Czech Foods Recipes

I adore spending far too long decorating each individual cookie.  Luckily, this year I had some help from my mom!  The beautiful boot and left Christmas tree are her handiwork. Here is my simple recipe for sugar cookies and frosting, so you can spend less time baking and more time decorating! You will need: 2 1/2 cups flour 1 1/8 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 1 cup sugar 3/4 cup (solid stick) margarine or 3/4 cup butter 2 eggs 1/4 teaspoon vanilla 1. Cream margarine and sugar until completely combined. 2. Add eggs and vanilla to mixture and combine. 3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. 4. Slowly add and mix dry ingredients to the wet mixture. 5. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours or until stiff. 6. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface.  About 1/4 inch thick (or slightly thicker, your preference). 7. Bake at 400F/200C (or at a slightly lower temperature in a fan assisted/convection oven).  I'm adding this note, as sugar cookies burn easily, in my opinion. 8.

Hot Orange Spice Mocha drinks are a nice way to keep warm when the temperatures are below freezing!  Last night it was snowing so hard and so beautifully, it looked like a snow globe outside.  What choice did I have but to make some sort of seasonal hot drink?  This recipe is quite easy to make, though cleanup is a bit of hassle if you do not have a dish washer. You will need: 2 cups water 2 cups milk 1 orange 1/2 tsp whole cloves 1 stick of cinnamon 1/2 cup hot chocolate mix 1-2 Tbsp instant coffee granules (to taste) 1. In a saucepan, combine water, milk, cloves, cinnamon stick, hot chocolate mix, and coffee granules. 2. Grate the zest of 1 orange into the pan and then squeeze the juice from the orange into the mixture. 3. Bring to a gentle boil for 5-8 minutes and stir constantly on a low heat to prevent scorching. 4. Serve by pouring drink through a sieve. 5. Remove any milk skin that forms as it cools, as I would imagine most people don't enjoy drinking globby milk. IMPORTANT

This is officially my favorite cookie recipe of all time.  And I am in no way exaggerating.  My mom and I have made these cookies every year since I was very very young, I can't actually remember when we first started making them.  I was just that young.  Each year we have to make a double or even triple batch, as everyone snaps them up so greedily!  This year, in addition to making the original recipe with my mom while on vacation in America, I perfected an egg-free recipe about 2 weeks ago while still in the UK so that I could share them with my boyfriend's family.  I also omitted the vanilla extract from the recipe, as it contains a tiny amount of alcohol.  However, there is the option of leaving it in if you prefer, OR substituting the extract for real vanilla.  Since vanilla pods are so expensive, that option was not an option for me.  For the record, the cookies are nearly identical in taste and texture as the original recipe. Egg-Free Mint Chocolate Chip Snowball Cookies

 Courgette/Zucchini fries at Byron by su-lin (flickr) It may be useful to think about or list all of the healthier things you do eat in order to expand upon or combine them. For example, I do eat apples. Apples can be eaten many different ways in order to keep some variety in your routine while not becoming sick and tired of the same damn food. Apple-related ideas: Whole, peeled or unpeeled Chopped into quarters or very thin slices, peeled or unpeeled Covered in cinnamon Dipped in peanut butter Or dipped in caramel or a candied apple if you're feeling a bit more sinful Others may like baked or apple pies, though I'm not a fan Combinations: I'll use potatoes because it's really simple to incorporate potatoes into things.  Though the health benefits of a potato are somewhat limited. This site uses potatoes in: Fries on a burger As a soup thickener Loaded twice-baked potatoes (Again, some of these options are more sinful than others). I've also made mashed potato sandw

A few weeks back, I had a desire to make a sour dough starter to initiate my own homemade bohemian rye bread.   As mentioned in previous posts, this experiment has failed for a few reasons, so I went to option number two – using dry yeast. I scoured the internet in pursuit of Bohemian rye bread recipes and found one here at cooks.com. I was disheartened that there weren’t any pictures nor testimonials next to this recipe, but the recipe appeared to be easy to follow and used a combination of rye flour and all purpose flour.   Since I was a young child, I enjoyed a good Czech or German rye bread at restaurants and have been in pursuit of trying to imitate some of those good table breads. I like Bohemian rye bread because it is lighter in appearance and density (not too heavy on the rye grains) and it works well as pre-meal offering and partners well with soups or with assorted meats and cheeses.   This rye bread recipe I found adds in the European accent of caraway and fennel seeds. I