Warning all ‘Trekkers’: this is about blasting off but not from terra firma. It’s about space in the studio, and why I may not be as active on my blog in the coming months.

One of my favorite blog posts is by Smitten Kitchen, in which she describes how she maximizes, organizes and utilizes her less than galley sized kitchen.

It’s not working so smoothly in the Art On The Menu space. Here I have divided my space into stacks of cardboard; bins of colored cardboard pieces; an easel space which limits me to rather small scale paintings; paint storage; odds and ends of reference files and my lovely large pneumatic  drawing table

upon which I create all of my cardboard sculpture. I also bring up extra tables from the basement  which I then use for photographing sculpture and food. When photographing in the studio, all else gets pushed to the wall in order to create a clear center space for lights, table, and action!

It’s now so full,  I have expanded and I am currently packing art for shipping in the basement. My office is relegated to a 40 sq.ft. area previously used as a mud porch.

Alas, it’s time to move. The rest of the year will be spent prepping, painting, and remodeling bits and pieces of my current house. Between my regular posts, I will keep you all informed with updates.

Space is the final frontier in this little abode. But this  1,000 sq ft house has served me well.

I still write my initial blog notes with pen and paper. And sometimes, I just can’t pick up that pen. The words just aren’t there. During the last ‘pen-less’ three weeks I also watched as a human rights revolution, and celebration, spread across the Mid-East and North Africa.

I thought I had nothing to say, but it was now obvious to me that this was the perfect time to re-visit, and bake, my Peace Cookies.

I explored the Peace Cookie in a recent post, and after researching options on the internet, I complied a list of variations. Since many blogs have been written about the Dorie Greenspan chocolate sable Peace Cookie, I decide to bake the Croatian Peace Cookie. This cookie was a cream cheese pastry with a jam filling. While staying in the spirit of the original, I did find myself redesigning this recipe.

I began by substituting my own cream cheese pastry for the original cookie pastry when I discovered the original recipe was incomplete. After making one batch I  changed the size of the original cookie, a 3″ square was just a mouthful of pastry, trimming it down to a  2″ square which was the perfect two bite size.

But the most important change of all, and in solidarity with our Mid- Eastern/North African sisters and brothers, I changed the filling to a mixture of fig preserves, dates and almonds.

I rounded out this little cookie with a brush of egg glaze and sprinkle of sugar to hold it together, and give it shine after baking. A much prettier finish than just a dusting of powdered sugar, which is what the original recipe called for.

The original cookie was a Croatian family recipe. It was published along with the following notation: “Each cookie is a prayer for peace for all people living in war torn and repressed nations.”

I’m so happy I decided to double the recipe. Double the Peace!

‘Redesigned’ Croatian Peace Cookie

Makes 4-5 doz

Pastry: ( can be carefully rerolled  two times)

1 cup unsalted butter, room temp
1 8- oz package cream cheese, room temp
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour

Whisk salt and flour together.

Using stand or electric mixer, beat butter and cheese until light.

Beat in sugar until mixture is fluffy.

Mix in flour/salt until dough can be gathered together. It will be soft.

Divide the dough, forming into 2 equal square shapes, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for an hour, or can be made a day ahead and chilled overnight.

If chilling overnight leave out until soft enough to roll.

Filling:

1 cup pitted chopped dates
2/3 cup fig jam
2/3 cup  chopped roasted, unsalted almonds
2 tablespoons melted butter

Mix above together in a medium size bowl

1 egg, beaten
additional sugar

Assembly:

Preheat oven to 350°

Flour your rolling surface.  I roll out this pastry on wide plastic wrap dusted with flour.

Roll out one chilled square of pastry  to 1/8″. If pastry was chilled more than one hour, leave out to soften until it is soft enough to roll.

Cut pastry into 2″ squares. ‘Gently’ re-knead and re-roll scraps to prevent dough from getting tough.

Lay out the 2″ squares so you can fill them assembly line style. See photo below.

Place one scant teaspoon of filling in the center of each square.

Bring opposite corners of the square to the middle, pressing the first corner down sightly onto the base, and overlapping the second corner.

Brush with egg and sprinkle with sugar.

Repeat process with second square of rested pastry.

Bake on an unlined, ungreased baking sheet for 20-25 min, or until bottoms and edges are golden brown.

Think Peace!

Artists, musicians, writers, chefs and home cooks, or anyone in the midst of a creative endeavor would agree, inspiration is a mystery.

It can feel like floating through a delicious cloud, straining just a little to see an image that suddenly appears above the haze. Or, it can become a thick veil in which we become entangled. We thrash around with obscured vision until we break free and the image, word, flavor combination, musical notes, or theme becomes crystal clear.

So it goes in the cardboard kitchen. I recently found this lovely, deep cherry colored wine box.

What I envisioned was a towering, ambrosial multi- layered torte. My first inspiration was definitely the delicious cloud variety!

However, if there is a consistent theme in using recycled material, it is that cardboard is unpredictable. This beautiful cardboard would not cooperate. I was suddenly thrown into the thickly veiled cloud of inspiration, thrashing  around for another image.  Just when I was about to put this cardboard aside for another day, a friend gave me a box of Italian cookies. The cookies were so-so, but the box was the epitome of chocolate and vanilla, dusted with gold.

The solution: a scaled down version. I combined these two confection-flavored cardboard ingredients, and baked a ‘Swiss Pastry”.  Inspiration also works in mysterious ways.

And, I have lots of the  dark cherry cardboard left over, to bake with in the future!

I sat looking out my studio window watching the robins gobble the last remaining red berries from my yard, wondering why I placed a Peanut Blossom, such a sunny cookie,  in a decidedly cool background. But watching the last speck of red in my yard disappear down the gullet of one happy robin, it dawned on me: it’s the color of winter.

And when I visit the market in the winter, both the farmers outdoor markets and my local co-op, doing my best to support our local farmers by passing by the bright red hydroponic tomatoes from North of the border, and the bright green scallions from South of the Border, what remains is a very muted winter palette of color. There are the root vegetables such as  carrots, potatoes,  parsnips  and beets. These earthy colors are punctuated here and there by onions, squash, and apples.

But what I was really dreaming about in the middle of continual gray, was a nice bright salad. That left me one choice. Construct a salad with all the colors that winter has to offer, and brighten the taste with a vinaigrette. Its ‘The Colors Of Winter Salad’!

The Colors Of Winter Salad

Use any root vegetable that appeals to you. In this salad I used red, russet, and purple potatoes; golden beets; parsnips; onions; carrots; and squash. I also used apples in the dressing and as a finish to the salad for added crunch!

Roasting veggies: use the veggies of your choice,  just cut them all approximately the same size for even roasting.

Preheat oven to 400°

1 lb.  each purple, russet, and red potatoes scrubbed and cut into 1 inch pieces.
1 1/2 lb. carrots  scrubbed, cut into 1″ pieces on the diagonal
1 1/2 lbs parsnips, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 lb. beets, whole (I used golden beets to avoid staining the other veggies)
1 small onion, peeled and cut into 1″ chunks
1 lb.  hard winter squash (Butternut, Delicata, Danish etc.) peeled and cut into 1-1/2″ pieces
5 cloves of garlic, peeled
1/2 cup olive oil
Kosher salt and ground pepper to taste
1/4 cup fresh Rosemary coarsely chopped.

Toss all ingredients, in a medium bowl.

Place all ingredients, except beets, in a half or baking sheet, and roast until barely fork tender, 20-30 min.

Wrap whole beets separately in foil, and roast approx 40-50 min.

To assemble:

1  large apple, large diced skin on
Apple dressing: recipe follows ( uses an additional 1/2 apple)
Crumbled gorgonzola as garnish optional.

Cut cooled, peeled beets into 1″ pieces.

Toss all veggies  and diced apple in a medium bowl.

Add dressing to taste: I like this ‘lightly’ dressed, adding about 2 tablespoons.

Serve at room temp.

Apple Dressing:

Makes 1 cup.

You won’t use all of this in the salad, but it’s so good you will use up in no time!

2 tablespoons sugar
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons grated shallot
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste
1/4 cup olive oil
3/4 cup finely chopped apple ( approx 1/2 medium apple)

Pulse a few times in cuisinart or with immersion blender.

Stores for 5 days in fridge.

I never do resolutions for the New Year. I do have a New Year tradition however, that I call ‘Reviewing’. Reviewing is a visit to the past year’s favorites. ‘Favorites’ can be places; people; things;  or events. And favorites can be new or old!

I  just sit down and make a list. In very short order I have filled a legal sized sheet of paper. With so many memorable ‘Favorites’, I can’t help but look forward to what’s in store for the New Year!

Here are four of my ‘Favorites’ from this years list. Three are repeats, and one is new.

Grandma Goldie’s Snack Mix:

It just wouldn’t be the holidays without this one of a kind, stellar snack! It is a yearly gift from our friend Linda.  Without a doubt this is the best snack mix recipe I have ever tasted. It has the perfect spice, salt, sweet and texture balance. It has been passed down to Linda so that she may carry on Grandma Goldie’s very secret recipe!

Diva Tool:

I love this new favorite gift I received from friends this year. It’s 5 tools in one, WITH rhinestones!

The handle contains 4 different attachments. I am already using this one one in The Cardboard Kitchen. And guess what?  It does make you feel like a Diva!

Agnes Martin:

Agnes Martin makes my list every year. I find her life and work inspirational. I absolutely love getting lost in her fields of color and line.

