New Linky Party - Favorite Things Friday

Foodie Friday is no more.  

Due to lack of participation, I've decided to dump Foodie Friday.  On the weeks that I didn't go out fishing for linkups, it was only getting around 4 links.  Also, since this isn't really a food blog, it just didn't fit.  

Since I still like the idea of hosting a linky party, I'm starting a new one called Favorite Things Friday.  You can link up anything you want.  Projects, recipes, home decor makeovers, whatevah.  I'll be bringing back my Weekly Faves, but will only "fave" things that were linked up in Friday Faves. 

Some of my favorite things this week have to do with the bedroom makeover we've got going on over here at  the ole' Speckled homestead.  Charles has been busy tearing the nasty carpet out and laying the new pine laminate flooring.  We're He's using the same flooring we he put down in Han's bedroom.  It looks so much better in there already!

Anyway, the look I'm going for in there will be a shabby chic-ish look.  I want either a grayish paint color (Charles said no to light blue, which is what I really wanted) or a light brownish color.  As far as furniture and accessories, I definitely want lots of distressed and chippy stuff going on in there, but I really can't plan much until I get the bedding.  I'm in love with several that PB has right now and I can't decide what I want.  Most likely, the ones that are catalog or internet only will be cast aside for the ones that I can get in the store because I really want to be able to see them in person.  



Here are the ones I'm considering right now.

I'm not posting this because of the quilt on the bed.  I do like it, but I need a duvet cover.  I'm sharing this because I love everything about this whole setup.  Especially that shelf over the bed.

With this one, I could leave the drapes I already have, up and wouldn't need to buy or make new ones.

This one is probably my most favorite.  I just love the blue and gold colors in it.

 

I guess I need to decide if a want a powder blue like the one above or a dusty blue like this one.

Another blue.  I guess I'm probably going to end up with some sort of blue bedding.  :-)

OK, it's your turn.  What are some of your favorite things?

Rules:

There's really only one.  Please, please, please link back to the party so that others can join in.  Also, it'd be really nice of you if you could visit a few of the other linkups and leave a nice comment.

Foodie Friday No. 8 - Mexican

 When do we eat???

Welcome to the 8th Foodie Friday!

What is Foodie Friday? Well, it's a bit like a modern day recipe swap. We'll meet here each Friday to link up our recipes. Most weeks we'll have a theme, but sometimes, we'll do an all-out potluck. I'm open to suggestions as to what the next week's theme should be so feel free to leave those in the comments.

In honor of this week's feature recipe, I'm making this week a Mexican theme.  You can really link up any kind of Hispanic recipe.  It doesn't have to be Mexican.

This week's feature recipe comes to us from Becky @ Mrs. Bettie Rocker.  She actually submitted this recipe weeks ago and I finally made it last week.  I'll most likely be making it again this week because IT. WAS. THA. BOMB!

You can either make it as a chicken dish or as a vegetarian dish.  I went the veggie route on this one.  

***********************************************

CHICKEN ENCHILADAS, VEGGIE & SLOW COOKER VERSIONS

(When she linked them up, she called then Loca 'Ladas.)  Love that!

Becky sez:  "These are crazy good and crazy filling! I'm adding a couple of variations at the end for my Veggiesaurus friends and people who don't have all day to spend in the kitchen. These are pretty time consuming but totally worth it!"

(His & Hers Enchiladas ready for the oven.
Chicken on the Left, Veggie on the right)

Ingredients:

2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast meat - cut into chunks
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 1/4 cups sour cream
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1 tablespoon butter
1 small onion, chopped
1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chilies, drained
1 (1.25 ounce) package mild taco seasoning mix
1 bunch green onions, chopped, divided
1 cup water
1 teaspoon lime juice
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
5 (12 inch) flour tortillas
3 cups Cheddar cheese, shredded, divided (I buy the blocks and shred it myself. I swear it tastes better!)
1 (10 ounce) can enchilada sauce
1 (6 ounce) can sliced black olives (optional)

Directions:

1.Place the chicken in a large pot and add water to cover. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the chicken pieces are no longer pink, about 10 minutes. Shred chicken by placing two forks back to back and pulling meat apart. Set the shredded chicken aside. Meanwhile, combine the cream of chicken soup, sour cream, and chili powder in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, then turn off the heat and cover to keep warm.

