I Scream, You Scream!

Although these will do nothing to cool you off on a hot day, I had to share! I loved the new royal icing so much that I couldn't wait to make more cookies. My mom came down this afternoon and we cranked out several summer themed cookies, but these were by far our favorite design. I think they would be really cute favors for a party and the bonus is they won't melt on you!

Watermelon Decorated Sugar Cookies

We had another Throwdown yesterday and to sweeten my chances of victory I made these tasty cookies to compliment my watermelon lemonade.
They are by far my favorite sugar cookie recipe and though I didn't think I could find a better "royal icing" recipe, I think I hit the jackpot. The royal dried hard enough to stack and package the cookies nicely, but was still soft enough to be delicious and not break your teeth.
Now I am looking forward to the cookie orders I have in August because I am confident they will travel well and taste fantastic.

Happy Easter!

Here's hoping you all had a fabulous Easter spent with family and friends, I know I did! I can't think of too many things that put a smile on my face faster than seeing a baby dressed up in bunny ears!!
For the occasion my mother, sister, and I got together yesterday to crank out some delicious sugar cookies and also to try some cheesecake pops that have been on my "to do" list for some time.
My mom had already baked her favorite sugar cookies, so all we had to do is whip up some modified royal icing to finish the decorating. We did several shapes, but the bunnies pictured above were at the top of my favorite list. They were inspired by one of my go-to blogs, Annies Eats.
Then, we were off to dip some cheesecake! I copped out and bought some Sara Lee, but I think it was a great stand in for a busy weekend. I simply used a mini cookie cutter on the frozen cheesecake to create the shape and then placed a lollipop stick in each bite. These were returned to the freezer to firm up and then we dipped in melted chocolate and rolled in Easter themed sprinkles. Such a simple dessert that really presents well. I know we will revisit these often!

Oreo Truffles

I know you are thinking "Just what I need, more sweet recipes to crush my diet in 2010", but these just HAVE to be shared. Apparently they have popped up in the blogosphere time and again, but they had alluded me until my hairdresser mentioned their chocolately goodness which sent me straight to the internet to investigate. I decided on the following ratios:

Oreo Truffles
36 oreos
1 8oz. package cream cheese, softened
chocolate chips (for dipping)
white chocolate chips (for drizzling)

In the bowl of a food processor, pulse oreos until they are ground. Add cream cheese and blend well. The mixture looks very sticky, but is easily handled. Roll into small balls and refrigerate well. Dip chilled balls in melted chocolate and drizzle with white chocolate if desired. Store in refrigerator.

Please note that if you have an aversion to black oreo dust getting lodged between your teeth, these are the perfect alternative! They are the bite-sized answers to your snacking prayers.

Coconut Joys

Here is a simple recipe for delicious coconut joys that can be used anytime of the year. We usually make an abundance of them for Christmas, but we have also been known to crank them out for other occasions and instead of the milk chocolate filling, we used colored candy melts to go with the theme.

Coconut Joys
1/2 cup butter
2 cups sifted powdered sugar
3 cups coconut
6 oz. milk chocolate chips, melted

Melt butter in saucepan. Remove from heat and add powdered sugar and coconut. Mix well. Shape rounded teaspoonfuls of mixture into balls, make a dent in the center with thumb and place on cookie sheet lined with waxed paper. Fill centers with melted chocolate. Chill until firm. Store in refrigerator.

Buckeyes

In the next few days I will be sharing some of the Christmas cookies my sister and I made earlier in the week. Today is the family favorite and people pleaser, Buckeyes. Maybe it is because we have had them every year for as long as I can remember, or maybe it is the wicked combination of chocolate and peanut butter, but whatever the reason, I highly recommend whipping up a batch of these and sharing them if you don't devour them yourself first!

Buckeyes
modified from Gifts from the Kitchen
(an old school Better Homes and Gardens book)

2 c. peanut butter
1/2 c. butter or margarine
4 1/2 c. sifted powdered sugar
3 c. Rice Krispies
2 c. chocolate chips

Melt peanut butter and butter. Mix sugar and cereal. Pour butter mix over sugar mix and blend with hands. Form into balls and chill until firm. Melt chocolate in double boiler; dip balls in chocolate and place on waxed paper lined baking sheet. Chill till firm.

Note: The last few batches I have made I reduced the powdered sugar by approximately 1/2-1 cup. This makes the mixture much easier to handle and roll. Also, if you don't have a Wilton chocolate melting pot, seriously consider saving your JoAnn coupon and investing! It makes the job so much easier.

Merry Christmas!

Just wishing you and yours a lovely Christmas! We baked and decorated these cookies yesterday and enjoyed them for Christmas Eve and again today. Thanks to Ashlee for the recipe and the good ol' internet for a modified royal icing. After all the iced sugar cookies I have cranked out in my day, these are by far the best tasting and now I have my go-to recipe for shiny royal icing that tastes delicious and won't break your teeth!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

You can never go wrong when you combine pumpkin and chocolate. It is a really delicious combination, particularly when the chill of Fall sets in. This recipe was shared with me from a close friend of my husband's family. Phylis is a baking machine, constantly turning out amazing bread, cookies, and pies that are out of this world. Here is a cookie recipe that will not disappoint.

Phyl's Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients
1 cup shortening
1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups pumpkin
4 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 package good chocolate chips

Directions
Cream first four ingredients. Add in eggs one at a time until combined. Stir in pumpkin. Sift together dry ingredients and add slowly to wet mixture. Once the dough has come together, stir in package of chocolate chips. Chill before baking. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake for 10 minutes.
**These also freeze well.

Rolo Cookies

My mother has amassed quite a collection of cookbooks over the years and she always is able to weed through the pages to find delicious and special recipes to share with family and friends. She was given a Best of Friends cookbook by a family member and immediately found a cookie recipe we would enjoy for years to come.
I happened to make these a few weeks back when a craving for chocolate and caramel was to overwhelming to ignore. I do want to mention the dough tends to be quite loose, so refrigerating it for a period will make the process a little easier. These are time consuming, but a very special treat to share, or if you are anything like me, polish off on your own while watching trashy Bravo network programming!

Rolo Cookies
c/o Best of Friends, Etc.
by: Darlene Glantz Skees

2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar (packed)
1 cup butter (room temperature)
2 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup chopped pecans
48 Rolos (9 oz. pkg.)
2 Tbsp. sugar
4 oz. vanilla candy coating or white chocolate

Beat together 1 cup granulated sugar,1 cup packed brown sugar, and 1 cup butter until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs and beat well. Add flour, cocoa and soda and blend well. Stir in 1/2 cup chopped pecans if desired. Shape 1 tbsp. dough around a Rolo. Combine 1/2 cup chopped pecans and 2 Tbsp. sugar and press one side of each ball into pecan mixture. Place nut side up, 2" apart on cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 7-8 minutes. Cool 2 minutes, remove from sheet and drizzle with melted white chocolate.

Mother Week Wrap-Up

The last installment of Mother Week happens to be a delicious zucchini chocolate chip cookie from my Grandma Arlene. As I mentioned earlier, I was fortunate enough to live in the same town as both sets of Grandparents, and actually right next door to Grandma Arlene and Grandpa Sid. Grandma and Grandpa were both well known cooks, but Grandma Arlene always had a special knack for baking. From her homemade white bread to her delicious cookies, you could always count on Grandma to warm your soul with her sweet treats. When deciding on what to make out of Grandma's arsenal of baked goods, I remembered back in the day when my sister and I would wait until Grandma and Grandpa pulled out of their driveway so we could run over to their house and sneak these cookies out of her big Tupperware cookie bin. As I stood in the kitchen and smelled the first batch as they began to brown, I was taken back to Grandma's house where I not only remembered the special times with my Grandparent's but all the scheming that we used to do on Sunset Drive.

Grandma Arlene's Zucchini Cookies

1 cup grated zucchini
1 tsp soda
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chopped nuts
1 cup chocolate chips

Mix the zucchini, soda, sugar, shortening and egg until light and fluffy. Sift the flour, cinnamon, cloves, and salt; add to the zucchini mixture. Add nuts and chocolate chips. Drop by teaspoons on greased pan. Bake at 375 degrees until they start to brown, 12-15 minutes.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

We love any excuse to eat Mexican food, so we figured that Cinco de Mayo would be a great day to pull out our favorite fish taco recipe. We were going to use tilapia, but settled on cod since the store didn't have any available. Matt took care of marinating the fish and I went to work on the chipotle lime cilantro sauce. Neither one of us measured a thing, and I frankly don't remember if they were even the same ingredients we used last time, but these babies were tasty. It doesn't hurt that our local farmer market had lots of the ingredients on sale, either!

Before we started on dinner, I was finishing up a little project for a friend who just announce she was pregnant. I have been wanting to use the sugar cookie recipe from Ashlee, and now was my chance. They were delicious and are now my go-to recipe when I need to make iced sugar cookies. I used a simple royal icing and although it was not the Wilton one I have previously used, the results were great and I think I liked the taste better.

Chicken and Chocolate

I have neglected the blog for about a week, so here is the latest:
I have enrolled in a cake decorating course! So! Excited! It starts tonight, so I will be posting more about that later.
Last week we had a lot of leftovers from the company we had over the weekend, but when we ran out of those, we had some good ol' chicken noodle soup. When I make soups I rarely follow a recipe, and this was no exception. Just some chicken, onions, celery, carrots, and seasonings and we were in business. I read somewhere that a bit of fresh lemon juice adds a brightness to chicken noodle soup, so I also added that at the end of the simmering.

Also managed to crank out a batch of Chocolate Chip Cookies and I was so happy with this recipe. I will definately use it again. I packed them up (so we wouldn't inhale every last one) and sent them to work with M. The guys approved:)