On Wisconsin!

Home from our trip to Chicago and Wisconsin, there’s just enough time to squeak out a post before heading to Camp Blogaway this weekend.

It was my third visit to Madison, home to the University of Wisconsin, since Larry and I began dating in 1996. It was his medical school reunion that motivated us to travel and included a stop in Chicago, where I  lived many moons ago and where Larry’s daughter now resides. Having attended a small college in Michigan with less than 1,500 students, I love the University’s huge campus filled with over 40,000 “badgers” who brim with school spirit and Midwestern friendliness.

First stop for a beer and burger took us to Old-Fashioned which won our blue ribbon for our best burger of the visit. I had not quaffed a beer in years, but when in Wisconsin…And don’t tell Larry’s cardiologist about the four cheeseburgers he devoured, one for each day in Madison. We shared a brat, too, just to say we ate at the State Street Brat House.

Forty degree-weather and sleet kept me from touring the famous Saturday Farmers Market on the Square, but I did make it to Fromagination, possibly the best-stocked cheese shop I have ever visited. The folks there were as friendly as could be, giving out samples even after I explained I was on my way home to San Diego.

Thanks to Jane of Let There Be Bite, we celebrated my birthday at Sardine with oysters and flounder. The olive oil cake with pink grapefruit sauce and pistachio ice cream was a perfect end to the best meal of our visit to Madison.

Next up, a recap of our trip to Chicago, including a terrific meal at Rick Bayless’s Frontera Grill. I plan to try and recreate an amazing dessert I shared with my step-daughter. Hint: it will involve goat’s milk.

Scottish Toffee, Revisited

For almost thirty years, I have been making batch upon batch of my toffee this time of year. So many folks have asked me for the recipe that I am adding the link to last year’s post for the recipe.

I recently remembered that I had originally made this every Christmas using salted butter, and decided that the salt in the butter added the taste missing in recent years. The recipe has been updated to reflect the change.

Caramelized Onion Pudding

Sorting through my holiday recipes, I stumbled on an old favorite. This pudding goes well with turkey, chicken, pork or beef, a versatile side dish for cold weather gatherings. Be certain to slowly caramelize the onions to encourage their rich flavor.

Serves 4

• 2 large yellow onions, peeled, sliced and cut into half circles
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon all purpose unbleached flour
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 1 cup heavy cream

1. In a large skillet, heat the oil and butter. When melted, add the onions and the thyme. Cook slowly, over medium-low heat, until the onions turn limp and brown.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

3. Using a mixer, beat the eggs. Add the dry ingredients and mix well over medium speed.

4. Lower the mixer speed and add the cream.

5. Grease a medium-sized gratin dish. Add the onions. Cover with the pudding mixture.

6. Bake 40 minutes or until browned and bubbly.

Scottish Toffee

I began making this toffee around the holidays in the early 1980’s. When I flew home to visit my folks in Pennsylvania, I introduced them to my toffee and they loved it. My mother was an apt pupil, soon turning out batches for friends and family back East.

When my parents moved to San Diego in 1988, we all looked forward to our first “California Christmas” together. I remember the three of us making toffee in their new kitchen and my mother saying, “I feel like we are a family again!” As it turned out, there would only be three such Christmases. We lost my Dad to cancer in 1991 and memories of that first holiday without him are filled with sadness.

Here we are, though, enjoying Christmas Eve of our first California Christmas. When my mother died three years ago, I thought I would put my toffee recipe away for good.  Grief changes over time and this year I’m cooking my way through my toffee gift-list. In honor of Mama’s Scottish roots in the MacPherson family, I renamed my toffee.

Yields one cookie sheet’s worth

• one cup salted butter (2 sticks)
• one cup brown sugar, generously packed
• one teaspoon best quality vanilla
• one pinch kosher salt
• 18 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips (one and a half packages) such as Ghirardelli
• one cup finely chopped almonds
• good quality sea salt (optional)

1. Put half the nuts and half the chocolate chips onto a cookie sheet.

2. Cook butter and brown sugar over medium-high heat in medium-sized pot, using a candy thermometer, to “hard crack” stage, 300 degrees F. Stir constantly. This will take about 15 minutes. Using a copper pot allows you to cook at a higher temperature without burning the caramel.

3. Remove pot from heat and quickly add salt and vanilla.

4. Carefully pour caramel mixture over the mix of nuts and chocolate. Sprinkle remaining chocolate over hot mixture. When melted, smooth out with back of large spoon.

5. Sprinkle remaining nuts and gently press into the toffee. If you like salted caramels, you may want to sprinkle some good quality sea salt on top of the candy.

6. Freeze one hour before breaking into pieces for storage – or snacking!

Food 52 Editors’ Pick

Jeffrey Steingarten’s Mother-in-Law’s Fruitcake

My mother and I were big fruitcake fans.  Maybe it was our Scottish roots. Folks certainly have strong opinions on the subject of fruitcake, don’t they?

When I found a version of this recipe in Jeffrey Steingarten’s The Man Who Ate Everything I thought we had a winner.  Steingarten, a superb food writer, is known for his in-depth research into every aspect of food and drink imaginable, often delivered so as to make his readers laugh out loud.

My mom and I first tried his recipe in 2002 and it took us several Christmases to fine-tune it to our satisfaction. We turned our noses up at “mixed green and red candied pineapple” and headed for our friendly Harry & David store for candied apricots, beautiful glazed cherries and premium dried pineapple. I learned to use best quality unsalted butter.

Our first cakes were raw when cooked according to Mr. S’s instructions and other directions cried out for revamping. Here is the recipe that worked for my mother and me. We made our last fruitcake together in 2006 with a note next to our recipe to “Try adding dates in 2007?” By then, sadly, I had lost her to cancer over Thanksgiving. After three years, it’s time to make our fruitcake again, Mama.

Yields two 8 cup loaf pans

• 1 pound candied red cherries, cut into halves
• 1 pound best quality dried pineapple, cut into chunks
• 1 pound yellow raisins
• 1 pound best quality dried apricots, cut into chunks
• 1 pound walnut halves or pieces
• 1 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature (4 sticks)
• 2 cups white sugar
• 6 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 pound (4 cups) unbleached all purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons of lemon extract
• zest and juice of one Meyer lemon, or any organic lemon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

2. Rinse the candied cherries and combine in a very large bowl with all the dried fruits and walnuts.

3. Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the butter until light. Add the sugar and mix well until fluffy.

4. Add 3 of the eggs to mixture, then 2 cups of flour. Mix well. Add last 3 eggs and final 2 cups of flour. Mix well.

5. Add the lemon extract, zest, lemon juice and vanilla to cake batter and combine.

6. Pour cake batter over fruit and nuts. Use a sturdy hand spatula to thoroughly combine ingredients. Batter will be very stiff!

7. Butter loaf pans and line with parchment paper. Lay one piece lengthwise, another crosswise. Trim to fit pans. Butter fitted parchment paper.

8. Pour batter into pans, leaving one half inch of space at the top of each pan.

9. Cover pans with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake, uncovered, for 60 minutes. Cakes should pull away from sides of pan and resist pressure from the touch of fingertips.

10. Cool in pans on rack. Unmold, remove paper, wrap in plastic wrap and chill.

11. Try to wait a few days before tasting, something my mother and I could never wait to do. You may refrigerate this cake for at least two weeks. You can freeze it too.

NOTE: This year’s batter was so full of ingredients that I made a small third loaf, baking it for only 45 additional minutes once I had uncovered the cakes.