Exotic Spice Cookies w/ Ginger, Cardamom, and Rosewater

Original Recipe courtesy of Camilla Saulsbury, winner of Ultimate Recipe Showdown 

Camilla's Site &  Camilla's Blog

Adapted recipe & photos by SomethingDifferentForDinner

Let me take a minute to say that these are my new favorite cookies.
They are incredible!!!

I absolutely recommend this recipe!! The ingredient list is a little tricky, and you may have to search a bit for some of the things. It's worth it. Give it a try...the recipe I mean.

Happy Baking everyone!!
Let's get to it.....

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger
• 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/4 cup vegetable shortening, room temperature
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 teaspoon rosewater
• 3/4 cup turbinado (raw) sugar, for rolling



chopping my crystallized ginger



Directions

Whisk the flour, ground ginger, baking soda, cardamom, cinnamon, coriander, pepper and salt in a medium bowl until blended. Mix in the crystallized ginger. Set aside momentarily.

mixing my wet ingredients

In a large bowl beat the brown sugar, butter and shortening with an electric mixer until fluffy (do not overbeat-it will add too much air). Add the egg, honey and rosewater and beat until blended. Stir in the flour mixture with a wooden spoon, mixing until just until blended.

Cover and refrigerate 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly spray 2 cookie sheets with nonstick cooking spray. Spoon the turbinado sugar in thick layer onto small plate. Using wet hands, form dough into 1 1/4-inch balls; roll in sugar to coat completely. Place balls on prepared sheets, spacing 2 to 3 inches apart.




raw sugar, ready to roll my dough in


Bake cookies until cracked on top but still soft to touch, about 11 to 13 minutes. Cool on sheets 1 minute. Carefully transfer cookies to wire racks; cool completely.

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Strawberry Chocolate Chip Cookies

I was in the mood for something sweet all damn day but I didn't have much to work with.

Cookies had been on my mind.... so I searched the web for something.

I found this recipe and they turned out surprisingly good! Easy beans and super quick.

This isn't the exact recipe I found online, but I adapted it to me and what I had to use.

What you need: 1 box strawberry cake mix, 1 cup whipped cream, 2-3 eggs (depending on the size of the eggs, I used 3 medium eggs), 1 cup chocolate chunks, and 1 teaspoon vegetable oil.

Combine all these things, bake in oven at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Take them out and let them cool on pan for another 5 minutes. Transfer to cooling rack and finish cooling.

Happy baking. *Kelly





Smothered Chicken Breasts

Smothered Chicken Breasts

Ingredients:

 4 skinless, trimmed chicken breasts

1 can Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup

Salt

Pepper

Paprika

Bacon, cooked, and chopped into bits

Extra sharp white cheddar

fresh parsley, chopped

I began by getting a large, oven safe baking dish and emptying my can of Cream of Mushroom soup and one can of water into it. Mix the soup up. 

Next, I placed my chicken in them middle of the dish.

I sprinkled the top of chicken with salt, pepper, and paprika to taste.

Cover with foil and place in the oven, on 350 degrees, for 1 hour and 20 minutes. For the last 20 minutes of baking, I took the foil off and browned the top of the chicken.

I found that by cooking it this long, the chicken is very moist and basically just falls apart.



In my dish, spiced and ready for the oven



browning the tops

While the chicken is baking, cook up your bacon.

Chop it into bits and put aside to use later.

Also, grate your cheese and put aside.

Once the chicken is done, take the pieces out and put into a nice serving dish.

Immediately top with your cheese and bacon bits.

Let the cheese have a minute to melt on top and then top with some fresh parsley.





That's it. Pretty damn easy and very tasty.

Thanks for coming by. Happy Monday!!

Cheers!

Ice Cream Sandwiches

Double Chocolate Mint Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches

YUM!!!

My daughter was selling cookie dough as a school fundraiser, needless to say these cookies are not homemade. I decided to make them into something more interesting.

Once I baked the cookies, the dough was preformed and frozen, I let them cool. Then I put a small scoop of vanilla ice cream between two cookies and put them back in the freezer.

