Good luck, Marky!

Tonight I am a teensy bit nervous because Marky has an important interview tomorrow.  Important as in, probably my entire future depends on tomorrow.  So anyway to keep my mind of if (and keep from scream crying with fear) I made dinner and dessert tonight.  I think Mark might be cooking to keep busy as well, since he actually did most of the work for dinner!

We ran to Vincent's because they posted on Facebook that they had a crazy deal on lobster tails.  They were selling two for $6!  So Mark and I ran down there and unfortunately found only one package left, but hey, I have two lobster rolls in the fridge for tomorrow!  We also tried to find something good to make, and when Mark spotted shrimp, we decided to make shrimp scampi.

Let me tell you: this was the best shrimp scampi I have ever eaten in my life.  I like shrimp, but I don't love it.  I hate it when it tastes... well, shrimpy.  And when they get chewy or rubbery? Blegh.  I think I have figured out why this shrimp tonight was absolute perfection: they snapped when you bit them, the texture was so perfect.  They didn't taste shrimpy at all, but buttery and garlicky.  I think the secret is not buying cookied shrimp, but raw frozen shrimp.  I even had to devein and peel them, whih was pretty gross but not as bad as cutting chicken.  And they were worth it.  Mark cooked them in butter and garlic, which made them taste insanely delicious.  The linguine soaked up the sauce and we tossed in the last few handfulls from my parsley plant on top and.... wow.  It was amazing.  Mark, Kenzie, Nick and I were the only lucky people to partake in this delectable scampi dinner, and we all agreed it was by far the best shrimp scampi ever.  This is a dinner that we will be eating again ASAP.

Then, in between practice interviewing Mark, I also made a batch of cookies.  I let him flip through my new Food Network Magazine to choose a cookie from their list of 25 (overwhelming in a wonderful way!) and he chose glazed citrus rounds.  I love citrus and still have one tangerine left that I wanted to use up (too many seeds to eat them regular), so I started right in.  I have to confess that I was nervous that something went wrong with this dough: it is the dryest cookie dough I have ever seen.  The only liquid is two egg yolks, and everything else is dry (or butter).  What you get is rather similar to pie crust dough.  I had to work really hard to form the dough into cookies to put on the baking sheets; what I ended up doing was pressing it with my hand into a tablespoon, and then pushing the round out of the spoon.  They crumbled really easily.  They had to be frozen for 30 minutes - luckily it's cold enough outside for me to just put them in the garage (why is that lucky!?) - and once I brought them back in, they were much more firm.  After I baked them, I then had to make the glaze, and of course I was out of zest, but it was all right because it tasted just fine without it.  In the end, the cookies are very citrusy and delicate.  I now know why I compared it to pie dough, because it is kind of similar!  No one but Mark and I have tried them yet, so I will have to wait and see if they pass the family test.

One interesting note: the recipe calls for the cookies to bake on parchment-lined baking sheets, but I ran out of parchment paper on the second sheet, so I used tin foil and lightly greased them with Pam.  That batch of cookies came out much better, actually; the bottoms were golden instead of browned and they seem to stay softer than the parchment paper cookies.  Keep that in mind if you try them!

Recipes:
shrimp scampi


glazed citrus rounds

from the December 2012 issue of Food Network Magazine

Makes about 24 cookies

Instructions:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1  1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1  3/4 cups granulated sugar
1  1/2 tablespoons finely grated citris zest (orange, lemon, lime or grapefruit... or I used tangerine)
2 large egg yolks
3/4 teaspoon lemon extract
1/4 teaspoon orange extract (I didn't have it so I used more lemon extract)\
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2-3 tablespoons fresh citrus juice (use the same as the zest)

Instructions:
1)  Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl.

2)  Beat the butter in a large bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until smooth.  Add the granulated sugar and 1 tablespoon citrus zest and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Beat in the egg yolks, one at a time, then beat in the lemon and orange extracts.  Reduce the mixer speed to low; add the flour mixture and beat until a soft dough forms (and they mean really soft!).

3) Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper (or greased tin foil).  Scoop rounded tablespoons of dough about 2 inches apart onto the prepared baking sheets.  Freeze at least 30 minutes or overnight.

4)  Preheat the oven to 375.  Bake the cookies straight from the freezer, 1 baking sheet at a time, until the edges are set and the bottoms are lightly browned, 15 to 17 minutes.  Let cool 3 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

5) Meanwhile, make the glaze: whisk the confectioners' sugar, 2 tablespoons citrus juice, and the remaining 1/2 tablespoon zest (I had hardly any zest left but it was okay!) in a medium bowl until thick and smooth. You can add 1 more tablespoon citrus juice if the glaze is too thick.  Spread on cookies; transfer to a rack and let set, about 1 hour.

CHOREG!

Yesterday was a very successful day for me.  I have been wanting to make Armenian foods for years - basically since I met Mark.  Yes, I have made hummus and pita bread, but that wasn't enough for me; I wanted to make something really Armenian: lahmajoon or boreg or fatoush.  Or... choreg.  Yes, choreg (pronounced to rhyme with good egg), the slightly sweet braided yeast rolls, topped with sesame seeds, that I have been obsessed with since Mark's parents introduced me to them.  They know I love them so much that they buy me bags full of them every year at their church's food bazaar. But I always knew I had to try to make them myself.  After all, I adore baking yeast breads, and I adore choregs, so I began frantically searching for recipes, and that's when I found the problem: there are a thousand different choreg recipes and few of them looked or sounded like the delicious little rolls I get from the Ajemians at the Armenian Holy Trinity on Grove Street in Worcester, MA! I even asked Mark's mom, who said she used to bake them with her mother-in-law's recipe, but she couldn't find it.  So imagine my excitement when I noticed on Facebook, right before Thanksgiving, Mark's aunt Julie wrote something about how she just finished baking up a big batch of choregs!  I immediately sent her a message, and - thank you SO much, Julie! - she sent it right to me.  I was so excited, but with Thanksgiving craziness sinking in, I didn't have the time to try it out - until yesterday :)

pretty braids!

