Lemon Glazed Candied Ginger Cookies

by Ann

Here I go again talking about something sweet when I claim that I am not a dessert fanatic!  The bottom line is that most homemade treats require recipes, while preparing a great steak or perfectly done asparagus does not.  Are you buying my reasoning, or questioning my truthfulness about not constantly raiding the cookie jar?

Speaking of which...  These cookies are fabulous!  I have written about my love of ginger already, but when I refer to ginger it is more along the lines of crystallized ginger or fresh ginger root rather than the dry spice that is in often a key ingredient in holiday baking recipes.

My dear friend Teri first introduced me to this recipe, which originally came from MarthaStewart.com.  Teri made the dough up and portioned it into cookie-sized balls that she froze, being able to take out as many as she needed for freshly baked cookies.  With the Valentine sugar cookie making experience fresh in my mind, I handled the dough the same way I did with that recipe -- I rolled the sticky dough between plastic wrap and waxed paper to the 1/4" thickness and then put the rolled dough in the fridge to harden up enough to cut.  I was glad I was using a metal biscuit cutter instead of a plastic cookie cutter because the cutter had to go through some of the ginger chunks.

Pictured below are ingredients that most people might not have on hand.  The crystallized ginger can be bought at specialty or farmers markets and stores that sell a good variety of spices.  The jar is Nielsen Massey vanilla bean paste.  Working at Sur la Table exposed me to this wonderful product (they sell it at the store, you can order it on Amazon, or even find it in discount stores like Ross or TJ Max).  The pastry chef at Sur la Table uses it as a replacement for any recipe that calls for vanilla extract in the same amounts.  The head chef said to use half as much as extract when he used it, so I went with that recommendation since the 2 tablespoons that this recipe calls for seems like an large amount.

 The ginger can be found at specialty markets (it's pricey), and the jar is Nielsen Massey Vanilla Bean Paste.

I used a heaping half cup of the crystallized ginger.
Be forewarned -- the ginger is difficult to cut , and it gets too gummy in the food processor.

The dough is sticky, so I divided it into three parts and rolled it into 1/4" thick disks to refrigerate prior to cutting.

Once hardened by refrigeration cookies can be cut and placed on  mat to bake.

Using a disposable pastry bag made glazing easy.   (It would have been easier if I'd used a spoon!)

Lemon Glazed Candied-Ginger Cookies

Ingredients:

2 c all-purpose flour
½ t baking powder
½ t salt
¾ c unsalted butter,softened
1 c packed light-brown sugar
½ c candied ginger, chopped fine ( I used a heaping half cup)
1 large egg
2 T vanilla extract (I used 1 T vanilla bean paste)

2 c powdered sugar
2T finely grated lemon zest
2 t fresh lemon juice
1 T honey
2 T water
I add a dab of yellow food coloring paste to add color

Directions:

1.       Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

2.       Cream butter and brown sugar with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

3.       Add ginger, beat for an additional 2 minutes.

4.       Beat in egg and vanilla.

5.       Add flour mixture, and beat on medium-low speed until dough comes together.

6.       Divide dough into two sections and refrigerate 1 hour – 3 days.  Dough is very sticky. 

A good way to do this is to roll the dough to ¼ inch rounds between plastic wrap or waxed paper, and refrigerate the flat rounds prior to cutting and cooking.

7.       Cut cooled dough into 2” circles. Place on a silicone mat or parchment paper lined cookie sheets ½ inch apart. Refrigerate cut cookies 10 minutes prior to baking.  (I did not do this because of my system the dough was still cool)

8.       Bake at 350 degrees, rotating half way through until cookies are set and edges are light gold; 12-14 minutes.  Transfer parchment with cookies to wire racks.  Let cool completely.  (Cookies can be stored for up to 3 days).

9.       Whisk powdered sugar, lemon zest, juice, honey, water and a pinch of salt in bowl until smooth.  Drizzle over cooled cookies.

Makes 5-6 dozen.

