Category: Writer’s Kitchen

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Writer’s Kitchen: Last-Minute Holiday Appetizers

Yesterday we covered last-minute host/hostess gifts, and today we have the answer to what to bring to a potluck when you’re strapped for time (perfect for when you’re on deadline!). Served with baguette slices and endive leaves, a Caesar salad-flavored dip will be a hit. And who wouldn’t enjoy the salty, briny flavors of baked feta cheese topped with warm olives? Keep reading for the recipes–complete with a last-minute trip the grocery store, you’ll have both recipes ready about two hours from now!

Caesar Cream

Caesar Cream
Adapted from Simply Classic

2 garlic cloves
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup packed fresh parsley
6 canned anchovy fillets
3 tablespoons freshly-squeezed lemon juice
1 cup sour cream
Sliced baguette, for serving
Endive leaves, for serving

Combine garlic and Parmesan cheese in a food processor until combined. Add parsley, anchovies, and lemon juice, and process until the mixture takes on a paste-like consistency. Turn into a bowl and fold in sour cream until combined.

Serve with baguette slices and endive leaves.

Serves 12.

Baked Feta and Olives

Sexy Baked Olives & Feta Cheese
Adapted from Dishing with Kathy Casey

1 1/2 cups mixed imported olives, pitted and drained
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes1 teaspoon fennel seeds
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 thick 8-ounce piece of feta cheese
Pita chips, for serving

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Combine all ingredients except cheese and pita chips in a small bowl. Lightly oil a medium-sized cast-iron skillet and place the cheese int he center. Top the cheese with the olive mixture, taking Kathy Casey’s advice to use a spatula to scoop out all the oil and seasonings.

Bake for 20 minutes and serve out of the pan with pita chips.

Serves 10-15.

 

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Writer’s Kitchen: Last-Minute Host & Hostess Gifts

Spoiler alert! If you’ve invited me to a holiday party between now and the new year, stop reading right now. I’m about to tell you what I’m giving you for your host/hostess gift.

Hotel 1000 Holiday Infusions Class

There. Now we can get down to business.

Christmas is less than a week away, and party season is in full swing. I don’t know about you, but no matter how much I try to plan ahead, I always end up caught off guard by how quickly the time passes by and how all of a sudden I need a host/hostess gift to bring to a party that’s just a few hours away.

The good news is that I recently learned how to make a lovely and personal gift in a matter of minutes from BOKA restaurant + bar’s Chief Mixologist, Mi-Suk Ahn. I was invited to attend a Holiday Infusions Class last week as part of Hotel 1000’s Holiday Throwback schedule of events, and I came away with wonderful ideas for making liquor infusions.

Hotel 1000 Holiday Infusions Class

I’ve made infusions before, as the concept is not exactly new, but our host and teacher took the idea to the next level for me. While in the past I followed recipes for things like limoncello or fumbled my way though trying to recreate a dill aquavit I enjoyed in Norway several years ago, I now have a wealth of ideas in my head for how to incorporate leftover herbs or fruits that are lingering in my refrigerator into infusions customized for any number of palates.

In a nutshell, all it takes to make an infusion is a glass jar or bottle, the spirit of choice, some herbs or fruits, and a little bit of creativity. At the end of the class, Mi-Suk helped each attendee create an infusion to take home and enjoy. I wanted to make something that a Scotch aficionado might enjoy, so Mi-Suk suggested using a base of whiskey or brandy (I went for the Old Crow) and infusing it with pear, Meyer lemon rind, and rosemary. After a few days of infusing, the pear was ready to remove, while the rosemary needed to steep a little longer. I think my infusion will be perfect in about a week.

This past weekend I placed half a pomegranate, a vanilla bean, and a cinnamon stick in a large canning jar and filled it with whiskey, wrapped the whole thing in a pretty Christmas dishcloth, and tied it with some twine to bring as a host/hostess gift to a Christmas party. With some simple instructions for how the recipients were to tend to their infusion over the next two weeks, it was a beautiful gift with a personal touch. I think I’ll be bringing a jar of a homemade infusion to every holiday party this season!

For a full schedule of Holiday Throwback events, contact Hotel 1000.

Disclosure: I attended the class as a guest of the hotel and my ticket was complimentary.

