BiteClubCooks

Thanksgiving Recipes

2009-11-13T19:11:56Z

from

Serves 6

1 pound Brussels Sprouts, ends trimmed and split in half
6 ea sage leaves
3 tbsp butter
1 ea granny smith apple, unpeeled, cut in ½ inch dice
1 ea Andouille Sausage about 4 oz. cut into ½ inch dice
½ cup pearl onions blanched and peeled (may substitute frozen pearl onions)
1 tbsp dried black currants
2 ounce crumbled Point Reyes Blue Cheese
salt and fresh ground black pepper

To Prepare:
Place a pot of water large enough to accommodate the Brussels sprouts to a boil.
Season the water with salt.
Place the split sprouts in the boiling water and cook until just knife tender, yet still bright green then place in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. As soon as the sprouts are cool drain well and blot any excess water off with paper towels.

To Cook:
Heat a large sauté pan( large enough to hold the Brussels sprouts in a single layer)
Add the butter and sage leaves to the pan and cook for a minute until the butter just starts to brown.
Add the Brussels sprouts in a single layer. Season with salt and pepper. Place the apples, onions and sausage to the pan, but do not stir. The Brussels sprouts sould cook for a few mintes until well browned. Turn a few sprouts over to check the color. When browned, still the sprouts with the onions, apples and sausage and cook for a few more minutes until well browned. To finish, remove the pan from the heat and add the currants and the crumbled blue cheese and give a quick stir.
Serve immediately.

Best Ever Zuppa Toscana

2009-01-13T19:42:22Z

Submitted by Celeste Sagadin

BITECLUBCOOKS: A version of this recipe is a popular favorite at the chain restaurant, Olive Garden. Once you taste it, you can see why folks like it: Lots of smoky meat, plenty of garlic and Italian herbs, cream, sherry and kale (to make us think we're being healthy!) The hearty Tuscan flavors make this a strapping soup on cool nights.

Don't cheap out on the bacon or sherry. A thicker cut (I used Niman Ranch Applewood Smoked) crisps up better and infuses the pot. You can buy cooking sherry at most grocery stores, but they're typically low quality and have salt added. Look around for a sherry you would actually drink.

In the many recipes I looked at for this soup, most called for Russets potatoes. I like a waxier red potato in my dish, so I substituted those. This soup seems to cry out for some nice, soft cannellini beans (aka white beans) to soak up the flavors.
]]> INGREDIENTS FOR ZUPPA TOSCANA

3 large red potatoes cut into 1/4 inch slices

2 mild Italian sausages (in casing)
1/3 pound thick-cut bacon
1/2 large white onion, chopped
1/8 teaspoon fennel seed
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 garlic clove

1 cup kale greens, rinsed and chopped
1/4 cup Sherry (not cooking sherry)
1 cup heavy cream
6 cups chicken stock

Salt and Pepper to taste

PROCESS
Put cut potatoes in large pot of boiling water and boil for approx. 5-8 min. until potatoes are tender. Drain and set potatoes aside to cool.

Put chicken stock, sherry, and heavy cream in pot. Set aside.

Remove and discard sausage casings. Place the meat in a large pan and brown lightly. Drain meat on a paper towel and add to the chicken stock mixture. Wipe out sausage pan and fry bacon until crisp. Reserve 1 tablespoon bacon grease in the pan. Cool and drain bacon on a paper towel. Crumble into stock.

Add chopped onions into the pan with the reserved bacon grease. Saute for about two minutes on medium heat. Add fennel seed and red pepper flakes and saute until onion is clear.Remove from heat, add garlic, tossing around to mix.

Add onion mixture, and potatoes to liquid. Return to medium heat, bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Add chopped kale to soup before serving. If soup needs more liquid, add additional chicken stock.

Curried Carrot Ginger Soup

2009-01-11T13:06:33Z

Submitted by Craig Chrisenson, adapted by Heather Irwin

The curry in this soup gives it a really nice twist. The bright, piquant flavors of the spices and ginger make a great contrast to the sweetness of the carrots.

Adaptions: I always love orange with carrots. You could add a 1/4 cup of bottled orange juice or a few squeezes of fresh orange to brighten up the flavor even more. I cut back a bit on the brown sugar at the end, as my carrots were pretty sweet to start with.

