Coconut-Lime Sugar Cookies

I frequently say “This is my favorite _____!” about certain foods – even though in reality I have several favorite cakes, ice cream flavors, vegetables, etc. (Who can really choose just one?) But these cookies are truly in my top five cookie recipes.

I found the recipe on Two Peas and Their Pod – there are some amazing cookie recipes on this blog. (You can tell that she agrees because in the archives it says COOKIES in capital letters!) I’ve tried several of them with great success. These coconut-lime cookies are a winner – I can’t count the number of times I have made them. The best thing about them, besides the fact that they are a major crowd-pleaser? Usually, all the necessary ingredients are in your kitchen already. Just throw a few extra limes in your grocery cart and you can have these on a plate an hour from now to feed your craving!

These also make killer ice cream sandwiches – just soften some vanilla ice cream for a few minutes and scoop some onto a cookie. Smoosh another cookie on top, and just try to wait to bite in. SO GOOD!

Coconut Lime Sugar Cookies

from Two Peas and Their Pod

Ingredients

-2 3/4 cups flour
-1 tsp baking soda
-1/2 tsp baking powder
-1/2 tsp salt
-1 cup butter, softened
-1 1/2 cups sugar
-1 large egg
-1/2 tsp vanilla
-zest of one large lime
-3 tbsp lime juice
-1/2 cup toasted coconut
-extra sugar to roll cookies in

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In a small bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. Beat butter and sugar together until smooth and fluffy.

4. Beat in egg, vanilla, lime zest and lime juice. Mix until combined.

5. Gradually add in flour mixture and toasted coconut. Mix until just combined.

6. Scoop out dough, roll into balls, and roll in sugar. [I always freeze them at this point because I will literally eat ten in a row if I bake them all at once.]

7. Place on cookie sheet (on parchment, Silpat, or just take your chances on the plain sheet like I do) and bake 8-10 minutes. Cool on sheets for a few minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.

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Mom’s Pancakes

I love pancakes. They remind me of my mom because she made them all the time when I was growing up. She would make them for breakfast on special occasions, or weekends, or even for dinner sometimes! I never order pancakes when I go out for breakfast, because nothing compares to my mom’s recipe.

Today I took a page out of her book and made it for dinner after my water polo class. I had buttermilk that needed to be used and nothing else in my fridge seemed good, so I went with my craving.

My mom has perfected this recipe so it is as healthy as pancakes can possibly be. She is a bit of a health nut, so careful experimentation over the years (with my family and I as happy pancake-testers) has led to this final draft: half whole wheat flour and half all-purpose flour, with the addition of oats and no butter or lard. Add some fruit and it’s even better for you!

Pancakes

Ingredients:

-1 cup (236 ml) all-purpose flour

-1 cup (236 ml) whole wheat flour

-1 cup (236 ml) oats

-5 tablespoons (75 ml) sugar

-4 1/2 teaspoons (22.5 ml) baking powder

-1/2 teaspoon (0.5 ml) baking soda

-2 eggs

-2.5-2.75 cups (590-649 ml) buttermilk

-6 tablespoons (90 ml) oil

-1 teaspoon (1 ml) vanilla

Directions:

1. Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another bowl.

2. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.  Now, this is very important:  do not overmix!  Seriously, make sure that there are still plenty of lumps.  Lumps are great in pancakes – they are what makes the pancakes fluffy!  So, mix until just combined.

3. Next, spray a griddle with cooking spray and turn onto medium-high heat. Use a measuring cup (I used 1/3 cup) to scoop the batter out.  Once they are cooking on the first side, you can add some toppings to the top if you wish!  On one of mine, I tried coconut:

On another one, I tried frozen mixed berries (I was out of fresh):

When you add the berries, make sure you let them thaw a little bit if they are frozen. Also, make sure to push each berry into the pancake with your finger so they don’t fall out when they flip.

On the last one, I put a little cinnamon:

These were all delicious additions!  The cinnamon was the most subtle, and I think the coconut was my favorite because it got all toasty when I flipped it. The nice thing about adding it onto each pancake instead of mixing it into the batter is that you can do multiple different ones, and if you have additional people then everyone is happy!  The possibilities are endless: pecans, chocolate chips, bananas, lemon zest, other berries, etc.

