Dear love.. I made cookies.

It's almost Valentine's day. Valentine's day is a holiday especially made for making sweets for the sweet. In celebration Albie and I made cookies with heart themes. We had a blast looking for the recipes and found MANY possibilities on the world wide web. It seems the world loves heart shaped things. These simple sweets are at once delicate and endearing as they are both dusted with the lacey confectioners sugar. What better way to say happy Valentine's day than with a such a sugary-sweet gesture?

Pecan Linzer Cookies with raspberry filling (recipe from Martha Stewart.com

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup pecan halves, toasted
2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar, plus more for sprinkling
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/2 cup raspberry jam, strained
Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl; set aside. Pulse pecans, confectioners' sugar, salt, and cinnamon in a food processor until finely ground (but not wet); transfer to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.
Add butter and granulated sugar; mix on medium speed until fluffy. Mix in vanilla and egg. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture; mix until combined. Halve dough; shape into disks. Wrap in plastic; refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Working with 1 disk at a time, roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/8 inch thick. Refrigerate 20 minutes. Cut out squares with a 2-inch fluted cutter. Cut out centers of half the squares with a 1/2-inch heart cutter; reroll scraps. Space 2 inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake squares and hearts until pale golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer to racks to cool.
Meanwhile, heat jam in a small saucepan over medium heat until reduced and thickened, about 7 minutes; let cool.
Sprinkle cutout cookies with confectioners' sugar. Spread jam onto uncut squares; top with cutout ones. Store in an airtight container up to 2 days.

Heart shaped lemon bars:
For the lemon bars we used the recipe we have already posted in another blog post. I'll put it up again just in case someone wants it RIGHT NOW! After making the recipe of lemon bars I used a cookie cutter and cut out the heart-shaped treats. Yum.

lemon bars (as seen previously):

2 sticks (8 ounces) butter

2 cups flour

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

4 beaten eggs

2 cups sugar

4 tablespoons flour

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 tablespoon finely grated lemon peel

sifted confectioners' sugar

Heat oven to 325°. Blend butter, 2 cups flour and 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar. Pat into ungreased 13x9x2-inch pan. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes. For filling, blend together eggs, sugar, 4 tablespoons flour, lemon juice, and lemon peel.Pour over first layer. Return to oven and bake at 325° for 20 minutes. Loosen around edges, cut into bars and sift confectioners' sugar over the top while warm.

What a cute Valentine baker Albie is!! I believe he wears more confectioner's sugar on his clothing than on the cookies he made.

Friday Night Food

Friday nights are always fast and furious... even when we don't do anything. This friday was no different. Red beans and rice is a great dish that can be done ahead of time and served up whenever the mood strikes. Not only is it great for you and low in calories and fat, but it's yummy and kid-friendly!

Red Beans and Rice:

(American Cancer Society's Healthy Eating Cookbook)

3/4 lb ham hocks, washed

1 Qt. Water

1 lb dried red beans, sorted and washed

1.5 c onions, chopped

1 c fresh parsley, chopped

1 c green bell pepper, chopped

1 8-oz can tomato sauce

1/2 c green onions, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 T Worcestershire sauce

1t pepper

1/2 t red pepper

1 T fresh oregano
1T Fresh thyme

3 dashed hot sauce of choice

Serve with 5 c cooked rice

Place ham hocks and water in large saucepan, bring to a boil, and cover. Reduce heat to a simmer for 30 minutes, until tender. Remove and discard ham hocks. Strain broth and chill overnight. Remove surface fat from cold broth and set broth aside. Place beans in enough water to cover in a stck-pot and let stand covered over with lid overnight. Drain beans and add ham broth. COver and cook over low heat for 45 minutes. Add all ingredients remaining. Cover and cook over low heat for 2 - 2 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally and adding additional water if desired. Serve over rice. Makes 8-10 servings. 282cal per serving with 1/2c rice; 1g fat

Don't forget dessert! I am on a perpetual diet. It is much more important to me in the month of January than it is all year round. I guess that's why it's perpetual! So... low-fat low cal is the way I've been cooking lately and this dessert fit the bill: Angel food cake with dark choc. ganache and whole raspberry sauce. Yummy and REALLY low-cal. However... it has so little sustenance that the chocolate I used hadto be good. I tried Guittard. It was yummy, but not as pretty as I hoped it would be. Some cooks just make the food so pretty it's a shame to eat. I think I would be better on the diet if my food were THAT pretty!

Angel Food cake:

1 1/2 cups egg whites (10-12 large), room temperature
1 1/2 cups superfine sugar, divided
1 cup sifted cake flour
1 tsp cream of tartar1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla paste
1/2 tsp almond extract
Preheat oven to 325F.
In a small bowl, whisk together 3/4 cup sugar and the cake flour. Set aside.
Beat egg whites until frothy, the add cream of tartar and salt. Beat until fully incorporated then begin to add the remaining 3/4 cup of sugar 1-2 tablespoons at a time. When sugar has been added, beat egg whites to soft peaks. You will know when you have soft peaks because the egg whites will look like soft waves and when you lift the beaters, the peaks will droop back down into the batter. If your batter is falling in ribbons, it is not quite down. Once you have soft peaks, add the vanilla and almond extracts and beat for a few seconds to evenly distribute.
Sift the flour/sugar mixture over the egg whites in 6-8 additions (depending on your proficiency with folding flour into egg whites) and gently fold it in after each addition
Spoon batter into an ungreased 9 inch tube pan with a removeable bottom. Smooth the top with a spatula and tap the pan on the counter once or twice to ensure that there are no large bubbles lurking beneath the surface.
Bake for 50-60 minutes, until the top springs back when lightly pressed. Mine took 55 minutes.
Remove from oven an invert pan over a bottle. Allow to cool completely or overnight.
Gently run a thin knife around the sides, then around the bottom, of the pan to release the cake when you are ready to serve it.