Christmas Feast 2010

Apparently, I haz fanz. I got some feedback on Christmas day from someone I didn't even know read this site saying "hey, you haven't posted in a while!"

And then I see I haven't posted since the 10th of this month...

I really need a kick in the ass. It's not like I have a lack of things to write about...

Anyway, I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas. I thought I'd post some pix of the Christmas dinner I had on Saturday night, which took place at my SIL's parents' place and which consisted of the usual ginormous spread of ham, turkey, and all the fixings. This time, dessert was provided by my SIL's Aunt J, and it was a yummy and light peaches & cream angel food cake. There were over 20 people at dinner that night, so I couldn't get a picture of everything, but you get the general idea.





But I did get a picture of my fan's doggy, Ali the Christmas Retriever! Isn't she great? I've met her before at other celebrations and she has such a lovely personality!


Thanks, Fan, for giving me a nudge to post! I will try to stay on it!

Catering Capers

Man, has it been this long since my last post. Wow. I really am neglectful.

My SIL and I catered a Christmas party on November 27, and here are some of the things we prepared. This was for the same people we catered a Christmas party for the year before, only this time there was a much simpler menu; last year there was too much food and too many leftovers.

The menu for this year:

Beef Yakatori skewers
Lemon, dill, and garlic salmon skewers
Chicken souvlaki skewers with tadziki dip
Boconccini & cherry tomato skewers with balsamic reduction
Crostini with goat's cheese & olive tapenade
Crostini with pesto & boconccini
Coconut cupcakes

Here are some photos.


I have another catering gig lined up with C, my SIL's mom, on December 22. It's for a curling club Christmas lunch. I'm really looking forward to that!

Christmas Breakfast

So, as if were weren't full enough from the previous night's Christmas Eve feast! Because on Christmas morning, it's time to bring on the Benny!

Yep, we have Eggs Benny on Christmas morning, accompanied by bacon and sausage. Usually, Dad provides the bacon in the form of this double smoked stuff he got from a local butcher, but the butcher closed shop during this past year, so dad no longer had access to his favourite bacon! Well, we made do with regular bacon, and we also had traditional English sausages made by another local butcher (who doesn't smoke anything). The sauce is from a package. The eggs are poached by yours truly. We also had fried potatoes, mimosas, and special coffees with Kahlua!
And we had a great guest for breakfast on Christmas morning, too! His name is Crushy and he's my SIL's friend's dog! He was so great! He's half American Bull Dog, and 1/4 each Pit Bull and Blue Heeler. He was so happy and mushy and just great company!For other Christmas pet shots, go here!

Solstice Dinner, Part 2, and Christmas Eve Dinner

I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays this fine Boxing Day morning, and that you are all not too hung over from last night's festivities! I am just relieved this trying time in my life is over and that life can now return to normal.

Which includes posting here!

Let me just briefly finish my round-up of the Solstice meal I served on Monday (though the dessert will be Monday's Magazine Monday post so, really, I'm only covering the side dishes right now).

So, in addition to the sausage-stuff, bacon-latticed pork loin roast I served, I made three sides.

One was very simple, and that was steamed yellow beans from my garden, which I took the time to blanch and freeze immediately after picking in August. I was a little concerned about how they would turn out because when I removed them from the freezer, they looked odd...Not freezer burnt, but kind of translucent and splotchy. But, they steamed up just fine and were great!

I also made the same Brussels sprouts recipe I used last year. You can see that here. Really simple dish, even if slicing all the sprouts is a pain in the ass. Instead of the pine nuts, though, I used some of the pecans that came in the package from Jodi, and let me tell you, they totally elevated this dish to a new level! And once again, when I added these to the heat of the pan, they had an out-of-this-world aroma! Brilliant!
And then, finally, everyone's favourite, the Caramelized Onion & Brie Bread Pudding. Again, this was a smashing hit. I think a lot of people get potatoed-out over the holidays, and this is a great idea for a starch in your meal. In addition to using brie, and party because of the exorbitant cost of brie in these parts, I had a bunch of mozzarella left over from the pork loin, so I cubed it up and put it in, too. It was awesome and everyone was really happy with it.

So, apart from dessert, which as I said I'll post about on Monday, that's a wrap for Solstice 2009!
Now, onto Christmas Eve, which happens to be my father's birthday. We always have a big family get-together for this and my SIL does most of the cooking. Usually, Dad gets his favourite, steak & kidney pie, which is quite disgusting. This year, though, Shan decided to make another of Dad's perennial favourites, Beef Wellington.

