Make-Ahead New Year's Day Breakfast

After a long night of New Year’s Eve festivities, no one wants to get up early and prepare breakfast. But, you will want breakfast, so it would be a great idea to start thinking of the menu sooner rather than later. And if you could prepare it in advance (rather than when your head is pounding and you are looking for the hair of the dog that bit you), that menu would be heaven sent.

The Swedish Vampire is a refreshing cocktail that is a lot tamer than it sounds. Mix up a pitcher of aquavit and a combo of juices in advance and have them at the ready, awaiting a final splash of sparkling water and some ice cubes.

For an entree, you might mix up something called a Tortilla Espanola, a potato and onion fritatta popular in Spain. Prepare the dish in advance, refrigerate it overnight, and allow it to come to room temperature in the morning. 

And because no New Year’s Day (or any celebratory) breakfast is complete without something sweet and decadent: Gingerbread Cinnamon Rolls. These can be mixed, rolled out and sliced the day before. All you have to do in the a.m. is pop them in the oven and bake until they are puffy and gooey. I loved http://www.bakedbyrachel.com/'s recipe for these, and I amped up the spices and added the nuts since my husband sadly did not get any Pecan Pie this Thanksgiving. I swapped out Rachel's icing for Joanne Chang's "goo" from her famous Sticky Buns, which further tamed hubby's jonesing for his pie.The gingerbready scent will waft throughout the house and rouse any sleepyhead recovering from the previous night’s celebration, making them ready to face the New Year and begin tackling that list of resolutions. 

Overnight Gingerbread Cinnamon Rolls

(adapted from Flour Bakery and Baked by Rachel)

Makes 12 rolls

Dough Ingredients:

4 1/2c all purpose flour

1/4c brown sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 package rapid rise or instant yeast (not active dry)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

3/4c milk, warm

1/3c molasses

Filling Ingredients:

1c brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2c unsalted butter, melted

1c pecan halves, toasted and coarsely chopped

Goo Ingredients:

3/4c (1 1/2 sticks;  6 ounces) unsalted butter

1 1/2c  firmly packed light brown sugar

1/3c honey

1/3c heavy cream

1/3c water

1/4 tsp kosher salt

First, make the “Goo.” In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Whisk in the brown sugar and cook, stirring, to combine (it may look separated, that's ok). Remove from the heat and whisk in the honey, cream, water, and salt. Strain to remove any undissolved lumps of brown sugar. Let cool for about 30 minutes, or until cooled to room temperature. You should have about 3 cups. (The mixture can be made up to 2 weeks in advance and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator.)

In a large bowl or stand mixer, add 2 cups of flour plus remaining dry dough ingredients. Melt butter and heat milk to 105-110 degrees, test temperature after 45 seconds and do 10-15 second intervals until you reach the correct temperature.

With the mixer on low, add molasses, melted butter and warm milk. Add remaining 2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour by spoonfuls until fully incorporated and dough is no longer sticking to the bowl.

Grease a large bowl with baking spray. Lightly grease your hands, pat dough into a smooth ball and transfer to prepared bowl. Allow to rise for 1 hour.

On a lightly-floured surface, roll out your dough to roughly a 12×20 rectangle. In a small bowl, combine dry filling ingredients and half of the chopped pecans. Brush melted butter over entire surface. Sprinkle filling mixture over entire surface. If any butter remains, drizzle over dough and filling.

Beginning at one of the short ends, roll dough as tightly as possible. Trim off about 1/8-inch from each end of the roll to make them even Slice them into 12 (approx.) equal pieces. Pour the goo into a 9 by 13-inch baking dish, covering the bottom evenly. Sprinkle the remaining pecans evenly over the surface. Arrange the rolls, evenly spaced, in the baking dish. Cover the dish with plastic wrap and let the dough proof overnight in the refrigerator 

When ready to bake, remove prepared rolls from the refrigerator, allowing the baking dish to come to room temperature. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Bake rolls for 35-40 minutes. Let cool in the dish on a wire rack for about 20 minutes...if you can wait that long. One at a time, invert the buns onto a serving platter, and spoon any extra goo and pecans from the bottom of the dish over the top.

Searching For A Child-- Searching For An Answer

"Where's my kid?"

How many of us have ever asked that question? 

Perhaps it was while you were shopping at the mall and you were looking for that dress on the mannequin that caught your eye, but was not in your size? 

Or perhaps you were at the market and the tomatoes looked great, but you were searching for just the right one--not too soft or too hard.

And you became distracted. For what probably was a minute...or two.

And you looked up and what you thought was your little girl or boy standing next to you was not. And that question, “Where’s my kid?” came spewing out of your mouth, and for the split second or so that you went searching...as your stomach jerked and your head pounded...and your heart raced....

I had what I liked to call a “wanderer.” My older son was always a little headstrong and had to be watched like a hawk whenever we would go out. I even bought one of those children’s leashes for him, but couldn’t bring myself to use it. So there was a time or two when I looked and looked for him only to find him sitting deep within clothing racks, playing, And once I remember racing out of a store to find him happily sitting on a bench next to what might have been the smelliest and dirtiest homeless man in the city.

While those few times that I ran from parent to parent, child to child, searching, lasted next to nothing (but felt like an eternity), and thankfully ended happily, I can vividly remember the sheer, raw terror I felt as I looked for him. 

So, when I heard the horrific news about the slaughter of the children and their teachers in Newtown, Connecticut last week, my first thoughts were of the parents and how they felt as they drove and ran through the streets and parking lots wondering where their children were. I empathized with them as I watched them pile into the firehouse. How utterly heartbreaking it must have been as they ran past children who had already been reunited with their own parents. How utterly heart wrenching it must have been as they passed more and more families hugging and clinging to each other, still not knowing the fate of their own children. 

