Holiday Baking, Day 1

So, today I began my holiday baking madness. I am running WAAAAYYYY behind this year, so I'm frantic. I was not as prolific this year as I would like to be; as I imagine in my fantasy food world. But, I knocked a couple of food gifts out of the way...

BACON - CHEESE- CHIVE SCONES

2 cups (8 1/2 ounces) Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons sugar
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick, 2 ounces) cold butter
1 cup (4 ounces) very coarsely grated or diced cheddar cheese
1/3 cup (about 1/2 ounce) snipped fresh chives, or finely diced scallion tops
1/2 pound bacon, cooked, cooled, & crumbled
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons (7 ounces) heavy cream or whipping cream

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Lightly grease a baking sheet, or line it with parchment.

1) Whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar.
2) Work the butter into the flour until the mixture is unevenly crumbly.
3) Mix in the cheese, chives, and bacon till evenly distributed.
4) Add ¾ cup of the cream, stirring to combine. Try squeezing the dough together; if it’s crumbly and won’t hang together, or if there are crumbs remaining in the bottom of the bowl, add cream until the dough comes together. Transfer the shaggy dough to a well-floured work surface.
5) Divide the dough in half, pat into two 5" rounds. Transfer the disks to the prepared baking sheet.
6) Use a knife or bench knife to cut the disks into 8 wedges, spreading the wedges apart a bit on the pan.
7) Bake the scones for 10 to 15 minutes**, until they’re golden brown. Remove them from the oven, and cool right on the pan. Serve warm, or at room temperature.

**My oven temp is wonky, so they may need to bake 15 to 20 in your oven. Some people brush the tops with cream to help them brown, but I've not had any browning issues. And if you want to make ahead of time, just make through the point where you cut up the dough. Freeze - then when you want to bake them, add an extra 5 - 10 minutes to the baking time. Enjoy!

Giving Thanks - For Food!

For me, the holiday season begins with the long Thanksgiving holiday, and the gastronomic orgy this entails. This year, it is the first chance I’ve had to get into the kitchen in months, and I’ve made full use of it. Thanksgiving day itself is not my thing. It’s the following days: filled with cooking or lazing about eating what I’ve cooked. Below is what I’ve cooked &/or eaten over this debauched weekend:


RICE PUDDING (serves 4):
This is the perfect comfort food: warm, starchy, creamy & sweet. I prefer a steamy bowl straight from the pan as soon as it’s done, but Robert prefers a more traditional, pudding-like texture. That will take a few hours in the fridge.
¾ cup uncooked short grain white rice (I like Botan)
2 cups milk
1/3 tsp. white sugar
¼ tsp. white salt
1 egg
2/3 cup golden raisins (optional, I leave them out)
1 tbsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla

Directions:
1. In a medium saucepan, bring 1 1/2 cups water to a boil. Add rice and stir. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
2. In another saucepan, combine 1 1/2 cups cooked rice, 1 1/2 cups milk, sugar and salt. Cook over medium heat until thick and creamy, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in remaining 1/2 cup milk, beaten egg and raisins. Cook 2 minutes more, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, and stir in butter and vanilla. Serve warm.

DUTCH BABY (serves 2):
A perfect, easy weekend breakfast. If you like, you can toss apple slices into the hot pan on top of the melted butter. The pastry won’t rise in the center, but it is still good. Try it both ways!
3 eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup milk, room temperature
1/2 cup sifted bread flour or all-purpose flour (bread flour produces a much better rise)
1/8 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
7 teaspoons butter
Freshly squeezed lemon juice
Powdered or confectioners sugar

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Place oven rack on the middle rack of your oven. Place a large, heavy ovenproof, frying pan or a cast-iron skillet in the oven until hot and sizzling. While pan is heating, prepare your batter.***NOTE: Use a shallow pan, not more than 3 inches deep (pie pans, cast-iron skillets, oven-proof fry pans, baking dishes, paella pans). A 10” cast-iron skillet works best, but it’s fine if you don’t have one. I currently don’t, & a pie plate works just fine.
2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs until light and frothy; add milk, flour, vanilla extract, and cinnamon; beat for 5 minutes more. The batter will be thin, but very smooth and creamy. Using a pot holder, remove the hot skillet from the oven; add the butter; tilting the pan to melt the butter and coat the skillet. (If you wanted to toss in some apple slices, now’s the time).
3. Pour the prepared batter into the hot skillet, all at once, and immediately return the skillet to the oven.
4. Bake approximately 20 to 25 minutes or until puffed and golden brown (bake until the pancake puffs up around the edges - it may puff irregularly in the center).
5. Remove from oven and serve immediately. Either bring the pancake to the table in its pan or slide it onto a serving plate. Once out of the oven, the pancake will begin to deflate.
6. To serve, cut into serving-size wedges and transfer to individual serving plates. Top with your favorite topping and serve immediately. For a classic German Pancake/Dutch Baby, sprinkle with freshly squeezed lemon juice, and dust the top with powdered sugar.

