Traditions Renewed

Wine.  Food.  Friends.  All the things you need for a great dinner party.  Sure, everyone could use a little entertainment but that’s usually what the wine is for… no?

I have long been a fan of cooking my heart out for the ones I love and revel in finding the perfect wine to compliment the menu I’ve prepared.  So it shouldn’t surprise my husband that I am as giddy as a kid on Christmas morn when the new Food & Wine issue arrives in the mail.  Those delicate little magazine pages are full of inspiration that is far from flimsy and though some recipes may not pique my interest, they are straight-forward and simple to pull out of any well-stocked pantry.  And delicious too! 

So it is with great excitement that, as I prepare to move into a new home, my mind is already a-whirl with the ideas of all the fantastic dinner parties to be had.  And it struck me that we so often underestimate the value of sharing a meal with the ones we love.  A resurrection of the tradition of gathering to chat over a cocktail, reconnecting with a warm meal, and relaxing with a glass of wine is in order.

Everyone’s lives are busy; filled with long work days, slow meetings, bad traffic, soccer practices, ballet lessons, piano class…. you name it, we’ve shoved it into our schedule.  So the little morsels of time we steal away from meals are spent in a drive-thru, arguing with the tardy pizza-delivery boy, or whipping to the grocery store for some prepped and ready food that is bound to be dull.  I, too, am guilty of being too busy to care what I’m putting in my mouth, but I am, more and more, realizing the beauty of winding down with a glass of wine, surrounded by friends.  Of course, it can’t be done every night; it would soon turn into a chore if that were your goal.  But how much more effort would it take to make a few extra servings of your favorite meal and invite your friends over?  Besides, everyone has to eat.

There are a great number of terrific resources for you to explore when planning your next dinner party.  Of course, I’m biased and think Food & Wine is a great place to find recipes and wine pairings; full menus for your next soiree.  A site that allows you to browse by menu, dietary considerations, prep method, seasons, even by main ingredient for those days when you’ve had a rutabaga lingering in your crisper or have been dying to try your hand at duck.  Check out: http://www.epicurious.com/ for these fantastic ideas.  

Epicurious App

As an aside since I believe apps are for a whole different blog post; epicurious.com has a terrific iPhone app which makes stopping by the grocery store convenient and inspiring all at the same time!

Not to mention, the other great apps that have revolutionized my life: Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver.  Now if only Gordon Ramsey would jump on the bandwagon!

But back to the real challenge....

   

If your life needs a little oomph, I challenge you to seek out a recipe, invite your friends over, and uncork a bottle of wine; new or tried and true. 

Cookies Galore

As the title of my most recent favorite library book is titled; you guessed it, it's all about cookies.

Growing up, I don't remember my mother baking a great deal of cookies.  And as I started experimenting more in my own kitchen, cookies never really came into the mix.  I always had other things I craved; cupcakes... bars... tarts...

Then, a little book tucked away on a top shelf at our local library caught my eye and I decided at that moment that I would venture to master the cookie.  Ok, so maybe not all cookies, but a couple great ones I could steal away and place in my 'family recipe' vault most definitely.

I began with a Honey Lemon cookie which is one of the simplest cookies I've come across but something I'd pay good money for in a bakeshop.  It is, essentially, two honey lemon biscuits sandwiched together with a creamy, tangy frosting.  It's like two ridiculously yummy biscuits squished a lemony cloud of goodness.  'Tis a keeper for sure.

After this initial attempt, I was feeling pretty good about my skillz, so I pulled up my bootstraps and tried my hands at the Maple Glazed Pecan cookies.  I have to admit that I've never been someone that follows recipes to the absolute measure and make flippant changes whenever I see something I'm not crazy about.  And let's face it, Pure Maple Syrup (the good kind) is pricey... so I threw my substitutin' into high gear, whipped out the Rogers Golden Syrup and chucked all caution into the wind and added butterscotch chips too.  What the hell right?  It's just a cookie for Pete's sake!

Dad sneaking dough... they never grow out of it!

What began as a 'what the hell, we'll give it a shot' night of trying two different kinds of cookies; Pecan cookies and White Chocolate Cranberry Macadamia Nut cookies, turned into a surprisingly delicious evening.  The White Chocolate cookies ended up being a bit of a gooey mess on the first batch... but nothing that a hefty handful of oatmeal can't fix.

They look yummy at this point... the finished product wasn't so hot.

I was disappointed with the quality of the White Chocolate cookie recipe, and there are so many other tremendous ones in the book that I'm fine with abandoning it altogether.

The Pecan cookies, on the other hand, came out as little round morsels of butterscotchy heaven that were the victim of a pecan explosion.  Coming from a person who is not a huge fan of caramel or butterscotch, these cookies made me rethink all of my predispositions to the flavor.

Heaven

If I'm being completely honest, as I bit into my first Pecan cookie, I turned to my husband and said, with intermittent moaning that would have given anybody the wrong idea: "these cookies are totally going to put me on the mommy map.  Our kids will win battles with these cookies."  Another one for the family recipe vault fo sho.

Our cute pooch loved them too ;)

Could you resist that cuteness?

And if you're dying for the recipe, I'm not adverse to sharing 'family' secrets *ahem* or library book recipes.  So message me... I'm happy to spread the sweet, sweet cookie love.