Vegetarian Christmas

I love vegetarian christmas.  It's like a regular feast, but the vegetables are the main course instead of sides and filler - which means that they get the spotlight.  This year I ate christmas dinner with some friends in Portland, and we turned the traditional holiday dinner inside out.  We stuck to eating mostly seasonal vegetables, so the meal still had the flavor of the holidays, but we dispensed with any notion of fake turkey, or even of stuffing or mashed potatoes.  This year, we ate mushroom and cream sauce lasagna, beet, pear, and chard salad (with chestnuts!), rosemary rolls, and decadent chocolate cookies and Russian tea cakes.  The meal was delicious and colorful and still felt christmas-y, without all the heavy starches and meat (and requisite napping afterward). 

My best friend and hostess made the lasagna, with whole wheat pasta, creamy cheese sauce, and loads of mushrooms.  It was rich enough that it satisfied the holiday calorie overload requirement, without the holiday overload waistline.  I contributed the rolls - a delicious recipe that I got from my aunt Martha and which only comes out at the holidays. Otherwise we would eat bread all the time and completely ignore vegetables and other delicious goodness.  For the salad, I roasted beets and roasted and shelled chestnuts.  Then I tossed the beets and chestnuts with a chopped bosc pear, fresh goat cheese with figs, and chopped rainbow chard.  I topped it with an apple cider vinaigrette that I made with nutmeg and ginger, for an extra holiday kick.  Finally, my hostess and her brother made decadent chocolate cookies with semi-sweet and white chocolate chips (full disclosure, I didn't have one because I don't really like chocolate, but I heard that they were amazing!!)  They also made the most mouthwatering Russian tea cakes with grated orange peel and cardamom.  They were divine (and small enough that I didn't feel like I was overindulging).  We started the meal with mulled wine and topped it off with a glass of champagne - all told a delightful meal.

FYI - I gave my best friend a guide to cheesemaking for christmas, so expect to see cheese experiments appearing soon!

Gingerbears

When I was a kid, my parents always used to read me a Christmas book called The Gingerbears' First Christmas.  I loved that book so much that when I learned to cook I never bothered making gingerbread men or women (or even houses until more recently) but only gingerbears.  Gingerbears don't really need facial features made of raisins or little buttons down their fronts, but they do need cinnamon hearts if you're going to serve them on Christmas day (it's kind of a long story, I recommend that you read it).  The gingerbears I made tonight don't have cinnamon hearts, which either means that Santa hasn't visited yet, or that I forgot to buy them at the store.

This was going to be a post about how the gingerbread recipe from the Joy of Cooking isn't as user-friendly as the one I used to use in my parents' Betty Crocker, but now I think I'll just urge you to read about the gingerbears.  If you have kids, this is a magical book to share with them.  If you don't, I think it's worth a read to remind you how awesome being a kid was.  I eventually bought my own copy, and I still read it every year!

Christmas Baking is Here!

For me, winter is a season filled with time commitments.  But it's also a great season for hunkering down and cooking, and the holidays provide an excuse to make foods we know we probably shouldn't be eating.  The best part is that, after we've cooked all these decadent, starchy, and fattening foods, we can force others to eat them (if we happen to be watching our waistlines).  I've been so busy cooking and going to Christmas parties, that I haven't had a chance to post photos of or stories about my creations here.  Mostly, I've been churning out Irish Soda Bread and rosemary focaccia like my life depends on it, and adding sugar cookies and muffins to the mix whenever I have time.

However, I have had a few exciting cooking experiences this December that I thought were worthy of noting here.  Today, I opened my first can of the tomatoes I canned this summer.  (That would be my first can of my first canning.)  I ate them heated up over cheese tortellini for dinner, and I'm still alive!  This is truly cause for celebration.  I have also been making a whole lot of delicious soups and stews and various delicious pumpkin creations that I have neglected to photograph or share here.  Last weekend, I made a delicious buttermilk split pea soup of my own creation.  The roasted garlic and buttermilk flavors almost make up for the lack of ham (but not quite, nothing really can).

Next up: Gingerbears, baguettes, knitting projects, and an adventure into traditional cookies I've never made before.  I'd also like to make a pumpkin pie, which I just haven't been able to get around to yet.  The problem, of course, is that I usually bake for other people, and so I never find the time to bake something to keep and eat all by myself!

Here's a little Christmas cheer to kick off my favorite baking season: