quick Christmas saLad

This is a salad recipe that I forget, then remember, then make three times in one week. It's called Ambrosia.

It's an old recipe that I got from a little typewritten recipe booklet that was put together by the "Epionean Club." When Scott was an ophthalmology resident, the wives of the interns and residents belonged to the Epioneans. I don't remember the origin of the name, but the group was led by the wife of one of the faculty members. She was from Georgia and was large and elaborate and friendly to everyone and her Ambrosia Salad was at every gathering.

It's so easy to make and perfect for a little get-together at home like the one we had here last week or to take to a potluck party. (Note the Jigglers jello in the picture. I made them so Scott would have something he likes.) I included it when I took dinner to a friend the other night, and, since she loves coconut, she just loved the salad. 

The salad is delicious with fresh oranges, and I use them sometimes when I know they're good, sweet oranges. I usually buy a can of pineapple slices and cut them up instead of using tidbits because my dad says that the tidbits are made from the leftovers of the pineapple - the core and sides - and the whole slices are the best part of the pineapple. Just a little tidbit I knew you'd want to know :)   

You can find many varieties of the salad on the internet from basic to elaborate. It's also known as Five-Cup Salad. This is the recipe I like best: 

Ambrosia

1 cup canned pineapple tidbits

1 cup (1 large can) mandarin oranges

1 medium bottle maraschino cherries

1 cup coconut

1 cup miniature marshmallows

1 cup whipping cream, unwhipped

1/2 cup sour cream

Drain the pineapple, mandarin oranges, and cherries. Whisk together the whipping cream and sour cream but don't whip the cream. Combine all ingredients in large bowl with lid and refrigerate overnight or at least about 3 hours. (Don't stir too much or the maraschino cherries will turn the salad pink.) Serve in a pretty serving bowl.

( chicken pot pie )

This chicken pot pie was easy and yummy. I followed the "healthified" version below but added mushrooms. I divided the recipe and put one panful in the freezer. I'll add the pastry when I bake it.

 

 

The crescent rolls are a bit different tasting than pie crust and my preference. I think they're easier to use, too, and since I always buy the reduced fat crescent rolls, maybe a little healthier. Note: I DO NOT like the store brand of rolls, just stick to Pillsbury and enjoy! 

Healthified Chicken Pot Pie 

(from the Pillsbury website)

Ingredients

1 bag frozen mixed vegetables
1/2 onion finely chopped
1 pkg. fresh mushrooms
3 T. flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 1/4 C. milk
2 T. butter
1 can 98% fat-free Cream of Chicken soup
3/4 cup light or fat-free sour cream
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts cooked and cut into small pieces (about 4 cups)
1 pie crust or 1 pkg Pillsbury Crescent Rolls - Low Fat (if dividing recipe, use 2 crusts or 2 roll packages)

1. Cook and drain vegetables. In skillet, cook onion and mushrooms in 2 T butter. Combine vegetables and set aside.
2. In lg saucepan, mix flour, salt, pepper, and milk and blend. Cook over med. heat about 5 minutes until thickened.
3. Stir in soup and sour cream. Add chicken and vegetables. Stir and cook until well heated. Pour into 2 qt. casserole or large pyrex. Top with crust or crescent rolls which have been formed to fit the pan. 
4. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. 

meet the candidates

Tom Jensen

Herm Olsen

It's election time and we have two friends running for Logan City Council.....so..... Scott and I invited our neighbors to a little "meet our two favorite candidates" night here last night. The turnout was similar to the general voter turnout in an election like this...low. But, our candidates, being the professionals they are, turned it into an hour of personal discussion and deeper exploration of the issues. It was very interesting; they know so much and care so passionately. I admire anyone willing to volunteer their time to community service and public office.

It's a Winner Delicious Punch

I made a refreshing punch and ordered Pumpkin Cake from the bakery. The punch is made with the yummy Hawaii's Own frozen juice concentrate - Raspberry Guava flavor. That's my favorite flavor. It just tastes light and cold and fresh.

