Finally - The Recipes You Asked For

Image by jessebucksc via Flickr

The Winter Solstice Celebration at our house was a big success. We had visitors from all over the state and the weather was great. For a while I thought that we would be without snow, but a few days prior to the celebration she came through with a big dump. We plowed up the courtyard like a big parking lot and got the bonfire ready to fire up.

I cooked for two weeks prior, making holiday truffles and candies, cheesecake and rum cake, and I poured hours over the menu to get the preps in line and to finalize the list.  My daughter came home a day early and we finished up the cleaning and the decorating and got ready to cook like madwomen. I could not have done it without her valuable help and her beautiful smile and haven't a clue how I managed it while I was still working.

We had a full menu which included roast turkey and chickens from our local grower, homemade dinner rolls, new red potatoes, brussels sprouts, cakes, candies, homemade wines and beer and more.  As is usual, there are some items that are a big hit and recipes are requested.  This year the recipe that was requested the most was the honey wheat dinner rolls, followed closely by the cherry and wild rice stuffing.  So here are the two recipes and the procedures for each.  Enjoy!

Honey Wheat Dinner Rolls

I took a simple dinner roll recipe and changed it up to add honey to it, then used honey butter to brush onto the rolls before I baked them.  The result was a light and fluffy dinner roll with just a touch of sweetness that complemented the poultry and vegetables that I was serving:

• 2-1/2 tsp active dry yeast (one package)
• 1 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 tsp salt (or 1 tsp kosher or sea salt)
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup (8 tbsp) butter
• 5 cups white unbleached wheat flour

• 1 stick butter, melted
• 2 Tbsp honey

I have a stand mixer with a dough hook, so a lot of the handwork is done by the machine - I love my KitchenAid.

Sprinkle the dry yeast on top of the warm water. Water should be between 95 and 110 degrees. Sprinkle a pinch of sugar on the top and let it proof. 

In the interim, put the milk, sugar, butter, honey and salt in a small saucepan. Scald (180 degrees F). Do not let it scorch.  Cool this down to at least 110 degrees.  When cool, add to yeast water in your mixer.  Attach the dough hook and slowly add the flour.  I usually go with 1/2 cup then mix, 1/2 cup....adding more as needed to make a nice light shiny dough.  

Flour your table or cutting board, pull the dough out onto it and knead it until the dough is smooth and glossy (it feels like a baby's soft butt).  Put in a buttered warm bowl, flip to coat the dough, cover with a cloth and let rise until double - about an hour.  Mix the melted butter with the honey and set aside, keeping it just warm enough to stay melted.  Stir occasionally until dough is formed and ready for the second raise. 

When the dough has doubled, punch the dough down, Knead it to get all the large air bubbles out of the dough then pinch off pieces about the size of a golf ball, forming each into a ball. Place in a greased or buttered metal cake pan (glass makes the bottoms burn), just touching each other. Brush with the melted honey butter.

Cover with a cloth and let rise again until double. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Note: The honey butter will make your rolls brown darker on the top than is normal. So they should be a medium dark golden brown on the top. Tip out of pan as soon as you pull them out of oven and let cool for a few minutes. While still a bit warm, place in a basket lined with a towel to keep them warm. Serve with the remaining honey butter (no longer melted).

Cherry and Wild Rice Stuffing

This recipe is harder to write up as I created the stuffing as I was preparing it.  I had baked white bread earlier in the week, cut it up into cubes and dried it in the oven for use in the stuffing. It was just plain white bread - nothing special. I also prepared the wild rice in advance. I knew that I wanted wild rice with something on my menu and this was the perfect way to incorporate it. The rest came down to seeing it on the counter and adding it.  So here goes:

• 1-1/2 cups dried cherries (these were sweet cherries, not pie cherries)
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1 cup chopped red onion
• 1 or 2 chopped tart apples
• 3 cups cooked wild rice
• 10 cups dried bread cubes
• 1-1/2 lbs butter
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 tsp salt - don't add too much, the broth and the bird you are stuffing may have plenty
• 1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
• 1 Tbsp italian parsley
• 1 tsp crushed or chopped (not ground) sage leaf

In a large frying pan, melt 1 stick of butter (1/4 lb). Add chopped celery, apples, red onions and dried cherries. Saute until the onion starts to turn a bit clear. Add the rice and stir. Cook for a few minutes then add the salt, pepper and the rest of the spices and the vegetable broth. Stir well.  Melt the remaining butter in the microwave or in a small saucepan.  Hold until needed.  Start to add the bread cubes, stirring as you add them and pouring a little of the butter over them as you continue to add more bread cubes.  Only add as much butter as you need to get the bread cubes dampened and well mixed into the rice mix.  You do not want to soak the bread or you'll end up with mush when you serve it.  Stuff the poultry (I stuffed the four chickens I had for the meal) and roast as normal. Spoon out of the roast bird just before serving.

That is as much as I remember about the stuffing but it sounds right.  Mainly, don't add too much salt and don't soak the bread.

The recipes that I make for my Solstice Celebrations are researched but never tried before each party. My guests are in effect - guinea pigs.  However, being a chemist and a long time experimenter with the culinary arts, I usually come up with a winner or two every year.  One day, maybe I'll write up a Solstice Celebration Cookbook. So if you attended the Celebration, I'd welcome as many comments about it as I can get, especially on the food.

The Celebration and Its Meanings

For just a few hours on one night a year, we ask our friends and family members to join us in celebrating the Winter Solstice.  For me and my daughter, it is a pagan holiday. For those of us that have farms and gardens, this day means that we can look forward to planting gardens and getting our stock out to graze.  For most everyone it means that the long winter will pause and recede so the sun can give us warmth and longer days. At Drag'n Rock Farm, the Winter Solstice Celebration is a time for friends and family to gather together to celebrate each other and to celebrate life.  For some of our guests, it's their first year here. For others, it's become a yearly tradition.  So we meet and greet, and get to know new people each time in an atmosphere that is only one of peace and kindness.  In this lies our hope...we hope that each and every person that leaves here takes with them a full belly, a smile, and a full heart, with the promise of spring held tight in their pockets.

Peace
Marlene at Drag'n Rock Farm