Happy Father’s Day! Treat Dear Ol’ Dad to Some Ol’ Fashioned Ginger Snaps

Posted on June 16, 2011

Perfectly gingery, sweet, and slightly chewy, these ol’ fashioned ginger snaps are some of the best cookies ever invented…and here’s a fabulous recipe for them. Bake a batch and watch your dad smile! Serve with a glass of cold milk, or a cup of freshly-brewed coffee or tea. Happy Father’s Day!

Old-Fashioned Ginger Snaps

Makes about sixty 2-1/2-inch cookies
2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/4 tablespoons ground ginger
1-1/4 teaspoons cinnamon
3 teaspoons baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup sugar, plus ½ cup for rolling the dough balls before baking
2 large eggs
1/4 cup molasses

  1. Center an oven rack and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Have ready 2 baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
  2. Sift together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
  3. In the bowl of a standing mixer, combine the butter and sugar and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
  4. Add the eggs and molasses and continue to beat for 1 minute, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. The batter will be quite creamy.
  5. Add half of the reserved  flour mixture and beat on low speed for 15 seconds. Repeat with the remaining half. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, cover, and refrigerate the dough in the bowl for 30 minutes or up to 2 hours. (Chilling makes the dough easier to roll into balls.)
  6. Place the 1/2-cup of sugar for rolling the dough in a pie plate. Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Scoop out 1 tablespoon of the dough for large cookies (2-1/2-inch size), or a ½ tablespoon for small ones (1-1/2-inch size), and form it into a ball with your hands. Place the ball in the sugar. Repeat  until you have  5 to 7 balls in the pie dish. Then, roll the balls to cover them with sugar and arrange them on the baking sheet, spread at 1-1/2 inch intervals.
  7. When the first baking sheet is filled, bake until the outside of the cookies are firm but the inside gives just a little when pressed, 8 to 10 minutes. Do not open the oven during the baking process or the puffed cookies will fall. While the cookies are baking, repeat the ball-making procedure with the remaining dough.
  8. Remove the finished cookies from the oven, allow them to cool on the baking sheet for 3 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack. Once completely cooled, store in an airtight container for up to 5 days or freeze for up to 1 month.

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Movie Popcorn: The Shocking Truth

Posted on May 12, 2011

Last Sunday, my family and I saw the fabulous film, Water for Elephants, starring Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson (the book was equally amazing, I highly recommend it). In the theater my kids asked me for popcorn. I said, no, I’m sorry. No theater popcorn allowed.

Why not?

Because I’m a strict mom, espeically when it comes to eating junk food, and I believe education is the most powerful tool to convince young people to eat healthfully. I told them the shocking truth behind movie-house popcorn, and after hearing it, they did not want any. I doubt they’ll ever ask me again. Mean, no. Caring, yes.

Here’s the deal. Crunching your way through a large tub  of movie-house buttered popcorn (there are about 20 cups in a large tub!) popped in coconut oil adds about 1,500 calories and 116 grams of fat to your day! That’s almost your entire daily allowance of calories and fat, especially if you’re a child. A small tub (about 7 cups) contains about 580 calories and 47 grams of fat. Also, avoid microwave popcorn brands as most contain partially hydrogenated oil. Best thing is air-popped popcorn.

Here’s the nutritional line-up for 4 cups of popcorn popped using three different methods:

  • Air-popped popcorn: Calories = 114 cals; Cholesterol = 0 mg; Saturated Fat = 1.2 g; Total Fat = 1 g; Protein = 4 g
  • Oil-popped popcorn: Calories = 222 cals;  Cholesterol = 0 mg; Saturated Fat = 12 g; Total Fat = 2 g; Protein = 4 g
  • Buttered oil-popped popcorn: 291 cals; Cholesterol = 11 mg; Saturated Fat = 18 mg; Total Fat = 5 g; Protein = 5 g

Source: Eating for Lower Cholesterol: A Balanced Approach to Heart Health with Recipes Everyone Will Love.

