Seafood Gratin - Not Exactly Kosher

Christmas is not my holiday.
I'm Hanukkah, which we all know is nothing like Christmas.
It just so happens to fall in December, so it became a Christmas-like substitute for all the kids without a tree or stockings or Santa or blinking colored lights.

But I married a Christmas and now I do both holidays every December.
Latkes and brisket one night.
 Sugar cookies and ham the next.
Menorah lighting and light stringing.
Dreidels and advent calendars.
We are a full service family.

So when it comes to Christmas dinner, I am not a traditionalist.
Often, I'm pretty burned out by then - what with the birthday partying and marathon baking.
I don't go for the whole crown roast thing or turkey dinner redux.
The menu goes undecided until the last minute.
My husband came to the rescue this year when he ordered 6 pounds of lobster meat (full retail price: astronomical), 8 pounds of jumbo shrimp and clam chowder from a friend in the seafood biz (just another perk of living in Maine). That's a lot of seafood for a family of five plus mother-in-law.

Bob would have liked to put it all on a plate and have at it with toothpicks.
Not too festive.

Fortunately, the Bonus Baby (at ten years old she's a big fan of Food Network) and I had been watching Barefoot Contessa a few days early. Ina, my idol, made a seafood gratin that looked delicious and pretty uncomplicated. Menu accomplished.

Thanks Ina!
It was amazing. Very flavorful, elegant and not too rich. We also had my new favorite salad.

The pictures do this seafood extravaganza no justice. You'll have to take my word for it. Just wait until I finish my second helping.

You can find the recipe on Food Network's website by clicking here. The recipes on FN are easy to print out.

I made just a few changes...
-instead of individual gratins as Ina suggests, I made one in a shallow casserole dish.
-instead of halibut, I used sea scallops.
-since I forgot to buy heavy cream, I used whole milk. It seemed to make no difference, except in calories.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas/Hanukkah!

Granola? Yup, Granola.

Of all the things you'd expect me to make and give as a food gift this year, I'll bet this one never even entered your mind...

Granola.

Sure I could have gone the fudge route.
I certainly have nothing against fudge. In fact, I probably like it a little too much.


I briefly considered - and rejected-  chocolate bark, almond toffee, coffee cakes, peppermint brownies, caramel sauce, chocolate truffles, even homemade marshmallows.
I'm pretty sure any of them would be warmly welcomed by my friends and my kids teachers.

But I went with granola.
You're shaking your head in wonder, aren't you? You thought you knew me.
Well guess what? I really like granola.
(But nowhere nearly as much as I like chocolate. Let's not get ridiculous).
I went to college in Vermont where granola is the state food.

Granola is homey and healthy.
It keeps a long time.
You can package it in all kinds of cute jars and bags.
People are secretly glad for a break from all that sugar.
And the number one reason I made granola...
is because it's wicked easy.
As we say in Maine.

 This recipe is inspired by one that 2 Stews (a beautiful, very delicious blog) posted last spring. After a bit of trial and error (and burnt oats), I find this works well. I'll give you measured amounts, but feel free to ignore them. Use any kinds of nuts you like, and any kind of dried fruit. I added some crystallized ginger because I am a little obsessed with it and I like the zing it adds.

Holiday Granola


4 cups of whole oats

1 cup shredded, sweetened coconut

1 cup slivered or chopped almonds

1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

3/4 cup honey

3/4 cup maple syrup

Heat oven to 400 degrees.
Line a heavy roasting pan with non-stick foil. Pour all of the ingredients listed above into the pan and mix well.
Roast in oven 10 minutes. Remove from oven, stir well and roast another 10 minutes.
Remove and stir it again. Place back in oven and roast until lightly golden, about another 5-8 minutes, checking often.
The edges tend to burn very quickly so keep an eye on it!

Remove from oven and allow granola to cool.
Mix in 1 cup dried cranberries (or other dried fruit) and 1/4 cup crystallized ginger, diced small.

That's it.
Wicked easy, huh?

Oh Really? Salad?

Aside from the Orange-scented Brownies with Cranberries, Pistachios and Ginger and the Chocolate Macaroon Mountains, believe it or not, the best thing I've eaten in the past two weeks was a salad.
Yes, a salad.

You may think I'm all about chocolate. This blog would certainly give you that impression.
But a girl needs some healthy and lighter foods occasionally.

Salad sounds like summer food doesn't it?
My friend Betsy made this salad for our book group meeting last week (in case you're interested, we discussed The Book Thief) and it's the perfect winter salad, featuring roasted pears and fennel. I've already made it twice since then, and plan on doing it again this weekend, to go with our Hanukkah dinner.
If you have to bring a salad to a potluck in the next couple of weeks, this is the one. Easy and impressive.

