Merry Christmas

Just wanted to wish all of you a very merry Christmas. Here are some snowflakes that were hanging from the ceiling at Chelsea Market.

Chocolate-Glazed Toffee Bars

New York City is getting all dressed up. Lights everywhere, even tiny non-neighborhoods like NoHo are hanging glittering "Happy Holiday" banners. The Met put up its tree, and if you want a tip from me to you, you can forget Rockefeller Center and head straight for the Met. Or just do both, since it's Christmas.

This is my last suggestion for your holiday cookie tray. The recipe comes from the slim Joy of Cooking Christmas Cookies, an offshoot of the American cookbook classic. Since I'm having a little bit of trouble coming up with a post today, I'm going to list a few descriptors and you can pick the ones you like the best. It will be like Choose Your Own Adventure.

Introduction:
Words cannot describe how great these are
The minute I saw these I knew I had to make them
I've had these bookmarked for months
This will be your new go-to recipe

Body:
These are definitely worth destroying your diet over
These are dangerously delicious
These are so simple yet so tasty
These are perfect for the unexpected guest (even though they're not)

Conclusion:
It doesn't get much better than this
Your friends will thank you
I hope you enjoy them as much as I did
It's really cold outside

Chocolate-Glazed Toffee Bars
Adopted from Irma S. Rombauer's The Joy of Cooking Christmas Cookies

For the shortbread base:
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
2 teaspoons milk

For the toffee and chocolate layers:
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
1/3 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons clover or other mild honey
1 tablespoon milk
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate morsels
2 tablespoons finely chopped pecans

For the shortbread:
Grease an 8 inch square baking dish and set aside.

Whisk together the flour, sugar and salt. Then add the butter pieces and using your fingertips work the butter into the flour mixture until it looks like sand. Sprinkle the mixture with the milk and knead until the milk is distributed throughout and the mixture holds together in a ball.

Press the dough into the prepared pan, in an even layer. Preheat the oven to 350 F, and refrigerate for 15 minutes. Bake the chilled dough on the middle oven rack for 10 minutes. Set aside to cool while you make the rest of the layers.

For the toffee and chocolate:
Toast the 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans either on a baking sheet in the still-warm oven for a few moments, or dry toast them in a skillet on the stove-top. In a medium-sized saucepan, combine the butter, the brown sugar, the honey, 1 tablespoon of milk and the salt. Stir this mixture frequently to prevent it from burning, and bring it to a boil over medium heat. Boil for 3 minutes, then remove from the heat. Stir in the toasted nuts and the vanilla.

Spread the mixture over the cooled shortbread crust and bake for 17-20 minutes. The toffee layer should bubble a little and turn golden brown. Cool on a wire wrack until warm, but not hot, and sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top. Let the chips melt a bit, then spread the around with a knife. The chocolate won't cover the top of the bars completely. Finally, sprinkle the last 2 tablespoons of chopped pecans over the top. Cut into bars while still a little warm, which will be easier than trying to do it once they're completely cool. Allow to cool totally, and enjoy.

Almond Butter Spritz Cookies

For me, I think Spritz cookies are the most quintessentially Christmas. Even though I didn't really grow up with them, and got my first cookies press a couple of years ago, they always seem to find their way into the holiday baking schedule. This recipe is pretty close to the one I used a couple of years ago. It's also just as good. Instead of ground almonds it uses almond paste, calls for cake flour and uses confectioners' sugar instead of regular.

I can't say that one or the other was particularly better, so you should chose based on what you already have on-hand. I, for example, wanted to use up some cake flour. I can say that this recipe is quite almondy, which is another reason I picked it. They're almondy, and buttery, and delicious once baked. But they were also a little finicky with the press. Nick Malgieri, whose recipe this is, suggests piping for the cookies. As far as the press goes, if the almond paste was not sufficiently mixed and dissolved, it tended to clog up a bit. So I had to go back into the dough with my hands and squeeze out the clumps of almond paste. You can avoid that by making sure your almond paste is very well mixed and smoothed with the egg and sugar. Also, just as a side note, almond paste is not the same as marzipan, although there's debate on what exactly the difference is. Marzipan is sweeter, apparently, and used to roll out and top cakes or to form into figures. But since marzipan does tend to contain more sugar, I'd use almond paste for this recipe as written.