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Writer’s Kitchen: A Roundup of Edible Christmas Gift Ideas

Christmas is less than two weeks away! With Thanksgiving falling early in the calender this year, it seemed like we had an extended time in which to savor all the wonderful things about the holiday season. But, at least for me, the weeks have gone by so rapidly that I’m amazed that it’s already mid-December. If you, like me, are still looking for the perfect gift for friends and family, don’t worry–we have more ideas to share with you soon! In the meantime, here’s a roundup of some great DIY edible Christmas gifts from our archive. Enjoy!

Homemade Chai

Homemade Chai Concentrate

 Homemade Marshmallows and Hot Cocoa

Homemade-Graham-Crackers

Homemade Graham Crackers

Caramels

Orange-Cardamom Caramels

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Writer’s Kitchen: Working through the Seven Sorts of Norwegian Christmas Cookies

Serinakaker

One of the things I love most about my Norwegian heritage is the appreciation of simple yet delicious baked goods. From the cakes and cookies to the tortes and candies, Norwegians know how to take a few simple ingredients–butter, sugar, flour, and eggs, for example–and transform them into something spectacular and beautiful.

This year I’ve been observing the tradition of the syv slags kaker, or seven sorts of cookies, that are a must in a Norwegian household during Christmastime. I started tracking my progress over at Outside Oslo on November 1, and so far I’ve discovered a new favorite: serinakaker, pictured above. These cookies are at once crisp yet delicate, with an elegant sprinkling of chopped almonds and pearl sugar on top. It takes a lot for a cookie to make me sit up and take notice, but these do exactly that.

Another favorite type? Sandbakkelse.

Sandbakkels

These pretty and delicate little cookies are formed one by one in molds, and are perfect to make with loved ones as you sit around the table catching up and talking about life. They are a specialty of my Grandma Adeline, who has been teaching my mom and me to make them. While you could certainly fill them with some sweetened whipped cream and lingongberry preserves, many Norwegian families–including my own–prefer to eat them as cookies rather than tarts.

Last week we baked krumkaker together, and I have a batch of pepperkaker dough chilling in my refrigerator now. I’m starting to feel the clock ticking, though, as I still have three more sorts to make! If you happen to have a traditional syv slags recipe that you enjoy making, let me know–I’d love to hear from you! Or if the tradition is new to you and you’re interested in learning more, I’d be delighted if you’d follow Outside Oslo, where I’ll be writing much more about these cookies in the coming weeks!

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Writer’s Kitchen: Edible Christmas Gifts, Part 2 (Homemade Graham Crackers)

Homemade-Graham-Crackers

How are you doing on your Christmas shopping? To be honest, I haven’t even started. I do know what I’m giving some people, but I haven’t actually done anything about it yet. With some pretty major deadlines on my calendar for November and December, and all the Christmas baking I’ve been doing, there hasn’t been a lot of time. I consider it my duty, however, to give you some great ideas for Christmas gift-giving this year, however, and I have a new idea for you today: Homemade Graham Crackers!

I came across this recipe while looking through a copy of Catherine McCord’s new cookbook, Weelicious, and decided to whip up a batch for my son. It turns out that these cookies are delicious and contain the perfect balance of crispness and softness–just like a graham cracker from a box. Even better, they can be made in any shape you like, and you know exactly what goes into them. These would make a great gift for the coworker who always brings homemade treats to work and obviously loves to bake, or perhaps for the other mothers in your playgroup. Wrap them up in a pretty cookie tin with a copy of the recipe, and you’ll be good to go! Get the recipe!

Photo originally from Outside Oslo

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Writer’s Kitchen: Finding Inspiration in Apple Pie

Apple Pie Collage
In one simple pie, the writer finds a bottomless source of memories and inspiration. Apple pie has been around since at least the 14th century, with a recipe from 1381 still available. It’s taken multiple forms across cultures, from the French tarte Tatin (Molly Wizenburg’s recipe is a winner) to the classic American version.

All it takes is a little imagination to conjure up one of the Tatin sisters trying to whip up something to serve their guests at their hotel in France’s Loire Valley, only to make a rather delicious mistake that we now call tarte Tatin. Their story is enough of a legend, with various versions of how the mistake came to be, that a writer can almost picture Caroline and Stephanie running around in a frenzy trying to figure out what to do with their mistake before having a lightbulb moment and declaring it a new culinary invention.

