Lemon Meltaway Cookies

These are little delicious lemony nuggets of yumminess.  They are bite-sized.  They crumble on your tongue.  They are lovely.

I really love these cookies.

I’ve been making them for at least 10 years now.  In fact, while Scott went gallivanting around the city with the boys for his bachelor party, my sister and I had our own little bachelorette party at home, making these cookies, drinking tea, and watching The Three Amigos—–I kid you not.  Talk about G-Rated- huh?  I do consider myself a little nerdy.  But I revel in my nerdiness.

Lemon Meltaway Cookies
adapted from a Land O Lakes butter advertisement 10 years ago!!
*If you have access to Meyer lemons, definitely use them- they’re great.

I usually mix the recipe by hand because the recipe is too small for the big standing-mixer bowl.  It’s simple and doesn’t require a lot of aeration in the mixing process.

For the cookies

• 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar
• 3/4 cup salted butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice

For the frosting

• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup salted butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter and powdered sugar.  Add the lemon juice, lemon zest, cornstarch, and flour.  Stir with a wooden spoon until all ingredients are fully incorporated.

Divide the dough in half and roll into logs about 8 inches long, and 1 inch thick. They need not be perfectly cylindrical.  Set on a flat plate and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.  Now that they have firmed up a bit, you can roll them into nicely-shaped logs.  Refrigerate until fully chilled, 1 to 2 hours.

30 minutes prior to baking, heat oven to 350 degrees, and place the oven rack in the center position.  Using a sharp paring knife, slice the logs into 1/4-inch rounds.  Place them 2 inches apart on cookie sheets at bake for 8-12 minutes, or until set.  (To test for doneness, try to “scooch” a cookie to one side with your finger.  If the whole cookie moves, they are done.)  They may turn slightly golden on the bottoms, but will not color on top.  Cool completely.

In small bowl, combine all frosting ingredients.  Stir well until all ingredients are fully incorporated.  It doesn’t look like enough frosting, but fear not- it is!  Use the tip of a butter knife to swipe on a dab of frosting on each cookie and allow them to dry for 1 hour before packing and storing.

Not so hum-drum

Pardon me sir, but do you have any prunes?  Yes prunes.  I prefer them with pits.  That way, you can gnaw at them and coax the bits of fruit out of the craggy pits with your tongue for hours.  Ahh, glorious.

Well, the other day I was following a recipe that required prunes to be soaked in tea.  So I brewed myself a pot of Earl Grey and soaked my prunes.  But the recipe suggested that I pour out the liquid!!!  (Sacre bleu!)  Heavens no!!!  I dutifully saved that sweet elixir and cooked my steel-cut oatmeal in it the next morning.  ‘Twas a lovely pot of oatmeal.  And oatmeal just ain’t oatmeal without a pat of butter, a spoonful of brown sugar and a generous pour of milk.

Steel-cut oatmeal cooked in prune-sweetened tea
yields one huge bowl or 2 average-sized bowls

To make the prune-sweetened tea, simply brew a large mug of your favorite black tea and  dunk in a handful of pitted prunes. Allow to steep for about 30 minutes.  Strain out the prunes and nibble at your leisure.

• 1/2 cup steel-cut oats
• 1-1/2 to 2 cups prune-sweetened tea
• small pinch salt
• 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
• milk for topping
• sugar for topping

In a small sauce pot, melt the butter over medium-low heat.  Add the oats and stir until they begin to smell slightly toasted.  Add the tea and simmer very gently until the oats are tender but toothy, about 15 minutes.  Stir in a small pinch of salt.  Pour into a bowl and top with yummy toppings.

Chewy, crunchy ginger-molasses cookies

These are every bit as fun as my buddy Nate whom everyone adores for his fiery character.  If he were a cookie, he would be a chewy, crunchy ginger-molasses cookie.  Hands down.  A little spicy and enough chew to keep you “jawin”.  And sweet enough to keep you comin’ back for more.  Yup, that is Nate in a nut-shell–not to imply that he could actually fit in a nut-shell…  But….well, we shorties gotta stick together!

