Tag Archives: cookies

Random Musings…

15 Saturday Dec 2018

Posted by in Cookies, Epicurean, Gift Ideas, Hacks, Holidays, Weekend

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It’s Saturday morning and I’m having a difficult time getting motivated.  Probably because I was up until 3 am last evening, putting together cookie boxes for my husband, cleaning the kitchen and watching the Titanic, a horrific disaster that rivets me.  

#Yummy

I need to finish decorating — we’re finally getting our tree this weekend.  However, prior to tackling that desperately needed task — it’s not quite yet looking a lot like Christmas in the Rivera household — I’ll share some thoughts: 

Nailed It:  One of the reasons I started this blog was to learn to become a better cook (if you saw how long it takes me to cut an onion, you’d understand my plight).  While the blog has seen it’s fair share of starts and stops, over the years my cooking has improved and last evening, I Nailed Dinner!  It wasn’t fancy — short ribs, pasta with broccoli and olives (Gluten free for those worried about Tony and his Paleo diet), and a nice salad.  A simple, yet oh-so-delicious meal which took 20 minutes to make.  No fuss, no muss and, yes my arm is hurting from patting myself on the back (I’m surprised I can type today). 

When in a Pinch #BakingHack

Sifting:  Don’t neglect the sifting of ingredients when baking.  I say this chuckling, because it’s a step I will put aside on occasion — when time is tight, I’m not trying to impress anyone, or I’m just not into whatever I’m making or, more precisely, whomever I’m baking for.  But sifting plays an important part of one’s baking endeavors — it creates a clean, smooth consistency of whatever it is that is being sifted and eliminates the ‘ick, I just bit into a ball of flour,’ embarrassments.  I first noticed the importance with powdered sugar.  When skipping the sifting step, inevitably, my icing looks awful, like there’s a bunch of tiny, tiny pebbles in it.  

The Paint Holder Doohickey

The Grommet:  Not sure how new this site is, but they’ve been advertising on TV lately (I always chuckle when an online merchant turns to traditional advertising to reach the masses) and I decided to check them out for some ‘hmm what do I get her’ gifts.  They have a fantastic and quasi-unique selection of goods eliminating the ‘here’s 28,654 crafting options’ you sometimes have to wade through with Amazon.   The one downside, it appears that they work with multiple vendors and sometimes your items aren’t shipped together.  So my colleague’s box of cool crafting items may arrive at her doorstep piecemeal.  A con or a positive in disguise?  I’m not sure.  It could be kind of fun/funny to receive a mini, electric screwdriver one day, the replacement paint holder things the next, and a few days later the paint holder doohickey a few days later.  Even funnier if they don’t put in the ‘Thanks for all the support this year’ gift card request I made. 

I could continue with my musings and I’m confident y’all would read, attentively, clinging to every last word. But I must sign off so that I can attack the decorating.  

As always, I wish each of you safe travels, smooth sailings, and, of course, bon appetite. 

Cookies, Cookies; Cookie Monster!

05 Wednesday Dec 2018

Posted by in Christmas, Cookies, Epicurean, Festivals, Holidays, New York, Recipes, Travel, Weekend

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As I was saying, there really is a day for everything; apparently, for cookies, it’s an entire week.  Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest are laden with posts about #NationalCookieWeek and the hundred upon hundreds of recipes are mind boggling. 

The Fruit of My Labor

While technically I’m probably done baking, I have this nagging feeling I didn’t make enough cookies. This is a feeling I’m well used to as it occurs most every year.  Last year, that was an unnervingly accurate feeling.  Recovering from an operation, my heart wasn’t really into the whole Christmas season and I thought I could get away making the bear minimum amount of cookies needed.  Big mistake as that was never really enough. Inevitably, every few days, I found myself making more and more cookies.  I wasn’t a happy camper. 

In an effort to alleviate that nagging feeling, this evening I made what should be the last batch of cookies this year — gingersnaps.  Out of the oven, they’re OK; give them a few days and #todiefor! 

