​How you doin’?  Peanut Butter cookies have been an American favorite for years. Ever wonder who invented the peanut butter cookie? The Peanut Butter Cookie was invented in 1910, when George Washington Carver of Alabama's Tuskegee Institute published a peanut cookbook to promote peanut crops across the south.
 
In his cookbook entitled, How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it for Human Consumption, Carver included several cookies recipes that called for chopped peanuts. Peanut butter was added to the cookies 20 years later along with the fork marks that are associated with this cookie. In 1932, the Schenectady Gazette published the first peanut butter cookie recipe that called for crisscrossed fork marks on the top. Today, a peanut butter cookie just wouldn't be quite right without this iconic decoration!
 
To set the record straight, the Aztecs invented peanut butter in the 14th century, but peanut butter cookies didn’t become an American favorite until the early 20th century.
 
Prep time:  10 minutes
Chill time: 30 minutes
Bake time:  12 to 15 minutes
Yield:  48 cookies+
 
Ingredients 
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1-1/4 cups smooth peanut butter,
1 cup vegetable shortening (I prefer Crisco)
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs
1 cup granola cereal (I prefer Quaker Simply Granola)
 
Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 350⁰ F.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In a separate large bowl, using an electric mixer, combine the peanut butter, shortening, butter and vanilla.
4. Add the sugars and beat until fluffy.
5. Add the eggs, one at a time, and continue beating until well combined.
6. Add the dry ingredients, 1/2 cup at a time, beating until dough is firm.
7. Fold in the granola cereal.
8. Chill the dough for about 30 minutes.
9. Use a tablespoon to make 1-inch balls of dough and place them 3 inches apart on a parchment-lined sheet pan. 
10. Use a fork to press down on each cookie twice, making a distinctive crisscross pattern.
11. Bake on the center rack oven 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden. 
12. Allow to cool on the pan 5 to 10 minutes before transferring cookies to a cooling rack.
13. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks or freeze for up to 3 months.

ChefSecret:  Save the unbaked dough for another day. Scoop and bake the premade dough and have fresh-baked cookies in less than 20 minutes.

Quip of the Day: “Have you ever noticed that all the instruments searching for intelligent life are pointed away from earth?”
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Do you have a question or comment? Send your thoughts to ed@perspectives-la.com. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide.
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To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, be positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. In this New Year, seek out the good in people and avoid conflict. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to Feeding America.

#Baking #Cookies #Snacks #Peanuts #PeanutButter #PeanutButterGranola #NPB #NationalPeanutBoard #GeorgeWashingtonCarver #QuakerSimplyGranola #QuarantineKitchen #Covid19 #FeedingAmerica #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup

​                                             ©Perspectives/The Consulting Group, Inc., 2022

​How you doin’? Last year with all the Covid issues and the fact that we moved our offices and test kitchens, I never got a chance to set-up the Christmas tree. That didn’t happen this year; I put up my tree even before Thanksgiving and have been in a much better mood ever since!
 
A tree is a tree is a tree… it’s a basic icon of holiday cheer, but the Christmas bauble is very personal and comes with an obscure history.
 
Today, we call them Christmas trees, but the decorative evergreen long pre-dates the celebration of Christmas. Evidence suggests that the practice of adorning the home with evergreen boughs during the winter solstice dates as far back as the ancient Egyptians (you may have seen a decorated tree when the workers topped-out the pyramids). The comforting presence and aroma of evergreens offered hope during winter’s coldest days and longest nights, serving a similar purpose in the various pagan winter solstice rituals of the Druids, Romans and Vikings.
 
Our current Christmas tree tradition is thought to have originated in 16th century Germany, where small evergreen trees were decorated with the likes of candles, apples, nuts and berries as “paradise trees” in religious entertainment offerings. Over time, devout Christians integrated these decorated trees into their homes during the holiday season. The tradition, which became a Christian ritual, began to spread across Europe.
 
German immigrants brought the Christmas tree to America in the 18th and 19th centuries, where it was promptly rejected by Puritanical religious groups for its historically pagan connotations. While it took a while to catch on, small communities of German-born settlers documented the continuation of this practice as early as the mid-1700s.
 
In the late 1840s, a published depiction of the favorable Queen Victoria celebrating Christmas with her German-born husband, Prince Albert, and their family around a decorated evergreen tree transformed the practice into a fashionable one that wealthy Americans soon rushed to adopt.
 
In short order, local businesses caught on to the ornament’s commercial potential. Personally, I have decorations for 3 large trees—one is my food tree, the second one is my travel tree and the third is a crystal tree. I have collected most of these decorations over the years. Now if you’re just starting out and don’t want to ship money to another country, you can make your own Christmas tree decorations right in your own kitchen with my Cinnamon Gingerbread Tree Ornament recipe. By using coconut oil instead of butter, you should get at least 3 years use before having to remake your baked decorations.
 
