Gingerbread Stars: Let the Cookie Palooza Begin!

COOKIE
DISCLAIMER: In order to provide recipes prior to the Christmas season, I will publish photos at a later time. I can not be held responsible for the appearance of your cookies. I reserve the right to reject any comments that may be calumniatory or disparaging. I began mixing and freezing cookie doughs early to accommodate a busy holiday schedule, pictures will follow. I PROMISE.

This is a wonderful dough from Bo Friberg. Perfect for Christmas! Light and crispy this wafer thin cookie will melt on your tongue. The original recipe does not include icing, however a wonderful friend and fellow self made cook created an amazing way to top off the cookie. She created a lemon glaze to drizzle on top and if you really want to guild the lily . . . you can sprinkle them with edible glitter flakes. I have cut this recipe in half, it makes a gazillion cookies, feel free to double and the proportions will be correct, but there is really no need. This cookie comes together so easily you will love love love it, the dough does need to chill overnight, so plan ahead, but it can be kept refrigerated, covered for 2 months. The options for this cookie are endless, use it for a gingerbread house, men or as described here. Remember, the dough MUST be rolled paper thin for cookies so they do not turn out hard and inedible.
Recipe
7 1/2 ounces unsalted butter
7 1/2 ounces granulated sugar
10 ounces light corn syrup
3 ounces whole milk
1 pound 5 ounces bread flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 T cinnamon
1 T cloves
1 T ginger
Yeilds: approximately 120 cookies

Dough Preparation
In a sauce pot large enough to accommodate all of your ingredients, stir together, butter, sugar, corn syrup & milk over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and sift together dry ingredients and stir into the pot. Line a rimmed baking dish with parchment paper and pour dough onto sheet, spreading it into an even thickness. Refrigerate, covered overnight. Roll out the dough in small batches on a floured surface, I roll about 1 sixth of the dough at a time to 1/16 inch thick. You will almost be able to see through the dough, but don't worry it rolls beautifully. Cut out cookies using a 3-inch star cutter and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. I like to chill the cookies again or freeze at this point to bake at a later time. Re-chilling will help your cookies keep their shape, this applies to any dough. Set dough scraps to the side and re-roll when you have finished with the first batch. Bake at 400 degrees for 7-10 minutes, the cookies will be crisp and a rich brown color.

Lemon Icing
Juice of 1 lemon
1 C approximately powdered sugar
Stir lemon juice into sugar a little at a time to reach desired consistency. The icing should flow easily, place icing in a small tipped squeeze bottle and drizzle over cooled cookies, sprinkle while wet with edible glitter flakes optional.

WoW wine of the week

I realize the wine I am about to list is a summer wine, but oh well, label me a procrastinator. Beep grabbed this one at Central Market this summer and we quickly fell in love with it's effervescent citrusy flavor!
I am not sure what I like more, the taste or the bottle. With the simple vertical printed name on the front you peer through the clear liquid to a beautiful painted woman, (plus I have a tough time with names, so the appearance of the bottle is extremely important to me) it is unmistakable.
Drum roll please. . . the wine of the week is . . . New Age. New Age comes from one of Argentina's oldest wineries, founded in 1928 by Italian immigrant, Valentin Bianchi. You can get additional info on this wine from their rep, Quintessential Wine, http://www.quintessentialwines.com. They price it at $9.99, I believe Central Market had it priced at $10, but it could be more, it is Central Market after all. ENJOY! (Summer or not.)

Cabo Review

Sooo . . . as promised here is a quick review and photo story of our trip to La Palmilla. Simply said, it was the trip of a life time. The hotel and grounds were exquisite. It was like being transported to a tropical paradise, 1950's style. From Here to Eternity couldn't hold a candle to the romantic atmosphere of this place.
We were greeted at the airport with cool scented cloths and water by our driver and quickly whisked away to the resort, entertained by a video preview of all La Palmilla's amenities and offerings.
Stepping out of our car we promptly received guava and passion fruit popsicles to enjoy as we were escorted to our accommodations and given a brief tour of the grounds. Our butler was waiting and introduced to us upon entering our room, he courteously described each indulgence our quarters had to offer, from the complimentary tequila with spiced almonds to the daily fruit and appetizer selections. Be it in our room, by the pool or at the hotel's restaurants, I have never been so pampered at any resort.
Cabo was great too, filled our days and nights with food, fun and entertainment and we didn't even hit the water. Places like The Office, Slim's Elbo Room Bar, Cabo Wabo, Squid Roe, and La Golondrina (The Trailer Park) Restaurant are must sees and offer unforgettable experiences. I can't wait for our next visit so we can actually do something besides eat and drink.

