Christmas Cookies and More…

One last 2019 Christmas related post just to begin 2020 on a positive food focused note…

Sherry is our next door neighbor.  Unfortunately, her kitchen suffered water damage due to an accident and she was frustrated because she loves to bake Christmas cookies.  So, Laurie and Sherry decided to take over our kitchen for a day and bake to their hearts content.  For the most part, I just retired to my man-cave and stayed out of sight.

Here’s part of the ladies’ cookie production line!  This was about when I came downstairs to ensure that the cookie ‘quality’ met my standards…

Sherry is a serious cookie decorator, adding a lot of color via frosting and a variety of sprinkles.

These are some of the cut out cookies the ladies baked.  Sherry liked frosting hers and Laurie used royal frosting on hers.  I liked them both!

However, I had personally requested that they make some thumbprint cookies for me…and they delivered on my request!  They are basically shortbread cookies with a big dent in the middle for the jam or preserves and powdered sugar sprinkled on top.

This is a close-up of one of ‘my’ thumbprint cookies.  Yum!  This one was filled with apricot preserves.  However, they also filled a number of them with another favorite, strawberry jam!  I will admit to eating more than my share of these delectable gems…  

A week or so later, Laurie pulled out one of our favorite cookie recipes and went to work again.  These luscious beauties are cranberry orange shortbread cookies…and they are (were) a true winner!

I’m hoping for a repeat baking frenzy at the same time in 2020!

Now, onto a recent dining experience in Maryville Tennessee.

This was the third time that we’ve dined at Amici in Maryville Tennessee.  Amici is an Italian restaurant but its food creations tend to be quite different than the norm…and quite imaginative.

For my dinner on this occasion, I ordered a Custom Pizza…a ricotta base with Calabrian chili flavored sausage and pepperoni. ($16.00) I love the thin crisp crust but the smoked flavor (chilies or sausage) sort of overwhelmed the other ingredients.  It was still good…but not really my favorite.

Laurie tried something new, the Crab and Bacon Risotto. ($21.00) It consisted of Arborio rice, lump crab meat, Benton’s bacon, garlic, olive oil, Calabrian chilies and parmesan.  She enjoyed her entrée but its flavors were quite ‘rich’ and she couldn’t finish it.

Our dining partners on this occasion were friends Linda and Norm.  Linda had a dish that I’d profiled previously, the Smoked Chicken Alfredo ($16.00), which she enjoyed.  However, Norm ordered the above pictured White Bean Stew.  The stew was slow cooked with white beans, local roasted mushrooms, roasted tomato and salsa verde accompanied with a piece of toasted focaccia.  He really liked the stew and he loved that focaccia!

FYI, Amici is located at 1420 East Broadway in Maryville Tennessee.  They are open for lunch and dinner Wednesday through Sunday.  Phone: 865-724-1710.  Website: http://amicimaryville.com/.

This was one of my favorite meals in recent months!  Laurie decided to make beef stew…with chunks of beef, onion, carrots, celery and some nice small potatoes.  Add her spices…liberally, and voila, we had a great stew that we enjoyed for 3 meals, one of them with friends Jodie and Morrie who were ‘homeless’ due to water damage (a leak) at their house.  This stew was a definite winner!

Just an observation...what are the odds that we’d know 2 couples in our neighborhood that were flooded out at roughly the same time?  Even weirder, Dawn Marie down in Miami was flooded out of her condo about the same time due to a broken water pipe on an upper level of her building.  Hopefully, 3 times is the charm and no further water-related disasters will befall any other friends or family members!

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave