The Naptime Chef

Friends! I’ll be out of the office this week with my family. I am looking forward to powering down for a few days to be in the kitchen, enjoy my kids, and relax by the fire. I hope you all have fun things to look forward to this holiday season. After this emotional month it will be nice to spend time in the company of loved ones!

I’ll be back November 28th for a week of holiday gift guides (!!!) In the mean time, here are five fun things to keep you entertained:

1. I am almost done assembling my homemade gifts this year. (I knit these for a lot of people an made my yearly batch of fudge sauce.)
2. I am a diehard fan of Stranger Things (I was Eleven for Halloween!), have you seen the Stranger Thanksgiving post? It is so funny. I also wonder what Eggo Stuffing would taste like…
3. My friend Amy Beth Cupp is renovating her latest house and I am obsessed with her instagram feed.
4. Design Mom has a new site and it is so pretty! I love her work.
5. Here is my 2015 gift guide in case you are already looking for ideas.

Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday full of family, friends, and food. It is something I always look forward too all year long, but totally stress about when it’s our turn to host. How to build a menu to please everyone at the table? How to coordinate cooking the whole meal in our oven? So much to think about! Over the years I’ve mastered a few time saving tips and here they are. I hope they help you too!

1) The War Room: A few weeks before Thanksgiving pour yourself a glass of wine and set up your war room. Jot down menu ideas, cooking times, ingredients lists and the like and meditate on them. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was any Thanksgiving menu that I know of. The more you plan ahead the easier time you’ll have as the holiday approaches. Pick up whatever groceries you can do. Frozen fruits and vegetables can certainly stay in the freezer, wines, beers, and any dry grain won’t spoil so stock up on them before the mad rush. Having your strategy formed and larder stocked will make it so much easier as you head into the holiday.

Today I have to share a little chocolate tart I made last month. It was simple, yet sophisticated; rich, but not overwhelming. I loved making it because it wasn’t complicated and had a very grown-up appeal. It a chocolate tart with an almond crust, topped with mascarpone whipped cream and a rich caramel sauce. Simple? Yes. Decadent? You bet. This little gem would be perfect for a chocolate holiday dessert, or at just about any dinner party you throw this winter. The best part is that the recipe isn’t mine, it was already perfectly written out by Mimi Thorisson. I considered a few amendments but I’m glad I didn’t use them because I love the recipe exactly as it is written. You know what they say about messing with perfection.

Two years ago my husband and I spent a fun few days in Napa Valley to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We instantly fell in love with the area, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to be invited to return this fall to attend a seminar with Panasonic. They were debuting a really cool new countertop induction at the Culinary Institute of America with Chef Gabe Kennedy and I had a blast participating in the event. Here are a few highlights from the trip:

We spent a whole day on the gorgeous campus of the Culinary Institute of America’s St. Helena campus. The building is a former winery and contained all sorts of artifacts like giant collections of corkscrews and the Vitner’s Hall of Fame.

**ONLINE CONTEST: Please vote for my Buttery Pumpkin Danish on the Finlandia Cheese Facebook page. You can vote HERE. Thank you!!**

This fall I’ve been working on getting more comfortable with yeasted doughs on working on recipes for sweet rolls and bakery-style sweet breads. It has taken a bit of experimenting but I am finally ready to share a favorite, this braided buttery pumpkin danish. It’s not perfectly symmetrical or fit for display at a fancy bakery, but I promise you it tastes amazing.

One of the main reasons it tastes so good is because I used Finlandia Premium Imported Butter. Not all butter is created equal, and using high quality butter like Finlandia makes a huge difference in the final product. Their butter is made with pure milk, and without anything artificial like added hormones or water. This means it is denser and richer butter, which naturally yields a denser and richer baked good. Now that I’ve used this delicious butter I don’t think I can ever go back. Finland is one of the greenest countries in the world and the farmers treat their cows so well, all of this clearly translates into a superior final product.

Three generations at our Thanksgiving table can be tricky. My parents have had several decades to establish their Thanksgiving eating habits and have very clear opinions of what they’d like on the table. My husband, my brother, and I sit in the middle, having a few things we love to eat but don’t get every single year. My children are the youngest, and being that they are somewhat picky I often make a few things just for them.

It took a few tries for carrot cake to become one of our favorites. I initially served my family the classic version and after the very first bite my children insisted I omit the raisins and nuts the next time. The second time around was better, but was deemed “boring.” Then, after they developed a sudden, and unexpected, obsession with blueberry pancakes I was asked to add berries to their cake to liven it up a little. Finally, with a few adjustments made to the frosting technique, we were set.

These days this newfound variation on carrot cake is very popular in our household. So far we’ve made it “just for fun”, for a dinner party dessert, and for a bake sale. Some may balk at the idea of grating all those carrots but I have a secret trick: I use Cascadian Farm Organic Multicolor Carrots and shred them in the food processor. In fact, the entire batter is made in the food processor, which makes it a very easy one-bowl cake.