Sesame Cookies

Luke and I actually made these Sesame cookies together while Ava was in school one day.  I let him blend the ingredients and then he helped to roll the cookies out and dip them in the milk and sesame seeds.  It's always fun to bake with my little man.

Ingredients

¼ lb butter, softened

½ Cup sugar

1 egg

1/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 ¼ cups flour

1 Tablespoon Baking Powder

Additional milk

1 cup sesame seeds

Here’s What You Do

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

In an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar - about 3 minutes. This is a really important step. You should always, always, always cream butter for 3 minutes.  Add the egg, milk and vanilla.  Mix until well blended.  On low speed, add the flour and baking powder. Turn out dough on a lightly floured surface and knead until blended.  This will be a soft dough.

Roll dough into 1-inch balls.  I use an ice cream scoop.  Dip balls in a bowl of about a 1/2 cup of milk, then in a bowl filled with sesame seeds.  This will help the seeds adhere.  Place the cookies on parchment-lined cookie sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart.  Gently press the tops of the cookies to flatten.

Bake the cookies for 12-15 minutes, or until lightly browned.  I bake mine for 12 minutes.  Again, it depends upon your oven. Remove cookie sheets from oven. Use a metal spatula to transfer cookies from the cookie sheet onto a wire cooling rack.  Cool.  Store in an airtight container.

 

Enjoy!

These cookies are delicious and were a perfect addition to my Christmas cookie trays.

Pignoli Cookies

My family loves Pignoli cookies.  What's not to love, right? I've made 4 batches already this season.  Some for us, but most have been meant for the cookie platters I've been making for family and friends.  They're always a huge hit so I always include them on my cookie trays.   

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs Almond Paste

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup Confectioners' sugar

4 egg whites

1 Cup pine nuts

Here's What You Do

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees

In an electric mixer, combine the almond paste, sugar, confectioners' sugar and egg whites on low speed until blended.  Then mix for 2 minutes on medium speed which will make the dough sticky.

Roll the dough into one inch balls.  I use an ice cream scooper and it works great!  Place the cookies on parchment lined cookie sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart.  Using your fingers, slightly flatten the tops of the cookies and then sprinkle them with pine nuts. 

Bake for 15-20 minutes.  I bake mine for 15 minutes, it really depends on your oven.  

Remove from oven and let the cookies cool on parchment for easiest removal.  This is a really important step.  I forgot all about it when making my first batch this season and the cookies were really hard to remove from the silicon baking pan I used without parchment.  

When the cookies are completely cool, use a spatula to loosen them from the parchment.  

Store in an airtight container.

Enjoy!!!

If you plan on making a lot of Pignoli Cookies and perhaps have a family member or friend you can split a large quantity with, I have a huge money saving tip for you...

Nutsonline.com sells nuts in bulk and therefore at a very deep discount.   My mom and I shared a 7 lb can of Almond Paste this season for Thirty Seven dollars.  This is a huge savings because in the past I've paid Ten Dollars a Pound for the Almond paste in my local supermarket.

Christmas Pretzels

 We've been baking up a storm over here!  I have lots of great recipes to share with you but for now here are some pictures of our Christmas pretzels.  They came out great! We're planning on giving them out in decorative jars and tins and have also been using them to help decorate our cookie trays.

For instructions on how to make them, just click  here on my blog post entitled Chocolate covered M&M pretzels.

Deceptively Delicious Doughnuts

The kids and I baked Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious doughnuts this morning for breakfast.  They were delicious!  Here is the recipe for you to try too. 

I did a couple of things differently though.  The recipe calls for you to coat the doughnut mold with non-stick cooking spray but in my experience, and from what I've read, you're not supposed to use non-stick spray on non-stick pans because it ruins the properties of the pan.  I've always found that the non-stick spray leaves a really sticky residue on pans that's very difficult to get off and it just doesn't work as well as butter.  You can use light butter though, as I did this morning. 

Also, the recipe calls for you to cook the doughnuts for 20-25 minutes, however, when using mini-doughnut or mini-muffin pans, they take only 10 minutes to bake.

Ingredients
Butter or light butter for greasing pan

1/2 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar

1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree

1/2 cup sweet potato puree
1/2 cup skim milk
1 large egg white
1 Tablespoon trans-fat-free soft tub margarine spread (I used Country Crock)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 cup confectioner's sugar

Here's what you do
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Coat mini-doughnut mold or mini-muffin tins with butter.

