BLOGHUNGRY

Still On Vacation

 

I am still laying on the floor in my long johns and can't be bothered to post. Check back with me in 3 days.

On Vacation

I'm busy eating leftover Christmas cookies. I'll be back in 6 days.

Our 2007 Holiday Card

Happy holidays from my house to yours. Popmuse posted our card a couple weeks ago, but holiday magic never really goes out of date.

Apricot Cranberry Shortbread Cookies

As I grow older I have really come to love a good shorbread cookie, but I am bored of a plain shortbread cookie and decided to fill them with dried fruit and nuts this year.

Apricot Cranberry Shortbread Cookies

1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
5 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup pecan pieces
1/2 cup dried apricots
1/2 cup dried cranberries
powdered sugar, for rolling cookies

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In a food processor chop apricots, cranberries, and pecans into small pieces and set aside. In a mixing bowl, combine remaining ingredients until well mixed. Mix in pecan, apricot, and cranberries until combined. Roll into balls, place on a baking sheet , and bake for 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned. Fill a shallow bowl with 1-2 cups of powdered sugar. Remove cookies from oven and roll in powdered sugar until coated. Let cool.

Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe was my favorite cookie of last Christmas. These cookies are a big crowd pleaser and are some of the easiest cookies you could ever make. All you need is premade cookie dough, peanutbutter cups and 2 mini muffin pans.

Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 roll chocolate chip cookie dough
1 pkg. miniature Reese's peanut butter cups
2 mini muffin pans

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray miniature muffin pans with cooking spray or use paper liners. Cut wedges of cookie dough the size of large marbles. Place dough in miniature muffin pans. Bake at 350 degrees for about 5 to 8 minutes or until lightly brown. While cookies are baking remove all paper from miniature peanut butter cups and set aside. Push unwrapped peanut butter cups into center of hot cookies. Cool completely before removing from pans.

Blue Cheese and Walnut Cookies

This year my holiday cookies are all about fruit, cheese, and nuts. Popmuse found this recipe for me to help clean out our fridge of some leftover blue cheese and they were one of my favorite new cookies of the year.

Blue Cheese Walnut Cookies

1/2 cup butter
4 ounces blue cheese
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup finely chopped walnuts

Mix the butter, blue cheese, flour, and salt in a food processor, and process until smooth. Transfer to a bowl, and stir in the walnuts. Cover, and chill 5 minutes in the refrigerator. Divide dough in half. Form each half into a log shape. Wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate 1 hour, until firm. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice the dough logs into 1/4 inch rounds, and arrange rounds on a baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes or until lightly browned.

Sharp Cheddar Cookies

My grandmother used to make these with her holiday cookies in December, and I was always a huge fan. I think a salty cheesy cookie really helps to balance out all of the sugary holiday treats. It also makes a good appetizer or snack. Really it's just a cheese straw made in cookie form.

Sharp Cheddar Cookies

16 oz sharp cheddar
3/4 stick butter
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon red pepper
paprika

Let cheese and butter warm to room temperature. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix and kneed ingredients except paprika until well combined (a food processor works well). Roll dough into small balls, press down slightly with a fork, and place on a cookie sheet. Bake 12-15 minutes and sprinkle with paprika.

Pastry Wrapped Spinach Stuffed Meatloaf

I am in love with pastry and want to wrap all of my food in it and bake it. I made up this recipe as a small town nod to Beef Wellington (sans mushrooms and pate). This is an Italian style spinach stuffed meatloaf baked and wrapped in a quick sour cream pastry and baked again to golden brown.

Pastry Wrapped Spinach Stuffed Meatloaf

Meatloaf:
1 1/4 lbs ground turkey
2 eggs
1/2 cup spaghetti sauce
1-2 handfuls shredded mozzarella
aluminum foil
10 oz frozen chopped spinach thawed/drained
1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup finely chopped onion

Preheat oven to 350. Mix the turkey, eggs, and spaghetti sauce together in a large mixing bowl. Line a cookie sheet with a generous amount of foil. Pat out the meatloaf so that it completely covers the cookie sheet evenly. Layer the spinach and cheese in a line lengthwise in the center of the meatloaf. Use the foil to help fold the edges over the spinach and cheese, shaping tightly into a loaf. Make sure the loaf is smooth and sealed. Bend the foil over loaf and seal tightly. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Wrap with pastry and continue to bake as directed below.

Crust:
2 1/2 cups flour
2 sticks butter
1 egg
1/2 c. sour cream

With hands or food processor, combine flour and butter to form a crumbly texture. Add egg and sour cream and combine into dough. Turn dough out onto generously floured surface and roll into a rectangle roughly the size of the cookie sheet. Place the cooked meatloaf in the center of the sheet of dough.  Wrap the dough around the loaf.  Dampen the edges at the seams so they will seal well. Place the pastry-wrapped loaf in a greased shallow pan (you may have yet more fat cook out) with the seam down. Bake at 375 degrees F until the crust is golden brown, usually 25 to 30 min. Serve hot or at room temperature.  Cut slices across the loaf to show the layers. 

Peanut Butter Pecan Pie / Pie Rainbow

Last Thanksgiving started a revitalization of pie making in my house and my life. We ate through 7 pies in that weekend alone. This flux of pie in my house gave birth to what is now refered to as "pie rainbow". Pie rainbow is the thin slicing and pairing of 3 or more different pie flavors on one plate. Seen above is a pie rainbow consisting of Cream Cheese Pumpkin Pie, Peanut butter Pecan Pie, and Sweet Potato Meringue pie. 2008 is all about pie rainbow. Here's this year's Peanut butter pecan recipe.

Peanut Butter Pecan Pie

1  unbaked pie crust for a 9-inch pie
3/4  cup light corn syrup
1/2  cup creamy peanut butter
3  eggs
3/4  cup granulated sugar
1  tsp. vanilla extract
3/4  cup coarsely chopped pecans
1/2  cup coarsely chopped peanuts
Confectioner's sugar, for dusting

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Fit pastry into pie plate. Set aside. In a large bowl, whisk corn syrup, peanut butter and eggs until smooth. Whisk in granulated sugar and vanilla, then stir in pecans and peanuts. Pour into crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes or until browned and center is set. Let cool completely at room temperature on a wire rack. Dust with confectioner's sugar before slicing and serving.

Leftover Turkey Pot Pie

We had a lot of leftover turkey at my house after Thanksgiving this year. It continued to feed us for 2-3 meals past Thanksgiving. The last of it went int this really easy pot pie with some leftover greenbeans. Just thow a bunch of stuff in a big ziplock bag, shake it up, and bake it in a premade pie crust. It's a little ghetto to start cooking with condensed soups, but desperate times call for desperate measures. It was actually pretty tasty.

Turkey Pot Pie

1 cup sliced carrots
1 cup finely chopped onions
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/8 teaspoon pepper
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 cups cubed cooked turkeys
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 10 3/4-ounce can condensed cream of celery soup
1 cup frozen green beans, cooked and drained
1 double-crust pie (9 inches)
1 tablespoon milk

In a skillet, sauté carrots, onion, celery, thyme and pepper in butter until vegetables are crisp-tender.

In a large re-sealable plastic bag, combine turkey and flour; shake to coat. Add turkey, soup and green beans to the vegetable mixture; mix well.

Line a 9-in. pie plate with bottom crust. Add turkey mixture. Roll out remaining pastry to fit top of pie; seal and flute edges. Cut slits in pastry. Brush with milk. Cover edges loosely with foil. Bake at 350 degrees F for 55-65 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.