Let them eat -- Soup!!

I love soup! To me it's the perfect meal -- veggie, protein, starch, all in one bowl. In fact, I've been known to go to someone's home for dinner and rescue the turkey carcass or ham bone to bring home as the beginning of stock.

This soup was inspired by a soup we had at a friend's soup party just before Christmas. But since I can't actually follow a recipe, I made quite a few changes as I cooked.

Mushroom and Rosemary Soup
2 Tbl. unsalted butter
2 Tbl. extra virgin olive oil
1/2 large sweet onion, finely diced
1 to 2 tsp. minced garlic
3 Tbl. flour
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 1/2 cups milk
1 can vegetable stock
3/4 cup white wine
1 1/2 Tbl. minced fresh rosemary
3 cups (plus) chopped mushrooms
1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
salt and pepper to taste
Melt together butter and olive oil over low-medium heat and add onion and garlic.
Saute until very soft. Add flour, stir to combine, and cook until golden and smells nutty, about five minutes. Add soup, milk, stock and wine and stir to combine. add rosemary, mushrooms and beans, stir to combine and simmer. Cook to desired doneness (1 to 3 hours). Add salt and pepper to taste.

I served this with the popovers from the Dec. 12 post, which you can find here.

More Christmas cookies (Part IV)

My parents came today -- with two gallon-size bags full of Christmas cookies to add to my pile. I'm making these next year!!

Carmel Chocolate Break-Aparts
Saltine crackers
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 (8 oz.) bag chocolate chips (milk, dark or white)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Cover cookie sheet with foil (use one with sides). Tightly pack about 50 Saltine crackers to cover the sheet. Melt butter and add brown sugar. Cook until makes a thick, smooth syrup. Pour syrup over crackers and spread with a spatula. Bake until golden, about 20 minutes (watch carefully as they burn easily). Top with chips and allow to melt (about two minutes). Spread with spatula. Chill and break apart.

More Christmas Cookies (Part III)

So this year's cookies included the three I listed yesterday, the Russian tea cakes I posted a little while ago (although instead of tossing the cookies in powdered sugar twice, I first tossed them in cinnamon sugar before baking and in powdered sugar after baking), and:

Snickerdoodles
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cream of tarter
1/4 tsp. salt
Cinnamon sugar
Preheat oven to 400 F. Cream together butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla. Add remaining ingredients, mixing until combined. Roll small pieces of dough into 1" balls and roll in cinnamon sugar. Bake 10 to 12 minutes

Oatmeal butterscotch
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
3 cups oats
1/2 pkg butterscotch chips (optional)
large handful raisins (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Cream butter and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla. Add dry ingredients and combine. Drop by rounded teaspoons on cookie sheet lined with parchment. Bake 10 to 12 minutes until golden.

More Christmas cookies (Part II)

I have been meaning to post here my Christmas cookie recipes. But I've been so busy with the holidays that I haven't had time until now. I'm sorry that these are probably too late to help you this year. So I guess I'm just 365 days early for 2008. I'll start with the "cheating" cookies -- ones that are basically quasi home-made, but start out with a mix.
Once cooled, all these cookies freeze well.

White Chocolate-Pistachio
2 bags Better Crocker sugar cookie mix, mixed according to package directions
1/2 bag white chocolate chips
2 to 3 handfulls pistachio nuts, shells removed and roughly chopped
Combine sugar cookie dough, chips and nuts until well mixed. Roll into balls and bake according to package directions on sugar cookie mix.

Chocolate Surprise Cookies
2 bags Betty Crocker brownie mix, mixed according to package directions
5 to 8 mini or fun size candy bars, roughly chopped (I used leftovers that I had in the freezer from Halloween)
Preheat oven to 375. Add chopped candy bars to brownie mix. Drop by teaspoons onto cookie sheet lined with parchment. Bake until cooked through, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove to wire rack to cool.

Peanut Butter Thumb Prints
2 bags Betty Crocker peanut butter cookie mix, mixed according to package directions
Jam, Nutella, fluff, etc.
Roll cookie dough into balls and place on cookie sheet lined with parchment. Depress thumb into each ball. Fill each depression with jam (or nutella, or fluff, or whatever). Bake according to package directions.

Mike couldn't stop raving...

... about the quick clam chowder I threw together for dinner tonight. It was amazingly simple -- so much so that I knew that if I didn't write it down right away I would never be able to do it again. And truth is, it doesn't take that much longer than opening a can on Campbells, but it is so very much better!

