Perfect for the season

Ginger Cookies


2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter or margarine, at room temperature
1 cup firmly backed light-brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 egg
1/2 cup granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease baking sheets.  Mix together flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and salt in a medium-size bowl.  Beat together butter, brown sugar, honey, and egg in large bowl until smooth.  Beat in flour mixture just until a dough forms.  Cover and refrigerate dough for 30 minutes.  Shape dough into 1-inch balls.  Place on prepared baking sheets, spacing 2 1/2 inches apart.  Lightly moisten the bottom of a water glass with water and dip in granulated sugar; flatten each cookie, recoating glass after each.  Bake in preheated 350 degree oven 12 minutes until lightly golden.  Remove cookies to racks to cool.

Well, I have to admit that this was not the first recipe I pulled out of the shoebox this week.  The first recipe I pulled was called Rhubarb-Cherry Crunch.  And even though I have never eaten rhubarb and have no idea what it tastes like, the recipe still sounded pretty good.  So I trekked off to the grocery store to buy my ingredients.  However, the grocery store was out of rhubarb.  Did you know that standing in the middle of King Soopers calling two other grocery stores to see if they have rhubarb doesn't change the fact that rhubarb isn't in season in October?  Who knew?  I obviously didn't.  So I had to pull out another recipe.


These cookies were delicious!  Good flavor without being completely overwhelmed by the ginger or cinnamon.  This was a great recipe to pull for this time of year with these great fall flavors.  And they were super easy to make!  Baking them for 12 minutes wasn't quite long enough, you might want to add another minute or two.  I also used parchment paper instead of greasing the pans, makes for much easier clean up.  Although my mom and I were wondering why parchment paper is made so wide.  You could make a lot of money if you invented parchment paper the same width as a cookie sheet.  I would buy it.  I made these cookies at my parents' house and my mom had the best tool to use.  It's a cookie scoop and it makes perfectly shaped cookies.  I took a picture so I could post it below in case you need to know what it looks like.  It is genius!  I'm not quite sure how I have gone this long without one.  I will now be getting one of my own.  No one should make cookies without it!

Aloha!

Waikiki Meatballs


1 1/2 lbs ground beef
2/3 cup cracker crumbs
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ginger
1 tbsp shortening

Sauce:
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 (13.5 oz) can pineapple chunks
1/3 cup vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce

Mix beef, crackers crumbs, onion, egg, milk, salt, ginger, and shortening.  Form into meatballs.  Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees until done (test one).  Cover with foil to keep warm.

Sauce: Mix cornstarch and brown sugar, drain pineapple and add juice to brown sugar mix.  Add vinegar and soy sauce.  Cook, stir constantly until thickened and boiling.  Boil 1 minute, remove from the heat, and add pineapple chunks and meatballs.  Heat and serve.

Cook until done?  Seriously?  What does that even mean?  It means you have to Google how long it takes to bake meatballs in a 350 degree oven.  The answer is about 30-35 minutes.  The recipe also didn't specify how big to make the meatballs so I made mine about golf ball size.  I thought I was being really smart when I lined a rimmed cookie sheet with parchment paper.  I thought it would mean throw away the parchment paper and still have a clean pan and eliminate washing it.  Not the case.  The meatballs release all of their grease when baking, which is great because the meatballs aren't greasy when you add them to the sauce, however, the parchment paper was soaked with grease and therefore the pan was completely covered in grease . . . and in case you haven't figured out where this is going, I had to wash it.  


Overall, a pretty good recipe.  I made Waikiki Meatballs Subs and sprinkled a shredded Italian cheese blend on top.  Pretty tasty!  My mom and dad both liked them too, however they were more impressed with how fresh the rolls were I used for the sandwiches.  I got them at Walmart in case you wanted to know.  

Bonus Round

When picking out this week's recipe I also pulled out a card with a small magazine article tapped to it called "Easy Flavor Enhancers."  They sounded pretty good so I thought I would pass them along to you.  Beware, I haven't actually tested these.


Easy Flavor Enhancers:

Caramelized Onions:  Combine 3 lbs. sliced onions, 1 melted stick of butter, and 1 tsp. salt in a 5 qt. slow cooker.  Cover and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours.  Serve with steaks or add to soups.  Makes 3 cups.  Each 1/4 cup serving: 111 cal., 9 g fat, 1 g protein, 9 g carb.

Roasted Garlic:  Place 6 heads of garlic in one layer on a sheet of aluminum foil; fold foil loosely around garlic.  Place in a slow cooker of any size and cook on low for 8 hours.  Squeeze garlic out of skins and add to mashed potatoes or pasta dishes.  Each head: 45 cal., 0 g fat, 2 g protein, 10 g carb.

The First Recipe

Sticky Date Pudding

2 sticks of butter (cut into 8 pieces) plus extra to butter pan

8 ounces pitted dates, chopped

1 teaspoon baking soda

5 tablespoons sugar

2 eggs

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 3/4 tablespoons baking powder

1/4 cup heavy cream

4 ounces brown sugar

1 pint heavy cream, chilled, whipped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter a 9-inch, high-sided baking pan.  Place the dates in a sauce pan and cover with water.  Bring to a boil, reduce to summer and cook for three minutes.  Add the baking soda and set aside.  In a bowl cream one stick of butter, sugar, and eggs, adding the eggs one at a time.  Gently fold in the flour, the salt, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract.  Slowly stir in the baking powder and 1/4 cup of the date cooking liquid until the cake mixture resembles thick pancake batter.  (Discard the rest.)  Stir in the dates.  Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until cooked in the center.  

Meanwhile, make the sauce by combining a stick of butter, 1/4 cup of heavy cream, the brown sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.  Bring to a boil; reduce to simmer, and cook for three minutes.  

To serve, drizzle some of the sauce over the cake as it is cooling.  Serve the rest of the sauce separately.  Garnish with whipped cream if desired.  10 servings.

Sticky Date Pudding, doesn't it sound like a recipe a grandma would have?  Well I have to say this recipe was a lesson in learning how to read.  I didn't chop the dates and I didn't add the eggs to the batter one at a time.  But I think everything turned out fine.  The cake was a little dry (I baked it for 35 minutes, probably could have been in the oven for 30 minutes instead) but it tasted good.  And the sauce was delicious!  The most difficult part of the recipe was actually finding pitted dates in the grocery store.  I've eaten dates in food before, but I have never actually seen a whole date and had no idea what I was looking for.  In the event you don't know where to find pitted dates in your local grocery store, they are in a resealable bag in the same aisle as the raisins either on the very top or the very bottom shelf.  

My grandma's name is Virginia!

For as long as I can remember, my grandma has collected recipes.  That's her picture below, isn't she cute!  Some of the recipes are handwritten from her watching cooking shows, others she has cut out of magazines.  All of them have been put onto onto 3" by 5" index cards and placed into shoeboxes.  My grandma has shoeboxes completely full of recipes all over her home that she has collected over the years.  To take my grandma's hobby to the next level, I was given the idea from a friend to take some of the shoeboxes, pick out a recipe at random each week, make it, and then blog about the experience and share the recipe.  Wish me luck!