Russian-ish Beef Soup

So a while back, I bought this seasoning from Penzeys called "Tsardust."  It smells a bit like cinnamon and a bit like garlic (both are ingredients), and the label calls for it to go with beef or pork.  I was a little fascinated by the idea of a savory item incorporating cinnamon, so I bought it.

Fast forward six months, and I have never used it.  (This is not the first time I've been guilty of buying a spice mix from them and completely forgetting about it for forever.)  But, lo and behold, I created a recipe today to go with it, and it was more or less a hit.

Now, what do I know about Russian cuisine?  Not much.  I don't know much more than potatoes and vodka.  I mean, you don't exactly see Russian cheese in the grocery store, or Russian tea or Russian honey or a Russian can of soup.  So I kind of made this up as I went along.  I'm sure it could use some tweaking (or maybe a lot), but since Nathan liked it, I wanted to have some reference to what I did so I can do it again.

--

Russian-ish Beef Soup

1 tbsp. olive or canola oil
1 lb. ground beef
generous 1/2 tsp. Tsardust seasoning, divided
1 tbsp. butter
1/2 c. sliced mushrooms
3 red potatoes, cubed (about 2 cups)
1/2 cup celery, sliced
1 large onion, diced
1/3 head of cabbage, sliced into bite-sized strips
2 bay leaves
64 oz. (two boxes) beef broth
1/4 c. heavy cream

In a large stock pot, sprinkle the ground beef with 1/4 tsp. of seasoning and brown it.  Drain off the excess fat and set the beef aside on a plate.  Melt the butter in the pot, then add the mushrooms, potatoes, celery, and onion, and saute until the onions are translucent, about 10 minutes.  Add the cabbage.  Sprinkle the remaining generous 1/4 tsp. of seasoning over the veggies, then add the bay leaves and the broth.  Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes.  Add the beef back in and simmer until warmed through and the cabbage and potatoes are soft, about 10-15 minutes more.  Turn off the heat, discard the bay leaves, and stir in the heavy cream.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins

So it's several weeks past Easter, and we still have a couple of bags of Easter chocolate lying around.  For the sake of my diet, I've got to get all this chocolate out of the house.  So last night, I searched online for a muffin recipe I could throw a bunch of chocolate eggs into, and after a little tweaking of this one, I got what I wanted.  The recipe says it makes 18 muffins, but I made mini muffins and got about 40 of them.  Many happy chocolatey bites for my little family.  So here you go, folks.  A semi-healthy muffin, for your enjoyment.

--

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins

1-2/3 cups rolled oats
2/3 c. all purpose flour
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons flaxseed meal
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1-1/2 c. buttermilk
1/4 c. canola oil
2 eggs
2 cups chocolate chips or pieces

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Prepare muffin pan with spray or muffin cups.

Place oats in a food processor; pulse 5-6 times until oats resemble coarse meal.  Add dry ingredients (flours through salt) to a bowl with the oatmeal.  Stir to combine and make a well in the middle.  Combine buttermilk, oil, and eggs and pour into the bowl with the dry ingredients.  Stir until just moist.  Stir in chocolate pieces.  Spoon batter into muffin tins and bake for 10 minutes for mini muffins or 20 minutes for regular muffins.  Muffins are done when they spring back slightly when touched lightly in the center.

Enjoy!

For Easter: Resurrection Rolls

Here's a sweet Easter recipe that you moms out there may have seen before: resurrection rolls.

It's used as an illustration for preschoolers about how Jesus was put into the tomb and how it was empty on Easter morning.  Basically, it's just a marshmallow wrapped in a crescent roll, and when you bake it, the marshmallow melts, creating an empty space in the middle, just like the empty tomb.  It can really elicit a "wow" reaction in some kids, and besides that, it's delicious!

On Saturday night, we'll assemble the rolls, and I'll bake them for breakfast on Easter Sunday morning, the day that Jesus rose from the dead!  (Hopefully the overnight rest won't affect anything.)  And here's a tip: baking them in a muffin tin helps the rolls stay together.  Just grease it really well.

-----

Resurrection Rolls

1 package of 8 Pillsbury crescent rolls
8 large marshmallows
1/2 cup melted butter, for dipping
cinnamon and sugar

Preheat the oven according to package instructions.  Unroll the crescent rolls.  Place each marshmallow in the wide end of each triangle.  Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.  Roll the crescent around the marshmallow, sealing it off as well as you can.  Dip the roll in butter, then roll it in more sugar and cinnamon.  Bake according to package instructions.

Happy Easter!

