According to the San Francisco Chronicle, a buckle is a one layer cake, very moist, with a streusel topping that buckles as it cooks. Recently they featured a glossary of fruit desserts, along with several recipes. I snipped the article, intending to bake a buckle, waiting for the right time. Well, that time came! Someone at work had a birthday and I thought this would be a nice treat to bring in and share. As you can see, it did not last long!

Last week, while visiting Penzey’s, I picked up a fun recipe for Hot Chocolate Snowball Cookies, a variation on the Nutty Nuggets/Mexican Wedding Cake/Russian Tea Cake Cookie that is popular this time of year. The cookies were easy to make, and the whole family enjoys the addition to our holiday treat plate.

This morning I sliced up a dozen Hachiya persimmons from my neighbor Clay and ran them through the dehydrator, 135°F for 8 hours. For best results, wait until the persimmons are very orange, almost to the point where they start becoming soft and squishy (but before they become soft and squishy, which will make them hard to slice thin). Sprinkle with Chinese Five Spice or Garam Masala. Plain ‘ole cinnamon is good too!

Becky had a unique opportunity this year – a local radio station, KGO, asked listeners to nominate their favorite cookies with a story and have the opportunity to participate on-air in the annual cookie contest. She was psyched, having found a wonderful recipe perfect for sharing.

Then last week, the night before she was scheduled to deliver 100 cookies, she got the call that the KGO owners had fired most of the on-air talent and the cookie contest was off. You can read about those changes and the impact to the long running radio personalities here.

In the meantime, Becky had all these cookies, with a story, with no place to go. Naturally, I offered her the platform of Kitchen Gadget Girl to tell her story. We don’t actually have staff to fire. Convenient.

We live in the San Francisco Bay Area, but have a cottage on a small lake in Pennsylvania where we spend a good portion of each summer. While there, I love to scour the countryside for auctions, estate sales and antique stores. A number of years ago, I bought a box of kitchen items at an estate sale. Inside the box, stuffed between an angel food cake pan and vintage tin icing tubes, I found a large zip lock bag full of an old woman’s recipe collection. Some of the recipes were clipped from old newspapers or magazines. Most were handwritten. Between the recipes, I found little notes that Mrs. Stull, the woman, had saved. One read, “I put some cream in the ice box. I came over to help with cookies or candy. If you need any help let me know. – Mom.” I was so saddened to think of an entire recipe collection being discarded in the effort to clear out a house at an estate sale. Periodically, I look through the recipes and choose one to make. I feel like it’s a little way to pay tribute to this woman I never met. All of the recipes are for old-fashioned type cookies and candies, things you remember your grandmother making. Even my kids love these Mincemeat Cookies.

Every year I celebrate a Generic Christmas Party with women my Mom went to college with and knew in the salad-days of her 20′s. Since my Mom died a long time ago, these women provide loads of important things I need in my life – stability, wisdom, guidance, support and love. Oh, and food. Lots of food.

When I called this year to find out what to bring to the annual gathering, I found out two pieces of information. One, I was assigned an appetizer. And two, one of my Mom’s college friends died this past year. Sounds like she had had cancer for a while and the family was very quiet in their grief. Barbara was a friend of Mom’s from the residence hall on campus, where they all lived in together for all 4 years of school. Her parents “adopted” my Mom for school vacations and breaks, and I remember hearing good stories about Barbara’s family. In the last several years, I had come to know her as an adult at these once-yearly gatherings, and found her quiet and thoughtful with a quick wit.

Last year, Barbara had shared with me her super Easy Clam Dip, and I have decided that is what I should bring to the party, in her memory. It is delightfully easy to make and always served with Ruffles, to hold all the creamy cheesey clammy goodness. Hope you can share this with your friends and family this season!

Yesterday I took the required three, plus Apple/Cranberry with French Crumble Topping, and a Fuyu Crunchy Persimmon Pie. Both were well received. The Crispy Persimmon Pie (forefront of photo above) was one my Mom had cut out from Sunset Magazine in November 1981, but I am not certain she ever tried it. It was on the same page as a Custard Persimmon Pe and Spaghetti Squash with Orange-Filbert Butter. Funny how times have changed. Filberts are now called Hazelnuts, which oddly sound more exotic.

Originally from Martha Stewart, the cookies were very easy to mix and bake, and the frosting came together nicely in the stand mixer. I used a 2 inch cookie scoop and my yield was slightly higher than the recipe indicated, 16 cookies total (with a couple misfits for tasting purposes). Now that they are made, I think they would be great additions to the Thanksgiving dessert table – little hands might find them more desirable than pie, and they travel well.

Found this treasure in my recipe box, along with my Mom’s note and a “wow”. She had lots of recipes, so a wow is pretty special.

I like that these can be made in a tiny version, 12 mini loaves. Perfect for hostess gifts during the holidays. Maybe I should check out these Bake and Give Mini Round Pans from King Arthur Flour. That would make a pretty package!

The recipe is easy, although made in the traditional way, so it takes a little longer than my usual non-knead dough recipes. Check it out and tell me what you think.

Seared Kohlrabi (or Turnips) with Lemon Thyme

Try this with tokyo turnips, purple turnips (need to be peeled), or kohlrabi. All equally good this way.

3 kohlrabi or 1 bunch turnips

olive oil

10 branches lemon thyme

2 T butter

Peel (if necessary) the kohlrabi or turnips. Cut into wedges. Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet and sprinkle some salt over the oil. Add the kohlrabi or turnips, cut side down and sear until deeply colored, maybe 4 minutes. Turn the kohlrabi or turnips to the second cut side and brown that side – it will take less time. Flip to the curved side and add a little water (maybe 1/3-1/2 c). The water should immediately start to boil and steam. Cover the pan to steam the veggies, maybe another 2 minutes. Remove cover and allow the water to boil off, then add the butter, lower the heat and stir to coat the kohlrabi (or turnips). Remove from heat and finish with the thyme. Check for seasoning before serving. Serve warm.

