Pecan Pie Cookies: Operation GALS

About a week ago I received an email from Susan of Shes Becoming Doughmesstic asking for help baking cookies for the troops in Iraq. Apparently within a few hours there was more than a few bloggers willing to step up to the challenge. Here is my contribution--- Pecan pie cookies. I had baked these for my husband last week and he gobbled them up really quick. I thought they would be a great cookie to send to Iraq: they are a fairly sturdy cookie, and although they look sticky up top they actually are firm. I hope the troops enjoy them!

Filbert Gateau

This month’s challenge was to bake a Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream from Carol Walter’s “Great Cakes” and the recipe was picked by Chris of Mele Cotte.

This challenge was a formidable task-- not necessarily hard, but, boy did this baby have alot of steps and components.
This cake is composed of a tender hazelnut genoise-- the trickiest part was skinning those hazelnuts. I tried all the special tricks, but still had some stubborn skins. I just sat in front of the TV and put on an old episode of The Sopranos and picked those skins off. The Sopranos will make any chore go by a little faster.

I whipped up the other components, praline paste, buttercream, glaze, syrup without too many problems. Although, as I began the buttercream and had the egg whites whipping and the water simmering, I realized I couldn't find my butter. Now I know I purchased it a few hours before, but it was no where to be found. So off to the Acme I went, and alas, I had left all my butter and fancy chocolate at the express lane! They let me go and fetch the items I left, and I was able to finish my buttercream. I think it came together pretty well, and didn't separate like the one I had made for the buche de noel earlier in the year.

I carefully sliced the layers and assembled the cake carefully, making sure to soak the layers with the syrup and fill the layer with the buttercream evenly so my cake wasn't too lopsided. The ganache came out great; I like the idea of grinding up the chocolate in the food processor- much easier than chopping it and getting lots of melty chocolate all over my hands.

I poured the ganache and piped on a simple decoration. I haven't sliced the cake yet. I think I might give it to my husband to take to work tomorrow--but I nibbled on all the components, and although I do not like nuts, it tasted pretty darn good!

Check out the other Daring Baker's creations!

My Kitchen My World- Greece

This week for the My Kitchen My world Greek challenge I decided to make a few tasty items-- first I made pita breads- which was actually really fun to do, and fairly easy once I got the hang of it. I made a Greek marinated souvlaki to stuff in the pitas and some yummy potatoes and onions for the side. I also whipped up some Greek style doughnuts for dessert.

I will definitely make these pitas again! They were really tasty and would make a great vehicle for some chicken salad in my husband's lunch.

Pita Recipe from The Fresh Loaf

Makes 8 pitas

3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 Tablespoon sugar or honey
1 packet yeast (or, if from bulk, 2 teaspoons yeast)
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups water, roughly at room temperature
2 tablespoons olive oil, vegetable oil, butter, or shortening

If you are using active dry yeast, follow the instructions on the packet to active it (see the note on yeast above). Otherwise, mix the yeast in with the flour, salt, and sugar. Add the olive oil and 1 1/4 cup water and stir together with a wooden spoon. All of the ingredients should form a ball. If some of the flour will not stick to the ball, add more water (I had to add an extra 1/4 cup).

Once all of the ingredients form a ball, place the ball on a work surface, such as a cutting board, and knead the dough for approximately 10 minutes (or until your hands get tired). If you are using an electric mixer, mix it at low speed for 10 minutes.

(The purpose of kneading is to thoroughly combine the ingredients and to break down the flour so that the dough will become stretchy and elastic and rise well in the oven. A simple hand kneading technique is to firmly press down on the dough with the palm of your hand, fold the dough in half toward you like you are closing an envelope, rotate the dough 90 degrees and then repeat these steps, but whatever technique you are comfortable using should work.)