If you don't have an immersion blender, don't worry. A regular blender works fine, but you'll want to let the soup cool a bit and work in batches. Don't get overzealous or you'll have a mess on your hands. Blend all the soup back together in a large bowl -- each batch may have slightly more carrots, etc. and you'll want to get a good consistent mix.

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RECIPE

2 tablespoons olive oil
6 carrots, peeled and diced
1 cup diced onion
1 cup diced celery
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1 teaspoon minced garlic
6 cups chicken or vegetable stock
3 tablespoons curry powder

1/2 cup heavy cream

Salt
White pepper
2/3 cup brown sugar (I used quite a bit less. Adapt to taste)
Sour cream (for garnish)
Cilantro or fresh chive (for garnish)

On medium heat, saute all vegetables in a large pot with two tablespoons of olive oil until soft. Add ginger and garlic and stir until flavors are released, about a minute or so. Add curry powder and stir (about one minute). Add stock and bring to a boil, then simmer for 15 minutes.

Add cream and blend until smooth with immersion blender in the pot. (If using a standard blender let cool first for safety). Finish with salt and white pepper to taste. Add brown sugar by the tablespoon and taste for sweetness.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream and a sprig of cilantro or diced chive.

Soup's On

2009-01-08T17:27:28Z

Soup is less a food than a religion to me. It nourishes, comforts and restores my faith when things seem grim. As the weather turns cold, my thoughts turn to wrapping my fingers around a steaming bowl of split pea with ham or warm cheddar potato -- two of my favorite hearty winter soups.

What are you favorite soups, chowders and stews? BiteClub Cooks is shouting out to all cooks for favorite recipes. We'll taste-test, photograph and publish our favorites. So send in your best warming broths today!

How to submit:
1. Click here and enter your recipe on our easy submission page. Feel free to add a little story about why you love this recipe. Don't forget to add an email address so we can contact you!

2. A little digitally challenged? Email me.

3. Really digitally challenged? Snail mail your recipe to:
BiteClub Cooks c/o Heather Irwin
Press Democrat
427 Mendocino Ave.
Santa Rosa, CA 95402.

Don't delay! We're hungry.

Red Hot Pinwheel Cookies

2009-01-06T22:55:25Z

Poster name: Celeste Sagadin

2 C. All Purpose Flour
1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/4 tsp. Salt
1/4 C. Cinnamon Red Hots
3/4 C. Softened butter
3/4 C. Sugar
1 Large egg
1/2 tsp. Vanilla
Red paste food coloring

On waxed paper combine flour, baking powder and salt.
In mini food processor pulse cinnamon candies until finely ground.
In large bowl with mixer at medium speed beat butter and sugar until creamy. Reduce speed to low, beat in egg and vanilla, gradually beat in flour mix, just until blended. Transfer 1/2 of dough to small bowl. Knead in candies then enough red food coloring to tint a pretty red. Between 2 pieces of wax paper, roll cinnamon dough to 15"x10" rectangle, repeat with plain dough. Put in fridge for 10 mins. or until chilled, but pliable. Remove top sheet of waxed paper from plain dough rectangle. Place plain dough rectangle (still on waxed paper) on work surface with long side facing you. Invert cinnamon dough rectangle on top of plain dough rectangle so edges line up evenly. Remove top sheet of waxed paper. Starting from the long side roll in jellyroll fashion. Wrap log in plastic wrap and freeze 1 hr. or longer until firm to slice. Preheat oven to 325º cut into 1/4" slice. Place 1" apart on cookie sheets lined with parchment. Cook 14-15 mins.

Makes approx. 36 cookies

Rich Christmas Cut-outs

2009-01-06T22:49:08Z

Submitted by Bluznurse

This is a great recipe for rolling and cutting. Very rich, shortbread like cookie with the flavor of butterscotch from the brown sugar. Makes lots of cookies, (3-4 dozen)

3 sticks butter
3/4 cup fine sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
3 egg yolks
2 1/2 T. milk
3 tsps. vanilla
4 cups flour
2 tsps cream of tarter
2 tsps baking soda
3/4 tsps. salt

Cream together butter and sugars. Add vanilla, egg yolks, milk. Mix well. Sift together dry ingredients and mix with butter/egg/sugar mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and store in fridge one hour before rolling and cutting cookies. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Great for decorating with your favorite Christmas icing and decorations.

