More Cookie Recipes, and Brisket To Die For!

Tomorrow we have somewhere between 35 and 40 people coming for a Christmas party
at That Old House, so today I'm getting a jump on some cooking.  Some random thoughts to share . . . .

Hands up, anyone who knows why
Romance Cookies are called Romance Cookies.

Anyone?

You in the back, there?  No?

Okay, I'll tell you, but you have to understand that this is the Gospel according to my Mother, who was,

as her mother-in-law might have phrased it, "a bit of a Dickens."  And we don't mean Charles.

According to Mom, Romance Cookies are so named because they are made with two layers.

One on top, and one on the bottom, in a close and cozy arrangement.

Get it?  Yup, that's exactly what she meant.

(Recipe at end of post.)

***************************************

I bet nearly all of you have recipes handed down from mothers or

mothers-in-law that are part of your go-to repertoire in the kitchen.

One of mine is Cranberry Onion Brisket,

given to me by Howard's Mom -- who is an excellent cook.

I've got four nice sized briskets, flat cut, and using just two other ingredients, dry Onion Soup Mix and whole berry Cranberry Sauce, I'm going to transform these 4 slabs into deliriously delicious buffet fare.

CRANBERRY ONION BRISKET

INGREDIENTS:

Brisket (duh!) -- any size, any quantity.  Costco sells them and they are usually larger and less costly than the supermarkets.

For each Brisket, one can of whole berry cranberry sauce, and one envelope onion soup mix (the stuff you make onion dip with).  I usually make more sauce than the minimum, as people love it.

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix the cranberry sauce and the powdered soup mix.  Loosely and casually, no perfection needed.

Line a big roasting pan with two sheets of foil, criss-crossing one another like a + sign.

After rinsing and trimming the brisket, put it (fat side up) into the pan, and ladle on the cranberry mixture.

Be pretty generous.  Cover the meat, and have some around it and oozing in underneath.

WARNING: Raw meat looks awful in pictures.
Plus - I forgot to line the pans with foil.  So, I'll just be
covering the tops tightly with foil, and the pans will be a treat to wash.

******************************************************

Wrap up the meat & sauce with the foil and cook for 2-1/2 hours if under 3 lbs of meat, adding a half hour after that for every pound above 3.  The more you cook it, the more tender it gets, so don't be shy with oven time.  Near the end of the cooking time, unwrap the top of the foil so air can get in, and put it back in the oven.  This thickens the sauce, and darkens (caramelizes) the meat.

Slice the brisket across the grain, and serve with the sauce.  I usually make this beforehand, and reheat the slices in the sauce, with extra sauce in a ... well, sauce boat.  This dish can make you famous.  Trust me.

(No pictures of the finished product yet; all our briskets are merrily roasting away in the oven!)

***************************************

And now, those naughty-but-nice

Romance Cookies

INGREDIENTS:

(Bottom Layer)

1 cup butter

2 cups flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. salt

(Top Layer)

2 eggs

1-1/2 cups brown sugar

2 TBS flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1 cup sweetened flaked coconut

1 cup chopped nuts -- traditionally walnuts, but pecans can be used

And . . . powdered sugar for the finale

METHOD:

1.  Cream the butter and blend in flour, sugar and salt.  (This will make a loose crumbly mixture.)  Spread it in an ungreased pan -- you can use a smallish jelly roll pan or, for thicker cookies, a 9 x 13 pan.  You will have to smoosh the mixture with your fingers.  Bake this for 10 minutes; the top will not brown.

2.  Beat the eggs until light and frothy.  Stir in the brown sugar, then add the flour, baking powder, and vanilla.  Beat it all up till it screams "UNCLE!" and then fold in the coconut and the nuts.  Spread this layer over the hot crust, and pop it all back into the oven for about 20 minutes; it should be golden brown and not moist looking on top.  But if you overcook, the cookie gets too crunchy.

 3.  When the pan is cool, sift on some 10X sugar and cut into squares, and ... Mmmmm.... get ready to fall in love with Romance Cookies.  (Hint:  I find if I cut when the bars are still slightly warm, it's easier to do.)

******************************

And that's it for today; pretty dull, huh?

I've got a list a mile long of things to do.

I hope I remember to take some pictures of our party tomorrow.

