Ricotta Cookies...yep they're delicious

Every year around Easter my Grandma bakes up a delicious batch of fluffy, pastel colored, Ricotta Cookies. As a child I would sit in eager anticipation of our Easter meal together because I knew that at the end of it at least two cookies would be mine. It probably sounds strange, ricotta in cookies, but these are the most melt in your mouth, send you up to cloud nine, heavenly delights, you'll ever taste. I ate ricotta in cookies before anything else so of course this is the most natural thing in the world to me. As Easter is just around the corner I thought I'd share the recipe with you so you too can share in the magic.

For a really long time I thought my Grandma was only person in the whole world who could think up something so delicious, but in recent years she let slip that she actually found this recipe in a local newspaper, the Akron Beacon Journal, years and years ago. I have to be honest if I still believed my Grandma had invented these suckers, there is no way I'd let the recipe slip. Too sacred. But I don't feel bad so here you go.

Ricotta Cookies:

Cookie Ingredients:

1 LB Butter

2 Cups of Sugar

3 Eggs

1 LB Ricotta Cheese

2 Tsp Vanilla

4 Cups Cake Flour

1 Tsp Baking Soda

1 Tsp Salt

Icing Ingredients:

5 Tbsps of Butter

5 Cups of sifted Powdered Sugar

5 Tbsps of Milk

Cream together butter & sugar. Beat in Eggs. Blend in Ricotta & Vanilla. Stir Flour, Baking Soda & Salt together. Add to Creamed Mixture & beat well. Drop by tsp onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets. Bake @350 for 12 minutes. Reduced to 10 minutes if cookies get brown. Spread icing on cooled cookies.

The icing is one of the most delicious parts, but I warn you let the cookies cool completely before icing. They just fall to pieces when they're warm, in a good way. I also suggest letting the icing set before taking a bite. There is just something so special about set icing on a cookie, and that first bite. It will never let you down.

To make the pastel icing a little more saturated I added a splash of yellow to my pink icing and two drops of green in my green icing. I liked the blue icing with just one drop of blue, it looked like the blue sky out my window that morning. To store you'll want to keep the cookies refrigerated so the icing doesn't melt and the cookies don't become one massive blob. I made these for our BBQ (posted here and here) and by 1am the leftovers were just one giant puddle of gooey deliciousness. Lesson learned: keep them in the fridge. I hope you try this recipe out for yourself. big kiss, bekuh

First Porch Sitting of 2012

In honor of Ryan's birthday being last week, we hosted the first official porch sit of 2012 and had a potluck BBQ at our apartment. Ryan built himself a smoker out of basically found objects; I'll save you the details but it involved two 16" flower pots, a hot plate, and wood chips. We smoked both pork and chicken and our friends brought a plethora of sides to share. 

This is going to be a two part post, part one today and part two tomorrow. First let's enjoy the sun and smoker portion of our festivities.

We set up the porch with every chair we own (almost) and set up a runner to keep Nellie on so she could enjoy the outside with us all day. Ryan woke up at 6:30am to start the smoker and at about noon Nellie and I joined him outside. She kept getting herself tied up in her extra long leash, and it made for an interesting, and annoying afternoon of freeing her from her self made traps.

I was ultra impressed with Ryan's smoking skills and he was so patient and attentive to the meat's progress all day. It took about 10 hours to cook the pork, and 5 to cook the chicken. I didn't have to do a thing all day, just paint my nails and read magazines. Well, and take pictures of course.

I tried really hard to get some good pictures of Nellie and Ryan but she was so obsessed with her leash that all I got were silly wrestling pictures and a nice picture of Ryan almost smiling. 

At around 5:30pm friends started showing up and the party really got started. We had at least five types of springy salads, homemade bread, yummy cheese, and delicious dips. There were too many kinds of beer to count and fresh lemonade to drink. It started raining and cooled off quite a bit but it didn't stop anyone from hanging out until late into the night. Tomorrow I'll share some pictures of our porch sitting after dark. I hope this inspires you to start cooking outdoors as the weather warms up. It's so much fun! big kiss, bekuh

Homemade Sushi for Two

For the last four years, from the time Ryan and I met, Ryan has been begging me to make sushi for him. I am not a sushi making pro, but a couple of years ago my Aunt Dana bought me a sushi making kit because sushi is my favorite food, and a person should probably know how to make their favorite food. So I finally relented and decided our first Valentines Day as a married couple warranted a special homemade treat.

We're lucky to have a Fresh Market grocery store within minutes of our house so I was able to pick up super fresh (for Roanoke) seafood on my way home from work. I decided on making salmon and tuna nigiri, a tuna roll, and two california rolls. We started with miso soup and needless to say we had quite the buffet of sushi awesomeness.

