Chocolate Mint Cookies

Ok, so my last few recipe posts have been experimental and unfortunately have kinda been flops. I am feeling rather apologetic for having posted them since this is a blog that I am sure you have come to rely on for well-tested, quality, delicious recipes...so this recipe is my forgiveness plea. I'm pretty confident it will do the trick because it is quite possibly one of my favorite cookie recipes ever. I first tried these cookies when a dear girl brought them to church, and I have been in love ever since (I can't quite decide if I'm more in love with the cookies or with her for sharing the recipe). So here it is:

3/4 c butter
1 1/2 c packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp water
2 c semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 eggs
2 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
36 Andes mints (I am certain you could substitute some other form of chocolately mint)

In a large pan over low heat, mix butter, sugar, and water until butter is melted. Add chocolate chips and stir until partially melted , remove from heat and continue to stir until chocolate is completely melted. Pour into a large bowl and let cool for about 10 minutes.

At high speed, beat in eggs (one at a time if you want to do it exactly like the instructions say). Reduce speed to low and add dry ingredients. Chill dough roughly one hour.

Roll dough into balls and bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. While the cookies are baking, start unwrapping those mints. When cookies are brought out of the oven place a mint on top of each cookie. Let melt for no more then 5 minutes and then spread it out. Eat and enjoy!

*NOTE: I tried to put peanut butter chips on top of a couple of my cookies with the last batch I made to see how tasty that was and although they weren't as spreadable it still tasted pretty good. So, feel free to play with the type of melted top you like if you aren't partial to mint (which is still my favorite for on top).

-Cayenne

Thanksgiving: The Round-up of Recipes

So before I forget and suddenly it's next year and I'm going "what was that sweet potato recipe that turned out so well?" and "was it this pumpkin pie recipe or that one that didn't turn out great?" I'm going to write them down now (or link to them, as the case may be).

Orange-Nut Sweet Potatoes

Source: Healthy Cooking Magazine
6 Servings

INGREDIENTS
2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
2/3 cup sugar
4 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/2 teaspoon grated orange peel
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
DIRECTIONS
Place the sweet potatoes in a large saucepan; cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 6-8 minutes or until tender.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine the sugar, cornstarch and salt. Gradually stir in orange juice. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Add butter and orange peel; stir until butter is melted.

Drain sweet potatoes; place in a serving dish. Add orange juice mixture and gently stir to coat. Sprinkle with walnuts.

Comments: I love this! It's not overly sweet and the orange gives it some awesome flavor. I think I found it and made it a couple of years ago and then lost it, but I think this is now my go-to recipe. I cooked it up the night before and warmed it up in the oven and it was delish.


Green Bean Casserole, Pioneer Woman-style (ie it includes bacon and cream). Also major yum. I had some smoked bacon gouda on hand that I tossed in as well, and our crunchy topping was corn flakes mixed with breadcrumbs.

Pecan Pie - also a hat tip to Pioneer Woman - this pie was awesome.

Pumpkin pie - full disclosure: I'm not a big fan of pumpkin pie. So I was not overly impressed by the pie. The pumpkin pie aficionado in our house said he wasn't a fan of the streusel topping, but the rest was good.

Ham - I made a glaze with apple cider vinegar, dark brown sugar, cloves, allspice, orange zest, nutmeg, and cardamom. Hmm...that sounds good still, I think I'm going to go grab another piece of that.

Stuffing - I cooked up some sausage with celery and onions, used turkey broth (made from the innards/neck simmered with onion and celery), and added chopped craisins, just to a regular box mix of stuffing. Ever since I had sausage stuffing at a potluck, I've been hooked. I think it's way better than regular stuffing.

I didn't do anything spiffy with the turkey or mashed potatoes, and I'll leave it to nutmeg to post her oatmeal/whole wheat rolls recipe.

-Thyme

Yummy, yummy dip

There are two versions of this dip. There is the recipe as it was given to me (which is really good). And then there is the version I made, which was also quite yummy. It also seems pretty versatile - you can toss in whatever other add-ins you like.

Version 1:

1 8oz package cream cheese
1 c. sour cream
1 small can diced green chiles
8 oz. sharp cheddar, shredded

Beat cream cheese and sour cream together until creamy, mix in other ingredients. Bake in bread bowl or casserole-type dish at 300 (or 320 depending on how hot your oven runs) until warm and slightly melted. Eat with crackers, bread, veggies, whatever floats your boat.

Version 2: (or how I actually made it)

1 8 oz package neufchatel (1/3 less fat cream cheese)
1 c. sour cream (the "lite" kind)
5 small roma tomatoes, seeded and finely diced
4 oz sharp cheddar
3 oz mild cheddar
1 oz smoked bacon gouda (totally optional)
1/8 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp chili powder
black pepper to taste

Follow the rest of the directions. Obviously I added a few extra/different things to compensate for the fact that I didn't have enough sharp cheddar or any diced chiles (do you know how expensive those suckers are out here! it's insane!)

I took the dip to work and ate it with triscuits. Yum.


-Thyme

Pork Chops in apple sauce

No, that's not pork chops with applesauce, but with an apple sauce. They were on sale at the local latin market, so I decided to try - I think I've maybe cooked pork chops once before, so it was a bit of an adventure. So, here's what I did

4 pork chops
salt and pepper
oil
apples, sliced
apple butter
worcestershire sauce
garlic
chicken broth

Generous salt and pepper the pork chops (I used kosher salt). Fry them briefly in a skillet with a small amount of oil, a minute or two on each side so that they're seared. Remove them from the pan.

