Daily Dose – Page 2 – Flamingo House Happenings

The Sugar Cookie That Saved My Life

Daily Dose, Family Funk, Foodie, Holidays / denise

Originally published on BlogHer many, many years ago.

When I was a kid, I loved making Christmas cut-out cookies. I loved helping my mom make the dough, the recipe we used came from the Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook. I loved rolling out the dough and placing our small supply of holiday cookie cutters in exactly the right places to cut out the shapes. I loved decorating them — either with icing or without. The only problem with those sugar cookies was that I did not like to eat them and neither did anyone else in my family. We ate them but we did not love them — which might be why my mother did not let us make them every year.

When I had kids of my own, I bought a bunch of holiday cookie cutters and introduced them to the joys of the sugar cookie. Like me, they loved making the cookies but they did not like eating them. Still — it was a tradition. It was something they really loved to do, so we kept making them.

Over the years, I made those sugar cookies with my kids, with neighbor kids, with Girl Scout troops and Cub Scout dens. I even took the pre-baked cookies into classrooms and we made fun cookie decorating messes in classrooms all over the world.

I thought I’d spend the rest of my life making Christmas sugar cookies that nobody liked. I had resigned myself to nibbling on cookies made by children, faking the joy until the child turned her back and I could toss the cookie into the trash… until that wonderful day, when a book changed my life.

I wish I remembered more about what led me to buy Leisure Arts’ Christmas Gifts of Good Taste. I was probably looking for some new craft ideas for projects I could do with my Girl Scouts or with my kids. This was way back in 1991, before the internet made it so much easier to find new ideas — back when you ordered books out of magazines or from book clubs and prayed the book had something in it you could use. This book has a beautiful cover, and I’m a sucker for good covers, so that’s probably what pushed me into placing the order.

I do remember receiving the book and opening it for the first time. It was late fall in Northern California. The weather was glorious and we were beginning to think about the holidays. I was excited to try several of the recipes in the book and make a lot of the crafts. My kids and my next door neighbor (and her kids) were equally excited by the idea. Both households went to work — the kids made felt Santa puppets, angel gift bags and Santa cookies (made out of Nutter Butters.) If you wander through my house, you might find some handwritten holiday recipe cards made that fall by my neighbor and her children. Every time I see those cards, I remember that time in our lives and I quietly celebrate the book that changed our lives because in that book is THE sugar cookie recipe.

I clearly remember looking at the recipe and wondering “Who puts mint in a sugar cookie?” I shrugged and headed off to the commissary because these cookies were so pretty that I had to make them.

I made the dough by myself, without the help of children. I cut the Christmas light pattern out of cardstock while the dough was chilling. I carefully cut the cookies, by this time the children were very interested in what I was doing. I sent them away and told them we’d make their sugar cookies next. When the cookies were cool, I iced them by myself with homemade red and green and blue icing — and they were beautiful.

I never expected to love these cookies. I never expected the children to devour them. I really did not expect the neighbor children (or their mother) to return my plate, empty, within 15 minutes of having sent it over. I never in my wildest dreams imagined I’d be in the process of making a double batch of that recipe before I even cleaned up from the first batch. Those cookies… they were that good. I’ve never considered trying another recipe. Ever. There’s no need, I’ve found perfection.

I’ve carried this recipe with me all over the country (and the world) and I’ve always had rave reviews — even when the cookies were decorated by pre-schoolers with germy fingers. I’ve shared the recipes with friends online and always had rave reviews. Every fall, someone emails me or messages me asking me for the recipe. When I met TW’s children, they’d never experienced the joy of the sugar cookie (TW is not a fan) and they were immediately converted to mint sugar cookie lovers. Our holiday would not be complete without this cookie — it’s not just the fun they have sitting around the table together, making anatomically correct snowmen and gingerbread girls. It’s that they actually LIKE to eat them.

