Boozing It Up & Monkeying Around

This reminds me of a freshman kegger. These monkeys crack me up! And it seems somewhat holiday related and appropriate given that its all about booze.



Btw, cookie-palooza went great, but of course I ran out of cookies to give people. I'm running around the house finishing our laundry so we can pack and trying to bake and clean up a bit. The following is a list of the cookies we baked last Friday:



* Pistachio Pudding Cookies (substitute the pistachio pudding for banana pudding in the recipe)
* Almond Cloud Cookies
* Chocolate Salty Sable Cookies
1 1/4 C flour, 1/2 C dutch processed cocoa, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 3/4 C unsalted butter, 2/3 C light brown sugar, 1/4 C regular sugar, 1/2 tsp sea salt (or Kosher salt), 1 tsp vanilla extract, 5 oz. bittersweet chocolate- finely chopped

Sift together flour, cocoa, and baking soda. Beat the butter with the sugars until smooth and cream in a seperate bowl. Add salt and vanilla. Stir in dry ingredients to form a crumbly dough. Add the chocolate and stir just to distribute. Turn the dough onto a clean surface and divide in 1/2. Roll into two logs. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least 1 hour or freeze. Slice pieces off and bake at 325 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

*Molasses Ginger Snaps
¾ C butter
1 C sugar
¼ C light molasses
1 egg
2+ C flour
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger (scant)
(plus extra sugar in which to roll the cookies before baking)

Soften butter. Mix all together. Roll into balls. Roll in sugar.
Bake on cookie sheet at 375 for ~8 min.
(makes 3-4 dozen)

My apologies for the difference in recipe set up above. I had to write the third recipe out and was able to cut and paste the fourth so it looks all goofy :) All four cookies are guaranteed to impress anyone you make them for and turn them into cookie addicts. Use this kind of power with caution my friends, lol :)

Cheers and Happy Holidays! I'll try to post while I'm on vacation but we'll see. I fear my Mom will figure out I have a blog if I try to write on their computer at home, lol. Its the one thing I have private (and yes, there are many layers of irony in that statement!)

Peppermint Marshmallow Madness

M-dog and I got together yesterday night to make peppermint marshmallows to give some folk for Christmas. We followed Alton Brown's (culinary god) recipe shown below with step-by-step photos of our ridiculous selves covered in marshmallow goop.

Ingredients

* 3 packages unflavored gelatin
* 1 cup ice cold water, divided
* 12 ounces granulated sugar, approximately 1 1/2 cups
* 1 cup light corn syrup
* 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
* 1/4 cup cornstarch
* Nonstick spray

Note: We substituted Torani peppermint syrup for the vanilla extract and put like 4-5 Tbsp in instead of just the single tsp.

Place the gelatin into the bowl of a stand mixer along with 1/2 cup of the water. Have the whisk attachment standing by.



In a small saucepan combine the remaining 1/2 cup water, granulated sugar, corn syrup and salt. Place over medium high heat, cover and allow to cook for 3 to 4 minutes.



Uncover, clip a candy thermometer onto the side of the pan and continue to cook until the mixture reaches 240 degrees F, approximately 7 to 8 minutes. Once the mixture reaches this temperature, immediately remove from the heat.



Turn the mixer on low speed and, while running, slowly pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl into the gelatin mixture. Once you have added all of the syrup, increase the speed to high.



Continue to whip until the mixture becomes very thick and is lukewarm, approximately 12 to 15 minutes. Add the vanilla during the last minute of whipping.



While the mixture is whipping prepare the pans as follows: Combine the confectioners' sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl. Lightly spray a 13 by 9-inch metal baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Add the sugar and cornstarch mixture and move around to completely coat the bottom and sides of the pan. Return the remaining mixture to the bowl for later use.



When ready, pour the mixture into the prepared pan, using a lightly oiled spatula for spreading evenly into the pan.







Allow the marshmallows to sit uncovered for at least 4 hours and up to overnight.
Note: After spreading the marshmallow mixture eveningly, we crushed up mini candy canes and sprinkled them on top. Just to be sure they'd stick once everything dried, we pushed the candy canes down into the marshmallow a little.





Tada!





Once things have set, turn the marshmallows out onto a cutting board and cut into 1-inch squares using a pizza wheel dusted with the confectioners' sugar mixture. Once cut, lightly dust all sides of each marshmallow with the remaining mixture, using additional if necessary. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks.

Tomorrow, this tasty version:

For Your Friday Viewing Pleasure

Famous actor Brian Cox teaches a young boy Shakespeare. There aren't words for the level of cuteness.

Just Because

I could wear the shit out of this dress:

My Christmas 2009 List

Christmas 2009 by k8luvsmicrobes featuring American Eagle Outfitters

This is what happens in mid-Dec when your boss takes off early to go write a final exam and there are only like 2 people who showed up to work on your floor. I made a purdy collage of everything on my Christmas list this year and a few extra things that aren't on a list. If you click on the link you can see each of the items and where you can buy them. I know for sure I got like 50% of the stuff b/c I cheated and saw that my Mom purchased some of it on Amazon.com (I didn't see which items though, just that she purchased some). About 7% of the items on there I'll definitely not see this Christmas but I thought it would be fun to see them up there on my happy little virtual gift spooge. That gorgeous little food processor is already in my possession thanks to early delivery and the extreme thoughtfulness of The Boyfriend's lovely, sweet and wonderful parents. And we found out the other night that we're getting The Boyfriend's grandma's old kitchen aid stand mixer! Free kitchen aid stand mixer = F'ing awesome!!!

The jury is still out on what to get Gran, but other than that all gifts are purchased and slowly arriving at their destinations. This year's holiday travel plans have been pleasantly organized and its making me really excited to see everyone over the Christmas break. The only downer is that my brother isn't going to make it home this year. He lives in Charlotte, NC and works for a big corp. steakhouse. His district manager was just replaced with a douche-bag who told my bro he couldn't have 2 days off (27th and 28th) to come up to VA to be with us. Karma is so going to bite that dude in the ass. Its not like they're running an ER, its a freaking steakhouse and they can have someone else fill in as kitchen manager those two off days for crying out loud. I'm hoping something will change at the last minute, but if it doesn't the family might just pile into the car for a 5 hr drive to spend a few hours with my brother- a nomadic Christmas, lol :) It just sucks b/c my brother and I used to be super close and now I see him for about 24-36 hrs once a year over Christmas. Boo!

Christmas cards are also out and baking starts next week with my homie M-dog. Tuesday we're making homemade peppermint flavored marshmallows topped with crunched up candy cane bits and homemade instant hot cocoa. I'm really excited about this one. On Thursday M-dog and a couple other close buddies are coming over for in immense cookie baking night! On the list this year (instead of homemade truffles b/c they're a pain in the ass and were under appreciated) are chocolate salty sable cookies, pistachio pudding cookies, moose-shaped shortbread cookies, molasses cookies, and almond cloud cookies. I love cooking, especially when it involves my besties and a bunch of cookies. I'll post pics and recipes next week :) Yay for Christmas!

Movie Trailer

Two words: killer santa. Awesome! The Scandinavians are so freaking cool!

Christmas Shopping

I just Googled "gift ideas for grandmas" and the options they listed sucked. Why do websites assume your Gran wants lame-ass framed photos of you or some cheeky family collage books? Grandmas love their grandchildren, but that doesn't mean they want a million photos of those kids all over their house. Just because you get older doesn't mean folk don't still have interests and hobbies. Wrinkles do not equal boring and senile. I'm coming up with a pretty decent list for The Boyfriend's Grandma without the help of Google. I'll keep you posted after we've ruled a few things out...