Eat First

Central New York local food gift guide 2022

Well, it happened again: The holiday season is here.

Where to shop is a no-brainer: Shop small and local Central New York businesses to find tasty gifts and stocking stuffers the food (and drink) lovers and cooks on your list will enjoy year-round. Following are 11 suggestions.

Hot Crispy Oil: This fiery and flavorful condiment, similar to chili crisp and other chili oils with crunch, is made in the Albany area by John Trimble, a former restaurant owner who created the oil in his home kitchen during the pandemic. The product is made with blended olive oil, fried garlic and shallots, and a “proprietary blend’’ of chili peppers. Try it on rice, noodles, eggs, pizza, tacos, stuffed peppers and everything else you can think of. Buy it at Chuck Hafner’s Farmers Market, Lombardi’s Imports, Vince’s Gourmet Imports, Thanos Imports and other locations. Price: About $10. MORE INFO

The Curd Nerd: Grab a gift box or basket and head over to The Curd Nerd in Syracuse to fill it up with cheesy goodness for the cheese lover on your list. This small shop in Syracuse’s Eastwood neighborhood carries a wide selection of local, New York State and regional cheeses, and you’ll also find cheeses that need a passport to get here, like Parmigiano Reggiano from Italy, orange-hued mimolette from France, and goat cheese from Spain. (All cheeses are not available all of the time.) The Curd Nerd offers gift cards and carries things that go with cheese, like crackers, honey, jams, pickles and boards. MORE INFO

Old Home Distillers minis: ‘Tis the season to imbibe a little, and what’s not to like about a sampler pack of small-batch bourbon, whiskey, rye, and gin from Old Home Distillers in Madison County? Put together a custom box with five of your favorite Old Home craft spirits or pick up an already-assembled assortment of five (50ml) bottles at the tasting room in Lebanon or a local farmers market (Old Home is at the Central New York Regional Market most Saturdays). They’ve got several maple- and spice-infused options that are a natural for this time of year. Price: Varies. MORE INFO

Cheffrey’s Pickles: Sweet treats like cookies and candy canes get all the attention during the holiday season. How about something briny and a bit salty? Fulton-based business Cheffrey’s Pickle Pub specializes in homemade, hand-cut pickles and pickled vegetables (think dilly beans). Varieties include bread and butter, dill, garlic dill, spicy dill – you get the picture. Look for them at 20/East, Cazenovia, Ontario Orchards, Oswego, Nelson Farms Country Store, Nelson, and other locations. Price: $8-$23. MORE INFO

Winosaurs: No, that’s not a typo. Winosaurs are gummy candy dinosaurs made with wine – hence their name. That makes them candy for the 21-and-over crowd. The candies were created by a couple who got married at a winery and were looking for a wine-themed wedding favor. Eureka. They decided to create their own favors and Winosaurs were born. The candies come in flavors like sangria, Moscato, peach Bellini and Rose. Look for Winosaurs at stores like Metro Home Style in Syracuse. Shipping is available to some states. Price: About $7. MORE INFO

Salt City Coffee special holiday blend: Local roaster Salt City Coffee makes it a mission to partner with the Rescue Mission each holiday season. The goal is to spread joy and make a difference in the lives of others. For every purchase of a 12-ounce bag of Salt City’s Holiday Traditions blend, $4 will be donated to the Rescue Mission. Pick up a bag for the coffee lover on your list and grab one for yourself, too – Salt City Coffee’s goal is to raise $1,200 for the Rescue Mission. Salt City Coffee has three locations in Syracuse and one in Fayetteville (formerly Soleil Cafe). MORE INFO

Flour City Pasta: John Stadt uses local and organic ingredients and his own two hands to make the distinctive artisanal pastas Flour City Pasta is known for. The business based in the Rochester area is a regular at the Central New York Regional Market. You’ll find flavors like chili pepper fettuccine, sweet potato pappardelle, spinach garlic linguine, and Cabernet Franc pappardelle – as well as traditional pastas like shells, rigatoni, linguine and fettuccine. Price: About $10/package. MORE INFO

Nav’s Popcorn: You might have visited the seasonal Nav’s Popcorn store in Alexandria Bay to satisfy your gourmet popcorn fix. Did you know they pop up regularly (see what I did there?) at the Central New York Regional Market and have a year-round store in Syracuse (Eastwood)? Nav’s is known for its flavored popcorn, from classics like kettle and cheddar to more unusual flavors, like salt and vinegar, pickle, garlic Parmesan, and Buffalo blend (Buffalo wing and ranch). Grab a bag to stuff a stocking and one for yourself. Price: $4 and up.  MORE INFO 

Beeswax food wraps: OLSEN+OLSEN beeswax wraps are a stylish way to keep food fresh and help reduce the use of plastic wraps and bags in the kitchen. To use, warm the wraps in your hands and mold them over bowls and casseroles, sealing with your fingers. You can also use the wraps directly on food, like half an apple or lemon. The wraps come three to a pack (small, medium and large). They’re washable, reusable and compostable. Price: $16. Available at BeeKind, Syracuse. MORE INFO  

Farm Girl Juicery juices: The struggle to eat healthy during the holiday season is real. Farm Girl Juicery to the rescue. The juice stand, open daily at Salt City Market in Syracuse (and in season at Chuck Hafner’s Farmers Market and Garden Center), features teas, tonics and multiple varieties of cold-pressed juices, which are rich in nutrients and also serve as an immunity boost. Options include green juices made with ingredients like cucumber and kale, and root juices made with things like apples, beets, carrots, oranges and sweet potatoes. My favorite is owner Abigail Henson's Tonic 42, made with alkaline water, lemon, maple syrup and cayenne. Price: About $8. MORE INFO 

Bayside Wood cutting boards: Cheese boards and charcuterie boards are all the rage these days, and a new board makes a great gift for someone who likes to cook and/or entertain – or for yourself. Bayside Wood Products produces cutting boards in a variety of styles and sizes. Their signature products include multi-color baker’s boards for rolling dough (and for cutting and serving) and Syracuse skyline boards. Look for Bayside at the Central New York Regional Market on Saturdays and check their website for pop-up events. Price: Varies. MORE INFO  

Photo credits:

Hot Crispy Oil photo courtesy of Hot Crispy Oil

Old Home Distillers sampler pack photo courtesy of Old Home Distillers

Winosaurs photo courtesy of Metro Home Style

Salt City Coffee photo courtesy of Salt City Coffee

Farm Girl Juicery photo courtesy of Farm Girl Juicery

Bayside Wood cutting board photo courtesy of Bayside Wood Products

All other photos © Margaret McCormick 2022

Still shopping for Christmas cookie recipes?

It wouldn't be Christmas without taking a new cookie for a test drive.

We love cookies that call for a lot of butter (the more, the merrier!), are thin, crispy and crunchy, go well with coffee and tea -- and Champagne or Prosecco -- and look pretty on a cookie plate.

This recipe qualifies on all counts. I adapted the recipe, which was originally conceived as a "drop cookie,'' to make it a "refrigerator cookie.'' You can make the dough in advance and slice and bake the cookies the next day or several days later.

The dough freezes well and is best sliced cold or even slightly frozen, straight from the refrigerator. The recipe makes a righteous batch of cookies -- about 5 dozen, or enough to meet cookie exchange quota and have leftovers for gifting.

Using cornmeal in a cookie might sound strange, but it's nothing to fear. It gives the cookies a faint yellow color and adds interesting texture, as do the dried cranberries.

Have you baked a new-to-you cookie this holiday season? Leave a comment below -- I'd love to hear about it. One can never have enough Christmas cookie recipes!

Cornmeal Cranberry Cookies
(Adapted from a recipe by Diane E. Appleton, on Epicurious.com)

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon citrus zest (orange or a combination of orange and lemon)
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups dried cranberries tossed in a little orange juice or orange liqueur

In a bowl whisk together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl with an electric mixer cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy and beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add zest and stir well. Add flour mixture and vanilla and stir until combined well. Stir in cranberries.

Divide dough in half. With floured hands on a lightly floured surface, form/roll dough into two logs, about 2 inches wide by 11 inches long. Wrap in waxed paper and refrigerate 8 hours/overnight or double wrap and freeze until ready to use.

When ready to bake, heat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Slice dough into rounds about one-quarter inch and place about 2 inches apart on baking sheets. Bake on middle rack about 10 minutes, or until golden brown.  Transfer cookies with a spatula to racks to cool. Store cookies in tins. Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

 

Cookie exchange, 2013

 

Happy National Zucchini Day, Central New York!

