Melting Moment Cookies

The most easiest cookies ever!!!!   I've always loved these when visiting my mother in laws house!! She used to make them frequently when her son and I were dating.   Last month, I sat down at her kitchen table and copied some of her favorite dishes and managed to sneak this one in too!!!  You literally will be amazed at how easy this is!!  Five ingredients!!!

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
2 table spoons of cornstarch
1/2 cup of sugar
1 cup softened butter or margarine
1 cup flaked, sweetened coconut

Directions:

Stir flour, cornstarch, and sugar together.  Add in butter/margarine until mixture is smooth.  Cover and chill if needed to make dough more pliable to roll into balls.  Take dough and roll into small balls and roll in coconut.  Place on cookie sheet, and bake at 300 degrees for 20 minutes or until they have a hint of golden brown.

CRAVE GIVEAWAY

This is a little to do with both business'.  My photography, as well as my cooking!  Winning this giveaway would mean oh so much! Even just the one on one mentoring session with the lovely 'A' would help boost my moral in my business'!!

Check her out! http://cravemyphotography.com/blog/business-jump-start-giveaway/

Easy Peasy Meatloaf

I must admit, I have never in my life had I had meatloaf.  Growing up, I had only heard horror stories from my friends.  "We had meatloaf last night YUCK!" I started doing a bit of research on this dish.  Looking through recipe's on the web as well in some old dusty cook books.  Finding similarities in most I decided to try whipping up my own!

INGREDIENTS:

2 eggs beat lightly wit a fork
2/3 cup of milk
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tsp salt
3 slices fresh bread crumbled
1 onion chopped
1/2 raw carrot chopped fine
1/2 celery stalk chopped
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 1/2 lbs lean ground beef

SAUCE - this is what I thought might be gross but turned out AMAZING!

1/4 cups brown sugar
1/4 cup ketchup or chili sauce or both
1 tbsp prepared mustard

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1.  Beat eggs in large bowl, add milk, salt, pepper and crumbled bread.  Beat until bread is moist.
2. Add onion, carrot, celery, cheese and ground beef mixing well
3. Pack into 9 x 5" loaf pan
4. Combine brown sugar, ketchup, chili sauce & mustard, spread evenly over loaf
5. Bake for 1 hour (watch if smaller pans) and let stand for 10 minutes, remove from pan.

Cinnamon Chicken -Little House Style

Happy New Years to all my readers!!  Today was a very lazy day around the house.  So while I was watching a very serious episode of Little House on the Prairie.......(please do not laugh) where Laura makes cinnamon chicken for Nelly and Almonzo. I was looking in old cookbooks from my father's Aunt to see if there was any recipes that I could use.  What I found was amazing!  The result was remarkable, chicken was moist with a tangy skin.  Will definitely make this again.


INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups apple juice
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
3 lbs chicken pieces (8 pieces total)
2 tablespoons canola oil

DIRECTIONS

Combine juice, honey, lemon juice, garlic, seasonings in large dish

Add chicken pieces and let sit for an hour

Heat oven to 350°F and have ready a large roasting pan, 9" x 13".
 

Remove chicken from the marinade, shake off the excess and set chicken aside on a plate.
 

Pour marinade into a small saucepan and bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium and boil until it has reduced to 1 cup and has begun to thicken (about 10-15 minutes).
 

Heat oil in a skillet and brown chicken parts over fairly high heat just a few minutes per side, lowering heat if needed to prevent from charring- you want the chicken to be evenly browned, but not fully cooked yet.

 

Place chicken in the roasting pan and pour the reduced marinade on top.
 

Bake 30-55 minutes, or until chicken is fully cooked and no no longer pink (will vary based on the chicken pieces you use).

Caramel Pear Cheesecake Trifle

What better way than to start the new year with this Delicious dessert?!!  It is pretty simple, and if whipped long enough the Cream Cheese filling could be very light and fluffy!

