The Sparkle and the Real

I know it's the season of "fa la la la" but I've been craving real food. Real food is pasta with maybe a meat and some vegetables. It goes into one pot. I'm sated. It's easy. Spicy Italian chicken sausages for heat, greens for reality and pasta for pleasure.

I managed a little bit of sparkle with my first batch of cookies (and so far my only batch of cookies - and yes, they're gone). They're Citrus Italian Knot cookies - just a tad sweet. Puffy and melting in your mouth. Cookies don't always need to go crunch. A touch of sparkle and a lot of pliable - and easy.

My sister and I (mostly my sister) sold a home, emptied a house and my last drive home from the townhome was filled with glimpses of 26 years of baptisms, birthdays, holidays and I was able to give Thanksgiving. For all those years.

Because we did not have enough to do, we brought this into our home.

He was found in the woods - Mom and Dad were feral and he is not. I think. I hope. Say hello to Luce. Which is what we call him when he is adorable and sweet. When he wakes up from a nap his whiskers are askew and his fur sticks up and we call him Einstein.

When he is pouncing on my head and jumping into the soup (gives a new meaning to "Beautiful Soup"), he is called Binky-Boy.

Pippin is not thrilled. (In case you were wondering, not every pampered house cat wants a new friend.) Four days after his arrival, Paul and I left for Iowa for a production of By Candlelight at Bettendorf High School. I got to be a visiting playwright for four days and Kirsten got to stay home and referee Pippin and Luce. After four days, Kirsten declared she couldn't possibly be a "crazy cat lady" (as was previously feared) because it was too exhausting.

I came home grateful for having time with teens and theatre (it's coming home for me).

During the candlelight vigil, "I Think it's Going to Rain Today" was played in the background. And after the final scene, the names of all those "lost" in 9/11 were scrolled on screens as Leonard Cohen sang "Hallelujah." The cast walked on. Nobody applauded. You could hear a pin drop. And the cast learned that sometimes silence is better than applause. It was "the Real."

Back home with very mad Pippin and the little Tazmanian Devil, Feliway became my best friend. It says it calms cats.

And on alternate Sundays it does. And when it doesn't - there's always pasta. It's not really a recipe if you're Italian - you throw these things together all the time - but it is always real. Stable. Substantial.

PASTA AND ACCESSORIES: Chicken Sausage, Bow-Ties and Spinach - serves 4-6 (in my home - 4)
little bit of olive oil
little bit of garlic and shallots or onions or all
1 pound spicy chicken sausage - cut into 1/2"-1" rounds
1/4-1/2 cup dry white wine or chicken broth
8 cups spinach or Kale or Swiss Chard
1 pound bow-ties or favorite pasta (rotini would hug the accessories)
Save some pasta water
Herbs - your choice

Cook pasta according to directions. (Boom! Done!)
Heat olive oil and quickly saute your aromatics (garlic, shallots, onion) until soft. Add chicken sausage and and brown on both sides. Add broth or wine and stir to remove brown bits. Add spinach and stir till wilted.
Drain pasta saving a little pasta water. Add pasta to large skillet. Throw in fresh herbs at the end of cooking (parsley, basil, thyme) or dried Italian herbs at the beginning with the sausage. If dry, moisten with pasta water. Serve.

I've never been a fan of chicken sausage. Gold 'n Plump sent me a huge package in the spring - all natural, locally grown, family farms and I agreed to try them. I've always loved turkey sausage (although as I write this, I hear a specific Italian blogger largely singing "nooooo" in the distance) but chicken sausages have eluded me. They have improved in the last ten years (the last time I tried one). I will be writing more about this - which will be my last "gifted" blog. I was surprised and enamored by the chicken sausage - not greasy - but not pasty and tough and bland as the previous ones I had. Do you know you're not eating pork? Absolutely. Do you care? No. (I still hear a certain someone crying "noooo" in the wilderness.)

And because 'tis the season, I did want a touch of sparkle. I love these because they are not sweet (hence the sugar-sparkle). And the touch of citrus is welcome in winter. Find them here. Because there are times you want sparkle. Without being blinded by it.

First snow. It's December. It's Minnesota. It's real.

Twinkle lights because everyone needs a little sparkle. It helps with what's real.

Spiced pears? Almond-vanilla cookies? Yes, please.

I'm nesting - prepping the home for family. This happens every winter when the days are shorter than the eves. I gaze at my home and think "This doesn't work" and then I move everything around. Saturday I changed everything in my kitchen cabinets. Confusing my family who now cannot find the cereal but are grateful I left the coffee in the same place.

