Grammy's date/pecan pinwheels

These are my all time favorite cookies ever. I look forward to days and weeks after Thanksgiving when I'm in NE ohio, mainly for these cookies. My grammy's kitchen transforms into a full-scale cookie making operation. She doesn't even count how many tins of homemade goodness leave before Christmas, but it is alot! I start noticing in the summer the preparation- her freezer begins to fill slowly with pounds of butter as she finds the sales. Last year, I counted over 25 pounds. That is some serious baking.



Yesterday, I attempted to make these cookies, and have a whole new love and appreciation for my grammy. While the recipe might not look too complex, this is a major pain in the butt with the number of times you have to refrigerate the dough.


Date/pecan pinwheel cookies

1 cup butter, room temp
2 cups brown sugar
3 eggs, beaten
4 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 oz. chopped dates
1 cup of pecan pieces
1 cup water
1 cup granulated sugar



Blend butter and brown sugar together until smooth. Add eggs. Sift together flour, powder and salt. Add this to the butter mixture and refrigerate. (Grammy suggests overnight)

Combine dates, nuts, water and sugar into a medium size saucepan. Cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes. The mixture will start to thicken in the last few minutes. Allow to cool, though not too much. You want this to be spreadable.

Cut dough into 2 portions, and roll out into long rectangles. Spread out the filling, and roll up like a jellyroll. Refrigerate overnight in wax paper.

Cut the log into 1/2 inch pieces and bake at 400 degrees for about 8-10 mins. (Grammy suggests cooking on parchment paper to avoid the sticky pans)

Just down right ridiculous!

I was having some Great Lakes Xmas ales with my little bro last night in Akron, when he shows me quite possibly the most ridiculous thing I have seen in a long time- the Chad 'Ocho Cinco' app. Really?! It sort of acts as the magic 8 ball- you can ask questions, and get ridiculous answers (topics include bribing officials & Tiger Woods). I do not have an i-phone (and probably never will), but i thought i would share.

Travel bug

I have an insatiable travel bug. It probably began while I was in high school, during a summer in Mexico working with a volunteer organization. I've since spent a semester abroad (an incredible 'travel and study' program which hit up 17 countries in Europe), completed a master's at the University of Leeds, and have been trying to visit friends in their native land. In the last few years, my traveling has been limited to mostly local/stateside trips, but I am looking forward to two big trips overseas next year.

First off, will be almost 3 weeks in India. Planning to visit Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai. Knowing someone native to the culture has been a huge factor in these trips- I love to see the living, breathing side of the cities, not just the view from the double decker tourist bus. I like to walk until your feet are about to fall off, though admittedly, this could be more difficult in an Eastern country. I always liked to wander around under the radar, though in India my travel companions and I are likely to stick out like sore thumbs.

My main goal for the trip is to see the Holi festival- something described as the Indian Halloween, but really it will be all about getting hit with colorful powders and hopefully witnessing some impromptu street parties. My friend in Mumbai is trying to prep us for the insanity of the city, such as the over-crowded train system.

My other trip is to attend a good friend's wedding in Trinidad in July. I am quite excited about this trip- I'll get to see alot of old friends from New Orleans, as well as touring the island, and spending a day in Tobago as well. As a tradeoff, I have been eating PB&J's just about every other day in hopes of not going completely bankrupt by these trips. C'est la vie.

If anyone has any India travel suggestions, I would appreciate it!

Miscellaneous miscellany

While I was unpacking all the boxes that I had labeled 'miscellaneous' (note to self, do not do that again. 1/2 a dozen boxes of miscellaneous junk that I probably should pitch half....), I came across a pile of letters from the first guy I dated, well hell... the first guy I was head over heals, smitten, falling down goofy, completely in love with. Since I'm a sentimental fool who will undoubtedly keep these old letters as long as I can, I find myself rereading them again just about every time I move. It was before cell phones, instant messaging or email, at least in my world. I've always loved that I have these handful of tangible letters that serve as a reminder of this puppy love. I used to think that your first love never really goes away, or is at least the longest to shake off. I used to think that you really never get over the first love, not completely at least. Maybe it doesn't, but some days I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing.

These now yellowing letters and envelopes do take me back to a somewhat simpler time... We wrote to each other a few times every week the whole time we dated, even though the distance was just from Kent to Cleveland. Neither he or I were much for long phone calls, so we wrote in between our saturday day-long dates. I remember inventing some fictional sleepovers at a high school friends house to my mother that would give me the excuse to turn the saturday day-long date into an almost solid 36 hour time period that we would spend talking each other's ears off, and becoming so goofy and light headed that I couldn't even think straight. It was the best.

I had grown up around campus, so I knew every building with 24 hour access on campus and every Denny's/Country Kitchen in the area. I would show him my favorite spots in Kent, and we'd spend hours wandering the streets of Kent. I was 17, and he was somewhat older. In these letters, I remember how he was my introduction into a less mainstream, underground music scene. He sent along cassette tapes with mixes of his favorite bands, and I shudder to think what I was sending back. I still have most of these cassette tapes somewhere, but no longer have a cassette player. The funny thing is, he really did shape much of my budding interest in music, with these mix tapes.

