Raspberry Cream Sandwich

This is another one with the recipe printed on her web-site. Right here. Winona does not carry whole vanilla beans, so I had to omit that. I just used the highest quality vanilla extract I could find, Watkins brand, a company located right here in Winona! And, raspberries are also not available here, so I had to use frozen. I am thinking that is the reason why the cream filling turned out runnier than I would have liked. Sigh. I guess you have to live in a fabulous place like Miami or New York to have the correct ingredients. Tasty cookie, hubby loved it.

Almond Macaroon

This recipe is on the Queen's website, here ya go. My husband and kiddo loved these, but I wasn't a fan. They turned out runnier than expected, and I had to thicken the dough. Maybe bad almond paste?

Almond Horn

I didn't make up a cookie last week, things were out of control with getting home from vacation and from getting ready for our garage sale. So I have made up the Almond Horn. This recipe is on Martha's page, here is the link for it.

The cookie was easy enough to make. I had a hard time getting the shape perfect like Martha's. My hands were too warm, so I had to work quickly or the dough would get all melty. I also should have food processed the almonds to a finer texture than what I did. They are a good cookie, not too sweet, nice crisp.

Alfajores de Dulce de Leche

My first Martha Stewart Cookie! I won't be publishing the recipes here, copyrights and all. Some of the cookie recipes are listed on the web-site, and I'll try to provide links to that. This one was pretty easy to make. I prepared the dough a few days ago and just kept it in the refrigerator in plastic wrap. Some problems I ran into:

• Called for 4 cups of flour, I only had 3 and 3/4 cup, so I had to use 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour. It gave it a sort of multi-colored looked.
• Didn't have a double boiler to make the center filling
• Didn't have 5 hours to watch the center filling on the double boiler
• Unsure what "dusting sugar" is
• Don't have 1.75" round cookie cutters
  

I saw a side note on the recipe that some stores sell the filling pre-made and I was able to locate that, so it took care of the not having a double boiler or five hours. I used the top to my martini shaker as the cookie cutter. I guess it is all just a learning process.

I found the cookie tasty and good for people who have egg or nut allergies. The cookie portion was very close to a pie crust, and the filling like carmel. Messy and sticky though

Chicken

Today was my first time making a whole chicken. I've done whole turkeys before, but this was new. I put some herbs (rosemary, oregano, basil) and olive oil under the skin, salt and peppered it, baked it at 450 degrees for nearly an hour, and that was all. The husband was really excited about it, so it's a keeper recipe.

Martha Stewart's COOKIES

The Bradberg's have decided to begin an exciting journey. I have recently bought Martha Stewart's Cookie recipe book. And there are so many fabulous looking recipes, that we have decided to make up one per week. This adventure will take us 3 years (if our waistlines can handle it). I have made a spreadsheet that lists the cookies in alphabetical order, which I think is the order we will go at it. The chronological order in the book has this by catagories, and this way it breaks up the different types, so we don't have months of chewy or crisp cookies in a row. Here is the link to the spreadsheet.

Heath Bar Cookies

My Grandmother-in-Law shared this gem with me. Very fab, but ooooh so bad for you.

• 1 sleeve of saltine crackers
• 2 sticks of REAL butter
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 bag of milk chocolate chips
• 1 cup of chopped pecans

Line a jelly roll pan with aluminum foil. Arrange saltine crackers on it, one layer thick, corner to corner. Melt butter into a small saucepan, add brown sugar. Mix until it begins to bubble, then remove from heat. Add the baking soda and pour onto crackers. Bake at 350 degrees for 7 minutes, or once it begins to bubble. Sprinkle on milk chocolate chips and bake for a minute to melt the chips. Sprinkle with nuts and allow to fully cool. Break apart, store in a Tupperware container in the refrigerator.