It's The Cookie Issue

 Cookies are a part of the Christmas tradition as the Christmas tree and presents. The question is which ones to make. Do you go with something different and fun or classic and comforting? Not to worry. the New York Times Food section has come out with an extensive array of good and delicious cookie recipes.

It was the highlight of today's weekly Food section. Many regular contributors have contributed , giving us some interesting recipes that will sure to be family favorites.There are six pages of great cookies, perfect for a holiday dessert table or any party . There are even savory ones, perfect for charcuterie boards and cocktails. One is a cheddar cheese coin from Kay Chun that is a baked blend of Cheddar, Parmesan, scallions and butter. Imagine this holding bruschetta or devilled ham.  Ali Slagle created a savory mixed nut shortbread rife with mixed salted nuts. There is some sweetness with sugar added but there is also rosemary and cayenne to give it kick. Eric Kim gives us a yummy version of the M&M cookie, perfect with warm milk on a snowy day.Melissa Clark explores butter spritz cookies made richer with the addition of almond extract and almond flour. Nicole Carpino Frasco withe the help of Margeaux Laskey reimagines her nonna's tricolore squares , those multicolor cake like gems that are robed in dark chocolate.Genevieve Ko makes a mean peanut butter cookie, enhanced with peanut butter chips. Jerrelle Guy's creates a homey , tastier version of iced oatmeal cookies zinged up with cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice.

Of course there are spins on classics. Melissa Clark reimagines melt in your mouth rugelach with a chocolate banka filling with a crumbly fudge. Those holiday classics thumbprint cookies get an redoing thanks to Yossy Arefi's addition of tahini to the cookie dough and filled with dulce de leche. Gingerbread get a rehaul with Sohla El-Waylly's recipe that gets zinged up with freshly ground pepper. It's also rich and buttery thanks to the addition of fourteen tablespoons of butter. Nina Donabian gives us Finnish gingerbread man coated with a crunchy raw sugar. Biscotti and swirl cookies also are here. Jerrelle Guy  creates her biscotti with a dark chocolate coating and a spicy blend of cardamon , cloves, nut meg and cinnamon. The swirl cookies have hibiscus and ginger as the main flavors in Yewande Kemolafe's version. Great pastry chef and baker Dorie Greenspan has a more candy like concoction that 's more candy. There are also fruity treats  such as Samantha Severinetne ;'s fig and cherry pies and Sohla El-Wally's fruity meltaways spiked with freeze dried berries. want pure chocolate instead? Then try Vaughn Vreeland's mint brownie cookies,

These are just some of the cookies from the Food section cookie issue.They are classic and reimagined. Try them and add them to your arsenal of holiday cookie recipes.

Gingerbread Housing

 The one food item that says holiday time is the gingerbread house. It''s warm and inviting looking, a classic treasure that's on every dessert table and under every tree. Yet times are changing and so is the gingerbread house.

You can still create an old fashioned gingerbread house complete with gumdrop wreath windows and snowy confectioner's sugar dusted roofs. You can easily find a number of scratch recipes on the internet. Gingerbread on its' own is a wonderful holiday treat. The recipe features the best of spices, the original recipe coming from Armenian monk Gregory of Nicopolis who later settled in Bondaroy in north central France. The recipe hasn't changed. much over the millennia .It's cinnamon , ginger nut meg and cloves mixed with molasses which gives it that lovely deep golden brown hue. Shortening ,sugar and eggs are added and then rolled out and cut according to templates. You can download these or draw your own.Get creative with the windows by cutting out circles or squares and then filling them in with crushed hard candies. They'll melt into pretty stained glass. As for decorations think everything from gum drops to unwrapped Hershey's kisses. You can also use Smarties, and candy canes too along with any kind of  Sour Patch strips.

