Chocolate Almond Coconut Macaroons

I needed to make a dessert for a church activity and the idea came into my head that something Almond Joy-ish sounded really yummy. So, I came up with this variation of Coconut Macaroons that turned out great! Try this low-fat goody for the holidays!

Chocolate Almond Coconut Macaroons*

2 egg whites

1/2 tsp. vanilla

2/3 c. sugar

1 1/3 cups shredded coconut

Whole almonds

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (Ghirardelli is an awesome brand)

1. Preheat oven to 325º F.

2. In a mixing bowl beat egg whites and vanilla till soft peaks form (tips curl). Gradually add sugar, beating till stiff peaks form (tips stand straight). Fold in coconut.

3. Drop by rounded teaspoons 2 inches apart onto a greased cookie sheet. (The cookies might look small, but they puff up to almost twice their size when baking.)

4. Gently press one whole almond onto the top of each cookie.

5. Bake for about 20 minutes or till the cookies are lightly browned.

6. While the cookies are baking, melt the chocolate chips in the top of a double boiler on medium-low heat. (I used a small pot with water in it and a metal bowl placed inside. Be very careful not to get water in the chocolate! Water will ruin the texture of the chocolate.) As the chocolate melts, stir until it is smooth. Turn the heat to low until ready to use, stirring occasionally.

7. Once the cookies are done, move them to a wire rack with wax paper placed underneath to catch drips.

8. (You can use a cake decorating bag for this next step, but I didn't have one of those.) Take a regular-sized ziploc bag and spoon the warm chocolate into it. Using scissors, snip a tiny hole in the corner - just big enough for a thin stream of chocolate to come out. Squeeze the chocolate until it comes out the hole. Squirt the chocolate out over the cookies using a back and forth motion to stripe the cookies with the chocolate. You can use all the chocolate if you want, but I found I didn't need to. I guess it depends on how much chocolate you like.

9. Allow the cookies to cool completely. Makes about 30.

Variation idea: Fold in a 1/2 cup crushed candy cane with the coconut. Omit the almonds and drizzle the chocolate at the end as normal. Yummy!

*Adapted from a Better Homes and Gardens recipe.

Raw cookies before being baked.

Light golden brown.

Make-shift cake decorating bag filled with warm chocolate.

Coconut Macaroons drizzled with chocolate. Yummm!!!

Candy Cane Cookies

I was going through my huge stash of loose recipes trying to condense and throw away the ones I know I'll never make. (Cheesecake with quince compote? Come on, really now.)

Anyway, I ran across an old, old family favorite from my mom's dismantled Betty Crocker cookbook from like the '60s. The book is long gone now so I only have a small collection of the pages. Anyway, the recipe is for Candy Cane Cookies. As a fun tradition we would make these cookies every Christmas. It's been years since I've had them so I was really excited to find the recipe again! I can't wait until Christmas so this week my son and I are making cookies! I just had to share it, so here it is:

Candy Cane Cookies

1 cup sugar

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon peppermint extract

1 egg

3 1/2 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon red food color

2 tablespoons finely crushed peppermint candies

2 tablespoons sugar

1. Stir together 1 cup sugar, the butter, milk, vanilla, peppermint extract and egg in large bowl. Stir in flour, baking powder and salt. Divide dough in half. Stir food color into 1 half. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours.

2. Heat oven to 375ºF.

3. Stir together peppermint candy and 2 tablespoon sugar; set aside.

4. For each candy cane, shape 1 rounded teaspoon dough from each half into 4-inch rope by rolling back and forth on floured surface. Place 1 red and white rope side by side; press together lightly and twist. Place on ungreased cookie sheet; curve top of cookie down to form handle of cane.

5. Bake 9 to 12 minutes or until set and very light brown. Immediately sprinkle candy mixture over cookies. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.

(Here's the link if you want the recipe from the Betty Crocker website.)

My mom mentioned to me a variation: dye half the dough red, the other half green. Twist the two different colored ropes together like you do for the candy canes, only form them into a circle for a wreath! I think I'm going to try both versions.

Ode To Fat

I could wax poetical about butter, but I've decided to talk briefly about oil - more specifically about deep-fat frying. See, the health world sees frying as bad, and I'm sure it is. I don't think it's wise to eat a ton of fried foods; in fact too much makes my stomach hurt. But I think there should be special occasions where eating fried food is not only accepted, but it is celebrated! Here is a list of fried foods that I absolutely love.

Around the campfire: fried refrigerator biscuits served hot with apple butter

At home with a good pot of chili: fried hush puppies

For dinner or at a good English pub: fish and chips

As a snack: Homemade fried corn tortilla chips with fresh, homemade refried beans

Aaaaah, they make my mouth water! Since I have some freshly made apple butter I am going to have to make those fried biscuits. It's been absolutely years since I've had them. That's enough justification, right? Now all I need is a special occasion. Let's see... Halloween is the next holiday. Let's celebrate!

Delicious Granola

Granola has been one of those other intimidating things that I screwed up once (a whole batch burnt - that's a lot of granola wasted) and have been scared to try since. This was really silly because granola is really easy - if you have a good recipe.

Well, a few weeks ago, in talking to a sweet, older lady whose grandkids gobbled up her granola I dared to ask for her recipe and tried it out. It was fabulous! I then created a variation of my own using the same basic principles. You should really try this out. It makes a lot which you can store in a plastic container or in glass mason quart jars and you have an amazing breakfast that is cheap and fast to make. Here is the recipe:

Sarah's Granola

7 c. rolled oats (not instant)

1 c. chopped or sliced almonds

3/4 c. pecans, chopped

1 c. shredded coconut

1/4 c. brown sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 c. canola or vegetable oil

1/2 c. honey

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/2 c. dried cranberries (or raisins)

Preheat oven to 300ºF. Spray two jelly roll pans/cookie sheets (the kind with a 1/2" lip all around) with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, mix together by hand the rolled oats, almonds, pecans, coconut, brown sugar, salt, and cinnamon. Next add the oil, honey, and vanilla. Continue to mix by hand, digging to the bottom and bringing it up to the top to help all ingredients to circulate well. Break up any over-large clumps. Mix until well combined. (Do not add the cranberries or raisins at this point. If they bake with the granola they will end up as hard as rocks.)

Spread the mixture evenly onto the two cookie sheets. Bake 20 minutes. Stir and rotate pans. Bake for another 20 minutes or until mixture is golden brown. Remove from the oven and stir the granola around, otherwise it will stick horribly.

After the granola has cooled for five minutes, dump the granola back into the large bowl and mix in the dried cranberries or raisins. Enjoy plain or with milk! Once completely cool, store granola in a cool, dry place.

***Note: Feel free to add or remove the add-ins and spices with your own favorites. On my last batch I added nutmeg and cardamom. Here are some more suggestions:

*raw sunflower seeds

*flax seeds

*walnuts

*pumpkin seeds

*dried bananas

*dried apples

*nutmeg

*cardamom

*ginger

*allspice

*pumpkin pie spice

*almond extract

Get fancy! Have fun!

Triumphant Mozzarella Cheese

At last! I have made a successful mozzarella cheese. Go to my homesteading blog here to read about my long awaited triumph!

Baking Pumpkins

In October 2005 I bought some pumpkins and attempted to bake and puree them to store in the freezer. It was horrible. I had to keep adding water so the blender wouldn't choke up and then the pumpkin was so watered down it hardly tasted like pumpkin anymore. Needless to say I never tried baking pumpkin again. Until today.

Four years later I'm at the store and see sugar pumpkins for sale. They have this huge sticker on the bottom. I take a peek and it's a sticker telling me how to bake the little suckers! It was a brilliant marketing tool because I bought three. I realize now that I could have looked it up online long ago, but, well, I just didn't.

Baking pumpkin from scratch is no picnic. You have to cut out the stem, slice the thing in half and scoop out the innards. The scooping and scraping is what takes a goodly amount of time and elbow grease. You're probably wondering why I don't just behave like a normal person and get my pumpkin with the maximum effort of cranking a can opener. But let me tell you. After scraping the heck out of those pumpkins, setting them in to bake, having the pumpkiny aroma waft through my house, and then having the satisfaction of mashing the beautiful golden flesh to a happy mushiness was all I needed to tell myself that I would do it all again in a heartbeat; not to mention the delicious side benefit of munching the roasted pumpkin seeds.

So, I share the recipe I used that I should have had all those years ago. I will never be pumpkinless again in the fall. Even if there are backup cans of pumpkin on my shelf. :-)

Baked Pumpkin

Cut pumpkin in half without the stem. Scoop out the seeds and strings. (Easier said than done. HA!) Lightly grease foil or spray with cooking spray. Place cut down on foil lined baking sheets. Cover with foil. (I didn't, but it turned out fine.) Bake 350ºF until tender - 1 1/2 hours. Cool. Scoop out flesh and mash with potato masher until smooth. Drain if too watery.

Mashed pumpkin will hold 5 days in the refrigerator or you can freeze it.

**Note: It's almost impossible to get all the strings off the pumpkin. I scraped until I was too tired for perfection, and then as I mushed it up after baking I kept an eye out for any stringiness. It all turned out fine, so just do your best and don't worry if it's not perfect!

To use in a pie:

1 1/3 c. smooth pumpkin

1 1/3 c. sweetened condensed milk

1 egg

1 1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. ginger

1/4 tsp. cloves

1 c. hot water

Mix all ingredients until well combined. Pour into 9" pie shell. Bake at 375ºF for 55 to 65 minutes. (Center will still move slightly.) Cool and enjoy.

Baked Pumpkin

Scooping out the baked pumpkin flesh.

Mashed pumpkin - isn't it a beautiful color?

Instead of Canned Soda...

I just think this is brilliant for personal sized beverages on the go made in the comfort of your own home. Check it out HERE. Great idea, Jenna!