Brown Butter Cookies

If you are in the mood for a cookie that is not too sweet, but just sweet enough then you have found it. Some of my favorite cookies are the ones that are not too sweet, but sweet enough. Snickerdoodle, sugar, tea cakes, all among my favorites. I even like to make my chocolate chip cookies with semi-sweet chips because I just don't want them to be too sweet.

The cookie part of this recipe is my favorite sugar cookie dough. I have tweaked and adapted this recipe over the years to be just the texture, softness, basically all things I love about a sugar cookie. I really can't stand a sugar cookie that crumbles in your mouth making you feel like you just ate a mouthful of sand. Not my type of cookie. I tend to under bake my sugar cookies because I like them soft and chewy with a crisp edge and find that knocking of a minute or two usually helps me achieve this. You have to know your oven though, for me it's a minute off the maximum recommended bake time.

If you want to use this dough as a roll and cut dough, I think it would work out great. One trick I learned from reading recipes is to roll your cut-out dough on the cookie sheet, then cut the cookies out and lift the scrap dough off the pan. Is that not a brilliant idea? It works great! I always use parchment paper because nothing makes me more angry than something that sticks. I want to enjoy my baking and cooking as it relieves stress, sticking stuff makes me crazy!

The browned butter used in making the frosting/glaze is really the star of this show. If you have never tried a browned butter glaze/frosting you are certainly missing out and must try it immediately. It goes without saying that you have to use real butter here, no substitutes. Browning butter is really very easy. It is certainly something that you approach as you would watching a toddler-constant attention. You can't leave the stove to do something else or the results could be disastrous. Burned butter is a far cry from the heavenly flavor of browned butter. As you play with the browning process you will find that you may prefer a darker color to your butter or lighter just depending on your taste preference. As the butter melts and begins to cook it gets very foamy, stirring it calms the foaming down just long enough for it to get worked up again. As it begins to foam back up you will see how the butter is browning. I usually go with a taupe brown--light brown.

Brown butter has a nutty, toasty flavor much like caramel or toasted pecans. Depending on how much milk you add will determine whether or not this is a glaze or a frosting. I use this browned butter recipe for icing oatmeal cookies (Lord, lord talk about upgrading an oatmeal cookie!) sugar cookies, which will be called brown butter cookies from here on out, tea cakes, and even yellow cake, and pound cake. It's just delicious.

Butter Cookie dough:

1 cup Butter Flavored Crisco

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

2 T. Milk

1 T. Vanilla Extract

1/8 t. Almond Extract (I have always used a cap full and called it good)

3 cups Flour

2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. kosher salt

Preheat oven to 375. Line two cookie sheets with parchment and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add crisco and sugar. Mix with paddle attachment on medium speed for five minutes, or until light and fluffy. Add salt, baking powder, and extracts mixing to incorporate. Add egg, and milk, mixing to incorporate then slowly reduce speed and add flour slowly until combined and pulls away.

Drop by rounded tablespoons onto parchment lined sheet and bake 7-9 minutes. Remove to cooling rack. Ice when cool.

Notes:

• I use a spring loaded scoop for my cookies because I can't really trust my eye. I have a small scoop I've used for years from pampered chef. It works great.
• I baked these cookies on a half sheet baking pan (double the size of a jelly roll pan) that I picked up at Sam's Club (two for under 10 dollars). I could get 24 cookies on this pan which really cut down on the tedious dollup and bake time.
• Using two pans meant that I would have a cool pan ready for me while the others baked.

