**I haven’t been cooking or food blogging lately.  So,  I’ve decided to go through my archives and repost some of my earlier posts, from the days when I started learning to cook and bake (I’m still learning).   It certainly brings back good memories.

I recently got a comment about this Austrian cake from a reader and interestingly enough, they showed one of my favorite movies, The Sound of Music, on TV, on Sunday.   It definitely made me want to repost this recipe for Steinkogler Gugelhupf.  

One day, I’d love to visit Austria and visit some of the spots associated with the movie.  Until I’m able to afford a plane ticket, I like to go on a virutual journey at Merisi’s Vienna for Beginners blog.  She takes her readers on a wonderful tour of Vienna.  There are so many mesmerizing sights and deliciously-filled cafes.  Yes, Austria is on my list of places to visit, one day.

Happy days, everyone!

Paz 

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Originally posted  February 5, 2008

**I haven’t been cooking or food blogging lately.  So,  I’ve decided to go through my archives and repost some of my earlier posts, from the days when I started learning to cook and bake (I’m still learning).   It certainly brings back good memories. 

I remember when I first made these Butter Pecan Cookies.  They were really good.  I made them several times afterwards.   I’ve gotta make them again, very soon. 

Happy Holidays to all! 

Paz

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Originally posted December 25, 2006  

Hi everyone: 

I want to wish you a Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukhah, Winter Solstice, Kwanzaa, Eid-al-Adha… Whatever you celebrate, I wish you all the best during this holiday season.

Here’s a delicious Butter Pecan Cookie recipe I’d like to share with you. It’s from Simply Recipes. The buttery taste, along with the pecans will have you going back for more. I made them Christmas Eve and again on Christmas Day. They keep disappearing. Fast! I may make it one more time on Tuesday. The more I make it the better my cookie-making skills become.

This recipe only makes 12 cookies, but you can double the ingredients to make more. Thanks, Elise for the recipe and tip on creaming the butter and sugar. Very helpful.

Paz

 

 

Butter Pecan Cookies
Simply Recipes

 

By the way, here’s a tip I learned over lunch with Bay Area pastry chef Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater. Cream the butter first. Then add sugar and cream them together. This is the way it is supposed to be done. (Thanks Shuna!)

 

3/4 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar, plus more for coating
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour

1- Preheat oven to 350°. On a baking sheet, toast pecans until fragrant, about 6 minutes. Let cool completely; finely chop.

2- With an electric mixer, cream butter for about a minute. Add 1/3 cup sugar and cream until light, about 1 minute more. Beat in vanilla, salt, and flour, scraping down sides of bowl, just until dough comes together. Fold in pecans.

3- Separate dough into 12 pieces; squeeze dough to shape into balls. Roll in sugar. Place, 3 inches apart, on a baking sheet.

4- Gently flatten with the bottom of a glass (reshape sides if necessary). Sprinkle with sugar.

5- Bake until golden brown, rotating sheet halfway through, about 15 minutes. Sprinkle with more sugar. Cool cookies on a wire rack.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**I haven’t been cooking or food blogging lately.  So,  I’ve decided to go through my archives and repost some of my earlier posts, from the days when I started learning to cook and bake (I’m still learning).   It certainly brings back good memories.

I remember the first time I made these cookies.  I was so proud of myself.  

Paz

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Originally posted December 26, 2007

Okay.  So, one of the questions in a Christmas meme that I recently completed got me thinking.  It asked what I left for Santa.  My answer was nothing.  Then I started to think that this year, perhaps, I could bake some cookies for him. 

I saw the most enticing, delectable-looking cookies — Stained Glass Cookies — on Elise’s Simply Recipes site.  Actually, I’d first seen these cookies on Pille’s blog some time ago.  Looking at them, again, this time on Elise’s blog, I was ready and knew that they were the cookies I’d bake for Santa!  Yeah, baby! 

I put all the ingredients together without incident and then the adventure began:  The instructions called for placing the hard candies (that made the stained glass portion) in a bag and then crushing them.  Anxious to make my cookies, I forgot to put the candy in a bag before crushing them.  I placed them on the chopping board and started whacking away at them.  Each time I banged on them with my mallet, pieces of candy would fly all over the kitchen. 

Oh, my!  However, I didn’t let that minor hiccup stop me.  Determined to get my stained glass, I continued to bang away.  I think half of the candy must have landed on the kitchen floor.  Haha!  I’m sorry to say that it never occurred to me on my own, to put it in a bag to contain it.  Duh.  What a scene.  Definitely, next time, I’ll remember to use the bags to crush the candy. 