Now, the recipe calls for 8 1/2  - 9 cups of flour, which is practically an entire bag.  I had seen recipes calling for 5 pounds of flour and immediately ignored them - and then, of course, that's basically what Grammy Ajemian's recipe calls for!  Trust me, you will want to use that much flour, and many cups more when it comes time to roll out the rolls, because this dough is sticky!  It also took me about 3 hours to rise, rather than 2, but honestly there is just so much dough that it's no wonder it takes a long time.  When it's risen, the original recipe says to cut the dough into rolls, but I know the choregs I get from the church are braided, so after some more internet searching I found out a way to do it: Roll a golf ball-sized dough ball into a long (18 inches or so) rope; tear off 1/3 of it.  Then take the longer piece and make a horseshoe shape with it.  Take the little piece, moosh it right into the middle, and voila: you have three strips of dough to braid.  There was so much dough that this part of the recipe took me forever, and I started making enormous choreg, but in the end, I had 21 braids of dough ready to bake.  I topped them with an egg wash and sprinkled sesame seeds on top, and baked them.  The house smelled absolutely delicious while they were cooking, and I could hardly wait to try them as soon as they came out of the oven.  I can honestly say this might be one of the best things I have made; I have been told as much by multiple family members.  They even got Anne to break her no-carb diet!  I've eaten way more than my fair share, and I am now regretting my idea to make huge choregs because it means I ended up with less rolls, and they are going fast!  These are definitely weekend-type things to bake, because of the time it takes to let the dough rise and then form the rolls, but 100% worth it.  I am still thrilled that Mark's family enjoyed them.  I am going to be such a good Armenian housewife someday :)

Choregs!

I also decided to beextra  nice and make Mark's favorite dessert, banana cream pie, last night.  Apparently, though, my mistake was wanting to make everything from scratch.  He kept whining that insant banana pudding would be better than my homemade pastry cream with cinnamon and nutmeg!  I made my own pie crust (used my mixer this time... just as easy as the food processor but maybe a tiny bit slower), made the pastry cream on the stove (very similar to when I was on a roll making homemade pudding last winter), and made my own whipped cream for the topping.  I layered bananas and pastry cream a couple times, and topped it with my whipped cream.  My only problem was my lack of pie weights; I had to bake the empty crust empty, so it puffed up in one area and I had to fork it to let the air out.  Add to my stocking stuffer list (Mama!).  In the end, the pie was delicious.  In fact, Nick said it was one of the best desserts I have ever made, and he is a tough sell.  Kenzie, Alex and Mom have all complimented me on it.  And as for Mark?  He says it is very good, but not banana cream pie.  He calls it banana spice pie; he really had his heart set on that banana pudding, so my spiced pastry cream has him all confused :)  As I type this, he is having another piece tonight and announcing that "it is delish delish.... but I think of it as a banana spice pie." :)  I had my first piece today, and even though the recipe said it was best served the day it's made, it seemed perfect to me after a night in the refrigerator; it could definitely be made a day ahead.

Recipes:
banana cream pie


Armenian choreg

Ingredients:
1 stick butter
1/2 cup Crisco
1 teaspoon sugar
2 cups boiling water
1 cup of room temperture water ( 1/2 cup boiling water 1/2 cup cold water)
4 teaspoons dry active yeast
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
4 large eggs,  beaten
8 1/2 - 9 cups of flour (I used 9)
         for egg wash glaze:  1 whole egg, beaten
                                           sesame seeds for top
Instructions:

1)   Cut butter and Crisco into small pieces and add to a large bowl.
2)  Add 1 teaspoon sugar.
3)  Add 2 cups boiling water and mix well with wooden spoon till the shortening and the butter are completely melted.
4)  Add 1 cup room temperature water.
5)  Check that this mixture is warm to touch.
6)  Sprinkle the yeast onto the mixture and gently fold in.
7)  Allow mixture to stand for 3-5 minutes or until yeast is activated ( watch for froth under surface).
8)  Mix well.
9)  Add 1 cup sugar, salt, and beaten eggs, and mix well.
10)  Add flour in stages and mix.
11)  Form into dough ( will be a soft dough).
12) Place in a greased bowl (grease bowl with 1 tsp. olive oil) and cover with a clean towel.  Wrap bowl with towels to keep warm.
13) Allow dough to rise to double its size about, 2-3 hours.
14) Turn onto floured counter.
15. You have two options for shaping: 

• Easy option: cut into pieces: 2 inch wide by 4 inch wide roll shape.
• Harder but pretty option: Roll a golf ball-sized dough ball into a 16-18" rope; tear off 1/3 of it. Take the longer piece and make a horseshoe shape with it. Take the little piece, moosh it right into the middle of the horseshoe, and braid the three strips.

16) Place onto trays lined with parchment paper.

17) Allow rolls to rise double their size.

18) Glaze with egg and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

19) Bake at 375 degrees  for 10 - 15 minutes on the middle rack of the oven.

Marky is Famous!

THERE HE IS!  "Can I see some ID?"

Last night was pretty exciting, because I got to watch my boyfriend on television!  He had a small part in a movie called The March Sisters at Christmas, which was played on the Lifetime Network last night.  It was so cool to see him on the screen, and even hear him say a few lines!  Needless to say he stole the show, in my opinion :)

Since it is not every day you get to watch your boyfriend be a movie star, I decided to throw a little premiere party complete with tons of snacks.  I went grocery shopping after book club and between5:30 and 7:30, I managed to make four different appetizers: homemade pretzel bites, feta dip, oven toasted ravioli, and cheddar and olive balls.  A special thanks to Kenzie for helping me plan my menu and finding most of the recipes :)

First I started with the pretzel dough.  I have made homemade pretzels before, but this recipe was quicker because it only needed one 1-hour rising period.  I still had to boil and then bake them, but that's really not all that much extra work.  I was serving them within two hours from starting them, which is pretty incredible with any yeast bread! I tried to turn them into little bites as the recipe says, but they puff up fairly large when you boil them, which I forgot, so my bites turned into little rolls, which ended up being just fine because everyone loved them.  Betsy said they might be the best thing I ever made, and they all went.  I made way more than the 8 pretzel bites that the recipe claims to make; like I said, I thought I was making lots of tiny little bites.  Even without them being tiny, they were still small enough to get a big batch of pretzels.  I salted them pretty well once I had the egg wash on them right before baking, and we all agreed they were salted just perfectly.  I did not brush them with melted butter when they came out of the oven like the recipe says; it's not needed!  These are great as is.

Guilty much?

The next appetizer I made was the feta dip.  Sometimes my family calls it bruschetta dip; we discovered it this summer and it has been made for numerous parties and get-togethers since then!  It is so easy and really, really delicious.  Basically you just combine olive oil, diced tomatoes and scallions, and Greek seasoning on a platter, and serve with fresh sliced baguette.  That's it!  It is so good and always one of the first snacks to disappear.  This was the case last night.... except unfortunately, it did not disappear the way I wanted it to.  You can ask Delilah about that :(

I made oven-toasted ravioli for another party last month, and they were a big hit.  They are also really simple: dip frozen (and thawed) ravioli in an egg/milk wash, dunk them in bread crumbs and parmesan, and bake.  That's it!  Then you serve it with warm marinara.  Simple and delicious.  I made a huge pan of them last night and nearly all of them went.

