Enjablog

Thursday started out with breakfast with Ian’s parents. I got my first stocking and have plenty of Christmas candy to last me until the new year. :)

Thursday afternoon was with Ian’s extended family. The big differences from previous years was the musical extravaganza and birthday cake for dessert. We sang happy birthday to Jesus. It was a fun day.

Did Christmas with my family on Boxing Day. There was dancing, more snorking, and bingo! Plus, Anna had a chance to enjoy the activity book I received the day before.

Mac & Cheese (I made this for Thanksgiving too, but forgot to link the recipe. Thanks to Anna for sending this to me!)

INGREDIENTS
For topping
1/2 stick unsalted butter
2 cups panko (coarse Japanese bread crumbs) or 3 cups coarse fresh bread crumbs (from 6 slices firm white sandwich bread)
1/4 pound coarsely grated extra-sharp Cheddar (1 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

For macaroni and sauce
1 stick unsalted butter
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
5 cups whole milk
1 pound coarsely grated extra-sharp Cheddar (6 cups)
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 pound elbow macaroni

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle.

Make topping:
Melt butter, then stir together with panko and topping cheeses in a bowl until combined well.

Make sauce:
Melt butter in a heavy medium saucepan over medium-low heat and stir in flour. Cook roux, stirring, 3 minutes, then whisk in milk. Bring sauce to a boil, whisking constantly, then simmer, whisking occasionally, 3 minutes. Stir in cheeses, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper until smooth. Remove from heat and cover surface of sauce with wax paper.

Make Macaroni:
Cook macaroni in a pasta pot of boiling salted water (2 tablespoons salt for 4 quarts water) until al dente. Reserve 1 cup cooking water and drain macaroni in a colander. Stir together macaroni, reserved cooking water, and sauce in a large bowl. Transfer to 2 buttered 2-quart shallow baking dishes.

Sprinkle topping evenly over macaroni and bake until golden and bubbling, 20 to 25 minutes.

NOTES: Add a tablespoon of mustard to the roux. I’ve been using progressively more pasta each time and I think for my taste, about a pound and a half of pasta with some ham mixed in was a good cheese ratio (can reduce final baking time to ~15 mins). I mixed whole wheat with regular rotinis and started that when I started the sauce and let it sit in the water to overcook the noodles until the sauce was ready.

Baked cookies today for the first time in months. I really need to resurrect the cookie exchange. Especially now that Sonny’s overseas again and needs a care package.

So, I made a rookie mistake today while baking. Don’t worry, I used the right amount of butter this time. I checked twice before I started, once as I was mixing, and again after I taste-tested for quality control and was just sitting in my room. I’m that paranoid about measuring butter.

Anyway, I took the first cookie sheet out of the oven, put the second sheet in, waited 2 minutes, then moved the first tray of cookies onto the cooling rack. I then rotated the cooling rack to the other counter and moved sheet #1 to the stove to refill so the other cooling rack would be ready for sheet #2 when it came out of the oven. Repeated: sheet #2 out of oven, sheet #1 back in, wait 2 minutes, move cookies. Then, I attempted to move sheet #2 to the stove… with my bare hand. And I whimpered like a dog that’s been kicked.

It felt like a full second that my hand was on the corner of the cookie sheet before my brain registered that I shouldn’t be touching that. It was seconds after I had whimpered, pulled my hand away, and Ian called from the other room to find out what had happened that I realized what a dumb move that was. Whoops. Put some ice on it, good as new.

I haven’t burned my hand baking cookies since junior year in college. And that was because I didn’t have an oven mitt. I grabbed the pan with a potholder and the potholder slipped just enough that my thumb was touching the pan, but I couldn’t do anything until I finished putting it down on the counter. (No way I’m dropping fresh-baked cookies. I’m not that big a wimp.)

The cookie sheets I have now are fantastic. My mom got them for me a few years ago. They’re thick aluminum like I see all the fancy people on Food Network use. Distributes the heat evenly and I have never burned cookies on those pans. But they also hold the heat in really well and I don’t use them often enough to make sure I remember. I guess I’ll remember a few weeks longer now.

Man, casseroles are so easy to make. I put this together for a party last weekend, but didn’t end up making/serving it, so I baked it up tonight and had way too much food for myself. But that’s ok. It was pretty good and sooo easy.

Hearty Tuna Casserole
INGREDIENTS
3 cups uncooked egg noodles
2 (6 ounce) cans tuna, drained
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/3 cup chopped green onions
1/3 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons prepared mustard
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 small zucchini, sliced
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 tomato, chopped

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 2 quart casserole dish.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add noodles, and cook until al dente; drain.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine noodles, tuna, celery, and green onion. Stir in sour cream, mustard, and mayonnaise. Season with salt and thyme. Spoon 1/2 of the noodle mixture into the prepared casserole dish. Arrange a layer of zucchini over the mixture. Top with the remaining noodles, followed by a layer of zucchini. Top the entire casserole with cheese.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until hot and bubbly. Sprinkle the casserole with tomatoes before serving.

Notes: I didn’t follow most of the recipe, so that might explain why it wasn’t as awesome as the reviews said it would be. I used regular noodles (whole wheat, actually, for most of it and a handful of regular noodles because I didn’t have enough), frozen veggie mix instead of celery, and no thyme. And I forgot the salt, but I didn’t notice a difference because I don’t salt my food much anyway.

I think next time I would put a layer of cheese between the noodle layers. I think this would also have made a good cold pasta salad.

QOTD: “If counseling were a competitive sport, I would totally win.”

It turns out salt is a key ingredient when baking. The recipe I was using had two columns of ingredients, except that the only ingredient in the second column was salt. I forgot the salt and found that my cookies came out thin with some air bubbles. This could be due to a number of reasons:

1. I had no rolling pin. I thought I had moved it with me, but it turns out I forgot it at Sonny’s place and haven’t had a need for it until now. The first tray, I used a drinking glass, which was ok, but wasn’t the right length, so it left some lines in the dough from the ends. I finally ended up using a wine bottle, which worked out really well.

2. I had no wax paper. You’d think with me planning to make cookies for 2 weeks I would have the necessary supplies when the time came. You’d be wrong. I ended up using freezer paper, which had a plastic coating on one side, so the dough didn’t stick to it. It was thicker than wax paper and not translucent, so it was hard to ensure there was a uniform thickness to the dough.

3. I forgot the salt. I’m not exactly clear on what that does, but I think it means that not all the CO2 that reacted from the baking powder was able to be released. Salt facilitates the release of carbon dioxide because it brings little air bubbles into the mixture that helps diffuse the CO2. Since the baking powder all reacted properly, but the gas couldn’t get out, the cookies didn’t rise and ended up with bubbles in them. (If someone has a better explanation, please share. I had difficulty finding a good explanation on the internet. *gasp*)

End result: not the best texture, but they still taste like regular cookies.

There’s a duck, a fish, a dog, a stegosaurus, left and right feet, a t-rex, and a bone:

With the final dough-ball, I made a kind of creepy-looking leprachaun and a gold coin:

Rich Rolled Sugar Cookies (from The Joy Of Cooking)

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup Unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup Sugar
1 large Egg
1/4 Tsp Baking powder
1/8 Tsp Salt
1 1/2 Tsp Vanilla
2 1/3 cups All-purpose flour

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease cookie sheets.
2. Beat the butter and sugar until very fluffy and well blended. Beat in egg, baking powder, salt, and vanilla. Stir in flour.
3. Divide the dough in half and roll out a scant 1/4-inch thick. Keeping the wax paper in place, layer the rolled dough on a tray and refrigerate for 20 to 30 minutes, or until cold and slightly firm but not hard.
4. Working with 1 portion of dough (leave the other refrigerated), cut out cookies, using 2- or 3-inch cutters. With a wide spatula, carefully transfer them from the wax paper to the cookie sheets, spacing about 1 inch apart.
5. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, in the upper third of the oven for 6 to 9 minutes, or until cookies are just slightly colored on top and slightly darker at the edges. Rotate sheets halfway through baking for even browning. Transfer sheets to wire racks and let cookies firm up, 1 to 2 minutes, Then transfer the cookies to wire racks and let stand until thoroughly cool.

Store, airtight, for 1 or 2 weeks, or freeze for up to 1 month.
This recipe yields 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 dozen 2 1/2- to 3 1/2-inch cookies.

