Tuesday Twister – Butter Cookies – Meringues – Sourdough Pumpernickel

This doesn’t seem like such a marathon cooking week as the last few, although I did make a roast leg of grass-fed Icelandic lamb that we had in the freezer. (When we see it at Whole Foods we splurge, because it really is the best lamb. In Iceland, the lambs roam around the countryside all summer long, and get gathered up in the autumn. One of these days I want to buy lamb from a semi-local farm that raises Icelandic sheep so we can see if it is as good.) We tried the ginger beer with it. The verdict was it was not gingery enough for us, although my husband and I thought it was still good. The kids thought it “tasted like beer” (tasted too fermented, although it didn’t really have any fermented taste to me) and wasn’t sweet enough.

I wanted to try out some cookie recipes for Wardeh’s Gallery of Christmas Cookies, but I lost steam after making a few other people’s recipes (I have a party to bring them to tomorrow):

• Lemon Meringue cookies (I liked these a lot, although my husband thought they were too lemony)
• Cocoa Spice Meringue Cookies (these were a big hit and need to be added to our annual cookie recipes)
• Sprouted Flour Butter Cookies

I may try out modifying a few of my recipes this week, but I don’t have a good outlet for cookies anymore (other than my family); I used to work in an office with a lot of people that would eat anything I brought in; now, there are only a handful of people and I only work in the office a few days a week. Then again, it’s getting close enough to Christmas that cookies should keep until then if I make them later in the week, right?

I also tried the sourdough pumpernickel bread from Wild Fermentation. I love storebought pumpernickel bread, and I have been searching for a recipe that tastes like it but doesn’t have wheat in it. This one isn’t quite the same, but it is pretty good. It was popular with the boys (the baby and the 13 year old), but my husband didn’t like it. So I guess I can make it again for me and the kids. I made a few mistakes when making it, like forgetting to add all of the flour before I let it sit, so I will try doing it the right way next time. Also, you can use carob or cocoa in place of one cup of flour to darken it; I’ll try maybe all carob or half and half next time, but I was low on carob so I had tried it with all cocoa powder (which I suppose I shouldn’t be giving to the baby but he really likes rye). I also think I will try it with caraway seeds (I left them out this time).

I also made Millie’s Sourdough Bread for the family, since I found some whole wheat flour in the freezer that needed to be used up.

Go to GNOWFGLINS to see what’s twisting in everyone else’s kitchens this week.