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 

Lots of Peppers

This was the last Saturday of our outdoor farmers' market.  My husband and I went all bundled up as it as about 35 degrees. We've had several frosts so we weren't expecting much, but we wanted to support the vendors.  Boy were we wrong.  Of course there were the squash, I have a bushel basket full of squash - hoping they  don't go bad before I get to them.   And of course there were potatoes and other root vegetables, but there were a ton of peppers and the very last of the tomatoes. I also was lucky enough to pick up some bock choy, broccoli and lettuce.  Now the question is what to do with all of the peppers when I got them home. Some of them I cut up and froze, but the others I decided to try a new dish to me Pipérade - it's like a French salsa.  I served it as a side with our macaroni and cheese the first night.  The next day I just reheated it, always love that, and served along side an omelet.  The Pipérade keeps for about 3-4 days in the refrigerator and can be served cold, hot or a room temperature.  How perfect is that? 

This recipe comes from The Bonne Femme  by Wini Moranville. (This is really a great book if you are looking for a new cookbook.)  But really it is a question of sauteing sliced peppers, onions, salt and pepper in olive oil. After allowing them to soften for about 10 minutes I added the tomatoes.  The recipe calls for canned, but I just used fresh since I had them.  Towards the end of the cooking time, about 5-8 minutes later, add minced garlic, 1/2 tsp paprika and 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper. Saute for an additional 30 seconds to a minute.  You can serve right away or just take off the heat until ready to use.  

Bon Appétit!

and as always with love from the Midwest,

Beth  

Apples for Breakfast

Generally I don't think of apples as a go to breakfast fruit. I don't know why not, they fall in the fruit category which I always have for breakfast.  However I found this recipe years ago for baked apples, and I look forward to it every fall. Of course it also work well in the winter. I'm still eating local apples which makes this recipe to me all the better.  It's super quick to make since you don't have to peel the apples and it cooks in the microwave. I make enough for the week on Sunday and my mornings are that much easier during the week.

Baked apples 

About 6 chopped apples (don't peel) - I use a 8 x 8" microwave safe dish

Cinnamon to taste

 1/4 c sugar - raw cane sugar or brown sugar works quite well

 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans - really whatever nut you like for a little protein

1/4 c water

sometimes I add some dried cherries or cranberries depending on my mood

Microwave for 20 minutes.  The apples will be soft but still have some shape.  These are all rough measurements of course add more or less of anything for your personal preference.

Bon Appétit!

And as always with love from the Midwest,

Beth