The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap (with Recipe for Meyer Lemon and Black Pepper Cookie Bites)

This year, the whole idea of The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap intrigued us and so we decided to join in the fun. In the swap, food bloggers from all over the world are paired up to exchange cookies. Each blogger paid a nominal fee to be involved, then each sends one dozen cookies to three different bloggers, and everyone receives a dozen from three other bloggers, for a total of three dozen cookies sent and received. The sponsors of the swap are donating the funds to Cookies for Kids' Cancer, and even better, OXO matched the donation and sent us all "Be a Good Cookie" spatulas as a thank you gift. Seriously fun stuff!

The cookie we decided to try is new to us this year, and it's basically Chow's Meyer Lemon and Black Pepper Cookies with the one minor addition of lemon oil. We also made ours into smaller bites for easier packaging, as you can see, and so we could have more cookies to share! 

We love the delicious sweetness the Meyer lemon zest added to each bite (enhanced by the lemon oil of course), which balanced exquisitely with the subtle spiciness of the black pepper, all in one beautiful bite. And how wonderful is it that the dough can be made ahead of time and frozen? Perfect for this busy time of year. This is probably going to become one of our many go-to cookie recipes for the holidays. We sure hope Lou and Esi, Grandma Loy, and  Lori enjoyed them as much as we did. (Click their names to see what cookies they sent!)

Thank you very much to Jenny, Morgan, and Jenn for sharing their cookies with us (click their names to see their cookies and recipes). What a treat it was to get these packages in the mail knowing they were filled with yummy goodies.

Meyer Lemon and Black Pepper Cookie Bites

minimally adapted from Chow

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup loosely packed, finely grated Meyer lemon zest (from about 4 medium  or 6 small lemons)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon fine salt

8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg, at room temperature

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon lemon oil

Whisk together the flour, zest, baking powder, pepper, and salt in a medium bowl to break up any lumps; set aside. Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until lightened in color and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle with a rubber spatula. Return the mixer to medium speed, add the egg, vanilla, and lemon oil, and beat until incorporated. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle with the rubber spatula.Turn the mixer to low speed and slowly add in the reserved flour mixture. Mix until just incorporated. Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface and divide it in half. Roll each portion into a log measuring the desired diameter. Wrap each log tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours and up to 3 days (or freeze up to one month). When ready to bake the cookies, heat the oven to 350°F and arrange the racks to divide the oven into thirds. Remove the dough logs from the refrigerator (allow to thaw if frozen), remove the plastic wrap, and slice the dough into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Place the rounds about 1/2 inch apart on 2 baking sheets (about 20 cookies per sheet). Place both sheets in the oven and bake for 6 minutes. Rotate the baking sheets front to back and top to bottom and bake until the edges of the cookies are firm but the tops are still soft, about 6 to 7 minutes more. Place the baking sheets on wire racks and let them cool for 5 minutes. Using a flat spatula, transfer the cookies to the wire racks to cool completely.

To see all the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap recipes, and to get some wonderful holiday ideas for yourself, go to The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap recipe roundup.

Meatless Monday: White Beans Provençal

Ah, December. Sure, it's crunch time at school, with mid-marking progress reports due, and midterm exams just around the corner. Sure, we should be cleaning and decorating and buying presents and boosting the economy and all that. But what we love most about December is, of course, all about the food. It's about the cookie swapping, Chex mix eating, candy making, soup stewing, meat braising, and last week, beans simmering.

 

For last week's Meatless Monday, we came up with a simple white bean dish perfect for wintry weeknights. Since it's Monday again, we figured we'd share. Hearty and filling, these beans are packed with herbacious flavor from the wonderful spice blend that is herbes de Provence. Since our New England garden has been laid waste by the weather, we use this particular version of the traditional dried blend which includes garlic, lavender, a variety of other herbs and spices, lemon peel and sea salt. Add some vegetable broth to make it a stew, or serve it over rice for a more filling meal. We liked it the way it is here, served with a crusty French baguette.

 

White Beans Provençal

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

2 teaspoons (or to taste) herbes de Provence

2 large (1 pound, 13 ounce) cans cannellini beans

2 bay leaves

kosher salt, to taste

freshly ground white pepper, to taste

1/4-1/2 cup hot water

Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add chopped onion and garlic and cook until onion starts to become translucent. Sprinkle with herbs de Provence and cook, stirring, for another 2-3 minutes. Add white beans and bay leaves and season with salt and white pepper to taste. Add 1/4 cup hot water (or more, to desired consistency) and cook over medium heat for about an hour. Drizzle with additional olive oil before serving.

Wordless Wednesday: Homemade Chex Mix = Christmas Crack

November Foodie Penpals

How can it possibly be the end of November already? Sheesh! The good thing about that, however, is that it is the time to reveal our Foodie Penpal for this month, Laura of Wylde Thyme! We received a very thoughtful box of goodies from Laura who said that she was sure things were getting hectic (with the arrival of the holiday season and all) and that she wanted to put together some date night snacks for the two of us. How sweet is that?!?!? Her suggestion was to add a bottle of wine and a movie, and we took it one step further and added some soup to make it into snacks, wine, a movie and dinner!

Here's a list and some photos of what Laura sent us:

Pepperoncini Peppers that were salty, spicy and sitting in a perfectly pungent vinegar.

Laurel Hill Berry Nutty Mix, a delightful mix of almonds, cashews, peanuts, cherries, cranberries, blueberries, and golden raisins with just a hint of sugar to sweeten it all up.

A variety of snack crackers, including Westminster's Parmesan Peppercorn - a tangier version of their plain oyster cracker.

Olde Colony Bakery Cocoa Crisp Cookies, amazingly crunchy crispy chocolatey buttery cookie bites.

