A week of Christmas Cooking.

I'm in the holiday cooking spirit. This is going to be a week of cooking. Last evening, I happened to be going through a couple of December magazines that have been on my coffee table for a week or so. Just looking at all the festive recipes has got me in a cooking mood.

This morning I tried these Coffee Sugar nuts out of the Canadian Living magazine. I like anything that is coffee flavored. These are sweet and addictive. Next time I would add a bit more coffee. The recipe calls for instant espresso, and since I didn't have any, I used instant coffee. They are still yummy.


I also made these ginger sugar cookies from the Better Homes and Garden website. I loved the picture in the magazine and I did happen to have some big sugar on hand. The recipe is called Giant Ginger cookies, but I used my standard 1/8 cup scoop and made regular size cookies. I made half the recipe and it made 45 cookies. That's lots for us to both freeze and keep in the cookie jar this week.


On Wednesday afternoon, the triplets will come over for our annual gingerbread cookie decorating. I'll be making and chilling the cookie dough Wednesday morning. I bought really nice Wilton snowflake cookie cutters to add to my collection. So in the afternoon, the kids will roll out the dough, cut out their cookies, then decorate them. Watch for those pictures. I promise they will be fun.

Thursday, we are having friends over for a supper party. Hubby and I have the menu made and we are looking forward to have a fun evening with friends.




EDIT: Here is the recipe for the Canadian Living Coffee Nuts from the January 2010 issue.

Coffee Sugar and Spice Nuts

1 egg white
1 tbsp water
3 cups unsalted nuts
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 tsp each of cinnamon and instant espresso powder
1/2 tsp salt
pinch of nutmeg

In a bowl, using a for, beat egg white with water. Add nuts stirring to coat.
Combine sugar, spices and salt. sprinkle over egg white mixture and stir. Spread on greased baking sheet
Bake in 275 degrees oven until nuts are toasted, about 1 hour. Break up clumps. Let cool completely on pan.

Bread and Butter Pickles

On our way back from the cottage the other day, we stopped at the little vegetable stand. I couldn't believe the produce and the beehive of activity out back. Workers were just getting off their shift. Tractors were bringing in pallets of tomatoes, corn, beans, cukes... everything. I really wish I had a garden. Anyway, I stood in front of the pickling cukes and had to think about the date. Oh man, it's the last week of August. And I hadn't even thought about pickling. So I bought 2 bags of small cukes and other stuff to make Bread and Butter pickles. I thought I might have blogged about this last year cause I make them every year, but I hadn't. There must have been something more interesting on pickling day last year.

I got this simple and quick recipe from my sister a long time ago, I wouldn't even guess when. It's never failed me yet.

If you want to make them yourself, here's the recipe.


Bread and Butter Pickles - Makes 10 pints

16 cups thinly sliced small/medium cukes (this will be about 7 or 8 pounds)
5 or 6 onions sliced in rings
1 green pepper sliced in thin strips
1 red pepper sliced in thin strips
3 cups vinegar
5 cups sugar
1-1/2 tsp turmeric
1-1/2 tsp celery seed
2 Tbsp mustard powder

Combine chopped veg with 1/3 cup of course salt. Put half veg in a large bowl and put a try of ice cubes. Then put the rest of the veg on top and put another layer of ice cubes over that. Let stand for 3 hours. Then drain off the salt and water brine, rinse the veg, and remove any unmelted ice.

Put remaining ingredients in a large large pot and high heat. When sugar is dissolved, add all the cold vegetables. Bring all this to a boil. There doesn't seem like much liquid, but when it all comes to a boil, you'll see that there is lots of juice now. When the boil happens (takes about 15 min), stir well and then remove from heat and bottle in mason style jars.

Brownies

We have a fairly new Michel's Craft store in our city. They publish 40% coupons regularly in the newspaper, and then when you shop there, they sometimes give you another 40% off coupon a single regular price item. Most of you know, that I love a bargain, so I always try to use my coupons on necessities.

Last week, one necessity I just had to have was this cute, cute Wilton cookie cookie cutter that cuts out 2 wonky heart shapes at the same time. Looking a little closer at the package, this cookie cutter, is a brownie cutter and it says that it can be used for cutting out sandwiches too. This is neat since up until a few years back, I made brownies every week. I used a simple recipe that used stuff that I had in the house. The recipe freezes well and was no fail.

As of earlier this week, I didn't have occasion to use my new cutter and I happened to be browsing in Michael's again , and saw a nice brownie pan. My old pan was well used, but I thought, if they have brownie cookie cutters, the new Wilton brownie pan that comes with a plastic cover must be made so that the heart brownies can be cut efficiently with very little waste. So that became another necessity, and I used another 40% coupon. I was right, in this new 9" x 9" pan, I can get 6 sets of of 2 brownies, so 12 nice sized brownies, and a very small amount of scraps.

My old brownie pan was 7 x 11" and I wondered if my recipe would make enough batter. My math brain says - 7 x 11 and 9 x 9 both make 81 square inches but I had to try it today. It turns out, my recipe is perfect for this. There is the exact amount of batter, and the exact amount of icing.

Here is my pan of iced brownies. Getting ready for the first cut. It worked great, but the brownies stayed in the cutter. I had to use a fork to poke out the brownies on to the plate. A suggestion from Gail, one of our Friday coffee girls, helped. A bit of cooking spray on the cutter, and the second cut worked better. Then when you add a bit of a wiggle to the cutter, it was the final touch needed to perfect the cutting so that the hearts would stay in the pan and then I could scoop them out with a little spatula.

For those of you who asked for my brownie and icing recipe, here it is. I like this recipe, because it doesn't call for chocolate squares, or chocolate chips. Those things mysteriously disappear in his house.

By request, I'm giving more detail in the method than usual... - you know who you are!

Brownie Batter:

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1 cup sugar

3 Tbsp cocoa

2 eggs

1/2 cup walnuts (optional)

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup flour

Cream butter, sugar and egg. Add the rest of the items and stir until the flour is incorporated. Batter is a bit stiff, and there doesn't look like there's much, so no licking the spoon. Plop about 6 spoonfuls into your brownie pan, and then just flatten the batter a bit to join the plops... If you pour all the batter in the pan at once, it's hard to spread out to the corners . Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 min.

Icing:

3 Tbsp softened butter or margarine

3 Tbsp cocoa

2 Tbsp hot water

1/2 tsp vanilla

1- 1/2 cups icing sugar

Just when you take the brownies out of the oven, put all icing items in a microwavable dish. Mix by hand until a thick batter like consistency and all the icing sugar is incorporated. Microwave the icing on high for 30 seconds. Remove from microwave and stir/beat for about 10 seconds. Microwave for a further 30 seconds and watch closely for the icing to bubble up. let the icing bubble up for about 7 - 10 seconds. Remove from microwave and stir down the sides for 10 - 15 seconds. Then pour this liquidy hot icing over the warm brownies. Let stand for 1 hour to cool and give time for the icing to set into a smooth shiny brownie topping. Then use a knife or Wilton brownie cutter to cut the brownies. Yields 12 large heart brownies, or 24 smaller brownies.