Hazelnut filled snickerdoodle cookies

Tis' baking season!  Today I made a recipe I'd been wanting to try for a while, one I got from the Rachel Ray magazine.  Who doesn't love sandwich cookies?  But they are time-consuming.  These took me several hours, because you have to make the cookies, plus a filling.  And hazelnuts are awesome, but they take forever to get the skins off (and you never get it all off).

My brother, Christian, loves snickerdoodles, and since we were celebrating his birthday tonight (dinner at a great local restaurant called Fonda Rosa) I figured I'd make him some. 

They turned out really good (from what I hear from Christian and Julian, I don't have a big sweet tooth so I haven't had one yet).  Hazelnuts are definitely my favorite nut, so you can't go wrong with these cookies.

You can just never get all the hazelnut skins off. 

Here's the hazelnut filling.  All done in the food processor, just hazelnuts, butter & powdered sugar.  I added some Nutella to make it more creamy (it was grainy from the nuts).

Ready to mix it all up!

Here's the towers o' cookies. 

 

Elsa's baby shower

Today was or good friend's, Hayley and Jamey's, baby shower.  Their little girl, Elsa, is due in just about a month.  Time flies (for those of use that aren't the pregnant ones).  The shower was wonderful, there was a really great turn out and a ton of wonderful gifts.  There were even 3 robot onesies, one of which was from us - doh!  At least they were all different! 

I helped with the shower by making the cake for Hayley and cupcakes for Jamey.  Hayley requested a chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting.  Jamey's favorite is banana cake, so I made my Aunt Joanne's banana cupcakes with whipped cream frosting.  I got the robot fondant cake topper off Etsy - it helped make the cake look a little less homemade.

The finished cake - Julian helped with the fondant polka dots.

My sister, Emily, helping frost the banana cupcakes.

All set up at Madison's on Hawthorne.

The cake and cupcakes - don't they look professional?

My sisters, Emily (left) and Anne (right) with Amanda (center)

Me and my little devlish guy.

Jamey and Hayley opening gifts.

Amanda put this mustache on Hank, he wants to be just like Daddy.

This week in the kitchen & on the patio

I just thought I'd post some pics of different dishes and baked goods that I/we made this week.  If anyone wants a recipe just post a comment and let me know.

Pumpkin pancakes (my 1st real from scratch pancakes) - OMG, so good!

This was dinner, rosemary potatoes, eggs, pumpkin pancakes & veggie sausage

     

Orange cream cheese muffins

Malted sandwich cookies

Lemony penne w/parmesan, fresh green beans & pistachios

Orzo w/baked shrimp, feta & dill

Some of my family came over on Saturday night to take advantage of the beautiful night and hang on our patio.

Scarlett feeding Doritos to the dogs (Matt and Christian supervising)

Scarlett w/Todd aka "Daddy".  She's making up for kicking Daddy in the jewels earlier.

My beautiful sisters, Emily (left) and Anne  (right)

Scarlett making her newest cute face



A few things I made this week....

This week I actually remembered to take some pics of a few dishes that I made.  On Monday night I made a smoked trout pasta salad for our work lunches.  It was farfalle pasta tossed with a dressing made of light sour cream, some whole milk to thin it out, a little horseradish, salt and pepper.  I tossed in some fresh dill and fresh oregano.  Then 2 cans of smoked trout from Trader Joe's, grape tomatoes and capers.  Oh, yeah, the zest of one lemon and some of the juice.  It turned out great.

This morning I made chai muffins with pistachios.  This was a recipe from Cooking Light magazine.  I made it partly because it sounded good, and partly because I already had everything and could make it first thing in the morning.  They turned out so good - there are actually 2 chai tea bags in the batter.  You top them with the chopped pistachios and make a glaze to go over the top.  I'll make them again for sure - they'd be perfect for the fall, too, with all of the spices and nuts.

Recipe - Thai noodles

Here is what we made tonight - it's an adaptation of a recipe in my Big Book of Vegetarian cookbook.  We've made it a lot, it's so good and it's pretty fast too.  It would be a great summertime meal since you can eat it pretty much cold, or lukewarm.

