Daddy’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

16 June, 20138 July, 2014Marissa

First, I feel like I should explain something about the last post not having a title. I didn’t catch it until it was posted to Facebook, and by that time my subscribers had already received an e-mail with a cryptic number in the subject line. If you, like my mother, reread the article obsessively trying to figure out what that number meant, I apologize.

My dad had two requests for Father’s Day: deviled eggs and chocolate chip cookies. There are certain people I associate with different foods — my mother with Caramel Apple Coffee Cake, snickerdoodles with a friend, sugar cookies and Grandpa — and chocolate chip cookies will always make me think of my daddy. It is such a wonderful ego boost to be baking these cookies and have him come through the kitchen and tell me how amazing they smell and what a wonderful daughter I am. I suppose baking chocolate chip cookies is one of my ways of telling him what a wonderful father he is.

Real Chocolate Chip Cookies

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1 cup butter, softened

¾ cups sugar

¾ cups brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

2 ¼ cups flour (I use 1 cup whole wheat and the rest white, unbleached)

6-8 ounces chocolate chips.

In a large bowl combine butter sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. stir until creamy. Beat in eggs, one at a time.

Add baking soda and salt, then stir. Gradually add flours. Mix well before stirring in chocolate chips.

Drop by rounded spoonfuls of dough onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 375°F for 7-9 minutes, or until the edges are just starting to turn golden brown.

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Zucchini Bread

10 June, 20138 July, 2014Marissa

This recipe comes from an old cookbook of my mother’s. It’s been used so much that the front and back covers are missing and the page for zucchini bread is so stained it’s getting hard to read. I’m not sure if it’s because of the original recipe or just the slight adjustment’s we’ve made, but I’ve never seen or tasted zucchini bread quite like this. It’s dark and moist and has a really nice texture.

I made these loaves to take for after-church snacks, but we accidentally left the plate at home. It’s not going to be too much of a hardship to eat them all by ourselves though, and it does freeze pretty well if we need to pop some of it in the freezer.

Zucchini Bread

3 eggs

2 cups brown sugar

1 cup oil

2 tsp. vanilla

2 ½ cups flour (I use 1 cup whole wheat, 1 ½ cup all-purpose)

2 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp salt

3 tsp. cinnamon

2 cups grated, raw zucchini, no seeds (frozen or fresh works equally well)

1 cup chopped walnuts

Beat or whisk the first four ingredients in a medium bowl. Add dry ingredients and mix with a silicon spatula or wooden spoon. Mix in nuts and zucchini.

Pour batter into 2 greased loaf pans. Bake at 350°F for 50-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

Potato Soup and Bread

29 May, 20138 July, 2014Marissa

Chunky Potato Soup with my unimpressive bread

I tried something new for dinner last night. I’d been feeling like potato soup and a nice crusty bread for days, and finally decided to make it. I couldn’t find a potato soup recipe I really liked, so I combined elements from this recipe and this recipe. I must be getting better at doing this, because it was such a hit I’m not going to have to do any more tweaking.

For the bread, I started with this Rosemary Olive Oil Bread recipe. But since I had no rosemary (and the texture reminds me of pine needles) I altered the recipe a little. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out quite like I hoped. I thought it was a complete failure, but the rest of my family said they liked it. Or, more specifically, my brother told me “Maybe I like it ’cause it tastes like flour and I like eating flour.” Needless to say, I’ll be doing more work on that recipe.

Speaking of working on bread recipes, I’m going to start experimenting with gluten-free, egg-free breads leavened with baking soda. I like a cooking challenge, so this is going to be interesting.

Chunky Potato Soup

3 cups/ 4 potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 small carrot, chopped

2 cups chicken broth

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon onion powder

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 cups milk

½ cup sour cream

1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley

1 tablespoon chopped chives

½ cup shredded cheese

In a large saucepan, combine the potatoes, carrot, broth, and dried seasonings. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 12-15 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Add 1-3/4 cups milk. Combine flour with remaining milk; stir to form a smooth paste. Add to soup, stirring constantly. Bring to a boil; boil and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened and bubbly. Add a small amount of hot liquid to sour cream; stir to mix. Gradually add to soup, stirring constantly; heat through but do not boil. Add fresh herbs. Remove from the heat; stir in cheese until melted.

General Tso’s Chicken

16 May, 20138 July, 2014Marissa

This is one of the recipes that has earned me the title “Red-Headed Chinese Chef” here at home. The original recipe came from a forwarded e-mail, and I don’t know the exact source. It’s one of the more involved Chinese recipes I make and takes at least an hour to prepare (count on longer for the first time making it), but it’s well worth the effort. We mainly cook this for special occasions — it is the dish my mom requested for Mother’s Day.

The most important step for this dish is frying the chicken. You want to make sure the breading is sticky, almost to the point where you can’t stir the chicken/breading mixture. That will make for a nice crispy coating that won’t get soggy once you add the sauce.

