Little House on the Prairie: Cooking with maple syrup

Okay, so I don't live in the woods. I am not a pioneer woman. I do not live on a farm. In fact, I grow NOTHING in my back yard and I can't seem to keep an herb plant alive for more than a few weeks. (I like to blame this on having grown up in NYC.) I do, however, have six children who, like the weeds in my "garden," are growing very fast. And I am home with them. All day. Yes, we homeschool, and so in a way, I feel a kind of connection with Laura Ingalls' mother, Caroline, and to her work: the home. Every afternoon during lunch, I read to the children from various books, and we are currently reading the "Little House" series. My eldest three (James, 9; Julia, 7; Lily,5) sit at their places transfixed by the stories of farm life--and food! Food, so glorious, and yet so simple! One of the aspects of these stories that strikes me is how seasonal their food is. In this (happy!) age of the supermarket, we can eat whatever we like, whenever. Strawberries in January? No problem! Pumpkin pie in July? You got it!

These stories, however, bring us back to a time when every food had its season, for example: in the spring and summer, berries were collected and made into pies and preserves; in the fall, the wheat was threshed and the harvest was brought in and meat was smoked and salted; in the winter, deer were hunted and maple syrup was made ready. And they blessed their food before every meal, recognizing the gift that it truly was. There was a real comfort in the rituals that every season brought, a comfort not dissimilar from what I believe our liturgical seasons and feast days bring us as Catholics. Certainly the food traditionally prepared to celebrate many feast days was chosen not only for its symbolism, but also for its seasonal availability. Think of all the fish eaten in Italy on Christmas Eve!

Although it is late January still, I am feeling the end of winter. It was 60 degrees just the other day! It was towards the end of the winter (admittedly a bit later than February in Wisconsin!) that Laura's family made their maple sugar candies from boiling maple syrup and pouring it over fresh SNOW. With no feast day in sight, I thought we might try a modern version of these pioneer candies. I have also included a recipe for maple sugar cookies, which I think are probably a bit tastier than the maple syrup cakes the Ingalls used to eat! You've got to love brown sugar!

Maple Sugar Candy

Ingredients:
2 cups real maple syrup

1. Using a candy thermometer, in a sturdy saucepan with high sides,
bring the maple syrup to a boil.

2. Turn the heat to very low and allow the syrup to continue boiling without stirring until the thermometer reads 233F. Be careful that thesyrup doesn’t boil over - once maple syrup finally decides to boil, it really boils.

3. When the reduced syrup has reached 233F, remove it from the heat and allow to cool, still without stirring it, until the thermometer reads 110 F.

4. Now it’s time to beat the reduced syrup with a wooden spoon. Beat vigorously for several minutes. (It can help to sing when you do this.) You are making a transformation take place: As you beat, the syrup gradually turns a pale caramel color and it becomes stiff enough to hold a shape.

5. Place in candy molds or form into patties on a plate or baking sheet and allow to cool completely. Then unmold and enjoy.


Maple Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon maple extract
1/4 cup maple syrup
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Heavy cream

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together. Thoroughly blend into
the butter mixture. Form into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill
for at least 4 hours.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Roll the dough out 1/4-inch thick. With a drinking glass, cut out
cookies and transfer to parchment lined baking sheet. Brush the
cookies with heavy cream. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.

Meanwhile make the maple glaze. Mix all the ingredients in a saucepan.
Stir over medium heat until it just reaches the boiling point. Brush
or dip the tops of the cookies in the maple glaze while still hot. Let
cool. These taste better the next day.

Maple Glaze:
1 cup confectioners' sugar1/4 cup maple sugar
1 teaspoon maple extract
1/4 cup unsalted butter
Directions
In a medium bowl, cream the butter, then gradually add the sugar and
continue to beat. Add the eggs, vanilla extract, maple extract, and
maple syrup, and beat until light and fluffy.

Our Daily Bread: Banana Bread

Baking is one of my favorite things, and baking for someone gives it a wonderful sense of purpose. My husband, for instance, loves banana bread! Whenever he requests it for a weekday breakfast, or I have the chance to surprise him, I naturally think of him while I prepare the loaf. He has even told me that he feels loved when I make it for him…not because of the banana bread itself, but precisely because he knows I made it for him. What a higher purpose baking now takes on for me! It is a chance to love others.

I can only imagine the joy and delight that consumed Our Blessed Mother’s heart as she prepared meals for Jesus and St. Joseph. By the labor of her hands she was feeding, nourishing, and loving no less than God Himself!

We hope you enjoy this banana bread recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens cook book as much as my family does!

Banana Bread
2 cups all purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 beaten eggs
1 ½ cups mashed bananas
1 cup sugar
½ cup melted butter
¼ cup chopped walnuts (I usually add up to ¾ of a cup to use for a heartier breakfast)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease the bottoms and side of one 9x5x3 inch loaf pan; set aside. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Make a well in center of flour mixture; set aside.

2. In another bowl combine eggs, bananas, sugar and melted butter. Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy). Fold in nuts. Spoon batter into prepared pan.

3. Bake 55-60 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. (If necessary, cover loosely with foil the last 15 minutes of baking to prevent over-browning.)