Mix one can of juice with one can of water in punch bowl or pitcher. Add lots of ice. Add one bottle Sprite or 7 Up. I use the cheapest store brand lemon-lime soda. Ginger Ale is good too. Slice some oranges and add some fresh mint leaves and raspberries for punch-bowl garnish.

:: valentine treat time ::

We sure need another excuse for baking and eating treats don't we?! Hooray for red and white (and pink!) holidays!

I'm inspired by the darling way these cupcakes are decorated. Just look at all the variations using just white frosting and red and white sprinkles. I'm printing the photo above and pasting it in my recipe binder. These cupcakes might even be prettier than they taste. EXCEPT...they're almond flavored - one of my all-time favorites. Wow! A cupcake with almond paste in it? Oh, yummm. (I might have to bake these...in spite of the 'hate-to-cook' post that I wrote last week.)

Almond Cupcakes

2 cups all-purpose flour
2-1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 sticks (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
3-1/2 ounces (1/2 package) almond paste
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 18 muffin cups with paper liners.

2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.

3. In another medium bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter, almond paste, and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

3. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture alternately with the milk in batches, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and beating just until blended. Stir in the vanilla.

4. Spoon half of the batter into a ziplock bag. Snip a 1/4-inch corner from the bag and fill the liners two-thirds full. Repeat with the remaining batter. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the cupcakes from the baking pan, place on a wire rack, and allow to cool completely.

Recipe and images from Love to Cook/Kitchen Kneads store - Logan, UT and marthastewart.com

- how I feel about cooking -

Cream of Carrot soup....yummm. One of my best attempts at dinner ever. I made it last week from a recipe in the fabulous cookbook pictured below - Keeping Up Cookbook. The recipe is a little labor intensive, but worth the time and effort. (Notice my pretty Ralph Lauren plate above - mentioned in previous post.)

I peeled and chopped carrots, celery and leeks - cooked them in chicken broth, then pureed the delicious smelling veggies in the blender. The soup would have been good enough, but the addition of heavy cream and sour cream made it heavenly.

As I began the blending process, I popped three freezer rolls in the oven - timed perfectly for serving the soup and hot rolls. THANKFULLY, before stirring it in, I tasted a little spoonful of the cream - just a habit I have, mainly because I love straight, unsweetened whipping cream. Ohhhh, it was sour. Really awfully icky sour.

So, completely forgetting the rolls in the oven, I took off for Lee's Marketplace to buy more cream. It's a quick trip, but not quick enough to save the rolls from being becoming hard and black and burned-up garbage.

The burnt rolls sort of killed my enthusiasm, even though the soup was delicious, and both Mike and Scott slurped it up. As I was cleaning up, there was a label maker sitting on the kitchen counter. I couldn't resist a little catharsis, so I made a label about how I really feel about cooking. I stuck it on the cookbook and there it will stay.

I really do hate cooking. No, really.


Recipe - Cream of Carrot Soup
Because of copyright, I won't type the recipe from the cookbook, but here is a recipe that is very similar from the website Easy French Food.

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped finely (I used the white & light green of four leeks)
  
• 1 1/2 pounds carrots, peeled if needed and sliced thinly
• 1 large potato, peeled and sliced thinly (I used 1 cup celery and no potato)
  
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 cup whipping cream (My recipe called for 1 cup cream & 1 cup sour cream*)
  
• salt to taste
• pepper for garnish
  

In a large sturdy soup pot (or Dutch oven), melt the butter on medium heat. Cook the onions, carrots, potato, and garlic in the butter for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the chicken stock and pepper and bring the soup to a boil. Turn the heat down so that the soup is just barely bubbling. Cover the pot and cook the soup for 30 minutes.

Remove the soup from the heat and allow it to cool enough so you can comfortably puree it, using either a food processor or blender. Work in small batches and watch out for hot splashing soup! Once it is pureed return the soup to a pot.

When you are done pureeing all the soup, stir in the whipping cream and season to taste with salt and additional pepper. You can further season this soup with such things as powdered dry ginger, cumin, a pinch of cayenne, or curry. All of these flavors go very nicely with carrots.

