Christmas Sugar Cookies

    Ahh, it's finally Christmas. The time of year when our heads are filled with thoughts of Christmas anticipation, finding the perfect presents and pushing through whatever obstacles stand between us and the most wonderful time of the year. 
    I personally had the obstacle of 5 finals in the way of precious family time and the best food on earth, my mother's. I was so looking forward to all of our traditions, picking out the tree together, decorating it, making Christmas cookies and watching our family's favorite movies... and lots of sarcasm. 
    Finally the day had arrived when I loaded up my car and sped home to find my house filled with all the great smells of the holidays and the loving embrace of my parents accompanied by the forceful, bone crushing choke holds of my brothers.
      I was informed that our schedule leading up to Christmas was JAMMED packed and that cookie day was to be today, Wednesday. And so, as a family, our whole day has been filled with cooking making, cutting, decorating, baking and of course, eating. 
      The cookies we look forward to making the most each year are the sugar cut out cookies. My family always manages to make it extremely entertaining. As you will see in a few of the pictures below, my brothers made cookie making more than enjoyable to watch. My brothers making cookies is relatable to watching Martha Stewart Living meets South Park. Normal. 
      My mom does her best to supervise us, but eventually resorts to sighing and saying "Where did I go wrong?" My darling father sits off to the side and irrationally criticizes my decorating skills. Oh yes...I am home for the holidays.
      Regardless of my family's inability to function normally, we do make some damn good cookies. They are super buttery, light and fun to decorate! SO here's the recipe and I hope you all have a Merry Christmas/Chanukah and a very happy New Year! 

Butter Cookies
2 cups of butter, softened
1 1/2 cups of sugar 
4 egg yolks
2 teaspoons of Vanilla extract
4 1/2 cups of unbleached flour

1/2 teaspoon of salt

First, separate the yolk from the eggs and set aside in a small bowl.

Next, add the softened butter to your mixer, you can also use a hand mixer for this! Beat butter until smooth.

Add sugar to butter. Keep the mixer on.

Then add eggs to sugar/ butter mixture.

Then add the Vanilla 

Keep the mixer going as you combine the flour and salt in sifter.

Sift flour and salt mixture.

Gradually add the flour and salt to the wet ingredients.

Your batter should look like this when all of the ingredients are combined.

Scoop the batter into a mixing bowl and cover with foil. Then refrigerate the bowl for 20 minutes so the dough becomes harder and easier to work with.

Next, grab a disk size amount of dough and place on a long sheet of parchment paper.

Place another piece of parchment paper over top and roll out the dough to a 1/2'' thickness. 

There's mom!

Tom takes an unsuccessful whack at it. 

And again...

After you have rolled out the dough, choose your favorite cookie cutters and go to town!

Get your surprisingly artistic brothers to help out, too.

Use a spatula to place cookies on cookie sheet.

Decorate however you please.

Bake in oven on 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until brown on the edges. Let cool for five minutes and then remove from pan.

I even found a special Mickey Mouse cut out just for Dom. #disneyfreak

Unfortunately, Mickey's ears broke off...sarry bout it.

And viola! Your wonderful Christmas cookies as done! Enjoy and leave a few for Santa, he'll be happy you did!

Merry Christmas,

Laura

Recipe from Christmas from the Heart of the Home by Susan Branch. 

    

     

Pan Seared Chicken with Balsamic Tomatoes - Garlic Mashed Potatoes - Sun-Dried String Beans

It was just another night stuck in my cold house with Jenn. No heat. And we just got our power back after 7 days. So naturally we cook. A full course meal.

Let me tell you this. It was very difficult to live without power for 7 days as an amateur chef, especially when everything in your kitchen runs on electric… even the stove. I curse the man who invented electric stoves. My pain, however, does not compare to all of the people who have suffered from the devastating effects caused by Hurricane Sandy in the Northeast. My heart goes out to everyone who was affected by the storm and I hope everyone remains safe. 

Symptoms of Turning into a Sea Monster:
Angry faces...

Now, I know this meal might seem intimidating because it’s three recipes in one, but I know you can do it. If for some reason you can’t, THEN YOU CAN LEAVE THE KITCHEN AND NEVER COOK AGAIN. Nah, I’m just kidding. Just bite what you think you can chew. (See what I did there? Cooking humor. Bam.)

Jenn and I were starving and needed to eat before we turned into sea monsters and ravaged the house. And when I say “we turn into sea monsters,” I mean we make strange monster noises and flail our arms around in a sea monster fashion and run around the house. So, we decided to whip this up real quick. The pan seared chicken was Jenn’s marvellous creation and I handled the side dishes. Together we created a decent meal that is not that difficult to make. AND it’s good for you! Maybe not the mashed potatoes with almost half a stick of butter, but everything is pretty good for you! Mashed potatoes are a staple fall/winter side dish anyway so that makes it ok for me. Ya need that extra something to keep you warm in these cold months.

... and eating inanimate objects.

This chicken is simple to make and requires only 4 real ingredients… if you exclude all of the spices. Chicken, garlic, balsamic and tomatoes.  It’s as simple as that. The garlic mashed potatoes recipe also has a small number of ingredients: Potatoes, Garlic, Butter, and Milk. (and salt and water but those don’t reallllllyy count). And last but not least, the string bean side dish is something I watched my mom make for so many years. I begged her for the recipe because I really wanted to make it at school. And she was like, “Alright ya pain in the ass! God, these kids, they drain my blood. Alright ya do this, this and that. LOVE YOU. Alright bye.” –Mommy dearest. Ya know she probably sounds like an awfully unbearable woman, but she is the wind beneath my feet and nothing less. She means no harm. I think.

