Ham and White Bean Soup

Cook a ham for Christmas and if you're at our house you'll wind up with that whole hunk of meat at the end of it that doesn't get spiral cut and is just hard to deal with. In the past I have feebly hacked away at it, winding up eventually throwing much of it away. This time I was determined to not waste it, so I looked around on line at a few different soup recipes, and then opened up my trusty Better Homes and Gardens cookbook (you know, that classic red and white checkered one), and loosely followed their recipe. Alan declared it one of his favorite soups, and that's saying something. This was also one of my very few attempts at cooking beans from scratch and I'm pleased to say that they came out well. This is the sort of soup that you should plan ahead, starting it around 4 hours before you plan to eat it if you're cooking the beans from dry. If you're going to use canned, an hour is sufficient.

Ham and White Bean Soup

3 cups dry Great Northern Beans

pinch of baking soda

1/2 t. ginger

water as directed below

1 yellow or white onion, diced

3 celery ribs, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

3 T. olive oil

ham bone with a generous amount of meat left on it

2 bay leaves

1 T. fresh thyme leaves or 1 t. dried

3 cups carrot "pennies"

1/2-1 t. liquid smoke to taste

1/4-1/2 t. tabasco to taste

kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Place washed and sorted beans in a 4 quart pot and add 8 cups of water. Bring to a boil, simmer for 2 minutes, then turn off and let soak for 1 hour. Drain and add another 8 cups of water, along with the pinch of baking soda and ginger (these are supposed to help reduce digestive issues associated with eating beans), and bring to a simmer. In a large nonstick skillet, heat up the olive oil, and add in the celery, onion and garlic. Saute until softened, then add to the beans. While the skillet is still hot, fry the hunk of ham bone on all sides until lightly browned, then add it to the pot. Add in the bay leaves and thyme and let simmer for 1 hour. Add in the carrot pennies and simmer for another 20 minutes. Remove the ham bone and the meat should fall off easily at this point and allow for easy shredding. Add a little more water if needed. Add the shredded meat back into the pot and season with liquid smoke (go easy - a little goes a long way), tabasco, salt and pepper to your taste.

Truly Excellent Overnight Cinnamon Rolls

I went in search of a good overnight cinnamon roll recipe. One friend directed me toward a recipe on Allrecipes that looked promising until I realized that the overnight part was the first rise and it wanted me to allow 2 1/2 hours in the morning to fiddle around with the dough. Not what I want on Christmas morning. I have tried other overnight recipes that yielded a tough roll or ones that rose nearly out of the pan before I even managed to get them in the oven. These ones came out perfect. The dough was soft and supple, very easy to work with, and the flavor was just the classic sort of fluffy cinnamony sticky goodness that you want on Christmas morning. All sweet roll recipes are a blank canvas, ready for you to do what suits your taste, so feel free to tinker with the filling.

Notice the Ov-Glove. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am the proud owner of a pair. My kids spotted them at the store while out doing last minute shopping with daddy and insisted that I needed them. So far so good!

Overnight Cinnamon Rolls

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1 1/2 T. active dry yeast

1/2 cup warm water

1 stick (1/2 cup) of butter, diced

1/2 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups scalded milk

1 egg, lightly beaten

5-6 cups all purpose flour

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Filling:

1 stick butter, softened

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

2 t. cinnamon

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Glaze:

4 T. butter, melted

1 t. vanilla

3 cups powdered sugar

2-4 T. milk, depending on desired consistency

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In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water and let stand about 10 minutes. Heat the milk on the stovetop or in the microwave until just boiling, then remove from heat and stir in the butter, salt and sugar. Allow to stand until the mixture has cooled to lukewarm, then stir in the egg and yeast. In a large mixing bowl, combine the liquid mixture and 4 cups of the flour. Stir in more flour little by little until it gets too difficult to mix by hand, then knead in enough additional flour until the dough forms a ball that is soft and only lightly tacky. Knead for 4-5 minutes until it is smooth and elastic. Lightly oil the dough ball and turn to coat, then set aside to rise for 1 1/2 hours or until doubled.

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Make the filling by beating the butter, sugar and cinnamon together until fluffy and creamy. Turn the dough out onto a lightly greased surface and spread/roll into a large rectangle (24"x 12", roughly). Spread the filling over all of it in a thin, even layer, leaving one long edge with a 2 inch margin. Roll up, pinching the margin end shut, and cut into 2 inch thick slices with dental floss. Place in a large (I used the next size up from a 9x13 - not exactly sure of the size, but I'm guessing 10x15) greased baking pan, and cover with saran wrap that has been lightly misted with cooking spray. Place in the fridge overnight.

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The next morning, pull the pan out of the fridge 30 minutes before baking. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, until golden and cooked through. Meanwhile, mix the glaze ingredients together and drizzle over the tops of the rolls right after they come out of the oven.

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Yields 12 very generously sized rolls (and obviously, you could make much smaller ones, but where's the fun in that??)

Cherry Christmas Scones

I made these last Christmas, sans the cherries and buttermilk. Alan has been hankering for them ever since and this was his special request for Christmas Even brunch. Like a lot of scones, they're a little shaggy and homely, but very tasty, especially right out of the oven. I did one batch with an egg wash to hold the lovely large sugar crystals on top (shown in picture) and another batch with buttermilk on top. Same taste, just obviously yellower with the egg. They're tasty plain, but marvelous with fruit jams and lemon curd.

Cherry Christmas Scones

Blend together:
3 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 1/2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1/2 t. baking soda
zest of one orange

Cut in:
1 stick of cold butter

Stir in:
1/2 cup chopped dried cherries (preferably ones not processed with sulfur)
1+ cups buttermilk (you may need a tablespoon or two more than one cup in order to adequately moisten the dough)

Knead lightly about 10 times until the dough forms a ball. Pat into a round about 12 inches in diameter. Cut into 12 even wedges and separate them out at least a 1/2 inch. Brush the tops with either a little more buttermilk or else a beaten egg and sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-18 minutes or until golden and cooked through.

Cherry Almond White Chocolate Biscotti

I had it in my head that biscotti were somehow tricky to make. In a spate of blog surfing this week and wandering through several cooking blogs (of which I found many really great ones), I stumbled across Closet Cooking. Man, does that guy make gooood looking food. My kind of food. A little fussy but not so much that you don't feel like you can make it. Anyway, he posted several biscotti recipes, so I figured I'd give one a try. I modified his cranberry and pistachio biscotti to suit my own tastes and this is what I came up with. The beauty of biscotti is that so many great combinations of fruits and nuts can be stirred in. It was a truly simple recipe. The hardest part was just waiting for them to cook - they do take a while, so plan ahead. But stirring the dough together took literally 5 minutes. I dare you to make a batch. It's the perfect accompaniment to hot cocoa on a cold day.

Cherry Almond White Chocolate Biscotti

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

9 T. sugar

dash of salt

3 eggs

1 1/2 T. vegetable oil

1/3 cup dried cherries, chopped*

1/3 cup sliced almonds

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the dry ingredients excluding the nuts and cherries. In a small mixing bowl, whisk the eggs until beaten and stir in the vegetable oil. Pour the liquid into the flour mixture and stir until a dough forms, and stir in the nuts and fruit. On a parchment paper lined baking sheet (and I mean it - you really do want to do the parchment paper), pat the dough into a rectangle about 3-4 inches wide and 1/2-3/4 of an inch thick. The dough will spread sideways, so you'll wind up with biscotti longer than what you think. I found it helpful to lightly dust my hands in flour before shaping it to reduce the stickiness.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Allow to cool slightly so that you can handle it without burning yourself, then remove to a cutting board and slice into 1/4 to 1/2 inch wide slices. Lay the slices back on the parchment lined sheet and bake at 325 for 10 minutes each side. Remove to a rack to cool.

Melt the white chocolate chips in the microwave on medium power until smoothe, then drizzle with a fork over the bottom half of each biscotti. Allow to set up, then store in an airtight container.

**A word about cherries. All dried fruit, for that matter. Look at the label before you buy it, because many brands are processed with sulfur compounds, which in my opinion, impart a nasty after taste. I found dried montmorency cherries at Costco that were not processed with sulfur.

The sky's the limit with these. Have fun creating your own combinations. They make a great gift coupled with hot cocoa mix.

