Recipe: Date Cookies

I realize that the end of the holiday season is probably NOT the best time to share a cookie recipe, but this one is too good to keep to myself. I needed to use up some dates I'd forgotten about in the back of my freezer and found this recipe for Date Cookies on the Allrecipes website.

If you're a fan of dates (or even if you're NOT), you'll love these drop cookies. The dates sweeten the cookies without being overpowering.



Date Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened

1 1/3 cups white sugar

3 eggs

3 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

2 teaspoons water

1 1/2 cups chopped pitted dates

1 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition. Combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and cloves; gradually stir into the creamed mixture. Combine the water and dates; stir into the dough along with the chopped pecans. Cover and chill for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheet.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Feline Friday

Like many of us, Lily is suffering from a post-holiday slump.

Tabby Thursday

Wordless Wednesday

Springerle THEFT!

On Christmas Eve, I finally finished my holiday baking. A variety of goodies, including a covered platter of springerle cookies, sat on our dining room table, ready for the weekend's festivities.

On Christmas morning, I went to fetch a couple of cookies to go with my morning coffee and noticed immediately that something was awry. The plastic wrap had been loosened from one side of the platter. Hmmm...

And at the other end of the dining room table was a lone cookie -- with what looked suspiciously like a TOOTH mark across the top of it!

Gosh, I wonder WHO might have stolen a springerle -- just for a tiny TASTE?

I didn't have to look far to find the culprit, but she admitted to nothing.

"Who, me?"

My First Attempt at Springerle Cookies

This past week, I ran across a magazine article about springerle cookies. I'd heard of them but didn't know what they looked like until I saw the photos of beautiful cookies with raised designs, some painted and some plain. As I read the article, I learned that springerle cookies can be made with molds or a special rolling pin.

And I thought to myself...HEY, I've got one of those fancy rolling pins! I've had it for years but had no idea what it was until I saw a picture of it in the article.

The magazine piece intrigued me, so I decided to try making springerle cookies for Christmas. I found a recipe with a picture of a rolling pin that looks almost like mine and thought that might be a good place to start. Springerle cookies are traditionally flavored with anise (licorice) but since I don't care for that flavor, I decided to substitute almond flavoring instead.



The springerle dough is extremely dense and stiff. I would guess it has to be that way in order to produce detailed impressions from the rolling pin or mold.

I used a standard rolling pin to flatten the dough then rolled over it firmly with the springerle rolling pin. Given my track record in the kitchen, I really didn't expect success but to my surprise, the rolling pin worked quite well! After creating the patterns, I used a pastry roller to cut apart the cookies.

Here's the unusual step: After cutting apart the cookies, they have to dry -- uncovered -- overnight in order to "set" the patterns. If you skip this step, the patterns will flatten out in the oven.

And here is how the cookies looked after baking. They have a very dense texture, similar to shortbread. I love the almond flavoring and the designs! And believe me, they are perfect with a cup of coffee. We have so many springerle cookies that I think we'll be enjoying them for quite some time!

Christmas Wishes!

Feline Friday: Season's Greetings!

Bah! HUMBUG! Er...Merry Christmas!

From Santa's Very Reluctant Reindeer, Tinsel & Lily

Weird Stuff from the Kitchen Drawers

Once every ten years or so, I get brave enough to explore the contents of the kitchen drawers. We seem to have two large drawers dedicated to what I would call "kitchen utensils", but you'd be hard-pressed to find much of use in there. Now I think I've figured out why: The drawers are full of Weird Stuff.

I recently got the crazy idea to dump out all the contents and see what I could find. After sorting through everything, I filled two 1-gallon Ziplock bags with items that I would consider 1) unidentifiable or 2) no longer useful and moved the bags to a shelf in the basement.

Click on the picture and follow along with me to see a sampling of just a FEW of the items in my kitchen drawers:

1) This "expanding spatula" actually came with Spouse. It's intended for lifting a cake to transport it from one flat spot to another. While I think it's a pretty nifty tool (it's kind of fun to press the button and see the side spatulas fly out), I can't say that I've actually used it in the kitchen. But I'm keeping it handy because I think it could be used for moving cats around.

2) This white spoon with a somewhat creepy cat face is for scooping out canned cat food. Our kitties don't eat canned cat food enough to warrant a space in the drawer. I'll keep it, though, because you never know...As they get older, they may need to go on a soft diet.

3) Don't spew your coffee but yes, this is a baby bottle scrubber. And yes, I only had one baby. She's a freshman at Indiana University this year, so I think I could probably safely put this away now.

4) Continuing along the same lines, this is a baby airplane spoon. She no longer eats with an airplane spoon, so I think I'll take it out of the drawer.

5) We have a few chopsticks in the drawer, including my lucky black chopsticks with embedded (plastic) gemstones, which I got in third grade when we went out for Chinese food in Omaha one time with my grandpa. Don't worry: I put the chopsticks back in the drawer for safe-keeping.

6) I'll award three gold stars to anyone who can identify this white contraption with holes. In fact, since I've got two of them, so I'd be happy to share one with the winner.

7) This metal tool with four spiky prongs and a carrying handle is for making baked potatoes. At least I THINK that's correct. It folds for easy storage. (The folding part is its best feature.) Does anybody know if this thing is to be used in an oven or over a campfire? Not that I'm going to be using it anytime soon...

8) THREE - COUNT 'EM - metal nutcrackers. I ask you: How many nutcrackers does one household need? Strangely, I have only a SINGLE set of matching nut picks.

9) This next item is a holdover from my Girl Scout days: A jar opener in the shape of a FOOT. I left this one in the drawer. You never know when you might encounter a stubborn jar of pickles.

10) A fierce-looking bottle opener with a chain. Should I attach this to my belt? I didn't even know we had such a thing.

11) A very handy toothpick holder which dispenses a single toothpick at a time. This item was no doubt acquired at the Iowa State Fair, so I kept in the drawer for sentimental reasons. Plus, it's kind of fun to watch the toothpick come out.

12) A sampling of novelty straws: Of note here is the Mickey Mouse straw from Disney World (KEEPING IT!), a monkey straw, and especially the EYEBALL straw which belongs to Spouse, the optometrist. I don't know why he doesn't have this straw at his office. There's an eyeball right on it.

So as you can see, I've now freed up a little bit of room in the drawers -- not that what's left is any more useful than what I packed away.

Next stop: The Corner Cupboard...

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Scratching apparatus? No!

Recliner? YES, please!

Cookies, Cookies EVERYWHERE

Last week, I went to my very first cookie exchange. I have concluded that I am surely the only person in the entire country who had never attended one of these gala events. This cookie exchange was for the great people who work at Memory Bound. Not only are they creative...but they can BAKE, too!

I've never gone to our cookie exchange because 1) the date hasn't worked for me and 2) I generally don't like to have that many cookies in the house. (Even when they're frozen, I can't stay out of them!) But this year, since Daughter will be having lots of kids around over break, I thought it might be okay to have a few snacks on hand -- something more than a jar of mayonnaise and package of Ramen noodles.

ANYWAY, I was told to bring along 4 dozen of the same kind of cookie and a large container for cookies to take home. Of course, I only got half of that equation right and forgot my container. But no worries...our gracious hostess Pat had extra trays for people like me!

After placing all the treats on display, we went 'round and 'round the table collecting cookies to take home. For someone like me, it was dizzying AND overwhelming! Other than at the grocery store or a bakery, I had never seen so many cookies in one place!

I came home with this delectable assortment of goodies! Imagine ME -- with this many cookies in the house!

I took 4 dozen gingerbread cookies to the exchange. I had never made 4 dozen of ANYTHING and had no idea how many gingerbread cookies I could make with one batch, so I whipped up two batches and ended up with easily 6 or 7 dozen smallish cookies. YIKES!

After the cookie exchange, I froze most of the remaining gingerbread cookies, gave some away, ate quite a few, and then boxed up some in a small container for a gift. These clear boxes are available at Memory Bound. This particular size is designed for a cupcake but also holds a nice number of cookies. Rarely do I make anything edible that is fit to display in a clear box, so this in itself was preeeety exciting, I tell you!

A couple of nights ago, we had a house full of kids so (feeling rather SMUG), I casually filled a festive plate with some of the treats from the cookie exchange. Before I knew it, they were gone! Daughter told me later she wondered where they had come from.

"Oh, I knew YOU hadn't made them," she said matter-of-factly. She knows me well. :)

The Best of Times

When I was in college and later living out of state, I couldn't understand why my parents would get so excited to see me on my occasional trip home.

Now, with Daughter 8+ hours away at college, I UNDERSTAND. I looked forward to her Christmas break with giddy anticipation. I broke into tears when I caught a glimpse of her walking toward me at the airport. And now that she's here, I just want to sit by her on the couch for the next three weeks.

Tonight she was in the kitchen mixing up a cake and Skyping with one of her college friends. Truth is, she has one foot in this world and one foot in that one. So while we have her in this house, I'm soaking up her presence and all that comes with it -- the laughter, the singing, the kids sprawled all over the family room. Even the laundry on the bathroom floor.

I know it's just for a little while, but having her here is the best Christmas present EVER.