I'm something of a party pooper when it comes to Christmas. I can't stand anything red and green and find Christmas trees universally tacky. Don't even get me started on the rampant Christmas consumerism or we'll be here all day! But I have always had a soft spot for Advent calendars. I like the surprises behind the windows, even if they are just paper windows. So I couldn't resist when the folks at Lexiophiles invited me to participate in their Recipe Advent Calendar. It's a bit like those Cookie of the Day newsletters that I sign up for every year. It doesn't matter that I don't actually make any of those recipes, the surprise of seeing them appear in my email box each day is a treat.

This recipe is one I've been making since college. It's super easy and you can prepare it in no time at all. I've made a few adjustments to it over the years. Most importantly, don't use jelly, use good jam, or better yet, use preserves. I used Oregon Growers delicious Cherry Zinfandel preserves for this batch. It's not boozy, but it has a not-too-sweet adult character that lends itself not just to desserts but also to savory preparations. The original recipe called for margarine, but as you can imagine, it's much better with butter.

By the way, if you too want to receive a new cookie recipe every day, you can sign up for the Cookie Countdown from MyRecipes.com or Holiday Cookie of the Day from Real Simple magazine.

Jam Bars
Makes 16 squares

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all purpose unbleached flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 egg
1 cup fruit jam or preserves (strawberry or cherry are good)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. Cut in the butter, until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the egg to form a crumbly dough. Grease a 9-inch baking pan and press in 3/4 of the mixture onto the bottom of the pan. Top with jam and evenly spread almost but not quite to the edges of the pan since the jam will spread as it bakes. Top with the remaining crumb mixture. Transfer to oven and bake for 30 minutes or until pale golden brown. Let cool and cut into 16 squares.

Enjoy!

To see more recipes in the Recipe Advent Calender just click on the image below.

At the Worlds of Flavor conference a few weeks ago I had the great pleasure of speaking with celebrated author Paula Wolfert about the subject of her latest book, Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking. It's one of the books I was most excited about this year, and I've already bookmarked a number of recipes that I can't wait to try.

Why cook with clay?
This is the way people in the Mediterranean cook. All the pots used have meaning. The saute pan is great for fast cooking but most slow cooking is best done in a clay pot. Try cooking butternut squash or an eggplant without any water or salt with paper over it (meaning a round of parchment paper as a lid) very slowly. See what happens when food returns to the earth. A pot is made of earth.

What kinds of foods cook well in clay?
Mediterranean food; breads, beans, stew. Commit yourself to underutilized cuts of meat. Buy spareribs and lamb necks, because you can cook in clay in increments and you will see the difference, the meat is sweeter.

Any secret tips you can share?
In many of my recipes I say to put parchment paper on top of the food so the liquid recycles. Many of these dishes are best when reheated--think of chili or stew. But here's my tip, leave the paper on! Leave it in the refrigerator overnight and when you remove the paper all the fat can be easily skimmed off.

I have some Spanish cazuelas that are glazed inside. If I'm buying a cooking vessel made from clay does it matter if it's glazed or unglazed?
It depends on the soil. Black pots from Columbia are made from mica. If you have mica you don't put a glaze on your pot because it makes food sweet. In Turkey guvech are unglazed. But in some places the clay the isn't very strong, so they add pebbles to it. This gives a different taste so they put on a slip glaze. It's not lead, it has no color, it's just a protection against the dirt but you still get some porosity, you still get flavor enhancement. But you won't get the miracle sweetness.

If it has a slip glaze you will still get the earth tones to food and aromas are accentuated just like organic food versus hydroponically raised vegetables. When it's from the earth, it's better. Take my recipe for pumpkin soup. Cut the recipe in half, do one version in a conventional pot and another is an earthenware pot like a sand pot. You'll have to use water if you don't cook it in a sand pot. It's more voluptuous when it's cooked in clay.

