Toaster Oven Cookies

I realized that it's been over a year since I updated most of my blogs. Mostly because of a change in jobs. I had a part time job with summers off, but unfortunately that job ceased to exist so I was placed in a full time position no summers off.
   With this change I have had less time to do what I used to do and use my time more wisely. I don't own a microwave, I've never really liked them, except for the convenience, the food cooked from them seems to be not as flavorful to me plus they suck up a lot of energy, so enter in the toaster oven!

I bought a convection toaster oven and it has been a time saver. I selected this one mostly because of the Consumer Reports rating. I also have always liked this brand and we have been making a lot of pizza lately and this one came with a pizza stone.
    It has worked out great so far. I like the speed convection, so you don't have to wait for it to warm up, and it does cook in less time than the oven. Besides pizza I have roasted veggies, made a pot pie, french fries, but by far the most convenient thing about it is baking cookies.  I usually make the dough and keep it in the fridge and only bake 6 -12 cookies at a time. So it does save time, not so much on money because I keep making cookies.

wrapped up dough and powdered sugar

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Salsa Verde

 tomatillos on the vine

 This year is the first year I tried to grow tomatillos and I had pretty good luck with them. You have to get two plants, I noticed one did not produce as well as the other, and they take a while to mature but I think it's worth it. They love dry soil so don't plant them near tomatoes, who love water. I barely watered them and surprisingly enough raccoons and opossums don't eat them so I got plenty from one plant, about 3 pounds so far.  They were also far larger that what you usually find at the grocery store in this area.
     It is now getting into fall here in Missouri, cooler weather, so I believe that it is the end of the tomatillos for now. I still had a lot, and still do, left over so I decided to make some salsa verde with them.

tomatillos being weighed

    I found this salsa verde while searching the interwebs. It seems simple enough so I gave it a go and it turned out pretty good. I did not add avocado but might for the next batch, and there will be another batch.

Freshly cut tomatillos and jalapeño

roasted and cooling

First step was to pick and weigh 1.5 pounds of tomatillos, I think I had about eleven or twelve, I was more concerned with the weight. I then rinsed and sliced them in half (with a jalapeño that I deribbed and deseeded ), heated up the broiler, and then placed them on the broiling pan. As a side note I use a Graniteware roasting pan because my last roasting pan exploded on me. I like the Graniteware because you use water in the bottom pan and cover the top of the pan to broil. Plus it is metal so it won't explode.  I broiled them for about six minutes on my highest rack, and then took them out of the oven ,flipped them over,  then broiled for another 6 minutes, and then took them out of the oven to cool. While cooking in the oven I pureed a half cup of onion, a half cup of cilantro, and 2 tablespoons of lime juice. After the tomatillos and jalapeño cooled I added them to the blender and pureed until chunky.

onion, cilantro, and lime

On the left we have the finished product, 1.5 cups of salsa verde!
 

Lemon verbena mint tea

This is mint, or the plant in the middle with white flowers on it.

This is lemon verbena. It taste like lemon

  If you mix the both in even amounts you can make a really nice refreshing tea for those hot summer days or after a long bike ride.
    First you pick equal amounts of each herb, rinse them really well and pull the leaves off the stem. It is really important to leave the stems out because they will make the tea bitter. I usually go for a half cup of each herb leaf.
  I then put the leaves in my teapot with the strainer and cover it with about 2 cups of boiling water and let it steep for about 5 to 10 minutes.
After steeping it is ready to drink. Sometimes I will drink it hot but most of the time I will had some raw honey and pour it over some ice for a nice cool drink. You could also easily make a simple syrup with equal parts sugar and water and use it for drinks. Like gin and vodka with a little bit of lemon juice or you could just drink it with some club soda. Nice. Cool. Refreshing.

Recipe
1/2 cup of mint  cleaned and leaves only
1/2 cup of lemon verbena cleaned and leaves only
2 Cups boiling water
Optional  raw honey
 Put mint and lemon verbena leaves in a tea strainer and pour boiling water over them in some sort of vessel.  Let steep for 5-10 minutes. pour over raw honey, optional, and ice or drink hot.



 

Jelly Roll

Roasted peach Jelly Roll with whipped topping

  A Jelly Roll is a soft sponge cake rolled up with jelly in the center. They are a bit of a pain to make, due to timing, but are worth it. The recipe I used is from my favorite childhood cookbook. You guessed it the Alpha-Bakery Gold Medal Children's Cookbook !  
       As per usual I have changed some aspects of the recipe, like using gluten free flour, almond extract, and adding more water. I have also used roasted peaches instead of the jelly and topped it with whipped topping. Delish, if I don't mind saying so myself.
   So here is my interpretation of the Jelly Roll!

 3 Eggs
1 cup of evaporated cane juice
2/3 cup of water
1 teaspoon of almond extract
3/4 cup of gluten free flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
2/3 cupish of jelly
powdered sugar
  First things first, preheat the oven to 375°, then you prep your pan,
I do not own a jelly roll pan so I used a cookie sheet with an edge on it of about 1/2 inch. I also lined it with parchment paper and buttered it.

You can see in my photo  I lay one piece of parchment lengthwise, and buttered it, and one "widthwise" and buttered it as well. it is important to have about an inch of parchment paper over the top as well. In the recipe it suggest using aluminum foil but I think the parchment works a lot better.
    After the pan prepping you make the batter. Beat the eggs, then add the water and the extract. Then stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Once it is mix you pour the batter into the prepped pan. It's really important when you pour it in to pour it evenly and get it to about 15 by 10 inches. I use a spatula to even it out. I then put it in the oven for about 15-20 minutes.
   While it is baking I take a towel and put powdered sugar all over it to flip the cake on top of when its done baking.

waiting to cool

   After it's through baking, use a tooth pick in the center to check for doneness, I set the pan on a wire rack and then pick up the cake using the parchment paper that is over hanging from the sides of the cake and then turn it on to the towel. I then peel off the parchment paper and roll the cake up in the towel and place it on a wire rack. It is really important that you wait until it completely cools or else then it will crack when you reroll it with the jelly, about a half hour to 40 minutes.
     After waiting, for what seems to be an eternity for deliciousness,  unroll the cake and peel it off of the towel, if it starts cracking then you haven't waited long enough, I would let it cool some more and try to salvage it by rolling the torn side towards the inside of the roll, or just eat the cake plan and cry about having to do it again because you were too impatient.
     Slather the jelly on to the unrolled caked and then roll it back up again with the jelly. Ta-da, you have a jelly roll!

     

 

Growing Garlic

Hard neck German Reds

   I grow some fresh veggies and mushrooms in and around the house mainly for health reasons and cost. This year is my second year for garlic.
    The unusual thing about growing garlic is that you plant in the fall and wait until June or July to pick. In my zone (6b) you plant it in October.
    It's a fairly easy plant to raise. I use a raised bed, tilled the soil, added some compost, and then planted each clove separately with the pointy end up, about an inch below the soil and about 3 inches apart. You then water and keep the soil nice and moist. During November I pile on the leaves and water one more time and then wait for the magic to happen in May. This year I did one soft neck and one hard neck garlic.
  

 The soft neck was California early. I had a terrible time with this garlic. It sprouted two weeks after I planted it, it's not supposed to sprout until June, and I had a poor crop because of it. The bulbs were really small and I lost quite a few due to the early sprouting. I was able to save these few by piling extra mounds of leaves on top of them.

California Early "crop"

  You should add leaves in the fall to the garlic for warmth but they shouldn't sprout. They shouldn't do anything until May.
    The German Reds, however, came out great. They sprouted in May and I left them in until July. I got about 18 bulbs compared to about 6 of the California Early. You should get at least one bulb for every clove that you plant.
      In June I got garlic scapes from the German Reds!
These are small bulbs that grow from the center of hard neck garlic. If not picked they will turn into a beautiful flower and cause your garlic to be smaller. Being pretty doesn't always add up.

Scapes galore!

The scapes are very pungent and are a nice preview to what the garlic might taste like. Some people like to make pesto from it or I like to just use them as garlic cloves in cooking.
   So now I have about a years supply of garlic and them some for roasting!

Coconut Lemon Bars

      I love the recipe for Lemon Ricotta Bars on Food52 , it's just that sometimes when I want lemon bars I want them a.s.a.p instead of waiting about a day. The crust alone is delish but you have to refrigerate it for 30 minutes then bake it for 30 minutes, and then you have to bake it again for another 30 with the custard, lastly the hardest part is waiting 2 hours for it to cool. This is not including draining the ricotta which takes about 24 hours.
     So, instead for tonight to cure my lemon bar craving I headed back to the good old trusty Alphabakery cookbook and made the lemon bars with coconut with a few minor adjustments. I used all the regular ingredients except for the flour I used Dolmata gluten free flour and less of it because it's rice based and soaks up quite a bit more liquid than the wheat based flours. I also add a lot more lemon and lemon peel because I like that little extra sourness, and as an added note I only use organic lemons because I don't like "edible wax" on my lemon peel. And lastly on the lemons, I am sure you are getting sour about all my lemon comments, I really, really, hate and I mean really hate pulp and seeds in my lemon bars so I double strain the juice. 

I SAID NO PULP!!

I also add lemon peel to the crust, like in the lemon ricotta bar recipe, but just 1 teaspoon for an added punch of sour.





Coconut Lemon Bars
For the crust;
3/4 of flour
1/2 cup of  melted butter
1/4 cup of powdered sugar
1 teaspoon of lemon peel
   Preheat oven to 350°. Mix flour, buttah, powdered sugar, and lemon peel. Then Press in the bottom of an 8x8 pan, do not grease the pan, until even. Then bake for about  20 minutes. While it is baking make the custard.
For the custard;
3/4 cup granulated sugar, or a cup if you like it sweet.
2 teaspoons of lemon peel
6 tablespoons of lemon juice, or just two if you like it sweet. I'm sure you're really sweet.
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
2 eggs beaten up pretty badly
1/2 cup of coconut
      Whisk all the ingredients for the custard together, if you dare you can taste it to adjust the sourness to your liking. At this point I put the mix in the refrigerator and clean the kitchen a bit while waiting for the crust to finish baking. Wait what's that beeping noise, it's the timer telling me the crust is done!

Now it's time to add the frothy topping with the coconut mixed in while the crust is still hot, hmmm listen to the sizzle of the crust as the cold, frothy, topping is poured on. I know what you are thinking, you pervert. Because that is not what I am thinking. Stop thinking and start doing.
   So anyway you put it back in the oven for about 25 minutes and when it's firm in the middle and a little bit brown on the edges it is done!
    So I like to think this is a good substitute for the lemon ricotta bars when I am in a pinch for something sour but doesn't take a few days to make.
Yummy sugary sourness.

Reading a Cookbook

Veggie Planet

When I get a new cookbook I usually dive right in and start cooking. I glance through it noticing the little side notes but lately I've been reading the book. I've noticed tips about pressing tofu, I prefer to dry fry, cooking spices, how to select produce, and much more.

Small food processor

                                          I am writing this post because of one of my favorite cookbooks, Entertaining for a Vegetarian Planet, has a lot of side notes in it as well as a guide to unusual ingredients. She, Didi Emmons, writes about all sorts of party planning with tidbits about brunches, cakes, cookies that wrappers can be set on fire to create rockets, "snacks in a flash", flavored ice cubes, menu planning, and other items.  One particular note, she calls it a "thumbnail recipe", that I like is a recipe for granola topping that can also be used as a muffin topping or in cake batter. It calls for cranberries, almonds, sugar, and cardamom. You put all the ingredients in a food processor and run it until they are chopped. I have a small food processor so I  stirred in the cardamom after processing the frozen cranberries, almonds, and sugar.

       To the left is a picture of it on granola,  it resembles cranberry sauce in tastes and looks but could probably be changed easily by using different fruit and spices. I think the hard part would be finding a fruit that is able to keep it's shape like the cranberries. For example apples, walnuts, and cinnamon might be a good combo. Or may a stone fruit, like a peach, that isn't too ripe with cardamom and almonds. I think frozen blueberries or raspberries might just make a purée and more of a sauce than a chunky topping.
     One last note she suggest putting milk (i.e. cows, almond, soy) on the granola with the topping. I prefer mine dry.

Bourbon Chocolate Chip Cookies with Bourbon Soaked Cherries

That is a lot of bourbon in one cookie but it's so tasty and delicious, and now I will tell you how to make them.
    The first step takes the longest but is the simplest part, the bourbon soaked cherries. You only add eight cherries to the recipe but you should make a lot for drinks,like Manhattans, or maybe a bourbon soaked cherry milkshake ( let me know how the last one turns out because I haven't done that yet), or even just pop them in your mouth when you need a quick pick me up. Just kidding... maybe...err yeah.

Cherries, Mason Jar, Bourbon

    All you need is a mason jar with a lid, some bourbon (I was using four roses yellow but decided to go all fancy on the blog with Buffalo Trace), and cherries. I went with frozen cherries due to price point and fresh cherries just aren't available right now. I have also tried this with dried cherries and my advice is to just don't do it. They came out looking like prune fingers and pretty chewy. JUST DON'T DO IT.

thawing cherries

    The first step is to pour the cherries in the mason jar and wait for them to thaw out. This takes about two hours, then you pour the bourbon over them and place the lid on the mason jar and refrigerate for a day or so. I always wait at least one day. I know it's hard but you can do it. Just think, in a day or so I can make some really tasty cookies!

Bourbon poured on cherries

 In case you've already been drinking the bourbon here are some visualizations.
And now it is time for the cookie recipe.
   As I have stated before I am a big fan of the Alphabakery Cookbook made by Gold Medal Flour. Just to clarify I like the cookbook not the flour.  The chocolate chip cookie recipe from there is good but I like to add vanilla, bourbon, bourbon soaked cherries, and I make a few minor adjustments.
I will now write out the recipe because I know you didn't come here for my candor.
Bourbon Chocolate Chip Cookies with Bourbon Soaked Cherries
1/2 cup of evaporated cane sugar
1/2 cup of light brown sugar
1/2 cup of butter, or one stick of butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 tablespoon of bourbon
1 1/4 cups of gluten free flour, if you are using regular flour then 1 1/2 cups
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
8 bourbon soaked cherries quartered
6 oz of chocolate chips

 1. Melt butter in a double boiler, then add sugars, egg, vanilla, and bourbon. Mix well.

cold cookie dough

2. Add flour, baking soda, and salt to the butter mixture. Mix again. Add quartered cherries and chocolate chips, stir, and then put in the freezer.
3. Heat the oven to 375°
4. After the oven has heated place spoonfuls of dough on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. Then cook in the oven for 10-12 minutes.

Baking in the oven

5. Take the cookies out, and place the cookie pan on a wire rack and wait to cool.
Yeahh cookies!










     

Granola Bars

After weeks of making granola from several recipes found on line I finally gave up and decided to try granola bars.  I made this recipe not too sweet and not to decadent so it can be eaten at breakfast. It is also very pliable.  It can be made gluten free, vegan, and you can add other ingredients pretty easily.      

      I used butter (which could be subbed with earth balance or margarine), sugar, honey and molasses (or just molasses),  vanilla (optional), gluten free quick cooking oats,  ground pecans,  unsweetened coconut, and chocolate chips or some sort of fruit.

Mixing all the ingredients

 The first step is to melt the butter, sugar, honey and molasses together. Then add the vanilla, oats, nuts,coconut, and chocolate chips to the mix. Next you put the mixture into a prepared pan, pressing evenly, and bake for 22 minutes, then wait five minutes to cut into the bars and then another hour to cool and break apart completely. After that they can be stored on the counter in an air tight container. They don't last even a week around these parts!

Pressed into pan

Finished baking

Cut into bars

Here is the recipe !

1/2 cup of butter

1/2 cup of sugar

2 tablespoons of honey

2 tablespoons of molasses

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

2 cups of quick cooking oats

1/3 cup of ground nuts

2 cups of unsweetened coconut

1/3 cup of chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 º and prepare an 11 x 8 pan by buttering and then layering with parchment paper, once lengthwise and once crosswise.

      Then melt the butter with the sugar, honey, and molasses. Add the vanilla and stir. Add the rest of the ingredients. It will look dry but will be some what sticky. Then pour the ingredients into the prepared pan and press evenly. Sprinkle with extra coconut and chocolate chips and put in the oven for 22 minutes. Take the granola bars out and then let sit for five minutes. After five minutes cut into 14 bars. Then let sit for about an hour before removing the bars from the pan.