Comfort Food

It seemed only fitting that I make my Sister's Black Bean and Sausage soup as the comfort food I craved and needed after she left. They have only been gone a day, but we miss them terribly. J & J2 just did not want to understand why the rest of the cousins weren't joining us today. It will surely take some time to get things back to normal around here. Until then, a little comfort food. A lot of chocolate. And many trips to Starbucks will possibly keep us going.

Black Bean and Sausage Soup
Serves 4 to 6

1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large carrot, peeled or scrubbed and chopped
1 stalk of celery, sliced
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp of dried oregano
1 medium potato, peeled, diced
2 cups beef or chicken broth
1 28oz tin diced tomatoes, with juice
4 to 6 oz of kielbasa, cubed
1 19oz tin black beans, or your favorite canned beans

1. Heat oil in large dutch oven (in other words large heavy pot). Add onion, carrot and celery; cook and stir over medium heat until vegetables begin to soften.

2. Stir in garlic, oregano, potato, broth and tomoatoes; heat to boiling. Stir in keilbasa. Cover and simmer gently for at least 1/2 to blend flavours.

3. Drain and rinse beans. Add to soup. Heat until hot. Add salt and pepper to tast. Serve with crusty bread.

Enjoy!
It's even better the next day!

1000 Cookies in three days

When it came time to fill the boxes with cookies for Hubby, it became apparent that ten cookies per box, just wasn't going to cut it. I had a new plan in place in fifteen minutes. I would feverishly bake another four hundred cookies, while Hubby went to the store to pick up chocolates and candy canes to fill the top of the box. The recipe I used is ccalled Merry Cookies. The photo above is just one way to do them. They are a basic sugar cookie that can be rolled, coloured, added to and frozen. All this is good because it means that you can whip them up pretty quick and they can look and taste very different with little effort. The garnishes used for the batches I made were food colouring (as in above photo), candied cherries (red ones and green ones chopped finely), sprinkles, drageés, and christmas sprinkles. You make the dough, split it in half and roll it between waxed or parchment paper. The cherries or food colouring you would add in before rolling the rest of it gets rolled around the outside of the cookie.

Merry Cookies (Holiday Baking 1996)

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

2 2/3 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1. beat butter and sugar until fluffy.

2. add egg and vanilla, beat.

3. in a separate bowl mix flour, baking powder and salt, add in two stages and beat until combined.

4. roll cookies in waxed paper, chill in refrigerator (or freezer) until firm enough to slice.

5. place slices cookies on cookie sheet.

6. bake at 350 for 8 - 12 minutes. (Watch this carefully, as ovens differ it may only take 5 or 6 minutes or it may take 12. If you use silpat on your cookie sheet it usually takes 12, non-silpat is half the time. Cookies should not be browning at all.

Enjoy the Merry Cookies. Thankfully the recipients today enjoyed the cookies or at least they appreciated them enough to not tell Hubby the truth ;).

Easy Chocolate Fudge

Sorry for my absence, but Christmas and visiting is getting in the way. Littlest Sister arrived on Saturday from Charlotte so we have been playing catch up ever since. Older Sister arrives tonight with the family so the next few days will be filled with kids, kids and more kids. I can't wait, that's for sure. That and making a gazillion cookies for Hubby to take to work. Why oh why do I raise my hand?

Here is another easy recipe. It truly takes 15 minutes to make, then refrigerator time.

Easy Chocolate Fudge

1lb2oz Semi-sweet Chocolate (cut into pieces)

1/3 cup of butter

14oz can of sweetened condensed milk

1/2 tsp of vanilla

In a large saucepan on medium-low heat heat chocolate, butter and milk. Stir continuously and do not let it come to a boil. When everything is mixed beat in vanilla, continue to beat until thick (mine is thick to begin with so I just beat it for a minute or two). Pour into a greased 8x8 sqare pan. Chill in refrigerator until firm. Turn out of pan, cut into cubes.

**To make this one a little more festive, replace vanilla with peppermint extract and sprinkle crushed candy canes on top.

Enjoy

Rumprints

An anonymous commentor asked for a cookie recipe and always one up for a challenge, here you go. I don't have a photo for this one, but it has been a favourite since I was a little girl, probobly because of the rum. I will post a photo when I make some this weekend.

2/3c. Margarine
1/3c. Sugar
1 Egg
1tsp Vanilla
1/4tsp Salt
1 3/4c. Flour
1/2tsp Nutmeg
1c. Powdered sugar
1tbsp Rum (or milk & 1/4 tsp rum extract)
Ground Nutmeg

-Beat margarine until soft. Add sugar and beat till fluffy. Add egg, vanilla, salt beat well. Add four and 1/2 tsp nutmeg. Beat until well mixed. Cover and chill 1 hour.
-Shape into balls. Place 2" apart on baking sheet. Press down centres with thumb. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes.
-In a small bowl mix 1/4c. margarine and powdered sugar beat until fluffy. Add rum, beat well.
-Pipe 1/2tsp. per cooke. Sprinkle with nutmeg. I like to top it with a silver ball for fun.