Revisiting Turkey and Farewell Brunch

A big bowl of spanikopita filling.

Kai with cornstarch, at the controls on the yogurt chicken.

Samuel giving me a sweet baby smile.

The lovely southern-style spread at Bill and Kaye's for Kai's farewell brunch.

Pumpkin sticky rolls

I always get the crazy craving to start some complicated baking project just before bedtime. This is last night's project.

Pumpkin Sticky Rolls (adapted from a recipe in East West Cooking: Innovative Mennonite Cooking from around the Globe)
2/3 cup milk
1/4 cup oil
1 cup pumpkin
1/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
2 packets yeast
4 cups flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
more vegetable oil

Pecan topping:
1/4 cup oil
1 Tbs water
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup chopped pecans

Warm milk and oil, then add pumpkin, sugar, and salt. Beat in eggs and yeast, then the flour and mix well. Cover and set in a warm place until dough doubles.

Tur out dough onto floured surface and knead until smooth. Then roll out into a large rectangle. Brush with vegetable, then spread brown sugar and cinnamon. Roll the whole thing up like a jelly roll.

In a 9 x 13 metal baking pan (not a 10 x 10 square like I used) pour the oil, water, sugar and pecans mixture and spread evenly.

Slice rolls, then place them on top of the pecan mixture. Let them rise again as you preheat the oven... or longer if you're not impatient. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Immediately invert onto a serving dish so the pecans are a topping, not a bottoming (and so the sugar doesn't cement itself to the bottom of your pan).

Serve warm.

Cinnamon success

I had a craving for cinnamon rolls... so I made some. Based on an Allrecipes.com recipe.

2 1/2 cups flour
1 pkg yeast
3/4 cup warm water
1/4 cup sugar (brown probably would have been better)
3/4 tsp salt
1 room temp egg
cinnamon, sugar, butter for filling

Dissolve yeast in water for 10 minutes. Add yeast to sugar, salt, egg and 1 cup flour. stir until blended, then add the rest of the flour, 1/2 cup at a time. Once it's mixed, knead the dough for 8 minutes on a lightly floured surface. Let it rest 10 minutes, covered with a damp towel. Butter an 8 X 8 pan. Roll out the dough into a large rectangle about 1/4 inch thick. Rub on the butter. Shake on the cinnamon, and sugar until it is well coated, then roll it up along the longer edge. Cut into 12 pieces... or 13 like me and cram them into the greased pan.

Let them rise 45 minutes, covered, in the oven or another warm draftless place.

Then bake uncovered for 15-20 minutes at 350.

I think I over cooked mine slightly.

cookies and chicken marsala

I made some cookies last Friday night. They turned out a little differently than planned, because I accidentally used baking powder rather than soda. But I kind of like the way they didn't spread. And they were soft. For my recipe, see an old post.

Matt liked them.


Thursday night I finally made chicken marsala, per my cousin Rich's recipe. There was a whole bunch of very bad-smelling steam as the alcohol cooked off. This was disconcerting, because I usually smell and savor the aromas of my meals while I cook them, in anticipation of the taste. Also, the chicken breasts I bought were gargantuan. I don't even want to know what kind of hormones that had to feed that clucker to get it so big. I thought there were four breasts in the package, but there were only 2.
So even though I complained that the meal was too ugly to photograph and that my sauce didn't thicken as it was supposed to... it actually tasted very good. So mission accomplished.

Chicken Marsala
1 bottle marsala wine
2 chicken breasts
3/4 pound mushrooms, halved
olive oil for frying
2 Tbs butter at room temp

Rich recommended washing the chicken with salt to "micro scrub" away the germs. So I did that. I wash my mushrooms because there's all kinds of peat stuck to them, and I don't want to eat peat. If you don't believe in washing mushrooms, as I know some don't, then that's your business :-)

Heat oil in a large pan on medium high heat. When it's hot, add mushrooms and chicken breasts. Brown the chicken lightly, flip and repeat. Then add the wine, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring once in a while. Or if you're me, stir constantly because you don't have a non-stick pan big enough to hold all that. When the wine turns a little sludgey and bubbles, add another 1/2 cup. Repeat process until wine is gone.

Remove from heat, and put chicken and shrooms on a platter. Put the sauce back on until it just begins to boil, take off heat and add butter. Let it melt and the sauce is supposed to thicken. (mine didn't because I probably did something wrong along the way.) Even if it doesn't thicken, it will taste good because it has butter in it. Pour sauce over the chicken and enjoy!
Thanks Rich for the recipe!

Biscotti: take 1

I followed a recipe in a "healthy" cookbook I bought at Caves bookstore in Taipei. Maybe I can blame it on the recipe... but these were THE most rock-hard biscotti of life. If you leave them soaking in a hot beverage for about 2 minutes, they become the consistency of pound cake. I did make some minor changes- the recipe called for cardamom, almonds and orange zest. I didn't have cardamon or zest, so I used vanilla and orange flower water. I don't think that would have made them any less like cement posing as a cookie. Will try again. Won't be posting said recipe.

Rachel-- I saw you sent me a savory cheese biscotti recipe, which I am eager to try.