Sugar Cookie Frosting

Sometimes a cookie is fabulous just by itself.  For example, a great chocolate chip cookie or a chocolate crinkle cookie.  Nothing else is needed.  Sometimes, though, the cookie needs a little more to give it that umph.  Recently I made plain sugar cookies which were pretty good, but when I put two cookies together with frosting in between they moved up to really really good.

Here is the frosting I used:

Frosting for Sugar Cookies, or anything else!

4 cups confectioner's sugar (it is a good idea to sift the sugar if there are any lumps at all)
1/2 cup  butter that has been sitting at room temperature until softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-3 Tablespoons of milk


Mix the confectioner's sugar, butter (softened, remember!), vegetable shortening and vanilla in a bowl, adding milk a little at a time until the consistency is just what you want for spreading.

You could probably add another flavoring.  Some people like almond flavoring. I like it, too, but have had bad results depending on the almond extract.  Some almond extract is very concentrated making icing inedible if you use the same amount as a less fully-flavored extract.  If using additional flavorings, be smart and add only a little at a time, tasting to be sure you have not over-done it.

Soft Vanilla Sugar Cookies

One of my favorite YouTube food bloggers is Laura Vitale.  I just love the way she says, "This is Laura Vitale, Guys!"  Because I was invited to make some sugar cookies for an upcoming  Relief Society meeting, I thought I would check for soft sugar cookies (Dear One likes SOFT cookies) online.  There were several recipes I noticed that seemed good but I chose to make Laura's recipe.

Laura Vitale's Soft Vanilla Sugar Cookies

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder (Yes! 1/4 teaspoon)

3/4 cup butter at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Put parchment paper on two half-sheet pans.

In a large bowl or in your stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until they are light.  Add the eggs and vanilla and continue whisking/beating.   This will take about one to two minutes

In a separate bowl combine the flour, salt, and baking powder and mix well, then add in to the sugar/butter/egg mixture until well-combined but be gentle and quick...don't stir very long or you can toughen the cookies.  Not so much fun to eat tough cookies...

Using a 2-Tablespoon portion scoop or a heaping tablespoon, scoop out the dough and put no more than twelve cookie dough globs on each cookie sheet.  I bake them one at a time but if you want to cook two at once you MUST rotate the cookie sheets around half way through to cook them evenly.  

Bake 10-12 minutes.  My cookies, one sheet at a time needed 12 minutes to be baked.  They should be pale on top and lightly browned around the edges.  They are nice and soft with a tiny crisp circumference.

Because I tend to gild the lily, I decided to put some Wilton Candy Melts on top as an icing of sorts.  Also because I did not want a lot of dishes to wash (since I had already put the dishwasher running and I DEPLORE opening the dishwasher door after deciding it was full enough to set going, unlike SOME people in our home...) I put two different colors of candy melts in a cereal bowl and microwaved them for 30 seconds, stirred,  then for another 15 seconds.

 

At first I just drizzled some of the melted candy over the tops of some cookies but that was not appealing so I just spooned it on.  Well, I was getting ready to be done because I was afraid I would start eating them if I did not hurry.

This is what they looked like finished:

Not so hot to look at but since the kids that eat them receive them at 6 AM, they may possibly not be quite awake and are less likely to notice imperfections.  At least, that is what I tell myself...

Dear One came home and went right to the unfrosted cookies.  In moments they were gone.  I broke down and ate two of them myself.  R-r-r-r!  They did taste pretty good and the soft, yet crisp, is really a winning combination to my way of thinking, but I did NOT want to eat any.  Companionable eating/social eating is a very bad thing for some bodies...

Gingersnaps

Soon after I first met my husband he began building a log cabin.  I visited him there a few times and each time I noticed he had a bag of gingersnaps that he had purchased from some store.  These cookies were about an inch and a half across, were very spicy, and extremely hard.  After we had been married for some years I learned that he does not like hard/crisp cookies.  This recipe is chewy and delicious.  I found it originally on Better Homes and Gardens as Santa-Size Gingerbread Cookies but changed it slightly.