2.Heat the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in the onion; cook and stir until the onion has softened and turned translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the shredded chicken, chopped green chilies, taco seasoning, half of the bunch of chopped green onion, and water. Allow to simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in the lime juice, onion powder, and garlic powder; simmer for an additional 10 minutes.

3.Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F. Stir 1 cup of the soup mixture into the skillet with the chicken mixture. Spread the remaining soup mixture on the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish.

4.Fill each tortilla with chicken mixture. Sprinkle Cheddar cheese over the chicken filling before folding the tortillas, reserving half of the shredded cheese for topping the enchiladas. Fold tortillas over the filling and place seam-side down in the prepared pan.

5.Pour enchilada sauce evenly over the enchiladas. Cover with the remaining 1 1/2 cups of Cheddar cheese. Sprinkle the reserved chopped green onions and the sliced olives on top of the cheese. Bake in the preheated oven until filling is heated through and the cheese is melted and bubbling, about 25 minutes.

(Chicken. I took this after it chilled so it would set up for the photo.)

 

Variations:
For Vegetarians (Ovo-Lactos): Just sub the Cream of Chicken Soup for Creamed Corn, and instead of chicken, sub in Rice and Black Beans. Rinse and drain the beans, and cook them on low-low, and follow the directions for seasoning and simmering the chicken. Once they are finished, toss in about 2 cups of cooked rice, mix and fill enchiladas as you would with chicken.

(Veggie)

For the Slow Cooker: Put the chicken in a slow cooker with the taco seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, chopped onion and add just a little water in the morning on low. The chicken is easily shredded by late afternoon. Shred the chicken, place back in the crock pot and add half the green onions and the lime juice. Cover and simmer 15-20 minutes. Prepare soup and sour cream mixture on stove, and add to crock and stir well, cover and simmer another 20 minutes. Then just assemble the enchiladas and bake.

***********************************************

I actually took my own photos this time so here ya go:

Alright, let's link up!

Powered by Linky Tools
Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list...

***  I'll be looking for a new linky tool for next week since I want the thumbnails to actually be visible in my post.  BOOOOO!

Foodie Friday No.7

Welcome to the 7th Foodie Friday!

What is Foodie Friday? Well, it's a bit like a modern day recipe swap. We'll meet here each Friday to link up our recipes. Most weeks we'll have a theme, but sometimes, we'll do an all-out potluck. I'm open to suggestions as to what the next week's theme should be so feel free to leave those in the comments.

This week's theme is DESSERTS so link up all of the sweets you want. 

In honor of this week's theme, I wanted to share a couple of things I found while thrifting this week.  We have a Goodwill Clearance center here.  A clearance center is where they send all of the goods from other GW stores that haven't sold.  At the clearance center, everything except for books is $1.19 a pound.  Books are 25 cents a pound.  You have to do A LOT of digging, but I just love that.  I never come out empty-handed.

Look at these goodies I found this week!

 from 1963, "Favorite Recipes of America - DESSERTS"

from 1953, "Better Homes and Gardens new Cook Book"

Nice, huh?  Ok, let's get on with the party and link up.  Please grab a button or at least link back to the party.

<center><a href="http://thespeckleddog.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHQReyOMADWkfC_J6KzfSyF5C_Eb3dsd9xFxZvXgLSt0MdLX7mwuAVuhHbHxNg5Om79ynpMV6bDslVhQ_azlqyMq8HTmArhshf5ppIyAKM6P74zm_qzJJlCLG8fu3QGAZgP5RPEd0A44M/s320/foodiefriday.gif" /></a></center>


Linking to:
Market Yourself Monday @ Sumo's Sweet Stuff 

Foodie Friday No.6

  images courtesy of Martha Stewart Online

 

 

Welcome to the 6th Foodie Friday!

