Bloggers Eat Cookies

Today I went to a fun Blogger Cookie Swap hosted by Shannon!  There was 10 of us there, and we’re each brought a few cookies for each person. Wait till you see the spread :)

Last night, before making that AWESOME dinner, I started working on my cookie creation…

Chocolate Orange Almond Macaroons!

I started with the Almond Macaroon Recipe from Cooks Illustrated.  I don’t have access to their website, but I searched and found it on the web.

Cooks Illustrated Almond Macaroons
(my changes in pink)

7 ounces almond paste or 7 ounces blanched almonds
6 ounces blanched almond (silvered or whole)
1 1/4 cups sugar (regular or vanilla)
3 egg whites from 3 large eggs
1 tablespoons Amaretto (optional) I did not add it
1 teaspoon almond extract
I added 1 tsp orange zest

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cover two cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

2. Place almonds into the bowl of a food processor and process until roughly chopped. Add the sugar and continue to process until the almonds are finely ground. Crumble in the almond paste (if using) and continue to process until the paste is pulverized and you have a fairly uniform mixture. If you are not using almond paste, process until the almonds are fine and crumbly but not powdery, about 1 minute to 90 seconds.

p.s. Almond Paste is freaking AMAZING!!!

3. Add the egg whites, extract, and Amaretto and continue to process until the dough is smooth and begins to form into a ball at the edge of the processor blades. Remove from the food processor and allow mixture to stand for 20 minutes.

4. Drop level tablespoons of the mixture onto your prepared parchment paper leaving about 1 1/2 inches of space between each cookie. For an even prettier cookie, gently roll the dough into a ball.

5. Bake for 20-25 minute, rotating the cookie sheets top to bottom and side to side during the baking process. The cookies should be golden on top but should not be over baked as they will have a tendency to harden.

6. Remove cookies from the oven and allow to cool completely on the parchment paper. To make removal easier, scrape the cookie off with a table knife or thin spatula to reduce the chance of tearing. Once cooled the cookies can be stored air tight for up to 4 days or frozen for 1-3 months.

Yield: Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

My notes:
- I read it wrong, thought it was 6oz of Almond Paste, so I used a little less than the recipe.
- My batter also did not thicken up as it should of, so I ground some more almonds and added them, it helped a little.
- I was a little worried, but after it sat for the 20 min, it got thicker.  Still not as thick as I’d hope… BUT they came out good!

After they cooled I melted some dark chocolate to drizzle on top.

     

Mmmm!  They didn’t rise as much as I would of liked but the almond-orange combo is perfect!  Hope everyone likes them :) 

In the morning I packed up my cookies into little bags and headed in Boston (with a stop for a manicure on the way :)

Cookies Glorious Cookies!!

Tina’s Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Bars (I was so pumped to finally try these infamous bars!)

 

Shannon’s Maple Toffee Oatmeal Cookies with Bacon

Adrienne’s Lime Meltaways

Elina’s Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Kelly’s Cookie Dough Truffles

Nicole’s Lemon Almond Cranberry Crescent Cookies

Kerstin’s Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

Mary Kate’s Black and White Cookies

Rebecca’s Breakup Bars … oh.my.god, I haven’t tried them all yet but these things are freaking amazing!!

Shannon also had a nice spread of snacks to hold us over until we dove into the cookie table!

A smoked salmon mousse:

Chips, delicious Guac, and salsa

Mini frittatas with gorgonzola and pear, coconut chai almonds (yum!), and some bacon chips (!!!)

     

Blogger fun!

 

Thanks, Shannon, for hosting a fun and delicious afternoon :)

When I got home (after a couple errands), I was hungry for some dinner involving vegetables.  I also wanted something quick and broke out the Boboli Whole Wheat thin crust we bought yesterday.

1/2 with marinara, mozzarella, green peppers, and red onion

1/2 with pesto, feta, a little mozzarella, and fresh spinach

With a small salad on the side.

 

I may have gone back to the cookies after this ;)

Snug-logging?

Ok, so I was trying to combine Snuggie + Blogging, and…yeah nothing sounded right.  I am however comfortable and warm all while my arms are free to blog away!  I’ll even 1-up that, because I have the super duper Brookstone version of the snuggie made with that soft Nap material…oh yes!

