Funfetti Cookies Supreme

Ingredients:

COOKIES

• 1 cup (230g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 and 1/2 cups (300g) granulated sugar
• 1 egg + 1 egg yolk, room temperature preferred
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups (360g) all-purpose flour (careful not to overmeasure)
• 1 and 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar¹
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sprinkles, plus more for decor on top of frosting²

FROSTING

• 3/4 cup (170g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 2 and 1/4 cups (270g) confectioners' sugar
• 3 Tablespoons (45ml) heavy cream or half-and-half³
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. For the cookies: In a large bowl using a hand-held mixer or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the softened butter for about 1 minute on medium speed. Get it nice and smooth, then add the sugar on medium speed and beat until fluffy and light in color. Beat in egg, egg yolk, and vanilla. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl as needed.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, cornstarch, and salt together until combined. With the mixer running on low speed, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in 3 different parts. The dough is quite thick and will be a little crumbly at first. But if you keep mixing, the dough will come together. Once combined, gently beat in the sprinkles on low speed until evenly disbursed. Cover the cookie dough tightly and chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours and up to 3 days. Chilling is mandatory. Alternatively, you can roll the cookie dough into 1.5 Tablespoon balls and chill on a cookie sheet (covered) and then bake as directed in the next step.
3. Remove cookie dough from the refrigerator and let sit out at room temperature for at least 15 minutes. If the cookie dough chilled longer than 3 hours, allow to sit at room temperature for 30-40 minutes. This makes it easy to handle, while still keeping a firm texture from chilling. Preheat oven to 325F degrees and line 2 large cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Roll cookie dough into balls, about 1.5 Tablespoons of dough in each ball, and set on cookie sheet-- about 8-9 cookies per sheet. Bake in batches for 11-12 minutes or until the edges are slightly browned. The cookies will still appear very soft in the centers. That's ok; they'll set up and become firmer as they cool. Allow the cookies to cool on the cookie sheets for 3 minutes, then move to a wire rack to cool completely.
4. For the frosting: In a large bowl using a hand-held mixer or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy - about 2 minutes. Add confectioners' sugar, cream, vanilla extract, and salt with the mixer running on low. Increase to high speed and beat for 3 full minutes. Add more confectioners' sugar if frosting is too thin, more cream if frosting is too thick, or a pinch more of salt if frosting is way too sweet.
5. Frost the cooled cookies as desired and decorate with more sprinkles. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator up to 6.
6. Make ahead tip: Unfrosted cookies freeze well. Cookies may be rolled into balls and frozen up to 3 months to bake at a later date. No need to thaw frozen balls of dough before baking; simply bake for an extra minute or two.

Additional Notes:

1. Cream of tartar is used to react with the baking soda; it cannot be left out. If you're curious about using baking powder instead of baking soda + cream of tartar, I'm unsure of the amount needed to properly leaven the cookies.
2. For the cookie dough, avoid using nonpareil sprinkles (the little balls)-- they bleed their color. You may decorate the frosting with nonpareils (like I did).
3. Cream or half-and-half is preferred for creamiest, fluffiest frosting. Keeping that in mind, milk would be an OK substitute if you do not have either on hand.

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Assam Tea

Place 1 teacup water,  1 teacup milk, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and 2 cardemum pods in a pot. (You can add a small chunk of fresh ginger if you want to) Bring it just to a boil over medium/medium high heat. Reduce heat. Add 1 1/2-2 Tbsp Assam tea. Low boil for another 3-4 min (or until reaching desired strength). Pour liquid through a tea strainer as you fill your cup. 

Makes 2 cups 

Mango Salsa

Ingredients

1 mango, peeled and diced
1/2 cup peeled, diced cucumber
1 tablespoon finely chopped jalapeno
1/3 cup diced red onion
1 tablespoon lime juice
1/3 cup roughly chopped cilantro leaves
Salt and pepper
Directions

Combine the mango, cucumber, jalapeno, red onion, lime juice and cilantro leaves and mix well. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ellie-krieger/mango-salsa-recipe.print.html?oc=linkback

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Ethereally Smooth Hummus from smittenkitchen

Ethereally Smooth Hummus
Recipe adapted from Ottolenghi’s stunning new dream of a book; technique is my own madness

This is probably where you expect me to give you a soapbox speech about why it is so important that you soak your own chickpeas. And you know, think they taste wonderful, especially if you treat yourself to some of the best. But, I also make it with canned chickpeas quite often (Goya is my favorite, for perfectly cooked, intact canned beans, each time) and it’s perfectly excellent. Below, I’ve included instructions for both.

Makes 1 3/4 cups hummus

1 3/4 cups cooked, drained chickpeas (from a 15-ounce can) or a little shy of 2/3 cup dried chickpeas (for same yield)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda (for dried chickpeas only)
1/2 cup tahini paste
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, or more to taste
2 small cloves garlic, roughly chopped
3/4 teaspoon table salt, or more to taste
Approximately 1/4 cup water or reserved chickpea cooking water

Olive oil, paprika or sumac, pita wedges (brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with za’atar, or a combination of sesame seeds and sea salt), and/or carrot sticks [optional] to serve

If using dried chickpeas: There are multiple methods to cooking them, and you can use whichever is your favorite, or Ottolenghi’s, or mine. Ottolenghi’s is to put the chickpeas in a large bowl and cover them with at least twice their volume of cold water, leaving them to soak overnight. The next day, drain them, and saute them in a medium saucepan with the baking soda (which many find reduces the gassy effects of fresh beans) for about three minutes. Add 3 1/4 cups water and bring it to a boil. Skim any foam that floats to the surface. They’ll need to cook for 20 to 40 minutes, sometimes even longer, depending on freshness, to become tender. When tender, one will break up easily between your thumb and forefinger. My method is similar, but I often put mine in a slow-cooker on high with the baking soda for approximately three hours, so I don’t have to monitor them as much. 

