Weekend Cooking- A Holiday Guest Post From Chef Michael Smith

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

This Weekend Cooking post is from Chef Michael Smith, who wrote one of my favorite cookbooks from this year, Chef Michael Smith's Kitchen- 100 Favourite Recipes (my review is here). Smith shares a special holiday memory of a dish his mother made for Christmas morning, Apple Pie Pancakes with Caramel Syrup. 

  

  One of my favorite parts of Christmas was breakfast! We’d all get up and discover a beautiful tree and my mom would cook her heart out for us before we even got to opening presents. She was famous for her pancakes, and on Christmas morn they just might arrive tasting like Apple Pie.

Apple Pie Pancakes with Caramel Syrup

Stirring grated apple and cinnamon into my standard whole grain pancakes upgrades this breakfast staple into an a.m. treat. The recipe can easily be doubled. Serves 4

For the caramel syrup

1 cup (250 mL) of sugar

For the pancakes

1 cup (250 mL) of all-purpose flour

1 cup (250 mL) of whole wheat flour

1 cup (250 mL) of any kind of rolled oats

2 tablespoons (30 mL) of baking powder

1 tablespoon (15 mL) of cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon (2 mL) of salt

2 eggs

1-1/2 cups (375 mL) of milk (cow’s, rice, or soy)

1/4 cup (60 mL) of melted butter

2 tablespoons (30 mL) of brown sugar

1 teaspoon (5 mL) of vanilla

3 cups (750 mL) of grated local apples

A splash of vegetable oil

To make the caramel syrup, pour 1 cup (250 mL) of water into a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Sprinkle in the sugar, evenly distributing it over the water and taking care to avoid the inside edge of the pan. Simmer the mixture, without stirring, until the water evaporates and leaves behind pure sugar syrup. The temperature will rise, and in a few minutes the syrup will begin to lightly brown. Swirl the pan gently and continue cooking until the syrup is golden brown and fragrant. Carefully pour in 1/4  cup (60 mL) of water to stop the cooking. It will sputter and sizzle. Continue heating, stirring until the water and caramel dissolve into caramel syrup. Pour into a jar and refrigerate until cool and thickened.

Preheat your largest frying pan over medium-high heat. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the

all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, oats, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt, evenly distributing the finer powders among the coarser ones. In a second bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, butter, sugar, and vanilla. Stir in the grated apples, then pour the wet mixture into the dry one. Stir with a wooden spoon just until

a smooth batter forms.

Pour a splash of vegetable oil into your hot pan and swirl the pan to evenly coat the bottom with a thin film. Spoon the batter into the pan, forming your choice of large or small pancakes. Cook, turning once, until deliciously golden brown on each side, about 5 minutes in total. Serve with the caramel syrup.

KITCHEN TIP

The key to great pancakes is the right pan temperature—high enough to brown the outside but not so high that the exterior burns before the inside finishes cooking. Your preheated pan is at the perfect temperature when water drops dance on it without immediately evaporating (too hot) or just sitting and simmering (too cool).

Thanks Chef Michael for sharing your Christmas morning recipe. Every Christmas Eve, I make Scotch Pecan Pull-Aparts, set them out to rise and then pop them in the oven for Christmas morning while we open presents. What does your family have for Christmas breakfast? Please share your traditions in the comments section and have a very Merry Christmas. 

Win a Les Miserables Gift Pack

I cannot wait for Les Miserables to open on Christmas Day! Theater Advisor is giving away a gift pack with a t-shirt, a $25 Fandango gift card, a journal and the CD soundtrack. You can enter here:

Christmas Windows in NYC

Christmas is great time to visit NYC; the department store windows alone are worth seeing.
I took some photos of the windows at Saks Fifth Avenue,which for my money are usually the most interesting in town.

This year's is called Snowflake Spectacular.

This window featured books

A little boy reading

A boy with his camera

This little boy looked so real!

A girl playing school

Two girls playing with a snowflake

I loved all the snow globes in this scene

The theme at Bloomingdales this year was Cirque du Soleil, and after the electronic windows last year, this was a more whimsical display.

Book gift ideas for children, cooks, history buffs : Diane Larue

It's crunch time for Christmas gift shopping, only one week left. Stop by your local bookstore where you can pick up some of these great books for everyone on your list. (From my Book Report column in the Citizen newspaper)

 Book gift ideas for children, cooks, history buffs : Diane Larue

Weekend Cooking- Marcus Samuelsson at Random House's Open House

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

Random House publishing held an Open House on December 14th at their offices on Broadway and 55th in Manhattan. It was a great day and good to meet new friends, JoAnn from Lakeside Musings and her daughter, and catch up with bookish friends, Candace, Nicole, Alison and Colleen.

