Lisa Johnson

Recently Watched: Being Erica

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Opening scene from Being Erica.

This past holiday season, I watched very few Christmas shows even though I look forward to them every year. But I enjoy time travel even more. And around Thanksgiving, I found a television series called Being Erica. I streamed the entire four years through the holidays and finished on December 30th. I wish there were more years, but watching this show was so satisfying —like eggnog and Christmas cookies. Which I indulged in while watching!

It was also a great way to end 2019. Especially since the year 2019 plays a role in the show, which aired on CBC Television from 2009 to 2011. So my then 2019 present, now my past in 2020, was the distant future on the show. How meta!

The easiest way to describe Being Erica is to compare it to Sex and the City. Located in Toronto instead of New York and with the added bonus of time travel! Erica is Carrie. She doesn’t have a Mr. Big, but she does have a series of romances and is a major part of the publishing world. We meet her group of close friends of course, but unlike Sex and the City, Erica’s family is a major part of the show. I always found it strange that we didn’t see Carrie’s family.

The way time travel works on this show is that it’s therapy. She meets Dr. Tom who gives her the ability to go back in time to regrets in her life and fix them. There are certain caveats to the time travel though. Which there always are!

This show has also made me realize a gaping hole in my Canadian travel. I’ve been to Canada a few times, but only to Montreal. I’ve never been to Toronto. It’s a new decade and before the 20s are over, I plant to visit! Hopefully I can get to some other places in Canada as well.

I won’t say more and give anything away, but I loved this show and was so glad that I found it streaming on Hulu. It’s also on Amazon Prime. The first episode is on YouTube, so you can watch it there for now too.

If you watch it, let me know what you think. Do you have any favorite time travel shows?

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Photo Credit: Screenshot @ Hulu

Recipe: Caramelized Apple Dutch Baby

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Carmelized Apple Dutch Baby on a plate.

Happy New Year! We’re living in the future! Well, actually the present. But that number — 2020. It seems like the future. Like when we were going from 1999 to 2000. It’s really just one day apart, but mentally it feels like a big jump. Going from one century to the next and one decade to the next. Also, now we’re really deep into the 21st century. It feels big.

So I decided to begin this first morning of the year and decade by doing something that I’ve been planning to do for quite some time. I made a Dutch baby for breakfast. These German pancakes were the darling of the food blogger world for many years. As I was reading yesterday, the main character in the novel just happened to make one. That sealed it for me.

A Dutch baby is similar to a popover, which I have made before. The dramatic thing about both is that they puff up without using any leavening. When I made popovers, they puffed up.

The Dutch baby did not puff. I have to admit that I was disappointed. Now I realize that the instructions in the recipe that I used didn’t stress using a blender or electric hand mixer to combine the ingredients. That vigorous mixing would have added more air prompting the puff. I forgot about this until looking at my popover recipe. Next time I’ll remember.

Also, just to let you know about the coloring. I keep a mixture of white flour combined with other healthier flours (ingredients) for better nutrition. The current combination is coffee flour and flaxseed meal. So the brown color of the Dutch baby might not be the same if you use plain white flour.

I’ve adapted this recipe from one on the blog Simply Scratch. Let me know if you try it and Happy New Year! 🎉

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Single Serving Caramelized Apple Dutch Baby

INGREDIENTS:

Caramelized Apples:

  • 1 apple cut up
  • 1 T butter
  • 2 T brown sugar

Dutch Baby:

  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1 T sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
  • pinch salt
  • 1 T butter (for the skillet)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Put the butter in a small skillet on medium heat and coat the sides. Add the apples and brown sugar. Stir and cook the apples for about 10 minutes. They will become tender and caramelized.

While the apples are cooking, combine the ingredients for the Dutch baby in a blender or use an electric mixer in a small bowl. Stirring with a whisk or a spoon is fine, but unless you whisk for longer than I did, it won’t be enough to get a lot of air into the mixture so that it will puff up in the oven.

