Cookies with a touch of green

I tried a new recipe last weekend ~ chewy coconut lime sugar cookies. Oh my goodness, they were delicious!

I had made the cookie dough and left it to chill while Carrie and I went shopping, and when we returned to my house she stayed long enough for the first batch to come out of the oven.

She said what I'd been thinking - that maybe the tops of the cookies needed a little bit of green sprinkles to emphasize the lime part. But rather than do that, I came up with my own bit of green with a mandala drawn on the tag of the bag I gifted to a friend.

Here's a link to the original cookie recipe. It's delicious made just the way it's written, though I think next time I'll omit the coconut extract and add a little more lime juice instead. These cookies were even better on day two - the coconut keeps them moist and chewy.

I baked some of the dough and saved two dozen cookie dough balls for the freezer. They'll make a yummy surprise treat for Doug in the near future.

♥

Just a Quote for Friday

"Today I will live in the moment, unless it is

unpleasant in which case I will eat a cookie!"

~ Cookie Monster

 

{click here for yummy lemon sugar cookie recipe}

A salad recipe for summer dinners

There's a croissant shop near the chiropractor's office where I teach yoga. Ohmygosh they have the best croissants! They also have a small lunch menu and one of their salads has been a favorite of mine for a long time.

I love the salad so much that I wanted to make my own version at home but I assumed that it wasn't something that Doug would appreciate. He's a "ranch dressing" salad guy and likes a good old fashioned side-salad if he has a salad at all.

Well. TA-DA!!! I made it and he loved it and I've made it a few times since then. :o) Now it's one of our favorites. It's super easy to throw together, and a salad I plan to make often during the upcoming hot summer months.

Spinach/Chicken/Cranberry Salad

Use amounts according to your preference:

spinach leaves

diced cooked chicken breast

dried cranberries

chopped walnuts

crumbled feta cheese

balsamic vinegar dressing

Combine, toss and enjoy.

♥

Lemon Sugar Cookies for Grandma

My grandma has a sweet tooth and loves all things lemon.

Oh my gosh she makes the best lemon tea bread on the planet!

♥

Every year I try a new lemon recipe and include it with her package that I mail a week or so before Christmas. This year's recipe of choice is a lemon sugar cookie that turned out to be a real treat. This is definitely going in my book of recipes to repeat. It was easy and the cookies are SO yummy!

Since I have to mail these cookies I wanted to test them for texture and freeze-ability. The good news is they froze really well, and even after several days the cookies are still nice and soft. I'll pull the cookies out of the freezer just before I box them up, and by the time they arrive on Grandma's doorstep a few days later, she'll be able to enjoy some with her afternoon tea. ♥

I actually followed the recipe without changing anything up this time, so I'll just share a link to the original and save myself the typing. :o) You can find this recipe by clicking here.

 

Grandma is going to love these!

♥

Secret Recipes and Blueberry Surprise Cake

A sweet local friend who reads my blog {Hi Sue} read my post about my sister's friend who keeps her famous brownie recipe a secret. Sue graciously sent me her brownie recipe to try and it's now my go-to recipe when there's a brownie craving in our family. Yummy!!!

Along with the brownie recipe, Sue also included a family recipe for a blueberry surprise cake. She told of a time when she was a little girl, and how she helped her great aunt, Helen, in the kitchen. Helen was a fantastic baker, and very secretive with her methods. She must have been very fond of Sue, because not only did she share baking tips with her young niece, but she also shared her recipe for blueberry surprise cake, much to Sue's grandmother's surprise.

I had a chance to make the blueberry surprise cake last weekend and OhMyGoodness it is YUMMY! I asked Sue if I could share her story and she graciously said yes, and she encouraged me to share her aunt Helen's secret recipe as well. "Isn't that what cooking is about?" reasoned Sue, "nurturing the ones we love?" Well, yes, I think so!

Doug loved this blueberry surprise cake, and so did my coworkers. Many thanks to Sue for sharing the recipe with me, and to Aunt Helen, who may be looking down from above watching me type her secret recipe for all the internet to see. :o) ♥

Aunt Helen's Blueberry Surprise Cake

3 c. sifted cake flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 c. sugar
1/2 lb. (2 sticks) butter
2 eggs, beaten
1 c. sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla
1 can blueberry pie filling
Topping:
1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
6 t. butter

Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and sugar in a bowl. Cut butter into dry ingredients until it resembles a coarse meal. Add beaten eggs, sour cream and vanilla and stir until well mixed.

