Archive for the Category ◊ Food & Recipes ◊

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• Sunday, November 06th, 2011

Pea & Mint Pesto CrostiniMy mom gave me this recipe last year before Thanksgiving.  I had it on my list for appetizers, but somehow it never was made.  I finally made it tonight, and it’s very good, very inexpensive, and very VERY quick.

Pea & Mint Pesto Crostini

(Takes approx. 10-15 min, makes approx 16-18 pieces)

Pesto:
1 (10 oz) package of frozen peas,
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 garlic clove
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/3 cup olive oil

Crostini
long baguette (or bread of choice), cut into 1/2 inch thick slices
1/3 cup olive oil

Garnish
8 cherry tomatoes, halved or 1 small tomato, diced

Brush bread with olive oil and bake in oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes (or until lightly golden).

While bread is in the oven, combine peas, cheese, mint, salt & pepper in food processor and blend until peas are puréed. Slowly pour in olive oil while continuing to blend.

Spread small dollop of pesto on each piece of bread and finish with tomatoes.

Leftover pesto can be refrigerated up to 4 days.

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• Thursday, May 19th, 2011

2011 Veg #1A couple weeks ago, Erich and I headed to the University of Rhode Island’s East Farm for its fantastic spring fair. It’s a big day of celebrating plants, organic living, and all things Spring.  This year was also one of the few that had beautiful weather (it’s usually as rainy and muddy as the weather we’re seeing this week in New England), so the place was a madhouse.  By the time we arrived at 10:30 in the morning, a lot of the plants for sale from the master growers program at the university were well-picked over.  I had to supplement my purchases with those from the 3rd party farms and growers that also attend the event.  For less than $100, I bought all you see in the wheelie truck here, plus some that we had to carry in flats because the wheelie’s full.

The URI Spring Fair is a great event.  The university has an agricultural program, and the master growers program starts seedlings in the greenhouses in February.  Come early May (usually Mother’s Day Weekend), they sell everything off for program funding.  A good portion of the plants are vegetable seedlings – and they specialize in heirloom varieties and ones specifically grown for our New England gardens.

The amount I’ll save on fresh produce this summer, if all goes well, will be astounding.  And – AND – it’s fresh from my own backyard.  So I’ll know what chemicals will be in them (um… none).  We have a large growing bed style garden, supplemented by some rows this year and my beloved Earth Boxes, which can turn any patio into a garden.

I’ve been meaning to get a picture of the garden that’s planted, but our weather over the past several days has been downright miserable.  Soggy and foggy and cold.   I’m running out of dry shoes for work, so TGIF tomorrow will be for many reasons.  I’m looking forward to going barefoot in the house all weekend!

2011 Veg #2For this week’s Thursday Thirteen, here are Thirteen Things I’ve Planted in the Garden This Spring.

1. Tomatoes – Easy to grow, so cost effective if you have good soil and good light.  We have ten separate vines this year and a mix of types.  Three are complete mysteries – they had no labels on them.  I make sauce from scratch every year, which requires a TON of tomatoes.  I also love just picking and eating them right from the vine.

2.  Peppers – Again, super easy to grow. I grow both bells and hot peppers.  This year we’ll be swimming in hots, as a six-pack of seedlings I thought were bells are actually hot peppers (whoops!).

3.  Cabbage - Last year I grew only green cabbage, as it was a new crop to me.  This year I have both red and green varieties.  I’m hoping to learn how to make sauerkraut this summer.  We’re also huge corned beef & cabbage fans.

4.  Corn – I’ve never grown corn before, although I remember my parents growing it in our backyard garden when I was little.  It’s one of my experimental crops this year.  You can see the baby corn plants in the second photo – about centered on the page.  Funny to think they’ll get taller than me by the end of summer!

5. Butternut Squash – Another new crop for me, but we did large vining plants last year with watermelon, so I’m prepared.  We’ve bought an A-Frame to grow them up rather than across the ground.  I love squash, especially as the leaves start turning in the autumn, and I can’t wait to play around with cooking with them this year.

