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With Thanksgiving over, now it's time to get ready for Christmas. I'm trying to stay ahead of schedule so, so far so good. Last year I didn't get to make as many cookies as I would have like to. Right now, I'm off to a good start and started my first batch of cookies. This morning I baked off Soft Ginger Cookies that my son was telling me about last year that he got to sample from his roommate from college and said to me, "Ma, you got to try these cookies". I've never been a big fan of Gingerbread cookies because I find them so over powering and I don't like clove spice. He saved a cookie for me to try and this cookie won me over and has been added to my Christmas cookie list! It's a soft and chewy cookie which I love.
adapted from Allrecipes.com
Soft Ginger Cookies
2-1/4 cups flour
1-1/2 tsps. ground ginger
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 Tbspn. water
1/4 cup molasses
2 Tbspns. white sugar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and 1 cup of sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the water and molasses. Gradually stir in the dry ingredients into the molasses mixture. Shape dough into walnut sized balls and roll them in remaining sugar.
Place the cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet and flatten slightly.
Bake for 8 - 10 minutes. Allow to cool slightly before moving to wire rack.
I am thankful for spending Thanksgiving day surrounded by family and enjoying the day with wine, food and family. I will be busy tomorrow hosting Thanksgiving. Wishing all a Happy Thanksgiving and may you be blessed. Enjoy everyone!
When my daughter was a young girl, she was a Brownie and would come home with projects that they had done together with her group. Most of the time, it would be these really cute crafty projects and sometimes they would do a baking project in the kitchen at one of the leader's home. One day, she came home with this mini pumpkin bread and I couldn't believe what these little Brownies had done. They were delicious. So I called her leader because I just had to have the recipe and she gladly did share it with me and I am glad to share as well. Since then, I always look forward to this bread this time of year and I can still vividly remember that day when that little girl and those little hands brought home a sweet treat for me! My daughter, Lisa is now 19 years old and in her second year of college.
In the photo above, I used the mini loaf pans. You could certainly add walnuts or cranberries or whatever your heart desires!!
Pumpkin Bread Recipe
2-1/3 cups Bisquick mix
1-1/4 cups sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
3 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup canned pumpkin puree (1/2 can of a 15oz)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a bowl combine Bisquick, sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.
In another bowl, wisk the eggs, oil and canned pumpkin together. Add the dry ingredients until all is combined. Pour batter into greased loaf pan or three mini's.
Bake for approximately 55 minutes for a regular sized loaf pan or 40-45 minutes for mini loaves or when toothpick inserted comes out clean.
With Fall here and with the comfort foods that we crave, I had to make beef barley soup yesterday. It felt so good to satisfy that craving and oh so good for you too.
Beef Barley Soup
2 lbs. beef stew meat, cut into cubes
EVOO
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 large carrots, chopped
3 celery ribs, chopped
8 cups water
1 14oz can of diced tomatoes, (I pureed them with my immursion blender)1 pkg. beef bouillon
1 cup barley
1/4 cup parsley
salt and pepper to taste
In a dutch oven, brown meat in oil on all sides until the liquid from meat has evaporated. Add onions and saute with meat until translucent. Add minced garlic and saute for another minute. Add water, tomatoes, bouillon and barley. Bring to a boil and reduce heat. After about 15 minutes, add carrots, celery and parsley. Cover and simmer for about 50 minutes or until barley and veggies are tender.
In the current issue of Better Homes and Gardens, they have featured "On top of Spaghetti Recipes". This particular one caught my attention because of the butternut squash. You see, I always had judged the butternut squash and thinking it wasn't good. Just by the looks of it I told myself this probably doesn't taste good. Maybe just because of the shape of it. I don't know. I just always passed it by in the produce department. Boy was I wrong. Last year I finally introduced to myself the squash and now I love it!!!
I used whole wheat fettuccini instead, simply because that's what I had on hand. The roasted butternut squash and roasted garlic give this dish such flavor. This one's a keeper.
Recipe
1 2-lb. butternut squash, peeled and cut in 1-inch pieces
1 bulb garlic, separated in cloves and pealed
3 Tbsp. olive oil
salt and pepper
1 pkg. multi-grain, whole wheat or regular spaghetti
1/4 cup butter
3 slices bacon, crisp cooked and crumbled
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped and toasted
1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg or 1/4 tsp. ground
1/3 cup shredded pecorino cheese
sliced green onions (optional)
Heat oven 425 degrees. In a shallow pan, toss together squash, peeled garlic cloves, oil and salt and pepper. Evenly spread squash in pan. Bake 15-18 minutes until squash is tender and lightly browned.
Meanwhile, cook spaghetti according to package. Drain. Keep warm.
In small saucepan, heat butter over med. heat unitl it turns the color of light brown sugar, stirring frequently.
In serving bowl, toss spaghetti with about 1/2 of the browned butter. Toss squash, garlic, bacon, nuts and nutmeg with remaining browned butter. Serve squash mixture over spaghetti. Sprinkle with cheese and green onions.
This summer has been a very wet one to say the least here in New York. Now the heat wave has arrived 2 months later, I didn't want to turn the oven on and heat up the house. I wanted something light and keep the calories down. I wanted to make parfaits, but no parfait glasses. I fixed that problem. I headed to the local dollar store and picked up six. Love the dollar store! I made them two different ways, one was using pudding and the other using yogurt and granola as a topping. This one here as in the photo won me over. There's really no recipe I just made up as I went along.
Angel Food Cake, cubed (I used store bought)
2 pkgs. sugar free vanilla pudding (not bad taste wise)
Fat free cool whip
1 pkg. fresh strawberries, sliced
Slice strawberries combine in a bowl. Add some sugar or splenda and let the strawberries macerate (this let's the juices come out of the strawberries). Set aside.
Cube an angel food cake and use as the first layer. Prepare pudding as per directions on package. I used 2 % milk instead and then folded in a couple of heaping tablespoons of the fat-free cool whip. Make this the second layer. Then add the strawberries. Repeat layers and end with the strawberries and top with whip cream.
There are certainly many ways to change this up and using different berries. We really enjoyed this version. Yields 6 parfaits.
adapted from Allrecipes.com
