Almond Oat Lace Cookies

Yes, here it is, more cookies.

These are also from the December 2011 issue of Bon Appetit. Months and months went by where it seemed I didn't dog ear a single page in the issues of BA I was getting in the mail. I am not a fan of the changes that have been made with the new editor, and have been left feeling just... blah about each issue. And then we can fast forward to the December issue. Literally every other page dog eared. I figured I would try a few recipes and maybe end up liking two. Wrong. Each and every one blew my socks off. So bear with me, as the next few posts will be from the December issue. Here we go...

Almond-Oat Lace Cookies

1/2 c whole natural unsalted almonds with skins
2 T old-fashioned oats
6 T (3/4 stick) unsalted butter
6 T superfine sugar
2 T (packed) light brown sugar
1 1/2 t honey
1 t all-purpose flour
1/4 t kosher salt
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Line rimless baking sheet with parchment paper
3. Pulse almonds and oats in food processor until coarse meal forms, set aside
4. Melt butter in a medium sauce pan over medium heat.
5. Add both sugars and honey to butter, whisk until blended and sugar dissolves, 1-2 minutes
6. Remove from heat. Add nut mixture, flour, salt, and stir until well blended
7. Spoon batter by 2 teaspoon portions onto baking sheets, spacing 2 1/2 inches apart
8. Using your fingertips, pat cookies down to 1/4 " high and push in edges to form smooth circles
9. Bake, rotating sheets after 6 minutes, until dark golden brown, 10-12 minutes
10. Slide cookies on parchment onto wire rack to cool
11. Using a pastry brush, brush half of each cookie with melted chocolate
12. Let stand until the chocolate is set, about 2 hours

Here we go!

Amazingly few ingredients for something that ends up so delicious.
Now let's all take a second and look at what the cookies were SUPPOSED to look like. That way it will be fresh in our minds while we laugh at how they really look later.

Lining my favorite cookie sheet with parchment. This cookie sheet was actually purchased at a thrift store, but it out performs the ones I paid big bucks for.

My mom actually gave me this mini food processor. At the time I couldn't imagine I would use it a lot. Well I have actually used it almost everyday since. So handy.

Pulse the oats and almonds together...

Until they look like this, then set aside.

Once the butter has melted in the pan, I add the sugars and the honey. Yes, this pan is old enough to be registered to vote. What?! Am I supposed to toss a perfectly good pan? I am far too cheap to do such a thing. On the other hand, maybe if I toss these it would justify buying new ones. Hmmm...

Add the nut mixture, flour, salt, and stir until well blended.

Here is where I was a little confused apparently. When the directions said to spoon by 2 teaspoon portions onto baking sheet, I must have gotten a little generous, you'll see what I mean later.

Pat them somewhat flat, and make sure the edges are rounded.

I popped them in the 350 oven, turning after six minutes, taking out when they were done. Which got me these....

So, like I was saying above, be a little light handed with the blobs of dough you plop onto the sheet. Place the cookies with the parchment paper onto cooling racks. The directions say to brush half the cookie with a pastry brush and chocolate. I decided to drizzle.

Though perfection isn't a strong suit of mine.

Pretty or not, these things were damned delicious.

And incredibly easy. What more could you want?

Yum. Enjoy!

25 Things About Me

There are so many people doing this I firgured I'd give it a shot also.

1. I was born in Minnesota.

2. I have ridiculously curly hair.

3. Without a doubt, I drop the F bomb more than I should.

4. My mom was born and raised in Bremerhaven Germany, which is also where my older brother was born.

5. I have 3 sets of teeth, rather than the usual 2.

6. I am a hemophiliac which is rare in females.

7. Contrary to what this blog states, I much prefer savory food over anything sweet.

8. I drink too much wine... but is there really such a thing?

9. I was raised mormon but I am not currently active in any church (uhhh see #'s 3 and 8).

10. I thought 25 things would be easy to think up but it's not...

11. My favorite # is 2.

12. January 26th is my birthday.

13. My favorite color is green.

14. Dream destination vacation would be Bora Bora or Iceland.

15. My favorite place to go on vacation is Santa Cruz California. There is a nice KOA there and we bring the dogs who LOVE it. Everytime we are there we have to go to Phil's Fish Market for dinner, and Los Palmas taco stand for Mexican food.

16. For me, feeding people is the most sincere way to show I care.

17. My favorite season is fall.

18. I love yoga.

19. I am currently listening to The Script, loving them at the moment.

20. I worked with autistic kids when I was a teen.

21. I read every single day, and don't think there are enough years to read all the books I want to read.

22. I am allergic to pineapple, bananas, and cantaloupe. Yes, it is just as awful as you think it would be.

23. When I was a kid I wanted to be a judge AND a forensic pathologist. Oh, and I was going to marry an architect. Seems it didn't work out that way.

24. I have been on two billboards in town.

25. Tom Hanks is my favorite actor.

I have several recipes in the pipeline and hope to post a new one tonight!

Chewy Ginger Cookies

COOKIES!!

Admittedly I have not tried any recipe lately that has blown my skirt up. In fact, most have made me walk away annoyed that I even wasted the ingredients it took to make them. So when I was half assedly (is assedly a word? It is now) flipping through the December issue of bon appetit I saw a whole section that struck my fancy. So I decided to make the Chewy Giner Cookies. Basically I Saw that they called for molasses, which I not only had, but happen to love. Enough said.

2 1/4 c all purpose flour
2 1/2 t ground ginger
1 1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t ground nutmeg
1/2 t kosher salt
1/4 t fresh ground black pepper
3/4 c packed brown sugar
1/2 c vegetable shortening (I must admit here I used butter flavor crisco because I had some)
1/2 c (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temp
1 large egg
1/2 c blackstrap molasses
2 t finely grated peeled ginger
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 c finely chopped crystalized ginger (I did not use this)
1 c raw or sanding sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees with racks arranged in lower and upper thirds of oven.
2. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
3. Whisk together flour, ground ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and pepper in medium bowl.
4. Using an electric mixer on med-high speed beat brown sugar, shortening, and butter in a large bowl, until light and fluffy.
5. Reduce speed to low and add the egg, molasses, grated ginger, and vanilla, beat just to blend.
6. Add flour mixture and beat on low speed just to blend.
7. Mix in crystallized ginger (which I did not do). At this point the dough will be very soft and sticky.
8. Put the raw sugar in a shallow plate or bowl.
9. Using a tablespoon (T) measure scoop out dough. Using a second spoon scoop dough into bowl with raw sugar; turn to coat well.
10. Roll into a ball.
11. Transfer ball to prepared baking sheet, spacing the balls 1 1/2" apart.
12. Bake the cookies, rotating sheet halfway through, until edges are firm 8-10 minutes.

Ingredients as per usual:
This is what the cookies are "supposed" to look like. Yeah, I don't go by that much.

Lining my pan with parchment... exciting stuff right there.

Mix the dry ingredients - flour, ground ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Whisk those together and set aside. In my kitchenaid mixer bowl I put the brown sugar, shortening, and butter.

Then I mixed like crazy.

Until it looked like this. I love how they say "scrape down the sides of the bowl every now and then". Uhhh, ya think?

Now add the egg,

And the molasses...

Notice how that sticky stuff flows all nice...

and easy away from the sides of the measuring cup?

That's because I sprayed the measuring cup with PAM spray before pouring in the sticky substance of choice. Works like a charm every time.

Add the vanilla.

Mix just to blend. Like so. Add the dry ingredients and again mix just to blend.

I did not have a bowl shallow enough for my raw sugar. So I used a plate.

For all of that beautiful sugar.

I busted out my brand new secret weapon. THE COOKIE SCOOP. Seriously. Worth every penny.

I scooped out even amounts of dough, just enough to fill the scoop with the top scraped off.

Which I then rolled in the previously mentioned gorgeous sugar.

Once I had several on the sheet they were ready for their main scene in the oven. 12 minutes at 350 degrees.

Which resulted in these wonderous beasts.

Just look at them...

I had absolutely no choice but to immediately sample one (or three but hey who's counting?!) with a glass of milk.

If you make these, you will love them. Period. I did.

Thanksgiving spread - the general idea of it anyhow

Hello all! Here it is already days past Thankgiving and swiftly coming into Christmas if you can believe it. We had the usual Thanksgiving set up this year which was having my mom and stepdad over for the feast. Since most of the dishes we prepare are very traditional to all homes that celebrate this holiday I won't bore everyone to tears by posting each detail about every one of them. Instead, I decided to do a basic overview of my day.

