Song #2

The next version of Christmas songs:  Do You Hear What I Hear?  by Carrie Underwood.  My husband turned me onto her (he obviously had already been turned on ;-) ):

 
 

What is YOUR Favorite?

Everyone has a favorite version of a song.  And especially Christmas songs, because these seem to be remade with regular frequency.  So, I decided that these last 9 days (SHOCKED aren't you?  Yes...there are only 9 days til Christmas), I'm going to post my favorite versions of Christmas songs.
First one is Baby, It's Cold Outside...my favorite version is Zooey Deschanel/Leon Redbone from Elf.  One of the reasons why I like this version so much is because, unlike the Dean Martin, this version isn't about one voice (Dean's) but rather it is a cool combination of both male and female parts and you can hear both sides.
Never heard it...well...this is your lucky day.

 

Sugah.....Ah, Honey, Honey Cookie #3

My mom never made sugar cookies, well, not the kind you see today.  She would make her version (or recipe) that were a sour milk cookie with a dough that you rolled out.  I remember making them once, then staying up really late (I think I was in HS) by myself to decorate them.  What I remember most was that they were a lot of work to decorate.

Then, with the birth of my middle daughter, co-workers sent me a cookie bouquet.  OMG did I ever love those cookies and thought, I need to make these.  Of course, I recognize my limitations with regard to how they would look* but I still thought I could get close.  And as luck would have it, Ladies Home Journal happened to put a recipe in one of their magazines for a Soft Sugar Cookie. Right up my alley.  Here it is:

1 cup butter softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp grated orange zest
4 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
8 ounces sour cream (I use lite)
Mix dry ingredients in a medium bowl.
In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar, beating 1-2 minutes).  Add eggs, vanilla and orange zest and mix well.  Add in flour mixture alternately with sour cream scraping the bowl often until well mixed.  Divide dough into 3 equal portions, wrap in plastic and refrigerate until firm (several hours).  Note...this dough is VERY soft when it warms so work with it quickly and be sure to  keep your surface well floured.  It's the softness of the dough that makes the cookie so tender so working with it quickly helps you NOT to incorporate too much flour.
Heat oven to 400.  On lightly floured surface roll out dough one portion at a time, keeping the remainder refrigerated, to 1/4 in thickness.  Cut with cookie cutters, place on cookie sheet (those AWESOME aluminum ones you went out and bought from Sams Club because you NEEDED good cookie sheets) 1 inch apart.  If you are NOT decorating with frosting, you can sprinkle with colored sugar and bake for 6-9 minutes until edges start to turn golden brown.  Let cool slightly on pan before removing to rack to cool completely.

Now, I will be up front and honest when I say, I love watching Martha Stewart especially when she works with Royal Icing, BUT, that stuff scares the sh!t out of me.  I have never tried it either, but it does.  So one day I went searching for a recipe that was similar and came across Toba Garrett's Glace.  It's super easy to make and to work with:
1 lb confectioners (powdered) sugar
3/8 cup milk (I use skim)
3/8 cup corn syrup
flavoring and colors (I actually use concentrated food gel/paste to color)


Mix all together well.
Now, what I do is I found these squeeze bottles at Walmart and bought a bunch at $.50 each and fill those with the icing.  It makes it easy to control where it goes.  If you get your icing to the right consistancy, it will not drip off the cookie.  I use the same process as Martha (just a little more ghetto) by outlining the cookie then flooding it (although I have found that using the tip of the bottle to move the icing around allows you not to over flood and the icing will stay on the cookie).  Sometimes I'll add colored sugars, sprinkles, or even additional colors and take a tooth pick and drag it through the cookie to create some fun designs.  Here are my girls (and her buddy) decorating:

 ENJOY...I always do.

*oddly, in only a few areas do I really care about looks.  And cookies seem to be one of them.  I've had to learn to let go.  Not an easy task but then the alternative is me being up until 2am decorating cookies.  I've decided I like my sleep more than pretty cookies.

This Just In...Boiling Water is HOT!

