Baking & Stitching

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas at our house.
There is a definite chill in the air, thankfully just flurries though and no real accumulation yet.

The Christmas music is playing, cookies baking in the oven and the tree is all alight. 

That is the way my day started this morning. Cozy and bright!

I made some Ginger Snaps and then some Self Frosting Oatmeal Cookies. While those were baking I worked on a few pieces of clothing that needed altered then off to the store to stock-up for our Thanksgiving dinner next week.
Home to cook dinner, a little more stitching and now it's 
almost time for bed and I am more than ready.

Tomorrow's plan is a lengthy day in the kitchen canning the last bit of summer's tomatoes. 
Long and busy days but so rewarding.

Sweet treats for our tummies
  Small gifts made to share with friends and
   Shelves full of garden goodness

If you'd like to try the Ginger Snaps then you can find the recipe below.

Ginger Snaps

1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 sticks butter
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
2 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup white sugar (for rolling)
Beat first four ingredients in mixer.
Combine the remaining ingredients in another bowl and then add to the mixer and combine all.
Roll into 1- inch balls.
Roll balls in the 1/2 cup sugar to coat.
Bake on a parchment lined baking sheet (or a greased sheet) for 8-10 minutes at 375 degrees.
Enjoy!

The Best EVER Sugar Cookie

This is the BEST sugar cookie recipe that I have ever tried...and trust me I have tried many!
I can't even tell you where the recipe came from. It's on a hand written index card that has been inside my recipe file for many years so who knows where I originally got it.

The Best Ever Sugar Cookies (Makes 3 dozen)

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. baking soda

Cream butter and sugar.
Add oil, egg and vanilla.
Combine remaining dry ingredients in a bowl and then add to the butter mixture.
Form into 1-inch ball (or be lazy, like me, and drop by tbsp.) and place on a greased baking sheet.
Bake 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees.
Cool and then frost with icing.

Icing:
1/4 cup milk
2 tbsp. butter, melted
1/4 tsp. butter flavored extract (or 1 tsp. vanilla)
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Food coloring is optional if you want colored frosting
Mix all ingredients together and then frost cookies.
Top with sprinkles.

I have been baking cookies all week long. So many that I could care less if I ever make cookies again. 
Here's a picture of all the different kinds that I made.
(Some of the cookies have a clickable link that will take you to the recipe. Just scroll over them and click!)

There are Peanut Butter Balls, Peanut Butter Fudge, peanut butter cookies with Hershey kisses, Heath Bar Biscotti, and Chewy Noels in the first pan.

Second pan consists of Yuletide Cherry Cookies, Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Heath Chip, Self Frosting Oatmeal, Carmen's Holiday Balls, Buttery Spritz and the Sugar cookies in the center.

Do you have a few favorite cookies that must be made each year at Christmas?

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies & Trying to Stay Cool!

Hey everyone,

It's Monday so it's time to link up with Farmchick for Homemade by You ~ Monday.
Today I tried to beat the heat by baking these this morning before it got so hot out. Needless to say the house is still hot and the A/C is working overtime but we've got some homemade sweets for after dinner! *That is, if they last that long*

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

4 cups brown sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
6 cups flour
1 tbsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 (11.5oz.) bags chocolate chips

I'll tell you before you even start that this is a large batch and the dough is very thick. Also, my chocolate chips sunk to the bottom of my batter bowl so the cookies that I scooped from the top of my bowl had far less chips than the ones on the bottom. You'll need to get in there with a big wooden spoon (or your hands) and stir them up good throughout all of the dough.

Mix all ingredients together.
Drop by rounded tablespoon onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake at 350° for 8-10 minutes or until browned.
Enjoy!

As for the staying cool part... well I'm trying.
It's hot but the humidity is the killer!
It's a good day to stay indoors and work on this.

Hope you all are staying cool!

Self-Frosting Oatmeal Cookies & Thundersnow

I was sorting through my overflowing box of recipes the other day when I ran across the directions for this oatmeal cookie.
I love oatmeal anything so I thought I'd give it a try and I'm glad I did.
It's crunchy, yet somewhat chewy and full of flavor with the chocolate chips and the extra powdered sugar.

