Scrumptious Strawberry Sesame Cookies

I am in love with this new recipe for Strawberry Sesame cookies I tried yesterday!

Sweet and savory, this variation on the traditional jam thumbprint cookie is surprisingly good and super easy to make. I started with the recipe for Apricot Sesame Cookies on Allrecipies.com and varied it up so I could make it with what I had already in the house and not have to go to the store. Here's the recipe, enjoy!

Scrumptious Strawberry Sesame Cookies

INGREDIENTS
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
Toasted Sesame Seeds
Strawberry Jam

DIRECTIONS
1. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in extract. Combine the flour and salt; gradually add to the creamed mixture.

2. Roll into 1-in. balls, then roll in sesame seeds. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Using the end of a wooden spoon handle, make an indentation in the center of each ball. Fill with jam. Bake at 400 degrees F for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool.

Free Margarita's at Grant Park's new Tin Lizzy Cantina!

Last night, the ladies of the Flaccidity "Book Club" made our way to try out the newest addition to Grant Park's Memorial Corridor, the Tin Lizzy Cantina. We were excited to have a new Mexican restaurant right in our neighborhood (1.8 miles from my doorstep)- it's been exhausting trekking all the way (all 2.5 miles) to East Atlanta's plethora of Mexican restaurant choices.

How can you not love a place named Tin Lizzy? After all, it is phonetically spelled the way my beloved Irish relatives pronounce the name of the legendary hard rock band Thin Lizzy. Fantastic.

But another reason you can't help but love it: the margaritas are flowing, and no one is charging - for now anyway. When I got there, Kristi and Carrie had been waiting for about 10 minutes already, with promises that the wait would be about 20 minutes. Not so much- we waited about an hour for table. We didn't mind so much though because the very friendly waitstaff would deliver directly to us fresh drinks every time they noticed we were empty-handed. Which in this group of lush ladies is often. Very smart business practice, kids. Without those margs we definitely would have headed down the block to Six Feet Under's new location.

Tin Lizzy's ambiance is lively, bustling, and loud with fun mainstream rock n' roll. As you may have gathered based on our wait time, it was slam crowded which is great for them in their first week open.

When we finally sat at our table, the manager came over to check on us and offer up whatever he could to make us happy. When I heckled him about being drunk with power, he responded that he was merely drunk with hospitality. Well played, sir. He brought us over yet another whole pitcher of strong margaritas on the house.

The food was fine- their "best-selling" fried fish taco was good but didn't hold a candle to El Myr's delicious grilled tilapia taco or Taqueria del Sol's fish taco with the incredible lemon sauce. The best thing we had was the fresh homemade guacamole. And I did appreciate that you could get your tacos on whole wheat tortillas at no extra charge.

And our bill for 5 of us eating and drinking with gluttony: $47.86. Not bad at all. And not a single alcohol charge.

All in all, Tin Lizzy's Cantina is a certainly a welcome addition to our Grant Park neighborhood. Even if I did wake up with a start at 5am with a mild headache and Bon Jovi's Bad Medicine running through my brain. Prior to that I had slept a beautiful tequila-blessed slumber.

Have a Looky at my Christmas Cookies

I had a super Christmassy weekend- it was so fun accomplishing several items on my December To-Do list! The weekend started with seeing David Sedaris’ Santaland Diaries at the Horizon Theater. I laughed so hard- it's a great and fun show and the Atlanta cast is marvelous. I also made my winter-themed playlist.

The best part though was being invited to bake a million, okay a dozen, different kinds of Christmas cookies with my dear friend Sandy. It was a perfectly Christmassy Saturday in her and Jack's beautiful home. As we baked cookies, Jack and his daughter Katy put up their Christmas tree in the living room. Our soundtrack was the holiday albums of the divas: Dolly Parton, Better Midler and Diana Krall. It isn't Christmas until you hear Dolly sing "We Three Kings" I tell you!