Too easy and seemingly very impressive.

Homemade Pasta Sauce

I'm back after a nice week-ish break. Summer is coming up and I'm trying to ready myself for bathing suit time. I've starting taking ballet again, slowly but surely I will get my skills back, pilates and yoga once a week, and trying to eat healthier.

 I'll probably be cooking less now that the weather is warming up to hot.

Here's a little catch up from the past week though. Hope everyone is well and that all the mothers out there had a great Mother's Day weekend!

Mine was completely with breakfast in bed, flowers from the kiddos and hubby, and a nice BBQ for dinner.  I love my family and feel very in love with my husband right now. This feeling may change as the week goes on. ;-)

 I think it was my best Mother's Day yet. I'm a lucky lady.

Here is a little catch up from the past week.

Homemade Pasta Sauce

1 large can crushed tomatoes, in puree

1 smaller can Italian style diced tomatoes

3 large tomatoes, chopped

1 bunch of fresh parsley

3 cloves of garlic

 garlic salt & black pepper to taste

1 package Jimmy Dean Original Sausage

3 zucchini squash, chopped into large chunks

In my food processor I added: 2 large tomatoes, can of crushed tomatoes, can of Italian style diced tomatoes, garlic, salt, pepper, parsley, and turned it on low, setting #1, until it was a nice puree consistency.

Transfer the tomato mixture to large saucepan.

At this point I added in my chunky vegetables:  3 zucchini squash, washed and chopped into medium chunks, and 1 large tomato cut the same way.

Next, on medium low heat, I began to heat my sauce until it began to slightly boil.

Then turned it down to low heat and let the flavors cook together for about 20 minutes. Stir along the way so that it doesn't burn.

(You can cook the sauce until the squash is as soft or as crispy as you like)

During this 20 minutes, I cooked up some sausage for my sauce.

I package of Jimmy Dean Original Sausage.

It doesn't take long to cook, and once it was done, I drained the grease and put it in my pan of simmering sauce. It's a nice change up from ground beef.

I served my sauce atop Penne Rigate pasta.

Everyone was happy and the kids got in a nice serving of vegetables.

SSSHHHHH don't tell.

Enjoy, Happy Monday. Thanks for coming by.

Pear & Gorgonzola Salad, and Egg Salad Sandwiches

Egg Salad Sandwiches:

6 hard boiled eggs(we used all our left over eggs from Easter)
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon mustard
1 tablespoon pickle juice (YUM)
1/4 cup chopped dill pickles
salt & pepper to taste

In a medium bowl combine, chopped eggs, mayo, mustard, pickle juice, pickles, salt and pepper. Stir together. Spread egg mixture on two slices of bread. Top with lettuce.

Easy, enjoy!


Pear & Gorgonzola Salad

Italian bagged salad mix
Sliced Bartlett pears
Gorgonzola cheese crumbles
Glazed pecans
Greek Feta Vinaigrette

This salad was so good. It definately out did the sandwiches. My 5 year old even had seconds on it. It's a great way to get your kiddos to eat salad.

Even some julienne sliced carrots or cucumbers would have been great in it.

Enjoy!! Thanks for coming by!

Easter Fun In The Mountain Sun

It didn't rain on our Easter. Thanks heavens!! This is one of the first Easters, since I have lived up here, that it hasn't been rainy, cold, and miserable.

We had a great Easter Sunday. Church service in the morning, then home to prep for our dinner. The girls had a fun Easter egg hunt, complete with sunshine and puppies running about.

Friends and family came over for a delicious dinner. It was a crazy busy day of baking, cleaning, Easter egg hunts, basketball playoffs, and cooking. 

I only got pictures of desserts. However, we did have a huge yummy turkey, mashed potatoes, fruit salad, deviled eggs, cabbage salad w/ celery seed dressing, turkey gravy, steamed green beans, wine, rolls....the whole enchilada.  For dessert there was homemade carrot cake, peach pie (served Ala mode), rice crispy treat shaped eggs, and chocolate chip cookies (Made with duck eggs. I highly recommend duck eggs for baking. Things seem to be more fluffy and much more moist). We like to go big around here. Plus we had a lot of people eating.

It was wonderful. To end the night we all play a game called Last Word. I couldn't have asked for a better time with family and friends! A good time was had by all.

Now on to the sweet stuff.

Carrot Cake
Original recipe from Better Homes & Gardens Cook Book
Adapted recipe & photos by SomethingDifferentForDinner

Preheat oven: 350 degrees F

4 eggs, beaten
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (sssh.. its a secret)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 cups finely shredded carrot
3/4 cup cooking oil

1. Allow eggs to reach room temperature. About 30 mins. sitting out. Grease your two round baking pans.
2. In a large bowl stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda; set aside.
3. In another bowl combine eggs, carrot, and oil. Add egg mixture to flour mixture. Stir until well combined. Pour batter into greased pans.
4. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Cool cake layers in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove cake layers from pans, cool on wire racks.
5. Fill and frost with Cream Cheese Frosting. If you want, like I did, put chopped walnuts, or pecans..on the sides of your cake.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 teaspoons vanilla

5 1/2 to 6 cups powdered sugar

In large mixing bowl beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla with an electric mixer on medium speed. Gradually beat in powdered sugar to reach spreading consistency.

Frost between your layers, top, and side of cake.

Iced w/ cream cheese frosting, topped with dyed green coconut, and around the side with chopped walnuts.

Peach Pie
Original recipe for pie & crust by Better Homes & Garden Cook Book
Adapted recipe and photos by SomethingDifferentForDinner

1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons quick cooking tapioca
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (ssshh, its my secret spice)
6 cups peeled peaches
1 recipe for double crust pie (to follow)

Preheat oven 375 degrees F

For filling, in a large bowl stir together sugar, tapioca, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice. Add peaches.
Toss peaches until well coated. Let peach mixture stand for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Prepare and roll out pie crust. Line your pie pan with you pie dough.
Pour your peach mixture into pie pan,. Trim pie dough on bottom to edge of pie plate. If you are topping your pie with another crust or lattice top do that now.
 Place pie on baking sheet and put into oven
To prevent overbrowing, cover edge of pie with foil. Bake for 25 minutes, then remove the foil and bake another 25 to 30 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Double-Crust Pie

2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup softening
8-10 tablespoons cold water

In a medium bowl stir together flour and salt. using a pastry cutter, cut in shortening until pieces are pea size.
Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of water over part of the flour mixture; toss with fork. Repeat moistening flour mixture, until it is all moistened. Divide pastry in half; form halves into balls.

On lightly floured surface, use your hands to flatten one ball of pastry. Roll it, with rolling pin, from center into a circle big enough to fit your pie pan. Ease pastry into pie plate without stretching..it's hard to do.

With the other ball of pastry dough, I latticed the top. I rolled out my dough, cut it into 1/2 inch wide strips, and weaved the strips over my pie filling into a lattice pattern.  I had a little bit of extra dough, so I used a rabbit shaped cookie cutter, cut out the shaped and placed it on top.



Rice Crispy Treat Eggs

Original recipe from http://www.ricekrispies.com/
Adapted photos & recipe by SomethingDifferentForDinner

3 tablespoons  butter or margarine
1 package (10 oz., about 40)   regular marshmallows
6 cups   Rice Krispies®

1. In large saucepan melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat.

2. Add KELLOGG'S RICE KRISPIES cereal. Stir until well coated.
3. When my mixture began to cool slightly, I formed the cereal into egg shapes, rolled them in sprinkles and placed them on wax paper to cool. Then I put them in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes.

4. Once hardened and cooled, I dipped some of them in melted white chocolate and added more sprinkles. When I was ready to serve them. I added sticks and they became eggs on a stick. You can't leave them on the stick for too long without them being eaten, because once the treats get warm again, they have a hard time holding onto the shape.

This is such an easy and creative treat. You could really do whatever you wanted with them.

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy the day.

Cheers *Kelly