Cut-Out Sugar Cookies

 

 

Sugar Cookies

 

I've experimented with a dozen different ways to make the perfect sugar cookie with the right balance of a good crunch with a (lightly) sweet and full buttery flavor.  This is our favorite recipe and the one I've made for years now. We prefer them just sprinkled with sugar, but these are fun frosted with royal icing. I have a great selection of cookie cutters and we make these for every occasion.

1 C butter
1/2 C shortening (no substitutes as shortening aids in the crunch factor!)
2 C sugar
2 eggs
2 t vanilla
4 C flour
1 t baking powder
1 t salt

Beat the first 3 ingredients until light and fluffy, add eggs and vanilla. Mix in dry ingredients. Form a flattened disk and cover with plastic wrap and chill 1 or more hours. Roll out 1/8" thick and cut with cookie cutters. Lightly sprinkle with sugar before baking unless you are going to ice them after baking. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 375 degrees F until edges are lightly browned. Transfer to rack to cool. Makes approximately 5 dozen. This recipe can be halved.

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Swiss Chard Chips

Swiss Chard Chips

Move over kale chips, there's a new chip in town!

Preheat oven to 350.  Wash and pat dry chard leaves.  Cut out rib with a v-cut.  Break into large chip size pieces, they shrink.  Place on non-insulated baking sheet covered with parchment paper.  Using a Misto type sprayer, spray lightly with olive oil.  Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper.  Bake in oven and start checking after 6 minutes but may take as long as 10 minutes.  They will darken, shrink and curl slightly.  I also used the microwave chip maker and prepared the chard the same way except they took just minutes to cook.  They were very similar in taste but retained more green color.

So happy I've found a new snack, they are scrumptious!  Next time I have people over for drinks I'm serving these!

Microwave chip maker at left, and on the right the tray is ready for the oven.

Knitionary

Ollalie Sorbet and Ollalie recipes

Every year in June we take a drive to berry country in Santa Cruz County to pick ollalieberries at Gizdich Ranch in Watsonville, CA.  Ollalies are a cross between a loganberry and a youngberry and are very similar to a blackberry but with a tendency to be larger and less seedy, plus they are my husband's favorite berry.   The drive takes less than an hour and has been a tradition for at least 30 years and we always make a fun day of it.  After we picked our fill, 28 pounds worth, we headed to a farm stand for a bag of the artichokes that also grow in the area, then made our way to Capitola Beach for a late lunch at a waterside cafe before heading home.  The day was  perfectly gorgeous!

When we get home the berries go right into the refrigerator and we deal with them the next day, too tired!  However, we did make an easy sorbet last night.  It is as beautiful as any jewel and tastes like nothing else under the stars!

This morning we work up early and made 22 jars of jam, some half pints and some full pint jars.  So many, but they will be gone in a year!  My son loves this jam and he will take home a jar each time he visits.   Throughout the year I'll make some jam tarts and use jam for a few other recipes, but mostly it will be on toast.  I'll give away a few jars as gifts and by next year, we'll be out and ready to do it all over again.

We save some berries for fresh eating and for giving away.  They only last a few days even under refrigeration.  The rest of the berries go into the freezer for smoothies and pies, I make one every Father's Day so that will be in a few days.   The Ollalieberry special below is heaven!  Here are the links!

Gizdich Ranch for directions and picking schedule

Watsonville, California

Ollalieberry

Capitola Beach

Ollalie Jam

 Ollalieberry Special 

Most gorgeous color, don't you think?

Ollalie Sorbet

In saucepan, heat to boiling 1 cup sugar and 1 1/2 cups water.  Boil one minute.

Put 4 cups washed fresh ollalieberries in blender.  Add hot sugar and water mixture, 

plus the juice of 1 small lemon and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.  Puree in food processor.

Strain through a fine strainer and discard pulp and seeds.  Refrigerate for 3 or more hours.

Process cold liquid in an ice cream maker until frozen.  

Makes one pint and lasts a few days in the freezer.

It is so good!

Summer Dills

From this to this in no time at all.

I use this fabulous recipe throughout the summer for 

crispy, tasty dill pickled cucumbers and green beans.
The crunchiest, most delicious dill pickles are easy to make too!

