Yes, you will stink after eating this, but it will be very worth it!  Roasted, caramelized garlic and onions seem to make everything all better, then you top it with fresh bread broiled under a slice of cheese and life really starts looking up.

Give yourself plenty of time though… like 3-4 hours.

Starting ingredients:

• 3 bulbs garlic - unpeeled
• 3 medium yellow onions
• 1 purple sweet onion
• 3 Tbsp butter  (unless you are going for vegan, then just use oil)
• 3 Tbsp olive oil (double it if you are leaving out the butter)

Turn on the oven to 450F.  In a large heavy-bottomed dutch oven or roasting pan, drizzle the olive oil and melt the butter by setting the pan in the oven while it is preheating.

Cut across the garlic bulbs so that you have 2 halves - the top & bottom.  Place these cut-side down in the bottom of the pan.  Put this in the oven to roast.

Peel and cut the tops and bottoms of of the onions.  Cut them in half from top to bottom, lay them on their sides and slice them into 1/4-inch slices from top to bottom.  They will taste better this way.  Do NOT cut across the grain of the onion.

After the garlic has roasted for about 30 minutes and all of the onions are sliced, pull the pan out and check the garlic.  It will most likely not be ready to fall out of the skin, so gently push it to one side of the pan and put the onions in the other side.  Put it back into the oven for 30 minutes.  Check the garlic again.  You should be able to pull the skin off of the top halves without any problem, but you will have to dig out the roasted garlic from the bottom half.  I use a fork and a plate.  Place the garlic cut side down on a plate and mash the garlic out from the center.

Stir the pot and put back into the oven for 45 minutes.

Next ingredients list:

• 4 mushrooms
• 2 cups beef broth
• 2 Tbsp butter or oil
• whole wheat graham flour (approx 3/4 cup)
• 1/8 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1/8 cup balsamic vinegar (I used balsamic fig - it was wonderful)
• 1/4 cup red wine

Pull the pot out of the oven and place onto a burner over med-high heat.  Cut the mushrooms into small chunks and add them to the pot.  Stir the onion mixture around and make an open space in the center.  Place 1 Tbsp. butter (or oil) into the center and melt.  When the butter has started foaming, sprinkle some flour over it to make a roux.  Stir the onions into the roux and let it brown.

Once there are browned bits forming on the bottom of the pan, add 1/2 cup beef broth and deglaze the pan.

Once again, make an opening in the center and melt 1 Tbsp butter and make a roux.  Stir everything together and again allow it to form a brown crust on the bottom.  Deglaze with 1/2 cup beef broth.

Continue stirring, but let the onions brown one more time.  Once there is browning on the bottom again, deglaze with the vinegars and wine.  Cook until the wine evaporates off, about 5 minutes.  Pour in the last cup of beef broth.

Final ingredients:

• 3 cups chicken broth
• herbs (oregano, sage, tarragon, thyme, etc)
• black pepper
• salt

Add the ground herbs and black pepper to the onion-y roux in the pot.  Pour in the chicken broth and let it heat for about 10 minutes.  Once it is warmed through, taste to see how much salt needs added - it shouldn’t take too much.

If you have oven-safe crocks, ladle the soup into them, place a slice of french bread on top and cover with a slice of cheese (gruyere, provolone or muenster all work well).  Place them 4-5 inches below the broiler and cook until the cheese is bubbly.

If you don’t have oven-safe crocks, slice the bread and lay the cheese on it.  Toast under a broiler until the cheese is bubbly.  Ladle the soup into bowls and place the toasted bread on the top.

This is a slightly sweet soup with a lot of flavor.

I must give credit where due - I came across FXcuisine.com’s listing for French Garlic Soup a few months back, and the pictures looked so amazing that I wanted to eat that soup instantly… but never got the chance to make it.  Then there was the email from Cooks Illustrated with the onion soup how-to video.  French Onion is one of my favorite soups - if it is made well.  Real onions, real broth, and a rich flavor - amazing that it all comes out of so few ingredients.

So, I melded the two recipes, and added a bit of my own flavors to it as well.  I hope you enjoy the new soup that we came up with!

Yes, I am happily stinky, but the good news is that the rest of the family is too, so no one notices too much.

