Ginger Crinkle Cookies

This is a recipe that I received from my aunt's mother. I know, you are thinking isn't that your grandmother? Well my aunt married my uncle so her mother is no relation. :) 

These cookies are amazing and I think that Mrs. Stevens will approve of the job that I have done.  They are tender and have the perfect ginger flavor. yummy.

Ginger Crinkle Cookies

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
1 egg
4 Tablespoons molasses


Directions

Preheat oven to 350F. Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger.  In a mixing bowl combine oil, sugar, egg and molasses and beat well until smooth. Add the dry ingredients to the wet a little at a time until well combined.

Roll into small golf balls and place on ungreased baking sheets.  Bake for 11-12 minutes.
cool on wire racks.

~Michelle

Cranberry Coconut Chip Cookies

It seems like I make a lot of cookies and desserts that have chocolate in them.  Well, this cookie had white chocolate in it; does that count. The combination of flavors in this cookie will wow you. Add these to your Christmas cookie list.

Cranberry Coconut Chip Cookies

Ingredients

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup uncooked quick-cooking oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup vanilla baking chips
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup flaked coconut (I used sweetened)

Directions

Heat oven to 350F. In large mixing bowl, combine sugar, shortening, eggs and vanilla. Beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add flour, oats and baking powder. Beat at low speed until soft dough forms. Stir in chips, cranberries and coconut.

Drop dough by heaping teaspoons 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 9-11 minutes, or until set. Cool on wire racks.

recipe from here

~Michelle

Peanut Blossoms

These are my hubby's favorite cookie of all time. This is the classic recipe and should be on your list of Christmas cookies to make.  It is a nice recipe because you toss it all in one bowl and mix. The most complicated part is unwrapping the kisses. lol The texture is amazing soft and tender with a traditional Hershey milk chocolate flavor. Perfect combo.

Peanut Blossoms

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

1/2 cup peanut butter

2 Tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

   Sugar

48 Hershey kisses (or how many cookies you make)

Directions

Heat oven to 375F. In large bowl, combine flour, 1/2 cup sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, shortening, peanut butter, mild, vanilla and egg; blend at low speed until stiff dough forms. Shape into 1-inch balls; roll in sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately top each cookie with a candy kiss, pressing down firmly so cookie cracks around edge; remove from cookie sheet.

Cool completely and let kiss harden before storing.

makes about 4 dozen.

recipe from Pillsbury The Complete Book of Baking

~Michelle

Linzer Cookies with Chocolate and Raspberry

It's time to start baking for Christmas.  This is another classic style cookie but it has a twist.

I love the combination of chocolate and raspberry so much. These have to be one of my favorite cookies because of that. The dough has such wonderful flavor because of the cinnamon that is added. Plan ahead because you do have to chill the dough. Enjoy

I love these cookies so much :)

The cinnamon makes the dough taste so good. 

 Roll and cut out the cookies.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar. 

Add the melted chocolate to the flat side of the whole cookies.

Put the jam in the center and top it with the sugared cookies.

Chocolate Raspberry Linzer Cookies

Ingredients

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
One 12-ounce, package (2 cups) semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used 1 cup semi and 1 cup dark)
6 Tablespoons raspberry jam or preserves
Powdered sugar

Directions

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt; set aside. In a large mixing bowl, beat sugar and butter until creamy. Beat in the eggs and almond extract. Gradually add flour mixture. Divide dough in half. Wrap in plastic wrap; refrigerate until firm.

Preheat oven to 350F. On lightly floured board, roll out half of dough to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut with 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter. Repeat with remaining dough. Cut 1-inch round centers from half of unbaked cookies. Place on ungreased cookie sheets. Re-roll dough trimmings, if necessary.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes just until set. Let stand on cookie sheets 2 minutes. Remove from cookie sheets; cool completely. 

