Best Scottish Shortbread Recipe Since Robert Redford

Friend Natalie served Lavender Shortbread cookies last week.  She had tried several recipes using lavender, and declared this was the best one, first published in Sunset Magazine in the 1970's.  Credit goes not only to Nat for finding it, but also to a person named M.C. from East Palo Alto, California for having it published in the magazine.

Daughter Julie's birthday is next week, so I'll be sending her some lavender cookies and some zucchini bread, along with trinkets to open.  For those of you who have followed Julie's progress with her surgeries and her chemo and radiation, she is doing pretty well, all things considered.  She has an aide who comes in twice a day, and great doctors.  Her champion husband Jack takes her to appointments and occasionally they go to Fatz, their favorite restaurant in Rock Hill, SC.

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Here is some culinary lavender purchased in Colorado that I used for the cookies:

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Happy Birthday, Julie!



And linking with Fiber Arts Friday, here is my more than half way completed Seriously Simple Shawl by Wendy Johnson.  Details on Ravelry are here.

Lavender Shortbread Recipe:

Morning Tea and a Game for Boys

What fun to share time with friends on a beautiful almost-summer morning.  Gal friends gathered in our back yard today for cold drinks and cucumber sandwiches and good conversation.

The little finger bites of vegetables and bread and butter were quite good; the picture above shows it made 24, less one previously consumed for quality assurance purposes.  Here is the recipe used for the cucumber sandwiches:

And I should have made a double batch.  Next time.

One momma brought her boys after swimming class to join us. Are they not just darling?  And smart, to boot!

The boys were offered 10 cents each for every "face" they could find in the garden.  The husband and I made a game of it last night while sitting outside and we found 39 faces in the garden. The boys came up with 40!

 Here are a few of the faces found in the garden:

Thanks, friends, for a fun time!

Chicken Curry from the Hairy Bikers

BBC2 runs "Mums Know Best" and features the Hairy Bikers on many episodes.  Sadly, in the US, we are unable to access that programming.  But you can keep up with the Bikers on print media.  And they have at least a dozen excellent cookbooks, one featuring curries.  This is their website: HairyBikers

The hub and I made one of the favored recipes for chicken curry.  The recipe can be found here.

The spices make the dish perfecto!  (add salt and pepper, of course)

 

Served over rice, it was very tasty.  This will be a repeat.

 

Next on the menu docket is chicken tikka masala, one of my favorite Indian dishes.  You can find the recipe here for an easier version.  And if you really want authentic, a naan recipe can be found here.

 



(Source: Food Network)



Christmas Confetti Bean Soup in a Jar

What is on your "I Really WANT to Do" list for the holidays?

Really, is there such a thing as a list of Things You Must Do For the Holidays?  Kinda takes the fun out of it.

Besides listening to more seasonal music, I really wanted to make "soup mixes in a jar" for gifts.  It was unbelievable how many sites came up on a Google search for just this topic.

Here is the one site I settled on at this link because it was COLORFUL, EASY, and HAD LABELS.

Needed: 12 wide-mouth pint (2-cup) canning jars with lid and rings 14 pounds assorted dried peas, beans and lentils (at least 8 different varieties):

•  pink beans 
•  black beans 
•  baby lima beans
•  lentils
•  red lentils 
•  black-eyed peas 
•  red kidney beans 
•  pinto beans 
•  split peas 
•  great northern beans 
•  small red beans 
•  white beans 
• 12 Italian-flavor or beef flavor bouillon cubes 
• 12 bay leaves

Just put half cup of each bean layered in the jar topped with a bouillon cube and bay leaf and tie on a the printed label.  Like this!

I like soup, and almost any kind of flavor.  How about you?

If you made the soup exactly as directed, it would be pretty bland.  I'm thinking of giving a package of ham hocks along with the jars of beans, reminding the bean recipients that they will also need to add spices for a heartier, tastier version of this bean soup.

(Just had to add the Soup Nazi picture from the Seinfeld days.)

Linking to A Sheltering Tree ... because soup is something that can nourish a body and soul!

What I Did For Love (with leftovers)

You know your leftover turkey in the fridge?  This is what I made at 6:30 AM, because there was a hankering for it:  Curried Chicken Salad

That is Ina, not me...

And is it ever good!!

Easy Pumpkin Muffins

Want to make a batch of pumpkin muffins, stirred up in less time than it takes to read this post?  Why not?
Two ingredients and a few spices with no liquid...really. Plus they stay moist and freeze well.

Thanks to AllRecipes with the directions found here, they turned out tasty.  Ingredients: one packaged cake mix and one can pumpkin with extra pumpkin spices.  No liquid.

They were so pumpkin-y and moist.

One last picture.  My husband found this little mouse trying to scare the kids away last night and hung it up on the front door to discourage further varmints from trying to scurry in.

Here is to a great November!

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Mme Ramotswe & Pumpkin Soup

Purloined from others' blogs and the Soulbrush Etsy store for a rendition of Mme Ramotswe, as well as the biblical verse that says "what has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun", I bring you a post today about Pumpkin Soup.  Nothing original.  But tasty.

