Evolution of a cookie

I've been looking for a delicious and easy cookie recipe. This recipe reminds me a little bit of my family's Linzer cookies, but looks like a lot less work:
http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017311-almond-walnut-thumbprint-macaroons

On my first attempt, I basically followed the directions (!). I left out the cardamom and used regular water instead of rosewater because I don't keep those ingredients around. Blanching the almonds seemed like a nuisance, so I didn't. I tasted the batter and decided it was already too sweet, so I didn't bother with the raspberry jam. And I didn't have any pistachios either. They turned out pretty delicious despite those issues. And they were even better the next day, having softened up a little.


Even though the raspberry jam feature initially drew me to this recipe, I'm too lazy. I'm also too lazy to use two egg whites plus a whole egg. Maybe two whole eggs works almost as well. Cutting out half the sugar has to be an improvement. And I really like a lemony flavor along with nuttiness, so I added zest of a lemon and a splash of lemon juice.

The result is a much simplified recipe:

• 2 large eggs, beaten 
• 1 ¾ cups/250 grams blanched almonds
• 1 ½ cups/125 grams walnuts 
• ½ cup/100 grams sugar
• zest of one lemon (1 Tbs should be enough)
• splash (1 tsp or 1 Tbs) of lemon juice

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Put the almonds in a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse until mostly powdered with a few crunchy bits remaining. Transfer to the bowl with the eggs. 
3. Put the walnuts in the food processor and pulse until mostly powdered. Add the walnuts to the almonds and eggs. 
4. Add the sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice, then mix thoroughly.
5. Cover with a towel and let the mixture sit for at least 8 hours or overnight to dry out a bit (in the refrigerator should be fine).
6. Dampen your hands with a bit of water and scoop up about a tablespoon of the dough at a time, pressing it into walnut-size balls. Place the cookies on the baking sheets about an inch apart and flatten them slightly.
7. Bake for about 25 minutes until golden and firm, rotating the pans halfway through. 

Cabbage salad with Tahini-Lemon Dressing

Today's dinner is a cabbage salad, inspired by ohsheglows, with Tahini-Lemon Dressing.

Here are the ingredients:

• Half a small purple cabbage, shredded
• 3 carrots, shredded
• diced red pepper
• a handful of green onions, green parts only
• half a small bunch of cilantro
• 15 oz can of garbanzo beans
• Tahini-Lemon Dressing

Egg and Spinach Tostadas

We've been using soft corn taco tortillas from the refrigerator section for everything we can lately, including these tostadas.

1. Chop spinach into small pieces, probably by stacking a bunch of small spinach leaves into a tall pile, and cutting them into tiny strips (chiffonade), then making several perpendicular cuts across the pile.
2. Load the spinach into a small, microwave-safe bowl, and heat for ~30 seconds to wilt the spinach.
3. Mix in a pinch of salt, and maybe also some finely grated cheddar cheese (I used a zester, which was a little sticky, but produced a nice result). 
4. Start heating a tortilla on a nonstick skillet on medium heat.
5. Flip the tortilla over, and pile the spinach on it, trying to make a little nest to contain the egg.
6. Crack the egg into the spinach nest.
7. Cover, and continue cooking. Check periodically to see whether the egg looks set. I aimed for a runny yolk, but YMMV. 

If I did this over again, I might mix some hot sauce into the spinach.

Spicy sweet potatoes

I've been getting tons of sweet potatoes in my farm share lately, so I always have some around. I got some cilantro last week too, and I really wanted to do something delicious, but had to make sure not to get any more veggies to accompany it because I already have an overwhelming quantity of cabbage to consume.