Marscapone Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake

Here's a yummy fall treat. Honestly, I had some left over ingredients that I needed to use, so I combined two recipes to create this creamy Autumn dessert. You can substitute vanilla wafers or ginger snaps for the crust, but a like the simple graham cracker. The picture is stock from Kraft, I am not a photographer, so when I can steal from someone who is, I do. My motto, "If someone has already done it better, let them."
Crust
1 1/2 C graham cracker crumbs
1 T sugar
4 oz. melted butter

Filling
16 oz. cream cheese
12 oz. mascarpone cheese
3/4 C sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 t. ground vanilla
1/4 t. salt
1 C canned pumpkin
1 t. ground cinnamon
1/4 t. freshly ground nutmeg
pinch ground ginger
pinch ground clove

Prepare Crust
Mix crumbs and sugar together, add melted butter and pat into a buttered 9 inch spring form pan or a buttered 9x13 square baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Cool. Meanwhile mix filling.
Prepare Filling
Beat cream cheese and mascarpone cheese, add sugar and beat at medium high speed until fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add vanilla and salt, mix on low until combined. In a separate bowl combine pumpkin and remaining ingredients. Set aside 1 1/2 C of the vanilla cheesecake and stir the remaining vanilla mixture into the pumpkin mixture. Spoon half of the pumpkin mixture on to the crust, top with spoonfuls of the vanilla mixture. Repeat both layers and swirl with a knife.
Bake at 325 degrees: 25-30 minutes for the 9 inch version and 18-20 minutes for the 9x13 version. The center will still tremble slightly, cool at room temperature then cover and refrigerate 2-4 hours.

Easy Apple Turnovers

Apples could quite possibly be the perfect fruit of the Fall! No wonder Eve was tempted. I should have posted these recipes in October, but in Dallas it just started feeling like Fall. I suppose I am a product of my environment. Smelling the buttery pastry baking is like heaven. A fire in the fireplace, your favorite sweater and warm apples in your belly! YUM YUM
Puff Pastry 1 recipe below, or for the terminally lazy, 2 boxes of
Pepperidge Farm puff pastry sheets. You can brush finished turnovers with an egg wash and top with large crystal sugar or I like to top them with an almond glaze.
2 Granny Smith apples diced
2 McIntosh apples diced
2 T butter
1 T apple cider vinegar
3 T sugar
1 t cinnamon (Chinese Cassia)
1 tube almond paste


Quick Puff Pastry
1 pound flour
1 pound cold unsalted butter
1/4 ounce salt (dissolve in the water)
8 ounces ice-cold water
Place flour in mixing bowl. Cut the butter, which should be firm, but not hard, into 1 inch pieces. Mix butter & flour on low/med. speed until you have walnut/pea sized lumps. Add water mixture to four mixture and mix only until dough can be handled. There should be lumps of butter. Shape into a square and rest for 30 minutes in the refrigerator. Roll the dough to 1/2 inch thick into a rectangle. Give the dough three 4 fold turns, turning the dough 90 degrees after each fold before rolling back to 1/2 thickness. ( A 4 fold turn means you will fold the outer edges in to meet in the middle, also known as a book fold.)

To assemble the turnovers . . . Saute apples in butter in a skillet over medium heat, 2-3 minutes until they begin to soften. Add vinegar to pan, cook until evaporated, then add the sugar and cook until it dissolves. Remove pan from heat and stir in cinnamon. Set the apples aside to cool, roll out pastry to desired size. I like to cut mine in approximately 3X3 inch squares for a 3 bite turnovers. Pinch off about 1/2 tsp. amount of almond paste to place in the center of each turnover. Prepare a small bowl with water to seal your turnovers. You are ready for assembly. Add cooled apple filling to the center on top of almond paste, dipping your finger in the water bowl, line each edge of turnover with water then fold top left corner to meet the bottom right corner to form a triangle. Press to seal the edges and twist dough to seal or use the end of a fork, pressing edges to seal tightly. You can re-chill finished turnovers and bake, but I like to flash freeze them on the baking sheet and once frozen place them in a freezer zip-top bag to bake on a whim. (I love being able to take a few out of the freezer and bake when ever we want a sweet treat.) Prior to freezing you can brush with water or egg wash and top with sugar if desired.
Bake
Preheat oven to 350 degrees, place turnovers straight from the freezer on to a parchment lined baking sheet and bake until golden brown. Approximately 12-15 minutes. If you are baking more than one pan, rotate half way through cooking.