Almond Butter Spritz Cookies
Adopted from Nick Malgieri's How to Bake

1/4 pound almond paste
1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
2 large eggs and 1 large yolk
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
3 cups cake flour
Rock sugar for decorating (optional)

Preheat the oven to 325 F, and set the wracks on the top and bottom 1/3 of the oven. Set parchment paper over several cookie sheets and set aside. You can oil the cookie sheets before you put the parchment paper on top so that the paper will stick to the sheet while you pipe.

In the bowl of your mixer and combine the almond paste with the sugar and half of the eggs. Stir together so that the almond paste starts to soften. Beat in the butter gradually, then pour the rest of the eggs in in a thin stream. This is the best time to make sure that the almond paste is as smooth as you can possibly get it.

Add all of the flour at one and mix just until combined. Don't overmix, or your cookies will be tough. Either pipe the dough or press it into shapes using a cookie press. You don't need to leave a ton of room between the cookies, as they won't spread a ton. If you're going to decorate with rock sugar, do it now.

Bake for about 15 minutes, and allow to cool on the sheets.

Norwegian Kakemenn, Norwegian Cake Men

I think if R had to pick his most favorite holiday treat ever, and if he wasn't allowed to pick these Norwegian truffles, called konfekt, he would for sure go for kakemenn. This recipe comes from his best friend's mom, because they are exactly the ones he remembers from childhood. So kakemenn. What are those? They're thick, rolled out, and then cut-out, cookies. They're made from a dough that stays pretty cakey (appropriate, given their name) and honestly? They taste like the best, most delicious animal crackers you've ever had. Not dry like the prepackaged kind, but also not overly sweet. I think this last quality makes them very good candidates for a cookie tray crowded with overly cloying desserts.

But it wouldn't be a Norwegian recipe without at least one hard-to-find ingredient if you live in the US. These cookies are made with hornsalt, instead of baking powder. Hornsalt is also called baker's ammonia, and is a leavener whose flavor evaporates out of the baked good, and is supposed to be great for its texture. However, since it starts out imparting the taste of ammonia to the food, you can forget about sampling your cookie dough. And if you need to clear out your sinuses, one whiff of hornsalt should do the trick.

For the decorating, which we couldn't do before R had polished off more than half of them, it's traditional to simply paint them with a brush and food coloring, or to leave them white. Since I spent so much time tracking down coconut oil for this recipe, I ran out of time to get paint brushes. But I think they're charming enough as is. The recipe below makes a ton of cookies. Seriously, a ton. It can easily be halved.

Norwegian Kakemenn (and women, and dogs)
Friend of the Family's recipe

1/2 liter of water
30 grams of hornsalt
100 grams of unsalted butter, melted
750 grams of sugar
1.5-2 kilos flour

Put the melted butter in a medium bowl and add the water. Mix in the sugar and hornsalt, then add a little flour at a time, mixing, until the dough comes together in a ball. It will be a bit sticky. You may not use all of the flour, depending on the conditions.

Wrap the dough ball and refrigerate for twelve hours. After this time, remove from the refrigerator and allow to warm up a little bit on the counter.

Preheate the oven to 425F. Put parchment paper over a couple of cookie sheets and set aside. Roll the dough out to about 1/8" and using cookie cutters cut shapes out of the dough. Put the cookies on the baking sheets and bake for about 8 minutes until lightly browned on the bottom and edges. Allow to cool, and decorate with food coloring used as paint if you want.

Crème de Menthe Brownies

I have been thinking about these brownies for ten years. Ten. That's since high school. I mean, I realize my dad teases me by saying that I've never forgotten a meal (which is true) but ten years is a long time to pine after brownies. My friend J's mom made them for me when I single-handedly got him into college. Okay, so in truth one component of his college application was a recommendation from a peer, which I wrote. And he got in. Thus, I got him in. Seems logical. And so I received a platter of these brownies. They are wonderful.

J was in town the other week, and we met for lunch. I probably hadn't seen him for three years or so (I think we compromised on that number in the end). I asked him if he remembered these brownies, and not only did he remember them, he had the recipe. And he gave it to me, and now I'm giving it to you. They're actually quite beautiful, with that ribbon of green crème de menth running between the cakey base and the chocolate topping. These brownies got my friend into college. Imagine what they'll do for your holiday cookie platter.

