Yummy Memories

My Grandma Kanar has the best sugar cookie recipe, hands down.  No, seriously, she does.  I would totally duel anyone who disagrees.  Now, my grandma isn't much of a cook-just ask her-but these cookies are one of those things that she does very well.  And these fantastic cookies have been the center point of some great family memories.  If you ask my father, Christmas doesn't really come without cut-out cookies.  Every Christmas when I was growing up, we as a family would make these delicious cut-out cookies and decorate them together.  I have many memories of all of us in the kitchen, cutting out cookies, popping them in the oven and then decorating them once they had cooled.  And we'd get to eat our favorites that night.  And of course, leave some out for Santa Christmas Eve.  But these cookies are just for Christmas.  On Valentine's Day and Easter, my mom would make special cookies and tuck them into our lunch boxes.  She would do hearts for Valentine's Day, something my mother-in-law also does for her children even to this day, and little ducks for Easter.  I always loved it.  It made us feel special because my mom took the time to make us a treat just for that holiday.  It's a tradition I definitely plan on carrying on with my own children.  Which is why it's so handy that I have Grandma's recipe.  And in case you wanted to start some traditions of your own, I'm sharing it with all of you!  

Grandma Kanar's Cut-Out Sugar Cookies

5 c. flour

1/2 tsp. salt

2 c. sugar

3 tsp. baking powder

1 c. shortening

3 eggs, well beaten

1/2 c. milk

1 tsp. vanilla

In medium bowl, combine flour, salt, sugar and baking powder.  Add in shortening and work in with hands until mixture is fine.  Add in eggs, milk and vanilla.  Roll out the dough, grab your cookie cutters and cut into desired shapes.  Bake at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes.

Get the kiddos involved!  Have them each pick out their favorite shape to cut out and decorate once they're baked.  It's a fun way to make some yummy memories of your own!

You could make these for Valentine's Day, Easter, St. Patrick's Day, the 4th of July, Thanksgiving and of course, Christmas.  They're also great for themed birthday parties because you can make them whatever shape you want!

Happy baking!

I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Coca-Cola® blogging program. If I am one of the first 100 blogs received by SocialsMoms, I will receive a $25 gift card. For more information on the program, click here.

{Whatcha Eatin'} White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

The winner of the Thoughts That Stick giveaway never got in touch with me :(  So it's time to choose a new one.  If you're#3 Ana Paulayou win!  Please email your info by the end of the week so I can pass it along to Julie.
In case you missed my blog swap over at The Craft Monkey, I shared this yummy recipe with her readers and now I'd like to share it with you!
  I made these delish cookies with my sister-in-law and they didn't last long :)

White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

You'll need:

2/3 cup butter or margarine, softened

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 6 oz. package dried cranberries

2/3 cup white chocolate chips or chunks

Preheat your over to 375 degrees.  Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar together in a medium mixing bowl until light and fluffy.  And eggs, mixing well.  Combine oats, flour, baking soda and salt in a separate mixing bowl.  Add to butter mixture in several additions, mixing well after each.  Stir in cranberries and white chocolate.  

Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool on a wire rack and ENJOY!

*Makes about 2 1/2 dozen cookies*

These are sure to be a hit-your cookie jar won't stay full long!

12 Days of Christmas Cookies Countdown Day 12- Minty Chocolate Butter Cookies

Another great find from Baby Center:

Minty Chocolate Butter Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon mint extract
1 large egg
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (optional) 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Using a handheld or stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add the mint extract and the egg, and mix until smooth, scraping the sides of the bowl if necessary. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, and salt together into a medium bowl and add to the dough. Mix just until smooth. Place tablespoon-size balls of dough 1 inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake 10 minutes (cookies should not brown at the edges). Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely. While the cookies are baking, melt the chocolate chips in a small saucepan over very low heat, stirring continuously. Remove from heat. Decorate cooled cookies with the melted chocolate, and let harden for about 1 hour before serving. (Makes 48 small cookies) 

12 Days of Christmas Cookies Countdown Day 11-Snowballs

So,half of my posts from this last week have just disappeared, including the last two cookie recipes for the countdown.  I'm re-posting them for your reading pleasure :)

This yummy morsels are from my awesome Grandma-in-law and they are fabulous!

Snowballs

1 cup butter or margerine (butter is best)

1/4 cup sugar

2 cups sifted flour

1 cup ground nuts (I like pecans or walnuts)

1 tsp. vanilla,

Red food coloring (optional)

powdered sugar

Cream butter and sugar thoroughly.

