Sugar Cookies with Poured Icing

Sugar cookies are one of my absolute favorite cookies, but I never have the time to make them. I got this recipe from my aunt a few years ago and I think my favorite part is the poured icing. Most icing has too much of an over powering powdered sugar taste to me, but after this one dries it is fantastic!

Cookies
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup softened butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
Icing
1 cup sifted confectioners' sugar
2 tsp milk
2 tsp light corn syrup
1/4 tsp vanilla
Desired food coloring

• Combine flour and salt in medium bowl.
• In large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until fluffy.
• Add egg and vanilla and mix well.
• Add flour to wet mixture.
• After combined, roll in to a ball and refrigerate approximately one hour (or until firm enough to work with).
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
• Roll dough out and cut in to desired shapes.
• Bake for 13-15 minutes, do not brown.
• Mix sugar and milk together, add corn syrup until you reach desired consistency.
• Seperate in to bowls and use food coloring to make desired colors.
• Spoon or pour on to cooled cookies and let dry.

Rosemary-Sage Chicken

The original recipe was for chicken kabobs, but I was in too much of a hurry to take the time to prepare kabobs. If you want to make kabobs out of these, I will include the alternate directions after the picture.

This recipe is great for a fast dinner. It only takes a few minutes to throw the marinade together and can cook while you're doing other things. All of the ingredients were handy in my cabinet except the fresh parsley, but I simply substituted it with dried parsley.

3 Tbsp red-wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
3/4 Tbsp dijon mustard
3 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley leaves
3/4 tsp dried rosemary
3/4 tsp dried sage
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper.
1 & 1/2 lbs chicken

• Combine all ingredients in gallon ziploc bag.
• Refrigerate over night
• Place chicken in 9 x 13 pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes (depending on breast or thigh and size of pieces).

For the kabobs:

1 pint cherry/grape tomatoes

16 small cremini (baby bella) mushrooms

1 red pepper, cut in to 1 inch pieces

1 red onion, cut in to 1 inch pieces

8 skewers

• Alternately thread chicken, tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers, and onions on to skewers.
• Place in 9 x 13 pan and brush with remaining marinade.
• Grill or broil on high for 4-5 minutes. Turn and grill for approximately another four minutes.

Texas Roadhouse Rolls & Honey Butter

I stumbled across this recipe while I was bored one day, and of course I had to try it out. Who doesn't LOVE the sweet rolls at Texas Roadhouse?! I couldn't get mine as fluffy as the restaurant, but they still tasted amazing.

Rolls
1 package (1/4 oz) active dry yeast plus 1 tsp sugar
1/4 cup warm water (100-110 degrees)
1 cup milk
1Tbsp butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar
4-5 cups flour
1 egg
1 tsp salt

Butter
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

• Mix yeast with 1 tsp sugar and warm water. Let sit for about five minutes.
• Microwave milk for about 60 seconds. Add butter and stir until butter is completely melted.
• Add milk mixture to yeast mixture. Add sugar and about half the flour, the dough should be the consistency of muffin batter. Let stand for 10 minutes.
• Add egg and salt to mixture, beat well.
• Add remaining flour until soft dough is formed.
• Knead dough until smooth, cover, and let rise until doubled (about one hour).
• After rising, punch down and let rest for 10 minutes.
• Shape dough in to rectangle and cut in to squares using a pizza cutter.
• Place on floured and greased baking sheets and let rise until doubled (about one hour).
• Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes, brush with honey butter.
• For honey butter, beat butter with hand mixer until light and fluffy. Add remaining ingredients and beat until well blended. Serve on warm rolls.

I didn't put cinnamon in our butter because I prefer it without.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm a firm believer that baked goods should be homemade as often as possible. The only thing I don't (didn't) make myself was chocolate chip cookies because no matter what I did they never seemed to turn out right. They were always flat, the chips dropped to the bottom, or looked funny. The pre-made dough was just always better than I could get here at home.

