Fancy Hearts!

Be My Valentine!

When I first came to the United States…

I received many cards in school saying: Be My Valentine!  

I just smiled, and had no clue what this was all about.

It all started with Ginger! Yes ginger, the hornlike, knobby root that was discovered thousands of years ago.  The earliest mention can be found in Confucius’ documentation, 551-479 BC.   In Sunskrit, an ancient language of India the name for ginger is “srngam-veram,” horn-body, due to its  knobby root.  Through time this name evolved from Greek to Latin to French and finally it ended in the Modern English language as “ginger.” (Reference: Cupboard Love, by Mark Morton)

Ginger was brought to Europe more than 700 years ago, when the Venetian explorer Marco Polo brought it back from the Far East at the end of the 13^th century.  It was quickly discovered that when one added ginger to bread dough as a flavoring, it also preserved it from spoilage.  Breads remained fresh longer and did not spoil with mold growing on them.

With this new discovery baking became an artistic venture, especially after sugar was introduced by Italian merchants during the 16^th century.

Legend tells us that during the Middle-Ages, fair ladies at the courts competed with baking ginger/honey spiced fancy hearts and decorated them lavishly.   At the time of the tournament battles these hearts were given to the admired participants expressing the ladies favor and love to the knight she chose.

As a child having lived in a village in Croatia, I remember being taken to the “Kirweih” a summer festival much like the County Fairs we have now, where the villagers cooked and baked for days before, to set out their specialties for the visitors to buy and taste.  There were games, and rides and for me as a child a lot of confusion.  But, I do remember seeing young couples walking hand in hand with the girl clutching a big cookie heart to her chest and having a big smile on her face.

There were stalls with these hearts of every size, and decorated in all colors, expressing good luck, health, wealth  and most importantly LOVE.  Now the roles have changed, the young man gives the heart to the girl he loves and admires.

This is my first attempt to decorate cookies in this manner. I have actually made them for my two grandchildren and have mailed them off  to arrive by Valentine’s Day.

I did not make the cookies out of gingerbread dough, these are simple vanilla  butter cookies that I rolled out to be about a quarter inch thick.  After baking them and having given them time to cool, I glazed them with royal icing.  I thinned the icing with a little water to make it spreadable using  a medium size watercolor brush.  I laid them on a rack to drip off and dry.  While they were drying I transferred some of the icing into several small glass bowls and added food color to them…one drop at a time and mixed it so I could judge the intensity of the color.  It is actually a lot like painting and creating your own colors for your picture.   I learned that when working with the food colors I needed to use plastic gloves to protect my hands from becoming multicolored.

It was fun to do and I will have to try again and again to become better at this kind of cookie making.   If you have not done this before I would urge you to find Julia Usher’s books on beautiful cookies.  She is not only an expert, but is truly an artist.  Her cookies are like jewels.  She has several books on this kind of cookie decorating, my favorite being: “Cookie Swap” you can get it and all her other books on Amazon.

Maja’s Vanilla Butter Cookies

For this recipe I used the food processor!

Cookie sheet lined with parchment paper

Pre-heat oven to 375 F

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 3/4 sticks cold butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 whole large egg + 1 egg yolk

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 tsp brandy

Making the cookie dough….

Place the flour and baking powder into the processor, pulse a couple to times, then add the cold butter into the food processor and pulse a few times again to cut the butter into pea-size clumps.

Add the sugar and again pulse a few times to mix the sugar into the flour and butter.

Take a small bowl and add the egg the yolk, Vanilla Extract and brandy then whisk these three ingredients together until well mixed.

Now add the egg mixture to the flour mixture in the processor, and pulse and run the processor until the mixture forms a dough.

Take the dough out of the processor and wrap it in plastic wrap.  Refrigerate the dough for about 20 to 30 minutes before rolling it out to be about 1/4 inch thick.

I like to roll out small portions of the dough to make it easier to cut out the cookies.

Bake the cookies on a parchment lined cookie sheet at 375 F, until very lightly browned, then cool them on a rack.