The upside of changing everything in your kitchen around is suddenly you have a new kitchen and you want to make everything - all at once: cookies are baked, soup is stirred, vegetables are cut, meats are braising and if I was an octopus I'd simultaneously have an arm in all those pots. But I did pretty well with two arms

Pere alle Spezie (Spiced Pears)

These hail from Piedmont - a large northern province in Italy that actually does see winter. The baking of the pears in a spiced-sugared wine showcases the creamy, sweet  "meat" of the fruit. Perfect after a heavy meal. More perfect in the deep, dark days of December - the perfect month to rejoice in cloves, cinnamon and ginger. They bring comfort and joy to the table. 

Ingredients (from Williams-Sonoma Savoring Italy)

1-1/2 cups 12 fl ounces) fruity red wine (such as Barbera)

1/4 cup (6 ounces) sugar

6 whole cloves

8 firm, ripe pears (Anjou, Bartlett) Bonus: You don't need to peel them 

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). In a baking dish large enough for the pears but small enough to have them fit all snugly and upright, place your pears. In a small mixing bowl, stir the wine, sugar and cloves. Pour over pears. Bake the pears 45-60 minutes, occasionally basting the pears with the liquid. The pears are done when tender - just pierce one with a fork and see how easily it glides. Cool to room temperature before serving.

In the words of my daughter, "Boom! Done!" How easy was that?

Vanilla-Almond Cookies

(I've made these cookies for so many years, I have lost the source of the recipe. I suspect it may be Tastes of Italia.)

Think of these as once-baked biscotti. These are easy, melt-in-your-mouth sliced cookies that celebrate vanilla and and almonds. Just a tad crunchy on the outside, and tender-melty inside. They hail from my grandmother's region of Basilicata and are reminiscent of Italian wedding cookies. 

Vanilla-Almond Cookie Ingredients (makes about 28)

1/2 pound butter (room temperature and cut into small pieces)

1 cup sugar

5 ounces sliced almonds

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2-1/2 cups flour

Cream the butter and slowly add the sugar - beating well. Add the almonds and vanilla and mix. Add the eggs - one at a time - beating well after each addition. Similarly - add the flour 1/4 cup at a time and and mix each thoroughly before adding the next 1/4 cup.

Gather dough into a ball and form a thick log. (My log was about 10 x 2 inches.) Cover and refrigerate for two hours or overnight or a week. It's a content, unfussy dough. (Dough will keep up to ten days. If you don't want to bake the entire log - just slice as many as you want and bake - you can have fresh cookies all week.)

To bake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 1-2 cookie sheets. Slice refrigerated dough into 1/4 inch slices (you can slice thinner - just adjust baking time). Place 1 inch apart on cookie sheet. Bake about 15 minutes - just until the edges start to brown - you want tender, white cookies.

Through these cookies I have grown as a person. I have learned to practice acceptance. Because of these cookies - I can reach into my innermost soul and state - that in the ways of the world in December - I will not be taking off my extra Italy weight anytime soon! A raw carrot does not have the same song as an Italian cookie.

Yesterday, my daughter actually accused me of adding Pippin (her cat) to the end of my blog posts as a cheap gimmick to solicit comments!

I won't even dignify that accusation with an answer.

Juliet's Kisses (Baci di Giulietta) Cookies

There's nothing quite like a holiday show to give you the Christmas Spirit. Having just attended the delightful  All Wrapped Up (where my friend, Lynn Paulson was the amazing music director - brag, brag - I'm not prejudiced - If you had a super-talented friend wouldn't you like to announce it - in print?). I was finally ready for Santa Baby and The Holly and the Ivy. What I wasn't ready for was Winter Wonderland and Let it Snow. (and I live in Minnesota - why?)

And after intermission - it snowed. Yes, only 3 inches. And yes, heavy, wet, greasy snow - the sort of snow that is stunning to look at - it coats all in a white-furred embrace and shimmers in the dusk. The sort of snow that gives a woman who has "driver's anxiety" even when not driving, even in the summer - pause.

A friend - Mark Paulson - Lynn's talented husband and  /colleague/artist/all-around kind and fascinating person was driving. I do plan well around my anxieties! We had parked in a lot and when figuring out the payment for the day, the parking lot yelled at us to "stop loitering." Twice. Now, I grew up in New York City and a parking lot has never spoken to me - much less admonished me - twice. So, the day began with amusement - "the parking lot voice." And got better - with a show that charmed.

And then I got into my friend's  Miata for the slippery drive home. If you know anything about Miatas - you know they are four inches off the ground.  Three inches of snow expected. Four inches. Hmmm. Worrisome for someone with car/snow-phobia.

Yes, we got home. Yes, Mark told me amusing stories (hitching a ride in Glacier park and getting in a truck with some armed-drunk-people and their 90 year-old mother who smoked all his cigarettes and came on to him when he was - all of nineteen). And more. Telling a playwright stories during an anxiety-ridden drive is ingenuous. My friend knows how to calm.

Once home, I thought about this.

But decided butter, sugar and chocolate was better and did this.