When you are done kneading the dough, place it in a bowl that has been lightly coated with oil. I use canola spray oil, but you can also just pour a teaspoon of oil into the bowl and rub it around with your fingers. Form a ball out of the dough and place it into the bowl, rolling the ball of dough around in the bowl so that it has a light coat of oil on all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel and set aside to rise until it has doubled in size, approximately 90 minutes.

When it has doubled in size, punch the dough down to release some of the trapped gases and divide it into 8 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, cover the balls with a damp kitchen towel, and let them rest for 20 minutes. This step allows the dough to relax so that it'll be easier to shape.

I heated my oven to 500 degrees and put a pizza stone in there. I let the stone heat up for 25-30 minutes before I put the pitas in.

Roll out each ball of dough into a thin circle less than 1/4 in thick. I found the thinner ones puffed better. Pop the thin dough onto the pizza stone. Close oven (I kept peeking). The dough will begin to puff-- sometimes it did, sometimes it didn't. As you practice you will get a feel for the dough and start figuring out what makes them puff and what doesn't. My puffed when they were thin and I left them in for a little longer. Once they puff (about 2-3 min) flip with tong and cook for a minute longer. Use tongs to remove and put in a nice towel and cover. Repeat for the other pitas.

Souvlaki Marinade:
I have lots of fresh herbs in the garden right now so I added lots of yummy flavors. Use what you have fresh or dried- I'm sure it will taste great
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbs fresh oregano
1 tbs fresh rosemary
1 tbs fresh basil
1 tbs fresh thyme
2 tbs lemon juice
1 tsp salt
Fresh ground pepper to taste

Mix ingredients together.

Cut the meat (I used pork for some of the skewers, chicken for some other skewers) into chunks- marinade meat for a few hours or overnight.

Thread onto bbq skewers (you can add veggies if you want) and grill until lightly charred and meat is cooked through.

Pull off skewers and put into the pitas! Eat and enjoy.

Potatoes with Onions


Greek Doughnuts from Yum Sugar

1 envelope active dry yeast
3 cups warm water
4 cups flour
1 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
Vegetable oil, for frying

For the syrup:
2 cups honey
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup water

Cinnamon, ground, to taste

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in 2 cups warm water, proof for 5 minutes. Add 2 cups of flour to the yeast mixture, whisk to incorporate. Add in the milk and eggs. When fully mixed, add in the other 2 cups of flour. Batter should be thick but not solid, if necessary, thin with more water. Whisk in vanilla. Cover and let rise for about 2 hours.

For the syrup, in a small pot mix together the honey, sugar, and water and bring to a boil, turn down and simmer until completely dissolved and keep warm.

Heat the oil to 360 degrees and with a large spoon, drop the batter into the hot oil. It will immediately puff and come to the surface. When golden brown on both sides, remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Drizzle with warm syrup and sprinkle with cinnamon. Serve immediately.

Overall this meal was really great! The meat was extremely flavorful (I had the chicken skewers, my husband had the pork). The potatoes and onions were to die for-- I ate all the yummy caramelized onion bits before the night was over. My husband enjoyed the greek doughnuts and I thought they were good, but prefer the chewier Italian Zeppole to this lighter fluffier fried dough.

Barefoot Bloggers: Salmon Spread

One day my husband decided he liked salmon. I had never seen the man eat anything that swam or even came close to the water-- no shrimp, lobster, crabs, or any kind of fish. Then he decided he liked the fishiest of the fishes. But I guess thats how the cookies crumbles. This was exciting; now I could try out lots of salmon recipes. Last year when we went to Alaska with the Hubbard clan on a cruise he was in Salmon heaven. He had salmon morning noon and night, and he also had lots of bread pudding.

I just whipped up this spread and it sure looks yummy. Unfortunately my husband is still at work, patrolling the streets til late tonight and I don't think salmon spread at midnight is too appealing. I'll feed it to him tomorrow with some crackers or bagel chips and I am sure he will gobble it down.
If he likes it this would be a great spread for a party-- easy to make and it looks kinda fancy!