Grand Marnier Orange Cake

This recipe is adapted from one that I found in a little booklet that came with one of my kitchen appliances way back when we first got married.  I've made it many times, and it is always a hit.  It's very sweet, and has a very fragrant orange flavor that everyone seems to love.

Plus, I love a bit of booze in my cakes.  This is the first recipe I ever used with alcohol in it, and I've loved the twist ever since. 

One handy thing about this cake is that it's suitable for either a Bundt pan or two 9" round pans, which gives it some versatility.  I can either make a two layer frosted birthday cake, as I did for Nathan, or I can make it in my rose Bundt pan and put a glaze on top for a real showstopper.

It's also very easy--a near cheat--since it is just a gussied up cake mix.

Here you go!

-----

Grand Marnier Orange Cake

with Grand Marnier Glaze or Frosting

Cake:
1 package white cake mix
3 oz. orange flavored gelatin
2 eggs
1/3 cup butter, softened
1-1/3 cups orange juice
1 tablespoon Grand Marnier

Beat ingredients in a large bowl and bake according to package instructions.

--

Grand Marnier Glaze:
*I actually haven't tested this glaze with Grand Marnier; only with bourbon.  I think it should work, though.
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 granulated sugar
3 tablespoons Grand Marnier

Combine the butter, sugar, and Grand Marnier in a small saucepan over low heat just until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves, whisking to combine.  Pour over the cake while the glaze is still warm.  (This is a fair amount of glaze; if you want to use all of it, you might pour half over, let it set, warm up the remaining glaze, then pour the rest over.)

--

Grand Marnier Buttercream Frosting:
3 cups confectioner's sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 tablespoon Grand Marnier
1 tablespoon orange zest
1-2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream or milk

In a medium sized bowl, beat together the sugar and butter.  Add the Grand Marnier and orange zest.  Add cream or milk a tablespoon at a time until the mixture is the right consistency.

Enjoy!

Beans and Greens Soup with Sweet Potatoes

Let's talk healthy.

Let's talk cleaning out the pantry.

Because those were my two goals with this soup.  And since it turned out well, I thought I'd write the recipe up right here so I can refer to it again and so you guys can have it, if you like.

Beans and Greens Soup with Sweet Potatoes

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 tablespoons tomato paste
3 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 lbs. sweet potatoes, peeled and cut in 1/2" cubes
1 bunch of kale, ribs removed and cut into small pieces (I used a bag of prechopped kale from Trader Joe's)
1 can cannellini beans
1/4 cup black lentils (optional)
6 cups chicken broth
1 sprig rosemary
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoons salt

In a large pot over medium heat, add the olive oil, tomato paste, and onion.  Saute for 5 minutes, or until the onions begin to soften.  Add the garlic and sweet potatoes and cook for an additional 5-10 minutes, until the sweet potatoes begin to soften.  Add the kale, cannellini beans, lentils, broth, rosemary, and bay leaves, and bring to a low boil.  Reduce the heat and simmer for 20-25 minutes, until the vegetables are tender and the lentils are soft.  Add 1 teaspoon salt, or more to taste.

I think this would also be good with one or two slices of bacon cooked in the pan beforehand so the veggies are cooked in the bacon fat.

Enjoy!

Butternut Squash Lasagna with Caramelized Onions

Today has been such a pleasant day!

• My friend, Katie, came over for the visit (she's always a big favorite with the kids--and me!), and we took the three kiddos to Trader Joe's for Katie's inaugural visit.  This may or may not have ended with Katie running a grocery cart around the parking lot with Noah and Jane in it.  Fun times!
• Nathan stayed home today because he didn't feel well, but he didn't feel so bad that he couldn't hang out with us or go play baseball in the backyard with Noah, so it turned out to be a great family day.
• The weather was windy and cool and actually felt like fall!  Glory to God!
• My house is clean.  That always makes me feel so good.
• Our whole family is more or less well and healthy, with the exception of Nathan's cold.  That elicits some gratitude after the week we had (that's another post).
• We had butternut squash lasagna and apple crisp for dinner.  Yum.

For the lasagna, I combined a couple of recipes and came up with something that Nathan and I really enjoyed, so I thought I'd post the recipe.  The honey really makes it special, and the caramelized onions are a nice compliment the sweet squash and honey.  The nutmeg just adds a little dimension.  A few notes: I didn't have any fresh or dried sage, but it'd be tasty to add a teaspoon or two.  Also, I used the no-boil lasagna noodles, but I think the texture of regular noodles would be a bit better in this dish. 

