Bits of Gold!

So, as I expected, the US women went 1-2 in the all-around competition (with no help from the judges!). Go Shawn and Nastia! (Photo from www.NBCOlympics.com) I thought that there were several scores that were too low for the US (vault for Liukin and bars and beam, maybe vault slightly, for Johnson) and scores that were way too generous for some others (especially the Chinese on beam). However, they did what they came to do and won gold and silver. So, in honor of them I will give you a recipe with some gold, or toffee however you care to look at it, inside! This recipe is from an old baking cookbook. It's called All About Home Baking and is copyright 1933. At some point, I will type the introduction, parts of it, for you because it makes me laugh. However, this is a recipe that I modified just a bit. Icebox cookies are so simple and can be done many ways. In fact, that is the only type cookie in this cookbook but there are multiple flavors of them. I chose just the simple vanilla nut cookies and added some "gold" to it! The great thing about these cookies is that you can make the dough and then slice and bake as you'd like to have some cookies, kind of like buying the premade dough...except it's homemade!!! So, enjoy some bits of gold! Vanilla Nut Toffee Cookies adapted from All About Home Baking
1 cup butter or other shortening (I used 1 stick butter, 1/2 cup shortening)
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
2 cups sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
1 cup pecans, chopped
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup toffee pieces
4 cups sifted flour
3 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Cream butter until smooth. Gradually add sugars and cream until fluffy. Add eggs, nuts, vanilla, and toffee (to prevent overmixing later). Sift flour. Add baking powder and salt to it. Then add gradually to butter mixture. The dough will be stiff but not overly so. It can be crumbly but mine was not, it held together well. Split the dough in half. Roll each half into a 1 1/2 inch roll/log and wrap in waxed paper. Chill in refrigerator overnight or in freezer for a few hours if pressed for time (this is what I did). When ready to bake, preheat oven to 425F. Slice into 1/4 inch slices and place on baking sheet. Bake for five minutes or until done. Do not overbake. I recommend taking the cookies out when they are just barely starting to golden up. Let cool on pan for a couple of minutes. Remove to cooling rack for a few minutes. Makes 6-7 dozen.

Cinni-Mini

I am loving the Olympics. I wish this happened every year! So exciting! My favorite event is the gymnastics. I was completely shocked when Alicia Sacramone fell on balance beam and then again on floor. However, the deficit from uneven bars just due to the Chinese difficulty was already so large, who knows if perfect routines would have changed the overall results. I'm still excited that they won silver (picture from NBCOlympics.com). The gymnastics program here has gone from not winning medals to always being on the stand somewhere. Now I'm looking forward to the all-around. Maybe we'll have a 1-2 finish? Could be fun...pending results, I have a recipe to give after that even. But today, in honor of the little pixies, I have a fun breakfast dish. It's a quick way to make cinnamon rolls with a big of a different feel. They're called cinni-minis and they are GREAT! CINNI-MINIS
2 cans of crescent rolls
6 T butter/margarine, softened
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1 T cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup chopped pecans, optional
confectioner's sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix together the softened butter, sugars, cinnamon, and nuts. Open crescent roll pack. Pull out one rectangle of rolls (there will be four of these per pack of rolls) and press together the perforated seam. Spread 1/8 of butter mixture over the rectangle. Roll up pastry style down the long edge. Cut with a serrated knife; you should get between 6 and 8 rolls per rectangle. Place rolls in a greased, round cake pan. Repeat with remaining crescent dough. When pan is full, place in oven and bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden. Remove pan from oven and allow to cool. Meanwhile, put confectioner's sugar in a bowl and add enough water (or milk) to make a medium-thick icing. When rolls have cooled, pour icing over the rolls. Enjoy!

Oh...re...oh!

When I did my last post, I got a bit sad. Through those posts I was able to relive my trip and, in a way, extend it. When Wednesday came, my trip was really over. Thursday I found myself thinking, this time last week I was sitting on the plane in Memphis waiting for the lightning to stop, etc. I've even been listening to my Wicked CD all week, singing Defying Gravity today in the free clinic. Yet, I must return to regular life. I guess that means giving you a recipe! Several weeks ago, I found this recipe on Jenny's blog. When I told my mom that's what I wanted to make, she said "YUM!" On the whole, this is a pretty simple recipe but it's jazzed up by the addition of oreos. I think next time, I would probably add more oreos and either add more flour or use margarine instead of butter. Mine don't look at puffy as Jenny's; don't understand why as I followed her directions exactly except for the number of oreos. The crisp cookie that butter makes, my family just doesn't enjoy as much. However, this is a good cookie and worth trying!Chocolate Chip Oreo Cookies slightly adapted from Picky Palate

1 stick softened butter
6 Tablespoons sugar
6 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 egg
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 ¼ Cup flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
9 Oreo Cookies, broken into pieces
1 Cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream butter, and sugars until well combined. Add egg and vanilla until mixed well. Place flour, baking soda and salt into a large bowl, stir to combine. Slowly add dry ingredients to wet ingredients then stir in oreos and chocolate chips until just combined. With a medium cookie scoop, scoop onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until cooked, but still soft. Let cool on baking sheet for 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