Of course if you don't have the time or the effort to bake, then buy a kit. These have all the pieces already baked and the right amount of icing to glue them to gether along with the right amount of candy decorations, The good thing about these is that now they are varied. There is the gingerbread train and gingerbread treehouse ,both can be bought at Target, These are fun addition to any Christmas table. Five Below has even more. They have the Hershey's Chocolate Cookie House which looks easy to do and can be decorated any way you want. They also have the Oreo train, made from what else, Oreos icings and a variety of different candies. Five Below also has a very easy gingerbread reindeer and sleigh which has only four pieces for the sled and three for the reindeer. Candies also have their houses too. There are also Sour Patch Kids and Twizzlers ones too. These are regular gingerbread houses decorated with the candies. it makes for something different and fun too. Most of the Five Below kits are usually priced at around five dollars. 

it is gingerbread season. Make your own or buy a kit. Just have fun creating this festive and tasty Christmas tradition.

Fasr Food Fast Yuck

 We've been told for decades that fast food is bad for us despite its' taste. Those burgers and nuggets were addictive as were those fries. Somehow these indulgences are as lacking in flavor as they are in nutrition nowadays.

 I discovered this in the last two days. I was rerouted more or less to the Jersey shore after trying to go Christmas shopping in Clark, New Jersey. I didn't mind the detour. I love hanging out at the Raritan Bay, enjoying the calm waters and briny sea aroma. I knew I'd have to stop and eat somewhere along the road because I hand't eaten since mid morning. I knew where to go. The Jon Bon Jovi stop on the Garden State Parkway always had a good choice of fast food. I knew I had wanted to go to Nathan's if it was still there. It was!!! I looked forward to their hot dog and crispy fries. I bought them along with a diet Coke. The diet Coke was the only good thing. The hot dog was so burnt and salty that I couldn't finish eating it . Nathan's fries were known for their crunchy outsides and the perfect taste of potatoes and salt. These were downright horrible. They were overcooked with a charred aftertaste and a strangely mushy and damp inside. These too went right into the garbage. Luckily they didn't disturb my stomach.

Then today i had lunch at one of my local McDonald's near me in Garfield NJ.I had always got a decent burger there (to me the best McDonald's is down in Hazlet on Route Thirty-Six). Tired of eating red meat I thought I'd get the chicken nuggets. Bad idea. They were over crusted and the flavor only improved when I peeled off the coating. Even the accompanying sauces couldn't help. At least the fries were decent, being thin and crunchy. I've got to admit.I was not used to two days  of stupendously bad fast food. I don' know if it's the staff overcooking or just not caring how the food turns out. Maybe fried fast food is becoming a thing of the past as chains like Jersey Mike's offers freshly made sandwiches that require little frying - save for their bacon. it could also be that newer burger chains like Shake Shack and Habit Burger are offering better made hamburgers that taste like they came off the back yard grill. Also many people are embracing vegetarianism and eating Beyond Burgers and Impossible Meats. There probably will be vegan chains that will eclipse the established ones.

All in all it's very surprising about the overall poor quality of fast foods. They have to improve or lose customers like myself to chains offering at least better tasting fare. If not, they face a dismal future.

Supply Chain Holidays

 There is a global supply chain shortage going on right now and it may affect the way we cook for our holidays. what rt do if the store doesn't have what you want? Improvise. It's amazing what you can do with substitutes and innovation.

The news says don't worry. Everything we need will be right there, however there seems to be shortages on the shelves right now. There may be turkey and chicken shortage, but mostly for smaller birds. You could go large or think of a meatless Christmas or New Year's, Unfortunately beef is also going to be in short supply as is bacon. You could try a tofu roast which does come out well of prepared right. If you treat Tofurky like the real thing , using a brush on baste of melted butter followed by a rub of salt and pepper then, you will have a crusty, delicious roast. There is also a plus in serving Tofurky. It comes already stuffed with a wild rice stuffing. There is also a pretty good gravy included in the package. You can flavor this up with a small onion and some butter cooked in with the gravy. Another idea is going to a turkey or chicken farm and buying a free range bird for your holiday meal. Ham isn't going to be affected so you could easily serve that. The leftovers make for great devilled ham and split pea soup.It's also relatively easy to prepare with such glazes as a maple or a ginger-brown sugar one.