3 Tbl. unsalted butter
1/2 small sweet onion, finely diced
1 tsp. chopped garlic
1 1/2 Tbl. flour
1 can whole clams
1 cup beer
1 cup water
1 tsp. clam base
1 large red potato, cut into small spoon-size chunks
milk to taste
salt to taste

Saute onion and garlic in butter over medium heat until soft. Add four and stir to remove any lumps and keep from burning. Continuing to stir, cook an additional five minutes. Add clams, beer, water and clam base. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer and add potatoes. Cook until potatoes are done (time will vary based on the size and age of the potatoes). Add milk, warm through, salt to taste.
Note: If making ahead of time, once potatoes are cooked through, cool and refrigerate or freeze. Before serving bring to simmer and add milk and salt.

More Christmas cookies

Here's another Christmas cookie I remember from my childhood cookie plate -- decades before Mike and I ended up in Russia. Truth is, I searched for a history of the Russian Tea Cake, and I didn't come up with much. But based on what I did find, I'm not sure these cookies are really Russian -- apparently they may also be known as Mexican tea cakes. But I'll always think of them as Russian -- and they will appear at our annual holiday Russian brunch (more recipes to come).

Russian Tea Cakes

1 cup butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract
6 Tbl. plus 1/3 cup powdered sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 F.
In a mixer, cream together butter and vanilla until smooth. Add 6 Tbl. powdered sugar and flour and mix until just blended. Add chopped nuts and mix. Roll dough into 1-inch balls roll balls in powdered sugar. Place balls 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake until golden, about 12 minutes. Cool. Roll in powdered sugar again.

Popping over

I remember when I was a kid in the 1970s. On very, very special occasions, my parents would dress my brother Marc and I up and take us to the local steak house. I don't remember the steak. But I remember the popovers. I was amazed at how these delicate breads popped right out of the cup they were baked in. And when you broke open the crusty outside, steam escaped, revealing a chewy layer around a hollow center.

I moved away in the 1980s, the steak house eventually went out of business and I didn't see another popover until a few years ago at a friends house. I couldn't believe it was possible to make them at home. I thought you had to have a special pan, an industrial oven.

I've been making these popovers ever since. They're perfect when I want to serve fresh bread but don't have hours for rising and proofing a yeast bread. And with the cheese they are so flavorful that you don't even need butter.

Popovers before:

1 cup milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 Tbl. butter, melted
1/4 tsp. salt (less if using salted butter)
2 eggs
1/2 cup grated cheddar or Gruyere cheese (optional) *
Cayenne pepper to taste (optional)
Preheat oven t 450 F. Bring all ingredients to room temperature. Combine milk, flour, butter, salt and eggs in a bowl and mix until smooth (like pancake batter). Add cheese. Spray pop over molds or muffin tins with cooking spray. Pour batter into pan, filling each cup no more than 3/4. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 F. (do not open oven door) and bake an additional 20 minutes. Popovers are done when they are golden and firm all the way around.
Recipes makes eight to 10 popovers.

*Cooks note: I don't believe in pre-shredded cheese. I find it's dry and doesn't melt well. And it doesn't really take that long to shred 1/2 a cup of cheese. I use white cheddar.

Popovers after:

Christmas (cookie) memories

When I was young my mom would start baking Christmas cookies as soon as Thanksgiving was over. She'd carefully layer them in old Charlie's Chips tins between circles of wax paper. Dozens and dozens and batches and batches. I'm not sure I could name a favorite. That was so great about it. Every day there was a plate with six or eight different cookies to choose from. Some cookies would be there every year. Others would appear once or twice, or even for a handful of years before being forgotten.

One cookie I never forgot -- one that appeared every year as far back as I could remember -- was the Spritz Cookie.

I continued my mom's tradition of making multiple types of cookies at Christmas as soon as I was on my own. But I wasn't able to make the Spritz cookie, until now. Last year at the after Christmas sale at Target I picked up a $15 cookie press for $7.50. And yesterday I pulled it out of the cabinet and gave it a try. First I made the spritz Christmas trees. Then I varied the recipe a little (use 1/2 cup sugar and brown sugar, omitted the almond extract and instead used 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla and added green food coloring) and made wreath cookies.

The first bite took me back to my mom's old cookie plate. And when I told Lena grandma used to make these cookies, she said "They taste like Grandma's," even though she never had Grandma's spritz cookies.

