Gesine Bullock-Prado's Blog, page 12

Year of the Cat: A Happy New Year Greeting from Freegrace!

Today, the first day of 2014, I dragged a chair into the snow a few yards from the barn and sat in full view of passing neighbors.


About 20 minutes into my vigil a woman drove by, slowing as she caught site of me smothered in a floor length coat made of zippy blue, yellow, red and green striped wool blankets perched on a plastic lawn chair ; flaps on my hunter's cap drawn down snuggly over my ears; ginormous rubber Muc boots keeping my tootsies warm; puffy mittens keeping my camera held in mid air.  She may have waved in a neighborly fashion but her eyes radiated, "What the?"

Waiting on kitty to show.

I think we have a feral barn cat.  I've been leaving out food and water, refilling both a few times a day.  It gets eaten.  Until today, I'd seen tracks in snow and caught fleeting glimpses of a fur ghost darting into a dessert plate sized hole nestled into the foundation of our barn.


I'd ruled out raccoon, skunk and ground hogs because as best as I could tell, the animal in question has white fur.  Yesterday I spied a bushy tail vanishing into the void.  It occurred to me that perhaps I'd been feeding a fox or a lynx all this time.   It's unlikely but worth considering since the barn is a few meters away from a crowded hen house.  Not that I'd stop nourishing either critter during our brutal winter.  I just need to know if I have to give pepper spray to the fowl.


Our outdoor party center is hibernating under a foot of snow.

Winter is a wonderland here at Freegrace but it's fracking COLD!
Hence my snowy vigil this afternoon.  I'm gearing up for the photo shoot for my next book in the next week so this is my last and best chance to spend a quiet hour assessing the situation in my barn.  Do I finally have the cat I've been pining for since we first moved into Freegrace?

The answer is yes.  It might be feral as hell but our kitty revealed herself on the first day of the year.  So I declare 2014 as the "year of the cat."  Meet the new addition to our family:


HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Snow-capped Pie, Cherry on Top!

If you were a customer at my pastry shop, Gesine Confectionary, you'll know my strudel well (no, that's not a euphamism).  
If you never had the chance to experience my strudel (get your mind out of the gutter!), this is your chance to recreate it in your own home but in a pleasing pie shape.
What makes it so special?  Well, the bottom crust is a sweet tart dough.  Inside is a mixture of apples, pears, yummy pastry cream and cake bits.  This might sound a bit odd but what it manages to create is a luscious and creamy-fruity symphony.  The outside is a crispy layer of puff pastry topped with a sweet glaze.  And, of course, a cherry on top.


If you are like me, you'll want to make the puff, the cake crumbs and the pastry cream yourself.  But since it's the holidays, I created this recipe for Better Homes and Gardens with the busy elf in mind and made totally legitimate substitutions to keep it fast AND delicious.  You can buy the puff pastry in your grocer's freezer section.  You can use instant vanilla pudding in lieu of homemade pastry cream.  And a frozen pound cake, grated with a cheese grater, makes quick work of the cake crumbs.
For my recipe in Better Homes and Gardens, click on THIS LINK.
If you prefer to make these elements yourself, here are links for the individual parts!
For the Puff Pastry (this is quick puff):  Click on THIS LINKFor the Pastry Cream:  Click on THIS LINKFor the Cake Crumbs (you can half the recipe and freeze what's left over for your next strudel!):Click on THIS LINK

Hidden Snowman Cake!

There's very little to be said about my hidden snowman cake in Better Homes and Gardens.  
It's the sort of magic that defies words.
I suggest you go and make it.
Bake holiday joy and wonder in edible form.
I lied.  There is more to say.  The peeps at Better Homes & Gardens exclaimed that this chocolate cake was THE BEST CHOCOLATE CAKE THEY'D EVER TASTED!
Click THIS LINK to get the recipe.
Styling the snowman (pictures taken by Nancy Hopkins)

Salty-Sweet Snowflakes

Yes, this is a riff off of my mother's famous Butterzeug recipe, the one she made every Christmas.  I'm not going to say that my variation is better.  That's impossible.  No one made ANYTHING better than my mom.  
If you don't feel like piping onto the cookies, you can stamp them with letters.  This is a critical step in my neck of the woods where we get VERY possessive over these cookies.
My version is just more...me.  It's a touch saltier than she'd have them.  I also add a skosh of white pepper and lemon zest to my recipe.  Neither of these additions create a cookie that screams of either ingredient.  What they manage to do is add depth to the buttery party.

If you follow THIS LINK, you'll find my recipe in the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens.
But if you stick around a while longer, I'll reveal one more trick that takes these cookies over the top.
Browning the butter.
As published, the Salty-Sweet Snowflakes recipe calls for creaming the sugar and butter in the traditional manner, with room temperature butter and granulated sugar.  But if you want a little nutty/caramel drama added to the mix, follow me:
First, take the two sticks of butter called for in the recipe and melt in a saucepan over medium heat.  Allow the butter to simmer until it browns, creating a dark film at the bottom and along the sides of the pan.  Your aim is to brown, not burn, so keep an eye out (but also keep your eyes out of the line of bubbly butter fire, that stuff likes to bounce around and maim).  The best indicator is smell.  The butter will start to exude a luxuriously nutty/caramel aroma.  YUMMERS! Leave that dark film behind!
Carefully pour the melted butter into a heat safe bowl, leaving behind the darkest film on the pan.  Don't scrape the butter out, simply pour.  If you find that a few dark particles go for the ride, don't despair.   SOLID!
Allow the butter to cool and resolidify.  This takes a fair amount of time and I speed it along by refrigerating the butter.  Just keep an eye on the progress so that the butter doesn't get rock hard in the fridge.
Carefully spoon the resolidified butter from the dish into your stand mixer bowl.  Don't scrape the bottom of the bowl.  You'll find that there's a film of dark sediment on the bottom that you want to avoid transferring to the batter. Butter successfully transferred to the mixer, sans buttery particulate

Follow the recipe as written by creaming the butter and sugar together, etc.
Browned butter creams just as beautifully as Regular Joe butter.  

Holiday Treats on the Today Show

Picture by Nancy Hopkins Filling balls!  Hangin' with the wonderful Nancy on set!  The whole Today Show gang come to check out the treats.


I had a great time yesterday on the Today Show making holiday treats with Matt Lauer from my Frosty feature in Better Homes and Gardens.  Nancy Hopkins, the super duper food editor at Better Homes, was there to make sure our beautiful spread came off without a hitch on live t.v.  If you haven't gotten your hands on it, run, don't walk, to get this December's issue!  It also includes a feature on last minute Santa cookies by Dorie Greenspan.  So what are you waiting for, bakers?
To see the segment video, click HERE! This is what the December Better Homes and Gardens cover looks like.  YOU CAN'T MISS IT!For a sneak peak at what I assembled for our baking fun fest, here are a few pics of treats I made from the feature for their appearance on live t.v.  But first, I want to give a shout out to my ever faithful pastry cart that I use to haul treats from Vermont to all edges of the known universe...including New York.   My cart waits in a hotel lobby.  It gets a lot of attention from passersby.  
I make the treats.  I secure them in boxes.  I play pastry Tetras, getting all my little boxes in the cart securely.  And then I roll roll roll it all over tarnation.
This is Allie.  She's on the Today Show team, making all the food segments flawless before the cameras start rolling. Coconut Snowballs!! Hidden Snowman...not so hidden anymore, are you? Sparkly pinecones. Gingerbread Snow Village Peppermint Swirl Marshmallows

Snowy Gingerbread Village from Better Homes & Gardens

Why make a gingerbread house when you can make an entire village?And what if this entire village required not an iota of advanced architectural and engineering skill to assemble?  
That would be fabulous, right?  Practically a holiday miracle, if you ask me!
No measuring required.  Just roll out the dough and score with a paring knife.  Easy peasy.

Look no more, for I bring you gingerbread nirvana...frosty style.


No intricate piping required, just confectioner's sugar and a deft hand! Or pipe away if you're feeling creative!

Click THIS LINK for my full recipe in this month's Better Homes and Gardens.
Tune into the TODAY SHOW on December 4th to see me making these frosty treats LIVE.
And you might, at first glance, think that it's too early to be thinking of snow.  Not here in Vermont!  Check out our beautiful barn in the midst of our first storm of the season.

Better Homes and Gardens! Peppermint Ice Cream Recipe

To get your holiday spirits kicked into high gear, I'm sharing my recipe for peppermint ice cream as featured in Better Homes and Gardens.  Follow THIS LINK to get the recipe!
Check back for more recipes throughout the giving season.

Freegrace Fridays! Freegrace and Jerusha Leavitt Return Home

Ray found Freegrace and Jerusha Leavitt a few weeks ago.  It's his habit to do a Google search for Mr. Leavitt, the gentleman who built the eponymously named Freegrace Tavern in 1794, every few weeks as more and more historical archives find their way onto the gloriously cluttered World Wide Web.

He's found things before, like transcribed pages from Thaddeus Leavitt's diary, the elder brother of Freegrace.  The entry from May 1st, 1788 describes what we believe could have been Freegrace Leavitt's first step in securing the land that would later hold Freegrace Leavitt Tavern.


Each of these discoveries is a treasure found.  But nothing compares to what Ray unearthed in late October.  He'd actually located Freegrace and his wife Jerusha, their portraits at least, in a small antique shop in southern Vermont.  We visited them.  We stared at them both for what seemed like hours, as discretely as one does when trying not to look too interested.  We left without them.  We told the lovely shop keepers that we needed to discuss the possibility of purchase amongst ourselves.  We hopped into the car and waited to pull out of the driveway before we felt it safe to look at each other and yell, "HOLY SHIT!" in unison.

After a week of finagling on all kinds of fronts and having conversations that always ended in, "We'll have to consider this Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday to both of us for the next few years," we returned to fetch our predecessors and brought them home.  We don't know where the paintings originally hung.  We do know that they were painted between 1802 and 1803 by an itinerant painter and the likely painter is a man named William Jennys.  I imagine they sat in the front parlor for the artist while tavern customers and the Leavitt children milled about, admiring the progress.  And now they're home again, after all these years.  



I think it will come as no surprise to any of you that the house has been much cleaner since the Leavitts have returned.  I need only say my good mornings to Jerusha and I notice she's judging me and the dust that I've allowed to settle around her.



Welcome home.

Better Homes and Gardens...December Issue

My apologies for not posting more lately.  I've been on deadline for the next book.
But more importantly, it's that time of the year on the farm that everything must be winterized.  I find myself outside in the morning, digging and tending and manuring.  I feel as if only an hour has passed but in fact it's already close to night fall.  I read an article years ago regarding the science of playing in dirt.  "Soil Bacteria Increases Serotonin Levels!"  Well, that explains it.  I really can't recommend it enough.
In other news, my December feature on holiday desserts in Better Homes and Gardens is now available at your local newsstand.  I had such a great time on this shoot, from developing recipes to taking the pictures.  The Better Homes crew have become like family...the kind you really like.  And I think that shows in this piece.  I hope you love it as much as I do.

FREEGRACE FRIDAY! Figgy Cupcakes, the dame who runs the joint and a contest!

 It's official. We've entered Stick Season.  Not a single leaf is left on our maple trees.  We've already turned on the heat not once but THREE TIMES!  The second we wake, the first thing we do is put on a fire in the kitchen (ok, we flip a switch that turns on the electric fire but we pretend that it's crackling).  And of course the dogs are getting more "cuddly" than ever, using each other and their human playthings as ersatz down comforters.

Ruthie:  #1 Love Thug
Ruthie is the queen of snuggles.  More aptly, she's our #1 Love Thug.  She doesn't cozy up to anyone.  Instead, she drapes.  She leans.  She sprawls.  If she finds comfort in her manner of enrobing another being, good luck trying to move her.  But it does lead to some snaptastic photo opportunities.

This weekend is also the Marine Marathon.  As we discussed earlier, I've been benched due to a bout with walking pneumonia.  But my team is still on the run (see what I did there?) and ready to rumble this Sunday in honor of our beautiful High School Classmate Kea.  We're raising money for Cancer Research not only in her name but for everyone who we've lost to the disease.  I'm bummed that we've not raised more money, considering we've actually got a team supporting this effort.  So I've sweetened the pot in a last push to pass $2000.  If you donate to Team Kea, I'll choose one of the contributors at random to win a copy of the new Runner's World Cookbook.  I'll sign it too, as I'm a contributing chef.  Or if you're more likely to donate without my signature, consider it officially unmolested.

Click HERE to donate and enter the contest!

The book is chock full of healthy recipes, 150 in fact.  From appetizers to snacks to dinner to desserts.

And just to nudge a bit more, here's a sneak peak.  This is my recipe for Sticky Toffee Figgy Cupcakes!


STICKY TOFFEE FIGGY CUPCAKES

Makes 16 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS

For the cake
1 1/2 cups finely chopped dried figs
1 cup hot coffee
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

For the topping
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoons almond or canola oil
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
pinch of salt
1/4 cup fat-free evaporated milk

PROCEDURE

For the cake
•Preheat oven to 350ºF.  Place paper in liners in a 12-cup muffin tin.

•Place the figs in a large bowl.  Pour the hot coffee over the figs to cover completely.  Stir in the baking soda (the baking soda doesn't act as leavening in this process but as a tenderizer for the figs).  Allow to sit, undisturbed, for 5 minutes.

•In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine the eggs, brown sugar, and honey.  Whisk for 3 minutes or until the mixture thickens.  Add the pumpkin puree.  Mix until just combined.

•In a large bowl, stir together the flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

•With the electric mixer running on low speed, add the fig mixture to the egg mixture.  Slowly add the flour mixture.  Mix until just combined.

•Pour the batter into the muffin cups, filling each about 3/4s full.  Bake for 20 minutes, or until a cake springs back when gently poked.  Pop the cupcakes ou and line again with 4 more liners.  Fill with the remaining batter and bake.

To make the topping
•In a heavy saucepan, combine the butter, oil, honey, brown sugar, and salt.  Stir over medium heat until the sugar has completely melted.  While continuously stirring, slowly add the evaporated milk and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes, or until the sauce thickens.

•While the cupcakes are still warm, use a toothpick or wooden skewer to poke a few holes in each.  Spoon 1 teaspoon of the caramel topping over each of the cupcakes.  Serve immediately, or store them in the refrigerator for a day or two.