Kenan Cookies or (Super Scrumptious Oatmeal Gems)

White out conditions in Connecticut during winter storm Kenan

The weekend of January 29th I was fixated on the blizzard that was battering the East Coast, concerned that my sister was safe in her country house in rural Colebrook CT, where she spends weekends. Through texts she reported that she had been out shoveling twice already and making only slight headway; she told me that the roads aren't plowed until the storm has cleared. To keep warm and busy she decided to make oatmeal cookies, but couldn't find the excellent recipe I had sent her months ago. This required more messages back and forth.

Clear skies and plowed streets in Colebrook, Connecticut      

By Monday, when the skies were blue and the roads were plowed, she volunteered to write a guest post about her experience during the winter storm named Kenan.  Here's another of Lucia's guest posts from the East Coast:

                                                             〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰

"When the wind is whipping around and the temperature is frigid, there is nothing nicer than a warm kitchen. Turning on the oven makes my kitchen toasty, but in order to justify it, baking is requisite! That was the story of last Saturday with Winter Storm Kenan in full force on the east coast.

I baked what Taya and I have renamed Super Scrumptious Oatmeal Gems, from a note scribbled on the original and highly annotated, handwritten recipe card. We both love authentic recipes handed down with love."

Here's the original handwritten card. The recipe is printed at end of post

"In my Kenan version, the cookies became a kind of compost confection: I added chopped dates that were languishing in the back of the pantry; they were a little dry, so I soaked them in the last of the Christmas brandy, chopped and added them. The recipe calls for coconut, but I'm not a fan, so chopped nuts, dates, and the end of a box of raisins substituted.

The warm oven belongs to my vintage Chambers stove, Model C, circa 1948  (pictured below). Designed and built for a much more cost-conscious time, its heavy frame holds Rockwool insulation and retains heat after it is turned off. One of its claims to fame was that it continued to cook food even after the gas was extinguished. The extra-heavy iron oven floor ensures even distribution of radiant heat. Baked goods turn out superb!"

Chambers Stove  c. 1948 in my Connecticut kitchen

          Here's the recipe for super scrumptious Oatmeal Gems

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup (125 grams) light brown sugar, packed
• 1 cup sugar (scant)
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 3/4 cup raisins 
• 1/2 cup coconut (optional)
• 1 cup walnuts, chopped ( or more to taste)

Set oven to 350 degrees

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown and white sugars, eggs and vanilla until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, bakings soda, baking powder and salt. Stir the dry ingredients into the butter/sugar mixture. Stir in the oats, walnuts and coconut, if using.

Drop by large teaspoons onto a nonstick baking sheet and bake 10 to 15 minutes. Do not brown too much. Place on racks and store when cool.

Here's a tin of freshly baked oatmeal gems

Thanksgiving Pies with a Few Family Variations

Pear Tarte Tatin is my sister Lucia's specialty. She wrote: "I'm not a pie maker at all, but every Thanksgiving, I manage to pull off a Tarte Tatin-- not the traditional apple tarte, but a variant suggested in a Molly O'Neill recipe originally published in the New York Times in 1993."  Always a picky eater, Lucia doesn't like the traditional pumpkin or pecan pies, so when she found this French upside down pear tart, she made it her annual contribution to Thanksgiving dinner.

Lucia's 2021 Pear Tarte Tatin

Writing from New York, she goes on to offer a few notes on her Thanksgiving dessert: "I use Bartlett pears---a pedestrian choice, I know. But they are available out of season here. Anjou pears are too juicy and they give off too much liquid as they carmelize. My pears are always quite hard, even with the less juicy Bartletts; I still allow the pears and juice to cook down about twice as long as the recipe says."

"I have an old teflon pan which I use because it is the right size, and also the tarte slides out easily on the flip."

"A last note---don't fear the flip. It's a scary moment, but when the pan is removed, the result will be delicious even  if you have to wipe the sticky juice off the sides of the plate."

  Molly O'Neill's recipe for Pear Tarte Tatin on the New York Times Website

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Position rack in bottom third of oven. Peel the pears, cut them in half lengthwise and core them. Place in a large bowl and toss with the lemon juice. Set aside.
2. Place the sugar in a 10-inch skillet or tarte Tatin pan over low heat. When some of the sugar begins to melt, begin stirring with a wooden spoon until all of the sugar is melted and begins to turn a pale golden color.
3. Remove the pan from the heat. Arrange the pear halves in the pan spoke fashion, cut side up, with the narrow end of the pears toward the center, as close together as possible. Fill in the center with the remaining pears.
4. Cut the butter into small pieces and scatter over the pears. Place the pan over medium heat. Cook until the sugar turns a deep caramel color and the juices released from the pears are nearly evaporated, about 15 to 20 minutes.
5. Roll the dough and cover the pears according to the directions in the pastry recipe. Bake until the crust is golden brown, about 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside for 10 minutes.
6. Run a small, sharp knife around the edge of the tarte to loosen. Place a large plate or platter over the skillet. Holding the plate and skillet together using 2 kitchen towels, carefully but quickly invert the tarte onto the plate. Let stand a few minutes to cool slightly. Cut into wedges and serve with or creme fraiche if desired.