Over hot (not boiling) water, melt semi-sweet chocolate morsels, stirring until smooth.
Spread 1 measuring teaspoonful melted chocolate on flat side of each whole cookie. Top wit 1/2 measuring teaspoon raspberry jam. sprinkle confectioners' sugar on cookies with center holes; place flat side down on top of chocolate-jam cookies to form cookie sandwiches.

makes about 3 dozen sandwich cookies.

recipe from Holiday Cookies

Mint Chocolate Chip Christmas Cookies

These are my favorite cookies for Christmas.  My husband does not like mint cookies. So when I make these amazing cookies I end up eating them all. 

I took a batch to work and made a second batch for home. It turns out that 1 of my 2 sons also likes mint cookies just like his mama.  

I will post the recipe for my hubby's favorite Christmas cookie too.  He loves the traditional peanut blossoms.

Stir in the mint chips.

The dough is a bit sticky so I use a teaspoon and drop some into the sugar and sprinkle some on top then I pick the cookies up and roll them in my hands.

Mint Chocolate Chip Christmas Cookies

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
one-10 ounce package mint chocolate chips (I used Hershey)
additional sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. In small bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

In large mixer bowl, combine granulated sugar and oil. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Blend in vanilla extract. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in the mint chips. Shape into rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls; roll in sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 8 - 10 minutes until set. Let stand on cookie sheets 2 minutes. Remove from cookie sheets to wire racks to cool completely.

makes about 4 1/2 dozen

Enjoy
~Michelle

original recipe from this cookbook

Gingerbread Men for Hot Chocoalte

Did you ever see something on the internet or in a magazine and think "What a cute idea"?  I saw this idea someplace and while I was shopping at Hobby Lobby I ran across the silicon gingerbread molds.  Since they were 50% off I thought that I would give this a try.

Success!!

Just use softened Cool Whip and fill the cute gingerbread mold. I used a cake frosting spatula to scrape the excess off. 

Popped them in the freezer. I left them overnight, because they were still softish just a few hours later, and I broke the leg off on one trying to get him out. 

Great idea and it worked very well. 

  

 Spoon the Cool Whip into the mold and use a flat spatula to scrape the excess off.

Freeze the little guys. 

 Pop them into your hot chocolate and ENJOY!

The kids will love them.

~Michelle

Peanut Butter Graham Cracker Bites - No Bake

Peanut butter and chocolate are always a wonderful combination. Here is a pretty simple no bake recipe.  The most challenging part is always the dipping in the melted chocolate. Try this and wow your friends this Christmas season. 

 recipe found on Pinterest; here

Peanut Butter Graham Cracker Bites

Makes: 25-27 balls

 Ingredients:

1 cup peanut butter
1 1/2 cups graham crackers crumbs - I used Keebler crumbs
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate

Directions:

Add graham crackers crumbs to the 1 cup of peanut butter. Mix it up good. You want the mixture to be dry enough to be able to form balls. Add a little bit more peanut butter or cracker crumbs to achieve this consistency if need be.

Form even sized balls with your hands and place on a wax paper covered plate, cutting board or baking sheet. Freeze for 30-60 minutes.

I used a double boiler to melt the chocolate; stir chocolate until melted. Place the mini chips in a small bowl. Note: You can use whatever topping that you would like including nuts, crushed Oreos, Heath bars…etc.

I used two forks to dip the peanut butter balls in the melted chocolate, one at a time, and then I sprinkled the chips over the balls. Refrigerate or freeze until firm.

~Michelle

Brownies

Don't be afraid to make brownies from scratch. They are really not as difficult as you might think. I whipped these up while the kids played in the basement with friends.  The smell drifted down the stairs and up came the boys.. They waited patiently while the delicious brownies cooled. 

The brownies had a fantastic crunchy top and a really moist and chocolaty center. Of course the addition of some chocolate chips to the mix, I'm sure, made the difference.

