a zed to the thread!

’scuse me whilst I carve another notch into my keyboard….

Mornin’ Christy!

Morning jayt — hot coffee here this morning, and we’re watching our new Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer DVD. It’s a fun morning at our house. :)

I’d post a cookie recipe, but it’s pretty much the same as my recipe for lasagna….

did I mention that I am once again a practicing attorney – after jumping through a truly stupid number of hoops to get re-instated after my long absence?

jayt at 5 — congratulations!

thanks – so if anyone knows any nice friendly persons in Indianapolis in need of criminal representation, I can be reachd at – … oops, I seem to have forgotten that lil detail. Gotta get my name back out there somehow.

Was in court this week – nobody seemed to know who I was – this may take a while.

jayt at 7 — I’d probably have the same issue with a lot of the newer attorneys in the area if I went back on active practicing status. I’ve been out of the courtroom for the last three or so years. You’llo get your sea legs back under you soon, I’m sure.

Been closer to six years for me.

I’ll quit thread-hogging now – have a great day!

Simplest cookies in the world?

Because this year, I am on a quest to find the perfect cookie recipe. One that doesn’t take hours upon hours to bake, but tastes like it did. And I just know that someone, somewhere out there, knows the very recipe that I’m seeking.

Oatmeal lace cookies. Simplest and easiest cookies in the world. Did I mention beautiful, too? Add nuts if you wish, but the carmelized sugar is good enough by itself.

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/…..03,00.html

Here’s the family recipe for Pecan Tassies. Guaranteed to be yummy — my great aunt has been making these every year for as long as I remember. And they are fantastic with coffee. Mmmmmmm…..

PECAN TASSIES
1 (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1 c. butter or margarine
2 c. flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 c. packed brown sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 c. chopped pecans

Combine cream cheese and margarine, mixing well until blended. Add flour; mix well. Chill. Divide dough into quarters; divide each quarter into 12 balls. Press each into the bottom and up sides of a miniature muffin tin. Combine eggs, brown sugar and vanilla; stir in pecans. Spoon filling into pastry shells, filling each cup. Bake at 325 F, 30 minutes or until pastry is golden brown. Cool 5 minutes; remove from pans. Sprinkle with powedered sugar, if desired. Makes 4 dozen.

Here ya go, Christy. This is a delicate, absolutely delicious sugar cookie. The recipe comes from The Best of Gourmet, 1987 Edition. Happy holidays to everyone.

Sugar Cookies

1/3 cup vegetable shortening, softened
1/3 cup sugar plus additional for sprinkling the cookies
1 large whole egg, beaten lightly
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon double-acting baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg white

In a bowl stir together the shortening and 1/3 cup of the sugar, stir in the whole egg and the vanilla, and combine the mixture well. Sift in the flour with the baking powder and the salt and combine the dough well. Halve the dough, flatten it slightly, and chill it between sheets of wax paper for 30 minutes. Working with one half at a time, roll out the dough 1/8 inch thick between sheets of wax paper. Remove the top sheet of wax paper and with a 2- to 2 1/2 inch fluted cutter cut the dough into cookies, but do not remove the cookies or the dough scraps from the paper. Chill the dough on the paper for 30 minutes, remove the dough scraps, reserving them, and transfer the cookies carefully to a baking sheet. Make cookies with the reserved dough scraps in the same manner. Brush the cookies lightly with the egg white, beaten lightly, sprinkle them with the additional sugar, and bake them in a preheated 375 degree F oven for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the edges are pale golden. Transfer the cookies with a metal spatula to racks and let them cool. The cookies keep, separated by sheets of wax paper, in an airtight container for several days. Makes about 30 cookies.

I’m no help for fancy (or fancy-looking) cookie recipes. For me the perfect Christmas cookie is always the family recipe sugar cookies. We’d all get out all the cookie cutters and cut and decorate them together. I always liked to roll the dough thicker than it was supposed to be, because I loved them soft and chewy. When we were little we’d do elaborate decorations, like faces on the santas and snowmen shapes or little blobs of sugar for decorations on the Christmas tree shapes, until we got tired, and then mom would put colored sugar on the rest. Mom still makes them, and I eat way too many. I suppose at some point I’ll have to take up doing them, because I can’t imagine Christmas without them.

Redshift at 13 — same here. My grandmother has pictures of me when I was just about The Peanut’s age, standing on a stepstool with a big apron wrapped around me, while we were making cookies. Too fun. Looking forward to it this year with my own Peanut.

Not cookie related but I stumbled across a great biscuit recipe that I would like to pass on. These are real simple to make and can be done ahead of time and kept refrigerated until you pop them in the oven after you take out the main course.

2 cups pastry flour sifted
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup organic shortening (yes it does exist)
1 cup milk plus two tablespoons

Sift your dry ingredients together and then cut in the shortening a little at a time. Slowly stir in the milk until you have a sticky and not dry dough. Lift dough out onto a floured board and gently pat down to about maybe a half inch or so. This would be personal preference on how you like to eat your biscuits. Cut out your biscuits, I use a glass, and plase on a buttered cookie sheet and pop them in the oven for about 10 minutes at 400 degrees F. You can brush a little cream on top for a gloss.

Kudos to Dinah Shore (yes, that Dinah Shore) for the recipe. She was a very accomplished cook that loved to entertain at home.

As always, I’m only up this early on a Saturday because I’m waiting for a repairman. I’m having another quintessential American holiday experience (or so I’m told), the “drain clogged with potato peelings” one. The thing is, when I was doing it, I thought I probably shouldn’t, I should scoop them up and throw them in the trash. But I was in a hurry to finish, and I’d done a couple of potatoes before with no trouble. But I’d never done potatoes for the whole family, and I guessed wrong. Then I wa sure I could clear it out myself, but that didn’t work out either.

Ah, well. Another lesson.

Christy,
Before I became oddball, I was a cookie monster! That being said, I have always been a fan of tollhouse chocolate chip cookies.

But if you are in the mood for baking, make some soft chewy peanut butter cookies and dip them is a fine chocolate and ship to me. I just may send you pictures of the cookie monster re-emerging.

TRex may be a 60ft therapod, but the cookie monster cannot be measured, and the monster grows with every participant.

RRRRRROOOOOWWWWRRRRRRRLLLLLLLL.

I’m surprised my wife hasn’t started cooking Christmas cookies yet. Maybe after this weekend she will. We’ve got my grandma’s funeral today after her grandma’s was last weekend.

It hasn’t been a fun time around the noonan household the past month.

Keep the recipes coming, I’m putting them all into a doc to give to my wife. :)

Christy,
Could you also bake and ship a batch of “Give Peace a Chance” cookies for Iraq?

Cookies (bars?) I don’t have a name for. They taste a little like Heath bars.

1 c. butter
1 c. flour (sifted)
1 c. light brown sugar
1 egg yolk
4 Hershey chocolate bars
chopped hazel nuts (macadamia, walnuts, pecans, peanuts will all do fine)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter, sugar and yolk in mixer gradually add flour until mixed. Grease 15.5 x 10.5 jelly roll pan and spread the mixture evenly into pan. Bake for 15 mins until golden brown and bubbly. Melt chocolate in double boiler (a metal or glass bowl over any pot of boiling H2O will do fine) until it is silky. Spread chocolate evenly on top of the crust and sprinkle the chopped nuts on top before chocolate cools. Allow to cool, cut in squares, insert in mouth, chew, swallow, repeat.

Noonan at 18 — I don’t know if your wife is the same way as I am, but when stuff like that happens in our family, I tend to do a lot of cooking and baking. Food is a comfort thing in my family — always has been — and you get used to cooking for an army of family at times like that. It’s not so great for the waistline, but it is awfully nice to be able to burn off some of that emotional steam while you knead some bread dough by hand.

Mornin’ Christy et al.

Cookies have not been my obsession. I’m more of a chocolate truffle person. This year’s chocolate pecan pie finally came out right without becoming a gooey mess immediately upon cutting. Can’t think of any desserts that are sweeter or richer off the top of my head. Recipe came right out of the new Joy of Cooking.

As for DVD’s you MUST get a hold of Will Vinton’s Claymation Christmas. It is part of my seasonal ritual and I can’t get through the season without it. Funny, beautiful, and camels in tennis shoes doing doowop.

BBC America is going to show it’s Creature Comforts Christmas show again around the holiday. I looked it up. Caught it by accident last year doing the BEST 12 days of Christmas I’ve ever seen but didn’t get it on tape. Will do so this year.

These cookies are just outrageous!

Viennese Crescents, from Craig Claiborne’s New York Times Cook Book:

vanilla bean
1 cup sifted confectioner’s sugar
1 cup walnut (I prefer pecan) meats
1 cup butter, room temperature
cup granulated sugar
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

Chop the vanilla bean. Pound it in a mortar or pulverize it in a blender with one tbsp of the confectioner’s sugar. Mix into the rest of the confectioner’s sugar and let it stand overnight, covered.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Cut the nuts into small pieces and pound to a paste.

With a wooden spoon or your fingers, mix the nuts, butter, granulated sugar and flour to a smooth dough. Shape the dough, about a teaspoon at a time, into small crescents.

Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet until lightly browned, 15-18 minutes. Cool one minute. Roll the still-warm cookies in the vanilla sugar.

Redshift @ 16

As always, I’m only up this early on a Saturday because I’m waiting for a repairman. I’m having another quintessential American holiday experience (or so I’m told), the “drain clogged with potato peelings” one. The thing is, when I was doing it, I thought I probably shouldn’t, I should scoop them up and throw them in the trash. But I was in a hurry to finish, and I’d done a couple of potatoes before with no trouble. But I’d never done potatoes for the whole family, and I guessed wrong. Then I wa sure I could clear it out myself, but that didn’t work out either.

Ah, well. Another lesson.

Oh, wow, have I ever been there! I had no idea potato peels could turn into something so closely related to cement. My sympathies.

Viennese Crescents, from Craig Claiborne’s New York Times Cook Book:

1/4 vanilla bean
1 cup sifted confectioner’s sugar
1 cup walnut (I prefer pecan) meats
1 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

Chop the vanilla bean. Pound it in a mortar or pulverize it in a blender with one tbsp of the confectioner’s sugar. Mix into the rest of the confectioner’s sugar and let it stand overnight, covered.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Cut the nuts into small pieces and pound to a paste.

With a wooden spoon or your fingers, mix the nuts, butter, granulated sugar and flour to a smooth dough. Shape the dough, about a teaspoon at a time, into small crescents.

Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet until lightly browned, 15-18 minutes. Cool one minute. Roll the still-warm cookies in the vanilla sugar.

Baking together is one of our fondest memories from when my daughters were still wee lassies. At Christmas we would stick to an established recipe for very thin sugar cookies shaped like wreaths, bells, etc and with frosting and colored sprinkles.

Other times I would let them invent their own recipes, and would always be a good sport to take a bite. Sometimes the results were A Little Strange, we still laugh about those. But they fondly remember the freedom to try new things in the safety of our kitchen.

For an incredibly easy recipe that makes a ton of cookies, this one is hard to beat — and it’s awfully tasty, too. I modify it a little bit and add orange zest along with the lemon zest.

