My goal every year is to get creative with my Thanksgiving side dishes. I love traditions and classics, but if we never introduce anything new, we’ll never create any new traditions or classics. At least that is the way I look at it.
So at least one new thing is always my goal.
I remember the first time I tried buckeyes. You know, those little peanut butter and chocolate candies.
I thought, oh, those are peanut butter balls without the tops. At our house growing up, we made peanut butter balls. It’s essentially the same recipe, you just dip the entire peanut butter ball in the chocolate versus creating the buckeye look by leaving its top exposed.
I like our version better. I’m not sure if it’s because I like chocolate or because if you google buckeye your first page of search results will be for Ohio State and I went to undergrad at Purdue. Either way, ours are better. I stand by it.
With those peanut butter balls in mind, I was thinking about how I could put a seasonal twist on them and switch them up just a bit.
Brussel sprouts season is upon us! Every time I think I’ve made roasted Brussels sprouts in every way possible, another idea strikes.
This recipe is super simple and it’s one you will love if you are a tahini fan. If you are unfamiliar with tahini, it is a paste the consistency of natural peanut butter that is made from sesame seeds. A standard ingredient in hummus, it can be worked into everything from snack bars to soups and salad dressings.
Or as it turns out, roasted Brussels sprouts.
These naturally dyed eggs with black rice, purple cabbage, and red beets are easy to make and produce beautiful eggs for hunting or decorating!
I’m trying to remember the last time I dyed eggs as an adult.
I can’t.
I don’t have anything against Easter eggs. I think I just got tired of the super bright magenta and yellow colors that started feeling a bit unnatural. Because, well, they were.
Naturally dyeing eggs is nothing new. A little Internet search will give you plenty of results. But it is new to me, so I thought I would share my experiences.
I didn’t set out to get every color under the sun. I wanted to narrow in on pinks to blues to purples. And it turns out I used one ingredient to color the eggs that, thus far, I haven’t seen used in any of the posts I reviewed.
This is it.
The final post of my epic holiday baking season. I made almost everything I wanted to. Almost.
There always seems to be one or two things I don’t get to. This year it was Kentucky bourbon fruit cake. I made stollen instead.
But I did get in quite a few cookies. Like these. I never know quite what to call them. Growing up they were Mexican Wedding Cakes. Then I learned they are also called Russian Tea Cakes. Also, Snowballs.
I welcome the tartness and I shy away from adding too much sugar.
That’s my relationship with cranberries.
I love cranberry. It easily ranks in the top 5 for my favorite holiday flavors. Or I guess I should say foods, with it being an actual fruit and all.
It’s why this cranberry upside down cake immediately got my attention.
I want to introduce you to my friend, Jane. Even if you are familiar with her work, there is likely something you don’t know about her.
Without Jane’s support and interests in me, Food on Tap might have never come into existence.
She’s the one that connected me with publishers which led to my getting an agent and finally creating a full proposal for an idea I’d had for two years that Countryman Press eventually picked up.
This food blogging world is so big that sometimes I forget how I originally meet people. Jane and I got to know each other through all the fun food events I used to attend when we lived in the Bay Area.
But we actually go back further than that.
Way back in 2010 and 2011, I used to host a Blogger Holiday Cookie Exchange along with a co-hosting blogger friend. All involved traded recipes and made the cookies to post on our blogs and share the holiday love. In 2011, Jane participated in that. In 2012, she asked if I was doing it again, but that was the year that all my baking supplies, as well as most of my Christmas spirit, were boxed up and ready to move to California. But I always appreciated Jane’s interest in the project.
Soon, I got to meet Jane in person. I quickly learned that her positive attitude, friendly nature, and pleasant spunk stick with you.
A gluten-free food blogger over at The Heritage Cook, Jane and I share a strong love of Europe and the region’s baked goods. She’s managed to find a way to enjoy amazing baked goods despite her GF restrictions and earlier this year she teamed up with Shannon Kinsella to co-author the book, The Gluten-Free Bread Machine Cookbook.
Full disclosure, I do not own a bread machine.
It’s been a while since I’ve had an epic holiday baking season. I’ve been thinking back on the timeline.
2012 – We were driving across the country to move to California.
2013 – Small apartment kitchen.
2014 – Larger kitchen, but still a rental.
2015 – Same. And settling in after another move.
2016 – Big kitchen, new house, but I was photographing a cookbook for someone else while working on my own.
But now it’s 2017. I have a brand new kitchen. Not to mention an oven that has been OFF for months due to the summer heat.
I’m ready. It’s about to get real.
Today I’m sharing one of my favorite recipes from my cookbook, Food on Tap: Cooking with Craft Beer! I’ve lost count of how many batches of these I have made. Flavored with holiday ale, they have spiced, citrus notes that I can’t get enough of. They make the perfect cut out cookies any time of year!
Over a month has passed since my cookbook published. It’s been a whirlwind of questions, answers, outreach, event organizing, and even a podcast interview (link coming soon)! It has all been amazing.
At the same time, it left me with two overwhelming feelings.
Gratitude and mental exhaustion.
I was not prepared to feel either of these to the extent that I have over these past few weeks.
Let me explain.
A few years ago, I posted about a really great pumpkin dish I had when we were living in southern Brazil. Pumpkin is used there year round, and not solely associated with fall and the holidays as it is in the U.S. So I’d often find it on the lunch buffets, a popular business dining option during the week.
So this dish I speak of combined roasted pumpkin and Gorgonzola cheese. It was the best combination with the sweet pumpkin and pungent cheese.
I made it the same way that I could guess it was made there, but ever since that encounter I’ve envisioned a more exciting and luxurious version. Perhaps one with a different winter squash, fit for the holiday table.
I finally got around to acting on those visions this year.
