Baby, It's Cold Outside

The temperature here has dropped twenty degrees today, so it feels cold out.
But if you plan to venture on out or still need a nice gift for the holidays, I have a few suggestions.
Granted, you would have to have the ingredients on hand and a bit of time. And it is Christmas Eve.

Candied Espresso Walnuts shown above
Christmas Mice
Super Easy Cream Cheese Truffles
Green Tea Sandwich Cookies
Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
Ginger Crackles
Pistachio Cranberry Icebox Cookies (or shortbread) - these are one of my neighbors favorites out of my cookie box
Pecan Tassies


But if you are looking for a nice little edible gift, the walnuts are my favorite. They're super easy to make, take about half an hour start to finish (well, 45 if you let things cool), and they make the house smell like a coffee shop. Or at least that's how mine smelled before dad started cooking brussels sprouts.

Mice for Christmastime

My grandmother has been making mice for about a decade.
Yes, I said mice.
Like the one in the picture above. Except she didn't make it. Keri and I did. It was a team effort.


She taught me how to make them about six years ago, and the following year my friend Keri and I made them together. I'm not sure if we've made them since eighth grade (when I made a step-by-step tutorial, but this year we finally got around to making them again. And they're so adorable and fun to make!

Keri and I don't see all that much of each other. We see each other at lunch and in history, which is most all through high school, but it was fun to get together. And so the mice took four hours. But don't let that scare you. We easily could have been done in an hour, but we talked, ate lunch, and found fun ways to use the leftover chocolate- we crushed up candy canes to mix in and then poured the chocolate into molds.



Chocolate mice sort of instructions:
I have no clue about quantities, but we used 3 10-ounce jars of maraschino cherries, a 17.6 ounce bar of milk chocolate, part of a 12-ounce bag of slivered almonds (the smallest size should be fine, we needed 204 almond slivers that looked nice), 1 1/2 bags of Hershey kisses (the 11 ounce ones, or 102 hershey kisses), and part of a tube of red gel icing. The numbers were based on how many cherries with stems we ended up with, and that's what we ended up with.
Melt the chocolate, dip the cherries in, push the kiss on, stick in the almonds. Repeat. Place in fridge to harden up for a while, and then dot on eyes. For better instructions, see my how-to from eighth grade.


Last three pictures by Keri. She was having fun with the camera.

Chocolate and Cream Cheese = Truffles

It's a fact. When I have a paper, I find ways to avoid working on them.
Okay, it's called procrastination and I'm sure we're all subject to it, but at least, well, okay, sometimes, I actually do something productive while avoiding what I should be working on.

Not that it's premeditated or anything. I was going to make Peppermint Cheesecake Brownies, but I wasn't sure what to do with the extra egg yolks that I would have leftover, and it seemed like it would be an hour of devotion at once.

Which is funny. Because that's how much time I ended up spending on something that I thought would be so much faster and easier. Which it was. Easier that is. Or at least simpler. Because it had two ingredients. I tried making it three, but that was a bad plan (and makes me glad I didn't make the peppermint cheesecake brownies).

The Philadelphia Cream Cheese coupon in the sunday paper had a recipe for truffles in it. I grabbed it for the coupon ('tis the season for tassies) but then realized it had a recipe (if you can even call it that) for truffles.

And they were surprisingly tasty.


Truffles!

1 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened
8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, melted
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate (melted but later on)
decorations, optional

Beat the cream cheese until fluffy and beat in the chocolate. Chill until firm enough to handle (mine didn't need chilling, it set up pretty fast in my cold house) and then scoop and shape teaspoonfulls into balls.
Chill for half an hour or so, and then dip into melted chocolate and place on a sheet of wax paper or silicone mat (and top with sprinkles if desired).
Refrigerate for a few hours until chocolate is set.

Happy Thanksgiving

Mmm. Thanksgiving.
Actually, it's really not the tastiest holiday. I don't really like turkey, or gravy.

