Pecan snowball cookies

 

This is the Land O' Lakes snowball cookies recipe except for the parenthetical notes and the substitution of vanilla sugar for the regular powdered sugar! Makes about 48 dense, rich cookies.

2 cups pecans

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Reserve:

1/2 cup powdered vanilla sugar

Preheat oven to 325°F.

Process pecans in food processor until finely chopped (use some or all of the granulated sugar to help grind them). Transfer chopped pecans to bowl; stir in flour and salt. Set aside.

Cream butter and granulated sugar in medium bowl 2 minutes or until fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low; add nut mixture. Beat just until dough is combined.

Working with 1 tablespoon dough, shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place, 1 inch apart, onto ungreased cookie sheets. 

Bake 16-18 minutes or until very lightly browned. (If using insulated cookie sheet, may take longer. In my experience, the cookies don't exactly brown so much as they turn a little lighter. If you poke one with your finger and it still molds like dough, then it's not cooked through yet.)

Let cookies cool on cookie sheet 5 minutes; transfer to cooling rack to cool completely. (But it's easier to coat the cookies neatly with sugar BEFORE they cool completely, so do the next step, then let them finish cooling.)

Place powdered vanilla sugar into shallow bowl; roll cooled cookies in sugar to coat. Store in airtight container. If necessary, re-roll cookies in powdered sugar before serving.

Chunked potatoes a la Dad

 

Cut 1 stick butter into pats. 

Start boiling water maybe 45 min before ETD (estimated time of dining). 

Cut 4 russet potatoes (or more) into uniform chunks, put in a big round pot and cover with water a bit more than a half-inch above the potatoes. Can sit a while like this. 

Bring to boil, toss in about a tablespoon of salt, uncover and simmer 15 min - until you can stick a fork in a chunk easily. 

Drain and toss with butter pats, salt, black pepper. 

Steam everything in a Fasta Pasta!

This is an "As Seen On TV" gadget and yet also a low-priced kitchen marvel. There's something about the rectangular shape that helps things heat evenly in the microwave, and you can cook or steam many things without wrestling a giant pot of salty water. Read on!

Whole wheat fusilli pasta

6 oz. fusilli - cover the pasta with water, add 1 tsp olive oil and 2 pinches salt. Microwave uncovered 6 min. high, test one to see if it’s al dente. If still too hard, microwave another 5 min.

Texmati rice/wild rice/red rice blend (HEB’s “Rice Select - Royal Blend”)

1 c rice + 1.5 c water: Microwave uncovered 5 min. high, fluff with fork, add ½ c water and microwave 5 more min. high.

Minute rice

1.5 c minute rice, 1.5 c water, 1 tsp avocado or olive oil, 1 pinch salt. Microwave uncovered 3-4 min. high, fluff with fork, microwave 3 more min. High.

Asparagus spears

18-20 fresh asparagus spears + 2 Tbsp water. Microwave covered 5 min. high.

Frozen broccoli

For 10 oz. frozen broccoli, add 1-2 Tbsp water (just 1 Tbsp if there is a lot of ice on the broc). Microwave covered 5 min. high. 

Roasted Brussels sprouts (use Fasta Pasta to heat them so they roast well)

For approx 10 oz. frozen or fresh Brussels sprouts, halve them and add 1-2 Tbsp water (just 1 Tbsp if there is a lot of ice on frozen veg). Microwave covered 4-5 min. high, then toss with olive oil and salt. Line a sheet pan with parchment, spread the Brussels sprouts out on it, and roast in 400-degree oven till edges are brown.

Roasted cauliflower florets with Parmesan (use Fasta Pasta to heat them so they roast well)

For approx 10 oz. frozen or fresh cauliflower, add 1-2 Tbsp water (just 1 Tbsp if there is a lot of ice on frozen veg). Microwave covered 4-5 min. high, then toss with grated Parmesan, olive oil and salt. Line a sheet pan with parchment, spread the cauliflower out on it, and roast in 400-degree oven till edges are brown.

Baby new potatoes

10 oz. or so baby potatoes + 1 Tbsp water. Microwave uncovered 5 min. high. Poke with fork to see if tender; if still hard microwave another 2-3 min. Toss with olive oil and salt.

EXTRA: No Fasta Pasta necessary, just great way to make corn on the cob in microwave!

Fresh corn on the cob

2 or 3 fresh cobs in husks. Cut off ends of cobs, peel outer layers of corn husk off (leave about 3 layers of husk). If you have a microwaveable bowl, so that the corn cobs can sit in the bowl kind of suspended off the bottom but not touching each other too much, use that. Microwave uncovered, no additional water, on high 4-5 min. Pull them out, and – wearing two oven mitts!! – strip the husks off: Hold corn by the base (large end) in one hand; grab the husk with your other hand; twist and pull the entire husk up off the top. (Corn silk will come off with the husk!) Cut cobs in half and toss with olive oil and salt.

Walnut-cranberry baked Brie

 

• 1 (8-ounce) round Brie cheese 
• 2 tablespoons dried cranberries 
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme 
• 1 teaspoon chopped walnuts, toasted
  
  
  
  

• Using a serrated knife, remove topmost rind from cheese; discard rind. Place cheese, cut side up, in a small ovenproof baking dish; sprinkle with cranberries and thyme. Top evenly with nuts. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes or until cheese is soft and warm. Serve immediately with crackers.

Sugar cookies a la Alton Brown

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 tablespoon milk

Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough

1. 1.     Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Place butter and sugar in large bowl of electric stand mixer and beat until light in color. Add egg and milk and beat to combine. Put mixer on low speed, gradually add flour, and beat until mixture pulls away from the side of the bowl. Divide the dough in half, wrap in waxed paper, and refrigerate for 2 hours.
2. 2.     Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
3. 3.    Sprinkle surface where you will roll out dough with powdered sugar. Remove 1 wrapped pack of dough from refrigerator at a time, sprinkle rolling pin with powdered sugar, and roll out dough to 1/4-inch thick. Move the dough around and check underneath frequently to make sure it is not sticking. If dough has warmed during rolling, place cold cookie sheet on top for 10 minutes to chill. Cut into desired shape, place at least 1-inch apart on greased baking sheet, parchment, or silicone baking mat, and bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until cookies are just beginning to turn brown around the edges, rotating cookie sheet halfway through baking time. Let sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes after removal from oven and then move to complete cooling on wire rack. Serve as is or ice as desired. Store in airtight container for up to 1 week.
4. 
   

Chicken and dumplings, the easy way

When you’re actually sick, you need fast, simple and soothing. 

20-30oz cooked chicken breast meat

2 cans 10oz flaky refrigerated biscuit dough

2 cans cream of chicken soup

40oz chicken broth

Lemon pepper to taste

Put soup/chicken broth in large pot; bring up to simmer on medium heat. Season. Cut biscuits into dumpling-size pieces; add to pot. Reduce heat and cook 12-15 min until dumplings are not doughy but also not dissolved. 

South Beach-friendly “chili”

Everything here is South Beach phase one except the small amount of flour in the chili mix! This isn’t chili because it has beans and tomatoes, but it’s still very good.

2.5 lb top sirloin roast (dice and brown)

1 can Swanson beef broth low sodium

1 can Muir Glen fire roasted diced tomatoes, with its liquid

1/2 packet Albert Agnor’s chili mix

(Beans; see below)

Dump in oven-safe pot, bring to a boil, cover pot and put in a 325 oven for an hour

then add 1 double-size can Bush’s pinto beans, rinsed and drained, and cut it back to 275 for 3 or 4 hours

Final Exam Cookies

The second finest cookie known to humankind. These are Land O'Lakes "Buttery Jam Tarts" except with black cherry preserves instead of raspberry, and with finely ground almonds added to the dough.

One batch makes only 12-13 cookies (or one sheet), so make two batches!

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 

2/3 cup butter, softened 

1/2 cup sugar 

1/4 cup slivered almonds

1  large egg

2 tablespoons milk 

1 teaspoon almond extract 

1/4 teaspoon baking soda 

1/4 teaspoon salt 

1/2 cup black cherry preserves

How to make

1. STEP 1
   Heat oven to 350°F.
2. STEP 2
   Use the 1/2 cup of sugar to help grind up the 1/4 cup of almonds. Grind them pretty fine! Combine all ingredients except preserves in large bowl. Beat at low speed, scraping bowl often, until well mixed.
3. STEP 3
   Roll out dough on well-floured surface, one-half at a time (keeping remaining dough refrigerated), to 1/8-inch (or 1/6-inch if using rolling disc) thickness. Cut with 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter. 
   
   It may be helpful to roll the dough out on thin plastic cutting boards covered with a layer of plastic wrap, so that they can be placed into the fridge for several minutes at a time to regain firmness. This helps in transferring them to the baking sheet, and helps in placing the fragile tops onto the bottom part of the cookie.
4. STEP 4
   Place half of cookies, 2 inches apart, onto greased cookie sheets; place 1 teaspoon preserves in center of each cookie. Make cut-out with very small cookie cutter in tops of remaining cookies. Place on top of preserves; press edges together with fork. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake 12-15 minutes or until edges are very lightly browned.
   
   

Buttermilk pie + lemon chess pie

Since they sell pie shells in packs of 2 :) 

Bake 9” pie shells at 425° for 7 minutes or until light golden brown. Reduce oven temperature to 350°. Bake both the pies at 350° for 40-60 min or till firm in center.

BUTTERMILK

1.5 cups sugar

3 Tbsp flour

3 eggs

½ cup butter, softened

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla

1 to 3 Tbsp lemon juice

Combine sugar and flour, then rest of ingredients. Pour into 9” pie shell.

LEMON CHESS

1.5 cups sugar

1 Tbsp cornmeal

4 eggs

¼ cup butter, softened

¼ cup lemon juice

1 Tbsp lemon zest

Cream the butter and sugar; add rest of ingredients just until blended. Pour into 9” pie shell. 

Sausage-egg "muffins"

Possibly the laaaaziest of Lazy Chef recipes! This is the super-lazy version of this perfectly reputable recipe.


1/2 lb sausage
12 eggs


Cook the sausage until evenly brown; set aside and drain.
Beat the eggs; add the crumbled sausage.
Pour into greased muffin tin. (Makes 12 in my pan)


Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.


To freeze for future breakfasts:

Let the muffin tin cool, then pop it straight in the freezer for about 20 min. Pop out the individual "muffins," double-wrap each in plastic to avoid freezer burn, put them in a plastic bag with the air squished out, and freeze up to 3 months (that's because of the sausage; eggs alone could freeze 6 months to a year).

Easy boudin kolaches

Just had the best start to a workday I'll have in a long time -- a dear colleague brought us boudin kolaches. I quote her:

"They are SUPER easy – it’s just 2 boudain links taken out of the casing (DJ’s is my favorite, but Zumo’s is also delicious!), two cans of crescent rolls, and if you want to add it, cheese!"

Preheat oven to 375 

Cook boudin in a pan over medium heat until done, about 8 min

While the sausage is cooking, open the crescent roll can and spread pieces out in a sheet pan

Put a large spoon-sized amount of boudin on each roll, wrap dough over it 

Bake 11-13 min

Carry to tailgate and trade for beer!

In search of a Faux Dr Pepper Smoothie

This isn't a smoothie that replicates the taste of a Dr Pepper, but it is a smoothie that I could happily substitute on a 1-to-1 basis for Dr Pepper in my life. Which is a boon, because of course soda = bad and fruit = good.