Today is National Zucchini Day, also known as “Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbors' Porch Day," because home gardens tend to be overflowing with zucchini this time of year.

Our garden isn’t overflowing with zucchini, but we happily accept donations (especially of small- and medium-size zucchini and yellow squash) and buy it at farmers markets. At three for $1, usually, zucchini can’t be beat.

 National Zucchini Day is not to be confused with National Zucchini Bread Day (April 24).

 Here are a couple savory ways to get your zucchini on. 

 

Zucchini Boats

1 cup brown or regular rice, cooked

3 medium zucchini, ends trimmed, sliced vertical

1 pound ground beef, optional

1 medium onion, diced

1 red pepper, diced

2 plump cloves garlic, minced

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Dash of cayenne pepper (optional)

Half a pint of grape tomatoes or cherry tomatoes, halved (or a half cup of tomato sauce)

8 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded

Handful of fresh basil, cut in thin strips

Parmesan cheese for garnish

Cook rice according to package directions. Put aside. This step can be done in advance.

Slice the zucchini vertical and hollow out the zucchini to make boats. One way to do this is by using a melon baller or the edge of a spoon. Put the zucchini flesh in a large bowl and break it up some with a wooden spoon or potato masher.

Heat some olive oil in a large pan. Brown the beef and season as desired. Drain well and set aside.

Add the onion and red pepper to the same pan, adding more oil if needed. Add a pinch of salt. Cook over medium heat for about seven minutes, until onion is translucent. Add the garlic toward the end of cooking time. Don’t let it brown.  Add the zucchini flesh, stir to combine, break it up further if needed and continue cooking until zucchini is soft. Toward the end, add the halved grape tomatoes and continue cooking until they are wilted and soft.

Combine the vegetables, beef, rice, mozzarella and basil in a large bowl. Add salt, pepper and cayenne (if using) to taste. If necessary to bind everything together, add an egg, some vegetable broth, tomato juice or tomato sauce. Spoon the filling mixture into the hollowed out zucchini halves, mounding it. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese.

Bake at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes, until heated through. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

 

Pasta with Summer Vegetable Medley

Olive oil

1 medium onion, diced

1 or 2 carrots, peeled and diced (optional)

1 red pepper, diced

1 medium zucchini and 1 yellow squash, ends trimmed, diced

2 plump cloves garlic, minced (or to taste)

2 portobello mushrooms, cleaned well, stems removed, diced (see note)

Half a pint of grape tomatoes, halved or half a cup of sun-dried tomatoes, cut in strips

Half a cup of oil cured or kalamata olives, sliced

Salt and pepper to taste

Pasta cooked according to package directions

Shredded asiago or grated Parmesan cheese for garnish

Basil leaves or Italian parsley, to garnish

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, carrots (if using), and red pepper and a big pinch of salt. Cook until vegetables begin to soften. Add zucchini and cook until it begins to soften but still has some bit to it. Add the garlic and combine well. Add the diced mushrooms and continue cooking. Add the grape tomatoes and cook until they are softened. Add the olives at the very end and combine well. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Depending on your appetite, serve about a cup of the vegetable mixture with your favorite pasta, cooked how you like it. I have been using Barilla’s vegetable farfalle (carrot and squash) lately and really like it. Top with some cheese and garnish with basil leaves or Italian parsley. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Note: Use eggplant in place of portobellos if you like.

Welcome to the First Annual Eat First Central New York Food Holiday Gift Guide

Photo credit: Keuka Lake Coffee Roasters

Salt doesn't have to be from the sea. Seneca Salt Co. Rosemary-Infused Culinary Flake Salt originates deep beneath Seneca Lake.

Not only should the Christmas stockings be hung by the chimney with care. The stockings should be STUFFED with care, packed with treats and surprises – mostly edible and all locally made and sourced -- that make the recipient smile.

There should be a sweet treat or two or three, like artisan cookies and chocolate. Perhaps some spice, like a zippy dipping/pasta sauce or spice rub. You could include a gift card for a local restaurant – or a whole box of dining discount cards for local restaurants. If your Kris or Kristine Kringle likes to cook, a new “toy” for the kitchen is always welcome.

Without further ado, I give you the first annual Eat First Central New York food Holiday Gift Guide. There’s something for every taste. Guaranteed!