-----

Butternut Squash Lasagna

with Caramelized Onions

1 butternut squash
2 tablespoons honey
3 dashes nutmeg 
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
15 oz. part skim ricotta cheese
1/4 cup milk
dash black pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
lasagna noodles, cooked (or no-boil type)
3-4 oz. grated Parmesan cheese

Cut the squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Place cut side down on a greased baking sheet and bake at 375 for 45-60 minutes, or until easily pierced with a fork.  (This step can be done a day or two ahead.)  Scoop out the squash and put it into a bowl.  Add the honey and nutmeg, and mash it roughly.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  In a pan over medium heat, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and saute the onions.  Cook them slowly so they caramelize rather than burn (adjust the heat, if necessary).  When they're nearly done, add the garlic and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Stir into the butternut squash mixture.

In a bowl, mix the ricotta, milk, nutmeg, pepper, salt, and thyme. 

In a lasagna dish (or, as in my case, two 2-quart casserole dishes), put a small amount of squash or spray some non-stick spray.  Layer the squash, ricotta mixture, and noodles in any order you wish.  Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese on top.  Bake for 25 minutes.

Enjoy!  I'm off to enjoy the fire in our fireplace and a nice cup of tea.

Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies

Because you really just can't have too many things to eat with Nutella.

I adapted this recipe from one I saw in a magazine. It got my attention because its main ingredient is the fabulous Nutella, and also because the ingredient list is super short. The chocolate chips are my addition; in the original recipe, you split the cookies in half and spread Nutella between the layers, making a sandwich cookie--I'm sure that's quite delicious, but this takes less time and is very tasty with less effort.

Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies

1-1/2 cups Nutella
3 large eggs
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
2-1/2 cups self-rising cake flour (regular self-rising flour will work okay, too)
8 oz. chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375 and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Beat together the Nutella, eggs, and butter, then slowly add the flour. The dough will be wet. Fold in the chocolate chips, but don't stir more than three or four times.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead it gently three or four times. The dough will be sticky, so you might need to dust it with a bit more flour and flour your hands. Next, pull off portions of dough (I aimed for a size of about two tablespoons), roll them into balls between your palms, and place 1-2" apart on the cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until firm. Don't overbake. Makes about 50 cookies.

Palmiers

I have something for you to cook.

It'll make you look fancy.
It'll make you look like a master in the kitchen.
It'll impress your friends.

And it's the easiest thing I've made in quite a while.

It's palmiers.

A while back, I saw someone make palmiers on a cooking show, and I tucked the info away for a time when I needed something impressive yet deceptively easy. I made them for my book club, and everyone thought I was amazing; little did they know how simple the recipe is.

In a nutshell, palmiers are just frozen puff pastry spread with either a sweet or savory ingredient, rolled up, then sliced and baked. Because they can go either sweet or savory, they're very versatile. I did one set of savory and one set of sweet, and they were a hit.
-----

Palmiers

Ingredients:
1 box frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 egg yolk, beaten
flour for rolling

Possible fillings:
-shredded Parmesan cheese, with or without herbs
-chopped sun-dried tomatoes
-olive tapenade
-jam, any flavor
-orange zest and sugar

On a floured surface, roll out the puff pastry a bit. Spread your topping, taking care not to add too much of anything liquid (such as jam), because the excess will leak out while baking. Starting on two opposite sides, evenly roll up the pastry towards the middle. Brush some egg yolk at the seam where the two rolled edges meet in order to make it stick, then refrigerate on a baking sheet for 20-30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400.

Remove the pastry roll from the fridge and, with a sharp knife, carefully slice the pastry, slice-and-bake style, into 1/2" pieces. Lay them out on a baking sheet and brush tops with the egg so they'll be glossy and brown when you take them out of the oven. If you are making sweet palmiers, you might also sprinkle them with sugar. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until golden.

-----
So make a batch and impress your friends or family at your next holiday party! Enjoy!

A Better Butternut Pasta

Long ago and far away, I created a butternut squash pasta dish that I posted to this blog. The other day, I improved upon it. In fact, my more recent butternut pasta is far, far better than the first. And this has a whole lot to do with the fact that it has far, far more fat in it. In fact, it's probably the fattiest thing I've cooked in years (if you don't count desserts).

However, I've made it twice over the last two weeks because it is just so decadently good. Butter, cream, cheese . . . I don't know about you, but those ingredients definitely say "luxurious" and "decadent" to me. Add the lovely fall flavors of sweet butternut squash, sage, and thyme, and include some sausage because it goes so nicely with squash and for some spice and texture, and I'm a happy girl.

