Chinese Almond Cookies

 If you like Marzipan, you'll LOVE these cookies! 

These are great for Chinese New Year! 

****** Parchment Paper *****

• 1 1/3 cups almond flour, lightly packed

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes

• Pinch of salt

• 2 large eggs, divided (one is beaten for egg wash)

• 1 teaspoon almond extract

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• Thinly sliced almonds, for decoration

• Recipe makes 5-6 dozen cookies.
  

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• In your mixer, 

  Mix together the butter cubes, almond flour, and salt until mixed well. 
  
• Add  in one of the eggs and the almond extract.  Mix well.
• In a separate bowl, mix together your flour, sugar and baking soda. 
• Slowly add to your mixer, thoroughly incorporating. When the dough is complete, remove from the mixer, wrap in plastic wrap and flatten. Chill the dough at least two hours, overnight is good too. 
• Preheat your oven to 325*F. 
• Roll out balls of dough and flatter to about an inch across. Add an almond slice to the top of each. Brush with egg wash. 
• Bake for 13 to 15 minutes, until gently browned on the edges. 
• Cool on the counter or a wire rack. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.  

Start with Almond Flour

Mix together the butter cubes, almond flour, and salt until mixed well. 

Mix in just ONE of the eggs and....

...The almond extract. 

In a separate bowl, mix together your flour, sugar and baking soda. 

Add flour mixture to your butter mixture. Mix until thoroughly homogenous. 

Remove dough from your mixer and wrap in plastic wrap. 

Flatten the dough and chill in the fridge for at least two hours. 

Overnight would be fine, too.

Baking Time:

You know I love my small scoop for making uniform sized cookies. 

Leave space between. 

You can use your hand or a glass with parchment paper to flatten the cookies a bit. 

An inch or so across. Not too thin. 

Decorate the top of each cookie with a nice almond slice. 

Beat the second egg. 

Brush the top of each cookie with a bit of beaten egg. 

This will give the cookies a nice shiny finish when baked. 

Bake at 325* for 13-15 minutes, or until just lightly browned. 

Cool before removing from parchment. 

Very tasty! A special treat for Chinese New Year! 

Duck à l’Orange

Not as difficult as it sounds, just time consuming. Allow 3 hours, minimum total elapsed time.

One 5-6lb duck

S&P

1/4 cup Frozen orange juice concentrate or marmalade

2 Tablespoons Butter

2 Tablespoons Soy sauce

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Thaw duck if frozen. I leave it in the fridge for a couple days on the bottom where it's out of the way.

Preheat oven to 350*

Remove from wrapper and remove the goodies from inside, usually livers, heart, neck and sauce mix. I never use the sauce mix. It's filled with all kinds of extraneous ingredients. Yuk.

Rinse the duck, inside and out. Pull off any extra fat you find. Prick the skin thoroughly with a fork. Place on a rack in a roasting pan, and pour a couple cups of boiling water over it. This help tighten the skin. Let it sit for a minute to cook again. Lift the duck to drain water out of cavity, leaving the water in the pan. Dry the duck, inside and out. S&P inside and out and return to rack, folding neck skin underneath.

Bake for 45 minutes and remove from oven so you can flip the bird, er, I mean, turn the duck over. This way you give all the skin a chance to crisp up. So, at the end of 45 minutes, take the pan out, with your tongs lift the duck up to drain liquid from cavity into pan. Turn over, back side up. Feel free to poke it a bit more with the fork, if you'd like. It helps to release the fat from under the skin. Duck is very fatty, if you want crisp skin, the fat needs to melt away.

Put it back into the oven, bake another 45 minutes.

After the second 45 minutes, take out, flip again, poke again and back in it goes for yet, a third 45 minute baking session.

You now have about 45 minutes. Start your side dishes and get ready to finish the duck. Mix your orange sauce: 1/4 cup OJ concentrate or orange marmalade, 2T soy sauce, 2T butter. Melt in a pan and baste over duck the last 10 minutes, at which time I switch the oven from bake to broil. This just concentrates the cooking to the top, where it'll crisp up the skin and glaze the duck with the orange sauce.

My family doesn't care for stuffing so much. So, I roast without stuffing. You can stuff yours. Just realize that it will add to the baking time and you must check internal stuffing temperature to reach 165F*.

Pull off extra fat.

Poke well with a fork.