12 oz. Soba noodles, cooked to package directions
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded & chopped
2 green onions, cut on the bias
3 large carrots, cut on the bias
ginger (2 Tablespoons, diced fine)
cilantro, chopped
toasted sesame seeds (4 Tablespoons, approx)
2 cloves of garlic, diced fine
tempeh (not necessary, but we had it and it's better with it or tofu)
6 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar
6 Tablespoons soy sauce (we use less sodium variety)
3 Tablespoons toasted sesame oil
Sriracha (2 big squirts, total, or to taste)
sugar (2 teaspoons)
1 lime

Chop veggies first, then make sauce.  We make double the sauce that is indicated in the recipe.  Believe me, you'll want to also.  We do this in part because we chop the tempeh and quickly toss it in the sauce.  Then saute the tempeh to get some color on it.  Use the rest of the sauce to pour over the noodles.  I'd recommend doing this for tofu as well (for sure!).  The sauce is the ginger, garlic, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, Sriracha, sugar & a squirt of lime.  Boil noodles per package directions (they cook really fast, done in about 2 minutes).  Toss the noodles with the sauce (this will unstick the noodles if they've started to clump together in the colander).  Then mix in the veggies & toasted sesame seeds.  Then garnish with the chopped cilantro and squeeze lime to your taste over the dish.....and enjoy!

Of course you could also make this with shrimp instead of tempeh or tofu.  Or it would be delicious without a protein.

Recipe - Tex Mex Mac n' Cheese

Last night we made Tex Mex Mac n' Cheese.  This is a recipe that we've done a million times over probably the last 10 years (or nearly, at least).  It was originally from the Oregonian FoodDay.  We've modified it here and there and it's probably  never exactly the same, but is always yummy!  Here is what we did last night - we added collard greens for the first time and I thought it was a great addition.  It makes a large casserole - it'll feed a big group or give you a lot of leftovers. 

1 bag large elbow macaroni
1 onion (chopped)
1 green pepper (chopped)
1 bunch of collard greens (washed, stemmed, chopped)
1 jalapeno (seeded & chopped unless you want a lot of spice)
1 can of black beans, drained, rinsed
1 can of diced tomatoes - do not drain
1 small can of diced green chilis
5-6 heavy shakes of hot sauce (to taste)
1 T. cumin (divided)
3/4 T. coriander (divided)
1 T. chili powder (divided)
salt
1.5 cups whole milk (or lowfat, or some of each)
1 16 oz. sour cream (we use light)
2.5-3 cups pepper jack cheese
1/2 cup bread crumbs (buttered)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease a 13x9 casserole dish.  Boil the macaroni in salted water w/some oil.  Cook to al dente, or slightly below since it will cook a little longer in the oven.  Drain noodles & put back into pot as you'll mix everything in the pot.  In a large saute pan saute the salted veggies (you can do all at the same time, or add the greens a little later).  Greens should be tender, but should still be bright green.  To this pan add half the spices in the last few minutes of cooking.  Add the beans, tomatoes & chilis to mixture.  Prepare the sauce, which is the milk, sour cream, other half of the spices & salt. We actually had less than a full 16 oz tub of sour cream so we ended up using probably 3/4 of a tub.  In the pot, mix the veggie mixture with the macaroni, then mix in the pepper jack cheese & the sauce.  If your pot's too small (as ours was) then at least mix the macaroni w/the veggies and you can layer the cheese & sauce in the casserole dish.

Cover in tin foil and bake for 25 minutes or so.  Top w/the buttered breadcrumbs and bake uncovered until golden.

Recipe - Veggie Sloppy Joe's

So our beloved Chicago Bears didn't win yesterday....we were bummed, but they did have a great season and no one ever expected them to do so well.  I made veggie sloppy joe's for lunch yesterday to share with those that came over to watch the game.  I've made these a lot and don't have a recipe written down, so it's always just a little different.  These were a huge hit (and keep in mind almost everyone eating them are meat eaters) so I thought I'd post the recipe.  They're as low-fat as you want them to be, cheap, and good for you because the beans & rice provide a complete protein.....I hope you enjoy these!

1 onion
1 green bell pepper
1 cup of uncooked rice (I use white, but brown would work just as well)
2 cans of pinquitos - do not drain (these come in a sauce similar to chili beans)
1 (14 oz can) of tomato sauce
1 cup of barbeque sauce (to taste really, this is about what I put in)
2 heaping Tablespoons of pickle relish
1/4 cup (to taste) liquid smoke
3 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 tsp cayenne
Salt (I use Kosher)

Saute the chopped onion & green pepper in canola/vegetable oil and salt (the salt helps the veggies cook faster - a great tip I picked up from watching so many cooking shows).  After a few minutes add the spices and cook for a few minutes.  Then add the beans in liquid, tomato sauce,  BBQ sauce (I use Sweet Baby Ray's), pickle relish and liquid smoke.

Cheddar cheese - shredded, for topping
Package of burger buns