CHRISTMAS TREE MERINGUE

TO EAT FROM THE CAN

I thought, “Oh, wouldn’t this be nice for a Christmas Eve dessert!”

Know what the ingredients are??

whipping cream
little bit of sugar
little bit of peppermint candy

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHAT ARE YOU DOING TODAY?

At lunch my husband asked the table in general, "Do we have any plans for today?"

The actual translation of this phrase is:

It is time to make Christmas cookies!

Every year we discuss the difficulties of making cookies too early in December because they get all gone by Christmas Day; every year they say "Just make more, make more!"  It was noted that December is supposed to be the month  of the sugar high, and it was also noted that maybe those routine blood tests which include glucose levels should be put off till January.  Someone also protested that making more would mean other trips to the groceries in order to buy more stuff, which is against the list-making rules (see earlier post).

But here they are.

This cookie is rather unique at our house.  Firstly, my husband says there is only ONE kind of Christmas cookie and this is it right here.  Secondly, it is tradition for the guys to make these together, not me.  They have an elaborate and exacting dance of how to put them into the oven, using different racks at different times, setting multiple timers, and taking them out at just the correct time to throw the Hersey kiss on top.

I have my snack plate ready!

BROWNING IT UP

The first thing I like to do when prepping for an occasion is to get the basics covered.  I love being able to go the freezer and pull out already-cut or already-browned food that is ready to throw into the pot.  Year-round, I do this with ground beef, onions, and celery.

Because the local store had ground beef on a one-day sale, I bought 10 pounds and browned it when I got home.  Now I can easily make sloppy joes, Mulligan stew, tacos, etc. when I'm in a pinch for time.

The onions and celery are next!

LET'S CELEBRATE

I was directed to the annual December Photo Project by my friend over at Jonesey and so I'm looking forward to joining in on the fun in telling about what's happening at our house this time of year.

Given my tendencies to prepare (I'm OK with that, I hope you are too--see my previous post about working with your own personality), I'm happily beginning the season by deciding what I would like to do to make this year a great celebration.  It's time to get out the lists.

Here is last year's list.  It has the basic recipes I generally use each Christmas, along with the ingredients needed.  This saves me a lot of time in figuring out what needs to be purchased, along with hopefully preventing the tearing out of hair when I go to make a dish and find out I'm missing an ingredient.

Now it's off to the stores to find some decent (well...some lower) prices!

SOONER THAN WE THINK

Last year, I wanted to try my hand at dandelion jelly.  It's fun to do unusual things like that.

It was a lot of work for the end product, and truly:  jelly is just a bunch of sugar with a tiny bit of flavor added to it.  That's why you can make jelly out of anything!  Still, it's fun to brag about, and a great gift to give away.

Although there's a drift of snow on the ground, it will soon be time to consider doing it again.  Think about it, why don't you?  A bit of sunshine in a jar.

HEAVENLY PORTIONS

After hearing that a 9th planet may have been discovered, we had to celebrate with my favorite dessert: Banana Pudding.  I know this was a fitting choice, because when I ate it, it was like eating a piece of heaven.

I use my own recipe for the pudding, which is a bit like Aunt Irene's:

VANILLA PUDDING

2/3 C. sugar

1/3 C. cornstarch

2 1/2 C. milk (even low-fat milk works just fine)

2 eggs, well beaten

2 T. butter

1 tsp. vanilla (which I often forget to put in)

In a 1 quart container:  Blend sugar and cornstarch.  Gradually stir in milk, mixing well.

Microwave on HIGH for 5-7 minutes, whisking/stirring every 3 minutes, until thickened, smooth, and clear:  until it looks like pudding!

Drizzle (stirring madly) a small amount (perhaps 1 cup) of hot pudding gradually into the egg.  Then return the egg mixture to the hot pudding, mixing well.