Put the butter in a medium cast iron skillet on medium heat and coat the sides. When the butter sizzles, pour the batter into the pan and place in oven for 15 minutes.

Remove from the pan with a spatula and place on a large plate. Pour the apples on the Dutch baby. Sprinkle cinnamon and powdered sugar over the top. Enjoy!

Holiday Dessert Roundup: Mincemeat Pie

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Mince pie cut in half with background blur.
Photo Credit: By Jonathan Farber on Unsplash

From my last few posts, it’s clear that I love holiday sweets. Gingerbread is a holiday staple and eggnog might be my favorite holiday treat. But there’s another one that I haven’t written about — mincemeat pie.

First, let me clarify. Most mincemeat pies do NOT have meat in them. They are made with dried fruits and spices. While we call them mincemeat in New England, apparently in most other places, they’re called mince.

Personally, I’ve never made a mincemeat pie. One of my mom’s sisters, is the pie maker for our holiday meals and we are often blessed with one of her mincemeat pies. After a brief Twitter exchange with someone, I realized that not all families are so blessed! We had one for Thanksgiving and I’m hopeful for Christmas too! Served warm with vanilla ice cream, it’s a carousel of delicious flavors and textures.

I started wondering if enjoying mincemeat pies is more of a regional thing. The pie does have its roots in England. Growing up in New England may have skewed my views. Although for a period of time, Connecticut banned mincemeat pies. Those Puritans were no joke.

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Mincemeat pie is a holiday treat that has been enjoyed by many for a very long time, according to a recent article on Haiwatha World.

Mincemeat pie finds its roots in the 11th century — the Crusades, to be more precise. Returning crusaders brought back valuable spices — cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg — from the Holy Land, and these three spices were used to season a special “Christmas pie,” to represent the three gifts of the Magi to the infant Jesus Christ. Christmas pies were small, and could be eaten in a few bites. These pies were made in an oblong shape to resemble a cradle, and space was left for a Christ child figure to be placed on top. (The figure was removed before eating.) It was considered to be lucky to eat one Christmas pie for each of the twelve days of Christmas, between December 25 and Epiphany, January 6. The mincemeat filling of these pies was indeed almost entirely meat, but cooked with rum and spices, which acted as a preservative, as well as giving it its distinctive flavor.

With my increasing interest in all things mincemeat pie, I decided to do some additional research on the latest news and have assembled a roundup for your (and my) holiday reading pleasure. Enjoy!

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– Here’s a recipe for a boozy Baileys mince pie.

– Selfridges was selling a mini mince pie advent calendar.

– Mince pie filled cookies are a thing!

– A mince pie sandwich is also a thing.

– Is mince pie flavored popcorn going too far?!

– Caffè Nero is offering mince pies in the UK for the Christmas season, but not in the US.  Not even in New England.

– Here’s a recipe for mincemeat crumble cake.

– The Helen M. Kelly Memorial Mince Pie has been in this family’s fridge since 1988.

– Mince pie bao buns are for sale on Amazon Fresh UK.

– Parenthood won the best Thanksgiving TV dinner and the mincemeat pie had a lot to do with it.

– Grocery story Lidl has mince pie ice cream!

– A Dublin restaurant took the meat part of mincemeat too literally for Professor Darryl Jones.

– An American website had a similar meat problem with its mincemeat pie recipe.

– Try Queen Elizabeth’s royal recipe for mince pie. No meat included!

– If you’re ready to go absolutely medieval, try this mincemeat pie recipe that includes pork shoulder roast and bacon.

– And guess who has never tried mincemeat pie? I apologize in advance.

Holiday Recipe: Eggnog Ice Cream

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Is there one thing that is the epitome of the holidays for you? When I was a kid, that first eggnog of the season, right before Thanksgiving was it. The holiday season was here for real!

