What do you find at the end of a rainbow?

Rainbow Cookies of course!

My friend Roger loves the rainbow cookies that are sold in Italian bakeries. I love almond paste and will use any excuse to bake with it. I found this recipe on epicurious.com and it got great reviews. I doubled the recipe to fit a half sheet pan instead of a 13 x 9 pan.A good tip is to softened the butter until it was creamy in the microwave. This makes it easier to incorporate into the almond paste, a trick I learned at work while making almond biscuit. My batter took longer to bake then originally posted on epicurious. I think it all depends on your oven so I would definitely watch it and check for the edges to get brown and pull away from the sides.

Rainbow Cookies
adapted from Epicurious

makes one half sheet pan

Almond Paste 14 oz
Sugar 2 c
Butter 6 sticks
Eggs 6, separated
Almond Extract 2 1/2 t
AP 4 c, sifted and then measured out
Salt 1/2 t

Raspberry or Apricot Jam 15 oz
Semisweet or Bittersweet Chocolate 20 oz
Butter 4 T

1. Make sure almond paste, butter, and eggs are at room temperature.
2. Grease 3 half sheet pans and place parchment paper in each pan allowing some to overhang. This will be used later to lift the baked cake out of the pan.
   
3. Soften butter in microwave for 20-25 seconds. Whisk or stir by hand until creamy.
4. Beat egg whites until medium stiff. While whites are beating and frothy stream in 1 c of the sugar. Place into a bowl that has been tared on a scale. Divide this number by three to be folded into batter later.
5. Break up almond paste by hand into the same mixing bowl you used for the whites. Using a paddle, cream almond paste and rest of sugar. Try to break up all the lumps. Add creamy butter a little at a time. Make sure there are no lumps. Cream until fluffy and white.
   
6. Add yolks and almond extract. Then add the flour in 3 installments. Scale batter evenly into three bowls using a scale. Add desired food coloring to each bowl. I did red, yellow, and green. Start off with a 5 drops of gel color and add more if desired. Fold color into batter until uniform.
7. Divide the whites into the three bowls evenly by using the calculation you did in step #3 and a scale. Fold whites into batter.
8. Spread evenly onto half sheet pan and bake at 350 degrees F until edges get brown and pull away from the sides of the pan, should be 15-20 minutes. Allow to cool.
9. Heat up jam in the microwave. Pull cakes out of the sheet pan. Spread half of the jam on the first layer and put a layer of cake on top. Add the rest of the jam and then the last layer. Weigh down with a sheet pan. Allow to set for 2 hours.
10. Melt chocolate and butter over bain marie. Spread half on top of cakes. Place a piece of parchment on top of chocolate and using the back of another half sheet pan invert the cake over to expose the bottom. Spread the rest of the chocolate on and allow to set.
    
11. When the chocolate has set invert the cake using a cutting board on top and flipping the whole thing over. Peel off the parchment paper and cut using a knife that has been dipped in hot water and wiped on a towel.
    

Fruit of my Memories

What happened to the days when watermelon had seeds? When we had "real" fruit and not that genetically altered crap that we have now? I don't think I even remember how watermelon taste anymore. Stop force feeding my fruit with sugar! Fruit should have seeds. Strawberries shouldn't be pumped up with steriods to be the size of my palm. Apples should not come shiny and blemish free. Fruit should taste like fruit. The more it is genetically altered to taste sweet the more fruit flavor we are losing. What are our kids going to think? Are they going to grow up not knowing the burst of flavor that can come out of a nickel sized wild strawberry? Are they going to grow up to be superficial brats, thinking you can't judge a fruit by it's brown dimply skin! I petition to stop this madness. Bring back the fruit of our yesteryears! Stop mating my fruit to make new kinds! Bring back simple plums, not that hybrid pluot, plumelon, plupabananaberry crap! Ok I think I need to take a break and simmer down.

There's a Kitty in my Dry Goods Cabinet

Bridal Shower

Iced Wedding Cookies for a very special bridal shower

Spiced Chicken Kebab

OMG I just made the most amazing dish! It was sooo good that I immediately rushed to the computer to post the recipe before I forgot what I put in it. Two days ago my cousin Elaine gave me a chicken sausage from her favorite Indian place and I immediately thought that I could replicate it. And then just yesterday in my Saveur magazine, my favorite food mag by the way, there was a spread about Istanbul and Turkish Food. There was a recipe for Urfa Kebab, Spiced Lamb Kebab, that was similar to what my cousin fed me. I used the recipe as a base and added some other flavors that I thought would go well and man, was it DELICIOUS! Rarely do I love the food I make. I am my own worst critic and I usually I'm never satisfied the way things turn out because it can always be better. But WOW this was good. It's perfect. I added some coriander, chili flakes, fresh mint and fresh cilantro to the mix because it really isn't a party without some herbs and spices. I stuffed the meat mixture into some sweet peppers but the recipe is so versatile you can use it to make patties and kebabs for the bbq grill, meatballs with a yogurt sauce, stuffed into a pita to make a gyro, or eaten alongside saffron scented basmati rice with golden raisins.

Your meat mixture should be studded with fresh cilantro and mint like this:
And I stuffed it into these sweet peppers (so sweet that I was eating them raw):

Turkish Indian inspired Kebabs
2lbs ground chicken, or turkey, or lamb
half of an onion, diced and sauteed in some olive oil
2 T paprika
2 T salt
2-3 t cumin
2 t dried oregano
1 t coriander
1 t ground black pepper
1/2 t dried chili flakes
1/2 t fennel seeds, or dill seeds
1 big handful cilantro, chiffonade
1 big handful mint, chiffonade

1. Mix everything together. I stuffed the meat into sweet peppers and steamed them but you can do whatever you like. They are especially delicious formed into patties and sauteed in a pan or over a bbq grill.

Update: Cumin is a very strong flavor that not many people like. I happen to love cumin but if you don't than perhaps you should add less or omit the cumin altogether.