A Return to the New

It's been quite some time since I lasted posted a recipe. I hadn't realized just how long until I went to start this post and the blogger dashboard told me that my last post was in February! Wow. I don't want to leave you with the idea that I haven't cooked in 4 months because I have. It's just that my pregnant body wasn't liking any kind of food for quite a while during that and then I just wasn't feeling up to trying something new. It sounded too hard. After a while it was easy to just continue going back to my old standards but really...how fun is that? It's time to break out of my mold (and once again remember to document my efforts).

Orange-Beef Stir Fry
from Better Homes and Gardens

12 oz beef top round steak
1 tsp finely shredded orange peel
1/2 cup orange juice
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp instant beef bouillon granules
1 Tbsp cooking oil
4 green onions, bias-sliced into 1-inch pieces
1 clove garlic, minced
6 cups coarsely shredded fresh spinach
1 can (8 oz) sliced water chestnuts, drained
2 cups hot cooked rice

1. Trim fat from beef. Partially freeze beef. Thinly slice across the grain into bite-sized pieces. Set aside.
2. For sauce, in a small bowl stir together orange peel, orange juice, cornstarch, soy sauce, sugar, and bouillon granules. Set aside.
3. Preheat cooking oil in a wok or large skillet on medium-high heat. Stir-fry green onions and garlic in hot oil for 1 minute. Remove green onion mixture from wok.
4. Add beef to wok. Stir-fry for 2-3 minutes or until cooked through. Push beef from center of wok.
5. Stir sauce and add to center of the wok. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Add spinach and water chestnuts. Stir all ingredients together to coat with sauce. Cover and cook for 1 minute more or until heated through. Serve immediately over hot cooked rice.

Serves 4.

The ingredients (minus the orange juice).

The beef. I know that I definitely used more than the 12 oz of beef that was called for in the recipe. I couldn't think of a good side to go with this (that I wouldn't have to purchase too many ingredients for) and I wanted to stretch it a bit. I think this was more in the 20 oz range but I don't remember exactly now. I also bought the top sirloin steak because it was what we found in the grocery store (and it wasn't overwhelmingly expensive).

A horrible picture of the sauce.

The final product: this was really pretty good. The sauce had a nice orange flavor but wasn't as overpowering as you find in most restaurant versions of orange chicken. The flavors complemented each other well and the water chestnuts added a good crunch to the overall texture. I still felt like it was missing something to make it go from "good" to "ooo, wow I need some more." I think I might mess with the vegetable combination to see if we could add some color and a bit more interest to this solid, albeit boring, meal.

Comfort Food Coma Anyone?

This is my second attempt at homemade noodles. It went much better this time around. I thought I'd also share my chicken and noodle recipe with the world. It's one of my favorite comfort foods and is absolutely perfect on a super snowy day like today.

Noodles
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 beaten egg yolks
1 beaten eggs
1/3 cup water
1 tsp cooking oil or olive oil

1. In a large bowl stir together 1 3/4 cups of the flour and the salt. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. In a small bowl stir together egg yolks, whole egg, water, and oil. Add egg mixture to flour mixture; mix well.
2. Sprinkle kneading surface with the remaining 1/4 cup clour. Turn dough out onto floured surface. Knead until dough is smooth and elastic (8 to 10 minutes total). Cover and let dough rest for 10 minutes.
3. Divide dough into 4 equal portions. On a lightly floured surface, roll each portion of dough into a 12x9-inch rectangle (about 1/16 inch thick ). (If using a pasta machine, pass each portion of dough through machine according to manufacturer's directions until dough is 1/16 inch thick.) Let stand, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Lightly dust dough with flour. Loosely rool dough into a spiral; cut into 1/4-inch-wide strips. Shake strands to separate; cut into 2- to 3-inch lengths.
4. To servce immediately, cook for 1 1/2 to 2 mintues or until tender but still firm, allowing 1 to 2 minutes more for dried or frozen noodles. Drain.
5. To store cut noodles, spread them on a wire cooling rack. Let noodles dry about 1 hour or until completely dry. Place in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 3 days. Or dry noodles for at least 1 hour and place then in a freezer bag or freezer container; freeze for up to 8 months.

