How to Freeze Cookie Dough

This little "how to" is a quick and easy idea that you are going to love.  Some of you may yawn and say "I've been doing that for years…no big deal" but for others of us who haven't been doing that for years, it is a wonderful idea.  Last year,  my son Eddie and I bought cookie dough from a buddy of Eddie's who was selling it as a fund raiser for the baseball team.  It was great having access to that cookie dough whenever we had a craving for some "fresh out of the oven" cookies with a glass of milk, or to be able to pop some in the oven when company came by unexpectedly.  After enjoying that cookie dough for a while,  it dawned on me that I could make and freeze my own cookie dough… then at least I will feel confident with the ingredients, and when I pop them in the oven for company I won't secretly be wondering "how much Crisco can a person put in their body before the arteries start to harden" .

As it turns out, freezing cookie dough is simple; Scoop it, plop it, freeze it.  But there are a few little tips that help, so here they are.

 1.  Make your cookie dough according to your recipes instructions.

 2.  Refrigerate about 30 minutes to firm the dough nicely.

3.  Scoop the dough with a small ice cream scooper.

 4.  Plop each scoop onto a wax paper lined pan.

5.  Place the pan into the freezer and allow the cookie dough to freeze 30 minutes to an hour (until it is firm or hard).

6.  Prepare a Freezer Bag, or Freezer Container by marking the type of cookie in the bag, and baking instructions as follows: add 2 minutes to your recipe's timing instructions and bake at the same temperature; no thawing necessary.

7.  Remove the cookie dough balls from the freezer.

 8.  Place each ball into the Freezer Bag,

 9.  Fill up the bag.

 10.  Zip the bag shut tightly and place back into the freezer.

11.  Bake cookies by removing from the freezer, placing on a cookie sheet (grease the cookie sheet only if the recipe calls for it), and bake according to the instructions in # 6 on the above list.

These are wonderful to keep on hand for a quick dessert, and also make a great gift to a "New Mom", or busy Mom that you may know.  Enjoy and have a great week everyone. 

Whole Wheat German Pancake

Luke's been in Portland for a while now, going to culinary school.  He and I love to compare notes on cooking, and often make each other hungry with our ideas. He has had blackberries  in huge abundance accessible to him, and comes up with plenty of tempting ideas that he tells me about.  So now I have been having blackberry cravings; now mind you we don't have blackberries growing wild on every road here like they do in Oregon, so we have to go buy them and pay a pretty penny for them; thus, they are quite the treat for us.  I had really wanted to make a cobbler with them, but I ran out of time to do that,  and needed to use them up, so I ended up making a delicious Whole Wheat German Pancake with Coconut Syrup and Blackberries.  It really turned out good, and only took 5 minutes to put together.  I was inspired by The Vintage Mixer 's recipe. It was very simple, and delicious.  It worked perfectly with whole wheat flour (I actually used whole spelt flour).  I did add a little more butter to the recipe, but other than that, I did it just as she instructed.  I believe one of the tricks to  this recipe, is the 450 degree oven, which causes it to rise nice and high, and not remain too thick of a pancake, which I have had happen with other whole wheat German Pancake recipes. Also, having a cast iron skillet gives a nice brown bottom, which I loved.  This is a wonderfully quick, easy, healthy breakfast and it is a great change of pace from cereal or eggs. 

 Whole Wheat German Pancakes

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons butter

1/2 cup Whole Spelt or Whole Wheat Flour

1/2 cup Milk

3 Eggs

Pinch of salt

Instructions:

1. Preheat Oven to 450 degrees.
2. Put 2 Tablespoons of butter into an 8-9 inch cast iron skillet and place in oven to melt butter.
3. Put all ingredients into a mixing bowl and whisk or  mix together until thoroughly blended.
4. Remove pan from oven and swirl butter to cover entire bottom of pan.
5. Pour batter into pan spreading evenly over entire base of the pan.
6. Put into oven and bake for 15 - 18 minutes.  It should be puffy and slightly golden brown.
7. The parts that have risen up high, will deflate a minute or two after it is removed from the oven.
8. Top with butter, syrup, powdered sugar and fruit.

Enjoy!

How to Make a Tea Cozy

As I mentioned on my last post, I went on a tea cozy Marathon last Spring with my friends Roxy and Amy.  I had fun making several tea cozies for gifts.  I had taken several pictures, and have wanted to post this for a while,  but it took me a little time to finally put this post together. A Tea Cozy is a cozy thing…. yes, a beautiful and cozy thing.  They are on my list of favorite things, and I have loved learning to make them; I thought some of you might feel likewise. I made my first tea cozy for my mother-in-law for her birthday about 13 years ago.  I was very proud of myself when I had made it, because I didn't have a pattern, and didn't really know what I was doing. I had a pretty piece of material and went to work, and it actually came together very nicely.