It's funny how a few letters can send you reeling down memory lane, or finding an old song that still kills you every time.



ok. back to reality.

Favorite Cavs personality

More delays on my writing lately- we are all moved in, but have found out that we live along a 3/4 mile stretch of Internet deadzone. Very frustrating, though a few people have mentioned that maybe this inconvenience could be for the best? Not having the overwhelming feeling to check my email every morning or spend countless hours in front of a computer screen that I am dying to get away from the 4 days a week that I work... Sigh. But it is an adjustment. While we are still looking for options to get around this dead zone, I have been reading more and getting more stuff done around the house, like painting, cleaning (ick) and the endless yard work that comes with 2 acres of land. Did i mention that the leaves are starting to fall in NE ohio?!

Anyways- A friend told me about a line of tshirts dedicated to the antics of Delonte West, who is hands down my favorite Cavs player... here are my favorites



Delonte on donuts

summer dessert

so..... it's been awhile since I've last written, but my excuse is that we've been scouring 3 counties in a four month house hunt, and the last thing I want to do after spending all day in from of the computer at work is to start typing. Sorries. And the lure of a frosty mojito on the back porch in the PM usually wins out. (I bought a juicer a few months ago, and the experiments have included mulberry, blueberry, apricot and peach mojitos. The peach is by far my favorite, but here's a picture of the mulberry....



(anyone else getting thirsty??) Cucumber margaritas are also amazing. When a cucumber gets juiced it turns almost an electric green. Sometimes I think it's more about whatever I can cram into that juicer than what it spouts out.

One of my favorite local produce places is Stahl's on Route 14 on the outskirts of Ravenna. They're open nearly year-round, and always have some good stuff. We picked up some of the early Ohio apples in July, and Hall picked up their schedule for the fall varieties, and I was really excited to find some recipes on the back from locals. I've made this one twice, and it is quite tasty. I found another recipe that melted caramel cubes for the topping instead of the store bought ice cream topping, but this is less messy. I also cut the butter in half the second time around.

Caramel Apple Bread Pudding

8 cups stale French/Italian bread, cut into cubes
3 1/2 cups milk
6 T butter
3/4 C brown sugar
1 T vanilla
1 1/2 t cinnamon
4 cups Ohio apples, cored and diced
1 small jar of caramel ice cream topping
1/2 cup cashew (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In small saucepan, heat milk. Spray a 9 x 13 inch baking dish with non-stick spray. Place bread pieces into baking dish and pour over heated milk until the bread absorbs all the milk. Set aside.

Combine butter and sugar in mixing bowl until thoroughly blended. Add eggs, vanilla and cinnamon and beat until fluffy. Stir in apples and add to bread mixture. Bake for one hour until brown. Serve with caramel sauce.

delicious.

I have a new favorite magazine. Someone left a copy of the UK publication, 'delicious.' in the staff lunchroom. Not only did the picture of a roasted tomato and rosemary toad in a hole on the cover make me wish my reheated leftovers were something else, but also inspired me to try out a new roasted chicken dish. I've translated the UK measurements below and added some pics

Honey, lemon and thyme roast chicken

4-6 pound roasting chicken
3/4 T butter
Zest from 1 lemon
2 T fresh thyme leaves
4 T honey

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Season chicken with salt and pepper, and rub with butter. Place chicken in roasting pan and cook for 40 minutes-- this time is for a 4 pound bird, so you can add more time for bigger birds. (I slightly changed the recipe by adding some red potatoes under the chicken, and also added some of the lemon juice from the zested lemon, and ended up using more honey than the recipe called for. I also loved using the lemons inside the cavity in my last attempt at roast chicken, so I also added these at the beginning)



While this was roasting, I flipped to another recipe in the November issue to prep while the chicken started roasting

Roasted garlic and thyme beetroot

2 beets, peeled and quartered
1 garlic bulb, seperated and peeled
Leaves from 5-6 fresh thyme sprigs
4 T olive oil

Mix the above ingredients in a large pan. You can cook this with the chicken for the last 40 mins. There is a suggestion to add a splash of balsamic vinegar right before throwing the pan into the oven. You can serve the roasted beets with the garlic cloves.




Back to the chicken.

After 40 mins, remove from oven and pour any juices into a saucepan and set aside. Mix together the lemon, thyme and honey and cover the chicken.



Return to oven, and baste every 5 minutes. The honey mixture really loosens up as it is heated, so it becomes pretty easy to spoon over the chicken. After 20-25 minutes or so, baste chicken once more and then turn off oven and allow chicken to rest for 15 mins in the pan. Serve up with extra juices (also makes a tasty gravy with a little thickening on the stove)



hungry yet?