Post #882 Peppermint Dreams

December 24, 2023 at 3:40 PM | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

This is a short post to wish everyone a happy/merry Holiday Day, and to share a couple of recipes I made today and in the past. One of my favorite flavors is chocolate. As far as I’m concerned, it should be a food group and included in every meal. Every. Meal. A close second is peppermint. I love the coolness it imparts into everything it touches. All my personal soap products are peppermint scented; I drink peppermint tea (when I drink tea; not often); and I have a bag of pep-o-mint lifesavers almost all the time. When I was a kid at Christmas, mom would yell at me for eating all the candy canes off the tree. And Partner/Spouse just got me a large bottle of peppermint oil to make my own peppermint scented stuff. Smells so good. And it’s good for you, but I’ve written about that in the past so you can search the blog if you’re interested.

Because today, I’m going to tell you about two peppermint candies that I’ve made and that I love. I just finished making one; the other I haven’t made in years. The difficult part is that when I make these things, there’s so much we end up either freezing part and forgetting about it, or tossing it because it goes stale before the two of us can finish it. And we seldom stay in one place long enough to give anything to the neighbors.

So the first thing I’ve made in the past is basically peppermint pillow mints. These are a light, soft, peppermint candy made from three ingredients and a simple process. All you need is 8oz of cream cheese at room temperature, 3 cups of confection sugar, and 1 tsp of peppermint extract. A couple of heads-up about the ingredients. First, always use the highest quality you can afford. Second, sift the sugar to avoid lumps. Third, make sure you use peppermint extract not oil. Peppermint oil is far too strong to use on cooking.

First, I use my stand mixer for this recipe. It makes a very stiff dough and it’s usually too strong for any hand mixer or wooden spoon. Unless your arms look like Arnold’s and the wooden spoon is a canoe paddle and the hand mixer is a super triple deluxe model for chefs on the go. Put the softened cream cheese and the peppermint extract in the bowl of the stand mixer and beat it until it’s smooth and creamy. Add the sugar one cup at a time and mixing thoroughly between additions. By the end, the dough will be like playdough. If it doesn’t look or act like this, add more sugar in quarter cup increments.

That’s it. The candy is ready for manipulation. And it’s here where the possibilities open up. You can leave it white, or add color. You can make the whole batch one color, or split the batch and make various colors. Just add food coloring for whatever you like. I suggest using the gel rather than the fluid. It mixes faster and more evenly. (Funny story, one time I made a batch for Christmas at my ex-wife’s mom and dad’s house. I split it up and made four colors. Her sister swore the “blue ones taste better” even though I explained it was all one batch. She insisted.) Then, you break off small bite-sized pieces and shape them any way you like. You can roll them into small ball then flatten into discs. You press into small(!) molds. You can roll the dough into thin sheets and cut into diamonds or circles or squares or triangles or whatever. I’ve even made small balls and dipped them into chocolate. The sky’s the limit!

The second peppermint candy I make, I made today:

This is Peppermint Bark. Bark is really just melted chocolate cooled into a sheet and broken into pieces that resemble shard of tree bark. Sort of. Use your imagination. You can use any form of chocolate you like, even that monstrosity called “white chocolate” which isn’t really chocolate at all because the very thing that makes chocolate chocolate is removed from “white chocolate.” But I won’t tilt at that particular windmill just now.

First, to prep the area, get a sheet pan (with a lip) and spread either parchment or foil on the bottom so it goes up the sides a bit. Spray with a cooking spray for easy release. Now at this point you can put the melted chocolate from the next step directly onto the foil or you can create a “crust” by putting cookies, or pretzels or crackers or cake or whatever the heck else you like in a thin layer on the bottom. Melt about 12oz of chocolate chips either in the microwave or over very low heat on the stove top. Add 2 tsp of shortening (think Crisco not butter). Pour the melted chocolate in the sheet tray over whatever crust, or not, you’ve chosen. Add toppings. Toppings are whatever you want. The most important one is crushed candy canes. This is called peppermint bark so you have to have something that tastes like peppermint. Candy canes add the flavor and a pop of color, too. Another important element is a hit of salt to cut the sweetness. Pretzels, potato chips, a rough grind of salt, salted caramel, popcorn, corn chips, whatever strikes your fancy. Just be sure it doesn’t make the peppermint taste weird.

So my bark today is a layer of graham crackers, melted bittersweet chocolate, and a top layer of crushed candy canes, crushed pecans, crushed cashews, and sunflower seeds. I also had pretzels, but forgot to put them on. Right now the whole sheet is cooling and solidifying. Once that’s done, I’ll break it up and put it in a bowl.