The other day, I was visiting some friends for the afternoon at Sarah Russel's house and she had some spectacular cookies! I just had to get the recipe. She had gotten the recipe from bakeitandloveit.blogspot.com.

Sarah made these with whole wheat flour, so even though the recipe called for flour, I went ahead and made mine with the wheat as well. Also, when she gave them to us, they were cold. They were surprisingly good chilled!

3 & 1/2 cups flour
1 & 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 & 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 & 1/4 cups butter
1 & 1/4 cups dark brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 bag Ghiradelli semi sweet chocolate chips

• Pre heat oven to 350 degrees.
• Mix dry ingredients and set aside.
• Cream butter and sugars together until blended.
• Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well. Add vanilla and mix.
• Reduce speed and add dry ingredients. Mix until combined. Stir in chocolate chips by hand.
• Bake for 12-13 minutes, cool on cookie sheet for a couple of minutes then move to rack.

Whoopie Pies

Since I've been baking a lot of cookies, a friend requested whoopie pies for bowling this week. I'd never made them before so I went through a bunch of recipes and picked the one that looked the best. I think I got the most compliments for these cookies than any other I've ever made (except maybe the pumpkin cookies)! They were really easy too :)

I used parchment paper on my cookie sheets so I'd have less of a mess to clean up when I was done and it worked great.

Cookies
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup shortening
2 eggs (lightly beaten)
2 cups milk
2 tsp vanilla
10 Tbsp cocoa
4 cups flour
2 & 1/2 tsp soda
Pinch of salt

Filling
1 & 1/2 cups shortening
1 & 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
12 Tbsp marshmallow fluff
2 tsp pure vanilla

• For the cookies, cream shortening and sugar.
• Combine eggs, milk, vanilla, and beat in to cream mixture.
• Sift dry ingredients together and slowly stir in to cream mixture. Beat on medium for about 2 minutes.
• Drop on to greased and floured cookie sheet, enough dough to make cookies about 2 inches.
• Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 8-10 minutes.
• Let cool completely on a wire rack.
• For the filling, combine fluff, shortening, and vanilla. Beat until well mixed.
• Slowly add confectioners' sugar until well mixed.
• Place a generous amount on the flat side of one cookie and top with another cookie.
• Refrigerate for about 30 minutes before serving and store in airtight container in fridge.

Strawberry-Champagne Cheesecake

I got this recipe out of a recent Taste of Home magazine. My mom noticed it and suggested I try it. I don't normally like cheesecake, but this is absolutely amazing! I made it for dessert for Thanksgiving and everyone that tried it, liked it.

The original recipe said to melt the chocolate chips in the microwave, but I found it was too hard to get the time/temp just right, so I melted them on the stove. Be careful because if you melt them at too high of a temperature or for too long, it becomes dry and crumbly. I took mine off of the heat while there were still a few small lumps of chocolate.

Cake
1 cup champagne or other sparkling wine
2 cups chocolate graham cracker crumbs (about 14 whole crackers)
2 cups sugar, divided
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup sliced fresh strawberries
3 - 8 oz packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
2 Tbsp cornstarch
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 egg yolks
Topping
20 fresh strawberries, hulled
1/3 cup milk chocolate chips
1 tsp shortening, divided
1/3 cup white chocolate chips
Sauce
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

• In a small saucepan, bring champagne to a boil and cook until reduced to about 1/4 cup (about 8 minutes). Set aside and let cool.
• In medium bowl, combine cracker crumbs, 1/2 cup sugar, and butter.
• Press onto bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch springform pan. Spread sliced strawberries across the bottom and set aside.
• In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and 1/2 cup sugar until smooth. Beat in sweetened condensed milk, cornstarch, and champagne. Add eggs and yolks, beat on low speed until just combined.
• Pour mixture over strawberries and bake at 325 degrees for 55-60 minutes, until center is almost set.
• Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes then run knife around edge to loosen. Cool an additional hour at room temperature and refrigerate overnight.
• Remove sides of pan. Slice and arrange strawberries over top of cheesecake.
• Melt milk chocolate chips and 1/2 tsp shortening on medium-low heat in small saucepan. Drizzle over strawberries. Repeat with white chocolate chips.
• In small bowl, beat cream until it begins to thicken. Add confectioners' sugar, beat until soft peaks form, serve with cheesecake.

