hot cocoa and cookies

So today is the 4th day of spring.  I am not sure what happened, but the groundhog was wrong no matter how you slice it...winter came back.  Yesterday was not winter.  I was outside cleaning up the yard and preparing for our new chicks that hatched today and are shipping tomorrow.  I feel bad that the first few days of there life are freezing.  Poor chicks. At least there are 18 of them to stay nice and warm.  No, yesterday was not winter, but today sure is.

Since winter came back with a vengeance, I am taking full advantage of nestling in.  In my opinion the best way to nestle is with a nice cup of cocoa and homemade cookies.  I have many different ways to make hot cocoa.  The one I used tonight is quick and yummy.  If you are a purist and like hot chocolate over hot cocoa this probably isn't the recipe for you.  If you don't mind a Swiss Miss  packet every now and then, but want something better, than this is super fantastic delicious alternative.    

I found this great Alton Brown recipe for a quick hot cocoa mix when I was searching for a fun Christmas gift to give out to a lot of different people.  What says Christmas more that a hot mug of cocoa topped with light and airy homemade marshmallows.  I didn't have any marshmallows tonight, but I did have the next best thing...fresh whipped cream.  Alton Brown says that the cayenne pepper is the key to this cocoa, but I have to disagree.  I have made it both ways and I much prefer it without.  

Along with my warm mug of chocolate I had more chocolate.  Actually is was double the chocolate.  I have an addiction.  I had made chocolate chocolate chip cookies with craisins.  I like dried cherries better, but the cherry flavored craisins happened to be in the pantry so they are what made it into the cookie.

I actually used a recipe adapted from Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero's book Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.  The first time I made these, they turned out perfect.  Every other time I have had to tweak here and there but I think I finally have it.  The result is a chocolaty cookie, soft and cakey, filled with gooey chops offset with a tart fruit if your little heart desires.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

What you need:

1/2 brown sugar

1/4 white sugar

not quite 2/3 cup canola oil (If I add a full 2/3 then I end up with a thin oily cookie)

1/4 cup almond milk  or alternative

1 tablespoon corn starch

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (sometimes I add more depending on what the batter looks like)

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup chocolate chips

-or-

1/2 cup chocolate chips and 1/2 cup dried fruit (I like cherries)

What you do:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease two large light metal baking sheets.  Set aside until ready to use.

Beat together sugars, oil, milk and corn starch  in a mixing bowl until it looks like caramel. Mix in the vanilla.

Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt until well incorporated.  Fold in the chocolate chips and fruit if you are using. The dough should be a little stiff.  If it is not on the stiff side add small amounts of flour until it looks right.  Experiment...have fun.  The end product will still taste good if it is a little more or less.

Drop walnut sized balls onto the baking sheets keeping about 2 inches between cookies.  Bake for about 8 minutes until they are just a little browned around the edges.  Makes about 2 dozen.

 Let cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.

what i'm reading wednesday: wild about greens

I have been reading about greens lately.  Although I spent a summer as a vegetarian I am still not that adventurous with leafy greens, at least nothing beyond lettuce, spinach and kale. Nava Atlas is not like me.  In her book, Wild About Greens, Atlas proves just how passionate she is about these verdant vegetables.  Before jumping into the recipes, she offers up a primer discussing the different type of greens.  This is helpful if you find yourself in the produce isle (on a mission to eat healthier), and you have a bunch of beet greens or dandelion greens in your hand and have no clue how to prepare them without feeling like a rabbit.
When you get past the primer and your interest in trying mustard greens is piqued than Atlas provides you with a multitude of ways to prepare your greens.  Whether in a salad, steamed, braised, in a soup or mixed with grains, with 125 recipes you are sure to find a new way of cooking greens to add to your repertoire of recipes.

pi day

Pi Day may be the most nerdy but delicious day ever.  I don't remember if I have ever actually eaten pie on Pi Day.  I always have good intentions to eat pie and I would of happily eaten it if it were available  but most years I have lacked motivation.  Not this year!  Pi Day also happens to coincide with the midpoint of my Year of Pies challenge (a new pie every week for an entire year).  So in honor of Pi Day, and my need to make up a few weeks where I lacked that motivation, I made not one, not two, but THREE pies! 

The first two pies were not actually made today, but rather meant to be consumed today.  I took a strawberry pie and a brown sugar buttermilk pie topped with strawberries.  Not everyone understood "pi" but they all got "pie".  Most seemed to like the strawberry pie the best.  I must concur, it is the easiest recipe and it always has good results.  Okay, I am sure someone can mess it up.  Truth be told I almost messed up by walking away too long and nearly letting the sugar burn--burnt sugar is not a desirable pie flavor. Under normal circumstances the strawberry pie is quick and easy.  It also heralds in spring so well after a long winter.

The last pie of the day was a spiced meat pie.  Basically it is homemade sloppy Joe filling with a pie crust on top.  It had a lot of really strong flavors that seemed to all play well together.

The best pie also happens to be a family recipe.  I am not sure where my mom picked it up from but I know she won't mind sharing her recipe for the best ever easiest strawberry pie.

•  Cook your pie crust according to directions.  Blind bake it and let it cool before adding the filling.

