Luna d'argento con stelle dorate,
gnomi, folletti e fatine incantate.
Una pioggia di auguri e un pensiero fatato
per un 2014 da togliere il fiato!
Best of 2013... Happy New Year!
Well, we made it through another year! I hope 2013 was good to you and you have some wonderful memories to look back upon. And if you had some challenging moments in the past year, may the new year of 2014 bring you much prosperity and happiness! For me, 2013 was a year of wonderful memories with a few challenging moments sprinkled in. Some of the highlights for me this past year include favorite recipes tied to special memories. Here are the Best of 2013 for me, followed by the top 10 recipes I've shared in 2013 folks enjoyed...
1. Beer Braised Corned Beef Brisket - One of the Baron's favorite dishes is corned beef. His mom, Marnee, makes some pretty amazing corned beef (honestly, the best I've ever had) and knowing how much the Baron loves it, I was determined to come as close as possible to his mom's version. They say three times is a charm and after three attempts in making corned beef within a 2 week period, the Baron said I finally got really good at making corned beef. It will never be as good as his mom's but I'll take it!
2. Chicken & Seafood Paella - I've had this paella pan for awhile and I don't use it nearly enough. So in an effort to make use of what I have, I had friends and family over for a Spanish style dinner to beat the winter blues. This dish makes me think of all the dinner parties I've hosted with friends since it's something we all just dug into at the table, scooping up paella from the communal pan.
3. Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes - This was a recipe I've been meaning to make for awhile and I made sure that they would make it to the table in time for St. Patrick's Day. This would have to be my favorite cupcake of the year...
4. Chicken McMarnee Fingers - Another nod to the Baron's mom! We loved these and especially the use of potato chips as a coating for chicken. It's one of those dishes that reminds me of the fun times we've spent visiting the Baron's parents throughout the year.
5. Bacon & Swiss Quiche - The Baron and I took a much needed weekend getaway to Oregon, IL over the summer and we had this quiche at the bed and breakfast we were staying at. It encouraged me to make quiche more often and this particular quiche was the best I've had in a long while.
6. Mixed Berry Picnic Cake - I really enjoyed this picnic cake, which is another one made by Marnee. She brought this to our Fourth of July family picnic and it was bursting with summer berries of the season.
7. Southwest Egg Scramble - The Baron and I took a trip out to Denver over Labor Day weekend to spend time with his best friends. I loved the time we had there and I even had a chance to cook for them! This was a breakfast dish I prepared for us during our visit using some of Denver's seasonal ingredients.
8. Sausage & Kale Stuffed Pork Roast - Sunday has been a day where I cook a family meal and invite my brother and his partner to catch up on the each other's lives. This pork roast is one of those Sunday meals and I love how we all gather together around the table at least once a month, if not more.
9. Beef Meatball Pho Soup - One of my former coworkers, Melissa of Turning Veganese, became a very close friend this past year and I love spending time with her. We spent a weekend together which involved hitting the Argyle neighborhood of Chicago and going on a grocery shopping spree. As a result, I made this pho soup and it not only was perfect soup to warm up to, it's a soup that reminds me of the time we spent together.
10. Garlic Prime Rib Roast with Red Wine au Jus - Every year my family tends to have prime rib. This year, I hosted another prime rib dinner. In attendance were some great friends and this was such a fun night full of delicious food, flowing drinks and a night of laughs.
Now that I've shared my favorites from the past year, here is a list of the top 10 reader favorites, based on popular 2013 recipes shared on the site:
#10 -Herb Butter Roasted Turkey Breasts
#9 -Chili Queso Dip
#8 -Ranch Pork Chops
#7 -Hot Ham & Cheese Sliders
#6 -Perfect Sunday Roast Beef
#5 -Chicken & Broccoli Stir Fry
#4 -Loaded Scalloped Potatoes
#3 -Roasted Potatoes & Kale
#2 -Pineapple Dole Whip {Clone}
#1 - Homemade [GF] Flour Tortillas
Here's wishing you and yours a wonderful,
happy, healthy and prosperous new year!