Actually, Nate was the one who gave me this original recipe which I tweaked a bit to invoke his character!

Chewy, crunchy ginger-molasses cookies
yields about 20 large cookies

• 3/4 cups vegetable oil
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 Tablespoon minced fresh ginger
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1-1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup Turbinado sugar for rolling (substituting regular white sugar will produce different results)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, whisk the oil, white sugar, egg, fresh ginger, and molasses.  In a separate medium bowl, mix the flour, ginger, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.  Stir the dry ingredients into the wet.  Scoop into 2-Tablespoon balls and coat with the Turbinado sugar by pouring the sugar into a small dish, and rolling the balls around.  Place the  balls 2 to 3 inches apart on a cookie sheet lined with a sil-pat or parchment paper, 10 balls per tray, like this…

O    O    O

O     O

O    O    O

O    O

Bake for 12 minutes.   (At about 10 minutes the cookies will have puffed up but will be too soft and raw in the center.  Then they will fall, somewhat flat.)  Cool on baking sheet for 2 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack.  The cookies will seem underdone, but will be nice and chewy, once cooled.

Feather Buns

I’ve been thinking about a certain issue of late…why is it that grandmother’s have the best recipes? After pondering for a good, long, while, I’ve come to a conclusion.  They have their whole lives to find them! I’ve got a good recipe here, a crappy one there, but see, I’m only 31.  Just wait til I’m 80!  Hooo, boy.

Of course, upon further pondering, a different thought occurs to me.  This is not a universal rule. One of my grandmothers was capable of whipping up a dinner party for 10 officers with no planning, at the drop of a hat, while my other grandmother’s specialty was Kraft Mac ‘n’ Cheese with hot-dog rounds stirred in.  Hmmmm.  Oh well, she had other specialties, I guess.  Like horseback riding.  And cooking broccoli in the pressure cooker ’til it was brown.  Oh, and Frosted Flakes.

Anyway.  These lovely feather buns have been at every family holiday for a great many years, and I’ve taken it upon myself to continue the tradition since my grama’s hands have a hard time mixing and shaping.  They are truly lovely.  I generally eat at least 3 the moment they come out of the oven.  With jam.  Or butter.  Or nothing.  I especiallly love them as mini ham or turkey sandwiches the day after Thanksgiving.

Grama B’s Feather Buns
yields approx 3 dozen

Warning: silly me- I attempted to make a 1-1/2 batch in my kitchen-aide mixer.  Ha!  Overflow! I’d stick to one batch at a time if I were you!

• 1 cup hot mashed Russet or Idaho potato- reserve the cooking water
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter or shortening (I use Spectrum Organic)
• 2 cups whole milk, scalded and cooled
• 1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 whole eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 cakes fresh yeast or 2 pkgs instant dry yeast
• 1/2 cup warm, not hot, potato cooking water
• 8 to 8-1/2 cups all purpose flour

In a large bowl, mash the potato together with the sugar and shortening.  Stir in the milk, salt and eggs.  You’ll be left with a fairly sloppy batter.  Separately, dissolve the yeast in the reserved warm- not hot- potato water.  Stir into the potato mixture.  With a whisk, stir in 2 cups flour.  Cover with plastic and allow to rise for one hour.

Transfer to batter to the bowl of an electric mixer and add about 6-1/2 more cups of flour.   (Unless it’s a particularly dry day, I always use the extra 1/2 cup of flour.)  Knead for about 8-10 minutes to make a soft dough, stopping to scrape down the dough as needed.  At this point, the dough may still feel a little sticky, but the moisture will even out during the next rise.  Cover with plastic and allow to rise until double in bulk, about one hour.

Place your *oven rack in the center-most position and turn on the oven to 375 degrees.

Lightly sprinkle your work counter with flour.  Using a bench-scraper and scale portion out the dough into 1-3/4 to 2 ounce balls.  (Alternately, eyeball it!!  Each finished ball should measure approx. 2-inches in diameter).  To roll the balls, cup your hand over the piece of dough as it sits on the counter.   Begin moving your hand in a clock-wise motion (think: wax on, wax off”), until the piece of dough becomes a ball.  You’ll notice that the underside of the dough has formed a little belly-button.  Place the dough balls on a baking sheet- 12 per sheet- and allow to rise for 30 minutes.

