I have posted some new speaking engagements on the Speaking page. If you are in St. Louis or nearby, I'll be in two places the 14th of March, morning and evening, so do check that out. And if you are interested in listening to podcasts or downloading other talks of mine, Rosie has worked her magic and added those as well.
~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~
Every Thursday, here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
My friend brought me tulips and I remembered about the penny! They stood right up the whole time!
{happy}
Looking for a little snack that doesn't have refined sugar in it? I know I am. If you are here on this blog for the most Lenten, abstemious, penitential, and rock-bottom sorts of tips on how never to eat a thing until Easter, you are not exactly in the right place.
Snackers gotta snack.
So here you go: Lenten “cookies” that you can have with tea or milk or a battered tin cup of cold water, your choice. They make me happy because they have dates in them, they don't feel like guilt with icing on top, and I can send them to my little college gal who runs laps around me, penance-wise. That'll get her.
The recipe is at the end of the post. These are the pictures so you know you are on the right track, but listen, this is simple. Here's what your dough will look like (yes, you can do it by hand too — find a stray 11-year-old and make him do it):
Take your scraps and roll out in a shape that approximates the dish you want to bake it in, so you don't spend all day rolling out and cutting into circles what will then be quite dry biscuits indeed:
Cut the bars while they are still warm.
{funny}
I was going to post about soup, as promised, but my method for making soup is most un-reproducible. I gave up. We had two soups the other night: Broccoli cream soup, which I've posted about before (you can make it cream of Anything, really). In this case I also threw in a small amount of mashed potatoes that I was saving to put in my bread dough but couldn't find at the time. I used some broth from the roast chicken we had had on Saturday as well as milk and cream.
The second one was using the leftover mujadara (cracked wheat and lentils that we always have for Ash Wednesday and Good Friday). Usually I blend it into homemade cream of tomato soup — it adds a nice body and is so nourishing. But this time I also had sauce left over from Chicken Curry Casserole* (which wasn't absolutely curry — it had ras el hanout in it as well, which is an Egyptian spice mix) and a little bit of delicious ratatouille.
So I made what I described as “North African Lentil Soup” — well, it was good. But try making a recipe for it!
But that is what I do. And it's always tasty, you know? But hard to blog about…
This is me taking out the various leftovers and brainstorming. The apple slices are not involved:
This is me making stock, which in this case consisted of the chicken carcass, previously roasted, in water with some mushroom stems I had squirreled away on the freezer:
This is me, starting the broccoli soup:
So yeah, here you go —
— but no recipe!
{real}
Always be careful of the stray date pit! My poor food processor blade!
Lenten “Cookies” Like Mother, Like Daughter
Preheat the oven to 350°
- About 3/4 cup chopped dates (less or more is fine) — if you have whole, pitted (supposedly) dates, process them now in the food processor to chop them and set aside to add at the end. If you have chopped dates, just add them at the end.
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/2 cup butter
Process or otherwise cream the honey and butter.
Add:
- 1 c. all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1 tbsp. to 1/4 c. sesame seeds
- 1 tsp. vanilla or in this case, orange blossom water, which I realize you might not have on hand, but which goes with sesame and dates, or any little spoonful of liquid of your choosing just to help the dough come together if it's not.
Process or mix well.
Add:
- 1 c. dry rolled oats (for the food processor, regular will be good; for mixing by hand, quick-cooking might be best, but it doesn't really matter)
Process well.
Add the chopped dates and mix together. Your dough should look like the first cookie photo up above.
Roll to about 1/4 inch on a lightly floured board, cut into rounds with a cookie cutter. Put the scraps into a ball and re-roll, putting this dough into a pan that will fit it — cut into bars after it bakes, before it cools.
Bake on a greased cookie sheet (and pan) at 350* for 8-10 minutes (a bit longer for the bars). Cool on a rack.
~~~
*You can google this highly American hot-dish–style recipe, but you will get something very NOOCD**. I make it with real cream sauce, leftover chicken from a roast, the rice and broccoli that I served with said roast, and just a little or no actual, not lite, mayo and lots of whole-milk yogurt. I try to make extra sauce to use for something else, in true Save-A-Step fashion.