Enjoy! and Happy New Years :-D

INGREDIENTS
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
5 large slightly underripe Bartlett pears—peeled, cored and diced
1 cup Caramel Sauce
1 teaspoon unflavored powdered gelatin
16 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
3 cups cold heavy cream
8 ounces gingersnap cookies, plus crushed cookies for garnish                                                                       

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large skillet, melt the butter. Add the diced pears. Cover and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until just softened, about 8 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of the caramel sauce, cover and cook over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until the pears are tender, 5 minutes. Scrape the pears onto a plate and refrigerate until cool.
2. In a small microwave-safe bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over 2 tablespoons of water. Let stand until softened, about 5 minutes. Microwave at high power for 5 seconds, just until the gelatin is melted. Transfer the gelatin mixture to a bowl and add the cream cheese and the remaining 1/2 cup of caramel sauce. Using an electric mixer, beat at medium-high speed until smooth, about 2 minutes.
3. In another bowl, whip 1 1/2 cups of the cream until firm peaks form. Fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.
4. Spoon one-fourth of the mousse into a medium trifle bowl. Top with one-fourth of the gingersnaps and one-fourth of the pears. Repeat the layering, ending with a layer of pears. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
5. In a bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the remaining 1 1/2 cups of cream until soft peaks form. Dollop the cream over the trifle and garnish with crushed gingersnaps.   

Strawberry Santa's

Merry Christmas readers!  Sorry for the delay and blog posts this month.  Most of you know that recently, my husband and I experienced another terrible loss in our family which resulted in yours truly to undergo a life changing surgery.  So, I have been recovering for the last few weeks with not much of an appetite for food let alone baking.  Today my husband had his family’s Christmas social and what better time to introduce the Santa Strawberries.  Originally, my bestie from out westie showed me this idea that she had found. After some much needed pinterest time I found this sweet little recipe and wanted to share!

What you need:

1 lb of strawberries

1 package of cream cheese

1-3 table spoons of icing sugar (to taste)

1 tsp of vanilla extract

Poppy seeds, or chocolate chips

Directions:

1.       Beat cream cheese in bowl on high until whipped. Add 1 tsp vanilla and icing sugar to taste.  Place filling into a piping bag with small point.

2.       Wash strawberries and drain

3.       Slice the tops of the strawberries (enough for a hat) and slice stem section off flat

                                                                                                                                                                          

4.       Pipe filling on cut strawberry and place  end of strawberry on top for hat.  Add filling to the tip as well you could add some down the main strawberry for buttons.

5.       Place poppy seeds for eyes

Bourbon & Maple Bars

Let the Christmas baking begin!!

Are you a maple syrup lover?  If so then you will love these!!  They have a hint of bourbon and slightly chewy.  They keep well, that is if you hide them somewhere!!

*note* be sure to use pur maple syrup and not the maple flavoured pancake syrup variety.

Batter:

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup maple syruup
2 tablespoons bourbon
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Glaze:
1 cup confectioners sugar
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons bourbon

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.   Lightly butter a 1 x 9 inch baking pan.

2.  To make the batter: 
Sift together the flour and baking powder; set aside.  In a large bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer until light.  Gradually beat in the eggs and vanilla until blended.  Combine the maple syrup and bourbonl add in a slow, steady stream, beating gently until blended.

3.  Stir in the flour mixture until blended.  Add the pecans or walnuts; stir to blend.

4.  Spread the batter in the prepared pan.  Bake for 35 minutes, or until the edges begin to pull away from the sides of the pan.  Cool on a wire rack, and glae the bars while still warm.

5.  To make the glaze:
Sift the confectioner's sugar into a small bowl.  In a separate bowl, stir together the maple syrup and bourbon.  Add the liquids to the confectioner's sugar, stirring until smooth.  Drizzle the glaze over the warm bar cookies, spreading it into a thin, even layer.  Cool thoroughly before cutting into the bars.