Food In Many Forms

I found this in Barnes & Noble on Friday. I'm super excited after so many bad or mediocre cookie recipes to try (hopefully) tested recipes for not one, but four different types of sugar cookies - chewy, crunchy, browned edges or cut-out ! Plus each one has variations - just think of the possibilities!

Once I did the nutritional analysis of my original appetizer for my themed meal - a prosciutto and goat cheese salad - I knew I had to change it. It had more fat then I care to admit. So I went in the exact opposite direction and found a recipe that is amazing with minimal oil and no cheese at all. Just think how good it would be with a sprinkle of Parmesan! It was still tasty after a few days in the fridge so I had it for lunch a few days in a row. Thanks Giada! Ingredients: 8 ounces green beans, cut into 1 to 2-inch pieces (about 2 cups) 1 head Romaine lettuce, torn 1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed 1/2 cup pitted black olives 1/2 red onion, cut into slivers 1 lemon, juiced 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1 ounce shaved Parmesan (about 1/2 cup) Directions: Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the green beans and stir. Cook for about 2 minutes, or until beans are slightly tende...

There were no cookies in the apartment, so darn, I had to make some. I went back to Paula Deen to supply me with these sweet sugar cookies . The combination of Almond and Vanilla is DELICIOUS ! Instead of making cut-outs I just rolled the dough into balls and flattened them with a fork, like you do with peanut butter cookies. Only you press it once instead of twice, or else they flatten too much and burn the edges. 10 minoutes in the oven makes perfectly soft cookies, 14 minutes makes crispier ones.  Ingredients 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted 1 cup (2 sticks) butter 1 egg 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 teaspoon pure almond extract 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon cream of tartar Granulated sugar Royal Icing, recipe follows Directions In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter, then mix in the egg and vanilla and almond extracts. In another bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and cream of tarter; mix the dry ingredients into the c...

I am trying a new thing where the only cookies and sweets I eat are the ones I make myself. This gives me an excuse to try all the super unhealthy cookie recipes by Paula Deen. The other day I made her coconut macaroons. They went really well except that they kept making all this steam and setting off the smoke alarm every time I opened the oven door. Only later, when I told my mom that the macaroons stuck to the wax paper, did I find out that the steam was the wax paper burning of the wax. Oops! Hope I didn't inhale wax or something. Next time, I will be sure to use parchment paper. Ingredients: 3 cups shredded coconut 1 teaspoon almond extract 1/8 teaspoon salt 2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk 2 egg whites, stiffly beaten 1 teaspoon cream of tartar Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium bowl, combine coconut, almond extract, and salt. Mix in condensed milk to form a thick paste. Fold in egg whites with cream of tarter. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie shee...

These beans had great reviews and were promoted as great cold-weather comfort food , but although they were good, they were not AMAZING, and I am going to have to make them again before I completely decide to make these for my theme meal. First of all, they took 2 1/2 hours to cook, which may or may not have been because I kept steaming off the bean broth. Second, maybe I just don't understand how to cook dried beans, but "boiling the beans until 3/4 done " doesn't mean anything to me. I ended up just boiling them for an hour and fifteen minutes and transferring them to the other pot because I don't want them to "go soft on me", but I'm not sure why since they are going to get soft when they stew in the tomato mixture. Anyways, bitterness and confusion aside , I'm going to give the recipe another chance, and maybe with this experience under my belt (and a little google research), I can do better . Fagiuoli all'Uccelletto Prep Time: 30 minutes...

       For my food service class, I have to plan a big three or four course meal, and I decided I would make tiramisu for dessert . Although there are many complicated recipes, this one by Sandra Lee who is known using preprepared ingredients and simple preparation methods, took only about 20 minutes. The most time-consuming part is layering the ladyfingers, cream cheese frosting and whipped cream. I didn't have wine glasses so I experimented with making parfaits in bowls before trying them in some plastic cups.         It didn't take me long to figure out that if you dip ladyfingers in hot coffee they pretty much disintegrate , so I began spooning coffee over the cookies instead. Spreading the cream cheese mixture on top was also a little frustrating. But when I used a cup instead, I could just drop a generous tablespoon in and press it down with the next layer of ladyfingers to spread it out.  Ingredients 1 cup heavy cream 3/4 cup su...

These Honey Almond Flower Cookies turned out so much better! But they could have tasted a little bit more like almonds - gotta keep looking for the perfect Almond Cookie Recipe!

Courtesy of hotpolkadot.com Honey Almond Flower Cookies Makes about 4 dozen cookies. 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature 1 cup granulated sugar 1 egg 4 tbsp honey 2 tsp almond extract 3 cup flour 1 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp salt Slivered almonds for garnish 1 egg yolk for egg wash 1 tsp water for egg wash Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and position a rack in the center. Line your baking sheets with parchment paper then set them aside. In a large bowl with an electric mixer cream together the butter and sugar until it's light a fluffy. Add the egg, honey and almond extract then beat it until it's combined well. In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt then add it to the butter mixture and mix it well. Scoop a heaping tbsp of dough for each cookie and roll them into balls. Lightly compress the balls into thick discs between your palms. Carefully press five of the slivered almonds into each cookie in a flower arrangement. Whisk together the egg yolk a...

The Two that Didn't Burn Fluffy, Chewy, Sweet, Almondiness with Burnt edges is how I would describe these cookies from AllRecipes . I was so excited to use my new almond paste, I just picked the first recipe with good reviews that I had all the ingredients for. What I realized afterwards? This cookie is basically just sugar, flour and egg whites! I think there needs to be a little more substance! I tried to improve with each batch, and the last batch was definitely the best. The first one I left in for exactly 15 minutes and they all were burnt and stuck to each other. I used Pam spray to coat the baking sheet, and sometimes I think Pam seeps into the edges and cooks them faster, so I decided to use butter in the next batches.  The First Batch The second batch, I used a stick of butter to lightly grease the baking sheet and I made much smaller cookies. I was sitting by the oven, checking on them every minute and some how, they still ended up crispy. They were still tasty, and t...