Sam's Star Cookies (Clementine Cardamom Shortbread)

"Star Cookies" That's what Sammy wants. A little man of few words but definite opinions. He loves these citrusy shortbread stars that I created this Christmas season. The flavors are based on a sugar cookie that my daughter-in-law makes; these shortbread gems are a bit crisper and less sweet. I first took them to the "Ladies Who Golf" cookie exchange at my friend Connie's house. She sponsors a lovely lunch every year for her golfing friends where we each contribute different cookies and all go home with a delightful variety.  I used to take them to my visiting teaching ladies but now by the time my family finishes sampling...well, I have to make other arrangements for visiting teaching treats. Thanks Connie and golfing friends! The cookies turned out to be my grandson Sammy's passion this Christmas Season so I am dedicating them to Sam Bennie.

Happy Holidays!

Sam's Star Cookies
1 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 3/4 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cardamom
zest of 2 clementines
juice of 2 clementines plus cool water to equal 1/3 cup
orange and yellow colored sugar for sprinkling (or silver)

Sam and Rob working on Star Cookies with Grandma

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Combine butter, sugar, flour, salt, cardamom and zest in a mixer bowl. Beat on medium speed until texture resembles meal, scraping sides of bowl as necessary. Add juice and beat just until blended and mixture can be formed into a ball. Turn out onto a floured board. Pat into a circle then use a rolling pin to roll dough no thinner than 1/4 inch. Cut with star shaped cookie cutter and place each cookie on a baking sheet (with or without parchment paper). Sprinkle tops with colored sugar. Bake for 16 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool onto sheet for about 5 minutes then remove to a cooling rack. Store in an airtight container when completely cooled.

Sammy rolls out the dough really well for a 2 year old!

Hints: I use salted butter but if you choose unsalted, you will need to increase the salt from 1/4 to about 1/2 teaspoon. I use ground cardamom which I keep in my freezer to maintain its' potency. It's a pretty strong spice and using a little goes a long way. Use enough flour when rolling out to keep the dough from sticking to the board. If the cookies are too thin they will not finish crumbly but brittle. I like mine about 1/2 inch thick and I bake them about 19-20 minutes. That way they are a bit chewy still in the center. Experiment and see how you like them best. You could use vanilla bean in place of the cardamom or grapefruit zest and juice in place of the clementine. Sophie says you must eat three before you decide whether you like them or not--she wasn't sure after one but the next day she tried another and liked it better, and after three she was a big fan. (It only took one for Sam and me.)

Sammy enjoying the final product.

Being a grandma is just the best thing ever! Sam and his two brothers and four cousins provide unmeasurable joys and I feel so blessed! Here's to many years of Christmas Cookies ahead for Dan, Sam, Rob, Bruno, Stella, Alex and Lena! 

Mud Ball Cookies

Alert: Copy cat recipe for Swig Dirt Balls.
I'm a fan of Swig (a Utah born cookie and drink establishment). My son Neal found a copy cat recipe on line for Swig-like Sugar Cookies that is great--(the frosting amount is about 3 times more than you will use). However, when you are at Swig and craving some chocolate, nothing but a Dirt Ball will do!
Here is my version of a Dirt Ball with a little extra chocolate oomph so I call them...Mud Balls! (Wouldn't Grandpa Bennie be happy with this name?)

Mud Balls
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup sugar
1/3  cup powdered sugar
1 egg
3 tablespoons Hersheys Chocolate Syrup
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 to 2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Cream butter, oil, sugars, egg, chocolate syrup and salt together until smooth. Add cocoa powder, 2 cups flour and baking powder then mix well. Add more flour if necessary to form a stiff but not dry dough that forms a ball.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Scoop golf ball sized portions of the dough into your hand and roll into a sphere. Place on an un-greased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Use a flat bottomed glass and flatten the cookies to about 1/4 inch thick. (dip the bottom of the glass in sugar to prevent sticking) Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Remove and allow to cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes then remove to a cooling rack. When cookies are room temperature, cover tightly and refrigerate for 2 hours or until thoroughly chilled.
Frost just before serving. Makes 24-30 cookies.
*For standard dirt ball cookies omit chocolate syrup and decrease cocoa to 1/3 cup.

Cocoa Sour Cream Frosting
2 tablespoons softened butter
4  tablespoons sour cream
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
3/4 to 1 cup powdered sugar
Cream butter, sour cream, salt, vanilla and cocoa together until smooth. Beat in the powdered sugar, adding enough to produce a silky, soft frosting. (The butter and cocoa mixture will loosen up as you stir in the powdered sugar.)

