Candy Land Became The Wasted Land

A platter of Russian Teacakes surrounded with a mix of Almond Rolls and Raspberry Jam Kolaches.

Saturday night, our Forkable Christmas Cookie Extravaganza was a great hit. We all ate many cookies and drank many drinks. We got some great responses from people enjoying reading the recipes all week and then getting to finally sample to goods. Yum yum yum.



Here is the table just set as the first guests arrive. Among all the cookies we served you can see front and center in the basket (from left) Double Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies, Classic Ginger Snaps, and then Nut Clusters. To the right on the double tiered tray, we have a mixture of the Raspberry Jam Kolaches, the Palmiers, some Rosehip Thumbprints and Almond Rolls. Behind that we put out a display of the cute Kissable Mice on my Great Aunt's Cake Platter. Don't you like the stag centerpiece!



Palmiers set out in my Great Aunt Sis's vintage candy dish. Behind you can see the platter of the Peppermint Fudge.

I'm sorry, I wish I had better pictures of the party. Its so funny how these events go. I spend hours and hours working on them, and then when they arrive, I just want to have fun and experience them and not be stuck behind a camera. I never end up with any good shots of the final product. I've got these few pictures of the party as it was starting and I have pictures of the aftermath. Although I have no pictures to show who and how many came, I can prove something happened by the mess left behind. By these images and the five stuffed garbage bags full of recycled bottles and cans, you can tell we had a great time!


No party is complete without Shrimp Dip!

My friend Stacy used to be our party photographer, but now she has moved. So I've got an opening. Anyone who wants to be assigned to this role, I'll give free admission, free booze and all the food you can eat to our next party. So, just let me know if you're interested.

Anyhow, Thanks again for all of you who came and celebrated this holiday season with us. So from all of us here at Forkable, Ho Ho Ho, Happy Holidays!

A Quick Easy: Palmiers

Also known as elephant ears, palmiers, made with sheets of sheets of puff pastry, are perfect for those who are afraid of making pastry or just want a quick cookie.

I always get the Pepperidge Farm puff pastry because its the most readily available and relatively inexpensive at around $4.00 a box. Each box comes with two sheets.

Roll out defrosted dough on a floured surface. The more you roll your dough out, the smaller your cookies will be. Traditionally these cookies are bigger, but I like to add more sugar to create a really caramelized cookie, which is also very rich. I roll the dough out pretty thin, to make a smaller cookie. Using a knife, trim irregular edges to make a rectangle.



Mix:
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Divide sugar in half and one half per sheet. Pat the sugar to embed into the dough. Using a knife, score the middle of the dough on two parallel sides. With an unmarked edge, begin rolling and roll dough to score mark. Roll opposite side to central score mark until two rolls are together. Using a pastry brush, brush some milk between where two rolls come together and press so they stick together. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill at least an hour.

Remove from fridge, and using a knife, cut into slices into approx. 1/2" slices. Lay slices out on a tray a couple inches apart. Pour 1/2 tsp - 1 tsp of sugar on each cookie. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place trays in freezer while oven preheats. Bake cookies for about 8 minutes. Remove trays from oven and flip over. Bake for another 8 minutes or until cookies are nice and caramelized.



These are cookies are easy to make, rich in flavor and look gorgeous. I love them.

Cutest Christmas Candy: Kissable Mice!

These little cuties are really simple to make. Holding on to the stem, maraschino cherries are dipped into melted chocolate and pressed while wet against a Hershey's kiss with almond slices placed for the ears. I used red cooking jell for the eyes. I love how the stem becomes a cute little curly tail!



These guys love climbing around their ginger snap hills.



This is one of the few times where the more mice you have in the kitchen, the better.

Forkable Inauguration Bash

Floating down from our post election high, the past six weeks have been an interesting and difficult time as we grapple with the realities of our nations tentative economic stability in the hands of a lame duck president. Hopefully the inauguration of President Elect Barack Obama on Tuesday, January 20 will bring on a new day of change and possibilities. To celebrate this historic event, we at Forkable are excited to announce our next food event:



The Forkable Inauguration Bash
3 course prefix
Sunday, January 18th at 6 p.m.

The suggested donation for a seat is $35 for preregistration and $40 at the door. BYOB. Thanks to Time Out Chicago for including a shout out to us, we've received a lot of interest in this event. Seats are very limited and are reserved on a first come first served basis. If interested in reserving seats, please email me and I will reply with instructions on donation payment, location, and any other important details.

If you are interested in purchasing a seat as a Christmas present, I can arrange for a gift invitation to be sent via email or I can email you a "gift ticket" which can be printed and wrapped to go under the tree.

These events are always a great way meet like minded food enthusiasts in a private and comfortable environment. I hope our inaugural bash will be as much a hit as our previous events. More info on the menu to follow.

Favorite New Holiday Treat: LIme Glazed Cornmeal Cookies

Every year I like to try out new recipes along with the tried and true. This is my favorite from this year's batch. I found this recipe while perusing my Aunt Anne's Martha Stewart Christmas Cookbook. I think I'm going to be making these every year from now on.