Crème de Menthe Brownies
From J's Wonderful Mom. We're lucky I have such great friends.

For the brownie layer:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup flour
1 16-oz can of Hershey's chocolate syrup (I could only find a large can, so I weighed out 16 ozs)

For the Mint Layer:
1/2 cup room temperature butter
2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons crème de menthe

For the Top Chocolate Layer:
6 oz chocolate chips
6 tablespoons butter (J's mom uses 8 ozs chocolate and 8 tablespoons butter, but I forgot to increase)

For the brownies:
Preheat the oven to 350 F, and grease a 9x13" baking pan. Set aside.

Cream the sugar and butter together, then add the vanilla. Add the beaten eggs, 1 cup of flour, and the chocolate syrup. Mix the batter well, and spread into the prepared pan. Bake for around 30 minutes, but check early. Allow the batter to cool completely while you make the next layers.

For the Mint Layer:
Mix the butter with the powdered sugar and the crème de menthe. Spread it over the cooled brownie layer.

For the Top Chocolate Layer:
Melt the chocolate chips together with the butter, either in the microwave or in a double boiler on the stove. Pour the chocolate layer over the crème de menthe layer. Transfer the baking pan into the freezer or refrigerator and allow to cool before you cut and serve.

Konfekt, Norwegian Chocolate and Coconut Oil Truffles

This here? This is my favorite new discovery. These are amazing. I'm pretty sure I didn't even make them quite right, and I'm still in love. They make the three-day search through NYC to find coconut oil totally worth it. This is one of R's family holiday recipes, which his sister sent to me. She's the one who's in charge of them every Christmas, so admittedly R had no idea what we were doing. But he was impatient to start popping them in his mouth. These were the treats he used to steal from his parents' basement, where they were kept cool before Christmas. He has pretty much not changed at all.

These candies are basically balls of chocolate, the chocolate melted with coconut oil, and then mixed with marzipan, bits of licorice and tiny balls made from cutting up gumdrops. It sounds cloying, but somehow all of those bits of candy totally work together. One thing that makes Norwegian Konfekt so unique the use of coconut oil in the chocolate. Normally when we make a ganache, we mix chocolate with heavy cream, but the coconut oil adds a wonderful flavor that you shouldn't miss just because it can be a bit hard to find.

Whole Foods is supposed to carry it, but was out when I went. I ended up finding my jar at a kind of health food store on the Upper East Side called Health Nuts (on 2nd between 63rd and 64th, if you need to know). Coconut oil is solid at room temperature, so look for it in a jar in the US, although it comes in sticks the way butter does in Norway. It's also less expensive than butter in Norway, but we're not so lucky here, and a jar can run up to $12 in NYC at least. Also, do not confuse coconut oil with coconut butter. Coconut butter is made from both the oil and the meat of the coconut, and will not at all work in this recipe. At Health Nuts I discovered there are various version of coconut oil, much like olive oil, and it comes in virgin and extra virgin varieties. I used the virgin variety, which is meant for medium heat.

I say that I didn't quite make this recipe correctly because the coconut oil separated a bit from the chocolate. But that doesn't really matter, at least if you're not a purist, because the oil turns white as it cools, which is festive with the chocolate, and it still tastes wonderful. So, I mean, you could worry about it if you wanted to, but I don't. One last note on ingredients, R's sister called for candies that when translated from the Norwegian are called 'jelly tops.' I'm pretty sure we would call them gumdrops, but R and I used Swedish Fish. Swedish Fish, aside from the fact that they aren't actually Swedish (I don't think) are not recommended because although delicious, they're far too sticky to chop and just want to glop together. If you find that your jelly candy of choice is having the same problem, spread the bits out on a cutting board or plate and refrigerate/freeze them so they can be added to the chocolate without sticking together.

You're going to cut the marzipan, licorice and jelly candies into really small pieces. We found that it was actually quicker to just pull them apart with your fingers into tiny pieces, because everything tended to stick to the knife. You want the pieces small enough so that each ball of chocolate will have several pieces of candy in it.