Makes about 1 pound noodles.

Ingredients for noodles.

Adding wet ingredients to dry.

The dough was super dry but kneading helped that. I guess you would have to have it as dry as this or you'd have to add a whole lot of flour during the kneading process.

My kneaded dough ball after it had rested 10 minutes (although I don't know why it needed to rest; I was the one doing all the work). Eight to 10 minutes of kneading and my arms look tons better. No weight lifting needed if you do this everyday.

At this point I stopped to start prepping the "chicken and" part of the chicken and noodles.

Chicken and Noodles

3 chicken legs (thigh-drumstick piece) (about 2 pounds)

3 cups water

2 bay leaves

1 tsp dried thyme, crushed

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 1/2 cups chopped onions (3 medium)

2 cups sliced carrots (4 medium)

1 cup sliced celery (2 stalks)

3 cups wide noodles (6 ounces)

1 cup loose-pack frozen peas

2 cups milk

1/2 tsp salt

3 Tbsp all-purpose flour

1. Skin chicken. In a 4 1/2-quart Dutch oven combine chicken, water, bay leaves, thyme, the 1/2 tsp salt, and the pepper. Add onions, carrots, and celery. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 20 to 30 minutes or until chicken is tender and no longer pink. Discard the bay leaves. Remove chicken from Dutch oven; cool slightly. Remove meat from bones; discard bones. Chop chicken; set aside.
2. Bring broth mixture to boiling. Add noodles; cook for 5 minutes. Stir in frozen peas, 1 1/2 cups of the milk, and the 1/2 tsp salt.
3. In a screw-top jar combine the remainging 1/2 cup milk and the flour. Cover and shake until smooth; stir into noodle mixture. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Stir in chopped chicken. Cook and stir for 1 to 2 minutes more or until mixture is heated through.

Makes 6 servings.

Chicken and noodles ingredients (minus, of course, the noodles). All I really had time to do while waiting for the dough to rest was to get out these ingredients and cut my onion. Then it was back to focusing on the noodle dough.

I'm not sure how you're supposed to divide the dough into 4 equal parts but this seemed like the simplest way to me.

You most definitely can roll you dough out like it says to in the recipe but since I have a pasta machine I decided to use it exclusively this time. It worked really well and saved me some time.

I don't know if you can read them but on the knob on the left is a series of numbers. Those numbers tell you how thick the pasta sheet will be.

This is one of the first times through the machine. You start at the largest setting (7) and work your way down to the setting you'd like. I decided, quite arbitrarily, on 3 this time. I had to run the pasta through at least once (if not twice) at each of the settings in between to keep it smooth and even. Last time I learned that step was very important or you end up with lumpy/stretched dough.

My four portions of dough "resting."

While the dough rested, I got the chicken and other ingredients into the pot. Here it is right before I brought it up to a boil. After it was good and boiling, I turned down the heat, stuck a lid on it (I also started boiling some potatoes for mashed potatoes), and once again returned my attention to my noodle dough.

After figuring out how to attach the cutting head (which is embarrassingly simple for how long it took me), I started cutting the noodles. I simply used the fettucine setting because that's about how wide I like my noodles for this recipe. Cut, cut, cut.

After cutting the fettucine, I then cut them down to the length I wanted using kitchen scissors. Simple but effective.

This recipe makes double the noodles you'll need for the chicken and noodles recipe so I laid out the rest of the noodles to dry and freeze for the next time I make this.

Since these are fresh noodles instead of dry or frozen, I cut the cooking time down from 5 minutes to 2 before adding the milk. My husband does not like peas (and I don't like watching him pick them out), so I omit them in my version.