SUGAR

Better Brittle

Better Brittle? That’s an understatement. Anyone who has ever tasted Christiana Semabia’s West African-style crunchy, highly addictive brittle, made with evaporated can juice, ground peanuts and sea salt, thinks it’s the best brittle they’ve ever had.

Demand for Syracuse-made Better Brittle got a big boost in January, when Saveur magazine spotlighted it in its annual Saveur 100 list of restaurants, recipes and food products to seek out. See what all the buzz is about. Pick up a pouch of Better Brittle at the CNY Regional Market (Saturdays, year-round) and at local retailers, like Bluetree on Westcott Street, Cafe Kubal and others. A package costs about $5.

Lune Chocolat

Lune Chocolat is the closest thing Central New York has to a Parisian chocolatier.  Owners Mike and Emily Woloszyn love being together and love chocolate. They take fresh, seasonal, local, often organic – and sometimes unusual – filling and ganache ingredients and work their magic with chocolate.

At the recent Buy Local Bash sponsored by Syracuse First, the Woloszyns offered chocolates encasing a bright orange and just as brightly flavored orange filling.  Their Bangkok Square has a filling of lemongrass, ginger and serrano pepper ganache. The fresh mint used in the mint fondant center in their Minty Mints is locally grown. And the pretzel bits on Lune’s Guinness and Pretzels milk chocolate bonbons are from Terrell’s, a hometown brand.

Their confections are a treat for the eyes as well as the taste buds. A five-piece box of chocolates is a gift to savor (and starts at about $10).

Lune Chocolat is at 315 W. Fayette St. (Suite 5) Manlius. The shop is open Tuesday to Saturday.

Fat Friar Cookies

It was love at first bite at the Buy Local Bash: Artisan shortbread cookies filled with lemon curd and jam. Cut-out shortbreads done up to look like miniature friars – robe and all – dipped in dark chocolate. Speculaas – European-style spice cookies – baked in special molds. Italian cookies, and more.

Cookie Monster would have a FEAST at The Franciscan Church of the Assumption, 812 N. Salina St., Syracuse, home to Fat Friar Bakery. Funds raised benefit the Soup Kitchen and Food Pantry at Assumption.

The Fat Friar team, headed by Friar Nicholas, bakes for Christmas, Easter and other holidays, plus weddings, showers, private parties – you name it. Call the cookie hotline at 315-729-6525 to discuss options and prices and place orders.

Lockwood Lavender Farm Fudge Sauce

Lavender is a member of the mint family, and, used with a light hand, has a place in many things culinary – not just soaps and sachets. That includes a rich, thick, dark fudge sauce made by Lockwood Lavender Farm, Skaneateles. Try it, you’ll like it!

Also look for Lockwood’s honey, both fragrant and sweet, produced by “the Lavender Hill mob’’ in the lavender fields on West Lake Road, Skaneateles.

The Lockwood Lavender Market is closed for the season, reopening in spring 2013. Look for Lockwood Lavender products at local businesses, like the Sherwood Inn, Rhubarb Kitchen Shop and Creekside Books and Coffee in Skaneateles.

 SPICE

Pastabilities Daily Spicy Hot Tomato Oil

The packaging looks different, but fear not, the product inside is still the same: San Marzano tomatoes, oil, lots of garlic, a hint of honey. Use it as a dipping oil for bread, a sauce for pasta, a flavor boost for salad dressings and Bloody Marys.

The new packaging gives Pasta’s Daily Spicy Hot Tomato Oil a much longer shelf life – the container in our fridge expires in May 2013 – and allows it to be shipped anywhere. A 15.8 ounce container costs about $7.

Pick up a couple packages of Spicy Hot Tomato Oil – one for the stocking and one for yourself -- at Pasta’s Daily Bread in Armory Square. Or order and ship a bunch at HotTom.com.

Greenview Kitchen Pasta Sauces

In our ideal world, we would have room for a vegetable garden, grow bushels of tomatoes and make and can our own sauce each year. Until then, we’re glad to have several excellent local sauces on our store shelves – including Greenview Kitchen.

Greenview, made in Central New York by Giovanni Food Company, offers four sauces: Marinara, roasted garlic, roasted red pepper and spicy eggplant. At the Buy Local Bash, reps served slabs of thick Italian bread to soak up the sauce – smart! The roasted garlic sauce was rich and full of slow-cooked and garlic flavor.

