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by Tammy Davis
In
This Issue:
NOTES FROM
TAMMY
BONUS
RECIPES
WEBSITE NEWS
MESSAGE BOARD UPDATES
CONTESTS
GOURMET Q&A
COOKIN' AT THE
KEYBOARD WITH SHELLEY
FINAL THOUGHTS
NOTES
FROM TAMMY
Hi cooks! Hope you had an
enjoyable Thanksgiving holiday! My daughter went to the Family Fun
website in last month's News and picked some crafts for us to do. We
still have our "Thankful leaves" on a door in the kitchen ... a great
reminder of all we have to be thankful for!
December seems especially busy this year! Both of my boys have birthdays
this month, and my hubby is in Germany this week on business. I'm sure
wishing I had followed FlyLady's holiday plan about now! *sigh* Maybe
next year!!
If you need gift ideas, be sure to check out our
website!
For gift ideas from your kitchen, be sure to check out the December 2001
issue of the News, as well as the November 2002 issue. The
December '01 issue has great ideas for making chocolate covered
pretzels and cashews, as well as giving frozen cookie dough. And a whole
list of recipes! The
November '02 issue also has a list of recipes under the "Bonus
Recipes" section, and if you scroll down, there's a section called
"Gifts from the Freezer" with recipes for a holiday cookie recipe to
layer in a jar, as well as hot chocolate mix to be given in a mug or
jar.
This issue of “Chewin’ the News” brings you two new dessert recipes, as
well as the three sample recipes from my ebook,
Freezer Desserts to Die For! Read more about it below, in the
Bonus Recipes section.
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BONUS RECIPES from Tammy Davis
What could be a better holiday gift
than something homemade from your kitchen? With everyone being so busy
these days, a homemade treat will be appreciated all the more! Not sure
what desserts are freezer friendly? Then check out my ebook,
Freezer Desserts to Die For! where you'll find 25 new recipes,
plus lots of helpful hints, tips and freezing information. Below are the
three sample recipes from the ebook, as well as two NEW recipes for you
for the holidays!
Enjoy the bonus recipes!
Cherry Delight
This tasty dessert is so quick and easy to make! And it's such a
pretty pink! You can easily freeze it in individual servings or a single
container.
Click here to
view/print
this recipe!
This has got to be one of my all-time favorite
recipes! So easy to make, and everyone will want the recipe!
Click here to
view/print
this recipe!
This is a rich fudgey dessert. Serve it with a
scoop of vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of chocolate syrup and your
guests will think they're at a restaurant!
Click here to
view/print
this recipe!
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I was at a Christmas Cookie/Candy exchange over
the weekend, and I heard one of the women say "I made Pretzel Turtles."
I said "Oh, I made those last week! They're great!" She said "Yeah, but
they took forever... seemed like I spent all day making them!" I said
"Mine used Rolo candy... did yours?" She hesitantly said "No.... I
grated some pecans into foil muffin cups and put a pretzel on top of it.
Then I melted the caramel mixture together and put it on the pretzel. I
had to wait for that to set up before I could melt the chocolate and put
it on top of the caramel. Then I pressed a pecan half on the chocolate."
You should have seen her face when I told her about my recipe and how
quick and easy it was. She said forget her recipe... she was making mine
next time!!
I saw this recipe years ago in some ladies magazine. But just now got
around to trying it. What a great candy this makes for the holidays! I
personally like the salty-sweet combination from the pretzels and
chocolate.
Click here to
view/print
this recipe!
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The first time I tried White Chocolate Chip
Macadamia Nut Cookies (WCCMNC, for short) was at Subway, the sandwich
shop chain. I was hooked! When my kids sold frozen cookie dough as a
fund-raiser for school or sports teams, the WCCMNC dough was always the
most popular. My friend Lesa said "If your kids sell WCCMNC dough again,
let me know... I'll buy some!"
In spite of the fact that everyone seems to like them, I don't know
anyone who makes homemade WCCMNC. There are all kinds of cookie recipes
floating around, but none for WCCMNC. I don't know why that is? Maybe
because they can be expensive to make and people don't want to take a
chance on messing them up? So I determined to come up with an awesome
recipe. And I'm happy to say I did!
