Snowballs

Last week it snowed here.  For those who live where it normally snows, our little 1 inch dusting wouldn’t be a big deal.  For those who live in the deep south and are accustomed to snow being a rarity, understand just how excited we were! 

The bad thing (or good thing, depending on how you look at the situation!) is that snow around here rarely lasts more than a day.  Such was the case Thursday.  By the time we played in it, came in, got warm and dry, and went back out, it was starting to melt and turning into a muddy mess!  My children were pretty distraught.  So I decided since I had to make cookies for a funeral at church the next day, I would include the kids and we would make snowballs!  Of course until we dipped the first tray of them into the powdered sugar, my kids kept saying “These don’t look like snowballs!”  But then after the first dipping, they nodded their heads and said (quite emphatically!), “Snowballs!”  And so we ended our snow day with getting “snow” (powdered sugar) all over our kitchen while making snowballs.  Of course, these tasted a bit better than the real ones. 

Here’s the recipe.  It’s from Land O’ Lakes and I later discovered my mom’s recipe is the
same except hers calls for ¼ cup powdered sugar in the cookies instead of granulated

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups finely chopped pecans
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
Powdered sugar

Heat oven to 325°F. Beat the butter and sugar, add the flour and mix until combined.  Mix in the pecans.  Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place 1 inch apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 18-25 minutes or until very lightly browned. Cool 5 minutes; roll in powdered sugar while still warm and again when cool.



J's hands helping!



A's hands helping!

Beignets (Cook's Country)



finished product



Cutting them out



I have never tried making beignets. I admit that I've been afraid of them. I don't have a problem making yeast breads but beignets seem so...well, difficult! Also, I figured I couldn't possibly do them for breakfast...yeast stuff takes so long! 

Then I received my Cook's Country magazine the other day with beignets on the cover.  I immediately turned to the recipe and looked at the ingredients and realized I had everything in the house to make them.  I even had a reason to make them (a friend came over for supper and I know I can always try new stuff on her)!  I just couldn't do it. 

So this morning I was up at 4:30 and while I was working in the kitchen, I realized I would have time to make them to go with Austin's breakfast!  Then I discovered I only had ingredients for half a batch which turned out to be perfect for us!  Especially since I burned a few at first.

I’m a tea drinker but I admit to making myself a cup of café au late this morning to go with these!  It just felt right.

I'm sorry I don't have a picture to prove I made them.  I can promise you they were ugly but they were so light and airy—simply perfect!  They were gone pretty quickly since my girls woke up early this morning.  So, no time to snap a picture.  I'll try to next time I make them.

The dough is pretty sticky so be sure to flour your rolling surface well.  Also, don’t drain on paper towels, simply put a cake wire rack over a cookie sheet!

1 cup warm water (about 110 degrees)
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon instant or rapid rise yeast (you'll need two packets--one is almost enough but not quite)
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons oil (more for frying in)

3 cups flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

Powdered sugar

Combine 1 tablespoon sugar, yeast, and water in bowl.  Stir and let sit for 5-10 minutes until foamy (it'll look like the yeast has risen to the top).  Whisk the eggs and oil into the yeast mixture.  Combine the flour, rest of the sugar, and salt in a separate bowl.  Add to the yeast and egg mixture and stir vigorously to combine.   Cover the bowl with plastic wrap (or a lid if the bowl has one).  Refrigerate 1 hour.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator.  Divide dough into two parts.  Pat into a rough rectangle on floured rolling surface.  Roll with a rolling pin to about ¼ inch thick.  Cut into 3 inch squares (I did them smaller and they lost their shape due to not having enough flour!) and fry in oil at 350 degrees (I just had my burner on medium) until golden, turn to cook other side. 

Remove to a wire rack that’s been placed over a cookie sheet.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar immediately.  Serve.

NOTE:  Admittedly we've discovered we prefer them with a simple cocoa, powdered sugar, milk icing.

Cookies for Tired Teachers

When I was a kid, my mom would make these, package them up with the recipe attached and send them with us to school for our teachers for Christmas.  I even did this for some of my teachers in high school!  I got rave reviews!

2 egg whites, beaten stiff

2/3 cup sugar

pinch salt

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

¼ teaspoon mint flavor

4 to 6 drops green food coloring

6 oz. chocolate chips (1 cup)

Heat oven to 350.  Gradually add sugar, salt, cream of tarter, mint, flavoring, and food coloring to the stiffly beaten egg whites.  Stir in chips.  Drop from teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Place sheets into oven and turn oven off immediately.  Leave in oven overnight.

Fancy Chicken Salad

A friend (Pat) makes my favorite chicken salad!  I’ve never liked boiled eggs or pickles (or relish) in my chicken salad.  As a matter of fact, until hers, I didn’t like chicken salad at all (and I’m suspecting it was due to the large chunks of boiled eggs or the taste of pickles…ick!)!  This recipe has eggs but they are mashed to miniscule pieces with a fork and there are no pickles or relish (yay!).

When pregnant with my first, I had cravings for this and asked for the recipe.  She sent the photocopied recipe to me with these notes:  “I use REAL chicken that I’ve boiled and squeeze REAL lemon and chop everything fine—celery, onion, pecans.”  These are the reasons I’m sure hers is so yummy—it’s made with love!  She also wrote this:  “Q: Pregnancy cravings???”  Ah, what memories!!

