Watermelon Cookies Part 2

Okay, after a couple days of the dough chillin' in the fridge my little cook and I finally had a chance to finish the cookies. It helped that Daddy was there to keep the baby company. First we had to get the dough a chance to warm up a bit and then we could roll the white part of the dough into a rectangle, then we placed the red dough (in a log shape) on the plain rectangle and rolled it up. Then we had to take the green dough and roll it out to a slightly larger rectangle to place the log of dough into.

One thing we learned while making these cookies is that sleep deprivation makes for a confused chef. I read the recipe incorrectly and we should have refrigerated the dough overnight after this process - however, we pressed on and let this dough chill before slicing.

I didn't get a picture of the slicing of the cookies, mainly because Kirah's hands were too greasy to hold my camera and I couldn't slice and take a picture at the same time...
But after slicing, we started the decoration with small chopped up raisins and sesame seeds to simulate the watermelon seeds.

Ack! I just noticed my knife perilously close to the edge of the counter. Not the best mom/chef move!

Waiting for the cookies to bake...

Here they are fresh out of the oven,

And Kirah presenting her amazing cookies,

And serving them to Daddy,

And the results,

Watermelon Cookies Pt. 1

I am finally getting back into cooking for fun rather than just for sustenance and part of that is stemming from Kirah's love of watching cooking shows with me on that network dedicated to Food. She has asked recently to help me with dinner and while we are doing it she wants to pretend we are doing our own cooking show. And it dawned on me that I have this great blog I started and never update - why not resurrect it and get Kirah involved?! 

So we pulled out my numerous recipe magazines to pick our first cooking show selection. I thought having Kirah pick something out would make it more fun for her to participate. So I grabbed all my Taste Of Home magazines from the June/July issues and let her at it. She picked the Watermelon Cookies from the 2003 issue, and having all the ingredients already in the house, I thought it was the perfect reentry into the blog. Not to mention something fun I could do with my kid. She's been getting the short end of the attention stick lately as the baby takes up most of mine. But that's another blog ;)  http://twelveoheighterm.blogspot.com

This will be a picture heavy blog as our videographer was at work ;)

The ingredients:

Butter - already in mixer bowl, flour, sugar, etc. I think you can read the rest. But since this is a blog involving my daughter and her adventures in cooking with me - here's a better picture of the ingredients we need for a successful cooking show!

Not to mention the cute apron too ("Mom, make sure you see my feet")

So we started our cookie dough by creaming the sugar into the softened butter,

After we added the egg and the almond extract, and Kirah wanted a picture of herself with our mixer;

Then we combined the dry ingredients and began to add them slowly to our butter mixture;

Then once that was all incorporated (Kirah's favorite cooking word) we had to tint part of the douhg red;

And in the spirit of sharing the air time, Kirah wanted to take a picture of me... (two things about this photo - 1. I'm not naked. 2. I used to work for the siren of coffee and I kept the apron.) I am tinting part of the dough green for the outside of the 'watermelon slice'.

We did learn something partway through, or rather I realized too late in my sleep deprived haze that we need to put Kirah's hair up BEFORE we start... here she is with our dough bundles;

Then all the dough needed to be refrigerated overnight to firm up before making the cookies - I debated posting this photo as you can see my messy fridge - but I'm going for reality here, so;

Now we have dough chilling and will be waiting for a break in Mommy/infant duties to finsh the cookies and

bring you part two of this episode.  

Ghosts and cookies

I'm trying to write my book again. I've decided it's too hoity toity to call it a novel, because really, who am I fooling that I could write a novel. It's a ghost story and I want it to be historically accurate to the time period and place. So I've been trying to find some books about Iron Ore mining, having babies in the early 1900's, and late Victorian architecture. Mostly I am looking at pictures on the web of Queen Ann style Victorian houses and that is amazingly fun. And its a great way to say I'm researching before I actually write. I have tried out several starts to the story; writing it in first person - not sure I like that, writing it from the past and present - going back and forth in each chapter, and jumping right into quirky characters finding their way through life that just happens to be in a haunted house. And honestly that just feels hokey. "They" say write what you know, but I want to explore this story I've had in my head for 3 years now. It's totally made up - not anything I know. Well I know the area I'm setting the story and I know about suddenly owning your first house. But my house isn't haunted and I'm not living in a Queen Ann Victorian. And then I torture myself wondering what the heck I would do with the book anyway once I've actually written something I like. Send it to...where? I'm sure thousands of people send in mediocre transcripts of 'novels' every day to publishers. But I am getting way ahead of myself. I haven't even finished more than two chapters. Just venting, free writing usually helps me get past a block and why not publish it in my blog?!

Sigh, maybe we'll go make more cookies.

Here's what we made day before yesterday. I sent three dozen of them to work with Mark so I wouldn't eat them all. Recipe is in Cook's Country magazine. Might be able to find it on Cook's Illustrated website; Peanut Blossom Cookies.

