My holiday must-have

I encountered these at my former sister-in-law's back in the early 1990s. It was love at first bite -- the first time I had eaten something remotely gingersnap-like without wanting to spit it on the floor. I love gingersnaps now, but for the first three decades of my life they were WAY too strong for me. I guess by my early 30s I had finally killed off enough tastebuds to enjoy them.

I don't have many holiday traditions, but I cling fiercely to the few I do keep, and this is one of them. I have probably made them almost every year since, even though I am usually the only one who eats them. I always use the same two cookie cutters, too; a star and a crescent moon. Makes my inner pagan happy.

As far as I can tell from my one Google search exhaustive research, these are kin to Moravian Spice Cookies; thin and crispy, not too sweet, low in fat, packed with spicy goodness. The flavor has kind of a gingerbread cookie vibe but not as strident.

Oh, the disclaimer: I exercised all due diligence in searching for this recipe online, to no avail.

Spice Crisps
from Bon Appétit, December 1992

Makes 8 dozen, depending on how big you cut them

WET
1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons (= 6 Tablespoons) firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup molasses (unsulfured)
1/4 cup unsalted butter (1/2 stick)

DRY
2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger (not fresh ginger)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt

(* = See Notes below)

Combine wet ingredients in heavy small saucepan. Cook on low heat until mixture just boils, stirring occasionally*. Cool to room temperature.

Sift dry ingredients into mixing bowl. Stir in cooled sugar mixture. Dough will be stiff. Knead until dough holds together and is smooth*.

(Dough can be prepared one day ahead - wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate.)

Position racks in top and bottom thirds of oven* and preheat oven to 350 deg.

Butter two cookie sheets*.

Divide dough in half. Roll out one half of dough on lightly floured surface to 1/8" thickness. Using a 2" cookie cutter, cut out cookies. Place 1/2" apart on prepared cookie sheets. Scraps can be re-rolled.

Bake 10-12 minutes (swap positions of cookie sheets at ~5-6 minutes) until cookies are lightly browned with slightly darker edges.

Remove cookies from cookie sheet as soon as possible and transfer to cooling rack.

Repeat with other half of dough.

Store in airtight container at room temperature. Can be made two weeks ahead.

NOTES:

• I cut the butter into pieces and heat my wet ingredients in the microwave, a minute at a time, stirring in between. Use a good-sized bowl because the mixture will bubble up quickly once it gets hot.


• I am kind of a spice snob - I grind most of my spices as I need them. I think it makes a difference. I even have white peppercorns! Maybe I should get some mustard seeds for next year....


• The recipe doesn't state it, but I've found I need to refrigerate my dough awhile before rolling. Maybe because I can never wait until the sugar mixture is completely cool before proceeding.


• Instead of buttering the cookie sheets, I line my sheet pans with baking parchment. Then I can slide the whole parchment sheet over to the cooling rack. I haven't tried a Silpat yet.


• My oven is old and cranky. I only bake one cookie sheet at a time, on the second from the top rack.

One blog I read states that when properly rolled, a stack of 16 Moravian Spice Cookies is one inch thick. Sounds like a challenge for next year!
 

Bold declarations

Hey, it's almost the end of the year! Time to make pronouncements about what I will do differently next year. I reviewed my goals for 2009 only to realize that I am not quite there.

1. I did cut back my decaf consumption... on weekdays. I bring a travel mug of coffee from home to work and I haven't been to Sbux for a supplemental dose in months. Weekends are a different story, but oh well. I give myself 60-75% accomplished on this one.


2. Sugar? Well... not so much. I got pretty lax about treats. I kind of, ummmm, forgot about this goal somewhere along the way. Zero per cent accomplished.


3. Didn't do so well limiting grains and bread, either. I'll give myself a generous 10% accomplished here, only because I try to limit my pasta/rice to one cup per meal. Sometimes.

On the other hand, I did make a few (and I mean few) other changes I hadn't thought of in January:

• I cut my diet soda consumption by perhaps 75%.


• I became more vigilant about avoiding HFCS (high-fructose corn syrup) only to read this article which made a lot of sense but confused the issue even more for me. I do still try to avoid HFCS, but I would probably be better off avoiding sugar, honey, and sweeteners in general.


• I decided that non-nutritive sweeteners were bad news too and have (mostly) eliminated them. I bought some Truvia, the new stevia-based sweetener, and am using that in the few instances I used to use Splenda. Still using sugar in my coffee, though.

