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It’s All About the Food

Posted in About me, In The Kitchen, Recipes, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , , on May 26, 2010| 1 Comment »

It’s all about the food. Sometimes the best way to learn about a country and its culture is to learn about its food and its cooking traditions. Lucky for me, my daughter, who was a student in Greece for nearly five months, was not only my tour guide to the ancient sites, but also my culinary guide.

From dining in little tavernas that speckle the narrow side streets of Athens to eating fresh-caught fish off the coast of Santorini, I was introduced to the exquisite textures and flavors of Greek food. Sampling inch-long baby okra cooked in a light tomato and onion sauce, devouring tiny fried whitebait fish – head, tail, spine and all, and spreading pureed dried yellow peas on bread, were just some of the opportunities I used to discover the gastronomic resources available to the Greeks. I learned that some of the varieties of legumes we eat today are the same ones once eaten in ancient times.

And because the sun shines most of the year and very little rain falls, Greek tomatoes and peppers are exceptionally sweet. The freshness of Greek ingredients cannot be denied. Most foods are simply delicious because they are prepared with fresh and few ingredients. Very few over-processed foods ever made it to my table while I was in Greece.


Scorpion fish or grilled octopus, anyone? The seafood in Greece was as good as I had anticipated. The subtle lobster-like flavor of the Scorpion fish and the chewy texture of the fresh octopus were both delicious, but it was the fried calamari that really got my attention. Maybe it was the freshness of the squid or the very lightest dredging of flour or the addition of exactly the right amount of salt, but this Greek version of fried calamari was by far the best I’ve ever tasted!

The Greeks love their sweets. The sweet scent of freshly baked pastries found me following my nose into more than one local bakery. Even before I left home, my daughter had warned me about this temptation. I’d heard her stories about Bougatsa me Krema and was looking forward to my first taste. It did not disappoint. How could warm layers of buttery, thin phyllo sheets filled with creamy custard, and sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar and cinnamon be disappointing? Before the introduction of sugar, ancient Greeks used honey to sweeten their food. Thick, creamy, Greek yogurt and honey is a traditional treat and Greeks like to make sweet syrups from honey to pour over their cakes and fried sweets. Many Loukoumades or Greek donut balls coated in a honey-syrup called out to me.

Now back at home, I wanted to try my hand at making the memorable Bougatsa me Krema and I found a recipe online. Flakey, buttery and filled with custard – mine was pretty darn close to the deliciousness I experienced in Greece! I share this temptation with you.

Bougatsa me Krema or Creamy Custard Phyllo Pastry

-Courtesy of Nancy Gaifyllia of About.com with comments by Linnell-

Prep Time: 1 hour

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Ingredients:

* 4 1/4 cups of whole milk

* sliced peel of 1 lemon

* 1 1/4 cups of granulated sugar

* 3/4 cup of semolina (durum wheat flour which I found in my local grocery store)

* 4 eggs

* 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract

* 12 sheets of commercial phyllo dough

* 6 ounces of butter, melted

For the topping:

* confectioner’s sugar

* ground cinnamon

Preparation:

Warm the milk and lemon peel in a saucepan. Stir in semolina with a wooden spoon until the mixture is thoroughly blended and thickened. In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, and vanilla until light and add to the pan, stirring over medium-low heat until it reaches a creamy custard consistency. Remove from heat, take out and discard lemon peel, and allow it to cool completely. Stir occasionally to keep the custard from forming a skin on top.

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).

Lightly brush a baking pan (13 X 9 X 2 or equivalent) with butter. Line the bottom of the pan with 8 sheets of phyllo, brushing each sheet well with the melted butter. Add the custard filling. Fold the excess phyllo that overlaps the pan in over the custard. Top with the remaining phyllo, brushing each with butter. Use a scissors to trim the top sheets to the size of the pan. Spray the top lightly with water and bake at 350°F (180°C) for 30-40 minutes, until the top is golden brown.

Remove from oven, sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar and cinnamon while hot, and serve warm.

Serving tip: In Greece, Bougatsa is cut with a pizza cutter.

Enjoy!

Adventures in Greece – to be continued . . .

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Beer Bread: From Ick to Lick

Posted in In The Kitchen, Recipes, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on April 19, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Continuing to “attack the stack,” I pulled a newspaper clipping out of a pile and looked at the date of May, 2008. “It’s time to check out this baby,” I thought to myself. Perusing the very short list of ingredients – only four – I noted that I had everything that was required. Nothing extraordinary on the list except for b-e-e-r! How great is it that the yeast in beer acts as a mild leavening agent, so we can use it in our baking?!

