Christmas Cake Santa ( Aryati )

Ini pesenannya Aryati, temen kantor seberang..Heheheh. Duh kali ini malah ngerepotiin Ar ambil pesenannya ke rumah aku. Thanks ya Ar buat pengertiannya..Thanks juga buat pesenannya..

Merry Christmas 2012

Christmas Spritz Cookies / Swedish Butter Cookies / Pressed Butter Cookies

Merry Christmas to All!! : )

Well this Christmas is totally an "On Demand" from my son starting my asking to decorate the Christmas tree, wanting to go to see Santa and we did see a real Reindeer too :), and finally to his area....wanted Christmas and Snow flake cookies. As always, it was so tempting to make those green tree cookies, but the fact that I have to use lot of food color, I didn't want to. So I explained to Anush that it takes a lot of food color which is not ideally good for healthy, he agreed with adding Sprinkles. We bought a Cookie Gun to make things easy, and it had the tree and snow flake shaped mold plate, so I used that to make my cookies. 

I used "Spritz" Cookies recipe, which is also known as "Swedish Butter Cookies" or "Pressed Butter Cookies". These cookies are very popular Christmas cookies, and this kind of dough is used especially if you are using a cookie gun/press.

So here is the recipe....

Ingredients:
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1 cup Unsalted Butter (room temperature)
1/2 cup Sugar
1 large Egg
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 1/4 cups All Purpose Flour
1/4 tsp Salt

Method:
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1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, add all purpose flour, sugar, salt and butter and mix until blended.

3. Now add vanilla extract and egg and mix until well blended.
4. Fill the cookie batter in the cookie gun/press with the desired mold plate fitted, and press to cookies on a cookie sheet, with enough space between cookies.

5. Now add sprinkles of your choice and you can also wait until they bake and then add icing over the cookies.
6. Bake these cookies for about 7-8 mins or until the corners of the cookies turn slightly golden brown.

7. Remove these cookies on top of a wire rack and let them cool.
8. Sore these cookies in an air tight container.

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Heart Vanilla Shortbread Cookies	Witches Finger Shortbread Cookies	Cinnamon Sugar Hearts

Amla Rice / Nellikkai Sadam

I love Amla (fruit) and eat at least one daily. We have Amla trees in our farm and whenever my parents visit us, they bring a small sack full of Amlas. I often prepare Amla Juice. Whenever it is not possible to prepare Amla juice, I simply cut and eat it.



As it is available in plentiful, my mom used to prepare few recipes using it . This Amla Rice is one among them. This rice recipe is very easy to prepare. It tastes similar to lemon rice and you'll get a slightly sweet taste after eating it. Those who like Amla/Gooseberry will definitely like this rice too.



Basic Information:
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Serves: 2

Ingredients:

Cooked rice - 3 cups, separate into grains and cooled
Amla / Nellikkai / Gooseberry - 3 nos or 1/2 cup, grated
Green chilli / Dry red chilli - 3-4 nos, slit into two
Curry leaves - 1 string
Oil - 3 teaspoons
Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Channa Dal - 1/2 teaspoon
Roasted peanuts - 3 tablespoons
Asafoetida - a pinch
Salt - to taste
Turmeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon
Coriander leaves - for garnishing

Method:

1) Heat oil in a frying pan / kadai. When it is hot, add mustard seeds and allow it to splutter.
2) Add curry leaves, channa dal, roasted peanuts, asafoetida, slit green chillies. Fry till the channa dal becomes golden brown colour.

3) Add the grated amla followed by salt and turmeric. Mix well and cook the Amla. Note that it is not required to completely cook the Amla.
4) Give a very good toss. When the raw smell of turmeric goes away, add the cooked rice and gently mix it. Lower the flame to avoid burning.

5) Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot.

Notes:
1) Leftover rice can also be used for this recipe. If you are using hot rice, fluff the rice using fork and mix gingerly oil with the rice. Allow it to cool to room temperature before you mix it with Amla.
2) If Amla is not very sour, then increase the grated Amla to 3/4 cup for 3 cups of rice.

3) Add 1/8th teaspoon of fenugreek seeds /powder if you like it.

4) Increase or decrease the red chilli/green chilli count as per your taste.