What about 2010? I'll keep working on my 2009 goals and am considering adding another. Inspired by Alton Brown, I'm close to declaring 2010 a French Fry-Free Year. I don't eat them often to begin with so it should be an easy goal. If I really wanted to put some teeth into it, I should include potato chips, which I do indulge in more often than I should. Can I live without Black Pepper Kettle Chips? I'm not sure, but I could stand to try.

My cheese consumption could stand some scrutiny, too. I was doing pretty well back when I decided cheese was to be treated like butter, but I fell off the wagon somewhere along the way.

Speaking of sweeteners, I had planned to post my favorite cookie recipe today but left it at home. Would it be bad form to post it after all my grand posturing about cutting back on sweeteners? As long as I do it before New Year's Day?
:)
 

Risotto di Zucca (rice with squash)

Emboldened by my success with Riso alla Pitoca, last weekend I tackled another of the elusive* recipes from the 'Lidia's Italy' episode called Notto Risotto.

Here's the recipe as I guesstimated from the show.

Risotta di Zucca (Rice with Squash)
(adapted from Lidia's Italy TV show, ep. Notto Risotto)

Serves 4

Pestata
1/2 lrg or 1 small onion, roughly chopped
1-2 carrots, peeled & roughly chopped
1-2 stalks celery, cleaned & roughly chopped
Aim for approximately equal amounts of onion, carrots, and celery. Toss all in food processor and chop until fine but not completely pulverized.

Main Ingredients
2 Tblsp oil
3-4 cups cubed butternut squash (peel, cut into ~1/2" cubes)
4.5 cups water, hot
1.5 cups rice (arborio, other short grain?)

To Finish
2 Tblsp butter, room temp.
grated parmesan cheese to taste
salt & pepper to taste (See note)

Heat 2 Tblsp oil in a heavy-bottomed pot. The heavy bottom is important as it will keep the rice from scorching during cooking.

Add pestata, (salt,) cook for a few minutes.

If it seems dry, add a little more oil, then add the squash cubes and four cups of the water. Hold back 1/2 cup for adjustments along the way.

Bring to boil, cover, and cook for 5 minutes or so.

Stir in rice, (salt.) Cover, reduce heat, simmer for 15 minutes. If you're worried about scorching, stir every 5 minutes or so. Check rice and squash for doneness after 15 minutes. Cook 5-10 minutes more if needed.

When rice is just done:
- If it's too wet, remove lid and simmer until it reaches desired consistency.
- If it's too dry, add a little more hot water. It will continue to thicken as it sits after adding the cheese and butter.

Remove from heat and add 2 T butter, stir in vigorously. Lidia called this step 'mantecare'. Stir in parmesan cheese.

Serve immediately, as this does not improve over time.

NOTES
I meant to weigh the squash before I dismembered it but forgot. It was not a large squash, maybe small-to-medium, and I had enough cubes left over to freeze for later.

Try to make the squash cubes as consistent as possible. Large ones will take longer to cook.

I salted as I added each step to the pot and didn't need to add any salt at the end.

There's no way this qualifies for Project Weeknight due to the veggie prep, but if I had some pestata and squash in the freezer... hmmmm. Might have to give that some thought.

True confession: I didn't cook the recipe as demonstrated. Instead, I added a generous tablespoon of curry powder with the pestata and subbed a can of coconut milk for 1.5 cups of water. I also skipped the mantecara at the end since the coconut milk was full-fat and had an impressing chunk of solidified coconut fat on top. It was really good. The coconut flavor did not dominate, but I still think it was worth it. Next time I might try a can of low-fat coconut milk.

* As you may have noticed, I usually try to respect copyright and link to recipes I feature instead of reprinting them, but it really pisses me off when a cooking show doesn't make the recipes it demonstrates available online. The recipes from this episode don't even seem to be in the companion book! In my mind, that makes it OK for me to present my best guess.

Rationalize, much?
 

Here we go a-gain

Get it? a-GAIN? Heh.

The other day I got on the scale for the first time in a couple of weeks. As you may remember, my scale died so I am now using my SO's husband's scale, which weighs 6.5 pounds heavier than my old scale and probably three pounds heavier than is strictly accurate. Even taking that all into consideration, I found myself staring at a new all-time, non-pregnant, non-postpartum high. This is not good.

So the roller coaster has one again rocketed to the peak, as it seems to do every two years, which means it's time to figure out how to get it going down again. I refuse to try any more gimmicks or major lifestyle changes. I already know a LOT about what I should and should not do. I just have to figure out how to do it. Oh yeah, and I have to make myself move through space. That's going to be critical, especially as...

I have a MAJOR birthday in about a week. Which one? The one that brings an invitation in the mail to join a particular organization full of MUCH MUCH older people. I thought my last major birthday brought some physical changes, but from what I hear, I ain't seen nothing yet. I am considering this my last best chance to get my act together before I succumb to my genetic heritage, which, unfortunately, seems to come not from my mother's slimmer side, but my father's more pear-shaped side.

