Christmas Baking Ep 6

Russian Teacakes. These are a family tradition. My grandma used to make them along with fudge, divinity and all sorts of other goodies. While I don't make them near as well as she did, I have carried on the tradition. I only make them at Christmas, I want to keep them special, not to mention they are a lot of work lol.

Ingredients:
1 cup soft butter (must be real, not margarine.)
1/2 cup powdered/confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400F

Mix together thoroughly the butter, confectioners sugar and vanilla. In a separate bowl mix together the flour and salt. Slowly combine it with the butter mixture. Then Mix in the chopped nuts. Mix thoroughly.

Chill dough. Roll into 1" balls. Place 2 1/2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake until set but not brown, (7-12 mins depending on your oven). While still warm roll in confectioner's sugar. Cool. Roll in sugar again.

Makes about 1 1/2 dozen cookies

Cooter approves of this blog. :P

Christmas Baking Ep 5

One of my all time favs!!

Snickerdoodles

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Margarine at room temp
1/2 cup Real Butter at room temp
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
Topping: Also sugar and cinnamon for rolling the balls in later. I use about 9 tsp of sugar & 3 tsp of cinnamon. Mix those in a bowl for rolling the balls just before baking.

Directions:

Beat margargine, butter and sugar together until creamy. Mix in the eggs.

In a separate bowl, stir together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Add to creamed mixture. Mix well.

Shape into 1 inch balls. Chill 1 hour.

Combine the topping (cinnamon & sugar) in a small bowl.

Drop balls into mixture, coating well. Then place on a greased baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake at 375F for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool, then enjoy.

Update to my Zesty BBQ recipe

I posted this recipe a few months back, the Zesty BBQ Chicken. It has quickly become a favorite around here and amongst some of my friends as well. :D The first couple of times we had it, I served it on buns. But lately I have taken to using it as a baked potato topping. I cook the chicken the same. I bake a few potatoes, but them open, put a little butter, then when the chicken is done I scoop a few spoonfuls onto the potato and top with some shredded cheese. Its soooooooo good. :D

Christmas Baking Ep 4

I am not a fan of these, but I made them last year and hubby LOVED them. He specifically requested them this year. I do have to say they smell divine when baking.

Just a word of advice on these. Mix by hand only. Do not use a mixer. Too much mixing leads to flat cookies. :P




Ingredients:

3/4 cup REAL butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all purpose Flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 3/4 cups rolled oats
1 cup of raisins

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375f
2. In large bowl, cream together butter, sugar, and brown sugar until smooth.
3. Beat in the eggs and vanilla until fluffy.
4. Stir together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Gradually beat into the butter mixture. Stir in oats and raisins.
5. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
6. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven or until golden brown. Cool slightly, remove from sheet and place on wire rack or wax paper to cool completely.

Makes about 48 cookies.

Christmas Baking Ep 3

I have a love hate relationship with brownies. Some recipes I have tried are too rich, too chocolatey, too sweet, too dry etc. So when a friend (Jess) raved about her brownie recipe I thought I might give it a try and wow!! I am so glad I did. These are perfect. They have the perfect mix of chocolate, sugar, moistness. Big Thumbs up!!!

Brownies

Ingredients:

1 cup butter
2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup walnut halves

Directions:

preheat oven to 350F

1. combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl.

2. Melt butter and mix with vanilla and eggs. Then combine with the dry ingredients. Mix until well combined. You can add the walnuts now or if you are like me and want less nut influence, wait until you pour the mixture in the pan then place a few walnut halves on the top.

3. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes in a 9x13 greased pan (I just used pam baking spray.)

4. Let cool, then cut up and enjoy. Nom!

Thanks again Jess for this recipe!

