Almonds, and Sugar, and Butter, Oh My!

Hello again, there! Much like my preteen journals of years past, I have been majorly slacking on keeping up with my blog and it upsets me as much (and hopefully more) than it does my lovely readers. Since last year I've been to Ghana in West Africa and back, I've interned at the County Health Department and helped teach new moms about safe ways to put their babies to sleep, I've written, and revised, revised, & revised a 50+ page thesis, and I've received my master's in public health (MPH)!!! So many good things are in the works for the future, and I'm just so grateful for my awesome support system that's helped get me through the tougher times.

Baking is a great stress reliever and has helped too, as well as coming up with new ways to invent healthy and delicious meals to supplement all those yummy goodies. Going forward, I'd like to include more variety of recipes including my salads and smoothies. I'm Certified in Public Health, so it's like my duty, right?!

That said, for now I will keep the sweets coming with these delicious and deviously simple Mexican wedding cookies. I got the original recipe from a Lauren Conrad guest post on Refinery 29, and was delighted with the melt-in-your-mouth results, which also reminded me of many Italian and Swede-style cookies my mom and I would bake around Christmas. I made these as gifts and brought the rest to work in an attempt to save my waistline.

Can I reiterate that these cookies are so EASY! Seriously, you don't even need to know how to crack an egg to make these cookies. Perfect to bake with little ones, as long as they have eaten all of their vegetables with dinner because this one is chock full of butter and powdered sugar (the good stuff). I've modified my recipe with the substitution of whole wheat flour to make myself feel better about this, but feel free to use just all-purpose or a gluten-free variety. The almonds can also be subbed for another nut if allergies are an issue, but I'm not sure how they would turn out without any nuts at all. Go low for the recipe.

Mexican Wedding Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter room temperature
1/2 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup powdered sugar (for coating)
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 pinch nutmeg (I think I used 3 pinches, but I like a lil' spice in my cookie)
1 cup almonds or nut or your choice, ground or chopped to bitty pieces

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Combine butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, salt, flours, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground almonds to form your dough. If your kitchen is warm [as is mine when its 80+ degrees and my oven is on] or dough seems too soft to form, chill for about 10 minutes.

Roll into 1-inch balls.

Bake for eight minutes, until just golden on the bottom.

Let the cookies cool for just a few minutes, and then toss in the remaining ¾ cup powdered sugar. You want the cookies to be warm, or the sugar will not stick.

And that's all, folks! This recipes makes about 30 cookies. No need for a greased pan or parchment paper.  Enjoy!

Homemade Stuffed-Crust Pizza

Hello foodies! It's been a while since my last post because I've been super busy with my recent graduation and a trip to Singapore this week! I'll be there for three weeks and I promise to report back with a lot of saliva-inducing photos of all the delicious Asian fusion food I am soo ready to eat!! Until then, I will leave you with this American twist on an Italian classic - stuffed crust pizza.

This isn't my first foray into the pizza-making arena. I've been making my own pizza using all sorts of ingredients and toppings, with the foundation of my favorite Trader Joe's pre-made dough. But a few weeks ago my friend suggested creating a pizza creation with a stuffed crust - what a genius idea!! Here's a fairly simply set of directions on how to do it, but if you'd like to stick to a traditional style pizza just skip the stuffing and pile on your own mix of toppings!

Here's What You'll Need:

Pre-made Pizza dough (16 oz - I used Trader Joe's!) You can also make your own if you're ambitious.
Flour (for rolling the pizza dough onto)
8 oz Mozzarella Cheese - add or subtract to preference
1/8 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup Pasta or Pizza sauce
Toppings - Whatever you want! I used:
        Andouille sausage
        Pepperoni
        Green Peppers
        Garlic
String Cheese for the stuffed crust - I used Colby Jack

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Prepare the dough according to package directions. Sprinkle flour on your working surface. With a rolling pin, roll out the dough into a circular pizza pie. For the stuffed crust you will want to roll your dough as evenly as you can so that the pie will support the heavy crust.

Lightly grease the baking sheet/pizza stone you will bake your pizza on and lay the crust onto it. This will make it easier than piling your unbaked pizza high and then having to transport it to the baking sheet.
Here is the part where pictures come in really handy. Take the cheese sticks and line them up around the circumference on your pizza pie. Take the outside edge of the dough and pull it over the cheese stick, closing the seal with a fork and pressing with your fingers.

Do this until you have gone around the whole pizza.
Next, you can finally top up your pizza with sauce, cheese, and all your toppings!

Bake it for about 20 minutes, or until cheese is melted, sauce is bubbly and crust is browned.

Viola!!! You now have delizioso pizza!! My roommate said she was having a love affair with this pizza, that's how good it was. Try it for yourself and enjoy!!