                 Self-Frosting Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
2 1/2 cups oats
1 (12 oz.) bag miniature chocolate chips
powdered sugar

Cream together the brown and white sugar, oil and vanilla.
Add the eggs and mix well.
In another bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder and then add it to the creamed mixture.
Add oats and chocolate chips.
Cover mixing bowl with waxed paper or plastic wrap and let chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
**You must let this get cold or you will have a big gooey mess as you try to roll them into balls.*
Trust me, I'm speaking from experience!
Once dough is good and cold then remove from refrigerator and roll into balls the size of a walnut.
Roll balls in powdered sugar and place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. (or a greased baking sheet if you don't have parchment paper)
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes.
YUMMY!

Here's another oatmeal favorite of mine, in case you missed it!
OATMEAL CAKE

Now to the thundersnow!
Did anyone else have, hear or see the thundersnow last night?
I was sitting in the living room watching tv and saw a flash of light out the window. It had been raining most of the evening but at this point it was changing over to an icy/snow mix. I got up and went out onto the porch and as soon as I opened the door I could hear the thunder.
SOO neat!
I'm a "weather girl" so this really excites me as do any and all storms that come our way.

The icy mixture continued to hammer agaisnt the side of the house most of the evening, quitting just before bedtime.
When we got up this morning everything was covered in a thick layer of ice with snow on top of it.
Of course schools were cancelled so that made many kids happy.

Well I'm off to sew a bit before bedtime.

Yuletide Cherry Cookies

Only 5 days to go!
Are you all ready?
I'm almost but still have a bit more baking to do and still waiting on a few packages to arrive in the mail.

I made these cookies yesterday and I can't keep the kids out of them. They are not a favorite of mine (because I don't like cherry) but the kids love them.

Yuletide Cherry Cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened
3 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
3/4 cups crushed Rice Krispies cereal
15 maraschino cherries, drained


In large bowl. cream butter, cream cheese & sugar.
Beat in almond extract.
Mix flour, baking powder & salt in a small bowl and then gradually add into the creamed mixture.
Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Shape into 1 inch balls and then roll in crushed cereal.
Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
Bake 350° for 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned.
Remove from oven and immediately press a cherry half into the center of each cookie. ( I put a whole cherry on top!)
Cool and enjoy!

I'm heading back to the kitchen to get some more cookies started and to mix up a batch of reindeer food.
I'll be back later to see what all of you are into.

Baking Season Begins

Hi everyone!

It's been a few days since I posted so I thought I'd better get on and see what all is going on in the blog world. I've only got a few minutes though so I'll have to come back tonight when I've got a bit more time to catch up with all of you.
In my world....schooling, baking, shopping and sewing.
I finished all of my Chirstmas shopping last night. YEAH!!
Now if only the elves would come and help me wrap it all. :O)
I started my holiday baking the other day too.
The peanut butter balls are finished and today I hope to get some biscotti and fudge made. I like to make the candies and things that will store well early that way I can spend the week before Christmas making all the cookies.

You can go HERE to get the recipe for my peanut butter balls.

HERE for the biscotti!

Last year I made THIS fudge but I think I'll make my Grandma's fudge this year. I'll post that recipe once I make it and get a few pictures.

I've also been baking oranges this week and boy do they make the house smell good. I think I cut my slices a bit too thick but they still worked. They just took a little longer to bake.
Other than that I've been working on a few little sewing and crochet projects for some friends but I can't show them right now or I'll spoil their surprise.

We also have a few birthdays to celebrate this weekend.
My daughter Katie will be 7 tomorrow and my Mom has a birthday a few days later so we will celebrate both with pizza and cake & ice cream.

Oh and I almost forgot, if you haven't signed up for my SEASON OF GIVING GIVEAWAY then you better hurry. It ends tomorrow!

A Hunter's Treat~ Pepperoni Rolls

It's finally Friday and thank goodness!
We've been working super hard on our schooling this week in hopes of being able to take all of next week off.  No big cooking adventures this past week so I have no new recipes or really anything of interest to share with you all. Instead I thought I would share a few links to some of my old posts. These are all favorites of mine for this time of the year.
The first one is for pepperoni rolls. My husband used to hunt and each year he would request that I make these so that he could have something to snack on throughout his day in the woods.
Click on the recipe titles to go to each post.

Pepperoni Rolls
 
And while the men are in the woods maybe you can sneak a little time for yourself so here are a few quick and easy dinners to throw in the oven or crockpot and forget about. Just come back and make a few quick sides at the last minute and enjoy!

Oven BBQ Round Steak

Crockpot Pork Chops N Gravy

How about some sweet treats?

