Recipes

Ricotta Cheese (left & center), Chocolate Sugar & Grape Jello Spritz

 

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Courtesy of Blue Flowers and Folly it is apparently a family recipe and it is a must have for any chocoholic. Not too sweet at all. And if you are sensitive to the caffeine in chocolate? (ahem, as I found out the hard way) don’t eat these after dinner! Rolling them in sugar/sprinkles gives them a nice thin crunchy outer layer and the center is gooey heaven.

• 4 Squares (4-oz) Bakers Unsweetened Dark Chocolate
• 1 1/2 sticks butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1+ tsp vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• additional sugar and colorful sprinkles to coat

1. Use a large microwavable bowl from start to finish. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Microwave chocolate with butter on high for 2+ minutes or until butter is melted. Keep stirring the butter/chocolate mix until the chocolate is fully melted.

2. Stir in 1 cup sugar until well blended (note: I just use a wooden spoon for these cookies – no mixer, but I assume a mixer on low for all steps would be fine. No whipping is needed).

3. Stir in egg and vanilla.

4. Mix in flour, baking soda and salt and stir until a nice dough is created.

5. Chill dough in refrigerator for 30 mins. Shape into 1″ balls and roll in extra sugar/sprinkles. Place on parchment paper on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 8 minutes. Remove and cool. Makes close to 2-3 dozen depending on how you roll them!

RICOTTA CHEESE COOKIES

Yes, these are a repeat from last year and they are on my Recipe Page. Such a hit with peeps at work and with Sports Boy (ok, I kinda like them too!) that I had to keep them in rotation this year. Again, these are not overly sweet. The ricotta cuts the sugar and makes this a ridiculously moist cookie. Add sugar sprinkles or frosting to sweeten if desired. Posting the recipe again with a few tips & tricks this time.

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter – softened
• 1 15oz container ricotta cheese
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 4 cups flour
• 2 tbl baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• sprinkles & cream cheese frosting (we like Pillsbury vanilla or basic white)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In large bowl with mixer at low speed, beat sugar & butter until blended. Increase speed to high and beat until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes). At medium speed, beat in ricotta, vanilla and eggs until well combined.

2. Reduce mixer speed to low. Add flour, baking powder & salt and beat until a dough forms. It will be a gooey dough.

3. Drop dough by level tablespoons about 2 inches apart on parchment paper on an ungreased cookie sheet. They don’t spread too much and you can easily fit 12 on a large cookie sheet. Use a butter knife or thin spatula to scoop dough out of spoon then use spatula to gently smooth the surface edges of the dough on the sheet. Sprinkle with colored sugar sprinkles if using them. Bake 12-15 minutes or until lightly golden. Cookies will be SOFT. If frosting them, let them cool first. Makes up to 4 dozen.

Beware! This is some of the best raw dough ever I made two batches this year – once last weekend in preparation for a neighborhood cookie party and then the batch this weekend for work. Pretty sure SB and I ate enough dough off the mixer blades & such to cover another dozen. Bad for you yeah…but oh so GOOD!

JELLO SPRITZ COOKIES

These came from PA mom last year and I’m finally making them. I tried black cherry last weekend and grape this weekend. SB did not like the cherry, but we should have suspected he would not since he generally doesn’t like cherry flavoring. So he chose grape for this weekend. Now, I liked the cherry plenty fine, BUT, I must say that the grape is even better! Now I want to try strawberry and blue raspberry. Ack! I may be baking for beyond Christmas The thing is that the jello flavor does come through quite strong so do make sure and pick a flavor you will like. My problem is that the recipe calls for a small, 3oz pack of jello mix but my store only had the larger 6 oz packets which I simply split in half but that means I still have two small packets of cherry & grape in the cupboard to use before I should buy more.

• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 cups butter – softened
• 1 (3 oz) package of fruit flavored jello mix
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• additional sugar and/or sugar sprinkles

1. Cream butter, sugar and jello mix. Add egg & vanilla. Beat well. Gradually add flour and baking powder. Blend at low speed until smooth.

2. Refrigerate for 30 mins or until dough is firm. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

3. Roll into balls, then roll the balls into sugar/sprinkles. Place on parchment paper on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 for 8 minutes. Makes 4 dozen easily!

You’ll notice I’m addicted to parchment paper Makes cleanup so easy AND since I only have one really nice cookie sheet it allows me to just remove the paper with cookies fresh out of the oven onto the counter to cool and then lay another piece on the sheet and get right back into dropping cookies on the pan.

CREAMY SAUTEED SHRIMP

Ingredients:

1/13 lbs -1.5 lbs medium shrimp (cooked or raw, tail on or not, your preference)

1 small white onion

1 tbsp butter

1/2 tsp curry powder OR paprika

1 tbsp all purpose flour

2 tbsp tomato paste or puree

1/3 cup water

1/2 cup whipping cream

Dash Tabasco

1/2 tsp salt

Dash white pepper

3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

* Step 1 – clean and peel shrimp if needed. Or thaw. Peel and finely shop onion. Chop parsley.
* Step 2 – Saute onion in butter until soft. Add curry powder (or paprika). Saute a few minutes more.
* Step 3 – Sprinkle with flour. Stir in tomato paste or puree. Blend. Add water and cream. Blend again. Let cook – around medium low heat – for a few minutes
* Step 4 – Season to taste with Tabasco, salt and pepper. Blend. *taste*! Make sure the tomato or salt are not too overpowering and splash in a little more water or cream if needed. For some reason I always have to play with the sauce at this stage. Maybe I just don’t know how to measure properly
* Step 5 – Add shrimp and parsley and heat through. Serve immediately. I always serve it over rice and it’s the perfect blend.

Probably the best sauce I’ve ever made. This is fast and easy, but you cannot step away from the pan once you get rolling from steps 2-5. Gather all the ingredients around you before you start so they are at your fingertips.

*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

LSM

November 28, 2010 at 3:26 pm (Edit)

0

0

i

Rate This

A non-beef recipe to try!

Roast Sticky Chicken
4 teaspoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon Cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon onion power
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 large roasting chicken
1 cup chopped onion

In a small bowl, thoroughly combine all the spices. Remove giblets from chicken, clean the cavity well and pat dry. Rub the spice mixture into the chicken, both inside and out, making sure it is evenly distributed and down deep into the skin. Place in resealable plastic bag, seal and refrigerate overnight.

When ready to cook chicken, put the onions into the cavity. Make three fist-size balls of aluminum foil and place in crock pot. Place chicken on top of foil. This allows the chicken to roast rather than stew. Do not add any liquid to crock pot. Cover and cook on High for 1 hour. Reduce to Low and cook 7-9 hours

#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#

Italian beef and barley soup.  I highly recommend this recipe–a new one for me that I popped in the crock pot yesterday around noon.Italian Beef and Barley Soup

1 (approx. 1.5 lbs.) boneless beef top sirloin steak

1 TBS. olive oil

4 medium carrots, cut into 1/4 inch slices

1 small onion, chopped

1 tsp. dried thyme

1 tsp. dried rosemary

1/2 tsp. black pepper

1/3 cup uncooked pearl barley

2 cans (14 0z., each) beef broth

1 can (14 oz.) diced tomatoes with Italian seasoning, undrained

Cut beef into 1-inch pieces.  Heat oil over medium-high heat in large skillet.  Brown beef on all sides and set aside.  Place carrots and onion in slow cooker.  Sprinkle with thyme, rosemary, and pepper.  Top with barley and beef.  Pour broth and tomatoes with juice over meat.  Cover and cook on low 8 to 10 hours or high for 4 to 5 hours.  Serves 6.