You Put the Lime on the Coconut

Just what the doctor ordered. 

A coworker asked me to make one of his favourite cookies for him, and gave me a recipe. Which I almost managed to follow.

Not Quite Jubilee Jumbles

What you need:

• 1/2 c butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs (I only had one and it worked, but 2 would be better)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/2 c flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp allspice (use more, at least 1/2 tsp)
• 2/3 c cream (I've also seen evaporated milk or sour cream used in these)
• 2 c coconut

What you gotta do:

As usual have everything at room temp and preheat your oven to 350.

Cream the butter and sugar together, then add the egg(s) and vanilla.

Stir in the cream. Gently at first then, once it's mostly incorporated, beat it for a minute or two until it's kinda fluffy.

In another bowl, combine the flour, soda, salt, and spice. I opted for allspice since I was going for slightly carribean flavours here. I was a little concerned the allspice would overpower things so I went easy on it. Too easy. It was pretty much not there. Needs more.

Mix the dry into the wet until it's just combined and then mix in the coconut.

If it feels too soft to you, chill the dough for an hour or so.

Drop spoonfuls onto parchment paper and bake at 350 for about 13 minutes. They don't spread much so you can get 15 onto one sheet.

Once they've cooled you can glaze them. This is not at all the typical glaze for a Jubilee Jumble. Like I said, these are Not Quite Jubilee Jumbles.

Limey Glaze for Coconutty Cookies

• zest of about half a lime
• 1/4 c cream (or so)
• a bunch of icing sugar

Yes, I started zesting the lime before I remembered that I needed an ingredients pic.

Zest the lime and stir the zest into the cream.

Add icing sugar until you get the right consistency.

This was too thin. It might have worked, but I think it would have taken longer to set than I was willing to wait.

This seemed better. I had to use a spoon to spread the glaze on the cookies rather than pour it on or dip them in.

Once they were all set, I packed them up, and took them to work for the spoiled children project managers. This is their last week of cookies for a while... School starts in a couple weeks and I'm heading to TX to hang out with Recipe Guy until I have to to calculus again.

You will not believe what we're going to make...

you almost need to make it twice

Why? Because it cooks so fast you can't believe you actually made dinner.

I'm afraid that right now, as I type this, it's late, my brain is a little fried and I'm not entirley convinced I can even explain a recipe as simple as this one.

So, that's about all the preamble you get, and I make no promises that I will meet my weekly quota of almost dirty jokes, innuendo, entendre, or fucks.

Pork and Bok Choy Stir Fry

Really, the name says it all.

What you need:

• 1/2 lb ground pork
• 1/4 of a small onion
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp rice wine vinegar
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• 2 cloves garlic
• an inch or so of ginger
• 1 tbsp peanut oil
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• big bag of baby bok choy
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp water
• sesame seeds and green onion to make it pretty

What you gotta do:

In a bigger bowl than you think you need, combine the first 7 ingredients (pork, onion, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, cornstarch).

Dice the onion, mince the garlic, and grate the ginger first though...

You just did about half the work on this dish.

While that rests and marinates, dump all your mini bok choys into a sink full of cold water.

A quick bath this way will get rid of any residual dirt caught between the stalks. Trim the ends off and separate the leaves.

Those of you familiar with romance epublishing will totally recognize the Samhain Publishing logo.

 Totally looks like bok choy.

Drain most of the water off your little leaves, and set them aside while you start cooking.

Heat the peanut oil in a large pan over medium high heat. When it's hot enough that you want to start cooking in it, add the sesame oil.

Peanut oil can take the high heat needed for a stirfry, but sesame oil can't. Adding the sesame to the peanut helps protect it from burning in the 30 seconds it takes for you to get the pork in the pan.

Quick!

Don't worry, it won't burn in 30 seconds or anything.

But the pork cooks damn quick. You barely get it into the pan and it's done.

Once the pink is gone and you're thinking it's gotta be done (which takes all but 5 minutes, if that) drop in your still-damp bok choy.

This is why you needed a large pan. Greens like these start out big and wilt down to nothing in no time. Cover the pan and let them steam for 3-4 minutes.

I'm really starting to think I should have timed this one. I'll bet it's another one that can be done in less than 20 minutes.

The bok choy aren't entirly done yet, no, but it's only a couple minutes now.

In a small lidded container, shake up the last 3 ingredients (water, soy sauce, cornstarch), and pour them into the pan.

A bit of sriracha hot sauce would totally be awesome mixed in here, but I'm still working my kid up to hot chili sauce, so I refained.

In the time it takes for the sauce to thicken, the bok choy will finish cooking.

Serve on rice (leftover rice would make this one of the fastest dinners ever) or noodles.

I sprinkled mine with a little green onion and toasted sesame seeds. Lately I've been wanting toasted sesame seeds on everything and I'm trying to work out a cookie recipe that includes them.

I know a lot of people think stirfry has to be at least 8 kinds of vegetables and takes hours of chopping before hand, but really, it can be as simple as this. When I worked at a small town family owned Chinese restaurant, this is what I ate for dinner late at night with my employers. Home cooked family food. "Dinner for 4".

What do you like to order for take out?

Update on Monday, August 20, 2012 at 11:33PM by Seeley deBorn

Okay, two things:

1) once again I have totally unintentionally copied Taneasha... a fast and easy dinner of ground meat, green things, and rice. Dude. I don't know how I keep doing this!

2) I have no idea why there's a lime in the ingredients pic.