First Round of Holiday Cookies

I've started the holiday cookie baking, and so far I am not impressed. All three of these recipes are from the December issue of Cooking Light, and I have to remember that baking can't be light. Anyway, from left to right are the Chai Shortbread, the Crunchy Sesame Cookies and the Chocolate Almond Cherry Crisps. The Chai shortbread needed more spice, but the texture is fabulous and they're very easy. The Seseme cookies also had a fabulous texture, but the flavor was odd. They start tasting like peanut butter, but have a sharp aftertaste. The crisps were good. I made them for a party, and a friend brought the same ones. I don't like fruit with my chocolate, but the dried cherries didn't bother me, and added a bit of tang to a lucious combination of chocolate, almonds and rice krispies. Now I have a box of the cereal I need to use up if anyone knows some fun recipes. So they were all edible, but probably not keepers. I'll be baking more, so stay tuned.

A Quick Field Trip

A co-worker and I had a few minutes to kill today after letterpress printing our holiday cards, so we stopped at one of our favorite markets, United Noodles. The photos show the wide array of food available at the Asian grocery. I just like checking out the packaging. But this one is great. Its "Uncurdled Bean Curds"!

The Best Part is the Crust, Right?

I heard about these Bakersedge pans last winter, and just ran across them again. How much fun are these? The zig-zag shape makes sure that everyone gets a bit of the crunchy outer edge of the brownie, or cake, or bread. Yum.

A Snow Day

We were supposed to get 6-10 inches of snow this past Saturday, and for once, the forcasters were'nt completely wrong, just a bit ambitious. The snow started as soon as I went outside in the morning, and it continued until late in the evening. It was beautiful, though, large flakes, that swept through the air on their way down. The temp was in the high teens, so it was very bareable.

But it still made me want to hibernate and make something warm for the tummy. So, I made a White Chili. The recipe is from Cooking Light and it was completely different than the Red Meat Chili I made a couple weeks ago. For starters, this one called for chicken breast and white beans. In addition, it has tomatillas in it. I love tomatillas, partly for the name, and partly for the lovely little paper-like skins that surround them.

So, instead of a thick, tomatoey chili, this one was tart and light and refreshing. Perfect before a walk through the freshly fallen snow.

(I'll work on getting a photo of the snow for those of you in warmer climates.)

I also made jalapeno corn muffins, but they were a lot of work, and really, not that good. So I won't share the recipe. You can see the photo, and at least they looked good.

A Happy Happy Hour and a Bit of Sushi

Met J and T for dinner the other night and after much debate of where to go, we chose Calhoun Square so we had multiple options. And I think we made a good choice. We started at Chang Mai Thai and were happy to learn they have an awesome happy hour. We had $3 glasses of wine and $3 appetizers. We shared the Happy Shrimp (fried coconut shrimp served with two sauces), Fried Scallops (with a kick-ass jalapeno dipping sauce), and the Fresh Springrolls (which were made really good with the variety of sauces we now had). We rounded it out with another round of wine and headed upstairs to the sushi restaurant.

I had never been to Sushi Tango, and frankly, I doubt I'll go back. It wasn't bad, but it was a bit beat-up and the layout was a little awkward. I requested we start with the soft shell crab, which was not a disappointment. Then we shared a platter of sushi, including a really tasty, and fresh Crunchy Roll (shrimp tempura among other things), a special roll with Spicy Tuna, Albacore and Avocado, the Avocado and Asparagus roll and of course, Spicy Tuna Roll. T and H also shared the Unagi Roll with eel. I'm still not eating that after the illness episode years earlier. Just ain't jumping on that train quite yet.

The sushi was fine, not the best and not the worst I've had. The company was fabulous, as always.

Christmas Cookie Time!!

Thursday's Taste section featured their annual Christmas Cookie winners, and there are a couple I think I need to try. The Lime Coolers sound fabulous, and different. As do the Chai cookies. More after I give them a try!