Fruit Plate

 

 

I started with a dinner plate and small bowl for the center.  I sliced up some cantaloupe, pineapple, and kiwi.  I layered the fruit around the bowl.  Then I added some strawberries for color and filled the bowl with blueberries.  Watermelon slices would be lovely, too.  This is a nice addition to the picnic table (or any pot luck).

Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes

 

 

3/4c plus 2 Tbsp all purpose four; divided
3/4c cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
8 Tbsp unsalted butter; at room temperature
3/4c plus 2 Tbsp sugar (will use all in same step)
Zest of 1 lemon
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
2Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 plus 2 Tbsp milk; at room temperature
1c fresh blueberries

About an hour before you begin baking, Measure out your milk, butter, and eggs.  Put them on the kitchen counter and allow it to come to room temperature.*

Preheat oven to 350F (180C).  Line cupcake tin with paper liners.  In a medium bowl, combine the flour (just 3/4c), cake flour, baking powder, and salt.  Whisk and set aside.  In a mixer, combine the butter, sugar, and lemon zest.  Beat until light and fluffy (2-3 minutes).  Beat in eggs one at a time, blending well after each egg.  Beat in vanilla and lemon juice.  On a low speed add 1/2 of dry mixture.  Blend.  Add milk.  Blend.  Add the second half of dry mixture.

In a small bowl, toss blueberries with 2 Tbsp of flour.  Using a spatula, gently fold berries into batter.  Divide batter evenly between the cupcake liners filling each about 3/4 of the way full.  Bake for 20-22 minutes or until toothpick pulls clean.  Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes.  Transfer to wire rack.

*Chemistry in the Kitchen:  At room temperature eggs, butter, and milk bond and form an emulsion that traps air. During baking, the air expands, producing light, airy, evenly baked treats.

Buttercream Icing for the Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes

1c solid white vegetable shortening
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp lemon extract
5-6 tsp milk (add one or two more tsp of milk if needed)
1 lb pure can confectioner's sugar

Cream shortening, flavoring, and milk.  Add dry ingredients and mix on medium speed until all ingredients are mixed.  Blend an additional minute or so until creamy.  Makes approximately 2 1/2 cups.

Stained Glass Cookies

I came across this recipe last year.  I've been looking forward to making it for about as long.  It's a little more complicated and time consuming than I like, but there's a cookie swap coming up next week and I want to bring something impressive...

Ingredients:

1/2 c Crisco
1/2 c sugar
1/4 c brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
2 c flour
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking powder
20 hard candies (I used Jolly Ranchers. Lifesavers will work fine, too.)

Remove any wrappers from your candies and separate them by color.

 

Put the candies in a Ziploc bag.  Using a hammer or meat mallet or whatever, crush the candies. I'm supporting Breast Cancer research while baking today.  What can I say?  I'm a multi-tasker. 

Set candies aside.

Heat the oven to 375°F (190°C).  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  In a large bowl, cream together Crisco and sugars until fluffy.  An electric mixer makes this process much easier. Mix in vanilla extract.  Add egg and mix until light and smooth. 

Sift flour, salt, and baking powder over mixture.  Using a rubber spatula, fold dry ingredients into mixture.  Divide your dough in half.  Wrap one half in waxed paper and refrigerate while you work with the other half.  (Dough will keep for up to two days in the refrigerator.)

Place the dough between two sheets of waxed paper and roll out with a rolling pin until the dough has a 1/4 inch thickness.  Cut out your shapes.  I did stars and Christmas ornaments.  Transfer cookies to the cookie sheet.  Use a smaller cookie cutter or a knife to cut out the middle of your cookie.  Remove the inner shape. 

Using a spoon, sprinkle the crushed candy into the hollowed out centers of your cookies, filling in the edges. 

Bake cookies for 7-8 minutes.  Watch your cookies closely. They burn quickly. The candy should be melted and bubbling and the cookies will be just barely beginning to brown.  Remove baking sheets from oven and place on wire racks to cool.  After the cookies have cooled for about 10 minutes you can remove them safely from the cookie sheets.  If you try to remove the cookies from the cookie sheet too early, the candy will separate from the cookie.  Store in air tight container.

