Scalilli

The holidays are approaching quickly - I can't believe Thanksgiving is next week already! One of the wonderful things about cookies of just about any variety is that they keep so well. I remember as a child making Scalilli as a family, sometimes with aunts, uncles and Grandma & Grandpa. Often times, if we made them at the home of another family member, we'd pack them up without the honeying them and do the honeying at home. We always made lots and lots of cookies, of several varieties, for the holidays and give plates of them to the neighbors, our teachers, friends and pretty much anyone who stopped by, and there would still be plenty of cookies for us to enjoy Christmas day and even into New Years. Making Scalilli as a family was the best part. Mom would mix up the dough, Dad would cut them and my sister, brother & I would twist them and lay them on baking sheets covered with damp towel and take them to mom, who then did the frying & the honeying later on. If you've never made them before, I recommend getting together with a family member who has - not only will they be able to lend you their experience, but it will be so much more fun!

Scalilli

2 dozen fresh eggs, room temperature
14 cups flour, approx.
1 jigger whiskey
1 tsp salt
1 cup oil
Beat eggs until creamy. Pour into flour mixture with the oil. Mix well & knead dough until smooth. Make into desired shapes and deep fry. When cool, honey them. Store in a cool place.

Chris Additional Instructions

Forming the Cookie: Work with small portions of dough at a time, about the same amount of dough as you would for pie crust, cut out cookies or pizza. Roll out on a floured board until you can see the wood grain through the dough. Cut into long strips in one direction, about 1/2 - 1 inch wide. Cut into strips crosswise, about 1 1/2 - 2 inches long. Cut a small slit into the center of each. Gently remove the strips and run one end of the dough strip through the slit cut into the center - this will create a twist. Lay them out on cookie sheets and keep covered with a damp towel. Fry in small batches.

Honeying: Heat honey in a large skillet or electric fryer, thinning with water slightly as needed. Dip cooled Scalilli into the honey to coat thoroughly, then lay on wire racks. Store in air tight containers in a cool place.

If anyone has photos from making Scalilli, I would love to include them in this post. Please email them to me and I'll be happy to post them!

Green Olives , Italian Style - continued

I'm on the last leg of my first experience with curing olives.  It's been an interesting experience.

This is the 10lb box of olives, the day they arrived.  October 13, 2011. 

I was amazed to see their bright green color.  They were rock hard and had a tart, almost-green-apple scent too.  I thought they were so pretty the above photo is now the background image on my cell phone.

At first I thought I'd have to weigh the olives down so they'd stay submerged, so I wrapped a couple of bricks in foil, covered the container with plastic wrap and put the bricks on top.  The bricks became water-logged and it didn't really seem to be a big problem to have a few exposed olives so I abandoned that practice on day 2.

I changed the water daily during the soaking process and the olives slowly became that drab-green color most of us are used to with green olives.  Some of them have very dark patches, almost like they are ripening. 

This past Wednesday, I packed 12, pint jars of olives in brine - about 1/2 of the olives I ordered. They'd been soaking for about 3 weeks.  I'm very new to canning and didn't purchase enough jars so I'll have to finish up this next week.  Steven is going to check the shed for all the canning jars we brought home from Grandma's house, which will most likely be quart jars so we'll have some larger jars for family gatherings.  I'll need to pick up rings and lids, I'm sure, but the larger jars should speed the process up some. 

Josephine's recipe did not say how long they should be packed in brine before opening but I think we'll wait another 3 weeks or so before we try them for the first time.  I can hardly wait!