But cranberries. I do love cranberries. And oranges. Cranberries with oranges.
CRANBERRY ORANGE RELISH!

Every since Mom first made this cranberry relish about 8 years ago, I've been wanting it every year. So, for the past four years, so ensure I get it, I've been making it.

But for some reason, I failed to double the recipe this year. Oops. I'll just have to make some more tomorrow. Leftover sweet potatoes are no good without cranberry relish on top.

The food isn't what I like about Thanksgiving though (relish aside). It's my family. And no, I'm not trying to be a Hallmark card. I'm serious. Especially after dinner when we play games. Last year we played Catchphrase. Hilarity ensued. But there's an odd number this year.


Cranberry Orange Relish
adapted from the November 2001 issue of Gourmet (I think Mom made the entire menu that year)
Makes about 2 cups

1 (12-ounce) bag fresh cranberries
1 navel orange
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Place the cranberries, sugar, and cinnamon in the food processor. Zest the orange over the food processor, and then peel the orange and separate the segments from the pith and toss them into the food processor too (the segments, not the pith. That would be nasty.) Pulse until it's all chopped up.
Refrigerate for at least two hours to let flavor develop. And then hoard it.
Or be nice and serve it.

I'd recommend doubling this recipe if you have someone who relishes it as much as I do. Gourmet says it serves 10, but who are they kidding?

It Smells and Tastes Like Fall Now

My friend Lauren really likes pumpkin bread. Or so she says. I've never actually seen her a room with pumpkin bread. So I told her I'd make some. And then about 10 minutes later, I realized it would be hard to give to her, and pumpkin bread is so much tastier (in my opinion) in the morning. And I usually see her in the afternoons.
So I made those pumpkin bites from last year, which are essentially miniature pumpkin muffins. And they sustained her through a frustrating Calc study session. (Aren't you glad you are out of high school?)
But I was determined to get a pumpkin cookie down. So I turned to the banana-oatmeal cookies I've made far too many times. Because if they work for bananas, why not pumpkin?

It turned out to be harder than I thought. The first few batches, while tasty, nobody could ever identify the pumpkin in them. By batch 4 or 5, I'd found the secret. Ginger and toasted pecans. For some reason, the ginger and pecan flavor is reminiscent of fall and pumpkins. Or maybe I'm just crazy.

Either way, you should try these cookies.
Did I mention they're also super easy?

Spiced Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
makes 30 or so small cookies

1 cup (130 g) whole-wheat pastry flour, or all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon (85 g) pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups oats (130 g)
1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted
1/3 cup dried cranberries (Craisins)
1/3 cup white chocolate chips or 2 ounces white chocolate, chopped

Preheat oven to 350ºF and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the oil, sugars, and pumpkin puree until smooth. Whisk in egg and vanilla extract.
Stir in flour mixture. Stir in the oats, pecans, dried cranberries, and white chocolate.

Drop by tablespoonfuls on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until tops are dry and edges are lightly browned. Let cool on pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to rack to cool completely (or enjoy immediately.)

Green Tea Sandwich Cookies

My friend's mom recently came back from Japan and with her she brought Green Tea KitKats. They're like normal kit kats, except the filling is matcha flavored, and the coating is a matcha white chocolate.

At lunch yesterday, when my friends and I got to talking about how tasty the kit kats were (and how long it had been since any of us had green tea ice cream). I said I'd make green tea ice cream, but then realized it would be hard to take it to school with me. So I decided to try to make cookies with a green tea filling instead.

I'd thought about making green tea sandwich cookies before when I saw a recipe somewhere, but never did. I just didn't feel like getting on the computer. So I turned to my Biggest Book of Cookies that one of my friends gave me for my birthday and looked for something similar to what I wanted. I usually don't like to make cookies that involve more than mixing, dropping, and baking, but I was inspired. And my two hours of work yielded only 22 cookies (there were more cookies, enough for closer to 30 sandwiches, but I ran out of filling and was too tired to make more; it was 10:30 at night).

I decided against dipping these rich, buttery cookies in a green tea-flavored white chocolate because they're fairly delicate, and delicious just the way they are. Hopefully my friends will like them!


Green Tea Sandwich Cookies
makes about 30
(adapted from a French Pistacho Buttercream recipe in Better Home & Gardens Biggest Book of Cookies)

Cookies:
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks; 6 oz) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted (or sift into bowl with butter)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
Granulated sugar (for coating)

Filling:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick, 2 oz) unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon matcha (green tea) powder

To make cookies:
In a mixing bowl, beat 3/4 cup butter on high for about 30 seconds. Add 1/2 cup powdered sugar and salt, beat until fluffy and combined. Beat in egg. Beat in flour on low, or stir it in. Cover and chill dough about 1 hour, or until easy to handle.

Preheat oven to 350ºF.
Using a teaspoon, shape dough into balls. Place on a cookie sheet (lined for easy cleanup, but it doesn't need greased regardless). Use the bottom of a glass dipped in the dough and then sugar to flatten each ball into a 1 1/2-inch circle.

Bake for about 8-12 minutes, or until bottoms are lightly browned. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and let cool completely.

While the cookies cool, make the filling:
Beat the 1/4 cup butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, and green tea powder until light green and fluffy.

To assemble the sandwiches, spread about 1/2 teaspoon filling on the flat side of one cookie and top with another. If you prefer more filling, double the buttercream recipe.

How My Pumpkin Themed Night Was Squashed

It all started when I was flipping through my copy of Great Food Fast and saw a butternut squash soup recipe with spiced toasted pumpkin seeds about two weeks ago. I had to make it, and it had been a while since I'd cooked dinner for my family. It hit me: make a three-coursed themed dinner.

Which is way too overambitious for me, especially with papers for school and college applications looming over me. But I figured I'd need a release.

I figured wrong. Later that week, my friends and I decided to make shirts for math team, and Saturday night was the only time. So I made plans for that evening - after dinner, that is. Which put dinner on a deadline.

I don't cook so well under pressure. Which is probably why when I first started, I made muffins in the afternoon. Okay, that's baking, but you get the point. There's no pressure.

On Wednesday, I picked up the October Bon Appetit, flipped it open, and it landed on the page with the Pineapple Upside-Down Pumpkin Gingerbread Cake (try saying that three times fast) and was hooked. I had the outer ends of my meal, all that was missing was the main course.

Which was picked out on Saturday once I returned from the last farmer's market of the season, and the grocery store. I had kale, and flipped through Veganomicon for ideas. I found something that used up the kale I'd just bought, and fit with my theme: Kale and Potato Enchiladas.

So, now that there's an insanely and unnecessarily long set-up, I'll sumamarize what went wrong in one word: timing.

I managed to get the soup and cake done no problem, unless you count the shopping for the cake*, but mom got home with the potatoes (and chili powder that I discovered we were out of) a bit later that I'd expected, which pushed things back a bit. At least I realized that it wasn't going to come together before it got too late, and the enchilada sauce and cooked potatoes were set to cool, and the sauteed onions were served with the soup. A loaf of rosemary bread thrown into the mix, and we had a nice light, overly gingered, autumn meal. Though I can't say I'll make the soup again.

And the cake. It lasted less than 24 hours.

*My local supermarket is well-stocked. But frozen pineapple juice concentrate? Nope. I could get Pineapple-Orange or Pineapple-Apple-Orange.


Pineapple Upside-Down Pumpkin Gingerbread
adapted from Bon Appetit October 2008
serves 10

Topping:
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
2/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons frozen pineapple juice concentrate, thawed (I cou
1 teaspoon mild-flavored (light) molasses
1 ripe pineapple, peeled (I used a peeled and cored pineapple)

Cake:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup mild-flavored (light) molasses
1/2 cup canned pure pumpkin
1/2 cup boiling water

Commotion in the Ocean: Cupcakes for Homecoming

My friends told me that I had to go to the homecoming dance this year. Really go. As in with them. Not just be there, as that presence in a dress running around in her practical heels, awkwardly taking pictures of people doing things that pictures should never be taken of.