Check out the other barefoot bloggers and their salmon delights!

Thanks to Ashley of The Spicy Skillet for picking this tasty recipe that didn't heat up my kitchen!!!

TWD: Cherry Rhubarb Cobbler

This weeks Tuesdays with Dorie challenge was Cherry Rhubarb cobbler. I was lucky enough to stumble upon some rhubarb here in New Jersey while visiting a farmers market. I have never made anything with rhubarb so this recipe was exciting. I know my husband likes his food quite sweet so I was a little nervous that he might not be in love with this cobbler. I did wind up adding a little extra sugar to the filling; I was pouring the sugar into the measuring cup and the lid for the sugar container popped off and extra sugar poured into the bowl. I thinked it worked out to my advantage and worked well for my husband with a serious sweet tooth. The cobbler topping was interesting and consisted of half white flour half wheat flour. It baked up beautifully and was a nice golden brown color. My husband gobbled this up when he came home from work late at 11:30 pm.

Please check out the other cobblers on the TWD website !

My Kitchen My World: Italy

I just joined a new group; as a teacher I have the wonderful luxury of having my summers off so I can indulge in baking and cooking all day and night. My newest group is mykitchenmyworld.

Each week we will prepare cuisine from a different country. For my first week I lucked out! ITALY! I was so excited to know that I would be preparing Italian food. When I first started thinking about what I should prepare, I thought perhaps I should make a very authentic dish- something you would truly eat in a hillside town in Tuscany-- but since I have never been to Tuscany (maybe next summer) I decided to stick with what I know. For those of you who don't know I'm a "Jersey Girl" and of course Italian American. I have a funny jersey accent and use my hands to talk wayyy too much. One time one of my students asked me if I was Italian and I said yes why? she curtly replied because you have such hairy arms----- need I say more.

When watching the opening credits of The Sopranos, my parent's enjoy pointing out the places they know. Now I grew up a world away from where my parents grew up in North jersey and now live in deep South "Slower Lower" Jersey but the influence of my family will always stay with me. My grandma would always make stuffed shells to be eaten before the turkey at Thanksgiving and I was always told that I had "ravioli eyes".

I decided to prepare some Italian American dishes for this challenge-- Ziti with meatballs, breadsticks with Asaigo cheese, tortellini with meatball sausage stuffing and cannoli.

Meatball Ziti

Meatballs are one of my favorite things to make. I usually just through together the ingredients and make adjustments according to how the mixture looks.

Meatballs:
1 lb of ground beef
2 cloves of minced garlic
1 egg
2 tbs minced parsley
3-5 basil leaves finely chopped
Big handful of Parmesan
1/2-3/4 cup of fresh breadcrumbs soaked in a few tablespoons of milk
salt and pepper to taste

Mix ingredients gently and shape into little meatballs for ziti. Pan fry until golden brown.

Ziti:
5 cups tomato sauce
3 cups whole milk ricotta
2 cups shredded mozzarella
1 lb ziti

Preheat oven to 375
Cook ziti until al dente-- set aside. Combine sauce and ricotta in a really big bowl- add in prepared meatballs; gently toss. Add in ziti and gently fold. Pour into a greased 9x13 in pyrex dish. Bake for approx. 40 min at 375. If it looks too brown cover with foil.

Asaigo Breadsticks

2 2/3 cups all purpose Flour
1 pkg yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup warm water
1/4 dry special milk powder (I bought mine from King Arthurs flour)
2 tbs olive Oil
2 tsp sugar

for topping
Butter
garlic
salt/pepper
asaigo cheese

Preheat oven to 375

Mix together dry ingredients in a stand mixer with dough hook. Add wet ingredients and use dough hook to knead for about 5 minutes. Knead by hand on a floured surface for 1 minute. Place dough in an oiled bowl. Cover and let rise until doubled in volume (approx 45 min to 1 hour). Punch down and divide into long thin strips for breadsticks. Spray with oil and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise for about 15 minutes.


