Eggnog French Toast

Merry Christmas!



I decided to make something special for Christmas Morning breakfast this year.  I had left over eggnog from the eggnog cookies I made so I thought Eggnog French Toast would be perfect this morning!  I started with a recipe from www.cooks.com and added a few touches that I got from the Alton Brown french toast recipe I posted a few years ago.  It came out great.

Egg Nog French Toast

Adapted from Cooks.com

Ingredients:

 

1 cup commercial eggnog

2 eggs

6 slices cinnamon bread (Arnold)

1 tablespoon honey (warmed)

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar


Directions:

In a small bowl, combine egg, egg nog and honey with a fork just until egg breaks up.

Put sliced bread in a shallow flat-bottomed bowl.  Pour egg mixture over bread and let sit for 2-3 minutes per side.  Then place sliced bread onto a cooling rack for another 2 minutes to let excess egg mixture drip off.

In an electric skillet, melt 2 tablespoons of butter and saute each slice over medium heat (350 degrees) for 3 minutes or until golden brown.

Turn over and cook an additional 1-1/2 minutes.  Serve, sprinkled with sugar and pat of butter.  Or pour over a little warm maple syrup, if desired.

Enjoy!

The Creative Cook

Eggnog Cookies with Eggnog Frosting

Unbaked Cookies

Baked Eggnog Cookies

This recipe comes from www.cakecentral.com.  I did change it a little bit.  The reviews gave me some tips that I decided to use.  They are tasty cookies. I like this recipe because it is almost like a sugar cookie but is a bit different.  I think they should be cookies that can be enjoyed by almost everyone.

Eggnog Cookies with Eggnog Frosting


Ingredients:

for Cookies:

1 cup butter, melted
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup commercial eggnog
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
5-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

for Icing:

3 cups confectioner's sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup commercial eggnog

Instructions:


for cookies:

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add eggnog, baking soda and nutmeg.  Mix well.  Gradually add flour.  Mix well.  Divide dough in half, wrap well and refrigerate overnight.

Roll half of dough to 1/8 inch thickness.  Cut with floured cookie cutters.   Bake in a 375 degree oven for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned.  Cool, ice and decorate, if desired.

For Icing:

In a small mixing bowl, beat confectioner's sugar and butter until well blended. Gradually beat in eggnog until icing is smooth.

The poster on www.cakecentral.com says that she did not use cookie cutters.  Instead she rolled the dough into small balls and pressed her powdered sugar dipped finger into the center.  Then she baked as directed.

For icing, she placed all the ingredients into a bowl and beat for about 15 minutes until it was fluffy.

Enjoy!

The Creative Cook

Cranberry Noel Cookies

These are the 2 logs before I cut them.

These are the cookies before baking.

Cranberry Noel Cookies after baking

I saw Martha Stewart making these Cranberry Noel Cookies on her show.  They looked really good.  It seemed like she got the recipe from someone else but I'm not sure.  I also read on a website that this recipe is in one of her cookbooks.  I am here to tell you that these are worth making and eating! Thanks Martha.

CRANBERRY NOEL COOKIES

Yield: 5 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

½ cup sugar

2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or 1 teaspoon rum extract

½ teaspoon salt

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

¾ cup dried cranberries

½ cup chopped pecans

¾ cup shredded unsweetened coconut

Directions:

1.       Beat butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes

2.       Add milk, vanilla and salt

3.       Beat until just combined

4.       Gradually add flour, cranberries and pecans

5.       Mix on low speed until fully combined

6.       Divide dough in half

7.       Shape each half into an 8-inch log, about 2 inches in diameter

8.       Roll logs in coconut, pressing lightly to coat the outside of logs

9.       Wrap logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours

10.   Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

11.   Using a sharp knife, cut logs into ¼ inch thick slices

12.   Transfer to ungreased baking sheets, about 1-1/2 inches apart

13.   Bake until edges are golden, about 12 minutes

14.   Transfer to wire rack to cool

Store  for up to 2 weeks in an airtight 

Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze

Lemon Ricotta Cookies without Glaze

Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Giada's Glaze

Lemon Cookie with the plain Lemon Glaze

I made these cookies this morning.  They are a very soft and melt in your mouth kind of cookies.  The original glaze that Giada provides is very sour because of the lemon zest so I wound up scraping it off and making a very simple glaze with only powdered sugar and lemon juice.  I also added a touch of yellow food coloring to punch up the color.  They are a different choice for holiday cookies.  Since my son likes lemon, this is my first holiday cookie offering.  These cookies are very lemony so if you love lemon flavor then give these a try!

Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze

Recipe courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis
Makes 44 Cookies

Ingredients


Cookies:

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 (15-ounce) container whole milk ricotta cheese
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 lemon, zested

Glaze:

1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 lemon, zested

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Cookies:

In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In the large bowl, combine the butter and the sugar. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating until incorporated. Add the ricotta cheese, lemon juice and lemon zest.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Spoon the dough (about 2 tablespoons for each cookie) onto the baking sheets. Bake for 15 minutes, until slightly golden at the edges. Remove from the oven and let cookies rest on the baking sheet for 20 minutes.

Glaze:

Combine the powdered sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest in a small bowl. Stir until smooth. Spoon about 1/2 – teaspoon onto each cookie and use the back of the spoon to gently spread. Let the glaze harden for 2 hours. Pack the cookies into a decorative container.



Enjoy!

The Creative Cook

Broccoli Cheese Soup

It has gotten cold very quickly in this area.  When it gets cold, I long for soup.  Steamy hot delicious soup.  I know these soups are not low calorie but they are so yummy and warm on a bone-chillingly cold winter day.  I made this soup on Sunday afternoon.  It truly does make 12 servings as the author suggests on the http://www.allrecipes.com/ website.  The recipe was originally submitted by Karin Christian.  We all liked the soup but I have a few suggestions for the future.  I thought that the soup should have been put into a blender or that it could stand a few minutes with an immersion blender to thicken it and smooth out the broccoli a bit.  I like broccoli cheese soup when it has some texture but this was too much for me.  I was not happy with the way the cornstarch thickened the soup so next time I am leaving it out and using a potato or two instead. I also substituted fat free half and half for the milk because I had some in my refrigerator.  If you are cooking for a vegetarian you can easily substitute vegetable broth for the chicken broth and no one else in the family will be the wiser.   I think that you could easily reduce the amount of butter by half without any harm to the taste of the soup. Anyway, it is good soup but I like to tweak so go ahead and tweak or leave it as is.  Your choice...

Broccoli Cheese Soup
Prep time:  10 minutes
Cook Time:  30 minutes
Servings:  12

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter (reduce to 1/4 cup)
1 onion, finely chopped
1 (16-ounce) package of frozen chopped broccoli
4 (14.5 ounce) cans of reduced sodium chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
1 (1 pound) loaf of processed cheese loaf (I used the ubiquitous Velveeta), cubed
2 cups milk
1 tablespoon garlic powder
2/3 cup cornstarch
1 cup water

Directions:

1.  In a stockpot, melt butter over medium heat.  Cook onion in butter until softened.  Stir in broccoli, and cover with chicken broth. Simmer until broccoli is tender, 10 to 15 minutes.

2.  Reduce heat and stir in the cheese cubes until melted. Mix in milk and garlic powder.

3.  In a small bowl, stir cornstarch into water until dissolved. Stir into soup; cook, stirring frequently, until thick.

4.  Put soup into a blender or use an immersion blender to make soup smooth.

Enjoy!

The Creative Cook

Cheeseburger Meatloaf

This is a delicious, different recipe for meatloaf.  It really tastes like a cheeseburger!  If you love meatloaf but are tired of the same old recipe, try this.  I cooked the onions before putting them into the meatloaf.  My husband and son don't like onions much. 

CHEESEBURGER MEATLOAF
Servings:  8

Ingredients:

2 pounds ground beef
3/4 cup fresh bread crumbs
1/2 cup minced onion
2 eggs, beaten
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1-1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
3 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2.  In a large bowl, combine the beef, bread crumbs, onion, eggs, salt and pepper, and mix well.  Pat out meat mixture into a 14 x 18 inch rectangle on a piece of wax paper.  Spread cheese over the meat, leaving a 3/4 inch border around the edges.  Roll up jelly roll fashion to enclose the filling and form a pinwheel loaf.  Press beef in on both ends to enclose the cheese.  Place in a 10 x 15 inch baking dish.

3.  Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour or until internal temperature reaches 160 degrees F (70 degrees C).

Enjoy!

The Creative Cook

Buffalo Rice

This is a recipe from Sara Moulton's newest cookbook called "Five-Ingredient Mains."  She did a really nice job on this book. I chose this recipe as the first one out of the book to make because my husband and I both love Buffalo Chicken Wings.  He is especially fond of the really spicy wings and I prefer mild.  This dish gives the best of Buffalo Chicken Wings without the bad parts.  It is spicy and delicious but not nearly as fattening. In the book, Sara mentions that the original recipe she got from her chef de cuisine at Gourmet Magazine used pasta, so if you prefer pasta then use it instead of rice.  I used long-grain brown rice because I had some in my cupboard.  I also want to mention that I had some Original Anchor Bar Mild Wing Sauce so I used that instead of the hot sauce.  The Anchor Bar is the place where Buffalo Wings are said to have been "invented" way back in the 1960's.  Try this as Buffalo Rice or Pasta.  Either way, I think you'll love it.

