Intellectual Orgy

Rather than post actual content, I thought I would share my absolutely, most favoritest cookie recipe… I made these at Christmas last year and Doug liked them so much that I made them again and again… Now I make a double recipe everytime I make them so Doug and I can take some to work, too…

Enjoy!

SOFT AND CHEWY MOLASSES SPICE COOKIES
Makes about 20 cookies
(Modified Cook’s Illustrated recipe)

Measure the molasses in a liquid measuring cup. If you find that the dough sticks to your palms as you shape the balls, moisten your hands occasionally in a bowl filled with cold water and shake off the excess. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time. If baked two sheets at a time, the cookies started on the bottom rack won’t develop the attractive cracks. The cookies should look slightly raw and underbaked when removed from the oven.

2 1/4 cups (11 1/4 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened but still cool
1/3 cup (about 2 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
1/3 cup (about 2 1/2 ounces) packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (about 6 ounces) light or dark molasses
1 cup Sugar in the Raw (Or other large grain sugar) for coating raw dough

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Place 1/2 cup Sugar in the Raw for coating in 8- or 9-inch cake pan.

2. Whisk flour, baking soda, spices, and salt in medium bowl until thoroughly combined; set aside.

3. In standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter with brown and granulated sugars at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-low and add yolk and vanilla; increase speed to medium and beat until incorporated, about 20 seconds. Reduce speed to medium-low and add molasses; beat until fully incorporated, about 20 seconds, scraping bottom and sides of bowl once with rubber spatula. Reduce speed to lowest setting; add flour mixture and beat until just incorporated, about 30 seconds, scraping bowl down once. Give dough final stir with rubber spatula to ensure that no pockets of flour remain at bottom. Dough will be soft.

4. Using tablespoon measure, scoop heaping tablespoon of dough and roll between palms into 11/2-inch ball; drop ball into cake pan with sugar and roll until it is completely coated in sugar. Place on prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 1.5 inches apart. Repeat with remaining dough. Bake 1 sheet at a time until cookies are browned, still puffy, and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft (cookies will look raw between cracks and seem underdone), about 11 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. Do not overbake.

5. Cool cookies on baking sheet 5 minutes, then use wide metal spatula to transfer cookies to wire rack; cool cookies to room temperature and serve. (Can be stored at room temperature in an air-tight container or zipper lock bag for up to 5 days.)

The other fun thing I did this weekend was go to a friend’s house and make dinner… I hadn’t gotten to cook a full meal in a while and I wanted to try some new recipes from Cook’s Illustrated… I asked for menu ideas from my friend and with his input, I decided on Chicken Piccata, Pasta with Sauteed Mushrooms and some basic sauteed veggies…

I got the Chicken Piccata and the Pasta recipes from Cooks Illustrated and did the sauteed veggies on the fly… The Cook’s Illustrated recipes were a little daunting to me, but only because I am not used to serious cooking, but once I got started it was easy enough… I even managed to time everything right so the chicken was done at about the same time as the pasta and veggies… we also had some lovely toasted bread to go along with the meal…

I surprised myself with how well the dinner came out *grin* I must admit that I expected SOMETHING to come out wrong, but the only thing that was less than perfect was that the zucchini was a little overdone and the snap peas were a little crispy for my taste… other than that, i couldn’t find much to bitch about *grin*

I have included the recipes that I used, so hopefully other people will get to enjoy a great meal made at home!
Read the rest of this entry »

Since Celina mentioned it, I realized that i do like posting tasty things on my Thingie… So i had my Internet Hero, GreyDuck, add a topic to my list on the left called Recipes, so that if people want to (or I need to), the recipes are there for the finding…

As a christening for the recipe section, I’ll share with you all one of the first things I ever learned how to make and follow it up with my current variation of the same recipe

Enjoy!

PANCAKES

Heat skillet or pan over a medium heat while you make the batter.

