The Cookies I Cannot Resist

I do not have a sweet tooth, I have a butter tooth. And a salt tooth. And a brown sugar combined with butter and salt tooth, but not a sweet tooth by itself. I can take or leave most desserts. A package of cookies can remain untouched in our pantry for months. (Unless Kyle knows it's there or Lily can reach it, in which case it is gone before light can travel across the room).

But there is one cookie I cannot resist. I am powerless against the lace cookie. It's no mystery why I love these cookies so- they have more butter in them than our corner store's refrigerated section. They are sweet and rich, carmely and crisp, and have just enough salt to make that tooth happy too. A Costco-sized tin of Lacey's has little to no chance of lasting through the weekend.

Imagine my delight when I realized you can make these bad boys at home. I shopped around for recipes and ended up with a combination of the recipes I read. I had a couple of criteria: I didn't want to have to go to the store- I wanted to use ingredients I already had, including a bag of mandarin oranges that we are unlikely to eat in the next couple of days (we have been eating so many lately that we're all kind of over them). It seems like a miracle at first glance that you could possibly have all the ingredients for such a delicious cookie on hand, but on second thought-- not such a biggie when you realize that these crispy delights only have 6 ingredients, 4 of which are flour, sugar, butter and salt. Love. that.

I also wanted something that could be dressed up cute enough to bring for end-of-year treats for all the people who have helped me at BSF this year, and adding a decorative drizzle of dark chocolate over the top does the trick. Plus it gives me an excuse to enjoy one of my most favorite flavor combinations ever, orange and chocolate. What's better, these cookies contain a bunch of almonds so along with all of the butter, there's also a generous dose of the good fat. Add that to the orange zest and it's a veritable granola bar. Well played, if I do say so myself.

Orange-scented Lace Cookies
2 1/2 sticks of butter
3 c. finely chopped almonds (I food processored them)
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 T flour
2 t. orange zest
1 t. salt
2 eggs, beaten

Chop the almonds in a food processor. Add the sugar, flour, orange zest and salt. Meanwhile, melt butter and add to dry ingredients. Add beaten eggs and combine. Put batter in a squeeze bottle to drop even amounts, about the size of a half dollar, on parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake at 325 for about 8 minutes, or until light golden brown. Melt your favorite chocolate and drizzle onto cooled cookies. You can also place chocolate chips on the cookies as soon as they come out of the oven and make sandwiches out of them.

Caution: don't make these when anyone's home or you will have none to give away.

Tuna Hot

If the question of what to have for lunch vexes you like it does me, then you can imagine my delight when Kyle came home from a business trip with a great new idea for lunch. What, your husband doesn’t share recipes with you?? Ok, so mine doesn’t either.

Here’s what happens when Kyle goes on business trips: when he goes to his company’s headquarters, he usually stays with our good friends, Kristian and Brandi. And let me tell you a little about Miss Brandi. You would hate her for being so perfect if not for the sweetness and humility that pours from her. Besides the God-given ability to effortlessly pop out gorgeous children every 10 minutes or so, she (along with her equally talented husband) can design and decorate a ready-for-a-magazine house (it really has been in a magazine), and so important to this hungry family, the girl. can. cook. So Kyle always comes home will a full meal report and firm instructions to obtain specific recipes (more on that in a minute). Not only can this mama cook, but she can cook for days on end for many gaggles of people, all without breaking a sweat or forgetting to smile or ask you penetrating questions about yourself. See what I mean? Oh, and I’ve seen her do all of this like 45 weeks pregnant. I’m not kidding. To make it worse, she weighs like 100 lbs even after all those kids, and she’s a total fashionista. AND… she homeschools and loves Jesus. I mean… really.

What’s even better, she invented something for lunch that my husband loves and is not too difficult for me to replicate at home when I’m in the mood to make him something yummy. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what I most admire about the lovely Brandi.
So here’s what she did. She mixed up some tuna salad (Kyle likes it with mustard, a tiny bit of mayo, salt and pepper) and stuffed it into these cute little peppers, and voila-- lunch is served. I normally like to put celery and onions in my tuna for some crunch and spice, but the peppers cover both bases, and less chopping = one happy, hungry mother. You can use any type of peppers- I chose these Anaheims but you could use bell peppers, and I think Brandi used the small stoplight ones you can get in big bags at Costco. That makes for a very pretty presentation.
Another favorite part of this lunch is that I get to sing that rockin Kool and the Gang song from the 80s, "Too Hot" because my brother, who was very little at the time, thought they were saying, "Tuna Hot." And that's just what you're gonna think of these little numbers.