2008-12-28T21:25:56Z

I 5 Cheesecake cookies
you need to eat these to keep you awake as you travel down or up I 5 freeway...
preheat oven to 335 degrees
1 stick softened butter
1 egg
1 pkg yellow or butter cake mix
mix together w/ mixer until in a ball, then put in 11x14 sprayed with Pam cake pan
then mix:
2 eggs, 1 pkg cream cheese softened, 1 cup brown sugar and 1 cup powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla. Mix together and pour over "cake" mixture.
place in oven for 25 to 35 minutes...should be slightly brown on top...let cool, dust with powdered sugar, and cut into slices...
the best cheesecake/cake cookies ever :-)

Grandma Wood's Cutout Butter Cookies

2008-12-23T23:33:20Z

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care. The guinea pigs had been working on their holiday craft projects for weeks. The children were nestled in bed with hot chocolate mustaches and sticky cinnamon fingers. Lights were twinkling in the trees and Santa was finishing the naughty and nice list.

But I was feeling distinctly un-Christmasy.

"All this damn work," I harumphed to McNibs. "I"m exhausted. This just isn't fun anymore," I said wiping flour off my shirt and wrapping paper scraps from my hair. The kitchen was a disaster and there were three more batches of cookies to bake. Gifts to be finished for teachers, baskets to be delivered to friends, lines to be waited in for hours. "What's the point?"

Sometimes in the thick of the holiday rush, it all feels to much. Too much stuff. Too much money. Too much crap. Too much caring. Too much doing. Because when you feel like punching an old lady because she's pushing her shopping cart too slowly, it's time to take a breath and regroup.

But sitting down with a glass of milk and a crunchy little butter cookie helps to put things into perspective. Especially when its a 200-year-old cookie.

]]> Let me back up a little: A few weeks ago four generations of women gathered in my grandmother's kitchen for our annual cookie baking day. It's a newish tradition, mostly because my daughter and I love to bake and my grandmother is (quite willingly) turning over the recipes to us for safekeeping.

Like many families, we have a rather extensive list of traditional favorites associated with particular family members. For my brother, it is "buckeyes" -- little peanut butter balls covered with chocolate -- and apricot balls. He used to eat them by the handful and then get a tummy ache. My mom loves butter cookies squeezed from a 30-year-old cookie press and lemon cookies.

But the one cookie we have each year, without fail, since as long as I can remember are great-grandma's cutouts. A taste so inextricably tied to Christmas that I can't imagine a holiday without them.

Thing is, they're a bear to make, requiring hours of hand-cutting nuts, pressing hard-boiled eggs through a sieve, carefully cutting each shape and pressing cinnamon and sugar into each cookie with a preciseness usually reserved for atomic scientists and neurosurgeons.

The recipe was old when my great-grandmother, Gisela Jurasek came to America from the Austrian-Hungarian border when she was just 18. Many of the details of the cookie have been lost over the years, giving them an almost mythical quality that's interpreted differently by each branch of the family. But what can all agree on is that they are truly wonderful, European-style cookies.

Unlike simpler recipes, these cutouts take half a day to make. It's time that has to be carefully set aside with the more senior members of the clan pinching the dough, giving instructions on how "grama" would do it and carefully watching each detail so that the cookies turn out just right. Straying from the recipe was not allowed and the heart, moon, spade, star, club and diamond cutters are among our family's most prized heirlooms. Younger cookie bakers in our extended family have been known to fly across the country to get lessons from the grand dames.

It's just that important in our family.

Which may seem a bit silly. But whether or not the cookies are worth all the work is quite beside the point. This is our family tradition -- one that has been passed down from woman to woman through the generations. It has been carefully taught to each of us.

I still haven't quite mastered them. But that's for Christmases to come as my mother and her mother continue to pass along their knowledge.

Savoring a little heart cookie so painstakingly made, it reminds me what exactly the point of the holidays really is. It's about remembering who we are and where we come from. It's about gathering the clan (even when they drive us nuts) and looking into the faces of people who share more than just DNA.

