Sugar Cookies & Chocolate Peanut Butter Buckeyes

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With Christmas only 2 days away, I decided to bake a little something for our family and my husband's co-workers (he unfortunately has to work on Christmas Eve so I figured some homemade baked goods for him and all the other Airmen would cheer them up).  Decorating the sugar cookies have become a family affair, with my kids loving every minute of it...as you can tell from the pictures below :)

 

We love these recipes and we hope everyone who makes them will enjoy them also :) 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Buckeyes

1 and 1/2 cups of creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 tsp. vanilla extract

4 cups confectioner's sugar

6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 tbsp. shortening

Line a baking sheet with wax paper.  In a bowl, mix peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and sugar with hands until it forms a smooth, stiff dough.  Shape into balls using a cookie scooper.  Place balls onto prepared pan and refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight.

In a small bowl, combine the chocolate chips with the shortening and microwave on medium for 1 minute.  Take the bowl out and stir the chocolate until it starts to melt.  Place it back in the microwave for another 20 seconds or until chocolate is completely melted. 

Note:  You don't want to microwave the chocolate to long or else it will harden up.  Taking it out and stirring it is your best bet until it all melts...and it will all melt if it is hot enough :)

Take a wooden toothpick and insert it into one of the peanut butter balls.  Dip the ball in the melted chocolate and return it to the wax paper.  Remove the toothpick and repeat this process with the rest of the balls.  Refrigerate for a good hour before eating :)

Store these in the fridge to keept from melting.

Sugar Cookies

2 and 1/2 cups of all purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cream of tartar (this is a MUST)

Whisk all of the above together and set aside.

1 cup butter, softened

1 and 1/2 cups of powdered sugar

Cream together the above until light and fluffy.

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. almond extract (this is a MUST)

Add all of the above to the creamed butter and suagr and beat well.

Finally, add the flour mixture a little at a time, blending well.

Divide dough in half, wrap each half in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Roll out portions of the dough on a lightly floured surface and cut into desired shapes, making sure not to make them to thick.  Bake cookies for 7-10 minutes on a cookie tray lined with parchment paper or tin foil. Cookies are done when they are just barely starting to color at the bottom.

Let them completely cool before frosting and decorating.

The Frosting:

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tsp. milk

1/4 tsp. almond extract (This is a MUST)

2 tsp. Karo Syrup

Food Coloring if desired

Cookie Decorations (sugar crystals, dots, etc...)

Blend and stir the above ingredients (except food coloring and decorations) until it is the desired consistency. You can more or less milk depending on how thick or thin you want the frosting to look.

Add food coloring if desired. Frost cookies and decorate them. Let them completely dry before covering them up and eating them.

Chicken Cream Cheese Crescent Rolls

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This recipe is one that was given to me by my mother-in-law.  

These are one of Husband Man's favorite things to eat and I remember the very first time I ever saw my mother-in-law make them.  It was during our dating years and Husband Man and I took a trip down to Mississippi so I could meet his side of the family.  I was so very nervous too.  A million things were going through my head as we took the trip down there...."will they like me?"  "what are they like?"  "I hope I don't say anything to mess things up.".....boy I was a nervous wreck...lol.  

The evening we arrived, I found my mother-in-law in the kitchen.  Being the very seasoned cook that she is, she took me over to the stove and said to me, "This is one of my son's favorite meals to eat and I'm going to show you how to make them."  

If she were to do that to me now (which she still does....mind you), I would normally be like, "Yay!  I'm going to learn how to cook another dish from her!"  But back then, I was intimidated as heck!  

Not only was I new to his family, but I was also new to cooking...lol....and making recipes that utilized more then 4 ingredients was not my thing back then. As she stood there, spatula in one hand and her spices in the other, all I kept thinking to ask her was, "can you write this recipe down because I'm probably not going to remember it on our trip back up home?"  

It took me a  few years after that day to make these for my hubby.  I finally mustered up the courage to call her up one afternoon and ask her if she could give me the recipe over the phone as I wrote it down.  It has been in our collection since then ;) 

Now, I make these for Husband Man every year for his birthday.  It's the cream cheese, green onions, and seasonings that make the recipe.  The chicken is just an added bonus!  These are great to serve as an appetizer or a side dish.  Or make them as a little mini-meal if you aren't that hungry.  They are great paired with a bowl of salad :)

.....as for cooking with my mother-in-law now....I LOVE it!

Chicken Cream Cheese Crescent Rolls

(makes 8)

Ingredients:

2 or 3 cooked chicken breasts, shredded

2 or 3 green onions, chopped (optional)

1 package of cream cheese

1 tube of crescent rolls

Season All, Garlic powder, salt, and pepper to taste

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  

2.  Mix the shredded chicken, green onions, cream cheese in a bowl. 

3.  Add all the seasonings to taste and to your liking.

4.  Unroll each crescent roll and shape into circles.  

5.  Place the chicken mixture in the middle of each piece of dough and roll like you would an enchilada or tortilla...making sure to pinch the ends together so the filling won't seep out.

6.  Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet (I used a cookie sheet lined with tin foil) for 12 minutes or until rolls are evenly brown. 

Recipe Source:  My Mother-In-Law (MawMaw Smith)

What To Do With Left Over Chicken Nuggets

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I think my three year old daughter is finally coming out of her chicken nugget phase.  She still eats them whenever we go to McDonald's, but her refusal to eat the frozen kind (Tyson, Banquet, etc..) has started.  And while I am a little relieved that this phase is passing, I will not purchase anymore after we finish off this last bag.  Due to this, I have been left to figure out what to do with all these left over frozen nuggets.  I did a little research on Google and found a few ideas about what to do with them.  I figured I'd share some of them on here :)

~Boil some pasta (any kind), cut cooked nuggets into strips, mix them in with some spaghetti sauce and use as a topping for the pasta (we did this tonight and it was pretty good)

~Cook them and cut into strips and use on top of a salad

~Make a sandwich out of them by placing cooked nuggets inbetween two pieces of bread, a slice of cheese, pickles, mustard, and ketchup (I do this also from time to time)

~Cook them, dip them in honey, and eat

~Make a wrap out of tortillas and place cooked nuggets, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, mustard and mayo spread

~Place the cooked nuggets in macaroni and cheese and serve

~Make a chicken parmesan sub by placing them inbetween sub bread and top with marinara sauce and cheese

......any one of these sound really good..but my personal favorite...eat them with just ketchup, bbq sauce, or honey mustard :) 

If anyone has any other ideas, I'd love to hear them :)

Christmas Eve Soup

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I'm not sure how many of you have heard of GooseberryPatch.com?  I love their store, signed up for their e-mail newsletters, have them on my homemaking blogroll, and became a fan of theirs on Facebook :)  Guess you can say I'm a huge fan of theirs...lol.  In their e-mail newsletters, they include at least 2 free recipes every month.  This recipe came from their December newsletter. The day I received it, my husband had just finished telling me that he wanted some canned soup from the grocery store.  Canned soup??!!  Yuck!  Don't get me wrong, I know there are some really great soups out there on the market, but once I started learning how to make homemade soup, I stopped putting canned soups down on my grocery list...lol.  There is just something about homemade soup that gives you comfort when you eat it.

For this soup, we had all the ingredients so I went to work on making it right away.

This is a great way to use up all the left over ham from Thanksgiving.  We froze ours, along with 3 huge bags of turkey....lol...and I also had some left over vegetables from Thanksgiving as well that needed to be used up soon.  The recipe calls for 8 oz. of shredded cheddar cheese, but I decided to use the left over cheese we had from this recipe, Hash Brown Quiche.  Needless to say, this is the perfect soup to make if you have any left overs just sitting in the fridge.

My kids also loved this because of the cheese.  What a great way to get them to eat their veggies...lol.

