Happy New Year - Superstitions and Traditions

Congratulations, we have almost made it to another passing in the right of time, New Year's Eve.  Off with the old and on with the new.  Let's go over some of the superstitions that I've been exposed to over the years.

See a Penny, Pick it up and all the day you'll have good luck.

As we celebrate there are some old wives tales that have to be brought into action.  The first is geared at wealth and riches.

For wealth and riches put pennies on the window sill at New Years

It was the custom of putting pennies on a window sill so that the new year brought wealth with it.

A new broom sweeps clean -- off with the old so to speak

Another was the buying of a new broom.  This was to sweep out the old misfortunes to leave room for new and exciting experiences.

It's good luck to have a man enter a house first on New Years

Let's talk about New Year's Eve and the passing of the midnight hour.  It was the custom to make sure that the first person to enter a household was a man.  It was considered good luck to have a man be the first to enter the house.

There are several food traditions linked to New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

from Oakmont Bakery, Oakmont, Pennsylvania

The New Year's Pretzel is supposed to bring good luck to everyone who shares it and is to be eaten New Year's Eve or New Year's Day before breakfast.  This stories behind this tradition are varied.  Some believe that the shape stems from the monks who folded their arms across their chests and again some attribute it to the winter solstice shape of a circle with a dot in the middle and the central cross was added later to represent the four seasons.

Pork and Sauerkraut to luck on New Year's Day

Last but not least, is our tradition of eating pork and sauerkraut on New Year's Day.  This tradition stems from the belief that whatever you do on New Year's Eve you do the rest of the coming year. If you eat pork you will enjoy the blessings of the year and have bounties of food to feast upon instead of peck in the dirt to find your food if you were to eat chicken.

Whatever you believe, whatever your traditions, the true meaning of the holiday is to look to the future with open arms for family and friends.  If you have any of your own, comment here so that we can appreciate your traditions.  Happy New Year.

What's for Dessert?

I have to admit, I've been pretty lazy when it has come to baking.  My sweet tooth is smarting something fierce and the store-bought goodies just are not cutting it even though the lemon meringue pie from Eat 'N Park came really close in the tart versus sweetness test.

I guess I have to pull out some of my recipes and see what I can come up with to ease the hunger pangs.

Let's start out with a cake that my mother-in-law made almost every time there was an occasion to need one.  She called it the Yum Yum Cake and it was chocked full of so many goodies that it was hard to not to like it.

Even though I'm lactose intolerant, I'm a big fan of whipped cream and had a favorite bakery that made Whipped Cream Puffs every Wednesday.  I was so fond of them, I would buy two and eat those for lunch instead of having anything else.  What's even nicer is that these don't take a lot of ingredients.  The hardest thing about them is making sure that all of the moisture beads have baked off giving you that great crusty shell to be filled.

Of course, if you are making cream puffs, you just need to add chocolate icing to the top to make it an Eclair.  You can use custard filling or any whipped filling to give it some variety.

Apple cake ready to pour the caramel glaze

If you have more time and energy, my very favorite cake is apple cake with caramel drizzle poured over it.  This cake is even more decadent than Death by Chocolate.

Now that I have made myself totally hungry, I need to decide which it's going to be for tonight.  How about a vote from the audience.  Which would you make today?

Christmas Cookies: Sour Cream Date Drops

At Christmas, I had to go out to the store to buy some of the ingredients I needed for my Sour Cream Date Drops, one of my favorite Christmas cookies.  I had the dates and nuts, but I didn't have the sour cream or the nutmeg.   Since this cookies is so full of delicacies, I decided to add it to my Wedding cookie list.

Sour Cream Date Cookies

This cookie recipe is a newer acquisition but it has passed up some of the favorites with it's fruity, nutty and spicy flavors.  I only started making these a few years ago when I stumbled upon the recipe.  Before that I had made date bars with oatmeal because my Mom had always made those.

In my childhood years I would go into the pantry where my Mom kept her baking supplies and just help myself to those things that caught my eye.  I remember taking a piece of the chocolate baking bar and the surprise I got when I found out it wasn't sweetened chocolate.  My very favorite from the pantry were the dates I would pinch and eat before my Mom started to make her cookies.

It was supposed to be a rainy day in the Burgh that would be turning to snow, so I did my shopping early and started making cookies as soon as I got home.  First on my list were the Sour Cream Date Drops.  I started out putting the margarine and brown sugar into the Kitchen Aid Mixer using the paddle. 

As I followed along with the recipe I didn't change the mixing tool this time.  I continued to mix the dry ingredients and the sour cream into the batter followed by the chopped dates and chopped walnuts.

Cookie Scoop

I wasn't sure if I wanted to use iced tea spoons to drop these or my trusty cookie scoop.  I decided on the scoop and I continued to drop my cookies onto my insulated cookie sheets covered with parchment paper instead of greased pans.

Cookies ready to go into the oven

The recipe makes about 4-1/2 dozen and takes approximately and hour and half to drop, bake and remove the cookies to wire racks for cooling.  My cookie sheets are larger and I got two and a half batches into the oven placing 13 cookies on each pan.

Removing Sour Cream Date Cookie from pan

Of course, I had to test the cookies.  All in all I got 4 dozen packed away in my Tupperware Bread Keeper that I use to store larger batches of Wedding or Christmas cookies.

As always, let's pretend we are in Nunny's kitchen where she always said, "Try it -- You'll Like It."  Happy baking.

Christmas Cookies - Biscotti

My father-in-law was a dunker.  He loved dunking his cookies in his coffee to eat them.  Biscotti is one of the cookies that can get hard if you aren't careful.  They can also be spongy and easy to eat.  This is one of the easiest cookies to make and one that is good no matter what time of year.  I know my father-in-law loved these and the honey cookies that also get hard if not stored in an airtight container with a slice of apple.

Continuing on with my Cookie stories, I spent a lot of time in the grocery store last year deciding whether to make Orange or Almond Biscotti for Christmas.

Orange Biscotti made right

I was torn between the flavors and since I don't have another orange cookie on the list, I decided to make the Biscotti orange. 

If you remember, I made Peppermint Biscotti a few years ago but I wasn't happy with the end product.  I think the color turned me off since it came out pink from the ground up peppermint sticks.



Peppermint Biscotti

Everything started out fine as I followed the steps in the recipe.  I used the spatula attachment to mix the margarine, sugar, eggs and orange extract.  Once I was ready for my dry ingredients, I switched over to the dough hook and proceeded to mix in the dry ingredients a little at a time in my Kitchen Aid mixer.  The dry pour attachment is a big help in keeping the dry ingredients from flying out of the mixer.

Another use for having the right tools to do the job.  After using the dough hook it was time to roll out the dough into logs.

Next the logs were put into the oven for 35 minutes.  Following the directions, the logs were then cooled before cutting into slices and putting back into the oven for an additional 15 minutes.

The results was that I misjudged the size of my logs and my Biscotti are the size of what they are named for biscuits.  Next time I need to keep the dough a little wider and not so round.  That's the lesson for today.  Time and trial are the best cooks or bakers.  Even though they taste wonderful, the next time they should turn out more like small cake slices instead of round.

Almond with chocolate

Biscotti with chocolate drizzles

For weddings though you need to be more creative and garnish you biscotti with nuts or even chocolate drizzles.  Almond slivers in an almond biscotti is a favorite for weddings.

Almond Pistachio

Chocolate with Nuts

Almond pistachio is another taste that I like since I'm partial to any baking done with pistachios.  My personal favorite is a chocolate biscotti with nuts.  Today is my birthday and chocolate with nuts would be a great selection for toasting my special day.

That's my baking story for today.  Happy baking.



Christmas Cookies: Santa's Whiskers

Santa has whiskers.  They are long and form a beard.  These cookies are named for Santa's beard but the whiskers are represented by coconut in which the cookie is rolled.   If the cookie is done  right the coconut stick out from the finished cookie and it suggests that Santa got too close to the open hearth and singed the ends of his beard.