Such simple ingredients but such wonderful flavor! The textural trick is in the butter and oil combination. Using some saturated fat and some unsaturated fat yields that chewy, brownie like texture that is so blissful. Mix that mouth feel with sugar and chocolate? What's not to love???

Hints: It is critical not to over bake these. This is not supposed to have much crunch at all. We are looking for a smooth, moist, chewy texture. Don't allow the cookies to dry out. I use a plastic container with a tight fitting lid to chill them. They will hold a day (or two, although there have never been any left two days later) in the fridge. The frosting will need to be refrigerated if not used all at once because of the sour cream.

You may be upset with me for posting this--it is really hard not to make these every day! Hence the paper plate to show that these are perfect for giving away. (Of course, keeping one or two to eat your self.) Warning: Definitely not a health food recipe. Loaded with fat and sugar.  Honestly. these may be  on par with Hostess Cupcakes health wise.   

Apricot Ginger Cookies

Cookies! You know you love them. I do, too. With apricot and ginger these oat based cookies are tender, chewy, rich and relatively healthy. Not to mentions super tasty.

Apricot Ginger Cookies
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger root
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup wheat flour
1 cup white flour (approximately)
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup chopped dried apricots
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
Cream butter, honey and sugars until smooth. Add ginger, salt and eggs and beat again. Place oats in a blender container. Blend until they become flour. Add to the egg and sugar mixture. Mix in the flours and baking powder. When dough is thoroughly combined, stir in the apricots and white chocolate chips. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Shape dough into a 8 x 8 inch square on parchment paper. It will be 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick. Cut into 2 x 1/2 inch rectangles. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 11 to 13 minutes.

Hints: I use regular salted butter in this recipe. Add just enough white flour to make a stiff dough but not so much that it is dry. Likewise, don't over-bake the cookies or they will be tough and dry instead of chewy. The dough can be frozen once it is cut into bars, then baked from frozen. I have found that the apricots work best if cut into 1/4 inch chunks. If they are smaller than that, they blend into the dough; if larger than that, they don't get distributed well. Add more ginger root if you want a real statement cookie, up to another full teaspoon. These would be good with a dark chocolate drizzle topping or a ginger glaze.

A warm ginger cookie is just about as good as it gets on a chilly evening. These are hard to resist, so make them when you can share with some friends.

Chocolate Shortbread with Salted Caramel Filling

These bite sized cookies are AMAZING! Chocolate shortbread cups cooked in mini muffin tins filled with fresh caramel and topped with a bit of vanilla salt. Great for sharing, or not. This recipe makes 48 cookies.

Chocolate Shortbread Cups filled with Salted Carmel
1 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup water
48 dark chocolate chips or chunks
Caramel (see recipe below)
1 tablespoon vanilla salt (see Hints)
Heat oven to 325 degrees. Place butter and all dry ingredients in a food processor bowl. Process for 1 to 2 minutes, pulse occasionally. Mixture should be crumbly. With processor running, add half of water. Add additional water slowly as needed until dough forms a ball. Turn dough onto a floured board and pinch off tablespoon size chunks. Roll into a ball and drop into mini muffin tins. Press into cup shapes with a wooden dowel or by hand. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from tins and place on a cooling rack. Drop a chocolate chunk into hot cups. Fill with hot caramel and allow to cool slightly. Top with a sprinkling of vanilla salt.

Caramel:
1/2 cup raw sugar (white sugar will work)
1/4 cup butter
2/3 cup cream
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Combine all ingredients except vanilla in a heavy pot. Bring to a boil, scrap down sides of pot and cook until soft ball stage. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

Hints: The butter works best if it is softened. Do not over bake the cups or they will be too hard. The chocolate chunks can be omitted if desired, but they add a nice texture and intensify the chocolate flavor. A candy thermometer is good but you can check the caramel by dropping a spoonful into a mug filled with cold water and checking to see if it makes a soft ball, one that will begin to loose it shape right away. You don't want to get it too hard or the cookies will be hard to chew. You can also omit the salt on top. Not everyone is on the salted caramel train, which I understand. However, it is really good. Make vanilla salt just like vanilla sugar--split a vanilla bean and place it in a glass container, cover with salt (or sugar) and allow to stand for several days. Lavender salt is also tasty and would be good with the caramel here.

