Welcome back to Wednesday Links!
Y’all, I am tired! Not sure if it’s daylight savings time or getting into the holiday rush while working retail. It could also be both! In New England, the sun will begin to set around 4ish and I kind of hate it.
Next week, I’ll be doing an overnight trip in NYC with my roommate who is nominated for an industry award. I’m a +1 and I certainly don’t mind being wined and dined on a company’s dime. I also realized Thanksgiving in the States is two weeks away. WHAT?! I can hardly believe it. I’m in charge of the roast chicken and dessert. Anyone have any favorite or tried and true Thanksgiving dessert recipes? Preferably something aside from apple, pecan, and pumpkin pie.
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Love sexy and romantic comics? Iron Circus Comics is crowdfunding their next collections: My Monster Girlfriend and Smut Peddler X. They are anthology comics collections and I am drooling over the Smut Peddler cover.
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Feelings about Twitter’s demise aside, I recently discovered a wonderful wildlife account with a social media manager who knows what they’re doing in terms of engagement. If you aren’t following the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, I highly suggest it!
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Back to crowdfunding! If you’re a Mercedes Lackey fan, she’s launched a Kickstarter for fans of the Valdemar series to showcase their love of the books with all sorts of special edition maps and merch. It’s already been funded, exceeding their goal by over $100K so far.
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Lastly, if you need a pick me up from some enthusiastic grade-schoolers, there’s a hotline for that! If you wind up calling, I’d love to hear about the message you get! You can also donate funds to help keep the hotline going.
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Don’t forget to share what cool or interesting things you’ve seen, read, or listened to this week! And if you have anything you think we’d like to post on a future Wednesday Links, send it my way!
Cookies are a good dessert for Thanksgiving! They’re smaller than a slice of pie, so easier to nom on a already mostly full belly. Easy for a couple types to be made for different tastes too. We always made the Molassess Jumbles from the Becky Crocker Cookie Book, they’re delicious and soft and very fall flavored.
Now that the weather is cooler, I’ve started baking more. One of my favourite sites is https://www.littlesweetbaker.com/
I can personally attest to the quiche with broccoli ( dinner tonight), the blueberry muffins, roasted Brussels sprouts, lemon pound cake. It’s a fabulous site and the recipes aren’t difficult .
The best analysis of a potential scandal I’ve ever seen: “Did Mrs. Pepper [from Blue’s Clues] cheat on Mr. Salt?” Apparently, this lovely analysis was posted originally on TikTok, but I just saw it on twitter. It made my day! Scandal! Spice! Science! [Spoiler: She did NOT cheat!]
https://twitter.com/pk_kenzie/status/1588262810839969793?s=42&t=6D_T_gX-KbT32uw4lNUj_g
The double shot of kindness and creativity I needed this week (even more unexpectedly so because I hate running): behold this collection of signs held up by NYC Marathon spectators this past weekend!
https://www.self.com/story/best-nyc-marathon-signs
Yay for more Iron Circus projects! I also recommend founder C. Spike Trotman’s YES, ROYA (historical mmf interracial BDSM femdom that will be of particular interest to Wonder Woman fans for reasons I won’t spoil)
@Qualisign, ROFL!!! Many thanks for the link to that detailed analysis! That was just the energy my day needed!
This is the best & easiest dessert recipe I have. It’s my French aunt-in-law’s adaptation of one of those product recipes & it rules. People always ask for the recipe & it’s an all season winner.
Aunt Andrèe’s No-bake Cheesecake
2 pkg. (soft) ladyfingers (Stop & Shop bakery has them)
2 ½ -8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, room temp.
½ c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 pt. whipping cream, whipped to firm peaks
1 jar seedless raspberry jelly
At least a pint of fresh raspberries
Line bottom and sides of a springform pan (I think mine’s 8″) with lady fingers–upright on the sides, however they fit on the bottom. You may dip the lf’s in sugar to prevent sticking if you like.
Beat cream cheese with sugar and vanilla until smooth. Other recipes sometimes call for a cup of sugar, but we like the less sweet version. Fold in whipped cream gently until mixed, then load into ladyfinger-lined pan.
Melt jelly in saucepan until liquid. Let cool slightly. Arrange raspberries atop cheesecake and pour jelly glaze over, or do it the lazy way like me. Dump washed raspberries in sauce pan with cooled jelly, stir a bit, gently, and spread evenly over top of cheesecake.
Chill overnight if possible or at least 4 hours.
@PamG – That sounds amazing!
Pumpkin Roll! Best thing is it can be made ahead and frozen! I often make a bunch around the holidays and stash them in my freezer so I have something to bring to an event if I need one.
Pumpkin Roll
Can be frozen (wrap tightly in plastic wrap and then in aluminum foil)
Must be made ahead
Cake:
Preheat oven: 375 ̊ F
3 eggs (room temperature)
2/3 cup pumpkin (pure canned pumpkin such as Libby’s brand is best)
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¾ cup flour
Mix all ingredients.
Grease cookie sheet. Lay wax paper on cookie sheet (leaving extra at each end to grab).
Grease wax paper.
Crisco works best, do not use non-stick sprays such as Pam.
Pour batter onto wax paper and spread evenly. Bang cookie sheet on counter several times to bring air bubbles to surface of batter.
Bake at 375̊ F for 15 minutes.