They had some interesting discussions, including one between author Anna Quindlen (who is one of my all-time favorites) and her editor Kate Medina, a panel discussion with the team (acquistions, editing, publicity and marketing) who worked on Justin Cronin's novels The Passage and The Twelve, Self magazine's editor Lucy Danziger talking about a new book The Drop 10 Diet, and a closing talk with Kurt Andersen (True Believers), Charles Duhigg (The Power of Habit) and Slate.com's Emily Bazelon on the 2012 election.

There were also some food related parts to the day. Chef Marcus Samuelsson, author of the critically praised and best-selling memoir Yes, Chef talked with his editor Andy Ward and Huffington Post Food Editor Carey Polls about his life and the journey to put his story on paper.

The talk was fascinating, with Samuelsson speaking about how "trust was the key thing" between himself and Ward. Ward spoke about how Samuelsson is a person who is "always in motion", and Ward had to get him to slow down and deepen the moments he was writing about. He gave as an example the time that Samuelsson was in a terrible car accident that killed Samuelsson's friend and left him injured. Samuelsson did not want to dig deep into those feelings, but Ward convinced him of the importance of doing just that.

Samuelsson advised everyone to write down their own story, even if it is just an exercise. He believes that going through the choices one has made in life, and thinking about what happens after those choices are made is important to understanding one's life.

They also talked about the evolution of food writing and food memoirs, and how eating is different in different cultures. In Ethiopia, where Samuelsson was born, he said "the map of eating is driven by spirituality." In Sweden, where he grew up with his adopted family, it is driven by seasonality. He talked about how Americans don't eat like other countries, citing our 'food holidays' like Thanksgiving and the Super Bowl.

In the Q&A section, a woman in the audience asked him to describe and label his cuisine, and his answer was fascinating. He wanted to know why it was important for her to have labels, and then he described how everything around him inspired his food. At his restaurant, The Red Rooster in Harlem, he said that everything from the art curated on the walls to the nationality of his employees to the makeup of the people who live near his restaurant impact the menu.

Harlem is a melting pot, with African-Americans, Mexicans, West Africans, Jewish and Italians all living there and influencing what Samuelsson puts on his menu. He wants the menu to "reflect the location and ambition of where we are going".

I've heard many good things about Yes, Chef, and have had that book on my radar for awhile, so I was excited to meet Marcus Samuelsson and listen to him talk. And getting to meet him and receive an autographed copy of the book was pretty cool too.

Breed by Chase Novak

Breed  by Chase Novak
Published by Mulholland Books ISBN 978-0-316-19856-1
Hardcover, $25.99, 320 pages

Horror is not a genre I often read. I used to read Stephen King (Cujo), and Peter Straub's Ghost Story scared the heck out of me. I don't read any of the vampire/werewolf novels that are so popular now, so I'm not sure what drew me to Chase Novak's Breed.

A cross between Rosemary's Baby (a classic horror novel I did read) and the vampire/werewolf genre, Alex and Leslie Twisden, two perfectly lovely Upper East New York City residents lead a wonderful life: fulfilling jobs, a happy marriage, an enjoyable social life. Having a baby would make everything perfect.

Alex is heir to a fortune, and they live in his family's incredible townhouse. After trying for a long time unsuccessfully to have a baby, the support group they belong to is starting to grate on them. Throwing money at the situation hasn't helped, but when they run into a former support group couple on the street and see that they are pregnant, they beg the couple to share their secret.

They get the name of a doctor in Eastern Europe, and off they go. When they get there, the situation is very scary and Leslie doesn't trust the doctor. But Alex convinces her to take the treatment and Leslie becomes pregnant.

Fast forward ten years and we meet their twins Alice and Adam. Every night the children are locked in their bedrooms, and they hear frightening, animalistic noises coming from their parents room. As the noises become more disturbing, Adam convinces Alice that they must escape or something horrible will befall them.

Leslie and Alex have been almost reclusive, unable to work, and their home has fallen down around them. The once beautiful showplace looks like homeless drug addicts live there. They live like animals, and any animals in their path had better scurry.

When Leslie and Alex find their children have escaped, the chase is on. Adam makes his way to a trusted teacher's apartment, where Alex tracks him. Alice ends up in Central Park and finds a group of mysterious children who have some kind of connection to her.

The children's ventures into the scary underbelly of New York made the hair on my arms stand up. Alex is always on the trail, one step behind them and when he finds them hell breaks loose.