Several times a year I revisit her work and writing. One of my favorite text’s is a 1979 lecture she prepared for the University Of New Mexico that was then revised and published in Artspace, entitled  “The Current Of The River Of Life Moves Us”.

Pierre (Bonnard) And Henri (Matisse):

Affectionately referred to as ‘my boys’, Pierre and Henri  definitely make me happy every day, and they make my list every year!

And they are so artistic. Look how they  arrange themselves to form their own graphic patterns of blacks, grays and whites. I think they discuss the artistic merits of how to position themselves before they get comfortable.

Don’t you agree this is a much better tradition than resolutions? May you all look forward to 2011!

While pondering my last post of the year, I decided to explore the “Peace” cookie. Oh, if only baking would make it so. But, what if we ALL made Peace cookies around holiday time?

After a busy holiday season when we are all through with this:

(Cooking and baking in The Cardboard Kitchen!)

and this:

(Painting 'Seafood" in The Cardboard Kitchen!)

let’s say we all bake for Peace.

The Peace cookie has many variations. As I began to research all the recipes that came up during my web searches, I reduced it down to four distinct recipe themes.  These range from a Croatian filled pastry; the Dorie Greenspan Chocolate version including a vegan recipe of this now famous cookie; a cookie that uses healthy ingredients; and a sugar cookie with a lovely royal icing Peace decoration.

But really, Peace cookies do not have to be any one of these ‘sanctioned’ cookies. I believe if you think Peace while baking, than whatever you are baking magically becomes an ambassador of Peace. I shall try one of the following recipes in the coming month, and let you all know how it went! Until then, here are the links to the cookies described above.

Croatian Peace Cookies

Dorie Greenspan’s World Peace Cookies

World Peace Cookies For Vegans by Cinnamon Quill

Healthy Ingredients Peace Cookies

Decorated Sugar Cookie

So choose a recipe, and bake for Peace!

Wishing you a Peaceful 2011!

At Art On The Menu it’s been holiday baking time for the past 6 weeks. My approach is eclectic a best.  I look through my books, cookie magazines, and recipes. What jumps out, goes on the list.

This year it was 2 bar cookies; one sliced cookie; one rolled  cut out cookie, and the peppermint and chocolate graham cracker cookie bar my niece and nephew love. Because I make this cookie every year for them, it almost defines my holiday baking.

I am also crazy about the way this cookie looks. Dark chocolate is the perfect backdrop for red and white peppermint. And since I love everything vintage, to my eye these bars are reminiscent of a 40′s cocktail dress: dark brown velvet worn with red and white rhinestones that sparkle against the velvety chocolate color!

This cookie is easy, elegant, and everybody loves them. If you don’t already have a version of this recipe, it’s my holiday gift to you!

Happy Holidays!

Chocolate Peppermint Cookie Bars

Makes 48

Preheat oven to 350°

Line a regular cookie sheet (11″ wide, not a  1/2 sheet), with foil and coat lightly with cooking spray.

12-16 graham crackers
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 package chocolate chips
1 package Peppermint Star Lights, unwrapped, crushed

Line  baking sheet with Graham crackers, breaking as needed to fill gaps. Approx 12 – 16 graham crackers.

Boil butter and brown sugar, stirring constantly, for 2 min.

Add 1/2 tsp salt.

Stir in salt.

Immediately pour over graham crackers, spread to cover.

Bake for 7 min. only.

Remove from oven and immediately sprinkle with chocolate chips.

Wait 5 min until chips soften.

Spread chocolate.

Sprinkle with crushed peppermint.

Cut into bars.

Freezes well.

Look at this gorgeous Tree!

Most of us have a seasonal decorating tradition, but let me introduce you to Danielle. She is not only an accomplished artist, but also a dedicated art collector.

Since 2003 Danielle has been collecting art for her 12′ Tree, and she spends months carefully  placing and arranging the art on the branches. I think you’ll agree, this creative conifer really is an ever changing work of art!

Danielle graciously told me about the process of creating this visionary Tree in the interview that follows.

aotm: I see your spectacular Tree as an ongoing work of art! How long have you been creating your ” Tree Of Art”?

D: “I’ve been putting up a Christmas tree with the most interesting store bought ornaments I could find since I was sixteen.  Even then, arranging the ornaments always felt like an Art project to me.  I started the “Artist” tree in 2003 when I first learned to use the computer at age thirty-eight (I KNOW!!!!) and discovered Ebay and it’s Artists, followed by Etsy and it’s Artists in 2005.”

aotm: What inspired this vision?

D: “I LOVE ART!!!!  Especially sculpture of any medium. But I like to live in simple, clean lines without a lot of stuff ( think gallery space).  So I thought “how can I enjoy hordes of art at once within my simple space?” And I came up with using our 12′ Christmas tree where there’s plenty of space for art and it stays up for 3 or 4 months for everyones enjoyment:):)”

aotm: Tell us how you choose the pieces in your collection.