Bake for 12- 15 minutes.  Remove to a cooling rack and try your darnedest to not eat them all at once.

*I find that these cook more evenly when baked one tray at a time.  If you are short on time and must bake 2 trays at the same time, place your oven racks in the upper third and bottom third of the oven.  Be sure to swap the trays, top to bottom and bottom to top, midway through the baking time.

Chocolate Truffles

My friend Myvan has been feeding me doses of her chocolate truffles over the past year.  Now, me and my loving accomplice have been known to eat a full batch of chocolate chip cookies within 2 days.  And blueberry and cream muffins.  And brown-butter ice cream.  However I just didn’t think that we also needed to finish a whole batch of chocolate truffles by ourselves.  So with Thanksgiving fast approaching, I dug out Myvan’s recipe, searched high and low for a mini-ice-cream-scooper, and got to work.

And then I left the chocolate to chill in the refrigerater for a few days, until I had time to do the scooping.

And what did I come home to every night?

A chocolate-covered mini-ice-cream-scooper, reclined next to the sink.

And I thought to myself, “SCOTT!!- Can’t you at least HIDE THE EVIDENCE?!”

Luckily though, despite the surruptitious not-so-skinny-dipping that occured, I still had plenty of chocolate truffles to share with my twenty-or-so family members on Thanksgiving day.

And you know what?

I forgot to put them out!

So here we are, eating chocolate truffles.  By ourselves.  Taking one for the team.

Myvan’s chocolate truffles
if you’d like to make these more kid-friendly, just leave out the liqueur and add more cream.  They’ll be a little softer and richer but, according to Myvan, simply divine.

• 20 ounces of dark chocolate (I like to use Guittard)
• 8 ounces heavy cream
• 2 ounces liqueur (any kind…I used cassis, but you could even use rum!)
• 3 ounces unsalted butter
• pinch kosher salt

Chop the chocolate into small pieces.  In a large saucepan, bring the cream and liqueur to a simmer, remove from the heat.  Immediately, stir in the chocolate until it’s completely melted.  When the mixture has cooled to 90 degrees, stir in the butter.  Pour into a 8×8 baking dish to chill.  Once it’s fully chilled, scoop* and coat with whatever you desire**.

*I made fairly ugly, non-uniform scoops and then attempted to roll them into cute little balls with my hands.  They remained fairly lop-sided and “rustic”.

**I coated mine with cocoa powder, but you could also use broken toffee, chocolate sprinkles, powdered sugar…(how ’bout a few sprinkles of sea salt?!)

Melting onions in red wine

You know what season it is?  It’s the season with significantly less variety.  Root vegetables, anyone?   Call me crazy, but I’ve never been a big fan of parsnips, or rutabagas.  Or winter squash.  Or sweet potatoes.  Sorry.  They’re just so….starchy! Or maybe I should just say that it’s the season that leaves me a little cold in the kitchen (no pun intended).  See, I’m not really an eater of full meals.  I thrive on snack-y type things.

Spring and summer are made for quick preparation.  Just slice a tomato and have a quick sandwich, or toss together some cucumber, red onion and basil for a quick salad…

But autumn and winter bring us long-cooked items.  “Fast food” is harder to come by.  So I find myself concentrating on making leftovers to provide me with the necessary “fast food” the next day.  I could eat braised greens everyday til the cows come home.  And soup.  And don’t get me wrong- I love Brussels sprouts, turnips, cauliflower, broccoli (come to think of it, I guess I’d have to include the whole brassica family).

So, what I’m trying to say is….if you’re like me…then make these yummy onions!  I love having little condiment-like things in the fridge.  Like those tomatoes-yup!-still in there getting used in a million different ways.  Have you ever made harissa?  or romesco?  -they are perfect things to keep in the fridge, adding a little excitement to what you already have…

And yes, sure enough, I did make little nibbles with toasted baguette slices, Monte Enebro cheese, and these onions.  And it was good.  And I was happy.

