Lemon Snap Cookies

I got this recipe from my foods class in high school my senior year. This was the only recipe that was worth keeping. These are also great if you substitute orange for the lemon in the
recipe!

### UPDATE: needs more lemon, and possibly leave out the ginger. Used yellow sugar to make it more yellow in color. Really needs more lemon. Thinking of adding lemon juice in the batter

2 C Flour
2 t Baking Powder
¼ t Baking Soda
1 C Sugar
3 T Sugar
3 t Lemon rind
½ t Ground ginger
6 ½ T margarine
2 t light corn syrup
2 t vanilla extract
1 Egg

Preheat oven to 375. Combine flour, baking powder, and soda. Set aside.
In a mixer: Mix 1 C Sugar, 2 t lemon rind, and ginger for 1 min.
Add margarine. Beat until light and fluffy.
Add vanilla, corn syrup and egg. Stir in flour mixture.
Combine 1t lemon rind & 3 T sugar.
Coat hands with cooking spray. Roll dough into 1 inch balls.
Roll balls in lemon sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.
Spray the bottom of a glass with cooking spray. Flatten the balls with the glass.
Bake 375 for 7 minutes. Cool 5 minutes.
Remove from pan and cool on rack.
Makes 3 dozen

Tofu and Peanut Noodles

1 pkg Firm tofu, drained
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 T fresh ginger, grated
1/3 C soy sauce
1 T light brown sugar
1/3 C peanut butter – I used natural creamy (still has a little grit to it)
½ C water
2 T canola oil
2 pkgs Neoguri noodles or other thicker Asian noodles
2 C Peppers & Onions
1 C Frozen Broccoli, large stems removed, defrosted

Cut the tofu block into 6 slices and place side by side between paper towels on a cooling rack w/ a cutting board on top, and a large weight on the cutting board. Let the tofu press & drain for at least 10 minutes. The longer it is pressed, the better the texture of the tofu will be after frying.
Mix the soy sauce and light brown sugar together until dissolved in a liquid measuring cup. Pour
half of the mixture in to a bowl.
In the bowl, add the garlic, ginger, and pressed tofu. Toss.
In the liquid measuring cup, add the peanut butter and ½ a cup of water to the soy sauce
mixture. Stir well.
Follow the directions to cook the noodles. (I break the noodles so they are easier to toss in the
stir-fry later.) If using Neoguri, boil water, add noodles, and cook about 5 minutes. If using
Hokkien, place noodles in a bowl, cover in boiling water for two minutes. Drain.
Heat oil in a large wok or sauté pan. (Recipe calls to drain the tofu and reserve the marinade,
but there wasn’t anything to drain) Cook the tofu in two batches until the tofu is well browned on
all sides. Remove from the wok.
When the noodles are almost ready, add the vegetables to the wok (Using whatever oil is left
from browning the tofu) and stir-fry until just tender. Add the tofu, any reserved marinade, and
noodles. Toss. Give the peanut butter mixture a good last stir and add to the stir-fry. Toss until
heated through.
Adapted from: The Complete Stir-Fry Cookbook

Basil Pesto

From Giada De Laurentiis's Everyday Italian Cookbook

2 C packed fresh basil leaves
1/4 C toasted pine nuts
1 garlic clove
1/2 t salt
1/4 t black pepper
2/3 C olive oil
1/2 grated Parmesan cheese

In a blender, pulse the basil, pine nuts, garlic, salt and pepper. With the blender still running, gradually add enough oil to form a smooth and thick consistently. Transfer the pesto to a bowl and stir in the cheese.

When tossing over pasta, add a little pasta water to help the pesto bind to the pasta.

When I last made this, I diced 3 tomatoes, shredded 2 carrots, and finely diced some red onion. I might have thrown in some olives as well? I can't remember.

Kick Ass Green Bean Casserole!

1 lb green beans, cleaned, end snapped off, bite-size pieces
1 T salt
4 C water

1 T butter
1 T olive oil
1 T garlic, minced
Salt and Pepper
8 oz Portobello Mushrooms, cleaned and dry
2 T flour
3/4 C Chicken Stock
1 T sherry
3/4 C half-and-half
1 slice whole wheat bread
3 oz French fried onions
Salt and Pepper

Microwave beans in salted water for 6 minutes. Drain and rinse in ice water. Let beans sit to dry.

Remove the stems from the mushrooms and dice finely. Break mushroom tops into pieces ( for better texture).
Melt butter & oil. Add garlic and let it lightly brown.
Toss in mushroom pieces, salt, and pepper to the pan.
Stir frequently until mushrooms start to release their juice, about 6 min.
Add flour. Stir frequently and let it brown.
Add chicken stock and sherry. Stir and bring to a simmer.
Slowly add the half-and-half, stirring frequently until sauce thickens, about 10 minutes.
Add cooked green beans. Pour into greased 8" square baking dish.

In a food processor, process the bread to crumbs, add french fried onions salt and pepper. Pulse to combine. Spread mixture evenly over beans. Cook at 425 for 10 minutes.

Adapted from a Cook's Illustrated & Kitchen Parade recipe. See link if doubling recipe or cooking later!

Herb Links

After growing all these awesome herbs all summer, I need to do a little bit of research to figure out what to do with them! 

Pineapple Sage Gardening
Pineapple Sage from Theessentialherbal

Lemon Verbena from oldfashionedliving.com

Refrigerator Pickles

Today I made refrigerator pickles following a recipe from Group Recipes
I used a combination of dried dill seeds and fronds, garlic, small bulb onions, pepper and a picking mix from STL. I put a tsp of salt in each pint jar and used the sugar/vinegar solution ratio  from the recipe. I think they will still be pretty sweet, due to the amount of sugar in the recipe. Time will tell how well they turned out!

Beer Can Chicken

I have made this using 17th Street "Magic Dust" as the rub, but when I made it last, I more or less followed this: Beer Can Grilled Chicken

I doubled the rub recipe for four chickens and I think I added maybe a couple teaspoons of both turmeric and ground coriander (the seed, not cilantro).

The technique shown in the video is very straight-forward and easy...minimal work for spectacular chicken :)