Lavender Shortbread Sandwich Cookies

 

I wasn't much for floral flavors up until a few years ago because they reminded me of soap. My first real try was in 2015 after I made a friend who absolutely loves the flavor of lavender, and because of her I came to think there was some merit to eating things that taste like flowers, especially if the flavor is combined with something else familiar.

However, what really cemented it for me was a cookie. A few years ago during the early summer, a different friend was visiting me from Chicago and we went to a milkshake shop. They had a lavender-lemon sandwich cookie, which she promptly bought because she also loves floral flavors, and shared some with me because it was huge -- two 4 inch diameter lavender sugar cookies with lemon buttercream frosting in between. The perfect flavor of sugar coma for a warm, sunny summer day.

The milkshake shop folded later that year but the memory of that cookie stuck with me. I ended up wanting to recreate it a couple of months later. I blended two recipes, one from Imagine Childhood and the other from From Calculus to Cupcakes. I was very happy with the result and shared them with my sister Kelly because she loves good food too. She apparently gave one of the cookies to her roommate Kayla, who went absolutely wild for it. Kelly told me that ever since then, whenever she comes back from seeing me and Kayla hears we were making food, she asks (only half jokingly I'm sure) if we made these.

I love this story and think it's adorable. I found out a couple of weeks ago that Kayla's birthday is in late February, and decided to surprise her by sending Kelly home from our latest hangout session with a bunch of these cookies so that this time, the answer to "did you make lavender lemon cookies?" was "yes, and I brought you some!" :)

Someday I'm going to make these heart shaped and serve them at a tea party.

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RECIPE: 

Lavender Shortbread Sandwich Cookies
Adapted from Imagine Childhood (cookie) and From Calculus to Cupcakes (filling)
Makes about 50 sandwich cookies

Cookies

1 cup granulated sugar

3 tbsp dried culinary lavender (if it's particularly fragrant you might use less)

1 1/3 cups (about 22 tbsp) salted butter

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

Filling

2 tbsp (1/4 stick) salted butter, at room temperature

2 oz (1/4 of an 8 oz brick) cream cheese, at room temperature

2 cups confectioners’ sugar

Juice and zest of half a large lemon

Cookies: Grind the lavender and half the sugar together with a mortar and pestle, then transfer it to a mixing bowl along with the other half of the sugar. (If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, place sugar in the stand mixer bowl and add the lavender slowly, rubbing it between your fingers to break it down a little bit.) Add the butter and cream until light and fluffy, then stir in the vanilla. Add the flour, baking powder, and baking soda on top of the butter mixture, stirring slowly until well incorporated.

Shape the dough into 3 logs about 1 1/4 inches in diameter each. Wrap each log in parchment paper, and place in the freezer until it becomes hard enough to slice (20-30 min). If you're going to chill it for longer, put it in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Unwrap the dough and slice into rounds about 1/4 inch thick. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet. A standard half sheet pan will fit about 35 cookies. Bake until the bottom edges just begin to brown (8-10 minutes). After taking them out of the oven, let them stand 1-2 minutes on the pan, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. While the cookies cool, prepare filling.

Filling: Beat butter and cream cheese on medium speed until well combined. Add the lemon juice and zest and mix on low speed until incorporated. Add the powdered sugar in 2-3 additions, mixing slowly, until incorporated. Once incorporated, beat the filling until well mixed, about 1-2 minutes.

Assembly: Using a knife, spread about 2 tsp of the filling on the bottom of a cookie. Top it with another cookie of similar shape/size bottom side down (so both cookies have top sides out) and compress gently with your fingers to stick everything together.

Store in an airtight container in a single layer in the refrigerator. Keeping them cold will help the filling stay in the cookie.

Baked Spanish Tortilla

Today's adventure in cooking is brought to you by A Clean Bake and leftover roasted thyme and onion potatoes.

Spanish tortilla (tortilla española, a potato and onion omelet) is something I grew into liking. My first experience with it was parties in my high school Spanish classes. It was not made in a particularly traditional way (the onions were barely cooked and they used frozen hash brown potatoes) and maybe that's why I wasn't into it. To be fair, it would have been difficult to cook it properly in a classroom, and I think it can be difficult even with the proper equipment.

I think I finally started making it for myself when I made a vegetarian friend and wanted to cook things for her, and decided to try this out because I had all the ingredients on hand. Sometimes I doubt that it will taste good, and every time it manages to prove me wrong. Spanish tortilla may be simple, but it is most definitely good.

Notes/changes:

• Grease the baking dish well. I had trouble removing it and washing the dish afterward.
• It might sound like a lot of olive oil to you but do not be afraid. It gives a rich, satisfying flavor to the entire dish.
• I like to cook the onions until they're pretty soft rather than just translucent, because I like how sweet they get.
• I started with cooked potatoes so I didn't cook those on the stove before putting them into the oven.
• I like to sprinkle some smoked paprika on the top of the finished dish just before serving. Probably not traditional, but it's pretty and tasty.
• This goes really well with green salad for a meal.

