Lemon-Poppy Cookies

Craving: a recipe that will get rid of extra poppy seeds

Hi again. Sorry for the lack of posts - no readily available wi-fi is killing me! I am staying at the Marriott in Atlanta right now for a conference and I paid to get this wi-fi. But this recipe is so worth the $12.95 in wi-fi fees. I know you will love it!

A week and a half ago Charlie and I stayed at his parents' for the weekend and I got kitchen access (I posted this enchilada recipe from that weekend). For dinner one of the nights I decided to make Mom's strawberry-spinach salad, but they had no poppy or sesame seeds. I could only find a larger containenor of poppy's at the store, so I had to make up a poppy recipe to use them!

My thought? Cookies of course!

First let me start by saying that I made about 100 batches of my OMG cookies, and in a few of them I used butterscotch chips instead of chocolate chips. I now call those OMFG cookies. Try it.

I thought I could tweak this recipe to make a lemon poppy cookie recipe of similar texture but different flavor. The result was SO good, and some of the folk there claimed these were their favorite of all the cookies I had made!

Lemon-Poppy Cookies


Ingredients:
-Juice of 1 lemon
-zest of 2 lemons (you will have a naked lemon in your fridge, it will last just fine)
-1 egg and 1 yolk
-2 sticks of salted butter at room temperature (or unsalted, and add 1 tsp kosher salt)
-2 tsp vanilla
-1 tsp baking soda
-1 cup brown sugar
-1/2 cup white sugar
-1 tbs and 1 tsp poppy seeds (this is 4 tsp)
-2 cups of bread flour
-1/4 cup all purpose flour

Directions:
1. Cream butter, brown sugar, and sugar using a hand mixer on medium.


2. Zest your lemons. Add zest, juice, vanilla, egg and yolk, and poppy seeds. Mix until combined.













3. Add dry ingredients (flour, baking soda). Mix until combined.




4. Refrigerate at least 1 hour (up to 24 hours - after that, seal and freeze it).

5. Scoop onto cookie sheets using a 1.5 ounce (3 tbs) scoop. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes, rotating halfway through cooking time and moving from top to bottom and vice versa.

Let cool - cookies will look a little raw in the middle while hot, but will harden.
Cooking time may need adjustment based on oven temperatures.

Recipe: "Ugat Shmarim"

Ugat Shmarim is Hebrew for...get this...."Yeast cake".
That sounds awful.

In reality, it's a moist, sweet, cinnamon roll type pastry. Instead of cinnamon it is filled with ooey gooey chocolate, and it's braided in a loaf pan instead of in small rolls. It's usually topped with a syrup that soaks all the way in.

I didn't take pictures of measurements, etc, but only when I started rolling out the dough.



















Before we get to the final pictures, here is the recipe. I modified this from a different recipe, halved it, converted metric etc etc, so it's weird measurements, sorry!

Israeli Chocolate "yeast cake" Pastry
Makes two loaves

Ingredients:
Dough:
4 and 2/3 cup of all purpose flour
3/8 cup white sugar (I used a 1/2 cup, and then filled a 1/4 cup halfway)
1 tbs and 1 tsp of dry active yeast
1/2 cup vegetable oil (any neutral oil is fine)
1.5 cups water at 100 degrees
1 egg and 1 tablespoon of milk

Filling: (I didn't make enough filling, so for the purpose of this recipe, I am doubling what I used - trust me)
1 cup vegetable oil (any neutral oil is fine)
1 cup unsweetened cocoa
1.5 cups sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Syrup:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
juice from 1/4 of a lemon

Directions:
-In a medium bowl, combine all the dry ingredients of the dough. Stir in the oil. Stir in the water (the water cannot be hot, it must not be more than 110 degrees - WARM is key, or use a meat thermometer). Mix everything together, cover with a paper towel, and let sit for 45 minutes.
-Mix all ingredients of the filling while the dough rises in a separate bowl, and mix all the ingredients of the syrup in a very small sauce pan
-Split your dough into 4 "balls". Roll each one out into a rectangular sheet on a floured surface. I prefer a french rolling pin. Add 1/4 of the chocolate filling, and spread out. Roll the dough into a log. Do this to all four balls of dough. Dust with flour as you work to ensure it does not stick to any surface.
-Take two of the logs of dough, and braid them, as pictured above. Do this to the other two logs. Place in two separate loaves.
-Mix the egg and milk, and use a pastry brush to brush onto the dough.
-Put in a 375 degree oven for 20-25 minutes.
-While the cakes are baking, heat up your syrup and stir constantly until the sugar is dissolved, and the mixture bubbles. Make sure not to overheat, so it does not caramelize into candy! The key is to have the syrup ready by the time the cakes come out!
-As soon as the cakes are ready, take them out of the oven, and pour half of the syrup onto each cake. It may seem like a lot but it should absorb into the cake!
-Let cool (enough time so you don't burn yourself).