Are germs a problem with unglazed pots?
I talked to Robert Wolke professor emeritus of chemistry and author of What Einstein Told His Cook, to ask about the possibility of dirt in the pores of the pot. What he told me was this, when the pot gets hot, the germs are dead.

What about tagines? I have a Le Creuset tagine, is a clay tagine better?
There really is a difference when you can maintain a certain low temperature, if you can get to the two hour mark, it's better. All the food holds it's integrity but when you break into it, the food is like butter. Plus not using a clay tagine kills the romance. You wouldn't do Chinese food without a wok!

What are the first clay pots to consider buying?
You can start by going to Chinatown and buying a $9 sand pot, or the Ourika a clay tagine that is $23 from Tagines.com. Locally Bram in Sonoma has a good selection of clay pots.

My thanks to Paula Wolfert for chatting with me. On her advice, I have already ordered my first clay tagine and hope you will too.

If you ask me, the second best thing about Thanksgiving is not the dinner itself, but the leftovers. I like turkey a lot, especially its amazing versatility. Leftover turkey, even dry, overcooked turkey, is good in soups, salads, sandwiches, stews, smothered in sauce or topped with a poached or fried egg.

Here are my suggestions for how to use leftover turkey. I've linked to recipes that I think look solid, but feel free to use your own or your imagination!

Turkey Pot Pie

Turkey Mole

Turkey Enchiladas

Turkey Mushroom Crepes

Turkey Quesadillas

Turkey Barley Soup

Turkey Hash

Turkey Salad

Turkey Noodle Soup

Turkey Cobb Salad

Turkey Gumbo

Turkey Posole

If you have any favorite turkey leftover recipes, please share them by leaving a comment.

It's easy to love Thanksgiving. Sure it's a day off to enjoy a feast, but the real reason why I love it is because it means getting together with friends and family and feeling thankful for all that we have, especially each other's company.

Cherish those you love, they are more precious than anything else that you possess!

cheers,

Amy

Not too long ago I was a bittersweet chocolate snob. I would only eat chocolate bars with a very high percentage of cacao, the higher the better. But I've discovered some milk chocolate recently that I really love. If you only eat high percentage cacao, I urge you to try some of the more exquisite milk chocolates on the market. They may surprise you. They certainly surprised me.

Milk chocolate has milk powder or condensed milk as an ingredient and generally has much lower percentages of cacao. Having tasted lots of chocolate, I am still very fussy about what I like and what I don't like. Regardless of the cacao content, good chocolate has to have clean flavors, it can't be too sweet, too salty or overwhelmed by flavorings such as vanilla. It should melt smoothly without a hint of graininess. It should be so good that even a little bit satisfies.

When it comes to milk chocolate, I highly recommend each of these bars:


Scharffen Berger Milk Almond
Sea Salted Almonds & Milk Chocolate
41% cacao, 3. ounces $4.95
If you like nuts with your chocolate, this is the bar for you. It's perfectly balanced with just a little crunch of nuts, not big chunks. The salt is barely perceptible, which is to my liking. If offers luscious caramel notes and is rich and creamy.

This bar feels most like an everyday bar. It's like a Hershey bar with almonds, but all grown up and way, way more satisfying.

Scharffen Berger is now owned by Hershey and unfortunately I have no idea where the cacao beans come from. Scharffen Berger has always promoted the idea of blends rather than single origin bars, though they do sometimes put out limited edition bars from time to time that are single origin.



Valrhona Tanariva
33% cacao, 2.5 ounces, $5.99
The Tanariva proves even a bar with very low cacao content can be rich and complex. It is very smooth, like all Valrhona chocolate, but also has some acid to it and so it doesn't seem terribly sweet, just milky, creamy and with a bit of citrus as well. Valrhona uses exceptionally high quality beans, in this case they are from Madagascar.

Don't compare this with a dark chocolate bar, just enjoy it for what it is. I think it may be the best bar with only 33% cacao. It has a lot going on.

