Miss Originality's Blog » baking

Meringue Cookies

gina — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:06:14 +0000

These are great for Christmas. But why only have them once a year? They are so easy.

There is something to the myth about making meringue on a sunny high pressure day. It just works better and doesn’t take as long. I double this recipe in my large Kitchen Aid mixer. I get better results if the bowl is more full.

3 egg whites at room temp

1/8 t salt

1/2 t cream of tarter

2 1/4 cups powdered sugar

1 t vanilla

Beat salt and egg whites until foamy. Beat in cream of tarter. Slowly add the powdered sugar and beat until very stiff. Fold in vanilla. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet (I use butter). You can also line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and/or spray lightly with Pam. Bake at 375° for 15 to 20 minutes. Makes about 5 dozen.

These are also good with 2 cups of chopped nuts folded in.

Crumble these on top of Elegant Lemon French Toast for Lemon Meringue French Toast.

Elegant Lemon French Toast

gina — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:57:13 +0000

Why is it that when I am having “issues” with my picky eaters, I come up with some really yummy ideas?

Try this for Sunday brunch. It’s Wednesday. I had it for breakfast. Why wait for Sunday?

Lemon curd–make ahead

1 cup unsalted butter, melted

2 cups of sugar

4 eggs

1 cup fresh lemon juice

Combine ingredients in a bowl or top of double boiler. Place over simmering water and stir constantly and gently, being careful no to incorporate air. Stir until mixture is pale yellow and thickly coats the back of a spoon, about 7-10 minutes. Stain and cool. This keeps in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Make french toast. I like to use a brioche, pound cake slices, or rustic ciabatta. Arrange the slices on a pretty plate, spread lemon curd generously on the slices. Dust with powdered sugar.

Variation 1: Make meringue cookies ahead of time and crumble them onto the toast instead of the powdered sugar. See Meringue cookies

Variation 2: Use a lemon poppy seed pound cake. And/or before adding the lemon curd, spread a thin layer of canned Solo poppy seed filling on the toast.

Variation 3: Use a nice toasty bagel instead of making french toast. Fold the poppy seed filling into some cream cheese first.

Shall I go on?

Creamed Corn Casserole

gina — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:47:57 +0000

I know, it’s January. The month of resolutions and diets. If that’s where you are, tuck this one away for next Thanksgiving. Otherwise it’s a really great side to just about any roast. Let me know what you think or if you have any modifications.

CREAMED CORN CASSEROLE

1 large onion, chopped

1/2 stick butter

1 T honey

1 T lemon juice

1/2 t salt

black pepper

1/4 c flour

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup milk

1/4 c sugar

1/2 c grated parmesan

2 bags of frozen corn, thawed

In a heavy fry pan, caramelize the onions with butter, honey, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Add the flour and stir to make a roux. Stir in the cream a little at a time. Add the milk and the sugar. Stir until thick and creamy. Add the cheese. Place the corn in a 3 qt casserole. Pour the sauce over it and mix in. Cover with the following crumb topping and bake at 350° for 1 hour.

CRUMB TOPPING

2/3 cup seasoned bread crumbs

1/8 cup yellow corn meal

1/2 c of coarsely crushed croutons

1/2 c crushed pretzels

1/4 stick of melted butter

Mix the above topping ingredients together and sprinkle over casserole.

Saltmacasagna!?

gina — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 18:00:49 +0000

I love to play pretend with my granddaughter. She is 4. We play all sorts of things, like camping, complete with pretend fire and marshmallows and tents and sleeping bags. Or super hero. We pretend to fly around and get the bad guys. (GiGi doesn’t fly as fast as she used to!) Last night we played pretend cooking.

Pretend cooking is one of her favorite things to play at my house. We get out pans and wooden spoons and ingredients like oatmeal, peanut butter, breadcrumbs, various canned goods and cookie sprinkles. She has a little white chef hat and apron with matching pot holders. We have 2 8.5×11 pieces of paper taped together with circles drawn on them for a stove and the oven is under my recliner. One of her favorite things to make is muffins and cupcakes.

really cooking with GiGi

She was working particularly hard on a recipe last night and she asked me to taste it. I took the wooden spoon from her and pretended to slurp. “Oh delicious!” I exclaimed. “What do you call this recipe?” She took a few seconds, but then spit out, “Saltmacasagna”. Grandpa snickered. “Oh my!” (I was clearly caught off guard with that one). So I repeated the name, “saltcamazagna?” “No GiGI, salt-ma-ca-sag-na”. Shes saying the word like lasagna. She made sure I had the pronunciation just right. ” Well what is in saltmacasagna?”, I asked. “Oh peanut butter and oatmeal, and raisins and sugar and eggs…” It needed to cook for 42 seconds. Sounds good to me! Grandpa tasted it too and approved.

She is coming over again on Sunday. I am going to have the stuff to make peanut butter cookies ready. I’m sure she would agree that with a few tweaks, we’ll have saltmacasagna. We’ll write it down and publish it asap. I know you’ll all be wanting to make a batch. And her cookbook will be out in 2012!

Meatloaf? Really? Oh Fine, here’s the recipe.

gina — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 22:56:35 +0000

I don’t get it. My guys love meatloaf. I never have liked it, but I make it for them under 1 condition. I get the ends.

This recipe couldn’t be more simple. I’ve been making it since the 4th grade. That’s when I won my first award. It was an Outstanding Achievement for the science fair at St Patrick’s school. I had made an elaborate display called “Someone’s in the kitchen with Gina”. I had cookies to sample and lemon bars. The judge, Mrs. Clarey, thought she’d be tough on me. She asked me how to make a meatloaf. How many 4th graders can spit out a recipe for anything? I think she was flabbergasted. Fortunately I had been making dinners for our family for some time. Thanks Mom for getting me in the kitchen early! Here it is…

3# ground chuck

3 eggs

1 cup seasoned bread crumbs

1/4 cup of milk

I mix this together by squeezing it through my fingers. Don’t over mix it. Shape into a loaf, place on a jellyroll pan and bake at 425° for about 1 hour. I check it with a meat thermometer. I like it done to 180°. No pink here.

