Luck o' the Irish Cereal Treats

It's time for St. Patrick's Day and we had our annual corned beef and cabbage dinner with the neighbors over the weekend. We saw this twist on the Rice Krispie treat all over the Internet and thought they'd be perfect for the kids. We were right. N, who is 5, surely loved them, but (shhh!), so did we.

Luck o' the Irish Cereal Treats

Ingredients:

cooking spray

5 tablespoons butter

1 10-oz. bag large marshmallows

5 cups Lucky Charms cereal

1 8-oz. bag white chocolate chips

3-4 drops green food coloring

Coat a 13x9-inch pan with cooking spray. In a large pot, melt butter over medium heat. Add marshmallows and stir with silicone spoon or spatula until melted. Stir in cereal until everything is mixed together. Press into prepared pan with wax paper and allow to cool. Melt chocolate chips over low heat in a small saucepan or in the microwave. Add food coloring and spread chocolate over the treats. Cut and serve.

Here are a few more St. Patrick's Day Ideas:

Guinness-Glazed Chicken Wings

Chef Lise's Irish Stew

Beef and Stout Pot Pie

Irish Onion Soup

Meyer Lemon Bars

Christmas Countdown: Pecan Sea-Salt Drops

We are heading to New Orleans for a few days after Christmas and while we're there, we always pick up some freshly made pralines from Southern Candymakers in the French Quarter. But we wanted a praline-style candy to include in our gift packages this year, and settled on another Martha Stewart recipe, Pecan Sea-Salt Drops. 

A praline without the cream and butter, these drops consist of chopped pecans in a crunchy caramel sprinkled with sea salt. Martha suggests using a mini-muffin tin, and we tried them first in one, but then we tried a regular sized muffin tin and liked the look much better. What's great about these candy drops is not only the salty sweetness but also the pretty elegance.  

Pecan Sea-Salt Drops

(from MarthaStewart.com, makes 12-16 candies)

Ingredients:

cooking spray

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup light corn syrup

1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans

flake sea salt

Coat the cups of a muffin tin with cooking spray. Bring sugar and corn syrup to a boil in a medium saucepan. Cook, swirling occasionally, until mixture becomes golden around the edges. Stir in pecans and cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture is pale and amber-colored, about 8 minutes. Spoon mixture into muffin cups, about 1 tablespoon each, and immediately sprinkle with sea salt. Let cool completely, then remove from tins. Store in an airtight container.

Christmas Countdown: Honeycomb Brittle

It's the weekend before the big holiday, and A Couple in the Kitchen has been busy making sweets and treats for sharing with friends, neighbors and loved ones. We're still quite busy with school and life and all that, like everyone, so we started with something very easy - a candy recipe from the queen of all things homemade, Martha Stewart - Honeycomb Brittle. Making candy seems scary to some, but we find it much easier than baking. And less time-consuming! We used orange blossom honey to get a hint of orange essence in each crispy, crunchy, airy bite. And that great honeycomb-like texture comes from whisking in some baking soda at the very end.

Honeycomb Brittle

(from MarthaStewart.com, makes 1 sheet, about 9"x11")

Ingredients:

cooking spray

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup water

1 tablespoon baking soda

Spray a rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray and set aside. Bring sugar, honey and water to a boil in a medium saucepan over high heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to medium-high. Cook without stirring until mixture reaches 300 degrees on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat and whisk in baking soda until combined and bubbly. Gently pour onto prepared baking sheet, tilting to spread, and allow to cool. When cool, break into pieces. Store in an airtight container.

Candy Popcorn for Easter (Taste and Create)

This month we were invited to join Taste and Create, a group of food bloggers who are partnered up to cook recipes from each other's blogs. We were partnered up with No Reason Needed. If you are looking for a great variety of interesting recipes, you should definitely check it out - you can see all of them listed on the bottom right of the homepage. At first we were going to bake - perhaps some "Big Soft Ginger Cookies," or a "Lemon Drizzle Cake," but with the stress of work lately, we've been indulgent, and didn't want to have more baked goods around the house waiting to be gobbled up. 