Cabin Fever Fun

So the last month has been full of ice, snow, rain, more snow, and cold. Very cold. So cold that we haven't been able to play outside more than once in the last month and we are slowly going crazy in our sun deprived state. So what else is there to do but bake? I ask this question daily to my 4 year old and she hasn't yet come up with a good alternative, so bake we do. And most often it involves chocolate, because my idea of combating SADD is to eat more chocolate, the darker the better.



This recipe I copied out of Pillsbury cookbook years ago. I think it was one of the first winners of their national bake off. And I've seen versions of this recipe in other places, but I have no idea where that cookbook went, so I can't give specific copy right information...sorry.

Chocolate Pixies

1/4 cup butter
4 oz unsweetened chocolate (4 squares), chopped
2 C All purpose flour
2 C sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 C powdered sugar

In a large sauce pan, melt butter and chocolate over low heat, stirring constantly until smooth. Remove from heat, cool slightly. Add flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and eggs. Mix well. Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour for easier handling. Heat oven to 300 degrees F. Lightly grease cookie sheets.



Shape dough into 1" balls and roll in powdered sugar, coating heavily. Place 2" apart on cookie sheets. Bake 13-18 mins. Remove promptly from cookie sheet to wire racks to cool. Store in air tight container and enjoy!

Tuna Pinwheels

Tuna Filling
2 5 oz cans White Albacore Tuna
1 celery stalk, diced
1 Tbs pimentos, drained
1/2 tsp Lemon Pepper
1/4 cup Tzatziki sauce
dash of lemon juice

Pinwheel
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup veg shortening
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
Up to 1 cup of milk

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix tuna, celery, pimentos, lemon pepper, tzatziki sauce and lemon juice in small bowl, set aside. In a large bowl mix flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles lumpy crumbs. Add just enough milk to make dough, it should not be too sticky. Roll out on floured surface to a 12 X 7 inch rectangle (roughly). Spread tuna mixture to 1/2 inch of edges. Start with one long side and roll up. Then slice in large pieces, roughly 1 1/2 inch. Place on greased cookie sheet and bake for 15-18 mins or until golden brown.

I sometimes serve this with cream of mushroom or celery soup as a "gravy" by only mixing in half a can of water.



Stay tuned for my Garlicy Green Beans.

Hungry and curious

So FoodTv has this show called The Best Thing I Ever Ate and while that show has 'famous' chef's telling you what they enjoyed, I got to thinking. What's the best thing I ever ate. A few things come to mind.

A mashed potato bake my grandmother made for one Christmas, it was tangy and smooth - warm and comforting. It had cream cheese in it and she sprinkled it with paprika. I've never gotten her recipe and I'm thinking if I asked her now, she may not remember it. (It was at least 25 years ago)

The second thing I remember is a Tomato and Basil soup I had at Warwick Castle in 1997. Delish! It was warm, perfectly spiced and I've wanted to recreate it myself, but never had the guts because if it didn't taste the same, I would be disappointed.

The third, and decidedly the best thing of late is a sandwich I had here, in Des Moines. It's a grilled sandwich with great crusty bread, goat cheese, beets and prosciutto...oh my heaven. The salty prosciutto and the tangy creamy goat cheese, with the tart beets. SO good. And yet, I haven't been back there to have it again. I fear my memory of it might out do its actual taste. I don't want to ruin the sensory memory, but my drooling may force me to try again.

What about the best thing YOU ever ate?

Club Quiche and why I'll never be a good food blogger

So with Thanksgiving over and done with I still have leftover turkey. And last night's dinner was going to incorporate it one way or another. (I'm tired of moving the leftover container of turkey around) And I wanted Quiche. I love pie crust and have a pretty easy recipe for it. So leftover turkey, quiche...what could I do with that? I really only like turkey when it is roasted - so Thanksgiving dinner and then the only other way I enjoy it is in a club sandwich. What's not to like, turkey, ham, bacon...wait! There's my quiche.

Club Quiche
1 9 " unbaked pie crust
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup evaporated milk
4 T. flour
1/4 tsp ground mustard
1/2 cup shredded turkey
1/4 cup diced ham, bologna - whatever you got
1/2 lb shredded colby cheese, approx 2 cups
4 strips cooked bacon

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Place pie crust in 9" pie pan and set aside. In medium bowl mix eggs, milk, flour, and mustard. Blend to combine. Stir in turkey, ham & cheese; pour into pie crust. Place bacon on top of filling. Bake for 1 hour, putting a piece of foil over the top if getting too brown.


And for the reason I'll never be a good food blogger...I ALWAYS forget to take pictures of the process. Part of it is because my only good camera is a film camera and I'd have to wait a while before loading the pictures and the other part is that I'm too excited to eat it. And when I discover I want to publish it on my blog...it's been devoured and I'm too excited to post the recipe before I make it again to take the pictures. So there, that's why I'll never be Pioneer Woman. That lady has patience and a little OCD. Otherwise how else could she make her blog look so perfect?!

thepioneerwoman.com