--

Butternut Squash and Sausage Pasta with Parmesan Cream Sauce

4 cups fresh cubed butternut squash, or 20 oz. frozen cubed butternut squash*
8 oz. (half of a roll) of pork breakfast sausage with sage (such as Jimmy Dean's)
3 Tablespoons butter, divided
2 Tablespoons flour
3/4 cup heavy cream
1-1/2 cups milk
3 sprigs thyme (more if you love it)
dash nutmeg
2 oz. (or more) grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
salt to taste
10 oz. cooked shell pasta

Heat a large skillet over medium heat (I used a nonstick skillet). Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in the pan. Pull off bite-sized pinches of sausage and put them into the pan (mine are probably about a tablespoon each), then add the squash over and around the meat. Cover the pan and let the squash and sausage cook for about 10 minutes, or until the sausage is done. Don't stir it very much or everything will break apart; I only stir it once to turn the sausage so that it cooks on both sides. After it's done cooking, drain off a bit of the fat.

While you wait for the sausage and squash to cook, make the cream sauce. Start by melting the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan. Sprinkle the flour into the pan and whisk together until you get a paste. Let cook for about a minute, but don't let it get very brown. Slowly add the heavy cream and milk, whisking while you go. Drop in the thyme sprigs, but don't take the leaves off (you will take it out after it's had a chance to steep in the sauce). Bring the sauce up to a slow simmer and let it cook for five to ten minutes, or until it is at least thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Add the nutmeg and the cheese and stir. After the cheese is melted, remove the thyme.

Pour the cream sauce over the squash and sausage and stir gently to combine. Add salt to taste (I find that it needs a generous amount of salt, even though it contains sausage and cheese). Toss with your pasta, and you're done!

Enjoy!

*Note: If you use fresh squash, your sauce will have retain some soft chunks of it. If you use frozen, it tends to cook down more quickly, and you will end up with a butternut mash that mixes smoothly into cream sauce. They both taste the same, but if you prefer more of a lumpy texture (like me), use fresh squash or add the frozen 7 or 8 minutes after you've begun cooking the sausage. If you prefer more of a smooth texture, use frozen and follow the recipe as written.

A Spirited Thanksgiving

Why am I thinking Thanksgiving when it's not even November yet? You may well ask. It's because most of Nathan's family (sans Matthew and Emily, who can't come from England--boo) is meeting at our new house to celebrate and early Thanksgiving this coming weekend.

This is one of the reasons we've been doing renovations in our house like crazy people. That, and the fact that if we don't go ahead and do them, chances are we'll just get used to seeing things the way they are and say to ourselves, "Oh, carpet in the bathrooms? [sigh] Who cares?" This, of course, is unacceptable. So in addition to the benefit of seeing family, hosting Thanksgiving this year has the bonus of giving us a reason to get stuff done.

Anyway, if you've read this blog over the years, you know that I love everything about Thanksgiving: the meal, scouting out new recipes, the tradition of the holiday, the turn in cooking towards fall ingredients, and (of course) having a big gathering of friends and/or family to whom I can serve up a big, heaping plate of warm-hearted wonderfulness.

This year, when I asked if anyone had any special requests to add to the menu, my sister-in-law asked for her family's Bourbon Sweet Potatoes, and my mother-in-law mentioned a Bourbon Apple Pie. And as I was flipping through my Cooking Light magazine, I just ran across Bourbon Cider Gravy and a Maple-Bourbon Pecan Pie, both of which I am considering making. The magazine even suggested a splash of port in the cranberry sauce (genius? perhaps!). Hmm. I'm seeing a trend here.

In the happy event that you are interested in having a spirited Thanksgiving, too, I'm posting Meghan's recipe for Bourbon Sweet Potatoes. Enjoy!

-----

Bourbon Sweet Potatoes

3 cups peeled sweet potatoes (about 6 whole), cubed
1/2 stick of butter
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup cream or whole milk
1 tsp. vanilla
bourbon to taste (I'd start with 2 tablespoons and go from there)

Preheat the oven to 350F. Boil the sweet potatoes until fork-tender and soft enough to mash. Mash them with the butter, then mix in the rest of the ingredients. Add the sweet potato mixture to a buttered baking dish and bake for 15-20 minutes, until warm.

-----

And in case you're thinking about Thanksgiving already, too, I'm reposting a few links to recipes and tips that I've written about in Thanksgivings past. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Turkey Tutorial
Cranberry Sauce
Green Bean Casserole
Corn Casserole
Hershey Bar Pie
Pecan Pie

Among other things, I'll also be making:
Apples and Pumpkin Dip
Sweet Potato Biscuits

Blackberry Cream Cheese Pie

The other night, as I was looking for ways to use the blackberries Noah and I picked last week, I decided to make a pie. It would be easy, I thought, because I already had a store bought pie crust in the fridge, and all I'd have to do is roll it out into a pie pan and fill it with blackberries and sugar. So that's what I did. And when I pulled it out of the oven, although it looked good as it was, it really needed something else. I wished I'd had another crust to put on top or perhaps to make into a lattice, or even that I'd had an oatmeal crisp topping or something prepared. But I didn't have time for any of those things. And, in this case, necessity was, indeed, the mother of invention, because I came up with something terribly yummy: I pulled out the cream cheese, mixed some sugar in with a spoon, put dollops on top, and baked the pie for a bit longer. Let me tell you how it tasted: YUM.

The next night, as we were to have guests again, I decided to make the pie again, except that I refined the recipe a bit. I did, indeed, put a lattice crust on top, and instead of adding dollops of cream cheese, I spread it evenly on top of the berries. I wish I had a picture, but we gobbled it up too quickly. It's a winner.

-----

Blackberry Cream Cheese Pie

2 store bought pie crusts (such as Pillsbury--1 box), or make your own.
20 oz. fresh or frozen blackberries
2/3 cup sugar (throw in a few extra tablespoons if your berries are very tart, as mine were)
1 Tbsp. flour
dash salt
8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

On a pastry board dusted with flour, roll out the pie dough so that it is a bit larger than the pie plate. Roll the dough up onto the rolling pin and unroll into the pie plate, and arrange it into place.

In a bowl, combine the berries, 2/3 cup sugar, flour, and salt. Stir to combine. Pour into pie crust.

In a bowl, stir or beat together the cream cheese, 1/4 cup sugar, and vanilla extract. Gently spread on top of the berries.

After dusting the pastry board with more flour, roll out the other disc of pie dough. Using a pizza cutter or a sharp knife, cut it into straight lines (a straight edge helps; I used the side of the pie dough box). Make all the pieces about the same width. Assemble the lattice crust.

Optional: brush with an egg wash (beaten egg white) and sprinkle with sugar. Also, I tent the edges of my crust with foil to make sure the don't get too brown.

Bake at 400 degrees for 30-35 minutes, until the crust is golden.

Enjoy!

Greek Pasta Salad

I made this dish for Jane's birthday party, and my mom has asked me for the recipe, so I thought I'd just post it here. Basically, this is just a Greek salad with pasta instead of lettuce. Enjoy!

By the way, the amounts listed here feed a crowd, so you might want to cut it by a third or by half. Also, I just eyeballed the proportions, so if it looks like this is too many tomatoes or something, by all means, follow your instincts and preferences.

-----

Greek Pasta Salad

1-1/2 16-oz. boxes bowtie pasta (or other small pasta), cooked
1-2 pints cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1 English cucumber, halved lengthwise and sliced
1 cup pitted kalamata olives, roughly chopped
6-oz. tub crumbled feta cheese

Dressing:
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano (or 1 tablespoon dried)
salt and pepper

In a large bowl, combine all the salad ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk the dressing ingredients together, then pour over the salad and toss together. Enjoy!

Pink Frog

So there is one particular category of food that I used to completely avoid: Jello salads.

Growing up, we used to eat this 1950's holdover from time to time as--all of you southerners know it's true--the salad course. How, in any way, is Jello salad a salad? My Granny would put fruit in the Jello and Cool Whip on top, which has always seemed a lot more like a dessert to me, even way back when I was eight or ten years old and started to notice it. My goodness, if you could have dessert instead of a salad at every meal, maybe the 50's were the golden years of America! Has anyone considered this?!

Okay, facetiousness aside, the fact still remains that Jello salad was not my cup of tea. Part of my problem is that I just didn't really care for Jello for many years. It probably wasn't until I was almost out of college that I started to enjoy it every so often. Actually, now that I think of it, it might have had something to do with it being the only dessert I could eat on the South Beach Diet. . . . I digress. The point is, I had no appreciation for Jello in any form for a long time, but Jello salad, in particular, was not a favorite of mine.

And I don't think I was alone. Every year, when the potluck brunch at Mom to Mom rolled around, alongside the food categories such as "bread," "salad," and "dessert," there was "Jello salad." A lot of my friends and I cracked up at this. It just seemed so comically out of place for a group of ten women to be expected to bring. My generation just doesn't make a lot of Jello salad, you know? The only friend who did not think this was such a bad thing was Sara, who evidently liked Jello salad just fine. She bore the barbs thrown at Jello salad with a smile on her face, but we didn't change her opinion at all. She was just fine with that sixty-year-old throwback.