Gingersnaps; Not Monster Cookies

In honor of #NationalCookieWeek, I’m sharing that one staple recipe that receives rave reviews and makes quite literally, hundreds of cookies.  I made a 1/2 batch over the weekend and ended up with north of 250 cookies.  I was convinced this was a secret family recipe handed down for at least one generation and something that only us Stifter’s knew about; then I got on Pinterest. Apparently, it’s most everyone’s secret family recipe, sigh.  With that, I give you the coveted Monster Cookie recipe:

  • 12 Eggs 
  • 2 Pounds Brown Sugar 
  • 4 Cups Granulated Sugar 
  • 1 Tablespoon Vanilla 
  • 8 Teaspoons Baking Soda
  • 1 Pound Margarine (I always use butter and I melt it) 
  • 3 Pounds Peanut Butter (I get the super chunky) 
  • 18 Cups Oatmeal (It doesn’t indicate quick or regular — I use quick)
  • 1 Pound Chocolate Chips 
  • 1 Pound M&Ms (if I use peanut M&Ms then I won’t use the super Chunky peanut butter)
  • 1 Tablespoon Corn Syrup 

Mix the ingredients in order given. Drop by Tablespoon onto cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 10 – 12 minutes.  This makes a large, chewy cookie. If you start lifting weights in September, mixing this in December won’t be so painful…oy. 

 I’m looking forward to the weekend; I’m trying to squeeze in a trip to Sugar Loaf, NY for the town’s annual holiday celebration on Saturday.  Saturday night we’re entertaining friends and on Sunday we’ll be attending a Christmas concert #Fun. 

On that #Yummy note, I wish everyone safe travels, smooth sailings and, of course, bon appetite. 

 

Twice Baked…

02 Sunday Dec 2018

Posted by in Cookies, Epicurean, Recipes

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Cappuccino and Biscotti #Yummy

As most cookbooks probably proclaim, biscotti means twice baked.  Yesterday, I was twice baking, all day long.  While it sounds exotic and difficult to make, the thing about biscotti is that it’s pretty easy to produce. On yesterday’s agenda was double chocolate and cranberry pistachio twice baked cookies. 

One might think that minus the special ingredients, i.e the chocolate or the cranberries and pistachio, the recipes would be similar; there is, however, enough of a difference between the recipes that I’m not quite at the stage of having a master recipe that is tweaked per specialty. 

Washing the Biscotti Logs

Take the cranberry pistachio biscotti for instance.  That recipe calls for 3 eggs (plus a fourth for ‘washing’ the biscotti), the chocolate only requires 2 eggs. The dough also has to be kneaded before splitting it in half and creating 2 logs on the baking sheet, that step isn’t called for with the chocolate biscotti.  And, there’s the egg wash; the double chocolate biscotti topping was a dusting of powdered sugar while the cranberry pistachio cookie calls for an egg wash.  There’s also a difference in cooking temperatures — the chocolate was cooked at 350 and the second baking only took 10 minutes; the cranberry cooked at 325 with the second baking taking approximately 20 minutes with a flipping of the cookie in the middle. 

Baked Once…

I’m sure there are very logical explanations for these variances and someone more learned in the culinary arts could explain quite easily.  I’m not yet at that stage in my culinary pursuits and, frankly am not sure if I’ll ever be.  I trust the kitchen elves who have already figured all these things out and will probably keep my trust in them for a while…a long while.  With that, I present a biscotti tip and a couple of hacks from this week’s baking expedition: 

Double Chocolate Biscotti:  I use special dark chocolate vs. unsweetened cocoa to give the cookie a little extra pop. 

Teeny, Tiny Sifter

Teeny, tiny sifter:  I used to have a small sifter, but it’s gone missing (which is no big deal as it was half mangled anyway).  When I have a small sifting job — like dusting the biscotti logs or making a small amount of cookie icing, I use a tea steeper do-hickey thing. 

#AllNatural

Mixing Natural Peanut Butter:  We’re big peanut butter eaters and over the years have moved to natural peanut butter as it only contains peanuts (go figure).  Anyone familiar with natural peanut butter is well aware of the oil that seeps to the top of the container and the perils of trying to mix that oil back into the nutty butter.  My husband saved one of the jar tops and drilled a hole in the center, fitting it with a mixer wand.  When we open a new jar, he gives it a whirl with the hand mixer and blends together the peanut butter and oil, creating a creamy, homogenized end product. 

Exhausted, I must head to bed as another week looms closely on the horizon.  I wish you all safe travels, smooth sailings and, of course, bon appetite! 

Waffles For All My Friends

01 Saturday Dec 2018

Posted by in Connecticut, Cookies, Epicurean, Holidays, Massachusetts, New York, Travel, Very Best Baking, Washington DC, Weekend

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Gourmet’s Creme Brulee French Toast

According to Food & Wine, today is (ok, at this juncture, technically, it should be ‘yesterday was’) #NationalFrenchToastDay; who knew — I swear, there’s a day for everything.  I never enjoyed waffles growing up, they reminded me of eating soggy sponges.  And, the way they were prepared in the Stifter household, they kind of were.  It wasn’t until later in life that my mother became creative with her French Toast.  Can’t really blame her, she did have 5 kids to raise and worked full time — if I were her, I don’t think I’d have put too much creativity into my french toast. 

Fast forward some 20 odd years (gee, just 20 you wonder, how can she be so pithy at such a young age?!?) and I’ve grown to love French Toast.  It started after I met my husband who himself makes a mighty fine Toast of French. In our younger days, we would frequent a local diner called Rosee’s.  Rosee’s was located in a former gas station and had kitschy items on the menu like gas pedal meatballs and windshield wiper hot dogs.  Paola, the owner/chef, made fantastic French Toast — her secret ingredients a dash of cinnamon and a bit of nutmeg — that was absolutely divine.   

Very Best Baking’s (aka Libby’s) Pumpkin Cookies

While Food & Wine’s Instagram account specifically calls out the day, I wasn’t able to grab the link to its ‘8 creative takes on French Toast’ post.  Their Pinterest site doesn’t specifically pay homage to the day, but a simple search for French Toast served up a bevy of recipes.  My favorite, and one that is great for a brunch, can be found in the trusty Gourmet Cookbook (same one that my biscotti is from): a french toast creme brulee.  #SoGood. 

Nyack Chamber of Commerce

It’s now after midnight and I’ve missed French Toast Day 😦  (I should really post during the day time, perhaps that would help expand my roster of Western followers).  I’m making cookies and have a good cadence going on so that I’m able to whack out a graph in between baking cycles.  Tomorrow, we’re off to Nyack, NY which is a fabulous town along the Hudson, it’s actually nestled right next to the Tappan Zee Bridge.  We’ll walk the downtown area and attend its annual tree lighting ceremony. Really, what’s a Christmas without going to some sort of tree lighting — whether a big city like DC or NYC or a small town, like Mystic, CT, where Santa arrives on a boat, #fun, or Harvard, MA, a quintessential New England town.

Ah, only a few more trays of cookies to go — for tonight that is, tomorrow is biscotti day.  I’m wishing all of you a wonderful weekend, safe travels and, of course, bon appetite!

Spicy Hot Mustard

29 Thursday Nov 2018

Posted by in Cookies, Epicurean, Holidays, Recipes

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Panic Averted!  I found the mustard recipe (see below) and, it appears I’ll be posting twice today — woo hoo blazing a trail here.  In the process of locating the little sucker, I cleaned out my cookbook/recipe area which was desperately needed. 

Cookie Ingredients

I’m ready.  The kitchen’s been cleaned, cookie supplies have been purchased and I’m poised for a weekend of baking. In between I need to pull decorations, figure out my Christmas card situation (which should be fine as I didn’t send out cards last year — something had to give, last year it was the cards) and attend our first holiday get-together.  It truly is a pretty darn fantastic time of the year. 

Colman’s Big Tin

All of the ingredients for what I’m dubbing to be ‘Paula’s World Famous Mustard’ can be purchased on Amazon, as well as from your local grocery store.  We tend to use Amazon as you can buy larger version of the items.  In general, there’s not a much brand specificity going on here excluding the Colman’s Mustard, partly because Tony loves its flavor and partly because they sell large cans of the stuff.  It’s a quick recipe that makes a lot of mustard.  My one tip when making the mustard is to make sure you have enough containers to store it (it keeps well and the taste improves the longer it is stored). 

Without further ado, I give you Paula’s World Famous Mustard:

  • 1 Tbs water 
  • 1/2 – 3/4 Cup Mustard Flour 
  • 1 – 1.25 Tbs of Mustard Seed (grounded) 
  • 1/2 Cup White Wine Vinegar 

In a small bowl, combine the water, mustard flour and mustard seed and stir until smooth and creamy.  Let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes (a step we never take  :)).  Drizzle in the vinegar and stir until smooth and creamy.  Transfer the mustard into an airtight container and refrigerate for at least 1 week (another step we never take…). Refrigerate after each use. 

The little, vinegar-stained card says it makes 3/4 of a cup, I think I’m cautioning on storage containers as we tend to make the whole tin of Colman’s in one whack. 

A note of caution, this is a hot mustard, but if that’s your thing, you’ll definitely enjoy.  With that, I’m wishing you safe travels, smooth sailings and, of course, bon appetite!