Heat the soup to serve. Serve in bowls and garnish with chopped chives. (I added a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of shredded parmesan cheese.)

Makes about 5 - 1 cup servings.

*Next time I make this - when I forget that I hate to cook - I'll try fat-free half and half and fat-free sour cream. I always use light sour cream.

[ Gordo says it's good ]

Driving home from work I was thinking about fresh corn on the cob and wondered if the local fruit stand is open - so I drove to 400 North and 50 West and sure enough, the open sign was out and I could see the big wooden tables covered with bushel baskets of tomatoes, zucchini, onions, beets (regret I didn't buy some beets - they still had dirt on them and big beet-greens stems). And there at the entrance...lots of corn. So I loaded up. While bagging my corn, (silk heads down and stems up as directed so as not to rip the bag), I got a kick out of the brown cardboard handwritten sign that said, "Please bring your own bags. Next time." Which I plan to do.

When I got home, I started a quick casserole using good ole hamburger which I fried up with chopped onion, green pepper, and diced zucchini. I added a can of diced tomatoes (saving the garden tomatoes for slicing) and 3/4 of a bottle of makes-any-kind-of-pasta-taste-pretty-darn-good sauce called Newman's Own Sockarooni. While it cooked I got two big pots of water boiling and dumped in a l-pound box of my favorite pasta - the really-quick-cooking Barilla Farfalle Minis (little bowties).

I drained the pasta - there was a lot so I put the pasta into a extra large bowl. Then I mixed into the warm pasta a 16-ounce carton of cottage cheese and a 16-ounce carton of light sour cream. Stirred it all up and added some salt and pepper and a bit of garlic salt 'til it tasted good.

{ NOTE - I only used half of the pasta mixture for my dinner dish - the other half went into the frig and will taste good on another night with chicken or something. }

Next I put the casserole together in a 'vintage' pyrex casserole dish that I got for my wedding (36 years ago on Sept. 4). I put a layer of the extra sauce on the bottom of the dish, then about a 2 inch layer of the mixed-up pasta, then a layer of shredded mozzarella cheese, then I poured all of the hamburger-sauce-veggie mix on top. Into the oven it went, and while it baked I went outside to take pictures of Scott, Mike, and Gordo practicing their climbing skills by going up the ladder to our roof and repelling down the side of the house. Photos tomorrow.

When they finally came in to eat, we cooked the corn and ate the now, somewhat overbaked casserole. Gordo, whose Mom is a gourmet cook, said it was good, and that's when I decided to post it on my blog in case you have some fresh corn, zucchini, tomatoes, onions, and peppers. Yum.

Fresh Treats

I'm finally back to my blog - but only for a minute. I want to share the recipe for Shelia's Brownies - it's at the end of this post. And to balance your diet if you eat brownies for breakfast like me, a I have a suggestion for a new product that you can top with fruit for a fresh treat. (Though, admittedly, it's more dessert than health food.)

This new product (anyway, new to me) is Yoplait Delights Parfait. I have to give the credit to my sister-in-law Lesa for discovering them and then having the idea to put fruit on top. They are in the yogurt section of the grocery store, in a four pack, like small yogurts - but the key word on the package is "Delights." (Which, as I already mentioned, probably means they have no redeeming nutritional value.) They come in four flavors, but my favorite is the Triple Berry Creme shown above. They have a layer of berry yogurt, then a layer of white creamy fluff. On top of that I put as many strawberries and I can smash in, then, if it's for company, I top with a dollop of whipping cream. Because they are in a clear plastic container, they look kind of pretty and party-ish.
They're fresh and delicious and better for you than ice cream, I'm sure!



And now for...

Shelia's Brownies

1 cube butter or margarine
2 (1 oz.) squares Baker's Unsweetened Baking Chocolate
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup plain flour
2 eggs
2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
walnuts - coarsly chopped

Melt butter and baking chocolate together. Stir in sugar and vanilla. Add eggs one at a time. (Shelia says, "Yes, this does make a difference.") Stir in flour, chocolate chips, and nuts. Spray a 9" x 9" baking pan and pour batter in. Bake for exactly 30 minutes at 350.
Do not overbake. Cool and cut into squares.