Autism Parents Are Not Unbreakable
The allegedly UNBREAKABLE blade of my window ice scraper snapped off under the strain of several days of heavy ice scraping in this December's cold and snowy Canadian winter weather. In fairness to the manufacturers and distributors of the "Unbreakable" ice scraper blade I have used it well past the 3 year limited warranty and it has seen lots of use in previous Canuck winters. People, including parents of severely autistic children, can also break particularly if they face other socio-economic and/or family and health challenges.
Not all parents break in the face of the challenges and fears that haunt many parents of severely autistic children but some do. All of us know that it is highly unlikely that anyone will provide our autistic children with the love and care, the security and the enjoyment of life, that we have provided our children. Some of us, not all, but some of us, break under the pressures of those facts. Some parents rather than leave their children to a world that they know will not care for them kill their own children and take, or attempt to take, their own lives.
Not all parents break in the face of the challenges and fears that haunt many parents of severely autistic children but some do. All of us know that it is highly unlikely that anyone will provide our autistic children with the love and care, the security and the enjoyment of life, that we have provided our children. Some of us, not all, but some of us, break under the pressures of those facts. Some parents rather than leave their children to a world that they know will not care for them kill their own children and take, or attempt to take, their own lives.
The world of "autism" awareness is cursed by a group of fellow parents that attacks these parents for any effort to treat their own children, who do nothing to help those parents and their children in any meaningful way. They most assuredly will not provide any meaningful assistance to the children whose parents they condemn for trying to end their existence to prevent their adult autistic children from suffering lives on streets, hospital wards, jails and mental health institutions. They do not realize that those parents are broken, just broken, by the realities they and their children face and the children will face after their parents are gone. Yes, they are broken by the realities their children will face after they are gone; NOT by people talking about those realities as some erroneously claim.
These alleged thinking persons who purport to offer guides to autism and who attack all parents who do not drink from their "autism is a gift kool-aid" do nothing because they too are broken, their common sense is broken, their ability to see autism realistically is broken, shattered under the weight of their irrational belief system.
We are all people. Ultimately our bodies outlast our limited time warranties. None of us can dare claim we are unbreakable. The alleged thinking persons would do well to remember that reality as 2013 slips away and their own children age and move closer to their own very uncertain futures.
16 Appetizers for New Years Eve!
We're coming down to the last couple of days before a new year begins! Last year the Baron and I curled up on the couch and had ourselves a Godfather movie marathon followed by an Italian dinner at home. This year, we intended to do the same thing with a mobster movie marathon and an Italian dinner, but since my parents are visiting from overseas, we will be having another holiday feast to celebrate the new year. What plans are in store for you to ring in the new year? If you're planning a soiree at home or attending one, here is a round up of some appetizer ideas to serve up or bring to a party to share. It's a mix of recipes prepared over the past year and hopefully you'll find one that will complement your New Years Eve spread...
Smashed Steakburger Sliders
Tropical Shrimp Cups with Pineapple Salsa
Queso de Cambra
Datiles con Tocino
Pepperoni Croissant Rolls
Vegetable Potstickers
Tandoori Chicken Wings
Hot Ham & Cheese Sliders
Chicken Spanakopita
Festive Caprese Pops
Individual Apple Crumbles
HAPPY NEW YEAR
The New Year is swiftly approaching, but before we pop the cork on that bottle of bubbly we still have the time to savor the last few days of this year, playing with the toys we have received from loved ones, putting up our feet and watching one more Christmas movie, the last slice of pie nabbed, plated and on our lap. We watch as the leftovers disappear from the fridge, never fast enough, although we know that all those plastic containers of turkey and relish, stuffing, salads and bûche de noël will save us from having to cook another meal quite yet. We sit in our favorite comfy chair and sigh contentedly, smiling at those who gather round us as we tiptoe towards January first and a new year. So just take a breath and, before we commit ourselves to those big, impossible resolutions, let’s have a little more cake and think it all through.
New Year’s Resolutions.