This recipe is for the girls at the flower shop. It is hard work there, especially this time of year. They do beautiful work and are delightful. You ladies are "d' bomb"!

 

Fudge and Fruit

Fudge Fruit Cookies
2 cups rolled oats
2 cups shredded coconut
1/2 cup diced dried apricots
1/2 cup chopped dried cherries
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1/3 cup Nutella
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup ground hazelnuts (or walnuts, almonds etc.)
Mix oats, coconuts and fruit in a mixing bowl then set aside. In a medium sauce pan mix sugar, cocoa and salt together. Stir in milk. Add Nutella and butter then place over medium heat. Bring to a boil and cook until mixture reaches 210 degrees (use a candy thermometer). Pour fudge over oat and fruit mixture. Stir until well combined and allow to cool a few minutes. Scoop out tablespoon sized portions and roll into a ball. Roll balls in ground hazelnuts and place on waxed paper to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Hints: These are quick to make cookies and can be eaten slightly warm. You could substitute peanut butter for the Nutella. You can also make the cookies smaller if you want. A bite size portion is best.

These are really fun to make and eat. What's not to love? Fudgey, chewy, nutty bites of goodness. They are hard to leave alone and make an excellent addition to a holiday cookie platter. They are also nice to make in the summer because they are no-bake so the oven won't heat up the house at all.

One more and I'll move on

What Greek food section would  be complete without Baklava? One last Greek recipe and I will move on, I promise. Although I may return to the Greeks occasionally. 

Baklava
4 cups ground walnuts, about 1 1/2 lbs
1 cup sugar, raw or white
1/2 lb fillo (phyllo) sheets, thawed
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup walnut (or almond) oil
In a food processor bowl, combine walnuts and raw sugar. Butter bottom and sides of a 9"x13" baking pan. Melt butter and mix with walnut oil. Turn oven on at 400 degrees. Place one or two sheets of fillo in bottom of pan. Brush with butter mixture. Top with another sheet or two and brush with butter. Repeat for a total of  4 or 5 times, using 1/4 of the sheets. Spread 1/3 of walnuts evenly over surface. Layer more fillo sheets as before with butter in between, 4 or 5 times. Spread with half of the remaining of the walnuts. Layer fillo a third time. Top with remaining walnuts. Finally, top with the remaining fillo sheets and butter. Carefully cut the baklava into 1 1/2 inch diamonds. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes, until very golden brown. While baking, make the syrup by combining the following in a large sauce pan:
1 1/2 cup honey (1 cup)
1 cup water (2/3 cup)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (2 tablespoons)
4 2"x1" pieces lemon peel (3 pieces)
10 whole cloves
2 small cinnamon sticks
Bring to a boil and continue boiling until syrup reaches 220 degrees (the jelly stage). Remove from heat and strain syrup into another container. Discard peel and spices. Pour hot syrup evenly over baklava. Cool and then re-cut diamonds to serve.

Hints: Don't worry about the sheets of fillo falling apart a bit. In this dish it won't matter in the final product. The sheets of fillo I get are just the right size for the 9x13 pan. Fillo is usually in the frozen food section of the grocery store. I grind the walnuts in a food processor but I think you could chop them finely and get a good result. You can use almonds and/or pistachios instead of the walnuts or all three in combo. I like my baklava to be very gooey, almost dripping with syrup. However I have included the measurements for less syrup in parenthesis in case you prefer it less sloppy. Use a candy thermometer when making the syrup so that it becomes the right consistency. I prefer the baklava to be at room temperature when serving but warm is ok and chilled is as well.

I can only make baklava when I am sure of sharing it, otherwise I end up eating too much! Don't you feel sorry for people who dislike nuts? Poor souls will never enjoy baklava!

Three out of Six

Apricot, Cherry and Ginger Cookies
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons molasses
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
1/2 cup applesauce
3/4 cup white flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup chopped dried apricots
3/4 cup chopped dried tart cherries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter, sugars, molasses and salt together in a mixing bowl. Add egg, extract and ginger. Add applesauce, flours, oats, cornmeal, baking powder and soda. Stir in dried fruits and walnuts. Drop on ungreased cookie sheets by rounded teaspoons then bake for about 7 minutes. Allow to cool 2 or 3 minutes on cookie sheet, then remove to a cooling rack. Makes 3 to 4 dozen.

Hints: Butter at room temperature is easiest to work with. Use a microplaner to grate the ginger finely enough. No need to peel the ginger root. The ginger flavor comes out even more when the cookies are a day old.