Norwegian Konfekt
A Family Recipe

250 grams bittersweet chocolate (we used part bittersweet part semisweet, which you could also do)
4 tablespoons strong coffee
250 grams coconut oil
2 eggs
2 tablespoons sugar
A tube of marzipan, cut into really small pieces
A large handful of liquorice, chopped into teensy tiny bits (actually, it's easier to just break them apart with your fingers than to chop them, since they tend to stick to the knife)
Another large handful of gumdrops or other such jelly candy, also cut or pulled apart into really small pieces
Yet another handful of almonds, blanched and ground

Beat together the egg and sugar until the mixture is foamy and the color is light yellow. Set aside.

Melt the coconut oil in a saucepan over medium heat. As soon as it melts remove from the heat and let it cool to room temperature so it will hopefully not separate from the chocolate.

Melt the chocolate together with the coffee, either in the microwave or over the double boiler. Add the egg mixture and mix until combined. Slowly add the cooled coconut oil (which will still be liquid) and mix.

Add all of the candy pieces and mix to evenly distribute them throughout the batter. Arrange mini candy paper cups on a cookie sheets, and using a teaspoon fill each cup. Sprinkle the ground almonds over the top. Transfer the cookie sheet to the refrigerator and refrigerate until the chocolate sets.

Molasses Crinkles

Okay, so, holiday cookies. R and I started on our holiday baking on Sunday, since we wanted to bake 5 different kinds of cookies with enough time to distribute them to our friends before I leave for Colorado for winter break. And in case you're still planning your holiday cookie plate, I wanted to get the results up relatively quickly. So my goal is one cookie post a day for six days. That's kind of an onslaught of cookies, I realize, at a time when you might be all cookied out. But thanks to R's family and friends, I have some pretty unique, and very Norwegian recipes to share, as well as some more typical selections.

Let's start with the easiest first. I'll admit that I chose this recipe partly because I happened to have every last ingredient already on-hand (including molasses, thanks to this killer persimmon upside down spice cake). These Molasses Crinkles come from Mollie Katzen's Still Life with Menu Cookbook, and the recipe was given to her mother by a neighbor. I baked these a little longer than Katzen suggests, because I wanted them kind of crispy, but you'd get a softer cookie by baking them for the suggested 12-15 minutes. Mine stayed in closer to 20 minutes, and were firm when they came out of the oven. They continue to crisp as they cool, so be warned. So far they have been universally loved. R called them "sooooo good" where the 'so' is dragged out into multiple syllables. I love that 'so'. Also, he keeps sneaking them. Another good sign.

Molasses Crinkles
Adopted, and the spices somewhat altered, from Mollie Katzen's Still Life with Menu Cookbook

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup blackstrap molasses
1 cup sugar, plus a couple of tablespoons extra for rolling the dough
1 egg, beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon garam masala
2 cups all purpose flour

Oven preheated to 350. Either grease two cookie sheets or cover them with parchment paper and set aside.

Melt the butter in a bowl in the microwave, then transfer it to the bowl of your mixer, or use a hand mixer. Beat in the molasses and the 1 cup sugar. Next beat in the egg. Set this mixture aside.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking soda and spices. Add the dry mixture into the wet one, and stir until it is well incorporated. Put the extra sugar into a flat dish or shallow bowl. Form the dough into 1.5 inch balls, then roll them in the sugar. Place them on the baking sheets, keeping room between the balls as they will spread with baking.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, or up to 20 minutes for crispier cookies, adjusting for the particularities of your own oven. Cool on a rack and enjoy.

UPDATE: After having these cookies hanging around for a few days, I've realized that 20 minutes is too long of a bake time. While still delicious, they went from crispy to incredibly hard. So take them out closer to 12-15 minutes, before they've completely set. As I said, they'll get crunchier as they cool.

Carrot Risotto

I buy all of my books used. Online, most of the time, on recommendation from friends or other people out there in the interwebs. Or from used book stores, garage sales, the little church around the corner that spills used knickknacks, clothes and books onto the sidewalk every weekday morning in a makeshift thrift store. I do it because they're less expensive that way, for one. And I buy a lot of books. But there's also the thrill of the hunt, or better, the thrill of discovery. Which happens in two ways. Finding the book itself, obviously. But also finding other people's notes in their books.