Pick up a jar or two (about $5 each) for the lover of Italian food on your gift list at Nichols in Liverpool. You can also order online.

Seneca Salt Culinary Flake Salt

Do you love gourmet salt – or are you gift shopping for someone who does? No need for fancy French, Hawaiian and Celtic sea salts. Great salt can be sourced inland – as close as the Finger Lakes.

Seneca Salt Natural Culinary Flake Salt can be used in cooking and baking and as a finishing salt. The salt begins in the salt veins beneath Seneca Lake. The flakes vary in size, shape and structure and adhere well to foods – like the savory Parmesan Sables shown here.

Seneca Salt is a sister product of the Java-Gourmet coffee and spice rubs made by Keuka Lake Coffee Roasters in Penn Yan. Their company store (open Friday-Sunday; plus Mondays in December) is at 2792 State Route 54A, between Penn Yan and Branchport.  

EVERYTHING NICE

Smith Housewares and Restaurant Supply

Smith Housewares is a landmark in downtown Syracuse – and your one-stop shopping destination for the cook and/or baker on your gift list.

Need a couple cookie cutters? There’s a whole wall of them. Interested in cast iron cookware? Check out their selection of Lodge ware. Perhaps your loved one could use a kitchen timer or meat thermometer, an apron or new oven mitts, a select piece of cutlery or a whole set. It’s all there.

Come to think of it, Smith’s has everything but the kitchen sink. Or maybe that’s in there, too, and I just missed it the last time I was there. If in doubt, give a Smith’s gift certificate. You can’t go wrong with that.

Smith Housewares is at 500 Erie Blvd. East, Syracuse, and 170 Court St., Watertown. Visit the website for hours, directions and online shopping.

City Dining Cards

Euchre? Pitch? Crazy Eights? Go Fish? Fuhgeddaboudit.

The only card game we’re interested in is rifling through our deck of City Dining Cards Syracuse – and deciding where and when we’re going to use them.

The sleek, blue and white pack of cards contains 50 $10 discount cards (plus two wildcards offering freebies) to redeem at locally owned restaurants in CNY. All you have to do: Spend $30 or more at a featured restaurant. Redeem your City Dining Card with payment. Receive $10 off the food portion of your bill.

For a complete list of participating restaurants, click here.

For $20, can you say great gift for the foodies and locavores on your gift list?

To locate a retailer in your area, click here.

 

Got candy canes? Peppermint Bark, CNY-style

Peppermint Bark and I got to be fast friends when I worked at the Williams-Sonoma store at Carousel Center in Syracuse two Christmases ago.

Every day, we’d pull out a tin or two of the bark, break it into smaller pieces and share samples with customers coming into the store. When no one was looking, we’d pop a piece in our mouths and savor the minty, melt-in-your-mouth, chocolate-y goodness.

Grow tired of it? If only.  One co-worker amassed a pile of bark bits from the bottom of the tins and took them home to serve over ice cream. Waste not.

This year, inspired by seasonal favorite homemade peppermint candy canes from Hercules Candy Co. in East Syracuse and a small bottle of peppermint oil, I decided to try my hand at Peppermint Bark at home.

It’s easy to make, utterly delicious and turned out to be a well-received gift.

Got leftover candy canes? Here’s a way to use them up.

You will need:

16 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped

12 ounces white chocolate, chopped

½ teaspoon peppermint oil

3 ounces crushed candy canes (or peppermint swirl hard candies)

Place a sheet of wax paper or parchment paper on a baking sheet.

Melt dark chocolate over low heat in a double boiler or in a pan set over hot water until it just melts. Stir in peppermint oil. Spread chocolate on paper-lined sheet into an oval or rectangle about 8 inches by 11 inches. Allow the chocolate to set at room temperature then move it to the refrigerator for about an hour.

Follow the same procedure to melt the white chocolate. When white chocolate is melted, mix in about half of the crushed candy canes. Using a spatula and working quickly, gently spread the white chocolate over the dark chocolate. Sprinkle remaining crushed candy canes on top, pressing it in gently using the back of a spatula or soup spoon.

Refrigerate the bark until hardened, then break it into chunks (I did this using a paring knife, inserting the knife into the chocolate and whacking the knife handle lightly with a small hammer to break the chocolate into odd-size pieces). The recipe makes enough for five or six small gift packages.

Note:  This recipe was made using Ghirardelli semisweet and white chocolate bars. 

Time to make the cookies!

A classic Dunkin’ Donuts commercial shows Fred the Baker rolling out of bed and trudging to work, sleepy-eyed, in pre-dawn darkness.  “Time to make the donuts, time to make the donuts,’’ he mumbles as he suits up for the day.

It’s been like that for the few weeks here, except the baked goods in question are cookies – Christmas cookies of all shapes, sizes and persuasions. Cookies that keep us up late at night and get us up early in the morning.

We say “Time to make the cookies’’ with enthusiasm -- most of the time. Making cookies isn’t a chore, unless you erroneously add an extra stick of butter to a recipe and have to make the cookies all over again.

Or the cookies don’t come out quite as you imagined they would, and you start questioning your baking skills and whether you should share said cookies. 

But I digress.

I received a copy of “The Gourmet Cookie Book: The Single Best Cookie Recipe Each Year, 1941-2009,’’ from my sister, Anne, for Christmas last year, and that little book has been my constant companion this baking season.

I’ve read it front to back, like a novel, and made several recipes from it for gift-giving, interspersed with a couple of old favorites.

These are Kourambiedes, a Greek butter cookie made with (gulp!) an entire pound of butter.

I would make them again, adding more ground nuts (almonds), more booze (Grand Marnier), a splash of almond extract and more powdered sugar on top. The cookies themselves contain just a half-cup of powdered sugar.

They’re pretty Plain Jane, a cookie to be savored with coffee or tea. Prepare to brush powdered sugar off your clothes as you bite into them.

These are Speculaas (Saint Nicholas Cookies), a traditional Dutch cookie loaded with spices – ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ground anise seed – with slivered almonds pressed into their tops before baking. I cut them in rectangles, as prescribed in the recipe, but you can use any small cutter. A robust ginger cookie is a must-have at Christmastime, and these are a keeper.

These are Anise-Scented Fig and Date Swirls.  They’re a little bit fussy to make, but the return on investment is that they are a refrigerator cookie: Roll up the dough smeared with luscious, fragrant fruit into a big, fat log and refrigerate it until you a ready to slice and bake. The triple-wrapped dough cylinder was in the freezer for more than three weeks and suffered no ill consequences. I’m delighted with the final product and know I will be making this recipe again – and again.

As for the Classics: It wouldn’t be Christmas without All-Occasion Cut-Outs (recipe here) and World Peace Cookies (recipe here).

Gotta go now. Time to make the cookies!

 

Guinness Stout Ginger Cake: the second time’s the charm

Every Christmas season has its misadventures: the gift thoughtfully purchased in July that can’t be located when you're ready to wrap it. The string of bulbs that worked when you tested them but won’t light on the tree. The cookies that crumble as you’re lifting them from the baking sheet.

The Guinness Stout Ginger Cake that fails to rise properly. Ah, yes. Robert was excited to make this dessert for Christmas dinner last year, but inadvertently omitted the baking powder when assembling the cake’s dry ingredients. The result was a short Stout cake rather than a tall one.

He re-baked it in the wee small hours of Christmas morning, bless his heart. But not before a shopping expedition for Guinness Stout in Bridgeport, NY – a one-stoplight and three-convenience store village -- on Christmas Eve.

Guinness Stout Ginger Cake is a grand dessert, as memorable for its flavor and presentation as it is for the story behind it. It’s full-bodied in texture and a little outspoken in taste, thanks to molasses, fresh ginger, ground ginger, cloves and cardamom.

Looking for a festive finish to a holiday dinner party? This is it. Don't forget the baking powder!

While the cake bakes, prepare a big bowl of lightly sweetened whipped cream.

Grammercy Tavern Guinness Stout Ginger Cake

You will need:

1 cup Guinness Stout

1 cup molasses

½ teaspoon baking soda

3 large eggs

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

¾ cup vegetable oil

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons ground ginger

1½ teaspoons baking powder

¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ground cardamom

1 tablespoon grated, peeled fresh gingerroot

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 6-cup Bundt pan.

In a large saucepan over high heat, combine the stout and molasses and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and add the baking soda. Allow to sit until the foam dissipates.

Meanwhile, in a bowl, whisk together the eggs and both sugars. Whisk in the oil.

In a separate bowl, which together the flour, ground ginger, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and cardamom.

