Happy National Sugar Cookie Day

Who doesn't love a soft sugar cookie, with icing and sprinkle!?! I will admit there have been occasions when I've splurged and purchase one of those delicious pink iced cookies you find in the convenience stores, and I will even admit that I savored every bite.  Years ago my friend shared with me a recipe for cookies just like those.  They are so easy, way too easy, and taste just as good as those sinful treats we all love.  And what better day than today, National Sugar Cookie Day, to share our favorite sugar cookie with you all. 

Soft Sugar Cookies
2 cups Sugar
1 cup Butter
1 cup Sour Cream (I've also used Greek yogurt and it works great!)
4 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
6 cups All Purpose Flour
1 tbsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt

Cream the butter and sugar, until light and fluffy.  Add the sour cream, eggs, and vanilla.  Mix until well combined.  Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, continue mixing until all ingredients have been incorporated.
Cover and refrigerate overnight. 
Remove from refrigerator and let stand at room temp for 30 minutes.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  On a floured surface, roll a portion of dough to 1/4 inch thick and cut with cookie cutters into desired shapes.  Place on baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack.  Decorate with icing and sprinkles and enjoy.


Easy Buttercream Frosting
1/2 cup Shortening
1/2 cup Salted Butter
1 tsp Vanilla
Pinch of Salt
4 cups Powdered Sugar
2 tbsp Milk or Water

Cream Shortening and Butter.  Add the vanilla and salt.  Add the powdered sugar one cup at a time and continue to beat until light and fluffy. Add the milk or water one tbsp at a time and beat for 3-5 more minutes.  Spread evenly on each cookie and decorate as desired.

Better than Boxed Toaster Pastries

In honor of my wonderful Hubs, and in celebration of our 10th anniversary today, I am sharing one of his favorite treats, home made Pop Tarts.  I will be the first to admit, I love pop tarts!  Especially the brown sugar cinnamon flavor.  I don't however, like the list of ingredients that I cannot pronounce.  In my quest to provide real food for my family, I have replaced the boxed pop tarts with homemade and my family is thrilled!  We love that we can get creative and make new combinations, or fill them with our favorites.  I love knowing that the fruit filling is just that, fruit.  My kids love the sprinkling of colored sugar or cinnamon sugar that we add at the last minute so we'll be able to tell which is which.  Don't be intimidated by these tasty little treats, the hardest part is the crust, and believe me it is just like making biscuits.

For the crust you can cheat and buy a pre-made pie crust, but homemade really is better.  This recipe is our family favorite and always works.  I love it because it doesn't require refrigeration before rolling it out.  Just mix it up,  roll it out and get on with your day.

Crust:
makes about a dozen depending on the size

3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 cup shortening, butter, or coconut oil (my favorites are butter and coconut oil)
2/3 cup ice cold water

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.  In a large bowl, stir together the flour and salt.  Using a pastry cutter, mix in the shortening, butter or coconut oil, until it resembles crumbled feta cheese.  With a fork stir in cold water until just blended.  split dough in half and roll out on a floured surface to about 1/4 inch thick.  Cut into rectangles with a pizza cutter.  Place a tbsp (or more or less depending on the size of your rectangles) of the filling of your choice in the center of half of the rectangles.  Spread it out, leaving 1/3 inch around the outside edge uncovered.  Dip your finger in cold water and run it around the edge of the rectangle and place a second rectangle over the top and using a fork press the sides together.  Poke a couple of vent holes in the top and place on a cookie sheet.  Repeat with remaining crust. 

Bake for 11-13 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack.

Our favorite fillings are:
Strawberry - remove leaves and chop strawberries, place in saucepan, add a tbsp of sugar 1/2 tsp of vanilla and a tbsp of cornstarch.  Bring to a boil and cook until thick.  I like to use a potato masher to break down the berries a little too.  (You can use any berry instead of strawberry in this mixture.)

S'mores: When making the crust, use one sleeve of graham crackers crushed up fine as part of the flour (pour it in the measuring cup and top it off with flour, using it as the first cup of flour).  Fill them with mini chocolate chips and mini marshmallows.  The marshmallows melt while baking, but leave behind their delicious flavor.  Top these with cinnamon sugar, believe me you'll love it!