We decided on a candlelit dinner with wine for our feast and we spent an hour eating, talking and enjoying a date night in. Just the two of us.

Ryan bought me a gorgeous calla lily and sweet card as a gift and surprised me with my favorite dessert, pumpkin cheesecake. I felt lame having only provided dinner after such sweet treats from my hubby. 

After dinner Ryan and I slow danced to Bob Dylan, talked on the couch, split a massive piece of pumpkin cheesecake, and cuddled the night away. It was perfect Valentines Day; private and full of love. I hope all of you had a fabulous valentines. big kiss, bekuh 

Paella with Friends

Paella is my most favorite Spanish dish, and last weekend Ryan and I hosted a little dinner party, serving a giant pan full of the saffron deliciousness. I was first turned on to paella while I was living in London; a wonderful Spanish friend named David made a group of us paella for dinner one night and I have been a cult follower ever since.The thing I love most about paella is that it is meant to be shared, you won't often find a Spaniard sitting alone to a dish of this. It's a perfect meal for large groups and has an everything plus the kitchen sink kind of quality. I've made many variations of paella but the chicken and seafood paella tends to be my favorite.

This was the first ever couples dinner party that Ryan and I had ever hosted. Normally we invite everybody and anybody who can make it out for a good meal but we'd finally made it to that place in adulthood where more friends than not are in couples. Sadly a bunch of people couldn't make it due to other commitments but the eight of us who could enjoyed a hearty meal with sangria and good beer to share. Martin graced us with a couple of bottles of his incredible home brew and the hard to get your hands on Bell's Hopslam.

After dinner we played a fun game of "Would You Rather..." There was a lot of laughter and the realization that among our living room knick-knacks there were all the props one needed to play Sherlock Holmes for a night (thanks Lewis and Christine). Having so many loved ones in one place made me super grateful for the friendships Ryan and I have been building together in Roanoke. I can't wait to get everybody together again soon big kiss, bekuh

Holiday Baking

Before we left for our holiday adventures Ryan and I baked up a storm, making some of my favorite christmas sweets. We made mounds bars for my Dad, Mamaw's ginger snaps for Ryan, and peanut butter free puppy chow for me. 

Ryan was a big help, cleaning each bowl for me when I was done. My favorite was when he had both hands in the puppy chow mix eating all the chocolate.

I substituted soy nut butter for the peanut butter so it still has a slightly nutty taste but it won't hurt my tummy. I was really happy with the results and we had plenty to share.

I'm enjoying a litte relaxation with the family right now. I'm probably still in my pajamas as you read this. Man I love the holidays. Enjoy! big kiss, bekuh

Ryan's Perfect Turkey

I make fun of Ryan's love of research a lot. He is almost entirely incapable of making decisions about anything without researching into it at length. But, I was silent on his research of thanksgiving recipes for two reasons; first, I had to eat whatever he made and I didn't want to upset him and have him pull some prank on me. Second, I was a little nervous whether he could pull off a delicious thanksgiving turkey. I had nothing to fear, Ryan's turkey was perfect! Move over Martha, bye bye Emeril my husband's the new chef in town. Check out his bird.

{If you're a vegetarian or vegan you may want to look away}

I can never make fun of Ryan's obsession with research. This turkey was the most gorgeous, delicious, unbelievably perfect Thanksgiving dish I'd ever had. I think I won the husband lottery. Way to go handsome! big kiss, bekuh

Pack a Parkway Picnic

Recently, Ryan and I took an afternoon to spend just the two of us. We packed a picnic and headed up on the parkway. There is nothing so beautiful as the parkway in the Fall and I relished getting to spend a little time with Ryan enjoying the colorful foliage and yummy warm food. We made creamy potato soup, warmed a loaf of italian bread and brought a cozy army blanket to sit on. 

I think we will be doing a lot more outside in the next couple of weeks before the weather gets too cold. I know I'll be walking a lot in between now and Thanksgiving, gathering inspiration for our Thanksgiving centerpiece. big kiss, bekuh

Cooking Classes in Mexico

While in Cancun the resort hosted a Mexican cooking class and Ryan and I, being the foodies we are, jumped on the chance to attend. A funny thing happened when we got there though...

Out of the entire group of people who came for the class only two were female and guess who got picked to make the dishes for the men? You got it, the women, I'm sensing a little sexism here. Anyhoo it was totally worth it because I got to make this amazing dish called ceviche and Ryan took pictures of the whole thing.

Ceviche is a salsa like dish consisting of shrimp, lime juice, onion, tomato, cilantro, salt and peper. We first cooked the shrimp in the lime juice! I'd never heard of this trick before but it's one that will certainly be repeated at home. I thought I did a bang up job and based on the amounts that Ryan ate I think he thought so too. big kiss, bekuh