We made Gingerbread men and women, my favorite being the three-eyed Alien Gingerman in the corner:


We made Jack's favorite macaroons and delicious wedding cookies (referred to as "Nut Balls" on Sandy's mom's recipe cards):


We made several kinds of nutty cookies, including these hazelnut cookies dipped in chocolate:



I laughed so hard the whole time I was decorating these Mafiosa Snowmen- one is Robert De Niro and the other is Joe Viterelli (a.k.a. Jelly from Analyze This):


But my favorite cookies of all are the Ginger Rosemary cookies:


Sweet and savory at once, and they smell like rosemary heaven. Enjoy the recipe- my Christmas Cookie gift to you!

Ginger Rosemary cookies

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons dried rosemary
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar, plus more for dusting
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses

Directions:

Crush rosemary with a mortar and pestal or a bowl and the back end of a knife. YOu don't need to grind the rosemary, just break it into smaller pieces.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, rosemary and cloves. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Gradually add the 1 cup of sugar; beat until fluffy. Add the egg and molasses; beat well. Stir dry mixture into egg mixture.

Shape dough into 1 1/2-inch balls (1 heaping tablespoon of dough each). Place about two tablespoons of sugar in a small bowl. Roll balls in the sugar and place on ungreased cookie sheets about 2 1/2 inches apart; add sugar to the bowl as needed.

Bake in a 350-degree oven about 10 minutes or until light brown but still puffed. (Do not overbake.) Let stand on cookie sheets for 2 minutes; transfer to a wire rack and let cool. Makes about 24 cookies.

November in the North Georgia Mountains

Driving up to the North Georgia mountains, the sun set highlighting the majesty of the purple-red mountains. Landscape marred briefly by a number of signs that read “McCain not Hussein”, I recovered quickly by queuing up Public Enemy’s Fear of a Black Planet and let it run loud. I take pictures over the steering wheel as I drive.



Underneath a star-filled approaching-midnight sky (see OPI nail lacquer Russian Navy), I listened to the stories of the proud mother of two of the stout men that make up Bang Camaro. I can’t help but grin quietly while my hot tub-wet bangs curl on my forehead.



The lovely weekend rolls out, full of delicious food including Sandy's deftly discovered real whipped cream/crack-filled fresh-baked donuts, Georgia barbeque and collectively built homemade meals with gallons of wine. Note: as tempting as it was, we did not eat the Confederate Hotdogs.

All the while the backdrop was the beautiful mountain:



the brightest reds, oranges and yellows that define autumn:



and breathtaking sunsets, preludes to crystal clear glimpses of Orion



all framed and embraced by beautiful people I am so lucky to be welcomed by.

The Kiss of Death

At No Mas! Hacienda & Cantina on Halloween night, Reem, Layla and I each drank the Kiss of Death: a blood orange margarita, made with Scorpion Mezcal, garnished with a sugar skull on a floating blood orange wheel, served on fire.

San Francisco in September #2: the Delicious Food

Mom and I had a marvelous trip to San Francisco in mid-September- this is the second installment of our tales and today I'm focusing on the amazing food we ate- complete with pictures of course.

We got great tips before we left- I relied on the two folks in my life who are San Francisco experts, Mica and Sandy. Mica sent me a list of her suggestions, Sandy lent me what wound up being an invaluable resource, the Slow Food Guide to San Francisco and we made our dining choices with these as our guides. As a result, we consistently had delicious food, saw lovely places, and experienced San Francisco's culinary offerings quite well for a 5 day trip.

Our first lunch was at Sliding Door, a great Vietnamese restaurant in the Ferry Building that Sandy took me to on my last trip here where we dined on Vietnamese spring rolls and crepes.



That night we ate at an absolutely lovely Basque restaurant recommended by Mica and her Mom called Piperade. We ate the most delicious salmon ever- it came with a tomato and onion sauce (a little reminiscent of the Iraqi style of preparing whitefish) and on the side was a fried chick pea and tofu patty- the combinations together are permanently impressed upon my tongues memory.



We had a great lunch from a Japanese Deli inside the Ferry Building called DELICA rf1 - this is spinach with tofu, green beans with carrots and sesame, and a tofu hijiki patty.



Another of my favorites from the Ferry Building were the macarons from Miette, a delightful bakery. Mom loved the chocolate ones but I couldn't get enough of the Rose Geranium ones. They were delicate, flaky and gently sweet. We went back twice for more.



In the middle of our day trip through the vineyards, we stopped in Sonoma for lunch and enjoyed this Tuna Tartine with yellow tomatoes at Girl & the Fig restaurant.



My favorite meal was dinner at Brindisi Cucina di Mare. It started with the best Manhattan I've ever had - made with sweet instead of dry vermouth. It followed with seared tuna and avocado bruschetta:



Our entrees were Gnocchi with Braised Duck Ragout and Pecorino Sardo and Risotto with salmon and green peas, saffron broth, mushroom sauce. Both absolutely melted in our mouths. We ate as Sandy would say, like piglets.





During our walk in the Mission, we stopped to try one of the purported "best veggie burritos in San Francisco" at Taqueria Cancun, a bright and festive stop on our journey. We found out about this place in this great article from the New York Times about the Mission. The burritos are huge and delicious- we should have ordered just one and split it.



Our final night was spent at Mela Tandoori Kitchen, another spot that Sandy and I found during my last trip to San Francisco. I can't recommend this restaurant more- its top notch Indian food and is inexpensive to boot. We gorged on Chicken Tikka Masala, Daal Gosh and Matter Paneer. I should have skipped the filling but fabulous mango lassi at the beginning of the meal.





As you can see, we ate some damn good foods, y'all! At least we walked pretty much everywhere so were constantly working off all that we ate. That's the story I'm sticking with anyway.

Cooking Makes Her Happy

This is a painting I did a couple years ago that lives in Ela's house now; she calls it a Kitchen Goddess. For me, I think it will always be called Cooking Makes Her Happy. It was a one-hour painting (more like one afternoon) that I did on a night like tonight: a night that I spend content and complete cooking in my home.



It's so funny how we lose track of the things that ground us the most when our pace is that of hummingbirds. Listening to the new Jenny Lewis and the old Yeah Yeah Yeahs records in my kitchen while making Potato Leek Soup and Baked Zucchini was more satisfying to me, just plain me, than anything else this week. I even had a theme that guided my recipe choices: my favorite herb, Herbes de Provence - a savory blend of rosemary, thyme, marjoram, basil, bay leaf and lavender that's used a lot in French and Irish recipes.

I stood in my usual spot to the right of the stove chopping, mixing, flavoring and tasting. I felt complete and peaceful and stopped moving for a few moments to make sure that the calm was real.

Some of my favorite memories of growing up are those simple, mundane evenings sitting down to dinner at my mother's kitchen table. She always lays out a spread, a main dish with sides that compliment and enhance it and each other. She approaches food preparation for us, her loved ones, effortlessly but with the coordination of a stylist. I have seen myself so many times in the mirror to the left of my seat of the dinner table, reflected as a mural with the ones I love most and the meals that nourished our bellies and hearts.

Potato and Leek Soup

This is one of my very favorite soups. I often make this soup on a Monday night and eat off of it for the week- it gets better each day. Though I made it tonight with the Baked Zucchini, I often like to eat this with ceasar salad and a big hunk of sourdough bread.

I've been making this recipe for years and I feel like the addition of the Herbes de Provence is what perfected it. Whenever I make creamy type soups I always use fat-free evaporated milk raher than cream or even regular milk. There's something about the texture of evaporated milk that adds a depth and creaminess- and without all that fat - that compliments the blended potatoes so well.

3 large or 4-5 medium potatoes
2 large or 3 medium leeks
2 tablespoons margarine
4-6 cups of vegetable or chicken stock
Salt
1-2 Tablespoons Herbes de Provence
Pepper
1 can of evaporated milk

Clean the leeks well, dice them up and toss them in a stockpot with the margarine. Cook them down for about 8-10 minutes. Scrub and dice the potatoes - I leave the skins on for the nutrients and it becomes really soft anyway.



