Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum . . .

It's the darndest thing . . . I got all caught up in a Charlie Brown fever and messed around until too late to trot outside and DO something about it. If you will forgive a bit of a mild rant, hang in here with me and I'll explain.

It sort of started with this YouTube video. Go ahead and watch it. [Idiot Alert! Sorry, Coffee Mates. I did not double check that link. Fortunately, Becky let me know what I had put in wasn't working and she even sent me the correct one! Thank you, Becky. So, okay -- now the link works. ] I'll keep the coffee warm until you're done. Really. Might even have some more of that cranberry shortbread laid out for you. (I know. I could have done the embed thing but, for some reason, it wasn't working tonight. Thus, I'm letting you click over to YouTube for the viewing -- and bribing you with coffee and cranberry bars so you'll click back.)

Okay. Now you have the idea.That's what got me going. Before you could say, "Sic 'em, Snoopy!" I was Google-gallivanting through assorted trivia about Charlie Brown and his famous Christmas tree. Now, if you've never seen the special, Wikipedia has an excellent synopsis. And you've just got to cheer the little guy for seeing the beauty in that pathetic, scraggly tree and, in effect, striking a solid blow against the commercialization of a holiday.

It doesn't much matter whether you're celebrating the season from a religious perspective, a secular one, or both. The point is that all our celebrations have mutated into some weird kind of pressure cooker roller derby, driven by a frenzied cash register drum beat.We've lost sight of the simple, warm, GOOD things we need to reaffirm so we can balance and restore our poor, harried selves. Thus Charlie Brown's Christmas tree has become a symbol of rejecting the glitter and gloss for the humble and real.

Well, sort of. Because -- here's the dose of irony -- a second glance at some (many) of those Google links were for (gasp) store after store selling (not cheaply) fake Charlie Brown Christmas trees! Remember, in the video clip how Linus wrapped his precious blanket around the bottom of the tree to give it a little love? Well, folks, if you pay a bit extra, you can have your fake Charlie Brown tree with its own blue blanky.

I applaud the folks in Concord who opted for their version of the CB tree. Good ON them! And, by golly, as a show of support, I'm putting up my own Charlie Brown tree this year. Yuppers. I'd have hauled in what I needed earlier this evening but it got dark before I realized it was so late. (sigh) So -- tomorrow, tomorrow. Yes. Daughter Patti will be down tomorrow and she's giving me one of the red balls from her own tree -- because the CB tree has to have a red ball, don'cha know?

All together now, Coffee Mates: "O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, your branches green delight us."

Stuffing Gallons Into Quarts

I don't know how we do it. I don't know how we can keep squeezing gallons of activity into pint jars of Time when the holiday season rolls around. Okay, maybe they're quart jars. But we still have more "stuff" than jar. There is probably an obscure scientific law that explains how that can be but it's so obscure, nobody knows what it is.

One of the things that has been taking a lot of my time has been the yearly -- obsessive -- search for new and different recipes for holiday occasions and gift giving. I might compare a dozen or two recipes for a single dish, trying to decide which one sounds like The One. And that's just for one item. You would not believe the number of various and assorted cranberry recipes I've been scanning, drooling and slobbering as I go.

Like, for instance, the one I found at the Joy of Baking web site. It turns out to be easy to put together and utterly delicious when done. This one's a keeper, Coffee Mates.

You can copy the recipe from the above link if you want, or grab it from here, whichever is easiest. It goes pretty much like this:




CRANBERRY SHORTBREAD BARS
9" X 9" baking pan, buttered -- preheat oven to 375 degrees fairy height

For the filling: In medium-sized sauce pan, put:
2 1/4 cups (8 ounces or 225 grams) fresh or frozen cranberries
2/3 cup (130 grams) sugar
3 tablespoons water
On medium-high heat, bring to a boil and continue boiling until mixture is thick and syrupy. This will take about 5 or 6 minutes. She didn't say, but I stirred the mixture the whole time, just in case. It's amazing to watch all the resulting liquid cook down and thicken. Once it's thick, remove from heat and set aside to cool.

For the crust: In a mixing bowl, whisk together:
2 cups (270 grams) all purpose flour
2 tablespoons corn starch
1/4 teaspoon salt (I used a teaspoon of salt.)
In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream 1 cup (2 sticks) butter until smooth.
Add 1/3 cup (70 grams) sugar, beat 2 minutes, add 1 teaspoon vanilla, blend in.
Gently stir in the flour mixture just until incorporated.

The dough will still look very crumbly. That's okay. With all that butter, it'll come together just fine in the pan. Dump two thirds of the dough into the buttered pan and pat it into a reasonably level layer with your fingers. See? It holds together just like it knew what it was doing.

Now you take the cooled filling and spread it over the layer of crust, leaving a quarter-inch margin all around the edges. Then take the remaining third of the dough and crumble it over the filling. It's okay if there are little gaps that show bits of the filling. Gently press the crumbs into the filling, put it in the oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.

When you take it out of the oven, set the pan on a cooling rack and cut the squares/bars while it's still hot. Then let it cool completely in the pan. Cutting it while hot enables you to wiggle out each gorgeous little bar without excessive crumbling and unseemly deterioration of your culinary artistry.

Just in case you didn't get a good enough look up top, here's a closer view of these tasty morsels.

Mmmmm! Look at that tender crumb. Gaze with delight on that lush, tart-sweet filling. Wipe the drool off your chin and head right into the kitchen to whip up a batch for yourself.

Listen, I would love to share this batch with you, really. Oh, WHEN will they invent email that allows you to send real live food attachments? Geez, if the hackers would just consider the benefits to themselves, I'll bet they could come up with such a program -- I'd be happy to keep sending attached Cheetos to such genius persons.Wouldn't you?