Brown Butter Icing

4 Tablespoons butter

2 cups Confectioners sugar

3 Tablespoons milk

1 Tablespoon Vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon Almond Extract

In a small saucepan melt the butter over medium heat. Swirl pan or stir until the butter reaches the desired color. 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat, set aside. In a medium size bowl add extracts, then pour hot butter into the bowl. Add half of the confectioners sugar, stir with a whisk or beat on low speed with a hand held mixer. It will clump together, but don't give up just keep mixing and begin to slowly add half of the milk, it will smooth out just fine. Add the remaining confectioners sugar and beat to incorporate. Determine at this point how thick or thin you would like it and add milk accordingly.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

One of my friends, Jamie, is about leave our office staff to stay at home with her sweet baby, Brylee, who is due in just a matter of weeks. She, her husband Mark, and their daughter Cailynn have been praying for this day to come for quite some time. Along the way she was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. Jamie is our resident chocoholic and loves anything chocolate, sweet, dessert, I think just plain food in general. It's fun to cook for someone who loves food! The staff wanted to have a shower for her as well as a "going away" party and as with any shower...you have to have cake. I really struggled with serving a cake at Jamie's shower which she couldn't eat--how fun would that be? Not.

After researching several websites and studying up on flourless cakes I came up with this version I share with you today. The carb count is very low, with the carbs coming from the chocolate chips (my best guess is around 8g per serving), but the chocolate flavor is dense, rich, and undoubtedly chocolate. I think the consistency of this cake was more like a brownie as far as texture and mouth feel. I found the sliver I ate to be the perfect serving as I served it with whipped cream (2 tablespoons has less than 1g of carbs) and strawberries.

If you are on a diet and not wanting to pull your sweet tooth out, this cake might just save the day. It will also keep the guilt fairy at bay as you serve your Baby shower honoree with gestational diabetes this cake.

Flourless Chocolate Cake:

4 oz fine quality bittersweet chocolate ( I used 60% dark chocolate Ghiradelli)

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar ( I used Splenda for baking)

3 large eggs

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Grease an 8 inch pie or cake pan with coated spray, set aside. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a double boiler, melt the chocolate chips and butter until smooth. Add sugar and whisk until incorporated, sift in the cocoa powder, stir to combine. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 25 minutes or until a crust forms on the top. Remove to a cooling rack. Dust with additional cocoa power to serve.

Texas Red Chili

The very minute i see trees changing and feel the cool breeze blowing in Fall I start craving warm, earthy, hearty things that carry you away to a place where bone chilling cold winds with razor sharp precision are somehow ok. Chili is one of those things that I go to for Fall and winter, among other things like chicken and noodles. I am promising myself that there will be a chicken and noodle post this year...guess I better get cracking since I'm posting once a month apparently. Sorry friends, it's all I can do.
I discovered this recipe for chili when Kendra and I were married, in a cookbook. I have altered it over the years to be what we now eat, and I have to say it's one of my favorite chili dishes. You know when it comes to chili there's not a lot of fuss that I like. I don't really care for huge chunks of meat, peppers, tomatoes, anything for that matter, floating around because that's just stew to me. To me, chili is, thick, beefy, deeply red, has some beans and is full of flavor. I think chili is best served the next day, or at least made in the morning and eaten that night. There is just something about the flavor of a chili that has been given time to completely allow all of the ingredients and spices to become one.
I usually eat my chili three ways. First, straight out of the pot, covered with cheese and accompanied by cornbread. Cornbread and chili is one of astrological anomalies, they just go together. My second favorite way of eating chili is on Fritos, covered with cheese. Frito Chili pie is one of my favorite things. Thirdly, I like chili on top of thin spaghetti noodles covered in mountains of Parmesan cheese. This third variation has always been called, Spaghetti Red, but I've heard it called, Three-way in some parts of the country. I'm also sure there are places where people who are reading this post will shove themselves away from their computer and grab their heads in utter disbelief. But, gentle reader, trust me, it's delicious.
One of my good friends, Sharon, who happened to work with me at a church in Texas once shocked the holy grail right out of me. We were organizing a carnival and she and her husband agreed to run the snack shack. I came up with the menu: hot dogs, nachos, chili dogs, chili cheese nachos, Frito Pie, on and on. "Will we have just one question?" "Ok, what's that?" "What's a Frito Pie?" Time, at that moment, stood still. "You've never heard of a Frito Pie?" "No." "You've NEVER had a Frito pie?" "No." It was at that moment that everything else in the world came to a stop, she was having a Frito Pie before anything else--period! A layer of Fritos, cheese, chili, more Fritos, cheese, chili, topped with cheese. "Here, try this...you have to try this." Her first bite was all it took. Eyes rolled back into her head followed by that, "where have you been all my life" look on her face. It's that good.
This Texas Red is as easy as easy can be, has simple ingredients and yet does not lack flavor at all. I made this Friday morning, while we were enjoying some fall break fun at my Mom's, and last night we enjoyed walking into a kitchen that was filled with the smell of chili, waiting for us! How bad can that be? Anytime you walk into a house and dinner is waiting on you...bonus. I made a double batch and dished up the second batch into Correlle bowls, so Mom could have homemade chili all winter. It freezes great. I like to make up big batches of food and freeze them for my Mom since doesn't' always make the best choice when it comes to eating for one. She just doesn't' want to go to the trouble of cooking and making a mess for herself.
One batch of this chili will give you seven good size servings, and more Frito pies, of course. It does freeze great and will keep in the fridge for several days. If you are cooking for one, then I say whip up a batch of this chili and freeze it. Mom is planning to take some of this over to her other single friends to share the wealth.