What is Foodie Friday? Well, it's a bit like a modern day recipe swap. We'll meet here each Friday to link up our recipes. Most weeks we'll have a theme, but sometimes, we'll do an all-out potluck. I'm open to suggestions as to what the next week's theme should be so feel free to leave those in the comments.

This week's a potluck week so link up whatever recipe you want.  Link up as many recipes as you want.  

I've got a lot on my plate today, plus, I haven't yet prepared two of the three recipes I was going to feature today (my parents provided dinner one night and we went out last night) so I'll do my FF feature post in a few days.

Alright peeps, let's link up!

Foodie Friday No. 5

Welcome to the 5th Foodie Friday!!  I can't believe I've been doing this for over a month.  Where does the time go???  

What is Foodie Friday? Well, it's a bit like a modern day recipe swap. We'll meet here each Friday to link up our recipes. Most weeks we'll have a theme, but sometimes, we'll do an all-out potluck. I'm open to suggestions as to what the next week's theme should be so feel free to leave those in the comments.

This week's a potluck week so link up whatever recipe you want.  Link up as many recipes as you want.  I'm actually thinking that I'll do the reverse of what I originally said; we'll do a potluck most weeks with an occasional theme.  It seems that potlucks are easier for everyone, I get more links this way and it's easier for me to go out and "fish" for people to invite. 

I honestly didn't plan a menu or really even go to the store this week.  After being sick last week, I just wasn't feelin' it.  I basically made to with what we had at home so I don't have any features this week.  Because of that, I'm going to repost my Breakfast Pizza.  The pictures are pretty crappy because I had the camera on the wrong setting and didn't realize it.  Anyway, here's my recipe.

Ingredients:

*  If you buy one package of all these things, you'll have enough for two pizzas.

• One 12" pre-made pizza crust.  I used Mama Mary's
• One package of country gravy mix, prepared as directed.  I used Pioneer Brand.
• 4 eggs, scrambled hard/dry
• 4 slices of turkey bacon,  cooked and torn into pieces
• 4 links of turkey sausage, cooked and torn into pieces
• 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese (sharp)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Spread gravy over crust.  I don't have an exact measurement for this, but just think of it as you do pizza sauce.  If you like a lot of pizza sauce, use a lot of gravy.  If you don't like a lot of sauce, just use a little.    Just remember that pizza sauce is more bold than this stuff and you want to be able to taste it (the gravy).  You also don't want to drown the pizza in gravy.  You want to still be able to eat this by hand.
3. Spread the eggs over the top of the pizza.
4. Spread the bacon pieces over the top of the pizza.
5. Spread the sausage bits over the top of the pizza.
6. Spread cheese over the whole thing.
7. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the cheese has melted.

Alright, let's link up!



Linking to:
Market Yourself Monday @ Sumo's Sweet Stuff 

Foodie Friday No.4

Welcome to the 4th Foodie Friday. What is Foodie Friday? Well, it's a bit like a modern day recipe swap. We'll meet here each Friday to link up our recipes. Most weeks we'll have a theme, but sometimes, we'll do an all-out potluck. I'm open to suggestions as to what the next week's theme should be so feel free to leave those in the comments.

This week's a potluck week so link up whatever recipe you want.  Link up as many recipes as you want.

This week, I tried four recipes that were linked up in past Foodie Friday.  Three from last week and one from the week before.  Y'all sure are making my meal planning easy!

I'm using the photos submitted instead of my own because, well, I didn't take any.   I take so many photos a day or projects, future projects and etsy shop items that I just can't remember to take photos of our meals, until it's too late.  I promise, I did make these and we did eat them!  :-)

First up is Kristi's (from Life is Just a Bowl of Cherrys) Stuffed Manicotti.

Kristi says, "Note: This photo does NOT do this recipe justice!