And for some--for 20 moms and 20 dads, to be exact--their searches did not end as happily as mine. The reality slammed into them like a freight train, and I grieve for them and for those innocent souls, those little sitting ducks, and their teachers who were lost. We are a country in mourning...once again. And even though it seems like it, we must not make a habit of it. Let it end here. Let this be the last lesson that teaches us we need more control...over guns, over mental health care. 

A school day should end with a child happily running out of the building, trying to maneuver newly drawn pictures on pieces of construction paper in one hand, while clumsily clutching sweaters and backpacks and lunch boxes in the other. It shouldn't end in a hale of bullets. 

 Robert Kennedy once spoke very eloquently of “the mindless menace of violence.” And then he too became a victim of exactly that. We are angry and while the wound is still raw, we must not let that anger dissipate, but put it to good use. Speak out--to your legislators, to your public policymakers.

We can no longer take the happy days for granted. We must stop the mindless menace of violence.

Let it end here. Let it end now. 

If you are on Twitter, please follow the hashtag #stopitnow. And please add your voice to the collective.

By Sharon Greenthal
“The Sandy Hook Massacre and Gun Control: What You Can Do to Help”

By Darryle Pollack
“Newtown, Old News”

By Lisa Belkin in the Huffington Post:
“Gun Control is a Parenting Issue”

“After Newtown, There is No Place for Parents to Hide”

“Parents of Violent Children Respond to Liza Long’s Essay”

By Lois Alter Mark
“Guns Do Kill People”

By Randi
“Monday Morning After Connecticut”

By Lisa Weldon
“Gun Control Would Not Have Prevented the Senseless Loss at Sandy Hook Elementary”

By After the Kids Leave
“Thoughts on Yet Another Senseless Tragedy”

“Of Guns and Sleeping Elephants”

By Connie MacLeod
“Ten Small Things I Can Do”

By The Fur Files
“Hope for Humanity Rests with the Individual”

By Daily Plate of Crazy
“On Love, On Silence, On Speaking Our Minds”

By Yvonne Condes
“Parents, It’s Up to Us to Stop Gun Violence”

By SoCal Mom
“After Newtown, Holding Them Close”

By Mindy Klapper Trotta
“Searching for a Child, Searching for an Answer”

By Ronna Benjamin
“Countdown to the End of the World”

By Kathy Thompson Combs
“A Call for Action”

By Jo Heroux
“AND NOW WHAT”

By Janie Emaus
“What They Should Have”

By Florinda Lantos Pendley Vasquez
“#stopitnow: Bullet Points—or, Me and a Gun, Revisited

By Ambling and Rambling
“Solve for X”

By Lori Lavender Luz
“Do Something”

By Donna Highfill
“Why I Believe We Are Bigger Than Our Weapons”

By Melissa Lawler
“A Broken Heart”

By Marci Rich
Wordlessness, Action and The Sandy Hook Tipping Point

Finally, please contact your congressman. Here’s a link with information on how to do so.

A New York Tale: How I Met My Husband

We met cute....

“Could you hand that can of Coke to Bob Trotta?” 

“Who?” 

“That guy over there.” 

And so I did--And through the chain link fence of a concrete ballfield on 34th and 1st, I caught the first glimpse of my future husband.

We worked for the same publishing firm--but I was in editorial and he was in accounting, so our paths had never crossed before that day. And the only reason we did manage to meet was because a friend of mine talked me into joining the company softball team to help get my mind off of the boyfriend who had just broken up with me.

“It will be fun,” she said.

“But I don’t know how to play softball,” I countered.

“No matter--you’ll learn. And you’ll make some new friends.”

And so it went. 

We would meet after work and all take the subway up to Central Park--once a week to practice, and once a week to play against other publishing companies. (Did anyone notice that I would position myself right behind him in the outfield, as he stood in the infield so that I could get a good view of his...”back?”) And after the games we would all usually head to a bar. While everyone was chatting and drinking, I was swooning. (Didn’t anyone else notice the slight crinkle around his eyes when he smiled?)  And then it was just the two of us leaving together. A classic New York City tale. Yuppies working, playing softball (I never really did perfect my softball skills), drinking...and falling in love.

After a while we would meet for lunch and sit on benches that lined the FDR Drive. We were very different--our backgrounds, our experiences, our religions. And so we were cautious. I was cautious. I worried that the differences would outweigh the similarities and eventually tear us apart.  But there was something there --a spark, a genuineness that I had not seen in so many of the others I had dated. And the more time we spent together, the less “different” those differences seemed.

 When I decided to enter what was then called “The Manny Hanny 5K Race in the Park,” I was a little apprehensive. I had never run a real race before, but knowing my partner would be there cheering me on gave me the confidence to do it. A week before the race we found out that I was going to have to go it alone because a business trip had come up.

And so there I was running along when I heard someone calling calling my name from the sidelines. And when I looked up there he was running through the park in a suit of armor, on a white steed...uh, I mean in a pinstripe suit, carrying a briefcase and trench coat. He had grabbed a cab at the airport and literally ran through the park and over to the race. And in that moment, as my pace quickened, and as cliche as it sounds, I knew...he was the one.

And the love’s still growin’

             --Buzzy Linhart


This is part of Blog Hop that my friends at GenFab are joining together on. If you'd like to read how the rest of them met their husbands/partners, click on this link:http://www.emptyhousefullmind.com/how-and-why-i-met-my-husband/