Mint Sugar Cookies

For cookies, cream butter and sugars in a large bowl until fluffy. Add egg and mint, beating until smooth. In another bowl, sift flour and baking soda. Stir the flour (and nuts if you use them, yuk!) into the creamed mixture until soft dough forms. (And if I’m honest, I’ll admit to quite often NOT sifting because who has time to sift when you have a zillion kids wanting to make cookies?? Hasn’t ever hurt the cookies to not sift… just sayin’.) Cover and chill for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 350. On a lightly floured surface, use a rolling pin (or the heels of your hand like I do, lol) to roll out the dough to 1/4″ thickness. Use cookie cutters to cut cookies and back for 8-10 minutes or until light brown. Cool on a wire rack.

For icing, beat sugar and milk in a large bowl until smooth. Divide icing into small bowls and tint with food coloring. Spread icing on the cookies and allow the icing to harden (if your cookie eaters don’t eat them first!)

Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

3/4 cup of butter (or margarine), softened
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon mint extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup finely ground walnuts (I leave these OUT)

Icing (I rarely make icing anymore…)

5 cups confectioners sugar
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon milk
Paste food coloring

A sugar cookie everyone loves… who would have guessed it? (Oh. Wait. There is one hold out — TW has still never tasted one of these cookies. She swears she won’t like it. Her loss, more for us!) This is also the cookie that is causing my vegan child angst this year… so we’re going to try a vegan version and see what happens — fingers crossed!

~Denise

BlogHer Community Manager

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#Readathon Closing Survey

Daily Dose / denise

1. How would you assess your reading overall?

Well… I enjoyed it. That’s pretty much all the assessment I can do. Heh.

2. Did you have a strategy, and if so, did you stick to it?

I did have a strategy, which was to read until I needed to sleep and that’s what happened. Which is why I slept for 3 hours within the first 6 hours of the readathon. I knew I was going to nap more than usual but that was a LOT of napping.

3. What was your favorite snack?

The Asiago cheese and Pop Chips.

4. Wanna volunteer for our next event?

Maybe. It depends on life and work and my exhaustion level. As usual.

I only finished one book, A Starless Sea – which I had already started… twice! I’m feeling good about finally finishing that. And I enjoyed it a lot. Possibly more than Night Circus (sacrilege, right?)

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The Mystery of the Broody Hen and the Brown Egg

Chickens, Daily Dose / denise

Let’s start with a refresher…

Dale is a bantam chicken, which means she’s a tiny little girl who lays tiny little eggs. She was our first hen to lay and she’s laid 6 out of 7 days ever since.

Naomi is not a bantam chicken, but she is somewhat small in size and has not been a very good layer. In fact, I’ve not really been sure which eggs were hers since she doesn’t sit in the nest boxes for long and after being there, we do not find eggs. I thought maybe she was the one laying the soft shell eggs – smallish, brownish in color. It seemed likely, just based on the visits to the boxes and the finding of the eggs.

In the last few days, we’ve had multiple cameras in the coop and run, trying to figure out a) who is not laying in the nest boxes b) who is laying the soft shell eggs c) who is laying which brown eggs. We haven’t had much luck with this – Exhibit a is Friday, a six egg day, and we don’t know 100% who laid which eggs – except for Dale and Charlotte, (Charlotte lays the largeish white eggs.) At night, when the girls are closed into their coop, I generally turn all but two of the cameras off to preserve battery and so they aren’t distracted by the light coming on and off due to movement in the coop. A couple nights ago, I forgot to turn off the cam that’s pointed straight at the most popular nest box and we discovered Dale was sleeping in that box.

The day after discovering Dale was sleeping there, we realized that besides the fact that it takes her a couple hours on the nest to lay an egg, and the other girls often disturb her and she has to start all over again… she was spending a good 20 hours on the nest. Maybe more. That’s not ideal and it’s really not ideal when she’s growling at people or chickens who come near the box. That is a broody hen and we do not want a broody hen.

The day after this… Dale did not lay an egg. Another sign that she’s broody is that she would stop laying. And, she did not want to get off of the nest this morning – I had to shoo her off by waving a feed bag aka the cover of the nest box around.