Sometimes I place sliced onion rings on top. Today I sprinkled the top with course sea salt. Smother it with ketchup if you must.

yeah don't tell me your oven is spotless!!

Picnic Food and Pizza Dish

missoriginality — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:40:29 +0000

It’s so interesting to observe who brings what to a picnic. You know, the bring a dish to pass situation. Recently we had a family reunion. Mom, sisters and me all provided hot meats, ice, charcoal, buns etc. Everybody who came brought a dish to share and a bottle of soda. There was Italian beef, pulled pork, hot turkey, burgers and hot dogs. My Aunt made a casserole we call pizza dish (a famous Gilly recipe).

The “pass” dishes included a couple of potato salads, a few pasta salads, a taco salad, a fruit salad, a few bags of various chips, a beet salad, and a bread salad. By looking at the various salads, arranged on ice in a baby pool, I can guess who brought what. Amazing!

I am so lucky to have a family that loves to cook and eat and share. My brother is a chef and so is my nephew!

I’ve already published our potato salad recipe. Here is the Pizza Dish recipe I referred to. This is a great casserole no matter what occasion. Sometimes this is the main course at our Christmas gathering. Of course for that we use 6 pounds of pasta and make it in two huge roaster pans. No leftovers!

Gilly’s Pizza Dish–her original version (says, “serves several”. I think she came up with this before we all grew)

1# bulk pork sausage–brown and drain

1 onion grated–brown with sausage

2 T oregano–add to meat

1 clove garlic–add to meat

1 lg can tomatoes–cut up with juice–add to meat.

Salt & pepper to taste

Simmer

Cook 2 cups elbow macaroni. Parmesan, mozzarella or scamorzi–grated

1 15oz container of cottage cheese.

Put drained macaroni in a 2 qt casserole dish. Mix meat sauce in and then cheese. Cover. Bake at 350° for 1 hour. Bubbles over. Everything Gilly baked was at 350°! It was her favorite oven setting. Don’t ask me why!

This is how I make it…

1 pkg (6) Klement’s Italian sausages– remove casing, brown and crumble

1 onion–mince and brown with meat

3 gloves of garlic–mince and brown with meat

2 T oregano

2 T basil

2 t fennel seed–crushed

2 lg cans of petite diced tomatoes

salt & pepper to taste

Simmer above ingredients while macaroni cooks.

Prepared to a firm tooth (slightly under done), 1 # elbows or rotini pasta.

In a casserole that is big enough, mix it all together. Stir in grated Parmesan, Romano, mozzarella or provolone (about 2 cups of cheese total) and 1 15 oz container of small curd cottage cheese. Reserve a little grated cheese for the top.

Bake at 350°–covered until heated through. Yeah, sometimes it bubbles over, but that just means you need a bigger casserole! I take the cover off for the last 15 minutes or so to crisp up/brown the cheese on top.

Serve with a big salad, garlic bread and vino if you like!

My Oatmeal Cookies

missoriginality — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 15:45:04 +0000

I’m not sure of the origin or this recipe, but I’ve tweaked it over the years. This is how I make them. I think they are Scott’s favorites. The dough keeps well in the fridge. I make a 1/2 doz at a time. Warm cookies and milk for breakfast? Why not? And never, ever, eat raw cookie dough.

2 1/4 cups flour

1 c sugar

1 c br sugar

1 t baking powder

1 t baking soda

1 t cinnamon

1/2 t nutmeg

1 cup butter-soft

2 eggs

1 t vanilla

1 3/4 cups old fashioned oats

1 1/2 + raisins (you can substitute any dried fruit and add nuts if you like. I also like choc chips and heath bits)

Cream the butter until fluffy, add sugars, eggs and vanilla. Combine very well. Stir together dry ingredients except oatmeal and raisins Then add to the mixer a little at a time while beating. When dry ingredients are combined, stir in oatmeal and raisins.

I set the oven to 350° and bake for 12 -13 minutes on an ungreased cookie sheet. I let them set a minute before removing them to a cooling rack. They should be thin and crispy, but still chewy on the inside.

If you want to make monster cookies, use an ice cream scoop. Make a test cookie to see how long they need to bake.

Afterthought: I double this recipe. I have no idea how many it makes since they get eaten before I have a chance to count. Also, since everybody makes their cookies a different size, what’s the use of me telling you how many cookies you will get? Make a note on your recipe so you remember how many you get.

Favorite Springtime Recipe

missoriginality — Fri, 22 May 2009 22:08:01 +0000

Rhubarb Surprise Pudding

this is categorized under Fiber as a joke…get it?

For an 8×8 pan… Preheat oven to 350

4 cups of rhubarb-chopped

¾ cup flour

1 teas baking powder

¼ teas salt

½ cup All Bran cereal

¾ cup sugar

½ cup milk

¼ cup soft butter

¾ cup sugar

1 tbls cornstarch

¼ teas salt

½ cup boiling water

Spread rhubarb in bottom of pan. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, All Bran, sugar, milk, and butter. Spread over rhubarb. Mix additional sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Sprinkle dry over batter. Pour boiling water over dry stuff (slowly to moisten all dry parts).

Bake at 350 for 1 hour. Serves 6-8 people who don’t love rhubarb. Serves 2 once you’ve tried it. Best served warm with vanilla ice cream.