Enjoy

recipe adapted from Pillsbury - The Complete Book of Baking

Homemade Fudgy Brownies

Ingredients

4 oz. unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips


Directions

Heat oven to 350F. Grease 13x9-inch pan.  In small saucepan over low heat, melt chocolate and butter, stirring constantly until smooth. Remove from the heat; cool slightly.

In medium bowl, beat sugar, eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add flour, salt and chocolate mixture, blend well. Spread in greased  pan. sprinkle the chips on the top.

Bake for 30-38 minutes. DO NOT OVER-BAKE. Cool completely 

~Michelle

Tearing up the Floor and Other House Stuff

We have done quite a few remodels around the house in the 6 years that we have lived here. Including scraping all of the popcorn off of the ceilings. The latest job has been keeping me very busy and moving from room to room.

This project started with the front door. We had it replaced but we did not do it ourselves.

Replacing the front door.

Before

This is almost the after. We stained the trim with a walnut stain. I will take a new picture.

When we moved in the floor in the front hallway had many cracks. Eventually tiles started popping right out.  The person that installed it just glued it to the plywood. So finally we decided it was time to replace the floor.  While my husband was at work I started tearing up the tiles. Since they were not laid correctly they came out super easily. The hardest part was carrying them to the garage.

Tearing up the tiles.

The new tiles.

Ripping up the plywood was so difficult. Moldings had to come out and hundreds of nails had to be pried up.

Hubby working hard.

The picture above, on the left, was before we move in. (not our cat). It has cracked tiles and wallpaper. The picture on the right is with the new tiles and painted walls. I have also started painting the moldings. I am not a fan of the crappy oak moldings with stain that doesn't really match around the house. I decided to paint it. :) Yes, I know now I have to just keep moving around the whole house.  I am loving the way that it is turning out.

Here is the view from the kitchen down the hall toward the front door. The picture on the left is when I just started picking up the tiles, which is why the rug is there so we could walk over it. The picture on the right is the 'after'. Loving it.

Another shot of the floor and the new moldings.

In addition to the floor, the door, and the molding painting we had to replace the floor in the half bath too because it's right off the hall and had the same tiles. So, since the sink and the toilet were being removed I thought it was a great time to repaint the room. (Hubby rolling his eyes).

The first set of pictures below are of the half bathroom when we moved in. I started peeling off the wall paper pretty quickly.

Half bath before

We painted it an orange color and put new... everything.

The first remodel

The last set of photos is how the half bath looks now. New paint new towels, new floor and white moldings. Love it.

Current look

More to come....

~Michelle

Snickerdoodle Bars

I thought I would try this recipe that came over my email from the Betty Crocker website.  I am always up for a new recipe.  It was a pretty cool evening and the boys and a friend were watching a movie so I decided to bake.  The great thing about this recipe is that the ingredients are things that I already had on hand. After I took it out of the oven I thought it was going to be under-baked however as it cooled it had a chewy, soft and very delicious texture. I also didn't use the glaze.  I wrapped some for the boys' friend to take home and took some to work the next day... Everyone loved them. Yeah

recipe from Betty Crocker

Snickerdoodle Bars

Ingredients
2 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter softened. (I used cold butter and just sliced it into tablespoons before beating)
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Cinnamon Filling
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon

Glaze - I didn't put any glaze on mine.
1 cup powdered sugar
1 to 2 Tablespoons milk
1/4 tsp vanilla

Directions
Preheat oven to 350F. Spray or grease bottom only of a 13x9-inch baking pan with cooing spray. In small bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside

In large bowl, beat butter with electric mixer on hight speed until creamy. Beat in sugars. Gradually beat in eggs and vanilla into sugar mixture until combined. On low speed, add dry ingredients until well combined.

Spoon half the batter into pan; spread evenly. Sprinkle cinnamon-sugar mixture evenly over batter.

Dollop teaspoon size amounts of remaining batter evenly over cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

(Glaze) - In small bowl, stir glaze ingredients until smooth and thin enough to drizzle. Drizzle over bars.

Cut and serve
~Michelle