Ricotta Cookies December 17, 2011

  This is the one time of year I do extensive baking. Not normally something I do year round mostly because of the frustration factor. There is so much effort, for so little reward, and most of the time I get extra frustrated because my cookies seldom make it to the frosting stage, having so many cookie monsters in my household. It is a time I often become cross with my loved ones as they grab for un-frosted cookies by the handful. You might ask why I should get frustrated with that? There are no cookies to frost or decorate, less work. Well, yes, and no. I like to have platters of cookies ready for guests during the holidays, so my efforts have to be repeated and repeated until I finally throw in the towel, and say let them eat Aunt Alma's fruitcake that comes every year like clockwork and is always, surprisingly, wrapped identically to the previous years'--all the previous years. Either Aunt Alma wrapped about a thousand fruitcakes 25 years ago, or she bought miles of the same wrapping paper, either scenario frightening in its own right.
   So to my family, whom I love very much, I apologize for the snapping and slapping of little patties away from the cookie stash. Just give me the room and time to get all your favorites done and I promise you will be able to eat them to your heart's delight without fear of being scolded.   Now that my annual disclaimer has been published, I will tell you of the varieties of cookies and candies I make for Christmas.

   Tradition in my family goes back to the Struffoli that Grandma Julie made. Little Italian fried honey balls mounded into a conical shape piled high on her silver platter and liberally sprinkled with multicolored nonpareils, you know those tiny little round sugar sprinkle balls.  Not being one for most Italian pastries, it was nice to be able to enjoy something sweet at the Italian relatives' houses. Over the years I also learned that the "flag cookies" or "rainbow cookies" are simply almond cookies with layers of raspberry and apricot jam, and frosted with semi-sweet chocolate--definite winner in this house! Somewhere along the years my mother got a recipe for Ricotta cookies, and as they say, that was "all she wrote". 

   In the early years I only made chocolate chip or Toll House Cookies, sugar cookies, oatmeal cookies, peanut butter cookies and/or blossoms, and ricotta cookies. With the advent of the glorious internet I have now included: seven layer cookies, no-bake peanut butter cups, mint candies, rum balls, stained glass window candy, truffles,baklava, and raspberry-almond thumbprint cookies. This year I learned of a neat little trick with Ritz® crackers, peanut butter, and semi-sweet chocolate morsels. Any wonder why the prospect of re-dos gets me testy?

    And that's just the standards. Some years I try new recipes; for example one year I made half moon cookies the size of saucers, another year I dipped pretzel rods in almond bark and decorated them. Another trial was Santa's Whiskers cookies, sometimes I include chocolate snickerdoodles, and gingerbread men--actually this year I made reindeer that don't look very much like reindeer, but they taste, and smell,marvelous, so deal with the funny looking reindeer.
   I have made spiced tea mixes, and hot cocoa mix from scratch as gifts. This year I am putting together a few "brownies in a jar" mixes for gifts. And I am in four college classes, which don't break until the 26th of December. Okay, I am stressing myself as I await the last 1/2 dozen of the 8-1/2 dozen ricotta cookies I baked today to finish. then its time to frost them. maybe I picked a good time to do this, as not one cookie has disappeared yet. With some luck I'll get them all done and stashed before anyone gets home. I'll post photos of the completed cookies. But, for now, here's the recipe for Grandma Ann's famous Ricotta Cookies. Well, maybe not worldwide famous, but in this family they sure are!


Ricotta Cookies

Drain 15 oz ricotta in a fine mesh strainer for at least 4 hours in the refrigerator.

1/2 lb unsalted butter softened to room temperature
2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla (pure, please)
Grated rind of one orange-no white pith please
4-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda


Cream the softened butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl (I use the Kitchen Aid® stand mixer). Add the eggs and the vanilla. Mix well. Sift together the dry ingredients and add to batter in increments--don't just dump all of it in at once, just about a cup at a time, just until all mixed--be careful to not over mix the batter- you know the drill it will make the cookies tough if the flour gets over worked.
Drop dough by heaping teaspoons (a measuring teaspoon) onto a greased cookie baking sheet. Bake at 350°F for 9-10 minutes. You are looking for a slightly browned edge of the cookie only. Remove from the oven, cool one minute, then transfer to cooling rack and let cool completely before glazing (recipe follows). I got 8 1/2 dozen from this recipe today! Yay!