As for me, apple pie carries with it the legacy of generations of the bakers–home cooks and professional–who came before me, one of those being my grandma Adeline. Grandma Adeline has a reputation in the family for making one of the best apple pies around. I was honored last month to make one by her side, watching her shape the crust and collaborating with her on how much of each ingredient to put in the filling. We made magic that day, Grandma and I, as we stood side by side–generations apart yet working together on a common goal–putting the ingredients together and then watching as they morphed into something delicious.

That pie is long gone, but the memories linger on. From now on, whenever I bake an apple pie (you’ll find our recipe over at Outside Oslo), I’ll be thinking of that October evening spent with my dear grandmother. Wrapped up in the crust and baked apples will be countless memories of a woman I adore, and one who has taught me so much about baking and of love. For me, inspiration comes from memories and experiences, and thanks to my dear grandma Adeline, I have no shortage of inspiration from which to draw.

Writing prompt: What memories and stories do you have related to apple pie? Use this classic dessert as a starting place for your writing today; if you’re working on memoir, what memories do you associate with apple pie? If you’re writing fiction, have your character sit down with a slice and see where his mind goes.

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Writer’s Kitchen: What We Eat When We’re Alone

Writer Snacks

I suspect we all have some strange snack habits, those food combinations we make when we’re feeding just ourselves and want something nourishing created for our palate alone, and in a matter of minutes.

That was my experience during a recent afternoon writing session. With my husband at work and my son asleep for what I hoped might be a two-hour nap, I heated some of the morning’s coffee in the microwave and got to work on my writing snack: creamy ricotta cheese swirled with a substantial yet moderate squeeze of honey and a good shake or two of cinnamon. There’s something about this combination that I love, yet I can’t be sure that anyone else’s tastebuds would be equally delighted. After all, it feels almost incomplete, as people don’t usually sit down with a bowl of cheese and eat it without something else. But for me it’s just right.

There was also a time when I would pop a piece of bread in the toaster oven day after day and smear the hot, crispy toast with peanut butter before drizzling it with honey and giving it a sprinkle of cinnamon, and perhaps adding some sliced bananas. And don’t let me forget about the bread equivalent of buttered noodles: toast made with artisan bread and topped with butter and a dash of salt and a hint of flavor from my spice drawer, such as paprika or cumin (yes, that sounds strange, but it was a way of getting to know the flavors of various spices).

When I was pregnant and needed to ensure I was heating well enough for my growing baby despite a limited appetite, I would buy packages of whole-grain, fortified English muffins and toast them a bit before melting a layer of cheddar cheese on top and then adding a spoonful of salsa.

I suspect that most writers have go-to snacks like these that are quick to prepare but nourishing and customized to their palates. What are yours?

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Writer’s Kitchen: Edible Christmas Gifts, Part 1

Orange-Cardamom Caramels

I know, I know, it’s probably a bit early to be talking about Christmas. After all, Halloween is just barely behind us, and Thanksgiving is still weeks away. However, one of the jobs of a blogger is to get you thinking about ideas in advance, right? In that case, I’d like to start talking about edible Christmas gifts. Whether you love lavishing your loved ones with expensive presents or your writer’s budget is maxed out right now, edible gifts are sure to touch a sweet spot in any recipient’s heart. We’ll be talking in the coming weeks about how to add a personal touch to your Christmas gift-giving. To start, I’d like to share a recipe for orange-cardamom caramels. I came up with the recipe recently and shared it in my most recent story for the Norwegian American Weekly. I hope you enjoy it!

Get the recipe

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Writer’s Kitchen: Homemade Chai

Homemade Chai

We love nothing more than curling up with a blanket and a book and a hot cup of chai tea on autumn days. It’s a good thing that reading is essential work for writers! I made a batch of homemade chai concentrate last week and had it waiting for Sarah when she arrived home from a trip to California to visit family. I highly suggest that you whip up a batch for your own kitchen. The concentrate takes a matter of minutes to prepare, and elevates an ordinary cup of black tea to something creamy, sweet, and spicy–just right for a blustery autumn day.

Homemade Chai

Homemade Chai Concentrate
Adapted from The Naptime Chef

1 (14 ounce) can fat-free sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon demerara or raw sugar
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Combine all ingredients together in a jar, stirring well so the spices are fully incorporated. Store the concentrate in the refrigerator. Whenever you’re in the mood for a nice, warm cup of tea, simply brew a strong cup of black tea and add 2 teaspoons of concentrate, stirring well. Give it a taste and adjust the quantity as needed. Cheers!

Makes about 1 1/2 cups.