Wedding Dress Cookies

These wedding dress cookies are for a dear friend who is hosting a bridal shower. Decorating them took time but it really wasn't hard.

After applying a base coat of white icing and letting that dry, I painted on ivory icing with a brush to add a lace overlay effect to the skirt and top. I think this technique of painting on thinned royal icing adds dimension and realism to the cookie — Flat white just wouldn't look right.

I then added a ribbon and flower to the waist for interest and bit of color while still aiming to keep the design simple and elegant. I really like how these turned out.

Here's how I made them:

Add a base coat of white icing to the cookies and let that dry completely before moving onto the next step.

Mix up some medium consistency ivory icing and pipe five lines down the skirt using a #2 tip. Also have your brush ready and a small cup of water and a paper towel nearby.

Spread the icing evenly all over the skirt of the cookie and then with long strokes, pull the icing downward to create lines of texture. Clean your brush off periodically to prevent clumping.

Once you've finished all of the skirts, you are ready to move on.

Add a bit of ivory icing to the top of the dress and using your brush, spread it thinly and evenly. I moved the brush in little circles to create texture.

Now it's time to add the ribbon. Using the ivory icing and #2 tip, pipe three lines at the waist.

Pipe two tails of ribbon and using your dry brush, swipe downward and lightly through the center of each of them. This adds texture that mimics the lines at the waist.

Now it's time to add the flowers. Get some thinned blue icing and your scribe tool ready.

Using the scribe tool, drop dots of blue icing to create a flower. 

Keep adding dots until you are satisfied with the look.

Let the cookies dry completely before packaging or serving.

The Importance Of Soup

A comforting bowl of hot soup ready to be served.

We serve hot soup year-round at The Wednesday Community Meal but this is the start of the time of year when the temperature drops and soup does double duty because besides nourishing our guests, it warms them up. A hearty bowl of comforting soup is especially important to our homeless guests who struggle to stay warm.

Most of the soup we serve is gleaned from Good Samaritan Hospital and this is a huge help when it comes to putting together the weekly meal. Having premade soups saves us loads of preparation time and we always get a good variety, everything from basics like chicken noodle and beef barley to more exotic kinds like sweet and sour and corn chowder.  Longtime volunteer Martha is an absolute whiz at heating and serving the soup, she's been doing it regularly for years, and even sometimes combines soups to create a one of a kind special blend that always pleases. She's a pro!

Volunteer Martha at her soup station. She always goes out of her way to make every bowl beautiful with a garnish, sometimes it's shredded cheese and croutons, today it was parsley and a slice of French bread.

In addtion to the soup, we offered salad and entrees of hot turkey sandwiches, roast pork loin, teriyaki chicken skewers, orange chicken, fish and beef short ribs. There was also dessert and drinks of lemonade, coffee and hot chocolate.

We served 285 meals today.

Bat Macarons

A batch of macarons and a black edible ink marker are all you need to create these Halloweeny (is that a word?) bat macarons.

You might think you also need some artistic ability, but that's wrong because trust me, if I can draw a bat, you can draw a bat. To prove it, here's how in four easy steps:

All you need is a batch of macarons, sorted into pairs and a black edible ink marker. Add the bats before you fill the macarons.

Step 1:

Draw a wide "U" shape across the center of the macaron and curve the ends down a bit. Think of making a valley between two hills.

 Step 2:

Draw a circle or a "boulder in the valley" and add two small triangles for ears.

Step 3:

Don't let this next step trip you up because it doesn't have to be perfect. From each end of the wide "U" swoop downward and draw three upside down "U" shapes and connect them by drawing a seventh upside down "U" centered under the circle.

 Step 4:

Use your marker to fill everything in and voila, you have a bat!

An assortment of Halloween party appropriate macarons.

Candy Corn Macarons

These Candy Corn inspired french macarons are both festive and delicious, making them the perfect sweet treat for Autumn celebrations and my personal favorite, Halloween parties. 

I even think they taste better than real Candy Corn which is pretty much just straight up sugar and corn syrup mixed with artificial colors and flavors. Instead, I decided to cut the sweetness and fill these with vanilla buttercream.

I was able to make the white and yellow macaron shells from a single recipe by splitting the batter just after incorporating the dry ingredients into the meringue but before starting the macaronage or folding process.

Here's how:
Candy Corn Macarons 

180g ground almonds, sifted
270g powdered sugar, sifted
150g egg whites, aged 2 to 4 days in the fridge and then brought to room temperature
100g granulated sugar
Yellow food coloring

Line four heavy baking sheets with good quality parchment paper and set aside. Also, set aside two pastry bags for the piping of the macarons.

Sift together your ground almonds with the powdered sugar and set aside.

Whisk the egg whites (at room temperature) on medium high speed to glossy firm peaks adding the granulated sugar gradually in four parts. You don't want to whip the egg whites too quickly, this should take a good 5 to 7 minutes.

Incorporate the dry ingredients into the beaten egg whites using a large rubber scraper and mix just until everything is combined then stop and divide the batter in half. Tint one half of the batter with yellow coloring.

The half of the batter that I'm going to tint yellow.

I added quite a bit of gel coloring since macarons always lighten after baking.

Fold each of the mixtures with a rubber scraper by pulling down the sides and flipping the mixture over. Do this until you have a smooth mixture that falls like a “ribbon” off the scraper.

How the batter looks after folding.

Transfer the mixtures into separate piping bags. Use rubber bands to close the piping bags. Clip the tip of the bags, one at a time, and pipe small quarter sized rounds, leaving 1-inch of space between each because they spread as they set.