Buffalo Rice

1 cup long-grain white rice
 8 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
Kosher salt
2 tablespoons hot sauce
4 ounces Blue Cheese (you can substitute reduced fat Blue Cheese)
1 cup celery leaves, for garnish (optional)


1.  Bring 6 cups salted water to a boil over high heat.  Add the rice and cook for 15 to 17 minutes, or until rice is tender.  (Mine took 20 minutes)  Drain the rice in a strainer, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.


2.  Meanwhile, cut the chicken into 1/2-inch cubes.  Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the chicken and a pinch of salt and cook, stirring occasionally, for 3 to 5 minutes, or until just cooked through.  Remove the chicken from the heat, toss with the hot sauce, and set aside in the skillet.  Crumble the blue cheese (about 1 cup).


3.  Once the rice has cooked, stir it into the chicken in the skillet along with the reserved 1 cup cooking liquid and the blue cheese.  Divide the chicken and rice among 4 serving plates and top with the celery leaves, if using.


Enjoy!


The Creative Cook




 

Thanksgiving Recipes

I have a few Thanksgiving recipes that I have either made for Thanksgiving or would like to keep so that I can try making them in the future.  This list of recipes includes one for a sweet potato casserole from the Food Network Magazine by Ellie Krieger, a cranberry gravy recipe from All*You Magazine, and the Best Ever Green Bean Casserole from Alton Brown.  I doubled this recipe and made it into a "prettier" version of Alton's recipe. It went over pretty well.

The picture I am including with this post is of a sweet potato cheesecake that one of my Thanksgiving guests so kindly made for the occasion.  He does not have a recipe. He told me that he used his head and instincts.  It turned out very well.  There was not even one slice left after the dinner was over.  To me, that is a successful dessert. It was also a beautiful cheesecake, as you can see.

Best Ever Green Bean Casserole
Makes 4 to 6 Servings

Ingredients:

2 medium onions, thinly sliced
1/4 all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons panko bread crumbs
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Nonstick cooking spray

For Beans and Sauce:

2 tablespoons plus 2 tablespoon kosher salt, divided
1 pound fresh green beans, rinsed, trimmed and halved
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
12 ounces mushrooms, trimmed and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup half and half

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F.

Combine the onions, flour, panko and salt in a large mixing bowl and toss to combine.  Coat a sheet pan with nonstick cooking spray and evenly spread the onions on the pan.  Place the pan on the middle rack of the oven and bake until golden brown, approximately 30 minutes.  Toss the onions 2 to 3 times during cooking.  Once done, remove from the oven and set aside until ready to use. Turn the oven down to 400 degrees F.

While the onions are cooking, prepare the beans. Bring a gallon of water and 2 tablespoons of salt to a boil in an 8-quart saucepan.  Add the beans and blanch for 5 minutes.  Drain in a colander and immediately plunge the beans into a large bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. Drain and set aside.

Melt the butter in a 12-inch cast iron skillet set over medium-high heat.  Add the mushrooms, 1 teaspoon salt and pepper and cook, occasionally until the mushrooms begin to give up some of their liquid, approximately 4 to 5 minutes.  Add the garlic and nutmeg and continue to cook for another 1 to 2 minutes.  Sprinkle the flour over the mixture and stir to combine.  Cook for 1 minute.  Add the broth and simmer for 1 minute.  Decrease the  heat to medium-low and add the half and half.  Cook until the mixture thickens, stirring occasionally, approximately 6 to 8 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in 1/4 of the onions and all of the green beans.  Top with the remaining onions.  Place into the oven and bake, approximately 15 minutes. Remove and serve immediately.

Cranberry Gravy

12 ounces fresh cranberries (about 2 cups)
2/3 cup sugar
4 cups low-sodium turkey or chicken broth
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
salt and pepper

In a saucepan over low heat, cook cranberries and sugar, stirring until sugar has dissolved and berries have burst, about 10 minutes.  Transfer to a blender and puree until smooth.


Sweet Potato-Pecan Casserole
Serves: 8

Ingredients:

cooking spray
3-1/2 pounds sweet potatoes (about 5 medium), peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
1/3 cup honey
1 large egg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
Kosher salt
1 tablespoon packed dark brown sugar
1/3 finely chopped pecans

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Mist an 8-inch square baking dish with cooking spray.

Bring a few inches of water to a boil in a pot with a large steamer basket in place.  Put the sweet potatoes in the basket, cover and steam until tender, 20 to 25 minutes.  Transfer the potatoes to a bowl and let cool slightly.  Add the honey, egg, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, the nutmeg, ginger and 1/2 teaspoon salt; whip with an electric mixer until smooth.  Spread the sweet potato mixture in the prepared baking dish.

Mix the brown sugar, pecans and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon in a bowl, sprinkle over the potatoes.  Bake until hot and beginning to brown around the edges, 40 to 45 minutes.

