Bijoux aux Gingembre~ ginger gems

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Lemon Hummingbird Cookies

Today my mom officially adopted me at the courthouse, which is funny because I am leaving in a week for college! But better late than never! (:
She loves hummingbirds and I like them too, so I made these lemon hummingbird cookies. I adapted the recipe from this awesome book called Paris Patisseries. The book is real eye candy, just gorgeous photographs of famous patissier's creations in Paris. Find it in my books section.

Big turnout from the family (+Max)

Silly balloons my aunt brought.

Lemon Shortbread Cookies
3 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup + 2 tbs butter, unsalted and softened to room temperature
1 pinch of salt
the zest of a lemon
the zest of a small orange

Blend the sugar, butter and zests together. Add the salt and flour and mix. Form into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for an hour.
Preheat oven to 350F. Prep three cookie sheets with parchment. Roll out the dough onto a floured surface (it may be crumbly and need to be warmed a little with kneading) to 1/2" thickness or so. Flour the top lightly and begin to punch out your shapes. Place the cookies on the sheets with a little room around them, they don't expand much but they do puff up. Bake until light gold.
Let cool, then drizzle with icing and sugar. I made my icing by adding a little bit of lemon juice and water to a couple cups of powdered sugar, then drizzled it with my fingers over the cookies. Then my boyfriend helped by sprinkling the sugar over the top! (:
C'est fini! Bon appetit mes amis! <3

Chinese Cooking, Photography and Thumbprint Cookies

I have been spending my Saturdays doing an all-day Chinese cooking class at the JC. It's been really fun, but we're all perpetually stuffed during this class (:
Today, we worked with stir-fry.

It has been raining like crazy this afternoon, it almost seemed like it was dark at 3 pm, it's been so overcast. I was a few streets down from my house when I noticed these lamp-posts shining on the wet streets. They were really pretty, but my lens kept getting wet. The affect was pretty cool, it was an interesting experiment!

Finally, I tried doing an indoor shoot when I got home. It was dark out, so I was using completely artificial light. Just trying new things and trying to improve!
These are shortbread thumbprint cookies that I've been making since forever, taught to me by grandmother. I'll post the recipe another time! <3

Stay cozy tonight! I hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Oatmeal Cookies and Bay Leaf Tea

Today my siblings and I took a long walk to get the mail and observe nature. We saw lizards, ant hills, yellow-faced birds, rescued a moth and collected lots of acorn caps ( : When we got home, we made a little display of our findings and brewed some Bay Laurel leaf tea. I have a book called "Kashaya Pomo Plants" that has natural remedies in it from Northern California plants. I will add this book to my book list for your convenience.

Bay Laurel Tea
Made from the leaves of the California Bay Laurel or "Peppernut" tree, this tea can be used to wash sores or taken internally to treat colds and sore throats.
Brew 3-4 leaves per cup of water to make a dark tea.
We found that when we brewed it briefly the resulting liquid was strong enough to make us sneeze! So, we drank it rather weak, but we're hoping it will help clear up some of the colds around the house.
(NOTE: It's important when making teas or using the zest or peel from fruits that you make sure they are organic and have never been sprayed with pesticides, or you could become ill.)


After the tea, Amani and I made up our own recipe for oatmeal cookies!

Mixing! This is the only one that wasn't 100% blurred, he's a very dedicated mixer!

Waiting for the cookies to be done: Licking apples always helps.

They're done!

Olivia approves

Cherry Oatmeal Cookies

1/2 unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 tbs maple syrup

1 egg

1 cup instant oats

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cardamom

1/2 salt

1/2 Tbs baking soda

1/2 cup chopped, dried cherries

Preheat the oven to 350 F

Cream butter and sugars together. Add syrup, egg and oatmeal. Add dry ingredients. Chop cherries and stir into dough. It should hold together.

Roll into balls about the size of a golf ball and slightly compress onto oiled cookie sheet. Bake for 12 minutes. The edges should be golden and crisp, but the middle may still be a bit wet. That is actually perfect! Let them cool for a few minutes on the sheet and then transfer to a wire cooling rack. The edges will be slightly crispy while the center of the cookie will stay soft and chewy! (:

This was an experiment that worked for us today, but it has only been tested once. I'll try it again another day and make sure it still works well!
Bon Appetit!