A Traditional Christmas Panto

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Pantomime is an eccentric British theater institution.  Usually performed at Christmastime, pantomine (slang, panto) emerged during the Restoration with roots in the commedia dell’arte of Italy.  By the beginning of the 19th century, this wonderfully strange, campy, corny, quirky mix of musical comedy and fairy tale had become a tradition.

Young Queen Elizabeth and her sister Princess Margaret performed in these musical comedy stage productions around Christmas and New Year’s, as pantos were a big part of their holiday celebrations at Windsor Castle, where they lived after evacuating from Buckingham Palace during wartime.

John, Joe and I attended our first Christmas panto in England at a village theater in the north.  Pantomimes rely heavily on audience participation (that’s a main part of the fun) and when the lead character called for a TALL volunteer, we pushed John into the fray. He played a door and a Christmas tree, much to his chagrin and our glee.  Later on in the village, we passed two children in the shops who pointed at John and said, “Look mummy!  It’s the door!”

JP endures the indignity of being a prop in the 2008 panto in England.

JP endures the indignity of being a prop in the 2008 panto in England.

Back at home in Maryland, we have the beginnings of a new Christmas tradition with our friends, Chris and Adrienne Harrington.  The British Players (formerly The British Embassy Players) mount a Christmas pantomime production at the Kensington Town Hall each year.  This year was Cinderella, a traditional British panto directed by Charles Hoag.  Chris purchased a passel of tickets for several friends and their children and away we went.  After the play we adjourned back to our house for dessert and hot chocolate.

I arranged an assortment of cookies and treats in various shapes, sizes, and flavors beforehand on the buffet, making sure to include everyone’s favorites. The spread featured delightful options like chocolate cookies on Christmas, adding a festive touch to the holiday dessert selection.

Christmas dessert display

I knew I wanted an abundance of offerings but couldn’t make it all, of course, so I baked some homemade cookies and bars and rounded it out with my favorite seasonal treats from Trader’s Joe’s.

Homemade:

Dried Cranberry and Chocolate Cookies

Dried Cranberry Chocolate Cookies

These are everyone’s absolute favorite cookie. I think I made at least 9 dozen throughout the Christmas holiday to eat and give as gifts.

Chinese Chews

I found the recipe at one of my new favorite blogs, She Wears Many Hats.  This is a vintage recipe, dating back to the 1900s, but no one seems to know why they are titled ‘Chinese.’  Some recipes call for dates and walnuts, but I followed She Wears Many Hats and made these with just pecans.  They were like a blondie without chocolate.  Chewy in a good way with lots and lots of brown sugar.

Chinese chews (pecan bars)

I made a batch of Sugar Cookies with Sprinkles for those who don’t like chocolate or nuts.  I can’t say I was blown away with them (why are sugar cookies so hard to get right?) so no recipe to recommend.

From the store:

We love Trader Joe's.

We love Trader Joe’s.

(Left: Pepperidge Farm Pirouettes with Chocolate and Hazelnut. (Top to bottom: Trader’s Joe’s English Toffee, Trader Joe’s Caramels with Fleur du Sel, Trader Joe’s Jo Jo Cookie Assortment (like chocolate-covered Oreos).

And Walker’s Shortbread (our favorite at Christmastime.)

Everyone at our house gets shortbread in their Christmas stocking.

Everyone at our house gets shortbread in their Christmas stocking.

Christmas cookies

Dessert buffet

We decorated the front porch with candy canes, garland and mini trees.

christmas lights and candy canes

And a lovely guest brought the cutest miniature mince pies–an English tradition!

Classic mini mince pies

Classic mini mince pies

Another lovely friend brought a big bowl of Chocolate Mousse and the children had hot cocoa with mini marshmallows and candy canes.

P1010068Santa made an appearance.

santa

We had some savory treats also (because I like salty and crunchy better than sweet.)

Keeping it English, I put out a Stilton and a 5-year aged white cheddar (both from Trader Joe’s cheese section.)

We passed around a bowl of Spiced Pecans and a bowl of smoked almonds, both excellent with the various sparkling wines we served.