There’s another method to make bark that is caramel forward. Layer a single layer of small pretzel sticks on a prepared sheet pan. Melt some caramel candies carefully so they don’t burn and carefully pour it over the pretzels. While the caramel is still hot, sprinkle chocolate chips, coconut, and any other topping you like. Let it cool completely, and break into bark. It’s yummy.

So, there it is. Peppermint candy two ways, and both of ’em easy peasy. I hope everyone has a wonderful time. Reach out if you need me. I’ll be here.

and as always,

Post #881 All The Help You Need!

December 21, 2023 at 3:49 PM | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

So the holidaze are upon us, and with that come the stress of making all our plans come out perfectly. Looking for ingredients, fighting crowds, wanting to relax, making meals, it all comes together at once in a morass of expectations and tensions. We’re all looking for shortcuts, and I’ve found some from some old magazines that may give you a hand.

First, breakfast. When my sibs and I were young, very young, we were not allowed to open any Christmas presents until we’d eaten breakfast. Over time, we negotiated it down to the minimum: four cornflakes and a splash of milk. The picture below give an idea for those moments.

When we lived in upstate NY when I was a kid, mom worked for a brief time in an office with some other ladies. That winter, this was the big idea.

Everyone was talking about it. It was on the radio, the television, magazines, we heard about it in elementary school. But while everyone was talking about it, we knew of no one who had actually tried it. Until one day when mom came home from work a little late. One of the younger ladies had tried it. Mom said she ended up throwing up her toenails. 

I like jello. I don’t eat it often. When I do, it’s usually cherry or lime flavored. The flavors listed at the top of the ad above I suppose were meant to expand the range of the product, but I’m no certain I’d enjoy any of the vegetable flavors. Now if there was one called cucumber, I might enjoy that one.

I like fish. I like mushrooms. At one time in my life, I even liked canned mushrooms. Even cream of mushroom soup. As I grew older, my tastes became a little more refined, and canned mushrooms became more rubbery. I don’t eat canned mushrooms now. If I want mushrooms, I’m buying fresh varieties and cooking them myself. I cannot believe that heating a can of mushrooms in their canned juice and then dumping it on a cooked fish would be appetizing.

So in a pinch, when you need a meal fast, open up the phone book to peruse the menus of the local pizzerias. We did that back in the day. Now, of course, it’s all about Door Dash. When I was working at McDonalds in high school, one of the busiest days of the year was Christmas Eve. Another one was the day before Thanksgiving.

For those times when an impromptu party erupts, or if you’re just planning snacks for the evening, not much beats a bowl of nibbles. Chex Mix has been such a mainstay for so long you can now buy bags of Chex Mix instead of making your own.

I am NOT a fan of Spam. And the things they’ve come up with for using it have been frightening. Canned beans and Spam? Umm, no thanks.

Peaches and Spam? I like cooked peaches. I wouldn’t like this. Now, if I had a canned Danish ham for this, I’d probably enjoy this.

As a kid, I ate a lot of these things. As an adult, we have them once in a while. I still like them, I’m just more aware of my salt intake now. They can be a good quick meal. Just not often.

I’m a steak purist. I want the meat and a tiny bit of salt. I’ve tried the various bottled and jarred condiments but I always go back to just plain salt. I have no clue how this would taste. I like potatoes, but I don’t like potato soup. On top of a steak? No thanks.

Creamed carrots in a raw onion cup with hot dogs? I feel like the Life commercial. “I’m not gonna eat it. You eat it.” But, if you’re in a hurry, or want something totally unique for the holidaze, this could be your go-to.

In a pinch, nothing’s better than crackers and cheese. We keep cheese in the house all the time. We don’t keep this stuff in the house. I’m guessing there’s a reason why they’re marketing to kids. Would be a good idea if you’re having a kids’ party or a kids’ table.

I had to throw this is just because of the various hot dog cuts. It was crazy. Another kids’ party on the way!

These last two are just for fun. Snow man arms? and McDonald fries as a Christmas tree? Not what I would have expected.

So have a happy holiday, whichever one(s) you celebrate. Watch for another post this weekend.

And as always,

Post #880 English Muffins Are Good!

December 18, 2023 at 3:27 PM | Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

A long while ago, when I was much younger, I was more active than I am now. I was constantly on my bicycle. It was my primary mode of transportation instead of a car. I had a car and I used it for longer distances, but for tooling around in my small town, my bike and I were the norm. I lived in a southwest desert town so you can imagine how sweaty and grubby I got, even on short jaunts.

