Almond Cookies

These are the almond cookies that I baked for my middle layer of my last Daring Bakers challenge. They are yummy by themselves, and I have found that they also freeze pretty well. Enjoy!

Almond Cookies
Source: Taste of Home

1 cup shortening
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar, divided
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sliced almonds

In a small bowl, cream the shortening, 1/2 cup sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and almond extract. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.

Shape into 1-in. balls. Roll in remaining sugar. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Flatten with the bottom of a glass. Press three almond slices into the center of each.

Bake at 350� for 9-11 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool for 2 minutes before removing to wire racks. Yield: 3 dozen.

Love Letters & Lingerie (Sugar Cookies)

WARNING: Some content further down the page may be offensive to very sensitive viewers. Don't say I didn't warn you!

I have had this sugar cookie idea bookmarked for a REALLY long time. At least it feels like a REALLY long time when you bookmark it on February 15th and don't use it until February 14th of the following year. Needless to say, I can now move it out of my saved bookmarks because I finally made these cookies. Really you could make love letter cookies anytime of the year, not just on Valentine's, but I decided that these were going to be my project this year for my sweeties.

Both of them were oogling the plain sugar cookies, asking me more than once what I intended to use them for and could they just eat them already. I just about had to give away the secret to stop the hounding that was happening more than once a day. Yes, you heard that correctly, more than once a day.

In the end though they were glad they waited. And after hounding me so much, I was surprised when I came home from subbing and my husband's love letter cookie was still sitting on the plate. He told me that he ate the envelope (yes, that sounds funny to me too) but he just couldn't bring himself to eat the love letter because it was so pretty. After a short pause I gave him permission and he proceeded to bite right in. No love lost, I guess? My son on the other hand was also super impressed but a little disappointed because he didn't get a smiley face signing off his letter.

And now (remember if you easily offend you won't want to proceed further) . . .

I haven't had this sugar cookie idea bookmarked for long at all. In fact, I think it was only a week or two ago that a friend posted it on her facebook page as a link and I had to go take a peek. After looking at a few different sites I decided that I had to make these. They were fun, but it is a little disconcerting when you think about the fact that you have to take a bite out of them! Enjoy!

Love Letter Source: Slash Food
Lingerie Source: How Does She
Sugar Cookie and Royal Icing Recipe (I only did half of a batch of icing): All Betz Off

Cheesy Ham and Potato Soup

Oh my goodness! This has to be one of the best soups I've ever eaten. It is thick, rich, creamy, and flavorful. I ended up making it late one night so that we could eat it for lunch the next day but it smelled so good that we had to have a spoonful. Next thing we know we are eating a bowlful even though it was 9pm and we had already eaten dinner and were getting ready for bed. It is so good!

I adapted the recipe, and there are many other ways to adapt. You can see comments left at the original recipe site for ideas. Personally, when I get done using the chicken bouillon granules in my cupboard I am going to replace the water and bouillon with stock. Enjoy!

Cheesy Ham and Potato Soup
Source: Food.com


3 1/2 cups of potatoes, diced
1/3 cup celery, diced
1/3 cup onion, finely chopped
1/3 cup carrots, thinly sliced
1 cup ham, diced
1 cup ham, shaved
3 1/4 cups water
2 tablespoons chicken bouillon granules
1 teaspoon pepper
5 tablespoons butter
5 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded

Combine potatoes, celery, onion, carrots, ham, and water in stockpot and bring to a boil. Then cook over medium heat until potatoes are tender. (This took about 10-15 minutes.) Stir in the chicken bouillon and and pepper. (You can choose to add salt to taste (no more than 1/2 teaspoon) but I chose not to because the ham and bouillon are both salted.)

In separate saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat. Whisk in flour and cook stirring constantly until thick. Slowly stir in milk as not to allow lumps to form and all milk is added. Continue to stir until thick (4-5 minutes). Add in cheese and stir until melted.

Stir the cheese mixture into the stockpot and cook until heated through.

Green Smoothie

Great tasting and healthy for you! You can't go wrong with a green smoothie. I know this may not sound appealing to some of you, but you should at least give it a try before you form an opinion of it. I was a bit hesitant at first, but once I tried it I found I really enjoyed it. I've now converted 4 of my family members from totally resistant, to trying, to drinking them at least 4 times a week. Enjoy!

Side Note: We usually drink a smoothie in place of a meal. We've had them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If you drink it by itself it doesn't have much staying power, but you will be amazed at how much one slice of whole grain toast with your smoothie will fill you up more than just the smoothie itself. 

Green Smoothies
Makes a single serving

Base to start with:
20 large grapes or 25 small grapes
3/4 cup fresh pineapple, chunked
2 cups spinach leaves
1 tablespoon flax
6-8 ice cubes

Optional Add-ins:
1/2 banana
1/2 orange
1/2 apple
veggies or other fruits

Completely blend all ingredients.