Almond Glaze
1 C powdered sugar
1 T. melted butter
1/2 tsp. almond extract
Warm Water 1 Tablespoon at a time until you reach desired consistency. I always just "eyeball" this part. Add melted butter and extract to sugar, then stir in warm water. Drizzle over warm turnovers.

Bacon Lollipops

SWEET & SPICY, these are a crowd pleaser! There is eye candy . . . but this is BACON CANDY. Let's face it, every thing's better with bacon!

Ingredients:
1 pkg. bread sticks I use Alessi brand, there are 25/pkg.
10 bacon strips I use Blue Ribbon hickory smoked it is fairly thick
1 C brown sugar
1-2 T cayenne pepper
* Note: the amounts of sugar and cayenne do not need to be exact.
Yield: 20 lollipops

The ingredients are simple, it is the process that gets just a little bit complicated, and the outcome can be quite unpredictable, but I promise these are worth the time and effort. I have tried it many different ways and I think I finally found the perfect method.

Cooking Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Line broiler pan with foil or create one like I do by lining a rimmed baking sheet with foil, placing shallow ramekins or rolled up cigar shaped pieces of foil on the lined sheet and top with another layer of foil. Poke holes in the top layer of foil with a fork to allow the bacon grease to drain. Lining everything with foil will make for EASY clean up. Believe me, you will thank me later, throwing away some foil beats cleaning greasy sugar coated baking sheets any day.
On a large platter or a rimmed baking sheet spread brown sugar in an even layer so you can coat strips of bacon. ( I do a few strips with just the brown sugar an no pepper, because my kids love these, but not if they are spicy.) Sprinkle cayenne over brown sugar and mix with your fingers until combined. Place one slice of bacon at a time on the sugar mixture and pat sugar on to coat, set aside and continue until all 10 slices are coated. Cut each slice of bacon in half, I use my kitchen scissors for quick and easy cuts. Wrap each half slice around one end of a bread stick and place on lined baking sheet. Try to set the bread stick down so the bacon is tucked under and stays wrapped as tightly as possible. The bacon will shrink as it cooks, so as long as both ends are tucked under the bread stick it will stay wrapped.
Place the bacon pops in opposite directions on the tray, you can fit more this way and they cook more evenly. For example: Place the first one with the bacon going one direction and place the next one with the bacon on the opposite end so the bread stick is near the first pop's bacon end, repeat alternating the bacon end of the sticks. HOPEFULLY this makes sense!
Place baking sheet on the bottom oven rack and back approximately 30 minutes. Baking time may vary depending on the thickness of your bacon. The one I use is a thick cut, a thin cut bacon will take less time. You should also watch the oven closely, if you have too much sugar on the bacon it can start to burn and smoke easily. Rotate bacon half way through cooking process if necessary, I do, because my ovens don't always cook evenly. Once bacon is golden and the fat no longer looks greasy or white, your lollipops are ready! Remove from oven and allow to cool 5-10 minutes on the baking sheet. VERY IMPORTANT: leave them on the sheet! Don't worry if the bread sticks seem wobbly, they are not broken, they become soft during baking. They will firm up once they have cooled slightly. They are also VERY HOT, sugar will burn you.
Once they have cooled slightly, place on a serving platter or in a decorative glass. They are great while still warm or at room temperature.