Prep time:  45 minutes
Chill time:  minimum 2 hours
Bake time:  12 to 15 minutes
Decoration time:  Allow at least a couple of hours to do it right
Yield:  24 average size decoration cookies

Ingredients
5 cups all-purpose flour
3-1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
3/4 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
16 tablespoons coconut oil (see ChefSecret below)
2/3 cup firmly packed dark-brown sugar
2 large eggs
2/3 cup molasses
 
Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, spices, salt and baking soda. Whisk to combine.
2. Place the coconut oil and brown sugar in the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until well mixed.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating smooth after each egg is added. Scrape down the bowl and paddle.
4. Reduce the speed and add in about half of the flour mixture.
5. Add the molasses, then scrape the bowl and beater.
6. Add the remaining flour mixture, about 1 cup at a time, and beat after each addition until it has all been incorporated into the dough.
7. Place half the dough onto a large piece of plastic wrap and press it to about a 1/2-inch thickness.
8. Wrap the dough securely and repeat with the remaining dough.
9. Chill the dough for at least 2 hours or for up to 3 days.
10. Preheat the oven to 350⁰ F.
11. Prepare two baking sheets and line with parchment or a Silpat.
12. Cut refrigerated dough in half and re-wrap the second half, place in fridge.
13. On a floured surface, roll the dough until it is about 1/4-inch thick.
14. Use a floured cookie cutter to cut the cookies. As they are cut, place the cut cookies on the prepared pans with about 1 inch between them on all sides. Repeat with remaining dough.
15. Save, press together, and re-roll remaining pieces of dough (they don't need to be chilled before re-rolling).
16. Bake the cookies until they become dull and dry looking and feel slightly firm, about 12 to 15 minutes.
17. When they are removed from the oven, immediately use the rounded end of a skewer to place a hole in the top of cookie for the ribbon or string to thread through!
18. Decorate when cool or store the cooled cookies between sheets of parchment or wax paper in a tin or plastic container with a tight-fitting cover.

ChefSecret:  Use this recipe for ornamental holiday decorations. For more flavorful gingerbread cookies to eat, replace the coconut oil with unsalted butter.
 
                                Edible Decorative Icing For Gingerbread Cookies
 
This easy royal icing recipe for sugar cookies is easy to make! No need for egg whites, meringue powder—there are just four simple ingredients required to whip-up with a hand or stand mixer.
 
Ingredients
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
water, for thinning, as needed
gel food coloring, if desired
 
Directions

1. Add confectioners’ sugar to a mixing bowl or to the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the wire whisk attachment.
2. Start mixing on low and slowly add the milk, corn syrup and vanilla extract.
3. Continue to whip on medium until smooth.
4. If the royal icing is too thick, thin it out by adding a little water until it reaches the proper consistency.
5. If the icing is too thin, add additional confectioners’ sugar a teaspoonful at a time, until it reaches the proper consistency.
6. If you want to color to your royal icing, use gel food coloring.

 
Quip of the Day: “Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall.”
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Do you have a question or comment? Send your thoughts to ed@perspectives-la.com. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide.
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To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, be positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Have a wonderful safe and healthy holiday season. If you have a little extra in your pockets to share with others at this difficult time, please consider donating to Feeding America. 

#Baking #GingerbreadOrnaments #ChristmasTreeOrnaments #CinnamonGingerbread #RoyalIcing #QueenVictoria #PrinceAlbert #2021HolidaysRecipeCollection #QuarantineKitchen #Covid19 #FeedingAmerica #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup

                                         ©Perspectives/The Consulting Group, Inc., 2021

Macbeth, Act IV, Scene I [Round About The Cauldron Go]
The three witches, casting a spell and eating well, 
Round about the cauldron go;  
In the fresh vegetables throw.   
Cabbage, that’s under cold stone    
Days and nights hast thirty-one   
Swelter’d carrots sleeping got,  
Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot.
Double, double toil and trouble; 
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
 
Fillet of a choice steak,  
In the cauldron boil and bake;  
Eye of potato, and toe of snip,  
Web of mushroom, and tongue of hog,  
Adder’s fork, and zucchini string,  
turkey’s leg, and chicken’s wing,  
For a charm of powerful trouble, 
Like a heaven-broth boil and bubble.
Double, double toil and trouble;  
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

How you doin’?  There’s more to Halloween than spooky desserts, frightening candies and terrifing poems as demostrated by these adorable, buttery Mummy Dogs—they deserve a little praise, too.  These are reminiscent of the old-fashioned pigs in a blanket but with a spooky, cheesy twist.  Mummy Dogs are a snap to make and will win over all the kids and adults at your Halloween party.  
 