Santa Whisker Cookies made from a log

Santa's Whiskers, a colorful cookie, not only has coconut but is full of green and red candied cherries that are diced into small pieces.  Because of the red cherries the cookie takes on a pink coloring.  Adding to the richness of the cookie are diced pecans.  With the coconut, pecans and cherries the cookie has a unique taste that begs to be added to the Christmas Cookie Table.

Diced Green & Red Candied Cherries & Pecan Bits

Mixing the dough takes less than 15 minutes using the spatula tool on my KitchenAid Mixer.  Then it is divided into logs and rolled in the coconut flakes before placing in the refrigerator to get the log ready for cutting.  I left my cookies in the refrigerator about a half an hour and the log was set enough for me to use my two handled cheese block cutter to make the slices.

Dough log rolled in coconut

Once the cookies came out of the oven I left them on the pans to cool before placing them in a Tupperware square keeper with wax paper between the layers.  These cookies will keep well because of the candied fruit that is in the cookie.

I've made my Santa Whisker Cookies this way year after year.

Santa Whisker Cookies made into Balls

Recently when I was looking at a cooking site I found a variation of this same cookie but the recipe called for making the dough into balls and then rolling the balls in coconut.  You then bake the balls for 15 minutes at 350 deg to get a slightly browned effect on the coconut.  I think I'll give this variation a try this year.

That's our Christmas cookie for today.  The link to the recipe can be found above.  Come back tomorrow when we will be making another of my favorites for the holiday.

Christmas Cookies - Italian Love Knots

This simple cookie doesn't take a lot of ingredients but the consistency of the dough is essential to making good Italian Love Knots.

Italian Love Knots with Icing and Sprinkles

This cookie was a favorite of my Italian husband and his mother made these year round.  Although the cookie calls for a glaze icing, my husband preferred them without any icing.  After his mother passed, and the children were teenagers, he would hold cookie making sessions and we all got involved in making these cookies.

Love Knots fresh from the oven.

We all love them and when we lived in Aspinwall, we were spoiled because we could walk around the corner to Labriola's Italian Store and buy a bag of these in the back of the store.  They had that homemade taste and you almost couldn't tell that they were bought in a store.

Italian Love Knotts from Labriola's

I am not really good at making Love Knots, but my daughter became an expert and knew exactly when the consistency was right.  She gets the job of making these for any family function.  Since I'm not good at these, I called her last week and told her she was in charge of these again this year.

Love Knots ready for the oven

As much as I used to bake at Christmas time, this daughter and her husband make dozen after dozen of cookies and my only request for a Christmas present is to have them give me a tin of their cookies.

Pumpkin Cookies from Apple Cookie & Chocolate Company, Pittsburgh, PA

I have to admit that I have known about this local cookie baking company for quite a few years, but have never taken the time to try their cookies.  Although they are local they do not adhere to the local bake shop image.  Apple Cookie & Chocolate Company is located in a converted steel mill in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania.  They mostly cater to the trade show venue making specialties for corporations and businesses.

Pumpkin Cookie from Apple Cookie & Chocolate Co.

The picture above is my presentation of one of their specialty cookies for the Halloween season.  I love these with a cup of coffee in the morning.  The container is not one of the containers from Apple Cookie & Chocolate Company but one that my son used to fill with cookies that he bought.  My son formerly worked at the restored mill and ordered $20 worth of these fabulous cookies.  He has brought home some of their other cookies in the past but I can't eat semisweet chocolate anymore so I have tried a piece of their cookies but not really paid too much attention to their products until now.

A couple of years ago I ordered these cookies for my special Halloween treats for my trick or treating guests.  Since I'm known in the neighborhood as the cookie lady, these were the perfect treat for them.  Apple Cookie normally packages their cookies differently but they wrapped these for my son individually.

Two years ago when I went to purchase for the upcoming holiday, I was disappointed because they only package the pumpkin cookies in the larger size and they cost $1.50 each.  That is too expensive for my purpose since over 150 children come to my door each year, but I will order enough for my personal craving for these cookies and my special bags for my grandchildren.

