Gingerbread Cookies

I'm searching for the recipe my mom cut out of a newspaper when I was little, I think I found it on Allrecipes, or something similar. Click HERE for the link. This recipe is unique because it calls for evaporated milk and lemon extract. Also, it only takes four cups of flour, where other recipes require six or seven. I have to pick up a couple more things before I start, I'm even going to try substituting the evaporated milk with soymilk, as I know there will be dairy allergies on Christmas. Soymilk is fantastic in frosting, so that wont be a problem for the decorating. I have been coveting the natural flavored cane sugars I found on the top shelf at the grocery store at $6+ for a large jar. But I think that it will be worth investing in; the deep rasberry cane sugar will be incredibly beautiful, and not full of trash ingredients. So, more to follow!

Christmas Granola

Last night I made the first batch of my Christmas gift granola. Cranberry-Vanilla-Pecan with home-toasted sunflower seeds.

4 C rolled oats

2 C crispy brown rice cereal

1 1/2 C toasted sunflower seeds

1 1/4 C shredded unsweetended+unsulphured coconut

1 C dried sweetened cranberries

1 C chopped pecans

2 T tablespoons cinnamon

2 t vanilla extract

3/4 C grapeseed oil

3/4 C maple syrup

Preheat oven to 250 F. Make sure you can fit two 9x13" pans (I prefer glass Pyrex) comfortably on either the top or the 3/4 up rack in your oven. Gently mix all dry ingredients together in large bowl. In seperate bowl whisk the wet ingredients, then add to the dry and gently mix with untill evenly coated. I like to use a silicone bowl-scraper for this step. Spread evenly in the two pans, bake for 30 min, remove and toss gently (I use a wooden spatula for this step) then bake for another 30 min. Stir gently once more to prevent total sticking to the bans, cool and store airtight!

Ginger Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies

This year my birthday falls on the day after Thanksgiving, and rather than having my friends be forced to go out and spend money at a restaurant, we are having a get-together at our apartment. The down side to the whole day is that I will be working my butt off after having woken up at an ungodly early hour. So I might well fall asleep early at my own party. But that's ok, Johnny can be the hostess with the mostess just this once.

Since the chocolate chip cookies went over so well and I have all the ingredients already, I am going to make some Oatmeal Raisin Cookies with ginger in attempts to satisfy Johnny and I's love for gingersnaps.

Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) plus 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
• 3 cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
• 1 cup raisins

Preparation

Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add oats and raisins; mix well.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.

• Prep Time: 20 min
• Cook Time Time: 08 min

Sweet and Spicy Cranberry Sauce

I am finally taking the plunge with my unique cranberry sauce. The previous post had a link that went bad, my apologies, and below is an altered form of one of those recipes that had originally enticed me. This version is for a double-batch; go big or go home.

Sweet & Spicy Cranberry Sauce

6 cups fresh cranberries (usually this is 2 bags)
2 cups water
1 cup maple syrup+ 1/2 cup cane sugar
2 tsp each of grated lemon and orange rind
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Combine cranberries, maple syrup, sugar and water in a heavy, nonreactive saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat until cranberries start to pop and juice is boiling. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the berries are soft and juices thicken, about 25 minutes. The sauce will continue to thicken as it cools. Stir in the lemon or orange zest and the remaining spices.

Almond-Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm having my girlfriends over tomorrow night, and for once it seems that everyone can make it. I'm a little worried about not having enough of things such as booze, snacks and plates--I really have to remember to grab some paper plates from my mom's house tomorrow. We still have plastic cups from the summer picnics, so I am all set there. I probably do have enough glasses, but as I have no dishwasher I still need plastic. So my menu is homemade almond-chocolate chip cookies, tortilla chips, carrot and celery sticks, and sour cream dip. I figure with this many people coming, the bright side is that someone else is bound to bring something. I'm probably going to have to splurge on some more cheap wine, and make some pitchers of iced tea/lemonade, and depending on the booze I lift from my mom I may be able to squeeze out some martinis. A lot of running around for me tomorrow.

There is nothing like cookie batter. I haven't had it in so long, I forgot how awesome it is.

Unique Cranberry Sauce?

This LINK is to a page I found with some interesting recipes.

Not sure which one I will try...I think maybe just the sweet and spicy version. I'd love to the the Rosemary/Port Wine, but probably not with the general family Thanksgivings.

Pea & Potato Soup

Instead of going out to a bar after my shift ended to booze and socialize until my BF got out of work, I manned up and went home to make dinner. I still had some of my farmer's market celery in the fridge which HAD to get used, along with the potatoes that I had bought in hopes of doing more slow-cooker meals. The freak snow storm and subsequent power outage--and lets face it, the hangover I had on Sunday--really cramped those plans as I had to chuck my frozen meats. So, I rummaged through my bin of dry goods and found some dried green peas leftover from last winter's soup adventures. I poked around and found some recipes for pea and potato soup, and this is what I came up with:

Pea & Potato Soup
1T grapeseed oil (or butter)
1 large onion, diced
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
4 stalks of celery, sliced
1lb dried split green peas
4 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 liters H2O + 1/3C red wine* (or you could use stock)
1t Hawaiian Red sea salt (I had it, and since I was using plain water instead of stock, I used this in hopes of adding flavor)
1t dried Italian seasoning
1t cayenne pepper

Garnish
-freshly ground black pepper
-crushed red pepper
-sour cream

Saute onions for approx 5 min in grapeseed oil, I like to do this directly in my soup pot. Add garlic and celery and saute until onions are nicely translucent and celery is tender. Add your water/wine mixture (or stock) then the peas and potatoes. Crank the heat to high and bring it to a boil. Stir and lower to a simmer for 30 min.

Next is the fun part: if you are smart enough to own a hand blender, use it! I actually do own a hand blender but I use it for mixing ceramic glazes. Or, blend the soup in batches in a standard blender, but be sure to leave a bit of texture so it seems more like a hearty soup than baby food.

Return soup to pot and warm it up just a bit; stir well before you serve, as separation does occur--and I do think this is one of those soups that is better the second time around, as the texture will improve. Garnish individual bowls with a little sour cream and pepper. Serve with bread and olive oil/butter, and beer (I opted for Saranac Big Moose Ale). I think that beer is important here because it's such a light vegetarian soup, you'll need the beer to help you fill up. Think of blazing-hot fires in stone fireplaces...in dark Irish pubs with low ceilings on a cold and wet winter night!

*So, back to the stock issue: I don't like using store-bought stocks and broths because they kind of gross me out and contain lots of sodium, weird ingredients, etc. I may make my own sometime in the future, as I get more and more adventurous with cooking meat. As for the veggie kind I do like the Trader Joe's low sodium veggie broth packets, but I tend to be out of those more often than I actually have them on hand. The Bloodroot cookbook calls for 1T Tamari soy sauce to be added to soup, generally after the simmering/blending step. I left my Tamari at my parents house when I moved out, so I opted for some red wine. I do think a nice Balsamic would have done the job as well.

In other news, I made the chocolate "dump" cake again, this time for my Grandma's 80th birthday party. I used 2 tier round pans, and it's a little short cake. I'll be decorating it tomorrow with my friend Danielle. I sawed off the top of the lower layer, for storage and transportation reasons. And this is a yummy cake!!! So please refer to earlier posts for that recipe!