My Word with Douglas E. Welch

Books on Hold is a blog series dedicated to books I have seen in passing and requested from my local library. See more in the series at the end of this blog post. — Douglas

Breakfast for Dinner: Recipes for Frittata Florentine, Huevos Rancheros, Sunny-Side-Up Burgers, and More! 

From Amazon.com…

“Inside Breakfast for Dinner you’ll find more than 100 classic breakfast recipes made with a twist. Enjoy hearty “brinner” dishes like Bacon Fried Rice, Breakfast Ravioli, Pizza over Easy, and Cornmeal Pancakes with Beer-Braised Short Ribs, plus such sweet treats as Sunrise Margaritas and Maple Bacon Cupcakes—to name just a few. This cookbook is a breakfast lover’s dream come true.“

* Discovered via The Boastful Baker

Previously in Books on Hold:

• Blog, Inc.: Blogging for Passion, Profit, and to Create Community by Joy Deangdeelert Cho
• Nigellissima: Easy Italian-Inspired Recipes by Nigella Lawson
• Just Start: Take Action, Embrace Uncertainty, Create the Future
• Meatless: More Than 200 of the Very Best Vegetarian Recipes (Martha Stewart Living)
• How to Boil An Egg by Rose Carrarini
• Dirt Candy: A Cookbook: Flavor-Forward Food from the Upstart New York City Vegetarian Restaurant by Amanda Cohen
• See more Books on Hold here!

f you subscribe to my Pinterest page, my @douglaswelch Twitter account or my Google+ feed, you know that I am always finding recipes I want to try. This series, New Food, will highlight some of those finds as we make them for the first time in our own kitchen. Then, I’ll report back to you on the results — for better or worse! — Douglas

Soft Pumpkin Ginger Cookies

What better excuse do you need to try a new food than a school bake sale? That was the case this President’s Day (an American Monday holiday similar to Bank Holidays in the UK). Tomorrow is the Freshman Class fundraiser, so I looked back through my recent Pinterest pins and found these tasty-looking cookies. I like pumpkin and I like ginger and I like cookies so what could go wrong.

Nothing could go wrong it seems as these were GREAT! I don’t mind a crunchy cookie, but these have a great, soft, texture a wonderful gingersnap-like taste and they even look great. These are a great find that will probably make it into the rotation for my annual Christmas Cookie party and I am sure people will love them. 

Soft Pumpkin Ginger Cookies

Two Peas and Their Pod

Ingredients

½ cup of butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar, plus more for rolling the cookies
½ cup of pure pumpkin (I used Libby’s canned pumpkin)
¼ cup of molasses
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until creamy and smooth. Add the pumpkin, molasses, egg, and vanilla extract, mix until well combined.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, spices, and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until combined. Refrigerate the cookie dough for at least 1 hour. The dough can be chilled for 2-3 days.

3. When you are ready to bake, preheat oven to 350° F. Line a baking sheet with a Silpat or parchment paper. Place sugar in a small bowl. Roll tablespoon-sized balls of dough in sugar until well coated and place on prepared baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10–12 minutes, or until cookies look cracked and set at the edges. The cookies will still be soft. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for a 2-3 minutes after removing them from the oven, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Want more food content? – Join me each Thursday for #KitchenParty live at 8pm EST/5pm PST.

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Previously on New Food:

• Video: Making Sparking Fruit Juice
• Cornflake Crusted Chicken Tenders
• Chocolate Porter Cake
• Slow Cooker Jambalaya
• Lentil and Sausage Stew
• Slim Scalloped Potatoes and Ham
• Sweet and Spicy Bacon Chicken
• Parmesan Paprika Potatoes

Valentine’s Day is less than 24 hours away! What are you doing to celebrate? For me, it’s my birthday, so I have an odd relationship with the holiday, but that doesn’t mean I can’t engage in a little Valentine’s Day celebration.

Over the next 12 hours I be posting info to help make your Valentine’s Day extra special. Join me and share the love with those who need a little bit more!

Source: michaels.com via Michaels Stores on Pinterest

Valentine’s Day is less than 24 hours away! What are you doing to celebrate? For me, it’s my birthday, so I have an odd relationship with the holiday, but that doesn’t mean I can’t engage in a little Valentine’s Day celebration.