Add the potatoes to the pot and add enough veggie or chicken stock to cover them completely. Add salt. Cook for about 20 minutes then remove from heat.



Ladle two-thirds of the broth and veggies into a blender or food processor and blend well, then add back to the pot (you may have to do this in a couple steps). Add the can of milk, sprinkle the herbes de provence over the top and salt and pepper to taste.



Stir well and reheat slowly. Allow to cook on very low heat for another 15 minutes and serve.

Baked Zucchini with Herbes de Provence

This is an extremely simple and surprisingly tasty dish. The herbes de Provence give it a hearty flavor that even satisfies meat-cravings if you're trying to be veggie.

3 zucchini, sliced into discs
Olive oil
Salt
Herbes de Provence
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lay a single layer of zucchini slices in a pie dish overlapping each other a little. Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle salt (I like sea salt) and herbes de Provence over the top. Then repeat each step in layers until you're out of zucchini.



Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. While its baking, mix together the bread crumbs, parmesan, and olive oil. Spread on top of the zucchini and bake for an additional ten minutes.

The Plum

Spinach, Tomato and Pine Nut Baked Couscous

I've gotten three diferent requests for this recipe in the last week, so I figured I'd go ahead and share it with the rest of the world. This is one of my favorites and the original recipe is from Quick Vegetarian Pleasures by Jeanne Lemlin (one of my all-time favorite cookbooks) but I have modified it a bit over the years.

This very pretty dish is a great one for potlucks, or can be a great dinner with a balsamicy salad. I often make this with my favorite recipe for potato leek soup which I will post another time. Here you go!



Ingredients
1 cup couscous (I like the whole wheat kind)
1 1/2 cups boiling vegetable stock
1/4 cup olive oil
3 minced garlic cloves
1 large onion, diced
2 14 oz cans of tomatoes, chopped and drained (reserve 1/3 cup of the juice.
About 5 fresh basil leaves, minced
1/3 cup of pine nuts
5 cups loosely packed fresh spinach
Ground black pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups grated munster cheese

1) Combine the couscous and boiling stock in a large bowl; cover with a plate. Let sit for five mintues, then fluff with a fork.

2) Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute the garlic and onion about 10 minutes, then add the drained tomatoes and cook 10 minutes more, stirring frequently.



3) Stir the tomato mixture into the couscous and mix in the reserved tomato juice, basil, pine nuts , raw spinach and pepper.





4) Spread half the couscous mixture in a 12x7 or other baking dish. Sprinkle on the cheese, then top with the remaining couscous.



5) Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes, or until hot and bubbly.

Mica's Birthday Cake

There is little else better than pink cake- like the kind from the box mix. Not strawberry, stawberries don't taste like that. Pink. I like my pink cake with the pink frosting, but Mica prefers cream cheese frosting and since it was her birthday I figured her needs should come before mine.

Happy Birthday to my dear friend and sister pink cake lover!

Summer Regee Salad

I'm so happy that delicious mangoes are abundant right now; like M.I.A., I salt and pepper mine and eat the slices so fast I get a cramp.

Last night my lovely cousin Summer shared with me a similar taste combination that she loves. She remembers eating watermelon and salty white cheese sandwiches for breakfast during the hot summer days in Iraq. My mouth watered thinking about it; I could feel the juice dripping down my chin.

So I couldn't resist picking up some watermelon at the grocery store this evening. In Iraq, watermelon is called "regee" (with a hard g sound). Emil says this is very slang Baghdadi, which makes me love the word even more.

So I combined the regee with the feta cheese I had in my fridge to make a salad. I added mint - because I eat mint with everything these days - and this is weird, but I have this big ol' jar of black olives from the Arabic store in Chicago so I chopped a few of those and tossed them in too. I sprinkled a little fresh-ground sea salt and mixed it all up with my hands.