Combine the following dry ingredients and stir until blended:

1 Cup Flour
2 Tbsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Salt
1/4 Cup Sugar

Add the following liquid ingredients, mixing until mostly smooth

1 Egg
1 Cup Milk
1/8 Cup Vegetable Oil

Lightly oil the pan using a paper towel to spread the oil very thin. Ladle or spoon batter onto heated skillet or pan, I usually do them one at a time, but you can fit 2 or 3 on a pan if you want to try. Cover and let cook for about 45 seconds or until most of the bubbles on the pancake have popped and the bottom is dark golden brown (keep track of time for the next pancake). Using a Spatula, flip the pancake(s) and let cook uncovered for about 45 seconds until dark golden brown (keep track of time for the next pancake). If you want to check if it’s done, use the corner of the spatula to poke a hole in the center of the pancake to see if it’s done.

You shouldn’t need to re-grease the pan after the first pancake. Makes about 12 5″ diameter pancakes. Serve with syrup or whatever you want. You can also mix chocolate chips or fruit into this recipe.

Mari’s Improved Pancakes
(With this variation, you really shouldn’t need syrup)

Soften 1/4 cup of butter (you may need to microwave the butter or use soft spreadable margarine) and heat skillet or pan over a medium heat while you make the batter. Also, put 1/4 cup of brown sugar aside in a bowl, completely crumbled.

Combine the following dry ingredients and stir until blended:

1 Cup Flour
2 Tbsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Salt
1/4 Cup Sugar
2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
1 Tbsp Cinnamon
1 Tsp Nutmeg
1/4 Tsp Cloves

Add the following liquid ingredients, mixing until mostly smooth

1 Egg
1 Cup Milk
1/8 Cup Vegetable Oil
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Cook according to the instructions above. When it’s cooked through, put the pancake on the plate and spread butter on the pancake. Sprinkle brown sugar over the buttered pancake. Repeat, stacking the pancakes as you go.

You shouldn’t need to re-grease the pan after the first pancake. Makes about 12 5″ diameter pancakes.

Yippee!

Well, mostly Yippee, anyhow… Yippee that I get to go to California and visit family and go to Magic Mountain and Knotts Berry Farm and Las Vegas… Not-So-Yippee that I am going to be living with my parents for 12 days. Yikes!

It’ll be OK though… i am sure that it won’t be as bad as I am imagining… C’mon, how bad can it be? I get to eat at all my favorite restaurants again and visit cool places again… it bums me out that my friends have all moved away, but so did i… I do get to see The Guy From New York, though and that is cause for major celebration

As I prepare to go on this trip there are so many things to pack and rules and regulations to remember… i have to be sure to pack clothes and toiletries, books and amusements, presents and the like… *sigh* why do i feel like this is not going to be a relaxing vacation?

Funny thing I learned about work this week… If you belong to two groups during the holidays, you get twice as much stuff laid on your desk by people… Then again, I gave out over 25 Cards and Goodie Bags this year… but i ended up with more Candy than I should ever have in my possession at one time… How many Ferrero Rochers can a girl eat, after all? I got to go to three Holiday Parties that were work related and only had to organize two of them! Woo hoo! Seriously though, I was pleased by how many people thought enough of me to give me a card or gift… it gave me warm fuzzies

As a holiday treat, to all of my faithful readers (all 5 of you), I present my Anti-Iron Chef Recipes… They sound kinda gross in the making but they came out to be tasty as hell… If you like Ham and Sweet Potatoes that is… Though, even people who DON’T like Ham and Sweet Potatoes thought that these rocked the house… Bon Apetit!

Ham Stuffed with Sweet Potatoes

1 Cooks Ham Steak (Or other large Ham Steak at least 3/4 inch thick)
2 Large Sweet Potatoes
1.5 Tablespoons Butter
1 Tablespoon Brown Sugar
Mini Marshmallows

Medium Saucepan with cover
Small, sharp paring or garnishing knife
Cupcake tin with aluminum and paper cupcake liners
Pastry Tube

Peel Sweet Potatoes and cut into 1 inch chunks. Put into a saucepan with enough water to come up halfway up the quantity of Sweet Potatoes. Put on a medium heat and cover. Let simmer for about 20 minutes until cooked most of the way through. Uncover pan and stir potatoes. Continue cooking over medium heat until potatoes cut easily when pressed with a spoon. Remove pan from the heat. Mash the Sweet Potatoes until lumpy, add the Butter and Brown Sugar and continue mashing and stirring until smooth. Let stand while you prepare the Ham.