But before we get to the main course, let's talk about the appies! Because we always have appies! First of all, Shan's aunt brought some West Coast prawns her brother had caught himself over the summer. These were to die for! There is absolutely no comparison between these prawns and the ones you buy frozen at the grocery store. They taste way richer, for one thing, and they have a much more tender texture and a more subtle colour. In the dish Shan's aunt brought, she paired the prawns with a sour cream mixture, cocktail sauce, and then topped with the prawns. We ate this with crackers and it was so good! Shan's aunt also makes a wonderful crab dip that has sambal olek in it. It was gone very quickly, I can tell you that. And finally, because my dad doesn't touch seafood with a 10-foot pole, Shan made him some stuffed mushroom cups, which were also excellent.
So, if you don't know what Beef Wellington is, basically, it's fillet mignon wrapped in puff pastry with shallots & mushrooms. Shan added gorgonzola this time, though not for me as I cannot stand moldy cheese. She did an outstanding job and everyone in attendance was thrilled to bits.For side dishes, we had steamed asparagus and green beans, salad, roasted butternut squash, and a risotto made with aged Asiago cheese.
This was a meal you'd pay a lot of money for in a restaurant, let me tell you! It was incredibly impressive. Thanks to Shan for all your hard work!

And yes, there was dessert. But that deserves a post of it's own, so you'll have to be patient with me!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing all of my readers a very happy, safe, fun, and warm Christmas! You all rock!

I'm sorry I didn't get around to posting Part 2 of my Solstice meal, but I simply got far too busy yesterday. You know how it goes! I'll get one going soon, though!

Take care, everyone!

Peanut Butter Tart Squares

I mentioned in an earlier post that I made about 33 dozen cookies this year, and this simple but totally decadent recipe was one of them. It's like a pecan tart, only with peanuts, and on a peanut butter cookie crust. These are not too sweet, surprisingly enough considering the corn syrup content. I got the recipe from this year's Bakefest insert that came in the December issue of Canadian Living, and I doubled it and used a 9x13" pan.

Peanut Butter Tart Squares

Base:
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup corn starch
1/4 tsp salt

Topping:
1/2 cup corn syrup
2 tbsp corn starch
1/4 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
2 tbsp butter, melted & cooled
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup unsalted roasted peanuts
1/2 cup peanut butter chips
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

1. Beat butter, peanut butter, and sugar in a bowl until creamy. Stir in flour, cornstarch, and salt until well combined and crumbly. Press into 8" pan lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350F for 12 - 15 minutes, or until pale golden around the edges. Set aside.

2. For the topping, stir together corn syrup, corn starch, baking powder, and salt until smooth. Stir in butter, eggs, and vanilla until well-blended. Pour over crust. Sprinkle peanuts, peanut butter and chocolate chips over the top.

3. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until golden and just set in the middle. Let cool completely in pan on rack. Cut into squares. This was probably my favourite out of this year's batch of baking. I just love peanut butter and chocolate together, and these squares totally satisfy that craving!

So, here are this year's cookies:

Two-Tone Chocolate Shortbread
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Shortbread
Mini Mincemeat Tarts
Pecan Dulce de Leche Sandwich Cookies
Christmas Blondies
Pecan Cookies
Oatmeal, Cranberry, and White Chocolate Chip Cookies
and these squares

Not bad, eh?

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Shortbread

I was really pleased to see a feature in the December issue of Canadian Living on different kinds of shortbread. While I really enjoy your regular old shortbread and the Two Tone ones I made the other week, I was intrigued by some of the combinations CL came up with. One of them was this recipe for Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Shortbread. Who doesn't love oatmeal chocolate chip cookies? Mixed with shortbread? Yum city!

This is pretty easy to throw together, and like the Pecan Dulce de Leche Cookies, you roll this dough into a log, refrigerate, slice, and bake. And these were pretty good, actually, though not terribly shortbready in the end, but nice nonetheless.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Shortbread

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 tbsp each granulated sugar and packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cups flour
3/4 cup quick oats
1/4 cup cornstarch
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Cream butter, sugars, salt, and vanilla until light. Stir in flour, oats, and cornstarch until just combined. Gently fold in chocolate chips.

Divide dough in half; roll into 9" long log on waxed paper or plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour, or overnight.