CREAM CHEESE APRICOT COOKIES

1 1/2 c. unsalted butter or margarine, softened
slightly. 1 1/2 c. sugar
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp. grated lemon zest
4 1/2 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
Apricot preserves
Powdered sugar

Combine butter, sugar and cream cheese, mixing until well blended. Blend in eggs, juice, and zest. Add combined flour and baking powder; mix well. Chill several hours. Shape level tablespoonfuls of dough into balls. Place on ungreased cookie sheet; flatten slightly, indenting centers with your thumb. Fill indent with preserves. Bake at 350 F for 15 minutes. Cool; sprinkle with powdered sugar. Makes approximately 7 dozen cookies.

Coooookkeeeeeeessss!!!

I AM the keeper of the family recipe box, a humble lidded wooden box now 60 years old, stuffed with paper scraps in different handwriting and 40 year old worn/torn carton recipes…

Here’s a rarity: Date-meringue cookies

2 egg whites w/ pinch of salt – beaten stiff
gradually add 2 cups powered sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla.

Fold in 1/2 cup chopped nuts and 1 cup chopped dates

drop spoonfuls onto parchment, or I guess a Silpat(my recipe calls for a cut to fit paper shopping bag, but I don’t think so)

Bake at 325 for 15 minutes, or until meringue looks done.

The best spice cookies I’ve ever tasted:

3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup dark molasses
2 tsp baking soda
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 heaping tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground cloves
3/4 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (yep, makes ‘em better!)

Cream butter and sugar, add egg, and mix. Mix soda and molasses (this will foam up) and add to butter mixture. Stir in dry ingredients and blend. Cover dough and refrigerate for several hours (I leave it in the fridge overnight.) Keeping dough cold, pick off small pieces and roll in the palms of your hands, making balls about the size of a walnut (or smaller). Roll in granulated sugar. Place on cookie sheet and bake at 325 degrees. The cookies will look darkened, crackled and flattened when done. Remove from pan and place on wax paper.

Easy to do, and yummy. As a bonus, the house smells like heaven while they’re baking.

Our relatives traveled on Thanksgiving day, so we had an ordinary day Thursday. Then, yesterday we went out to a restaurant and I had a crab, spinach and artichoke dip with crusty bread.

This morning they are coming over for a post-Thanksgiving meal, and I am making turkey stew with dumplings on top for this afternoon, and am about to start some home-made sticky buns for the brunch at 11:00.
Oohh, sticky buns with all kinds of stuff inside them.

Marion at 29 — those sound yummy! As do the date meringues, wtlloyd! Thanks so much for sharing, gang.

sofistic at 30 — there is a local French bistro here that makes an amazing warm crab dip — they call it Crab Brulee — that is a combination of creamy cheeses, including some brie, I think – and lump crab meat and a little garlic and other spices. It is incredible on pita chips and sliced baguette. Never thought of adding crab to my spinach and artichoke dip, though — hmmmm….

Rich Chocolate Drops

1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract (the real deal, please)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
3 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp soda

Mix all ingredients together. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheets. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes.

Could not possibly be easier, and boy, oh boy are they delicious!

I am a cookie baker too. I used to make about 12 – 20 kinds every year because we boxed up a big box and sent them to a brother-in-law without family in rural Ohio. I’m now down to about one type at Xmas but lots of them. Try this little recipe. I usually credit recipes where I find them. This one I must have copied out of a magazine while waiting in an office because I neglected to credit it. Pecan Shorts: 1/4 lb butter, room temp.; 1/3 cup confectioner’s sugar; 1/2 t. salt; 1 t. vanilla extract; 1 cup flour; 1/3 cup finely ground toasted pecans. Cream butter and sugar in a bowl. Add salt, vanilla. Add flour and pecans and stir just til combined. Form 1″ balls, place on ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 350 till bottoms are golden 10/12 minutes. Cool on sheets, toss with confectioner’s sugar. Store room temp up to 2 days. (I do not always coat cookies in confectioner’s sugar afterwards.)

Wow, that cookie picture gets me! Those are some of the prettiest decorations ever.

And maybe it will get me, some 40 years later, to try making some of my stepmother’s sugar cookies!

I was just reminiscing with her by telephone on Thanksgiving about those simple but luscious pieces of heaven.

On this rainy weekend, maybe I can get out of working on a book chapter with my wife by proposing that we bake sugar cookies — something that I guess I haven’t done during my entire adult life. (Of course, I’ll also work on the chapter, which I am enjoying thoroughly.)

Meanwhile, for some other graphics cheer, check out these lovely bumper stickers on bipartisanship and such.

Dates must be in the air. Here is a recipe that my family brought with us from Canada.
Porcupines

2T. butter
l/2 c. sugar
l egg
pinch of salt
2 c. chopped dates
2 c. chopped walnuts
l tsp. vanilla
coconut

Cream butter, sugar and salt. Beat in egg. Add nuts, dates and vanilla. Add enough coconut to bind mixture together. Form into small balls (My Mum always made them into small logs)and roll in coconut. Bake 15 minutes at 350.

The peanut should be able to help with these.

Thanks for a yummy post.

There are still 5 House races unresolved:

In North Carolina, we are raising money for a recount for Larry Kissell. They are only 350 votes apart out of 121,000. Many people completed the ballot with a check or X instead of filling in the bubble, and a handcount will pick up those votes.

In addition to egregiousBlue you can also donate to him directly thru BlueAmerica here. Larry loaned the campaign about $40,000 of his personal money, which is a lot given he is a teacher. Hope we can help with the recount and then help some with his debt. The NC state party has already given the maximum $100,000 and has sent lawyers.

In Louisiana there will be a recount between Jefferson (D-freezer $) and Karen Carter-D.

In Ohio-15 the counting continues for Pryce-R and Kilroy-D, with the controversy about what is acceptable I.D. under the new law. Thanks, Blackwell.

In Texas there will be a runoff between Bonilla-R and Ciro Rodriguez-D, a BlueAmerica candidate above.

Florida-13 has a lawsuit to look for the 18,000 undervotes in Sarasota.

egregious @ 26

Baking together is one of our fondest memories from when my daughters were still wee lassies. At Christmas we would stick to an established recipe for very thin sugar cookies shaped like wreaths, bells, etc and with frosting and colored sprinkles.

Ooh, that reminds me! We didn’t have a cookie-cutter for the wreath shape, so we invented one. We’d cut the outside circle with a drinking glass, and the inner circle with a juice glass, and then make a “ribbon” out of scraps of dough left over from cutting the other cookies. I can’t remember who thought of it originally, but it was pretty neat. (I also liked it because it left small round bits of dough and I could sometimes sneak eating them uncooked.)

Not completely OT: An artist friend of mine works doing signs at Trader Joe’s for her day job, and in the pre-Thanksgiving rush, she got a bit silly and did this one. (Her blog entry including it is here.)

RedShift at 39 — love that sign. LOL Thanks much for sharing it. :)

egregious @ 37

In North Carolina, we are raising money for a recount for Larry Kissell. They are only 350 votes apart out of 121,000. Many people completed the ballot with a check or X instead of filling in the bubble, and a handcount will pick up those votes.

In addition to egregiousBlue you can also donate to him directly thru BlueAmerica here. Larry loaned the campaign about $40,000 of his personal money, which is a lot given he is a teacher. Hope we can help with the recount and then help some with his debt. The NC state party has already given the maximum $100,000 and has sent lawyers.
****************
egregious -
Sent a check off this week to Kissell. Sure hope we can pull this one out of the bag. As retired teacher, am also very concerned about his personal debt load. I actually got a handwritten tk-u from him for a previous donation which just blew my mind. Thanks for bringing this to everyone’s attention.

Christy Hardin Smith @ 32

sofistic at 30 — there is a local French bistro here that makes an amazing warm crab dip — they call it Crab Brulee — that is a combination of creamy cheeses, including some brie, I think – and lump crab meat and a little garlic and other spices. It is incredible on pita chips and sliced baguette. Never thought of adding crab to my spinach and artichoke dip, though — hmmmm….

OT, but what the heck..
At that lunch, my brother in law had a portabello mushroom “sandwich” with melted cheese and a hamburger patty inside, with wedge potato fries on the side.

Thanks for the recipes, everyone. Keep them coming!

Our neighborhood bakery was charging $25 for a pumpkin pie this week, so I decided to make my own. At a crucial point in the process – transferring the pie from oven to wire rack – the thing kind of folded in on itself, so it was misshapen (I was using a flexible pie pan). I was going to toss it but put it in the fridge instead after it cooled.

The next morning, I had a delicious mound of Pumpkin Lump! Tastier than store-bought. I guess you really can’t go wrong with a few basic ingredients and sugar…

Good morning, friends -

I’m up early ’cause I’m staying with my beloved parents – but the only way to avoid the Fox/ hate radio media diet was an 8 PM bedtime.

Christy, I’m already hungry! Maybe we’ll bake here today (with music on).

Noonan at 18 – so sorry for your and your wife’s losses. Grandmothers are wonderful – I still grieve for mine. My heart goes out to you both.

Congratulations. jayt!

And Redshift – oh – have I been there. Seemed like a good place for all those peels in the sink to me…. :)

Redshift @ 38

egregious @ 26

Ooh, that reminds me! We didn’t have a cookie-cutter for the wreath shape, so we invented one. We’d cut the outside circle with a drinking glass, and the inner circle with a juice glass, and then make a “ribbon” out of scraps of dough left over from cutting the other cookies. I can’t remember who thought of it originally, but it was pretty neat. (I also liked it because it left small round bits of dough and I could sometimes sneak eating them uncooked.)

Whew! What a rush! (You youngsters know about rushes, right? Went to see the movie Bobby last night (click on “Trailer” at that link). The “trip” scene was pretty amazing.)

Redshift, I think that the chronosynclastic infundibulum (“those places … where all the different kinds of truths fit together,” according to Vonnegut) is tugging on our experiences here. That’s almost exactly how my stepmom made the wreaths! And of course little red cinnamon candy drops around the circle, right?

Here’s another family favorite — one of my other great aunts makes these, and they are so yummy. Very delicate and crumbly, but oh so worth it if you like coconut.

COCONUT WASHBOARDS
2 c. flour
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. salt
3/4 c. butter
1 c. firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 1/3 c. coconut, shredded

Mix flour with baking powder, spices and salt. Cream butter. Gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add egg, vanilla and almond extract; beat well. Add flour mixture, blending well on low speed. Stir in coconut. Divide dough into two parts. Chill, until dough is easily handled. Spread or pat each half into a 10×9 rectangle. Cut each into 4 strips lengthwise. Cut each strip into 10 pieces. Pleace each piece about 2 inches apart on a baking sheet. Using a floured fork, gently press ridges into cookies. Bake at 375 F for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on cookie sheet for a couple of minutes before removing to wire racks to finish cooling. Makes about 6 1/2 dozen.