Guilty Pleasures, God’s Hedonism, and Fasting

Not long ago (before the “Salt Files”), my mom posted on God’s hedonism—commenting on food and furthering some thoughts Lewis entertained in The Screwtape Letters. Monday’s gospel reading contained Christ’s commentary on his disciples having no need to fast while the bridegroom was with them, and those who have followed this week's gospel readings have heard a good bit of Jesus’s considerations on the Sabbath. Which brings me to the issue of fasting; not, quite frankly, one of my favorite things by instinct. Some recent recommendations to fast and donate the money saved to the suffering people of Haiti have brought the issue of fasting back to my mind (as has the awareness that Lent is really just around the corner!), and have reminded me of its purpose.
I spent my junior year of college abroad—in Florence, Italy. The food (not surprisingly) was extremely good (though I once joked to a friend, during a very active vacation, that it wasn’t that the food was so inherently great, it was that you were always so hungry when you ate it). Which brings me to the focus of today’s reflection: one of my most memorable and guiltiest food pleasures. One of the best meals I had the whole year I lived in Italy was on Good Friday. My friends and I had spent most of the day reflecting on the Lord’s Passion in a very engaged and active way: I was part of a choir that sang during a lengthy Via Crucis whose path went up the hills around Florence. After the Via Crucis was done, we raced back to our apartment to get our things since we were staying with my roommate Raffaella’s family in Rome for the Easter weekend. When we arrived at her parents’ Roman home a couple of hours later, her mother presented us with a wonderful Caprese salad of fresh mozzarella and tomatoes with basil leaves and good bread to go with it. Now, a Caprese salad is tasty on any day, but when you haven’t really eaten all day, it is *unbelievable*. I devoured that salad with an ecstasy that made me a little uncomfortable. But that very enjoyment I experienced reminded me that fasting is useful, even for hedonists. Abstaining from food for a period reminds us that we are not as dependent on eating as we think we are: we will survive a day without our usual three squares (or second breakfasts!). Fasting reminds us that our engagement with food is not purely instinctive: we have choices about what and how we eat: while food is necessary to our lives, we have a tremendous amount of flexibility in how we respond to that need—we’re not just animals. Fasting, in the end, serves many great purposes: 1) reminding us that our relationship with food is more than purely instinctive; 2) reminding us that we are more dependent on our God than we are on bread; and 3) reminding us just how tasty food really is!
None of this can be bad! And if we save some money to donate to the suffering, it's even greater!

Our Daily Bread: Monastery Bread

My family enjoyed a recent visit with Papa Paul and Gwy (as Timmie is known to her grandchildren). I was thrilled to be apron-clad alongside my mother-in-law baking and breaking bread together.

Being an avid baker (something in my genes) I had yet to get over my irrational fear of baking with yeast. Silly I know, but the thought of working with something alive was rather daunting. Timmie rolled up her sleeves, insisted that we tackle the task together and assured me that both yeast and kneading were actually quite fun. I was in for a treat!

We opened A Continual Feast to page 247 and made Monastery Bread. It is a wonderfully simple recipe and therefore a particularly perfect first recipe for bread baking. If you have never tried to bake your own bread- this is a great start.

One cannot help but consider the opening of a yeast packet to be anti-climactic. Will those funny shaped brown specks really turn that bowl of flour into bread? Every time I prepare my bread dough I doubt, and every time the results excite and fascinate me.

What a glorious comparison Jesus makes in his parable of the leaven [Matthew (13:33-35) and Luke (13:20-21)]. The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and buried in three measures of flour, until all of it was leavened. What I particularly love about this passage is the hope and purpose it inspires in our own daily work. Our daily efforts are like those of the woman burying the leaven in the flour. Then God takes these efforts and -like the leaven- he can perform miracles from our seemingly mundane tasks. Our professional work (be it the work of a mother, a student, a doctor, a lawyer, a butcher, a baker or a candlestick maker) when united to God makes a powerful partnership. Through our daily efforts, we bury the leaven of our work and God makes it rise.

What a wonderful thought to consider while kneading our daily bread!

Apple Crisp: Great fruit desserts for Ordinary Time

We are now in what is called "ordinary time"--we are poised between the festivities of the Christmas season and the austerities of Lent (which starts early this year, on February 17).

Let’s start exploring some delicious fruit desserts—they are great for ordinary or even extraordinary time! One of my little grand-daughters complained, "Fruit is a very boring dessert!" Actually, what she said (she is wobbly on her r’s) was "Fwoot is a vewy bowwing dessewt!" Many of us think that fresh fruit is in fact delicious—even for dessert. But we can all agree that baked fruit is wonderful. There is great recipe for Apple Crisp in A Continual Feast on p. 65, in the section titled "All the Days of our Lives." One little change though: my family loves lots of crust, so we often double the ingredients for the crust and bake the Apple Crisp in a large flat pan, to maximize the top surface. You can also add fresh or dried cranberries to the apples, for extra tang. Serve the Crisp a la mode to make it even more special.

So what about the salt that is “good for nothing"?

Last post (probably!) on salt.
What about that salt that has lost its savor?--that is “good for nothing and can only be thrown out to be trampled under people’s feet”(Matthew 5:13). Jesus wasn’t just speaking figuratively: in biblical times they did with low-grade salt something like what we do today: they put it on the marble courtyards of the Temple after rain to make them less slippery. Indeed, trampled underfoot.

Salt: Do you love it too much? How to appease your taste buds if you have to cut back?

Back to salt! (I’ll stop soon, I promise.) We need it, crave it, love it—but we can love it too much. This is, alas, true of many good things: we can love them too much for our good.

If the doctor says you must cut back on your salt intake, what to do? You can’t really fool your taste buds—salt has a sharpness that nothing else can match—but you can stimulate them with other good tastes and delicious aromas. Look carefully at the ingredients in “salt-free seasonings” that are on the market. Among the key ingredients are dried onion and garlic, lemon and orange rind, paprika--sometimes red pepper--and parsley. To that, add basil, oregano, rosemary and thyme, depending on your tastes. You can include some or all of these seasonings in your cooking—and add more, to taste, at the end.