Baking Tip - Try Slice and Bake Cookies

When you hear the term “slice and bake cookies”, you probably think of the hermetically sealed rolls of dough that you find in the refrigerator section of the grocery store.  Not the most appetizing image. But, actually, slice and bake is a great thing when it comes to cookies.  Slice and bake cookies are easy to make, can be dolled up to be quite fancy, can be made in any batch size, and the dough can be made ahead and baked as needed. All good things in my book. These sorts of cookies are my go-to if I want to make cookies for book club mid-week. I just make the dough on the weekend and bake the cookies the night before. I get beautiful cookies, practically on-demand with very little work.

So what do you need to make them? First, start off with a good recipe. I am partial to Dorie Greenspan’s sables. They are a little shortbread cookie that takes really well to customizing for various seasons or holidays. Once you make your dough you can store it in the fridge for up to a week. Any longer than that and you should freeze it.

You will want to roll your cookie log in colored sugar prior to baking.  Which brings me to the second thing, you need sugar in fun colors. I buy my sugar at Nancy’s Fancy’s in Santa Rosa.  You can go online too – check out Fancy Flours, they sell 22 colors of decorating sugar! At Christmas I use red and green sugar. I used neon yellow, orange and pink for cookies for a BBQ last summer. The possibilities are endless and you will find that you can easily make very pretty, impressive looking cookies.

Have you ever made slice and bake cookies?

Spring has sprung in Sonoma County!

Green Soup

I was making Dorie Greenspan’s Cheating on Winter Pea Soup the other day and I realized that it’s the soup equivalent of a green smoothie or “green drink.” To make a green drink, you put together a bunch of vegetables and maybe a little fruit along with some liquid, blend it up and voila! green drink.  Same thing with this soup. You sauté an onion and then add some broth along with a bunch of romaine lettuce and frozen peas. It cooks for a bit, then you blend it up and voila! green soup.

These sorts of soups are great for winter/early spring – they are loaded with vegetables, relatively easy to make, can be made with very little fat, freeze well and taste great.  You should also try this asparagus soup from Williams-Sonoma (it’s written for a soup maker of some sort but you can make it on the stove). If you are looking for a soup that uses fruit and vegetables, give Dorie Greenspan’s Double Celery and Apple Soup recipe a try.

Preserved Lemons - Easy to Make and Delicious!

 

I made my first batch of preserved lemons two years ago. At the time, I had never even tasted a preserved lemon. However, my friend Barb had gifted me a bunch of Meyer lemons from her tree (a frost warning had caused her to harvest about 400 lemons all at once) and I figured why not. I used the recipe here and they turned out great. Now I make preserved lemons every year. 

Here a few tips for making this recipe successfully:

·         Start by sorting your lemons.  You need to add some juice to fill up the jars, so separate out the less perfect ones for juice. It takes more lemons than you'd think and I usually end up sacrificing a few of the nicer looking lemons for juice.

·         Cut all of your lemons at once and put them into a bowl.

·         Put the cut lemons and salt in the jars and sort of squish them down. I leave all the jar lids off and then at the end go back and do more squishing and maybe add more lemons and juice to fill up the jars.

·         Wipe the rims with a clean cloth and set on the counter for a few days. Shake the jars periodically. The recipe says to put the jars upside down but I found that one or two would always leak and it makes a big mess so I just shake them periodically.

Using preserved lemons

I use the lemons mainly in spinach (chopped and added while it’s cooking) and chicken piccata (chopped and added to sauce at the end). I made a lot of lemons so I will be looking to use them in lots of other things this year.

Have you ever made preserved lemons? If so, how do you use them?

Renting Rocks

I don’t own 100 Reidel wine glasses, a really big pink tablecloth, two 11 foot market umbrellas or a large coffee urn.  Yet, I have used all of these things at parties over the years. I guess I could have borrowed these things from friends but they are pretty specialized items, so I chose to rent.

I am a big fan of renting things for parties.  It’s a great solution when you need something really specific like 100 Riedel glasses for a wine tasting and purchasing is not a great option due to either outright cost or knowing the item is going to be truly a one-use item such as the big pink table cloth I rented for a baby shower for a friend having a girl baby.  It’s surprising what you can rent and it’s really not as expensive as you might think. If you find yourself needing something special for your next party, check the rental companies in your area (in Santa Rosa I use GrapevineParty Rentals).

Ice Cream Bar Bonanza

I love to bake and my parties usually feature some sort of baked creation or perhaps homemade ice cream in the summer.  But there are occasions when I am planning  a party and I am short on time or there are too many other moving parts to that particular party and making a homemade dessert just is not going to work. My summer fall back for those situations is the ice cream bar bonanza.

I was introduced to the ice cream bar bonanza at a book club that I was in years ago.  At one of the meetings, for dessert, the hostess opened a bunch (and I mean bunch!) of ice cream bar boxes, dumped them on the table and let the group go at it.  We all felt like kids again, almost as if we were gathered around the ice cream man’s truck, money in-hand, waiting to get our favorite treat.

We recently had a barbeque and it was one of those “fall back dessert situations.” It also turned out to be one of the hottest days of the year thus far.  I got a big cooler and dumped in a bunch of ice and a big assortment of popsicles, ice cream bars, you name it! The key is to go for variety and quantity.  Go for a mix of retro (Otter Pops anyone?), favorites (for me that’s Its Its and drumsticks) and something new that you have been wanting to try.  Get more than you think you need, step back and let your guests dig in.

How to Learn More About Cheese

For the uninitiated, cheese can be a bit intimidating. The good stuff can be expensive and buying it is a commitment. What if you don't like it? Isn't it easier to buy a triangle of generic brie or that herbed cream cheese stuff and be done with it? You could do that but you would be missing out. Here are two easy ways to learn more about cheese.

Order the cheese course at a restaurant.  Hopefully, this cheese course comes with a person to describe the cheeses to you or, barring that, good written descriptions. Pick out some interesting ones that sound good to you. And, here is the really, really, really important thing ... write down the names of the ones that you like.  Just scratch it on the back of the receipt and transfer it somewhere more permanent later. Or just throw the receipts with cheese ideas in a little box on your desk.  Figure out a system for it, it's worth it.

Go to a grocery store with a good cheese selection and hopefully someone to make a recommendation (try Whole Foods). Try a few cheeses, buy one you like, take it home and enjoy it. Write down the name.

Over time you will find that you probably have some fairly clear likes and dislikes. This does not take long. I am a fan of washed rind cow's milk cheese, the stinkier the better (the photo for this post was taken in Epoisses, France where Epoisses - a stinky cow's milk cheese - is made). I would never say no to a regular old triple cream cheese either (try Mt. Tam from Cowgirl Creamery.) I also like smoked cheddar and really most cheddars now that I think about it.  Goat cheese, on the other hand, does not do much for me. That said, I am always open to learning more!

What are some of your favorite cheeses?