Gingersnaps

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
2 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)
3/4 cup softened butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg

 Mix together flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, if using in a bowl.

In the bowl of a stand mixer cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add in the brown sugar and molasses and beat until smooth. Add egg and beat again until well-mixed. 

Carefully add the flour mixture until well-combined then cover and refrigerate one hour.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Using a portion scoop (I used a 2-Tablespoon scoop), place balls of cookie dough on parchment paper lined cookie sheets 12 or 15 to each sheet about 2 inches apart.  Bake 10 minutes then check to see if the edges of the cookies are set.  They probably will not be so let bake another 2-3 minutes and check again. 

When the cookies are set, remove from oven and let sit on pan 10 minutes then remove to wire rack to cool completely. 

If you want, you can make a confectioner's sugar frosting:  1 cup sifted confectioner's sugar, 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract, and 1 Tablespoon milk mixed together.  If icing is too thick, add milk one teaspoon at a time.

Fat Molasses Cookies

Molasses cookies can be really yummy.  I found this recipe at Better Homes and Gardens' website.  Of course I made them right away.

Fat Molasses Cookies

5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup molasses
2 eggs
2 Tablespoons water
2 Tablespoons cider vinegar

Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside.  

In the bowl of a stand mixer beat shortening until creamed then add brown sugar and beat well, scraping sides of bowl. Add the molasses, eggs, water, and vinegar and beat until completely combined and smooth, cleaning the bowl sides again. It looks a little icky when you add the water and vinegar but continue beating and it will smooth out. 

Stir in the dry ingredients until well combined then cover bowl and refrigerate for an hour. 
 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Lightly flour your work surface and roll out half of the dough at one time to about 1/2 inch thick.  Cut with a floured cookie cutter and place cookies about 2 inches apart on parchment-lined cookie sheets.  You can sprinkle with sugar, coarse sugar, or crystallized ginger if you want to be fancy.  

Bake in preheated oven for about 10 minutes.  The edges need to be firm.  Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.

These cookies were eaten but without much enthusiasm.  They are very "flour-filled".  They definitely are fat, and they certainly are soft, but they were not very popular.

Easy "Sticky" Buns January 2016

Sticky Buns are always popular.  I was asked to make cinnamon buns for the kids and thought about sticky buns.  I went to multiple websites to see what was available for recipes.  Many of them were going to take hours and hours. Since I did not have life enough to spend that kind of time I made my own thing, at least partially.

For the cinnamon bun part of the sticky buns I used the Sixty Minute Cinnamon Roll recipe found on Grammie's Kitchen and Bedtime Stories.

For the sticky bun part, I used this:

1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup chopped walnuts

For the pan I used a non-stick spray to grease a 12-inch Wilton round 2-inch high cake pan.  Spread the melted butter in the bottom of the greased pan then sprinkle with the brown sugar and walnuts.

When the cinnamon buns are rolled up and ready for their final rise, carefully place them on the butter/brown sugar/walnuts and cover with a clean cloth to let them rise for 15-30 minutes. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 350 degress F.  Yes, let the oven heat at least 15 minutes, or as long as you let the buns rise.  You know your own oven.

Bake at 350 degrees F for about 20 minutes, then check every 2-3 minutes until the tops are lightly browned and the spot where the buns grew together looks rather pale still.  My oven took about 25 minutes to cook but I checked them after 15 minutes then kept adding 3 minutes to the timer until I was happy with them.

Remove from oven and let sit 4-5 minutes then turn over onto a cooling rack set on a large rimmed baking sheet.  This is a little bit tricky...place the rack and the baking sheet upside down over the buns then flip them over carefully.  Let them cool completely if you can.  At the bare minimum, do not eat any until at least 15 minutes have gone by or you will burn your mouth with the hot butter and sugar.

First reports on these buns came in: "They are "heaven"!"  That is something I have NEVER heard before.  I will take it!

