“For it isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it.
And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work for it.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt

Our Holiday Gift to You: A Virtual Feast

For many years, we at Barnes & Conti have celebrated the holidays with a potluck meal -- each of us bringing something that has a special holiday meaning or story associated with it. This year we really need and are especially grateful for the generosity of spirit, the warm atmosphere among family and friends, and the wonderful comfort food that we associate with the holiday season. We'd like to invite you, our colleagues, customers, and friends, to join us in a virtual holiday dinner.

For early arrivals: Bridge Creek Lemon Ginger Muffins
From Kim Barnes and Don Bryant. Kim says:

"These muffins are a staple of holiday mornings at our house -- the one time of year when I am likely to bake something -- I love the warm, spicy, aroma. The recipe was given to me a number of years ago by the proprietor of a wonderful but short-lived restaurant in Berkeley. It reminds me that life goes on and that when we keep ideas to ourselves, they can't outlive us but when we are open-hearted and open-handed we can have an impact beyond what we can ever predict."

The Recipe:

2 oz.fresh ginger
3/4 c. plus 3 tblsp. sugar
2 tblsp lemon zest (2 lemons' worth)
8 tblsp butter @ room temperature
2 eggs @ room temperature
1 c. buttermilk
2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 375. Grease 16 muffin cups.
2. Cut ginger in large chunks.  Process or chop into fine pieces, about 1/4 cup.
   
3. Put ginger and 1/4 c. sugar in small skillet, cook over medium heat until sugar has melted. Remove from stove, let cool.
4. Process or chop lemon zest and add 3 T sugar.  Add to ginger mixture.
5. Put butter in mixing bowl, beat and add remaining 1/2 c. sugar, beat until smooth.
6. Add eggs, beat well..
7. Add buttermilk, mix until blended.
8. Add flour, salt, baking soda, beat until smooth.
9. Add ginger-lemon mixture and mix well.
   Spoon batter into muffin tins so each cup is 3/4 full.
10. Bake 15 - 20 minutes; serve warm.

Hors d'oeuvre: Shrimp Tartlets
From Roslyn Raley, Desktop Publishing Manager

Roslyn has brought a wide variety of hors d'oeuvres to our holiday potlucks. Here's a sample.

45 cooked, peeled, medium shrimp
3 boxes frozen miniature phyllo tart shells
3 oz. cream cheese (softened)
1/2 cup pesto

Remove tails from the shrimp. Thaw tart shells. Place about 1/4 teaspoon cream cheese in the bottom of each tart shell. Top with 1/4 tsp. pesto. Embed the curved side of a shrimp, tail sticking in the air, in each tart.

Spinach Salad with Beets, Gorgonzola, and Toasted Walnuts
Elyse Eberstein, Customer Service Manager

Elyse has been taking cooking classes, and we suspect that she's fast becoming our salad queen! Here's a rendition of one of Elyse's especially festive salads.

1 bunch spinach (or 1 lb. baby spinach)
2 medium beets (chioggia is best), cooked, peeled, and sliced into 1/4 inch slices
1 small red onion, sliced and separated into rings
4-6 oz. Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
1-2 handfuls toasted walnut pieces.
Balsamic vinaigrette

For the balsamic vinaigrette:

2 tblsp balsamic vinegar
2 tsp. Dijon mustard
6 tblsp extra virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Mix the mustard with the vinegar, add a few grindings of pepper, a pinch of salt, and slowly whisk in the olive oil.

Dry the spinach well. Put in the salad bowl with the beets and 2/3 of the onion. Toss with enough dressing to coat the greens well. Put in half the cheese and half the walnuts, and toss again. Top with the remaining onions, cheese, and walnuts. If there is any dressing left, serve it on the side. Serves six.

Janne's Incomparable Potato Latkes
Janne Rochlin,
Director of Client Services

Janne has fed us these traditional Hanukkah latkes at every potluck we can remember. This recipe appears for the first time ever. Latkes, by the way, are grated potato pancakes, fried crisp in oil.

3 medium baking potatoes, peeled
1 medium onion, peeled
2 eggs
1/4 -1/2 C flour
Salt to taste
Cooking oil for frying

This recipe allows for a lot of flexibility and experimentation according to your personal tastes. You can have a smooth or chunky, thick or thin batter, more or less onions and salt, fried very crispy or lightly. There are as many variations as there are "practitioners." It's hard to go wrong as long as you like potatoes!

