Cranberry Pie

Deb of Smitten Kitchen is a genius. Her blog is fantastic and her cookbook wonderful - it's one of the favored few that lives next to my coffee pot on the counter instead of tucked away on a shelf. Her recipes are a creative in an "Of course! We've been such fools!" kind of way, where she puts a spin on a recipe that's so obviously better that you wonder why we haven't all been doing it this way from the start.

Anyway, there aren't a lot of blog recipes that I would try out of the blue for Thanksgiving, but I trust Deb. So when I mentioned that she had a new post about cranberry pie, Mom and I agreed that we should try it. Cranberries can be pretty tart, but this pie has a generous helping of pecan crumble on top to balance it out. Pecan crumble?! It must be tried.

Oh hai. The crust was super easy. I won't pretend I did an expert job with it, but it worked. The filling was simple, too - just a bag of cranberries dumped into a pot with some sugar, heated until the berries got a little juicy.

All of that got smothered in a combination of ground-up oats, pecans, flour, sugar, and a shitload of melted butter (Mom: "Do you need any more butter?" Me: "No, I think we're good." <> "Actually, leave out another stick"). 

Then you bake it off, serve it to great acclaim, go to bed, and spend the next morning watching your family eye each other as they circle the lone leftover slice for breakfast.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Almond-Kale Smoothie

I'm now officially on maternity leave, and I don't know what to do with myself. Today I went to IKEA, which was gloriously empty, but got so absorbed in the Home Organization section that I never ate lunch. Bad idea. 

I don't feel like eating much in general these days - a myth about pregnancy (for me, at least) has been that you'll eat everything not nailed down. What they neglect to mention is that this bingeing is followed by such horrific heartburn that you'll feel like one of those people on the posters for The Strain. So I eat a lot of "small meals," which translates to, once I'm about to pass out I eat some peanut butter.

Anyway, after several days of living on spoonfuls of the aforementioned peanut butter and bites of leftover pasta, I needed a vegetable. I needed it to be easy to digest. BEHOLD: the almond-kale smoothie.

This recipe is from our friend GP (sorry). It sounds disgusting but is actually pretty good. In theory, I drink one every day.

Almond-Kale Smoothie
adapted from "It's All Good"

1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1 heaping teaspoon coconut oil
2 tablespoons health-food-store-type almond butter or (only if you have a Vitamix) a small handful of almonds
1 date*
smallish fistful of kale leaves**
2-4 ice cubes

Put everything in the blender, in the order above, and blend until completely smooth. Drink right away.

*The date is there for a little sweetness. I buy dates just for this smoothie, but if you don't have any just add some honey.
**I bet this would also be good with spinach, particularly if you aren't crazy about green drinks. Spinach is a little sweeter than kale, with no bitterness.

Little Conehead

Mom and Scott are on a wave of nostalgia with the first grandchild coming. They dug up this photo yesterday, where Matt can't be more than a few days old. As you can see, seven-year-old Meghan is totally focused on her baby brother, so much so that - oh wait, is that a camera, LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME LOOK AT MEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Swiftify

I've been strangely invested in the Taylor Swift-Spotify kerfuffle. In case you've been doing better things with your time: Taylor Swift and her label decided not to make her wildly popular new album, 1989, available on music streaming service Spotify. Most likely it would have gone up in a few months. Spotify responded to this fairly standard industry move by releasing a passive aggressive statement about how disappointed their users must be, and Swift/her label responded by pulling all her music from the service. I'm firmly Team Swift on this one.

A) Why on earth would she put her album up on a streaming service and lose a bunch of record sales? Swift is one of the few artists who actually sells albums - lots of them. She's the only - ONLY - artist to put out a platinum-selling album this year. Putting the album on streaming services would absolutely hurt her sales, and Spotify's royalties are a joke. Basically, they got mad that Swift decided to make money for herself instead of them.

