Snickerdoodles

Snickerdoodles are one of those cookies that make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Despite the fact that my family never celebrated Christmas, I always took part in some sort of festivities with close friends. Certain treats, like snickerdoodles and peppermint bark, were always a part of the holiday season for me, and just the thought of them makes me nostalgic. When we had people over for a little holiday party I knew I had to attempt making them for myself. I was also intensely inspired by the Bake or Break post on Snickerdoodles and Chocodoodles, which was so beautiful that it shoved me into attempting my own little balls of cinnamon-sugary goodness!

Snickerdoodles
from Nigella Lawson's How to Be a Domestic Goddess
makes about 32 cookies

1 & 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup granulated sugar, + 2 tablespoons for rolling cookies
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350°. Line or grease baking sheets and set aside. Combine flour, nutmeg, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Beat butter and 1/3 cup sugar until creamy. Add egg and vanilla. Stir in dry ingredients until smooth.

Mix together cinnamon and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Pinch dough into walnut-sized pieces and roll into balls. Roll each ball in cinnamon/sugar mixture, and place on baking sheets.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool and enjoy!

Lemon Cookies

Me and lemon are best friends. If you've been reading faithfully, you've already read about/seen my adventures with lemon broth soup. I'm a firm believer that adding lemon juice (fresh squeezed, please) to so many things (broiled fish, yogurt sauces, chicken soup, teas) to cut into the taste and provide a little burst of freshness, a similar experience to adding fresh herbs (a whole other post...). While I have not had positive experiences attempting to make lemon curd, I love it and think drizzling it over yogurt or cake or anything really is delicious (note to self: try again...). Further proof that lemon flavored goodies reign supreme is that even the bakeries that suck at everything (like DC's CakeLove, which is an experience I don't even want to get into right now), make delicious lemon bars.

Cookings seem to be THE holiday food. Shortbread, sugar, gingerbread, you name it and someone will be making it within the holiday season. After reading about so many people's adventures with lemon cookies, I have been consistently craving them. Our mini-holiday soiree was the perfect opportunity to test these bad boys out.

Cathie's version, which was adapted from Martha Stewart, looked so fantastic that I chose them to sample. They were so fantastic! I overcooked the first half of my batch and they were a little crunchier than I would have liked but the second half turned out just right. The flavor was just right, with tons of lemon flavor and enough sugar, without being too sugary. Enjoy!

Lemon Cookies
makes about 20
from Cathie Cooks Food

2 cups flour (plus more for work surface)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 sticks butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Confectioners sugar

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.

Put granulated sugar and lemon zest in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed 1 minute. Add butter and mix until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in vanilla and lemon juice. Reduce speed to low and gradually mix in flour mixture.

On a lightly floured work surface, halve the dough. Flatten each half into a 10 inch disk, and warp each in plastic. Freeze until firm, about t 30 mins.
Preheat oven to 325F. Working with 1 half at a time, roll out dough on parchment paper to 1/8 inch thick. cut shapes from dough with a 3 inch flower shape cookie cutter. Space 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Cut a hole in centre of each with a 1-inch round cutter, repeat with remaining disk. Warp scraps in plastic. Freeze 30 mins, re-roll, and cut.


Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until set, about 12 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack. Before serving sift confectioners sugar over cookies.

so I didn't actually make this but...

Okay, I know this is a food blog, and that usually involves the creation of YOUR OWN food, but this post is an exception I must make.

The following combination was perfect for me today. It was cold, I had no time to make anything substantial (i.e. finals start tomorrow), and I have tons of fresh herbs left over from the weekend that I need to use before they go bad:
- 1 can Amy's Organic Low-Fat Cream of Tomato Soup
- 1-2 tbsp Fat Free Half & Half (who knows what's really in that stuff...)
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 2-3 tbsp fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
- freshly ground sea salt and black pepper

This is good. Really, really good.

Buttermilk Pie

Saturday night I saw The Waitress. I just LOVED this movie. It was very artfully and cutely directed, and being a foodie, I loved the use of food as a medium of self-expression. I'm also a huge Keri Russell fan since the good old Felicity days. Anyway, the movie gave me a ridiculous craving for some form of pie. Now, considering the fact that it's finals week and I really should be studying/writing papers, pie-baking is not high on my list of this to do. But amidst my procrastinating today, I found a recipe for a pie that took less than 5 minutes to prep AND used all the leftover buttermilk that I got for the cilantro buttermilk biscuits. I saw several variations of this pie, many of which included real pie crusts which I didn't have pre-made and I didn't want to make (considering I technically don't have the time to be baking at all...heh), but this one was pretty basic.

The result was SO delicious. The pie has a sort of custard-like consistency, but the top is firm and crunchy. It only used 1 cup of sugar (Paula Deen's recipe called for 1.5 cups), and I still found it very sweet and rich. I certainly didn't mind, but if you are sensitive about too much sweetness, you could get away with using less sugar. It probably also depends on how tart your buttermilk is. I have seen it topped with confectioner's sugar and/or cocoa powder, but I used a mixture of sugar and cinnamon which was excellent. It reminded me of some dessert I knew I had at a friend's house as a child, but I cannot for the life of me remember what it was. Either way, if you have some extra buttermilk on hand that you need to use or just want a really quick pie, this one is definitely for you.

