up the reason that my DH and I moved here from the city.  So bucolic.  So pastural.  So calming.

My sisters (hi sis! hi sis!) and brother (hi bro!) got a chance to see where I'm living and what's up.  My friends got a chance to see what in the world would be worth commuting so far every day.  When my friend L- got into her accident, she got to keep up with the outside world as she healed.

My mother, though, doesn't have a computer.  Well, she has a computer, but she isn't a big online computer kind of person.

So to celebrate my 1st year of blogging, I'm podcasting all of my posts and recording them onto a DVD  with the photos and pictures and sending them to her for Christmas.

I can't think of a better way to celebrate a year with you than to share it with her.

So - happy 1st blog-a-versary!  Here's to another year of gardening, baking, chainsaws, haiku, diesel engine maintenance, knitting, puppies, charities, DH, friends, flowers, commuting, sheep in the country, sheep in the city and all other kinds of things!

Week's End

For some reason, this 3-day weekend seems to me to be a special one.  I'm not sure why.

Maybe it's because I have no plans or obligations.  I can simply get some things done around our bucolic manor with no time deadlines or pressure.

I haven't set any alarm clocks.  I've no appointments.  No commitments.

It's just a 3-day weekend stretched out ahead of me with endless possibilities.

What should I do first?

I've got it!

Sleep.

Extravaganza!

My DH teases me about this, but that's okay with me.  The thing is, my birthday celebration isn't just one single day - it's a weeklong extravaganza!

It starts the weekend before my day and it goes until the following Monday.  Each day is an opportunity to celebrate...me!

I can get away with this because there are no national holidays this month.  No distractions from the glorious day that is my day - and a weeklong celebration.

Mostly I get away with it because 9 times out of 10, I have to work on my birthday so we have to move the acknowledgement of it from the actual day to a weekend.  Initially this was no fun.  So I came up with the birthday extravaganza! concept.  That made it fun.

Even my train friends are into the celebration this year - they threw me a party.  Well, 2 parties actually since my morning train buddies and my evening train buddies are 2 different groups.  Friday we had a breakfast party and then today we had a dinner party.

Chinese food on the train.  I'm not sure how they did it, but they managed to convince a Chinese restaurant to deliver the food to the track at Grand Central Station, so it was piping hot when we all sat down to eat.  I was very impressed with their delivery ordering skills.

When you ride the same train each day, you get to know the people you ride with.  So when we can come up with a reason to break bread together, it's usually a lot of fun.  Especially when it's topped off with Magnolia's chocolate chocolate cupcakes (with sprinkles).

Our little group had a good time tonight and everyone left with a smile.  That's really what the extravaganza! is all about.

(Well that, plus the whole me thing!)

My Day

Today is my day.  In the strong birthday tradition that my DH and I observe, everything I do today is absolutely correct, right and proper.  Every word I utter is a pearl of wisdom.  The very ground I tread upon is fortunate to feel my step.  (He gets the same on his day.)

It's a beautiful thing.

My friend L- and her award winning husband-of-the-year, Ed, were so sweet and had my DH and me over for dinner to celebrate my day.  She got me an ice cream cake!  I've actually never had an ice cream cake for my day before, which is kind of strange considering that it is summer and one would think that it would be the perfect type of cake for summer.  But somehow over the years, not once have I had ice cream cake for my day.

It was wonderful!

My DH got me some lovely orchids - which I absolutely adore because: 1-they don't die, 2-they bloom a long time, 3-he's going to take care of them so they'll keep flowering for years to come.  I think that's the best part.  Since he cares for them, it really is a gift.  There's no work to be done.  Ever.

I just love this day!

And thank you! to everyone for the best wishes!  You are so sweet!!

Bingo!

It's that time of year again - Bingo time!  Each 4th of July, our volunteer fire department puts on a carnival and one of their fundraisers is --- BINGO!

It's the silliest thing when you think about it.  Playing Bingo outside in the heat and humidity.  And I never win.  But we showed up early to get good seats.

Maybe a bit too early, but that just gave us time to sip on a cool beer while we waited for the sound system to get hooked up.

I got my cards and sat and chatted.  The tent fills up pretty quickly - Bingo is quite popular in our little town.

Finally all systems were set and we were good to go - the game was on!  I left my DH at home doing chores in preparation for the party on Friday, but my neighbor S- (Hi, S-!) kept me company.  He won, I lost.   But it was tons of fun as always.

Of course I'll try to go back again before the carnival closes on Saturday, but knowing me, I'll probably not make it.  That's why it was so great to be able to skip out tonight and play.

Sometimes you just have to make time for fun!

Stressing

We're having a party!  On Friday!  We've invited lots of people!  And they're going to come to the party!  Ack!!!

