Chai Shortbread Cookies

This is the second of the four batches of cookies I sent out. They didn't make nearly as many cookies as the recipe said it would make, and I wish I'd cut some of the cookies a little thicker. Also, some of them were a little too oval shape-wise, and I wish all of them had been perfectly round. I also don't think I would have beat this with an electric mixer, since it turned out unevenly crumbly...but I think that could also just be the mixer I have.

Chai Shortbread Cookies
Recipe from Cooking Light

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (about 6 3/4 ounces)
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Dash of ground cloves
Dash of freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup powdered sugar
10 tablespoon butter, softened
1 tablespoon ice water

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (through pepper), stirring well with a whisk. Place sugar and butter in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, beating at low speed just until combined (mixture will appear crumbly). Sprinkle dough with 1 tablespoon ice water; toss with a fork. Divide dough in half. Shape dough into 2 (6-inch-long) logs; wrap each log in plastic wrap. Chill 1 hour or until very firm.

Preheat oven to 375°.

Unwrap dough logs. Carefully cut each log into 18 slices using a serrated knife. Place dough circles 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake at 375° for 10 minutes. Cool on pans 5 minutes. Remove cookies from pans; cool completely on wire racks.

Oatmeal Dinner Rolls (A failure)

Now that I did a little more research as to where this recipe came from, and actually found pictures of what it was SUPPOSED to look like, I realized I must have screwed the whole thing up.

But although for me these weren't particularly visually stunning, which is why I didn't end up taking too many pictures of them, they weren't too too bad. They smelled like oatmeal and didn't expand into "rolls", more like just drop biscuits or scones. They tasted strongly of oatmeal, which with any other dinner might have been just too annoying, but paired with last Tuesday's Turkey Spinach Lasagna, it was excellent to soak up the marinara sauce left behind.

I probably wouldn't make them again because I don't know what I did wrong (most other reviewers had good results, but some described rolls that sound similar to mine), but they weren't a complete dud. I baked these for five or ten minutes longer than the recipe calls for, because I thought they weren't baking properly.

Oatmeal Dinner Rolls
Recipe from Southern Living

2 cups water
1 cup quick-cooking oats
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 (1/4-ounce) envelopes active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water (100° to 110°)
1 tablespoon sugar
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

Bring 2 cups water to a boil in a medium saucepan; stir in oats and butter. Boil, stirring constantly, 1 minute. Remove from heat; let cool to 110°.

Stir together yeast, 1/2 cup warm water, and 1 tablespoon sugar in a 2-cup measuring cup; let stand 5 minutes.

Beat oat mixture, yeast mixture, flour, salt, and brown sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic (about 5 minutes). Place in a well-greased bowl, turning to grease top.

Cover and let rise in a warm place (85°), free from drafts, 1 hour or until dough is doubled in bulk.

Punch dough down, and divide in half; shape each portion into 16 (1 1/2-inch) balls. Place evenly into 2 lightly greased 9- x 1 3/4-inch round cakepans.

Cover and let rise in a warm place (85°), free from drafts, 30 minutes or until doubled in bulk.

Bake at 375° for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Chocolate Chip Meringues

When I was in high school, I LOVED meringues. If I saw them in the store when I tagged along with my mom when she went grocery shopping, I'd ask her to buy me some. I always wanted to try baking them, but just never got around to it. My friend Lucy kept bugging me to make them so that I could tell her how. Then, finally, with my friend's birthday as an excuse, I tried it out.

I got to make these (and 3 other cookies that I'll slowly post) for my friend, Rosy's, birthday. These probably weren't the best cookies to make to send in a package since they're so fragile...but I sure hope they sent okay! I normally would have made plain vanilla meringues, or coconut meringues, or something like that, but I know people normally love chocolate chip cookies and since I wasn't making those, I thought I'd make chocolate chip meringues (I ended up making super chocolatey cookies anyway, which I'll post later). I sent these to Rosy (happy birthday tomorrow!), my friend David, and my brother CJ. Sending cookies is so scary...I never know if they'll make it there okay, and it's kind of a lot of money to waste, so I used this kind of as an experiment, haha.

