Gifts from the kitchen... And, the Interwebs.

I love the Internet. Brilliant ideas, information. Love it. This brilliant lady made fresh Christmas potpourri, and so I did this... I added whole cloves to mine (about 1 Tablespoon).

And, my friends loved it. LOVED.

And, this brilliant lady shared this recipe for Primal Chocolate Chip Cookies, and they are the only kind I make anymore. They're that good. And, our family isn't even gluten free, but healthier cookies are a winner, especially when they taste great. 

I do make mine with COLD butter rather than palm shortening (or coconut oil when I make them for vegan friends). 

They're made with almond meal, butter, honey, vanilla, salt, and baking soda. That's it. I know the recipe by heart. Oh, and they're made in the food processor. I only stir the chocolate chips in by hand at the end. 

Aren't they pretty? 

And, perhaps most exciting of all this year... On The Rocks, the casual dining restaurant/bar on Kailua-Kona Bay in Kona, HI, shared the recipe for their Famous Mai Tai on their blog this month. If I close my eyes, it's just like I'm right there with my feet in the sand sipping on one while listening to some amazing live tunes on a ukulele!

Go to their site to see this recipe and more... Be sure to try out all of their cocktails! Open for happy hour daily from 3 – 5PM!  See you On the Rocks!   Be Social!! Or, just whip it up for gifts:

Huggoʻs Famous Mai Tai
1/2 oz of white rum
Mai Tai Mix – 1/2 inch from top
Float Dark Rum on top (about 1.5 oz.)
Served On the Rocks with 12″ straw
Garnish with a fresh pineapple wedge, lime wedge and umbrella!

For Mai Tai Mix (by the Gallon)
1.5 cans of Pineapple Juice
1 qt Orange Juice
12 ox Orgeat syrup
12 oz Orange Curacao

Coconut-free Santas

And, the white cotton candy has only two ingredients: Sugar and artificial flavor. Strawberry flavored. The kids are so excited. Personally, I prefer the coconut beard.

Girl Scout Cookie Recipes: A Trio of Tasty Treats

Girl Scout Cookie Recipes:  A Trio of Tasty Treats

I've been wanting to participate in the Girl Scout's of Western Washington cookie recipe contest for the last couple years, and this year the timing finally worked out for me! Instead of using the top three sellers:  Thin Mints, Samoas, and Tagalongs, I decided to see if I could come up with something delicious to do with the other three of our Super Six flavors:  Savannah Smiles, Trefoils and Do-si-dos.

After tossing around a few ideas, I decided to go with fairly simple classic recipe ideas that my Brownie troop could make, using the cookie crumbs from each flavor as a major ingredient in each recipe. I also wanted recipes that would be amazing as a trio of Christmas treats this year (I'll just have to freeze a bunch of boxes for December!) The top three recipes I came up with are Chocolate Do-si-dos Truffles, Savannah Smiles Lemon Bars, and Trefoils Campfire Bars.

And the verdict on favorites after taste-testing? Savannah Smiles Lemon Bars are the winner with kids and adult testers! The kid-favorite (likely for the sweetness) are the Trefoil Campfire Bars, and the runner-up for adults was the Do-Si-Do Truffles.

Savannah Smiles Lemon Bars

My first pan of these were pucker-up lemony and almost too lemony for me, which is really saying something! I toned it down a little by reducing the lemon extract - I used one teaspoon in the original... (although you could eliminate it, or replace completely with vanilla). Either way, Savannah Smiles make an amazing crust. I am going to replace my usual graham cracker crust with this version for Key Lime Pie too!


Preheat oven to 375-degrees F, and grease an 8x8-inch baking pan

Crust
1 box of Savannah Smiles cookies, pulsed in food processor to fine crumbs
1 Tbs. sugar
4 Tbs. melted butter

Mix crumbs, sugar and melted butter and press into bottom of pan. Bake at 375-degrees for about 6 minutes or until golden and fragrant. Mix filling while crust bakes, and reduce oven temperature to 350-degrees F when you remove crust.