Chocolate  Peanut Butter: fill with mini chocolate chips and a spoon full of peanut butter.  I'd love to say this is healthy, but, well... it probably is not.

Brown Sugar Cinnamon:  In a small bowl, mix 1/2 cup brown sugar and a tsp ground cinnamon.  Spoon mixture into each rectangle.

If you want to top them with a glaze instead of sprinkles, you can by mixing a cup of powdered sugar, a 1/2 tsp vanilla, and a tbsp of water together until it becomes a thin glaze.  Drizzle over the top of the pastries after they've cooled for a minute or two.

Chocolate Dipped Marshmallow Eggs

Easter is my second favorite holiday.  It has a lot to do with the promise of spring after a long cold winter.  Being able to wear sundresses, and sandals again.  And of course the candy, Easter candy is, well, YUM!  I remember making marshmallow eggs as far back as I can actually remember.  It is one  tradition that I had to carry on with my own family.  It is sticky, and really messy, but oh so worth it.

How to Create the Molds
Fill 3 9x13 pans with an inch and a half to two inches of flour.  Level it off with a knife, chopstick, spatula, or even a drinking straw.  Take an egg, real or plastic and press it into the flour to make indentations.  You'll get about 12 per pan.  Be careful to not bump the pans and loosen the molds.  Set them aside until they are needed later.

Marshmallow Eggs
2 Envelopes of Unflavored Gelatin (Knox Gelatin)
1/2 cup Cold Water
3/4 cup Hot Water
1 cup Corn Syrup, divided
2 cups Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla

Mix together the unflavored gelatin and cold water until gelatin has dissolved.  Let it stand for 5 minutes.

In a large heavy saucepan combine the hot water, 1/2 cup corn syrup, and sugar.  Bring to a rolling boil.  Cook until it reaches soft ball stage using water test method. Remove pan from the heat and add the remaining corn syrup and gelatin/water mixture.  Pour into a stand mixer or using a hand mixer beat on high for 10 minutes (it must be 10 minutes!  Trust me on this one.  It will not set up correctly if you don't beat it for the full 10 minutes.  And you'll end up with marshmallow sludge).  Stir in the vanilla.

Pour into prepared molds. Makes about 36 marshmallow eggs.  Let them sit overnight to fully set, then tap the excess flour off (and trim some of the excess off, I use scissors or kitchen shears for this part, super fast and easy and a bit more control) and dip into melted chocolate.  Place them on wax paper or parchment paper until chocolate has set. You can also decorate them using sprinkles (applied before the chocolate has set) or colored chocolate piped on using cake decorating bags.  Enjoy, and hope that there are some left to stick in the Easter baskets.

Rainbow Bread

I've seen a few pins floating around pinterest of this beautifully colored rainbow bread and tucked the idea away for St. Patrick's Day for my girls.  I knew I needed to do something fun to jazz up their lunch, but I don't like to experiment with new bread recipes when I don't have the time.  So, I improvised... I used my favorite bread recipe and did it my way :)  Luckily it turned out just perfect (well other than that pesky air bubble that formed right in the middle of the loaf...  next time it'll be perfect!  Either way, the girls loved it!  They both kept commenting that it was the coolest bread they'd ever eaten. 

 

Rainbow Sandwich Bread
3 cups white flour
2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
1/2 tbsp salt
3 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup dry milk
1/2 cup potato flakes
3 tbsp softened butter or oil
1-1 1/8 cup warm tap water

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook measure flour, yeast, salt, sugar, dry milk, and potato flakes.  Mix for 30 seconds to combine.  Add the butter/oil, and about 7/8 cup warm water.  Mix for about 30-60 seconds, adding more water a tablespoon at a time if dough is too dry.  If the dough is too wet, add flour one tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is achieved.  The dough should be wet enough to leave a little residue on the sides of the bowl.  Mix for 4 minutes. 