I did my research on the internet, looking for recipes and reading the
comments people made about them. What ingredients worked, what didn't,
and why. Armed with all those opinions, ideas and recipes, I put the
best of all of them together for my recipe. Then it was on to the
kitchen to test the recipe with a few ingredient variables. My
expectation was that I wasn't going to find much of a difference, but
boy, was I wrong!
The first variable was real butter vs. a margarine/shortening mix. I
have very few recipes I actually use real butter in because I haven't
found a big difference in the taste, and margarine is much cheaper. Most
of the recipes I found in my research used softened butter. But a lot of
people commented that the cookies spread all over the cookie sheet, and
they would use a mix of margarine and butter-flavored shortening the
next time they made the cookies, because they would keep their shape
better with those ingredients. So I wanted to try both options to
compare taste and size.
The picture above shows the cookie made with margarine/shortening on the
left, and butter on the right. I made my cookies using the large cookie
scoop from Pampered Chef, so all the cookies got the same amount of
dough. You can see that the cookie with butter is bigger, so it did
spread more. To prevent the "mess" others got when using butter, I
didn't soften my butter first... I used it straight from the 'fridge. A
little hard on the mixer maybe, but the cookies held their shape great!
I was also very surprised at the taste and texture differences between
the two cookies. The cookie made with butter was definitely better! I
thought I must be imagining it, so I tasted again, making sure I just
got cookie... no chocolate or nuts. The butter cookie was obviously
better! It was thinner, chewy and crisp. Don't get me wrong, the
margarine cookie was good, and if I didn't have butter, I'd still make
the cookies. But using butter made a superior cookie!
The second variable was using white chocolate chips vs. melting
chocolate. Melting chocolate is used in candy making, is frequently
called Almond Bark, and is cheaper than chocolate chips. Most of the
recipes I researched said to use the melting chocolate, not chocolate
chips. People who used chips seemed to think it would be better with the
melting chocolate.
I couldn't believe there would be that much of a difference between the
two, especially if you used a quality chip. In my experience, Nestle and
store brand white chocolate chips are waxy and don't taste much like
white chocolate. Hershey's is my brand of choice for white chocolate
chips. I couldn't find them in two different grocery stores, so I had to
"settle" for Ghirardelli chips. Given their reputation, I figured they
were a safe bet to be a quality white chocolate chip. And they were very
good! But it ended up not mattering, because the almond bark was SO much
better in the cookies! It was almost like you couldn't even taste the
chips... they just blended in to the cookie. The almond bark was very
creamy, even after the cookies cooled. When you bit into a piece of
almond bark, you could definitely taste it... it was almost like a burst
of creamy white chocolate! Mmmmmmmm!
The melting chocolate came in a 1-1/2 pound slab, for $1.50 from my
Wal-Mart SuperCenter. The Ghiradelli chips were on sale for about $3.50
for a 12 ounce bag, at another local grocery store. I made two batches
of the cookies using the almond bark, and still have almost a pound
left. In case you're thinking that you'd never use the rest of the slab
of almond bark, I've got a recipe from our site for you....Oreo
Truffles. You can also follow the directions on the wrapper to
dip pretzels, dried fruit, nuts and crushed candy canes in the melted
chocolate... which could also turn into much-appreciated gifts for the
chocolate lover on your list!
The macadamia nuts will be the most expensive ingredient... I paid $4.98
at Wal-Mart for an 8.5 ounce can of dry roasted macadamias. I couldn't
find "plain" macadamias, if there is such a thing. But the dry roasted
worked fine... I like the sweet cookie/salty nut combination! I tried
chopping the macadamias with my food chopper, but that didn't give me
uniform size pieces. It worked best to cut each nut into 3 or 4 pieces
with a sharp knife. I got just under 2 C. of chopped nuts that way, so
you should be able to get a double batch of cookies from a can like I
bought.
Another important consideration was how long to bake the cookies. The
cookies are still soft when you take them out of the oven, which can
lead to a mess when you try to take them off the cookie sheet, let alone
put them on the wire cooling rack! So I needed to figure out the
baking/cooling options for the best results.
I bake cookies using both racks in my oven... one rack goes in the
second position from the bottom, and the other goes in the fourth
position. If a recipe says to bake cookies for 10 minutes, they go in
the oven on the lower shelf for 8 minutes, then I move them to the top
shelf for 2 minutes, to finish baking and browning, without burning.
When they go to the top shelf, another pan goes in the oven on the lower
shelf. So I usually have 2 pans with 2 timers going at once. That method
works perfect with these cookies! Once they come out of the oven, they
need to sit on the cookie sheet for one to two minutes to finish baking
and firm up. Then they are easily moved to the cooling rack.
So, based on what I've learned in my research and testing, I'm proud to
share my recipe for White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies with you. It's
definitely "to die for!"
Click here to
view/print
this recipe!
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WEBSITE NEWS FROM NANCI
Happy Holidays to all of our
loyal cooks! I trust that you are stopping to smell the proverbial roses
(or sugar cookies) during this busy but wonderful season of the year.
It's hard to keep the main thing the main thing, isn't it?
I have a whole new group of people to cook for this Christmas -my
students! So far they are not very picky and are extremely appreciative
when I bring in treats. Many act like they have never seen homemade
baked goods before. I suppose maybe they haven't!
Get a thrill this season out of making (and freezing) treats for those
you love. Don't stop at the sweets. I'm sure that there are lots of
people in your life who would love a frozen casserole more than
anything. Grandparents - new parents - neighbors - and yes, even
TEACHERS!
PRIORITY SHIPPING UPGRADE
OFFER
We're cutting it close for Christmas but hey - there's always New
Year's gifts right? For the whole month of December, choose Standard
(Media) Mail shipping and I will give you a free upgrade to Priority.
All orders over $50 will receive free Priority shipping.
Freezer
Cooking Manuals!
Advantage Cooking Software!
Cooking
Notebooks!
Labels!
eBooks on CD!
Kitchen Calculators!
Click here
to order now!
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MESSAGE BOARD UPDATES
The message boards continue to be popular!
The
"Where is everyone from?" post continues to be a favorite!
Please introduce yourself if you haven't... we'd love to meet you!
It's hunting season in my area... does anyone have tried-and-true
freezer recipes for
venison?
Do you use the
jar sealer with your food saver? If so, some cooks would like
some tips from you about using it successfully.
Check out the rest of the message boards when you get a chance… they are
a great source of ideas, recipes, tips, and encouragement! If you have
any questions about the message boards, please email me! You can reach
me at tammy@30daygourmet.com.
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CONTEST
WINNERS
Recipe of
the Month... Toffee Pecan Bars
Our winner this month is Rhea from
Bakersfield, CA with her recipe for Toffee Pecan Bars. Perfect for
guests, as well as gift-giving!
I was surprised at how quick this recipe went together... 10 or 15
minutes, plus baking time. You can't say that for most desserts! Rhea's
directions said to let it cool overnight before cutting. Of course I was
too impatient to wait that long! I waited till it was cool, but not
overnight. However, we decided we liked the flavor better the next day.
We also liked it better chilled than at room temperature.
Rhea also said she preferred to use only half of the bag of toffee
chips, because it was too sweet for her otherwise. I used the whole bag
when I tried the recipe, and it wasn't too sweet for us. So you'll have
to use your personal preference there!
For a nice touch, cut the bars into triangles or diamonds instead of
squares or rectangles. Cut wide squares in half corner-to-corner for
triangles. For diamonds, cut the bars straight the length of the pan.
Then instead of cutting straight across the width, cut diagonally from
top corner to bottom corner. Make diagonal cuts out from there, 1-1/2"
to 2" wide. You will have a few odd shaped pieces leftover if you cut
diamonds, but not with triangles.
Hi, I'm Rhea
from Bakersfield, CA. I start my Christmas baking in mid September or so
and simply make a double batch of whatever I'm baking and freeze the
rest. Pre-freezer days, I spent two full days baking at the start of my
daughter's Christmas vacation and was really too beat to enjoy the
results. Believe me, freezing is the way to go!!
Christmas baking always means cookies to me but then most any food
occasion translates as "cookies" to me. I can pass up cake, pie, ice
cream, anything but cookies and I've never had a bad cookie. I bake
cookies most every weekend and always freeze half the batch or they
would all be gone before Monday morning and the second half seldom makes
it past mid-week! I made these bars for the first time a few years ago
and brought them to work. I then forgot about the recipe until one of my
co-workers asked why I never made them anymore. I unearthed the recipe
and it has become one of my favorites. Buttery, rich, gooey, nuts,
toffee pieces - what more could a girl ask for in a cookie? Another
co-worker recently retired after 35 years with the department and I made
over 20 dozen cookies for her reception. The Toffee Pecan Bars were the
first to go (even before my Lemon Bars!) and I ended up making a list of
those who wanted the recipe - there were simply too many requests to
remember! I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
Click here to view/print the
December Recipe of the Month.
You too can
get in on the winning! Just post your favorite freeze-able recipe on the
message boards. Congratulations, Rhea!
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FREEZER COOK OF THE MONTH CONTEST
WINNER
Our winner this month is
Kelli, with a great idea for giving the gift of 30 Day Gourmet! The
perfect idea for that hard-to-buy for ________ (insert your favorites
here... parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends) who have
everything. And you still have time to put a gift-certificate/menu
together before the holidays!
Kelli says:
I
have an idea I would like to share with people for the holidays. Last
year, I made menus on my computer with different sections for soups &
salads, breakfast foods, casseroles, desserts, etc. My parents and both
sets of grandparents received the menus for Christmas. Did I mention
that my mom now hates to cook for just her and my dad? My grandmother is
a widow, and my other sets of grandparents....well, I don't think she's
cooked since her 5 kids moved out over 40 years ago. Anyway, they got to
pick 30 items from the menu. They could mix and match or get 30 of one
thing if they wanted. In January, I did the cooking and delivered the
meals. They said it was the best gift ever! They were even willing to
pay me to make more meals this past summer. Guess what they are getting
again this Christmas? The only difference is I am cooking before
Christmas this year. I know what everyone likes, so they will actually
receive their meals on Christmas day. I tell you, this reduced so much
of my stress! I never know what to get for them. They have everything
they need. 30 Day Gourmet was the perfect gift, and it was made with
love!
So, how do
you make 30 Day Gourmet work for you? How do you use it to help you deal
with a challenge in your life? Do you have a funny story about your
cooking day? How do you use it to help others? Email me at
tammy@30daygourmet.com
or post your story on our message boards to be entered in our contest.
Congratulation, Kelli!! Thanks for sharing your great idea with us! Our
families thank you too!
Update to our November 2004 Freezer
Cook of the Month winner:
After the Nov News went out, I received emails from a couple of people
advising me that the USDA recommends you don't cook a whole chicken from
frozen in a slow cooker, because it doesn't reach a 'safe' temperature
quick enough, so there's a concern for food poisoning. We obviously
don't want that! Read what they have to say about it, and decide for
yourself if and/or how you want to use this method to cook chicken.
USDA Slow Cooker Safety
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GOURMET Q&A
| Q. |
Ok, I updated my Yahoo preferences to get "daily"
emails instead of "digest" so your links will work. But that didn't
help. What else can I do? Thanks! Josey |
| A. |
Hi Josey! When I answered the question last
month about links not working in the Yahoo digest version of our
News, I needed to include more information. If you already get the
daily emails from Yahoo, and our links are still not working, there
is one more setting to change. Sign in to Yahoo, and choose "Edit My
Membership". The last option says:
Message Format
__Convert to HTML. Convert plain-text messages sent to me to HTML.
__Do not convert to HTML. Don't change the format of messages sent
to me.
Note: The HTML format allows you to see colors and graphics in your
messages.
You need to choose the first option, "Convert to HTML". Choosing the
HTML option allows all the pictures and links to work in the email.
