Cards. Also, FOODS.
1.) falena84, elyssadc, pimpmytardis, theriversdream, ghost2-I got your cards! \0/ pimpmytardis: When I opened yours, I LOLed and made undignified squeeing noises. elyssadc: When I opened yours, first I spit out my drink, and then I LOL'd. XD Thanks for the snail-mail of great awesome, y'all! *hugs*
2.) I'm running behind on my own, I'm afraid. However, all the overseas ones-save one, which I was for some bizarre reason thinking was in the US-did get out last Wednesday, and I plan to mail the rest this Wednesday. So, er, if anybody gets a card that arrives way too late for Hanukkah/Christmas/solstice, just pretend it was for New Year's all along, okay?
3.) Way behind on comments and stuff, even in my own journal. Probably will be for a few more days yet. Soz. Not ignoring you on purpose.
4.) Here, have an easy and quick and delicious and artery-clogging cookie recipe.
• Pre-heat oven to 350 F.
• Get yourself some pecans*, anywhere from 2-3 cups worth depending on how much you like nuts. Chop them very coarsely**, spread them out in a pan, and toast them in the oven, 5 to 8 minutes. Stir 'em up half-way through. Return to cutting board and chop finely.** Set aside to cool to room temperature.
• Combine in a 2-quart bowl: 1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, softened***; 1/2 cup powdered sugar; 2-3 tsp vanilla to taste (i.e., the recipe actually calls for two, but I usually add three); 1/4 tsp salt. Beat on medium speed until very fluffy. Mmm, fluffy.
• Sift two cups of flour over top the butter mixture, mixing in gradually. I haven't tried this recipe with cake flour, but I have a suspicion that the texture wouldn't work out; stick to all-purpose.
• Stir in the pecans.
• Form the dough into small-ish balls, maybe 1" to 1 1/4" across, and drop onto cookie sheets. These won't spread out much; allow maybe 1 1/2" to 2" between them to be safe.
• Bake, one sheet at a time, for 12ish minutes. They should be just getting tinged brown on top. These don't burn too easily, so if they're still lily-white, go ahead and give them up to three minutes more.
• Let cool. Roll the cookies/biscuits in more confectioner's sugar. I've found that the best way to do this is to dump some sugar in a plastic produce bag, place the cookies in, dump more sugar on top, and gently roll them from one end of the bag to the other. Since there are no eggs in these, they're pretty fragile.
• Profit massively.
*You can also use walnuts.
**I don't recommend a food processor; the nuts always end up as an oily flour with a few still-too-large chunks of nut mixed in, and it really doesn't take that long to do it by hand.
***If you follow this recipe through to the delicious end, you will notice that what you end up with isn't very ball-like at all. In fact, you'll end up with Wedding Domes.
Well, if you really want them to be round, here's what you do:
• Everything the same, except:
• Preheat oven to 325 F.
• Put the butter in the bowl with the sugar, and melt it in the oven, stirring frequently. Do NOT allow the butter to brown or the sugar to caramelize; heat it just long enough to get it all melted. Add the other ingredients as in the main recipe.
• By the time you're done, the dough will still be warm. Let it cool to room temperature-or, rather, kitchen-temperature, assuming your kitchen is going to be about 75 F with your oven going. Do not put the dough in the fridge or freezer to cool it off. Trust me, the results are gross.
• Shape the cooled-but-not-too-cooled dough into nice, round balls, a little smaller than indicated for the main recipe. It will be more of a pain in the ass than if the butter had been softened. If you're squeezing and squeezing and still getting lumps that are half-falling apart, and the butter is coming streaming out in the process, the temperature probably isn't consistent throughout and/or it's too cold. In that case, good luck to you. Space on cookie sheet as above.
• Bake for 12-17 minutes, or possibly more. Watch them closely; these are more inclined to "sweat" their shortening, which, together with the flour suspended in it, is apt to burn. However, these are much denser and it's very easy to end up with uncooked cookie in the middle. Which isn't all that tasty, to be honest.
• So in summary, just do it with softened butter and don't tell your guests that they're supposed to be balls in the first place.
ETA1: Oh, yeah: falena84, I sent you a parcel. Do let me know if it doesn't arrive by, say, mid-January?
