Hard Boiled Eggs

Yes, there is in fact a wrong way to hard-boil eggs. And the wrong way results in rubbery whites and yolks with that signature grey/brown coloring on the outside. Follow these simple steps to a perfectly cooked egg every time!


1. Place eggs in saucepan in a single layer.
2. Fill pan with cold water, covering eggs by 1 inch.
3. Place over medium-high heat. Cover; bring to a boil. When you see the water just starting to get tiny bubbles from the heat, add a spoonful of salt and place lid back on.
4. As soon as the eggs come to a rolling boil, turn off heat; let stand, covered (don't even think about peeking in there or you'll lose all of the heat), 12 minutes.
5. Transfer eggs to bowl of ice water. Let stand for about 5 minutes, then remove.

Glace Icing

Glacé Icing
1 lb powdered sugar (about 3 3/4 C)
6 T milk (low-fat actually works, but use whole if you can)
6 T light Corn Syrup (6T is equal to 1/4 C plus another 2 T)
1 t extract (I prefer almond)

Directions:
With a whisk, combine sugar and milk until smooth (no lumps!) Then stir in corn syrup and extract.

You will use this same recipe for both glazing and piping. The way it is right now is the consistency you want for glazing. It easily runs off the whisk in a thin drizzle. To prepare the icing for piping, you just add more powdered sugar. You can't really mess it up because if it's too thick you just add more milk and if it's to thin, you add more powdered sugar. It gets to a point where it's relatively hard to whisk it by hand. When I pick up the whisk, it still runs off, but in a very slow, thick stream. For thin icing, use a small spoon to add icing to cookie. You need to wait for the icing to set before you pipe on top of it. It doesn't have to be completely dry, but just set on top. An hour or two will probably be enough. If it's dry to the touch you can go ahead and decorate.
This is a good frosting recipe because when the icing drys you can stack the cookies with no fear of smudging the decorating.

Sausage Gravy

Ingredients:
½ pound ground breakfast sausage.
2 Tbs butter
4 Tbs all purpose flour
3 C. cold milk
Salt and pepper to taste
I like to use a little paprika

Directions:
Brown sausage in skillet. As soon as sausage is completely brown, turn to medium heat. Add flour by the tablespoon, stirring constantly. Let the flour turn BROWN before adding another tablespoon (if you don't, your gravy will taste like flour). After you have added enough flour to make the gravy as thick as you like, add milk and stir with whisk.

Biscuits

Ingredients
2 C. flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs shortening
1 C. buttermilk, chilled

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using your fingertips, rub butter and shortening into dry ingredients until mixture looks like crumbs. (The faster the better, you don't want the fats to melt.) Make a well in the center and pour in the chilled buttermilk. Stir just until the dough comes together. The dough will be very sticky.

Turn dough onto floured surface, dust top with flour and gently fold dough over on itself 5 or 6 times. Press into a 1-inch thick round. Cut out biscuits with a 2-inch cutter, being sure to push straight down through the dough. Place biscuits on baking sheet so that they just touch. Reform scrap dough, working it as little as possible and continue cutting. (Biscuits from the second pass will not be quite as light as those from the first, but hey, that's life.) Bake until biscuits are tall and light gold on top, 15 to 20 minutes.

Ham

I wanted to share my glazed ham with you.

German Pumpernickel Bread

INGREDIENTS

1/4 C. unsweetened cocoa	2 pkg. active dry yeast (4 1/2 tsp.)
2 Tbs. sugar	1 Tbs. caraway seed (omitted)
1 1/2 tsp. salt	3 C. rye flour
2 C. water	1/4 C. molasses
1/4 C. butter	3 C. all-purpose flour, sifted

INSTRUCTIONS

In large bowl, stir together yeast, cocoa, sugar, caraway seed, salt, and 2 cups rye flour; set aside. In 2-quart saucepan over low heat, heat water, molasses and butter until very warm (120-130°F). Gradually beat molasses mixture into flour mixture until well blended. Your end result is a very smooth dough that looks like whipped chocolate frosting. Add remaining 1 cup rye flour and beat 2 more minutes. Stir in enough all-purpose flour to make a soft dough. Turn out dough onto lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic.
Place into large bowl with a few teaspoons of canola oil, turning over dough so that top is greased. Cover with towel and let rise in warm place until almost doubled, about 45 minutes to an hour. Punch down dough. Divide in half. Cover and let rest 5 minutes. Shape each half into a round loaf.
Place, 4-inches apart, on greased large baking sheet. Cover and let rise until almost doubled, 45 minutes to an hour. Diagonally slash each loaf, crosswise, 3 times. Bake in 375°F oven for 20 minutes. Cover loosely with foil; bake 15 minutes more or until loaves sound hollow when tapped. Immediately remove from baking sheet. Brush tops of hot loaves with shortening and let cool. (omitted)

Linzer Cookie

Ingredients:
2/3 cup hazelnuts (3 oz)
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 12-oz jar seedless raspberry jam

Directions:
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F.

Toast hazelnuts in a shallow baking pan until fragrant and skins begin to loosen, about 6 minutes. Rub nuts in a kitchen towel to remove any loose skins (some skins may not come off), then cool to room temperature. Pulse nuts and 1/4 cup brown sugar in a food processor until nuts are finely ground. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl.
Beat together butter and remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes in a stand mixer (preferably fitted with paddle) or 6 minutes with a handheld. Add nut mixture and beat until combined well, about 1 minute. Beat in egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture, mixing until just combined.
With floured hands, form dough into 2 balls and flatten each into a 5-inch disk. Chill disks, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, at least 2 hours. Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 350°F.
Roll out 1 disk of dough into an 11-inch round (1/8 inch thick) between 2 sheets of wax paper (keep remaining dough chilled). If dough becomes too soft to roll out, rewrap in plastic and chill until firm. Cut out as many cookies as possible from dough with larger cookie cutter and transfer to 2 ungreased large baking sheets, arranging about 1 inch apart. Using smaller cutters, cut out centers from half of the cookies, reserving centers and rerolling along with scraps (reroll only once). Bake cookies, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until edges are golden, 10 to 15 minutes total, then transfer with a metal spatula to racks to cool completely. Make more cookies from second disk.
Spread about 1 teaspoon jam on flat side of 1 solid cookie and sandwich jam with flat side of 1 windowed cookie. Sandwich remaining cookies in same manner.