Texas Red

3 pounds lean Ground beef
1 packet Williams Chili Seasoning (If it is for 1lb, then buy three)
4 regular size (10 plus ounce) cans of Ranch Style Beans (Canned Pinto Beans are fine, too)
3 cups V-8 Juice
1/4 cup ketchup
1 Tablespoon Garlic Salt
1 Tablespoon pepper

In a large stock pot, brown the ground beef until no longer pink, drain if needed. Add Chili seasoning to meat and stir well to combine. Pour in juice, stir, then add remaining ingredients. Stir to combine. Bring to a simmer, cook 30 minutes or longer. Note: As soon as all the ingredients are added, I will pour this into a Crockpot and cook on low until ready to serve. It will thicken nicely.

I like the subtle sweetness that the ketchup adds, it does not overwhelm the dish at all. Of course this recipe can be cut down or blown up accordingly. I would suggest you season to taste with the garlic salt and pepper because it never really works to just cut or blow up seasonings. I like using V-8 juice because it adds more flavor, feel free to use tomato juice. I've grown up on Williams Chili and Taco seasoning and won't try another. I would assume other chili seasonings are good if you can't find Williams.

Sausage Cups

If you are in the market for a quick, easy, flavorful appetizer to serve to guests watching a game, or to take to a work snack party, maybe church, whatever the need, this is the one for you. It's super simple to make, bite size, and will be a huge hit with your friends. I love all of the flavor combinations that come to this party. I originally found this recipe on the back of a box of Athen's Phyllo cups which are one of my all-time favorite party tricks. I can use these things for a ton of snack ideas. I will resist the urge to digress--staying focused!

The original recipe called for Andouille sausage, but I'm not a Cajun fan and find andouille sausage very hot, if it's your cup of tea then be my guest. Here's my version, please enjoy the flavor party that will be thrown in your mouth. That last sentence was cheesy, sorry, but I'm keeping it.

Sausage Cups

3 slices diced bacon

4 oz. sausage

1/4 cup minced onion

15 Athens® Mini Fillo Shells (1 box)

2 ounces softened cream cheese

1 tablespoon softened butter

1 teaspoon light brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon fresh chopped thyme leaves

6 tablespoons finely chopped pecans, divided

2 1/2 tablespoons grated pepper-jack cheese

In a medium skillet, sauté bacon and sausage over medium high heat, stirring frequently until crisp. With slotted spoon, transfer to a paper towel and drain. Add onions to skillet and sauté until just tender, drain. In a small bowl, combine the bacon, sausage and onion, and place 1 tablespoon of mixture into each Fillo Shell. In a small bowl, combine cream cheese, butter, brown sugar and thyme, mixing well. Stir in 3 tablespoons pecans, and place 1 heaping tablespoon cream cheese mixture over sausage filling. Top each with 1/2 teaspoon grated hot pepper cheese and 1/2 teaspoon of remaining chopped pecans. Bake in preheated 350°F oven for 5-7 minutes. Serve immediately. They are even good at room temperature. I almost always double the recipe, you will find that there is more filling than you have cups. I usually don't even worry about layering, instead I just mix it all together and top with the cheese and pecans. Also, rarely ever have thyme, fresh..ok never. Dried is perfectly fine, so too are other herbs you might have and like better (oregano, basil, etc.)