So…I went out and took the lid off the nest box and I put an ice pack in the nest. Cold next and bright light should dissuade her from using the nest. Which it did… but she just moved to the one next to it. So… TW went out there and dunked her in a bucket of cold water to further dissuade her from her broody behavior and added a fan to the coop, pointing directly at the nest.

During this dunking and immediately after, Naomi wandered into the coop and in and out of nest boxes and… plopped herself down in the nest on top of the ice pack, underneath the fan. And… she sat there for awhile, got up and left, came back etc… Dale, DID NOT LEAVE… in fact, TW saw her on the video camera pushing an egg around. Must have been Naomi’s egg because Naomi is the only other hen who has been in the coop today…

So, TW went out there and got the egg – which Dale did not like. And… Naomi returned to the coop, plopped back down on that nest and STAYED… whut? TWO BROODY HENS? Naomi stayed and stayed and stayed and Dale stood right next to her and stared at her and did not move and did not move and when she moved, Naomi growled and pecked her. TWO BROODY HENS!?!

So, we had lunch and we both went outside. TW intended to dunk Naomi and maybe dunk Dale again and we’d put them in Sesame Street without any bedding and see if we could pretend that was a Broody Breaker Box since we don’t happen to have such a box handy.

While TW caught Naomi and dunked her, I filled water bottles and food bowls and put the camera up in Sesame Street and fixed some hardware cloth that had come loose. After the dunking, Naomi went into Sesame Street and TW tried to catch Dale. That did not go well as Dale is broody and only wants the nest and Dale also knows that TW has a bucket of water. While TW was chasing Dale, I was putting random chicken things away and noticed… an egg… on the ground… in Sesame Street. WHUT?

How did Naomi lay that creamy egg in Sesame Street when she had already laid the brown egg that TW had taken away from Dale in the coop an hour earlier???

Does this mean Naomi is NOT broody, she was just annoyed that she was sitting on a cold ass nest trying to lay with a broody Dale watching her every move?

Does this mean that… someone ELSE laid that brown egg that Dale was pushing around? If so – who? And when? And where did Dale find it? Is there a clutch of eggs somewhere that we do not know about?

WHAT is happening?

We never did catch Dale. She flew over the fence, landed on Mr Frank’s fence and sat there til we walked away. Then she got on the ground and wandered over to Sesame Street all on her own (walk of shame?) and there she is … all alone, and in the coop without any bedding much less a nest and THERE IS NO EGG. We know this for sure.

But the mystery remains – WHO laid that brown egg and where was it hiding?

Dale’s Egg

Naomi’s Egg

Mystery Egg

All Three Eggs (Mystery Egg at the top, Dale’s next, Naomi’s at the bottom.)

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Disney Foods at Home: Corn Dog Nuggets

Daily Dose, Disney Food and Drinks, Foodie / denise

I was inspired by Kristine Fraser and decided I would also try making Disney World foods at home. Which is awesome because Disney foods but even more awesome because I rarely cook anymore…(I’m skipping the Dole Whip from her list, because that’s not an official recipe, I don’t care what anyone says. Dole Whip is vegan and that recipe isn’t vegan. Also, we have the official Dole Pineapple Frozen Yogurt mix which DOES make more realistic Dole Whip anyway.)

Well… here’s Kristine’s version (and the original) – Kristine’s look much better than the real thing. And speaking of the real thing, we want so much to like the Casey’s Corner corn dog nuggest + plastic cheese but we just don’t. They’re not good, though they are beloved by many.

I honestly didn’t have high hopes for this – deep frying is not my strong suit and deep frying with wet batter is REALLY not my strong suit. And, we have some weird really fine corn meal that is almost like a corn meal flour that didn’t work well for a recipe TW made with it. So… I was skeptical.

I continued to be skeptical as I started dipping the hot dogs (1 cut into a nugget size and one regular size hot dog) into the batter and then into the dutch oven of hot oil.