The Glaze

2 cups confectionery sugar (powdered sugar) 
1/4 cup butter softened
3 teaspoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla


Mix all ingredients well, working out all lumps of the sugar until smooth. drizzle over cookies and then sprinkle with multicolored sprinkles or nonpareils. Let glaze harden before trying to store in a covered container.
   As promised here's a photo:

 

   Want more cookies? Just let me know!

Cranberry Sauce 11/22/2011

   Thanksgiving is almost here. Probably the biggest food holiday of all! And a tradition in this country since 1621. Or so we are lead to believe. I am taking an early American History class and things I am learning now are news to me. Maybe because when I first learned history I was a child, trying to find out who I was, and my place in this big world. Certain things evaded me. Okay, many things evaded me. And I have learned that the talking point headlines of yesteryear do not paint an accurate picture of everything that was going on. But I am not going to go into a history lesson here, that's another blog out there, somewhere. I thought that over the course of the next few days I would share with you some of my recipes, and, well, whatever else may pop into my head that I think you might find entertaining, or maybe educational. We'll see where it goes, how's that?

   Let's start with cranberry sauce. All while growing up I remember cranberry sauce, jellied, sitting in a bowl in the shape of the can it came out of. My mom would slice the roll into 1/4 inch slices, so when you took some cranberry "sauce" there would be a round slab of red stiff jelly on your plate. That's how I thought cranberry sauce was supposed to look.

   Then, when I got a little older and ventured to other family's thanksgivings I learned there was something call "whole berry" cranberry sauce. Mixed in the "jelly" were berries of the "cran" variety, and this stuff did not come out of its can in a formed lump. Very interesting and dang, good!

   Fast forward about a hundred years, years that included both the jellied and whole berry versions on my Thanksgiving table. Then, just about five years ago I decided to make my own cranberry sauce. They wouldn't sell bags of whole cranberries by the truckload if this was a difficult task. So I bought my first bag of cranberries and set out to make my own.

   Upon researching how to make cranberry "relish" I was shocked to see most recipes required on three ingredients: cranberries, rinsed and picked through for mushy ones or the occasional stem, water, and sugar. Of course some recipes got exotic, so I quickly dismissed those. A few recipes included orange, either grated peel, or strips of peel, and/or chopped up orange segments. That sounded interesting.

   So you wash and pick through your three cups of cranberries while you have one cup of water and one cup of sugar on the stove. the sugar-water concoction come up to a boil in a heavy bottomed saucepan. I quickly realized is a light syrup. Interesting. I grated the peel of half an orange, and cut slices from the other half, avoiding the pith (that bitter white stuff under the peel but before the flesh), like you do for marmalade. When the sugar-water comes to a boil, add the cranberries and the orange peel. Keep it up to a boil, stirring.

    Within minutes you will start hearing this popping sound. The cranberries are bursting, letting their pectin go, just stir and continue on for ten minutes, if you want a little tighter concoction just stir and boil until the stuff gets thick, however, it gels up pretty good without much help. Remove from the heat and pour into a glass bowl or container. Allow to fully cool to room temperature without covering. Then when it is room temperature, cover and refrigerate until you are ready to use it.

    Upon completing my first batch of whole berry cranberry sauce I looked at my husband and said, "I cannot believe we have bought this all these years and it is so easy to make." We have never bought it again. I usually buy a big 3-pound bag once a year. Take out what I need for Thanksgiving, and then seal the bag and toss it in the freezer. You can use these babies in muffins and scones without thawing them out, just add more sugar to your recipe because they are bitter in their natural state.
    So next time you want cranberry sauce, why not give it a try? I'd like to see some of your cranberry recipes if you want to share. I'm always looking for ideas.

Whole berry Cranberry relish

Beef on Weck November 7, 2011

    We've made it to November. I cannot understand when I was young I thought a year took FOREVER to go by; now, as an adult, time just flies by so fast, it almost seems impossible. Youth may be wasted on the young, but time? The older you get, the faster it goes.