Buttermilk Pie
adapted from Paula Deen

1 cup sugar
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup Bisquick (or, as I used: 6 tbsp flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp sugar, 2 tbsp oil)
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch pie pan.

Put all ingredients in a bowl and blend for 1 minute with a handheld electric mixer. Pour mixture into prepared pan. Bake for about 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes.

Top with powdered sugar, cocoa powder, or (my favorite) cinnamon.

the most delicious salad EVER...for now at least

So I have an unfortunate tendency to stick to what I like. Don't get me wrong, I can be daring and adventurous and all that, but when I know what I like, its comforting to just keep enjoying it over and over again. The problem is, of course, that then I get sick of it and never want to see it again. This fall, I abused a salad. Don't call the police or anything, it wasn't too serious, and I've realized my mistake and we've both moved on. But I just loved this salad so much, I couldn't say no. The combination was usually mixed greens/cherry tomatoes/sliced mushrooms/goat cheese/Trader Joe's Champagne Pear Gorgonzola dressing. The dressing was a little bit sweet and I loved the way it played with the tangy goat cheese. Problem is, now the thought of that salad makes me want to avoid salad altogether! Blegh! All that sweetness??? Who needs it in a salad, anyway?

Point is, I've moved on to greener pastures. In an effort to get myself back to salads and still avoiding that particular salad, I have been experimenting with tangier things. Today, I had this idea for the following salad, just made everything up as I went, and was blown away by how delicious it all turned out. I saved the extras of it to have for dinner again tonight. Uh oh, here we go again...

Components:
Your Favorite Mixed Greens (mine is presently a mixture of mâche, radicchio, and frisée)
Cherry or Grape Tomatoes, cut in half
Crumbled Feta Cheese
Marinated and Broiled Mushrooms
Chick'n Strips (or real chicken if you prefer)

For the Mushroom Marinade:
Portabello Mushrooms
2 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
1 tbsp Olive Oil
1 tbsp Goddess Dressing
1 tsp minced garlic

For the Chicken Sauce:
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp honey
2 tsp soy sauce (low sodium, please!!!)
1 tsp minced garlic

I marinated the mushrooms for 20 minutes and then put them on the top shelf of my oven at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. I sautéed the chick'n strips in the sauce for about 3 minutes and they absorbed all of it pretty nicely.

Finally, mix all the components and enjoy the most delicious salad...ever (maybe?).

Youvarlakia Avgolemono: Greek Soup of Lemon Broth and Meatballs

After nine months of living with a Greek (and I mean real Greek, not 3d generation Greek-American), I never got tired about hearing about (and eating leftovers of) Greek foods. Everything---from the creamy and crunchy tyropitakia to the balanced and rich moussaka---appealed to me. On several occasions, she taught me how to make a couple Greek staples, like the spanakopita and stuffed peppers. All my encounters with Greek food were reminders of exactly what I adore so much about the cuisines of the Mediterranean---they focus on creating dishes that are simple, fresh, and delicious. Greek cuisine emphasizes enhancing the true flavor of the key player being prepared, as opposed to drowning it in some heavy or over-spiced sauce. This culinary philosophy speaks volumes to me. Those who really know me know that this is a deep reflection of my (at least attempted) appreciation for the more simple things in life.

One of my favorite DC Restaurants, Zaytinya, which serves mostly Greek and Turkish cuisine has really mastered this art, and I think it's because they don't try to do too much with everything. Don't get me wrong. I love Bobby Flay's jaw-dropping flavor combinations as much as the next guy, but its not always the approach I take in my own cooking endeavors.

Now that we don't live together, I try to keep in mind so many of the premises of Greek cuisine which she so graciously passed down to me. With the awful weather and an approaching week filled with assignment deadlines and final exams, I figured some Youvarlakia Avgolemono, a meatball soup in a lemon broth, was just what I needed.

Youvarlakia Avgolemono
Adapted from Emeril Lagasse

Meatballs:
1 small onion, grated
3 tbsp chopped fresh Italian parsley
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 1/2 pound ground beef
2 3/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon plus a pinch of freshly ground black pepper
1 cup cooked rice (original recipe called for white, but I used brown)

Soup:
4 cups water
4 cups broth (original recipe called for chicken, but I used vegetable)
6 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tbsp chopped fresh Italian parsley
2 eggs

In a mixing bowl combine the beef, rice, 2 eggs, onion, 3 tablespoons of the parsley, salt, and 1/2 teaspoon of the pepper and mix well. Using your hands, shape into balls. Add water and broth to a large saucepan or Dutch oven and add 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt. Bring to a low boil, then add the meatballs, one by one, and simmer until the meat is cooked through, about 10 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove the meatballs from the cooking liquid and set aside, covered, to keep warm. Strain the cooking liquid and return the cooking liquid to the saucepan and keep warm over low heat.


