Almond Raspberry Cookies

The cookies straight out of the oven and....

the finished product with powdered sugar!!

I love almonds.  Almond extract and almond paste, in my opinion, are the best ingredients for baking.  These cookies incorporate almond paste with raspberry jam.  The flavors complement each other in a very unique way and the texture of the cookie also stands out from your typical sugar cookie or chocolate chip.  They are a great cookie for a holiday or special event because the finished project is beautiful and the jam adds a beautiful pop of ruby red.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups sliced almonds (slivered almonds work too)

1 7-ounce tube almond paste, lightly crumbled

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 cup egg whites

Powdered sugar (optional but necessary for a beautiful presentation)

1/3 cup seedless raspberry jam

Prep Time: 15 minutes                   Bake Time: 12 minutes    Oven Temp: 350 F

1. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  Spread sliced almonds on sheets.

2. In a food processor, grind almond paste, cinnamon and sugar.  Add egg whites and mix until combined.

3. Transfer dough to large ziplock bag.  Aim for a corner when you pour the dough into the bag so that dough does not stick to the upper sides of the bag.

4. With scissors cut off one of the bottom corners of the bag to from a ½ inch hole.

5. Squeeze dough from bag onto almond sheets in 2 inch strips.  Strips will look like small logs.  Roll the dough logs in the almonds to coat.

6. Transfer dough logs onto prepared baking sheets leaving a generous amount of space between each cookie.  They will spread considerably in the oven.

7. Bake 2 sheets at once for 12 minutes. Rotate the top and bottom sheets half way through the baking time (i.e. after 6 minutes)

8. Let cookies cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.  Once cooled, sift powdered sugar over cookies.

9. Simmer jam over medium heat in a small sauce pan.  Simmer until bubbles form, between 30 seconds and one minute. Remove jam from heat and spoon onto underside of a cookie.  Use another cookie to from a cookie sandwich with the raspberry jam as the filling.

10. These cookies can turn out very large so feel free to cut them in half to make them a more appropriate serving size.

Slow- Cooker Lemon Rosemary Chicken

I was so hungry I forgot to take a picture of this lovely recipe!

I’m working more hours now so I often don’t have much time to prepare dinner.  I hate coming home hungry and having to cook for 30 minutes before I can relax and have dinner.  The slow cooker is my solution to this dilemma.  I almost always have leftovers from slow cooker recipes which serve as lunch the next day for Dano or I. 

Ingredients
1 Chicken breast, with skin and bone in (it was actually one top half of a chicken.  Basically the chicken without the wings)

1 sprig of fresh rosemary
1/2 lemon
1 wedge of preserved lemon
2 crushed garlic bulbs
¼ cup white wine
½ red onion (julienned)
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon fresh cracked black pepper
a sprinkle of paprika

1. Place chicken in a crock pot.  Squeeze lemon juice over lemons.  Place lemons under the chicken or stuff into rib cage.
2. Pour ¼ cup of white wine into crock pot.
3. Rub rosemary, salt, pepper and paprika into chicken skin.
4. Place onion slices at the bottom of the crock pot, arranging around the chicken.
5. Turn crock pot on low and cook for 5 ½ - 6 hours.

When fully cooked, the chicken will fall off the bone. The drippings can be served in spoonfuls over the chicken or you could use some of the drippings as a gravy base.

Mini Frittatas

Quick and delicious breakfast

It’s a lot easier to eat healthy when good for you options are sitting in your fridge.  To make this a reality in my own kitchen, I (try to) spend time every Sunday deciding what I’ll cook for the week, gathering ingredients, and cooking some stuff ahead of time for quick meals throughout the week.  I went to the farmer’s market on Saturday morning so I’m hoping that my delicious purchases will motivate me to cook a bunch.  Here’s my first prep meal for the week, mini-frittatas. These frittatas are cooked in muffin tins which make them the perfect size for a quick breakfast.  No need to follow this exact recipe, I chose my ingredients based on what I had on hand in my fridge.

Ingredients

1 small green bell pepper (diced)

1 cup turkey sausage crumbles

½ red onion (diced)

¾ cup mushroom (chopped)

Handful of spinach (chopped)
4 eggs + 5 egg whites
splash of milk
coconut oil
Cojita cheese (or any kind you prefer with eggs)

1. Saute bell pepper, onion and mushroom in one teaspoon of coconut oil.

2. Meanwhile, cook sausage in a separate pan.

3. When all the ingredients are cooked, set them aside in a bowl to cool. Add chopped spinach.

4. in a medium size bowl combine eggs, egg whites and a splash of milk. Whisk to break up yolks.