In a large bowl, beat together the sugar, pumpkin and sweet potato purees, milk, egg white, margarine and vanilla. 

Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon and mix until completely incorporated.

Pour the batter into a gallon-sized plastic bag and cut the bottom tip off of one side of the bag.  Use a pastry bag if you have one.  Then, squeeze the batter into the doughnut or mini-muffin mold. 

Bake until the tops are lightly browned and toothpick comes out clean when inserted, about 10 minutes.  Turn the doughnuts out onto a rack to cool. Coat with confectioner's sugar when cool.

Yum!!!!

Cactus-Pear Margarita's

I'm not a big margarita fan but when my husband and I went to Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill about a month ago, I decided to try his famed Cactus-Pear Margarita.  It was delicious!

The kids and I had planned to spend last weekend at my sisters, as she had planned a little party with some good friends of ours and I thought it would be the perfect time to try out the recipe myself. 

I went ahead and ordered the Prickly Pear syrup needed for the recipe from Cheri's Desert Harvest.  I don't care for sweet drinks very much and neither do my sister or friends, so I tweaked Bobby Flay's recipe to suit our taste. 

Here's what I did.

Ingredients (makes 2 drinks)
4 ounces white tequila
1 ounce Triple Sec
1 ounce cactus pear syrup (a.k.a. prickly pear syrup)
1 ounce fresh lime juice
Ice cubes
Lime wedge
Coarse salt, optional

Here's what you do
Combine tequila, Triple Sec, cactus pear syrup, lime juice and ice cubes in a cocktail shaker and shake for 10 seconds.

Now, of course you can do this.

But, I prefer to use this.  It does the same thing but it's just a lot more fun!

Serve over ice in a rocks glass with or without salt rim, garnish with lime wedge.

Aaah, they're delicious and they look pretty too!

Lighten Up - Recipe for Chicken Burgers with Portabella Mushroom Buns

This week's topic at my Weight Watcher meeting was about following their Good Health Guidelines, which are designed to ensure that members meet their body's nutritional needs. The one I struggle with most, is getting in the healthy oils. 2 teaspoons a day are recommended; nursing moms need 3.

Healthy oils are olive, flax seed, canola, safflower and sunflower oil. One teaspoon of oil equals one point though, and it's been hard for me to replace food, that will fill me, with oil, that I feared would not. I am a very hungry girl.

I learned this week though, that not only are two teaspoons of healthy oils a day good for our skin, hair and digestive track, but they also keep us full for a longer period of time. I'm commiting myself this week to finding creative ways of getting them in.  I figured that in doing so, I may have fun with this and will be more likely to adopt it as a lifestyle change.

While watching The Biggest Loser the other night, I got the greatest idea for lunch. Chef Curtis Stone, gave the contestants a cooking lesson, in which they made burgers from ground chicken, instead of beef or turkey,(I hate ground turkey), and used grilled portabella mushrooms in place of a bun. I've replaced beef with grilled portabella before but never ever thought of using the portabella's as the bun. 

He seasoned the ground chicken with garlic and thyme, which the contestants found to be delicious, but that combination didn't do much for me. I went ahead and thought of my favorite seasonings and flavor combinations and went with them for my lunch.

I took out my grill pan and threw the portabella mushrooms on with a little bit of Kosher salt and some pepper. I actually placed the mushrooms on the grill pan dry...(Baby Steps for me)... You can brush them with olive oil though, if you like.

While those were grilling, I quickly diced up a little bit of red onion and red pepper. I threw them together in a little bowl and seasoned them with a little bit of Kosher salt, pepper, red vinegar and one teaspoon of olive oil.

Now it was time to season my chicken burger. I sprinkled my pre-made chicken patty with salt, pepper, smoked paprika, chipotle, onion powder and Johnny's Garlic powder.  I cooked it for about 4 minutes or so on each side. I like my chicken burgers well-done.

Voila!!! This was the tastiest lunch that I've made myself in a long time. The flavor combination of the seasonings I chose for the chicken burger, topped with the seasoned diced onions and peppers with red vinegar and oil, was amazing. The burger was delicious and juicy. It was also so quick and easy, that I was able to prepare both my lunch and my kids lunch, in the same amount of time. 

I counted my 3oz chicken burger as 4 points and the teaspoon of olive oil was 1 point. The portabellas, red onion and peppers were FREE!  This was a fantastic 5 point lunch and I plan on making it again for myself for lunch today.
Have you found any creative ways of getting your healthy oils in? 

What flavor combinations/seasonings would you choose?