Christy–
Your Sat. morning post was just the proper antidote to T Rex’s self-trexing post last night (this afternoon over here, where it’s now late Saturday night).
I’m afraid my baking days came to an abrupt halt fifty-some years ago, when my father decided that I should learn jujitsu instead (he needn’t have worried).

medaka, if you’re still up, my actual experience with Japan goes back over 40 years. Unlike T Rex’s experience, my year in Tokyo was one of the great learning periods of my life. When people ask me how I learned to speak Japanese so well, I tell them that I learned by the Kabuki-cho method (for non-Japan experts, Kabuki-cho, in Shinjuku, is an area filled with probably thousands of bars).

While making acquaintances in Japan is not hard, making friends presents more difficulties. If your friends are Japanese (which is easier for younger people than a man of my age), they will inevitably be caught up in the business of life (or the life of business) in ways that leave them little time for outside friends; if you make friends with foreigners, your choice of potential friends is much narrower, and as soon as you begin to get close, they decide to go home.

That said, I have wonderful in-laws, who took me into the family and loved my children and treated me with as much or even more respect than others, so I do know the closeness of private life. And as you said, most Japanese are not Christians, which is wonderful. If I die here, I’ve asked to be included in the family burial plot, for if I am to find an afterlife, I can’t think of a better friend than my late father-in-law, or a better final resting place than under the giant crepe myrtle. But a plug for Japanese Christians: they are much more Christian, in the good sense of the word, i.e., believers in love and service (the motto of the school where I teach) than most of the “Christians” I know in America.

Peanut butter “Blossoms”
I have tried this recipe without the Hershey’s kisses. Think I will substitute the 70% cacao chocolate my wife loves instead.

PEANUT BUTTER BLOSSOMS
Printed from COOKS.COM

1 c. sugar
1 c. butter
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. salt
2 (10 oz. pkg.) Hershey Kisses
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. creamy peanut butter
1/4 c. milk
3 1/2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking soda

Mix all ingredients above except Kisses. Shape in medium size balls. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes, place 1 kiss on each blossom.

http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0…..98,00.html

brooklyn @ 43

Our neighborhood bakery was charging $25 for a pumpkin pie this week…

That would be the Halliburton Heavenly Bakery?

Speaking about cookies, I have a plague of them on my computer.

Not to detract too much from a delicious topic but I was researching “death by poison” in reference to the radiation poisining of the ex-KGB guy, and came up with this quite bizarre page describing some quite bizarre deaths in history, including that of Rasputin (BTW, ever notice that the Russian President’s name — Putin– is embedded in the Mad Monk’s name?), who also was poisoned. It would appear the Russians have a taste for that mode of assassination…imagine relishing on a poisoned blini proffered by your Russian lover after she discovers you have been dallying with her mother.

Life is so complicated!

http://www.falafelboy.com/foru……php?t=175

Our fam loves the Peanut Butter Blossoms with the dark Hershey Kisses.

Hey Christy!

Way nice karakusa scrolling vine motif on that bright turquoise cookie at the bottom!

Said motif came from Persia (the next target of aggression from the righteous pinnacle of Western Individualist Civilization — Woohoo! — Or haven’t you woken up yet, TRex?)

Karakusa made its way here through India and China (this Japanese name for the pattern means, literally, “Tang-dynasty Grass”) And now you can see it on not only cookies, but also on big, flowery Hawaiian shirts — which were first made in Hawaii from the bold-patterned silk meisen kimonos that early 20C Japanese immigrants re-styled into such fabulously individualistic Western tops. Because their silk kimono didn’t work here in the fabulously civilized West.

Thus! Our TRex won’t be wearing his Aloha shirts come next summer, huh? No matter how steamy and burned all that individualistic American car-driving makes our planet, eh?

Fill ‘er up!

My standard Christmas tin filler for years now…….never had any complaints ;-) Have fond memories of my father making this……one of his few kitchen forays.

PEANUT BRITTLE

1 C. white granulated sugar
1/2 C. white Karo syrup
1/4 C. cold water

Combine in heavy saucepan & bring to boil.

2 C. raw shelled peanuts (larger, non-Spanish variety preferred)

Stir peanuts into sugar/syrup mixture & continue to boil & stir to 295 degrees on candy thermometer.

1 T. baking soda

Remove pot from heat & stir in soda. (You have to move quick on this b/c it starts setting up fast). Pour on butter greased marble slab. (This needs to be done quickly also). Break into pieces when cold.

Notes:
1. Seems to work better on non-rainy days.
2. Have read it can be poured out on cookie sheet but never tried it….the marble is the one Poppa used. If you don’t have a candy marble, you might be able to buy a small scrap ( at least 14″ X 20″ X 1″) from a tombstone company. Gourmet cooking stores also probably carry such. In the South, marble-topped tables have been known to be pressed into service. *g*
3. Run some hot water & detergent in your pot immediately or you have sweet concrete residue.

medaka at 52 — I thought those cookies were gorgeous! I only wish I had the patience and the time to sit and paint that sort of scrollwork onto cookies with icing. Not this year, I’m afraid…but a girl can dream. *g*

I’ll let you take up the TRex conversation with his Therapod-ness. But I do think that everyone might be taking his post way more seriously than it was intended — I know him via many phone conversations and one personal meeting, and I don’t think there was any intentional nastiness, just more of an impressions at a young age sort of thought process post. I think y’all will catch more flies with honey than with vinegar trying to explain how it reads from the “far east” perspective, if you know what I mean. But I do think that it is a conversation well worth having at some point. (Speaking of which, has anyone read any of Paul Theroux’s travel books? His descriptions of typical American travellers crack me up…)

Gee. It’s Christmas time again. My favoite time of the year. And I’m dreaming of a white Christmas. We will have an ‘old fashioned’ Christams here. Almost everything we do here is old fashioned. No matter the time of the year. I don’t cook for Christmas. The folks that pour in from New Mexico to Texas, and most points in between, are taxed with that task. But I know what’s on the menu. First the sweet stuff. Home cooked cookies, plum pudding, bread pudding, rice pudding, and candied fruit, fruit cake, homemade ice cream and fudge with pecans. The only non-home cooked sweets will be boxes and boxes of Mrs. See’s candies.

Main course will be prime-rib, (from our cows) wild turkey, baked ham, (from our home grown hogs) and venison. Giblet gravy, mashed spuds, fried corn bread, non-machine home done, yeasty smelling and tasting bread, turnip greens, sweet pickled beets, and of course, fried okra and carrot ‘n raisin salad. And this year, my cousin Jessica who went to France on an art grant this past summer, is going to introduce escargot with tons of garlic butter, to the family. Jess and I love snails, but as for the rest of the family, well…? We’ll see.

For drinks: coffee, iced tea, butter-milk, milk, soda, Tequilla, vino and Mexican beer.

But the best part for me will be seeing the faces of all the kids on Christmas morning!

This is one of the newer recipes that I’ve been eyeing for this year’s baking. It sounds awfully yummy:

CRANBERRY WALNUT SWIRLS
1/2 c. butter, softened
3/4 c. sugar
1 lg. egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 c. finely chopped fresh cranberries
1/2 c. ground walnuts
1 Tbsp. grated orange rind

Beat butter and sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy and light. Add egg and vanilla, beating until blended. Gradually add flour, baking powder and salt, beating until blended. Cover and chill for 1 hour. Combine cranberries, walnuts and orange rind. Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface, and roll into a 10-inch square. Sprinkle with cranberry mixture, leaving a 1/2 inch border on two opposite sides. Roll up dough, jelly-roll fashion, beginning at bordered side. Cover and freeze 8 hours or up to 1 month. Cut roll into 1/4-inch thick slices. Place slices on lightly greased baking pans. Bake on top oven rack at 375 F for 14 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool completely. Yield: 3 dozen.

chocolate chunk cookies

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cream together:
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar, packed

Then add:
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix in:
oat flour (2.5 cups old-fashioned or quick-cooking oats, ground to flour in a blender or food processor)
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Add:
1 pound chocolate bar(s), chopped (semi-sweet, milk chocolate… whatever you like)
1.5-2 cups coarsely chopped nuts (I use pecans, but walnuts, macadamia nuts, hazelnuts all work, too… or omit entirely.)

Shape into golf ball-sized balls and put onto parchment-lined or lightly greased cookie sheets. They’ll spread a little, so leave room among them. Start checking at 8 minutes–usually they’re done in 10 minutes or so.

ok at 56 — if I remember correctly, Mrs. Sees candies makes some amazing English toffee, don’t they?

Holiday Bazaar

In the spirit of the charitable organization thread, I’m posting this from the Grameen Foundation. It made its way into my inbox this week.

Dear Jeff,

Because you live in the New York City area, I thought you’d be interested in the Holiday Bazaar organized by our local microfinance partner in the city, Project Enterprise. Join us and come shop for products made by Project Enterprise borrowers. The items include handicrafts, bath and beauty products, children’s gifts and much more!

Project Enterprise 3rd Annual Holiday Bazaar
Saturday December 2, 2006; 10am-6pm
Food and Finance High School
525 W. 50th Street (at 10th Ave)
New York, NY

http://www.projectenterprise.org/

Fred @ 25…
I’m with you on Viennese Crescents. Mine are a a bit different than yours, though. But they are melt in your mouth good and it definitely wouldn’t be Christmas without them.

Cream 1 cup butter
Add 1/4 cup sugar, 2 cups flour, 1 cup ground almonds, 1 TSP vanilla
Mix well; shape with fingers in crescents about 3 inches by 1 inch and 1/2 inch thick.
Roll in confectioner’s sugar
Place on cookie sheet. Bake 35 minutes (but check sooner..) at 300 degrees.
Makes 36.

Variations on this theme:
Pecan Delights: Increase sugar to 1/2 cup and use 2 cups chopped pecans in place of almonds. Add 3 TSP water. Shape like dates.

Spitzbuben: Increase sugar to 1 cup. Pat out with hands on floured board. Cover with wax paper and roll 1/8 inch thick. Cut out with small biscuit cutter. Bake. Put together with current jelly.

Nut Ball: Use almonds, hazlenuts, pecans, walnuts or black walnuts. use 1 1/2 cups flour. Shape in balls the size of large marbles.

Christy, sometime back, you contributed to my Democratic committee’s (Coles District Democratic Committee, Woodbridge, VA) cookbook, Dining Liberally With Food for Thought, with “Hello Dollies.” I think those cookies are some of the easiest and yummiest ones out there, so I’m going to share it.

HELLO DOLLIES
1/2 c. butter
1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs
1 c. chopped walnuts
1 c. chocolate chips
1 1/2 c. flaked coconut
1 can sweetened, condensed milk

Preheat oven to 350 F. Melt butter in 9×13 pan. Remove pan from oven and spread melted butter evenly over the bottom of pan. Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs evenly over melted butter. Sprinkle walnuts, then chocolate chips, then coconut, in even layers. Then pour sweetened, condensed milk evenly over the top of the coconut. Return to oven and bake for about 25 minutes, until lightly browned on top. Cut into small squares when cooled.

—-
The cookbook is at the publishers and we have word that it’s being shipped this week. We collected recipes from over 100 prominent Democrats across the country, including Howard Dean, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Russ Feingold, actor Mike Farrell, and Ned Lamont. I’ve sold about 40 copies myself just mentioning it to people. I think it’s going to be a hit.

