Wordless Wednesday: Wedding Cookies

The Original Girl Scout Cookies

When the Girl Scouts started selling cookies, this was the recipe they used. Each girl baked the cookies at home and sold them to family and friends to earn money for their troop. So, for our meeting today (and since it's cookie season), I made these for our troop. I did melt some semi-sweet chocolate to pipe a question-mark on each cookie since they were earning their Detective badge today. The girls proclaimed them "absolutely delicious," and they're right!

1 c. butter

1 c. sugar

2 Tbs. milk

2 eggs, beaten

1 tsp. vanilla

2 c. flour

2 tsp. baking powder

Cream butter and sugar, then add well beaten eggs, milk, vanilla. Next add flour and baking powder, and combine. Then roll out and cut into shapes, or scoop into balls and bake on parchment. Sprinkle sugar on top if desired, and bake in a quick oven (375-degrees F) for about 8 minutes per pan. 

This amount can make six to seven dozen. 

The original and best... 

Gifts from the kitchen... And, the Interwebs.

I love the Internet. Brilliant ideas, information. Love it. This brilliant lady made fresh Christmas potpourri, and so I did this... I added whole cloves to mine (about 1 Tablespoon).

And, my friends loved it. LOVED.

And, this brilliant lady shared this recipe for Primal Chocolate Chip Cookies, and they are the only kind I make anymore. They're that good. And, our family isn't even gluten free, but healthier cookies are a winner, especially when they taste great. 

I do make mine with COLD butter rather than palm shortening (or coconut oil when I make them for vegan friends). 

They're made with almond meal, butter, honey, vanilla, salt, and baking soda. That's it. I know the recipe by heart. Oh, and they're made in the food processor. I only stir the chocolate chips in by hand at the end. 

Aren't they pretty? 

And, perhaps most exciting of all this year... On The Rocks, the casual dining restaurant/bar on Kailua-Kona Bay in Kona, HI, shared the recipe for their Famous Mai Tai on their blog this month. If I close my eyes, it's just like I'm right there with my feet in the sand sipping on one while listening to some amazing live tunes on a ukulele!

Go to their site to see this recipe and more... Be sure to try out all of their cocktails! Open for happy hour daily from 3 – 5PM!  See you On the Rocks!   Be Social!! Or, just whip it up for gifts:

Huggoʻs Famous Mai Tai
1/2 oz of white rum
Mai Tai Mix – 1/2 inch from top
Float Dark Rum on top (about 1.5 oz.)
Served On the Rocks with 12″ straw
Garnish with a fresh pineapple wedge, lime wedge and umbrella!

For Mai Tai Mix (by the Gallon)
1.5 cans of Pineapple Juice
1 qt Orange Juice
12 ox Orgeat syrup
12 oz Orange Curacao

Coconut-free Santas

And, the white cotton candy has only two ingredients: Sugar and artificial flavor. Strawberry flavored. The kids are so excited. Personally, I prefer the coconut beard.

Bananas and Nuggets and Chocolate

I stumbled upon a list of "3-Ingredient Recipes" awhile ago and pinned this banana cookie recipe. It was surprisingly good, although I am certain the children would find them vile, and Joel was uninterested too. 

3-Ingredient Banana Nut Cookies

2 large, very ripe bananas

1 cup rolled oats

1/4 cup chopped pecans (the original recipe called for walnuts, but I didn't have any)

Mix, drop by rounded Tablespoons onto cookie sheet and bake at 350-degrees F for about 14 minutes. I makes exactly 12 cookies. 

These would be perfect as "breakfast" cookies. If only the kids would eat them. But, they abhor oatmeal, and Madeline doesn't like nuts anymore. Unless they are blended into the form of peanut butter. 

So, for dinner, over fries and homemade chicken nuggets.Not really a recipe, since I eyeballed a recipe on my phone, and then blatantly did my own thing. There were herbs in the crumb mix which would've make Erik fuss. And, since I've been intentionally making food that makes him practice dealing with things he doesn't like, I took in easy on him tonight. I just took chicken tenderloins from Costco, cut into bite-sized pieces, dipped in melted butter then shook them in a bag with panko crumbs seasoned with sea salt and smoked paprika. Baked at 400-degrees F for 20 minutes (I turned them after 10). They were a huge hit. Even with Madeline, who now claims to hate chicken (but will eat salad all day long). 