Usually . . . I forget.  Doh.  -- Cass

Join Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum.  Click here!

Ho Ho Cookie Dough, And The Tree Gets (Some Of) Its Bling

After posting pictures of the cookies my friend
Emily and I made at That Old House on Tuesday,

I got more than a few requests for some recipes.

Being the obedient blogger that I am, I put some of

the recipes at the end of this post, and I hope you enjoy them!

Josh did.

Okay, full disclosure.  Daughter Alida refused to pose with a cookie this morning because at 11:00

she was still in her pajamas, so her gallant husband took the bullet for her

and kindly held the cookie up so I could take a picture.

And then he ate it.  His Mama didn't raise no fool.

Perfect New Jersey breakfast -- fresh bagel with veggie cheese, and an oatmeal cookie.

All the USDA food groups in one fell swoop.

Before Howard left for work this morning, he toddled off to the bagel bakery, 

and brought home a big warm bag of these:

Enormous crusty-chewy New Jersey bagels.

We rarely buy these anymore, so when Howard walks into Bagel-Os and smells them,

he gets a little giddy and brings home vast quantities.

Meanwhile, our Sunroom tree is almost nearing its saturation point for ornaments.

I still see some darkish places that could use a little more bling.

Yes, lots of room for more bling, don't you think?

I told Howard that I might need a few more ornaments this year . . . .

He ran away and went to that place called Work.

Dion says that he is tired of finding Rubbermaid bins marked with "C" for Christmas

parked all over the house, and can we please wrap this up?

I think he means it.

Today -- more decorating, some cleaning, and the final lists of foods for Saturday's party.

I realized I'd forgotten to put Herring on the list, and that made me wonder what else I'd forgotten.

How can a Norwegian forget such a thing as Herring anyway?  That would be like forgetting the Gjetost!

*********************************

Cookie Recipes

*********************************

Vermont Crackles Cookies

Recipe -- Vermont Crackles

I found this recipe in the early 80s in a Better Homes and Gardens Christmas Cookie magazine.

(It had a Santa Sleigh made of sugar cookies on the cover and is the BEST cookie mag EVER.

If you have one, guard it with your life.  Or give it to me.)

This recipe is a keeper - a distant Snickerdoodle cousin, with a sweet and spicy personality.

PRE-HEAT OVEN TO 350-DEGREES, AND GREASE YOUR COOKIE SHEETS.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, room temperature

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 TSP Cinnamon

1/4 TSP Mace (see Notes below)

1/4 TSP Baking Soda

1-1/2 TSP Baking Powder

1 cup granulated sugar

1 egg, slightly beaten

3 TBS Maple Syrup (real or pancake syrup style; I actually prefer the pancake syrup in this cookie)

AND some coarse white or colored decorating sugar; I use red and green at Christmas.

METHOD:

Beat butter or margarine in a large mixing bowl until softened and a little fluffed.

Mix your dry ingredients together, using only ONE HALF of the flour (1 cup flour, and the cinnamon, mace, baking powder, baking soda, and sugar).  Add to the mixer and beat into the butter.

Add the egg and the maple syrup, beat to combine.

Beat or stir in remaining 1 cup of flour.

Form the dough into 1-inch balls, and roll the balls in your chosen decorating sugar.

Plop them onto greased cookie sheets, leaving more than 2 inches between dough lumps, as they spread.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes.  They will puff up, then collapse, leaving the "Crackle" tops from whence they get their name.

Cool them on a wire rack, and enjoy with a glass of cold milk OR a dish of vanilla ice cream drizzled with maple syrup.  Nice paired with spiced tea, too.

It says it makes 48.  It doesn't, but then cookie recipes never make as many as promised, do they?

(Notes: We used a larger cookie dough lump and made bigger than usual cookies, so we baked them for 15 minutes.  I usually add just a touch more spice than called for.  Taste your dough.  And if you don't have Mace, use Nutmeg.  Mace is the ground outer covering of the Nutmeg.)

**********************************

Meringues The Easy Way

(Cloud Cookies)

You can make meringues using all sorts of methods, from leaving them in an oven overnight, to adding gelatin to hold them together, to whisking the egg whites in a high-falutin' fancy copper bowl with a giant balloon whisk until your arm falls off . . . or you can make these almost ridiculously easy meringues that my girls used to call "Cloud Cookies."  

