Kat on Thyme

Solstice in Seattle

I’ve been remiss. Last week the Seattle summer finally caught up with me. It’s not exactly the midnight sun, but Seattle’s extended daylight hours have a similar effect on me. I get up early, work all day, have dinner at 10 o’clock, stay up way too late and then do it again. Until Thursday, when I finally crashed.

But there’s nothing like the Fremont Summer Solstice Parade to start the cycle all over again! For the most part, Seattle is a little stuffy when it comes to celebrations. Our attitude seems to be, “Fine idea for a party, but not in MY neighborhood!” But not Fremont. Fremont opens its arms to Seattle for the annual Solstice Festival, and renews my faith that Seattleites can indeed, shake it. Any event that starts with hundreds of nude cyclists in all manors of exotic body paint cannot, by definition, be stuffy. And the parade continued on from there with great music, dancing, humor, costumes, creativity, political commentary, and the occasional strange spiritual displays that I couldn’t figure out. Fremont in a nutshell.

Every year my friend, John, hosts his annual pre-parade brunch. It begins with his own parade of furniture down to the parade route to stake a claim of sidewalk, this year under the shade of a big tree. Each year I expect John, an avid cyclist, to disappear before the start of the parade only to reappear beautifully painted and peddling by. Perhaps next year. But this year, his house was the staging ground for the fabulous costuming efforts of the “Fantasia Girls” who danced with a samba group. He’s going to be sweeping up feathers and glitter, with a smile on his face, for weeks to come. While we were eating a fabulous brunch, we had our own little parade of peacock feathered and bejeweled beauties swooping in and out for mimosas.

As usual, John hosts a mean brunch. There were lots of delicious homemade treats- James’ salsa and feta eggs, John’s garlic and goodies eggs, some vegan scrambled tofu with mixed greens, Gretchen’s gluten free banana muffins and garden grown strawberries, some lovely fruit salads, and my contribution, a raspberry breakfast cake. I got the recipe from Alanna's blog, a few weeks ago and have made it twice, it’s so delicious. I changed a few ingredients to make it a bit more breakfast friendly, but it’s a great recipe as is, and could be served for dessert as well. I changed the all-purpose flour to a combination of all-purpose and whole wheat pastry flours, and oat bran. And I cut down the sugar to a scant 1 cup. I also bumped up the buttermilk to accommodate the hardier flours and omitted the glaze. The first time I made it, it came out of the pan beautifully, but the second time, part of it stuck and it had to be puzzle-pieced back together again. A quick garnish of powdered sugar, with a tiny bouquet of roses, lavender, and mint in the center, fixed it right up again. With the berries beginning to ripen here in Seattle, I’ll be sure to make this again before the season’s over.

This would make a great breakfast with a dollop of yogurt.

Raspberry Breakfast Cake

¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
scant 1 cup sugar
Zest from 1 orange, or 2 limes or lemons
1 Tablespoon vanilla
3 eggs at room temperature
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
½ cup oat bran
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
scant 1 cup buttermilk

12 ounces frozen raspberries
1 tablespoon flour

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F.

Cream butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on high speed. Add zest and vanilla. One at a time, beat in eggs.

In a separate bowl, stir together the flours, oat bran, baking powder and salt.

On the lowest speed of the mixer, gently add 1/3 of the buttermilk, ½ of the flour mixture, 1/3 of the buttermilk, ½ of the flour mixture, 1/3 of the buttermilk. (Begin and end with the buttermilk and scrape down the mixer after each addition.)

Separately, stir together berries and 1 tablespoon flour. By hand, stir berries into batter.

Transfer batter to well-greased and sugared Bundt pan. Bake for 60 – 75 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool 30 minutes, gently turn onto serving plate. Let cool another 30 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.

Serves 12

Sandblasting Sugar Scrub

According to Nick, there’s not much good about the Kuwaiti desert, where he’ll be stationed for some undetermined amount of the summer. As if the searing heat were not enough, the oil laced sand blows relentlessly across the unprotected flatlands, sandblasting whatever solid forms it comes upon. Trying to be positive, I reminded him that people pay lots of money for that kind of intense exfoliation treatment. In fact, I had just made an oil based sugar scrub to do just that. My concoction smells more like roses than camel dung, and can be applied selectively, but it does the same job, more or less.

