Must be Monday

Yes, it looks like Monday all up in here. 
Yesterday I was getting excited about Carnival, and in a New Orleans state of mind, so I made red beans and rice.  I used the recipe on the back of the Camellia bag, then doctored it up a bit.  Because I didn't soak the beans overnight, they had to cook for a long time, but that's ok.  I had my favorite New Orleans radio station on (WWOZ, which you can listen to even if you're far from New Orleans - just download the app from their website), and my house smelled and sounded like Louisiana for the whole afternoon.

The recipe calls for celery, garlic, onion, a bay leaf, beans, and meat.  I used Conecuh sausage, which is made right here in Alabama, in Conecuh county, which is not that far from me.  It is so good and addictive that I hope you have access to it wherever you are, and that you buy and enjoy some as soon as possible.  It is a smoked pork sausage that just has this amazing flavor; cooked on the grill, it's heavenly, but it's also really good browned in a pan on the stove, or even in the oven, especially if you sprinkle a bit of brown sugar and dried mustard on top.  But I digress.

The beans are super easy to make.  I do recommend soaking them the night before - I don't mind the longer cooking time for uncooked beans, as it's kind of nice to have something bubbling away all afternoon.  But the longer you cook them, the more your house will smell of boiled onions the next day.  Nothing terrible - light a candle or make some coffee, and it's gone, but still.  Anyway, I did not soak my beans, so I started them at lunchtime. 

I just browned a half-pound of sausage, took it out of the pan, and then sauteed a stalk of celery, one small chopped onion, a chopped bell pepper, and a minced clove of garlic in the pork fat that was left in the pan.  Then I put the bag of beans, 4 cups of water, and 2 cups of chicken stock in a big pot, added the sauteed onion/celery/garlic, and a bay leaf, some pepper, and a few shakes of cayenne.  And cooked the beans, simmering gently, all afternoon.  At some point I doctored things up with a little cumin, Chachere's seasoning, Sriracha, dried English mustard, salt, a touch of brown sugar, and some mirin.  Yes, I said Sriracha, English mustard, and mirin.  Purists may be horrified.  But those purists weren't at my house when I ladled those beans over hot basmati rice.  I tasted the beans when they were super hot - burned my mouth but even as I could feel a blister forming on my lip, I was thinking oh my lord, this is so good I can hardly stand it, and it is totally worth the blister I know I'm getting right now.

And here is a link to the Camellia recipe, which so many people use and tweak.  http://www.camelliabrand.com/t-familyrecipes.aspx

Loaded With Shinny

Yesterday I made my first Lane cake.  The cake is named for Emma Rylander Lane, who published the recipe for it in her cookbook, Some Good Things To Eat, in 1898, and is an Alabama specialty.  I'm not sure how well-known the cake is outside the South; some people know it from To Kill A Mockingbird, in which a character bakes "a Lane cake so loaded with shinny it made me tight."  (Monroeville, the town in which Nelle Harper Lee grew up and still resides, and which was supposedly the inspiration for the fictional town of Maycomb in the book, is not far from where I live.)  But I never saw a Lane cake when I lived in New York or California, so I'm not sure if everybody knows about them.

In any case, although I've eaten Lane cake many times, I've never actually baked one.  My Aunt Glo usually does, so I've never felt the need.  But my friend Laurie has a cookbook coming out, and she asked me to bake a "glamorous" cake, like a Lady Baltimore or a Lane, and take a picture to be used in the book.  So I did, and it is seriously good.  I used Scott Peacock's recipe, because he's a great cook, and because his recipe doesn't call for covering the cake in a boiled white icing but rather with more of the filling, which I love.  It didn't take as long as I thought it would; it did make an enormous mess of my kitchen.  But I think it was worth it, don't you?

And, because although Scott says in his recipe that the cake gets better with age, I'm the one who baked it and just had to see the inside:

If you decide to make this cake, I recommend Scott's recipe, which is on the Food & Wine site (http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/lane-cake).  Be careful not to overbake the layers, and make more of the filling than the recipe suggests if you want the sides thickly covered.  But don't worry if, when you first make the filling and taste it, you think you've put in way too much bourbon.  You haven't.  It will mellow as it sits, and if you can make yourself wait till the next day to taste it, it will be perfect.