And, this double-chocolate banana bread from the Smitten Kitchen blog is divine. Really, really chocolaty and delicious. Decidedly more enticing to everyone else in the house than my "healthy cookies-like things" (Whatever.) 

But, really, make Deb's chocolate bread. You can't even taste the banana. 

 

Rainbows, Birthdays, and Pumpkin Spice Kisses

This isn't the first (or even the second) time I've made an "epic" rainbow cake for someone's birthday, but I usually do save it for a significant milestone. Madeline's 5th, Sharon's 60th, and now Jamie's 40th. Jame's was the tallest cake yet since we did the full Roy G. Biv of rainbow colors, plus a pink layer on the bottom. Eight layers of goodness, especially since I used the vanilla cake recipe from Smitten Kitchen! It was delicious, sturdy, and worked well with all my colors. I used this recipe for the frosting (always delicious).

And, this weekend I made these Pumpkin Spice Kiss (and Kissless) Cookies that I spied on Pinterest from Sprinkle Some Sunshine right here. They are not too sweet, especially the rolled-in-cinnamon-sugar kissless ones), and tasty!

'Tis True... Simple and Delicious!

I found this recipe on The Sweet Adventures of Sugar Belle, and decided to give them a try on the last day of Snow Week (a whole week of Snow Days off of school)... I had all the ingredients, and these looked fun and easy. Sugarbelle advertised these as the "easiest cookies you'll ever make," and she was spot on! What I hadn't imagined was how fantastic they'd be. They're crisp on the outside, light and chocolatey, tender on the inside... and the sprinkles? Fun! I'm wondering how they'd be with a white or vanilla cake mix and cinnamon, then rolled in cinnamon sugar — Snickerdoodle-style... tasty, I imagine. I look forward to experimenting!

If you've not read her blog before, Sugarbelle's blog is amazing, and her cookies are pure art (and her recipes are the best I've tried). And, clearly, she's brilliant, since she makes these easy cake-mix cookies for school parties instead of taking her works of art to class!

So, here's the recipe... and, I only ended up with 28 cookies (she got 30).

Easy Cake Mix Cookies 
(adapted a tiny bit from The Sweet Adventures of Sugar Belle)


1 box Devil's Food Cake Mix (she used Duncan Hines, the exact brand I had)
2 eggs
2 Tbs. flour
1 stick butter (softened)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract (this gave them a slight chocolate-cherry hint - quite good - next time I'd go swap the vanilla and almond amounts)


Mix together in a bowl (I mixed them by hand - literally, with my hand), and use your handy cookie scoop (or make about 1-inch balls) and roll in fun sprinkles. Bake at 350-degrees F for about 11 minutes (I baked them right on my cookie sheets - ungreased - without parchment, and let cool on cookie sheets before removing to cooling rack. Enjoy! 

Wordless Wednesday: Of Mice and Men...

*Nearly wordless... I tinted the dough for the mice to be light brown this year, tinted the crowns gold and rolled yellow colored-sugar into them before cutting out. We did white cotton-candy (strawberry flavored) or white & pink non-pareils for the Santa beards since Joy is allergic to coconut, and most of the kids don't like it anyway.

Sweet, Beautiful Gnocchi - My Nonna would be proud...

So, I'm on a mission to make homemade gnocchi sometime before the end of this month. I've even talked to a girlfriend about doing it together one weekend afternoon... and, I've found the perfect sauce to go with it. Ragu. No, not the kind in a jar, but the real ragu. I recently watched a late-night Channel 9 "Create" cooking show hosted by Nick Stellino, featuring Seattle's Jason Wilson, of Crush fame. They did his Pork Ragu with gremolata, and it looked amazing.

I was recalling the ingredients at the grocery the next day, and missed a few, so made the recipe my own, and it was fantastic. Especially with the packaged gnocchi from Trader Joe's.

I did a lot of things differently, including using a fantastic white wine in place of the red... and carrots instead of fennel and leeks, spicy peppers and green olives. I went with what I had — sweet onion, diced; celery and carrot, diced (all from Yakima Fruit Market); pork shoulder, sliced fresh garlic, white wine, chopped canned tomatoes... and the gremolata was Italian parsley, lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic and Spanish olive oil. Fantastic.

You'll have to trust me that it was phenomenal - the photo is terrible, but I plan to try it again this week!