Melting onions in red wine-adapted from The Cook and the Gardener by Amanda Hesser
yieldsabout 2 cups

• 2 Tablespoons virgin or extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 Tablespooon unsalted butter
• 3 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1-1/2 to 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 3-5 sprigs thyme
• 1 cup full-bodied red wine (Cab, Merlot, Syrah…)
• 1-2 teaspoons red wine vinegar

Choose a heavy-bottomed pot or straight sided saute pan that is big enough to hold the onions in a layer that is about 2-inches deep.

Place the pot over medium-low heat and add the olive oil and butter.  Once they are melted, add the onions, sugar, salt, and thyme.  Stir well to coat.

Turn the heat to low, and cook them slowly, covered for about 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes or so.  Once they have softened, remove the lid, and continue to cook, slowly, stirring regularly, until most of the excess liquid has evaporated.

Add the red wine and vinegar and continue to cook over low heat until the wine has reduced and begun to bind with the onions, creating a bit of a sauce in the pan.  At this point, don’t stir as often.  Allow the onions to just begin to stick on the bottom of the pot (slightly caramelizing).  Then stir.  Do this about 3 or 4 more times.  This slight caramelization adds flavor!

Taste for salt, adjusting as necessary.

Cool.

Houston?

Houston?

Hello?  Houston?

Oh!  Hi, Houston?  Umm, we have a problem…

…and now I’d like to segue into the inevitable song in my head for the rest of they day….Dad?  You know where I’m goin’ right?  Houuuuuu-ston.  Houston means that I’m one day closer to you.  Oh honey, Houuuuuu-ston.  Houston means the last day of the tour is through.  Well honey youuuuuuu and, God in heaven above knows I love what I do.  (Well, you know that it’s true.)  But honey Houuuu-ston, Houston means that I’m one day closer to you…

That musical interlude was brought to you by the Gatlin Brothers.

…and in other news…here begins the 2009 effort to Clean Out The Freezer…yikes.

My new love

Monte Enebro, sometimes called Montenebro is my new love.  It’s considered a  Spanish goat’s milk bleu because the rind is washed with the same bacteria as is used for Roquefort, penicilium roqueforti, but the interior of the cheese remains snow-white.  The cheese literally melts on the tongue like butter.  It’s dense and goaty- but not overly pungeant as some bleu cheeses can be.   It’s made in a long, flat, loaf-type shape and is typically portioned out into rounds.  Our only choice was to buy the end-cut, so we did a lot of scooping!  If you can’t find it at your local cheese shop, check the web- I googled it and found quite a few cheese websites selling it…and I think it would really be good served on crackers with the melting onions in red wine that I’ve got cooking right now! (pics and recipe to come!)

Chad’s nuts (sorry, I had to say it)

For some reason, this crazy Jewish husband of mine has been singing Christmas songs since the beginning of November.  I told him he’s reminding me of our local drug store.  Can’t they at least wait until after Thanksgiving?

Actually, there are a few reasons he’s got Christmas songs in his head.

1) I’ve been playing around with chestnuts (or Chad’s nuts, depending upon how immature you are.  But I prefer the term, “young at heart”)

2) Scott likes to play music via itunes set on “random”.  And if you have as many Christmas albums as I do, you’ll find yourself dancing to Willie Nelson’s White Christmas directly after Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean.

Anyhooo…

I’ve learned a bit about chestnuts this year, so I’ll share the love.

• Look for chestnuts that feel dense and heavy for their size, and don’t rattle when shaken.
• They should always be stored in a cool, moist environment.  The best way to do this at home is to place them in a zip-top bag with a barely moistened paper-towel.  Keep them refrigerated.
• You can do a “float test” to determine if they’ve been stored properly, and are still plump and moist inside.  To do this, place the chestnuts in a bowl of water.  They should sink.  If they float, discard them.
• If chestnuts are improperly stored, ie. left out on the counter for too long, the nutmeat will dry out and shrink, creating space between the nut and the shell where mold can grow.