B) Windowing (releasing a piece of entertainment on different platforms at different times - kind of like a movie being released in the theaters, and then on DVD, and then on pay VOD, and then a premium cable channel, and then basic cable/Netflix) is very common. Movies do it; TV does it. T. Swift wasn't doing some weird nefarious thing. Also, windowing is important. Mass entertainment is expensive to produce, and windowing gets it paid for. Everything should not be free. Have you ever watched the end credits for Game of Thrones? They're like seven minutes long! That show is awesome because hundreds of people work on each episode, and they aren't working for free.

C) I think that Spotify went after Taylor Swift at least in part out of sexism. "Oh, we can make this dumb blonde do whatever we want," is not something they probably said out loud, but a thought in the back of their executives' minds that shaped their (incredibly stupid) decision to try and manipulate the music industry's biggest star. I don't see Spotify making public statements about Thom Yorke or David Byrne or the Red Hot Chili Peppers, all of whom eschew the service.

It bums me out that Taylor says she isn't a feminist, but her "fuck you" move against the guys who went after her makes me smile. She might not say it, but giving a popular streaming service and their dumbass executives a public middle finger is very feminist indeed.

Fave Recipes: Almond Cake

One of my favorite recipes is the almond cake from Cooking For Mr. Latte by Amanda Hesser. This is a very uncontroversial opinion. Liking Hesser's almond cake like saying, "whatever his politics, I admire John McCain's service record," or enjoying Adele's 21. Certain things unite us all.

Anyway, I've been making this cake since 2005. It's a dinner party go-to and pleases everyone who is not allergic to tree nuts. My only change from the original recipe is the baking vessel. Hesser has you bake it in two 8-inch springform pans, but a) I don't own two 8-inch springform pans, and b) it really does come out better if you dump all the batter in a tube pan (a very heavily buttered bundt cake pan works too). Want to get technical? This recipe has a relatively low amount of flour and eggs, which provide structure to the finished cake (the union of flour with eggs, butter, and sugar are what give cakes their nice domed tops). In a springform pan, this cake sinks instantly and tends to not bake completely in the center. But in a tube pan, the cake is coddled all around and doesn't need to rise so much, and you don't have to worry about the center not baking, because the center is now a hole. The cake will still sink, but whatever. Just trust me.

Almond Cake
adapted from, but mostly faithful to, Amanda Hesser, who got the recipe from her mother-in-law

INGREDIENTS
2 sticks butter, more for buttering pan
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour(measured after sifting)

1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
7-ounce tube almond paste
4 egg yolks, room temperature
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
1 teaspoon baking soda
Whipped cream/powdered sugar, for serving

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter sides and bottom of a tube pan.

Mix together the sour cream (or yogurt) and baking soda in a small bowl and set aside. In a mixer fitted with a paddle, beat butter and granulated sugar at high speed until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add almond paste, a little at a time at medium speed, and beat 8 minutes. Beat in egg yolks, one at a time, and almond extract. Add the sour cream/baking soda mixture and add to butter mixture. Reduce mixer speed to low and gradually add the flour and salt, just until blended.

Spread the batter evenly into the buttered tube pan. Bake about 1 hour 15 minutes, until the top is golden and springs back when lightly pressed, and the cake shrinks from the sides of the pan. Cool in the pan on a wire rack before removing the cake.

Elizabeth (Amanda's mother-in-law) says: ''This is the Shar-Pei of cakes. It doesn't look very pretty; it crumbles on the edges and invariably falls in the middle. No matter -- it's still delicious. Store in a covered tin in or out of the fridge. It improves with age and can be made 1 to 2 weeks ahead.'' When ready to serve, sift powdered sugar on top and slice; serve with whipped cream.

***BREAKING NEWS: Amanda now makes this cake in a food processor, which pulverizes the almond paste better and changes the texture of the finished cake crumb. Because this cake, in my opinion, is already perfect, I haven't tried it. But FYI. 

Thanksgiving Volcano

It's that time of year... when every food publication desperately tries to find a new way for you to make turkey. Brine it! Fry it! Roast at high heat! Bake low and slow! Accept that half of it will be dry! Never give up on moistness! Bless those food writers - the Thanksgiving meal never changes, but they WILL find something new to say.