MERINGUE COOKIE RECIPE

You will want to use an electric mixer for this, preferably fitted with a whisk attachment.

Otherwise, your arm will indeed fall off.  You have been warned.  Do not sue me.

BASIC INGREDIENTS:

4 Egg Whites (I use Large eggs)

1 cup regular ol' sugar

BASIC METHOD:

Beat the living daylights out of your egg whites, until they are all frothed up and blindingly white.

With the mixer running, s-l-o-w-l-y add the sugar, and the meringue will turn all beautifully glossy and shiny and thick, like a supermodel's hair.  Yes, "stiff peaks will form," but we will not make any jokes about that.

Instead of greasing the cookie sheets, I line them with foil or freezer paper.  Don't bake these on bare metal  unless you want a permanent installation of meringue bottoms on your cookie sheets.

And preheat the oven to 300 or 325 -- you know if your oven runs hot or cold.

NOW FOR THE FUN PART:

For plain white cookies, just stir in a 1/2 TSP or so of pure vanilla, plop out lumps of meringue from a spoon onto the cookie sheets, and follow the baking directions below.  These look most like clouds.

For more deliciousness, stir in teeny-weeny chocolate chips.  Or finely chopped peppermint candy canes.  Or crushed nuts.  Or chopped dried fruit like cherries or cranberries.  Or finely broken-up toffee bars.  Use whatever appeals to you, but probably not stuffed olives.  Don't overload the meringues with stuff; they're pretty, but they ain't got much muscle.

For even more deliciousness at Christmas, replace the vanilla with peppermint extract.  And just before forming the cookies, add a bit of red food coloring.  No need to swirl it into the froth -- forming the cookies will do that work for you and make pretty stripes.

Forming the cookies is easy.  You can simply scoop up lumps with a soup spoon, and push the froth onto the prepared cookie sheet with another spoon, OR you can go all Julia Child and use a pastry bag.  This can be as simple as a plastic food storage bag with a corner snipped off or it can be a real pastry bag outfitted with a metal tip.  Squeeze out the meringue into whatever shapes you want ... and into the oven they go.  You can space them closely together, as they don't really spread much.

Set your timer for 30 minutes, and go do something fun.  Come back and peek -- the meringues should have gone past a completely glossy phase to a "YIKES they're looking a little wrinkly!" phase, and that's when they are done. 

Take 'em out, let them cool, peel them off the foil or paper, and you have made meringues.

Unlike traditional meringues, they are not dry all the way through.  The outer shell is crispy and crackly, but inside is chewy and stick-to-your-molars good.  In my experience, kids love these.

I've seen recipes for these cookies done low carb.  I will report back to you on those.

***********************************

Phew!  All that baking has tuckered me out.

More recipes tomorrow,

when we shall make beautiful music together and make a batch of Romance Cookies.

Til then . . . Merry Christmas-ing!  -- Cass

Sherry at No Minimalist Here is hosting Open House Thursday. Click here!

Cookies. More Cookies. Not Enough TREE.

So on Sunday, we found this year's
fresh tree at a local garden center.
It is smaller than we usually get, but then . . . 
does size really matter?

After convincing a broken tree stand to do its job just one more season, 

and guy wiring the tree to the ceiling just to make sure

it won't go all wibbly-wobbly on us, (as we are scarred veterans

of more than several tree-keeling-over disasters) --

Howard put on the lights . . .

 . . . and then put on the lights.  

 Burdened with a head cold and just a little smidgey whiff of Grinchiness, barely noticeable,

Howard didn't keep track of how many lights are on this year's tree.

There are a lot.  Thank you, my dear.

Now you'd think I'd have this Tannenbaum all decorated by now,

but

(true confession)

I 

do

not.

Instead, I have lots of these:

 Oatmeal cookies with dried cranberries inside, and white chocolate on top -- because we forgot,

my friend Emily and I, to put the white chocolate chips into the batter.

 My Mom's Romance Cookie bars -- walnuts, shortbread crust, meringue, coconut.

It's surprising I still make these, as I can clearly conjure up that teenage "oh no I'm going to die" feeling

when Mom would sidle up to my Beau du jour at our family Christmas party, and with a

meaningful, exaggerated wink and a Groucho Marx eyebrow wiggle, offer him "Romance Cookies."

