This week we will focus on quick and easy holiday recipes. Two microwave treats which make excellent gifts as well as tasty snacks for your family and friends. Or what about sitting by the fire eating a piping hot bowl of corn chowder. Delicious and easy to make low cal by using skim milk. Finally a couple of cookie recipes. Two traditional Christmas favorites sugar and ginger cookies. And one recipe that I have grown up on, snickerdoodles - akin to the sugar cookie with the added taste of cinnamon. They are very quick and easy to make.
Happy shopping and baking to everyone.
Previews - Look forward to more holiday recipes next week. Keep an eye out in January for a cooking contest. You can also access the Cook's Corner via the columns section of the Herndon or Reston Web.
Please continue sending me your comments, inquiries and suggestions.
On to the recipes:
Microwave Brittle
You can wrap up small packets of the brittle in a ziplock bag and then wrap these in holiday napkins or material. Tins also make excellent gift containers.
Creamy Mushroom Corn Chowder
In many homes chowder is part of the Christmas eve tradition. Family members gather for a warm bowl of soup and to admire the tree before heading off to bed on Christmas eve.
Sugar Cookies
Gingies
Snickerdoodles
Thank you for stopping by the Cook's Corner. There will be new recipes and suggestions next week. Please send your favorite recipes, suggestions, comments and questions to cookscorner@townweb.com I look forward to hearing from you.
Brief Biography: Lisa Carlson has been a cooking instructor for over three with the Fairfax County Adult Education program. She also teaches cooking and art classes for children and adults at the Herndon Community Center. She studied cooking during her junior year of college in Scotland, while she traveled throughout Europe, and during her year long tenure in Japan. She has appeared in 9 television programs on cooking, puppetry, and gift basket design on the Fairfax County public access channel.
Microwave Caramel Corn
Place the brown sugar, corn syrup and margarine in a small glass bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds stir and microwave for additional 30 second intervals until the margarine is melted and you have a smooth caramel sauce. You can use a sauce pan to melt the margarine and mix in the brown sugar and corn syrup if you do not have a microwave. Pour this over the popcorn and mix thoroughly until all the popcorn is coated with the caramel mixture. Let the popcorn cool slightly and run your hands under cold water. Take a large handful of the popcorn and shape into a ball. The popcorn balls can then be wrapped with decorative plastic wrap and tied with a ribbon. Or you can allow the caramel corn to cool. Break it into bite size pieces and put it into a tin to be given as a gift.
Combine the corn syrup, salt, nuts and sugar in a large glass bowl (which fits in your microwave). Microwave on high for 4 minutes. Stir. Microwave another 3 minutes on high. Add the butter and the vanilla. Microwave on high for another 1-2 minutes or until the mixture is a light caramel color. Mix in the baking soda. Pour onto a well-greased cookie sheet. Cool completely. Break apart the brittle into pieces. Store in a tin or tupperware container.
Saute the onion, garlic and celery in a little oil. Add the stock, 1 cup of milk, spices and vegetables except for the corn and mushrooms. Simmer until the potatoes are tender. Mix cornstarch with a little of the remaining 1 cup of milk. (If you mix the cornstarch with the whole cup of milk it will be very difficult to get a lumpless mixture.) Combine the cornstarch and milk mixture with the rest of the milk and add to the soup. To lessen the likelihood of the milk curdling you can add about a cup of the hot soup to the milk before adding it to the soup. Allow the soup to simmer for 3-5 minutes until it begins to thicken. Add the corn, mushrooms and fish (which has been cut into 1 inch pieces) or clams. Gently simmer for 5-6 minutes or until the fish begins to flake.
This soup can be made with bacon. The bacon is cooked with the onion, garlic and celery. Proceed with the recipe as described above.
Cream together the shortening, margarine and sugars. Mix in the eggs and vanilla. Mix flour and baking powder with the creamed mixture thoroughly. Chill the dough for an hour before rolling it out (if possible). Roll out half of the dough at a time so part of the dough can remained chilled. The chilled dough sticks less when you're trying to cut out cookies. Sprinkle the cookies with plain/colored sugar. Bake in a 400F oven for 6-8 minutes until golden.
Thoroughly mix together the shortening, brown sugar and molasses. Mix in the cold water. Finally mix in all the dry ingredients. Roll out half of the dough at a time. Use raisins to decorate the cookies. Or you can roll walnut size pieces of the dough, flatten it between your palms and dip one side in white or brown sugar. Place on cookie sheet sugar side up. Bake in a 350F oven for 10-12 minutes. Do not overbake these cookies or they become very hard.
Cream the sugar, margarine and shortening. Beat in the eggs. Mix in the rest of the ingredients. Combine a 1/4 cup of sugar and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon in a small bowl. Roll the cookie dough into walnut size balls. Dip one side of the ball in the cinnamon sugar and place that side up on the cookie sheet. Bake in a 400F oven for 8-10 minutes until lightly golden.
a href="cook_ind.html">Index of Recipes
Back to Herndon
Back to Reston