Most of my weekend was filled with party preparations and entertaining for Ian’s birthday. There was a fantastic turnout with almost everyone on the guestlist attending. A group of Ian’s coworkers (including one that I know from VT somehow… though I haven’t figured out how yet), my sibs and roommates, the TJ crowd, and a few other friends.

The dynamic worked out pretty well. People made the effort to mingle for a while and then it kind of split with coworkers in the kitchen/dining room and nerds in the sitting area at the back of the living room. But everyone still close enough that they could overhear things like the Fortran conversation in the other group. Yeah, you’re really cool, guys.

It was a nice evening too. So even though the condo started getting really warm from the food cooking in the kitchen, people were able to go out on the balcony and leave the door open to get a nice breeze coming through.

Food… the usual appetizer stuff. Sonny brought over some Trader Ming’s orange chicken that he cooked up while people were arriving. So there was plenty of hot food for people to snack on. Didn’t get a picture of cakes, but I made a butter cake with vanilla frosting (Fashiongrrl got to frost her first cake!) and a chocolate mocha cake with chocolate frosting.

Lots of fun, but now I just need to clean up… ;)

Betty Crocker Chocolate Mocha Cake and Frosting
(From the Bake’n Fill Cake Pan booklet)

INGREDIENTS:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 2/3 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup baking cocoa
1 1/4 cups water
1 tbs instant espresso coffee (dry)
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs

DIRECTIONS:
1. In large bowl, beat all cake ingredients on low 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly.
2. Beat on high 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally.
3. Bake at 350 degrees, 25 minutes in three 8″ round cake pans.

Frosting:
2/3 cup whipping (heavy) cream
6 oz semisweet baking chocolate, chopped

DIRECTIONS:
1. In 1-qt saucepan, heat 2/3 cup whipping cream over low heat, stirring occasionally, until hot.
2. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate until melted.
3. Let stand about 5 minutes. Frosting is ready to use when it mounds slightly when dropped from spoon.

Notes: Used regular cake pans instead of the tall/dome cake pans. Make sure to grease pans well. Cakes did not want to come out. Filled in between layers with Chocolate Frosting that I used last time.

Substituted 2 tbl dry coffee instead of espresso. Used semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of baking chocolate (6 oz ~= 1 cup chocolate chips). Came out kind of syrupy, so I used it as a glaze, refrigerated after pouring some on, and added a second layer after the first had cooled and become easier to spread. I was later informed that I should have added additional chocolate to thicken.

Saturday afternoon, I baked a double batch of white morsel macadamia nut cookies. I had some macadamia nuts left over from last year when I last made these cookies and bought an extra bottle because I didn’t think I had enough left for the whole batch.

I started out by mixing the dry ingredients and confusing baking powder and baking soda. So, I had the wrong amounts of each in the mixture. I resolved that by adding some extra cream of tartar and pretending like it didn’t matter since I don’t usually measure anyway. Yeah, that makes it better.

Next, I found that my brown sugar had hardened in the unopened package. So, I had to microwave that and break up all the sugar chunks. After that everything mixed together fine… until I got to the macadamia nuts.

I needed to chop up some macadamia nuts, so I, of course, took one out of the bottle to “see if it was still good.” You know, the excuse you use when you want to sneak some of the ingredients into the belly fund. I didn’t actually think that nuts went bad. Yeah, yeah… There’s the saying that someone’s a bad nut or whatever. I thought that referred to nuts that were bad in the shell. Even so, I guess I was conceptually aware that nuts can be bad. I just never really experienced one.

So, I ate a macadamia nut and it didn’t have the nice usual crunch to it and then it had a weird after-taste. A little bitter; just a little off. Then, I did what I usually joke about only having done as a child: I ran to the closest person (Ian, in this case) and said, “This tastes funny. You try one.” And he did.

Consensus was reached and the old macadamia nuts were not to be used. The new nuts were used after successfully passing my “test.”

As expected, I looked it up on the intarweb. I found that nuts turn rancid when left out too long. Problems with nuts:

Whole nuts, still in their shells are less expensive and will last up to a year without going rancid; just be sure to keep them in a cool, dry place. Shelled nuts—especially picture of nuts if they’re roasted—may last longer if they are kept in the refrigerator. If you plan on storing them longer than six months, consider putting them in the freezer.

QOTD: “That’s why phone sex sells, but not erotic audio books.”