I should explain.  Every year my DH and I have a party during our town's July 4th fireman's parade.  It goes right past our front door.  We stand out on the front lawn and cheer them on.  They are volunteer firemen - they deserve cheers.

We send out invitations in May.  It's a large party and requires a lot of planning and coordinating and time to pull it off.

This year, because we are so involved in the Garden Club's tour, we decided to NOT have a party.  We sent no invitations.  We did no preparation.  There was no planning.

Last night, my DH decided that we should go ahead and have the party.  We sent out invitations.  People responded - they are coming.  In 2 days.

I get that this is his favorite event of the year.  I get that people look forward to our party and they have a great time.  I fully understand all of this.

But this gives me only 2 days to put the party together.  Yikes!

Step 1 - Menu

  Hot Dogs
  Potato Salad (homemade)
  Baked Beans (homemade)
  Chips
  Brownies (homemade)
  Ice Tea
  Lemonade
  Beer

I think I must have been temporarily insane when I agreed...

Whatever

Today being Friday and all.  And today being the Friday of a holiday weekend and all.  Well, it was filled with such promise.

But it turned into a super busy day with not much to show for it at the end.  Then our refrigerator decided to take a try at becoming a heater.

I know it could have been worse, right?

Anyway, I thought that the best way to put the fun back in Friday would be to give you a game.  And since I know a certain someone (hi L!) likes jigsaw puzzles, I've made the picture above into a little puzzle for you to play with some help from the folks at flash-gear.com

So scroll down to the puzzle and have some fun! And I hope you had a good Friday.

provided by flash-gear.com

Spotted Dog

I found the recipe card just in time for St. Patrick's Day.  I'm not sure where I got the recipe - I've had it for many many years, but I am sure it is the best soda bread recipe I have.  Actually, since it has raisins, it is really Spotted Dog, but just leave them out if you prefer plain soda bread.

Sift together 2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 1/2 Tablespoons sugar and 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg.

Cut in 6 Tablespoons shortening.

Stir in 2/3 cups raisins, 2 teaspoons caraway, and 1 cup buttermilk.

Knead the sticky mess for 1-2 minutes.  It will come together and smooth out.

Shape into a round then cut a 1/4-inch "X" in the top of it.

Bake it for 45 minutes at 375-degrees until it sounds hollow when tapped.

After you pull it from the oven, guard it carefully for at least 15 minutes so that no hungry men come around and pull off huge hunks of it before the steam inside sets a bit.

Then cut it up into chunks and serve with creamy butter slathered all over the top.

Usually I end up making about 4 of these on St. Patrick's Day.  1 for the dinner table, 1 for snacking on and the others for neighbors who seem to just show up at the door for some unknown reason...

Irish Time is Near

St. Patrick's Day is coming this week and the traditions must be observed.

This corned beef and cabbage is a good representation of what I'll be serving come dinnertime on St. Patrick's Day.  The ingredients are few, but they are specific.  So tonight I went to the grocery store(s) to make sure I have what will be needed for this weekend.

St. Patrick's Day Grocery List

Corned Beef & Cabbage:  Corned Beef, Green Cabbage, White Potatoes, White Onion (jumbo), Carrots, Guinness Stout (bottles), Bay Leaf, Peppercorns, Sea Salt.

Irish Coffee:  Jameson Whiskey, Coffee, Heavy Cream

Irish Soda Bread (Spotted Dog): Flour, Raisins, Caraway Seeds, Salt, Baking Soda, Sugar, Buttermilk

These are the 3 dishes I make every year on St. Patrick's Day.  Since they are really plain foods - not a lot of sauces and seasonings - the key is to make sure the ingredients are very fresh so that the taste of the food shines.  The boiled potatoes should taste like the creamiest potatoes you have ever had.  The corned beef should practically melt in your mouth.

That's the goal.  There are the ingredients.  Now I just have to find my recipe cards!

It's okay, though, I have all week...

Leap Day

I don't know why it was such a tiring day.  Maybe because it was an extra one? Anywho... So I found myself at Starbucks after work... and since I was there, I figured I should at least get something... It would be rude not to, right?

Ahhh - venti latte.  Perfect thing for an afternoon pick me up on a cold wet extra February day.

This is one of the reasons I just love working in the city.  The luxury of lattes to go any time of day or night.

Yum.  Happy Leap Day!

The Best Part

This is the best part about having a day at home.  From the start of the day (maybe a little earlier than I had hoped) until bedtime, my little pup is right there.  Playful, cute, attentive and smart.  

She's a good girl and I just love spending the day with her.

Happy President's Day!

