Fig Cakes--From a Friend!

Many years ago when we lived in Louisiana, we enjoyed the fellowship of  great folks, who shared so many of their life styles, especially food!  And with the sharing of food came the recipes for the dishes that we ate.  Louisiana is known for good Cajun food--but, here is one recipe that I thoroughly enjoyed making and eating--and it doesn't have anything to do with seafood or spices or the holy trinity (celery, onion, bell pepper).

If you have ever eaten a Fig Newton cookie--this is ten times better!  Of course, it takes some preparation but oh so worth it!  Thanks to my dear Lousiana friend Helen, as she shared with me, I share with you!

Here we go with the dough recipe:
                      1 Cup shortening (it's that shortening thing again)
                      1 Cup sugar
                      3 eggs
                      1 teaspoon vanilla
                      7 Cups flour (could be more, could be less)
                      7 teaspoons of baking powder
                      1 Cup milk
                      1 teaspoon salt
 Cream shortening, sugar, add eggs, vanilla till fluffy.  Sift flour with baking powder and salt into shortening/sugar mixture; gradually add milk till stiff dough is moist--not too dry--not too wet!
Form into ball--at this point, you can let dough rest in refrigerator while you mix up the filling.

Filling:           2 packages of dried figs
                       1/2 cup raisins
                       1/2 cup pecans
                       1/2 pint fig preserves
                       dash of black pepper
                       juice of orange and grated rind.
Soak the dried figs about an hour or until soft.  Grind figs, pecans and orange rind.  Add this to the fig preserves and raisins.  Mix.

Now, take the dough and roll out till about 1/4" thick; cut into 2" strips across the dough.  In each section add a Tablespoon full of the fig mixture.  Fold over the dough, place on baking sheet and bake at 400* for 20 minutes or till brown.
While the fig cakes are cooling, sift one box of powdered sugar with little milk to pour over the cakes.  Traditionally, you can add sprinkles--but, in our house, these little delights were gobbled up quicker than I could add the sprinkles--

Just yummy goodness coming to your mouth!  I think I'm off to the grocery to pick up some shortening and dried figs!

Sugar Cookies Or Take Out the Christmas Cookie Cutters!

Here is the Bestest Christmas cookie recipe--in my book anyway!

I would make up this dough and let it sit in refrigerator till there was

plenty of time for the kids to gather around the table so we could all 

play with the cookie cutters.

2 Cups shortening (does anyone use shortening anymore?!)

3 Cups sugar

4 eggs

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg (don't leave this out!  makes all the difference in the world)

1 teaspoon vanilla

6-7 Cups of all purpose flour

Cream shortening and sugar till fluffy; add eggs one at a time, beat till

incorporated (I love saying that!)

Add flavoring, nutmeg and flour (enough to form still dough--use your good 

judgement on this)

Gather up into ball and chill at least one hour.

When ready, roll out at least 1/4" thick, use powdered sugar on your cutting board--

trust me--this is super delicious and no floury taste to the cookie!

Cut into desired shape.  Bake 400* at least 8-10 minutes--but check to make

sure nothing is burning--No one likes burnt sugar cookies!

Usually, I didn't take the time to frost, but you can if you have the energy and time.

Of course, in today's market, you can find all kinds of prepared frostings.

A glass of cold milk with your cookie is perfect!!

Gingerbread Boys And Girls--

This is a must for the holidays--only because of a funny story!

I have a set of big and little ginger people cutters and I like to make the smaller ones

as it's just a pop in the mouth for a bite of deliciousness!

One year when I was baking the little ginger people, brown headed daughter had a (boy)

friend over to the house to visit.  They were sitting in the front room talking--

I took out a pan of the ginger people from the oven and holy moly, one of the little boys had

jumped right on top of the little girls!  It was so funny I just had to share with

BHD and her friend!  Guess what, she didn't think it was funny!!  And I don't think he ever came back to the house!

So here is the recipe for those gals and guys:

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 cup butter

3 Tablespoons of molasses

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Combine sugar, butter, egg, molasses and vanilla in bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Add all remaining cookie ingredients; beat at low speed until well mixed.
2. Divide dough in half; wrap in plastic food wrap. Refrigerate 1-2 hours or until firm.
3. Heat oven to 375°F.
4. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface, one-half at a time (keeping remaining dough refrigerated), to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut with 4-inch cookie cutter. Place cookies, 1 inch apart, onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 6-9 minutes or until set. Let stand 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to cooling rack. Cool completely.
5. Combine powdered sugar, 1/3 cup butter and 1 teaspoon vanilla in bowl. Beat at low speed, adding enough milk for desired spreading consistency. Decorate cooled cookies with frosting as desired.

Texas Whiskey Balls--You Bet!

