Deb's Lunch … and dinner and breakfast too

Today is my dad’s 94th birthday, except he’s not here to celebrate it with us, having passed away in November 1998, a little more than a month before he would’ve turned 78.

I noted his birthday by adding a picture to his Wikipedia page – I wonder how long it’ll stay.

Thanks to linked data, you now get a knowledge card when you do a Google search:

Knowledge card for my dad

But I don’t know any of those associated people, except David de Wied. He was not only a colleague of my dad’s, but also a dear family friend, the father of our host family when we lived in the Netherlands in 1968. My dad took a sabbatical from the University of Pittsburgh, and got a Fullbright fellowship to go work with Dr. de Wied for 6 months. We left right after Martin Luther King was shot, and returned to the US right after Bobby Kennedy was shot. I had my 13th birthday in Holland. Given the events at home, I think parents really wanted to stay, but didn’t know what they’d do for money when the Fullbright ran out.

We met a Gary Schwartz on the boat over, but he is an art historian, specializing in Rembrandt. I’ve got his book, Rembrandt : his life, his paintings : a new biography with all accessible paintings illustrated in colour (Book, 1985) [WorldCat.org] sitting on a shelf in a bookcase with a bunch of my parents’ coffee table books.

I don’t know if it’s a linked data failing, or simply my lack of knowledge of the prominent researchers in my dad’s field. If I search MedLine, using Shapiro AP, the list of articles retrieved is full of names of the docs I remember from my childhood, because they used to come over for dinner, or their kids delivered the newspaper, or I babysat their kids, or we went skiing with them.  McDonald RH Jr, Cooper WM, Bahnson HT, Traub YM, Tisherman SE, Misage JR, Rodnan GP, Murdaugh HV, Scheib E (one of the few women), Shaver JA, Sapira JD, de Jong W, Nicotero JA, Drew FL, Moriarty RW, Moutsos SE (I think we went to his wedding, in the same place we had my dad’s memorial, in Pittsburgh), Turrian HE.

Oh, and look here’s that other Gary Schwartz, from an article published in 1979.

Journal of behavioral medicine. 1979 Dec;2(4):311-63.
“Behavioral medicine approaches to hypertension: an integrative analysis of theory and research.”
Schwartz GE, Shapiro AP, Redmond DP, Ferguson DC, Ragland DR, Weiss SM.

Christmas lights

[note – lights set to flash 12X, so hang in, it won’t be forever]

On Friday morning, before I got started grading in earnest, I re-made the springerle. Twice. The first time, I thought I had everything absolutely perfect, and then Mark came down to talk to me (car stuff, and we actually bought a car later that day …) and I lost count, and put in an extra cup of flour. I thought the dough was OK, consistency-wise, but when I tried a bite, all I could taste was flour. I had enough ingredients to trash that batch, and make another – except I used orange zest instead of lemon. And these, I think, are finally right. See the updated recipe. I think I’ll send little boxes to my brother, and Worcesters.

On the theme of using up leftovers, I made corn and bean enchiladas, using up the corn salsa leftover from the party. I got mixed up again and used 1/4 cup oil and 2 TBLS flour in the roux for the sauce, instead of the other way around, so I had to break out some of Rachael’s aseptic pack veggie broth (like a juice box) to think it down. I always wonder if I can recycle those boxes – I pitched this one into the trash.

After dinner, to use up egg whites, I made two angel cakes (for Christmas trifle) and they both fell. And the picture came out lousy, too. Maybe I’ll do better with photographing the trifle.

Remade springerle

Here’s the trifle. It has the fallen angel cake, lemon curd, pastry creme, apricots, apricot syrup, and cranberry sauce. It still seems soupy, but maybe by tomorrow night, the cake will have absorbed enough of the custard, syrup, and sauces to get to the appropriate consistency. Or else it’ll be another one of my not quite rights, for this year.