I've never used Manicotti shells before and I didn't realize how thin they were.  Because of this, my shells split while they were boiling.  No worries, I just spooned some filling down the middle and folded them closed.  I forgot that she mentioned needing more than one box of pasta so I ended up boiling some giant shells too.  I would say that one box of Manicotti would have been enough.  Maybe I just overstuffed mine.  Anyway, I just have to say that this is the BEST filling I've had.  I've made a ton of stuffed shells in my lifetime and the filling has always been too runny.  Not this filling, it was nice and thick and had a great flavor.  The only thing I changed about it was t hat I added a TBS or two of minced garlic.  For my sauce, I didn't even use a really nice sauce.  I used my store brand straight outta the can.  This was an awesome meal and I'll be adding to my files for sure.

Next up is Jan's (from The Simpler Life) slow cooker BBQ Chicken, which her husband has dubbed "Sweet Baby Jan's BBQ".  

Just so you know, I love BBQ.  I love BBQ because I'm Southern and that's what we do.  I love it, but I've never made it before.  I've made BBQ chicken breasts before, but never shredded BBQ.  I followed Jan's recipe to  the T, except I didn't use HEINZ (sorry, Jan).  I ended up cooking my chicken for about 6 hours on low.  That's about 2 hours less than Jan recommends, but my pot cooks on the hot side.  Once it was done, I put the chicken on a plate, got my knife and fork out and got ready to shred.  Turns out, I only needed the fork.  So this is what they mean when they say fork-tender.  Oh my gosh, this stuff was so tender!  And the sauce, the sauce was awesome too.  It's a tangy sauce because of the vinegar and it's soooo good!  We made sandwiches out of this (we didn't use the cheese that her recipe calls for), but I think it would be really good over some white rice and so that's probably what I'll do with it next time.  This one's a keeper too.

Tonight, we made Rebekah's (from Potholes & Pantyhose) Baked Rosemary Potatoes.   

Holy Moly, these are good.  I've got a cold and I still thought they were great!  Han ate two helpings of them and that is saying a lot!  She's bot really a picky kid, but lately she's been really finicky.  I followed Rebeka's recipe exactly.  The only thing difference is that I ended up baking them on the middle rack for an hour and I stirred them every 20 minutes or so.  I was just trying to stretch the cooking time until Charles got home and got the Turkey burgers grilled.  I will definitely be making these again and they're getting added  to the Thanksgiving menu this year.




And last, but not least, COOKIES!!  This is a Martha recipe posted and linked up by a little bit of everything. 

First off, you should be aware that this recipe makes about 50 large cookies.  That's what the recipe says and I'd say that's pretty accurate since we had 25 cookies and we still have a large roll of dough in the fridge.  Also, this recipe requires that you chill the dough so you need to take that into account when making these.  I just have to say that these are now one of my favorite cookies.  I love them because they combine two of my favorite sweets, cookies and brownies.  It's like a brownie cookie!  You can't get any better than that!  Thanks, Martha, and thanks to a little bit of everything for posting this!!


If I featured your recipe, feel free to grab my button.

<center><a href="http://thespeckleddog.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaT2G24-kqjR0IijbfQH3Nww-bEez2G4Hn1-yp5kigZqgCyY-HI7F4g9iSIKubugWoPa6Aii2iJ9wD23n_4v2nKVj_zcGTerDGZZRJsneyChiTazBPGmMzo_aUtAUX6toW4vrhMQyShxY/s1600/blogbutton.gif" /></a></center>

This week's a potluck week so link up whatever recipe you want.  Link up as many recipes as you want.  And while you're here, go on over and link up to win a $40 gift card to CSN stores.  All you have to do is be a follower and link up.  That's it!


I now have a Foodie button!!  Thanks, Charles!!

<center><a href="http://thespeckleddog.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHQReyOMADWkfC_J6KzfSyF5C_Eb3dsd9xFxZvXgLSt0MdLX7mwuAVuhHbHxNg5Om79ynpMV6bDslVhQ_azlqyMq8HTmArhshf5ppIyAKM6P74zm_qzJJlCLG8fu3QGAZgP5RPEd0A44M/s320/foodiefriday.gif" /></a></center>

Foodie Friday # 3

Welcome to the 3rd Foodie Friday. What is Foodie Friday? Well, it's a bit like a modern day recipe swap. We'll meet here each Friday to link up our recipes. Most weeks we'll have a theme, but sometimes, we'll do an all-out potluck. I'm open to suggestions as to what the next week's theme should be so feel free to leave those in the comments.

