Yeah, I also caved in and bought conversation hearts….

Ah, Valentine’s Day. Some love it. Some love to hate it. For this girl, it’s really just an excuse to enjoy a decadent dessert, paired with a glass or two of wine.

Well, let’s be real. Leniency is the name of the game when it comes to excuses for booze and chocolate. (Isn’t that right, roommates?)

This year, Valentine’s Day coincided with the first day of Losar, the Tibetan New Year. Losar is near and dear to my heart for a number of reasons. In the spring of 2004, I spent five months studying in northern India as a student of Emory University’s Tibetan Studies in Dharamsala program. Living with Tibetan roommates, volunteering with local non-profits, and learning from esteemed professors, Geshes, Rinpoches, and community leaders, this program offered an incredible immersion into a Tibetan exile community–one that welcomed us with unparalleled warmth and generosity, sharing their history, culture, and hope for the future. These five months were truly life-changing and laid a foundation for continued travel and study in South Asia.

I celebrated my first Losar during that initial visit to India and won’t soon forget it–thanks in part to Lhakpa la’s musical skills as host and Pasang la’s liberal hand with the whiskey (FYI: Green Label and orange Fanta? Bad news.).

And so, with my thoughts on dear friends from all around the world, I figured it’d only be right to usher in the Year of the Iron Tiger with a little something special. Lucky for me, I had recently stumbled across a recipe worthy of the occasion–molten chocolate cakes, as seen on Mark Bittman’s NY Times food blog.

Oh, man. These are good. REALLY GOOD. The first bite, when you break into the cake with your fork and all that melted chocolate oozes out? Fan-tastic.

Best of all, they are ridiculously easy to make and only take about 7 minutes in the oven. You can even whip up the batter ahead of time and refrigerate until you’re ready to enjoy them. It has been an all-day effort to restrain myself from making another batch!

But desserts aside, the truth is that there’s more to Valentine’s Day than chocolates or flowers. This time of year is also an opportunity to bring attention to the work of a kick-ass international movement. Founded by Eve Ensler (of Vagina Monologues fame), V-Day works to raise global awareness about violence against women and girls. Each year, V-Day’s Spotlight Campaign highlights a particular group of women who have been targets of violence; in addition to putting an international media spotlight on these areas, V-Day  will donate funds to support the work of other anti-violence groups.  V-Day’s 2010 Spotlight Campaign is dedicated to the women and girls of the Democratic Republic of Congo. To learn more, get involved, or make a donation, please visit this site. Information on local V-Day events can also be found here. (If you haven’t attended a V-Day event yet, do so. You’re missing out!)

Happy V-Day! And Losar Tashi Delek!

buns in the oven

(that title’s for you, dm)

For about as long as I can remember, Christmas morning in the Mull household involves not just gifts and pajamas, but cinnamon rolls. I LOVE CINNAMON ROLLS. Eating little cakes, drenched in icing, and being able call it “breakfast?” Fantastic.

Last year, my family came out to Chicago so that we all could celebrate the holiday here in the city. It was a memorable visit for a number of reasons, the chief of which was having the chance to welcome them to a place that I’ve come to consider my home. And as any good hostess knows, celebrations and gatherings call for special touches. I decided to make our Christmas morning cinnamon buns from scratch and, instead of drenching them in creamy white frosting, opted for a sticky and sweet caramel pecan glaze.

Christmas mornings have never been the same. So long, rolls from a can!

This recipe is one of my favorites to make. It is super decadent–there is an unapologetically huge amount of sugar and butter involved, which is why these are so so good. It’s great for special occasions; the recipe makes a dozen rolls whose presentation is so nice and tempting that you’ll want to show them off. And while the recipe may seem involved, it really isn’t that difficult–it just takes a little planning and patience. But trust me, each step of this process is worth it! These lovelies are to die for.

sea salt caramels

My favorite recipes are the ones that so obviously require sharing the finished product. I came across these caramels just before Christmas, a time of year that, for me, is best celebrated by the combination of my favorite people and tasty goods full of sugar and butter.

This recipe is pulled from a number of sources and, in all honesty, has come out slightly different each time I’ve made it.  A bit of a confession–I made  five batches of these babies, and two turned out MISERABLY terrible. As in, throw them away terrible. Turns out that you really can’t substitute whole milk for heavy cream (even if it’s cold and dark outside and you don’t feel like walking to the Jewel several blocks away and you figure, “Eh, what the hell. Worth a shot, right?” Wrong). And you shouldn’t really turn the heat up too high, hoping to rush these along. Lessons learned. But the results (and my technique) certainly improved with each attempt–and by the time I got to batch number five, it was, hands down, the best by far (lucky for you, Maryland friends!). So at the very least, I got some candy-making experience under my belt (and gladly sampled as I went along). With a little patience and a fair amount of sugar,  these soft, buttery caramels are actually pretty easy to make. Add a sprinkle of salt on top and you’ve got just the right balance of sweet and salty. Hell, you could even dip them in melted chocolate…but maybe I’m just getting carried away.

gratitude

Thanksgiving is, hands down, my absolute favorite holiday. This may seem funny, considering I’m a vegetarian (but then again, everybody knows that the best part of the meal isn’t the turkey but, obviously, all the side dishes). A day full of good food, family, a little wine, and the likelihood of a post-meal nap? Love it.

As I get older, I’m realizing that maybe what I love  most is the sense of tradition that’s at the heart of this holiday. Thanksgiving would not be the same without Dad’s sweet potatoes, Mom’s corn casserole, the mashed potatoes, the gravy, the peanut butter pie. And while I’m all for a little innovation, I’m also a firm believer in the fact that our Turkey Day menu should–nay, must–be the same each year. Everything that this holiday represents is, for me, intimately tied to what we have each year at our dinner table. And anyway, I couldn’t even imagine what we could possibly leave out.

Except maybe the stuffing. Bread chunks cooked inside a carcass? Gross.

This year, I called dibs on baking the bread that would accompany dinner. I thought I’d try my hand at making some biscuits.

butter = flaky = yes!

Biscuits are fairly easy to make, and since the dough uses baking powder, you don’t need to wait for it to rise–which also makes it a quick recipe. In  about 30 minutes, start to finish, you can enjoy warm, buttery biscuits. How fabulous would they be at breakfast?

But they are also something to work at–to keep perfecting and tweaking until you can really nail the right recipe and technique. I rolled out mine a bit too thin, so while they still had several layers to them, I wish they had turned out a little thicker.

They still did a hell of a job wiping the last bits of gravy and casserole off my plate though, which is just what I like in a biscuit:

about 3 cups of flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 Tablespoon salt
1 stick of butter, cold, sliced
1 cup milk

Mix dry ingredient together. Cut in cold butter until the dough is crumbly. While stirring, slowly add the milk. The dough should form into a ball.

Dust your working surface with flour. Lightly knead dough, adding a little flour, if needed, until dough is no longer sticky. Roll out dough to 1/2 inch thickness. Using a biscuit cutter (or the mouth of a small glass), cut biscuits and arrange on a greased cast iron skillet (a greased pan will also work). Brush biscuit tops with melted butter, and bake at 400 degrees for about 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown.

I imagine that substituting heavy cream or buttermilk for the milk, or shortening for the butter, would also yield tasty results. I fully intend to experiment and see.