I’ve been too busy with work and wasn’t able to go home this past weekend for the Chinese New Year celebration. 
It’s too bad to be missing out on the fun times, the delicious New Years treats, and the great foods. But, work is work. On the bright side, I’ll be visiting home in a few days. Maybe there will be some leftovers.
Anyway…
Happy Chinese New Year from
LookyTasty.com!
2009 is the Year of the Ox!
Have Fun Times and Happy Eating!
Published on
January 21, 2009 in
recipes.
I went on a cookie baking frenzy a while back. It happened during the holidays when I decided to whip up an assortment of cookies and mail them to people. Since I received pretty good reviews about the cookies, I decided to post the recipes.
What I did was, I put together a basic cookie dough recipe and then customize the cookies by adding other ingredients and spices. I tried to minimize the amount of sugar since a great number of cookie recipes are pretty sugary. I also used butter substitute instead of butter, to minimize the amount of fat and cholesterol. Here is the basic cookie dough recipe. I used this as the base for making three varieties of oatmeal cookies: oatmeal raisin, oatmeal M&M, and oatmeal chocolate chip.
Basic Cookie Dough
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup butter, or butter substitute
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar
- 1/3 white sugar
- 1 egg white
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- (Optional: 1 1/2 cup rolled oats, for Oatmeal Cookies)
Directions:
- In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. (Add other spices here, as desired. Since I was making oatmeal cookies, I also added some cinnamon and nutmeg into the dry mixture.)
- In a second bowl, mix together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar.
- Add the egg white and vanilla extract.
- Pour the wet mixture into the dry flour mixture.
- Mix well, using a spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl as needed.
Here is the part where you can stir in the extra ingredients.
Since I was making oatmeal cookies, I stirred in about 1 1/2 cup of rolled oats.
I split the dough into three batches, one for each cookie variety.
Feel free to adjust the amount of goodies to add into the cookies.
For Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, I added golden raisins.
For Oatmeal M&M Cookies, I added dark chocolate M&Ms.
For Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, I added Nestle semi-sweet chocolate mini morsels.
Stir the cookie dough so that the goodies are fairly well distributed.
- Roll the dough into a log. Cover tightly with plastic wrap. Refrigerate the cookie dough for overnight. (I tried both with and without refrigerating. I found that the cookies made from the dough that was refrigerated overnight had a much nicer texture. On the other hand, the cookies made from the no refrigeration batch were not bad either.)Form the dough into desired cookie sizes and shapes. (I made them miniature cookies that were about 1.5-2 inches diameter.)
- Place them on the cookie tray about 2 inches apart.
- Bake for 6-8 minutes in the oven to 350 degrees.
- Let the cookies cool on the baking rack for 5 minutes before removing from the oven.
- (This gave the cookies have a more chewy texture.)
- Store cookies in airtight containers.Check out these bite-size delicious cookies!
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip and Oatmeal M&M Cookies
Oatmeal Golden Raisin Cookies
Cookies!!! Cookies!!! Cookies!!!
Here is something I put together a week ago to help me use up some alcohol I had purchased. In preparation for New Years, I set myself a budget and made a trip to Warehouse Wine and Spirits, located at 735 Broadway in Manhattan, NYC. It is probably my favorite liquor store in the city, with its massive selections, helpful staff, and great prices.
I bought a bottle of champagne and a bottle of red wine. I don’t remember the names. The staff at the store recommended the $15 half-size bottle of French champagne. On my way out, I grabbed a random bottle of Rioja red wine. It was less than $10 and had a pretty looking label. The champagne was amazing! I was happy to invest in a smaller bottle of some nice champagne rather than a larger bottle of less as wonderful champagne. The bottle of wine on the other hand was not an easy drink. I’ve enjoyed other red wines before, but this one was definitely not my thing.
I had a large portion of the wine remaining. I started thinking of other ways to use it up, rather than letting it go to waste. I thought to myself… red wine sangria sounds like a nice idea!
I started browsing the Internet for an easy concoction to make some delightful fruity sangria. I kept a few things in mind. I wanted to avoid having to make another trip to the liquor store. I will pass by a local grocery store during the day, so that would be the place to pick up additional ingredients if necessary. This is what I came up with after some browsing.
Ingredients:
- 1 bottle of red wine (750ml)
- 1 can of lemon lime soda
- 2-3 cup of assorted berries (Raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries)
Directions:
- In a large pitcher, add the assorted berries.
- Pour in a can of lemon lime soda followed by the red wine.
- Stir gently for a bit.
- Refrigerate for at least 24 hours. (The longer the better. I would recommend at least 48 hours.)
This berry berry sangria was extremely delectable. To my luck, the raspberries, blueberries and strawberries were on sale at the grocery store. Therefore, I added a whole bunch of it into the drink mixture. It was a great blend of flavors. I tried a small cup of the sangria after 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours. I found that it tasted best after at least 48 hours. One variation to try would be to boil the berries with the soda beforehand to maybe extract more juices. One thing I do enjoy is eating the berries as I happily consume my drink. Cheers!
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