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Homemade Rocks! My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies

Posted on April 14, 2011

Few things in the sweets category top a still-warm-from-the-oven, perfectly crisp yet melting gooey chocolate chip cookie, and I think this recipe is the BEST on the planet. I’m sharing it under one condition: that you give me credit when people say, OMG where did you get this recipe, and then you send them to my blog, catherinejonescooks.com for more delicious recipes. I love these tasty morsels with a cup of robust coffee, my daughter prefers Earl Grey tea, while my son happily dunks his cookies in cold milk. My husband just stands by the cookie jar in easy reach of the next bite…you can’t eat only one, I’ve tried!

Catherine’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

The secret to this recipe is grinding the oats into a powder, which gives the cookies a wonderful crunch. No nuts are called for here, but add them if you wish. Also, you will notice that I call for baking the cookie sheets one at a time. Yes, this takes way more time, but in my many years of baking in conventional home-ovens (not restaurant ones with serious convection power) I have found that baking one sheet at a time leads to more consistent results. You can bake two sheets at once; see my Cooking Tip below.

Makes about 4 dozen 2-inch cookies
2-1/4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
16 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and center an oven rack. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.
  2. Place the oats in a food processor and pulse about 10 times, or until they are a broken down to a powder slightly thicker than whole wheat flour. Set aside.
  3. In the bowl of a standing mixer, combine the sugar, brown sugar, butter, eggs, and vanilla extract, and mix on medium speed until light and slightly fluffy, about 3 minutes.
  4. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and reserved oats and mix on low speed just until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
  5. Place heaping teaspoons of the cookie dough on the baking sheets, allowing about 1-inch of space between the mounds. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the cookies are light golden.
  6. Remove from the oven, cool for 3 minutes, then transfer the cookies to a cooling rack. Once completely cool, store in an airtight container. They can be frozen for up to 1 month.

Cooking Tip: To bake two sheets at the same time, position one oven rack one rung down from the top, and the other rack one rung up from the bottom. Place both sheets in the oven at the same time and bake for 6 minutes, then switch the order of the sheets and bake for another 5 to 6 minutes.

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Homemade Rocks! Roasted Peanuts

Posted on February 2, 2011

peanuts

I never thought I’d roast peanuts…then, the other day, I bought a bag of raw peanuts from an Indian food vendor, and my cook showed me how to roast them. Simple, easy, delicious is all I can say. I mixed them with roasted lentils, cashew nuts, salted green peas, and a crispy, churros-shaped, deep-fried savory snack made from dal flour, salt, tapioca flour, and chili. I served my concoction as pre-meal nibbles at a luncheon my husband, Paul, and I hosted  for thirty people.

I have to share the lunch menu catered by The Big Rajah (I love the name!)  because it was really fantastic…I particularly liked the Golden Fish Cutlets, which had a similar consistency to falafel and just the right amount of spice.

  • Basmati Briyani Rice
  • Vegetable Dal
  • Chicken Coriander Masala
  • Spicy Lamb Cubes
  • Golden Fish Cutlets
  • Brinjal Sweet Sour Spicey
  • Cucumber Pineapple Salad
  • Pampadam
  • Sauteed Bean Sprouts with Chinese Chives
  • Spicy Fried Chicken
  • Mango Pudding
  • Coconut Macaroons
  • Assorted Cookies

Roasted Peanuts: To roast raw peanuts, preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Spread out the peanuts on a baking tray and remove all foreign objects (stones, clumps of dirt, and the like) and any nuts that appear damaged. Place the tray in the oven and roast until firm and nicely browned, about 1 hour. The best way to test the peanuts for doneness is to eat one: it should be crunchy. Add 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter and sea salt to taste (you can add any other spices at this point). Mix well, then roast for 5 minutes more. When the peanuts have completely cooled, store them in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks. They can also be frozen.

