Puff Pastry Cookie Recipe

                                  

I stumbled across this recipe when my local Wegman's stopped carrying a crispy, flaky Italian cookie called Sfogliatelle or Millefoglie. (My guess via Google, sorry if I am butchering the name!)  At any rate, they seemed to be nothing more complex than puff pastry brushed with a sweetened glaze and baked.  When I discovered Puff Pastry in the frozen section of my grocery store, I came up with the following easy recipe.

Not only are they fairly quick and easy to whip up, they look very impressive to serve to surprise guests or with tea or coffee.  I do not actually measure my ingredients, so I will have to do that the next time I prepare them so I can update this recipe for those who prefer precise directions.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 egg whites
• Granulated (caster) sugar
• Cinnamon
• Pinch salt
• Vanilla and / or Almond extracts
• Sliced / slivered almonds
• Frozen Puff Pastry sheets

STEP 1: Combine egg whites, about 1/2 cup sugar, 1 Tblsp. cinnamon, 1 tsp. Vanilla or Almond extract (I use both, to total 2 tsp.), and a pinch of salt in a small bowl or ramekin.  With an electric beater, whip until it forms soft peaks.

STEP 2: Take pastry out of freezer (I recommend leaving it in until this step, otherwise it will quickly soften).  Break off 2 folds from one of the sheets, and lay out on a piece of parchment paper. 

 Use a pastry brush to brush your glaze mixture onto the sheets.

 STEP 3: This step is optional, depending upon how you like your almonds.  I briefly toasted mine in the oven, then used my fancy knife cutter thingy (official name, by the way) to chop the bits smaller.

STEP 4:  Again use your cutting tool, whatever it may be, to cut the strips into rectangles.  Transfer the parchment to a baking sheet.  Make sure the cookies are not touching each other, and sprinkle liberally with your almonds. 

STEP 5:  Bake in a 400 degree oven for 10-15 minutes.  You'll want to watch the first time to get an idea for how long, depending on your oven's peculiarities.  They should puff up and turn brown at the edges.  If you take them out too soon, they will flatten as they cool - not what we want, but still tasty.  You have my permission to eat any failures!

Enjoy!

Judge is back from the Hospital!

And so begins his long recovery process.  It was so sweet watching him greet his old friends!

Here is Mariam, Judge's favorite person and savior, welcoming him home!

Dealing with an older horse and colic surgery

Judge, my retired police horse, had an emergency colic earlier this month.  He had to be taken to the vet for surgery right away.  He is 28, which normally I would've thought would put him in the "poor surgical candidate" category, but my vet said he's actually in excellent shape for his age, and she's seen horses worse off recover from the surgery just fine, so off he went.
Turns out that the cause of the colic was something called a strangulating lipoma. This is a type of colic caused when a fatty tumor gets wrapped around a portion of the intestine. The tumor is benign, but it develops in a sort of sack attached by a long stalk, which can make it easy to wrap around and strangle the intestine.
Luckily for Judge, he got into surgery quick enough that the portion of the intestine wrapped up didn't actually die, so there was no need for a resection (cutting out a portion of the damaged tissue and reattaching the rest of the intestine or colon).  He is currently on stall rest for about a month, and is starting rehab exercises to build his abdominal muscles back up.

For those who have never seen how surgery is done on a horse, it is rather fascinating and shocking.  Here are a few pics: 

Pretty amazing stuff, huh?