Using a serrated knife (trust me, use an actual serrated knife, OK?), cut each roll into 18 pieces and place about 1/2" apart on a cookie sheet. Bake at 275F until firm and bottoms are lightly browned, 40 - 45 minutes (I baked them at 350F for 10 - 15 minutes as I couldn't be bothered waiting 40 minutes...). Cool.

Curling Cookies

If you didn't know this already, I curl! Every Monday evening, I head out to our local curling rink and chuck a 4o-odd pound hunk of granite down a length of ice, and then I sweep like crazy. It's fun, it's social, and it's good exercise. It's a great group of gals this year, and every other week we have "goodie night" in which two teams, in rotation, bring some small snack to share with the league. We usually have really great spreads and everyone looks forward to goodie night!

So, tonight, two recipes that are related to curling goodie night: one is from a lady who brought these amazing pecan cookies in and everyone wanted the recipe! She was kind enough to print off a whole bunch for us, and these were so good that I made a double batch for my Christmas baking spree this year. The second recipe is one that I made when it was my team's turn to bring goodies. I got the recipe from an issue of Taste of Home that my good friend Pierce was kind enough to send me a few weeks ago. It's actually an OceanSpray recipe, but it was a good one.

Pecan Cookies, courtesy D. of my curling club

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
2/3 cup pecan pieces
pecan halves, for the tops

Do you need directions? Seriously? OK: cream, combine, drop, stick a pecan half on top, and bake @ 350F for 8 minutes.

It is KEY that you underbake these for a fudgey, chewy cookie.

They spread quite a bit, so make sure to drop them onto the sheet about 2" apart.

Lovely cookies!

OK, so I made these really nice Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies, found here.
I do NOT recommend you bake these at 375F as the recipe tells you to! That is way too hot for white chocolate! Do not bake any chocolate above 350F, especially white.

Other than that, nice recipe!

Magazine Monday #58: Pecan Dulce De Leche Sandwich Cookies

Guess where this week's Magazine Monday recipe comes from?

Come on!

Yeah, Canadian Living. Sue me - they rock.

All right, I saw this recipe and knew I just had to make these cookies as part of my Christmas baking spree this year. I cannot resist the siren call of dulce de leche! President's Choice makes a good one, and that's what I used. I still have some left over in the jar, and it's all I can do not to take a spoon and empty that jar in seconds!

Of course, typical CL, this recipe is not in their online database probably because they want you to buy the December issue of the magazine this recipe appears it. So, here it is!

Pecan Dulce de Leche Sandwich Cookies (slightly adapted by me)

3/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup each granulated sugar and packed dark brown sugar
1 egg yolk (you know, I hate it when recipes ask for one freaking egg yolk; forget it - I used a whole egg and things turned out just fine)
1 tsp vanilla
pinch salt
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup toasted finely chopped pecans
1/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut, toasted
1/2 cup dulce de leche

1. All right, make cookie dough as you would any other cookie dough.

2. Once you have a nice, smooth cookie dough, divide it in half; form each half into a 4cm-wide log, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour, or overnight.

3. Cut logs into 1/4" slices and arrange 1" apart on a lined cookie sheet. Bake at 350F until golden, about 10 minutes. Transfer to rack & cool completely.

4. Spread bottoms of half of the cookies with about 1/2 tsp dulce de leche. Top with remaining cookies to make sandwiches.You're supposed to get about 36 cookies from this, but I got closer to 24 - 25 in total, probably because I cut my slices a little thicker.

These are really tasty, let me tell you!

Mailing Baking

I officially finished my Christmas baking yesterday, and the official count this year was 33.3 dozen cookies, squares and mini tarts. Someone asked me the other day what I do with this all, and the answer is that I mail some of it away. I also take it to various seasonal functions and use it for dessert contributions at holiday dinners, but giving baking away is one thing I like to do and it is one thing that is also affordable for me to give as gifts.

You can mail cookies! I have been doing this for a few years now, and I have never had anyone say to me that they received their baking in crumb form. This is a run down of what I do, or have learned to do from experience, and what I suggest you do if you want to mail baking to people for Christmas or any other special occasion.

First of all, you will need bubble wrap - and a lot of it. Also, tissue paper is great. Also, packing tape.

I recommend mailing cookies/squares/mini tarts in cookie/candy tins as opposed to boxes because the tins are much sturdier and there is way less risk of things getting bashed around and dented in transit.

