Molasses Sugar Cookies

Hello blogosphere friends and thanks for stopping by!

Okay, it's officially December 1, 2014...a new day so it doesn't appear that I have typed up three posts in the same day after not posting a darn thing in over a year. I found the recipe from our first cookie exchange back in 2011. They are "molasses sugar cookies" and if you like soft, chewy sugar cookies coupled with the spice of a ginger snap then you'll love this cookie! It comes from an old Taste of Home Best Loved Cookies and Bars magazine I often drag out this time of year. One year I spruced these up with a cinnamon red hot smashed right into the center of the cookie just before baking but they taste and look just fine following the recipe as written. So this is a snapshot of the picture as it appeared in the magazine, but mine turned out just as pretty...Honest!

Molasses Sugar Cookies

Yields: 4 dozen cookies

1 cup sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon each ground ginger and ground cloves
*additional sugar

In a large mixing bowl combine the sugar, oil and molasses. Add egg , mix well. In a separate bowel combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, ginger and cloves. Add to sugar mixture and mix well. Cover and refrigerate 4 hours or until easy to handle.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls (I love my small cookie scoop for this part); roll in additional sugar. Place 3 inches apart on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 7-9 minutes or until tops are cracked and edges are set. Cool 2-3 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks. Enjoy!

Until next time...
Eastlyn

Red velvet white chocolate chip cookies

Welcome and/or welcome back!

I guess I'll call this a "countdown to Christmas" theme. I'm trying to keep the posts short and sweet and maybe get around to blogging more often than once a year. I'm searching for a cookie recipe for a cookie exchange I do every year with a couple of my girlfriends. I think this year will be our "4th annual" get together. If I were an organized person, this is the point where I'd list the cookies I've made for the previous years and include the recipes or links to the recipes and photos. Alas, I am not that organized and my memory is not that great to remember that far back. I can tell you what last year's cookie was...Pistachio Cherry Meltaways. They turned out absolutely amazeballs! I made them for the cookie exchange and for my own holiday gatherings I liked them so much.
Here's the link for that recipe, complete with photos that I may or may not have on my computer somewhere : )...

http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2013/11/pistachio-cherry-meltaways.html

This is a cookie from Betty Crocker I've tried for this year's cookie swap: Red velvet white chocolate chip cookies. They turned out great and they look perfect for a Christmas table. If you decide to make them, follow the tip of removing them from the oven after 8 minutes even if they don't look done! The first batch I made turned hard because I thought they weren't done and left them in the oven for 2 additional minutes. Check it out...

http://www.bettycrocker.com/menus-holidays-parties/mhplibrary/holidays/red-velvet-white-chocolate-chip-cookies

If you have a tried and true recipe you'd like to share, please leave a comment or a link.

Thanks!

Until next time,
Eastlyn

Fool proof shortbread cookies

Greetings fellow bloggers!

It's been a year since my last post, so I figure it's past time. With the holidays coming up I have lots of "cookie baking" engagements to fulfill. I am always searching for yummy but not too labor intensive cookie recipes that look and taste great. One of my nursing instructors gave me a marvelous shortbread recipe but I don't know where my copy is. Here is the "replica by memory," if you will, of that recipe...simple and sweet.

Fool-proof shortbread cookies (Yields 3 dozen cookies)

2 sticks unsalted butter (1 cup), softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla (or flavor of your choice)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped pecans, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat softened butter and sugar together until fluffy; add egg yolk only. Mix well. Add vanilla. Mix in flour until well-incorporated.

Drop by rounded spoonful (or cookie scoop) onto ungreased baking sheet. Gently flatten with a glass dipped in sugar.

Beat the egg white with a fork until frothy. Brush on flattened cookies and sprinkle with chopped pecans (or sprinkles or colored sugar for the holidays).

Bake in 350 degree oven for 8 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool 3-5 minutes on pan and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Enjoy!!

Until next time,
Eastlyn

Carrot Cake as promised!

Well, I'm having a little technical difficulty copying and pasting the recipe for Awesome Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting from allrecipes.com so that I can tweak it and tell you what I did. I guess I'll just go for it and re-type the whole thing. I made some adjustments based on others' reviews that the cake was too oily and too sweet. Here goes...

"Carrot Cake a la E"
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp apple pie spice*
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 cups grated carrots (about 6 medium carrots)
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 individual cup natural apple sauce (about 1/3 cup)
4 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 8-oz can crushed pineapple with juice
3/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Cream cheese frosting
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar (about one pound)
1 8-oz pkg Neufchatel cheese (or regular cream cheese if you're not worried about calories)
1 stick butter, softened (not melted)
1 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees farenheit (reduce by 25 degrees if using a dark pan). Grease & flour a 9x13 inch baking dish (or 3 8-inch pans if you want a layered cake). Set aside.

Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, spice & salt. Add remaining dry ingredients: sugars, carrots. Stir in oil, apple sauce, eggs, pineapple, vanilla and nuts until well-combined.

Pour into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 30-40 minutes.
If using 8-inch round pans reduce baking time to 25 minutes. Test for doneness by inserting a toothpick into center of cake. It should come away clean if cake is done. Adjust cooking time as needed.

*apple pie spice is a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. You may use whichever spices suit your taste. Original recipe called for 1 tsp cinnamon but many reviews said it wasn't enough.

For the frosting, combine room temperature cream cheese, softened butter and vanilla in a mixing bowl and beat until smooth. Gradually add powdered sugar and beat until well-blended and desired consistency. You may add the nuts to the frosting. I frosted the cake and then pressed the nuts to the sides of the cake. Frost completely cooled cake(s).
According to my family, not too sweet, not too oily but just right!
Until next time!