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever

I really like the blog "The Amateur Gourmet," and I follow its author, Adam Roberts, on Facebook.  But I'd never actually made any of the recipes featured there until a few weeks ago.  The holiday season was in full swing, and I was working all the time.  The work that I do to pay the bills does not, unfortunately, involve cooking, and the end of the year is our busiest time.

But when I saw an Amateur Gourmet post called "The Best Cookies of Your Life," I had to take a peek.  It seems to me that most people do not take cookies very seriously; my sister and I cater a holiday cocktail party every year, and although people love the savory nibbles and fancy tarts, no one seems to eat the cookies.  Even when they are beautiful and festive and piled into a delicious cookie tower - nobody's interested.  I guess they just don't seem fancy enough; maybe they seem too ordinary to be interesting.

But cookies are the bee's knees as far as I'm concerned.  They can be simple and easy for even the least experienced baker to make - and make well - but they can also be exotic, and challenging.  And unlike a lofty, snooty frosted layer cake, they can be tasted right away, which is a boon to those of us with immediate gratification issues and, frankly, anyone who is even slightly apprehensive about taking to a party something one has not actually tasted. 

So anyway, although chocolate chip cookies are not the most exotic cookies in the world, the Amateur Gourmet was so effusive in his praise for what he called "The Best Cookies of Your Life" that I just had to try them.  I made them exactly as he did, using chocolate chips rather than chunks, and he was right.  They were the best chocolate chip cookies I had ever had.  Big, crisp on the edges but chewy in the middle, lots of good vanilla flavor, and, best of all, plenty of salt.  That really makes a difference and can take a cookie recipe from pallid to sublime.  So I was hooked, and since I found a package of chocolate chunks in the pantry this past weekend, I've been wanting to make the cookies again.  So this afternoon I did, and here they are:

And looking a bit more festive:

These photos don't do justice to the golden goodness of the actual cookies - I am finally pulling out the new camera tonight, in hopes that future photos will be a bit better than these.  But don't let the apparently wan exterior shown above deter you from baking these cookies.  They are easy, and scrumptious.  And here is a link to the AG post, and the recipe:   http://www.amateurgourmet.com/2006/10/the_best_cookie.html

One bit of advice:  don't try any usual cookie-baking tricks with this recipe.  Using unbleached flour, chilling the dough before baking, etc. - those only hurt this recipe.  Make sure your ingredients are relatively warm when you mix everything together (I would say "room temperature," but if your rooms are like mine today, that will be way too cold; hence the butter-warming operation going on at my house earlier:

),

and go ahead and drop the dough onto the parchment without chilling.  It's messy, because it's sticky, but I tried chilling, and it was not, in this case, a good thing.  As for the chocolate, I loved the recipe with chips, and I loved it with chunks.  Use what you have, and enjoy.  My house smells so good right now - thank you, Adam Roberts, and thank you, Martha Stewart!

The Last Christmas Party

My friend Linda has a party on Epiphany every year and calls it the Last Christmas Party.  Our little town has quite an active social scene during the holidays, and there are parties before, on, and after Christmas, but Linda's party is on Ephiphany, so it is indeed the last of the season.  It's a dirty Santa party, ladies only, and everyone is supposed to wear a Christmas sweater.  There is lots of food, and wine, and I make a dessert, and we all have a big, silly time before returning to houses stripped of all the greenery and looking like the bleak "real world" of January is upon us.

Last year I made a vanilla bean cheesecake with kumquat syrup and candied kumquats, and it was beautiful.  It also took about 6 hours and drove me insane.  So this year I took an easier route and made my chocolate pound cake with a ripple of cream cheese.  I say "my" - I mean "Southern Living's."  I found the recipe in an old issue of Christmas with Southern Living and made it when I was living in California, and it was divine.  But when I mentioned it to my family, they'd inevitably say, with a distinct lack of enthusiasm, "Oh yes, I remember that, it was ok" - even though I was pretty sure I'd never made it for them.

