Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

Giving thanks feels so right.  It just feels good to know someone is grateful for what you do, and it is such a wonderful gesture to thank others for the kindness they have shown.

Thanksgiving was not a holiday that I grew up celebrating.  Having been raised Hassidic, we did not celebrate this holiday.  We didn't celebrate any holiday that wasn't Jewish.  It wasn't until I had left the community that I decided, hey - I'm an American and I am grateful to the country that allowed me to be free to live as I want (well, within a certain framework, of course), practicing the religion of my choice.  I am not happy with the way Thanksgiving originally came about.  I don't believe the natives of this fine country were treated fairly.  However, I am afforded a lifestyle that many others in the world can only dream about, and for this I am truly thankful.

Thanksgiving makes me think about the heady aroma of cinnamon, aromatic cloves, earthy allspice, spicy nutmeg.  It is a celebration of harvest, a time to be grateful for the plentiful bounty of apples and pumpkins and squashes and corn, of root vegetables and yams and all sorts of goodness.  I love the scintillating scent of holiday pies and stuffing and custards and caramels that are filling my kitchen at this time of year.  Turkey has its place, and I fancy myself a great cook, but I am the sweet queen and I reign supreme over my dessert domain.

This year I am preparing lots of delicious treats for friends, clients, family.  It fills my heart with warmth to have the opportunity to share the sweetness and spiciness of the season with others.  

For one client, I have prepared an Apple-Cranberry Pie.  The combination of apple and cranberry are so perfect together...the sweetness of the apples offsetting the tartness of the cranberries aided by a good dose of brown sugar, warm autumn spices and some gingersnaps to bring it all together.  All of this goodness buried in the belly of a buttery crust equals holiday perfection.  I topped it all off with a dough cut out of a turkey and some vent holes and it turned out to be quite a handsome pie.  

Next, I prepared individual Pumpkin Custards baked in teensy little Mason jars.  These adorable pots of silky deliciousness are topped with a crispy, buttery heap of ginger snap crumble.  Pumpkin pie is so yesterday...these lightened versions are heavy on flavor, but not on fat.  

This is the first time that I am actually going to try making Peanut Butter Pie!  I am so glad that I have friends and loved ones who believe, like I, that everything is better in miniature.  So I will be making these pies in individual graham cracker crusts.  One of the inspirations for these tiny treats is a miniature peanut butter cup that I discovered at Trader Joe's.  I LOVE that place.  When I discovered these delectable tidbits I fell for them immediately.  What's not to love?  Tiny? Check.  Peanut buttery?  Check  Milk chocolaty?  Check.  Perfect? Check.  These will be made tomorrow afternoon - so I will have to come back and post about them.

And then I will be making a lovely traditional favorite, Apple Crumble Pie.  I am using Martha Stewart's recipe.  It begins with a traditional buttery crust foundation to hold a 9" deep dish of spiced and sweetened apple slices.  She adds raisins, but there are some who don't like them, so I will omit them.  Then it is crowned with a glorious crumble topping.  I think it will be a hit.  That, too, will be baked tomorrow - so I will report back on this as well.

And, finally, adorable turkey table decorations...one for each person at the festive dinner.  I saw Giada De Laurentiis make these on her show.  The back and base of the turkey are made with Double Stuff Oreos, the head is a Whopper, the tummy is a Reese's Miniature Peanut Butter Cup, the feathers are Candy Corn, and the other features are drawn on with icing.  I am so totally looking forward to putting these together tomorrow.  I am pretty sure they will be the talk of the Thanksgiving table.

Here is to abundance, a fanciful feast, loads of laughter, jubilant joy, the goodness and kindness of those we hold dear, and the time to enjoy them.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Crispity, Crunchity, Snackity Deliciousness

I love snacks that are light, crispy, crunchy, sometimes nutty - sometimes not, almost always chocolaty, with just enough sweet to make it sinful, but not enough to make it cloying.  I like having the option of enjoying a second piece without feeling I've totally overdone it.

This week I was cleaning off the top of my refrigerator - you know, the place where we store our nuts, nut butters, cereals, other pantry items that simply can't fit in a NY sized apartment cabinet.  I found that I'd stocked up on way too many nut butters, and I had tons of raisin bran and crispy rice cereal.  I found some sliced almonds in the freezer.  I looked in my actual pantry cabinet and found some organic brown rice syrup.  I decided to try and create a cereal bar from the raisin bran, sliced almonds, almond butter, brown rice syrup, organic sugar.

I combined the brown rice syrup and sugar in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.  I heated them until the sugar melted.  Then I removed it from the flame and added the natural almond butter.  The delicious, roasted nut aroma rose from the pan and the sweetness blended with it and the scent of it all was so completely scintillating.  I poured this thick concoction over the measured out cupfuls of raisin bran and a couple of handfuls of sliced almonds.  I combined the mixture and then poured it into a prepared pan lined with parchment paper.  I pressed it down and evened it out and waited for it to cool.  Then I removed the plank of goodness and placed it (along with the parchment paper) onto a cutting board. With a very sharp knife I cut medium sized (1.5") squares and took a bite out of one of the edge pieces.  That's my favorite part...sampling a new recipe...and the edges make it feel completely guilt-free.  They were dense and rich and filled with roasted nutty flavor.  They were chewy, but not overly so.  I definitely created a successful treat.

A few days later, right before Halloween, I decided to make one of my favorite standby treats.  Peanut butter crispy treats.  Mmmmm.  They just taste like a bite of autumn...crisp as the leaves crunching under your feet, a feel-good treat that is nutty and chocolaty and delectable.

I heated up sugar and corn syrup.  Then removed it from the heat and added the peanut butter...I use the creamy natural kind.  Then I poured the goop over the crisp rice cereal and combined.  Poured it out onto a prepared pan lined with parchment paper (yep - that is basically the way it's done for most of my bar treats).  Pressed it into the pan.  Waited for it to cool while melting chocolate with a bit more peanut butter and a handful of Reese's peanut butter chips.  And on the side I melted some ghoulishly green Wilton's candy melts with a bit of shortening to decorate the bars.

I poured the molten chocolate peanut butter blend over the crispy treats and then drizzled a spiral of green  over the pan.  I drew a spider in the middle and then, using a toothpick, created a web out of the spiral making a very whimsical Halloween design.  I then lightly sprinkled the entire pan with a bit of orange crystallized sugar.  It added just a tiny bit of bright sparkle.  Perfection!

And, just in time for friends who stopped by for a bit of relief after a very messy Hurricane Sandy, I had treats to make everyone feel good and enjoy their Halloween.