Over the next 12 hours I be posting info to help make your Valentine’s Day extra special. Join me and share the love with those who need a little bit more!

Source: Uploaded by user via Douglas on Pinterest

Valentine’s Day is less than 24 hours away! What are you doing to celebrate? For me, it’s my birthday, so I have an odd relationship with the holiday, but that doesn’t mean I can’t engage in a little Valentine’s Day celebration.

Over the next 12 hours I be posting info to help make your Valentine’s Day extra special. Join me and share the love with those who need a little bit more!

Source: recipenewz.com via Inside BruCrew Life on Pinterest

Previously for Valentine’s Day…

• #1 Valentine’s Day History
• #2 Reaching Across the Distance – Love Letters for Valentine’s Day
• #3 Strawberry Heart Poptarts for Valentine’s Day
• #4 Valentine’s Krispy Treats from Cookies and Cups
• #5 DIY Lego Heart Necklace
• #6: Sweet Heart Cherry Pies
• #7 Squeeze Bottle Pancake Hearts
• #8 PInk Champagne Cupcakes
• #9 Cabernet Chocolate Truffles

Valentine’s Day is less than 24 hours away! What are you doing to celebrate? For me, it’s my birthday, so I have an odd relationship with the holiday, but that doesn’t mean I can’t engage in a little Valentine’s Day celebration.

Over the next 12 hours I be posting info to help make your Valentine’s Day extra special. Join me and share the love with those who need a little bit more!

• #1 Valentine’s Day History
• #2 Reaching Across the Distance – Love Letters for Valentine’s Day
• #3 Strawberry Heart Poptarts for Valentine’s Day
• #4 Valentine’s Krispy Treats from Cookies and Cups
• #5 DIY Lego Heart Necklace
• #6: Sweet Heart Cherry Pies
• #7 Squeeze Bottle Pancake Hearts

Valentine’s Day is less than 24 hours away! What are you doing to celebrate? For me, it’s my birthday, so I have an odd relationship with the holiday, but that doesn’t mean I can’t engage in a little Valentine’s Day celebration.

Over the next 12 hours I be posting info to help make your Valentine’s Day extra special. Join me and share the love with those who need a little bit more!

Source: recipebyphoto.com via Douglas on Pinterest

• #1 Valentine’s Day History
• #2 Reaching Across the Distance – Love Letters for Valentine’s Day
• #3 Strawberry Heart Poptarts for Valentine’s Day
• #4 Valentine’s Krispy Treats from Cookies and Cups
• #5 DIY Lego Heart Necklace
• #6: Sweet Heart Cherry Pies

Valentine’s Day is less than 24 hours away! What are you doing to celebrate? For me, it’s my birthday, so I have an odd relationship with the holiday, but that doesn’t mean I can’t engage in a little Valentine’s Day celebration.

Over the next 12 hours I be posting info to help make your Valentine’s Day extra special. Join me and share the love with those who need a little bit more!

Source: foodgawker.com via Douglas on Pinterest

Previously for Valentine’s Day…

• #1 Valentine’s Day History
• #2 Reaching Across the Distance – Love Letters for Valentine’s Day
• #3 Strawberry Heart Poptarts for Valentine’s Day
• #4 Valentine’s Krispy Treats from Cookies and Cups
• #5 DIY Lego Heart Necklace

Books on Hold is a blog series dedicated to books I have seen in passing and requested from my local library. See more in the series at the end of this blog post. — Douglas

Another cookbook for the “To Read” pile. #KitchenParty has been a big influence on my reading habits lately. We have taken to making a lots of the foods that we used to buy, whenever we can. This can be something siple like making our own Taco Meat spice mix or something more complicated like making our own pasta. I look forward to checking out the recipes here to see what else we might be able to make at home.