Knitionary

Curried Golden Beet Soup with Carrots and Orange

Curried Golden Beet Soup with Carrots and Orange

3 lbs. golden beets, roasted, cooled and peeled

1 lg. yellow onion, diced and slowly sauteed in 1 T. olive oil and 1 T. butter

4 cups diced carrots simmered in 4 cups chicken stock until soft

3 cups fresh orange juice

1 small minced and seeded Anaheim pepper

2 T. curry powder

Whirl it all in the blender, add salt and pepper to taste.  I then put it through my chinois strainer but don't think that is necessary.  Thin with more chicken stock if desired.  It made a lot, 12 cups.  After lunch we put the rest in the freezer, something nice to have on hand for our next dinner party.  It tasted like late summer.  Perfect!

The carrots are a colorful mix of Cosmic Purple and Carnival Blend.  The purple and red carrots are orange inside, and the white carrots are white all the way through.   In this post I share all the flower and vegetable varieties we grew this year. 

The sage green and pewter rimmed soup bowl is the discontinued Portofino from Arte Italica,.

 

Knitionary

Roasted Tomato Carrot Soup

Tomato Carrot Soup

We enjoy soups year 'round and this one is a summer staple
when the carrots and tomatoes are plentiful.

Fill a large roasting pan with halved fresh tomatoes, the equivalent of 1 1/2 dozen medium tomatoes.  Do not peel or seed, but do remove the stems and any blemishes.  Add a medium bunch of carrots, scrubbed well.  Slice one whole garlic bulb in half and toss in the pan.  Add one quartered onion, (I didn't have an onion so I used pencil leeks in this batch).  In between the tomatoes, poke in fresh herbs such as basil, oregano, rosemary, about 1/2 to 1 cup fresh herbs total.  If you don't have fresh, use a teaspoon of dried herbs.  Pour 1/4 to 1/2 cup olive oil over the tomatoes, sprinkle well with salt and pepper and 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes.  Cover pan loosely with foil and roast in hot oven, 400 F. for 1 1/2 hours.  Let cool.  In batches whirl in food processor.  Put the pureed mixture into a chinois strainer and strain, discard the skins and seeds.  You will have approximately 8 cups.  Taste for seasoning, add salt and pepper if necessary.  Thin with hot cream, hot milk or broth if necessary.  Adding the dairy hot will prevent it from curdling in the acid of the tomato.  Add 1/2 cup sherry if you like.  Add 2 cups cooked wild rice and serve hot with grated parmesan cheese, slivered fresh basil or a dollop of pesto if you have it.  Best summer soup!

It looks like this before roasting.  I have a mix of white, orange and purple carrots this year.

And looks like this when it's done.

This is my grandmother's chinois strainer from the 30s.

I couldn't cook without it, I swear.

You can find one here.  Make sure you get one with the standing base. 

Knitionary

California Style Potato Salad

Mom's California Style Potato Salad

Growing up in southern California, my parents threw countless pool parties, and I doubt there was one without mother's potato salad.  Until I got older I never knew there was any other kind.  Now that I know better I love French potato salad with green beans and love a warm German potato salad.  But when I make it,  I always go back to what I ate back on Haskell Ave. and it's still the best.  Fresh dill is the key here.

Lunch, California style.

3 or 4 lbs white rose potatoes

5 ribs celery, chopped

1/2 cup green olives stuffed with pimiento, chopped

1 bunch green onions, sliced fine

4 eggs, chopped

4 dill pickle spears, chopped

2 or more tablespoons fresh dill

2 tablespoons olive or pickle juice

1 tablespoon Dijon style mustard

1 scant cup prepared mayonnaise 

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

Simmer potatoes in just boiling water until fork tender.  Cool, then slip off skins and remove any eyes.  Cut into large chunks.  This amount of potato salad needs about a cup of sauce.  To a measuring cup, add olive and/or pickle juice, mustard and salt and pepper.  Add mayonnaise to make one cup sauce.  Whisk together and add to potatoes, along with the chopped ingredients.  Mix well adding more salt and pepper to taste if needed.  Refrigerate and serve cold.  Makes 2 quarts.

The gadget above is called the Vidalia Chop Wizard and I love it.

I imagine I use it almost every day now.

 We like the veggies cut fine, and the potatoes in rather large chunks.

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