Sunday, March 03, 2024

A Sunday Afternoon Cooking Spree

For most of my cooking life, I've not really been one to meal prep, preferring to cook a meal most evenings. Lately, though, evening activities and scheduling have made it so that it is nice to have pre-made food on hand, especially on Mondays and Tuesdays. When I get around to making 3-4 dishes on Sunday afternoon, the week gets off to a more peaceful start. 

Today, I managed to do that with these 4 dishes. Without planning it that way, it ended up being a variety of proteins (eggs, paneer, tofu, beans) and a variety of veg in each, and a diversity of cuisines and cooking styles- curry, stir-fry, salad, casserole. 

First up, hash brown casserole, made with pesto this time. My kids love this for breakfast, dinner, snack.


The second dish was a tandoori paneer and mushroom kati roll filling. We eat paneer rarely but I had this block left over from the cooking class. I marinated paneer, mushroom, red peppers and onions for 20 minutes or so in a tandoori marinade (yogurt, besan, kasuri methi, tandoori masala, salt, red chili powder, cumin coriander powder, turmeric) and then sauteed it in a pan.


Third, a bean salad. I soaked and cooked black eyed peas (not pressure cooked- they would turn to mush. Black eyed peas cook quickly on the stove top) and then tossed them with fresh tomato and cucumber, a little onion and cilantro, salt and pickled jalapenos. 


Finally, there was some Thai red curry paste in the fridge, and I used that along with half a can of coconut milk, some cabbage and carrot and extra-firm tofu to make a quick curry in the instant pot. 


All of this, along with clean-up and a side mission- pantry tidy-up- all took me more or less 2 hours. 

* * *

Some random photos from the last couple of weeks:

My spouse went to Australia for 8 days for a work trip and sent me this pic of a koala perched in a tree, somehow looking more like a stuffed animal than most stuffed animals.

Koala near Melbourne

While their dad was away, I promised the kids I would take them out to dinner anywhere they liked, and my son inexplicably chose a pretty fancy Italian bistro- not what you would call a kid-friendly place. I honored my agreement after many reminders that he would have to use his nice manners and inside voice. We went and were sat in the loveliest booth in our regular school and work clothes, amid nicely dressed couples on dates and groups enjoying celebratory dinners. The meal was quite a success but the 7 yr old discovered that he does not like fancy pizza (a Margherita with buffalo mozzarella) and fancy spaghetti (with lemon and cream) as much as he likes regular pizza and regular spaghetti- lol. 

Fancy mango gelato topped with
toasted coconut 

A dear school friend came by for Sunday brunch with her family- I was seeing them after 7 years. The success of the meal was...mixed. It was an idli brunch and while the sambar was tasty, the idlis were the absolute worst I have made in my life. I have to reluctantly concede that no matter your perceived level of expertise, idli batter does have a mind of its own, especially in winter. My heart sank, much like the idlis themselves. Everyone was gracious, of course, and no one left hungry- there was other food and they even bravely ate the idlis. The one success were the eggless rose and pistachio cupcakes I made, which my daughter adorned with a simple glaze of icing sugar, rose water and lemon juice, and a sprinkling of dried edible rose petals.

Eggless pistachio and rose cupcakes

Our town has had hazy skies for a while because of wildfires in neighboring areas. Today we were graced by clear spring-like weather and I sat on the deck and was mesmerized by this sight. Also, two turkey vultures circled over my head for 10 minutes. Should I be worried??

Turkey vultures have their eyes on me

I'll end with a link to a lovely article I read recently. I've been reading off and on about meditation and was intrigued with the concept of non-dualism and did a quick web search looking for some extra reading on it. I stumbled upon an article, a truly lucid and beautiful explanation of the rather abstract (but really, not abstract at all) concept of non-self.

Happy March! How was the last half of February for you? Also, One Hot Stove turned 19 years old last month. Thank you for being here 💙

Wednesday, February 14, 2024

A onesie cake, and chutney sandwiches

We're almost halfway through February! It has been a busy month full of fun and not-fun things so far. But just life, ya know, and it is all good. 