Warning....picture to follow is pretty gross.  You can decide for yourself if you wish to continue.  So, this past Sunday, the boy was making his own dinner of Ramen noodles.  Well, he was doing what any 17 year old boy would do, he was eating his dessert of homemade vanilla bean cheesecake FIRST and he allowed his water for his "entree" to boil rapidly.  He made his noodles and was pouring it into a bowl while holding the bowl over the sink* and water/broth sloshed over the rim of the bowl and onto his left hand.  He called me and I told him to do what I knew to do for burns...run it under cold water to cool down the burn as quickly as possible.   I got him a cup of ice water for him to submerge his fingers in. He did so but he claimed to be in A LOT of pain.  Now, ever the sympathetic mother who rushes to console my children for all their bumps and bruises *pause for those who know me to stop laughing*, I said C'mon Bud, it's a burn, it hurts.  I get it.  Man up.**  I did get him a super strong pain reliever so that he could sleep and I allowed him to miss his first hour the next day when he left a note for me that he didn't get to sleep until late and could he miss his study hall in the morning. (see...I'm not COMPLETELY heartless).  He had wrapped his pinky, ring and middle finger for the night and for Monday.  He said that his ring finger was all shiny but somewhat numb.  Tuesday it blistered, he drained the blister then pulled at the skin and it came right off.  Wednesday morning I got my first look at it and I became alarmed.  It didn't appear to be infected but OMG it looks HORRIBLE.  He had been really good about keeping antibiotic ointment on it but still...UGH...So I asked him to have his school nurse take a look at it and maybe dress it appropriately.  I got the text from the boy saying the nurse said it really  needs to be looked at by a Dr.  Followed by the phone call from the nurse telling me that she responded as I had...initially.  A little over exaggeration until she saw it.  Hence, the phone call saying please, Please, PLEASE get him in to a Dr.  Some of the worst infections she's ever seen came from burns.  So, I called, got him in, picked him up, took him to the Drs and this was the pic as he removed the bandage we had put on that morning:

 

Nasty right?  He lost several layers of skin all the way around his finger.  The good news (if you can call it that) was the Dr said that while it looked bad (a deep 2nd degree burn), it looked good.  Meaning that everything we had been doing was right.  She said continue to keep it covered with antibiotic cream for a couple more days so that the new skin growth will be protected, then by Saturday he needs to start leaving off the bandage.  The only "issue" is that he needs to start bending the knuckle (which he can't) so that he retains flexibility in the new skin growth.

The other good new is that it shouldn't scar horribly.  He'll have a pink discoloration for a while but that should eventually fade.  WHEW!

Let's recap:

1. Pouring boiling hot water into a bowl while holding said bowl...bad.

2. Potholders..good.

3. Mother appears to be missing the compassion (or at least empathy) chromosome.

4. Boiling water is hot.

*I give him credit for doing this over the sink.  It DID save me from having a mess of broken pottery, Ramen noodles, and chicken broth all over my floor and base cabinets.  Well done son!

**NO...I did not actually tell him to Man up.  At least not out loud.

Bite o' Biscotti=Cookie #2

My friend Beth introduced me to the joys of biscotti.  Oh, I had seen them in coffee shops and I may have tried one, but I'm sure it paled in comparison to that which one produces with  one's own nimble fingers.

One of the reasons I love biscotti (now) is because they are the perfect foil on a cold tundra (I mean winter's) night with a pot of tea.  This is SO something my mom would do as she loved her winter pot of tea (gunpowder loose if she had her choice) with cookies.  She would have adored these.

So, here is the "basic" recipe Beth passed on to me:
1/3 cup butter 
2/3 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 egg yolk beaten
1 Tbs water
*chocolate variation add 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Preheat oven to 375
Cream first 3 ingredients.  Add vanilla.  Add dry ingredients and mix well.  Add nuts and chocolate chips last.

Make a long flat loaf approx 5-6" wide by 15" long.

Combine egg yolk with water and brush loaf. Bake for 25 minutes.

Remove let cool half hour, slice in 3/4 inch slices, lay slices on sides bake at 325 for 15 minutes each side, or until dry.

Cool and store in an airtight container.

Now...how *I* do it.  Even though I started out with Chocolate Crinkles, *I* am not a huge fan of chocolate. Yes, I'll pause a moment to let you absorb that...a woman...NOT enamored with chocolate.  OK, are you done?  Continuing.  So, what I do is I substitute the chocolate (chips in this case) with dried cherries.  Dried cranberries or even blueberries would also work but I happen to like cherries.  Now, I happen to adore walnuts but I like how macadamia nuts work with the cherries.  And since I.LOVE.NUTS, I put in twice as much (I do that with pretty much anything that calls for nuts so that shouldn't be earth shattering news for you).  If I have it available, I will also add some citrus rind, with this combination, I would do either orange or lemon zest.  Maybe a tsp or so.  Just to add a little zing. And if I'm feeling REALLY festive, I will drizzle the top with some white and dark chocolate.  'Cause that's how I roll.

Here is the kicker with biscotti:  you can do what YOU like.  It is pretty forgiving if you use the basic recipe.  I haven't deviated much, mostly because I happen to be the only one in the family who eats these and *I* like them so what's the point in deviating and having NO ONE eat them?  But I'm thinking of changing it up a little.  Switching out the cherries for a little crystallized ginger, maybe some white chocolate (YES chocolate) and pistachios.  Doesn't that sound intriguing?

No tea, but it sure goes great with coffee.

The Meaning of Christmas

I came across this song in a very peculiar way.  I was given the CD for having ordered some digital scrap booking items.  The musicians are a band called 259 and they are REALLY good.  Most of their songs are a capella.  But I LOVE this song.  You should too.

Betty Who?

I saw a post today that said 16 shopping days til Christmas and panicked.  A little.  We're planning on taking the kids to Mexico in February and they were warned that we are scaling back this Christmas. I think they know what that means but I don't think they GET what that means.  That's ok.  They will.

Still, scaling back doesn't mean that I can't/won't do the plethora of baking I do every year.  Or most years anyhow.  I mean, I always do SOME baking, but not always at the same level every year.  This year, since I  volunteered to bring 5-6 dozen cookies for the production of "The Gospel According to Scrooge" at church this year, I thought I would do my version of the 12 days of Christmas...in cookies/treats that I do around Christmas.  Oh, you might occasionally see some of these varieties around my house during the rest of the year, but almost always these will be present at Christmas.

Today's cookie:  Chocolate Crinkles.  Most of my cookies have a story and this one is no different.  I don't remember the exact year that these became a family cookie but I do remember that we were living at Andrews AFB so it had to be sometime between 1970-1974.  My mom was not really a big cookie person as I don't remember her ever making cookies, just to make cookies.  UNTIL she came into the possession of the Betty Crocker "Cooky Cookbook" (yes, that's with a Y), which, what is left of it is now in my possession (and you know it's 9/10th of the law right?).  After what is probably about 40 years (or so...no need to get REALLY specific), this is what is left of it:

 You have undoubtedly noted the lack of a hard cover.  Yes, alas it is gone.  Not sure when the last part of it fell off and was discarded but it's gone.  This is still my "go to" book for most cookies.  To the point where I have started to write notes in the margin of the book so that I can remember what has worked for me (yes, go ahead and say it, I AM that old).  See (and note, this is the Snickerdoodle recipe I use):

Onto the actual recipe:
4 oz unsweetened chocolate 
1/2 cup vegetable oil (LOL...who uses that anymore?  Canola is fine)
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup SIFTED confectioners (powdered) sugar
Melt chocolate with oil (I do this in 30 second increments in the microwave so as not to scorch the chocolate).  Stir til chocolate is completely melted then add 2 cups sugar.  Stir and add 4 eggs and vanilla.  The batter will look like this:

Mix flour, baking powder and salt together and add to dough.  Now it will look like this:

Refrigerate the batter for several hours.  I suggest making these in the evening and let refrigerate overnight.  You want the dough to be VERY stiff. It will look like this after refrigerated:

But that's because I live in the Minnesota tundra and I put the dough on the deck to chill.  Most people don't have this "advantage" (if you're lucky) so I suggest overnight.  At any rate, I use the smallest Pampered Chef scoop (which of course isn't marked but I think it is a 1 Tbs scoop) and roll into balls and place on a plate with sifted powdered sugar:

Then roll them around until they are completely coated with sugar:

Then place them on an ungreased cookie sheet (if you don't yet have them, PLEASE, pretty please with sifted powdered sugar on top, go to Sams and buy the double set of heavy aluminum 10x15 jelly roll pans.  I promise you will NOT be sorry) about 2 inches apart.  I easily fit 15 on each sheet:

Bake at 350 for 11-12 minutes.  I think my oven is a little off because I think 12 minutes is perfect but this time they seemed to need a bit longer.  They will be all puffed up when they come out of the oven, then they will settle a little.

With the end result being this:

Your kids will think you a rock star.  Their friends will want YOU as their mom just so they can have these delicious mouth watering bites of heaven.  This makes about 5 dozen (I actually ended up with 59 and NO, I do NOT eat cookie dough).


They call me Crocker...Betty Crocker.