Greens with Roasted Fennel, Pears and Parmesan

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

1 fennel bulb, trimmed and thinly sliced

2 ripe (but not mushy) pears , quartered, cored and thinly sliced
(I used Bosc)

2 large heads endive, trimmed and sliced crosswise

1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted

1/2 cup freshly shaved Parmesan cheese

4 cups mixed salad greens, or 4 cups arugula

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Brush a baking sheet with one Tbsp. oil. Add the fennel, toss to coat and spread in an even layer.
Brush a second baking sheet with the remaining oil, add pears and toss to coat evenly. Spread in a single layer. Bake the fennel and pears until tender, about 30 minutes.

Place endive and greens in a large salad bowl. Top with pears and fennel, then shaved Parmesan and pine nuts.

Toss with vinaigrette:

2 Tbsp. white balsamic vinegar or red wine vinegar

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 tsp. herbes de Provence

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

In a small bowl, whisk together vinegar and oil. Add herbs and salt and pepper, then whisk again thoroughly.

What's the best thing you ate all week?

Going Coconuts

(I apologize if you are receiving this for the second time. Some weird Blogger glitch...)

This time of year always makes me feel a little crazy.

I don't need to tell you how long the to-do list is. I'm sure yours is a lot like mine.

Shop for family gifts.

Bake.

Drink.

Eat.

Order stuff online for husband's family.

Bake some more.

Visit Santa.

Buy and set up tree.

Make teacher and bus driver gifts.

Struggle to fit into last year's black skirt.

Bake.

Plan and execute birthday party for youngest daughter.

Care for husband having hip replacement surgery.

Design, order, sign, address, mail 100+ holiday cards.

Create and sustain unique and wonderful holiday memories for children.

Decorate home for Christmas.

Decorate home for Hanukkah.

Make latkes.

Bake.

Take deep breaths.

Bake.

Eat. Drink.

In honor of all this nuttiness, I have been on a coconut cookie baking spree.

I know that coconut is not universally loved. But people who love it as I do, really LOVE it.

Plus it fits right in with my preference for all things chewy and chunky.

And, because sometimes it matters, these cookies are gluten-free.

First there was the almond-coconut macaroons. This recipe came from Cooking Light. I added the chocolate dip and drizzle.

Then, the macaroon mountains, aka chocolate coconut macaroons dipped in white chocolate.

I made them for our annual neighborhood cookie swap.

Don't they look like little snow-capped mountain peaks? I thought so.

And they're that perfect combination of a slightly crispy outside and chewy inside.

The recipe is pretty simple. So that's one less thing to drive you nuts.

One thing to think about before you start - the cookie dough needs to freeze before it's baked, so leave yourself enough time for that.

Also, instead of melting the chocolate over a pan of water, you could microwave it in 30 second intervals, being very careful to stir it in between so it doesn't burn.

Chocolate Macaroon Mountains

adapted from The Boston Globe and Clear Flour Bakery

9 1/4 oz. semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (about 2 cups)

4 1/2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped (about 1 cup)

5 egg whites

8 oz. sugar (about 1 cup plus 2 1/2 Tbsps.)

1 Tbsp. vanilla

14 oz. pkg. sweetened, shredded coconut

8 oz. white chocolate (optional)

Combine the semisweet and unsweetened chocolates in a large metal or glass bowl, or top of a double boiler. Place the bowl over a saucepan of about 1" of barely simmering water (don't let the bottom of the bowl touch the water).

Melt the chocolate, stirring frequently. Remove bowl from over the water and set aside.

In a large clean bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy. Slowly add the sugar and keep beating until the mixture has the consistency of melted marshmallow. Using a firm rubber spatula, mix in the vanilla, melted chocolate and coconut until well combined. The dough will be thick.

Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper (or Silpat). Make sure the sheet will fit in your freezer. Using wet hands, form dough into balls, about 2 tablespoons each. Place on prepared cookie sheet, and repeat until all the dough has been used.*

Freeze the cookies on the sheet.**

Heat the oven to 350. Bake the frozen macaroons for 16-20 minutes, until the outsides have developed a delicate crust and the tops are set. Slide the parchment paper, with macaroons on it, off the cookie sheet and onto a wire rack to cool.

When cookies have cooled completely, they can be dipped, if you'd like.

Melt 8 oz. white chocolate in a shallow bowl. Dip the top of each cookie into the white chocolate, letting excess drip off. Place back on rack, and allow chocolate to dry completely.

* I couldn't possibly fit all those cookie sheets in my freezer, so I ended up placing balls of cookies on plates, and putting those in the freezer. When it was time to bake them, I just transferred them to cookie sheets.

** Once the cookies are frozen, you can store them on the freezer for up to 3 months, in a plastic freezer bag or container.