• Cook one quart of sliced strawberries, 3/4 cups of sugar, two tablespoons of lemon juice and three tablespoons of corn starch over medium heat until juice is thick and clear (like jelly).

• Pour into your cooled baked pie crust.

• Let it cool a bit before putting it into the refrigerator until set, at least two hours.

Really it is that easy.  To really make it shine whip up some vanilla whipped cream to dollop on top.

pretzels with honey mustard

Tonight it was my job to answer the age old question..Whats for dinner?  I looked through my recipes and nothing really sounded good.  I started with my main dishes, then went to soups and salads, and finally perused my bread recipes.  Pretzels! Bingo!  I then went with a German themed dinner: pretzels, bratwurst, sauerkraut, greens, and a honey mustard dipping sauce.  I am not sure how German honey mustard and greens are but the rest of it sounds German right?

Back to the pretzels.  This is one of my kids favorites.  I haven't made them for a while and I forgot how easy they are to make.  I mixed the dough and let it to rise while I went to the store to pick up the rest of the food for dinner.  I had a leftover honey mustard dressing that I had made to go over braised greens the other night.  I don't know if I liked it for the greens, but it complemented tonight's meal perfectly.  I usually like my pretzels dipped in nacho cheese but I think this honey mustard (something I never really cared for) may be my new favorite.

soft pretzels

2 cups	Warm water
1 pkg.	Active dry yeast (2 ¼ tsp.)
1 tsp.	Sugar
4 cups	Flour
1 tsp.	Salt
2 Tbsp.	Baking soda
1 Tbsp.	Kosher or coarse sea salt

1. In a large bowl combine 1 ½ cups of warm water, yeast and sugar; stir to dissolve.  Let stand 5 minutes.
2. Add 2 cups of flour and 1 tsp. salt; beat well with a wooden spoon.  Gradually stir in 1 ½ cups of flour to make a soft dough.
3. Turn dough onto floured surface.  Knead until smooth and elastic, about 6 minutes, working in enough of the remaining ½ cup flour just to keep dough from sticking.
4. Shape dough into ball; place in large greased bowl, turning dough to grease top.  Cover bowl and let rise unto doubled in volume; about 30 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 400° and grease 2 large cookie sheets.
6. Punch dough down and cut into 12 equal pieces.
7. Roll each piece into a 24-inch long rope.  Shape into loop shaped pretzels.
8. In a small bowl whisk remaining ½ cup warm water and baking soda until dissolved. 
9. Dip pretzels in baking soda water and place 1 ½ inches apart on cookie sheets; sprinkle lightly with coarse salt.
10. Bake until browned; 16-18 minutes.  Rotate cookie sheets from upper to lower rack and vice versa halfway through baking.
11. Serve warm.

honey mustard dipping sauce

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup yellow mustard

1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar

1 Tbsp. oil (I used sunflower)

Whisk together all ingredients in a small bowl.

southern smoked greens

In trying to figure out what to present at the library for our food program I had to brainstorm.  In a round about way I came up with greens: Last year it was strawberries--one way I eat strawberries is a nice strawberry spinach salad--spinach and the other greens people fear.   I know a lot of people who like vegetables, but for every single person I know who eats their rainbow, I know another who won't eat a vegetable unless it is white and fried and lightly sprinkled with salt.

I am only just beginning to experiment with some other greens.  I have branched out to kale, but collard greens, mustard, dandelion, turnip, etc., that is another story.  I have tried using beet greens but that was a disaster and I haven't tried since.  By pure happenstance my husband came home from the firehouse with a great way to cook greens that he had the previous day.  Since he was cooking, I happily ate...and ate..and ate.  My goodness they were good.  I asked him about a recipe but of course there is none to be had--one of the hallmarks of firehouse cooking-- but I made him recite exactly what he did so that I too can make this wonderful veggie side dish.

southern smoked greens
1 bunch of mustard greens
1 bunch of collard greens
1 bunch of turnip greens
2 handfuls of spinach
1 cup chicken stock
1 tsp liquid smoke
dash of salt
1 tbsp brown sugar 

1. Wash the greens.  Remove the stems and chop into bite size pieces.
2. Bring the chicken broth, liquid smoke, salt and sugar to a boil.
3. Add the greens, reduce heat to a simmer and cover.
4. Cook until tender about 20-30 minutes.

chocolate soufflé cookies

Yesterday was Communion Sunday at church.  This means that this is the snack day for the kids.  I forgot my son's snack.  Thankfully the associate pastor was able to provide raisins, a nice healthy allergy-free snack.  Unfortunately nothing would compare to the snack that the other children had--cupcakes complete with frosting and sprinkles.  I know life isn't fair, but why not make it a little bit sweeter when I am able?  We left church with a promise that i would make a batch of cookies when we returned home.  I found this recipe while looking through some old Fine Cooking recipes.  I had never seen or heard of such a cookie--it is a cross between a meringue and a crackle.  

This cookie lends itself to variations and adaptations.  One person suggested using crystallized ginger in place of the walnuts.  I immediatly thought of crushed candy cane for a delicious Christmas cookie.  Another idea is to use bourbon and pecans to make a cookie to enjoy with the Derby.  I do know that I will be testing all of these variations at some point because they were that good.