Note!

This Vanilla Butter Dough can be used for many other pastries, it is a very versatile dough.

Royal Icing

1/2 pound confectioner (powdered) sugar

1 egg white

Water for thinning the icing

Use an electric mixer,  mix these two ingredients together and beat them until snow white and creamy…do not over-beat, if over beaten the icing will be dry and it will not work well for you.

You can also buy the dry egg-white powder and follow directions for Royal Icing on the box.

 For your Valentine’s Tea!

Invite someone special like your mother, grandmother or an aunt……..or, 

a special neighbor whom you admire, a teacher whom you had in school……..or,

someone who has cancer and is in chemo-therapy…

Valentine’s Day is for Everyone!

Set a small table with two china cups, two small plates,

teaspoons and dessert forks, a couple of fancy napkins and a pretty cloth. 

Some flowers, which you can give to your guest when she leaves,

a platter full of your decorated hearts, some fruit on the side….

and plenty of tea so you can be chatting for a while.

You cannot imagine what joy you will bring to that special person

with whom you spend an afternoon while giving of your time, and kind thoughtfulness. 

Happy Valentine’s Day!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Copyright: Maria Reisz Springer……..

Maja’s Kitchen….

http://www.majaskitchen.com

maria@majaskitchen.com

http://www.culinaryhalloffame.com/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unauthorized use, distribution, and/or duplication of proprietary material without prior approval is prohibited. If you have any questions or would like permission, I can be contacted via email at: maria@majaskitchen.com   Feel free to quote me, just give credit where credit is due, link to the recipe, and please send people to my website, http://www.majaskitchen.com

Find me on Face Book!

Let’s do Brunch!

Brunch at Home with Friends!

When I set a beautiful  table for Brunch my heart and soul sing with delight.  I waited for this glorious moment,  and skipped  breakfast earlier that morning.  Anticipation for this special time when all my senses are ready to taste the delicacies is heightened  simply by  looking at the display of  all the  dishes I prepared for this wonderful occasion.  It truly is one of my favorite feasts!  A Brunch at Home with Friends should be treated as a special time.  It needs to be enjoyed   leisurely to fully experience the abundance of the table.

The idea of “Brunch” actually dates to the Roman times, simply since it took the Romans hours to consume the amount of food they had on their first meal of the day.  Clodius Alvinus was known to have devoured up to a hundred tiny birds for his “morning meal.”

In the 16th century England,  breakfast was a simple meal  for the early rising laborers, but it was not so simple for the gentry and nobility.  As M. F. K. Fisher reports in “The Art of Eating,”

‘……the Queen (Elizabeth I), God be thanked, paid no attention to the new-style finicking, and made her first meal of the day light but sustaining: butter, bread, a stew of mutton, a joint of beef, one of veal, some rabbits in a pie, chickens and fruits, with beer and wine to wash all down in really hygienic fashion.’

In the 17th century England made breakfast a more modern occasion.  The

‘new-style finicking,’  became the trend.  Italy and the rest of Europe created a breakfast a little lighter in style.  One such occasion was reported in a diary of Samuel Pepy on January 1, 1661.   While entertaining his family he wrote…

‘And I have for them a barrel of oysters,

a dish of meat’s tongues,

and a dish of Anchovies –

wine of all sorts and Northdown ale. 

We were very merry till about 11 a-clock,

and then they went away.’

Coffee was introduced to England and Europe in the 1650 by a Turkish ambassador at the court of Louis XIV, but was considered by the medical profession as ‘bad for health and soul.’   Similar criticisms were later given to Tea. Tea is thought to have been introduced into England  from Asia by Lord Arlington in 1666, but it took  further thirty years or so to become a firmly established breakfast beverage.

By the 18th century, tea and coffee had become cheaper, and the dinner hour had moved beyond noon.   This established the breakfast as we know it today.                          

Meanwhile, in America, specifically in New Orleans, the ‘American Brunch’  was created, a meal combining breakfast and lunch.   Opinions differ as to how and why it was established.   One school of thought is that the French merchants, who were up very early in the morning  and had no time nor felt like eating at that hour of the day, decided to meet in town and take a leisurely breakfast later in the morning when  work was finished .  A second theory is that after the first Christmas Mass, celebrated in 1718, the settlers held a highly social and late breakfast, and the event became a tradition.

By the end of the following century the new meal had crossed the Atlantic.  In 1900 ‘The Westminster Gazette’  wrote:

‘Perish scrambling breakfast, formal lunch,

Hardened nightbirds fondly cherish

All the subtle charms of brunch.’

Since the 19th century, breakfast menus, and therefore brunch menus, have seen many changes.  Fruit has become an almost indispensable part  to the early or mid-morning table.  Wonderful egg dishes have evolved with a creativity which stops only with one’s imagination.  This 21st century has brought about a “fusion” kitchen where one mixes different cultures in dishes we hardly could imagine  30 to 50 years ago.  Indeed “brunch” has become a true feast to all our senses and should be a celebratory meal from start to finish.

            One of my favorite ways of entertaining,

in more ways then one,

is a Sunday Brunch!

~~~~~~~~~~

To add to your Brunch Table here is my favorite dish, the

Quiche!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is the Recipe

I use  store bought – Pie Crust!

I know you expected better from me, but I am a practical person.  In all the years of entertaining I found that most people do not eat the crust in either  quiches or pies.   I have to admit I do not eat them as well. Therefore, I use whatever kind of unbaked pie crusts I find in the store.

            Pre-heat the oven to 350 F.

            1/2 small onion – chopped

            3 strips bacon – render fat in microwave,  crumble into little pieces

            1/4  green bell pepper – chopped

            1 small tomato – seeded and chopped

            1/2 cup any kind of cheese – grated

            3 large eggs

            1 cup heavy cream – or 1/2 cup heavy cream + 1/2 cup sour cream

            salt and pepper

            Nutmeg

Spray the quiche pan with baking spray or grease the quiche pan before lining it with the pastry crust.

Place all the ingredients into the unbaked pie crust.

Mix eggs and cream with salt and pepper – and pour the mixture over the vegetables in the crust.

Sprinkle nutmeg over the quiche.

Bake the quiche in a preheated oven – 350 F -  for about 1 hour – or until quiche puffs up and begins to brown.

Bake the quiche on the lowest shelf in the oven to enhance browning of the pastry on the bottom.

Let the quiche rest for a few minutes before serving.  It will loose some of the puffiness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suggestions for what to serve at a brunch!

All kind so egg dishes

Breads sweet and savory

Assorted pates

Sliced meats

Casseroles

Salads

Fruit

Pastries

Puddings

Crepes

Pancakes

Sweet Yeast Breads

Fruit Juices

Mixed Cocktail  Drinks

Light fruity Wines

Coffee and Tea

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The historical information was taken from the following books:

Food, Culinary History from Antiquity to the Present, Jean Louis Flandrin and Mssimo Montanari – Columbia University Press, New York, 1999

Savoring the Past, The French Kitchen and Table from 1300 to 1789, Barbara Ketcham WheatonThe University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983

Food  In History, Reay Tannahill – Stein and Day Publishers, New York, 1973

The Old World Kitchen, The Rich Tradition of European Peasant Cooking, Elisabeth – LuardBantam Books, New York, NY 1987

History of Food, Maguelonne Toussaint – Samat – Blackwell Publishers, Cambridge, MA, 1994

Larousse Gastronomique, Crown Publishers, New York, 1972

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Copyright: Maria Reisz Springer……..

Maja’s Kitchen….

http://www.majaskitchen.com

maria@majaskitchen.com

http://www.culinaryhalloffame.com/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unauthorized use, distribution, and/or duplication of proprietary material without prior approval is prohibited. If you have any questions or would like permission, I can be contacted via email at: maria@majaskitchen.com   Feel free to quote me, just give credit where credit is due, link to the recipe, and please send people to my website, http://www.majaskitchen.com

Find me on Face Book!