Prof @ 45

Redshift, I think that the chronosynclastic infundibulum (“those places … where all the different kinds of truths fit together,” according to Vonnegut) is tugging on our experiences here. That’s almost exactly how my stepmom made the wreaths! And of course little red cinnamon candy drops around the circle, right?

Ooh, I don’t think we thought of that! We sometimes decorated them with those hard silver sugar balls, though. (Can you even get those any more? One of the stories we told as kids was that those actually had silver in them, which was probably just another kids’ urban legend, but I never checked if there was an ingredients list.)

A little OT. . .

OK, several miles OT. . . .

The oil companies have apparently decided that instead of opposing national regulation on global warming, they will endorse it. Some details in this Kos diary and the more complete linked WaPo story.

The problem with the Kos diary is that it treats the oil companies’ conversion as “welcome news,” instead of focusing on these words from the WaPo article, which the Kos diarist does quote:

The companies have been hiring new lobbyists who they hope can help fashion a national approach that would avert a patchwork of state plans now in the works.

Of course, the headline writers at the WaPo also missed the real story, cloaking it in these headlined words: “Energy Firms Come to Terms With Climate Change.”

Come to terms, my ass. The oil companies have “come to terms” only with the realization that the best way to block the growing numbers of state and local regulatory actions to combat global warming is to pass a national law that preempts (forbids) states and cities from enacting global warming laws and ordinances.

The WaPo article has these additional, revealing observations:

One reason companies are turning to Congress is to avert the multiplicity of regulations being drafted by various state governments.

And these quotes:

“We cannot deal with 50 different policies,” said Shell’s Hofmeister. “We need a national approach to greenhouse gases.”

Note the words: “approach to,” not “limitation of.”

The Clean Air Act specifically provides that states are allowed to have air pollution requirements more stringent than that of the federal government. I call that “floor preemption” in my own book and teaching.

The weak, national pesticide law, on the other hand, provides that states are prohibited from regulating more strictly than the federal government.

It is apparent that the energy companies will now work hard to preempt states and localities from adopting strict rules on greenhouse gas emissions.

I hope that FDLers will not be taken in by the Shell game the way the Kos diarist was.

pol — I’m so happy to have helped — and I hope the cookbook is a huge success. Those cookies are favorites of Mr. ReddHedd’s, btw, and my mom makes them for just about every family occasion. And they truly are the easiest cookies on the planet. :)

pol @ 62

The cookbook is at the publishers and we have word that it’s being shipped this week. We collected recipes from over 100 prominent Democrats across the country, including Howard Dean, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Russ Feingold, actor Mike Farrell, and Ned Lamont. I’ve sold about 40 copies myself just mentioning it to people. I think it’s going to be a hit.

Hey, pol, hi from a neighbor. If you want to come up to the Fairfax Democrats meeting on Tuesday, I bet you could get some orders there, too!

Christy Hardin Smith @ 58

ok at 56 — if I remember correctly, Mrs. Sees candies makes some amazing English toffee, don’t they?

Yep!!! And I die for their choc. covered burgundy cherries.

re: fallenmonk at 67
Lost part of the comment when I edited the fractions. Anyhow this recipe is an old one from the hills of West Virginia that I got from my Grandmother Hatfield (yes those Hatfields). It is super easy and makes the house smell great.

Fluffed out birdies are making piggies of themselves on the feeder this cold morning here.

OT – been wondering this for a bit but no good place to ask – what’s 707 (besides a big airplane)?

fallenmonk at 67 — if you just cut and pasted from Word, for some reason the fractions are not compatible with WordPress. That recipe sounds yummy — would it be possible for you to re-type in the comments section the measurements again? Thanks much!

curiousgeorge at 69 — it’s a LOL (laugh out loud) that is so good, you’ve flipped upside-down in your chair. *g*

In a previous “pull-up-a-chair”, someone recommended the Butternut Squash Lasagna recipe from the Food Network.

I made that for Thanksgiving, and it was quite a hit. Thanks to whoever made that suggestion.

curiousgeorge @ 70

OT – been wondering this for a bit but no good place to ask – what’s 707 (besides a big airplane)?

LOL so hard you fall over yourself upside down.

Pumpkin Spice Cookies

1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar packed
1 cup margarine softened
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg

in separate bowl whisk together these ingredients and set aside

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of ground cloves
small pinch of salt

Cream sugars and margarine till light & fluffy
add pumpkin, vanilla, and egg. Blend well.
Add dry mixture to wet mixture. Blend well.

Drop by teaspoon or tablespoon onto greased
cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 10 to 12 mins.

Icing

in saucepan over medium heat mix

3 tbsp margarine
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup milk

heat until sugar is dissolved stirring continually. Remove from heat and add

1 tsp flavoring of choice (orange, maple, etc)

Add 1 to 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar to make
desired consistency to drizzle or spread on
cookies.

These cookies keep longer and taste better if
refrigerated.

These cookies are THE holiday cookies at our
house. They are fluffy and melt in your mouth.

Casia

Well I can’t seem to find the cookbook with some of my Mom’s recipes in them She was a great baker and I know there are cookie recipes in it.

Here’s a hint for a twist on chocolate chip cookies, use a couple drops of banana flavoring in your recipe.

Thanks Christy and Deb! Appreciated.

Millineryman @
75

Well I can’t seem to find the cookbook with some of my Mom’s recipes in them She was a great baker and I know there are cookie recipes in it.

Here’s a hint for a twist on chocolate chip cookies, use a couple drops of banana flavoring in your recipe.

My folks added two baked bananas to the yams on T-day. Quite the taste explosion.

-GSD

Correction:

Should read “in separate bowl, whisk together
next ingredients and set aside”

sorry for confusion.

Casia

GSD at 77 — yes, heaven forbid children should learn that people are raped, or that they could feel anything akin to sympathy or empathy for them. Jeebus, the world is full of closed-minded morons.

Hey JayT, send me your contact info at dan at twistedmartini dot com. I live in Indy & would be happy to help you out.

GSD– here is Dr. Angelou wrt that very issue:

Laurel, Md.: Dr. Angelou,

I was deeply affected by your novel and memoir, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”. Why do you believe it is banned in so many places in the United States? Do you feel that “explicit/graphic sexuality” is a legitimate reason to remove a book from library shelves or from classroom walls?

Maya Angelou: I am among the most banned writiers. However, I am also among the most read. All of my books are still in print. Along with Vonnegut, Judy Bloom and Mark Twain, Shakespeare and Charles Dickens — the sad thing is that a number of people’s parents who want my books banned have never read a page of my work, because if they did they would beg their children to read my books. The answer to all these questions is that it is ignorance that prevails, not all the time, but sometimes.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..01066.html

Good Morning Firebakers !

your experiences posted above of over extending ourselves on baking describes mine to a tee – dozens of detailed decorated sugar cookies to go along with the shortbread, gingerbread kids (decorated in karate clothes one year !)fudge, fruitcake that people actually love, sandtarts, arrayed in tins, always topped with white reindeer sugar cookie repleat with gold bridles and reins

. . . as a recovering holiday baker, it is now down to a few sugar and gingerbread cookies, one blonde fruitcake, fudge and sandtarts – brought to the local firehouse and shelter

Oklahoma Kiddo – thanks for the timely reminder of See’s candy (thank you for the toobz jeebus !) 2 lbs – Milk Bordeaux, Butterscotch Square, and Key Lime and Apple Pie Truffles – da best evah ! – and yes, we hide them from the kids until we’ve had our fill

selected recipes on the flip

Christy, did I accidentally wipe out that post?

-GSD

Cookies! Christy great post on the joys of baking for ourselves and others. One of my favorite things to make is biscotti. I don’t have the book handy today (loaned it to a friend who *IS* going to get it back to me on Tuesday) but my favorite biscotti recipes come from the Frasier cookbook It might also be titled Cafe Nervosa cookbook. They have a couple biscotti recipes in there, and they’re infallible. (And they make oooodles of chocolatey goodness)

GSD at 83 — yes, I think you did. Can you re-post it, because it was a good link?

I am having much trouble this morning. Let’s try this one more time. A good old hillbilly recipe from West “by God” Virginia.
This is a simple recipe from Grandma Hatfield.

Soft Molasses Cookies

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup Crisco
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsulphered molasses
2 eggs slightly beaten
4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/4 tsp baking soda
2 1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Cream butter and shortening with sugar in a large bowl and then beat in the molasses and eggs and set aside. In another large bowl mix the flour, salt, baking soda, and spices with a wire whisk to mix thoroughly. Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture until well blended. Roll the dough into 1 inch balls (or 1 1/2 inch for big cookies). Roll the balls in granulated sugar and bake for 10 – 12 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Don’t overcook as you want them soft. Store in tins tightly covered. You might want to put a slice of apple in the tin to keep the cookies soft.

Christy, in line with our quest, I too have been looking for a recipe that was given me back when my kids were small and I made it quite often, but alas the recipe is gone.

It is a sweet bread twist, kind of. It used just a little flour, but sour cream, eggs, yeast, and other items which I cannot remember.

But the trick was to take the dough and knead in into vanilla flavored sugar. Roll out on the sugar, then fold. more flavored sugar goes down, and roll out again. Do that about 4-5 times until there are layers and layers with the sugar between each one. Then cut in strips approx. 1X6″, twist, and bake.

They carmelized and were absolutely heavenly. Have gone to book stores and poured over every recipe book but have failed to find it. Some day though …

Morning everyone! OOOOOhhh COOKIES!

egregious Bless your heart! All the time and effort you put into compiling those election results is golden. If it helps, please be advised that we DO read them, and it means a lot. I’ve been on pins & needles especially over FL 13 since, well, since 2000, gr-r-r-r. You’re one of the special folks who keeps me going. It’s still gonna be tough to clean up after that gang, but I think we can do it, together. THANKYOU! ;->

Beard5 at 85:
Oohhoo, biscotti! I have never made them and would loove a recipe.

Christy Hardin Smith @ 54

medaka at 52 — I thought those cookies were gorgeous! I only wish I had the patience and the time to sit and paint that sort of scrollwork onto cookies with icing. Not this year, I’m afraid…but a girl can dream. *g*

I’ll let you take up the TRex conversation with his Therapod-ness. But I do think that everyone might be taking his post way more seriously than it was intended — I know him via many phone conversations and one personal meeting, and I don’t think there was any intentional nastiness, just more of an impressions at a young age sort of thought process post. I think y’all will catch more flies with honey than with vinegar trying to explain how it reads from the “far east” perspective, if you know what I mean. But I do think that it is a conversation well worth having at some point. (Speaking of which, has anyone read any of Paul Theroux’s travel books? His descriptions of typical American travellers crack me up…)

Yes indeed Christy. It’s gorilla (sic!) media so we are all pushing the envelope
(and so far succeeding a bit, eh?)

There was just a weee bit of a “we be way better than you wogs!”
feeling/atmosphere/cache to our saurpod’s post — no matter
how jokey it was, that’s what made a large bunch of us take exception …

ya’ll need to study some rhetoric
HERE, if I may be so …):
http://www.figarospeech.com/

Ugh. Mountains of indigo call.