The aroma is fabulous when these are in the oven! I took them to my Primary class of 7-8 year olds and Three out of Six loved them, asking for seconds and thirds and "can I take one for my little sister?" Of course that means that Three out of Six were disgusted, dumping their cookies in the trash and one even spit out the bite he had taken with a grimace and not very kind works. I had to work hard not to laugh out loud. There is some of my mother in me, a part that finds it terribly amusing when someone hates food offered to them. Like when she had my dad eat an olive off a tree; she couldn't stop laughing. But these cookies are nothing like that--they are very good. Some little children just don't have the palate to appreciate them and that is fine--more for me and the other Three!

Neal's favorite

My son Neal has discovered his favorite cookie. He calls these "the best bits of wafflery ever conceived". Pizzelles are a traditional Italian cookie and this recipe comes straight from my daughter-in-law, Kourtney. It is a recipe that she got from her mother, Jana Salvatori. Kudos to you both! (Special equipment is needed: a pizzelle press. I got mine at Plates and Palates in Bountiful.)

Pizzelles
6 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter or margarine melted, or oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon anise extract
7 cups flour
4 tablespoons baking powder
powdered sugar for sprinkling
Plug in pizzelle press to preheat. Beat eggs and sugar together. Add cooled, melted butter and extracts. Stir together flour and baking powder. Add to egg mixture and beat well. Place a rounded tablespoon of dough on hot press for each cookie, close lid and cook for 30 seconds or until pizzelle is golden brown. (Each press will be different and you will need to calibrate the length of time needed to produce perfectly cooked pizzelles.) Remove cookies from press and sprinkle with powdered sugar then place on a cooling rack. Store in an airtight container.

Hints: The flavor can be changed by substituting almond flavoring for the vanilla and anise. I use butter only but Kourtney tells me that a mixture of margarine and oil works fine, too. Getting used to the press is half the battle. Knowing just how much dough to use and just how long to leave them in takes a few trials. We love to serve these with ice cream for dessert.

Neal tries to tell people that he is not a "golden child" in our family but I want to go on record asserting that he is indeed a golden child and one of the best people ever! I am so proud of him and so thankful for who he is and who he is becoming. Love you Neal!

An Early Valentine

Soft Sugar Cookies

1/2 cup softened butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

2 teaspoons almond extract

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup milk

2 teaspoons baking powder

3 1/2 cups flour

Beat butter until light and fluffy. Add sugar and cream together. Mix in egg and extracts. Stir baking powder into flour. Alternately add milk and flours to bowl and mix until a stiff dough is obtained. (May need to add a bit more flour.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll dough on a floured surface to 1/4 inch thick. Cut out shapes as desired and place cookies on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 9 to 10 minutes. Cookies will thick and soft. Remove from oven and from baking sheet. Allow to cool on a rack for at least 10 minutes before icing. Makes about 30 three inch cookies.

Blood Orange Icing

1 tablespoon butter

4 tablespoons cream (or half and half), divided

juice from 1 small blood orange (about 4 tablespoons)

1/4 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger, optional

1 cup powdered sugar

pinch of salt

6 drops red food coloring, optional

2 drops blue food coloring, optional

Place butter, 2 tablespoons cream, orange juice and ginger (if using) into a medium sauce pan. Whisk over medium high heat until boiling. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 7 minutes, whisking frequently. Remove from heat and allow to cool another 7 minutes. Add the powdered sugar and salt then blend until smooth. Add the remaining cream a bit at a time until desired consistency is achieved. Color as desired. Ice cookies with a knife or by dipping tops of cookies into icing. Decorate as desired. Store in an airtight container. 

Hints: These cookies can be made without the almond flavor, use 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract only. Food coloring can be added to the dough for colored cookies. And of course they can be frosted with a butter cream frosting or royal icing if you prefer. The blood orange is a bit of a different citrus taste and may not be for everyone. You can use a small navel orange instead but the icing will not be pink naturally.

This cookie recipe been with me since I was about 17. Jaunee Baird worked with the young women of my local church group and we made a whole lot of these cookies for a fund raising project in 1977. I modified the recipe a bit by combining the cream of tarter and baking soda into baking powder and using almond flavoring (cause I am an almond junkie).  Jaunee, I thank you, my family thanks you and so do hundreds of school children who had me as a room mother for Halloween and Valentines parties! The blood orange icing is much more contemporary; I just created it this week. Citrus and almond together make me so very happy.

 

Gingerbread Houses (a long standing tradition)

My friend Kris Monson gave me this recipe almost 20 years ago. I am not sure where she got it and I don't think she remembers either. So sorry I cannot give an original source. There are many recipe variations for gingerbread but I have always used this one--I like the taste and the dark color. This makes enough for one small house. It is easy to double or triple for a bigger house or multiple houses.

Gingerbread for Houses

2 cups flour

½ cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground clove

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup shortening

½ cup dark molasses

1 egg yolk

Mix dry ingredients In a mixing bowl. Add shortening, egg yolk and molasses. Mix until thoroughly blended. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Press dough together and roll out on a floured board to ¼ inch thickness. Using a template, cut out house front, back, sides, roof and chimney. Place on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 7 to 9 minutes and remove from oven. Place templates over cookie pieces and trim edges using a pizza cutter. Remove templates and return gingerbread to oven for an additional 3 minutes to harden. Remove from oven and allow to cool on sheets for 5 minutes then place on cooling racks to finish cooling. Assemble and decorate as desired.

Hints: Making a template is easy. Get some thin cardboard or heavy card stock and make a front and back about 4 or 5 inches square with a gable about 3 inches higher. Cut a door into the front. Make the sides the same height as the front walls about 5 inches long. You will need to cut out two roof slabs that are a bit longer than the gable lengths and a bit wider than the sides--by a bit I mean about an inch so that the roof overhangs the gables and the sides by about 1/2 inch each way. I love using this dough to bake small diamond shaped cookies and drizzling them with a simple lemon flavored icing. They are one of my favorite winter cookies.

One of my family's favorite holiday events is our annual gingerbread night with the Monson clan. We always do 4 to 8 houses between the two families. Over the years the creativity has been incredible. The bungee jumping Santa, the "food storage" houses,the two face house, the rock cottage, the yurt, the Rapunzel tower....it boggles the mind. And then there were the beautiful and the cute. All ended up delicious, as are the memories. Thanks Monsons!

 

Meringue Cookies

Holiday Forgotten Kisses

4 egg whites, room temperature is best

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cream of tarter

1 ½ cup sugar

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

¾ cup chopped red and green candied cherries

Turn oven to 350 degrees. Beat egg whites to soft peaks. Continue to beat while adding salt and cream of tarter. Then slowly pour in sugar and continue to beat until glossy and stiff peaks form. Beat in extracts. Fold in chopped cherries and mix well. Drop spoonfuls of batter onto greased cookie sheets. Place cookies in oven and immediately turn off oven. Leave oven door closed for at least 2 hours (or overnight). Remove from pan and store covered loosely with plastic wrap. Makes approx. 4 dozen.

Hints: Room temperature egg whites will allow the sugar to dissolve a bit better but cold whites will work. Be sure to grease the sheets well so that the cookies will just slide off. The insides of the cookies should be chewy. I like the almond flavoring best but they are good with all vanilla. Fruit flavorings or peppermint will work as well. Try different stir-ins--like mini M&Ms or shaved chocolate, dried apricots, chopped pistachios, etc. Just make sure they don't add moisture to the meringue. Anything heavy you stir in will have a tendency to sink, so be sure to scoop through the bottom when spooning the batter onto the baking sheet if you have chosen a heavy item.

My mother used to make meringue cookies and put a Hershey's kiss in the center. As a child I couldn't understand why she would ruin a kiss like that! I really like the texture and taste of the meringue now, but I still take my Hershey's kisses straight.

 

Chocolate Chip Cookies TPSH

 I make these cookies whenever I get to choose which kind of cookie to make. Usually there is a request for another type from Neal or Bill. My mom is a good cook, and I love her rolls, turkey gravy and potato salad best in all the world, but her chocolate chip cookies are flat. Now I know some people like them that way. However, I believe that the best chocolate chip cookies are thick, moist, chewy discs incorporating whole grain depth, real butter and fabulous chocolate. I may have been inspired when I made this recipe up because I also believe that these are the . . .

 

Chocolate Chip Cookies They Probably Serve in Heaven (TPSH)

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1/3 cup white sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup whole wheat flour

2/3 to 3/4 cup rolled oats

1 cup* white flour

1 bag highest quality chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter until softened. Cream in sugars. Add salt, eggs and vanilla. When well blended, mix in baking powder, flours and oats. Add additional flour if needed, a bit at a time until dough is fairly stiff. Mix in chocolate chips. Roll generous tablespoons of dough into balls, place on ungreased baking sheet and flatten slightly. Bake on middle rack of oven for 8 minutes then check for doneness. Do not over bake! Remove cookies from oven and allow to sit 1 or 2 minutes. Transfer cookies to cooling rack. If there are any left when cool, store in an airtight container. 

