The Nifty Foodie

Am I the only person who is shocked that Christmas just passed? I can’t believe it. Neighbors are taking down lights, and our tree looks SO empty without gifts under it. My favorite holiday is over, and crazy enough, it’s time for a new year. 2012.

Time to take the shrink wrap off of the new planner and get used to writing “2012″ on papers/emails/etc. This is just crazy.

Also crazy…sometime in 2012, my 4 year blogiversary is happening and my 3 year wedding anniversary is happening too. WHAT?

It’s a lot to look forward to, but before everyone rings in the new year, I just wanted to share with y’all the top 10 posts of 2011.

10. Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream – This was my first time making SMBC, and I swear, if you haven’t tried SMBC before, just do it. Please?

9. Pecan Pie Macarons – Gotta love macarons. These were really a huge favorite for Thanksgiving, and the star shape (which was a happy accident) made them super cute and festive!

8. Restaurant Style Queso Blanco – This is it. The ultimate queso blanco. If you’re as addicted to queso as me, you’d understand how wonderful it is to FINALLY have a recipe for this!

7. Strawberry Cream Cake – I’m actually glad I compiled this top 10, because I sort of forgot about this cake. Since it’s currently strawberry season in Louisiana, I think I MUST make this cake again. Yum!

6. Peppermint Bark Cheesecake Truffles – This is the recipe that made my year, basically. I still can’t believe I won that recipe contest, and I’ve been told by a few friends who made this that these little truffles were a hit at their holiday parties! So happy to hear that!

5. Banana Nutella “Ice Cream” – Two ingredient “ice cream”. It’s basically awesome and couldn’t be any easier. Your food processor does all the work!

4. Grilled Corn Grits – I can’t be from the South, and not have a post about grits. I promise you if you make this, your hips may never be the same again, but your taste buds will tell you it’s completely worth it!

3. Easy Pasta Salad – My first (and so far, only) vlog. I might get the courage to make one again, since you guys seemed to like it so much!

2. Cooking For Kids – The infamous post. Yup, who’da thought that a soda cupcake would get so much response from you guys (both good and bad)…yikes!

1. S’mores for a Shower – Nutella S’mores. I can see why you guys loved this one so much. I’m sort of craving s’mores right now, actually.

I hope you have a wonderful New Year with your family and friends, and thank you so much for reading The Nifty Foodie! See y’all in 2012!

I can’t believe it’s Christmas Day! This is my favorite holiday of the whole year, so of course, I had to make cookies for the occasion.

I know this is random, but I just wanted to share a local Christmas carol that just doesn’t feel like Christmas to me unless I watch this during the season. If you’ve been to NOLA (or, of course, lived in NOLA), you might have heard of a few of these things/places.

Hope you and your families have a wonderful holiday! Merry Christmas!

Christmas Vacation is my all-time favorite Christmas movie. To me, it’s not Christmas without hearing cousin Eddie say “Merry Christmas! Sh***er’s full!” or watching Aunt Bethany bring the beloved (meow mix) jello mold. I remember watching it as a child, pretty much missing half of the comedy and dirty jokes (since they went over my head), and just enjoying the funny family bloopers. However, it makes me laugh that my mom let me watch that movie every year as a child, especially since she thought Ren & Stimpy was “trash TV’. (love you, Mom) Ren & Stimpy has nothing on Christmas Vacation, “trash TV” wise.

A few weeks ago, one of my friends brought up the idea of a cookie swap. This would be the first one I’ve attended, so I was super stoked about this! I thought about how fun it would be to make these cookies with Christmas movie quotes inside. I decided to feature “Christmas Vacation” and “Elf” quotes. Elf has quickly become a recent favorite of mine, and really, how could it not? It’s such a cute Christmas movie AND Will Ferrell is in it!

These cookies put the average fortune cookie to shame. They have a fabulous vanilla flavor, and heck, homemade is always better, right? While this recipe can be tedious, since you can only make 3-4 at a time, the results are so worth it. I had fun putting these little quotes in the cookies, and watching my friends see which quotes they got.

Fortune Cookies
Source: AllRecipes

Ingredients:

• 1 egg white
• 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• Food coloring, optional

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place parchment paper or a silicone mat on a cookie sheet. Write or type fortunes on strips of paper about 4 inches long and 1/2 inch wide.
2. Mix the egg white and vanilla until the mixture is foamy. In another bowl, sift the flour, salt and sugar. Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and mix until well incorporated. Add food coloring if you’d like and mix until well blended.
3. Doing this in batches of 3-4 cookies, place 1 teaspoon of batter for each cookie on the baking sheet, at least 4 inches apart. Using a spoon, spread the batter in a circle, about 3 inches in diameter, making sure the batter is as even as possible (to avoid thin spots).
4. Bake the cookies for 5 minutes or until cookie has turned a golden brown color around the edge of the cookie. If you want, you can use 2 cookie sheets and prepare the other sheet with cookies while the other one is baking.
5. Once the cookies are done baking, remove the sheet from the oven and working quickly, flip the cookie with a spatula (it might take a bit of work to get the spatula under these cookies). Then, quickly put the fortune on the middle of the cookie and fold the cookie in half. Pull the pointed edges together and place in the cups of a muffin tin for them to hold their shape as they cool. Once they have cooled, enjoy!

 

It’s one of the hugest compliments when someone asks you to bring the same dish for a holiday, year after year. When it comes to my coworkers, they always just expect that I’m bringing a cheesecake again. Cheesecakes are easy, so I have no problem with making them for work potlucks.