Sweet and Savory Pancakes

To satisfy my family's sweet tooth and my salt tooth, I made two types of pancakes this morning. Wait-- I know what you're thinking: "I ain't no short order cook!"-- me neither (although my dream is to someday work the flat-top at a diner), but I was able to easily customize our pancakes with stuff I already had laying around.

For my sweeties, I chopped up some strawberries and sprinkled them, along with some chocolate chips, right on half of the pancakes. To make sure I got an adequate fix of salt and pork fat before church, I crumbled up some leftover bacon and sprinkled it along with some sharp cheddar on my cakes. I put in the goodies after I poured the batter on the griddle (rather than mixing it in the batter), so I could easily control how many of each I made.

They were so good that The Girl Who Barely Eats ate three, and her Very Picky About Pancakes father ate a whole stack. Everybody was happy and well-nourished in time for church-- mission accomplished.

Zucchini "Pasta"

At dinner with my friends Cara and Katri the other night, they both ordered the Zucchini "Tagliatelli," broad thin strips of zucchini made to look like pasta. I tried to recreate it at home and the only problem was that there wasn't enough!

Ingredients:

(to serve 4)

5-6 meduim zucchini

1 T olive oil

1 clove garlic, chopped finely

1 medium tomato, diced

salt

pepper

grated parmesan

1/4 c. chopped fresh basil (optional)

Here's how I did it: I peeled the zucchini first to try to fool Lily into thinking it was real pasta, although I don't think that's necessary. She took one bite and proclaimed, "Squash!" Thankfully that didn't deter her from eating the same 2 bites she normally eats at dinner.

After peeling the zucchini I sliced it on my handy mandoline, which you sort of need for this recipe because it would be really hard to do by hand. But maybe that's just me-- I can't even cut paper in a straight line.

After I had all of the zucchini sliced, I heated up the olive oil in a saute pan and added the zucchini and a clove of garlic. I then chopped up a tomato and added that for the last couple of minutes. I sauteed the zucchini for no more than 5 minutes total, then added salt, pepper and parmesan and served it. So simple! If I would have been thinking I would have added some fresh basil. But I wasn't. But it was yummy anyway-- I will definitely make it again.

Mmmm, mmmmm, ribs

I'm so proud of myself for conquering ribs-- I've always been intimidated by them, but my fear is gone thanks to this easy and delicious recipe.

Ingredients:

4 lbs of baby back ribs (figure about 1 lb for each person)

1 onion, coarsely chopped

5 cloves of garlic

2 t salt

1 t peppercorns

Your favorite barbecue or teryaki sauce

Directions:

Place the ribs in a big pot and fill with water. Add the onion, coarsely chopped, the whole, unpeeled garlic cloves, salt and pepper and bring to a simmer. Simmer uncovered for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until tender. You will know!

Remove the ribs from the pot and place on a baking sheet. Baste generously with the sauce of your choosing (I used Stubbs Teryaki Marinade and will definitely use it again). Heat on the grill for 10-15 minutes and serve to people you really like.

Broccoli Green Bean Salad with Basil Oil

Ok, so I know summer is basically over, but this one can be served pretty much year round since you can usually find fresh basil at the grocery store even after your herb garden is long gone.

I blanched about a half pound of green beans for about 3 minutes and roasted a head of broccoli with olive oil and salt for about 10-12 minutes (just past bright green, not yet soggy). I threw the green beans in with the broccoli for the last 3 minutes, mostly to warm them up since I'd blanched them earlier. I tossed the veggies in a bowl with some grape tomatoes for a fresh and colorful addition.

Then I picked a handful of basil (about 1/2 cup, packed) and put it in the food processor with some olive oil (about 1/4 cup) and salt and pepper, and viola- basil oil. It was pretty and delicious!

Salmon Burgers with Spinach

I know salmon burgers don't sound very produce co-opy, but trust me on this one. I had a bag of spinach and the thought of more sauteed spinach didn't appeal to me, and I'm never able to make plain ol' salmon taste all that great, so I looked up recipes to combine the two and found this.

I omitted the ginger (didn't have any), used a little less spinach, a little more scallions, and the whole egg instead of just the white.

I served them on onion rolls and had bacon, red onions and tomatoes for toppings. They were DELISH-- my only regret was that I didn't double the recipe. It made 6 small-ish burgers and we all wanted two.