I bet you if I ever thought about keeping a screw-top jar, I could find one easily but I never think about needing one until I read it in step 3. I just use a fork to mix in the flour. I haven't had any issues with lumps or anything so we'll say that it's a fine substitution.

The final product: this is probably one of the best meals I've made. It's creamy and warm and absolutely delicious. I served mine over mashed potatoes but it's just as good plain. For all the extra work that goes into making my own noodles, they are well worth it. I can't remember a time where I've had better noodles; neither can my husband. Their flavor is incredible but it's the texture that really sets them apart. They are delicate and light which is a great compliment to the creaminess of the rest of this dish. I don't know if I can go back to the frozen or even Amish noodles I've used before in this dish.

Minty...Crunchy...Wonderful

I like peppermint a lot...especially in the wintertime. A peppermint mocha around the holidays is one of my greatest indulgences. These cookies looked like a great way to enjoy peppermint with coffee at home.

Peppermint-Twist Biscotti
2/3 cup butter, softened
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
4 eggs
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup coarsely chopped peppermint candy canes or peppermint candies
Red past food coloring
1 recipe Peppermint Icing
Chopped peppermint candy canes (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Line a cookie sheet with foil; set aside. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar, baking powder, and salt. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in eggs and peppermint extract until combined. Beat in as much flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour and the 1 cup chopped candy canes.
2. Divide dough in half. Tint one portion of the dough with red paste food coloring. Divide each half of dough into three portions. On a lightly floured surface, roll each portion into a 14-inch-long rope. On prepared cookie sheet, place a rope of each color side by side. Twist pairs of ropes around each other several times. Flatten twists until 2 inches wide; place about 4 inches wide; place about 4 inches apart on the cookie sheet.
3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until light brown and tops are cracked. Cool completely on cookie sheet on a wire rack. Carefully peel foil away from twists.
4. Reduce oven temperature to 300F. Transfer twists to a cutting board. Using a serrated knife, cut twists diagonally into 1/2-inch slices. Place slices, cut sides down, on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Turn slices over. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes more or until slices are dry. Transfer biscotti to a wire rack and let cool.
5. Drizzle cooled cookies with Peppermint Icing. If desired, sprinkle with additional chopped candy canes. Let stand until set.

Peppermint Icing:In a medium bowl stir together 2 cups powdered sugar and 1 Tbsp peppermint schnapps (or use 1 Tbsp milk and 1/4 tsp peppermint extract) until smooth. Add enough addtional milk (about 2 Tbsp) to an icing of drizzling consistency.

Makes 72 cookies.

The ingredients.

I didn't have red paste food coloring. I did have some regular liquid red food coloring so I decided to go ahead use that. I ended up getting a little overzealous so I had a very red section of dough.

The dough twist even looked great good before it was baked.

Baked twists.

The cut up twists made some very pretty designs. Before sticking them back in the oven, I tried the cookies and thought that it was going to be too heavy on the peppermint. I thought about nixing the peppermint icing and melting some white chocolate instead. After the second baking, though the peppermint mellowed and I decided to proceed as planned.

The final product: delicious. I couldn't get enough of these. They were awesome paired with ice cream and even better with coffee. If you like peppermint then I would definitely recommend making these very soon.

Christmas Cookies

I was only able to make a couple different kinds of Christmas cookies this year; it's been a crazy few weeks. I love making cookies throughout the year but Christmas cookies are that much more fun.


The first kind I made was gingerbread men . This is a repeat of a recipe I made a couple years ago for Christmas. The thing I love best about them is that you can poke a hole in it, string it with ribbon and hang it on your tree. Gingerbread is super durable and will last for weeks as a sweet smelling, super cute ornament.

My gingerbread army.

The only other kind I was able to make this year was my white chocolate cherry shortbread cookies. I changed up the colors to make them a bit more festive. Yum.

What cookies did you make for your holiday this year?

Festive Pinwheel Cookies!

