Cookie Party

Today was the day my Mom and I bake cookies for Christmas. Behold the butter and margarine. We made peanut butter-chocolate chip-oatmeal cookies, coconut macaroons and the surprise favorite – baklava. We had on our list jelly thumbprint cookies and Greek almond shortbreads. We are not necessarily traditionalists. But after five hours of baking and a small disaster with some semi-sweet morsels we were pooped.

Mr. Loaf has meanwhile returned from Tuscaloosa, Alabama with an armload of German Christmas delicacies from Edelweiss German bakery. Sorry, they have no web site as of right now, but if you're in the area you should stop. Stollen is a holiday bread loaf with bits of nuts and fruit. It's a true bread, not cakey like a banana bread, and theirs has a roll of marzipan baked inside. Another childhood favorite of mine is Lebkuchen. It's a little spicy like gingerbread in flavor, but more like a cake in texture. My Oma always served it as a cake made in a big sheet pan and cut into squares with icing on top. And I think I saw some Springerle in the bunch. It's a crunchy anise-flavored cookie.

Here's a curious thing. Growing up we would eat Butterbrot (butter bread) as a snack or breakfast. It's just butter on any kind of good rye or pumpernickel bread served openface, so I never thought much of it. But in a little Googling, it seems to be a whole category of German cuisine. There are recipes for it and photo galleries. It has even spawned some urban legends, this from Wikipedia:

Butterbrots and their variants are said to always fall to the floor with the top side downwards (see: Murphy's law). A common explanation is that the top side is usually heavier than the bottom side. This applies more to Nutella/jam breads than cheese/meat breads. The subject has been researched by various sources, e.g. the famous children's series Die Sendung mit der Maus, and the scientific TV German series Quarks & Co. It is often joked about what would happen if you tie a butterbrot to the back of a cat, in the same manner that hypothetical buttered toast attached to the back of a cat is sometimes joked about, with it being debated whether the feline would still honour the popular axiom, that a cat "always lands on its feet", or if the butterbrot would be "stronger", making the cat fall on its back - alternatively, it is sometimes humorously suggested that the cat would simply levitate, as it would be unable to satisfy both criteria for landing.

Apparently, there has been somewhat of a decline in the popularity of Butterbrot in Germany in favor of toast or cereals. But never fear, the Central Marketing Society for German Agriculture declares a "day of the German Butterbrot" every September. Long live Butterbrot!

Those Office Potlucks

From Passive Aggressive Notes.

Music to Eat Cranberry Sauce By

Brisket Day

For the first time, we did not have turkey for Thanksgiving. It was a relief. My sister was the ballsy one who told my Mom she didn't like it – thus breaking the long-standing tradition. My Mom writes her menu out like a chef, and you can see that the turkey void was filed by ham and brisket. Mmmm.

We did have the obligatory canned cranberry sauce, which was tasty with the ham. Oddities of our family include the brussel sprouts which, believe it or not, we all love, and the deviled eggs. My sister ant I will not show up to any holiday without deviled eggs. Homemade mac and cheese was a highlight. This year we had sweet potato pie instead of pumpkin, but they're pretty interchangeable.

Lastly, I should mention that all this food was to feed 5 adults and 2 kids. So, I have to get started on the leftovers. Right now.

Food Season is here

November is here and that means the big meals are on the way. Many of us will be partaking in a number of celebrations that culminate in long naps. For a lot of folks the end of every year brings closure to loose ends, ritualistic familial gatherings and traditional holiday disasters. Luckily (for the fortunate ones) the end end of the year also brings large quantiities of food.

So we've been having some debate recently with several people about Thanksgiving because we were thinking about doing a little get together here in BKLYN with some friends over the the Thanksgiving holiday. They all balked when we told them that we wanted to roast a Duck and maybe a bit of pork tenderloin, with collard greens and corn. "Where's the turkey...","...only chinese people eat duck...", "...that's not thanksgiving food..." were some of the responses we got.

I tried to point out that the Pilgrims didn't have most of the things we associate with Thanksgiving dinner and that our current Thanksgiving holiday was pretty much created by Sarah Josepha Hale in the 19th century to bring parties indoors and create a celebratory atmosphere for mothers and families. She wanted people to "...sit down together at the feast of fat things."

Here, here, fat... it's a good thing (in moderation)

So I'm thinking of making the menu traditional (more in line to what the pilgrims probably ate)

Seafood: Cod, Eel, Clams, Lobster
Wild Fowl: Wild Turkey, Goose, Duck, Crane, Swan, Partridge, Eagles
Meat: Venison, Seal
Grain: Wheat Flour, Indian Corn
Vegetables: Pumpkin, Peas, Beans, Onions, Lettuce, Radishes, Carrots
Fruit: Plums, Grapes
Nuts: Walnuts, Chestnuts, Acorns
Herbs and Seasonings: Olive Oil, Liverwort, Leeks, Dried Currants, Parsnips

Not sure where I'd find crane, eagles and seal... maybe Chinatown.

What Was Not on the Menu

Surprisingly, the following foods, all considered staples of the modern Thanksgiving meal, didn't appear on the pilgrims's first feast table:

Ham: There is no evidence that the colonists had butchered a pig by this time, though they had brought pigs with them from England.
Sweet Potatoes/Potatoes: These were not common.
Corn on the Cob: Corn was kept dried out at this time of year.
Cranberry Sauce: The colonists had cranberries but no sugar at this time.
Pumpkin Pie: It's not a recipe that exists at this point, though the pilgrims had recipes for stewed pumpkin.
Chicken/Eggs: We know that the colonists brought hens with them from England, but it's unknown how many they had left at this point or whether the hens were still laying.
Milk: No cows had been aboard the Mayflower, though it's possible that the colonists used goat milk to make cheese.

Source: Kathleen Curtin, Food Historian at Plimoth Plantation via the history channel.

Here's an interesting NYTIMES article: Thanks, lady.

Finally, whatever your leanings are toward food, gatherings and celebrations; remember to be in the moment and enjoy it all. Because there is so much to enjoy.