Add a few drops of red food coloring here if desired

Add vanilla,

Add flour - 1/2 cup at a time.

Add nuts

Blend.

Chill for at least an hour.

Shape into small balls about the size of marbles.

Bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes.

Cool and then roll in powdered sugar OR

Roll while hot in powdered sugar and again when the cookies cool.  (Best)

Enjoy!

12 Days of Christmas Cookies Countdown Day 10-Rolo Cookies

One of our fans from Facebook, Michelle, emailed me this recipe that her friend Melanie shared with her.  It sounds absolutely wonderful!  Thanks for sharing, Melanie and Michelle!

Rolo Cookies

Picture via

1 box Devil's Food Cake Mix

1 egg

1/3 cup of oil

24-28 rolos

Unwrap the rolos

Mix all the ingredients except for the rolos (it will be thick)

Roll up the dough into about 26 one inch balls.

Flatten the balls stuff a rolo in....and roll them up again.

Cook them about 7-10 minutes (I do closer to 7-8) at 350 degrees.  You want to pull them out while they are still lumpy in the middle.  Yum.  Double Yum.  Triple Yum. 

12 Days of Christmas Cookies Countdown Day 9- Peanut Butter Blossoms

This delicious number is from Baby Center (they have all kinds of awesome recipes-I definitely recommend checking them out.)

Peanut Butter Blossoms

1 3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup shortening or butter
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 egg
2 teaspoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
48 chocolate stars

Combine all ingredients except candy is a large mixing bowl. Mix on lowest speed of mixer until dough forms. Shape dough into balls using a rounded teaspoon full of each. Roll balls in sugar and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and top each cookie with a star, pressing it down firmly so cookie cracks around edge. Return to oven and bake another 2-5 minutes

12 Days of Christmas Cookies Countdown Day 8-Vanilla Spritz

Here's another great recipe from Robin!

Perfect Vanilla Spritz Cookies

(with a cookie press or decorators bag and tips)

1 cup butter, room temp

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups flour

Preheat oven to 375.

Cream butter and sugar until smooth. Beta in eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and salt.

Add flour, beating until a soft dough forms.  (At this point you can add food coloring if desired)

Pack dough into cookie press or decorators bag and press onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake until golden, about 10-12 min.

Transfer to cooling racks.  Store in an airtight container up to 4 days.

These are a scrumdidliumtious little treat.

Enjoy your day, enjoy your family and happy baking.

Merry Christmas!

12 Days of Christmas Cookies Countdown Day 7-Cranberry Orange Cookies

I'm playing a little bit of catch up with the Cookie Countdown.

I found this yummy recipe on Land O' Lakes' site via Bluebird Notes.

Koralee shared these beauties that her daughter made and they look so scrumptious!  I love the striped bakers twine that she used to tie them up, too.  The recipe can be found on the Land O' Lakes site.

12 Days of Christmas Cookies Countdown Day 5 & 6-Cookies from Cash is Chaos

Robin from Cash is Chaos is generously helping me out with the Cookie Countdown and has 2 yummy cookie recipes to share with you all today!  Take it away, Robin!

So today is my very first guest post.  Hope this works out.  I'm a little nervous.  But I am going to help out with the Cookie Countdown and I have decided to do 3 cookie recipes, I will do 2 today and one tomorrow (don't forget that Sunday is family day).  Enjoy the recipes, make sure there is some left for Santa, he will love these.

Recipe 1

Chocolate Banana Cream Pies (sorry for the messy pic, I had to take a quick pic before more little fingers got into them)

4 ripe (or over ripe) bananas, smooshed
1/4 cup butter or margarine
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups four
1/3 cup cocoa

Preheat oven to 350.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar.  Add egg and vanilla, mix well.  Stir in smooshed bananas.
Slowly add flour, baking soda and cocoa.  Stir until just mixed.
(This is probably sounding quite like a banana bread recipe, and that's cause it's adapted from one)
Your dough should be thicker than a cake dough, but thinner than a drop cookie dough.
Put dough into icing bag, with 1 1/2 inches cut from tip (I used a disposable one, but you can use a sandwich bag if thats what you have on hand). Drop cookies onto cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  At this point, the cookies should look something like reindeer poop (at least thats what my kids thought it was)

Bake for 10-15 minutes (I know it's not super specific, but everyone's ovens vary)
Let cool completely.