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Rhubarb Sauce and “Homemade Rocks”

Posted on January 10, 2011

rhubarbI thought I’d never see rhubarb in Malaysia, but today, I stumbled upon some in Hock Choon, a small grocery store specializing in imported goods. I was thrilled to find this vitamin-C-and-calcium-packed fruit (some will argue that it’s a vegetable), and particularly tickled to introduce it to my cook, Luann, who said that she had seen it before, but had no idea what to do with it (usually it’s the other way around…she’s introducing me to exotic foods). I rattled off a list of culinary delights made with rhubarb, from strawberry-rhubarb pie to a simple sauce for yogurt or ice cream. Luann made a batch of rhubarb sauce from my recipe in Eating for Pregnancy: The Essential Nutrition Guide and Cookbook for Today’s Mothers-to-Be. The kids devoured it on top of homemade yogurt sprinkled with a bit of homemade tropical granola. I call it tropical because I added bits of diced dried mango, orange rind, coconut, and walnuts to the honey-toasted oats…super yum! They were happy, and so was I.

“Homemade Rocks” is  my theme for 2011. I’m planning to make as many things from scratch as possible this year, including bread, pasta, vinegar, flavored oils, jams, syrups, cookies, crackers,and anything else I can dream up. I already make a ton of homemade stuff, but I’m determined to take it to the next level. This past weekend, I revved up my ice cream maker  and whipped up a batch of mango sorbet. Before I know it, I’ll be making my own soap and candles, and sewing my own clothes (help me if I ever get to that stage). I’ll share recipes as I go along, but for now, here’s a tremendously satisfying topping for anything you like.

Makes about 1 cup
1 pound rhubarb, any leaves trimmed, washed, and cut into 1/2-inch peices
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water

In a small saucepan, combine all of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the rhubarb is soft and falling apart. Serve hot or cold. Refrigerate leftovers for up to 3 days. This sauce can also be frozen for up to 1 month.

Approximate Nutritional Information: Serving size: 1/2 cup: Calories: 233 cals; Protein: 2 g; Carbohydrates: 58 g; Fat: .4 g; Fiber: 4 g; Sodium: 10 g; Vitamin C: 18 mg; Calcium: 196 mg.

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Gooey Chocolate Crinkles for the Holidays

Posted on December 14, 2010

gooey-chocolate-cookiesGooey chocolate cookies don’t get any better than this. Last week, I hosted a cookie exchange chez moi. It was a smash hit. I used every ounce of discipline I had not to sample every cookie on the table. We all shared recipes, so I thought I’d share mine with you. Warning: These cookies will fill your home with the most delicious chocolate smell, and if you or anyone else samples them still warm from the oven you might pass out from pleasure. P.S. I’m giving a bunch of these morsels to my children’s teachers as gifts, along with frosted sugar cookies and raspberry jam laced with rose petals.

Catherine’s Gooey Chocolate Crinkles
Makes about 35 cookies
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder
½ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons canola oil
1 cup sugar
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate cut into small chunks or semisweet chocolate chips
About 1-1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar, for coating the balls

1. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine the oil, sugar, melted chocolate, vanilla, and eggs and mix with an electric mixer on medium-low speed for 2 to 3 minutes, or until well blended.
3. Reduce the speed to low, add the reserved flour mixture in 2 batches, and continue mixing for about 1 minute, or until well incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chunks. Cover the bowl and refrigerate the dough 1 to 2 hours, or until firm enough to handle. (Cooking Note: The dough can be refrigerated overnight.)
4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Place the confectioners’ sugar in a bowl.
5. Using a tablespoon, scoop out one tablespoon of the dough and roll it into a ball. Place the ball in the confectioners’ sugar and gently nudge it until well coated. Space each of the balls about 1 inch apart on the baking sheets. Very slightly flatten the each ball with a fork.
6. Bake 14 minutes, or until just set (the cookies will be a little soft in the middle). Remove from the oven and cool the cookies on the baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

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Strategies for Dealing with Picky Eaters

Posted on December 2, 2010

picky-eaterIf you’ve got a picky eater at home, these 10 rules should help you keep your sanity. My kids have been well trained over many years to try almost everything I put in front of  them, both at home and in restaurants, and as a food writer-author, I’ve dragged my family through some pretty strange eating experiences. My daughter tried duck brains in Beijing at the famous Da Dong Peking Duck Restaurant (“they’re okay, but I prefer the pancakes and duck,” was her response, and mine too). When we lived in the Philippines, my then seven-year-old son tried deep-fried mole crickets at a food festival. The little Filipino boy sitting next to him was chomping away on a handful of the dark nuggets, so my son felt compelled to try them. He said they tasted like “really, really, really crispy fried chicken nuggets.” His Filipino acquaintance agreed.

I also know what each of my children doesn’t like. My son despises mushrooms, and is not keen on potatoes (except fries). My daughter  picks the arugula and mezuna leaves out of her salad claiming that they scratch her throat when she swallows. She also doesn’t like tortellini, which I think is a texture thing. I respect their wishes.

Here is a list of dos and don’ts that should help change some picky eating habits at any age.

DO

  1. Get your child involved in your family’s food decisions. Offer healthy options and allow them to voice their opinions.
  2. Include your child in food preparation and the cooking process as much as possible.
  3. Eat with your children. My rule at the table is that my kids must try everything. They don’t have to like it, but they must try it.
  4. Eliminate or reduce all snacking between meals. Get rid of any empty-calories snacks with zero nutritional value (all junk food).
  5. Focus on healthy eating not dieting. Dieting can be a real problem during the teenage years and can lead to eating disorders down the road. Tell your kids why a particular food is good for them. Protein helps  build strong muscles. Vitamins and minerals are critical for healthy cells, tissues and organs. Omega-3s in fish fuel the brain. And, complex carbohydrates from whole grains give long-lasting energy to run and play…and to win that soccer game or swim meet.

DON’T

  1. Don’t open the kitchen after dinner. Say no to all post-meal snacking.
  2. Don’t offer bribes or rewards for eating, and don’t punish your child for not eating. Food equals emotions is not an equation you want to establish in their minds.
  3. Don’t make eating a power struggle. Neither side wins.
  4. Don’t fool your kids. If they ask what’s in a dish, answer honestly. Betrayal will result in mistrust.
  5. Don’t give up offering healthy foods no matter how many times they are rejected.

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Best-Ever Corn Muffins with Fresh Cranberries

Posted on November 23, 2010

corn-muffins

I have to share one more Thanksgiving recipe.  I just made two batches of these deliciously moist muffins you see here on the cooling rack. I’m hosting 25 people for Thanksgiving this year and we’re all going to sit around my enormous table. It will look like the Whos’ Christmas Dinner table in Dr. Suess’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The Grinch sitting at the head of the table surrounded by Whos, his heart popping out as he realizes that Christmas is so much more than the gifts, is one of my all-time favorite illustrations.

Sharing a meal with friends and family on Thanksgiving makes my heart pop out, too. And like the Grinch, I will carve the roast beast. Enjoy these easy-to-make tasty morsels. Thanks to my good friend, Bonnie Swart, for sharing her recipe.

Makes 24 medium-sized muffins (I used 1/4-cup muffin tins)
Canola cooking oil spray, for greasing the muffin pan
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup sugar, plus extra for sprinkling on top of the muffins before baking
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup plain unsweetened yogurt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries, coarsely chopped

  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Spray the muffin pan with the canola oil cooking spray. Set aside.
  2. In a large bowl combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and whisk until well combined. Set aside.
  3. In a separate smaller bowl combine the yogurt, milk, melted butter, and eggs and whisk until well combined.
  4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones, whisking until the flour is well incorporated. Fold in the cranberries.
  5. Evenly divide the batter among the muffin tins. Sprinkle a bit of sugar on top of each muffin. Bake on the middle oven rack for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

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Give Up Fast Food in 2010!

Posted on January 7, 2010

fast-foodGive up fast food in 2010! This simple New Year’s resolution could add years to your life…and subtract inches from your waistline.

Why give it up? These frightening numbers and percentages of a daily 2,000-calorie diet might offer some insight (values taken from Eating for Pregnancy: The Essential Nutrition Guide and Cookbook for Today’s Mothers-to-Be).

