Lora Brody rugelach, mini carrot cupcakes, and hazelnut truffles for dessert – I mis-cut the truffles, somehow … I used a half batch of my standard carrot cake recipe, but I didn’t cook the grated carrot – didn’t seem worth it for 3/4 cup carrot, but I think it threw the carrot to cake ratio off. Personally, I didn’t like the cupcakes all that much, but the kids, as I anticipated, liked them a lot.

The grapes all fell off their stems so I had to serve them in a bowl, instead of artful little bunches arranged around the satsumas and clementines. So, I took some bananas to augment the fruit selection, and no one ate them – and I dropped one, and I think I got that particular one as my breakfast banana today, because it was squishy inside.

I made one long rise almost no knead whole wheat loaf with beer, and a white loaf with white wine – figuring that since one of my favorite focaccia recipes, from Carol Field, focaccia from Liguria, has white wine, it’d be good in the bread. The white loaf came out kind of dense, while the ww one rose much better. People still ate up the white faster, though.

I shouldn’t have brewed the last pot of coffee, nor mixed the last can of orange juice – we’re still drinking both of them today.

The shirred eggs, on the other hand, we just about perfect – I put a piece of butter into the bottom of each ramekin and heated them – and then broke in the eggs and poured in the cream and topped them with the grated Parm. So the eggs didn’t stick and ramekins were easy to clean. John, Megan, Mark and I had egg & bacon breakfast sammiches today, and there was even a half left for a Al, that he snarfed within 5 minutes of coming home.

2012, a little clumpy

2011 hoppin' John, properly pilaf-ed

Carrotcake mini-cupcakes

Rugelach

Rugelach

Leftover Rugelach in a freezer container; be a good surprise dessert at a one-dish dinner

Unevenly cut truffles

Seasonal decor – Pumpkin surrounded by concord and seedless grapes

Lots of pumpkin and orange fall-y foods – Autumn vegetable hash with eggs baked on top, squash challah – but the hits of the day were the bacon & cheese pull-apart bread, and the pumpkin sticky pudding. I got the bacon bread recipe from all recipes – but instead of using purchased bread dough, I used my own standard pizza dough – 3/4 cup water, 1/2 – 3/4 tsp. active dry yeast, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp sugar, (optional 1 TBLS olive oil – I left it out here because I figured there’d be plenty of oil in the bacon & cheese) , 1 1/2 cups flour, mix and knead in the mixer for 3 mins. or by hand until smooth and elastic (about 8 minutes …) and let rise in the fridge for 4 – 8 hours. I also omitted the packet of ranch dressing mix. Next time I make it, I think I’ll add some red pepper flakes, so it’ll be even more like the famous Stella’s Hot Spicy Cheese Bread, but with bacon. I thought I got the pumpkin sticky pudding from Epicurious, but it doesn’t seem to be there, so seems to me I’ll have to post it myself.

And speaking of how time flies ….

Yesterday was the going-away party for one of my librarian friends. He’s moving back east – he’s also from Pittsburgh – to work at Longwood Gardens, a botanical park in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, built with DuPont money. I’m starting to worry that it’s the beginning of an exodus; it’s looking like he’s not going to be the only one of my friends moving to that part of the world. My BFF, Rach, just got engaged to her out of town boyfriend. He’s the head of the art department SUNY Ulster. They haven’t set a date, but I don’t think they’re going to continue the long-distance thing till he retires, which won’t be for at least 10 years. Meanwhile, Rachael’s sister’s in Albany, her little brother’s in Pittsburgh, and mom has retired to Vermont.

The going-away party was at this fabulous country house. I’d been there only once before, for the 50th birthday party for the guy who’s leaving’s now ex. I made a big platter of deviled eggs, arranged in a nest of sprouts and micro greens. I also made the appetizer where you spread creamy cheese on foucaccia, and top it with pesto & roasted red peppers. I used bought pizza crusts, a mix of mascarpone, goat & cream cheese, and the last of jar of last summer’s pesto from the freezer. The guest of honor wanted a strawberry cake. I considered two recipes – one from a soul food restaurant, published in Saveur, with strawberry jam and extract – not a fresh strawberry in sight; and this one from Gourmet, a yogurt cake with a white glaze, and a raspberry current sauce. The sauce was supposed to be cooked and sieved; I skipped the cooking, and mashed strawberries with sugar and a squish of lime juice and decorated the top of the cake with strawberry halves.

Today, I made a brunch: Blueberry pancakes, Bacon & sausage & vegetarian sausage, that asparagus salad I’ve been obsessing over, cooked asparagus salad with a mayonaise-y dressing, grated hard boiled egg, toasty, garlic-y breadcrumbs. This time I even had chives to sprinkle over, because I got a nice bunch in my first CSA box, along with soem of the asparagus. And rhubarb – I made rhubarb sauce, as an additional pancake topping and/or Greek yogurt with rhubarb sauce – yum.

Pictures? no pictures, they all got away except for the funeral home sign.

• Broccoli & cheddar quiche – remember I did over buy on broccoli, and the nice 2-lb blocks of Tillamook cheddar that you can get at Costco are really the best reason to go there. I bought two although I probably only needed most of one.
• Fried potatoes, with some of our last indoor Rosemary, before it goes back out for the summer, and some garlic cloves I had peeled for pasta salad but did not use.
• Salad of course, with balsamic vinaigrette – remember I over bought even more on lettuce than on broccoli.
• Bacon.

Since John and Megan came to help with the wedding, they were here, and Ethan was here because it was Sunday. Megan said it was the third in a row mother’s day she’d been in Madison – her mom’s in Iowa. I thanked her a bunch. And Al finally called at a little after 5 p.m. He’ll be home next weekend and we’ll go out for belated mother’s day dinner then. We did that last year and if we do it again this year, I guess it’ll be a tradition.

Mother's day 2011

I’d love to stick around, but gotta go fold all the napkins, before they get too wrinkled lying in the bottom of the dryer.

See recipe

I was a little worried myself about how the day would go – when I switched on the kitchen lights, one of the newer compact fluorescents blew out, with an audible zizzle and electrical smell. Then I cut my finger when I was slicing the very first potato, and it was one of those not very bad cuts that bled like crazy – I had three bandaids and a piece of masking tape staunching the flow at one point. Mark teased me about it later: I said, “I cut my finger on the first potato.” He replied, “But potatoes are not sharp.” I shoulda hit him, probably, but he was too warm and helpless, still snugged up in bed, only 9:30 on a holiday morning. And, for no reason that I can find the alarm on my iPhone’s not working. All the other noises are fine, but the alarm’s not making a sound. I kept setting it for five minutes from now, and nothing. I checked the time zone, and general settings … only think I can think of is that my phone has not been synced for almost a week since I haven’t had my work computer – maybe it’ll mend itself Monday. [I guess it's a 2011 New year's iPhone bug - it's 'sposed to fix itself Jan. 3]

But I think everything worked out OK. I upheld the tradition of serving a new year’s brunch at School Woods – I really liked the eggs on piperade. There were about 18 diners – I think the same thing happened last year – not quite enough for two full seatings, but a nice sized crowd all the same.

‘Course the day’s not over yet – the leftovers are given away and put away, and we’re going to see True Grit at 7:00. And I am sooo glad tomorrow is Sunday, not Monday.