Ginger Molasses Cookies
This is a recipe I received through the recipe swap from my friend’s sister.
I haven’t tried it yet, but I pretty much blindly trust anything that comes from the H*witz family! 10 years, and I have yet to be steered wrong.
Ginger Molasses Cookies
Yields 1 1/2 dozen
* 1/2 cup butter
* 1/2 cup molasses
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 2 and 1/4 cup plus 1/4 cup flour
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon ginger
* 1 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
Preheat oven to 350.
In a small pot, melt butter. Stir in molasses and sugar, and cook
until mixture is smooth and not grainy. Remove from the heat and cool
to lukewarm.
In a separate large bowl, combine 2 and 1/4 cup flour, soda, salt,
ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Pour butter mixture over dry
ingredients and stir to combine. Work in remaining 1/4 cup flour.
Dough should be like play dough.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out to a generous 1/4 inch thick
and cut shapes.
Bake for about 8-10 minutes, depending on size of cookie shape. Let
cool for two minutes on cookie sheet and transfer to rack.
(the recommender makes ~1″ ballls with the dough and partially flattens them)
My Creativity Goals
For Creativity
43. Send 10 birthday cards, by mail, to 10 different people
44. Start blog to chronicle 101 in 1001 and make at least 200 posts
45. Make a toast
46. Pose nude for an art class
47. Make 3 things from my Julia Child cookbook
48. Teach someone how to crochet
49. Recover kitchen chairs from Nancy (or else get rid of them)
50. Make a blanket for myself
51. Make Cheese
52. Make pizza from scratch with aforementioned Cheese
53. Take an art class
54. Bake bread from scratch
43. Everyone loves mail. Mail on your birthday is even better.
44. This is my blog! I want to be able to share my goals and my progress.
45. I want to be able to make a toast to a friend on a happy occasion
46. I really do like myself. I am very comfortable with my body and happy to be so. I think that I would benefit from having a creative outlet in which to express this. Posing for an art class, especially nude, will be a good way for me to do this while also breaking out of my comfort zone.
47. I have loved Julia Child since I was about 3. As my dad says, she was tied for first with sesame street. I have a cook book that my dad had signed by her when I was 8. I have never used this cook book. It’s about time I give these recipes a try!
48. I love crocheting. In my opinion, it’s MUCH easier than knitting and I’m pretty excellent at it. (draw your attention to my skills in Ben’s Kippah). There must be someone who wants to learn how and I’m happy to teach
49. This goal is more of a “don’t be lazy” goal. I got some kitchen chairs from my mom’s friend and they are really nice and wood with heinous fabric upholstery. It doesn’t take that much work to recover them but it needs to be done. If it isn’t done, they need to go!
50. I make lots of things for other people. I’ve made about 50 kippot for people over the years, blankets for my friends, for new babies, scarfs galore, baby clothes and I’m currently working on a giant blanket for my brother. I need to make something for myself .
51. I read the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. She made reference to the The Cheese Queen. Since then, I have desperately wanted to order the kit and make cheese.
52. I also want to make pizza, what better way than with home made cheese.
53. I consider myself a very artistic person, but i have never really worked within guidelines. I would love to take a class and develop some skills to go along with my creativity.
54. I make lots of things, but I have (had) never attempted bread. I am proud to say that this is a completed goal that I will continue to experiment with.
Bread, Take 2
Burning with the desire to make a decent loaf of bread and, this time, taking Neil’s advice, I tried the New York Times No-Knead Bread Recipe. While our first attempt at making bread was an epic fail, the NYT No-Knead recipe was a huge success!
First: It was E-A-S-Y. If you can mix ingredients and read a clock, this is the bread recipe for you
Second: It was quick! Mixed and made the day before (12-18 hr initial rising time), there is only 2 hours of rising and 45 min of baking on the “day of”.
Third: (and most importantly) DELICIOUS. I was surprised at how fantastic this bread tasted. When you take the loaf out of the pot that it’s cooking, it is so crispy and souds so great when you squeeze it.
I recommend using corn meal in the final step because it gives that extra texture. I also replaced 1/2 c of flour with whole wheat flour. Next time I think I’ll try a full cup.
The only issue is that the bread loses its crispiness when it sits overnight, best if eaten fresh out of the oven.
All in all, I give this recipe an A- Highly Recommended, and I will be making it again soon.
Recipe Swap
I was recently asked to participate in a recipe swap. I thought (with influence from Liz) that I would share the recipe I chose. My mom sent this recipe to me because it’s SUPER easy and everyone loves it (in my family at least).
I will also try to post some of the received recipes as well!
Leek and Kohlrabi Soup
2 1/2 Tbls butter
4C leek chopped coarsely (2 or 3)
4C kohlrabi coarsely chopped (2 or 3)
1 small turnip (3/4c) coarsely chopped
2 1/2 Tbsp flour
5 or 6 cup chicken stock (I use the pareve soup mix)
1/4 cup chopped dill
salt and pepper
1 med potato (1 1/4 C) diced
2/3 cup sour cream (room temp)
Melt butter in large sauce pan over med high heat. Add leeks and saute till limp not brown (4-5 min). Add kohlrabi and turnip reduce heat to med low and cook 1 minute stirring constantly. sprinkle flour over vegetable and mix thoroughly. Gradually blend in vegetable stock (I put in H2O and bouillon mix at same time) Stir in dill and salt and pepper. Cover and simer 12 minutes. Add potato cook covered 10-12 minutes more.
Combine sour cream and 1/2 c soup in bowl add to soup.
(If you make it ahead of time, don’t add the sour cream until you are about to serve it)
Garnish with dill and if you want can add a dollop of sour cream.
Baking Bread (#54)
I have officially crossed out the first goal on my list! Last night Liz and I made bread from scratch. Now, it’s important to note that “baking bread from scratch so that it comes out exactly as it is supposed to” was not the goal. It’s a good thing too. This is the recipe we used. If you will notice, it is not written so well. There are raisins and nuts in the list of ingredients and no mention of them in the execution of the recipe.
Needless to say, while delicious, our bread was quite dense. It is hard not to be delicious when you are filled with honey and molasses. While I am crossing this off the list, I plan on trying again, using a more simple recipe that isn’t from cooks.com. (probably the recipe suggested by Knile)
Here are some pictures. Clearly we had fun getting messy!!
samanthajess
Make Something Up: 101 Goals in 1001 Days 