Cookbook?!

I just got asked if I was available to food style a "celebrity cookbook." Here I am in my kitchen/living/dinning room that is currently doing double, triple, quadruple duty as a test kitchen, writing room and photo studio for my latest cookbook and it's a total mess! I thrive in  the normally clean, tidy, bright and serene environment that is the third floor of my home. I am so lucky that it is really one of my favorite places- but right now it's an angst inducing jumble of photo equipment, jars, baskets, stacks of dishes and leftovers. I've got a manuscript to turn in, and all I want to do is mop my floor and organize my refrigerator. I'm putting in 12-plus hour days cooking, writing, cooking, schlepping- and I keep asking myself "why would anyone want to write a cookbook?"

Okay, people love cookbooks, and good recipes make it so that anyone can cook. Food is about sharing, and a cookbook allows you to share your recipes with the world. I write cookbooks because it is my craft. I have never had another career in life. I catered as a kid, I went to culinary school, I slogged it out on the line in a fine, French restaurant before landing a job at Bon Appetit Magazine. When I realized that the pictures of my recipes that appeared in Bon Appetit did not look nearly as delicious as the food that I had prepared at home, I began food styling (the art of making food for photos). So, I also make cookbooks because I can. I have the ability to create a recipe and make it photogenic. 

This is what most folks don't realize about the cookbooks that they buy: the food is not cooked by the author of the book. I'm not saying this is a bad thing; it's merely a statement of fact. I'm also not saying that my books are better for it. There are so many wonderful books out there where the author was not even present for the the photo shoot. There are also amazing cookbooks with no photos at all.

But, this brings me back to the celebrity cookbook. Yeah, it's so fun to write a cookbook! Hair and make-up, check! Photographer, check! Florist, check! Prop-stylist, check! Food-stylist, check! Ghost writer, check!

I am blessed and fortunate that I get to garden and cook and develop enticing, balanced recipes. I am honored that people bring my books into their homes and prepare some of the recipes for their families. Feeding people feeds my soul-- this is why I write cookbooks, and maybe this is also what motivates the celebrity cookbook. I'm just not sure that I will be available to be the food stylist for the above mentioned book. I'm too busy mopping up after my last book and staring in the sit com "Celebrity Cookbook!"

my kitchen in calmer, cleaner times. 

The Easiest Pecan Sticky Buns

We enjoy freshly home-baked sticky buns, hot from the oven on Christmas morning. Yes, this is the morning after we have hosted about 40 family members for Champagne, Crab Cakes, Gumbo, Profiteroles and Buche de Noel. And staying up late dancing, covering Santa Duty and doing stacks of dishes because no-one wants to wake up to a mess on Christmas morning. How do we find the time? We start two days ahead and use a deceptively simple no knead dough. I developed the Sticky Buns for my book Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes, and have tweaked the timing slightly, so that I no longer have to do anything Christmas morning but preheat the oven and bake the buns. (Which is all I really in shape to do after the late night and merriment.) If you want to enjoy these treats on your holiday, be sure to start two days before you want to bake. 

No Knead Pecan-Cinnamon Sticky Buns

These are tender, sticky, delicious and super easy to make. Don’t panic if the dough seems very soft and wet when initially mixed—it will firm up during the first proof.

Yield: 8 large buns

Dough

1/4 cup luke warm water

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

4 tablespoons (1 /2 stick) unsalted butter

3/4 cups milk

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoons sea salt

1 egg

1/2 cup white whole wheat flour

2 1/4 cups (about) unbleached all purpose flour

Filling and Topping

1 1/2 cups firmly packed golden brown sugar

1 1/2 cups pecans, toasted and chopped

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

For the dough: Combine the water and yeast in a large bowl and let stand until the yeast dissolves, about 5 minutes. Melt the butter over medium heat. Remove from heat and immediately stir in the cold milk. Add the luke warm butter mixture to the yeast mixture in the bowl. Whisk in the sugar and salt, then eggs. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the white whole-wheat flour. Stir in enough of the remaining flour to form a smooth but very sticky dough. Generously butter another large bowl. Using a rubber spatula, transfer the dough to prepared bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic and refrigerate the dough overnight.

For the filling and topping: Generously butter a 9x 13 baking pan or dish. Combine the brown sugar, pecans, cinnamon and salt in medium bowl. Add the butter and mix well. Remove dough from refrigerator. Using a rubber spatula, transfer the dough to a floured surface (do not punch down). Sprinkle the dough with flour and roll out to a 10 x 13-inch rectangle. Sprinkle the dough with 1 cup filling, leaving a 1/2-inch border on all sides. Beginning at one long side, roll up the dough, jellyroll style. Cut the dough crosswise in half, then cut each half into 4 even slices, making 8 buns.

