I think back to last year at this time and I was so ahead of the game. Tree was up, as well as all holiday decor. All the gifts were bought and wrapped. All the Christmas cards were done and addressed, stamped and ready to go.
This year I do have some holiday decor up but no tree yet. That was suppose to be done Friday night, then Saturday night, then tonight (yeah, not happening somehow we got the tree up, I think this post nudged me a little to do it). I have one gift bought. I think I have wrapping paper somewhere. Christmas cards? Not purchased. Have no idea where my address book is (it’s been missing for months). Stamps? Do I even have those?
Sigh.
To top it off I have 9 holiday parties I have been invited to. Five of which of course are on the same night. Boo. I hate to tell people no, I don’t want them to think we don’t want to come. But I have done the spreading yourself thin and go to all five party thing before and it is no fun. You don’t get to enjoy any of the parties because you are too busy starring at your watch to make sure you have enough time to get to the next one. So this year I have told myself, no more than two parties in a day.
Most of these are potlucks of some sort. Which means I am frantically trying to figure out what I want to make. I always over analyze what to make. I also tend to bring more than the average person. I need to work on that habit. Especially with all the food based parties we are going to this season.
One of my parties is a progressive dinner party. I’ll be going to that one as I am the co-host for the dessert portion of the meal (surprise…I’m doing dessert!). So I have been working on desserts to see what I want to serve for the party. I want to make one chocolate based dessert and “other”.
This falls into the other category. Orange says holiday to me. Not really sure why though it could have to do with those chocolate oranges that you have to crack open and it breaks into segments. We especially enjoyed opening them by smashing them on each other’s heads. Ah, siblings, if it were not for them who would torture us and vice versa? So when I saw this caramel pecan tart I decided it needed to be a orange caramel pecan tart. So glad I did, it went so nicely with it.

Orange-Caramel Pecan Tart

For the Tart Dough:

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 egg yolk
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ tsp table salt
zest of one medium orange

Coat a 9” tart pan with removable bottom with nonstick spray; line baking sheet with foil. (I used 4 3-inch diameter tart pans instead).
Cream together butter and sugar for the dough in a bowl with a mixer until light. Add egg yolk and vanilla, beat until combined, then add flour, salt, and zest.
Mix just until dough forms.
Press dough evenly into tart pan, trimming excess from the edges. Chill until firm, 30  minutes; preheat oven to 350F.
Place tart on prepared sheet and bake until crust is dry to the touch but hasn’t begun to brown, 12-14 minutes. Remove from oven (leave oven on) and cool slightly.

For the Filling:

1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, cubed
¾ cup brown sugar
1/3 cup light corn syrup
3 TBSP granulated sugar
3 TBSP heavy whipping cream
½ tsp table salt
1 ½ TBSP orange liqueur (I used Grand Marnier)
1 ½ cups pecan halves, toasted
Bring butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, granulated sugar, cream and salt for the filling to a boil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook to 240F on an instant read thermometer. Off heat, stir in the orange liqueur (it will bubble furiously), then fold in the pecans.
Pour mixture into tart shell(s), return to oven, and bake until filling is bubbly and crust is brown, about 20 minutes (about 15 for the smaller ones). Let rat cool on the baking sheet 15-20 minutes, then carefully remove the side ring. Cool tart completely before slicing.

Adapted from Cuisine at Home Magazine Holiday Menus

Good in theory…bad in practice. I say this a lot in my life. Mostly in hockey though. For there are a lot of things I see so clearly in my mind yet when I go to execute them at hockey they never go that way. It’s a very sad sight indeed.
Sometimes the good in theory, bad in practice phrase also relates to my baking. This week’s Tuesday’s with Dorie (which we were allowed to post late due to US Thanksgiving) was a Thanksgiving Twofer Pie (La Casserole Carree). It’s basically a combo of pecan pie and pumpkin pie. I of course set out to do something different. I wanted to make a pecan pie cake. Pumpkin ice cream. And then turn that into a Baked Alaska.
The cake itself was tasty, but when I went to cut into circles it rebelled against me…with a vengeance and I never got a very good circle out of any of them. The ice cream was super yummy. I made a Kabocha Squash and Pumpkin Ice Cream. But getting the ice cream on top of the mutilated pecan pie cake was also difficult, even with me holding it together with caramel.
Then I over whipped my meringue by not paying attention but at that point didn’t care as I was already angry. They still spread so that worked out.
Like I said, in theory this was great. In practice the separate pieces were great. Together we were the leaning, annoying tower of Thanksgiving.
Those of you celebrating US Thanksgiving I wish you a full stomach and not that many dishes to do. As for me, I am headed to a 9 course tasting menu where I don’t have any dishes to do.