General Tso’s Chicken

Chicken/Breading

3 lbs. chicken meat (this recipe tastes best with thigh meat, but chicken breast works as well)

¼ cup soy sauce

1 tsp pepper

1 egg

1 cup tapioca starch (corn starch will work as well)

Cut chicken into medium-size chunks. In medium bowl, mix chicken, ¼ cup soy sauce and pepper. Stir in egg. Add 1 cup tapioca starch and mix until chicken pieces are coated evenly. Chicken should be sticky with coating. If breading seems too thin, add more starch.

Add a little vegetable oil to help separate chicken pieces. Divide chicken into small quantities and deep−fry until crispy.

Sauce

½ cup tapioca starch

¼ cup water

1 ½ tsp. minced garlic

1 ½ tsp. minced ginger root

¾ cup sugar

½ cup soy sauce

¼ cup rice vinegar

¼ cup rice wine

1½ cup hot chicken broth

For sauce, mix cup tapioca starch with water. Add garlic, ginger, sugar, ½ cup soy sauce, vinegar, wine, and chicken broth. Stir until sugar dissolves. Refrigerate until needed.

Place a small amount of oil in wok and heat until wok is hot. Add 4-10 hot peppers and stir−fry briefly. (The number of peppers depends on how hot you want the dish and the type of peppers you are using. Lately, I’ve been using frozen cyan peppers, and I need 4-6.)

Add desired vegetables and stir-fry. (I use broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower. Some General Tso’s Chicken is served without vegetables, others with only broccoli and water chestnuts. It’s an individual choice.) Stir sauce and add to wok. Place chicken in sauce and cook until sauce thickens. Serve with hot rice.

Super Easy Crepes

8 May, 20138 July, 2014Marissa

I woke up this morning with the intention of writing freelance articles, cleaning the closet, and working on a paper quilling wedding present – with no time for a blog post. But when I opened a Mother’s Day Tracfone flyer that came in the mail yesterday, I was greeted by a recipe for “Yummy Crepes.” I wasn’t sure how good a recipe that came from Tracfone could be, but they looked so good that I tried it and it tasted so good I have to share it.

The crepes only took about 20 minutes from start to finish. We filled them with strawberry and raspberry jam and sprinkled them with powdered sugar. I think they would taste really good with fresh fruit, but we didn’t have any.

Yummy Crepes

1 cup all-purpose flour (I replaced ¼ cup of this with white whole wheat flour)

2 eggs

½ cup milk

½ cup water

¼ teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons melted butter

Whisk together flour and eggs. Gradually add in milk and water, stirring to combine. Add the salt and butter then beat until smooth.

Heat a lightly oiled frying pan or griddle over medium high heat. Use approximately ¼ cup for each crape and pour on griddle (this made 9 crepes for me).

Cook crepe until the bottom is light brown. Turn and cook the other side.

Roll up or fold the crepe with fresh fruit, drizzle on some chocolate, or sprinkle with powdered sugar. Serve hot.

More Cheesecake, No Sugar

18 April, 201330 April, 2013Marissa

Between writing about cheesecake yesterday and baking one today, I have cheesecake on my mind. Ergo, here’s another recipe, this time sugar-free. I came up with this recipe for a friend who loves cheesecake but can’t eat sugar or artificial sweeteners (which I refuse to use anyway).

The entire cake is sweetened with honey. This crust can be a little hard to work with, but the taste is worth the extra effort. The first time I baked this, the crust stuck to the bottom of the pan and people were scraping it off to eat by itself. The filling has a really nice texture, even smoother than a regular cheesecake, and the honey taste isn’t overpowering.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a photograph of this cheesecake. I found a picture on Google, though, which looks similar to mine. Most other recipes top honey cheesecakes with honey or caramel before serving, but I’ve never done that with mine. I think it would be way too sweet.

Honey Cheesecake

Crust

1 cup walnuts, ground
2 Tablespoons honey
¼ cup butter
¼ tsp. ground cinnamon
add flour as needed to hold it together (about 1/2 cup)

Mix crust and press into 9-inch spring-form pan. (crust is sticky, so I line the pan with aluminum foil). Bake at 325°F for 5-10 minutes.

Filling

3 (8-oz.) packages cream cheese, softened
¾ cup honey
3 eggs, at room temperature
¼ cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

While crust is baking, beat cream cheese and ¾ cup honey with a mixer in large bowl at medium speed until smooth, scraping down bowl’s sides occasionally, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time; beat in cream and vanilla. Beat in flour, cinnamon and salt. Pour into crust.

Bake at 325°F for about 1 hour or until lightly browned and a little puffed. Cheesecake will jiggle in the center but will set as it cools. Cool on a wire rack 2 hours. Once cool, you should be able to lift the cake and peal off the aluminum foil. Cover and refrigerate.