Fallen angel cake trifle

Like I said last year at this time, cookie season is not over, but it’s winding down. But boy, reading last year’s summary compared to this year makes me feel like I had it great last year. Not only was the party on a Friday, so I had all day Saturday to recover, before starting in on packing and shipping, I had both Rach and Toni helping me pack up the cookies. So civilized. We even got a tree.

This year felt like a sprint instead of a marathon. It was basically a one weekend cookie season, since it was such a late Thanksgiving. I mean, I had cookie season begin something like November 18th, with high hopes. But I let things slip, didn’t re-make the not-perfect cookies, and the weather was against me. We had a long stretch of really cold days in November (the high hopes period) and snow for Thanksgiving, so the vestibule was nice and cool for the cookies. But the last week or so it’s been in the 40s and brown and muddy.

The springerle got damp and spotty – but it could be because I baked them on parchment, rather than the weather. Although the spots were alarming – they looked like mold. Tracy said no one saw them but me. I am going to re-make them, and see if I can perfect that recipe. The biberli got damp and stuck together – I’ve never had that happen before. Too many of the chocolate toffee bars de-laminated. The raspberry almond bars, that seemed so nice the day I cut them up, seemed sticky by the time I was plattering then for the party, and even stickier on Sunday when I was bagging them for shipping. The Moravian ginger thins were too thick, and because I left them in the oven longer to crisp, lots of them seem a little dark. It’s either because I used a different rolling pin, or because I didn’t make the pumpkin mousse & spice crisp turkey cookies for thanksgiving, that are practice.

The party was smaller than last year. I’d say there were still at least 50+ people, and two overlapping waves. There was the little kid wave, and then the old fogeys wave, which was also when I had gotten all the food out, and could have a glass of wine. We talked about our kids getting married and neighborhood history. And toasted absent friends.

I’m copying last year’s list and editing:

• Buffalo chicken dip from the Frank’s hot sauce website, with celery sticks – last year, I said “coulda made a double batch”, it was inhaled – so this year I did – and half was leftover. (sigh)
• 3 pounds of hamburger made into cocktail meatballs – used leftover cranberry sauce and American Spoon jalapeno jelly in with the Heinz chili sauce for the sauce – not one left
• 3 dozen hard boiled eggs made into deviled eggs – I went kind of plain this year, no curry powder, jut the yolks, mayo, and Dijon mustard and a little honey and lemon juice – again, not a one left
• Spicey peanut dip with carrots & purple carrots, and beauty heart radishes from my CSA box, and cucumber that I bought. A little of all leftover – but really only enough veggies for lunch
• Caramelized onion dip – Mark said it was too mild so I added some dehydrated onion, but then it seemed too strong so I added more  sour cream, and there was almost a quart leftover
• Cheeses: Stilton, Wili’s bandaged cheddar, Farmer John’s smoked Gouda, and Marieke seedy Gouda and a Mobay that I never put out. With crackers.
• Sausage & cheese platter with Christopher Columbus salami and Tillamook cheddar from Costco (the 2# logs of Tillamook are my favorite thing to buy at Costco). Megan sliced it up. Used the last of the sliced salami to make scrambled eggs with salami and cheese on Sunday morning, but there’s a still a small hunk not sliced yet
• 3 loaves of French bread – got Mark to slice that, and only a few slices left
• Red pepper hummus with pita crackers and regular pita – I cooked the garbanzos from dried, which make a superior hummus, I think
• Pesto and sun dried tomato torta – about 1/3 leftover.
• Costco mixed nuts, pistachios in the shell, cheap crappy olives – black from a Costco jar, and green from a can – that I simmered in olive oil with lemon and rosemary and garlic, until they were good
• About 100 little weinies in wrapped in homemade yeasted pastry, plus six kosher dogs. A whole tray of un-cooked weinies was leftover, but we ate all the kosher dogs. Rach helped me wrap the dogs the night before
• 4 pounds of shrimp, served hot – baked in butter and black pepper. Enough left to make a batch of pesto pasta with shrimp, I think.
• Hot spinach dip that I didn’t put out, on purpose – it was supposed to be a vegetarian hot dip to follow the Buffalo chicken, but we didn’t need it
• Bacon wrapped dates – stuffed with the more traditional Parmesan this year – like the weinies, one whole tray left
• Squash gratin tart, like I made for pie palooza, with roasted winter squash and tomato sauce and Gruyere, in crust – this was all devoured, although I made 8 and one got snatched out of the garage by some animal, so there were only 7
• A Brie wrapped in puff paste and baked with cranberry sauce inside, and a gluten-free Brie, baked with cherry jam mixed with a dash of balsamic and almonds on top
• A ham with a big hunk of Jarlsberg and cocktail buns. I got the ham at Costco, and choices were Kirkland ham, or Kirkland Signature Niman Ranch Applewood Spiral Ham – that cost a little more per pound, but was a better size, and I thought the Niman Ranch name meant it was more sustainably produced. But, it’s Costco – who knows. Factory organics. Still, it tastes good – and a nice size hunk left.
• A layered taco dip with home made refried beans, cooked from dried Rancho Gordo beans, and corn salsa with corn and roasted poblanos & bell peppers that I froze last summer. Lots of salsa left – and Rach bought a carton of Whole Foods corn salsa when she brough in salads for dinner on Friday night. I think I’ll make it all into enchiladas. None of the beans or layerd part left tho – I made that into quesadillas that John & Megan & I ate for dinner Sunday
• A pistachio-cranberry cheese log from the Milwaukee Journal. I left out the mint and used a little lemon zest. And elderflower liqueur (St-Germain) instead of Grand Marnier