DevilBars

Lawsy mercy this is one of my all-time favorite dessert bars. One of the ladies who works here at church brought these for a funeral luncheon, and made extra. After one bite of these devil bars (she called them goody bars, but they are of the devil I tell ya--pure sin) I knew these would be in my life forever. I love them. This takes every thing you love about a candy bar and rolls it up with a brownie bonus. There are three layers to this bar, the first of which is a super dense and delicious brownie, the second a nut studded frosting, and the third a crispy fudge filling. The fudge layer reminded me of no bake cookies with crispy cereal instead of oatmeal. I would say that you should make these immediately, they are delicious, especially if there is a diet you want to destroy! There's not much more I can say other than..I'm going to go get one more!!

1 box Betty Crocker Original Supreme Brownie Mix (1 pound 6.5 oz.) plus ingredients called for on package. (I always substitute milk for the specified water)
1 pound tub vanilla frosting (I like the Betty Crocker Rich & Creamy frosting), or homemade
3/4 cup chopped pecans, or salted peanuts chopped.
3 cups Crisp Rice Cereal (i.e. Rice Krispies)
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips, just get one bag and call it a day.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, coat a 9x13 pan with cooking spray and set aside.
2. Make brownies according to package directions (for the 9x13 pan). When done set aside to cool one hour or over night.
3. Frost cooled brownies with frosting, sprinkle on nuts and place in refrigerator while making the fudge crispies.
4. Measure cereal in to a large bowl, set aside.
5. In a medium size sauce pan melt peanut butter and chips over low meat until completely melted. Pour over crispies and turn to coat and combine completely.
6. Pour over frosted brownies and spread evenly. Refrigerate until set, one hour.
   
7. Makes 24 bars.

Make these bars as soon as you can. You owe it to yourself, you really do!

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Garlic Cheddar Biscuits

Do you remember the huge fad of no carb dieting? I well remember my co-workers on the no carb kick and walking around snacking on pre-cooked bacon as a snack proclaiming their love for this wonderful diet in which you can eat as much bacon as you want! I thought it was a horribly misguided diet strategy, even though I don't' know beans from apple butter when it comes to it's benefit or detriment, solely because it excluded my favorite things--carbs! I love pasta, potatoes, and bread.

Growing up my family would usually have buttered white bread, which my family called light bread, for evening meal. 10-12 stacks of bread on a plate with margarine for spreading. I really loved buttered bread, and still do. Sometimes we would have canned biscuits with apple butter and I would be in heaven. Do you remember when KFC had dinner rolls instead of biscuits? I do, and loved them. Holidays meant wonderful homemade

yeast rolls that I could eat an entire pan of on my own. Exercising restraint was not my strong suit. I mean, that's why they have elastic in underwear, right?

I whipped up these drop biscuits today for our lunch and really liked them so I thought I would share. These were mixed, dropped, and baked in 10 minutes! Now that's fast. If you have ever been to Red Lobster and enjoyed their dinner biscuits you will for sure love these. I found these to be much lighter with more flakiness and less chew. My second time around I'll add more cheese since you can't really ever have to much cheese

, right? Brushed with melted butter straight out of the oven then slathered with butter is just about all you need to be carried away to carb land.

Garlic Cheddar Drop Biscuits

1 1/2 cups Baking mix (I used Bisquick)

1/2 cup butter milk (see note)

1 cup Cheddar cheese

1 teaspoon Garlic salt

1/2 teaspoon Onion powder

2 Tablespoons melted butter, reser

ved

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a medium size bowl add all ingredients, except butter and stir until combined. Drop by rounded spoonfuls (I used a large spring loaded scoop) onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake 7-9 minutes or until golden. Brush with melted butter and remove to a basket.

