I don’t remember a time that my mom’s no-bake cheese cake was not on the table.  She has always made it in a pan like a cake.

 

Ingredients:

• 3 8-oz cream cheese
• 1 package lemon jell-o
• 1 cup hot water
• 3 envelopes of dream whip
• 3 Tbls sugar
• 1 box ready graham crackers

 

Direction:

1. Dissolve jell-o in hot water, chill till almost ready to be set.
2. Follow the instruction on the box for the graham cracker pie crust.  Place that in the pan you are going to use.
3. Mix together dream whip package, cream cheese, with sugar until light and fluffy.
4. After the jell-o is almost set fold it in the cream cheese and dream whip mix.
5. Place the mixture on to the pan with the graham cracker and place in the fridge for two hours for it to set.
6. Once the two hours are up cut into pieces and then enjoy.

 

Now this year we did this recipe a different way.  Instead of putting the cheese cake in one pan we made mini cheese cakes.  We use the mini cupcake liners and filled the bottoms with a ¼ tsp of the graham cracker to the cupcake liners.  After they were all filled I took a top to a plastic bottle and pressed them down.  Then I filled a bag with the cheese cake filling and filled each one.  I sprinkled green sugar on top of each one.  I let them set for 2 hours and they were ready to eat.  I had to keep my kids from going into the fridge to steal one.

I think both of my kids love cookies but I think they like dipping them in the frosting.  We tried this sugar cookie and they just loved them. Talk about chaotic night trying to frost cookies with my six year old and my 3 year old was crazy but a lot of fun.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions:

1. Cream together 1 1/2 cups white sugar, butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and eggs.
2. Add sour cream.
3. Mix together 5 cups flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, baking powder and baking soda.
4. Gradually add to the egg-sugar mixture.
5. Cover and chill dough for 1 hour.
6. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
7. Roll out on lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thick. Cut out cookies. Bake on lightly greased cookie sheet for 10 – 12 minutes.

 

To make frosting:

Ingredients:

•  1 cup confectioners’ sugar
•  2 tablespoons milk
•  2 tablespoons light corn syrup
•  1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
•  assorted food coloring

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, stir together confectioners’ sugar and milk until smooth.
2. Beat in corn syrup and vanilla extract until icing is smooth and glossy. If icing is too thick, add more corn syrup.
3. Divide into separate bowls, and add food coloring to each to desired intensity. Dip cookies, or paint them with a brush.

Here is the next cookie well, it is a brownie not a cookie.  My daughter loves brownies and both my dad and daughter loves mint. So, a came across a recipe for mint brownie called Grasshopper.  Instead of keeping them as big square brownies I cut them into small bite size pieces. I did that so you did not get too much mint in each bite.  Plus, you could just throw the small piece in your mouth and go.

Ingredients:

• 1 box of brownie mix
• 1 bag of chopped Andes Chocolate
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp mint extract
• 3 Tbls milk
• green food coloring

 

Mint Buttercream:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp mint extract
• 3 Tbls milk
• green food coloring

Direction:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8-inch baking dish with foil or parchment paper. Set aside.
2. Bake for 20-25 minutes until a tooth pick comes out mostly clean.
3. Remove from oven and cool completely.
4. Meanwhile, mix together the buttercream.
5. In a bowl, mix together butter, sugar, mint extract and milk until you get the desired consistency. Add more sugar or milk if necessary. Add a few drops of green food coloring, mix until you get the desired color.
6. Frost cooled brownies and add the chopped Andes chocolate.

We made these for the first time this year.   These are a lot like rice crispy treats but just green colored.  You could make them into wreaths but we just kept them in the spoonful.

Here is the recipe to make them as wreaths:

 

Makes 14-16 drops or wreaths

 

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup butter
• 4 cups miniature marshmallows
• 1 tsp green food coloring
• 6 cups corn flakes
• Handful of red cinnamon candies

Direction:

1. Measure corn flakes into a large bowl.
2. Melt butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Once melted, add the marshmallows and stir continuously until completely melted.  Stir in food coloring.
3. Pour melted marshmallows into the large bowl with the corn flakes. Stir until well coated.
4. Lay out a piece of parchment paper on your kitchen counter. Dollop spoonful of the cornflake mixture onto the parchment paper.
5. Grease your (clean) hands with butter or cooking spray.  Use your fingers to shape each spoonful into an individual wreath. Top each wreath with cinnamon candies.

 

Hope you enjoy them.