Verdict: Baking it was a nice change, even if I had trouble getting it out of the pan. If I'm making a small serving of it I'll probably continue to cook it on the stove but this is a good way to cook a lot of it.

RECIPE: Baked Spanish Tortilla

Chicken Grape Salad

This is one of my mom's recipes. When she and my dad were married but before they had children and were living in Colorado, a woman she worked with taught her how to make this salad. I didn't like mayonnaise or creamy dressings when I was a kid but I finally tried this salad when I was in high school, and I've been in love ever since. She told me that you can sprinkle toasted sliced almonds on top, but she generally didn't when she served it at home. It's especially nice in the summer a little cold from the fridge, but it's good any time really.

My local grocery store makes this salad, and while I don't like that it's overdressed and they keep the grapes whole, I do love that they put cashew pieces in it. So now I put cashews in it too. ;) Still not sure whether I prefer the chicken cubed or shredded. I think shredded chicken helps the dressing stick a little better but I very slightly prefer the texture of cubed. Try both and decide for yourself.

Notes:
2/15/19: Admittedly I think the recipe amounts could use some adjustment. As written, it makes kind of a lot of dressing for the amount of salad ingredients. I find that if you put in too much celery it's hard to taste the sweet flavors. Try not to make the dressing too thin or it will sit at the bottom of the container instead of sticking to the ingredients. I have been working on alternatives to Miracle Whip. For this latest batch I used a mix of plain Greek yogurt and Kewpie mayonnaise, because it's what I had and I thought straight regular mayonnaise might be too heavy. It worked all right but I think I needed to add a little more sugar and lemon because it was lacking the tang that Miracle Whip adds. I was using a particularly crappy brand of bottled lemon juice which didn't help.

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RECIPE:

Chicken Grape Salad

Salad:
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast

1 tsp olive or canola oil
1/8 tsp garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste
¾ lb red grapes, washed
2 stalks celery

Dressing:
¾ cup Miracle Whip
1 tbsp lemon juice (fresh is best but bottled will do)
1 tbsp sugar, or to taste
¼ to 1/3 cup milk

Garnish (optional):
Sliced almonds or cashew pieces, toasted

Preheat oven to 375°F. Rub oil on chicken pieces and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Bake until interior is no longer pink, about 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool enough to handle. While the chicken cools, chop celery into small pieces and cut each grape in half. Place celery and grapes in a large bowl. You can also prepare the dressing if you need more time for the chicken to cool.

For dressing: place Miracle Whip, lemon juice, and sugar in small bowl and mix with wire whisk until just combined. Add milk a little at a time until desired consistency. Set aside until ready to use.

When chicken is cooled, cut into bite size pieces or shred with a fork, and add to the bowl with the celery and grapes. Pour dressing over the salad ingredients and mix gently to coat. This tastes best when refrigerated for several hours before eating. Sprinkle with slivered almonds, if desired. Sprinkle toasted almond slices or cashew pieces immediately before serving, if desired.

Sunken Sour Cherry Cake

Our friends invited us to dinner at their house tonight, and asked us to bring dessert because they get really excited about what I make (always a great feeling). The weather was not that great, so I set to work finding a recipe I could make with what I already had, with the added challenge to make it nut free because one of their children is very allergic to peanuts. I started looking through my backlog of recipes to try, and found Not Quite Nigella's Sunken Sour Cherry Cake. I remembered I had a container of frozen sour cherries, and once I verified that I had enough to make the cake I got to work. I made it nearly exactly as written. I used a pound of frozen cherries in juice (hooray for sour cherries being a local crop for me!). The only thing I did differently was add both vanilla and rum.

I realize this is a German/European recipe where cakes tend to be less sweet and perhaps more dry than Americans might be used to. The cake was a good amount of sweet for me, but seemed a bit dry and didn't taste enough like cherries for my liking. Eating it with whipped cream was nice, but my favorite idea was reducing the sweetened juice the cherries were packed in, poking holes in the top of the cake, and spooning it over the cake just before eating it. A combination of whipped cream and this syrup would be especially tasty I think. I also think it goes incredibly well eaten alongside a cup of coffee or tea. The texture reminded me of an American coffee cake.

If I make this again, I would use fresh cherries and put more cherries in (frozen cherries likely had less moisture since I had to drain them) and maybe mix the cinnamon sugar into the cake batter.

RECIPE: Sunken Sour Cherry Cake

Carnitas (Mexican Braised Pork)

Today's adventure in cooking is brought to you by The Homesick Texan!

My oldest brother introduced this recipe to me when he made it for one of our family gatherings at Christmas. I have made it a couple of times since then, both with my family and on my own. This latest iteration was made while hiding from the insane cold the polar vortex brought this winter. Sounded like the perfect thing to make when it's absolutely frigid outside.

I like to keep it very neutrally flavored so that I can use it for a variety of things. You can put it in any Mexican or Tex-Mex dish that calls for carnitas. You can put barbecue sauce on it and eat it in a sandwich. I've put it in ramen (though I'm not sure everyone would like that).

RECIPE: Carnitas, Houston Style

Roast Pork Loin with Balsamic, Dijon, and Thyme

Today's adventure in cooking is brought to you by Kitchen Confidante! I tried out this recipe because I had fresh thyme to use up, and wanted to make something a little special to welcome my husband home from a trip but also not have to go to the store because the weather was supposed to be awful.

I think the marinade was supposed to turn out a little thicker than mine did. I think it was because I used jarred minced garlic instead of fresh and perhaps a little too much oil or vinegar (I eyeballed things rather than measuring exactly). The only thing I did differently was not sear it before roasting it in the oven. I thought searing it after marinating was kind of an odd choice, technically speaking. Plus, the last time I tried to sear a marinated pork loin, the marinade on it burned and I had a hell of a time cleaning the pan. (It had a significant amount of sugar in it which probably didn't help, and this recipe seems to have less but the searing after marinating idea still seems strange to me.)

I served it with oven roasted potatoes (with thyme and onion) and steamed broccoli, and we cooked and reduced the marinade to serve as a sauce, which was pretty salty and garlicky.

Personal verdict: It was good but not exceptional -- I wouldn't go out of my way to make it again. Still searching for a go-to pork loin preparation. Pork tenderloins seem to be far too easy to eat too much of but I think it's because they're inherently appealing, like you could put just about anything on it and it would taste good. My favorite so far was a garlic parmesan pork tenderloin I had at a Brazilian rodizio grill. If I could find a good recipe for that...

RECIPE: Roast Pork Loin with Balsamic, Dijon, and Thyme

Quiche, Infinitely Adaptable

My mother-in-law does not cook from scratch very often but even she has influenced my cooking. She got me into making quiche. She made one on a Sunday morning while she was visiting. My attempts up to the point I had hers were really time consuming and didn't taste all that great, so I was convinced I didn't like quiche. Turns out I was just making it a lot harder than it needed to be. While she used store bought pie crust, hers didn't have boatloads of cream as I assumed quiche needed to have (a pleasant surprise since I don't like adding milk or cream to my scrambled eggs), and it came together quickly and tasted great, especially for how little time was spent on it.

Sure enough, a few weeks after her visit, I got a hankering for quiche. I still wanted to make my own crust but didn't want to make my standard pie crust. I found this quick one with ingredients I already had that you press into the pan instead of rolling it out, and added some ham, vegetables, and cheese I had kicking around my fridge. Again, it was easy and tasty. I make these regularly now because they're so adaptable and great for a meal any time of the day, and they're a great meal to clean out the fridge (especially during CSA season, haha). My recipe is below.

The quiche pictured above contains (cooked) bacon, chopped spinach  (frozen, thawed and drained well), sauteed yellow onion, scallions, and goat cheese.

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RECIPE:

Quiche, Infinitely Adaptable

Crust:
1 cup (115g) all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup (50g) olive oil or canola oil
1/4 cup (53g) very cold water

Preheat oven to 400°F. Place flour and salt in a bowl and mix briefly with a fork to combine. Make a well in the center of the flour. Pour oil and water into the well. Mix the oil and the water briefly, then gradually incorporate the flour and salt. Press into a 9-inch (23 cm) diameter pie plate. Bake for about 5-7 minutes until the surface begins to dry out a bit. Let cool while you prepare the filling.

Filling:
7-8 large eggs
A total of 4-5 cups fillings of your choice, chopped into bite size pieces*
Salt and black pepper to taste

*Suggested fillings: ham, cooked bacon, sausage, spinach, kale, broccoli, mushrooms, sauteed onions, scallions, bell peppers, tomatoes, grated/crumbled/cubed cheese that melts and isn't too strongly flavored (Swiss, cheddar, chevre, Gouda, feta), fresh herbs (parsley, chives), red pepper flakes. If you would usually cook the ingredient before adding it to your eggs, cook it before adding to the quiche filling mixture. If using frozen vegetables, thaw and squeeze as much water as you can out of them first (especially important with leafy vegetables like spinach). If the ingredients are especially salty (like feta cheese), you may not need to add any salt to the filling mixture. If using grated cheese, save some to sprinkle over the top of the filling so that it gets browned and crunchy, yum.

Crack eggs into a bowl and beat lightly, until just mixed. Add fillings, salt, and pepper to the bowl and mix gently to combine. Pour filling mixture into the parbaked crust and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the center is no longer wobbly and almost no liquid comes out when a knife is inserted and removed from the center. Let cool for 10-15 minutes. Serve warm, with a shake or two of hot sauce if desired. Leftovers can be refrigerated.