Post The Fourth: In Which Yummy Secrets Are Revealed

  Well after yesterday's morbidly bitter dose of melancholic ranting I think we could all use something a little more on the sweet (if woefully bad for you) side! That's right all - it's time for our first and gods willing not last edition of  -

COOKING WITH ENDIRY! ( Endiry not liable for fires or heart failure)

Well here goes! The following recipes are both huge hits around my house and pretty easy to make (as in pretty hard to screw up)! First I'll be teaching you lovely folks to make my wonderful sweet cranberry corn bread, and then I'll be sharing my tea and chocolate cookie creations the I swear are simply to die for! Ready? Okay.

Izzy's Sweet Cranberry Cornbread

for the cranberries (optional really, even without them this recipe makes lovely sweet and fluffy cornbread)

ingredients:

• 1 1/2 or 2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
• 3 tablespoons sugar (I use brown sugar as a personal preference though it probably doesn't matter that much)
• a pinch of ground cinnamon and cloves (optional)
• water or cranberry juice as needed (see below)

Finely chop the cranberries into small pieces - quarters or even eighths if you have the patience - and put them in a smallish bowl. add in the sugar and spices and enough water or juice to submerge all the berry bits and mix well. Let this mixture sit for about an hour - the longer you wait, the more the berries will soak up the sugar and spices and the sweeter they'll be.

for the cornbread

ingredients:

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 2/3 cups white sugar
• 2/3 cups brown sugar (again a personal preference, feel free to substitute white sugar if desired)
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 cups milk
• 4 large eggs, beaten
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 6 tablespoons of melted butter

Once you've let your berries soak for long enough, go ahead and preheat the oven to 350degrees f. Mix together all the dry ingredients in a large bowl before adding the milk, oil, egg, and butter. Mix well. Next you're going to want to strain the cranberries from their bowl  (possibly several times if they've been soaking longer) since you don't want to add too much of the juice in the mix. Add them to the batter and stir well, then pour into a 16inch baking pan. bake it for 35 to 40 minutes. Let it cool a bit, slice it up, and enjoy!!

Izzy's Tea Cookie Chocolate Sandwiches

ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup white sugar
• a pinch of salt
• 3-5 teabags worth of tea, finely ground (black teas work best I've found, but experiment! find what you like!) 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• a dash of milk or cream
• 1 cup butter, melted

• half a bag or so of semisweet chocolate chips

(I also added the tiniest bit of caraway and aniseed - sort of a family tradition. "Caraway for the devils, aniseed for the angels" like I was told, but both are an acquired taste so be warned.)

In a large bowl mix the dry ingredients well before adding the rest. Stir till the dough no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl. Lay down wax paper and shape into one or two long logs and freeze for at least an hour. Once the dough is hard enough to start slicing preheat the oven to 375degrees f. Start slicing cookies as thin as possible, placing on foil - covered cookie sheets (I usually rotate between 3 cookie sheets - while one's in the oven and one's cooling, I keep placing more cookies on the third.) Bake each batch for  5-10 minutes (keep a very close eye on them - they like to burn quickly!!!!!) and let them cool for about five before moving them to cool. Once you've baked all the cookies the fun starts.

Take the chocolate chips and melt them, making sure to check on them and stir as you do (something I wish I'd known the first time!) Once completely liquid, start spreading a thin layer of chocolate on a cookie, and sandwiche it together with another cookie, or if you'd prefer, simply edge each individual cookie with the chocolate for a slightly lighter treat. Either way finish and put your magnificent creations in the fridge to cool for a bit before serving. 

   And there you have it, loves. Two of my favorite recipes, a gift from yours truly to anyone out their with the patience to put up with me and read this!