To Roast Chestnuts

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Cut an “x” into the flat side of each chestnut (This is a very important step which allows steam to escape as they roast, so they don’t explode!)

Place the chestnuts in a small oven-proof saute pan or cookie sheet, and roast for about 15-20 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for just a minute.  You must work as quickly as possible, as they are much easier to peel when hot.  I’ve had success in reheating them slightly if they’ve cooled too much.

Using a small knife, peel off the outer shell and the inner skin.

You’ll be left with this:

And from here, the possibilities are endless.  Last year, we made a delicious stuffing for Thanksgiving dinner…

Lamb Shanks

Alright, I know, I know.  I realize that a mere 4 months ago, I was begging for this, but I’m really wishin’ for a rainy day now.  So I’ve been doing the rain dance, turning off the sprinklers, and making “winter food” for dinner every night, hoping to bring forth the rain.  Despite my efforts, however, my herbs are turning brown (maybe I shouldn’t have turned off those sprinklers), and we’re practically sweating at the dinner table, choking down stews and soups!

But, hey!  I wanted to make lamb shanks.  And so I did!  I friend of mine works part-time at the restaurant, and helps his dad run their farm in Sacramento part-time.  He brought me a grocery bag full of goodies last week, including a huge bunch of lemon verbena.  I love lemon verbena, as you may remember.  He gave me so much that I’ll be able to use it for at least a few different recipes.  But I’ve been wanting to try braising with it.  My original idea was to make a quick fish fumet (a stock made with fish bones) using the lemon verbena leaves as flavoring, and then do a quick braise with some halibut or rock cod.  I was likening it to the use of lemon-grass in thai food.  But lemon verbena leaves are so tender that I was afraid their flavor would dissipate quickly.

Well, the day I had designated for my “lemon verbena braise” was so down-right grey and dreary, that I just couldn’t fathom a light dish.  So lamb shanks it was!  Boy, did it turn out fantastic.  I added ginger to compliment the lemon verbena and the two went together beautifully.

Lamb Shanks with lemon verbena and ginger yields 2 servings with some leftovers for soup, etc.
*if you want to serve one lamb shank per person, look for lamb shanks that weigh about 1 pound each.  If you just want to let the meat fall off the bone and have leftovers, look for shanks that wiegh 1-1/2 pounds each.  Also, you can ask your butcher to “crack” the bone, whereby they will saw through the bone, allowing the marrow to be exposed, adding richness and deliciousness(!) to the dish.

*If you’re a very fat-conscious person, you might want to make this dish a day in advance, then refrigerate the whole thing.  The fat will solidify over-night, allowing you to easily lift it off the top and discard.  Then simply re-heat, covered, over medium-low heat until warmed through.

• 2 lamb shanks totaling about 3-1/4 pounds
• 2 small red onions cut into a large dice
• 1-1/2 cups chicken stock or low sodium broth
• 2 fresh red tomatoes, or  4 pieces of canned whole tomatoes, cut in half
• 7 leaves of lemon verbena
• 1/2-inch hunk of ginger, sliced
• 5 medium garlic cloves
• salt

The day before cooking, salt the lamb using 3/4 teaspoons kosher salt per pound of lamb.  The next day, place a large stew-pot over medium heat and add 2 Tablepoons of pure olive oil or vegetable oil.  Brown lamb shanks until they are golden on each side.  Remove lamb and place on a plate. Pour off all but 1 Tablespoon of the fat. Turn the heat to medium-low, and add the onions, whole garlic cloves, and a pinch of salt.  Sweat down until they are translucent.  Add tomato and ginger.  continue to cook for about 5 minutes allowing them to soften slightly.  Add the stock and simmer.  Place the lamb shanks back in the pot, cover, and simmer very slowly for 2-1/2 to 3 hours.  The cooking time will vary, depending upon how large the shanks were.  The meat should be tender enough to fall off the bone.

And while I didn’t manage to snap any pictures of the braised shanks, I did manage to snap a picture of the yummy soup I made with the leftovers….