Ginger Spice White Chocolate Cookies

For many years, we baked molasses cookies for my Aunt Ruthie for Christmas. She always wanted them to be gigantic, and very dark and full of molasses flavor. I have to admit, I don't care for the flavor of molasses, and after making these for many years, I stopped when she passed away.

My dad asked for some gingersnaps a few years ago, and I wanted to accomodate that request, but also make something I would enjoy eating. So, these are a nice compromise. They are soft, and spicy, and the white chocolate breaks up some of the intensity of the molasses. The secret ingredient is just a hint of chocolate. You could also make them without the white chocolate chips, and still have a ginger spice cookie that isn't quite so intense.

Ginger Spice White Chocolate Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup unsulfered molasses
2 teaspoons soda
3 1/2 cups flour
2 tablespoons baking cocoa
1 tablespoon ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 cups white chocolate chips
1/2 cup sugar

Cream together butter and brown sugar. Add molasses and mix until well combined. In a separate bowl, combine all the dry ingredients together. In a small cup, mix together the soda with three teaspoons of boiling water. Beat half of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Add the soda mixture, then the remainder of the dry ingredients. Stir in the white chocolate chips. Roll the dough into 1 inch balls and roll them in the sugar. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes, until you see cracks form on the surface of the cookies. Cool on a rack.

Mexican Mocha Cookies

When I was small, my best friends mom used to make these soft, frosted chocolate cookies that I loved. My mom never made them, I wasn't really sure why, so they were always a really special treat. I found the recipe in a very old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook I purchased when I worked in an antique store. I have been making them for years as part of my annual Christmas cookie extravanganza.

I decided I wanted to change it up a little, so , I invented this version because I loved the flavor of the Mexican mochas I get at the Farmers Market in the summer. I took this basic recipe and added some cinnamon, coffee and cayenne, and turned it into something really unique.

Mexican Mocha Cookies

1 egg, beaten
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup butter
2 1 ounce squares unsweetened dark chocolate, melted
1 2/3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon espresso powder
1/2 cup milk

Beat egg and sugar until light, then add vanilla and butter. Cream until smooth. Add melted chocolate, blend well. Add dry ingredients alternately with milk. The dough will not be as solid as a regular cookie dough. Drop by teaspoon onto greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Let cool 1-2 to minutes on the cookie sheets then move to rack to complete cooling.

For frosting:
6 tablespoons dutch processed cocoa
6 tablespoons melted butter
1 tablespoon espresso powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 cups powdered sugar
6 tablespoons milk

Mix frosting ingredients together until smooth. Generously frost cookies, and top with a chocolate covered coffee bean.

Baked Salmon and Fried Polenta Cakes

We received some amazing salmon filets from our new friends Jen and Jerry, and wanted to incorporate them into a dish. I had also wanted to try some polenta cakes, because I saw them on television, and had never made them at home.

I have to admit, I purchased the polenta! I know, but I am not Italian! So, next time, you will see the recipe for homemade polenta, and the rest of the story. I did repeat part of a previous recipe and oven roasted some cherry tomatoes with balsamic vinegar, to use them up. It is a really simple thing to do, and they are so amazing !

Baked Salmon and Fried Polenta Cakes

Preheat oven to 400:

Toss together:
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Place these on a shallow baking dish, and bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven. Increase heat to 450.

For salmon:

1 pound of salmon, cut in 4 ounce filets
Salt and pepper
Lemons, cut in quarters
1/2 onion, thinly sliced

Layer onions in the bottom of a shallow baking dish. Lay salmon on top, skin side down. Season wth salt and pepper and bake for 12 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest for 2-3 minutes. Serve with lemon wedges.

I used a roll of purchased organic polenta from Trader Joe's, cut into 1/2 inch thick slices. Season with garlic powder, salt and pepper. Place a non-stick saute pan over medium heat and add approximately 2 tablespoons olive oil. When the oil is hot, place polenta cakes in pan, and sear 3 minutes on each side.

To plate, place 2 slices of fried polenta on the plate, and spoon balsamic glazed tomatoes over the top. Place salmon along side.

As I read this, it seems like a lot of work, but it really wasn't. The oven did most of the work, I just heated things up. And as you can see by the picture, it was really good !

Homemade Oreo Cookies !

For years I have tried to recreate the taste and texture of an Oreo cookie. I always stopped at the cookie, I could never get the chocolate dark enough, or the cookie crisp enough (I settled on the idea that there would be no "Oreo" imprint on mine).

Finally, I have it ! After much research, and suggestions from friends, here it is !

Homemade Oreo Cookies
For the chocolate cookies:
1 1/2 cups flour (regular all purpose is best)
1/2 cup dark Dutch processed cocoa (I liked the King Arthur Flour double dutch processed the best)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter
1 large egg

For the creme filling:
1/4 cup (half a stick) of room temperature butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons white vanilla

Preheat oven to 375. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine all the dry ingredients, including the sugar until well mixed. Leave mixer on low speed, and add butter, then egg. Mix until dough comes together in a ball. Place rounded spoonfuls of dough on the parchment line cookie sheets, about 2 inches apart. Flatten with the bottom of a glass. They may stick a bit, but this is the best way to get a consistent shape and thickness.

Bake on the middle racks of the oven for approximately 9 minutes, then remove and let them rest on the pan for 2 minutes before removing to cool on a rack.