Gingerbread Houses

This was my first crack at an honest-to-goodness real gingerbread house. It came out very well! Sturdy, easy to make the dough and easy to assemble the house. I would highly recommend drawing a template on paper before you start. I didn't, and wound up with roof pieces that were on the skimpy side since I made them the same size as the wall pieces. Make them a half inch wider so that you get some overhang, and that'll ensure that you don't have any roofline gaps.

Gingerbread for Houses (courtesy of Dorothy G.'s grandma)

1 1/2 cups shortening or vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups molasses

Boil these ingredients together and cool to lukewarm. Then stir in:

3 eggs

In a large mixing bowl, combine the following dry ingredients:

8 cups flour
3/4 t. salt
1 1/2 t. each baking soda, cinnamon, ginger

Pour the sugar mixture into the flour mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until all of the ingredients are well combined and a dough forms. This is a very stiff dough, so unless you have a really awesome mixer with some serious horsepower in the motor, I'd recommend doing it by hand.

Divide dough in half and cover the portion you are not working with so that it doesn't dry out. Roll out the other portion between two sheets of parchment paper to a 1/4" thickness. Remove top piece, slide the dough and bottom piece onto a cookie sheet and cut out the desired pattern. Remove the scraps, but not the windows and doors.

Bake at 375 degrees for 12 minutes, until well done. Immediately out of the oven, recut and remove the windows and doors and straighten any edges. Work quickly since it hardens as it cools.

Once the pieces are fully cooled, melt 2/3 cup of sugar per house in a nonstick skillet over medium heat until all crystals are dissolved. Turn the heat way down and work quickly, dipping the appropriate edges into the sugar and setting the pieces into place. The sugar is VERY hot, so this is definitely an adults only job.

This amount of dough will make two good sized houses (or one mansion).

Hint of pumpkin spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

I kinda hit pumpkin burnout by Thanksgiving, but still was hankering for a little bit of it. For my sister's birthday, I tinkered around with a recipe found in the Better Homes and Gardens 75th Anniversary cookbook, and came up with these beauties. Just a little bit of pumpkin, the perfect amount to round out the spice flavor nicely. And for once, the cream cheese frosting came out PERFECT. As in, not sloppy and slurpy. It piped well, held it's shape, and tasted great. I used a little less cream cheese than usual and I also used a generic store brand rather than Philadelphia, because it happened to be on sale. The texture of the cheese was quite a bit stiffer, so I believe that was the real key to success.

Hint of Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

1/2 cup butter, softened at room temperature
1/4 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1/2 t. vanilla
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. each ginger, nutmeg, cloves
1 cup milk or buttermilk

Line two dozen cupcake tins with paper or foil liners and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Beat the butter, shortening and sugar until light and fluffy, then beat in the eggs and vanilla until well combined. Beat in the pumpkin puree. Beat in the spices, then beat in half the flour, half the milk, then the other half the flour and the remainder of the milk. Fill the cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake for 15-18 minutes, or until golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 stick of butter (8 tablespoons), slightly softened
4 ounces of cream cheese (generic brand is better - see above)
1 T. vanilla
4-5 cups powdered sugar

Beat the butter and cream cheese together until smooth and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla, then beat in the powdered sugar a cup at a time until desired consistency is reached. Pipe on top of the cupcakes in a swirl pattern with a large star tip.

Perfect Sugared Pecans with a kick

I am often asked how to sugar coat nuts for salads. I have tried many methods, with varying levels of success. After lots of fiddling, this has become my favorite and most reliable way to do it. First, mix 2/3 cup of sugar with a teaspoon of cinnamon, a pinch of cayenne and a dash of salt.

Next, toast your nuts (a generous 2 cups worth) in a single layer in a nonstick skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until they begin to smell fragrant and turn slightly more golden.

Sprinkle all but about 3 T. of sugar mixture over the nuts.

Let it sit for about 30 seconds, until the sugar starts to melt, then stir well until all of the nuts are coated and cook for about 60 seconds more until the sugar is mostly melted. Pull off the burner, and sprinkle the remaining sugar mixture over, tossing well until all the nuts are coated. Pour out onto parchment paper to cool, carefully breaking apart any that happen to still stick together.

This yields a nut that is glazed, but has a nice crystallized exterior, which also means that you don't get enormous globs of nuts cemented permanently together. Not that there's anything wrong with that...perfectly snitch-worthy, but not as pretty on a salad.