I’d often stop by my dad’s gas station to get a drink of the coldest water in town, and rest in the shade for a bit. Sometimes, I’d eat something, but I mostly like to ride with an empty stomach. (My diseased gall bladder was just starting to make itself known at the time and wasn’t a quantifiable entity, and my digestion was erratic at times. I put it down to the large amount of OJ I was drinking and the same amount of granola I was eating.) But occasionally I’d find myself a long way from a convenient pit stop, and I’d stop at a small diner if one was available.

On one such occasion, I stopped at a small place I knew pretty well and sat at the counter. Now, imagine a skinny guy in tattered denim shorts and a sweaty t-shirt and dirty sneakers sitting slumped at the counter and swallowing glass after glass of ice water. I’d told the waitress that all I wanted was a toasted English muffin with butter on it and all the water I could drink. I wasn’t hungry, but I knew I’d some kind of carbs to get me home. The water was pure instinctive life saving measures. It was the desert, and the best place for water was in my stomach.

She’d seen me a time or two before, and knew I wasn’t the homeless vagabond I appeared to be. She set about taking care of my order, adding a couple of packets of jelly to the side, and some dill pickle chips because I’m a fiend for them. I grinned at her when she did that. I ate my small snack slowly to give myself a chance to rest and ingest and digest. We exchanged pleasantries each time she walked by, but I didn’t stretch out my stay too long. I didn’t want to lose my willingness to get back out on my bike. 

I reached into my pocket for money to pay and she shook her head. ”It’s already been paid for.”

I was startled. ”Who?” I didn’t want her to pay out of her tips since that’s what she needed to get by.

“They’ve left already. They just wanted to pay for your meal. I explained you were local and didn’t need it, but they insisted.”

I left a couple dollars for her tip and went outside to my bike. I was getting geared up to take off again, and an older man walked up to me. I recognized him as a “snowbird” as we called the winter visitors.  They were the retired people who lived in the North but came to our desert area to escape the snow. I wondered what he wanted.

“Hey, young fellow,” he started. ”Did you get enough to eat?”

I nodded. ”I did, thanks. Were you the one who paid for me?”

He smiled. ”Yep. I felt bad seeing you could only afford one muffin like that.”

I didn’t want to embarrass him, so I didn’t explain my situation. ”Well, thanks again. I’ll pay it forward when I can.”

We talked about nothing important for a few minutes, then I explained I had to go. I felt odd about the occurrence but humbled at the same time.

See, I’ve loved English muffins my whole life. I had two of them for breakfast this morning. I toasted muffin with butter on it goes a long way before anything else catches up to it on my favorites list. I like the crispiness of the edges, and the nooks and crannies that hold the melted butter in pools that surprise you. They have to fork split to get that texture. Using a knife defeats the purpose, and you might as well be eating toasted bread. And for my tastes, never use an English muffin for a sandwich. I eat them with bacon on the side, but I hate using them for a sandwich. Just me, I guess.

I’ve never made English muffins on my own, for no reason I can think of. But I’ve got the rings to make them, and I’ve watched several baking shows where they’ve been made. I know I can do it. I just haven’t yet. Yet.

One thing I have made is English Muffin Bread. This is one of the best breads ever created! It gives the flavor and texture of the English muffin, but in a loaf style that turns it into another delight. I’ve included the recipe I use at the end of the post if you want to go that far.

Finally, I wanted to explain my absence a little bit. I’ve been dealing with a nerve issue in my right shoulder and arm. It’s caused considerable pain, and cramping of the muscles, and of course, I’m right handed so I’m almost useless at times. It took some time, but I finally was able to get on a course of meds for it, and after a few weeks, things are calming down. Since I’m diabetic, they didn’t want to use steroids right away, so they put me on a longer term pill to manage the pain. Now that the pain is under control a little, I can start rebuilding the strength in my arm so it can accommodate what I need it to do. Like type.

I hope everyone has a good holiday season, whichever holiday you celebrate. I’ll be posting a couple more times before the major one, so watch for it.