When I got John Ash's From the Earth to the Table, there were a couple of dog-ears, and a few bookmarks. Charmingly, and appropriately for the season, one of the bookmarks was an insert from a magazine on which was printed recipes for holiday baking. And the food splattered dish it marked was this carrot risotto. We don't have any real snow yet in New York City, so the weather can be kind of drab. Bright orange carrot juice at least solves the problem of no color. And it's a wonderful riff on the stock-soaked risotto, pretty healthy with all that juice and the addition of extra carrots during cooking. Ash suggests a variation using a mixture of carrot juice and fennel juice, which I'm sure would also be great. Keep this recipe in your files in case you get a juicer for the holidays. That way you don't have to wait for the fruit of summer before you put it to use.

Carrot Risotto
Adapted from John Ash's From the Earth to the Table

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
about 2 shallots, minced
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
about 3 carrots, grated
3 cups vegetable stock
2 cups carrot juice
2 tablespoons minded fresh parsley
2 tablespoons minced fresh tarragon
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Lemon juice to taste (about 1 medium lemon)
A handful of wild mushrooms, whatever you find in your market.

First, saute your mushrooms in a little butter until they're cooked through and browned. Set aside. Pour the stock and the carrot juice into a large saucepan and heat through. Keep it warm as you add it to the risotto.

Melt the 3 tablespoons of butter over medium in a large skillet and sauté the shallots until they're soft and translucent. Add the rice and cook for about 3 minutes, until the rice also turns translucent. Add the wine and stir until it is absorbed into the rice. Add the grated carrots, and then start adding the stock/carrot juice 1/2 cup at a time. Stir the rice well between each addition, as the rice should soak up the stock before you add more. It will take more time as you add more stock and the rice becomes more saturated. Continue to add stock until it is basically all used up and the risotto is creamy. The rice shouldn't be mushy however, so stop while it still has a bit of bite to it.

Add the herbs and cheese and stir to incorporate it. Season with salt and pepper, and a little lemon juice in order to cut some of the sweetness of the carrots. Serve with the sautéd mushrooms mounded on top and an extra sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.

Wheat Berry and Sweet Potato Bake

My apartment window looks over the above-ground tracks of Metro North, which runs from Grand Central in the middle of New York, makes a brief stop in Harlem, and then flees the city. We can hear it rumble, which some visitors think makes our apartment quintessential. But we have a great view, since buildings can't be erected over the tracks, facing uptown toward apartments much higher than ours. And at this moment, only a few of these other windows are all dressed up for the holidays. I guess many don't feel they need any extra adornment, since New York twinkles all on it's own, without needing any excuses. And for as much as I complain about the bitter cold of the city, somehow it seems even more New York in the winter. For one thing, the uniform of mostly black is suited to darker days. And people here, people other than me that is, still manage to be fashionable under eight layers. I personally stick to a long somewhat puffy coat that looks just like wearing a down sleeping bag out in public. (Que more random NYC photos.)

I realize the cliche of cooking during the winter is heavy, filling foods that might add an extra layer of warmth under your coat. But in this inter-holiday period, simpler can be better. I've written before about this series of books, which unexpectedly, happily, keep coming through. I'm not going to say I like this last one quite as much as I absolutely loved this one and this one. But I do love all of its individual elements, apart as well as together. The recipe comes from (don't laugh) Prevention Magazine's 2010 annual compilation called Eat Up Slim Down! (the exclamation point is theirs.) And while I don't usually like taking directions like that from my cookbooks, the recipes are good, so you can't exactly blame a book for its title. Or judge it, or something.

You may not have a lot of experience with wheat berries, but I find them completely satisfying. If you don't demand that your grains immediately fade to the background in a dish, you'll probably like them too. Because they're chewy, and good for you, and there's just something so 'real food' about them. Probably because they are real food, since they're basically the entire wheat grain. Paired with melting cheese and melting sweet potatoes, they give you something to really chew on. I found mine at Whole Foods, so you might start looking there.

Wheat Berry and Sweet Potato Bake
Adapted from Eat Up Slim Down! 2010

2 cups water
1/2 cup wheat berries
Salt
1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into slices about 1/8 inch thick
2 cloves garlic, passed through a press
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary (or 1 teaspoon dried)
1 1/4 - 1 1/2 cups shredded Gruyere cheese, divided
1/4 cup vegetable stock

Put the water and wheat berries in a medium pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 1 hour. The wheat berries should be tender and the water should be absorbed. Season with salt.