Hints: Six minutes is all it takes to mix the dough up! Raw is fabulous, but I am not advocating eating raw dough (I just test it a few times prior to baking). The dough balls freeze well in a zip loc bag. The butter can be softened in the microwave on low power. The eggs can be warmed up by immersing them in hot tap water while beating the butter. If they are not room temp, it is ok too. My favorite chocolate chips are milk chocolate Guittard. My next favorite are Ghiradelli extra dark in the red bag. 

Sophie and I had 20 minutes to make 4 dozen cookies for a ward prayer night she needed to provide refreshments for. This recipe, two convection ovens (slightly shorter cooking time), and we were there! Lucky kids had fresh, warm cookies on a Sunday evening.

 

Zucchini with Rosemary, Savory or Sweet

Zucchini bread with or without spices, zucchini soup, stuffed zucchini, zucchini brownies--they all are OK with me. Here are two of my favorite ways to use up my harvest each year. Each also utilizes fresh herbs. The photo above shows a portion of my herb garden: golden sage, chives, parsley, rosemary.

Sauteed Zucchini
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium zucchini
1 medium crook neck squash
1/2 medium sweet onion (like Vidallia)
1 red or orange bell pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs
Sea salt
Fresh ground pepper

Prepare veggies and herbs by cutting squashes in half lengthwise then slicing thinly. Cut onion in half lengthwise and sliver one half---reserve other half for another use. Cut pepper in half lengthwise and clean out seeds. Then slice it into thin ribs and half them crosswise. Chop herbs as well. Place saute pan over high heat and when hot, pour in olive oil. Add squashes and cook for about 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Turn down heat to medium high. Stir in onions and peppers and continue to cook until veggies are getting brown. Add herbs, salt and pepper to taste and continue to cook for another 2 or 3 minutes. Serve immediately or use in a frittata, as a crepe filling with feta cheese or stir into cooked pasta with Romano cheese.

Hints: My favorite herb combos are rosemary with parsley, multiple varieties of basil, sage with Greek oregano. This dish is best with young zucchini and crook neck. The squash will release quite a bit of liquid; you need to cook them long enough for that to evaporate a bit so they can begin browning. The onions will caramelize if you use medium heat and cook long enough. I like to add the herbs in the last few minutes so that their flavor is still quite bright.

 

Here is my favorite take on lemon bars. Don't listen to what Neal has to say about them. He was just sick of my experimenting with both zucchini and rosemary. Poor guy, has to endure my creative jags. They are great frozen too. (The cookies, not the jags.)

Rosemary Lime Zucchini Bars
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 tablespoon grated lime zest (one medium lime)
1 tablespoon of fresh rosemary, finely chopped
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine above ingredients. Spray the bottom of a 9x13 pan with cooking spray. Spread the crust into the pan and press down firmly. Bake 15 minutes. remove from oven and pour the following mixture over hot crust.

5 large eggs
1 cup finely shredded zucchini 

1 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
1 1/2 tablespoons lime zest (about 3 limes)
1/2 cup lime juice (about 4 limes)
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
While crust is baking, beat eggs until thick and pale. Squeeze excess liquid out of zucchini then measure 1 cup. Add zucchini, sugar, flour, lime zest and juice, rosemary and salt to eggs. Beat until well combined. Pour over hot crust and return to oven for 25 minutes or until set and beginning to brown. Remove from oven and dust with powdered sugar. Allow to cool slightly before cutting into rectangles.

Hints: Some varieties of rosemary are stronger flavored than others. If you have a strong type, you may need to back off on the amount of rosemary in this recipe. Be sure to get out as much of the liquid in the zucchini as possible so that the bars will set up properly. I leave the skin on the squash because the color flecks add to the final products appearance.

I plant a small area of the yard with herbs. The fresh picked herbs make everything they go in taste fabulous. Herbs like basil, rosemary, cilantro and parsley are robust but need to be replanted every year in our climate. Sage, chives and oregano merely need to be cut back occasionally. Mint will take over an area and is hard to contain. Haven't tried dill yet--maybe next year. Chewing on a basil leaf while touring the yard with Stella makes all right with the world.