6.  Lettuce – Last year was our first with lettuce, and we marveled at how stupid easy it is to grow… and how incredibly productive it is.  We literally couldn’t keep up with it! There’s nothing like popping out to the garden to get enough leaves to make the salad of the day.  No bitter tastes, no brown edges.  Just fresh lettuce for late spring through mid summer.

7.  Cucumbers – the cukes grow on a lean-to trellis over the lettuce in our garden.  Between sliced in salads, dill-cuke salad like my mom used to make, or making insta-pickles (take one recently finished jar of pickes from the store, slice your own and put into the leftover brine, then refrigerate for a couple days), they’re a staple of the garden every year.  I’m hoping to make my own pickles from scratch later this summer.  Not insta-ones.  Actual long-storing ones.

8.  Beans – I have pole beans in the garden this year.  I’ve never grown them, but remember them from my mom’s garden.  Looking forward to side dishes – the one I recall from my youth was a simple steam and blend with almonds and a very light butter sauce.  Yum.

9.  Peas – Last year, my peas were fried early by a weird heat wave in May that sent temps soaring into the upper 90s.  I’m hoping this year I have better luck with them.  I love picking and eating peas as a snack right from the garden.  Honestly, that’s how I eat them – no cooking required.

10.  Onions – I have a couple of basic yellows, some Walla Wallas, and an Egyptian Walking Onion (for the novelty on that last one, really) in my garden this year.  Just add tomatoes, the hot peppers, and some of the herbs – and I have salsa.  I confess that most of my onions just come from the store, though.  Onions are one of my play-plantings to indulge in my inner “ooh, what can I grow?!?” child who needs a science experiment.

11.  Carrots – They’re not particularly cost-effective to grow, but I love seeing carrot tops in the garden.  There’s something about the frilly, fringey leaves I just adore seeing in a vegetable garden.  Again – it’s a play planting more than anything.  But we do get some useable carrots.  (and some that are a bit…ahem… pornographic in shape to giggle about as we dig them up).

12.  Tomatillo – This is a new one for me.  I bought one of them out of curiosity this year, and to use for different salsas or to just grill for side dishes in the summer BBQs.  Very excited to see how it turns out.

13.  Herbs – I have tons of herbs.  I love growing them, just for the fun of having a plant box of them.  My perennial herb garden has spearmint, lemon balm, oregano, English thyme, common thyme, sage, and lavender growing in it.  I’m naturalizing garlic chives in the grass this year to fill in the bare spots (taking after my grandmother).  I’m also adding normal chives – the ones that get those fun purple poms on top when they bloom – into my side beds as a part-decorative, part-useable plant.  And as I do every year, I fill in the herbs that don’t survive our New England winters – basil, dill, and rosemary.  I’ve also bought one labelled “curry” this year (which smells exactly as it’s labelled… yum!) and seeds for chamomile, which I’m honestly buying for the flowers’ visual appeal more than the use for tea.

I cannot wait to start harvesting this summer!

 

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• Thursday, August 19th, 2010

Yes, we have some tomatoesToday’s harvest…

I think we’re good on the tomato front!  I have a pot of homemade sauce on the stove right now.  I will be making fresh salsa tomorrow evening for our Dungeons & Dragons game this weekend, and there is some mozzarella cheese to make salads.

And we’re nowhere near done with the harvesting for the season, either.

We have nine different tomatoes growing in our garden – all are heirloom.  Three roma/paste tomatoes, three slicing, and three beefsteak.  Colors range literally from white to black.

Right now, it seems that the romas and the white beefsteaks (which interestingly start turning to blush… probably some cross-pollenation going on) are prolific.  I also have some lovely persimmon tomatoes in this batch (those would be the orange ones in the orange bowl on the left).

I think I need some more tomato recipes!  Anyone have some good ones to share?  I figure we’ll make some kebabs, too.  But I definitely need to use up a LOT.