   We never even covered all of the food celebrations for October, and now, since I have started taking classes again, I am not making any promises for covering all the celebrations for November, either.

   November starts out being Georgia Pecan Month; Good Nutrition Month; National Peanut Butter Lover's Month; National Pepper Month; Raisin Bread Month; and finally Vegan Month. Not as power-packed as October, but a nice variety, wouldn't you say?

   The first week is National Fig Week. The second week celebrates Split Pea Soup. There are no weekly celebrations for the third and fourth weeks, probably because we will be coming up to Thanksgiving, and with all the food we Americans traditionally prepare for this celebration of our blessings and family, what would the point be to use an entire week on just one food? Whomever designated these food celebrations was thinking!

    November 3rd was National Sandwich Day, and I posted that fact on Facebook, which started a conversation of favorite sandwiches. One of my friends, who shares wonderful recipes with me, posted that her favorite sandwich was Beef on Wick. I had to ask what Wick was, as I never heard of it. My friend replied with an internet link on the sandwich and the Kummelweck roll that makes this roast beef sandwich so special' it also is called beef on Weck.

    Kummelweck rolls are similar to Kaiser rolls, but are shaped differently and topped with a salt-caraway seed mixture. The sandwich is a traditional sandwich from Buffalo, NY. Apparently Buffalo is not just known for its wings. Who knew? Probably people from Buffalo.

   I ended up making the Kummelweck rolls from the recipe my friend sent. Although they seemed to look like the pictures I've seen, I, personally was not impressed. Next time I try to make them I am not going to make them only 2 ounce pieces of dough. I would have preferred if they were bigger, like twice as big as they came out. I do not know if I messed up, as I have never had them before. I will try them again, just making them larger.
      I had made a roast beef on Sunday for dinner, well, hubby made the beef, I made all the sides, but we had leftover roast beef, and it was delightfully rare. Hubby lubed up the commercial slicer we have in the kitchen (thank you, Grandma!) and sliced the beef extra thin. I even made homemade horseradish, which also needs some tweaking, but overall, it was not a bad attempt at beef on weck.

Here's a link to Beef on Weck recipe Beef on Weck

   If you ever get to try this, please let me know. 

Source:

Beef on Weck Sandwich Recipe  retrieved 1/26/2022 from https://whatscookingamerica.net/sandwich/beefonweck.htm

© 2011-2022 Aunt Barbara 

 

Pasta Fagioli Ethel's version (with beef added!) October 31, 2011

   Updated instructions /ingredients 3/19/2023

   Pasta Fagioli is a traditional Italian bean soup with pasta, or macaroni to some. Well, that might be what it is traditionally, but if you know anything about me, my household likes to go non-traditional at times. This is one of those times.

   As a child the word "bean" would normally send me running, I am quite embarrassed to admit, and once I really tasted beans, as an adult, I decided I had been missing this wonderful nutritious-packed food item in my diet. 

   Beans are high in iron, and many B Vitamins that are now known  to stave off certain cancers and birth defects. Beans are loaded with fiber, which keeps you regular, and helps to remove cholesterol from your body, they are a low-to-no-fat food, depending on the variety, AND coupled with a grain (bread or pasta) they form a complete protein.  Wow, the power of beans! Now that we've had the nutrition lesson, let get back to the Pasta Fagioli. 

   Traditionally, pasta fagioli is made without meat, being paired with pasta, as I stated in the previous paragraph, it forms a complete protein. This made pasta fagioli a perfect meal when meat was scarce, or too expensive to include in the everyday diet of peasants. So when Grandma said it was good for you, she knew what she was talking about. Like I said earlier, this household is anything but traditional and we tend to break rules, or stretch them might be a better way to say it, but my late Mother-in-law always made her pasta fagioli with ground beef. Upon hearing this I thought, well, let's just say I thought it was "odd". But it was definitely delicious. Unfortunately, Ethel passed away without divulging her secrets for a good pasta fagioli. My husband and I embarked on the quest to recreate her pasta fagioli. There was no internet at the time, no Internet Explorer, or Firefox, or Google, and no TV Food Network, either, believe it or not. We had to look through cook books, both purchased and borrowed. And we did a lot of testing.