Preheat the oven to 350 F, and grease an 8x8 inch backing dish. Put half the sweet potatoes in the dish, then sprinkle with half of the pressed garlic, as well as half of the herbs, half of the cooked wheat berries and a pinch of salt to season. Sprinkle about 1/2 cup cheese over the top. Next place the rest of the sweet potato slices over the cheese, the rest of the garlic, herbs and wheat berries. Season with a bit more salt, then sprinkle another 1/2 cup of cheese over the top. Pour the broth over the top. Reserve the last 1/4 - 1/2 cup of cheese.

Cover the baking dish with tinfoil, and bake for 45 minutes, until the potatoes are totally tender. Uncover the dish and sprinkle the reserved cheese over the top. Return the uncovered baking dish to the oven and bake for a final 5 minutes longer, until cheese is melted. Serve.

Grilled Marinated Quail with Chestnuts and Cranberries

Okay, so, the reason I've been delaying this post is because the pictures are really pretty bad. Bad enough that normally I'd consider just not using the post at all, except this was the centerpiece of our Thanksgiving for two. So I'm going to give you mostly pictures from around New York that are completely unrelated, and then wham! Ugly food pics right at the end. Brace yourself.

Another reason I don't feel too guilty delaying this post is that, even though it was our T-gives dinner, it's not turkey. So if you're all turkey'd out, and maybe still have occasion to cook something a little special, you might consider this. Which is quail. Which, it turns out, is really frickin' easy, and takes all of about 6 minutes to actually cook.

But I'll back up for a second. We had Thanksgiving for two this year, as you've no doubt gathered. But I'm married to a Norwegian, and there are traditional American things he just doesn't like. Pumpkin pie is one of them (so I replaced that with this). Cranberry sauce it another, even though I think it shares a basic affinity with Norwegian specialties like lingonberry jam. But you know what they say about the possibility of accounting for taste. So I wanted to use most of the traditional ingredients, but in slightly non-traditional ways, and with only enough food for two.

I still wanted a kind of centerpiece bird, but was not about to roast an entire turkey for two people. I was also not particularly interested in a mere turkey or chicken breast, not for a feast. So I went for a completely different bird, a game bird not nearly as well known as turkey, it seems, but about 1/100th of the size. In fact, those silly little quails are positively tiny, and if you've had your butcher butterfly them, they look like little headless people flattened onto wax paper.

The recipes comes originally from Larry Forgione's An American Place, which is an appropriate source, since Forgione's mission in life seems to be elevating a unique American cooking with use of kind of fresh and farmers' market ingredients increasingly available in the US. He originally calls for wild huckleberries, which, although native to the US, are pretty much impossible to find in East Harlem on a whim. He suggests replacing them with dried wild blueberries, but since we were talking Thanksgiving, I decided to incorporate the cranberries right into the sauce. It made the original process a bit different, but the sauce was gooood.

So, let's talk about chestnuts quickly, since you'll be using the in this recipe. The easiest way to peel them is to cut an X on the flat side with a sharp knife. Put them into a pot and cover with water. Bring the water to a boil, and boil the nuts for about 4 minutes. Drain and cool the nuts, then peel the shells off.

Now, the other thing impossible to find in November in East Harlem is a grill. If you have the same problem, you can simply use a grill pan, or throw them under the broiler. They're so teensy, tiny (allow at least two per person assuming there are side dishes coming along) that they take only a few minutes per side. And now, for a look at these ugly, but delicious, little birds. The following recipe as been reduced to feed two.

Grilled Marinated Quail with Chestnuts and Cranberries
Adopted from Larry Forgione's An American Place

For the marinade:
1/2 cup (real please!) maple syrup
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon chopped tarragon (or thyme if that's what you have or like)
1 tablespoon sesame oil
4 boneless quail (just ask your butcher to bone them for you)

For the sauce:
1/2 cup fresh cranberries
3/4 tablespoon ground black pepper
1/3 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
3/4 cup stock or broth
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 tablespoon corn starch

About 8 chestnuts, peeled
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, maybe a bit more if you need it
Olive oil to brush over the birds
Salt and pepper to season

For the marinade, combine the ingredients in a large ziplock bag and shake it around. Put the quail in and then put the bag in the refrigerator. Marinate the birds for 1 hour.

