Friends Food Family

Danielle B's Goodies - Special Thumbprint Cookies

 
I'm starting a day early with my cookies, or maybe I should just say, you'll get a baker's dozen of recipes. Today is my daughter, Danielle's birthday. Twenty-two years ago, I put a name to my cookie business, Danielle B's GOODIES. My dad, having worked in the paper industry, had business cards and stickers made to "brand" my product. I found one of the old business cards and tried to re-create the logo, the problem, I couldn't find the font. But after 22 years, it could probably have used a re-design.

I asked Danielle what cookies were her favorite and she said the chocolate chip shortbread cookie with the Hershey Kiss. So, in honor of her birthday and the original name of my company, I give you, Special Thumbprint Cookies. I found this recipe in the Boston Globe (years ago) and changed a few things. This is an easy cookie which will allow you to make it a number of different ways.

Basic Dough

1 cup of white sugar

2 cups of butter

2 teaspoons of vanilla

2 eggs

4 1/2 cups of flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

Blend sugar and butter with a mixer until smooth, add the eggs and vanilla and beat until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in flour and baking soda by hand until it forms a smooth dough.

Danielle's Favorites

You'll need: mini chocolate chips and a 10 oz bag of Hershey Kisses

Add 1 cup of mini chocolate chips to the basic dough. Roll into balls (a rounded tablespoon) and indent with your thumb. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until dry and slightly golden on the bottom. The minute they come out of the oven, press a Hershey Kiss into the top of each cookie. Wait about 2 minutes and as the chocolate begins to melt, push the top of the kiss down, flattening it into the cookie.

Other versions

You can add 1 cups of chopped nuts or 1 cup of Heath Bar bits to the basic dough. You can fill them with a Hershey Kiss or you can add Raspberry or Strawberry jam to the thumbprint. If you choose to add jam, place the jam in the thumbprint before baking and omit the Hershey Kiss.

Lastly, the original recipe called for a carmel mixture in the center. Place 20 caramels and 1/4 cup half and half into a small sauce pan, heat until mixture is blended and smooth. Place the caramel mixture into the indented cookie after it has cooled.

Got Turkey? How about Turkey Pot Pie?

Yes, we got turkey, lots of turkey, and lots of leftovers from Thursday's feast. Now that all the guests are gone, who's going to eat all this stuff? 

We started with Turkey Tetrazzini on Friday night (a family favorite), but other than that, the leftovers haven't made it out of the refrigerator. The first time I saw them was this afternoon as I put together a care package for my daughter heading back to college.

Figuring we needed to have one more turkey meal, Jeff found a recipe in the Bon Appetit October 2009 issue under Leftovers Done Right called Turkey Pot Pie. The recipe was very easy and outside of waiting for the filling to cool, prep and cook time was about an hour. We made a double batch and put it in two separate pie plates, but I would make one suggestion. When making the pot pie, double the recipe and use one deep-dish pie pan.

The turkey pot pie was delicious and it's definitely a keeper to make again.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 6 ounces button mushrooms, stems trimmed, caps cut in half then thickly sliced crosswise
• 1 cup thinly sliced peeled carrots (about 2 carrots)
• 1/2 cup diced leftover cooked vegetables (optional)
• 1 1/2 cups diced cooked turkey (7 to 8 ounces)
• 1 to 1 1/4 cups gravy
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
• 1/4 cup frozen green peas, thawed
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh Italian parsley plus additional parsley leaves for crust
• 1 egg white, beaten to blend with 1 teaspoon water (for glaze)
• 1 9-inch purchased pie crust
• Cranberry sauce

Preparation

• Melt 1 tablespoon unsalted butter with 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chopped onion and sauté until golden, 7 to 8 minutes. Add sliced mushrooms; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sauté until browned and tender, about 4 minutes. Add sliced carrots; cover and cook until carrots soften slightly, about 2 minutes. Add leftover vegetables, if desired. Add diced turkey, gravy, and chopped fresh thyme. Bring filling mixture to boil; reduce heat to low and simmer to thicken if necessary. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Mix in peas and chopped parsley. Pour filling into 9-inch-diameter glass pie dish and refrigerate until cool, about 30 minutes.
• Lightly brush rim (both top and underside) of filled pie dish with egg glaze. Place crust atop filling and fold edge of dough over edge of pie dish. Pinch dough rim to seal crust all around. Press down on top edge of crust with fork tines to seal decoratively. Chill 10 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 400°F. Lightly brush top of pie with glaze. Make three to four 1/4-inch slits in center of pie to allow steam to escape. Press some fresh parsley leaves onto crust. Bake pie until crust is golden and filling is bubbling, 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool 10 minutes. Serve with cranberry sauce and/or leftover mashed potatoes.
  