This week's a potluck week so link up whatever recipe you want.  Link up as many recipes as you want. 

 images courtesy of Martha Stewart Online

I have all three recipes from last week's party on the menu this week and I'll hopefully be reviewing them next week.  They were all look awesome so be sure you go check them out.  Sorry for the delay ladies!  

I've already posted my recipe for the week so I'll just link it up with everyone elses.  

OK, let's get ready to link up!

<center><a href="http://thespeckleddog.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHQReyOMADWkfC_J6KzfSyF5C_Eb3dsd9xFxZvXgLSt0MdLX7mwuAVuhHbHxNg5Om79ynpMV6bDslVhQ_azlqyMq8HTmArhshf5ppIyAKM6P74zm_qzJJlCLG8fu3QGAZgP5RPEd0A44M/s320/foodiefriday.gif" /></a></center>

The "rules"

1 - Only link up a recipe that is relevant to the the week's theme.
2 - Make sure you link to a specific post and not to your main blog page.
3 - Please visit at least one other blog and leave a nice comment for them.
4 - Make sure you link back to Foodie Friday in your linked post so that others can find all of us.

Ahhh... Soup

Here is South Carolina, Mother Nature has just begun giving a taste of Fall.  The mornings and evenings have been wonderfully cool and the days just mildly warm.  Well, that is until today.  Today, it was back in the 90's again.   Mother Nature... what a tease!

Like many of you, one of my favorite things to make for dinner in the Fall and Winter is soup.  What's not to like?  It warms you up, fills you up and it's easy to make.  I especially like how you can throw just about any lingering veggie you have in a pot with some broth or even water and you have a complete meal.

Last winter, I purchased a book that I'd read  about over at Angry Chicken, called Love Soup by Anna Thomas.

The recipes in the book are all vegetarian, with some being vegan, but just like any recipe, they can be adapted.  There are some odd sounding soups in this book like Puree of Carrot and Yam with Citrus and Spices, but there are many more soups that make my mouth drool just by reading the name.  Like Spicy Black Bean Soup With Sweet Peppers and Creamy Potato and Roasted Garlic Soup.  I've made several soups from this book and one thing I like about it is that the recipes have given me the opportunity to try veggies that I've never tried before.  Like chard and fennel.

And the recipes don't stop at soup.  There are dips and spreads like Sprouted Garbanzo Hummus, Parsley and Walnut Pesto, sandwiches like the Grilled Goat Cheese Sandwich, salads such as Cucumber, Rice and Fresh Herb Salad.  There are also several bread recipes and dessert recipes. 

Tonight, I made the Old Fashioned Cream of Mushroom Soup and it was so smooth and velvety and mushroomy.  I actually modified the recipe a little because I had some carrots that I needed to use up and I didn't have any sherry, which the recipe called for.    Here is my version.

Old Fashioned Cream of Mushroom Soup

Adapted from Love Soup.

1- 8oz package of white mushrooms

1 - 8 oz package of baby bella mushrooms

1 large white onion

4 cloves of garlic

2 celery stalks

2 carrots

3 TBS olive oil

7 cups veggie broth (I used chicken)

3 TBS Arborio rice

2 TBS crushed rosemary

1/2 tsp smoked paparika

1 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 to 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream

Chop the celery & carrots and add to a soup pot with the broth and one clove of chopped garlic.  Also, add the rice.  Simmer over medium heat.

While soup base is simmering, heat half of the oil in a skillet.  While oil is heating, chop the onion.  When pan is hot, add onion and saute until they are soft.  Add to soup base.

In another skillet, add the remaining oil and once hot, add the three remaining cloves of garlic.  While garlic is sauteing, slice mushrooms (removing stems) and then add them to the garlic.  Stir in the salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme & paprika.  Cook over medium heat until mushrooms release their juices.  Then stir into soup base.

