Winter Doldrums

While I do love January and the quiet after all of the holiday crazy, winter in northeast Wisconsin can seem monotonous.  For the first week it was so cold the most I could walk was a mile outside.  I'd come back in with my scarf all wet from breathing.  However we have had a little break and I've been able to get back outside at least for some after school walks.  For the moment I'm running on my treadmill for about 3-4 miles and doing yoga.  So what do we do over the winter.  Well there's always lighting a fire, reading a book and recently I picked up my knitting.  I haven't knit in a while due to elbow pain, but I just wear by tennis elbow brace and carry-on.  I'm currently working on a scarf with this beautiful variegated light yarn.  The bowl is a hand-made knitting bowl and for the most part it keeps me from getting my yarn tangled up.  

My husband and I almost always try something new in the kitchen.  Last year we grew mushrooms and this year we are making extracts.  There are many recipes on the internet so we decided to try.  The only change we made was to use everclear instead of vodka.  With this change you need to mix equal parts water and everclear with the vanilla bean, just please don't use straight everclear. We've made vanilla, almond, coconut and cinnamon extracts.  They are all waiting to be ready with the exception of the cinnamon that I've used in my coffee.   The cinnamon extract imparts a sweetness without any grittiness.  We just keep all of these in a dark area and shake every once in a while.  I hope they will be ready soon.

How do you choose to chase the doldrums away?

As always with love from the Midwest,

Beth 

What I've Been Cooking

So last week was our winter break.  I'm so lucky to have time off from school to bake and try new things.  I'm also extremely blessed to have a daughter who likes to find new recipes in various blogs and my cookbooks and a family who is willing to try anything.  So we spent the last week eating a few new breakfasts.  The first one was Ginger Bread Panckaes.  These a lot of spice flavor and are made with buttermilk which is always my favorite.  I just served them with maple syrup and they were delicious. My children thought a lot of whipped butter would be even better with them, and they are probably right. 

Next up was a  Cinnamon Sugar Dutch Baby Casserole.  This was great on Christmas morning with fruit and bacon.  The dish was light and fluffy and was also delicious with a touch of maple syrup.  I really love maple syrup.   The only problem according to my 14 year old son is that there is not enough of it.  

And last was a Cinnamon Roll French toast.  I love cinnamon rolls, but I'm a morning exerciser and I really am not going to get up exercise and then take 2 hours to cook a breakfast. I'd be starving.  This was super easy to put together the night before and the next day it just needed to have a cinnamon sugar drizzle put on top and then the cream cheese glaze after cooking.  Again served with fresh fruit and coffee it is a delicious breakfast.

So what have you been cooking for breakfast?  Perhaps this has given a bit of inspiration.  As always Bon Appétit and with love from the Midwest,

Beth 

 

Truffles and More

This past week I've been baking more and more cookies.  Some are the same I've already made this season, sugar and gingerbread, and others are not, peppermint chocolate crinkle and truffles.  The chocolate truffles are new this year.  I found the recipe here.  This was the first time I made truffles and the recipe worked out beautifully.  I made them a little smaller than the 1 oz size suggested.  I like more little things on my plate (sometimes) than a few large things.  I decided to just dust them with coco powder next time I might get a little bit fancier.  

My daughter recently found this recipe for Winter Solstice Cake   I love carrot cake and I think the addition of winter seasonings would be really good.  

What I'm reading: Pancakes in Paris.  Craig Carlson sets up an american diner in Paris. Culturally it is a very interesting read, and as well as for anyone who ever thought about opening a restaurant. 

I wish you a Merry Christmas, Bon Appétit

and as always with love from the Midwest,

Beth 

A Week in December

Everyone says this is the busiest time of year.  It is busy, but certainly not as crazy as September.  What have I been up to? Well honestly I've been baking cookies, reading, picking up my knitting again and we also squeezed in a trip to Chicago, along with work of course.  

Chicago is one of my favorite cities; I was born there so I'm a bit biased. But really its a beautiful city and right on Lake Michigan.  My husband and son and I went down for an overnight and spent Saturday walking along Michigan Ave doing a little Christmas shopping.  Of course we had lunch at the Peninsula - my favorite lunch spot in the city.  One of my favorite things about this time of year is the Christmas lights and I so loved seeing all of the lights as it got later and later. 