I wasn't really satisfied with the end of the novel, however. I wasn't sure how it would end, but the end seemed a bit abrupt to me.

This is a violent, scary, disturbing, grotesque novel, one I never would have normally chosen to read, yet I couldn't stop reading. Novak (a pseudonym for writer Scott Spencer, who wrote Endless Love) knows how to keep the reader turning the pages.

It's the kind of book where you find that you have to force yourself to breathe out, and any little noise will make you peer into the dark corner of the bedroom fearing what you may find. Read this one with the lights on.

Although there are young protagonists in the book, this is not a book for young teens.

rating 3.5 of 5

Moranthology by Caitlin Moran

Moranthology by Caitlin Moran
Published by Harper Perennial, ISBN 978-0-06-225853-3
Trade paperback, $14.99, 237 pages

Caitlin Moran had a bestselling book, How To Be A Woman, a book that humorously and honestly celebrates being a woman and a feminist. That book's success led to another book, Moranthology, a compilation of Moran's columns from the Times of London.

I have not yet read How To Be A Woman, but it is on my TBR list. As someone who used to write a weekly column on food and family, (and a feminist), I was really looking forward to this new book.

Moran writes mostly about entertainment, and anyone who is a big fan of the British TV shows Dr. Who and Sherlock will surely enjoy her many columns on these iconic shows. She even gets a backstage visit to Dr. Who, and her analysis of this show has made me put the show in my NetFlix queue.

She is not such a fan of Downton Abbey, which has become an American sensation. She has however become friendly with Dan Stevens, who plays handsome heir Matthew Crawley on Downton, and tells a very funny story about being with him at a bar in New York City. (Stevens is appearing on Broadway in The Heiress, and he is wonderful in it; if you get a chance to see that show, I recommend it.)

My favorite entertainment story is her interview with Sir Paul McCartney. She missed her flight to his concert in Milan, but managed to salvage the interview. She thought she had asked him a brilliant question- "If you had a terrible accident and your face got all smashed up-heaven forbid, obviously- would you rebuild it to look like yourself, or would you change it, so you could finally be anonymous again?"

She thought it was good question, touching "on fame, beauty, identity, ego and the idea of living two lives in one lifetime." He thought it was a terrible question.

Moran shares some stories about her life, and the way she tortures her poor husband by waking him in the middle of the night to ask such questions as "what is the first thing you think of when you think of me?" is hilariously egotistical. One time he finally explodes at her, telling her that she is a slob (he is neat) and sharing a list of things that she has done to prove his point. (Some of them are kinda gross, I'll give him that.)

If you liked How To Be A Woman, you will enjoy reading more of Moran's writings in this book. She is a very good writer, and like any good columnist (she won Columnist of the Year from the British Press) she is is economic with her words, cutting to the chase whilst getting to the (often funny) point.

A quote from Marie Claire on the cover of the book compares her to "Tina Fey, Chelsea Handler, and Lena Dunham, all rolled into one", and I think that aptly describes Caitlin Moran. Humorous Anglophile feminists, this book is for you.

rating 4 of 5

Never Hug a Nun by Kevin Killeen

Never Hug a Nun by Kevin Killeen
Published by Blank Slate Press ISBN 978-0985007102 
Paperback, $14.95, 182 pages

Maybe it's because my mother-in-law gave my younger son a similar coat with lollipops taped on them to bring to preschool on his birthday that I can't resist this cover. And that grin; this may be one of the most perfect book covers ever.

Killeen wrote Never Hug a Nun, a comic novel set in a St. Louis suburb in 1966 in the voice of eight-year-old Patrick Cantwell. Patrick is in the second grade at Mary, Queen of Our Hearts School and has a ten-year-old brother John (who wants to be a Beatle and start a band) and younger brother Teddy (who likes sports and hates green beans).  Mom loves to listen to big band music while she irons and Dad works downtown, a goal for which all of the nuns encourage the boys to strive.

Patrick has a crush on golden haired Ebby, and he is consumed with trying to be near her. Patrick and John have a friend Kurt who is "a bad influence" on the Cantwell boys. Kurt has a secret fort near the railroad tracks and he has ideas about stealing money to buy a drum set so they can start a band, like the Beatles. As a mother of two grown sons, I can tell you that Kurt is the boy we all pray our kids will not hang around.

This novel brought back many memories for me; the scene where Patrick's mom glues Green Stamps into books immediately put me back in my childhood kitchen where my mom would do the same thing, hoping to have enough to get a toaster or a lamp. I could almost smell the Green Stamp glue as I read.

