Christmas themed cookies...Yum!

This post is by Kay, who writes the K’s Kitchen section of Todd’s Wanderings. She also happens to be Todd’s lovely wife!

Time is flying! Christmas is just around the corner now. Like last year, my friend Laura and I decided to have a Christmas baking session with another friend of ours, Jasmin. Let me tell you how we started this baking session last year. We went to the Danish Military Camp in Mitrovica (northern part of Kosovo) for a Sunday Brunch sometime early December last year and found an advertisement for soldiers on Danish Christmas baking sessions at the cafeteria. I found it such a great idea that they offer this opportunity for soldiers so that they can feel Christmas!

We were really jealous (as we were not eligible to join them) and decided to have our own. Last year, I baked gingerbread men cookies and Laura baked Peppernuts. This year, I decided to bake Christmas wreath cookies from my mom’s recipe and Laura and Jasmin decided to stick to their nostalgic Danish peppernuts. Both of them were born in Denmark and moved around the world during their teenage years and have the love and passion for Denmark! It was a lot of fun to bake with them with Danish Christmas music playing in the background!

If you have not prepared for Christmas, you still have time to bake. Try both of these cookies out!! They are quite easy and make nice Christmas entertainment!

Christmas Wreath Cookies

Ingredients

Butter: 150 g

Sugar: 110 g (shifted)

Egg: one

Lemon zest: from one lemon

Lemon juice: 1 Tablespoon

Flour: 250 g

Cherry: red and green (for decoration): finely chopped

Milk: 100cc

Cocoa or green tea powder

How to Prepare (preparation and baking time in total: 1-1.5 hr)

Squeeze that cookie out!

(1)  Cut the butter into pieces and leave at room temperature for a couple of hours (well, if you live in a tropical country, 5-10 min may be enough!)

(2)  Whisk the butter in a bowl until it is soft and turns white. If butter is still too hard, you can also warm up the bottom of the bowl (but of course only if the bowl is tolerant to the stove!)

(3)  Add sugar in three times and continue to whisk.

(4)  Add egg, lemon zest, lemon, and milk.

(5)  Add flour and mix all the ingredients lightly.

(6)  If you would like to have a color, divide the dough into half (or three), dissolve cocoa or green tea powder with hot water in a separate cup, and mix with the dough.

(7)  Put the dough into the Pastry bag (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastry_bag) with a tip and squeeze out the dough in a circle shape (like a Christmas wreath).

(8)  Put a piece of green and red cherry on the dough.

(9)  Heat up the oven at 160-170C and bake the cookies for 15-20 min.

Tip: If you can’t find the cherry for baking, you can substitute with other things which make the cookies look like a wreath. I used dried cranberries for red and dyed raisins with green coloring to substitute the cherries (but my fingers and nails stayed green for a day!)

Peppernut Cookies (preparation and baking time in total: 1hr)

According to Laura and Jasmin, peppernut cookies are called ‘Pebernødder’ in Denmark. They thought it is a very Danish and Nordic specialty for Christmas but apparently, it is also baked in Germany and The Netherlands as well as in the USA. As the name shows, these cookies have various spices, such as cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and pepper.

We recommend the recipe through the link. They were delicious!

As the dough was a bit too soft to roll on our hands, we ended up adding more flour which made the cookies look a bit whiter but they were delicious!!

Laura and Jasmin used the recipe from the following web site:

http://globalcookies.blogspot.com/2007/09/denmark-pebernodder.html

How did they taste? We’d love to hear how everything turned out, or even about your favorite cookie recipes.

Christmas Special Recipe: Wreath and Peppernut Cookies is a post from: Todd's Wanderings

This post is by: Kay (my lovely wife and writer for K’s Kitchen!)

It's great as an appetizer and for dipping!

Since the end of August, I started to see lots of sacks of paprika at vegetable shops in Kosovo….Yes, this is a sign that autumn is here and therefore the season for Ajvar has started….Indeed, leaves are turning yellow and it was zero degree at night in Prishtina few days ago (early October)!!

