Good Taste: Christmas Feasting

I never appreciated how much good holiday food I've eaten in my life until I had to make it myself.  Of course, Thanksgiving means that the turkey and all the fixin's make it to the [beautifully decorated] table.  Christmas means another huge feast, not to mention, special breakfast, cookies, neighbor treats, gingerbread for the gingerbread houses, and oranges and nuts finding their way to the bottom of our stockings.  Somehow, all these years, the tasty food has always made it to the table, and the only considerations I made were how I could fit both the mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes on that little space still available on my plate.

 This being my first Christmas as the mom, it was enlightening to create the holiday food traditions.  In some ways, it was fun to bring old classic dishes from my home and new recipes that call for such a festive occasion.  In other ways, I missed sitting in my childhood kitchen, doing something small like peeling potatoes or making the salad while chatting with my mom, who was probably making five dishes simultaneously, pots on all burners, gently simmering away.  But, after all, I felt a kinship with my mom and her mom and all the mothers who came before, because our tradition of cooking holiday meals transforms any old December 25th into Christmas Day, the day of the Savior's birth!  What a good reason to celebrate!

This was our Christmas Eve feast:

Honey-Orange Ham

This recipe came from an old Martha Stewart Christmas issues--maybe 2004?  Anyway, it actually features the family of an old mission buddy of my husband's--Matt H., if you are our there, thank your mom for her great ham recipe!  Your Christmas in Midway was picture perfect!

1 whole smoked ham (14 to 18 pounds), bone in and rind on

1/2 cup honey

1/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 large onion, cut into 6 wedges

1 large orange, cut into 6 wedges

4 sprigs rosemary

1/2 cup cider vinegar

3 1/2 cups chicken stock

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Rinse ham with cool water; dry with paper towels.  Let stand, uncovered, at room temperature 1 hour.  Meanwhile, whisk together honey, orange juice, balsamic vinegar, and mustard; set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 300 degrees, with rack in lower third.  FIt a roasting pan with a rack and place ham, with the thicker rind on top, on rack.  Scatter onion and orange wedges and rosemary around ham on rack.  Transfer to oven and cook 1 hour.  

3. Remove pan from oven and let ham cool slightly.  Increase oven temperature to 350 degrees.  Trim fat all over the ham to a layer of about 1/4 inch (it does not need to be perfectly even; the bottom will have less fat and more skin).  Turn ham, bottom side down.  Score fat on top of ham in a diamond pattern, each 1 to 2 inches, cutting about 1/4 to 1/2 inch through the fat and into the meat.  Baste with honey mixture.  Add enough water to roasting pan to fill the bottom by about 1/4 inch.

4. Return ham to oven, and cook 1 hour more, basting often with remaining marinade (do not baste with pan juices).  If necessary, add water to pan to keep juices from burning.  Remove from oven; transfer ham to a serving platter; discard orange, onion, and rosemary.  Let stand 30 minutes before carving ham.

5. Meanwhile, make gravy: Strain liquid from roasting pan into a liquid measuring cup or bowl, and skim off fat from surface with a large spoon.  Place roasting pan over medium-high heat.  Add cider vinegar, and simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated.  Return defatted juices to pan along with 2 cups stock.  Bring to a boil, and let simmer.

6.  In a small bowl, whisk together remaining 1 1/2 cups stock and the flour; whisk into sauce.  Continue simmering until liquid is reduced by half and slightly thickened.  Season with salt and pepper.  Serve hot with ham.

Green Bean, Watercress, and Crispy Shallot Salad
Coarse Salt and Ground Pepper
1 Pound Green Beans, trimmed
1 cup vegetable oil, such as safflower
3 Shallots, thinly sliced crosswise into rings
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from one lemon)
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 bunch watercress, tough stems removed

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. [they say to have a big bowl of ice water ready to go to dunk the beans, but I just scoop up the green beans with my seive and rinse the beans in cold water from the faucet. Less messy and a lot less work.] Line a baking sheet with paper towels. Cook green beans in boiling water until bright green and crisp-tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Rinse in cold water to stop cooking. Cool green beans completely, then transfer to lined baking sheet and pat dry.

2. In a small saucepan, heat vegetable oil over medium-low. In a small bowl, toss shallots with flour. Working in three batches, fry shallots in oil until golden and crispy, 2 to 4 minutes. Transfer shallots to paper towels and season generously with salt.

3. In a small bowl, whisk lemon juice, mustard, and olive oil to combine; season dressing with salt and pepper. Place watercress on a serving platter and drizzle with half the dressing. Toss with green beans and remaining dressing. Serve sprinkled with shallots. [not being a huge fan of fried things, I couldn't get over how much I loved these shallots!! They seem like a sophisticated indulgence, even though they are glorified onion rings.]