A little while back I bought a bag of fresh cranberries. I was very excited to try to do something with them (other than decorate). This is one of my trials.

Cranberry-Orange Pinwheels
From BH&G's The Ultimate Cookie Book
1 cup cranberries
1 cup pecans
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
2 tsp finely shredded orange peel
3 cups all-purpose flour

1. For filling, in a blender or food processor combine cranberries, pecans, and brown sugar. Cover and blend or process until cranberries and nuts are very finely chopped. Set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in eggs and orange peel until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can. Stir in any remaining flour. Divide dough in half. Cover and chill dough 1 hour or until easy to handle.
3. Roll half of the dough between two pieces of waxed paper into a 10-inch square. Spread half of the filling over square, leaving a 1/2-inch border along the edges. Roll up dough. Moisten edges and pinch to seal. Wrap log in plastic wrap or waxed paper. Repeat with remaining dough and filling. Chill about 4 hours or until firm.
4. Preheat oven to 375F. Using a sharp knife, cut rolls into 1/4-inch slices. Place slices 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are firm and bottoms are light brown. Let stand for 1 minute on cookie sheet. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.

Makes about 60 cookies.

The ingredients.

The creamed sugar with eggs and orange peel. That's a lot of orange peel... and it smells good.

The chopped up cranberry mix. It's so red and pretty.

The rolled-out dough. From my previous failed attempts (or at least very difficult attempts) at rolling out cookie dough I've learned that having the dough cold enough is very important. I usually get impatient and try to rush into rolling before the dough is thoroughly chilled. That is a big mistake. It will only result in dough that sticks to everything you don't want it to. And if you have to roll up the dough like this for a pinwheel, you might as well forget it; the dough will fall apart and be completely unmanageable if it's too warm. Patience is the key.

I've mentioned my inability to divide things evenly many times before. This time I thought I'd measure things out so I'd get the two logs even. While it was a good thought, I still ended up with one of the logs having noticeably more filling. I'm not sure how it happened but I guess I'm gifted that way.

That is some very pretty filling!

Log. After getting it all rolled up, I wasn't real sure what to do with the ends that didn't have filling. I finally just decided to fold it in like a package.

Slices. If you look closely you'll notice that this sheet of cookies came from the log with less filling; the next shot shows a cookie from the other log. I guess that gives people options.

The final product: yummy, festive cookies. The dough is light and has a wonderful citrus flavor. The filling is sweet and a little nutty and completely delicious. The pairing make for a sweet and spunky holiday treat.

Chili

Food allergies have been a blessing as well as a curse. Since I've had to make more than meal for everyone in our family, I've gotten the chance to try some recipes for myself that I've had to avoid for my family as a whole... like chili. Chili was kind of a staple of my diet growing up; my mom would always make it for the very first cold snap every year (and then frequently throughout the fall and winter). I've never gotten a chance to make for myself though because my husband doesn't like it. Crazy, right? He says it's something about the beans. Whatever. I've forgiven him... especially since he's so willing to try just about anything else. I feel really behind though. People are so particular about their chili and I've never even tried one recipe let alone found the perfect one. I guess everyone's got to start somewhere.

Chili
from Better Homes & Gardens
12 oz lean ground beef
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green sweet pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 15-oz can dark red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 14.5-oz can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 8-oz can tomato sauce
2-3 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp dried basil, crushed

1. In a large saucepan cook ground beef, onion, sweet pepper, and garlic until meat is brown and onion is tender; drain fat. Stir in kidney beans, undrained tomatoes, tomato sauce, chili powder, basil, and 1/4 tsp black pepper. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.
   

Makes 4 servings (about 5 cups)

I forgot to take the ingredients picture so we'll just jump straight in. Here is the meat and vegetables cooking. I don't remember my mom putting peppers in her chili but they sound good. (I wasn't very attentive to my mom's cooking growing up though so I could be wrong.)

Adding the tomatoes, sauce, and spices.