I have made many since then for gifts, and for myself  and even did a couple tutorials in the past that I  posted.  I decided to post this updated tutorial and will also leave a link to a very nice video that I found on "You Tube", with instructions by  Debbie Shore.  It is a wonderful tutorial, and I think you will really enjoy Debbie.

Materials needed:
One piece of brown paper or tissue paper for a pattern
1/4 yard of fabric for outside (this is an approximate, depending on how big you want your tea cozy)
1/4 yard of fabric for inside lining (approximately)
1/4 yard of batting
Trim of lace or rick rack for a tab or for decorating. I used the tea dyed lace I had made a little while back.

Instructions:

• To begin, you will be making a pattern as follows:
• Decide the size of tea cozy you want :  
• You can do this by measuring  your teapot

•  For the width: Take your tape from spout to handle, allowing for the roundness of the teapot to be included in your  measurement.  Add an inch to accommodate for the seam allowance in your measurement. Write this down as the width.

• For the Height: Measure from the bottom to the top of the teapot allowing for the roundness in your measurement. Add an inch to accommodate for the seam allowance. Write this measurement down as your Height.  

• Draw and cut out a Rectangle with these measurements

• Trim the corners of the top of your rectangle to form a half circle.  Remember that the width is wider than height, incase you are doubting which side is the top.
• This is your pattern.  You can fold this pattern in half (from side to side) in order to make sure the sides and top curves are exactly the same; trim and adjust if needed. 

• Using your pattern, Cut 2 from your fabric and 2 from your lining fabric and 2 from your batting.  
• If you desire to add lace, or a variation to the look of the fabric, do it first before you begin sewing your Tea Cozy; scroll 3/4 of the way down the page for suggestions and instructions.
• Place one of each of the outer fabric and the inner lining "right sides" together. 

• Add a piece of batting to each set and pin them  all together at the bottom. You will end up with two sets, with three pieces of fabric on each (one for the outer cozy, one for the lining of the cozy, and one for the filler of the cozy).
• You are going to sew together  these pieces at the bottom using the seam allowance that you allotted for.

• Sew the fabric together, remove the pins and open.

• Press open seams with an iron.
• Now take the two opened pieces and place them together (with the right sides together), matching the lining side to the lining side, and the outer fabric side with the outer fabric side.

• If you are putting a tab on your Cozy, lay it flat on the inside when you place right sides together.

• When putting these two pieces together, be sure to line up your bottom seams first.

It will look like this.

• Sew the two pieces together leaving 3-4 inches open on the lining side.

You can see the opening in the lining at the top of the picture.

• Turn the Tea Cozy right side around through the opening in the lining.  Push all of the seam edges firmly to spread the cozy evenly open.

• Iron the bottom seams open.

• Tuck the rough edges of the opening inside the Tea Cozy.

• Press the edges with an iron.

• Be sure all is nicely matched and pressed together.

• Top stitch the opening close to the edge of the fabric.

• Backstitch 

• Push the lining into the inside of the Tea Cozy.

It will look like this now.

• Smooth and iron the edges.

• Iron the entire Tea Cozy.  At this point, you can top stitch at the bottom to make the lining more secure if needed, or just leave it as is.

I made a variety of Tea Cozies with lace and had fun creating a few easy designs to change around the outer material; below are a few tips for designing or decorating.

Instructions for Design Variations

You can make a variation of pattern in your cozy by cutting different pieces of fabric and sewing them back together in a varied pattern to add an interesting design.

• Cut two of your pieces  in an even cut at any point on the fabric.

• With right sides together, pin them and sew two different materials back together.

• Remove pins and iron open

• Trim with lace if you desire.

• Decide what looks best to you.

• Top stitch the lace to the fabric.

To make a tab:

• Cut out a little tab from lace or rick rack.  Pin it folded down flat into the right side of the fabric.

• Sew it to the fabric.  Keep it laying flat on the inside as you sew together your pieces.  
• Now back to the top to finish putting your Tea Cozy together.

Yes, I know, that was a lot of pictures… but well, I couldn't seem to help myself.

Here is the "How to" Video by Debbie Shore;
I'm sure you will really like it.

  Enjoy everyone, and have fun sewing.