M&M double chocolate brownies

Sorry I've been away from my blog for awhile, life was bringing me to the other direction. It has been pretty hectic here.

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I am longing for spring, raining and foggy most of the time lately. The temperature is still cold but I thankful it hasn't been snowing for awhile now. Rain fell pretty hard last week end. We were trapped in the house just relaxing. The sound of rain drops somehow turned my mood toward baking again, as well as my hubby and son were asking me about something good for dessert. While they were playing I spent time in the kitchen alone making brownies. Chocolate is always become our family favorite. That explain huh why my diet doesn't work.

M&M double-chocolate brownies
Adapted from family circle magazine

¾ cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
4 ounces (4 squares) unsweetened chocolate
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons vanila extract
1 cup chopped pecans
1 bag (12 ounces) chocolate chips (2 cups)
M&M candy

Heat oven to 350F. Line 13x9x2-inch baking pan with nonstick foil.

In large glass bowl, heat butter and chocolate in microwave on high for 2 minutes; stir until smooth. Let stand 5 minutes to cool slightly. Whisk in sugar, eggs, flour and vanila. Stir in pecans and half of the chocolate chips (1 cup). Transfer batter to prepared pan. Sprinkle with remining 1 cupa chocolate chips and M&M

Bake at 350F for 35 minutes, until top is dry to the touch. Let cool completely in pan on wire rack. Lift brownie from pan with foil. Cut into squares and serve.

Nastar (Pineapples) Cookies

Is there any sign of life in Erie? The sun doesn't show her beauty. It is very cold and cloudy most the time. The snow is showing more of its anger! Yes, when the snow decides to fall, we have to work hard to clean up our drive way. Another bonus this month is the freezing rain which caused the road to be slippery. Not only that, this weather also kills my hobby of taking pictures, no sun means no pictures. There, ME, as a grumpy weather channel reported to you LOL

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My first entry for Christmas Cookies hosted by Susan from Food Blogga

During our preparation for Christmas, I want to do other stuffs besides baking. But lately I have been busy baking cookies to be send to families and friends. In Indonesian, it is very popular to bake cookies to celebrate any festive season. . My family back in Indonesia always make NASTAR or PINEAPPLES COOKIES for Christmas. I got this traditional cookies recipe from Eliza 'Notes from my food diary'.

It was dark cloudy and cold the day I baked nastar cookies. Nathaniel looked so bored playing game and watching TV all day. So I decided to played with him by making craft project while the cookies were in the oven.

We glued together every tiny colorful pieces. We made a clown! Nathaniel looked so happy and showed off his project to his dad as soon as he came home.

He called it 'SANTA CLOWN'

I would love to hear your story too about your holiday time, it can be Christmas, Hanukkah, or New Year. I believe the holiday gives a hectic time but try to enjoy the moment and to love this time of year.

KAASTENGEL “Cheese Stick Cookies”

Apologize for hiding this blog as it was under construction for awhile. Then I am back now with love and warm story about celebrating Eid Mubarak at my friend's house. Before, I want to say Thank You Very Much to Sheila from Let's mess-up the kitchen for her time teaching and helping me with a new template. I am so happy with the result.

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It was a lovely and beautiful Sunday afternoon. As we are welcoming winter pretty soon the weather that day wasn't bad at all. There are two families here where I live celebrate Eid Mubarak. The party was taken place at Mia's house. She provided food that normally could be found during Eid Mubarak celebration such as chicken curry (opor ayam), Beef spicy curry (rendang), Pineapple cookies (nastar), stir fried spicy chicken liver (sambel goreng ati ayam) etc.

The rest of the family were invited e to the party bring their own delicious food, cake, cookies and fruits. Ah ha... I love “pot luck party” specially when we are Indonesian get together, there always gonna be a lot of “comfort food”!

I made Nuts cookies and Kaastengel “cheese stick cookies”. In the making of kaastengel cookies instead of cutting it straight I formed it with heart shape. Just want to do something different then usual. Now, let me share little bit about this recipe – does this recipe is my favorite so far? I am not sure. I found this recipe from my old friend and it wasn't bad at all. And until now I am still searching for the “excellent” recipe. I may will find it from your blog someday.