I am going to take advantage of this milestone as an excuse opportunity to buy a new toy. We're getting a Wii for Christmas and I simply had to have a Wii Fit Plus (w/Balance Board) because this magical device will fill all my exercise needs. OK, it won't, but it can't hurt and it looks like fun.

But yeah, new toys aside, I am disappointed. I can't even tell you how many times I have been at this point. And just as advertised, every time I reach a peak it's five pounds heavier than the last one and the gap between where I am and where I want to be gets a little wider. Just like my ass.

Will this time be different? I certainly hope so. I just have to figure out how to make it different without doing the same things over again and expecting a different outcome. I guess that means no new 'diet/nutrition' books, no bold declarations of major lifestyle changes.

How anti-climactic.
 

Project Weeknight: Riso alla Pitoca (rice with chicken)

I never watch Lidia's Italy on PBS but I just happened to catch an episode this weekend. She was doing rice dishes with risotto-type rice (arborio or whatever) that didn't require the traditional risotto cooking technique. The last dish she showed was 'a traditional chicken and rice'. It looked so simple yet so amazing. It made me salivate.

So I did what I always do: I headed to the intertubes to find the recipe. Oh, imagine my frustration when I discovered that not only was it not to be found, but it didn't even seem to be listed in the table of contents of the companion book to the series!

Luckily the episode aired again later that day and I managed to record it. I pored over it, trying to recreate the recipe. The big sticking point was how much rice and stock she used. She didn't say and I haven't made enough risotto to know.

Well, now it became a point of honor. I would figure out that recipe! It took several more intertube searches and a lot of guessing, but I made my interpretation of it last night and it was fab-ulous.

It could be considered flexitarian because I used so little meat but it's neither whole grain nor high in vegetables. Oh, and it's fairly butter-intensive. I figure it's a once-in-a-while treat.

Riso alla Pitoca (Pitocca?) (Beggar's Rice)
(adapted from Lidia's Italy TV show, ep. Notto Risotto)

Serves 3

Pestata
1/2 lrg or 1 small onion, roughly chopped
1-2 carrots, peeled & roughly chopped
1-2 stalks celery, cleaned & roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled
Aim for approximately equal amounts of onion, carrots, and celery. Toss all in food processor and chop until fine but not completely pulverized.

Main Ingredients
2 Tblsp butter
2 chicken thighs, boned and cubed (See note)
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup white wine
4 cups chicken stock, hot
1.5 cups rice (arborio, other short grain?)

To Finish
2 Tblsp butter, room temp.
grated parmesan cheese to taste
chopped parsley
salt & pepper to taste (See note)

Heat 2 Tblsp butter (or swap out some for olive oil) in a heavy-bottomed pot. The heavy bottom is important as it will keep the rice from scorching during cooking.
Add pestata, (salt,) cook for a few minutes.
Move vegs to side, add chicken, (salt,) cook until starts to brown.
Add bay leaf, wine, bring to boil, simmer until alcohol smell is gone.
Add 3.5 cups of the hot stock, bring to boil, add rice, (salt.)
Cover, reduce heat, simmer for 15 minutes. If you're worried about scorching, stir every 5 minutes or so. Check rice for doneness after 15 minutes. Cook 5-10 minutes more if needed.

When rice is just done:
- If it's too wet, remove lid and simmer until it reaches desired consistency.
- If it's too dry, add some of the reserved hot stock. It will continue to thicken as it sits after adding the cheese and butter.

Remove from heat and add 2 T butter, stir in vigorously. Lidia called this step 'mantecare'
Add parmesan cheese, chopped parsley, stir.

Serve immediately, as this does not improve over time.

NOTES
For 4 servings, use 2 cups rice, an extra bit of wine, and 5+ cups hot stock, reserving 1/2 cup for adjustments at the end.

I used only maybe 4-6 ounces of meat, max. You could use up to 1 pound, depending on how meaty you want it.

I salted as I added each step to the pot and didn't need to add any salt at the end.

As for Project Weeknight status, it ended up on the table half an hour late. Mostly it was because I decided to use chicken thighs from a whole chicken I had broken down for stock, and getting rid of all the little gross tendony bits was a huge time sink. Next time I'll just buy boned skinned thighs. Otherwise I think I could have had it on the table in 45 minutes.

As for acceptability, both my guys loved it, which is always good. There were two other recipes in the episode, rice with sage (riso alla salvia) and rice with squash (risotto di zucca). Yes, they're on my list.

Enjoy!