Christmas time is near...WHOOPIE

Its time to start getting ready for the holidays. That means lots of cookie dough and baking. I decided last year to add a couple of new cookies to my list of Christmas baking. This year after a few Test Kitchen recipes, I finally got my new 2010 Christmas cookie. Although I wont only be making it for Christmas...its absolutely delicious and quite easy to make. Whoopieeeeeeeeeee! or should I say Red Velvet Whoopie Pie! The recipe calls for Peppermint Cream cheese filling, but I decided to omit the peppermint. I may make some with the peppermint filling for Christmas as requested by a couple of people, but I am very happy without it. 

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter softened

1 cup packed brown sugar
2 tbs unsweetened cocao powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups sifted flour
1/2 cup buttermilk
red food coloring

Cream cheese filling ( recipe below )

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line sheet pan with parchment paper. In large bowl, beat butter with brown sugar until smooth. add cocao powder baking soda and salt. Beat until combined. Beat in egg and vanilla until well mixed. Alternately add flour and buttermilk. ( I use a powdered buttermilk, easier to mix what I need when I need it ). Add red food coloring ( I used the paste kind ). Spoon dough from rounded measuring teaspoon and place 2 inches apart on sheet pan. Bake in preheated oven for 8-10 minutes. Make sure you do NOT underbake, as the cookies will fall if you do. Cool on sheet pan for 2 min then transfer to wire rack to cool. Spread cream cheese filling on flat side of one cookie and top with another cookie, to make sandwich. flat sides together. Serve cookies immediately after assembly. I baked the cookies and froze them- they thaw quickly and are perfect to do ahead.

makes about 40 cookies- to store after baking if you dont freeze, layer cookies between sheets of parchment or wax paper in airtight container. Store in refrigerator for 3 days, let stand at room temp for 15 minutes before serving.

Cream Cheese Filling:

6 oz of cream cheese room temp

3 tbs butter softened

3 cups powdered sugar

1-3 tsp milk

1/2 tsp peppermint extract if wanted.

Whip cream cheese until smooth and airy, add butter and mix until well incorporated. Add powdered sugar slowly until mixed and creamy. Add milk 1 tsp at a time until spreading consistency.

And there you have it.......My new favorite vintage classic cookie! Your going to love them! Remember, Life is full of tasty morsels!!

Michele's Morsels Test Kitchen NOW OPEN!

This is my Test Kitchen week......New Recipes, Old recipes revised and Final decisions made and produced. Tonite's Test Recipe is a recipe I found on The Joy of Baking site. It is for Cranberry Shortbread bars. As I absolutely LOVE cranberries, I decided to try this one out first. If it is successful, it will be a Christmas gift for several people as well as a new dessert. I have revised this recipe to make it a little more Diabetic Friendly. I used granulated Splenda in place of sugar, and Brown Sugar/ Splenda blend in place of the brown sugar. Cutting the sugar alone is a big big help. I have to remember its about portion control as well. The bars are baked in a 9x9 pan and recipe says 16 servings. Not large portions! I am trying to find a free online site to give me the nutritional value of the recipes I am re-working, to at least have an idea of what I am eating. I am not sure if my mom and her husband are "Willing" tasters ( subjects ) or if they are going to resent me for asking them to taste everything. Probably NOT! LOL.

Cranberry Shortbread Bars
Cranberry Filling:
8 oz fresh cranberries
2/3 scant ( not full ) cup of granulated splenda
3 Tbs water
Bring to boil and cook for about 5 minutes until thick and syrupy and cranberries have burst. Remove from heat and let cool.

Shortbread Bars:

2 cups flour

2 tbs cornstarch

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/3 cup packed brown sugar/splenda blend

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and using canola spray or baking spray - lightly coat a 9 x 9 pan. Sift together flour, salt and cornstarch into separate bowl. In mixing bowl cream together butter, brown sugar blend and vanilla until creamy. Slowly add flour mix and beat until all ingredients are just incorporated. Evenly press 2/3 of the batter into the bottom of the prepared pan. Evenly spread the cranberry mixture to the shortbread base leaving a 1/4 inch border around the edges. With the remaining shortbread batter, using fingers, crumble the batter on top of the cranberry filling and lightly press into the filling.  Bake for about 30 minutes in a 375 degree oven or until top is golden brown. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack. While still warm, cut ito 16 squares. Allow to cool completely in pan. Makes 16 bars. Well I dont need to find out the nutritional information to know they are delicious. Mom thinks they are absolutely terrific and wanted more!  Cranberry Shortbread Bars - Pass!

