Christmas Cookies

It's finally December, which means I can finally decorate and listen to Christmas music. Tom and I have strictly imposed this rule upon ourselves to avoid getting sick of Christmas before it's even here. Of course, baking is one holiday task which Tom encourages me to undertake at any time of the year when the fancy should take me to do so. Today I made some yummy sugar cookies. This recipe is from my Company's Coming "Holiday Entertaining" cookbook, with a few small changes.

Sugar Cookies

Makes: I don't really know how many. It would depend on what size and shape cookie cutters you use. I'd guesstimate between 4 and 5 dozen.

Total time: An hour or so. With cookies, it's hard to say, since you have to keep doing different trays full of them, so that makes it take longer.

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1. Cream butter and sugar together well. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla.

2. Mix in flour, baking powder and salt. 

3. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and keep working in little scoops of flour until the dough will roll out the thickness of pie crust using a floured rolling pin. 

4. Cut into 3 inch (7.5 cm) rounds (according to the recipe). Myself, I used my new cookie cutters to cut out all kinds of different Christmas-y shapes. As you run out of dough to cut, pack it back into a ball and re-roll it out to keep cutting until you've used up all the dough.

5. Bake in 350 degrees over for 8-10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Icing

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

3 tbsp butter or margarine, softened

1/2 tsp vanilla

5 tsp water or milk (I use milk)

Food colouring (optional)

1. Beat first four ingredients together in a bowl, adding more icing sugar or water as needed to make proper icing consistency. 

2a. (the way I've done it) Spread icing onto cookies - I use a cake icing spatula to make it nice and easy. Scatter sprinkles over the iced cookies to add a nice festive touch.

2b. (the cookbook way) Tint the icing your desired colour and pipe designs on cookies.

The reason I haven't been piping them is because I hate my icing decorator bottles. I got them from Pampered Chef a few months back, thinking they would be fun. Sure. Whatever. I'd way rather have a regular icing bag with tips instead of these bottles. It's very difficult to fill them, very difficult to control the flow of the icing, and very difficult to get them clean again. Thankfully they didn't cost too much, so I didn't end up wasting too much money on them, but still. When I buy something, I want it to work well for me.

Savoury Pork Roast

So, in my weekly meal planning, I usually plan to do a meal with chicken one night, pork another night, beef another night, as so on. On Monday I wasn't sure what to make, but for some reason I was leaning towards pork, so I allrecipes.com'd "Pork", sorted it out by rating and chose this delightful recipe. It was ridiculously easy to put together and it tasted so good. So. Good. So, allow me to share:


Savoury Pork Roast
Serves: 4
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour & 25 minutes


1 garlic clove, minced
2 tsp dried marjoram
1 tsp salt
1 tsp rubbed sage
1 boneless pork loin roast


1. Combine the seasonings; rub over roast.
2. Place on a rack in a shallow roasting pan. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 160 degrees F. 
3. Let stand for 10-15 minutes before slicing.


My Thoughts:
- It could probably have used even less salt
- I didn't have a rack that would have fit in one of my baking dishes, so I just put it straight in the glass baking dish and that was fine
- It cooked faster than I thought it would. When I do this again, I'll probably check it a bit earlier to keep it from overcooking (it didn't go really dry, but I could've safely gotten away with less time and thus a juicier roast)
- Marjoram and sage: I'd never used them before but OH. MAN > they are soo good. 


Star-Reviewer Tom gives this recipe 7/8 lip-smacks

What was THAT all about?

THAT previous post was about some 'squares' that I made for the youth group bake sale that evening. They were supposed to be "double brownies" meaning that they had a layer of chocolate brownie, followed by caramel brownie, followed by icing, following by chocolate drizzle. Also: chopped walnuts. They were supposed to be delicious.


However, somewhere along the way I forgot to read part of the directions. I suppose that since I was making 'squares', I automatically assumed that the pan I baked said squares in should also be square. I poured the batter into a 9x9 dish instead of the called-for 9x13. No wonder they didn't bake all the way through.


I'm willing to try this recipe again, though, since the taste there was good, just the appearances weren't exactly beautiful.

See: they LOOKED good in the pan....

 ...until I removed a square and you couldn't really tell that I'd taken one out....

Mmm - don't they look delicious?

So, I'm not going to post this recipe until I make it again and they turn out wonderfully. Because that's what this blog is all about: making you people think that everything I make is fantastic. Of course, these last two posts may have destroyed all your previous confidence in my abilities....we'll just have to work at restoring that lost faith then, yes? Yes. I think so.

Sneak Peek

"If it wasn't flowing all over the place, it would be great!"
or:
"If you put it in the freezer before people bought it, you'd be okay."

Star-Reviewer Tom gives this recipe a
9/10 for taste
and
a 
2/10 for appearance


Aren't you excited?!

Caribbean Marinade

Another part of the meal that I mentioned in my very first post was marinated & grilled chicken. It's only fair for me to share the recipe for the marinade I used, as it's fantastic. We use this marinade quite frequently (so much so that Tom often has to convince me to give the other marinades a fair chance!) - I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Caribbean Marinade
Makes: 1/4 cup of marinade
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 65 minutes

The meat only needs 1 hour in the marinade, but can be refrigerated in the marinade overnight if desired. This marinade is best with pork or chicken.

