today I woke up with a fever and a splitting headache that has now landed me in bed for the rest of the day. Now sick days, by rule, must involve trashy tv and soup in bed from the best fiance around, however, you have interrupted my trashy tv portion of the day. Yep that's right the day I actually get sick enough to call off of work is the day that the President just has to have a news conference where he repeatedly answers each question in the same exact way no matter what question was asked. Oh well, I did at least get soup in bed and Badger curled up at my feet.
I am so sorry that I have been awful about updating recently, the routine of work, stress, sleep must have gotten to be a bit. But my body has slammed me down today in a way of telling me to chill the heck out so its up date time. Since returning to the warm weathered south (it was 75 degrees this past weekend) Mike and I have rearranged the apartment to make it cozy and used almost every single one of our new kitchen gadgets. I am in love with all of our new kitchen stuff and my adorable new apron! The casserole dish has certainly proved to be one of the most useful gifts; we've made cheesy chicken and rice casserole, chicken roll ups, crab mac and cheese and all kinds of deliciousness in it. Thank you so much to everyone for the amazingly thoughtful gifts! After Christmas I also promised that I would share the recipe for the candied pecans and I figured I'd throw in the recipe for the Georgia Peach Cookies, which are much easier to make than the recipe makes it seem. So here are the candied pecans
Candied Pecans
Ingredients
- 1 egg white
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups raw shelled pecans
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk the egg white until light and foamy. A drop or two of water helps break up the egg whites, making them easier to whisk.
- Add the sugar, spices, and salt to the bowl.
- Whisk until incorporated.
- Add the nuts to the bowl and coat them completely in the egg white mixture.
- Spread the pecans evenly onto a parchment or tin foil lined baking sheet. Put in a preheated 300 degree oven.
- Bake for about 30 minutes. Every few minutes turn the nuts in the pan. They will be done when they are dry and the nuts are toasted and brown.
- While they are still warm, I like to give them an extra sprinkle of salt. You do not have to though. Let the pecans cool completely before you package them.
I also made some Georgia Peach Cookies for the parents' baskets at Christmas so here is the recipe for them as well...
Peach Cookies {That Look Like a Real Peach!}
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 10 1/2 Tbsp butter, softened
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 Tbsp sour cream
- 3/4 tsp vanilla extract
- peach jam or preserves
- 6 Tbsp milk, divided
- red and yellow food coloring
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- fresh mint leaves, for garnish (optional)
- you'll also need a clean paintbrush
Filling and Coating
Directions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt, set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, granulated sugar and light-brown sugar on medium-low speed until well blended, about 1 minute. Mix in egg and vanilla. Add sour cream and mix until blended. With mixer on low speed, slowly add in dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated. Scoop dough out 1 even tablespoon at a time and with buttered hands roll dough into a ball. Place balls on cookie sheet (you can fit 15 per sheet but then you are left with 4 in the end so unless you were making a double batch it wouldn't matter to try and fit that many). Bake in preheated oven 14-15 minutes until bottoms are lightly golden brown. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool. Allow cookies to cool completely then spread about 1 teaspoon of peach jam evenly across the bottom of one cookie then gently press another cookie over the jam layer to sandwich them together. Repeat this process with remaining cookies.
- To decorate cookies, pour 3 tbsp of milk into two small bowls. Tint one bowl of milk with red food coloring until it reaches a vibrant pink, then tint the other bowl of milk with yellow food coloring until its reaches a vibrant yellow. Take a paint brush and dip into the yellow tinted milk then paint randomly across both cookies leaving some areas unpainted. Then dip paintbrush into red tinted milk and paint randomly across unpainted areas and blend slightly (tip: I found the less milk I was able to paint across the cookie the better because then your cookies won't become soggy. You really don't need very much at all). Immediately after painting cookie, dip and coat entire cookie with sugar. Insert one or two fresh mint leaves into the side of each cookie if desired. Store in an airtight container.
No comments:
Post a Comment