Cream Filling:
1 1/2 cup whipping cream
1 cup (+) icing sugar
sprinkles, tinted sugars to decorate.

In another bowl, on high speed, mix whipping cream and icing sugar to a thick consistency. Feel free at this pint to tint it yourself, or keep it white and roll the entire cookie in sprinkles or tinted sugar.

Once the cookies are cooled, take 2 cookies approximately the same size, and sandwich about 1 teaspoon of cream filling between them.  At this point you could leave it, or you could roll the cookie in sprinkles or tinted sugar.


Recipe 2

Those wonderful looking cookie bars in the middle are one of the easiest and most delicious recipes ever.  Not to date myself, but I have made these for ** years.  They are actually from a kids cookbook that my grandpa gave me when I was 10.  Yes I still have the book, and yes I still use it.  So here they are.

Lemon Slice Bars

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup icing sugar
1 cup flour

Topping
2 eggs
2 tablespoons Lemon juice
2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon icing sugar

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease a 9x13 baking dish
Beat butter and icing sugar until smooth.  Stir in 1 cup flour, mixing into a smooth dough.  Press evenly into prepared dish. Bake 20 min.  Set aside to cool.

Topping:
Beat eggs well, stir in lemon juice and rind.  Stir in sugar and 2 tablespoons flour and baking powder.  Stir until mixed well.
Pour over cooled base and bake again (at 350) for 25 minutes.
Let cool.  Sift icing sugar over the top and cut into squares.


Hope you all enjoy the post and the recipes.  Until tomorrow, enjoy your day, enjoy your family and happy baking.

Merry Christmas

12 Days of Christmas Cookies Countdown Day 4-Caramel Marshmallow Treats

Today's recipe is from the linky party.  Link up your Christmas cookie recipes and you, too, could be featured!

Emily from Jan Dee Crafts linked up her Caramel Marshmallow Treats.

Don't these look scrumptious?!  Head on over to Jan Dee Crafts to find the recipe and 

 while you're there, take a look around.  Emily has a ton of other cute ideas and projects!

12 Days of Christmas Cookies Countdown Day 3-Eggnog Cookies

I found today's recipe over at Baby Center (of all places) and it sounds absolutely delicious.  Unfortunately, there weren't any pictures of it, so if you give it a try, please send me a pic of the finished product-I'd love to show you off.

Eggnog Cookies

Cookies:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cups white sugar
3/4 cup eggnog
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 egg yolks

Icing:
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons eggnog
Optional: 1 to 2 teaspoons of spiced rum or rum extract

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Cream sugar and butter until light. Add eggnog, vanilla, and egg yolks; beat at medium speed with mixer until smooth. Add flour mixture and beat at low speed until just combined. Do not overmix.  Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet 1 inch apart. (If consistency is hard to work with, cool dough first in refrigerator.) Bake 16 to 24 minutes or until edges start turning light brown. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

To prepare the icing, put the confectioners' sugar in a small bowl. Stir in the remaining eggnog one tablespoon at a time (and the rum or rum extract, if opted for) until the desired consistency is reached. Spread onto cooled cookies and sprinkle tops very lightly -- adding too much will overpower the taste -- with nutmeg.

Let icing harden. Serve and enjoy!  Makes 36 large or 50 medium-sized cookies.

Yum!

The link party is up and running, so stop by and link your cookies up!

12 Days of Christmas Cookies Countdown Day 2-Gifts in a Jar

Today's cookie recipe is a bit out-of-the-box.  Even though it's in a jar.

I love making gifts in a jar for presents and they're equally fun to receive.  I made these ones as gifts last year.  Here are a couple great places to find cookies in a jar instructions with recipes:

Double Chocolate Cookies-Chocablog

Holiday Cookies in a Jar-Family Fun

Cowgirl Cookies-Bakerella

Butterscotch Pecan Cookies-Domino Sugar

Gramma Cookies-Purple Lemon Designs

Gifts in a Jar-Craft Bits (there are a ton of recipes on this site!)

And of course, you don't have to keep these in the jar.  You can go ahead and bake up a batch and skip the jar step all together!

Don't forget to link up your cookie recipes!

2nd Annual 12 Days of Christmas Cookies Countdown!

It's that time again!