We are also up to our eyeballs in apples these days – I bought about 40 pounds from Mariquita for pies, sauce and eating. Plus, we receive a pound or two (or three) every week from Mariquita and Happy Child, and frankly, I cannot always keep up. Fortunately, I remembered this easy recipe for Pressure Cooker Apple Sauce and quickly reduced my stash (especially the slightly soft and wrinkly apples, see above photo).

Our box from Mariquita also contained Butternut Squash, Sweet Potatoes, Watermelon Radish, Romanesco Cauliflower, Gala Apples, Green Bell Peppers, Purple Kohlrabi, and a box of Tomatoes.

Here is my menu plan for the week of November 13:

Cookie of the week: Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Sunday: Grilled marinated steak, sliced watermelon radishes and kohlrabi, butternut squash risotto, roasted cauliflower, sauteed chard, sliced tomatoes, applesauce

(Meatless) Monday: Pressure-cooker Bean and Pasta Soup, bread, kohlrabi sticks

Tuesday: Slow-cooker Curried Chicken with Ginger and Yogurt, rice, sliced tomatoes

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Pork Chops, Lime-Cilantro Sweet Potatoes, seared kohlrabi (see recipe above), green salad

Friday: Trashy TV and Takeout!

What is on your menu plan this week?

Michelle has been nagging suggesting I bring back this feature, Cookie Thursday, from last year; she has written several times about how much she enjoyed reading about what we were baking in our kitchen. Unfortunately, do to insane after school schedules, and lack of interest on the part of the kids (not in eating the finished product, mind you, just creating them), I have stopped baking every Thursday with the kids. Now I just bake when I find a free moment, or when the mood strikes. Which is still pretty much weekly.

Today I pulled together this quick recipe for Sparkling Ginger Chip Cookies, from 101 Cookbooks. As Heidi said in the intro notes, this recipe is easy to throw together without the mixer. I made a few changes, most notably using 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1 cup cake flour in place of the 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour. Also, I did not have enough unsulphured molasses, so I used brown rice syrup to make up the difference.

The chocolate was the same, and in the future I would look to add ginger chips along with the chocolate, since I think the cookie might be interesting with that addition. It felt as though there was too much ginger in the original recipe, but after baking it was just the right amount. I also baked mine a little bigger than the recipe recommends, and increased the cooking time to 12-14 minutes.

Kids gave these a thumbs up and I think they will make a nice cookie this holiday season.

Have you tried a new cookie recipe recently? What do you crave this time of year?

Fortunately, around the same time I received a copy of the Green Market Baking Book, by Laura Martin, for review. This book provides 100 recipes for sweet and savory treats, and includes additional details on how to incorporate natural sweeteners into your own home cooking. The books also includes detailed information on local and seasonal produce, and provides an interesting chapter on substitutions.

The book is divided into seasons, a great help when eating what is currently ripe and ready, and has a brief section on preserving the harvest, with tips for freezing, canning and drying your favorites.

This summer, I tried the Peach and Nectarine Upside-Down Cake (page 82), and while it was very juicy, the cake received good reviews. Not the most attractive dessert, but with maple syrup and brown syrup as the sweeteners, it was refreshingly devoid of refined sugar.

The illustrations in the book are beautiful; it makes a good evening read. And each season has a highlight of what is good and fresh for that period, along with simple botanical drawings of the fruit and vegetables.

Many chefs have contributed to the book, but the author has managed to keep the recipes and voice similar throughout. Many recipes are also highlighted as dairy-free, low-fat, vegan and gluten-free.

My one gripe with the book is that it seems as though some of the chef-created recipes included in the book have been modified from the original recipe to include a natural sweetener, without the testing necessary to ensure a good quality product. There are many included recipes which are clearly tested and provided by the chefs with the natural sweeteners, but every once in a while a recipe will appear that has been included in the book, but not necessarily created using natural sweeteners. Since many of these sweeteners are liquid (maple syrup, brown rice syrup, honey), I think this leaves the end product open to less success.

Some recipes in the book don’t use any sweeteners, so they are included because of the seasonal produce in the recipe, that is ok. But several recipes have also been included as pure product recommendations (Pesto Pizza with Goat Cheese and Figs, page 100), and a couple from Eden Natural Foods, Bob’s Red Mill, the National Honey Council and U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council. It is nice to show breadth of recipes, but eventually it starts to feel a little commercial.

I also see a few recipes that could be more specific in their details, for example, Persimmon Bread (page 142) which does not specify Hachiya or Fuyu persimmons (big difference). And realistically, many of these recipes are quite a bit more expensive than their refined counterparts (to be expected). I made the Green Market Baking Book Chocolate Chip Cookies (page 31) and priced them out to be about $18 a batch, as opposed to the Traditional Chocolate Chip Cookies (page 30) which are closer to $6 a batch and don’t require additional trips to the grocery store.

On the plus side, there are a few recipes which have been really vetted with natural sweeteners, including Pumpkin Pie and Custard (page 130) and a few recipes which are no brainers for natural sweeteners, such as Applesauce (page 148) and Honey Strawberry Jam (page 68). It is good to build awareness about what is natural and not in baking, and this book helps that cause.

Would I buy the book? Probably. I like all the recipes with honey, and I think the illustrations are great. I also like the layout of the book, reinforcing the eating seasonal objective I share with my family. It would make a nice gift this holiday season for someone looking to reduce/eliminate refined sugars in their diet. This book provides a good starting point and enough information you point you in the right direction.

And just in time for apple season, here is the Apple Cake recipe from the Green Market Baking Book: