Easter Cream Wafers

These little sandwich cookies were always my favorite thing about Easter.  Bella found the cookie cutters in spring shapes – aren’t they just the cutest?!

The cookies are quite delicate, so make sure they’re completely cool before frosting.I used a basic butter frosting.  Divide into four bowls and color in pastels.

Cream Wafers

• 1 c butter, softened
• 1/3 c whipping cream
• 2 c flour
• Granulated sugar

Mix butter, cream and flour with an electric mixer.  Cover and chill.

Heat oven to 375°.

Roll about 1/3 of dough at a time to 1/8″ thick.  Keep remaining dough chilled.  Cut into 1 1/2 inch rounds or shapes.  Pour granulated sugar into a shallow dish, and coat both side of each cookie with sugar.   Place on ungreased cookie sheet.  Prick with fork.

Bake 7 – 9 minutes or just until set, but not brown.  Cool,  then frost with colored icing to make sandwiches.

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Fall Flavor: Maple & Caramelized Onion Sweet Potatoes

Time for fall!  I love the richness of this dish, and sweet potatoes always add a pretty orange touch to a fall table.  This is absolutely my favorite sweet potato recipe.  I never liked them much until I got some at the farmer’s market a few years ago and realized that fresh sweet potatoes were a completely different animal than store-bought.  Amazing the difference.  Mom’s organic market often carries a Japanese sweet potato with white flesh that is also quite tasty.

Anyway, I never have understood “sweet potato casserole” because it really seems to be more “sweet” than “sweet potato.”   But I love the caramelized onion sweetness in this dish, and I often add cayenne or crushed red pepper in place of the black pepper for a bit of heat.  The potatoes do tend to cool quickly, so make sure to use hot water and serve in a warmed dish.  The recipe can easily be doubled or tripled, though you may have to puree in batches.  If you try to make this for Thanksgiving you may get a few frowns – people do love their marshmallows – but they’ll come around.

Maple Sweet Potatoes with Caramelized Onion

• 2 large sweet potatoes
• 4 T maple syrup
• 2 T olive oil
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 T butter
• 1 tsp dried rosemary
• 1 large sweet onion, thinly sliced

Heat oven to 375°.  Peel and cube sweet potatoes.  Toss wtih 2 T maple syrup, 1 T olive oil, salt, and pepper in a large bowl.  Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray. Arrange sweet potatoes on the sheet in a single layer. Roast 30-40 minutes, stirring halfway through, until potatoes are fork-tender.

Meanwhile, heat butter and remaining 1 T olive oil in a large saute pan over medium high heat.  Add onion, remaining 2 T maple syrup, and rosemary, crumbled.  Season with salt and pepper.  Cook, stirring frequently, until onion begins to brown. Reduce heat and cook 15-20 minutes more, until onions are soft and caramelized. Turn off heat but keep onions warm.

Transfer potatoes to a food processor.  Add 2 T hot water.  Pulse until just blended, adding additional hot water as needed to create a smooth puree.  Add half the caramelized onion and pulse to mix well.  Spread sweet potatoes in a warmed dish and top with reserved onion.

Green Beans Galore

My green beans are making up for the past two years when I’ve gotten none!  I made pesto tonight and tossed it with green beans and pasta.  No picture-honestly, it wasn’t the most appealing -looking dish, but really yummy.  Bella had three servings!

I have found I like green beans best when they’re blanched and then cooked.  They seem to stay greener and crisper that way.

Cook in boiling salted water for 5-7 minutes then dunk in icewater to chill.  You can then refrigerate then for later, or go ahead and cook with them right away-they’ll need 2-4 more minutes of cooking time.

Banana Bread

First off, I don’t like bananas – can’t stand ’em.  Taste, texture, smell – nothing about them I like.  But I’ve always sort of liked banana bread.  My main complaint was that my Mom’s banana bread always ended up with a soggy, banana-y section on the top in the middle.  I guess it was too moist, or didn’t bake long enough, but the obvious banana element ruined it for me (sorry Mom!).  Anyway, I do buy bananas because the kids like them, and occasionally we end up with extra, over-ripe ones, and I can’t just throw them away!  So I found a recipe from Cook’s Illustrated, which does involve a few extra steps, but turns out to be well worth the trouble.  The following recipe is my version – I omitted an additional step that added fresh sliced bananas to the top.  I highly recommend adding the nuts – any nuts will do.  The bread is naturally very moist, and the nuts add some welcome texture. My favorite way to eat this bread is toasted (careful getting it out of the toaster – it will crumble), spread with unsalted butter, and topped with a sprinkle of sea salt.

Tomato Feta Salad

It has been so hot most things have dried up in the garden, and the squash bugs finally did in the zucchini.  I have one okra plant that came up and it has been a producer.  The other success story is the tomatoes, and I have high hopes for the second round of green beans.

Shawn reminded me of this salad we used to make at the cafe.  We have cherry tomatoes coming out our ears, and every time I go to my mom’s house she gives me another basketful.  I happened to have some feta in the fridge, so I whipped this up.

Very simple – halve cherry tomatoes, toss with feta, salt, pepper, olive oil, chopped parsley, and lemon juice.  Go easy on the salt at first in case your feta is salty.  I like to rinse the tomatoes after I slice them to get rid of some of the seeds.  It’s best fresh, but it will keep in the fridge.  Since olive oil solidifies when cold, you should bring it to room temperature before serving.

 

Garden photos

Return of the stink bugs:-(

I’ve been wondering why the stink bugs haven’t begun devouring my tomatoes. And then I found them.  On the corn.  Next year I will plant a sacrificial row. 

Spring Cakes

Here are two cakes I’ve make recently.  The tree cake was for Bella’s preschool picnic, with the names of the students in the leaves.  The sandcastle cake was for Molly’s bridal shower.  I used a combination of graham crackers and vanilla wafers for the “sand,” plus a little edible glitter to make it sparkle.  The turrets are mini Lorna Dorne’s.

Fruit pizza

Yummy & easy!  Sugar cookies with cream cheese icing and sliced fruit.  Cut them into different shapes if you want.  Blot the fruit dry after you cut it to keep the cookies from getting soggy too fast.