Per serving:  Calories 160; Fat 4 g (Saturated 1 g); Cholesterol 25 mg; Sodium 180 mg; Protein 3 g

Enjoy!

The Creative Cook

Cranberry History and Lore

I also felt the need to provide you with some Cranberry History and Lore I got from the hubpages.com.  Enjoy!  

Cranberry History and Lore

Cranberries are both a popular American food and closely linked to our history. Many books and websites list the cranberry as one of three fruits that are native to North America, the other two being the blueberry and the Concord grape.

However, this is not true as there are numerous other edible fruits native to North America. A better phrasing, which some sources use, is that cranberries are one of three fruits native to North American that are commercially grown on a large scale . Large being the operative word here as other varieties of native fruits are also grown commercially.

The name cranberry is actually a shortened version of crane berry or craneberry , which is the name given to the fruit by early settlers in North America because the shape of the flowers of the cranberry bush have a resemblance to the head of a crane.

Probably because cranberry sauce is a traditional Thanksgiving dish and Thanksgiving is associated with the Pilgrims in Massachusetts people often associate cranberry production with Massachusetts.

While Massachusetts is both a major producer of cranberries and the home of the first company to produce and sell canned cranberry sauce commercially (the Cape Cod Cranberry Company produced marketed in Massachusetts the first canned cranberry sauce in 1912 under the name Ocean Spray Cape Cod Cranberry Sauce - the Cape Cod Cranberry Company later evolved into today's Ocean Spray Corporation) it is not the only state where cranberries are grown. Other major cranberry producing states are New Jersey, Oregon, Washington state and Wisconsin.

While cranberries may or may not have been served at the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621, the Pilgrims were aware of cranberries having been introduced to them by the Indians who had long used cranberries in their own cooking especially in the making of pemmican, a nutritious, high energy food that had a long shelf life but was also compact and traveled easily.

Pemmican generally consisted of mostly dried deer meat (elk, bison or meat of other available game was often used in place of deer) and fat along with various other ingredients such as dried fruits (cranberries being one option), maple sugar, dried, corn, etc. depending upon availability.

After drying, the meat and any other ingredients used were pulverized and mixed with fat to make the pemmican which was the main food eaten by Indians, the French Courier de Bios (fur traders in New France who traveled west from Montreal by water to trade, often illegally, with the Indians for furs) and nineteenth century Arctic explorers, while on long wilderness trips.

Beginning in the early nineteenth century, farmers began producing cranberries commercially for both domestic use and export to Europe. During the long siege of Petersburg, Virginia (June 15, 1864 - March 25, 1865) in the Civil War, the Union General Grant ordered cranberry sauce to be included with the supplies shipped to feed his troops. This was probably the first large scale use of cranberry sauce as a food and, given the large number of Union troops involved in the siege, enough apparently brought home fond memories of cranberry sauce that its popularity as a side dish caught on. Since cranberry sauce goes well with poultry, especially turkey, it soon evolved into a Thanksgiving staple.

Cranberry Coffee Cake

This recipe came from http://www.food.com/. It was posted by "Young Living in Texas"  It makes a bundt cake.  I didn't have enough left over cranberry sauce to try it but maybe I will after Christmas.  You never know! 

Cranberry Coffee Cake

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 (16 oz) can whole berry cranberry sauce
1 cup pecans, chopped

Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons almond extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2.  Cream butter and sugar.

3. Add eggs.

4.  Add dry ingredients alternately with sour cream to butter and sugar mixture.

5.  Stir in almond extract.

6.  Pour 1/2 batter into greased and floured bundt pan.

7.  Add 1/2 cranberry sauce, spread evenly over batter. 

8.  Pour remaining batter over cranberry sauce.

9.  Top with remaining cranberry sauce.

10.  Sprinkle with pecans.

11. Bake at 350 degrees F in a preheated oven for 55 minutes.

12.  Glaze:  Stir ingredients together well. Spread or drizzle glaze on cake while cake is still warm.

Enjoy!

The Creative Cook

Cranberry Sauce Loaf

Here is another recipe I made to use up my left over cranberry sauce.  I used this recipe "as is" except that I didn't have any graham cracker crumbs so I used 2 cups of flour instead.  Other than that, the recipe is the same as it was on the hubpages.com site where I found it.  It looks good.  It is still in the oven at the moment.

Cranberry Sauce Loaf

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup cranberry sauce
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup orange juice
1/2 cup canola oil

Instructions:

Mix the first 5 ingredients together with a fork in a large mixing bowl.  Stir in raisins and nuts.  Gently fold in cranberry sauce.  Add egg, orange juice and oil.  Stir just until mixed.  Scrape into loaf pan and bake for at least 1 hour.  Let stand for 10 minutes. 

Enjoy!

The Creative Cook