Debbie's suggestion and I think Shelia does this too: Always double the recipe then you'll have enough for a 9" x 13" pan and some batter leftover so the children { lol } can lick the bowl.

{ copied and pasted, but not tried - yet }

Cherry Almond Granola Bars

from honey and jam dot com blog

Today has been...less than great.

I woke up thinking I wouldn’t be able to bake at all, we were all out of propane. But then! Our tank was filled! I was feeling optimistic. I baked up some fantastically tasty granola bars.



When they had cooled, I headed downstairs to take photos. I set up the table, took a few shots, and then it happened. The cat jumped through the window, onto the cooling rack the bars were sitting on and flipped them all onto the floor. Every last one of them.

That’s not that bad, right? I mean, it’s a annoying, but it’s also kind of funny. You should have seen it, it was like something out of a cartoon.






Cherry Almond Granola Bars
adapted from Alton Brown

2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/3 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 (or more) cup dried cherries

Butter a 9 by 9-inch glass baking dish and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Spread the oats, almonds, and wheat germ onto a half-sheet pan. Place in the oven and toast for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

In the meantime, combine the honey, brown sugar, butter, extract and salt in a medium saucepan and place over medium heat. Cook until the brown sugar has completely dissolved.

Once the oat mixture is done, remove it from the oven and reduce the heat to 300 degrees F. Immediately add the oat mixture to the liquid mixture, add the dried fruit, and stir to combine. Turn mixture out into the prepared baking dish and press down, evenly distributing the mixture in the dish and place in the oven to bake for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely. Cut into squares and store in an airtight container for up to a week.

[ Shrimp Pasta and more ]

I told Alison at work that I'd post the recipe for the Shrimp Pasta I made on Valentine's Day. Can't find the recipe - it was online, but there are a thousand pasta recipes with shrimp online, and I can't seem to duplicate my Google search to have it come up.

Can I just say that I love Google. I read an article about Google in the latest Wired Magazine (March 2010) that just boggled my mind. Google is just a bunch of people in an office building (now huge complex) in Mountain View, California. A bunch of very brilliant people with super computers. Basically they spend their time tweaking an algorithm (what the heck is that?). It's a work in progress. They sit and do searches all day long and then figure out how to make their search engine do better searching.

For example, they figured out how to make the searches allow for context. So, when you enter the word hot dog, you don't get information about boiling a puppy. And if you type "Lincoln bio," Google know it means biography, but if you type 'bio warfare,' it means biological. And on and on.

Ya know, you really need to read the article. Go to Borders and get the magazine - or just sit in the cafe area and read the five pages starting on page 96. There's other interesting stuff in the magazine too so you may want to take that 30% coupon and buy it.

Now, the Shrimp Pasta:

You will need some pasta - I prefer THIN SPAGHETTI. It's perfect. Angel Hair Pasta is too wimpy and regular spaghetti is too fat. I only ever buy thin spaghetti - even though it costs more. I just measure carefully so I don't waste any. And nowadays, I only ever buy Barilla Plus Multigrain Pasta brand. Note - it has to be Barilla Plus. See photo below. Cook's Illustrated magazine rated the whole grain pastas - which tasted like cardboard to me - and this brand came out near the top. I'm so glad I found Barilla Plus.

Also cook some broccoli and cut up some small tomatoes. I prefer the Campari tomatoes that come on their stems. Or those little grape tomatoes are good.

Buy a bag of frozen cooked shrimp. Use about a handful per person. Thaw the shrimp in a colander under cold running water.

Put a half a stick of butter and some oil (evoo or veg. oil) in a skillet and fry up some garlic and onion - to taste. Add the shrimp and cook for about five minutes - not too long because it's already cooked. Add salt and pepper to taste. Seasoned pepper looks good.

