Our neighborhood exchanges little and often homemade gifts at Christmas. My cookies are wrapped and ready to go! Ho ho ho !
Category Archives: recipes
cookies are all baked for christmas!
white chocolate cinnamon cookies with oatmeal
This is my new recipe for Christmas 2014. The cookies are very cinnamony, chewy, and soft. The white chocolate adds a mellow sweetness and the cinnamon chips enhance the cinnamon flavor of the cookie.
I just took the last batch of these out of the oven. I hope you like them if you try my recipe!
RECIPE:
1 cup of butter softened (2 sticks)
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup quick cook oatmeal (plain no flavoring)
2 cups white chocolate baking chips
1 cup cinnamon flavored baking chips (I buy mine from Edwards Freeman in Conshohocken)
Preheat oven to 350°
Cream together until well mixed butter and both sugars in a large bowl. Add eggs one at a time, followed by vanilla, beat until light and fluffy.
Add cinnamon, salt, baking soda.
Mix in 2 cups of all-purpose white flour until mixed well. Stir in oatmeal, followed by white chocolate baking chips, and finally the cinnamon chips.
I like to chill my dough about 30 minutes.
Drop by rounded teaspoons on parchment paper lined baking sheets. I actually like to roll might dough into about 1 inch balls. I place them a couple inches apart on the sheet.
Bake at 350° for 10 to 11 minutes depending on your oven. Do not overbake and please cool these cookies at least five or six minutes before removing from baking sheet to cooling rack to cool completely.
This recipe makes a little over 4 1/2 dozen cookies,
Enjoy !
luncheon food
I have a bad habit of cooking on the fly and not writing down what I am doing. In a lot of cases it’s because they are recipes I have made a few times. So after a ladies luncheon, my friends asked for a couple of the recipes. These are approximate proportions as I have never written these down.
These recipes are for large groups (what I made was served to 35 or 40 people), so you can adjust amounts down for smaller family sized meals.
Turkey Curry Salad with Tortellini
1 roasted Turkey breast (whole breast like you can buy in grocery store)
1 bag of frozen cheese tortellini (they are either 12 or 15 ounces – either is fine)
2/3 cup unsweetened coconut
3 Granny Smith apples
1 Meyer lemon
3 large stalks of celery chopped small
1 red onion
1/2 cup FRESH dill minced
1 cup Italian flat leaf parsley
Optional ingredients: 1 cup white raisins or 1 can of mandarin orange slices (the lower sugar kind), drained
Dressing for salad:
(Approximate because I have never measured):
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
2/3 cup regular mayonnaise
1/3 cup low fat mayonnaise
1/3 cup Dijon mustard
3 teaspoons of curry powder
Dash of hot sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
Cook tortellini according to package directions, drain and allow to cool.
Peel and chop apples and mix with the juice of the Meyer lemon and the zest of that lemon in a small bowl and set aside.
Chop up the turkey (with all skin removed after cooking) into bite sized pieces. Toss in large bowl with cooled tortellini. Wash your knife well (if using same one) and on a different cutting board, chop celery and parsley and dill and onion and add to bowl. Add coconut and either or both of the optional ingredients (raisins or mandarin orange slices). Add the apples and lemon juice and lemon zest and gently toss together.
In a separate bowl mix the dressing together with a whisk. Fold it into turkey salad and mix gently but well and cover and refrigerate. I make the night before I serve.
Tabouli
3 cups bulgar wheat
2 1/2 cups chopped flat leaf Italian parsley
1 1/2 cups chopped scallions
3 small to medium sized tomatoes seeded and chopped
1/2 cup of fresh mint chopped
1 cucumber peeled seeded and chopped
cumin, dried roasted coriander, garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste.
Lemon zest of 1 lemon
1 cup fresh lemon juice
5 tablespoons olive oil
Put bulgar wheat in a bowl with salt, pepper, cumin, coriander, and garlic powder – salt about a teaspoon – everything else a few dashes. Pour over everything 3 cups of boiling water. Cover with Saran Wrap but stir here and there until water is absorbed and to make sure salt and spices are evenly dispersed. Fluff when water is completely absorbed and allow to cool COMPLETELY.
