It's Begining to Look a Lot Like Pizzelles

I try to make pizzelles every year before the Christmas holiday. For those of you who are unfamiliar, pizzelles are also known as Italian wafer cookies. Their name comes from the Italian word “pizze” meaning round and flat. In Scandinavia, they are known as Lukken. They are made in a pizzelle iron similar to waffles. The original Italians pizzelle irons were forged by blacksmiths and would be created with original designs or family crests on them. They were lovingly handed down from one generation to the next. They are a seasonal favorite at our house. All our friends from up north (especially Youngstown, Ohio) are sure to visit to get a stack.

Classic Pizzelles
3 eggs
¾ cups sugar
½ cup margarine, melted
4 Tablespoons anise extract
1 ¾ cups of flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 Tablespoons anise or fennel seeds, optional

Preheat pizzelle iron. Cream together eggs and sugar, then add melted margarine that has been cooled and anise extract. Add flour and baking powder and mix until smooth. Add anise seeds and mix well. If batter is too thick add water a tablespoon at a time until it is the desired consistency. Using a teaspoon, drop one spoonful of batter on iron for each cookie. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Hint: I place the batter in a Ziploc bag and snip off one small corner (like a pastry bag) and squeeze out a teaspoon-sized dollop on the iron for each cookie. It gives you better control and is MUCH less sticky. And clean-up, well... much easier!

Turkey Shopping

It seems that Dom’s Grandma sent his Grandpa out shopping one day for the coming week’s provisions. So after a long night of working, Grandpa headed to downtown Youngstown to all his favorite grocery stores for a day of shopping. Having collected all his canned goods and non-perishable items, Grandpa stopped at the meat shop on East Federal, to buy a turkey. The store owner bundle the live turkey with twine and handed it over to Grandpa for his journey home. After walking just a few blocks the turkey became restless, too restless to handle along with all of the other bags of groceries. Dom’s Grandpa decided to stop and reassess the situation. Grandpa then unwrapped the twine from around the turkey and carefully crafted it into a collar and leash. He then put the collar on the turkey, picked up his groceries, and walked the turkey home! One can only imagine the look on his Grandma’s face as she watched Grandpa walking down Trusedale Avenue with a turkey on a leash! When Dom’s Grandpa got home after walking with the turkey home, he said: "Sumna bitch, the turkey lost 2 pound!"

Very Corny Holiday

Since Lincoln issued his first National Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1863 declaring the last Thursday of November as a national holiday, Americans have celebrated the annual feast by cooking traditional foods such as turkey, various types of squash and corn.

Corn is a truly American commodity and has been found in North American fossils of pre-Ice age. Even before Columbus landed in the New World, corn was the staple grain of Native Americans who called it “mais” which meant “our life.” In Plymouth, Native Americans taught the Pilgrims how to cultivate corn by planting a fish among the seeds and how to harvest. They also taught the newcomers how to cook with corn by adding a pinch of ash to release more nutrients. In the early years of most colonies like Plymouth and Jamestown, corn was the key to survival. While colonists originally ate corn out of necessity, it later became the food of choice in most Colonial recipes and meals because of its vast versatility.

Spoon bread made with corn meal is a traditional Thanksgiving side dish. Its pudding like consistency will make it a favorite with the entire family. This was always the recipe our boys would ask us to make for school Thanksgiving celebrations; it was always a big hit.

Spoon Bread:
2/3 cup yellow cornmeal
1 Tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
2 Tablespoons softened butter
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 eggs, separated

Preheat oven to 350o F. Heat milk in a saucepan but do not boil. Mix together cornmeal, sugar, and salt and slowly stir into heated milk. Continue stirring over low heat. Add butter to the mixture and stir. Remove from heat and allow to cool. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites to soft peaks and set aside. Stir egg yolks which have been lightly beaten and baking powder into the cornmeal mixture. Then gently fold egg whites into cornmeal batter. Stir lightly so as not to deflate the egg whites. Pour mixture into a greased 1½ quart baking dish. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the top is golden. Serve immediately.

*To appeal to younger palates, add a little maple syrup.

Italy's Fifth Quarter

The weather is getting colder and I headed to the market to buy some oxtails. Eating tails, feet, kidneys, tongues, or even fried blood is not as strange as it sounds. Italians are known for their love of organ meats, also known as offal (or awful to those who are not fans.) For the last two hundred years or so, Rome's offal cuisine has been known as Quinto Quarto, or fifth quarter. Roman butchers, called "vaccinari" (cow workers,) were very skilled and famous for their ability to refine any cut of meat. At first, the cows were split in half, and then in four quarters. What was left (inner organs, hooves, heads, tails, glands, brains, sweetbreads, even testi­cles) was called the fifth quarter; hence the "fifth," meaning useless or worthless, as in "the economy's fifth wheel." Coincidentally, the offal weighs about one-quarter of a slaughtered animal's total weight.

In the days before refrigeration, organ meats were difficult to keep. Because they were the first things to spoil, slaugh­terhouse workers received them to round up their meager pay. This gave rise to scores of recipes, mostly for beef parts. Over a fifty year period, the “inferior” cooking of the vaccinari became renowned citywide and evolved into dishes for connoisseurs. Once considered meat of poor quality, the offal are now considered delicacies that Italian restaurants and their patrons eagerly pay for.

Fried kidneys

Dom's telephone calls to his Aunt Rose are always enlightening and somehow always include food! During the most recent call, Aunt Rose said that when she was growing up, her father (Dom's Grandpa) would bring home calf kidneys and Grandma would have to boil them FOREVER to make make sure that they were clean before she would fry them with peppers. Aunt Rose said the house would stink so horribly that one day she realized that it was pig "pee." She didn't like the fried kidneys even before she had this revelation! Aunt Rose continued saying that her sister Mary loved fried kidneys. Once Aunt Mary ate a dish that his Grandma made and encouraged her to try but didn't tell her what it was. After eating and liking it, Mary asked what it she was eating and her father (Dom's Grandpa) told her it was the goiter of a cow. Needless to say his Aunt Mary wasn't happy while Grandma and Grandpa laughed and laughed! Some things never change. People love to tell stories about their siblings.

Dutch Baby

It is a chilly morning and a warm Dutch Baby (also known as a German pancake) will be just the thing to serve for breakfast! This sweet treat is similar to Yorkshire pudding and is best served with lemon and confectioner's sugar. Don't be disappointed when the pancake falls soon after being removed from the oven. Make sure you eat it while still warm; it is not nearly as good when it is cold!

3 Tablespoons butter
3 eggs
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
lemon wedges
Confectioner’s sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 425oF. Place butter in a 10" skillet or heavy baking dish and place in oven while preheating. Remove the pan before butter starts to brown. In the meantime, beat eggs until foamy; add milk, flour, salt and vanilla and blend together until just mixed. Pour into hot skillet and return to oven for approximately 25 minutes until golden brown and puffed. Remove the pancake from oven and dust with confectioner’s sugar. Serve immediately with lemon wedges and extra pats of butter. When the lemon juice mixes with the confectioner's sugar it makes a creamy lemony sauce that is perfect.

Pumpkin Cranberry Bread

When I was in high school, I clipped the original recipe for pumpkin bread from the Atlanta Constitution and have kept it since. I have finally typed it up as the original is quite yellowed (and a bit sticky.) Over the years, I have added some spice and dried cranberries. This spicy, moist, breakfast bread is perfect for this time of year. The house smells so wonderful while it is baking! We like it best toasted with whipped cream cheese.

• 1 cup canned or cooked pumpkin
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 cup fresh or dried cranberries (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a mixing bowl, beat pumpkin, sugar, milk, eggs and butter until creamy and completely smooth.

Whisk together dry ingredients and add to the pumpkin mixture blending until fully combined. Fold in walnuts and cranberries. Pour into a greased 9x5x3" loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 70 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes; remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Days of the Dead Bread

The Mexican Days of the Dead are held on November 1st and 2nd; a two-day celebration of death. In this ritual observance which is rooted in a bizarre blend of pre-Colombian and Roman Catholic practices, Mexican families make merry with the souls of their dearly departed. Because this celebration occurs immediately after Halloween, the Day of the Dead is sometimes thought to be a similar holiday, although the two actually have little in common. The living mingle with the dead at midnight picnics in cemeteries, they leave once- favorite foods as offerings such as sugar skulls and marigolds at homemade altars, and welcome back the dead for a day on earth feasting on tamales, spicy molès, and the most special treat of the celebration, Pan de Muerto, or “Bread of the Dead.” This bread dough is rolled out into strips shaped to resemble bones:

Dough Recipe:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
5 to 5-1/2 cups flour
2 packages dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon whole anise seed
1/2 cup sugar
4 eggs

In a saucepan over medium flame, heat the butter, milk and water until very warm but not boiling. Meanwhile, measure out 1-1/2 cups flour and set the rest aside. In a large mixing bowl, combine the 1-1/2 cups flour, yeast, salt, anise seed and sugar. Beat in the warm liquid until well combined. Add the eggs and beat in another 1 cup of flour. Continue adding more flour until dough is soft but not sticky. Knead on lightly floured board for ten minutes until smooth and elastic.

Lightly grease a bowl and place dough in it, cover with plastic wrap and let rise in warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1-1/2 hours. Punch the dough down and shape into loaves resembling skulls, skeletons or round loaves with "bones" placed ornamentally around the top. Let these loaves rise for 1 hour. Bake in a preheated 350 F degree oven for 40 minutes. Remove from oven and paint on glaze.

Glaze Recipe:
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup fresh orange juice
2 tablespoons grated orange zest

Bring to a boil for 2 minutes, then apply to bread with a pastry brush. If desired, sprinkle on colored sugar while glaze is still damp.