Microwave on MEDIUM LOW (#7 out of 10) for 1 to 5 minutes, stirring after each minute, until it is smooth and thickened.  I do sometimes have trouble with this step; sometimes it really thins out and I don't know why.  So keep at it till it thickens.  Someone has suggested not to let it get over 180 degrees hot?

Add butter and vanilla.

Now, you're supposed to wait until the pudding cools before adding bananas and graham crackers. This is the hardest part of the recipe!  My son has suggested that you make a double batch of the pudding so that you can eat some of it plain while it's hot.  This will hold off your anxiety until the pudding cools enough to be used for the BANANA part.

This plan works well.

BANANA PUDDING (SOME CALL IT REFRIGERATOR PUDDING)

The proportions depend upon your taste, but the general idea is to make it in layers:  pudding, graham cracker crumbs Kinnickinick makes great GF ones), sliced bananas.  Again and again until you've reached the end of the pudding.

It is SO GOOD!

JUST CAN'T BE BEAT

I have a strong nervousness about using food that comes directly from China.  I'm sure you've read the news reports and understand why.  But there's one item from China I can't seem to avoid: powdered garlic. So I went on a quest to see if I could find a way.

To make your own powdered garlic sounds like an exciting prospect.  Just imagine the freshness, along with the happiness of having something you made yourself.  Empowerment!  Healthiness! Improved taste! I am super excited about this idea.

I never would have gotten around to it except that I saw pre-peeled garlic at Sams' Club for an incredibly cheap price.  What a fantastic opportunity.

So I sliced it thin and popped it into the oven to dehydrate.  Unfortunately, mine took hours longer (i.e., 48 hours) instead of the 2 hours that I was told.  (This may have been due to my oven and its specialized dehydrating instructions, which included having the oven door slightly open)

The end product is wonderful.  And a sadly depressing small amount, given the labor.

Here's the funny thing, though.  At the end, I realized I had never asked myself where the garlic came from.  And....you guessed it:  the inexpensive peeled garlic came from China!!

TAKING THE EASY ROAD

I might aspire to fun and fancy foods, but when it comes down to the bottom line, I always choose the easy way.  So when I had a hankering to make a "nest with cute egg" dessert for Easter, the only choices I found just sounded a le-e-e-tle bit too difficult or time-consuming.

So I adapted a recipe I already had in my box!  Known as Mud Cookies, Wax Paper Cookies, and No- Bake Cookies, these make excellent gluten-free bird nests.

WAX PAPER COOKIES

3/4 C. sugar
2 T. baking cocoa
1/4 C. butter
1/4 C. milk

1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 C. peanut butter
2 C. uncooked gluten-free oats

candy that looks like small bird eggs, such as jelly beans (malted bird eggs are NOT GF)


1.  Decide what type of pan you will use.  Tiny muffin tins make small nests, but you can also place wax paper onto a cookie sheet and just shape the nests with a spoon.  You can see in the photo that I tried it both ways--the muffin tins are toward the front and the hand-shaped are toward the back.

2.  Combine the first 4 ingredients in a saucepan.  Stir to a boil over medium heat and boil for 1 minute.

3.  Stirring constantly, add the next 3 ingredients.

4.  Quickly drop the cookies with a teaspoon into tiny muffin tins or onto wax paper.  Place a candy egg onto each one.

5.  Put the pans into the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes to help them harden well; then you can remove them and display how you wish.

BUTTER LAMBS

Reposted from 2009

BUTTER LAMBS

Years ago when my husband and I lived in Buffalo, New York, there was (and still is) a big Polish Catholic tradition of purchasing butter in the shape of a lamb for your Easter celebration.

I don't ban the bunnies, but I feel a lot happier with a few lambs and crosses around my house, especially at this time of the year.  Those sorts of things are getting more difficult to find nowadays on account of having to make store shelf room for the camouflage plastic eggs and the Barbie tin pails that someone out there feels is a MUST-HAVE for your modern egg hunt (I have to admit that those little rubber duckies they have this year are adorable!).