The time is once more upon us when we sit down and, pen and paper in hand, draw up that impossible list of resolutions, that endless list of promises to ourselves, promises rarely kept. This cold, cold month comes to a rousing, bubbly conclusion and as the end draws nigh something odd and inexplicable takes over us. All power of sensible thinking comes screeching to a halt and irrational thoughts flood our poor over-holidayed brain. All of those heavy meals and sweets must have made us delirious, intoxicated by one too many candy cane or marshmallow Santa. Maybe it was the days and days of stirring cookie dough, pushing heaping spoonful after heaping spoonful of the stuff onto innumerable cookie sheets and putting a tray in, pulling a tray out and replacing it with yet another tray of even more little mounds of cookie dough. Maybe it was all that sentimental “Good will towards men” stuff, all the presents that softened our hearts, all those Christmas specials and maudlin, wistful black and white holiday films that did the job. Spending time with beaming grandparents or too many giddy little kids, thoughts of jolly Old Saint Nick sliding down yet another chimney or all the dazzling, glittery candles and fairy lights that blinded us, the frivolity of the season and the festive preparations for New Year’s Eve made us go all wobbly and weak-kneed and completely lose all sense of reason. And in a moment of nostalgia and sanctimoniousness, of feel-good pluck, believing that anything is within our reach, we do it.
We pull out pen and paper and begin the list.
Glancing over past lists, we shake our head in disbelief and wonder how we can, year after year, set the bar so high, pledging to ourselves and anyone within listening range that we will do this or that as if the simple act of turning over a page on the calendar will make us better, more determined, more resolute. And it usually comes to nothing. As the January days turn gray and dreary, as the lights are taken down and boxed back up, the feel-good holiday joy and frivolity slowly turns back into winter slump.
New Beginnings.
Starting a new year is both exciting and scary, a time of reflection, thanks and wishes. We hope for great things yet are unsure of what it will bring. This year, I have decided not to try putting together a list of resolutions, no matter how reasonable, promises to myself, for I know that I am lazy and that, no matter the good intentions, I would much rather be baking.
I also know that very little will change my writer’s heart, my writer’s self-doubt, my writer’s emotions. I would love to tell myself that I will be more steadfast and focused, that I will work more quickly, that I will neither take myself nor the world around me so seriously nor allow myself the luxury of feeling low, hesitant, questioning my place in the world, measuring my own success and failure against others and always coming out behind.
I know that this will never change; I am who I am. And so I have decided to remind myself what I have earned in 2013, of the good things that have come to me. I will celebrate what I have received, the friends I have made, the people who have touched me with their love and encouragement and allow that to inspire my 2014. Instead of making claims to a future that does not yet exist in an attempt to change the way that I fundamentally am, I will look back as a way to influence my future actions, motivate my creativity, reassure myself of my road. And remind myself of all that I truly appreciate.
Fulfilling my passions, achieving my goals, inspiring others and allowing others to inspire and motivate me, creating new friendships, new partnerships, reinforcing the old. Wallowing in the love and laughter that fills our home while putting the troubles into perspective, taking them one day at a time. These are the building blocks of a new year.
I end 2013 and lead into 2014 with apples. Homey, comforting apples baked warm, meltingly smooth and oh so sweet. The mysterious, forbidden apple, the symbol of both love and sexuality to some, sweetness and new beginnings to others. To yet others, the apple embodies home. Whether baking an all-American apple pie or a very French apple galette, whether dipping apples in honey at the Jewish New Year or baking them into puff pastry at Epiphany, puddings, coffee cakes and yeasty apple-filled wreaths, the apple is the one single fruit that is at home in both everyday comfort food and elegant treats, eaten all the year round at every occasion. And there is no better way to welcome in a new year than with something homey, comforting, warm and sweet.
For more apple recipes, visit my Favorite Recipes page.
APPLE CRUMBLE
Makes 6 or 7 individual crumbles For the Apples :
4 – 5 cups apple cubes, about 5 small to medium-sized apples *
2 Tbs brown sugar (granulated brown sugar or light brown packed sugar)
2 Tbs freshly squeezed orange juice
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
* I used Cox Orange – very sweet with a slight tartness, an apple that becomes meltingly smooth when baked.