Fancy Chicken Salad

4 cups cooked chicken, chopped (I use all white meat)

2 hard-boiled eggs, mashed with a fork (optional)

1 cup celery, finely chopped

¼ cup onion, finely chopped

¾ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon celery salt (optional)

¼ teaspoon white pepper

Red pepper to taste (optional)

2 tablespoons lemon juice (I don’t do this when I use sour cream)

1 cup pecans, finely chopped

¾ cup mayonnaise (or a mixture of about ½ cup mayo and ¼ cup sour cream)—you may need a bit more, depending on how “wet” you like the salad

Toss together ingredients.  Refrigerate until serving.

The items marked “optional” are usually things I leave out. 

This is delicious on plain ole bread, fancy rolls or croissants, or crackers. 

I usually boil my chicken or cook all day (or overnight) on low in the crockpot.  I have used baked chicken breasts too (if they are well seasoned, you may not need any seasoning in your salad).

NOTES:  You can add grapes, craisins, or apples.  I sometimes add some prepared ranch or dry ranch for a more seasoned taste.  Be creative!

Simplified:  chicken, pecans, onion, an apple and mayo—this is delicious too!  Not as “fancy” but still yummy!

Toffee

Homemade toffee is not difficult to make.  You just need a candy thermometer (or a glass of ice water and a working knowledge of how to do the water test) and some time devoted to the toffee.  Interruptions are your biggest problem.  It can scorch very easily. 

This is a recipe I’ve adapted from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book.  I have made it for years at Christmastime and once in awhile I’ll make it for a special occasion.

1 cup nuts chopped and toasted (walnuts are my favorite for this)

1 cup salted butter (no substitutes)

1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon light corn syrup (I often use pancake syrup because I don’t usually have corn syrup on hand)

3 tablespoons water

1 cup milk chocolate chips or pieces

Place a piece of foil on a large cookie sheet

In a 2-quart pan, melt butter over medium heat.  Add sugar, syrup and water.  Cook over medium heat, stirring often.  Once it starts boiling, stir almost constantly (or constantly).  Cook to the soft crack stage, which is 290 degrees.   I strongly suggest water testing and taste the piece you tested so you know it’s not too sticky.  It should crunch, not stick.  This takes about 15 minutes and it happens quickly towards the end so watch it carefully after 280 degrees.  Remove from heat and remove thermometer. 

Stir in half of the nuts and pour mixture over the foil and spread somewhat.  Place the chocolate over the hot toffee and let sit for a couple of minutes, until melted.  Using the back of a spoon or a knife, spread chocolate over toffee.  Sprinkle with the rest of the nuts, pressing down lightly.  Allow to cool (I like to refrigerate it after it cools a good bit so it will break into pieces easily). 

When cooled completely, break into desired pieces.  Store in an air tight container.  Makes about 1 ½ pounds of candy.  Can be made ahead and frozen.

This is how it looks when it's done, after the cold water test.

Hot toffee with chocolate chips sprinkled on it. 
Put the chips on quickly after you pour the toffee so
the chocolate will stick to the toffee.

The finished product!

Chewy Sugar Cookies (America's Test Kitchen)

I have always wanted to know the secret to chewy sugar cookies.  Thankfully America’s Test Kitchen has created such a recipe!   And you don't have to get your mixer out!

Admittedly, the first time I made these I forgot the vegetable oil.  The cookies were wonderful!  So I decided to leave it out.  However, the second time I made them, I needed a little oil (about 2 tablespoons) to make the dough hold together.  I think in that first baking I also left out some of the flour because I really didn’t need any oil to hold the dough together.  So, you can try leaving out ¼ cup flour or add a little oil.  I’m writing the recipe for 2 tablespoons oil. 

2 ¼ cups flour (best to weigh 11 ¼ oz.)

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

Wisk these ingredients together in a medium bowl.

In a large bowl:

1 ½ cup sugar plus 1/3 cup for rolling

2 oz. cream cheese, cut into 8 pieces

6 tablespoons melted butter, still warm

Wisk together and add

2 tablespoons oil (original recipe says 1/3 cup)

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 tablespoon milk

Add flour mixture, stir (use some kind of spoon, not a wisk) just until it comes together. 

Use a 2 tablespoon scoop to scoop the dough (I used the medium one from Pampered Chef).  Roll in balls.  Roll in sugar, place on ungreased cookie sheet (or use parchment paper).  Flatten with ¼ cup metal measuring cup (to 2 inch diameter).  Sprinkle more sugar on them (you can use colored sugar sprinkles to make them more festive).  Bake 350 for 11-13 minutes, or until slightly golden on edges.  Leave for 5 minutes, remove from tray to cooling rack.

*For the second batch, I used my small cookie scoop.  I don’t remember how long I baked them but I knew what they looked like when they were done so I just watched them.  Also, they are yummy iced with buttercream frosting but they're really yummy alone!

Pork Tenderloin (bacon wrapped)

This is extremely easy yet elegant.  It’s my favorite way to have pork tenderloin.   The only drawback is the mess it makes with your pan so be prepared for lots of scrubbing.

2 pork tenderloins (they’re usually packaged with two together)

Russian Salad Dressing (Catalina or anything redish in color)

Bacon, about 6 pieces

Wrap bacon around the tenderloins.  Pour dressing over tenderloins and cover the pan.  Let sit in the refrigerator 8 to 24 hours.  Remove pan from refrigerator, uncover, and place in oven at 350 for an hour.    After baking, let rest for 15-20 minutes.  Slice into medallions.  You can serve it with some of the sauce that was created during baking.