I’ve been doing holiday cookies in stages. I’ll make the dough one day, cut it out and bake it another and then we had a big cookie decorating night to decorate the gingerbread and sugar cookies. This year I bought some little squeeze bottles, thinking we could emulate Martha and make the cookies look like the ones Dani decorates on Martha’s show. Silly me. First problem – my mixer broke as I was making frosting. Then the frosting was too stiff, so we had to add milk (by hand!). Finally we got it to work. The bottles were great for outlining and making lines and designs. “Flooding” the inside of the cookie (as Dani, the cookie decorating expert on Martha’s show calls it) was harder. Sure you could squeeze frosting into the center, but then trying to spread it evenly with a knife was very hard. Still, I think the cookies turned out pretty well. I’m not a fan of a lot of frosting, but kids will be kids! It took us about 2 hours to get them all decorated. It was exhausting but fun!

I’ve been doing holiday cookies in stages. I’ll make the dough one day, cut it out and bake it another and then we had a big cookie decorating night to decorate the gingerbread and sugar cookies. This year I bought some little squeeze bottles, thinking we could emulate Martha and make the cookies look like … Read more →

My birthday was Monday and since we went out to dinner with parents over the weekend to celebrate, I cooked for my birthday. I made fettucine alfredo with broccoli and some marinated grilled chicken and a salad. For dessert, I decided to try something somewhat new. My go-to cake is my Gram’s chocolate Miracle Whip cake, so I made that, but then I made the frosting and filling from this Rachel Ray cake. I made 1/3 of the filling and frosting recipes and it was exactly the right amount. The filling (peanut butter with mini chocolate chips) is to DIE for. The chocolate fudge frosting was also amazing. Paired with the perfect chocolate cake, this was amazing! I will definitely be using this recipe again.

My birthday was Monday and since we went out to dinner with parents over the weekend to celebrate, I cooked for my birthday. I made fettucine alfredo with broccoli and some marinated grilled chicken and a salad. For dessert, I decided to try something somewhat new. My go-to cake is my Gram’s chocolate Miracle Whip … Read more →

I’m a sucker for baked pasta. I decided to make Martha’s Spinach Manicotti from Dec Everyday Food, but try it two ways. I did it the traditional way, in a glass baking pan. AND I did it in parchment paper. Yep, that’s right. No baking dish. I didn’t even use a bowl. I had NO clean up from the second method.

Here’s the traditional recipe:

8 manicotti shells, cooked according to package instructions

1 tsp olive oil

1 container ricotta (I used cottage cheese)

1 cup Parmesan

1 tsp lemon zest

1 package frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

2 cups marinara sauce

1/4 tsp oregano

2 tbsp cream

Preheat oven to 375. Combine ricotta, half the Parmesan, and lemon zest. Stir in spinach and season with salt and pepper. Fill the shells and place in 8 inch square glass baking dish. Mix sauce, oregano and cream and pour over the top. Top with the rest of the Parmesan. Bake about 30 minutes. Let it rest for 5 minutes.

It was good, but I have to say I am more excited about my parchment paper method which you can read about here.

I’m a sucker for baked pasta. I decided to make Martha’s Spinach Manicotti from Dec Everyday Food, but try it two ways. I did it the traditional way, in a glass baking pan. AND I did it in parchment paper. Yep, that’s right. No baking dish. I didn’t even use a bowl. I had NO … Read more →

I’m loving the section of Dec Everyday Food with all the cute little party food. Who doesn’t love fried mozzarella? It’s incredibly evil, but oh so good. Of course I had to try it:

Preheat oven to 250. Put 1 cup flour in a bowl. In another, beat 2 eggs. In another, mix 1 cup panko with 1 tsp thyme. Season each with salt and pepper. Buy 1 lb of bocconcini balls (fresh mozzarella balls  – I actually thought the bocconcini were too big, so I bought whatever the smaller size was called). Dry them off and dip in flour, egg, then panko. Heat 2 cups veg oil until a breadcrumb thrown in sizzles. Fry them, 4 at a time until golden, about 2 min per batch. Keep warm in the oven on paper towels on a baking sheet. Serve with a marinara sauce for dipping.

These were crazy good. I have to make sure that it if I ever make these again that there are a LOT of people around to snatch them up because I could just keep eating them.

