The Godfather

No, not Marlan Brando, I’m talking about the drink. Have you heard of it? I had not until I received a bottle of Amaretto di Saronno from my FIL for my birthday not long ago. I love many things about amaretto, especially the originale from Saronno – the shape and texture of the bottle, the color of the liquor, the creamy almond fragrance, the secret guarded recipe for making it, the fact that it has been around since 1525, and of course it doesn’t taste bad either, but as primarily a wine drinker, I don’t really know what to do with it or most liqueurs. I was explaining this to my mom who said “Oh, you have to make a Godfather.” She went on to tell me that I am not alone in my libational ignorance, everybody including most bartenders has forgotten about this drink. She said she always has to give barkeeps instructions when she orders it out. Having the two requisite ingredients on hand, I promptly mixed one for myself. Here’s how:

A Godfather

Mix 2 parts Scotch or bourbon whiskey with 1 part amaretto in an old fashioned glass with ice. Stir and enjoy. To make it fancy add a lime wedge.

I ended up adding a smidge more amaretto. The whiskey tempered the sweet of the amaretto and the amaretto smoothed the harshness of the whiskey. Happy weekend. Cheers.

Simple Gingerbread Cookies

Gingerbread is a holiday staple. Years ago, we used to make houses, an endeavor requiring mathematical calculations, vats of thick frosting and considerable structural engineering skills; challenging and rewarding, but not simple (for us anyway). Gingerbread houses gradually mutated to gingerbread men and women cut out one-by-one and wonkily decorated with blobs of icing with red hot eyeballs. Charming to be sure, but messy and time consuming; who needs that this time of year? As the demand for holiday gingerbread has not ceased in this household, my husband suggested we simply roll the dough into logs, wrap them in plastic and refrigerate like we do with butter cookies. When ready (the dough & us), slice the dough into discs and bake. Once out of the oven and cooled decorate to resemble snowflakes. Here’s how they turned out – we kept the rewarding and charming, omitted the challenging and time consuming.

And here’s the recipe. It’s from Rose’s Christmas Cookies, by Rose Levy Beranbaum (author of The Cake Bible)

Gingerbread People (Snowflakes)

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon grated nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¾ cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

12 tablespoons unsalted butter

½ cup unsulfured molasses

1 large egg

-In a medium bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking soda and spices, them whisk together to mix evenly.

-In a food processor with a metal blade, process brown sugar until fine. Cut the butter into a few pieces and add it with the motor running. Process until smooth and creamy. Add the molasses and egg and process until incorporated, scraping the sides of the bowl. Add the flour mixture and pulse in just until the dough begins to clump together.

-Scrape the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap and roll into a ball. Divide dough into quarters and roll each into a log shape. Wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

-Preheat oven to 350. Slice dough into discs and bake 8-10 minutes. Decorate with royal icing.

No More Meat

I should probably qualify that. No more meat for 60 days from the grocery store. Hunting season is over for us and this year we have two bucks and a cow (elk) in the freezers thanks to my two daughters and my hubby. This may sound like a lot, but we share it with my husband’s parents and my BIL and his wife. We still have a little meat  from last year, so combined with that we’ve got plenty of burger, roasts, tenderloin and stew meat. My husband asked me if it would be possible to not buy meat for two months and use just what we have in the freezer. In addition to game, we’ve got chicken, sausages and pork chops and pork loin roasts, yellow fin tuna and a turkey. Yes, I think we can manage that and then some! In fact, I think it’s a great way to clear out the freezer a bit and try some new game recipes. This, being winter, is the perfect season to try this experiment. I never make roasts and stews when the mercury climbs, but this time of the year the smell of a roast, rich with carrots and onions is as comforting to the senses as a crackling fire after a day on the slopes.  Since we eat a fair amount of game anyway, I don’t think our grocery costs will go down significantly, but I expect them to decrease a bit; the challenge will be to keep the meals varied and interesting.  I’ll be cruising the web for good game recipes. If you have any to share, please let me know.

How to Cut a Butternut Squash

This may seem obvious to some, but it was not to me. I can’t remember where I read about this, but it was a revelation to me. I used to buy the pre-cut squash from Costco; it always felt slick, bordering on slimy. I dealt with it by washing it, but it bugged me nonetheless. Butternut is my favorite winter squash and it has been on sale lately. My husband likes it in risotto, I love it in soup, my kids like it with tortellini which is how we had last night. It literally took me 5 minutes to peel, seed and cut up the squash – simple!

Here’s how: Use your vegetable peeler!! Yup, that’s the secret. I was always in danger of amputating my fingers when I used a knife and in the process threw away most of the squash. This is so much easer. Remember to cut the top and bottom off first, stand squash on its bottom and split it in half with a chopping knife, scoop out the seeds with a spoon, then peel the squash with your carrot (vegetable) peeler. Now chop and use it how you like best.