But meringues were FAR easier than I'd thought they would be. At least, they turned out fine for me. I used two different ovens because they didn't all fit into one at once, and I didn't want them to sit out in the air too long, and even though one oven was much stronger than the other, each batch turned out great.

Chocolate Chip Meringues
Recipe from Allrecipes

2 egg whites
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C). Line 2 baking sheets with aluminum foil or parchment paper, and set aside.

In large metal or glass bowl, beat the egg whites on high speed with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar while continuing to beat until they hold stiff peaks. Mix in the vanilla and cocoa on low speed, then fold in chocolate chips by hand. Drop small mounds of the mixture onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart.

Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven. Turn off oven, and leave the cookies in the oven for 2 more hours, or until centers are dry. Remove from pan and store in an airtight container.

Turkey-Spinach Lasagna

Look look look!!! Remember when I asked for recommendations on what to make? I got a couple of suggestions and actually made one! Thanks Rosy for suggesting lasagna--I was a little iffy on this one at first, to tell you the truth, because I've never been a big fan of lasagna. I don't eat beef and I've only really been around lasagna that has beef, so I didn't know if I should try to make it...but I did! Turkey-Spinach! And it was SO GOOD. It was time consuming but other than that, very very easy. And my mom was happy to have someone else cook dinner. I made this alongside some failed Oatmeal Dinner Rolls that I'll post next week, and a salad.

I wasn't sure if I should cook the noodles before, and the only lasagna noodles I had at home were no-boil ones, so I didn't know what to do, since the recipe calls for cooked lasagna. But I just stuck the uncooked noodles in and it was fine! Thanks again for the suggestion, Rosy!

Turkey-Spinach Lasagna
Recipe from Cooking Light

Cooking spray
1 pound ground turkey breast
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 (26-ounce) jars low-fat marinara sauce
1 (16-ounce) carton fat-free cottage cheese
1/4 cup egg substitute
1/4 cup (1 ounce) preshredded fresh Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
8 cooked lasagna noodles
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350°.

Coat a large skillet with cooking spray, and place over medium-high heat until hot. Add turkey, onion, and garlic; cook until meat is browned, stirring to crumble. Add 5 3/4 cups marinara sauce; cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.

Combine cottage cheese, egg substitute, Parmesan, parsley, pepper, and spinach; stir well.

Spread remaining marinara sauce in bottom of a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Arrange 4 noodles over marinara; top with cottage cheese mixture and half of the mozzarella. Spoon half of the turkey mixture over the mozzarella. Arrange the remaining noodles over turkey mixture. Top with remaining turkey mixture and mozzarella.

Bake at 350° for 50 minutes or until cheese melts and sauce is bubbly. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Dorie Greenspan's Chocolate Biscotti

I've made biscotti only once before. I really don't like having to cut it because I always make the chunks too big--previously, when I made candy cane biscotti, the candy cane pieces were too big; this time, the almonds were a little too big. So the knife kept getting stuck. Still, most of the biscotti turned out great.

This was another Dorie Greenspan Baking: From My Home to Yours recipe that you can find on Pink Stripes. I have yet to master biscotti...next time I want to make a biscotti recipe that's easier to cut!

Dorie Greenspan's Sweet Potato Biscuits

When my brother went to visit college last week, my mom was the one who drove him all day, so I told her I'd make dinner. It probably would have been more helpful if it was during one of the days where she worked, because since she took the day off to drive my brother, she actually got home pretty early. But oh well: I wanted something light, so I made Cooking Light's Chicken Cobb Salad, and made these biscuits that I've been wanting to make for a while.

I'm not a big fan of sweet potatoes, but my mom loves them. So I'm pretty sure my mom liked these, but again, they weren't MY favorite.

This recipe is from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours. Occasionally I post these recipes on my blog but I really shouldn't. Instead, you can find the recipe in that book, or from Prudence Pennywise.

This first batch I did, I rolled the dough out too thin and they turned out kind of thin, but didn't overbake and were still great:

The rest were better.
And here's the salad I made: