Chewy Lime Sugar Cookies

Chewy Lime Sugar Cookies

Ingredients

2 3⁄4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1⁄2 teaspoon baking powder
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter softened
1 1⁄2 cups white sugar
1 egg
1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Zest of one large lime finely minced
3 tbsp lime juice
1⁄2 cup unsweetened toasted coconut (optional)
1⁄2 cup sugar for rolling cookies


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside. Using a mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until smooth and very fluffy. Beat in egg, vanilla extract, lime juice and lime zest. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients and toasted coconut, if using. Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and roll in sugar. Place on lined cookie sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly browned.

Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

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Love and bondage,
Rubi Jayne <3<3

Cheesecake Cookies

Cheesecake cookies

1 cup butter, softened
2 (3 oz each) packages cream cheese, softened
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Cream together the butter and cream cheese. Add sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add flour, beating well. Drop by teaspoons onto cookie sheets and bake at 350 for 12 to 15 minutes or until edges are golden. Watch carefully, these burn easily.


**My notes: It took me the first three years that I had this recipe to ever get the batter INTO the oven after it'd been made. What wasn't eaten before the flour stage got eaten between the flour being mixed in and being put on the pan. Even now, I have to make a second batch for my brother to munch on when I make these. Oh, and I leave out the pecans. And throw in a little splash of vanilla extract. Sometimes a few drops of rum or peppermint extract, depending on how I feel. I would highly recommend playing with the flavors for a little variety (cherry flavoring is to die for, but I haven't been able to find it in years), but add no more than a total of 1/4 teaspoon of extra liquid to the recipe or you'll end up with soggy cookies or have to increase the amount of flour a little bit.

[eta] Little Miss loves to throw crushed chocolate chips into the batter before we bake them. I tend to go lightly with that so that the chocolate doesn't overpower the cheesecake, but the kid always begs me to add more. I think it might be a matter of taste.

[eta2] This year we're crushing up some candy canes and throwing them in to some of the dough.

[eta3] The candy canes were great! That will be one of the permanent additions from now on. At least during the winter holidays.

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Love and bondage,
Rubi Jayne <3<3

Coconut Cream Pie Recipe(s) - for @TrishB

I actually have two coconut cream pies in my arsenal of recipes. Technically, one is a called a coconut custard pie, but when my mom asks for my coconut cream pie, half the time it's the custard pie (sans meringue) she's wanting.

Hope these help and enjoy!


Coconut Cream Pie

Ingredients

• 2 cups coconut milk
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 3 eggs yolks
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/3 - 1/2 cup corn starch
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cup flaked coconut
  
• 1/2 tsp coconut extract
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 9-inch deep dish pie shell, baked (or a graham cracker pie crust)
  
• whipped cream (see recipe below)
  

Directions
Make sure your pie shell is baked!

In a medium saucepan, combine coconut milk, heavy cream, eggs yolks, sugar, corn starch, and salt. Bring to a boil over low heat, STIRRING CONSTANTLY. (I actually use a whisk. This can take up to 40 minutes; DO NOT INCREASE THE HEAT. You'll feel it getting thicker after a while. When the bubbles start popping and it looks like thick pudding, it's done.) Remove from heat. Stir in about 1 1/4 cup of the coconut and the extracts. Sprinkle a little bit of coconut and sugar over the bottom of the pie shell. Pour the filling into pie shell and chill 2 to 4 hours, or until firm.

While the pie is chilling, toast the remaining coconut if desired. (Spread it in an ungreased cake pan and bake in a 350F (175C) oven for 5 to 6 minutes or until golden brown, stirring occasionally.)

Before serving pie, top with whipped cream and with remaining coconut.

Whipped Cream

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2-3 tbsp powdered sugar (depending on taste)
• 1 tsp vanilla (sometimes I use 1/2-ish tsp coconut extract instead)

Coconut Custard Pie

Ingredients

• 1 9-inch pie shell
• 1 - 2 cups flaked coconut (to taste)
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups milk
• 1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar (to taste)
• 3 tbsp flour
• 1 tsp vanilla
• meringue (optional)

Directions
Sprinkle about 1/2 cup of coconut on the bottom of an unbaked 9-inch pie shell. Scald milk. Cool to almost room temperature. Beat eggs then add to scalded milk. Mix flour with sugar. Combine with milk and eggs; beat well. Add vanilla and beat slightly. Stir in about 1/2 cup of coconut (or more). Pour mixture into pie shell over top of coconut. Bake at 400F for 40-45 minutes or until set, covering the edges of pie with foil if they start to brown too quickly.

If topping with meringue, make it while the pie is baking. Top the pie a few minutes after it comes out then put it back in the oven for about 5 minutes or until peaks are browning.

eta: I should note that my mom doesn't like meringue so it's just... easier... if I don't make it.

eta2:
To scald milk: All you do is put the milk in pot, heat it on medium (stirring frequently) just until it starts to form those little bubbles before it actually comes to a boil.

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Love and bondage,
Rubi Jayne <3<3

Adventures in Writing, part 1

After way too long, it was time for me to write again and I had no ideas. None. I couldn't even dredge up any of my old familiar standby characters for a good romp or a kill. Or both. How lame could I possibly be? How defective am I?

The timer ticked on. Never mind that it was digital and didn't actually TICK. I could hear it. Deep inside my brain, I could hear it. Stupid brain. Apparently, I was more defective than I thought.

Pulling back from my laptop, I glared at the blinking cursor on the blank page. Evil little fucker. Why must it mock me so?

There was only one thing I could do. Drink. I could drink brandy -- What the hell?! I always seem to be out of scotch and whiskey. -- or I could drink tea. A glance at the clock reminded it me that it was only a little after 10am. Maybe tea would be the better the choice.

Fifteen minutes later, a warm cup of tea in my hands, I closed my eyes and let myself drift. Somewhere in the depths of my mind were characters and story ideas. Clearly I'd just forgotten how to access them, to summon them. I let the sharp aroma of my tea carry me deeper into the recesses of the twisted maze that is my mind. I knocked away cobwebs in areas not accessed for far too long. I felt like an explorer, only less mobile and a lot more appalled. When the hell did I last use my brain?

I pushed deeper, past thicker cobwebs with strange creatures and ideas both trapped in the cobwebs and scurrying past them. I'm fairly certain I don't want to know what the fuzzy thing that just ran over my foot was. Not today, anyway. I cringed at the layers of dust and grime covering every surface. No wonder I have headaches. My brain is corroding from lack of use.

I'd vaguely recognized some of the ideas I often let roam free trapped in the cobwebs, but only a few of them. Where were the rest? Where were all my characters?

I screamed and called out them, hoping they'd hear me, hoping they'd come to me. They didn't. I pushed onward with loud apologies for neglecting them, promises to not let it happen again, and pleas for help. All I got in return was that damned ticking, more dust and grime, and thicker cobwebs.

I continued onward until, finally, sighing in defeat, I sank to my knees on a pile of dust -- dear God, I hope that's just dust and not the remains of a character that died from neglect -- and cradled my head in my hands. Feeling abandoned, disheartened, and hopelessly lost, I started to cry.

Abandoned. My characters had every right to abandon me. This was my fault. There was no way around that. I had created a fantastic world for them and then let it fall to ruins from lack of attention. I had ignored and neglected a part of me that I very dearly loved and it had withered and died.

And I didn't know how to fix it.

So, I cried.

I cried hard and loud, but not out of self-pity. I cried in mourning for all I had created then destroyed with my carelessness. I cried hot tears of self-loathing. I didn't deserve to be the creator of such fantastic people and places. I couldn't care for them properly. I cried tiny rivers, which flowed over my cheeks and fell to the floor to mix with the dust beneath my knees, making small puddles of mud. I cried with body-wrenching sobs until I was exhausted. And then I slept; slept in the mud of my own making, completely unaware of the changes happening around me.


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Love and bondage,
Rubi Jayne <3<3