I had the opportunity to teach an Indian cooking class at a very cool local cooking establishment that is a combo gourmet cookware store, plus has a beautiful cooking school set-up, and employs a professional chef for their in-house cafe and prix-fixe dinners. The theme of the 2-hour class was Indian Buffet Favorites and it was sold out, with 18 participants who worked in pairs of two to put the meal together. We talked about buffet food and homestyle food and regional Indian cuisine while they enjoyed some bubbly and namkeen- store-bought chakli and khakhra and mixture. The rest of the menu was cauliflower-potato puff-pastry samosas with date and tamarind chutney, matar paneer with cucumber-carrot raita and jeera rice, and mock kulfi with store-bought gulab jamuns. I enjoyed teaching the class immensely.  

For me, it was a stretch opportunity as I had to take recipes that I have made for 6-8 people dozens of times, and scale them up to feed 20 people. I made the curry sauce, date chutney and samosa filling in advance, and had to cook them on the blazing burners and oversized pots and pans of the commercial kitchen- a very unfamiliar milieu for me. My confidence was boosted by the fact that I did not burn down the place, or injure myself or others, and, to top it all, my eyeballed estimates for spices/seasonings for all the recipes worked fine and all the dishes tasted as they should. 

The chef made jeera rice in the oven- just placing basmati rice (6 cups of it), boiling water, butter, cumin seeds, salt in a foil-covered baking dish and baking at (I think) 425F for 20-25 mins. It turned out beautifully and I'll have to try baking rice at home now. 

The not-fun thing this month is that there is a wave of respiratory illnesses and stomach bugs blazing through town. My daughter and I had what we thought was a bout of the flu, but now it has progressed to what is colloquially known as "walking pneumonia". We're both back at school/work but on a course of steroids and antibiotics, and hoping to resolve our inflamed lungs and congested heads. 

I was on a real exercise/running streak last month and now I am sedentary with no exercise other than brief walking. It is a sobering reminder that - cliched as that sounds- the active lifestyle is a lifelong journey. I won't even say it is a marathon and not a sprint, because marathons end in a few hours! There will surely be ups and downs. Life will humble us, throw curveballs big and small, and we have to get back on our feet. Every day we have to wake up and do what we can with what we have. It makes me appreciate good health for the true gift that it is. 

Onesie cake

I have two quick recipes to share today. I hosted a small baby shower for a friend and made a cute little onesie cake for the occasion, using this Craftsy tutorial. This is a good one for people like me who enjoy baking but are blessed with rudimentary decorating skills. I used this cake recipe to make a 9x13 cake, and a batch of this less sweet frosting recipe. With a couple of cuts (remember the baker gets to snack on the off-cuts- those are the rules), the rectangular cake was transformed into a little onesie, then frosted with an offset spatula, sprinkled with some rainbow nonpareils as the fabric print, outlined for extra cuteness and personalized with an initial. Ta da! 

* * *

To go with the cake, we had some veggies and dip, and crunchy snacks, a cheese plate, and V made some chutney sandwiches, the kind that are such a popular street food in Mumbai. The herbal green chutney is easy enough to make at home, but these days, I often buy a tub of zhoug sauce from Trader Joe's to use as the chutney. The taste is spot-on and spicy! 

Chutney sandwiches

  1. Use good sliced bread. Our favorite supermarket bread is the Goldminer sourdough square bread. Either use fresh bread or toast it slightly before assembling sandwiches.
  2. Butter the bread (a non traditional sub for the butter is mashed ripe avocado).
  3. Slather on some homemade green chutney or zhoug sauce on both slices. 
  4. Layer one slice with sliced fresh cucumbers and tomatoes.
  5. Shower with salt and pepper. 
  6. Sandwich together and enjoy! 
* * *

For a baby shower gift, I knitted a couple of hats, and made a set of burp cloths using store-bought cloth diapers and bits of novelty fabric from my stash. I had similar burp cloths for my kids when they were younger and those were some of the most useful things I had around when they were age 0-5! Here's the quick tutorial I used. 

Burp cloths set

 * * *
V and I rarely get around to organizing dinner dates for the two of us- childcare and all is a big drag and apparently so is my 8:30 PM bedtime! But we escape our desks every now and then for a lunch date. We went out for Eritrean/Ethiopian food and it was so good. I have not had this in a good long while. Pictured- soft injera with mounds of collard greens (gomen wat), lentils (misir wat), and cabbage/carrot/potato (atakilt wat), all perfectly cooked with Ethiopian spices. I love how hearty and vegan/vegetarian friendly it all is.