Tonight’s sauce recipe:

Ingredients
1 1/2 lbs ground beef
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced ( to taste)
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon italian seasoning
1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
ground pepper
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
2 (16 ounce) cans tomato sauce (can create from paste – 3/4 cup paste plus 1 cup water is the dilution)
1 (28 ounce) cans diced tomatoes (or equivalent fresh)
1 cup of red wine (I prefer Merlot, but any works… this is optional and to taste)
8 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced and sauteed in butter
parmesan cheese, freshly grated
 
Directions
  1. Brown the ground beef, onion and garlic in olive oil with bay leaves, oregano, basil, Italian Seasoning, salt and pepper.
  2. Add tomato paste, tomato sauce and diced tomatoes, any other veggies you’re adding and the wine.
  3. Stir well and bring to a simmer over medium heat.
  4. Cover and simmer for 90 minutes.
  5. Use sauce to top your cooked pasta.
  6. Top with sauteed mushroom.
  7. Pass the Parmesan.

Note:  I have exchanged the ground beef for italian sausage in the past – which is FANTASTIC.  Also great for adding green pepper or other “chunky” sauce items.  We added 3 small jalepeno peppers from the garden for this batch, and they worked great for some added spice. 

I keep this as the rough balance, but I tinker every time with it.  I don’t add sugar – I firmly believe in allowing natural tomato sweetness/tartness to dictate the sauce, but if you need it – feel free.

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• Tuesday, June 01st, 2010

This is what I’m making tonight for my office bake sale tomorrow.  The bread is JUST sweet enough without being overpowering.  Great for breakfast or brunch, but really… it’s yummy bread.  You can eat it anytime. And of course, with the berries coming into season, now’s the time to go nuts with it.

This recipe makes enough to fill one loaf pan.  The dough is very sticky, so use a hand or stand mixer to blend things.

The original recipe calls for the walnuts, but I’ll be honest – I don’t use them.

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar (use if you want a sweeter bread)
2 eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups strawberries, fresh & coarsely chopped (do NOT use frozen) OR fresh blueberries (whole)
3/4 cup walnuts (optional)

Directions

  1. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; set aside.
  2. In small bowl, beat butter until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beat 1 minute or until light and airy. Add brown sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Beat in sour cream and vanilla.
  3. Stir into flour mixture only until dry ingredients are moistened.
  4. Fold in strawberries and nuts.
  5. Pour into a greased 8 x 4 inch loaf pan.
  6. Bake at 350°F for 60 to 65 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
  7. Let stand 10 minutes in pan.
  8. Turn out on rack to cool.

Supposedly serves 10 – but really, no.  It doesn’t go that far.  :)

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    • Monday, March 15th, 2010

    For Emily… who’s looking for a good recipe. :)

    Cream Cheese Baked Mashed Potatoes

    This is a basic recipe – and fun to play with. I’ve mixed in garlic, other cheese, chives, etc. with this, and it all comes out wonderful.

    5 lb bag yukon gold potatoes
    8 ounces cream cheese
    8 ounces sour cream
    1/2 cup milk
    2 teaspoons onion salt
    1/2 teaspoon black pepper
    paprika (optional)

    1) Peel and cut the potatoes into large cubes and boil in salted water until tender. Meanwhile, beat the cream cheese, then stir in the sour cream, milk and spices.

    2) Drain and mash the potatoes in the pot, then stir in the cream cheese mixture.

    3) Spoon into a casserole dish or a 9×13 pan. Dust top with paprika. Note: You may cover it and refrigerate for 24 hours, or proceed to baking right away.

    4) Bake covered with foil at 350 for 45 min. Increase the time if the dish has been chilled.