I found this recipe a few years ago - before I started really baking bread much - and it is one of the ones that got me hooked!  It is from King Arthur Flours, but I have never followed it exactly… mainly in the fruit selections…

It is a wonderful holiday bread with the jewel-toned fruits shining out.

I hope your family enjoys it as much as mine does!

And no… this is NOT a fruitcake!  Nothing candied in here!

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If you happen to have a bounty of fresh berries around, this is a great late Summer drink - and you can put it up to use through the cold winter months.

• 2.5 lbs fresh, ripe berries - about 6 pints. Use a mix of fruits for the best flavor.
• 2 cups water
• 1.5 - 2 cups sugar (preservative)

Combine the berries and water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Reduce to med-low and gently simmer until berries burst and release their juice - about 20-30 minutes.

Transfer cooked berried into a jelly bag. Suspend the bag over a large bowl and let the juice drip through. DO NOT squeeze the bag, as it will cloud the juice. Let the berries drain completely - about 1.5 - 2 hours.

Fill a large stockpot or canner 3/4 full with water and bring to a simmer. Heat clean, empty bottles in the simmering water (190F)

Transfer strained juice to a medium saucepan over med-low heat. Add the sugar - at least 1/4 cup sugar for every cup juice. Stir to dissolve - about 5 minutes.
Skim the top of the berry mixture to remove froth.

Both the water and the juice need to be at 190F - a bare simmer. Remove the bottles from the water and fill to the top. Cap tightly and return to the hot water bath, making sure they are completely submerged. After a full 10 minutes remove the bottles and let cool.

If any bottles don’t seal properly, refrigerate them and use up within 2 weeks.

This can be added to lemonade for a wonderful berry lemonade (or limeade) or can be saved to drink when fresh berries are just a fond memory. Some people like to add it to sparkling water as well for a fizzy fruit drink.

If you have read the Dragonriders of Pern books, you understand the reference to Klah, otherwise it is simply a spiced chocolate coffee.

Combine the following:

• 2 Tbsp sweet ground chocolate
• 1/2 cup dark cocoa powder
• 3/8 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 tsp. dark instant coffee crystals, ground into a fine powder
• pinch of nutmeg

Use 2-4 tsp. of the mixture per cup of boiling water. Stir well. It should be thick, much like hot cocoa.

If you don’t use instant coffee, just add the rest of the mixture into the basket with the coffee grounds and brew as normal or brew your coffee with cinnamon added and add in the cocoa powders to the individual cups.

A warm, tasty treat!

And of course, it goes well with a good book.

• 1.5 cups melted clarified butter
• 1/2 cup oil
• 40 leaves phillo dough
• 4 cups finely ground nuts - your preference
• cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cardamom, etc to taste
• 1.5 cups evaporated cane juice (sugar)
• 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 Tbsp brown rice syrup or honey

Mix butter and oil.  Cut dough to the shape of the baking pan by laying the pan on top of the stacked dough and cutting off excess.

Combine the finely ground nuts with spices.

Butter the inside of the baking dish.  Gently place one leaf of dough into the pan, fitting it carefully along the bottom of the pan (the dough is very fragile, so fold them to pick up and unfold them into the pan).  Brush with butter and oil mixture.  Continue placing sheets of phillo one at a time, buttering each one, up to 10 sheets.

Sprinkle 3 Tbsp of nut mixture on the tenth leaf.  Open 2 more sheets of dough on top of nuts, buttering each.  Repeat with the nut mixture and two more sheets until all are used up.  As soon as the last 2 sheets are used, brush with butter and oil.

With a very sharp knife, lightly score the top of the pastry lengthwise into four then draw the knife across diagonally to make diamond-shapes.  Bake at 325F for 90 minutes.

Combine the lemon, syrup and sugar in a saucepan.  Cook until the sugar dissolves.  Boil for 5 minutes, or until a drop forms a soft ball when dropped into cold water.  Remove from heat and stir water into syrup.  Cool.

When the pastry is baked, remove from oven and pour the syrup over it.  Cool to room temp and serve.

This is a great quiche to make when you don’t have a lot of time and don’t have an pie crust laying around. This one makes it’s own crust while it is baking.

