Chipotle Ranch Pretzels

Do you like to have munchies around?   I do.   I confess,  I am a snacker.  Whether it be reading a book, riding in the car, waiting for someone, I like to snack.   And whenever I go to a store offering free samples, I am there waiting in line.

At home, I have nuts, pretzels, carrots, celery, apples, cookies, etc. to snack on.

One of my family's favorites is Chipotle Ranch Pretzels.   I have bowl set out on the kitchen table so my kids can eat them as they are doing their studies or just passing by.  My husband also likes them just as much.

                        Chipotle Ranch Pretzels

Ingredients:

7-1/2 cups pretzels

1 envelope of Ranch Salad dressing mix

¾ cup vegetable oil

1-1/2 teaspoons garlic powder

½ teaspoon chipotle chili powder

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees

2. Put pretzels in a large mixing bowl.  Set aside.

3. In a medium-mixing bowl put the Ranch salad dressing mix, vegetable oil, and garlic powder and chipotle chili powder.  Whisk together until well combined.

4.  Pour the Ranch dressing mixture over the pretzels.  Toss the pretzels until well coated.

5. Pour pretzels into an ungreased 15x10 inch-baking dish.

6. Bake pretzels for one hour stirring every 15 minutes.

Makes 7-1/2 cups

Holiday Baking: Ginger Cookies

The scent of the holidays is in my kitchen.  I love the smell of cinnamon, ginger, and cloves.

I am baking some ginger cookies.  These ginger cookies are drop cookies that have a slightly crisp texture and a wonderful flavor.  I've added black pepper to the recipe to enhance the ginger flavor.

Try baking some of these cookies.  Who knows, they may become part of your holiday baking tradition.

                                                        Ginger Cookies

Ingredients:

2-1/4 cups of all-purpose flour

1-1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

1-teaspoon baking soda

1-teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground cloves

1-1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper

1 cup packed light brown sugar

¾ cup butter melted

1 egg

¼ cup molasses

1 tablespoon grated lemon zest

¼ cup sugar

Directions:

1. In a medium-mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and ground black pepper.  Set aside.

2.  In a large mixing bowl, beat brown sugar and butter together until well blended.  Add the egg and beat until incorporated.  Add molasses and beat until well mixed. 

3.  By heaping spoonfuls, add the flour mixture to the brown sugar mixture beating slowly.

4. Add the lemon zest to the batter beating slowly.  Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for three hours.

5. Pre heat oven to 350 degrees.

6. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

7.Shape dough into 1-inch balls.  Roll the balls in sugar and place on a baking sheet 2 inches apart.

8. Bake cookies on the center rack in oven for 9-11 minutes or until cookies are just set. 

9. Remove cookies from oven and cool 1 minute before transferring to wire cooling racks. 

10.  Store the cookies in an airtight container once the cookies have cooled completely.

Makes 2-1/2 dozen.

Cookie Therapy

In previous blogs, I wrote about my kids study groups.  For  last night's study group, I had them do cookie therapy.

What is cookie therapy you ask?  You bake or buy unfrosted sugar cookies and have lots of icing (different colors), sprinkles, decorations, and candies.   The kids then decorate their  cookies and  best of all, eat their creations.

They have lots of fun and it releases a lot of study tension.  

Another tension reliever  I do is have them construct their own gingerbread houses out of graham crackers.

I get graham crackers, frosting, Christmas candies - candy canes, red hots, etc. plus M&M's , Necco Wafers, pretzel sticks, torn apart  shredded wheat, and anything else I think will be good.

The kids have fun doing both of these activities and I have found any age group loves doing it.

Have fun with it and be creative.

Geri

Icing Tips.

Yesterdays blog listed some cookie tips.  I thought it would also be helpful to list a few icing tips.

1. Add coloring slowly to your icing to be sure you get the shade you want.

2.  Toothpicks are great for mixing colors in your icing.

3.  Be sure to cover your icing with plastic wrap when you are not using it.  This will prevent your icing from drying out.

4.  If you do not use all your icing you can refrigerate it up to 2 weeks.

5.  Keep you icing thin if you are coating your cookies with a brush.  Keep your icing thick if you are piping you icing.

