Fairy Gingerbread Cookies

So, don't read anything that I've written here, just go bake these cookies!

These are delicious. They are just what you imagine perfect, crisp ginger snaps to be. These cookies have an interesting history. Over 100 years ago, it was very important for high society women to know how to make these. They would be offered to visitors.

The cookies are very thin, hence the name. They are about the size and thickness of a business card. I was a bit anxious about how these cookies would turn out. The dough is very thin, and I found it difficult to spread over the cookie sheet. When I took them out of the oven, I thought that the outside edges were burnt, but they tasted fine. I will be making these cookies again and again.

Fairy Gingerbread Cookies

from Cooks Country March 2011

Makes 5 dozen cookies

1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons

All-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

9 tablespoons packed light brown sugar

4 teaspoons grated fresh ginger

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup whole milk, room temperature

1. Adjust oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 325 degrees. Spray 2 cookie sheets (or inverted baking sheets) with cooking spray and cover each with 15 by 12-inch sheet parchment paper. Heat ground ginger in small skillet over medium heat until fragrant, about 1 minute. Combine flour, toasted ginger, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl.

2. With electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add fresh ginger and vanilla and mix until incorporated. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with 2 additions of milk.

3. Evenly spread 3/4 cup batter to cover parchment on each prepared cookie sheet (batter will be very thin). Bake until deep golden brown, 16 to 20 minutes, switching and rotating sheets halfway through baking. Immediately score cookies into 3 by 2-inch rectangles (you can use a pizza cutter). Cool completely, about 20 minutes. Using tip of paring knife, separate cookies along score mark. Serve. (Cookies can be stored in airtight container at room temperature for 3 days.)

Pork Fried Rice

When I was little, I had a bad experience with fried rice. My parents had just bought a wok and were trying to make their own fried rice. I remember that we had family visiting and I ate a LOT of food. I was about 5, and didn't know to stop eating when I felt full. I ending up getting sick later on that night, and it took me a long time to each fried rice again.

What a difference 20 years makes! Now I enjoy fried rice, when it's cooked well. I find that fried rice in Chinese restaurants is too greasy. I've been searching for a good fried rice recipe - one that is easy to fix and I can make on a busy week night. This recipe, sadly, is not it. It is from the March 2011 issue of Everyday Food. While the dish has a lot of good qualities going for it, it isn't the fried rice recipe I've been searching for. I can't really describe what I didn't like about it, but I will list the recipe's good points.

• It's quick. If you have left over, cooked rice (which I did), it's really fast, and easy.
• It has a lot of elements that I wouldn't think would be fried rice, but add a nice flavor - ginger and rice vinegar.

This isn't a bad recipe, not at all, it just needed something more - I don't know what, but it just didn't do it for me.

Pork Fried Rice

from Everyday Food

Serves 4

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 eggs, lightly beaten

2 tablespoons plus 1/4 teaspoon soy sauce

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger

1 bunch scallions, white and green parts separated and thinly sliced

1/2 pound ground pork

2 carrots, shredded

1/2 cup frozen peas

2 cups cooked white rice (about 3/4 cup uncooked rice)

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

1. In a wok or large nonstick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over high. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, lightly beat eggs with 1/4 teaspoon soy sauce to combine. Add eggs to wok and swirl to coat bottom of pan. Cook, without stirring, until almost set, 1 minute, then fold in thirds with a spatula. Transfer cooked eggs to a wok surface and cut into 1/2-inch pieces.

2. Add 1 tablespoon oil to wok and swirl to coat. Add garlic, ginger, and scallion whites and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, 30 seconds. Add pork and cook, breaking up meat with a wooden spoon, until just cooked through, about 3 minutes. Add carrots, peas, and rice and stir to combine. Add cooked egg, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, and vinegar and cook, stirring constantly, until rice is coated about 1 minute. Let cook, undisturbed, until warm, about 1 minute. Top with scallion greens and serve.

Pancetta Green Beans and A Chicken Dish

I made the Pancetta Green Beans with the Chicken with Mustard Sauce on Wednesday.  Now I know that this doesn't look like it has Pancetta in it, and it doesn't.  I don't know why I had it in my head that Pancetta and Prosciutto were the same thing, I know they aren't.  Chalk it up to the fact that I had a long day at work and was in a hurry to get home.  I think I saw the prosciutto and just grabbed and go.