Mix together some butter with plenty of garlic. Salt and pepper to taste. Brush over breadsticks liberally. Grate lots of cheese over top. Bake until golden brown about 10- 15 min. Baste a few times while the breadsticks are cooking.

Cannoli:

Bobby Mallozzi of Villa Italia in Schenectady, N.Y.

INGREDIENTS

Cannoli shells

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

• 3 tablespoons sugar

• 2 tablespoons shortening

• 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder

• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda

• 4 tablespoons sweet Marsala wine

• 1 large egg, separated

• vegetable oil (roughly 2 1/2 inches deep in saucepan)

For filling

• 1 lb. fresh ricotta (2 cups)

• 1/4 cup confectioners sugar

• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1/3 cup shelled unsalted pistachios (not dyed red), chopped

• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Special equipment

• pastry bag fitted with a 3/4-inch plain tip

• pasta maker

• 2 heavy-duty oven mitts

• 6 metal cannoli tubes

• deep-fat thermometer

• 4- to 4 1/4-inch round cookie cutter

Garnish

• confectioner's sugar

Make dough for shells
Whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. Add 2 tablespoons shortening and blend in with your fingertips until combined. Add Marsala and yolk and stir until a dough forms.

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, 5 to 7 minutes. Form dough into a disk and wrap tightly in plastic wrap, then let stand at room temperature 1 hour.

Make filling while dough stands
Beat together ricotta, confectioner's sugar and cinnamon in a bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed 1 minute (do not overbeat). Fold in chocolate chips until combined and chill.

Make shells
Set smooth rollers of pasta maker at widest setting. Unwrap dough and cut in half, then lightly flour one piece (keep remaining half covered with plastic wrap). Flatten floured dough into an oval and feed through rollers. Turn dial down 2 notches and feed dough through rollers again. Continue to feed dough through rollers, making space between rollers narrower by 2 notches each time, until narrowest setting is used.

Line a baking sheet with plastic wrap. Transfer rolled dough to a lightly floured surface and cut out 4 or 5 rounds with floured cutter. Transfer rounds to baking sheet and keep covered with more plastic wrap. Roll out remaining dough and cut rounds in same manner. Gather scraps and let stand 10 minutes. Roll out scraps and cut in same manner.

Heat vegetable oil in a 4-quart heavy pot over moderate heat until it registers 350°F on thermometer.

Meanwhile, lightly oil cannoli tubes. Lightly beat egg white, then brush bottom edge of 1 dough round with egg white. Wrap dough around a tube, overlapping ends (egg-white edge should go on top), then press edges together to seal. Make 5 more shells in same manner (keep remaining rounds covered with plastic).

Fry dough on tubes one at a time, turning with metal tongs, until one shade darker, about 45 seconds. Wearing oven mitts, clamp end of hot tubes, one at a time, with tongs and, holding tube vertically, allow shell to slide off tube onto paper towels, gently shaking tube and wiggling shell as needed to loosen. (If you allow shell to cool it will stick to tube and shatter when you try to remove it.) Transfer shells to paper towels to drain and cool tubes before reusing. Wrap remaining dough around tubes and fry in same manner.

Spoon filling into pastry bag and pipe some into one end of a cannoli shell, filling shell halfway, then pipe into other end. Repeat with remaining shells. Garnish with chopped pistachios and confectioner’s sugar.

One Happy Topper

Here is the first picture of one of my favorite toppers (although they are all my favorites). This one was a scavenging adventure! I had to find some pretty swiss dot material to recreate a Melissa Sweet Dora gown (if I could do my wedding over and I wasn't so busty I would wear this dress-- dreamy). I also found some great dotted silk at the most wonderful store in Brattleboro Vt that I used for the base. The wedding is featuring Flame calla lillies orange, yellow with accents of cerulean blue. I made the groom with a snazzy grey suit (just like my hubby wore on our wedding day). I have to give him a little yarmulke. Next I will add a little paper Swiss Alp and a paper Duomo to symbolize some location the couple visited when they first started going out. The bride to be told me they met on the alps while they were hiking-- I met my husband in the Rowan University cafeteria as he was going off to be in some weird kissing contest; the alps just seems so much more romantic!

Vermont Vacation

Hubby and I just got back from a wonderful week and a half vacation to NY state and Vermont! We had a fantastic time- relaxed alot and enjoyed weather that was a bit cooler than hot and sticky New Jersey.

We started out driving to Cooperstown NY, which of course wasn't my pick, but I enjoyed it very much. We stayed a seedy super 8 (I felt itchy right away and thought I was just paranoid until I saw hubby itching away too). We spent the day in Cooperstown; Hubby went to the Baseball Hall of Fame in the morning and I toodled around ( the weather was beautiful). I bought some lunch at a great little deli and met up Hubby. We strolled down to the waterfront and had a tasty lunch. I joined him at the Hall of Fame for the afternoon and it wasn't as bad as I thought! Baseball is actually interesting!

We trekked up to Vermont and spent the rest of the week crisscrossing the state. We took a baking class at King Arthur, kayaked, went for a trip on a sailboat and hiked a crazy trail that got me really grumpy (I wound up falling on my way back down to the car)

We also celebrated our one year anniversary and watched about a million episodes of The Office-- Bears, Beets, Battlestar Gallactica (need I say more)

It is good to be home, but I must have told Hubby a thousand times that I wished he were a teacher too so we could buy a tiny cottage in Vermont and spend the whole summer eating Ben and Jerry's and kayaking!

Cheddar Jalapeno Cornbread

I've just joined a new group--- Barefoot Bloggers! This group cooks 2 Barefoot Contessa/Ina Garten recipes a month.

This weeks recipe was Cheddar Jalapeño Cornbread. Luckily my wonderful Husband gobbles up cornbread faster than I can make it. Last week, before I realized what the challenge was, I baked him a big tray of plain cornbread. I have been fiddling around with different recipes trying to find the perfect one. The recipe I made last week was ok, but it didn't get an beautiful brown color on top.

I was excited about this recipe because it had the additional flavors of Cheddar, Jalapeño and Scallion added in. The recipe was fairly simple to put together- Mix dry ingredients- mix wet ingredients - add in cheese, jalapeño, and scallion and let it sit for awhile- then pop it in the oven. I took the time while the cornbread was cooking to clean up the kitchen and make it spic and span (something it needed desperately!) The smell of the cornbread was delicious!

It came out beautifully brown and cheesy, and my Hubby declared it "tasty" as well as a good ratio of jalapeño to cheddar (whatever that means) I will definitely make this recipe again especially if I am making a big pot of chili (but it is a hot humid summer here in New Jersey and I am too sticky and overheated to cook chili). I would also like to try this recipe plain-- I think it would be a good base for my cornbread stuffing.

Final topper

I thought I would post a quick picture of the final topper for Erin. Look at all the cute little animals that are included on the base! I think this topper turned out really chic-- the burgundy and black look really sophisticated!

Yet another topper

I think this topper is really chic--- The bride has a beautiful flow-y dress with silver embroidery on the bodice and along the empire waist. She requested that the groom be dressed in a velvet tux (just like the one I did for my wedding). The colors of the wedding are going to be merlot, black and ivory. I have yet to put the couple's may pets on the topper, but I am sure they are going to make it even cuter!

The buildings you see are two buildings from Houston's skyline. I tried to pick two that were recognizable, but since I have never been to Houston, I hope that I did ok in picking.
I still need to add some ribbon to the base design and polish up a few details.

I also have been polishing up the last topper I made. I added some orange accents and a few tiny pinecones as requested by the bride. Hopefully she will like my design!