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Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Indian Recipe

This recipe comes from sister Pam who says: "This is a great recipe from "quick-fix vegetarian" that satisfy any Indian craving."

potato "dosadillas"

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoon minced scallions or onion
2 cups mashed potatoes*
1/2 cup frozen baby peas, thawed
1 1/2 teaspoon curry paste or powder
4 large whole wheat tortillas

Heat oil in skillet.
Add the scallions until softened. Add the potatoes, peas, and curry and cook until well mixed and hot. (If you like spicy food, add a little more curry to taste)

Divide the mixture evenly over half of each of the tortillas. Fold the tortillas over and place them, two at a time, in a large nonstick skillet or griddle over medium heat. Cook, turning once, until lightly browned on both sides. Keep them warm while cook the remaining dosadillas. Serve them whole to be cut with a knife and fork, or cut them into wedges to eat out of hand.

**The mashed potatoes can come from a variety of sources. you can plan ahead and make extra baked or mashed potatoes for dinner the night before, putting the extra aside for this recipe.
If you don't have cooked potatoes on hand, you can quickly microwave some and then make this "mashed potatoes"

Saturday, December 01, 2007

Chocolate Chip Cookies and cookie baking advice

Cookie making time is here! I have been practicing the art of cookies, and it truly is an art. I have found that the key is consistency in heating and rotation. To accomplish this, I've found that it's a one cookie sheet at a time process. If you put two cookie sheets in the same oven and they are over each other, there isn't even distribution of heat. So, one cookie sheet at a time!

The other key is rotation. If your cookie recipe says bake for 10 min, set another timer for 5 min and rotate the cookie sheet 180 degrees and you'll have a more even baking. That way, the cookies towards the back turn out as perfect and the ones in front and don't get overdone and too crunchy.

Make sure that your oven is the correct temperature (using an oven thermometer). Trusting your recipe is important. If your recipe says 10 m and your oven temp is correct, they should be done in 10 m. You'll get the intended result of the recipe if you follow the minute advice.

And finally, parchment paper. It makes clean-up easy, even cookie baking, and the bottoms are perfectly brown.

So in summary:
use a oven thermomter
rotate your cookie sheet half-way through baking
use parchment paper
only one cookie sheet at a time
trust your recipe

I am by no means a cookie baking expert. In fact, I think I have a lot to learn. So, I'm going to practice, practice, practice. These are just a few things that I've found helps me in baking!

and now for the recipe!!!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons hot water
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with salt. Stir in flour and chocolate chips. Drop by large spoonfuls onto ungreased pans.
Bake for about 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are nicely browned.