And, for something sweet, I made another apple pie and a chocolate pistachio torte .  Love that death by chocolate.

I chickened out of making rolls, even after a good pep-talk and fabulous recipe from my friend and roll mentor, Kristy.  Instead, I delegated the rolls, along with a few other dishes to our gracious dinner guests.  Kristy, I will make dinner rolls successfully and give the full report.  That's a new year's resolution.

For Christmas morning, however, I attempted baking with yeast, for better or for worse.  I was equipped with an acclaimed orange roll recipe, tried and true among good friends, and can you imagine the perfect Christmas picture of opening presents, while the aroma of orange rolls waft through the house from the kitchen?!  I know!

I attempted Tiffany's famous recipe:

Out of this World Rolls

 2 packages dry yeast

1/3 cup warm water
3 eggs, well beaten
4 ½ cups flour
1 cup warm water
½ cup shortening
½ cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
Butter

Soften yeast in ¼ cup warm water. Let stand 10 minutes. Combine dissolved yeast, eggs, 2 ½ cups flour, 1 cup warm water, shortening, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Beat until smooth. Add remaining flour to make a soft dough. Cover. Let rise until double in bulk (about 1 hour.) Punch down and refrigerate overnight. Three hours before baking, roll out as desired. For dinner rolls, divide dough in half. Roll each half into a ½” thick rectangle. Spread with butter. Starting with the long side, roll up jelly-roll style. Cut in 1” slices. Place in greased muffin tins, cut side down. Cover. Let rise 3 hours. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 7 to 8 minutes or until slightly brown. YIELD: 2 ½ dozen rolls.

VARIATION: ORANGE ROLLS
1/3 cup butter
½ cup sugar
Rind of 1 orange, grated

Combine ingredients. After rolling dough into two ½” thick rectangles, divide above mixture and spread on ½ of each rectangle. Fold rectangles in half. Cut each into 12 strips with a pizza cutter. Pick up each strip and gently stretch, then tie into a knot. Place on greased baking sheet with edges, making sure the ends of the dough are tucked underneath roll. Let rise 3 hours. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 7 to 8 minutes or until slightly brown. Make sure they are baked through so they are not doughy. Drizzle with powdered sugar icing while warm. (Powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, dash of salt.)

Mine were good for the most part, except I think I made them maybe 3 times the size that they were intended.  My yield was maybe 12, instead of the recipe's suggested 2 1/2 dozen....so...when I pulled them out, they were pretty doughy in some spots.  I cut out the dough, and we enjoyed them thoroughly. 

To round things out, I made some yogurt parfaits.  I loved it, even though I suspect that the boys thought they were too girly somehow.  Sorry, guys, no egg casserole today!  Let's keep things a little lighter, shall we?

Pretty Pink Parfaits

2 cups strawberry yogurt

granola

frozen berries, thawed

1 banana

sweetened whipped cream

Layer in a parfait glass: yogurt, granola, berries, banana.  Repeat until parfait reaches the top of the glass and top with whipped cream and a tad more granola.

The Good [Handmade] Stuff: matchy matchy Christmas jammers

I sewed us all some matching pajamas to be opened on Christmas Eve (which turned out to be Christmas Eve morning, while we were still in our other jammers....I couldn't wait.) and my dreams of us all opening our presents on Christmas morning with our cheery pj pants was realized.


Did you see Shane's awesome shirt? "You're Fired! --The Donald"


It might be cheesy, but the boys totally loved it. I have to take advantage of Pete's enthusiasm for anything--before we know it, he will open his matchy jammers and roll his eyes, "Ah, Mom, you mean I have to wear this?! If I wear these pajamas, then I'll, like, match with you and dad!" I'll take Pete's reaction now, which is to put his pajamas on immediately and wear them as much as possible, while insisting that we do the same. Shane was way overdue for some nice warm jammer pants, and I lined his and Pete's with some very soft white flannel. I used the Simplicity pattern 8493, which is probably the most simple pattern possible.

I love the cut of my jammers! They fit perfectly around the waist and have lots of room in the legs for lounging. The pattern for these are in Amy Butler's book, In Stitches, along with some other really fantastic sewing projects that I hope to get to soon.