So when we lived in Buffalo, I joyously bought my butter lamb every year. When we left Buffalo, I was very sad to have no more.  So I make my own now.

Some people make a "wooly" lamb by making the butter all squiggly through a garlic press, but I just use a plastic mold that you might buy for making chocolate lambs.   I have 2 kinds:  one has a front and a back that makes a whole lamb, and the other is for chocolate lollipops--the front of a lamb without a back.

You can purchase a whole lamb mold at a baking supplies shop or at the Polish Art Center.

HERE'S HOW TO MAKE A BUTTER LAMB

1.  Using clean hands or the tip of a table knife, press semi-firm butter into the molds.  Keep looking on the front-side as you're pressing, to make sure you get the air bubbles out.

2.  Scrape the back-sides level, wipe off the excess around the edges, and attach the two sides together.

3.  Put in the freezer for at least 30 minutes.

4.  Carefully take the lamb out of the mold.  Using a knife and/or paper towel, trim the excess off the seams.

5.  Traditionally, peppercorns are used for the eyes; I melt a few chocolate chips and use a toothpick to paint the eyes.

6.  Traditionally, the lamb has a bow or sash, and a toothpick flag with a red cross is placed in his back.  I usually put a red or purple ribbon bow on mine, using melted chocolate to attach it.

May you have a blessed Easter, Friends!

"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all."  ~~Isaiah 53:6

THE SMELL OF HOME

Zucchini bread is one of the few foods that immediately takes me back to my childhood.  The smell of it reminds me of summer at home, breezes in the heat, and Mrs. White, our neighbor.

We children visited Mr. and Mrs. White ten times a day, I believe, as we rode our bikes up and down the country road.  It seemed there was always something interesting going on there, in an old-fashioned way--rug-beating, bunny petting, gooseberry cleaning, hand-milking of the cows.  One day, Mrs. White offered me some zucchini to take home.

What would we do with it--how should we eat it?  I asked.

You can make bread with it, she said.  And she gave me this recipe:

Mrs. White's Zucchini Bread
3 eggs--beat until foamy
1 C. oil (yep, you read it right!)
2 C. sugar (yes, this is correct too!)
2 C. grated zucchini--include the rind
2 tsp. vanilla

Mix these lightly but well.  Add:
3 C. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
3 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 C. nuts

Bake at 325 for 1 hour in two greased loaf pans.  Remove from the pans at once.

Then I'll never forget what came next.  In my young ignorance, I asked her what it meant to grate the zucchini and she told me that you just use the grinder, ya know.  No, I didn't know...so she showed me.

The Whites had two porches.  The winter porch was glassed in, and you could put things out there in the winter, such as food you had no room for in your refrigerator.  But the summer porch was an addition to the house used for all those hot tasks when you didn't want heat in the house.  It was open to the breezes.  It was like a wonderful workshop just for ladies, all set up for serious work--the ironing board with heatable flat irons, the canning supplies, and THE GRINDER clamped to the old wooden table, all ready to go.

She grabbed that zucchini and ran it through the grinder before I could blink.  I was so very impressed. But I was also sad, because I knew that we did not have a porch with a device attached to the table like that.

Nowadays I reach for the hand grater from my cupboard when I make this bread, but I almost always remember Mrs. White when I do it.

IT'S MINE

Today I tried my hand at making chocolate-covered peanuts.  I thought of this idea while at the store, so I bought ingredients I thought would work.  Of course, after getting home and looking at recipes online, my choices don't seem that great, but oh well.  There's always next year.

These are for my dad.  It mystifies me that chocolate-covered peanuts are so difficult to purchase ready-made around here, because when I was growing up, this was my dad's go-to candy.  He ALWAYS had some either under the seat in his truck, or on top of the kitchen cabinet.

Yes, you heard me right--on top of the kitchen cabinet.  This was because these peanuts were HIS candy alone.  And...myself, I don't recall ever even tasting one.  It just WASN'T done.