5.  Brush muffin tins with coconut oil.  Add egg mixture to tins so that each cup is a little over half full.

6. Spoon in veggie-meat mixture so that each tin is ¾ full.

7.  Cook frittatas for 18 minutes at 350 degrees.

8. 5 minutes before the frittatas are done, remove from oven and sprinkle diced chunks of cheese over each frittata.  Return to oven to finish cooking.

The recipe yields 6 mini frittatas baked in muffin tins.  If you used cupcake tins your recipe will yield more frittatas and they will be smaller. 

Raspberry Chocolate Almond Tart

Dano enjoyed his tart with some soy milk :)

I made this tart last minute for my friend Louie who visited the other night.  It turned out pretty good considering the fact that it’s made completely of leftovers from other baking projects.

Ingredients
1 sheet of puff pastry dough
1/6 cup whipped cream cheese
1/6 whole milk ricotta
½ tube almond paste
7-8 strawberries cut into fourths
¼ a semi-sweet chocolate bar (chopped)
1 egg whipped (for egg glaze)

Prep Time: 20 minutes (Including 10 minutes for crust to defrost)
Bake time: 25 minutes  Oven Temp: 350 F

1. Take out puff pastry dough to dethaw.
2. In a food processor, mix almond paste, ricotta and cream cheese until smooth.
3. Spread almond mixture around the dough, leaving an 1 ½ inch border.
4.  Place strawberries and chopped chocolate on the dough. 
5. Brush egg glaze along the edge of the dough.  Fold the border in an 1 inch all the way around.
6. Bake at 350 F for 25 - 30 minutes or until lightly browned.

Serve plain or with a scoop of ice cream or whipped cream.  I enjoyed mine plain with a glass of soy milk.  If you make this for a more formal dinner sprinkling powder sugar on top would dress it up a bit. 

Shrimp over Noodles

I made this for a quick dinner the other night.  If you want a hot meal in a hurry, there’s nothing better than shrimp. They cook in about 5 minutes.

Ingredients

2 Zucchinis
¾ pound shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 lime (for juice)

Garlic salt
coconut oil

Sriracha
toasted sesame oil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

1. Toss shrimp in lime juice of half a lime and garlic salt to taste.
2. Melt a teaspoon of coconut oil in a pan over medium heat.  Add shrimp and cook till pink, turning once.
3. Make Zucchini noodles (recipe show here )
4. Place zucchini noodles in a bowl and spoon over shrimp.  Sprinkle cilantro on top and add sriracha to taste.

Gluten Free Blueberry Ricotta Pancakes

Pancakes for Sunday Brunch!

When I was at Whole Foods the other day to get pastry for my galettes, I came across the gluten free flour section.  I picked up almond meal and flaxseed meal to experiment with and came up with two pancake recipes.  My boyfriend preferred the ricotta version so that’s the recipe I’m posting first. 

Ingredients

¾ cup almond meal
¼ + 1/8 cup Flax seed meal

½ cup whole milk ricotta

4 eggs

½ tsp baking powder

1 tablespoon honey

1/2 – 1 cup blueberries

Prep Time: 10 minutes                   Cook Time: about 6-7 minutes per cake

1.  Measure out all dry ingredients and whisk together in a large bowl.  Add four eggs and whisk to combine. 

2.  Add ricotta and whisk to combine.  Add honey and blueberries and stir.  Heavy whisking will crush the blueberries.

3. Heat a pan or girdle to medium heat.  Melt a teaspoon of coconut oil in the pan. 

4. Drop large spoonfuls onto pan or girdle.  Use the back of the spoon to gently spread out batter. The batter is thick so they do no spread out on their own. 

5.  Cook a few minutes on each side.  Serve hot with a little maple syrup.

As you can see in the picture, the cakes will look pretty dark on the outside-almost burnt.  This happens every time I make pancakes with ricotta but they do not taste burnt so feel free to enjoy your pancakes even though they’re darker than usual.

Ground Turkey Stir Fry Recipe, Over Salad or Rice

Turkey Ingredients

 1 ½ pounds ground turkey

1 tablespoon ketchup (I prefer the kind with less sugar)

1 ½ tablespoons yellow mustard

2 tablespoons sriracha

½ teaspoon of Worchester sauce

1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

a pinch of garlic salt

a pinch of black pepper
a pinch of paprika

a little soy sauce

1 teaspoon red chile powder


1. Mix ground turkey  with all the above ingredients.

2. Place a pan over medium heat and add a teaspoon of coconut oil.

3. Once hot, add ground turkey and stir occasionally so that the meat cooks evenly. When turkey is almost cooked through add diced cilantro to taste and red pepper flakes.

Stir Fry Ingredients

½ red onion (sliced)

1 green pepper  (sliced)
6 baby bella mushrooms (halved)
1 can of pinto beans ( drained)
a pinch of garlic salt

1 teaspoon of chopped cilantro
-plus the following ingredients for the salad: spinach, olive oil and lemon juice.

1. Saute onions and peppers for 4 minutes in coconut oil.  Add mushrooms and cook for 3 more minutes.

2. Meanwhile in a separate pan, sauté beans over low-medium heat with a pinch of garlic salt and cilantro.

And finally time to assemble dinner

Place a handful of spinach on each serving plate.  Spoon ground turkey and stir fry ingredients on top of spinach.  Drizzle a little bit of olive oil and lemon juice over salad. Top off with a little chopped cilantro, crumbled Cojita cheese and serve.  Can also be served over brown rice.

Note: To save time when I’m making dinners like the one above, I slice onions and peppers every Sunday night and place them in a Tupperware.  Throughout the week I use these pre sliced veggies for stir fries, salads and omelets.

Nectarine and Blackberry Mini Galettes

Adapted from Bon Appetit, July 2002

I saw this recipe on a few different sites so I decided to give it a try with one major substitution.  My version uses store bought dough which saved me tons of time.  I like to use the brand French Picnic (available at Whole Foods).  Their product is amazing and no one will be able to tell it’s store bought. 

Ingredients

One box of French Picnic Pastry Dough (Includes 2 rounds each 9 inches)
8 ounces of blackberries

4 small nectarines (or 3 medium size nectarines)
1 ½ teaspoon cornstarch

¼ cup sugar
1 egg (beaten for glaze)


Prep Time: 10 mins plus 30 mins of wait time     Cook Time: 45 mins                  Oven Temp: 350

1. Wash fruit.  Pit and slice nectarines.

2. Whisk together sugar and cornstarch.  Add fruit to the bowl and stir to coat fruit in sugar mixture.  Let sit for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. After fruit has sat for 15 minutes, remove dough from freezer so that it can thaw.  After 10 minutes of thaw time, place dough on parchment paper. 

4. Place half the fruit in the center of the dough circle. Spoon in some juice that collected at the bottom of the bowl.  Brush edges with beaten egg.  Fold an inch border around the entire pastry, pinching the corners so that the border stands up right.

5. Next, fold over each side so that the pastry folds over the edges of the fruit. 

6. Repeat the process with second dough circle and remaining fruit.
7. Lightly brush edges on both galettes with egg glaze and sprinkle with sugar.

8. Place both galettes on a baking sheet and bake for 45 mins, rotating once half way through the bake time.

A Few Quick Tips That Every Cook Needs to Know

Tip # 3: The Bread Test

I was lucky enough to grow up with a mom who was an excellent cook. Watching her through the years, I’ve picked up a lot of cooking techniques that are easy but make a huge difference. I hope these few rules of thumb help you as much as they have helped me.

1.  When making muffins and cupcakes, if you do not have enough batter to fill each cup, fill the remaining cups half full of water.  Filling the empty cups with water ensures that the heat will distribute evenly and cook the cupcakes or muffins at the same rate.

2. Speaking of heat, do you know how hot your oven is? The digital display is unreliable. Place an oven thermometer in your oven to ensure that your oven has reached the desired temperature.  This is especially important when baking.

3. THE BREAD TEST: Heat often distributes unevenly in many ovens.  This results in hotspots, areas where the oven is hotter than the thermometer temperature indicates.   To locate these hot spots, place 9 slices of bread in a 3 x 3 pattern on a baking sheet. Place on the middle rack of the oven at 350 F for 5 minutes.  The slices which become especially browned indicate the hotter spots in the oven.  Avoid these hot spots or make sure to rotate baked goods that are exposed to the hot spots.
4. When you bring meat home from the grocery store, salt it yourself and place in proper freezer wrapping.
5.  Before cooking meat, let it sit out so it can come to room temperature. 
6.  Let meat rest after you pull it off the grill or out of the oven.  This will make the meat tenderer.
7. Before eating lemons or oranges, grate the zest and place it in the freezer for later use.  Zest can add flavor to many recipes.  I use orange zest in my French toast batter, smoothies, and baked goods.  Lemon zest is great for many savory recipes.
8. Make your own steak rubs ahead of time.  Having pre-made dry rubs cuts prep time in half. 
9.  Always have the following ingredients in your kitchen: olive oil, coconut oil, sesame oil, good balsamic vinegar, kosher salt, fresh cracked black pepper, garlic salt, Worchester sauce, soy sauce, Sriracha, Dijon mustard, and left over wine(red or white).  You can season just about anything with these ingredients and they even compliment sweet dishes (try fresh strawberries with sweet balsamic vinegar!).