Chewy Sugar Cookies

When it comes to a good sugar cookie, I definitely fall under the category of "can't stop at just one." You think I am kidding, but alas, I only wish I were. One of the problems with sugar cookies though... they take forever to make from start to finish. There's the rolling and the cutting and then the frosting! I swear, I may be the slowest sugar cookie maker in the world!!

Luckily, my sister seems to be able to make them in about half of the time that I can. It must be because she has double the amount of children and has learned to get things done more efficiently. At any rate, she made these the other day, and I contributed by frosting them (the easiest way I could!) and eating them. I took one for he team and ate about a dozen. So, you know, no one else had to go into a sugar coma. I'm nice like that.

Even though they may take a few extra minutes to make, I promise they are worth every bite. Or all 238 bites, depending on the kind of self control ya have.

Chewy Sugar Cookies

2 Cups Butter, softened

2 Cups Sugar

4 Eggs

1 tsp. Baking Soda

1 tsp. Baking Powder

Dash of Salt

6 Cups Flour

With an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar. Add eggs and mix until incorporated. Add remaining ingredients and mix until the dough comes together. 

Roll portions of the dough out, on a floured surface, until about 1/4 inch thick. Cut out in desired shapes and place on parchment lined cookie sheets. Bake at 375 degrees for about 8 minutes. You don't want to over cook these babies... take them out before they get brown. When cookies have cooled, frost with your favorite frosting, or the recipe that follows.

Perfect Sugar Cookie Frosting

4 Cups Powdered Sugar

1/2 Cup Butter, softened

5 TBSP Milk

1 tsp. Vanilla

Food Coloring, optional

With your electric mixer, blend the butter and powdered sugar together until smooth, or little powdered sugar balls start to form. You just want the sugar and butter to incorporate together well. Once you've done this, gradually add in the milk and vanilla and mix until smooth and stiff, about 5 minutes. Color with food coloring if desired. This is a great frosting to put in a bag and pipe over a cookie the way I did {lazy mom frosting! So much faster!!}, or frost the entire cookie how you normally would.

Delicious... Enjoy! 

"Favorite" Chex Treat

This is another one from the Favorites recipe book.  I loved it and it was popular at my office.  One of my friends suggested making it as a "neighbor gift" for Christmas, etc.  It makes a ton and I had to use our big stock pot and a biggest mixing bowl to mix it all together.

1 (12 ounce) box Corn Chex
1 (13-ounce) box Golden Grahams
2 cups flaked coconut

Mix together cereal and coconut in a large bowl - or stock pot :-)

1 cup sugar
1 cup corn syrup
3/4 cup butter
1 (4-ounce) package slivered almonds (if you like almonds, you may want more)

Mix sugar, corn syrup and butter in saucepan and boil 3 to 4 minutes.  Pour over cereal mixture and coconut and toss to coat.  (Will be hot, be careful!)  Then add slivered almonds and toss again (if almonds are added first, they stay on the bottom of the bowl).  Spread out on waxed paper to cool.  (I just spread it on a greased cookie sheet because we were out of wax paper, at it worked just fine.)

Texas Caviar

My dad made this recipe for a family party a couple weeks ago.  It was a great appetizer for 20+ people so if you're group isn't that big, you'll want to at least half it.  It's delicious!

Ingredients

2 (15 oz) cans of black beans, rinsed and drained

1 (15 oz) cans of pinto beans, rinsed and drained

2 (15 oz) cans of white corn, rinsed and drained

1 (7 oz) can diced green chiles, undrained

1 jalapeno chile pepper, seeded and finely chopped (optional) or 1 (4 oz) can diced green chiles

1 red bell pepper - cored, seeded and finely chopped

1 green bell pepper - cored, seeded and finely chopped

1 small red onion, finely chopped

1 bunch cilantro leaves, finely chopped

1/2 cup rice vinegar

1/2 cup olive oil

1/3 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 1/2 teaspoon cumin

Mix the black beans, pinto beans, white corn, green chiles, jalapeno pepper, red and green bell peppers, red onion, and cilantro together in a large bowl.

To make the dressing, stir the rice vinegar, olive oil, sugar and garlic powder together in a pan.  Bring to a boil, then remove from heat and cool.  Pour dressing over bean mixture, and toss evenly.

Sorry for the blurry photo, don't you hate it when you don't realize until it's up on the computer?

White Chocolate Covered Popcorn

I go this recipe from my friend Liberty. When we first moved to Chicago, we had a recipe exchange night with the youth from our church.... the girls brought some funny stuff {fried cheerios anyone?}, and the leaders brought some recipes that I have made over and over again! This one is a delicious snack that gets kind of addictive. I figure there are nuts in there so @ least it has some protein... so its totally good for you, right?!

White Chocolate Covered Popcorn

2-3 Bags of Lightly Buttered Popcorn
1 Cup Almonds
1-2 Cups Peanut M&M's
White Chocolate Chips or Vanilla Bark (to taste)

Pop the popcorn and carefully try to remove any kernels that didn't pop. I usually spread the cooked popcorn on a clean Tea Towel and sift through it. Place popcorn in a large bowl. Pour M&M's and almonds over popcorn. Melt your chocolate either in a double boiler, or in the microwave in small intervals, making sure to stir after each 30 second interval.

When chocolate is melted and smooth, pour over popcorn and gently stir.  Wait for chocolate to harden before diving in.

This is also a great treat to package up and take to a friend. Easy and delicious!

Caramel

If you like caramel, I would suggest not making this recipe.

Seriously. You will eat it all.

You have been warned.

Since I have zero will power, I made this the other day and poured it over popcorn. I'm sure you can imagine what happened next... I pretty much had to throw half of it out because I kept finding myself taking handful after handful. Not even aware I was doing it!

So anyway, if you know how to stop when your dental work is begging you to, go ahead and try this yummy recipe from my wonderful friend Amanda. I think you'll like it.

Caramel

2 Cups Sugar

1/2 Cup Butter

1 1/2 Cups Light Karo Syrup

1 Can Sweetened Condensed Milk

Pinch of Salt

1 tsp. Vanilla

Popcorn, popped and set aside

(make sure you check for any unwanted kernels. I don't want you breaking a tooth!)

Combine all ingredients in a heavy saucepan, except vanilla. Stir well on low heat until dissolved. Increase heat to medium. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, until it forms a soft ball when dropped in very cold water. Remove from heat. Add vanilla. Pour our the prepared popcorn and mix well.

You can also make these into individually wrapped caramels. You will want to cook it to firm ball stage and then pour into a buttered 9x13 inch pan. When cooled and set, you can cut into small squares and wrap in small squares of wax paper. You can also add chopped nuts when you stir in the vanilla... if your a nutty kinda person. Makes a fun little gift for a friend!

I got to use my new blue dutch oven! I'm not saying thats not the real reason I made this caramel, but it might be.

**Side Note: The slower you cook the caramel, the lighter it will be in color. Just KEEP stirring. You really don't want to burn this stuff!

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

Another way to use up some of that Summer/Fall zucchini. These things are super tasty... in fact, they taste more like a cupcake then a zucchini filled muffin. I used some of my shredded zucchini that I had frozen... worked great!

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

2 Cups Flour

1/2 Cup Cocoa

2 tsp. Baking Soda

1/4 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Cinnamon

3/4 Cup Butter, softened

2 tsp. Vanilla Extract

3/4 Cup Honey

3 Eggs

2 Cups Zucchini, grated

1 Cup Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips, separated

1/3 Cup Raw Sugar (turbinado works well)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with paper liners. In a medium size bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, soda, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and vanilla. Slowly add in the honey and continue to mix until creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. By hand, fold in the zucchini and 2/3 of the chocolate chips. Fill each muffin cup 3/4 full, and sprinkle remaining chocolate chips on the top of each muffin. Bake for 21-23 minutes, until firm. After about 15 minutes of baking time, sprinkle raw sugar on each muffin top and continue to cook for remainder of time.

I think they are best slightly warm, but they are also good cool.

Pita Chips

I love pita chips, but they were $4.50 for a personal sized bag at Smiths so I decided to make my own. We also make variations and customize them for what we're in the mood for.

Servings: 1

Cut 1 pita flat bread (not pocket bread) into 8 triangles. Coat both sides well with spray vegetable oil, or brush some on if you prefer. Place on a cookie sheet and bake on broil, high heat.

Bake about 3 minutes on each side, or until golden brow. Watch carefully because, as I'm sure you know, the broiler can burn something in just seconds. Dip in, or spread on hummus.

So far we've tried sprinkling garlic powder, sea salt and parmesan cheese on before baking for different flavors.

Jam-filled Muffins

These have always been one of my favorite muffins and breakfast foods!

Ingredients:

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

2/3 cup milk

1/3 cup butter, melted

1 teaspoon grated lemon peel

raspberry or strawberry jam

Directions:

In a small bowl, lightly beat eggs. In a large bowl, combine eggs, milk, butter and lemon peel; add flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir just until moistened. Spoon half of the batter into 12 greased (I used the spray Annalisa recommended with the flour mixed into the Pam and it worked great!) or paper-lined muffin cups. Make a well in the center of each; add about a tablespoon of jam. Spoon remaining batter over jam. Bake at 400° for 20-25 minutes or until golden. Serves 12.

I read that one woman stores her muffins in the vegetable bags with the little holes in them-I haven't tried this, but it sounded interesting.

Orange Julius

This is one of our favorite quick treats!

6 oz. frozen orange juice concentrate

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups milk

6-12 ice cubes

1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix in blender until smooth.