Today is the last day of “Meteorological Winter”. No, we still have a few weeks to go before we hit Astronomical Spring, but the last day of February … things can really go warmer from here. We did get snow on this last day of February, so I figured it was still ok to make snowball cookies. This recipe is actually the same as my Vanilla Crescents (Vanillekipferl) at Christmas time, just shaped differently. Either way, they taste the same and are super delicious.
Monthly Archives
February 2019
I’m tired of gray. It’s that time of the year — though March will be worse — that Mother Nature has decided that the predominant color outside is gray and white. OK, maybe shades of gray. Spring is right around the corner but February and March in New England are pretty drab. So I decided to make these crazy colorful — those perfect shades of yellow and orange — Olive Oil Meyer Lemon Bars with Candied Kumquat. Candied kumquats are certainly very unique but they are a combination of sweet and tart, a little bitter. They add a nice contrast to the creamy meyer lemon curd. Definitely keep them chilled as they get a little runny if left at room temperature.
Comfort food. In the winter, sometimes you just need a good bowl of Chicken Noodle Soup, right? Well, I decided to put a little bit of a twist on the classic, adding some spices that add even more warming properties: garlic, ginger, turmeric and black pepper. And it’s a “cheater” recipe as I used a store-bought rotisserie chicken to make it easy on me. For the noodles, I used udon and I added carrots, red pepper and Swiss chard for color. One of the best soups (or is it a stew?) that I have ever made.
It’s an extra day off here in the U.S. (it’s a bank holiday, President’s Day) so without anything planned for the day, I decided to 1. clean out the freezer and 2. bake something. The freezer has been needing some organization anyway, and I have a whole pile of frozen blueberries headed my way, so I decided to take the last of the ones already in my freezer and bake a mini-pie. Did you know that I have almost 20 *different* blueberry pie recipes on this here CSPS website? And this one is new too. Instead of any sugar whatsoever, I replaced it with maple syrup. Tastes a little like blueberry pancakes. Nom nom nom.
So this is what happens when you go through the pantry and you realize that you had a lot of open and half empty bags of things… pecans here, Hershey’s Caramel Kisses there. Sea Salt and bourbon are constants. So, you put them all together and you get these beauties. Delicious with a hint of bourbon and salted caramel. The Kisses melted to add on the pecans halves. Pretty ingenious, I’d say.