Pecan Coconut Tart

I over-bought shredded coconut back when we were making Christmas cookies, so I was trying to come up with a way to use it up- this recipe looked interesting and had a lot of good reviews on epicurious, so we gave it a try.The recipe was pretty good- it seems like a cross between a pecan pie, a granola bar, a 7-layer bar. It's oaty, nutty, and caramely. Like some of the other recipe reviewers said, maybe I wouldn't cook the crust quite as long since it gets a second bake with the filling.

Cookie Extravaganza!

Chuck and I, with the help of Mark and Leah, made about a thousand cookies to put in Christmas tins and hand out to friends. Here are the recipes!

Pecan Tassies: mini pecan pies, made with the tart press that Martha stuck in my stocking one year.

Matcha (Green Tea) Cookies: sugar cookies with green tea powder mixed in.

Turtle Thumbprints: chocolate, pecan and caramel goodness.

Ginger Chewies: gingery soft and chewy cookies with raw sugar on top for crunch.

Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats: No photo, but you can imagine...

Chocolate-Dipped Coconut Macaroons: another Ina recipe, dipped in semi-sweet chocolate.

Jam-Filled Cream Cheese Cookies

A Martha Stewart Every Day Food recipe that I can't find online, but that's probably ok because they were a FAIL anyway... they were supposed to look like this (which about 2 of ours did):

But the vast majority of them looked like starfish writhing on the ocean floor as they bleed to death:

Pistachio Refrigerator Cookies

Not sure where Martha got the recipe, but here it is:

2 cups flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2/3 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
¼ cup finely chopped pistachios
non pareils
green food coloring

Mix dry ingredients. Cream butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Add dry ingredients and mix.

Using 1 cup of dough, add green food coloring, then add chopped nuts. Shape into a 10” roll. Wrap in waxed paper and freeze for 10 minutes.

Roll remaining dough into a 10x6 rectangle. Place other roll of dough on the rectangle and gently wrap the dough around the nut dough and seal it.

Roll the whole log in nonpareils sprinkled on waxed paper.
Wrap the dough in the waxed paper. Freeze for about 20 minutes. Slice about 1/8” thick. Place about 2” apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 375 for about 8 to 10 minutes. Makes about 6 dozen.

Pumpkin Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce

I have had this pumpkin bread pudding on my to-make list for weeks now, but none of the grocery stores in the 'hood have been able to keep canned pumpkin in stock since the beginning of September. Luckily, the lovely Lindsay donated a couple cans from her pantry stock.

To makes this bread pudding, I cut up some homemade challah, substituted toasted pecans for the golden raisins called for in the recipe, and made my own pumpkin pie spice, since I didn't have any.

Really easy and really tasty: kinda like a cross between soft french toast and pecan sticky buns, with a touch of pumpkin pie. The pumpkin flavor was pretty subdued, surprisingly...

Phyllo Cups with Brie, Jam and Pecans

So... I made these a couple years ago for Barbara and Mark's engagement party. However, I used pre-made phyllo cups then. Today, for Meagan's going-away party, I wasn't able to find the pre-made cups, so I bought a package of frozen phyllo dough and made my own, using a Googled recipe. Not too bad, although maybe I would cute the squares smaller next time to eliminate some of the excess dough, which flailed all around uselessly.

My aim in making the cups was to fill each with tiny square of brie, 1/2 tsp of jam and a pecan, which I did. Mmmm. I used peach jam from my CSA, but you could use whatever- raspberry, apricot, etc.