I’m loving the section of Dec Everyday Food with all the cute little party food. Who doesn’t love fried mozzarella? It’s incredibly evil, but oh so good. Of course I had to try it: Preheat oven to 250. Put 1 cup flour in a bowl. In another, beat 2 eggs. In another, mix 1 cup … Read more →

Thanks to Pru at Perfecting Pru for choosing Iced Thumbprint Cookies for today’s project. Pru, I was thinking of you while I was making this because you said you chose this because you tried to make some other thumbprint cookies and they ended up in the trash. I was hoping that would not happen with mine or yours this time!

Mine did not go spectacularly well, I have to admit! First of all, the dough was just crumbs. I tried to make it into a disk and it just wouldn’t. I refrigerated it and tried again. I gave up on that and then tried to make the balls. I had some success. But when I pushed in the middle with my thumb, some of them just fell apart. Yikes. I put them in the oven and then pushed the spoon handle in them and that went ok.

These are iced with just milk and powdered sugar (and food coloring). I’ve never had thumbprints that didn’t have jelly/jam or a cherry in the middle, so this was sort of weird. Everyone agreed they were pretty, but we missed the center filling we’re used to. I liked the taste of the cookie itself, so if I made these again, I would put jelly in the middle – probably strawberry.

Thank you Pru for getting me started on my holiday baking. I have so much to do and only 2 weekends left before Christmas. Yikes! I will be baking chocolate chip, sugar cookie cut-outs, gingerbread men, Russian teacakes (which most people call Mexican wedding cakes), fruitcake (there is a secret family recipe for this and I make one to give to my in-laws and one for us), and I need to make and freeze our Christmas morning donuts. I’ve got a giant index to get done before Christmas and I haven’t wrapped a thing. The shopping is mostly done though at least! How are you doing with your holiday baking and preparations?

Thanks to Pru at Perfecting Pru for choosing Iced Thumbprint Cookies for today’s project. Pru, I was thinking of you while I was making this because you said you chose this because you tried to make some other thumbprint cookies and they ended up in the trash. I was hoping that would not happen with … Read more →

The holidays are coming and I appreciated all the ideas for party snacks in December Everyday Food. Fried chickpeas are a hot item currently and Martha has a recipe for making them in the oven. This was quite easy. Preheat the oven to 450. Pour 1/4 cup of veg oil on a baking sheet and heat up in the oven. Drain, rinse and dry two cans of chickpeas then dump onto the hot baking sheet and bake 10-12 min.

As you can see, some of mine got too brown. Some did not cook enough. And some were just right. They need to become dark and crunchy to be any good and it was really hard to know when that was. But it’s definitely easier than pan frying them. You’re supposed to sprinkle them with cayenne. I just salted them. The ones that were cooked perfectly were absolutely delicious.

The holidays are coming and I appreciated all the ideas for party snacks in December Everyday Food. Fried chickpeas are a hot item currently and Martha has a recipe for making them in the oven. This was quite easy. Preheat the oven to 450. Pour 1/4 cup of veg oil on a baking sheet and … Read more →

Do people still make pot roast? Probably not as often as they did back in the 70s when I was a kid. We had pot roast pretty regularly. I learned to make it by the time I was in junior high. I would get home from school around 4 and my mom would have left me a note asking me to put it together and put it in the oven. I pulled out my recipe notebook to consult my mom’s recipe and realized I don’t even have it written down, because I made it so many times that it was just something I knew how to make. Dollars to donuts, my mom has nothing written down anywhere either.

I haven’t made pot roast in a really long time. There’s something so homey and comforting about it and it smells so good when it’s cooking. I don’t have an actual recipe to share, but this is how I make it.

Start with a medium enameled roasting pan (the kind that are speckled) with a lid. Put a chuck roast in it. Then chop up half an onion and a few garlic cloves. Add baby carrots, 3-4 potatoes cut into 4ths, a teaspoonful of tomato paste, and some whole mushrooms (maybe half a package). Dump in some salt (you need more than you think) and pepper. Dump in some herbs (I have a “beef roast” seasoning from Penzey’s I use, if I didn’t have that I would use thyme, oregano and a little celery salt). Add about 2 cups of red wine. Then add enough beef broth to cover the meat (I used  a whole carton). When you’re done, you should have that medium roasting pan filled to the top. This does not work well in a roasting pan that is larger because the meat is not completely covered.

Roast at 350 for at least 2 hours. I had mine in for 3 hours, but the meat was still mostly frozen when I put it in.

When it comes out, put the vegetables in a bowl and the meat on a platter. Add Wondra to the juices and cook until thickened the way you like it (I like my gravies thick!).

It’s not gourmet and it’s not pretty to look at, but boy is it good!

Do people still make pot roast? Probably not as often as they did back in the 70s when I was a kid. We had pot roast pretty regularly. I learned to make it by the time I was in junior high. I would get home from school around 4 and my mom would have left … Read more →

I’ve seen a few recipes for donut muffins, but have never actually made any. I saw this one in Nov Everyday Food and the pumpkin part drew me in, so I decided to make them. This was super easy. Just mix it all up in a bowl, bake in muffin tins and then roll in melted butter and cinnamon/sugar. They were really tasty and smelled great while they were baking. The family gave this a thumbs up all the way. You need to eat them with a fork though, because they’re kind of crumbly.

10 tbsp butter

3 cups flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/4 allspice

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/3 cup buttermilk

1 1/4 pumpkin puree

3/4 cup brown sugar

for sugar coating:

3/4 c sugar

2 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 c butter

Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour a muffin tin. Whisk dry ingredients together in one bowl. Whisk buttermilk and pumpkin in another.  In yet another bowl, mix butter and brown sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs. Add flour in 3 additions, alternating with the pumpkin mix.

Put 1/3 c batter in each muffin cup and bake until a toothpick comes out clean, 30 min.

Mix sugar and cinnamon. and melt butter. Let muffins cool 10 min then roll in butter then cinnamon sugar.

Now, you know me, I did this all in one bowl. I have no patience for Martha’s methods. I also used a little less nutmeg and allspice and added some cinnamon into the batter itself.

I ended up with more than 12  – I think I had about 18 of these. I would definitely make this again. All the yumminess of a donut with the ease of a muffin.

I’ve seen a few recipes for donut muffins, but have never actually made any. I saw this one in Nov Everyday Food and the pumpkin part drew me in, so I decided to make them. This was super easy. Just mix it all up in a bowl, bake in muffin tins and then roll in … Read more →

I have a special place in my heart for blondies. I shared my favorite recipe for them previously on this blog. Lately I’ve been obsessed with The Complete America’s Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook. I love the idea of this cookbook – that the editors tried every conceivable way of making recipes until they hit upon the very best method. The book has a blondie recipe and I had to check it out to see if it is better than my recipe

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

12 tbsp melted butter

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 cup pecans

1 /2 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Whisk flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk brown sugar and butter. Add eggs and vanilla. Fold dry ingredients in. Fold in nuts and chips. Place in 13×9 pan lined with foil and sprayed with cooking spray. Bake 22-25 minutes at 350 degrees.

Mine took longer to cook. These were delicious. I used only chocolate chips and did not add nuts or white chocolate, which I think would make it even better. This had that rich, buttery taste that blondies have and it was soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside. It’s definitely in close contention with my recipe!

I have a special place in my heart for blondies. I shared my favorite recipe for them previously on this blog. Lately I’ve been obsessed with The Complete America’s Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook. I love the idea of this cookbook – that the editors tried every conceivable way of making recipes until they hit … Read more →

Thanks to Sara at Sassy Suppers for picking this week’s project – Thanksgiving leftover recipes. I picked the turkey wrap (we could choose any project from the gallery of leftover ideas). I have to say I was pretty surprised that I liked it as much as I did. It was pretty simple – just mayo, vinegar and mustard mixed with turkey and rolled up with shredded carrot and lettuce in a tortilla. I would definitely make this again. It doesn’t quite top my favorite leftover sandwich which is just turkey with Miracle Whip and lettuce on potato bread.

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving! We had a 16 lb turkey (local, organic, pasture raised) and ALL of the turkey meat vanished yesterday. I made the turkey with Martha’s method (rubbing it with butter and covering it with cheesecloth soaked in butter). It was gorgeous and delicious. We had regular stuffing, cornbread stuffing,mashed potatoes, roasted carrot/parsnip/rutabaga and roasted Brussels sprouts, and of course, pumpkin pie. Needless to say I am nibbling carrot sticks this week to try to make up for it all.

Next week’s assignment can be found here. Don’t miss out – it’s cookies!

Thanks to Sara at Sassy Suppers for picking this week’s project – Thanksgiving leftover recipes. I picked the turkey wrap (we could choose any project from the gallery of leftover ideas). I have to say I was pretty surprised that I liked it as much as I did. It was pretty simple – just mayo, … Read more →