Aroma Cucina

Grandma’s Finnish Biscuit

The smell of cardamom and fresh bread wafting down the hall. Who can resist? Our down-the-hall friend Kevin had been telling us about his grandmother’s cardamom biscuit. How his grandmother would make the biscuit for holidays and send him 2 loaves How the smell of this biscuit brings back all sorts of good feelings. Finally, after days of hearing about the wonders of this biscuit Kevin delivered us our own share. You and I would call it a bread, but Kevin and his grandmother call it a biscuit. It’s delicious, and heart warming and time to make more.

Grandma’s Finnish Biscuit

2 packages of yeast, ½ cup warm water, 1 tsp sugar – let it stand until double

Melt ½ pound of butter in 1 quart of milk (do not boil), let cool

Add 3 beaten eggs, 2-3 tsp ground cardamom, 1½ tbl salt, 2 cups sugar and yeast mixture

Add flour until thick (10-13 cups), kneading as you go, until it is no longer is sticky

Let rise in a warm spot until double in size (about 1 hour)

Divide into 4 or 5 parts.  Divide each part into thirds, roll and braid.

Place in greased bread pans.  Let rise. 

Coat top with whipped whole egg.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.  (375 degrees and 60 minutes at 8000 feet)

Best enjoyed toasted and buttered!

The Rotten Banana Award goes to Albertson's.com

Warning: Boycott Albertsons.com

Normally, I’m of the belief that if you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all; however, I view this as a public service announcement: if you are up here at Snowbird or Alta, do not use Albertsons.com to buy or deliver your groceries.

The website is difficult to navigate, bug-ridden, frequently hangs and is extremely slow to load. I’m willing to put up with that because I need groceries.  They throw soft pears into the bottom of the bag so you get pear mush and have to throw out the pears. You order 4 limes and get 1, 2 lemons you get 1. I’m willing to put up with that because…stuff happens. I’m willing to get on the phone to explain that yes, there is a difference between parsley and cilantro and that carbonated and flat water are not the same.  It’s not easy to get groceries, so I put up with the nonsense.

However, when the website is down, customer service is down, you finally (5 phone calls later) get through to someone, they assure you that they will make it right, tell me to order what I need and that no delivery charge will be applied and give me a case number to reference the problem, I assume that Customer Service is actually doing its job.

Today I learned that Customer Service is actually a misnomer, it should be called the Bait and Switch Dept. I was informed that they would not honor my case number, that in fact, I was being double charged for editing an order and that the agent who originally gave me the case number would be ‘coached’ instead of reimbursing me. Needless to say, I’m not so happy with Colleen V, the Customer Service Supervisor. I’m out $25 and they only delivered about 1/3 of my order. I did offer to return everything, but even that was refused. Apparently it’s a take-take situation.

These are tough times, and I’ll be honest with you, it’s times like these where loyalties are cemented. The guys who come through for you are the ones you will remember and reward. The $25 of ill will that Albertson’s just purchased, well that will last a lifetime. We’ve been coming to Snowbird for years, and we will continue to come, but Albertson’s has lost a customer forever.

Happy Valentine’s Day and Presidents Weekend

I hope you are as lucky as we are, we’ve been celebrating this weekend with friends and cherishing every moment. Amid all the evil economic news, the silver lining seems to be that we are all pausing to count our blessings, and good friends rank high on the list.

And today we are going to enjoy the sunshine before the snow returns.

Shout Out to Joe at Gotham Seafood

Woo-hoo!! Thank you Joe! The snow is falling thick and fast but the memories of mussels, tiny Manilla clams and cobia linger on. Umbria may be land locked and meat-centric, but living in the Wasatch mountains of Utah really makes you feel far from the sea and fresh fish; so it’s pretty spectacular when a box of fresh fish delicacies show up at our door.

The best thing to do when you receive a box of goodies like this is to invite a bunch of people and chow down and that’s what we did.

The mussels were steamed with cracked whole cloves of garlic, an anchovy or two and lots of fresh lemon chunks. It’s a very simple and clean way to prepare and enhance the mussel flavor.

The cobia was more of a challenge. First we had to figure out just what a cobia is and the internet served more to confuse than enlighten. Someone found a cobia and peanut butter recipe that was truly gag inducing. It’s a funny fish: the tail makes beautiful almost swordfish like steaks, while the body cavity meat is thin along the ribs and would probably be good in a soup. I opted to try it as small steaks and entertained a small crowd as I wacked apart the fish using a knife and the bottom of our Moka coffee pot. Life in the mountains is very simple so you can appreciate the allure of watching a fish with wings get wacked apart.  Our cobia was quickly fried, roasted in fish stock and finished with an olive dressing. That’s a lot going on for a fish prep, but this fish seems to need a flavor boost from some sort of sauce. All in all it was a fine evening, spent with friends and family.

Grazie mille Joe & Steve!!

Fast Easy Crunchy Revisted

 A few weeks ago I posted a recipe for quick, easy  fast crunchy potatoes and here’s the update: the same thin slice technique makes a great ‘bed’ for roasted meats. Necessity being the mama of invention,  I also discovered that parchment paper lining the bottom of the roasting pan is almost as good as having a silpat or silicone sheet to prevent stickage. Yes, stickage is a word and you know exactly what I mean.

Line your roasting pan with parchment paper, spread around a tablespoon of olive oil, layer the potatoes, a few slices of paper thin garlic, some fresh herbs, salt, pepper. Add another layer of potatoes and bake for 10 minutes at 350F.  Remove from the oven and add your meat that is to be roasted. I’d suggest something small that will bake in about 20 minutes: pork chop, chicken breast or a quail or two.

Your potatoes will have soaked up the meat flavor, they’re crispy and delicious and you only have one pan to wash.

Our quail were finished with a blood orange and olive compote. Pretty tasty.

Raucous Return and a Mountain Morning

We’re high again. No, this is legal; we’re back in the Wasatch Mountains, skiing at Snowbird. It’s good to be back in the mountains, its good to be able to go outside and play for most of the day, and it’s good to see our ski friends again. Life here is akin to living in a college dorm, some doors in the hall are open, some shut, we can wander around in our long underwear and no one notices, shoes are optional.  The first week in February is the “Owners Weekend” for those of us lucky enough to own a condo at the Lodge, and as the owners all arrive it resembles the beginning of a semester, with hugs, kisses and greetings all around.

Within moments of arriving on Saturday afternoon we had an invite to our friend Kevin’s for dinner. Score! I was functioning on virtually no sleep so the thought of wielding knives and readjusting to the intricacies of altitude cooking was about on par with a root canal.  We had a very delicious and festive dinner that night; Kevin made a roasted turkey breast stuffed with fresh mango.  What a delicious way to infuse moisture and a delicate fruitiness to the meat; I’m thinking it would work very well with roast pork.  Anyone with some mangoes around, please experiment and report back.

Last night we did what almost every American did: we watched the Super Bowl with friends. What a game! What a finish! Is that what you callit when the guy  catches the ball at the very last moment and wins the game? OK, so watching sports isn’t something I do everyday but it was still fun.   No chips and dips for us though, we dine well here in the mountains.

And now I’ve had my Monday morning cappuccino and its time to go out and do some skiing. Happy Monday indeed!