   Most tests were edible, but they lacked that one little ingredient that made the whole dish come together with just that certain...mmmmm factor.

   Finally, and quite innocently, we found the one ingredient that made the soup taste like Ethel's. Green peppers. Not red or yellow or Italian or hot. Just ordinary green bell peppers. Without them, it is a bean soupy thing, edible but just not special. Another little trick I started was to not add the pasta to the soup. If there was any leftover the pasta would soak up all the broth, while sitting in the fridge and become mushy--we didn't like that. I now make the pasta separately. Once drained I put a teaspoon of olive oil in the pasta to keep it from sticking and serve the pasta in a bowl, then drown it with the soup. The "eater" can mix it up or leave it in layers. Oh, and pass the grating cheese. Coupled with homemade Italian or French bread, buttered, and you have one of those comfort foods that ranks right up there with Macaroni and Cheese or Chicken and Biscuits. 

   Occasionally we do add red or yellow peppers, if we happen to have them, but without green peppers, we don't even bother to make it. Period. We have also added sliced cooked sausage and a tablespoon of dried crushed red pepper to give it some kick, and the results just keep getting better and better. How about you? What do you add to your pasta fagioli to make it "yours"?

Ethel's Pasta Fagioli

• 2 tablespoons good olive oil
• 2 oz diced pancetta
• 3/4 - 1 lb. lean ground beef (use the lesser amount if you use the sausage)
• 4 sweet Italian sausage casings removed 
• 1 large onion chopped
• 2 large Green Bell peppers, seeded and sliced into strips or diced- your choice-separated
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 6 oz tomato paste
• Two 28 oz. cans tomatoes--diced, crushed, or whole peeled - your choice
• One can water
• 2-3 15 oz. cans kidney beans (or black or red beans) rinse & drain 1 can
• 1 tablespoon beef base (optional)(Better than Bouillon-is a perfect example)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tablespoon dried crushed red pepper (optional) more or less to your liking
• parsley, basil, salt and pepper to your own liking or omit
• cooked short pasta--your choice--and please AL DENTE!
• Pecorino Romano or Parmesan cheese, grated for the table
• 1/2-1 tsp dried crushed pepper flakes (optional)

In  a soup pot heat the olive oil, add the pancetta, and render the fat. Add the deconstructed sausage, render that, also, then the ground beef, breaking it up with a wooden spoon. Brown the meat thoroughly. Add the onions and sweat until they become sweet. You can let them start to brown around the edges. Bloom the red pepper flakes for 30 seconds then add the garlic and stir until it becomes fragrant, then add the tomato paste. Sauté until the paste turns dark red. If there is a lot of excess oil, drain it now, but we usually don't have much left by now. Add the 2 cans of tomatoes, breaking them up with the back of the wooden spoon. Add the water, the bay leaf, the beef base, the green peppers and the cans of beans. Bring up to a simmer and simmer on low for about an hour. You can add the parsley and basil, but do not add any salt yet. You have to let the flavors marry before you can judge if it needs salt. Many times it does not, because the liquid from the canned beans has a lot of sodium--that is why I don't use all of the liquid from the cans. 

    Here’s where YOUR taste comes in. Personally, I prefer a long-slow cooked tomato-based dish, so I leave the soup in a very low simmer for a couple hours, technically, it’s cooked by now so you can taste it and see if it meets your palette’s fancy… 

    When it makes your tastebuds smile, bring a separate pot of salted water to a boil and cook the macaroni.

  Drain the macaroni, put it back in its pot, or a bowl, add 1 teaspoon olive oil and toss.

   To serve, spoon a few serving spoonfuls of pasta into individual bowls, ladle soup (oh, pull out the bay leaf and discard) over top. Top with grated cheese--we use Pecorino Romano, but its your kitchen use whatever you like! Served with fresh Italian or French bread, butter, and a tossed salad, you have perfection!

   Thank you, Ethel, we miss you!

What the heck is a Kerplunka?