  • McDonald’s Big Mac Hamburger : 600 calories (30%), 33 grams total fat (51%)
  • McDonald’s Large French Fries: 540 calories (27%), 26 grams total fat (40%)
  • Burger King Double Whopper Sandwich: 980 calories (49%), 62 grams total fat (95%)

In 2004, after watching Morgan Spurlock’s documtary film, SuperSize Me, in which Spurlock follows a 30-day period of eating only at McDonald’s, my family decided to give up fast food for good (yes, even my two kids…and yes, even at highway rest stops). We have not been to a fast food joint in 5 years, and we honestly don’t miss it.

According to Wikipedia, Superszie Me “…documents this lifestyle’s drastic effects on Spurlock’s physical and psychological well-being, and explores the fast food industry’s corporate influence, including how it encourages poor nutrition for its own profit. Spurlock dined at McDonald’s restaurants three times per day, eating every item on the chain’s menu. He also always “super-sized” his meal if given the option—but only if it was offered. Spurlock consumed an average of 20.92 megajoules or 5,000 kcal (the equivalent of 9.26 Big Macs) per day during the experiment. As a result, the then-32-year-old Spurlock gained 24½ lbs. (11.1 kg), a 13% body mass increase, a cholesterol level of 230, and experienced mood swings, sexual dysfunction, and fat accumulation to his liver. It took Spurlock fourteen months to lose the weight gained from his experiment.”  Source: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Size_Me)

Please make getting healthy a goal for 2010…and start by saying NO to all fast food for everyone in your family. Sure, it’s convenient and cheap…but it’s also packed with calories, saturated fat, trans fats, cholesterol, artificial this-and-that, and other stuff that’s bad for your health and impossible to pronouce. It takes a bit more planning and legwork to have healthy food on hand, but it can be done.

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Say NO to Trans Fats

Posted on December 14, 2009

High in fat

In a perfect world, there’d be no commercially processed trans fats. But since that’s not the case…it’s up to you to ban them from your world.

The only way to do this is to carefully read the labels of all the processed foods you place in your grocery cart, and to be aware that commercially fried foods and many frozen foods contain trans fats (aka partially hydrogenated oil or trans fatty acids). If you can afford to shop at Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and similar venues, your work is easier. Their trained teams have already screened products for you.

Many major-brand cookies, crackers, cereals,doughnuts, and similar items get their appealing texture and extended shelf-life from partially hydrogenated oils. Fast foods are commonly deep fried in hydrogenated oils, which can withstand high temperatures and can be reused. Basically, these mega-million-dollar-manufacturers are cutting their costs at a cost to your health. While their products may be comparatively less expensive on the grocery shelf or in the greasy fast food lane, your cholesterol levels and waistline will ultimately pay the real price.

So, what exactly are these nasty trans fats and why are they so unhealthy?

If an oil is labeled partially hydrogenated, it means that the regular, otherwise healthy, unsaturated version of that oil has undergone the process of being heated, then infused with hydrogen bubbles. The fatty acids in the oil subsequently acquire some of the hydrogenation, which makes them denser. If you fully hydrogenate oil, you create a solid fat out of a liquid (Crisco or stick margarine are examples). If you stop partway, you create a semi-solid, or partially hydrogenated oil, which has the rich consistency of butter.

Both hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils are harmful because they contain high levels of trans fats. Trans fats have been shown to raise LDL (bad cholesterol) and to lower HDL (good cholesterol), and to increase levels of lipoproteins and triglycerides—all factors related to heart disease. It is also associated with an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

I banned trans fats from my family’s diet about eight years ago. Do the same  for yours! If you’re not yet convinced, check out these websites. Basic information is available at http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3045792. For encyclopedic and chemical definitions, history, nutritional guidelines, and tons more information click http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_fat. For information on legal battles, news stories, and dubious products click http://www.bantransfats.com. Also, check out my book, Eating for Lower Cholesterol: A Balanced Approach to Heart Health with Recipes Everyone Will Love.

PS: Naturally occurring trans fats can be found in some meat and dairy products, but they are believed to be significantly less harmful, if at all. I’ll tackle that topic in another blog entry.

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