Source; Soulbrush Etsy Store here

You will recall that Alexander McCall Smith's character Mme Ramotswe generally went home from her Number One Ladies'  Detective Agency and made pumpkin soup for dinner.  She did it so often that it must have been tasty.  And because she was of "traditional build", I'll just bet she added cream to that soup more often then not.

So I made some pumpkin soup yesterday and felt just like Mme Ramotswe must have felt preparing this recipe, right down to her swollen ankles.  The delicious recipe was found on the delightful blog of Mrs. Thomasina Tittlemouse; the link to her soup is here.

So I roasted up a pumpkin and went to work on the soup.  I did add cream, which Mrs. Tittlemouse did not, so it made for a more calorific dish, but was it yummy!  I also added quite a bit of red pepper flakes and curry spices, as well as S&P.

Maybe pumpkin soup is not a new idea, but it was the best soup under the sun yesterday!

Julia Child would be 100 Today

My brother sent this.


The New York Times  has a researched article worth the read on some of the Julia Child favorites.  It says most of us have cooked (at least once) her famous recipe for coq au vin or boeuf bourguignon or maybe an omelette.  I surely did, back in the day.  We might take a few more short cuts these days.

Do you have a favorite Child recipe?

Waste Not

Epic failure on blueberry coffeecake as the middle was still doughy after 50 minutes in the oven. Honestly, all instructions were followed correctly:

So I scooped out the middle from the loaf cake and repackaged the dough into muffins.  It worked, sorta.

But the Orange Date Muffins with recipe supplied here by the Mennonitegirls were a bit more successful:

Coffee clache at our house was fun, even though my friends did not want their pictures taken. So I didn't.

Then I bought two new side tables to refresh the living room furniture.  The wood is from India and is a very hard, dark wood called Sheesham.

Two new tables in the house, two previously used tables out of the house and to the consignment store.  My husband's philosophy on all material goods is that if one thing comes into the house, at least one item must go out.  Zen-ish.  It works for everything but my craft room.

Be patient with me, Gene, God isn't finished with me yet.

Letter to the Dormouse Regarding Carrot Soup

Dear Fat Dormouse Getting Thinner:

Thank you very much for the recipe I found here on your blog.  I did want you to know that it was quite delicious.  But somehow, cooking times did not equate at high altitudes.  Your recipe called for cooking the vegetables for about 20 minutes after the liquid came to a boil.  I was extremely hungry when I began soup preparation, just so you know.

So after cooking the onions, carrots and sweet potatoes for 55 minutes in the chicken stock, and flavoring with a Tbsp. of orange marmalade (the grocery shopping elves had not picked up any orange juice by noon today), I hoped it was ready.  I zuzzed it all together, and put it in my favorite poppy mug.  Can you see the steam?  No?  It was there, believe me.

(knitters please note that those are Hermione's Everyday Socks on the needles)

I was too hungry to make it pretty with a little parsley on top for garnish.

Anyway, thanks again Dormouse,
Nancy

P.S.:  the roof of my mouth got burned while sipping the soup because I did not want to wait for it to cool (did I tell you I was hungry?)

P.P.S: I drank the soup and had Weight Watchers popcorn with the soup and it was extra delish

Mennonite Girls Can Cook: Potato and Farmer Sausage Casserole

Dottie: this is your dinner tonight.  We send with it our thoughts and prayers, and hope it brings comfort.

Mennonite Girls Can Cook: Potato and Farmer Sausage Casserole

Online Cookbook at No Cost

Thank you, Natalie, for sending this link.  It is a downloadable cookbook from Penzey's Spices.  Go here to see the entire cookbook online.

There are many great recipes in the book, and I thought it interesting to read about the spices Penzey's sells.  My first purchase will be "vindaloo seasoning" for chicken (page 22).  It says this about Vindaloo Seasoning:  

This hot and spicy blend comes from Goa, a small state nestled in the middle of the Malabar Coast of India. Though control of Goa was returned to India in 1961, the four and a half centuries of Portuguese rule left many lasting impressions. Pork Vindaloo is a favorite dish of the Catholics, who make up a third of the population of Goa. The Muslims and Hindus of India prefer Vindaloo lamb or duck. 

Mix 2-5 TB. spice in 2-5 TB. water, set aside. Heat 2 TB oil, brown 1 ¹/2 lb. pork
cubes, remove, then brown 1 large minced onion. Put browned pork back into pot, add Vindaloo paste, 1 cup water, 6 TB. vinegar and 1 tsp. salt, cook 30 min. Add 4-6 cups cubed potatoes, cook till tender (45 min. or so). For authentic fiery hot Vindaloo as served in beach
front restaurants in India, add an equal part cayenne pepper. Hand-mixed from: coriander, garlic, cumin, ginger, cinnamon, crushed brown mustard, cayenne, jalapeño pepper, cardamom, turmeric, black pepper, cloves. 

1⁄ 4 cup jar (net 1.0 oz.)   #12531   $ 3.65
1⁄ 2 cup jar (net 2.2 oz.)   #12557   $ 6.29
4 oz. bag   #12544   $ 6.89
8 oz. bag   #12586   $ 12.75
1 lb. bag   #12515   $ 24.40

This is just ONE of the recipes that looked good to me for Creamy Chicken Chowder: