Fortune Cookies

I’m still in the recovery stage from last month’s holiday when another is in the offing.  No, I’m not talking St. Valentine’s Day -- I haven’t even begun to think about that -- I’m talking Chinese New Year.  Don’t celebrate?  Well, honestly, neither do I, but I’m all for any excuse to eat Chinese food, even when it’s more American than Chinese.

I’m talking about the dessert aspect of the meal, specifically the fortune cookie.  I turned to Martha Stewart for this recipe featured in Martha Stewart's Cookies: The Very Best Treats to Bake and to Share (Martha Stewart Living Magazine).

If you have this book (and if you don’t, buy it!), a word of warning about the recipe -- the taste was wonderful (even though I used light instead of heavy cream), and the batter is very easy to work with, BUT the directions were not good at all.

Martha suggests folding the cookie in half, pinching it closed, and then putting your two index fingers into either end and sliding your thumbs toward the middle. What?!  No! That is a lot of work for nothing, and time is of the essence here, you only have 10 seconds before the cookie hardens. The best way to make a fortune cookie is to indeed fold it in half, but then just bend it over a glass. You can see how beautifully mine came out in doing so.

Also, she suggested greasing a cookie sheet. Again, no. Use a Silpat Non-Stick Silicone Baking Liner, 11.75-Inch by 8.25-Inch, it is much easier to get the cookie off of it than a greased sheet. I tried the greased sheet, parchment paper, and a Silpat, and the later worked the best, the parchment second best, and the greased sheet not well at all.

She also doesn't mention something that will definitely determine a pretty cookie and that is that when you take the cookie off of the sheet and put it onto your clean kitchen towel, flip it over. With her instructions, the rough bottom of the cookie becomes the exterior; with my suggestion the smooth side becomes the exterior.

The cooking time is also wrong. Her suggestion of 8 minutes (turning the pan at four) yields a dark, overdone cookie.  I found that 6 minutes worked out perfectly. You need to test this with your own oven, but this worked best for me.

Making these small changes will help in making these fun cookies. It takes practice, so plan on trashing the first three or so, but after that you'll be a whiz, will have fun doing it, and will dazzle your friends!

Awk! The first one.  Obviously something went SERIOUSLY wrong.

My second try.  Not as horribly awful as the first one, but still not what it should be.

Martha's recipe.

This post is linked to:

Seasonal Sunday

Totally Tasty Tuesdays

Tasty Tuesday

What's Cooking Wednesday

& Foodie Friday

All Aboard!

In yesterday's blog post I made mention of the Holiday Historical House Tour of which we were a part.  Today I thought you might want to see some more pictures.  Largely the tour was successful.  We had a good crowd of very friendly people, all of whom were most complimentary, oohing and ahhing over the furnishings and decorations.  Three things seemed to make an impression again and again: my husband’s antique cleric robe cabinet in the entrance hall, the whopping big size of our backyard (that does look huge now that all of the tornado damage has been cleared), and the centerpiece on my dining room table.  The dishes (“Old Curiosity Shop”  by Royal China) seemed to make an impression as well.  Imagine my shock and surprise the following day when I went to photograph the table only to find two of the coffee cups were gone!  Considering that most of the people who passed through the house looked more like Miss Marple than “Light-fingered Louie,” it just goes to show that you can’t really trust anyone, even during the holiday season, alas.

You may have noticed that there are no napkins on the table.  In my haste to get everything ready I simply forgot them.  My plan for the holidays, however, is to use cranberry napkins in this rosette napkin fold.

Tablecloth - Bed, Bath & Beyond

Chargers - Pier 1

Transferware - Old Curiosity Shop (vintage)

Cranberry Glasses - Crate & Barrel

Clear Glasses - La Rochere

Greenery - Whole Foods

Snowflake Candles - Crate & Barrel

Train - Josephine's Gift Shop, Godfrey, IL

Salt & Pepper Shakers - Gift

This post is linked to:

Tablescape Thursday
Seasonal Sunday

Tabletop Tuesday

Sunday's Best

Oh, Christmas Tree

My mother made me this ornament the year my first child was born.  It is her own design and sewn entirely by hand.