Rating System:

The Hubs:  Thumbs Up

Libby:  Thumbs Up

Our kids: Double Thumbs Up....with my three year old going back for seconds :)

Christmas Eve Soup (adapted from Gooseberry Patch)

2 c. potatoes, peeled and diced

1/2 c. carrot, peeled and diced

1/2 c. celery, chopped

1/4 c. onion, chopped

2 c. water

1-1/2 t. salt

1/4 t. pepper

1 c. cooked ham, cubed

1/4 c. margarine

1/4 c. all-purpose flour

2 c. milk

8-oz. pkg. shredded Cheddar cheese

Combine vegetables, water, salt and pepper in a large soup pot. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat; cover and simmer until vegetables are tender. Stir in ham; set aside. In a separate saucepan, melt margarine; stir in flour until smooth. Gradually add milk; bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes, until thickened. Stir in cheese until melted; add to vegetable mixture and heat through. Serves 8.

I will also be submitting this recipe to the group Souper Sundays...click here for more info:
Souper Sundays

 

Hash Brown Quiche

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Hello everyone :) I am back from my blogging break :)  I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving holiday.  We really enjoyed ours.  Mainly because of this reason below:

During my parents visit here for Thanksgiving week, my father and my husband worked day and night to rennovate our back porch/patio.  We are very happy with the outcome and forsee lots of family barbques and get togethers in our future :) 

Now, onto the recipe.  This is a tradition in our house during the holidays.  Whenever family or friends come to visit, I make this dish for breakfast or brunch.  I retrieved it from the December 2003 issue of Taste of Home's Best Holiday Recipes. 

The original dish calls for hamberger meat, however I have been on this major health kick since after the Thanksgiving holiday and decided to make ours with ground turkey instead of ground beef.  Anyone who has tried ground turkey will tell ya that it is pretty bland. You have to kick it up a notch and add spices to it in order to really enjoy it.  This is what I did.  I added a couple of teaspoons of Emeril's Essense Seasoning, a teaspoon of salt, and a teaspoon of pepper to the turkey while it was sauteing with the onions.  I also added another teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce.  The results were out of this world.  The hubby and I were able to indulge in this without feeling the guilt of unhealthy eating.  Granted, the rest of the recipe isn't really all that healthy.  But at least we tried to make it on the healthy side :)  And trying is all that matters, right?  The top of the dish came out a little burnt, but it still came out wonderful :)  I took it out of the oven an hour ago and what you see in the above picture is what is left over...lol.  

The Rating System:

The Hubs:  Definite thumbs up everytime I make it

Libby:  Same as hubs

Our Three Year Old Daughter:  Didn't want to try it...even with the cheese on it

Our One Year Old Son:  Thumbs Up

Hash Brown Quiche (Adapted from Taste of Home)

1 package (16 oz) frozen shredded has brown potatoes, thawed

1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted

3/4 pound ground beef OR ground turkey

1 small onion, chopped

2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 eggs (we used Egg Beater Substitute that were left over from the Thankgiving holiday...great result)

1/2 cup milk

8 oz. processed American Cheese, cubed

1 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce (or 2 tsp if you are using ground turkey)

1/2 tsp. salt (plus a little more for sauteing with onions if you use turkey)

1/4 tsp. pepper (plus a little more for sauteing with onions if you use turkey)

A tsp. or 2 olive oil if you are using turkey

2 tsp. of Emeril's Essence Seasoning if you are using the turkey

Combine hash browns and butter in a greased 9 inch pie plate.  Press onto the bottom and up the sides, forming a shell.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a skillet, cook beef (or turkey) and onion over medium heat...also include olive oil if you are using the turkey.  Also add salt, pepper, and Emeril's seasoning to the turkey and onions.  Saute until meat is no longer pink and the onions are soft and translucent.  Drain and cool for 5 minutes.

In a bowl, combine cornstarch, eggs, and milk until smooth.  Stir into meat mixture.  Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. 

Pour into shell.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.  Let stand 5-10 minutes before cutting.