If you ask my father, Christmas doesn't really come unless there's cookies (specifically cut-out sugar cookies, but you get the idea.)  To get the holiday spirit started, I like to share yummy Christmas cookie recipes with you all.  I started it last year when my blog was a baby (which reminds me-I totally spaced on my blogiversary last month!  So happy belated birthday, blog!)

I've decided to make it a tradition.  So, here it is again!

And I'm mixing it up a bit this year.  There's a linky party that will be going on and I'll be sharing and showing off your wonderful recipes so everyone can get in on the fun.  Grab the button and add it to your post if you link up so others can join in on the party, pretty please!

Without further ado, here's today's cookies:

Who loves buckeyes?  I do!  

Christmas Cookies.com has a great recipe for this holiday favorite that's easy to make.  Head on over and check it out.  I think this would be a great one to do with the kiddos.

Don't forget to link up your Christmas cookie recipes!

It's That Time Again!

Scraps and Scribbles' 2nd Annual 12 Days of Christmas Cookies Countdown starts in just a few days!  

If you'd like to be a guest and have an amazing Christmas cookie recipe that you would like to share, please email me!  I'd love for you to join in on the fun!

Who's That: Little Birdie Secrets

          

        

This week's Who's That is the uber-talented ladies over at Little Birdie Secrets.  The two-woman team is made up of Mandy and Jessica, friends living in the Pacific Northwest who share a passion for creating, crafting and sharing what they've learned through their crafty endeavors.  

Check out some of my favorites from their awesome blog!  

I have a little soft spot for fabric flowers and these are just lovely!  Find the tutorial so you can make some of your own here.

And turn those pretty flowers into a pin-using a magnet!  No more holes in your clothes!

Aren't these candy corn sugar cookies great?!  I think I need to make some for the little man :)

I am absolutely in love with this pumpkin hat via Fave Crafts!

And this book page eek! pumpkin-just great!

Head on over to Little Birdie Secrets and check out all of the other fun things going on!

Good Eats and Yummy Treats: No-Bake Cookies

Remember my flood?  Well, I decided to make cookies for our neighbors as a good-will gesture.  Not that cookies make up for my washer raining on their apartment, and they know that it was an accident, but I still felt like I should do something.  I hope they liked them.

No-Bake Cookies

So, I had a bit of a blonde moment and forgot to take pictures of the cookies before I took them to the neighbors, so I borrowed this one from Brown Eyed Baker:

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups sugar

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup butter

4 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup peanut butter

3 cups quick-cooking oats

1 tsp. vanilla

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, milk, butter and cocoa.  Bring to a boil and cook for 1 1/2 minutes (begin timing once the mixture comes to a hard boil.)  Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter, oats and vanilla.  Drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper.  Let cool until hardened.

Who's That: A Vision To Remember

Sorry I didn't get this up yesterday-we've been having some technical difficulties with the post but have gotten them all ironed out now.  I'm so excited to introduce you all to the wonderful and amazing Bobbie from A Vision To Remember!  We're blog swappin' this week, so head on over to her blog to see what I shared yesterday.  Enjoy!

I am so excited to be Blog Swapping today with Courtney! She is such an amazing person that I am honored to be here today.

I am the author of A Vision to Remember. I also have my own etsy shop, where I sell many of my creations. I am a stay at home mom of 2 awesome girls and one dog. They are my inspiration for sure. Everything that I have made has been for them in some way.

Here are a couple of things that I have made over at my blog:

I love making rag quilts. I sell many in my etsy shop, but this pattern is available for download on my blog here.



This was a fun pleated headband that I made for myself (one of the few times that I craft for myself, if you know what I mean :)


I also made this fun Ribbon skirt for my daughter (Part 1, Part 2)

I also have many other tutorials on my blog. Make sure to stop by and check them out.

I also have my own Etsy shop. There I sell rag quilts, car seat tents, and lots of patterns. Some of the patterns I sell are rag quilts, belly band, and fabric flowers.

Today I am going to share with you how to make some delicious cookies. These were one of my favorites growing up. The other day I asked my mom for the recipe and made myself a batch.

Coconut Cookies

½ cup butter

2 cups sugar

2 egg whites

3 tsp vanilla

2 Tbsp. karo syrup

3 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

3 cups flour

3 cups coconut (add Last)

Cream butter sugar and eggs. Add karo syrup, vanilla. Add baking powder, salt and flour. Fold in coconut. Bake 350 till golden brown

Thanks again for swapping blogs with me and make sure to stop by tomorrow and link up to Check ME Out Saturday Link Party Have a great day!