Feel free to substitute your favorite veggies.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 3 cloves garlic - minced
• olive oil
• 2 bunches rainbow chard or spinach
• 1 stick butter
• 1-1/2 cups milk
• 3/4 cups bisquick
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• pepper
• 1/8 tsp. nutmeg
• cinnamon
• 1/3 cup crumbled feta
• 1-1/2 cups shredded cheese

Fill a medium saucepan with water and put it on to boil. Preheat the oven to 400F.

Put 2 Tbsp. butter into a 10-inch pie plate or a deep-dish pizza pan and put it into the oven to melt.

In a saute pan, drizzle some olive oil and warm over medium heat. Chop the chard stems and put them into the saute pan. Add the diced onion and minced garlic and cook until the onion is translcent.

Roll the chard leaves up like a cigar and slice across it so that you have ribbons of chard. Blanche them in the boiling water for about 1 minute, and add them to the garlic and onion. Saute for 2-3 minutes. Add 1 Tbsp butter to the pan.

Melt the rest of the butter.

In a blender, add the milk, bisquick, salt, eggs and the rest of the butter. Add some pepper, nutmeg and a dash of cinnamon to taste. Blend until this is frothy.

When the butter in the baking dish is melted, pull it out of the oven carefully and pour the veggies into the bottom. Sprinkle the feta and shredded cheese over it and pour the milk mixture over everything.

Put it into the oven and bake at 400F for 30-35 minutes, or until puffy and browned.

Allow to rest for 10 minutes.

This is a great recipe to make a day early and serve at any temperature! The flavors will continue to blend the longer it sits. It is also good right out of the oven.

If you like it, serve it with a dollop of sour cream - yum!

This recipe comes down from my husband’s Grandmother - each year she would make a Christmas tree out of rolls, complete with green frosting.  She passed away, and no one had a cinnamon roll tree this year.  I knew I had the recipe somewhere, and I just found it, so I’m sharing it with you.

• 1 cup milk
• 4 Tbsp butter
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 pkg active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup  warm water to dissolve yeast
• 3-4 cups sifted flour
• cinnamon
• brown sugar
• more butter
• walnuts, raisins, cranberries or apples as desired.

In a large bowl combine sugar, salt and butter.  Heat up milk, and when it is hot pout it into the bowl over dry ingredients.  Mix until dissolved.

Dissolve yeast in warm water.

Beat egg and add to milk mixture, then add yeast.  Add 3-4 cups sifted flour, enough to make a soft dough.

Put into a well greased bowl and let stand in a warm place until doubled in size (at least 1 hour).

Knead down and roll out to 1/2-inch thick.

Spread with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, fruits and nuts, leaving one edge clean.

Roll up, starting at the edge opposite the clean edge.  Using your finger, rub a bit or water on the clean edge and seal it to the roll, pinching lightly.

Cut into 1″ slices using dental floss (slide the floss under the roll and bring the ends up around the roll and cross them above it to cut the dough).

Place on a greased cookie sheet and let rise for another hour.

Bake at 375F for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

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You can use your favorite frosting or icing for these, but we usually use Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting.  To make the Christmas tree, set the uncooked rolls out on a jelly roll pan in a triangle shape with 2 rolls at the base for the trunk of the tree.  Grandma often put candied fruits or candy on top of the frosting as ornaments.

If you aren’t Norwegian - or know someone who is - you may have never heard of lefse, but if you have, you know that this is a tasty treat that goes with both sweet and savory.

Lefse can best be described as a Norwegian flat bread, not unlike tortillas. It is often made with potatoes, but not always.

There are only two warnings… it takes all day long to make it, and it usually disappears quickly (especially if there are any Norwegians hanging around) but if you hide it in time it does freeze well.

Without further ado… a small collection of lefse recipes for you to choose from.

Potato-Free Lefse

• 1.5 quarts sour cream (3 lbs.) (4 cups =1 qt)
• 2 quarts buttermilk
• 1 lb. butter
• 4 tsp. baking soda
• 2.5 cups sugar
• 6 whole eggs
• 6 egg yolks
• 3 tsp. salt
• 15 lbs flour - 10 lbs for dough, 5 lbs for rolling

Melt butter while mixing wet ingredients except eggs. Mix some flour with the butter to keep it from curdling.

