Meltaways

My favorite treat to make and eat during the Holidays.  And thank goodness I "dieted" for a few weeks after Thanksgiving, not that you would notice since I took off the 10 pounds gained at Thanksgiving to allow my self the indulgence of Holiday parties since Friday.  Usually at this time of year I call Katie, who calls her mother in law Joan, who I get this recipe from and lose within the year (I am sure it's on a cute recipe card in my cupboard somewhere).  This year I found it in my new "Favorite" cookbook, the sequel to "Favorites", called "Keeping Up Cookbook", fantastic and highly recommended.  I whipped up a batch for a fun cookie party CL held for the neighborhood ladies last night.  All I could find was yellow, blue, or green frosting...I picked blue.  I was lucky enough to break a few, so quickly had to sample their truly melt in your mouth goodness.  We are having the leftovers for breakfast.  Enjoy!

Meltaways

1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 cup flour

Cream together ingredients until smooth and uniform (a few minutes in the Kitchen Aid).  Drop by round, teaspoon sized balls onto greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. 

Cream Cheese Frosting:
3 ounces (how funny I used 8 oz.! oh well!)
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 drops food coloring

Beat together until fluffy.  Generously frost cooled cookies.

Simple Southern Pulled Pork Sandwiches & Right Brain Slicing Onions

3 to 4 pounds pork roast
2 onions, chopped
18 oz. Stubb's Honey & Pecan BBQ Sauce
1/3 cup honey

12 Sandwich Buns

Place pork in crock pot and cover with onions, barbeque sauce and honey.  Cover and cook on low heat for 6 to 8 hours.  Shred meat and mix into sauce.  Serve warm.

This was H's choice of dinner this week.  We purchased the pork roast at Costco on Monday, froze half and started cooking today.  O2 took at day off school, and we purchased the rolls today.  I would love to do a onion chopping blog post, but I need the camera, which at the moment is ?  I will say, wearing contacts totally helps with the onion weeping, or else I have odd eyeballs that simply do not tear.  For the right brain people I will explain a fantastic way to dice onions.

First, using your best chef's knife (8-10") and a cutting board, slice off stem end (the flowering side) to peel (leaving root end in tact, something to hold onto).  Second, slice onion in half, halving the root bulb bit.  Third, lying the half onion flat on cutting surface, slice from blunt stem end to root end horizontally.  Fourth, make slices from root end to blunt stem end on the top vertically.  Finally, cutting parallel to the blunt end and the root chop the onion into beautiful little squares.  Repeat for second half.

This work for garlic too.

How's that for a 4th grad type "How to" assignment?

White Bean & Sausage Soup

The last few months I have really been trying to utilize other recipes, but be more creative with recipes to really make them mine.  I tried this last night with white bean and sausage soup and it turned out really filling, not too spicy, but most importantly, it was yummy.

1 bag of small white beans (soak according to directions, drain)
4 small cans of chicken stock (about 8 cups)
Bay leaf
1 cup of dry barley
1 lb. ground pork sausage
onion, chopped
olive oil
1/4 cup chopped Italian flat-leafed parsley (always flat-leafed parsley)
salt
pepper
Spice salt-free fine herbes blend - or your favorite spice, rosemary would be divine.
Parmigiano reggiano - best bought at Costco, lasts for months, goes great with so many dishes!  Only buy when imprinted as show to the right, otherwise it's a fakey.

Add 3 cans (or 6 cups) of chicken stock and the bay leaf to soaked and drained white beans.  Simmer for 1 1/2 hours, adding dry barley half way through (to cook barley for 45 minutes).  In saucepan, heat a Tablespoon of olive oil, saute onion to soften, about 5 minutes.  Add to white beans.  In same pan, add sausage, salt and pepper to your taste, stir frequently, until cooked thoroughly, about 10 minutes.  Add to soup mixture.  Add herbs (of your choice), about a teaspoon.  Simmer or maintain heat on low until ready to serve.  Remove the bay leaf and add parsley the last few minutes.  Serve at the table with micro-plane grater and wedge of parmigiano reggiano per diner taste.

Add homemade cornbread (Andy made ours from scratch, what a man!), some butter and honey, et voila, dinner is ready.

Mi Madre

Every year for Christmas my darling Mother asks for one thing, every year. It costs less than $10 but obtainable for less than $2. Wooden Spoons. Every year. I have learned that her need to replace wooden spoons so often is not from whacking our backsides (honestly never happened), but from repeated use and most specifically, dishwasher washing of the spoons. In my kitchen, I have two large ceramic cylinders that dutifully sit next to my stove an above our spice cabinet, full of wooden spoons & other utensils, but mostly wooden spoons. Like my mother, I have never used them or actually until now even thought of using them on a child's backside, just to make it clear, that if you are scarred from childhood on account of wooden spoons, I am sorry, but that is not even slightly my intent of the address and subtitle 'Wooden Spoon'. I am certainly more scarred each and every time I try to cook at my sister Kate's house and she has no wooden spoons. To be fair I think she has two beechwoods and a burned plastic spoon from 1990. And she cooks and bakes way more than me. Bottom line, whether you get beautiful olive wood, bamboo, or beechwood, full, flat, or slotted; wooden spoons are essential. The more the merrier. And don't be too frugal because you will certainly use, abuse by way of dishwasher, and eventually wear out all of them. Most memorably, I have this affinity for wooden spoons inherited from Mi Madre, also her Thanksgiving rolls, lasagna, chicken noodle soup, more recipes and tips, and lots of evenings at restaurants, since every cook deserves a night off. As I journey through this "all things kitchen and cooking" blog, wooden spoons are my impetus and the first thing I thought of that got me going on this silly blog.