Last Day in PA

Merry Christmas to all! I'm writing from my in-law's basement in Red Lion, PA on the last day of our Christmas visit. It's been a pleasant few days with Chris's family. We drove all the way from Boston on Wednesday afternoon/evening, arriving in Red Lion about midnight. Our original plan was to head out of town about 4pm on Wednesday and spend the night in picturesque Scranton, PA, but Chris's regularly scheduled Wednesday afternoon meeting was canceled, and I worked a 1/2 day, so we were able to get out of dodge by about 2:30pm. Our earlier departure meant we could kick it to Red Lion and save the $100 that we would have spent on a hotel room. The trip wasn't too bad - except for getting stuck in CT traffic and experiencing horrible service at a Chili's for dinner. Reinforced my disdain for big chain restaurants...

Since it's my second Christmas with Chris's family, I'm starting to get used to the traditions.

Tradition #1 - We actually attend a church service on Christmas Eve. The service was long - about 90 minutes, which made for a late night since it started at 10pm - but I really enjoyed it because about 50% of it was singing. The part I didn't enjoy was the super conservative pastor's (for an ECLA Lutheran chruch) sermon/Christmas message, in which he basically encouraged the commercialism associated with Christmas. Not a Christmas message that I expected or appreciated. But the singing and family togetherness compensated for my annoyance. We even got to sing a candlelit rendition of Silent Night, which my family does every Christmas Eve.

Tradition #2 - There is an amazing amount of baked goods and food. I have never experienced such a quantity of Christmas cookies, chocolates, cake and pie all on one table. It's wild! Baked goods literally take up the entire kitchen island. On Christmas Eve my family has one dessert - Grasshopper Pie - which my grandmother makes. It is cold and refreshing after the Christmas meal and perfectly satisfies my sweet tooth. In contrast, there are so many desserts here that it's hard to choose what to have! Fortunately, we're here for several days, so I can slowly sample each baked item over our visit. I think I've tried most by now, but there are still a few types of cookies and a cherished family fruitcake that I still need to get to. All are tasty, so this has been a pretty fun process, but I think I'll need to start rationing my sugar intake when I get home!

Tradition #3 - The whole family opens Christmas gifts at the same time on Christmas morning. It's a big blur of paper and exclamations and craziness. This is much different than my family's very regimented Christmas gift opening process. We distribute gifts, sit in a circle, and open gifts one at a time going around the circle in a counterclockwise direction (kidding about the specified direction...). But it's pretty calm, and everyone can see what other people are opening. This was hard to sit through as a child, but as an adult, I enjoy the relaxed pace. Chris's family really gets in to Christmas gifts - we get to open stockings stuffed to the brim and big piles of presents. It makes me feel like I'm about 5 years old, which is pretty fun once in awhile.

So those are the big three traditions that stick out to me so far. I'm sure I will pick up on more in the years to come. We also had one in-utero addition to the Christmas celebration - my sister-in-law is pregnant, due in May, so the next time we spend Christmas with Chris's family, there will be at least one new member of the family. Our Christmas visit draws to a close today with a lunch out with some of Chris's high school friends and some couch time watching the Eagles game this afternoon.

It's been a great Christmas visit thus far, and even though I miss my family, I'm feeling more and more a part of the family I married in to. I did miss out on my 10 year high school reunion back in MN last night, which I'm sure would have been quite entertaining, but instead we drove out to Redding, PA to see my other sister-in-law's new house. If only we lived in an area that had somewhat reasonable home prices, we might own a house too! Oh well, the time will come.

So Merry Christmas to all - I hope it was wonderful and filled with family traditions, old and new memories, and fun! Back on the road to Boston tomorrow morning to get ready to ring in a new year!

Lussekatter!