One of the comments provided by the newspaper recipe contributor was,”This bread is a canvas for you to flavor any way you choose.” Being a risk-taker in the kitchen, I decided to give my loaf a Tex-Mex type of flavor by adding a can of diced green chilies and some shredded cheddar cheese to the flour, sugar, salt, and beer. In my head I thought the flavors would meld together well.

When I sampled the final product of an inviting golden-brown-crusted loaf of bread, I was amazed. I was amazed at how awful it was! I had my volunteer food tester, aka my husband, taste it. I knew it was as nasty as it could get when my lover-of-everything-I-prepare husband said, “This is inedible!” It was bitter and had a slimy texture. So, on my Ick-Scale of one to ten this was a ten-ick. Wow, where did I go wrong?

Reviewing the recipe and the entire process, these are the possible errors I made:
1. The beer was a light beer and possibly did not have enough flavor and did not add enough body to the batter.

2. I accidentally added baking soda instead of baking powder to the flour mixture. The recipe stated that if you did not have self-rising flour you could add 3 teaspoons of baking powder to the flour to achieve the same results. Remember, I’ve mentioned this before, I am not beyond screwing up recipes by not reading them thoroughly.

3. My husband thinks the sliminess came from the diced green chilies, but I’m not sure if this is true. The recipe contributor had commented on friends adding chilies to their breads.

4. I should have gotten out two bottles of beer – one for me to drink first and then one to add to the bread!

Not wanting to accept that I had been bested by a six-ingredient Beer Bread, I decided to start over. I was more diligent about reading the recipe through and decided to forgo the Tex-Mex route for an Italian-Herb type one. I made a few other changes to the batter and stuck the second Beer Bread loaf in the oven. With trepidation, I carefully sliced the second crusty loaf and put a piece into my mouth. Okay, this is what a successful Beer Bread is supposed to taste like – finger-licking good!

So here’s my adaptation of successful Beer Bread:

Ingredients:
*1 12 oz. can or bottle of beer. (I used a bottle of Foster’s the second time around).
*3 cups of sifted self-rising flour (If you don’t have self-rising flour at home, you can make it by sifting together 3 cups of all-purpose flour with 4-1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1-1/2 teaspoons sea salt).
*1/3 cup of sugar (upped from 3 T in original recipe and I would consider increasing or decreasing the sugar amount depending on what ingredients you are adding to the basic batter).
*2 2.25 oz. cans of sliced olives
*1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning
1/2 cup Italian Blend Cheese
Butter, optional

Directions:
1. In a large bowl mix together the sugar and the sifted flour. Stir in the Italian seasoning. Make a well into the flour-sugar-seasoning mixture and slowly pour in the beer. Mix until just moistened. Add the cheese and olives. Mix until just combined. Do not over mix.
2. Pour into a greased 9″x5″ loaf pan. Let sit for a bit to let the yeast in the beer get settled (15-30 minutes).
3. Bake at 350 degrees for a total of 45 to 50 minutes. Test with a toothpick or cake tester after 45 minutes.
4. If desired at the halfway baking point, brush melted butter on the top of the bread and sprinkle with a little garlic salt. Repeat the brushing of butter and sprinkling of garlic salt when the loaf comes out of the oven.

Cheers and good luck!

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Putting the Health Back in Healthy Soup: Pea and Barley Soup

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , , , on April 5, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Are you feeling like you overate yesterday? Holiday meals have a way of making us eat twice as much food as usual. That’s exactly how I’m feeling, so tonight I’m yearning for something hearty, yet healthy. I decided to try making California Pizza Kitchen’s Dakota Smashed Pea and Barley Soup. The thick texture and savory flavor of this soup are reasons why I order this soup whenever I dine at CPK restaurants during the cooler months.

While quickly reading through the recipe, my eyes did a double-take when it came to an ingredient listing that read “3 tablespoons of salt.” Wow, that’s a lot of salt! According to an article on salt in the current edition of Nutrition Action, the health letter published by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, by cutting 1,200 milligrams of salt a day out of the average American’s diet, we “Could prevent up to 92,000 deaths and 66,000 strokes every year. It could keep up to 99,000 Americans from having a heart attack and up to 120,000 others from getting heart disease every year. And it could save $10 to $24 billion in health care costs every year.”