Lemon Filling
2 large organic lemons (zest and juice of both, you should have between 1/2 and 2/3 cup of juice)
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. lemon extract
2 Tbs. heavy cream
2 Tbs. corn starch

Powdered sugar to serve

First, wash lemons in warm water (they yield more juice), then zest both lemons. Slice lemons in half and juice both, removing any seeds. Pour juice into bowl and whisk in eggs, sugar, lemon zest, and extracts until blended. Next, in a separate mixing cup, combine the cream and corn starch until smooth, then add to the rest of the filling mixture. Pour filling into warm crust and bake in a 350-degree F oven for about 25 minutes or until filling is mostly firm, only slightly jiggly when pan in shaken. Remove from oven, cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar, slice and enjoy!


Trefoils Campfire Bars
I made a pan of S'mores bars years ago for a barbecue that were a big hit, so I wanted to incorporate Trefoils cookies into the dough for these bars instead of graham crackers. Plus, I added whole wheat pastry flour and dark brown sugar for great flavor.

Preheat oven to 350-degrees F and grease an 8x8-inch baking pan

1 sleeve Trefoils cookies, pulsed in food processor to fine crumbs
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 egg
2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 7-oz. jar of Jet-Puffed marshmallow creme (I used about 1/2 of a 13 oz. jar...)

Your favorite s'mores chocolate - I used three 1.45 oz of Hershey's Special Dark chocolate, but you could use any variety. I go with dark to balance the sweetness.  

Pour cookie crumbs into mixer bowl, and add all other dough ingredients. Blend until combine into a soft dough. Divide dough in half, pressing one half into the bottom of a greased 8x8-inch baking pan. Next, gently spread 7 oz. of marshmallow cream onto dough. Then cover the marshmallow cream layer with chocolate. Last, flatten pieces of the remaining dough to cover the chocolate layer.

Bake at 350-degrees for about 30 minutes, or until golden (chocolate and/or marshmallow may be bubbling up/out of top - that's fine!) Cool slightly, slice and enjoy warm with your favorite camp songs or stories! Linger over the deliciousness!


Chocolate Do-si-dos Truffles
makes about 30 

These look like those delicious peanut butter balls that your grandma makes, but are quick and really delicious! Easy as 1, 2, 3...

1 box Do-si-dos sandwich cookies, pulsed in a food processor to fine crumbs
2 Tbs. heavy cream
3 Tbs. natural style creamy peanut butter
4 oz. softened cream cheese
1/8 tsp. salt
1 11.5-oz. bag of high-quality milk chocolate chips, melted

Pulse the cookies in a food processor to a fine crumb. I did one sleeve at a time since I have a smaller bowl on my machine. Pour crumbs into mixer and add cream, softened cream cheese, peanut butter and salt. Blend until a smooth ball forms.

Melt chocolate chips in microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring after each until smooth. Time varies by microwave. Scoop walnut-sized balls of peanut butter mixture and roll into ball, then dip into melted chocolate. Place onto waxed paper-lined plate and chill until chocolate is firm. Enjoy!

You can also try these as peanut butter cups in mini-muffin pans, or roll the balls in finely ground peanuts. My taste testers' favorite version were the traditional truffle-like chocolate-covered version.

Preserved Lemons & Cosmo Liqueur...

... for Christmas gifts. I made a lamb tangine with some preserved lemon for New Year's Eve dinner, and a Moroccan stew the next week. Heavenly. Amazing. These may be my new holiday gifts. Who needs baked-goods anyway when you can have excellent cooking & cocktail ingredients? 