NOTE:  as far as I am concerned, these are not really "sticky" buns because the sweet goo on the bottom of the buns is not true sticky goo and does not stick to your teeth.  I believe this is because I did not use a recipe that included corn syrup in it. If you want to make these, and make them actually sticky, better go online and find a recipe with corn syrup.

Overnight Cinnamon Raisin Baked French Toast

1 large loaf hefty bread...whole grain is best--really sturdy.  You don't want wimpy "Wonderbread"-like bread.  That will just be mushy and icky.
7 large eggs
2 cups cream
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar, divided
1 1/2 Tablespoons cinnamon, divided
1 cup raisins

Grease a 9 by 13 glass baking dish with butter or coconut oil.  Break the bread into large pieces and place in bottom of dish.  Mix together 1 Tablespoon of cinnamon with 1/2 cup sugar and sprinkle over the top of the bread. Sprinkle raisins over the cinnamon sugar bread.   In a large bowl combine eggs, remaining sugar, remaining cinnamon, cream and milk.  Stir well then pour evenly over bread pieces.  Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.  In morning, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and bake for 45-60 minutes, removing foil after 30 minutes.  Serve warm with boiled cider sauce or warmed maple syrup.


Boiled Cider Sauce

2 cups boiling water
1 cup sugar
3 1/2 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup boiled cider (you can make your own by boiling down 1 gallon (yes, gallon) of fresh apple cider to 2 cups of nice boiled cider)
4 Tablespoons butter

Mix the sugar and cornstarch together in a small bowl.  Bring water to a boil. Whisk the sugar/cornstarch mixture into the boiling water and continue stirring for about 3 minutes until mixture is thick.  Add the boiled cider after about one minute.  Remove from heat then stir in the butter until smooth.

Jam Rollups

One of the easiest early morning treats I have made was these jam rollups.

Take one tube of crescent roll dough and a jar of strawberry, or other, jam.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Put a parchment sheet on a cookie sheet.

Unroll the dough and split into the eight triangles that have been cut.  Take one teaspoon of jam and spread carefully on the larger end of the triangle then roll up into a nice crescent. 

Bake about 10 minutes.

Jam Rollups

 These look really good to me.  Too bad I won't get to try one...!

Pineapple Upside Down Muffins

This early morning food was inspired by the FridgeFood Diva!

FridgeFood is the link to the first place I found these enjoyable treats.

Pineapple Upside Down Muffins

1 box yellow cake mix
1 large can sliced pineapple rings
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1/3 cup butter, melted
2/3 cup brown sugar
12 maraschino cherries, cut in half.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Using up to 24 muffin cups, grease very well and set aside.

Cut each pineapple slice into 4 pieces and set aside.  Save the juice in a 2-cup measure. 

In large bowl stir cake mix, eggs, oil, and reserved juice.  Beat well.  If batter seems too thick, add a tiny bit of water.  You can do the mixing with an electric beater if you want. I did not.  I used a whisk to get a good arm workout.

In a small bowl, mix together the brown sugar and melted butter.  Place 1 1/2 teaspoon of this sweet mixture into the bottoms of the greased muffin cups.  Top each bit of mixture with 2 pineapple pieces then one cherry on top.

Using a 1/4 cup portion scoop, plop cake batter onto the cherry/pineapple/sugar/butter mixture.  Bake for 20-25 minutes.    Remove from oven and let cool on rack for 5 minutes ONLY, but do wait the full five minutes.  Run a knife around the edge of each muffin then flip the pan over onto a clean counter.  The muffins should fall out of the pan.  If they don't, you have a mess on your hands.  A sweet mess, but...

Look carefully to see the cherry in the center of each muffin...

These went over rather well.

Homemade Sausage for Biscuits and Gravy

Our local market has a very nice meat cutter.  Recently I was there and asked if he ever had any pork fat.  He said he could save some for me to use to make sausage.  About three weeks later I stopped by to inquire again and he handed me three very large trays of beautiful pork fat.  Time to make sausage.

How I did it:

2 pounds boneless pork chops, frozen solid, then removed from freezer and set on counter for 30 minutes.  Cut into half-inch cubes and pulse in food processor until the texture you like.