Can you see the fork holes?

Don't run out and buy one of these, but if you find a rack that is built with a V shape, it's great for keeping your bird, or meat, from rolling around in the roasting pan.

Pour the boiling water over.

Remove from rack, and dry off nicely.

Salt and Pepper, inside and out.

This is where you practice your massage techniques and no one will whine that it's too rough or too soft. ;)

Really... inside too.

I guess I shoulda put a picture in before this, but you DID remove the goodies, right?? I won't mention names, but someone I love cooked a whole Thanksgiving feast and found the giblet package at carving time. :) Hey, that only happens once! 

Please don't use the orange sauce packet that comes with the bird. For comparison's sake. I've looked at the orange sauce mix that came included with the duck. Ingredients: OJ from concentrate, water, sugar, modified corn starch, dextrose, citric acid, salt, natural flavor (of what? orange?), torula yeast, xanthan gum, sodium benzoate, caramel color, spice, extracts of paprika, onion powder.

Ok, our duck is all massaged and relaxed, warmed up with the boiling water bath and now, time to hit the sauna, er, oven. Shh, when I invited him to dinner he had no idea he WAS dinner!

350* for 45 minutes

First 45 minutes is done.

Drain out liquids.

Flipped over, breast side down. Now, back into the oven for the next 45 minutes.

Second 45 minute baking session complete. Starting to look browned and crispy. :)

Turn the duck back over, breast side up, allowing the juices to drain from the cavity, as you turn it. Feel free to poke some more. I always give extra attention to the area around the legs where there are fatty deposits. Bake in for the last 45 minutes. This is when you start your side dishes. Tonight, we are having French Bread, Wild Rice and Broccoli.

Orange sauce ingredients to melt together.

Sauce ready to baste with.

10 or 15 minutes before the end, I take the duck out and cut it in half. Turn cut side facing down. 

I don't change the temperature, but I change oven from bake to broil. 5 minutes under the broiler and then it's ready to baste with sauce which is just finishing.

Baste with orange sauce. Back under the broiler for 10 minutes. Keep watch, you don't want it to burn.

10 minutes under the broiler. Look how nice and crispy and brown! Baste it again when it comes out. :D

Use a serrated knife or kitchen scissors to cut into quarters. Some people are hungry enough to eat a half. That looks nice to serve. We just don't eat that much.

For a holiday meal, I'd add a nice healthy green salad too. But we've been nibbling dips and veggies all afternoon! :)

Broccoli, wild rice and fresh hot bread to go with. Yum!

Simple Shrimp Alfredo

For as much as you have to pay for Alfredo pasta at restaurants, it really is SO simple to make!

Heavy Cream, or Half & Half,  16 ounces

Butter -1 stick

Parmesan -2-3 cups

Shrimp -1.5 lb.

Garlic -4-5 cloves, smashed

Onion -1 large

Parsley

Pepper

Fettuccine

P.S. This is NOT a fat free recipe  <3 

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Saute garlic and onions in olive oil or butter until softened. Add Shrimp. If they are frozen, it's better to rise them in cold water to remove any excess ice. Otherwise you need to cook off the moisture and it slows things down. When shrimp are about fully cooked, which doesn't take but a few minutes, add a stick of butter, melt in. Add a pint of cream (or half-n-half), stir well. Then 2 cups of fine Parmesan. Mix well and allow to bubble gently to melt together. Give it a few minutes. If you'd like it thicker, add the third cup of cheese. If you'd like, add in cooked hot broccoli. Spoon over hot fettuccine. Feel free to sell it for $20 a dish, like they do at restaurants! LOL! 

Gather ingredients

I love my garlic press.

Garlic ready in a minute!

Onions in the pan too.

Just barely softened.

Time for the shrimp.

One stick of butter.

Into the onions and garlic. While butter is melting...

Getting the broccoli into boiling water since the sauce is almost done.

Beautiful Tomato, Garlic, Basil Fettuccine into the boiling water also.

Add cream.

And of course, the cheese!!

While it is simmering gently, I add a healthy dash of black pepper.

And parsley... Steaming broccoli in the way. LOL!

Pour broccoli out to drain so you don't add extra water to your sauce.

Yummy pasta drained.

You can add the broccoli directly to your sauce or serve it up separately. The Alfredo sauce is good on the broccoli as well as the pasta.

Enjoy!