Beautiful Salad

This kale salad is slightly adapted from Dr. Weil's recipe, and is amazing. I first made it last Thanksgiving, and have made it countless times since. It is similar to Caesar, but features gorgeous Lacinato Kale (or Tuscan/Italian Kale), is easy to make ahead and holds up well as a leftover salad too. I've also had numerous friends ask me why this recipe isn't on my cooking blog yet, so... Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve dinner:  Finnish ham, rye crisp with herring roe, kale salad,
purple potato with pickled herring, sourdough rye bread with Finnish cheese and Two Vines Chardonnay

Kale Salad

5-6 cups chopped kale, ribs removed (or a triple-washed package of baby kale)
Juice from 1 large lemon, or two small lemons
4-5 Tbs. olive oil (truffled olive oil from Trader Joe's is amazing in this)
4 cloves pressed, fresh, garlic
Kosher or sea salt (to taste)
lemon pepper (or Penzey's Sunny Spain) to taste
3/4 cup shaved or grated Parmesan, Asiago, or other hard, flavorful cheese
1/2 cup panko crumbs (optional)

Whisk the fresh-squeezed lemon juice, olive oil, pressed garlic and seasonings in a large salad bowl, then add all but 1/4 cup of the Parmesan cheese and whisk again. Let sit for at least 5 minutes, then mix in the panko crumbs (if using) just before serving, and top with remaining Parmesan. Enjoy!! 

Wordless Wednesday: Of Mice and Men...

*Nearly wordless... I tinted the dough for the mice to be light brown this year, tinted the crowns gold and rolled yellow colored-sugar into them before cutting out. We did white cotton-candy (strawberry flavored) or white & pink non-pareils for the Santa beards since Joy is allergic to coconut, and most of the kids don't like it anyway.

Bûche de Noël - 2011

Key-lime filled, tinted-whipped-cream frosted jelly-roll Bûche de Noël this year for 2011. I decorated it solo, since the kids were busy playing games with Grammy, Ukki and Papa.

It really is the very best recipe for a jelly roll, is from Daisy Martinez, and rolls nicely from either the short or long end (I used the long end for the Yule Log). I also trim the sides before rolling, which makes everything nice and neat.

Santa in Ski Goggles & Nutcracker Mice

Baked all weekend, and am just ready for some R&R now. Will post recipes (including one for the perfect Madeline cookies) when I have time (which might not be this week, judging from the calendar).
Italian Cucidatti (filled fig-orange-cocoa) cookies, Rugelach, Chocolate Cherry cookies, Play Dough cookie cutouts, Light Chai Shortbread Slices, Nutcracker Mice and Santa, Coconut Macaroons, Snickers-filled Peanut Butter cookies, Play Dough shaped-trees cookies, Madeline cookies, and Oatmeal Coconut cookies. That's all for now.

Bûche de Noël - 2010

Madeline helped decorate the Bûche de Noël this year, and enjoyed making the snow on it very much. We also decorated with a small leaf cookie cutter cut-outs of sugar-cookie flavored holiday Peeps (got two leaves from each Peep), candy berries, M&M's and fresh Lady Apples. I used the usual recipe this year, but replaced the crushed candy canes with finely chopped candied orange peel. It was fabulous.

Nutcracker Sweet

Every year since Madeline was two, we've gone to the Nutcracker in Seattle with Jamie, her sisters and nieces. It's amazing. Maurice Sendak sets, stellar music, magical dancing, beautiful costumes. The best. This year will be Mads' third time, and she's really excited. And, about a month ago I saw a great idea for "Nutcracker Sweets" in Parents Magazine. My favorite of the sweets was a Mouse King Cookie Pop (they put them on sticks, and being who I am, I actually have cookie sticks in my house). So... tonight, the kids enthusiastically dove in to helping with construction of these cookies. We made some regular cookies and some as "pops," and three with brown little mouse noses too.
We'll be sharing these with our buddies tomorrow! I used 1/2 the recipe for the play dough sugar cookie dough for these, and as the Parents Magazine did, we baked the crowns separately (tinted the dough for the crowns yellow), sprinkled them with yellow sugar, and attached them when decorating. You form the crowns freehand by cutting a 1x2-inch rectangle and then shaping a zigzag top with a paring knife—voila! A crown! Jelly Belly jellybeans are the noses, and melted chocolate candy melts acted as our "glue" and drawing medium! You can find cookie/candy sticks at most craft stores, or anywhere Wilton decorating supplies are sold.

Using It All...

This is the "greenest" recipe ever. Seriously. Candied orange peels. You candy the peel, you eat the orange, and you make orange syrup out of the sugar and water you use to candy the peel in! Beautiful. This is going to be a keeper for Christmas treats.
Candied Orange Peel Slices
5-6 large navel oranges
water
3 cups sugar

Cuts ends off and score the oranges lengthwise, then peel. Slice lengthwise in 1/4-inch slices. Put in pot and cover with water. Boil and drain water three times. Then, add the sugar, and cover peels with water again (just cover, don't fill the pot up). Boil for 35-45 minutes, until the peels are transparent. Drain (save the liquid to boil down for syrup too!) and dump onto a wire rack to cool and dry a bit.

To finish, dredge in sugar, or dip in white or dark chocolate. They are AMAZING!!!

Mini Gingerbread Houses? Check.

Good decorating with royal icing, candy melts, frosted mini wheats, sunflower seed drops, dried blueberries and cranberries, Reese's Pieces, almonds, Red Vines, coconut, and snowflake "sprinkles."

My favorite thing... my new decorating bottles by Kuhn Rikon that the kids can easily use (Sur La Table, Jen, in a big basket near the front door... in case you need some too). Merry Little Christmas to me!
Gingerbread House Glue (AKA Royal Icing/Frosting)

5 Tbs. Meringue powder
1/2 c. warm water

Whip until stiff peaks form, then slowly beat in...

almost 1 lb. of powdered sugar;

until a thick icing frosting forms. Load into bags, frosting bottles or just spread.

Feast of The Three Kings

Epiphany, Feast of The Three Kings, The Twelfth Day of Christmas... basically, today marks the event of Balthazar, Gaspar and Melchior (the Three Wise Men) visiting Baby Jesus in Bethlehem.

We barbecued tonight (even in the high winds) — chicken and pork with Finnish grill seasoning, roasted potatoes, tossed a rocket (arugula)/blueberry/almond salad with fig white-balsamic vinaigrette, and Ro brought a delicious chocolate King's Cake. No one found the pinto bean baked inside, so we'll have to wait to see on that one... It was a nice relaxing dinner with Shane (Jess is in London on business), and all the Luceros on a very blustery, cold evening.
No recipes, but we had a great Red Leicester aged cheddar, and an excellent "No Woman" Jamaican cheese (Jerk seasonings and caramel tones) from Beecher's Cheese of Pike Place Market fame, sun-dried tomato stuffed olives, Gorgonzola Crackers from Trader Joe's (YUM!!) on our appetizer plate — and, blood oranges! Yeah for delicious citrus!

Gramma Sartor Santas

Last year at Christmas, our friend Linda gave us a plate of these adorable Santa cookies. The kids (well, really all of us) loved them. So this morning, I got everything ready to make some. To do the Santa faces, frost the entire cookie with white frosting, then cover the bottom half of the cookie with flaked coconut. Sprinkle a crescent of red sugar on the top of the cookie for his hat, with a mini marshmallow for the ball at the tip of the hat. We used red M&M's cut in half for the noses (red hots are the "traditional" nose though, but M&M's was what I had), and chocolate chips for eyes. I think Madeline's turned out pretty cute too (with "rosy chocolate cheeks", and "little red feets" at the bottom of his beard.) Erik, and our friend Ben, did the boy-thing of pouring as many topping on their cookies as possible, and sampling the rest.
For the sugar cookie, I decided to use my Great Gramma Sartor's Sour Cream Sugar Cookie recipe. It's wonderful and pretty easy (and a slice and bake recipe, giving us good rounds for the faces).
I'm not even typing the recipe in — just click on it to make it bigger! I love to see her hand writing, and it's even in red... how fun for the holidays.

