Hermits & the way to a man's heart

My mother understood food. All the dating advice I ever received from her was, “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.” Mimi loved telling the story of her good friend Mary who, when dating her future husband, always baked him homemade hermits. After she was married, Mary admitted to Jack that she didn’t cook or bake – it was her mother making all those hermits.

Snowballs: Made 2 - Need 6

My sister Mary suggested I post the recipe for snowballs, one of our all time favorites.  These cookies are delicious. They get eaten up quickly, so make lots of them.

This is a foolproof recipe. As long as you have the time to roll out the balls, they will come out just fine.   The nuts give the snowballs a bit of added texture. I think Mimi used walnuts but I'm not sure. Pistachios might be an interesting alternative.

According to Mimi's notes, she and my brother (TD3) once made two batches of snowballs - about 138 snowballs, enough for her and Tom, but not enough to share. Six batches would have been much better than two. You can't make too many snowballs.

This recipe originally came from Rose, my favorite neighbor in our old neighborhood. I was a very friendly child who loved visiting anyone, anytime. Rose and John lived across the street from us in a little red house. 

John worked for the state highway department. In the winter, he drove one of those gigantic snowplows that come out during blizzards to clear snow off the turnpikes. 

Sometimes John would park his plow on our little street. I remember looking out the window at the big orange plow towering over his little red house, thinking to myself,  "John's home, I must go over and see what he's up to". Years later Mimi told me John brought the plow home when he was too drunk to turn it in at the end of his shift.

We moved away from that neighborhood when I was 8. Many years later, when my daughter Juliette was about 6, we drove down my old street, parked in front of the little red house, and knocked on the door. I had no idea if Rose still lived there.  When Rose opened the door I said, “Hi Rose, it’s Dottie.” She looked at me, and then at Julie, and said, “Where’ve you been?”

I came in and sat down in Rose’s little living room, which looked just like it always had…dark curtains drawn low, old overstuffed furniture, a coffee table with ashtrays, a cribbage board, little multi - colored pegs of incense (to mask the smell of cigarette smoke), a cigarette box, a lighter, a deck of cards and a candy dish. Rose and I happily retold old stories while Julie ran around the backyard. It was a wonderful day --  I was so happy to see my old friend.

I always thought Rose and I were friends because she lived across the street and let me do things I couldn't do at home, like eat candy before lunch. During our visit I realized, had I met Rose as an adult, she would have become my good friend. That was the day I discovered that little children don’t grow up and develop their own personalities....we have them all along.

I love that memory of Rose. It was the last time I saw her.

Here are Rose's wonderful snowballs.
To serve: Place each snowball in a mini cupcake liner. 
To store: Keep in an airtight container to prevent the snowballs from dying out.

Pecan Tartlettes - lots of work but worth it

For as long as I can remember, Mimi and Pat Mitchell got together to make Christmas cookies. One of the cookies that Mimi will always be associated with in my memory are pecan tartlettes. When I was very young, they were too grown up for me. But now they are one of my favorites too.

Mimi used to complain about how long it took to make a cookie that was eaten so quickly. Still she made pecan tartlettes for many years.

Here is the original recipe. The dough for the crust is delicate. The crust tastes nothing like the pre-baked miniature crust shells sold in grocery stores.

Auntie Pat continues to make wonderful Christmas cookies each year, including pecan tartlettes. For this recipe, she always makes a double batch --  about 3 dozen tartlettes.  

The time consuming part is spreading the dough out in each muffin tin. Pat remembers Mimi getting on the phone, and chatting with her friends while pressing the dough into each little muffin cup. To help spread the dough, try using a wooden spoon or pestle to arrange the crust around the edge of the muffin cup.  

For the crust

Cream together:
  3 oz. cream cheese
  1/2 cup margarine

Add:
  1 cup of flour

Chill (dough) for one hour.

Press 1" ball into 1” x 3/4" deep mini muffin tin. The dough should cover the bottom and the sides of for each tartlette.

For the filling

Beat the following 5 ingredients together:
  1 egg
  dash salt
  1/4 cup light brown sugar
  1 Tablespoon margarine
  1 teaspoon vanilla

Add
  3/4 cup chopped pecans

Put 1 heaping Tablespoon of filling into each little cup (will be about  2/3 full).

Place a pecan half on top of each tartlette.

Bake @ 325^o Farenheit for  25 minutes.

Cool.

Once cool, remove tartlettes from tin.  Makes 2 dozen

If you double the recipe

Crust
 8 oz cream cheese
  2 sticks of margarine
  2 Cups of flour

Filling
 3 eggs
 1 pound brown sugar
 3 Tablespoons margarine
 3 teaspoons vanilla
 2 1/4 cup chopped pecans

Bread pudding crawl for the holidays?

My mother never met a carbohydrate she didn’t like -- her words, not mine.

There were some carbohydrates Mimi liked so much she never made them. Or if she did, she didn’t tell us where they were hiding. Bread pudding was on the top of that list.

Mimi was a stay at home mom who prepared three meals a day for her family. Until I was 8 years old, my Dad came home for lunch. Though my mother spent a good part of each day cooking, she stayed very slim. I once asked her how she did it and she said,  “I fast between feasts”.