   Kerplunka-(KER-plun-ka)-n. A large wad of ground beef mixed with large chunks of onion, bread, bread crumbs, garlic, eggs, and seasonings, that is roasted until cooked through. Resembles a large, abstract meatball.
   Not too long ago it was Greasy Foods Day, and in researching burgers I found all sorts of "terrific" turkey burger recipes. Not being one to indulge in "turkey burger", although I have had one or two, their mixtures reminded me of an old family favorite--kerplunkas. Whether that is a genuine name, I cannot tell you, but both my husband and I have been eating these since childhood, and our families did not know each other. Its one of those go-to-in-a-pinch meals when you just run out of ideas for what to make for dinner. And since I usually cook seven out of seven nights a week, well, once in a while a "go-to" is just what the doctor ordered. Besides, my husband, the beef man, likes a wad of beef on his dinner plate every so often. Of course he would prefer roast beef, or better yet, steak, but that turns to a touchy subject, so we won't go there.
   I usually use 90% lean ground round. If you go to the 93% the result can be just too dry, so I try to stick with the 90%, but I am known to drop down to 85%, but that requires more draining, but you know what? The flavor cannot be beat. 
   Today, I am using 1-1/2 lbs. 90% ground round. Here's a photo of the ingredients:

   
Starting in the middle there are 2 large eggs (you can only see one), then at 12 o'clock there's bread crumbs, to the right and going clockwise, there's Parmesan cheese, instant minced onion (for the wonderful flavor) garlic, parsley, the beef, and 2 slices of white bread torn up. What's not in the photo is the 1/2 large vidalia onion, cut up in "large-ish" chunks, salt, pepper and a little "essence", by that very famous chef from Fall River, Massachusetts. (Love you E.L.)
   Using the best kitchen tools ever invented, your clean hands, mix this stuff up, gently, but thoroughly, avoid over-mixing and causing the kerplunkas to become tough. This is also true for meatballs and meatloaf, as well. You might have to add more bread crumbs if the mixture is overly soggy. Once everything is mixed, grab a handful and slap a wad in a greased roasting pan. I got 7 beauts out of the mix today, there's only three of us again, no, no Number Two is home, this time Number One is away for the weekend. Cheeze, I cannot get everyone home at the same time anymore. Here they are on their way into the oven:

   Aren't they just beautiful?  I already have potatoes baking in the oven, and I'm just making steamed broccoli. Butter, sour cream, and ketchup, yes, yes, you can use ketchup on these babies. Sometimes I do make a gravy, sometimes au jus, but with the dessert I have planned, we don't need the extra fat (ketchup is a non-fat food).
   Oh, before I forget, I washed and pierced potatoes and baked them at 425°F for about 40 minutes, then I lowered the temperature to 350° F when I added the kerplunkas. 20-30 minutes and they're done. You might have to remove the potatoes so they don't overcook. I do cook these all the way through, just don't kill them, they will get dry.
    So what's for dessert, you ask? That Almond Joy Friendship Cake I made today and blogged about! 
    Can anyone say Grand Slam? 

National Chocolate Day Almond Joy Cake w/Amish Friendship Bread Oct 29, 2011

   October 28th is National Chocolate Day. Okay, okay, I am a day behind. Need a break, here. Classes start Monday and I have been investigating how to go about taking online classes at a new school. I am slightly overwhelmed.

   Back to chocolate. I found a recipe for Amish Friendship Almond Joy Cake. I just so happened to have all the required ingredients in the house (thanks to The Stocked Kitchen .) So first I had to take out the starter from the freezer, and the almonds, also, to bring them to room temperature.

   Now, please understand, this is not my own original recipe, I am using a recipe from The Amish Friendship Bread Kitchen (click here). Just had to make that understood right up front.

   I had a lot of comments on my Facebook page, when I posted a photo of someone else's finished cake, so I thought this would probably be of interest to all you out there.

   Okay, so I followed the recipe closer than I usually follow other peoples' recipes (only used one box of pudding mix--only had one and it was dark, sweet chocolate,  I used sliced almonds, not slivered., and I added 1/2 teaspoon almond extract). and that's VERY unusual for me.

   Here they go into the oven:

   The aroma is driving me crazy! So while I wait for the last 20 minutes of baking time I am going to investigate making a ganache. I have an alternative in mind, so if I don't find anything that I feel like making, I'll go to Plan B.