Yes, I am Norwegian, but after filling up on lefse over Thanksgiving, this weekend I decided to branch out and bake a traditional Swedish dessert called Lussekatter (a.k.a. Saffron Buns). To be honest, I didn't really decide to make these buns. I asked Chris what I should bake this week, he was intrigued by an article about Swedish Christmas desserts in this month's Saveur magazine, and thus I found myself baking Lussekatter!

As a side note, Saveur is an excellent cooking magazine - I highly recommend it. Chris used rewards points from a credit card to start a subscription to Saveur a few months ago, and I'm so glad he did since it's really interesting and consistently has great recipes. It has especially great features about international cuisines. And if you watched 'Top Chef Masters' last summer, you'll recognize the editor-in-chief, James Oseland, who was a judge on the show.

Back to Lussekatter! After my adventure with brioche buns awhile back, I was initially worried that baking a yeast roll would take up most of my weekend, but this was not the case. After mixing the dough, it just required an hour rise, then another 30 minute rise after shaping the rolls into their traditional S-shape before baking.

The end result was good - as long as you enjoy saffron - and Chris and I do. The taste of saffron in a sweet, dessert-type bun seems a bit odd at first, but then all the Swedes I know are a bit odd too :) The other strange thing about my attempt at Lussekatter is that I didn't wrap the dough tightly enough into the S-shape formation, so the baked buns came out kind of looking like lopsided boobs, which was a little disturbing at first.

I don't think Lussekatter will become more cherished in our household than lefse, but I think we might make them again if we ever feel like having a pan-Scandinavian dessert extravaganza.

Lussekatter (Saffron Buns)

From Saveur, December 2009

4 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast (2 packets)

2 cups whole milk, heated to 115 degrees

2 tsp. saffron, lightly crushed

3/4 cup plus 1 tsp. sugar

6 1/2 cups flour

3/4 tsp. kosher salt

3 eggs

12 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into 1/2" cubes, softened

Canola oil, for greasing

64 raisins, for garnish

Heat the milk & saffron to a gentle simmer in a small saucepan. Turn off the heat and steep the saffron in the milk until the temperature of the milk drops to 115 degrees.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, mix together yeast, milk, saffron and 1 tsp. sugar; let sit until foamy, about 10 minutes. Stir in the remaining sugar, along with the flour, salt, and 2 eggs. Mix on low speed until dough forms and gathers around the paddle. Replace paddle with dough hook and add butter, kneading on medium-high speed until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 8 minutes. Transfer dough to a large bowl greased with oil and cover with plastic wrap; let rest in warm place until doubled in size, 1 hour.

Divide the dough into 32 pieces and roll each piece into an 8'-long rope. Form each rope into an S-shape and then roll each end into a tight spiral. Place shaped dough pieces 2" apart on parchment paper lined baking sheets; cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Uncover dough pieces and place a raisin at the center of each of the spirals. Lightly beat remaining egg with 1 tbsp. water and brush each bun with egg mixture. Bake until buns are golden brown and cooked through, about 16 minutes. Transfer buns to wire rack and let cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Giving Thanks

Chris and I dropped my parents off at Logan this morning for their flight back to Louisville after spending a few fun days together for Thanksgiving. It was the first time we've had visitors to our new house, and it went well. I really enjoy hosting, and we don't get to do it enough here since we don't have a very deep pool of friends in the area. I have many fond memories from when I was young and my parents hosted the extended family for Thanksgiving every year, so it's a treat to host my parents for this particular holiday.

Chris have a time-share family system for the major holidays - one year we'll spend Thanksgiving with my family & Christmas with Chris's family, and the next year we'll switch - Thanksgiving with Chris's family and Christmas with mine. This system was initially hard for me because my extended family on my Dad's side (who we spend holidays with) is scattered at Thanksgiving but comes together in a big way for Christmas. The whole extended family gathers at my aunt and uncle's house in Minneapolis for Christmas Eve dinner. It's a large group, and the evening often gets crazy - fueled by lots of wine, cocktails, aquavit & the post-dinner Irish coffee & grasshopper pie. We all wear silly Christmas headgear - Santa hats, reindeer antlers - and in my aunt's case, a headlamp, since she plays Christmas carols on the piano in a semi-dark room while we all sing along. So I lobbied to spend every Thanksgiving with Chris's family and every Christmas with mine, but I realized that wasn't fair to Chris and his family and accepted the time-share trade-off system. But the first Christmas I spent with Chris's family two years ago was difficult. I really like Chris's family, but it was hard to miss out on the fun and family togetherness I knew was taking place back in Minnesota.

