In our house, we’ve come to look forward to “French Toast Events,” days that are inspired by the “French Toast Map” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Weatherbird used to create in the run-up to bad winter weather. You knew a winter storm was going to pack a punch if Weatherbird said you needed milk, bread, and eggs (bonus points when he added beer to the map, too). Well, Weatherbird’s latest illustrator retired last year, and while he said that he would continue drawing the character on a freelance basis, as far as I can tell, he no longer uses the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, and so I had no French Toast Map to help me decide how to plan for yesterday’s winter weather advisory. As it turned out, I think they rather underestimated this storm, because the first half of yesterday was an icy nightmare, which included cancellations all over the Bi-State, the closure of Lambert Airport for a time, and multiple accidents, including some with Metro buses and even firetrucks. Anyway, I hadn’t prepared for a full French Toast Event, but I was in a good place for a Waffle Warning, starring French Toast’s cousin, the Mickey Waffle, so we were still able to observe one of our favorite winter weather traditions, just in a new way!
It’s finally time for a look back at all of the Festive Feasts we enjoyed over the holiday season, and all the baking we did!
Let’s start with Thanksgiving, which was our traditional turkey dinner with the addition of some delicious roasted fennel this year:
And a record-tying nine pies!
Our next big holiday was Nikolaustag, and it’s become a tradition for us to enjoy Döner kebab on that day (or, as was the case this time, several days later, once Bunny got home from college). We also had a gingerbread-based dessert as has become our custom…this time, I made gingerbread bars with a cream cheese frosting that were amazing!
On Santa Lucia Day, we enjoyed lussekattes for breakfast, and potato pancakes with smoked salmon and Kielbasa for dinner (a day early), plus an cranberry-orange layer cake with rosemary for dessert:
On Christmas Eve, we had a peppermint chip cake after church:
And coffee cake for breakfast on Christmas morning:
On Christmas Day, we had the best dinner of the year, the “pick out dinner.”
And then things got kind of messed up because I hurt my back. We postponed the fancy Christmas dinner we were supposed to have on the 27th, but we did manage to have our annual hot chocolate bar on New Year’s Eve:
And I also postponed the (different) fancy dinner we were supposed to have on New Year’s Day, but I did manage to make a gingerbread layer cake with molasses mousse filling and cinnamon whipped cream frosting, garnished with sugared cranberries:
On Ryan’s birthday (which was also Epiphany), I finally made the tenderloin that was supposed to be the star of our fancy Christmas dinner, plus s’mores pie for dessert:
Yesterday, I finally got around to the turkey dinner we were supposed to have on New Year’s Day. We also tried a new recipe for replica Starbucks’ cranberry bliss bars for dessert. I haven’t had the original, but Bunny tells me these are even better, because they don’t have that mass-produced flavor!
Before my back injury, we spent a few days baking our favorite Christmas cookies (and I put together a Bunter Teller!):
And we did eventually get around to the sugar cookies (not the gingerbread, though…we just ran out of time, but at least we had lots of other gingerbread desserts!):
I made kinderpunsch, wassail several times (not pictured), and eggnog over the course of the holiday weeks:
And then there were lots of other festive treats spread through the holiday season, from the weekend before Thanksgiving when we made soft pumpkin chocolate chip cookies to the Valentine’s Day Funfetti Bunny made for us before she went back to school (and also my first attempt at Dampfnudeln, which were amazing!):
By my count, we ended up short one fancy meal, because normally the tenderloin wouldn’t have been available for Ryan’s birthday dinner. We were also short the gingerbread cookies and the cannoli that I had hoped to make for New Year’s Day, since I simply didn’t have the strength or energy to do much the whole week between Christmas and New Year’s. It certainly wasn’t my best effort at holiday food, but at least I hit all the highlights, right?
Time for a look at my favorite food photos from 2023! Most of them are dessert photos (hey, it’s not my fault desserts are so photogenic!), but let’s start with a spread I made featuring white borscht last winter:
I decided I wanted to try something really different for Thanksgiving, so I made a pineapple pie! It’s a super easy recipe, and is really fresh and unique. I absolutely loved it, and I’ll definitely be making it again!
40 oz. crushed pineapple with juice
1 cup white sugar
6 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 pie crusts
1 egg
2 Tbsp. milk
1 Tbsp. white sugar
Preheat oven to 425.
Combine crushed pineapple with juice, 1 cup sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice in a medium saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened, then boil for 1 minute. Cool slightly.
Line a 10-inch pie plate with crust. Beat egg and brush crust with it to prevent sogginess. Pour filling into the prepared pie dish. Cover with remaining crust; press and flute the edges to seal. Cut a few steam vents on top (or do a lattice crust as pictured), brush crust with milk and sprinkle with 1 Tbsp. sugar.
Bake until golden brown, about 35 minutes. Serve with whipped cream and flaked coconut if desired.
As soon as I saw German Girl in America’s recipe for Reformationsbrötchen, I knew I had to make them! Who doesn’t want to make rolls that look like Luther’s Rose? They’re really delicious…light and fluffy, with the perfect flavors for fall, featuring lemon and cranberry…and so cute. I left out the almonds, and we didn’t miss them, but I’m sure they make a great addition!
Chickadee and I are finishing Anne of Green Gables this week, so while we haven’t tried every recipe in The Anne of Green Gables Cookbook, it’s time to take a look back at the recipes we have tried. We made a lot of desserts, and I think the apple dumplings were my favorite (they were also something I had never made before!). I really like the way we’ve been able to tie cooking and literature together for the last few years!