The article lists the sodium levels of favorite menu items at popular restaurants. Lists like these are good for us to read because of the shock value associated with learning that some of our favorite “healthy” foods are really laden with sodium. According to CPK’s website a bowl of Dakota Smashed Pea and Barley Soup has 368 calories, 26 grams of fiber, and 0 grams of saturated fat. That’s not too bad. Here’s the kicker, though, it has 2100 milligrams of sodium! Another CPK favorite Miso Salad – has a whopping 2654 milligrams of sodium for a full serving and 1346 milligrams for a half serving! Recommended sodium levels for most people are less than 1,500 milgrams per day!

When trying the Dakota Smashed Pea and Barley Soup recipe at home, I attempted to eliminate some of the sodium by enhancing the flavor as much as possible by using the freshest and most flavorful ingredients possible. I used organic carrots (the leaves still attached), thyme from my herb garden, and in lieu of water I used two cartons of low sodium organic vegetable broth. I went with the low sodium broth because I figured I could always add salt as needed, but couldn’t take it away once it’s been put in the pot! I also added more onion, celery, and cumin than was called for in the recipe.

Here’s my adaptation of CPK’s Dakota Smashed Pea and Barley Soup:

1 pound dried organic split peas, sorted and rinsed
1/2 cup organic pearl barley
2 quarts low-sodium vegetable broth
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme (or 1/2 tablespoon dried)
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon rubbed dried sage
1/8 teaspoon ground cumin
1-1/2 cups diced organic carrots
3/4 cup minced onion
2/3 cup diced celery
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions

In a large pot combine the split peas, barley, broth, bay leaves, salt, soy sauce, thyme, garlic, sage, and cumin. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to a bare simmer, cover, and cook for one hour, stirring occasionally.

Stir in the carrots, onion, and celery. Cover and simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 30 – 40 minutes more. Discard bay leaves.

If you do not like your soup chunky, you can remove a third of it and puree small batches of it in a blender and then add it back to the soup pot or you can use an immersion blender to puree some of it while it’s still in the pot.

Ladle into warmed soup bowls and garnish with green onions.

Makes 6-8 servings

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Hit and Miss

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , , on March 29, 2010| 3 Comments »

The flavor and texture of macadamia nuts covered with a thin Kona coffee glaze deliciously haunts my memory. My parents brought me back a container of these little gems from their last trip to the islands. Ashamedly, I think I ate the whole container by myself. Sorry, family! It is no wonder that when I came across a recipe for Coffee Glazed Pecans on recipegoldmine.com, I immediately had to give it a try.

Coffee Glazed Pecans:
1 -1/2 cups pecans
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons Taster’s Choice Instant Freeze-Dried Coffee
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

In a large skillet combine pecans, sugar, water, Taster’s Choice, and cinnamon; bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Boil 3 minutes, stirring constantly until pecans are well-glazed. Spread on waxed paper to cool.

I was disappointed with this recipe. It didn’t have the crunch that I like on glazed nuts and it did not have the intense coffee flavor I expected, especially since I added an extra 1/4 teaspoon of espresso powder.

Another recipe in one of my stacks of recipes was for Tennessee Toffee Cookies. Wanting to turn disappointment into something positive, I incorporated the Coffee Glazed Pecans I had just made into the cookie recipe.

My Adaptation of Tennessee Toffee Cookies:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 teaspoons Jack Daniel’s Whiskey
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1/2 cup pecans, broken (Coffee Glazed Pecans from above)

In a bowl cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the egg yolk, vanilla, and Jack Daniel’s Whiskey. Add the flour a little at a time until well-blended. Spread the dough very thinly on a greased cookie sheet. Place a sheet of waxed paper over it and roll the dough with a rolling pin to spread evenly on the cookie sheet. Beat the egg white with a mixer until foamy. Spread the egg white over the top of the cookie dough and sprinkle with pecan pieces. Bake at 250 degrees for 55 minutes. Make sure the center is completely cooked and not doughy. Remove from the oven and cut into diagonal cookies immediately before they cool. To remove after they cool, cut again. Makes 2 dozen.

These turned out pretty good. The foamy egg white wash gave the surface a little crunch. The coffee glazed on the nuts dissolved and colored the dough, but it was fine. This is a recipe worth experimenting with a little more. Next time I will add less sugar to the dough, will try rolling the dough out more evenly, and will bake it just a little bit longer. I will also try different types of nuts; I think sliced almonds would be good on this, especially if a little almond extract is added to the dough.