Homemade Pantry: 101 Foods You Can Stop Buying and Start Making by Alana Chernila

From Amazon.com…

“This is my kitchen. Come on in, but be prepared—it might not be quite what you expect. There is flour on the counter, oats that overflowed onto the floor, chocolate-encrusted spoons in the sink. There is Joey, the husband, exhausted by the thirty-five preschoolers who were hanging on him all day, and he is stuffing granola into his mouth to ease his five o’clock starvation. There are two little girls trying to show me cartwheels in that miniscule space between the refrigerator and the counter where I really need to be.”

In her debut cookbook, Alana Chernila inspires you to step inside your kitchen, take a look around, and change the way you relate to food. The Homemade Pantry was born of a tight budget, Alana’s love for sharing recipes with her farmers’ market customers, and a desire to enjoy a happy cooking and eating life with her young family. On a mission to kick their packaged-food habit, she learned that with a little determination, anything she could buy at the store could be made in her kitchen, and her homemade versions were more satisfying, easier to make than she expected, and tastier.

Here are her very approachable recipes for 101 everyday staples, organized by supermarket aisle—from crackers to cheese, pesto to sauerkraut, and mayonnaise to toaster pastries. The Homemade Pantry is a celebration of food made by hand—warm mozzarella that is stretched, thick lasagna noodles rolled from flour and egg, fresh tomato sauce that bubbles on the stove. Whether you are trying a recipe for butter, potato chips, spice mixes, or ketchup, you will discover the magic and thrill that comes with the homemade pantry.

Alana captures the humor and messiness of everyday family life, too. A true friend to the home cook, she shares her “tense moments” to help you get through your own. With stories offering patient, humble advice, tips for storing the homemade foods, and rich four-color photography throughout, The Homemade Pantry will quickly become the go-to source for how to make delicious staples in your home kitchen. 

Previously in Books on Hold:

• To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others by Daniel Pink
• Risk Intelligence: How to Live with Uncertainty by Dylan Evans
• Harnessed: How Language and Music Mimicked Nature and Transformed Ape to Man by Mark Changizi
• The Naked Brewer: Fearless Homebrewing Tips, Tricks & Rule-breaking Recipes by Christina Perozzi, Hallie Beaune
• The Backyard Parables: Lessons on Gardening, and Life by Margaret Roach
• Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich
• The Science of Good Cooking: Master 50 Simple Concepts to Enjoy a Lifetime of Success in the Kitchen (Cook’s Illustrated Cookbooks)
• Martha’s American Food: A Celebration of Our Nation’s Most Treasured Dishes, from Coast to Coast by Martha Stewart
• The Layered Garden: Design Lessons for Year-Round Beauty from Brandywine Cottage 
• Home Made Winter by Yvette van Boven (Author), Oof Verschuren (Photographer)
• Come In, We’re Closed: An Invitation to Staff Meals at the World’s Best Restaurants

This was a random cookbook discovered first through The Kitchn blog. It sounded interesting enough to pick up at my local library and I have finally had a moment to look through it and give my impressions.

Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich

* Discovered via The Kitchn

Medrich writes about food with a passion, as do many food writers and cookbook authors. There is a true joy to be felt in her words about techniques and ingredients which grace the first sections of the book. She discusses how to measure flour, cocoa powder and liquids. Then she moves no to discussions of how and where to find the very best ingredients — and these ingredients are the inspiration for most of the recipes in the book.

As a more amateur baker, some of her recipes use unfamiliar ingredients and can take more time than the typical recipe, but I think there is something to be gained by engaging with these ingredients and working at little harder at the food we make. I am a notoriously fussy eater, but there are many recipes here that sound intriguing enough to try at least once.

Featured recipes include:

• Sour Cream Ice Cream
• Buckwheat Strawberry Shortcakes
• Nutella Bread Pudding
• …and many more!

As always, it was the many cookie and cookie-like recipes that caught my eye the most. I marked a few of the recipes to keep for later use, including:

• My Gingersnaps
• Coffee-Walnut Cookies
• Honey Snaps
• Cocoa Wafers
• and a cocoa fudge sauce that looks very decadent

Previously in Cookbooks:

• The River Cottage Cookbook by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
• Come In, We’re Closed: An Invitation to Staff Meals at the World’s Best Restaurants
• Martha’s American Food: A Celebration of Our Nation’s Most Treasured Dishes, from Coast to Coast