New Years, Same Herbs

“New Year's” always brings up mixed emotions since questions and conflicting messages are passed around like confetti.  Did you check off all your boxes the previous year?  Have you made any new resolutions?  Are you ready for a clean slate?  You have to make the most of it!  Start over!  Learn from the past!  Move on!  Yes.  And.  The past is sometimes a comfortable place.  Sure, there may have been mistakes the past year, things one wishes didn’t happen or that you can redo.  But, I believe in everything happening for a reason, even if I don’t always know what that reason is.  New Year's is just that, a new year on the calendar.  I’m not into resolutions that get thrown out in a few weeks.  If one wants to make a lifestyle change, do it!  You don’t have to wait for a date on the calendar to do so.  Sure, it’s built-in, but pressure never helped anyone.  Well, unless you’re in the business of making diamonds.  Then, yes, add more pressure.  

New Year’s is often a time I travel because I’m either traveling for Christmas already or am off from school and want to make the most of it.  In 2018 I traveled with my best friend’s family to Colorado Springs.  It was her 30th and her grandfather’s 80th, so a family trip was a great way to mark the celebration.  We rented a house and enjoyed being in the mountains for an extended weekend.  On the trip, I went with her brother and soon-to-be sister-in-law to Ivywild School, an old school building turned into a marketplace with a brewery, restaurants, and shops.  We also took a trip to a bridal boutique where her mom, soon-to-be SIL, and I watched my friend try on wedding dresses and everyone cried when she found the right one.  And her family and I walked around the Broadmoor estate still decorated for Christmas.  I am told my grandfather ice skated on the pond on the property while stationed in Colorado Springs during his time in the Army.

Me outside the Broadmoor pond where my grandfather once ice skated.

During this same trip, I borrowed her mom’s Subaru and drove two hours down the familiar winding route to Sky Ranch Horn Creek.  It had been two years since I was there last, and my heart missed the place and the people.  I got there after dark and only stayed a few hours visiting my old boss Doug and his kids.  (Doug was previously mentioned in “Horn Sweet Home and The Breads of (Camp) Life”.)  He had lost his wife to cancer a few months earlier, and I didn’t make it back for the funeral.  Doug made snacks for dinner, and we caught up on camp life while I shared stories from culinary school.  As glad as I was to see my old boss and friend, my heart had already lightened on the drive down.   When I rounded the pass in the Wet Mountains and saw the Sangre de Cristos and Horn Peak in front of me, it was like coming home.  It would have been disappointing to come all that way, flying to Oklahoma from Connecticut for Christmas, then driving to Colorado with my friend’s family, just to miss my old home by a few miles.  I was glad to return, if only for a few hours.

Last year (2023), for New Year's, I flew from Oklahoma to Arizona to visit my cousin and her family, who had moved from California a few years prior. My only previous experience visiting AZ was when my family drove through on our move from CA to OK, so it was nice to see new sights than the highway rest stops.  Then this year my post-Christmas travel included flying back to Montana.  Both trips, with stories for another time, included seeing people I care about and enjoying being in a new setting to end one year and start a new year.  Since my “years” have been based on a school calendar for over 26 years, I am used to the Christmas break as a natural resetting point.  Halfway through the school year just happens to be the start of a new calendar year.  I use the time as much-needed rest.  No, I don’t sleep the whole time, as my non-teacher friends have asked me, but I do find time to relax and reset.  

My time to reset is not unlike the reset taken by one of my favorite garden plants, perennials, and more specifically, herbs.  (And if the herb isn’t a perennial, some self-seed!)  I appreciate an herb’s hardy ability to bounce back after a frost or even a few feet of snow.  They get a new reset in the spring.  They’re not stuck on January 1 for their day to start over.  Instead, they base their new growth on the seasons, which is how it should be for all of us going through different seasons in our own lives.  In The Harvest Baker, Ken includes six recipes using fresh herbs that fit the perennial theme.  Some of these are my favorites in the book and deserve a spot in regular recipe rotation.

One recipe is Herbed Parmesan Popovers, which I made for my parents as part of our New Year's Day meal last year.  They’re great with basil (not a perennial in climates I’ve lived in) or oregano, which does come back yearly.  I bought a popover pan specifically for this recipe, and since I felt the need to make Yorkshire pudding for our Christmas dinner meal this year, I won’t struggle to use the pan again. 

Herbed Parmesan Popovers

Two recipes that include the perennial sage are a Balsamic Onion and Mushroom Tart with Fresh Sage and Ricotta Pound Cake with Pears, Walnuts, and Sage.  The pound cake was made when I was living in Montana, and I used sage growing in one of the school gardens there.  I made the tart with sage from my current school garden in Oklahoma.  When I think of sage, I usually think of it as an accompaniment to turkey and stuffing, so I appreciated the way these two recipes proposed the herb for something new.  I sometimes struggle with finding ways to use it, although the plant does well in many climates, including Oklahoma and Montana, so it’s easy to grow.  It comes back in the spring with no harm done, even if it’s in an area where it’s covered in snow.  The soft, fragrant leaves are great for sensory lessons with kids, although it’s not the best eaten on its own for those who like to taste from the garden.  I’m not the biggest mushroom fan, but the Balsamic Onion and Mushroom Tart was delicious and one I would make again.  The ricotta pound cake is also a sweet dessert.  The sage isn’t overly powerful in that one, and I remember it more for the walnuts and pears.  Maybe I should make it again soon to use some of the sage surviving the winter and give it a new review!

Balsamic Onion and Mushroom Tart with Fresh Sage

Ricotta Pound Cake with Pears, Walnuts, and Sage

Another perennial herb included in the recipes is tarragon or Mexican mint.  When I worked for Farm to School of Park County, I smelled it growing at the Lincoln School Farm in downtown Livingston, MT before I placed the name.  Any time I smell tarragon I want to make chicken salad, which is what I did with some of the leaves in summer 2021 before I moved the following year.  Now I can also think of Ken’s Sun-Dried Tomato and Tarragon Soda Bread.  While I enjoyed his Pumpkin Soda Bread mentioned in “Small Groups, Big Impacts (and the Pumpkin Recipes that Brought Us Together),” this tomato and tarragon soda bread is by far my favorite.  I made it for two friends (along with the onion and mushroom tart mentioned above and the Brussels Sprouts Tart Au Gratin, mentioned in “Harvest of the Month: Brassicas”) on a girls’ trip to Arkansas.  I loved the soda bread with cheesy scrambled eggs, but it’s also dense enough to soak up any soup.  Perfect timing since it’s Soup Season!  I’ve included the recipe below for you to try.

Sun-Dried Tomato and Tarragon Soda Bread

The last easy-to-grow perennial that Ken uses in two recipes is mint.  The Harvest Baker includes Fresh Mint Brownies and Chocolate Sandwich Cookies with Sweet Herb Mascarpone.  The brownies are clearly made for mint and are made by processing mint leaves with sugar and then mixing the rest of the ingredients like normal.  This “mint sugar” ensures no leaf pieces in the batter, and the final product looks homogenous.  (This is the only recipe for which I didn’t capture a picture.)  The second recipe isn’t specifically for mint, but mint is one of the suggested herbs.  Lavender is also suggested, but I’m more of a fan of the scent than the taste, so mint it was!  I also had easy access to mint in school gardens – the brownies made in Montana and the sandwich cookies made in Oklahoma.  If I were reviewing the recipes in The Harvest Baker, which isn’t what I intended to do, the chocolate sandwich cookies would be my one complaint.  A few recipes made too much of a batter, filling, or sauce, so quantities were off for either the pan or the filling’s bread vessel.  This included Potato-Stuffed Indian Flatbread (Aloo Paratha); Broccoli Sauce for the Broccoli Sauce Cheddar Cheese Pizza; Ricotta Pound Cake with Pears, Walnuts, and Sage (mentioned above); and Crème Fraîche Corn Quiche, to name a few.  That’s all easily remedied by making more of the filling’s dough or using a bigger dish.  The cookies were another story.  I followed the recipe exactly in terms of ingredient quantities and step-by-step instructions.  But when it came time to bake the chocolate dough balls, they melted in the oven like, well, chocolate, even though there were other ingredients to hold them together.  I had plenty of dough, which was normal cookie consistency, for multiple batches, so I tried the dough at various temperatures beforehand, including chilling the cookies before baking, but I didn’t find the secret step that was not included.  I ended up cutting the flat, en-masse cookie into squares and filling them with the mascarpone filling like the recipe intended.  They were delicious, just not picture-perfect rounds as the book let me believe was possible.

 Chocolate Sandwich Cookies with Sweet Herb Mascarpone that didn't turn out the way I imagined they would. Photo courtesy of Allison Mayfield Photography

 Chocolate Sandwich Cookies with Sweet Herb Mascarpone, photo courtesy of Allison Mayfield Photography

I kind of like the fact that one recipe in The Harvest Baker was somewhat of a flop, at least visually.  To be a good baker, there has to be an understanding that nothing will be perfect 100% of the time.  People are not that way, and life is not that way.  I was sick this year over New Year's, so I would have had to cancel even if I had fancy New Year’s Eve plans.  I don’t look at one night as an indication of how the whole year will go.  Nor do I look at one recipe to measure my worth as a baker, a book’s worth to pass along, or an author’s writing ability.  Instead, I learn from my mistakes, reset, and shrug it off.  Happy 2025!

One giant, melted cookie! Photo courtesy of Allison Mayfield Photography

Sun-Dried Tomato and Tarragon Soda Bread

Yield:  1 Large Loaf

Ingredients:

• Oil and cornmeal for the baking sheet (optional)

• 2¼ cups all-purpose flour

• ½ cup fine yellow cornmeal 

• 1½ tablespoons sugar

• 1¼ teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

• 1 cup buttermilk

• 3 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

• 1½ cups grated extra-sharp cheddar cheese

• ¾ cup coarsely chopped sun-dried tomatoes (see note)

• ½ cup coarsely chopped walnuts

• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon or 1 tablespoon dried

• 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for glaze    

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).  Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper, or lightly oil the sheet and dust the middle with cornmeal.

2. Combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and pepper in a large bowl.  Using your hands, mix the dry ingredients thoroughly.

3. Combine the buttermilk, olive oil, and mustard in another bowl and whisk to blend.  Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the liquid mixture.  Using a wooden spoon, stir until everything is barely dampened.  Sprinkle in 1 cup of the cheese, as well as the sun-dried tomatoes, walnuts, and tarragon.  Continue stirring until the dough coheres and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.  The dough will be quite dense.  Let it rest in the bowl for 2 to 3 minutes.

4. Lightly flour your hands and your work counter.  Turn the dough out onto the counter and knead gently for about 1 minute, dusting with flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking.  Shape the dough into a fat football and place it on the baking sheet.  Brush the surface sparingly with the egg glaze.  Using a sharp serrated knife, make three evenly spaced diagonal slits, about ½ inch deep, on top of the loaf.  Sprinkle the loaf with the remaining ½ cup of grated cheese.

5. Bake the bread for about 45 minutes, until the top is quite crusty and golden.  When done, the loaf will sound hollow when you tap the bottom with a finger.  Transfer the loaf to a cooling rack and cool thoroughly.  Refrigerate leftovers in a plastic bag.

Note:  For the sun-dried tomatoes, you can rehydrate dried ones (the most economical option) or buy them packed in water or oil; the latter, taste-wise, is my favorite option.  Another option is to replace the sun-dried tomatoes with chopped roasted tomatoes. 

The Harvest Baker (c) by Ken Haedrich, recipe excerpted with permission from Storey Publishing.