   Okay, looks like Plan B it is--I am out of cream today. Dang, even using the Stocked Kitchen, I guess once in a while you can run out of things!

    Here's a photo of the pans fresh out of the oven:

 Plan B icing: I took a can of Betty Crocker Rich and Creamy Frosting, and put it in the microwave for 30 seconds, to soften. I added 1/4 teaspoon almond extract and 1/4 cup sweetened coconut. OMG! Touchdown!

Its Natonal Potato Day! Potato Soup Oct 27, 2011

   National Potato Day, just when I felt like having rice. No worries, I recently had Loaded Baked Potato Soup at a local eatery, after hearing about it a few months ago. I was not disappointed; well, semi-disappointed--they only had enough for a cup, not a bowl by the time I got there. Better some, than none, and I would have loved more.

   So, I thought that since to today is National Potato Day, I'll make some Loaded Baked Potato soup for dinner. To my horror, I discovered hundreds of recipes that don't even start with--you guessed it--baked potatoes. What are these people thinking? If a recipe names something, shouldn't it at least have some of the aforementioned ingredient? Even Mock-Turtle soup gives you the heads up that there is no turtle in it. It must be me, I must ask too much.

   So the mad scientist persona overcame me.  Let's make baked potato soup from--you guessed it again--baked potatoes!

   Into the oven went four nice big Russet bakers, I decided to use two more in the body of the soup. Of course, there will be chicken stock in it, and bacon and cheddar cheese and onions. Oh, no, I am fresh out of green onions and chives...okay so it will not be totally loaded. But close.

   While the large bakers were baking in a 400° F oven I diced up about half a pound of bacon--yes we like a lot of bacon.

   I got the bacon real crispy. Took about 98% of the bacon out and drained it on paper toweling, setting it aside for later. To the rest of the bacon I added 2 tablespoons of butter, and 1 small onion chopped small. I let the onions sweat until they were translucent, then added 1 clove garlic smashed and mushed up real fine. Just stir it around until you get the aroma of the garlic, then its time to add 1/2 cup flour and stir in with a whisk or large fork until all the flour is incorporated in and the mixture is bubbly. Here's where I went a little awry. I let the roux color a bit to a light tan. That resulted in a "tan-ish" colored soup, instead of a white one, but I didn't care, I knew what I did. 

 

   Then I added 10 cups of water and 2 tablespoons of chicken base--really good stuff, just loaded with sodium, so if you have to limit your sodium intake use the best broth or stock you can find, or better yet, make your own.  Okay, we'll cover that soon, too.

   I diced up the other 2 spuds, leaving the skin on for all the vitamins, brought the mixture up to a boil and then let it simmer about 20 minutes for the potatoes to cook.

   While the potatoes were cooking I removed the cooked spuds from the oven to let cool a bit, then peeled just the outer skin off. I mashed up two of the baked potatoes to help give the broth body, the other two, I diced. Into the mix it all went, as well as about half of the rest of the bacon, and then I let it simmer for about 30 more minutes with the cover off to concentrate the flavors a bit. Please note, I did not use any extra salt, with the bacon, and the chicken base, it did not need a drop, and later with the cheese, it definitely won't need any additional salt. I did, however, add some pepper, about 1/2 teaspoon, you can add more at the table.

  Here's another change from most of the other recipes: I only used a cup of milk and no cream, which probably would have lightened the color more, but like I said, I didn't mind the color. I added 1/4 lb. grated Extra Sharp Cheddar with the milk, then  I only let the soup come to a simmer and just kept it nice and hot, but not boiling, so the cheese would melt. I decided not to add the sour cream to the soup at this point, either, because Number Two will be coming home from working on the road again, so I have to hold the pot for him until after 10 PM, the sour cream will break if I try to hold it that long. I decided I can add the sour cream at the table to each individual serving, then top it with shredded cheddar and some bacon bits. 

   The hubby and Number One elected to pass on the sour cream and just loved the soup anyway. They both said it was a good idea for the evening of our first snowfall, warming and filling.

   This is one of those recipes I will have to keep working on to perfect, even though it hit the spot pretty well, but I missed the chives, and once I added the sour cream it definitely tasted like a baked potato.

   How about you share your recipe for me to try?