The Good [Kids'] Stuff: My favorite project yet

In keeping with my original plan to try and create an environment that can spark imagination, I've been thinking a great deal about the toys in our home. Because play is Pete's full-time job, it's important that he is surrounded with things that nourish his creativity. In brainstorming what to get him for Christmas, I kept thinking about a large canvas playmat that my mom made for my siblings and me. She still has it, and it continues to enchant any little visitors. It has no batteries, no small parts, and my mom's playmat still looks great after 30 years. I made one for Peter this year for Christmas and was really happy with the results...



Our playmat is set in New Haven, with our favorite spots: Modern Apizza, the medical school and hospital, our house and courtyard,the street carts where we eat our quesadillas, Lyman Orchards (which is great for the farm tractors and farm animals), our favorite beach, the Peabody Museum, Yale Art Gallery, Beinecke Library, and the theatre. We have the Bronx Zoo and Hartford Airport (which we know about really well) on the sides. There's also railroad around the periphery for trains, an ocean for ships, and a construction site for tractors.

This was a very time-consuming project, but I really loved every minute of it. This mat really captures my love of this place we live in and is both a fun thing to play with and a momento of our time here.
And Pete was ecstatic when he opened it up Christmas morning! Yay!

Good Taste: Winter Bark and Christmas Cookies

I can't recommend the winter bark enough--it's as simple as melting chocolate and it is really tasty.  From my few experiences with making chocolate bark, my observation is that the quality of the finished product lies completely with the quality of the ingredients.  I know, this is true of all cooking, but since there are so few ingredients in this treat, it makes all the difference.  You can find the recipe and cute packaging ideas here. Yum.  I bought the big pound of bittersweeet chocolate with almonds at Trader Joe's, and left out the peanuts.  The almonds and dark chocolate make it a very healthy option for Christmastime snacking.  Right?  right.

I made a variety of Christmas cookies.  I didn't venture into any new recipes, but just the tried and true, soft, tasty, I-want-to-eat-a-whole-batch sort of cookies.  

I made Ina Garten's Outrageous Chocolate Cookies:

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped [I use chocolate chips]

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

2/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 package (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chunks

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Heat chopped chocolate and butter in a microwave-safe bowl in 20-second increments, stirring in between, until almost melted; do not overheat.  In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

2. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla on high speed until light and fluffy.  Reduce speed to low; beat in melted chocolate.  Mix in flour mixture until just combined.  Stir in chocolate chunks.

3. Drop heaping tablespoons of dough 2 to 3 inches apart onto baking sheets.  Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until cookies are shiny and crackly yet soft in the centers, 12 to 15 minutes.  Cool on sheets 10 minutes; with a thin metal  spatula, transfer to racks to cool completely

*Don't worry if the batter seems thin.  It should look more like brownie batter than cookie dough.

Here is a great chocolate chip cookie recipe.  I use 1/2 cup shortening and 1/2 cup butter, rather than doing 1 cup butter.  The cookies firm up a bit better. It's a winner.

And, finally, here is my mom's trustworthy gingerbread people and gingerbread house dough recipe:

1 cup sugar

1 cup shortening

1 cup molasses

1 egg

1/2 cup hot water

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ginger

5 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Cream together sugar and shortening.  Beat in molasses and egg.  Add the hot water.

2. Sift together dry ingredients and gradually add to the wet mixture; at the end, I always end up using my hands to mix this together.

3. Form dough into 3 large balls, wrapping them in plastic wrap and refrigerate until you are ready to use them.

4. Bake at 350 degrees, 6-8 minutes for gingerbread mean and a little more for larger pieces, or until lightly browned.

Here's her Royal Icing recipe, which is great glue to hold together gingerbread houses:

3 egg whites (room temperature)

3 1/3 cups powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon cream of tarter

1. Combine and beat at a high speed for 7-10 minutes.  This dries very quickly, so keep covered with a damp cloth.

Merry Christmas!

The Good [Kids'] Stuff: Happy Halloween (maybe just a tad late.)

We had a grand Halloween this year.  My entire family congregated at my parents' house and we took our kids around the old family neighborhood.  Many of our neighbors are the same, and were surprised to see all of us back at their front doors, begging for candy 15 years later.  It was fantastic!

Because my time is limited in having complete control over Pete's costume, I wanted to do something sweet and kind of old fashioned, you know, before Pete insists on being Thomas or Diego or a power ranger.  I worked at the Beinecke Rare Book Library, which houses the James Barrie papers. These papers include Barrie's manuscripts, stage notes, costume designs, and sketches of his most famous play, Peter Pan.  This collection captures the imagination of anyone who spends time browsing its contents--Barrie's Neverland is truly magical.  Here are a few favorites:

This is the original Peter, made famous in Finding Neverland.