Two different recipes, one great meal - Tomato Sauce and Meatballs

Good meatballs are always hard to come by. Over the past year, we have tried numerous meatball recipes from Giada De Laurentiis to Throwdown with Bobby Flay. We've learned that each have distinctive tastes and everyone seems to have a favorite. One meatball recipe we tried was Grandma Maroni's Meatballs. The recipe came from a Throwdown with Bobby Flay episode. Flay challenged Michael Maroni of Maroni's Cuisine to a meatball competition. (For all of you familiar with the Food TV network.) Maroni's Cuisine is located in Long Island, NY and is known for its famous meatballs.

After watching the challenge, we decided to make a batch. We mixed them with Giada's Marinara Sauce and they were delicious. We doubled both recipes which allowed us to freeze one for another time.

Grandma Maroni's Meatballs

• 1 pound ground chuck
• 4 ounces dried bread crumbs
• 4 large eggs
• 4 ounces whole milk 
• 6 ounces grated Romano
• 3 ounces grated Spanish onion
• 2 ounces finely diced fresh garlic
• 2 ounces finely chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
• 2 ounces finely chopped fresh basil leaves

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a baking sheet with olive oil cooking spray. Mix all ingredients thoroughly in large bowl. If mixture seems a little loose add more bread crumbs. Roll meatballs loosely about the size of a golf ball and place on baking sheet. Place into preheated oven for approximately 35 to 40 minutes, then add to your favorite sauce.

I love to pour this sauce over mezze penne pasta. It's smaller than regular penne and holds sauce well.

Mangia!

Thanksgiving Discoveries...

First, I'd like to wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving. I wish I could have shared this discovery earlier but by the time we got our first turkey out of the oven at 8:30 PM and carved it at 10 PM, I was too tired to report the results.

Back a few weeks ago we caught the ending of the Cook's Country show on PBS. We have been subscribers of Cook's Magazine and have made a few of their recipes. They research recipes and create the best recipe usually from a group of trial recipes. The show was on cooking an old-fashioned roasted turkey with creamy garlic mashed potatoes. The turkey recipe was easy, basically a 12-14 pound turkey, 1 pound of salt pork and some cheese cloth. The full recipe can be found at www.cookscountrytv.com or by clicking http://tinyurl.com/yhvq7km.

Easy recipe, why not try it? It was worth the 15 minutes it took to get the turkey ready and into the oven. I think even my friend, Steve Ford, could make this...and he's a take-out guy!

At 10 PM, we realized we had made probably the best tasting turkey we had ever cooked. It was moist and very flavorful. If you saw what we went through for the 24 pound turkey we are cooking today (brining, stuffing, basting) you would die. And I hate to say it, I think our old fashioned roasted turkey will win hands down.

Happy Eating!

Tilly Draisen's Toffee Treasure Cake

For year's many of my recipes have sat on 5 x 8 index cards. I always remark that if I ever lost these cards I would lose many recipes that are not written down anywhere else. The chances of ever finding them again would be slim and none. By starting this blog, it has given me the opportunity to not only share these recipes but to have them saved to another medium.

The coffee cake I am sharing this morning is one of those recipes that I found years ago either in the newspaper or family magazine. It's called Tilly Draisen's Toffee Treasure Cake. It has become a Thanksgiving tradition. As our family arrives around 11 AM, they are looking for something to snack on before our 1:30 PM serving of turkey and fixin's. This is a great fill in and even though there are Heath bars in it, you'll never taste the chocolate. And by the way, I just enjoyed a piece with a big cup of coffee. I have to make sure it's OK for the guests!

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Combine 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and put aside.

1 cup of white sugar

1/2 cup of butter

2 eggs

1 cup of sour cream

1 teaspoon of vanilla

A pinch of salt

2 cups of flour

1-1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

1 teaspoon of baking soda

3 Heath Bars broken into small pieces (or use 1/2 bag of Heath Bar Bits)

1/4 cup of chopped walnuts

1/4 cup melted butter

Cream butter with sugar, add eggs and vanilla and mix until blended. Add sour cream and mix well. Add dry ingredients and blend to smooth. Lightly grease a 10" tube pan. Start with a tablespoon of cinnamon mixture in the bottom. Spread 1/2 of the cake mixture into the pan, it will be slightly thick. Sprinkle half the cinnamon mixture, 1/2 the Heath Bars and 1/2 the walnuts over the mixture in the pan. Spread the remainder of the cake batter and repeat with the cinnamon, Heath bars and walnuts. Before you place the cake in the oven, pour the melted butter over the cake. Bake for 45-55 minutes or until golden brown and the cake springs back (or passes the clean tooth pick test!). Serving this warm is the best.