This year, however, I needed a dessert for the party, I was craving chocolate, I had all of the ingredients, so I made the cake again.  And it was . . divine!  My memory proved correct, and my sisters and mother and the partygoers liked it, so all was right with the world.  Cake-wise, anyway.  And here it is in, in the pan:

The most divine-smelling steam is rising from this gorgeous cracked surface . . .

And here it is, tipped out of the pan.  That yellow bit you see in the center is some of the cream cheese ripple.  And finally, of course I had to cut it before I took it to the party:

Yes, that's a sad streak on top, but if you decide to make this cake, don't consider that streak to be a sign of failure.  It is a sign of deliciousness.  I'll include a link to the recipe, which also includes a fudge frosting that I do recommend.  But in order to taste the cake immediately, I had to slice it all for serving at the party instead of taking it over whole, and I thought the fudge would make the slices too messy to pick up.  Those with more control over desires for immediate gratification may have better luck with said frosting.  http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000000521903

And now to the party, which was the reason for the cake in the first place.  It was fun, not as silly this year because not as many people wore those sweaters and not as many people brought funny gifts (last year someone brought a new and beautifully wrapped seat for a commode), but fun all the same and with a bonus this year of a tour of the in-progress addition to Linda's house.  Linda lives in an old house, as I do, built I think in the late 1800s, and is adding a bathroom upstairs.  It looks very nice - gleaming and spacious, and soon to include the clawfoot bathtub that's been in her backyard for 30 years.  But it's the downstairs that I'm going to show you.  Linda has many artists friends and quite a collection of paintings and other art pieces, and sofas (thirteen at last count).  Here's one of them:

And here's her dining room, laden with food for the party, and some of her paintings (the large one she painted herself):

And, finally, her tree.  We raised our glasses to it, and toasted it and the new year, and all went away feeling warm and merry.

And I got home and remembered that although I did have to take the decorations down the next day, since I live close to Mobile and New Orleans, the "real world" of winter means. . . Carnival!  So Bonne Annee, and Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler!

Who Needs the Fruits of Summer?

I've heard people moan in winter about the dearth of fresh fruit, and long for the joys of summer produce.  I get it, I do, but as winter is the time for citrus, winter is the time for me.  Look at this!  A Cara Cara and a tangerine, zested and juiced and about to become the glaze for a pound cake.  Huzzah!  Citrus season is upon us.

I had a couple of people over for dinner yesterday, and although I am not one to make New Year's resolutions, I made one about an hour before my friends arrived.  I was going to make a hot and sour Thai soup, and a red curry, neither of which I'd made before.  So an hour and a half before my guests were due to arrive, I found myself running around, trying to get things ready and having no idea if everything would work out, and kind of freaking out.  And knowing that dinner would be late, and realizing that it would not be the first time, and just not having fun at all.  And just like that, something snapped.  I knew I had the ingredients for a seafood casserole in the fridge, and that I could make it in time, and that it wouldn't be the perfect meal (no bread, no salad, nothing but the casserole) but that it would be done and tasty and allow me to enjoy the evening.  So that's that!  Resolution:  When I'm having guests, I will never again plan to make something I've never made before.  I'll make something I know and that can (unless I'm absolutely comfortable with it) be made in advance, and I'll get to spend the hour before people arrive lighting candles, and turning on music, and doing all the fun anticipatory things one does when guests are coming. 

So, in this newfound spirit of keeping things free and easy, I took a chance with dessert.  My sister and I cater a party every year, and this year I made a vanilla pound cake shaped like a ring of Christmas trees.  There was extra batter, so I put it in a small loaf pan and promptly forgot about it.  Last night, I remembered - and doubted that there was any way the cake would turn out after 5 days in the refrigerator.  Boy was I wrong.  It was delicious!  While it was still warm, I poked holes in it with toothpicks and drizzled a syrup made of the zest and juice of the tangerine and orange all over the top.  Heaven.  And here it is:

Happy New Year!