Leave to set for about 30 minutes or until the top has formed a crust and is not sticky to the touch.

While they are setting, preheat the oven to 325 degrees. A convection oven is preferable. 

Bake one sheet at a time in the center of the oven for about 12 minutes or until the cookie is firm, matte and doesn't wobble when touched.

Leave on the baking tray until cool then lift them all off the parchment carefully. You may need to use a thin knife to help lift them off.

Sort into pairs and fill with Vanilla Buttercream.

The baked macarons, sorted and ready for filling.

Vanilla Buttercream
3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup powdered sugar
pinch of sea salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
Orange food coloring

In a stand mixer combine the butter, sugar, sea salt and vanilla. Whip until smooth and light, this takes about 5 minutes. Tint with orange food coloring.

All done! Store the macarons in a sealed container in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve.

A Place For Everyone

As I was working in the kitchen today, I caught a glimpse of four guests in the dining room chatting and laughing as they ate together at The Wednesday Community Meal.

 I could tell they were really having a good time together and it made me so happy. It was a reminder that our free weekly meal at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral is about so much more than just the food — though we did serve roasted pork, enchiladas and Key Lime bars for dessert!

Roasted pork, rice and roasted summer squash and eggplant.

Enchiladas, chips and roasted zucchini.

Key Lime Bars.

Spirits need nourishment as well, and friendships and fellowship are essential for our well-being. Belly-laughs are very good for everyone!

When you are homeless, it's nearly impossible to find a place of joy, a place where you are welcome to stay.

Think about it, if you had no home, where could you go and not be told to leave?

It's a problem in our community and elsewhere that needs addressing. Those without a home, they are real people, not statistics, and they need our care and attention.

I know the Wednesday Community Meal is just a once a week band-aid for a much larger problem but it at least helps. The meal is a place for everyone.

We served 437 meals today and everyone who came to our door was greeted, seated and treated with kindness and respect.

Mini Strawberry Streusel Pies

A good dose of ginger in the streusel topping and a bit of heavy cream in the strawberry filling makes these extra special.

Cooking and cooling the strawberry filling before making the pies also makes them easy to assemble.

One recipe makes about 20 of these babies so there are plenty for you and plenty for you to share. Your friends will be very happy.

Here's the recipe:

Mini Strawberry Streusel Pies
(makes 18 to 20)

Strawberry Filling:
2 lbs. frozen or fresh strawberries, sliced
2/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
pinch of sea salt
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/3 cup heavy cream

Make this ahead of time and cool it completely before assembling the pies. In a saucepan, heat the strawberries, sugar, vanilla and sea salt until the mixture comes to a boil and the berries start to break apart. Keep an eye on it and keep stirring. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Dissolve cornstarch in the heavy cream and add it to the mixture, stirring constantly until the mixture comes back to a boil and thickens. Remove the filling from the heat and let it cool completely.

Crust:
3 cups flour
1 cup Crisco
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup cold water

In a large bowl, combine flour, salt and sugar. Add Crisco and using your fingers, break it into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs with some large pieces remaining.

Add the water, just a few tablespoons at a time until the dough is moist enough to pull together into a ball. Divide dough in half and roll out each half into a rectangle on a floured surface. Use a cutter to cut 4-inch rounds and place each one in a muffin tin, pressing the dough into the bottom and evenly up the sides so that 2/3 of the tin is lined. Don't bring the dough all the way up the sides of the tin or you will end up with a muffin-shaped pie.  Gather up the excess dough and repeat until all the dough is used. Chill the crusts in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes before adding the strawberry filling and streusel topping. Any extra strawberry filling is great on toast or ice cream!
  
Streusel Topping
1 1/4 cups flour
1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 teaspoon sea salt

Combine all of the ingredients in a medium-sized bowl, using your fingers to break apart the butter. The mixture should resemble coarse crumbs.

To Assemble And Bake:
Fill the mini pie crusts with the strawberry filling and top each with a sprinkle of the streusel topping.

The pies before adding the streusel topping.

Bake them in a 375-degree oven for about 12 minutes or until the crust and topping are golden brown and the filling is bubbling. Let the pies cool for just a bit before lifting them out of the muffin tins and transferring them to a cooling rack. If you let them cool too long in the tins, they will be hard to remove.

The pies after baking. Remove them from the tins before they cool too much or they will stick and place them on a cooling rack to cool completely.

Thankful For Our Community Partners

A leg of lamb ready for the oven. We seasoned it with garlic, kosher salt, pepper and fresh rosemary and the guests loved it.

The first guests at The Wednesday Community Meal today were treated to an entree of roasted leg of lamb, baked potato and sauteed zucchini.

The gorgeous lamb was generously donated to us by Lift Urban Portland and we were so lucky to have it, especially today when we served 413 meals during our two hour service and needed every single bit of food that we had.

After the lamb, we served chicken, another gift from Lift Urban Portland, that we coated with breadcrumbs, herbs and spices and baked until golden brown and crispy.

Next up were gifts from Good Samaritan Hospital — corned beef, salmon, orange chicken and pork.

Then it was onto treats from Phil's Uptown Meat Market, ribs (which are probably the most popular of everything we serve), roasted chicken and pasta and meatballs. We ended our community meal today with pizza donated by Pizza Schmizza.

In addition to the entrees, there was soup, salad, dessert and drinks which included cups of cold milk thanks to New Seasons Market on NW Raleigh. The newly opened store kindly has invited us to glean from them every Monday morning and this week we hit the organic milk jackpot. Our guests were very happy.

Because of our wonderful community partners were were able to feed everyone who came to our door a delicious, nutritious and well-rounded meal. We are indeed blessed.