 

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

 

I am going to date myself, but does anyone remember Confidential Chat? It was column in the Boston Globe Living section which allowed people (mostly women) to submit and comment on recipes, crafts and household solutions. If you think about it, it could have been called "Twitter without the Technology". Women would write under code names (Mary's Mother, Wonder Woman), hence the "confidential" and they had followings and were considered experts whose advise people admired. My mother was always a fan and cut out many wonderful recipes. I still laugh when I pull out this recipe, which is now a very aged and fragile newspaper clipping.

Today's recipe is from Confidential Chat and it's called Chocolate Zucchini Cake. We make this every year as the zucchini come out of the garden and we make loaves of zucchini bread. This is always the last batch made with the final 3 cups of shredded zucchini. It is very moist and similar to a snack cake, but much better.

1 cup of light brown sugar

1/2 cup of white sugar

1/2 cup of butter

1/2 cup of vegetable oil

3 eggs

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1/2 cup of buttermilk

2-1/2 cups of flour

1/2 teaspoon of allspice

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon of salt

2 teaspoons of baking soda

4 tablespoons of cocoa

3 zucchini (about 6 inches long, approximately 3 cups shredded)

1 cup of mini chocolate chips

Cream sugars, butter and oil together in a large bowl. Add eggs, vanilla and buttermilk and mix well. Measure dry ingredients and sift into bowl. Mix well, then add zucchini. Add the chocolate chips last as you get ready to place into either a cake pan, 9 x 13 in pan or three bread pans. Bake at 325 degrees for 45-50 minutes or until cake is firm and springs back when touched.

Works best as a breakfast staple for chocoholics or as a snack with coffee or tea. Enjoy!

Zuppa di fagiolini e polpettine (Green bean and meatball soup)

Two weeks ago, Ike DeLorenzo of the Boston Globe ran some great soup recipes in their Wednesday FOOD section. One that seemed very interesting was Zuppa di fagiolini e polpettine (Green bean and meatball ‘soup’). As it gets cold, we love to make hearty soups that work as a meal. So with Jeff as chef, we began chopping and mixing and putting together this layered soup. In the end, we had a delicious soup that fed quite a few people...our family (4), my parents, Jeff’s parents and my cohorts at the United Regional Chamber. If you have a large crew to feed or guests for a Sunday football game, grab the largest pot you have and start chopping!
In this unusual method, the potatoes are simmered in the chicken stock, then green beans and meatballs are cooked without stirring, so the meatballs and potatoes stay intact.

2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
3 pounds mixed ground beef, pork, and veal
1 cup seasoned Italian breadcrumbs
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1 bunch parsley, stemmed and finely chopped
2 eggs
3 cans (28 ounces each) Italian peeled tomatoes, crushed with your hands
2-1/2 cups chicken stock
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
4 pounds small red potatoes, skin on, cut into 1-inch pieces
3 pounds green beans, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces

1. In a soup pot, heat the oil and cook the onion, stirring often, for 10 minutes or until it begins to brown.
2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix the beef, pork, and veal with the breadcrumbs, Parmesan, parsley, and eggs. With clean hands, work the mixture well. Shape it into meatballs about 1-inch wide; set aside.
3. To the onions, add the tomatoes and chicken stock. Stir well. Cook over medium heat until the mixture comes to a simmer. Add salt and red pepper. Add the potatoes and simmer for 10 minutes or until tender.
4. Add the green beans in a layer on top of the potatoes. Do not stir. Add the meatballs in a layer on top of the green beans. The layering is important: it keeps the potatoes and meatballs whole, and keeps the meatballs at the top. Do not stir the pot at all until the dish is served. Cover and cook for 15 minutes or until the meatballs are solid and cooked through.
5. With the back of a ladle, gently press the meatballs into the liquid so they’re just submerged. Cover and simmer gently for 1 hour without stirring. Some potatoes may stick to the bottom of the pan - and scorch. If you’re lucky you’ll get one of the charred red potatoes in your dish.