AUNTIE ARWEN'S NEWSLETTER

December 2003, January-February 2004

Hi, everybody! Auntie here, full of cheer for the season. OK, maybe a few gin & tonics, too. But hedonism definitely *does* have a place in life, and I sure hope that you all indulge in a bit thereof. There are folks who do the hair shirt routine, but your Auntie, like the family cat, knows where the most comfortable place in the house is, and plans to live as luxuriously as possible
. Luxury is a woodstove. Auntie is typing this in a room with a nice woodstove providing cosy warmth to the room. The yellow striped and the tuxedo cat-o-mometers are in place, and are doing their self-appointed jobs. (If the cats are close to the stove, that means "add wood!"; if the cat is spread out and far from the stove, that means that there may be too much wood in it, and to close the damper to slow down the burn rate). Cats are past masters at hedonism.
The woodstove is a grand place to mull some cider, and the smell of my Mesmerizin' Mulling Spices in a pot of cider, sitting on that aforesaid woodstove is some wicked righteous. Auntie has a tad of rum to jazz things a bit, but then Auntie doesn't plan to drive anywhere tonight. She also plans to grab a smallish palmful of her organic catnip in a bit, and jazz the cat-o-mometer. Better than TV, you betcha!

Now for some recipes.

Hic. Here's one for bourbon bread pudding. Auntie's gonna serve this puppy for Christmas Eve. Yum. Hic. .

1 c raisins
4 tsp brandy
1 oz melted butter
1 loaf day-old (to ancient) white bread
1 quart heavy creammmmmmmm
3 large (or 4 medium) eggs
1 ½ c granulated sugar
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract (not the synthetic stuff; get the Real Thing!!!)

Place the raisins and brandy in a small saucepan, heat to simmer remove from the burner, and let sit for a bit to soak up the goodness. Now, melt the butter and dab a paper towel in it to grease a 9 x 13 x 2 inch baking dish. 2 inches deep, 9 x 13 (or close to that) wide and long. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. You should also have a larger pan (say, the roasting pan for your stove) within which this 9 x 13 inch pan fits.
Rip up or cut your bread into chunks. Place the chunks into a large bowl. Pour the cream over the bread (OK to drizzle a tad into the cat dish, to bribe your cat-o-mometer!) and let stand for about 20 minutes. While it's standing, get out another bowl and beat the eggs, sugar, remaining butter, and vanilla until smooth. Then toss in the raisins and brandy (no fair taking a slug from the stuff you measured! If you need to test the brandy, consult the bottle. Hic.) and stir well. Stir this egg mix into the bread & cream mix, and then pour the lot into the 9 x 13 inch baking pan. Now, place and center that pan into the larger pan, and pour hot water to one inch or so depth in that larger pan. This means that your pan with the pudding batter/mix is sitting in a larger pan with hot water in it. Now, put it into the oven (in the middle!) and bake until browned and set (ca. 1 hour). Serve warm with bourbon sauce.

BOURBON SAUCE

4 oz. butter
1 c granulated sugar
1 large egg, beaten
½ c. bourbon (cheap is OK; save the Jack Daniels for sippin'!)

Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Stir in sugar and egg, and simmer for a few minutes to thicken. Add bourbon, stir well, and keep warm (but not boiling) until ready to serve. Note: this sauce is quick to make, and it's recommended that while you have someone else clearing the table and getting the coffee things out, that you can quickly make this so's it's hot when served.
This is one kickin' dessert. Hic.
So, what's been going on at Auntie's place? Well, we're playing with some new blends (which aren't on the web page yet!) and trying to get photos of everything to our wizard web master, Tom Hufford, at Crystal Owl Productions. Auntie has to photograph bags of organic coffee (Jim's Organic Coffee) which is some awesome brew. Again, as students of hedonism, this brew is something that you should try sometime. Shade-grown, and helps indigenous farmers in Indonesia, South America, etc. Jim is mighty picky, and so "his" farmers take especial care in the growing and harvest of their coffee beans. Jim also provides funding for libraries and education in those poor areas. Social awareness and helping the honest struggling farmer is also a kind of hedonism. I would much rather pay a bit more for their coffee than buy supermarket coffee that is produced on mega-farms with mega-conglomerates running them.
Hey, suddenly it's February! Where did January go??? It's a sleety icy dark drizzly day outside, and the juncos, titmice, and one bold young possum who lives under the back stoop and who actually comes out in the afternoon for a snack, are hitting the bird feeder. Pogo, as we have named the possum, can't climb the silicone-oil-coated metal stanchion supporting the bird feeder, so he noses around on the ground. It's only a few feet from his snug domicile to the seed-littered spot directly under the feeder, and the birds don't mind his presence much at all.
The woodchuck has seen his shadow, and it's 6 more months of winter. Hope the firewood lasts that long! Now...to find a recipe for woodchuck.....
Speaking of recipes, here's a few good ones, tried and true.

