Almond Paste Cookies

A cookie straight off of the Italian cookie tray. Almond cookies come in many forms. Plain, Colored in Red or Green Almonds, decked out in almond slices, or topped with a cherry. Sometimes they are rolled other times they can be piped in a swirl.   Whatever way they are served up, I have never found one I didn't like.   

Mixture of Almond Paste and Sugars mixed to a sandy texture

All are made with the same ingredient of Almond Paste.   You can find it in the bakery isle of most stores.   Be sure to get almond paste and not its companion Marzipan.    Although they both have an almond flavoring Marzipan has sugar added to it.   Almond paste can come in a tube or a can.   The kind that comes in the tube is sort of stiff.  I find the easiest way to break it is up is to cut it into large slices or chunks and put it in the mixer with the sugars. Mixing them together causes the almond paste to separate and form a sandy like texture as in the photo above. 

The end results for the recipe below

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Pistachio Cookies

 One of our must haves at Christmas for the cookie tray is a Pistachio Cookie.   The lovely green color given to them from the pistachio pudding makes them so festive looking.   

Here you can see I have topped them with a whole Pistachio.  Other times I have decorated them a sprinkling of confectioner's sugar, a drizzle of white or dark chocolate and a candied red or green cherry.   

You can get the recipe here........

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Chicken Riggies ala Piccione

Some like them hot some like them not hot.    Chicken riggies is a local dish to Utica, NY and surrounding areas such as Rome and Syracuse, New York as well.   With blogging, facebook, instagram and twitter the recipe for them is being shared the world wide.  It is basically hot spicy peppers and their juice and chicken  in a pale pink sauce served over rigatoni pasta.

Chicken riggies come in many versions and people make them very differently.   The original recipe was with chicken, but these days you can get shrimp, steak, veggie, meatball, sausage, or even eggplant riggies.   I have had them at various local restaurants  some have only peppers and chicken while others add mushrooms, black olives or green olives as well as the peppers.  I have seen some recipes using 4-5 pans to make everything, I only use two one for the pasta and one for the sauce.  

• You can cut corners in a couple of places.  
• I mentioned above you can swap out the chicken for another type of main meat or veggie. 
• You can also replace the uncooked chicken for grilled or leftover roasted chicken from the ones you get at the market.  Y
• You can also replace the tomato sauce and spices for a really good jarred marinara sauce. 
• In trying to eat less pasta in our house I have been serving it over spaghetti squash.    

This is our version of the recipe.  Click on the photo to open the recipe. 

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Ginger Cookies

This is a recipe for a nice chewy ginger cookie that can be eaten plain as is.  It can be sandwich together with frosting of your choice or it can be drizzled or dipped in white chocolate.   

Your family will enjoy them but you can also give them as a gift or add a few to a cookie tray.

The dough comes together nicely in a few minutes.  Put in the fridge to firm up.  Roll into balls and then roll in sugar and bake. 

This is how mine turned out. 

Here is the recipe.

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Brownie and PB Ball Mashup

What could be better than putting two delicious goodies together into a couple of bites.   Ooey gooey brownie and peanut butter balls.  No need to say more.  

While these are delicious, they do take a little time to make and put together.   You can also swap out the Peanut butter ball for other things like, half a large marshmallow, a coconut macaroon, or any other type cookie ball like Oreo or Gingersnap or maybe even a chocolate covered cherry.     

Let me know what you top yours with.  The recipe is below.

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Shepard's Pie A recipe I mastered in 8th grade Home-Ec Class

 I remember being excited for finally getting to go to home-ec class where we would get to experience our luck at cooking, and sewing.  I learned that I was much better at cooking baking than at trying my hand at sewing.   

Our sewing class culminated in going to the store and picking out a simple pattern to make something.  We had a local five and dime store at the time that sold material, sewing supplies and numerous patterns.  After picking out the pattern, the material and special trim I went back to class to make a simple shirt which was fitting to times.   Although the shirt was wearable, I had difficulty with the thread breaking and not sewing evenly.   This theme seemed to continue with me whenever I tried to sew.  

Our cooking and baking class ended with a Buffet where we could invite one guest to attend from home.  Of course I invited my mother.  Each of us in the class got to make a dish that we had learned in during our 10 week course in home-ec.  Mine was of course Shepard's pie.   

The recipe contained several items that I liked and it was easy to make and remember the ingredients that went into it.   This recipe has stuck with me since the mid 70's and is a family favorite, tried and true.  Leftovers are great too!

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