It's about taking a little extra time to make something special, meaningful and passing on the traditions that make us who we are. That's the point.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: These aren't simple to make, but they're a family tradition. The best gift you can give is passing along one of your own family traditions.

Grandma Wood's Cutout Butter Cookies
(Some measurements like flour and sugar are weighed, according to tradition)

1 pound granulated cane sugar
2 pounds unbleached flour (sifted)
1 pound, 4oz. unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp. salt
3 large eggs, hard-boiled, cold and pressed through a sieve
1 grated lemon rind
Juice of one lemon
5 raw egg yolks beaten slightly with a fork
1 raw whole egg beaten slightly with a fork
2# finely sliced (not chopped) walnuts. My great-grandmother would sit for hours in front of the radio finely slicing walnuts. My grama prefers pecans but still won't hear of them being done in the Cuisinart.

PROCESS
In a very large stainless steel mixing bowl (should hold about 12-13 quarts) place sugar, flour and salt and mix with your hands. Add softened butter and crumb by rubbing mixture between your hands. Work fast, but thoroughly so the butter does not melt from the heat of your hands. The mixture should be like a very fine pie dough.

Add mashed hard-boiled eggs and lemon rind and stir again with your hands to distribute evenly.

Add egg yolks and whole egg to lemon juice. Add the egg and lemon mixture to flour mixture. Distribute evenly as you pour it on and mix only enough to incorporate dry and liquid ingredients.

Sprinkle about 1/2 cup flour on work surface and place dough on the surface. Scrape dough from hands and work flour in by kneading only lightly. Handle dough lightly as it is a very "short" dough. Add more flour as necessary by "dusting" on a little a time, but don't add too much as this will toughen the dough -- just enough to make workable.

Place the dough aside on a tray. Scraping work surface clean, dust surface again with flour. Take about 1 pound of dough, form a round and roll to about 1/4 inch thickness, again, rolling lightly. Using cookie cutters, cut and place on buttered cookie sheets. Rework scraps into your next piece.

Using a pastry brush, brush with cookies with beaten raw egg mixture. Then press in walnuts that have been sliced by hand. Be sure to cover the entire top with nuts.

Sprinkle tops with a mixture of 2 cups granulated can sugar and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon.

Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 10-12 minutes or until light beige and glossy. Cool and remove from trays. Can be stored in the refrigerator. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Toffee Bar Cookies

2008-12-23T15:19:33Z

Submitted by Natalie Freitas

1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 12 ounce package chocolate chips
1/2 cup walnuts, finely chopped.

Cream the butter, then add the brown sugar and cream once more. Blend in egg, flour and vanilla. Chill dough overnight, if possible.

Spread in a thin layer on a large cookie sheet. I used waxed paper to help smooth the dough. Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes.

Cookies should be golden brown. Once removed from the oven, sprinkle chocolate chips over warm cookies, let melt and spread into a frosting. Sprinkle with walnuts and cut into squares. Store in tins for freshness.

Chocolate Crinkles

2008-12-23T05:20:10Z

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tsps. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter at room temp.
1-3/4 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 squares unsweetened chocolate melted or 6 tablespoons cocoa
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

Mis flour, baking powder and sale. In large bowl bet butter and granulated sugar with electric mixer until fluffy. Beat in eggs until mixture is pale yellow, then vanilla and chocolate until blended. Gradually add flour mixture, mixing just to blend. Refrigerate dough about 1 hour., (Try not to eat up the dough)

Heat oven 350°F. Lightly grease cookie sheets. Shape heaping teaspoonsful dough into 1-1/4 balls. Roll in confectioners' sugar. Place 1-1/2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Bake about 12 minutes until tops are puffed and crackled. Do NOT over bake. Cookies are soft when hot, but firm and chewy when cool.

Remove to rack to cool. Store tightly covered up to 3 weeks with waxed paper between layers. I like to put a walnut on the top, pressing down just slightly when just out of oven.
This makes about 60 cookies.,

Meringue Yummies

2008-12-22T23:02:30Z

Many years ago a dear friend gave me this recipe. I like to make it during the holidays because it's easy, delicious and low-calorie.