Simply purchase a tube of crescent roll sheets or rolled dough. Instead of separating the dough into triangles, carefully unroll it onto 1 medium sheet pan, pinching together the perforations gently.
 
Once rolled, The Mummy Dogs must be baked right away to make sure you get clearly defined "bandages." Baked Mummy Dogs can be reheated in a 350°F oven until warmed through, 3 to 5 minutes. 
 
Prep time:  10 minutes
Bake time:  12 to 14 minutes
Yields:  8 servings
 
Ingredients
1 8-ounce package crescent roll sheet (crescent roll dough or puff pastry sheet)
8 hot dogs
2 thick slices pepper jack cheese 
Nonstick spray
ketchup and yellow mustard, for serving
 
Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 375⁰ F.
2. Open and unroll the crescent roll sheet onto a cutting board, with the long side facing you.
3. Cut 1/4 to 1/2-inch wide strips cross-wise (across the short side giving you 24 strips).
4. Cut each slice of cheese into 4 long rectangles.
5. Wrap one piece of cheese underneath one hot dog.
6. Start with one strip of dough and wrap it around the cheese and hot dog like a mummy bandage. Continue with two more strips, pressing the end of the last strip together with the start of a new strip.
7. Spray a sheet pan lined with parchment paper with nonstick spray.
8. Place wrapped hot dogs cheese-side down on the prepared baking sheet pan. 
9. Repeat with all of the remaining hot dogs. 
10. Bake for 12-14 minutes, until golden brown.
11. Let the Mummy Dogs cool for 5 minutes before adding two little dots of mustard eyes.
12. Serve immediately.

 
Chefs Secret:  For extra flakiness, use puff pastry for the bandages. Just thaw the pastry sheet according to package instructions first and then follow the build outlined above.
 
Quip of the Day: “Never, never, never make a woman mad! They can remember things that never happened.”
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Do you have a question or comment?  Send your thoughts to ed@perspectives-la.com.  All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide.
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To you and everyone dear to you, be strong and positive, stay well and safe and be kind to others. If you have a little extra in your pockets to share with others at this difficult time, please consider donating to Feeding America. Thanks for reading.

#Snacks #Halloween #MummyDogs #HotDogs #Macbeth #Mustard #CrescentRolls #QuarantineKitchen #Covid19 #FeedingAmerica #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup 

                                                     ©Perspectives/The Consulting Group, Inc., 2021

How you doin’? It’s back-to-school time, and these cookies will improve any student’s attitude in just one bite. Our best-selling confections at Choclatique were truffles that incorporated both chocolate and peanut butter. But we weren’t the first ones to discover the magic in this combination. H. B. Reese, a former dairy farmer from Hershey, Pennsylvania, created the original Peanut Butter Cup in 1928. A peanut butter cup is a wonderful confection filled with peanut butter and enrobed in chocolate.
 
This yummy peanut butter cookie recipe is baked in a small muffin tin with a mini-peanut butter cup pressed into a hot, just out-of-the-oven cookie before it has time to cool and set. This is a peanut butter cookie fancier’s dream. 
 
Prep Time:  25 minutes
Baked Time:  10 minutes
Cool time:  3 minutes
Yield: 12 to 15 cookies
 
Ingredients:
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons whole milk
12 to 15 mini-peanut butter cups (I prefer the original Reese’s)
 
Directions:
1.    Preheat an oven to 375⁰ F.
2.    Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda and set aside.
3.    Cream together the butter, sugar, peanut butter, and brown sugar until very fluffy.
4.    Beat in the egg, vanilla extract, and milk.
5.    Add the flour mixture; mix well. Shape into 12 to 15 balls and place each into an ungreased mini muffin pan.
6.    Bake for about 8 minutes until they just turn light brown.
7.    Remove from the oven and immediately press a peanut butter cup into the hot center of each cookie.
8.    Cool the muffin pan on a rack for about 30 minutes. 
9.    Carefully remove each cookie from the pan.

ChefSecret: There is only one way I know to make a great thing even better. Smear a little grape jelly on top of the baked cookie and then push in the peanut butter cup.

Quip of the Day: “A million kids want to clean up the earth—a million parents would be grateful if they started with their room.”
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Do you have a question or comment? Send your thoughts to ed@perspectives-la.com. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide. We have added a new search feature to make it easier to navigate through our blogs. 
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To you and everyone dear to you, be strong and positive, stay well and safe and be kind to others. If you have a little extra in your pockets to share with others at this difficult time, please consider donating to Feeding America. Thanks for reading.

