A Weekend In Queen Anne

My uncles' house in Queen Anne is one of the places I consider home. Home has not been something easy to identify these last few years, but their house is definitely a place that I feel at ease and I know it's quirks and details. The last few years it has been a tradition to go over to their house and bake Christmas cookies. But baking Christmas cookies has been a tradition for me with various family members over the years. Besides making the standard sugar cookies, which are fun to decorate but I find to be dull in flavor, we often make three or four different types, and wrap them up as gifts for friends. Whenever I'm at my uncles' house their golden retriever always seems to lay down right in the middle of the kitchen, in the way of everything, but he's too sweet to move. Music softly drifts throughout the house as we bake away. This year, with the help of my grandmother and sister, we made five different types of cookies: orange zest biscotti dipped in white chocolate, date bars, sugar cookies, pignolis, and Almond Roca. The Almond Roca has become a tradition as it is incredibly easy, makes a lot, everyone loves it, and I prefer it to the boxed kind.

                                              

Almond Roca
Ingredients: 

2 sticks butter

1 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
3 large Hershey Milk Chocolate Bars
2 cups almond halves (or so, enough to cover at 9x13 baking pan)

Mix together all the ingredients except the chocolate and almonds. Pour into pan. Bake at 325° until it begins to brown. It will puff up but fall once done baking. Remove from oven and place chocolate bars on top. Allow to melt and then spread evenly. Sprinkle on almonds and make sure to lightly press into chocolate. Allow to completely cool before cutting. If served as a gift, many grocery stores sell cellophane bags, and often have holiday decorated ones this time of year.

Thanksgiving Part II

In September I moved into a house with three of my close friends. As a college student I spent the last two years in the dorms. They were fine and I encourage everyone to live in them for at least your freshman year, but by the time sophomore year came around and rolling, I began to dislike them. The main reasoning: the food (and no kitchens). The second reason was the lack of entertainment space or private entertainment space, as we had shared lounges on every other floor. But now that I live in a house that has all changed. We have taken advantage of that fact but never on the scale of last night, our Thanksgiving Part II. We all went home to our families for the actual holiday, which was great, but we wanted to have our own night, where we got to decorate and have friends over. The result was a wonderful array of dishes from each guest and roommate, along with a fourteen pound turkey. Never did I think I would cook a turkey at this age, but between me and two of my roommates we did it. It involved a lot of heavy lifting, squealing, thoughts of vegetarianism, and use of the internet, along with having to cook it an hour longer than expected, but it turned out in the end.

I used my typewriter, but you can print the cards themselves here.

I signed up to make the stuffing and relied on my grandmother's recipe of course. My two favorite things at Thanksgiving are sweet potatoes and stuffing so I was happy to make it. It's incredibly easy and is not only able to be made ahead of time, it tastes better if you do it that way. 

Grandma Ridgley's Stuffing

Ingredients:
(Serving Size: 8) 

1 loaf white bread

32 oz. chicken stock

2 stalks of celery

1 mayan sweet onion

1 package of fresh sage

1 stick of butter

Freeze the bread, then when frozen cut into squares. Dry on cookie sheet in the oven at 275° while you make the rest of the stuffing. Simmer the chicken stock until it reduces to 2 1/2 cups. This is tricky, and has to be eyeballed or measured every so often. I was lucky and measured 2 1/2 cups on the first try. Chop the celery and onion. Cut sage with scissors into slivers. In a pan melt the butter and cook the vegetables and herbs until soft.  Take out the bread cubes and pour into a large bowl. Mix in the vegetables/herbs and then two cups of the chicken stock. The bread will be soft. Put into casserole dish, cover with foil and refrigerate for 1-48 hours. (I made mine about 6 hours ahead.) When ready to bake, pour the rest of the chicken stock over the stuffing and recover it. Bake at 350° for 30-45 minutes, then uncover and bake for an additional 20 minutes.