food – Page 5 – SIMCHA FISHER

Cheap and Easy Christmas Things that Even You Can Do!

I assume you’re already doing all the religious stuff, and have already bought, made, figured out, or given up on gifts. Here are a bunch of other nice Christmasy things you can do pretty easily, using materials that you may actually have in your house and skills you can probably muster up even at this stage of your life.

SOMETHING SWEET TO EAT:

Fudge recipe that doesn’t require a candy thermometer.

Can be dressed up with various nuts, crushed candies, flavored chips (peanut butter, mint, butterscotch, etc.), but yummy on its own. There are also lots of other great recipes on that page, with clear instructions.

Also more of less foolproof, and without any exotic ingredients or equipment, but messy to make: buckeyes. I let the kids do this one, since it involves a lot of hand-mooshing of dough and unsanitary dipping in chocolate.

SOMETHING SAVORY TO EAT:

Jew-for-a-day potato latkes that are great for Chanukah but don’t require any special Jew ingredients. I didn’t bother with the cheesecloth; I just squeezed out the potato shreds in a colander and added a bit of extra flour. So tasty and tender. Serve with sour cream. Leave time to go lie down afterwards.

SOMETHING TO LISTEN TO:

Christmas music that is free and won’t make you grind your teeth: The Boston Camerata never disappoints.

SOME DECORATIONS TO MAKE:

Neat Christmas decorations that require only some paper, a stapler, and some string.

The dog actually made this one, and he’s an idiot! That’s how easy it is! The dog couldn’t even find the stapler, so he used needle and thread. For a fancier look, try using this basic idea, but with lots of different sizes and shapes (giant to tiny), different cuts (straight, scalloped, etc.), with shiny, patterned, or regular paper, and hang them from string or ribbons or yarn, and add sparkly beads to the string. Instantly dresses up a room if you hang up half a dozen from the ceiling.

We also had fun last year gluing together various kinds of pasta for ornaments. Hot glue worked the best. These can be painted (metallic spray paint is great) or even colored with markers, but you can also get on board the “natural pasta look” train that is not actually a thing. We made wreaths, trees, angels, instruments, and all kinds of stars. We really did! But here are the ones I can actually find, to take a picture of, including the inevitable unfinished Dalek:

Just look on Pinterest for “pasta ornament” and you’ll see all the possibilities. Because it’s Christmas, I didn’t say “pastabilities.”

SOMETHING TO READ OUT LOUD:

Full text of A Christmas Carol by Dickens from Project Gutenberg. I have never actually gotten around to reading this out loud to the kids, but it’s doable. It’s a long short story, not a novel. If you can find a copy of it anywhere, the 1951 movie with Alastair Sim is the best by far.

SOMETHING TO AVOID:

Contentious social media. Seriously, if you are feeling stressed out and overwhelmed, you will not feel more peaceful and generous after spending time arguing about torture, racism, rape culture, or liturgical practices, so just close that tab and go find something nicer to do with your time. It’s not that these things aren’t important, and it’s not that you’re wrong. It’s just arguing about them is not going to help us get ready for Christmas. Save some argy bargy for the New Year! It’ll keep.

Yes, your kids can pack their own lunches. BUT . . .

You really do want to check them before they leave the house. Not that there is anything wrong with an actually quite balanced and hearty meal consisting of ham, carrots, apple sauce, an apple, yogurt, and …

bread-and-butter balls. “It’s just something I invented,” the kindergartner mentions casually.

And then we have this meal prepared by the third grader:

who is willing to face the day knowing she has peanuts, two cold waffles, and a bag of tuna lurking in her cubby. Yeah, I checked her bag before she left. I added some green peppers and kissed her goodbye. Because we all know that sometimes all it takes to make a day go bad is the wrong kind of lunch:

At the Register: God and the Hungry Belly

[L]et’s make a distinction here. Christ and the saints exhort us to deny ourselves, to voluntarily turn away from the lure of physical comforts, to sell all we have to follow Him. He wants us to learn that we have a choice: to give ourselves over to the demands of the flesh, or to master the flesh and try, instead, to satisfy our spiritual hunger and thirst.

Christ and the saints did not exhort us to deny others, to prevent other people from enjoying physical comforts. He did not tell us to make the choice for other people. Instead, He told us, over and over and over again, to feed His sheep. And that’s what the saints did: they fed people. Yes, with plain old physical food, that poor people could eat with their bodily mouths and digest with their earthbound bellies.

Read the rest at the Register.

At the Register: To serve your parents

Late afternoon finds me slaving over a hot Facebook page, gorging on a smorgasbord of tantalizing photos with captions like: “Here is my 8-year-old carefully chopping the chives she grew in her little garden! This is the second time this week she’s made pork medallions herbs de provence, but we’re not complaining, as long as her little brother provides those scrumptious grilled peaches with caramel bourbon sauce for dessert! They are so cute with their aprons. <3 <3 <3″

Yes, well. I believe in equipping a child for independent living, and if that education makes life a little easier for mom at the same time, all the better. At the same time, we’re talking about kids who sometimes miss their target while putting their own pants on. I’m not showing them where the knife sharpener is.

Read the rest at the Register.

What’s your roast beast?

My favorite part of How the Grinch Stole Christmas is where he brings back the roast beast. Because while it’s true that Christmas isn’t about presents or decorations or food, you really do want to have that special Christmas food!

PIC the grinch himself carved the roast beast

If we can manage it, we spend Christmas Eve drinking egg nog and decorating the tree, then going to Midnight Mass. Then Christmas morning is presents and chocolate and a breakfast of eggs, bacon, fresh fruit, and cinnamon buns. Candy all day. Then — and here is the most brilliant idea we’ve ever had — Chinese take-out for dinner. I think this tradition was instituted on the Christmas that I was 8 and 24/30ths months pregnant with baby #6, and was not up to cooking a ham or turkey that nobody wanted anyway. But somehow, no matter how stuffed with marshmallow Santas you are, there is always room for meat on a stick.

For the rest of Christmas food (which we make during vacation, which means they may not appear until after Christmas day) here are my tried and true recipes, suitable for anyone who can follow directions, but isn’t especially gifted in the kitchen:

Skaarup’s Lunatic Fudge Lots of variations. The kids like the one with crushed candy canes. You don’t need a candy thermometer to make this stuff, and can turn out pounds and pounds of it pretty easily.

Buckeyes. These are delicious, and easy enough for the kids to make mostly on their own. I just go in the other room and pretend I don’t know what horrors are transpiring.

NB: I do not recommend adding a dab of chocolate to cover up the toothpick hole, unless you are prepared for candy that doubles as a female anatomy lesson. Ha-cha-cha!

Peanut brittle. I always hated peanut brittle, so I don’t even know why I tried this recipe. But it is fantastic. Very light and airy, nothing like the tooth-loosening stuff you get at the store. Oh, and the part where you add the baking powder and it foams up like crazy? FUN. You can also make it with other kinds of nuts.

I don’t usually make cookies, because they just seem to flow into the house on their own. Also, I made terrible cookies.

How about you? What are your essential Christmas foods?

Arista Pasta!

Arista Pasta! Isn’t that a great name?

My brother-in-law’s brother Benjamin Herried (yes, the same family who produced John Herreid, who did my book cover! Ridiculously talented bunch of people) has been selling fabulous handmade pasta products at their local farmer’s market, using local sustainable produce. Delicacies like Caramelized Fall Pear and Gorgonzola Ravioli and Sweet Potato and Roasted Garlic Gnocchi.

Pardon me, I need to mop the drool off my keyboard.

So, it’s been very popular, and they could be doing so much more, but the only have use of a commercial kitchen once a week. If they could find their own kitchen and get some equipment, they could really take off. But starting a business in Washington State is an expensive and cumbersome process, I hear. Lots of fees from state and local goverments, lots of hoops to jump through.

So they’re launching a Kickstarter Campain to raise some funds for Arista Pasta. Check out this video, that begins with a still of one of their five lovely kids enjoying her daddy’s pasta, with the lovely jumble of family life behind her, with the lovely rosary draped down the side. (If the video isn’t showing up, you can see it here. It’s short and sweet!)

I only made pasta once in my life, with the Junior Catholic Daughters of the Americas, and it was not an elevating experience. Ben Herreid, though, is all about detail, all about doing it right. For instance, he’s using these gorgeous bronze pasta dies for the best texture:

Sorry, I’m immoderately fascinated by the bronze pasta dies. I want some.

Benjamin’s wife Anne Marie told me,

I want people to know that if they contribute even five bucks they’ve made our day, we aren’t looking for massive bank breaking support. We’re hoping for a bunch of little support and of course prayers. I really loved the recent reading about the guy who goes and bugs his neighbor for a loaf of bread in the middle of the night to feed a visitor, and how he relents cause it’s just so annoying. That’s us.

How can you resist? Arista Pasta! And they have lovely gifts for donors at various levels. And please, even if you can’t contribute, say a quick prayer for their success — and spread the word! Thanks.

Self-explanatory Halloween party treats that you can totally do

Now that I posted about Lou Reed, I feel a little more comfortable slipping into mommy blog territory for a minute. I just signed up to bring treats for my kid’s Halloween party. I actually love doing things like this, but I know I’m going to be busy this week. If you’re making Halloween treats, here are a few possibilities for projects that you can figure out how to do without reading the directions:

A few years ago, I made these:

and achieved the holy grail of internet-inspired treats: THEY TURNED OUT EXACTLY LIKE THE PICTURE. Very easy, if somewhat time consuming, and the kids loved them. Apple slices, peanut butter, mini marshmallows. Here’s a variation with almond slivers (and no, the kids did not care that the apples had browned a bit):

You could also use halves of cookies for the lips and pink icing for the gums, if you have to go nut-free (but check the cookie ingredients to make sure they’re safe).

I think we will go with these this year:

Pretzel rods dipped in candy coating. I think you could also use white chocolate with a spoonful of oil, and it might be cheaper. They say to use a special edible marker to make the faces, but you could use any number of other things while the coating is still wet – chocolate sprinkles, maybe raisins, chocolate chips.

You could also use melted chocolate with a spoonful of oil, and just fling on some black and orange sprinkles or whatever. Lots of possibilities here:

Kids are always really impressed by these, for some reason, especially if you present lots of varieties to choose from.

Here’s something a little more complicated (unless you buy pre-made cookies) but still simple and effective: gingerbread skeletons.

Most effective if your cookies turn out dark, which not all recipes do.

And I know my kid’s teacher has a pretty good sense of humor, but she may or may not be thrilled if I bring this in.

BUT IT’S SO HEALTHY!

How about you? Did you make any rash promises? Any disasters to report?

Gov’t shutdown means food pantries need help – UPDATED

I know, I know, Big Brother is too big, and it’s super fun to crow about what a vast improvement it is when government is shut down — no more panda cam, boo hoo hoo.

But for many people, the shutdown is no joke. Since our fearless leaders in Washington are covering themselves with glory (and I include both parties. I’m completely disgusted with every last one of them), there are plenty of Americans who face genuine hardship.

The WIC program will run out of federal funding in a few days, and various states may or may not have enough funding to continue the program. WIC provides nutritious food to nursing and pregnant women and their children ages five and under. I can clearly remember a time when our family — yes, while we were employed full time and living thriftily — absolutely depended on food from WIC. Eggs and tuna, cereal and milk is what we lived on, and if that had run out, we would have gone hungry.

School lunch programs will also lose their federal funding soon. Many kids depend on school lunch as their main meal of the day. (It doesn’t matter whether or not you think the government should be supplying lunch, or what you imagine you know about parents who have spent money on tattoos or whatever. We’re just talking about kids who need to be fed.)

The Department of Veteran’s Affairs will run out of funding, so they won’t be able to pay the pensions and benefits for veterans. And any government employee who’s been furloughed may certainly be low on food.

Please consider bringing a bag of shelf-stable groceries to your local St. Vincent de Paul food pantry, or whatever local organization distributes food to people who need it.