Busy day, and ended with some baking for a fun blogger event tomorrow :)

The first thing I did when I woke up was to fire up the cappuccino machine, and by then Brian already had the eggs out to make himself a breakfast sandwich. 

I was craving something sweet and decided to whip up a couple slice of French toast!

• 1 egg
• skim milk
• vanilla
• cinnamon
• 2 slices Arnold Double Protein Bread
• cooked in a pan with a spray of Canola oil
• 1 banana sliced on the side
• real maple syrup :)

Cappuccino action!  Quick and delicious breakfast.

 

French toast boot?

A day of errands and some shopping, worked up an appetite!  I was craving a delicious sandwich and so we hopped over to Great Harvest!

I had a sandwich with hummus, roasted red pepper, red onion, carrots, provolone, and avocado!

SO GOOD!  We also bought a loaf of their Nine Grain bread too!  Mmmm!

While shopping for baking supplies, we did a little grocery shopping.  For some reason I have difficulty going to only 1 grocery store, and was hoping for fish for dinner and so we obviously ended up at Whole Foods.

Instead of fish, the crab cakes caught our eye because they were on special for $1.99 each!  We got 4 crab cakes, and some items to make this AMAZING salad they were sampling!

The salad: Pink Grapefruit Salad

First, I sectioned the grapefruit.  The had bags of 6 for $2.99 and I really hope they are all as good as this one was!

Ingredients:

The salad at the store was showcasing this special lime Olive Oil and Champagne Vinegar, but we didn’t buy it.

Instead, we decided to bust out one of the Olive Oils we bought on our honeymoon in Greece!!!

We use that oil, and some red wine vinegar for the dressing, and it blended well with the extra juice from the grapefruit in the salad bowl.

• mixed greens
• 1 grapefruit, sectioned + any extra juice
• feta cheese, crumbled on top
• pistachios (raw, unsalted)
• dressing: olive oil + red wine vinegar

We also broke out our last bottle of wine from our trip to Oregon in 2008.

This was bought at the Sokel Blosser winery in the Willamette Valley

This is Meditrina

DELICIOUS dinner!

Seriously the crab cakes were amazing!! 

The New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!! 

So far it’s been a pretty relaxing long weekend!  I took off New Years eve to relax and get stuff done around the house, as well as make a couple things for the New Years party my friend was throwing!

But first my new years breakfast :)  Nothing fancy, which is fine by me…I just love eating a relaxing breakfast at home.  So much better than at work!!

Starting with a delicious cappuccino!

A juicy red grapefruit

And one of my latest banana muffins with raw almond butter.

The almond butter goes perfectly with the muffins!

New Years Eve!!

My friend threw a party at her and her husband’s condo in the North End.  The building has a great roof deck where we watched the fire works!

She made lots of amazing appetizers along with some homemade meatballs and stuffed shells! 

I didn’t get as many pictures as I would of liked but here are a few…

I made that salad.  It’s a recipe my mom got from a former co-worker a looong time ago and has been a favorite ever since!

A few hours before serving combine:

• chopped tomatoes (I used 4-5 tomatoes)
• 3 cloves garlic (chopped or I used a press)
• drizzle olive oil
  Let this tomato mixture sit at room temp until ready to serve
• 2 heads Romaine, broken into pieces or chopped
• freshly shredded Romano cheese (I bought a small wedge and used the whole thing)
  Dressing:
• 1/2 c. olive oil
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• S&P

When ready to eat, toss everything together and enjoy!

My other contribution was a Barefoot Contessa recipe I saw on her show once:  Ham and Cheese in Puff Pastry

This was a SUPER easy recipe!
Before going in the oven:

And after…golden, flake, and delicious!!!

One of my friend’s friend is an owner of a local Bakery
She brought an ADORABLE NYE cake!!! 

 

It was a white cake with a new filling they are trying out…white chocolate, cranberry, rum mousse (at least I think that was it).  AMAZING!

She also brought along some other goodies…

     

I’d like to highlight those middle cookies… marzipan, apricot jam, a square of hazelnut nougat, and chocolate…. Oh.my.god. 

Been inside all day, cleaning, laundry, 2 rounds of shoveling!!  It’s time to get out…meeting a friend and her fiancé for dinner :)