For the past 16 years my husband and I have occupied our Century Home, now boasting age 119.  Each of those 16 years, every spring, like clockwork, the organizer of the Summer Century Home Tour has appeared on our doorstep asking if we'd like to put our house on tour.  Every year our answer has always been the same.  No.  The thought of readying our half-acre yard that by mid-summer bursts with herbs, vegetables, and colorful blossoms, but looks rather bleak in June, not to mention cleaning and sprucing up the interior after a rather slothful winter seemed daunting.  "Ask us for the holiday tour," I'd call after her as she dejectedly descended our front steps.  My reasoning was that this would only require a cleaning of the interior, the placement of our holiday decorations, and that would be that.

So, the day after Thanksgiving, when my husband and I were delirious from exhaustion, the organizer of the Holiday Historical House Tour showed up at our door asking us if we'd like to participate.  Before I could stop the words from coming out of my mouth I'd said "yes."  We had a little over two weeks to prepare.  Initially this sounded like a lot of time.  It wasn't.  Cleaning and decorating takes time.  Lots of time.  Finding the decorations takes even more time.  If not for my son who gave up his day off and another free afternoon to the cause, we'd never have made it.

As a consequence, I did no cooking.  We ate out, or scrounged in the freezer, sometimes warming the food, other times just popping it out of its container and licking it like a beef-flavored Popsicle.  I'll be back later in the week with recipes, and tomorrow with my table setting, but for today I'd thought you might enjoy seeing some the ornaments that grace our tree.

When my boys were small Christmas was always dazzling.  I went to great lengths to transform the house into a holiday wonderland.  Each of our nine rooms had its own tree, each with a different theme.  Life and age has since caught up with me, so now each  tree is represented on the main tree in the living room.  This ornament featuring Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim was a part of the "Christmas Carol" tree, full of Dickens ornaments. Interestingly enough my youngest son gave an award-winning performance of Scrooge in his High School play.  I like to think this tree helped influence him.

I doubt there are many trees in the city of St. Louis that don't feature some form of Cardinal to pay homage to their favorite team. The sheet music behind represents our extensive musical background.

I collect an ornament from every place we visit.  This one of the St. Augustine Lighthouse is a pleasant reminder of a fun trip with friends.

This lovely ornament was a gift from my friend, Marilyn.  She rubber-stamped the top piece, cut it out and affixed it to a glass ball filled with a crystal snow-like substance.  She mailed it to me in a small Christmas tin filled with red and green excelsior.  The tin was NOT in a box, just taped shut and a label and postage attached directly to the tin.  It's always fun getting mail from Marilyn!

A lifelong lover of mysteries, this is but one of about two dozen ornaments that used to adorn the Sherlock tree in the Sherlock theme guest room.
 

Thanks for your visit.  What ornaments will grace your tree this year?
"I am sharing my holiday home decor for the chance to win prizes from The SITS Girls and Great Cleaners."

This post is linked to:Seasonal Sunday

A "Poe"-tic Luncheon

One of the great things about having an October birthday is the availability of all sorts of seasonal goodies.  Year after year, I am gifted with some of these goodies, this year's treat came from my parents who gave me two sets of Edgar Allen Poe "Curiosity" plates from Pottery Barn.  Aren't they just perfect for Halloween? (Or, for that matter, any type of literary luncheon, book club meeting, or gathering of a group of fans of the macabre or Edgar Allen Poe.  Oooh, a Vincent Price or horror film festival would be another good usage -- the mind whirls!)  They were barely out of the box before I started inviting people. beginning with this little ladies lunch for three.  Last week I gave you all of the recipes to recreate this on your own.  This week I'm giving you a look at the table.  With just the three of us we employed only one end of the table, but considering I didn't go hog wild I think it worked out just fine.  The haunted house, scary tree, ghosts, and fence have all been gifts from my youngest son over the years, coming from one of my favorite mall shops, Illuminations, now sadly gone from this area.