Then Amy spotted this recipe for Candy Popcorn and immediately remembered this storefront at the Fairfield Mall in Chicopee where she grew up. It was called Kandy Korn or something similar and was a bright yellow place with containers of popcorn of every color and flavor - cherry, lime, strawberry. Oh, it was amazing, especially to a kid in the late 70's with a sweet tooth. That place made the mall smell like heaven, and when she saw this recipe, it all flooded back. This was the one.

We decided on grape flavor, in honor of nostalgia. We also used one of Amy's favorite appliances, The Whirley Popper. It is simple to make, festive for the Easter holiday, and tastes just like Amy remembered. Thanks for the memories!!!

To read more about, or to join Taste and Create, go here.

Candy Popcorn

Ingredients:

1/3 cup margarine

1/4 cup honey

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 3-ounce package flavored gelatin mix

9 cups popped popcorn

Combine honey and margarine in a microwave safe bowl and cook until melted, about 1 minute on high. Stir in sugar and gelatin powder. Microwave on high until it comes to a boil and turns foamy, doubling in size, about 2 minutes. Pour mixture over popcorn in a large bowl and stir to coat. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and turn coated popcorn onto the sheet. Bake at 250 degrees for 1/2 hour, stirring every 10 minutes. Allow to cool and store in an airtight container.

Shanghai Chicken and Shrimp Stir Fry

Happy Chinese New Year! Chinese New Year is a celebration of the lunar new year, and this year is the Year of the Dragon, year 4710 of the Chinese calendar. Amy has had an affinity for all things Chinese since she was a little girl and had Chinese neighbors who shared with her their language, culture and various celebrations. So of course we had to celebrate this new Year of the Dragon with a proper meal.

In Chinese culture, certain foods are symbolic, and this is especially apparent at the New Year's dinner which is meant to feature foods that will bring health, wealth and prosperity in the coming year. We kept our own hopes for the new year in mind when we thought up the auspicious ingredients of this dish, which we are calling Shanghai Chicken and Shrimp Stir Fry.

First are the noodles themselves, which symbolize long life, as long as they are left uncut, which we did. Slurping them from the bowl is a must. Next is the chicken, symbolizing happiness, marriage and prosperity. The word for prawn in Cantonese is "ha" which of course is reminiscent of the sound of laughter and happiness. (We are using regular shrimp, but maybe it's the thought that counts?) The color red is an especially important part of the celebration, so we chopped up a couple of dried red chiles to add color and spicy heat (like the fire of the dragon!) to the dish. Finally, we garnished the dish with chopped peanuts, which symbolize long life, good health, and good fortune. For dessert, we ate a couple of clementines, which are a variety of mandarin orange, and are considered to be good luck to the Chinese.

So here's to hoping this Year of the Dragon is one filled with all good things, including more delicious dishes such as this one!

Shanghai Chicken and Shrimp Stir Fry

Ingredients:

12 ounces Chinese wide lo-mein noodles

2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil

3 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspooon sugar

1 teaspoon cornstarch, mixed with 1 tablespoon cold water to make a slurry

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon minced fresh ginger

4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

3 green onions, chopped

1 star anise

3 dried red chilies, chopped* (see cooks' notes)

1/2 pound boneless chicken breast, cut into thin strips

1/2 pound large raw shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 cups snow peas, trimmed

2 tablespoons chopped peanuts

Notes: we had "dragon" on the brain and bravely put in three (chopped) dried red chilis, which made this dish pretty darn spicy. We suggest doing 1 1/2 to 2 unless you love love love the heat.

Prepare noodles according to package directions. Rinse under cold water, drain well and toss with sesame oil to coat evenly; set aside. Combine soy sauce, sugar and cornstarch slurry in a small bowl; set aside. In a wok or large saute pan, heat vegetable oil over high heat. Add ginger, garlic, green onions, star anise, and chilies, and stir-fry for 20 seconds. Add chicken strips and stir-fry until mostly cooked through, about 3 minutes. Add shrimp and snow peas and continue to stir fry until shrimp turn pink and snow peas are cooked but still crunchy, about 2 minutes. Pour in soy sauce/slurry and stir for 30 seconds. Toss in noodles and stir until all ingredients are well combined and noodles are coated with sauce. Serve in large noodle bowls topped with chopped peanuts.