Pecan Pie Cake

Yellow Cake Batter:

2 cups cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
½  tsp salt
½  cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla
¾  cup milk

*This cake makes enough for 2 9-inch pans. But for this recipe you are only using half of the batter. Reserve the batter for a Banana Butterscotch cake that will be up over the weekend.
In bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt with a wire whisk.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla and mix until completely combines. Slowly add flour alternately with milk. At end of addition batter should be smooth.

Make pecan pie portion:

¼ cup light or dark corn syrup
1/8  cup packed light brown sugar
1 TBSP unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg
¼  tsp pure vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
3/4 cups pecan halves or pieces

Mix all together in one bowl. Then fold into the yellow cake batter until completely incorporated.

Bake for 22 to 27 minutes. Use a tester to make sure it is baked all the way through. Cool 5 minutes in pan, then invert onto a rack.

Cut out into little circles using cookie cutter.

Yellow cake recipe adapted from: about.com

Kabocha Squash and Pumpkin Ice Cream

4 Large whole eggs
1 3/4 cup Granulated sugar
4 cups Heavy cream
2 cups Milk
1 cup Kabocha squash puree (drained over night to reduce moisture) can also just use pumpkin
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree (drained overnight to reduce moisture) or canned
2 T Pumpkin spice

With an electric mixer using the whip attachment, whip the eggs together until they become pale in color, about 3-4 minutes. Add in the sugar, pumpkin and squash puree until very smooth, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl. With the mixer on low speed add the cream, spice and milk. Freeze in ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

 To see how to make it into Baked Alaska, head on over to Aran’s site (Cannelle et Vanille) for meringue recipe and instructions.

So to round out what had already been a very odd week, LFB was scheduled to be spayed on Tuesday. After getting blood work and the once over LFB was cleared for surgery and I went home (this was around 9am). Now even though spay and  neutering is very routine I was still a tad nervous, as anytime a small animal goes under anesthesia it is never good, and LFB is only a little over 2 pounds total.
Around 2 pm I got a phone call from the veterinarian. I was suppose to get LFB at 3 pm and so I assumed it was them telling me that everything had gone well and I can pick up LFB in about an hour. But instead it was the Vet telling me that their was a problem. My heart sank. I asked if something had gone wrong in the surgery and he told me no, that LFB had not even gone into surgery yet.
At this point I was confused. The Vet told me that he was embarrassed to say this but that LFB could  not be spayed that day. I asked why not and he said because LFB was not a girl, but at BOY. Yes, that’s right my little baby bunny girl who has been referred to as a girl for the last 7 months is indeed a boy. You see, I was told that LFB was a girl. I had never noticed any “parts” and LFB had never displayed any boy behaviors of any boy bunnies I had in the past.
But sure enough when they shaved him down, there in all it’s less than glory was his tiny manhood. So tiny in fact that a veterinarian who specializes in rabbits didn’t catch on. We laughed and laughed and I told him no worries as I had told him that “she” was a girl. He asked if I wanted LFB to be neutered and I did…so in a way LFB is back to being a girl.
It has taken some getting used to. We still slip up and call him a her. I still slip up and call him girly, girl (a former nickname). Lucky for us he has no idea and hopefully isn’t having any sort of identity crisis. LFB is doing well now. He has recovered just fine…at least physically.
When I was stressing over the surgery I was figuring out what to do with some cranberries I bought. I originally though I was going to make a cranberry lime semifreddo, but had no limes and it was a little too cold that day to be wanting anything frozen. Having bought some ladyfingers and then doing nothing with them I decided to make a Charlotte and fill it with a cranberry orange Bavarian cream. This will blow away any cranberry Jello salad that anyone brings to the Thanksgiving day table.

