Hot Cranberry (or Apple) Wassail

BOIL AND SIMMER 10 MINUTES:

- 2 Cups Water

- 1 1/2 Cups Sugar  - I used about 3/4 cup of sugar and it was still very good.

- 2 Teaspoons Cinnamon

- 6 Whole Allspice  -  or Cloves  (I did a mixture of both)

ADD:

- 1 Quart Cranberry Juice  -  or Apple Juice depending on if you want Cranberry or Apple Wassail

- 1 Quart Water

- 2 Cups Orange Juice

- 2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice

SIMMER

Perfect for Christmas parties.

Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies

Recipe courtesy Paula Deen, 2008

Prep Time: 30 min

Cook Time: 10 min

Serves: 12 to 15 sandwiches

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons buttermilk
• 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon red food coloring
• 
  

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 1 pound cream cheese, softened
• 2 sticks butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 3/4 cup finely chopped pecans, optional

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Mix together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs 1 at a time. Then beat in the buttermilk, vinegar, vanilla and red food coloring. Once combined, add the dry ingredients to wet. Mix until thoroughly combined.

Onto a parchment lined sheet tray, drop batter using an ice cream scoop, forming 2-inch round circles.

Bake for 10 minutes, until baked through. Cookies should be cake-like and light. Allow to cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla together until smooth. Add the sugar and on low speed, beat until incorporated. Increase the speed to high and mix until very light and fluffy.

Spread the cream cheese frosting between 2 cooled cookies and roll the edges in finely chopped pecans, if desired.

For the video on how to make these, go to this link. http://www.foodnetwork.com/paulas-red-velvet-cookies/video/index.html

Cinnamon Honey Butter

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 cup honey
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Combine ingredients. Beat until fluffy.
 
Delicious on cornbread (see below) toast, pancakes...
(I cut down on the suggested sugar and added a splash of vanilla)

Old Fashioned Corn Bread

OLD FASHIONED CORN BREAD


2 C freshly milled popcorn
2 C freshly milled high gluten flour (or straight from the cannery in my case...)
1/2 C sugar
1/3 C powdered milk
1/2 c canola oil
1 tsp. salt
2 TB baking powder
2 C water
2 eggs
2 Tbsp bacon grease, or other grease substitute

Mix all ingredients except grease for 2 minutes. Preheat oven to 400. Place large cast-iron skillet in oven with 2 TBS bacon grease. When skillet is very hot, remove from oven and pour in batter. Place back in oven and bake for 15-20 min.

Swedish Cardamom Desserts

Swedish coffee bread: A Christmas tradition

As soon as I saw the Swedish coffee bread on Elise’s Simply Recipes, I knew I’d make my own. The original plan was to bake it last Sunday because I thought that Sam would just love to drizzle the glaze over the newly baked bread but she went back to the condo early Sunday morning, I lost momentum and baked nothing on Sunday. Yesterday, I was by myself in the house and I decided to do some baking. I made one wreath of Swedish coffee bread and eight cheese and sausage rolls.

According to Sara, Elise’s reader who sent her the recipe, coffee bread is a traditional Christmas dish in Sweden. So, although most recipes yield a braided bread, Sara likes to form her coffee bread into a wreath which I found lovely. My Swedish coffee bread closely follows the recipe from Simply Recipes (Elise is one of the few food bloggers whose recipes I trust) although I did make a few tweaks here and there (I didn’t add any egg), and I used my own concoction for the filling.

Ingredients
1/2 c. of full cream milk
1/4 c. of water
1 tbsp. of instant dry yeast
1/8 c. of melted butter, cooled
6 tbsps. of sugar
1/2 tsp. of salt
1/2 tsp. of ground cardamom
1 c. of all-purpose flour (plus more for dusting)
1/2 c. of bread flour
1 tsp. of vegetable oil

For the filling, mix together:

1/4 c. of butter, softened
1/4 c. of dark brown sugar
1 tsp. of ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. of ground nutmeg
1/2 c. of chopped pecans

Instructions
Make the bread. Whisk together the flours, salt and ground cardamom.

Scald the milk. Pour into a mixing bowl. Stir in the water. Leave until lukewarm. Sprinkle the yeast over the mixture. Leave for 10 minutes.

Add the sugar and melted butter to the yeast mixture. Stir. Add half of the flour mixture. Mix. The dough will be wet, sticky and lumpy. Add the rest of the flour mixture. Mix just until the dough comes together.

Dump the dough into a lightly floured surface. Knead for 10 minutes, dusting with flour sparingly, until no longer sticky. Form into a ball.

Brush the inside of a bowl with vegetable oil. Put the dough in the bowl, turning it around to coat the surface with oil. Cover the bowl and leave the dough to rise for about two hours.

Punch down the dough and transfer to a lightly floured surface. Form into a log. With a rolling pin, flatten the log to make a long rectangle.

Spread the filling on the dough.

From one of the two long edges, roll the rough…

… keep rolling until you have a neat log.

Take the log and transfer to a lined baking dish (I used a pizza dish), forming the dough into a ring. Pinch the two edges together so that everything is neat.

Using kitchen shears, slice the dough diagonally at two-inch intervals without cutting all the way to the inside of the ring. Ideally, the slices should be an even number.

Take one slice of dough and pull it toward the inside of the ring. Do this alternately. And this is why the slices should, ideally, be an even number. But I’m bad in Math, I cut and cut without counting so I had an extra slice which, I hope, you won’t notice.

Leave the dough to rise for another 30 to 45 minutes.

Ten to 15 minutes before the dough is done rising, preheat the oven to 325F.

Bake the bread for 25 to 30 minutes.

The bread should be nicely browned on top by the end of baking time.

Make the glaze. Place 1/2 c. of sifted powdered sugar in a bowl. Add a teaspoonful of water. Mix. If the mixture is pourable, drizzle over the bread. If the mixture is still too thick, add more water, a few drops at a time.

The Swedish coffee bread is so called because it is best served as an accompaniment to coffee. I had mine with iced coffee yesterday. When Speedy got home, he had his with hot coffee. And he loved, loved, loved the Swedish coffee bread. It just might become a tradition in our family, Christmas or not.

Cooking time (duration): about 4 hours
Number of servings (yield): 1 14-inch wreath

Torbjörn's recipe for Swedish Cardamom Rolls
For dough

• 1 1/4 cups warm water (105°F.)
• 3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 6 tablespoons granulated sugar
• two 1/4-ounce packages active dry yeast (5 teaspoons total)
• 3 large eggs beaten lightly
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 cup powdered nonfat dry milk
• 5 to 6 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons cardamom seeds, ground in a mortar with a pestle, or in an electric spice/coffee grinder
• an egg wash made by beating 1 large egg with 2 tablespoons water

Make dough:

In a large bowl combine water, butter, and sugar. (Note: Add the cardamom with the warm liquid so the spice delicately permeates the roll. The taste of the sprinkled cardamom was too harsh.) Sprinkle yeast over mixture and let stand 5 minutes or until foamy. Stir in eggs, salt and dry milk until combined. With a wooden spoon stir in 5 cups flour, 1 cup at a time, and stir mixture until a dough is formed.

On a floured surface, knead dough about 10 minutes, adding enough of the remaining 1 cup flour to make dough smooth and elastic. Put dough in a lightly oiled bowl, turning to coat, and let rise, covered with plastic wrap, in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

Punch down dough and on floured surface with a floured rolling pin. Roll into a 15- by 20-inch rectangle. Spread butter over dough and sprinkle with granulated sugar, cinnamon and cardamom. (Note from above: Add the cardamom with the warm liquid so the spice delicately permeates the roll. The taste of the sprinkled cardamom was too harsh.)

With a long side facing you, roll up dough jelly-roll fashion and cut crosswise into approximately 1 1/2-inch-thick slices with a cut side down. Working with 1 slice at a time gently twist opposite ends of slice around twice to form a figure eight. Crimp ends together. Arrange rolls, a swirled side up, on a buttered baking sheet about 2 inches apart and let rise in a warm place until increased 1 1/2 times in bulk, about 1 hour.

While rolls are rising, preheat oven to 350F.

Brush tops of rolls with egg wash and sprinkle with pearl sugar (IKEA). Bake rolls in middle of oven until tops are pale golden, about 25 minutes.

Note: My Swedish mother taught me to roll the dough out to a large rectangle. Spread butter on the dough and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Roll the dough lengthwise to make a log. Beginning at the top of the log use clean kitchen scissors and snip about 3/4 of the way into the log every inch. Begin at the top of the log to "Flower" out each snipped piece, laying each piece left, then right. It will almost look braided on the cookie sheet.

