LoneSavant

I adore madelines, and the most fool-proof and least dry/crumbly/powdery recipe I've found yet is Rose Levy Berenbaum's in her Christmas Cookies book- - -the recipe is for chocolate madelines, but I've had great success in substitution, to make everything from jasmine madelines to white pepper-honey madelines. Highly recommended.

I just opened a bottle of my Liquore alla Erbe Luigia--- a sort of ligurian limoncello made not with lemon peel, but lemon verbena leaves- - -great stuff!! Lemony and bright, but with a rich green background that makes it much more sippable and complex than your average limoncello. A great new thing to try!

I had a last-minute birthday dinner party last night, and while looking for a secondary sweet to go along with birthday cake, I started throwing things into a bowl, and turned out a suprisingly fantastic Apple-Carrot Strudel, spiced with cardamom: I grated four apples and three carrots on a microplane, and stirred in a heaped tablespoon of cornstarch, a quarter tsp of freshly ground cardamom, a half tsp. of cinnamon, a pinch of salt, an egg yolk, and a half cup of currant jelly (this keeps it from becoming too cloyingly sweet; apple jelly would probably work too, but i liked the acid contrast and mild flavor of the currant.) I layered about fifteen sheets of filo with melted butter, rolled up the filling inside, buttered the surface of the roll, and sugared the heck out of it. in the oven at 350 for about 20-25- - -it started to darken a little early, so i removed it, re-buttered the surface, and lowered the oven to 300 for the last 5-10. It was great for dessert with a drizzle of honey and a spoonful of pouring custard, but the apples, carrots, and warm cardamom made me think it would be a great freezer-to-oven breakfast treat....that's my next project- - -stocking up on frozen strudeln!

It's getting close to Christmas again, and I swear, if I get another jar of apple butter or some chocolate-dipped pretzels as a gift again, I'll resign from the kitchen. I love making homemade liqueurs and confittures, candies, pastry, etc., and I'd love to hear about your new and unusual takes on Christmas gift-giving, holiday sweets and meals, etc. Tradition is special, but let's try and spice things up a bit this year!

My favorite 'rice pudding' is the indian dessert Kheer- it's lighter and a little "soupy-er" than a classic rice pudding, and usually (at least, i prefer it) served chilled. It's traditionally made with broken basmati rice, almonds, coconut milk, milk, and cardamom, but i've had great success using other rices, and once i made it with Quinoa- - -an excellent idea. I bet it'd be great with arborio- you'd have to adjust the cooking mehtod a bit to make up for the liquid-starch ratio, but it'd sure help you get rid of the excess rice. It's GREAT for breakfast with a side of rashers, too :-)