Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Ginger Snaps

My favorite autumn cookie.  They just taste SO good! 

1 ½ cups shortening
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
½ cup molasses
4 cups flour
2 t. ginger
4 t. baking soda
2 t. cinnamon
1 t. salt

Cream shortening and sugar; add eggs and molasses and mix well.  Add remaining ingredients and mix well.  Form into walnut size balls and roll in sugar.  Place on baking tray and flatten slightly.  Bake at 350° for 8-10 minutes, until cookies begin to crack and are lightly brown.  Makes 5 dozen.  From Crystal.

I have doubled this recipe for you!  The original recipe never made quite enough.

Saturday, October 8, 2016

Great Pumpkin Cookies

From my Mom, the great cookie maker, this recipe is a favorite of hers.  They really look like a pretty unassuming cookie but I couldn't stop eating them this week.  They just taste good.  And, besides, Grandma always says that they are healthy because they have oatmeal and pumpkin in them.  Who can argue with healthy?


Great Pumpkin Cookies

4 cups flour
2 cups old fashioned oats
2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 1/2 cups butter
2 cups brown sugar, packed
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 t. vanilla
1 (16 oz.) can pumpkin
1 (12 oz.) pkg. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, oats, soda and salt and set aside.  Cream butter and gradually add brown sugar and sugar.  Beat until fluffy and light.  Add egg and vanilla and mix well. Alternate adding dry ingredients and pumpkin, mixing well after each addition.  Stir in the chocolate chips.

Lightly spray baking trays with baking spray.  Using a cookie scoop, drop cookie dough onto baking trays.  Bake at 350 degrees for 18 - 20 minutes, until cookies are firm.  Makes about 4 dozen cookies.




Thursday, October 6, 2016

Gooey Monster Cookies

Go good old instagram, to find these amazing cookies that I had to make.  Check out her website for more amazing recipes and further instructions if you need some. . . 

Ingredients
  • 1 White Cake Mix Box
  • ½ cup butter softened
  • ½ tsp. vanilla
  • 1 8 oz. Cream Cheese Bar softened
  • 1 egg
  • Powdered Sugar
  • Food Coloring ( Lil'Luna used NEON food coloring to make them more vibrant)
  • Candy Eyeballs  CANDY EYE BALLS can be found in the Baking/Wilton Section at Walmart, Hobby Lobby, Michael’s or JoAnna.  I recommend getting 2 different size eye balls like she used above in her pic and you don't have to go through as many little eyeballs

Instructions
  1. Beat butter, vanilla, egg and cream cheese until fluffy.
  2. Mix in cake mix. Divide batter into bowls for the amount of colors you want.
  3. Add food coloring to each individual bowl and mix until all combined.
  4. Chill for 30 minutes. (necessary since dough so so soft)
  5. Roll into balls and dip in a bowl of powdered sugar.
  6. Place on greased cookie sheet and pat down a bit.
  7. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes
  8. Add candy eyeballs while cookies are still warm. ENJOY!

((I used a small cookie scoop and made over 3 dozen cookies, and doubled for playgroup fun and had a ton of cookies and one jar of small eyeballs was used up.))
Easy and  Hit!

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Streusel Topped Peach Pie - fall favorite

I got this recipe from Family Circle magazine 7.16.02 pg. 142-143 and have saved and loved every year since.  I love how easy it is turns out great and you can even mix your peaches with the spices and freeze in the freezer take out / un thaw and add a bit more cornstarch and have a yummy pie in the winter.

enjoy!

pies before i added the streusel topping...  Why not make two and make someone's day!
1 unbaked single crust pie shell (i have a good pie shell recipe if you want that - sometimes I buy in a hurry but homemade turns out nice too!)
3 TBS. finely chopped pecans
1.5 lbs. peaches about 9 medium
3 TBS. granulated sugar
3 TBS. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. ground allspice

Streusel
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 c. light brown sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
6 TBS. (3/4 stick) of butter cut into pieces at room temp.
3/4 cup chopped pecans

Whipped cream / ice cream for topping

1. Get crust ready in 9 inch pie plate.  Sprinkle chopped pecans over the crust.
2. Bring pot of water to boil, drop in peaches, boil about 2 min. until skins peel off easy, spoon into bowl of cold water.  Remove peach skins. Half peaches, make quarter wedges. [never have done this my peaches are so soft/ripe I usually just peel them quick...]
3.Place oven rack in lowest position (stays there whole time).  Heat oven to 400 degrees.
4. In a medium bowl toss peach slices, granulated sugar, cornstarch & allspice until well blended.  Spoon the peach mixture into the pie shell, spreading evenly, mount form.
5. Streusel, in a medium bowl mix together the flour, light brown sugar and cinnamon until well blended.  Work butter in with fingers  until medium crumbs form.  Lightly toss in pecans.  Sprinkle and mound over top of peach mixture.  
Bake on lowest rack on 400 degrees for 10 min. Reduce the oven temp. to 350 and bake for another 65 minutes or until the filling is bubbling around the edges and pie crust and streusel are brown.  Let cool  until you can comfortably hold bottom of pie plate, slice pie and serve with whipped topping/ice cream.

489 Cal/Serving - just the pie not including the awesome ice cream :)


Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Fresh Salsa

Heather shared this recipe from her sister-in-law, Ashley, and it is really yummy and easy. It is so good you can't stop eating it!


4 cans (14.5 oz.) Mexican style stewed tomatoes
1 can (4 oz.) mild green chilies
1 large green or red pepper, diced
1/2 red onion, diced
1 clove garlic
Juice of 1 lemon
2 green onions, sliced, white and green
1 T. cumin
1 small bunch cilantro, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together in a food processor until chopped coarsely.  Serve with tortilla chips. Stores well in the refrigerator for up to one week.  Makes about 9 cups.

*You can add a can of hot green chilies if you like more heat.


Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Key Lime Pie

When a neighbor sent an email asking for my key lime pie recipe, I couldn't believe that I didn't have the recipe on the blog. So, here it is!


Key Lime Pie


Graham cracker crust:

Mix 1 ½ cups graham cracker crumbs, 3 T. sugar and 1/3 cup melted butter. Press evenly into a pie tin with a spoon.

Filling:
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese
½ cup sweetened condensed milk
3 T. Key lime juice, Nellie and Joe’s (or more to taste)
2 – 3 cups Cool Whip


          Beat cream cheese; add sweetened condensed milk and Key lime juice. Fold in the Cool Whip. Place in graham crust. Chill well. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream and a quarter slice of lime.

I used to have Aunt Marci bring the Nellie and Joe's Key Lime Juice from Florida but now I can find it at Dan's next to the Real Lemon juice.

Thursday, April 7, 2016

Homemade Pita Bread



After being in the Middle East, I came to love having fresh pita bread with a meal.  It is so much better than the store bought variety that we are used to.  And, guess what?  It is really quite easy to make.  You have to be at home for a few hours but you aren't busy the whole time.  This recipe is from the New York Times and it is wonderful.



4 t. active dry yeast
1 t. sugar
1/2 cup fresh whole wheat flour
5 cups flour
2 t. kosher salt
1/4 cup olive oil

Make sponge: Put 2 cups lukewarm water in a large mixing bowl. Add yeast and sugar. Stir to dissolve. Add the whole-wheat flour and 1/2 cup all-purpose flour and whisk together. Put bowl in a warm (not hot) place, uncovered, until mixture is frothy and bubbling, about 15 minutes.

Add salt, olive oil and nearly all remaining all-purpose flour (reserve 1/2 cup). With a wooden spoon or a pair of chopsticks, stir until mixture forms a shaggy mass. Dust with a little reserved flour, then knead in bowl for 1 minute, incorporating any stray bits of dry dough.

Turn dough onto work surface. Knead lightly for 2 minutes, until smooth. Cover and let rest 10 minutes, then knead again for 2 minutes. Try not to add too much reserved flour; the dough should be soft and a bit moist. (At this point, dough may refrigerated in a large zippered plastic bag for several hours or overnight. Bring dough back to room temperature, knead into a ball and proceed with recipe which if you do that, you might as well just make it right then because it takes an hour or two to warm up.)

Clean the mixing bowl and put dough back in it. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap, then cover with a towel. Put bowl in a warm (not hot) place. Leave until dough has doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Heat oven to 475 degrees. On bottom shelf of oven, place a heavy-duty baking sheet, large cast-iron pan or ceramic baking tile.  I like the ceramic tile because it retains the heat well. Punch down dough and divide into 32 pieces of equal size. Form each piece into a little ball. Place dough balls on work surface, cover with a damp towel and leave for 10 minutes.  The damp towel is critical.  Not too wet or it affects the dough but damp enough to keep the dough from drying while you are rolling out the pieces.

Remove 1 ball (keeping others covered) and press into a flat disc with rolling pin. Roll to a 5-inch circle, about 1/8 inch thick, dusting with flour if necessary. (The dough will shrink a bit while baking.)


Carefully lift the dough circle and place quickly on hot baking sheet. After 2 minutes the dough should be nicely puffed. Turn over with tongs or spatula and bake 1 minute more. The pita should be pale, with only a few brown speckles. Transfer warm pita to a napkin-lined basket and cover so bread stays soft. Repeat with the rest of the dough balls.

Eat plain, dipped in hummus or tahini, salsa, filled with cooked chicken, sprouts and ranch dressing (a favorite of the kids when they were growing up), meatballs with a marinara sauce, whatever you like.

I doubled this recipe so that I could mix it in my Bosch.  A smaller amount of flour doesn't work in that big bowl.