Ragu

4 pounds fresh pork shoulder large-chopped

1/2 c Spanish olive oil

sea salt and Johnny's seasoning (bad, I know)

1/2 large sweet onion, small dice

3 medium stalks celery, small dice

2 medium carrots, small dice

2 stalks celery, cut into small dice

6 cloves garlic, sliced

1 c Portugese white wine

1 quart canned chopped tomatoes

Gremolata

Italian parsley, chopped fine (about 1/2 cup)

Garlic cloves, chopped fine (about 6 cloves)

juice and zest of one large lemon

Spanish Olive Oil (until it looks right)

Gnocchi package from Trader Joes (with red label)

And, we did some ginger cut-outs with Elsa when she came for a sleepover on Thursday last week. Love the fun decorations!!

Madeline Cookies

So, when your parents name you Madeline, it comes with all sorts of great perks. Like, you just might have three hardback copies (and one paperback) of the original "Madeline" storybook. Plus, all the other Madeline tales by Ludwig Bemelmans.

And, there are also these great cookies called Madelines! Well, some people spell it Madeleine, but really, tuh-may-toe/toe-ma-toe! If you are little, and there is a cookie the bears your name, it must be named after you, so it's a Madeline Cookie, or "Madelines Cookies." And, it's a very handy end-of-the-school-year Thank You gift!

Which is why we baked up a batch this evening, and Miss Madeline herself wrote out as much of the recipe as her little Kindergartner-hand could take, before bedtime. Really, you must get yourself some sweet Madeleine pans and get baking, because these are fabulous.


(continued from 1st page) Add flour to whipped egg mixture 1/3 at a time, gently folding to combine. Then, add lemon zest (or orange zest), and pour melted (cooled to room temp) butter to batter and fold.

Spray Madeline pans with Pam Baking Spray (with added flour), and spoon batter into molds (mini molds = slightly more than a heaping Tablespoon). Bake 8-10 mins. for mini Madelines, and 12-14 for regular-sized Madelines, or until cakes are golden and the tops spring back when touched.

Invert onto cooling rack and immediately sprinkle with some of the 2/3 cup sugar (for decorating – ingredient # 8).

You don't need to know how to store them, because they'll disappear almost immediately.

***We have mini Madeline pans, and this recipe makes 30 of those. There are standard-sized Madeleines (you'd likely get more like 17 cookies...) and ultra-mini sized (so, you'd maybe get 4-dozen of those). You can get Madeline pans at most specialty kitchen-supply shops.

Other variations:
Chocolate: increase the sugar to 1 cup, and instead of 1 cup of flour; use ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder + ¾ cup flour. Leave lemon zest out as well, but dust with powdered sugar when mostly cool.
Cinnamon: Add 2 teaspoons of cinnamon to batter with the flour.
Lemon: Replace vanilla extract with lemon, and drizzle with lemon icing (powdered sugar and lemon juice) when cool.
Fancy: Dip 1/2 of each cookie (the top of the shell) in melted chocolate or candy-melts and then sprinkles or colored sanding sugar.

From Kathy, With Love...

John's mom makes some of the very best food ever, and has many famous treat recipes... luckily, she (and Jamie, who I got these recipes from) are willing to share their recipes! Enjoy!

Kathy's Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Sift together:

2.5 c. flour

1/2 c. cocoa powder

2.5 t. baking powder

1.5 b. baking soda

1 t. salt

1 t. cinnamon

Cream together:

3/4 c. softened butter

2 c. sugar

3 eggs

2 t. vanilla

2 t. orange zest

2 c. shredded zucchini

1/2 c. milk

1 c. chopped nuts

Alternate dry ingredients with milk. Add zucchini last, and fold in nuts (if adding). Bake in a greased and floured bundt or loaf pan/s at 350-degrees F for one hour. Cool in pan for 15 mintues, then turn out on plate.

Drizzle with glaze if desired: 2 c. powdered sugar mixed with 3T. milk and 1 t. vanilla.

Kathy's Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 c. butter

1 c. sugar

1 c. brown sugar

2 eggs

1 t. vanilla

4 c. flour

1 c. quick oats

1/2 t. salt

1 t. baking powder

1 t. baking soda

2 c. chocolate chips

Cook at 375-degrees F for about 8 mins. Underbake, as they still cook as they are cooling.

A Very Merry Year: November

So, instead of going crazy with holiday baking last year, I decided that it would be much more fun to spread the joy out over the year and gift someone each month with something lovely from my kitchen.