D: “I choose what I feel are the most interesting and well made of every medium ( glass, paper, wood, clay, fabric etc.). I have a thing for kooky expressions, creepy/cute & I’m currently obsessed with food sculpture.  Also, if I see a larger piece of Artwork that I like, I’ll ask the Artist if they’d like to recreate it smaller for the tree.”

aotm: I know you are an artist yourself, and create Art Dolls. Are any of your own pieces on your tree?

D: “I’ve been working on a series of “sideshow” figures since 2003.  Since I do them in my spare time, they may never be complete, LOL, so until then I’ve displayed a couple of the finished pieces on the tree.  So far, the “large” lady, the “little” lady, the “upper torso only” lady, the armless lady, the pinhead guy and the gender confused “half man, half woman” have all made an appearance on the tree.”

aotm: You have told me it takes months of careful arranging and modifying before your Tree is ready for viewing. Can you describe this process?

D: “Hmm, do I want people to know how crazy and anal I really am (LOL!)??  In a nutshell, it takes four days to assemble the 12′ artificial tree, spread the branches and lift each branch into place with a small piece of plastic.  Fifteen minutes to move the living room furniture to the perimeter of the room.  Three hours to set up two 8′, two 6′ and two 4′ tables, tape cardboard around the edges ( so the Art can’t fall off ), and cover with acid free tissue paper.  One hour to bring out the 15 boxes of Art.  Two days to unpack all the art & place on the tables according to medium.  And six to eight weeks (depending on the amount of time I can devote to it per day) to stand 3 to 5′ away from the tree holding a piece of art at arms length, deciding where it would look the best.  I try to mix up the mediums and colors to make the overall effect fun and pleasing to the eye!!!”

aotm: Wow! That really is dedication to art! As one of the many artists represented on this creative Tree Of Art, I can only say I am very honored to be a part of this fantastic and beautiful vision Danielle! Thank You!

All photographs courtesy of Danielle S.

We’ve had enough turkey talk, so lets talk salmon. This amazing fish has quite a place in history. Salmon lore crosses cultures from Native American to Druids, with the traditions of preparing this fish spanning from grilled to gravlax.  And of course, there is the color.

No matter what we are describing, umbrellas or dishes, if it’s this color we refer to it as ‘salmon’ colored.

I am in the ‘oh so early’ process of preparing salmon in The Cardboard Kitchen. No grilling or gravlax with this version. This salmon will be baked whole.

Part of this early process includes painting subjects before I construct them in cardboard. This gives me a feel for the form.

So how do I plan to translate this intricate, beautiful and complicated fish form from this pile of cardboard:

into this fluid, shimmering shape?

I couldn’t guess right now!

It’s beloved, but not for eating.  Although it’s delicious roasted; pureed; baked in

bread and pastries or stuffed in ravioli; mostly it’s a centerpiece.  And the final

degradation is on Halloween, when it’s carved and left to slowly sag as it rots away

on porches around the country.  Where the pumpkin is concerned, few people are.

So,  for my November recipe  I decided I would lift this squash out of it’s lowly

position.  I envisioned a cookie that was as round, beautiful, and stand alone as the

pumpkin. No drop cookies here.

I went to work mining my ‘too’ vast collections of  filed recipes, cookie magazines,

and cookbooks.

I was so excited when I finally found one. It was called Pumpkin-Spiced Balls. But

carrying on the tradition of the pumpkin as decoration, the pumpkin in the name of

this cookie did not refer to the squash. This cookie is beautiful and round, but no

pumpkin. How appropriate!

Oh well, there is always next year’s pumpkin cookie blog at Thanksgiving.  Until

then, I will keep looking.

Pumpkin-Spiced Balls

Preheat oven to 325°

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup chopped, toasted pecans

Pumpkin-Spiced Glaze ( follows)

Beat butter on medium to high for 30 seconds.

Beat in powdered sugar and vanilla until combined, scraping down the bowl if

necessary.

Beat in pumpkin pie spice and as much flour as you can with the stand  or electric

mixer. Stir in any remaining flour, and pecans.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place 2″ apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 16-20 min or until bottoms are lightly browned. (If using parchment, bake longer).

Transfer to wire rack and cool completely.

Pumpkin-Spiced Glaze

3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp cinnamon
3-4 tsps cream or milk

Combine powdered sugar, and spices in a bowl.

Stir in enough milk to make the glaze the desired consistency.

Dip the tops of the cooled cookies, place on wire rack, and let stand until set.

Makes about 48.

To freeze: place cookies in layers separated by waxed paper in an airtight container. Freeze up to 3 months.

Adapted from Better Homes And Gardens Christmas Cookies.