I learned this in my Google search. When the shrimp just start to curl up, they're done! I never knew that. If they get too curled up, they're TOO DONE and will be chewy.

Remember how I love the magazine Cooks Illustrated? Well, in the latest issue, which I bought for the chewy brownie recipe, they rate cooking oils. I'm not a fan of the taste of olive oil (I know, that brands me as NOT GOURMET, along with the fact that garlic gives me a stomach ache, but I can handle being not gourmet.) And there are times when a good vegetable oil is the only thing you can use - like when frying at a high temperature. The top recommended vegetable oil is Crisco Natural Blend - 'which has a subtle, pleasing blend of canola, sunflower and soy oils.' Next is Mazola Canola. That's easier to find and the oil I'll be using for my next batch of chewy brownies. NEVER EVER use corn oil. It has a nasty flavor and it's more bad for you.

Back to the shrimp pasta. Take the shrimp off the heat and add a little cream or fat free half and half and a handful of good shredded parmesan cheese. Or (this is what I did) remove the shrimp to a bowl, mix 4 T. flour into the butter mixture and stir until it bubbles a bit - but don't let it start to burn. Add a cup of chicken broth and some milk to make a thin white sauce. Stir shrimp back in and add cheese. Keep on low while you get everything on the table. This is the hardest part keeping things hot but not too hot.

To serve, dish pasta on a big platter, surrounded with broccoli and tomatoes, and at the last minute, so it will be hot, pour the shrimp and sauce over the pasta. Garnish with some big shreds of parmesan cheese (shake the little plastic container and the big shreds will stay on top) and sprinkle with pepper. If you're a gourmet cook, you will know how to make it look fabulous - with parsley or basil or whatever. Be sure to have some good bread to serve too - I loveCrumb Brothers (a local bakery) baguettes.

OK, I spent way too long on this post. I have a billion things to do today because tomorrow we are, I hardly dare admit this, going to Cancun for a week. So there's a lot of getting ready to do and I have to go do it.

I'm not even going to proofread this post. That's killing me.

{ kicked-up baked apples }

I love Cook's Illustrated Magazine - and editor Christopher Kimball, besides being a chef and food scientist, is also a wonderful writer. I get his newsletter and visit his blog just for the entertainment of it.

There is a bit of controversy going on over there because he smacked the world of "wiki recipes" - these are places where people share recipes just like wikipedia shares content. Kimball doesn't think that recipes that internet folks (like food bloggers) exchange with each other are as reliable as his type of "test kitchen" recipes. Here's what he said, "In terms of recipes, no, I do not believe in a Wiki website, with a community opining on recipes as a means of creating a valuable database. Making a recipe 75 times in a test kitchen under controlled circumstances (yes, this is deeply self-serving) is vastly better than the voices of millions under less the ideal circumstances, with kitchens with a host of different problems/equipment/etc. Go ahead and make that broccoli casserole off your Google search and see how you like it! In cooking, as in all things, there is a right way and a wrong way. Very little in life is truly relative."

Back to the subject of Baked Apples... I found this recipe on Kimball's blog and thought of my daughter Suzie. She loves baked apples. (Me, I'm not a fan.) Suz used to come home from school and cook a baked apple in the microwave. Chistopher Kimball would probably not recommend that! But THIS recipe really sounds good. A bit more complicated that the micro, but good. You stuff the apples with a filling and drench with a maple/apple cider syrup. Tell me how you like it, Suzie!

The Best Baked Apples

If you prefer sweeter apples Golden Delicious, Braeburn, and Fuji apples can be substituted for the Granny Smith. If you don’t have an ovenproof skillet, transfer the browned apples to a 13- by 9- inch baking dish and bake as directed. Serve with vanilla ice cream, if desired.