1 pound pork fat, chopped into smallish pieces and pulsed in food processor until about the same texture as the pork meat.

In large bowl mix meat, fat and

1 Tablespoon kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 1/2 teaspoons dried rosemary
1 Tablespoon poultry seasoning--can use straight sage if you want
1 Tablespoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoons sugar

Let the seasonings meld together with the meat for several hours or overnight.

Quick Cinnamon Buns

Here is another iteration of the Pillsbury Crescent Roll/cinnamon/sugar/butter story!

These are quick cinnamon buns.

Open can of crescent roll sheets and pinch together any "cut" parts to make one long sheet. 

Spread melted butter on top then sprinkle entire top with cinnamon sugar mixture.  Roll up from long edge just like regular cinnamon buns.  With seam side down, cut into twelve about 1-inch sections and place on parchment-lined cookie sheet.





Bake in preheated 375 degree F. oven for 10-15 minutes.  Check every couple of minutes to see if they are lightly browned.

Ready to serve...

Cool on rack then serve.

Nothing but crumbs leftover!  Successful early morning food...

These are well-received!

Quick Cinnamon Roll-ups

Cinnamon and sugar sell very well just about everywhere I have taken them.  They are especially enjoyed in the early morning here at home.  This morning I made another batch, a quick batch.  It is still to early to tell today as it is only 3 AM but they are cooked and ready to go...about the only nice thing about waking up in the middle of the night is time to make early morning food...

Cinnamon Roll-ups the way I made them this time:

1 can Pillsbury Crescent Roll Sheets
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, melted  (yes, I use real dairy butter)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Line a sheet pan/cookie sheet with waxed paper (or can use parchment paper.)

Lightly sprinkle flour on work surface.  Open can of crescent dough and roll out onto flour-covered surface.  Using a pizza cutter, cut into three strips the long way and two strips the short way so you have six squares of dough.  Now cut diagonally across each square to make 12 triangles.

With a pastry brush, brush butter onto the entire top of the dough.  In a small bowl, mix the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the surface, covering all the dough.  From the long end of each triangle roll each piece of dough into a crescent shape and place on paper-covered sheet.  Bake for 10-14 minutes, until set and lightly browned.

Remove from paper and place on cooling rack.  (You really do want to remove from the waxed paper while hot out of the oven because they have a tendency to stick to the paper due to sugar/cinnamon solidifying into rock...)

Sit back and watch the munchers enjoy.

Animal Cracker Crumb Crust

We have had a jar of animal crackers available to all comers for some little time now.  They do not seem to be decreasing in volume very much.  Several days ago I was listening to America's Test Kitchen Radio where they took a listener's call about crumb crusts, to cook or not.  (They said cook.) Bridget made a throw-away comment about using animal crackers so  I decided to try it!

The crust worked out very well, I thought.   I used Martha Stewart's recipe as a starting place:

6 ounces cookies

3 Tablespoons sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

5 Tablespoons unsalted melted butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a food processor, crush the cookies to fine crumbs….making about 1 ½ cups.  Add the sugar, salt, and butter and pulse until combined.

Firmly press into pie dish.  Bake until crust is dry and set, about 12 minutes.  Let cool completely on a wire rack before filling.

Since I wanted to use up the animal crackers, this was a perfect recipe because I could weigh them to come up with the crumbs.

This pie crust worked well, I thought, with a chocolate filling.

As it turned out, no one ate the pie...I suppose chocolate pie for breakfast is too out there for them.  Dear One and Son#4 were able to have some.  The crust turned out to be very crumbly making it more of an eat-with-a-spoon dish.  I ate one bite and found it was very nice.  As is frequently the case, I am in the minority 

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Pink Covered Cookies

Recently I was at Joann Fabrics and Crafts.  I found another Wilton mold that was deeply discounted since it was past Valentine's Day.  I grabbed it up, thinking it would be nice to try for next year.