What other foodstuffs may be hard to obtain?There is talk of pasta and bread shortages. Luckily there is no flour shortages thanks to the 2020 overage. If you have to make your own. You can get a pasta maker which there are no shortage of (you may even get a discount thanks to holiday sales) or you can even make it by hand alone.It's easy and there are a wide range of types to create. even lasagna noodles can be handmade, giving a holiday meal an extra special touch. Bake bread along with your list of Christmas cookies if there is a bread shortage in your area. You can start with white but add some variety with sourdough and rye. It would be an extra special Christmas treat to make breakfast and dinner rolls for your table. Canned foods may also be disappearing from the shelves.As for veggies, think frozen ones then. You can make some lovely salads and sides using frozen green beans and broccoli. Winter vegetables are another option. You can create amazing sides with carrots, turnips and Swiss chard. Swiss chard is a popular side on Piedmontese tables. Try it cooked with red wine and Parmesan cheese.

Yes, this may be the holiday known for its' food shortages. Yet you can overcome those by ingenuity and innovation. Get creative with substitutes for a memorable Christmas or New Year's dinner.

A Tray Of Pretty Cookies

 It's holiday time and that means a tray of cookies. Why not make them eye catching and pretty. They can be delicious and exquisite, perfect for any Instagram or Pinterest picture. There are many different types to choose from.

One of the most popular and often made is a simple sugar cookie jazzed up with royal icing. The icing by itself is pretty bland but how you use it can be creative and lovely. One of the prettiest is creating simple straight piping on snowflake cookies. You can dye the icing a light powder blue and then pipe white icing using a round cake decorating tip number 2 (buy Wilton's for the best result). You can also first ice the cookie with royal icing and then use silver dragees and silver sanding sugar. Keep in mind that the dragees do have silver and really aren't meant to eat.One way of making snowflake cookies pop is just placing one dragee in the center and let the icing be the star. You can also color royal icing with either bought or homemade natural icing . Keep in mind that if you use natural colorants like spinach or onion, you will wind up with some of their taste. Again start off with a simple royal icing base which is usually powdered meringue or egg whites mixed with vanilla extract and confectioner's sugar. You can use aquafaba or chickpea water for a vegan version. 

Homemade Linzer tortes are beautiful gems on any cookie platter. These Austrian classics have a cookie base of almond flour and confectioner's sugar. This is what gives the base its' tenderness. The jam filling can be any kind of jam from apricot to raspberry. Use raspberry for a Christmas cookie platter. The middle of the top cookie is cut out to reveal the glistening jewel like jam. You could easily do an intricate snowflake or snowman cut out using a smaller cookie cutter or hand drawn template. Dust the cookies with a fine coating of confectioners sugar or for more prettiness use silver or gold sanding sugars.Oatmeal lace cookies are another exquisite addition to the holiday platter. This incredibly complex looking snap is just a simple mix of butter, dark brown sugar, flour, salt, and eggs with a dash of vanilla. The batter is very thin which produces a delicate candy like texture. They can be dipped in dark chocolate and then become florentines. Stained glass cookies are pretty too and the idea can be carried over to make stained glass windows for gingerbread houses and gingerbread churches. Use any brightly colored hard candy and then smash them in a plastic bag. Make an outline whether a circle or a star and fill the inside with the candy, The cookie is typical butter cookie which makes for a solid frame. 

These are the prettiest cookies to bake for a holiday treat platter. Bake them to impress , but also bake them to admire their beauty. They are true gems

Stolen Recipes

 Recipes have a way of becoming our own. Some are legitimately take, passed down from family members or across from friends , neighbors and co-workers. However legit recipes do get stolen.It is a form of plagiarism and something should be done about it.