To any of my siblings reading this, you know what I mean.  :-)

 Howard's favorite -- Vermont Crackles. 

A long lost recipe, now found.

 The Oatmeal Cookies, getting all glamorous for their closeups.

 People will totally believe that the white chocolate is there on purpose, right?

 Mint meringues.  A crispy shell on the outside, a gooey chewy stick-to-your-teeth delight on the inside.

 Don't you think those meringues need a drizzle of dark chocolate on them?  They look so pink and naked.

And, finally, lemon bars.

Baked by someone (yes, I'm looking at myself) who forgot that the confectioners' sugar needs to

be sifted onto these cookies when they are HOT, so it sticks.  Clearly, it ain't sticking.

Don't sneeze nearby; the powdered sugar cloud will be wicked.

******************************

So today,

Alida and Josh get in from California, a late afternoon arrival at the magically delicious Newark Airport.

For these California dwellers I have put flannel sheets on the guest room bed.

Which is cheaper than turning up the thermostat.

And now I'm going to decorate the tree in the sunroom,

and keep repeating, "It's a little tree, it's not so big, it's really small,

it's not even quite 9-feet tall, it's actually rather dainty, I can do this,

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can . . . . "

If you don't hear from me for awhile, check under the Rubbermaid bins of Christmas tree ornaments.

Random moment of awful truth!

Can you bake in the midst of creative chaos?

 Believe it or not, this isn't as bad or disorganized as it looks.

It's worse.  (Ba-dum-bum.) 

 Two bakers, one kitchen.  There's gonna be a mess, y'know?

Poor sad Dion.  So many cookies, just out of reach.

 Have a lovely Wednesday!  -- Cass

A Chatty Post From A Yule Fool

First off, family news:  Howard's Dad, recently hospitalized,
is home now and doing well; we are grateful for this,
and for all the warm good thoughts, prayers, and wishes from you.  

It's Christmas; the ornament wreath is hung in the Powder Room!

In other family news, Alida and Josh arrive at That Old House
on Wednesday next, to celebrate Christmas with us.
This absolutely delights me; we have not seen them since they left here after their wedding in June.
But it also makes me feel badly for Josh's family in California.
Why can't we all live in one place, piled on top of one another?

But it will be lovely to have all three of our young'uns with us at Christmas.

See how happy I look?

Should I do something different with my hair, do you think?

Alida has asked me what her Dad would like for Christmas.

Why are men so hard to buy for?

Or is it that we just don't want to buy what they really want?  :-)

Dear Daughter Anne,

If you take a look at this picture:

you will see that I need a new red candle.

Love, Mama

The backstory:  When Anne was very young, she gave me a red candle for Christmas,

so I would have something to put in this Swedish candleholder. 

She was extraordinarily proud of this gift, for it had been carefully chosen

with singleminded concentration and care.

Each year, she checked that the candle was in place at Christmastime.

Over the years, the candle bent, then finally broke, and I secretly replaced it with a new one.

She found out about my sleight-of-hand years later, and after that 

I decided that the candles in this candleholder will only ever be replaced by Annie herself.

*********************************

How sentimental do you get at Christmas?

If I'm not careful, I can melt into a puddle of nostalgic goo.

December 1989: Anne (L, 2-1/2) and Alida (3-1/2), in the dresses
I'd made for them for Thanksgiving that year.
This was right after Alida's nursery school Christmas pageant.
They are on an old oak Mission settee that is now in the Pink Room.
Typically, Anne looks thoughtful; Alida looks about to speak.

**********************************

Ritual.

What are your "firsts" at this time of the year?  What has to get done before anything else?

I hang the ornament wreath in the Powder Room, and decorate the feather tree for the kitchen:

Feather trees were probably the first faux Christmas trees, and migrated to the USA with

German immigrants in the late 1800s.  This one was a gift to me from my sister-in-law Doris

(I don't count our husbands in on this one, as this was definitely a girl-to-girl type gift).

It is from the Winterthur Museum in Delaware.  I went slightly bonkers buying wee little ornaments

for it, before realizing that if I kept adding ornaments, my feather tree would pretty much collapse.

Looking at it, though, I think it may need a few more . . . . 

******************************

This year, I'm going to actually do some baking.

Just remind me not to eat any of it, OK?

