Chocolate Mint Kiss Crinkles!

 

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups granulated white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoon green colored sugar (optional)
bag of mint truffle flavored Hershey's Kisses

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, oil, and eggs until well mixed. Whisk in extracts.
3. Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients just until combined. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Roll dough into 1/2 Tablespoon balls. Roll balls into mixture of powdered sugar/green sugar. Place on cookie sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake for 11 to 13 minutes, until cookies crackle and dough doesn't look raw. While cookies are baking, unwrap the kisses and make some room in your refrigerator or freezer for the cookie sheets. When the cookies come out of the oven, immediately place a kiss in the center of each cookie and press lightly. The kisses will start to get melty, so it's best if you are able to place the cookie sheet (with the kiss cookies still on it) directly into the freezer or refrigerator until the kisses can cool off and set up.
* I got this recipe from the blog listed below these are sooooooo yummy. This might just be my favorite cookie of this year.
http://www.recipegirl.com/2007/12/15/chocolate-mint-kiss-crinkles/

Butter Cookies!

What you need:

1 cup butter (softened)
1 cup of sugar
1/4 tsp salt (omit if using salted butter)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
2 2/3 cup flour

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 375*F
Blend together butter & sugar
Add rest of ingredients & mix well
Drop them onto cookie sheet or use a cookie press
Decorate if you would like
bake for 10 minutes

Cookie Dough Truffles!

These are awesome! Like eating raw cookie dough? if the answer is yes these are a MUST make for the holidays. There isn't any raw egg so eat to your hearts desire.

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or Pecans ( I use pecans)
1-1/2 pounds dark chocolate candy coating, coarsely chopped ( large bag of semi sweet morsels works well too)
1/2 stick of gulf wax (this is optional, it helps keep the chocolate from clumping & also make for a shine on the chocolate)

Directions
In a large bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Gradually add flour, alternately with milk, beating well after each addition. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.
Shape into 1-in. balls; place on waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Loosely cover and refrigerate for 1-2 hours or until firm.
In a microwave, melt candy coating & gulf wax; stir until smooth. Dip balls in coating; allow excess to drip off. Place on waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Refrigerate until firm, about 15 minutes. If desired, remelt remaining candy coating and drizzle over candies. Store in the refrigerator. Yield: 5-1/2 dozen.

Melting Snowman Cookies!

Someone posted these on there FB page & I couldn't resist making these for my kids. The kids just loved them & they really weren't that hard to make. I totally cheated & used pre-made sugar cookie dough. Just cut & bake!

What you need:
Pkg of sugar cookie refrigerator dough
1 bag of white chocolate chips or white chocolate disks ( you can buy the disks at craft or candy making stores)
1 bag of large marshmallows
Tube of black icing
Tube of Orange icing
Tube or red, blue or green icing or all if you want to be extra creative.

Directions:
Cut & bake cookies according to pkg directions. (cool)
Melt white chocolate & smear onto cooled cookies to make it look like a puddle.
before the white chocolate sets cut a large marshmellow on an angel & push into white chocolate.
using the tube of black icing put on eyes, mouth & arms
using orange icing squeeze on a carrot like nose
using the red, green and or blue icing, put on a scarf or buttons down the snowman.

Red Velvet Cake with Cream cheese icing!

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
1 oz bottle of red food coloring (liquid)
2 tsp vanilla extract

  Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting:1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened
2 tablespoons sour cream
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1 box (16 ounces) confectioners' sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 2 (9-inch) round cake pans. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

2. Beat butter and granulated sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time. Mix in sour cream, milk, food color and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until just blended. Do not over beat. Pour batter into prepared pans.

3. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely on wire rack.

4. For the Frosting, beat cream cheese, butter, sour cream and vanilla in large bowl until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until smooth. Fill and frost cooled cake with frosting. 

Broccoli Chicken Divan!

• 1 pound chopped fresh broccoli or 1 large bag of frozen broccoli florets
• 1 1/2 cups cubed, cooked chicken meat
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of broccoli soup
• 1/3 cup milk ( I used 2%)
• 1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese ( I used reduced fat)
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons dried bread crumbs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
2.  cook broccoli until tender                   .
3. Place the cooked broccoli in a 9 inch pie plate. Top with the chicken. In a bowl, mix the soup and milk, and pour over the chicken. Sprinkle with Cheddar cheese. Mix the melted butter with the bread crumbs, and sprinkle over the cheese.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes, or until bubbly and lightly brown.      

( I served this over egg noodles but it would be great over rice.)          

Bourbon Carrots!

This is a super easy side dish but has tons of flavor.

5 tablespons butter
5 medium carrots, peeled, diagonally sliced
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
2 tablepoons bourbon
1 teaspoon (or more) light brown sugar
salt to taste
*melt butter in large saucepan. add carrots and onion; mix well. stir in bourbon, brown sugar and salt. cook, covered,for 5 minutes or until carrots are tender

Christmas Cookie's 2011!!!

Here is my list of cookies I will be making this year. Some are ones I have done before with a couple of new ones thrown in. They aren't all cookies, some are  just too good not to be on the cookie platter.

1) Toll house chocolate chip cookies
2) Sugar cookie Cut-outs
3) Pizelles
4) Snicker Doodles
5) Peanut Butter balls
6) Cookie Dough Truffles
7) Peanut butter cup cookies
8) Chocolate raspberry sandwich spritz cookies
9) Chinese noodle cookies
10) Bourbon Balls
11)Butter Cookies
12) Chocolate Mint Cookies
Haven't decided on my 13th cookie, so we'll see.
13) Cranberry White chocolate cookies / Russian tea cakes/ or ginger bread people (Catherine's request)