It starts with this handsome fella. This is a fresh Diestel turkey I bought a few days prior at Whole Foods. I have always heard great things about brined turkeys but this was my first attempt at doing one myself. Whole Foods had a bucket of their in house brining mix for sale so I bought that as well, and boy howdy am I glad I did. I don't think I can ever have turkey any other way again. So here he is after being brined overnight, ready for some love.

I took a stick of room temperature butter and added some herbs and spices. I went very easy on the salt as the turkey is brined which contains a lot of salt. In with the butter I added Italian seasoning, cumin, garlic powder, and some pepper. I would have added some cayenne but unfortunately my mom is unable to eat spicy foods. I then mixed this all together to make a quick herb butter.

Which I then rubbed all over this grateful turkey. My original plan was to start it breast down and flip it most of the way through the cooking. My understanding is that this makes for an incredibly juicy breast. I decided against that since I was a) unsure about what difference there might be in cooking a brined bird and b) this would definitely NOT be my first time ruining a turkey if it didn't work out. Yeah, I have never ever had a turkey come out perfectly. In fact, last year we had to pull the still mostly raw turkey apart and cook it in the gravy in huge chunks since HOURS had passed since we should have eaten! Many many tears were shed, and many bottles of wine consumed to ease the pain. ANYWAY.

I did a lot of prep work the night before, which made a huge difference in the panic level the day of. Wednesday night I peeled and diced the potatoes for the mashers, and the yams for the yam dish. Then I put them in their individual pots, covered with water, and left in the fridge overnight. This tip worked well and will be one I use from now on.

Yuck, look at my dirty stove burner things. What are those called? The racks or what have you? My absolute least favorite chore in the entire history of chores is cleaning my stovetop. I would rather clean anything else, toilets included. So, who wants to come over and scrub my stovetop in exchange for me feeding you delicious foods? Think I'm kidding?

I put the turkey in the oven @ 5oo degrees for half an hour. Then I took it out to baste it and make sure there was enough liquid in the pan. Then it was covered (with aluminum foil as the lid wouldn't fit on the pan with this huge beast in it), the temp lowered to 350, and put back into the oven. This was an 18 lb bird, and after the initial 30 minutes I believe it was in for about another four hours.

Ahh pretty birdie.

Now I prepped the brussel sprouts. This is an old family recipe originated by my Oma. This will be made a star in its own individual post at a later date. Brussel sprouts in the bowl on the left, odds and ends in the compost bowl on the right.

Once the yams were tender I drained them, mashed them, and put them in a casserole dish. Dotted the top with some Earth Balance. No marshmallows this year as I tried to lighten things up a little. The taste was still delicious.

Melty goodness...

I sliced each brussel sprout in half and tossed them in the steamer, then whipped my potatoes with plenty of garlic in the kitchenaid mixer. After the bowl was tightly covered with aluminum it was set aside, and was still plenty warm to serve when it was time to eat.

I may or may not have eaten almost a pound of these myself to "taste test" them before serving. Hey! I was starving! A good cook always tastes as they go!

Periodically the turkey would be taken out and basted, I would say every 45-60 minutes.

Then I started on the dressing. It was a classic style dressing. I used a loaf of my mom's handmade bread that I cubed and let sit out for two days to get stale. I also added mushrooms because they are delicious. The recipe also called for dill, but not much, so now I have a whole bush of dill in my fridge. Know of any recipes or good ways to use it?

Chicken stock in pan heating for the dressing, oil and butter on the right for the onions and celery which would also go into the dressing.

Turkey Tom, all done and gorgeous.

The spread! Clockwise from the bottom left green bean casserole (mom brought), yams, dressing, gravy, rolls (mom brought), Oma's sprouts, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce (homemade from mom), and the star Tom.

This was my first brined turkey, but positively NOT my last.

Just look at all the spectacular leftovers.

Not a bit of the turkey went to waste. After it cooled enough I tore it apart.

Meat in the bowl, skin and bones into a seperate container to make stock. My house smelled just as good the next day while the stock cooked.

There you can see a very excited and blurry Rusty in the back ground. Yes, they surely each got their share of goodies. This year was much less rushed than past years. Part of that was because of all the work I did in prepping the night before, and it is the way we will do it from here on out. Sadly we were unable to be surrounded by all of our family but that's the way things go sometimes.

Gobble gobble, I hope all who celebrate had a great Thanksgiving as well!

What are your plans for leftovers?

Don't forget to share any recipes requiring dill if you have them!