Nordic Troll Cookies (aka Peppernuts)

Ingredients:
1 cup soft butter (which, incidentally, is 236 grams)
1 cup organic raw sugar fair traded from Malawi
2 free range eggs
1 tsp ground cardamom
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp cocoa powder, heaping
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
1/2 tsp Grains of Desire seasoning (black pepper, nutmeg, cloves, orange rind, red rose petals, grains of paradise, ginseng)
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
1 overfull tsp honey
2 3/4 cups whole wheat flour

preheat oven to 350 Farenheit.

Mix spices, sugar, salt, vanilla, eggs and butter in a bowl. Mix well. Mix a bit extra because the sugar might need love to disolve.

Slowly add flour. When about half through the flour, add the honey. Don't ask why I added it there. It smelled like it needed honey. Then add the rest of the flour. Dough should be stiff. I used 2 3/4 cups flour, next time I'd probably use 3 cups. Or... roll them around in flour before putting them on the cookie sheet instead of just flouring my hands.

Anyway....

Cover your hands in a mix of flour and cocoa powder. Don't use confectioner's sugar as this would make the Peppernuts far too sweet. These are spicy cookies, not sweet ones. Pinch about a half to a full teaspoon of dough and roll it around in the flour mix until it's covered. Put it on a cookie sheet. These beauties need almost no room between them for cooking, so don't be afraid to let them get a little cosy on the cookie sheet.

Cook for 10 minutes. Remove from oven. Yum yum yum! Let cool on cookie sheet for a bit.

Note #1: If you do not use lots of flour for rolling the cookies, they will be very buttery on the bottom and a bit squishy. They are cooked, they just didn't get enough flour to absorb the butter.

Note #2: Any time I discuss spices my measurements are guidelines. I do own measuring spoons but as I grind my spices myself it is usually easier for me to just pour the whole spice into my hand and approximate. A lot of my cooking is based on my knowledge of which spices blend well with which foods, as well as being able to smell what is missing. I try not to post recipies until I've made them two or three times because often I want to create something I've had somewhere before or something ethnic and I need to A) do my research and B) try it on Russell a few times before it is good enough to share with everyone else.

Note #3: If you did not understand the troll reference, you need to find a 60 year old Norweigan immigrant man and ask him to tell you stories about trolls. You need to do this in the winter when stories about the country's monarchy will feel more real. Troll mythology, which is a fun precursor to Birkebeiner legend, is best told in the cold by a roaring fire, just as the sun is setting.

Asian Rice

You need:
2 1/2 cups Thai rice (a mix of glutinous rice and jasmine rice works)
1/4 cup wild rice
3 1/4 cups water
mix in a pot and boil.
Add a touch (1/2 tsp approx.) of peanut oil
Slowly add spice mix as it cooks:
2 tsp cumin
1/8 tsp mint
1/4 tsp coriander
2/3 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp black pepper
4 or 5 opened green cardamon pods
1 tsp brown mustard seed
1 tsp fecungrec
1 1/2 tsp sesame seeds
Crush all spices with a mortar and pestle. Crush them well. Add slowly to rice and stir. Once rice hits a rolling boil, turn heat down to medium low and cook until the water's mostly gone. Turn down to low. Once water is gone, stir and let sit with a cover. Serve. (Hint: do not cover while cooking.)

Would go well with yellow or green curry, any kind of korma and peshwari naan.

Enjoy!

night of the killer vegan chocolate cookie

1 cup organic raw fair trade sugar from Malawi
1 cup organic locally produced honey
1 cup No. 3 dark (very dark) organic Canadian maple syrup
2 eggs worth of your favourite egg substitute (I like flax)
3 1/4 cups organic whole wheat flour (can we get that local too? Support the local farmers!!!)
1 1/4 organic fair trade cocoa powder (no child slaves were used in the production of these cookies!)
2 tsp baking soda (don't mix it up with baking powder, this doesn't work so well. I tried it once so you don't have to.)
1 tsp salt
500g organic peanut butter
a pile of organic chocolate chips (no carob! Real chocolate is vegan already!)
vanilla to taste
1 Bialetti stovetop pot of espresso (I like Starbucks Anniversary Blend, but Trung Nguyen coffee would also be good)
1/4 cup peanut oil (nice and moist)
add rice milk gradually until the dough is nice and moist.

So... mix the sugar, honey, syrup, egg substitute, vanilla and peanut butter together. Mix the dry stuff into this. It will be stiff. It probably will be too dry. Add the espresso, hot or cooled, doesn't matter. Add the espresso. Then the peanut oil. Stir slowly. Maybe don't wear clothing you can't stain. It's messy. Oh, and you'll want a Very Large Baking Bowl too. Um... where were we? Righto. It is still too dry. Add rice milk until the dough feels almost fluffy. You'll know what I mean when you see it. Then add the pile of chocolate chips. Like... 2 1/2 cups or so. Small ones.

Bake at 375 degrees. They are cooked when you can smell them really well from across the room. I never did time it to see how long it takes, but as soon as you have a really distinct chocolate cookie scent, they can come out of the oven.

Enjoy!

fattoush

The measurements on this one are a bit generalized because I didn't measure. I'm guessing here. But it's my favourite middle eastern salad. I think I like it more than tabouleh.

3 toasted pitas (broil in oven until crunchy) broken into bite sized pieces
2 diced tomatoes (or 4 diced roma tomatoes)
1 bunch chopped fresh parsley
3 or 4 green onions
1/4 each red, yellow, orange peppers
romaine lettuce
3 garlic cloves
3/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tbsp salt
1 tbsp fresh ground pepper
2 tbsp dried mint

Chop parsley, pitas, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce into bowl.
In a smaller bowl, mix the lemon juice, olive oil, spices. Squash the garlic with the flat of a large knife before chopping it if you do not have a garlic zester. I recommend getting a garlic zester. (HINT: Jen wants a garlic zester for Christmas!) Make sure the garlic is submerged in the liquid as soon as it is chopped. It must not oxidize. Same goes for the onion. Chop it small and submerge it immediately. This will keep the onion from going bad in the fridge after a day. Yes, you too can keep your Fattoush in the fridge for a week before it goes horribly horribly wrong.

Mix dressing with vigour and pour over salad. Toss and serve. It's best served warm - while the pita is warm and crunchy - but it's also good after a couple days in the fridge. I wouldn't keep it more than a week in the fridge.

Enjoy!

vegan chocolate pudding

In a soup pot, heat the following at a very high heat:

2 cups rice or soy "milk"
1/2 cup organic raw sugar fair traded from Malawi
3 super heaping tablespoons of cocoa powder
1 tbsp real vanilla extract (don't use the fake crap! That stuff will kill you!)
1/2 cup whole wheat flour (gives it a nice chunky texture - we didn't have anything else in the house for thickening but you can use whatever your favourite thickening agent is)

Whisk 'n' boil and boil 'n' whisk and then it gets thick and take it off the heat when your arm and wrist get sore from whisking because it is that thick.

Jen says serve hot. Possibly with ice cream. I guess it's not vegan then but I'll leave that up to you.

Enjoy!