Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts

Thursday, December 21, 2017

No-Bake Holiday Cookies Your Boho Clan Will Do Battle Over


My mother was a boho baking queen and every year made dozens and dozens of cookies of infinite variety to give away at Christmas. Her freezer was always full, and everyone she knew got a plate of goodies for the holidays. One of her most popular cookies was this simple, no-bake treat she called Chinese Noodle Cookies.

All three of her grandchildren loved these cookies so much they would count how many the others had already eaten and insist they had dibs on what was left in the fridge. It didn’t take Grammy long to see she needed to give each grandchild his or her own “bucket” of cookies, making sure she divided the Chinese Noodle Cookies equally. 

Because, you know, they were going to count and compare. These cookies were THAT good.

My own daughter, Erin, loved my mom’s Chinese Noodle Cookies so much that she made a batch and took them to the hospice center where my mom spent her last days. There she shared them with family and friends who gathered round to say their good-byes.

I myself don’t bake much. Not because I don’t like to or can’t—I did, after all, learn from the best—but I don’t need the calories! Anyway, I usually make an exception at Christmas and stir together a batch of Chinese Noodle Cookies, making sure to send the bulk of them home with Erin because they are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too addictive. The recipe is so simple, which makes them a breeze to do even at the last minute, that I thought it only fair to share it with all of you.

Hope these little bites of heaven spawn some big memories in your clan, too.


Here’s everything you need…



  • 11-ounce package of butterscotch baking chips 
  • 1 cup peanut butter 
  • 4 cups miniature marshmallows (the tinted kind makes prettier cookies!) 
  • 2 cups Chinese chow mein noodles 
  • 1 ½ cups shredded coconut 
  • ½ cup chopped pecans (optional & not pictured) 


As easy as dump & stir!



Melt the butterscotch chips in the microwave. The bag says 45 seconds on high, but that may vary according to your microwave. Mine took two blasts, but be cautious. The chips will still look formed though melted. Poke them with a spatula to see if they’re softened enough, then stir until smooth.



Transfer the melted chips to a large mixing bowl and stir in the peanut butter until combined.



Then simply dump in the rest of the ingredients…



…and stir until coated.



You should end up with something like this.


Now here’s where it gets a little messy…



I use a tablespoon and my (clean) fingers to form the cookies,



which I then arrange on cooling racks covered with sheets of waxed paper.



The mixture will be somewhat soft and malleable. You may need to press each cookie together some with your fingers. (For me that’s not a problem because when I’m finished I lick my fingers!)



The waxed paper over the cooling racks makes for easy transfer to the refrigerator.



My fridge has a bottom freezer drawer, and I usually clear out the top tier of it ahead of time so I can set each rack in level. I put the first rackful in and blast it with a power freeze for 5 to 10 minutes while I’m making up my next rackful.



Seems like I always end up with a few that won’t fit on my two racks, so I put waxed paper over a dinner plate or platter to finish up. My mom didn't have cooling racks OR a freezer drawer and used to use up all her plates firming these babies up!



You want them chilled just enough for the butterscotch to re-solidify and hold the cookie together before you transfer to sealed storage containers.



Place waxed paper between each layer, seal and refrigerate until ready to use. You can reuse the waxed paper the cookies set up on for this...



...then toss what’s left over. If you were careful, you won’t even need to wash those racks or platters! As you can see, I'm a sucker for an easy cleanup, proving there truly IS a thing or two mom could have learned from ME.



The recipe makes about 5 dozen cookies. Keep the cookies in sealed containers in the refrigerator (not the freezer) until ready to serve. They will soften up if they sit out too long.


But if your house is like ours, you won’t need to worry much about that



They will very quickly disappear! 



One, you see, tastes like one more.



Here’s wishing you and yours a merry (and stress-free!) holiday season and an abundance of yummy memories!


If you want more...

  • Shop (and follow!) both my Etsy and ebay stores for vintage finds, a few of my boho DIYs, and next-to-new surplus home decor. New merchandise gets added regularly, so check both places often.
  • Sign up to have BoHo Home posts sent to your inbox using the subscription link in the sidebar (top right). Or follow with Bloglovin, a social-media platform that allows you to set up an account and access all the blogs you want to read in one place.
  • Find additional content from BoHo Home on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, and Houzz, and give me a follow EVERYWHERE!! The more the merrier at this very merry time of year!

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Saturday SAVES on Sunday by one beat boho mama

This boho mama is boho beat after a day of helping our daughter ready her first home purchase for move-in on Monday. There was a lot of décor talk in between sweeping up the previous owner’s doghair and dirt, but all the action was in forward motion with cleaning rags. Honestly, I can’t get the smell of 409 out of my hair!

Anyway, that’s why this week’s “Saturday SAVES” didn't make it to you until Sunday. I could have skipped it altogether, I guess, but since I’m too sore to do anything but sit today while the packing drama continues at her third-floor apartment, I’ll just turn the heating pad up to high and enjoy catching up with all of you.