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved to make beauty products. I think the sink in the back bathroom at my folk’s house is still pitted from my sister and my soap making fiasco.  When I taught Food Science at a high school in Medford, we made soaps, lip balms, and lotions, experimenting with various scientific principles. It’s a natural extension of cooking and the ingredients are often interchangeable.

Lately, I’ve been experimenting with salt and sugar scrubs. My hands get so dry from constant washing, I am completely plastic bag impaired. I stand on the produce aisle rubbing the new plastic bag between my fingers while holding a bunch of cilantro, or a handful of green beans. My hands have so little natural oil left in them I can’t even open a bag, which is a rather inconvenient malady for a professional shopper. I’ve found that oil based salt scrubs do a great job of getting rid of dry skin and moisturizing as well. But the salt part of the scrub reminds me that there’s truth to the “rubbing salt in my wounds” saying. Ouch! So I’ve switched to sugar scrubs which do a great job in exfoliating, don’t sting, and dissolve more slowly than salt. I’ve also switched from using olive or almond oil to using mostly coconut oil which is more solid at room temperature and makes a less runny scrub. The oil can be infused with all sorts of herbs, spices, citrus zests, or flowers to lend a subtle fragrance that lingers on the skin.

Jars of this scrub make great gifts.

Rose Infused Sugar Scrub

½ cup coconut oil, melted in the microwave until liquid
Fragrance ingredients (I used rose petals, mint, and a sprig of rosemary)
2 Tablespoons olive or almond oil
1 cup granulated sugar

Infuse the warm coconut oil with the herbs or flowers by steeping them in the warm coconut oil, covered, for about 30 minutes. Strain into a bowl, pushing down on the herbs to extract more fragrance. If you want the oil very clear, rewarm slightly and put through a coffee filter. (This takes about another 30 hour.) You can omit this step but the more impurities in the oil, the more quickly it will develop off odors. After straining, add the olive oil and the sugar and stir to blend. Put into a mason jar or empty cosmetic jar. To use, wet hands and scrub vigorously with the sugar scrub. Rinse and pat dry.

Makes about 1 ½ cups.

Weekend Griddle Cakes

Who ever started a bad weekend with good pancakes? It just doesn’t happen. From multigrain buttermilk pancakes on Saturday morning, to the 10 pm bowl of Cherry Garcia Monday night, it’s been a memorable Memorial Day weekend.

Somehow this year, my friends and I just forgot to make plans for the weekend. A collective inertia overcame us all as we fumbled through our organizing. And in typical Northwest fashion, the weather didn’t cooperate with our already flaky arrangements. But I have to admit, this was one of the best weekends I’ve had in a long time.

As usual there was much to be done at Casa Kat but I vowed to get away this weekend, even if it meant stringing together half made plans and impromptu outings. Which, incidentally, was exactly what happened. The Brown Trouts (my ultimate Frisbee team) threw together a amazing barbecue, guided by the ultimate host, our captain, Chewy. Sunday morning’s deluge cancelled our road trip plans, so the day was spent playing Goaltimate (like ultimate but with a rainbow shaped goal) and checking out the Folklife Festival scene at the Seattle Center. And finally, with a promise of better weather, a couple of friends and I headed off to Mt. St. Helens for some hiking. The crater was still shrouded in clouds so we opted for some subterranean hiking in Ape Cave, a mile long lava tube that was formed several thousand years ago and discovered in the 50’s (almost the hard way!) by a farmer on his tractor. It was a fascinating scramble through a drippy black cave. I had an inkling of how Jonah might have felt, as we tunneled through the bowels of the mountain. A lovely dinner, and a toss around of the Frisbee in the evening light on the Olympia waterfront capped off the weekend perfectly.

These griddle cakes make great weekend fare. They are delicious with strawberries this time of year, or with whatever fruit is in season- berries, summer fruit, or sauteed apples or pears.

Multi-grain Griddle Cakes with Maple and Strawberries

1 ½ cups stone ground whole wheat flour
¼ cup oat bran
¼ cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons honey
2 large eggs
2 ½ cups buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
¼ cup butter, melted

Sliced fresh strawberries
Maple syrup

Combine the dry ingredients from the flour to the salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk to blend. In another mixing bowl, blend the honey through the melted butter. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and stir gently until blended. Preheat the griddle to about 375 degrees and when hot, spray with canola oil spray. Pour batter onto the griddle using a quarter cup measure. When bubbles appear on the tops of the cakes and the bottoms are nicely browned, flip them to finish cooking the other side. Top with strawberries and maple syrup and have a great weekend :)

Makes about 16 griddlecakes.