Christmas Sweets Lineup...

We've baked up a plethora of tasty Christmas cookies, and cooked up some yummy candy too! The kids have even been in the mix on some of the rolling, cutting and decorating... They especially loved helping with the Finnish Gingerbread Snowflakes.

Grandma's Best Ginger Cookies (adapted from Entertaining The Finnish Way)
Makes about 10 dozen

1 1/4 c. butter
1 1/4 c. sugar
3 eggs
1 c. dark syrup (I used about 1/2 c. molasses and 1/2 c. dark Karo corn syrup - they don't have molasses in Finland)
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 tsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. ground cloves
1 Tbs. grated orange rind (I didn't have, so used 1/8 tsp. of Chinese Five Spice)
about 7 c. of flour (I used 1/2 whole wheat pastry flour and 1/2 all-purpose unbleached)
3 tsp. baking soda

Preheat oven to 400-degrees F, bake cookies for about 10 minutes per batch. Cream butter and sugar, add eggs and beat until fluffy. Mix spices into syrup in a glass Pyrex measuring cup and heat in microwave for 1 minute. Stir and pour into butter/egg mixture. Beat to combine. Slowly add the flour (and all the baking soda) about 1/2 at a time.

The original recipe says to cover the dough in plastic and leave overnight in a cool place before rolling, cutting and baking. I made mine early in the day, put it in a gallon Ziploc, and left it in a cool place until the evening when I rolled cut out and baked about 1/2 the batch. Then I stored the remaining dough in the fridge for 2 days until I did the additional 5-dozen snowflakes.

**Icing for Christmas Cut-outs**
2 Tbs. soft butter
2 tsp. extract (vanilla, lemon, almond, rum... whatever you prefer)
4 c. powdered sugar
enough milk to achieve the consistency that you want (for piping or spreading)
a couple drops of food coloring as desired
Pate de Fruit (you can change the flavor of this candy by using whatever fruit you prefer)
recipe adapted from SELF Magazine, December 2008 issue

Parchment paper
2 c. defrosted frozen strawberries (we used mango and papaya)
1 3/4 Tbs. apple pectin powder (found at health food stores) mixed into 3 Tbs. sugar
1 3/4 c. sugar
3 1/2 Tbs. light corn syrup (or Agave Syrup is even better!)
2 tsp. lemon juice (we used lime juice with our fruit choice)

Line a 9x13 pan with parchment paper. Blend defrosted fruit in blender until smooth. Pour into saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Sprinkle apple pectin powder/sugar mixture together over the fruit in pan and continue to cook over medium heat (reduced from medium-high) for about 2 mins. Add the additional 1 3/4 c. sugar in three batches, stirring after each and waiting about 15 seconds before adding each consecutive batch. Then add agave (or corn) syrup and cook until mixture thickens slightly, about 3 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in citrus juice, then pour mixture into prepared pan and spread out in an even layer. Let set for at least 2 hours, then cut into desire shapes and toss in additional sugar to coat.
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Coconut Snowball Crisps
(adapted from Everyday With Rachael Ray December 2008)

3 large egg whites
1 pinch salt
1 c. powdered sugar
2 c. sweetened shredded coconut
2 c. Rice Krispies cereal
1/4 c. cornstarch

Preheat oven to 200-degrees F (they bake for one hour). Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment. Beat egg whites and salt on medium-high speed of mixer with whisk attachment until thick and foamy, then add sugar and once incorporated, beat on high for about 5 minutes (until firm and glossy).

In another bowl, toss together the additional three dry ingredients, then fold the coconut mixture into the egg whites when ready. Scoop with small cookie scoop into parchment-lined sheets. They can be fairly close together since these cookies do not spread at all, and are basically drying out in the 200-degree oven for 1 hour (until firm and dry to touch). A good cookie to do at the end of a baking day.