New York City!!!! Day 4

The last day in the city...boo! We made it a "late" morning and left around 10. The bus to FOREVER to get there and then to FOREVER to get into the city. It took us until 11 to get there. Then we had to ride downtown on the subway. When we arrived, we saw the WTC site (from only one side). That area is HUGE! It just amazed me how big the area was and then realized that on Sept 11, that area was just bedlam. There were so many buildings close by that looked untouched, though I'm sure they've been renovated/fixed up since then. Then we walked through Battle Park and caught the Staten Island Ferry. It was a nice ride over because we had the breeze. It wasn't quite as brisk on the way back but was still beautiful. We then "sprinted" to Brooklyn, as we were already late, to meet a friend at Grimaldi's for lunch. This was the BEST pizza! We had ham, mushroom, and onion. One thing that made it so good is that they use fresh mozzarella. Oh, so good. Then my parents and Holly had ice cream from a little shop under the bridge. I was determined to have gelato, so I didn't get any. After the walk across the bridge, we went to Chinatown and Little Italy...where I got my gelato! I had pistachio flavored. It was really good but I think I would have prefered a different flavor. Then we went to the Harley shop where Daddy did NOT get a $45 t-shirt! Too expensive...at least we had fun in F.A.O. Shwartz! That place is so much fun...too many pictures to show, but I did play of the BIG piano! When we left, we went to get dinner before our final Broadway show. Holly had mentioned this Argentinian place she used to work at, so we went there...Sosa Borella. It was great (and put ice in the water!). Daddy had lemon rosemary chicken with gorgonzolla mashed potatoes. Mama had a spinach ravioli with lamb bolognesse. I had the crab salad...mmmm! Perfect and light after pizza and gelato! THEN we went to Mary Poppins. This show was SO much fun! Not one that you want the CD for but very enjoyable. I wanted a Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Down T-shirt but they don't make them! And so ended our trip to NYC. I really enjoyed it and would love to go back sometime. We had a great variety of food and there was so much more to sample!

New York City!!!! Day 3

No sleeping in for us on Tuesday...we were up bright and early to head to the TODAY show! We didn't do the super early thing and there was really no need. We arrived by 8:30 (after eating our GA peach for breakfast!) and I quickly found a spot on the far end of the outdoor area. My dad scooted behind the crowd and got a great shot of Meredith. Then they made their way to the front and called me over. We were on the show at the beginning of the 9 o'clock hour! So cool...we even came home with the script that Natalie Morales used during a segment. Such great weather, too. After the TODAY show we made our wayback to the M&M store, which was fun; but the better store was the Hershey's store. Mama found some great syrup and I found my favorite...Reese's! Then we traveled to the Central Park area and stopped in Alice's Tea Cup for an early lunch. It ended up being pretty good. Mama got the asparagus soup (which was good but I was glad I didn't have a whole bowl) and egg salad sandwich. Daddy had pesto tomato soup with curry chicken sandwich. I had the same sandwich as Daddy but whole. It was very good except no ice in the water...what is up with that and NY restaurants?! We then made our way to the American Museum of Natural History where we touched the moon, found an asteroid, and played with dinosaurs. After a walk through Central Park we decided to look for supper. WOW...we walked FOREVER. Know this...there is NOWHERE to eat on 5th Avenue! I think we walked from 77th street to 54th before we (I...it was my fault, I didn't want hamburger) found a great little Thai restaurant called Chai. It was perfect and hit the spot. Mama had cashew chicken. Daddy had grilled chicken. I had the special with stir fried chicken, snow peas, tomato, mango, and cashews...SO GOOD! We then decided to make it an "early" night and headed back to Secaucus. Of course, we stopped at Au Bon Pain for breakfast and nighttime snacks. The next day had BIG plans with great food to be sure!

New York City!!!! Day 2

After sleeping in (we decided that after being up for 20 hours the day before with traveling, walking, show, etc we would just wake up "naturally") and eating our pastries/muesli, we caught our bus into the city and went to Chelsea Market. This is such a fun little place. Unfortunately, we didn't think ahead to order tickets for something at Food Network (Guy Fieri was filming a show!). However, we did enjoy watching the people at Sarabeth's make some bread dough. Then we went to The Manhattan Fruit Exchange. WOW! This place has wonderful looking produce for cheap (like HALF what it is in MS). We even found GA peaches for 2lb/$1.49 (once again, less than half what it is in MS ON SALE!). They had a huge display of mushrooms, cheese, greens, and even FRESH almonds. Amazing! After that we walked around Greenwich Village trying to figure out what to do (bad idea...go with a plan!). finally, we decided to eat. Mama chose this deli that had a pay by the pound buffet. SO GOOD! I had broccolini, celophane noodle salad, curry chicken, grilled veggies, tomato cucumber salad, a piece of sesame pork, and cantelope. Yum! At this point we went back to scope out Rockefeller Plaza and got tickets for Mary Poppins! Then we made the subway trip to the Bronx for a Yankees game which we did NOT have tickets for. Not smart in the final season! We got there and the cheapest seats were $280!!! NO WAY! We sat around and Daddy stalked the ticket counters. Finally he found a vendor that got seats in Monument Park, an area in front of the visitors' bullpen with folding chairs. It ended up being a great seat! I got my yearly hot dog and enjoyed it. Then after the 7th inning we shared some Dip-N-Dots. YUM! We even got on the Jumbotron, saw 5 homeruns, and saw Mariano Rivera walk right past us! Made for a fun day. PS - Yankees lost 13-5!