Vacation Foods

472.  While on vacation recently we had the absolute pleasure to enjoy favorite foods on Long Island, New York.  It is so hard to resist since there are so very many great food options.  Like that small bowl of coleslaw at a local diner.  And every location has the best along with a kosher pickle.

And who can resist fried Calamari with a side of Marinara Sauce?

Breakfast is so much better at a local diner with the enormous portions, endless coffee and great service.

My favorite by far is the delicious bakeries filled with amazing cookies, breads, cakes and pastries.

And who can leave without having a slice of cheese pizza?

We visited family and friends and ate wonderful meals all during our stay.  SugarBerry Bakery was a highlight not only for the amazing pastry but the belly-laughs and sharing time with dear friends!  

I'm still dreaming of all the delectables consumed on this trip.  Sorry it went so fast.

"All you need is love.  But a little chocolate (and cake) now and then doesn't hurt."

~ Charles M. Schulz

"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."

~ J.R.R. Tolkien

Christmas Cookies 2024

465. Each Christmas it is exciting to try new recipes and create variations to old favorite cookie recipes.  and this year was no exception.  The process starts about September or if there is an interesting recipe spotted throughout the year.  Meringues were on the "Try New Recipes" list and they did not disappoint.

Merry Christmas! 

"Funny, how one good cookie could calm the mind and even elevate a troubled soul." 

~ Dean Koontz

Sugar Cookies

462. Sugar Cookies decorated with royal icing is an art.  I am amazed when I watch experienced bakers apply royal icing with finesse and skill to handmade sugar cookies.  And their cookie decorations are phenomenally beautiful.

Now, baking is a joy of mine and this was a great challenge to tackle. At Christmas I have made decorated sugar cookies but the cookies I would need to make were Winnie the Pooh themed.  We looked on-line and locally but the cost was astronomical.  So...this became my task to create Pooh cookies and challenge myself to a new level.

I researched so many pictures, cookie ideas and sites to gain a perspective and plan.  Here is my pictorial process.

 

I loved these piping bags and rubber loops that secured the bags so very well.

There were so many great tutorials on-line with step-by-step processes and suggestions.  If you google or search on YouTube or Instagram it is incredible how many great bakers and artisans are lending their creativity and advise.

Several products that were suggested include Pooh Cookie Cutters; Ann Clark Bright White Food Coloring Gel; Judee's Complete Meringue Powder Mix; LorAnn Butter Vanilla Bakery Emulsion; 122 Pieces Tipless Piping Bags;3pcs Black Food Coloring Markers (edible) and of course, powder sugar and food coloring. 

Cost-wise, this may have spent my time but not my wallet.  And, the fulfillment of the finished product is priceless.

Pumpkin Spice Snickerdoodle Cookies

459. It is PSL Season!  And any time of the year is the perfect time for a Snicker Doodle cookie.  But since it is that season of pumpkin spice everything, I took my cookies to a different flavor level.

This is a basic cookie with a superb flavor and they are fail-proof.

“The pumpkin is a uniquely American plant, widely regarded as one of the most magical plants in all the world."

~Seth Adam Smith

Family Circle's Favorite Peanut Butter Cookies

455.  A peanut butter cookie remains a favorite of mine for years.  I have since limited my intake of peanut butter because, I just feel better when I don't eat it every day.  I switched to pistachios and walnuts for my plant protein but they don't tick that box like peanut butter does for me.

When I was newly married, I would purchase the Family Circle Magazine for all the great recipes and articles.  That is where I first discovered this recipe and its one I return to each time I bake peanut butter cookies.  To me, it is the perfect cookie; soft in the center, crispy on the edges, and it melts in your mouth.

It is also one of the recipes that is taped to the inside of my kitchen cabinet door.  Not many recipes make it to the kitchen cabinet door but only the tried-and-true, go-to recipes that I love.  I learned this from my mom :).  It just works for me.

Here is my copy directly from the magazine:

I have adjusted the temperature to 370, don't "grease" the cookie sheet but use parchment paper, gently roll  pieces of dough into a ball but flatten slightly and then tap the top of the cookie in sugar.  I place my fork in water before pressing it on the top of each cookie before baking and, bake for 9 minutes.  I make my cookies larger and it yields about 18 cookies.  If you actually followed this recipe and made the tinier cookies at this high temp for 12 minutes, you would end up with over-baked cookies.  And, you wouldn't want to make this mistake.

After cookies come out of the oven I slide the parchment paper onto a cool surface carefully then place new parchment paper on the cookie sheet.   The cookies are very delicate right out of the oven and will break apart and crumble if you try to move them with a spatula.  And, letting them stand on the hot cookie sheet for 5 minutes just continues the baking process on the hot sheet pan.

Once the cookies cool, they are more sturdy and you can move them easily.

I have also added chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, peanuts, peanut chips in the past and they make the cookie more substantial.

This is a winner for sure.  

"I'm going to take this God-given gift of being funny, and I'm going to spread it out like peanut butter on everything I do."

~ Steve Harvey

Christmas Cookie Baking 2023

447.  Christmas Baking 2023 highlights:

Poppy Seed Rugelach

          Peppermint Bark

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies with Cream Cheese Filling

Coffee & Cream Cookies with Chocolate Hazelnut Filling (These are 5 Star Cookies!!!)

Moon Cookies with Cinnamon/Powdered Sugar dusted on top

Cranberry Orange Chocolate Sliced Cookies

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! 

“‘There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say,’ returned the nephew. ‘Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round—apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that—as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!'”

~ "A Christmas Carol", Charles Dickens

Pittsburgh Cookie Table Part 2

441.  Finally, the day of the wedding arrived.  All the hours of baking and preparing led to this very special moment.

The gold trays and chargers worked great with displaying the cookies around the table.

I baked approximately 30 dozens of cookies or so.  One of the cookies was chocolate chip which I shaped into hearts.

"Cookies are made of butter and love."

~Anonymous