Prepare the potatoes by either grating finely or pureeing in a food processor (or a combination of both depending on your preference for the degree of smoothness to the batter -- my own preference is some grated and some pureed). Grate or puree the onion along with the potatoes. In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs and add the remaining ingredients. Mix well.

Heat the oil (about 1/8 to 1/4 inch deep) in a frying pan. Drop 1/4 C batter into the oil. Fry on one side until the edges begin to brown. Turn and fry the other side. Remove from the pan and drain on paper towels.

Serve with sour cream and applesauce. Serves four.

Vegetarian Entree or Pasta Course: Lasagna
Tzena Bell, Office Manager

Tzena traditionally brings a vegetarian lasagna to our holiday potluck. Below is a festive rendition, featuring red and green.

12 oz. Lasagna noodles (spinach is best)
Light tomato sauce
16 oz. ricotta cheese
1 bunch Swiss chard, leaves only
(Spinach is an acceptable substitute)
1/2 cup milk
2/3 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese
Nutmeg (optional)

Optional: 1 large portabello mushroom, sliced into thin, bite-sized pieces and sautéed in olive oil with garlic and parsley

First make the light tomato sauce. You'll need:

2 cups Italian style canned tomatoes with their juice, chopped
1 small onion, minced
1 small carrot, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried basil (or 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil)

Sauté the carrot and onion in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil, until they begin to turn golden brown. Add the tomatoes and the basil, bring to the boil, and simmer while you prepare everything else.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Bring a big pot of salted water to the boil to cook the lasagna.

Chard and Ricotta Sauce

While the pot is heating, wash the chard, tear up into manageable pieces, and wilt the leaves by heating in a large pan with only the water that clings to the leaves. The chard should wilt and reduce considerably with about 5-7 minutes. Drain the chard and let cool. When cool, chop it finely.

Take 2/3 of the ricotta and mix it well with the finely chopped chard. Thin the ricotta/chard mixture with a little milk (up to 1/4 cup) until it is the consistency of thin sour cream. Grate in a pinch or so of nutmeg if you wish. Mix the remaining ricotta with a bit of milk and nutmeg to have a white sauce and set aside.

Assembling the Lasagna:

Cook the lasagna until just barely al dente (it will continue to soften.) Place a layer of noodles into a well-oiled 9 x 12 lasagna pan. Top with a thin layer of ricotta chard, a thin layer of tomato sauce, and sprinkle with some of the parmesan. Repeat. You should have about 2-3 layers worth of ricotta chard). When you run out of the ricotta chard mixture, use half of the plain ricotta milk mixture, sprinkle the sautéed mushroom (if you chose this option), a thin layer of tomato sauce, and parmesan.

Continue layering the lasagna and sauces until you either run out of noodles or begin to run out of one or both sauces. Top the last layer with at least one of the sauces (the ricotta is highly recommended for spinach lasagna) and sprinkle generously with the remaining parmesan. Bake for 15 minutes; let rest at least 10 minutes before serving. Serves 4 as a main course and 6–8 as a first course.

Meat Entree: Beaujolais-Dijon Chicken
Joel Kleinbaum, Information Technology

Joel Kleinbaum, our tech person and amateur home chef, developed this recipe. Joel says this recipe reminds him of family and friends; he first concocted it while cooking for a crowd a few days before his wife's sister's wedding. Joel learned the technique of rubbing mustard into meats from his grandmother. His great-grandmother used to make her own creme fraiche.

2-3 lbs chicken parts (breasts, thighs, legs, not boneless)
2 medium onions, sliced
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
5-6 tablespoons Dijon mustard
Light red wine, such as Beaujolais
3 tablespoons fresh thyme, chopped

Lightly salt and pepper the chicken pieces on both sides. Make a marinade with the Dijon mustard and red wine, use just enough wine to thin the mustard into a marinade. The marinade should coat the chicken, not soak it--it's more mustard than wine. Marinate the chicken pieces for an hour, turning once.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Lay the sliced onion and carrot on the bottom of the roasting pan. Sprinkle the chicken pieces with the thyme, and lay skin side up, on the bed of onions and carrots. Bake for about 15-20 minutes at 450 degrees, until the skin begins to brown. Baste as needed with leftover marinade or pan juices.

When the skin begins to brown, turn the oven down to 350 degrees and bake another 15-20 minutes.Prick the thigh or leg with a fork near the bone; when the juices run clear without any pink or red, the chicken is done.

Note: You can roast a whole chicken by stuffing the chicken loosely with more sliced onion and carrot and a few sprigs of thyme--rubbing the marinade all over the outside of the chicken, sprinkling the outside with chopped thyme, and roasting for 75 - 90 minutes (depending on your oven and the chicken) at 350 degrees.

A Decadent Sauce

If you must have a sauce, Joel says you can make a very decadent one by taking the pan juices from the chicken, skimming of the fat, adding 3/4 cup or so of red wine (or white wine, if you don't want a pink-purple sauce) reducing it 2/3, adding 1/2 cup (or more, if you dare) creme fraiche or heavy cream, and heating until the sauce thickens slightly.

Serve with potato latkes, or plain rice, or mashed potatoes and don't forget the carrots and onions that cooked with the chicken.

Serves 4-6.

Braised Red Cabbage with Apples

Joel says this goes great with the latkes and the chicken.

1 medium onion, chopped
2 tablespoons oil (if you want to be really traditional, use rendered goose fat)
1 small head of red cabbage, cored and shredded
2 tart apples, such as pippin or granny smith, peeled and sliced into bite sized pieces
3/4 cup red wine
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 bay leaf
4 whole cloves

Sauté the onion in the oil (or goose fat) until it begins to brown. Add the cabbage and stir for a couple minutes. Add the red wine, the vinegar, cloves and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, stirring the cabbage to coat it with wine. Cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes. Add the sliced apple, and simmer for at least another 25 minutes. If there's too much liquid, leave the cover slightly ajar. It won't hurt this dish to let it simmer for up to 90 minutes, as long as there's a bit of liquid in it.

Wines for Each Dish
Eric Beckman, Vice President

Eric is our resident vigneron; he spends many spring and summer evenings and weekends tending vines in Sonoma County. Come fall, it's time for harvest, crush, and making the wine. Last spring, Eric brought in a barrel sample of his first home-grown merlot. All of us who tasted it agreed that it could develop into something especially rich and complex. Here are some of Eric's approved wine pairings, featuring Sonoma County favorites.

Shrimp Tartlets: Sauvignon Blanc (Alexander Valley) or Viogner (Carneros)
Spinach Salad: (Wine not recommended; it clashes with the dressing)
Potato Latkes: Gewurtztraminer (Russian River Valley)
Vegetarian Lasagna: Zinfandel (Dry Creek Valley)
Beaujolais-Dijon Chicken: Pinot Noir (Russian River Valley or Carneros)
Orange Cheesecake: Orange Muscat

The Gewurtztraminer should also compliment your Christmas ham, and either the Gewurz or the Pinot Noir will compliment a turkey. And if your tradition is to have beef, try a Cabernet from the Alexander Valley.

Dessert: Orange Cheesecake from Kim and Don

Kim says: “This recipe was given to me by a dear friend, Monica Moorcroft, of Chertsey, Surrey, U.K. She is living proof that gourmet cooking flourishes across the pond.”

“I was greatly moved by the support from people around the world this fall. They reached out to us in America in friendship and concern; the global community suddenly seemed like a neighborhood. We wish that you could all join us for this holiday celebration!”

Prepared graham cracker crust (or make your own)
1 lb. mascarpone or soft cream cheese
1/4 c. superfine granulated sugar
12 oz. medium cut marmalade
1 pt. whipping cream
4 oranges, segmented

1. Beat the cheese and sugar together until smooth.
2. Fold in the marmalade.
3. Lightly whip cream and fold in.
4. Spoon into pie shell and refrigerate for an hour.
5. Arrange the orange sections on top. Loosen crust from pan with a hot knife. Serve.

As noted on our web site, we will be donating 1% of our 4th quarter revenue to UNICEF - we do this with our great thanks and appreciation to those of you who have supported us in so many ways this year and with hope for a peaceful new year