As days grow shorter for a little longer, the well-lit kitchen may be a safe place for you to practice loving other people, even if the people are 6 feet beyond you. So let's get busy. Today's recipes are great for giving, not to mention gobbling up in your own kitchen.
Yeast of the Ridge looked out her window on Missionary Ridge, and wondered if you could help with coconut cakes. This is certainly a rush order, as a resplendent coconut cake decorated with red and green marzipan and candied fruit is a Christmas cover story.
But Ms. Ridge is looking for Christmas cakes long on flavor and short on splash. "I am looking for a sheet coconut cake that you poke holes in and pour something sweet into those holes. Maybe it is cream of coconut or just sweetened condensed milk?"
And if not that one, she hopes you will send "any extra-tasty sheet cakes. I can divide into small disposable pans to share for small-scale holiday meals."
Mary Coffey is seeking a recipe for "Yorkshire pudding baked in the pan with a roast or separately."
S.S. has recently learned she has a serious allergy to wheat and gluten. She asked, "What are some good food sources locally, and what are your best recipes? I eat healthy and simply, so nothing too complicated please. I would also appreciate any advice on doing this new diet well."
BANANA BREAD
Here's a first answer to the above request. Tom Cable commends this "gluten-free banana bread my wife and I enjoy."
Gluten-Free Banana Bread
1/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons avocado oil (or olive oil)
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (3 medium)
1/3 cup original almond milk
1 cup almond flour
1 cup oatmeal flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Optional: 1/4 cup semisweet dark chocolate chips and/or 1/4 cup crushed walnuts
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom only of a 9- by 5-inch or 8- by 4-inch pan.
In a large bowl, beat sugar and oil with an electric mixer on medium speed briefly. Add eggs, and beat well. Stir in bananas and almond milk, and blend well. In a separate bowl, mix the two flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir into banana mixture just until moistened. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts, if using. Pour into pan.
Bake 50 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes in the pan on a cooling rack.
Loosen sides of loaf from pan, and remove to place top side up on a cooling rack. Cool completely before slicing.
Not only is this gluten-free, it has a healthy fat (avocado oil) and low-glycemic flours (oat and almond) rather than high-glycemic wheat flour. The chocolate chips and walnuts make this truly decadent.
PICKLES
Nora Fitzgerald shared a fascinating recipe for quick pickles, and it's not too late for holiday gift-giving. All the sweetness comes from honey, and you can vary that amount based on your fondness for sweetness in your pickles.
The preparation is short and the shelf life is long.
Quick Pickles
1 large sweet onion, thinly sliced
1 English cucumber, thinly sliced
1/2 cup water
1 cup cider vinegar
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 teaspoons mustard seeds
1/4 plus cup of honey, adjusted according to your taste (see note)
1 1/2 teaspoons finely chopped peeled fresh ginger
1 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
Place onion and English cucumber in a large, nonreactive bowl.
In a saucepan bring to a boil the water, vinegar, bay leaves, mustard seeds, honey, ginger and salt.
Pour hot mixture over onions and cucumber. Place a plate weighted with something heavy (like a canned food) to keep cucumbers and onions submerged in vinegar mixture. If cucumbers and onions are not completely submerged, they will become soft as they sit. Let sit overnight at room temperature, covered with plastic wrap. The next day, put into a jar or jars (depending on size). These will keep for a very long time when refrigerated, although they will lose some of the crunch, but none of the taste, as they sit.
Recipe may be doubled.
Note: I usually put about 1/2 cup honey because I prefer them more like a bread-and-butter pickle, but amount may be adjusted to individual taste.
COOKIES
Mary Ann McInturff makes giving-size batches of these cookies, "usually five or six batches at Christmastime to share with neighbors and co-workers, but since we're all working from home nowadays, my list of recipients may be somewhat shorter. These seem to be everyone's favorite and much anticipated each year."
Oatmeal Cookies
1 stick margarine or butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
Cream together butter or margarine with sugar and brown sugar. Add egg and vanilla, and mix well using mixer until somewhat light and fluffy. Add (by hand) flour, salt, soda, and cream of tartar. Stir in pecans, then oatmeal.
Shape into a roll about 2 inches in diameter. Wrap first in parchment paper (or wax paper) then in foil. Freeze.
Cut into cookies about 1/4 inch thick. Bake in 350-degree oven 10 to 12 minutes. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet, then remove to rack to cool slightly before storing.
Makes about 3 dozen cookies. This is half the original recipe so can be easily doubled.
MUFFINS
Mignon Ballard's oatmeal goodie is a give-able, healthful muffin. She sent it from Calhoun, Georgia.
Oatmeal Apple Raisin Muffins
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup raisins or dried cranberries (see note)
1 peeled, chopped apple
1/2 cup oil
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup quick oats
1/3 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Beat egg; stir in remaining ingredients, mixing just to moisten. Pour into 12 greased or paper-lined muffin cups until 3/4 full. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes. Good served hot with butter or just plain.
Note: I prefer dried cranberries to raisins but it's cook's choice.
CAKE
And then there is oatmeal cake, and so it has been for many seasons. "This is one of our favorite cakes," Barbara Mann began. "It is a very old recipe, and I am writing it exactly as it is written."
Oatmeal Cake
1 1/4 cups boiling water
1 cup quick oats
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
Grease and flour loaf pan. (I use an 8- by 8-inch pan). Pour boiling water over quick-cook oats; let stand 20 minutes in a covered bowl.
Cream butter, brown sugar, white sugar, vanilla and eggs. Stir creamed mixture into oatmeal mixture.
Add flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Pour icing (recipe follows) over cake and bake until browned.
Icing
1 cup brown sugar
4 teaspoons butter, softened
1/2 cup cream
1 can coconut
Stir mixture together, pour over cake and bake until browned.
How do we keep the pleasure of cooking and the joy of sharing food and meals, and still protect ourselves and the ones we love? Here are some ideas.
One reader lives alone, though her days are filled as a dedicated teacher. She is preparing a holiday feast for one - standing rib roast and all the trimmings. Leftovers? Yes, packaged in daily portions for other holiday meals until she can return to her kids at school.
Another drops a rotisserie chicken on a friend's front porch. Now that is useful love, all the way down to the best broth from the bones. There is no need for a whole meal, but because there are children in the house, she adds a box of macaroni and cheese for emergency use.
A young nurse dines with her grandparents. She and the man in her life sit at her table by candlelight and iPad; her grandparents do the same at their house. The meal is ready from two kitchens. Then they Facetime, up close and personal, dear face to dear face.
Now it's your turn. Ideas? Adaptations? Declarations? Send them on now for next week, please.
REQUESTS
* Sheet cakes, coconut and otherwise
* Yorkshire pudding
* Sources, recipes for gluten-free diet
TO REACH US
Fare Exchange is a longtime meeting place for people who love to cook and love to eat. We welcome both your recipes and your requests. Be sure to include precise instructions for every recipe you send.
Mailing address: Jane Henegar, 913 Mount Olive Road, Lookout Mountain, GA 30750
Email: chattfare@gmail.com
Jane Henegar