Combine the stout mixture with the egg mixture, then whisk the liquid into the flour mixture, half at a time. Add the fresh ginger and stir to combine.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 1 hour, or until the top springs back when gently pressed. Do not open the oven until the gingerbread is almost done or the center will fall slightly. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Serve with sweetened whipped cream. Makes 12 servings.

 

From the recipe file of: Mom

Like Mom used to make: Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Mom has a double-wide, roll-top recipe file parked on her kitchen counter. It has been there for years, perfectly organized by category: cake, cookies, candy, pies, puddings, etc.

Remember that blueberry or cherry dessert, sort of like a crisp (but made with canned pie filling) you loved as a kid? It’s in there, under cakes: Blueberry Cake Mix Dessert.

Remember the crumble-topped coffee cake you devoured on so many Sundays, after church? It’s in there, in Anne’s handwriting: Sour Cream Coffee Cake.

Mom’s recipe file is a treasure trove. I could spend an entire day looking through it – which, come to think of it, would be an excellent rainy day activity.

Here are a couple recipes.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

1 cup sugar

½ cup butter

2 eggs

1 cup sour cream

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping:

½ cup chopped walnuts

¼ cup sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

Cream butter with sugar. Add eggs and sour cream. Mix well. Add sifted dry ingredients, then vanilla extract. Spoon half of batter (batter will be thick) into a greased and floured tube pan, spreading with knife or spatula. Top with HALF of topping. Add remaining batter, then remaining topping. Cut through batter and topping several times, as you would for marble cake.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Cool 20 minutes before removing from pan. Cool completely on rack. Makes 10 to 12 servings.

 Blueberry Cake Mix Dessert

1 can blueberry pie filling (or any flavor pie filling)

1 box yellow cake mix (any brand; or any flavor)

1/3 cup butter, melted

Whipped cream or whipped topping (optional)

Pour pie filling into a greased cake dish or pan. Cover pie filling with cake mix. Pour melted butter over cake mix. Bake at 350 degrees for about 1 hour. Serve warm with whipped cream or whipped topping.

Hail to the chef: Chef Mom!

When I think of food “like Mom used to make,’’ I don’t think of any one food in particular. I think of the sheer VOLUME of food Mom used to make for seven children and a husband whose palate was, well, limited.

I think of Mom in the kitchen, always in an apron, and the dinners she made us as kids growing up in the ‘60’s: Macaroni and beef with tomatoes (it wasn’t called pasta back then, and some people called that dish “goulash”), pork steak and potatoes, roasted together in a green enamelware casserole, ham and au gratin potatoes, vegetable beef soup with barley (and noodles), waffles for dinner, with sausage and real maple syrup (!), when Dad was away.

I think of birthday cakes with “boiled’’ white icing, Apple Jack (moist apple cake with warm cinnamon sauce), homemade chocolate pudding and fruit pies with the flakiest golden-brown crusts (yup, made with lard).

I think of Crock-Pot stews made in an early, harvest gold-colored model. And I think of how Mom went to France in 1976 and came home excited to make things she’d enjoyed at my sister’s: Cheese souffle. Coquilles St. Jacques.

A few years ago, when I had made a pot of Anthony Bourdain’s ridiculously easy and elegant Mushroom Soup and shared it with my mother, she said something like: “I never made anything like this when I was cooking all the time.’’

That got me to thinking about how differently we cook and eat today, how we cruise websites and download recipes to our “devices” instead of raiding our mothers’ recipe files.

It also got me thinking that if it weren’t for my mother, I wouldn’t even LIKE mushrooms.

Even though my cooking doesn’t exactly mirror hers, Mom’s cooking has played a huge role in my food life and sense of food adventure.

I stash fruit in the freezer by the bag-full and can pickles and jams each year because that’s what Mom did – make use of the summer harvest and enjoy it in the middle of winter.

I make cutout cookies wafer-thin and because that’s how Mom made them.

I make Lemon Extract Cake at Christmastime and give it as gifts to carry on Mom’s tradition (and lessen fruitcake’s bad rap).

I keep trying my hand at pies, a skill I haven’t fully mastered, in the hopes of making one as good as Mom’s.

Some nights, when I’m making a late supper for two and trying to get it on the table before 8 p.m., I think of the woman who cooked nightly for a party of nine and had it on the table by 6 – on the dot.