One time my Aunt Pauline defiantly pulled up a chair, reached her hand up on top of the cabinet, got that candy down, and ate some.  It shocked the socks off us kids.

One of the deterrents Dad used was to tell everyone he had spit on them before they were put away. That's become a family phrase now, when it comes to keeping others away from your stuff:  "Hey, I spit on this!"

But all I can find at the store are "chocolate peanuts" which have a shiny fake-chocolate coating.  So I used a recipe that calls for 1 can of salted peanuts (16 oz?) and 2 bags of milk chocolate chips (24 oz?). Melt the chips, stir in the peanuts, and drop them by tablespoon onto waxed sheets.  Not bad at all, and certainly easy!

The "fancy" recipes call for a combo of milk chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, and white chocolate. And unsalted peanuts.  White chocolate kind of gives me the heebie-jeebies; it's more like candy than chocolate and so I don't like using it.

Anyhow, I spit on all of them.

SNARFIN' IT UP

Everyone posts photos of their Christmas sugar cookies, but I wanted to tell about ours because they're gluten-free--and just as easy and regular to make as anyone else's.

I am going to do an (unpaid) advertisement.

We use a cup-for-cup gluten-free substitute called Better Batter, made in eastern PA, for all our cookies, pie crusts, gravies/sauces, and muffins.  With our own pre-GF recipes, completely unchanged except for the rolling out of the pies (which needs to be done between pieces of saran).  We buy it in bulk once a year, which makes it affordable.

This recipe comes from Betty Crocker's cookbook.

Now about the cookies:  we have troubles at our house.  I know that some people bake a whole lot of types and quantities early in December and then feast off them all the month long, but that hasn't worked well in our house.  (With a little bit of exaggeration, but not much) we tend to make a batch and eat it in a couple of days.  Then we make a different cookie and eat it up quickly.  Then a different treat and snarf it up.  And by December 7, all the goodies are gone, we are bereft, and have nothing to celebrate with for the rest of the month!

What to do?

Last year, I made a double or triple batch of one type, and secreted some into the freezer when no one was looking (there would definitely be frowns if I did this in front of the family).  Then surprise!  Just when you thought the season was at an end way too early, some more treats magically appeared.

I will see what I can manage again this year.

reposting from a few years ago...
BUTTER LAMBS
Years ago when my husband and I lived in Buffalo, New York, there was (and still is) a big Polish Catholic tradition of purchasing butter in the shape of a lamb for your Easter celebration.
I don't ban the bunnies, but I feel a lot happier with a few lambs and crosses around my house, especially at this time of the year.  Those sorts of things are getting more difficult to find nowadays on account of having to make store shelf room for the camouflage plastic eggs and the Barbie tin pails that someone out there feels is a MUST-HAVE for your modern egg hunt (I have to admit that those little rubber duckies they have this year are adorable!).
So when we lived in Buffalo, I joyously bought my butter lamb every year. When we left Buffalo, I was very sad to have no more.  So I make my own now.
Some people make a "wooly" lamb by making the butter all squiggly through a garlic press, but I just use a plastic mold that you might buy for making chocolate lambs.   I have 2 kinds:  one has a front and a back that makes a whole lamb, and the other is for chocolate lollipops--the front of a lamb without a back.

You can purchase a whole lamb mold at a baking supplies shop or at the Polish Art Center.
Here's how to make a butter lamb!
1.  Using clean hands or the tip of a table knife, press semi-firm butter into the molds.  Keep looking on the front-side as you're pressing, to make sure you get the air bubbles out.

2.  Scrape the back-sides level, wipe off the excess around the edges, and attach the two sides together.

3.  Put in the freezer for at least 30 minutes.
4.  Carefully take the lamb out of the mold.  Using a knife and/or paper towel, trim the excess off the seams.