1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley (I use just a small shot of dried)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp cinnamon


I typically pour the marinade over the cubed chicken in a lidded container then refrigerate for an hour or more before either skewering the chicken and BBQing it or grilling it up in our cast-iron grill pan on the stove. 

SO YUMMY!!

 Star-Reviewer Tom gives this recipe 4/5 plate-licks

Balsamic Bread Dip

In my first post, I mentioned a bread dip I had made to go along with our yummy focaccia bread. How unkind of me to not post a 'recipe' of how to make it!

To undo such an unkindness, here's how:

Balsamic Bread Dip
Makes: 1/2 cup
Total Time: Umm, like a minute. Really.

1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

Pour olive oil onto plate, large saucer or shallow dish. Pour vinegar over top. Swirl slightly using tip of knife. Serve with bread.

*Note: We discovered Balsamic Vinegar is pricy stuff. But it was SO WORTH IT for how delicious this tasted with our bread!

 Star-Reviewer Tom gives this recipe 5/5 dips

Focaccia Bread

For my inaugural post, I'll share with you one of my new favourite recipes from my all-time favourite cookbook - The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. I had long ago made myself a goal to make some home-made focaccia bread, but I'd just never gotten around to it. One week, Tom and I were meal planning for the upcoming week when I was paging through a Company's Coming cookbook and saw a recipe for a Balsamic Vinegar Dip, which brought my mind straight over to focaccia bread for some reason or another.

I felt inspired to create a meal around the dip - starting with the bread. We had my sister Danielle and her boyfriend, Timothy over to share the meal with us. We served the bread, dip, some marinated/grilled chicken, some garlic rice, veggies & hummus annnnd for some odd reason we ended up with some bits and pieces of an M&M's Oriental Party Pack too, even though it didn't really fit in with the other things we had for dinner. We drank some Open red wine - a merlot - to go along with dinner. It was a delicious evening - delectable food and delightful company!

So, without further ado (and a strong hope that I'm allowed to share recipe-book recipes that I haven't invented myself!!), here is the recipe:

Rosemary Focaccia

Makes: one 12 x 18 inch flatbread
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 3 hours plus cooking time

Dried rosemary cannot be substituted for the fresh rosemary called for here because dried rosemary will burn.

1 russet potato (8 ounces), peeled & cut into 1-inch chunks
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp instant or rapid-rise yeast
1 1/4 tsp table salt
1 cup warm water
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for the baking sheet
2 tbsp fresh rosemary
3/4 tsp course sea salt

1. Cover the potato with water in a small saucepan and simmer until completely cooked and easily pierced with a knife, 10-15 minute. Drain and, when the potato is cool enough to handle, grate it on the large holes of a box grater. You should have about 1 1/3 cups of lightly packed potato.

2. Mix 3 1/4 cups of the flour, yeast, and table salt together in a standing mixer* fitted with the dough hook (I don't have a stand mixer - see note). With the mixer on low speed, add the grated potato, water, and 2 tbsp of the oil until the dough comes together, about 1 minute.

3. Increase the speed to medium-low and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. (If, after 5 minutes, more flour is needed, add the remaining 1/4 cup flour, 1 tbsp at a time, until the dough clears the side of the bowl but sticks to the bottom).

4. Turn the dough out onto a clean counter and knead by hand to form a smooth, round ball, about 1 minute. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place (I put mine in my oven, since I have a "proof" setting) until double in size, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

5. With wet hands, press and stretch the dough flat on a well-oiled 12 by 18 inch rimmed baking sheet. If it resists spreading to the corners, wrap it loosely with plastic wrap and wait a few minutes until the dough relaxes before trying again.
Wrap loosely in lightly greased plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until it has nearly doubled in size and springs back slowly when indented with a finger, 45-60 minutes.

6. After the dough has risen on the baking sheet, adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 425 degrees. Wet your fingers and press them into the dough at regular intervals to make about 24 dimples. Drizzle with the remaining 2 tbsp oil and sprinkle evenly with the rosemary and sea salt. Bake until the focaccia bottom is golden and crisp, 20-25 minutes.

7. Slide the focaccia onto a wire rack and let cool slightly before cutting into squares.


*Hand Mixing Method:
Cook, grate and measure the potato in Step 1.
Whisk 3 1/4 cups of the flour, the yeast and salt together in a large bowl.
Add the grated potato, water, and 2 tbsp of the oil and stir with a rubber spatula until the dough comes together and looks shaggy.
Turn the dough out onto a clean counter and knead by hand to form a smooth, round ball, 10-15 minutes, adding the remaining 1/4 cup flour as needed to prevent the dough from sticking to the counter.
Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise as directed in Step 4.


Variations:
Parmesan Focaccia
Substitute 2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese for the rosemary and coarse sea salt.
(this is the one I did, as I didn't have fresh rosemary at the time)

Sage Focaccia
Add 1 tbsp chopped fresh sage leaves to the dough ingredients in Step 3 and substitute 24 whole fresh sage leaves for the rosemary. Press the sage leaves into the dimples.

Black Olive and Thyme Focaccia
Substitute 1 tsp fresh thyme and 24 large black olives, pitted, for the rosemary. Press the olives into the dimples.
(I really want to try this one out - I'm coming around to olives lately - but only in moderation!)




Ummm, so, I've tried to post a picture but apparently Blogger will only allow me to post pictures Portrait, not Landscape, sooo, that's a weird problem. I'll see what I can do to fix it.

 Star-Reviewer Tom gives this recipe 5/5 chomps