This recipe makes about 3 dozen cookies. I decorated them with some Sparkle Gel left over from the unicorn poop cookies because I was feeling pretty fancy!

4th of July Jello Cups

1 package (3 oz) of berry blue gelatin
1 package (3 oz) of strawberry gelatin
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
1 c fresh blueberries
1 c fresh strawberries
6 Tsp sugar
1 c heavy whipping cream
2 c (16 oz) sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a bowl, dissolve the berry blue gelatin in 1 cup boiling water.  Stir in 1 cup cold water.  Divide into clear plastic cups.  (I used 4 oz Tupperware cups)  Carefully add blueberries.  Refrigerate for about 1 hour until firm.

After the blue gelatin is firm start this step.  In a saucepan, sprinkle the unflavored gelatin over 1/2 cup of cold water.  Let it stand for 1 minute.  Mix in the cream and sugar.  Cook and stir over a low heat until the gelatin and sugar are completely dissolved.  Allow to cool to room temperature.  Whisk in sour cream and vanilla.  Spoon over the blue layer.  Refrigerate until firm (about one hour).

After the white layer in firm, start this step.  Slice up the strawberries and place them on the white layer.  In a bowl, dissolve the strawberry gelatin in 1 cup of boiling water.  Stir in one cup cold water.  Pour OVER A SPOON over the cream layer.  Pouring the gelatin over a spoon prevents it from making a hole in the white layer.  Refrigerate until firm (about one hour). 

Garnish with whipped cream and additional berries if desired.

Three Leaf Clover Dinner Rolls

Three Leaf Clover Dinner Rolls is not their official name. I actually have no idea what they are really called. My mother made these rolls every Thanksgiving when I was growing up and my sisters and I LOVED eating the "Three Leaf Clovers". We actually fought over the rolls with four "Leaves".

Ingredients:
Pillsbury Hot Roll Mix
2 Tbsp Butter, melted
1 egg, beat
water
Crisco


Dissolve the yeast packet in 1 cup of hot water. Do not use boiling water. The water should be about 130°F. If it is boiling, it will kill the yeast and your rolls will not rise. In a large bowl, add the roll mix, 2 Tbsp melted butter, and one egg (beaten). Mix the ingredients and knead the dough until it is elastic. Spray the inside of your bowl with PAM (or grease with Crisco) and put the dough back in the bowl.



Cover with a towel. Allow dough to double in size.



Punch down dough and knead for a few minutes. Then halve the dough with your fingers until you have about 42 little bits of dough.




On a clean counter, smear a little Crisco on a circle. This will be the circle that you use to work your dough.




With the tips of your two pointer fingers, fold the dough over on itself a few times.




Then place the little ball of dough in a greased muffin pan.



Repeat about 42 more times, placing three balls in each muffin cup. If your dough balls are larger, you may only be able to fit two per cup. Sometimes I make the ball smaller, so that I can fit four balls in each cup...you know, you give my kids something to fight about.



Fork each ball with a kitchen fork. This allows the air to escape so you don't have pockets of air in your dinner rolls. (At this point, you can put your rolls in the refrigerator until later in the afternoon. They will not rise while in there.) Otherwise, allow the dinner rolls to rise a second time. They should be about a 1/2 inch above the muffin pan. The roll on the left is about right. The roll on the right rose a little too high.



Bake in a preheated oven, at 375°F for 15-20 minutes.



If they begin to brown too quickly on the top, you can place a sheet of aluminum foil (shiny side up) across the top of your rolls. You only need to worry about this last step if your oven runs "hot".

Thanksgiving Yams

This is my great grandmother Ireda Heath's recipe. It was one of my favorites when I was a little girl. My mother would make it every Thanksgiving. She would put the corn flakes in a baggie and one of us would get the job of crushing the corn flakes with Mom's rolling pin. Oh, how we argued over who got to do this job! The rest of the day, the lucky girl would covertly and smugly remind her sisters that they had not gotten to crush the corn flakes. Isn't it strange which memories float to the surface when you eat a dish from your childhood?

