Rose Sangria Spritzer

This looks delicious.

* 2 bottles cold rose wine
* 1 green apple, thinly sliced
* 1 orange, halved and thinly sliced
* 1 pint fresh raspberries
* Simple syrup, to taste
* Ice cubes
* Fresh mint leaves, for garnish
* Club soda, cold, optional

Directions

Combine wine, apple, orange, raspberries in a pitcher, add simple syrup, to taste. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 1 day. Serve over ice, garnish with mint and top with a few splashes of club soda, if desired.

Thanks, Bobby Flay.

Okara Earth Muffins and more

I made some homemade soy milk yesterday. The method isn't too difficult -- you just soak/grind/boil/strain soy beans -- but it's rather time-consuming without a soymilk machine, which I did not have. It's worth it though, if you have some time. The resulting fresh, homemade soy milk is delicious.

The mushy ground-up soybeans you strain out of the soymilk is called okara. I had a ton and I didn't want to waste it, so I looked up some okara recipes and made delicious carrot-raisin muffins from a recipe I found on an okara blog -- they are SO GOOD! They taste exactly like Lou's Earth Muffins (delicious, amazing muffins from a local bakery in Hanover, NH) and they're really healthy! (Here's the recipe.)

Then I made granola with the leftover okara.

I'm soaking soy beans now to make more soy milk tomorrow and I'm going to try making okara crab cakes and okara 'potato' salad, which I hope tastes like the tofu salad they have in Collis kitchen at Dartmouth. I love soy!!

Just chronicling my adventures in baking a bit... I've never really baked before, so this is new for me. Cooking is fun! I've begun to see the joy in cooking this year.

Recipe

I cooked with a friend of mine on Friday night. Georgina came, too. Our hors d'hoeuvres were cheese and crackers; we bought an aged gouda, stilton (bleu) and cheddar. Delicious.

As for the main course, I cooked chicken and our dear friend, we'll call her "M", made broccoli.

BALSAMIC CHICKEN

Mix together 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar, a drizzle of olive oil, a heaping teaspoon of dijon mustard (Maille, to be specific), 1 garlic clove, medium chopped and a 1/2 teaspoon herbes de provence. Marinade chicken breasts in this dressing for as long as you want, minimum 10 minutes.

Pour excess marinade into frying pan. On medium-low heat, cook the chicken breast in a frying pan until firm. Increase heat when almost done cooking. Should be nice and tender!

OVEN-ROASTED BROCCOLI with PARMESEAN

This is super easy. Preheat the oven to 350. Take as much broccoli as you'd want (remember, it will shrink in the oven, so get more than you think you'll need). Cut it into smaller pieces. Line a baking pan with tin foil. Toss the broccoli in olive oil, salt and pepper. Take three garlic cloves and coarsely chop them; distribute around the pan.

Put the pan of broccoli in oven; cook until it looks like it's getting a little brown on the edges. Increase heat to 400. When almost done, sprinkle parmesean cheese on top of the broccoli. Let it get a little melty/crispy, then you're done.

Easy dinner; casual, delicious, worthwhile.

Sugar Cookies

I've started a recipe book with some of my favorite desserts to make and meals my mom cooks when I come home from school. Here's the recipe for sugar cookies I now use, and pictures of the ones we made for our holiday craft.

INGREDIENTS

• 3 cups APF
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (two sticks) butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

METHOD

1. Whisk together the flour & salt in a medium bowl, set aside
2. Using a mixer, cream together the butter & sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg & vanilla, mix until well blended
3. With the mixer on low, gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture until thoroughly blended
4. Add food coloring if you want
5. Turn out the dough onto the work surface & divide it into 2 or 3 equal portions. Form each into a rough disk
6. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
7. Roll and cut dough (1/4" thick). TIP: Place dough between two pieces of parchment cut to side of cookie sheet so you can just remove excess dough and don't have to pick up each cookie and replace it on a separate sheet (streamlined!)
8. Let dough cool in fridge
   
9. Bake until it turns slightly golden on edges, 12-16 min.
10. Cool completely before decorating.
    

We bought icing for flooding and for decoration + food color to make the different designs. Great way to spend a snowy afternoon.

Bonus pic: the cake we got from Party Favors in Brookline. Seriously the best (Georgina, you yourself sampled one of their crazy flower cupcakes. Imagine that amount of frosting times 10.)

And yes, those trees are completely icing (save for a little green stick supporting it). My mouth was, consequently, a strange blue-green for the rest of the evening (which consisted of more eating and watching old movies). The skiers were quite fun to play with, as well. Don't know if you can tell, but those skiers were seriously carving down that sloped surface (yes, the cake was sloped).

Recipes for Thanksgiving

I've been researching new recipes for my family to use for this Thanksgiving and came up with these yummy dishes from Food Network and Epicurious. What are your traditional Thanksgiving dishes?

Pumpkin Bars by Paula Deen:

• 4 eggs
• 1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 15-ounce can pumpkin
• 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Icing:

• 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until light and fluffy. Stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix at low speed until thoroughly combined and the batter is smooth. Spread the batter into a greased 13 by 10-inch baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting. Cut into bars.

To make the icing: Combine the cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the sugar and mix at low speed until combined. Stir in the vanilla and mix again. Spread on cooled pumpkin bars.

Sauteed Turnips and Parsnips with Rosemary

Gourmet | November 2001 (epicurious.com) PS: Remember when Gourmet was still alive???

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3 medium turnips (3/4 lb total), peeled and cut into 1/3-inch dice
• 3 medium parsnips (3/4 lb total), peeled, cored if necessary, and cut into 1/3-inch dice
• 4 medium shallots (1/2 lb total), cut lengthwise into sixths
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary

Heat oil and butter in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat until hot but not smoking, then cook turnips, stirring occasionally, until crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Add parsnips and shallots and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown and almost tender, about 10 minutes. Add garlic, rosemary, and salt and pepper to taste and cook , stirring, until vegetables are tender, about 3 minutes more.

Maple Pecan Pie in Wheat-Flavored Crust

Bon Appétit | October 1999 (epicurious.com)
I've decided not to do the Wheat-Flavored Crust, but doesn't the pie sound delicious?

• 3/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 3/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups pecan halves

Looking forward to experimenting this Thanksgiving!

Cookiesssssssss

Baked cookies today (altered the recipe a bit: no nutmeg, 1% milk instead of buttermilk, no nuts, craisins instead of raisins):

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/kicked-up-oatmeal-cookies-recipe/index.html



Oatmeal white chocolate craisin cookies=AMAZING!!!!! A must-bake. Thanks, Emeril.