I might have been in college the first time I saw a homemade bread pudding on the countertop. When I asked what it was, Mimi explained that her mother always made bread pudding with day old bread. She didn’t follow a recipe, but instead mixed up ingredients on hand, making sure to add lots of raisins.

Here’s a recipe that appeared in the Wellesley Townsman. As you can see “Mimi approves this recipe”. 

If you’re in the mood for something more decadent, Jitterbug’s bread pudding with the rum crème Anglaise sounds delicious. I am sure Mimi would approve.  

Or, if you're in Boston and want to go on a bread pudding crawl, there are lots of restaurants to check out.

 

 

Sour cream banana nut loaf in my sleep

Rum isn’t the only secret recipe ingredient. Another one is sour cream. Mimi and I used to struggle to make banana bread that wasn’t dry…until we found this recipe, originally printed in the Confidential Chat column of the Boston Globe.

 

A few tips from my sister Mary, who bakes delicious desserts:

·        Keep this bread in the oven for a good hour to make sure it is done.

·        Poke the center of the loaf with a toothpick. If the toothpick comes out clean, with no batter on it, the loaf is ready to come out of the oven.

A few tips from me:

·         Remember to set the timer.

·         Remember that you are baking something.

·         Do not go out.

·         Do not take a nap, unless you are confident someone else will come home, smell your burning banana loaf and take it out of the oven for you (I was sleeping on the porch the last time this happened).

George Clooney and Rum Balls

My mother loved George Clooney almost as much as she loved rum balls.

Being a pragmatic person, Mimi knew the odds of meeting George were slim. Rum balls on the other hand were at least seasonally accessible.

The most labor intensive part of this recipe is rolling the rum balls. Be sure to make them a few days before you plan to serve them so they can age. The older rum balls get, the better they taste.

This recipe only calls for 2 Tablespoons of cocoa. I have seen other recipes that call for 1 Cup of cocoa, but they are too chocolately for me.

If you are making a double batch, use 2 12oz. boxes of Vanilla Wafers.

You could mix the vanilla wafers the day before, cover with plastic wrap overnight, and roll the rum balls in powdered sugar the next day.

YIELD: Not as many as you'd like.

Rum balls -- invite a friend to roll them out with you, especially if you are making a double batch

Crush the vanilla wafers in a food processor or Kitchen Aide mixer. If you don’t have a food processor, in batches, put the vanilla wafers in a zipped plastic bag and crush them rolling a rolling pin back and forth over the contents of the bag (use freezer bags if you have them).

Use a melon scoop to scoop out the rum ball dough.. it will help keep you from making the rum balls too large.

When you have finished rolling out your cookies, be sure to store the rum balls properly so they don't dry out.

Substitutions

Substitute any dry cookie for the vanilla wafers including graham crackers or shortbread cookies. Better yet, if you are ambitious, try baking vanilla wafers from scratch. 

To make non-alcoholic rum balls, substitute vanilla extract, apple or orange juice for the rum.

Instead of sprinkling confectioner’s sugar on your entire batch of rum balls, roll half the dough in pulverized pecans or walnuts. Or roll them in crystallized sugar, ideally without any food coloring since some people are allergic to artificial food coloring.

Vegan Rum Balls
For an alternative to the traditional rum ball recipe here's a recipe for Vegan Rum Balls with cashews, raisins and Medjool dates. Yum!

Cherry Cordial Rum Balls
You could also make Chocolate Cherry Cordial rumballs.

Sunday Dinner on Halcyon Road

Today I renamed my blog....

 

I named my blog On Halcyon Road for lots of reasons. First, because I love old, dated words. Though halcyon isn't yet an entry in the Dictionary of Lost Words, it must be on the waiting list. 

 

Second, halcyon is a romantic word that brings back wonderful memories of my Irish American grandparents who lived on Halcyon Road. Here's a picture of my grandparents as I remember them. They are standing in front of the church where my parents were married.

 

I can still hear my Dad talking about Halcyon Road. My mother maintained that Duff (her nickname for him) sounded like a character straight out of a Damon Runyon novel. When my dad talked about his parents, instead of calling them by their names he'd refer to their house -- "I spoke to Halcyon Road today”. Turns out, halcyon means tranquil and free from disturbance or care, a definition that perfectly suits my memories of those days.

My grandmother, Ann Walsh Duffy, was a wonderful cook who kept a beautiful house, as they used to say. Every Sunday, Gram and Gramp invited their children over for dinner with their families. We’d all arrive in the early afternoon, soon after noon Mass, still wearing our “Sunday clothes”. The house would smell wonderful. There was usually lamb or beef roasting in oven.

Thanks to Gram -- and Mark Bittman -- I’ve learned how to cook and serve a delicious Roast Lamb. Following Mark's simple instructions, the lamb is always cooked perfectly. To make sure the roast isn't overcooked, I always (alright, not always. Mostly my husband Matthew does this) take the lamb out of the oven “when it reaches 130 for medium rare (125 for very rare) in its thickest part (check it in several places)”.