Traditional Spritz Cookies
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened (three sticks)
1 cup sugar
1 egg
3 Tbl. milk or cream
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract
3 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1 tsp. baking powder
Decorations (optional)
Cream together butter and sugar, scraping down the sides of the bowl regularly. Add egg, milk, vanilla and almond extracts and combine fully. Add half of the flour and the baking powder and mix to combine. Add the remaining flour and make sure thoroughly mixed.
Pack dough into cookie press (if not baking immediately, chill and bring back to room temperature before trying to press). Follow directions on press to press cookies onto baking sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes.
COOKS NOTE: I used the tree shape and sprinkled the dough with green colored sugar before baking.

Here are some more recipes using the cookie press that I found online. Once our Christmas cookies are gone (and that could be months), I plan to try some of them...

Cream Cheese Spritz recipe

Source: Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup margarine
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Combine cream cheese, margarine, sugar and vanilla extract, mixing until well blended. Add flour; mix well. Chill.

Force dough through cookie press onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 400 degrees F for 6 to 8 minutes or until set and very lightly browned.

Yields 108.


Gingerbread Spritz recipe

1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ginger

In mixer bowl beat together butter or margarine, molasses and brown sugar. Add the egg and vanilla extract; beat well.

In another bowl, thoroughly stir together the flour, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, cloves and ginger. Add to creamed mixture. Stir until thoroughly mixed. Cover and chill 1 to 2 hours.

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.

Using 1/4 of dough place in cookie press. Press cookies onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 7 to 10 minutes or until set, but not brown.

Makes 5 dozen.


Mint Spritz Cookies recipe

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
5 drops green food coloring
2 cups unbleached flour
1/3 cups granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a mixing bowl, combine butter, eggs, vanilla extract, peppermint extract extract, and food coloring.

In another mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt. Mix wet ingredients with dry ingredients just until moistened. Spoon dough into a cookie press fitted template of desired shape. Press cookies 2 inches apart onto baking sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, or until golden brown.


Key Lime Straws recipe

1 cup butter
3 ounces cream cheese
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon Key lime or lemon juice
1 teaspoon grated Key lime or lemon rind
Few drops green or yellow food coloring
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

Blend together butter and cream cheese; add sugar and cream thoroughly until fluffy.

Combine egg, lime or lemon juice, lime or lemon rind and green or yellow food coloring. Add to butter mixture until well blended.

Sift the flour and baking powder together; add to creamed mixture. Mix until well blended.

Place dough in refrigerator, and chill for about 10 minutes.

Force 2-inch ribbon strips through cookie press onto ungreased baking sheets and bake at 375 degrees F for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned.

Yields 4 dozen.
BROWN SUGAR SPRITZ COOKIES

1 c. butter
3/4 c. light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. salt
2 c. flour

Cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolk, vanilla and salt. Blend in flour. Knead until dough is soft and pliable. Press dough through cookie press onto greased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes or until light brown. Cool on wire racks. Makes 8 dozen cookies.

Spritz Cheese Crackers

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1 large egg yolk
6 tablespoons heavy cream
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup finely grated Pecorino cheese
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary leaves
1 teaspoons fine salt
Pinch freshly ground nutmeg

Bring all ingredients to room temperature.

Beat the butter and lemon zest with an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth, about 30 seconds. Slowly beat in the egg yolk and cream.

Whisk the flour, pecorino, 1/4 cup of the Parmesan, sugar, rosemary, salt, and nutmeg together in a bowl. Gradually add the flour mixture into the butter mixture while mixing slowly. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then beat on medium speed to make a slightly sticky dough.

Fill the cookie press with the dough. Assemble the press with the desired disk shape (see cook's note), and press cookies onto ungreased baking sheets. Leave about one inch between cookies. Sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan and refrigerate cookies for 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Bake cookies, rotating pan halfway through, until golden, the cheese browns a bit, and the cookies smell nutty, about 20 to 25 minutes. Briefly cool the cookies on the baking sheets, then transfer to racks to cool. Serve or store in a tightly sealed container for up to 1 month.

Cook's Notes: These freeze beautifully. Press the cookies out into desired shapes on cookie sheets and freeze. Transfer frozen cookies to a plastic bag, seal, and keep frozen for up to 1 month. When ready to bake, lay out frozen cookies on cookie trays and bake from frozen for 25 minutes.

Some disk shapes work better than others. Since this is savory cookie, we liked the cutters that result in a cracker shape cookie, like the ribbon, clover. Stars and and snowflakes work, too.