Editor's note: please remember not to send items with nuts/nut products to schools.
These quick recipes will keep your kids busy when it's too cold to play outside, and will make perfect snacks, party fare or gifts for those you love. Good food makes the holidays happier!
These cookies are trade-worthy, but your kids will hang on to them. I firmly believe that a little bit of home-baked love from Mom will make any kid’s day a whole lot better. And these cookies beat any packaged creation you can find on the grocery store shelf. The oats add a nutty taste and whole grain texture to the cookies, making us moms feel better. To change them up you can substitute dried cranberries and white chocolate chips for the semi-sweet and the dried cherries.
- Preheat your oven to 350° F. Spray your cookie sheet with non stick spray or line it with parchment paper.
- Cream together butter and sugar for a few minutes. Add egg and vanilla and mix well.
- Stir in the flour, cocoa, oats, baking soda, and salt. When it is all together as a dough, add in the chocolate chips and cherries.
- Drop by teaspoonfuls on to prepared cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly firm around the edges. Let cool a few minutes on the cookie sheet, transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely.
Slow-Roasted Tomatoes
Slow-roasting is the thing to do with tomatoes this year. Meatier varieties like Roma or plum work best because they contain fewer seeds and less moisture to begin with. You can roast your tomatoes low and slow or fast and hot; the lower temperature and longer cooking time eliminates their acidity. Roasted tomatoes, their cell structures already broken down, are perfect for the freezer. You can take out only as many as you need, thaw and add to sandwiches or salads for a quick taste of summer in the middle of winter.
Roma or plum tomatoes (as many as you want to roast)
olive or canola oil
salt and pepper
1) To slow roast your tomatoes, turn the oven on to 250°F; to roast them more quickly, preheat the oven to 400°F. Cut the tomatoes in half or quarters lengthwise and spread them out on a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with oil and toss around with your hands to coat the tomatoes.
2) Sprinkle with salt and pepper and roast for 4-6 hours (at 250°F) or for 1 hour (at 400°F). Cool and store (along with the juices and oil that has collected in the bottom of the pan) in a sealed container in the fridge, or freeze for up to 4 months.
What to do with them:
Soup: add to warmed chicken or vegetable stock with a splash of cream and puree until smooth.
Pasta: Chop and add to pasta with crumbled goat cheese or feta, olive oil and torn fresh herbs.
Tomato Sausage Skillet: Cook lean sausages in a heavy skillet with chopped onions and roasted tomatoes until the sausages are cooked through and the onions are caramelized.
Muffins and Quick Breads: Chop and add to cheese bread batter, biscuit dough or cornbread batter before baking.
Ratatouille
Ratatouille, a thick, simple French stew of tomatoes, zucchini, peppers and garlic, goes very well with pasta, layered between lasagna noodles, or spread onto a pizza crust and topped with cheese. Because the vegetables are cooked down, ratatouille will take up far less space in your freezer than vegetables in their raw state, and its soft, moist texture ensures it will freeze well. It makes great use of the fall harvest.
canola or olive oil, for cooking
1 large onion, halved and sliced
4-5 big garlic cloves, crushed
1 small eggplant, chopped into bite-sized pieces
1 red, yellow or orange pepper, chopped
1 zucchini, chopped into bite-sized pieces
3 ripe tomatoes, coarsely chopped
a couple tablespoons tomato paste (optional)
1 tsp. oregano or dried Italian seasoning
a handful of fresh spinach or basil, chopped (optional)
1) In a large skillet, heat a generous drizzle of oil over medium heat. Sauté the onion, stirring occasionally, until soft and starting to turn golden. Add the garlic and cook for another minute, then add the eggplant and cook for another 5 minutes, adding more oil if needed, until the eggplant is soft. Add the pepper and zucchini, season with salt and pepper and cook for about 10 minutes, until everything is nice and soft and you’re starting to get some golden edges. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste and oregano and cook for 5 more minutes.
2) Taste and adjust the seasoning if you need to; if you’re adding fresh spinach or basil, stir it in and let it wilt.
3) Let the ratatouille cool completely, then divide it among small freezer bags, press out any excess air, seal and freeze for up to 6 months. Makes about 2L.
What to do with it:
Pasta sauce: add to jarred tomato sauce, heat and toss with pasta.
Lasagna: layer between lasagna noodles or fresh ravioli, then top with cheese and bake.
Pizza: spread on pitas or pizza dough, top with grated cheese and bake.
Panini: spread between bread with grated cheese and grill in a skillet or panini grill.
Pear Chutney
This gingery chutney is great made with any variety of pears, apples, or any combination of the two. Don’t bother peeling the fruit; most of the nutrients and much of the fiber is contained in their skins. Try it served alongside roast chicken, turkey or pork, stirred into curries, or spooned over baked squash or sweet potato. Reprinted with permission from Well Preserved, Small Batch Preserving for the New Cook (Whitecap Books).