My mom sent me this picture this morning:



Here is a picture of me - I was literally jumping up and down in my friend Jaren's kitchen after I had braided these. I grew up eating these and never knew they were so simple. Now I had made them!! Unfortunately, the picture Jaren snapped was NOT good - my eyes look quite interesting, so I covered them with fake sunglasses. I do think my pure joy is evoked, and hope you will feel it when you try this recipe!

Now YOU go make it!

Bunco and Babyshower

Cravings: Marshmallow fondant, bunco, a Sunday of girlfriends showering Jaren and babygirl!

Saturday started with going to Whole Foods with my mom and volunteering to sign up for FUPI - Foreclosed Upon Pets. I had been volunteering with the Humane Society a few times but the adoptions are over 30 minutes from my house. Both organizations foster out their dogs and seem great.

We then met Katy at Cafe Manon, the French Bakery that made my birthday cake last year. If you live in Vegas and have not gone there, drop what you're doing and go now. NOW!

On our way home we saw there was a bridal show at the Marriott so we went in. Most of the vendors were a bit too "catering to the masses" for my taste. I don't mean to sound snotty at all, I just have a very specific idea of what the wedding will look like. There were a few great ones, and I got a good videographer rec. Unfortunately, they are totally booked on our date, so if you know of a videographer that does good reels please let me know. I found a baker that uses marshmallow fondant instead of regular, so that it's edible and yummy. She also can do exactly what I am looking for in the cake, woo hoo! Now if only Manon bakery could make it....Have you gone there yet? GO already!

We ran into Mrs. Nevada and approached her because I kid you not her ring was about a 10 carat center stone with probably about 10 carats of embellishment around it, and of course Katy and I wanted to admire it. She was super nice and mentioned that Three Square was her platform when she was doing the pageant. She wants to feature our wedding in the press because of the fact that it's benefiting them etc. :-)

Saturday night I went to Jaren's to pick her up for a spouse social at Alison's house. I got to see Roger and Clara for about ten minutes, and then the best part - Clara started crying "AGGIE!!!!!!" when we were leaving. I must be heartless, because the fact that she had a fit while I was leaving was the biggest compliment you can get from a 2 year old!!! I was so happy. I told you - heartless.

Alison had the place all set up for bunco:

In the kitchen, she had a cute food display set up including a cake of 3 pink dice!! And guess what she used? Marshmallow fondant!! I took a picture but she asked me not to post it, so I will respect that. Lame, Alison! The cake looked amazing and it was so delicious. Go marshmallow fondant.

Turned out I wasn't that great at bunco. I kept rolling absolutely nothing. It was probably statistically impossible how poorly I did, but I proved them wrong! One of my friends Nikki (the girl we went hiking with) won two prizes and felt so bad for me for how "hard" I was trying that she gave me one of her prizes - a very cute wine stopper. Perfect, because one of mine just broke!

I met back up with Katy that night for a drink at the Three Angry Wives Pub. It was fun to go out, but I am so glad that party of my life is mostly over. I am a homebody and love it!

Sunday morning I made several batches of "O.M.G." cookies, 

and mom helped make a veggie tray. We cut out a cabbage and a pepper for dip, 

and headed over to my friend Becca's house for Jaren's babyshower.

Becca is a therapist, and should be a party planner on the side. She did such an amazing job. Everything was beautiful and nothing was overdone. It just looked perfect.

She made those pink poms and all the food labels and ordered the flowers from a wholesale florist, and made a very cute diaper cake (below).

We played a couple games, including this one:

which almost made Jaren cry! I tried to make mine a bit funny, and of course she guessed it was mine. What can I say? I'm hilarious!