Juliet's Kisses (Baci di Giulietta) Cookies
These cookies hail from - where else - Verona. And come Christmas, the bakeries in Verona are filled with them. But you don't have to celebrate Christmas to know that these tender, soft-crisp sandwich cookies laced with chocolate in the middle are meant to please - all. The recipe is from the Williams-Sonoma book Savoring Italy written by Michele Scicolone.

Ingredients


1 cup (8 ounces, 250 g) plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup (2 ounces, 60 g) confectioner's sugar (powdered sugar, icing sugar)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon rum (can be omitted - use 1 tablespoon vanilla or almond extract if you prefer)
2 cups (10 ounces, 315 g) all-purpose flour
2 ounces (60 grams) semi-sweet chocolate

Baci Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

In a large bowl using an electric mixer, beat 1 cup of butter, confectioner's sugar and salt until light and fluffy. Then, beat in the rum (or extract).  Stir in the flour 1/4 cup at a time and beat till well-blended. Cover and chill until firm. -about one hour.

Tear off 1 teaspoon of the dough at a time and form into a small ball. Place the balls about 1 inch (2.5 cm) apart on baking sheet.  Bake until firm - about 12 minutes (mine took 14 minutes - you want them to crisp - so a bit firm but not browned. And they will crisp as they cool. Taste to see - tasting is the fun part.) Transfer to wire racks to cool.

Place the chocolate and remaining 2 tablespoons of butter in the top of a double boiler. (You can try the microwave - if you are really good about not burning). When water in the bottom is simmering (and not touching the top), stir the chocolate and butter together until they combine. Remove top from boiler and set aside to cool a bit (until it is spreadable - 5-10 minutes). 

Spread a small amount of chocolate on bottom of cookie (I put a small puddle in the center and that worked). 

Place a cookie top on top - pressing it a bit to ooze the chocolate - until it is a sandwich and place it on the wire rack to set. Let cool on the wire rack (10-15 minutes). 

Can store in an airtight container for a week (or in the fridge as I am doing!).

Juliet would be pleased. So would Romeo. And so was family. They encouraged me to continue baking to cure car-anxiety!

And so our oven is on, the heat is on, the Christmas lights are on and still there is a chill in the living room.

Oh! Pip-a-doo knows where all the vents are.

I am thrilled and humbled to announce that Under a Midsummer Moon has been selected as one of two plays to receive a grant by Playwrights in Our Schools to be developed in the winter of 2012. And where will it be developed? Park City, Utah. I skiied there. Before snow-phoia sent in.  It snows a lot. Every day in fact. You have to smile.  

A tree and a trio of Italian cookies

The thing about decorating the Christmas tree is that you somehow need cookies. And when you have woefully decided that you are done with "over the river and through the woods to cut down your own tree on the coldest December, Minnesota weekend of the year," sometimes you need cookies with a wee bit of alcohol in them.
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Maybe it was the cursing every year while setting up the tree - in a family that really doesn't curse. Or the watering at 6:30 a.m. Or the terror the tree would dry out.

And so it came to pass that this year we broke down (well, nobody would help Paul put up the tree anymore) and bought a plastic .... err that would be artificial tree. And whether you are decorating a "real" tree or a plastic .... err artificial tree - you need cookies. Sweet pliable pillows of ricotta cookies or the Marsala rings to have with wine or the old-fashioned orange-whiskey cookies. I decided we needed them all. (We'll talk about the tree-decorating cheeses I put out later. I have a gene that causes excess.)




Ricotta Cookies
These just-sweet-enough Italian ricotta cookies melt-away in your mouth. Creamy, snowy, sweetly and with ease. Everyone should try this at least once. A change from the crunchy cookies that Italians love so much, I somehow get talked into making these 3-4 times during the holidays.

Ricotta Cookie Ingredinets - about 20 cookies

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt

Ricotta Cookie Glaze (optional)

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2-4 teaspoons milk

Ricotta Cookie Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Set aside baking sheets. No greasing required.
2. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt.
3. In a large bowl or stand mixer, combine the zest and sugar. I add the zest for a brighter flavor - the cookies will not be lemony.
4. Add the butter in chunks and the ricotta cheese and beat till smooth. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat till combined. Slowly add the flour mixture. Beat until all is combined. Dough will be soft and a bit sticky.
5. Form into 1-inch balls and place on baking sheet.
6. Bake for fifteen minutes - until bottoms are browned but cookies are not. If desired, glaze immediately while warm and cover with sprinkles or use glaze. Cool and serve.