This year is Thanksgiving with my family, and we'll be driving to PA for Christmas with Chris's family. With my sister and her family in Minnesota, my parents in Louisville, and me in Boston, the opportunities for my parents, sister and me to be together are few and far between. I'm not sure when we'll all be together again. But this past week it was great to at least get a chance to spend the holiday with my parents.

Chris and I put together a really great Thanksgiving meal. I was proud of our preparation and our execution. The rain stopped in Boston just long enough on Thursday morning for Chris to strike up the smoker and smoke the bird - a 14 lb. fresh turkey from McKinnon's Meat Market. Chris did a simple 2 day brine & about 4 hours in the smoker on Thursday resulted in a delicious turkey. The breast meat was succulent with a really nice smoked flavor & the dark meat was great too. This was no dried out bird! We rounded out the meal with gravy made from the smoked turkey drippings, an apple & celery stuffing, glazed carrots & parsnips, a mash of sweet & Yukon gold potatoes, cranberries, cornbread & lefse. For dessert, I made pumpkin pie & chocolate cookies (cookies for my dad since he is not a fan of pumpkin pie) and bought a really tasty port - 2006 Bogle Petit Syrah port.

I'm pleased the Thanksgiving meal went well and grateful for the opportunity for the four of us to be together on Thanksgiving. As I look forward to this Christmas with Chris's family, I feel different than I did two years ago when I spent my first Christmas away from my family. 2009 has been a really rocky year - filled with ups and downs, uncertainty, doubts, and happiness too. Even though it's been tough, it's really deepened my relationship with my husband. So I'm no longer so focused on the emotions surrounding being away from my family - as long as I'm with Chris, I know I'll feel snug & content & loved. Which is what life and happiness is all about. So I'm so grateful this Thanksgiving to be able to share my life with a wonderful man who can smoke one hell of a good turkey.

Back with Buttery Brioche

Even though I knew it's been awhile since my last blog, I'm amazed to see it's been over a month! I haven't blogged since we moved...I've been busy with work, unpacking, rugby, a wonderful visit from one of my closest friends, testing out gyms/yoga studios, bike shopping, and Project "make the house a home" which is my effort to make our new place comfortable and welcoming. I've had enough with temporary living arrangements - knowing the next move is just around the corner - so with our new place, we're hanging all our artwork/wall frames, putting up curtains, buying new furniture (our old couch did not make it up the narrow staircase into our apartment) and generally making it a home for a young couple (hopefully family relatively soon). I'm rediscovering my love for decorating and enjoying the results.

But all of this settling in is no excuse for ignoring my blog. I am now back and recommitted to blogging since the holidays are drawing near, and the oven will be turned on regularly to bake up

a variety of deliciousness. I actually have been baking a fair amount since we moved, but nothing's been blog-worthy. Cookies, healthy apple muffins for work, cornbread - just run of the mill goods not worth sharing. But this week's baking adventure is definitely worth sharing - Bubble-Top Brioches - a Dorie Greenspan recipe from the October 2009 issue of Bon Appetit.

Dorie claims that this is "Brioche Made Easy" and if this is easy, I'd hate to put in the time and effort to make brioche at the normal level of difficulty. But as I think about it, it really wasn't too hard - just time consuming - and the outcome was more than worth the effort.

That is a photo of our fantastic dinner tonight - country style pork ribs with an apple & onion chutney, zucchini, and brioche rolls. Okay, so Chris's beautiful pork ribs only get a small corner of that photo while my brioche took center stage - but check out the light and even crumb on those rolls! Sometimes I admit I get a bit too excited about baking...

I started the brioche yesterday late afternoon. Making the brioche dough is really time consuming since it needs a lot of mixing, and you need to incorporate the butter a tablespoon at a time (and with 12 tablespoons of butter in the recipe, this is not a quick process). I passed the time standing by the mixer periodically tossing in small pieces of butter by sipping on a Leinie's and looking out our kitchen window at the Mystic River as the sun set on a beautiful fall day. It was strangely satisfying and enjoyable.

The brioche dough rested overnight, and I pulled it out this morning, cut, rolled and put the dough into the muffin tins:

And after a final rise and 20 minutes in the oven, I was left with delectable, buttery rolls. One of the best parts of this recipe is how beautiful the rolls are. No molds required - just smash 3 small dough balls into a muffin tin, and you come out with beautiful bubble tops. I was thinking about making these rolls for Thanksgiving since my parents will be coming out to Boston, but given the time intensive nature of brioche and the number of other dishes we'll be making, I think I'll go with biscuits or cornbread. But the brioche rolls will make another appearance in the future - they are definitely worth taking the time to make again!

Bubble-Top Brioches

From Bon Appetit, October 2009

Dorie Greenspan

1/4 cup warm water (110-115 degrees)

1/4 cup warm whole milk (110-115 degrees)

3 teaspoons active dry yeast

2 3/4 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

3 large eggs, room temperature

1 large egg beaten to blend with 1 teaspoon water (for glaze)

Combine 1/4 cup warm water and warm milk in bowl of heavy-duty mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Sprinkle yeast over and stir to moisten evenly. Let stand until yeast dissolves, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes.

Add flour and salt to yeast mixture. Blend at medium-low speed until shaggy lumps form, scraping down the side of the bowl occasionally, 1 to 2 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until blended after each addition. Beat in sugar. Increase mixer speed to medium; beat until dough is smooth, about 3 minutes.

Reduce speed to low. Add butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until blended after each addition (dough will be soft and silky). Increase speed to medium-high and beat until dough pulls away from sides of bowl and climbs paddles, about 8 to 9 minutes.

Lightly butter large bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rise in warm draft-free area until almost doubled in volume, about 75 to 90 minutes.

Gently deflate dough by lifting around edges, then letting dough fall back into bowl, turning bowl and repeating as needed. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and chill, deflating dough in same way every 30 minutes until dough stops rising, about 2 hours. Chill overnight.

Butter 12 standard (1/3 cup) muffin cups. Divide dough into 12 equal pieces; cut each piece into thirds. Roll each small piece into a ball. Place 3 balls in each prepared cup. Place muffin pan in warm draft-free area; lay sheet of waxed paper over. Let dough rise until light and almost doubled in size, 50-60 minutes.

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 400. Place muffin pan on cookie sheet. Gently brush egg glaze over risen dough, being careful that glaze does not drip between dough and pan. Bake brioches until golden brown, covering with foil if browning too quickly, about 20 minutes. Transfer pan to rack. Cool 10 minutes. Remove brioches from pan. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Arlington Here We Come

It's been a wild month of work, travel & apartment hunting. I'm happy to report that Chris and I found a great new place in Arlington and are planning to rent a U-haul to move next Sunday!

For those who are not familiar with Boston-area geography, Arlington is a northwest suburb of Boston between Cambridge, where Chris works, and Lexington, where I work. Instead of commuting 1 hour 20 minutes each way on the T and bus, I'll either hop in my car and drive the 5+ miles to work or hop on my bike (which is yet to be purchased but will be soon) and enjoy fresh air & exercise on my way to work. Chris's commute will be about the same length, and he'll also be able to bike to work or take public transportation.

