Forest Street Kitchen

I have struck out across the board with my plan to provide a “Random Dinner Snapshot: on Tuesdays during December. No one is actually eating dinner here, because Rob is in San Antonio, I am in charge of a party at Church from 5:30-7:30 and Sam will be at the home of friends eating dinner and being taken to basketball practice. (Thanks, Diane!). I figured I could take a snapshot of another meal, but here’s the thing: I split a can of ravioli with Sam for breakfast, and I’ll probably have a carton of yogurt for lunch, neither of which exactly highlights my culinary artistry.

I had one last idea, which was to photograph the awesome ricotta cookies I made Monday night which accompanied me to a meeting yesterday and will also be attending this evening’s fete. I then discovered that I would not be photographing anything, because Rob took the camera with him to San Antonio. Imagine him thinking that The Alamo was more interesting than my cooking!

So, there will be no snapshots, random or otherwise, of anything today. I will, however, give you my adaptation of the ricotta cookie recipe because I love it. Its easy to do, the cookies are delicious (although in a fairly subtle, adult way) and if you bake them for the least possible amount of minutes they will stay moist for a few days.  The original recipe called for lemon zest instead of orange, and milk instead of orange juice, and I’m sure that would be even subtler than my orange-y version. Here you go:

Ricotta Cheese Cookies

(Adapted from Italian Food Forever)

 Cookie Ingredients:

1. 2 Cups Of Sugar
2. 2 Sticks Of Butter At Room Temperature
3. 1 (15 oz) Container Of Full Fat Ricotta Cheese (I used low fat because its what I had in the house)
4. 2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
5. 2 Eggs, Lightly Beaten
6. Dash Of Salt
7. 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
8. 1 Teaspoon Finely Chopped orange Zest
9. 4 Cups All-Purpose Flour

Glaze Ingredients:

1. 1 Cup Powdered Sugar
2. Orange juice
3. Colored Sprinkles

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix all the ingredients together until combined. The dough will be moist. Drop by a teaspoon onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes until firm. The cookies will be golden on the bottom, but will remain white on top.

Mix in enough juice to make a glaze that can be brushed. Lightly coat the tops of each cookie with the glaze and sprinkle with the colored sprinkles. Let dry fully before storing.