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by Theresa Collier, Publicity In case you have not followed along from Wednesday’s post, Overlook is publishing Nigel Slater’s Real Fast Food and Real Fast Desserts in paperback next week.  I’ve sliced, mixed, braised, and baked my way through four simple recipes starting with “Chicken with Olives and Oranges” and “Bulgur Wheat with Mango and Mint.”  Real Fast Desserts, a follow-up spawned

Lately, I want to blog about food. This is partially because I've been cooking a lot more--I like to cook, mind you--and partially because I've been experimenting a little more as I cook. I can usually get something on the table for dinner most nights, although Cora tends to delay stuff sometimes.

I'm a little behind on getting the photos for this and the next post or two off of my camera, but I figured, better late than never!

For St. Patrick's Day, I present the Country Rhubarb Cake.


I know, I know, it totally looks like a pie. But the recipe is from Darina Allen's Forgotten Skills of Cooking: The Time-Honored Ways are the Best - Over 700 Recipes Show You Why, and she calls it a Country Rhubarb Cake. It basically looks like a pie, but the inside... the inside is filled with ruby-red, glistening rhubarb.



And the cross-sectioning just shows how utterly delicious it is. The crust isn't a typical pie crust; it's more like a biscuit crust with a wee bit of shortbread, if anything. But it soaks up all of the delicious juices that the rhubarb releases, besides being tasty, so I really can't quibble about whether it's a pie or a cake or some sort of hybrid.

I followed the recipe pretty much as it was written with just one major change: I chopped the rhubarb up ahead of time, mixed it with the heaping cup of white sugar, then added some dark brown sugar into the filling, too. Then, I left it all to macerate, while I worked on the crust.

It goes beautifully with whipped cream.

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By Anatoly Liberman

It seems reasonable that brisket should in some way be related to breast: after all, brisket is the breast of an animal.  But the path leading from one word to the other is neither straight nor narrow.  Most probably, it does not even exist.  In what follows I am greatly indebted to the Swedish scholar Bertil Sandahl, who published an article on brisket and its cognates in 1964.  The Oxford English Dictionary has no citations of brisket prior to 1450, but Sandahl discovered bresket in a document written in 1328-1329, and if his interpretation is correct, the date should be pushed back quite considerably.  Before 1535, the favored (possibly, the only) form in English was bruchet(te).

The English word is surrounded with many look-alikes from several languages: Middle French bruchet, brichet, brechet (Modern French bréchet ~ brechet “breastbone”; in French dialects, one often finds -q- instead of -ch-), Breton bruch ~ brusk ~ bresk “breast (of a horse),” along with bruched “breast,” Modern Welsh brysced (later brwysged ~ brysged), and Irish Gaelic brisgein “cartilage (as of the nose).”  Then there are German Bries ~ Briesel ~ Brieschen ~ Bröschen “the breast gland of a calf,” Old Norse brjósk “cartilage, gristle,” and several words from the modern Scandinavian languages for “sweetbread” (Swedish bräs, Norwegian bris, and Danish brissel), which, as it seems, belong here too (sweetbread is, of course, not bread: it is the pancreas or thymus, especially of a calf, used as food; -bread in sweetbread is believed to go back to an old word for “flesh”).  Many words for “breast” in the languages of the world begin with the grating sound groups br- ~ gr- ~ -khr-, as though to remind us of our breakable, brittle, fragile bones (fraction, fragile, and fragment, all going back to the same Latin root, once began with bhr).

At first blush, brisket, with its pseudo-diminutive suffix, looks like a borrowing from French.  But there is a good rule: a word is native in a language in which it has recognizable cognates.  To be sure, sometimes no cognates are to be seen or good candidates present themselves in more languages than one, but etymology is not an exact science, and researchers should be thankful for even approximate signposts along the way.  In French, bréchet is isolated (and nothing similar has been found in other Romance languages), while in Germanic, brjósk, bris, bräs, and others (see them above) suggest kinship with brisket.  Therefore, the opinion prevails that brisket is of Germanic origin.  Émile Littré, the author of a great, perennially useful French dictionary, thought that the French word had been borrowed from English during the Hundred Year War (1337-1453), and most modern etymologists tend to agree with him.  Then the Celtic words would also be from English (for they too are isolated in their languages), and the etymon of brisket would be either Low (that is, northern) German bröske “sweetbread” or Old Norse brjósk, allied to Old Engl. breosan “break.”  The original meaning of brisket may have been “something (easily breakable?) in the breast of a (young?) animal.”  If so, contrary to expectation, brisket is not related to breast, for breast appears to have been coined with the sense “capable of swelling,” r

Chocolate chip…white chocolate macadamia nut…peanut butter…oatmeal raisin…sugar…  Yep, we’re getting hungry too, given that laundry list of fabulous cookies!  What’s your favorite kind of cookie?

I love making a storytime theme out of things that I personally enjoy – it keeps things fresh after your 100th storytime, not to mention I think that your enthusiasm really shines through for a topic in which you’re personally invested.  So, if you’re like me, you can try a cookie-themed storytime:

SONG/RHYME:
“Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar?”

STORIES:

COOKIES: BITE-SIZE LIFE LESSONS by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, illustrated by Jane Dyer

COOKIEBOT! by Katie Van Camp, illustrated by Lincoln Agnew (watch the adorable book trailer)

CRAFT:

Food version – Use already-baked cookies and let kids decorate with sprinkles, frosting, chocolate chips, dried cranberries, raisins, and anything else delicious you can think of.

Non-food Version – Cut out circles of paper and let kids decorate their “cookies” with confetti, strips of paper, glitter (if your library allows it), stickers.

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OUP’s Online Marketing Manager Stephanie Porter reflects on the beers to accompany her Thanksgiving meal.