How is the first half of February treating you?

Monday, January 29, 2024

A homestyle bell pepper stir-fry

In over two decades of cooking, and even more decades of eating, so many recipes have come in and out of my life. Sometimes I will forget about a dish for months and years, and when I make it again, it is a joyful little reunion. That's what happened with a three-pack of green bell peppers this weekend that I rescued from the clearance produce rack of the supermarket. 

I do buy green bell peppers routinely, usually using them in supporting roles in fajita-style and Chinese-style stir-fries. This time I was reminded of the Maharashtrian homestyle dish called "peeth perun bhaji", which translates roughly as "sowing flour into a vegetable dish". It is a classic Marathi way to make a quick side-dish, where you stir fry vegetables- which could be something like cabbage or capsicum/ bell pepper, or a green leafy veg, or even green onions- and you add a bit of chickpea flour/ besan, to add some body and heft to the dish. 

We ate this simple dish with rice and homemade yogurt and a Swiss chard dal, and I can honestly say it is a best thing I ate all week. Here's a brief recipe with annotations.

Bell Pepper Peeth Perun Bhaji

  1. Heat 1-2 tsp. oil in a pan and temper it with mustard seeds, asafetida and turmeric powder. This is the classic first step of Maharashtrian cooking, with a phodni/tadka/tempering of the trio- halad (turmeric), hing (asafetida), mohri (mustard seeds)
  2. Now in go 3 diced bell peppers and salt
  3. Add other spices- red chili powder and cumin-coriander powder. Dhana-jeera powder or cumin coriander powder is another classic addition- it adds plenty of flavor without heat. The red chili powder (or minced fresh green chilies) bring the heat.
  4. Stir fry for a few minutes. 
  5. Now add 3 tbsp. chickpea flour or besan and 2 tbsp. crushed roasted peanuts. The peanut powder or danyacha koot is another Marathi pantry staple and adds flavor, texture and nuttiness to many simple dishes.
  6. Cover and cook on low-medium heat for 10 minutes or more, until peppers are soft and the dish is cooked through.
  7. Finally, add 1-2 tsp. sugar or jaggery, and a generous handful of minced fresh cilantro. I'm a fan of the Maharastrian goda jevan which is typified by a hint of sweetness in savory dishes. It brings out and rounds out the flavors.

* * *

It has been a busy couple of weeks due to hosting various groups of friends/ colleagues on weekends, and running to the kids' after-school activities on weekdays. I don't get as much time to read as I'd like, but manage to read a few pages before bed. The current bedside book is Dandelion Wine, a 1957 novel by Ray Bradbury, the acclaimed author probably best known for writing Fahrenheit 451. I love his short story, There Will Come Soft Rains

Dandelion Wine is a semi-autographical work based on Bradbury's boyhood, set in the summer of 1928 in the fictional town of Green Town, Illinois. As I'm reading this, I don't find a major plot line here. It is a series of vignettes or short stories/anecdotes about 12-year old Douglas and the simple joys of summer. “Sandwich outdoors isn’t a sandwich anymore. Tastes different than indoors, notice? Got more spice. Tastes like mint and pinesap. Does wonders for the appetite.” This book is prose but reads like poetry. I'm lost in the beauty of the words and couldn't tell you the story if there is one. 

The reason I picked up this book was because of a prompt in the POPSugar reading challenge, #2: A bildungsroman. What a great word (one of those German combo words.) A bildungsroman is a genre that includes books about growing up or "coming of age", or more strictly, psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood. I must say my very favorite bildungsroman is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, the 1943 semi-autobiographical novel by Betty Smith. If you haven't already read it I highly recommend it. 

Also reading- a fun interactive NYTimes article on menu trends (full gift article here). I love perusing restaurant menus for home cooking inspiration. 

And Kamini's evocative travel article- it transported me to the mangroves. 

Tell me the highlights of your January! 