Couldn't wait until next year!   I found some sandwich cookies to try out along with some "candy melts", though not the Wilton ones.  These were more candy for less money so I had my doubts but gave them a try.

This is what they looked like: 

As far as the molding process, this was not too hard.  You have to squish the cookies in, but not too hard, then top with more melted candy and shake the mold for the candy to cover the sides of the cookies.

So...I thought they were pretty successful.  My first concern came when Dear One got a glimpse of them.  He raised his eyebrows.  Yikes.  Well, I still put them out for the kids. 

The kids were a little concerned about the color, too, but by the second day of serving them, most of them were gone.  Guess I won't try that again...at least not bright pink ones.

Broken

It is always fun to try new things.  Well, fun after a fashion.  Sometimes things are successful and sometimes they are not.

The other day I was at Joann Fabrics and Crafts and found a Wilton silicon pink mold that I HAD to have. I was certain the seminary kids would love anything made in that mold.  Come to find out, that expectation was vain...

Well, they did turn out rather poorly so I can understand. I did not present them very well, either.

These were white candy melts, 5 in each cavity.  Next time I will do something a bit different....maybe they will get a better reception that time.

Because I am going to do something completely different next time, I will say no more about these failed treats.  Dear One seems to have less aversion to them...

Dipped Chocolates

At Relief Society we made dipped chocolates of all kinds.  The other ladies made very beautiful treats of fresh strawberries, pretzel sticks, cinnamon hearts, and other things.

Carefully and beautifully dipped treats.

 I brought mini Oreos.  I thought the Seminary kids might enjoy them.  I quickly made one pan full then turned the rest of the box over to the ladies. I did not want a large number of these treats lying around our house if the kids did not eat them.

Dipping chocolate the easy, cheap way is to take one bag of Wilton Candy Melts from Joann's Fabrics and Crafts or other craft store or department store and place it into a glass bowl.  Put in the microwave for one minute on defrost setting.  Remove bowl and stir candy melts.  Return to microwave and heat for 30 seconds more then stir again.  Repeat this process until all the candy is melted.

With the melted candy coating, dip your treat into it then lift out with a fork, tapping the fork on the side of the bowl to drop excess candy off the treat, then place dipped item onto a parchment or waxed paper covered cookie sheet.  Let sit until cooled and hardened.  (It is best not to eat ANY until the candy has hardened or you will have chocolate all over your face...a situation to be deplored if you find yourself out in public directly after dipping (and eating) treats.

Quick and sloppy, but VERY edible.  

These early morning treats went very quickly. 

Next time perhaps I will take more time and try to make them look better. I was actually more interested in the valentine-card-making part of the activity!

The Ever Popular Chocolate Chip Cookie

Chocolate chip cookies win the prize for second most-enjoyed early morning food (behind fresh cinnamon buns).  The original recipe I started from is here at a blog I really enjoy reading.

The recipe I used for today was:

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar, somewhat packed
2  eggs
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

Put flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a sieve and sift into a good-sized bowl and set aside.

In bowl of stand mixer, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Stir in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add in dry ingredients and stir until just incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts. Using a 1 1/2 Tablespoon portion scoop, scoop cookie dough onto prepared baking sheets.

Bake 10-12 minutes or until the edges are golden and the centers look just undercooked (they keep cooking for a moment after being removed from the oven). Remove from oven and cool before eating, if you can wait.  Otherwise, risk burns to  your mouth on the hot chocolate chips, but...it might be worth it.

 Do start checking the cookies for done-ness at ten minutes.  It took fourteen minutes to undercooked perfection in my oven.  Fifteen minutes is TOO LONG in my oven.  They are really cooked then but since they are most popular just barely cooked, people think they are burned when they are actually cooked through and nicely browned.  Go figure...