Combine about 1/3 cup apple butter, a tablespoon of wooster sauce, 1-2 cloves garlic, minced, and some more pepper.

Toss in the apples and saute them until they are just barely starting to soften. Add some chicken broth and loosen all the yummy carmelized gunk on the bottom of the skillet. Return the pork chops to the skillet, pour the sauce on top of the chops, and add some chicken broth (you can make it as thick or as liquidy as you'd like). Cook for another 5-7 minutes, until the pork is done all the way through and the sauce has reduced a bit. The apples were all mushy and falling apart, but it worked so well with the pork.

We had this with a quinoa pilaf and green beans.

-Thyme

Chocolate Potato Cookies

Chocolate Potato Cookies? Think that sounds kinda gross? Think again. I am here to tell you that these cookies were a shot in the dark that turned out pretty decent. Unlike the pie from last week, which I wasn't such a great fan of, I actually liked these. They were very moist and chewy cookies and, of course, you can add fun stuff to make them more interesting. Here is the recipe from the Tasty Taters Potato Cookbook again.

Chocolate Potato Cookies
2 c brown sugar (I didn't pack mine in at all and it worked fine)
1/2 c shortening (I used butter because my shortening was emitting a
rather...uh...rancid odor)
1 c mashed potatoes
2 eggs
4 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted (I didn't have unsweetened so I used a little less of
the sweetened and just threw in some cocoa powder, but my chocolate flavor wasn't
great at the end so I'm thinking it must make a bit of a difference here)
1 tsp vanilla
3 c flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp soda
1 c buttermilk

Cream the sugar with your shortening (or butter, or margarine, whatever form of fat tickles your fancy) and then stir in the potato, eggs, chocolate and vanilla. In a separate bowl mix your dry ingredients. Blend dry ingredients into the creamed mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Be careful not to overbeat. The dough isn't as thick as say for chocolate chip cookies, it is pretty sticky, but please not that that is the way it is supposed to be. Also note that here is where I went a little crazy and since it seemed so boring I added in some mini chocolate chips and some almonds. I also think some caramel chunks or peanut butter chips would be delicious!

Drop onto a greased cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes at 375 or until set. Very soft, very moist, very chewy. Enjoy!

-Cayenne
Up next: A non dessert!

Zesty and Delicious...Potatoes?

Having oodles of wonderful Idaho-grown potatoes at my disposal I decided to get a bit creative and try out a new potato recipe or two. Not that I don't love all the traditional (and abundant) uses for potatoes, but I just wanted to really test their limits...So, here is one recipe that I found particularly interesting and figured I might as well share. I mean really, who could possibly RESIST the call of Idaho potatoes...don't you hear them? They say..."eat me....eeeeeeat me" see, they like it. So you should like them, it is only fair. If you would like the verdict from this highly unusual recipe please see the end of this post.

*Note: If you do not happen to have true Idaho potatoes handy I am sure that in light of the circumstances it can be forgiven to use some other regionally grown potatoes.

Orange Potato Meringue Pie (from the cookbook "Tasty Taters Potato Cookbook"

1 c. unseasoned mashed potatoes (I made mine from scratch, which works great I would
just recommend spending a bit more time to make sure you mash them well, chunks
taste a little funny in pie, that's all I'm saying)
1 c. brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp allspice
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
2 Tbsp frozen orange juice concentrate
2 egg yolks (save the whites)
1 whole egg
1 Tbsp grated orange rind
1 unbaked pie shell

Mix all those ingredients together until smooth and pour into your pie shell. Pop it in the oven for about 30-35 minutes or until it is set and then put your meringue (see below) on it and bake for another 20 min or until it is nice and browned.

Meringue: beat together the two egg whites, 1/4 tsp cream of tartar and 6 Tbsp sugar until stiff peaks form. *note when beating egg whites it is best to use a metal bowl and to not dip your fingers in it, oils make it much more difficult to get those stiff peaks.

Verdict: This was an alright pie. I guess it wasn't really the best fit for me because AFTER I made the pie I remember that I'm not really a pie person to start with, and in addition, I've never really been a meringue person...but this was just too interesting to resist. My biggest problem was how sweet it was, I think if you cut back on the sugar that you use it would be a LOT better. So, this was a very sweet pie and mine had potato chunks in it, which made for some interesting textures but didn't really taste bad. The flavors themselves were pretty good. I do have to say though that the best part was the pie crust, which I made from scratch and was super proud of. Turned out super flaky and delicious. mmmm... but feel free to play with this some. I think it might taste good with some nuts in it as well, but maybe I'm just weird.

Up next...
Some form of potato cookies!
-Cayenne

New and Improved Squash Tea Bread

I just had an extreme yumminess moment. I made some Squash Tea Bread using pumpkin puree that I made up last fall and needed to use up. I used one of my favorite recipes from EatingWell. I made one big change though. Since I was out of honey, I used molasses. It was divine. Maybe it's because I'm pregnant (what, didn't I mention that before?), but I'm still reeling from it. So I thought I'd share. So follow the link, try the recipe with any squash puree that you like, and try it with molasses or honey. YUM!


http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/squash_tea_bread.html

Also, just a side note here, I doubled the recipe and used 2 eggs since that's all that I had and it turned out fine. I didn't use a plain ol' egg white like they ask for.

Rosemary