For this recipe you will need:

6-8 fresh yams or 1 large can yams, well drained
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2c walnuts
9-12 large marshmallows
2-3c corn flakes, crushed

Peel and boil the fresh yams until soft. If using canned yams, you can skip this step. Mash the yams and brown sugar together with a fork until smooth. Fold in the walnuts. With wet hands, pack a small amount (about 1/8 cup) of yam mixture around a large marshmallow. Roll the yam ball in corn flake crumbs. Be sure to call one of my sisters and remind her that SHE didn't get to crush the corn flakes this year. Place in a shallow baking dish. Bake at 375˚F for 10 to 15 minutes (just until the marshmallows begin to melt.) Serve warm as a side dish.

Easter Cupcakes

We made these this weekend just for fun. I had cut the recipe off a cupcake box a few weeks ago. The kids really enjoyed decorating the cupcakes.

Ingredients:
1 Box yellow cake mix
water, vegetable oil, and eggs called for on the cake box mix

Decorations:
2 1/2c shredded coconut
1 container of vanilla frosting
m&m's
orange gumdrops
whopper robin eggs (next time I'm going to try jelly beans)
yellow and green food coloring

Mix up the cupcake batter following the instructions on the box. Bake as directed and allow to cool. Divide the coconut in half and place in ziploc bags. Add 4 drops of food coloring to the bag. Shake to mix. Frost the cupcakes with white frosting. Top with yellow or green coconut. For eyes, add brown m&m'. Cut orange gum drops to resemble a beak. Place on cupcake. Add Robin Eggs to the green cupcakes. If I had thought about it, I would have bought some red licorice strips to turn the green cupcake into a basket.

How to Boil an Egg

I know, I know...laugh all you want, but the perfect boiled egg isn't actually boiled at all. If fact, if you boil an egg for very long, the shell breaks or the egg turns out rubbery or tough. Not very appetizing and you can't dye the broken eggs for Easter. So! With Easter fast approaching, this is how you boil an egg.

Place the eggs in a saucepan. You can do two or a dozen, it doesn't matter. Cover the eggs until the water is about half an inch above the egg. Turn the burner on high.

Bring the water to a boil. Cover the pan and immediately remove from the heat. The egg is continue to cook in the hot water. Set your timer for 12 minutes. After 12 minutes, take the pan to the sink and run cold water over the eggs. This will stop the cooking process. You can eat the eggs right away for refridgerate them for up to a week.

Another little factoid I've learned recently is that fresh eggs are much more difficult to peel than older eggs, but seriously unless you are gathering your own eggs from the heirloom chickens you raise on your Connecticut estate, you aren't necessarily going to know the age of your eggs.  To skirt this issue and to make the eggs easier to peel, drain the hot water from the pot and immediately add cold water and two or three trays of ice cubes.  The sudden drop in temperature will make the eggs easy to peel.

Hoppin' John

American Folklore states that eating Black Eyed Peas on New Year's Day will bring your family prosperity. This mostly Southern tradition has Jewish roots. It is thought that the first Sephardi Jews brought this tradition to Georgia when they settled in the 1730's. By the end of the American Civil War, the custom was practiced by Jews and non-Jews alike throughout the south. Well, I'm all about celebrating our rich American traditions, especially when they are as yummy as this recipe.

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 large ham hock
1c onion, chopped
1/2c celery, shopped
1/2c green pepper, chopped
1 Tbsp garlic, chopped
1lb black eyed peas, soaked overnight and rinsed
1 quart chicken broth
1 Bay Leaf
1 tsp dry thyme leaves
3c steamed white rice

Heat oil in a large pot. Add the ham hock and sear on all four sides for four minutes. Add onion, celery, green pepper, and garlic, cook for four mins. Add the black eyed peas, stock, bay leaf, and thyme. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for 40 minutes. Add more stock or water if the liquid evaporates. Serve over rice.

Crockpot: Sauté onion, celery, and green peppers in a pan. Toss in the Crockpot. Add all the other ingredients (except rice) and cook on low for 5-6 hours. Stir it once or twice. Serve over rice.

