Candy Cane Cookies

This little twist on the traditional sugar cookie is just what we needed to jump start our Christmas baking.  It was so easy to do.  Make your regular sugar cookie recipe.  Add 1/4 cup* of crushed candy cane to the dough, mix it in well.  Bake as usual

Once the cookies are done baking let them cool for just a couple of minutes, then press them one by one into a mix of equal parts icing sugar powder and crushed candy cane (3 tbsp of each).  So tasty!

To crush your candy canes, put about 8 regular sized ones into a ziplock bag.  Cover with a tea towel.  Pound with a rolling pin or a meat hammer until the candy is in little bits.

Here's my favorite sugar cookie recipe.  It is from Mrs. Field's Best Cookie Book Ever. 
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup salted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Pre-heat oven to 325*.  In a medium bowl, combine flour and salt with a whisk, set aside.  In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed.  Add the egg and vanilla, beat until well mixed.  Add the flour mixture, Blend on a low speed just until combined, don't overmix.  Gather the dough into a ball, flatten the ball into a disk and wrap tightly in plastic wrap.  Refrigerate one hour until firm.
On a floured surface, roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thick.  Use cookie cutters to cut the dough into fun shapes.  Bake for 13-15 minutes.

*1/4 cup candy cane was added to half of the dough, the other half I baked as directed.

Jamie Oliver's Cracking Burger

I posted a few days back how I'd bought 3 new cookbooks that have re-energized my cooking efforts. I had so much fun grocery shopping today as I looked towards the next couple of weeks of meals. But now I'm hit with a quandary. Here's what happened.
We had friends over for dinner tonight. We rolled out the old BBQ and I prepped Jamie Oliver's Cracking Burger from his Food Revolution cookbook. Along with it I served a Cesar salad and my own special home fries. One bite of this burger and was hooked. YUM! much tastier (I think) than the home burgers I've been making. The rest of the table enjoyed them too. So here's my question: I generally don't post recipes as is found in a cookbook. I will post them if I have made my own taste changes and note them appropriately. I just don't want to get into any copyright issues; therefore, no picture as there was no intention to post. This cookbook was designed, however, for the purpose of sharing the recipes with friends, teaching them to them to add to their repetoire (the pay it forward notion of cooking). So what do I do? I'm planning I think 4 of his recipes over the next 2 weeks. If these burgers are any indication then I know already how good the other food is. Do I post the recipes? Review the recipes? Help me out here foodie friends! What do you do with published recipes? I'd really like to know.

Getting Inspired...

It seems like wherever I turn these days I am getting the , same message about food. Go a little more natural, less preservatives, less sugar filler just the beauty of the food brought out. Use spices and herbs to enhance flavour. Snack on the basics to meet your cravings (I'm currently munching on nuts and raisins instead of my usual chips and dip and liking it). Stock up with more fruits and veggies. Drink more *gasp* water (I'm really bad at this). So I'm trying a little at a time to untroduce some changes. I figured this blog would be a good outlet for my venture (and hopefully being public about it will help me along). I also bought 3 (count 'em 3) new cookbooks this week.
The first is Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. You knew that was coming didn't you? I'm usually not one to get on a cooking bandwagon. I don't watch cooking shows very often (weird for a foodie I know). This is, in fact, the first Jamie Oliver cookbook I've ever bought. I'd been hearing a lot about this book and caught one episode of his show of the same name. I liked what I saw. I checked out his website and the recipes he left on Oprah's site and really liked what I saw, so I bought the book. Yum! I love what's inside. (I love reading good cookbooks - not so strange for a foodie)
The other two books I credit a new friend with. We recently moved and have been meeting new people. We've dined twice at the home of this lovely cook. Her secret to amazing food comes from these books. So, we splurged and bought 2 of them. They are Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid's beautiful recipe books. I bought 'Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia', and 'Mangoes and Curry Leaves: Culinary Travels Through the Great Subcontinent'. I would love to get more of their books (hint, hint). I really look forward to creating with these books. We love authentic ethnic food and I have craved being able to recreate that in my kitchen.
Onto more of my goals in eating these days. 1-better breakfast, I'll blog on that another day. 2-more salads. This is one of my favorites which I never made because my husband doesn't like raw spinach. It just occurred to me that I could just make a smaller salad for myself (well duh!). Very simple, a handful of baby spinach leaves, some sliced strawberries, a shake of slivered almonds and a spoonful of Renee's poppyseed dressing. Renee's is the best I've found when it comes to salad dressings. Sorry my American friends, this is a Canadian brand, I hope you have an equivalent.

Tonight's dinner had this salad on the side of Salmon baked in a honey hoisin sauce (PC brand out of the jar) and some of Jamie Oliver's nutmeg and garlic rice. The family verdict? Salmon - very yummy, salad - only I ate it and loved it, rice - mixed opinion. My oldest son (who is 5) tried it and wasn't a fan. My husband thought it was a nice change for once in a while. I did too.
I used a basimati. Cook the rice first. Separately, in a large frying pan, over low heat, heat a bit of olive oil and a pat of butter. Add 8 cloves of garlic (peeled and thinly sliced), add a little salt & pepper to season. When garlic is just starting to turn colour add a tsp of ground cinnamon and 1/4 ground nutmeg. Add cooked rice and blend altogether. Remove from heat, squeeze juice of 1 lemon over all and serve hot.