Maple Pecan Shortbread Cookies

One thing I learned from my UK adventure last spring was that I love shortbread. I also get such a joy cooking and baking with home-grown ingredients, so when I saw this recipe for a shortbread cookie, and I had a bunch of pecans sitting at home, I knew I had to make them.


(me eating an elephant shaped shortbread cookie in Scotland)

What you'll need:

2 and 3/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup pecans (toasted and finely chopped)
1 cup unsalted butter (@room temp)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 large egg yolk and 1 large egg white (lightly beaten)
1/2 cup pecan halves
1/4 cup raw turbinado sugar

First, mix the flour, salt, and chopped pecans. Cream the butter and sugar in a separate bowl until light and fluffy.
Beat in maple syrup followed by the egg yolk. Mix in flour until a dough forms.
Form dough into 1 and 1/2 inch thick log, wrap in plastic and let chill 2 hours to overnight. (I left mine in the fridge for a couple days.)
Slice log into 1/4 inch thick slices. Place on baking sheet, brush with egg white and top with pecan halves and raw sugar.
Bake at 350 degrees until lightly golden brown on edges: about 10-12 minutes, turning baking sheet around half way through.

the day after christmas

This morning I had the luxury of sleeping in until 8am for the second day in a row. I love mornings and I love breakfast.

Yesterday I made strawberry-banana pancakes and scrambled eggs (fresh yard eggs from my co-worker's chickens!)
This morning I quickly fixed a breakfast sandwich: toasted wheat bread, 2 scrambled eggs, a slice of cheddar cheese, and a slice of turkey heated on the skillet.

And then I had second breakfast.

...A bowl of cheerios with sliced strawberries. Just letting y'all know second breakfast actually exists in my life. Now I'm heading back to the kitchen to whip up some maple-pecan shortbread cookie dough.

Improvised Black Bean Soup

Last year I moved into my apartment right before January 2010. Since I was moving into my first New Orleans apartment, and because it was close to New Year's, the first thing I cooked in my kitchen was a black eyed pea soup for good luck. Today I basically switched out the black eyed peas and replaced them with black beans to get this black bean soup. It still came out darn delicious.


Here's what you need:

olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 carrots, chopped
3 celery ribs, diced
1 large green bell pepper, diced
3 cans of black beans, rinsed
32 oz or so of vegetable broth (I used less, just finishing off an open container I had in the fridge)
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon basil
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
salt as needed



In a large sauce pan, over medium heat, cook onions, garlic, carrots, celery, and bell pepper in a little bit of olive oil. Saute about 10 minutes, or until tender. Stir in black beans, broth, tomatoes, and spices. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes.



This makes a pretty huge batch of soup, so be prepared to share or eat it all week.

Persimmon Bread (Muffins)

Every winter I somehow end up with a huge box full of locally grown persimmons. What the heck is a Persimmon, anyway? I am not really sure...Some sort of a fruit, obviously. I am also not really sure what they taste like. Every time I bake something just to get these things out of my house, the end product does not really taste like a 'persimmon'. And when I taste the fruit in its raw form, it has an awful bitter taste. According to wikipedia, the bad taste is due to the tannin, which doesn't go away until the fruit is all the way ripened. Oops.
Regardless, these muffins came out pretty awesome. Especially when they are fresh out of the oven.


Here's what you need:

2 cups white sugar
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup oats
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups ripe persimmon pulp
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs


To get the persimmon pulp, I simply cut up the ripest 2 persimmons from my box and then tossed the pieces into my food processor.
In a large bowl, stir together the sugar, flours, oats, salt, spices, and baking soda until well mixed. Set aside. In another bowl, stir the persimmon pulp with the applesauce, vegetable oil, and eggs until well blended. Combine wet and dry ingredients. Divide batter into two greased 9x5 loaf pans, or into 24 muffin tins.
Bake at 350 degrees until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (About an hour for the loaf pans, and considerably less time if using muffin pan.)



Each muffin is approximately 206 calories with 2.7g of protein.

trying to catch my breath.

Man.
Maintaining a food blog is much harder than it looks.
This is way more time consuming than I really first considered. But that doesn't mean I haven't been working! I have so many backlogged entries: Drafts I've started and saved, but haven't gotten around to finishing yet. Even more than that, I have so many pictures of the various meals and treats I've made over the past couple months that are missing their written counterpart. Restaurants I've eaten at, but haven't had time to type the review.

Yesterday I made persimmon bread. Last week I made cookie cutter xmas sugar cookies. And weeks ago I made my first chicken salad. All of these I hope to have entries for.

Another part of the problem, aside from lack of "time" is that I just can't seem to make enough. There is always something else I want to make. Like this lentil soup, or this stew, or another oatmeal cookie recipe.

Case in point...I have every intention of pumping out these backlogged entries during my holiday break. Have patience with me and come back and check 'em out!

Satsuma Café

I had heard good things about Satsuma from different sources for awhile. Cory and I often go to breakfast on Sundays, so this Sunday we finally decided to check out Satsuma Café.
Walking up to the place, I already liked the looks of it. It also didn't hurt that the weather was absolutely beautiful for a morning in December.

For a starter we split a raspberry lemon muffin and we each got a glass of their famous satsuma limeade.

The muffin had a fabulous flavor. I've ordered muffins before and later found myself wondering why I had wasted my money because I could have made something better. I won't name any names, but a place I frequent often has the chintziest blueberry muffins I've ever had with a total of probably two blueberries in the entire thing. This muffin, however, was good.

And the satsuma limeade had me wanting a fancy juicer of my own. Incredibly tasty and refreshing.
For our main courses, we got slices of quiche.
My quiche had goat cheese, basil and arugula pesto. I recently discovered that I love quiche, so knowing Satsuma is a place I can find it is a good thing. (Of course I would love to make my own, also.) The quiches were not quite ready when we ordered them, but we said we'd wait the 10 minutes anyway. This may or may not have rushed them in their cooling process, but I still loved mine.



Cory's quiche consisted of ham, cheddar, and cherry tomatoes. His was a little more runny than mine and he complained of it being really garlic-y. I tasted it and enjoyed it, but still liked mine more.


All in all, this place gets an A in my book. I need to get back there and try something else soon.

Satsuma Café
3218 Dauphine St
New Orleans, LA 70117
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