Pillow Cookies

So about a month ago, I was on Bakerella's blog and saw her post on Pillow Cookies. Well, the pictures alone will make you drool. Bakerella is not only an amazing baking creator, she is also pretty great with a camera. I'm jealous. Of both skills. Anyway, these Pillow Cookies have tormented my dreams for weeks... well, if I remembered my dreams they would. They tormented my daydreams at least. This afternoon I decided they needed to be made, once and for all. The recipe below is mostly Bakerella's, find the original here. I did tweak a few spots, which I've noted. By the way, this cookie dough recipe may be my new favorite chocolate chip cookie. It uses only brown sugar, has more vanilla and also an extra egg yolk in it. It turned out really well!

makes 10 large cookies
Ingredients:
1 package brownie mix

for cookies:
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs, plus 1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
12 oz. bag miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Bake up the brownies according to the package directions.  I added about 3 palmfuls or so of finely chopped walnuts -- we like nuts in our brownies, but I didn't want them to be too chunky for this creation so I chopped them much finer than usual.  I also underbaked the brownies a bit, about 4 minutes short of the box time -- again kinda our preference, but my theory was also that they will bake a bit inside the cookie.  Let the brownies cool and then cut 10 one inch squares and set aside. Do with the remaining what you will.  ;)  By the way, did you know the best and easiest way to slice brownies is with a plastic knife?  True story!  Brownies stick to the metal knife, but not to the plastic knife.

While the brownies are cooling, begin the cookie dough.

In a mixer, beat butter until creamy.  Add brown sugar and beat until smooth.  Add eggs, yolk, and vanilla and beat until smooth.  In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt with a fork.  Gradually add flour to butter mixture and mix until well combined.  Stir in the mini chips.  so, I didn't have mini chips.  All I had were the normal size.  I had the bright idea of trying to pound them a bit with the flat side of a meat tenderizer while they were in a baggy to break them up.  Not one of my finer ideas, since the bag busted and I lost a few chips to the floor!  ha, but in the end, the regular size chips worked okay.  I do think the mini chips would make a neater looking cookie.  but, back to the recipe... Let dough chill, covered, in the fridge for at least one hour -- it will be easier to work chilled. Just resist the urge to visit the fridge and nibble on it. It's hard and I may have failed that part.

Once the dough comes out of the fridge, you'll have to work fairly quickly as the dough will soften up on you and becomes harder (stickier) to work with.  Of course a lot of this may have something to do with the amazing July heat and humidity here.  ;)  Using a measuring cup, scoop out 1/2 cup of dough onto a cookie sheet (I used my baking stone).  You'll get about 6 scoops on one regular sized cookie pan.  Make a small indentation in the middle of each scoop and place one of your 1 inch brownie squares in.  Cover the brownie with the cookie dough, at this point I gently picked up the dough and formed a rough ball around the brownie -- don't handle the dough too much, though.  You'll want to put the dough back in the fridge until you're ready for the second batch.  After all 6 cookies are finished, pop them in the oven (you should get 4 more cookies in the second batch, for a total of 10 from this recipe).  Bakerella suggests 18 minutes at 350.  I kept the 350, but went for 14 minutes.  Again, total preference to have a gooier cookie.  :)  And that our oven bakes just a tad hotter.  After removing the baking stone from the oven, I let the cookies rest about 2 minutes before transferring them to wax paper.  And then be prepared to be amazed with chocolaty, brownie, cookie goodness.  :)  Mine didn't turn out nearly as pretty in the middle as Bakerella's did.  I guess when you want a gooey cookie, you give up perfect photo opportunities.  ;)

Antipasto Platter

There are links upon links that turn up when you search for "antipasto platter" on the internet -- each one different. So, I looked them over and decided to wing it on my own. and then add my own version to the links upon links already out there. ;)

Ingredients:
8 ounces perle mozzarella
8 ounces sliced provolone
6 ounces sliced roast beef
6 ounces sliced hard salami
7 ounce jar pimento stuffed green olives
6 ounce can large black olives
8 ounce jar roasted red bell peppers
8 ounces cherry tomatoes
12 ounce jar pepperoncinis
green leaf lettuce leaves

Vinaigrette Ingredients: 
2/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
1 garlic clove, chopped
sea salt and pepper to taste
about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon each of the following dried herbs:
    oregano
    marjoram
    basil
    thyme

Directions:
Stack the provolone and cut into quarters; do the same with the hard salami. For the roast beef, lay lengthwise and slice into thirds. In a bowl begin separating the pieces of provolone, salami, and roast beef so that later the vinaigrette will cover each piece well. In a colander, dump the green and black olives, roasted red bell peppers, and pepperoncinis and allow to drain. Slice the cherry tomatoes in half. In a large container, combine the vegetables, cheeses, and meats. In a separate bowl, mix all the vinaigrette ingredients well and pour over the vegetable/cheese/meat, mixing as you pour to coat well. Refrigerate for several hours. To serve, choose a large platter and place a layer of green leaf lettuce to cover the bottom. With a slotted spoon, scoop the antipasto mixture evenly on top of the lettuce. You can also spoon some of the vinaigrette on top of the mixture. After the main antipasto ingredients are eaten, don't just toss the lettuce! It's now been marinating in the vinaigrette during the party and full of flavor for a great salad!

Mexican Casserole

This is an old family favorite -- we've been eating this for as long as I can remember! Quick, easy, and delicious. Does it get any better than that?

Ingredients:
1 pound hamburger
1 medium onion
1 (16 ounce) can refried beans
1 (10 3/4 ounce) can cream of mushroom soup
1 (10 3/4 ounce) can Fiesta nacho cheese soup
sour cream
salsa
shredded cheese
avocado

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a skillet, brown hamburger and onion. Making one well covered layer, place tortilla chips on the bottom of a 9x13 glass pan. Add refried beans to the hamburger; mix well. Spoon meat mixture over tortilla chips and then spread cream of mushroom soup and then cheese soup over meat mixture. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes. Serve with sour cream, salsa, shredded cheese, and sliced avocado.

a week of experimenting...

So, on my trips to visit my (second ;)) cousin, we have fallen into the habit of experimenting in the kitchen.  The last time I was in Omaha (in October for our 30th birthday blowout weekend!), we tackled Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon -- or as we referred to it, Beef Booya.  I'm sure Julia would not have been impressed with our nickname. haha.  And yes -- we were indeed inspired by the movie Julie and Julia.

Sarah's Homemade Tomato Sauce

In her own words, Sarah describes the process for her tomato sauce.  When TR and I made this, we didn't add the ground beef, simply because we didn't have it thawed out in time.  ;)  I can definitely see doing this in the future and doubling, even tripling the recipe (it looks intimidating, but honestly it's quite easy) and canning the sauce for use later.

Ingredients:
3/4 pound sweet Italian sausage
3/4 pound lean ground beef
1/2 cup minced onion
8-10 tomatoes, med-large in size
1 can tomato paste
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
1/2 teaspoon fennel seed
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Preparing tomatoes:
In a pot of boiling water, put 2-3 whole tomatoes at time. Boil until you see the skin split and start to peel. Transfer tomatoes from boiling water to ice water. Repeat for all tomatoes. Pull tomatoes out of ice water and peel skin off and cut out the core. The skins should slide right off very easily. Take the seeds out of the tomatoes by squeezing or using your fingers to dig out the seeds. Put seedless tomatoes into blender and blend to desired smoothness or chunkiness. I usually purify most and then leave 4 tomatoes or so chunkier.

Sauce Directions:
In a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, cook the sausage, beef, onion, and garlic until well browned; drain fat. Stir in blended tomatoes and tomato paste. Mix in sugar and season with basil, fennel seed, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally. (This makes a lot of sauce. For my family it's at least 2-3 meals worth of sauce. I take out 4 cups at a time after it's cooled and bag it and freeze it. 4 cups = 1 jar of spaghetti sauce.)

Herbs - I use what's on hand. I used mostly fresh this time, just chopped up thyme, oregano, basil and Italian parsley. I then added dried fennel seed, dried oregano and dried basil as well, plus the salt and pepper.

Olive Oil - I just did 4 swirls of the pan or so (so I guessed about 4 tbsp.). You can add more or none. This was the first time I added it.

Meat - You don't have to even add meat, but I think it adds to the flavor. This time I used nitrate-free already cooked Italian sausage. I just cut it into tiny cubes and added it with the hamburger. In the past, I've used ground turkey sweet Italian sausage. I would cut the casing and just add the inside and it mixes with the beef. I prefer this method so it's all uniform and cooks better. You could also add ground pork, ground steak or whatever your family likes.

Some recipes call for water. Every time I've added water, it gets way too runny. Probably because it's fresh tomatoes. Don't add water!! You might even want to add another can or two of tomato paste to thicken it up if you like a thicker sauce. Also, if you plan to freeze it, that can water it down, so when I go to heat it up again after it's frozen, I'll sometimes add a can of paste.

It seems like a lot of steps, but it's actually quite easy! And once you do it once it's even easier!! Enjoy!!

Jones Family "Secret" Rice Krispy Treats

On my summer trip to Omaha one afternoon, we were sitting on the couch and my cousin begins describing this amazing thing her grandma has always done with rice krispy treats.  I realize she's describing my grandma's rice krispy treats.  ;)  Well, they are sisters afterall.  Turns out, we've both grown up eating these treats... So, it seemed only right that we make them this week.  I present the Jones Family "Secret" Rice Crispy Treats:

Ingredients:
1 cup light Karo syrup
1 cup sugar
1 cup peanut butter (crunchy or creamy)
6 cups Rice Krispies
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips 

Directions:
Bring the Karo syrup and sugar to a slight boil in large sauce pan (too much boiling makes them stiff and hard to eat).  Remove from heat and add peanut butter and mix well.  Add Rice Krispies and mix well.  Spread in 9x13 (we just did two 8x8).  Melt semi-sweet chips and butterscotch chips in the microwave and spread over the bars. Refrigerate (or freeze if you're impatient) until cool. Once they are "set" they can be stored room temp.  Or if you're like our grandmas, you can freeze and pull them out when family comes over or for holidays.  ;)