Take care, and as always,

English Muffin Bread

  • 5 cups flour (it calls for bread flour, but I’ve made it successfully with AP)
  • 4 1/2 tsp instant yeast
  • 1 Tbsp  sugar
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 3 cups hot milk (or water as I’ll discuss in a moment) 120 degrees
  • 2 Tbsp corn meal
  • baking spray

In a large bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together.  Make a well in the center and pour in the hot milk or water.  Note: I don’t keep milk on hand since no one in the house likes it for anything so I put in buttermilk powder in the proper quantity and whisked it with the dry ingredients.  Then I used hot water rather than milk.  It didn’t hurt the bread at all.  Interestingly enough, the hot water out of my tap is exactly 120 degrees.  I measured it with a quick read thermometer.

Stir everything to combine.  On the show, they stirred by hand using a rubber spatula.  I used the dough hooks on my electric hand mixer.  You could also use a stand mixer.  Just don’t over combine.  You want everything mixed together, but you don’t want to knead it.  Place it in a warm draft free area and let rise for 30 minutes.  You’ll be surprised at how fast and how high it will rise.  My Trick:  I put a small plastic bowl of water in my microwave and heated it for 1 minute.  I took the bowl of water out and put the bread dough in.  The microwave was warm enough to allow the dough to rise while keeping all drafts and breezes off.

When thirty minutes have passed, stir down the dough gently with a rubber spatula.  Prepare two loaf pans by spraying liberally with baking spray then coating the bottom and sides with corn meal.  This will allow the bread to release from the pan easier and give the bread that crunchy exterior.  Divide dough equally into the two pans.  Allow the bread to rise in the pans for thirty minutes.  See My Trick above, the microwave will still be warm enough for this step.

When thirty minutes have passed, heat oven to 375 and bake for 35 minutes.  Remove from pans and allow to cool.  This makes the best toast in the world!  But it also makes great sandwiches.  It also can be used to make crostini or bruschetta.

Post #879 Updates Galore!

December 1, 2023 at 4:05 AM | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

I hope everyone who had a chance to feast for Thanksgiving had a glorious time. We did. We were able to spend some quality time doing some things we love. So, on to the blog!

On feast day, we had the meal catered. We decided to indulge ourselves and let someone else do the cooking. It was only $50 and we got a main protein (Turkey or Ham), two sides (enough for five people), and a dessert (Apple or Pumpkin pie; we chose Apple.) We picked it all up on Tuesday because we didn’t want to go anywhere near a store on the day before Thanksgiving, and stuffed it all into our fridge. We chose the ham dinner, but we also had a turkey breast of our own that we cooked up.

We can’t leave well enough alone, so we ended up cooking almost as much as we normally do for the feast. The ham was cooked, but we wanted it warm, not fresh from the fridge. We had to warm up the mashed potatoes and the green bean casserole. I neglected to put the pie in the fridge and it sat on the counter for two days, so it wasn’t safely edible. That was okay because I made a chocolate pie and fresh whipped cream. See where I’m going with this?

The ham and turkey were cooked to perfection. I’m not kidding, that bird was so juicy the dogs were licking it off the floor where it spilled. The potatoes were okay. They used way too much milk in making them so they were kind of loose, and there was no salt or other seasonings in them. I ended up baking them with a parmesan cheese crust on top. The green beans were disgusting. I baked those in individual ramekins and tried to inject some flavor into them, but they weren’t having it. I never noticed at the time, but looking back I can see why. There were no onions, or garlic in them, and the binding agent was something other than cream of mushroom soup, which in my opinion is the main reason to have this casserole. We would have been better off just having fresh green beans blanched and sauteed lightly with butter and almonds. I also made butter rolls to have with it all. These are the copycat Longhorn Steakhouse rolls I’ve written about before. I find the more butter you use, the better people like them.

We spent the day resting and relaxing, apart from Partner/Spouse starting the Christmas decorating. I’m compiling some pictures I’ll share soon. We watched some of our favorite holiday movies, starting with The Polar Express. It’s more my favorite than his. I love the story and wish I’d written it. It also has one of my favorite songs, “When Christmas Comes to Town.” We also watched Miracle on 34th Street with Natalie Wood. And listened to hours of holiday music on Pandora. I did some reading, and chose not to write a word.

Speaking of writing, I “won” NaNoWriMo again this year. I reached my 50,000+ words on the 27th. I’d have reached 52,000 words if I’d kept on writing, but I wasn’t too interested in the story I was writing. I’m going to shelve it and let it simmer in the back of my brain until it decides it needs to be completed. It’s a short novel about two friends who help each other out in the vicissitudes of life, and each chapter starts with a joke in the board room where they are both managers for a company. Most of these jokes actually occurred when I was at that level during my computer career. For instance, I typically brought homemade cookies to one weekly meeting and someone said, “You know, the only reason I come to this meeting is for the cookies.” It was a hard slog to get some semblance of a story going. Last year, I did a short story collection, and I finished with nearly 80,000 words and hit the 50,000 mark way before Thanksgiving. Partner/Spouse’s colleague heard about what I was doing and said, “I don’t even know 50,000 words.” I told her “Neither do I. A lot of words are repeated, like A, And, I, Said, Asked, The, There, etc.” She laughed and admitted she hadn’t looked at it like that.