If you do not choose to get your emails HTML, you get a text
version, with no pictures and links. So, if you set your account to
receive individual emails instead of the digest, and also set it to
receive HTML emails, not text, you should be good to go! Hope that
helps! And sorry for the incomplete answer last month! |
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COOKIN' AT THE KEYBOARD
WITH SHELLEY
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I was helping my daughter with her Algebra 2 lesson
last week. I groaned in dread as I started into the text because, as
everyone knows:
Long Explanations = Complicated Subject Matter
Fortunately, this is not a universal truth. The “Ingredient Conversion”
explanation below may be long, but it’s not complicated. Take a deep
breath (no groaning allowed) and read on.
Conversions are necessary in order to equate volume measures to weight
measures. For example, I buy butter in pounds, but most of my recipes
call for butter measured in tablespoons or cups. Advantage Cooking needs
to know how many cups are in a pound of butter, or it will punish you by
telling you how many teaspoons to buy (now you can groan!)
Here are the steps to solve the problem:
Locate “Butter” in the ingredient list.
Under the Packaging tab enter “Pound Package”.
Under the Conversion tab enter the following:
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From Amount From Measure |
To Amount To Measure |
To Ingredient
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.5 Cup |
4 Ounces |
Butter
|
This entry simply tells the software that ½ cup of butter is equal to 4
ounces. You could just as easily have entered 1 cup of butter is equal
to 8 ounces, etc. I’ve listed several other conversions below to give
you more examples. If the desired packaging is not available, use the
“Define Packaging” button at the bottom of the window.
Locate “Sugar” in the ingredient list.
Under the Packaging tab enter as many varieties of packaging as desired,
e.g. “Bag (5 pounds)”, “Bag (10 pounds)”, “Bag (25 pounds)”
Under the Conversion tab enter this equivalent found on a 10-pound bag
of sugar:
|
From Amount From Measure |
To Amount To Measure |
To Ingredient
|
|
1134 Teaspoons |
10 Pounds |
Sugar
|
Locate “Brown Sugar” in the ingredient list.
Under the Packaging tab enter as many varieties of packaging as desired,
e.g. “2 Pound Package”, “4 Pound Package”
Under the Conversion tab enter this equivalent found on a 4-pound
package of brown sugar:
|
From Amount From Measure |
To Amount To Measure |
To Ingredient
|
|
454 Teaspoons |
4 Pounds |
Brown Sugar
|
Locate “Chocolate Chips” in the ingredient
list.
Under the Packaging tab enter as many varieties of
packaging as desired,
e.g. “Bag (12 oz)” or “Bag (24 oz) or “Bag (60 oz)”
Under the Conversion tab enter the following equivalent (notice that a
pint doesn’t always equal a pound!)
|
From Amount From Measure |
To Amount To Measure |
To Ingredient
|
|
2 Cup |
12 Ounce |
Chocolate Chips
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Locate “Coconut” in the ingredient list.
Under the Packaging tab enter “Bag (7 oz)”
Under the Conversion tab enter this equivalent found on the bag of
coconut:
|
From Amount From Measure |
To Amount To Measure |
To Ingredient
|
|
2.67 Cup
|
7 Ounce |
Coconut
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Locate “Flour” in the ingredient list.
Under the Packaging tab enter as many varieties of
packaging as desired,
e.g. “Bag (5 pound)” or “Bag (10 pound)”
Under the Conversion tab enter this equivalent found on a 5-pound bag of
flour:
|
From Amount From Measure |
To Amount To Measure |
To Ingredient
|
|
17 Cup |
5 Pound |
Flour
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Conversions are also important when it comes to ingredients that aren’t
readily available at the grocery store (e.g. cooked and chopped chicken,
chopped onion, or crumbled bacon.) But we’ll save that discussion for
next month. In the mean time, do you want to know about quadratic
equations?
If you haven’t tried our Advantage Cooking software,
click here for a 30 day free trial or to order your own copy.
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FINAL
THOUGHTS
Well, that about sums it
up for this month! Hope you enjoyed this gift-idea packed issue. Time
for me to go finish my holiday baking and also make gift jars for the
kids' teachers! And finish up that Christmas shopping!
Email me at
tammy@30daygourmet.com with any questions, ideas, suggestions or
problems. I enjoy hearing from you all!
Best wishes for you and your family to have a beautiful holiday
together! Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!
Tammy
30 Day Gourmet
P.O. Box 272
Brownsburg, IN 46112
www.30DayGourmet.com
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