7 large (about 6 ounces each) Granny Smith apples

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

4 tablespoons brown sugar

1/3 cup dried cranberries, coarsely chopped

1/3 cup coarsely chopped pecans, toasted

3 tablespoons old-fashioned oats

½ teaspoon finely grated zest from 1 orange

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Pinch table salt

1/3 cup maple syrup

1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons apple cider

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Peel, core, and cut 1 apple into ¼-inch dice. Combine 5 tablespoons of butter, brown sugar, cranberries, pecans, oats, orange zest, cinnamon, diced apple, and salt in large bowl; set aside.

2. Shave thin slice off bottom (blossom end) of remaining 6 apples to allow them to sit flat. Cut top ½-inch off stem end of apples and reserve. Peel apples and use melon baller or small measuring spoon to remove 1 ½-inch diameter core, being careful not to cut through bottom of apple.

3. Melt remaining tablespoon butter in 12-inch nonstick ovenproof skillet over medium heat. Once foaming subsides, add apples, stem side down, and cook until cut surface is golden brown, about 3 minutes. Flip apples, reduce heat to low and spoon filling inside, mounding excess filling over cavity; top with reserved apple caps. Add maple syrup and 1/3 cup of cider to skillet. Transfer skillet to oven, and bake until skewer inserted into apples meets little resistance, 35 to 40 minutes, basting every 10 minutes with maple syrup mixture in skillet.

4. Transfer apples to serving platter. Stir remaining 2 tablespoons cider into sauce in skillet as necessary to adjust consistency. Pour sauce over apples and serve.

++ quick cookies ++

I made cookies today - and nearly, but not quite, burned the first batch. Wait a minute - it's usually the last batch that I forget and leave in the oven too long. Anyway, putting cookie sheets in and out of the oven for an hour made me remember some very good advice I picked up this past summer.
Scott and I were riding our bikes (something we really loved doing this summer) - it was in July - and we stopped at his brother's house for a quick visit. It was a Sunday evening and Melanie was just pulling some Chocolate Chip Bar Cookies out of the oven. Talk about timing! Oh yummm - I still remember how good they were, hot and buttery/chocolatey sweet.
I love being around Melanie because she's always full of good ideas that I take as advice from a very wise person. She told me that she gave up making chocolate chip cookies in favor of making 'blondies.' She figured out that the bar cookies taste very similar to regular cookies and for much less effort you get the same effect - hot, yummy cookies.
I think she's right - the only problem is the 'all or nothing' factor. If you're going to burn them, you burn the whole bunch. (My photos are from July when I went right home and practiced. I sat by the oven so I'd take them out right on time. (yummmmmmm)

my reCipE for bAked ZiTi

Here is my recipe for a delicious (considering it's a convenience food) and nutritious (well, sorta) dinner...

Baked Ziti & Meatballs

Directions:
1. Go to Sam's Club. (Maybe available at Target too.)
2. Find the frozen entrees section and look for the two pack of Michael Angelo's Baked Ziti and Meatballs.
3. Bake it in the oven if you have 50 minutes...in the microwave if you only have 15. I personally like the oven better - the yummy smell fills the house.
4. Serve with salad, veggies and a loaf of good french bread - with unsalted butter.
5. Cheer when you realize that you ate dinner at home, and it only took ten minutes to get it ready.

p.s. I mostly don't like the meat in frozen foods, so I didn't eat the meatballs in this dish, just the pasta. So I hope the meatballs taste OK. I'd buy it again and still not eat the meatballs!

Note: In seaching the internet for a photo of this product, I found a little blog called "The Freezer Dude - Frozen Food Reviews." Click here to access this guy's reviews of entrees, pizza, etc. Yeah, I admit, he's a guy who is used to eating frozen food, but I actually found his reviews to be pretty close to my opinions. One thing I hate is buying a food item that turns out to be really nasty. What a waste of money that is. Maybe his reviews can help steer me in the right direction.

:: perfect bridal or baby shower cookie ::

Tonight I'd like to publicly thank my "cookies-in-the-oven guardian angel." Really, she protects me sometimes from cookie disasters, and this morning she was especially vigilant. Not once, but twice, she nudged me to the oven to get the cookies out. Now you'd think that if it were an important occasion with a tight time schedule, I'd be sitting next to the oven making sure I didn't burn the cookies. But this morning I was extra-distracted and in a bit of a hurry. The cookies were baking, and I was wrapping a gift. And then it hit me...OHHH the cookies. I ran to the oven and, whew, they were just fine.


