Holiday Ginger Spice Cookies Recipe for Rainy Days

So rainy here today, so time to bake. Here’s a great one to bring the holidays into the house. These cookies are addictive and make the house smell wonderful.

Ingredients:

Ingredients:

12 Tbsp unsalted Butter (3/4 cup)
1 1/4 cup of white Sugar
1/4 cup Molasses
1 large Egg
2 tsp Baking Soda
2 cups AP Flour
1/2 tsp ground Cloves
1/2 tsp ground Ginger
1/4 tsp ground Nutmeg
1 tsp ground Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Salt
Powdered sugar for dusting

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 375F and take out two non stick cookie sheets. You can also use greased parchment if you do not have non stick cookie sheets.

Melt butter and pour into mixer and let cool slightly, add 1 cup sugar, molasses, egg and beat well.

Sift together dry ingredients and add into butter mixture and blend well.

Cover bowl and put in fridge for 15 minutes

Put remaining 1/4 cup of sugar on plate. Scoop out dough by tablespoon and roll into 1 inch ball and roll in sugar and place on sheet, 2 inches apart and bake for 8 minutes for chewy and 10 minutes for crispy.

Dust with powdered sugar, while they are still hot.

Twice-Cooked Pork: From Joyce Chen’s 1961 Kitchen to Today’s Sichuan Pantry

As I’ve mentioned before, I have a large collection of modern, vintage, and antique cookbooks. One of the things I enjoy most is comparing how recipes have evolved over the decades and seeing how cooks adapted authentic dishes to the ingredients available at the time.

Where did I find this classic dish?

I first discovered this recipe for Twice Cooked Pork in Joyce Chen’s 1961 cookbook, where it appeared under the name “Chungking Pork.” Like many early Chinese-American cookbooks, it adapted traditional Chinese cooking for ingredients American home cooks could actually find.

Today’s recipe comes from one of the cookbooks featured in my Essential Cookbooks page, The Cookbooks That Changed How I Cook

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Kung Pao Shrimp- Sichuan Classic

Kung Pao Shrimp is one of those dishes that proves Sichuan cooking isn’t just about heat. The first thing you’ll notice is the balance of flavors. Sweet, sour, salty, and the unmistakable tingling warmth of Sichuan peppercorns all come together in a glossy sauce that coats the shrimp.

Shrimp also changes the character of the dish entirely. While Kung Pao Chicken is hearty and comforting, Kung Pao Shrimp is lighter and cooks in just a few minutes, making it perfect for a quick weeknight dinner. Crisp vegetables, roasted peanuts, dried chilies, and tender shrimp create a dish that tastes every bit as good as what you’ll find in an excellent Chinese restaurant.

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Thai Ginger Chicken- Gai Pad King

My journey to discover different cuisines began in the early 80s. I became interested in Chinese, Thai and Indian food, but I had no idea where to start learning about these cuisines, which at that time were still quite obscure. Certainly there were Chinese and Indian restaurants, but Thai restaurants were a bit more few and far between.

A friend recommended this cookbook and this is where my journey to cook authentic Thai began. For me, Jennifer Brennan was my first Thai cooking teacher—even though we never met. Her book opened an entirely new world of flavors and techniques that I’ve been exploring ever since.

This recipe comes from my Essential Cookbooks page, The Cookbooks That Changed How I Cook

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Vietnamese Shaking Beef inspired by The Slanted Door

I’ve had so many wonderful meals at the Slanted Door in SF. This Shaking Beef was one I always ordered. I’d say it was their signature dish and for good reason. Although the restaurant has since closed, Charles Phan’s wonderful, The Slanted Door Cookbook preserves many of its memorable dishes.

I’ve made a few adjustments to fit the way I cook at home while staying true to the flavors and spirit of the original dish.

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Sicilian Marinara Sauce-Workhorse of Nonna’s Kitchen

I got this marinara recipe from a friend’s grandmother. She had emigrated from Sicily in the early 1920’s and settled in the North End of Boston. She wrote the recipe down in a piece of scrap paper with a stubby little pencil. I had that piece of paper for years and then it disappeared. I admit I was pretty upset. I was planning on framing it. 

She always had a batch of this sauce going on her stove, and always served it with rigatoni or mezze rigatoni. 

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