Stir 2 tablespoons of warm water into the remaining pecan mixture; spread mixture evenly over the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Place the rounds, cut side down and evenly spaced atop the pecan mixture in the dish, a row of three, a row of two and a row of three (rounds will not cover pecan mixture completely).

Cover the dish loosely with plastic wrap. Let rise in warm draft-free area until the buns are puffed and have increased slightly in volume, about 1 hour OR cover carefully with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Position the rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 400ºF. If your buns were formed and refrigerated overnight, place them atop the oven while preheating, about 20 minutes.  Bake the buns 10 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 375ºF. Bake until the buns are golden brown about 20 minutes. Immediately and carefully turn the buns out onto a parchment-lined baking pan and cool slightly. Serve warm.

Dainty Drinks and Vintage Sugar Cubes

A friend discovered a trove of vintage sugar cubes in a butler’s pantry cupboard in an old house in Pasadena, and naturally, gave me a box. They are sweet, as not just sugary, but petite and neatly stacked in a blue and blue package labeled “Cocktail Cubes.” They are compact—a mere half-teaspoon is compressed into each snow-white cube; tiny portions of sugar for diminutive drinks.  The precious C&H cubes date from the 30’s, when everything was smaller—cocktails, portions, waistlines. Have you ever watched one of the Thin Man movies of that era? (You should! They are stylish and silly fun.) The crime solving husband and wife drink all night; they can! The martinis are minute.

Which brings me to my “Guide for Sensible Indulgence.”  Let’s face it, during the holiday season it’s easy to overdo it.  Because, you know how it can be—you see so many old friends at the party and you must catch up so you stay too late and get a tad too merry. Or you don’t know a soul at the open house and trips to the cocktail cart keep you from looking like  a wallflower. Turn the tables and you’re the hostess; you want to keep your revelers reveling, yet send them home at the end of the evening with a good conscience.

Following my little  “Guide” will have you and your friends feeling jolly at the party and the following morning.

Jeanne’s Holiday Cocktail Guide for Sensible Indulgence

Keep it FESTIVE & SMALL. Make it LIGHT & DELICIOUS & ELEGANT

(Just like a vintage C & H Cocktail Cubes- which BTW, don't go bad.)

FESTIVE & SMALL & ELEGANT

Find pretty glasses that feel special.

The coupes should have no more than a 1/3-cup capacity. Cocktails are not supposed to be supersized. Glasses with stems look party without the slightest sense of "portion control." You can find sets of vintage cordials and cocktail glasses at flea markets, in thrift shops and in your mother's or grandma's dining room.. 

LIGHT & DELICIOUS

There are tricks to make a cocktail have high impact taste-wise, without packing too much of a punch. Soda water, grapefruit juice and tea make excellent mixers that don’t dilute or over sweeten or over sour. Add interesting dashes—bitters, liqueurs, essences that make the drinker slow down and savor the mix.

Try one or all of the following:

Old Fashioned Riff

I have had the good fortune to imbibe a true Old Fashioned at the Pendennis Club in Louisville. It was so good, but I could only drink one and stay lady-like. Here I dilute my bourbon with a little Earl Grey tea- the bergamot blends beautifully with the smokey spirits. 

1 large piece orange peel removed with a vegetable peeler

1/2 teaspoon sugar or a “cocktail cube” (good luck with that…)

1 healthy dash of your favorite bitters (I like Angostura as readily available bittering)

1 tablespoon Bourbon Whiskey

2 tablespoons chilled, brewed Earl Grey Tea

Run the piece of orange peel around the rim of a small glass to release the essential oils. Place the sugar in the glass and saturate it with bitters. Add the Bourbon and stir to blend. Carefully add an ice cube to the glass; add the tea. Garnish with the orange peel and serve.

Makes 1

Floral Lemon Drop

A lighter version of the Lemon Drop cocktail gussied up with a splash of elderflower liqueur and rose water. 

1 tablespoon Vodka

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon Limoncello

1 teaspoon St. Germain

1/2 teaspoon sugar or a “cocktail cube” (good luck with that…)

Drop of rose water

Rose Petal

Combine Vodka, lemon juice, Limoncello, St. Germain, sugar and rose water in a cocktail shaker. Add a handful of ice cubes and shake to blend. Pour into a small glass. Top off with soda water. Garnish with rose petal and serve.

Makes 1

Grapefruit Negroni

A Negroni is cocktail of gin, sweet vermouth and Campari. A touch of grapefruit juice plays off the bitterness of the Campari and adds good citrus notes.

2 tablespoons fresh grapefruit juice

1 tablespoon gin

2 teaspoons Campari

2 teaspoons red Vermouth

Grapefruit twist

Stir the grapefruit juice, gin, Campari and Vermouth to blend in a small pitcher. Pour over ice in a small glass. Garnish with grapefruit twist and serve.