Countdown to Christmas: Mad-Easy Macaroons

Amy writes: Some women won't admit what I'm about to admit, but I think I can do it. Let me take a deep breath. Okay, ready?

I have a lot in common with my mother. There. I said it. Well.

One of the many things we have in common is our love of coconut, and that is probably why she recently emailed me a recipe for coconut macaroons.



As many daughters might, I had my suspicions that she wasn't sending it to me merely out of the goodness of her heart. I thought perhaps it may be a subtle hint that she would like to see these on our Christmas Eve dessert table. Chris thought so too. And since they fall into the quick-and-easy theme we seem to have going this year, we decided to make them. (Just for you, Mom!)

Mix ingredients in a bowl

Place on parchment-lined cookie sheet

and bake 8-10 minutes

Cool on parchment-lined wire racks

She found this particular recipe at the website Just A Pinch, but when I browsed around the Internet, I found several very similar recipes. What I particularly love about this one is that there are only four ingredients. That, and the preparation only takes about two minutes. Oh, and they only need to be baked for 8-10 minutes. Which is to say, they are "mad-easy," which is why I've dubbed them "Mad-Easy Macaroons." And they are also really tasty - moist, chewy, and full of coconut and almond flavor. So next time either I or my mother have a craving for coconut, we know that craving can be satisified in about a half hour. How great is that?

Mad-Easy Macaroons

recipe from Just A Pinch

Ingredients:

2 (7-ounce) packages sweetened flake coconut
(aka "angel flake")

1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1  1/2 teaspoons almond extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. In a bowl, combine condensed milk and extracts. Mix well. Add coconut. Mix well. Drop by round teaspoonfuls onto baking sheets. Bake 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from baking sheets and place on parchment-covered cooling racks. Store loosely covered at room temp.

Countdown to Christmas: Florentine Cookies

When Amy first started working at her current teaching job, a group of women used to go, occasionally, on girls' outings. Each "girl" got her turn to plan the outing - one planned a trip to a pottery studio where we learned how to throw a cup; one planned a visit to a meditation center where we were encouraged to talk to our angels; Amy planned a holiday cookie class at a nearby kitchen store.

One of the cookie recipes at said class was for crisp, sugary Florentines. And it was around that time that we (Chris and Amy, that is) started dating, and we used to make those cookies quite often in Chris's little third-floor-apartment-kitchen. Sometimes we made them for a specific occasion; sometimes we made them just because we craved them (yes, they were that good). Sadly, somewhere along the way we lost the recipe. And none of the "girls" have been able to produce it in the last 10 (okay, maybe 12) years. We have (barely) accepted the loss. We have searched far and wide for that recipe, and we have never found anything that was quite right.

Then Chow published their "Crazy-Easy Christmas Cookies" article, and it included what seemed to be a very similar recipe for Florentine Cookies. Our hopes were raised. We knew it wasn't the same, but could it be, (could it? could it be?) just as good???  The suspense was killing us, so we made them on Tuesday night. And no, they are not the same. And no, they are not as good. But it could be that the memory of those particular cookies is not, in fact, reality. Maybe losing that recipe brought on some sort of romantic nostalgia for younger, easier days. Maybe that recipe is just a symbol of time, and friends, gone by. Maybe we weren't meant to have those cookies in our lives anymore.

Still, these Florentines are the closest we've come and we are enjoying every bite. And speaking of bites, this recipe doesn't make a whole lot of cookies (it says 36; we managed about 24), so be prepared and double up! And if you happened to take a holiday cookie class at Kitchens, Etc in West Hartford in the late 90's and you think you have the recipe of which we speak, please PLEASE PLEASE email us!!!

Almonds, orange zest and flour - ready to go

Sugar, butter, salt, corn syrup and cream get heated up

Pour wet mixture into the dry

Lay out on parchment-lined baking sheets

with plenty of room for them to spread out

Note: we have lots of chocolate in our other Christmas treats, so we chose not to drizzle these with chocolate and left that part out of the recipe below.