But I will tell you something. I have been converted. After one of my babies was born, Sara brought over dinner, and Pink Salad was part of it. Yes, it was a Jello salad. And it tasted so incredibly good. It was homey and unfussy, which made it even more comforting, and it was sweet and yummy. I had seen the light.

This Christmas, my mother-in-law made an unfortunately-named Jello salad called Pink Frog. Evidently, it hails from their InterVarsity days at Rice, and it was someone's mother's recipe, so we have no idea why it is called Pink Frog. Don't let the name turn you off, though; it's great. It's fruity and light and has cottage cheese in it. Below is the 21st century lightened version. If you've always been against Jello salad, give it a try (though maybe as a dessert instead of a salad). You might be surprised.

--

Pink Frog

8 oz. fat free Cool Whip
8 oz. regular Cool Whip
12 oz. low fat cottage cheese
.6 oz. box (8 servings--large box) Sugar Free Strawberry Jello
12 oz. fresh or canned fruit (blueberries are especially good)

Mix it all together and serve chilled.

Maple Walnut Spice Sandwich Cookies

While looking for a cookie recipe to use some walnuts in, I found one that I altered to bring you this:


Maple Walnut Spice Sandwich Cookies

Cookies:
1/4 cup walnuts
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. cloves
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup softened butter
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 large egg

Frosting:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon milk
2 tsp. softened butter
--
1/3 cup walnuts, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350. In a food processor, pulse the walnuts until fine. Add the flour and next six ingredients (through cloves) and pulse to combine.

In a medium bowl, mix the brown sugar and butter on high until fluffy, about four minutes. Add two tablespoons of maple syrup and the egg; beat until well combined. Gradually add the flour mixture. Beat until just combined.

Spoon batter into evenly sized mounds about a tablespoon each (I just used my measuring spoon). Space them about an inch apart. Bake at 350 for about 14 minutes, or until just browned. Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes on the pan; then, move the cookies to wire racks and cool completely.

After the cookies are cool, prepare the frosting. Combine the powdered sugar, brown sugar, butter, and maple syrup with a whisk until smooth. To make the sandwiches, spoon 1-2 tablespoons on a cookie and spread with the back of a spoon so that it reaches the edges and is even. Place another cookie on top and twist slightly to press the frosting out a bit and to seal the cookies together. Roll the edge of the sandwich through the chopped walnuts. Refrigerate to set the cookies.

Enjoy!

Bonnie's Pumpkin Bread (or Rolls)

Hello and Happy Thanksgiving, all!

As I've mentioned, I'm not making our entire Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, but you probably could have guessed that I would not be able to get through this holiday without getting excited about trying out some new dish.

Well, this year it's rolls made from Bonnie's pumpkin bread recipe. Bonnie is a good friend of mine from Boston, and she is known for her fantastic baked goods (particularly her baby shower cakes, but that's another post). Anyway, sometime last fall, she brought over a lovely pumpkin bread. It was not a sweet bread; it was a yeast bread, and it was quite delicious. Upon request, Bonnie sent me her recipe, and I'm hoping to adapt it tomorrow to make rolls for Thanksgiving dinner. Besides being lovely and autumnal because of the pumpkin, it is also a tiny bit sweet because of the sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and vanilla. However, those ingredients don't make it too sweet; in fact, when I've mentioned before that there is vanilla in the recipe, I've gotten surprised looks. It is definitely fit to be an accoutrement to the turkey or another fall main dish rather than relegated to the dessert table.

Rather than baking it away in the bread machine or in a loaf pan, I plan to have the bread machine mix the dough for me, then I'll bake balls of the dough in a muffin pan sprayed with nonstick spray at 350 for about 10-15 min. The recipe below is simply for a loaf baked in the bread machine, but you can adapt it as you see fit. Enjoy!

--

Bonnie's Pumpkin Bread

3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon brandy extract or vanilla extract (optional)
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon oil
2-1/3 cups bread flour
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice
2 1/4 teaspoon yeast
1/3 cup chopped pecans

If using a bread machine, bake on the White/Basic cycle. You can add the pecans at the beginning, or, if you don't want them to break up as much, you can add them after the first kneading cycle.

Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Bread

The other night, I made this for dinner:


Don't let the less-than-stellar photo fool you. It was deeeee-licious. The main course was Cooking Light's Tuscan Baked Chicken and Beans. Basically, the reason this dish was so fantastic is because every element of it is cooked in bacon fat. I ask you: Can you go wrong when you cook everything in bacon fat?

However, there was only just enough bacon and bacon fat to flavor everything; it wasn't actually a fatty dish (check out the nutritional info at the bottom of the recipe in that link). And since I don't use a lot of bacon in my cooking, the smoky, savory deliciousness of this dish actually kind of surprised me. Anyway, this post is not about the chicken dish, so I'll move on, but I definitely do recommend it.