Whisk the lemon juice together with olive oil in a small bowl. Set aside.
Add veggies, mint and parsley to cooled bulgar wheat. Mix well and add lemon juice and olive oil mixture to everything and mix well. Add fresh cracked pepper to taste now. Finally, check seasoning and add more salt if needed and garlic powder.
Refrigerate for a couple of hours and serve.
Deviled eggs.
The secret is to the egg yolks and mayonnaise I add a couple of things to the yolk mixture besides salt and pepper. I add curry powder, Dijon mustard and a teaspoon of mustard powder, minced fresh dill and chives, and a couple of tablespoons of whipped cream cheese.
pumpkin pecan pie
Pre-heat oven to 425°
This is sort of a complicated pie, so if you want to buy premade rolled piecrust sheets, have at it! I have never really written this down, but I think my proportions will work fine.
Line TWO 8 or 9 inch REGULAR not deep dish pie plates with plain pie crusts , crimp your crust edges and toss in the refrigerator to chill.
Next is the pumpkin filling….
You basically follow the pumpkin pie filling recipe on the back of the pumpkin cans (except I add an extra egg):
One 15 ounce can of pure pumpkin (unsweetened packed pumpkin)
3/4 of a cup of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 large eggs
1 12 ounce can of Carnation evaporated milk (use the whole evaporated milk)
Mix sugar, salt, spices in a bowl. Add eggs and pumpkin and beat with a handmixer. Gradually add in the milk and beat together until sort of frothy. Cover bowl and put in refrigerator to chill until you’re ready.
Next is the pecan pie part of the pie filling….it will go on top of pumpkin mixture.
2 1/2 cups of pecans. I prefer chopped pecans for this particular recipe.
1 cup of shredded coconut – sweetened
1/2 cup of dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons of flour
4 tablespoons of butter melted
1/2 cup of black strap molasses
First mix the butter, molasses, sugar, salt, flour, spices. Add the coconut and pecans. The mixture will be sort of crumbly mushy and just come together. Set bowl aside.
Remove your pie crusts in their plates from the refrigerator. Take the pie filling out of the refrigerator as well. Give the pumpkin filling a little whip with a hand whisk and divide evenly between the pies. Cover your crust edges with either those pie rings you can buy in a cooking supply store or lightly with tinfoil so it doesn’t burn. The pie plates should be side-by-side and your other not on different shelves. If you can’t bake the pies side-by-side, bake them one at a time.
Bake pies with JUST the pumpkin filling in the crusts for 15 minutes at 425°. Reduce the heat to 350° and bake another 30 minutes longer.
Take the pies out of the oven and evenly distribute the pecan topping on both pies. Do not smush down too tightly. Just sort of layer it on evenly covering the entire pumpkin surface. Bake pies another 18 to 20 minutes at 350°. They should be cooked perfectly at this point.
Remove from oven, cool, and serve. Unused portions should be covered and kept in the refrigerator.
pumpkin bread 2.0
INGREDIENTS:
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1 cup canola oil
2/3 cup apple cider
2 cups white sugar
Scant 1/3 cup blackstrap molasses
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup mixed raisins light and dark
1/2 cup candied minced orange peel
1/2 cup shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
One cup chopped pecans or black walnuts (today I used walnuts because I used my pecans on hand in my pecan pumpkin pies)
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350°
Grease and flour three loaf pans. The ones I used I think are 8″x 4″ (I should measure them but I haven’t)
In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, molasses, eggs, oil, cider, and sugar until well blended. Add the spices. Add baking soda, salt, baking powder. Stir the flour into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Fold in the raisins, coconut, nuts, candied orange peel.
Pour into the prepared pans. Make sure you split the batter evenly. Dust the top of the batter in each pan with a couple tablespoons of table sugar. It just gives a sort of sparkly crust when the loaves come out of the oven
Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven.
Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Let the pumpkin bread cool in the pan for at least 20 minutes to half an hour before removing from pans. Then leave loaves on a baking rack to completely cool before wrapping up until ready to serve. I make these a day ahead of serving.
the great granola experiment
So this morning a member of my cooking group posted about making homemade granola. It got me thinking about trying to make a batch myself. I love granola, but the fresh granola that is available at any of the local farmers’ markets has been climbing in price to a point that I can’t justify the cost for what it is.
