Butter Mints

A local candy company makes very pricey butter mints but they are such a treat. That was until I learned to make my own. This is one of the few recipes I would suggest using the highest quality ingredients because they make a huge difference. The candies are slightly labor intensive but I believe you could use a mixer - I just haven't tried. The dough does get warm rather quickly, if it refuses to roll out - stick it in the fridge or freezer for a little bit. The taste is wonderful.
For an even better treat - dip these in chocolate.

Butter Mints
½ cup butter
1 pound confectioner’s sugar
1 tablespoon cream or milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon peppermint extract
Food coloring, optional
In mixing bowl, cream the butter. Gradually add sugar, cream and extracts. Knead into balls; add food coloring if desired. Flatten into patties or roll between two sheets of waxed paper to 1/8 in and cut into desired shapes. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Store in refrigerator.

Super Easy Cookies

It's one of those times of the year when baking seems to take over. There's parties and gifts all for one day - this time Valentine's Day. Want a cookie that is so easy and so versatile that it will make baking a joy no matter who many the kids say they need.
I love this recipe - it uses a cake mix. You can pick any variety and play with it. Some you can frost or add candies to, making a completely new cookie.

Easy Cake Mix Rounds
1 package cake mix
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease baking sheets and set aside. In large bowl, combine cake mix, oil and eggs. Drop dough by teaspoons onto baking sheets. Bake in oven 8 to 10 minutes. Let cookies cool slightly before removing from sheets.

PS - I still haven't forgotten about the baking mix. I just haven't had time but if all goes well I'll have recipes for you tomorrow.

Old Fashioned Ginger Snaps

I had such plans for my evening that involved baking. We ate dinner and watched a movie. By the time it was over, I was falling asleep in my chair (it was barely 8 pm). There would be no baking for me. My husband so kindly made a gingerbread cake for me to take to my ladies night tonight. During the night, I was dreaming that I accidentally ate all the gingerbread - I guess I could smell it in my sleep - so I had to make cookies. Since I was unable to experiment with the baking mix, I decided to share a cookie recipe. Not just any cookie but a gingery snap that reminises of gingerbread and all those wonderful Christmas smells (which make me wonder why I didn't dream of Christmas, I remember going to sleep thinking the house smelled like it).


Old Fashioned Ginger Snaps
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup shortening
1 tablespoon butter, softened
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 cup water
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together the sugars, molasses, shortening, butter, egg, and vanilla in a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth. In another large bowl combine the flour, baking soda, ginger, salt, cinnamon, and cloves. Pour the dry mixture into the wet mixture and beat while adding the water. Continue to mix until ingredients are incorporated. Measure a heaping teaspoon of dough at time. Roll the dough into a sphere between the palms of your hands then press the dough onto the cookie. Flatten to about 1/8-inch thick. Bake cookies for 10-14 minutes or until edges begin to brown and cookies are crispy when cool. Makes 120 (10 dozen) cookies.

Easy and Tasty Bread Pudding

This is my last post of 2011 so I thought I'd share a really good one. This is my mom's recipe for Bread Pudding that she created just a week ago. It won first place in a contest at her work but it has stolen the hearts and stomachs of all who has tried it. This is super simple because most of the ingredients are pre-made. It's super sweet and full of that homey goodness that everyone craves during the holidays. Now - my mother is not one who uses recipes so she was kind enough to attempt to create a recipe. This is what she sent me and what I can't wait to try sometime over the next week.

Three LARGE almond poppy seed muffins. Would have been better if they were a little drier. And maybe not as much muffin
2 1/4 cups eggnog
5 eggs
1 cup sugar (or it might have been half a cup)
a teaspoon of orange zest - fresh
1 T or so of Countreau - or however you spell the orange liquor
1/4 c butter (1/2 stick)
about 1/2 to 1 cup walnuts

Cut up muffins into bite size pieces, set aside
In a large bowl mix (with mixer) eggnog, eggs, sugar and liquor
In a saucepan or frying pan melt butter, add walnuts and orange zest.
Mix egg mixture, muffins and walnuts (but not butter) together, gently to not mush the muffins.
In an ovenproof bowl pour butter and spread all over bowl to keep pudding from sticking
Pour or place in the rest of the ingredients.

Preheat oven to 375, using a roasting type pan (rectangle) fill about 1/3 with water and place
bowl with the pudding into so that it is cooking in a water bath.

