I Had Some Dreams...They Were Clouds in my Coffee

I am a creature of habit... and borderline addiction, so it goes without saying that I begin every morning with a cup of Joe to get my eyes a blinkin' and my err other things that may or may not rhyme with "vowels" a movin'.  This is a practice so closely followed in my home that it's become borderline dogma.  We have this schmancy fancy pants "coffee system" that we received as a wedding gift years back.  It's a one cup pod model that does every thing short of raise your kids and wash your dog...but I digress.

My husband detested coffee until it became a necessary evil in law school and he refuses to add any accoutrement for reasons I still don't understand.  In my case, however, coffee is nothing more than a vehicle for dairy and legal addictive stimulants (as are all good things in life when you really think about it).  So you can imagine how it tickles me pink when a novelty creamer flavor arrives all sparkley and new under the refrigerated dairy case lights, promising peaceful mornings and sweet sweet dairy satisfaction.

Remember when Coffee-Mate had two sad little flavors, Original or French Vanilla and it only came in that icky powder that never actually fully dissolved in your coffee?  Original always puzzled me, I mean why not just call it "Cream" what exactly is so original about non-flavored flavored creamer?  But again I digress.  Long gone are the days of easy decisions in the dairy aisle.  Now Coffee-Mate offers 28 count them 28 different little bottles of creamy goodness.  I challenge you to find a creamer mecca that sells all 28 flavors (and if you do, please oh please share with the group) but I am fairly satisfied with my local market's selection...that was until the Great Holiday Creamer Upset of 2010 occurred.

I LOVE trying new flavors, and am ever so delighted when the limited-time-only seasonal line appears.  So excited that just this last week I decided to tempt the fates and skip over the Fall flavors for a brand spanking new, never before tasted, Christmas flavor...

This is the evil doer:

I know what you're thinking..."Sugar & Spice" and everything nice...that's what great coffee is made of.  Look at the little sugar cookies decorated so delightfully in royal icing and silver dragees.  There are cinnamon sticks and star anise on the packaging for crying out loud.  How on earth could we go wrong here?  But it did...it went so very very wrong.  So wrong that the coffee-mate website http://www.coffee-mate.com/default.aspx doesn't even acknowledge this flavor at all.  (In a related topic, I must say it's a snazzy little website Coffee-mate has going, complete with recipes, you should check it out, just skip this particular flavor all together.)
Have you ever put star anise in anything?  How about a cinnamon stick?  Ever left it in said thing too long?  It's disastrous people.  Tree bark does not take kindly to amateur hands.  You have to know exactly when steeping over-steps its boundaries and becomes insidious soaking.

I was so excited to try this puppy that I raced home from the market and brewed a cup of decaf lickety split.  I'll leave you with the first thought that raced through my mind...

Did I just drink tree?

Avast me hearties! This here be a recipe to send scurvy to Davy Jones' locker.

In honor of National Talk Like a Pirate Day, I thought I'd share with you one of the most delicious quick bread recipes in all the high seas. But first a word from our sponser:

Aunt Judy is the "tallest" pictured
the rest are under the age of six.

 My dear Aunt Judy is the mistress of quick breads and has been delighting our family with a plethora of options for as long as I can remember.  As children we knew that once we'd surpassed Aunt Judy's height (a mere 4 foot and some change, see picture for height reference) we could graduate to the adult table at family gatherings.  I'd like to think that until you've mastered Aunt Judy's quick breads you can't graduate into full on foodie.

This particular recipe is perfect for you pirates and the reason is threefold:

1. Portability; it's a quick bread, no refrigeration required and easily wrapped in butchers' paper.  Perfect for all your swashbuckling adventures.

2. Vitamin C; this recipe calls for orange juice, an antidote to the dreaded scurvy.

3. Poppy Seeds; medicinally said to help ease tooth ache, which you may need mates (see reason number 2).

And so please enjoy this recipe that just may have you yelling "Shiver me timbers!"

Aunt Judy's Poppy Seed Bread

What you'll need:

For the bread:

3 c. flour

2 ¼ c. sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 ½ tsp. baking powder

1 ½ c. milk

1 1/8 c. oil

3 eggs

1 ½ tbl. Poppy seed

1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract

1 ½ tsp. butter extract

1 ½ tsp. almond extract

For the glaze:

¾ c. sugar

¼ c. orange juice

½ tsp. vanilla extract

½ tsp. butter extract

½ tsp. almond extract

What to do:

For the bread:

Preheat oven to 350.  

Grease and flower loaf pans.  Sift into a large bowl the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder.  Whisk in milk, oil, eggs, poppy seeds, and extracts until just combined.  I prefer to whisk by hand rather than in a mixer, over whisking will develop gluten making a tougher bread.  

Bake for 50-60 minutes (you are looking for golden brown and delicious with a clean toothpick test).

For the glaze:

While baking combine all glaze ingredients in a small sauce pot.  Heat glaze over low heat until dissolved and combined.  Once your bread is finished baking remove from the oven and pour glaze over bread and let stand for 10 minutes.  Then turn out and continue to cool on wire rack. 

This yields two loaves which is absolutely perfect.  You'll want to devour the first one on site, but the second loaf will freeze beautifully.  Cool completely and then wrap in butcher's paper.  This will easily keep for three months if packaged properly.  Just set it out on your counter overnight to thaw and you'll have the most delicious breakfast awaiting you when you rise.  

Recipe Friday...Tuesday edition

Ok, I know what you're thinking...don't tease me with a recipe thereby tricking my internal clock into thinking the workweek is finally over.  Sorry folks, it's Tuesday.  On the flip side you are going to love this recipe so much you'll hardly care that you have 72 more hours until the weekend...it's that good!

So why, pray-tell, you ask, have I been blessed with this early edition Recipe Friday?  Well friends because Fall is upon us and it's making me giddy with delight and visions of large batch soups and stews (perfect for the freezer, take note you busy workin' folks).  We've had the most perfectly lovely weather lately that I wanted to share this recipe early so you could procure all the necessary ingredients by the weekend, because ground lamb isn't the easiest thing to find, but it's oh so worth the hunt (no you don't actually have to hunt the lamb...it's a figure of speech people).

This recipe hails from Finland, and although I am entirely unfamiliar with what exactly the good people of Finland have contributed to this earth, (I'm sure there are plenty of spectacularly diplomatic things, I just skipped that class in college) even if they only invented this soup, it would be enough to pledge my allegiance to the Finnish flag.  I will admit, this shopping list alone doesn't exactly scream "best soup ever" but trust me this is bowl-licking-good soup.

Finnish Style Cabbage Soup

What you'll need: 

6 oz bacon, minced
9 oz ground lamb
3 oz onion, julienned
3/4 pound cabbage, chiffonade
1 1/2 oz celery, finely chopped
1 1/2 oz carrots, finely chopped
1 1/2 oz turnip, finely chopped
3/4 oz garlic, minced
3/4 tsp cracked black pepper
Salt, to taste
3 oz tomato, concasse and diced
48 oz chicken broth
dill, as needed for garnish (but it's not just pretty, it's for flavor too, so don't skip it!)
sour cream, as needed for garnish (see: dill explanation)

What to do:

Heat a large pot over medium heat and add the bacon.  Cook until the fat has rendered about half way and then add the ground lamb and onion.  Continue to cook until well browned.  Add the cabbage, celery, carrots, turnip, garlic, salt and pepper. Sauté until the cabbage has softened, but do not brown the vegetables (we want the caramelized flavor to come from the meat but the veggies to remain uninhibited, free to let their fall veggie flags fly).  Add the tomatoes* and the broth and bring to a simmer (a simmer people, NOT a boil, we don't want to cook the ever living flavor out of these veggies) and cook slowly until the veggies are tender, approximately 30 minutes.  And there you have it...it's that simple...and it's somewhere in that simplicity that I fell in love with this soup and you will too.  I'm not sure really when the lovely people of Finland partake in this soup (a lot I would imagine, as the few facts that I actually know about Finland involve its flag, which is blue with a white cross, the white of course representing all the snow) but I think it's perfect for the Fall.  It's not really hardy enough to be a rib-sticking Winter soup, but just as you begin to feel the dependable chill of September air roll in, that's the exact moment you want to have a steamy bowl of this soup in your lap (well not in your lap, but in a bowl ON your lap as you enjoy one of the last outdoor meals before Fall officially descends).

*And now a word about concasse:
Concasse is a French technique for getting all the guts and skin and seedy bits out of a tomato so that you are left only with plump tomatoey flesh.  It requires you to cut out the core end, score the other end, blanch, shock, squeeze, and peel.  In my personal opinion this is a whole lot of rigamarole for purely aesthetic purposes.  If you don't mind seeing more tomato parts in your soup, then I say skip this fussy step and just dice the stinking tomato, trust me Finland won't mind