 

And, last but not least, Yancey's Fancy XXX Sharp Cheddar from New York, which made Chris chuckle "A triple-x date night, eh?" Men.

We noshed and sipped and watched a movie and then used the leftover cheddar mixed with some provolone from the fridge to make grilled cheese sandwiches on rosemary bread with a side of tomato and sweet basil soup (garnished with a couple of those crackers!). So the date went from nuts to soup ha ha!

It was great, and we got to try some fabulous new snacks, including dessert (heart those cookies!), all provided by our Foodie Penpal! Thank you, Laura! We loved it!

Please Vote for Our Molecule-R Recipe

Some time ago, we started experimenting with molecular gastronomy. You know, Chris being a science geek and all. Well, we entered one of our experiments into a contest and would love your help in trying to win it! Our recipe was for Gravlax with Spherified Mustard Sauce and it came out looking like this:

Yes, folks, that is not an egg yolk but in fact a sphere of mustard sauce. Gotta love chemistry. Anyway, if you like what you see, and you have a minute to spare, please go HERE and vote for the Gravlax recipe (the one by Chris and Amy White of CT - that's us!) pictured above. Voting ends December 9.

Thank you so much!!! We'll let you know how it goes!



Bison Shortribs Dorie's Way

We love Dorie Greenspan, and the short ribs recipe from her book Around My French Table can not be matched. That's why after we purchased a few pounds of bison short ribs from Creamery Brook Bison in Brooklyn, Connecticut (read about our visit here), we took out her book, found the right page, and got straight to work.

As a general rule, we prefer not to copy recipes from cookbooks into our blog, and we won't do that today. Around My French Table really is a treasure trove of amazing recipes, photos and stories, and we encourage you to buy it (makes a great holiday gift for you or your fellow foodie!). Nonetheless, in the interest of sharing, we have taken step-by-step photographs (with captions!) of how we made the short ribs and we think you can get the gist of it from those. So here goes.

Lay the short ribs out onto a foil-lined cookie sheet, pat them dry and ....

...broil them until they are browned on both sides.

Then turn the oven to 350.

Prepare some herbs (rosemary, parsley, celery leaves, bay leaves, thyme, star anise)...

...and wrap them in dampened cheesecloth.

Cut up some vegetables (parsnips, celery, onion, carrots, leeks, ginger, garlic)...

...and place them in a pan. Season with salt and pepper and toss with a mild oil.

Turn on the heat and start to soften them (about ten minutes).

Then add some tomato paste. 

Keep stirring and cooking until it looks something like this.

Then add about a bottle's worth of red wine such as this shiraz, and a cup of port if you've got it.

Put in the bouquet of herbs.

Bring the whole thing to a boil over high heat until the liquid reduces by about 1/3.

Put the browned short ribs in the pan (bone side up) and cover them with beef broth.

Cover with foil, stick a tight lid on it, and put in the oven at 350 for two hours. No peeking!

Remove the foil, put the lid on loosely, and continue to cook for another hour.

While the meat cooks, make your side dishes and set your table.

When the meat's done, remove it from the pan and let it rest.

Strain out the vegetables from the sauce and reduce the sauce by half.

Serve the sauce over the shortribs; it will still be thin but it's really

tasty from all the herbs and vegetables.

The results? Stellar. Talk about amazing. Falling off the bone. Fork-tender. Not one bit gamey. Slightly sweet yet savory from that wonderfully flavorful sauce. With buttermilk mashed potatoes? You gotta try it! It's a whole lotta love. Enjoy!

Creamery Brook Bison Farm, Brooklyn, CT

Amy: "What do you want to do today?"

Chris: "I don't know. What do you want to do?"

Amy: "I don't know. What do you want to do?"

Chris: "I don't know..."

Amy: "Okay, enough. Let's just go for a drive and see what happens."

Chris: "What direction?"

Amy: "I don't know..."

Chris: "I think it's time for the magic nickel of indecision."

It was a sunny fall day, just a few weeks ago, and we had nowhere to be but couldn't seem to decide what we wanted to do. So we flipped a coin (the aforementioned magic nickel) and when it turned up heads (heads = east, tails = west), we turned up the radio and headed east on CT Route 6. We thought for a minute that we might end up in Providence, perhaps hit up the ole' Federal Hill neighborhood for some Italian chow, but that was not meant to be. For when we saw the sign announcing that we were entering the little haven of Brooklyn, Connecticut, a glimmer of recognition went through Amy's head.

Amy: "I think there's a bison farm around here. How big can Brooklyn, Connecticut be? Let's find it and buy some bison meat!" 

We stopped at Brooklyn Beef and Fish, thinking that if they didn't sell bison, they would know where the farm was. In fact, they did. And so it was we ended up at the Creamery Brook Bison Farm. Following the butcher's directions and then, the signs to the farm, we passed a long gated pasture where we stopped and watched the buffalo roam.

Yes, bison is buffalo. They are one and the same, and it's thanks to farms like Creamery Brook that the bison population continues to be on the rise. Here, they feed them corn and grass, no hormones or antibiotics, and the result is a flavorful, slightly sweet, not-at-all-gamey, tender meat with fewer calories and less cholesterol than beef, chicken or turkey. The healthier red meat!

We made our bison purchases and stepped out to enjoy the sunshine and visit the animals. One of the younger bison had stealthily entered the emus' home. The emus, therefore, were chillin' by the fence, far from young Mr. Bison, curiously checking us out as we did them.

A rooster crowed, a peacock ambled by. It was quiet and peaceful and perfectly New England. That magic nickel sure comes in handy.

Wondering what we did with our bison purchase? Come back tomorrow and find out.