December 1--This is the Day!  To make those whiskey balls--you want them to sit and mellow in all that good whiskey--so with each bite you get a burst of flavor.  Don't open the tin until

Christmas Eve--well, maybe you can sneak one or two before then.  After all, someone needs to be

the tester.

In Texas we use good whiskey, especially this one from Garrison Brothers Distillery in Hye, Texas.

We met Dan Garrison right at the creation of his distillery back in November, 2009--

If you are near Hye (west of Johnson City, TX) sometime be sure to stop in to see the

distillery and have a sample of some mighty fine whiskey.

Anyway, back to making those whiskey balls--they have got to age and I mean if you can mix them up earlier than December 1--do it!

1 Box of Vanilla wafers

1 Cup powdered sugar

1 cup pecans

1/2 teaspoon cocoa

2 Tablespoons of syrup

1/4 Cup whiskey

grate pecans and wafers--mix all ingredients

roll into balls--you can roll the balls into powdered sugar or cocoa

Mellow out those suckers!

Holiday Cookies--

What would the holidays been without cookies--the edible kind?  Over the next few days I will post some of my favorite recipes that have been passed down from friends and family.  Many years ago, when we had young kids, several of us would host cookie parties--invite 12 people who bring 12 plates of dozen cookies!  It was a fun event and you could bake your favorite recipe for 12 dozen and have different 12 dozen cookies to share with family.  Each evening, I would make up a plate of cookies and the family members would come together to share their day's adventures.  Hubby always made a 'mean' eggnog, which the kids enjoyed along with their cookies.  It was a great family time--

now, the kids are grown and have kids of their own--but, when December 21 rolls around and the family comes back together, we share this same tradition.

May your holiday be filled with delicious love of baking to share!

Today's recipe:  Russian Teacakes--Melt in your mouth good!!  You may know these cookies by other names:  Mexican Wedding Cakes or Snowball Cookies.

  Where did they originate? – This is where things get tricky. In the 18th century Russian Tea Cakes began appearing in Russia where they were used as a delicious confection during tea-sharing ceremonies. Tea was introduced during the 1600’s and the Russians used to traditionally consume sweet cakes and cookies with samovar tea. Who actually invented them or their exact place of origin is still unknown and actually causes quite a few headaches and heated debates among food and drink aficionados all over the world. Many believe Eastern Europe to be the main location of origin as many shortbread and cookie recipes were a part of Eastern European cuisine often being made by Eastern European nuns.

• How have they evolved overtime? – So, the exact place of origin and the exact roots of its creators are still a mystery to this day, but how on earth does a recipe believed to have originated in the cold and snowy lands of Russia, find its way over the warm and dusty climes of Mexico in the form of Mexican Wedding Cakes? As you may expect, these confectioneries are often consumed during Mexican wedding ceremonies, but how did they make their way over in the first place? Well, they’re believed to have migrated over to Mexico with European nuns. There were a lot of convents in Mexico and a lot of European nuns made their way over there between the 18th and 20th century. There was often a great deal of baking that went on in Mexican convents so it’s a very strong possibility that they may have been a convent sweet treat brought over by European nuns, that began to make its way out into the public. By the 20th century, these cookies were a traditional part of Christmas time in the US and wedding traditions in Mexico, and began appearing in US cookbooks around the 1950’s. In Mexico, a very similar dish entitled Bizcochitos uses exactly the same ingredients and methods of cooking, except they use the addition of mild anise.
• 
  

• 1 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 6 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
  
  
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/3 cup confectioners' sugar for decoration
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• In a medium bowl, cream butter and vanilla until smooth. Combine the 6 tablespoons confectioners' sugar and flour; stir into the butter mixture until just blended. Mix in the chopped walnuts. Roll dough into 1 inch balls, and place them 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
• Bake for 12 minutes in the preheated oven. When cool, roll in remaining confectioners' sugar. I also like to roll mine in the sugar a second time.

Christmas Trees Sew Along

Okay--why didn't I begin some Christmas sewing months ago instead of waiting to 

the last month..................oh well, didn't (!) but here is an opportunity to

sew along with Lori Holt of Bee in my bonnet as she makes this 

delightful wall hanging of Christmas trees!

I can see all my favorite holiday fabrics here!

She also has the Cozy Christmas Sew Along that

you can find along the side panel of this blog.

or better--just hop over to her blog to pick up this free tutorial.

I'm heading to my fabric stash to see what trees I can create!

Check This Out!!

Definitely check this out!  Last spring Natalia designed a series of free-tutorials, she designed them all with bright fabrics and she is so excited for Christmas Natalia thought that it would be fun to go back through those and see what they'd look like in Christmas fabrics. So, from now until Christmas she'll be sharing some of my favorite free-tutorials, Christmas style! It's her little Christmas gift to you!

Of course, there is no way, absolutely no way, there will be much sewing during this time period

from my studio, but it's worth saving these lovely patterns for future reference.