5.  Traditionally, peppercorns are used for the eyes; I melt a few chocolate chips and use a toothpick to paint the eyes.
6.  Traditionally, the lamb has a bow or sash, and a toothpick flag with a red cross is placed in his back.  I usually put a red or purple ribbon bow on mine, using melted chocolate to attach it.

May you have a blessed Easter, Friends!

"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all."  ~~Isaiah 53:6

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER:  PI DAY

Yes, I should have done it when my Youngest Son wrote and presented a speech on it a couple of years ago (which made him quite famous).  But it's "better late than never", so yesterday we celebrated BIG.

We ate nothing but pie.

The menu looked like this:

It was terribly hard to choose, because there really are an awful lot of pies out there.  I didn't include any of the cream pies, for example, nor did we have any ice cream pie. There's a whole slew of Bisquick Impossible pies, and they are all fantastic.  Plus, there are only so many hours in the day for this cook to deal with it!

So, the night before, I worked on breakfast and lunch.  These are all made with gluten-free flour, but if you want to use wheat, simply substitute regular wheat flour for the Better Batter GF flour mix that I used.

Because my guys take their lunch to school, I made the French Canadian Tourtiere first, to kinda set the tone with its decoration. 

It comes from my battered La Leche League's Whole Foods for the Whole Family cookbook and is a hearty meat pie that is a favorite in this house.  I bake it in a 10" pie pan instead of the 9"  they recommend, because usually my grocery store gives me more meat than the recipe calls for.

French Canadian Tourtiere

pastry dough for a 2-crust 9" pie  (go to the end of this post to see
    my gluten-free pie crust recipe)
1 1/2 lbs. mixture of lean ground pork and hamburger (sometimes my
    store sells a "meatloaf mix" that includes veal
1 medium onion, chopped
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. salt
dash of pepper
1/2 C. hot water
1/4 tsp. crushed celery seeds
1 large potato, grated

1.  Brown the meat and onions in a large pot.  Pour off the grease.  Add the
      rest of the ingredients and cook  uncovered for 20 minutes. 
2.  Make the pie crust, put the meat mixture inside, and add the pie crust
      top.  Prick with a fork.
3.  Bake at 450 degrees for 30 minutes until the crust is brown.


Next, I worked on the Ham and Cheese Pocket Pies.  These are the to die for sort of things that are great for picnics, snacks, and travel. 
 

My Ham and Cheese Pocket Pies

GF Crust:  I use the directions from Better Batter for Hot Pocket Dough, which tends to stick together better:

    2 C. Better Batter flour
    1 tsp. salt
    1 C. butter
    4 T. cream cheese
    8 T. ice water
    egg white

1.    Combine the flour, salt, butter, and cream cheese in a food processor
      until coarse crumbs form.  With motor running, add ice water and process
      just a bit more to form a dough.
2.    Divide it into 16 balls and refrigerate at least 30 minutes.

Wheat Crust:  Just make your favorite pie crust for a 2-crust 9" pie.

Mix together:

1 lb. shaved ham--chopped
1 C. cheese (cheddar or mozarella)
15 oz. can pizza sauce

Make the pockets:

1.    Roll out each ball into a circle.  With the GF recipe, I do this between
      2 sheets of saran.  Gently remove the circle from the saran and hold it in
      one hand while using the other hand to scoop up some of the meat/cheese
      mixture and place it in a row in the center of the circle.
2.    Fold the circle in half and crimp the edges with your fingers.
3.    Place all the pockets onto a greased cookie sheet, brush with egg white,
      and bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.

Try really hard to get the pockets sealed well, but for those of you who know GF flour, that can be hard to do! 

One great thing is that it never seems to matter whether or not you succeed in making these perfectly beautiful--they always look great in the end!

I made the Connemarra Apple Tart next.  It is gently sweet with a slightly cake-like crust.  In place of the self-rising wheat flour, I used Better Batter and 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder.  The recipe can be found here (although my own calls for 1/4 cup of sugar in the topping as well as in the crust).

The next day, I armed myself with video versions of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and continued on baking.  First up was the Impossible Broccoli Pie, creamy-cheesy-smooth.  With Betty Crocker now selling a gluten-free version of their Bisquick, it was impossibly easy to convert the original recipe (its real name is Impossible Brunch Pie).

In looking for more side dishes, I decided to try a new recipe for a Vidalia Onion Pie.  I notice that in eating leftovers today, it is the pie I have been gravitating to the most.  I found it at allrecipes.com.  Once again I used Better Batter to make a single pie crust, baked it for 8 minutes at 350 degrees and stuffed it full of the onion mixture.

Next came the Chicken Pot Pie.  I've combined many versions of this old-fashioned dish to make my own, as simply as possible.  The chicken and onion, already chopped, come from my freezer.  The spices are so important to make this dish stay away from blandness.

My Chicken Pot Pie

2 C. chicken--chopped (I do chicken & turkeys in big batches, then cut it up
      and freeze it in 2 C. portions for whatever recipe might come along)
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. marjoram
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. sage
1/2 to 1 tsp. basil
1 1/2 C. chicken broth
3 large carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1/2 C. onion, chopped
1/3 C. flour (Better Batter)
3/4 C. milk
5 oz. (1 C.) frozen peas, thawed

1.    Bring carrots, celery, onion, and broth to a boil; cover and simmer for 10 minutes. 

2.    Drain the broth from the carrots/onions into a microwavable dish such as a
      medium glass casserole that already has the flour and milk in it.  Mix well with
      a wire whisk and microwave this into a thick sauce:  Microwave on HIGH for
      1 minute; stir.  Micro on HI for 1 minute; stir.  Micro on HI 1 minute; stir.

3.    Meanwhile, put these into a large mixing bowl:  chicken, carrots/onions, peas,
      and spices.  Then add the thick sauce and stir.

4.    Pour all into a greased 9 X 13 glass dish.

5.    Make pastry dough for a 2-crust 9" pie and roll it into a rectangle shape of
      14" X 10".  Lay it on top and make slits for the steam.

6.    Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour till golden.

Last, but not least was the Cherry Pie.  HOWEVER:  Are you exhausted from reading all this?  I certainly was from making it!  So the cherry pie never got made.  I don't think any of us noticed at all.
__________

My Gluten-Free Pie Crust

With Better Batter gluten-free four mix, I just use my regular old pie crust recipe and substitute it for the wheat flour, cup-for-cup.  My recipe comes from the back of the Crisco can:

2 C. flour
1 tsp. salt
3/4 C. Crisco shortening
6-8 T. water

With GF flour, it's easier to see how much water you should be adding.  You have to make sure it isn't too dry or it will be a crumbly mess.  So add enough water to make it really stick together--almost gloppy.

I have less stress when I roll it out between 2 sheets of saran.  Still--sometimes my frustration level gets really high.  Be assured that rather than killing yourself over getting that rolled-out dough over to the pan without tearing, you might just consider throwing the broken bits on top of the pie.  That's what I did with the rectangular Chicken Pot Pie above (see the photo).  Looks OK, doesn't it?

STILL HAVING FUN WITH MERINGUE

Because my Younger Son and I are gluten-free, and because we knew of six other wedding reception attendees who are gluten-free, it was suggested that I create a table of gluten-free goodies just for our own selves.

It was a lot of work.

It was kind of like planning for a whole 'nother reception, without the "going-to-Sam's Club-and-getting-food-that-was-already-made" part.

As it so happens, it was also extremely well received.  At the last minute, I added food for someone very allergic to poultry/eggs and then too, five more gluten-free people emerged at the reception!  This was something I had not planned, but fortunately, we had enough.

Here is what we had:

meatballs in a special sweet sauce
ham roll-ups
shrimp and sauce
sausage cheese balls
banana bread
fruit and veggies
spiced pecans
cookies--shortbread, Cocoa Pebbles, peanut butter kisses, meringue
cupcakes
brownies with mint frosting
eyeball candy
cheeseball with crackers
cheesecake
rice

Here is what the table looked like a few hours before the reception (with the refrigerator items missing):

Now, the something special that was going to grace the reception table--the beautiful and impressive dessert-- was another and new variation of meringue.  I have been having a grand time with meringue in the last year or so (click on the FOOD TABhere at my blog to find some recipes) and I was excited to surprise my friends with the latest:  meringue cookies with cream filling.  Part of the idea came from a magazine I saw at the doctor's office.

These are terribly good, and they come close to being a grand substitute for cream puffs.  But when the wedding was over, I lamented these were all gone by the time I got to the table.  I supposed so, anyway.  My Younger Son didn't remember having seen them either.  I wondered....

Today, 8 days after the wedding, I stopped at the reception hall, opened the freezer door, and...there were the meringue cookies!  All of them untouched from the time I put them inside.  Ah well; I didn't get to show them off, but my Younger Son and I enjoyed them very much and very quickly. 

CHRISTMAS CREAM MERINGUES

Make meringue cookies (here is my favorite recipe) with the following exceptions:

1.  Use almond flavoring instead of vanilla
2.  Don't put anything else in the cookies (such as chocolate chips)
3.  Pipe it (using either a decorator frosting bag or a ziplock bag with the corner
    snipped out) into Hershey Kiss-like mounds about 1 1/4" in diameter

When the cookies are finished, make the Cream Filling by mixing these together:

8 oz. cream cheese
8 drops red food color
1/4 C. strawberry preserves (try to find some without large lumps)

Assemble cookie sandwiches this way: 

1.  Spread some cream filling on the bottom of a cookie/kiss.
2.  Take another cookie/kiss and attach the bottom of it to the cream.

How to eat them:

The cream filling does make these cookies weep quickly.  So you must eat them fairly soon!  For the wedding, I intended to keep them in the freezer up till the last minute so they wouldn't have time to get soft.

Also, you yourself can ponder what method you would like to use in actually biting them.  It's a bit tricky trying to bite a little bit off at a time, in a dainty way.  The best method we have here at our house is to put the entire cookie in your mouth all at once:  not a pretty picture.

PROPHETIC DISASTER

I didn't know I had it in me, to predict the future and make it come true (sort of).

Yesterday I made one of my husband's favorite dishes:  Salmon Fillets with Creamy Dill.  There was extra sauce, so it went into a casserole dish to bake along with--great to put onto rice!

Here is my version of that recipe, which comes from allrecipes.com. 

     1 LB. salmon fillets
     salt
     pepper
     garlic powder
     1 1/2 C. mayonnaise or plain yogurt or a combo of each
     1/2 C. prepared mustard
     1/4 tsp. ground thyme
     1 tsp. dried oregano
     1/4 tsp. dried basil
     2 tsp. dried dill

     Put the salmon on a greased baking sheet or a 9 X 13 pan. 
     Sprinkle both sides of each fillet with salt, ground pepper, and garlic powder.
     Mix the rest of the ingredients together and spoon onto the top of the salmon.
     Bake in a 375 degree oven for 20-40 minutes (till the salmon is easily flaked
     with a fork).

At dinnertime as I removed everything from the oven, we remarked upon the fact that the casserole dish was dripping water; I've never seen such a thing before, but we think it's because it had been baking on a rack right above the salmon and steam had collected on the outside.  We vaguely wondered if the dish itself was broken, and laughed because we have had it since our wedding, and probably you can now find these dishes in the antique stores.

I HAVE seen toys from my past in antique stores!

(Secretly in my head, I was praising myself for having taken such good care of the dishes all these years too)

Pride goes before a fall, and it fell right out of my hands!

  The yellow in the sauce is MUSTARD--lots of it.

SOB!~

The set of three is broken, and one of us got to eat dinner much later than the others.