When they suggest using a jar for the batter, for easier dipping – that should not be a suggestion, it should be a requirement. Once I switched to a jar, things went along better.

BUT important note – the amount of milk in the recipe is NOT enough. I added and added and added and added…. (You know how when you make Jiffy Cornbread, you set the batter aside for a bit so it can thicken up… that’s what kept happening to my batter. It was so thick, I kept losing mini hotdogs in the batter, so I had to keep thinning it with milk.)

Also, the 2″ of oil was not enough or my dutch oven is too darn small (?) – it was really hard to get the whole hot dog into the oil, particularly for the full sized dog. The first few were weird as they really puffed up and didn’t get very browned.

After that… I found a rhythm and a method that worked and it was a success. TW’s mom definitely liked them. TW and I thought they were ok… they need more flavor of some sort but they were certainly as good as any corn dog nugget we’ve had at Casey’s Corner.

I don’t think I’d make these again – not without some changes to the recipe which would make this not the same recipe, eh? Or maybe I’d make them if a kid or a grandkid REALLY needed me to make them. Otherwise… naw, once was enough.

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Three Disney Cocktails at Home!

Daily Dose, Disney Food and Drinks, Foodie / denise

One of the best drinks on property (fight me!) is the Cava del Tequila avocado margarita. I used this recipe and OMG, so good. Important note about the hibiscus salt on the rim. My version (ordered from Amazon) was really coarse salt. The Cava del Tequila version is much finer. Use a finer ground, if possible. Oh… did I get avocado at the grocery yesterday? I think I did! I think another one of these is in my near future. My immediate future, actually. Because why the hell not?

The next two drink recipes are here – the frozen and the on the rocks versions of the Kungaloosh. The Kungaloosh cocktails are from the old Adventurer’s Club way back before Disney Springs became Disney Springs.

The frozen one in particular sounded good to me, so I grabbed some blackberry brandy while I was at the Navy base last month. It’s really pretty much a daiquiri with some blackberry brandy tossed in for a little extra something. It was good. I bought another bottle of daiquiri mix just so I could make this again and finish off that blackberry brandy.

Since I tried the frozen Kungaloosh, it seemed like I should try the on the rocks version, too. So I did. (Is this version still available at Trader Sam’s in Disneyland – or would it be if Trader Sam’s in Disneyland was currently open?) I didn’t have any Malibu so I used some other type of coconut rum that we have lying around (Never buying that stuff again. NEVER. NOT for any reason.)

This was one of the worst drinks on the planet. Possibly due to the horrible coconut rum. I dunno. TW refused to drink it. I added Tampico to it and drink half of it and tossed the rest out. NOT good.

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Disney Food at Home: Tonga Toast

Daily Dose, Disney Food and Drinks, Foodie / denise

The problem with the pandemic is that I don’t go into grocery stores so I am at the mercy of the grocery store employees who are choosing my order. Sometimes they give me good substitutions, sometimes they don’t even seem to bother trying. I asked for a bakery style loaf of sourdough…. because I need extra thick slices for this recipe for Tonga Toast, (basically it’s the Polynesian Resort version of a stuffed french toast.) Instead, I got a loaf of regular old sliced sourdough. What to do, what to do…

I pondered taking my french bread (unsliced) that is for another meal and using that because I’d be able to cut those slices really large. But, that would leave me a meal short for the week and I just couldn’t wrap my head around a menu change so… I made something up.

I used two slices of the sourdough, put sliced banana in between each, used my hands to dip the whole “sandwich” into the egg mixture, used a big slotted spoon/spatula thing to gently lower the sandwich into the hot oil, used that spoon thingy and another smaller spatula to slowly turn the sandwich over so it could fry the other side and…

WINNER!

I even made the strawberry compote though I made that up too. I used 1/3 of a bag of Schwan’s frozen strawberry/banana mix instead of fresh strawberries.

TW’s mom LOVED it. But TW and I agreed that because the “toast” was not as thick as real Tonga Toast, it was just a LITTLE sweeter than it should have been. TW said a three slice sandwich would have been perfect. She’s right but that would be very hard to manage in the pot of oil. I just really need that whole loaf of sourdough, darn it.

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Disney Food at Home: O’hana Breakfast Bread and Bread Pudding

Daily Dose, Disney Food and Drinks, Foodie / denise

(Oops, forgot that Kristine had done this one. You can see her version here.)

You win some and you lose some. Should have quit while you were ahead.

Both ring true when I think back to that fateful day when I decided to make the O’hana Breakfast Bread in the morning and then make the O’hana Bread Pudding (using that Breakfast Bread) at night.

I read a lot of recipes and blog posts about the recipes. I watched several videos (much to TW’s annoyance.) I was fairly confident that if I could get the bread right, then the bread pudding would follow along nicely. That was my theory.

Let’s start, as one should start, at the beginning. The O’hana Breakfast Bread. I ended up with this recipe, (sorry – it’s all the way at the bottom of the page), except I added a light glaze on the top because that bread DOES have a glaze.

I actually made the pineapple coconut filling the night before and left it in the refrigerator. And either I’m really good at draining a can of pineapple or that extra time solved a problem that most people have with their pineapple mixture being super wet and runny and messy. Mine was thick and fabulous. Not a runny, drippy mess.

This recipe – it turned out pretty much perfect and as close to the real thing as I think you can get.

Winning. Super easy.

Then came the O’hana Bread Pudding. I went with this version of the recipe. I followed it to the letter except, I did not flambe’.

It was a catastrophe.

When my bread came out of the oven, it still felt kind of wet and gooey. I should have toasted it longer. Or made this after the bread was less fresh, I think. It did soak up the custard mixture nicely and the custard set pretty well but the darn thing never REALLY came together. Which might have been ok because chunks of bread alongside custard could taste ok… but there were bigger issues.

Just as I poured the rum into the bananas foster, I realized the top of the bread pudding was getting way too dark so I reached down to pull it out and cover it and… I tipped the handle of the pan and boozy hot caramely goo went all OVER my stove and floor and missed the dog and my foot by about 1/2″. I shut off the heat, shut off the oven because burning bread pudding… cleaned the bottom of the gooey pan, shifted to a different burner, covered the bread pudding with foil, brought the damn bananas back to boil and…

I apparently forgot to turn the oven back on.

And, the bananas foster never did thicken up again.

We attempted to eat it – with ice cream and without – it was TOO sweet. That was the biggest problem, really. We possibly could have eaten it if it just had not been that sweet.

I thought I might salvage half the bowl by warming it the next day and not adding bananas foster… but Buster had other ideas and found a way to pull the rest of the bowl onto the floor. He didn’t have any trouble wolfing it down before I got to it. No accounting for taste.

Did I mention I don’t LIKE bread pudding – even when it’s a good bread pudding?

Whatever. Hmph.

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Disney Food at Home: Satu’li Canteen Cheeseburger Pods

Daily Dose, Foodie / denise

As I’ve already mentioned, Satu’li Canteen is one of my favorite restaurants on property and the Cheeseburger Pods will always be on my plate – even if they did shift them over to the kids’ menu only. (HMPH!) This is the recipe that scared me the most, out of all of the recipes Kristine posted.

I’ve never made bao buns, and that’s what Cheeseburger Pods are. I am not a bread baker, either. I don’t own a steamer basket. This recipe was WAY out of my comfort zone, so I read a ton of recipes and blog posts about making bao buns – both in and out of the Foodie, held my breath, and then…. kept putting off making these. I truly postponed them 6 times before I couldn’t postpone it any longer and I did it.

I DID IT.

They are not beautiful like normal bao buns. I had some issues with them during the steaming process. But, I DID IT. I’m really quite proud of myself. So let me tell youuuuuu (hi Pippin) about it.

Let’s start with the filling – it’s just the cheeseburger spring roll filling that I made a few weeks ago, with some tweaks I mentioned in that post. I added 2 more ounces of velveeta and a wee bit more pickle, but otherwise it’s the same recipe.

For the buns, I used the recipe Kristine included in her FB post and I followed it exactly. Mostly.

I had a wide range of sizes when I separated the dough into rods and pieces so it was a bit of a struggle and my buns were too small, too big, and just right. How to get them all just right is the problem. (Should I find myself on perpetual furlough, I’m going to become a bao bun expert and solve this problem… just sayin’. )
At some point in my research, I read that you can just use cupcake wrappers instead of parchment paper so I did that because who has time to cut out 15 little squares of parchment paper for multiple sized bao buns? Not me – which was a mistake. The wrappers stuck to the buns – badly. Not good. Don’t use cupcake wrappers, ok?
This is where I left Kristine’s instructions behind and moved to these instructions for steaming them in the Instapot. The times for the steam and the pressure cook settings were NOT right for my machine. It wasn’t until much later that TW told me that not all machines are the same size or type so cooking times vary. Hah. Nice to know, now. Times pretty much needed to be doubled for our machine – and even then it just didn’t seem to be consistent. Sometimes I’d vent and NO STEAM came out, on either setting. Other times I’d vent and TONS OF STEAM CAME OUT FOREVER AND EVER. No rhyme or reason as the water level was the same for each attempt. I’d steam for 3 minutes, vent, see that they weren’t “done,” add another cup of water, steam again for 3 minutes, vent, and they’d be done. Except when they weren’t. Same thing happened on pressure cook setting. Shrug. In the end, they all worked and the buns (except for the one I tore apart mid-cooking to see what it looked like.) It just took multiple steamings/pressure cooking rounds. The steam setting made the best dough so if I do this again in the Foodie, that’s the setting I’ll use.

I froze five buns and hope they turn out ok. I’ve eaten three for lunch for the last three days (Reheat one at a time in the microwave for 45 seconds with a damp paper towel over it.)

I LOVE these things. TW’s mom, again, not a huge fan. TW liked them but not as much as I did. She’d like it better if the filling was different. Or if I figured out a better filling to bun ratio. Oh, and she also thinks my filling needs more mustard. I don’t but since I love mustard, I’ll increase it next time. And there WILL be a next time.

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Disney Food at Home: O’hana Wings and Sonny Eclipse Green Beans

Daily Dose, Foodie / denise

One was a winner, one was not. One was really, really NOT… let’s start with the winner. O’hana Wings. Yes, please… all day long. But, I’m a wings fan. TW’s mom is not a wings fan and she said they were “OK.” I didn’t make enough, there were no leftovers. I will make them again and I will double the recipe. I will also try them in the air fryer.

Here’s the recipe. I used frozen wings and cooked from frozen. I did not alternate racks for the ribs because small double oven is small and that’s too much trouble. It was fine. I did have to drain some of the liquid off of the pan (because frozen wings = excess liquid) but that was easy and not an issue.

Here’s the photo of both – ~~and that’s the bad Jiko mac & cheese leftovers there, too.~~

O'hana wings, Jiko mac & cheese, Cosmic Ray's green beans

Now, the Sonny Eclipse, errrr I mean Cosmic Ray’s Green Beans. I’ve never had them but they seemed easy and like something I’d like… I should have gone with my gut and not used the old off brand name of frozen green beans and used canned instead. Those green beans were NOT good. Not at all. I think it was the beans and not the recipe. I’ll try it again with fresh beans or canned. It really should not have been that bad.

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Disney Food at Home: Totchos from Woody’s Lunchbox

2 Comments / Daily Dose, Foodie / denise

One of the easiest Disney food recipes I’ve tried, the Totchos from Woody’s Lunchbox were pretty authentic, from what I remember. I made no changes to the recipe, except I used the air fryer for the potato barrels. But, I wish I had cut the recipe in half because it makes a LOT of chili. I should have frozen that chili but didn’t and … food waste is a sad, sad thing. Don’t be like me. Halve the recipe or be ready to freeze the chili, ok?

It was hard to get a good picture, but here you go. My version. I’d make this again.

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