Sweet Polenta Birthday Cake

Called Polenta Dolce in Italian, it seemed the perfect birthday cake for Kendall, who will be spending her junior year abroad in Florence this year. Not an overly sweet cake, Polenta Dolce can be dressed up in countless ways depending on the season. I’ve made it in the fall, accompanied by pear and apple compotes, in the winter, filled with marmalade and cream,  and in the summer with fresh peaches or blueberries macerated in Prosecco. May brings the beginning of strawberry season, so I chose fresh berries to adorn Kendall’s simple cake.

The cake itself is quick to make but does require separating eggs. I’ve found the easiest method for this is simply cracking the egg into a small bowl and then scooping the yolk out with my fingers. I use three bowls, one for the egg yolks, one for the whites, and one for the separating. That way if I bungle one egg, I’ve only ruined that one, not the whole batch of whites. Eggs separate most easily when they are cold, but they whip up best at room temperature. So to accommodate this quirky egg characteristic, I separate the eggs first and then preheat the oven, prepare my pan, and then gather and measure the other ingredients.

The only other even slightly tricky part of the recipe is making sure the bowl and beater are completely clean after beating the egg yolks. If there is any residual fat from the yolks left in the bowl, or traces of yolks in the whites, the egg whites will not beat up properly. So I use soap and hot water on the bowl, the beater, and the mixer itself. Then I dry everything completely before going on to whipping the whites.

Happy Birthday, Kendall! Oh, to be 20 and spending a year in Italia…

Polenta Dolce

¾ cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup polenta or stone ground yellow cornmeal
4 large eggs
¾ cup sugar
Grated zest of one orange
Grated zest of one lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Sugar for dusting the pan

Separate the eggs and place the yolks in the bowl of a standing mixer. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Make a parchment circle the size of the bottom of an 8-inch cake pan. (Just draw around it and cut.) Spray the pan with non-stick spray and line with the parchment. Lightly spray the parchment. Dust the pan with sugar and shake out.

Stir together the flour and cornmeal in a small bowl and set aside. In the mixer, beat the egg yolks with the whip attachment on low speed. Gradually add 1 /2 cup of the sugar and increase the speed to high. Beat until the yolks are thick and light yellow, about 3 minutes. Add the zests and vanilla. Transfer to a large bowl.

In a clean mixing bowl, beat the egg whites on medium speed until foamy. Gradually add the last ¼ cup of sugar, beating until the whites are stiff and glossy. Fold the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture. Fold in the flour mixture. Transfer the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.

Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or until the center is puffed and springs back when you touch it. Place on a cooling rack to cool. After about 10 minutes, unmold the cake onto a plate, peel off the parchment and then turn the cake back right side up on the cooling rack. Let cool completely.

With a long serrated knife, cut the cake horizontally and set the bottom of the cake on a serving platter. Spread with the filling and replace the top layer. Dust with powdered sugar and garnish with fresh fruit.

The filling:
About 1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
Honey to taste

Mix the ricotta with honey to taste and use it as a filling in the center of the cake.

The topping
1 to 2 pint baskets of strawberries, sliced
Sugar to taste
A splash of lemon juice

Slice the berries and toss with sugar to coat. Let them sit at room temperature to macerate. The berries should make a light syrup. Use this to top the finished cake.

Serves 8.

Plants and Pie

I’m all for celebrations, especially when they involve food. Seattle does have its share of hoopla, but we don’t have one single city-wide, all-inclusive, can’t book a room in town, jam-packed, world renowned party. It’s just not that kind of city, I guess. We had opening day of the boating season and the Windermere cup crew races this weekend. Can’t say I’ve ever been to either event, although I’m sure they’re fun. The yachts were rafting up in the Montlake Cut, along the racing course, Friday night as I drove home from work. The visual distraction backed up traffic on 520 almost to Bellevue! Party gawkers.