Christmas Baking Ep 2

I decided to try something different this year. I always make chocolate chip cookies. But decided to try the cookie bar recipe. It turned out pretty good. The dough, which is my fav part, I would almost rather eat it than the actual cookie, was soooooo tasty.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Ingredients:

1 cup butter or margarine (I used margarine)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
2 cups chocolate chips
1/2 cup nuts, chopped, optional (I didn't put any nuts in mine.)

Directions:

Cream together first 7 ingredients.
Mix in remaining ingredients.
Mix til combined well.
Spread batter evenly in a greased 9x13 inch baking pan.
Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned.
Let cool then cut up into 24 bars.

Christmas Baking Ep 1

I tried a new Peanut Butter cookie recipe this year. I really like it, it's not too sickening sweet or overly peanut buttery. Nice consistency and easy recipe. Thumbs Up!

Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Butter or Margarine (I used margarine)
1/2 cup Peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour


Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl beat the butter or margarine and peanut butter with an electric mixer on med to high speed for 30 seconds.

2. Add the Granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, and baking powder. Beat until well combined, scraping the sides of bowl occassionally.

3. Beat in the egg and vanilla til combined.

4. Beat in the flour. (if using a hand mixer you may have to mix some by hand. I used a stand mixer and was able to mix all the way with it.)

5. Chill dough for about 30 minutes to make dough easier to handle.

6. Shape dough into 3 inch balls, Roll in additional granulated sugar to coat.

7. Place balls 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten by making crisscross marks with the tines of a fork.

8. Bake at 375 for 7 to 9 minutes or till bottoms are lightly browned.

9. cool then eat. nom nom

Fuzzy Friday on a Thursday...

Because I will be busy as a bee this Friday and weekend I am posting a long overdue Fuzzy Friday today. Enjoy!

Every night around midnight. I log off the computer, choose a movie, and snuggle on the sofa with the dogs. Well the other night I let Jake and Cooter "choose" a movie. Cooter is a big fan of the animated holiday movies. Jake on the other hand prefers a good Will Farrell holiday comedy. :P We watched Elf that night and The Year Without Santa the next night.

New Camera, Rejection Letter, Canceled Trip..

So I am sure some of you guys have noticed I haven't posted any recipe blogs or Fuzzy Fridays in a while. I was having technical difficulties. My rechargeable batteries stopped charging. So I couldn't use my camera to take any pics. I got that taken care of then got kinda preoccupied with life and got a bit lazy where my blog is concerned. But I am back, kinda. :P I also, for Christmas, got a new vid camera. It's a Flip Ultra HD. I am so in love with it. I took some pics, the day I picked it up from the mail box it was sooooooooo cold. You can see the fogginess on the screen of the camera in one of the pics. Was out in the cold mailbox, then I brought it in to a warm toasty house and it got all foggy. :P





So now I can take some really awesome quality videos on it and save my digi camera for photos and not use up so many batteries. :D

Let's see, what else has been going on. Oh sooooo I finally sent in the query letter to some of my A list Lit. Agents and the next day I got my first rejection letter. Was nice, said they read my query and it wasn't the right project for their agency but encouraged me to not give up and to submit to other agencies. Still waiting to hear from the others. One of my a-listers isn't taking queries until after Jan. 5th. So will def be hitting them up asap. Kind of exciting actually, and I didn't get upset at the rejection. It is all part of the process and hey they didn't say YOU SUCK don't ever write again. So that's a plus. :D

We were supposed to be going to Thunder Bay for Christmas. Hubby's mother and sister's family live there. But with the cost of putting our two dogs in a kennel as well as the gas we just couldn't swing it financially. So we will be spending another Christmas here with Hubby's Dad's family. I like most of them, but some give me the creeps. Hubby doesn't seem to understand my sixth sense about people. He just thinks I'm being picky. But I seriously can tell within minutes of meeting someone if I like them or not. I don't try to do it, it just happens. It is hard to explain the feeling I get but it is pretty strong one way or another.

Well I am in the middle of my Christmas baking so I will end this hear. I have some cookie recipe's and pics to post in a bit.