the Great Cooking Magazine Challenge

Today, I am joining my friend, Suzy (Kitchen Bouquet), for her Great Cooking Magazine challenge. If you are like the both of us you have a pile of cooking magazines laying around because there is a recipe or two that you just have to try. Suzy challenges us once in a while to open them up and try those recipes we've bookmarked. Please click HERE to go to her blog and see her entry as well as the other's participating.

Last night we had a date night meal at home so it was a great time to use the new wine themed plates that Jayme & Scott gave me for Christmas. What is date night at home? Well for us it is me choosing all the activities, LOL! Actually, I make an effort to set a nice table and prepare a nice meal while Jeff opens a bottle of good wine. Then we went bowling for 3 games (on the Wii) before sitting down to watch the movie "I Hate Valentines Day".
The napkin rings and napkins were also a gift from Jayme & Scott.
I really like the wine plates, one plate features Venice...
and one Paris.
I had planned on showing a new chicken recipe we tried on Friday night but I'll save that one for later. Because yesterday, I received my March 2011 issue of Food Network magazine and it is labeled Pasta, Pasta, Pasta! The Italian Issue with a photo of Pea-Prosciutto Sauce over ravioli on the cover. This issue is going to end up dog-eared because I love pasta! The cover photo looked great and I had all the ingredients in the house so I chose this recipe to highlight.
Their website is still showing the Jan-Feb 2011 issue so since it is not yet online, I couldn't link the recipe. This recipe is one of many in an article titled Super Easy Pasta Sauces.

Pea-Prosciutto Sauce
Food Network Magazine March 2011

Cook 4 ounces chopped prosciutto in a skillet with 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat until crisp, 4 minutes. Stir in 3 sliced garlic cloves and 1 tablespoon tomato paste; cook 1 minute. Ladle in 1 cup pasta-cooking water and simmer until reduced by half, 4 minutes. Add 1/4 cup heavy cream and simmer until thickened, 3 minutes. Toss with 1 pound cooked ravioli, 1 cup blanched frozen peas and some chopped parsley. Top with grated parmesan.

My notes: To lighten the sauce I used 1 tablespoon olive oil instead of 2. In the same issue of the magazine was an article on lightening up alfredo sauce by using low-fat milk and low-fat neufchatel cream cheese. So instead of using the heavy cream, I used 1/4 cup skim milk and 2 tablespoons of the low-fat cream cheese. It was a great substitution and the sauce still had a rich, creamy taste. We served the sauce over our favorite frozen butternut squash ravioli (YUM!). I also didn't have parlsey on hand so that was omitted. Recipes like this that only use a TB of tomato paste makes me thankful I started buying the tubes of paste.

For dessert I pulled out the December 2010 issue of Food Network Magazine and made

Espresso Chip Meringues by Giada De Laurentiis. You can view the recipe by clicking on the titled link.
If you make 12 like the recipe says mine were huge - about 2 1/2-3 inch diameter.

Marsha - Thumbs UP to the pasta sauce, we will definitely be making this one again! Thumbs UP to the espresso meringues, I like the sweet taste and airy texture.
Jeff - Thumbs UP to the pasta sauce, he had a 2nd helping. Thumbs Down to the meringues, he'd rather have a real cookie as he thought this one was like eating styrofoam, LOL! Just means there are more for me to enjoy.

Oatmeal Craisin Cookies...

On Wednesday as I was reading through the blogs I follow I saw Kathy of Glacial Ridge Knits & Quilts did this post on "The 3 C's.....Cranberry & Coconut & Chocolate". I knew I would be making these as soon as I heard the title :) By Wednesday afternoon I had her recipe printed out and was searching the cupboards to see what I had on hand to follow her recipe. I soon saw I did not have the cake flour she included and then in reading the recipe I saw that it didn't use as much oatmeal as the craisin cookies I usually make so I ended up using my recipe and adding in the chocolate and coconut. Please go to her post and view her recipe as well - I think her cookies look like they are softer (less oatmeal?) while mine are more like a crunchy texture.

Oatmeal Craisin Cookies
from Allrecipes.com but adapted to Kathy's version with the addition of white chocolate chips, coconut & pecans.

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups quick cooking oats (I used old fashioned oats)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup raisins (I omitted)
1 cup dried cranberries

Beat butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla for 5 minutes. In another bowl, combine oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture 1 cup at a time.

Mix in raisins and craisins.

Drop by spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets and bake for 12-14 minutes at 350 degrees.

My notes: I used old fashioned oats, omitted the raisins, added a 12 oz bag of white chocolate chips, used the entire package of craisins and added a cup of coconut right out of the bag (Kathy's version called for slightly toasted).

Can you say YUM! Chewy, decadent and full of flavor - It is the season to indulge after all!

Marsha - Thumbs UP
Jeff - Thumbs UP

chocolate and coconut...