NotJonathan: if you ever you ever expect to be in Nara
and would like to meet, do click my name-thingy, please!

Forgot to add that today is our family’s Thanksgiving. My daughter is a notoriously bad cook, but she has found a turkey all ready to cook. She once cooked the turkey with the bag of giblets inside, and then the next year cooked the turkey upside down.

So off to her house we go, but in view of not giving up on my 75 lbs lost, I am bringing lots of shrimp and dip so I can get full on that first and not have enough room for 3 helpings of dressing, which used to be my ritual. I am also bringing the mandatory spinich dip with sour dour bread. We even got the olders kids to eat this.

Oh and for a simple, grandma cookie here we go

Simple crunchy chocolate goodness
bag of chocolate chips, bag of butterscotch chips, some extra dark chocolate(bitterish) and some peanutbutter chips if you like that kind of thing.
Melt the chocolate chips, start melting some of the butterscotch chips until it smells like something you’d like toss in the bitter chocolate, adjust the butterscotch if needed and then stir in as much Chow mein noodles (the crunchy kind that come in a large tin) as the chocolate will support. There should be no chocolate left on the bottom of the pan, and all the crunch chow mein noodles should be covered.

Try not to eat straight from the pan, and clear space in the fridge for some cookie sheets.

grease the cookie sheets, and drop the mixture in spoonfulls, refrigerate until set. Then put out and watch them disappear. Best made the day before serving. They do store well, if refrigerated. Not to be made in summer as you’ll have puddles of chocolate with distressed looking twigs sticking out of it, it’s disturbing.

(probably my all time favorite cookie-thing. Grams would make them up for the holidays, with the peanut butter fudge (marshmallow fluff version) sugar cookies and jam jewels)Of course, my favorite cookie varies based on whatever cookie I’m currently eating.

beard5 @ 93

Oh and for a simple, grandma cookie here we go

Simple crunchy chocolate goodness
bag of chocolate chips, bag of butterscotch chips, some extra dark chocolate(bitterish) and some peanutbutter chips if you like that kind of thing.
Melt the chocolate chips, start melting some of the butterscotch chips until it smells like something you’d like toss in the bitter chocolate, adjust the butterscotch if needed and then stir in as much Chow mein noodles (the crunchy kind that come in a large tin) as the chocolate will support. There should be no chocolate left on the bottom of the pan, and all the crunch chow mein noodles should be covered.

Try not to eat straight from the pan, and clear space in the fridge for some cookie sheets.

grease the cookie sheets, and drop the mixture in spoonfulls, refrigerate until set. Then put out and watch them disappear. Best made the day before serving. They do store well, if refrigerated. Not to be made in summer as you’ll have puddles of chocolate with distressed looking twigs sticking out of it, it’s disturbing.

(probably my all time favorite cookie-thing. Grams would make them up for the holidays, with the peanut butter fudge (marshmallow fluff version) sugar cookies and jam jewels)Of course, my favorite cookie varies based on whatever cookie I’m currently eating.

wow.

beard5 at 92 — mwahahahaha — distressed looking twigs sticking up out of pools of chocolate. That would be about right in the heat of the summer. hehehehe Good one!

Sofistic at 89, if we have another cookie type post, next saturday (Hint to Christy!) remind me, I’ll have the cookbook back by then. But if you can find it, the Cafe Nervosa cookbook is good reading, as well as good recipes. Whoever compiled the recipes and wrote the text, obviously loves food, it comes through in the writing.

Sonovagun…I’ve realized in the last 24 hours that I am still much in need of unpacking and I’ve been moved into this new house for 16 months now. I couldn’t produce a book last night for a recipe for an Asian cucumber-carrot salad for TRex, and I can’t find one now for a cookie recipe. Doggoneitall. You know now what I’ll be doing today, digging through boxes in the basement.

Anyhow, Christy, when my daughter was 3 or 4 (and her brother either just born or a year old), I found a cookie cutter shaped like a moose. It had a chocolate cookie recipe attached to it that went astray; instead, I used a chocolate cookie recipe in Martha Stewart’s Cookbook. The recipe is unusual in that it called for pepper in combination with cocoa powder; I skipped the pepper and they were delish! the texture is just right for rolling out, handles well, made the most adorable moose. I embellished them with melted chocolate, just drizzled over the cookies free form. My daughter likes this part a lot and can now handle it on her own, squeezing the plastic bag.

The other recipe that my daughter loved to help with was Russian teacakes or Mexican wedding cakes; they have a lot of butter in them, as well as finely chopped nut meats, but rolling them into balls and rolling them in sugar after baking is a job designed for little hands. Both Russian and Mexican cookies have the same base dough recipe, but the Mexican ones call for the addition of cinnamon and the Russian ones call for nut meats. My mom makes something similar, without either cinnamon or nuts, calls them Snowballs — unsurprising, but fitting.

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2-1/4 cup flour
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt

Addtl. powdered sugar for rolling.

For Russian teacakes, add 2/3 cup finely chopped walnuts with dry ingredients.

For Mexican wedding cakes, add 1/2 tsp. cinnamon with dry ingredients.

Cream together butter, sugar, vanilla; sift salt and flour together, then add to butter mixture to form dough. Chill for a couple of hours. Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Roll dough into 1 inch balls, then bake on ungreased cooking sheet for 14-17 minutes until lightly brown. Cool on rack, then roll in powdered sugar.

I swear this same recipe is identical to a Greek cookie recipe I’ve seen, only it uses ground almonds instead of walnuts, and some finely grated orange peel; I think I’m going to try this option today when we bake. Enjoy!

My Aunt Marie used to make the best Xmas nutbread. It was a yeast pastry dough rolled up with cinnamon and walnuts. Unfortunately, she never wrote it down. I have the list of ingredients, so my wife and I are going to see if we can reverse engineer it. If it works, I’ll post what we find.

The tree is up here already, it was everything I could do to get one holiday out of the way!

Wisconsin parents attempt to ban Maya Angelou’s book from school curriculum.

-GSD

This has been a family recipe for years served the morning of Thanksgiving and Christmas. This recipe is one given to me from my (ex)mother-in-law which she found in the Sunday food section of the paper. This is a brunch dish that may shock you with the ingredients but if you cut it into 12 pieces (which is easy) you are only getting a single egg and 2 oz of cheese. This dish is great as it feeds a whole herd of people, reheats in the microwave and since I am eating it right now with some organic salsa from Whole Foods and Irish soda bread toast. And those who are faint of heart with spicy food, make sure you pick mild chilies.

Eggs Bravado
1 dozen eggs
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 pint cottage cheese
1 lb shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 cup oil/butter (melted)
2 small cans diced chilies
(optional)diced green onions, garlic & cilantro

Throw everything into a big mixer, mix together and put into a 9 x 13 pan (spray with pam spray).
Bake 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes until firm & top golden.

Serve with salsa, english muffins, or whole grain bread.

Rayne,

There’s no pollonium 210 in the Russian recipe I hope.

-GSD

a long held cbl secret recipe

Sand Tarts

pretty easy, but melt in your mouth when done right

Oven to 250 deg.

1/2 lb butter
4 TBS sugar
1 Tps vanilla
2 cups ground walnuts (pecans also work well)
Powdered Sugar
2 cups (before sifting) Cake Flour
Baking Parchment (Optional)

before you start – the nuts are ground more than chopped – use your coffee grinder, or ziplock, covered by handtowel and hammer (should have dust with tiny chunks of nutmeat)

mix in bowl, roll in to balls 2x size of marbles – place in rows 5 -6 across on parchment cover (or ungreased cookie sheets)

bake 1 hour (maybe 50 min. depends on your oven) let cool about 12 – 15 min and then shake 3 or 4 at a time in a ziplock of powdered sugar

Betty F’in Crocker !

Twisted — that sounds like Potica. Does this recipe look at all similar?

{{{{{{{{{Christy}}}}}}}} That’s it! She was Slovak, so it would make sense that she she knew the recipe. Thank you!

Twisted at 103 — you are more than welcome. :) We had a neighbor who used to make this as well, and it’s heavenly — just labor intensive.

The People’s Republic of Seabrook @ 53

That sound you heard was Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader’s legacy taking a hit

Didn’t want to repeat your whole quote amidst all the cookies ‘n stuff, but I hear you, and I’m sure the other firepups do also. Wretched, wrenching stuff. Jr’s name will go down in history all right, but not for the reasons his daddy & mommy intended. I don’t know if parents can be prosecuted for criminal enabling, but… I’ve got a pair to nominate. Just a world of hurt and misery, and it DID NOT HAVE TO BE!

This link might help you. It helped me vent a little, so I sent it on to a bunch of folks I know. They may not appreciate its intrusion upon their holiday time, but… well… it’s better than putting your fist thru a wall. *sigh*

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…..34780.html

MOD HELP!!! Error in my recipe above, just realized it’s supposed be one-half cup powdered sugar in the cookie dough, NOT one-quarter cup powdered sugar.

Agh!!! I hate that when that happens!!

Rayne, I also love the Russian Tea cake recipe. I got mine from the Coffee house cookbook (published by The Associated Students of the University of California, Davis) I made those when I worked in the cataloging dept. at UNH.

That was the year of the infamous cookie swap.

Rita, a gloriously tall, and ancient lady of Norweigean (sp?) background made her rum balls. They tasted wonderful…we were not fit to drive after two of them. Let’s just say that the busses got a lot of use, and *nothing* got done in Technical Services that day. I have the recipe for them around here somewhere, but it’d take most of a day to find it. (I put it in a logical location in one of my cookbooks…I have about 500 cookbooks here)

Redshift @ 65

pol @ 62

The cookbook is at the publishers and we have word that it’s being shipped this week. We collected recipes from over 100 prominent Democrats across the country, including Howard Dean, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Russ Feingold, actor Mike Farrell, and Ned Lamont. I’ve sold about 40 copies myself just mentioning it to people. I think it’s going to be a hit.

Hey, pol, hi from a neighbor. If you want to come up to the Fairfax Democrats meeting on Tuesday, I bet you could get some orders there, too!

Redshift, what is the time and place of your meeting? I have a deadline that day, but I’ll come if I can. I have lots of cookbooks to sell…

in re my 106, ahem

-uh- I’m a secular humanist, folks, if you must put a name to it.

You might want to check out that prayer link, no matter what your persuasion. Anyway, I thot it was a good ‘un! *g*

beard5 — heh. Sounds like my mother’s Tin Lizzies. She had a baking frenzy one year when I was a kid, remember many bowls of dried fruits, raisins, citrons heavily laced with bourbon, spread all over the house as they soaked up the sauce. There was a thin dough, more like cake batter, laden with spices, into which the drowned fruits were mixed; the cookies were drop-type, and when baking would fumigate the house. It was like visiting the Jim Beam factory. They actually turned out more like bite-sized fruitcakes that packed a wallop. I think as kids we instinctively knew not to eat them and let the older folks have at them. Mom rather liked sampling the raisins. Hmm.

GrandmaJ @ 91

Forgot to add that today is our family’s Thanksgiving. My daughter is a notoriously bad cook, but she has found a turkey all ready to cook. She once cooked the turkey with the bag of giblets inside, and then the next year cooked the turkey upside down.

So off to her house we go, but in view of not giving up on my 75 lbs lost, I am bringing lots of shrimp and dip so I can get full on that first and not have enough room for 3 helpings of dressing, which used to be my ritual. I am also bringing the mandatory spinich dip with sour dour bread. We even got the olders kids to eat this.

GrandmaJ — 75 pounds lost! That is fantastic! You have my utmost respect. How did you do it?

Adie @ 105

The People’s Republic of Seabrook @ 53

That sound you heard was Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader’s legacy taking a hit

Didn’t want to repeat your whole quote amidst all the cookies ‘n stuff, but I hear you, and I’m sure the other firepups do also. Wretched, wrenching stuff. Jr’s name will go down in history all right, but not for the reasons his daddy & mommy intended. I don’t know if parents can be prosecuted for criminal enabling, but… I’ve got a pair to nominate. Just a world of hurt and misery, and it DID NOT HAVE TO BE!

This link might help you. It helped me vent a little, so I sent it on to a bunch of folks I know. They may not appreciate its intrusion upon their holiday time, but… well… it’s better than putting your fist thru a wall. *sigh*

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…..34780.html

Babs, (Geo’s mother) what a nasty piece of work. All that grandmother pr s’t they tried on us when the first Bush crook waz prez. A lot of people fell for it. This smug bunch actually ‘thinks’ it is their destiny to rule.

pol @ 61

The cookbook is at the publishers and we have word that it’s being shipped this week. We collected recipes from over 100 prominent Democrats across the country, including Howard Dean, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Russ Feingold, actor Mike Farrell, and Ned Lamont. I’ve sold about 40 copies myself just mentioning it to people. I think it’s going to be a hit.

Would it be possible for me to buy a copy of the cookbook? Postage or shipping costs? Thanks.

My wife just finished a cookie baking performance that lasted several evenings…Trouble is- her son and I eat em as fast as she can make em. Think she hid a few away.

German cookies- try em- you’ll like em!

Let me second Fred Roberts at 23–those cookies are something else.

Rayne at 106 — I fixed it — no worries.

The secret to good cookies is a pound of butter per batch. Works every time.

I’m about to bake shortbread that my grandmother got from old Mrs. Carr in Vancouver in the 20’s. We make it for Christmas, but today I’m baking it to take to our St. Andrew’s day feast tomorrow at our Episcopal Church.

Mrs. Carr’s shortbread
l# butter
1 c. cornstarch
2 l/2 c. unbleached white flour
l c. powdered sugar (put through sieve – no lumps)
Work butter with flour and sugar. Take out of the bowl and then knead in the cornstarch. Roll out (use a little flour if necessary) and cut into circles. Bake at 350 ’til light golden.

OT but this reminds me that on January 23rd my entire extended family will have to have passports to travel between Vancouver B.C. and Seattle thanks to the MCA.

Does anyone know whether the new congress will amend this? It will be a real disaster economically for the border towns and I don’t think we really realize what suffering this will cause. I can’t imagine my old aunts and dozens of cousins, nieces and nephews and greats getting passports. Anyway…..any thoughts?

This is a cinnamon cookie I call “The Emergency Cookie”. It’s fast, easy, delicious and kid-helper friendly.

2 and 1/2 c. flour
1 and 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 c. sugar
3/4 c. oil
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Sift flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon together.

Put sugar and oil together in mixing bowl. Mix well, add beaten egg and vanilla. Add flour mixture. Mix well.

Shape into 1/2 inch balls, roll in sugar and place on lightly greased baking sheet. Flatten with a fork (or I use a cookie stamp) and sprinkle with more sugar. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 375F.

This is a fantastic recipe from a cookie cookbook of Nick Malgieri’s. And it’s incredibly easy.

OLD-FASHIONED MOLASSES SLICES
2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
2/3 c. unsulfered molasses
6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
2 or 3 cookie sheets, covered in parchment paper or foil

In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder and spices; stir well to mix. Place molasses and butter in large saucepan over low heat; stir occasionally until mixture comes to a simmer and butter is melted. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Use a large rubber spatula to stir flour mixture into cooled molasses and butter. Scrape dough onto lightly floured work surface, and shape and squeeze into a rough cylinder, about 10 inchees long and 2 inches in diameter. Roll a piece of parchment or waxed paper around the outside of dough and tighten to firm up the shape. Chill dough until firm in firdge, or double wrap in plastic wrap and freeze until ready to bake. When you are ready to bake, set racks in upper and lower thrids of oven and preheat to 350 F. Slice cookies about 5 to an inch, rotating the cylinder as you slice to keep the round shape. Arrange cookies on prepared pans about an inch apart on all sides and bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until they have puffed somewhat and become dull, and feel firm to the touch. Slide papers from the pans to cooling racks. Makes app. 50 cookies.

Re that indiscernable nutty flavor to your shortbread – try browning the butter first!

Christmas Cookies

Buy six pounds of butter at Costco

Mix em up with flour until it looks like cookies– add sugar until they taste good- cook em. That’s it!

rw at 122 — you are cracking me up!

Thanks Redd- It’s from the “Breaking free from Anal Retentiveness” cookbook.

oddball So sorry for your family’s loss. Hearing that, and being presented with cookies cookies cookies this a.m. brings bittersweet memories to the fore here.

Most (nearly all?) of the holiday cookies baked at our house trace their ancestry to hubby’s side of the family – great grammas & great aunts who must have been amazing cooks. I met only one of these wonderful ladies, and I remember her as a tiny bundle of energy who chuckled sweetly when I, in my nervousness at just having met her and a passle of “new family”, called her “Aunt Lou” along with everyone else.

Aunt Lou was an incredible cook, but she never wrote down any recipes. She just appeared to toss a glop of this and a handful of that together. Bless hubby’s sweet mom, who painstakingly watched and took notes, over the years, while “helping” Aunt Lou work her magic.

So now the whole family has all these wonderful, or notorious(!) recipes for fantastic cookies. Lou’s sugar cookies, especially, were incredibly delicate and scrumptious. The trouble is, most early attempts to make them end up with either goo or crumbs. It was quite a feeling when, one year, I actually got whole, unbroken cookies – mostly – A real “Ta DAAA!” moment. Meanwhile, we discovered the dough and crumbs are delicious too.

Now one of our sons has decided he will master the dreaded sugar-cookie-challenge. So far, he’s discovered that yes, it HAS to be butter and not whipped margerine – it just DOES – okay then, try it and you’ll see. Oh well, so he produced one batch of good-tasting goo out of his first attempt (along with a phonebill a mile long).

All you guys n’gals with the 3-yr-olds who are so cute helping you bake right now… Keep hugging and loving ‘em, ’cause you ain’t really seen nothin’ yet. Wait till you see how cute they can be in their late 20’s, calling you up long-distance to be talked through a hopelessly complicated recipe, heh heh…
Maybe that’s why wise little old Aunt Lou always cooked “by feel”, eh?

Oh… I’ll spare you the recipe,tho I’m happy to share it if someone really wants it. It’s pretty short, and sounds innocent enough, but you’ve been warned… The texture and flavor of the cookies truly is wonderful, but getting there is an adventure. The best idea is to make friends with someone who knows how. *g*

I can so relate to the baking marathons. In the past week, I’ve made the following:
30 dozen Russian Tea Cakes (donut cookies, says Anna – my oldest niece)
7 dozen brown sugar shortbread
7 dozen almond shortbread
14 dozen regular shortbread
9 dozen lemon sugar cookies
5 dozen oatmeal raisin cookies
8 dozen sugar cookies
10 dozen white chocolate / cranraisins cookies
3 pans pine bark
2 pans magic cookie bars

In the fridge is the first batch of gingerbread. I usually do a double batch because the molasses comes in a container that is just the right amount for 2 batches. I’ve yet to make the dark chocolate fudge, milk chocolate fudge, peanut butter fudge, regular chocolate chip cookies, and banana nut bread.

Growing up we made most of these (no shortbread or white chocolate chip, or lemon sugar) and around 5 other types of cookies. We had an assembly line going and Mom was the task master of it all. Had to get out all the containers we could find…. my sister and I would decorate some of the sugar cookies with egg yoke paint. Dad had little part in all this, he was quality control. All of the baking is given away as gifts.

About 8 years ago, the ‘job’ was passed on to me. My sister isn’t much of a cook and has 3 little girls (and single). Everyone that knows me knows I take the week of Thanksgiving off and bake up a storm. Some exclaim that they need to hit the store for their supplies before I get a chance to clean everyone out…… (30 pounds of flour, 15lb sugar, 15lbs butter, 12lbs powdered sugar, etc) Next year my oldest niece will be old enough to be co-opted into the baking tradition. If she wants Russian Tea Cakes, she’s going to learn how to make them!!! Since I don’t have any kids, someone’s got to pick up the tradition???

There’s this little cat, which I have been feeding since her mother left her alone when she was a kitten. It was not the kitten’s mother’s fault. Mommy was killed by a car. Now this little cat is going to have babies and I suppose I shall have break down and take her in. I have a nice small, very well insulated store room which I shall move her into so she and her soon to be kitties won’t have to face these horribly cold and windy OK. nights. I am such a sentimental slob of a soft touch. I make myself sick. But… it’s Christmas. Please don’t forget the little animals and kids this holiday season who will not be having such a good time on Christmas morning

pol at 111 – This is the FIRST time in my entire life of being heavy I have ever succeeded at losing weight.

First I have a dream of riding a horse again. I used to ride when young, and since being disabled have not been physically fit and also gained alot of weight just laying in bed. But I can get around now and think I want to at least try riding. but first I must lose the weight. So a picture of me on my favorite horse is taped to the frig.

Second, portion size. I measure much of my food, i.e. I had 1 cup of rice chex with 1 tbsp of raisins and 1/2 cup of milk for breakfast. And then I count calories. When I reach 1100 calories, hopefully not before 5 p.m., I stop eating.

I am still unable to exercie much but I am doing yoga every morning on the living room floor. Much stretching of muscles — good for conditioning and also preparation of riding.
My goal for the holidays is to maintain where I am at now, through Jan. 1. And thanks for noticing. Today is the first day in 15 years I have been able to wear jeans. YAHOO!!!

Now back to all those yummy cookie recipes.

new thread

new thread!

Curious in Central Texas @ 113

pol @ 61

The cookbook is at the publishers and we have word that it’s being shipped this week. We collected recipes from over 100 prominent Democrats across the country, including Howard Dean, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Russ Feingold, actor Mike Farrell, and Ned Lamont. I’ve sold about 40 copies myself just mentioning it to people. I think it’s going to be a hit.

Would it be possible for me to buy a copy of the cookbook? Postage or shipping costs? Thanks.

Yes, you may! Visit our webpage at http://www.pwcdems.com/cookbook. The books are $12.50 and $2.00 shipping each.

Christy, I hope this is okay, but I’d like to tell about our project.

Although some members were successful at using personal contacts to attain our recipes, we got most of them by writing over 600 letters/e-mails to high profile Democrats and visiting the offices of over 240 Democrats in Congress.

Howard Dean’s recipe for applesauce seems to be something he wrote himself. Russ Feingold said he didn’t cook much, but was sending his mom’s recipe — anything to help out such a worthy cause. Barney Frank wrote to say that he didn’t cook and was sorry he could do nothing to help out. He did, though, because we put his note in our book.

This cookbook is like no other cookbook you’ll ever use. We even put the Bill of Rights in there to remind people that we were given those at the founding of our country, and they’re still ours to keep. Steve Clemons at The Washington Note wrote about his contribution: http://www.thewashingtonnote.c…..001634.php

It was a labor of love and all proceeds go to our local committee.

I see there is already a sugar cookie recipie here. I’d have to go downstairs to dig out mine. But the trick to good sugar cookies – is roll them out thin. Cut them with cookie cutters of all kinds. Have LOTS of butter based icing in different colors, the white will be a little cream looking but thats okay. Use a little almond abstract to cut the sweet taste. Have LOTS of different toppings.

Mix with kids (or grandkids) – and have fun. Some of my best memories making Christmas sugar cookies with my kids. A couple of years after their Dad left we had pretty skimpy Christmas’… but we would make bunches of these cookies, decorated to the hilt, and give them to people we could not afford to buy presents for.

The different shapes:

Trees – ice with green. Put a dab of yellow icing on the top with yellow sparkly sprinkles. Use red hots for balls – or some of those new multi colored round things they have.

Stars – Frost with yello – and yellow sparkly sprinkles.

Orinaments – use any round glass to cut – get creative with the colors. Strips are nice.

Candy Canes – my favorite. Yes, I actually put white and red stripes on them and red sugar sprinkles on the red stripes.

Christmas Wreaths – A donut cutter works nice, or a large round with a small round in the middle. Frost with green, and use the red hots for the holly. Use red frosting to make a bow at the bottom.

Santas – depends on the cutter shape – but he HAS to have a white beard – and those blue round things makes nice eyes.

I have made the cookies several years with my three granddaughters. Always make white, red, green, and yellow frosting. Lots and lots of the colored sprinkles and the new stuff there is. Must have red hots. Messy, messy. But oh, such fun. I hope I have given them prescious memories to have of their Grandma.

Christy, you have a girl and she is getting old enough to do the decorating thing. Use plastick knives, one for each color. A three year old can do the stars and trees real easy. My oldest grandaugter has always been very particular, with her cookies, complex decorations on each cookie shape. The youngest is just like her. (And they both are just like their mother was at that age.)

The middle one frosts very untraditionally, you cannot belive the colors she picks out, and then just dumps the sprinkles on. I vividly remember one year (she was four I think) when she spilled the little round colored balls and then took her hand and swept them off the counter top, all over the floor. Smiles.. Grandma cleaned it up.

I know this is long, but the memories of fixing Christmas Cookies are happy ones.

Oklahoma kiddo @ 128

There’s this little cat, which I have been feeding since her mother left her alone when she was a kitten. It was not the kitten’s mother’s fault. Mommy was killed by a car. Now this little cat is going to have babies and I suppose I shall have break down and take her in. I have a nice small, very well insulated store room which I shall move her into so she and her soon to be kitties won’t have to face these horribly cold and windy OK. nights. I am such a sentimental slob of a soft touch. I make myself sick. But… it’s Christmas. Please don’t forget the little animals and kids this holiday season who will not be having such a good time on Christmas morning

Bless you, OK. You are a good soul.

Okay, I admit that I have never been much good at following directions. So, instead of posting a yummy cookie recipe (which I don’t have), I offer you a recipe that is sweet and lemony. When people are too full for cookies, offer them Limoncello!

Limoncello
by Ricardo Baracchi
Owner, Il Falconiere, Cortona

8 organic lemons
1 qt. alcohol, 90%
14 oz. sugar = 1 3/4C
1 qt. bottled still H2O

Peel lemons leaving a little white attached to the peel. Reserve lemons for other use. Put peels in large container with alcohol, close it well, and leave in cool place for at least 4 days and up to a week.* Gently shake couple times/day. On the 5th day, or later, prepare the syrup with the sugar and hot water. Make sure water never quite boils. Stir and simmer 5 minutes. Allow to cool. Strain peels out of alcohol and mix with syrup. Let sit 2-3 days. Serve cold ** as an apperitvo. Makes 2 qts.

* 5 days seems to be perfect for me.

**I keep my limoncello in a glass container in the freezer. Because of the grain alcohol, it won’t freeze, and it tastes so good when it’s icy cold and then burning hot!

Enjoy!

“and the cookies that little hands can help momma to shape into balls and then roll in sugar coating before baking.”

This is one reason you do it, as your mama no doubt did with you. Little hands.

And the lemon cream cheese thumb print, with apricot jam, which sounds to me like the best cookie ever.

I just started working at a little cafe in our town, the best baker in town works there. She won’t tell me any of her secrets – yet, but I’ve only been there a month. I’ll work on her ’til she cracks.

It always blows me away how one person with that magic touch – and it sounds like you have it, Redd – can make a cookie that a million other people make, but make it sooo much better.
Cate’s snicker doodles are to-die for.

And thanks to all of you for recipes. Our household is in chaos; we’re selling our house, packing, looking for another, holiday seasoning and starting a new job (me) all at the same time. I think cookies and baking will ease some of our pain. Now, where did I pack those damned cookie cutters?

rwcole @ 118

The secret to good cookies is a pound of butter per batch. Works every time.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
‘ere. try one-a Aunt Lou’s beauties [my #106]. whut ya’ don’ know won’t hurt ya.

rwcole @ 123

Christmas Cookies

Buy six pounds of butter at Costco

Mix em up with flour until it looks like cookies– add sugar until they taste good- cook em. That’s it!

oh tee-hee!
Mrs. rwc must be a real sweetie. ;->

rwcole @ 115

My wife just finished a cookie baking performance that lasted several evenings…Trouble is- her son and I eat em as fast as she can make em. Think she hid a few away.

Yep! Sounds soooo familiar. *g*

Memories of when my kids were young.

I would make sugar cookies — just any kind of sugar cookie will do. I would make buttercream frosting and put about 1/2 cup in each segment of a muffin tin. And then color each ‘cup’ with a different color. The kids could then ‘paint’ the cookies making up strange combiations and some might fine colors along the way.

kirk murphy @ 134

Oklahoma kiddo @ 128

There’s this little cat, which I have been feeding since her mother left her alone when she was a kitten. It was not the kitten’s mother’s fault. Mommy was killed by a car. Now this little cat is going to have babies and I suppose I shall have break down and take her in. I have a nice small, very well insulated store room which I shall move her into so she and her soon to be kitties won’t have to face these horribly cold and windy OK. nights. I am such a sentimental slob of a soft touch. I make myself sick. But… it’s Christmas. Please don’t forget the little animals and kids this holiday season who will not be having such a good time on Christmas morning

Bless you, OK. You are a good soul.

Yes indeed, you are. Take care of the little family. And please support your local spay-neuter program, for all the kitties out there in the cold. ;->

good morning! I’m late to the cookie fest, but that hasn’t stopped me from copying down the most yummy-looking recipes. I won’t start baking for a couple weeks yet, but then it will be a frenzy. I do traditional German cookies — springerles and lebkuchen and pfeffernusen, but like to add in a couple more colorful recipes too.

Christie’s post makes me sure that this year there will be shortbread, too. So thanks!

I know you’re talking cookies, but I’ve been waiting for a thread topical to eating. My wife made a new stuffing this year (we still had the traditional kind that was actually stuffed in the bird) that was out of this world. Homemade cornbread and gorgonzola dressing that came from this month’s Sunset magazine. Oh. My Gawd. It will be a regular forever more, everyone was raving over it. If anyone wants the recipe email let me know.

beth meacham @ 139

good morning! I’m late to the cookie fest, but that hasn’t stopped me from copying down the most yummy-looking recipes. I won’t start baking for a couple weeks yet, but then it will be a frenzy. I do traditional German cookies — springerles and lebkuchen and pfeffernusen, but like to add in a couple more colorful recipes too.

Christie’s post makes me sure that this year there will be shortbread, too. So thanks!

My friend makes THE best shortbread. I’ve asked her to make a couple of batches for me to give to friends for Christmas. Gives her a little spending money, too.

rat bastahd at 140 — oh, do share the recipe. That sounds nummy.

Mommybrain @ 136

“and the cookies that little hands can help momma to shape into balls and then roll in sugar coating before baking.”

This is one reason you do it, as your mama no doubt did with you. Little hands.

And the lemon cream cheese thumb print, with apricot jam, which sounds to me like the best cookie ever.

I just started working at a little cafe in our town, the best baker in town works there. She won’t tell me any of her secrets – yet, but I’ve only been there a month. I’ll work on her ’til she cracks.

It always blows me away how one person with that magic touch – and it sounds like you have it, Redd – can make a cookie that a million other people make, but make it sooo much better.
Cate’s snicker doodles are to-die for.

And thanks to all of you for recipes. Our household is in chaos; we’re selling our house, packing, looking for another, holiday seasoning and starting a new job (me) all at the same time. I think cookies and baking will ease some of our pain. Now, where did I pack those damned cookie cutters?

Wow Momybrain – good luck with all of the changes – I hope your holidays are joyous amidst the chaos.

Yesterday I think I read you’ll be out in SF – if your schedule allows, I’d be happy to get together.

OK Christy, here goes: Cornbread and gorgonzola dressing:

makes 12-16 servings

1/3 C, plus 1/4 C butter
1 1/2 C flour
1/2 C cornmeal
1/3 C sugar
1 T baking powder
1 1/2 t salt
5 1/4 C milk
8 large eggs
4 oz. dried porcini mushrooms
2 leeks, halved lengthwise, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 shallots, minced
4 fresh sage leaves, minced
12oz. baguette cut into 1/2 in. cubes
10 oz. gorgonzola dolce cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350. Butter two 9×13 baking dishes, set aside. In a small saucepan over low heat, melt 1/3 C butter. Set aside and cool slightly.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and 1/2 t salt. Stir in 1 1/4 C milk, 2 eggs and melted butter. Pour batter into buttered baking dish and bake until toothpick comes out clean, 30-35 minutes. Cool, then cut cornbread into bite-sized pieces.

3. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, soak porcini in 1 3/4 C hot water for 15 min. Transfer porcini to a cutting board and roughly chop. Reserve porcini and soaking liquid.

4. Melt remaining 1/4 C butter in large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add leeks, garlic, shallots, porcini, sage, and remaining 1 t salt. Cook, stirring until leeks and shallots are soft, about 5 min. Carefully pour in porcini liquid leaving behind any grit in the bottom of the bowl.

5. In a very large bowl whisk together remaining 4 C milk and 6 eggs. Stir in leek mixture. Add baguette cubes and stir. Add in cornbread cubes and fold gently to mix. Transfer to 2nd buttered baking dish and break gorgonzola into small pieces while scattering over the top. Bake until set (and lightly brown), about 40 min. Let sit 5-10 min. before serving. YUM!

Looks like a lot of work, but my wife said it was pretty easy to make. Enjoy.

Christmas Cookies! My favorite holiday thing. Nothing in the world as wonderful as putting on Handel’s Messiah and baking lots of buttery goodies.

When kids were still at home, making a cookie list was a family affair. Usually a two-part list, “Absolutely Have to Make” and “If I Have Time.” The first list always includes:
Pecan Cookies (aka Russian Teacakes/Mexican Wedding Cakes)
Spritz (tint green and use tree die)
Viennese Shortbread
Thumbprint Cookies

Second list–always hard to choose, I’d make ‘em all if I had time.
Popcorn Balls
Caramels
Sugar Cookies (my mom’s recipe)
Sugar Cookies (my grandma’s recipe)
Swedish Gingersnaps
Rosettes
plus recipes I’ve clipped from various places that sound yummy)

Here’s a variation of mine, I’ve been refining for several years. I think it’s merely ok but I’ve taken it to parties and had certain people park themselves around the plate and eat til the plate is empty while muttering Best. Cookie. EVER. (I don’t much care for chocolate, but some people seem to like the stuff.)

Spumoni Spritz

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1 small egg
1 square baking chocolate
1 tsp butter
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp rum butter extract
1 1/4 cup cake flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/16 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp mace

Cream together butter and sugar. Beat egg, add to butter/sugar. Melt chocolate with 1 tsp butter, cool slightly and add to previous ingredients. Stir in extracts. In separate bowl, sift together cake flour, baking powder, and spices. Stir by hand into butter/sugar mixture (using a mixer at flour stage makes cookies less tender). If necessary, add a little more flour JUST until dough holds together without being too sticky. Put in cookie press according to press directions. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes.

Happy baking everyone, and thanks to all who’ve shared recipes that I’m going to have to try.

May I poke my head above the parapet? If you’re like me, and feel deterred by the whole soften butter cream with sugar routine, here’s a recipe for Molasses Cookies in a jiffy. This is from the first Silver Palate, and it’s easy peasy because you melt the butter. The cookies are moist and chewy.

12 Tablespoons butter (1 1/2 sticks)
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
1 3/4 cups unbleached flour
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. Melt butter, add sugar and molasses, and mix thoroughly. Lightly beat egg and add to butter mixture; blend well.

3. Sift flour with spices, salt and baking soda, and add to first mixture; mix. Batter will be wet.

4. Lay a sheet of foil on a cookie sheet. Drop tablespoons of cookie batter on foil, leaving 3 inches between the cookies. They will spread during the baking.

5. Bake until cookies start to darken, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven while still soft. Let cool on foil.

24 very large flat cookies!

Hope this isn’t an EPU cookie recipe, but our tradition is to make the Ethel’s Sugar Cookie recipe from our old Betty Crocker cookbook, then use very detailed cookie cutters (like the Peanuts characters, angels, santas, candy canes, etc.) and make paintbrush cookies. Mix food coloring with egg yolk and a little water, use tiny paintbrushes to make little works of art on the cut (raw) cookies while you have tea and conversation around the table, then bake them. One year my mom painted plaid pants on all the gingerbread men.

These cookies were a specialty of my step Grandma who grew up “on the farm” in Wisconsin.

Little Raspberry Cookies

2 C flour
1/2 lb. Butter (do not substitute)
1/2 C granulated sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 C ground blanched almonds
Raspberry jelly
additional granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Cream butter, sugar and vanilla. Add flour and almonds ( do not over-mix to keep cookies tender) Roll out on lightly floured board and cut with tiny cookie cutters. Bake 10/12 minutes til set. Sandwich 2 cookies together with jelly and roll in white sugar.

Thanks for the recipe ideas, they all sound great.

Redshift @ 62
You can still get those. They call them ‘dragees’ on the label. They used to have, and probably still do have, real silver as the coating. Don’t eat too many. (Yeah, it’s fun. Just not a real good idea for kids.)

The favorite cookie in my family is oatmeal chocolate chip. (Almost enough oatmeal, nuts, and chocolate chips to actually be good for you.)

Christy Hardin Smith @ 120

OLD-FASHIONED MOLASSES SLICES

Christy’s molasses cookie recipe draws me out of lurkerhood once again.

The following is my family’s old stand-by Christmas cookie for the last 45 years. Number in parentheses in the recipe proper refer to the endnotes. Endnotes, you ask? Over time as I’ve given the recipe to friends and newly acquired relatives-by-marriage, I’ve added the notes, which result from those aforementioned 45 years of Baking The Cookie. Due to the length I’ll post those separately.

Molasses Jewel Box Cookies

1 cup butter or margarine (1)
1 cup light molasses
2 cups light brown sugar, packed
4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
teaspoon cinnamon (or a touch more)
3 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate, grated (2) finely (3)
(Optional) icing and decorations to your preferences

Cream shortening (4), add molasses and brown sugar. Mix/beat until light. Sift flour with baking soda and cinnamon; mix into creamed mixture and blend (5). Add chocolate and mix (6). Chill for at least four hours, or overnight.

Roll dough thinly (7) on lightly floured board. Cut (8) and place cookies on greased cookie sheet. (Or, use one of those silicone-coated baking mats that Martha so loves.)

Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Yield (according to the original recipe) is 14 dozen 2-inch cookies (9). Decorate as your holiday preferences and patience suggest. Yield does not reflect dough pilferage (10), which in our house is often significant.

As mentioned above, the notes on the Molasses Jewel Box cookie recipe. Perhaps my campaign to revive these cookies would fare better if I’d posted this about six hours ago.

(1) Meaning sweet (as in unsalted) butter. Please. Margarine is an affront to the chocolate.
(2) “Why must I grate the chocolate?” you inquire plaintively. “Why can’t I just melt it and combine it with the molasses and butter mixture?” Reason 1: it changes the consistency of the dough, making it impossibly sticky, and it’s plenty sticky as it is. Reason 2: the point of these cookies is that you get tiny little microscopic flecks of chocolate throughout the molasses cookie matrix, not an undifferentiated molasses-chocolate glob. Reason 3: because the good folk at Brer Rabbit Molasses (who put this recipe in an ad back in the Kennedy Administration) say so. Who are we to argue with the Way of Brer Rabbit?
(3) Finely? Yup. Hie thee to a cookware store and acquire a Microplane zester/grater, of the fine rather than coarse persuasion. They are the Platonic ideal of graters. They also make box and rotary versions. (And no, I don’t have a stake in the company. Pity.) Food processors seem to go straight from chocolate boulders to chocolate sauce, which, as you know from note 2, is not allowed.
(4) A word which here means “unsalted butter,” as prescribed in note 1.
(5) Easy for them to say. This dough is dense, kids. Be prepared for your mixer to throw a hissy fit, and require you to finish incorporating the flour by hand. Or switch to a dough hook, which works with my quite wimpy mixer. The only food processor I’ve ever tried this with is too underpowered to be a useful test.
(6) Now they’re just taunting us. See note 5. I combine the grated chocolate with the last cup or so of flour, and then add it to the dough, again, employing a dough hook rather than beaters.
(7) Did I mention that the dough is sticky? (Why, yes – note 2.) Here’s where that becomes an issue. Try and limit the amount of flour used on the board, or the cookies will emerge rather rocklike. I’ve tried a zillion rolling pins on this dough (wood, glass, stainless steel, aluminum, ceramic, Tupperware, Etruscan terracotta, the kind you fill with ice water, the ones with little sleeves, even silicone) and it sticks to all of them. I’ve never tried a marble pin; if you have one and it works, please let me know.
(8) Alternatively, one can form the dough into logs (or bricks) and cut it like refrigerator cookies. Use a sharp, fine-bladed knife, make thin slices, and keep the dough chilled. I’ve done this, and it’s faster, yet oddly unsatisfying. Also, putting a sliced surface on a cookie sheet seems to disable the encapsulation of the chocolate flecks, and the cookies burn more easily. They’re still really good.
(9) What twisted, soulless person makes nothing but 2-inch cookies? They lie – you won’t get 14 dozen.
(10) Disgusting though it may sound, this stuff is really good raw. And since it contains no eggs, hey, go wild. Just be prepared to not have any actual cookies at the end of the day.

C is for cookie
It’s good enough for me.

I, too, love to bake.
And I really, really love to bake cookies.

I have about a hundred recipes I got from epicurious. If you’re looking for a shortbread/butter cookie recipe try the one on their website from December 1995.

But the favorite in our house is a cookie recipe that’s rich and easy is hard to find on their website. It’s from March 1994 and it’s for DOUBLE-PEANUT DOUBLE-CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES . My kids love love love it.

The peanut butter in this dough creates a crumbly cookie.

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup chunky or creamy peanut butter
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup (6 ounces) peanut-butter chips

Preheat oven to 350F.
In a bowl whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and baking powder. In another bowl with an electric mixer cream butter, peanut butter, and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in flour mixture and stir in chocolate chips and peanut-butter chips.
Drop dough by level tablespoons 2 inches apart onto buttered baking sheets and bake cookies in batches in middle of oven 10 minutes. Cool cookies on racks.
Cookies keep in airtight containers 5 days.

Makes about 60 cookies.

I had this cookie a few years ago — a sort of cross between a sable and a Scottish shortbread. It had a butter pecan sort of flavor to it, but no discernable pieces of nut in the cookie. Maybe they were ground up fine, I dunno, but the flavor was subtle and yet discernable

This is my favorite cookie of all time, and it sounds very close to the one you describe:


Brown Sugar-Pecan Shortbread
( recipe taken from The Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook)

2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 cup pecan pieces
pinch salt 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup packed, dark brown sugar
Grind the flour, pecans, and salt in a food processor fitted with a steel blade, to a fine powder. Set aside.

Using an electric mixer or a wooden spoon, cream the butter and sugar. When the mixture is very smooth and creamy, mix in the pecan mixture.

Gather the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate at least 3 hours or overnight. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Roll out dough 1/4 inch thick on a lightly-floured surface. Cut into shapes with 1-inch cookie cutters. Gather up the scraps, reroll, and cut into as many cookies as possible.

Place on the prepared cookie sheets and bake until lightly coloured, 20 to 25 minutes.
Makes about 50 cookies.

Hi y’all. I’ve been missing PUAC the last month or so, been working Saturdays. I don’t know if anyone’s still on this thread, it’s 8:30 PM here in glorious central NJ. But I just want to share a great new book I got at the library: Whole Grain Baking by the King Arthur Flour company in Vermont. Six hundred pages of good stuff. I didn’t make cookies (no kids) but did make banana bread — very good. There is a 60-page chapter on Cookies and Bars (whatever Bars are). Anyway, check it out (literally). All whole-grain, wholesome recipes, no trans fats or other poisons, I think. Enjoy. (mmmm, Salted Cashew-Crunch Cookies; Soft Barley-Sugar Cookies; Soft Currant Drops; Chewy Oatmeal Cookies; Iced Orange Cookies; Russian Teacakes; Molasses-Rye Snaps; Scottish Shortbread . . . maybe I’ll try making one of these, kids or no . . .)