For the Apple Crumble Topping:
1 cup (130 g) flour 2 pinches salt
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp baking powder
¼ cup (50 g) granulated white sugar
¼ cup (55 g) packed or granulated light brown sugar
½ cup (115 g) cold butter, cubed
Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Place 6 individual ramekins on a baking sheet and set aside.
Prepare the fruit filling:
Peel and core the apples; chop into small cubes. Toss with the sugar, cinnamon and orange juice. Spoon the prepared fruit into the waiting ramekins, evenly dividing it between the cups and piling it up a bit – remember that cooked fruit will shrink. Push little cubes of apples in any gap or space.
Prepare the crumble topping:
Combine all of the ingredients except for the butter in a large mixing bowl. Toss until well combined. Add the cubes of cold butter and, using your fingertips, rub or work the butter into the dry ingredients until there are no more chunks of butter and the mixture resembles rough damp sand or crumbs.
Divide the crumble mixture evenly between the ramekins, spooning it generously on top of the fruit. Gently press the crumble topping down onto the fruit just to keep it from falling off of the fruit and onto the baking sheet.
Bake the ramekins on the baking sheet for 35 – 40 minutes until the crumble puffs up and turns a light golden color; the fruit should be bubbling in the ramekins and up around the edges of the crumble. It may even begin to dribble down the sides of the ramekins .
Why not upset the apple cart? If you don't, the apples will rot anyway.
- Frank A. Clark
The New Year is swiftly approaching, but before we pop the cork on that bottle of bubbly we still have the time to savor the last few days of this year, playing with the toys we have received from loved ones, putting up our feet and watching one more Christmas movie, the last slice of pie nabbed, plated and on our lap. We watch as the leftovers disappear from the fridge, never fast enough, although we know that all those plastic containers of turkey and relish, stuffing, salads and bûche de noël will save us from having to cook another meal quite yet. We sit in our favorite comfy chair and sigh contentedly, smiling at those who gather round us as we tiptoe towards January first and a new year. So just take a breath and, before we commit ourselves to those big, impossible resolutions, let’s have a little more cake and think it all through.
New Year’s Resolutions.
The time is once more upon us when we sit down and, pen and paper in hand, draw up that impossible list of resolutions, that endless list of promises to ourselves, promises rarely kept. This cold, cold month comes to a rousing, bubbly conclusion and as the end draws nigh something odd and inexplicable takes over us. All power of sensible thinking comes screeching to a halt and irrational thoughts flood our poor over-holidayed brain. All of those heavy meals and sweets must have made us delirious, intoxicated by one too many candy cane or marshmallow Santa. Maybe it was the days and days of stirring cookie dough, pushing heaping spoonful after heaping spoonful of the stuff onto innumerable cookie sheets and putting a tray in, pulling a tray out and replacing it with yet another tray of even more little mounds of cookie dough. Maybe it was all that sentimental “Good will towards men” stuff, all the presents that softened our hearts, all those Christmas specials and maudlin, wistful black and white holiday films that did the job. Spending time with beaming grandparents or too many giddy little kids, thoughts of jolly Old Saint Nick sliding down yet another chimney or all the dazzling, glittery candles and fairy lights that blinded us, the frivolity of the season and the festive preparations for New Year’s Eve made us go all wobbly and weak-kneed and completely lose all sense of reason. And in a moment of nostalgia and sanctimoniousness, of feel-good pluck, believing that anything is within our reach, we do it.
We pull out pen and paper and begin the list.
Glancing over past lists, we shake our head in disbelief and wonder how we can, year after year, set the bar so high, pledging to ourselves and anyone within listening range that we will do this or that as if the simple act of turning over a page on the calendar will make us better, more determined, more resolute. And it usually comes to nothing. As the January days turn gray and dreary, as the lights are taken down and boxed back up, the feel-good holiday joy and frivolity slowly turns back into winter slump.