It was delicious and super simple. Thanks to Summer for inspiring this recipe! I love that her name has a double meaning in the title.


Summer Regee Salad

Ingredients:
A medium bowlful of cubed and seeded watermelon
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/2 cup of chopped kalamata olives
2 Tbs crumbled dried mint
1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil (I used Palestinian olive oil- the best stuff ever)
Sea Salt to taste

Combine in a bowl, mix with your hands, enjoy the texture. Lick the juice on your wrist when no one is looking. Smile while eating.

Tomatoes, Cheese, Love from Afar

I'm sitting on my bed eating breakfast, thinking of my favorite friend. I'm working at home because I have a lot of writing to do and have a hard time focusing at my office.

But the important part is that I'm eating a mix of feta cheese, tomatoes, olive oil, and mint that he makes for me for breakfast. One of the many delicious wonderful magical things he has brought into my life. I scoop the mixture up with fresh-baked wheat pita bread that he brought me the other day from the Arabic bakery in the suburbs.

And when I think of him, my darling friend, going through a very real personal hell right now, my heart swells and my eyes start flowing and I try to send love far far east to the home in which he just landed and is likely arriving and being greeted by his loved ones, minus one very important loved one.

And I want to do something to help to make it better to take the pain away but there are no more plush toys or shampoo or strollers left to buy, no hands or shoulders to squeeze, no bodies to spoon into.

You are far away surrounded by loved ones who can do these things for you now and you will return that love.

Cooking Adventurously

In addition to finally working up the courage to sing Pantera at Metalsome, one of my New Year’s resolutions was to cook more adventurously. I have a tendency to rotate between the same types of dishes and stick with some solid standbys. I want to be more intentional in trying to make dishes that I’ve eaten and loved, from restaurants or at the homes of family and friends, but might take some extra effort, ingredients or skills. It's a much less ambitious version of The Julie/Julia Project -- and without all the liver and marrow-involved dishes -- but conceived along the same lines.

One of the recipes on that list that is in my head is Mulligatawny- a delicious Indian soup that we ate in Cashel during our November trip to Ireland. It was the most flavorful, sweet and spicy soup that warmed my bones on a rainy Irish winter day. Another dish is Mango Sticky Rice, a Thai dish I ate at a party that tasted like angels. Less crunchy I suppose, but just as heavenly.

So I took my first step in fulfilling this resolution this evening, when I made for the first time a vegetarian white chili. I ate white chili once at Ria’s Bluebird Café and couldn’t get it out of my head- I loved that it more cumin and garlic toned than tomato spicy red chili. So I researched it for a while and combined a few recipes that I found online and came up with my own combination and it is SO good! The recipe is below- try it! After a snowy cold weekend, its so nice to make something hot and hearty. I'm excited to share this tomorrow night with Ela and Malissa for craft night.

2008 White Chili!!

2 Tbs butter
2 cups chopped mixed bell peppers, red, green, yellow
A couple handful of coarsely chopped mushrooms
2 medium sized onions
3 tsp. minced garlic
2 cans vegetable broth
1 can each of Butter Beans, Black-Eyed Peas, Garbanzo & Cannelloni Beans, rinsed & drained
½ cup of frozen corn
1 jalapeno, chopped
1 Tbs chili powder
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp ground red pepper
1 cup sour cream

Melt the butter in a large saucepan, add the bell peppers, onions, and mushrooms and cook until soft, about 5-7 minutes. Add all the other ingredients (except sour cream) and bring to a full boil, about ten minutes. Reduce the heat and cover. Cook for 40-50 minutes. Add sour cream and stir. Salt to taste and serve with shredded Monterey Jack cheese.

Snow at Oakland Cemetery

3 degrees and sunny in Chicago, but 31 and snowy in Atlanta means its a perfect day to play and take pictures at Oakland Cemetery.

