REAL Simple

One of my goals I had during the week I watched my parents house and dogs was to go through mom's huge cabinet collection of recipes and cook books and take all my favorites so I could have them to make for many years to come.  Well, my favorite cookie recipe that I found has to simply be the SIMPLEST Thumbprint cookie recipe ever created!  I've made Thumbprint cookies for people in the past from other recipes and people absolutely devoured them quickly, but mom's cookies taste just the same as those that had numerous ingredients!  It is indeed a win-win and I will surely be making these for the holidays.  Enjoy!

Mom’s Thumbprint recipe

½ cup sugar
1 cup butter soften
2 egg yolks
2 cups flour
1 Tbs vanilla extract
Finely chopped nuts (I usually use pecans)
Jam of choice (I like seedless raspberry, but you could use multiple jams)

In a mixing bowl cream butter and sugar.  Then add the egg yolks one at a time and then the flour half cup at a time until thoroughly incorporated and then the vanilla. Roll into small balls (I'd guess like an inch and a half in diameter) then roll the dough ball in the chopped nuts.  Place on baking sheet covered in parchment paper and then make a "print" with your thumb in the center.

Bake at 375 F 10-12minutes, add jam before the last 4 minutes using a teaspoon and another spoon to help you scoop it out and put in each "thumbprint" you made.



*Sami's note:  The reason my jam looks all oozed out all over the cookies might be due to the fact that I did not see the jam I used was sugar-free.  Oops! But still delish!

Food Discoveries

From a very young age I was fearless when it came to trying new foods. My mother has told me that when I was little and would come home after school I would say to her, "Is there anything to eat that I never had before?" and she would look for something for me and no matter what it was I always tried it and usually enjoyed it.Even when she gave me sardines!

As I've gotten older I'm still the same way, I will try anything once and for the most part I enjoy it. But then there's those times where you try something and you think, "What have I been doing living my life without this?!".

That very thing happened to me about a month ago and now I literally want it just about every week. That dish being Thai Red Curry soup. My neighbor/best friend from high school brought it over to me one night to try and I was instantly hooked. The creamy coconut milk fused with the wonderful heat of the red curry with the add-ins of shrimp, noodles and veggies: absolute bliss for my tastebuds. Later in the month we went to a Thai restaurant and I of course had to see what the authentic kind was like and of course it was ahhhh-mazing! However also not cheap, so I had to get the recipe from her right away to make it myself. I bugged her until she finally gave me the link to RealSimple and I adapted this recipe from there. Enjoy!


Ingredients

12 ounces chow mein noodles or spaghetti

1 ½ tablespoons red curry paste

2 14-ounce cans coconut milk

½ cup low-sodium chicken broth

2 teaspoons grated ginger (I ommited the ginger because it's one of the few flavors I don't enjoy)

½ teaspoon kosher salt

4 ounces sugar snap peas, cut in half

4 ounces shiitake mushrooms, sliced (I used regular button mushrooms)

1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 cup fresh cilantro leaves

Directions

1.Cook the noodles according to the package directions.
2.Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, over medium-high heat, combine the curry paste, coconut milk, broth, ginger, and salt. Bring to a boil.
3.Add the peas, mushrooms, and shrimp. Lower the heat and simmer until the shrimp are cooked through and the vegetables are tender, about 4 minutes.
4.Divide the noodles and soup among individual bowls. Sprinkle with the cilantro.




*Sami's note:
Next time I would use less noodles because it make this less of a soup and more of a pasta dish. Also to save time I used precooked shrimp and just added it at the very end so it would get warm.

Cookies!!! err...cookie bars

As it is stated in my Welcome, I am purely amateur at all of this...and it becomes more apparent with each baking adventure.

I decided to make some basic chocolate chip cookies from a recipe from Martha Stewart Living magazine for a cook-out.  Now first things first: I do not own a stand mixer, I want one badly but for now I have to deal with just a regular handmixer.  I was told this should be perfectly okay and perhaps it would have been if I had any idea just exactly how old my inherited cruddy handmixer was...

So during the process of creaming the butter and sugars together the handmixer just couldn't take the stress any more and it slowed to a halt and made terrible grinding sounds and then smoke began to rise from it's vents...I'm a murderer! I should have known that the little junker was on it's last spin.  None the less I finished mixing the cookies by hand and spatula (perfectly efficient way of doing it just makes you really tired!).  Scooped them up and put them on a pan and then into the oven at 350 for 15 minutes.  And what I got was a single giant flat super crunchy cookie.  It still tasted pretty good, but was for sure way too ugly looking to bring to a party.

So I went looking for a new recipe also from Martha Stewart (but this one was on her online site and not the magazine).  Big difference!!!  Complete success; I brought these to a friend's birthday party and they were pretty much all devoured quickly.

Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe from Martha Stewart 

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 cup packed light-brown sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2 cups (about 12 ounces) semisweet and/or milk chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter with both sugars; beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low; add the salt, vanilla, and eggs. Beat until well mixed, about 1 minute. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

2. Drop heaping tablespoon-size balls of dough about 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.  

3.Bake until cookies are golden around the edges, but still soft in the center, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool on baking sheet 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week (yeah, if they even last that long).