Posted on 11/28/2017 3:26:23 PM PST by Jamestown1630
Now that Thanksgiving has passed, the bustle of preparing for Christmas begins. This weekend my husband put up our lights (every year he adds a little something, and by now I suspect our balcony and windows can be seen from space) and we've got most of the gift shopping done. Now I'm thinking about food.
I have never made Christmas cookies as much as I’d like because I felt they had to be done close to the holiday, when I'm usually very busy; and many recipes lose a lot if you freeze the baked product.
For some reason I didn’t think to make at least the dough ahead and freeze that, though I’ve done it with savory pastries. Here from All Recipes is a guide to freezing and then baking your cookie dough, and even your cookies:
http://dish.allrecipes.com/freezing-cookies-and-cookie-dough/
I recently obtained a copy of the first Food52 cookbook, " the first-ever online community cookbook", which has a lot of very interesting recipes, including a good recipe for Eggplant Parmigiana, and a roasted beet/citrus salad that I want to try.
It's a very nice book, the Kindle version of which is currently available on Amazon for $.99; and it includes ‘Secret Cookies’ - which apparently got their name because they were passed down in confidence by an elderly woman who said, “After I’m gone, you may give out the recipe.”:
https://food52.com/recipes/165-secret-cookies
-JT
Those sound very good, and they’re beautiful!
Peanut Butter Swirls
ING 1/2 cup shortening 1 cup sugar 1/2 c chunk style peanut butter 1 egg 2 tbl milk 1 1/4 cup sifted flour 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp soda 1 6oz. pkg. semi sweet chocolate chips
METHOD Cream 1/2 c shortening and cup sugar. Beat in 1/2 c chunky p/butter, egg and 2 tb milk. Stir in sifted 1 1/4 c flour, 1/2 tsp ea salt, and soda. Place dough on lightly floured waxed paper, roll into 15x8x1/4" rectangle.
Melt chocolate over hot water. Cool slightly, spread over dough. Roll like jelly roll, lifting waxed paper slightly with each turn, chill 1/2 hour.
FINAL Slice cookies 1/4" thick. Place on ungreased baking sheet. Bake 375 deg 8-10 min.
This is the closest recipe I have found that resembles the date squares my Mom made every Christmas. She made dozens of them and handed them out as gifts.
https://www.rockrecipes.com/newfoundland-date-crumbles/
And now my favourite bar of all time. I used to make them many times a year while I lived in Canada, then stopped until hubby reminded me to start making them again. I could not find the original recipe I used, but this one comes close to what I remember. I love this Canadian food blogger’s recipes and photos.
http://www.closetcooking.com/2008/12/nanaimo-bars.html
Here is the lady who developed these bars as a signature dessert for her catering company. I took several classes from her when I lived in Vancouver BC.
ht.com/food/639276/lazy-gourmet-shares-easy-nanaimo-bar-recipe-mothers-day
trying again:
https://www.straight.com/food/639276/lazy-gourmet-shares-easy-nanaimo-bar-recipe-mothers-day
Oh boy, great topic!
But first I was to digress to a prior topic - about instant pots. I haven’t got one yet because I know I won’t be able to part with the things it will replace and will end up with just one more appliance.
BUT my crockpot was totally inadequate for keeping mashed potatoes warm for Thanksgiving. My newer crockpot cooked the edges of the potatoes, which I should have anticipated, knowing it gets way too hot.
So - my question is does the instant pot have adjustable heat settings? Since it keeps warm as well as being a slow cooker, I would assume so. After my older crockpot dies, I might need to get one. I should have got one on Black Friday-a friend got a good deal on amazon then.
Aldi’s is great! The only thing i noticed that isn’t as good as name brand is their pepperoncini (was very vinegary, more than normal and their corn chips (denser or some textural difference)
What sector Aldi’s is the ready to bake sourdough? I can’t believe I missed something at Aldi’s, LOL!
Sorry your teeth aren’t working for you!
Have you seen the bags of unwrapped candy? I can’t buy those because I can eat them too fast! At least having to unwrap slows me down, lol!
I was expecting something tropical from the name!
At ours, it’s down that first corridor as you enter; about 3/4ths the way down, on the left. (Aldi stores seem to all be set up the same way, so I hope this helps ;-)
I was really impressed with the bread. You bake it in the oven for a little while, and it comes out with a nice crispy crust and soft insides. Great flavor!
So far, my husband has been the Instant Pot Engineer; so I’ll have to ask him and get back to you. But it has a lot of auto settings, while you can also do everything manually.
My grandfather always had a package of the lemon coolers, his favorite.
Our Walmart has Archway cookies. I am on love w/ the soft frosted molasses drops. Strangely they are on a rack by the freezer section.
I make these up and freeze the dough until ready to bake. Nice with a good glass of port, fruit compote and ice cream.
https://www.davidlebovitz.com/zaletti-italian-cornmeal-cookie-recipe/
METHOD Proc/pulse/finely 1 1/2 c dried apricots. Mix in well 2 c flaked coconut. Stir in 2/3 c sweet/cond/milk; evenly blend. SHAPE into inch balls. Roll in conf. Firm up at room temp. Store in fridge.
CHOCOLATE-DIPPED: Shape 3/4" balls; omit conf step. DIP in melted chocolate. Liftout w/ fork, drip off excess; set on wax paper to harden.
CHOCOLATE Micro 2 cups semi/choc/chips, 2 tsp shortening on HIGH a min. Stir. Can micro 10-15 sec more to melt/stir smooth.
First: Disclaimer! We have only had our Instant Pot for a few weeks, and haven’t explored all its possibilities or used ours as a slow-cooker. But we knew that it could be used as one, and the Instant Pot website has lots of instructional videos. We found the one below, but the venting position information seems to apply to a different (perhaps older?) model than we have - ours vents with the indicator in one position only.
It’s a good basic video; except for the venting difference on the model shown, the manual controls for time/temp seem to work the same as ours, and I imagine as most of them do. But remember that your own model may differ, and you would have to research that - it will come with a lot of instructions/recipes to start you off.
If you are not really interested in pressure cooking, you might rather spend the money on a top-of-line slow-cooker. (The reason this interested us was the time-saving factor, especially for cooking meat-meals on weeknights, and making bone broth.)
Here are the slow-cooker instructions from the Instant Pot site:
https://instantpot.com/portfolio-item/how-to-and-in-depth-videos/#toggle-id-4
There are many vlogs, blogs, ‘communities’, etc., who share information about this appliance; you just have to do research.
Hope this helps.
Those sound great and I have a bag of dried papaya I’ve been wanting to use up. Papaya and coconut sounds good. I am just not into chocolate. I know - shocking.
What is “Roll in conf.”? Confectioner sugar??
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