Having a little Peter of my own, I thought I'd try to figure out how to reinvent Barrie's Peter Pan with my very limited sewing skill set.  Not to mention that I ordered this pattern too late, and had my very nice friend ship it to me, arriving two days before Halloween.  And as I was in California, in an apartment we were renting for a month, I had only one pair of scissors that were mini scissors in a travel sewing kit.  I drove around lost, looking for the fabric store, but managed to find Joann's. Thank goodness my sister let me borrow her sewing machine!  October 29, the stars aligned and with pattern, tiny scissors, fabric, and sewing machine set up at the kitchen table, I spent the first few hours doing this:

Now, I didn't swear, but I was spouting threats like nobody's business.  As my husband was innocently sitting on the couch I was saying things like, "Oh man, in one minute, I'm going to swear." "Seriously, I'm going to swear", "I'm just going to GO OFF!" My husband said it wouldn't be a night of sewing with Becca without a few grumbles, moans, and swears under my breath.  I can't argue with that.  But, after a lot of all that, I got something figured out, and although it was nothing too impressive, it kind of resembled my original vision, and, well, I was just glad that Pete was able to wear something.  My perfectionism flew out the window long before the final fitting, and when Pete's head was too big to fit through the neck hole, I was perfectly happy to cut the collar at the neck to make room.  And, despite all the doozy mistakes that came with this project, Pete was perfectly happy with the final product.  I think he wore it for three days straight.  Way to validate your mama, Pete!

Good Taste: Roasted Chicken (or leftover turkey) Salad

I love this salad, because, as far as salads go, it's kind of cozy for the winter months. And this will be a very good next home for the leftover turkey, if there is any. Our leftovers last maybe 24 hours after the big meal. This makes quite a bit, so I often cut the recipe in half.

1 cup pecan halves (about 3 ounces), broken in half lengthwise

1 whole roasted chicken (about three pounds), skin removed

8 scallions, white and light-green parts only, trimmed and thinly sliced

2 stalks celery, strings removed and thinly sliced

2 Fuji apples, cored and sliced into bite-size pieces

5 tablespoons golden or dark raisins

1 tablespoon coarsely chopped fresh oregano leaves

Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

Sour Cream Dressing (recipe follows)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spread pecans in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet.  Toast in oven until fragrant, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.  Remove from pan; let cool completely.  [this step may seem unnecessary, but it really does make the pecans taste fancy.  It's worth it!]

2. Pull chicken from the bone; discard bones, and cut meat into 3/4-inch pieces.  Transfer to a medium bolw; add scallions, celery, apples, raisins, and oregano.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add dressing; toss to combine.  Chill, covered, until ready to serve.  

Sour Cream Dressing:

1/2 cup mayonnaise

2 tablespoons sour cream

1/4 cup cider vinegar

Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

In a small bowl, whisk together the mayo, sour cream, and vinegar; season with salt and pepper.  Refrigerate, covered, until ready to use, up to 4 days.

Field Trip: Stanford

We recently spent the month in Palo Alto, while Shane did an away rotation at Stanford. I was excited to check out the campus; I really expected Palo Alto to be an extension of the East Coast.  Before I came to New Haven, I just assumed that Stanford was an Ivy League school, especially since I didn't know that the Ivy League was a college sports division.  You know, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, right?  Wrong!  Stanford is in California, and carries its western heritage with it in the most remarkable way.  The entire campus is built in the Mission Style, brought from the Spanish missionaries to California all those years ago.  The campus is free from all street traffic, with long arcades, quiet, contemplative students walking about, and the pipe organ's song  floating through the church windows. This seemed to be a perfectly cloistered environment, like a modern-day monastery.  I, being one who gets slightly obsessed with nuns and monks, was totally loving Stanford's monastic-feeling campus.  Here are some pics:

definitely not in New England anymore...








I loved many windows on campus, but I thought that this is a window someone could actually incorporate into a real house. Just keeping this picture in my back pocket, in case I could use it someday. And do you see the lights inside? perfect for those Stanford book worms.

I was also delighted to see the Rodin sculpture garden on campus. Well, as delighted as one can be when viewing The Gates of Hell.  It was cool to see, let's just say that. I wonder if Rodin would have felt so tormented if he lived here in sunny California.  Maybe he would have just settled with The Gates of Feeling Less Happy than Usual.  Anyway, this is the largest Rodin collection outside of Paris and had the entire Gates of Hell structure for our viewing pleasure.  This project was intended to be the doors to a museum that, in the end, were never built, so the project remains an orphan of sorts, not being used as it was intended. However, many of Rodin's most famous works are actually larger casts of smaller figures from the gates.  For instance, does anyone recognize the ponderous man just about the door?

"Hmmmm...let me think about that."
Here it is.  Adam and Eve flank the sides.

Here are a few sculptural studies on display.  Pete's trying to recreate the pose.
larger view of the garden.  I like those cool cypress trees.
Here you can get a sense for the full use of three dimensions in the gates.
Pete, feeling a little overdressed with the Three Shades.






There were also sculptures from the The Burghers of Callais sculptural program, including this giant head.  When I asked Pete how the head was feeling, he said he looked "worried."  Indeed.  

Good Friends: Tammy the Opera Star

This is the first conversation I have with anyone:
"What did you study in college?"
"art history"
"ahh....[silence, think, think] so, are you an artist yourself?"
"umm, no. I wish I were."
~at this point, the conversation dies~
I may not have one great talent, but I do have one blessing in my life that I cannot deny: I have some excellent friends (and if you are reading this, I'm talking about you!). They are inspiring and bring so much good into my life. So, I decided, if this blog is about finding life's good stuff, I should interview my good friends and see how they got to be so terrific.

So, for my first official interview on this blog, I give you the great 

Tammy Mumford


I have to say, Tammy is my most famous friend. She sings at the Metropolitan Opera--like the one in New York, you know, at Lincoln Center, and has the best operas and big opera superstars. So, of course, her voice is phenomenal. You better believe it is really fun to sit next to Tammy in choir and pretend that I, also, am such a singer! la la! But, after knowing Tammy all these years, the thing I find most amazing about her is her sense of balance. She has her fancy opera life and family life and church life, and keeps it all together so beautifully. I had to ask her some questions to find out how she became not only a world-class singer, but also, a really great person.

How did your parents foster your love of music?
It started with my grandparents. One grandpa was a high school music teacher and did musical community events. Consequently, my dad grew up singing and did it more seriously as he got older. My other grandpa loved opera. He had it playing in my mom's home, and my mom grew up listening to opera and going to many concerts. As my mom and dad raised my family [of 12 amazing kids!], it was similar, in that the music was always there. My dad sang in semi-professional theatre, and we would always go see him perform (which was usually a positive experience, except for when he was in the freaky dream sequence from Fiddler on the Roof. It made us all cry!).
Also, music is such a prevalent part of the church. Many times, my sisters and I would be asked to prepare a musical number for a ward program, so we would figure out what we were singing and practice together at Family Home Evening. We also grew up mainly watching musicals, since they were a wholesome form of entertainment.


As you approach motherhood (in the next few days!), how do you see yourself introducing your kids to music?
Piano is such a good skill for everyone to know, especially as a member of the church, so we will encourage our kids to take piano lessons. But, really, we'd like to see what our son's interests are and help him develop those talents. Music will always be a part of my life, and it will always be a part of our home, so our children may naturally gravitate towards music, but I don't want to push it if our kids aren't interested. The hard question about all this is how do I know if a child is really interested in a musical instrument or not? Everyone has moments when they are taking lessons when they want to quit. So when do I know to keep pushing or to just let it go? [such a good question.] In my own family, the level of interest varied from kid to kid, and my parents adapted to that. Looking back, it was such a sacrifice for my parents to take all of us to music lessons. We always took lessons before school, and I imagine that my mom didn't love getting up so early.

What were the most formative musical experiences as you grew up?
I was the Sterling Scholar in music during my Senior year of high school, and this required me to think through how serious I really was about music. At this point, I knew I wanted to focus on music, but I had always envisioned myself teaching. During my Freshman year at Utah State, I remember listening to a recording of some songs that I was learning. My friends were going out and invited me to come, but I really wanted to just stay home that night and listen to this beautiful music and learn it well. That was a moment when I realized that people really do sing for their job, and I really wanted that. Although sometimes it does feel like a job, there are many moments when I really feel touched by the message and beauty of the music. Also, when I am singing with my sisters, I remember how much I want music to be a part of my life.

How do you keep your composure and not get nervous while you are on stage?
It's funny, the times I get most nervous are for church performances, because I know that everyone else knows me and knows I do this for a living, so I feel a lot of expectation. But, the more I perform, the easier it gets. By getting accustomed to those nervous feeling, like butterflies in my stomach and a racing heartbeat, the more I know how to work with it while I perform. It is very important to be super prepared. If I know it very well, then I can go on auto-pilot, rather than thinking about every little thing. It is important to have the technical aspects well prepared, so I can really focus on what the music means to me.

What great wisdom from a great musician and friend!  Thanks, Tammy, for your insights, and good luck in the next great act of your life--motherhood!