This is my favorite - look how gorgeous she looks! This is the most pregnant Jaren has been (33 weeks), since Clara was born at 32 weeks. Jaren Jordanais Rabe - you better either have this baby in the next week or after July 19th. I want your uterus to hear me - no baby laboring while I'm in Alabama!

O.M.G. Cookies

I have posted the recipe for these before here when I first got the recipe from Ilana, but have very slightly modified them. I also have made these so many times by now that most people associate me with them!

The key to these cookies in order of importance:
1. Bread Flour
2. Refrigerating the dough
3. Browning the butter
4. Bread Flour
5. Bread Flour
6. Okay, whole wheat Bread Flour works too, but only bread flour!

These cookies come out big and thick and chewy, and stay moist and delicious for days.

My friend, Becca told me "I think you need to change the name of the OMG cookies to "D***it cookies" because that's what you say after you scarf them down and not even realize how many you had.

Here is the recipe:
Ingredients:
-2 sticks of unsalted butter
-2 1/4 cups of bread flour (the last batch I made I used whole wheat bread flour from winco, it worked almost as well)
-1 teaspoon kosher salt
-1 teaspoon baking soda
-1/4 cup sugar
-1 1/4 cups brown sugar
-1 egg
-1 egg yolk (I have omitted this when I ran out of eggs once and they came out fine)
-2 tbs milk (I have used all sorts of milk - they all work)
-1/2 tbs vanilla
-2 cups chocolate chips (semisweet or bittersweet)

Directions:
-Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium/low heat for 10 minutes, or until the foam has subsided. Stir every few minutes to ensure that it does not burn. Remove from burner and let cool completely.
-Add the sugar and brown sugar to the cooled brown butter, cream on medium speed with a hand or stand mixer. Add the egg and yolk, milk, and vanilla, and mix until combined.
-Add the salt, baking soda, and 1/4 of the flour. Mix until combined. Keep adding the flour 1/4 cup at a time.
-Add the chocolate chips and mix together.
-Refrigerate for AT LEAST one hour. Over night is fine too. I have frozen the dough as well.
-Using a 1.5 oz scoop, scoop onto baking sheets, about 6 cookies per sheet. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes (rotating halfway through baking, and switching oven racks). Ovens may vary - the cookies should be soft but cooked through, and slightly brown at the edges.

Once cool, put in an airtight container. The ones that are left that is!

Wreath-spiration

Here is my neighbor's wreath as promised. I replicated this and will post pictures when they are both done (I have one complete and two clay pots of flowers ready). Mine are red/white/blue for the summer holidays!

If you like this let me know and I can make you similar ones with whatever colors you like!




This is a picture of all of it - I took it on my iPhone so the wreaths aren't clear but I wanted you to have the full effect.

Happy Wreathing!

Chili Verde

I have several bags of frozen green chilis in my freezer that our friends left us when they PCS'd to a new base. (PCS means permanent change of station for the military and happens every few years).

Ingredients:
-About 3-4 pounds of any stewing meat, cubed. I used pork chuck, but you can use chicken thighs, beef chuck, even turkey loins!
-One bottle of beer. I used miller light because we have it around, but you can use any!
-One small can of tomato paste, plus 2 cans of water
-Salt and pepper, to season the meat
-2 tbs Chili powder
-1 tbs Cumin
-1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
1. Season both sides of the stewing meat with salt and pepper. Sear for about 3 minutes on high heat on both sides.
2. Transfer to a crock pot. Add the rest of the ingredients. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
3. Enjoy!

*This can be a healthy recipe if you use lean meat such as chicken or turkey breast, or a lean pork loin*

Brown Rice Risotto with Vegetables

Do you ever crave something that tastes creamy and fatty? Well, if you do, but want something healthy, with literally NO butter, NO cream, and NO cheese, you have to try this recipe. I have always said risotto is one of my best dishes. Once you have the basics, you can make any variety you want. I make butternut squash risotto for Thanksgiving each year for exmple. I also love it with corn and pine nuts. Mmmmm. My sister's boyfriend, Jason likes to make it with tomatoes and basil. They are both med students and so it must not be that complicated of a dish for them to be able to make it!

They key to risotto? Short grain rice!

When I found short grain brown rice at winco, I was super stoked. It didn't work as well as I thought, and took a really long time, but it eventually worked, I just had to be patient.

