Tutti Fruiti Cookies

When its the happiest time of the year, you got to cook something that would look happy too. These cookies bring out that prettiness in the form of mosaic pattern of red, green and yellow that makes it so perfect to bake in this season.

Not just in its looks, they taste great too. Moreover, it is very easy to make. I usually do these for parties, where in I just make and chill the dough the previous day so that all I got to do is just slice and pop it in the oven on the day of the party. That way I don't have to deal with the messier part of making these cookies. At the same time, serve these cookies fresh for the party. 

Ingredients

1. 1 stick of softened unsalted butter
2. 1/3 cup of sugar
3. 1/2 tsp of Orange zest
4. 3/4 cup of tutti fruiti
5. 3/4 tsp fo vanilla extract
6. A pinch of salt
7. 1 cup of flour

Method

• Beat the softened butter and sugar untill creamy. Add the orange zest, tutti fruiti, vanilla extract, salt and flour.
• Beat it again untill combined.
• Remove the dough on to the counter top and shape it into a log of about 1 1/2 inch in thickness. Wrap it in a cling wrap and chill it in the refrigerator for about an hour.
• Preheat the oven to 350 F.
• Slice the dough log into cookies of even thickness and spread it on a baking sheet.
• Bake it in the oven for about 12-15 minutes or untill they are golden brown around the edges.
• Remove it onto a wired rack to cool down before you store it in a air tight container.

Tips

1. Chilling the dough helps to let the dough turn firm to help in cutting it evenly. So do not skip on that one.
2. If using salted butter, avoid adding the salt in the recipe.

Cranberry and Pistachio Cookies ~ Eggless

Eggless christmas treats is always a thing of worry for me when I pack the christmas treats for friends who don't consume eggs esp. because I believe that eggs is an unavoidable ingredient in cakes and cookies. Their absence is always felt in terms of quality of a baked goodie. But this cookie proves it all wrong to me. Its eggless and I can't tell you how many I ate at one go and so did my two boys. They are so good with the bite of cranberry and pistachio as a bonus. They hardly last at our place.

I have a recent crush on these cranberries. I didn't like them earlier but since last year I am kind of hooked. I can't get enough of them, either in the form of fresh or dried ones. They have been impressive every single form that I have tried it. These cookies are just one of them. The recipe for these awesome cookies is as below.

Homemade Wine

Making wine at home, is a tradition that I have seen my grandmother and mother follow without fail. Its just the perfect thing to be served with Christmas fruit cakes. It is also something that is first served for the newly weds when they visit our home. The joy of christmas gets doubled when little things involved in the celebration has that personal touch of love. This wine is just the perfect example of that.

Last christmas, I tried making my mom's wine recipe for the first time. I went wrong with the schedules of stirring, and made a wine that would just make you high in just few sips. Wine making is not at all difficult, but ya remembering and sticking to the schedules is. So the second time I made it, I kept reminders and kept the calendars marked to follow it accurately and WHOLA! We were sipping on a wine that was just THE PERFECT. 

Chicken Cutlet/ Chicken Croquettes

I have a little Chicken fan here. He loves it in any form...soups, appetizers, main dishes, curry etc. Since we had started cutting down on fried stuff, cutlets have made a rare appearance on our menu. But this lil guy's fantasy for having cutlets having seen it in TV, made me make some cutlets with his own favorite thing, chicken.

I have no clue how these disappeared in minutes time. They were super crisp on the outside and flavourful inside. They made a perfect snack time for us. You could also serve it as sides with meals or may be stuff it in burgers too.

Mutton stew / Lamb stew

The memories of X'mas and Easter from my childhood days include of having Appam and stew as breakfast on X'mas /Easter morning. I still remember coming back home after the midnight mass and having it as a midnight snack before going to bed to catch up on 2-3 hours of sleep. It used to taste heavenly, esp. if we have given up non-veg during lent.

When we made it, we just couldn't stop ourselves from having it even after we had it stomach full. Such was the level of craving we had for this mutton stew. Even now when I am writing it down, I can feel my mouth about to overflow.

Fish Cutlet

Cutlets have been consistently on our menu for special occasions. Every Christmas and Easter also calls in for its preparation. This Easter we were in the middle of relocating and settling down that we hardly got a chance to cook at home - oh wait we didn't have an apartment then :). Well, since one chance of having cutlets had been dropped, we made it for tea yesterday.

These crispy little cutlets have always been a guest pleaser. Well, it has to be. Served with onion salad during meals or tomato sauce for snacks or as an appetizer these perfectly blend in and can be had any time of the day. Unlike meat cutlets, fish cutlet is easy to make, due to less cook time for fish. That is another reason why you should try it :).