**NOOCD = “Not Of Our Class Dear,” an acronym developed by a college classmate's grandmother to warn her away from people said grandmother did not approve of. A useful code to bandy about, very un-PC, but there you go. In this case referring to canned cream of mushroom soup, velveeta, and the like. But when classy-ed up, a nice way to use roast chicken leftovers, and one of Bridget's faves.
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Julie V S says
Ah, just what I needed! I have dates, all the other ingredients (including orange flower water), and a great need for not-excessively-indulgent snacks for myself (nursing twins) and the 3-year-olds. Certainly, in my case, taken with tea. The whole wheat oatmeal pecan raisin cookies I made a few days ago are almost gone, and I was wishing yesterday for a date-sweetened recipe to make next. So, many thanks! This certainly brightens my morning.
Laura says
Your tulips are such a beautiful color & I especially love the Calico Critters sitting next to them. Bring back lots of memories from my childhood.
I am definitely pinning the recipe for those Lenten cookies. They look right up my alley as I love a hearty cookie with my afternoon tea.
Julie V S says
And it will certainly brighten a number of Lenten moments, beyond this one. 🙂
Kathy@9peas says
I always love your photos, but just loved the little critter family with the tulips (and I need to remember the penny). Thank you for the recipe ideas, I’m always searching for new ways to prepare lentils.
Margo, Thrift at Home says
what’s the penny trick with the tulips? Just add a penny to the water? I think I could use some tulips. . .
LOVE the new acronym! Do you say it as an acronym, or do you say it phonetically as a word? You can tell this is going right into my vocabulary.
And I do love soup and your method. It shows years of kitchen wisdom and creativity. Hard to explain to the young things, but I’m glad you try because it’s collective wisdom that must not be lost.
Leila says
Margo, yes, just put the penny in the vase!
My college friend said the letters. Don’t know how you’d make a word of it! So actually kind of awkward and totally not under the radar, you know? If you said to your granddaughter, in the presence of the person you were so designating, “N-O-O-C-D!” — would it not cause comment?? Questions?? I find it so hilarious.
I’m glad you get my soup-making methods 🙂
Margo, Thrift at Home says
My husband’s family uses an acronym that I love and find useful far more than I probably should: TTFW (too tacky for words). But I MUST figure out an under-the-radar way to say “not-of-our-class-dear.” Spending mental energy on this, yes.
Leila says
Margo, that is stellar. TTFW — that’s going in MY lexicon.
We’ve just always gone with NOOCD. The clunkiness appeals to me at this point, and I love the little touch of the “Dear” at the end. Makes me laugh.
Jenny says
I have a question about making Cream of Mushroom soup. I, too, vastly prefer homemade, but how do you make it without it being extremely expensive? I can buy a can of it, which is definitely inferior, for around a dollar, but I spend upwards of ten dollars trying to make it myself. I am obviously going wrong somewhere. Help!
Leila says
Jenny, I have no idea how you are getting that sauce to cost $10!
First, keep your eye out for mushrooms — does your store ever put them in the discount rack? If they are basically sound, grab them. Chop them fine, chop some onions fine, and cook it all up in some butter or oil. Freeze it in portions — maybe 1/2 cup in a ziploc bag.
Learn to make a basic bechamel sauce: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/white-sauce-or-bechamel-sauce-40046
BUT — actually, use a bit more flour, because the flour and butter should be equal *by weight*, and if you make them equal by volume the sauce isn’t going to be just right. You want more like 2 T butter to 3 T flour — BUT of course you are not making a measly 1 1 /2 cups of sauce! Go ahead and make a good amount — just use a bit more flour than butter.
Also, no need to heat the milk. Just whisk it in slowly and you won’t have lumps. Keep whisking and bringing to a boil until the sauce is the thickness you would like.
NOW — for cream of MUSHROOM — use your chopped-up mushrooms and onions, putting them in the butter before adding the flour. If you don’t have any stashed away, cook them in the butter (say, one small onion and 4 oz mushrooms, chopped fine) until the moisture is cooked away, and then proceed with your recipe.