Meringue Yummies

Adjust oven racks to divide oven into even thirds. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Use an electric mixer to beat 2 egg whites with 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar.

Gradually add 3/4 cup sugar. Beat until stiff.

Fold in 10 oz. (1 3/4 cups) green mint chips, chocolate mint chips or a half and half mixture of green mint chips and semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Drop by teaspoon on two lightly greased cookie sheets. Put each cookie sheet on a separate rack in the oven.

Turn off oven and leave overnight. Don't open oven.

Yield: 40

Biscotti

2008-12-21T22:21:34Z

EDITOR'S NOTE: These were relatively easy to make, especially since you can do the batter up to one day in advance. Adding pepper to a cookie recipe may sound strange, but the flavor is very understated -- it leaves a little tingle on the tongue and adds to the savoriness of these tasty treats.

If you haven't made biscotti before, make sure you get the middle cooked through on the first bake. On my initial attempt, the center wasn't quite set and I had some messy (if still tasty) biscotti on my hands.

++++++

I couldn't decide which was my favorite--the fruitcake biscotti are wonderful especially baked ahead of time; the Walnut pepper biscotti go really well with Zinfandel. I love biscotti and have many recipes in my file--but these are my favorite holiday cookies.

Walnut-Pepper Biscotti

Makes about 3 ½ dozen

1 ¾ cups all purpose unbleached flour
½ t baking soda
½ t baking powder
1/8 t salt
1 ½ t freshly ground pepper
½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 t grated orange peel
1 ½ t vanilla extract
¼ t almond extract
1 ½ cups walnuts, lightly toasted & coarsely chopped

Sift first 4 ingredients into medium bowl. Mix in pepper. Using electric mixer, cream butter in another bowl until light. Gradually add sugar and beat until fluffy. Mix in eggs 1 at a time. Mix in orange peel and vanilla and almond extracts. Mix in walnuts. Add dry ingredients and mix just until blended. Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate until well chilled. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 2 baking sheets. Divide dough in half and form loaves about 12-14 inches long and 2-2 ½ inches wide. Bake for 15 minutes until golden brown. Cool and turn heat down to 325 degrees. Slice loaves in ½" to ¾" wide slices and place cut side down on baking sheets. Bake for 7-8 minutes and turn slices. Bake for 5-7 minutes more or until golden. Cool completely and store in airtight containers.

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Fruitcake Biscotti

¼ cup diced glazed cherries (or substitute with dried cranberries)
¼ cup golden raisins
¼ cup dried apricots, snipped into small pieces before measuring
¼ cup currants

3 T Pedroncelli Port
½ cup vegetable shortening
1 cup white sugar
1 ½ t vanilla
1 t orange extract
½ t almond extract
3 eggs
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ t baking powder
1 cup toasted pecans, chopped if large pieces

Combine fruit with Port in small bowl and set aside for 4 hours or overnight.

Cream shortening and sugar. Mix in vanilla, orange and almond extracts. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time. Mix flour and baking powder and gradually add to creamed mixture. Stir in fruit and chopped pecans. Chill four hours or overnight (I recommend overnight.).

Divide dough in quarters and form into loaves approximately 14 inches long by 2 inches wide. Place two loaves on a lightly sprayed baking sheet about 3 inches apart. Gently flatten logs with a spatula or your palms. Dough is sticky so flour hands and worktop.

Bake in 375 degree oven for 15-18 minutes until light golden brown; lower oven temperature to 325 degrees; cool loaves and then cut into 1/3 inch slices. Place cut side down and return to oven and bake 15 minutes longer or until lightly toasted--turn them over about halfway through.

Cool and store in airtight container. Makes about 8 dozen.

