Calumet Sugar Cookies

 We have been really good about staying home and trying to be extra careful when we do go out.  Just before tighter restrictions were enacted (Thank you to all the boneheads and selfish jerks who put us in this position) we were able to make it out to a vintage market. It felt great to be outside! Good food! Great atmosphere! Masks and distancing everywhere! I had to stop myself from buying too much! I did snag a couple of old cooking pamphlets. Sadly, I had to leave a few behind. Danm Holiday gift giving! :)

I think the guy is a little creepy...

It's not often that I pick a recipe based on the photo. The photos usually do not make the food look very... tasty. Usually they look .... not good, very not good. But, for whatever reason, this picture called to me. These cookies looked soooooo good! I just had to make them.

 Pretty standard looking recipe but cloves and nutmeg in sugar cookies? Okay, we'll try. Naturally no time on the recipe. I'm happy there is the temp at least!

Went with milk instead of water. I'm hoping it will make a richer tasting cookie. 

Mixing, mixing, mixing...

Looking fluffy! But not very thick...and I'm suppose to roll this out? 

Well, I had to add a bit more flour to the dough to thicken it and added a lot of flour onto my marble to get it to roll out and not stick on everything. I also had to roll out the dough a little bit at a time since my marble slab is not very large.

They are looking so cute! I am excited!

I have a much larger kitchen now but still end up in a little corner. ha ha And I didn't drink all the wine. 2 are empty bottles I'm saving and 1 was used to make a jelly. I'm not talking about the third.

These baked up so perfectly! It only took about 12 minutes in the oven and I probably could have taken them out a minute or so earlier.

Cookie time!

A little crispy and a little chewy. Perfect for snacking!

I was pretty surprised by these. You will not mistake it for a spice cookie, it is definitely a sugar cookie. The spices were very subtle and definitely added a little something to them. I was afraid that the extra flour I had to add would make them tough but that wasn't the case. I would probably use less liquid next time to try get them a bit more crispier. They didn't spread much so these would probably be great for fancy cookie cutters. I might have to do these again for the holidays. I have some great vintage cookie cutters to try.

My Rating: Great! I'd make again.

Dylan's Rating: I love sugar cookies!! 

Peach Puff Pie

Luckily my 2020 hasn't been quite as bad as other people's. My job has switched to mostly work from home and I have been able to work on side projects like cleaning and organizing our work garage. I am crafting and baking. Little did I know that the year was saving it's punch to the end. Within a week my washing machine died and some idiot hit my car and totaled it. First of all, I was not in the car. I was helping another with another accident but just one person not paying attention and moving over, like everyone else, destroyed my little car. I loved my little car... And car hunting is not fun! On a positive note, I now know how to check every single system on my washing machine. 

Time to bake something fun. Dylan's mother gave us a bag of frozen peaches so it is a pie kind of day. Naturally, I can't bake a regular pie. That's boring. So I found this recipe from the Rumford Complete Cook Book, 1947 edition.  Looks a little different, maybe more of a cobbler. Let's see!

No special ingredients except for the peaches. Almost forgot to defrost them... And yes, I used store bought pie crust. It's great stuff!

Getting the filling ready! No mixer needed for this.

It's started to thicken up after adding the flour. I'm still thinking it may be a cobbler...maybe.

I decided to stir the peaches with sugar in a separate bowl instead of in the pie crust. Don't know why the recipe wants you to mix it in crust.

Looks so pretty and tasty! Feeling excited now! I may have added more peaches. 

The filling is really thick. This may not be very cobbler-y. But it's a peach pie so I still can't go wrong.

Time to bake!

This turned out so pretty! Smells amazing! But...not a cobbler. More like a cake. Still good!

Definitely cake-y.

Dylan and I enjoyed pie with a side of Sequence. I think I actually lost this time. I blame the pie!

Artsy pic! 

This was a super easy and different kind of pie. More of a peach cake that happened to fall into a pie crust. The bottom crust was a little soft but still delicious. All in all this was a simple recipe. It is a great change from regular pie and nice if you have someone who doesn't like a 'juicy' pie. Personally I found the taste a little plain so would probably add cinnamon or another spice into the cake. We enjoyed whipped cream and ice cream on top of ours. When eating left-overs, it was best to reheat it just a bit.

My Rating: Great! Keeper with a few minor additions.

Dylan's Rating: Delicious! I love peach pie!

Quick Apple Streusel Coffee Cake

 I am kind of embarrassed by how long it took me to post this. I made this ... a while ago. It may have sat in my photos for a month. Maybe. Definitely.

A couple of months ago Dylan and I had bought some apple cinnamon flavored almonds. They were not good but I didn't want to just toss them out so the recipe search began. I added them to some muffins. Not too bad but I wanted to try something from scratch. I had apples that needed to be used and I love a good coffee cake. The quick apple streusel coffee cake from The Modern Family Cook Book, 1953 edition, by Meta Given fit the bill! And I love a good streusel topping!!

No special ingredients needed. I ended up using the apples I had on hand, 1 gala and 1 granny smith. 

Everything looks nice an normal. I decided to chop the fairly large. I wanted to make sure I could taste the apple and not just a hint of it.

Getting everything all mixed together. Melted shortening is gross looking. Just sayin.

Trying to work quickly before my apples start to brown...

All ready for the topping! I am always amazed how beautifully streusel topping comes together. It never looks like it is going to work and then you get a crisp, sweet topping. Wow!

I chopped up the apple cinnamon almonds and sprinkled over half of the coffee cake. Just in case it tasted like crap I would still have half a cake to enjoy. 

So, I totally forgot to take a picture of the baked goodies. I was a little busy. Probably. :) My kitchen smelled like autumn! Apples! Cinnamon! Cake!

This turned out to be a delicious and moist cake. Easy to make and easy to eat! The streusel topping added a nice sweet crunch to the top and even the side with the yucky almonds tasted great. The sugar coating from the almonds probably mixed with the streusel topping while it baked and lost a lot of the candy taste. The almonds added a nice extra flavor. I miss the swirl of cinnamon inside the cake but loved the chunks of apple. Also I thought that it made the perfect amount. Enough for dessert and breakfast the next day and a bit of sharing (if you want) but we didn't end up eating for a week straight. 

My Rating: Easy and tasty. Definitely a keeper!

Dylan's Rating: Great! Could use more cinnamon.