To make the filling, cream the butter and shortening together in a mixing bowl, then add the sugar and vanilla. Beat on high speed until light and fluffy. You will need to use a pastry bag to fill the cookies. And it takes some muscle, so I had Ray help with the filling:

Put a teaspoon "blob" in the middle of one of the cookies, and press another one on top. Squeeze to press the filling out to the edges of the cookie. These are going with me to the annual Bake Off at work tomorrow. Let's see how I do !

Seared Marlin Steaks with Leek and Sorrell Risotto

We are working our way through a wedding gift of Three Floyds beers, and making food pairings of each bottle. This month we had "Gorch Fock" which is a German style Helles lager. Since a lager is a very lightly flavored beer, I wanted a lightly flavored dinner to match it.

This dinner was one I was very proud of, because I came up with it walking through the grocery store. I stopped at a seafood store to see what was they had for a "fresh catch". I picked up two nice Blue Marlin steaks, and then had to create a meal around them. My initial idea was a pasta, but since Ray is the pasta maker in the family, and I didn't want to make him work for his supper, that idea was out. So, risotto was my next logical choice.

Risotto is a bit labor intensive, but the creamy texture is worth the effort. And, this meal required some timing coordination. The key was putting the steaks on the flame right at the last addition of stock to the risotto.

Seared Marlin Steaks with Leek and Sorrell Risotto
For the fish:
2 8 ounce Blue Marlin steaks, season both sides with:
orange pepper
sea salt
Have 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil ready for cooking, and a saute pan that you can put in the oven.

1 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Toss tomatoes in vinegar, oil, salt and pepper. Bake at 350 for 1 hour until soft, then blend until smooth.

For risotto:
1 cup arborio rice
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup sliced leeks
3 cloves garlic, chopped finely
1/3 cup dry white wine
3 1/2 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
6 leaves of sorrell, cut in chiffonade

Heat butter and olive oil in a large saute pan, and saute leeks and garlic until the leeks are tender. Add white wine, and stir until wine is almost evaporated. Heat chicken stock in a separate sauce pan, and add 1/2 cup at a time. Continuously stir until stock is absorbed, then add another 1/2 cup of stock. Continue in this way until the rice is tender, this will take 20-30 minutes. Just before adding the last portion of stock, turn on the heat for the fish pan, and add the butter and olive oil. Get the pan quite hot, and put fish in, sear for 2 minutes, turn fish over, and put in a 350 degree oven.

To finish rice, turn off heat when all of the stock is absorbed, stir in parmesan cheese and sorrell. Then, remove fish from oven after 7 minutes and let rest for 2 minutes. Serve fish with tomato sauce over the top.

Meatloaf Juicy Lucy Style !

Juicy Lucy's are a big deal around here, and I love them ! My favorite is a blue cheese stuffed burger from the 5-8 Club in South Minneapolis. And I love to invent new and different meat loaf recipes, so why not combine the two !

This recipe also uses some really amazing tomato jam that my friend and fellow brew buddy Jennifer made. I realize not everyone will have access to this product, but I think you can find something similar in a gourmet food store (probably not as good as hers!). You could also sub in a combination of 1 cup of ketchup, 1/4 cup steak sauce, 1/4 cup honey, 1 small chopped onion and 1 tablespoon of chopped sweet pickles to try to replicate a similar flavor, or I will ask Jennifer for the recipe and post it later.

Anyway, here it is:

Meatloaf Juicy Lucy Style
1 1/4 pounds ground meat (I used venison, but beef or buffalo will also work)
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1 pint of tomato jam
2 tablespoons worchestershire sauce
1 tablespoon Canadian steak seasoning
4 ounces blue cheese (I used a monterey jack/blue cheese blend because it melts a little better than straight blue cheese, and isn't as strong tasting)

Mix the bread crumbs and milk together and let them sit until the milk has soaked into the bread crumbs. Mix in eggs and meat. In a separate bowl, combine the jam, worchestershire sauce and steak seasoning. Add half of this mixture to the meat. Put half of the meat in a 9x5 loaf pan, Put the blue cheese down the middle, and top with the remaining meat mixture. Spread the remaining jam mixture on top, and bake at 375 for 1 hour. Let the meatloaf rest about 10 minutes before cutting into it, or the cheese will be like molten lava.

Post Turkey Day Lull aka Don't Buy the Canned Sauce

To be honest, we haven't eaten anything all that interesting this week. After we put away all the turkey leftovers, I wanted anything that was exactly opposite of Thanksgiving food.

So, I went back to an old standby, and made enchiladas. I did switch it up a bit and put chicken, corn and goat cheese in the filling, but they were just our basic enchiladas, so nothing exciting to post.

Then I made a baked tilapia and baked butternut squash. Again, tasty, but nothing blog worthy.

And now the confession. We almost NEVER buy store made canned sauces. But, when we were first trying to venture into Indian cooking, we were trying to find garam masala in the store, and Ray brought home a jar of Tikka Masala sauce from the ethnic food section of the grocery store. It had been sitting there for awhile, so I decided to try it. I wanted to compare how it tasted with the homemade we now have learned to make, which is excellent, but somewhat labor intensive.

The answer is: not so good. It had the basic flavors of the homemade, but the intensity of spice and heat was not there, and it had a decidedly vinegar-y (is that a word?) taste that I didn't care for. It just reinforces my general opinion that it is better not to but the canned sauce, and stick to making my own. Tikka Masala will just have to be a rare treat because of the time involved in making it. Actually, the one occasional frozen meal we allow in the house is a frozen Indian dinner from Trader Joe's that has a better flavor than this jarred sauce, and was less work, so, lesson learned!

We are going to grind some meat this weekend, so we can have meatloaf, and make some homemade Italian sausage. Stay tuned !