What brought the hordes of Seattleites out en masse this weekend, though, was the annual
Edible Plant Sale at the Seattle Tilth. There were no costumes, fancy hats, specialty drinks, or steel drum music involved. Just plants, and about a zillion people. This event is not without celebration or tradition, though. Every year I get better at navigating the scene. First up, it’s a couples event. Shopping alone at the sale, unless you don’t mind queuing up before the civilized Saturday hours, is an all morning event. Better to bring a friend. One shops, one waits in the check-out line. Then you swap. Secondly, you need to bring something in which to carry your loot. Gretchen and I used a blue plastic laundry basket, but we saw great ingenuity in plant moving devises- little red wagons, lovely woven baskets, fruit boxes, and a particularly clever milk crate and hand truck contraption that wheeled a whole garden’s worth of plants quite efficiently. Third, you need to bring a list of what you’re after, which can be assembled from the tilth website ahead of time. Most importantly, though, having a sense of humor and community is a must. Even with a shopping buddy, there promises a long wait in line with fellow Seattle gardeners. No point in fretting the lost hours of weekend. May as well socialize. This year, though, was crazier than normal. The check-out line snaked around the sale, through the entry way and well out into Meridian Park. I’m all about socializing with Seattle plant lovers, but I wasn’t sure I had the fortitude to endure that line. As luck would have it, I spotted my friend Jeff, another ultimate player, who was very near the front. I gave him cash, a dinner invitation, and a huge thank you, and we were out of there in 15 minutes. Gretchen and I did our socializing over pastries at the Essential Bakery.

And in honor of places with long standing traditions of parties, I came home and made a Derby Pie, of which our fancy hat wearing, julep sipping, blue-grass stomping Southern cousins might just be proud. And to pay homage to the plant sale, I made a special herb-infused, bourbon laced cream to compliment the pie, which is really more like a gooey, nutty, high-octane brownie.

Derby Pie

Crust:
5 ounces graham crackers, ground finely (I used Newman’s Alphabet cookies, cinnamon)
3 Tablespoons melted butter

Filling:
3 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 ¼ cups brown sugar
½ cup butter, softened
¾ cup corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
Pinch of salt
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
3 ounces bourbon (I used Knob Creek)
4 ounces toasted pecans, coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the graham crackers and butter together and press into a pie plate or 8 or 9 inch square baking pan. Bake at 350 until the edges start to brown lightly- about 8 minutes. For the filling, first combine the eggs and yolks in a medium bowl. Whisk in the sugar. Set aside. In the bowl of a standing mixer, cream the butter, corn syrup, vanilla, and salt. Add the egg mixture to the mixer. Scrape down the sides. Add the melted chocolate and then the bourbon. Sprinkle the nuts over the cooked crust and pour filling over them. Bake for about 40 minutes or until puffy on top and not wiggly in the middle. Remove from oven and let cool. Sprinkle with powdered sugar for serving.

Mint Julep Infused Cream (do this early!)

1 cup heavy whipping cream
3-4 sprigs mint
Powdered sugar to taste
Splash of vanilla
Splash of bourbon

Heat the cream on medium heat until it just begins to boil. Remove from heat and add the mint. Push it down in the cream so it is covered. Cover the pan and let steep for 30 minutes. Pour cream through a strainer into a medium bowl and refrigerate until well chilled. With a whisk or in the mixer, whip the cream until it’s medium stiff. Add the sugar and whip to desired consistency. Stir in the vanilla and bourbon. Go easy on the bourbon since the pie is already pretty well fueled.

Seis de Mayo

I guess I was too tired from doing Cinco de Mayo to write about Cinco de Mayo yesterday. It was a long day. This year the proximity of Cinco de Mayo to the immigration protests, in which the Mexican community has been extremely active, made me think a little more about the contribution of the Latino culture to our food culture here in the Northwest. There is no link in the chain of food distribution in America that is untouched by Mexican hands. And here in the Northwest, we are especially dependent on migratory labor because so much of what makes Washington’s economy strong comes from the sweat and demanding physical work of Mexican immigrants. Washington is one of the few states with a trade surplus with China- we are still an economy of production rather than consumption. On Tuesday at Whole Foods there were no bakery products from Essential Baking Company (my favorite Seattle bread bakers), likely due to the absence of workers on Monday, the day of the protest. No immigrant labor, no bread. And that’s about the sum of it.

So yesterday, I wanted to make something different, and more traditional for our Cinco de Mayo dinner. I went to Zarela Martinez’ cookbook Food from my Heart, which is a fun, if unorganized, cookbook and memoir of Mexican food and culture. I chose a recipe called Alcaparrado de Pollo, which is a traditional Oaxacan chicken dish with a sauce of capers, toasted pepitas, saffron, and aromatic spices. The chicken was supposed to be browned and then baked in the sauce, but at the end of the recipe a note mentioned that the sauce was also a great accompaniment to grilled fish, so I thought I’d grill the chicken instead of baking it, since it was such a lovely day.
 
