December 02, 2010

Dinner Tonight - December 2nd and Christmas Cookies

Last night I caved and we had pancakes.  I'll save the cornmeal waffles for next Wednesday as it appears Wednesdays will be breakfast for dinner nights.

Tonight we are having spaghetti with meat sauce - my choice.  I took two loaves of cuban bread out of the oven a couple of minutes ago and these will be wonderful with a little butter on each slice.  We will be having a tossed salad of romaine lettuce, leaf lettuce, red and yellow peppers, red cabbage, carrots and a little onion. 

I don't have anything planned for dessert tonight as I need to bake some Christmas cookies for my husband to take to work tomorrow.  Each employee is to provide 2 dozen cookies for a customer appreciation time in the afternoon. I will be sure to bake a few extras for all of us to snack on later.  I am going to make thumbprint cookies with homemade strawberry jam in the center. 

Here is my recipe for Thumbprint cookies which I will be doubling.  This recipe was given to me by my 7th grade Home Economics teacher back in 1971.  Everytime I make these I think of her.

1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg, separated
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup finely chopped nuts

Cream the butter, shortening and the sugar.  Add the egg yolk.  Stir in the vanilla, flour and salt.  Shape dough into 1 inch balls.  Dip the cookie balls in the egg white and roll in the nuts.  Place on a parchment lined baking sheet.  Make an indentation in the center with your thumb.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.  When cool, fill the center with jam or make an icing from confectioner's sugar, vanilla and some milk.  Tint with food coloring and then pour some of the icing in the centers of the cookies.  Another variation is to eliminate dipping the cookie balls into egg white and nuts and instead leave them plain, press a thumbprint in the center and bake.  Then fill with jam and drizzle a little confectioner sugar icing over the tops.  This is a good alternative when nuts are expensive. 

1 comment:

Maureen said...

We had no Home E.c class where I went to school, I wonder if I would have enjoyed baking more if I had learned it at an early age ??

Tonight we are having Turkey Burgers, mash and a veg hav,nt made up my mind which one.