At the end, when the sauce is cooked, you can add a bit of heavy cream — say, 1/4 cup cream to 4 cups of sauce.
If you want to have cheese sauce, add grated cheese at the end (use sharp SHARP cheddar). If you want, you can use stock for half the milk.
Add a little dried mustard to the butter for a deep flavor.
The most expensive ingredient is the mushrooms, and here, 4 oz would cost me something like 60-75 cents — but if there is a mark-down area in your store, you should be able to do better than that!
Jenny says
I think I see the discrepancies. First we used way too much cream and not nearly enough milk. Secondly, I think we used two packages of mushrooms. Mushrooms galore! This is what happens when you look at the contents of the can and try to reproduce it yourself without a guide.
But the biggest reason mine cost so much is because our mushrooms must cost a whole lot more here. I am not sure of how many ounces are in a package–it might be more than four–but a single package of mushrooms costs at least $2.50. So two of those packages equals five dollars plus a container of cream, which we don’t keep but only buy when needed, is another two dollars, plus the cost of the various odds and ends. So maybe $10 was an exaggeration, but it was definitely $8-$9.
I will endeavor to make it again with a better understanding of what I am doing and I will use your instructions.
Leila says
Jenny, so funny!
I can see why you were defeated!
Regular grocery-store packages are about 8 oz. I think. But in our stores, there is usually a bin with loose mushrooms by the pound, and those are around $2.30. Vs. more like $3.50/lb for the packages. But do hunt down the reduced bin if there is one, because when you cook them, who cares whether they were a few days old (they’d be that old in your fridge anyway!).
Of course you can make this super cream-filled. But do start with the regular milk-based “cream” sauce and see what you think. You can always add cream later.
You can also do sour cream if that’s what you have handy. But just milk alone will make a good sauce that in the recipe (Chicken Curry Casserole) you will be adding a little mayo and whole-milk yogurt for richness.
Jeannie says
Pretty tulips! I never knew about the penny. I have always used a pin or needle to poke a hole right through the stem at the base of the flower, where they meet, that has given me pretty tulips that stand. I got the tip from a book on arranging flowers. Well that and to trim them on the bias. I may have to try the penny.
Jenny says
Oh, I forgot. The date cookies look wonderful. I adore dates.
Katie says
The asterisked footnotes at the end are super helpful. Here in the South, so many of the recipes I first learned to make (before I learned to really cook, you might say) (and what I took as a given from the women I saw cooking in the 80s and 90s) are just this sort of cheesy, sauce-y, out-of-the-box-or-can casserole. But alas, some of them are my favorites and so comforting! I’ve been trying to think it all through and accomplish the same dish in different ways, but exactly how to skip the “cream of”s has stymied me a little. Just that one sentence with examples is a great starting point– I can run with that! Your mac and cheese post has also really helped me with the cheesy things. Thanks!
Maurisa says
Beautiful tulips!
Those cookies look delicious. I wonder if I can sub a different flour, as my hubby is allergic to oats. Hmmmm.
I love cream of anything soup, but alas, my family has dairy issues. Sigh. At least I can make curried cream soups that call for coconut milk, but I really doubt coconut milk would make a good cream of broccoli soup.
Nothing beats home made stock! So delicious and good for you! Yum!
Leila says
Maurisa, I think you can add another flour. I think almond flour would work, or just more all purpose until you get the right consistency.
Kimberlee says
Your cookies are like Hinkelsteins. Earlier today I told me daughters we should make some very soon. Raisins and especially dates are like chocolate during Lent. (although someone commented the other day that even milk is sweet…) We always do them in thin bars but your cookie rounds are so cute we might have to try them that way. And I’ve never thought of adding orange…thanks!
Mary says
Ooh…I’m planning on upping the dates at the end of this pregnancy since research just came out recently that they really do shorten labor! How cool is that?!? I’ll have to keep this recipe in mind!
Stephanie says
Thank you for your recipes, lovely post, and encouragement – both Lenten and general! Going along with these recipes, I was wondering if I might ask whether you have any general strategies or suggestions for trying to develop one’s overall cooking abilities? I’m afraid that mine seem fairly poor, or at least undeveloped, in their “natural state,” and I’d like to improve them somewhat. (Unfortunately, I don’t enjoy cooking, so I do it out of necessity and don’t generally take pleasure in it, and while I firmly believe that there are tasks which we all must accomplish regardless, and that not everything needs to be pleasurable (despite what some claim, à la “make everything fun and engaging!”), this does create somewhat of a negative self-reinforcing set of experiences/emotions in which I don’t like to cook, don’t feel confident about it, and am not all that adept at it.) At any rate, the main thing I can think of to try to improve a bit is frankly just to push through and keep working at it! But I’d love to hear any other thoughts on the subject! (And thank you for reading all of this!) 🙂
Leila says
Stephanie, I have posted here: http://www.likemotherlikedaughter.org/2013/12/cookbooks-in-life-syllabus-library/
about how I learned to cook the basics.
Step one:
1. Enjoy food and think about things you like to eat. Get hungry and NEED to make those things!
2. Learn the basics by heart, like making a cream sauce (see comments above).
3. Try something a little out of your comfort zone (like roasting a chicken maybe) — first read a few recipes through and through, then do it, then think about what you will do next time, then do it again soon.
I am the worst about recipes here on the blog, but I do try, when I make something for you here, to give you the process… maybe searching some of my archives will help! Try the roast pork recipe… http://www.likemotherlikedaughter.org/2010/01/best-pork-roast-and-its-aftermath-with/
Michele says
I can’t wait to see you in St. Louis!!! I’m really looking forward to it. 🙂
Julie says
Soup season is the best, and a perfect use for leftovers. I made butternut squash variety last week that did include some random apple slices that were left out on the kitchen counter!
Kerry says
Dear Auntie– I love all the kitchen wisdom I’ve learned from you! Please keep sharing your tips. I’m curious about the mushroom stems you “squirreled away in the freezer”. Could you share a bit about that? Do you just pop them off and throw them in the freezer in a bag, or do you prep them in some way first? When you make stock, do you just throw them in in their frozen state? We love mushrooms, and my store often runs sales on organic packages for just a $1! I always throw the stems away, though, and I love the idea of making them useful.
Leila says
Kerry, yes, when I’ve washed the mushrooms, I set the stems aside after popping or cutting them off. Then when I’m cleaning up, I stick them in a little baggie of some sort or into one already in use in the freezer with other mushroom stems, carrot ends, parmesan rinds, and parsley stems.
I posted about this here: http://www.likemotherlikedaughter.org/2014/01/12-things-to-stash-that-will-help-you-get-supper-on-the-table/
When it’s time to make stock, just throw the contents of that bag right into the pot! As is!
Laurel says
These Lenten cookies are such a wonderful idea! Adding them to the baking list this next week….
Woman of the House says
Beautiful tulips! And thank you for the recipes. They look yummy!
Melissa says
Lenten cookies were a big hit with the husband and a guest! Thanks for the recipe.
Juliana says
Loved the cookie recipe! We used dried figs instead of dates (because we had figs and not dates), but otherwise stuck to your recipe, orange blossom water and everything. I was especially excited to find a recipe for cut-out cookies that was actually tasty, yet not so finicky as to make me cuss quietly to myself as I worked. So these will probably turn up at our house at Christmas, too. Thanks!
Emily says
….can’t think of anything less penitential than these cookies in Lent….maybe except making them on a Friday in Lent. Which I just did. And can I tell you that these were amazing?! I didn’t think I ws a fan of dates (or sesame seeds, for that matter) but these couldn’t have been more delicious. They made a great accompaniment to tea! Thanks for,the recipe, which is most definitely going in my book!
Holly says
I just made these delicious cookies using almond flour. They are amazing! I could not roll them out but just scooped the dough onto my greased cookie sheet and patted them into circles. I will definitely make these again…even when Lent has passed.