We'll have the 2nd and 3rd floors of a 2-family house. The second floor has 2 nice sized bedrooms, bright and open living and dining rooms, a mini pantry, a really tacky bathroom with green tile, front and back enclosed porches, and a somewhat outdated kitchen. The third floor consists of two "bonus" rooms that we aren't quite sure what to do with, but I'm starting to fantasize about a quiet reading room. We also have a garage space! With a driveway! And I've gotten clearance to break up some of the backyard grass and put in a garden next spring. We'll also have crazy old Greek next-door neighbors who have a large garden of their own, just like we do now. The big question mark is how the kitchen will work for us since it's pretty outdated. The stove is old, which makes me a bit nervous. But the kitchen is big enough that we can bring some shelving in to handle our voluminous kitchen items, and worse comes to worse, we can just purchase a new stove. I will not be stopped from baking as much as possible while we're living there!

From what I know about Arlington so far, I think it will be a great community for us. It's close to Boston but not as dense & urban as Dorchester, so I think it will be a more comfortable living environment for me. I can handle living in a gritty area, but it does get tiring. Perhaps I'm getting old and stodgy, but I just want a nice, family-oriented neighborhood with real lawns and a little space between houses. Fortunately, Arlington offers that along with a vibrant restaurant scene and easy access to Boston. When we were looking at buying a house a couple of months ago, we targeted our search to properties in Arlington. We decided that they are out of reach financially right now, but renting in Arlington will allow us to determine if it's a good community for us to potentially raise a family.

Chris and I decided to start testing out our new neighborhood even before we move there & trekked out to Arlington for dinner last night at a Mexican place not far from our new house called Zocalo. I was really hungry and giddy after the Twins exciting victory over the Royals! My first impression of the restaurant was very positive -- it was packed, really cute, and the kitchen was open for all to see. I always feel more confident in a restaurant where you can see the kitchen - that way you know they aren't hiding anything!

We got a table relatively quickly and ordered a vegetable tamale to split as an appetizer. The corn meal and salsa verde were excellent - fresh & the perfect amount of kick - but I was a bit disappointed in the vegetables. It seemed like they used a frozen blend of green beans, carrots, corn & peas in the tamale. I can make frozen vegetables at home. If I'm paying someone else to prepare my food, I want to at least have freshly prepared vegetables. Overall I enjoyed the tamale, but it would have been better with just the corn meal & salsa verde. Or we should have just ordered a meat tamale.

Zocalo more than made up for the use of frozen vegetables with the quality of their entrees, which were fantastic. I ordered the Camarones al mojo de ajo (jumbo shrimp w/ pico de gallo and chipotle sauce) served with rice and black beans. The shrimp were perfectly cooked and swimming in a lovely, slightly spicy tomato based sauce. Anyone who knows me well would take one look at that dish and know that I would really enjoy it. Chris had the Cochinita Pibil, which was shredded, braised pork with tomato, orange, onion, chiles & chipotle sauce, also served with rice & beans. I had a small bite of the pork and was really impressed. It was also quite reasonably priced - the appetizer, two entrees, a glass of wine for me and a beer for Chris came to $51 including tax and tip. Not bad for a Saturday night dinner out.

We topped off the evening by getting ice cream at a little ice cream shop inside the Capitol Theater in Arlington. We really didn't need ice cream after a delicious and filling Mexican dinner, but something creamy & delicious sounded perfect after the spicy dinner. It was a really pleasant evening & I look forward to life in Arlington starting soon!

At Last, Banana Bread is Back

In early August, two events piqued my interest in baking banana bread: 1) the discovery of Kate's Butter, and 2) the first real heatwave of the summer. Event #1 made me want to bake banana bread because a slice is not complete without a thin, creamy layer of butter. And Kate's Butter brings a whole new level of enjoyment to the butter eating experience. Event #2 made me want to bake banana bread because the hot, humid weather quickly produced an excess supply of ripe bananas, all of which went straight to the freezer, ready for baking. I strive not to waste food, and since we don't have a compost pile, baking bread was the best use of bananas. I must admit that I wasted several bananas a few weeks ago when I took them out of the freezer, planning to bake bread that day, and the 90 degree weather thwarted my plans to turn on the oven. The slug-like, defrosted bananas did not survive in my refrigerator for long and ended up in the trash.

