roasted rabbit

We used to eat a lot of chicken.  I always found roasting a chicken was easy, especially when I had days full of cookie baking.  It is always hard to figure out what to make for dinner when I am baking the Christmas cookies.  I have been reading a cookbook by David Tanis that said you could use rabbit in any chicken recipe.  So I decided to do a roast rabbit with baked sweet potatoes.  Easy. No stress if everything turned out like advertised.

David Tanis was right.  Roasted rabbit was as easy as roast chicken.  I want to try it again with forty cloves of garlic.  It is a french recipe that is very good.

I did not get any pictures of the rabbit when it was done.  Part of that was tired.  Part of that was how fast it disappeared. 

Here are the bones.  The carcass became soup just like a chicken carcass.  So good.

roasted rabbit

1 rabbit, skinned, cleaned out and washed.

a couple teaspoons of salt

a couple teaspoons of pepper

a teaspoon or so of sage

a teaspoon or so of thyme

bacon grease if you have it or a couple tablespoons olive oil

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Heat the bacon grease (or bacon) or the olive oil in an oven proof pan.  Add the rabbit.  Sprinkle about half the spices and salt on that side.  Let brown for a few minutes.  Turn the rabbit over and sprinkle with the remaining spices.  Let brown for a few minutes.

Bake for 55 minutes.  

Small sweet potatoes  bake in this time or small potatoes.  Add a salad.  All done!

chocolate gingerbread cookies

This is my last new cookie recipe this year.  I have been looking for a good gingerbread cookie recipe.  My molasses crinckles are a go to but there are times that I want ginger snaps or gingerbread.  Ginger snaps are not so hard, the Joy of Cooking has a good one.  Gingerbread is almost always disappointing.  I do not know what is my mind but someday I will find it.

This is another Martha Stewart recipe that I looked at and then ranted in my head about.  I do believe that I want their square footage of counter space somehow wedged into my kitchen.  It is the only way that you would be able to make these recipes as written.  I am lucky to have four square feet clear to work with.  I am not even talking about the equipment or the tools they use.  Cool ideas if you have a kitchen with all the gadgets.  I decided a long time ago the gadgets were not worth the space!  Okay.  Rant over.

The original cookies were painted in white chocolate and rolled out.  They were supposed to remind you of twigs.  We really do not like white chocolate that well around here so I rolled them in powdered sugar and kept them in flatish balls.  They remind me of mushroom caps.  Just me. 

Currently, this is my favorite gingerbread cookie recipe.  I know it is not the last one.  I may try it without the cocoa.  I took the flavors in the given recipe and used my sable recipe as the base.  Baking time was interesting to figure out but they did turn out well.

chocolate gingerbread cookies

Inspired by Martha Stewart

1 cup of the best butter you can find

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup molasses

2 egg yolks

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

3/4 teaspoon salt

powdered sugar for dredging

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Cover baking sheets with silpats or parchment paper.

Cream butter and sugar together.  Mix in eggs and molasses.  Mix in flour, cocoa, spices, and salt.

Roll a teaspoon of dough  and dredge in powdered sugar.  Place on the baking sheet.  Flatten with the bottom of a glass.

Bake for 12 minutes.  You want done but tender.

Another need for tea.  I could get into the need for tea!

cinnamon cookies

I am finished with my cookie baking for Christmas.  Most of the boxes are done but there is one that will probably not go out until Thursday.  Or maybe it will.  It will all depend on when I receive socks.  I tried two new cookie recipes this year.  Both from Martha Stewart's Living.  By the end of trying both of them, I was wondering if these people ever bake in a small home kitchen.  Or a two year old helper.  I decided to try them to send out because of the amount of flour that are in both.

I changed the both recipes by the time I was done with them.  My Beloved rolled his eyes and said he was surprised.  I went for the flavors instead of the complications.  I would even change this one further and base the cookie dough on more of a classic sable.  But it is good.  Especially if you like cinnamon and a hint of cocoa.  I took all my rejects to work.  It took me a bit to figure out baking times.  I brought home an empty dish.  That should say something!

cinnamon cookies

Adapted from Martha Stewart's Livings Cinnamon Log Slices

1 1/2 cups butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs and 1 large egg white

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons vanilla

4 cups flour

3 tablespoons cocoa

1/2 cup granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Cover baking sheets with silpats or parchment paper.

Cream butter with 1 cup sugar and brown sugar.  Mix in the eggs and vanilla.  Mix in the flour, salt, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon.

Mix 1 teaspoon cinnamon, cocoa, and 1/3 cup granulated sugar in a small bowl.

Make small balls of the cookie dough.  Dredge in the cocoa cinnamon mixture.  Put on the baking sheet.  Flatten with the bottom of a glass.

Bake for 12 minutes.

Very nice with a cup of tea.  Or popping in your mouth as you head down the elevator.  I saw this one today.

experiments in dyeing

I got asked about how the dyeing went by a friend today.  I meant to post about it last week but we went to look at holiday lights unexpectedly.  And I had my sinuses make me dizzy.  Making dozens of cookies slightly dizzy is odd.

So here is the dyeing post.  

The avocado pits were cut and boiled and wool was added.

Then I used some magenta dye from the art store for a different batch of wool.

I was thinking the magenta might work for some of the females in my life.  Maybe some of the males too.  I have a few who like bright intense colors.  Actually, most of the males in my life like bright colors.

The avocado pits did not seem to work very well.  They create a salmon or pink color.  I think I needed more and maybe a different fiber.  They seem to work best on silk.

The magenta turned out so well I want to card and spin it.  I actually have some of the original fleece as yarn.  I was thinking more magenta after I crochet it into a garment or maybe chestnut.  I would over dye the avocado pit dyed fleece with the chestnut.

There are just not enough minutes and hours in the day currently for all that I wish to do!

sewing pajamas creates pillowcases

The white elephant gift was a hint.  I was sitting with some co-workers asking if it would be bad form to pick my own gift.  One of them said yes since she wanted it.  That is what I get for blogging about it.  She stole it from someone else.  I stole a Bailey's Irish Cream gift set.  I will admit that I did it because I really liked the glasses in it.  I know I have seen some recipes for Bailey's Irish Cream in cakes so that may be where the liqueur goes.  Or over ice cream?  I am experimenting with frozen yogurt but I just do not see that.  Liqueur over yogurt in any form.  Nope.

This year, the extra fabric from pajama bottoms is going into pillowcases.  Our flannel ones look so bad and really are not soft anymore.  They have been washed too many times.  Also, when you live with a bladesmith, there is always a bit of dirt and dust everywhere, even when he has scrubbed well.  As one knife maker said, anything that is not knife is dirt.  Such a true statement.  

This is the first pillowcase from pajama fabric.  I will get two more out of the process and I am excited.