Vanilla Lemon Crescents

Yesterday evening, my sister, my brother-in-law’s two sisters, and I got together in my apartment for a cookie swap. I lit all my candle sticks and tea lights, dusted off a bottle of red wine, and welcomed the ladies into my humble home. It was very warm. We exchanged a wide range of cookies, a feat we were happy to reach because no communication transpired about who was baking what. There were gingerbread cookies, Christmas sugar cookies, peanut butter chocolate oat cookies, and vanilla lemon crescents.

I baked the vanilla lemon crescents. Now, this recipe is 1 part Magnolia Bakery’s recipe for almond crescents, 1 part Taste of Home’s recipe for vanilla crescents, and 1 part my alterations. I suppose if you want to make what you have in your mind, you’re going to have to make some executive decisions on the fly (and maybe call your mother when everything is mixed and tell her how you are holding the dough over the trash can because it doesn’t look right). 

For these delicious cookies, see the following:

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup powdered sugar, divided

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 lemon (zest the entire lemon)

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts

1. Preheat the oven to 370 degrees
2. Cream butter and 1/2 cup powdered sugar
3. Beat in vanilla and 3/4 of the lemon zest you grated
4. In a separate bowl, mix together flour and salt, then add gradually to the creamed mixture. 
5. Stir in walnuts
6. Shape spoonfuls into crescents on a baking sheet (add a bit of water to the dough to make it stickier*)
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges are lightly browned
8. While crescents are in the oven, mix in a bowl 1/2 cup powdered sugar and the rest of the lemon zest
9. When the crescents are out of the oven and still hot, place a crescent in the sugar bowl and roll it around until the cookie is covered (repeat for all cookies)
10. COOL AND ENJOY!

I hope you all enjoy this recipe. They are shortbread-y and HIGHLY addictive. 

*Special thanks to my mother for telling me to add water when the dough was crumbling every time I tried to shape it into a crescent.

O Tannenbaum

I bought my first Christmas tree a few days ago. It stands at approximately 7′ and is magnificent. Due to it’s size and the fact that it is my first solo-tree, I spent some hefty $$ on the big tree, lights, and tree stand. Since I have been feeling crafty and worrisome about my over-used card, I decided to decorate my tree with $0 (excluding some ornaments I have already had in my possession). 

First, I decided to make origami ornaments. Unfortunately, I have never been the crafty-sort so the only paper I have is in lined notebook. I decided to take a navy paper bag I’ve had from a local shop and cut it into 6″x6″ squares–the standard origami paper size (thank you, Google). 

I then found a great origami omega star ornament how-to and set off on a folding adventure. After an hour of following a video tutorial, I was on the brink of it coming together. Suddenly, my folded shape was different than the video. It was midnight and my fingers were so sore from creasing the paper-bag paper. I had failed and I couldn’t figure out why. I kept rewinding the video and going though the last few steps again, but there was this one point where the tutor lost me and I decided to give up on the shape. I went for a more attainable achievement and made three origami stars. I improvised and did one with 6″x6″ paper, one with 5″x5″, and one with 4″x4″. 

The next day, I finally got to Skype with my best friend who is currently teaching at a boarding school in Botswana. I showed her my tree and was telling her about my lack of decorations and lack of supplies. She suggested I make a popcorn chain, a suggestion I was quick to accept as I have had popcorn kernels in my cupboard for months! I ransacked my bathroom for the pocket sewing kit I have (one needle, six color options of thread). I popped a big pot of corn and began stringing. I dreadfully lacked a thimble and have the injuries to prove it. After creating a 4 foot chain, I decided it was long enough and strung it onto the tree. To my dimwitted surprise, it only wrapped around about a third of the tree. One needle lost and one needle borrowed from my sister later, I extended the chain so that it wraps around to the bottom of the tree. The chain would have benefitted from some cranberries but it is a lovely addition to the tree. 

Finally, I made some bursts out of white and red tissue paper that I had in my apartment and remembered my two ornaments from Denmark that I have had stowed away, eagerly awaiting their chance to be hung with care.

I’m very pleased with the yuletide result. Hope all are enjoying decking the halls!

Do not cook frozen chicken.

I would say I am good at cooking but really I am good at following recipes and seem to have a nice taste for choosing recipes. My mother is good at cooking in that she knows good recipes but also has the best recipes in her head. While living alone, I try my best to either mentally harness my mother’s cooking or flat-out ask her how she would make this or that. 

Commonly, when I am home at my parents’ house, I will get a call in the middle of the day from my mother telling me to take the chicken or burgers we are having for dinner out of the freezer.

I don’t have anyone to call when I am at work so today when I got home from work and decided to have chicken for dinner, I put the frozen chicken in the pan. The pan had a bit of water and oil in it. As soon as the frozen meat started sizzling, I knew I made a mistake (well, the first mistake in a slew of terrible decisions). So, I took it out of the pan and put it into my toaster oven to defrost. It sort of half-defrosted, half-cooked in the toaster oven (probably because of the setting I put the oven on). Anyway, I put it back in the pan. It started to cook pretty ok. I decided to put some Herbs de Provence on before I flipped the chicken, against my mother’s advice, “put the Herbs on after you flip.” I don’t know why I did this. I immediately knew I put too much on. The chicken was covered in the Herbs. Then I flipped the chicken. So the Herbs were cooking up nice (ok, maybe not so nice and maybe burning). About when I thought the chicken would be done, I cut it open to see if it was fully cooked (way to go, Ansley!). It wasn’t. I suddenly got flashes of me with salmonella poisoning. The only way to suppress this worry was to overcook the chicken until I was sure (80% sure) it was good to be eaten. When I decided it was well overdone, I put the chicken in a bowl (which was weird because I never eat dinner out of a bowl unless it is soup or acorn squash or something but I think I did it to just make the dinner even stranger). I ate it because I cannot continue to waste sustenance. 

Let me tell you, it turned out to be the best chicken I’ve had in a very long time*.

 

*This is a lie. It was terrible–like charred dirt chicken since the herbs were so burnt and the chicken was so well-done. Maybe one day I’ll plan dinner ahead of time and take the chicken out in the morning. This day will probably be when I have a child at home to call and tell them to take it out.