Project Cookie for Christmas 2011
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So questions arose like "did we use shortening or butter?", "how long does this dough need to chill?", and "how many times the recipe did we use?"
To help ourselves when future cookie baking beckons, I am writing down here what we did this year with all the nitty-gritty details. Because all in all, I think each cookie turned out well and I would like to repeat our results.
1. Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe: used the recipe on the back of the morsel package
How Many Times the Recipe: used 1 recipe
Yield: made little less than one tin
Shortening or Butter: used room temp. butter
Was Dough Chilled: no
How Were Cookies Formed: dropped by spoonfuls
How They Turned Out: cookies were somewhat thin (1/2" thick) and were soft and chewy
Side Notes: none
2. Cherry Surprise Balls
Recipe: old family recipe -- blogged about it here
How Many Times the Recipe: 2-1/2 times
Yield: little less than one tin
Shortening or Butter: used room temp. Crisco butter flavored baking sticks
Was Dough Chilled: chilled in fridge for 1 hour
How Were Cookies Formed: formed into balls by hand after dough was chilled
How They Turned Out: came out perfectly round and with a shortbread-like texture. No flat bottom.
Side Notes: best indicator when these light cookies are done is when their bottoms turn golden brown. Cookies will remain soft until completely cooled. Did raise oven temp. to 350F.
3. Snowball Cookies
Recipe: old family recipe -- blogged about it here
How Many Times the Recipe: 1-1/2 times
Yield: little less than one tin
Shortening or butter: slightly soft butter
Was Dough Chilled: no
How Were Cookies Formed: formed into balls by hand; used flour to prevent stickage
How They Turned Out: turned out round and with a shortbread-like texture. No flat bottom.
Side Notes: cookies are done when edges are slightly brown. Kept dough in fridge when waiting for first batch.
4. Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Recipe: Quaker Oats recipe
How Many Times the Recipe: 1 recipe
Yield: one full tin
Shortening or butter: slightly soft butter
Was Dough Chilled: no
How Were Cookies Formed: dropped by spoonfuls.
How They Turned Out: cookies did not spread much, remained tall. Crispy exterior and chewy interior.
Side Notes:
5. White Chocolate Cherry Chunkies
Recipe: a Paula Deen recipe -- blogged about it here
How Many Times the Recipe: 1-1/2 times
Yield: little over one tin
Shortening or butter: room temp. butter
Was Dough Chilled: no
How Were Cookies Formed: used small ice cream scoop
How They Turned Out: cookies spread moderately. Turned out chewy and slightly crunchy.
Side Notes: used dried cherries instead of candied. Used 6 oz of dried for 1-1/2 times the recipe.
6. Peanut Butter Cookies
Recipe: from a cookbook of mine, A Year of Cookies by Lorraine Bodger
How Many Times the Recipe: 2 times
Yield: little over one tin
Shortening or butter: room temp. butter
Was Dough Chilled: no
How Were Cookies Formed: used small ice cream scoop and pressed down each cookie with a fork
How They Turned Out: cookies spread moderately. Turned out to be slightly crunchy.
Side Notes:
7. Drop Sugar Cookies
Recipe: created by Tiffany from the Bake-off Flunkie blog.
How Many Times the Recipe: 1-1/2 times
Yield: one full tin
Shortening or Butter: cold butter cut into small pieces
Was Dough Chilled: no, but dough was set aside at room temperature for 15 minutes before forming the cookies
How Were Cookies Formed: used small ice cream scoop
How They Turned Out: cookies spread moderately. Had a slight crisp exterior and a chewy interior.
Side Notes:
How to Make Chicken Vesuvio--Step by Step
12/15/11: Chicken Vesuvio
This recipe has a lot of history and not only in the Italian culinary world, but in my family's as well. It has been a special meal choice for the folks here for decades! Our version includes multiple heads of garlic, lots of white wine, and a few secrets.
I've been cooking the family meals this past year and a couple weeks ago I attempted this dish for the first time. At the start, I didn't even have a vague idea on how to pull this thing together, so I spent my time bombarding my father with Vesuvio-ly questions, (which he took just fine. . . He likes to talk about food), all morning long. In the end it turned out to be very, very yummy!
The dumb thing I did, or should I say didn't do, was write down exactly what I did. I mean, here I was hunting down every possible nugget of information on this recipe and I didn't write down a thing. Yeah, stupid me. And I was feeling really stupid today when I wanted to give this Vesuvio a try again. Start from scratch once again!
Didn't remember much at the beginning but after talking about it with my father (again) it sort of came back to me. Anyhow, I managed to come close to what I did before and now I am writing it down here for reference. Not going to make the same mistake twice!
Ingredients:
Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 400F. In two large casserole dishes or steamer trays, pour some vegetable oil to coat the bottoms. Add drumsticks to pans and season them with salt and pepper. Place pans in oven, uncovered. After 30 minutes turn oven temperature down to 375F.
2. In small saucepan, melt butter. Add oregano, garlic salt, and minced garlic to butter. Saute garlic on medium-high until fragrant: about 1 minute. Add 2 cups of wine to garlic mixture and bring to a boil. Once boil is reached, add bouillon cubes and stir until dissolved. Remove pan from heat.
3. Wash potatoes and slice them into halves or quarters, depending upon their size. The potato wedges in this dish is unusually large in size so keep them big!
4. Once chicken has been cooking for 1 hour it is time to add the potatoes. Nestle the wedges underneath the drumsticks to allow the potatoes to soak up the chicken juices. Next, pour the wine mixture over the chicken and potatoes, cover, and return pans to oven.