Cranberry Orange Charlotte

1 package ladyfinger cookies
cranberry orange bavarian (recipe follows)
caramel sauce (you can use store bought)

Cranberry-Orange Bavarain

2 eggs, separated (at room temperature)
2/3  cup fresh cranberries
3 TBSP fresh orange juice
½ cup granulated sugar (vanilla sugar if you have it)
2 TBSP superfine sugar
½ cup heavy whipping cream
2 tsp powdered gelatin.

In a small saucepan add the cranberries, orange juice and ¼ cup vanilla sugar. Cook over medium-high heat until the cranberries start to make a popping sound, 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.
Run cranberry mixture through a blender and puree until smooth. Set aside.
In a metal or glass bowl, add the egg yolks, remaining ¼ cup vanilla sugar and cranberry mixture. Whisk together to combine. Place bowl over a pan of simmering water (or use a double boiler if you have one),  whisk until the mixture is thickened and hot. Keep whisking the whole time to prevent the mixture from becoming scrambled eggs. This will take about 3-5 minutes depend on the conductivity of you bowl.
Remove the bowl from the pan and move to an ice bath ( a large bowl full of ice cubes). You are wanting to cool down the mixture. While still warm, sprinkle gelatin evenly over the cranberry-egg mixture. Whisk to incorporate. Keep whisking until mixture has cooled to room temperature. You don’t want it to get cooler than that as the gelatin will start to set if you let it get too cool.
In a thoroughly clean mixing bowl, add the egg whites and whip on high speed with an electric mixer (or whisk by hand if you are wanting a workout) until they start to get frothy. Slowly sprinkle in the superfine sugar ans whip until the egg whites are peaking. Using a spatula, gently fold the egg whites into the chilled cranberry mixture.
Whip the whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Again with the spatula, gently fold into the cranberry mixture.
Set ladyfingers into a Charlotte mold. Pour Bavarian into the center of the mold, careful to not cover up the ladyfingers. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Unmold the Charlotte and serve chilled with a little caramel sauce on top. Scoop the leftover Bavarian into glasses and chill for 4 hours.

I stole a book from the library once.
Though I didn’t know I stole it. I found it years later and noticed stamped inside was the name of my high school library. Oops. That book was The Field Guide to North American Birds. I am still not sure why I would have even checked out a book like that. Not the field guide part, but the bird part. So I had a bit of a flashback when Anita’s (Dessert First) cookbook arrived in the mail. For there in the mail was the best field guide I had every seen, a field guide about cookies! Now surely if my high school library had that this cookbook in it, it would have totally made sense that I would rip it off (though really I must say I do not condone stealing…buy the book instead!).
Anita Chu’s first cookbook Field Guide to Cookies, or How to Identify and Bake Virtually Every Cookie Imaginable, packs an enormous amount of cookie recipes and cookie information for such a compact little book. I had a myriad of cookies to choose from but the minute I saw the picture of the spritz cookies I knew that is what I wanted to make. You see I got a cookie press for my birthday this year and had yet to put it to use! I have always been fascinated by them. My mom never made them (probably because she never had a cookie press…good detective work I know). So since we never had them at home around the holiday time I would scour peoples cookie plates to see if they had them. They are essentially a buttery sugar cookie that get squeezed out of a tube in different shapes. I went with the festive tree shape since before we know it Christmas will be here. Be warned though, they are highly addictive and I now know why maybe my mom never made these. They made about 5 dozen. I made them 3 days ago. There are none left.
The cookbook is easy to use and navigate through, and more importantly it has a picture of every cookie, a huge bonus to me. But the most interesting thing about the cookbook (well to me) is the information before each cookie recipe. Not only a general description of the cookie but the history about the cookie. I learned that my cookie, the spritz, is Scandinavian and they were made for Christmas celebrations (good thing I made trees) from as early as the 1500’s. This is a great little book especially for your friends who are not that comfortable baking. Has clear and easy directions that all bakers can appreciate. I’m glad I got to be apart of the tour. If you missed any part of it you can see the list of talented bakers who participated in this Cookiepalooza.

Since I am the last leg of the cookie tour everyone has pretty much asked Anita all the serious questions, I took the liberty to have a little more fun with mine. I mean, don’t you want to know which of her cookies is the most aerodynamic for a food fight?

P: The Keebler Elf or Cookie Monster¢â¬¦who wins in a fight, and why?