Thanksgiving is all about tradition, and if you are like my family, your dinner will probably be served with wine. But having recently spent some time with The Oxford Companion to Beer and its Editor-in-Chief Garrett Oliver, I am thinking about adding a little twist to the end of the meal.

“Dessert, often thought of as the province of sweet wine, is actually usually better with beer. The maxim in wine—that the wine must be at least as sweet as the dessert—does not hold force with beer. In fact, it is the relief of sweetness from the palate that is the key to success. After a few forkfuls, the palate is overwhelmed by the sugar in most desserts. That is one reason why coffee often seems so pleasant with dessert; it is not nearly as sweet as the dessert.”

So after the turkey has been carved, eaten, and relocated to the fridge for tomorrow’s sandwiches, I will be breaking out a few choice beers to serve alongside my cousin’s famous French silk pie. Here are a few easy suggestions for incorporating a delicious brew into your Thanksgiving dinner. According to The New Republic reviewer Alexander Nazaryan, it might be almost as American as apple pie.

Pour a coffee flavored stout with your pecan pie:

Not to suggest that you have to forgo the coffee altogether, but my mouth starts to water just thinking about this pairing.

“Bigger beers with some caramel or roasted character tend to do best. With a chocolate tart, for example, we can pair a coffeeish, chocolaty imperial stout. In this pairing, we have both contrast and harmony—the
roasted malts match the chocolate, whereas the beer cleanses the palate of sweetness; the dessert can come back tasting fresh.”

I would aim for something with rich flavor, but that isn’t too heavy. I might go for two of my all-time favorite beers, Full Sail Session Black or Köstritzer Schwarzbier. But any of the beers listed in this link—Great Brewer’s Beers with a coffee flare—(or in your grocer’s isle) could have a similarly great effect.

Swap a Pumpkin Ale for your Pumpkin Pie:

As full as I am after a big meal, it just wouldn’t feel like Thanksgiving without a little something sweet to finish it all off. And since pumpkin ale is an American original, it seems even more fitting.

“As a general rule, pumpkin ale has an orange to amber color, a biscuit-like malt aroma, and a warming pumpkin aroma. Modern pumpkin ales are almost always made with “pumpkin pie spices,” which usually include cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and sometimes vanilla and ginger. The finish tends to be dry because of many fermentable sugars derived from the pumpkin.”

Pumpkin ale has seems like it has secured its place in bars and bottles across the country, so you should have no trouble picking up this new classic. I love the light flavor of Brooklyn’ Brewery’s Post Road Pumpkin Ale, but as this would be in lieu of pumpkin pie, I might go for something with even more pie-like goodness like Dogfish Head’s Punkin Ale. Check out Draft Magazine’s Pumpkin picks, too.

Pour a rich barrel-aged beer over vanilla ice cream:

This pairing is all about pleasant contrast. Concurrent with the flavor of the wood itself may be the flavor of whatever beverage the barrel h

Here's a quick digital painting for this week's Illustration Friday. Cupcakes have become so popular in recent years and you will be too if you take them to work or school.I suffer from a fierce and demanding sweet-tooth, but so far the trendy cupcake has failed to seduce me. Cookies, ice cream, and tiramisu - I'm still yours and yours alone. For now....

When I returned home for a visit last year my nephew and one of my nieces were baking these glorious cupcakes and I took photos so that I could eventually draw them as they looked (and tasted!) so yummy. Well, I've finally managed to get one down onto paper though I really am not doing it justice. This one is for my nephew Kaelen!

Life has been hectic and I've been pretty blocked too. The final move into the new house has been a huge relief and I'm happy. Since then I've had visitors non-stop and am about to go overseas for two weeks again, after which life will I hope resume it's normal (?) peaceful routine and I can begin drawing on a more regular basis. Cheers!

Cupcake Hearts Card at Zazzle

On Monday night, I came across a recipe for bran muffins that I had been staring at for the past few years. As I sat there, blinking at the sample picture of these gorgeous, plump muffins, I wondered, “Why didn’t I ever make these?” Perhaps it’s because my mother has an aversion to muffins (she thinks they’re the butch version of cupcakes) or because my brothers tend to dislike anything with the word “bran” in them, I’ve successfully avoided them for the past couple of years. I had never tasted a bran muffin before in my life.

So I decided to bake them. I ran out, purchased this toaster oven bake set that fit perfectly into my new Breville oven and returned home, excited to flour up the kitchen island. I substituted several ingredients in the recipe. In lieu of vegetable oil, I used applesauce (which was undetectable in the finished product); swapped buttermilk for almond milk plus 1 T of lemon; and used 1/3 c of raw sugar and 1/3 c of stevia in place of the 2/3 c of brown sugar.

Even without the oil and buttermilk, the muffins were moist, delicious and nutty. The cranberries added a nice tangy splash to the subtly sweet, woodsy texture and the muffins formed perfectly in the toaster oven. When the muffins were cooled, I cut one into fourths, and fed a piece to my brother.

“It’s oil free,” I explained. He opened his mouth hesitantly, with an “I’m-preparing-for-the-worst” look on his face. However, he soon  brightened up and exclaimed in surprise, “It’s good!”

He ate a whole one later that night.

Smeared with nut butter or just plain butter, these muffins make a healthful breakfast-on-the-go or dessert.

Healthful Bran Muffins

• 1 1/2 cups wheat bran
• 1 cup almond milk + 1 T lemon juice
• 1/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup stevia; 1/3 cup raw sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.
2. Mix together wheat bran and almond milk + 1 T lemon juice; let stand for 10 minutes.
3. Beat together oil, egg, sugar and vanilla and add to milk/bran mixture. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir flour mixture into milk mixture, until just blended. Fold in dried cranberries and spoon batter into prepared muffin tins.
4. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool and enjoy!