For experimentation purposes, below this smoothie recipe are speculative ingredient lists for the Jamba Juice smoothie that originally gave me the idea and for the secret flavors in Dr Pepper. :)

To make a one-blenderful batch (two 15-oz portions):

• 1 cup pomegranate-cherry juice, chilled
• 2 cups nonfat vanilla yogurt
• 1 cup frozen fruit -- cherry/blueberry/currant mix
• 1 cup frozen fruit -- blackberry/blueberry/raspberry mix

Because HEB sells the latter mix in a wonderful 36-oz bag, here is the shopping list for four batches:

Two 16-oz bottles pom-cherry juice ($4 each, totals about 4 cups)
Two 32-oz containers nonfat vanilla yogurt ($2 each, totals about 8 cups)
Two 14-oz bags frozen cherry/berry/currant mix ($3.50 each. The cherries are pre-pitted! And in this mix, currant means "blackcurrant" berries rather than zante grapes. Totals about 3.5 cups)
One 36-oz bag frozen blue/black/raspberries ($9, totals about 4.5 cups)

That's a total of $28 to make eight smoothies, which comes in about 25% less than buying eight Jamba smoothies (though note these are not the same ingredients, notably lacking such things as crazy expensive acai juice).

It's probably worth digging around to find some yogurt and some juice that isn't 300 calories per serving, because those two items put the sugar and calorie load up near that of an actual Dr Pepper. Still,

WTH does one do with four batches? Well, one can freeze the juice and the yogurt separately in ice cube trays, to make smoothie packs. The yogurt should be good a month or two and the juice possibly four to six months. Or one can do all one's blending at once, which saves on cleanup and makes subsequent mornings go faster, and freeze the smoothie itself in cubes. (My trays make 2-Tbsp cubes, so 15 cubes would make a 15-oz smoothie.) Advice I found online indicates if you put the cubes in a water bottle or something, roughly an hour later it will have thawed into smoothie consistency (give the bottle a couple good shakes). It takes more than two hours for the smoothie mix to freeze in my fridge, so I'm considering buying more trays.

Here are the official ingredients of the Jamba Juice Acai Super Antioxidant smoothie...

• "Acai juice blend, strawberries, raspberry sherbet (contains milk), soymilk (contains soy), ice, blueberries, antioxidant boost (contains soy)"

One bootleg version of this Jamba drink:

• ½ cup frozen blueberries, ½ cup frozen strawberries, ½ cup acai juice, ½ cup lime sherbet, ½ cup raspberry sherbet, ½ cup soy milk, 1 cup ice

Acai juice, it appears, is crazy expensive, so I am very glad that it is unlikely to be a Dr Pepper flavoring.

Here is a popular rendition of the secret 23 flavors in Dr Pepper (bear in mind it was invented in 1885):

• Cherry, vanilla, almond, plum, blackberry, raspberry, apricot, coriander, clove, amaretto, anise, caramel, molasses, birch beer, allspice, ginger, sarsparilla, sassafras, juniper, spikenard, wintergreen, burdock, dandelion.

Bear with me as I write out the instructions for my own blender here, as this is the blog post I actually call up and refer to when blending, and I am a pre-flight checklist kinda person. (Note: The directions also say to load the blender with liquids/soft foods on the bottom and progress to dry and/or frozen bits or ice at the top, so if one is blending a preassembled pack with frozen cubes instead of liquids, remember to adjust.)

Useful to have handy: Half-cup measure and spatula to load ingredients into blender; glass to hold the blender tamper once it comes out with smoothie all over it; plate or something to set the implements on, because all of these berries make a very effective burgundy dye. :) Also, doesn't hurt to have the ice cube trays out and ready. And baggies to put the frozen cubes into afterward, so they don't pick up other smells in the freezer.

Blending:
Load ingredients (liquid at bottom, frozen on top). Snap lid on (securing its port cover with a half-turn); set to Variable and speed 1; switch on and quickly range up to speed 10, then flip to High; take out the port cover, insert the tamper and poke the ingredients down toward the blades; recover the port and blend 30-60 sec until the mix starts surging up in four mounds. Don't blend too long or it'll get melty/runny. Flip back to Variable, scroll down from 10 to 1, then Off. (Afterward, a couple drops of dish soap and a spin up to High basically equals a dishwasher cycle, if needed.)