    Additional Notes:
    a) You CAN serve these without baking them. They just seem to come out extra soft if you do the additional step.

    b) My family likes a lot of garlic, so I generally add the minced equivalent of 9-12 cloves to the pan when I make them.  I generally do some liberal shaking of pepper, too (often Jane’s Crazy Mixed Up Pepper).

    c) Feel free to substitute less-fat or fat-free for the cream cheese or sour cream. I generally buy the store brand Neufchâtel cheese for the cream cheese, which is the lower fat alternative). I’m a high-test traditionalist with sour cream, though.

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    • Thursday, December 17th, 2009

    With the cold weather outside and a need to have an easy to make dinner, I decided to grab what ingredients I could remember off-hand for the Turkey Tortilla Soup I made after Thanksgiving. Only this time I wanted to try making it a bit fuller-bodied.

    The variation tonight turned out great. As planned last time, I doubled the batch. I also used chicken thighs instead of turkey since it was cheaper at the store. :)

    2 medium onions, chopped
    3 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped
    2 stalks celery, chopped
    8 cans chicken broth
    2 pounds chicken, shredded or cubed into small bits.
    2 large tomato, chopped
    1/2 – 1 cup frozen peas or corn
    8 oz fusilli pasta
    4 tablespoons lime juice

    1) [skip this step if using leftover chicken] Spray skillet with olive oil and cook cubed chicken until cooked through. Set aside.
    2) Spray bottom of large stockpot with olive oil. Saute the onions, celery & chilis until tender, but not brown.
    3) Add broth, chicken, noodles, and peas. Cover and simmer for 40 minutes. Add additional time if needed until pasta is soft.
    4) Add tomato. Simmer 5 more minutes. Stir in the lime juice.
    5) Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.
    6) Ladle into bowls and serve hot.

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    • Sunday, November 29th, 2009

    So now that we’re a few days past Thanksgiving and the full T-day plate of turkey and sides is getting old, it’s time to start using the leftovers in different ways. We have TONS of turkey, so I’ll be working through a few of these by Wednesday.

    Today’s soup sounded just meh to me, but I know that Erich loves the chicken tortilla soup from Au Bon Pain, so I figured I’d try one.

    I found this on Recipezaar to use with Thanksgiving turkey leftovers. Very quick (30 minutes!!!) and stupidly easy to make. It has just a slight sweet spicy kick with surprisingly robust flavor for such a simple soup.

    The recipe stated that this was four servings, but all was used up in our house between three bowls. I’d recommend doubling it, once you know if you like it.

    I was lazy and didn’t do the tortilla browning – we just crumbled tortilla chips over it. :)

    2 corn tortillas, cut into 2×1/2 inch pieces
    1 medium onion, chopped (approx 1/3 cup)
    2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped (approx. 1/4 cup)
    4 cups low sodium chicken broth (2 cans work fine)
    1 cup shredded turkey or chicken
    1 large tomato, chopped
    2 tablespoons lime juice
    4 slices lime (garnish – optional)

    1) Spray a skillet with light olive oil and fry the tortilla strips until brown & crisp. Drain on paper towel.

    2) Spray pan again and saute the onions & chilis until tender, but not brown.

    3) Add broth and turkey/chicken. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

    4) Add tomato. Simmer 5 more minutes. Stir in the lime juice.

    5) Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.

    6) Ladle into bowls. Add tortilla chips and garnish with a slice of lime.

    Personal notes:

    I’ll be experimenting next time with adding some chopped celery and possibly more jalapenos. It may be good as a slightly spicy turkey noodle soup, too.

    Enjoy!

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    • Sunday, March 23rd, 2008

    Blessed Ostara, Purim, and Easter to those who celebrated this weekend.

    My weekend was celebrating food in all of its forms – St. Patrick’s Day, Belated was the closest we came to celebrating any real holiday. And we did well, I think.

    I was released from work at 3 p.m. on Friday, and since the schedules are screwy for the mid-afternoon MBTA trains, I bought an Amtrak ticket, then caught the RIPTA bus home… where I found scuba_mo hanging out in his car in front of our house because he didn’t have a key (I may have to solve that little issue shortly…)

    Erich got home at his normal time. whishastar arrived a couple hours later, and we had a relaxing night of watching Torchwood, goofing off, and hanging out.