I won’t bore you with the details of the recipe, since it was actually rather disappointing as written, but I did some heavy doctoring and it turned out quite nicely. The capers had made the sauce extremely salty, so I thinned it with more chicken stock, added some unsalted almond butter, some dark brown sugar, and some lime juice, which mellowed the sauce considerably. I served it with an Arroz Verde made with some garden greens and cilantro, and a little salad of roasted corn, black beans, and grape tomatoes. I had made a salad as well of grapefruit, oranges, and jicama but forgot to serve it. Note to self, margaritas are best enjoyed AFTER work.

This recipe, without any doctoring, came out splendidly the first time. I had seen something similar in a magazine, which of course I didn’t bring to work, so I just made this one up on the fly.

Piñagaritas

¼ of a pineapple, pared, cored, and sliced
5 ounces tequila (I used Hornitos)
5 ounces triple sec
½ cup lime and lemon juice, mixed (in whatever ratio you have on hand- do use real juice, though, and not the kind that comes in the plastic fruit)
½ cup margarita mix
Ice
Kosher salt and pineapple wedges, for garnish (leave the rind on these- it looks prettier)
4 large margarita glasses

Put all of the ingredients in a blender, except for the ice. Blend to puree the pineapple. Then add ice to the blender (1/2 way for not too slushy drinks, all the way if you like them slushy) and blend again until the ice is smoothly chopped. Run a wedge of pineapple on the rim of a margarita glass and dip the wet rim in a plate lightly covered in kosher salt. Pour the drink in the glass and garnish with the pineapple wedge. Repeat 3 more times.

Salud!

Mystery Bus Fizz

My parents have been going to social events at the Mr. & Mrs. Club as long as I can remember. The club is organized loosely through their local church, and many of their friends and neighbors are involved. They meet monthly for theme dinners and a few times a year they have special events. Next month brings the Mystery Bus Tour, which involves many people on a bus drinking fizzy drinks until they don’t care where they end up. No mystery there.

Seems that most of the planning for this event revolves around the fizzy drink part of the excursion. I’ve been fielding phone calls and emails from mom and her friends about the safety of egg whites, the prospect of make-ahead drinks, and the dilemma over gin or vodka. In the spirit of competition, they hosted a Gin-Fizz Off, and their fizz recipes competed for the coveted spot on the mystery bus. My mother’s recipe won. It involved ice cream, gin, lemonade concentrate, Sprite, and a few days in the freezer. I’m not sure if I’d call it a Gin Fizz, but what’s not to like about that?

So not to be outdone, some friends and I worked on our own recipe, after a afternoon of Frisbee in the sun last weekend. I put Scotty in charge of the blender and he made a recipe from a book I have. It was alright but definitely not a mystery tour contender. So after a few minor modifications we came up with this concoction that is pretty darned palatable.

Scotty’s Gin Fizzes

1 ½ cups chilled milk (we used Lactaid 2%)

½ cup plus 2 Tablespoons Gin (we used Gordon’s- nothing fancy)

¼ cup powdered sugar

¼ cup lime juice

1 egg white (we used pasteurized egg whites- 3 Tablespoons)

3-4 Tablespoons lemonade concentrate (we used Trader Joe’s brand)

1 teaspoon orange flower water (this is key- it comes on the spice aisle near the vanilla, blue plastic bottle)

Put all of the ingredients in the blender with ice and blend until frothy. Pour into glasses and serve with a sprig of something pretty.

Serves 4 to 6.

Mom, bring it on!

Kat on Community

Sunshine in Seattle. Finally! It’s a glorious day and I’m feeling both the elation and the exhaustion of yesterday’s activities. It was a busy Easter Sunday.

Easter has always felt like a day of renewal, an optimistic day to think about the blessings of another spring. At Thanksgiving, we look back with gratitude at all of the things that make our lives abundant- family, friends, health, and prosperity. But on Easter this year, I just wanted to take time to really enjoy the people that make my world such a good one, and to look forward to the coming summer with hope and anticipation.

