Once upon a time on the Oregon Coast, cranberry farming was just a piece of the livelihood puzzle. Families would share the work: While many men were off fishing for salmon, women who worked in the home would tend the cranberry crop. But just in time for harvest, salmon season would end and men and women would work on the harvest.

“If you aggregate all the labor that went into growing a pound of cranberries back in the 50s and 60s, most of the labor was done by the women, because they stayed at home. It was my grandmother that was doing the physical labor to make that happen,” says Tim Vincent, a third generation family member of Bandon, Oregon’s Vincent Family.

But as the 70s appeared on the horizon and Americans started drinking more juice, demand for the tart berries, grown largely on the east coast at the time, grew. And over the course of decades, the challenges facing cranberry farmers have changed too.

“The value of cranberries started to creep up and the opportunities for farmers increased,” Vincent said. “Farmers were able to make it a viable full time job, and in Oregon, it was partly driven because the salmon industry was becoming less of a way to make a living for a family.”
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Vincent Family Cranberries started in 1957 when Vincent’s grandfa- ther, Elmer Robison, began farming. For decades, the farm was part of the Ocean Spray co-op. As the organization changed over the years and production increased at an explosive rate, the price of cranberries dropped by 80 percent from what farmers earned in the 1980s, Vincent said. Read Full Article Here.

The month of December is practically dedicated to cookies. You can't turn around without bumping into a tray full of frosted sugar cookies, chubby gingerbread men, or sugar-coated bourbon balls. And if you're a cookbook obsessive, you probably already have a good handful of cookie books that you turn to every December. Do you really need another one?

From time to time a cookbook comes out, and I know just by reading through it that the author is a kindred spirit. Cookie Love is one of those books. I’ve never met Mindy Segal, but I can tell just from reading her recipes that we would get along famously. Her recipes are playful, and the cookies they produce are nothing short of spectacular. My favorites are perhaps the ones that are the most unassuming. There’s a lot of perfectly-executed subtlety in this book.

For instance, one of the first recipes I tried from the book was Goat Butter Shortbread. It’s a pretty simple shortbread recipe, but the combination of flavorful goat butter with a touch of toasted wheat germ and whole wheat flour is just perfection. Another good example is the recipe for Dream Bars. It’s just a buttery vanilla cookie topped with a thin layer of dark chocolate and a layer of brown sugar meringue. It doesn’t look like much. But the flavor is beyond words. I would almost say they’re too delicious if that were a thing (it’s totally not).

I’m prepared to say that Mindy is the master of the cookie art form. I humbly bow.

There's even more to love about this book. For one, her recipes contain enough salt. One of the best things about a great dessert is the balance of salty and sweet. If something doesn’t contain enough salt, it lacks balance. I often increase the salt in baking recipes automatically to compensate for this, but Mindy’s recipes are well balanced right out of the gate.

Further, every recipe in this book is thoughtful. As the title suggests, it's clear that a lot of love went into this book. Every recipe I’ve tried from it has not only worked, but has worked perfectly with excellent (and even surprising) results. I have a baker’s dozen of recipes flagged that I intend to make this December—Lemon Goat Butter Tea Cakes, Smoked Chocolate Sablés, Fleur de Sel Shortbread with Vanilla Halvah, Peanut Butter Thumbprints with Strawberry Lambic Jam...they’ve got me hook, line, and sinker.

But I chose this recipe to share with you because it's subtle. Just when you thought nothing more could be done with the classic coconut macaroon, Mindy changes a couple little things and makes an extraordinary cookie. Instead of the usual sweetened condensed milk, she calls for cream of coconut, and she uses both shredded and flaked coconut for better texture. I don’t hesitate to say that these are the best coconut macaroons I’ve ever had, and the recipe is incredibly simple.

Mindy Segal's Coconut Macaroons
Makes 20 cookies

Reprinted with permission from Cookie Love by Mindy Segal (Ten Speed Press). Copyright © 2015.

Author’s headnote: When looking to create a macaroon that resembled a Mounds bar, I deviated from classic coconut macaroon recipes in a few significant ways. I used two kinds of unsweetened coconut—shredded and flaked—for textural variation. (You can find both kinds in the bulk bins at the grocery store.) Instead of condensed milk, I opted for cream of coconut for sweetness, which is pretty much the condensed milk version of coconut milk. Finally, to give the macaroons a cool shape, I chilled the batter and then packed it into rectangular cookie cutters. Once baked and cooled, I like to dip the bottoms of the macaroons in an array of chocolate, melting ½ cup each (in separate bowls) of bittersweet, milk, and caramelized white chocolate wafers for variety.

To make this cookie, you will need a 1 by 2-inch cookie cutter or a 2-inch square cookie cutter. (Full disclosure—I seem to have misplaced my collection of cookie cutters, so I made them in a traditional mounded macaroon shape, but if you have a square or rectangular cookie cutter, I would try Mindy’s method.)

Ingredients:
           2 cups shredded unsweetened coconut
           1 ½ cups flaked unsweetened coconut
           1 teaspoon salt
           2 extra-large egg whites, at room temperature
           1 cup cream of coconut (such as Coco Lopez)
           6 ounces chocolate of your choice, melted, for dipping

Directions:
1.   In a bowl, use your hands to mix the shredded and flaked coconut with the salt. Mix in the egg white, followed by the cream of coconut. Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, giving the coconut enough time to absorb some of the liquid, at least 2 hours.

2.   Heat the oven to 350°F. Have a nonstick pan ready or line a half sheet (13 by 18-inch) pan with parchment paper and spray with nonstick cooking spray.

3.   Put a 1 by 2-inch (or 2-inch square) cutter on the prepared pan. Spoon some of the macaroon batter into the cutter and pack down slightly to create a rectangle. Leave the top spiky. Repeat with the remaining batter, evenly spacing the cookies on the pan.

4.   Bake for 10 minutes. Rotate the pan and bake for 5 to 7 minutes more, or until the tops are golden brown. Let the macaroons cool completely on the pan.

5.   Line a half sheet pan with parchment paper and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Dip the bottoms of the cookies into the melted chocolate, shake off the excess, and place on the prepared pan. Refrigerate until set.
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6.   The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
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While these might resemble Oreo cookies, Ellen claims them to be better, smarter, and more likely to succeed than any boxed chocolate sandwich cookie you have ever tried. I can see why. Just looking at the ingredient list you notice the high proportion of cocoa powder relative to flour, the generous amount of butter, and the modest amount of sugar in the dough. That sounds like my kind of cookie—rich and dark, and not too sweet.

​With the holidays just around the corner, this is an ideal book for gifting to those who love to bake. The chapters are arranged by technique—cookies you scoop, ones you slice and bake, those that get sandwiched, or rolled, or spread in a pan. The final chapter is cookies for the holidays such as pretty Peppermint Meringues, Laura’s Gingerbread People, or Hazelnut Tassies.
 
What give the classic cookies their twist are the inspired variations at the end of each recipe. For instance, traditional Almond—Olive Oil Biscotti flavored with aniseed, vanilla, and orange zest and textured with almonds are changed up to become Double Espresso-Hazelnut Biscotti or Cocoa-Cacao Nib Biscotti by varying the flavor and nut substitutions.
 
Ellen shares her grandmother’s recipe for Coconut-Lime Washboards. Oval-shaped and ridged, by imprinting the dough with the tines of a fork, they look old-fashioned and crispy delicious. The novel twist is Ellen’s substitution of coconut oil for shortening. And, as she suggests, not only are they better tasting, they are better for you—assuming you don’t eat the entire batch!
 
For the cookie monsters that can’t keep their hands out of the cookie jar, this is going to be a hard book to resist. For the bakers who love to putter in the kitchen on a rainy weekend afternoon, this book will inspire and delight.
 
Did I mention the Lemon Coconut Bars on page 117? Those are next on my list—bar cookies with a coconut crust, creamy lemon filling, and coconut on top. Hmmm, the directions indicate they need to cool before cutting—not sure I’ll be able to wait that long!

Courtesy of Aubrie LeGault and Portland Food Photographer

I am excited that I have the honor of being a sponsored blogger for the Portland Culinary Alliance (or PCA).  If you haven’t heard of PCA yet, I encourage you to check out their website.  If you’re involved in the culinary scene (in any way!) this would be a great organization to join.  Or if you really just love food and different events/classes I would check out their events calendar.  Anyone can attend the events.  They have two exciting events coming up next week.  This Sunday (12/6) is the Cookbook Social at Imperial. There will be over 20 local chefs, bartenders and writers and their cookbooks!  Cookbooks make a great Christmas gift- and they are even better with an author signature.  The event is from 1-3 PM.
The second event is all about the cookies!  PCA is hosting a holiday cookie exchange on Thursday, December 10th at 7 PM. The event is at a local home, when you sign-up for the event you’ll receive the address.  When I thought about this event I immediately contacted my mother back in Indiana for her Turtle Cake Brownies recipe.  It’s a family favorite around the holidays.  I will share the recipe and a few photos of those gooey chocolate bars.
I hope to see you at some PCA events this year.  Enjoy the photos and the holiday season.