Last was a bit of a gamble: cheddar olive balls.  I love cheese and I have a newfound obsession for olives, so I had pinned them a while ago and Kenzie thought I should try them out last night.  Basically they feel like the unhealthiest thing I made last night; you have to mix up shredded cheddar cheese and a whole stick of butter; add paprika and flour and then you use the dough to wrap around olives, and bake.  The dough ended up being a little dry, and I had no more cheese to add like the recipe recommends, so I added a little water and it worked out that way.  I thought these were good - Betsy pointed out that somehow, they taste fried! But I also think that olives themselves are so delicious that they probably don't need to be wrapped in a crunchy cheesy buttery layer.  I would have most likely enjoyed a platter of plain olives just as much if not more.  Nevertheless, people liked them.

Today, being my last day of Thanksgiving vacation, is a bittersweet day, but we are having a second Thanksgiving for just my family here, and I am going to attempt a couple new recipes, so stay tuned!

Recipes:
homemade pretzel bites
feta dip
cheddar and olive balls


oven toasted ravioli
 from Plain Chicken blog

Ingredients:
12 frozen ravioli, thawed (I have found that you can make far more than 12)
1 egg
1 Tbsp milk
6 Tbps Italian bread crumbs
2 Tbsp grated parmesan cheese
cooking spray
marinara sauce or pesto for serving

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2)  Whisk together egg and milk in shallow bowl. In another bowl or pie plate, combine bread crumbs and parmesan cheese. Dip ravioli in egg and then in bread crumbs. Place on baking sheet. Repeat until all ravioli are coated. Spray ravioli with cooking spray.

3)  Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with warm marinara or pesto

Thanksgiving!

Well, now that the craziness of Thanksgiving is over, I can finally update you on how yesterday went!

My cream puffs, chocolate crinkles, elephant eats, cake, and pie on our dessert table

I got up early - very early for me - and started right in on baking my pie.  That was pretty quick since I had alread made the dough and the filling the day before.  I did decide to follow the recipe exactly and make a lattice top crust.  It came out really beautiful and wasn't that hard to do; it was just like weaving and I think it made the pie a lot more impressive than if it just had a regular crust.  As for the final result: the pies, as usual, are not big hits at Thanksgiving, and the first cut into it didn't come till late, when Christy's boyfriend told me it "needed sugar."  I had to find out if it was true, so I cut myself a slice.  Mark and I shared it and we both thought it was great.  Mark even used the word perfect!  The cranberries do add a tartness, but there are enough blueberries - more than cranberries - to balance it out.  Plus the depth of flavor from the cinnamon really makes the filling different.

Orange cake and elephant ears

The next dessert to finish was my elephant ears.  My mistake was thinking that I could remove the dough from the freezer and slice them immediately; I am an idiot!  If you have made these ahead of time, please wait for them to thaw before you slice.  They will end up crumbling and making you want to whip your dough logs into the sink.  Then once they actually do defrost, they are easy enough to slice, but you are supposed to roll each slice out to 6-7", and that is not so easy to do.  You have to use sugar to keep them from sticking, and let me tell you there is a reason we use flour for this purpose rather than sugar.  However with that said, I bet I will be making these elephant ear cookies again.  I got rave reviews.  I was even told by Susie and Clay, among others, that the elephant ears were their favorite desserts!  They were pretty good; the puff pastry swirled with chopped pecans is a winning combination in and of itself, but the cinnamon and sugar melt into a caramel-like layer that seals everything together into a delicious cookie.

Then... things started to go wrong.  It started to get later and later and closer and closer to Thanksgiving time, and I still had 2 desserts to finish!  I must have gotten sloppy, because mistakes started happening.  So... first I started to finish my croquembouche, also known as cream puffs filled with maple cream and drizzled with caramel.  I had made the puffs and filling already.  Kenzie helped me fill them; we quickly decided to cut them open and fill them that way, rather than the recipe's idea to poke a hole in the bottom with a skewer and then put the tip of the pastry bag in the hole.  It was hard to see if they were full enough so our way worked just fine.  Then I went to make the caramel, and disaster struck.  I was careful not to stir it at all, since the recipe warned that stirring would make it crystallize and ruin the caramel.  It was hard to just let it boil away, but when it was a perfect amber color, I took it off the hot unit and moved it to the back burner.  What I neglected to notice was that Kenzie had been using that burner to make eggs for devilled eggs, and it was still warm.  Okay, it was still hot.  By the time I was ready for the caramel and went to grab it, I noticed it was boiling, and was no longer amber; it was more like... black.  Yes, it was burned.  And tasted burned.  And when I went to wash it out of the pan, it turned into glass that sliced my fingers.  Can I just say I hate making caramel when I can't use my candy thermometer!  Why can't they  let me be exact!?  Anyway, I did not have the time, or the sugar, to make another batch, so I just piled my cream puffs on a platter and sprinkled them with some powdered sugar. They didn't have as much visual wow factor, but the taste factor was amazing.  People were snagging these little bites of amazingness way before dinner, and by the time dessert was on people's minds, they were gone!  They were a very big hit - perhaps bigger or just as big as the elephant ears.

My next disaster: I went to make the Swiss meringue buttercream frosting for my orange almond cake, and it just looked awful.  The recipe even says not to worry if it looks curdled; just keep beating it.  So I kept beating, and beating, and beating, and by this time it was 12:45 and the party started at 1:00!  So I was panicking and finally decided something somewhere was wrong, but I did not have time to make any more frosting!  My mom helped me try to spread it on the cake, and it was not looking great; it looked like cottage cheese and didn't spread easily.  We knew it tasted fine, but it just looked so gross.  I ended up covering as much of it up as I could using orange slices, and in the end it looked fine.  Not too much of it went at the party - which I expected, since I don't think anyone wants a big hunk of cake after a huge Thanksgiving meal - but Mom, Christy and Susie complimented me on it. 



My masterpieces! (Plus Kenzie's cheesecake in the back!)

I was kind of cooked-out today, but I did decide to make lunch with a butternut squash that has been hanging around our house for a couple weeks.  I had bought the ingredients for a creamy butternut squash macaroni and cheese last time I went shopping, and today was the day for it.  Any time you can eat mac and cheese and not feel like a fatty, it's a good thing.  And this was from the Eat Yourself Skinny website! Perfect!  You boil the squash in lowfat milk and chicken broth and then mash it up with garlic, stir in the cheeses and the macaroni, and bake it.  It was pretty easy, and I have to say that I love it.  Then again, I love anything with pasta and butternut squash.  It was slightly sweet and felt really unhealthy, but it wasn't!  Even my mother and grandmother who claim to dislike mac and cheese ate a bowl of it.  I doubled the recipe and made a huge casserole dish and half went, so I was happy.