White Chip Island Cookies

INGREDIENTS
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
2 cups (12-ounce package) Nestle Toll House Premier White Morsels
1 cup flaked coconut, toasted if desired
3/4 cup macadamia nuts or walnuts, chopped

DIRECTIONS

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Beat in egg. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels, coconut and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake in preheated 375 degrees F oven for 8 to 11 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Interesting weekend… Had a half-day on Friday and went over to the parents’ to have lunch with my gramma. She, of course, gave me way too much food to eat and then sent me home with a week’s worth of leftovers (for dinner that night. right…).

While I was there, I was whining to my mom about burning my thumb. And she showed me her thumb (picture is on my dad’s camera, so I don’t have that for posting yet… you’ll just have to believe me for now), which also had a similar wound. We both burned our right thumbs at the knuckle last Wednesday night, which resulted in a small round wound about the diameter of a tictac. Weird.

Did date night with Ian Friday night and went out to Dominion for an adventure. Rt. 28 has changed a bit since I was last out there. A new exit was opened, which I didn’t even know they were working on. Everything else was the usual… Good food and drinks. We even got seated at the kiddie table in the corner again.

Ran some errands on Saturday… Stopped by Kohl’s for some tablecloths and clothing sales. I ended up buying some plates to use as serving dishes that matched the tablecloths simply because I liked that they were hokie colored. :) Maroon tablecloth with one maroon plate and one orange plate. They didn’t have any matching napkins left, so I’m going to have to keep an eye out for orange napkins if I can’t find maroon ones from that brand.

I also stopped by Linens ‘N’ Things to pick up a scale and a shiny, new can opener. Our old one broke and Ian had to resort to using the end part to poke triangular holes in a can top until he could get to the stuff inside… resulting in an 18-point throwing star when he was done. The new one is one of the side-cut ones which are extra safe. The scale is all fancy and tells me what my fat percentage and hydration percentage are. It also lets you have two profiles in it, so Ian and I can both maintain proper hydration. *Awesome*!

Sunday started with some baking, then brunch with Ian’s family. First gathering in a few weeks, so there was a lot of gossip to catch up on.

After that, headed over to Sonny’s Super Bowl party with a batch of Blondies. He was all stocked up on chips and snacks and cooked up a pot of cheese dip. It was ground chicken marinated in teryaki sauce, tomatoes, and velveeta. It was fantastic! (I hope he doesn’t mind me giving away his secret recipe.) I filled up on taquitos, chips, and cheese well before the first quarter was over.

Commecial highlights:
- FedEx (cavemen)
- Budlight (Hidden beer– I especially liked the guy punching holes in the wall… and still finding beer)
- Degree (Stunt City!)
- AmeriQuest (doctor kills fly)

Honorable mentions:
- Budlight (Secret Fridge)
- Burger King
- Emerald Nuts
- CareerBuilder (I understand)
- Aleve (Leonard Nimoy)
- MasterCard (MacGyver)

Rejects:
- Diet Pepsi for coming up with the ad campaign of “brown and bubbly”
- Hummer for having the most bizarre commercial ever and referring to their own product as a monster
- Go Daddy for making a new commercial just to show last year’s commercial again

Best Ever Chocolate-Free Blondies

INGREDIENTS:
* 3 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
* 1 cup unsalted butter
* 2 1/3 cups packed brown sugar
* 3 eggs, beaten
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 3 cups peanut butter chips
* 1 cup chopped pecans, toasted

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9×13 inch pan. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon (if desired); set aside.
2. In a large saucepan over low heat, melt butter. Stir in the brown sugar until dissolved and remove from heat. Allow the mixture to cool. Beat eggs into the mixture one at a time then stir in the vanilla. Mix in the sifted ingredients one third at a time, mixing just enough to blend. Fold in peanut butter chips and pecans. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven for chewy blondies, or 35 to 40 minutes for drier, firmer blondies. When done, you can either let them cool and cut into squares for serving, or you can scoop out a hot blondie and cover with vanilla ice cream for a real treat.

Notes: Do step 2 first and let that cool while measuring other ingredients. Didn’t have peanut butter chips, like I thought, so I ended up using butterscotch chips which were also really good. Only used 2 cups though (one bag). Didn’t really measure flour… probably ended up using about 3.5 cups. I baked for 30 minutes and they were already pretty firm on the edges (not burned though). Check at 25 mins next time.