Separate Ham into solid pieces of meat along the natural splits. Trim the meat to remove excess fat and the bone. Try to make the pieces as uniform as possible. Set the trimmings aside. Cut the solid pieces of meat into pieces about 1 inch by 2 inches. or somewhere around that size. Make each piece of ham into a pocket by slitting the meat along one of the 1 inch edges open and continuing to cut into the middle of the meat, but not all the way through any of the other edges. You should be able to stick your finger into the pouches.

Once all of the pouches have been made, load your pastry tube with the Sweet Potatoes and fill each Ham Pouch with sweet potato. The pouches should be rounded out and slightly bulging by the Sweet Potato Stuffing. Place the Ham Pouches with the open ends on top into the lined cupcake tin, you may be able to fit 2 Ham Pouches per liner. In the open edges, stuff 2 mini marshmallows in to cover the opening. If you want your Ham Pouches to stay completely vertical while in the oven, you can poke a toothpick through each Ham Pouch to stabilize it.

Bake the pouches in a preheated oven (350 degrees) for 20 minutes or until the marshmallows are toasted dark brown.

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Ham and Sweet Potato Quiche-Things

With all of the left over Ham, Sweet potatoes and mini Marshmallows from the last recipe, you can make some pretty tasty mini Quiche-things that can bake at the same time as the Ham Pouches.

Trim the leftover ham and remove all of the fat and gristle from the meat. It doesn’t matter how small or ugly the pieces of meat are since they are going to get chopped anyhow. Throw away the fat, gristle, bone and remains. Using a Food Processor or food chopper, mince the ham fine. If you don’t have either of those machines, use a knife and just chop it as fine as possible.

Mix the minced Ham, Sweet Potatoes and 1/2 of a beaten Egg (Sorry Jerry) until well blended. Pour the mixture into the lined cupcake tins and top with 5 or 6 mini marshmallows. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until the marshmallows are dark brown.

Happy Holidays!

So, last night The BratPack (a group of me and my friends) had our holiday gathering to exchange gifts. Our theme this year was “Iron Chef Potluck”. We all had to bring an Entree, Appetizer or Salad using the Secret Ingredient. Our original secret ingredient was MARSHMALLOWS, but the healthy eaters in the group nixed that idea so we went with PEPPERMINT instead…

I made up a recipe and was all ready to make it when a friend of mine called with a wonderful recipe that she’d found on line… so i took that recipe and another one, melded them and adapted them to my kitchen… and what do you know? I won!! I am the BratPack Iron Chef for 2003! I will have to accept challenges from all comers and defend my title. How exciting is that?

Since my last recipe was so well received, here is my Iron Chef Competition Winning recipe:

SKEWERED CHICKEN WITH RED ONIONS AND MINT LEAVES, SERVED WITH MINTED YOGURT SAUCE

Yogurt Sauce

2 cups Plain Yogurt
1/2 cup Fresh Mint Leaves
1 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1/2 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper

Mix all the ingredients in a food processor until mint is minced. Let sit overnight for best flavor.

If you don’t have a food processor, chop the mint extra fine and mix with the rest of the ingredients until thoroughly blended. Let sit overnight for best flavor.

Chicken

1 to 1.5 lbs chicken breast, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 Red Onion, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 Bunch Fresh Mint
4 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
4 cloves of garlic, pressed
1 tablespoon Oregano
2 Tablespoons chopped Fresh Mint Leaves
2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice

Bamboo Skewers

Mix Chicken, Chopped Mint, Oregano, Garlic and 2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil. Stir well, cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (preferably more)

Soak the Bamboo Skewers in warm water for at least 30 minutes. While the skewers soak, wash the bunch of Mint and pull off the large leaves and set aside. Alternate Onion, Chicken and a Mint Leaf on the Skewers.

If you are cooking on a barbecue, place the skewers on the grill, salt and pepper and baste with a mixture of the last 2 tablespoons of Olive Oil and the Lemon Juice. Turn and baste every 15 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.

If you are cooking in an oven, pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Find a rectangular casserole dish that will support the skewers with the ends of the skewers resting on the edges of the casserole dish. Salt and pepper the skewers and and baste with a mixture of the last 2 tablespoons of Olive Oil and the Lemon Juice. Turn and baste every 15 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.

Enjoy!