Vanilla Snowflakes

 

This is a pretty cut-out cookie that you can decorate in a snowflake pattern very easily. You can use any cookie cutter and let your creative side come out to play! 

Makes about 3.5 Dozen cookies - it depends what size you cut them. 

Ingredients:

3/4 c. Butter

3/4 c. Sugar

1 egg

1 Tablespoon Vanilla extract

2 c. Flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda

1/2 teaspoon Cream of Tartar (See P.S.)

P.S. If you don't have Cream of Tartar, you can use 1.5 teaspoons of Baking Powder in lieu of the baking soda & Cream of Tartar

Royal Icing to decorate  (See link below)

https://whats4dinnerbymarie.blogspot.com/2020/12/royal-icing.html

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350*

Cream softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg, vanilla, salt, baking soda and cream of tartar. Mix well. Add flour slowly and continue to mix until homogenized. 

The dough will be soft, so refrigerate for an hour before trying to roll it out. After an hour, I rolled out 1/2 of the dough at a time, leaving the other half in the fridge to stay cold. You can gather scraps and re-roll, but give them a little time back in the fridge to stiffen up. 

Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness, on a well floured surface.  Dip your cookie cutter into flour before cutting the dough. Place cookies on parchment lined cookie sheet with an inch between. Allow cookies to rest in the fridge for 15 or so before baking. Bake 10-12 minutes, until edges start to brown. 

Cool completely before storing or decorating. 

I started rolling out on parchment, 

but working directly on the counter worked better. 

Just use enough flour. 

The cut out cookies need to rest in the fridge for a time before baking. I stacked them in there on sheets of parchment that I just slid onto the cookie sheet before popping into the oven. 

After baking, I slid the parchment off the cookie sheet and onto the counter to cool. That way you don't have to handle soft cookies before they cool and you can immediately use the cookie sheet again. 

The next day, I decorated with Royal Icing sprinkled with sugar, as well as some colorful sprinkles I have. It was a nice variety of color and textures. 

Sparkly Sanding Sugar

Sparkling sugar and nonpareils.

I had leftover Royal Icing, so I made some little colorful candies to add to the cookie plates I give away. I don't like to waste anything. 

The round button candies were much easier to lift from the parchment than the thin designs. I really liked the snowflakes, though. 

They turned out really cute!

Ready to store before plating out for friends and neighbors. 

The candy buttons.

The thicker designs worked out well. 

The thin ones broke when I tried to lift them off the paper. 

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

************************

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!

Garlicky Baked Asparagus

A great side dish for a holiday meal.

Fresh Asparagus
Butter
Pepper
Garlic
**************

Wash and trim your asparagus. Lay into a double thick layer of foil. Add pats of butter on top, wipe on your fresh garlic. Sprinkle with pepper and seal tight. At this point, you can put this into the fridge and hold for baking later. You could even do this the night before, if you know that your time will be tight during the rush of the meal preparation.

Put the package, on a baking dish, into the oven at 325 - 350 degrees for about an hour.

Simple.

 

Nice fresh garlic should look crisp and fresh. Make sure they aren't dry looking. They should be firm and not limp.

Cut the ends off. You can also peel them with a vegetable peeler if they aren't very long. Always trim the very end, though. Don't cook the dry, woody stems.

All trimmed up. Laid into the doubled foil.

Half a stick of butter, softened. I spread it around with a butter knife.

Ready the garlic. I used a few large cloves.

I love my garlic press. :)

Sprinkle with pepper.

Seal tightly. Otherwise, you'll have butter running all over. The foil packet should be held in a small baking dish. This will allow you to carry the packet easily and it will catch any leaking garlicky butter.

Ready to go into the oven.

I have about an hour till dinner. Turkey comes out in 30 minutes. Crescents go in after the turkey comes out. Asparagus will stay in till everything is done.

Doesn't THAT look good?! Smells delish.