Is Peach Melba The One

Peach Melba is an elegant dessert first made at London's Savoy Hotel by the great chef Auguste Escoffier in 1892 for the Australian opera singer Nellie Melba. It;s a lovely blend of a raspberry coulis with peaches and vanilla ice cream.

I decided to give it a try today in my search for the perfect holiday dessert. 

It starts with twelve ounces of raspberries. I used Driscoll's fresh ones but you could use the frozen ones instead.

Then there was the sugar factor. Most recipes call for a cup of refined granulated sugar. I didn't like this idea so I added a more natural source  - a quarter cup of lite maple syrup (you could also add honey too , especially the ones made from lavender or wild flowers).

I liked Stop & Shop's Lite maple syrup but again you can add any of your choosing. A quick squeeze of lemon is also needed.

I used about five tablespoons of water too. I first cooked it on the stove.

The gas went off and I then had to use the microwave which I was reluctant to use. There's this Internet rumor that raspberries spark when heated in one. I put mine in for two minutes and crossed my fingers that they would come out OK They did.

It was then blitzing them with my immersion blender. The coulis should have been strained through a muslin cloth but I like it with a thicker, seedier mouth feel.

The dish itself is just scoops of vanilla ice cream arranged with peaches (usually fresh but canned work during this time of year) The raspberry coulis is drizzled over it.

It's a very summery tasting dessert and ti does have a fun,fruity flavor. I may make this for the holiday. I did try the coulis with chocolate syrup and the soy vanilla ice cream a second time and that was phenomenal. Chocolate and raspberry work so well together. that that may be the Christmas dessert.

I stored the coulis in a jar kept chilled in the fridge. It can also be stirred in plain yogurts along in oatmeal. You can make a fruity, pulpy soda with it too.

Peach Melba may be the perfect Christmas dessert.It is an easy elegance that is also delicious. Try it for a tasty end to a holiday meal.

What To Make What To Bake

 Christmas is less than two weeks away and many home chefs and bakers have no clue as to whip up. Do you go with a roast or with a ham? Bake the traditional cookies or try your hand at a lush dessert? There are so  many options. Yet what is the right one?

This is my problem on two accounts. What I will make as the main course will be vegan . That's a given. Yet what will it be? My go to is the comforting and tasty Gardein's turkey cutlets. They're easy to make in the air fryer and the accompanying gravy packets can easily be cooked in the microwave. This last is easy to make. Just thaw out add some water and a bit of I can't Believe it's Not Butter and a pinch of onion powder. The sides are an easy stuffing mix usually from Acme. Then there's either Brussels sprouts or green beans. I could change it up, I've seen two recipes that could change my mind.I recently saw the great British chef Mary Berry make a venison Wellington on her Great Country House series. She turned venison into something special at Scone Castle. I looked up a vegan version and found I could make one with Beyond beef, spinach, and chopped mushrooms wrapped in already made puff pastry. Then there's a tofu ham loaf that I know I can make tasty with a root beer glaze. I prepped the Thanksgiving Tofurky as it was the real thing. I can do the same with a faux ham with a delicious tried and true recipe.

Then there's the question of dessert. Who doesn't love a home baked cookie at Christmas however they are work. Even the Pillsbury Slice and Bakes can be laborious. Yet there are some recipes I would love to try, like peanut blossoms or almond spritz cookies.  I did buy a gingerbread house kit at Five Below. This can be dismantled and eaten, hence taking care of the cookie and candy side of the holiday. Yet what to make for Christmas Day dessert? I thought maybe a spice cake with a chocolate ganache icing , a riff on Hackensack New Jersey's  great B & W's Bakery's spice cupcakes with chocolate frosting. Then I saw a PBS special on London's historic hotel  The Savoy and one of its illustrious chefs ,Auguste Escoffier. He was famed for creating amazing desserts , named for the prominent women of the late Victorian Era. One was for the Australian opera singer , Nellie Melba which was a marriage of  raspberry coulis over peaches and vanilla ice cream. That looked wonderful so I Googled the recipe. It's surprisingly easy to make. It would be a breeze to make after a labor intensive  fake meat dinner.. I can easily buy canned peaches and there are fresh raspberries in all the stores. 

I still don't what to make. I am leaning towards the tried and true Gardein turkey and peach Melba.  Or it may be something else? Or something new? There's still a lot of time to decide.

Food And Prayers

 The US Midwest   and South has just gone through  one of the largest and most devastating tornado clusters in American history. Prayers will help. They always do. Yet food , hot and donated will also benefit.

This is one of the most horrirfic natural weather disasters to ever hit the continental US. Six states, were hit, destroying homes, schools and hospitals. The field of impact ranges from southern Illinois to western Kentucky.Arkansas,Missouri and Tennessee have also been hit. There are people and animals without electricity, water and food. Mayfield Kentucky was completely devastated. You can donate to the Kentucky REd Cross along with Aspire Appalachia and United Way  Company. You can also donate baby and pet food along with canned food to The Salvation Army, Kentucky/Tennessee Division. Food donations go to Dare To Care Food Bank, Hope To All Food Pantry at 307 W, Mose Rager Boulevard Drakesboro, KY and Community Kitchen 1237 Martin Luther King Boulevard in Paducah, KY, Give what you can and what can last, Breads, coolies crackers and cold cuts along with cheeses are good choices. Bottled water is a must. It can provide sustenance and cleaning too.