Gold's kissing cousins  


In last Saturday’s SAVES I fixated on gold sofas and gold whatever, and this week it’s gold’s kissing cousin, yellow.


BoHoHome.com @bohosusan
Jan Baldwin

Follow Cote de Texas’ Joni Webb on a sunshiny romp as she chases down “The Mystery of the Yellow Sofa.” There are a ton of great photos (many with boho accents like the yummy throw pillows in this room), compelling background on the lineage of particular makes and models of yellow sofas, and tips on getting your own lemony loveseat on a budget.


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Tjitske van Leeuwen

Another kissing cousin to last week’s “plain-old-flat” gold is the metallic kind, as in rings and things. That gold was the focus of a décor post at Planete Deco. “The Sensuality of Gold” shows myriad home décor uses for spun gold—yeah, that stuff Rapunzel made—fabric, accessories, wall flecks and more. Lots of photos guaranteed to get your motor purring even if your spinning wheel only turns out ordinary thread.


Purple envy


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Urban Electric Co. via My Notting Hill

At the complete opposite side of the color wheel, this smoky purple living room room made me stop and count the Chinoiserie. I LOVE how the indigo blue-and-white porcelains and pillows underscore all the purples in this living room. The orchid’s a wonderful pop, but the purple door is what really has me going. Or should I say, coming and going? Because it does. Yes, it does.


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Museum of Ice Cream

Purple, purple everywhere and even some to lick! Don’t miss the Museum of Ice Cream’s Instagram feed. Get a sample taste at Domino or go in for the full feed. Either way, you’ll be amazed to see where ice cream is going these days, besides in your mouth. 

Yes, I’m dieting again, so my favorite food and I have parted ways for now; but I can dream, can’t I? And these scoops ARE the stuff of dreams. 


Inside Aussie design


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Susan Redman via Houzz

“Meet the Aboriginal Women Forging a New Design Identity for Australia,” on Houzz. Those pictured above—the Elcho Island Weavers—are just the tip of the down-under iceberg. If you love boho—ethnic, global, whatever you want to call it—this story is a must read.


Kitsch(en)y boho fun


Honestly, this kitchen reminds me so much of ones I had in my first apartments. It’s a hodge-podge, but that’s what makes it so interesting. 


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Architectural Digest

This one in particular is a well-thought-out hodge-podge with restored vintage appliances and such.


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Architectural Digest

The adjancent eating area is just as cute! Love the colorful glassware on open shelving and the Danish modern chairs. We had similar ones in the formal dining room of my childhood. Anywho, continue your peek “Inside an AD Editor’s Collected Brooklyn Townhouse” at Architectural Digest.


Places to see on your boho journey


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Singer Castle, Dark Island, NY

Check out “5 Whimsical Castles to Visit in New York,” also at AD. Yes, you heard right: New York. As in the state, not the city. As in this side of the pond. This article was interesting to me because I spent (the happiest) half of my childhood in upstate NY but never visited any of those featured.


BoHoHome.com @bohosusan

I did, however, live nearby one that didn’t make this list: Belhurst Castle, on the shores of beautiful Lake Seneca, in Geneva. I ate lunch there long, long ago, as a child, and I was fascinated. There’s a hotel, as well as a restaurant, and a winery where you can taste the local vintages.

Never swam in Seneca—steep sides, deep and cold—but several other Finger Lakes are within a 30-minute drive.


BoHoHome.com @bohosusan

If you’re already planning a that signature DC vacation with the kiddos, here's a little known must-see. The subway system is the penultimate way to traverse the nation’s capital, so come up for air at least once in station central. AD’s story and slideshow “Union Station Returns to Its Former Glory” details recently completed restoration and renovation. The photos are cool enough to convince me the in-person view is nothing short of spectacular.


For the boho gardener


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Get the DIY tutorial for this charming “Potting Bench with Decorative Roof” at Love Grows Wild. It's too pretty to get dirty, in my book, but it would also make a charming bar and/or serving buffet.

And for those of us whose backs and knees prefer a dream of gardening to the real thing there’s this dreamy bench:


BoHoHome.com @bohosusan
Dot&Bo

What a cute mudroom must-have! That is, if I had a mudroom. If you’d like it for yours, or even as a conversation piece elsewhere in your home, it’s available at Dot&Bo for “only” $899, marked down from $1,150. Gulp.

Surely there’s a DIYer out there with a knock-off strategy for this one. If so, let us know. I’d be happy to feature it in a guest post. 


Well that’s it for the running-on-empty week that was July 17-23


Gotta go fight my husband for the Bengay. I’ll be back on schedule Tuesday (already put the post to bed) with the finale to my master bath reno. In the meantime, I hope you’ll follow my blog with Bloglovin or one of the to-your-inbox subscription providers in the sidebar.

Stay cool (feels like 107 here, says the National Weather Service).

xoxo,

Susan

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