Pie crust cookies

I saw this recipe on Pinterst a few weeks back and I thought I would give it a try to see if I liked it enough to possibly make and take it somewhere. It was o.k., but not great. I can see where improvement could be make.

You start with two refrigerated pie crusts sprinkle a little flour on your board and lay out the first crust. slightly roll it to get rid of any wrinkle and make it lie flat (wish I could slightly roll my forehead and get rid of any wrinkles).

spray the top of the cookie sheet with a little baking spray and sprinkle with some finely chopped, dried, sweetened cranberries, finely chopped walnuts or pecans and some cinnamon and sugar.

Take the second crust and place it on top of the first covering the cranberries and nuts inside. Slightly roll them together until they form a single crust with the filling showing through. Spray the top with some more cooking spray and sprinkle additional cinnamon and sugar on top.

Then the fun part. Get out your cookie cutter (metal works best) and cut as many possible shapes from the pie crust round. You can wad the pie crust up and roll is out a second time if you need to.

The fun part! Place cookies on a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake like you would pie crust.

They turned out fairly good, but if I had them to do over (and I will do them over) I would brush on melted butter instead of spraying cooking spray, brown sugar and cinnamon instead of white (maybe even drizzle a tiny amount of honey, a little fresh orange zest would go a long way in this recipe. The cookies worked but the flavor was lacking. I am not sure if using homemade pie crust would be doable because store bought pie crusts are more resilient.

I have been busy lately and haven't had time to sit down and really think out a recipe and get it together with photos. The bf and I are expecting a (you fill in the blank), and so we are trying to settle or nest rather. Katsu is doing well, but has had his moments where we just look at him and shake our heads. The last episode involved him eating a plastic cone off his head...I didn't blame him, those are not a great fashion statement, but it caused me extreme stress and worry while he slowly but surely passed all of it. My daughter moved out so we have redecorated her old bedroom into my new office/sitting room. We still have a few things to acquire, but it is coming along really well. I refinanced my house, so it looks like the bank is stuck with me for the next 30 years give or take. So between my daughter moving, house refi, dog acting crazy you can see why I didn't have time. Looking forward to the next few weeks to get things completed...Samhain is just around the corner and in case I don't get back here between now and then I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Greek Yogurt and Lemon Yest, topped with Fresh Marion Berry Buttercream

We are having a bit of a heat wave here...the real ugliness starts tomorrow with some triple digit temps. I am not excited about it. My daughter texts me while I am on my way home from work, and tells me that she wants to make cupcakes. I text back..."seriously it is 90+ out and you want to turn on the oven?" "Are you high". Pretty sure those are close to my exact words. She was and so we did. She had a recipe that called for a few things that I didn't have, but what I did have worked real well.

For the cupcakes: 1 3/4 cups cake flour 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 plain Greek yogurt 1/2 cup milk (I used 2%) 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 large egg whites, at room temperature 1 stick (4 ounces) butter, melted and cooled 1 cup granulated sugar 2 teaspoons fresh lemon zest

In a mixing bowl combine all the dry ingredients and set aside in a smaller bowl add your wet ingredients yogurt, egg whites, vanilla, lemon juice and zest and mix together. Slowly drizzle in the melted butter and blend. Then add your wet to your dry and mix until batter is smooth.

Preheat your oven to 350 degree and line a regular size cupcake pan with paper liners. Fill each cupcake 2/3 full of batter. Bake in preheated oven for roughly 16 min. Toothpick check to make sure they are done and remove from oven and from pan. Place cupcake on cooling wrack and allow to cool. This is a small batch recipe and makes roughly 12 cupcakes. Perfect for a little gathering of friends.

For the Marion Berry Buttercream: 1 cup Marion Berries 2 tablespoons lemon juice 1 sticks (4 ounces) butter, VERY soft, pinch salt (do not skip!) 2 cups confectioners sugar (more if needed), sifted. Into a small bowl add your marion berries and 1 Tablespoons of fresh lemon juice. Mash them until really, really pulverized or use your immersion blender. Then pour through a strainer you want all the juice but none of the seeds. Use a spoon to work it through the strainer if you must. Then into a separate bowl place the soft butter, and pinch of salt and whip together. Add confectioners sugar 1/2 cup at a time and alternate with slowly drizzling in marion berry puree. Get your buttercream the consistency you want by adding more confectioners sugar or more marion berry puree. You have to gauge how stiff you want your frosting. You may not use all of the puree. If you store the cupcakes in the fridge take them out about 30 minutes before serving.

Lamb Ragu

So I had a little dinner party last night. We had another couple over (Mr & Mrs M) for some delicious lamb ragu (new recipe). I love braising meat. Braising takes what could be a tough piece of meat and turns it into tender mouthwatering deliciousness.

It is helpful if you have all your ingredients together before you start any recipe. You will need 2 lbs of chunked up lamb meat (lamb shoulder works well), 2 medium onions cut into large pieces,3-4 peeled and large cut carrots, 8 cloves of peeled and smashed garlic, 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary, 3 tlbs of fresh sage, 1 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes, 2 cups of red wine (something hearty), salt, pepper, fat for frying, dutch oven with lid and a large skillet for frying.

Start by browning your lamb in your very hot pan. I used two pounds of lamb shoulder that I cut up in big chunks and removed most of the fat. Salt and pepper your meat. You will also have to cook the meat in batches (no overcrowding) you want the meat to brown, not simmer. I used bacon grease for the frying, but you could easily use anything you have on hand.