Glaze:

Combine powdered sugar, vanilla and milk in saucepan. Stir over medium heat till the mixtures turns liquidy and into a glaze. Brush tops of ricotta cookies as soon as they come out of the oven and cover with sprinkles.
These are not an overly sweet cookies, so if you like your cookies sweet, the glaze is a good idea. If you like a not-so-sugary cookie, simply cool.
`
For fifteen years we had outings where we had to lay down in the snow (well mostly that would be Paul) and "saw" the tree down. I'm not sure if both kids ever agreed on the same tree. I was missing those days and their supposed ease (memories are questionable - but often kind). And so the Marsala cookies made an appearance. With the Marsala. We're all adults now... except at Christmas.

Marsala Cookies
When I first started baking Marsala cookies, they were more like a biscuit. I wanted a grown-up version of a cookie that could be served with cocktails and wine as well as with coffee and milk. Over the years I played with a Tastes of Italia's recipe. I added salt to tenderize them, added baking powder to puff them a bit, reduced the sugar so they'd pair well with wine and also reduced the flour for a more moist cookie. The result is a slightly sweet cookie that can be served alongside appetizers, breads, cheeses or on an Italian cookie Christmas tray.

Marsala Cookie Ingredients - 20-24 cookies
2-1/4 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup sweet marsala wine
*Optional: Powdered sugar for dusting
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1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl or mixer combine your flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.
3. Add egg and combine. Slowly beat in your butter, extract and wine. Mix well.
4. When dough is mixed, form into a ball.
5. Break off a chunk of dough to form a one-inch ball. Roll ball between your palms to create a 4-6 inch rope. Bring ends of rope together into a circle.
6. Repeat till all the dough is used.
7. Bake 22 minutes.
8. Cool on racks and then store in an airtight container. Will keep well for about two weeks. Before serving, bring to room temperature and if you wish to sweeten the cookie, dust with powdered sugar.

I won't lie. I miss the pine smell. And inexplicably, Paul keeps looking for something to water, so I shall bring home something ... that needs spraying. A pine bouquet? Do they exist?
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And the last of tree-decorating-trio. You don't taste the whiskey. This is from my friend Leigh. She's an Italianophile - with an Italian heritage and originally from the east coast as I am. We discovered this during a ten-minute play rehearsal and squealed together like middle school hyenas bringing the rehearsal to a halt. And I have never been prone to squealing. But everyone needs a friend that brings an instant bond - a person that encourages you to learn Italian when the memory bank is not what it was at 20. And someone who shares family recipes from the old country.

Orange-Whiskey Cookies - makes about 30 cookies

These not-sweet but creamy whiskey cookies pair well with a cocktail or a glass of dry white wine. The original orange-whiskey cookie recipe seemed to feed Naples. So I played with amounts. I love discovering new recipes and this one is a keeper.

Orange-Whiskey Cookie Ingredients

• 1/4 pound unsalted butter - softened
• 1/3 cup shortening
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar (if you like a sweet cookie you could add another 1/4 cup)
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 eggs - divided
• 1 jigger whiskey
• zest from 1 orange
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 cups flour
• non-pareils or sesame seeds for decorating

Preparation:

1. In a large bowl or a mixer, cream butter, shortening, sugar, egg yolk and 1 egg.
2. In a separate medium bowl combine orange juice, whiskey, zest, baking powder and baking soda.
3. Add orange juice mix to the creamed butter mixture and beat till all is incorporated.
4. Slowly (in 1/4 cups) add flour (with mixer on low) mixing well after each addition.
5. Dough will be soft. Put in fridge for 1-2 hours for easier handling.
6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
7. Grease two large baking pans.
8. Pinch off about an inch of dough.
9. Roll into a ball and then form a 4-6 inch rope. Bring the ends of the rope together and twist.
10. Space the cookies about 1-1/2 inches away from each other.
11. Whisk 1 egg and 1-2 T of water. Brush over cookies. Decorate with non-pareils or sesame seeds.
12. Bake 12-15 minutes till bottoms brown a bit. Cool on wire rack.

`
What is about the tree that evokes trees of the past. In my childhood, my father and I and later with my "baby" sister went out every Christmas Eve to buy a tree. I wondered why they always waited. But of course, my father was in graduate school and money was tight. Trees were 50% off on Christmas Eve! My mother had a "Christmas Club" account. She put a few dollars in every week to ensure that my sister and I were spoiled silly on Christmas Day. Those were the days when presents only appeared on your birthday and on Christmas. All these memories rolling towards me through the simple act of decorating a tree.
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We haven't named the new tree yet. Someday I shall tell you about "Harold" - our pathetic but well-loved tree - who fell off a car roof and into a ditch, was almost kidnapped and found his way back to us - a sadsack of a tree but we kept Harold's needles in the freezer for years. He was "the little tree who could."
In the end, you ooh and ahh over every ornament. There's the one from Taos and the ones I brought back from London so many years ago. The Peter Rabbit ones for Kirsten and the trains for Matthew. Each ornament telling of a family story. A time machine - simultaneously standing still and being swept through the years. In a sense, the tree is our family history. And it sill needs its red bows.