Drain the chickpeas (saving the chickpea broth for soups or to thin the hummus, if desired) and cool enough that you can pick one up without burning your fingers. 

Whether fresh or canned chickpeas: Peel your chickpeas. I find this is easiest when you take a chickpea between your thumb and next two fingers, arranging the pointy end in towards your palm, and “pop!” the naked chickpea out. Discard the skin. I get into a rhythm and rather enjoy this, but it’s also already established that I’m a weirdo.

In a food processor, blend the chickpeas until powdery clumps form, a full minute, scraping down the sides. Add the tahini, lemon juice, garlic and salt and blend until pureed. With the machine running, drizzle in water or reserved chickpea cooking water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until you get very smooth, light and creamy mixture. I find I need about 4 tablespoons for this volume, but you may need slightly more or less. 

Taste and adjust seasonings, adding more salt or lemon if needed. I do recommend that you hold off on adding more garlic just yet, however. I find that it “blooms” as it settles in the fridge overnight, becoming much more garlicky after a rest, so that even if it doesn’t seem like enough at first, it likely will be in the long run.

Transfer the hummus to a bowl and rest it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, longer if you can. To serve, drizzle it with a little olive oil, and sprinkle it with paprika. Serve it with pita wedges or carrot sticks.

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Stir-Fried Chicken with Cashews

This was a recipe we learned in our cooking class in Hua Hin, Thailand.

note: this only serves 1-2 so I usually triple it

Ingredients:

• 60g chicken, sliced
• 1/4 cup cashews, fried
• 5-8 pieces fried large dried chili
• 1/2 T garlic, chopped
• 4-6 slices of mushroom
• 1 onion, large, cubed
• 1/4 cup chicken broth
• 1 stalk spring onion cut in 1" lengths
• red, yellow, green capsicum cut in 1" lengths
• 1 t soy sauce
• 1 T oyster sauce
• 1 t sugar
• 1 1/2 T vegetable oil
• 1 T Thai chili paste

First- there are a lot of ingredients listed that need prep work before starting the directions. Be sure to slice chicken, mushroom, spring onion, and capsicum. Fry cashews and large dried chili. Chop garlic and cube onion. 

1. Add cooking oil in wok and heat, then add garlic, stir-fry until fragrant

2. Add chicken, continue to stir-fry until nearly cooked

3. Add mushroom, onion and some chicken brother on high heat and quickly stir fry

4. Add seasoning and cashew, dried chili, spring onion, capsicum and quicky stir-fry

5. Remove from heat and serve with rice 

serves 1-2 

Baked Pineapple Teriyaki Chicken

We love thi during pineapple season!

From here

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Simply pour this homemade teriyaki sauce over chicken and bake!

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon room temperature water
• 1/4 cup (50g) brown sugar
• 2 Tablespoons (42g) honey
• 1/2 cup (120ml) soy sauce
• 1/4 cup (60ml) cider vinegar
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
• 1 cup fresh or canned pineapple chunks
• optional: chopped green onion and sesame seeds for garnish

Directions:

1. Whisk cornstarch and water together in a small bowl. It will be a milky liquid. This is for thickening the sauce. Combine the cornstarch mixture, brown sugar, honey, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, ginger, and black pepper together in a small saucepan over low heat. Allow to simmer while whisking occasionally. Bring to a boil and allow to boil for 1 minute. Turn off the heat and set aside for at least 10 minutes, allowing it to cool and thicken.
2. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400°F (204°C).
3. Arrange chicken and pineapple slices in a bake pan (any size works-- I used a 10-inch casserole dish. Use a 9-inch square pan, an 11x7 pan, an 8-inch square pan, etc). Pour sauce on top, then turn the chicken over to make sure every inch is coated in the sauce. Use a basting/pastry brush if needed.
4. Bake uncovered for 30-32 minutes or until the chicken is completely cooked through. This is optional: at the 25 minute mark, remove from the oven and carefully slice the chicken into chunks, then return to the oven. The smaller the chicken pieces, the more teriyaki they'll soak up. You can also cut up the chicken when it is raw prior to cooking.
5. Sprinkle green onion and sesame seeds on top and serve the chicken and pineapple with sauce from the pan poured on top. Store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
6. Make ahead tip: The teriyaki sauce, prepared in step 1, can be made 1 day in advance and stored in the refrigerator. You can even prepare the dish through step 3, cover the pan with aluminum foil or plastic wrap, and keep in the refrigerator for up to 1 day. Then bake as directed.

Additional Notes:

For a more rounded out meal, serve with broccoli, brown rice, quinoa, baked sweet potatoes or anything to soak up the teriyaki sauce.

Using SparkRecipes calculator-- including all the extra teriyaki sauce you'll pour over the chicken when serving, this dish comes out to about 260 calories, 34 grams of protein, and 2g fat per serving. This is based on using four 6 ounce chicken breasts.