FALLing behind....

Come Halloween, things start to get busier for some reason. With the holidays almost upon us, I guess its inevitable.  This is my favorite time of year. I love autumn and the flavors and smells that come with it. The crisp fresh air, the smell of the leaves falling from the trees, fire places starting to be used. Pumpkin spice lattes, Pumkin loaf, Cranberry this, Apple that..... I love getting ready for the holiday season, and most of all I love cooking and baking. Because I want to enjoy the season, I tend to be more organized this time of year. I dont like falling behind and I most certainly dont like being stressed. Lists are made, food is being labeled, gift bags are being organized....and it all seems to be done in a shorter than usual day. Ahhh the old Daylight savings time! I am vowing to NOT be ready for bed at 6pm....so to help with that, I am now preparing dinner for a bit later than we normally eat. Maybe this will help. I figure maybe something can compensate for the fact we seem to have less daylight in the afternoon. We will see. As for cooking, I am trying out new things and revising some old favorites. Sugar free or substituting Splenda for sugar, healthy for non healthy....Today I have decided to use the autumn flavors for dinner tonite. Grilled Chicken with a Sugar free Cranberry Orange glaze,  Roasted Mini Butternut squash, and a sort of Risotto made with some Autumn harvest orzo and canned pumpkin. Carot Cakes are in the oven. First thing I did was make the Cranberry Sauce. I did this yesterday so it would be extra yummy today from the flavors sitting together.

Cranberry sauce:
1/2 bag of fresh cranberries
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup Granulated Splenda
Cook in saucepan until berries burst and sauce thickens. About 20 minutes.
Let cool. Add 1 Teaspoon Olive oil, 1/2 orange  juiced, 1tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, zest of 1 orange. Mix and set aside or refrigerate.
I grilled up 4 chicken breasts without skin or bone, just to sear off the chicken and put some nice grill marks on it. Place seared chicken in covered casserole dish. ( this will keep chicken moist) cook for about 40 min. Uncover and put some of your cranberry sauce on each peice and continue cooking for another 15 minutes until you reach internal temp of 160 degrees.
While the chicken is cooking, I took my mini Butternut Squash and cut in half, legnthwise. Scooped out the seeds, brushed with olive oil and seasoned with salt, black pepper, nutmeg and chili powder. Turn over and bake skin side up for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.
Heat up 1 cup of vegetable broth ( use chicken if necessary ) and add 1 cup of orzo. I bought a lovely autumn orzo mix so I used that. You want to cook the orzo slow like you would a risotto. Adding more broth as needed. The orzo will absorb the liquid slowly. When the orzo was al dente I added about 1 cup of canned pumpkin, cracked black pepper, 1/2 tsp nutmeg and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Stir until completely mixed. I then added 1 tbs of butter and 1 tbs of grated parmesan cheese to finish. Everything should be about finished the same time for service. I like serving everything, I found it definitely helps with portion control. The comments at the table tonite were...." I would pay for this in a restaurant"  and " If I ordered this out, I would not have been disappointed" LOL I guess it was good! It was definitely an Autumn Meal. Dessert will be later, a yummy carrot cake with some cream cheese frosting. ( sorry I cheated and used a mix for the cake )

No Soup for You!

The Soup Nazi I am not! I love soup. A few years ago, I was the Executive Chef at a college and ran the college cafe. We served 3 soups daily, one was an asian soup made by my Chinese cooks. The other two I made first thing in the morning when I got in. Since the college was a Health Professions school, the students and faculty wanted healthy food. I tried to make one of the soups a vegetarian or vegan soup. The other was basically whatever we could create.  Cleaning out the walk-in cooler with leftover veggies or meats from lunch the day before was the best way to avoid waste and really have some fun. Figuring out new ways to make cream soups without cream utilized my culinary education. It was fun, creative and tasty. I think the comptroller appreciated the fact it was a low food cost item to sell in the cafe. Better for my budget. Now that the weather is getting cooler, I want to make a large pot of soup every week. Nutritious and easy on the budget, its perfect for the season. Tonites soup is Roasted Chicken with Brown Rice. I did alot of the prep work on sunday so all I would have to do is throw it together today. On sunday, I roasted 2 whole chicken breasts with the bone. I placed sliced shallots and sage leaves under the skin. Sprinkled with salt and pepper, and laid the breasts on top of chopped onion, carrots and celery (mire poix). I baked the breasts for about 50 minutes at 350 degrees. Let cool and remove meat from bones. I also chopped my mire poix ( a mixture of onions, carrots and celery for sauces, soups and stocks ) on sunday and stored it in the refrigerator. I used 2 cups of diced carrots, 3 large parsnips, 3 leeks, 4 stalks of celery with the leaves (all medium diced). If no leeks are available use 3 onions instead. I also had about 2 cups of brown rice left over from monday nites dinner that I saved.
Roasted Chicken with Brown Rice Soup:

Ingredients:

2 whole chicken breasts with bone ( prepared as above )

mire poix ( prepared as above )

1/4 cup olive oil

2 cups cooked rice

2 bay leaves

1/2 cup chopped parsley

salt and pepper to taste

Sweat MirePoix in large stock pot with 4 tbs of olive or canola oil. Add 5 quarts of chicken broth or stock. Add the cooked brown rice ( or whichever rice you prefer ). Add the shredded cooked chicken, 2 bay leaves, salt and pepper to taste, and 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley. Cook for a few hours on low heat. Serve with Hot crusty bread or a side salad! I am serving mine with a small grilled chicken caesar salad with homemade croutons and shaved parmesan cheese. Yumm!!! and Remember: Life is full of Tasty Morsels!

PS sorry guys, for some reason the pics came out horrible. Flash wasnt working and pics are yellow and orange. Next time!

A Taste of Paris

I havent been blogging much since my surgery a few weeks ago. Seems that my healing has been slowed down by ripping out more sutures. Good news is its not as bad as the last surgery AND I am trying to get a handle on eating right to lose weight and manage my Diabetes. I have been cooking lately because I have just been so bored, even though I have difficulty using my left arm. Trying to make new and tasty dishes that fall into my healthy and low carb way of eating is really not that difficult. I try to plan out my weeks menu in advance, but sometimes its only the protein  I have planned. The sides and vegetables can be altered according to whats in the pantry. We always have brown rice, couscous, quinoa, pasta and potatoes so I am usually good to go. I decided last nite to take out some Mahi Mahi from the freezer. We buy it at BJ's or Costco and its fresh frozen. Yes I said Fresh Frozen. LOL That means its frozen as soon as its cleaned and cut. Its portion controlled and individually cryovaced. It really is almost good as fresh. Not knowing what I was going to make, and then changing my mind after looking in the pantry, I ended up making Baked Mahi with Herbes Poisson Bio ( organic fish herbs ) that mom bought in Paris a couple years ago. It contains fennel, organic celery, pink peppercorn and cardamom, giving the fish a slightly licorice flavor. I rubbed the fish with a little bit of olive oil and sprinkled the herb mixture on it. Placed on a peice of parchment paper on a sheet pan, I baked it at 350 degrees for about 15-18 min. depending on the thickness of the fish. I had earlier taken a few garden tomatoes and cut 1/4 inch slices placing them on a sheet pan. Sprinkled with olive oil and some black lava sea salt baked in a 350 degree oven for about 35 min. While the tomatoes were roasting in the oven, I cut some yukon gold potatoes into a large dice and boiled until cooked through. Approximately 20-25 min. THen I drained the potatoes,  then added 1 tbs butter, zest and juice of 1 lemon, salt, pepper, 1/2 cup of fresh chopped parsley and 1 clove of garlic minced and tossed lightly. I placed the bowl into the oven while the fish was cooking to keep hot. There were plenty of veggies in the freezer so I decided to steam some cauliflower. I served the Mahi on top of the roasted tomatoes to actually eat together. It was fabulous!! Yummy yummy. I figured out the calorie and carb value as best I could and we get approximately 350 calories and 40 carbs. That is not completely accurate, but for me for now its as good as it gets. I ate healthy and it was delicious! Remember : Life is full of tasty morsels!
PS- for some reason I am having difficulties posting pictures. HA!