I woke up Sunday morning fretting about all the leftover food, and then the emails began arriving – I sold cookie boxes to Cheryl and Susan, and Natasha bought three big cookie trays, and the leftover weinies and dates and onion and peanut dips and that un-cooked hot spinach dip.

On Sunday I cleaned up and packed and bagged cookies until 11:30 at night. Missing my helpers of last year. For some people, I tried a new shipping method where instead of bagging, I packed the cookies in plastic containers. I think it might’ve been a little faster, but I think the recipients get less cookies. On Monday, I shipped off the big boxes UPS to my brother in Seattle and Worcesters in Oregon, and packed up 19 more boxes. And labelled them and scheduled a pick up with the post office, during my regular delivery time, between 2:00 and 4:30 on Tuesday. I left the boxes in the vestibule, with the front door to the vestibule open, and the inner doors to the house locked, and went off to work.

And was pretty devastated when I got home Tuesday at 5:30 and all 19 were still there. I reorganized cookies, and got all the leftovers into my closet – the second coldest place after the vestibule when it’s in the 20s or lower outside. Natasha came and picked up her food. Megan helped me load the car and take everything out to the full service 24 hours drop at the Struck Street Post Office. I was sure my boxes were gonna jam up the package drop – and they did – but not til the last one. That must be some kind of luck. Now that’s done, and I only have to unload the dishwasher and wash a few trays. Then I can take a shower and get into PJs.  Maybe watch a little TV. Truly the winding down part of cookie season. I can even see to the back of the fridge now.

19 un-picked-up boxes

On Monday, I made the two kinds that are basically ground nuts and butter, rolled in sugar. The Mexican wedding cookies – or Russian teacakes, or pecan balls, or crescents. One year I even made a family cookie recipe that had been contributed to Gourmet that was called puckle warts. They were really delicious but really fragile. They have a little honey added in addition to the usual nuts, sugar, butter & flour. I made mine with pecans and hazelnuts this year, and my secret ingredient – a little bit of coffee, added with the vanilla. When I roll them in the powdered sugar, I always remember my mother bringing home similar cookies from the fancy food counter at one of the department stores in downtown Pittsburgh, Kaufmann’s or Horne’s, and rolling them in extra sugar.