Why, you ask, don't you just put on the timer? I DO set the timer, in fact I set two timers. But, my oven timer makes one little blip which I never hear over the radio or if I'm in another room. And the second timer has this unnoticeable start button which I always forget to push. So, hats off to the cookie angel.

Below is the recipe for Meltaways - the perfect shower cookie! You can also click here for the Almond Cookie recipe which I also made for the shower and colored pink - so very baby girly.

Oh, and I need to mention that the baby shower was wonderful. It was for my sister's daughter-in-law Nikki who is due to have a little baby girl at the end of this month. My sister put together wonderful refreshments - all pink food! It was so cute - watermelon, red grapes, strawberries. Pink cookies - my almond cookies and the meltaways. Mer made trifle with lots of fat (dark pink) raspberries on top and pink jello cake. There was pink fruity slush and pink animal cookies. Oh, and don't forget the pink ice cream sandwiches and pink creamie popsicles.
(Thanks to jjbd_photo on photobucket for her cookie photo - I didn't even think to take one.)

Meltaways
from Scott's sister, Mary Savage
2 cubes butter
3/4 cup cornstarch
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1 cup flour or a bit more if needed
1/8 tsp. salt
Put it all in the mixer and beat together until well blended, but not too long. (If the dough seems dry and crumbly, the cookies will crumble, so you need to add a bit of warm water. If it's too creamy-thin you need to add a bit of flour. It needs to be a consistency that you can scoop it up with a tablespoon and roll it around on the palms of your hands into a small ball.

Make balls - they look better if small, about the size of walnuts. Press each ball gently with two fingers.

Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. (Set the timer.)

Cool and frost with your favorite cream cheese frosting - or if you're in a huge hurry and are sick to death of cookies, then use Betty Crocker Soft Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting. This recipe will make about 35 cookies depending on size.

yummy dishes

So I saw these dishes in TJ Maxx last week and had an immediate want-want-want reaction. I filled my shopping cart with plates, bowls, cups, and saucers picturing how cute they'll be for Christmas, Valentines, 4th of July and every other Sunday. As I strolled up to the front of the store, I was struck by the fact that I DO NOT NEED THESE DISHES, no matter how beautiful they are (or what a good price). I had this naggy voice in my head saying, "Is this a want or a need?" So I went back to the dishes aisle and put them all back, except for one dinner plate and one soup bowl. Which I use for my broiled cheese sandwiches at lunch. And I eat with a big smile.

The perfect antidote to depression caused by rain or snow is a take-out bowl of Olive Garden soup - I love the Pasta e Fagioli. I brought it home and placed the take-out bowl inside my pretty red bowl and enjoyed an early dinner. That soup is so good that I thought there must be a recipe on the internet - and yes there are lots. The following recipe sounded good whether you crockpot it or just cook it on the stovetop.

Olive Garden Pasta e Fagioli Soup in a Crock Pot

(Copycat recipe from recipezaar.com)

The website says: This tastes exactly like the pasta e fagioli soup at the Olive Garden. Wonderful!

SERVES 12 -14 - this is a big recipe, can be halved.

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Ingredients

• 2 lbs ground beef
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 carrots, chopped
• 4 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 (28 ounce) cans diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 (16 ounce) can red kidney beans, drained
• 1 (16 ounce) can white kidney beans, drained
• 3 (10 ounce) cans beef stock
• 3 teaspoons oregano
• 2 teaspoons pepper
• 5 teaspoons parsley
• 1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce (optional)
• 1 (20 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
• 8 ounces pasta

Directions

1. Brown beef in skillet. Drain fat from beef and add to crock pot with everything except pasta.
2. Cook on low 7-8 hours or high 4-5 hours.
3. During last 30 min on high, add pasta. OR even better, cook pasta on the stovetop and add as you are serving the soup.