Lucia swears by Ms. O'Neill's pie crust recipe, which contains an egg yolk, so here is the link:  https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/10504-tarte-tatin-pastry 

                         Now on to my holiday favorite--- Pumpkin Pie

Taya's 2020 Pumpkin Pie 

I can't remember when I first started baking this pie, but I know it was well before I mastered the art of pie crusts. Our mother never made pies so we didn't learn that skill at her apron strings. I struggled for years until Pauline, a friend from Sur La Table, taught me to mix the dough in the food processor, chill it and roll it out giving it a turn every so often to prevent sticking. That works every time. Unlike Lucia's crust, I don't add an egg yolk.

My pie recipe appears in Cooking With Herbs and Spices by Craig Claiborne, legendary food editor of the New York Times from 1957 to '86. My copy is spattered and worn with use, but sports the original dust jacket. I drag it out every November and adjust amounts every so often, penciling notes in the margin. I prefer more spices, less molasses and less evaporated milk than the original. After much experimentation, I can say that I prefer Libby's canned pumpkin which, as it turns out, is actually squash.

           

Here is the page with my faithful pumpkin pie recipe from Cooking with Herbs and Spices

A New Addition to the holiday pie roster---Apple Pie Cookies

A New addition to the Holiday pie roster

Two years ago I bought a Bon Appétit "special edition" booklet on the news stand, titled Essential Cookies. In it I spotted a recipe for Apple-Pie Cookies. Here's the description that precedes the recipe: "Each flaky cookie crust holds a dollop of cinnamon-flecked apple filling, creating a dessert that celebrates fall." I was sold and started baking!

The cookies were time-consuming, but fun to construct. I have a collection of cute little cookie cutters, so I chose the  mini pumpkin to cut out the hole in the "top crust."  Many recipes in the booklet were favorites from the now defunct Gourmet Magazine. Gourmet's recipes were always meticulously tested and came out perfectly. As expected, the fresh- baked cookies were winners and I knew I had a new holiday tradition.

Copied from my Essential Cookies booklet

A Knitting Project that Started at the Farmers' Market

One beautiful Tuesday afternoon in June, I was just entering the farmers' market when a blond woman in an orange sleeveless sweater  caught my eye. I coveted her colorful knit top, so I approached her and asked  where she bought it. I was expecting her to name a store where I could find it, but she hesitated just a moment and told me that she had knit it. She added that she got the pattern and yarn from a wonderful company called Quince and that it was easy to knit. We both went about our shopping and I swallowed my disappointment. Then it came to me that my sister was an expert knitter and with the information the wearer had provided we could easily track down the sweater and maybe she would knit it for me. I have mentioned my sister Lucia before and praised her talent for arts and crafts– she did a vintage jeans repair for me in 2017 which I documented:  Find HERE

When I called her in New York to discuss my request, I was thinking about my mother's old sewing patterns from McCalls and knitting patterns cut out from various women's magazines in the '50s, like the one above. Lucia definitely inherited my mothers skills, so she's kept some of those old patterns and precious childhood fabrics stored in the same Scandinavian rosemaled trunk that my mother Isabelle used.  We're so lucky to still have that old thing in the  family.

Luckily, Lucia agreed to the knitting project and I started investigating the Quince&Co. website to find the item I had seen. This was easier said than done. The site was confusing and didn't yield a shell like the one I wanted, not to mention that my memory was vague, having seen the piece for only a few minutes at the market. Lucia had to explain about knitting web sites which often bundle patterns and yarn together. We then exchanged photos of Quince&Co. options and finally hit upon a pattern called "Kai" and a color called rosehip.  Then came my big surprise ---  patterns no longer come in paper packages that you buy or clip from magazines. These days you download the directions that the company provides after you've paid for them. So Lucia ordered the kestrel yarn to be sent to her and directions that she would download.

Photo & description of Kai on Quince&Co's website

"Kai is our sophisticated color block shell, with a split hem and the slightest of finishing trim on neck and armholes. We love the contrast of light, clear Wave and deep coral Anemone, but what colors will you pick?"