I cut out my cookies and filled in the shapes to make the stained glass, put them in the oven, and voila!  I made my very first ever Stained Glass Cookies.  They didn’t look too bad and they tasted G-R-E-A-T!  I think Santa liked them because the next morning, I found the cookie plate empty and I found some gifts under the Christmas tree with my name on it.  Thankfully, he didn’t leave me any coal.  So, I think I did all right. 

Thanks, Elise and Pille, for the recipe and inspiration.  Now that I’ve started, I plan on making these cookies again.

Paz

Oh, by the way, I did my best but for some reason couldn’t get decent photos of the cookies.  I was unable to capture how much they really looked like stained glass windows when held to the light.  Check out Elise and Pille’s cookies for an accurate and beautiful photo.

Stained Glass Cookies

Simply Recipes

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon molasses
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 2 cups flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 30-40 hard candies (such as Life Savers), preferably in several flavors/colors

1 Pre-heat oven to 375°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat.

2 In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugars until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add molasses and vanilla extract, mixing until incorporated. Add egg and mix until light and smooth, about 1 minute on medium speed.

3 Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder. Fold dry ingredients into wet mixture. Use electric mixer to blend just until flour is incorporated. Divide dough in half and flatten into two disks. Wrap disks in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least an hour and up to 2 days.

4 Remove any wrappers on candies and separate them by color into plastic bags. Using a mallet to crush candies.

5 Place one disk between two large sheets of waxed paper and roll to 1/4-inch thickness. Use cookie cutters to cut dough into desired shapes. Transfer cookies to prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart. Using a smaller cookie cutter or a knife, cut shapes into centers of cookies, reserving these center bits to add into extra dough.

6 Use a spoon to sprinkle the crushed candy into the hollowed-out centers of the cookies, filling to the edges. Try to keep the candy within the centers. Any candy specks that fall on the cookie will color the cookie.

7 If cookies will be hung as ornaments or decorations, poke a small hole in the top of each cookie before baking.

8 Bake 9 to 10 minutes. The candy should be melted and bubbling and the cookies just barely beginning to brown. Remove baking sheets from oven and place on wire racks to cool. Allow cookies to cool on pans at least 10 minutes; otherwise, the candy centers may separate from the dough. When cookies are completely cooled, remove and store in an airtight container. String with ribbon if you want to hang as an ornament.

Makes 2 to 4 dozen cookies, depending on how large you make them.

**I haven’t been cooking or food blogging lately.  So,  I’ve decided to go through my archives and repost some of my earlier posts, from the days when I started learning to cook and bake (I’m still learning).   It certainly brings back good memories.

I’ve mentioned several times on my blog that I love rice.  All types of rice.   Here’s one nice rice recipe that I need to make again. 

Paz

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First posted December 7, 2005

Once upon a time there was a girl who liked to read food blogs. As she read Michelle’s Oswego Tea, she came across an interesting smoothie recipe – Banana Cardamom Smoothie.

“Cardamom? What’s cardamom?” She asked herself, never having heard, seen or tasted the unfamiliar ingredient.

Later she found out that it’s a popular spice. Spelled two ways – cardamom or cardamon – it comes in two forms (green or white fruit pods that contain tiny brown aromatic seeds, or decorticated seeds without the shell). She learned it’s widely used – from Danish pastries, Saudi Arabian, to North African, Asian, and Indian cooking, and in spice blends like garam masala, curry powder and berbere.

Michelle sent the girl a Basmati and Nut Pilaf recipe. “It’s what introduced me to cardamom,” she let the girl know.

“Rice with cardamom, cumin seed, ground coriander, and black mustard seeds? Oh wow! This should taste interesting,” the girl spoke to herself (She did that a lot.) while reading the ingredient list with interest. Normally a rice eater, she’d never made rice with the spices mentioned in the recipe.

The spices used

Eagerly, the girl set out to go buy the cardamom. She searched high and low in her neighborhood. The people she asked in the grocery stores didn’t know what she talked about or they said that didn’t have it.

So, the girl went out of her area and searched. No luck. She returned to a store in her neighborhood and asked a manager who pointed her to the spice section. In a little bottle, she found the cardamom pods. They’d been there all that time, right under her nose!

Cardamom pods

Although the remaining ingredients for the recipe weren’t hard to find, for one reason or another, it took the girl a little longer to get them. The list called for cashew nuts, but every time the girl would buy the nuts, she’d eat it all before it was time to prepare the meal. This happened twice. She couldn’t find black mustard seeds and used regular mustard seed and instead of sunflower oil used safflower oil.

With everything finally on hand, the girl prepared her meal. Michelle noted that the basmati didn’t require as much stock or water as the recipe recommended. Instead, her basmati took equal parts water to rice, so that’s what the girl used. However, the girl’s rice stayed dry and she ending up adding more water (in effect, returning to the recipe’s ratio).

Everything turned out well. The flavor of the cardamom (sweet and somewhat lemony), along with the other spices lent a tasty essence to the rice. Delicious! The aroma, heavenly. She enjoyed her rice and sent Michele good thoughts.

Content with her Basmati and Nut Pilaf recipe, the girl lived happily ever after.

The End. To be continued.

Paz

Basmati and Nut Pilaf
1 ¼ cups basmati rice

1 onion chopped

1 garlic crushed

1 large carrot, grated

1-2 tbsp sunflower oil

1 tsp cumin seeds

2 tsp ground coriander

2 tsp black mustard seeds

4 cardamom pods

2 cups stock or water

1 bay leaf

salt and pepper to taste

cashews –a handful or two, or however many you like. Salted or unsalted whichever is your preference.

Wash rice. Fry the onion, garlic and carrot in oil. Add rice and spices and cook another 2 minutes or so. Pour in stock or water, add bay leaf and season. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer gently for about 10 minutes. Remove bay leaf an cardamom pods. Add the nuts.

**I haven’t been cooking or food blogging lately.  So,  I’ve decided to go through my archives and repost some of my earlier posts, from the days when I started learning to cook and bake (I’m still learning).   It certainly brings back good memories.

It’s Thanksgiving in the U.S. and part of the customary meal as everyone one knows is a turkey.  I’m not so crazy about turkey.  I’ll eat it, but I’m not crazy about it.  The only part of the turkey I seriously like is the wings.   I love turkey wings but that’s it.   I’m also not crazy about turkey leftovers after the Thanksgiving meal is over.    It’s like turkey overload to me. 

If I were to prepare this year’s Thanksgiving meal, I’d include a roasted chicken in my menu — Christine’s Sunday Night Whole Roasted Chicken.   I’ve made the chicken several times but have never been able to take a photo.     One of these days…   

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  I’m thankful for all of you who stop by here.

Paz

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First posted March 10, 2008

I swear!  There was a succulent chicken (a cornish hen) with deliciously cooked onions and portabella mushrooms swimming in the seasoned roasted chicken juices in the pan above.  Really.  Oh, my goodness!  It was too delicious for words. 

Christine of Christine Cooks made  roasted chicken and one look at her chicken had my mouth watering.  I finally had a chance to make it.  So, where is the chicken in the photo, you ask?  Well,  after preparing this easy roasted chicken dish, we were starved.  I didn’t have time to pick up the camera — I didn’t want to pick up the camera.  "Food first, photograph later," my stomach commanded.  When I finally did get the camera, there was nothing to  photograph. 

Oh, and Christine, my dogs have asked me to relay their thanks.  You suggested frying the gibblets and feeding it to the kitties.  Since I have dogs instead of cats, I fed it to my dogs.  Oh, they were so happy. 

Perhaps next time I’ll be able to take a photo of my roasted chicken.  In the meantime, look here to see what Christine’s tasty roasted chicken looked like.  Mmm Mmm good!

Paz

Sunday Night Whole Roasted Chicken
Christine’s original recipe

Ingredients:
1 whole fryer chicken, 3-4 pounds
1 large Meyer lemon
1 heaping tablespoon Italian herb seasoning
1 tablespoon smoked paprika, I used sweet but if you like it spicy, go for it
1/2 pound crimini mushrooms, sliced
1 large sweet onion, sliced
1 head of garlic, separated into cloves, peeled and left whole
Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
Olive oil

Preparation:
Remove the giblets from the cavity of the chicken. (Reserve the giblets for another use or cook them with the chicken. Or fry ‘em up, chop ‘em and give ‘em to your kitties.)
Wash the chicken thoroughly with cold water then pat dry both inside and out.
Rub olive oil over the entire chicken then rub the Italian herbs and the paprika all over the outside.
Slice the lemon in half and squeeze over the chicken. Put the lemons halves inside the cavity.
Sprinkle the chicken body with kosher salt and black pepper.