A Recipe For Something That Isn't Fruitcake

Last year on Christmas morning we awoke to find bags of homemade treats on our doorstep from a number of the neighbors. Now that I know our street does Christmas, I am in. This year I am hauling out my go-to holiday recipe for baked item gift situations, The Cranberry Bread. It is buttery and orange-y and sweet-tarty and delicious. I’ll be making a dozen loaves.

I found the original recipe in Mademoiselle Magazine sometime in the late 80’s because apparently it was my bible not only for bolero jacket designs and Terence Trent D’Arby interviews but it featured recipes that still hold up. The Mademoiselle version of the bread included coconut and pecans but I have adapted the recipe to exclude those but added double the cranberries and some extra orange zest and now it is perfect. If you really want to fall in love, eat it warm or toast it with some butter. Also: Why is Terence now calling himself “Sananda Maitreya" now? Anyone?

If you live on our block you don’t have to try the recipe yourself, just open your door on Christmas morning and dig in.

CRANBERRY BREAD
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup sugar
1 Tbs. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
2/3 cup orange juice
2 eggs, slightly beaten
3 Tbs melted, unsalted butter
2 cups fresh cranberries
1 Tbs. grated orange zest

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease an 8” X 41/2” X 3” bread pan. In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt, Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the orange juice, eggs and melted butter. Mix well. Blend in cranberries and orange zest. Pour mixture into the loaf pan and bake for 50 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove bread from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Remove bread from pan and cool completely. Wrap in plastic wrap. I like to wrap it again in foil, over the plastic. Makes 1 loaf. Or it also makes 2 wonderful mini loaves, if that’s your deal.

Sunday Supper #2 and The Super Good Pasta Sauce

Another Rosenberg Sunday Supper has passed and it was a beauty. Jeff’s 92 –year-old grandmother, Grandma Sylvia, and her 95-year-old boyfriend, Nat, were visiting from Florida and were special guests for the evening. (Please do not tell Grandma Sylvia that I have revealed her age to the internet.) She brought her famous strudel cookies which she made in Florida and brought to California on the plane. I adore them both.

My friend Karen brought over a violin (and garlic bread). Grandma Sylvia is a former violin concert-mistress. To kick off the evening, she borrowed Karen’s instrument and laid down a few choruses of “Bei Mir Bist Du Schon." It was grand. Or as Nat put it, “You’ve still got it, Baby.”

We had about 40 of our favorite people crammed into the pad and there were plenty of eats. I made a giant batch of my favorite (gluten-free) pasta and pasta sauce. A number of people asked me what was in the sauce, which is generally a good sign, unless they are asking while spitting something into a napkin – and they were not. The sauce is good, super good. I got the recipe from my friend Loretta Palazzo back in 1994. With a name like “Loretta Palazzo,” you've got to trust the sauce recipe.

Bob wrapped up the evening by leading a few of our friends in a rousing "Doe a Deer" sing-a-long, and then an original work titled, "Poo Poo Song." Our friends are enthusiastic singers, good sports, and apparently enjoy a scatological tune. It was a fine evening.

Loretta Palazzo’s Super Good Pasta Sauce

½ cup olive oil
1 small red onion, chopped
8-12 garlic gloves, minced
1 medium zucchini chopped
½ pound mushrooms, sliced
1 small jar of artichoke hearts, including oil
1 big can of whole, peeled tomatoes
1 small can of tomato paste
½ cup red cooking wine
red pepper flakes, to taste
fresh basil, oregano, and Italian parsley to taste, chopped (I usually do about a half cup each)
black pepper to taste

Sautee first 5 ingredients until onions are translucent. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, then lower temperature and simmer for at least 30 minutes.

The sauce is also fantastic with spaghetti squash. Or just eaten straight out of the pot while it’s cooking on the stove… from what I hear.

Mademoiselle Magic Stuffing

Every Thanksgiving for the past 25 years, I have been pulling out of the recipe file, a now tattered three pages ripped from the November 1984 issue of Mademoiselle magazine containing my favorite stuffing recipe.

The lovely and wistful girl in the picture stands in her swell New York single gal kitchen, the Thanksgiving Day Parade is on her (prehistoric rabbit-eared) television. She gazes over a beautifully garnished Thanksgiving spread and arranges seasonal flowers while chatting on her corded phone with her startlingly handsome French boyfriend, Guy. (Pronounced "Gee.") She has stem wear for 16, sweet serving dishes, a horn handled carving set and a Norma Kamali checked blouse. She is an eighties Thanksgiving goddess.

I know that my 20 year-old self was secretly hoping that executing the recipes on these pages might cause some of her perfect life (I know she’s just a model, but still) to rub off on me. That Mademoiselle magic never did work itself on the details of my life, (and I have the photos to prove it) but the stuffing recipe has been a consolation prize that keeps on giving. It is easy and wonderful and always a big hit.

The Recipe For The Stuffing You Should Be Eating On Thursday

8-oz bag Pepperidge Farm Dry Herb Stuffing Mix (I’m pretty sure this hasn’t existed for many years. Any 8-oz bag of any seasoned stuffing mix will work.)
1-1/2 cups chopped, dried apricots
1 cup water
8 Tbs. butter
½ cup currants
2 stalks celery, diced
1 small onion, minced
1 egg, beaten

First, insert Purple Rain into the cassette player. Then, in a large bowl, toss together stuffing mix and apricots. In a small saucepan, combine water, 6 Tbs. butter and currants. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then lower and simmer until butter melts. Add to stuffing mixture, toss well. In a medium skillet, melt remaining 2 Tbs. butter. Lightly sauté celery and onion; add to stuffing mixture and mix well. Stir in egg.

Makes enough to stuff a 12 pound turkey. Extra stuffing can be placed in a baking pan and baked for 30 mins. At 350. For moist stuffing, cover pan with foil. For a crustier stuffing, leave pan uncovered. Apply more mousse to your perm and pour yourself a frosty glass of Tab.

Coupon no longer valid.

Sunday Supper and Sort of a Recipe

Occasionally we here at Team Rosenberg hatch a fine idea. (And by occasionally, I mean annually.) Sunday night was the culmination of one such scheme. Inspired by the realization that there are many people we adore that we just don’t get to see enough of, we made the decision to start a new tradition and host a potluck Sunday Supper at our house once a month. We invited family, friends, and all of the neighbors on our street. We invited people that live out of town, out of state and out of the country, and will continue to do so in the hopes that one of these Sundays, our far away friends might be in town and join us. We are hoping many people will become regulars.

Sunday night was our first supper. We had 35 people wedged into our little house. There were kids and parents and grandparents and old friends and new friends and brownies and seven different kinds of salsa. There was always someone playing the piano and it was all just what we had hoped for.

Selfishly, not only did I get to see lots of my favorite people, and eat lots of food that I didn’t have to cook, I got to do it all barefoot. Also, for someone like me who has a history of just the teeniest smattering of paralyzing social anxiety, getting to chat a bit and then also have some hostess-y jobs to do was a perfect combo for me.

People brought a lot of excellent food and crazy good desserts. I did a build-your-own-tostada deal which is an easy, cheap, good thing. Even though it’s quite simple and does not require a recipe, at Jeff’s adamant request, I will share the how-to of it. Jeff lost count of how many he ate of these. (And by Jeff, I mean me.)

You can use canned refried black or pinto beans – I did my own. I threw a bunch of dried pintos in the crock pot and let them go for a day and then smashed them up with a potato masher. I fried corn tortillas (and by I, I mean my mom) one at a time in a skillet with a little vegetable oil until they were crispy and brown, salting them with a pinch of Kosher salt on one side. We set out bowls of grated cheddar, shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, salsa and sour cream and then let people build away. Jeff has asked me to mention that the magic is in assembling it in the following order tortilla/beans/cheese/lettuce/tomato/salsa/sour cream. Once your guests have departed, you can eat everything that’s left over. (And by you, I mean me.)

It was fun. Start angling now for an invite for next month. I'm thinking spaghetti.