Savory Bites-2

Savory Bites from Book Group

1 1/2 cups cooked or 1 14 oz can) chick peas/garbanzo beans –I used canned chickpeas/garbanzos this time.  If you want to cook them from scratch,  you will need ½ cup beans which you soak in water overnight

1/2 cup quinoa (1 1/2 cups cooked)—can use millet

Sun-dried tomatoes—I used about 2 Tablespoons of julienned sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil that were in the bottom of the jar.  I filled the jar with hot water and let them sit for half an hour

1/2 cup red lentils—I used green ones which take longer to cook

1/2 tablespoon olive oil

1 small onion, diced

1 4.5-ounce can of chopped green chilies

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon paprika

1-2 teaspoons onion powder

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1/4 cup rolled oats

1 tablespoon spicy brown mustard

1/4 cup chickpea (besan) flour

1 egg

1 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Rinse quinoa in a FINE mesh strainer.  Add to a small saucepan with 1cup water.  Bring to a boil, stir, then reduce heat to low and let simmer for about 15 minutes, or until all the water is absorbed by the quinoa.

Pick over the lentils and discard any foreign matter. Rinse in a strainer then place in small pan with 2 cups water.  Bring to a boil, stir, then reduce heat to low and let simmer for about 20-30 minutes or until the lentils are soft.  Some types of lentils soften sooner than others.

Drain the can of chickpeas in a strainer then rinse well.  Place in a large bowl.

If you did not get chopped or julienned sundried tomatoes, place 4-6 of the tomatoes in a bowl and cover with boiling water.  Let sit about 30 minutes.  Drain, but save the water for another purpose.  Chop the tomatoes finely. (I did not chop the ones I used since they were already smallish.  I DID use the water in which I softened them.)

While all the cooking is going on, place all the seasonings in a small bowl and stir to mix them well.  This is especially important for the onion powder which will keep it from clumping when you add it to the bowl later.

Heat the olive oil in a small skillet then add the finely chopped onion.  Cook until the onion is softened.  Stir in the chilies, sundried tomatoes along with the soaking water, and stir well.  Add the seasonings and stir over medium heat until the soaking liquid has evaporated and the spices have developed more flavor.

Drain the lentils and put into the bowl with the chickpeas.  Drain the quinoa (just in case all the water was NOT absorbed) and add to the bowl with the lentils and chickpeas.  With a wooden spoon combine these ingredients well.  Add the onion, tomato, chilies, spice mixture to the bowl and stir until beautifully combined.  Using a potato masher or fork, mash the chickpeas.  (After the fact I realized I could have mashed them while the quinoa and lentils were cooking.  The original recipe did not call for this but I prefer my chick peas mashed.  You may be different. I do think there is potential for the bites to fall apart when cooked if the chickpeas are not mashed.)

Cover the bowl and refrigerate for about an hour.  In my case, it was near zero degrees Fahrenheit outside so I just set them on a table on the porch, but kept an eye out for marauding squirrels and hungry chickadees and woodpeckers.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Remove bowl from refrigerator and add the besan/chickpea flour and the egg and mix in thoroughly.  Using a 1 ½ Tablespoon portion scoop, scoop out mixture onto the baking sheet in neat rows.  With a fork, flatten the bites to about ½ inch in thickness.

Bake for 10-12 minutes then remove from oven and carefully turn over the bites and return to the oven to cook for another 10-12 minutes or until the bites are golden brown on top.

Plain Savory Bites ready to travel

These can be eaten plain, hot or room temperature, can be eaten with a nice dipping sauce if you want more calories/flavors in your diet, or can be the “burger” in a tiny slider with lettuce, tomato slice, thinly sliced onion, and mayonnaise or other topping.  Or maybe change the seasonings altogether to breakfast sausage seasoning and make breakfast sandwiches with sliced cheese, baby English muffins, and a round of omelet?

You can also shape them with a much larger portion scoop to make more “burger-like” sized bites, but then they will be burgers and not bites.  They will also be more difficult to turn over without smashing them into pieces.

If you REALLY want to add some fat to your diet, you can cook them in a cast iron skillet in which you have heated your favorite oil or grease (I think they would be great cooked in bacon grease, BUT no bacon here so no bacon grease…alas.) 

This recipe made about 30-35 bites. The original recipe purports to make 9-10 patties, which seems optimistic to me.