Schloss Beibrich Sekt is a wonderful sparkling wine from Germany.  A great buy.  Michelle Brut from Columbia Valley in Washington State another lovely find!

Schloss Beibrich Sekt is a wonderful sparkling wine from Germany. A great buy. Michelle Brut from Columbia Valley in Washington State another lovely find!

Spiced Pecans

And let’s not forget my favorite potato chip:  Kettle Brand Salt and Pepper Chips. Because it’s not a party without a potato chip, in my opinion, but are kettle chips healthier than the others?

We served an assortment of beverages, including lemonade, Pellegrino, Coke and Diet Coke, Capri Suns for the kids, white and red wines and IPAs for the adults.

I had planned to offer coffee and put out the china cups and saucers beforehand, but we totally forgot to brew it or offer it.  Since the play didn’t wrap up until 9:30 pm, this was a late party and no one asked for coffee as I’m sure they wanted to go to sleep at midnight with visions of sugar plums in their heads.

Tree at the Kensington Armory

The marvelous tree at Kensington Town Hall, large and festive.

Hope everyone had a happy Christmas!  Thank you, Chris and Adrienne for the panto tickets and the lovely new Christmas tradition.

Cheers,

Rebecca

Peanut Butter Cookies with Bourbon Vanilla Sugar (Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2013)

Lovely cookies on my favorite Herend platter.  Fancy!

Lovely cookies on my favorite Herend platter. Fancy!

I was pleased to take part in the 3rd Annual Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap this year.  This is like the old-fashioned cookie exchanges, except it’s all organized online (thank you Lindsay and Taylor of Love & Olive Oil and Julie from The Little Kitchen) and you are matched with bakers from all over the country who send you presents!  What could be more wonderful than that!

Cookie Exchange Present

More wonderful than that is that the Cookie Swap is also a fundraiser for Cookies for Kids’ Cancer and this year bloggers raised close to $15,000 just by baking and sharing cookies!

The way it works is you bake 3 dozen cookies (from a recipe in your repertoire that you haven’t published before) and mail a dozen each to your matches.  Then 3 other blogger-bakers send you their cookies.  It’s fun to wait for the mail and see what cookies you are going to get and where they are coming from. (NOTE: Each participating blogger contributes a small participation fee which goes to the nonprofit as a donation.)

My cookie matches were:

Laura Holko from A Healthy Jalapeno,  hailing from Connecticut

Willow Arlen from Will Cook For Friends, hailing from Michigan

Donna Elick from The Slow Roasted Italian,  hailing from Arizona.

I made my favorite peanut butter cookie for them which comes from The Best 150 American Recipes: Indispensable Dishes from Legendary Chefs and Undiscovered Cooks by Fran McCullough and Molly Stevens. (One of my favorite cookbooks; so oft-used its pages are splattered, smeared, sticking together, and falling out.  That is serious love, my culinary friends.)

Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut butter cookie ingredients

 

I love this cookie for its full-on, authentic peanut butter taste and the fact that it only uses 4 ingredients (!) and no flour.  If you’ve got peanut butter, sugar, an egg, and some baking soda, you can make this cookie, even during one of the busiest holiday times of the year.

Peanut Butter Cookies

This cookie recipe is so simple, you only need 4 ingredients.  It’s a go-to in our house, especially during the holidays when I am crazy busy, want to bake for the kids, but don’t want to think too hard about it!  Rolling the cookies into balls before your smash them with the tines of a fork is a perfect task for little hands who want to help.

From The 150 Best American Recipes,  Indispensable Dishes from Legendary Chefs and Undiscovered Cooks, Fran McCollough & Molly Stevens, Houghton Mifflin, New York, 2006.

Source:  Gourmet

Cook:  Mom-Mom Fitch

Ingredients

1 cup creamy peanut butter (I use Jif or Skippy)

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon baking soda

makes about 4 dozen cookies

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and set a rack in the middle level.  Grease two baking sheets or line them with parchment paper. (NOTE: I love my Silpat baking mats.)

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the peanut butter and sugar until well combined.  In a small bowl, lightly beat the egg, then beat it into the peanut butter mixture along with the baking soda until well combined.

