a party around cookies!

We have been cookie decorating parties over the last year.  What does that mean?  That means I make a lot of sugar cookies, cut into all different shapes, and other people come and decorate them.  The adults are really the ones who have the most fun and tendency to go in strange and interesting directions.  We had another one for Halloween.  It was a lot of fun.  

Here is the sugar cookie recipe.

Sugar cookies

1 1/2 cups butter

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

5 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl, put the butter and sugar.  Cream together until smooth.  Mix in the eggs and vanilla.  Add the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt.  Mix well.

If you can, this dough rolls better if  you can put it in the refrigerator for an hour or overnight.  Otherwise, use lots of flour for rolling!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Roll the dough to a quarter or half inch thickness.  The thinner the dough, the crisper the cookie.

Using appropriate shapes for your event, cut out cookies.  Or you can roll the dough into logs and slice (great to go with tea (tea for me!!!!  no us precious, us.  yes, yes us! that is right, us) And yes, we really do the tea comment around here.)

Bake for 6 to 8  minutes or until the edges are brown.

Decorate to your hearts content and eat.  

I took these into work the day after Halloween, so the cookies were two days old.  A large tin full!  They were all gone by lunch time.  These are good cookies.

Frosting tomorrow!

tomato soup

We were giving a cookie decorating party this weekend (more on that tomorrow) and I said I would make soup.  It was suggested that I make tomato soup which I can say that I do not particularly care for.  But Russell's eyes lit up when I told him that it had been a suggestion.  It was what his mother gave him when he was sick.  So, I tried.

Here is the funny thing, I have never tasted tomato soup I like so I was just really going by what I thought should be in it.  I had someone eat this soup who does not like tomato soup and another friend tell me it was the best tomato soup he has ever had.  Try it.

Tomato soup

3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil

1 to 2 pounds roma tomatoes, sliced

1 medium onion, sliced

4 cloves garlic

1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, very loosely packed (we had a fresh handful from the garden)

1/8 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon salt or to taste

1/2 teaspoon black pepper or to taste

2 to 4 cups of vegetable broth, preferably homemade

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Put the olive oil in a large ovenproof pan and put in the tomatoes.

 

Add the onions, garlic clove, and basil.  Sprinkle with the oregano.  Place in the oven and roast about 40 minutes.

It should look like this.  Put a pot on the stove and put the roasted vegetables in.  Pour in about 1 cup of vegetable broth and use an immersion blender to blend.  Or you can use a regular blender.  I needed to use about two to three cup of broth to get the consistency of soup I wished.  You can make it thick or thin.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

I served this with homemade rolls.  

This was an experiment and there was barely a serving left over when the pot was scraped!  There were even a few roasted potato and sweet potato chunks blended in left over from breakfast.  This could just be called roasted vegetable soup.  Too bad my eggplant is dying or I would try a roasted eggplant soup.

More experimentations for next summer! 

deconstructed ratatouille

We have eggplants.  With more eggplants to come!  I actually really enjoy ratatouille but I do not feel that I really have to follow the normal recipe.  This is my autumn style one.

I take some winter vegetables like potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, and eggplant.

I peel the potatoes and slice all the vegetables.  I roast them at 450 degrees Fahrenheit with a bit of olive oil and salt and pepper.  I give them a bit of a stir part of the way through.

You want golden bits through out.

Hours before I started a red sauce.  One can of whole tomatoes dumped into the crock pot.  Some onion.  Some garlic.  Some swiss chard that needed using.  Fresh basil from the garden.  Salt.  Pepper.  A little honey.  I put it on low and let is simmer away.

And then I whirred it.  That is the technical term in our house.  Makes me smile.

Now this is why it is called deconstructed.  Russell was hungry so instead of putting it in a casserole and layering the vegetables and sauce.  I made the roasted the vegetables on a plate and poured sauce over them.

Yumminess!

success! vegan chocolate crinckles

I re-engineered the whole recipe and came up with vegan chocolate crinckle cookies that taste like they have butter and eggs in them!

Vegan Chocolate Crinckles

1/2 cup sugar

2 2/3 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup hempmilk

2 ounces semi-sweet or dark chocolate

1 tablespoon tapioca flour

3/4 cup flour

3/8 teaspoon baking soda

3/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/4 teaspoon salt

powdered sugar for dredging

Put the chocolate and oil in a medium sauce pan.  Put over low heat and stir until chocolate is melted.  Add the sugar and vanilla.  Mix well.  Add the hempmilk and tapioca.  Mix well.  Add the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt and mix well.  The batter will be very thin.

Put the batter in a container and refrigerate.  I use pyrex.  You want to refrigerate at least one hour if not overnight (I actually did days.  Forgot it!)

After refrigeration, preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Prepare cookie sheets with parchment paper.  Take a teaspoon of chocolate cookie dough, roll into a ball, and dredge in powdered sugar.

Bake 10 minutes or until firm but not hard to the touch.

Pretty fabulous!  I only had to try three times but these are keepers.

blackberry sauce/syrup

I have been putting together fruit sauces/syrups to go with our pancakes.  And we had pancakes again this weekend.

Blackberry Sauce

2 cups blackberries (I use frozen)

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ginger

Over medium heat, put the blackberries, sugar, cinnamon, and ginger.  Heat until a bubbly juicy mess.

I serve this over pancakes but it would also be fabulous over vanilla ice cream.  It is  a bit on the tart side so you may wish to add more sugar.  And the cinnamon and ginger are always to taste.  Russell ALWAYS likes MORE cinnamon.

I actually wish we had these for dinner tonight but I had no sourdough started and we were grandpuppy sitting.  So I made beans.  And I am tired.  

Early night for me!  Huzzah!