The following is Lucia's account of the project:

"When I learned that the wearer of the sweater had said it was from Quince&Co, I knew that I had heard of Quince, a small high quality yarn purveyor in Maine. I even had a pattern published under their auspices.  I was intrigued by the idea of trying linen -- I usually only knit with wool -- and I didn't know how forgiving it would be on my hands. Quince&Co offers two weights of linen, but the pattern called for Kestrel, the heavier of the two weights of linen yarn they offer. When I opened the package and saw the lusciously colored skeins, I was surprised to find the strand flat, not cylindrical like "regular" spun yarn. They call it a tape yarn, but it knit up easily on # 8 round needles, with the resulting texture being nubby and uneven. Attaching in a new skein was a bit of a quandary, but it must have been for others too because Quince provided a blog post on the very subject, with suggestions and tips:

https://quinceandco.com/blogs/news/working-with-kestrel

Knitting up the tank top was quick and easy, a perfect summer project, and I was happy to give this gift to a beloved sister less skilled with her hands.

So the moral of this story is if you see someone wearing something you like, ask where he/she got it. They will  take it as a compliment, and it may end up in a sartorial adventure."

Here are Lucia's comments in texts she sent as the knitting progressed

Friday June 25th                     "Yarn arrived,  color is beautiful"

6/25/21                                            I sent the measurements she requested 

  

       6/27/21                                "Progress on knitting"

7/10/21                                             "Sideways progress, It's fun to knit"

8/21/21                                     "Not the greatest angle but you get the idea"

8/31/21             "Finished knitting but now I have to finish off the ends. Still big job ahead"

9/13/21                                                             "Here she is"

I love it

Package arrived safely          

9/15/21

After I unpacked the hand-knit shell and admired it, I tried to imitate the market shopper's outfit and it was a good match. It was exactly what I wanted!!  Now all I had to do was take it to the farmers' market on Tuesday and find my twin

President's Compost

The seven Founding Fathers

It's high time for another guest blog and this one, by my sister Lucia Monfried, spotlights four of our revered founding fathers and is entitled      PRESIDENT'S COMPOST

With presidential politics front of mind these days, I'm thinking of a certain president who was hot headed, prickly, and off-putting, one who distrusted the press, and felt himself constantly undercut by comparisons to his predecessor. No– it's not the current resident in the White House, but John Adams, our second president. Comparisons to current leader (ahem!) end there. Adams, who said "facts are stubborn things," was a courageous patriot and brilliant writer and thinker who got the revolutionary war going.

Defeated in the election of 1800 by Thomas Jefferson, his vice president, in a hotly contested and shockingly mean spirited fight, he did not attend the inauguration of his rival, instead slipping away to his farm before the festivities. Sound like someone we know?

I gleaned these facts from a wonderful book called Founding Gardeners by Andrea Wulf, about the estates, farms and gardens of our first four presidents.

   

As election tensions rose in the leadup to the recent election, I found a kindred spirit in Adams, who was reputed to go out "digging and scything" when he felt anxious as Washington's vice president.

Madison couldn't wait to don old patched trousers for gardening, while I wear sweatpants and old shoes today

I indulged in some digging and raking (not scything) myself, in my garden in Connecticut, to ease my anxiety as events unfolded in November.

Adams was the only New Englander among the founders Washington, Jefferson and Madison, all rich Virginia estate owners. Adams had a farm in Quincy, Massachusetts, which he named Peace Field (now a part of the National Park Service and open to visitors in normal times) to which he retreated and lived out his very long life.

Peace Field in Quincy, MA

 Below, in contrast to John Adams's modest farm, are depictions of the grand Virginia estates of George   Washington and Thomas Jefferson. 

Extensive gardens and grounds of Mt. Vernon, George Washington's estate in Northern Virginia

Monticello, Jefferson's luxurious estate in central Virginia- note extensive experimental 'vegetable terrace' to the right

Adams eventually reconciled with his former friend Jefferson with whom he had spent time in England after the Revolutionary War carrying out governmental duties. They both toured gardens there, read treatises, and immersed themselves in the art and science of horticulture.

Both men believed deeply in an agrarian future for the young republic, and followed advances in agricultural research.  Endearingly to me, Adams studied and revered compost. One scene in the HBO miniseries John Adams starring Paul Giamatti as Adams and Laura Linney as his wife Abagail, shows him in the muck extolling the merits of manure.

Promotional photo for HBO's John Adams

A screen grab of young John Quincy Adams 

                "Deeper! Deeper!"commands John Adams while he and his son dig in the compost                                                                           in the HBO miniseries John Adams

                    

                  Son John warily sniffs a handful of dung offered by his enthusiastic father in John Adams.

Adams may have been truculent and thin skinned but he reminds us that people are complex, a mix of attractive and unappealing characteristics. Another reminder: activities that were sustaining two centuries ago– digging and composting and improving the earth– continue to be so today. Working on his farm was so important to Adams that he compared it to a medicine.

So with this wish, take a cue from John (and James and George): May the conservation of the land so hallowed by our founding fathers sustain us all in this fractious time of transition.