Chickpea Cakes with Cucumber Yogurt Sauce Recipe

Well that certainly is a doozie of a name-for a bean burger-but I found them to be quite delicious.  My husband got me America's Test Kitchen Healthy Cookbook a few years ago for Christmas and I've found that they have a lot of good recipes, but they all seem very intensive.  I've been trying to eat more vegetarian foods mainly because they're tasty, but also are healthier and cheaper.  I found the recipe online here, but I'll recopy it for you all. 

INGREDIENTS
2 slices high-quality white sandwich bread, torn into pieces
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, and shredded
Salt
1 1/4 c Greek yogurt
6 scallions, sliced thin
1/4 c chopped fresh cilantro
2 large eggs
4 T olive oil
1 t garam masala
2 (15 oz) cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
Instructions
1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees
2. Pulse bread in food processor to coarse crumbs.  Spread crumbs on rimmed baking sheet and bake until golden brown and dry, 10-12 minutes.  Set aside to cool.
3. Toss cucumber and 1/2 t salt in colander and drain for 15 minutes.
4. Combine cucumber, 3/4 c yogurt, 2 T scallions, and 1 T cilantro in bowl and set aside.
5. Whisk eggs, 2 T oil, garam masala, and 1/4 t salt in bowl.
6. Place chickpeas in a large bowl and mash them with a potato masher until mostly smooth.  Stir in breadcrumbs, egg mixture, and remaining yogurt, scallions, and cilantro.  Form into six 1-inch-thick patties.
7. Heat 1 T oil in non-stick skillet over medium heat until shimmering.  Add three patties and cook until browned, 4 to 5 minutes per side.  Transfer to plate and tent loosely with foil.  Repeat with remaining oil and patties.
8. Serve with cucumber-yogurt sauce.

DIY Card Wreath

Well, I realize it's a bit late, but I made another card wreath to hold all of our lovely Christmas cards from our friends.  This time I decided to make it a bit heftier with some burlap and ribbon.  I used two embroiderly hoops of different sizes and simply tied on strips of burlap and ribbon.  The clothespins just wiggle in between the pieces so they aren't glued on or fastened in anyway which makes it more versatile to fit whatever size of cards you receive.  Now that I have them all done I imagine the clothespins could be placed on the back of the wreath so they would be hidden even more-oh the possibilities.  Happy Crafting!

Grandma Margaret's Oatmeal Cookies

Well, here's another recipe from my Grandma's collection-it was originally called "Mrs. Bickett's Cookies" but no one knew who Mrs. Bickett was so they are now officially renamed.  This was the first time I've made the cookies and they are delicious.  They're not your average oatmeal cookie; they are a thin  chewy lacy cookie.  I'd definitely make them again and would try to add a bit less sugar because with using sweetened shredded coconut they become pretty sweet.  The recipe also comes with a frosting, but I decided it would be best not to make that since I will be the primary cookie monster.  Good Luck.

Ingredients:
1 cup of butter or margarine
1 cup of brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups of flour
1 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp of salt
2 cups of quick oats
1 cup of shredded coconut
1 tsp of cinnamon

Directions:  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Cream butter and sugars.  Add eggs and vanilla and mix in.  Next add all of the rest of the ingredients and combine.  Drop by the spoonful on cookie sheets-they will spread out so don't place too closely.  Bake for 8-12 minutes until golden brown.  Remove and let cool a few minutes and then place on cooling racks. 

Frosting:  cream 1/4 cup of butter or margarine, 1 Tablespoon of milk, 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla or almond extract, and 1-2 cups of powdered sugar.  Frost cookies when cooled.  Enjoy.

Making Wallet Sized Pics from 4x6 Photos

 With our Christmas cards I wanted to put in small pictures of Colby but I didn't want to pay a ton for it.  Through Shutterfly wallets are almost 90 cents each where as 4x6's are only 15 cents each.  After some quick math, I decided that I needed to somehow make wallets out of the 4x6's.   After many trials I managed to figure out how to do this.  Before working in Paint I cropped the pictures to a 4x6 ratios.  I pretty much just opened one of the pictures I wanted to use in paint then zoomed out so the picture was small and then expanded the white area around the picture.  I then pasted another picture in and moved it butted up against the other one on the right side.  And whalla, for 7.5 cents I have some wallet sized pictures.

Holiday Pictures

I unfortunately haven't gotten professional photos done yet, so Colby and I just did another photo shoot to suffice for the Christmas cards we just sent out...a bit late.  So here's some we took using a white comforter as a back drop.  Not too shabby for not having a fancy camera...I think...

Homemade Egg Rolls

Well these turned out absolutely delicious. I remember my mom making these one time and they were delicious.  I found the egg roll wrapper on a voyage out to the store without Colby and they were directly above the carrots, I had just never noticed them before.  A package of 15 costs less than three dollars and it is well worth trying.  As I posted earlier I tried the mozzarella sticks using them and they weren't great, but now that I think about it the mozz sticks would've been way better fried instead of baked, maybe that was the problem.  With a few simple ingredients you can really impress your family and friends. I apologize for the photos, it seems that egg rolls aren't very photogenic.

                             Ingredients for filling:                                      Other Ingredients:
                             Bag of Coleslaw                                                 Vegetable or Canola Oil
                             Shredded Carrot                                                 Egg Roll Wrappers
                             1 teaspoon of Sugar                                            Sweet and Sour Sauce for dipping
                             1 Egg White
                             2 teaspoons of Soy Sauce
                            1/2 cup of Cooked Chopped Chicken
                            1/2 Onion Chopped

Grandma Margaret's Cherry Wink Recipe

Yum, so my intentions this year were to make a bunch of cookie recipes from my Grandma's collection-unfortunately this did not come into fruition.  I finally made these cookies that I remember as a child-not very fondly though.  Now I find these cookies to be a welcome change from the tedium of chocolate and sugar cookie varieties.  The cookies have a crisp chewy texture with the corn flakes and dates along with the holiday appeal of a split maraschino cherry on top.  I put these cookies in the chest freezer with have downstairs thinking that they would last longer, but I find myself making special trips just so I can nab a cookie-hmm-might have to go check the laundry again...yum. 
 

2 1/4 cups of flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup of Crisco
1 cup of white sugar
2 eggs
2 T. milk
1 tsp of vanilla or almond extract
1 c chopped pecans
1/3 cup of maraschino cherries chopped
2 1/2 cups of corn flakes crushed
2/3 cup of maraschino cherries halved

Directions
Heat oven to 375.  Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Cream together shortening and sugar.  Blend in eggs.  Add milk and flavoring.  Blend in sifted ingredients.  Add pecans, dates and chopped cherries.  Shape into balls and roll each in corn flakes and top each with half of a cherry.  Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.  Makes 5 dozen