The recipe I want to share with you is the one for the bread you see there. I made a savory sweet potato bread, and it was pretty good. The sweet potatoes did not impart a strong flavor, but they did give the bread a nice, golden/orange color, and the texture came out really nice. The crust had a great chewy texture, kind of like French bread.

Since I've started making baby food again, I have a bunch of sweet potato food cubes in my freezer. The only problem with them is that they turned out a little too lumpy for Jane. So I started brainstorming about how else I could use them. Remembering a savory pumpkin bread that my friend, Bonnie, made one time, I figured that sweet potatoes would probably work in bread, too. Sure enough, I found a sweet potato bread recipe in a cookbook called The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook, but I had to substitute certain things because I didn't have all the ingredients it called for (yogurt for sour cream, orange juice for orange zest, etc.). Here's my version. This is a 1.5-lb. loaf, and this recipe will work for most bread machines (only a few have you add ingredients in an order other than wet ingredients--dry ingredients--yeast).

-----

Sweet Potato Bread
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon orange juice
3/4 cup pureed sweet potatoes
3 tablespoons plain yogurt
-
3 cups bread flour
1 tablespoon gluten
1.5 teaspoons salt
-
2 teaspoons yeast

Program bread machine for Basic or Fruit & Nut cycle and press Start. When bread is finished, remove from pan and let cool (or have some while it's still warm!).

British Blackberry Cobbler

I get a magazine called English Home that I love to read for all the pictures of classy English decor (most of it is classy, anyway!). The ads are fun to look at, too: you can have your floors made out of old, old hardwood beams, you can order any number of amazingly beautiful claw foot tubs, and you can browse vintage hardware, for example.

However, in addition to all the home decorating articles and ads, this month they had a recipe thrown in, which I don't think I've seen before in this magazine. It was for a Blackberry & Apple Cobbler, and the picture looked so amazing that I immediately ripped that page out. It's been sitting on my kitchen counter for a few days, and every time I've walked past it, I've practically drooled. So last night I made it.

Here's my review: The topping is amazing. Nathan and his brother, Andrew, said that it was a very British topping--not too sweet, very buttery, and just all around delicious. Andrew said it reminded him of shortbread, except the texture was much less dense. But the really special thing about it was how it just melted in your mouth. Truly, the cobbler topping was out of this world.

As for the filling, I have to say that I wasn't crazy about the apples--their texture didn't seem to go with the rest of the dish, and the blackberry flavor overpowered them, anyway. Next time, I'm going to make this dish with only blackberries. Also, there is no flour in the filling, which is usually used as a binder in American cobblers and crisps. As a result, there was a lot of blackberry juice in the bottom of the dish--in fact, the berries were practically swimming in it. Honestly, it wasn't too bad of a thing to happen, because the sugary juice was great spooned over the vanilla ice cream I served with it. But I think I'd add a little flour next time, just to firm it up a bit.

Another thing I should note before you delve into the recipe below is that the original recipe is in grams and milliliters. Not having any familiarity with metric conversions, I asked Andrew to convert all of the measurements for me, and I've given our approximations below. Also, the original recipe calls for double cream, which is not exactly readily available at my local grocery store, so I substituted heavy cream. And it tells you to serve the final product with pouring cream or custard (so British!), but we went with ice cream, instead.

-----


British Blackberry Cobbler

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon flour (115g + 1 tablespoon)
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 of a stick of butter, softened and cubed (95g)
2/3 cup heavy cream (150ml)
24 oz. blackberries (I used frozen)
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar (75g + 2 tablespoons)
good pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 375. Place the blackberries in the base of a 2 or 3 quart baking dish. Dredge and toss with 1 tablespoon flour and 1/4 cup sugar.

In a separate bowl, mix the remaining flour, salt, and baking powder. Rub the butter in until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs (I used a fork for this). Add the cream to the mixture and mix into sticky dough. Add a bit more flour if you need to (I ended up adding two or three more tablespoons).

Roll the dough into approximately six balls, then flatten the balls and place them on top of the berries. Brush the tops with a little milk or egg whites and sprinkle with the remaining sugar. Bake 40-50 minutes or until golden.

Summer Vegetable Quinoa

Today I made quinoa for the first time. I just kind of made up a recipe as I went along, keeping in mind the way I usually cook grains (in broth with veggies). I bought this quinoa on the bulk foods aisle at Whole Foods, and what I now know is that it's a little more earthy and less nutty than, say, brown rice. I really liked the way this turned out.