#Desserts #Cookies #PeanutButter #PeanutButterCups #Reeses #BackToSchoolTreats #NationalPeanutBoard #NPB #PeanutFarmers #QuarantineKitchen #Covid19 #FeedingAmerica #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup

                                        ©Perspectives/The Consulting Group, Inc., 2021

How you doin’? This melt-in-your-mouth chocolate cookie is topped with mint chocolate “frosting.” It's delicious and it's easy! It is the perfect after dinner mint treat to complement any meal and any season.
 
But what you may ask, was the origin of this cookie recipe?  It all started with the Girl Scouts nearly 100 years ago. Their cookies have been evolving ever since Girl Scout Cookies got their start. Back then, there was no such thing as the Thin Mint, Samoa or Tagalong.
 
According to the organization’s history, the Mistletoe Troop in Muskogee, Okla., baked and sold the first-ever batch of Girl Scout Cookies in their high school cafeteria in 1917. A July 1922 American Girl magazine feature provided a simple sugar cookie recipe, suggesting that they be sold door-to-door for 25 to 30 cents per dozen (my, how times have changed!).
    Girl Scouts selling cookies in 1928.
 
But not every Girl Scout was doing the baking herself. “Grandma used to bake the cookies,” former Girl Scout Selma Rutledge says, “I was never the kitchen cooker, I stayed outside and sold them. Selling cookies taught me how to meet people and how to present myself. It gave me the courage to stand up and speak up.”
 
She used to wrap five or six of Granny’s oatmeal cookies in a small paper bag, with a little ribbon around it. That was the start. But when did the Thin Mint emerge? Although Rutledge sold homemade cookies, the Girl Scouts began standardizing their cookies in 1936, when the organization licensed its first baker.
 
1939 brought the first iteration of the Thin Mint, then called “Cooky-Mints.”
By 1948 there were 29 different licensed bakers making a Girl Scout Mint Cookie. The minted cookie has had a myriad of names over the years… Mints changed to Chocolate Mint to Thin Mint to Cookie Mint to Chocolate Mint to Thin Mints to Thin Mint and finally, back to the plural Thin Mints.
 
Here is my recipe for what is close in flavor to the original. This version, Chocolate Mint Cookies, is a littler thicker and chewier cookie than the Girl Scout version, but the chocolaty-mint flavor is spot on!
 
Prep time:  10 minutes
Refrigerate time:  1 hour
Bake time:  10 to 12 minutes
Cool time:  20 minutes
Yield:  About 30 cookies
 
Ingredients
3/4 cup unsalted butter (1-1/2 sticks)
1-1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons water
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/4 teaspoon mint extract
2 -1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
36 chocolate thin mint wafer candies (like Andes Mints)
 
Directions

1. In a large pan over low heat, cook the butter, sugar and water until the butter is melted.
2. Add chocolate chips and stir until partially melted. Remove from heat and continue to stir until chocolate is completely melted.
3. Pour into a large bowl and let stand 10 minutes to cool slightly.
4. At high speed, beat in the eggs, one at a time into chocolate mixture.
5. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.
6. Reduce the speed to low and add the dry ingredients, beating until well blended.
7. Chill the dough about 1 hour.
8. Preheat an oven to 350⁰F.
9. Scoop and roll the dough into balls (about 2 heaping tablespoons—1-1/2 ounces or a #30 scoop) and place them on ungreased cookie sheets about 2 inches apart.
10. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes.
11. While the cookies are baking unwrap the chocolate mints and divide each in half.
12. When cookies are still hot and fresh right out of the oven, put 1/2 mint on top of each cookie and press in gently.
13. Let the mints sit for up to 5 minutes until melted, then spread the melted mint on top of the cookies.
14. Let the cookies cool to allow the chocolate mints to cool and set-up.

ChefSecret: Do not skip the step to refrigerate the dough. This allows the flour to properly hydrate so that it doesn’t over spread when baking, ensuring the perfect cookie size and texture.

Quip of the Day: “I suggested building beds above each other to save space, but the idea was debunked.”

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Do you have a question or comment? Send your thoughts to ed@perspectives-la.com. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide. We have added a new search feature to make it easier to navigate through our blogs. 
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To you and everyone dear to you, be strong and positive, stay well and safe and be kind to others. If you have a little extra in your pockets to share with others at this difficult time, please consider donating to Feeding America. Thanks for reading.

#Baking #Snack #Dessert #Cookies #GirlScoutCookies #ThinMints #AndesMints #QuarantineKitchen #Covid19 #FeedingAmerica #PerspectivesTheConsultingGroup 

                                               ©Perspectives/The Consulting Group, Inc., 2021