Spring cookies

These Slice of Orange Cookies seemed the perfect ending for Easter brunch at our house Sunday — not too sweet, but incredibly flavorful.  (Yes, you had them at Spring Super Saturday, too!)  When we are in orange eating season, I will grate the orange rinds (before peeling) and make the dough for the freezer.

This is an old recipe; I haven’t yet found it on the Web.  I’ll give you the original version, with my notes.  I’ve never liked to make slice-and-bake cookies (I can’t seem to cut an even slice), so I make drop cookies.  And I always double this recipe, but only use one recipe of icing to drizzle over the cookies.

Slice-of-Orange Cookies (5 dozen)

1 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 egg
2 teaspoons finely shredded orange peel
2 Tablespoons orange juice
2-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Cream together sugar and butter until light and fluffy, then beat in egg, orange peel, and orange juice until combined.  Beat in flour, baking powder, and salt.  Shape dough into two rolls 7″ long and about 1-3/4″ in diameter.  Wrap in plastic wrap; chill or freeze till firm.  Cut into 1/4″ slices; place on ungreased baking sheet.  Back at 375° F 10-12 minutes or till  lightly browned.  Frost when cool.  Frosting:  2 cups powdered sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, 1/2 teaspoon orange extract, about 2 Tablespoons milk.

Notes: I drop these cookies from a small cookie scoop onto parchment paper-lined cookie sheets.  I spoon frosting into a quart freezer bag, snip off corner, and squiggle onto cookies.  Allow frosting to dry before storing cookies.

Raspberry Almond Shortbread Thumbprints

By request, you will find the recipe for the Stampin’ Divas’ cookie treats yesterday here, at the Land O’ Lakes site.  These are so easy and fast to make — foolproof!  Try apricot jam for a spring variation.

Gingerbread cookies

By request, here is the recipe for the Gingerbread Cookies that I shared at last week’s cookie exchange:

Gingerbread Cookies — Debra Burgin

1 cup sugar
1 cup butter or margarine
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup molasses
1 teaspoon vinegar
2 eggs
5 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda

In saucepan, melt together sugar, butter, spices, and molasses.  Bring to boil, stirring constantly.  Pour into mixing bowl and allow to cool.  When lukewarm, beat in vinegar and eggs.  Gradually mix dry ingredients into molasses mixture.  Chill until needed, but bring to room temperature for easier rolling.  Roll on floured board to 1/8″ thickness and cut out shapes.  Re-roll scraps.  Bake on ungreased sheet for 10 minutes at 350 degrees.  Frost with Royal Icing when cool.

Makes about 100 3″ stars

Stampin’ and snackin’

This evening is the Third Annual Scrappin’ Cookie Exchange at my house.  Each stamper brings one dozen cookies for each of the other participants, as well as some to pass, and a 6″ x 6″ scrapbook page with the recipe.  This page is shared in “shoebox” style, with all elements — stamps, ink, paper, tools — passed around to each person until we each have made a page for each cookie.  In addition, we share appetizers.  Good thing we are starting early!

I couldn’t decide on my cookies this year, but finally settled on my classic Gingerbread Cookies, a recipe that came from my father’s aunt, I think.  There are many Christmas traditions that could be put aside without damaging my holiday experience too much, but these cookies are essential!  Nothing is better with a cup of coffee.  Call it breakfast!

Click on the image above to see the texture on the stamped panel.  I need to do this more often — it’s a very cool effect!

Stamps:  Sweet Season (p. 29)

Ink:  Real Red, Stampin’ Write Markers (Close to Cocoa, Real Red)

Paper:  Real Red, Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla

Other:  Big Shot and Stampin’ Up! Perfect Details Texturz Plate, Round Tab Punch, Scallop Edge Punch, 5/16″ Neutrals Jumbo Brads (Chocolate Chip), Sleigh Bells Ribbon (only available until January 4 in the Holiday Mini!)

Kitchen days

This week has seen lots of time in the kitchen, working ahead on my holiday baking.  Next Sunday and Monday I have three events that need treats, so I must plan accordingly.  Dough is standing by, the big mixer is out, and recipes are spread on the counter for review.  My apron is ever at the ready.

Tuesday I made — and counted! — 593 Pretzel Buttons!  About half will go to our county’s Hospice, where volunteers will combine the donations of dozens of bakers into festive bags and deliver them to people under Hospice care.  I’ve been involved in the B.U.N.S. (Baking Up Nice Surprises) for probably 20 years.  It’s something I can do.

But all that bending over and meticulous work is hard on the back and shoulders!  DH helped a bit, but he is already under care for a back problem.  A Tylenol PM (and a lavish application of hand cream) helped later!

There’s really no point in making only a few of these.  If you’re making 200, might as well make 600.  So December campers, you’ll probably see them later this month.  If they last …

The end of picnic season

Wednesday was the last picnic of the season, with the DeKalb County Historical and Genealogical Society.  (We just call it “the historical.”)  DH is treasurer, so he attends every meeting; I’m there only when there’s a meal or a trip!  We met at one of the county’s forest preserves.  Distressingly, the mosquitoes were out for … blood.  So we didn’t get the full presentation by former biology instructor Terry Martin.  Still, it’s always fun to hear him talk with boundless enthusiasm about the natural world; when an insect scurried across the floor of the building we were picnicking in, he gleefully jumped at the chance to educate us (and quiz us) about the beast.