I hope you guys enjoy these recipes. It will definitely fill you up and it is great for leftovers if the sea monster don't gobble it all up. Also, here are some nutritional facts about the meal if you’re interested. The chicken breasts provide excellent protein which help promote strong bone growth. The tomatoes have lycopene which help your body fight against cancer and have an excellent source of vitamin A and C. The garlic is known to lower your cholesterol. The olive oil gives you healthy mono-unsaturated fats that are the good fats that promote brain function and healthy skin. And the milk provides excellent calcium, again for healthy bone growth and strength. And the string beans provide essential minerals like zinc and phosphorus. WOW that’s a lot of nutrition. Never would have thought. Now, Shut Up and Eat! 

Pan Seared Chicken with Balsamic Tomatoes

2 Chicken Breasts

2 Tblsp. Balsamic Vinegar

2 Tblsp. Olive Oil

3 On the Vine Tomatoes

1 Clove of Garlic

2 tsp. Honey (ok so I lied. It’s one more ingredient. Sue me.)

Spices for Chicken: Salt, Pepper, Roasted Garlic & Bell Pepper (Perfect Pinch Seasoning), Emril Seasoning, Italian Herb… all of these seasonings are interchangeable. Not all are necessary. Season the chicken to your taste.

Directions for Chicken:

On a cutting board, slice the three tomatoes into wedges… you get about 6 wedges per tomato. Get those out of way. Put the chicken in a plastic bag and seal the bag, but make sure you leave an inch of the seal open. If you have a beater, beat the chicken, without demolishing it, so that it can become nice and tender. Take the chicken out once you finished pulverizing it, and start seasoning it with all of the spices (about 1 tsp. each but you can guestimate). Brush the honey on the chicken as well.

Next, in a medium sized skillet, heat up the olive oil over medium heat. Throw in the garlic and let it brown for 1-2 minutes. Add the chicken and let it cook on each side for about 4 minutes on each side, or until its almost white on the inside. After that, pour the balsamic into the skillet and add the tomato wedges. Season the entire skillet with salt and pepper to add some taste. Let it sit until the tomatoes start to turn into a sauce on medium-low heat. This will take about 15 minutes. And you’re done! 

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

4 White Potatoes, you can use Yukon Gold, Red, any potato really

½ cup of Milk

3 Tblsp. Butter

4 Cloves of Garic, minced

Salt

Directions for Garlic Mashed Potatoes

On a cutting board, cut the potatoes into similar sized chunks so they can cook at the same time. You could skin the potatoes if you want, but the skin adds extra minerals that are good for you and I think it adds extra texture to the dish. Once that is complete, place them in a medium sized pot of water on high heat. Once the water starts to boil, reduce the heat to medium-high and continually poke the potatoes to check the firmness. 

 

After the potatoes start to get soft and you can poke your fork into the center of the potato easily, pour out the pot into a strainer leaving only the potatoes in the pot. Place pot back on stove and turn off heat. If you have a masher, mash the potatoes. If not, you can use a fork. Once the potatoes are mashed throw in the butter and milk and stir until everything is melted and mixed in with the mashed potatoes. At this point, it should start looking like mashed potatoes. Add salt to taste. If you want the garlic taste, mince the garlic and throw it into the mashed potatoes. OR, if you have time and are not starving… sautéed the garlic in some olive oil in a separate skillet and place in with potatoes. Now, this dish is done. It should take about 30-45 minutes because the potatoes could take a while to turn soft. 

Sun-Dried Tomato String Beans

1lb. of String Beans

1 cup of Sun-Dried Tomatoes

2 cloves of Garlic

2 Tbsp. of Olive Oil

½ cup of Chicken Stock

1 cup of Water

Salt & Pepper

Directions for String Beans:

First before you start cooking, you have to cut off the edges of each string bean. You can either snap them off or cut them with a knife. Next you should rinse them with water.  While you’re doing that, heat up the cup of water in a medium sized skillet on medium-high heat until it boils. Once it boils, throw the string beans in to start blanching them for about 5-10 minutes or until they become somewhat firm.

In a strainer, drain the string beans from the skillet and rinse with really cold water for a minute or place ice over it to stop them from cooking any more. Dump the remaining water out of the skillet and add the olive oil and sauté the minced garlic and sun-dried tomatoes. You can cut up the sun-dried tomatoes if you want or you can keep them whole, either way works.

Once the garlic has browned a little, add the string beans back in and toss them around so they can be coated with olive oil and all that flavor. Next, you want to pour in the chicken stock and let that soak into the string beans. Cover the pot for 5-8 minutes and/or wait for most of the chicken stock to evaporate.  AND THIS RECIPE IS DONE!

Jenn transforming back into a human

Now, this definitely seems like a mouth full (more cooking humor), I know. But these three recipes can easily be done simultaneously, especially if you have a friend cooking with you. Try out these recipes and impress your friends with simple cooking techniques and terms! I didn’t know what blanching was a few weeks ago and look at me now! Good luck and don’t forget to comment and follow our twitter! Thanks for reading! Video blog coming soon!