As I mentioned I've also been baking. Gingerbread cookies are one of my favorite and I love a good rum ball.  The original recipe called for bourbon but I really don't like bourbon so I switched it up for rum.  See below for the recipe.  

Rum Balls

2 boxes Nilla Wafers - I crush them up in the food processor

2 cups ground walnuts - again I use my food processor

2 cups powderd sugar

2 Tbl. coco powder

7 Tbl. corn syrup

1 cup good quality rum

Combine first four ingredients in a large bowl and mix. Then add the corn syrup and rum.  Pinch and roll into 1" balls and roll in granulated sugar.  Let the balls sit on a cookie sheet for a day and then put in a cookie container.   I like to let mine sit for about 1 week before I start eating them.  But that is all up to taste.

Enjoy!

As always with love from the Midwest,

Beth 

Behind the scenes Thanksgiving

During one of my favorite holidays my middle daughter was just taking pictures of our food throughout the day.  Since it was Thanksgiving she took a lot of pictures of random food.  However this gave me inspiration for today's blog post.  I thought it would be fun to see what went on behind the scenes, the mess and what else we ate during the day.  There are no pictures of breakfast since I did my annual turkey trot with my oldest daughter and everyone else was left to fend for themselves. 

Lunch included shrimp cocktail, salad with house-made vinaigrette and hearts of palm.  Estancia chardonnay was the beverage of choice. It is a holiday after all. 

Of course we had our turkey. I like to grill mine on my Big Green Egg.  In addition to the turkey we had sweet potato apple purée, garlic mashed potatoes, angle biscuits, cranberry sauce and broccoli.  The biscuits were new this year and I must say delicious. To drink Joel Gott Zinfandel, I love zinfandel with just about everything. 

To finish of course we saved room for some dessert, Pecan Pie and Apple Pie.  We're really not big pumpkin pie fans.  

I hope you really enjoyed your Thanksgiving as much as we did.

As always with love from the Midwest,

Beth 

Back in Door County

I know I mention it a lot, but Door County is one of my favorite places especially in the winter.  We were luck enough to get up there last weekend in the snow. In the winter there a so many less people, and with the snow it is very cozy.  Most of our winter weekends we love to sit by the fire and read, talk or play games and go for walks when the snow isn't too deep.   Some of our favorite places to out for a meal are White Gull Inn for breakfast and the Bayside for lunch, both in Fish Creek, WI.  As for dinner, well there is nothing quite so nice as staying home enjoying preparing and eating a delicious meal and wine.  I thought I'd share a couple of pictures from our breakfast. 

Cherry Pancakes

Eggs Benedict with a side of hash browns

Caramel apple french toast

Hope your weekend was as delightful as mine.

As always with love from the Midwest,

Beth

A week in November

Well the weather has gotten a lot cooler, and I'm definitely bundling up for walks and runs when I'm outside.  However the change in weather does bring some positives. For one it makes me take stock in what I have in my freezer and see what I have.  My children have been helping me eat all of our bread in the past few months.  Mind you it's not a problem however it is a new phenomenon.  In the past it was just me -now it's 2 more and our daughter in college also requires homemade goodness, which I'm happy to supply. So luckily I had some time the other day and some local zucchini. I was shocked I could still get several fruits when I was at our last farmers' market.  Well when I shredded it up I had 4 cups worth -so enough for 2 loaves of regular zucchini bread and 2 chocolate.

Also this last weekend I went down to visit my daughter in Madison.  It was so great to see her and to enjoy Madison's food scene, which is truly fantastic. My new favorite breakfast café is Bloom Bakeshop. I had a Florentine eggs Benedict on biscuits and it was to die for.  Of course after breakfast we needed a walk so picnic point was just what we needed. The trees were all yellow and orange and the wind was calm as was the water. 

I just love the jade cake stands. I think if I were to open a bake shop it would look like this.

Of course one other nice thing about November is the cooling temperatures and the lack of daylight mean I spend a little more time reading.  This month I'm reading Empty Mansions.  It is the story of  heiress Huguette Clark.  The book can be a bit slow, but it really is a fascinating read.  Right now I need a book that I can read for 15-20 minutes here and there so it is perfect.

I hope your week was equally enjoyable and you are able to appreciate the change in seasons in someway.

As always with love from the Midwest,

Beth