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and that you ate lots and lots of delicious food with wonderful family and friends :)

Recipe:
creamy butternut squash macaroni and cheese

Thanksgiving INSANITY

WOW.  So I have, in the last 11 months, certainly had lots of days when I claim to have spent all day cooking or baking, or when I say that I have created lots of food.  None of those days can compare to the pre-Thanksgiving craziness of today!  This year is the first year in a very long time that Thanksgiving is not at my house; I have to say that I am relieved.  It let me spend all day today making what I felt like bringing to my family party instead of what we usually do on Thanksgiving Eve, which often involves scrubbing walls and shining the stairs.  You may laugh, but that is really stuff that Mom would have us do.  Anyway, I was assigned a blueberry pie, but other than that, I could be creative.   I decided to bring two kinds of cookies, the pie (more on that later), croquembouche (basically cream puffs stacked up), and an orange almond layer cake.  I was also making a double batch of soup, one for us tonight and one to bring to my friend from work who just gave birth to twins!  So was this day absolutely insane?  Yes.  Did I bake and cook from 10 AM to now, with only a break to hold some amazingle gorgeous day-olds?  Yes.  But it was kind of fun.

I started with the pie crust and filling.  I will assemble and bake the pie tomorrow.  I know that I was assigned a blueberry pie, but really that is kind of boring.  I wanted to spice things up a bit.  I knew I could count on Annie; she had a recipe from cranberry blueberry pie, along with her recipe for dough.  I made the dough in my beloved food processor and put it right into the fride; I will use it up tomorrow.  Then I made the filling on the stove, which is a nice thick juicy mix of blueberries and cranberries.  I loved that it steeps with cinnamon sticks for a while!  I hope it's a bigger hit than blueberry pie (which is kind of a joke because as the host of Thanksgiving for 50 people for the last 10ish years, I can honestly say that most years, the blueberry pie never even gets cut into!  There are a lot of other desserts and it just gets overlooked.... let's see if I can break the pattern!)

Then it was cookie time.  I was going to bring some cookies to my friend tonight with the soup, and her son and husband requested chocolate cookies in particular, so I decided to make the chocolate crinkle cookies that I made back in August.  They were a huge hit then and they still are now.  Here was my mistake: I doubled the recipe.  What I forgot was that the recipe makes about 4 dozen cookies!  I literally spent a ridiculous amount of hours making these cookies today.  I think my hands could roll balls of dough, toss them into some powdered sugar, and put them on a pan in my sleep.  100 chocolate crinkles later (no joke), and I have more than enough to give to a proud new brother, to bring plenty to Thanksgiving, and to have lots left over, since both sisters and my mother ate so many that they felt sick :)  They are very addictive; they taste like brownies but they are in tiny little bites, which makes it feel totally okay to eat a lot of them.  Beware!

More cookies followed; I have wanted to try elephant ear cookies since I saw them on Annie's Eats a couple months ago.  They are fairly easy to make; you roll out puff pastry and top it with chopped roasted pecans, brown and granulated sugar, and cinnamon.  Then you roll it up - and that's as far as I got today.  It is in the freezer for now, waiting for me to slice it and bake the cookies up tomorrow!  I'll let you know how they come out.

Then I made the soup.  It was in my Thanksgiving edition of Food Network Magazine and had white beans, pasta and kale in it, so I knew I would love it.  I figured it would be easy enough to double the recipe and take half to my friends.  Of course, I was forgetting that my To Do list still had 3 things on it, but babies came first today!  The soup came together pretty quickly.  I did not have any fresh thyme, but I used dried and it worked just fine.  I also did not add as much water as the recipe says; since I was doubling it, I would have needed to add 4 cups of chicken broth (which I did) and then 12 cups of water!!!  I added 2, and I think it was more than enough.  The soup had great flavor and everyone seemed to enjoy it.  I thought it was great, although I could do without the bacon.  I love bacon, but in a soup it just gets wet, and blegh.  But everything else was great!  All my broth has been soaked up by the beans and pasta, so this is not the best soup to reheat, but luckily we ate most of it!

No, I am still not done.  After sneaking out to bring the soup and cookies to Amanda, and spending time snuggling precious babies, it was back to the kitchen for me.  I bought some oranges a week or so ago, and they are delicious, but there have never in the history of oranges been a fruit with so many seeds.  There are honestly 4-6 seeds in each segment.  It makes it not so fun to eat.  So, Mom has been asking me to make an orange cake to use them up.  I figured now would be a good time to do that, since we never eat a whole cake by ourselves in my house.  Of course I can't just choose a quick orange cake recipe; I had to choose a Martha Stewart one that had me folding stiff egg whites into the batter (why does every cake I make lately seem exactly like baked Alaska?!) and grinding almonds to add in,  but that is one less thing to do tomorrow.  I will just have to make the Swiss meringue buttercream and frost it up tomorrow.  I read online that the best way to keep the cakes fresh overnight was to wrap them up tightly with plastic wrap, so I did it; fingers crossed that tomorrow I still have two perfect orange almond cake layers!

Last but certainly not least, the croquembouche.  This was Kenzie's choice.  You make cream puffs, a maple custard filling, and a caramel sauce; then you stack the filled puffs in a pyramid shape and drizzle them with caramel.  I made most of the parts of the recipe today; I made the puffs and the filling.  Tomorrow I will just have to make the caramel, fill the puffs, and set up the whole display.  It was a very different kind of dough, apparently called a choux; you make it on the stovetop, then pipe it into mounds and bake it.  I have lots of gorgeous little puffs in an airtight container in the fridge overnight; here's to hoping they stay perfect.  The filling was similar to making pudding and flavored only by maple syrup.  Mom and Kenzie already stole a puff each and dipped them into the filling; they both say I may have a new family favorite on my hands.  I guess I will know more after I finish them up and bring them over tomorrow.

Okay, that's it.  And forgive the lack of pictures; nothing felt finished yet today, and the things that were took me too long to stop and photograph!  Now I am so exhausted I am falling asleep as I type - I hope I made sense  - and my body is sore!  It is definitely time for bed, because all my work is not yet done!  Luckily tomorrow the only thing I actually have to make is the frosting for the cake and the caramel topping for the cream puffs; everything else juse needs to be assembled, sliced, and/or baked.  Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!  This year I am thankful that I have found something that I love to do so much, and I am grateful also for anyone who is willing to read my ramblings about my (first) year in the kitchen :)

Recipes:
cranberry blueberry pie
elephant ear cookies
orange almond cake with Swiss meringue buttercream


chocolate crinkle cookies
from Chef in Training

Ingredients:
 2 cups sugar

3/4 cup oil

1 cup unsweetened cocoa

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/3 cup flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

powdered sugar for rolling

 

Instructions:

1.  Comine sugar, oil and cocoa in a large bowl. Beat until well blended.
2. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
3.  In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Slowly add to cocoa mixture, beating well.
4. Cover and refrigerate dough until it is firm enough to handle. If you are wanting them to firm up faster, stick the covered dough in the freezer until firm enough to handle.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease a cookie sheet.
6.  Roll dough into 1-inch balls then roll them in powdered sugar. Place on cookie sheet about 2 inches apart from each other.
7.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 10-12 minutes.