Flower Time in the City

Yesterday being Valentine's Day and all was *the* day for flower sales in Manhattan - and if there's one thing I love, it's flowers.  There are a few different levels of flowers I have gotten over the years.  There are the delivered FTD bouquets that come to the office, the custom florist bouquets for office or home and then the pre-packaged bouquets.

These are the florists prepackaged bouquets.  Very traditional roses with baby's breath.   These are the roses that the florist is trying to salvage from his flower order.  The good ones with lots of petals are inside in the refrigerator.  For these ones, he has stripped off the dying outer petals and added baby's breath.  They are quite lovely and have a lot of petals still left on them so you can get about 3-5 days worth of life out of them.  The problem is, they are sold in bunches of 6.  6 roses is not a dozen.  

These are the deli roses - the ones sold in the buckets outside of the corner deli.  Pick up a sandwich, 6-pack and a bunch of roses - perfect!  These are fun bouquets because they have a mix of flowers.  You get a few of your basic roses, but they also add in any other red or white flower.  You won't see much baby's breath here (it's actually kind of expensive), but you will see lilies, gerbera daisys and those red berries left over from the Christmas wreaths.  These bouquets usually will last 7-10 days because of the lilies and the berries and I actually like them a lot.  I would split up the bouquet and put little bud vases around the house with different flowers in them.

These are my personal favorites - the flower cart roses.  You will find this woman (or her sister) at each and every subway and train station entrance just as rush hour begins on Valentine's day.  She has standard carnation mixes, roses with baby's breath and single roses individually wrapped at a really good price.  It's perfect!  Her flower distributor gets whatever the other guys didn't get from the flower district and she cleans them up and wraps them up for sale.

Maybe I like her best because she is out there "working it", really pushing (literally) her wares to the consumer.  I know that she's probably been up since well before dawn to get the flowers, prepare the flowers and then get her cart from all the way down in the flower district (28th Street) up to the station (125th Street).  And yet she's cheery and bright.  She must really love her family to be out here selling no matter what the weather.  

Some years her daughter sits with her.  During the summer she sells ices (rainbow, coconut, cherry and lemon-lime).  Her daughter is with her most of the time in the summer and her mom is teaching her business, encouraging her reading and summer studies.  They're pretty close.  For New Year's she sells funny glasses and noisemakers.  Whatever the holiday, she has the appropriate accessories for sale - and she loves to bargain the price.

To me, this woman really captured the heart of Valentine's Day with her steadfast, happy and hope-filled attitude.  It's not a flash-in-the-pan, it's her working and caring for family that matters.  It's what keeps her going.

I think that, more than anything, is a really good message for Valentine's Day.  (The love part - not the commerce!)

Snack Time Again

Fruit and cheese trays are so refreshing and delicious.  This one was the perfect balance to finish off the trilogy of snack trays from New Year's.

Since it was just me and my Dear Honey, I stuck with the things we both really enjoy.  

The cheeses would normally be something hard, something creamy and something stinky.  For the hard, I went with aged Asiago - nice and sharp.  The creamy was (of course) triple cream Brie.  Yummy!  And the compromise on the stinky was Jarlsberg.  

My honey loves blue cheese, but I am not a big fan - I probably just haven't had the right one!  We have an ongoing joke about asparagus because of this very thing.  We were vacationing with friends in the Outer Banks and trying to decide what to have for supper.  Our friend, a really great chef, wanted to know what I thought about asparagus.  We talked about all the ways to prepare it - grilled with balsamic and dipped in lemon butter is my favorite way to cook asparagus.

That evening, he proudly presented his grilled balsamic asparagus with lemon butter - at which point my Dear Honey told him that I don't like asparagus, even though I make it for him.  What!?  Well, I thought he was just talking about recipes and cooking!  It never dawned on me that he was actually planning a menu for the evening.  

Well, years have passed since that vacation and I have avoided asparagus ever since.  But.  A few weeks ago I was at a dinner and the dreaded vegetable was served.  There was no way to get out of it.  It would have to eat a full serving of asparagus.

It was blanched with a light balsamic vinaigrette.  There were 7 spears served to me.  The chef was awaiting my opinion... I tasted.  I chewed.  I swallowed.

I can honestly say it was the best asparagus I have ever had in my entire life.  It was a little crunchy and the dressing was perfectly balanced.  It was yummy!  I would eat it again (without being forced!).  I finally had asparagus that I liked.

I think the same thing will happen with blue cheese.  I just haven't found one I like yet - aside from the blue cheese dressing you eat with Buffalo wings, that is.

So back to the platter...

So there are the 3 cheeses - sort of balanced because Jarlsberg is kind of strong although not nearly as strong as a blue cheese.  And then there's the fruit.  I have red seedless grapes and oranges.