-----

Summer Vegetable Quinoa

3/4 cup vegetable broth
3 tablespoons minced onion
1/2 zucchini, chopped
1 small carrot, chopped
2/3 cup quinoa
salt to taste

Bring broth, onion, zucchini, and carrot to a boil. Add the quinoa and simmer until vegetables and grains are soft, about 10-15 minutes. Add salt.

Enjoy!

Easy Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup

The other day, I made the easiest chicken soup you can possibly make, unless you think opening a can of Campbell's constitutes "making" soup. I thought I'd share the recipe with you--which is very basic but pretty tasty--because I figured I'm not the only one out there who could use an easy recipe every so often. Also, I made this in my slow cooker, which added to how simple it was. I used pasta, but you could also use a grain, like rice or barley. I have to say, though, that it was fun to use star-shaped pasta when you have a toddler in the house, though, because we ended up calling this "Star Soup," which was fun.

All of the ingredients are already prepped for you, except for maybe the celery (I already had it chopped because I chop up extra celery and keep it in the freezer just for soups). I chopped my onion myself, but I think you can buy frozen chopped onion, too. Generally, all you have to do is gather everything, toss it all in, and let it cook for a few hours! I wished I'd had a little parsley on hand to add at the end, but it was good without it, too. The green you see in the picture is a little frozen chopped spinach that I threw in--y'all probably know by now that I sneak spinach into nearly everything! Served with some fresh bread, this makes a nice meal.


Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup

1 32-oz. box chicken broth
2 chicken breasts
1 bay leaf
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup frozen crinkle cut carrots
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup small pasta, cooked
salt and pepper to taste
*optional: chopped parsley

In a slow cooker, add the broth, the chicken, and the bay leaf. Set it on high and cook for 2-3 hours. Add the celery, carrots, and onion. Continue cooking on high for another 2 hours or so, or until the veggies are soft and the chicken is cooked through. Discard the bay leaf. Shred the chicken. Cook the pasta and add it to the soup. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the parsley, if you're using it.

Blueberry-Strawberry Crisp

Every summer, I try to go blueberry picking. It's just one of the things I love to do. Well, to be truthful, I just love to eat blueberries, which is the main reason I like to go pick them. Blueberries fresh off the bush just taste much better than store bought ones. This all started when I was a kid, eating blueberries straight off the bush on my distant family's property in Mississippi. Then, years later, my blueberry enthusiasm re-emerged the summer after Nathan and I got married. We went to a blueberry farm just outside of Houston, and because blueberries were $1 a pound there, we picked a bucket and a half of the little blue gems. We went home with major sunburns and--get this--TWELVE POUNDS of blueberries. Everyone thought I was crazy for being so happy about having twelve pounds of blueberries in my fridge, but I was beyond thrilled. I gave some away, froze some, ate them by the handful and in my cereal, and spent the rest of the summer making blueberry crisps. I was nuts for blueberry crisps that summer, and it was a good thing, considering how many I made. Nathan thought I had lost my ever loving mind. It was a fun and delicious summer, and ever since then, I look forward to picking some blueberries every summer, though nowadays we usually just go home with a pound or so.

So you can imagine my disappointment when I realized earlier this month that in Texas, the blueberry season is over by July, as opposed to New England, when it's just beginning in July. Duh. Move two thousand miles away into a completely different climate, and you might want to think about the different growing season, Lauren. So no fresh-picked blueberries for me this year. Boo.

However, much to my surprise and delight, my parents came back from a road trip with a gallon-sized ziploc bag full of blueberries for me. They had stopped in Mississippi on their way to and from Atlanta (they went to go visit my brother and sis-in-law, Ken & Meredith), and someone gave them a ridiculous amount of fresh-picked blueberries. Not twelve pounds, but plenty. So I have been back to making my blueberry crisps. They've been great for me as an alternative dessert to chocolate, since I can't eat that right now. There is a little butter in the topping, but evidently it's not enough to bother Jane.

Anyway, I got to the bottom of my bag o' blueberries and realized I didn't have enough to make another crisp, so I decided to add some strawberries, and it came out so yummy. I thought you guys might want the recipe, too, since berries are in season right now and are so delicious. And I hope that if you love blueberries as much as I do, someone will surprise you with a gallon of them!

-----

Blueberry-Strawberry Crisp

3 cups blueberries
3 cups strawberries, quartered
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (optional)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
4.5 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375. In a 1.5 or 2 quart baking dish, combine the first five ingredients, through the brown sugar. In a separate bowl, combine remaining ingredients. Top the berry mixture with the oatmeal mixture. Bake for 20 minutes or until the topping is golden and the berries are bubbling.