Priya Krishna, a cookbook writer herself and a regular contributor to the Wednesday New York Times Food section wrote about this in yesterday's section.recipe's really aren't protected by US copyright law.It's much harder to prove someone's stealing your cookbook recipes than it is for such creative material as sheet music, poetry, architectural works, paintings and even computer software.Cookbook writers who believe their works have been copied have little recourse. They can rant on online forums or confront the offender face to face which isn't wise.It's widely known as well in the publishing world that recipes can't be copyrighted.It's a common practice in the US according to Bonnie Slotnick,a bookstore owner that specializes in selling cookbooks and antique tomes.The first one, "American Cookery" written by Amelia Simmons in 1798 liberally borrowed from English cookbooks of the time. In ensuing years white cookbook writers shamelessly stole recipes from Black American cooks, passing them off as their own. Even the famed James Beard stole from his colleagues, claiming the recipes were his creations.

There have been a handful of famous cases in recent history that did result in law suits. One of the famous involved Jerry Seinfeld's wife Jessica and her book "Deceptively Delicious"/ It was all about putting veggies in such treats as brownies. Yet it was originally written by Missy Chase Lapine. However a court ruled against Ms. Lapine because her concept wasn't protected. A more recent and much more famous case deals with famed British chef Elizabeth Haigh, book "Makan: about her native Singapore. Another author, Sharon Wee noticed that the recipes were exact replicas of the ones in her book,"Growing Up In A Nonya Kitchen". even Ms. wee's personal recollections were copied to the letter in the other's book. This involved a heated debate about recipe ownership. Many writers wondered how they could safeguard their recipes against future theft. Now social media makes it even harder  with chefs taking and giving across many platforms. Ownership gets muddled. All chefs, home and professional just use recipes and claim them as their own.

What to do? Give credit where credit is due. That's the best way to honor and respect recipe writers.

Gator Anyone

 Mention alligator at a tailgating party and people will automatically think of a mascot. Yet at Louisiana ones it means the main meat on the barbecue menu. It's usually served when Lousiana and Florida college go against each other on the football field. It's not hot dogs and burgers but it is supposed to be tasty.

Christina Morales, a new and regular contributor to the Wednesday New York Times Food section wrote about this Southern staple in today's issue.It actually started as a tease when Louisiana State University or LSU fought against the University of Florida Gators team twelve years ago. Now this is standard despite it being cruel. Tailgaters either bring ones they've caught or ones they've bought at an alligator farm!! The reptile can be char grilled, blackened, fried, stewed or even roasted whole, the last being done on a rotisserie powered by a windshield wiper motor. everyone always what the meat tastes like? Chicken. It has the taste and even the texture of it.It is a white , tender flesh that is usally brined

Many tailgaters also douse the gators with beer for more flavor. It has always been a food source in The Bayou state.The story started with the Indigenous tribe the Coushatas from the southwestern part of the state. They found a gator stuck in a hole of a dried up pond. The creature asked to be placed in a nearby rivet and would reward them, according to Eli Langley a tribal story teller for the Coushatas.

Of course the reward was its' meat. The Chitimacha People, another southwestern Louisiana tribe ate the meat fried in bear grease according to Chitimacha the tribal historic preservation officer Kimberly Walden.The gators were a convenient food source, being so large.They even provided a French government officials with an alligator feast. for the following Cajuns and Creoles the swamps became a pantry. If they killed it , they ate it according to Louisiana chef and cookbook writer John Foise. Now gator meat is served in a variety of ways at different local restaurants. At Prejean's  a Lafayette Louisiana eatery serve gator legs . They're marinated in buttermilk for three hours , then breaded and fried like chicken wings. Roux 61 in Baton Rouge goes for the more unusual. They blacken the meat and put into into spicy tacos. They gave the recipe to the article. If you're wondering where to get gator meat , especially in the New York area,  there are specialty butchers who do sell it. Try Wild Fork Farms or The Louisiana Crawfish Company which also sells turtle meat and crawfish too.

Alligators do make for an interesting meal.  They have a mild tasting meat, perfect for a host of different recipes. However it is cruel to eat them, farmed or otherwise.