So somehow it's now early September, a full month since my initial desire to bake banana bread. And finally this weekend the heavens have aligned and are allowing me to turn on the oven and bake some banana bread. The weather is beautiful - sunny yet cool enough to turn on the oven, and I'm so wiped out from the past few weeks that yesterday I didn't want to do much other than sleep, read, work out, cook, & bake. And that's exactly what I did (along with grocery shopping, many loads of laundry, and a trip up to the North End for a pizza lunch at Galleria Umberto - maybe it was a full day after all...).

But the banana bread baking was a highlight of the day. Chris and I were out of our initial Kate's Butter purchase (thanks to Grandpa's Birthday Cake and sweet corn consumption), so I picked some up at Stop & Shop (a cool $3.99/pound instead of Whole Food's $5.29/pound). It was so good with the banana bread - definitely worth the long wait.

I have tried many, many banana bread recipes over the years, and I keep coming back to this one. I find it extremely moist, flavorful and reliable. It comes out well every time I make it (and despite my inability to bake over the past month, I bake banana bread fairly often). The cinnamon really sings out, and the oats provide a hearty complexity (not to mention healthy goodness).

Banana Oatmeal Bread

Adapted from Cooking Light

• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 7 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 large egg whites
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/3 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 medium)
• 1 cup old-fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup milk (I use skim since that's what we have around, but any kind would do)
• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine first 4 ingredients in a large bowl; beat well at medium speed of a mixer. Combine banana, oats, and milk; add to sugar mixture, beating well. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; stir with a whisk. Add to sugar mixture; beat until just moist. Spoon batter into 9x5-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake for about 1 hour or until a pick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

Flipping the Switch

At my cousin's wedding in MN last weekend

A few weeks ago, I flipped the switch from a life of unemployment, complete with time to read books outside in the sunshine, to a life of long commutes, a stressful work environment, and no time to bake or watch baseball and therefore no material for my blog. Hence my lack of recent posts. I have faith that after I complete a couple of major work milestones in the next few weeks, I may indeed have time to bake and blog again. But for now, work calls, and the time that's not devoted to work is devoted to spending at least a little time with my husband & trying to get enough sleep. The joy of transition periods!

I'm trying to keep positive by focusing on:

1) having a job! with a bi-monthly paycheck! (although they messed up my first paycheck and only paid me for 4 of the 10 days that should have been included - sad day)

2) living closer to work at some point in the relatively near future. Oct. 15 or Nov. 1 is the goal to move away from the gritty urban Dorchester environment to the lovely NW suburbs. Arlington = Edina in my mind, & I've discovered I'm just not cut out for inner-city life (no surprise there).

3) the reasons why this is my favorite time of year - baseball playoffs approaching, football, wonderful fresh & local produce. I have a BLT pretty much every time Chris is at rugby practice - since he doesn't like tomatoes, BLTs are not dinner fare for the both of us. But even though Chris doesn't like my favorite fruit, he did go to the Cambridge farmer's market on Monday and bought me a bunch of beautiful heirloom tomatoes (I never get flowers from Chris, but can't complain when I get tomatoes).

4) I realized today that I may have enough comp. time built up after the next couple of weeks that I won't have to take any vacation days to go to Chris's sister's wedding at the end of September. Which opens up more vacation time for the holidays and beyond. Chris and I are planning to go on our first real vacation this winter just the two of us since our honeymoon well over 2 years ago. Likely destination = Bahamas or Aruba. Woot!

This weekend, I do plan to bake the banana bread that I've been unable to find the time to bake for weeks. And I will post lovely pictures and the recipe. Look for this on Sunday.