Cream Cheese Cranberry Bars

Toffee Biscotti

Well that's all I've got for today. If you haven't signed up for my giveaway yet then hop on over to my previous post and do so.

Our town's annual Christmas Parade takes place this weekend and Wheeling's parade is tonight. Also going on in Wheeling is the HUGE Christmas in November Craft show at the Wesbanco Arena. I'm gonna have to see if I can sneak away for a bit over the weekend to check it out.
Hope you all have a great weekend!

And the Baking Began...

We got the new stove installed the other night and I just couldn't wait to start baking.
(When I say we, I don't really mean me. I actually have my husband, son and Dad to thank for that.)
Anyways, Wednesday morning I was up bright and early and ready to bake. I found these chewy ginger cookies over at Whispering Dreams the other day and thought they looked so yummy and they WERE. If you'd like the recipe you can get it HERE.

I made two batches of these. One for us which I chose to leave the cloves out of because I can't stand the strong taste of them. The other batch was made for my Dad using Splenda instead of regular sugar.
Notice the difference in the two cookies. The splenda version is more like a cake type drop cookie. I prefer the real version but if you are watching sugar then the Splenda ones are tasty too! However, if you are really watching your sugar then you may just want to skip these cookies all together because the molasses itself has a good bit of sugar in it.

Bike trail along Ohio River

In other news, the weather has been beautiful here. They are calling for 2 more days of sunshine before the cold sets back in along with rain. We took advantage of the nice weather today and went for a bike ride with Dad. It is so bare and blaw looking now that most of the leaves have fallen.

Katie trying to catch up with Gage

It's been several weeks since any of us have taken a ride and I think we were all feeling it.
Bike riding is one thing that I will sure miss during the winter. I could go over to Mom and Dad's to use their bike, treadmill or his new BowFlex but it's just not as much fun as being outdoors and exercising.

Happy Veterans Day and a great big Thank You to all who have served or are serving our country.

Another Cookie Favorite

I'm more of a sugar cookie or snickerdoodle type of gal but the rest of my family really likes these. If you enjoy all the extras in your dough then you might give this one a try.

Treasure Cookies

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/2 cup flour

2 tsp. baking powder

14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/3 cup coconut

12 oz. bag of chocolate chips

1 cup chopped nuts

In medium bowl, mix the graham crumbs, flour and baking powder.

In a large bowl, beat milk and butter together.

Add crumb mixture to butter.

Stir in coconut, nuts & chocolate chips.

Drop by tsp. onto a greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 375° for 9-10 minutes.

Enjoy!

Well I better get started. I've got plans for baking all day. I'm going to give Carmen's Heavenly Holiday Cookie Balls a try as well as some peanut butter Hershey kiss cookies, sugar cookies and maybe try a new recipe for brown sugar cookies.

Not sure if I will get it all done today but I'm gonna try.

Happy Baking...Shopping...Wrapping or whatever it is you may be doing today!

Toffee Biscotti and a Morning Latte

Yesterday I finished 4 of the stitcheries that I have been working on all month so I can mark that off my list.

However, there is still plenty of baking to be done, presents to be wrapped, one more gift to be purchased, cleaning and we still have several more days of school lessons to finish before we can officially be "off" for Christmas.

So much to do and so few days left till Christmas.

Ah...the joy of Christmas! :)

Before I start my day I thought I'd see what all of you have been up to and share this recipe that I found. I have made Biscotti before in flavors of chocolate, almond and so forth but this one now tops my list. One of my favorite candies is Heath bar and this recipe uses a whole bag of the bits. Yummo!

Butter Brickle Biscotti

(Heath Bar Biscotti)

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

3 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

3 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1 pkg. (7-8 oz.) Heath toffee bits

Cream butter and sugars till fluffy.

Add eggs & vanilla and mix well.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.

Gradually add this to creamed mixture & mix well.

Stir in toffee bits.

Divide dough in half.

On a greased cookie sheet, shape each dough portion into a 10 X 3" rectangle.

Cover pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1/2 an hour.

Remove plastic wrap and bake at 350° for 30-35 minutes.

Let cool for 10-15 minutes and then cut it in 1/2 " slices.

Place these slices on another cookie sheet, cut side down.

Bake for 10 minutes.

Flip slices over and bake another 10 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool.

Store in an airtight container.

Nut Horns or Nut Rolls

I'm not sure which name is correct. I guess it just depends on who you ask.

It's a new cookie for me this year. One that I have eaten many times before but had never made myself.

