Love through the stomach... » Cookie

The 7 links project

Valerie — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 15:15:26 +0000

My blog revisited

Whenever I need a recipe or food idea, I usually look up a blog. Often that will be other peoples blogs. Whenever I know that I’ve written a post about something myself, I will look it up on my own blog though. So when Simone of Jungle Frog Cooking asked me to join in the 7 links project, I got excited. A post looking back on my own favorite posts. Looking back onto the posts that deserve a little extra attention.

In the year and a half that I’ve been blogging. there have been enough posts that I remember. Ones that I like to look back to myself. In this post I put them together for you.

My most beautiful post

Sprinkling chocolate over Tiramisu

This was a post very early on in the blog. We had really only just started making photo’s specifically for the blog. As I started sprinkling the chocolate Laurens told me to stop. He started placing his flash elsewhere, moved cutting boards around to reflect the right light and tried to choreograph the photo. When he said okay, I started sprinkling more chocolate over the tiramisu and hoped he got the shot he wanted as I was running out of chocolate. The picture tuned out amazing, or so I think. The Tiramisu was very tasty too. the secret – make it in advance!

My most popular post

A swiss roll ice cream cake - delicious

The one single post that has been getting the most hits ever since it’s been posted – even after moving the whole site to a new domain, is the step-by-step post of a swiss roll ice cream cake I made for Daring Bakers last summer. The challenge was to make everything yourself, from swiss rolls to 2 kinds of ice cream and a sauce. It tuned out to be a lot of work, but very tasty! I haven’t made it again since, but I’m glad to know I have the skills to make such an awesome dessert if I need to!

My most controversial post

Grocery store meats, not very appetizing!

In May of 2010 I had just about had it with the terrible quality of the meat sold at our local grocery store. I wrote a long rant about the quality of meats at grocery stores and illustrated it with this not-too-appetizing picture. Since we moved into our new home in October of that same year, I’ve been buying 90 percent of my meats at the butcher. I already knew that the taste and overall quality would be (and indeed is) much better, but in all honesty, it really isn’t that much more expensive either. A rant about the quality of food seems a little controversial though.

My most helpful post

The best home-made cinnamon rolls in the world, no questions asked!

Cinnamon rolls were my first breakfast-pastry-love. And you can’t go much better than a fresh baked Cinnabon from a mall somewhere. Warm, a little gooey with that wonderful cream cheese icing on top. Yep, I love my cinnamon rolls, and I found/tweaked a recipe that mimics my favorite type pretty much perfectly. Judging from popularity and comments, both on- and offline, I’ve got to say that this is my most helpful post. Also the trick with the ceramic cups to make sure they sit close together seems to be a keeper!

Most surprising success post

A sliced of bread with the pastrami piled on.

I honestly have no idea why this post is so popular in page views. It’s an explanation on Dutch sandwich lunches and a request for a good pastrami recipe. To make my own. Despite the fact that there are a bunch of people who look at the post every single day, no-one has sent me their favorite recipe yet. I guess they just come here to see if I have one.

Post that didn’t get the attention it deserved

Delicious, crispy catuccini. Perfect for soaking in espresso or vin santo.

These beautiful and very tasty cantuccini didn’t get all that much attention and I bet I know why. It was the second post of that day. Posted only a little while after I posted that I screwed up my cantuccini. It was the first time I made cantuccini and I had certain expectations. Halfway through it looked like the cookies didn’t even come close to meeting those expectations. The fact of the matter was, I had just made them a little larger than I thought I did. They turned out to be delicious, and they deserved a LOT of attention. However, they didn’t get it, and that’s just sad!

Post I’m the most proud of

Fresh pasta, hanging to dry before cooking.

This might be the hardest post to choose. There are so many posts I’m proud of. More so, there are so many things I’ve made that I’m proud of. Cooking, grilling, smoking, baking, all kinds of things have been made since I started this blog. I’ve experimented a lot. So what did I choose? I’ll tell you. I chose my very first post. PArtially because I love this picture, and partially because that’s what I should be proudest of. The fact that I dove in and started the blog and gave myself the option, or challenge, to make all those other things I’m proud of. I’ll always cherish that first post, and hope that if you’ve never seen it, you’ll go there and check it out.

Now to continue the 7 links project, I have invited 7 other bloggers who’s blogs I’d love to see through their eyes. I can’t wait to see their surprising, favorite and helpful posts! And thanks again Simone, for inviting me! IT was hard, but fun!

Giula of Juls’ Kitchen

Jill of JBean Cuisine

Kelly of Condensed Stew

Marica of Cooking with Marica

Regula of Foodwise

Sara of Cocina para Emancipados

Zita of Zizi Adventures

Holiday baking – in review

Valerie — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 19:31:34 +0000

So those recipes I promised you, along with the video of the ginger snaps baking. They’ve finally arrived!