Which put me an unknown position. But one that has absolutely nothing to do with food. So I'm moving on. But I will say that the homecoming dance, while the music left something to be desired, was still fun with my friends, before, during, and after. Nothing beats singing I Want In That Way at the top of your lungs at school and then later trying to learn the Soulja Boy dance in the privacy of your friend's room.


But oh, yeah. The cute cupcakes. The theme for homecoming prompted me to try to make the Shark Attack cupcakes from Hello, Cupcake. But they would have been a pain to make, I didn't have time to go get black food coloring at Michael's, and, plus, they probably wouldn't have tasted all that great anyway.


Cute little cupcakes made with my go-to cupcake recipe, and a buttercream that involved butter, powdered sugar, water, and blue food coloring until the desired consistency/color was reached and topped with goldfish: much simpler and tasty.

So I enjoyed the football game, where my school actually won its homecoming game. That hadn't happened since I started high school.

Cornmeal Peach Cake

I'm not sure what sparked my interest, randomly on a Friday afternoon. I was walking home from school, and decided I really wanted to make a cake with cornmeal in it. I was pretty sure I had cornmeal at home, had no recipe in mind, and wanted it to include fruit and honey.

I stopped at the grocery store, saw some smelly peaches, and knew what I was going to make.

Then I searched online, found a recipe, and tried to follow it. But the container of yogurt in the fridge turned out to be practically empty. Who puts a spoonful of yogurt back in the fridge? In our house the container usually gets licked clean!

But I wasn't around to see how the cake turned out, and while busy getting ready in my room to head out to the freshmen dance at school, I overcooked the cake. My expectations were low, and I put it on the counter to cool. As soon as my mom came home when the car, I grabbed my camera, told her about the cake, and headed to school.
When I got home with a headache two and a half hours later, the cake was practically all gone, with just a sliver saved for me. Apparently my Dad had to fight to save it. It was a hit with the seven people sitting out on the porch.

I guess those are results that say that my experiment worked.

Peach Cornmeal Cake
75 g AP Flour
78 g cornmeal
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
60 g butter, softened
75 g granulated sugar
30 g honey
1 large egg
55 g plain yogurt
1 to 2 peaches, sliced in segments (though raspberries or nectarines would also be tasty)

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease a 9" round cake pan.

Mix together dry ingredients in a small bowl. Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl until fluffy. Beat in the honey and egg. Stir in half of the flour mixture, then the yogurt, and then the remaining yogurt until just combined.

Pour batter into cake pan. Top with peach segments arranged in a single layer.

Bake in 350ºF/180C oven for about 20 minutes.

Extra Egg Whites... Tasty "Flan" For Breakfast

Sometime early in August, I found a tea shop in Chinatown that had green tea powder (or matcha). I've been looking for the powder for over a year now, and was thrilled to finally find it. A few days later, I made the green tea ice cream from David Lebowitz's book for a friend. It was delicious.

But the usual problem with making ice cream: inordinate amounts of egg whites are leftover. And it isn't that egg whites don't have uses, but I just normally don't have the time or the other ingredients to do something with them within a day or two of making the ice cream.

So why not plan ahead? I know, that would be a terrific idea. But it doesn't always work out that way. This time it did. So I made the flans in the morning, ended up with four egg yolks leftover from it, so at the end of the day, I just had two egg white leftover, and they contributed to the chocolate mousse I made a day or two later.

I'd been wanting to try these flans, and not seeing a time when I could make them for dinner with something else, I figured I might as well just make them for breakfast. I used some really tasty tiny red and yellow tomatoes I picked up at the farmer's market and basil I stole from our neighbor's garden. They turned out tasty too.

I also made a single large version instead of individual ramekins of them the next time I had the egg white problem (though I had a LOT of egg whites that time, so this didn't even make a dent in them) since I don't actually own the right size cups. It turned out nicely too.



See original recipe here.