Category: Food & Drink

Peppermint Swirl Sugar Cookies

Did you hear that Blueprint magazine is closing? While I don’t have a subscription (I so prefer Domino), every now and then I splurge and pick it up at the grocery store. This past issue — the Holiday one — was especially fun. These peppermint swirl sugar cookies, from that issue, look so tasty and tempting. Here’s the recipe so you can try them out. I can’t wait to give them a whirl (love those peppermint candies!).

Basic Sugar Cookies (link)
Makes 45 slice-and-bake cookies, 100 spritz cookies, or 30 cut-out cookies
Ingredients

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled, plus more for rolling and cutting
  • Sanding sugar and other decorations (optional)
  • Confectioners’-sugar glaze

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, cream butter with sugar and salt until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat well to combine. Mix in vanilla. With mixer on low speed, add flour and mix just un-til incorporated (do not overmix).
  2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Space cookies 2 inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake until just barely golden around the edges, 7 to 12 minutes (depending on size of cookies). Cool completely on baking sheets.
  3. Decorate, if desired. Let dry at least 2 hours. Store in an airtight container up to 1 week.

Peppermint Swirl Cookie Variation (link)Here, the candy does the heavy lifting in the style and taste departments. Cut a hole in your cookie that’s slightly larger than your candy piece (any hard candy will work); prebake them for 6 to 8 minutes, until they look a little dry on top. Drop in your minty mouthful and bake for a few more minutes, until it melts to fill the space.
From the November/December 2007 issue of Blueprint magazine

The upshot of memory-loss

I’ve found a benefit to my pregnant-induced, terrible memory. Today grapefruits arrived in the mail and I was so surprised! Last week I knew they were coming — Dad called to ask how many to order for us this Hanukah — but I *totally* forgot about them by this week. So, when that yellow box from Pittman and Davis showed up on our front porch, I hooted with excitement, did a little dance and got pumped to eat some grapefruit. (Thank you, Spritzer family!)

For those of you who don’t know, grapefruits are big in the Spritzer household. Every winter a case would arrive at the house for Hanukah and we’d slowly work our way through them. We’d peel and eat them with Dad, a special father-daughter ritual that I loved. (Grapefruits also tend to show up at special events, like after my bridal shower — see the last photo in the set). We Spritzers just can’t get enough of them.

Nowadays grapefruits are an indulgence. I buy them when I am really in the mood for them or as a special treat. Something to savor. They tend to be just too expensive for every day eating.

So now, thanks to my family, we have a case of them to enjoy. Oh, I am in heaven. Excuse me while I go peel one. I’m going to eat it while I enjoy the rest of our Hannukah presents from Mom and Dad (another Spritzer tradition: books for gifts!).

We are so going to make grapefruit and avocado salad this week.

Rainy weather, cozy socks.

Love cool, rainy Northern California winter days. Just the perfect weather for staying warm, drinking tea, and being with friends. And today I enjoyed all three things. After yoga class, three of us (plus two babies!) walked over to a local tea shop and had some social time. (Yes! Mamas can have a social life after babies are born!) I loved the tea shop — all organic! super cozy! so delicious! Just the perfect winter destination. And so nice meeting and getting to know new people. I think I am going to totally embrace the whole mama-baby playgroup thing.

The 20 worst foods in America

Have you seen this article? Many of the foods listed are no-brainers (giant sized burger, sugar loaded hotcakes, ), but others are a bit surprising:

Uno Chicago Grill Chicago Classic Deep Dish Pizza – “Downing this “personal” pizza is equivalent to eating 18 slices of Domino’s Crunchy Thin Crust cheese pizza.”

Macaroni Grill Spaghetti and Meatballs with Meat Sauce – “This meal satisfies your calorie requirements for an entire day.”

Jamba Juice Chocolate Moo’d Power Smoothie – “Jamba Juice calls it a smoothie; we call it a milk shake. In fact, this beverage contains as much sugar as 2 pints of Ben & Jerry’s butter pecan ice cream.”

So shocking! Granted I have never eaten any of these dishes, but I have eaten at these restaurants in the past.

Here are two other terrifying desserts that we’ve steered clear of after looking up the caloric content on our own:

Cold Stone Creamery Vanilla Shake – Almost 1400 calories and 70 grams of fat. (Their French Vanilla flavor also contains High Fructose Corn Syrup. YUCK!)

Cheesecake Factory Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake (prepackaged) – Once slice contains 800 calories and 30 grams of saturated fat. Enough said. (Their official restaurant site doesn’t post nutritional information, so we assume it’s just as bad, if not worse, since they don’t have to disclose…)

Just a couple more reasons to cook healthily at home. (Luckily, we have a number of fantastic vegan/vegetarian/healthy restaurants nearby. We’re planning on going to one in a couple hours, before we head to our acupressure for labor/partner prenatal yoga class! Should be fun!)

Lots of chocolate

David’s mom Diana and her good friend Joanne are in town visiting and that means LOTS OF CHOCOLATE! Here is a picture of me drinking chocolate infused with cayenne and cinnamon! We’ve also enjoyed chocolate empanadas (with banana rum ice-cream), chocolate flan, marble chocolate cheesecake, and other yummy desserts such as rice pudding, gingerbread, and fried banana with coconut ice-cream. Note that these have all been consumed in the past three days! It’s been delicious. We are having a great time! (and thank goodness for yoga and racquetball!)