Peanut Butter Cookies

If you can't tell, I've been making a lot of cookies lately. This is another recipe I got out of my cookie cook book. The dough is a little softer than what I have worked with in the past, but the cookies were still great! Maybe I'll find another recipe that's more like what I'm used to and post that later :)

A friend requested I put Reese's Pieces in the cookies as well, so I made half the batch with and half the batch without. They were good, but it was just more peanut butter with some crunchy added in. We decided they might be better with M&Ms or something that adds a different flavor. The colors were great for fall though!

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1&1/4 cups all-purpose flour
Granulated sugar

• In large bowl, beat butter and peanut butter until smooth.
• Add granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, and baking powder. Beat until combined.
• Beat in egg and vanilla until combined.
• Beat in flour (hand stir if it gets too thick).
• Refrigerate for one hour to make easier to handle, if necessary.
• Shape dough in to 1-inch balls, roll in granulated sugar, and place on ungreased cookie sheet.
• Using fork, flatten balls by making criss-cross pattern.
• Bake for 7-9 minutes at 375 degrees. Let cool.

If these look a little different than yours, it's because I didn't roll the cookies in sugar or shape them with a fork.

Chocolate No-Bake Cookies

This is another family favorite cookie that my mom has made for us as long as I can remember :) It is really fast, really easy, and everyone loves them!

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter
3 rounded Tbsp cocoa
1/2 cup milk
1 cup peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups oats

• Bring sugar, butter, cocoa, and milk to a boil in a medium-large pan.
• Remove from heat and mix in peanut butter and vanilla until peanut butter is completely melted. Stir in oats.
• Scoop 1 inch balls on to wax paper, aluminum foil, or parchment paper and let cool until set, approximately one hour.

Hobo Stew

Growing up, my parents got us Schwan's food or ice cream every once in a while. While looking through their website (or maybe one of their catalogs) my mom came across this great recipe. It is just ridiculously good! It also makes great left overs, one of those foods that is just as good (if not better) the next day.

Most of the items in it are from Schwan's, but I don't think it would be hard to substitute fresh items. If you order from Schwan's, you can just go on their website, look the recipe up, and there's a link to buy all of the items needed from them. You can order it online and have them deliver straight to your house, you don't even have to be home. You can make two batches out of the order.

4 Polish sausages, frozen, sliced*
12 Italian meatballs, frozen*
2 cups super sweet cut corn, frozen*
2 cups grilled onions and mushrooms, frozen*
6 baby red potatoes, cut in to pieces
1 cup baby carrots
2 cups BBQ sauce
*Items purchased from Schwan's

• Put all of the ingredients in a slow cooker, cover, and cook on low for about 8 hours. Stir occasionally.
• To bake instead of slow cooking, place in large covered casserole dish and bake at 375 degrees for about 2.5 hours.

Chocolate Crinkles

I got these from the cookie book our friends gave us that I mentioned in the last post. I love crinkle cookies but never had a book with the recipe and just never got around to looking for one. I was in a super baking mood yesterday so I whipped up the batter for these while I made the other cookies.

4 eggs
1 & 3/4 cups sugar
4 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
1/2 cup cooking oil
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
Powdered sugar

• Beat eggs, sugar, chocolate, oil, baking powder, and vanilla.
• Gradually beat in flour.
• Cover and chill for about two hours, or until easy to handle.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees
• Shape dough in to 1 inch balls, roll in powdered sugar, and place on lightly greased cookie sheet.
• Bake for 8-10 minutes or until edges are set and tops are dry. Transfer to wire rack and let cool.