I have been trying to post everyday but in hindsight that seems a little ambitious. Next year I will plan ahead and have my 12 days of Christmas Cookie posts done early, save 'em up and then just add a little tidbit of yuletide snark and be done! You know, the same with Christmas cards!
Chocolate Raspberry Spritz - from the same Nestle cookbook as the Merry Spritz but with chocolate and raspberry
1 1/2 foil wrapped (3 oz) unsweetened chocolate baking bars
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/2 cup raspberry preserves (I use raspberry or blackberry jam)
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups all purpose flour
Preheat oven to 350. In small saucepan over low heat, melt chocolate and set aside.
In large mixer bowl, beat butter, sugar and salt until creamy. Blend in egg, preserves (or jam) and vanilla extract. Blend in melted chocolate. Gradually beat in flour. Place dough in cookie press fitted with desired tip. Press dough onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes until set. Let stand one minute. Remove from cookie sheets and cool.
Your good for you meal is something sort of generic but really tasty if you do it up right: Grilled Chicken Salad. Sounds lame, right? Maybe, maybe not. I season the chicken with greek seasoning then grill on the George Foreman. Slice it up and place it on top of your choice of greens. Add some (but not a lot) of mandarian orange slices, craisins and toasted almond slivers. Also a bit of crumbed goat cheese and a light raspberry vinaigrette and that is one tasty salad! (Not something you will hear me say a lot.)
Day 8 is Maple Snickerdoodles and I totally get to cheat on this one. I love maple syrup. So much so that it is pretty much the only syrup I buy anymore. Second place in the syrup hierarchy goes to Smucker's Blackberry syrup but the bastards quit selling it my area. Pretty soon I am going to have to order syrup online and for some reason that seems sad. . . . . . . I just searched and they do not sell it anywhere within a 120 mile radius of my house. Lame. So, back to maple syrup. I also love snickerdoodles or almost any cookie rolled in sugar and this one is rolled in maple sugar!!! I have not tried it but here is a link to the recipe I am going to try. Soon. Like this weekend when my minion, I mean my sister comes to visit. (Love you B!)
http://http//allrecipes.com//Recipe/ultimate-maple-snickerdoodles/Detail.aspx
I should have done a maple theme with that Pork Tenderloin with Maple Glaze but that would have made sense. So your healthy item could be a meal if you ate enough of them but is more of a side dish. Spinach Topped Tomatoes. This recipe came from my well used and loved cookbook from a school in my hometown. Back in 1995 I was a young college graduate with visions of law school in my head and a job as a customer service representative at a local insurance agency. Starting salary $12,000. Seriously. There I was, toiling away fielding calls from people who needed to either file a claim because they ran into a deer (happens a lot more than you think and should be covered by your collision coverage) or reluctantly add their teenage child to their auto policy. The owners and their kids went to this private school and came in wanting to sell the cookbooks to the employees. I think the cookbook cost about 5% of my net earnings but I was suckered into buying it anyway. Or was it $5.00? Either way it seemed like a lot to me. But I have used this cookbook so much the back page jumped ship and there seems to be more of my notetaking than the actual print.
1 pkg frozen chopped spinach
1 cup bread crumbs (sometimes I use the Progresso Italian breadcrumbs)
1 medium onion, chopped (or about 1 tsp onion powder if you are like me and like the flavor of onions without actually eating them)
2 eggs, well beaten
1 stick of butter (I do 1/4 to 1/2 a stick)
1/4 cup Romano cheese
1/2 tsp Accent (which I've yet to find so I do not use)
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp pepper
Dash of cayenne and salt
You can really use whatever seasonings you like. Switch it up. Using a colander, press the water out of the spinach. This is the worst part of this whole recipe. Mix all ingredients and put on top of a thickly sliced tomato. Arrange either on a foil-lined cookie sheet with edges or in large Pyrex dish. Sprinkle with grated mozzarella cheese (if you like) and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake for about 5 to 10 minutes then turn on the broiler to get the cheese bubbly and brown. Store leftovers in fridge. Leftovers are also good cold if you like that kind of thing.
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