First, a little story. A fun story. The story of people who love cookies more than what’s good for them!
This year I dove into the Christmas baking big time, with 3 different kinds of cookies, of which 2 types came in different versions. And then there was the ‘mock-Enstrom-toffee’ that made an appearance as well. Lots of sweets to delight not only ourselves, but plenty of others as well.

So yes, I was a nice person, a good baker, true to the title and motto of this blog. I shared the goodies I made!

When bringing some to the office, 3 of my co-workers (who have a 6th sense for sweets, they were standing next to my desk before I’d even plated all the cookies and I hadn’t told anyone I brought them!) requested that I’d start a tradition of making Valentine’s day cookies, Easter cookies, Passover cookies, Queen’s day cookies, Ascension day cookies, Summer cookies, Halloween cookies and Thanksgiving cookies as well. In between those special cookies, they’d accept it if I’d limit myself to Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday cookies.

I guess it meant they liked them :-)

The cookies I opted for and brought to my hungry, cookie-loving co-workers were chocolate chip cookies with some walnut pieces (pretty much your standard toll house cookie, why mess with a winning recipe), Ginger snaps (courtesy of my friend Amber who got the recipe from Teresa, who’s a fellow goddess-mama to our beloved Gracie, the cookies you saw in that film) and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. The oatmeal chocolate chip cookies had a version with milk chocolate chips and one with white and butterscotch. Please don’t make me choose which one I liked better. The ginger snaps came in a soft-and-chewy and a crispy version, which resulted in different tasting cookies along with the difference in texture.

Word of warning to the Dutchies here. The measurements, as usual on my blog, are done with American standard size measurements. Don’t try to substitute them for Dutch sizes. a tsp (teaspoon) is really another amount than filling a Dutch spoon you stir your tea or coffee with. While with spices it’ll just give you a very bland tasting cookie, it’ll be disastrous for the end product if you do that with baking powder or baking soda.

Another word to the wise. Baking powder and baking soda are not interchangeable as some Dutch websites suggest. Baking soda is sold at American/English stores, sometimes at ‘toko’s’ or otherwise at the pharmacy as ‘zuiveringszout’ or ‘natriumbicarbonaat’. Also Dtuch melasse, (molasses) isn’t necessarily the same as American molasses. The European version can be fairly strong. If you like that taste, that’s fine, otherwise, substitute about half the molasses with a very mild honey. Or that’s what David Lebovitz tells us, and who am I to question his judgement?!

[print_this]Chocolate chip walnut cookies (adapted from the Nestlé Toll House cookie recipe)

1 cups + 2 tbsp AP flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp seasalt

1/2 cup unsalted butter

6 tbsp granulated sugar

6 tbsp brown sugar (I use a mix of dark and light brown sugar)

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

1 cups chocolate chips (I prefer milk chocolate for my choc-chip-cookies)

a big handful walnuts, roughly chopped

Cream butter and sugars, add egg and vanilla. Sift flour, baking soda and salt together and slowly add into the mixture. Mix well. Add in the chocolate chips and the walnuts, make sure they’re evenly mixed throughout the dough.
Preheat oven to 375 F (185 C), using a cookie scoop or 2 spoons place even-sized little heaps of dough on a cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes until nice and golden brown. (around 10 minutes for a soft, slightly chewy cookie, around 12 for a slightly crispier cookie).
Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet for about 2 minutes, then move them to a cooling rack to cool completely (if you can resist eating a warm cookie, that is!)

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[print_this]Ginger snaps (adapted from Teresa and Amber’s recipe)

3/4 cup unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup molasses

1 egg

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cloves

1 scant tsp ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1 good pinch of finely ground (powdered) black pepper

Cream butter and sugar, add the molasses and the egg, then sift in flour, baking soda, salt and spices and mix well. Shape into balls and roll in sugar (do not flatten) bake on an ungreased cookie sheet at 350 F (175 C) degrees for 10 – 12 minutes. If you like them even spicier (try one cooled of cookie first!) add some more ginger and pepper to the sugar which you toll the dough in. Cool on cookie sheet for about 2 minutes, then move to rack for complete cooling. As with all cookies, a shorter cooking time will give you a chewier, softer cookie. In this case, the soft cookie will really taste different, a lot more ‘molassessy’.

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[print_this]Oatmeal chip cookies (adapted from a random recipe I found and altered big time)

½ cup unsalted butter

½ cup sugar

½ cups brown sugar (I use a mix of dark and light)

1 egg

3/4 tsp vanilla

1 cup flour

¼ tsp salt

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

1-¼ cup regular oatmeal (not the instant stuff)

a good handful pecans, chopped

heaping 1/2 cup (milk) chocolate chips

heaping 1/4 cup white chocolate chips

heaping 1/4 cup butterscotch chips

Cream butter, sugar and brown sugar, add the egg and vanilla. Sift the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda into the butter mixture. Mix well, then add in the oatmeal. Add the pecans and mix well.
Divide the very thick dough in 2. Add milk chocolate chips to the first half of the batter and white and butterscotch chips to the second half.

Roll the dough into small balls, (large walnut/ a bit smaller than golfball size), bake at 375F (185 C) degrees for 12-15 minutes. Let them cool on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes, then move to a cooling rack.

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Note for all 3 recipes, if the dough is too soft to shape properly, place in the refrigerator for a half hour or so, then try scooping or rolling balls again.

Ginger snaps

Valerie — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 22:14:26 +0000

Now that Christmas is behind us and one of the big projects at work is finished, it’s time to post what I’ve been doing in the kitchen. Besides just providing us with dinner each night, I’ve also spent some time baking for the holidays. In the next couple of days I’ll show you the different cookies and candy I made. The recipes will come one at a time.

Today, however, the stars of the show are ginger snaps!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igXt8Z8CAD4&hd=1[/youtube]

Ginger snaps might be my all-time-favorite holiday cookies. I love them, they scream Christmas to me. This holiday season I’ve made them twice. The first time wasn’t wonderful. I tried a new recipe, which just didn’t do it for me. I then decided to go with a proven recipe. My friend Amber made these when I spend Christmas with her the first time, 4 Christmases ago, when she was pregnant with Gracie, my beloved Goddess-daughter. So I asked her for the recipe, which she gladly shared with me, to share with you. The original recipe came from Teresa, another Goddess-mama to Gracie.

These ginger snaps are perfect, they have just the right amount of molasses, to give you a slight hint, but not a full-on molasses taste. The mixture of spices make them wonderful. And the amount of time you bake them fully determines whether you get a crispy or a soft cookie.

Laurens, my beloved, filmed me making the cookies, so enjoy this little bit of Holiday cheer from Love through the stomach…’s kitchen. (And stay tuned for the recipe later this week!)

Awesome aprons (and a giveaway link)

Valerie — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 20:23:27 +0000

While browsing Foodblogs, I ran into a blog about aprons. Really really cute aprons. And an apron giveaway. Now I don’t wear aprons even remotely often enough. This generally leaves me with way too much laundry, as all my clothes get flour or sauce stained when I’m baking or making a big dinner.

The thing is, most aprons I find in the stores, are just plain boring. Boring or ugly. Which makes me not want to wear them. So I won’t buy them.

Yes I do realize that not so cute aprons keep my clothes clean too, but for some reason I just prefer cute ones. Can’t help it. Really I can’t. It kinda feels like buying useable but non-cute shoes. I dread doing that, it just feels soooo wrong, even though it’s necessary.

So I found this post, clicked, and saw some pictures of really really really cute aprons. Really cute. Awesome really. Okay, yeah, they cost a little more than the ugly ones I find at the grocery or department store, but who cares??? Ugly shoes generally are cheaper than cute shoes too, right? And you won’t catch yourself only buying butt-ugly shoes, right?

The post doesn’t only show you the awesome awesome pictures of Annie G’s aprons, Sweet Kat is also hosting a giveaway of these aprons. And the only thing better than really cute aprons, is a really cute apron you got for free.

So go check out Annie G’s aprons (my 5 favorites are shown here, but there are many more styles), and if you want one, check out Sweet Kat’s giveaway.

You won’t be sorry!!!!

Baking supplies

Valerie — Mon, 31 May 2010 16:35:28 +0000

The Pioneer Woman makes me jealous. Not when she posts pictures of scary snakes that sit in her yard. I can do without that nooo problem. I get very very very jealous when I see her kitchen though. She has a ‘baking station’ with ‘flour/sugar drawers’. Seriously, if I didn’t have L, she wasn’t married and it would be legal, I would totally marry her just for her kitchen. Seriously!

Now I shouldn’t whine. After August 31st I will have an awesome kitchen as well. It’s large and beautiful and has everything I need. Except for the baking station… with the flour/sugar drawers.

I already told L that I want those drawers too. We will have to remodel the kitchen a tiny bit, can’t we just include those drawers in there.

I included bribes like ‘baking every day’ and such, but L didn’t seem convinced.

So this morning I told my co-worker about the awesomeness of PW’s kitchen and drawers. I told her I’d checked about 3 million kitchen websites and none of them offered them. And then my wonderful wonderful co-worker said “oh, but they have those old fashioned cupboards that have those, they’re called ‘grutterskasten’, check furniture stores instead of kitchen stores”.

So I did a google search on grutterskasten and kruidenierskasten and there’s a whole giant massive collection of different types and styles of those cupboards.

So now I want a cupboard like this!

Or like this!

There are so many possibilities!!!

I’ll just have to go measure the empty wall space in my kitchen (I know exactly which wall I can use) and then I can go pick one up!

Soooo excited!!!!

(Which one is your favorite???)