The key to parceling up baking is to make very sure that there is no room in the tin itself for cookies to bang against each other and turn to crumbs. It's all about filling gaps so there is nowhere for anything to move.

Step One: line the bottom of your cookie tin with bubble wrap.

Step Two: wrap like cookies in plastic wrap in packages of two or three, maybe four, depending on the size of your tin. Make the little packages tall enough to come just under the top of the tin. The purpose of packaging the cookies this way is to A) keep them tightly packed together to minimize movement within the tin, B) to maintain freshness and C) to keep flavours from mingling.

You'll get something like this (no, Karen, this is not your tin!):And this:
Step Three: start filling the little holes up. I find small candies like the Hershey's Kisses and similarly-sized stuff to be great for filling up the odd spaces between cookies that are inevitable. They also make the contents of the tin look pretty and add a bit of variety. But their main function is to fill space so nothing can move around. If you don't want to go the candy route, you can fill the spaces up with tissue paper or paper towel or something like that.

Step Four: pad the top. I use tissue paper for this, but you could also use more bubble wrap. This is why you need a little space between the top of the cookies and the top of the tin - you need padding! You'll get something like this:Step Five: bubble wrap the whole shabang! Call me paranoid, but I do not have 100% faith in 100% of the postal workers out there (no offense, postal workers who read this), so I feel the need for more padding. Step Six: Wrap in whatever you're going to wrap this sucker in. Or, put it in a box - with more padding. At this point, it's all about the padding! Address the parcel, etc.

Step Seven: Slap a FRAGILE sticker on that bad boy. Actually, I slap two on - one on the front and one on the back. Again, call me paranoid. But really, you need to do this to give your parcel of precious cookies the best chance it can get at being treated gently, as it so deserves. Make sure, if mailing to another country, you leave space somewhere for the customs thingy.
Step Eight: If you have an odd-shaped tin, i.e. something not square (for instance, I had two round tins and an octagonal one), and you are wrapping the tin in this brown paper or something similar, like I am, tape the crap out of this baby. It needs to be compact so that when the postal people go to measure, it's as small as possible. Also, you don't want any edges that can snag or tear.
There you go! No, I do not mail anything priority or express or whatever. No, I haven't mailed anything overseas because A) it takes too long and will compromise freshness and B) call me paranoid, but entrusting my cookies to the universe at this level is just very uncomfortable for me. No, I would not mail cakes, loaves, muffins, or anything soft or that can crumble or break easily, or that will go dry/stale quickly.

Magazine Monday #57: Two-Tone Chocolate Shortbread

I know it's not Monday, but I am going to be away on the weekend, so I want to get this MM submission published before that.

OK, this isn't technically a magazine recipe, but it did come from a magazine. I've made these shortbread squares many times and I got the recipe way back in 1998 from the Bake Fest insert that comes in the December issue of Canadian Living. I always used to look forward to the Christmas issue of CL just because of this insert, but in recent years I think it's gone down quite a bit. The recipes aren't as interesting and it's more about advertising than it used to be.

But these shortbread squares are excellent and very, very simple! I encourage you to try them. I doubled the recipe this year so I got a huge whack!

Two-Tone Chocolate Shortbread

1 cup softened butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
2 squares (2 oz) semi-sweet chocolate, melted

1. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, or in a stand mixer, beat butter & sugar until fluffy. Sift in flour & cornstarch and beat into butter mixture until just combined.

2. In a parchment lined or well-greased 9" square pan, drop 1/2 the dough in small portions, scattering randomly. Combine chocolate with remaining dough. Drop chocolate dough between the non-chocolate dough in the pan. Press to flatten.

3. Bake @ 3o0F for about 25 minutes or until firm to the touch in the centre. Let cool & slice into squares or bars.

Magazine Monday # 56: Latest Article from Coyote's Kitchen

Instead of providing you all with a Magazine Monday recipe today, I thought I'd share with you my latest food column, which contains two recipes! This is my piece from the Nov./Dec. issue of Bread & Molasses magazine, a publication out of Mirimachi, New Brunswick, for which I write a bi-monthly food-related article. According to my mom, the cheese ball recipe has been lost for a long time and she was pleased to have found it. Good thing I copied it down before I moved out 15 years ago! Click to enlarge. Enjoy!

Christmas Day 2008

What a day! Looking back, it was quite a blur, but, of course, filled with great food from start to stop!

To begin with, the traditional Eggs Benny, made by moi with homemade English muffins, and double-smoked bacon that my dad got from a local butcher. Of course, we consumed this after digging into some goodies left over from the night before, which is the best part of Christmas for me.

Then came the big meal - dinner at my SIL's parents' place with about 20 people in attendance. This is always an enormous spread and always fabulicious, including turkey (this year they cooked two), ham, someone's famous stuffing, and all the other fixings you could imagine.

The turkeys were free range and purchased at a turkey farm in Keremeos, and it was totally succulent. The ham was also wonderful, and I'm hoping to get the bone out of it after it's been stripped of all its meat. In the end, however, we only consumed one of the turkeys, so someone is going to have a lot of leftovers for a long time.

My SIL's mom made mashed potatoes (not my favourite thing at all) and a yam & apple dish that I also didn't partake in (not a fan of yams, either), but my SIL did borrow my Brussels sprouts recipe from Solstice and made it using prosciutto instead. It was a big hit and turned out wonderfully. We also had a huge salad, buns, loads of gravy, and green beans. Everyone was so stuffed!

For dessert, my SIL's aunt brought a homemade plum pudding that she served with what she called "hard sauce". I would describe this as icing, really, and had never heard of the term "hard sauce" before. She even poured brandy over it and lit it up, covering the pudding in blue flame. I couldn't get a picture off before it went out, though! Ah well. I don't care for plum pudding, but there were other options. A couple of us brought tins of our own home baking, and so there were plenty of cookies and squares to munch on instead of plum pudding.

And of course, there was lots to drink, lots of booze, and lots of great fellowship!

I hope eveyone had a similarly wonderful day!

It's Time!

Cross-posted here.
--------------------------------
So, it's December 20, five days till Xmas, three big meals ahead of me in the next five days... It's officially "Party in My Mouth Time!" The name comes from Dr. Phil, who in a few weight-related episodes of his show, has used the phase "party in your mouth" to describe the overeating habits of some of his guests. As in (paraphrasing here) "You're medicating yourself with food! You're sitting down with your Funyuns and Ho-hos and having yourself a party in your mouth!"

I rarely have parties in my mouth of the scale some people do, the closest thing being PMS time when I'd kill a group of school children to get some chocolate or salt into my system. But those are brief interludes on a small scale.

I loved Dr. Phil's term so much I decided to appropriate it for my own purposes several years ago when I was married and doing a bunch of Xmas baking only I would eat because the Wasband had a sugar issue (that didn't prevent him, incidentally, from wolfing down half a litre of ice cream when the mood struck). At this time, I decided to enjoy Xmas eating, despite my usual guilt about overindulging. And so, Party In My Mouth Time was born.

During this time, I eat whatever I want and totally disregard any of my normal diet or eating patterns. As we all know, I do a shitload of Xmas baking, most of which gets given as gifts or taken to various Xmas functions, but, I do keep a bit for myself. Since it is the season for parties, I will partake of treats offered at such events. Shan makes fondants with her family, so I eat those when they're put out. We have a big meal on Xmas Eve for my dad's birthday, and I always enjoy this meal, which involves cake and all kinds of other stuff. Xmas morning, Jem, Shan, Dad and I have a huge breakfast consisting of Eggs Benny (made by yours truly), double smoked bacon, locally made sausages, and some other stuff. I often start Xmas day off with some chocolate because that's what we did as kids, and it's a tradition I like to stick to. This year, I'm cooking dinner on Solstice, and that will be a big meal with no diet food on offer! I am also going to Xmas dinner with Shan & her family and they always have a huge spread. Previously, as I've said before, I've spent Xmas Day on my own, consuming chips and chocolate. I make a special trip to wherever the cheapest chocolates on offer are and spend some time choosing chocolates that I really love. Even though I'm going to be participating in the family dinner this day, I am loathe to give up my precious chips & chocolate day, so this year I'll do that on Boxing Day. Yesterday, I bought myself a Terry's Chocolate Orange and some Khalua-filled chocolates, in additon to some Tostitos with zest of lime and my favourite snack, Munchie Mix.

And usually, by Dec. 27 or so, I'm sick of Party In My Mouth Time, and I get back on the healthy eating bandwagon. But I have no regrets.

Today, it's -16C out and I am baking a cake for tomorrow's dessert. I'm also going to get some of the prep for Solstice dinner done, and to make it all the more fun, I'm going to break out some of my stashed treats. Bring it on!

