Coffee Cookies – Easy 3

This was one of my choices for BSI but I used something else.  I did bake it though so I thought I would share it with you.  I didn’t do it purposely but in my search to find this recipe, I found dozens of others that look better.  This is a simple recipe but hubby likes it so it seems to have turned out.  If you want  and easy recipe and you like coffee, try this.

Coffee Cookies 

 

Ingredients: 1/2 teaspoon guar gum

 1/2 cup shortening (Earth Balance now has shortening)
1 egg beater
2 tablespoons powdered instant coffee
2/3 cup white sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup gluten free flour

 Directions:

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cover cookie sheets with aluminum foil and spray with cooking oil.

 In a medium-sized bowl, cream together the shortening, sugar and coffee.

 Beat in the egg, flour, vanilla and chopped walnuts.

Mix until well blended.

 Drop by teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheets and bake 10 to 12 minutes.

Let cool on wire racks.

 Makes 30 cookies

Baked Herb Lemon Salmon

Herbed Salmon adapted from RecipeZaar

• vegetable oil spray
• 2 salmon fillets
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup parsley, fresh, chopped
• 1 teaspoon oregano, dried
• 1/8 teaspoon thyme, dried
• 1/2 cup plain bread crumbs
• 1/2 teaspoon basil
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350°.

Line a baking tray with foil and spray with vegetable oil spray,

Wash salmon, pat dry, and spread mustard over the top.

Mix parsley, oregano, thyme, basil and bread crumbs together.

Season with salt and pepper.

Spread over mustard.

Top it all with lemon juice and let it soak its way down to the salmon.  Baste with it, after it finishes cooking.

Bake in oven for 20 to 25 minutes, depending on thickness of fillets.

Remove from oven and serve on individual plates with rice.
Serves 2.

 

Better than Ice Cream-Creamy Cranberry Freeze

Creamy Cranberry Freeze–  This is for Joy of Joy of Dessert for her Ice Cream party tomorrow.  

 Above is a melt-down.

 This is not technically an ice cream but it is a yummy frozen dessert.  I also use it as a side dish at a meal that is too tasty.  It leaves a cool feeling in one’s mouth.  This is one of my favorites.  It has a mix of the tart and the sweet. 

When it melts a little, it is creamy and decadent.

This comes from a Cook Book, Treasury of Desserts, that should be kept hidden. It has 365 pages, three recipes to most pages and photos.  One recipe is better than the next.  It is published by Publications International, ltd.  I believe it this book sits out, you will be in the kitchen using it.  To make it worse, I am not sure if it is, on the market anymore.  I haven’t had time to check.

Creamy Cranberry Freeze adapted

 

 Ingredients                                                                

 6 ounces cream cheese (I use whipped)

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1 sixteen ounce can of cranberry sauce

1 eleven ounce can of mandarin orange sections well drained

8 ounce can of crushed pineapple, well drained (I used tidbits and diced them because I did not have crushed pineapple)

8 ounce container frozen non dairy whipped topping, thawed

Top with some Hazelnut Brittle Crumbs (optional)

Directions”

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer at medium speed, beat cream cheese until fluffy.  Gradually beat in corn syrup until smooth.  Reduce speed to low.  Beat in cranberry sauce, either whole or smooth, until combined.  Stir, by hand, mandarin oranges and pineapple.

Gently fold in whipped topping just until combined – by hand.  Spoon into a mold or a square pan.  Cover and freeze for six hours or overnight.

When you are planning to use it, remove from freezer and have it stand from 10 minutes to 30 minutes.  This depends on how cold your freezer is.

Garnish with fresh fruit or some mandarin oranges and mint.

Makes 9 – 12 servings —-  Take a look below at a slice and all the goodies inside.

Zesty Lemon Lime Chicken

Zesty Lemon Chicken Cutlets  adapted  – serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 pound chicken cutlets
• freshly ground black pepper
• salt to taste
• 1/4 cup gluten-free flour
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon lime juice
• 1 cup low-sodium vegetable broth
• 2 tablespoons dried parsley
• 2 tablespoons  lemon juice

Above: after frying-golden in color….

Cooking Instructions

1. Season the chicken cutlets with salt and pepper and dredge them in flour.

2. In a large nonstick skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook until golden brown on each side, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer the chicken to a platter and keep warm.

3. Add the stock to the skillet, bring the stock to a boil and reduce it by half. Add the lemon juice, lemon zest, and parsley. Simmer for 30 seconds and pour the sauce over the chicken.  While I was putting in the latter, I thought it would be even better with a little lime juice so I added a teaspoon.

Serve immediately.

Sesame Pasta with Flair – Easy recipe 2

The secret of this recipe is the ease in making it.  Boil the pasta.  Collect the few necessary ingredients.  Pour it on and mix.  If you want to, skip slicing chives.  That’s the hard part .

This is another of my oldest daughter’s recipes.

Sesame Pasta with Flair

3/4 pound gluten free  spaghetti – medium thickness – #10 

1/3 cup white sugar

1/3 cup  canola oil

1/3 cup soy sauce

a tablespoon toasted sesame oil (grabbed wrong bottle and missed the toasted – used plain sesame oil)

sesame seeds – about 1/4 cup

1/2 cup sliced chives or more if you like the taste

Boil pasta according to package directions.   Rinse cooked pasta with cold water.  My gluten free spaghetti took  15 ro 17 minutes.  Regular spaghetti, I believe, takes less time.

While spaghetti is cooking, mix the sesame oil, soy sauce, sugar, and canola oil.

Toss with pasta and chives.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds.  I mixed some sesame seeds into the salad and sprinkled  some on top.

Enjoy.

Cobb Salad CEIMB

This is the first time that I am contributing to CEIMB – Craving Ellie in My Belly and I am running late.  I thought it was due for tomorrow.  Time to get my Planner out.  That keeps me where I should be.

 

I am particularly excited about this recipe.  I have never even had cobb salad and if you had asked me before I looked at the recipe, I would have guessed, corn.  For those who do not know me, I am kosher, which means I have to alter many of the recipes to fit in with my personal requirements.  For those, who have not heard of kosher, it is basically the laws of eating in Judaism.  If anyone has questions email me at Chayathecomfycook@yahoo.com.  I will be glad to respond.

 

I am closing in on my second month as a blogger and I realize I don’t feel like a newbie, any more.  I feel ignorant but I know I can learn and hopefully I have  earned my “iniations stripes”.

 

To what is important – food:

 

Cobb SaladEating Healthy in 2009. Copyright 2007, Ellie Krieger All rights reserved.  This recipe is altered to meet my needs.  Did I mention, my husband eats gluten free?  For the complete recipe, check in the cookbook or online.

Serves: 4 servings, serving size, about 3 cups

Ingredients

For the Dressing:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon Dijon Mustard
• 1 small clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For the salad:

• 2 hard-boiled eggs
• 6 cups romaine lettuce (about 6 ounces) coarsely chopped  (I had a large bag of Italian Greens which I used)
• 2 medium tomatoes, seeded and diced (about 2 cups)
• 1/2 avocado, diced (about 3/4 cup)

Directions

In a small bowl, whisk together all of the dressing ingredients and set aside.

Remove and discard the yolk from 1 of the hard boiled eggs. Chop the remaining egg white and whole egg and set aside.

In a large bowl toss the greens with 2/3 of the dressing. Put the dressed greens onto a large serving dish. Place the tomatoes on top forming a row down the middle. In strips on either side of the tomatoes place the avocado,  diced egg, on top of the greens. Drizzle with the remaining dressing and serve.

I haven’t eaten it yet (fasting) but it looks good.

Win “Julie and Julia”

I  plan to spotlight some of  “blogger happenings“.  If you would like yours included, please let me know and I will do my best to get the information out.  Send me the details and if you would like a picture  included, add that. 

I am starting with someone, I admire very much, who  always has a cooking  event going on.  Joy of  Joy of Cooking.   This time, she outdid herself with an ice cream party and a give-away.  You have to check this one out.

                                                                                                                                                  

Joy of  Joy of Desserts is having a give-away for one of the most popular books in recent times.  Certainly food bloggers would want it.  Stop at her blog to get more information.

While you are there, tomorrow is her ice cream party.  Will I see you there?  It sounds like fun.   

Tyler-My Big Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies

When I found out that Joy of Joy of Desserts was hosting a new event, Save Room for Dessert Wednesday, I decided I had to combine two events or drop out of one so I made Tyler’s cookies forTFF and for Joy’s event.

You should get to know more about Joy, if you do not know her.  Check out her blog and get some good recipes and get to know her.  She runs all kinds of theme collections and you should see some of those recipes.  I could move into her blog and stay there for an hour or two or three.

 I had to come up with dessert, oh poor me.  I have been wanting to see if Tyler’s “big far chocolate chip cookie” was just another chocolate chipper, just bigger.  This was the perfect opportunity.

It certainly is bigger but what could be wrong with a big cookie?  We are not discussing calories now, not after eating two of those cookies.  This chocolate chunk cookie was different.  The flavor of the dough did not pop out at you but worked together with the chocolate to make something that varies from your average chocolate chip cookie.  (I take it back.  When it cooled, the taste did pop and was like a different cookie.)I usually use chips and I think I have to make my chunks larger to get more chocolate taste. (Yup, it was different cool and it seemed to have a lot more chocolate.  When I took a look, there were many chocolate chunks peeking from the dough.  I wonder if this is because the cookie flattened some as it cooled.)

 

The end result is that I like this, really like the cookie. 

I forgot to push the cookie down slightly with the first bunch so I put it back for another two minutes to make up for my error.  Actually, the cookies that came out with the error were really  beautiful but I am not sure how consistent the end result would be.  The second batch, I followed the directions and it came out to be more consistent.

I certainly would make this again.

 

My Big, Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies -  Recipe courtesy Tyler Florence

Serves: about 1 dozen 5-inch cookies  (I got about one dozen cookies but I don’t think they were 5 inches.  I am thinking, I made three trays with five on each.  Those 3 extra cookies make a difference with large cookies.)

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups gluten free flour mix
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• I added one teaspoon guar gum
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1 (8-ounce) block dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Sift together the flour, baking soda, guar gum and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.

I used aluminum foil, simply because it was more convenient for me.

Place the butter, sugar, and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer; cream together on medium speed until light and fluffy.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Beat in the vanilla and eggs. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and continue to mix until a smooth batter forms. Turn off the mixer and fold in the chocolate chunks using the spatula.

To form the cookies, scoop about 1/4 cup of cookie dough into your hands and roll it around into a ball; place them about 3-inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets; you should get about 4 cookies on each pan. Press down the tops of the dough slightly and bake until the cookies are light brown, 12 minutes for chewy cookies, or about 15 minutes for crispy cookies.

 Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough/cookie sheets.

Cleaning House

I want to put you on alert that I have been revising the look and organization of this blog.  Therefore, you are going to possibly see some weird changes as I go back and forth between themes.

I like this one but I want a different header and I don’t know if I can change it.  Help is appreciated.

Also, I like the blog that has the categories prominently shown in the side bar but I traded that for some other goodies.

Hopefully, I will get it right, very soon.  I will continue to add new recipes.  I am on my way to bake.  Maybe, I will get a bit exotic.  We will see.

Thanks to you all for your understanding and patience.

Careful – Salad is Loaded

I made this because I liked the name of it.  I found recipes with this name in several places on the Internet.   I altered it and it does not reflect any of them.  Sometimes, it surprises me how I intend to follow a particular recipe and end up with a completely different one.

This is for Souper Sunday.  As I told you Souper Sunday may be spelled as SOUP but it is more than that.  It includes salads and sandwiches or perhaps Debbie does not know how to spell.  Do you think she knows I’m kidding?

 Loaded Potato Salad                                          serves 2 -3                

10 small red potatoes, scrubbed

1/2 cup chopped onions

1 green pepper, chopped

1 red pepper chopped

1/4 cup shredded onion (Lacked time to shred carrots)

1/2 cup chopped celery

1 tablespoon dried parsley 

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1/4 cup mayonnaise

pinch of black pepper

salt to taste

add 1/4 cup liquid such as broth or Italian dressing

Method:

Using 3 quart saucepan, boil water.

Cut potatoes into chunks and put into boiling water.  These small red potatoes do not need to be peeled.

Chop onions and celery and bell peppers.

Add vegetables to potatoes.

Combine mayonnaise, sour cream, broth or dressing, and cheddar cheese.

Add spices and salt and pepper to sour cream mixture.

Mix gently but thoroughly.

Add dressing and gently mix.  Top with parsley

Enjoy.