Sprinkle a dish towel (do not use a terry cloth one) with granulated sugar. Using wax paper, turn cake onto towel. Peel off wax paper (while still hot). Roll as jelly roll.
Cool cake for 2 hours in towel (no longer or the cake will crack when unrolled).
Filling:
2 Tablespoons soft oleo
8 oz. cream cheese (room temperature)
¾ teaspoon vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar
Beat filling ingredients.
Unroll cake and spread filling evenly over cake. Roll back up.
Wrap cake in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm.
For a dessert, try a flaugnarde (also called a clafoutis if you use cherries, although some cooks use the term regardless). They’re wonderful and not that hard to make. Sort of a cross between a custard and a cake.
My favorite incredibly-simple-but-always-enjoyed dessert is a family recipe. My brother-in-law learned it while living in Switzerland, so we call it Swiss Almond Cake.
2 eggs
1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 tsp. almond extract
1 cup flour
Beat eggs. Add sugar. Mix, then add melted butter and almond extract. Mix well, then mix in flour. Pour into a greased pie dish (our family preference) or 9×9″ pan. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30-40 minutes until golden brown around the edges. Let cool then serve plain, with ice cream or whipping cream or pudding, and/or fresh fruit. (I love it with vanilla ice cream and raspberries!)
It basically has the texture of a cakey-snickerdoodle, just with almond rather than cinnamon.
Brownies from Nigella Lawson’s Domestic Goddess cookbook. I call them Goddess brownies. I use chocolate chips instead of nuts, and no one has complained 🙂
https://www.nigella.com/recipes/brownies
Thank you so much for that very timely link to the OK Wildlife Conservation Dept Twitter account. My friend is going to bat for some beavers that are being inhumanely culled in her city and I’ve agreed to help her build community support through social media, which I don’t use much. This is an awesome example of the kind of thing we need to do.
As for dessert – my go-to is Bavarian Apple Torte. I brought it to ourThanksgiving celebration last month and it was devoured. I don’t have my recipe handy, but this looks pretty close if not identical: https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/apple-bavarian-torte/
I like the idea of cookies. You could make them seasonally themed. Perhaps molasses cookies or Ginger snaps with pie spice, and oatmeal raisin cookies but use dried cranberries. I recently made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies but in half the dough I used dried cranberries instead of the chocolate chips, and they were amazing – actually better than the chocolate chip version, and I’m a chocolate fan.
This pistachio and lemon cake was very easy, moist, and delicious: https://www.dimitrasdishes.com/pistachio-lemon-cake/ I’m not a frosting person, so I skipped it, and the cake stands on its own perfectly well. If you make it, though, do make sure that you use a taller cake pan, because it definitely becomes a chonk at the end of the bake!
If you’re looking specifically for pie recipes, may I suggest Tarte au sucre, French-Canadian sugar pie? It’s basically like the inside of pecan pie with no pecans, but not as runny – maybe closer to shoofly pie in texture. https://www.thelittlekitchen.net/sugar-pie-tarte-au-sucre/ is a good version in English.
I also devoutly believe that maple is a gift from the gods that proves that they love us, and that the gods should be given regular homage by baking with maple throughout the year, not just in spring. Lo and behold, there is a French-Canadian Tarte au sirop d’érable, maple syrup pie, a variation on the sugar pie but total crack for those of us who adore maple. This is a version that I like because it doesn’t have eggs, though it is not vegan (in French, sorry, but google will help): https://erableduquebec.ca/recettes/tarte-au-sirop-derable/. I personally like the taste of dark maple syrup and use it for everything, but if you don’t like that strong a maple flavour, use just regular/amber.
If you want chocolate, I suggest a chocolate mousse pie like this: https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/sky-high-chocolate-mousse-pie/. Mine is a bit of a personal mishmash (fill tart pan with fave oreo crumb crust + fave mousse recipe + sweetened vanilla whipped cream piped over surface in rosettes + a sprinkle of mini chocolate chips) but my nephews love it.
If you don’t want pie but do want gooey and maple-y, and also super-easy, this is my go-to when I’m in a bad mood and need to bake and eat my feelings. Also, it makes the house smell amazing: https://www.chatelaine.com/recipe/desserts/maple-syrup-butter-tart-squares/. This one I definitely recommend some tweaking: if you like intense sugar flavours, use dark maple syrup + medium to dark brown sugar; if you don’t, use regular/amber maple syrup + golden/light brown/demerara sugar (not turbinado – too dry).
Happy baking!
Pumpkin cheesecake with gingersnap crust has that Thanksgiving vibe, but it’s more original than pie. And King Arthur has a good recipe for apple upside down cake. I haven’t tried this yet, but in Laurie Colwin’s More Home Cooking I saw a really easy recipe for something called Nantucket Cranberry Pie, as follows: Chop enough raw cranberries to make 2 cups, and enough walnuts to make 1/2 cup. In the bottom of a 10 inch pie or springform pan, place the cranberries, walnuts and 1/2 sugar. Mix 2 eggs, 3/4 cup melted butter, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup flour, and 1 tsp. almond extract. Pour the batter over the cranberry-walnut mixture, and bake for 40 minutes at 350F. Easy-peasy, right?
Sorry for the way off topic comment, but I need to figure out how to make spoiler tags in preparation for the next Whatcha Reading post 🙂 So here goes . . .
<> nothing to see here, folks <>
@wait, what? Well, obviously that didn’t work 🙁