Anyway, at my vegetarian mom's house, Thanksgiving is pretty easy, as she opts for the "No Turkey" turkey recipe, which is just "don't buy a turkey and make extra mashed potatoes."

In my opinion, the best part of the Thanksgiving meal is making volcanoes the next day. You don't make volcanoes? MAKE VOLCANOES! Volcanoes are a wondrous Momofuku creation of bread dough, stuffed with scalloped potatoes, caramelized onions, and Gruyere cheese. Our household version incorporates mashed potatoes and gravy, as well.

It really is the perfect use of leftovers. Try it!

Cheesy Caramelized Onion VolcanoesAdapted from the Momofuku Milk Bar Cookbook

NOTE: Don't be scared that you have to make a bread dough - it's the easiest dough recipe out there and can be used 45 minutes after you stir it together. The original recipe yields 4 giant volcanoes, but I make them a little smaller to get 6.

Ingredients

• 1 recipe Mother Dough (see below), risen
• 1 recipe Caramelized Onions (I am not including the recipe for this. Just slice three onions and saute on medium-low heat until they're dark brown)
• leftover scalloped potatoes, mashed potatoes, and/or gravy
• 1 egg
• ½ teaspoon water
• 1 cup shredded Gruyère cheese (or white cheddar, parmesan, etc. - any hard, sharp cheese)

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 375.
2. Punch down and flatten the dough on a clean, dry surface. Cut the dough into 6 equal pieces. Use your fingers to gently stretch each piece of dough out into a mini pizza about 3-4 inches wide.
3. Divide the onions equally among the rounds, scooping them in the center. Cut your leftover scalloped potatoes into small squares and lay on top. Plop on a tablespoon or two of mashed taters on top of that. Quantities depend on how many leftovers you have, but don't be too heavy-handed, or the volcanoes will break. Spoon over some gravy.
4. Take the edges of each dough round and pinch together to seal so that there is no speck of onion or potato in sight, then gently roll the ball between the palms of your hands to ensure the volcano has a nice, round, dinner roll–y shape. Arrange the volcanoes, seam side down, several inches apart on a parchment- or silicone-lined baking tray.
5. Whisk the egg and water together and brush a generous coat of egg wash on the buns. Use a paring knife to cut a 1 inch-long X in the top of each volcano. Divide the cheese evenly among the volcanoes, stuffing it into the X in each one.
6. Bake the volcanoes for 25-30 minutes, or until the dough is a deep, golden brown and the cheese on top is caramelized. You may need to turn on the broiler at the end. They are best served warm, but allow them to cool for at least 10 minutes before digging in. Leftover volcanoes can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge once cool. Heat up before eating.

MOTHER DOUGH

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups bread flour
• 1/2 tablespoon kosher or sea salt
• heaping 1/2 teaspoon active dried yeast (you technically want 1/2 plus a 1/16 teaspoon if you have the ability to measure those sorts of things)
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water, at room temperature
• vegetable oil
• 
  
• Instructions

1. Stir together the flour, salt, and yeast in the bowl of a free-standing electric mixer—do it by hand, using the dough hook like a spoon. Continue stirring by hand as you add the water, mixing for 1 minute, until the mixture has come together into a shaggy mass.
2. Engage the bowl and hook and have the machine mix the dough on the lowest speed for 3 minutes, or until the ball of dough is smoother and more cohesive. Then knead for 4 more minutes on the lowest speed. The dough should look like a wet ball and should bounce back softly when prodded.
3. Brush a large bowl with oil and dump the dough into it. Cover with cling film and let the dough rise at room temperature for 45 minutes.
4. The dough is ready to be used as directed in the following recipes. If you do not plan to use your mother dough the day you make it, you can store it in an airtight container at least twice its size in the fridge for up to 3 days. Take it out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature 30 to 45 minutes before using.

Soon

They serve this at the hospital, right?

image via