Pasta, kale and white bean soup
from the November 2012 issue of Food Network Magazine

Ingredients:
3 slices bacon, chopped
1 small onion, diced
3 carrots, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon tomato paste
3/4 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup grated parmesan, plus 1 small piece rind (I used far less than this, and no rind)
1  1/2 cups, or about 8 ounces of small pasta (I used tri-color ruffles)
1  15-ounce can white beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup chopped kale (the recipe called for frozen but I refused)

Instructions:
1.  Put the bacon in a large pot of Dutch oven over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until crisp, about 4 minutes.  Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly softened, about 3 minutes.

2.  Add the carrots, garlic, tomato paste, thyme, and 1/2 teaspoon each salt and pepper; cook until the carrots begin to soften, about 2 minutes.  Add the chicken broth, 6 cups of water (I did not find this much water necessary; taste your soup!), and the parmesan rind.  Increase the heat to high; cover and bring to a boil.

3.  Add the pasta and beans and cook, uncovered, 5 minutes.  Reduce the heat to medium and add the kale.  Simmer uncovered until slightly thickened, about 7 minutes.  Remove the parmesan rind and stir in half the parmesan cheese; season with salt and pepper.  Ladle into bowls and top with remaining cheese.


croquembouche with maple cream

from Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications: Holiday Baking 2012

Ingredients:
1 recipe maple cream filling (see below)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
5 eggs
1 teaspoon water
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup water

1.  Prepare maple cream filling.  Cover and chill until needed.

2. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Line two extra large baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.  '

3.  In a large saucepan, combine 1/2 water, milk, butter and salt.  Bring to boiling.  Immediately add flour all at once; stir vigorously.  Cook and stir mixure until it forms a ball.  Remove from heat.  Cool for 10 minutes.

4.  Add four of the eggs, beating well after each addition.

5.  Using a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2 inch round tip, pipe dough into 46 1-inch mounds on prepared baking sheets, leaving 1 inch between mounds. 

6.  In a bowl, beat remaining egg and 1 teaspoon water with a fork.  Brush puffs with egg mixture.  Bake, one sheet at a time, until puffs are golden and firm, about 20 minutes. Cool on baking sheets on wire rack.

7.  Spoon filling into a pastry bag fitted with a small or medium round tip.  Using a skewer, gently poke a hole into the bottom of each puff.  Insert pastry bag tip into holes and fill puffs with filling.

8.  For caramel, in a medium saucepan, stir together sugar and the 1/4 cup water (mixture will be grainy).  Using a soft pastry brush dipped in water, wash down sides of pan to prevent crystallization.  Bring to boiling over medium heat.  Do not stir!  Increase heat to high.  Cook without stirring for 6-8 minutes or until mixture turns an amber color; cool slightly.

9.  On each of two serving plates, arragne 7 puffs in a circle and one puff in the center for a base. Drizzle with caramel.  Continue adding layers of puffs to make a cone shape, drizzling each layer with caramel.  If caramel becomes too thick, transfer to a microwave-safe bowl and microwave on 100% power (high) for 10 seconds or until drizzling consistency.  If desired, garnish with sea salt flakes and/or caramel stars.  Serve immediately or chill for up to 4 hours.

Maple cream filling: In a medium saucepan, whisk together 1  1/2 cups whipping cream, 1/2 cup maple syrup, and 3 tablespoons cornstarch.  Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly (if necessary, use whisk to make smooth).  Cook and stir for 2 minutes more.  Remove from heat.  Gradually stir half of the hot mixture into 5 lightly beated egg yolks.  Return egg yolk mixture to saucepan.  Bring to a gentle boil.  Reduce heat.  Cook and stir for 2 minutes more.  Remove from heat.  Stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.  Pour mixture into bowl and cover surface with plastic wrap.  Chill 1-2 hours.

Caramel stars: Line a baking sheet with foil.  Use a spoon to drizzle some of the caramel in free-form star shapes onto the foil.  Let stand until set and firm.  Gently peel stars off foil.

Making Boxty to Get a Man!

I am attempting to make up for my laziness of the past few days!  Lots of good food to share tonight...

A couple weeks ago, Mark and I went out to dinner with the Butterfields.  It's all quite perfect: Mark and Ian grew up together, and Dianah and I are friends at work.  Anyway, we went to O'Connors and got some lovely Irish fare.  I tried something I have never heard of: a boxty.  The menu said it was a potato scallion pancake, and I love all three things, so I gave it a try... and it was amazing.  Soft but firm, incredibly flavorful, served with sour cream and apple sauce... I know it sounds weird but please read on.  I immediately knew that I had to try this out myself.  I did some research and I feel like a really half-assed Irish girl; apparently boxty is a very popular traditional Irish dish!  In fact, there is even a saying:

Boxty in the griddle,
Boxty in the pan,
If you can't make a boxty,
Then you'll never get a man!

As soon as I read that, for obvious reasons I knew I had to make a boxty!  Yesterday we had leftover mashed potatoes, which the recipe calls for, so I gave it a shot.  You need both mashed and grated potatoes, which helps give it that part hash brown/ part pancake texture.  It's flavored with salt, pepper, and scallions, but I swear the flavor is so full and bursting that it feels like half the spice cabinet is in there.  You have to pan fry them in butter, which we all know is not my forte, but I was able to get them perfectly browned on each side, and they were absolutely delicious.  Artie and Johanna happened to be here while I was making them, and he said he has ordered boxty before from O'Connor's, so I was concerned that I'd be measured up against the professionals, but everyone agreed that they were delicious.  I wish I'd had some apple sauce to serve them with.  If you have leftover mashed potatoes any time soon (and hello, it's Thanksgiving week!) then you need to give these a shot.  They are so good, and it is like the ultimate comfort food!

That covered it for lunch, and then I had bought all the ingredients for dinner last weekend and had to use it up soon because - get ready for this - there is meat involved.  When I was younger, I liked shepherd's pie, which is gross because ground beef is horrible, but I think if you slather mashed potatoes on top of anything, I would probably eat it.  When I saw this recipe on Skinny Taste a week or so ago, I knew I wanted to try it out.  It's basically a "skinny" shepherd's pie, with ground turkey instead of beef, and mashed sweet potato instead of regular on top.  Inside are a mix of other veggies, like parsnip (definitely my first time buying a parsnip) and mushrooms.  There's also some rosemary in there, which you know I love.  It did take me a while to throw it together, because I had to brown the meat, cook the veggies, make the sauce, and mash the potatotes, but in the end, my family really liked it.  Well, I should add that there was a lot of whining over the presence of mushrooms, but the flavors really were pretty great.  My mom even loved it, and had it for lunch today!  I thought it was delicious too, but ground turkey is not my favorite thing.  If I could manage this  without any meat, all would be well!


The view inside the baking dish!

Mushroom Alert!