The bar comes in an innovative form, with asymmetrical breaking lines intended to make it easier to break and share. I am finding the Valrhona "tasting" bars available in more and more shops these days.




Original Beans Esmeraldas Milk Bar with Fleur de Sel
42% cacao,3.57 ounces, $11.95
This bar is an indulgence. It is perfectly suited for gift giving but you might just want to be the recipient. I don't detect any salt at all, just heightened chocolate intensity. It has lots of dark toffee notes, a lovely buttery texture and flavor. It has an extremely long finish and amazing depth. It's conched for 50 hours, from Arriba beans that come from Ecuador (interestingly I tried another Arriba bar from another manufacturer and I didn't like it at all).

The founders of Original Beans are committed to sustainability and each bar carries a tracking number so you can learn more about the conservation efforts at the rainforest where the beans for your bar originated. The price is higher than most bars, but for every bar your buy the company plants a tree in the region of the bean's origin to replenish and protect the areas where the cacao beans grow. It's also a much bigger bar than the others.

I have a weakness for flatbread, all kinds of flatbread. If flatbread is on a menu, it's pretty much a given that I will order it. Years ago I made those Chinese spring onion pancakes, but other than that, I really haven't bothered. Why? Well, making flatbread seemed like it would be a bother, what with the yeast and the kneading, and rising and resting and all I figured it was easier to just order it in restaurants. Until last week.

While in London I spent many hours perusing food magazines and the fantastic cookbook collection at Books for Cooks, one of my favorite book stores in the world. I will share with you my list of purchases at some other point, but suffice it to say one of my purchases was a Donna Hay magazine. Donna Hay is Australian but she is tremendously popular in the UK and for good reason. Her recipes are generally not that complicated but offer maximum impact for a minimum of effort. When I saw her recipe for rosemary flatbread I was intrigued.

I adapted her recipe by leaving out the rosemary. Plain flatbread is more versatile and easy to top with just about anything. I tested the recipe for one of my recipe development clients, MyWinesDirect. I topped it with smoked salmon, goat cheese, cucumbers and chives so that it would pair well with a fragrant and crisp Pinot Grigio.

Because the dough has a lot of parmesan cheese in it, the resulting bread is quite hearty and robust but with great texture, soft on the inside and flecked with crisp brown freckles. Some suggestions for toppings toppings:

* Smoked salmon, goat cheese, cucumbers & chives (pictured)
* Fresh tomatoes & olives
* Sausage & winter squash
* Mushrooms, onions & bacon
* Pears, gorgonzola & toasted hazelnuts
* Figs & prosciutto

These are just a few off the top of my head, you can probably think of even more. I also think you could swap out some of the unbleached white flour for white whole wheat or whole wheat flour. Let me know how your variations turn out...!

Parmesan Flatbread
Makes 2 large flatbreads

Ingredients

1 cup unbleached white flour (or 1/2 white flour and 1/2 whole wheat white)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup boiling water

Instructions

In a mixing bowl combine the flour, baking powder and parmesan cheese. Add the olive oil and boiling water and quickly stir to form a soft dough. Divide the dough in half and roll each half on a floured surface into a roughly 8 1/2 inch round. Heat a non-stick pan or flat griddle over medium high heat. When hot, cook the flat bread, about 3 minutes on each side or until brown in spots. Top with whatever toppings you like and slice into wedges.

Enjoy!

I am very pleased to introduce a new feature on Cooking with Amy. If you scroll down the page on the right hand you will find a Google Calendar that lists local events that I have cherry picked. These are not randomly chosen, but only events I personally think will be well worth attending. I may even be attending some of them myself. Note: the image on the left is just that, an image, so don't try clicking on it!

To use the calendar just click on the title of the event you are interested in for more details. Click on the title again and you will again see the full listing of events. If you click on the "+ Google Calendar" image you can subscribe to the calendar if you wish. I'll be adding more events as they come to my attention.

A big thanks again to my coding guru Christine Vilar for making this calendar come to life.