Note: If you are like me and rarely ever have buttermilk on hand, do not fret because you can make your own. For Real! Here's how: 1 tablespoon of white vinegar into a measuring glass, fill to one cup mark with Milk, stir. Let sit until ready for recipe (one minute or so).

The possibilities for these biscuits are really endless. You could put crumbled bacon and Swiss cheese in there, or finely chopped onions and dill, or your favorite herb for herb biscuits. Your creativity is the only limit to what you can do.

Oven Roasted Bacon

What would a southerner do without pork?
I can't remember a time when I haven't had bacon for breakfast, at times lunch, and often times at dinner. The smell of bacon can make me instantly hungry. It was the smell that woke me from sleep at my Robba's house every Saturday morning I spent with her. Unless she made pigs in a blanket. I have no idea what she did to that bacon or the pancakes she made from a box mix, but there is nothing like my Robba's pancake breakfast.
Today brought to an end my quest to fry bacon and not have it shrivel up into a tiny bacon crouton, or burn to a crisp. I like my bacon not too crisp, and certainly not too curly. That desire has left me with this love hate relationship to cooking bacon. I've tried everything from dredging the bacon in flour to fry it( please do not try this) to cutting the bacon in half and cooking it, don't ask I was desperate. I finally came to the conclusion that low, medium high heat, and slow was the ticket, turning the bacon often to keep it from curling up was the ticket. That's pretty much how I've been cooking the bacon for the past six years, until today.

I was watching Food Network yesterday before the house woke up and happened upon Tyler's Ultimate, a show I enjoy if happened upon. I can't remember what his theme of the day was, but he roasted bacon in the oven, for a recipe and was immediately intrigued by this process. He mentioned that it was how restaurants do it to crank out bacon for 500 and when I saw the beautiful flat, not too crisp bacon I knew I was about to embark on a life changing experience. I had heard of cooking bacon in the oven, but always passed it off thinking it would not be such a good thing. Of course I had not seen it done until yesterday. I marched myself down to the kitchen and preheated the oven to 400 degrees and grabbed my Pampered Chef bar pan and laid out a pound of bacon on the pan. Into the oven for 15 minutes, Tyler's suggested baking time. At the 15 minute mark I opened the oven and noticed that it was not quite done, five more minutes did the trick. This bacon was not too crisp, beautifully brown, flat, and very moist. Fat did render from the bacon, but not as much as frying which left more bacon flavor. By this time my kids were up and before I knew it a pound of bacon was gone! The pancakes weren't even done and the bacon was gone. One more pound in the oven. Roasting the bacon in the oven freed me up to focus on every other aspect of breakfast, I didn't have to worry about it one time.

My mind has been racing at the possibilities of roasting bacon ever since yesterday. Here are just a couple of the ideas I have:

• Sprinkle the bacon with brown sugar before baking, for a great candied bacon.
• Cracked black pepper, garlic powder, Parmesan cheese, dried Italian seasoning sprinkled on before baking. I think this would give ordinary BLT's a new attitude. Especially if you made the BLT on toasted cibatta bread with Olive Oil mayo, Roma tomatoes, and arugula lettuce.
• Cracked pepper for peppered bacon
• Chili flakes

The possibilities are endless. Never again will I fry bacon--it's over. I am so excited that I won't have to degrease my stove from the bacon splatter, or feel the pain of bacon grease popping onto my arm, cheek, or eyelid (OUCH!).

Here's are the steps, I dare not call this a recipe, it's not rocket science at all but will be a new era in your pork consumption.

Oven Roasted Bacon

One pound Hormel Black Label Bacon (it's my favorite)
Cookie sheet.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line the cookie sheet (make sure it has a lip) with bacon in a single layer, making sure the bacon does not overlap. It can touch, but just don't overlap. Bake for 15-20 minutes to desired degree of preference. Remove from oven and transfer to a towel lined plate to drain, or pat dry. I found that my oven took 18 minutes to get perfect bacon for my family's taste preference.

Thank you, God, for creating the pig!