Almost ready for simmering.

It only simmers for 20 minutes. That speed probably comes in handy sometimes but it seems like of quick to me.

The final product: good? The jury is still out on this one. The basil and garlic gives this chili a bit of an Italian flare and I haven't decided how I feel about that. I definitely liked the peppers and the overall chunkiness of it was good. And like most soups and stews the flavors meshed together to make this even better the next day. I'm wondering if you could achieve some of that effect by simmering this a bit longer. Overall, it definitely was a unique take on chili and I wouldn't say I didn't like it. It may just take another trial of it for me to straighten this out.

So what are your chili likes and dislikes? Do you have any recipes (or even just good key ingredients) that you'd be willing to share with this chili novice?

Coffee Companion

My in-laws like coffee... a lot. So I thought I'd bring something to our Thanksgiving celebration that goes well with coffee. And since I love all things sweet and most things toffee this version seemed like a good candidate.

Chocolate-Toffee Biscotti
From The Ultimate Cookie Book by Better Homes and Gardens

1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup almond toffee pieces
1/3 cup miniature semisweet chocolate pieces
6 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
4 tsp shortening
Almond toffee pieces (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a cookie sheet; set aside. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour. Stir in the 1/2 cup toffee pieces and the chocolate pieces.
2. Divide dough in half (dough will be sticky). Using floured hands, on a lightly floured surface, shape each half of dough into an 8-inch-long loaf. Place loaves about 5 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheet.
3. Bake about 25 minutes or until golden brown and firm to the touch in the center. Transfer to a wire rack and let stand for 1 hour.
4. Reduce oven temperature to 325F. Transfer loaves to a cutting board. Using a serrated knife, cut loaves diagonally into 1/2-inch slices. (Or cool completely; wrap and store overnight at room temperature before slicing.) Place slices, cut side down, on the cookie sheet. Bake for 8 minutes. Turn slices over. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes more or until dry. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.
5. In a small saucepan heat and stir the chocolate and shortening over low heat until smooth. Dip one end of each cookie into melted chocolate mixture. Place on a sheet of waxed paper. If desired, sprinkle with additional almond toffee pieces. Let stand until chocolate is set.

Makes about 30 cookies.

The ingredients.

The completed dough.

The loaves of dough ready to go in the oven.

As you can tell I didn't get the dough split evenly so one loaf baked up larger than the other. I found this kind of annoying because I really strived for equality this time. Looking on the bright side though, this resulting in a wide variety of sizes in the cookies so people had lots of options to choose from. And who doesn't like options?

I let the loaves cool completely before I cut. I'd like to think it helped to keep the cookies from crumbling during the cutting process but I don't have a lot of evidence to support this theory. I know the one other time I've made biscotti I didn't wait and I had a lot of trouble keeping the slices together.

Aren't the slices so pretty?! Here they are all lined up to cool after the second baking.

Dipping anything in chocolate makes it better in my book. The biscotti is no exception. On a related note, playing with melted chocolate is very fun; the world would be a much better place if everyone worked with this liquid wonder more often!

Sprinkling with toffee pieces. I didn't really find a stellar technique for this. I dropped the toffee pieces on the chocolate right after dunking and since the chocolate was still pretty runny, the toffee would sometimes just slide right off. I guess I could have waited a few minutes and sprinkled the toffee on after the chocolate had set up a little but this seemed dangerous to me. What if I had waited too long and the chocolate was already set enough that the pieces just fell off? And then I'd end up wasting more toffee because I wouldn't be able to catch the run off pieces in a bowl. Any suggestions on the best way to sprinkle?

The final product: gold star! Crunchy and chewy and delicious. They are definitely dunkable but not so dry that they need to be. The chocolate and toffee combination is always great and the different incantations between the pieces in the dough and coating kept things interesting. The chocolate and toffee coating was very impressive and while not all that difficult, really made them look professional. This would be great for a coffee night or even a gift for a coffee-lover.