upside down you're turning me

A little over a year ago, I was attempting to start a Mad Men evening at one of the neighborhood bars I frequented.  Though it didn't really work out the way I had hoped (a 10PM screening at a busy bar in Brooklyn isn't exactly calm and quiet enough to enjoy an hour long TV show,) I did serve up some wonderful 1960s themed treats in my attempt to make a party out of a regular Sunday night while watching my fave show without having to get cable.  While trying to find some delicious new old recipes, throwbacks if you will.  One retro recipe that I came across was for Pineapple Upside Down Cake.  The recipe from Elise at Simply Recipes turned out to be one of the best pineapple upside down cakes I've ever had... ever.  So much so that it's become one of my go to quick and easy entertaining cakes.  It was sweet, but not too sweet; nutty, caramelly, warm and fruity.  It was the perfect coffee cake, to be enjoyed warm with a cup of tea in the afternoon, or for a late breakfast while relaxing on a day off with the paper and some good friends and family.

In other words, the perfect breakfast to enjoy after a gluttonous day of turkey, gravy and all the fixins.  But pineapple upside down cake has always been more of a summery thing in my mind.  So to make a perfect post-Thanksgiving brunch treat, I seasoned it up.

pear upside down cake

looks like the fruit of the month club - pears every month!

Follow this recipe but instead of pineapple slices, use sliced pears.  I tend to be a little overzealous about everything so I used four different kind of pears and loaded the bottom of the pan with slices of bosc, bartlett, anjou and forelle.  Because I used so many pear slices, my cake pan didn't fit as much batter as it normally would so I made itty bitty upside down cakes in a cupcake tin with the leftover cake batter, some leftover caramel I found in the fridge and small slices of pear.  Substitute the ground almonds for 2 cups of finely ground walnuts.  Also, add about a tablespoon of cinnamon to the batter to give it that extra Autumnal kick.




Thankfully, I did a test run of this recipe at home in Brooklyn for a couple of friends the other night when we decided to have a last minute rainy night cake & champagne soiree.  Because if I hadn't tested it out beforehand, I would have wound up serving this mess to my entire family -

maybe the champagne was to blame and not the caramel...
it's a mystery.  a delicious mystery.

There is an art to the upside-downing of a cake.  The caramel hardens pretty quickly and if that happens before you flip the cake, you'll end up losing half the cake because it will all be stuck to the bottom of the pan.  If you flip it too soon however, the caramel is still hot lava melty and it breaks the cake into a million pieces.  You must be careful to time it perfectly!  Even though the cake crumbled a bit, it still tasted delicious and was perfect for a post Autumn celebration breakfast or coffee.  This cake is kind of like my original, prize winning cherry almond coffee cake - versatile and seasonal.  It just takes a little culinary creativity to make it fit every occasion.  And perfect timing.  It definitely takes that, too!

bright & bubbly

I'd like to give thanks for the newest member of the Matos-Kohler kitchen - a warm welcome to our SodaStream Fountain Jet!

We're big fans of seltzer in our house.  Isabelle says that's why we hang out in bars so much, because the seltzer is free.  But seriously, we have a lot of recycling every week because our Pellegrino consumption is out of control.  So with an aging gift certificate in hand, we took a rainy day trip to my favorite local shop, The Brooklyn Kitchen to pick up our new favorite kitchen gadget.  We splurged and bought the big CO2 canister and have a bet to see how long it lasts.  Since we went through two bottles the first night, it may not last as long as we thought, but at least we'll always be super hydrated!  And bubbly.

happy turkey day!

Just wanted to pop in and wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving!  This year, I'm spending the day in the jerz with the entire Burchnall clan who I haven't seen all together in over a year.  And I'm totally thankful for that.  I'm also pretty thankful for my mobility, being able to dance again, my awesome roomie and amazeballs friends, my pilgrim dress, and that I get to eat some really wonderful food.  So, I hope y'all are equally thankful for everything you have and are as fortunate as I am this year.  Have a wonderful holiday and stay tuned over the weekend for some great recipes from my Thanksgiving menu!  xoxo, lady baby j

eat me!

Here's what I'll be stuffing myself with on this Thursday of thanks:

brined turkey

fried turkey

sausage & sage stuffing

mashed potatoes

candied carrots

brussel sprouts with pork belly & pecans

green bean casserole

basby pearl onions

tangerine cranberry sauce 

canned cranberry sauce

parsnips

creamed corn

homemade bread

apple pie

pecan pie

pumpkin maple whoopie pies

pear nectar cocktails

apple brandy cocktails

curds and yay!

I love a good lemon curd.  The creamy sweet tartness is an amazing addition to so many cakes and tarts.  Lemon curd is amazing spread on toasty warm biscuits.  And up until now, I've been perfectly happy and content with the way lemon curd, the only curd, has been present in my life.  Little did I know that any other kind of curd could have even existed.  Boy was I wrong!  Apparently there are all kinds of fruit curd including the perfectly Thanksgiving-ish cranberry curd.  I wish I could remember where I came across the idea of cranberry curd, but I can't.  Still, the idea was planted and I had to figure out how to get my hands on some.  Seems that cranberry curd isn't something that can be picked up at just any old store.  In fact, none of the stores I frequent had any.  But thankfully the Brooklyn Kitchen has a great supply of beautiful, fresh cranberries from a farm in Vermont and I figured curd couldn't be too hard to make.  Again, I was wrong.