Green Bean Casserole

1 (16 oz) package frozen whole green beans, thawed
4 slices bacon, fried
1/2 med onion, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, sedded and diced
1/4c dry white wine or vermouth
1/4c milk
2 Tbsp butter
1 can Campbells cream of mushroom soup
1 Tbsp soy sauce
salt and pepper to taste
1/2c mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/2c canned French fried onions

Preheat the oven to 325˚F. Fry up the bacon until crisp. Drain on paper towel. Crumble bacon and set aside. Drain most of the bacon grease from the pan. Over medium heat, saute onions and bell pepper until tender. Stir in the wine, scraping all of the bits of bacon from the bottom of the pan. Mix in butter, milk, soup, and soy sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in green beans and bacon. Fold in the cheese and transfer to a casserole dish. Sprinkle with French fried onions. Bake uncovered for 25 minutes.

Christmas Ham

I was talking to my mom today and realized that there is an evolution of sorts that takes place in families over time. For example, my sisters and I all wash our dishes as soon as dinner is finished. My husband and brothers-in-law don't understand why the dishes can't wait five or ten minutes. We don't know why. It's just the way our mother has always done things. It's just what seems right to us.

Another good example is our family's Christmas ham. My mother was always taught to cut the top off her ham. One day, my mother asked her mother (my grandmother) why she needed to cut the top off the Christmas ham. My grandmother said, "I'm not sure. It's the way my mother always did it." So my grandmother called her mother and asked. Grandma Heath said, "I'm not sure. It's the way my mother always did it." Grandma Heath asked Grandma Staley (my great-great grandmother). Grandma Staley said, "Because my pan was too small." My family has been cutting the top off the ham for five generations because Grandma Staley's pan was too small. That is the evolution of a recipe in my family.

Ingredients:

1 bone-in-ham* (about 12 lbs, but sometimes the smallest I can find is a 16 pounder)
1/2c whole cloves
1/2c packed brown sugar
1 (20oz) can pineapple rings in heavy syrup
Maraschino cherries
1 (12oz) can of 7-up or Sprite

Pre-heat the oven to 325˚F. Place the ham in the roasting pan and slice off the top of the ham (because Grandma Staley's pan was too small). Or, it turns out; you can leave the top on your ham. It doesn't make any difference. Score the rind of the ham with a diamond pattern. Press a clove into the center of each diamond. Drain the juice from the pineapple rings into a medium bowl. Stir in the brown sugar and soda. Coat the ham with this mixture. Arrange the pineapple rings over the outside of the ham. Place a maraschino cherry in the center of each pineapple ring. Secure with a toothpick.

Bake (covered) for three or four hours, basting frequently with the juices until the temperature of the ham is 160˚F. Be sure the thermometer is not touching the bone. Remove toothpicks before serving. I was a little worried that I'd cooked this ham too long. It looked overdone on the outside, but it was moist and tender and wonderful. This is probably because I basted it every thirty minutes or so, but I still told my husband it was because I'd cut the top off my ham the way my mother had always done it.

*After you serve the ham, save the bone. We'll use it in a soup later this week.

Classic Holiday Fruit Salad

My mother made this salad for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner every year I was growing up. It's a classic at our house. A girlfriend of mine made it last Thanksgiving and my kids loved it. So I'm pulling this old recipe out and it's going to be a holiday tradition at my house, too.

1 can pineapple chunks, cut up
1 can mandarin oranges
12 oz sour cream
1 bag miniature marshmallows
1/2 bag coconut
10 maraschino cherries, rinse, pat dry and slice in half

Drain fruit well. Mix everything together. Chill at least one hour before serving so that all the flavors can blend and the marshmallows become softer. Cherries are just for color, but seem to be a favorite for all the kids.

Christmas Morning Egg Bake

I am always looking for an easy breakfast food that tastes great and can be made ahead. That way I can spend Christmas morning playing with my kids and their new toys instead of cooking. This recipe is also really good for a lady's brunch at church.