Edit:

Well, happy new year’s eve… Welcoming the year of the dog! :)

Went out to Taquerio Poblano last night for TLD’s b-day. There were marguaritas, burritos, and tacos. Woo! (Don’t tell them, but I still like Chipotle better…) Everyone was still there waiting, even though I caused Ian and I to be almost an hour late.

Marble Cake

INGREDIENTS:
1 3/4 cups (170 grams) sifted cake flour
2 teaspoons (10 grams) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (3.5 grams) salt
1/3 cup (76 grams) unsalted butter
1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup (120 grams) milk
2 teaspoons (8 grams) pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 ounces (43 grams) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Grease a 9 inch (23 cm) cake pan then dust with flour, tapping out excess flour (or spray with a vegetable oil and flour spray, such as Baker’s Joy).

In a stainless steel bowl over a saucepan of simmering water melt the semisweet chocolate. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In bowl of electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until well blended (3-4 minutes). Add beaten eggs, a little at a time, mixing well after each addition.

With mixer on low speed alternately add flour mixture and milk to batter, beginning and ending with flour. Stir in vanilla extract.

After preparing batter, pour half of the batter into a bowl. Stir the melted chocolate into one half of the batter, blending well. Put the batter into the prepared pan by alternating spoons of vanilla batter and chocolate batter. With the end of a wooden spoon, gently draw swirls through the batter to marbleize it. Don’t overmix or you won’t have that wonderful marble affect.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the cake top is golden brown and springy to the touch.

Notes: Make sure butter is room temperature. Microwave worked just fine for melting the chocolate.

Chocolate Frosting
4 cups (460 grams) confectioners sugar (icing or powdered sugar), sifted
1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 tablespoons milk or light cream

4 ounces (120 grams) unsweetened chocolate (melted)
1 tablespoon milk.

In an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth and well blended. Add the vanilla extract. With the mixer on low speed, gradually beat in the sugar. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beater. Add the milk and beat on high speed until frosting is light and fluffy (about 3-4 minutes). Add l or 2 tablespoons more milk if too dry. Beat chocolate (melted) and additional milk into finished icing.

Cover the icing with plastic wrap to prevent drying until ready to use. Store it in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Re-whip before using.

Note: This made enough frosting to cover and fill a 2-layer 8″ cake.

Made this for the New Year’s Eve party last weekend. Recipe borrowed from Ben, but I did chicken instead of pork:

BBQ Pork
INGREDIENTS:
4-6lbs of meat
1/2 bottle of BBQ sauce
1 large onion
1/4 cup vinegar
garlic and pepper to taste (optional)

DIRECTIONS:
coursely chop up onions and put them in first
pour in the vinegar
put the meat on top
pour 1/2 of the bottle of BBQ sauce on top of the meat
cook on low for 6-8 hours. (until it falls apart when you try to lift it).

Take it out of the pot.
Shred the meat with forks.
Pour some more BBQ sauce on if you want.

Note: I find pork shoulder to work the best, with the least amount of fat.

Thursday night, Ted had a little get-together at Olive Garden. I met a few new people and saw Mindless again. Friday night was date night with Ian. We got to go to Sweetwater Tavern, which we haven’t done in a while (thanks to Jas!). Afterward, we headed over to watch King Kong. So scary, but good. I won’t say anything else to ruin the story, except for this: there is a large ape who fights dinosaurs. How could this movie not be awesome?

Saturday was filled with baking! I hung out with Ian’s family for the majority of the day baking festive holiday cookies. There were almond tree cookies, rolled sugar cookies (snowpeople, reindeer, trees, holly, stars, candles, candy canes, Santa mail, ornaments, bells, and Bilbo dogs), Danish crullers, and rum balls. They also decided this was the year to make triple batches instead of their traditional double batch. It was so exciting!

After we finished up for the evening, Ian and I headed home to bake a cake for his family’s Christmas. I, of course, didn’t plan for it, so we had to go on an adventure finding a store that was open. No grocery stores were left open, so I couldn’t get box cake or frosting, so I had to resort to making stuff from scratch. We did luck out and found ice cream at the CVS near us, though.