Neiman Marcus Tortilla Soup

I will apologize in advance for no photo of the soup, I thought I could copy the cookbook cover and didn't take a picture. Guess you'll have to get the book and check out the photo and recipe on page 19.
A favorite fall soup for our family is the tortilla soup from the Mermaid Bar in Neiman Marcus, Northpark. This is not the light brothy style that you may first invision, it it a thick stick to your ribs version of the southwest creation. For our family it is a must have during every visit!
Our prayers were answered when friend, neighbor and executive chef for Neiman Marcus, Kevin Garvin published the iconic retailers first cookbook in 2003, Neiman Marcus Cookbook, and the coveted recipe was now mine for the making.
I always worry when recreating a restaurant recipe, is the scale correct, will it be the same? Kevin did not disappoint, the recipe is dead on! I didn't have to change a thing to recreate that wonderful combination of flavors. The only thing I do is blend the soup with my immersion blender prior to adding the cheese sauce and the cream. The soup at the Mermaid Bar is smooth and silky with very small pieces of recognizable veggies. I didn't get that same consistency without blending it just slightly. I also cheat and use store bought broth to save time. There are adequate brands these days, so I often don't bother making my own.
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the entire book, if you don't have it among your collection, YOU SHOULD.
Some of my other favorites are . . . Chicken & White Bean Chili, Poblano Chile & Corn Chowder, Mermaid Bar "Love Salad", Crab Louis Parfait & Strawberry Butter are just a few.
And that is not all . . . Kevin followed up the success of this book with his second; Neiman Marcus Taste: Timeless American Recipes in 2007.
2 3/4 Cups poached & shredded chicken
3 T olive oil
1 Cup dice onion
1/4 Cup diced red onion
1/4 Cup diced carrot
1/2 T minced garlic
2 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. red chile powder
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. cayenne
1 Cup crushed canned tomatoes
2 Quarts chicken broth
10 corn tortillas cut into small pieces
1/4 Cup nacho cheese sauce, jar
1 Cup heavy cream
S & P to taste
Crispy tortilla strips & fresh cilantro to garnish
In a heavy bottom sauce pan saute the veggies in the olive oil until soft, add the garlic and spices. Next add tomatoes, broth, and 2 cups of water and bring to a boil. Turn heat to a simmer, add the corn tortillas and simmer one hour. Stir occasionally. THIS IS WHERE I DEVIATE. . . blend as stated above. Add shredded chicken, cheese sauce and cream. Season to taste garnish and serve. I like to make the soup a day or two in advance.

WoW wine of the week

Alright, I know, let me begin with a small disclaimer . . . I may not, okay will in all probability never get a post up every week with a new wine pick, but I will give it my best shot. I just like the WoW, it just doesn't have the same impact if the post was titled WoM or WoBM (bi-monthly). I promise in official girls scout spirit, to post a WoW as often as possible. I am confident that tasting won't be a problem!

Drum roll please . . . . The first official WoW is: Tamarack Cellars Firehouse Red
Beep and I had this one at home and it was terrific. It made such and impact on Beep that he saved the cork so we could remember to buy it again, and I often trust his palate more than I trust my own. At $20 (on line), I am not sure what we paid, you get a very drinkable wine with hints of raspberry, currant, mocha and a touch of black pepper spice.

Cabo Here We Come!

Photo story to follow, but so excited for the wedding of the year! Kevin and Nic are one lucky couple. Rick has been down-graded to a tropical storm, so no rain on our parade. I am fairly certain the trip will provide incredible pictures, food and memories. In the interest in creating a good tease . . . check out this preview of the Palmilla where we will be spending 5 days of kiddo-less bliss.


http://www.oneandonlyresorts.com/flash.html

po·so·le or po·zo·le (pe zol, ee)n. A stew or soup made with posole, pork, chili, and other seasonings.
Imagine . . . 98 degrees and humidity that could curl Asian hair . . . and my husband and I order a bowl of piping hot soup. Surprisingly,(she states with heavy sarcasm) the waitress misunderstands our request and delivers not one, but two bowls to our table. We politely accept the mistake, never imagining that we would devour them both in record time. Sweat beading on our lips and running quickly down his brow, we ate both bowls without a second thought.
The plastic bowl filled with a dark red broth, bits of chicken and pork that melt in your mouth, corn puffed and slightly chewy, was the perfect balance of flavor and texture in your mouth. But wait! There's more . . . the bowl was accompanied by a plate filled with lettuce, chopped radish and avocado on the half shell as a garnish.
The creaminess and crunchiness factor was over the top!
Were we sitting at a cloth covered table in a five diamond restaurant? No, we were seated on plastic chairs, using paper napkins, al fresco at the Mercado 28 in Cancun, Mexico. YUM! We even went back later the next week for one more bowl of perfectness before heading home to the good old US of A. (Which Cam, I believe, was the happiest of all three kiddos to be rid of the interesting smells throughout Mexico, that they all would mention every time we left the hotel. Notice his picture in the slide show at the Mercado. "Man cannot live by water and I phone alone", but he certainly gave it a try.)
Minus the language barrier, I would have asked for the recipe from our more than gracious waitress and I am certain she would have obliged. Shockingly, a small town in Indiana did not produce a confident Spanish speaking Traci, so NO RECIPE. Not to mix cultures again, but ahh . . . c'est la vie, I would use the Spanish expression if I knew it, but I will have rely on the internet and test some posole recipes of my own as soon as this Dallas weather breaks. Look for updates in the fall. I am willing to test as many as it takes and post the best here.
Meanwhile enjoy this picture and a lovely video I took of the mariachi performing for the rowdy table seated behind us. A slide show of our trip can be viewed in the left margin.