And, this month, I just happened upon a new recipe that involved wrapping peanut butter cookie dough around a chunk of frozen Snickers candy and baking until golden-brown. I immediately knew who I must make these cookies for—John. He loves peanut butter as much as I do, and loves candy as much as Joel, so these cookies are absolutely perfect for him.

Oh, and he loves cookies too; and we all love him. It even says so in the birthday card that Madeline made for John (complete with rainbow, sunshine, tent, and people). He's a great friend, a fellow cook, hunting partner, fabulous (and very organized) traveling companion (who drives very well on the wrong side of the road -and car- through crazy round-abouts in the UK and Ireland), my best friend's husband... oh, and Madeline and Erik adore him. So, what better for a gift than these over-the-top cookies...

Happy Birthday, John!

Snickers Peanut Butter Cookies 
(adapted from here)
Makes about 4 dozen cookies

Mini-size Snickers bars or large Snickers bar cut into bit-sized pieces 
2 sticks butter, room temperature
1 c. sugar
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. creamy peanut butter
2 eggs
4 tsp. vanilla
3 c. flour, sifted
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt

Either unwrap the mini Snickers, or unwrap and cut up larger Snickers. Freeze until the cookie dough is ready.

Preheat oven to 350-degrees F, and line a cookie sheet with parchment (or lightly spray with baking spray w/flour and wipe sheet with paper towel). Cream the butter and sugars in Kitchenaid until light and fluffy, then add peanut butter and combine, next add egg and vanilla, mix until well combined. Add the dry ingredients and blend to finish dough.

Scoop dough out of bowl with a large soup spoon, and flatten the dough in your hand. Place one frozen Snickers pieces in the center and wrap evenly, sealing around candy. Do about 6-9 cookies at a time. As many as nine will fit on a cookie sheet at a time as they do spread a bit. Keep additional candy in the freezer when you're not shaping cookies to go on a pan to pop in the oven. Bake for about 12-13 minutes. Cool on wire rack, and beware. These are delicious!!

A Very Merry Year: October

So, instead of going crazy with holiday baking last year, I decided that it would be much more fun to spread the joy out over the year and gift someone each month with something lovely from my kitchen.

This month has been very busy with PTA, Girl Scouts, and other volunteering in both M and E's schools, which is why the October cookies are just being baked today. And, appropriately, the recipients of this month's cookies are both Madeline and Erik's classes for their Harvest and Halloween parties, respectively.I found the idea for the skeletons in Family Fun magazine, originally "Gingerbread Skeletons," but I went with a cut-out chocolate cookie recipe off Smitten Kitchen for the cookie instead. The second cookie recipe is a classic favorite of ours: Playdough Cookies, which I chose for their great taste and their sturdiness. Multi-colored leaves for M's class, and plain pumpkins for E's (with orange icing). Preschoolers will be frosting the pumpkins, so delicate sugar cookies are not the order of the day!Happy Halloween!!

A Very Merry Year: September

So, instead of going crazy with holiday baking last year, I decided that it would be much more fun to spread the joy out over the year and gift someone each month with something lovely from my kitchen.

September is all about Back-to-School, and the snap of Autumn in the air, so I adapted my favorite Pumpkin Cookie recipe to Pumpkin Madelines! Sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, fresh out of the oven, they are delish. And, we gifted all but one of the nearly seven dozen to: Madeline's bus driver (she said, "Wow! Pumpkin Madelines now? Boy, did I choose the right route to drive. Thanks!"), Grammy, Ruifen (Grammy's friend, who gave us some great hand-me-downs for Erik, from her son Yuyu, as well as a dress for M, and cool shirt for E from her recent trip to China), Jen and family (who reciprocated with some delicious apple bread), plus Ms. Terri's family. Phew!
And, we also made Cake Pops yesterday, and gifted those to all of our buddies who roasted hot dogs over the campfire with us last night. Ruifen, Yuyu and Grammy also got some clowns and pumpkins to go with their cookies. To learn all about making Cake Pops, check out the book Cake Pops by Angie Dudley, or go to her blog at www.bakerella.com.
For their part, the kids had a blast making the pops, and nearly all of them loved eating 'em too!

Healthier Fall Baking...

The recipes that I adapted are posted. Others can be found at WeightWatchers.com...