I got to use my brand new Betty Crocker Bake ‘n Fill from Squidgey and created an ornament ice cream cake with a sugar cookie candy cane for a hook. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of it, but it got an awesome response, so I’ll be sure to take a picture next time. It was a butter cake filled with mint chocolate chip ice cream, green frosting on the outside, and decorated with Hershey’s hugs and kisses.

Butter Cake
INGREDIENTS:
* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 cup butter
* 1 cup white sugar
* 2 eggs
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 3/4 cup milk

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease one 8 inch square baking pan. Line bottom with wax paper or dust lightly with flour.
2. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder.
3. Cream the butter and blend in the white sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Beat until light and fluffy. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the creamed mixture alternately with the milk. Stir until just blended. Pour batter into prepared pan.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 50 to 55 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Remove from pan and allow it to cool.
5. Variation: Blueberry Cake; Add 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg to your dry ingredients and stir in 1 cup fresh blueberries into the batter before you bake it. Cut it into squares while it is still hot.

Note: For dome cake, 1.5 recipe and follow baking instructrions from booklet.

Frosting (modified)
INGREDIENTS:
4 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
food coloring, if desired

DIRECTIONS:
1. Combine ingredients in medium bowl.
2. Mix with fork or mixer.

Note: combine with fork until most of the sugar is moist before using mixer. Add more milk as necessary

Friendmas is tonight! 9pm at the HOY if you are a friend. I’m bringing cookies and there are rumors of eggnog. :)

Raspberry and Almond Shortbread Thumbprints
Original recipe yield: 3 dozen.

INGREDIENTS:

* 1 cup butter, softened
* 2/3 cup white sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam

* 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
* 3/4 teaspoon almond extract
* 1 teaspoon milk

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, cream together butter and white sugar until smooth. Mix in 1/2 teaspoon almond extract. Mix in flour until dough comes together. Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls, and place on ungreased cookie sheets. Make a small hole in the center of each ball, using your thumb and finger, and fill the hole with preserves.
3. Bake for 14 to 18 minutes in preheated oven, or until lightly browned. Let cool 1 minute on the cookie sheet.
4. In a medium bowl, mix together the confectioners’ sugar, 3/4 teaspoon almond extract, and milk until smooth. Drizzle lightly over warm cookies.

Note: Cookies expand a little, so make smaller (1″) cookies in order to yield 3 dozen. Used strawberry preserves on half and hershey kisses/hugs on others. The preserves I used didn’t melt/spread as much as the cookie dough, so the thumbprint could be slightly more than just filled without overflowing. Bake dough balls for the kisses and take them out 2 minutes before done, put in kisses, and then bake for remaining time. Hugs have a lower melting point, so shouldn’t be left in as long.

So the green cake I made this weekend went over alright. They could still recognize that it was cake. Responses were luke warm to positive and they said it tasted like pear. I don’t know what to do about that… but that’s what they said.

Raspberry Cake (Strawberries and Cream modified)

2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/4 cups white sugar
1 (3 ounce) package raspberry flavored gelatin
3/4 cup butter, softened
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup raspberries, pureed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 9″x13″ cake pan.
In a large bowl, beat sugar, gelatin and butter until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition. Mix flour and baking powder, and beat alternately with the milk into the sugar mixture. Fold in vanilla and pureed raspberries. Pour into cake pan.
Bake 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then remove from pan and cool completely.

Note: “Wild berry” Jell-o is blue. When mixed with eggs, cake turns green. Go science!

P.S. Happy birthday, eepie! :)

Deep Fried Oreos
Ingredients:
1 (20 ounce) package Oreo cookies
2 cups Bisquick
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
3 teaspoons oil
vegetable oil (enough for deep frying)

Directions:
1. Mix Bisquick, eggs, milk, and oil.
2. Preheat deep fryer to 375 degrees.
3. Coat cookies in batter and fry until brown.

Notes: Used Double Stuf Oreos to increase the surface area to batter. Also made deep fried twinkies with this batter. Just freeze twinkies for a few hours or overnight, then insert popsicle stick or wooden skewer before frying.
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Deep Fried Sweet Potato Fries

Ingredients:
Sweet Potatoes
salt
vegetable oil (enough for deep frying)

Directions:
1. Cut sweet potatoes to preferred size.
2. Boil in water for 5 minutes or until starting to soften, drain.
3. Deep fry at 350 degrees for 1 minute or until you want to eat them.
4. Salt to taste.