You'll need:
8-10 hashbrown patties, cooked and broken apart
1 egg, beaten
salt and pepper

7 eggs
1/2c milk
1 can green chilies
mushrooms, sliced and sauted
1 1/2c cheddar cheese, shredded

Mix the hashbrowns and 1 egg. Pam a 9X13 casserole pan. Flatten the mixture into the pan with the back of a spoon. In a bowl, mix 7 eggs, milk, chilies, mushrooms, and cheese. Pour over hashbrown crust. Bake at 400˚F for 20-30 minutes.

For variation, sometimes I add cooked sausage to the hashbrown crust. You can also sprinkle cooked bacon over the top of your egg bake before cooking it.

Turkey Noodle Soup

I opened my fridge this morning and couldn't decide what to do with all the leftover turkey. Our host and hostess sent us home with the second turkey, a nine pounder that we hadn't even sliced into! (Many thanks to the Alpuches cause this soup was delicious.) Since there is more than enough for sandwiches for a week and because my kids lose interest very quickly; I decided to make soup.

Ingredients
5 carrots, sliced
5 celery sticks, sliced
1/2 onion, because it was hanging out in the fridge looking innocent
1 tsp poultry seasoning
1 tsp sage
5 bouillon cubes
3c leftover turkey, shredded or cut into bit sizes
6oz egg noodles


Start by putting 5 cups of water and 5 bouillon cubes in a pot. Slice the vegetable and throw them in the pot with the poultry seasoning and the sage. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer the vegetables for about twenty minutes. Cut or shred the turkey and add to the soup. Toss in about half a package of egg noodles (about 6 oz) and summer for an additional 10 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Add more water as needed, but I don't like my soup to be too watery.

Pumpkin Chai Cheesecake

Do you know what I'm thankful for this year? I'm thankful that the holiday health food trend is losing popularity. I watch what I eat (for the most part) all year long. I don't want to eat Weight Watchers crust-less 2 point pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. I don't want to eat a low fat, dry, tasteless turkey stuffing. I want flavor. I want the real thing.

This year, I found a Pumpkin Chai Cheesecake with Caramel-Rum sauce. It's far from health food, but I'm making it to take to my friend Laura's house for Thanksgiving. That lessens the chances that I'll be eating it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner the next few days. Now, I'm stepping a little out of my comfort zone here, I've never made a real cheesecake. But this just looked too good to pass up.

Ingredients:

Crust
2c crushed cinnamon Teddy Grahams
1/4c butter, melted

Filling:
4 packages (8oz each) cream cheese, softened
1 1/2c white sugar
4 eggs
1c pumpkin puree
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
3/4 tsp ground cardamom

Sauce:
1/3c packed brown sugar
1/3c light or dark corn syrup
2 Tbsp butter
1/3 cool whip
1 Tbsp rum extract

Garnish:
Cool Whip

Preheat the oven to 300˚F, Spray a 9 inch spring form pan with cooking spray. In a small bowl, mix the crust ingredients. Press mixture in bottom and about 1 inch up the side of the pan. Bake for 8-10 minutes. To minimize cracking, place a shallow, half full, pan of water on the lower oven rack.

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and white sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until blended. Spoon about three cups of mixture into crust. Spread evenly. To the remaining mixture, add pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, and cardamom. Mix until smooth. Spoon mixture smoothly into the pan.

Bake for about 1 hour and 25 minutes. The edge of the cheesecake should be set at least 2 inches into the cheesecake, but the center will still be jiggley. Is that a real word? Turn the oven off and open the oven door at least 4 inches. Let the cheesecake remain in the oven for 30 minutes. Then let the pan cool an additional 30minutes before refrigerating. Refrigerate cheesecake for at least 6 hours, but no more than 24 hours.

Before serving:

In a small saucepan, heat brown sugar, corn syrup, and 2 Tbsp butter to boiling over a medium-low heat, stirring constantly. Boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in cool whip. Heat to boiling. Remove sauce from heat and stir in the rum extract. Cool until warm.

Just before serving, run small spatula around the edge of the cheesecake to separate from the pan. Carefully remove side of pan. Top individual slices of cheesecake with warm sauce and a dollop of cool whip. Refrigerate remaining cheesecake.