Continue to simmer the soup over medium heat, covered, for about 20 minutes or until rice, carrots and celery are soft.

Puree soup with an immersion blender or regular blender.  Once pureed, stir in the cream and add more salt and pepper if needed.

Now, if you're still here, I've got the 411 on this week's Foodie Friday.  No theme this week because it's a Potluck!  Link up any recipe you have.  The more, the merrier!

* Some info on the Foodie Friday link party:

I love food and I love finding new recipes and so I thought having a recipe link party would be a fun way to have a sort of modern day recipe swap.  I've decided to host this party on Fridays and call it Foodie Friday. 

Linking to these fantastic link parties.

Foodie Friday # 2

Welcome to the second addition of Foodie Friday. What is Foodie Friday? Well, it's a bit like a modern day recipe swap. We'll meet here each Friday to link up our recipes. Most weeks we'll have a theme, but sometimes, we'll do an all-out potluck. I'm open to suggestions as to what the next week's theme should be so feel free to leave those in the comments.

This week's theme is slow cooker recipes. I just love these kind of recipes. The thing I like most about them is that I've got dinner and clean-up out of the way, early in the day. I hate how when I cook a regular meal, I'm rushing around trying to get it done by the time Charles comes home, and then when I'm done, the kitchen looks like a tornado has come through. Who can have a relaxing dinner after all of that? You can link up any recipe as long as it or even part of it was prepared in a slow cooker. Appetizers, sides, desserts... whatever.

My recipe this week, was a bust because I was the only one who liked it and even I thought it was just O-K. It wasn't kid friendly to begin with because it was an Indian dish. It smelled wonderful while it was cooking, but the flavors were just blah. It needed something else, but I just couldn't figure it out. I've been debating on whether or not I should review it anyway and I just decided that it wasn't worth it. The recipe was for curried chickpeas with cauliflower. If you're interested and think you could improve on it, let me know and I'll send the recipe to you.

OK, let's get ready to link up!

The "rules"

1 - Only link up a recipe that is relevant to the the week's theme.
2 - Make sure you link to a specific post and not to your main blog page.
3 - Please visit at least one other blog and leave a nice comment for them.
4 - Make sure you link back to Foodie Friday in your linked post so that others can find all of us.

A Divine Cookie Recipe & Foodie Friday Theme for 9/3

OK, so we had 5 link-ups for last week's Foodie Friday which doesn't seem too bad to me considering that it was the 1st one.  I'm sure it takes a long time to get the big numbers.  Besides that, I had a hard enough time choosing which of the 5 recipes to review.  I ended up choosing the recipe submitted by Heather over at Gourmet Meals for Less.  Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Cookies.  When she linked them up, she described them as being the "perfect fall cookie", and since fall is my favorite time of year and it's just around the corner, I rushed right over to see what she was talkin' about.  Turns out, she was talking about oatmeal cookies, with cranberries AND white chocolate!  Mmmmmmmm!  

I made these last night and it was really the simplest recipe for cookies that I've used.  Really quick to make and only a handful of ingredients.  I added a handful of chopped walnuts that I had, but I don't think they really made any kind of difference.  These cookies are that good!  Baking at 375 seemed to get the outsides crunchier, but the insides soft and chewy.  I love oatmeal raisin cookies and these had that flavor, but also the sweet of the white chocolate and the tartness of the cranberries.  Heather's recipe says that you'll yield 2 doz.  That's pretty accurate.  I ended up with 2 and a half dozen small cookies.  We have 3 cookies left now, not even 24 hours later.  My husband took about a dozen to work with him and they were scarfed down within a couple of hours.  I took some to his grandmother's this morning and she and I had eaten most of them within a few hours.  These will be my new Thanksgiving cookies and I'll be adding them to my Christmas baking list.

This photos is Heather's.  Mine doesn't look anywhere near as nice as hers do.

Don't those look YUMMY?  If you this so too, go here for the recipe.

Now on to this week's theme.  I didn't get any suggestions is comments so I'm just going with something that I've already got planned on our menu this week. 