KAASTENGEL

Cheese Stick Cookies

250 gram flour

125 gram butter

125 gram shredded cheese

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoon water

1 tablespoon sugar

Eggs yolk for garnish

Mix all the ingredient except eggs yolk together with hand. On a lightly floured surface, using a floured rolling pin, roll out the dough. With heart-shaped cutter, cut out as many hearts as possible. Bake cookies at 400F for about 15 minutes.

For Nuts cookies recipe is available HERE.

Some of foods during Eid Mubarak party.

Chicken curry (opor ayam), Beef spicy curry (rendang), Pineapple cookies (nastar), stir fried spicy chicken liver (sambel goreng ati ayam), Beef fried noodle, Salad, Vegetables curry (sayur nangka), Rice cake (lontong), Pudding.

Kids were really enjoying play together and surely they BRING THE HOUSE DOWN!!

To Sulaiman and Chriswindardo family we wish you 'Happy Eid Mubarak ” from all of us a small Indonesian community in Erie PA. And also I would like to take this opportunity to greet anyone the visitor and blogger who celebrate Eid Mubarak, I wish you “Happy Eid Mubarak”.

“Nuts cookies” – our FUN summer with friends!

Still not so much of baking or cooking here, trying to cook as simple as possible due to avoid heat in the kitchen.

My son and hubby are wondering when mommy will do baking again or at least provide something sweet on the table. Poor thing! Oh well… now, here I am spending little time in the kitchen making these NUTS COOKIES. It surprises me as these cookies are so easy to make and it doesn’t take long time to make them either.

NUTS COOKIES
Adopted from LISA

250 gram flour
250 gram cooked nuts (grounded)
150 gram confectioner sugar
¼ tsp salt
1 cup cooking oil (approximately, used little bit less than a cup)

2 yolks
Cooked nuts (cut in a half)

Direction:

Place flour, confectioner sugar, grounded nuts and salt in a bowl then mix them together. Add slowly cooking oil and mixture it with your hand until the entire ingredient blended well. In this case you might need to reduce or increase the amount of cooking oil.

Roll out the dough to ½ inches thick. Stamp out shapes such as flower and stars with cutters. Place the shapes on the prepared cookie sheets. Brush shapes with egg yolks and place half nut on the top. Then bake at 350F for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Last week our beloved friend was going to Niagara Fall and stopped by to the town for two nights to visit us. That was our first meeting in person. I pictured her as a friendly and smart lady, there she is! Her two lovely daughters were so great playing with my son. They were laughing, fighting for the toys and giggling. Just so fun to watch them playing in their own world.

Soon my hubby got time to join us; we went canoing at the Lagoon which it is part of Lake Erie. I was so glad that the weather was gorgeous considering in last couples of days before; Erie was raining most the time. While husbands and kids were canoing, Titi and I sat down on the picnic table and have fun talking about anything. She is so humble, smart and fun to be with.

What a wonderful family! Such a pleasure to meet you guys. Hope we will meet again in God’s plan. Then next time hopefully I am able to entertain with my homemade delish food and dessert. We are so sorry, due to the busy schedule between hubby and I it seemed not happened this time. Enjoy your summer dear.

Readers – also don’t forget about this FOODIE EVENT to celebrate our independence day. More update of prizes and judge you might find HERE.

Kembang Goyang cookies and will be away temporary

Some of you who view my blog might notice that it has been awhile I haven’t upgrade my blog.

I am still here, doing things as a mom and busy with my 2 years old boy. Yep, baking and cooking is my everyday routine. The weather in Erie kinda weird lately, sometimes the sun comes up and it becomes so hot and humid. But then raining for several days in the row.

I do enjoy my life being mom and many crazy things here, therefore I kinda behind to upgrade my site. I think in the next couple days or weeks I am not be able to do so. So before I am away for temporary there are two things I want to post.

Kembang Goyang.
These cookies are so crunchy and taste. It is easy to make but just take time to do so. I got the recipe from Mamagabby Cake’s.

Chocolate chips cookies.
These cookies I baked before. But this time after I make the dough, I refrigerated for about 30 minutes before baking. It will make the cookie come out little bit chunky which that what I want it. But before it turned out pretty thin as you can see on my post HERE.

