Terra Mama

Huzzah, I have finally succeeded in making a proper shortbread! 

Valentine's Day is one of those holidays that my husband and I rarely celebrate. We've been together for 9 years, so we both know where are hearts are, but occasionally he'll get me flowers or jewelry and I'll bake him some kind of heart shaped treat. This year brought emerald earrings and a luscious batch of Jimmy's Pink Cookies from Molly Wizenberg's book, A Homemade Life.

God bless my mother for giving me this book which is part memoir, part cookbook, and full of love and deliciousness. I've made most of the recipes from it, but always shied from Jimmy's Pink Cookies because of my past failure to produce a crumbly, light shortbread. Mine came out tough from too much handling, and when I waste a pound of butter, I tend to stay away.

Well, no fear with Molly's recipe, it is pretty fool-proof, and the cookies–Holy Mary, they are good. My husband loved them, as did the kids and my good friend, Nancy, whom I consider to be an aficionado of shortbreads, pie crusts, and butter in general. The cookies will a keep a few days in the fridge, or you can freeze them forever, but believe me, they won't last.

Wizenberg's blog, http://www.orangette.blogspot.com, is also full of love and deliciousness. Check it out; she is an artist with food and words.

 

Jimmy’s Pink Cookies (Molly Wizenburg)

For the cookies:
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the frosting:
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
6 tablespoons (3 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon kirsch or cherry extract (I used kirsch and probably about 1 tablespoon at least.)
red food coloring

To make cookies, combine the butter and powdered sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, and beat, first on low speed, and then slowly increasing to medium, until light and fluffy.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour and salt, and whisk well. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, beating until the flour is just absorbed. Add the vanilla and beat well to incorporate. (I added the vanilla in after I whipped the butter and sugar due to my fear of the dough becoming tough from too much beating with the flour added.) Lay a sheet of plastic wrap on a large clean surface and turn the dough out onto it. Shape into a disk, wrap well, and refrigerate for one hour.

On a clean, floured surface, roll th dough out to a thickness of 3/8 inch. Using a cookie cutter, cut the dough into whatever shapes you would like. (I used an antique heat shaped cookie cutter, naturally.)  Molly uses a 2 inch round cutter and Jimmy uses a much bigger cutter, often in the shape of a heart.

Place the cookies on the prepared baking sheets, spacing them 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake them one sheet at a time, keeping the second sheet in the refridgerator until the first one is done, for 16 to 20 minutes (my smaller heart cookies took 17 minutes exactly), or until the cookies are pale golden at the edges. Do not allow them to brown. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and cool completely on the pan.

To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butterin the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until smooth. Add the powdered sugar and beat on low speed to fully incorporate, then raise the speed to medium/medium high and beat until there are no lumps, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Add the flavoring and a few drops of food coloring and beat well. The frosting should be a pretty shade of pink. Taste, if it needs more cherry flavor, go ahead and add more. Generously spread onto the fully cooled cookies. This recipe makes a ton of frosting, Molly recommends using most of it, but I found I had a lot left over. Of course, there's nothing wrong with having too much frosting, I am going to make a small rich chocolate cake to frost with the remainder of it.

The recipe makes about 2 dozen cookies, I rolled mine out a bit thinner and got 3 dozen.

 

Mine is a family that loves a good soup, and this minestrone recipe handed down from my mom is pretty stellar. I make it using things we freeze from the garden such as green and cannellini beans, tomatoes, and carrots. I get the ham shank from our local smokehouse in Tolland, CT (I buy a few and keep them in the freezer, too), and the rest of the ingredients are all easily found in any supermarket. This soup is easy to make, the only thing it needs is time and love.

The ingredients are as follows: 1 quart bag of frozen whole tomatoes, peeled (1 large can of whole tomatoes), 1 quart bag of frozen green beans (1 can of green beans), a half quart bag of frozen cannellini beans (here you can sub with a can of cannellinis or about a cup or more of dry beans. If using dry, soak them overnight), and the most important ingredient for pure flavor–1 SMOKED ham shank. And trust me, you want that bestia smoked.

You will also need about 4 or 5 medium sized potatoes, 2 medium onions, 5 cloves of garlic, 1 carrot, and 1 stalk of celery, leaves included.

Next, add the shank, both beans, and the tomatoes into a 3 or 4 gallon stock pot and just cover with water.

 

Turn the burner on high. While waiting for that to heat up, prepare the other vegetables. Peel and chop the potatoes into nice chunks, dice the onions, carrot, and celery (with leaves), and mash the garlic with the knife.

 

Add all those chopped vegetables into the pot along with some salt, pepper, and a bit of olive oil. Pour enough water in to cover everything and add about an inch or 2 more.

 

Now let this soup cook down for about 4 hours. I know that sounds like a long time, but it is worth it. At that point it will look like this:

 

Yes.

Now crucial to this soup is butter, parmesan, and a good loaf of crusty bread. 

 

When the soup has cooked down and is nice and thick, ladle out however many portions will be supping that night into a smaller pot and bring up to a boil. take a small amount of pasta–I use angel hair–break it into fourths (you want bite-size bits here), and add to the small pot of soup.

 

 

While you're waiting for the pasta to cook, you can package all your minestrone (ALWAYS minus the pasta!) into containers for the freezer.

 

When the pasta is cooked al dente, and with angel hair this only takes about 5 minutes, ladle the soup into beautiful bowl, add a teaspoon sized daub of soft butter on top and a nice amount of parmesan cheese. Serve with your crusty bread and you are in for a rustic, Italian treat.