Two recipes were tested with one being a near hit and one being a miss. Two recipes down and a million to go!

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Friday’s Fresh Five! (3/26/10)

Posted in In The Kitchen, inspiration, Photography, Recipes, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , , , on March 26, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I have a contest winner! Someone has correctly guessed the subject matter of my mystery photo! Check next week’s posts for the full story!

Many of my friends and and some of my family are traveling during spring vacation. My daughter is leaving her studies in Greece to visit Egypt and Jordan this week and all I can say is – I am so envious!! To temporarily satiate my travel bug, I’ve come up with a few ways to escape.

#1 – Grab Your Laptop and Camera and Go!!
“Have you dreamed of being able to live and work anywhere you want to? What about traveling the world while earning a living with just a laptop and an Internet connection? Such is the life of a digital nomad. It’s usually exciting, sometimes glamorous, and always inspiring.” You’ll want to pack your suitcase after viewing the colorful, travel-inspiring photos featured in this article “50 Photos to Inspire Life as a Digital Nomad.”

#2 – Say “Please” in Twelve Languages
While you’re traveling, remember to say “please” along the way.

Italian: Per favore
French: S’il vous plaît
Romanian: Va rog
German: Bitte
Spanish: Por favor
Swedish: Vänligen
Czech: Prosím
Greek: Parakaló
Chinese: Mm goi (Cantonese)
Hawaiian: ‘Olu ‘olu
Polish: Prosze
Russian: Pozhaluista

#3 – Brown Sugar
Wanted to make cookies for your trip, but ran out of brown sugar and realized your neighbor was away on vacation? What to do? Just make your own by following these recipes!

Light Brown Sugar: Mix together 1 cup granulated sugar with 1-1/2 tablespoons molasses.

Dark Brown Sugar: Mix together 1 cup granulated sugar with 1/4 cup molasses.

Both recipes make one cup.

#4 – Escape Via the Written Word
At www.thedebutanteball.com authors who have a book debut this year offer their insights on writing. The site states, ” Welcome to The Debutante Ball, a group blog for debut authors, now in its fourth season. Join us daily for our takes on bookish and not-so-bookish topics and celebrate with us as our debuts approach.”

The site is loaded with links to sites that assist writers, but it also has a list of book-related sites such as book bloggers and book websites. It features interviews with famous authors and soon-to-be famous authors. I found it a great place to just nose around, read a little, and discover new books!

#5 – A Quote You Can’t Escape From
I don’t run away from a challenge because I am afraid. Instead, I run toward it because the only way to escape fear is to trample it beneath your feet.
Nadia Comaneci

Hope you have an opportunity this weekend to escape and do something wonderful for yourself!

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Attack the Stack!

Posted in About me, In The Kitchen, Organization, tagged , , , , , on March 24, 2010| 6 Comments »

I’m a clipper. Not a Los Angeles Clippers fan, but a compulsive clipper of magazine and newspaper articles. This condition, along with high cholesterol, I got from my mom. Thanks, mom. For as long as I can remember, my mom has been clipping articles and saving them for me, my siblings, and now her grandchildren to read.  I don’t mind it really, because it shows that she is always thinking of us.

I started clipping during my college years, because I was building up my recipe repertoire so that I could catch a good man. Well it worked – I got myself a good man, but now I’m a clipper that can’t stop herself! I’m following in my mom’s footsteps by clipping articles that I think my kids will be interested in reading. When they went off to college, I dutifully mailed them their monthly stack of clippings. They’ll thank me one of these days, I’m sure. Their envelopes usually contained funny cartoons that reminded me of them or articles about hometown folks and hometown events so they could stay in touch or sometimes the mom-type safety articles such as not using headphones or cell phones in a storm.

With spring cleaning on my mind, I am determined to attack my stacks of clippings. I clip articles with information that I can use on my blog or ones with helpful gardening tips, but I have to admit, the majority of my clippings are food-related. And worse than that, most are recipes that fall into the dessert category (sigh). What can I say other than I am a lover of desserts? But what a dreamer I am! If I live to be 100 years old, I will never have enough time to test all the recipes I’ve collected. And even if I did live that long, I would probably weigh 500 pounds by eating all the food that I’ve tested! So in an attempt to rid myself of all the stacks of clippings I possess, I am going to be more judicious while rummaging through them. Only recipes that look to give the best results with the least amount of labor will survive to be tested. Difficult recipes and recipes with 50 or more ingredients, I’ll just drool over and then trash them. I’ll test a couple of recipes each week and post the recipe and the results on my blog. No matter what the outcome, I’ll provide you with my honest opinion of each recipe. If the recipe looks good to you, you can always try making it yourself – I’ve been know to screw up a recipe by not reading it correctly!