Cook until done in center. This is like 30 to 60 minutes. While cooking it will crust but still be jiggly inside until it is done.

Serve warm.

Hard Sauce
1 cup brown sugar
1 stick butter
1/4 cup brandy
2 T butterscotch schnapps (optional)

Cook in saucepan, bring to a boil but be careful not to scorch.
Turn down heat. Cook to slightly thicken but
not so that it hardens. Spoon over pudding in bowls. Also serve warm or hot.


Okay, that is the best I can do.

Coquito or Puerto Rican Eggnog

I came across this blog post about Coquito or Puerto Rican Eggnog. It intrigued me but I knew I didn't quite have the ingredients. I thought about it some and rifled through the cupboards and came up with a version that is amazing. The alcohol will take your breath away (and we only used half) and the drink needs to mellow atleast 24 hours. We tasted it right after I made it and it was okay. But when we tasted it last night after the 24 hours, it was much smoother and so many more flavors came out. My version has less sugar and alcohol and maybe less fat. It's not meant to be a reduced version - it just came out that way. I still think it's going to be quite the treat at our holiday parties this weekend.

Coquito
1 cup powdered milk
3/4 cup water
1 can coconut milk
1 1/4 cup half and half
1 1/2 cups gold rum
1/2 cup sugar
2 cinnamon sticks
1 tsp gd cinnamon
4 cloves
1/4 teas cardamom seeds
1 teas orange extract

Using a funnel, pour the powdered milk and water into a large bottle (we used a half gallon ice tea bottle). Put on the lid and shake until the powdered milk is fully incorporated into the water (it's okay to have a few lumps but remember to shake often and break them down before serving). Add remaining ingredients to bottle and shake to incorporate. Don't feel like you have to be gentle - shake with vigor.
Feel free to taste to see if it's sweet enough but remember this will not be the final flavor. Let sit in refrigerator for 24 hours before serving. We actually made this three days early to give it the most time to mellow. Should keep for about a week.

Peanut Butter Fudge

Every now and again, I go through my posts and add them to a file so I can easily find what recipes I have posted so I don't repeat them (unless they have undergone dramatic changes). I discovered I forgot to share the Peanut Butter Fudge recipe. I made it the same day I made the chocolate fudge. I think this recipe is the family favorite. The chocolate was good but they have been devouring the peanut butter. We are peanut butter sort of people so it makes since (their favorite cookie is my gluten free peanut butter cookies).
I made it with homemade evaporated milk.
Just a note about next week - I will not be posting next week but I will be experimenting and will have lots to share after the holidays.

Peanut Butter Fudge
¾ cup evaporated milk
2 cups sugar
2 TB butter
1 1/8 cups peanut butter
1 7oz marshmallow cream
1 teas vanilla
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine milk, sugar and butter. Bring to a rolling boil, stirring constantly and let boil 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter, marshmallow cream and vanilla until well incorporated. Spread into greased 8x8 dish. Let cool completely before cutting into squares.

Chocolate Covered Cherries

There's not many recipes I have made this week that I haven't shared at some point on this blog. Here is one I haven't made in a few years because it's time consuming. It's not exactly difficult - just takes time. The result is well worth the effort.

Chocolate covered Cherries
½ cup butter, soft
2 cups marshmallow creme
1 teas almond extract
4 cups powdered sugar
1 jar maraschino cherries, well drained
2 cups chocolate chips
2 TB shortening
Cream butter. Add marshmallow creme, extract and sugar, mix well. Knead into a large ball, chill for 1 hour. Roll into 1 inch balls and flatten into 2 inch circles. Wrap circles around cherries and carefully shape into balls. Place on lined baking sheet, cover loosely. Chill for 4 hours to overnight. Melt chocolate chips with shortening in a double boiler. Dip balls in chocolate, place on lined baking sheet to harden. Refrigerate in covered container 1-2 weeks before serving.

Peanut Brittle

My husband really wanted peanut brittle this year. I was able to get unsalted roasted peanuts (no raw) and thought about how to go about this. I decided to use my toffee recipe. We used Nucoa to make him a dairy free version. Because of this - I believe that the recipe needs stirring. Normally, one does not stir the toffee as it cooks but the nucoa did not exactly meld with the sugar. Stirring would have helped.

Peanut Brittle
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
3 TBS water
1 1/2 cups peanuts

Bring butter, sugar and water to a boil. Boil for 10 minutes until the color turns amber (290 on a thermometer). Stir in peanuts and pour into a greased cookie sheet. Let cool completely. Break into pieces and enjoy.

Chocolate Fudge

I needed a good easy fudge recipe that didn't have too many ingredients since we had to stay within budget for the month. This recipe comes from Eagle brand sweetened condensed milk. I made my own with the recipe I posted earlier this week. The only problem I encountered is that the powdered milk stayed a little lumpy. I made this a second time and beat the milk more reducing the number of little milk lumps. You can't taste the powdered milk and my husband is convinced they are nuts (I didn't add any nuts and have told him several times). We used milk chocolate chips since the semi-sweet that were on sale were gone. The result was a wonderful and rich candy. I, also, found that cooking it for just a few minutes after the chips were melted resulted in a firmer less sticky fudge but either way is great.

Chocolate Fudge
3 cups chocolate chips
14 oz Sweetened Condensed Milk
¾ cup chopped nuts
1 ½ teas vanilla
Melt chocolate chips and milk in a pan over low heat. Add nuts and vanilla. Pour into greased 8x8 inch pan. Chill for 2 hours.

Microwave Caramel

I can't remember where I found this recipe but I couldn't wait to try it. The flavor of this caramel is wonderful but I just couldn't get it to firm up in the microwave. I ended up taking the two batches I attempted and putting them in a pot on the stove until they firmed up. The result was amazing caramels and I had used the homemade sweetened condensed milk.
I do think this would make amazing (but soft) caramel corn. Which would be perfect for a quick evening snack. I didn't add anything to the recipe after I took it out of the microwave.
*make sure your microwave is really clean - this does bubble over and if it lands on a clean surface you can scoop it back into the batch.


7 Minute Microwave Caramels or Caramel Corn
Yield: About 50 individually wrapped caramels, or 15 cups of caramel corn
Make the Caramel:
Note: If making individual caramels, have an 8x8 dish lined with parchment paper at the ready. If making caramel corn, prepare 12-15 cups of popped kettle corn and place in a large bowl. (1 1/2 standard size bags of microwave popcorn popped equals about 12 cups. This is the amount I used.)
4 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 cup light brown sugar, tightly paked
1/2 cup corn syrup
2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk (not low fat)
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
In a large microwaveable bowl or 8 cup glass measure, combine the butter, brown sugar and corn syrup. Microwave at 100% power for 2 minutes. Stir mixture well. It will be a little grainy. Microwave for another 2 minutes and stir well. Add 2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk. Microwave for 3 minutes. Watch carefully, it is prone to bubble up at this stage. Remove from microwave and stir in vanilla extract. Be very careful at this stage, the caramel is extremely hot and sticky!

For Individual Caramels:
Sea salt for sprinkling
Pour hot caramel into the parchment lined pan. Lightly sprinkle with sea salt. Let stand until set, but still slightly warm. Lift caramel block from pan and cut into individual squares. Wrap in wax paper squares.*Note: My caramels held their shape quite well without being wrapped.

For Caramel Corn:
1 cup peanuts or cashews
Sea salt for sprinkling
Pour nuts over popped kettle corn. Pour hot caramel over popcorn, turning popcorn over with a large wooden spoon to coat. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper, set aside. Microwave caramel coated corn for 4 minutes, stopping after each minute to stir. Pour onto prepared baking sheet and sprinkle with sea salt. Let stand at room temperature until hardened. Break into pieces and store in an air-tight container.

Chocolate Jelly Truffles

This recipe is thanks to Joanne Fluke except I changed the name. I wanted to open it up to more flavors than just raspberry. This is the easiest truffle recipe out there. I doubled her recipe for convienence but feel free to cut it back in half.

Chocolate Jelly Truffles
1 package chocolate chips (2 cups)
4 TBs fruit jelly
cocoa powder
Melt chocolate chips and jelly in a double boiler until thick and smooth. Let cool. Roll into balls and refrigerate. Remove and re-roll until small smooth balls (they will spread and soften when warm in the beginning but chilled they will hold their shape well). Roll in cocoa powder. Store in refrigerator.

Holiday Squash Soup

I made this soup last Christmas and it was a hit. The entire family loved the flavor and the texture. This is a crockpot recipe but I made it on the stove and I did not use the blender. I got the recipe from a Joanne Fluke book.

HOLIDAY SQUASH SOUP
2 ten-ounce packages winter squash (the kind that’s in a solid block and already pureed)
½ cup chopped onion
2 teaspoons chicken bouillon beads (or whatever measure it gives to make 2 cups of chicken broth)
2 cups heavy cream
¼ teaspoon pepper
8-oz package cream cheese, unwrapped and softened in the microwave for 1 minute
sour cream and/or parsley for toppings
Cook the squash according to package directions, drain it and put it in a blender. Add the chopped onion and the chicken bouillon beads. Add the heavy cream. Zoop it up in the blender and make sure all the onion pieces are pureed and the mixture is smooth. Add the pepper and the softened cream cheese. Zoop it up again until it’s all smooth and then dump it in the crockpot you’ve sprayed with Pam. Once your soup is in the crockpot, give it a final stir and taste a little bit for seasoning. If it needs more salt, DON’T ADD IT. Add another teaspoon of bouillon beads instead to make it really chickeny. If you want to make your soup sinfully rich, this is the time to cut a half-stick of butter (4 ounces, ¼ pound) into little pieces and throw them in the crockpot. Turn the crockpot on LOW and cook for 4 hours. (This can go an hour or two longer if your company doesn’t arrive on time.) Check for seasonings again right before serving. When you dish it into the bowls, you can top it with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of fresh parsley if you like.
Yield: approximately 4 cups.

Cinnamon Apple Ornaments

Making all that applesauce coming up on the holidays makes me think of cinnamon apple ornaments. These are a family favorite for gifts and decorations. They are super easy to make - I either roll it out and use cookie cutters or press the dough into cookie molds. This year I plan on making some miniature gingerbread houses out of the dough.
After making all that applesauce and starting to brainstorm ideas to use it, I was reluctant to use it for inedible ornaments. However, when I was getting to the end of the apples, I had a few going bad. I thought what a perfect experiment - use the waste apples to make applesauce for the ornaments and then I have less waste. I still threw out a bit of apple waste (we need to look into composting at our complex) but I managed to salvage enough for the ornaments. I made a quadruple batch of dough from the waste apples, cheap bulk cinnamon and school glue. At this moment, it cost me nothing to make the ornaments because I bought several pounds of cheap cinnamon last year and I stocked up on glue one year when it was 20 cents a bottle. We often decorate the ornaments with glitter glue and ribbon.

Cinnamon Apple Ornaments
1 cup cinnamon
3/4 cup applesauce
1/3 cup white glue
Mix together with a spoon until most cinnamon is incorporated. Knead remaining cinnamon into dough. The dough will be stiff and dry. Roll 1/2 inch thickness and cut into shapes with cookie cutters or press into molds. Make a hole at the top for a hanger using a toothpick or straw.
Lay on racks until completely dry (I use my dehydrator for this). Decorate as desired.

Halloween Party Planning Part 4 - Beverages

When it comes to drinks my family is fairly basic - they drink water or soda but mostly water. When we have family get-togethers water and soda are more often what we serve so I often forget to think about beverages. When winter comes we do pots of spiced cider or wine, occasionally a special coffee but rarely anything more. (unless you could our endless consumption of tea which is like water).
On Halloween, I would often serve Bug Juice which is the only punch I ever make.
However, you don't need a recipe to dress up your Halloween drinks.
You can choose to go more traditional with hot drinks such as cider or hot chocolate. The adults might like a bit of spiced wine.
The real trick is to alter the perception of the drink. Give your drinks Halloween names - Cauldron punch, larve shake - whatever. Then dress them up. Use gummy bugs, body parts, worms, mice - the varieties are endless. Drip blood from the glasses - mix corn syrup with red food coloring and dip the opening of your glass. The syrup will slowly run down the glass (this does stain so be warned).
Add dry ice to give it a steamy effect.
Create spooky ice cubes - freeze green olives for eyes and creepy toys if you are not serving to small children. Freeze different colored Kool-aids in ice trays. You can use black cherry and orange to make Halloween colored cubes.
The ideas are really endless if you open up to them.

Spaghetti and Eyeballs

This recipe was a favorite for Halloween dinner for years. It's quick and easy for those Halloween dinners that fall right after work. The eyeballs can be made ahead of time and reheated. This was the only time I made meatballs to go with our spaghetti so it was a double treat. Put the leftover olives in an ice cube tray and fill with water to make eyeball ice.

Spaghetti and Eyeballs
2 lbs. lean ground beef
1 1/2 cups seasoned bread crumbs
2 tbsp. ketchup
2 eggs
1 tbsp. fresh basil or 1 tsp. dried
1 7-oz. jar pimiento-stuffed olives
1 26-oz. jar prepared pasta sauce
1 lb. spaghetti
1 tbsp. olive oil
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Mix the ground beef, bread crumbs, ketchup, eggs and basil in a large bowl. Using the meat mixture, form about 30 small meatballs.
To make the eyeballs, press an olive into each meatball, pimiento side out. Place the eyeballs in a baking dish, cover with the pasta sauce and bake for
45 minutes.
Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in boiling salted water. Drain and rinse the spaghetti, and toss with 1 tablespoon of olive oil to prevent strands from sticking together. Put it on a platter or in a large serving bowl.
Spoon the eyeballs onto the spaghetti, irises up, and spoon the pasta sauce around them.

Halloween Party Planning Part 1 - Meatloaf Spider

Since our theme this year is Mad Entomologist, we wanted all the food to be bugs or mad scientist oriented. My son announced that we needed to have meatloaf. He wanted a meatloaf mummy but I suggested making a meatloaf spider. We haven't worked out all the details yet but were able to get a decent price on hamburger last week.
Because Halloween is further away then the hamburger will stay fresh, we froze it. I want to make a note here - frozen hamburger will not mesh together after it is thawed. I don't know why but something about freezing the meat reduces it's ability to form a patty without help. Adding eggs and breadcrumbs (crackers or oatmeal work too) is the only way to get it to form a patty. This is fine for our meatloaf but won't work if we want hamburgers (just for those who plan on stocking up).
Now my husband makes meatloaf so I don't have a recipe. Any meatloaf recipe will do. To make it into a spider form a round ball of meatloaf and bake. You can create eyes using a little sour cream and a black olive that has been split in half the long way. Legs can be made from long thick pretzals or breadsticks (which we are going to try). The legs won't be the same color but we figure it all eats the same.

Chex Mix

Figured I'd round out my Thanksgiving week with a holiday favorite - chex mix. I know the recipe is often included on the box and easy to access but I hate the whole multiple open box problem so I figured out a recipe using the entire box (just 1 box) of cereal. Growing up my parents made chex mix the "proper" way with 1/3 wheat, 1/3 corn and 1/3 rice cereals. We always picked out the wheat because it was harder than the corn or rice. Eventually my mom stopped using the wheat chex. Now I just buy rice chex (or a generic version like crispy hexagons). I make it in the oven. I tried the microwave version once and didn't like the way it cooked.
Often times I skip the nuts and when we were gluten free I found this a great way to stretch a bag of pretzals (a bag of GF pretzals makes 2 batches of chex mix).

Chex Mix
1 box chex cereal
1 stick butter
2-3 cups pretzels
2-3 cups nuts
2 T Worcheshire sauce
1 ½ teas seasoning salt
¾ teas garlic powder
½ teas onion powder
Melt butter in glass measuring cup. In large bowl, combine chex cereal with pretzels and nuts. Add remaining ingredients to butter and pour over cereal and pretzels. Spread out in baking dish. Bake at 250 for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

Fourth of July Salad

My husband used to work for a deli so I kept trying to come up with fun salad ideas. I like the challenge and we would bounce ideas off of each other. For the 4th of July, a fun salad can add color to your BBQ. The idea is to mix red, white and blue food in whipped cream.

Red Foods:
strawberries
cherries
raspberries
dried cranberries

White foods:
peeled apple or green apples with peel
mini marshmallows
lychee
banana

Blue foods:
Blueberries
(we were stuck there but you can use a dried blueberry or maybe even blackberries)

I like salads that aren't all that exact because I can play with them. Feel free to suggest more items that can go in this salad. We don't use Jello, even though you could because we try to avoid artifical flavors and colors.
A jello "cake" of blue and red would be fun sandwiched/frosted with whipped cream. That would be a stunning slice of red, white and blue.