Though I found a simple enough recipe, the process wasn't that simple.  See, it tells you to use a food mill.  At the time I made this, I did not own a food mill.  I went to the store to check them out and see if I could maybe pick one up for a song.  I could not; they cost about $50!  So the pureeing of all of these cranberries consisted of me mashing them through a mesh cone with the back of a spoon until I thought my arm was going to fall off.  It took about four turns through the mesh to get all the goop out, but it finally happened.  Thanks to Aunt Patty, I will never have to struggle through that again as she gifted her rarely used ricer to me when I went to her house for Turkey Day.  Not that I need to worry about making more cranberry curd anytime soon.  As usual I failed to read the recipe ahead of time and didn't realize that the small batch I thought I was making would actually make five jars of curd; and that the cookies I planned on filling with the curd would take only one of those jars.  Thankfully it's the holiday season and I'm poor and people love homemade gifts!

cranberry curd for days

So if your in the mood for a more seasonal approach to the typical fruit curd, try whipping up a batch of this, adjusting the recipe for your needs of course.  Follow this recipe from Aunt Cookie on Food.com and voila!  Holiday happiness.  I kicked it up a bit by adding a few of the ingredients that I typically put in my own cranberry sauce figuring that my cranberry sauce is pretty delish and that in curd for would be amazeballs!  So if you're interested in my version, check this out -

lady j's cranberry curd (adapted from Aunt Cookie)

ingredients

1 lb fresh cranberries (fat, juicy ones from NJ are best, but the pretty speckled ones from VT worked just fine!)

1 cup plus water

7 tbsp unsalted butter

1 2/3 c sugar

6 eggs, beaten

1 tbsp whole cloves

2 cinnamon sticks

1/8 c fresh squeezed tangerine juice

directions

1. Put the cranberries, water and tangerine juice in a covered saucepan and cook on a low temperature until popped and mushy.

2. Puree the cranberries using a food mill or ricer.  If you want a major workout, smash them through a mesh strain about 8000 times until you've got all the good stuff out.  Return all the good cranberry mush to the saucepan.

3. Slowly melt in the butter and sugar, stirring consistently.  Gently strain in the eggs while still stirring so the eggs don't cook on their own ( that would be really gross.)  This part can be tricky if you aren't super coordinated like I am so you might want to grab a sous chef to help you out.  Continue to stir constantly over a medium low heat until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon but not gross and curdled (then you just have scrambled cranberry eggs and trust me, no one wants that!)

4. Let cool before pouring into five 1/2 pint glass jars.  Refrigerate until ready to use.

Like I said, I used my cranberry curd as the thumbprint in the tasty cookies that I gave to the grand prize winner of my Halloween costume contest.  But, as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, there are lots of other uses for cranberry curd, or any other fruit curd for that matter.  Try mixing some into a simple cake recipe for a little extra flavor, or smearing a bit onto toasty, delicious English muffins.  How about spread on warm scones at afternoon tea?  Try serving it in place of syrup for a pancake or waffle breakfast.  The possibilities are endless!  You can even mix up the fruit you use; maybe try oranges or cherries or lemon-lime curd!  What would you do with your fruit curd?  Also, I wonder if you could recycle your leftover Thanksgiving cranberry sauce and turn it into cranberry curd... ooo my brain wheels are turning.

louise brooks approved

When Emilia found out that she had won the costume contest, she was super pumped.  When I gave her the choice of traditional or experimental seasonal cookies, I think she got even more excited.  And being the daring, adventurous gal she is, Emelia chose to go with anything but traditional.  I promised a second batch if the one she got wasn't satisfactory but, thankfully it was.  That doesn't mean that I didn't make a few batches that were so awful that I had to throw them out.  No no no.  After all, experimental baking is bound to include a few disasters before something delicious gets pulled out of the oven, right?  Well, my original plan was to make a ginger cookie - one that I have epically failed at before.  I learned the hard way that there is a ginormous difference between shortening and butter and if a recipe calls for shortening, you best get your ass to the store and pick up some Crisco.  Then I decided that I wanted to use a walnut flour, kind of like how I love using almond flour.  As I ground bag after bag of walnuts into submission, I realized that walnuts are way more oily than other nuts and are not conducive to being flour-ized.  So I ended up with a whole lotta cups of ground up walnuts that couldn't be used as flour.  What to do?  How about combining two disastrous recipes?  Yup, that's what I did.  Then I added in a touch of the cranberry curd that I made way too much of a little while ago (don't worry, I'll post that in just a jiff.)  And the result was brilliantly successful and seasonal and warm and delicious and worthy of gifting as a grand prize!

So if you're looking for something sweet to serve this Thanksgiving that isn't a pie or pumpkin-y, you should definitely make these.  The spiciness, the gooeyness and the sweetness with the crunch of walnut really gives off the flavors of the season.

they even look holiday-ish

ginger walnut cookies with cranberry curd
ingredients
1 1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 c shortening (get the butter flavored kind)
3/4 c molasses
4 c flour
1 1/2 tbsp ground ginger
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp ground cloves
1 tbsp allspice
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2  - 2 c ground walnuts
directions
1. Sift together flour, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, baking soda and salt in a bowl.  In the bowl of your mixer, blend sugar and shortening until light and fluffy.  Add molasses and continue to blend until smooth.  With mixer on a medium speed, slowly add the dry mix, blending well and making sure there are no lumps.  Stir in the walnuts.  Cover the dough and chill for at least three hours.
2. Preheat the oven to 350.  Pull off pieces of dough and roll into pieces the size of golfballs.  Press down with your thumb being careful not to break the cookie.  Fill the thumbprint with cranberry curd.  Bake 10-12 minutes or until the edges of the cookie just begin to brown but not burn.