Rabbit is dicey. It's the only animal I know of that you find in both the pet store and the butcher shop. (For the record, I get mine at the latter.) With the exception of the fourth grade during which time my BFF was a girl in my class who had pet rabbits, they've always been firmly in the food category for me, similar to deer. They are beautiful creatures, but they are also tasty creatures.
Read MoreHoliday Traditions: How Fried Oysters Came to Appalachia
Since moving to the Mid-Atlantic region, I have often wondered why folks from West Virginia eat oysters this time of year, oysters not being native to the Appalachian Mountains. A former Baltimorean back home in West Virginia provides the history of this tradition, as well as her own personal family history. Her family served them at Christmas, but I've also met folks who included them with Thanksgiving and New year's dinner. It's so well-written that I'm just going to copy it verbatim from the email she sent me.
Read MoreA Note about Kitchen Organization
This week I took a break from holiday cooking to evaluate the food storage situation in my kitchen. Several weeks of serious food prep (cookies, candies, something for the holiday potluck, plus at least one holiday dinner) will really make all the shortcomings of the kitchen obvious. This is actually a pretty good time of the year for cleaning and reogranizing, and a few years ago I declared the day after Christmas to be Annual Kitchen Reorganization Day.
Read MoreNew Facebook Page
Mary's Food journal began in 2009 as a Facebook group for me and my counterpart to share food and plan events with our friends. From there, it grew into this blog, and the old group was abandoned. The group was officially retired this morning, and a new fan page for Mary's Food Journal is up. The page will contain posts from this blog, as well as photos of good food and comments from friends, fans and followers. Take a look and let me know what you think.
Read MoreKnow What You're Eating: Stevia
I admit, the catchy tune had something to do with it - those commercials for "all natural" stevia sweeteners featuring frustrated women and a jingle many of us can relate to. And I was pretty happy. I've often wondered why there are some many artificial sweeteners out there (especially in supposedly health items - Airborne anyone?) when there's stevia. Then I read the label. Here are two popular stevia products and what they contain:
Read MoreHoliday Baking: Triple Ginger Cookies
I'm an absolute sucker for those Holiday Cookie mini-magazines in the check out line at the grocery store. Even thought most of the recipes are absolute crap and always start with a box of cake mixed or a tube of pre-made cookie dough, I keep buying them because every one I have ever purchased has contained that single gem of a recipe that becomes a Yule favorite. Last year's Holiday Cookies mini-mag put out by PIL Cookbooks contained this recipe. It's all from scratch and is similar to the triple-ginger cookies at Trader Joe's. Except you make them in your own kitchen. Whenever you want.
Read MoreHoliday Baking: Blonde Fruitcake
There's one in every crowd - a holiday traditionalist who loves and looks forward to fruitcake. This has always mystified me as every fruitcake I have ever had has been heavy and chaotic and boozy and not very well thought out. I'm sure at one time someone came up with a very nice recipe that called for a rich cake full of fruit and nuts but over the years it has evolved into what can only be described as a culinary clusterfuck of the highest magnitude. It takes some genuine skill to pull off a confection of candied fruit and hard liquor and quite honestly for most of us at-home bakers it's pretty far out of reach, especially if you only bake in December.
Read MoreHoliday Baking: World's Best Sugar Cookies
This is another one of my mom's famous recipes from childhood and one she made often after school. She posted the recipe to kick off her blog back in 2008 and credits The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book by Fannie Merritt Farmer once again. And, as long as we are baking cookies, I'm going to delve into some Good Cookie Technique.
Read MoreHow to Recover from a Sugar Hangover
In my posting about how to host a cookie party , I neglected to mention that as the host, you'll probably be right there with the kids eating cookie dough, as well as icing, candy decorations and the cookies themselves. If we're being realistic, there's a high potential you'll eat more sugar than you have since childhood. Shortly after your guests leave (for me it was about 20 minutes), you'll probably crash, and crash hard. Even with a good meal beforehand (my counterpart provided ham and eggs). Your pancreas will just be overwhelmed, and you'll go down.
Read MoreHoliday Baking: How to Host a Cookie Party
A neighbor of mine used to host a cookie party for her friends and their children this time of year. Everyone would bring their favorite cookie recipe - pre-made - and we would cut, decorate and bake cookies all evening. I was lucky enough to be able to participate for several years running, and it was really a wonderful way to spend a cold December evening. With enough planning, it's not that difficult to pull off.
Read MoreHoliday Baking: Butterscotch Brownies
Holiday Baking: Lemon Tea Bread
So now that we are clear of Thanksgiving, I am full Holiday Baking mode. Every year I have a theme. One year it was Spice - gingerbread, cardamom cookies, etc, - another year it was color - lots of decorated cut cookies. When I asked my counter part about this year's theme, he recommended Blonde - light colored treats that would be visually appealing when packaged together. He also requested a lemon tea bread, sans poppy seeds.
Read MoreKnow What You're Eating
Heavy Cream vs Heavy Whipping Cream
Heavy Whipping Cream
Heavy Cream - WTF?????