Winter Holiday Cookies

This past holiday season, my go-to contribution was cookies.  Gingerbread with chocolate chip cookies, Middle Eastern spice chocolate chip with cranberries cookies, peanut butter with white chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal with butterscotch chip cookies... batch after batch.

I know it sounds like I made a lot of elaborate cookies, but they were all incredibly easy because of the shortcuts I took.  All of the cookies were from mixes I bought on sale at Target.  At holiday time, they have a great assortment of flavors: gingerbread, molasses, oatmeal, peanut butter, sugar, snickerdoodle - and of course chocolate chip - and all under $2 each.  To add a creative twist to a regular mix, I like to include things like dried cranberries, white chocolate chips, crystalized ginger, butterscotch chips and blended spice mixes. 

One of my favorite cookies I like to make is from a standard chocolate cookie mix (my favorite is not an inexpensive one from Target, I hate to say.)  I add 1.5 teaspoons of this fantastic spice blend from a wonderful local farm, made from warm winter spices like cinnamon, cloves, alspice and rosebuds - yum!  It adds a festive, spicy undertone to a classic cookie.

Try some of your own flavor combinations.  There are so many things - dried fruit, nuts, candy chips - you can add to a standard cookie mix to jazz it up into something yumtastic!

Spiced chocolate chip cookies - YUM!

I've Been Slacking

I'm embarrassed to see (and honestly can't believe) I haven't written since LAST NOVEMBER.  Shameful!  This is supposed to be my fun hobby.  Guess I haven't been having any fun.  Ha ha, thankfully that's not true!  I suppose my extra-curricular fun times have been distracting me from the blog....?  Maybe?  Anyway, whatever the reason, I'm happy to be back posting something... especially something so perfect for the hot weather this summer.

Icebox Cake!  The name alone cools me down.  Have you ever had one?  I hadn't grown up with these but am excited to discover them now.  (What I've been reading about icebox cakes makes them sound retro-30s style, so perhaps a grandmother would have made this sort of dessert...?)  I remember seeing a recipe for this delicacy last summer and never getting around to making one.  Since strawberries were on sale last week at Whole Wallet, I bought a quart of them, specifically for my first go at icebox cake.

My first attempt

So, if you're not familiar, an icebox cake is a cake you make in your fridge.  It works like this: whip up some whipped cream with your electric mixer, spread it between layers of crispy graham crackers and sliced up strawberries, then let it magically turn into cake-y goodness in the fridge after a few hours.  The graham crackers will soak up some of the moisture from the whipped cream and berries, and turn cake-like - all soft and spongy (not soggy!)

You can use any sort of stone fruit or berry, add flavoring to the whipped cream, chocolate sauce on top, or my favorite - lemon curd - between the layers of graham as well, for some added zing.  I used this awesome recipe as a starting point.  The graham crackers I used were "all natural" from the same place I bought the strawberries.  They were thicker, smaller & more substantial than the typical, Honey Grahams you get at Stop & Shop.  I did add some lemon zest to the whipped cream - and some lemon curd on two layers of the graham crackers.  OMG - yum!

Attempt #2

I made two versions because of all the berries I bought - and the back-up container of whipping cream.  The first version had more compact layers due to the whipped cream not whipping properly.  I only used strawberries in this one.  The second version had both strawberries and blueberries, as well as very fluffy whipped cream. Unfortunately I spread the whipped cream on too thickly.  I'm going to take another stab at it next week and see if I can perfect it.  Fluffy whipped cream, but less of it with more berries - and lemon curd.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

Thankfully the lemon-scented whipped cream of cake #1 didn't taste like scrambled eggs.

Layers of graham-y, creamy, lemony, strawberry goodness.

The fluffy, creamy layers of cake #2.  Note the blueberries.

The cake I make next week will certainly incorporate these berry and citrus flavors again, but I can't help but wonder about other flavor combinations.  Raspberries with chocolate grahams?  Peaches with blueberry jam on the graham crackers?  Or peaches with ginger-scented whipped cream?  I bet mangoes could even work in some way...?   If only whipped cream & graham crackers had no calories or fat... hmmm...

Yes, it's almost gone at the time of this posting.

Regardless, I hope you're now thoroughly inspired to try your own version of an icebox cake.  Let me know what sort of flavor combinations you try!

Smoothie of the Day

Maybe the title of this post is a bit of a misnomer; I don't make smoothies every day.  I should, since eating healthier is one of my 2011 resolutions.  Smoothies are such an easy way to have a couple servings of fruit and veggies all at once.  A girlfriend of mine told me she uses kale in her fruit smoothies, which sounded totally nasty to me.  But she assured me you could barely even notice the kale taste and it adds the supposedly important anti-oxidants and other "vital" nutrients. 

Orange was the theme this morning.  Looking in our freezer, I noticed the frozen mango chunks were starting to show signs of frost.  While I usually toss frost-bitten foods, I figured the other ingredients would mask any weird flavor.  Is that gross?  (Thankfully my assumption was correct!)  The bag of frozen peach slices was nearly empty so I grabbed that, too.  Unfortunately my husband chucked the last over-ripe banana.  (Over-ripe bananas add a nice extra sweetness to smoothies, I find.)

To the mango and peaches, I added carrot juice, almond milk, non-fat vanilla yogurt, milled flax seeds and some ground cinnamon.  After a few minutes in my amazingly sturdy Cuisinart blender, I enjoyed a delicious, frothy, fruity, orange treat.

I couldn't really discern the specific fruits, but the almond milk and cinnamon combo added an interesting but subtle, spicy warmth.

Perhaps I will shoot for a smoothie a day.  I guess that means a trip to the grocery in the morning before storm #57 hits tomorrow afternoon.  I'd better stock up on more frozen fruits - and maybe I'll give that kale a try.  I'll certainly let you know if I do.