Many years ago a neighbor, Adeline, known for her baking skills introduced me to macaroon bars. The recipe was like a brownie with a middle macaroon layer and I made them often when we were first married. Soon macaroon mix became obsolete and no longer available in our local stores and I just forgot about the recipe until my last hair appt. You see my hairdresser, Danielle, is the granddaughter of Adeline, the neighbor who shared the recipe with me. Her Aunt Deb (Adeline's daughter) owns the salon and while we were talking about her parents who have both been gone for twenty plus years, I reminisced about Adeline's cooking and her bar recipe. Deb remembered them as well and said if I still had the recipe she would love a copy. For my appt today I did one better - I brought them the recipe along with some freshly made bars.I searched and found the original recipe as written here.

Adeline's Macaroon Bars (circa 1976)
2 cups sugar
1 cup shortening
4 eggs
1/2 cup cocoa
2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup nuts (optional)

Filling:
1 pkg coconut macaroon mix
1/2 cup water

Cream sugar and shortening. Add eggs, beating well. Add rest of ingredients. Spread 1/2 of this mixture in a greased 9 x 13 pan. Mix the macaroon mix with 1/2 cup water. Spread this over the brownie mixture. Then spread on the rest of the brownie mixture. Bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Since the packaged macaroon mix is no longer available I decided to try this bar recipe using my favorite recipe for Coconut Macaroons as the filling. Deb remembered her mom frosting the bars with the boiled 1 minute chocolate frosting but I used a chocolate ganache.

Coconut Macaroons
(Heart Healthy Living Magazine)

3 cups shredded coconut
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 egg white
Dash salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. In a large bowl, combine coconut, condensed milk, vanilla and lemon juice. In a medium bowl, beat egg white and salt with an electric mixer until it holds soft peaks. Fold into the coconut mixture. Using a teaspoon, drop small mounds of the mixture, measuring about 1 1/2 inches in diameter, about 1 1/2 inches apart on the prepared sheet. with slightly wet fingertips, pinch the mounds to make them narrower and taller. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes, rotating the sheet from front to back after 10 minutes. When done, slide the parchment off the cookie sheet onto a wire rack. After 10 minutes, remove the macaroons from the parchment using a thin metal spatula, and place them directly on the rack to cool. Note: Because we love the chocolate topped macaroons from a MN bakery I dip these in chocolate as pictured instead of leaving them plain.

Because these cookies are a favorite I made a second batch of the coconut mixture and actually made the cookies. It was dark by the time they were done so I used a photo of them from a few years ago.

Macaroon Bars & Cookies
Marsha - Thumbs UP
Jeff - Thumbs UP

Tea & Cookies...

It's cold outside! I just got in from filling all my birdfeeders and in my opinion there is no better way to warm up freezing fingers than a hot cup of tea. In today's pot is jasmine blooming tea.
The cookies are courtesy of my sister, Laura, who visited last weekend from California and brought a container of her famous Lemon Cookies for the family potluck. She made the rounds and stayed at 2 of my sisters and finally my house last so I got to keep the leftovers :) I've been having tea & cookies all week and these cookies if stored in an airtight container stay crisp until the last crumb.

Laura's Lemon Cookies

2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large lemons
3/4 cup butter (do not substitute margarine or shortening)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Grate 1 tablespoon lemon peel from the lemons and squeeze two tablespoons juice. In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, salt and lemon peel together and set aside. In a large bowl, beat the butter, sugar and powdered sugar together until creamy. Add the vanilla and lemon juice and stir to combine. Reduce mixer speed to low and add in the bowl of dry ingredients just until blended. Divide dough in half and shape each half into a 6" long log. This is easiest done in wax paper. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut chilled log into 1/4 inch slices and put on a ungreased cookie sheet. Sprinkle with additional sugar and bake approximately 12 minutes or until very slightly tan on the edges. Cool on the cookie sheet for about 2 minutes and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely. Cookies stay crisp for weeks and freeze well also.

Marsha - Thumbs UP
Jeff - Thumbs UP

chocolate sugar cookies...

It snowed all weekend so to pass the time I made cookies. Normal sugar cookies made in the cookie mold pan I mentioned in the last post and chocolate sugar cookie cut outs. I was never the type of mom that made cute cut out cookies for every holiday - frankly no one in our family really cared for sugar cookies, they would rather have chocolate chip cookies so it wasn't worth the effort. In my browsing of recipes this weekend I came across a recipe for chocolate sugar cookies on the Joy of Baking.com site that looked worth trying. They were definitely the favorite of the two types of cookies made. I look forward to tweaking the chocolate recipe for even more fudgy goodness. You can find the full recipe for the chocolate sugar cookies on the Joy of baking site HERE. I did not use the royal icing as they recommend but our favorite glace icing which does not get as hard from the Our Best Bites site. You can find that recipe HERE.

Marsha - Thumbs UP
Jeff - Thumbs UP