 

During the holiday season’ I love to bake cookies to send to my brother or to the people at my mother’s work.  This year my daughter did not want to help at all.  She wanted to draw all the pokémon she could draw.  My dad loves oatmeal raisin cookies but this year I wanted to see if my kids would like them as much as he does.  So, I wanted to put some chocolate chips into the batter to see if they would like them.  I made some peanut butter and oatmeal balls one time and they loved them so I thought they would like these too.

Ingredients

¾ cup butter, softened

¾ cup granulated sugar

¾ cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup uncooked quick-cooking oats

¾ teaspoon salt

1 (12-oz) package semisweet chocolate morsels

1 cup raisins

 

Direction

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter and sugars at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla, beating until blended.

Combine flour, baking soda, oats, and salt in a small bowl; gradually add to butter mixture, beating well. Stir in morsels and raisins. Drop tablespoonful onto lightly greased baking sheets.

Bake for 8 to 14 minutes or until golden desire darkness.  Remove from baking sheet and let them cool completely.

These are kids approved.

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups salted butter

¾ cup confectioners’ sugar

¾ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups finely ground almonds

4 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1/3 cup confectioner’s sugar for rolling

Directions:

Pre-heat the oven to 325 degree F

Cream butter or margarine in a bowl, gradually add confectioners’ sugar and salt. Beat until light and fluffy. Add almonds and vanilla. Blend in flour gradually and mix well.

Shape into balls (or crescents) using about 1 teaspoon for each cookie. Place on un-greased cookie sheets, and bake for 15-20 min. Do not brown. Cool slightly, then roll in the extra confectioners’ sugar.

Make sure you do not overcook these because they will get too hard to eat.  I did that too the first batch.

Here are the cookie recipes that I made over my chaotic 3 days. Hope you enjoy them.

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Peanut butter blossoms are as my niece says “Elf Poop” they are very easy to make.  My 3 years old son is convinced that name of the cookies is Elf Poop. So, that is the name of our cookies at our house.   My dad loves peanut butter cookies so these were his favorite also.   Also, tell me who would not want chocolate and putter butter together. You can get the kids to help by unwrapping the chocolate kisses. Just watch that they don’t eat them all.

Peanut Butter Blossoms   (Elf Poop)

Yields: about 70 cookies         Prep-time: 30 min                  Cook time: 12 minutes

Ingredients:

1 cup shortening

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

¼ cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 ½ cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons salt

½ cup white sugar for decoration

2 (9 oz) bags milk chocolate candy kisses, unwrapped

 

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

In a large bowl, cream the shortening, peanut butter, brown sugar, and 1 cup white sugar until smooth. Add the eggs one at the time, beating everything until the eggs are fully incorporated in.  Mix in milk and the vanilla.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add into the peanut butter mixture until well blended.

Once batter is all mixed. Shape tablespoonful of dough into balls, and roll in remaining white sugar. Place cookies 2 inches apart on the baking sheet that are covered in parchment paper.

Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from oven, and immediately press a chocolate kiss into each cookie. Allow to cool completely; the kiss will harden as it cools.

 

It is that time of year again. The time that you house smells of cookies and cakes. I know a lot of people bake thru out the year but I think the best time to bake is in the month of December.  The house is decorated with the Christmas tree and all the lights and the smells of what you are baking are all around the house.

I love baking and I haven’t baked zucchini bread in a long time. I had some left-over zucchini from the week before from buying a box of zucchini from the store.  I have a few recipes that I can use for zucchini and I will post them later.

When I made zucchini pineapple bread I made two different kinds.  My daughter does not like raisins at all.  I made one with no raisins with nuts and the other one with just nuts. Here is the recipe I hope your family love it as much as mine do.

Servings          20-24 slices                 Yields 2 loaves                        Total time 1 hr 30 min.

Ingredients:

3 eggs

1 cup of oil

2 cup of sugar

2 teaspoons of vanilla

2 cups of shredded zucchini (squeezed dry in a paper towel)

8oz crushed pineapple (drained)

3 cups of flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup raisins

1 cup chopped nuts

Directions:

Beat the eggs, oil, sugar and the vanilla until it is light and fluffy.  Stir in the zucchini and the pineapple and mix until it is mixed well.  Combine all the dry ingredients and add to the batter and mix. Pour nuts and the raisins and mix.  Pour the batter into 2 well-greased loaf pans. Set the oven at 350 F for 1 hour or until firm. Once they are done let them cool down for about 10 minutes.