Mixed Berry Muffins with Broiled Marshmallow Fluff "frosting"
(inspired by Weight Watchers Blueberry Streusel Muffins)
(3 POINTS)

1 large egg
3/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. reduced-fat sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 c. 1% milk, divided
1 c. flour
1 c. Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp table salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
2 c. mixed berries (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, loganberries, etc.)
1 small jar of Marshmallow Fluff

Preheat oven to 375ºF, and line 16-24 muffin pans. Beat sugar and egg until light and fluffy, then add sour cream and vanilla. When combined, add the dry ingredients, and half the milk to the mixer bowl, then blend. Add the remaining milk, mix, then fold in berries and scoop batter into muffin cups. Bake for about 35 minutes or until toothpick in center comes out clean.

Pipe Marshmallow Fluff on top of muffins, then broil until golden brown.

Gramma's Pumpkin Muffins
(2 POINTS)

Crackle Spice Drops and Chocolate Cupcake Brownies
(both recipes are 1 POINT/treat)

Crackle Spice Drop Cookies
(adapted from WW)
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla
2 c. flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp table salt
1 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 c. powdered sugar
1 stick butter
2 egg whites

Preheat oven to 375°F.
In a mixing bowl, on medium speed, beat butter with brown sugar until creamy. Add egg and vanilla extract; beat until light and fluffy. Stir in flour, baking soda, salt and spice.
Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into powdered sugar to coat, and bake until golden, about 8-9 minutes. Make 3-dozen cookies (1 cookie/serving).

Blueberry Streusel Muffins
(3 POINTS)
(adapted from WW)

2 1/4 c. flour, divided (1/4 c. for topping)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp table salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
1 large egg
1 c. sugar, divided (1/4 c. for topping)
3/4 c. reduced-fat sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 c. 1% or skim milk, divided
2 c. blueberries
2 Tbsp butter, melted (for topping)

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Place 16 muffin liners in muffin tins.
In a large bowl, combine 2 cups of flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.
Using an electric mixer, beat egg with 3/4 cup of sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add sour cream and beat until thoroughly combined; blend in vanilla extract.
Add half of flour mixture and half of milk to sugar mixture; beat until just combined. Add remaining flour mixture and milk; beat until smooth.

Fold in blueberries and fill each muffin liner using large scoop; set aside.
To make streusel topping, in a small bowl, combine remaining 1/4 cup each of sugar and flour. Pour in melted butter and combine with fingertips. Divide crumb mixture over muffins; gently press into top of muffin batter with fingertips.

Bake until slightly golden and a toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Cool in pans for about 10 to 15 minutes and then transfer muffins onto racks to cool completely.

A Very Merry Year: August

So, instead of going crazy with holiday baking last year, I decided that it would be much more fun to spread the joy out over the year and gift someone each month with something lovely from my kitchen.

This month was a double-header...

We have a little buddy named Alexandria who loves to hang out with the kids, most especially with Madeline, and whenever "tea party" or "restaurant" or anything related is played, she's all about "Lemon Cookies," so I had to make some lemon cookies for the little sweetheart. I found a promising recipe on the Weight Watchers site, and it's great — really lemony, a little sweet and soft. They're called Lemon Cookie Snaps, and I modified the recipe by adding at least 2 Tablespoons of lemon zest, since I had a very large lemon, and nonfat Greek yogurt instead of light sour cream. Extra zing is always a good thing!
Alex's Tea Party Lemon Cookies
(adapted from Lemon Cookie Snaps recips on WeightWatchers.com)
1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 c. butter, softened
1 c. sugar
2 large egg yolk(s)
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp (or more) lemon zest, finely chopped
1/4 cup(s) reduced-fat sour cream, or nonfat Greek Yogurt which is what I used

Mix dry ingredients, set aside. Cream sugar and butter, then add egg yolks, lemon juice and zest. Combine well. Finally add Greek Yogurt OR sour cream and mix. Add flour mixture, mix and then scrape onto plastic wrap. Fridge for 2 hours up to 24, or pop in the freezer for 30 mins. or so. Tear off 1 Tbs. pieces, roll into balls and flatten with fork (in a criss-cross pattern) dipped in sugar on two parchment-lined baking sheets. Should make about 30 cookies — 2 cookies are a serving at 3 POINTS total.

And, second, our friend Miki had baby Rhys on July 21st, so among other baked and dinner treats that we delivered to her family last week, we also made a couple dozen of The Pioneer Woman's Oatmeal Crispies for Miki. Oatmeal is good for milk production, and a nursing Mama needs to be able to eat said oatmeal with one hand... hence, cookies!!