white wine and glitter tableclothred wine lineupwe cooked these gorgeous shrimps in an amazing court bouillon and then plunged them into an ice bathspinach salad with quinoa, feta, toasted almonds, pomegranateseeds and garnished with red onion
A week ago or two (who really knows what day it is?) dear friend and I hosted a small sit-down three course dinner for sixteen, eighteen including us. We did all the planning, shopping, cooking, baking, and brought in the top guns for serving. I’m really sorry I don’t have photos of the chocolate mousse cake with raspberry coulis and whipped cream, it was divine. The night was beautiful, and we celebrated beautiful women.
we made the raviolis the day before and froze them on sheet trays lined with kitchen towels working on the mushroom, white wine, and butter sauceassembling and plating hand-made hand-cut mushroom ravioli fourth daughter and friend helping with plating and serving, I always love having young people in the kitchenviola
My friend and I always feel most comfortable behind the scenes at a party, you can usually always find us in the kitchen. This go round we thoroughly enjoyed the process of creating a special meal for neighborhood friends to celebrate the holiday season. It was a labor of good will and love, and we had an unbelievably good time working and learning together, those raviolis were not the easiest.
Now it’s full tilt go time. I’m currently in the kitchen again getting Christmas Eve dinner together for twelve, Christmas morning brunch, and doing a special Beef Bourguignon for tomorrow evening for ten. Wishing you all many festive warm meals with those you love.
I used to bake about a zillion different cookies, now at Christmas time I’ve narrowed down the repertoire to just three: cutouts, thumbprints, and Noel nut balls. Over the years the cutout recipe has evolved to No Fail Sugar Cookies, found at Kitchen Gifts, a great resource for unique cutouts hand shaped in the USA, cookie recipes, and baking and decorating tips.
brides and bouquets I made for Caroline’s showers
The bride cookie for Caroline’s wedding showers was one of my favorites. To get clean edges I always chill the cutout shaped dough on the cookie sheets before baking. When frosting I always outline the cookie with royal icing piped from a pastry bag with a #2 tip. I then flood the entire surface, usually with simple white frosting, let it harden a bit and then decorate simply or with abandon.
large snowflakes, a little messy, it’s busy right nowI always outline first with a pastry bag of royal icing using a #2 tipflood the entire surface with white icing
The large snowflakes I made just this week are simply one-color frosting, white, and embellished with colored sanding sugar.
sanding sugar in the background
If your weekend plans include baking, enjoy.
No Fail Sugar Cookies
This recipe is GREAT when using complex cookie cutters. The dough holds its’ shape and won’t spread during baking. Make sure you let your oven preheat for at least 1/2 hour before baking these or any other cookies.
6 cups flour 3 tsp. baking powder 2 cups butter 2 cups sugar 2 eggs 2 tsp. vanilla extract or desired flavoring (I like almond myself) 1 tsp. salt
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Mix dry ingredients and add a little at a time to butter mixture. Mix until flour is completely incorporated and the dough comes together.
Chill for 1 to 2 hours (or see Hint below)
Roll to desired thickness and cut into desired shapes. Bake on ungreased baking sheet at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes or until just beginning to turn brown around the edges. This recipe can make up to 5-dozen 3” cookies.
HINT: Rolling Out Dough Without the Mess — Rather than wait for your cookie dough to chill, take the freshly made dough and place a glob between two sheets of parchment paper. Roll it out to the desired thickness then place the dough and paper on a cookie sheet and pop it into the refrigerator. Continue rolling out your dough between sheets of paper until you have used it all. By the time you are finished, the first batch will be completely chilled and ready to cut. Reroll leftover dough and repeat the process! An added bonus is that you are not adding any additional flour to your cookies.
A few of my personal tips: use the best ingredients you can get your hands on, King Arthur flour, organic unsalted butter, free range eggs, Nielsen-Massey pure vanilla extract. Reroll the dough only once and scrap the rest. Make a huge batch of royal icing using an entire bag of confectioners’ sugar and 4 egg whites so you have enough to fill a pastry bag for outlining and a good supply for flooding. Rolling out the dough between parchment or waxed paper and refrigerating as above is genius, highly suggest.
Every day dress, cutout crazy.
This time of year Champagne makes everything better
On most mornings my two collegiate daughters and I try and get in as many greens as we can by way of scrambling them into our eggs. We start with sliced scallions and sauté them in butter until softened. Next comes shredded or chopped spinach, swiss chard, or whatever leafy thing we have on hand. Here you see some leftover crumbled bacon and grated gruyere. It all makes for a great wake-up and is scrambled up and dished out usually after a morning workout. Toast with mashed avocado and sliced tomatoes rounds things out nicely.
eggs, greens, diluted orange juice
Yesterday while in Chicago I hit the gym early, walked to my meeting downtown, and had the breakfast that was provided. Not my usual, it was cheese pastry and sweetened yogurt with granola and a few berries, yet really anytime I am served I am most appreciative and simply go with the flow.
at the grill and table is set, Winston looking at the camerathe roasted fennel was a big hit, roasted red onions are greaton sandwiches the next dayroasted zucchini with thyme, garlic, salt and peppermarinade had apricot preserves, fresh ginger, garlic, scallions, soy sauce, so good…
Quick post: holiday weekend and wishing everyone a happy, safe 4th of July. You know I love food, yesterday we had a little kick-off gathering and I did some roasted vegetables, a big green salad with a simple vinaigrette, and some great barbecued chicken.
part of the easy buffet
I also did some marinated grilled flank steak, second son thought that was a nice switch-up. Baked off a bunch of blueberry pies, no photos, we were busy enjoying one another’s company.
Yesterday morning I broke a piece of baguette and smeared it with French butter and then soft ripe cheese and then topped it with local honey, it was sublime. I’m drinking small cups of espresso, forgoing the tall American coffee, and usually indulging again at half past three.
everyone helps for dinner in
Second son’s girlfriend says le vin rosé is like water, and you know how you’re supposed to get in eight full glasses of that.
on our way to town to gather supplieswe did have lunch at this Michelin star restaurant L’Aubergine
okay, so I took this photo, daily run to market
Booie asked me where the pantry is in the kitchen and I replied, ‘no pantry, we buy what we need and will use on the daily’.
petit déjeuneron the lawn for six
We started with a party of six, grew to eight and then ten, and now back to eight, and on Thursday we will be five. We’ve been gone three plus weeks now, on holiday with really nothing to do, simply enjoying one another’s company in this beautiful country of France. We are blessed, and the husband is the triple gold star.
prepping for dinner in
I’ve been cooking as most times we prefer staying in and accustoming myself with an electric cooktop and an oven I don’t understand, but that’s okay. Everything makes me think, even the every day run to the market where I have to navigate the carts, and the checkout.
The first half of the trip I was fairly disciplined with the workout routine and now as we’re getting ready to head home, I’m savoring every lazy hour of undriven bliss.
and the sun goes down
We’ve been eating and drinking in France, and that’s a very good thing. All photos here by Maxwell Collins, on Instagram @maxyny.
Monday’s can be tough, although I used to love Monday’s when the kids were little, and they all had to go back to school. It was a formula then, and a formula now to make the day a little easier. Jeans and a tee, and chicken for dinner. Kids are grown, youngest two in college, […]
