If finger sandwiches are sandwiches you eat with your fingers, what are finger cookies?

Halloween Finger Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup powdered sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2-3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup almonds

Cream together the butter and sugar.  Add the egg and vanilla.  Fold in the flour, baking powder and salt to form a dough.  Chill the dough 30 minutes.

Shape the dough into 60 finger-shaped cookies.  Use a butter knife to mark knuckles.  Gently press an almond onto the tip of the cookie.

Lay cookies onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack.

Although Halloween is typically thought of as a holiday for the younger ghouls and goblins, this seasonal cocktail might even cheer you enough to open the blinds and turn on your front porch light!  Cheers!

Pumpkin Smash Martini

4 oz. Vodka

1/2 oz.  Bols Pumpkin Smash Liqueur

1 candy corn

Shake vodka and pumpkin liqueur together over ice.  Strain the chilled cocktail into a martini glass and garnish with a single candy corn.  Enjoy!

Here are a few *tricks* to make your life in the kitchen just a little easier:

*If you are a little nervous about cutting an onion down to the stem, no problem.  Just put the tines of a fork into the stem end and then hold the fork to steady your onion.

*Did you accidentally buy olives with pits?  Lay a broad chef’s knife on top of the olive and smack the knife with the heel of your hand.  The pit will pop right out!

*Keep the mess to a minimum when portioning!  Whether you are serving soup or dividing custard into ramekins for creme brulee, put the liquid into a pitcher for clean and easy division.

*Cut cheese and chocolate with ease!  Just use a bread knife to go through it like a hot knife through butter.

Here’s a riddle for you:  What smells better than popping popcorn?  The answer:  Popped popcorn covered in sweet gooey goodness.  Here’s an old school recipe that may take you right back to childhood.

Popcorn Balls

3 bags of microwave popcorn, popped

1/4 cup butter

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup light corn syrup

2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium saucepan, combine butter, sugar and corn syrup.  Fit the pan with a candy thermometer.  Over medium-high heat, bring the mixture to a gentle boil.  Add the condensed milk.  Stir constantly to prevent scorching.  Simmer until the thermometer reads 238 degrees F (114 degrees C).  Stir in the vanilla.

Remove any old maids (unpopped kernels of corn) and coat the popcorn with the caramel.  Butter your hands and form the popcorn into 3-1/2 inch balls.

Hello, my name is (name withheld for anonymity) and I am a spice addict.

If the same rings true for you, keep this condiment around.  Although it is traditionally used in Moroccan cuisine, it goes well on pizza, salad, pasta, eggs and any other food.

Harissa

4 cloves of garlic

6-8  dried red chilis*

1/2 teaspoon toasted coriander, ground

1/2 teaspoon toasted cumin, ground

1/2 teaspoon orange zest

juice from 1/2 an orange

1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar

2 tablespoons olive oil

In a medium saucepan, bring 6 cups of water to a boil.  Blanch the garlic cloves for 1 minute.  Remove cloves and reserve water.  Place the chilis in a bowl and carefully pour the hot water over them.  Let the chilis stand for 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, toast and grind the coriander and cumin.  Remove the chilis from the water.  Remove stems from the chilis.  Place chilis, spices, orange zest, juice and vinegar in the bowl of a food processor.  Process to a puree and then slowly drizzle oil in to emulsify.  Place in an airtight container and top with a thin layer of oil.  Store for up to a month in the refrigerator.

*You can use any variety of dried red chilis, depending on your preference for spice.  We like to use dried Thai chilis.

October 24th is National Bologna Day

Would you believe that one of the most popular deli meats in the world is the inspiration for bologna?  Mortadella is an Italian cold cut that originated in the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, Bologna.  It has been made there since the late 1300’s.  It is a key component to (what I would call) the greatest American invention - the muffuletta sandwich.

So I guess that means that my bologna has a first name, it’s M-O-R-T-A.  Which would also mean that my bologna has a second name that’s D-E-L-L-A.  Because those Italians have a way with   b-o-l-o-g-n-a.

You can make this recipe as a healthy alternative to mayo on a roasted veggie sandwich.  It is a key component on a meze plate (Greek for appetizer).  But, if you really want to knock the socks off a house full of football fans, this is the fanciest and best tasting bean dip any of them will ever taste!

As much as we love a juicy steak with restaurant-style sauce, it isn’t always practical to have at home.  So what is the alternative?  We like a simple compound butter.  Flavorful melted butter combined with the natural juices of the grilled meat makes for an unbelievable combination.  Here’s how easy it is:

Caramelized Shallot Butter

1 stick Unsalted Butter, divided

1/2 cup Shallot, diced

1/2 teaspoon Thyme, finely chopped

1 teaspoon Lemon Zest, grated

Salt and Pepper, to taste

Soften the butter to room temperature.  Saute the shallots in 2 tablespoons of the butter.  Cook over medium-low heat until the shallots are golden.  Add the thyme to the pan and remove from heat.  Transfer the shallots to a bowl and allow to cool.  Add the remaining softened butter and lemon zest.  Season to taste.

The butter can be shaped into a log by placing it in plastic wrap and twisting the ends to create a “Tootsie Roll” shape.

This butter can be stored in the fridge for a couple of weeks.  In addition to a great steak topper, it can be used to saute vegetables in or just as a condiment for fresh bread.

How do YOU clean a pomegranate?  If your answer sounds anything like, “I just drink the juice, the fruit is too much work,”  don’t give up on this healthful delight!  With antioxidant, anti-viral, and anti-tumor polyphenols, they are worth the work!  But you don’t have to stain everything (including your skin) within a 10-foot radius just to get to the juice-filled jewels inside.

The stain-free way to clean a pomegranate is to cut it in half and immerse the halves in water.  Start breaking the halves into sections.  The white bits and tough outer rind will rise to the top to be thrown away and the seeds will sink to the bottom.  Meanwhile, your hands stay clean and you can eat pomegranate seeds by the handful without thinking about how painstaking it was to get them out of the fruit!

As we grow closer to the launch of the website, we want to give you some hints of what’s to come.  The site should be your one stop for all things cooking.  One of our features  will have a section on our favorite cooking tools.  We have thirty years of professional cooking between us. We have used thousands of tools in a professional setting and pushed them to the limit.  One tool that we can’t live without is the Microplane.  It is adopted from a woodworker’s rasp.

Its razor sharp edges perfectly zest citrus and grate just about anything in its path from ginger to parmesan.  And best of all, they are inexpensive ($14.95 on Cooking.com).  So don’t buy any Christmas gifts until you see our tried and true picks!

Webster’s defines slacking as the evasion of work or duty.  I guess the culinary definition is sort of a low work action as well.

You see, in a restaurant kitchen, a slacker is not called a slacker.  They are called a “shoemaker”.  However, slacking is a highly recommended process.  Confused yet?

Slacking, to a chef, means that they are properly thawing out a frozen item.  Ideally, something frozen should be “slacked” in the refrigerator overnight.  If the frozen food is needed on the fly (or very quickly in chef talk), it can be thawed inside a zip top bag by placing it in a container and running cold water over it.

The moral:  shoemakers=bad; slacking=good