This is a simple recipe with basic ingredients. It just takes a little bit of time to work with the dough but well worth the time.

When I mixed the dough I wondered how I would ever be able to roll it out. It was a sticky mess.

No problem though, just refrigerate it overnight and it's ready to work with the next morning.

I do have a question though for anyone else that makes these. I looked through many a recipes and all of them called for sour cream but I was wondering if anyone has a recipe that you don't have to use sour cream. If you do please let me know.

Now on to the recipe.

Nut Rolls

2 cups flour

1/8 tsp. salt

1 cup cold butter

1 egg, seperated

2/3 cup sour cream

1/2 tsp. vanilla

2/3 cup finely chopped walnuts

2/3 cup sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

In large bowl, combine flour and salt.

Cut in butter till you have course crumbs.

In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolk, sour cream and vanilla.

Add egg mix to the crumbs and mix well.

Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Divide dough into 3 pieces.

*Work with one piece at a time and leave the others in the fridge.*

Sprinkle your work surface with flour and if you don't do it well enough this dough WILL stick and be impossible to roll up. Trust ME!

Roll each piece into a 10 inch circle.

In a small bowl, mix walnuts, sugar & cinnamon.

Sprinkle 1/4 cup of sugar/cinnamon mixture over the dough.

Take hand and gently press the mixture into the dough.

Now cut each circle into 12 wedges. (Like a pizza)

Roll each wedge from the wide end into the tiny center point.

Place seam side down on a greased baking sheet.

Repeat with remaining dough till all 3 pieces are used.

Whisk egg white in a small bowl till foamy.

Brush egg white over each roll.

Sprinkle the remaining sugar/cinnamon/nut mixture over the tops of the rolls.

Bake at 350° for 18-20 minutes or till lightly browned.

Remove from pans and let cool.

Store in airtight container.

*I placed mine in freezer Ziploc bags and placed them in the freezer till closer to Christmas.*

Oh, almost forgot... the pictures make everything look yellow. Just overlook that. It was evening time and the lighting wasn't the greatest.*

Hope you have a great day!

Tea Tassies

Here is yet another of our favorite cookies without a photo to show.

(I'll be posting a picture soon!)

If you are like me then you want to see what they look like before you try something new. No sense in wasting the time to make something if it looks bad from the start! :)

Well, I can tell you these little babies are yummy!

They are like little nut cups and when you bite into them the syrupy nut filling oozes from them.

A little more hassle than a drop cookie but so worth it.

Tea Tassies

2 cups flour

10 2/3 tbsp. butter

1/2 cup sugar

6 oz. cream cheese

4 eggs

2 cups chopped walnuts

2 cups brown sugar

4 tsp. butter

2 tsp. vanilla

1 pinch salt

Blend flour, 10 2/3 tsp. butter, 1/2 cup sugar and cream cheese.

Take about a tsp. or a little more of the dough and roll it into a ball.

Place in a tart tin and mold it up the sides of each cup.

Set aside.

In a saucepan, melt butter over low heat.

Remove from heat and add eggs, chopped nuts, brown sugar, vanilla and salt.

Now fill each dough-lined tart cup about 3/4 of the way full with the nut filling.

Bake at 350° till filling is well set and crust is brown.

*I don't have an exact time to tell you. I just always check them to see if the nut filling has formed a crust like topping and the dough edges have browned.*

Once cooled they will look like mini pecan pies but when you bite into them they will have a gooey nut filling.

Hope you Enjoy!

Double Chocolate Pudding Cookies

Here is what I was in the kitchen making before I cut my hand on Friday morning.

These turned out pretty tasty. They have a light chocolcate flavor due to the pudding instead of the bitterness of a cocoa powder. I chose to use white chocolate chips but you could use any flavor!

This also makes a large batch so you may want to cut the recipe in half.

Double Chocolate Pudding Cookies

4 eggs

4 sticks butter, softened

2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup sugar

4 small boxes instant chocolate pudding

5 cups flour

2 tsp. baking soda

12 oz. bag of chocolate chips (any flavor)

In a large mixing bowl, cream eggs, butter & vanilla and set aside.

In another large bowl, mix sugar, pudding, flour and baking soda.

Slowly mix flour mix into egg mixture.

The dough will be thick.

Stir in chocolate chips and drop by tsp. onto greased cookie sheets.

Bake at 350° for 8-10 minutes.

Enjoy!