And the Rose’s crescents, or boomerangs. Ground almonds, butter, flour and sugar, rolled in cinnamon sugar. My story about these is I’ve been making them since I got my Rose Levy Berenbaum Rose’s Christmas Cookies book, in something like 1993. We started calling them boomerangs because one of John’s soccer teams was called the boomerangs. When one of the team moms saw these cookies at one of the cookie parties when we still lived in Westmorland, she said they should be the team cookie, and so they became boomerangs.

Mexican wedding cookies

Rose’s crescents

Rose’s crescents

On Tuesday, I had class, so got a later start – I only made hazelnut truffles, but two kinds. One is from Gourmet, that I’ve made a bunch, from December 2001, one of those issues that somehow has more than its share of good recipes. The hazelnut truffle is one of those recipes with flame wars in the comments – “these are NOT truffles, they’re brownies with ganache on top …” And even though I got burned with the pistachio cookies, I decided to try a hazelnut shortbread bar that Martha has in the December 2014 Living.  No pics yet, but I think it’ll be nice to have both kinds on one tray. The Gourmet recipe has the nuts in the crust, and the crust is chocolate, while the Martha has the nuts in the ganache, and the crust is brown sugar.

Only two more kinds to go – fig bars, which I should get to later on Wednesday, and the rainbow bars, that I’m not sure when I will do, but probably Thursday. They have to baked, layered, and then chilled under a weight, then glazed with chocolate, that has to set, and then finally cut. They’re often the ones I do last.

I made all six kinds I thought I would on Sunday, more or less, but I’m not so happy at how everything turned out.

The chocolate spritz are fine – I had a little trouble with the cookie gun, getting the handle end unscrewed in order to refill it – but compared to the pistachio, these went like a dream.

chocolate spritz

chocolate spritz

chocolate spritz

I wimped out on making those individual peppermint chocolate cookies, and made these stripey mint brownies that I have made before – but one pan seemed overcooked and the other, under. I tried some of the edges, though and they’re pretty tasty. I thought it was meant to be, because the brownies used the same amount of butter I had already softened for the cookies. I guess I’ll just keep eying that recipe for another year. In all things peppermint, I made layered peppermint bark, that I’ve done other years, a big favorite of younger son Al, and it came out thick and  kind of clunky – but again tastes good.

Stripey mint brownies

Layered peppermint bark

I made the almond raspberry bars – which came out great, nice and neat and not too sticky – and the chocolate toffee bars. A few too many of the chocolate toffee bars exhibited the dread de-lamination, where the chocolate comes off the cookie base, when I cut them on Sunday morning. Bu I guess I’ll just squeeze them together and put them a plate and people will eat them – at the party. It makes me think that maybe I should do a new style of shipping that I have been cogitating. Instead of sending folks hundreds of ziploc baggies filled with cookies, nested in bubble wrap and newsprint in their boxes, I will send containers with layers, also nested in bubble wrap and newsprint in their boxes. The de-laminated bars should hold up loads better that way. I think it means that people would get a few less cookies, but they might arrive in better shape.

raspberry almond bars

cutting raspberry almond bars

raspberry almond bars

chocolate toffee bars

chocolate toffee bars

I made the gluten free peanut butter chocolate sandwich cookies that were such a hit last year. I had a vision of them tiny, and they are smaller but not tiny. And, somehow, the smaller scoop made almost pointy little mounds so the cookies are going to be a little hard to get your mouth around. I am sure people will deal.

peanut butter chocolate sandwich cookies

peanut butter chocolate sandwich cookies

Not much to say about the coconut cookies, except the pic didn’t come out so great – and I’m glad I only made 3X the recipe instead of 4X – I bought enough coconut to make 4 batches of dough, but needed the extra for coating.

Coconut cookies