Lime Cornmeal Glazed Cookies

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 4 teaspoons freshly grated lime zest plus 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice (about 6 limes total)
• 2 teaspoons freshly grated orange zest (2 medium oranges)
• 1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal, plus more for coating glass
• lime glaze

I made a few slight adjustments to her directions, so here are my suggestions.

Using a mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg mixing into creamed butter. Add citrus zests, lime juice, and almond extract. Mix until blended.

Mix together flour and cornmeal and slowly add to your batter while mixing, continue until well blended. Wrap dough in plastic and chill for 1 hour.



Remove dough from the refrigerator. Roll dough into 1" balls. In a bowl, mix 3 parts cornmeal to 1 part sugar. Roll balls in cornmeal and sugar and lay out on a tray lined with parchment or a silicon mat a couple inches apart.



Using a glass press cookies into thin disks. Dip cup in milk and then in cornmeal/sugar mixture before pressing each cookie. Bake at 350 for 8 to 12 minutes or until cookies are light golden around the edges. Remove cookies from oven and place cookies on a wire rack to cool.

Mix together lime glaze. Line surface under wire racks with newspaper. Spoon about a teaspoon of glaze on each cookie and place cookie back on wire rack to dry. Before glaze is hard, zest a lime above cookies so zest hardens into glaze. Store in a sealed container.



These cookies have a caramelized crispy texture and the sweet of the glaze contrasting with the tart citrus flavors is so wonderful, I could eat these all day!

Leftover Remix: Ghost of Halloween Past Becomes Peppermint Fudge

There must be a reason why every Tourist destination's historical downtown has at least 18 Fudge and Toffy stores. Everyone loves fudge, so I usually make a batch of fudge or two at Christmas time and this year can be no different. This year I made Peppermint fudge.



I have a lot of white chocolate left over from my Halloween treats I wanted to use for the fudge. Having chunks of unused white chocolate doesn't really count as a left over remix you say. I agree. So where are the leftovers. Well, do remember the marshmallow ghosts I made? Although a party favorite, I made way too many of them and had a bunch of leftovers.



So I've had them stored in an air tight container until I could melt them down and use them instead of marshmallow fluff to make my fudge. The white chocolate coating of the marshmallows would just blend right in with the rest of the melted chocolate.



Here is my Mom's traditional fudge recipe:

Fantasy Fudge

• 12 oz. semi sweet chocolate chips
  
• 7 oz. jar marshmallow fluff
• 5 oz. can of evaporated milk
• 2 c. sugar
• 1 c. butter
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla

In a sauce pan, bring sugar, butter and evaporated milk to a boil. Once boiling, start a timer and continue to boil for 5 minutes stirring constantly. After 5 minutes remove from heat, add chocolate and stir until melted. Add vanilla and marshmallow fluff and stir until thickened. Pour into a greased 9" x 13" pan and chill in refrigerator until hard. Remove from pan, cut into desired size and store in an air tight container in refrigerator.



For my Peppermint fudge, I followed my Mom's recipe but

• used white chocolate instead of semi sweet chocolate
  
• substituted an equal amount of my melted ghosts for the marshmallow fluff
• substituted peppermint schnapps for the vanilla
• mixed in 6 candy canes, chopped into fine pieces.
• 1/4 tsp of red food dye

It turned out really well. I think I used more marshmallow then the original recipe called for yet this was my most successful fudge ever. I've had trouble in the past with my fudge not solidifying, in fact one year, I served a tray of fudge with spoons (I didn't pull it out until everyone at the party was well fed with drinks). However, this fudge hardened quickly and did not stick in the pan. It was very well behaved, so I think using old marshmallows instead of the fluff maybe a great way to clean out the pantry and make successful fudge.

(OK, this post is over and I am not going to write the word fudge again; that word just sort of grosses me out).

Margie's Russian Tea Cakes

People love this crunchy almond cookie covered in layers of soft sugar. Also known as snowballs, and Mexican wedding cookies, these scrumptious treats have many names to suit every occasion. Last year, my Mom gave me my Aunt Margie's recipe so I could fill a request for our Christmas party, during which these were the first to go. Since they were such a hit, I'm making them again this year.



Margie's Russian Tea Cakes

• 1 c. butter
• 1/2 c. confectioners sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/4 c. flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 c. finely chopped nuts (I usually use almonds, but pecans or walnuts also work)

Using a mixer, cream butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and mix.

Add the dry ingredients and nuts. Mix using your hands until you have a solid dough. It is important to mix with your hands for the dough to get the right consistency of crumbly yet compact. Chill dough for 1 hour.

Roll into 1" balls and bake for 10-12 minutes at 400 degrees.



When you take them out of the oven, roll immediately in a bowl of confectioners sugar. The sugar may appear to melt a bit, which is fine. Allow to cool on a wire rack. After the cookies are cool, roll again in confectioners sugar. This double rolling technique gives a soft fluffy exterior to compliment the hard crunchy interior.