You know that feeling that you get every November when you realize how little time you have before the holidays are upon us? It’s 80° and yet we need to start think about roasting turkeys and chestnuts. The only antidote I can think of is to give in and start making a list… cookies to bake, presents to buy and meals to plan.
Over the next few weeks, I’d like to share some ideas with you. I can’t promise to make the holidays stress-free, but I can provide you with a moment of respite. I can help you dream of sugar plums and copper kettles, or at the very least provide an inspiring recipe or two. Let’s get started!
Holiday Gift Guide
If you have already started shopping for holiday presents, you are way ahead. The rest of us can start by perusing a few of these from our upcoming Gift Guide, a special advertising section coming in our Winter issue.
For the Person Who Loves Food and Cooking: a Selection of Delicious Treats.
The Classics Gift Box by il Fustino, Oils & Vinegars
An assortment of il Fustino’s favorite products including their award winning 25 Barrel-Aged Balsamic and Basil Olive Oil. Includes premium gift wrap and free shipping. $80
Give Someone the Delicious Comfort of Soup: Ready to Cook
Santa Barbara Soups One-Pot-Meals from Santa Barbara Soups
Santa Barbara Soups offers deliciously healthy, easy to prepare, artfully packaged non-perishable, one-pot meals. Their products are made from nutritional ingredients, fiber-rich legumes, grains, quinoa, vegetables and high quality spices. All their products are gluten free, dairy free, soy free and vegan with no fillers. Whether you keep Santa Barbara Soups as a staple in your panty, or give them out as gifts, Santa Barbara Soups offers a quick, nutritious and delicious meal at your fingertips. $13.50–$70
For the Cook: The Ultimate Soup Pot
Titanium 3 Quart Soup Pot by Hestan Culinary
For groundbreaking innovations in cookware, equip the kitchen with a 3-quart Hestan NanoBond Molecular Titanium Stainless Soup Pot. Hestan's innovative cookware technology, Molecular Titanium, bonds thousands of titanium nano-layers to the stainless steel construction, creating a brilliantly resilient cooking surface 4 times harder than typical stainless steel, making it resistant to scratching, staining and salt pitting. 100% toxin-free, non reactive. High heat and oven safe to a scorching 1050°F, this Italian handcrafted soup pot offers a lifetime of durability for culinary perfection. $199.96
Give the Gift of Learning: Cooking Classes
Cooking Classes by Apples to Zucchini Cooking School
Apples to Zucchini Cooking School teaches cooking classes for kids, teens, adults and families. Choose from afterschool classes, dinner classes, birthday parties and team-building events. Learn basic skills as well as specialties like pizza, seafood, vegan, fermenting, canning and cheese-making. Classes are hands-on, COVID compliant, and you get to eat what you cook! You can register now or buy a gift certificate for future classes. Prices vary.
Recipes
As soon as the weather cools off a bit, it’s time to start to start thinking about baking. If you are baking pies for Thanksgiving this year, you can get a head start by making pie crust and keeping it in your freezer. And for something a little different, how about making your own marshmallows to top your Thanksgiving sweet potatoes?
Homemade Marshmallows
When did marshmallows stop containing marshmallow? Here’s a recipe that uses healthier ingredients than you’ll find in most packaged marshmallows and—most importantly—puts the marshmallow back in. You can find marshmallow root online here.
1 tablespoon marshmallow root
11⁄4 cup water, room temperature
Coconut oil for greasing pan
4 tablespoons gelatin powder (preferably from grass-fed or pastured sources)
1 cup honey (preferably local)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Organic powdered sugar for dusting
Add the marshmallow root to the room-temperature or slightly warm water. Stir or shake and then refrigerate for a couple hours or overnight. Strain out the marshmallow root, and keep 1 cup of the liquid.
Lightly grease an 8- by 8-inch shallow pan and line with parchment paper, leaving the ends higher so you can lift it out of the pan. Then lightly grease the parchment paper.
Place ½ cup of the marshmallow-infused water in a mixing bowl with the gelatin powder and stir until combined.
Add another ½ cup of marshmallow-infused water along with the honey to a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Continue cooking it for about 8–10 minutes, or until it reaches 240° (soft ball stage) on a candy thermometer.
Using a stand or hand mixer, gradually pour the honey mixture into the bowl of gelatin while mixing on low. Add the vanilla extract. Then mix on high until it reaches a soft peak consistency.
Pour the marshmallow mixture into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Let sit for 4–6 hours or overnight at cool room temperature. Flip onto a large cutting board lightly dusted with powdered sugar. Remove the parchment and dust the top lightly with powdered sugar, then cut into squares or other shapes. Keep in an airtight container with parchment paper between layers to prevent sticking.
Thanksgiving Sweet Potatoes
If you’ve made homemade marshmallows, they’ll make a great topping for this recipe. It’s also good with store bought marshmallows, if you’re pressed for time. Note: homemade marshmallows spread more than the commercial variety, so spread them out a little more.
Things to Do
And if you need a little distraction from all this holiday cooking and planning, here are a couple ideas.
Grab some wine at the new tasting room for Santa Barbara Winery at 28 Anacapa Street - open 11-6 Daily. No reservations required!
The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum is pleased to announce the long-awaited re-opening of the exhibit Mermaids: Visualizing the Myths and Legends – Photography by Ralph A. Clevenger & Friends. The public is also invited to a mermaid sighting and the opportunity to have photos taken with mermaids tomorrow—Saturday, November 13 from 11:30am–2pm. The exhibit will be open through March 31, 2022.
The Santa Barbara Parade of Lights is back! Mark your calendar for Sunday, December 12. Beginning at noon families can visit a Winter Wonderland on the City Pier in Santa Barbara Harbor. There will be holiday elves, 10 tons of snow and holiday music. At 5pm a holiday tree lighting ceremony will be held on the shoreward finger of Stearns Wharf next to the Sea Center. Then, at 5:30 p.m., around 30 illuminated watercraft will light up the night as they make their way from Ledbetter Beach down the coast to the Cabrillo Arts Pavilion, then back along the coast to Stearns Wharf. The parade will be capped off by a brief fireworks show.
Thanks for reading. If you missed last week’s newsletter, you can find it here.
As always, I encourage you all to reply or leave a comment. It is so great to get your feedback.
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Thank you so much for the gift suggestions. I would like to add that there are wonderful chefs in Santa Barbara I've taken private cooking lessons from. My husband gave me those lessons as gifts and says he's gotten so much back :-) I took wonderful Moroccan and Paella lessons from Ikram Terjani, Indian from Nimita Dhirajlal, learned to cook all kinds of dishes from Jayson Poe, Tunisian from Ayda Robana, pie making from Coco Laforge. On another gift note, there's a Japanese store in LA, Toiro Kitchen, that sells amazing clay Donabe pots. They make beautiful gifts and transform one's cooking. I don't just make Japanese meals like Yosenabe in them but use them for making duck confit, stews, tagines and braises.