(Cook's preference: The caramel sauce is pretty yummy and it looks really cool when you serve it up, but this cheesecake holds its own. If you want to skip the sauce it's still a spectacular dessert...very rich, would be awesome with coffee...if I drank coffee.)

Grandma's Homemade Apple Pie

Okay, so it's not my Grandma's Apple Pie, but it could totally be someone's Grandma's Homemade Apple Pie. It's just that good!

Let's talk about the dough first. This pie dough recipe is an awesome recipe from the pros at Cook's Illustrated. The secret ingredient is vodka. It allows the dough to be super malleable to roll out while still maintaining a buttery and flakey texture. The vodka cooks off and the steam from the evaporating vodka is what makes the pie crust so flakey. I don't drink a whole lot of vodka (mores the pity), but the little 50ml bottles they sell at the checkout counter of your local liquor store is just enough for this recipe.

Who am I kidding? It's Thanksgiving. You've got family coming into town. Your sister's going to be telling you how her kids never throw temper tantrums. You love her and her kids, but who needs that kind of pressure? Your dad is going to be pointing out every parenting mistake you are making. You better go back for the big bottle, maybe two. It'll get you through the day and will help you keep your mouth shut as the family drama plays out.

For a nine inch double pie crust:

2 1/2c flour
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp sugar
12 Tbsp butter
1/2c shortening
1/4c vodka
1/4c water

Combine 1 1/2c of the flour, salt, and sugar. Add the butter and shortening. Cut ingredients together until dough starts to collect in uneven clumps. Cut in the remaining flour. Sprinkle water and vodka over the mixture. With a rubber spatula, use a folding motion to mix until the dough is slightly tacky and sticks together. Divide the dough into two balls. Cover bowl in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 45 minutes. You can store the dough for up to two days.

While the dough chills make the filling:

6c apples; cored, peeled, and sliced (about 7 depending on their size)
2T tapioca
1/2 to 3/4 c sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

How much sugar you use depends on personal taste and the type of apple you use. I use Braeburn apples and a little more than 1/2c sugar. If you use a tart apple like Granny Smith; you may need closer to 3/4c of sugar.

Mix the dry ingredients and add the apples. Mix well. Sprinkle some flour on your kitchen counter and roll out the crust. Put the crust in a 9 inch pie plate. Add filling. Put a few dollops of butter on the apple filling. Add the top crust. Cut a few X's on the top crust to let the pie vent while it cooks. Refrigerate the pie for about 15 minutes. Brush the top of your pie with water and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 450˚F for 20 minutes. Turn down the oven to 350˚F for 20 minutes. Let the pie cool for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Cranberry Salad

When I was a kid, the only thing I knew to do with cranberries was to string it up with popcorn to decorate a tree. Oh, and they make tart juice with cranberries. That was about it. Last year for our Thanksgiving program, someone brought this salad. I didn't even know it had cranberries in it until I looked at the recipe. I made it for our Christmas dinner and again at New Year. This is a really easy recipe to throw together; however, you have to start this recipe the day before you serve it. You have to give the flavors time to mingle.

2c raw cranberries
3 apples
1 can crushed pineapple
1/2c white sugar
1c mini marshmallows
1c cool whip

In a food processor or blender, finely chop the apples and cranberries. It's okay if there are still some apple chunks; after all, nobody likes a showoff, especially around the holidays. Drain pineapple. Add pineapple and sugar to the mixture. Stir mixture together and let it sit in the fridge overnight. About an hour before serving, add the marshmallows and the cool whip.

Chewy Sugar Cookies

Today was the trial run to the Girl Scout Baking Party I'm having next month. I think it might be the first sign that I'm certifiable. I am inviting thirty girls (ages 6-8) to my house, to trash my kitchen in the name of baking, frosting, and decorating cookies. However, they'll be earning badges and hopefully taking all the cookies with them at the end of the day. Here is the recipe we'll be making minus the frosting and sprinkles that I'll figure out later:

2 1/4c flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2c sugar, plus 1/3c sugar for rolling the dough
2 oz cream cheese, cut into 8 pieces*
6 Tbsp butter, melted
1/3c vegetable oil
1 egg
1 Tbsp milk
2 tsp vanilla extract

*Most sugar cookies do not call for cream cheese, but I found the cream cheese cut the sweetness of the cookie and really rounded out the flavor.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a medium sized bowl. In another bowl, combine sugar, cream cheese, and warm butter with a fork. Whisk in oil until smooth. Add egg, milk, and vanilla. Continue to whisk mixture until smooth. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Combine until a soft homogenous dough forms.