In a small bowl whisk the eggs until smooth. Add the lemon juice and whisk to combine. Slowly add 1 cup of the hot liquid to the egg-lemon mixture, whisking to combine. Slowly whisk this mixture into the remaining hot liquid in the saucepan; do not allow to boil or the sauce will curdle. Cook, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened, 1 to 2 minutes. (The liquid will still be brothy.) Add the remaining 1/4 teaspoon of salt and a pinch of black pepper, return the meatballs to the broth, and serve immediately, in shallow soup bowls, garnished with the remaining parsley.

Cilantro Biscuits

As soon as I saw this recipe months ago at Wandering Chopsticks, I knew I had to try it. Cilantro is definitely one of my favorite herbs (if not the ultimate favorite) and who doesn't love biscuits? Also, I totally fell in love with their adorable heart shape! Apparently she fell in love with them from seeing this, so it's just a chain of falling in love and trying it out---precisely what I love so much about the world of food blogging!

I always enjoy having soup with some kind of bread-item to soak up all that goodness so the Youvarlakia Avgolemono presented me with the perfect opportunity to give this recipe a whirl.

I thought they were fantastic. I used fat free buttermilk, so they were a cross between a biscuit and bread. They were still totally flaky but not quite as heavy as a typical biscuit. They were the perfect accompaniment to the warm soup. Delicious!

Cilantro Buttermilk Biscuits
courtesy of Wandering Chopsticks
makes 6 large biscuits, 12 small ones

2 cups flour
3/4 to 1 cup cold buttermilk, or cold regular milk
1/2 cup cold butter ie. 1 stick of butter
1-2 tsp sugar, depending on your sweet tooth
1 tblsp baking powder
pinch of salt
a handful of fresh cilantro

In a mixing bowl, add 2 cups flour, 2 tsp sugar, 1 tblsp baking powder, and a pinch of salt. Cut cold butter into chunks, or add butter to dry ingredients and mash them with a fork. Start with 3/4 cup cold buttermilk and mix into dough. If it's still too dry, add in a bit more buttermilk until all the flour is incorporated. The dough shouldn't be smooth, you just don't want excess flour. Press the cilantro leaves into the dough.


Let the dough rest for about 15 to 20 minutes. Put the dough on a cutting board and flatten to about 1-inch thick. Then cut with a biscuit cutter or upended glass. Bake in oven at 400 degrees for about 10 to 15 minutes until golden.

Food in Politics

New York Times: Where the Votes Are, So Are All Those Calories

Aloo Gobi

I am glad to say: today was a good day, even though I got off to a rough start. After spending the weekend procrastinating work on a paper due Thursday, I slept terribly last night, filled with anxiety that I wouldn't finish in time and the professor, whom I deeply admire, would hate me. I woke up and was in such a foul mood that I skipped morning yoga and made myself a vanilla latte instead. After Nayereh graciously agreed to give me a ride to school, I resolved to be positive and force my way into a good day. That resolve was quickly squashed when I got to French class and the professor handed back our quizzes. After a couple of A-'s and B+'s I stopped being worried about French quizzes. This landed me a big fat D- and a morning of sadness.

The afternoon, however, was looking up. I got complemented on my new boots, managed my way through a discussion in Victorian Britain without actually having read the novel that the discussion was based upon (you might find this shameful, I find it resourceful), and enjoyed a chai latte from Starbucks (which I actually find way too spicy) while working on the paper that caused me a night of sleepless misery. When I got home, I was so pleased that I did my morning yoga and made this delicious recipe with ingredients I had lying around that were going bad (Did you know potatoes can go bad? I know, I didn't either!). After looking up several recipes online on all sorts of sources, I am pleased to say I made up my own, and it goes a little something like this:

Aloo Gobi
serves 3-4

2 medium sized potatoes, chopped
1 head cauliflower, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 cup peas
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tbsp curry powder
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup vegetable stock
1 package LightLife Chick'n Strips (or alternately 1-2 breast of chicken, sliced thinly)

Boil the potato in water for about 15 minutes, or until just barely tender. Remove from heat and drain. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet on medium heat. Add the spices and cook for about 30 seconds, then add the onion, cauliflower and potatoes. Allow the veggies to cook for 3 to 5 more minutes, then add the lemon juice and vegetable stock. Cover and cook for another 5 minutes, or until cauliflower is done cooking. In a seperate pan, sauté the chick'n strips for 3-5 minutes (obviously longer if using real chicken) in olive oil and curry powder. Add the cooked chick'n strips and the peas to the cauliflower mixture, and simmer together on low for another 5 minutes.

I sprinkled fresh basil over the top but I wished that I had fresh cilantro, as that would have been even better. Nevertheless, this was delicious and very easy. It's nice do these types of no-fuss recipes to cap off a good day.