Do the mashed potato!

Anybody out there remember how to do the mashed potato? Okay, I admit to being old enough to remember music from the 60's that referred to a dance called the mashed potato, but I have no idea about how to do the dance itself. That said, this post really isn't about a dance at all. It's about the side dish!
Years ago when I had just graduated college (the first time around) and I was in between apartments, I stayed with my friend Kathy for a couple of days. One night she fixed real honest-to-goodness mashed potatoes. No offense to my mom, but we mostly had mashed potatoes that started as white flakes out of a brown box when I was growing up. It could be that Mommy dear at some point in time did make us real mashed potatoes from scratch and my siblings and I complained that we liked the stuff out of the box better. I don't remember, but it could have happened. I have a couple of kids of my own now who have such warped taste. At any rate, Kathy was flabbergasted that I would think of eating mashed potatoes out of a brown cardboard box when "real" mashed potatoes were so easy to make.
Fast forward to this past Sunday night. My son's friend "T" joined us for church Sunday evening. On the way home we were talking about "what's for dinner?" It was already late so I was thinking of quick and easy. T mentioned that he love potatoes in any form or fashion. That got me to thinking about mashed potatoes to go with chicken tenders, cream gravy and mixed vegetables with broccoli thrown in for good measure. Here's the recipe I came up with with ingredients I had on hand:

Mashed Potatoes
3 large baking potatoes
2 quarts water (give or take...enough to cover the cut up potatoes)
1 T. Salt
2 oz cream cheese (I used reduced fat neufchatel)
2 T. butter or margarine
1/2 cup milk
salt & pepper to taste

Scrub and peel potatoes. Cut into eighths. Rinse in cold water. Place in large pot with enough water to cover potatoes. Add 1 tablespoon salt.
Bring potatoes to a boil. Reduce heat to med-high and cook for 10-12 minutes until potatoes are soft but not mushy. Turn off stove.
Drain potatoes and return to pot. Return pot to warm burner and cover with a lid. The residual heat will help "dry" any excess moisture from the potatoes.
Add cream cheese, butter or margarine and 1/2 cup milk to pot. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
**Remember you boiled the potatoes in salted water when adding additional seasoning to taste**
Beat with mixer or mash by hand with a potato masher until all ingredients are well-incorporated.
Yields about 6 servings of fluffy, flavorful goodness known as mashed potatoes!
Add some fresh chives, bacon bits and shredded cheese after whipping up the potatoes for "fully loaded mashed potatoes"!
Bon Apetit, mis amigos...until next time!

Crockpot Enchiladas

Lately, I have been all-consumed with http://www.allrecipes.com/.  I signed up for their daily dish e-mails and I love how simple and tasty a lot of the recipes are.  Plus you get to read reviews about how others "tweaked" the recipe to improve it.  I'm making a concerted effort to plan meals at least a week in advance and doing a little "freezer cooking" where you make double a recipe and freeze half to enjoy later.  The hope is that once I start working (in 2 1/2 weeks!) I will not be coming home to fast food wrappers strewn about the house on a regular basis.  You know the saying, while the cat's away the mice will play, right?  Anyway, I'm almost certain I've mentioned my weekly menu-planning theme, but just in case you are new or you missed it, here goes again:
Soul Food Sunday (Roast, chops, meat loaf, etc. with all of the trimmings), Mama Mia Monday (Italian cuisine), Tex-Mex Tuesday (beans, rice, tacos, enchiladas, burritos), One-dish Wednesday (stir-fry, casseroles, quiche, pot-pies), Thrifty Thursday (leftovers [if there are any] or something simple like breakfast for dinner), Finger Food Friday (hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza), Soup/Sandwich/Salad Saturday.
Last week I discovered a recipe for Crock Pot Enchiladas and thought it would be perfect to add to our Tex-Mex Tuesday rotation. I made a few modifications from the original recipe, and my family quickly agreed the recipe was a keeper. So, I wanted to share it with you all, too, in case you're looking for something quick and easy to make with ingredients you probably have right in your house as we speak type read chat!

Ingredients:
1 pound lean ground beef (or turkey)
1 packet taco seasoning (or visit http://www.nickiwoo.com/ (June 14, 2010) and make your own
3/4 cup water
10 6-inch corn tortillas, quartered
12-oz jar picante sauce or thick & chunky salsa
1 10.5-oz can cream of mushroom soup (I used reduced fat)
3 cups four-blend Mexican cheese, divided use

Brown your ground beef/turkey and drain any excess fat.  Add taco seasoning and water and simmer according to package directions (about 15 minutes).  Meanwhile, cut tortillas into quarters and set aside (cover to prevent drying). In a medium bowl, combine picante sauce, undiluted cream soup and 2 cups of the cheese; mix well. Layer 1/3 of the tortillas, half of the seasoned ground meat and half of the salsa mix; Repeat layers and top with last 1/3 of the tortillas.  Sprinkle 1 cup of cheese on top of tortillas.  Cover and heat on high for one to one and a half hours.  Serve with Mexican rice and salad (I tossed together romaine lettuce, tomato, whole kernel corn (drained & patted dry), sliced black olives and green onion). Buen provecho!

*This recipe lends itself to modifcations to suit your own taste.  You can use whatever cream soup you like and more or less cheese to suit your taste. Next time, I may try chicken breasts, green salsa and cream of chicken soup with whole wheat tortillas and see what happens.