Make Naan

Nothing sells dinner like a bread baked that day: whether we're talking actual loaves, or rolls, tortillas, biscuits, or naan.  All over the world, or among our ancestors, bread baked that day was UNUSUAL.  That's why being a bakers is the third oldest profession, and that's why so often a village has only one oven, and it's shared.

 That said, if today's a day you want to bake a bread, here's this great recipe for naan I've been using.  Note well: plan on three+ hours for the rise.

http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/2007/05/22/naan-bread/

What's on your Christmas menu?

For the last four years, our holiday dinner is pasta with three sauce choices, and we have that Christmas Eve night. Christmas morning I'll make cinnamon rolls, but I'm so out of practice they won't be ready until it's almost afternoon. My husband bought some boxes of sugar cereal (usually forbidden in this house), and we'll end up snacking on tangerines and Christmas candy, and probably even serving the egg dish while the rolls are still baking.

I know. It would be more exciting if I were making a meal around homemade vegetarian tamales. Or serving parboiled broccoli, cubed cottage potatoes, and torn bread to dip in spicy peanut butter fondue. Or bringing out a platter of roasted Sliced Acorn Squash rings (because they look like stars) stuffed with apples or mushrooms and rice and nuts. Or, if I hadn't been making it every thursday for last six weeks, Spatzle with mushroom gravy, with lingonberry jam for a side of Christmas color.

Instead, all I need to make it a holiday is one green salad with pomegranate seeds sprinkled in it, and my really large and perfect Christmas tree.

Merry Christmas.

And your holiday secrets, menu or otherwise, do tell.