However, with my family, I decided to take a leap last year and make eggnog macarons. Little did I know that these would be a hit. I was intimidated by these cookies, and there was a great reason. When you live in humid place like Louisiana, you can’t help but be intimidated by something that relies heavily on egg whites. So, fast forward to November. I asked my mom if my husband and I should bring something for Thanksgiving, and at first, she said that nothing was necessary. Then, three days before, she, along with my aunt, requested macarons. Guess they’re spoiled now!

I didn’t want to repeat eggnog macarons, since it’s Thanksgiving. So, I looked through a few sites until I decided on this idea: pecan pie macarons. Living in the South, pecan pies are a staple in the Thanksgiving feast, so this was going to be absolutely perfect!

So, the day I start to make the macarons, I go to look for my round piping tip. Uhhh…turns out it was another victim of the move since it’s gone.  So, I tried the star piping tip. I figured it would flatten out within the hour that the macarons had to sit out before baking, but they didn’t. I’m sort of happy they didn’t flatten out though…the star shaped macarons turned out pretty darn cute!

Instead of doing both the caramel sauce and pecan brittle for the filling, I ended up using the caramel sauce with chopped pecans in the filling. These were definitely a popular item on Thanksgiving Day, since by the time I was picking up leftovers, they were pretty much all gone. Yay!

I guess that means I should start thinking about what macarons to make for the next holiday get together with my family, eh?

Pecan Pie Macarons
Source: Tartelette

Ingredients:

Note: With macarons, it’s definitely important that your ingredients are weighed, so all measurements are in grams.

     For the macarons:

• 3 egg whites (about 90 grams)
• 40 grams granulated sugar
• 200 grams powdered sugar
• 55 grams almonds
• 55 grams pecans

     For the filling:

• chopped pecans
• one recipe of salted butter caramel sauce, well chilled in the fridge

Directions:

1. For the egg whites, 2-3 days before separate your eggs and store the whites in a covered container in the fridge.
2. In a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until they foam, gradually adding granulated sugar until you reach a glossy meringue. Be careful not to overbeat, since the meringue can easily dry out.
3. Place the almonds, pecans and powdered sugar in a food processor and pulse the mixture until the nuts are finely ground.
4. Add the mixture to the meringue, give it a quick couple of folds to break down some of the air and then, slow down and fold the mass gently until the batter flows like magma or thick ribbon. The whole folding process shouldn’t take more than 50 strokes.
5. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a round tip (or star one if you’re crazy like me) with the macaron batter and pipe small cookies (about 1.5 inches in diameter) onto a Silpat or parchment paper lined baking sheet.
6. Let the macarons sit out for 30 minutes – 1 hour to allow the shells to harden a bit. In the meantime, preheat your oven to 300 degrees. Once the shells have hardened, bake the macarons for 15-20 minutes.
7. Allow the macarons to cool a bit (until the pan is warm) before removing the macarons. If your macarons are stuck to the pan, pour a couple of drops of water under your Silpat or parchment. This should help the macarons lift off the pan more easily, due to the moisture. However, don’t let the macarons sit with the water for too long or you’ll risk the macarons becoming soggy.  
8. Once the macarons are fully cooled, spread some of the caramel sauce on the bottom of each of your macarons, add chopped pecans on top of the caramel on one of the macarons and sandwich the two macarons together. If you want to be super fun, brush some pearl dust on the top of the macarons.

Just a small side note….Did you win the Butterball giveaway? You have to email me to claim your prize and you have until tonight! Neither of the winners have emailed me. You want free turkeys, don’t you?

As much as I love baking, sometimes it’s good to find a recipe that’s quick and convenient. I didn’t have time on my side this past weekend since we were hosting our housewarming party, so I wanted to bake something that was quick, but would also feed a crowd. This definitely fit the bill.

As you can see, I dyed them a nice LSU gold color and sprinkled purple Halloween sprinkles on top (gotta love Halloween clearance). Geaux Tigers! (Sorry, can’t help it!)

Back to the bars. I decided to add almond extract to the recipe, because I usually use a combination of almond and lemon for decorated sugar cookies. It’s just the perfect combination for sugar cookies, in my opinion. I have to say that the texture of these cookies is slightly cookie-cakey, which made for the perfect soft, chewy bar and the icing was pretty classic. I highly recommend trying these bars out if you love sugar cookies, but want something that is as quick as possible.

Sugar Cookie Bars
Source: mildly adapted from Annie’s Eats (originally from The Repressed Pastry Chef)

Ingredients:

For the bars:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. almond extract
• 1 tsp. lemon zest
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. baking soda

For the frosting:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt
• 4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
• 5 tbsp. milk
• Food coloring (optional)

Directions:

1. To make the bars, preheat the oven to 350˚ F.   Grease and/or parchment paper line a 13 x 18″ rimmed baking sheet. Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Beat on medium-high speed until the mixture is fluffy and smooth, about 2 minutes.  Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, making sure to scrape down the bowl as needed. Blend in the vanilla, almond extract, and lemon zest.  In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt and baking soda.  Whisk to blend the mixture.  Add the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl and beat on low speed just until incorporated.
2. Transfer the cookie dough to the prepared baking sheet and press into an even layer. Keep a bowl of water near you so you can dip your fingers in and prevent dough from sticking to your fingers  Bake 10-15 minutes, until light golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool completely before frosting.
3. To make the frosting, place the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Beat on medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute.  Blend in the vanilla, salt, and confectioners’ sugar until smooth, 1-2 minutes.  Mix in the milk a tbsp. at a time.  Tint as desired with food coloring.  Spread over the cookie bars in the pan, cut into bars and serve.