Comfort me with apples.
- Song of Solomon 2:5
New Beginnings.
Starting a new year is both exciting and scary, a time of reflection, thanks and wishes. We hope for great things yet are unsure of what it will bring. This year, I have decided not to try putting together a list of resolutions, no matter how reasonable, promises to myself, for I know that I am lazy and that, no matter the good intentions, I would much rather be baking.
I also know that very little will change my writer’s heart, my writer’s self-doubt, my writer’s emotions. I would love to tell myself that I will be more steadfast and focused, that I will work more quickly, that I will neither take myself nor the world around me so seriously nor allow myself the luxury of feeling low, hesitant, questioning my place in the world, measuring my own success and failure against others and always coming out behind.
I know that this will never change; I am who I am. And so I have decided to remind myself what I have earned in 2013, of the good things that have come to me. I will celebrate what I have received, the friends I have made, the people who have touched me with their love and encouragement and allow that to inspire my 2014. Instead of making claims to a future that does not yet exist in an attempt to change the way that I fundamentally am, I will look back as a way to influence my future actions, motivate my creativity, reassure myself of my road. And remind myself of all that I truly appreciate.
Fulfilling my passions, achieving my goals, inspiring others and allowing others to inspire and motivate me, creating new friendships, new partnerships, reinforcing the old. Wallowing in the love and laughter that fills our home while putting the troubles into perspective, taking them one day at a time. These are the building blocks of a new year.
Don't get fancy. Have you cooked an apple pie? You don't know what you did wrong? Do this: Take two or three apples. Put them on a table. Study them.
- Paul Prudhomme
I end 2013 and lead into 2014 with apples. Homey, comforting apples baked warm, meltingly smooth and oh so sweet. The mysterious, forbidden apple, the symbol of both love and sexuality to some, sweetness and new beginnings to others. To yet others, the apple embodies home. Whether baking an all-American apple pie or a very French apple galette, whether dipping apples in honey at the Jewish New Year or baking them into puff pastry at Epiphany, puddings, coffee cakes and yeasty apple-filled wreaths, the apple is the one single fruit that is at home in both everyday comfort food and elegant treats, eaten all the year round at every occasion. And there is no better way to welcome in a new year than with something homey, comforting, warm and sweet.
For more apple recipes, visit my Favorite Recipes page.
APPLE CRUMBLE
Makes 6 or 7 individual crumbles For the Apples :
4 – 5 cups apple cubes, about 5 small to medium-sized apples *
2 Tbs brown sugar (granulated brown sugar or light brown packed sugar)
2 Tbs freshly squeezed orange juice
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
* I used Cox Orange – very sweet with a slight tartness, an apple that becomes meltingly smooth when baked.
For the Apple Crumble Topping:
1 cup (130 g) flour 2 pinches salt
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp baking powder
¼ cup (50 g) granulated white sugar
¼ cup (55 g) packed or granulated light brown sugar
½ cup (115 g) cold butter, cubed
Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Place 6 individual ramekins on a baking sheet and set aside.
Prepare the fruit filling:
Peel and core the apples; chop into small cubes. Toss with the sugar, cinnamon and orange juice. Spoon the prepared fruit into the waiting ramekins, evenly dividing it between the cups and piling it up a bit – remember that cooked fruit will shrink. Push little cubes of apples in any gap or space.
Prepare the crumble topping:
Combine all of the ingredients except for the butter in a large mixing bowl. Toss until well combined. Add the cubes of cold butter and, using your fingertips, rub or work the butter into the dry ingredients until there are no more chunks of butter and the mixture resembles rough damp sand or crumbs.
Divide the crumble mixture evenly between the ramekins, spooning it generously on top of the fruit. Gently press the crumble topping down onto the fruit just to keep it from falling off of the fruit and onto the baking sheet.
Bake the ramekins on the baking sheet for 35 – 40 minutes until the crumble puffs up and turns a light golden color; the fruit should be bubbling in the ramekins and up around the edges of the crumble. It may even begin to dribble down the sides of the ramekins .
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