Get it really brown. When it is really brown remove the meat from the pan, turn the pan down some and add the 2 medium chopped onions.

Caramelize those onions until they are soft and golden in color. Then add the carrots, 3 Tlbs. of chopped fresh sage, 8 cloves of peeled and slightly smashed garlic and some more salt and pepper.

Cook for roughly ten minutes. Don't burn your sage.

Next add two cups of red wine and deglaze the pan getting up all those yummy bit of goodness.

Then add one 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes. I used crushed because I think in the end the sauce is thicker and will stand up well to pasta.

Simmer for about 7-10 minutes to let the flavors start to develop.

Combine your browned lamb, 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary and sauce together in your dutch oven. Put the lid on and slid into a preheated 275 degree oven for roughly 4 hours. Let the magic happen.

Tada! I served it up over pasta but I can see this over mashed potatoes or polenta the choice is yours. I also had made some bread earlier in the day and the fresh asparagus called out to me in the store, so I sauteed up a pound of that for dinner as well.

I made my favorite cocktail Aperol Spritz which is as follows...take a champange flute pour half a shot of Aperol into it, then fill 3/4 of the way with prosecco, and top with a little club soda. Garnish with a bit of lemon or orange rind and there you have it. light, refreshing and sparkly.

Everything was perfect, the food was delicious, the company fantastic and the conversation lively. I even got out of making dessert this time...Mr & Mrs M brought a luscious Raspberry Poppy Seed Cake from a local spot they know that was super delicious.

Coconut cupcakes with Lemon Frosting

So last weekend was the daughters birthday. Most likely the last one she will be living at home for. I decided to make something different with a lot of flavor, so I made up coconut cupcakes with lemon frosting.

Start by creaming together 1 cup of butter, 2 cups of sugar and 4 eggs. Add eggs one at a time.

In a separate bowl combine 3 cups of all purpose flour, 1/2 tsp. salt and 2 tsp. baking powder. In a measuring cup pour 3/4 cup of milk and 1-2 tsp. coconut extract (I used 1/2 cup whole milk and 1/4 cup buttermilk). Alternate between the dry ingredients and wet and mix into butter and sugar mixture. If the cake mix is a little too thick for your liking you can add up to another 1/4 milk or buttermilk.

Fold into cake batter roughly one cup of toasted coconut. I used sweetened shredded coconut that I toasted on a parchment lined cookie sheet in a 350 degree oven.

We did cupcakes. I love the stuff in this Etsy shop

I baked the cupcakes in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes.

Just waiting for the frosting.

The lemon frosting was a cinch. Combine in a bowl 1 cup very soft butter, 5 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon lemon zest, 4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1-2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream, for desired consistency

The final touch was a little coconut sprinkled on top. Perfection.

I halved the cake recipe and frosting recipe for this occasion and it still made 14 regular sized cupcakes and the halved frosting recipe covered them perfectly with just enough left over in the bowl for me to taste.

My Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday and it was like most typical weekend days for me. I cooked, cleaned and spent time with my bf. I enjoy the simplicity. For my birthday we did take Katsu to the dog park...his second visit ever. Now that he is neutered, chipped and feeling tons better, I feel only slightly better about his off leash play...you see Katsu doesn't have the greatest recall skill. We are working on it. I look at it this way at least at the dog park he can run and play in relative safety.

So last nights dinner was a new recipe that I spied online a few weeks back and I have wanted to try. I love meals that cook up in the crock pot. I consider it a form of torture to have the aroma of fantastic food wafting through the house all day long. Not to mention the simplicity of not having a ton of pots and pans to clean up before, during and after the dinner.

You start with a crock pot...then after you take the photo you wash the crock pot again because someone didn't get it clean the last time they used it...me.

Into the crockpot you add one 14oz can of diced tomatoes with the juice.

Then you add some fresh Thyme (about 1 or 2 teaspoons), one medium diced onion, two cloves minced garlic and roughly one small can of tomato paste (if you use the whole can of tomato paste I would add a little red wine). Give it a good stir to combine with the tomatoes.

You can used a chuck roast, but I happened to have an arm roast on hand. I cut the bone out (fed the marrow to the chupacabra who was watching me intently) placed the roast on the top of the tomato mixture in the crock pot. Liberally salt and pepper the meat

Put on the lid and set it to cook for 8 hours on low. That's it. Done. When the dish is done cooking go in with a couple of forks and pull apart any large chunks of meat that remain.

Doesn't that look amazing? To finish this dish you take a 1/2 cup of fresh chopped basil, zest from one small lemon and a drizzle one or two tablespoons of olive oil and toss together in a small bowl.

Place the meat and sauce on top of hot pasta and the basil topping on top of the meat followed with some fresh grated cheese. See doesn't that look amazing? Don't forget the crusty bread...Yum. Perfect dinner. I used trottolle pasta. It is fun and interesting.

What's a birthday without a birthday cake? So I did not make my own birthday cake...everyone was surprised about that, but I did get a really nice tiramisu cake from a local bakery...It was really quite good...seriously who bakes there own birthday cake?

My kids were here for dinner last night which was nice...thanks D.H. and D.C. for washing the dishes and tidying up the kitchen for me. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. We are off to a family gathering today, and I was smart enough to take a day off tomorrow to spend some time with me.