Magazine Monday #20: Mocha Viennese Shortbread

The end of the Christmas baking is nigh!

I'm still hosting Magazine Mondays this month, so if you have something you've made and would like to submit, please let me know and I'll put up a link for you. Ivonne should be back in January.

Joining me this week is Debbie of Taste of Sweetness, with a recipe from Bon Appetit called Walnut and Dried Cherry Salad. Be sure to go and check it out because it looks amazing! Also, Mam of One Mother of a Blog has made a recipe from the Dec. 2002 issue of Gourmet, a chick pea and pasta soup that looks extremely hearty and perfect for a cold winter's eve! Be sure to check that out, too. Thanks to both of these fine food bloggers for participating!

OK, these cookies became a hit last year when I made them for my family, and they were requested again this year. In fact, they are the cookie that adorns the banner at the top of this blog! I suspect, again, that the recipe isn't on the Canadian Living site because it's made its way into the new cookbook, which I continue to be annoyed by. Ah well.

Mocha Viennese Shortbread

1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup icing sugar
1 tsp instant espresso powder
1 tbsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup cornstarch
pinch of salt

Icing

3/4 cup icing sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 tsp instant espresso powder
2 oz milk chocolate (optional)

1. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Dissolve espresso powder in vanilla and beat into butter mixture. Sift together flour and cornstarch and stir into the butter mixture to form a soft dough.

2. This is where me and the recipe part ways. Originally, it calls for you to pipe the dough through a star tip onto parchment lined baking sheets. This dough is way too stiff for that and impossible to pipe. But it's too soft to roll out and make cut-outs, even after chilling. So, I use my #70 cookie scoop and make drop cookies that I slightly flatten before putting them into the oven. The scoop is equivalent to 1 tbsp.

3. Bake at 350F for 10 minutes, or until just golden on the bottom. Cool completely.

4. For the icing, beat together sugar and butter until smooth. Dissolve espresso powder in 1 tsp hot water and beat into butter mixture.

5. Again, I part from the original recipe at this point. I pipe the icing through a star tip to make a rosette on the top of each cookie, instead of making a sandwich cookie. This makes them look elegant and gives them a more pleasing shape than just a small drop cookie, so it kinda makes up for not piping the dough.

6. As for the chocolate, the original recipe has you drizzling it over the top of the cookie to decorate. I skip this altogether since my cookies look quite nice with the piped icing. You can go ahead and drizzle if you choose, but I didn't think it was necessary.

Again, if you make these, let me know how it went and what your thoughts about the recipe are. I often think it must be only me who has issues when something doesn't turn out as it looks like it should.

Meanwhile, enjoy! These are a terrific cookie!

Frosted Citrus Drops

You may have figured out by now that I love Canadian Living Magazine and that I frequently use their recipes. Since my Christmas baking this year has been a bit chocolate-heavy (not that there's anything wrong with that) I was looking for something different to add to my selection this year, and this recipe came at just the right time, specifically from the January 2009 issue. Now, the original recipe uses oranges and is called Frosted Orange Drops, but because I had a whole bunch of grapefruit on hand that needed using up, and because I don't think there are nearly enough recipes utilizing grapefruit out there, I decided to make that substitution when I embarked upon making these cookies.

Frosted Grapefruit Drops, adapted from Canadian Living by yours truly

3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp finely grated grapefruit rind
2 cups all purpose flour

Icing:
1 cup icing sugar
2 tbsp softened butter
1 tbsp grapefruit juice
1/2 tsp finely grated grapefruit rind

1. In a large bowl, beat butter with sugar until fluffy; bean in orange rind. Stir in flour, 1 cup at a time. Cover and refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes.
2. Shape by 1 tbsp into balls (I used my trusty #70 cookie scoop). Place 1" apart on greased or parchment-lined cookie sheets.
3. Bake at 300F until bottoms are lightly browned, about 20 - 25 minutes. Cool completely on wire racks.
4. For the icing: In a bowl, beat everything together until smooth. Spread icing on top of cookies. Let stand until firm, about 1 hour.

This was one of the few recipes I've come across from Canadian Living that needed a bit of ... help. The dough didn't come together at all, so I needed to add some grapefruit juice to it in order to get all the dry ingredients incorporated. Minor. The cookies were a tad bland on their own, but were perked up considerably with the icing. Just so you know.