Raising money can also help. Think about creating  a bake sale which is perfect for those who  don't like to bake.Due to the virus, try to have it in a large, spacious area like your school gym or church hall.(some colleges are having holiday bake sales in their parking lots where there's a lot of space and fresh air.)  If you're really talented or can bake with help then think about making gingerbread houses or chocolate Yule logs , sweets that many home bakers find complicated to make. You can also try making fun gingerbread ornaments with royal icing and pretty decorations. These can be hung on the tree and eaten afterwards. Another big bake sale seller at this time are a wide array of cookies. The fancy spritz cookies are easy t make now thanks to improvements in cookie presses (there are even electric ones now). There are holiday themed discs that can be used in the presses and the dough can be tinted green and red for the holiday. of course oatmeal raisin and chocolate chip will always sell.

This is the season for heart and helping. Do what you can to help those devastated by the megatornados that hit six states in the Midwest and South. it could be cans pf pet food and formula. It could be the proceeds of a bake sale. Just reach out and help.

Fizz For The Holidays

The gift of bubbles are always fun. This could range from champagne to soda machines to gift certificates to a soda shop. There's nothing like the joy of fizz

Of course everyone appreciates champagne. Veuve Cliquot is the number one bottle of bubbly given out.It also comes in a very pretty yellow box.Its' notes are grape and apple and would be perfect with a varied charcuterie board.Moet Chandon is another good gift It has a very fruity, almost tropical taste with notes of pineapple and mango. There are under notes of mirabelle plum and apricot. A personal favorite is Asti Spumante which has a delicate blend of orange,pears, apricots and peaches. It's refreshing and not cloying  thanks to the crisp acidity of the Moscato Bianco grapes that comprise if champagne isn't our thing , then think soda. No, not your box of Coke or Dr. Pepper but a gift certificate at some of the new soda shops opening up.Victoria Peterson, a regular contributor covered this in Wednesday's New York Times Food section.  Chains like Swig and Fiiz have such delicious combinations as sparkling water with syrups to create Italian sodas, refreshing alternatives to the regular colas and lime sodas. The companies are mostly in Utah and the West. Some Italian pastry and coffee shops in other metro areas, like New York , Boston and Chicago can make Italian sodas in such refreshing flavors as tangerine, blood orange and lemon.

A soda machine is another great gift idea. Soda Stream has updated its' look and is a great addition to any one with a modern looking kitchen.It's has a new updated model,  Terra which is  sleeker and more aerodynamic looking. It comes in four colors from pale blue to red and the classic black or white. You could be generous and give the Hydration pack which has two extra bottles if the recipient wants to make two or three flavors at once. They also have the One Touch Electric which is much easier to use than the Terra and also the Aqua Fizz which is the sleekest of all the Soda Stream soda makers. It even comes with fancy carafes that go on any table from picnic to dining. What's really good about gifting this handy machine is the new updated flavors. Yes they still have the classic cola, cream and orange soda flavors along with their version of Dr. Pepper - Dr Pete's. Yet they also have Bubly drops for homemade flavored seltzer. Yet they also have a new line of craft soda syrups in such flavors as lemonade and pink grapefruit along with kombucha and passionfruit and mandarin kombucha

Give the gift of fizz for this Christmas. It could be a bottle of bubbly or a gift certificate at a cool soda shop. Better yet, give a soda machine where there's always a fresh amount of fizz. There's nothing like a fun holiday , full of bubbles and fun.

For The Wine Lover

 What do you get a oenophile for Christmas? You could easily pick up a bottle of a good Merlot or Shiraz.However a more enjoyable idea would be a book about wine. Info and stories about the grape is always fun and interesting. It also makes for a nice change up than the usual bottle.

Eric Asimov explored this in his The Pour column in yesterday's New York Times Food section. Getting the wine lover in your life a bottle can be a bit uninspired and boring.Give a book about said bottle and introduce culture and history. Champagne lovers will drink up Champagne Charlie : The Frenchman Who Taught Americans To Love Champagne.(Potomac Books ) by Don and Petie Kladstrup. Its' all about the 19th Century scion of a champagne company who introduced the bubbly to Americans and his misadventures during the   American Civil War. In more of the sparkling wine vein there is Rachel Signer's memoir You Gad me At Pet Nat  A Natural Wine Soaked Memoir(Hatchette) which is about her love and involvement with petillant natural,  an ancient style of sparkling wine revived by natural wine producers. It is a coming of age story Mr Asimov writes and it deals with love and back to earth farming. Robert V. Camuto's South of Somewhere : Wine, Food and the Soul Of Italy (University of Nebraska Press) tells of his ancestry's association with wine. Southern Italy, it's people  and the new generation taking over the old wineries. They give the industry a newer, fresher spin, all captured in Mr. Camuto's book.

There are also books on the terroirs. Portuguese wines are the highlight of Foot Trodden: Portugal and Wines That Time Forgot Interlink Publishing) by Simon J. Woolf and Ryan Opaz.It's all about the dynamics of Portuguese wine making. They show the insularity of Portuguese history along with challenges of the winemakers and the potential future oft he country's wines.Jasper Morris covers the ultimate terroir in Inside Burgundy (Berry Brothers and Rudd Press) This is the ultimate guide to the world's most famous wine country. Mr. Morris is an expert himself, living in the region and a retired wine merchant. He even addresses the fallout of climate change.He also covers the rising price of land that affects Burgundy's estates. On a more local note there is Acadamie du Vin Library's On California :From Napa To Nebbiolo _ Wine Tales From The Golden State. it is a collection of short selections from three dozen writers who offer impressionistic and thoughtful views on the state and its' wine making history.There are pieces  how California became an important part of the wine industry and world .

A bottle of wine lasts only for a while. A book about wine lasts forever. Get your oenophile one of theses for endless months and years of entertainment.

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.