My sister, and maybe my niece Mary, and I are planning a Baking Day for next week.

We've talked about this every year for several years; I vote that it's time to actually do it, don't you agree?

Peggy has my Mom's old cookie cutters.  Santa Boots and Christmas trees, here we come!

*******************************

Plaster Santa is out of his storage box.

If you think he looks like he's been in a terrible street fight,

it's because this old guy is older than I am,

and believe you me (as Grandma used to say), that's pretty old.

I rescued him a few years ago from my parents' garage, and nothing brings back

memories of my childhood Christmases like this St. Nick, chips and all.

*********************************

And then, there's Mary.

As we journey through Advent, preparing our homes and -- much more importantly -- ourselves

for the joyous celebration of the Gift of Jesus, I often think of Mary.

When I was expecting Alida, and, like Mary, great with child at Christmas,

I thought of what it was like for her.  Childbearing is no picnic under the best of circumstances.

But in possibly the worst circumstances I can imagine,

 Mary gave birth to the Light of the World.

What a very odd and wonderful way for a Saviour King to announce himself,

with the cry of a newborn, in the poorest of places.

My favorite line in the Christmas Story comes from Luke, Chapter 2, Verse 19,

in the beautiful words of the King James translation, after the shepherds visit and praise the infant Jesus:

". . . Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart."

Such a Mother thing to do.

By the way, I was expecting Anne the following Christmas . . . but I didn't know it!

*************************************

 And now, adieu.

Mr. Dion DiPoochy is asking for some attention, and he shall get it.  -- Cass

Link Parties!

At My Romantic Home, it's Show And Tell Friday.  Click here!

Feathered Nest Friday makes its home at French Country Cottage.  Click here!

The Charm of Home features Home Sweet Home on Fridays.  Click here!

It's Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground.  Click here!

Honey at 2805 is hosting a Christmas Tree Party today.  Click here!

It is part of the big Bloggers'  Block Party group of Link Parties.

Shine On

Bit by bit, bow by bow . . .
the Christmas decorating gets done.

Mustn't forget the light fixtures!

Where I usually put fresh greens,

this year I'm using silk poinsettias.

Easy.  Quick.  Pretty.

Not done yet, but there's time.

I'm decorating for the family, and the family's in no hurry.

Hey!  Who had too much eggnog?

Have a lovely Thursday, my friends.

It's a brilliantly sunny and brittle-y cold day in northern New Jersey.

Dion and I are heading out for a little road trip.

See you tomorrow!  -- Cass

On This Day

December 7th.

The Japanese attack on the U.S. Navy base
at Pearl Harbor was 70 years ago.

"The day we grew up," my Mother called it.

My Dad was 21 and enlisted in the Navy.

Howard's Dad was only 16, but he saw the war out as a sailor

on a destroyer escort ship in the Pacific.

A buddy of his snapped this while Dad

was catching some Zzzzsss in a bunk.

 The scope and breadth of the Second World War is almost unimagineable to us.
We are used to contained wars, not conflicts that spread to all corners of the globe.

If you are of a certain age, it's a pretty good bet your father, your uncles, maybe a granddad served.

Howard's Dad survived a kamikaze attack,

and was among the first Americans to enter Japan after the war ended.

My Dad was a Navy bombadier.

My friend Betsy's father-in-law was recently awarded the Legion of Honor medal from the French government.

He was part of the massive D-Day invasion.

Most of us know at least one WWII veteran,

although he might be quiet about it. 

Ordinary men, yanked out of their everyday lives,

to perform an extraordinary task -- to save the world.

Now that's the definition of a hero.

God bless all the members of our military, past and present.

*****************************************************************

And please send good wishes winging their way to Florida,

where Howard's Dad is in the hospital.  He is doing all right, but it's always better to be home.

My in-laws last June, at Alida and Josh's wedding.
How gorgeous are they, for 85 and 86?

2-1/2 week until Christmas, friends!  -- Cass

P. S.  If you have a relative or friend, now in his or her 80s or more, who served in the Second World War or who was a part of it on the domestic front, ask him or her to share their memories, in written form or recorded.  I promise you it is worthwhile, and these memories are precious.  Howard's Dad wrote a memoir of his time in the Navy, and it personalizes and makes real the war like nothing but a true story can do.