REINDEER COOKIES

These cookies are from Eren.  Christmas time is her favorite time of the year and she is always looking to do special things.  This is the first set of cookies this year after her night of tree decorations.  We'll have to wait and see what else she will make this year.

3/4 cup peanut butter

1 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup shortening

3 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 egg

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

Chocolate-covered mini pretzels

Mini brown M&Ms

Regular-sized red M&Ms

Makes about 40 reindeer cookies

• Preheat oven to 375°F
• Combine brown sugar, peanut butter, shortening, milk, and vanilla in large bowl. Beat at medium speed until well blended. Add egg; beat until just blended.
• In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to creamed mixture at low speed. Mix just until blended.
• Form dough into 1-inch balls. To make reindeer-shaped cookies, pinch the bottom of the ball slightly to form a point, then gently flatten with your hand. Space cookies about 2 inches apart on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 7 to 8 minutes, until set or just beginning to brown.
• Remove from oven and immediately (and gently) press two mini pretzels into the tops of the cookies for the reindeer's antlers. Press two mini brown M&Ms in for the eyes and one red M&M for the nose (or any other color... some of mine ended up with green noses. They might be South Pole reindeer.).
• Allow to cool 2 minutes on the baking sheet and then transfer to a wire rack or paper towel to cool completely.

SNICKERDOODLE COOKIES

These cookies are Serah's specialty cookies because they were the very first cookies she made on her own years ago.  They are delicious.  She made them with chocolate chips.  They are also very good without them or with other things like blueberries. 

3 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1/2 cup shortening

2 eggs

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Makes 30 cookies

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• In a small bowl, combine 3 tablespoons sugar and 1 tablespoon of cinnamon. Set aside.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, mix the 1 1/2 cups sugar, butter, shortening, and eggs. Stir in the dry ingredients. Fold in the chocolate chips.
• Make small balls (size of a large walnut). Roll balls in the sugar/cinnamon mixture. Place 2 inches apart on non-stick cookie sheets.
• Bake 8-10 minutes or until set. Immediately remove from sheets and cool completely on a wire rack

Note: You can substitute cream of tartar and baking soda with 2 teaspoon of baking powder.  It will make softer cookies

EGGS IN BUNS

Breakfast isn't just good for breakfast, sometimes it is a good change for dinner too.  Especially around Christmas time when there is so much goodies during the day and so much to do after work that you need an easy to make dinner.  Here is an idea, eggs in buns.  Quick to make and cooked to my liking (white is perfectly cooked but yolk is runny)

Buns (I use whole wheat)

Eggs

Cheese (any kind will do.  Mozerella is always good)

Eggs

Salt and pepper

• Preheat oven to 350
• Make a "hole" big enough for a slice of cheese and an egg in the bun
• Line a pan with cooking paper
• Put a thin slice of cheese and place it in the bottom of the "hole"
• Break open an agg on top of the cheese
• Cook in the oven until the white is fully cooked (approx. 20 minutes)

SALMON WITH CARAMALIZED LEEK

Fish is not a popular meal in my family.  It is really good for you so I force everyone to have it once every couple of weeks.  The only fish they are even willing to eat is Salmon but they are now sick of the same old recipes.  I saw this one on my friend's blog: http://www.arnavutcigeri.blogspot.ca/

I made some minor changes because I had more fish than her instructions.  It was delicious!!! I would highly recommend it.  We truly enjoyed it.  This recipe is a keeper for sure.   I am publishing with my changes.

To Caramelize the Leek:

3 large Leeks (a bunch)
3 tablespoons of cooking oil
1.5 tablespoons butter
1 or 2 tablespoons light brown sugar

1 teaspoon sea salt

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1 big piece of Salmon (I cut it into 8 serving pieces

Salt, black pepper and red pepper on the salmon (don't omit the paprika.  It gives it a nice red colour)

• Wash and clean the leek.  Remove outside skins.  Cut them lengthwise (approx 5-6 cm length). 
• Put water in a large container.  Add a teaspoon salt and a teaspoon white vinegar.
• Add Leek and more water into the container to cover the Leek. 
• Vinegar will get rid of the bacteria and salt will remove dirt
• Set aside for 15 minutes
• When ready, rise with cold water and drain
• In a large pan add oil and butter.  Add Leak and cook in medium heat until soft
• Add salt and brown sugar and cook until some of the Leek turns brown.  Cover and set aside
• Sprinkle Salmon with salt, black pepper and paprika. 
• Preheat oven to 400 and cook Salmon for 40 to 45 minutes (or to your liking)
• Add a couple of tablespoons of the Leek on each piece of Salmon and leave in the oven for 5 minutes until the Leek heats up.  I skipped this step and heated the Leek and put on the fish as I served as some people like it on the side.

KALE SALAD WITH ALMONDS

This is my first introduction to Kale.  Needless to say, I am just learning how healthy it is for you.  It not only has vitamins K, C, A but it also has calcium, magnesium, and more.  I chose this simple recipe for my introduction and fell in love with it.  I guarantee a Kale salad will be my lunch at least for the next couple of weeks for sure.  Why for 2 weeks you ask.. because I plan to lose a couple of pounds just before Christmas so I can eat all the goodies and gain it all back before new years.  I will then go back on my diet to lose some more :-)  Joking aside, it will give me the opportunity to try other interesting salad recipes.

2 cups washed, dried Kale

1 or 2 hard boiled egg

1 medium sized carrot, graded

1/3 cup graded Parmesan

1/3 cup almonds

Sauce:

3-4 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

Sea salt

• Wash and dry the Kale
• Cut out the hard roots in the middle and thinly chop the leaves
• Hard boil the egg and cut up lengthwise into 6 pieces for each
• Mix together Kale, 2/3 of graded carrot, graded Parmesan and almonds
• Top with remaining graded carrots, graded Parmesan cheese, almonds and sliced eggs
• Prepare sauce by mixing all the ingredients and making sure the salt is melted
• Add the dressing just before you serve the salad
• Don't forget to praise yourself for making such a healthy salad and Enjoy!

Here is a picture of Kale:

RED VELVET CHEESECAKE COOKIES and STRAWBERRY SANTAS

We are not even in December yet but we are already in Christmas mood.  Last weekend, we put up our tree.  My daugher had to make cookies to share with her friends.  Our pick was Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies.  They are simply delicious.  We saved some of the cream cheese and sugar mix and made a side order of strawberry santas too.  We think our santas turned out a little "creepy" looking :-) but they were delicious just the same.

For the cake dough:

1 box red velvet cake mix

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 large eggs

1/2 cup cooking oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the cheesecake filling:
4 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the white chocolate drizzle:

1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips, melted

Makes 10 giant cookies. 

You can make smaller cookies but we found smaller the cookies, the more difficult it is to wrap the dough around the cheese.

• For the cake dough: Combine cake mix and flour and set aside.  Mix eggs, cooking oil and vanilla extract.  Slowly add the flour mix until smooth.  Wrap the dough in plastic wrap. The dough will be oily. Refrigerate for at least two hours.
• Prepare the cheesecake filling, using a mixer.  Combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth. If you are making 10 giant cookies, divide the cream cheese filling into 10 "balls" using a teaspoon or a scoop. place on a wax paper covered plate.  Place plate in the freezer and freeze for at least two hours.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Line a large baking sheet with baking paper
• To assemble the cookies, divide the cake dough into 10 equal amounts.  Flatten each dough in your hands. Place a piece of the cheesecake filling in the center and wrap the cookie dough around the filling. Gently roll into a ball and place on prepared baking sheet.  Repeat until all the dough is finished.
• Make sure you place only 3 cookies on the pan as they spread quite a bit during cooking.
• Bake for 11-13 minutes or until the cookies begin to crackle. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Remove from baking sheet to a wire cooling rack and cool completely.
• Melt the white chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl or over a double-boiler. Drizzle the white chocolate over the cooled cookies. Let the cookies set until the chocolate hardens.

Note: We saved a bit of the cheesecake filling to make strawberry santas.  I won't explain them because it is very easy to figure out from the picture.  For the eyes we used chocolate chips

PYRAMID CAKE WITH RICCOTA CHEESE

This is a very popular recipe in Turkey because it is easy to make and so very delicious.  No cooking is required.  Good for special occations.  The trick: it needs to be made ahead and stay in the freezer over night.  Banana is the most popular fruit for the middle but I also like strawberries or kiwi too.

1 egg
1/2 kg (500 gr) Riccota cheese

Social tea buscuits
1 cup icing sugar
1 package vanilla
2 medium size bananas
3 tablespoons unsalted butter (melted and then cooled)
1.5 cups cold milk
Chocolate syrup (I used Nestle's chocolate syrup for sundeas)

• For the cream mix together eggs, cheese
• Add icing sugar, butter and vanilla and continue to mix until smooth
• Take a big piece of aliminum foil (size of the cake you want to make) and spread on a smooth surface
• Line the aliminum foil with Saran wrap
• Put 1/3 of the cream on the wrap
• Dip biscuits in cold milk and remove from milk quickly and put them on the cream
• Repeat layers with cream and cookies
• Put bananas in the middle
• With the help of the Saran wrap fold into a triangle
• Cover with aliminum foil
• Leave in the freezer over night
• Take out of the freezer 1 hour before serving
• Cover with chocolate syrup and decorate as you wish
• Maybe at Christmas, write merry christmas on the side with red and green icing