ETA2: #5, which I forgot because my brain is made of rotten cheese and I generally suck: Thank you for the rec, amaresu! I may have floundered a bit with the reminder that I've got this monster fic hanging in medias res, but waking up to an unexpected rec at the top of my f-list? Always lovely. ♥
2.) I'm running behind on my own, I'm afraid. However, all the overseas ones-save one, which I was for some bizarre reason thinking was in the US-did get out last Wednesday, and I plan to mail the rest this Wednesday. So, er, if anybody gets a card that arrives way too late for Hanukkah/Christmas/solstice, just pretend it was for New Year's all along, okay?
3.) Way behind on comments and stuff, even in my own journal. Probably will be for a few more days yet. Soz. Not ignoring you on purpose.
4.) Here, have an easy and quick and delicious and artery-clogging cookie recipe.
• Pre-heat oven to 350 F.
• Get yourself some pecans*, anywhere from 2-3 cups worth depending on how much you like nuts. Chop them very coarsely**, spread them out in a pan, and toast them in the oven, 5 to 8 minutes. Stir 'em up half-way through. Return to cutting board and chop finely.** Set aside to cool to room temperature.
• Combine in a 2-quart bowl: 1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, softened***; 1/2 cup powdered sugar; 2-3 tsp vanilla to taste (i.e., the recipe actually calls for two, but I usually add three); 1/4 tsp salt. Beat on medium speed until very fluffy. Mmm, fluffy.
• Sift two cups of flour over top the butter mixture, mixing in gradually. I haven't tried this recipe with cake flour, but I have a suspicion that the texture wouldn't work out; stick to all-purpose.
• Stir in the pecans.
• Form the dough into small-ish balls, maybe 1" to 1 1/4" across, and drop onto cookie sheets. These won't spread out much; allow maybe 1 1/2" to 2" between them to be safe.
• Bake, one sheet at a time, for 12ish minutes. They should be just getting tinged brown on top. These don't burn too easily, so if they're still lily-white, go ahead and give them up to three minutes more.
• Let cool. Roll the cookies/biscuits in more confectioner's sugar. I've found that the best way to do this is to dump some sugar in a plastic produce bag, place the cookies in, dump more sugar on top, and gently roll them from one end of the bag to the other. Since there are no eggs in these, they're pretty fragile.
• Profit massively.
*You can also use walnuts.
**I don't recommend a food processor; the nuts always end up as an oily flour with a few still-too-large chunks of nut mixed in, and it really doesn't take that long to do it by hand.
***If you follow this recipe through to the delicious end, you will notice that what you end up with isn't very ball-like at all. In fact, you'll end up with Wedding Domes.
Well, if you really want them to be round, here's what you do:
• Everything the same, except:
• Preheat oven to 325 F.
• Put the butter in the bowl with the sugar, and melt it in the oven, stirring frequently. Do NOT allow the butter to brown or the sugar to caramelize; heat it just long enough to get it all melted. Add the other ingredients as in the main recipe.
• By the time you're done, the dough will still be warm. Let it cool to room temperature-or, rather, kitchen-temperature, assuming your kitchen is going to be about 75 F with your oven going. Do not put the dough in the fridge or freezer to cool it off. Trust me, the results are gross.
• Shape the cooled-but-not-too-cooled dough into nice, round balls, a little smaller than indicated for the main recipe. It will be more of a pain in the ass than if the butter had been softened. If you're squeezing and squeezing and still getting lumps that are half-falling apart, and the butter is coming streaming out in the process, the temperature probably isn't consistent throughout and/or it's too cold. In that case, good luck to you. Space on cookie sheet as above.
• Bake for 12-17 minutes, or possibly more. Watch them closely; these are more inclined to "sweat" their shortening, which, together with the flour suspended in it, is apt to burn. However, these are much denser and it's very easy to end up with uncooked cookie in the middle. Which isn't all that tasty, to be honest.
• So in summary, just do it with softened butter and don't tell your guests that they're supposed to be balls in the first place.
ETA1: Oh, yeah: falena84, I sent you a parcel. Do let me know if it doesn't arrive by, say, mid-January?
ETA2: #5, which I forgot because my brain is made of rotten cheese and I generally suck: Thank you for the rec, amaresu! I may have floundered a bit with the reminder that I've got this monster fic hanging in medias res, but waking up to an unexpected rec at the top of my f-list? Always lovely. ♥