Sunday, January 14, 2024

Lentil Pasta Sauce, and my First 10K Race

We're almost halfway through January and baby, it is cold outside. Easy comfort food is on the dinner menu these days. I have 47 pasta recipes pinned in my Pasta and Italian-ish recipes Pinterest folder, and decided to try one of them- the lentil bolognese from the beautiful vegan food blog, Rainbow Plant Life

The recipe uses pantry ingredients, and is fun to make. I followed the recipe closely, but skipped the wine. I did enjoy the resulting bolognese on some whole wheat spaghetti, but it does have a slight dal-on-pasta vibe for me. The rest of the family wasn't a big fan so I likely won't make it again. But it was refreshing to try something new for dinner, and I hope to keep working through my bookmarked recipes this year to find some keepers.

Lentil bolognese

My family's favorite three pasta dishes that I keep making on repeat:

  1. Spinach lasagna
  2. Stovetop mac and cheese (with tomato, like my grandma made and my mom makes)
  3. Roasted vegetable pesto pasta salad
* * *

Watching: Project Runway season 17 (2019) on Netflix with my daughter. It is my first time watching this show and I must say it is very entertaining. My daughter is a mature 12 year old and while this isn't strictly a tween show at all, it has been fun watching it together. It is the starting point for many interesting conversations, which are difficult enough to have at this age. Yesterday's episode sparked conversations about body size and interpersonal drama, and what "kitschy" means, and when you call something kitschy, are you saying it is good or bad?  

(Mild spoilers ahead) This is the 2019 season, filmed right before the pandemic hit, and interestingly one of the contestants is named Kovid Kapoor. My husband and daughter were gobsmacked with this contestant's name. The fact is (a) Kovid (pronounced correctly with a soft D) is a beautiful name and not a common one, meaning intelligent (or similar?) in Sanskrit and (b) this show was filmed pre-pandemic and this guy was given this name 2-3 decades ago. With COVID-19, this name is sadly ruined. Also, interestingly, Kovid Kapoor had a fabric face mask as an accessory for one of his outfits- and face masks were almost unheard of in the US before the pandemic. Anyway, this all lead to some lively conversations about names and coincidences! 

Reading: My son, 7.5 years old, has always loved being read to, but has not wanted to read independently for fun. This changed recently when he got into the Dog Man and Cat Kid comic books by Dav Pilkey. I hope he will widen his reading horizons but for now I'm thankful for Pilkey's contribution to childhood literacy! We have started "snuggle reading" in the evenings- it means snuggling on the couch next to each other under fluffy throw blankets and reading together, him with his book and me with mine. I highly recommend this activity. He has also discovered the joys of snacking while reading and often brings along a little after-dinner snack like apple slices, a cheese stick or a handful of pretzels. 

In terms of blog reading, I'm doing some armchair travel and reading this epic Australian travel post by Johanna of Green Gourmet Giraffe- so vibrant and full of memories and anecdotes transporting me to beautiful places. 

And also this Marginalian post on sentimentality and mortality: The opening sentence got me in the feels- "How beautiful and unbearable that only one of each exists — each lover, each child, each dog; that this particular chance-constellation of atoms has never before existed and will never again recur in the history of the universe."

This year I'm doing some of the prompts from the POPSugar Reading Challenge for 2024. They often lead me to seek out interesting books that I would miss otherwise. Prompt #7 is A book about women's sports and/or by a woman athleteI looked for a book about running and found this one at the library: Let Your Mind Run by Deena Kastor (published in 2018). It is a memoir of a professional runner, written simply and from the heart. Full of details of runs and races, I don't know that I would loved this book if I read it before my current interest in running, but it is the perfect book for me right now. I enjoyed the glimpse into a fascinating world of professional running and elite athletes- how their talent is discovered, how they train and live, how their careers unfold. Kastor spends a lot time talking about how raw talent can only take you so far and how mental training takes you much further. The subtitle of the book- "thinking my way into victory"- overstates it in my opinion, but clearly, mindset matters a lot. 

The message of this book really came home to me yesterday when I ran my first 10K race in a neighboring town. It was only the third(!) time in my life running 10 kilometers all at once, and the first two times were easy training runs in the last month. 

Subjectively, the race was kind of miserable. It was a crystal clear, sparkling, sunny morning, but extremely cold, with a sharp wind that stung my face and made my eyes tear up and my nose run constantly. I started too fast, quickly ran out of gas, and at mile 4.6 I was about ready to give up. I stumbled my way through the rest of the course, mentally berating myself for wanting to do this in the first place. But I made it somehow to the finish line where my running buddy K was waiting with a big smile and hug. 

Objectively, the race was fantastic, because after all that drama, negative thoughts, sniffling and crying, I finished it in under 1 hour 10 minutes with my best pace ever. Longest run, best pace (granted, the course was a pretty flat one which helped my time). My legs are toast but I am surprised and elated. 

I have a mild (and invisible) handicap when it comes to aerobic exercise like running- a genetic hemoglobin defect called beta thalassemia minor. It results in life-long chronic anemia that is unrelated to iron-deficiency anemia (which I also occasionally have as many women do.) This becomes a psychological barrier of sorts and I need to work on my mental training as much as my physical stamina. Anyway, I'm glad I read Deena Kastor's book and got the message that I clearly needed. 

Enjoy your week, and stay warm if you're in the severe winter weather blanketing the US!

Monday, January 01, 2024

Happy 2024, and a book summary- Four Thousand Weeks

Happy 2024! I started the last year by sharing my personal word of the year and listing a few things I hoped to do. It was a very helpful exercise and I do believe it guided me through the year. 

So here I am doing it again. My word for 2024 is STRETCH. It is an overarching theme that I hope will guide me all year and coax me to be slightly braver and a little more comfortable with discomfort. The graphic below shows a few tangible areas in which I would like to stretch a little- a homebody with a slightly adventurous travel plan, a couch potato running a slightly long race, a distracted human stretching to understand her mind a little better. 


* * *

One of the last books I read in 2023 was Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman (published in 2021). It seems like a good book to discuss on this day, when we're marking the passage of time. The four thousand weeks in the title refers to the number of weeks in an average human lifespan of about 80 years. The premise of the book is that standard productivity advice is a trap and that becoming more efficient just makes you more rushed, trying to clear the decks just makes them fill up again. 

There's quite a bit I did not agree with, but this book has some gems. Some of my favorite passages discuss the relationship between human life and time. 
  • German philosopher Heidegger: The most fundamental thing we fail to appreciate about the world is how astonishing it is that it is there at all- the fact that there is anything rather than nothing.
    • It is amazing that “a world is worlding all around us”.
    • We tend to speak about having a limited amount of time. It makes more sense to say that we are a limited amount of time. That’s how completely our limited time defines us. We don’t get or have time; instead, we are time.
  • Argentinian writer Borges: "Time is a river that sweeps me along, but I am the river."
  • A life spent focused on achieving security with respect to time can only end up feeling provisional.
    • Each day can feel like something we have to get through, en route to a calmer and more fulfilling time in the future, which never actually arrives.
    • Swiss psychologist Marie-Louise von Franz: "There is a strange attitude and feeling that one is not yet in real life." (This one really hit home for me- the feeling that this is a dress rehearsal and real life will start at some point in the future.)
    • Life is not a dress rehearsal. You may never feel like you know what you’re doing, in work, parenting or anything else. It is liberating to reflect that everyone else is in the same boat, whether they’re aware of it or not.
A lot of this book also reiterated the philosophy that I have been encountering in several places lately, about paying attention to the present moment.
  • Understand that you are guaranteed to miss out on almost every experience the world has to offer. Focus on fully enjoying the tiny slice of experiences you do actually have time for. 
  • What you pay attention to will define, for you, what reality is.
    • Attention IS life: your experience of being alive consists of nothing more than the sum of everything to which you pay attention.
  • We are eager for the slightest excuse to turn away from what we’re doing in order to escape how disagreeable it feels.
    • The inner urge toward distraction is the ultimate interrupter.
    • We do not feel like doing most of the things that we genuinely desire to accomplish. (Painfully relatable, y'all)
  • The past is uncontrollable and the future is unknowable. Confine your attention to the only portion of time that really is our business- the one in the present.
    • Start by noticing that you are in fact living in the moment whether you like it or not.
    • Living more fully in the present may simply be a matter of finally realizing that you never had any option but to be here now.
  • Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti: “I don’t mind what happens”- live without the inner demand to know that the future will conform to your desires for it. (What a powerful mantra, and one I will be repeating to myself to fight against my impulse to control, orchestrate and "will" all the big and small things in life: I don't mind what happens.)
This book also had these reminders:
  • Develop a taste for having problems: problems are simply demands that need addressing and the substance of life, not an impediment. You will never reach the state of not having problems. 
  • A blunt but unexpectedly liberating truth: what you do with your life doesn’t matter all that much- and when it comes to how you’re using your finite time- the universe absolutely couldn't care less.
    • Human history has unfolded in the blink of an eye, our own lives are a minuscule flicker.
    • The realization of your insignificance frees you to consider the possibility that a far wider variety of things might qualify as meaningful ways to use your finite time.
    • You are also free to consider that many of the things you’re already doing are more meaningful than you supposed.
  • Get the hang of hopelessness. The world is already broken. Our 4 thousand weeks are already running out. The world is already filled with uncertainty and tragedy. You cannot do everything that needs doing but you can focus on a few things that count.
    • Are you holding yourself to impossible standards of productivity or performance? Let your impossible standards crash to the ground. Pick up a few meaningful tasks from the rubble and get started on them today.
Finally, one of my favorite quotes in this book is by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung: "One lives as one can. There is no single, definite way. Quietly do the next and most necessary thing."

If you want to read the review for this book in the NYTimes- I'm linking the full gift article here

I hope we all have a good year ahead of us. Do you have a word for the year, or any new year's resolutions?

Thursday, December 28, 2023

Five Cookies and a Cake

All month long, I've been looking at pics of Christmas cookie boxes and holiday cookie assortments being posted on the baking subreddit. Examples: one, two, three. It got me into an intense cookie-baking mood, and in particular, I wanted to try a few new recipes. 

First, I made these sprinkles cookies. They are fun to make and look festive in cookie boxes, but taste quite dry and boring. I don't think I will make this recipe again. 

Next, I made these double chocolate crinkle cookies. They are a classic Christmas cookie, and I love the look- reminds me of snow melting on the woodland floor. We loved these in every way- they were fun to make, looked beautiful, and tasted fantastic. They disappeared so quickly that we made another batch a couple days after making the first one. Of everything I made this year, this is a keeper and I predict making it every year.

The third cookie was biscotti. I already have this excellent almond biscotti (mandelbrot) recipe that I use, but tried a new recipe this time: Cranberry pistachio biscotti. It turned out well, but I think next time I will use my favorite recipe and just add cranberries and pistachio instead of almonds.

The fourth cookie was one I have made before but not in a few years: Jammy thumbprint cookies. V particularly loves this one, and it is nice to have a vegan cookie with oats in the assortment. The dough is very sticky though, and I might try chilling the dough next time. 

Finally, we made the sugar cookie dough again and made some cute little kitties and doggies. My daughter decorated them with an edible marker after baking. 

This abundance of cookies made its way into trays of cookies delivered to a few friends and neighbors around town. And of course I kept a selection at home for us to enjoy with chai and hot cocoa. 



Other cookies I would like to make in the future: Gingerbread crinkle cookies, Pecan tassies, Italian almond cookies, Chocolate-covered cherry cookies, Unfussy rugelach

Finally, in early December, I made a cake recipe that I had been wanting to try for ages: All-in-One Holiday Bundt Cake by Dorie Greenspan: "Name your favorite it-tastes-like-Thanksgiving flavor, and you'll find it here: pumpkin, cranberry, apples, pecans and the fall-winter spices cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger." I was so excited to taste this cake, and while it was fine, it wasn't as special or memorable as I expected. I think the multitude of flavors makes it so that no one flavor shines. 


What have you been baking this month? What are your keeper cookie recipes? 

Saturday, December 23, 2023

Christmas Tree Cupcakes & Brownies

I want to thank everyone for the kind comments and condolences you left on my last post- I read every single one. We are trying to adjust to our Dunkie-less life. I am left with profound gratitude that this sweet, giant dog bounded into our lives and filled our home and our days. He taught me a lot about having an open heart, being kind and tolerant, and taking each day- each minute- as it comes, enjoying whatever life brings. 

Christmas tree cupcakes

We have been doing loads of holiday baking this month. It has been a welcome distraction if I am being honest. The project I am sharing today came about when my daughter was looking for a treat to sell at the school holiday market, where kids get to set up stalls and be market vendors for a couple of hours. 

I consulted Pinterest and dug out a gem- an idea that's truly seasonal, cute, and most importantly, very doable for non-experts: chocolate cupcakes with a vanilla frosting- a crowd-pleasing combo- topped with adorable little decorated Christmas trees. 


The sweet little trees are the star of this cupcake. I saw this idea on several blogs. We gathered:
  • Thin pretzel sticks (supermarket snack aisle)
  • Green candy melts (found these in Michaels)
  • Sprinkles- I bought a couple of boxes of assorted holiday sprinkles and we used them all month for different projects. The ones used here are white/green/red dots and silver stars 
  • Piping bags (no tip needed- we used a disposable bag and snipped the tip)
  1. Lay out pretzel sticks spaced apart on a parchment covered baking sheet.
  2. Microwave (50% power in spurts, stirring in between) candy melts to, well, melt them. We used half the bag. 
  3. Spoon melted candy into a piping bag. 
  4. Pipe pine trees as shown in the pic, freehand style. If you overlap piping lines the trees will be thicker and less fragile. 
  5. Candy hardens quickly, so go ahead and add a star and "ornament" sprinkles as you pipe. It helps to do this project as a team of two- a piper and a sprinkler.
Trees will harden at room temperature. After an hour, lift them off carefully off the parchment and store in a box at room temperature- they will last for several days. It was our first time working with candy melts and it is dead easy. Also, we have no piping experience and that's not a problem for this project- messy trees look organic. By the way, the trees are yummy little treats on their own. 

Cupcakes: The recipe we used is here- Truly the best chocolate cupcakes. I love this recipe because it calls for pantry ingredients, is truly an easy, one-bowl recipe, and makes 24 cupcakes (I think we got 27, actually) which is a nice number for a sale situation. Be aware that the recipe calls for adding hot water into the batter and that makes the batter alarmingly thin. Don't panic! The cupcakes turned out beautifully. 

Frosting: My daughter is particular about frosting and does not like typical American buttercream which tends to be cloyingly sweet and heavy. I made this less sweet vanilla frosting instead. It was gorgeous- fluffy and tasty and daughter-approved. Piled on the chocolate cupcake (we used an offset spatula), it looks like snow on the ground. The best thing about this frosting is that it does not need refrigeration for a day or two, which is of practical importance when you are making 24 of these in a home setting. One batch of frosting was more than enough for 24 cupcakes. 

Stick a tree or two into each cupcake just before serving. Oohs and ahs will commence. 


* * *

Buoyed by the success of the little trees, and with half a bag of green candy melts and quantities of pretzel sticks and sprinkles still on hand, we made these brownie Christmas trees. (I saw the idea here).

My daughter and her friend used a standard box of brownie mix and instead of baking in a 8 or 9 inch pan as the recipe indicates, they baked it in a 9x13 pan for a shorter time, for thinner brownies. Any brownie recipe (mix or from-scratch) and any size pan will do for this project. All you're looking for is brownie triangles. We got about 24 little brownie triangles (plus off-cuts for the bakers to snack on.)

9x13 brownie slab: Cut into thirds horizontally,
then each third into triangles

To make the trees, stick a pretzel stick into the base of the triangle (cutting the harder crust off the brownie edge pieces helps to poke the pretzel stick in), then pipe on green melted candy, and add the requisite ornament sprinkles and star topper. Ta da! 

Brownie trees


Another item my daughter sold at the holiday
market: handmade cards

My son and I made these melted snowman cookies to sell at the market (I have made them in previous years and posted them before on the blog). He would sell a cookie, earn a dollar, and immediately run off to spend it, leaving me to manage the stall. We made minus 7 dollars. He has decided he prefers shopping to selling and I am OK with that! 

Melting snowman cookies


Gingerbread house from
the Trader Joe's kit

Best wishes for a wonderful holiday season! To all who celebrate it, Merry Christmas

Bonus Christmas reading- A Christmas Memory, a short story by Truman Capote. Read it in its entirety here. My son and I also watched a couple of Christmas movies- the classic 2003 Elf (Netflix) and the 2019 animated Klaus (Max), which I found delightful.