Sock Monkey Saturday with Sock Monkey and Tree cookies

This Saturday I went with friends to an annual tradition in my group of friends Sock Monkey Saturday at the American Visionary Arts Museum. Every year it is a blast kookie and charming all in one.
Since it is a four hour event I am always getting the munchies. This year for my friends and I I made some sock monkey cookies and a few trees.

Here they are with my sock kitten. 

And all of our sock critters all together. 

Next year I will have to get a real sock monkey cookie cutter MONKEY FACE cookie cutter

Rice Pudding using leftover rice from Chinese takeout

So last week was Thanksgiving and I was visiting at my sisters house for a few days. In the house were 12 people including 5 kids under six. I was doing a lot of the cooking for all 12 of us including a good portion of the Thanksgiving feast.  Because I was not at my house for a few days I had eaten down the fresh produce in my house and thus when I got home ordered in some Chinese food instead of cooking the first night back. Lazy, tasty, easy, and containing lots of vegetables and no turkey and requiring no more effort then a phone call. However, when it comes to Chinese food I love fried rice and thus almost always have a thing of that plain white rice they give you to go with the Hunan Beef leftover. What to do with the leftover rice when all the hunan beef is gone? Something festive to go with decorating the house for Christmas perhaps.  Yup Rice pudding. It is creamy cinnamon and nutmeg deliciousness.

Recipe ( this is the ratio per cup of leftover rice but it scales up and down with ease just measure your rice and adjust accordingly)

1 cup leftover takeout rice
1 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon(plus more for dusting top)
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg ( please use fresh ground will taste so much better also plan on some more for dusting top )
Optional 1/4 cup raisins or craisins

Directions
1. Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan ( or if scaling bigger use bigger saucepan of course but you as my reader are aware of that) break up the leftiover rice block with a fork
2. Bring to a simmer and cook about 15-20 minutes until most of liquid is absorbed and pudding is thickened
3. Decant into your planned serving bowls or ramikins.
4. Dust with ground cinnamon and nutmeg
5. Chill at least 2 hours or up to several days.

Concord Grape Jelly

A few years ago my gate to my fence going from the driveway to the backyard broke. Replacing the whole fence was out fiscally and doing just the gate was going to look odd and not match I decided to put in an arbor and planted Concord grapes and Niagara grapes. Well the Concord grapes are ripe and purple.
I had 1.8 lbs of grapes.
Ingredients
1.8lbs concord grapes
1.8 cups sugar
juice of 1/2 lemon

Prep
Cover Jars with 2 inches of water and boil 10 minutes to sterilize.
Put a plate or two in freezer to test jam later


Recipe
1. Remove the skins for the grapes .
2. combine the skins and 1 cup sugar together in a blender or food processor till skins pureed
3. Over medium heat combine grape insides, remaining 0.8 cup sugar, juice of 1/2 lemon, and skin sugar mix. Simmer until grapes are broken down about 15 minutes
4.Strain through a fine mesh sieve or food mill
5. Return jam to pan to simmer 15 minutes
6.Start testing by putting a dollop on the cold plate and then see if it runs.When not running jam is done may take up to anther 25 minutes of simmering
7. Pour Jam into jars and place lids on  finger tip tight
8. Place under water and boil 10 minutes remove from water and allow to cool

Strawberries

Sorry for the delay in posting I have been visiting my folks down NC and some family things. I will be back posting again. In the mean time I harvested my first strawberries of the season this morning. Just a few and simply rinsed and eaten.

Onion Rings inspired by David Lebovitz

Do you read David Lebovitz's blog? I do and normally it makes me want to eat my way across Europe. A few weeks ago however he posted about onion rings he made that were inspired by a Hooters cookbook. Now I have never been to Hooters and really have no desire to do so but he got me craving onion rings. So tonight I finally made Onion rings
The Batter
Mix together
1 cup flour
1 cup Dogfish 60 min IPA ( add 2 more oz if you like thinner coating)
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon powdered chilli pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt

Let this all sit covered while you drink the remaining 4 oz of the Dogfish head 60 min IPA and watch one back episode of Good Eats with Alton Brown. Open a second bottle of Dogfish 60 min to drink and wonder why in the world Alton Brown is no longer making Good Eats as it was the best cooking geek show. Now that this is done
Get the largest onion out of your onion drawer and slice it up. Look at the number of onion rings that will make and decide to only slice one onion as really who should eat that many onion rings.

Start heating up about 2 inches of peanut oil in your cast iron le creuset dutch oven.

The flour dredge
David Lebovitz says to just toss the onion ring slices in flour but I like my flavor layers so I did
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 pinch salt
All mixed together
and I dredged the onion slices through this and then into the batter and then into the oil. After the first two I decided that I like my onion rings with a thinner coating and added 2 oz more of beer from the bottle I was drinking. (This is the benefit for living alone and cooking for yourself you can pour directly from a half drunk bottle of beer into a recipe)
Cook the onion rings until pretty golden in the hot oil and then put on top of a draining rack or paper towels for the grease to drip away. Salt
Continue frying in batches of 3 or 4 until you have a heaping serving.
Eat while drinking the last of that second bottle of beer.

Late Night Snack- Goat cheese and strawberry

So I could not sleep and decided I needed a late night snack. Rummaging the fridge and pantry got me the following items.

Homemade bread (Made according to the italian dish blogs' recipe)

Goat cheese

Strawberries

Honey 

Ground pepper

I layered a little goat cheese on each slice of bread along with a large strawberry sliced  a tiny drizzle of honey. I started to take pictures but then decided it needed a quick grind of black pepper. 

late night snack

I know that it is not that fancy but seriously this is the perfect late night snack a little sweet a little special but super easy. 

So snacking on this while watching Bones on Hulu with the intent to get to sleep soon. 

Good night and enjoy your late night snacking.