You and Your Quinoa

Now that my new hobby is my gluten intolerance (So sexy!) I’ve come to realize that quinoa is the go-to grain, right after rice, and the Trader Joe’s faux-Cheetos cheese crunchy things that I now consider a grain.

Quinoa is fantastic because it cooks in a fraction of the time of brown rice. Just typing that last sentence so earnestly has confirmed that I have become the kind of person I never wanted to hang out with. What is happening? Where is my Bloomin' Onion™ ?

The following Quinoa and Summer Vegetables recipe was adapted from one I found on the Karina’s Kitchen website. (God love that Karina. Without her I’d just be gnawing on stale rice cakes for all three meals.) And by “adapted” I mean that instead of sticking to Karina’s list of fresh organic produce, I put in whatever vegetables were last-gasping it in the bottom of the refrigerator and it was still great. Feel free to do the same. After trying this a few different ways, I will tell you that I believe the key ingredient here is the balsamic, you can get creative with everything else, if you must.

Quinoa and Summer Vegetables
(I'll call it that because Karina calls it that and it also sounds fancier than Quinoa and Whatever.)

1 cup dry quinoa
Water
Olive oil for sautéing

1/2 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 yellow summer squash, chopped

1 zucchini squash, chopped
1/2 yellow bell pepper, chopped

1 cup white mushrooms, trimmed, sliced 

1 cup of grape tomatoes, halved

Sea salt and ground pepper

Handful of each - Fresh basil and Italian parsley, torn 

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Extra virgin olive oil, to taste

Prepare the quinoa as directed on the box. For that you’ll need the quinoa and the water. I’m not re-typing that all here. Just read the box. They are the quinoa people. They know what they’re doing.



While the quinoa is cooking, in a separate pan sauté the onion until translucent, then add the garlic and heat for a minute or so, then add everything else that is vegetable, cooking until tender. Add salt, pepper, herbs and balsamic towards the end of the cooking time. Add the vegetable mixture to the prepared quinoa. Stir in just a little more olive oil.

Serve immediately, or refrigerate and eat it later as a cold salad. Before serving it cold, taste test again and adjust seasonings. When I have it the next day, it usually needs a little more balsamic.

It tastes good, it’s easy and now your fridge is cleaned out. Yay you.

Serves 4 people who better be doing the dishes because look how you slaved. *cough*





A Charming Potato Salad

My gluten-free saga continues.

What I have learned of late:

When a tan, be-yoga-pantsed lady in the Gluten Free aisle at Whole Foods tells you that a certain frozen brownie product is “amazing,” remember that a real brownie may not have passed her lips since the dawn of Hammer Time and therefore her taste in what is “amazing” is completely suspect.

If you plan to eat quinoa this week, you will have had enough by Tuesday.

Lots of stuff (everything good) has gluten in it in some form. For example, most popular brands of mayonnaise contain the gluten thing. How dare they?

It is summer and a summer requirement for me is potato salad. I lifted this easy and good enough that you almost-don’t-miss-the-mayonnaise recipe for potato salad directly from the Karina’s Kitchen website. (Except for the my-two-cents parts in italics.) You normal folks should like it. (I tried it out on Jeff, Bob, Uncle Jerry, and Miss Ilene last week and no one appeared to spit it out into their napkin. Ringing endorsement!)

It’s even safe for the vegans, if you’re into that. But really, if you are into that, cut it out already.

Champagne Vinegar Red Potato Salad

1 bag of ripe and firm Red Bliss potatoes - about two pounds
1 medium purple or red onion
Organic extra virgin olive oil
Champagne vinegar (The Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar from Trader’s is great.)
Sea salt and fresh cracked pepper
Tarragon - fresh, snipped, or dried (I believe fresh tarragon is the key ingredient here.)
Heat a large pot of fresh cold water to boil. Add some sea salt.

Wash off the potatoes; leave the skins on. Cut the potatoes into quarters or bite size chunks. Put them into the water and simmer until fork tender - about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, dice the onion.

