Tony's Walnut Crescents

One of my most favorite cookies EVER are Tony Ferriera's walnut crescent cookies. He knows how much I like them & I think he bakes a special batch around the holidays when he knows we'll be around so I can gorge myself on these little delights! I asked him for the recipe, assuming it was some generations-old Ferriera family secret, and I couldn't believe it was one he found on cooks.com! Here it is for our cookie making enjoyment...

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Tony's Walnut Crescent Cookies
Recipe adapted from Cooks.com

1/2 lb butter
1/2 C powdered sugar
1 t vanilla
2 C flour
1/2 C walnuts, chopped in small pieces

Cream butter, then work in sugar until well blended. Add vanilla, nuts, and flour. Place in the refrigerator for 1 hour (Tony sometimes skips this step if he's in a hurry and the results are fine). Shape dough into small crescents and place onto an ungreased cookie sheet. bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. While still warm, generously roll in powdered sugar to form a coating. Tony says if you're not choking on powdered sugar, you haven't put enough on. ;)

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies (AKA Copy Cat Doug's Moon Cakes)

***This week I had a random craving for an oatmeal and peanut butter combo cookie so I searched the web a bit until I found one I thought might be decent. Today when I mentioned it to Jack, he said his Dad made oatmeal peanut butter cookies a few times when he was young and called them "Moon Cakes." This stuck out to me for a few reasons. First, I've never seen my father-in-law cook anything except for scrambled eggs. I'm sure he CAN cook, I've just never really seen it. So I was intrigued that he felt motivated enough to make this recipe. Second, I thought the name "Moon Cakes" sounded pretty cool. I googled it, hoping for an awesome cookie recipe and instead found thousands of recipes for a Chinese bakery product. I imagined our posterity reading through a Harvey Recipebox Cookbook some day and having the mental image of Doug Harvey as being someone who baked Chinese treats for his kids. I literally laughed out loud. I still am actually.

Jack said his Dad made these cookies a couple of times but that despite his kids' requests for it afterward, he never made them again. I felt like I owed it to Jack to recreate something that could fill this decades-old-hankering. Or maybe my week-old-craving. Either way, here they are:

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Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies

(AKA Copy Cat Doug's "Moon Cakes")

Ingredients

1 C peanut butter (chunky or creamy)

1 C butter

1 C granulated sugar

1 C firmly packed brown sugar

2 eggs

2 t vanilla

2 C quick-cooking oats

2 C all purpose flour

1 t baking powder

1 t baking soda

¼ t salt

1- 12 oz package semi-sweet chocolate chips, if desired

1.       Heat oven to 350 degrees.

3.       Beat peanut butter and butter with electric mixer until smooth. Beat in sugars, eggs, & vanilla until blended.

4.       In a medium bowl combine oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Beat flour mixture into peanut butter mixture just until blended. Stir in chocolate chips, if desired.

5.       Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake 11-13 minutes.

Best Florek Rolls

This recipe is from a friend, Angel Florek, who lived in our ward while we were in podiatry school. Angel made these rolls along with a curried chicken salad for a friend's baby shower and I seriously thought she bought the rolls somewhere from a bakery. I was stunned to find out she had made them from scratch! They are sweet & remind me of hawaiian bread or milk-and-honey rolls. They are great as sandwich rolls (like for pulled pork or curried chicken salad!) or stand alone (like for Thanksgiving!). Love these!

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2 Tbsp dry yeast
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 C. warm water

1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 C sugar
1/2 shortening
1 C hot milk
4.5 C flour, divided
2 eggs

In a small bowl, combine yeast, 1 Tbsp sugar, and warm water and set aside for 5 minutes or until bubbly. In a stand mixer bowl combine salt, 1/2 C sugar, and shortening. Mix on low with the whisk attachment until combined then add the hot milk, mixing slowly so as not to spill. Once incorporated, add 2 cups of flour. Then add the yeast mixture and mix well. Then add eggs.

Replace the whisk attachment with the dough hook and add remaining 2.5 cups of flour. Mix on high for 5 minutes. Remove the hook and set aside for 15 minutes to allow rising.

Flour the counter and divide the dough into 3 equal parts. Roll out each piece into a circle and cut it into 8 pieces, like a pie. Place rolls on a cookie sheet.

For quick rise: set oven to 170 then turn off. Place rolls in the off-but-warm oven for 30 minutes.

Bake at 400 for 9 minutes. Watch the first batch CLOSELY so they don't burn. Times can vary by oven anywhere from 7-10 minutes.

Ratatouille

***My wonderful friend Severine Germer from France made this traditional dish for us and I practically licked the bowl clean afterwards. This recipe is great the day its prepared, but as the flavors are given time to meld together, the leftovers are almost better the next day! That's saying something from a girl who isn't all the fond of leftovers! I also love her little quips throughout the recipe, it really shows her personality & why I think she's so fun!***

RATATOUILLE

(because you can't call yourself French if you don't know how to make this -or at the very least know about it-). This dish comes from the South of France and is very tasty with almost no fat. I usually make it with rice and sausages.

Ingredients:
-2 small yellow onions, cut "julienne" (you cut it in half and then in half again and take the inside slices apart)
-1 medium eggplant: cut in half lengthwise and then in thin slices. Put some in a strainer, add salt, then more + salt and so on in layers. This will take the bitterness out of the eggplant. Leave for 30 min and then pat the eggplants slices with paper towel to absorb the "juice."
-4 medium zucchinis, small slices
-about 5-7 medium tomatoes.
-1 Tbsp herbs de Provence
-olive oil
-1/2 stick of butter if you're not on Weight Watchers. It's not absolutely necessary though, I rarely use butter in ratatouille except to brown the onions.

Now that you've done all the slicing/getting ready, it's super easy and you can almost feel like you're in a Pixar movie:

1. Warm a big pot on the stove with a bit of butter, add onions when hot. Brown for about 5 mins, making sure they don't burn (it's been known to happen even to yours truly)

2. If need be, add some olive oil and then the eggplant, cook for 3-4 more mins.

3. Add zucchinis, plus a glass of water and cover. While it cooks, I usually cut the tomatoes in 8 and add them when I'm done. Add salt to taste and herbs. Add butter if you like.

4. Let simmer on low for one hour, adding some water if needed.

5. If too watery, uncover while simmering.

Chocolate Chip Bran Muffins

***I know bran muffins aren't all that glamorous a thing to bake, but after having my third child, I needed a little help in the fiber department... and these muffins adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe, which I have made over and over until the recipe is now perfect, were a godsend. A delicious godsend. From now on, I plan on making & delivering these with dinner for moms who've just had babies. And, I plan to continue making & eating these just as a healthy treat myself!***

Chocolate Chip Bran Muffins

YIELD: 

MAKES 24 MUFFINS

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups wheat bran flakes or plain wheat bran cereal (I like to use Trader Joe's brand-only $1.99 for the box!-but Kelloggs has one or in a pinch I've used raisin bran with the raisins plucked out)
• 1 cups Kellogg's All Bran cereal (look like little twigs)
• 1 cup boiling water
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) butter, melted
• 1/4 cup (no-added sugar) applesauce
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

1. Place the wheat bran flakes and all-bran in the bowl of a stand mixer. Pour the boiling water over the bran and mix well. Mix every couple of minutes while the mixture cools to room temperature. The mixture will become very thick and sticky.
2. After the mixture cools, add the buttermilk in a slow steady stream pausing occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl before adding more. Then add the melted butter, applesauce, sugar, eggs and vanilla, mixing well after each addition. Add the flour, baking soda and salt. Mix well to combine all the ingredients together.
3. Scoop the batter into greased or lined muffin tins. Fill 3/4 full. Bake at 375 degrees as directed below, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.

• Regular Muffin Tins (2 cookie scoops per cup): bake 14-16 min
• Jumbo Muffin Tins (4 cookie scoops per cup): bake 20-23 min

Crunchy Black Bean Tacos

I saw a similar recipe to this on Pinterest, but felt like the filling on these could use a little extra kick, so I added a few little twists inspired by Our Best Bites' version of "Quick and Easy Black Beans" and here is my new crunchy black bean taco!

Crunchy Black Bean Tacos

Makes 12-16 tacos (serves 8).
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
2 Cans Black Beans, drained and rinsed 
1/2 T olive oil 
2/3 C diced onion 
2-3 garlic cloves, pressed or finely minced 
2/3 C chicken broth
1/4 t cumin 
1/4 t coriander
1/4 t oregano 
1/2 t salt 
1/4 t pepper 
1 lime
2 Tbsp. cilantro, chopped
4-6 ounces pepper jack cheese, grated
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 avocado, sliced
Pinch of salt and pepper
12-16 corn tortillas
Hot sauce
Salsa
Sour cream

Directions:
1) In a saucepan on the stove, heat the olive oil to med-high heat. Saute onions for about 3 minutes or until they just start to become translucent. Add garlic and saute abut 30 seconds more. Add beans, broth, and remaining seasonings and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a low simmer and simmer for about 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. When they are done cooking, remove from heat and add in a few squeezes of fresh lime juice. Then use the back of a spoon or rubber spatula so smoosh some of the beans. You don’t want to pulverize them, but you want to take a bunch of good smooshes so that some of the beans are smashed, which will thicken the sauce. Add in the cilantro. Grate the cheese and have it ready.

2) In a large, non-stick skillet or cast iron skillet, add a few tablespoons of oil and heat over medium-high heat.

3) Add one corn tortilla at a time and let each get hot in the oil for a few seconds. Then add about 1?4 cup of the bean filling to one half of the tortilla. Top with a sprinkle of grated cheese.

4) Using tongs, carefully fold the tortilla over so it forms a shell. Press down lightly on the tortilla so it holds its shape.

5) As the first tortilla cooks, move it to the side and do a second one. Depending on the size of your pan, you should be able to get 2 or 3 tacos at once. If you have a griddle you can do even more at once.

6) Cook each taco for about 3 minutes per side until they are nicely browned and crispy.

7) When flipping the taco to cook on the other side, use tongs and flip the taco toward the fold so the filling doesn’t fall out.

8) Serve tacos with toppings like hot sauce, salsa, avocados, and sour cream.Note: Corn tortillas are resilent to heat. Don’t worry about burning them. They are very flexible. Just be sure to cook them on each side long enough to get them really crispy.