Divide dough into 6 equal portions.  With each portion add 3 drops of food coloring (or more to get the color you desire) and knead the coloring into the dough.  It will take about 5 minutes per portion to get it mixed in.  Flatten out each piece into a 2 inch by 6 inch rectangle and stack them all together starting with purple on the bottom, then blue, green, yellow, orange, red. 

Using a rolling pin, flatten dough and roll to about 1/2 inch thick.  Starting at one end, roll the dough to form a loaf.  Place it in your pan that has been lightly greased with butter or cooking spray and cover.  Let it raise until it has doubled in size.

Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  When dough has risen to double the size bake for 25 minutes.  Remove from the oven and let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes.  Then remove from pan and cool completely on a wire rack. 

Makes 1 5x9 inch loaf.

Ice Cream Pie

March 14, international Pi day. I wanted to treat my family to something yummy, but didn't want to bake a pie, more so I didn't want to make a crust today. We decided on the next best thing...  Ice Cream Pie.  Easy, delicious, and a huge hit with the kids.

Ice Cream Pie
1/2 container (half gallon size) of your favorite ice cream
1/2 container (8 oz size) cool whip, thawed
prepared pie crust, graham cracker, shortbread, or chocolate

Allow the ice cream to soften.  In a large bowl, stir together the ice cream and cool whip.  Spread it in the prepared pie crust and smooth out the top.  cover and place in the freezer to set (at least 2 hours).

When serving slice pie into 8 slices, top each with your choice of toppings, and enjoy.

My kids told me this was the best pie they'd ever eaten.  They loved it!  As I'm sure you will too!

Porcupine Meatballs

I have very vivid memories of these little meatballs, I know that my mom only made them once or twice, but when something sticks in my memory, it is pretty hard to forget.  I guess these made quite the impression with me.  It is such an easy recipe that it would be a great one to make with your little sous chef.

Porcupine Meatballs
Serves 4-6 (6-8 at our house)

1 lb lean ground beef
1 1/4 cup uncooked white rice
1 tsp dried onion
1 tsp season salt
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes with juice
1 10.5 oz can beef broth

1. preheat oven to 350.
2. mix (with your hands) ground beef, 1/2 cup of the rice, dried onion, season salt, and Italian seasoning.  Mix well, and roll into 9 golf ball size balls.
3. Put the rest of the rice in the bottom of the baking dish.  Pour the tomatoes and the beef broth over the top and stir with a spoon.  Place meatballs over rice mixture and cover tightly with foil.
4. Bake for 1 hour.  Enjoy!

These were a hit with one of my kids, the other is going through a phase and "doesn't like dinner" no matter what it was.  Although if I served cotton candy and lollipops she'd probably change her mind ;).

This one is for the kids...

I am always looking for something fun and creative to do with my kids...  They love to create, color, paint, anything artsy really... So play doh is a must have at our house.  The most frustrating part of play doh for me is opening the container to find it hard as a rock.  Then you scramble to find a replacement or something else to do.  As a kid we always made home made play doh, a flour and salt based dough that was just as good as the store bought stuff minus the chemicals they add to preserve it.  When I came across this recipe, I knew I had to try it out!  

Kool-aid Dough

The kool-aid packet gives it a vibrant color as well as a very pleasing scent.  There is no sugar in it, so for those who choose to take a taste (totally safe to do it) they won't be too impressed and want to continue.  I whipped up three batches for a playdate we're having after school today and I have to admit... I am super excited to have the kids come over and try it out :)  I think I will join them too.

So here's the recipe, make sure to keep this one stashed away in your arsenal for a rainy day..

Kool-aid Dough
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 cup salt
1 packet Kool-aid unsweetened drink mix
1 tablespoon cream of tartar
1 cup boiling water
1 1/2 tablespoons oil
extra flour for kneading
airtight containers (I use Ziploc freezer bags)

Mix the first 4 ingredients in a large bowl.  Add boiling water and oil; stir with a fork until cooled, then mix with hands until well combined.  Knead until no longer sticky, adding additional flour 1 teaspoon at a time until desired consistency.  Store in the refrigerator.