I too went to Catholic school, and know well many of the nuns and monsignors from Patrick's school. I smiled at the scene where the nun washed the blackboard with the sponge; it was an honor to be asked to wash the blackboard at my school. And the constant reminders by the monsignor to get out there and sell those raffle tickets for the car? Yep, been there many times.

I like the well-drawn adult characters in this novel. Grandpa loves his grandkids and takes them to a Beatles concert, even though he knows nothing about the Beatles. Oh yeah, and he accidentally gets a little stoned and arrested, but whose Grandpa hasn't done that?

Aunt Jenny is studying to be a nun, with some reservations. She has a sweet relationship with Patrick and I was glad to see that she returns for a few scenes at the end of the book. I think she warrants her own story, and would like to see her in her own book.

Mom and Dad are interesting too. Dad hates dragging himself "downtown" everyday to work, but he loves his family and that is what a good dad does. I love that he tells his sons that they can tell him anything, and he proves that later in the story. Mom adores her husband and sons, but would like to add a daughter to their family. She desires to be a good Catholic family.

As the only female in our family, I find books written from the male point of view fascinating. I always learn something. But I did not need to learn what goes on in the boys' bathroom at school; that scene just had me shaking my head- what is up with boys? And many is the time I wanted to say to Patrick- NO! Stop and think for a second, son.

Patrick will probably grow up to be a protagonist in a Jonathan Tropper or Jess Walter book; fans of This Is Where I Leave You and The Financial Lives of Poets are the perfect audience for this book. Kileen bills Never Hug a Nun as a comic novel, but it has a lot of heart too.

rating 3.5 of 5

Thanks to TLC Tours for providing me an opportunity to be on this Tour. For more reviews, click here.

Hugh Jackman & Russell Crowe at Joe's Pub

Reason #52 Why New York is a great city. Russell Crowe was performing at Joe's Pub and Hugh Jackman jumps on stage to join him in The Confrontation, a song from the movie Les Miserables. I cannot wait for this movie!

The Monkees Reunion Concert at the Beacon Theater

When I was a little kid, I was a big Monkees fan (I was a Micky girl). After Davy Jones died, I went to his memorial concert at B.B. King's, and so I was happy to hear that Mike Nesmith would be joining Peter and Micky for a 12-date reunion tour, his first joint venture with the band since 1997.

December 2nd was the last date on the reunion tour, with a concert at the Beacon Theater. I went with my friend Paula and her friend Kelly. When they let us in the theater, people thronged the concessions to get their t-shirts, buttons and tour books. The people working said that they have never seen such a big crowd at the concessions.

Paula and I each got a beverage- a Daydream Believer, with vodka, triple sec and cranberry juice. It went down quite smoothly.

Before the show began, they played videos of the Monkees, including some of the Kellogg's and KoolAid commercials they did. The most interesting video was a tribute to Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, two songwriters and singers who contributed many Monkees songs, such as I'm Not Your Stepping Stone, I Wanna Be Free, and Last Train to Clarksville. I had no idea they were so involved with the legislation lowering the voting age to 18.

The crowd jumped to their collective feet when Mike, Micky and Peter took the stage, and we stayed there pretty much the entire show, singing along to almost every song. It was great to see Mike back and he was clearly the one that many people came to see. He sounded pretty good, and some of the highlights for me were:

• She
• Sweet Young Thing
• Sunny Girlfriend
• You Just May Be The One
• What Am I Doing Hanging 'Round

The entire set list is here.

They played two videos featuring deceased member Davy Jones (I Wanna Be Free and Daddy's Song) and Micky sang As We Go Along as a tribute to Davy, but there was not much talk of him and there is not one photo of Davy in the concert tour book. It would have been nice to have one photo of all four of them together in that.

The night was one big singalong party, and we all had a great time. I found some great videos on YouTube from the show, and you can find them here.

I also took some photos, and a few came out OK.

Mike, Micky & Peter

Mike, the man everyone came to see

I love this photo!

Micky killed it on drums

 I don't know why this guys are not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, they certainly deserve it. I'll close with a photo that I took of the girls waiting outside a hotel for the guys from One Direction to come out. As Paula said, 40 years from now, if they are lucky and anyone still cares who One Direction is, they will be like us, excited to the guys again.

Girls waiting for One Direction

Weekend Cooking- Carla Hall's Cooking With Love

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

Cooking with Love: Comfort Food That Hugs You by Carla Hall with Genevieve Ko
Published by Simon & Schuster ISBN 9781451662191
Hardcover, $30, 336 pages

I recently received an e-galley of chef Carla Hall's Cooking With Love.  Hall is a co-host of ABC's daytime show, The Chew, but I first saw her on Bravo TV's Top Chef. She reminded me of an exotic bird, tall, thin and with her down-home Southern way, I think many people (including her competitors) underestimated her. She was voted Fan Favorite from the Top Chef All-Stars competition in 2011. It was her big heart and the way she "hugged you with her food" that made people fall in love with her.