Pre-rolling

Tonight for dinner, I made caprese lasagna roll-ups.  I love caprese salad, and lately I even love lasagnas (no meat of course!) so this recipe intrigued me.  Lasagna noodles, mozzarella, parmesan and ricotta cheeses, basil and sliced tomato, all rolled up and baked with a little tomato sauce?  Sounds great to me!  The recipe even claimed to be easier than lasagna, which I may have to disagree with because it took me a while to roll up everything, but it wasn't too bad. I did find that it was much, much easier to spread the cheese mixture on the noodles once they were cooled; when they were warm, the cheese just pushed to one side and wouldn't spread, so if you try this, wait till they cool!  Spread 'em with cheese, top them with slices of tomato and spinkles of fresh basil, and voila: you're done.  Toss them in a baking dish with some tomato sauce and more mozzarella, and you officially have a meal that pleased each and every one of my family members without any complaints!  And you know how rarely that happens.  Mom said what she loved was that every bite has noodles, cheese, and tomato, whereas in regular lasagna, the layers can get messed up and you can end up chomping on just filling.  Mom and Alex had two, and Rach and I at first split one because we'd both been very bad snackers this afternoon, but then Rachael loved her half so much that she had another!  I made 9 (I snuck one extra roll-up in there!) for 5 people and I think all but 1 went.  Success!  These babies will appear on our table again. 

All rolled up and ready to bake!

One day left of this two-day work week and then it's Thanksgiving vacation!!! :)

Recipes:
boxty
sweet potato turkey shepherd's pie
caprese lasagna roll-ups

Lazy Blogger

I confess to being a lazy blogger these last few days.  I have been cooking and baking, but neglecting to write it up, so I apologize.  Don't worry: I am about to make it up to you with some really great recipes!

First, on Wednesday I went out to eat with my mom, Kenzie, Mark, and his parents.  We went to Joey's and had a really fun night, not to mention amazing food.  For dessert, Mom got gingerbread cake, which was probably the last thing I would have ordered, but you know her and her weird tastes!  She loved it and started saying that I had to make her some gingerbread ASAP.  By the time I got home from work Thursday, she already had this ancient (1974) Betty Crocker cookbook of my dad's sitting on the counter, open to a stained and wrinkled page, which means Dad cooked this recipe often: gingerbread.  It was actually very easy and quick to make; you know how much I love when you can make a whole recipe in one bowl!  I was able to make the whole thing in the mixer.  I actually decided to double the recipe so I could bring one to a party I was going to Friday night, and I had two gingerbreads in the oven in no time. 

In addition to the cake, Mom said I had to make the sauce that Dad used to make to go with the bread: lemon sauce. To me, lemon and gingerbread sound kind of weird together, but hey, if Dad made it, then it must have been good.  Mark was my lemon zester and juicer, and two whole lemons were needed to make enough zest and juice, so I knew this was going to have a good lemony taste.  When it was done, I cut hunks of the gingerbread and ladled the sauce on top.  I was told I wasn't giving enough sauce, so I put even more on the pieces of bread and added some on the plate to dip.  Let me tell you something: if you like gingerbread, you need to make this recipe, and you cannot skimp out on the lemon sauce.  I know it sounds weird, but it works.  It makes the bread all soft and gooey, and the lemon brings out the ginger flavor and makes everything all warm and happy.  Mom is a big fan of this recipe and we're currently eating our second gingerbread, since not all of it went at the party.

Yesterday Tuck and Linda were coming to visit, so I finally got around to making what Linny had been begging for: olive bread.  Months ago, I made rosemary olive bread, which I liked, but didn't go over too well with most other people.  This time I decided that I wanted to showcase the olives themselves; I love rosemary, but it can be a bit bossy, and this round I had real fresh kalamata olives rather than canned black ones, so they needed to be the star.  I had to pit and chop them but it was worth it to use those amazing salty little bundles of goodness!  This recipe makes a gorgeous round bread with  an interesting pattern; you let it rise for the last time upside down in a bowl that is lined with a towel; so when you transfer the dough to its baking sheet, it has the marks of the towel you used.  In my case, it was a waffle-print towel.  I think it makes the bread look pretty.  Anyway, besides looking good, it tasted good!  The consistency of the bread was perfect - brown crispy outside and soft white inside, with bites of olive sprinkled throughout.  It was a big hit, and almost all of it went - which does not happen always with my breads!  Maggie and Linny especially loved it, and I let Linny take home the last little stub that was left.

Since Linny was getting her special bread, I needed to make Tuck something special too, so I made the pumpkin bake I made him last time.  It's low carb and made with Splenda, so he can actually have dessert with us, and he loves it!  Of course, when I asked Kenzie to buy a can of pumpkin for me, she bought pumpkin pie mix, so I ended up having to make my own pumpkin puree first, which is frankly starting to become a routine around here.  Once I got it roasted and pureed (and my new food processor really made that part a breeze!), the pumpkin bake was fast.  Probably what took the longest was opening the 24 packets of Splenda!  In the end, Tuck loved his dessert and took the leftovers home.  It's basically pumpkin pie without the crust, and without sugar or flour!  Make this for your favorite diabetic this Thanksgiving ;)

before going in the oven

Lastly, I made a dessert for the non-diabetics in the house.  Linny had requested something apple-y, and I asked Kenz to help me choose a recipe or I would have sat all morning Googling apple recipes (this happens to me often).  She told me to make an apple tart.  I typed that in, and the first recipe that popped up with Ina Garten's French apple tart.  I love her, and the tart looked beautiful and easy, so I decided to give that a try.  I was able to make the pastry crust in my food processor, which was pretty easy compared to using a pastry cutter!  Then thin-slicing the apples was honestly the longest task for me; it called for 4 Granny Smiths, which I did slice up, but I probably only used 2 1/2 apples; we ate the leftover slices with  peanut butter!  Once the apples are all layered on the dough, you sprinkle on a half cup of sugar and a half stick of diced butter; I was worried this was going to be way too sweet, but it wasn't; the apples release their juices and some of the sugar seems to run off and caramelize the bottom of the dough, which is incredible.  After it bakes, you brush it with a mixture of apricot jam and rum.  This dessert is to die for.  I ate three pieces, and I am not a sweets kind of person.  I just can't get over how to top of the tart is so fruity and sweet, and the dough is flaky and almost caramelized on the bottom from the running apple juices and sugar and butter... oh man.  I would be lying if I didn't tell you that I may or may not have snuck a piece for breakfast today, although it is certainly not breakfast food.  Trust me: this tart is easy and really, really good.

finished product!

I have some ideas for today's culinary adventures; stay tuned!

Recipes:
Mediterranean black olive bread
pumpkin puree
French apple tart

gingerbread
from Betty Crocket's Desserts Cookbook, 1974!

Ingredients:
2  1/4 cups all-purpose or cake flour (I used all-purpose)
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup dark molasses
3/4 cup hot water
1/2 cup shortening
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:
1)  Heat oven to 325 degrees.  Grease and flour square pan, 9 x 9 x 2 inches. 

2)  Measure all ingredients into  a large mixer bowl.  Blend 1/2 minute on low speed, scraping bowl constantly.

3)  Beat 3 minutes on medium speed, scraping bowl occasionally.  Pour batter into pan.  Bake until wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, about 50 minutes.  Serve warm with lemon sauce!


lemon sauce
from Betty Crocket's Desserts Cookbook, 1974!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 cup water
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Instructions:
Mix sugar and cornstarch in small saucepan.  Gradually stir in water.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils.  Boil and stir 1 minute.  Remove from heat and stir in remaining ingredients.  Serve warm or cool (I recommend warm!)


low-carb pumpkin bake
from http://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/pumpkin_bake.html

Ingredients:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
5 eggs
1 cup granular Splenda (24 packets)
15 ounce can pumpkin
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:
Put the cream cheese in a medium mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the remaining ingredients and beat well. Pour into a 6x8" greased glass baking dish. Bake at 350º about 40 minutes or until the center feels firm and a knife inserted in the center comes out relatively clean. Cool, then chill before serving.

Lemon Pudding Cake

Tonight I felt the need for something sweet, which is rather unlike me, but I was craving it!  I asked for help choosing a recipe since I can get bogged down in my cookbooks, so Alex sent me a recipe he'd found for lemon pudding cake.  The recipe said it's an "ooey-gooey citrus dessert that's part cake and part pudding."  Could that sound more amazing?  I love lemon - and we accidentally have 2 bags worth of lemons right now - so it was the perfect dessert for tonight.

It almost felt like I was making baked Alaska again; you have to separate the eggs and first make a concoction out of the yolks and other ingredients, and then you whip the whites and fold them into the first mixture - very similar to the baked Alaska.  But then I tossed it into a loaf pan and baked it for 50 minutes.  The recipe says to cover the top with foil for the last 10 minutes of baking so it doesn't get too brown, but it was very brown by that time already, so I'd recommend covering it up earlier. 

The final result is what it said it would be: ooey-gooey part cake, part pudding!  I don't think it has quite enough lemon flavor as I wanted it to; the recipe called for 1/3 - 1/2 cup lemon juice, and I used more like 1/3.  I would use 1/2 cup next time.  I also think if you don't love eggs, you won't like this dessert.  It's basically a souffle, and there are 4 eggs in there, so it's a littl eggy.  I don't mind it, but Mark was a little freaked out by it! Both sisters hate it intensely but mom loved it. Who knew?

Recipe:
lemon pudding cake

Happy Veteran's Day!

I've got a few recipes to share today.  Can I say how much I love long weekends!?

First, yesterday I decided to make some lunch with ingredients we already had in the house.  I knew this was going to be a tough sell: it's a soup made out of spinach.  I love spinach, but my mother hates it, and I figured Rachael, who was the only other peson home at the time, wouldn't be a fan either.  But nevertheless, we had baby spinach, and lots of it, that I didn't want to waste, and we happened to have everything else I would need for this, so: witches' brew it was!  I realize this was a "Halloween" recipe since it makes a bright green soup, but hey, I'm only a couple weeks late!  And it's spinach and gruyere, so honestly, it couldn't be bad.

And me say this: I adore this soup.  It kind of tastes like spinach and artichoke dip, minus the artichokes.  But the cheese and the spinach made for the most delicious blast of flavor, not to mention the garlic, onion and potato.  The whole thing gets blended together - I got to use my immersion blender!  -so you end up with a creamy and amazing bright green soup that is quite filling.  Of course, as I expected, it didn't go over well.  Mom absolutely hated it, and Rachael said she felt like it would be  better as a dip (she hated the consistency).  And I am fine with this.  More for me!  I ate it for lunch yesterday and today and may or may not have licked my bowl.  If you like the taste of spinach and gruyere, and don't get freaked out if you are eating a bright green liquid, then please try this soup.

I went grocery shopping last night at 10.  Yeah, you know you're cool when you hit up Price Chopper at 10:00 on a Saturday night... after your book club meeting.  It was actually quite a pleasant experience.  The 24-hour grocery store is a fantastic invention.  Anyway I wanted to go last night because I had found a recipe on a blog that I follow that I wanted to try out, even though it is a meat dish.  Yuck, I know, but it was beef ragout, which I love to order when I go to Via (short rib ragout, but close enough).  I figured it would be pretty easy since it does not involve too much touching of the meat; the recipe uses the slow cooker.  I did have to take a gross roast out of the styrofoam container, and sear it in a pan, and I tried to hack off some fat, which was pretty upsetting.  Then the roast just cooks for 8 hours on low, with a mixture of tomato sauce, onion, garlic, broth, bay leaves, whole cloves, and cinnamon sticks.  Really part of the reason I wanted to try this recipe was that I was intrigued about tossing cloves and cinnamon sticks in with meat!  And I will say that the house smelled really good all day.  I served it on top of egg noodles, and with a side of salad, since there are really no vegetables in the ragout (who have I become!?) As for the final result... Mom loved it and said it took her a few bites to get acclimated to the mixture of tastes, but then she had seconds.  Kenzie really liked it too.  Rachael called it "cinnameat" and didn't like it because it was sweet.  I would have to say that it's not sweet, since it only had one cinnamon stick in there and nothing else "sweet," but I did not really love this either.  I thought the flavor was really good, but the texture of the meat wasn't what I wanted.  I don't really know what I expected - I guess I just wanted my braised short rib ragout from Via!  I thought it wasn't soft enough, or tender enough....I don't really know how to describe it except to just say, why the hell did I roast a beast and think I would enjoy it!?  No pictures of this one... just imagine shredded meat in a brown sauce over egg noodles.  Not the most photogenic of meals!

Then for dessert, I caved and made baked Alaska yet again.  Mom has been begging.  I still don't get the allure of this dessert, since it's mostly just ice cream with meringue on top, but my family goes nuts for it.   Mom claims that even though she doesn't love pistachio or cherry ice cream, that combination makes the best baked Alaska.  As always, it got rave reviews.  I did warn my family that I am getting a bit sick of making it every weekend, and perhaps they could like something with less parts, or something that's not one bowl of ice cream that I can't even partake of, but I don't see that happening too soon!

Recipes:
witches' brew, or cheesy spinach soup
slowcooker Greek beef ragout
baked Alaska

Cocoa-Coffee Crinkles

Yesterday was the birthday of my dear friend, Dani.  We were a bit horrified to realize that we have been friends for 14 whopping years because we are old ladies, but nevertheless, I love her, so automatically I asked her what her dream dessert was.  She said cookies, specifically chocolate, so I grabbed my cookie magazine that Mark got me a few weeks ago. This magazine is full of great ideas - remember my apple cookies? - so when I found cocoa-coffee crinkles, I knew I had to make them.  I loved the crinkles I made a few months ago; I think they come out so pretty with their big cracks and wrinkles, not to mention delicious.  These ones get coated in cocoa powder and sugar, rather than the traditional powdered sugar.

The dough has to chill for an hour, so be ready for these cookies to take a while if you plan on making them.  Other than that, they're pretty straight-forward; they're flavored with cocoa powder and instant coffee granules - in addition to a hint of cinnamon, which I love.  One thing that I thought was a bit weird was that you roll the dough into balls, and then shape each ball into logs.  I'm not really sure why.  After my first batch, I thought the logs looked a bit too much like cat poop.  I prefeer nice round cookies!  So I made the rest of the dough into balls and I was happy with that decision! 

This recipe makes a ton of cookies; I made mine into fairly small little balls and ended up with probably around 3 dozen cookies.  Iwas able to pack a bunch into a bowl for Dani and leave some at home for my family.  The cookies are really chocolatey, with that touch of cinnamon that I love, and of course a little bit of mocha going on as well!  I confess to eating three as they cooled.  Don't neglect to sprinkle the remainder of your cocoa-sugar coating on the cookies after they cool; it makes the flavors jump out a bit more.

Recipe:
adapted from the 100 Best Cookies: Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications, 2012

Cocoa-Coffee Crinkles

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1  tablespoon instant coffee crystals
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 egg whites
        for cookie coating:
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Instructions:
1.  In a large bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds.  Add brown sugar, the 2/3 cup cocoa powder, coffee crystals, baking soda, and cinnamon.  Beat until combined.

2.  Beat in egg whites.  Beat in as much flour as you can.  Using a wooden spoon, stir in any remaining flour.  Cover and chill 1 hour or until easy to handle.

3.  Preheat ove to 350 degrees.  In a small bowl, combine granulated sugar and the 2 tablespoons cocoa powder to make cookie coating; set aside.  Shape dough into 1-inch balls; roll balls in sugar mixture, reserving remaining mixture.  Place balls 2 inches apart on cookie sheets.

4. Bake 8-10 minutes (mine were pefect after 10 minutes exactly) or until edges are firm.  Transfer cookies to wire racks; cool.  Sprinkle cookies with the remaining sugar mixture.

It's Happened!

Well, it's finally happened: my dream  has come true.  I have always, always wanted people at work to ask for a recipe of mine, and it happened yesterday!  Now to be honest, it sort of happened a few times before, but mostly I think people were just being nice to me.  I think I pick really bad items for pot lucks.  Like last year I made homemade focaccia, which I was all excited about.... and who eats focaccia at a pot luck?  Besides me?  So this time when we needed to bring something to eat for our PD day pot luck lunch, I asked Kenzie to help me.  I know I am a good cook, and I have some great recipes.  But when I am left to my own devices, I show up with weird stuff.  So she recommended that I bring my tried and true creamy chicken taquitos.  I've made them for family parties and they are always a hit, so Monday night I made about a million of them.  We ate one tray for dinner, and the rest I put into the fridge.  I wrapped them but didn't bake them yet; I was a little worried that the tortillas would get mushy, but they didn't.  I baked them up at work in the cafeteria and they crisped up just fine.  I brought sour cream and salsa to serve them with.  I grabbed one on my plate and went to eat, and decided I could maybe go for another one - but when I went back up, they were gone!  Honestly it was probably around 30 taquitos. And many people were asking for the recipe and telling me how good they were.  I was probably grinning like an idiot, but honestly this was my goal since I started this resolution back in January!  I will be posting the recipe on our school email.  Thank you, easy and delicious creamy chicken taquitos.

Pre-pan frying

Tonight we're in the midst of a snow storm.  It's not horrible - yet - but Kenzie was willing to brave the pre-storm flurries for a trip to Price Chopper (our new love) for groceries.  I had decided to make something a bit weird: pinto bean falafel.  You know my love for falafel, and this is sort of a "Mexican" take on a middle eastern dish.  Traditional falafel is made with chickpeas, but this dish used pinto beans.  Instead of bread crumbs, it uses crushed tortilla chips, which I thought was cool.  Then there is cilantro, monterey jack cheese, scallions, and cumin - and salt.  Trust me, although the recipe doesn't call for it, it really brightens the flavors.  Then, while I bake my falafel, these get pan fried.  Let me tell you something: I hate pan frying bean patties.  It was quite a mess when I made my crispy black bean fritters, and it was a bit messy again tonight.  I think if I made them again, I would try to bake them. 

Anyway, what really made this dish was the avocado sauce.  It was absolutely delicious.  Avocado gets mixed with chopped tomatoes, red onion, sour cream, and lime juice.  Sounds simple enough, and it is, but the flavors are so amazing and complex!  It's creamy and tangy and I could probably drink it.  I didn't, but it was tempting.  Anyway, you smear some (lots) of this sauce into a pita pocket, toss in a falafel patty, and you're good to go.  The recipe says to add more red onion - no thank you - or microgreens (whatever that means), but I didn't use either.  Mom, Kenzie and I ate them and we all thought they were good.  Mom even had a second sandwich and asked how she could heat the leftovers up tomorrow! Score.  To be honest I am not sure how to heat them up, but I am sure she will figure something out. 

In the end, I think I am a traditionalist and love my traditional falafel better (I am such a good little Armenian girlfriend), but this was deliciously wonderful in its own Latin way!

Recipes:
pinto beans falafel with avocado


Creamy Chicken TaquitosAdapted from Annie's Eats (www.annies-eats.com), adapted from Pennies on a Platter and Our Best Bites

Yield: about 12 taquitos

Ingredients:
3 oz. cream cheese, softened
¼ cup salsa
1 tbsp. freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tsp. chili powder
½ tsp. cumin
½ tsp. onion powder
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp. chopped cilantro
1-2 green onions, chopped
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
1 cup shredded Mexican cheese (cheddar, pepper jack, etc.)
1 can beans (you can use black, kidney, pinto, whatever)
10-12 6-inch flour tortillas
Cooking spray
Kosher salt

Directions:
1) Preheat the oven to 425˚ F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2) In a large mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, salsa, lime juice, spices, garlic, cilantro, green onions, chicken, beans, and shredded cheese. Mix thoroughly until well combined.

3) Briefly heat the tortillas in the microwave to make them soft enough to roll easily, about 20-30 seconds. Place a tortilla on a work surface. Spoon 2-3 tablespoons of the filling mixture down the middle of the tortilla. Roll the tortilla up tightly around the filling. Place seam-side down on a baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining tortillas and filling, spacing the assembled taquitos evenly on the baking sheet.

4) Spray the tops lightly with cooking spray and sprinkle with a pinch of kosher salt.

5) Bake 15-20 minutes, until crisp and golden brown. Serve with sour cream and salsa, if desired .