Ingredients:
1/2 large onion, diced
Extra Virgin Olive oil, to cook the onion in
Kosher salt (measurement unknown)
3/4 cup of short grain brown rice
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/2 cup of wine (I didn't have white which I would recommend so I used red, it worked fine)
1 32 ounce box of chicken broth (I use low sodium from costco)
1/2 cup dehydrated shitake mushrooms, rehydrated (you can use fresh, but I have a huge box of dehydrated ones)
1/3 cup of green beans, chopped into 1/2 inch slices
1 cup of fresh spinach

Directions:
1. Sprinkle enough olive oil in a small pot (with a lid) to sautee half of the onion. Add salt to flavor the onion (I have no idea how much I used, probably 1/2 a teaspoon, but honestly, just eyeball it). Let it cook for about 10 minutes on medium, until it soft and slightly browned.
2. Add your rice and let it cook with the onion for about 5 minutes, to toast the grains. Add your chopped garlic cloves and let cook for another 2 minutes.
3. Pour in the wine and stir constantly until the liquid evaporates.
4. Start pouring in chicken broth a bit at a time, about 1/4 cup or so. Stir constantly. When the rice has soaked in the liquid, add in more.

* I realized after about 15 minutes of adding liquid, that it wasn't being absorbed by the rice like in regular risotto. Realizing it was brown rice which needs to steam, I shut the lid for about 10 minutes,  while on medium heat, and then stirred and added using that technique. When I was about 3/4 of the way with the chicken broth, I did not have to continue to shut the lid*

5. When there is about 1/2 of the broth left, add in the mushrooms. Continue as normal.
6. At about 1/4 of the broth left, add in the green beans. Continue as normal.
7. When all the broth has been absorbed, add in the spinach and stir it in.

Best served immediately.

Chocolate/Berry Avocado Pudding

My first little, Caroline Gilger, has a healthy living blog I highly recommend you follow. She posted about chocolate avocado pudding, and later posted about raspberry avocado pudding. I made the chocolate version and it was a bit too bitter for Charlie. So he suggested dipping berries into it. I did so and he liked it, so I just added in about a cup of them. Voila!

Ingredients:
2 ripe medium/large avocados
5 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tbs stevia
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup frozen berries (I used a mix of strawberries and costco's antioxident mix)
2 tsp cinnamon
cayenne pepper (to your discretion)

Directions:
1. Put all ingredients except berries in a food processor. I suggest doubling the recipe
2. Mix for about a minute. Scrape the sides, mix again. Make sure the avocado is fully creamed into the mixture.
3. Take out of food processor, put in the frozen berries, leave out so they defrost. After they defrost (about two hours), mix it all in together. I like the fruit a bit chunky in it, but you can also put it in the food processor if you want it more smooth.
4. Don't tell your children it's based off of avocado!
5. Make another batch immediately, because you'll finish this one.

Avigail's Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

Here is the recipe I made up for the crust:

Ingredients: 1.5 cups of warm water (110 degrees)

1 tsp white sugar

1 tbs dry active yeast (refrigerate after opening, you can buy it anywhere, and can use it for LOTS)

1 tbs olive oil, plus more for coating

2 tsp kosher salt **I used 1 in my recipe and decided I should have added another**

1 tbs honey **I did not put this in my recipe but decided it would make it better**

1 cup of bread flour

2 cups of whole wheat flour

1. Pour 1.5 cups of warm water (110 degrees) into a large bowl. Add 1 tsp white sugar (this is essential, the yeast feeds on the sugar), and then 1 tbs of dry active yeast.

Let sit for 10 minutes until foamy.

2. After the yeast mixture has "foamed", stir in 1 tbs of olive oil, 2 tsp of kosher salt, 1 tbs honey.

3. In a large food processor, put 1 cup of bread flour and 2 cups of whole wheat flour. While the processor is on, slowly pour in the yeast mixture. Once it is all combined (this will happen quickly and it will be sticky), take it out and knead it for 2 minutes on a floured surface. Coat a large bowl with olive oil, and put the ball of dough in it, rotate it to make sure the whole surface area is greased. Put a paper towl on top, and leave it for one hour.

Above is the pre-risen dough.

4. Once the dough has risen, you can roll it into one or two pies depending on how big your cooking ware is. (I made two small-medium pies). Put your desired toppings, coat the sides with olive oil, and bake at 425 degrees for approximately 20 minutes, or until crust is golden.