My hubby and my son, of course love cookies! Or anything with chocolate! Just seeing them enjoy eating those cookies, it brings smile on my face. Seeing my son running around in the back yard under sunny and hot weather and eating cookies at the same time, I wish I could have his energy and oh boy, his face……!! So messy!!

So dear reader, this may be my last post for this month. I hope I will come back as soon as possible. It is not summer time yet, but it will come soon though.

HAPPY SUMMER!!

Ps: Buat event FP#2 Gila property yg nge host Dita, saya sudah posting DISINI. Kalau mau mampir and baca silahkan. Tidak perlu kasih komen loh yah:)

Soft and chewy chocolate chips cookies

Treat myself or my family with chocolate cookies? The bottom line is to treat my hubby with chocolate. He is a crazy chocolate lover. Today’s sunny day brings me energy to do lots of stuffs, including making chocolate chips cookies.

The recipe caught my eyes when I saw the title ‘SOFT AND CHEWY CHOCOLATE CHIPS COOKIES’. This is perfect for my hubby. He loves soft and chewy chocolate chips.

Then now, do I have ingredients to need to make them? Open my pantry; I am pretty much happy because I don’t have to run to the grocery store to make these chewy cookies. Not because I am not a big fan of grocery stores, it is just because the thought of bringing my son to shop made me think twice to go to the grocery store.

Here is the recipe for chocolate chips cookies taken from Martha Stewart website.

Makes about 3 dozen
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups (about 12 ounces) semisweet and/or milk chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter with both sugars; beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low; add the salt, vanilla, and eggs. Beat until well mixed, about 1 minute. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Drop heaping tablespoon-size balls of dough about 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

Bake until cookies are golden around the edges, but still soft in the center, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool on baking sheet 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.

“COOKIES……!” that his voice when seeing those cookies on the cooling racks. They are just soft and warm as they have just came out from the oven. He can’t wait until cookies get little bit cooler. Mmmm….. Yup, when it is about chocolate chips cookies my hubby definitely acts like my two years old boy!! LOL

The cookies look pretty thin, mmm I am not sure why. I think I don't drop tablespoon size balls of dough on the baking sheet.

Baking Traditional - Kue Nastar (Pineapple Cookies)

Finally, I could sit down and relax and just put my mind on what I need to do, “Posting!”
I would like to share Our Indonesian Baking Tradition. This Cookie is a must to have during big holiday in Indonesia.
Remembering many years ago back in my country, my mom and all of my family never missed making this cookie. However, we do not continue baking this cookie anymore since most of my siblings are already married and living apart.

Here in Erie the snow keep falling and of course, the weather is getting colder. The option to go out and shop is not the best one. I would rather be home and get busy in the kitchen while my hubby is busy putting woods in the stove to keep the house warm.
I made this cookie before Christmas, but I only have time to post it today!

The recipe is adapted from Eliza . Her food blog is NOTE FROM MY FOOD DIARY. I have never regretted to try this recipe as it turns out to be SO WONDERFUL!

Kue Nastar (PINEAPPLE COOKIE)

Kue Nastar is well-known cookie in Indonesia. This cookie is a must to make for many Indonesians during the holiday season either Eidul-Fitri or Christmas. I remember my mom would always make these cookies for Christmas. When she made them, she didn’t make just a few but several dozen!
Up until now I haven’t made a lot of kue nastar for Christmas. But this year, I decided to make some. It tastes exactly the same my mom makes so it gives me many memories of home. But what was different this time is the “situation”. I made it without my beloved mom. It wasn’t the same. I miss you so much Ibu.

What you need:

200 grams of flour
100 grams of margarine or butter
50 grams of confectioner sugar
3 egg yolks
½ teaspoon salt

Mix together flour and salt on a separate bowl put it aside.
Condition butter/margarine with hand until it soft then gradually mix it with confectioner sugar. After all the batter mix together, add them with the egg yolks one by one. And mix them together until really blended.
Gradually pour flour mix. Knead and condition the batter until all mixed together.
Mold the batter on Nastar’s mold or mini tart mold and put some pineapple jam in the middle.
Brush unbaked cookies with egg yolks.
Bake at 375o F for about 15 or until cook

What you need to make pineapple jam:
1 pineapple
100 grams of granulated sugar

Chop pineapple into small pieces or you can use a grater. Place pineapple and sugar in a sauce pan and allow them to boil in low heat.