Aebleskivers with Chopped Apples

Every year we go to the local fair where my husband visits the stand that sells poffertjes. He usually makes 2 or 3 visits during our day at the fair because he enjoys them so much. I think that he may like the sweet whipped butter more than the poffertjes, but you can't have one without the other. When I saw an Aebleskiver pan, I knew that it would be a great purchase for our family.

We haven't had too many varieties yet, but it will only be a matter of time. For our first batch we used an apple pie filling that we had left over from a camping trip. It was fun to get our pan seasoned and to experiment with the cooking method.

Without realizing it, we also used apples for our second batch. This time though it was just finely chopped apple chunks since I wanted to make Aebleskivers but was still fasting from sugar. I know, nutella and chocolate filled sound delicious and we will eventually try those as well, but we wanted to stick with a somewhat healthy Aebleskiver for breakfast instead of dessert. These are really fun to make and taste pretty much like a little round pancake. Enjoy!

 

Basic Aebleskiver Recipe

Makes many little Aebleskivers!

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups buttermilk
3 eggs, separated

Sift together flour, salt and baking soda. Add buttermilk and egg yolks. Beat eggs whites until light and fluffy, forming soft peaks. Gently fold egg whites into batter.

Heat Aebleskiver pan on medium heat. Grease each cup with butter and fill 2/3 full. Cook for approximately 1-2 minutes per side, flip using a toothpick. When both sides are done serve with a sprinkle of confectioner�s sugar. Best when served warm.

Optional: Fill each cup only 1/3 full with batter and place a small amount of fruit or topping in each cup and cover with an additional 1/3 batter.

Green Beans with Celery Bacon Sauce

I know this isn't much to look at, but it tastes so good! I love steamed green beans with nothing on them, but I find this sauce equally enjoyable. I like to steam my green beans, whereas others like to boil their beans. I have provided two different methods for making this dish. I use the first method because I usually make it with turkey bacon and I don't have much in the way of drippings. Enjoy!

Green Beans with Celery Bacon Sauce
Makes 8 servings

6 cups fresh green beans
4 bacon strips, cooked and diced
small amount of olive oil  (only if you use first method for cooking)
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) condensed cream of celery soup, undiluted
1/2 cup milk

Steam green beans. In a skillet, saute onion in olive oil until tender. Stir in soup and milk until blended; heat through. Spoon over beans. Sprinkle bacon over top.

Original Recipe:
Place beans in a large saucepan and cover with water; bring to a boil. Cook, uncovered, for 8-10 minutes or until crisp-tender; drain and set aside. In a skillet, cook bacon over medium heat until crisp. Remove to paper towels; drain, reserving 2 tablespoons drippings. Saute onion in drippings until tender. Stir in soup and milk until blended; heat through. Spoon over beans. Sprinkle bacon over top.

Trifles

These are actually trifles! What I mean by that is that they are trifles, as in the dessert, but they are also trifles, as in a small quantity of something. I kind of deconstructed my daring bakers challenge when the spongecake didn't work out to my satisfaction and decided instead to bring all the components to our dinner at our friends' house. I whipped up a quick batch of yellow cake as well as some made-from-scratch chocolate pudding. You can see I got my chocolate fix! Woohoo!

I used our friends' stemless wine glasses (which I then came home and promptly bought a set of) to create a layering of yellow cake, raspberry mousse, crushed almond cookies, more yellow cake, lemon mousse, more crushed almond cookies, and topped it off with a few slivered almonds. (My picture doesn't show the double layer of cake because my husband scarfed down the remaining cake before I could tell him I was trying to get a picture of the trifle. Oh well, that's technically what it's there for, right?)

For the chocolate version, I still used the yellow cake, then topped it with chocolate pudding, crushed chocolate cookies, more yellow cake, more chocolate pudding, and more crushed chocolate cookies. Magnificent! It was the chocolate fix I was looking for the other day. I found finally found it!

The yellow cake was just out of a box. I thought after spending so much time on the spongecake the day before and not having it be to my liking I would just go with something I was confident would give the taste and texture I was looking for. The raspberry and lemon mousse recipes can be found on my last post, click here. The almond cookie recipe is still coming so hold on just a little bit longer. That leaves the best for last, chocolate pudding! Enjoy!


Chocolate Cream Pudding
Makes 6 to 8 servings

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup Hershey's Cocoa
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups milk
3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Combine sugar, cocoa, cornstarch and salt in a heavy saucepan; add milk and egg yolks. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils; boil and stir 1 minute. Remove from heat; blend in butter and vanilla. Pour into bowl or individual dessert dishes; press plastic wrap directly onto surface. Cool; chill until set.