Let the pancakes cook until they have puffed up and have bubbles that have begun to pop.  My batter was thicker since I only had 2 exact cups of buttermilk, but they will look like this:

You can sneak a peek underneath to see if they are ready, but you are only allowed to flip each pancake once.  I don’t know why, but that’s the rule my brother told me when I was little and I’m sticking with it.  :)  However, the most important rule is the following: do not squish down the pancakes with the spatula once you have flipped them!  Mike always tries to do this and I always yell at him for it.  This is as important and is related to the “don’t overmix” step.  The bubbles that were created by all of that baking soda and baking powder are now doing their magic in the pancake to make it really fluffy.  If you pat down on the pancake, you are popping those bubbles, making for a dense and un-lovely pancake.  So, no squishing!

Once the underside is browned, they’re done!  Time to serve and devour!!

Parsley Pesto, Spiced Spinach

Hello!  This is my first entry in my new food blog! I spend a lot of my spare time reading about food online, in magazines and books, and watching cooking shows.  I have always wanted to start my own blog, but I’ve always been too afraid to actually do it.  I was inspired to take the plunge when my friend Dana started her own blog – thanks Dana!  You continue to inspire me all the time, even though we no longer see each other daily!

I will give more background information about myself as I continue, but as an introduction, I am a 22 year old woman living in Oakland, CA.  I have no professional training; I learned all my fundamental knowledge about baking and cooking by watching and helping my mom in the kitchen when I was little. I continue to learn daily from friends, family, restaurants, etc.

I grew up being a very, very picky eater.  As I grew older, my taste buds matured and I now have a great love for food.  I am not nearly as picky about food these days, but I can be particular about how my food is prepared.  Now I love to at least try most types of food (excluding all seafood and anything containing mayonnaise) and if I eat something I like, I try to figure out how to make it myself.

My goals for this blog are to:

a. add new and genuine insight, recipes, and content to the “blogosphere”

b. inspire others to try new recipes

c. practice writing

d. have fun!

On to the food!

Recently, my boyfriend Mike and I had a nice weeknight meal together.  He’d been wanting me to try a vegan pesto recipe for some time now, and since he had bought the ingredients a week prior, it was time!  He was eating a strict vegan diet for 3 months, but just recently stopped for a little bit. Even though I’m not always a fan of everything vegan, this pesto turned out to be DELICIOUS.  I have a tried-and-true traditional basil pesto recipe from my mom that I will share another time, but this one is a great option if you are vegan or want something a little lighter, since the only fat is nuts and a little bit of oil.  Here is the recipe, from Peter Berley’s The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen:

Parsley Pesto

Ingredients

-1 1/2 cups toasted walnuts
-4 cups packed fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
-2 garlic cloves, peeled but left whole
-3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
-1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
-3/4 cup olive oil
-sea salt

Instructions

1. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade, grind the walnuts.

2. Add the parsley, garlic, lemon juice, and lemon zest and purée.  Slowly add the oil and process until smooth. Blend in 1 teaspoon of salt, and add more to taste if necessary.

Note: To keep things more healthy, I start with way less oil than called for.  You can usually get away with using only half of the recommended amount.

This pesto is fabulous!  I thought I would miss the basil and hate the parsley, but this was not the case.  Combined with the toasted walnuts, it had such a fresh, herbal flavor.  I can’t wait to make it again!

We had the pesto with pasta served on a bed of this spinach dish, slightly adapted due to a lack of certain ingredients.  But that’s the beauty of vegetable dishes like this one – you can adapt them as needed!  Mike and I thought that because we didn’t have coconut, macadamia nuts might remind us of coconut.  It did go nicely with the dish, but I would not recommend that substitution with this pesto, because it ended up being a little too nutty for our tummies.

Here is my phone camera photo (notice home-grown basil leaf garnish!):

Pasta on Spinach with Parsley Pesto

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That’s all for now!  Any suggestions for a better blog title would be much appreciated.  :)

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