A Full Moon, Homesickness and the Perfect Tea Time Cookie
Saturday, January 26th, 2013| As China prepares for the biggest festival of the year, I find myself a little homesick. The Lunar New Year is all about being with your family, your loved ones. Even though this is my first Lunar New Year, the realization the my loved ones are an ocean away pulls at my heart and mists my eyes.
I also struggled with homesickness during the Mid-Autumn Festival, another festival with friends and family at its center. I struggled with the internal war of being so far from home until a friend pulled me away from the food, games and people. We stood at the window and she spoke to me in a combination of broken English and Chinese. Allow me to summarize for you. She told me of a legend of two lovers. One is trapped on the Moon and the other is trapped on Earth. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, a flock of birds form a bridge, allowing the lovers to meet and spend one night together. She said “Think of the Moon as being a modern bridge for you now. You may be on the other side of the world, but you and your loved ones can always look at the moon. You may be far apart but the moon brings your hearts close.” It was a wonderful and mesmerizing way to ease my homesickness. She hadn’t scolded me, told me to make myself busy or that it would go away. She reminded me that it is okay to be homesick and miss things from home. As I am suffering from a new bout of homesickness, I thought it would be fun to make something that reminded me of home and I wanted to share it with you. Especially if you consider the fact that today is the full moon. The thing that reminds me so much of home is shortbread. It also happens to be the perfect tea time cookie! I remember when my mother would make shortbread when I was little. She has these beautiful shortbread pans that are made from brown clay. Some of them are elegant and dainty while others are cute or silly. One of my favorites had a lace like pattern and I also really like the pig with wings. I remember when my mother would make shortbread, I would pull out all the little dishes that belonged to my tea set and we would have to together. Why don’t you join my mother and me for some scrumptious shortbread and tea? I would love for you to join us!
Recipe:
Beat together the butter, sugar, and vanilla, then beat in the flour. The mixture may seem a little dry at first; keep beating till it comes together. If it absolutely won’t come together, dribble in up to 1 tablespoon of water, until it does. This is a stiff dough. Divide the dough in half, and press each half into one of the prepared pans, smoothing the surface with your fingers, or with a mini rolling pin. Use a fork to prick the dough all over; this allows any steam to escape, and prevents the shortbread from bubbling as it bakes. You can prick the dough in a random pattern, but it looks nicer pricked with some kind of symmetry. Bake the shortbread until it’s a light golden color, about 35 minutes. Remove it from the oven, and immediately turn the shortbread out onto a clean work surface. Using a sharp knife cut the shortbread into pieces. (Do this while the shortbread is still warm; if you wait until it’s cool, it won’t cut easily.) Transfer the shortbread wedges to a rack to cool. Enjoy!
Note: If you don’t have powdered sugar on hand, you can use the same amount of sugar as listed above and a tablespoon of cornstarch. It will work just fine. In fact, that is what I had to do!
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 Finished Cookie  Weighing Out Butter  Adding Sugar & Cornstarch  Creaming Sugar, Butter and Cornstarch  Mixing in Flour  Mixing Ingredients  Mixed Dough  Pressing Dough into Pan  Shortbread Dough waiting to be baked  Poking Holes into Dough |
What can I say? Besides it is really yummy! Shall we head to the kitchen to finish these truffles? Sounds good to me!Collect Needed Items:
] Pull the chilled Oreo truffles from the refrigerator. Using either chopsticks or a slotted spoon, dip the truffles into the milk chocolate and place on the pan with the wax paper. Allow the truffles to harden. Gently heat the white chocolate until liquid. Pour a small amount of chocolate into a zip bag and snip a small hole in the corner. Drizzle the chocolate over the truffles. Refrigerate the truffles and ENJOY!
I even started to worry that I might not have any truffles to photograph! I don’t know about you but I think that means they are really good. I highly suspect that I will find a package of Oreos and cream cheese waiting for me on the blog kitchen counter. Even Mitch who told me I was ruining the Oreos when chopping, said I could make these again. :lol: We really need to head into the kitchen so we can finish these up. Otherwise we won’t have any left! Let’s go so we can at least have a few completely finished truffles. See you in the kitchen!Collect Needed Items:
Can you IMAGINE how many truffles that would make? 
Come join me in the kitchen for some yummy and easy treats.
It is just so satisfying. The one problem is that I run out of room very quickly. One fast way to make some counter space is to make refrigerator pickles. They are a great way to perk up sandwiches, burgers and salads. Why, they even make a tasty snack! We have a large jar in our refrigerator for the staff to enjoy at lunch. Yummy! Come join me in the kitchen this harvest season to make some refrigerator pickles.