Spread half of the cake batter into a greased 9x13" cake pan. Top with pie filling, spreading in the middle but not all the way to the edge. Top with remaining cake batter. The batter is thick, so you'll want to dollop it by small spoonfuls on top of the blueberry pie filling and use a wet knife to spread it so that all of the pie filling is covered. {I put a scant "half" on the bottom, and saved a little more batter for the top.}

Combine topping ingredients in a small bowl and sprinkle on top of cake. Bake at 375° for about 40 minutes until top of cake is golden brown.

Thank Heaven for Aunt Helen and Sue.

♥

Easy Pumpkin Muffins with a Caramel Center

My sweet grandma writes me letters on occasion, and sometimes she'll include newspaper or magazine articles she's clipped out for me. I love that old-fashioned correspondence - a piece of paper cut and mailed rather than a link within an email message. I feel so fortunate to still have my grandma around to mail me cut out pieces of paper. ♥

Last week I received a little note from her and it included this recipe for pumpkin muffins. I'm including the entire piece of paper here because I love the note she wrote over the Clorox wipes ad! :o)

Being the dutiful granddaughter that I am, I whipped up a batch of these pumpkin muffins over the weekend. I mailed a note of thanks to her, including in my note the mention of a thank you from Doug and my coworkers for the yummy muffin recipe.

PS: Grandma's clipping didn't include information about the publication she got this recipe from so I'm not able to give proper credit. However, I did find the recipe online and you can get your own copy here.

Crockpot Lasagna Soup

I have a really yummy recipe to share with you today!

:o)

Fall is coming and I couldn't be happier! I look forward to cooler weather and the opportunity to make hot meals for Doug and I. And also with fall comes the onset of hunting season which means that Doug needs meals to take in his ice chest - things that are hearty and easy to reheat when he returns to camp at the end of the day. I love being able to make some meals for him to take along. ♥

Last weekend Doug was away scouting and I had yoga school to go to. I've been wanting to try this recipe for lasagna soup, so I loaded it up in the crockpot before I headed out that morning. I felt happy knowing that when Doug came home later that day (before me) the house would smell amazing. Coming home to the aroma of crockpot food is something that makes my hubby very happy.

I saw this recipe in a magazine a few years ago and typed it up - hard copy style. I can't remember the magazine I found it in, so if this is a recipe that you personally made up, please let me know and I will give you credit. In the meantime, I'm going to share the recipe with my modifications and the disclosure that the original was not my idea.

Lasagna Soup for the Crockpot

Combine the following ingredients in a crockpot:
1 onion, chopped
1 to 2 zucchinis, diced into small pieces
10 3/4 oz. tomato soup, canned, condensed
14.5 oz. tomatoes, canned, petite diced
15 oz. tomato sauce, canned
2 t. chicken bouillon granules
2 t. beef bouillon granules
4 c. water
1 1/2 t. oregano
1 1/2 t. basil
1 t. parsley
2 t. garlic powder
1 t. salt
1/2 t. black pepper
8 lasagna noodles, broken into small pieces, uncooked

Crumble over the top of the soup mixture:
1 lb. lean ground beef, raw
I broke the ground beef up in little pieces to resemble very small meatballs.
 Cover. Cook on low heat for 7-8 hours, or on high for 4-5 hours.

8 oz. Ricotta cheese
shredded mozzarella cheese
Now, the original recipe called for stirring in ricotta and mozzarella cheese 30 minutes before serving. The soup was just so pretty, and I knew the addition of the cheese would totally change the presentation. So instead of stirring it in, I saved the cheese and added a dollop of Ricotta and a sprinkling of mozzarella just before serving it.

* * * * * * * *

Oh my gosh this soup was delicious! Doug loved it too, and was spontaneously mmmmmm-ing as he took his first few bites. :o)

I packaged the leftovers into freezer bags with a good serving of the soup, and added a spoonful of ricotta cheese to the top before sealing it up. I figured the cheese mixed in won't hinder the presentation of the soup at camp, and if it does Doug won't mind.

This one's a keeper - the recipe, and Douglas.

♥

In search of Marlene's brownies.

My sister's friend, Marlene, makes THE BEST brownies on the planet - hands down! For the past 10 years or so, we have enjoyed her brownies on occasion when we visit my sister in California. Marlene knows how much we love them and regularly surprises us with a batch when we visit. We have asked for her recipe, but it's a secret.

Carrie had a good point though. She mentioned that perhaps it's best for us to NOT have the recipe, otherwise we'd make them all the time. Totally true.

I recently searched the internet for a recipe that looked similar to what I thought Marlene's brownies would be. I made the batter and used a smaller pan than was called for, hoping that the thickness of the brownies would match Marlene's in structure.

They were thick like Marlene's brownies, but nowhere nearly as yummy, so it's back to the drawing board!

 

Anyone have a thick, cake-like brownie recipe you'd like to share?
And I'm curious, does your family have a recipe that is held as a close secret?

♥

Cherry pie jars for a friend

I made these cherry pie jars last week for a friend and I'll admit that at the time I thought it would make a fun blog post. :o)

I used a couple of cans of crescent roll dough, rolled out onto some granulated sugar, and some canned cherry pie filling. I cut circles from the dough for the pie crust, and baked at 350° for about 20 minutes until the bottom crust was golden brown. I did place a little piece of foil on top of each jar after 10 minutes to keep the top crusts from getting too brown.

I had seen an idea for a cherry embellishment a long time ago, and I thought this was the perfect opportunity to bust it out. I painted two wooden beads bright red...

...and then I strung them onto the ends of a piece of jute.

I cut circles from some scrapbook paper I had on hand {Who says I'll never use up that massive collection?!?!} and packaged up the jars like this:

My friend liked her birthday pie jars. :o)

♥

Sunflower Cupcake Toppers

When my friend, Jenn, planned her canvas art party I offered to bring cupcakes. And since Jenn was hosting, I let her pick the flavor of the day. She chose vanilla and chocolate.

I knew I'd be working on a sunflower canvas that day, and since my own sunflowers are the main focus of my garden these days, I decided to make some quick sunflower cupcake toppers.

I used two punches to make the sunflowers. This flower punch is such a versatile punch! Layered and staggered with a large circle in the center, it makes the perfect sunflower. Punch the flower shape in red and use a smaller circle and it's a great poinsettia. I've also used this punch for other random flowers and you can see those by clicking here and here.

 

 

Yummy vanilla cake recipe can be found here.

 And my favorite chocolate buttercream frosting ever can be found here. (BTW, I increase the cocoa in the frosting recipe from 1/2 cup up to 3/4 cup.)

♥

The first time I made pizza crust

I've been wanting to try Elisa Blaha's pizza crust recipe for a long time, and this past weekend I finally did just that.

The recipe was super easy to make, and the result was a fantastic homemade pizza crust.

I topped this one with (store bought) pizza sauce, Italian sausage, mozzarella cheese, black olives, and some fresh basil. I baked it on a basic cookie sheet, but I think the future holds a pizza stone for Doug and me. And, I'm going to figure out how to make my own sauce as well. I'm getting serious about pizza making, my friends!

This will definitely be happening around our house again.
{recipe here}

♥

Carrot Cupcakes and a Converstation with Grandma

It had been a long time since I'd made my grandma’s carrot cake. Grandma’s recipe makes a three-layer cake and I knew that we didn’t need/want to have that much cake around, so I cut the recipe in half, modified it just a bit, and made cupcakes for Doug as a Father’s Day treat.

While I was making Grandma’s recipe I was thinking about her. I thought about how she used to make this cake and it was sold by the slice at a local restaurant – back in the day before rules and regulations of commercial kitchens. And since I was baking it on Father’s Day, I thought about my grandpa and how much he loved my grandma’s mad baking skillz.

Once I had the cakes in the oven I gave my grandma a call. We struggled through the conversation – I’m pretty sure she wasn’t wearing her hearing aids. I told her that I was making her carrot cake recipe and how I had changed it up a bit and baked it in cupcake form. She seemed interested to know that I had added pineapple to the batter, and that I was going to use some leftover cream cheese frosting I had on hand. Then we talked for a bit about Grandpa, how he’s been gone for 26 years now, and that Monday (June 16) was the 105th anniversary of his birth.

And then I asked about her dad – my great-grandfather. What could she tell me about him? I loved that the tone of her voice changed when she spoke of her father; how asking about him softened her and reminded her of him on Father’s Day.

She said, “Well, honey, I don’t know what to tell you,” and she paused before continuing. “He never cursed – I never once heard him say a swear word. And he never drank. Never learned to drive a car – rode his bicycle all over the place. He loved to read and he loved to sing!”

I told her that I remember my mom talking about what a wonderful grandfather he had been and how she had loved him dearly. Grandma’s voice lit up when she said, “Oh, he loved his grandchildren! They were his pride and joy!”

At the end of the conversation I told her that if we were neighbors I’d bring her one of those carrot cupcakes I’d made and she said, “Do you want that recipe? I can send it to you…” Eh-hm. Told you she wasn’t wearing her hearing aids.

Here’s Grandma’s carrot cake recipe, cut in half and slightly modified by me. They were so delicious and got two thumbs up from Douglas.

Deb's Carrot Cupcakes

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup crushed pineapple with juice
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking power
1 teaspoon cinnamon (plus a little bit more...)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups grated carrots
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1/3 cup raisins

Cream sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla in large bowl. Stir in pineapple.

In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients and mix well.

Add dry ingredients to sugar mixture and stir until just combined. Don't over-mix.

Add grated carrots, nuts, and raisins and fold to incorporate. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake at 350° for 18-20 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Frost with your favorite cream cheese frosting - I used leftovers made from this recipe.

Makes about 16 super delicious cupcakes.
♥

Judi's Pineapple Cake

On my birthday this year, my friend Judi sent me an apron. I was so touched when I unwrapped it and noticed that she had included a hand-written recipe card, tucked in the apron pocket just like my mom used to do. {If you missed yesterday's post, you can read it by clicking here.} ♥

I couldn't wait to try Judi's recipe, and let me tell you, this one's a keeper! I baked it to take to our friend's house last weekend and it was a big hit. Then I took the rest of it to work the next day where it was gobbled up and the recipe was requested.

This is a moist and dense cake that's very easy to throw together. Wow - you've gotta' try this cake!

Judi's Pineapple Cake

Mix the following together in a large bowl:

2 eggs, beaten

1 tsp. vanilla

2 cups sugar

2-1/4 cups flour

1 20-ounce can crushed pineapple

2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 cup chopped nuts

 

Bake in an ungreased 13 x 9" pan at 350° 30-40 minutes (my oven took 30 minutes).

 

For the frosting, combine:

1 8-ounce package cream cheese

1/4 cup oil (I used butter)

1 tsp. vanilla

2 cups powdered sugar

Frost cake while still hot, and sprinkle with chopped nuts.

 

Yum, yum, YUM!!!

♥

On our dinner tray ~ layered bean dip

This is one of those unplanned meals that came together based on what I had on hand. It was really yummy and I'm documenting it here so I'll remember how I did it later on...

* Spread a layer of hot refried beans on a plate

* Sprinkle a layer of grated cheddar cheese on top

* Spoon on a layer of chili verde (made with shredded pork) or some other kind of meat

You can microwave at this point if you want. I had already

heated the beans and chili verde before assembling this.

* Top with chopped tomatoes, sliced olives, a little more cheese, and some sour cream.

* Serve on a tray with corn tortilla chips for scooping and a side of cold beer.

Cheers!
♥

Our Favorite Christmas Cookies

This is a post about my favorite recipe for Christmas cookies.

And it's also a post about my blog friend, Robyn,

and her favorite Christmas cookie recipe.

♥

I don't usually bake a lot of cookies at Christmastime, but this year I wanted to include some in my Grandma's Christmas package. I rounded up three recipes for cookies last weekend, baked them, wrapped them up and sent them to Grandma. And some to my step-dad (Rod) too.
 

I've been making these peanut butter cup cookies every year since I first found the recipe in 2009 so I think we can officially call this a tradition. Since I only make them at Christmastime, I was happy that I took a minute last year to jot down some notes on my printed copy. Do you do that too? On this one I noted to roll the cookie dough into 1" balls - keeping them on the smaller side - so that the cookie part wouldn't crown over the top of the muffin tin. I also made a note about the baking time that worked best for my current oven. They came out perfect this year!
 

And something I know about these cookies is that they keep and travel well. These cookies taste really yummy even when they are several days old, and they aren't crumbly so they do travel well, making them perfect for mailing in Christmas packages.
 

You can find the recipe for these peanut butter cup cookies here.

The second part of this cookie post is about my friend Robyn's favorite Christmas cookies. I've been following Robyn's blog for several years now, and when she posted a photo of her pretzel cookies last week it was like seeing an old friend. "I remember those cookies!" I thought, and it was so sweet to click on the link to her original post for the recipe and to see her sweet boy, four years younger than he is now! Made me all sentimental about her boys growing up too fast!
 

Anyway, Robyn raves about these cookies and I thought I'd give them a try this year. Oh my goodness - these cookies are fantastic! I used Robyn's recipe but since my grandma is crazy about lemon flavored sweets, I substituted lemon extract for the vanilla, and I added one tablespoon of lemon zest. They had a subtle lemon flavor, and the next time I make them I might use lemon juice in place of the milk - that might make them a bit more tangy.
 

There was a little learning curve on rolling and twisting these into pretzel shapes. I had to laugh at myself and my lack of coordination, and I wondered if Robyn does the rolling and twisting part while her boys do the sprinkles... Surely Andrew doesn't twist a better looking pretzel than I?

And the third cookie I made, packaged, and sent to Grandma and Rod was also a recipe I found on Robyn's blog for brownie cookies for grown-ups. {I'm really not a blog stalker, Robyn, you just have some stellar recipes, that's all, really...} I had tried these cookies a few months ago and they tasted just like some chocolate sugar cookies that my mom used to make when we were kids. I know they'll be a hit with Grandma. You can find the original recipe for the brownie cookies by clicking here.

I called my Grandma on Monday and told her to watch her mail for a package of goodies headed her way. I happily mentioned that I am officially done with baking between now and Christmas, but then I remembered the batch of red velvet cupcakes I'll be baking this weekend to celebrate our niece's graduation. And a pan of lasagna to be made for Christmas Eve...

 

But other than that, I'm done baking for Christmas!

Do you have a favorite cookie recipe that gets made every year?

♥

March of the Olive Penguins

One day last week, Doug mentioned that he'd seen a penguin shaped appetizer that he thought I'd like. He'd seen it in his Facebook feed as one of his friends had liked or commented on it. Or shared it. Anyway! I had him get online and scroll through his Facebook feed until he found the photo, and I was instantly smitten. I thought these were the cutest things I'd seen in a long time!

~ olives, carrots and cream cheese ~

 

The photo originated on Facebook via one of those pages that posts photos without linking to their original source, so I thought a Google search for "olive penguins" would lead me to the creator of these cute little guys. Nope. Instead there were a whole bunch of links to various blogs - none of them claiming to be the clever person that thought this up. {And because I recently learned that one of my photos was shared on a Facebook craft page that doesn't link back, I've added that annoying watermark to the photos in today's post.}

 

I just followed the photo and did these myself, but here are a couple of tips that might make your first try a bit easier:

♥ The cream cheese needs to be super cold. I rolled these little balls while the cream cheese was still cold, and they softened up by the time I got to those final olives.

♥ Find jumbo black olives for the body, and small for the head. Cut the jumbos in half.

♥ Gently press the pieces of the jumbo olives around a ball of cream cheese. I pushed the backs together to close it up, leaving a little round tummy of cream cheese in the front.

♥ Keep a damp paper towel close by to wipe your fingers from time to time. I actually took a damp paper towel and wiped off some of the olives when I was done. Cream cheese fingerprints didn't look very appetizing.

♥ Take care with cutting the notch out of the carrot slice for the beak. You want it to be wide enough to hold when you place it in the olive hole. And I was surprised at how well these stayed together. I transported and served them without anything falling off/apart!

 

And if you are the clever person that came up with this idea, please do let me know! I will give you credit and I will sing your praises all over the internet! These were easy to put together and were a real hit with the family.

♥

A new pumpkin bread tradition

My mother's annual Christmas package to us, mailed from California to Arizona, always included a loaf of pumpkin bread. Dang I looked forward to that every year. She always made the full-loaf size - the big one, you know? Not the mini's like I always make. It was a dense, heavy loaf of bread with lots of cinnamon and cloves.

By the time Mom's Christmas package arrived every year, we were usually already reaching our limit of sweets and goodies. You know how you reach that point where you look forward to not having so many Christmas sweets around the house? We would enjoy some slices of her pumpkin bread with coffee, then I'd slice and freeze the rest for after the holidays. She always liked hearing from me in February to say thanks again for the pumpkin bread. "It was awesome, Mom!"

 

I knew I'd be able to find Mom's recipe after she was gone, and I knew that it was in my Aunt Betty's handwriting and rather faded and stained from years of use. But I ended up not having access to it last Christmas so I had no other choice but to Google "pumpkin bread recipe."

My mom's pumpkin bread was awesome and my Christmases will never be the same without it. Having said that, I have to admit that I like the recipe I found through Mr. Google better than hers. {gulp. Sorry, Mom.}

So Christmas is coming up and even though my sister and I have found Mom's recipe, I don't plan to use it. It's weird, and I feel slightly rebellious, but I like the new one better.

Even though I'm not using her recipe, maybe the fact that it's still pumpkin bread redeems me. I mean, it's not like I totally switched to fruit cake or something.

 

~sigh~

New traditions.

{you can find "my" new recipe here}

♥