Diana Barry’s Favorite Raspberry Cordial
Miss Stacy’s Baked Macaroni
White Sands Scalloped Tomatoes
Anne’s Liniment Cake
Chocolate Caramels
Old-Fashioned (Pink) Lemonade
Cowcumber Boats
Chocolate Goblin’s Food Cake
Afternoon Ruby Tea Biscuits
Coconut Macaroons
Creamy Butterscotch Pudding
Thick and Creamy Vegetable Soup
Orange Angel Cake
Miss Ellen’s Pound Cake
Puffy Apple Dumplings
Rachel Lynde’s North Shore Fish Cakes
Fire and Dew Sweet Potatoes
Maritime Gingersnaps
We’ll be taking a break from this cookbook for the time being, but I’m looking forward to coming back to it in the future!
It’s been almost a year since the last time I shared a look at the German cooking I’ve been doing, so it’s time for an update. I’ve been cooking at least one German recipe a month thanks to the great suggestions in my Rare Dirndl Facebook group. Some have been new versions of recipes I’ve made in the past (like Kartoffelpuffer, not once, but twice, with two very different recipes and a new serving suggestion of smoked salmon), but most have been new to us. I also made a lot of new German Christmas cookies last Christmas, and I’m really looking forward to making some of them again this year! I really enjoy trying recipes my ancestors might have enjoyed in their home country, and sharing them with my children to help them feel a connection to the past!
Martinsbrezeln
Lebkuchen
Vanillekipferl
Pfeffernusse
Kardamom Plaetzchen
Zimtsterne
Swiss Cheese Fondue
Bratkartoffeln
Beef Rouladen
Kartoffelpuffer
Brötchen
Lemon Strawberry Dutch Baby
Krautsalat
Currywurst
Summer Flammkuchen
Bavarian Obatzda (and pretzels!)
Kartoffelpuffer with Smoked Salmon
Sacher-Torte
I’m looking forward to continuing my adventures in German cooking!
When Chickadee and I went to visit the Planter’s Nutmobile in July, we had to stop in at Steve’s Hot Dogs, the host of the event.
I loved the interior of the restaurant…especially all the Star Wars memorabilia everywhere!
Now on to the most important stuff…the food! Since it was just me and Chickadee, I didn’t go crazy and order the hot dog flight, but if you do, you can try their eight top dogs. I’m personally kind of a hot dog purist, so I only tried one thing..the classic Chicago Dog. It was probably the best Chicago Dog I’ve ever had! The toppings are impossible to screw up (as long as you don’t try to sneak some ketchup on there), so they were spot on, but the hog dog itself was excellent. I don’t know why or what makes it different, but it was really, really good!
It’s hard to argue with this sentiment:
I liked the Chicago Dog so much, I may even go back and try something different in the future…the Al Hrabratsky appeals to me based on the name alone, but it also has sauerkraut and paprika, so I know it has to be good! You can also build your own dog or brat, so you know you’re getting exactly what you want, and that means Steve’s basically has endless options!
Summer vacation is coming to an end, which means I won’t have as much time for cooking “fancy” dinners. So even though I still have a lot of recipes left to try in The Official Disney Parks Cookbook, here’s a look at the ones we’ve tried so far. Unlike Delicious Disney: Walt Disney World, a cookbook of recipes from only Disney World which was the inspiration behind many of our Disney Dinners last year, this cookbook contains recipes from Disneyland, Disney California Adventure and beyond, Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Disney’s Animal Kingdom and beyond, and other Disney locations including Vero Beach and Aulani.
Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes
Walt’s Chili and Beans
Shrimp Boil Tacos with Andouille Sausage and Corn
Honey Crunch Cake
Totchos
Tres Leches Cake
Key Lime Pie
Charred Nebraska Corn Chowder
Pork Goulash with Sauerkraut Pierogi
Caramel Hawaiian Sweet Bread Pudding
Chef Mickey’s Breakfast Pizza
Pink Leilani
S’mores Gelato Shake
Watermelon Lemonade
Goofy’s Kitchen Cherry Tomato and Bocconcini Salad
BLT Flatbread
Red, White, & Blue Sprinkle Whoopie Pies
Naan Bread with Cucumber Raita
Mango Lassi
Tomato Florentine Soup
Lemon Soda Float
The Hollywood Brown Derby Cobb Salad
Beef Sliders with Pimento Cheese
White Chocolate Peppermint Bar topped with Peppermint Meringue Kisses
I really love our Disney Dinners, and I’m really excited about the newest cookbook in this series, Delicious Disney: Disneyland, which comes out this fall!
One of our cooking projects this summer has been making recipes from Lilo and Stitch: The Official Cookbook. There are still plenty of recipes we haven’t tried, but here’s a look at the ones we’ve made so far:
Kaua’i Sugarloaf Pineapple Salsa
‘Ohana Fruit Salad
Blue Hawaiian
Dawn Patrol Loco Moco
Pā’ina Haupia Cake
Pleakley’s Pink Stuff Frosé
Braddah’s Baked Spaghetti
Luki’s Shaved Ice
The Green Flash
Easy-Kine Kālua Pork
Mahalo Hasagawa Matcha Brownies
Island Grilled Lemonade
Nani’s Spaghetti Salad
Comforting Butter Mochi
Gantu’s Galactic Brew
Black and Blue Seared ‘Ahi with Experimental Sweet Potato Mash
Guava Celebration Cake
Pudge’s Peanut Butter, Jelly, and Banana Sandwich
Rock-a-Hula Açai Bowls
Hapa Kine Strawberry and Basil Cooler Companions
We have definitely been introduced to some new flavors (guava was a huge favorite!), cooking techniques (I’ve never grilled lemons for lemonade before!), and even culinary science (butterfly pea tea has some very interesting properties!), through these recipes, which I love, and most of the recipes have been big hits!
