A word to the wise: When you make Mexican Wedding Cakes with margarine (because it’s all you have in the fridge) instead of butter and substitute half whole wheat flour for the white flour… Well. While they are vegan made this way, they just are not as yummy. Which is a good thing, now that I think of it. Those little cakes have ninety calories apiece! just thought I’d share that baking/dieting tip with you.

Looking for some real cooky recipes? Go check out Jenn’s Virtual Cookie Exchange. (Thanks, Amalah, for the tip.) Also an excellent way to check out a bunch of new blogs, if you’re in the market.

Now, gimme a cooky. We’ve baked chocolate chip cookies so far, the aforementioned Mexican Wedding Cakes, Peanut Butter Blossoms, and will make some fudge this weekend. And that is it. I mean it, Internet. I’m not putting on more pounds this season — I’ve lost twenty and they’ve been staying off, in spite of cookies. (Trick is to give them all away as soon as they’ve cooled, and not accept any from friends. Cookies, I mean. Not pounds. Damn, I wish there was a way to do that with pounds…)

Love,

WM

From George Bernard Shaw:

“This is the true joy of life: the being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clot of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.”

Yeah, that’s me alright — a regular force of nature. And this may be all you’re getting from me this week…

Book of the week: I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being A Woman by Nora Ephron. She is a funny, funny, funny lady. Sorry, I could never hope to be even one-tenth as funny as she is, so I will not try.

Christmas pageants are a lot of work, it turns out. If I was into pharmaceuticals I’d be taking a Valium right now.

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This one is from my mother-in-law. So Christmas-y!

RED, WHITE & GREEN SALAD

For the salad:
One avocado (diced)
Ricotta salata, feta or queso fresco
Butter or Boston lettuce
12 cherry tomatoes
Small handful cilantro leaves
Four scallions (white parts only)

For the vinaigrette:
Cilantro (1/4 cup, loosely packed)
4 scallions (dark green tops only)
1-2 jalapenos (seeded and chopped)
1/2 cup olive oil
Juice of one lime
Large pinch kosher salt

Combine all vinaigrette ingredients, pulse in food processor.

To assemble:
Mix half of vinaigrette with avocado to prevent browning. Layer lettuce leaves, then tomatoes, avocado and then cheese, drizzle dressing on top.

Bon appetit!

WM

From the Cajun Family Recipes website:

Roasted Squirrels

1/2 pound of smoked bacon, cubed
4 squirrels, cut in pieces
2 medium onions, chopped
1 stalk of celery, chopped
4 cups of chicken broth
Salt to taste
Pinch of thyme
Dash or two of hot pepper sauce

Brown bacon, remove and set aside. Brown squirrel in drippings left from browning bacon; remove and set aside. Add onions and celery to drippings and saute two minutes. Add squirrel and bacon and enough chicken broth to cover bottom of pot; add seasonings. Cover and cook on a low heat, adding broth a little at a time as it needs replacing until squirrels are tender – about 1 hour.

Rabbit may be cooked in this manner.

Serves 4.

What is up with me and the recipes? Cold weather makes me want to cook, I guess.

MANICOTTI, HOW WE LOVE YOU

1) Boil manicotti noodles for about 8 minutes — don’t let them get too done. Put a little oil in the water so they don’t stick. No salt! Drain, rinse with cold water, set aside.

2) While they’re cooking, beat four eggs in a bowl; mix in one carton (16 oz.) cottage cheese with one carton (15 oz.) ricotta cheese; mix in one bag defrosted frozen spinach. (I never remember to defrost it — OK to microwave for a short amount of time.) Add a little salt and pepper, and a small amount of nutmeg (my secret ingredient). My mother-in-law gave me 3 or 4 fresh nutmeg cloves (nuts?? whatever they’re called) for Christmas a couple years ago — I’m still using them. I bought a tiny Microplaner and it is so cool to have fresh nutmeg. Great with eggnog and in cookies. Not that I’m drinking eggnog. Or eating cookies. I use my parmesan Microplaner to grate in a fair amount of fresh parmesan and then stir it all up. Although really, I think this is too much cheese.