She grew up in the South and learned how to cook from her beloved granny, and then she went to France to become a model. There she fell in love with a different kind of food, and returned home to train as a professional chef. She now owns Alchemy, a popular and successful catering company in Washington DC.

Hall sprinkles the cookbook with stories from her life: the amazing meals her granny made and taught her and her sister to cook, the difficult boss she worked for in the Bahamas (I wonder if he will read this book and recognize himself), some amusing anecdotes from The Chew and my favorites, some behind-the-scenes of her most famous Top Chef moments.

On the All-Stars edition, one task was to create a birthday lunch for Jimmy Fallon. Hall whooped with joy when she was drew Chicken Pot Pie as her meal; it is one of her specialties, and she shares one of her most famous recipes in this book. Click here for the recipe.

Source: carlahall.com via Diane on Pinterest

Hall also gives some great tips, like serving deviled eggs on a bed of dried washed black beans on a platter and if you want to sell your house "pop a batch of buttery yeast rolls in the oven" before a showing.

Layering flavors is a key to her cooking, and I found it interesting that she starts a meal by thinking not about the meat she will cook but the vegetables and "then builds from there."

This is a book for cooks who have some experience in the kitchen; these recipes require some skills and beginners may find it a bit too challenging. But if you enjoy cooking and are looking for some new recipes that will kick up your taste buds, this is a book for you.

Some recipes I look forward to trying are:

• Down Home Deviled Eggs with Smoky Bacon
• Creamy Goat Cheese Grits 
• Creamy Mac & Cheese 
• Osso Buco
• Black Bean Patties with Mango Relish & Tropical Vinaigrette
• Creamed Chicken with Broccoli

I have attended a few tapings of The Chew, and Carla is a fan favorite there too, dancing with Clinton Kelly and audience members and just generally having fun. She has personality plus and it shines through in her cookbook.

rating 4 of 5

Weekend Cooking: An Excerpt From Never Hug a Nun

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

I grew up in the 1960s and attended Catholic school, so of course I couldn't resist when I was offered an opportunity from TLC Book Tours to review Kevin Killeen's novel Never Hug a Nun, about a young boy from an Irish-Catholic family set in 1966.

The scenes set in his Catholic elementary school made me chuckle with recognition, and this paragraph from the school cafeteria brought me right back to my old school days in the basement cafeteria:

"At the bottom of the second flight of steps, the lock-step line broke as the commotion of the cafeteria and the smell of institutional food overtook them. Those who had money got in line by the steam trays. They glided their plastic trays- still warm from the dishwasher- along the steel rails, looking through the stained glass at the hot food and the Mothers' Club volunteers.  The volunteers served up fish rectangles, factory hamburgers made off site, super salty chicken noodle soup or, on Wednesday only, pepperoni pizza slices. Buying lunch was expensive. A good lunch cost nearly forty-five cents, or sixty cents if you wanted to throw in cheese popcorn, a pretzel stick or an Eskimo pie. Patrick and the others who brought bag lunches got in the milk line. He paid Mrs. Heimlich, the heavy-set cafeteria lady, four pennies for a carton of milk. Mrs. Heimlich shook her head as the pennies she would later have to count and take to the bank piled up."

As soon as I read about the "plastic trays still warm from the dishwasher",  I could feel the warmth of the tray in my hand. I was in the third grade all over again, in my plaid school jumper with a yellow Peter Pan collared blouse. What's too funny is that my sons attended the same Catholic school I did, and except for the price of the lunch, that paragraph could fit their experience as well.

I'm enjoying this sweet and funny book, and the cover is just too darn cute. (And I'm pretty sure the jacket the young boy is wearing is the same one my mother-in-law gave my younger son when he was in pre-school.)

I swear my son had this same jacket in pre-school

This is the second book about growing up Catholic that I have read recently, the first one being Joan Cusack Handler's more serious memoir Confessions of Joan the Tall about growing up in a 1950s Irish Catholic family. My review of that book is here, and you can enter to win a copy of the book in the comments section.

I grew up in a heavily Catholic community and as I was reading both books, all I could think was how appropriate these books would be as Christmas books for so many people I know. My review of Kevin's book will be posted on December 10th.

I'd love to hear any school lunch memories you have in the comments section below.