Now eggnog is here much sooner, but for me, it’s still a clear signal that the holidays are upon us. As much as I love eggnog, I never made it from scratch until yesterday, when I made this eggnog ice cream for the first time.

While I do enjoy eating raw cookie dough as I bake, I must admit that the multiple raw egg yolks freaked me out a bit. But I got over it. Especially since I added alcohol, which feels like it cleans it up a bit. Maybe?!?

Anyway, as long as you have an ice cream maker, this recipe is pretty simple. The recipe is adapted from an Alton Brown one that I found on NPR back in December 2006. Way back at the beginning of the century! And now, we’re zooming into 2020 in a mere two weeks! But eggnog is timeless.

This recipe was adapted based on what I have at home and my personal taste. I had some half and half that I needed to use up and I happen to have vanilla oat milk. I don’t have bourbon, but I do have vanilla flavored vodka, so that’s what I used. I also added some additional flavor extracts and a bit of salt, because the mixture tasted somewhat bland. The final result is delicious!

I hope you try this recipe and adapt based on what you have at home as well. Happy Holidays!

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Eggnog Ice Cream  (makes 1 quart)

INGREDIENTS:
4 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
2  1/2 cups half and half
1/2 cup vanilla oat milk
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 cup Pinnacle®️ Whipped®️ Vodka

INSTRUCTIONS:
You can use the directions in the original recipe or the way I have done below.

Beat the egg yolks well in a large bowl. Use what you have — a stand mixer, an electric hand mixer (what I used) or a manual hand mixer. Add in the sugar and beat well. Add the remaining ingredients and use a whisk to combine. Chill mixture in the freezer for about 40 minutes. Transfer mixture to your ice cream maker and use as directed. Place ice cream in an airtight container and put in freezer for several hours.

Holiday Recipe: Gingerbread

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Gingerbread in pan fresh from the oven.

If you know me in person and see me around the holidays, you’ve probably had my homemade gingerbread.

This past week, a recent work project ended. I baked a couple of loaves and brought it in to thank the firm for the warm welcome.

This morning, I baked another loaf to bring for Thanksgiving dinner later today. Gingerbread has been my signature holiday dessert for over 20 years. At this point, it’s part of my identity. I bake gingerbread.

I first found the recipe in a magazine that my maternal grandmother gave me. It’s called Mother’s Gingerbread and is from the book  Cleora’s Kitchen. Over the years, I’ve adapted it. So it is somewhat different from the original.

It’s one of my favorite things to eat and most other people love it too. So I often give it as a gift. It’s easy to make and maybe you might like to bake it too. Here’s the recipe below.

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Gingerbread (makes 1 loaf)

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup butter (softened)
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup molasses
2 eggs
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
2 cups flour
1 cup hot/boiling water

INSTRUCTIONS:
Place parchment paper in loaf pan or grease pan with butter, then shake flour in pan until the pan is covered with flour. Dump out excess flour. Set oven to 350 degrees.

In large bowl, combine butter and sugar. Stir in molasses and eggs. Stir in cinnamon and ginger. Stir in baking powder and baking soda. Stir in flour. Stir in water. This should be a very liquid mixture.

Pour mixture into loaf pan. Depending upon your oven, and maybe the pan that you use, bake for 60 – 75 minutes. When the gingerbread is almost done, you should smell it. The scent is amazing! Sometimes I’ll bake it at night, so I can fall asleep to the wonderful aroma in the house.

Use a toothpick or fork, etc., to test it before removing from the oven. It should come out clean. If there is some liquid on it, then put back in the oven.

When it’s finally done, let cool for a few minutes. I usually wrap it in foil and store it in the fridge if I am keeping it. It’s great served warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

It can be frozen as well. Usually I make gingerbread to give away or bring someplace else, so I don’t refrigerate it. Just keep in foil and bring with you or package it well in order to mail. It will remain fresh and moist even in the mail for  2- 3 days. So choose your postage accordingly!

Happy Thanksgiving and all the best to you for this holiday season!