ANNUAL DESSERT SWAP

For this year's dessert swap, I made decorated cookies.  I decorated palm tree cookies like decorated Christmas trees inspired by Honolulu City Christmas Lights. Unfortunately every one of them broke at the stump but everyone still enjoyed them.

WAIKIKI BEACH MARRIOTT DEPARTMENT MINI CHRISTMAS TREE CONTEST

 This was our second annual department Christmas Tree contest.  I made the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle tree.  Didn't win but it was fun to do.  I found pizza shaped Gummy's that I hung on the tree.  I made the pizza box and the ornaments were green ornaments wrapped with felt and googlie eyes.

 This was the winning tree from the movie Frozen by the Sales Department.  It spinned and the song "Let it Go" played over and over.

KOREAN KITCHEN COOKING CLASS

 I took a cooking class on Korean cooking from Joann Namkoong.  I learned the different Korean sauces, how to make meat and vegetable jun and mandoo.  It was fun and best of all simple to duplicate. 

Zucchini abd meat Jun

Mandoo soup

GRILLED PAELLA

 I love Paella and was craving it.  So I decided to try it on the grill instead of stove/oven.  It turned out better to me with a more smokey flavor.  I thought it would be harder to control the heat, but it was perfect.  It was so good, I made it twice when Kara's parents came to visit.

Ingredients:

1 package Spanish Chorizo or Portuguese Sausage, sliced

2 tablespoon olive oil

1 pound chicken, cut into bite size piecesand seasoned with salt and pepper

1 medium onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

Pinch of saffron

Salt and Pepper

Paprika

Freshly chopped parsley

2 cups of uncooked short grain rice

32 ounces (1 box) of chicken stock

1 small jar of pimentos

1 pound of shrimp, shelled and seasoned with salt, pepper and paprika

2 large squid, sliced in rings

20 Manila clams

 

 Make sure charcoal is spread evenly under the pan.

 Brown sausage in hot Paella pan.  Remove sausage.  Add olive oil and brown chicken until thoroughly cooked.  Removed cooked chicken and set aside with sausage.  Sautee onions until translucent.  Add garlic. Add rice and mix with onions and garlic.  

 Return chicken and sausage.  Add stock.  Stir well and get to a fast simmer.  Cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally and turning the pan so Paella cooks evenly.

 Add seafood.  Once clams open, remove until rice is soft.

Arrange the seafood and serve.  Enjoy.

KRANSEKAKE MADNESS

 I first saw Kransekake on a recent episode of the Amazing Race and thought that although these are Norwegian wedding cookies, they would be great for Christmas.  So I ordered the cookie molds and made the traditional almond cookies.  Next year I will make them into gingerbread cookies.  I made 7 of these to give to friends and party hostesses.  Everyone loved them and most people, like me, had never heard of them.  I also took a shortcut of buying almond flour instead of grinding blanched almonds.  Also, I used egg whites from the carton.  The recipe is below.

Dough: 

1 pound of almond flour

1 pound of powdered sugar

4 egg whites 

potato starch for rolling

Icing:
3 cups of powdered sugar
3 egg whites
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon of powdered sugar for dusting

Mix all ingredient until a dough forms.  If it's sticky, add more flour or egg whites.

Roll dough into a ball using potato starch to prevent sticking.

Grease cookie molds.

Roll dough into ropes about 1/2" thick and fill each ring.  You can also use a piping bag to fill the rings.  If the rings get disconnect, just overlap slightly and press down gently using your finger dipped in the potato starch.

Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes until golden brown. 

Mixing icing ingredients. Using a pastry bag with #3 tip or a Ziploc bag with a small snip of the bottom corner, ice the largest cookie with a zigzag pattern.  Continue with each cookie.  I use icing on the bottom of the first cookie to anchor the tree to the plate. Decorate with Christmas decorations or sprinkles using the icing as glue.  Dust the cookie with powdered sugar.

Tips:

  Make an extra cookie from the leftover dough into a star shape for the top.

Bake the three larger molds and three smaller molds separately.  I noticed that the small rings bake faster so this will make the rings more equal in color.

The icing dries quickly so stack each cookie after icing so it bonds to the cookie below.