    Saturday will forever be known as The Day Mel Cooked A Lot – I started with fresh scones to start the morning, served with clotted cream (woots! I found it!) and a choice of either blueberry or black cherry jam. The entire batch of scones disappeared quickly – and everyone liked the clotted cream… it will become a common thing in our household, I think! While we ate and had the morning coffee rounds, we caught whishastar up on some episodes of X-Files.

    Around noon, we headed out to do a little shopping – first to Newbury Comics (where almost all of the Who action figures are on sale, I might add). I bought my regeneration set, so I now have Doc Nine and Doc Ten in the black leather. :) (Erich promptly started putting them in gay sex poses on the table when the package was opened at home, the brat!)

    Bought issue #2 of the Who comic. Then went to pick up the final couple things I needed for dinner at the next door supermarket. We ate lunch, and then went over to Best Buy, where I bought a very spiffy and probably way too expensive backpack (after tax, $100) for commuting – my current one is starting to rip apart a bit, has a hole starting in the base, and most importantly… is sadly smelling a bit of cat pee despite having put it through the wash. So, yeah – time to replace it. *sigh* The new one is quite spiffy, has pocketses for everything, and should serve me well for at least four years like my last one did.

    We then went home, and I started the big corned beef, cabbage, and veggies dinner for St. Patrick’s Day that I just couldn’t have cooked on Monday due to work. Around 6 p.m., Tone and Robin arrived, and he promptly started making the jokes that despite centuries of the Irish boiling food, it took the Polish girl to make corned beef that he liked – and continued to rave about it for the rest of the evening. :)

    It did come out very well, I have to say – took about four hours, all told… not too bad. I’ve made notes on my recipe to make sure to get the brisket next year – we had one piece of brisket and one piece of whatever the other available cut was… and the brisket was far more tender with less fat on it. I liked the multi-colored potato mix (white, red, and blue… how patriotic). Cabbage was eh… I’ll probably cut down on that next time because most people don’t eat much of it, and it really didn’t cook quickly. I adapted the mustard sauce my mom often put over carrots when we were younger – it worked great as a side sauce for whatever people wanted to use it for. :)

    We had leftovers, but honestly nowhere near what I thought we would. Six people went through about five out of the six and change pounds of corned beef. We do have enough for another dinner, though, I think.

    And I also managed to cook Monday night’s dinner while I was at it – my grandma’s kielbasa and kraut recipe. It’s definitely one of those “gets better second day” recipes… so it should be fantastic tomorrow.

    It’s cabbage week at the household de Mel – and not intentionally.

    Maybe we’ll have corned beef rubens later this week. :)

    Tone also brought an external drive… because after months of pushing him to watch Doctor Who, he finally came around via watching Torchwood (which he didn’t know upon first viewing was Who-related… hee!). He’s now NetFlixed the first two seasons of Who, but got the third from me… and I told him to get his butt down to our house for S4 on April 5th. It very well may happen.

    scuba_mo hung out for most of today. We watched a couple episodes of Blake’s 7, I did a ton (translation… about 150 stitches) on Fantasy Tryptich, filling in a couple of the horse legs.

    And now the house is quiet, and I’m off to celebrate the official 6 month mark since getting married with my husband. :)

    Back to reality tomorrow…

    vylit_rain, working on the response to your question on the meme, but it’s a difficult subject for me to get into words… so it may take a while…

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    • Wednesday, November 21st, 2007

    … which is different than stuffing in that it’s not edible. Mostly.

    First – safe and happy travels & happy feasting for all celebrating Thanksgiving this week. :)

    Traffic was wonderfully light between Providence and Boston today coming in. I had to make the drive because my company is extremely generous and wonderful and bought us fresh turkeys for tomorrow’s feast. And well – just picture me lugging a 20-24 lb. turkey on the MBTA.

    Yeah… amusing, isn’t it? And a tad weird and stupid.

    So I threw a keg tub into the car (since it is a fresh turkey, and I don’t know what the packaging is going to be like getting it home…), headed on up – got here somewhere in the 70-80 minute range, which is QUITE good for rush hour. I parked next door, since the mudlots are all torn up and have limited parking at the mo’.

    And at some point in the next couple hours, they’ll start passing out turkeys. I’ll get the car out of hock, swing it around the building, pick up said turkey, go over to my post office box that hasn’t been checked in months, get whatever mail is piled there, and start the 50+ mile trek back home.

    Traffic may be interesting this afternoon… hopefully not too bad, but it is I-95. You never know.

    My afternoon/evening will be spent thusly:

    1) Cooking the brine for my turkey
    2) Finishing up my beta read on fic – getting that back to the author
    3) Getting a tablecloth & napkins for tomorrow’s feast (I don’t have enough with any of my sets and they’re the wrong table shape)
    4) Tidying up the house for tomorrow.
    5) Getting turkey into the brine sometime 10-ish so it can soak overnight.

    And if anyone’s looking for recipes, here’s the batch of ones I’m making:

    YUMMY FOOD BEHIND THE CUT

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    • Friday, December 09th, 2005

    It’s snowy. It’s Christmas-ey. My beautiful, rarely used Kitchen-Aid Mixer calls for the annual CookieFest. This Saturday, I bake.

    Oh yes, I will bake. In my own kitchen.

    *rubs hands together excitedly*

    Tomorrow’s baking treasures will include the following:

    Michelle’s intriguing Apple Caramel cookies

    My modified Neiman Marcus cookie recipe (yes, I’ve actually made the cookies from that damn forward)

    Some basic, good ol’ Nestle Toll House cookies (with added holiday shapes in the bag)

    The two recipes not Nestle related—

    Chewy Caramel Apple Cookies (by Michelle)

    1 cup butter, softened
    1 cup packed light brown sugar
    1/2 cup sugar
    2 eggs
    3 tbsp apple cider
    1-1/2 cup flour
    1-1/2 cup quaker quick-cook oats
    1/2 tsp baking soda
    1 tsp salt
    1 cup packed dried apple rings
    30 caramel candies

    Unwrap caramels and quarter. Measure out apples– pack as tightly as possible in measuring cup. Then chop into small bits.

    Preheat oven to 350 deg. F.

    In mixer, combine butter and sugars and blend until creamed. Add eggs, one at a time, mix gently. Add cider.

    In separate bowl, combine flour, soda, salt, and oats. Slowly add to sugar mixture, blending well. Once mixed well, add apples and caramels. Stir until well mixed.

    Drop by rounded tablespoon-full onto a non-stick or well-greased cookie sheet. Leave at least one inch between dough balls.

    Bake for 15 minutes or until golden. Let set on cookie sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

    —–

    Modified “Neiman Marcus” cookie recipe (by Measi)

    ** note– this makes a ton of cookies. If not making for a party or a group of male gamer geeks, I highly recommend halving.

    2 cups butter, softened
    4 cups flour
    2 tsp baking soda
    2 cups sugar
    5 cups Quaker oats, blended
    24 oz. chocolate chips
    2 cups packed brown sugar
    1 tsp salt
    4 eggs
    2 tsp baking powder
    2 tsp vanilla
    3 cups chopped nuts (optional)

    Preheat oven to 375 deg. F.

    Using food processor, blend oats into a fine powder. Set aside in bowl.

    Using mixer, combine and cream butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix together well.

    In separate bowl, combine flour, oats, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.

    Slowly cobmine sugar mixture with dry ingredients. Mix well at low speed.

    Add chocolate chips (and nuts, if desired).

    Roll into 1″ balls and place on parchment paper-covered cookie sheet (or non-stick). Place balls 2″ apart on sheet.

    Bake 10 minutes, or until golden. Cool on racks. Makes 80-100 cookies.

    —-

    Anyone else have cookie recipes to share? :)

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