Combine the salt, soda and sugar and beat into the eggs.

Mix everything together.

Take a piece of dough and roll it out on a floured surface into a large circle that will fit onto your griddle, rolling it as thin as possible. Bake on a griddle over medium heat until light brown, turning frequently to prevent scorching. Stack them between clean cloths to keep them from drying out.

*Courtesy of Lee Oswald

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Potato Lefse

• 5 large potatoes
• 1/2 cup sweet cream
• 1 tsp. salt
• 3 Tbsp. butter
• flour to roll thin

Boil potatoes and mash very fine (a ricer works well) and add cream, butter and salt. Beat until light and let cool. Add flour. Take a piece of dough and roll out into a circle like pie crust, making sure to roll it as thinly as possible. Bake on a griddle until light brown, turning frequently to prevent scorching. When baked, place between clean cloths to keep them from drying out.

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Krina Lefse

Step one:

• 3 large sifters of flour (about 5 cups in each sifter)
• 1 cup melted shortening
• 4 cups fine graham flour

Combine the above ingredients with lukewarm water, adding just enough so dough can be rolled out farily thin. Roll out as for other lefse, but bake on one side only until a very light brown. This makes a large quantity - about 36 large round lefse.

Step two:

When lefse are all baked, prepare the following mixture.

• 1 cup dark syrup
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 egg yolks
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 Tbsp. melted butter
• 2 egg whites
• flour to make a fairly thick batter

Beat eggs & combine with the other ingredients. Spread over each lefse with a spatula. Spread lefse one at a time and bake in a hot oven for a few minutes, just enough to brown slightly around the edges. Bake on one side only.

Pile lefse with coated sides together, and put a weight on top of them until they are cold. Then remove the weight and sprinkle a little water over lefse to keep them from breaking.

Put them away - keeping coated sides apart to prevent sticking.

These lefse will keep indefinitely if kept in a dry place.

When ready to use, hold each lefse under cold water, letting water fun over both sides, then place between clean cloths until soft enough to use. They may have to be soaked twice. When soft, spread with butter, sugar and cinnamon. Put 2 lefse together and cut wedge shaped like a pie.

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Swedish Flat Bread

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup sweet milk
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1.5 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 4 cups flour
• 3/4 cup flour for rolling

Cream the butter and sugar together. Combine dry ingredients, making sure to break up any chunks in the baking powder and soda. Beat the eggs into the milk. Combine everything together to form a dough ball.

Roll small pieces of dough very thinly into circles. Bake quickly on a griddle over medium-high heat.

*our friend John’s Grandma’s recipe

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As you can see, there are many variations to the basic recipe, but they are all wonderful. Our favorite ways to eat them around here are with butter, cinnamon and sugar, or with lingonberry jam. They also pair well with savory dishes as a bread to sop up juices.

I haven’t tried to make a healthier version yet, but I would think that you could use coconut oil in place of the shortening or butter in these - if you got the version that tastes like coconut it would be unexpected, but very good. You should also be able to replace the cream or buttermilk with coconut cream or kefir. If you use a recipe that doesn’t use eggs, it would be very easy to make it vegan.

Each recipe makes a goodly sized batch, so wrap some of it in plastic wrap and freeze it. Just take it out and set it on the counter to thaw. You can also refrigerate it to keep it longer. I find though that if I don’t freeze some right away, it tends to get put away into bellies rather quickly.

Enjoy!

Tis the season for baking!  Add in the fact that we have been buried under 2+ feet of snow, and I’m really glad that I had a 50lb. bag of flour and 48 eggs in the house!

Yes, Christmas is this week, and we spent the weekend being snowed in and baking.  It was a good weekend!

All told, I think we baked 9 different kinds of cookies… and it was so fun!

Lemon Hazlenut Biscotti… from the cookbook “Great Cookies”

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies - from Hersheys.com

Pumpkin Leaves  - I cheated on these, I had some Cougar Mountain Pumpkin Cookie Dough in the fridge… but we did roll them out on a powdered sugar covered surface and cut them rather than doing drop cookies like normal.  Very yummy!

Cream Cheese and Lemon Sugar Cookies - thick, moist, lemon-y cookies!

We used the lemon sugar cookie dough to also make stained glass window cookies - just make cut-outs in the cookie dough and fill it with crushed hard candies like Jolly Ranchers or Dum-Dum pops.  Very tasty and so pretty!  Take them out just a little sooner than normal so the candy doesn’t burn, and let them cool completely on the pan.

I also found a recipe for Low-Fat Sugar Cookies that only called for 2.5 Tbsp of butter… which is an amazingly low amount!  Make sure you roll them a little closer to the 1/8″ thickness though so it cooks through.  Surprisingly tasty, and very low-fat by comparison!

Then we made Gingerbread Angels.  Since my molasses is a bit on the stronger side I halved the amount called for, but I think that may have been a mistake.  Our angels came out with a bare hint of a molasses aftertaste, but they are still very tasty.  They were especially tasty dipped in the lemon-powdered sugar glaze for the biscotti!

We also morphed the sugar cookie dough into jelly filled cookies.  Cut one solid circle, cut one circle with a shaped cut-out in the center.  If you forget to fill them first (oops!), bake them, then spread jelly in between the layers.   Otherwise you can spread the jelly in the middle and seal the edges of the 2 cookies.  Either way, they are quite yummy

I was planning to make Sinful Chocolate Cookies, but I don’t seem to have any cake mixes left in the house (these cookies are the only time we use them!)  I guess I’ll have to come up with an alternate recipe for them.

They aren’t edible, but we also made some salt dough ornaments.  I added a bit of buckwheat flour to make them easier to knead, and also added some essential oil to make them smell good.  You’ll want to keep them away from any cookies that you plan to eat, as the oil will make them taste odd, but they are a fun craft for kids - both cutting them out and painting them when they are dry!

The final part of our goodie baking was dark chocolate truffles.  Make a thick ganache with chocolate and heavy cream.  Let it cool and roll it into balls.  Chill them and dip them into melted chocolate.  Coat them with cocoa powder and keep chilled.  Soooooooo good!

This was our Christmas baking extravaganza… I hope yours is going well too!

Have a blessed Christmas!

I found this recipe while browsing about the web looking for cookie recipes and we liked it so much that I decided to post it here so I can find it again (yes, I hate looking for things again!).  That and I wanted to share it with you.

We cut the molasses in half and added applesauce because the molasses I had on hand was rather… um, strong, but I think that was a mistake.  These are already very good as we made them, but they lack that extra molasses punch.  So, keep to the recipe as-is.  It’s very good.   We also skipped the step of chilling them before baking, mainly because I forgot (that and it was closing in on 9pm, and I had kids to get into bed).  Just sharing this to let you know that it’s not an absolutely crucial step.

I did find, however, that I had to knead the dough quite a bit to get it workable for rolling out.  After about the 3rd time being rolled out the dough was nice and smooth, so be prepared to work it a bit before using it.

The final change: I always use powdered sugar in place of flour for rolling out cookies.  It adds a hint of sweetness and doesn’t add any more flour.

We didn’t frost ours, but I think that a cream cheese frosting, a simple powdered sugar glaze, spiced sugar glaze,  or a lemon-powdered sugar glaze would go very well with these.

Gingerbread Angels, Pumpkin leaves & Sugar Cookies

These cookies have the heavenly smell of the holidays and make great ornaments. To make ornaments, use a toothpick or bamboo skewer to form a hole before baking. Use scraps to create three-dimensional designs.  They would also make an interesting stained-glass cookie.

3 dozen (5-inch) cookies

Hands on: 40 minutes

Total time: 1 1/2 hours

6 cups all-purpose flour, sifted

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup packed brown sugar

4 teaspoons ground ginger

4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 eggs

1 cup unsulfured molasses

1. In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and baking powder. Set aside.

2. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. Mix in ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and salt. Add the eggs, one at a time, and molasses. Add flour mixture; combine on low speed. Divide dough in thirds; wrap in plastic. Chill for at least 1 hour.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a floured work surface, roll dough 1/8-inch thick. Cut into desired shapes. Transfer to baking sheets lined with parchment. Refrigerate until firm, about 15 minutes. Bake until crisp but not darkened, 8 to 10 minutes. Let cookies cool on wire racks, then decorate as desired.