Duchesse Cookies

This recipe comes from one of my mother's Swiss Betty Bossi cookbooks. The cookbook is solely dedicated to baking cookies and is full of mouthwatering pictures. Even though the recipes in this book are old (this book was published in 1978), they always seems to produce great results. Betty Bossi is kind of like the Martha Stewart meets Betty Crocker of Switzerland. I think every Swiss household has at least one Betty Bossi cookbook in their possession.

This recipe usually creates a cookie that looks pretty different from mine. The cookie is meant to have a chocolate filling that gets sandwiched between cookies. The cookies are also supposed to be piped into the shape of a meringue kiss, so you end up with a three dimensional cookie. I rushed these a bit too much and hastily spooned my batter onto cookie sheets/ sure enough, they turned out flat, but they still tasted amazing. My family prefers these without the chocolate and has these cookies with tea or coffee. If you're trying to make a more elegant cookie, add the chocolate filling. I also apologize that I didn't remember to convert the gram measurements into cups, so hopefully you can get your hands on a scale.

(photo from the cookbook- the intended shape)

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Halibut with Red Pepper Harissa

Last week I was at one of the "big" grocery stores near the village I call home these days. I got really excited when I read that they had just received a shipment of fresh halibut, but could not figure out where they were hiding it. I asked the man at the fish counter for 4 pieces of halibut, expecting to see the big steak-style cuts of halibut that I used to get at home. It turns out they thinly fillet their halibut in Switzerland, making it really delicate and tricky to work with. But I was determined to give this recipe a try, so I bought the halibut and get to work. If you can find the halibut steaks, this fish will look much nicer.

The red pepper harissa in this dish is amazing. I made this for myself and 3 guys and we devoured every last drop of it. I could have probably made more since we ended up pouring it over our rice as well. As with all spicy foods, just cut back on the amount of chile peppers you use. I used 3 little red Thai chilies since we don't have jalapeños over here, but we all liked spicy food. The spicy kick is great in this recipe, but you could probably omit the jalapeño entirely if you don't do well with heat. The spices and the roasted red pepper will make a great topping to any kind of white fish.

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Frozen Frangelico Coffee with Cream

I realize frozen drinks aren't exactly the right thing for winter, but the flavor combination in this one is perfect. Although I made mine a frozen drink, you could just as easily serve it warm. What's makes this so delicious is the combination of the hazelnut from the Frangelico and maple flavored cream. I'm not a coffee drinker, but I thought this looked pretty, so I made this for other people. I tried some myself and really enjoyed they way the flavors all came together, but one taste was about all I could do. Don't skip the step of adding the maple syrup to the cream since that is what stands out the most (at least in my non coffee liking opinion). This is one of those recipes where you can tweak everything to your personal preferences. If you prefer less Frangelico, use a bit less. If you want the cream sweeter, you can add a bit of sugar as well.

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Simple Potato Leek Soup

What I love about this Martha Stewart recipe (aside from how easy it is to make), is the creamy texture she creates without using any cream or other heavy dairy product. The flavor of the leeks come though without being overwhelmed by the potatoes. Even when there is a massive pot of this soup in the kitchen for days I don't seem to get sick of it. This soup also tastes great days after you make it and it freezes well too.

If you've never worked with leeks before, makes sure you really wash them thoroughly. After you slice them, push apart the rings before washing. You'll be surprised how much dirt gets stuck between the layers of leeks. Aside from this step, there really isn't anything difficult about this soup. If you're really starving when you make this, you could get away with keeping the heat higher in the final step of simmering and cooking the potatoes until they are tender. I've made this soup when I didn't have a blender available before and still found it to be great. I hand mashed some of the potatoes in the pot to try making the texture a little creamier and that worked alright. You definitely do not need to garnish this soup with anything if you're not too worried about a colorful presentation. I bet a dollop of sour cream would also go well as another garnish option.

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Shortbread Pecan Bars

This past Thanksgiving, my brother-in-law wanted to contribute something to the feast. He ended up making these pecan bars, even though he doesn't like pecans. At first I was a little worried about what he was going to create in the kitchen since I've never witnessed his baking skills before. I still wasn't too sure what the outcome would be while he was in the kitchen, but once these came out of the oven I couldn't wait for them to cool down. As he was cutting the bars and discarding the uneven edges, I was there as the trusty scavenger, ready to eat each rejected edge as it was cut off.

These bars were so good that everyone aside from the anti-pecan people (cough, Brian, cough) thought they were great. We had a few leftover the next 2 days and they were still great then. Do not attempt to heat these up, it'll just make the pecans melt apart. I tried to warm one up and realized that it just made a huge (but still delicious) mess. These bars make a great dessert to bring along to someone's house or party since they're pretty durable and won't fall apart/over in the car. If you love pecan pies, but want to try making them in a new way, this bar is the way to go.

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