Lemon Ricotta Cookies

It was a loooong weekend. I ended up with a total cook talley of 7 items. A lot of it was for the newest set of cookie boxes sent out and also because this is the first weekend I’ve been home, and therefore able to cook lots of things., ina long time. Even though there’s not much space in the kitchen in the apartment and its not nearly as well stocked as our kitchen back home was (All of those things are packed away right now.) It’s still drastically better than what I have in the dorm, so I’m happy.

The week started off with Lemon Riccotta Cookies (stolen from the Cookie Carnival). These were Dad’s favorite by a landslide and we wants them soon, he’s also a huge lemon fan. These cookies were more like little cakes. I don’t know if this was a function of the ricotta (which made the batter taste funny but couldn’t be detected in the final cookie at all) or just the cookie itself. I’ll have to try more whoopee pie recipes and see. They were super light and airy but lemony at the same time. They were supposed to be made into “whoopee pies” but I ran out of granulated sugar so instead I made an icing out of powdered sugar and lemon juice and drew lines over the cookies.

Ricotta....?

From Food

hmmm...not quite

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I only remembered to take a picture of the very last tray. They weren't very cute then.

From Food

but they're very cute now! (so are my hippos)

From Food

From Food

From Food

Dad wants these again pronto, and Brett seemed to think they were pretty tasty too. Recipe to follow:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 (15-ounce) container whole milk ricotta cheese
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 lemon, zested

Cook at 375 for 15 ish minutes. They look very light and fluffly, almost like little cakes when they are done.

my icing was a combo of powdered sugar and lemon juice that i mixed until it was the right consistency and then piped out using the good old ziploc bad technique. Let them dry. Then OM.

P.F. Cheng Lettuce Wraps with Some Personal Additinos

So I think this is going to be the first in a series that I'm going to continue through the summer and hopefully on into the school year. I'm giong to start writing about the things i cook/bake 1. So I can remember them 2. So I can brag 3. So maybe some other people can use them. I'll Include Recipes, my version of instructions, and when possible a picture!

P.F. Chengs Lettuce Wraps (this was a serving for 6ish)

For the Wrap
1. 1 red bell pepper
2. couple handfuls of snow peas
3. couple handfuls bean sprouts
4. 1 or 2 finely shredded carrots
5. Head of lettuce (we used iceberg, the leaves weren't that robust, ie they didn't stand up to folding and juice very well.)
6. bunch of mushrooms ( i think i used a pound)
7. quarter of an onion
8. Teaspoon minced garlic (i forgot this but w.e.)
9. 4 Chicken Breasts
10. Oil for your pan. (MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A LARGE PAN
11. Oh! and a can of Water Chestnuts

For the Special sauce (wisk this alot or it looks like weird puke. So make this whenever, put it in the fridge)
1. 1/4 cup sugar
2. 1/2 cup water
3. 2 tablespoons soy sauce
4. 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar (I used red wine vinegar? you couldn't tell. AT least I couldnt. I didnt feel like buying vingear jsut for this.)
5. 2 tablespoons ketchup
6. 1 tablespoon lemon juice
7. 1/8 teaspoon sesame oil (didn't use. WTF the point of buying an entire thing for 1/8 tsp.)
8. 1 tablespoon hot mustard
9. 2 teaspoons water (ished this)
10. 1-2 teaspoon garlic and red chile paste(i didn't find garlic paste. And we used WAY more red chile paste.)

Stir Fry Sauce
1. 2 tablespoons soy sauce
2. 2 tablespoons brown sugar
3. 1/2 teaspoon rice wine vinegar (same substitution as before)


Instructions:

I cooked the chicken breasts whole in the oil, If I made this again I would not. So:

1.Make slices out of the chicken breast (like you would for fajitas)
2. Cook in oil then set out on paper towel to drain. do for all then let cool during next process
3. Chop mushrooms, and water chestnuts up real small
4. dice your red bell pepper into chunks.
5. mince your onion up. Or not. depends how fine you like your onion.
6. If your meat is cool, chop it up into little bits like you see at PF Chengs
6. Toss Onion, mushroom, and onion into the still hot oil. let them reduce for a bit.
7. Toss in bell pepper and snow peas.
8. Cook until snow peas are done
9. put in chicken, mix around. top with stir fry sauce (I forgot to double that part.) and i poured on like a cup and a half of the special sauce for mor liquid.
10. cook until everything is warm.
11. pull off heat.

Assemble your lettuce wrap: Lettuce, chicken stuff, sprouts, shredded carrots, special sauce and more chile paste. wrap it up and eat!

The end.