orange marmalade cookies

These cookies go fast. I love the chewy orange bits in the cookie and the tart lemony frosting. When I make them I have to give a bunch away or I end up eating them all.

Orange Marmalade cookies

1 1/3 Cups sugar

2/3 Cup butter, room temperature

2 Eggs

3/4 Cup orange marmalade

3 Cups flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

Icing

2 Cups powdered sugar

3 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp lemon zest

1. Cream together the butter and sugar.

2. Add the eggs, marmalade, flour and baking powder and beat together.

3. Preheat the oven to 375. Drop by tsps on parchment paper or greased baking sheet. Bake 8 minutes.

4. Combine the icing ingredients with a hand mixer and ice the cooled cookies.

Cucumber Crackers

Sometimes the simplest recipes get overlooked. The ones that are hardly a recipe so they don't get written down and then one day the are forgotten. Well not today!
One of our favorite snacks growing up was kind of like a tea sandwich or snack, only we are Mormon and don't drink tea or coffee. We called them cucumber crackers. I don't know what else we could have called them.

We loved them as a snack. We would have used them more often as an appetizer at parties but the cracker gets soggy if left for more than a couple minutes. We always just ate them as they were made. They were too tasty to sit around long anyway.

Cucumber Crackers

1 8 oz package cream cheese

1 pkg Italian Dressing Mix

1-2 cucumbers (peeled if the skin is waxy), sliced

Ritz crackers

1. Mix together the cream cheese and the dressing mix.

2. Spread on crackers and top with a cucumber slice.

Egg Rolls

Egg rolls are expensive. They are always and extra $1.50-$2 on top of the meal. They are so good sometimes you want another. The refrigerated or freezer ones are never as crispy as a fresh egg roll.
It took a lot of practice but I got a recipe that produces flavorful, crispy and abundant egg rolls.

Egg Rolls
1 pkg egg roll wrappers
1/2 lb Ground Pork
1 carrot, shredded
1 1/2 c Cabbage, thinly shredded
1/3 c snow peas, julienned
1 celery rib, diced small
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 ginger
1/8  Pepper
Soy sauce
sesame oil
rice wine
vegetable oil, for frying

1. Heat a skillet, add pork, garlic powder, ginger and pepper. Sauté until cooked and crumbled. Remove and set aside.

2. Reheat the skillet, add 1 T oil. Add the carrot, celery, and snow peas, season with garlic power, ginger and pepper. When softened add the cabbage.

3. Continue to saute, adding back the pork. Season with sesame oil, soy sauce and rice wine. Sauté together 1-2 minutes. set aside to cool.

4. Once cool, drain any liquid from the filling, it would make a soggier egg roll. Fill each egg roll wrapper with about 1\4 c filling. Follow the package instructions for rolling the egg roll. This usually means turning it to be a diamond. Folding the bottom over the filling. Then folding in the two sides and rolling up sealing at the top.

5. Fry in oil at 375 until crisp and golden. Remove to wire cooling rack over paper towels. Serve with sweet and sour sauce.

Dewberry Cobbler

One of the things I loved about growing in Houston Texas was the dewberries. Dewberries look like a small blackberry. They are a little less sweet than the blackberries you get at the store and the juice is more reddish. They grow wild all throughout the south.
Ever spring we watch for when the berries bloom. They are little white flowers with five petals. You know they are dewberries because they grow in clumps all along the edge of the woods where the sun reaches. We watch for the flowers to know where the large patches of berries are. They are much harder to spot when they are small and green.
When you start seeing the berries turn red, the ripe black ones are not far behind. Raven as small children out parents would take us out and brave the prickly dewberry vines to pick the berries. We loved it.
We ate them on pancakes with powdered sugar, in cereal and as homemade jam, but our favorite thing to make was dewberry cobbler.

Dewberry Cobbler

2 1/2 Cups dewberries

1/2 Cup water

2 Tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp lemon zest

1 Cup brown sugar

1 tsp Cinnamon

3/4 Cup flour

3/4 Cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

3/4 Cup milk

1/3 Cup butter

1.Place the berries in a 9x9 baking dish. You could also divide evenly between ramekins for personal sized portions.

2. Add water. Pour lemon juice and zest over berries. Spread the brown sugar on top and sprinkle with cinnamon.

3. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and milk. Mix until smooth. The batter will be thin. Pour over the berries. dot with butter and bake at 350 until the top is golden.

Bruschetta

One of the simplest things to make, this is a summer joy.

The better the tomatoes and the olive oil the better the treat. My Mom planted a garden in her backyard and the main reason for the whole thing was to keep her well supplied with fresh from the garden tomatoes and basil so she could have this for lunch or as a snack everyday. She planted so much even she couldn't eat it all. 

I caught her as she was clearing the bed at the end of the summer season and had to stop her from throwing away and entire garbage bag of basil. I was like, Aaaahhhhh! You can't throw that away, and then proceeded to make and freeze about seven batches of pesto and pesto compound butter. Please don't waste delicious garden bounty. 

Bruschetta

4 roma tomatoes

1 T olive oil, plus more for brushing

1/2 tsp kosher salt

4 fresh Basil leaves, torn or chiffinade

1/2 baguette, sliced into 1/2 inch slices

1. Toss the tomatoes, olive oil, salt and basil. Set aside.

2. Brush the baguette slices with olive oil.

3. Heat a grill or skillet. Place the bread in a single layer and toast on the gill or in the pan until golden brown in places. 

4. To serve spoon the tomato mix over the toasts and serve.

When serving these to a crowd I like to offer the toasts and tomato mix separately, letting people make them. They get soggy from the tomatoes if left to sit. As a bonus people who don't like tomatoes or kids still enjoy the toasted bread.