We also continued a tradition of ours to NOT do any shopping on Black Friday as a protest to the crazy that happens on that day. Who wants to be a part of that? Not me. I worked in retail management for years before I worked for the government, and I vowed never to be in a store on that Friday ever again. However, I did do all my Christmas shopping for Partner/Spouse online. So much easier. Parked on the couch with laptop and a glass of wine. Actually, both of us start “shopping” long before that day by creating private Amazon lists for the other and putting stuff in throughout the year. Then we go through it and get rid of stuff that were already purchased and buy the stuff we can fit into our budget. Then we sit back and wait for the stuff to appear on our doorstep. So civilized.

We took a drive on Black Friday but didn’t stop anywhere except at a park in a village about 45 minutes from home that was large enough for the dogs to run in. Bear’s been feeling disconnected from the pack recently and acting out a bit, so taking him running was a joy for him. We leave the leash on both of them so we can pick it up easily in case someone else shows up. It’s funny watching Rosie’s little legs moving so quickly, but she keeps up with him. They’re both “dog tired” (see what I did there?) by the time we get back to the car and they sleep for the rest of the day.

On Saturday, we went to a small village to find a bookstore named The Lost Bookstore. We found it with no trouble using our GPS. And spend $150. But we got some great books, and made some new friends. The owner of the shop even knew about the Icelandic custom of Jolabokaflod! She won’t be open on Christmas Eve for personal reasons, but we told her that we’d shop there often as we could.

The rest of the weekend went along like that.

So, let me tell you about this chocolate pie I made.

It’s officially called Grandma’s Chocolate Pie and it’s basically homemade pudding in a pie shell. Here’s the basic recipe:

  1. 1/2 cup cocoa
  2. 1/4 cup corn starch
  3. 3 eggs, separated
  4. 1 1/2 cups sugar
  5. 1/4 tsp salt
  6. 1 tsp vanilla
  7. 2 cups cold milk

In a medium saucepan off the heat, combine all the ingredients except for the milk using a whisk. Place on the stovetop over medium-high heat. Stir in milk slowly until the full two cups have been added, stirring constantly. Cook over the medium-high heat until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat and keep whisking until all lumps have been combined. Pour into a prepared pie crust and chill in the fridge for at least four hours. Cut and serve with a dollop of whipped cream, or use the leftover egg whites to make a meringue topping.

I used a chocolate cookie crumb crust and whipped cream. The whipped cream didn’t taste as good as it usually does, and I’m sure that was my fault, so we didn’t use it anymore after the first slices. By that time, the egg whites had already been used for something else. This pie is so easy and so quick that it will become a staple in our house. The key to this pie is understanding the ingredients. Most creamy pies rely on egg yolks and milk combined to make a custard. This one has that element, but also uses corn starch as a binding and thickening agent. When I first started using corn starch, I once put it in plain water and cooked it and the result was weird, but it showed me what corn starch was capable of. I use it often to make sauces out of cooking juices. A good rule of thumb is on tablespoon will thicken one cup of liquid. Using this method, you can make a pie of any flavor. Just be careful of citrus pies because lemon or lime juice in milk will cause it to curdle. Those flavors will have to be added after the thickening occurs.

We didn’t get back to eating anything but leftovers until Monday. I even made Turkey and Dumpling Slicks on Sunday using the half of the turkey breast we didn’t eat. I’ll write about that another time. But it was delicious.

You may be wondering why I’m writing this blog at 3am (for any who notice the time stamp). We have a sick puppy.

I know she looks comfy, but she’s had diarrhea every two hours since early yesterday evening. Not sure what set her off, but she has a habit of eating stuff off the floor and off the ground without us noticing it. By the time we get around to asking “What have you got?” she’s swallowed it. And she loves to eat bugs. So it could be anything. The standard response is one day of gut rest to get everything out of her, then reintroduce broth and rice and slowly bring her back to solid food.

So I hope your holiday adventures were as much fun as ours. We’re heading into the cold part of the year and looking forward to it. Take care, and as always

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