For the sauce: combine the cranberries, pepper, and sugar in a saucepan. Cook, stirring for about 5 minutes, and don't let the mixture burn. Deglaze the pan with the vinegar (which just means put the vinegar in the pot and use it to break up any bits stuck to the bottom). Cook for another 1-2 minutes, then add the stock. Bring the mixture to simmer and continue to cook for 8-10 minutes.

In separate bowl, mix the softened butter together with the cornstarch to form a paste. Stir it into the sauce to thicken. The liquid should stay at a simmer for another 2-3 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.

This would be a good time to preheat your grill pan or broiler (or grill I guess, but since I've never had one I have no idea how long that takes). But bring whatever you're using to medium-hot.

For the chestnuts, combine the nuts, the butter and 2 tablespoons water in a skillet and bring the melted butter to a simmer over medium heat. Cook for about 5 minutes, until the liquid is evaporated and the chestnuts are coated with butter. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

For the quail, remove the birds from the marinade and pat dry. Brush with olive oil and season with salt and pepper on both sides. Grill or broil for 2-3 minutes per side until cooked through. Arrange two quail per person with chestnuts sprinkled around, and topped with the cranberry sauce.

Pumpkin Cake Roll with Cream Cheese Frosting

So thanksgiving. Are we still talking about that? Some of us might still be enjoying the leftovers, although since I only made dinner for two, I am not one of the lucky ones. Making Thanksgiving dinner for myself and a Norwegian was something of a double-edged sword. On one hand, it really left a lot of room for improvisation, sparing me the whining that might come from people who have a lifetime of Thanksgiving expectations behind them. For example, we didn't have turkey (but that's another post).

On the other hand, R doesn't like pumpkin pie. I'll pause for second so my readers from the US can recover from the shock. My husband, whom I've promised to love and cherish for the rest of my life does not like pumpkin pie. Does not appreciate the custardy, autumnal filling, baked to not-quite-solid. And since it was only dinner for two, I couldn't very well make an entire pumpkin pie just for myself. Even I have to draw the piggy-line somewhere.

So instead, I made a pumpkin roulade with cream cheese frosting that I've made before, a couple of years ago for a friend's dinner party. Still of the season, still includes pumpkin, but in a form both of us were willing to polish off in under two days (boom). And even though Thanksgiving is over now, it's still relevant because no one wants to stop eating pumpkin yet. And no one ever wants to stop eating cream cheese frosting.

Pumpkin Cake Roll with Cream Cheese Frosting
Adopted from Saveur Magazine, number 106, November 2007

1 tablespoons butter softened, plus extra for greasing the pan
3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Pinch of salt
3 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 cup roughly chopped pecans
1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
6 oz cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 375F. Spray a 10"x15" jelly roll pan with either butter or spray, and place a piece of parchment paper over it. Spray the parchment paper and set aside. In case you don't know, a jello roll pan is just a cookie sheet with a rim. And this size is bit smaller than the standard size, but perfect for my little mini-oven.

Sift the flour together with the cinnamon, nutmeg and salt into a medium bowl and set aside. Break the eggs into a bowl of an electric mixer, or just use a hand mixer, and beat them until fluffy and tripled in size. This will take 4-5 minutes, so maybe go with a standing mixer if you have one. Add the granulated sugar in thirds, and be sure to beat well after each addition so it's completely incorporated. After the last addition, beat the mixture for another 2-3 minutes until it's thick and creamy.

Switch to a wooden spoon and stir in the pumpkin and lemon juice. Fold in the flour mixture gently. Pour the batter into the prepared pan evenly, and spread it all the way to the sides. Sprinkle with the chopped pecans. Bake for 15 minutes, until cooked through.

While it bakes, get a work surface ready by sprinkling a clean kitchen towel with 1/4 cup powdered sugar. When the cake is done, quickly loosen the parchment paper from the pan, and (show no fear, commitment is your friend) flip it over onto the towel. Roll the cake up in the towel right away like a jello role. Set aside and let it cool for 1 hour, seam side down.

For the filling:

Combine the 4 tablespoons of butter with the 1 cup of confectioners' sugar and all of the cream cheese, as well as the vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer until the frosting is smooth.

To finish:

Carefully unroll the cake and spread the frosting over it. Gently reroll, but this time without the towel. Transfer to a serving place, seam side down and refrigerate until set and ready to serve.