It was beautiful, quiet but alive and we'd occasionally come upon kindred spirits out with their cameras and dogs in sweaters. I left pieces of bread along our path in hopes that hungry birds would find them. I wanted to create a bird swarm. We would come upon the occasional miniature snowman, left smiling to greet us by its creator.

Mohammad said he'd buy me a cocktail if I did a snow angel on the graves. I very much enjoyed that vodka and soda with lime along with a way too large plate of the most delicious fries with cheese, scallions and jalapenos at The Standard afterwards.

Sugar Sugar Honey Honey

I just realized in horror when I reached down for just one more that I had already eaten the last Twizzler in the bag. It was a movie-size bag too. This is in addition to 3 lollipops earlier and swedish fish for breakfast. And lots of gum.

This is what happens when they schedule your most important legislation for a hearing and give you just over 24 hours notice. Despite this, I am happy to say that for once in life I am READY and have stellar opposition to their evil. I am the Sugar Superwoman.

Unfortunately, I think my body will likely act differently now than how it did when I was a teenager and subsisted for months on nothing but gummi bears and strawberry yogurt. The name of my zine then was Sugar Witch. I actually LOST weight on that diet. Not anymore....

Are there any cocktails that are candy-based? I could use one of those by tomorrow evening.

Meat Markets, coming home

Check out the name of the new butcher in Chicago. Beautiful!

Speaking of meat markets, how bout the Kroger in the Edgewood shopping plaza on Moreland? I had no idea that this was the new spot to cruise.

When two different guys checked me out in the time from the car to the store I thought it was a bit peculiar. When it continued inside, dude after dude walking by, looking me up and down and smiling a little too friendly, and culminating in a guy asking me out after a brief conversation in front of the dried fruit I knew I wasn’t just grocery shopping- that there was all sorts of other kinds of shopping going on- know what am sayin ladies?!? Not that I blame the guys- I was looking unusually irresistible in my hair-is-too-dirty-to-go-out-but-I-don’t feel-like-showering hat and last night’s makeup. I think the Kroger is the new heterosexual equivalent of the Midtown Home Depot for gay men.

This has been a lovely first day back in town after being gone for the last couple weeks. I slept in till noon after having a wonderful dream where I was dating David Sedaris (then while dreaming remembered he was gay, but it was all good cuz I still got to hang out with Amy and saw her craft-filled apartment). I made a Moroccan lamb and apricot tagine and tomato, lentil and orange soup. I took a bath with lavender salts and burned rose candles. And now the Simpsons are on and the Secret Agent is on his way over for what I hope will be a delicious meal. It’s good to be home in Atlanta.

La Shana Tovah: for a good year

I've been told many times that I make a good Jew- I swear it's true! Having grown up on the north side of Chicago I know the holiday songs better than some my Jewish friends. Not to mention that after going to 20+ bar and bat mitzvahs, I can baruch-atah-adonai with the best of 'em.

In true good Jew fashion, tonight I made Rosh Hashanah dinner for my favorite Jew, Ms. Twinkle. We dined on matzo ball soup and dipped apples in honey to bring in sweetness with the New Year. We hung in the craft room, drank red wine bearing a black cat and burned mixes for the monthly CD Club. Twink crafted a cute altered t-shirt from the Generation T book

The best part of the New Year festivities though was my first-ever attempt at kugel. Farfel kugel, not noodle. I'd never used farfel before- its pretty much crumbled nuggets of matzah. I substituted cranberries for the more traditional raisins and the results were delicious- and it wasn't hard at all to make. The only problem is that I don't know that it will last till tomorrow night's continuation of the New Year celebration- I have to keep talking myself out of ducking into the kitchen and cutting another "sliver".

Cranberry Farfel Kugel

• 2 cups farfel
• 6 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 4 tablespoons butter

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 9x9 inch baking dish.
2. Soak farfel in water 10 minutes. Drain.
3. Add beaten eggs into the bowl of farfel, and let stand 10 minutes.
4. Stir in cranberries, salt, sugar, cinnamon, and butter.
5. Transfer mixture to prepared dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes.