Chocolate Pretzels

In addition to my Christmas gift granola I have been attempting to make chocolate-dipped pretzels. I bought fancy chocolate chips and melted them over a double boil, but the whole process was much more of a pain in the ass than I remember. I made these back in my sophomore year of college; this was when Stephanie and I were roommates together. I remember actually burning the bottom of her plastic cereal bowl in the microwave as I tried to melt the chocolate bits by nuking the shit out of them. But after I realized that I just needed to gently warm the chocolate, it was smooth sailing from there on. I'm thinking now that the chocolate may have been easier to melt because I was using craft-store grade candy-chocolate bits, which are full of scary hydrogenated oils and plastics that do a great job fluxing the chocolate to melt.

So my friend Sonia, who is a very talented and creative chica, told me to lay all the pretzels out of a cookie sheet and place a Hershey kiss or a Rollo on each one. Then you gently melt them in the oven(170F 4-6min), and when they come out you press an M&M or something of the sort into each melty kiss. Cool in fridge and bag.

I made it even easier on myself, I just got 'em good and melty, then banged the tray gently on the counter top to settle down the chocolate and dashed on some Christmas sprinkles. They look great, no M&Ms needed!

I even did these with gluten-free pretzels and chocolate!

Salmon Fillet/Homefries

Last Friday night I had a frozen salmon fiasco: I didn't know that cooking fish in cast iron is a bad idea, and I totally stank out my new cast iron pan. I didn't realize this was an issue until Monday night's homefries. I came home from a late night at work, deciding to do breakfast for dinner during the car ride, and heated oil to start the onion while I parboiled the potatoes AND THEN THE SMELL HIT. What baffles me is that my salmon didn't reek so terribly when I was actually cooking it!!! I had to boil vinegar and water for a long time to try and cleanse my precious pan. Then I made Snickerdoodles to make the apartment smell nice. I was a brave and courageous girl as I was able to bring myself to freeze 2/3 of the batch to save for Christmas.

Homefries

Ingredients (use the amounts you would like):
-potatoes, peeled and 1" cubed
-chopped onion
-safflower oil
-seasoning salt(mix your own at home!

Directions: parboil the potatoes until almost done; in the meantime saute the onion on medium heat for approx 5 min. Drain potaoes and add to onion and cook for 10 min or so on medium-medium high heat. Season to taste with seasoning salt and pepper.

Single-Serving Baked Salmon Fillet(a quick and healthy meal)
This recipe is for a 4oz frozen salmon fillet. Defrost in microwave or overnight in fridge, place skin-side down on heavy duty foil and fold up the sides to create a pouch. Season with 2T white wine, 1/2 t seasoning salt, dill, and 1/2 T butter. Fold up the sides of the pouch and crimp the ends together, and bake in toaster oven for 10 min at 350F. Serve with frozen peas and instant or leftover mashed potatoes.

Sweet Chili Sauce

I made a fancy stir-fry for lunch today. I whipped up a sweet chili sauce from a recipe that I found at ThaiFood.com. It was FANTASTIC--and very easy to make. I had everything on hand except for the sherry, so I used white wine instead. I would use the full amount of chili powder next time; although if I had been using actual crushed chili peppers instead of Ocean State Job Lot chili powder the results would most likely have been different, so use your noggin' on that one!

Sweet Chili Sauce (Click HERE for link to ThaiFood.com)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup rice vinegar (or substitute white vinegar)
• 1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp. white sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 3 Tbsp. fish sauce
• 2 Tbsp. sherry (or cooking sherry)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 to 1 Tbsp. dried crushed chili (1 Tbsp. makes spicy-hot sauce)
• 1+1/2 Tbsp. cornstarch dissolved in 3-4 Tbsp. cool water

Preparation:

1. Place all ingredients - except the cornstarch-water mixture - in a sauce pan or pot. Bring to a rolling boil.
2. Reduce heat to medium and let boil for 10 minutes, or until reduced by half. (Note that the vinegar will be quite pungent as it burns off. Generally, I find rice vinegar less strong than regular white vinegar).
3. Reduce heat to low and add the cornstarch-water mixture. Stir to incorporate and continue stirring occasionally until the sauce thickens (about 2 minutes).
4. Remove from heat and taste-test. You should taste "sweet" first, followed by sour, then spicy and salty notes. If the sauce isn't sweet enough, add a little more sugar. If not spicy enough, add more chili.
5. Pour sauce into a small bowl or jar and serve as a condiment with chicken, fish, and seafood, or as a dip with finger foods such as chicken wings, shrimp, or spring rolls. Also makes an excellent marinade for grilled chicken, fish, or seafood. ENJOY!

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.