Note: We didn’t actually have a recipe, but it seemed like an easy enough adventure. There were also suggestions to sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar, but we did not try that. We chose not to peel the sweet potatoes (mostly because I’m lazy) and it worked out fine.
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Cornbread

INGREDIENTS:
* 2 cups cornmeal
* 2 1/2 cups milk
* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 tablespoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 2/3 cup white sugar
* 2 eggs
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). In a small bowl, combine corn meal and milk; let stand for 5 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Mix in the cornmeal mixture, eggs and oil until smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the cornbread comes out clean.

Notes: Used self-rising cornmeal, which means no additional baking powder or salt. Added one can of creamed sweet corn. Very moist.
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Baked Ziti

Ingredients:
1 pkg. (16 oz.) ziti pasta
1 jar (26 oz.) spaghetti sauce
1 container (15 oz.) Ricotta Cheese
1 pkg. (8 oz.) Shredded Mozzarella Cheese, divided
1/4 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese

Directions:
PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Cook pasta as directed on package. Drain pasta, reserving 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water.
MIX spaghetti sauce, ricotta cheese and reserved 1/2 cup pasta cooking water in large bowl. Add pasta and 1/2 cup of the mozzarella cheese; mix lightly. Spoon into 13×9-inch baking dish sprayed with cooking spray; sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese and the Parmesan cheese. Cover.
BAKE 30 min.; uncover. Bake an additional 10 min. or until heated through.

Note: For all the people who were curious about my secret ingredient: I used penne pasta. *gasp*
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Party Potatoes

Ingredients:
3 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/2 -inch chunks
9 tablespoons unsalted butter
8 ounces low-fat cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup low-fat sour cream, at room temperature
2/3 cup 2 percent milk, warmed
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Sweet paprika

Directions:
1. Place the potatoes in a large saucepan with enough cold, salted water to cover them by at least an inch. Bring to a boil on high heat, then reduce to medium, partially cover and cook until the potatoes are tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Drain and return the potatoes to the pot. Set over medium heat for a minute or two, shaking or stirring so the potatoes don’t stick, until they are floury and have made a film on the bottom of the pot.

2. Transfer the potatoes to a large bowl. Using a hand-held electric mixer on low speed, break up the pieces. Cut 6 tablespoons of the butter into 1/2 -inch pieces and add to the potatoes, beating until the butter is absorbed. Add the cream cheese and sour cream, beating well after each addition. Add a little of the warmed milk at a time (it may not all be needed), beating until the potatoes are light and fluffy. Add salt and pepper to taste.

3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

4. Grease a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with 1 tablespoon of the butter. Spoon the potatoes into the dish and smooth the top. With a spatula or fork tines, swirl or score the surface of the potatoes to leave little peaks that will brown up during baking.

5. Sprinkle paprika to taste on top of the potatoes. Cut the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter into small pieces and scatter them over the surface. Bake until the potatoes are heated through and the top is lightly golden, about 30 minutes. Serve hot.

MAKE AHEAD: They can be prepared up to 2 days in advance and stored, tightly covered in plastic wrap and refrigerated. Bring to room temperature and finish in the oven while the roast turkey is waiting to be carved.
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LOTD: Dr Laura and Leviticus
1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can’t I own Canadians?

2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

Did a date night thing [with Ian] on Friday night and went out to Dominion for the evening. Came back and watched Sideways. I was unimpressed. None of the characters were likeable (I’m not even sure if they were supposed to be…) and the whole pinot/merlot thing got too overplayed by the 2 million yuppies who watched before me, so that was just annoying. Eh. Overrated.

Saturday was a pretty lazy day. Did some sudoku, reading, and baked a cake. I downloaded sudoku to my visor and I am totally addicted now. I found some pumpkin cheesecake recipes and picked the one that looked the easiest to test out for Thanksgiving. It turned out quite well, I think. And it worked out well because I made it in time for Ian’s Sunday family dinner thing, which, this week, included Ian’s brother’s girlfriend’s family. (I’ll give you a second to follow that chain all the way through.)

Ready? Ok.