Chow's Florentine Cookies

Recipe from Chow, but pictures here were taken by us.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups sliced almonds (we used slivered)

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest (used a little more than that)

1/3 cup granulated sugar

4 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/2 stick), cut into 4 pieces

1/4 cup light corn syrup

1 tablespoon heavy cream

1/4 teaspoon fine salt

Heat the oven to 350°F and arrange 2 racks to divide the oven into thirds. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.

Place the almonds, flour, and zest in a medium bowl and toss with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon to combine; set aside.

Place the sugar, butter, corn syrup, cream, and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat, stir to combine, and bring to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat, add the almond mixture, and stir to combine.

Drop heaping teaspoons of the batter at least 3 inches apart onto the prepared baking sheets, 6 per sheet. Using a rubber spatula, pat the batter out into 2-inch-wide circles, spreading the almonds into an even single layer.

Place both sheets in the oven and bake for 5 minutes. Rotate the baking sheets front to back and top to bottom and bake until the florentines are light golden brown around the edges, about 4 to 5 minutes more.

Remove from the oven to wire racks and let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 2 minutes. Carefully remove the florentines from the baking sheets with a thin metal spatula, transfer to the wire racks, and cool completely. Repeat with the remaining batter—you can reuse the baking sheets and parchment while still warm. Reserve the parchment sheets for drizzling the chocolate over the cooled cookies, if using.

Place the cooled cookies on the reserved parchment sheets. Store the florentines in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

Countdown to Christmas: Double Chocolate Sea Salt Cookies

Yesterday we extolled the virtues of Chow, and today, we want to tell you about The Tasting Table. The Tasting Table is an email newsletter with recipes, food and drink news, restaurant reviews, travel tips and more fun stuff for foodies. Recently they sent us a recipe for Double Chocolate Sea Salt Cookies, and the recipe didn't call for butter but olive oil. While we love our butter (see every recipe we make...), we were intrigued at how these would turn out.

We made the dough on Sunday, and in our rush to "get things done" we didn't take any pictures of the dough-making process (bad bloggers!). Sorry! We chilled the dough overnight and baked the cookies Monday afternoon. The recipe said it would turn out fifty cookies. Fifty? We ended up with 90!!! Plenty of cookies to go around. And while they weren't as chocolatey as we would have liked (see note below), we are really enjoying the texture and the way the sea salt flakes play up the sweet chocolate flavor. Verdict? A yummy, grown-up cookie for the sophisticated palate.

Note: Next time (and yes, there will be a next time), we will upgrade to a better chocolate (we used Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips which are very good, but maybe not quite good enough for this recipe). We think a better quality chocolate will up the chocolatey goodness to where we want it.

Double Chocolate Sea Salt Cookies

recipe from The Tasting Table

Ingredients:

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (about 1 cup)

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

⅔ cup whole-wheat flour

¼ cup natural cocoa powder

¾ tablespoon baking powder

⅔ teaspoon kosher salt

2 cups granulated sugar

5 large eggs
⅔ cup extra-virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
flaky sea salt

In a heatproof medium bowl, add the chocolate. Set a medium saucepan filled with water over medium heat, bring to a simmer and set the heatproof bowl over the saucepan; melt the chocolate, stirring frequently. Once the chocolate is melted, carefully remove the bowl from the heat and set aside to cool slightly.

In a medium bowl, sift together the all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, cocoa, baking powder and kosher salt.

In a standing mixer fitted with a paddle, mix together the reserved chocolate, sugar, eggs, olive oil and vanilla. When the ingredients are well combined, slowly add the sifted dry ingredients. Mix well, until a sticky yet firm dough forms. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap. Place in the refrigerator and chill for at least three hours or up to overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and divide the chilled dough into ½-inch balls. Space the dough balls far enough apart so there is room for spreading. Press a pinch of flaky sea salt into the top of each ball. Bake until firm and the tops begin to crack slightly, 12 to 14 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool. Serve at room temperature.