I’m baking this year as well, but here is a look back to previous Decembers.
French Christmas Sablés (I admit I had my concerns of the flavour, but they grew on me as I ate. When I had guests, these biscuits disappeared very quickly.)
Jewish cakes (Always a big hit)
Mastering the Art of French Eating: Lessons in Food and Love from a Year in Paris by Ann Mah
I’m currently working my way through the Julia Child memoir of living in Paris. I seem to be on a Paris book-kick at the moment. (Julia Child, David Lebovitz, Laura Florand and Lauren Willig, to name a few.) This memoir seemed to tie nicely into it, and looked like a fun read.
Ann Mah and her husband moved to Paris for her husband’s diplomatic job. Only when they got there, he was stationed in Iraq for a year. She took to exploring the country and its food history, and trying to manage on her own.
On the way, there are recipes, and stories of trying to make friends. The best story was inviting total strangers home to cook together, just because you happen to like the same restaurant. I would love to eat those dumplings.
To be honest, there is a bit too much jumping around in this book for my taste. The chapters lack a certain fluidity between them, and feel like articles stuck together in a book. I actually ended up reading it that way, which I found worked much better for me.
In the end it all comes together, and I am definitely going to try to make boeuf bourguignon, and maybe some of the other recipes from it.
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Butter is one of those things I’ve been wanting to make for a while.
My mother used to warn me (and I believe that it also says so on the cream carton) that if I whipped the cream too much, it would turn into butter.
I was curious to see how long it took.
The answer – disturbingly little time. (Definitely going to be minding the time when I whip cream from now on.)
I used the recipe from The Traveler’s lunchbox. as a base. I essentially used the cream I had in the house (0.5 liter), which was about to go bad – so I had to use it for something…
I would probably have ended with a better result if I had gone to a farm for cream, and less-processed, more natural yogurt, for the recipe, but what I got with store-bought cream and yogurt was pretty good.
I sprinkled it with Maldon sea salt.
At least on a slice of rye bread, with some rhubarb jam on the side. Rye bread aside, it tasted like France.
I have plums. My plum trees are currently maturing like crazy.
I made plum chutney back in 2011, which was pretty easy and neat. But right now, I wanted to try my hand at something new. (Plus, something easier…)
My mother has this fruit steamer system that you can make cordial in. Essentially, a pot of water (#1) at the bottom, a pot to collect the cordial in (#2) and one meshed pot to have on top for the berries/fruit to start out in (#3) – from which they will drain to #2 as they get steamed.
It’s really quite easy, apart from the clean up. (If you don’t have a steamer, it looks pretty easy to make it in regular pots as well, see link to the recipe below.)
I used the list of ingredients from this recipe from Australian Gourmet Traveller as my basis ( I had 3.4 kg plums with the stones still in them, so I multiplied to match the ratios).
Since I have the steamer system, I added everything into the steamer straight away. I also included the vanilla pods with the plums, to infuse it even further.
I found this recipe to be a bit more interesting in terms of final taste than if I’d just added plums and sugar to the mix.
I am grateful for my sense of taste because it means that I can buy a basket of Norwegian strawberries, take a bite and be transported back to my childhood.
Sitting on the steps to my grandmother’s garden in the south of Norway and eating the same brand of strawberries with my dad.
Even if I’m closing in on 30, and it is at least 24 years ago.
Nifty trick for squeezing lemons to get all the juice out.
Trick for Squeezing Lemons – Martha Stewart Food.
Admittedly, I haven’t tried it, and it seems like something that could quickly get messy unless you’re doing it as pictured or over a larger bowl.
But it could be practical for when the recipe calls for the unspecified “juice of x lemons” instead of tablespoons or milliliters. I’d probably do it over a sieve to catch the stones, though.
I’ve been trying out Once A Month Mom cooking this weekend. I now have a lot of delicious-smelling dishes in my freezer.
It’s breakfasts, lunches and dinners – and you get the shopping lists for all the dishes as well as recipe cards, and the order of cooking to maximize time.
Lessons learned (remember this next time):
Ikea in December is a dangerous place if you’re trying to be healthy.
They have a gingerbread and gløgg-stand every five minutes, and even if you just ate… You will be inspired enough to partake in goods from all of them.