NEW ENGLAND CLAM CHOWDER

or, ":chowdah":, if you prefer)

½ lb salt pork, cut into thin slices about 1/8" thick by ½" wide by 1" long, with 2 slits cut partway through each piece on the long side.
3 small onions, minced
3 cups boiling water
3 cups diced potatoes
2 tsp salt (if necessary...taste before you salt!)
1/8 tsp fine ground black pepper
1 quart minced fresh quahogs (those hard-shelled biiiiig cherrystones) and their juice...shuck the clams directly into a bowl, and then you can retrieve the clams, chop 'em, and return them to the juice. If you don't have fresh clams, you can use two #1 cans of clam meat. Or you could use oysters, and have oyster chowder.
3 cups of scalded milk

Try out the salt pork in a pan...I use a large-ish cast iron pot; somehow I find that the flavor is just a tad better. "Try out" means to cook like bacon, but without removing the fat. You extract the fat so's the crispy brown bits of salt pork float around in it. Then add the onion and saute until browned, and then add the boiling water, potato, and seasonings. Boil gently about 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. While the veggie-salt pork-water mix is cooking, put the chopped clams and their juice (called "liquor") into another saucepan... do *not* use aluminum! Use stainless steel or enamel! and bring to a boil. Just to a boil, and watch the pan carefully, since clam juice tends to boil over easily. When the clams/liquor just hit a boil, grab that pot and pour aforesaid clams & liquor into the veggie-salt pork-water mix, which should also be boiling gently. Add the scalded milk, and a nice pat of butter. Stir, then take off the fire, and let sit several minutes so's the flavors sorta mesh. Then serve up with pilot crackers or milk crackers or water biscuits...if you're desperate, oyster crackers (those little puffy things) or Saltines will do.

LEMON MUFFINS

1 egg
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp melted butter
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ c milk
½ tsp salt
1 c flour
1 tsp grated fresh lemon peel

Heat oven to 375; grease a 6-hole muffin tin (OK to use a cooking-oil spray). Beat egg, sugar, butter, and milk in a bowl, and then add the salt, lemon peel, baking powder, and half the flour. Beat just until everything just barely mixed...batter will be lumpy... and then add the rest of the flour. Stir only until the flour is moistened; ignore the lumps. Distribute evenly among the holes in the muffin tin, and bake until golden brown (about 20-25 minutes.

TIGER CANDY

1/3 cup peanut butter
1 tbsp honey
1/3 cup powdered milk
and: your choice of: sesame seeds, peanuts, kasha, chocolate bits, raisins, sunflower seeds, currants, apricot bits, fine-chopped dried tart cherries, chopped almond, shredded coconut, fine-chopped dried apple, etc. etc.

Mix the peanut butter, honey, and milk. Add whatever of the above other ingredients...mix 'n' match... and stir in. You want this to hold together, so if you've added too much of the "goodies", you can add more peanut butter to the mix. Then put into a large Ziplock some of one or more of the following: shredded coconut, hazelnut flour, almond flour, chocolate sprinkles ("jimmies"), sesame seed, etc.
Lightly oil your hands (Canola or peanut oil is best) and then shape bits of the mix into cherry-sized balls, and then pop it into the Ziplock holding your dry coating stuff. When you get about 3 or 4 balls in the Ziplock, shake gently so's to coat the balls, and then retrieve them. Put them aside on a piece of waxed paper, and continue. When all of the balls are coated, and if you have more of the coating mix left, you can one by one roll each ball in more of the mix, so that it's not sticky to the touch. Then put in a bowl, and call in the tigers...er, the kids. Or husband. Or roommates. Or poker buddies. Whatever. As far as I know, these keep pretty well. I'm not sure, because they disappear so quickly.

Now, it's your turn.

Do you have any Really Good Recipes? Anything from Beef Stroganoff to organic dog biscuits? Hints for the cook? Requests for odd ingredients like cubebs, orris root, and grains of Paradise? (surprise, we stock ‘em!). Or if you've found a new and creative use for one of our blends? Share it with the rest of us!

WEB PAGE UPDATE

Our web page reads best on a screen whose resolution is set at 800 x 600. To do this, click on the "start" button (lower left on your screen), select "settings", and then select "control panel", then double click to get "display". Now, click on the tab marked "settings", and you'll see a "slider" sort of to the right side. Your settings may well be 640 by 480 (lower resolution), so mouse that slider about halfway and 800 x 600 will display. It also asks you for the type and make of monitor. Mine was made by Brand X, so I entered the "standard" options.

Please, please check out the web page ( www.auntiearwenspices.com ) and email me at auntiearwen@snet.net any comments, corrections, howlers, hints to improve things, stuff I oughta stock, etc. I especially would like input from blind readers; I want this site to be as accessible as possible for you! Please do note that I can do Braille labelling!

APPEARANCES

Any free Saturdays during the summer, 9am to 1 pm: Deep River (CT) Farmers' Market. You can also find my blends at "Especially for You!" in East Hampton, CT (the store is on Route 66 just east of Brookes Plaza) and at the Connecticut River Artisans in Chester, CT.

Well, that's it for now. Gotta go whip up some organic hot chocolate mix; am testing that out for addition to my web page. And yes, everything in it is cert. Org.