I cooked up the cabbage with an Asian-style dressing with ginger, sesame oil, soy sauce, and rice vinegar, along with a couple of farm share onions. I planned to cook up some tofu, and serve the sweet potatoes with a Thai peanut sauce with the cilantro. I drained and cubed 2 blocks of extra firm tofu and sautéed it in a nonstick skillet on high heat until it was slightly browned on several sides. I also cubed two medium sweet potatoes, pretty small, like less than 1cm per side, and microwaved it until it was soft. Then I mixed up a sauce from peanut butter, soy sauce, rice vinegar, my hot sauce, and some water, and tossed the sweet potato cubes in it. After I added the chopped cilantro, Sam suggested I should mix in the tofu too. It turned out amazingly well!

Spaghetti squash with spinach and chickpeas

I've been trying to find interesting things to do with spaghetti squash, since adding marinara sauce really is not good at all. I saw some good looking recipes for spaghetti squash and spinach fritters, but I'm way too lazy for that. Some googling turned up this recipe:

• Spaghetti Squash with Spinach and Garlic

Along those lines, I baked the squash and scooped it out. Meanwhile, I sauteed some onions and garlic, then stirred in chickpeas and then spinach. I tossed it all together with some goat cheese, and it turned out pretty tasty:

Spinach and Quinoa Salad with Dill

I'm trying to find new things to do with dill, and some googling turned up these recipes:

• spinach and quinoa salad with feta and dill
• Golden Quinoa Salad with Radish, Dill & Avocado

So I tried to combine the two recipes a bit.

I sauteed a chopped onion.
Cooked a cup of quinoa on top of that.
While the quinoa was still warm, I stirred in a bunch of chopped spinach. 
Then I mixed in chickpeas, chopped dill, avocado, grape tomatoes, and a couple of pulverized hot peppers.
I dressed the salad with some lemon juice and evoo.
Sliced or slivered almonds might have been a good idea, but pine nuts would have been fantastic if I had had any. The tomatoes were an afterthought: I threw them in because they needed to be used up, but they turned out to be a great addition!

Whole wheat bread

I like this recipe for Basic Whole Wheat Bread from theKitchn. I've been adding in dried cranberries and sliced almonds.

Recently used recipes: Oatmeal Banana Cookies

Power Hungry has a great template for a quick recipe for healthy and delicious cookies. Camilla covers tons of possibilities for embellishing the basic 2-ingredient cookies. Here's what I did:

• 2 large, very ripe bananas (peel should have black spots), peeled
• 1 cup rolled oats (quick or old-fashioned, not instant; GF if needed)
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans
• 1/4 cup chopped dried cranberries
• lots of orange zest

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet (parchment, foil or silpat) or lightly grease/spray with cooking spray.
2. in a medium bowl, mash the bananas with a fork until almost no lumps remain (mixture should be almost liquid if using really ripe bananas). Stir in oats until well-blended. Let mixture stand for 5 minutes. Mix in remaining ingredients.
3. Drop by heaping tbsp onto prepared baking sheet about 1 inch apart (they don’t really spread).
4. Bake in preheated oven for 13 to 15 minutes until golden brown and firm to touch at the center. Transfer to cooling rack and cool completely.

Notes

Tip: The cookies are great soon after baking, but exponentially better after sitting for a few hours (they become softer and sweeter).
Storage: Store the cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 days, or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Recently used recipes: Guacamole

Simply Recipes has a great recipe for Perfect Guacamole. She has lots of great advice, but here are the ingredients:

•  2 ripe avocados
• 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 1 Tbsp of fresh lime juice or lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp to 1/4 cup of minced red onion or thinly sliced green onion
• 1-2 serrano chiles, stems and seeds removed, minced
• 2 tablespoons cilantro (leaves and tender stems), finely chopped
• A dash of freshly grated black pepper
• 1/2 ripe tomato, seeds and pulp removed, chopped

Thanksgiving wild rice salad

Cook 1 cup of wild rice. Dice a medium butternut squash, and bake it with 12 oz of cranberries and a chopped purple onion. Meanwhile, chop some pecans and fresh parseley. Stir the baked squash mixture into the rice, along with the pecans. Serve topped with crumbled goat cheese and the chopped parseley. If you'd rather not experience tartness in your cranberries, you can sweeten the baked mixture with some maple syrup.