3) Slice a pound to a pound-and-a-half of mozzarella into thin strips. (Or thick, if you want to make everyone happy with gooey layer of cheese.)

4) Time to assemble: Use fresh or canned marinara (I have my own, frozen of course, Martha-in-training that I am. We had a bumper crop of Romas this year). Make sure you have at least two to four cups on hand. I cover bottom of baking dish with sauce so noodles won’t stick, then stuff noodles with ricotta mixture. (OK to cheat by tearing noodles in half lengthwise — makes it easier to assemble this way.) You can assemble it with a layer of cooked meat on top of pasta. Sweet sausage is great, or just hamburger. It’s yummy, too, with a layer of whole, fresh basil leaves on top of the pasta. (Carmela Soprano’s secret touch when she makes lasagna. And this dish really is just lasagna, with a different type of pasta.) Then cover with more sauce and spread mozzarella on top.

Jamie Oliver (the Naked Chef) likes to drizzle a small amount of the marinara on top, and not drench it. Then he uses creme fraiche in lieu of the mozzarella. I tried it this way and it was great, but my family was baffled and said, “Make it the right way.” Yeah.

Bon Appetit!

WM

Hola! ?Como estas? Have you ever held a progressive party in your neighborhood? Yeah, me neither. But five of our neighbors and the Wacky Family are going to go for it, New Year’s Day. For years we’ve been talking about a summer block party, but, you know. Some of us don’t get along as well as others of us. That is, some of us like to dance around naked and happy, and others like to spit at everyone as they walk by and criticize the way they park. More on Evil Neighbor — if you park in front of her house, she will waddle out her front door and she will tell you, “You need to move your car. You can’t park there.” It is a public street! Yet people are so scared of her evil eye they move their cars. No progressive party for Evil Neighbor. We may invite guests and encourage them to park in front of her house, though.

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For my Thursday Thirteen I present…

THIRTEEN THINGS I’D LIKE TO DO THIS WINTER

13. More bubble baths, with candles, bath fizzies and soft music.

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This one is from Zipdodah. Thank you!

Makes 8 servings

I took everything I liked best out of all the bean soup recipes I’ve tried over the years to come up with the following sophisticated and surprisingly spring-like dish. It tastes lighter than you’d expect, and can be adapted for vegetarians with no loss of flavor. It is also incredibly easy to prepare, because you don’t have to presoak the legumes or saute the vegetables.

2 cups dried white beans, rinsed (preferably cannellini, but navy also are good)
1 carrot, chopped coarsely
1 bulb fennel, cut in half crosswise then sliced thin
1/2 white onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 sprig of fresh sage
6 cups chicken or vegetable broth
2 tablespoons Pernod, anisette or other licorice-flavored liqueur (optional)

Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Optional garnishes:
Thin slivers of prosciutto di Parma
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Chopped fresh sage leaves

Place all the ingredients in the slow cooker. Cover, turn on low, and cook for 10 hours. Adjust seasonings. Serve in bowls sprinkled with prosciutto, chopped fresh sage leaves and parmesan, if desired.

Wacky Boy loves preschool. Everybody say: Hallelujah!

He denies it. He says he doesn’t want to ever go back to school, but every morning he trots into class, and hangs up his coat (on his own hook, marked with his name) and his little canvas bookbag. He decorated it by himself with waterproof felt pens — it has all different colors of squiggles and a big smiley face. His teacher wrote his name on it for him.

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I got this one from FamilyFun.com. We all love cornbread, but only one of us loves meat. Excuse me, two of us love meat, if you count chicken nuggets.

So I created my own variation. I would have added Boca Burgers but we ran out. The kids refused to touch it, but Hockey God and I gobbled it up. You could grate cheddar cheese over the vegetables, then spoon on the cornbread batter, but the way I made it was almost vegan. You can make it completely vegan by adding a little extra oil and omitting the egg in the cornbread batter, and using soymilk instead of cow’s milk. I used taco seasoning instead of mixing up the spice mix because I was in a hurry.

Bon Appetit!

WM

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