Runners - Pottery Barn
White dinner plates - Old Time Pottery
Napkins - World Market
Salad plates - Pottery Barn
Cups - Amazon
Glassware - La Rochere
Flatware - Fiestaware
Pumpkin Salt & Pepper - Pier 1
Placemats - Pier 1

This post is linked to:

Share Your Creativity

Foodie Friday & Everything Else

Simple and Sweet Fridays

What To Do Weekend 
The Weekend re-Treat

Pumpkin Muffins from Longfellow's Wayside Inn

Fall is my favorite time of the year. I love the sights, sounds, colors, and crispness in the air.  I found it all today at the local garden center turned pumpkin wonderland.  It was hard to know what to grab first, the colorful, unusually shaped gourds, the pumpkins, or head for the ornamental kale and chrysanthemums.  I managed to come away with something of everything and then was so inspired that I made a batch of pumpkin muffins in muffin top form (I love my muffin top pan!).

Whenever I make pumpkin muffins, I always head for my "go to" recipe, from Longfellow's Wayside Inn (the oldest operating Inn in the country, dating back to 1716) located in Sudbury, Massachusetts.

The recipe yields 12-16 muffins, or about 22-24 muffin tops.  They are perfect with a mug of warm cider or pumpkin pie cocoa.

How cute is this pumpkin muffin top being kept warm perched atop a pumpkin mug?

Pumpkin Muffins
Longfellow's Wayside Inn

1 cup raisins
1/2 cup water
2 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1-1/4 cups granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup canola oil
1-3/4 cups flour

1-1/2 teaspoon baking power
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Soak the raisins in the water for 5 minutes, do not drain.  Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs until foamy, stir in the pumpkin, sugar, cloves, cinnamon, and salt.  Add the canola oil and mix well.  In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda.  Add the dry mixture to the pumpkin mixture with half of the raisin-water mixture.  Mix well, add remaining raisin mixture; stir to mix.  Fill greased muffin pans 2/3 full.  Bake at 400 degrees F until the top springs back when pressed with fingers, about 25 minutes for muffins, 22 for muffin tops.

Muffin tops served on a favorite pumpkin plate that I drag out and love to bits every year at this time.

This post is linked to:Little Red House for Mosaic Monday

A Southern Daydreamer for Outdoor Wednesday

The Tablescaper for Seasonal Sundays
Cast Party Wednesday

Sunday Morning Blueberry Pancakes

I must have over a hundred blueberries on my potted plant.  It has produced all four years I've had it, but this year will be the best.  It's the 'Elliot' variety, supposedly the best for container gardening.

Once July hits, it's harvest time around here.  Every day there is something new to bring in from the garden and it is just so exciting!  This morning the blueberries that I have been watching all week (as have the robins!), turned blue and were ready for harvesting.  A couple of bowls later I had blueberry pancakes on the griddle topped with pure maple syrup and, you guess it, more blueberries!

Sunday Morning Blueberry Pancakes

2 eggs, separated

1 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

3 tablespoons sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

Few gratings of nutmeg

1 cup whole milk

3 tablespoons butter, melted

1 cup fresh blueberries

In a small bowl, beat egg whites until stiff; set aside.  In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and nutmeg; set aside. Beat egg yolks in a medium mixing bowl; whisk in milk and melted butter. Stir egg mixture into dry ingredients; mix until batter is smooth; stir in blueberries. Fold in beaten egg whites. Makes 10-12 pancakes.

For more information on growing blueberries in containers, I recommend this book:

This post is linked to: 

Seasonal Sunday, 

Metamorphosis Monday, 

Made by You Monday, 

On the Menu Monday, 

This Week in My Garden, 

Bizzy Bakes, 

Garden Tuesdays, 

Outdoor Wednesdays 

and