The phone rang in the morning while I was knee deep in little projects. I’ve got a lot going and it seems that there’s always so much that needs doing. It was my friend Amy and she was calling to see if I’d like to come have brunch with her and her husband, Matt. For a split second, I thought, “Well, I’m pretty busy, and don’t really feel like I have time,” but then I realized how silly that impulse was. Of course I have time and of course, I’d be honored to come. I’m embarrassed that I even thought twice.

And the day just spun out from there into a whirl of friends and family and festivity. After brunch, some friends from ultimate gathered for a game of hot box (ultimate with small boxes for goals instead of end zones). My brother-in-law and nephews came out to watch. And still in my Frisbee clothes, I made food for the Seder dinner at my sister’s, and for the Thai dinner that another friend was hosting. Three of us ate tapioca pudding from the bowl while I scrambled to get everything finished. With my sister’s family I celebrated the Seder, the ceremonial meal that commemorates the Israelites’ freedom from Egyptian slavery. Her father-in-law read the Haggadah and we tasted the foods symbolic of the bitter bondage of slavery, and the sweetness of hope. And then with tapioca in tow, Gretchen and I went to Lin’s house for a gathering of the ultimate team. One of our teammates, Angie, has been living in Thailand so everyone prepared a Thai dish to share. By the time we arrived, they were ready for round two of dessert, and I dished up the Coconut and Orange Scented Tapioca.

And to finish up an already lovely day, Nick called from Kuwait to wish me a happy Easter. And indeed, the only improvement that could have been made on yesterday would have been to have him there sharing in the fun.

Family, friends, and good food- a recipe for community and for happiness. And in this new springtime I feel amazingly blessed with an abundance of all three.

There are plenty of post-Thanksgiving recipes for leftover turkey, but I haven’t seen much in the way of recipes for leftover matzoh meal. Here’s a simple fish recipe that’ll take care of a cup or so.

Matzoh and Herb Crusted White Fish

4-6 boneless and skinless fillets of thin white fish (I used catfish)
Salt and pepper
About 1 cup matzoh meal
About ¼ cup fresh herbs, finely chopped (I used tarragon and thyme), plus more for garnish
Olive oil spray
Lemons and oranges for garnish, sliced in half moons or in wedges

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Generously salt and pepper both sides of the fish. Mix the matzoh and the herbs in a flat baking pan (an 8x8 Pyrex dish worked great). Place the pretty side of the fish into the matzoh meal and press down to coat the fish. Then place the fish, crumb side up, on a baking sheet covered with parchment. Do this with all of the fish. If you have lots of parchment exposed around the fish, trim it with scissors. Spray the tops of the fish with the olive oil spray and pop the sheet into the oven. Depending on the thickness of the fish it can take anywhere from 8 to 12 minutes to cook. When the fish is starting to firm on the edges but is still a touch soft in the middle, turn on the broiler in your oven and move the fish to the top rack to brown the crumbs. WATCH IT CAREFULLY ! When the crumbs start to turn golden, remove the fish from the oven. Transfer it to a platter and garnish with the fresh herbs and citrus. 

Makes enough for 4.

Tales of Cottontails

You might not realize that the Easter bunny starts his basket delivery rounds from the west side of Greenlake, just north of the ship canal, in Seattle. Or so the story goes. Auntie Kat always tries to make something special for her nephews, Alexander and William, for the holidays, and this year there’s a little story to go along with the Easter treats. I didn’t feel like making fancy cut out cookies so I made a variation of my favorite powdered sugar cookies, Russian Tea Cakes, and renamed them “Cottontails,” to suit the Easter holiday. And so begins the story of how the bunnies lost their tails…

Download the_tale_of_the_magic_cottontails.doc

And if it’s too late to collect cottontails in your neighborhood, here’s a recipe that’ll do just fine.

Cottontails
1 cup unsalted butter
½ cup powdered sugar, sifted
½ teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon almond extract
2 ¼ cups flour
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup toasted coconut
About 1 cup extra powdered sugar for rolling, sifted

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light a fluffy. Add the vanilla and almond extract and beat again. On low speed add the flour, salt, and toasted coconut. Mix only until the dough comes together.

With a small cookie scoop, make 1 inch balls and place on parchment covered baking sheets. They don’t spread much so you can get 16 per sheet. Bake for about 12 minutes or until lightly golden. Remove from oven and let set on the sheets for a few minutes. Roll the warm cookies in the extra powdered sugar and place on cooling racks to cool. Reroll cookies again before storing, if desired.

Makes about 2 dozen cottontails.