Roll teaspoons of dough into walnut-size balls and arrange them about 1 inch apart on the baking sheets.  With the tines of a fork, flatten the balls to about 1 1/2 inches in diameter, making a crosshatch pattern.  Bake the cookies in batches until puffed and pale golden, about 9 minutes. (They might look underdone but they are not.  Any longer in the oven and they will dry out.)

Let cool on the baking sheets for 2 minutes, then transfer with a metal spatula to wire racks to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

I sprinkle mine with a little turbinado sugar or bourbon vanilla sugar when they are warm.

Bourbon Vanilla Sugar

I packaged those babies up and mailed them off.

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Here’s my favorite trick for packing material.  Shred those interior design magazines (the colorful pages) you were going to recycle.  Be sure not to use your husband’s shredded credit card offers or he will have a fit. Ha.

In return for my participation, I received some wonderful cookies and recipes:

Fruitcake Cookies, Alice Seuffret from Dining with Alice, hailing from Minnesota

Cranberry-Almond Biscotti, Becky from Rose & Henry, hailing from Iowa

Nonna’s Russian Tea Cakes, Emily Voigtlander from The Answer is Always Pork, hailing from California

 

Cookie Swap 2013

 

This project was great fun and reminded me almost daily of my dearly departed Mom, who used to bake prodigiously at Christmas and always had a plate or tin of homemade delicious cookies at the ready for guests, friends, visitors, children, and really anyone who gave her a hand and who she thought deserved a cookie.

Thank you the organizers and brand partners of the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2013 for such a wonderful experience and opportunity.

Shout outs to: OXO, Dixie Crystals Sugar, Gold Medal Flour, and Grandma’s Molasses.

And one last note.  In the midst of all this baking and receiving, we had our first snow in the mid-Atlantic (which is normally very mild.)  A look out of our second-story guest bedroom window before I went down to get to the nitty-gritty of baking cookies:

First snow mid-Atlantic 2013

 

Happy Holidays!

Don’t Throw Out That Turkey Carcass! Gumbo

Don't throw out that turkey carcass--make gumbo!

Don’t throw out that turkey carcass–make gumbo!

Ingredients

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup bacon fat (or vegetable oil)

2 large yellow onions, chopped

1/2 cup chopped green onions, white and green parts (save the green for garnish)

1 large green pepper, chopped

3 stalks celery, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

14 ounces of smoked sausage, cut into rounds (I used polska kielbasa but andouille is more gumbo-authentic)

4 cups of shredded turkey meat from the carcass, white and dark meat

1 picked-over turkey breast carcass (14-16 lb.)

12 cups of chicken stock (enough to cover carcass in your large stock pot)

2 bay leaves

1 bunch flat Italian parsley, chopped

2 tablespoons thyme (dried or fresh)

3 tablespoons filé powder

Salt and pepper to taste (don’t underestimate the need for salt, start with a healthy pinch and taste and correct as your gumbo cooks down)

Hot sauce for the table

Steamed white rice to accompany

Directions

Heat the bacon fat til hot but not smoking in a large heavy-bottomed stock pot and add the flour, whisking constantly.  Cook the roux at medium-high heat for 10 minutes, whisking constantly so it doesn’t burn.  Roux should be a caramel color.

Add the chopped onions and sauté until softened.  Add celery and green pepper and sauté until softened.  Add the chopped garlic and sauté (do not let garlic scorch.)  Add the rounds of sausage and sauté til browned.

Add the turkey carcass.  (My carcass was just the breast because I braised the Thanksgiving turkey legs separately and those bones were gone.)  Smash it down somewhat in the pot and add the chicken stock.  (I used the braising liquid leftover from the turkey legs and added Swanson’s chicken broth to top it off. )

Add the leftover turkey meat. Add the bay leaves, thyme, salt and pepper. Simmer over low heat for at least 2 hours.

Remove the carcass.  Taste and adjust the seasonings (add more salt, pepper, thyme).  Add the chopped parsley. Add 3 tablespoons of filé powder and simmer slowly, stirring until slightly thickened.

Serve over white rice, with your family’s favorite hot sauce on the side.