So, Saturday was Ian’s brother’s girlfriend’s father’s birthday and then they had the dinner thing on Sunday, so it was experimental Thanksgiving birthday cheesecake. Woo!

Went out on Sunday before the dinner to watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Oh, it was so good. I haven’t seen a movie in so long that made me laugh that much. Granted, I have a weird sense of humor. And Ian kept telling me that I was Grandma Georgina. But I do like grapes!

QOTD:

“i made out with 2 different girls on halloween”
“at the same time?”
“no, serial”*

*5 points to whoever can guess the person being quoted

Marbled Pumpkin Cheesecake
INGREDIENTS:
* 1 1/2 cups crushed gingersnap cookies
* 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
* 1/3 cup butter, melted

* 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
* 3/4 cup white sugar, divided
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 3 eggs
* 1 cup canned pumpkin
* 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a medium bowl, mix together the crushed gingersnap cookies, pecans, and butter. Press into the bottom, and about 1 inch up the sides of a 9 inch springform pan. Bake crust 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Set aside to cool.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, and vanilla just until smooth. Mix in eggs one at a time, blending well after each. Set aside 1 cup of the mixture. Blend 1/4 cup sugar, pumpkin, cinnamon, and nutmeg into the remaining mixture.
3. Spread the pumpkin flavored batter into the crust, and drop the plain batter by spoonfuls onto the top. Swirl with a knife to create a marbled effect.
4. Bake 55 minutes in the preheated oven, or until filling is set. Run a knife around the edge of the pan. Allow to cool before removing pan rim. Chill for at least 4 hours before serving.

Notes: Replaced 1 package of cream cheese with non-fat stuff and only baked the crust for about 5-8 minutes. Swirl after each spoonful, or spread/swirl in layers. Do not shake the cinnamon so hard that you spill half the bottle.

I had forgotten until yesterday evening that the Hokies were playing last night. I think that explains the disproportionate number of people wearing Hokie paraphanalia at Wegmans. I’m still not ok with mini-Vick, but good job in the game.

Other happenings this weekend… Went to NJ for my sis’s b-day and hung out with the relatives. Too bad my mom wasn’t home when we stopped by before leaving for our adventure. My sister, after all, does owe her mother a lot of carrying her around all those months so she could be a viable human. Hehe… Anyway, picked up Ian and then off to NJ.

Friday was pretty mellow. We got a tour of our relatives’ new house. Hung around in their community club house and spent the evening at Wegmans (of Princeton) and Kohl’s. (I got a brand new, shiny springform pan! It’s so awesome. Cake pan with moving parts. How fancy can you get?)

Saturday, we went shopping for window treatments for my sister’s new windows. Wandered two malls, then wandered Philadelphia, while waiting for my cousin to finish up with work. Met up with him and my uncle to go over to Lemon Grass Thai Restaurant and had dinner. Very tasty.

Sunday, came back and did the family dinner thang with Ian’s family. Oh, and on the way back, I tried Burger King’s Veggie Burger. It’s pretty good. I especially liked the wrapper, which proudly stated: “100% Beef.” Brought Biscuit Tortoni ice cream for dessert. We came up with this at the last minute, so the ice cream that we got from the store wasn’t frozen enough and it was still a little soupy when we served it, but it still tasted alright.

And that’s about it. Spending the day today in DC and being a city-girl or something. Later! :) -j.

Biscuit Tortoni

INGREDIENTS:
* 1/2 cup chopped blanched almonds
* 5 ounces amarettini cookies
* 3 tablespoons dark rum
* 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
* 1 cup heavy cream, chilled
* 3 tablespoons brandy
* 1 quart vanilla ice cream, softened

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven or toaster oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Place chopped almonds on a tray and toast in preheated oven until lightly colored and fragrant, 5 to 8 minutes. Let cool completely.
3. Crumble the cookies into 1/2 inch pieces by wrapping in a tea towel and tapping lightly with a rolling pin or mallet. Do not crush into small pieces. Place crumbled cookies in a medium bowl and sprinkle with rum. Toss with almonds and chocolate chips. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl, beat cream with an electric mixer until thickened. Pour in brandy and beat until soft peaks form. Spoon whipped cream over cookie mixture. In whipped cream bowl, now beat ice cream just until softened (with a flat whip, if available). Fold cookie and cream mixture into ice cream. Freeze until serving.