Simple frozen salmon!

Move the frozen salmon to the fridge the day before, to let it thaw, and bake on a buttered/tinfoiled sheet about 18 minutes at 375. If possible, marinate before and/or glaze during.

Soy-Garlic Salmon a la Mom -- This came out MARVELOUS.
2 Tbsp Dijon
3 Tbsp soy
6 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp minced garlic

Balsamic Salmon
1.5 cloves garlic, minced
tsp white wine
1 tsp honey
5.5 tsp balsamic vinegar
1.5 tsp Dijon
salt and pepper to taste
Soften garlic in sauce pan; add rest and simmer 3 min.; brush on fish and bake.

Caprese salad, the cheater's way

Grocery store:
Fresh mozzarella, a bunch of fresh basil, and canned tomatoes (can actually be healthier/tastier than fresh tomatoes!)

Chop the mozzarella, wash and tear the basil, drain the tomatoes and toss it all in a bowl with some balsamic dressing.

Salad! :)

Experiment! 5-grain salad

Ongoing experiment to reproduce a favorite grain salad. Because the store packages of wheat berries and rice mix will probably make this recipe 4x, and this recipe only makes 5 small side servings, next time I might try doubling this batch.

But first, let's see if baking works for wheat berries and rice!

Shopping list

Wheat berries, brown-basmati-wild rice mix, 1/2 c slivered almonds, 1/2 c craisins, 2-3 lemons, and rice wine, butter and oil if they're not in the pantry.

Directions

Updated rice thoughts: Less water was better (grains did not get gummy), but cooked rice stuck to bottom of pan. Next time, try this? - 2 cups rice blend, rinse thoroughly (2-3x). Butter bottom/low sides of saucepan, bring 2 c water to boil, add washed rice, lower to simmer. Cover and simmer 15 min (it'll bubble over so lift lid and stir every 5 min or so). When done cooking: Toss and fluff rice. 

---- Baking the rice: 

This time, we'll try baking the rice. Need a casserole dish with lid.

Instructions are from here and are for brown rice - but I'll try it with the rice/wheatberry mix and see where we get. Note that the advice says DON'T skip boiling the water, no peeking (lets out moisture) and let it rest (absorbs the rest of the water).

Preheat oven to 375, boil the 2 ¾ cups water (electric kettle!) and combine all ingredients in the casserole dish. 

1 ½ cups brown rice - or in this case, 1 cup rice mix and 1/2 cup wheat berries

½ teaspoon salt or to taste

¼ cup butter

2 ¾ cups boiling water

Cover and bake 60-75 min or until rice is fully cooked. Let it rest 5 min to absorb rest of water, fluff with fork and serve. 

Stir in
1/2 cup dried sweet cranberries
1/2 slivered almonds

Dressing:
Grate the salt grinder over it a few times
Zest of 2 lemons, and maybe some of the juice?
2-3 Tbsp rice wine 

Second set of notes:

This time I'm trying baking the rice instead of stovetop. But if that doesn't work, here are the stovetop directions to return to!

Cook 1 cup rice mix and 1/2 cup wheat berries: Rinse the rice in cold water and drain, add wheat berries and a little bit of olive oil, add 3c water, bring to boil, knock the heat down to simmer, cover tightly, simmer 15 minutes, pull pan off heat and let rest 10 minutes.

First set of notes:

For the first real try at replicating a "5-grain salad" I used to get at a local store and became totally addicted to, I found wheat berries, a brown-basmati-wild rice mix, bulk slivered almonds and bulk cranberry "raisins" at my grocery. The prep directions on the wheat berries and the rice mix were nearly identical, so I cooked them all together with what turned out to be possibly a little too much water (rice came out gummy). Suggestions to correct gummyness include rinsing the rice first, using less water and using more (!) water. Mom suggested baking the rice instead of boiling and we think that also would work for the wheat but would need some further timing experimentation. So here's my best directions for NEXT time, plus some notes.

(Incidentally, the container of rice and the bag of wheat berries looked like they hold enough to make this exact recipe four times. And this recipe yielded 5 servings -- small ones, like side servings.)

For reference, here are the original ingredients listed on the store package: basmati rice, brown rice, wheat berries, wild rice, craisins, almonds, canola/olive oil blend, lemon juice, rice wine vinegar, kosher salt, lemon zest, white pepper. 

Southern Living's "perfect" buttermilk biscuits

http://youtu.be/d348FGXomg0

(it looked like this amount of dough made about 9 biscuits) 

1 stick frozen butter, grated
2 1/2 cups White Lily self-rising flour
1 cup cold buttermilk

Grate the frozen butter and gently mix into flour, using your fingers. Store mixture in freezer 10 minutes to re-chill. Make a well in middle of mixture and pour in buttermilk. Incorporate well, using approx. 15 stirs. (One commenter's family tradition is to stir with a fork "until the dough follows the fork around the bowl.") Place mixture on floured surface and sprinkle flour on top. Flour rolling pin. Roll out into rectangle, fold over and repeat four more times. On the last fold over, roll out to 1/2 inch thickness. Flour biscuit cutter each time you cut into dough, and cut straight up and down. Place biscuits on parchment-lined pan, making sure they touch. Bake @ 475 degrees for 15 minutes. Brush tops with melted butter.


Another commenter: "Make sure all your ingredients are fresh.  Flour and baking powder go bad after a while when they have been opened.  Humidity gets into it and things won't rise like they should.  Making biscuits on a rainy day you'll notice they don't rise like they should." 

One-dish meals for family or company

Bookmarking this from Southern Living because most of these seem like meals that could be made fairly quickly with little cleanup, but would feed several people who would feel like they had a real meal.

Note these are not here cause they're healthy, necessarily (cheese. baby!). Or cheap. And not all of them are fast. Some of them take a while, but all are one-dish, and a fair proportion of them "cheat" by using premade ingredients (see "not cheap," above) which is one of my favorite sanity tricks when unannounced occasions strike.

http://www.southernliving.com/food/whats-for-supper/easy-one-dish-dinner-recipes/view-all

Mini pancake bites

A blog post I saw with these suggests that they would make neat brunch/potluck items, and I have to say I agree, assuming I manage to cook them in a way that they aren't gloppy in the middle, etc. And I have a mini muffin tin :)

Easy capellini pomodoro and/or bruschetta

This could be about an 80% "pantry" meal. All you need to buy fresh is the garlic and basil. You could technically get away with dried basil and garlic from a jar... but those are serious flavor downgrades (whereas canned tomatoes are not a bad sub for fresh tomatoes, flavorwise).

For bruschetta, skip the pasta and in fact all of the cooking; just mix together all of these raw ingredients, let it set up a couple hours to swap flavors around (as Mark Twain would say) and then serve on rounds of toasted French bread. I know bread freezes well... does toast freeze well? That would get you a step closer to the bruschetta being a "pantry" appetizer.

• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/3 c extra virgin olive oil
• 12 oz angel hair pasta, cooked

Cook garlic in olive oil till tender.

• Two 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes
• 1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper

Add tomatoes and pepper to pan; toss till heated through.

Put this mixture atop the cooked pasta with:

• 2 c fresh chopped basil leaves
• 1/2 c grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

Lee Bailey's potatoes

2lb new potatoes, scrubbed and cut into chunks
1/2 stick butter
Splash olive oil
Small handful sliced garlic
Salt and pepper
2 Tbsp water

Melt the butter in a large skillet, toss in olive oil. Combine potatoes and everything else; put in skillet, cover and cook on low heat 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until soft and creamy with crispy edges.