When life gives you lemons.........

I have been so busy in Japan but when I first got here I was invited to my coworker's house for dinner. I have limited baking stuff here (no mixer!) but still seem to be doing just fine. It is super hot here in Japan but I will take it because that means it is not currently raining!!!! I decided to try something different and went with Lemon Bars. They were really good my one thing would be to decrease the cooking time. I did 15 minutes for the crust and they were still pale but it was good enough!


LEMON PIE BARS
(Source: allrecipes)

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 cup butter, softened
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice (I used the lemon juice in the bottle)
1 tablespoon lemon zest

DIRECTIONS:

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Mix 2 cups of flour and confectioner's sugar together. Cut in the butter or margarine. Mix well until the dough resembles pie dough consistency.
- Press the dough into a 9x13 inch baking pan. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. (I baked for 15 minutes and it was still pale)
- Beat together eggs, sugar, 4 tablespoons flour, lemon juice and lemon rind for at least 1 minute. Pour the mixture over the baked crust.
- Bake the bars another 20 minutes, or until the lemon topping has set.
- Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar when cooled.

A little bit out of the comfort zone...........

Wow let's talk about being MIA.........the past few months have been absolutely crazy. I am actually living in Japan right now, I moved here in the beginning of May and will be here until the end of September. I am living and working on a military base and so we had a potluck at work for the 4th of July. They decided to center the meal around KFC chicken and as we all know I don't cook! I am always the dessert lady; however, those options were already taken so what was a girl to do! I decided to make a salad and biscuits. They both came out excellent and I even put the leftover biscuits in the freezer. Delicious!

The biscuit recipe says it makes 8; I doubled the recipe and definitely got more then 16 but I also don't think I made them as big as the recipe calls for. Don't forget you can always freeze them and defrost them later because they are absolutely amazing warm!

The nite before the potluck, I got all of the ingredients for the salad ready but then prepared it right before the potluck at my desk. Therefore, I was stuck with my bowl and so I probably didn't make it to all of the measurements listed but it is a salad so you don't really need to follow a recipe - I just liked having one to have some guidelines.



CHEDDAR BISCUITS:

(Source: allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups biscuit baking mix
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
2/3 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons margarine, melted
2 teaspoons dried parsley
1 teaspoon garlic salt

DIRECTIONS:

- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). Grease a cookie sheet, or line with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, combine baking mix, Cheddar cheese, and garlic powder. Stir in milk. Drop batter by heaping tablespoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheet.
- Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Brush biscuits with melted margarine, and sprinkle with parsley and garlic salt. Bake for 5 more minutes, or until lightly browned on the bottom. (I am getting used to a new oven so I subtracted about 1 minute from each of the times).





BEAUTIFUL SALAD:
(Source: allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS:

8 cups baby spinach leaves(I used 1 bag of spinach and 1 bag of 50/50 leaf mix)
1/2 medium red onion, sliced and separated into rings
1 (11 ounce) can mandarin oranges, drained (I think I might have used a can and half)
1 1/2 cups sweetened dried cranberries (I used craisins)
1 cup honey-roasted sliced almonds
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
1 cup balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing, or to taste (I put it on the side)

DIRECTIONS:

- Put the leaves in a bowl and sprinkle a little bit of all the ingredients, while carefully tossing, and just keep mixing everything in. Beware, the almonds and cranberries will go straight to the bottom of the bowl!

Baking with Kids!

This past Wednesday I baked with my 4th grade CCD students. Thankfully 2 of the moms helped me, otherwise I would not have survived baking with 10 - 10 year olds! The reason for this madness was Operation Baking Gals. This is my second time doing this and I think this is a wonderful organization since I love to bake and now I can do it for a good cause. I hope the solider Tim and his friends enjoy the boxes of cookies and the cards that they made!

All the cookies packed and ready to go. Also, the cards that they made.


Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies


Peanut Butter Cup Cookies


Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (recipe below)

OATMEAL RAISIN COOKIES
(Soure: allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup shortening (I used butter)
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts ( I left the walnuts out)
1/2 cup golden raisins (I used regular raisins)

DIRECTIONS:

- In a large mixing bowl, cream shortening and sugars. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine the oats, flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture. Stir in walnuts and raisins.
- Drop by tablespoonfuls 2 in. apart onto ungreased baking sheets.
- Bake at 375 degrees F for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire racks to cool.

Black and Whites AKA NY Cookies!

I am from New York and haven't lived there for over 11 years but I still miss the great food! A fantastic cookie from NY are the Black and Whites, I love these even though they are dryer then your normal cookie. When looking at recipes I learned that people actually called these NY Deli Cookies, who knew! For the office Cookie Swap I decided to go out of my comfort zone and to try a new cookie. Hey with a room full of guinea pigs I couldn't resist.

My first batch came out better then my second batch, when I tried to make them thicker and a little less dry they just came out huge and flat; sort of like a pancake. I got the recipe from All Recipes and part of the reason why I love that website are the comments from other bakers. Based on numerous recommendations I changed the original recipe and I think it came out pretty well. Next time I might change the chocolate a little bit but everyone loved them.



BLACK AND WHITE (AKA NY COOKIES)
(Source: allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS:

Cookies:
1 cup unsalted butter
1 3/4 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 cup milk
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract
2 1/2 cups cake flour
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt


Frosting: * You will halve the recipe for white and black frosting

6 Cups confectioners sugar
4 Tbsp light corn syrup (for consistency)
2 TBSP butter (for shine)
3 tsp clear imitation vanilla extract
1/4 to 1/3 C. cocoa powder (recipe called for Dutch processed I used Hersheys)
Water for consistency

DIRECTIONS:

- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
- In a medium bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in the milk, vanilla, and lemon extract. Combine cake flour and all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt; gradually blend into the creamed mixture.
-Take 1/4-1/3 of a cup of batter and drop them on the sheet. Take back of a spoon to swirl it into a nicely formed circle about 1" thick. Bake for about 11-14 minutes. Cool completely.
- Brush off all excess crumbs from bottom of each cookie. (over sink)

- Make frosting in 2 batches, white being first: 3 Cups confectioners sugar, 2 Tbsp light corn syrup, 1 TBSP butter, 1 1/2 tsp clear imitation vanilla extract, and enough hot water to achieve desired consistency. Mix with a wire whisk until smooth. Ice slightly over 1/2 of each cookie; you can spoon the icing and then use an offset spatula to ice) and let set until firm (approx. 20 mins.).

What to do with all of those cookies??

It's that time of year again! The time of year when you get suckered by cute little girls and buy more cookies then you ever need..........yup it is Girl Scout Cookie time!!!! I have a soft spot in my heart for Girl Scout cookies, I used to be a Girl Scout (I actually have my Gold Award). I was an extremely successfull cookie seller because when people told me that they couldn't buy them because they were on a diet I would tell them that they froze very well and they could have them after diet was over! OOOO how sweet I was!!

So now I am the one who is being suckered and I decided instead of sitting down with a box of Thin Mints and polishing them off in one sitting I would bake with them. So after doing a google search I found some great recipes, especially from the Girl Scouts of Kentuckania.

I am in love with this recipe, Mint Delight! It is fantastic and delicious - I actually froze it inorder to bring it into work and when it was frozen and defrosting it was good but once it defrosted it was AMAZING!! I was not a fan at first but after it was completely defrosted I totally was.

I am not a purist, to my mother's chagrin, and when I can I use low fat or reduced fat ingredients and it worked really well in this recipe. I forgot the recipe when I went into the store (not the first time and not the last time) and I had to guess the package sizes. I knew I needed the large box of chocolate pudding; however, the large size at the store was 5.9 oz and not 8 oz, it worked out well. Also, I wasn't sure how much cool whip I needed so I bought a large 12 oz and a smaller container. It was still frozen when I needed the first cup and I ended up using the large and a little bit of the second smaller container; however, I think if it was actually defrosted I could have gotten away with one.

This recipe is fantastic, it doesn't seem like it is going to work out when you are making it but as they say the proof is in the pudding!!


This is what it looked like frozen




MINT DELIGHT
(Source: the Girl Scouts of Kentuckania)


INGREDIENTS:

1 pkg. of Thin Mint cookies (crushed)
3 tbsp. butter or margarine (melted)
1 pkg. (8 oz.) softened cream cheese
2 pkgs. (5.9 oz. size) instant chocolate pudding
3 cups milk
4 cups whipped topping


DIRECTIONS:

- Combine cookies with melted butter or margarine, (save ¼ cup of cookies for topping). Press cookie mixture on bottom of 13” x 9” pan. Chill.
- Combine cream cheese with 1 cup whipped topping. Spread over cookie mixture. Chill for 15 to 20 minutes.
- Prepare pudding with 3 cups of milk and pour over cream cheese mixture. Chill for 1 hour or until ready to serve.
- Top with remaining whipped topping and Thin Mint cookie crumbs. (I put this on top and let it sit in the freezer over nite)

Getting Back On Track With Soup!

A fact about me is that I don't cook and I don't like to cook, baking is where it is at for me. However, I was just away for a week for work and every morning the lovely Hilton would leave newspapers for us. So as I drank my Starbucks and waited in the lobby a recipe caught my attention and I thought hmmmmmmm I could make soup and it could help me get back on track. I liked the soup a lot and it was super easy! I didn't add the optional sour cream or the garnish but sprinkled a little cheese on top instead.




BLACK BEAN SOUP
(Source: USA TODAY)

INGREDIENTS:
1 Tbsp. canola oil (I used olive oil)
1 small onion, chopped (I used half of a medium/large onion)
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1 tsp. ground cumin
2 15-ounce cans black beans, rinsed
3 cups water
1/2 cup prepared salsa
1/4 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. lime juice
4 Tbsp. reduced-fat sour cream (optional)
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro (optional)


DIRECTIONS:

- Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring, until beginning to soften, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add chili powder and cumin and cook, stirring, 1 minute more.
- Add beans, water, salsa and salt. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and stir in lime juice.
- Transfer half the soup to a blender and puree (use caution with when pureeing hot liquids).
- Stir the puree back into the saucepan.
- Serve soup garnished with sour cream and cilantro, if desired.

Baking for a Good Cause!

Awhile ago I came across this wonderful group called Baking GALS. This group is run by Lyndsay and she gets group leaders to host soldiers who are deployed abroad. Each host recruits up to 20 bakers and in a week to two week period everyone ships out their goodies and then bombards the soldier with baked goods. So many goods he or she has to share with their fellow troops.

I wanted to do this for awhile and thought that this would be a great thing to do with my 4th grade religion students; however, 2 weeks of snow in DC changed that plan! So I baked these on my own and will sign up for a future round to bake again.

This was my first time baking for soldiers so there are some things I will do differently next time. For now I hope the Lt in Afghanistan, who is responsible for Logistics and Transportation, and the soldier from Indianapolis, whose second was born while he was away, enjoy the cookies.





Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip



Molasses Cookies (nonvegan version)



Peanut Butter Cup Cookies