It doesn’t matter what you think about the proper role of government. Our response to hunger and need is not a political statement. We are just talking about people who will not have food in their bellies. If you have $5, $10, $20 that won’t break your budget, please please shop for hungry people next time you go shopping, and encourage your friends to do the same. Maybe explain to your kids that you’re going to skip dessert this weekend and use that money to buy food for people who would otherwise be skipping dinner.

If you don’t know where your local food pantry is, call your church — they will be able to direct you. Many supermarkets have donation bins, or you can add a monetary donation to your grocery bill.

Again: not a political statement. Just a work of mercy.

UPDATE: My sister Abby reminds me that many women and babies depend on WIC for formula, including expensive specialty formula for babies with various allergies. Another reader reminds me that it couldn’t hurt to ask your local food pantry if they are more in need of food or money donations.

A big fat lady just sat on my hat.

So, we celebrate Columbus Day here. As I’ve mentioned, it’s not because I think he was a perfect man (there was only one of those. We get His day off school, too), or because I think that his achievement brought unmitigated blessings to mankind. Still and all, I’m glad to be on this continent, I’m glad to have a three-day weekend, and I love me some eye-talian food.

On the menu is bruschetta with various disgusting toppings that the kids won’t eat, mwa ha ha ha ha hahh (that was the sound of me contemplating eating it all myself), some kind of antipasto with those awful marinated vegetables I can’t get enough of, probably mussels or something, suppli, cannoli with cherries and shaved chocolate, and Italian ices. It’s possible that some wine might leap into the shopping cart all by itself, too.

As you can see, this is a pretty Americanized Italian feast. That’s just my way of sticking it to l’uomo. Take that, Columbus! If you’re such a hero, how come we’re not eating . . . well, I tried and tried to think of some kind of authentic Italian food which sounds gross, but I really couldn’t. Maybe something with, like, ox brains or something? The worst thing I had to eat in Rome was rabbit, and that was only kind of awful because we thought it was chicken, until we realized the legs were bending the wrong way. Oh, and there were some kind of snack food that was exactly like biodegradable packing peanuts. Those weren’t very good — or filling, which was terribly important for a student who was living on about 70 cents a day.

Anyway, here is my recipe for suppli, which is what we had for lunch most days in Rome (one semester in college). They cost 800 – 1,000 lire each, a few years before they switched –sniff sniff– to the Euro. Normally, I wouldn’t touch a recipe with a secondary recipe in it, but this one is worth it, believe me!

(photo source)

SUPPLI

2 eggs

2 cups risotto (see recipe below)

4 oz. mozzarella in 1/2-inch cubes

3/4 cup bread crumbs

oil for frying

tomato sauce, if you like

Beat eggs lightly until just combined.

Add risotto and stir thoroughly, but do not mash rice.

If you want tomato sauce (this is how they were served in Rome), add it now – just enough to make it tomato-y, without thinning the mixture.

Form a ball about the size of a golf ball, make a little dent in it, stick a cube of cheese in the dent, and then add on another golf-ball sized lump of the rice mixture. Form it all into a smooth egg shape. Roll the whole thing in bread crumbs. Do this until you use up all the rice mixture.

Refrigerate the balls for 30 minutes if you can, to make them easier to fry.

Heat oil to 375 degrees; preheat oven to 250 degrees.

Fry 4 or 5 balls at a time, about 5 minutes until they are golden brown. The cheese inside should be melted.

Drain on paper towels, and keep the suppli warm in the oven while you are frying the rest — but these should be served pretty soon.

Risotto recipe:

7 cups chicken stock

4 Tbs butter

1/2 cup finely chopped onions

2 cups raw white rice

1/2 cup dry white wine

4 Tbs soft butter

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Set chicken stock to simmer in a pot.

In a large pan, melt 4 Tbs. butter – cook onions until soft but not brown.

Stir in raw rice and cook 1-2 minutes until the grains glisten and are opaque.

Pour in the wine and boil until wine is absorbed.

Add 2 cups of simmering stock and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally until the liquid is almost absorbed.

Add 2 more cups of stock and cook until absorbed.

If the rice is not tender by this point, keep adding 1/2 cups of stock until it is tender.

Gently stir in the 4 Tbs soft butter and the grated cheese with a fork.

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(photo source)

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