Now my mother has a granola recipe that she has used for years, but I just don’t like it. Too many ingredients and too many nuts and seeds. So I went hunting for a recipe I liked better.
I found two recipes I liked and combined them. One recipe is from epicurious.com and one recipe is from Real Simple.
Here is how I combined them:
Preheat your oven to 300°F
Ingredients
4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick cooking)
1 cup chopped almonds
1 cup shredded UNSWEETENED coconut
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white raisins
1/2 cup dark raisins
4 tablespoons dark brown sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
Directions:
Mix everything EXCEPT for the raisins together in a large mixing bowl.
Line a rimmed baking sheet or jellyroll pan with a piece of parchment paper.
Spread your mixture from your mixing bowl evenly on the pan.
Place in preheated oven (300°) . Bake until a golden toasty brown color approximately 40 minutes. Make sure that you stir the granola around on the cookie sheet approximately every 10 minutes while you are baking. You need to do this to make sure the granola bakes evenly. This is also why you have to use a jellyroll pan or another kind of baking sheet with a big enough lip or your granola will end up all over your oven.
Once granola is cooked, bring out of your oven and cool in the pan for about 20 minutes to half an hour. Stir in your raisins. Allow granola to come to room temperature and store in airtight containers. I like using canning jars for this purpose.
Enjoy!
Thanks for stopping by!
chutney season
Today when I was taking down what was left of my tomato vines in the garden I had a bunch of green tomatoes left over, and I decided to make chutney.
Chutney is basically something that is semi-pickled that has a sweet and vinegary finish to it. In other words it’s spicy condiment made of fruits or vegetables with vinegar, spices, and sugar. Chutney has its origins in South Asia/India.
There are many recipes available that are easy to follow. I have been making chutneys much like fruit butters for years that I pretty much do it in my head.
This chutney consisted of eight medium and small sized green tomatoes small chopped / minced, two large apples peeled cored and minced, one chopped red onion, 1 cup golden raisins, 1 1/4 cup cider vinegar, 1 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 2 tablespoons mustard seeds, 1 tablespoon pickling spice, couple of dashes of ground allspice, cloves, nutmeg, red pepper flakes, two whole cinnamon sticks, some grated fresh ginger, a couple teaspoons of salt, three ribs minced celery, 2 cups of minced sweet orange peppers that I had gotten at the farmers market, one minced jalapeno pepper seeded, and one minced medium hot pepper that I grew in my garden.
Tossed everything into a pot gave it a stir and turned on the stove and brought up to a boil and then reduced the heat, covered and simmered for 50 minutes.
I then put the chutney into sterilized jars. I did not give them a hot water bath. When my jars have cooled I will refrigerate and they will last a few months in the refrigerator, but realistically will be gone by the end of the holiday season.
I like to serve chutney not only with main courses of poultry and pork, but with cheese and crackers as an appetizer. Green tomato chutneys are especially delicious with turkeys at Thanksgiving.
roasted pumpkin seeds: halloween treat….updated
We are carving pumpkins (actually day two of pumpkin fest this year as we carved at our friends’ home yesterday too!)…. of course we decided to roast the seeds.
So…..here is how I did it because they are a little different than the way most people roast them. I like pumpkin seeds when they are savory sweet and spicy.
First preheat your oven to 400° and then you clean the seeds well. Some people even boil them a few minutes in salted water but I don’t do that.
I clean them and toss them in a mixing bowl with dashes of salt, garlic powder, sugar, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, and a tablespoon and a smidgen more of Canola oil.
I toss everything together with a fork until evenly coated and spread out on a parchment or non-stick foil lined jelly roll pan. I roast in the oven for just shy of 20 minutes. At 400° depending on your oven they can either be finished in 10 minutes or closer to 20. But you have to keep an eye on it or they will burn. Especially when you add sugar because the sugar melts and caramelizes.
Bring them out of the oven and allow them to cool. Enjoy them and they are best eaten the day they are roasted.
halloween sugar cookies
Yes I have been playing with glitter sugar and Wilton gel food coloring again….