Today, I’m FINALLY introducing you to one of the most popular Balkan dishes (sauce), Ajvar. I never knew about this very popular Balkan dish until I moved to Kosovo. Ajvar is basically a sauce made of red paprika and spices. According to the website and some recipes that I have seen, eggplants and onions are sometimes used, however, my Kosovar friends tell me that Ajvar is strictly with paprikas and the one mixed with other vegetables are actually called Pinxhur. Both of them are often used as a dip or part of the appetizer (Meze) with bread. You can also use it as a sauce for meat, or even as a pasta sauce. Here is the link for the history of Ajvar, for those interested.

Ingredients (makes 1.5 litters)

Fresh and delicious. Ok the chillies might not be traditional but we love the spice.

Red paprika:10

Eggplant: 4

Onions: 1 finely chopped

Garlic: 3 cloves finely chopped

Chili: 3-5 (depending on your preference)

Olive oil: Half cup

Vinegar or lemon: 1 Tablespoon

Salt: to taste

Pepper: to taste

How to cook (cooking/preparation time: 60 minutes)

Skinning the peppers

(1)  Roast red paprika and eggplants in the oven at 240 C° for 25-30 min or until they are roasted. You may want to cut the eggplants into haves if they are big. Turn the vegetables around half way through to roast them evenly. Roast chilies as well, but please don’t put in the oven too long! Mine exploded in the oven!

(2)  While roasting, sauté the onions and garlic with 1-2 table spoons of olive oil very well until they are brown and very soft.

(3)  When paprika and eggplants are done, put them in a pot and leave them for 5-10 min. Peel their skins and take out the seeds of paprika, cut them in pieces, and mash them with a masher.

(4)  Put the mashed vegetables, chopped chilies, and sauteed onion & garlic, as well as olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, into a blender and blend them until the chunks disappear.

(5)  Adjust the taste by adding more salt and peppers. In my case, I have added more chopped spicy Sri Lankan chilies (-:

(6)  Serve Ajvar on the plate together with other dips or meze along with some bread (ideally Arabic or pita bread). Today, I decided to serve with some olives from Macedonia (thanks to Todd’s recent trip to Lake Ohrid).

That’s a lot of Peppers!

As I wanted to make it properly, I bought a sack of paprika and used 10 which produced almost 1.5 litters of Pinxhur Ajvar! If you would like to try first, you can probably cook a half portion. If you sterilize the bottle, they say that Ajvar lasts for couple of years. This is the way how people in the Balkans used to prepare (and still prepare) the preserved food to be ready for winter. Kosovar Moms also like to point out how healthy this is, especially since one red paprika is said to have more vitamin C than a lemon.

Was that easy? Delicious? Tell us how tasty it was, or how it all went horribly, horribly wrong

How to Make Ajvar: Balkan staple of Fall and Winter is a post from: Todd's Wanderings

This post is by: Kay (my lovely wife and writer for K’s Kitchen!)

I apologize for taking a break from K’s kitchen for sometime…I thought that I’d have a lot of time during the summer but my work kept me busy until we left for 9 Day Balkans Road Trip. The good news is that we had a great harvest of tomatoes, basil, Sri Lankan chili, and thyme in our small garden on the balcony. We were indeed busy watering and taking care of the plants every morning before we went to work, but our effort really paid off!! Today, I’d like to introduce you to Caponata- K’s Special. This dish is one of my favorites because it’s healthy and remains tasty for a couple of days.

Yummmm...fresh vegetables soaked in delicious juices.

Ingredients (for 3-4 people)

Onions: One big size or two medium size-chopped to 1cm pieces

Paprika: 3 Red and 2 Yellow (if you use a regular big paprika, you can use 1 Red and 1 Yellow) cut into the size of a thumb

Egg Plant: 3 medium size or 1 big size- slice them in 5-8mm width (if they are big, please cut them in half)

Fresh tomatoes straight from our beer...I mean, balcony garden

Tomatoes: 2 large tomatoes diced

Zucchini: 1 medium size- sliced 5-8mm width

Garlic: 2 cloves- sliced

Chili: 1 small Sri Lankan chili (or any other kind, or without if you don’t like spicy food)- finely chopped

Basil: 4-5 fresh leaves (if you don’t have fresh ones, you can substitute with the dried basil)- chopped

Thyme: 1/4 of handful (if you don’t have fresh ones, you can substitute with the dried thyme)

Olive oil: 2-3 Tablespoons

Bay leaf: 2-3 leaves

Salt and pepper

How to cook (cooking/preparation time: 30 min)

We grew thyme as well

(1)  Cut all the vegetables mentioned above

(2)  Fry garlic and onions with 2-3 Tablespoons of olive oil until they are cooked and browned.

(3)  Add egg plant, paprika and zucchini and fry them until they are soft and cooked.

(4)  Add tomatoes and sauté all the vegetables until tomatoes have cooked and the juice comes out.

(5)  Season with salt and pepper, and put thyme, bay leaf and basil and cook for another 5 minutes,

(6)  Serve on a dish and garnish with some Basil leaves.

Personally, I like eating Caponata a day after cooking. The flavors soak into the vegetables and the dish tastes better. Please try eating the day after cooking. You will notice the difference

I’m not sure if this is a proper way, but I keep Caponata in the fridge and eat with Cous Cous as a nice cool dish.

Was that easy? Delicious? Tell us how tasty it was, or how it all went horribly, horribly wrong

Italian Caponata- K’s Special is a post from: Todd's Wanderings

This post was written by Kay, who writes the K’s Kitchen section of Todd’s Wanderings. She also happens to be Todd’s lovely wife!

When I went to my friend’s house awhile ago, she served me a freshly baked banana muffin for breakfast. It made me really happy early in the morning and kept my happiness all day (along with a very nice coffee, of course!). This is it! I want to bake muffins in the morning on the weekend! I was determined to find the good recipe. I looked into several recipes in my cook books and on the internet, and found this recipe (adapted from David Herbert’s Simply Perfect Every Time) which is very tasty and easy. When I tried this for the first time, I confirmed the happiness!! My husband Todd was away (at that time for 6 weeks!), so I decided to share this happiness with my friends and they all loved the muffins!

When it comes to baking, some people tend to think that it is time-consuming and troublesome, but once you try this recipe you will change your opinion! Try it now!

Ingredients (makes 12-14 small muffins):

Flour (all-purpose): 2 cups (with 240 cc per cup*) or 300g

Baking powder: 2 teaspoons

Baking soda: 1 teaspoon

Salt: 1/8 teaspoon

Yogurt and milk mixture: ½ cup plain yogurt and ½ cup milk

2 Large Eggs

Lemon zest from 1 lemon

Sugar: 3/4 cup or 187 g

Unsalted butter: 1/2 cup (melted)

Fresh or frozen blueberry: 1 cup (or other berries depending on your preference)

*not all cups are the same and in Japan 1 cup=180 cc

How to cook- Cooking time: 20 min prep plus 20-25 baking time

1. Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius (or 375 Fahrenheit). Have 12 muffin cups ready. If you are using the tinned     cups, spray with oil or rub the oil inside the cups.

2. Shift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together and put them all in a bowl.

3. Put the milk & yogurt mixture, beaten eggs, lemon zest, sugar, and melted butter in another bowl and mix them well.      Add this mixture into the flour and mix them all together.

4. Even if you see lumps in the mix, don’t worry as long as ingredients are mixed. Add blueberries and mix further.

5. Put the muffin dough into the muffin cups.

6. Bake the muffins for 20-25 min. From my experience, I would suggest that you keep the muffins on the lower shelf for 10 minutes and then move them to the upper shelf and bake for another 10 min. If muffins turn brown, poke a toothpick in and see if the dough sticks to it when you pull it out. If it’s not baked enough, bake for another 3-5 min. When muffins are done, take them out from the oven and let them cool for 5 min before taking them out of the cups.

Eat, drink coffee and enjoy the happiness

What do you think? Leave a comment and tell us how your muffins turned out.

Yogurt Blueberry Muffin Recipe: The Cure for any Homesickness is a post from: Todd's Wanderings