5. After 30 more minutes of cooking, stir the chicken and potatoes so that everything is immersed in the sauce. Add some water to bring sauce level half way up the pan contents.
6. Cook for another 20 minutes. Remove cover, raise oven to 400F and cook for another 10 minutes. The last 10 minutes at this high temperature helps with the browning of the meat and vegetables. And there you have it. . . Enjoy!
*roughly two drumsticks per person
**I used a type of white potato that has yellow skin. It is called Kennebec (which we grow at the farm), and it is a starchy potato that holds it shape well while still having a smooth, buttery texture.
1. Preheat oven to 400F. Add some vegetable oil to two large casserole dishes or steamer trays. Place chicken drumsticks in pans and season with salt and pepper. Place pans in oven, uncovered. After 30 minutes turn oven temperature down to 375F.
4. Wash potatoes and slice them into halves or quarters, depending upon their size. The potato wedges in this dish is unusually large in size so keep them big!
6. After 30 more minutes of cooking, stir the chicken and potatoes so that everything is immersed in the sauce. Add some water to bring sauce level half way up the pan contents.
7. Cook for another 20 minutes. Remove cover, raise oven to 400F and cook for another 10 minutes. The last 10 minutes at this high temperature helps with the browning of the meat and vegetables. And there you have it. . . Enjoy!
This recipe has a lot of history and not only in the Italian culinary world, but in my family's as well. It has been a special meal choice for the folks here for decades! Our version includes multiple heads of garlic, lots of white wine, and a few secrets.
I've been cooking the family meals this past year and a couple weeks ago I attempted this dish for the first time. At the start, I didn't even have a vague idea on how to pull this thing together, so I spent my time bombarding my father with Vesuvio-ly questions, (which he took just fine. . . He likes to talk about food), all morning long. In the end it turned out to be very, very yummy!
The dumb thing I did, or should I say didn't do, was write down exactly what I did. I mean, here I was hunting down every possible nugget of information on this recipe and I didn't write down a thing. Yeah, stupid me. And I was feeling really stupid today when I wanted to give this Vesuvio a try again. Start from scratch once again!
Didn't remember much at the beginning but after talking about it with my father (again) it sort of came back to me. Anyhow, I managed to come close to what I did before and now I am writing it down here for reference. Not going to make the same mistake twice!
Chicken Vesuvio
Serves: 6-8*
Cooking time: 2 hours
Ingredients:
- 16 chicken drumsticks
- 20 medium to large red potatoes or Yukons**
- 6 tbsp. butter
- 1-1/2 tbsp. dried oregano
- 1 tbsp. garlic salt
- 20 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 cups white wine
- 2 chicken bouillon cubes
- Vegetable oil
- salt and pepper
Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 400F. In two large casserole dishes or steamer trays, pour some vegetable oil to coat the bottoms. Add drumsticks to pans and season them with salt and pepper. Place pans in oven, uncovered. After 30 minutes turn oven temperature down to 375F.
2. In small saucepan, melt butter. Add oregano, garlic salt, and minced garlic to butter. Saute garlic on medium-high until fragrant: about 1 minute. Add 2 cups of wine to garlic mixture and bring to a boil. Once boil is reached, add bouillon cubes and stir until dissolved. Remove pan from heat.
3. Wash potatoes and slice them into halves or quarters, depending upon their size. The potato wedges in this dish is unusually large in size so keep them big!
4. Once chicken has been cooking for 1 hour it is time to add the potatoes. Nestle the wedges underneath the drumsticks to allow the potatoes to soak up the chicken juices. Next, pour the wine mixture over the chicken and potatoes, cover, and return pans to oven.
5. After 30 more minutes of cooking, stir the chicken and potatoes so that everything is immersed in the sauce. Add some water to bring sauce level half way up the pan contents.
6. Cook for another 20 minutes. Remove cover, raise oven to 400F and cook for another 10 minutes. The last 10 minutes at this high temperature helps with the browning of the meat and vegetables. And there you have it. . . Enjoy!
*roughly two drumsticks per person
**I used a type of white potato that has yellow skin. It is called Kennebec (which we grow at the farm), and it is a starchy potato that holds it shape well while still having a smooth, buttery texture.
How to Make Chicken Vesuvio Step by Step
(condensed written recipe is found above)
1. Preheat oven to 400F. Add some vegetable oil to two large casserole dishes or steamer trays. Place chicken drumsticks in pans and season with salt and pepper. Place pans in oven, uncovered. After 30 minutes turn oven temperature down to 375F.
2. Now to make the garlic wine sauce, which includes garlic salt, dried oregano, butter, white wine, minced garlic, and chicken bouillon cubes.
3. In small saucepan, melt butter. Add oregano, garlic salt, and minced garlic to butter. Saute garlic on medium-high until fragrant: about 1 minute. Add 2 cups of wine to garlic mixture and bring to a boil. Once boil is reached, add bouillon cubes and stir until dissolved. Remove pan from heat.
4. Wash potatoes and slice them into halves or quarters, depending upon their size. The potato wedges in this dish is unusually large in size so keep them big!
5. Once chicken has been cooking for 1 hour it is time to add the
potatoes. Nestle the wedges underneath the drumsticks to allow the
potatoes to soak up the chicken juices. Next, pour the wine mixture
over the chicken and potatoes, cover, and return pans to oven.
6. After 30 more minutes of cooking, stir the chicken and potatoes so that everything is immersed in the sauce. Add some water to bring sauce level half way up the pan contents.
7. Cook for another 20 minutes. Remove cover, raise oven to 400F and cook for another 10 minutes. The last 10 minutes at this high temperature helps with the browning of the meat and vegetables. And there you have it. . . Enjoy!
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