I’m motivated to attack the stack now. I’m going to power my way through the recipes just like Julie Powell, of the Julie and Julia fame, did. I’m going to start this project just as soon as I finish reading the morning paper . . .

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Lemon Cornmeal Cake

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , , on March 15, 2010| 3 Comments »

Looking for ways to use up the last few Meyer lemons hanging in my garden, I rediscovered this recipe while rummaging through my 3-foot stack of recipes “to try.” This Lemon Cornmeal Cake With Lemon Glaze and Crushed-Blueberry Sauce by Abigail Johnson Dodge sounded complicated, but was relatively easy to make. With a full tablespoon of lemon zest in the batter and a lemon glaze on top, it did not disappoint in the lemon department. The cornmeal gave the cake a nice rustic texture, too. Although the Crushed-Blueberry Sauce was a beautiful complement in taste and in color, it was not absolutely necessary. It does dress up the cake, however, so if I were serving this at a brunch or as a dessert to company, I would serve it with the sauce. I made a few notes on my copy of the recipe for the next time I make this cake, and believe me, I will be making this cake again!

Linnell’s Adaptation of Lemon Cornmeal Cake With Lemon Glaze and Crushed-Blueberry Sauce

Cake Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup yellow cornmeal
3/4 cup sugar
3-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon peel
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled.

Glaze Ingredients:
Up to 1-1/2 cups packed powdered sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons or more fresh lemon juice
lemon zest, optional

Blueberry Sauce Ingredients:
3 cups fresh or frozen (13-14 ounces, thawed) blueberries, divided
2/3 cup packed golden brown sugar
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel
pinch of salt

To Make Glaze:
Combine 1 cup of the powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons lemon juice in small bowl. Stir with spoon until smooth and paste-like adding more lemon juice by 1/2 teaspoonfuls if glaze is too thick to spread. If too runny, slowly add the last 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, checking periodically to make sure it’s not too sweet. If not serving with the blueberry sauce, add some lemon zest to the glaze. Set aside.

To Make Blueberry Sauce:
Combine 1-1/2 cups blueberries and all remaining ingredients in medium saucepan. Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves and mixture comes to a simmer, about 7 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until berries are very soft and liquid is syrupy, stirring often, about 7 more minutes. Remove from heat: add remaining blueberries. Using back of spoon, gently press fresh blueberries against side of pan until lightly crushed. Cover and chill. Serve chilled or rewarm before serving. Can be made 2 days ahead.

Makes about 1-1/2 cups.

To Make the Cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9×2 round cake pan and line the bottom with parchment. To do this put pan on top of a piece of parchment paper and trace around the bottom of the pan. Cut out parchment circle and insert in the pan.

Melt butter and let cool.

Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl; whisk to blend. Set aside.

Whisk buttermilk, eggs, lemon peel, and vanilla, in a small bowl. Pour buttermilk mixture and melted butter into the flour mixture. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold liquids into the flour mixture until just blended – do not stir. Scrape batter into prepared pan and spread evenly.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean and cake pulls away from the sides of the pan.

Remove from oven. Immediately run knife around sides of the cake. Place a rack on top of cake in pan. Using oven mitts, hold pan and flip cake onto rack. Remove pan from cake. Place another rack on bottom of cake and flip it again so that the cake is back to top side up.

Stir glaze until blended. While cake is still very hot, drop glaze by tablespoons onto cake and spread to 1/2-inch of edge. Cool completely. Serve with Crushed-Blueberry Sauce if desired.

Serves 8-10

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Good Morning Cake!

Posted in In The Kitchen, Recipes, tagged , , , , , on February 22, 2010| 1 Comment »

Although my internal body clock wakes me up at almost the same time every morning, I am just not a morning person – never have been and don’t think I ever will be. Because of this, I never go skiing or take advantage of after-holiday sales. However, I do like morning food! One of my favorite coffee cake recipes comes from a cookbook aptly titled Morning Food by Margaret S. Fox, the former owner-chef of Cafe Beaujolais in Mendocino. This coffee cake makes any morning infinitely better!