This was a great side dish.  I'm not a big green bean eater.  I don't hate green beans, but they aren't a go to vegetable for me.  I grew up near my grandfather's farm and they always grew green beans.  I don't remember eating fresh green beans when I was little, but I remember my mother and grandmother spending entire days in the kitchen canning green beans.  I think that's why I don't eat fresh green beans, whenever I think of those vegetables, I think of green beans in a can and not fresh ones.

I will have to make this side dish again.  It is incredibly easy to make, and who doesn't love anything cooked in bacon and butter?  I made this dish as a part of French Fridays with Dorie.  It's an online cooking club that is cooking through Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table.  There is a selected recipe each week, and each person posts her dish on Fridays.  Part of the rules state that you cannot post the recipe, so it you to try anything you see, go buy the book!  It's a great cookbook and I highly recommend it.  I didn't post this link to the website (I'm about 3 days late), but I hope to begin soon.  I like the idea of the website.  I've always thought it would interesting to do a cook-through blog, but I don't think I can commit to just one cookbook everything night for many years.  This way I have the best of both worlds.

Now here's my next dish - I made this last night for dinner.  It's from Bon Appetit's Fast Easy Fresh cookbook.  It's a pretty easy chicken dish to make, and it doesn't take a long time to cook, around 30 minutes to make.  You coat the chicken with panko bread crumbs and then saute it in olive oil.  I like that way of cooking chicken breasts, it dresses them up from the bland, plain chicken dish.  But I have a problem if I need to cook the chicken in batches, like I had to do with this dish.  The first 2 pieces of chicken came out perfectly, but with the next 2, the breadcrumbs start to burn.  If anyone knows how to fix that, please let me know.  I don't have a picture of this dish.

Lemony Chicken Milanese with Arugula Salad
from Bon Appetit's Fast Easy Fresh
Serves 4

4 skinless boneless chicken breast halves
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cups panko
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano
1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 cups (packed) baby arugula leaves (about 2 ounces)

Using meat mallet or rolling pin, pound chicken between sheets of plastic wrap to 1/2-inch thickness.  Whisk eggs in medium bowl to blend.  Mix panko, parsley, oregano, salt, and pepper on plate.  Dip chicken into beaten eggs; turn to coat.  Dredge in breadcrumb mixture, coating completely.

Heat 3 tablespoons oil in large nonstick skillet over medium heat.  Add chicken and saute until golden brown and cooked through, about 5 minutes per side.  Transfer chicken to plates; sprinkle with lemon juice.  Toss arugula with remaining 1 tablespoon oil in medium bowl to coat; sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Mound salad atop chicken.

Sauteed Chicken in Mustard-Cream Sauce

Have you ever looked forward to making a meal that didn't turn out as well as you thought it would? I have been wanting to make this chicken all week, and I was excited that I finally got the chance to last night. It pretty much started out bad from the beginning.

The chicken wasn't thawed out, that was the biggest problem I was having. I had placed the chicken in the fridge the night before. I thought that would be enough for them to completely thaw out, but obviously I was wrong. I worked on doing a quick thaw while working on making Pancetta Green Beans (more on those tomorrow). The chicken didn't that was quickly as I was hoping, and it was taking a long time to cook. It was supposed to take 20 minutes and I'm guessing it would have taken an hour total if I had continued down the same path. I got frustrated, and pretty hungry, and decided to cut the chicken up into tiny pieces.

The tiny pieces didn't make it a very appetizing looking dish, but the chicken did cook faster. I then made the mustard-cream sauce, which is pretty easy to make. Just add white wine, heavy cream, mustard and tarragon. My overall impression of this dish is "Bleh." It didn't have as much flavor as I was hoping. There just wasn't that pop of flavor I wanted. Normally I like mustard in dishes, but I didn't get as much of that as I wanted. To be fair to the dish, I was biased to dislike it before I even tasted it. It took so long to cook that by the time I got to tasting it, I couldn't really stand the site of the chicken. The dish does taste better the next day, the flavors have more to combine.

Sauteed Chicken in Mustard-Cream Sauce

from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast

Serves: 4

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (6 ounces each)

Coarse salt and fresh ground pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup dry white wine or chicken broth

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon dried tarragon (or 1 tablespoon chopped fresh)

1. Sprinkle each chicken breast with 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the chicken; saute until cooked through, 10 to 12 minutes, turning once. Transfer to a plate; keep warm.

2. Pour the wine into the hot skillet; cook, stirring, until reduced by half, about 1 minute. Whisk in the cream, mustard, and tarragon. Cook, whisking, until thickened, about 2 minutes.

3. Pour any accumulated chicken juices into the sauce. Right before serving, drizzle the cream sauce over the sauteed chicken.

Cinnamon and Spice Hot Cocoa

During the Christmas season a couple of years ago, I stumbled across some cookies at Trader Joes called Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies. The combination of cinnamon, cocoa and chile powder was one I had never tried before. Soon after that, I was able to taste an actual Mexican hot chocolate, and I've been trying to recreate those flavors ever since. Now I have.

This is great hot chocolate recipe. I'm so used to drinking the kind made out of the hot cocoa mix (where you add hot water and dump a packet of hot cocoa mix) that I forget how good hot cocoa can be with real milk. This is perfect on a cold winter's afternoon. The Ancho chile powder give this extra bit of warmth while your drinking it. I was able to satisfy my chocolate craving without eating too much or it having too much calories (only 206). The recipe below is to make 4 serving, but I cut it in half to only make 2.

Cinnamon and Spice Hot Cocoa

from Everyday Food, January/February 2011

Serves 4

4 cups skim milk

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ancho chile powder

coarse salt

marshmallows (optional), for serving

In a medium pot, whisk together milk, cocoa powder, sugar, cinnamon, chile powder, and pinch of salt over medium-high until combined. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Pour cocoa into four mugs and serve immediately with marshmallows if desired.

Lemon Bars

I used to be an extremely picky eater as a child. I needed to know what was in the food that I ate, so I wouldn't eat any food that was mixed together. My mother has a problem getting me to eat casseroles, spaghetti, lasagna, etc. Luckily, I've become a lot more adventerous as I've gotten older. It helps that I'm actually cooking my own food, now that I know what is going in my food, I'm more willing to eat it.

So what does this have to do with Lemon Bars? Once of my picky quirks is that I have a hard time thinking of fruit and dessert as the same thing. I like fruit, but as fruit, and then for dessert I just go for chocolate. I'm getting about combining fruit and dessert, but that has taken me a long time to get over. I made these Lemon Bars this Sunday for the Super Bowl. My husband and I invited my parents over to watch the game, and he requested Lemon Bars for dessert. I have never eaten those before. When I confessed this on Sunday, my mom said "Of course you wouldn't have eaten that as a child."

I like these Lemon Bars. They are easy to make, and were a big hit with my husband. I think they taste better about a day later, have them sit in the fridge for a bit.

Lemon Bars
from Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook
Makes: 36 bars

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon finely shredded lemon peel
3/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup milk
Powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 13x9x2-inch baking pan. In a bowl, combine the 2 cups flour, the 1/2 cup powdered sugar, the cornstarch, and salt. Cut the butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs (I used my hand but you can use a pastry blender). Press mixture into the bottom of prepared pan. Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until edges are golden.

2. Meanwhile, make the filling. In a medium bowl, stir together eggs, granulated sugar, 3 tablespoons flour, lemon peel, lemon juice, and milk. Pour filling over hot crust. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes more or until center is set. Cool completely before removing from pan. Sift with powdered sugar. Cut into bars. Cover and store in refrigerator.

Introduction

I have toyed with starting a food blog for quite sometime.  I love reading food blogs, but there are so many!  Who would want to read mine, and why would anyone care what food I cook?  It took me a couple of months to decide to take the plunge.  So join me as I try to improve my cooking skills, become more healthy and eat great food while doing it.

Before we get started, I wanted to tell you a bit about myself.  I am a newlywed, and my husband and I just bought a new house.  We're currently trying to remodel the house to make it "ours."  I really love my new kitchen, which is not completely done but is functional.  I love having the counter space to really spread out and cook something.  I love to read and collect cookbooks - most I haven't even cooked from yet.  I'm placing a temporary hold on buying more cookbooks until I actually use the ones I have.  I can't justify spending the money if I'm not going to use them.

Besides cooking I like to read and knit.  I have tons of books and like to curl up with a good book right before going to bed.  As for knitting, it is one of best ways to meditate and unwind.  Right now I'm working on making sweaters that are tailored just for me.  With our new home, I'm also working on knitting a lot of accessories for our rooms.  I think that's it for now - let's eat!