Neon and Stripes

by Heather

It's been 80 degrees and sunny here for the past couple of days which gets me thinking about Spring. Spring and the color yellow go together in my mind and I love stripes as well, especially in nautical blue and white, for the warm weather.

Prabal Gurung for Target sweater; Target scarf; Chico's boyfriend jeans

When I saw that the Prabal Gurung for Target line featured a neon yellow and white sweater, I knew I had to have it. Glad I didn't wait too long -- read later that the line pretty much sold out its first day. Also happy that I picked up both the small and the medium sized sweater. I didn't have time (or maybe it was energy) to try it on in the store, so I took both. The small is plenty big even though I usually wear a medium in Target tops. While shopping for the sweater, the scarf section was directly across the aisle and the blue and white striped scarf with the slash of neon yellow caught my eye.

With the scarf tied, the sweet little white V-shape of the sweater gets hidden so here's a picture with the scarf draped.

A close-up of the Target earrings and a BCBG neon yellow and silver ring

And, of course, the jewelry section is right next to the scarves and. of course, there were cute neon yellow earrings to coordinate with the other pieces.  I do like a matchy-matchy look so the three items had to come home with me.  I first tried the new pieces with white jeans, which is a nice look, but technically it's still winter so the old-fashioned part of me just couldn't do it. Pairing it with boyfriend jeans kept a little bit of a "winter in Scottsdale" look with the yellow and white being my nod to the Spring-like weather.

Ann Taylor yellow and bling bracelet; BCBG yellow and silver ring; white ceramic Michael Kors watch; (hard-to-see neon) yellow braided wrap bracelet 

Charles David heels

 I had the yellow shoes in the pile to go to our upcoming swap party. I love the style but they're not really comfortable to wear for extended periods. When summer rolls around, I'll pull out the white wedges or the pale grey with yellow sandals or the...well, who knows for sure, but I'm thinking that the yellow and white sweater will pair well with a lot of shoes!

 Here's another sweater (Urban Outfitters) with a little stripe of neon yellow. I've paired it with my J. Crew Edie purse, white jeans from White House Black Market, and a neon yellow necklace purchased last summer.

I've been working on expanding my repertoire of scarf-ties so stay tuned for next Monday's blog when I'll show you what I've learned.  Join us the rest of this week, too, for topics ranging from food to money to furnishings and fun!

Love,

Heather

A Valentine from Edie

February 15, 2013

Edie, our hostess with the mostess

By Sheila

If you are lucky, your friend Edie has Book Club the week of Valentines Day. We were lucky this week. I explained in a previous post that when we have book club, the hostess selects the book, hosts the event, and prepares food for the group. The only requirement is that it's hearty enough that we can call it dinner and that it is accompanied by wine. Well, I can tell you that once again, it exceeded expectations and was a real treat.

Edie claims to not have a special Valentine this year, but I can tell you that in fact she does. She has a group of friends that she treated extra-special by going all out with her Valentine preparations. Let me describe the menu:

yummy hot cheesy bacon appetizer
heart cut-out roasted potato and tomato appetizer bites
salad with raspberry vinaigrette
rolls with a heart shaped imprint served with heart-shaped butter
heart shaped individual meat-loafs with pink mashed potatoes

heart imprint on bread with you guessed it- heart shaped butter on the side

And in case you thought that was more than enough, the dessert bar was never-ending. She made Ann's recipe for Champagne Cupcakes and an assortment of hand made chocolates and truffles that we took home in a - you guessed it - heart embellished goodie bag. Oh, and a peach muffin thrown in for a breakfast treat. These are all referred to at our house as breakfast appetizers, by the way.

Our to-go treat bag.  Made my husband's day!

As an aside, we did read and discuss the book The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman.  This story provided good discussion and was a book that we all enjoyed reading.

Next month we are at Ann's. No pressure, but she is the foodie of the group, after all. I will tell you right now that when the group comes to my house in May, we will be looking forward to lowering the standards. And of course, we will be dining al fresco. I am hoping that if the flowers and hummingbirds are distracting enough, maybe no one will notice if the food is not at the top of the culinary food chain!

Perfect Valentine Lips!

by Ann

Happy Valentine’s Day! It’s the perfect day to be talking about lips and kisses!

Finding the right shade of lipstick can be a difficult task.  I’ve shopped with my mom many, many times as she has tried to find that shade that meets all of her criteria.  If you’ve bought one that ended up being too dark, and then another that isn’t dark enough, mixing the two colors together can be the answer.  This solution also works great if you’re like me and limit your department store cosmetic purchases to when a “free gift” promotion is on which usually includes a lipstick.  The problem is that you get whatever shade the gift includes.  The cosmetic companies have wizened up in the last couple of years and have at least given customers a warm or cool choice, but even then it could be too light or too dark for your taste.

So, here’s what I do – Once empty I save the little lidded jars that also come with the free cosmetic gifts, usually containing eye cream.  Whenever I find a lipstick that has a pink shade (I don’t do well with anything with an orange tint) that isn’t “quite right” I save it for a custom blend.  When I have a couple of darks and lights I break the lipstick part off into the container and mix them up using the wand of a lip gloss (which was probably also part of a free gift) to come up with the perfect color.

For the pics for this post I rummaged through my miscellaneous free gift lipstick leftovers and found more dark than light.  Pictured above is a new version of each.  I often don’t add product to the color pot until the lipstick is down to the end, or it broke due to my haphazard use.  It is amazing how much product remains inside the base of the lipstick – I’ve tried to illustrate the digging out process in the picture below.

Your custom blend of lipstick can be applied as is with a lip brush or the wand of a lip gloss, but I have a couple of more steps to the perfect lips, if you want them to last throughout most of the day.  In the morning I always start with a lip liner followed by Revlon’s Just Bitten lipstain, and finally my custom blend applied with a lip brush.

My custom blend of the "perfect pink" lipstick!

I’m sure I got onto the Revlon Just Bitten lipstain by getting it free or almost free with a CVS promotion.  I like it enough to have bought it again.  One end like a felt tip pen is what is used to dye the lips.  The other end has what Revlon calls a balm to be put on after the stain, but my process doesn’t include using that end, which I find similar to Chapstick’s consistency.  The liner/stain/custom blend application keeps my lips looking bright until after lunch, after which I just use an acceptable color out of the tube for reapplication until the next day.

As for Valentine kisses, my hubby runs the other way if I try to kiss him with lipstick on so, maybe I won’t use much lipstick at all today…

I hope that yours is or has been a sweet, happy day!

A Valentine for Bravado

Camryn leading her Valentine back to be groomed.

My three year old Granddaughter was over this weekend to teach me a lesson about "Balentimes Day". She is a wealth of information and highly reliable. She explained to me (very patiently) that a very special day was coming. A day where you draw a picture and write a special note for someone you love. She is planning to make this special "Balentime" for her favorite creature in the world; "Bravado".  Bravado is a rather well-aged horse that she she has ridden on Saturdays for the last several weeks. She calls him "Rabado" and he doesn't seem to mind a bit. She is certain that he will want to hang his "Balentime" on the door to his house, which as she explains to me, is called a stall.

To back-track, she has been wanting a horse of her own for over a year. Neither her Papa nor Santa have come through yet, bet she has not lost hope. Her Papa is willing to buy her a horse tomorrow, but there is the small issue of boarding. She is fairly certain that she could keep a horse in her room if he wasn't too big. Bravado is definitely too big.

She loves everything about this horse, including cleaning his hooves. When she rides him, she likes to go fast. Her favorite movie is Brave (the red-headed Scottish girl who loves to ride a horse). Did I mention she is a red-head and her Papa is a Scottish immigrant? She makes the connection between the name of her favorite horse and her favorite movie.  She says being brave is "when it is very scary and you feel funny in your tummy, but you do it anyway". Out of the mouths of babes.

She loves Bravado so much that as she rides, she occasionally leans over and wraps her little arms around his big neck and gives him a warm hug. I know Bravado gets that she is Brave and how much she loves him. I am sure he will hang his "Balantime" on the door to his house and be glad to see his red-headed Valentine when she comes bouncing in on Saturday.


We should all be so brave!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Vegetable Salsa

by Ann

In retrospect this recipe should have been posted pre-Superbowl, but the inspiration came when Sheila brought the dip to a party that her son and his wife hosted two nights prior to the big game.  

This recipe originally came from my dear friend Joy, who worked at the same high school that I did years ago.  I have since eaten other renditions of this recipe, but I think this one is better than any "cowboy caviar" recipes I have encountered.

This is what I love about this recipe:

• It is fresh and flavorful
• The veggies and their fiber are nutritious
• The vibrant colors create a beautiful presentation
• It's versatile - use it as a dip with chips, as a taco topper, or on salad greens
• It makes enough to feed a small army (which can be the downside at times)

There are a couple of keys to success with this recipe.  Drain what can be drained prior to combining; there will still be excess liquid to drain off before serving, but it should not be soupy.  Cut the onions into small pieces and avocado and fresh tomatoes into a uniform sized dice.  If you love cilantro like I do, use it with reckless abandon.

Vegetable Salsa

Mix together the following ingredients in a large bowl:

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can of yellow corn, drained well

1 can diced tomatoes, drained well

1 7 oz can Herdez Salsa Verde (these are small cans sold in the Mexican section of the grocery stores)

1 7 ox can Herdez Salsa Casera

1 red onion, diced (if this seems like too much onion, decrease to taste)

4 medium sized tomatoes, diced into 1/2" cubes

6 green onions, sliced; use green part too

2 ripe avocados, diced into 1/2” cubes

as much chopped cilantro leaves as you like

Before stirring up, I drain as much of the liquid that settles on the bottom of the bowl as possible.

This recipe is not super-hot, so if you like a lot of zing chopped Serrano chilies or hot pepper flakes would give it more zip.  I do like lots of heat, but prepare this as posted because it is good in the mild version as well.

The inspiration behind this post -- a party guest requesting the recipe from Sheila.
(Instead of giving it to her, our blog name is written on the paper plate with the promise of this post today!)

Rain Drops Keep Fallin' on My Head

or "Orange You Glad It's Raining?"

By Heather

The sun is shining today (Sunday) but the forecast for tomorrow (Monday) is rain. Monday AND rain? That could be depressing, so let's not exacerbate the situation by dressing in gloomy colors. A  bright orange trench is perfect for rainy weather! I've mentioned before that orange is my favorite color so when I saw this coat at Banana Republic, it was a no-brainer.

Banana Republic trench coat; BR orange and navy scarf; Chico's dark navy jeans

 Kate Spade bangles 

Alexis Bittar orange bangle; Michael Kors watch 

Michael Kors Hamilton purse; Antonio Melani denim and leather wedges

J. Crew navy and white striped cardigan; Chico's white tank

 Francesca's Collection earrings and necklace; BCBGMaxAzria orange and gold ring

The last time I bought a trench coat was several years ago. I had been to Los Angeles as a chaperon for a school fashion trip (hard labor but someone has to do it) and we brought the students to Rodeo Drive to peruse the shops there. I didn't usually shop at Juicy Couture (I thought I was a tad too old for their line) but it's a must-see for the teens. To my surprise, I found the most amazing black trench there that fit like a dream (I've since become a big fan of their clothing and accessories). The price tag was beyond my reach, however. Returning home, I continued to lust after that coat. Several weeks later, Nordstrom's had the same item on sale. Glad I waited! The coat is still in my closet and probably will be for years --it's a classic. But a dark color on a dark day is not always a great mood elevator. Yes, I know I can use bright pops of color to liven it up, but please, I'm trying to rationalize my need for a new coat so just work with me, okay?

 Here's the Juicy Couture trench with added color from a J Crew Edie purse, yellow Chico's scarf, Echo polka dot umbrella, and Loft straw fedora. Just had to use my new vintage-looking dress form from Home Goods. I kind of like dressing it rather than me -- it's in better shape :)

Hope those of you in the Northeast are digging yourselves out of the snow drifts. We can't complain too much here because of a little rain, right?

Love,
Heather