The original recipe is found here:

http://foodandspice.blogspot.com/2015/02/red-lentil-chickpea-and-millet-patties.html#more

PS  Like the other "savory bites" I served a while ago, these did not sell well. I think they needed the dipping sauce or breakfast sandwich ingredients.  Plain, I liked them fine. I guess I am a minority, except for our book group who did like them plain, too.

Mini Quiches

One of my new favorite bloggers is Laura Fuentes of Momables.comhttp://momables.com/.  This is filled with food for chidren/school lunches and other useful information.  She started a radio show in late 2014 where she interviews guests, which is very interesting even though we do not have young children in our home currently.

One of Laura's recipes that I like the idea of, is her mini quiches.  I have changed it though.

PACC Mini Quiches

1/2 cup cooked and crumbled country sausage
6 eggs
7 Tablespoons milk
1 cup shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black or white pepper, or more to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl whisk eggs together with milk then add remaining ingredients.  Using a small portion scoop, put the mixture evenly into the greased mini-muffin tin. Bake for 15-18 minutes.  Allow to cool in pan before removing carefully running a small butter knife around the edges. 

Reheat or serve cold or at room temperature.

Whoopie Pies

Whoopie pies are a lovely sweet treat, guaranteed to get the blood sugar up and running.  There are many recipes for whoopie pies on the internet.  I have reviewed several, tried several, then come up with my own conglomeration which was successful, at least judged by the empty plate.

Whoopie Pies

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Dutch-processed unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)
1 cup granulated white sugar
1 cup milk, whatever fat content you choose
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract, not imitation!

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.  Line two rimmed half sheet  pans/cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.  In mixer combine butter, sugar, and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat again until well incorporated.  In large bowl combine flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.  Whisk until well combined.  It is a good idea to actually put a sieve in the bowl first then sift the ingredients together through the sieve.  This will avoid biting into a chunk of baking soda what did not get well mixed in, a situation to be avoided at all costs.

With mixer running carefully dump in one-third of the flour mixture followed by one-third of the milk and mix for a few moments, then repeat two more times.  With a rubber scraper be sure to scrape down the sides of the mixer bowl between additions.

Using a 1 1/2 Tablespoon portion scoop, scoop out the batter onto the parchment-lined cookie sheet.  Bake for 12 - 15 minutes, checking at 12 minutes to see if the top is firm-ish.  Remove pan to a cooling rack and put in the second pan of whoopie pies.

When completely cool, add a spoonful of filling between two of the pies.  They go rather quickly.  If they do not get eaten immediately, store, covered, in the refrigerator.  They are best stored in a rigid container as they tend to lose the outside layer of cookie if you wrap them individually in plastic wrap.

Filling for Whoopie Pies

1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup real dairy butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar, SIFTED!!!
2 cups Marshmallow Fluff (I used the 7-ounce jar)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

In a large bowl, mix everything together.  Spread a spoonful on the flat side of one whoopie pie then top with another one.  

Special Morning Casserole

Recently I found a recipe that was meant to be a special Christmas morning recipe.  I think it was Food Fanatic who posted it.  Well, I have a vegetarian in the house so some changes needed to be made, so this is what I did.

Morning Casserole, Two Ways

10 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 package refrigerated biscuit dough --16-ounce size (I mean to try this with homemade biscuit dough soon...)
2 cups extra sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup grated sweet onion
6 slices bacon cooked and crumbled
1/2 cup baco-bits

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease two 8 x 8 glass pans.
In a good-sized bowl, place 5 eggs, 2 Tablespoons milk, 1 cup cheese, 1/4 cup grated onion (or less if you are not an onion fan), and stir well.  Add half of the biscuits which have been cut into 1 -1 1/2 inch pieces and gently stir again.  Add EITHER the crumbled bacon OR the baco-bits and stir well.
Place in oven and bake for about 25- 30 minutes.

Repeat in another bowl and add the other "meat".

This is really a tasty breakfast casserole.