A little retro

Early in December The Canadian Living Christmas Book was the go to book for an easy festive evening.  Published in 1993,  Canadian Living products (magazines and books) could always be relied on for good recipes that were easy to make, with ingredients you could find and (almost) always turned out.  Same way with their crafts.  Because of that I have about a 1/2 dozen or so of their cookbooks.

I also had a subscription to Canadian Living for over 30 years,  but I must admit that I have not enjoyed the magazine as much the last decade or so and have dropped my subscription.  I still occasionally look through the magazine,  but have not found a reason to subscribe again.

Unlike a number of people, I don't like to write in my books, whether it was textbooks, a novel or cookbook there is little to tell I was there before.  In a cookbook, the only way you could tell if I tried a recipe before was if there was a cooking stain on that page!  Sometimes I remember, when I start making a recipe but I can't be sure if it was that exact recipe or one similar.   It has been awhile since I pulled this book off the shelf and it wasn't until I started making some of the recipes that I remembered making them before.

I have learned, doing this cookbook review, is to make notes and comments on recipes I tried.  I often like to make changes when I make things,  after all recipes are just a guide to follow!  As I am getting older 😊  the only way I am going to remember what I did is to mark it down.

I was looking for a quick easy meal that could be ready fairly quickly.  Thanks to some prep work in advance,  we were able to eat soon after we arrived home.

I started off a little retro with a jelly salad!  Growing up any special occasion featured a jellied salad at the meal.  My mom had several that she made,  the number of different kinds depended on how many people were coming to dinner.  There was a molded green (or orange - depending on the jelly powder used) salad and a corn beef salad mold that was a regular feature, there were others in her repertoire    Though jellied salad I made for this meal would never have been on the table growing up - mainly because avocados were difficult to find in New Brunswick until recent.

Guacamole Pate with Salsa with some tortilla chips made a nice light start to the meal.  I didn't use the cilantro because I am one of those people who don't like the taste of it.  As the saying goes you either love it or hate cilantro.  Do  you love Cilantro or hate it?  Despite the retro feel it was a tasty dish.

We moved onto Spaghetti with Meatballs, the meatballs were simple and could be done ahead.  I usually have spaghetti with a meat sauce, rather than meatballs, but this allowed those who didn't want meat to have just the sauce which contained lots of veggies.  The recipe was in a section called Christmas is for Kids,  so the sauce was very plain, I added some extra seasoning (oregano, more garlic, basil) to brighten it up

I finished the meal with assorted sweets,  I made two out of this cookbook.   Unfortunately one did not turn out.  I tried the recipe for EggNog Fudge, as I was making it I remember making the recipes before.  This time despite having reached the appropriate temperature and initially setting it end up a soupy mess when cut.  I don't really recall how it turned out last time, but I  suspect it didn't turn out that great otherwise I would probably have made it every Christmas (when I find a Christmas recipe I like I tend to make it almost every year)

The second sweet out of the book was called SugarPlums,  a mixture of dried apricots and crystallized ginger.  It has little resemblance to the Sugar Plums referred to in T'was a Night Before Christmas,  but it is fun to tell people you have SugarPlums, which were actually a big hit and will probably be repeated.

Now with visions of SugarPlums dancing in my head I think I will go off to make a cup a tea and enjoy the few that are left.  Happy dreaming everyone.

Christmas Cookbooks

It is that lull in the Holiday season when you are not sure what day of the week it is.  You are so stuffed from Turkey and trimmings that you could not possibly eat another thing, yet can't resist a shortbread cookie.

The holiday season is a busy time when we gather with family and friends to celebrate the season which so often involves food.  Many of our favourite foods we only have during the holidays.  Without these foods, the holidays may loose some of their shine.

We each have our own family food traditions during the holidays.  Many are almost universal or symbols of the season,  like Turkey for Christmas dinner,  shortbread cookies, and candy canes. Others are unique to an area or a family,  certain areas of Nova Scotia on Christmas Eve features fresh lobster for supper!  Some families have Chinese food every Christmas Eve.  Whatever the food, it is part of the traditions that make the season special.