If you make them, let me know what you think and what your experience of the recipe was.

Thumbprint Cookies

A continuation of the Christmas baking chronicles...

One of the varieties of Hershey's Kisses I saw while cross-border shopping the other week had New York cheesecake centres, and I knew when I saw them that I had to have them! I decided to put them in the centre of these cookies, the recipe for which came from my Essential Baking Book., one of the cookbooks I'm trying to force to pull its weight before it gets turfed, as mentioned here. I love the addition of custard powder; it gave the cookies such great flavour. Originally, the recipe calls for the centres to be jam-filled, but this is just as yummy.

Thumbprint Cookies

5 1/2 oz butter, softened
2/3 cup white sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups self-raising flour
2/3 cup custard powder (I used Bird's)
Hershey's Kisses

Cream, sift, blend, scoop. Make an indentation with the back of a measuring spoon. Bake at 350F for 12 - 15 minutes. Cool on wire racks. While still warm, place a Hershey's Kiss in the indentation. Makes about 3 dozen with a #70 cookie scoop or TBSP-full of dough.

There was a bit of a learning curve with this recipe. With the Hugs & Kisses recipe from Friday, the cookies came out of the oven soft enough to indent, but with this recipe, the cookie came out too crisp to do that, so it's important to indent the cookie before baking it.

Solstice Menu

Christmas is the worst time of year for me for various reasons, but luckily I have a cool family who are willing to compromise with me on the whole gift giving thing since I live on a small budget. This year, instead of buying everyone gifts, I'm going to make a really nice meal on the Solstice, AKA Yule, which falls on December 21. I have done this before in other places I've lived and it's gone over very well, and I usually make something really fancy that isn't turkey or ham, since we get lots of that on Christmas Day anyways.

Here is my proposed menu, barring additional inspiration, new ideas, new recipes coming to light, etc.:

Chicken breasts stuffed with goat cheese and sundried tomatoes, wrapped in prosciutto

Brie & Caramelized Onion Bread Pudding

Roasted winter veggies

Salad

Tres Leches Cake

Magazine Monday #19: Chocolate Toffee Squares

This week's Magazine Monday contribution comes from the December 2008 issue of, what else, Canadian Living.

These squares do require some special equipment: the parchment paper is a must, but it's cheap and readily available, has many uses, and in some cases is even reusable; also, you'll need either a candy thermometer or a digital food thermometer to make the toffee layer. These bars are so decadent I could barely keep my hands off them, but I was disappointed that they didn't quite turn out like the ones in the picture! Ah well.

The recipe is here.




I used Nilla wafers and crushed them in a ziplock bag with swift, callous whacks from my rolling pin. It was fun.







The toffee layer was easy to make despite the fact that you need the thermometer. You essentially just melt the ingredients all together, and allow them to burble away on the stove for a bit until nice and caramel-y. I could happily have eaten this right out of the pot as it was.






I have no idea what the "thread" stage is that the recipe refers to, so I just simmered the mixture until it reached the specified temperature (I'm high altitude, so I boiled it to 112C). The mixture got nice toffee-ish flecks in it.





My ganache didn't set very well, despite being in the freezer for a while, but I hope that it will firm up after a longer sit. The toffee layer set very nicely and the entire package tasted out of this world!




As I mentioned in my last MM post, I'll be hosting MM for the month of December while Ivonne is away. If you have a magazine recipe you've made that you'd like to contribute, let me know and I'll link to you!

Enjoy!

Christmas Means...

...Mincemeat!

Oh, yeah! I love this stuff, man. Now, not all mincemeats are created equal; some are crappy and suet-y, and some are way too boozy. This one from President's Choice is just perfect: lots of fruit, just enough booze to be really satisfying but not make you too drunk, and no big chunks of suet.

This isn't everyone's cup of tea, and I know it. Some of my family hates it, and the rest of us love it. It's one of those things you either have a strong aversion to or you're totally into. So, each year I make a certain quantity of mini mincemeat tarts and they are always the first thing to go off the goody plate.

For the pastry, I use this recipe from Gourmet (although I use all butter in mine), which is one of the two pastry recipes I've only ever had any consistent success with (the other is in this post). I use my mini muffin tin and my #100 cookie scoop, which gives the perfect amount of mincemeat for this size tart.

The result: yum! I got 46 tarts altogether and they are now in my freezer awaiting Christmas.