On Tuesday I woke up with a cold, darn it, so I didn’t feel much like creating something fabulous for the potluck.  I counted on my favorite, perfect Chewy Cocoa Brownies to wow the crowd, and they would have if the only place on the counter for them hadn’t been next to a big box of glorious offerings from Sweet Dreams.

Still, I’m not sorry to have leftovers (and an extra cup of coffee this morning).  Is it wrong to consider these a vegetable, in light of the cocoa beans?

Contemplating beans

Yes, I was taking pictures of my leftover baked beans.  DH doesn’t even question it.  How goofy is that?

Two weeks ago, I made my sister’s Stampede Beans for our birthday picnic here.  I’ve made Calico Beans for years and like them, but they’re pretty sweet.  I’ve always wanted beans that have a little heat to them.

Truly, these are the best beans I’ve ever had.  I did have to call my sister to clarify the amount of beans.  First I read “10 oz.,” which seemed pretty scant for the amount of bacon!  Lacking a 110-ounce can of beans, I scrounged up every can of Bush’s beans in the house, and added drained and rinsed black and kidney beans to make up the difference.

Even though we were a pretty big crowd, there was plenty to eat, and so we ended up with quite a quantity of leftover beans.  Now, I love these — warm or cold — but I was not the only one in the household who was tired of them twice a day.  Consider yourself warned.

Please try these for your Labor Day picnic!

Stampede Baked Beans

1 pound bacon, cut into small pieces
2 large onions, chopped
One 110-ounce can baked beans (yes!)
1/4 cup ketchup
2 cups (16 oz.) chunky salsa (as hot as you prefer)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tablespoon ground cumin

Fry bacon; remove from pan and drain on paper towels.  Drain most of grease from pan and sauté onions.  Combine all ingredients in big crock pot and cook on low all day.

The fruit of our labor

Here’s the dessert from the other evening:  Cherry Upside Down Cake.  In its original version (from the orchard), you simply melt 3 Tablespoons of butter and 3/4″ cups brown sugar in a 10″ cast-iron skillet.  Add 3-4 cups pitted, well-drained sour cherries.  Prepare a Jiffy cake mix and pour over top.  Bake for a certain amount of time (probably what’s on the box) until the center tests clean.

However, I use my favorite PUDC recipe, which was my father’s favorite dessert (or maybe he just told me that).  I just increased the brown sugar by half, because the cherries are quite tart.

Cherry Upside Down Cake (adapted from a Sunset recipe)

4 Tablespoons butter or margarine
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3-4 cups pitted sour cherries, well-drained
3 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup orange juice
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Melt butter and brown sugar together over low heat in a 10″ cast-iron skillet. Remove from heat and place cherries atop sugar mixture.  In a mixing bowl, beat eggs and granulated sugar until light and fluffy; beat in orange juice.  Fold dry ingredients into egg mixture.  Pour over cherries in skillet.  Bake at 350° for 35-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then loosen edge of cake with offset spatula and turn out onto serving plate.  Makes 6-8 servings.

More on curry

I told you I’d give you the recipe for Curried Cabbage.  I don’t know where I got this recipe; it’s written on the back of one of those page-a-day calendar sheets dated July 15, 1997.  My goodness.  (I loved having a dated piece of paper each day!  The grid on the blank side was very nice.  But I can’t find a subject matter I care to pursue every day for a year.  Suggestions?)  I wonder if I was watching a cooking show and quickly scribbling the instructions.

Anyway, the first time I made this, I was chagrinned to read a line that said 1-2.  That’s all.  No ingredient.  Was it cups of water?  Tablespoons of vinegar?  Cloves of garlic?  Could make a big difference. The more I thought about the process, I realized it was a cooking time shorthand:  cook for 1-2 minutes more.

So here’s the recipe, my version:

Curried Cabbage

In a very large flat pan, melt 4 Tablespoons of butter with 2-3 teaspoons of curry powder.  To the pan, add one medium cabbage, sliced (about 8 cups).  Stir cabbage so it is evenly coated with curry.  Reduce heat to low and cook 5-6 minutes.  Add one finely chopped apple (I use Golden Delicious — no need to peel) and 1/2 cup golden raisins.  Cook a few more minutes, until apple and cabbage is tender.  Add 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice and salt/pepper to taste.

If it is Meatless Monday, I may add roasted peanuts on top.  I cannot (will not) tell you how many servings this is.  It’s probably 6-8.  We like leftovers heated up the next day or so for lunch.

319 buttons

That’s how many I made this afternoon.  You can see some of them in the new blog banner.

We call these “Pretzel Buttons,” and I’ve been making them for years.  Pretty much if there are seasonal M&Ms in the stores, I’ll make PBs.  There’s no recipe, really, just lay out the pretzel rings on a long strip of wax paper, melt almond bark in the microwave, spoon the bark into each pretzel, and top with an M&M.  (Don’t try melting the bark all at once.  Heat for a minute or two, stir, then another minute, stir.  Stop heating it when there are still some lumps; they’ll melt as you stir.  And careful — your bowl is very hot!)

Have something entertaining playing in the background, as this is pretty tedious work.  An assistant is either a help or a liability, depending on their technique and how many of the ingredients they consume in the process.

Most of today’s batch will be part of the B.U.N.S.* project for our county Hospice, some will go with us tomorrow night as a hostess gift, some will be packaged up and hidden away for camp later this month, and the rest will hang around here for … not too long.

*Baking Up Nice Surprises