6.  You can decorate your cookies with sugar crystals, silver balls, or nonpareils before baking your cookies.  DO NOT ice your cookies until they have cooled.

Have fun and share the fun with family and friends.


Geri

Cookie Tips

It is that time of year when we start our Christmas baking.  Most of us will bake cookies.

As I was looking through  some cookbooks, I found some helpful holiday baking tips I would like to share with you.


1.  Be sure to have plenty of cookie trays, parchment paper, rolling pins, cookie cutters, flour, sugar, eggs, and cookie decorations.

2.  If your cookie dough becomes too soft to  work with, put it in some waxed paper and refrigerate it for thirty minutes.

3. If you do not use all your cookie dough, you can refrigerate it or freeze it.

4.  If your cookies are going to be decorations, use a plastic drinking straw  to make a hole in the cookies where you want to run a ribbon through.

5. If you are rolling your dough between sheets of parchment paper or waxed paper, sprinkle a little water on your work surface to keep the  paper from sliding.

6. Cool your cookie sheets between  batches of cookie baking.

7.  Do not put your cookies away until they have cooled completely.

Happy Baking.

Geri

Posole: A New Mexico Tradition

Posole is a traditional New Mexican  spicy corn stew eaten during the Christmas Holidays.  You can make posole with pork, chicken,  beef, or a vegetable protein.   In Northern New Mexico the posole usually is made with green chili and in Southern New Mexico it is made with red chili.

You can garnish your bowl of Posole with:
          
                            - thinly sliced radishes
                            - thinly sliced lettuce
                            - diced onions
                            -shredded Monterey Jack cheese

I have even heard of people sprinkling some corn nuts on top of their  bowl of posole.


I like to make my posole with chicken and I use whatever chili I have on hand.  Usually, I make a large pot of posole and keep any leftovers in the refrigerator.  It gets better with age.  Below is a Crock pot recipe for Posole.  You put everything in one pot and let it cook.  The aroma is wonderful and very inviting.

As for garnishing my bowl of posole, I just eat it with a warm flour tortilla.

Posole

1-pound fresh posole rinsed*

3 cups cooked chicken breast cut into bite-size pieces

2 quarts chicken broth

2 cloves garlic finely minced

1 cup finely chopped onion

1-teaspoon cumin

1-1/2 teaspoons Mexican Oregano

1 bay leaf

2-teaspoons salt

1-teaspoon black pepper

1-1/2 cups red chili puree*

Salt & Pepper

.

1.   Put all ingredients into a 3-½-quart crock-pot.

2.   Cook on low for 10 hours or until posole “pops or blooms" (it resembles pop corn)

3.   Adjust seasoning if necessary.

4.   Serve in bowls. 

Makes 8 servings.

*Can be found in the frozen foods section of most grocery stores.

Feliz Navidad:)

Geri

Twenty Five Days of Christmas Baking and Cooking

Today is the first day of December which means I start my holiday cooking and baking.  This is my favorite time of year because I can indulge myself and not feel too guilty.  I bake cookies, cakes, bread, pies, etc.  I make candies, traditional New Mexican  dishes like Posole, Enchiladas, Tamales, etc just to name a few.

Today's recipe is an easy cookie recipe.  The cookies are bar cookies and they are delicious.  This recipe uses vanilla wafers but you can substitute graham cracker crumbs.

Chocolate Layered Toffee Bars

Ingredients

    * ¼ lb butter

    * 1¼ cups vanilla wafer crumbs (about 50 wafers)

    * 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

    * 1 cup sweetened flaked coconut

    * 1 cup Heath toffee bits

    * 1 -14 oz can condensed milk

    * 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

    

Directions

    * Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

    * 1. Melt the butter. Put the vanilla wafer crumbs in a medium bowl and add the melted butter. Mix well.

    * 2. Press the crumb mixture on the bottom of a 9x13 inch-baking pan.

    * 3. Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the vanilla wafer crust.

    * 4. Sprinkle the coconut over the chocolate chips.

    * 5. Sprinkle the toffee bits over the coconut.

    * 6. Pour the condensed milk evenly over the cookie layers.

    * 7. Sprinkle the nuts over the layers.

    * 8. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes

    * 9. Cool completely before cutting into bars. 

Yield: Makes  24 bars

Happy Hanukkah