Thai Tilapia

I recently discovered a new magazine called "Clean Eating". Improving your life one meal at a time is its catch phrase. Thought it sounded interesting so I bought it. I LOVE IT! Healthy, Green and Great food is what its all about. Tonite's dinner is a recipe I found inside. ( I actually asked for this magazine subscription for my a birthday gift ). Its Thai Tilapia with Basil and Pineapple couscous. Pineapple and Basil is a traditional pairing in Thai Cuisine. Its the bold combinations of fragrant Basil, sweet pineapple, and savory soy sauce that gives this dish a wonderful flavor. I, of course had to make this my own by adding a couple of Thai Chilis to the couscous dish. I wont be chopping them up, and they are dried, so when they reconstitute they will add some nice flavor to the dish. Just remember to remove them before serving. Its not a chili you want to eat! I also used chicken stock instead of water to make the couscous. It adds sooo much more flavor to the couscous. Play with a recipe. Add things you like and try it. The recipe is just a template for you to create something!  This recipe serves 4.

Tiapia with Basil Pineapple and Edamame Couscous

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups fresh pineapple diced ( about 12 oz )

1 cup packed fresh basil leaves thinly slice ( chiffonade )

1 tbs low sodium soy sauce

juice and zest of 1 lime

2 tbs whole wheat flour

1 lb tilapia fillets 4 peices

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp paprika

1 tsp + 1 tbs olive oil

1 cup uncooked couscous ( I only use Whole wheat but regular is fine )

2 cups frozen shelled edamame ( rinsed under cold water until defrosted )
2 thai red chilis
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock

Instructions:
1. Place half of pineapple in food processor with half of basil, soy sauce and lime juice and zest. Blend until smooth. set aside
2. Season Tiliapia with salt and pepper and coat both sides with flour.
3. Heat small saucepan over medium heat. Add 1 tbs oil and couscous and toast for 1-2 minutes until gives off a nutty aroma.  Add edamame, remaining pineapple and 2 cups of stock, and 2 thai red chili's and bring to a boil. stirring once or twice. Turn off heat and cover. Let rest for 15 minutes until liquid is absorbed.
4. Meanwhile heat large skillet over medium heat. Add remaining 1 tbs oil, When oil is hot, add tilapia and cook for 3-4 minutes per side, until a crisp crust forms and fish is cooked through. Add remaining basil to the resting couscous and stir. Divide couscous mixture and tilapia into 4 servings. Drizzle tilapia with 3 tbs pineapple soy mixture. Nutritional information says that this recipe is 417 calories per serving. Total fat - 11 grams, total carbs-44g, protein 38g, and fiber 9g. That sounds good in my book. Remember its all about portion size. Or at least thats what I am learning now. A healthy, nutritious and delicious tasting dinner. Quick and Easy to make! It was sooo yummy! I served it with a side of Arugula with some Mango Chili Vinegar and Olive Oil. Sorry guys, I keep forgetting to take pictures. I had the camera in my pocket but sat down to eat and completely forgot. This picture is the leftovers in containers! LOL Remember- Life is full of Tasty Morsels!

Sausage with Peppers and Onions.....healthy style

Mom went to Uncle Guiseppe's yesterday and picked up some Chicken Sausage. I have to check the nutritional information on it, but it has to be better than Pork Sausage. Going through the refrigerator and pantry I decided to make Mom's old Sausage and Onion Casserole, only Healthy style. Instead of the Pork Sausage I will be using chicken sausage. Instead of frying up the onions and peppers, they get sliced and baked in the oven with the sausage. Its pretty easy, and mom always made it when we were kids.
Mom's Sausage with Peppers, Onions and Potatoes Healthy style:
1 package Chicken sausage about 5-6 links cut into bite size peices ( approx 5-6 a link )
3 medium onions peeled and large dice
2 bell peppers (any color) large dice
6 medium potatoes large dice
2 tbs olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

Cut the sausage into approximately 5-6 pieces per link. Peel and cut the onion approx same size as the sausage. Wash and chop the potato into approx 6 -8 peices per potato ( approx same size for everything ).
Wash and remove seeds and ribbing from bell peppers and large dice. Place in stainless or glass baking pan and spread out,toss with olive oil and salt and pepper Make sure everything is lightly coated with oil. Dont overcrowd. Bake at 350degrees for about 45 minutes covered. Remove cover, and bake another 20-30 minutes until browned and somewhat crispy. Make sure when serving - each person gets onions, peppers, potatoes and sausage. Delish! A new twist on an old favorite! and Remember.....Life is full of Tasty Morsels!