The grapes are sweet, crunchy and green to burgundy.  The oranges are acid, juicy and yellow orange.  So I would normally add a bright red (strawberry, not too juicy, moderately sweet this time of year) or a green (granny smith apple - tart, crisp, put some mint leaves around).  Since it was just us - I doubled up on what we liked a lot and left off the visual pop of color.

We really liked this fruit and cheese tray - and it was so super easy to put together.  It too only about 10 minutes of chopping.  Then I just left it out to let the cheese come up to temperature and it was perfect.

Sometimes simple is best.

Winter Flower Boxes

There are 20 flower boxes on the carriage house that need filling each season, so I'm always on the lookout for inspiration.  Luckily my walk to the office takes me past several apartment buildings where there are often great seasonal displays compliments of the great floral designers in Manhattan.

This particular building has both the large sidewalk planters as well as the smaller window boxes all decked out.  The thing I like about them is that they keep the year-round evergreen perennial bushes and just highlight the season's change with a simple addition of red berries, pinecones and a few fresh pine tree branches (to cover up where the pansies will go in spring).

The window box version doesn't have any bushes - it's way too small for that - so they add more pine branches and use bigger pinecones to tie the whole thing together.

We certainly have pine branches and pinecones growing on the property that we can use to decorate the window boxes, but we don't have any berry bushes that grow large enough berries to use in displays.  We have smaller red berries and holly bushes, but if I took those for decorating it would really cut down on the winter food supply for the birds.

Maybe this spring I'll find a pyracantha, callicarpa bodinieri or a nice viburnum that wants to come home with me.  I'll have to see which species fits with the history of the manor.  And we'll need to know if it would be a healthful additional to the food supply for all of the critters that eat everything we plant.

Plus, it will take a few years for it to get established enough to be able to harvest any berries for decoration.  And I'll have to learn how to prune it - which I always think of as amputating the limbs off of the plant.  I know, it's good for the plant and helps it grow strong.  But it still makes me cringe.  A lot.

At least if we grow the plants here, they won't be imprisoned...

I ask you - what could these plants have possibly done to deserve a life behind bars?

Midwestern Pate

What can I say - I'm a big fan of snack trays!  This is the savory tray I put together for New Year's Eve.  There are oil cured olives, prosciutto rolls, midwestern pate, hot italian sausage, creme fraiche, genoa salami and brine cured olives (in the middle).

Midwestern Pate is something that my mom used to make for special occasions when I was a kid.  Our grocery store didn't stock goose liver pate, so mom made this recipe.  Of course, some of the ingredients she used aren't available here - so I guess this is a compromise of a compromise recipe!

Here are the ingredients:  Braunschweiger (liverwurst), horseradish, scallions, salt & pepper, and a nice red wine.

Trim up the ends of the scallions - removing the roots and even-up the greens.

Chop them into really thin slices.

 As thin as you can get without chopping your fingers.

Chop up the greens too - they add a different dimension to the dish, don't you know!

 Toss the chopped scallions into a bowl.

Add the horseradish.  For this much Braunschweiger, I use two heaping teaspoons.  Let it drain a bit before adding to the bowl.

Nicely drained...

Add more if you like the spice!

Take the wrapper off of the braunschweiger... (Yes, I wear plastic gloves when I handle meat while cooking.)

And add it to the bowl.

Oh!  want to see the best, most well behaved puppy in the entire world?  Here she is!

Isn't she perfect?  Attentive, yet calm.  Holding a perfect "sit" position.  It must be all that training and practicing.  

Okay - it's the braunschweiger.  But she sat for 10 minutes without moving to earn this reward.  Good girl!

So all of the braunschweiger goes into the bowl - minus the treat for the puppy.

A scant teaspoon of salt.

Add a 1/2 teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper.

Smash up the braunschweiger with a fork - preferably not the the same one you just used to feed the dog.

Keep smashing it up...

And mix in the scallions and horseradish while you mash it together.

Now, depending on the moisture in the braunschweiger, you could use up to 1/2 cup of red wine.  So don't add it all at once - because this can quickly turn nasty as a soup.  (Trust me.  It's also why I'm using measuring cup instead of just pouring from the bottle...)

So pour in the wine a bit at a time.

And mix it together, adding enough wine to make it easily spreadable.

I only used 1/8th of a cup of wine this time.  I promise, the rest didn't go to waste!

Cover with plastic wrap, pressing down to make sure the wrap is touching the pate.

All ready to pop into the refrigerator.  Chill it for a few hours.  Overnight is even better.

And there you have it!  Midwestern pate.  Serve on crostini or crackers for a nice spicy treat.  Yum!