Divide dough into 24 equal pieces. Using your hands, roll the dough into a ball. Put about a third of a cup of sugar in a small bowl. Roll dough balls in the sugar before spacing them evenly on 2 cookie sheets. Using a drinking glass, flatten dough balls until they are about 2 inches in diameter. Then flip the cookie over so the top of your cookies doesn't read: IKEA 365 like mine did. Bake, on cookie sheet at a time, for 14 minutes. Rotate the cookie sheet about half way through. If you over cook these cookies, they will lose their chewiness.

Cinnamon Rolls for Autumn

These cinnamon rolls have been calling to me for weeks, months maybe, ever since Jen shared the recipe. Ironically, I'm trying to watch my weight right now so I'll be sending most of these to work with Roger to endear myself to his new co-workers.

I've adapted this recipe from a website called Don't Eat Off the Sidewalk. Good advice, but do you think she takes the five second rule into consideration?

Now that I'm more comfortable cooking, I've started looking at a recipe and automatically making substitutions for things I have in the house. This recipe was originally vegan, but I don't keep soy milk in the fridge, so I'm substituting skim milk. Also, the original recipe calls for 3/4 c pumpkin, but I froze my pumpkin in
1 c increments, so I'm tossing it that last 1/4 cup because I'm too lazy to re-measure it out.

Dough:

1 package dry yeast
1/4 c warm water
1 c pumpkin puree
1/4 c milk
1/4 c margarine, melted
1 Tbsp white sugar

2 1/2 flour
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger

3/4 cup flour
1 Tbsp oil

Filling:
3 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp flour
1 1/2 cinnamon
2 Tbsp chilled margarine, cut into small peices

Glaze:

3/4 c powdered sugar
1 Tbsp water
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

In a large bowl, combine the warm water with the yeast and whisk together. Let stand for five minutes. Add the pumpkin, milk, margarine, and sugar to the yeast. Lightly mix. Add 2 1/2 cups flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Beat together until smooth.

Turn dough out onto your floured kitchen counter. Take the remaining flour and use it to flour the top of the dough and your counter as your kneed the dough (about 10 minutes). The dough will be elastic, but soft and still a little sticky to the touch without being floured. This was the part that Kaitlyn liked the best. I let her pull her stool up to the counter and let her knead the dough with me. Of course, then she wouldn't leave the dough alone while it was rising so I had to shoo her out of the kitchen while the dough was trying to rise.

Place the dough in a large bowl coated with oil, turning the dough to coat the top of the dough as well. Cover and let rise until dough doubles in size.

Punch down the dough, cover and let rise for five minutes.

Combine the sugar, brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Cut in the margarine with fork until mixture resembles coarse little balls.

Roll the dough into a 12X10 inch rectangle on your floured counter. Sprinkle with brown sugar mixture. Roll up the rectangle tightly, from the long side, pinch seam, and ends to seal the dough. Cut roll into 12 (1 inch) slices. Place into a 9 inch square baking pan coated with cooking oil.* Cover and let rise until it doubles in size (about 25 minutes).

Bake the rolls for 20 minutes or until golden brown in a pre-heated (375 degrees) oven.

In a small bowl, combine the powdered sugar, water, and vanilla. Whisk together until smooth. Drizzle over the cinnamon rolls.

*If you want to eat these hot and fresh in the morning (Saturday morning, maybe?)without having to get up before first light to start them; you can cover them with plastic wrap at this point and store them in the fridge. In the morning take them out and continue with the recipe (they will take a little longer to rise, probably an hour or so, because they are chilled). Take this time to shower, enjoy a cup of tea, dig out your fat pants, and call your sister to wake her up on the one morning her baby actually let her sleep in.