Enjoy!

Topped with caramelized onions with balsamic and za'atar, sliced tomatoes, and topped with avocados for the last 2 minutes of cooking.

Pizza success (and laughing so hard you may tinkle)

Pizza was a success! I made two different kinds, both Vegan. The crust was REALLY good, although next time I would like to add one more tsp of salt and one tablespoon of honey. I'll post the recipe after this in a separate post.

I rolled it out into two smaller pies, and baked it for about 20 minutes at 425 degrees.


Pie number 1: Onions caramelized in balsamic and zaatar, topped withs sliced tomatoes. I added the avocado the last 2 minutes.



Pie number 2. Not as visually appealing. Caramelized onions with sliced pear and "vegan" mozzarella cheese. I usually would use fresh mozzarella but I made this at my parents house.


Oh! Their neighbor brought sushi and I ate about 4-5 pieces. It was SO GOOD! I asked her if I could come over and have her teach me and she said she'd be glad to.


Here is some of the food from last night:


Adina made a salad, and then a platter with different salad toppings - it had jicama and just awesome things. It was such a cute idea and I am definitely replicating it. I really want to do the same thing but almost like a "seder plate" style, where the different salad mix-ins are in small little dishes.

Here is Maya, the Sal's youngest, with Maya, our youngest:


I went over to Jaren's after dinner with Jessi and she was hanging up her American flag wreath since her husband comes back from deployment this Wednesday:


Clara's new favorite thing is playing with credit cards from your wallet, so I cleaned mine out and brought her a bunch of cards. I also brought her my license that expired forever ago - Clara has a fake id! She was SO happy to get her presents and every few minutes would turn to me and smile and hold one up and say "presents"!




We then made signs, aka Jaren made a sign for Clara (yes there was a joke about why wasn't Clara doing this, 2 year olds these days), Jessi made a work of art for Joe (who comes back in 3 weeks) and I sat on the couch and drank a coke zero and a bag of bugles. I actually did help out by getting different things so Jaren didn't have to get up. Poor thing couldn't lay on her belly to work on the poster. I have quite a hilarious picture of her attempting to but I will not post.

Last night was definitely reminiscent of making signs for big/little week during my sorority days. It really felt like I was with old friends and we could not stop laughing. When a pregnant woman thinks she may pee herself laughing its not that big a deal, but when I almost do, it means you're having a good time!

Jaren will probably kill me but I had to snap a pic of her at one point because her face was bright red from laughing. I don't think you can tell in this pic, but trust me it was.


Hope you all had a weekend that made you laugh so hard you thought you'd pee yourself!

Yarn balls and crows feet

Two nights ago I decided to make a rosemary focacia pizza crust. I had a tomato pesto and then I had random cheeses left over, which is why this pizza looks so.....creative?

The mozzarella (white closest to camera) was my favorite.

Katy came over bc I hadn't seen her since she started her new job with the RRA's. She had an interview for a cocktail waitress position to earn extra cash until all her licencing came through. So I am wearing short blue shorts, a baggy white tank top, and Katy comes over wearing....Katy clothes. She wouldn't just let me snap a pic so she took one posing with Lee-kles.



We then proceeded to eat dinner on the couch while watching jeapordy and making yarn balls. In our awesome outfits.

Yes, rolling yarn balls.


Katy do you know the jeapordy answer?

We watched teen week and actually knew most of the answers. And I even knew final jeapordy. I never know final jeapordy. So happy. We always know the math and food questions. Of course.


My finished product. Yes, I mean the yarn ball. I know the finished product should be the wreath. I am special.

I did finish all the felt flowers!


When Katy left I started rolling the yarn onto the wreath but my thumb hurt from the swing incident so I stopped and cuddled the bubbas instead. Odge has been scared of the dog door (what a freaking weird dog). He'll stand there barking. I have learned that if I send Maya out the door, she'll sniff him and walk back to the door and he follows her in. I was about to go send Maya out, when Lee just jumped out and went to get him! So freaking cute.


Don't worry Mommy, I went and saved Odge.


Aww Lee-kles, thank you, I love you!

Also, I am beginning to see smile lines aka crows feet! Don't believe me?


Scrunch!

(sad)