nags of a similar ilk

Adapted from Gourmet Magazine, October 2007, from http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/10/pumpkin-bread-pudding/

I made a few of my own adaptations to this, using only milk and no cream (to me, it makes no difference in dishes like this, so I figure I’ll save the calories), and doubling almost all of the spices. Oh, and I added bourbon, but you probably anticipated that.

1½ cups whole milk (Or 1 cup heavy cream plus ½ cup whole milk)
¾ cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
½ cup sugar
2 large eggs plus 1 yolk
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
Pinch of ground cloves
2 tablespoons bourbon (optional)
5 cups cubed (1-inch) day-old baguette or crusty bread
¾ stick unsalted butter, melted* (can skip this step if using the second set of instructions)

Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle.

Gourmet’s Instructions: Whisk together pumpkin, cream, milk, sugar, eggs, yolk, salt, spices and bourbon, if using, in a bowl.

Toss bread cubes with butter in another bowl, then add pumpkin mixture and toss to coat. Transfer to an ungreased 8-inch square baking dish and bake until custard is set, 25 to 30 minutes.

Alternate, Come On, Be Lazy With Me, instructions: While preheating oven to 350°F with rack in middle, melt butter in bottom of a 8-inch square baking dish. Once it is melted, take it out of the oven and toss bread cubes with butter, coating thoroughly. In a separate bowl, whisk together all the remaining ingredients. Pour them over buttered bread cubes in baking dish, stirring to make sure all pieces are evenly coated. Bake until custard is set, 25 to 30 minutes.

Shirley's peanut butter cookies

INGREDIENTS

    * 1 cup butter, softened
    * 1 cup white sugar
    * 1 cup packed brown sugar
    * 2 egg
    * 1 egg yolk
    * 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
    * 1 (18 ounce) jar peanut butter
    * 2 cups all-purpose flour
    * 1 teaspoon baking soda
    * 1/2 teaspoon salt
    * 1 cup chopped peanuts

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, cream butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Add the eggs, yolks, and vanilla; mix until fluffy. Stir in peanut butter. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the peanut butter mixture. Finally, stir in the peanuts.

   Refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a cookie sheet.

3. Roll dough into walnut sized balls. Place on the prepared cookie sheet and flatten slightly with a fork. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven.

   Cookies should look dry on top. Allow to cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet before removing to cool completely on a rack. These cookies taste great when slightly undercooked.

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
1/1996

These truly chewy chocolate chip cookies are delicious served warm from
the oven or cooled. To ensure a chewy texture, leave the cookies on the
cookie sheet to cool. You can substitute white, milk chocolate, or peanut
butter chips for the semi- or bittersweet chips called for in the recipe.
In addition to chips, you can flavor the dough with one cup of nuts,
raisins, or shredded coconut.

Makes 1 1/2 dozen 3-inch cookies 2 1/8 cups bleached all-purpose flour
(about 10 1/2 ounces)
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), melted and cooled slightly
1 cup brown sugar (light or dark), 7 ounces
1/2 cup granulated sugar (3 1/2 ounces)
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 - 2 cups chocolate chips or chunks (semi or bittersweet)


1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Adjust oven racks to upper- and lower-middle
positions. Mix flour, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set
aside.

2. Either by hand or with electric mixer, mix butter and sugars until
thoroughly blended. Mix in egg, yolk, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients;
mix until just combined. Stir in chips.

3. Form scant 1/4 cup dough into ball. Holding dough ball using fingertips
of both hands, pull into two equal halves. Rotate halves ninety degrees
and, with jagged surfaces exposed, join halves together at their base,
again forming a single cookie, being careful not to smooth dough’s uneven
surface. Place formed dough onto one of two parchment paper-lined
20-by-14-inch lipless cookie sheets, about nine dough balls per sheet.
Smaller cookie sheets can be used, but fewer cookies can be baked at one
time and baking time may need to be adjusted. (Dough can be refrigerated
up to 2 days or frozen up to 1 month—shaped or not.)

4. Bake, reversing cookie sheets’ positions halfway through baking, until
cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers
are still soft and puffy, 15 to 18 minutes (start checking at 13 minutes).
(Frozen dough requires an extra 1 to 2 minutes baking time.) Cool cookies
on cookie sheets. Serve or store in airtight container.

Site recipes

So that I can stop asking Ariel each time I want to make tortillas, allow me to finally (finally) put it somewhere I'll find it again.

Hi, all!

Here's the recipe for the tortillas I made at taco night last
week.  The recipe is from Ariel's mom - she said I could share
it with you.  :)

-----

First I will give you the original recipe for flour tortillas that my
mother and mother-in-law used since they first began making them.  It
is higher in fat than the recipe we now use, but they are sooooo good.

 
4 cups unbleached flour (I like King Arthur)
2 teaspoons salt
2/3 cup shortening
about 1 1/2 cups warm water (my mother-in-law uses boiling water and so
  do I)
 

Mix flour and salt in a bowl; cut in shortening using a pastry blender
(my mother and I) or your fingers (my mother-in-law).  Add enough water
to make a soft dough; at this point the dough isn't particularly smooth.
It is better to have a dough that is too soft than one that is hard.  
If you are using boiling water, mix with a fork or wooden spoon until
the dough cools off.  

Let dough rest in the bowl, covered with a dish towel or plate for about
15 minutes or more.  This allows the gluten to relax and the flour to
absorb the water.   [Kitt: if you let it sit too long, however, it'll
start to form a crust as the fats start to harden.  Learned that the
hard way the first time.]

Knead the dough until it is smooth.  Take about two tablespoons of dough
and work it so that you have a flattened ball whose top is smooth.  This
will take longer to explain than to do.  You put the ball of dough in
your left palm and with the fingers of your right hand you tuck the
edges of the ball toward the left side of the ball as you rotate it.
You'll end up with a flattened ball, smooth on the top and full of
gathers on the underside.  I think the purpose of this is for easy
rolling.  It probably isn't very important, so skip this step and just
make a bunch of flattened balls however you want.

You can keep these balls (testales in Spanish) in a covered container
in the fridge for about 1 1/2 weeks.  Throw them out when they start
molding!

Let the dough rest again for a few minutes to let the gluten relax,
otherwise you will never be able to roll them out.  

Now the rolling and cooking.  If your dough is too soft and a little
too sticky,  sprinkle the working surface (board or counter) liberally
with flour, roll the fattened ball into a this disk, never going off
the edge with the rolling pin but just stopping short of it , and give
the tortilla a quarter turn.  So the action is to roll up to the top
edge, down to the bottom edge, and give the tortilla a quarter turn.
You never turn the disk upside down.  

When the tortilla is about 1/8 inch thick [Kitt: Preeti and I made them
slightly thinner] (don't worry if they aren't round; that will come
with practice), put it on the preheated griddle--the same temperature
as for making pancakes (sprinkle  griddle with water and if the droplets
dance, it's hot enough).   When blisters start to form, flip it.  

Cook this side until it is browned slightly.  Flip again with a pancake
turner, and gently press the bubbles to force the air to spread between
the layers of the tortilla.  Finish browning this side.  Eat as soon as
possible.
    
The lower fat version is made with only 1/3 cup of shortening.  I've
cut it still lower and use olive oil instead of Crisco.

-----

Of course, the other way to get them is to come over to our house
and let me cook them again.  Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Kitt.