They also carry buckets of their chocolate Chip, Oatmeal Raisin, White Chocolate and Peanut Cutter in cans for special occasions.

Besides baking cookies this company does specialty marketing gift selections.  They are online and can be viewed at http://www.applecookies.com.   If you are looking for that special treat for a party or shower, I recommend you give this website a look see.

Halloween at Paddy Cake Bakery, Bloomfield, Pittsburgh, PA

When you are out and about looking for those Halloween Treats, there's a local bakery in the Bloomfield neighborhood that fills the bill and is sure to have just what you want.  I feature them each year for Halloween because they do such a fantastic job in decorating for this holiday.



This bakery has never changed their icing recipe that was brought over from the old country and is simply the best butter cream icing that I've ever tasted.  Light and Fluffy without that gritty sugar taste.

Halloween is a fun time at the bakery and their decorators go crazy with the theme.  The ghost cakes have petit four icing on them.

and the wonderful petit fours are decorated with Fall Mums.




On the spookier side they offer the ever popular coffin cake. 

OR, you can get a half cake mounted into a backdrop with a design to be a haunted house. 

If you want to get macabre, you can buy a brain cake.

 Halloween is a time to tickle the youngster's taste buds and Paddy cake does that with their candy apples during the Halloween season.

Halloween wouldn't be complete without cookies and Paddy Cake has sugar cookies that are pumpkin cut outs.

or pumpkin gob  cookies.

Whatever your Halloween pleasure, you wont be disappointed if you visit Paddy Cake Bakery in the heart of the Bloomfield business section of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

A couple of more designs by Paddy Cake Bakery.

Happy Halloween Shopping



October Pumpkin Recipe Month

"All our pies are pumpkin here."

When I was a child, my paternal grandfather would stop at Donohue's Bakery on the way home to purchase a dessert.  He would telephone and ask what we wanted.  I would say, "pumpky pie."  He would retort, "All our pies are pumpkin here."  I have always been particularly fond of pumpkin pie and my maternal grandfather baked the best pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving.  He was a pastry master when it came to crust.  From the time I was a child, I always graded a pie by the crust rather than the filling even though I love pie in general.

Mashed Pumpkin Flower Patties

The flowers that you see above can be eaten too.  My neighbors cuts them as they flower.  She takes them in and mixes them with bread crumbs and eggs.  Then she pan fries them in a thin layer of oil.  The end result is a bit too sweet for my taste in appetizers but they are good.  Giant Eagle was selling these flowers at an exorbitant price and its so easy to get your own by planting one pumpkin seed.  I prefer swiss chard patties to these.

Pumpkin Cookies with Orange Frosting

I love pumpkin baked goods and my best friend's mother had the best recipe for pumpkin cookies.  These cookies are soft bake and the icing is just sweet enough to not give the cookie a distinct flavor of it's own.  The recipe is an easy one and I recommend it for those little rug rats out there.

Pumpkin Bread

But my favorite pumpkin recipe of all is pumpkin bread.  I love it plain but I sometimes add walnuts.  My friends also add raisins but I'm not fond of raisins in baked goods so I'll just leave those out.  I love this just plain with some cream cheese spread on it.  I don't even want nuts in this one.

Pumpkin Chiffon Cake

Now this is a cake to die for.  It is so moist that you it got it's name from that feature.  Pumpkin Chiffon Cake is one of the best cakes that I have ever tasted and I make it in a bundt pan so that I can either ice it with  whipped cream icing or just dust it with powdered sugar and a dab of whipped cream on the cake when I serve it.  The end result is pretty as well as scrumptious.

Jack-o-lantern

I have made this recipe many times into a jack-o-lantern for Halloween by icing two bundt cakes to look like a pumpkin.  To be honest I used to make this using a spice cake because my Dad's birthday was on Halloween and his favorite was Spice Cake.  The same recipe can be made in mini bundt pans for individual jack-o-lanterns.

jack-o-lantern directions

The instructions for doing this are easy and pictured above.

Now that I have listed my favorites with the links to the recipes, I invite you to comment and give us your favorite recipe.