6 cups chopped pears, peeled or not
1 cup chopped apple
½ cup finely chopped onion
½ cup finely chopped red bell pepper
¾ cup dark raisins
½ cup chopped candied ginger
2 cups brown sugar
¾ cup cider vinegar
finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 Tbsp. mustard seeds
2 tsp. dried chili flakes
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. nutmeg
½ tsp. cloves
1) Prepare the preserving jars according to package directions.
2) Combine all the ingredients in your preserving pot. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Simmer, stirring often, until the pears are tender and the mixture has thickened, about 1 hour.
3) Remove from the heat. Ladle the chutney into hot, sterilized jars, leaving a half-inch head space. Wipe the rims clean. Seal according to manufacturer’s directions. Process the jars in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.
Makes about five to six 8 oz. (250mL) jars.
What to do with it:
Curries: stir a large spoonful into curries to add a tangy, flavourful sweetness and bits of fruit, or serve it alongside.
Condiment: serve with roast chicken, turkey or pork, spoon over roast squash or sweet potato; set a small dish onto cheese platters.
Grilled Cheese or Panini: spread inside your bread before adding cheese and grilling.
Jam Without a Recipe
Although fruits have been preserved in sugar for thousands of years, jam-making has developed a bad reputation in recent decades. The common opinion has come to be that jam is difficult to make, difficult to set, and will take the better part of a day (or at least an afternoon) to procure. Our Grandmas made it for reasons of necessity; now a jar of jam can be had at any grocery or corner store, so why bother? Make your own, and you’ll see. Not only will you taste the difference, but there is nothing like putting up your own pantry full of jam, and having a stock to pluck from whenever you need to bring a little something to someone.
If you are among the nervous, take comfort in the fact that runny jam is perfectly acceptable; delicious, even. (I far prefer a loose jam to one that resembles stiff Jell-O.) If it’s exceedingly runny, you have yourself a lovely fruit syrup, one that will enliven pancakes, waffles, ice cream, fresh biscuits and angel food cake - just pretend that it’s exactly the way you intended it to be.
The main components of jams and preserves are fruit, sugar, pectin and acid (such as lemon juice). Fruits vary in their pectin content, but typically under-ripe fruit (such as strawberries with white spots) contains more pectin and acid, both necessary elements for the jelling process. (Fruits higher in pectin include apples, currants, oranges and plums; middle-of-the road fruits include blueberries, raspberries, cherries and rhubarb; low-pectin fruits include apricots, peaches and strawberries.) Commercial pectin can always be used as extra insurance, but isn’t really necessary. Apples (with their seeds) and citrus peels are high in pectin - I’ll often add some to the pot (if I’m straining the mixture to make jelly) or wrap in cheesecloth to simmer, then pull out after the mixture has cooked.
When making jam, aim for 1 cup sugar to every 2-3 cups chopped fruit. You’ll want to cook them together, rather than cook the fruit and then add the sugar, as the sugar helps pull water from the fruit but leaves the pectin. Add about a tablespoon of lemon juice per pound of low-acid (as in, not oranges) fruit.
Bring the lot to a rolling boil and cook, skimming off any foam that rises to the surface, until it thickens and looks like loose jam. (Keep in mind it will firm up as it cools.) To test, either use a candy thermometer (it will set at around 220°F) or drop a spoonful on a small dish you’ve chilled in the freezer. If it sets up into something that resembles jam, and wrinkles on the surface when you push it with your finger, it’s done.
My method is to spoon the hot jam into fresh-from-the-dishwasher jars that are still warm. Seal, and the lids will pop in as they cool. You’ll know any have spoiled if the lids pop out again. If any don’t seal properly, store in the fridge or freeze.
Drying Herbs
Drying fresh herbs is a simple way to keep a handy stash throughout the winter months. There are two common ways to dry herbs such as rosemary, sage, parsley, thyme, oregano and basil: bundled and hung upside down in an airy room, or oven-dried.
Either way, gather your herbs and pick them over for damaged leaves. Shake them to get rid of any dirt, or rinse them and pat dry with paper towels. To air-dry, gather small bundles and secure them around their stems with a twist tie or elastic band; hang upside-down in an airy room for a week or so. (To keep the dust off, cut the bottom out of a paper lunch bag and hang the herbs inside, gathering the paper around the base, as if you were wrapping a bouquet of flowers.) To oven dry, lay your herbs out in a single layer on a baking sheet and put them in the oven at the lowest setting for several hours.
Once completely dried, rub the leaves off the stems onto a clean sheet of paper or parchment, and bend the paper to funnel the dried herbs into a small airtight container to store. Completely dried herbs should keep for up to a year.