Buttermilk-Cinnamon Coffee Cake
2 1/4 cups white flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup corn oil
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg, beaten
1 cup buttermilk

Mix together in a large bowl the flour, salt, l tsp. of the cinnamon, ginger, both sugars, and corn oil. Remove 3/4 cup of this mixture, and to it add the nuts and the remaining l tsp. of cinnamon. Mix well, and set aside to use as a topping.

To the remaining batter, add the baking soda, baking powder, egg, and buttermilk. Mix to combine all ingredients. Small lumps in the batter are okay.

Pour the batter into a well-greased 9x13x2-inch pan. Sprinkle the topping mixture evenly over the surface. Bake at 350 for 40 to 45 minutes.

Makes 12 servings

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Sweet Valentines: Making Shortbread Cookies for Valentine’s Day

Posted in Creativity, Gift Ideas, Holidays, In The Kitchen, Recipes, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on February 8, 2010| 1 Comment »

These are my signature Valentine’s Day cookies, but making them tends to be a love-hate type of situation for me. I love that decorating theses cookies brings out my inner Picasso, but because they require so much time and patience, I hate making them. I say “hate” lightly, though. I admit working with the icing can be challenging, but it is also therapeutic. Even though the cookies in the photo are all of the same design, I enjoy experimenting with the flow of the icing and creating new designs. No two are ever exactly the same and after sitting at my kitchen table for hours straight on end, they are always a labor of love.

This type of project is always more fun when shared with others. What about this? Why not host a Valentine’s Day cookie-decorating party for your friends? If you don’t feel like baking, order undecorated sugar cookies from your local bakery or grocery store’s bakery. The fun will be in the decorating and the time spent with friends.

Shortbread Valentine’s Day Cookies:
(Original recipe is from Martha Stewart)

1-1/2 C unsalted butter, softened
¾ C sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 C unbleached all-purpose flour
1 C cornstarch
Icing recipe below

Cream together the butter and sugar in a large bowl. Stir in the vanilla.

Sift together the flour and cornstarch and then stir this into the creamed mixture. Place the dough on a sheet of plastic wrap and form the dough into a round disc. Wrap the dough and chill it for at least 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line the baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface and cut out heart shapes with a cookie cutter. Bake for 5-8 minutes. These cookies remain a pale color. Carefully remove from baking sheets and cool on racks. Spread on icing and let icing dry until shell forms. Store in an airtight container.

Makes about four dozen cookies.

Icing:
3-1/2 C confectioners’ sugar, sifted
3 large egg whites, lightly beaten
½ tsp fresh lemon juice
Food coloring (I use Wilton’s gel icing colors)

In a medium bowl, combine the confectioners’ sugar, egg whites, and lemon juice. Blend until smooth.

Divide icing into small bowls. Add food colors. Blend the colors thoroughly. Make in small batches as necessary. Apply icing to cookies using small brushes. Stir individual bowls occasionally to prevent icing from hardening.

Makes enough for four dozen cookies.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Party Wings

Posted in In The Kitchen, Recipes, tagged , , , , , on February 1, 2010| 2 Comments »

I’m not a Super Bowl fan, but I do love a reason to eat party food! Here’s a recipe that I tested last week that was super simple and tasty!

My adaptation of Baked Parmesan Garlic Chicken Wings:
(Original recipe from PizzAmore, Mount Dora, Florida)

Serves 4
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried or fresh rosemary
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt (1/2 tsp table salt)
2 1/2 pounds chicken wings, cut at joints, wing tips discarded
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (or melted butter)
2 tablespoons minced fresh basil
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon seasoning salt (like Lawry’s)
1 cup blue cheese dressing
1-2 teaspoons Dijon mustard (or to taste)

1. Preheat oven to 425F. In a large bowl, mix together the oregano, rosemary, cumin and salt. Toss the chicken wings in this mixture and lay them on a baking sheet.

2. Bake the chicken wings for 20-25 minutes. While the chicken is baking, mix together the oil (or butter), fresh basil, garlic, Parmesan cheese, and seasoning salt.

3. In a separate bowl, mix together the blue cheese dressing with the mustard (this is your dipping sauce)

3. When the chicken is cooked through, toss the wings with the garlic/cheese/butter sauce. Serve with the blue cheese/mustard dressing.

Note:The original recipe specified dried rosemary, but I used fresh rosemary because I do not like eating little bits of “sticks” that dried rosemary becomes. I’m a low sodium type person, so I felt the wings were a bit too salty for me, but other people thought they were fine.

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