BACON + EGG DROP SOUP

you guys, i can't contain my excitement for the winter solstice this weekend.

do you know how much daylight i get up in these parts? how much time i have to shoot photos?

like, zero hours.

ok maybe two.

it makes me so stressed sometimes, i could spit!

some days i force myself to stare at the window as the sun goes down (at 3pm) just so that i can get an ounce of vitamin d. i hear people around here go to tanning beds to get their dose.

i feel like i really have to scramble to get things done.

oh did someone say scramble?

....today in my merry jewish christmas preparations, i have made some scrambled eggs cooked in soup! it is perhaps the easiest and most magical way to cook eggs. it's an old favorite of mine, and watching the eggs cook as they get swirled into the broth is about as exciting as christmas day. well, sort of.

bacon + egg drop soup 

based on a recipe that i wrote for the beautiful but sadly defunct online magazine, the violet.

makes 2-4 servings

ingredients

4 c chicken broth

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 stalks scallions, minced

1 1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

6 strips bacon (any kind- i use turkey), prepared and chopped into 1-inch pieces

soy sauce, to taste

red chili flakes, to taste

1 tsp black pepper

2 tsp cornstarch

3 eggs

clues

combine the first 8 ingredients plus 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper in a large saucepan over medium high heat. bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

in a small bowl, stir together the cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of broth. set aside.

in another bowl, beat eggs with remaining 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper. slowly drizzle into the soup, stirring gently. and then slowly stir in the cornstarch mixture.

taste to adjust seasonings, and enjoy!

-yeh!

SNOW CARAMELS

i promise, cross my heart, that i'm not just saying this so that all of you will visit me in this new tundra home of mine, but -16ºf is really not that bad.

maybe it's that i've been overly prepared with my new sweater layering skills and my new favorite thing, the bomber hat.

maybe it's that i never have to walk to a subway or hail a cab.

maybe it's that it gives me a good reason to stay inside and bake all day.

snow here is a friendly snow and people accept it. they don't kvetch about it, cancel their work, and then drink all day. life carries on, people bundle up, they drive safely. i hear there are even free cross country ski rentals at a local park.

this weekend, the snow helped us make caramels! we heated up our sugars and then poured it into the deep farm snow for the fastest cooling caramels i ever did make.

i imagine you can use any caramel recipe. i used the kitchn's. cooling caramels in the snow isn't the thing to do if you want perfect, smooth, rectangular, cutely wrapped, chewy caramels. it's more the thing to do if you want to have fun in the snow but are too much of a scaredy cat for a snow ball fight and just not feeling free spirited enough to make a snow angel.

they'll probably be a little bit crackly on the outsides from being frozen in the snow, and their shapes will be awkward. but you'll have fun, i promise.

basically all you do is you cook your sugars according to the recipe, and then instead of pouring the syrup into a prepared pan, quickly (and carefully!) run outside and drizzle it in some deep and clean snow. use a spoon or spatula to collect the hardened caramels from the snow, and then rinse off excess snow in a colander. pat them to dry and enjoy! 

don't forget to brush your teeth.

-yeh!

RECIPE: MARZIPAN MANDEL BREAD WITH CACAO NIBS AND SEA SALT

these days, our favorite thing to do on a cold snowy night (which is pretty much every night) is to wash up, get in our comfy clothes, and then head down the road to eggboy's parents' house to watch marathon runs of homeland on their big screen. it is like a staycation. egg eats soup, and together we predict every five minutes what is going to happen in the next five minutes. i'm usually wrong and eggboy is almost always right.

sometimes we burst out laughing because it's hard to take everything so seriously after that ridiculous saturday night live parody. but in general we're addicted.

we're about most of the way through season two, and i officially have a favorite character: saul berenson. i want to be his bff. he doesn't randomly stab people, he doesn't have jazz freak-outs, he isn't a double agent, he's the only logical, honest, real-life-like character. he is also really smart and he has a really great beard. i basically wish he could be my uncle.

i realized that i get the same feeling watching him as i do when i watch taystee on orange is the new black. i had a class with danielle (who plays taystee) back at juilliard, and what makes her so fun to watch in orange is the new black is that taystee comes so naturally to her. the happy, smiley, hilarious girl that is taystee is also danielle.

and i might be totally wrong about this, it could just be really wonderful acting, but last night it occurred to me that i wouldn't be surprised if the actor who plays saul is exactly like saul in real life.

so i internet researched him, or mandy patinkin, who plays him, and learned that 1) he played inigo montoya in the princess bride, 2) it's impossible to tell from the internet if saul berenson = mandy patinkin, and 3) mandy is short for mandel.

which was a sign that i should make mandel bread. the end.

mandel bread is basically the jewish equivalent to biscotti. it's hard and meant to be dipped in coffee or tea. "mandel" means almonds, so you'll usually find it with sliced almonds along with cinnamon sugar, dried fruit, or chocolate chips. i like this marzipan version because it adds a bit of softness to break up the texture of the dense cookie. the cacao nibs lend a bitter taste, which i like, but you are welcome to use regular chocolate chips.

marzipan mandel (patinkin) bread with cacao nibs and sea salt

makes 18 large pieces

inspired by a recipe from the shiksa.

ingredients

3 c flour

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp kosher salt

1 c vegetable oil

1 c sugar

3 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

1 8-oz can of marzipan (a 7-oz tube will work fine too), chopped into small pieces and dusted with a bit of powdered sugar

1/2 c cacao nibs or dark chocolate chips

a few pinches of sea salt and pearl sugar for sprinkling

clues

in a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and kosher salt, and set aside.

in a large bowl, whisk together oil and sugar. whisk in the eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla and almond extracts.

whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, and then fold in the marzipan and cacao nibs or chips.

cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour, up to overnight.

preheat oven to 350f.

line a baking sheet with parchment, divide dough into two equal parts, and then form long rectangles, about 4 inches wide. leave a few good inches in between the rectangles because they will spread in the oven. sprinkle the tops with pearl sugar and a few pinches of sea salt and then bake for 25 minutes.

remove from the oven and reduce heat to 250. cut the rectangles into 1-inch pieces and place them on their sides. bake at 250 for 20 more minutes, or until desired crispiness. 

enjoy while watching homeland.

-yeh!

PEPPERMINT MARSHMALLOW SANDWICH COOKIES

as a total cultural mutt who grew up celebrating both christmas and hanukkah, you know what i am enjoying right now? focusing my energy on christmas. i mean, i love hanukkah. i love latkes, and donuts, and candles... but i also love that it was combined with thanksgiving this year and not christmas.

when you celebrate christmas and hanukkah, you always find yourself spending the extra syllable to say happy chrismukkah, you look for hanukkah ornaments for your chrismukkah bush, you add the adam sandler hanukkah song onto holiday playlists because you'll feel bad if it's just christmas tunes, you spend five minutes at the town tree lighting ceremony finding the itsy bitsy menorah.... oh, and you have to save room for latkes and this can sometimes mean eating less cookies.

no.

yes.

eating less cookies in the name of latkes. it's just what needs to be done sometimes.

and that may be the number one reason why i am enjoying this quality alone time with christmas.

i took part in a christmas cookie swap. a giant massive international one! it was so cool. i typically don't do this type of thing, but since moving here, i have been loving sending out cute little packages of goodies to my friends in other states. and you should see how adorable the town post office is. it's in a little brick and white house that closes for a lunch hour, there's never a line, and bruce is the name of the sweet man that is always behind the counter. mailing things is my new favorite.

my cookie for the swap was inspired by peppermint joe-joe's. i love those little guys. i made my take on them, and knowing that they would have to be sturdy enough for a few days in the mail, i made the centers out of marshmallow.

the result was a chewy, chocolatey, peppermint delight! 

peppermint marshmallow sandwich cookies

1. make one batch of smitten kitchen's brownie roll-out cookies (tip: instead of dusting your work surface with flour, dust it with cocoa powder so the chocolatey color doesn't fade.)

2. make one batch of this marshmallow recipe, but replace the vanilla extract with peppermint extract, and then omit the colored sanding sugar and cocoa/chocolate chips. basically you only need to follow steps 3-8. 

3. pipe a dollop of marshmallow cream onto the centers of half of your cookies, and then top them with another cookie. let set for a few hours and then enjoy!

-yeh!