Hail to the chef. Chef Mom!

 

Visions of gingerbread at the Erie Canal Museum

This gingerbread isn't for eating. It's for viewing only, through Sunday (Jan. 2) at the Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse.

The museum's annual Gingerbread Gallery, now in its 25th year, has been open since Thanksgiving. So it's the end of the run for the handcrafted gingerbread houses, cottages, mansions, motorhomes, courthouses and more. Some constructions are coming apart at their seams held together with royal icing and fondant. Peppermint stick pillars are crumbling and candy decorations are sliding from some roofs.

A lot of work goes into gingerbread architecture. And such creativity! Necco wafers for roofing tiles, graham cracker sidewalks, clever embellishments like Peeps Christmas trees and snowmen, sticks of gum and waffle-style pretzels as window shutters, shredded coconut as snow...

In all, there are about 40 creations by both amateur and professional baker-artists on display. Get down there and check it out. I promise it will make your spirits bright.

The Erie Canal Museum is at 318 Erie Blvd. East, Syracuse. The Gingerbread Gallery is on the museum's second floor. The museum closes at 2 p.m. Friday (New Year's Eve) and is closed New Year's Day. Sunday hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

 

The Recipe File Project: thinking INSIDE the box

I'm a fairly organized person. I make notes on the calendar, ride herd on the pile-up of newspapers, magazines and mail and strive mightily to keep our house in order. How my recipe file -- an old, wooden cigar box handed down by a former roommate -- was such a complete, overflowing, unorganized catch-all for so long I don't know.

But it was. Stuffed, literally, with hundreds of recipes, it had no dividers or categorization, making finding anything a chore, guessing game and time drain.

Earlier this year, I emptied out its contents and started going through the pile one recipe at a time. I tossed recipes I had never used or hadn't used in years. Weeding through the thicket, I taped newspaper and magazine clippings to plain 4-by-6-inch cards and started organizing: meat, meatless, soups and stews, pasta, poultry, cakes, cookies, breads, muffins, etc.

The only absolute keepers: anything in Mom's and Mother's (grandmother Heenan's) handwriting; anything from my sisters; anything in the perfect penmanship of former Post-Standard restaurant reviewer and food writer Yolanda Wright; and anything clipped from the original Dinosaur Bar-B-Que "Bullsheet,'' a newsletter originally sent out monthly, by snail mail.

In the process of cleaning out, I found so many wonderful recipes I had forgotten about. Mom's Lemon Bread. Mom's Apple Crisp. Aunt Dorothy's Popovers. Martha's Guinness Stew. Mary's Cheese Souffle. Anne's Pie Crust. Eileen's Layered Taco Dip.

Maureen Nolan's Pub Cheese and Sausalito Crab Dip. A quartet of Italian sauce recipes from Nancy Radke (Italy lover, president of Ciao, Ltd. and co-author of "Dinosaur Bar-B-Que: An American Roadhouse"). Yolanda's Hot Fudge Sauce (a holiday tradition) and dozens of  other recipes clipped from the "Yolanda's Kitchen'' feature (RIP) in The Post-Standard. Countless recipes from "Cook(s) of the Week," another bygone newspaper feature, some with my byline on top.  

I went to Smith Housewares & Restaurant Supply and after much internal debate purchased a RSVP Endurance Classic Style Recipe Box ($35), some divider cards and clear plastic protector sleeves for faded, oft-used and food-splattered recipes.

The new box, constructed from stainless steel, has a satin finish and a polished lid with a swirl pattern inside. In addition to being stylish, it is solid and durable. It closes tightly, like a vault. A Recipe Vault! I told Robert it can be used to hold my remains when it's done holding heirloom recipes.

The end result is a recipe file that's neat and tidy, easy to use and a pleasure to open each time. And with holiday baking and cooking in full swing, it has been open and closed a lot lately.

I'd love to tell you that the Recipe File Project has helped me change my ways with hunting and gathering recipes. It hasn't. That's a disease with no cure on the horizon.

Next up: Cleaning out, trimming down and organizing into an expandable, divided file the three-inch thick folder of print-out recipes from favorite websites (like SmittenKitchen.com and Epicurious.com) and pages torn from Cook's Illustrated, Gourmet, Martha Stewart and other magazines.

That should keep me busy until spring, when it's time to start trolling for new recipes for the grill.