Slow Cooker

I'm not picky.  Anything you can cook in a slow cooker, you can link up.  

* Some info on the Foodie Friday link party:

I love food and I love finding new recipes and so I thought having a recipe link party would be a fun way to have a sort of modern day recipe swap.  I've decided to host this party on Fridays and call it Foodie Friday.  There will be a theme each week and I'll post the theme either on Mon or Tues the week of the party.  That way, you'll have time to make something for a submission and post on it, if you don't already have a post.

Foodie Friday #1

Welcome to the first addition of Foodie Friday.  What is Foodie Friday?  Well, it's a bit like a modern day recipe swap.  We'll meet here each Friday to link up our recipes.  Most weeks we'll have a theme, but sometimes, we'll do an all-out potluck.  I'm open to suggestions as to what the next week's theme should be so feel free to leave those in the comments.

This week, our theme is cookies.  I'll admit that I'm a cookie freak and I kinda selfishly chose them as this week's theme just so I could get more cookie recipes.  :-)

My recipe comes from the book, 1 dough, 100 cookies.

I made the Coffee Cream & Walnut Cookies 

According to the recipe, this makes about 30.  I'm not sure if this means, 30 sandwiches or 30 halves. 

For the cookies:

1 cup butter, softened

scant 3/4 sugar

1 egg yolk, lightly beaten

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup ground walnuts

pinch of salt

For the cream:

6tbsp butter, softened

3/4 cup confectioners' sugar

1&1/2 tsp strong black coffee

For finishing:

1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts

Instructions:

1 - In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together.  Beat in egg yolk and vanilla.  Mix in the flour, salt and ground walnuts, and stir until thoroughly combined.  Halve the dough into two balls, wrap and place in freezer for 30 minutes.

2 - Preheat oven to 375 and prepare two baking sheets.

3 - Remove dough from freezer and roll out between two sheets of parchment paper.  Stamp out cookis with a 2.5-inch/6cm fluted round cutter and place them on prepared cookie sheets spaced well apart.

4 - Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until light golden brown.  Let cool on cookie sheets for 10 to 15 minutes and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

5 - While cookies are cooling, prepare the cream filling by beating the butter and sugar until smooth and then beat in the coffee.

6 - Once cookies have cooled, sandwich them with the cream, pressing down so that the cream oozes out the sides.  Smooth the sides with a dampened finger.  Once all cookies are assembled, roll the edges in the finely chopped walnuts.

** This original recipe calls for baking on parchment at 375.  I didn't have any parchment so I just sprayed my sheet down with cooking spray.  Also, I didn't notice that the temp should have been 375 and so I baked at 350.

Because it was late, we only used half of the dough and instead of using the suggested cookie cutter, Charles used a dog bone cutter.  We ended up getting 4 sandwiches out of half of the dough this way.  

When eaten alone, the cream has a slight coffee taste, but you can barely taste it in the cookie.  The cookie is still really, really good, but I'll be sure to amp up the coffee next time.

Now it's your turn.  

The "rules"

1 - Only link up a recipe that is relevant to the the week's theme.

2 - Make sure you link to a specific post and not to your main blog page.

3 - Please visit at least one other blog and leave a nice comment for them.

4 - Make sure you link back to Foodie Friday in your linked post so that others can find all of us. 


Linking to:
Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous

Foodie Friday Theme for 8/27

Hey, peeps!  Don't forget, the first Foodie Friday link party is this coming Friday, Aug 27th.  I thought I'd go ahead and give the theme in case someone wants to make a recipe to post so they can link it up on Friday.  I'll have to do this myself because I don't have any existing posts that match the theme.

The first Foodie Friday theme will be:

    

COOKIES!!!

* Some info on the Foodie Friday link party:

I love food and I love finding new recipes and so I thought having a recipe link party would be a fun way to have a sort of modern day recipe swap.  I've decided to host this party on Fridays and call it Foodie Friday.  There will be a theme each week and I'll post the theme either on Mon or Tues the week of the party.  That way, you'll have time to make something for a submission and post on it, if you don't already have a post.