Fruit Dip

Hi all! I stole this from Stacy. SOOOOO yummy! Made it for small group at our house last night.

Recipe:

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sour cream
2 cups whipped cream
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, sour cream, brown sugar, sugar, maple syrup and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth. Fold in the whipped cream.

Yummy Dip

Hubby found this dip recipe that we took to a Superbowl Party:

Buffalo Chicken Dip
1 pkg. (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1/2 c. blue cheese dressing (or Ranch)
1/2 c. Frank's RedHot sauce
1/2 c. crumbled blue cheese (or mozzarella)
2 cans (12.5 oz. each) Swanson Chicken Breast

1. Stir the cream cheese in a 9-in deep dish pie plate until smooth. Stir in remaining ingredients.
2. Bake in preheated 350 degree over for 20 minutes. Stir and serve with veggies or crackers.

Paper Piecing, and One More Cookie Recipe

Every once in awhile, I get an itch to try something new. I've taught myself to knit, play the cello, and loads of other useless skills. Well, my friend Carrie does a lot of paper piecing. Her Harry Potter patterns caught my eye, so after reading/watching about 10 sets of how-to instructions, I decided to give it a whirl. I decided to go with the "H" first, for Harry, of course. It's no masterpiece, and you can see my mess-ups (quarter inch seam allowance, what?), but I can honestly say it's a pretty good first try, don't you agree? I think I'll have to start from book one and read the whole series again! Hey, Scrappy, how's Beetle the Bard?

Ok, one more recipe. Peppermint Swirls

1 c. butter or margarine, softened

1/3 c. powered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

2 c. flour

1/4 tsp. red food color

2 Tblspns. granulated sugar

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer. Divide dough in half. Stir peppermint extract and food color into one half of dough. Divide each color of dough in half.

2. Shape each piece of dough on generously floured surface into rope, 12 inches long. Place 2 ropes, 1 red and 1 white, side by side. Twist ropes. Repeat with remaining 2 ropes.

3. Cut twisted ropes into 1/2 in. pieces; shape each into ball. Place about 1 in. apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten to about 1/4 in. thickness with greased bottom of glass dipped in granulated sugar.

4. Bake 7-9 minutes or until set. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack; cool

We're leaving tomorrow to make a trek to N. Carolina to see my parents for Christmas. We're excited and will be stopping at the Great Smokey Mountains on the way. I'll be taking my computer, but posting may be spotty, so I'll be back in full force when I return!

Hazelnut Crinkles

One question....how come when you make cookies they never look as good as the one in the picture in the book? huh.

3/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. hazelnut spread with cocoa (I'm wondering what this is at first....it's Nutella. Why can't they just say that!?)
1/2 c. butter or margarine, softened
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
3 Tblspn. white coarse sugar crystals (again!? Sugar in the Raw) or granulated sugar

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Beat sugar, hazelnut spread, butter, vanilla, and egg in a large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed. Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt.
2. Shape dough by rounded teaspoonfuls into 1-inch balls. Roll in sugar crystals. Place about 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookies sheet.
3. Bake 7-9 minutes or until puffed and edges are set. Cool on cookie sheet 1 minute. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool.

Espresso Thumbprint Cookies

MMmmMM....these are my fav.

3/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. butter or margarine, softened
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 flour
3 Tbspns. baking cocoa
1/4 tspn. salt
Espresso filling (below)
Candy sprinkles or crushed hard peppermint candies, if desired

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Beat sugar, butter, vanilla, and egg in a large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed. Stir in flour, cocoa, and salt.
2. Shape dough by rounded teaspoons into 1-inch balls. Place about 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Press thumb or end of wooden spoon into center of each cookie, but do not press all the way to the cookie sheet.
3. Bake 7-11 minutes or until edges are firm. Quickly remake the indentations with end of wooden spoon if necessary. Immediately remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, make Espresso filling.
4. Spoon Espresso filling into indentations in each cookie. Top with candy sprinkles. Eat one while it's still warm. YuM!

Espresso filling:
1/4 c. whipping (heavy) cream
2 tspns instant espresso coffee (dry)
1/2 bag milk chocolate chips (1 c.)
1 Tblspn. coffee-flavored liqueur, if desired. And if desired, take a big swig for yourself!
Mix whipping cream and instant coffee in 1-qt. saucepan. Heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until steaming and coffee is dissolved. Remove from heat; stir in chocolate chips until melted. Stir in liqueur. Cool about 10 minutes or until thickened.

Funny, I don't think I actually read the directions for the Espresso filling. I just dumped it all in the pan until it was melted and spooned it right onto the cookies!

Happy Birthday!

I have a funny picture I was going to use for Wordless Wednesday today, but I can't quite figure out how to get it out of my phone yet, so maybe it'll be Wordless Thursday. Well, no that doesn't sound right. Anyhoo, a recipe instead!!
My friend Chris's birthday was Monday and he likes Peanut Butter cookies, so I found this fun recipe:

Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

1 c. butter flavored shortening
1 c. creamy peanut butter
1 c. sugar
1 c. packed brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tps vanilla
2 tsps baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
FILLING:
1/2 c. creamy peanut butter
3 c. confectioners' sugar
1 tspn vanilla
5-6 Tbsps milk

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream shortening, peanut butter, and sugars. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt; add to creamed mixture and mix well.
2. Shape into 1-in. balls and place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Flatten to 3/8 in. thickness with fork. Bake at 375 degrees for 7-8 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire racks to cool.
3. For filling, in a large mixing bowl, beat the peanut butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla, and enough milk to achieve spreading consistency. Spread on half of the cookies and top each with another cookie.

Don't you love recipes? Like you're going to get your ruler out and make sure each cookie is flattened to 3/8 in.! I know I did....make sure you do! Enjoy!

Success!

Here's what's left. It worked!! It was scrumptious, too, if I might say so myself! The only thing that was slightly disappointing was how thin it was. You know when you go to the Olive Garden and it's like 4 inches tall!? Yeah, mine's like one. But it was still good! I may someday try to double the recipe, but that would mean doubling cooking time, blah, blah, so I'm not gonna mess with it yet.
It's quite a process, but worth it in the end. Here's the recipe first:

Pumpkin Cheesecake Dessert (from The Taste of Home Cookbook)
3/4 c. finely chopped walnuts
3/4 c. graham cracker crumbs
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 c. melted butter
Filling:
2 pkgs (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened (I left it out at room temp. for about 30-45 min)
3/4 c. sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 c. canned pumpkin
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, divided
2 tblsp chopped walnuts

1. Place the graham crackers in a Ziploc and crush/roll over with a rolling pin (this was fun, if you need to release some stress, just pound away!). In a small bowl, combine walnuts, cracker crumbs, sugar, and spices; stir in butter. Press onto the bottom of an ungreased 10 in. tart pan with a removable bottom. (I used a spring form pan, and now that I am re-reading this it's called Pumpkin Cheesecake "Dessert" so that may have something to do with it's size).
2. For filling, in a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add eggs; beat on low speed just until combined (if you beat too much air in at this point it will puff up and fall while cooking). Add pumpkin and 1/4 tsp. cinnamon; beat on low speed just until combined.
3. Pour into crust; sprinkle with walnuts and remaining cinnamon. Place pan on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until center is almost done. Cool on a wire rack for 1-1 1/2 hours. Store in refrigerator. Yield: 9-12 servings.

Upon reading the instructions in the cookbook and on the back of the insert in the pan I bought this is what I did: I placed a cake pan filled with water on the bottom rack of the oven. I left it there while the cheesecake cooked for the 40 minutes. When the timer went off, I opened and checked it, and turned the oven off. I left both the water and the cheesecake in the oven for the 1 and 1/2 hours directed. I then took it out of the oven with no crack in sight and placed it into the refrigerator, where it sat until I served it 5 hours later. That is when I took the ring off the spring form pan. Like I said, since it says "dessert" in the title, this may have been beginners luck! But oh well! It was worth it...I think I'll go have a leftover piece now! Enjoy!

Salsa!

HA! See what perseverance will get you? A picture, not like you needed it or anything, but I sure do feel better!
Tonight was a big Pay-Per-View, so we had a few friends over and had the traditional fare...nachos. We made homemade salsa, beans, chicken fajita meat, and Rico's. And the scrumdillyicious cookies.

Here's the Salsa recipe:
1 14.5 ounce can of tomatoes (diced, whole, whatever floats yer boat)
2-3 jalapenos (3 make it really hot!)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. garlic
pinch of oregano
1 tsp. olive oil
chopped onion (calls for 1/2 cup, but that was a little much for us)
2 Tblsp. fresh cilantro
juice of one lime
throw it all in the blender and that's it! Yum-yum-yummy!

Yum-Yum!

Homemade German Chocolate Cake Icing! Heaven.....this is a recipe from a dear friend. One year when hubby was on his second deployment, she made me a bowl of just the icing, no cake. Yep, I ate it all with a spoon. Not in one sitting, but, yeah. I'm not usually an icing type gal, give me the cake, please, but this is too good!!

1 egg
2/3 cup evaporated milk
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine
dash salt
1 1/3 cup flaked coconut
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Beat eggs slightly in saucepan. Stir in milk, sugar, butter, and salt. Cook and stir over medium heat about 12 minutes or until thickened and bubbly. Stir in coconut and pecans. Cool completely.

Cookies! Again

I've a request for the cookie recipe. But first, a story. I like to give gifts to my childrens' teachers each year for Christmas. This usually ends up being something handmade. One year, I painted flower pots in themes relating to each teacher's subject, filled the pot with rice, and used floral tape to make flower pens. They were so cute. This year, I did cookies again. When I do cookies, I like to buy the plastic tubs or cute bags at Wal-Mart and give each teacher a variety of cookies. So, as I'm busily making all these different kinds of cookies with my awesome new Kitchen Aid, I think, I'm just going to crack the egg on the side of the mixer instead of stopping the mixer, lifting the whole thing up and doing it that way. Well, didn't quite work out the way I wanted it to. In my haste of cracking the egg and trying to avoid the giant twirling mixer thingy, half of the shell went into the batter. Yep.....too late to try to dig it out, which you can do if you've actually stopped the mixer like you are supposed to. The whole lot ended up here:

(Those egg shells obviously are from the previous batch...)

So, I figured after this frustration I better check with my now middle-school aged son to see if he would actually take the cookies to school or if he wanted me to deliver them. You see, way back when I made the cute flower pots, my daughter was in middle school. I was checking her backpack for something in like February, and I found a broken flower pot and rice all over the inside of the backpack. Sigh....all my hard work foiled by a middle-schooler too embarrassed to give her teacher a gift. I delivered the cookies.

Now for the recipe! The cookies are actually called: Chocolate Studded Dream Cookies. Isn't that catchy!?

2 cups all-purpose cake flour

3/4 cup Nestle Toll House Baking Cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs (no shells)

1 2/3 cup (10 oz. pkg) Nestle Toll House Swirled Morsels, divided

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in 1 cup Swirled Morsels. Drop by well-rounded teaspoon onto ungreased baking sheets. Top with remaining Swirled Morsels. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until cookies are puffed and centers are set. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Enjoy while warm!! Yum-yum!