Five on Friday: December 20, 2013

The cold comes and goes here. The sky is sunny or it's that certain gray the makes me think SNOW!! But I'm married to a man who used to work for the National Weather Service. No, he's not a meteorologist but he plays one. When he says precip, I used to say...Say rain, if you mean rain!  I stopped saying that because then I got the 'precipitation lecture'. Like I give a rat's ass... Anyhow, our one bit of snow cum sleet cum icy cold just kind of made a mess with patches of thick pebbled ice that lingered for a couple of days. A long couple of days. But I am digressing... on to The Five.

1. Our Cypriot neighbor gave us cookies and one type is covered in powdered sugar. He's eating those and leaving a trail of white powder hither and yon. But then I bought a German (marzipan! num num num) stollen at Trader Jo's and it's covered with...yep, powdered sugar. However, I cut a slice and mostly just shove the whole thing into my mouth. Unladylike but in the privacy of my own home it means no mess for me. Sneaky, huh...

2. Each day I look at the clutter in my studio, I think of things I'm willing to give away. However, that means boxing/bagging the bits and pieces up and taking them somewhere. I know most people and charities are not really interested in being bombarded with donations right now. I'm not looking for a donation receipt - esp with the end of year rush - so I suppose I'll just have to live with it til....2014. One batch did go out on Monday. Bit by bit.

3. It's been soup time again. Last Saturday I made Dutch pea soup with a hunk of ham bone I had in the freezer. I had to leave out the leek and substitute green split peas for the yellow. That bone had very little ham but I didn't care. I used the container of turkey broth my daughter in law gave me after the T-day dinner. Man,was that good stock! My dh had a look on his face when he saw dinner but said he never liked his mother's pea soup but that it didn't taste like this one. How did it taste? I asked. Not like this he said. That was about all I got out of him but I suspect he'd have liked a lot more ham and probably prefer if he never got this soup again. Actually, I found the spices a little odd. Perhaps they were just old. I can't think of the last time I've used allspice!

4. A funny line I heard on Joy The Baker podcast, a podcast about cussing and some ways to shortcut that habit, just use initials..."If your stuff is S, then F it!"  Podcasts are great for car drives I've found. (btw, check Joy's blog for some baking porn. I think I need to wait til February to consider baking again.)

5. I also had a chance to drive through some neighborhoods that are not far from me but in a  rather different world. How can you spot that at night?  The volume of Christmas lights goes way up! Sadly, the traffic was too heavy to pull over anywhere without some truck hitting me so there are no photos.  There were more colored lights, more flashing lights, more lawn decorations (lit of course), more mixtures of colored lights with blue lights and one of the strangest ones, to me, all green lights. Again, lots of lights and white lights rarely in sight. I suspect that if you were high in any way it would be quite the experience.

original

However, nothing quite compares to 34th Street in Hampden, Baltimore for glitz though! I hope we get up to see it again this year. And may your Christmas be as flashy as you like!

Flashback Friday: No I Didn't Eat Them

But I was tempted to buy one! Or maybe two, one for LaJolla and one for San Diego.

Drop Dead Thursday

Well it was supposed to be Drop Dead Wednesday but somehow that didn't happen. I did get a lot of digital work (play!) done and got half of it printed. Then the flash drive wouldn't accept jpegs even tho it appears empty to both of us. channeling Roasanna Dandanna...It's always something! Ok so back to looking thru the collection of flash drives for ones smaller than 2G. Old MacMini won't accept flashdrives >1G and it's old MacMini that is printing them, not the new Mac. DH may have the minicable to the thingamajig that allows large flashes to be used. That's a later in the day Maybe.


So today - let's see I need a pressie for a 2 year old like those keys and cell phone. I need to make up a menu for Christmas day (one vegetarian) and write out a shopping list to buy Friday? I want to bake rosemary shortbread (?) cookies. At least I think that's what they were. Martha? If they aren't in my computer file of recipes, I do hope they are in my mail folder. I truly love the search component on this Mac which seem to find my stuff quickly and accurately. No shopping till I find the recipe so that's #1 and then get to a toy store. If all else fails, there are the book stores. In fact the book stores sound like a great trip for me and the man! That is a treat we haven't had for a while and it sounds like it's time to me.

Speaking of Gingerbread

Martha Stewart thinks I'm a Gingerbread. What are you?

btw, I have her gingerbread stickers and stamp.

You're warm, spicy, and multifaceted.

But you knew that, didn't you...(smile) So what kind of cookie are you?? Answer the short quiz and find out. Some nice silly fun to help you relax and enjoy the holiday spirit.

Dulce How Sweet You Are

Dulce de Leche is one of my absolute favorites. Yes, I could happily eat it right from the can and often do. I make it myself, and boiling it up in the can WELL covered is so worth it. Do 2 or 3 cans at once. You won't regret it. (Dulce instructions are in the bottom of the recipe.)

Now what can you do with DdL? in addition to eating it with a spoon? Well I've had some Linzer torte cookie cutters for quite some time, and while they're not bat cut outs, I think Autumn Leaves will do quite nicely. I think this will be my Halloween treat for me. The recipe is from Martha of course.

Ingredients

Makes 18.

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa
• 3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 large egg plus 1 large egg yolk
• 4 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons dulce de leche

Directions

1. Whisk together flour, cocoa, salt, and baking powder. Beat butter and sugars with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Beat in egg, yolk, chocolate, and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture, and beat until just combined. Shape into a disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate 1 hour.
2. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8 inch thick. Cut out 36 rounds with a 2-inch cutter, and space 1 inch apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Using an aspic cutter set, cut a triangle, point side up, in the center of half the cookies, and then use the half-moon cutter to make one "wing" on each side of the triangle. Refrigerate 30 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 375. Bake until set, 7 to 9 minutes. Let cool. Top each uncut cookie with 1 teaspoon dulce de leche and a cutout cookie.

LisaAW says about MAKING DULCE DE LECHE

Dulce de leche is basically caramel that is very simple to make. Take a can of sweetened condensed milk and place the CLOSED can into a pot of water - cover at least by 3 times. Bring the pot of water to simmer(tiny bubbles)simmer your can for 3 hours. Turn off the heat allow to cool, remove from from water and allow to completely cool - even over night...do not try to open the can before it has cooled.

*answer to Curlypops and other Australians. I gather you can buy spreadable caramel over there. Actually, if they are your cookies, use what you like as a spread... Dulce de Leche, caramel, Nutella, Fluffo (just thought of Fluffo last night) ...the point is spreadable and sweet.

Oh so addictive

I really don't even like these but when they are present, I find myself going back for a 2nd, thinking about a 3rd....


So for a taste of a truly Maryland special - Berger Cookies- that you can now reproduce fairly accurately at home, try this saga on the King Arthur flour site.