My Dad, growing up in the 1920's and 1930's in rural New Brunswick, said Roast Goose was the main part of Christmas Dinner as almost every farm had some geese, but rarely did they have turkeys in their flock.  When I was growing up we altered between goose and turkey for Christmas Dinner because of this.

For me one of the signs the holidays are coming is when I make Ribbon Cookies.  Ribbon cookies were a feature on the holiday cookie tray when I was young; and because it was a favourite of mine it was the first "Christmas" cookie I learned to make and I have made them every year since.  To me this cookie mean Christmas.

(ready to go into the oven)

Christmas is one of my favourite times of the year and cookbooks are one of my favourite things so it makes sense that over the years I have acquired a collection of Christmas themed cookbooks.  You don't realize how many you have until you try to put them all in one place. (and they still didn't all end up in the picture)

 During the month I have selected and prepare menus from 3 of them. With the holiday business I just have not had a chance to write about them.  I hope over the next week I will catch up.   

We will start with The Canadian Living Christmas Book,  then Canadian Living The Complete Christmas Book and finish up with Christmas Teas of Comfort and Joy.  

Stay tuned.

Cookie Failure!

Last year at this time I was in the Netherlands.  We had arrived just after Sinterklass had been there. The Netherlands celebrate Saint Nicholas on December 5/6 each year by putting out their shoes in hopes they will be filled with treats and gifts for the children.

Even though we had missed Sinterklass, we were still able to indulge in one of the special cookies that Sinterlass pass out - Pepernoten.  They are like a small nugget of gingerbread.  The hotel we stayed at the first night gave us a dish full.

While there I picked up a couple of cook books "Stuff Dutch People Eat"  is a bit of a tourist book but it did contain recipes for some of the items we had tried, and it was available in English.  It wasn't until I got back home, when I was looking more closely at the book that I discovered it was actually written by a Canadian that moved to the Netherlands!

I have tried a couple of recipes since but I waited to make the Pepernoten until now to celebrate Sinterklass.  Unfortunately they did not turn out at all.  I even made the recipe a second time with the same results.  They are supposed to be like a crunchy small nugget or marble.  Instead they flattened in the oven and became a hard inedible cookie.  Not sure what happened.  A quick internet search produced a recipe similar to what was in the book.  I do find when using European recipes there is some challenges,  as ingredients may not always be the same in Canada.  The recipe did call for self-rising flour, which is not commonly used in Canada.   Maybe next year I will give the recipe another shot.

After spending time in a small village north of Amsterdam - Makkum and then Amsterdam we went on a Rhine River Cruise and spent many afternoons at  various European Christmas Markets - a lovely way to spend the lead up to Christmas.  During our stop in Alsace, France I also picked up the second book in the picture.  I have a couple of recipes picked to make for Christmas, but have not prepared anything yet.  Hopefully I will have better success than the Pepernoten.

To start my Dutch meal,  I made Tomatensoep (Tomato Soup),  I left it a bit chunky and added some green onions, but it made for a quick tasty tomato Soup.

The main course was Hutspot met Klapstuk (Potato carrot stamppot).  The cookbook describes a hutspot as a traditional Dutch dish made by cooking and mashing potatoes together with carrots and onions, which is then served with a side of meat.  In this case meat and vegetables are all cooked in the same pot so the flavours blend.    The Dutch do seem to like to mash their food.  The cookbook describes it as one of the 3 ways the Dutch like to prepare food and/or vegetables.  It says they like to
1. mash the hell out of something
2. boil the shit out of something
3. deep-fry the life out of something.

We did have several lovely meals while in the Netherlands,  we ate at a pancake house one night - which we would describe as crepes,  another night of Dutch specialities - many of which were deep fried, but my favourite was the breakfast treat of chocolate sprinkles that were liberally put on toast or bread and considered breakfast - any excuse to have chocolate for breakfast works for me.

Remembering December 6

The date December 6 initially does not trigger anything for me, but as soon as someone says, Polytechnique, I am back at a small town Nova Scotia university.   Busy studying for exams and looking forward to going home for Christmas break;  when the shattering news came that people were shot at a Canadian university.

Living in residence, an all female dorm, we migrated to the lounge to hear more.  In the days when mass shootings were a rarity the news was heard to believe.  As details trickled in that all the victims were female and they were targeted because they were female.  Innocence was lost. University was supposed to be a safe place and even though we were over a 1,000 km away from Montreal we also felt violated.

Little was said,  what could be said,  as we sat numb by the news.  Oh many of us had already been targeted because we were female.  The nasty comment from a man when you rejected them,  various forms of sexual violence,  all the things we were told, as females, to keep quiet about, or taught it was normal. But this, the shooting at Polytechnique was beyond comprehension.

The next night, at the dining hall Christmas Dinner, a moment of silence to acknowledge what happened.  A nervous laughter filtered through the room.  I think, as females, we really wanted to scream or cry, but since you were not allowed to show your real emotions,  nervous laughter escaped to cover up the other emotions.

I wish I could say 30 years later, that the world was a better place for females.  That there was true equality.  Yes, there has been progress,  though it does feel that there has been some regression the last few years.

I have been fortunate,  I have not faced any overt sexual discrimination, but there has been subtle signs.  Just there in the background, the "old boys club" at work.  A male boss who really had no clue how to manage a group of high performing females, who ignored us, unless something went wrong and then you could felt the knife in your back.

My hope, as I reflect back 30 years ago, which sometimes just seems like yesterday, is that my 5 year old great-niece with her big bright personality never has that brightness diminished just because she is female.

A Special Cookbook

Last week (I am a little behind in posting!) I pulled out a very special cookbook.  It is a cookbook that many people have, but each one is different from the other.

It is my "Mom's Cookbook"!  The recipes she collected over the years from friends and family.  From potlucks and church socials.  From tv shows and copied from magazines.  Many of the recipes in this cookbook were made frequently.  Others would be popular for awhile until they were replaced by a new popular recipe.  A few made their way into the book, probably obtained at a potluck, never to be made (that I recall!)

I pulled it out because my brother was looking for a particular recipe.  Sadly, many of the dishes that my mom was known for - her meat pies, her bread and biscuits and her baked beans were never written down.  They were kept in her head, made so many times,  she no longer needed a written recipes.  Including the Lemon Snow recipe that my brother was looking for. (Though we did find it in an old cookbook)

With her meat pies, she just adjusted the seasoning and the ingredients based on the amount of meat she had - it was never a set amount.  My mom was an old school cook, she often measured ingredients in her hand.  As a kid I would try to follow along, she had portioned the salt in her hand for whatever she was making; when I asked how much salt she was using?  She told me 1 teaspoon, not believing her,  I questioned the amount in her hand.  She found a measuring spoon, poured the salt that was in her hand into the spoon.  It measured exactly 1 teaspoon - not one crystal over!  I have spent the last few years trying to recreate her meat pie, I've almost got it, but I know it will never be the same as my Mom's.  A common refrain from anyone who tries to recreate their mother's (or grandmother's or father's or who ever) recipe.

I had to change up my menu a little bit from my usual routine.  Appetizers were not something that made it into Mom's Cookbook, so I just made a main course and dessert this time.

The main course is a dish I don't really recall - I think it was one that ended up in the category "never to be made again "  It was simple called "Ham & Potato Casserole".  Not sure if some ingredients were missed when copied over because it seemed to be missing something.

The dessert was a very popular, frequently made recipe. The name in Mom's Cookbook is "Confetti Squares" I have also heard them called "Tweedie Squares".  They are a very nostalgic square.  I brought them into work and one person was in heaven, as she was overcome with childhood memories of eating the square at her grandmother's at Christmas.   She told a story that her grandmother would hide the squares in hopes of saving them for Christmas day, but she was always able to sniff them out!

I noticed the writing on some of the pages has started to fad. I will have to do some work to preserve the book.  It is not enough just to type up the recipes.  It is not the same thing as looking at perfectly types recipe on the computer, as leafing through a book in your mother's own handwriting, stained with bits of food showing which recipes was most popular.
My mom has been gone 11 years, but looking at her recipes brings her just a little bit closer to me.