Drain the potatoes well and pour them into a large bowl. Add the onion and lightly mix. Add enough extra virgin olive oil to moisten the potatoes - about 1/4 cup or so. Drizzle liberally with the Champagne vinegar and toss. Taste test.

Add more if needed. Don't be stingy.

Season with sea salt, cracked pepper and tarragon. Mix well with a wooden spoon. I like to soften the shape of some of the potatoes, but not all. I prefer my potato salad with some definition.

And now you have a choice. You can serve it warm - which is divine. Or cover and chill it. Once chilled, taste test for seasoning adjustments because the chilling process dampens the flavors a bit.

Serves 4 to 6 of your favorite people.

Farewell Sweet, Sweets

So I found out that I can’t eat wheat or gluten-y things anymore. I will admit that I spent a day or two mourning the loss of glazed old-fashioned doughnuts and pie and pie and pie. Though once I realized how many ways of rotten I felt when I ate the stuff, not eating those lovely dough wads and their glutinous brethren was easy, if only because the alternative was so rough.

I’m an all right cook but my thing has always been baking. I know the whole nature of my baking deal is going to be changing. It will be different and feel kind of weird and I will miss my old recipes as I get new ones from sites like Karina’s Kitchen and troll the aisles at Whole Foods doing price comparisons on bean flour.

However, I do not go gentle into that buckwheat and millet.

Here is my favorite wheat packed super easy cobbler recipe that's been a part of my summers for the last 20 years. You can make it with berries or cherries but I love(d) it with peaches. It is an odd assembly that feels and looks wrong when you’re doing it but is pretty impossible to mess up. Batter on the bottom of the pan, then fruit, then pour water over the top of the whole thing. I know. Strange. Sometimes they use this same method in buckle recipes. As it bakes, the batter rises up over the fruit and the whole thing becomes a golden brown juicy layer of goodness with a light syrup on the bottom. The original recipe came from Applehood and Motherpie, Handpicked Recipes From Upstate New York (Junior League of Rochester, 1981).

Make it. Have some. For me.

This watery mess...

...becomes this-oh-how-I-love-this.

Easy Fruit Cobbler
6 – 8 Servings

Biscuit Batter
¼ cup butter
½ cup sugar
1 cup flour
¼ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ cup milk

Fruit Filling
2 cups berries, pitted cherries or peeled and quartered peaches
¼ -½ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
1 ½ cups water

Biscuit Batter
Cream butter and sugar together. Mix together flour, salt and baking powder. Add to butter alternately with milk. Pour into shallow greased 2-quart baking dish.

Fruit Filling
Spoon 2 cups fruit over Biscuit Batter. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Cover with water. Bake at 375 degrees until set and light brown on top, 45 – 50 minutes. Fruit will sink.

And like everything in life, this is good with ice cream.


You Capture is a weekly photo challenge at a mama blog I like:
I Should Be Folding Laundry
This week's challenge was a choice: Food or 4th of July (I guess you can tell which one I chose.)

Smacksy Sunday Link: The Hummus

If ever I am feeling a little too impressed with my “edgy” taste or “unique” interests, Christian Lander’s blog, “Stuff White People Like” will snap me back to reality. Apparently most all of my tastes and interests land me squarely in the center of my Daily Show/Farmer's Market/David Sedaris-loving demographic. Mr. Lander’s enormously popular site satirizes the interests of “North American left-leaning, city-dwelling white folk", in other words, me and a bunch of people I know. And it’s funny, yo.*

* Yo - See Stuff White People Like #107 Self Aware Hip Hop References

As a Trader Joe's-going gal with a touch of the gluten intolerance, a post particularly close to my all-too-common-heart is stuff white people like #112 Hummus. Sometimes reading his stuff makes me just a tiny bit self conscious about my whole deal - but if the hummus fits...

I will take this all a step further and offer you this link to Emeril Lagasse’s hummus recipe which is basic and awesome and I like it. Because I’m all white like that.

Have a great Sunday everybody.

Some Nice Fish and Gwyneth Paltrow

A few months ago, Gwyneth Paltrow launched a lifestyle/website/bloggish deal called goop.com. It's all about her ideas, advice, and opinions about clothes, and food, and travel, and stuff, and things. She's trying to help us all unleash our inner-Paltrow.

Gwynnie has taken some heat about her site in the media and the blog-world, many charging her with being an elitist. Well, she's got an academy award, a rock star husband, her godfather is Steven Spielberg and her best friend is Madonna - so yeah, "elitist" might fit here - whatever. Say what you will about her but the gal is friends with Mario Batali. For a skinny chick, she knows her food.

I adapted this salmon recipe from a post in the MAKE section of her site and I was impressed with my culinary prowess for days afterward. It was spectacular and spectacularly simple to make.

Steamed Salmon and Greens
Serves: 2
Time: 20 minutes

1 small handful (1/4-1/2 cup) of your favorite herbs (I used basil, Italian parsley and thyme)
4 finger sized pieces of fresh, peeled ginger (this is my own addition but I think it is key)
2 6 oz. organic salmon fillets
2 cups of your favorite fresh greens (I used spinach and kale)
2 wedges of lemon (I also sliced some lemon and added it to the steaming water)

Line your steamer with the herbs and rest the salmon fillets on top. Steam for 11 minutes. Put the greens alongside the fish and steam for an additional 7 minutes. Squeeze the lemon over the fish and greens and serve.

And may the Paltrow be with you.

3 New-ish Things That Make My Life Easier

There are 3 little things at the top of the list of stuff that has recently changed my life for the oh-so-much better. Little things. Really small, really good things.

*Spoiler Alert: I will be waxing euphoric about kitty litter. For real.

There’s a commercial where a guest walks into a woman’s home, sniffs and says, “Oh, I didn’t know you had cats.” I have a fear of that little scene being played out at our house.

The “Oh, I didn’t know you have a cat” smell at our place would aromatically conflict with the “Oh, I didn’t know you have a dog” smell or the “Oh, I didn’t know you have a kid who occasionally pees on the rug” smell, of which we are all so proud. Of the many nasty smells that can waft through a house, cat box smells are among the gaggiest to me. I bow before one of my favorite inventions of this century: Cat Litter Crystals. Any brand of crystal style cat litter will do, but the cheapest ones I’ve found are at Trader Joe’s. One need only change the littler once (Once!) a month (A month!) and there is no smell. Bless you crystals. If you think this isn't a big deal, then you are simply wrong.

Next up, the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. They really are magic. Leave a 3-year-old-boy alone for two minutes with a box of crayons/cup of coffee/used diaper and your walls will resemble a crime scene. The Eraser makes all the bad stuff go away. I don’t know how they work and I don’t care. I just love them with a white, hot, blinding devotion. The plain wrap store brand types are not as good. The new Febreze scented ones do not seem to work as well either and they leave your place smelling like a strip club. (Yeah, pretend you don’t know what I mean.) For best results, go Eraser classic.

Number 3 on the list is my current favorite edible exception to the “good, fast, cheap – pick any two” rule. My friend Lisa first told me about this recipe from Giada De Laurentis’s cookbook, Every Day Italian. This dish is simple and inexpensive. A dish that includes a can of tuna among its ingredients has no business being this good.

I use whatever type of whole wheat pasta we have in the house and canned Tongol in water instead of the albacore tuna in oil (less mercury, so they say). The lemon peel is key. (Sans lemon peel there can be a whiff of Fancy Feast about it all.) Giada’s original take on this also includes an optional recipe for making your own marinara sauce, but that would eliminate the easiness part and who needs that?

Fusilli with Tuna and Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
* 1 pound fusilli
* 1 (26-ounce) jar marinara sauce
* 2 (6-ounces each) cans albacore tuna packed in oil, drained
* 1 tablespoon drained capers
* 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 1 tablespoon chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves

Directions
Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to the bite, about 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine the tomato sauce, tuna, capers, and lemon peel in a heavy large skillet. Using a fork, break the tuna into chunks. Simmer to blend the flavors, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid. Add the pasta to the sauce and toss to coat. Toss the pasta with enough reserved cooking liquid to moisten. Stir in the parsley and serve.