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Swedish-Cardamom-Rolls-14327#ixzz1YsQlFWFT

Cranberry-Cardamom Muffins

Rated: Prep Time: 20 Minutes Cook Time: 15 Minutes Ready In: 35 Minutes Servings: 24

"This cranberry muffin recipe was handed down to me from my Swedish mother and grandmother, who liked using cardamom in almost anything! You'll enjoy the light cake-like texture."

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 3/4 cups sugar 1 3/4 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries 4 eggs, lightly beaten 2 cups sour cream 1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cardamom. Add cranberries; stir to coat. In a small bowl, combine eggs, sour cream, butter and vanilla; mix well. Add to cranberry mixture; stir just until moistened. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 375 degrees F for 15-10 minutes or until muffins test done. Remove from pans; serve warm

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe-Tools/Print/Recipe.aspx?RecipeID=124122&origin=detail&&Servings=24

Chipotle Blue Cheese Dressing

Chipotle Blue Cheese Dressing

I love how smoky flavors complement blue cheese’s salty bite, so I stirred in some chipotle powder for both its smoke and its heat. To cut through the dressing’s richness, I added a splash of white wine vinegar, though I reckon red wine vinegar or lime juice could work just as well.
As for my BLT salad, some may know it as an iceberg wedge. This classic dish, comprised of blue cheese dressing and a thick slice from a head of iceberg lettuce, has been around since at least the late 1800s.

The thick, crisp leaves lack a strong flavor which makes it a terrific vehicle for a robust, heavier topping. Throw in some crumbled bacon and a ripe, juicy tomato, and you have a refreshing, filling dish.
Eating this salad is a spot healthier than eating a BLT sandwich, since you don’t have the carbohydrates from the bread. But I love it because it’s quick and cool. And if you don't want to spend too much time in the kitchen, this salad will definitely satisfy.

Chipotle blue cheese dressing
Ingredients:
4 ounces blue cheese, crumbled and divided
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons buttermilk, plus more if needed
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon chipotle chile powder or 1 canned chipotle chile in adobo*
2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
1/2 cup sour cream or thick, Greek-style yogurt
Salt and black pepper to taste

Method:
Place the half the blue cheese crumbles, mayonnaise, buttermilk, garlic, paprika, chipotle chile powder (or canned chipotle chile), and vinegar in a blender and blend until smooth. Stir in the sour cream and remaining blue cheese crumbles. Taste and add salt and black pepper to taste.

If you want a thinner dressing, stir in more buttermilk until it’s the desired thickness.

Yield: about 1 cup

Note: Use one chipotle chile in adobo, not a WHOLE can!

BLT salad (Iceberg wedge with bacon and tomatoes):
Ingredients:
1 head of iceberg lettuce
8 pieces of cooked bacon, crumbled
1 cup diced red, ripe tomato
1 cup chipotle blue cheese dressing

Method:
Cut the iceberg lettuce into four wedges, lengthwise. Place each wedge on a plate, and top with crumbled bacon, diced tomatoes and chipotle blue cheese dressing.

Yield: 4 servings

http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/2011/06/chipotle-blue-cheese-dressing-recipe.html

Thai grilled beef salad

NAHM TOK

Our friends have made this for us several times. It is amazing! Today was our first day attempting it ourselves.

Thai Grilled Beef Salad with Chilies and Lime

Ingredients:
2 pounds boneless beef steak, marinated then grilled then cut into thin bite-size slices
1/3 cup chicken broth
1/4 fish sauce
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
1/4 to ½ cup water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon coarsely ground dried Thai chilies
2 Tablespoons finely chopped shallots
3 green onions, thinly sliced crosswise
1 handful fresh cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped
1-2 Tablespoons roasted rice powder

Sticky Rice (see recipe below this post)

Steak Marinade (per pound of steak):
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 Tablespoon fish sauce
2 teaspoons sugar

Roasted Rice Powder:
2 Tablespoons uncooked Jasmine rice

Directions:
1. Steak Marinade:
Mix ingredients in shallow bowl or ziplock bag. Marinate steak, turning as needed, for 1-3 hours before grilling.

2. Roasted Rice Powder:
Roast in skillet over medium high heat until lightly browned. Crush Thai style with mortar and pestle or in a processor or spice grinder (should be very coarse, not a fine powder by any means.)

Instructions:
In a medium saucepan, bring the chicken broth to a gentle boil over medium high heat. Add the grilled and sliced beef and stir to warm. Remove from heat. Add the fish sauce, lime juice, water, sugar, chili flakes, shallots, green onions, cilantro and rice powder. Mix well. Serve on a deep serving plate. Eat with sticky rice. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Serves 4 to 6