Tradition!

 What’s cooking? Fruit Compote 1 a.m.

So many traditions this year have been tossed by the wayside, hit-and-run victims of COVID-19. For us, I’ll especially miss the trips to NJ that include Christmas dinner with our gang of relatives living in the Northeast, the Christmas Eve candlelight service at the church we’ve attended for so many years, and the drive afterward through the Summit, NJ neighborhoods where luminarias line the streets.

But not all traditions have been flattened into the asphalt.  A group of Austin friends – all wives of guys who golf together – met for our annual Christmas lunch in one woman’s backyard on Friday, because that’s what you can still do in South Texas at this time of year. And the absence of travel has spurred the Kitchen Goddess to make a truly ridiculous number of cookies for shipping around the country, including a tin to the doctors and nurses who work with my son in the ICU. And almost everyone is either lighting a menorah or defiantly putting up a Christmas tree.

Speaking of Christmas trees, Austin folk have their own tradition that’s alive and kicking even in a pandemic. On Loop 360, which has a long stretch of nothing much but spruce trees, Austinites annually have taken to decorating those trees at Christmas. Tinsel, Christmas ornaments, ribbons, and paper plate designs – nothing is too much or too little. You pick out a tree and go for it. It’s a little bit of Austin weirdness at Christmas, and special crews of volunteers take it all down after the holidays. Now how much fun is that?

One of the Kitchen Goddess’s traditions is to give away jams and preserves that she made from the summer’s bounty in NJ. No NJ fruits this year, and she didn’t think far enough into the future when her Sungold tomatoes were on the vine. Also, she was eating them almost as fast as they showed up.

But there is something even you can do, from what’s in your grocery store right now. At our house, it’s called Fruit Compote 1am, because it’s usually about that time that the Goddess looks around at the fruit she has and realizes it won’t all get eaten before it goes bad. In that case, there’s nothing better to make than fruit compote, regardless of the hour.

Pretty much any combination of fruits will do, so if you have strawberries instead of blackberries, or you used up all your cranberries, or you could only find frozen rhubarb,  just cobble together what you have– or check the frozen fruit aisle for substitutes, because if you only have apples, what you get is... applesauce. And compote is more fun.

A plain Rhubarb Compote (from a previous blog), on grilled apricots.

What you can do with this compote is never-ending. One friend put some of mine on a rice pudding that hadn’t turned out as well as she’d hoped. She said it saved the day. I put it on yogurt, ice cream, waffles, pancakes, or French toast. The Kitchen Goddess has softened vanilla ice cream and swirled compote into it for a dessert that looks like it took hours. Or put a bow on a jar of it and call it a Christmas gift.

The Kitchen Goddess often has Fruit Compote 1 a.m. over Greek yogurt for breakfast.

So here it is – my holiday gift to you.

Fruit Compote 1 a.m.

Kitchen Goddess note: It’s a good idea to have at least some fairly tart fruit – like rhubarb, cranberries, or plums – as these keep the compote from being too sweet. And I recommend using apples with a good flavor, that don’t fall apart completely in the cooking. Most recipes recommend Honeycrisp, Gala, Granny Smith, Jonathan, or Cortland, but many others will probably do. Pretty sure I used Gala. In total, you want almost 3 pounds of fruit.

Makes 3 pints.

Ingredients
1 pound rhubarb, cut in ½-inch dice (fresh or frozen)
½ cup blackberries
4 ounces fresh cranberries
1 medium pear, cut in ½-inch dice 
2-3 apples (about 1½ pounds total), cut in ½-inch dice
3 strips of lemon zest, about ½-inch wide and 2 inches long
1-inch knob of ginger, grated
1 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
¾ teaspoon salt, or to taste
2 tablespoons Calvados (or whatever alcohol sounds good to you: ginger liqueur, white wine, champagne, Grand Marnier, brandy, sherry)

Directions
In a large (4-quarts) saucepan, stir together everything but the alcohol. Keep stirring every few minutes until the sugar dissolves and the juices from the fruit emerge in enough volume to give you a stew-y consistency. Bring the fruit to a boil, then reduce the heat to get the fruit lightly bubbling. Simmer about 15 minutes, then add your alcohol of choice and simmer another 4-5 minutes. Taste, and if it seems too sweet, add another ¼ teaspoon of kosher salt.

Spoon the compote into pint jars and refrigerate. Or preserve as with jam.

Happy Holidays! Stay safe and be kind to others. Tip lavishly, and give as much as you can to your local food pantry. It’ll raise your spirits in ways that will surprise you.

A Wonderland of Flour and Sugar

What’s cooking? Best Cookies from the Goddess

Who are we kidding? It’s actually all of the cookies from the Kitchen Goddess, because I couldn’t decide which not to include. A little like choosing which of your children you like best. Although I do recall that when our younger son would grouse about not being able to do something his brother could do, my usual response was, “Because we love him more.” It was character-building.

I’ve been baking cookies at Christmastime as far back as my second apartment in NYC. In the first, I had two roommates  – in a one-bedroom apartment! – for much of that time, and it was hard to ask their indulgence to take over the place with flour and sugar. Also, we lived above a grocery store and had way more roaches than we deserved.

My second apartment was third-floor walk-up studio – tiny, but all mine. The kitchen was... small, with a half-size fridge and an almost full-size oven. The room could hold two people if they kept their arms to their sides. The best thing about it was that it had a window – only about 4 inches wide, and it didn’t open – which in my mind, qualified it as a luxurious separate room. If you know Manhattan apartments, you understand.

And in that tiny space, with my “dining table” as a flat surface, I made dozens of cookies for the holidays.

Marriage introduced me to my mother-in-law, who introduced me to rolling out cookies using wax paper, and life was never the same after that. This holiday season, because I can’t cook a Christmas dinner for my East Coast relatives, I’ll be making – and shipping – some 272 cookies. And then I’ll shoot myself. But in the meantime, I’ll be having fun.

So here are links to the Kitchen Goddess’s cookie recipes. I had hoped to add a new one, but I have all these cookies to decorate...

These Molasses Cookies are great on their own, and spectacular as ice cream sandwiches.

If you like a cookie that’s got a savory note, try this Rosemary Shortbread Cookie with Tomato Jam. No tomato jam? Any sweet or savory jam will do.

.

My friend Barbara introduced me to these Chocolate Star Cookies with Pistachio Stardust, and they are perfect for the holiday season.

If you like a sweet/salty mix, these Caramel and Potato Chip Cookies are divine. And fun to make.

For your gluten-free friends – or anyone who likes a meringue-type cookie, Greek Almond Cookies are very good and fast. You make the dough in the food processor!

I do love a chocolate-and-coffee combo. Chocolate Espresso Italian Wedding Cookies are a classic, and very pretty. Served here with Lemon Panna Cotta.

Another savory-ish cookie is this Lemon-Basil Butter Cookie -- simple, and simply delicious. Shown here in a terrific combination with Plumcot Sorbet.

Finally, my faves, though I highly recommend not going overboard, as I am doing. First up are Painted Rollout Cookies, which are great fun with little kids who aren't really old enough to keep from spraying your kitchen with sprinkles. Then my Best Rollout Cookies with Powdered Sugar Icing, which are just fun for anyone to decorate, and make a great gift.

Painting cookies is serious work for a 3-year-old.

Happy baking, everyone!