CHICKEN SCHNITZEL (serves 4):
I cannot take credit: Robert made this! So good served with mashed potatoes. You’ll get a little dizzy.
1 tsp. garlic infused oil
4 strips bacon
4 4-oz chicken escalopes or boned & skinned chicken breasts
1/3 cup white wine (chardonnay works well)

Directions:
1. Put the garlic oil in a skillet and add the bacon.
2. Fry till the bacon’s crisp and the pan is full of bacony juices, remove the bacon to a piece of foil, wrap it, and set it aside for a moment.
3. Fry the chicken for about 2 minutes a side, until there is no pinkness when you cut into a piece. Make sure the pan’s hot so that the escalopes catch a little, turning beautifully bronze.
4. Remove the chicken to a serving plate and quickly crumble in the bacon you’ve set aside, then pour the wine in and let everything bubble up, and pour over the chicken pieces.

CHOCOLATE PISTACHIO FUDGE was also involved in this weekends festivities, but I want to work on the recipe. It isn’t perfected, yet! ;) Eat happy!

The Fog of Regret

War is a terrible mistake to make. It can’t be undone. No amount of concessions, no amends, can bring back the innocent lives lost. The horrors witnessed can never be unseen. But Robert McNamara uttered three powerful words, and we shouldn’t forget them either:

“We were wrong.”

Sadly, McNamara is remembered as the architect of the Vietnam War. But when was the last time you heard a politician, or any person of power, say those words in earnest? Certainly, the title “McNamara’s War” is a little unfair. It was not his alone. These atrocities cannot rest solely on his shoulders.

He was wrong. Terribly wrong. And he absolutely should’ve admitted this the second he realized it. But the war belongs to many people, not just him. He spent the rest of his life trying, albeit in vain, to atone for his sins.

Will our recent architects of war see the error of their ways? Will they spend the rest of their lives trying to build developing economies, helping the very class of people they harmed the most?

Only time will tell....

Sarkozy: Liberator or Xenophobe?

Sarkozy's ban on burqas in France has many lauding his admirable steps toward the liberation of oppressed Muslim women. I have my doubts as to whether this ban is entirely altruistic in it's roots. This is the same Nicholas Sarkozy who Lilian Thuram accused of fueling the 2005 Paris riots. As Minister of the Interior, his hardline approach to immigration contributed greatly to poverty and unemployment among immigrants, many of whom were West African and/or Muslim.

For a culture so quick to denounce racial stereotypes and profiling, we seem to assume that every Muslim man beats his wife, and every burqa has a black eye behind the veil. The truth is, some women choose to wear the burqa as an expression of her religious convictions. For many Muslims, there is no such thing as a secular life. What you believe is what you live. Certainly, I am not so naive as to believe that there aren't women forced to wear the veil. However, I fail to see a causal relationship between the garment and the subjugation of women.

The subjugation of any human being is an absolute wrong. However, Sarkozy offers no remedy to women forced into submission. There is no proposed education of the victim, or the aggressor. It's as if he expects the removal of the burqa to turn the most domineering brute into a Jon Gossling, cowering underneath the glare of his wife's naked face. The burqa is, at most, a symptom of the domination. And that is only some of the time.

Many people have been quick to point out that the subjugation is ingrained, the product of the culture. Neither submission nor spousal abuse is culturally exclusive. If banning the burqa is such a huge leap in women's rights, perhaps we should follow suit here in the United States. For example, we could ban trailer parks, mullets, tank tops for men & domestic beer. Surely that will liberate many of our abused American sisters! And can we say that every woman who choses to handle the cooking & cleaning has been programmed to submit? Or could it be that, even when exposed to alternative gender roles, they have chosen the path of their mothers?

I think that we, as westerners, are very presumptuous to assume that we know better about how an Islamic woman should dress herself than she does. They are not all abused, nor are they so weak-minded as to need legislation regarding their dress. What they may need - what perhaps all women need- is an accessible remedy for domestic violence.