A: Cookie Monster – he¢â¬â„¢s big, blue, and has those awesome googly eyes.

P: Personally I feel that the Snickerdoodle is one of the most underrated cookies of all time. What do you feel is the most underrated cookie?

A: I love snickerdoodles as well! But I think one of the most underrated cookies is oatmeal raisin, mostly because it gets mistaken (and then ignored) for chocolate chip so often. When the two types of cookies are on the same plate, I always see people pick them over carefully, wanting to make sure they don¢â¬â„¢t end up with oatmeal raisin by accident. It always makes me feel bad for the oatmeal raisin cookies. They¢â¬â„¢re great too!

P: Do you think there is an overrated cookie? If so, what?

A: Hmm, should I mention one that¢â¬â„¢s in my book?:) That might be a little mean (you notice I¢â¬â„¢ve gotten very protective of cookies after writing this book!) You know those Danish butter cookies that come in round blue tins? I used to love those cookies when I was little, and now they always seem kind of dry and tasteless. Either the quality has changed or my cookie experiences have grown and I realized they aren¢â¬â„¢t what I thought they were. If there¢â¬â„¢s still excellent Danish butter cookies out there, I¢â¬â„¢d love to know about them!

P: Do you like to dunk your cookies in milk?

A: Certain cookies, like chocolate chip and Oreos, wouldn¢â¬â„¢t be complete without a glass of milk.

P:You and I both morned the loss of the beloved Mother¢â¬â„¢s Circus Animal cookies. Having tried to recreate them myself I know they were a little tricky. Is there a store bought cookie you wish you could figure out how to make at home?

A: I can¢â¬â„¢t believe you asked this! Yes, as a matter of fact. I got these cookies from Marks and Spencer a few years back, which were like a vanilla biscuit with bits of honeycomb toffee and dried raspberries mixed in, and the whole cookie was dipped in dark chocolate. I have been dying to recreate that cookie, especially since it¢â¬â„¢s hard to get Marks and Spencer in the US. The day I do this will make for one of my happiest blog posts ever.

P: Which cookie in your book would be the most aerodynamic for a food fight?

A: Well, I think the flat cookies like the tuiles might fly the farthest, but for damage potential I¢â¬â„¢d have to go with the big, solid guys like rock cakes. I mean, they really do harden into rocks over time!

P: When making a chocolate chip cookie are you a with nuts or without nuts kind of gal?

A: I am a no nuts kind of girl, but I have encountered chocolate chip -pecan cookies that have tested my resolve.

P: Did you eat every cookie that is in the book?

A: Yes, I¢â¬â„¢ve tried all the cookies, although I didn¢â¬â„¢t eat every single one out of every batch! There were times towards the end of the testing when it was all I could do to take one bite of a cookie.

P: What is next for you Anita? Are you working on your next cookbook?

A: Yes, I am! I am working away already on my second cookbook by the same publisher, due to come out at the end of next year. I¢â¬â„¢m looking forward to revealing the topic as it gets closer to the publication date. As well, I¢â¬â„¢ll be teaching a cupcake class at my alma mater, Tante Marie¢â¬â„¢s Cooking School, in the spring. And, of course, there¢â¬â„¢s a huge backlog of ideas I have for Dessert First that I¢â¬â„¢d love to explore. So much baking to do!

Spritz Cookies

(You will need a cookie press in order to make these cookies)

2 cups cake flour
¼ tsp salt
¾ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup granulated sugar
1 egg yolk
½ tsp almond extract
½ tsp vanilla extract
3 or 4 drops food coloring (optional)

Preheat oven to 350F. Line several cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Sift flour into a bowl. Ad in the salt and sift again. It is important to sift the flour twice.
In a stand mixer, beat butter on medium speed for several minutes until soft.
With the mixer on low speed, add the sugar in a slow stream and beat until light and fluffy.
Add in the egg yolk and both extracts and mix until combined.
Add in the flour mixture and mix until combined.
Add a few drops of food coloring if desired.
Load the dough into the cookie press per the manufacturer’s instructions.
Press cookies onto the cookie sheets about 1 ½ inches apart. Decorate the cookies with sprinkles, candies, and other decorations. Bake for 8-10 minutes until golden. Cool cookie sheets on a wire rack..
Makes about 5 dozen small cookies.