Almond Delights

2008-12-19T01:21:21Z

¼ cup blanched almonds
2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into 16 equal pats
½ cup confectioners sugar
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure almond extract
1 recipe Chocolate-Almond Filling (recipe follows)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Spread the almonds on a baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven until lightly browned, 8-10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool.
Use the metal blade of the food processor to chop the almonds finely, 6-8 pulses. Reserve.
Process the butter and sugar until smooth and creamy, about 20 seconds, stopping to scrape bowl. Add flour, salt, and almond extract and pulse 8-10 times until well mixed.
Roll a rounded half teaspoon of dough into a marble sized ball. Place about one and a half inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake the cookies in the center of the preheated oven until firm but not brown, 10-12 minutes. Cool on wire rack.
Spread about ½ teaspoon of the filling on the bottom of one cookie, place another cookie bottom side down on the filling and press lightly. Roll the chocolate edge of the cookie in the reserved chopper almonds. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Chocolate-Almond Filling

3 ounces semi-sweet good quality baking chocolate, broken into pieces
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons heavy cream
½ teaspoon pure almond extract
Pinch salt
1 cup confectioners sugar

Using the metal blade , process the chocolate for about 1 minute or until finely chopped.
Bring the butter and cream to a boil in sauce pan.
With motor running, pour the hot butter-cream mixture through the feed tube, process for 15 seconds or until the chocolate is smooth. Add the remaining ingredients, pulse 4-6 times to combine. Makes about 1 cup filling.

Fantasy Fudge

2008-12-18T16:35:55Z

My family aren't big fudge eaters, so I never learned all the finer points of making real fudge -- the kind you need a candy thermometer, pastry brush and nerves of steel to make.

This version, found on the back of Kraft marshmallow creme bottles, is a classic. It's not a true fudge but tastes wonderfully creamy and is super easy to make. Um, except for dummies like me who don't read directions well and substitute sweetened condensed milk. Three times. And wonder why the heck it doesn't work.

There area few secrets to getting the best results.

1. Use a heavy-bottomed pan to avoid scorching the milk. If you have a saucepan that has a copper or thick stainless steel bottom, you'll end up a happier camper.

2. Use the best chocolate chips you can afford. If you really want to be fancy, you can use block chocolate and cut it up into morsel-sized pieces. I had good luck with Guittard chips. If you like it real sweet, use a combination of milk and semi-sweet.

3. Pay really close attention to the time. You don't have to use a candy thermometer, but if you cook it too long, it gets grainy.

4. Keep stirring. Burned milk isn't fun.

5. The original recipe calls for margarine. I won't let the stuff in my kitchen, but you can do what you like.

6. I'm not a nut fan when it comes to fudge, so I left them out. You could add pretty much anything that tastes good to you...some coffee flavoring, mint flavoring, little crushed up peppermint candies, hazelnuts, marshmallows..experiment and have fun.

Fantasy Fudge (adapted from the original Kraft recipe)

3 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter (a stick and a half)
2/3 cup evaporated milk (don't use condensed milk, it won't work)
1 lb semi-sweet chocolate chips (about a bag and a quarter)
7 oz. jar marshmallow cream (one container)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup chopped walnuts (if you want, you can add other fun things)

How to cook it

1. Candy-making goes fast so have all of your ingredients measured out and ready to go. I even went so far as to put my chips in a microwave-safe container and gave them a little softening (about 25-30 seconds). Have a spatula ready to scoop out your marshmallow creme. I'm not kidding here. You'll thank me later.

2. Line a 13"x9"x2" pan with waxed paper or foil. I think foil gives it a weird taste.

3. Put your butter, sugar and milk in a thick-bottomed saucepan (about 3-quarts) over medium heat and bring to a roiling boil. Keep gently stirring everything to keep it from burning.

4. Once you've got a bubbling boil, set a timer for 4 minutes. Keep stirring. If you have a candy thermometer, watch for it to hit 234 degrees F. If you don't have the thermometer, four minutes is just about right.

5. Remove from heat and quickly stir in your chocolate and marshmallow cream. Keep stirring until it looks smooth and creamy. Once everything is incorporated, stir in the vanilla and your nuts (or other add-ins).

6. Pour into prepared pan.

7. Cool to room temperature before slicing it up into small pieces.

Ginger Cookies

2008-12-17T16:47:17Z

Submitted by Kelly McCLain

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup margarine, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
1/4 cup molasses
2 tablespoons white sugar

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the water and molasses. Gradually stir the sifted ingredients into the molasses mixture. Shape dough into walnut sized balls, and roll them in the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and flatten slightly.
3. 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. Store in an airtight container.