Stinkin’ Good Pumpkin Cookies
I have a new favorite cookie recipe. Normally, I am a chunky double chocolate chip cookie kind of girl, but this recipe I tried out Sunday is easily the best cookie recipe ever. It’s the perfect light and fluffy, cakey cookie with a yummy caramel icing. I found it on allrecipes.com:
INGREDIENTS
2 cups shortening
2 cups white sugar
2 cups canned pumpkin (I used pumpkin pie filling, and I think that made them even better because of all the spices in it)
2 eggs
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons butter
8 tablespoons milk
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup packed brown sugar
DIRECTIONS
1. Cream shortening, white sugar and pumpkin. Add eggs and mix well. Sift together the baking soda, ground cinnamon, salt and flour. Add to pumpkin mixture and mix well.
2. Drop from spoon to cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
3. To Make Frosting: Cook butter, milk, and brown sugar until dissolved. Cool and add confectioners’ sugar and vanilla. Spread over warm cookies.
Stinkin’ Good Fruit Puff Pastry
Do you every use Pepperidge Farm’s Puff Pastry? It’s in the frozen section near the frozen desserts, etc. If you ever need to make a fancy meal or dessert you need to visit puffpastry.com. There are a million different ways to use it, and lots of the recipes are super easy.
Last Sunday we had the traditional Pig-Out Easter Breakfast Smorgasbord Potluck at church (after which we were all so sleepy that we didn’t really hear the sermon at all)
I took this No-Fuss Fruit Pie:
1 pkg. Pepperidge Farm® Frozen Puff Pastry Sheets (2 sheets)
1 egg
1 tbsp. water
1 can or jar (21 oz.) fruit pie filling, any variety
(I also sprinkled the fruit pie filling with cinnamon and a little sugar)THAW pastry sheets at room temperature 30 min. Preheat oven to 400F. Mix egg and water.
UNFOLD pastry sheets. Place 1 pastry sheet on baking sheet. Spread pie filling on pastry to within 1″ of edges. Brush edges with egg mixture. Place remaining pastry sheet over pie filling. Press edges together with fork to seal. Brush with egg mixture. Cut several 2″ slits in top of pastry.
BAKE 30 min. or until golden. Cool on baking sheet on wire rack at least 15 min. Cut into squares.
This recipe would be great for any meal. You could put it in the oven just as dinner is starting, and it would be ready to serve warm with ice cream for dessert!
By the way , the key to using their puff pastry is the thaw time. You will just break it if you try to unfold it before it’s completely thawed.
Other recipes I’ve made and enjoyed from puffpastry.com:
Filed under Stinkin' Good Recipes | Comments (2)Stinkin’ good chocolate cake
I have made this chocolate cake recipe several times and it is a wonderfully rich chocolate cake. This last time, I shaved white chocolate over the top to make it pretty. I’m sure there’s a fancy tool for shaving chocolate, but I just used a vegetable peeler and it worked pretty well! The recipe is from the back of the Hershey’s Cocoa Powder container, called “Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Cake” (icing recipe included as well). I was going to post it here, but it’s sorta long, so here’s a link.
Filed under Stinkin' Good Recipes | Comments (2)Stinkin’ good oatmeal shortbread
I love shortbread, but I don’t think I had ever had it made with oatmeal. I’ve made this twice now- it’s nice because there are only a few ingredients. This recipe is from Taste of Home’s Quick Cooking magazine:
- 1 cup butter (softened)
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1-1/2 cups quick cooking oats
- 3/4 teaspoon of salt
In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually add the flour, oats and salt. Press into a greased 13×9 baking pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool for 10 minutes before cutting.
Filed under Stinkin' Good Recipes | Comment (0)Stinkin’ good fudge - memories of remote times and places
Have you ever made the fudge recipe on the back of the Jet Puffed Marshmallow Creme? We just made some tonight, and I forgot how good it is. I can take a bite, close my eyes and rewind to 1981…
My grandmother (Dad’s mother) made this fudge every year at Christmas and it was always in the same box on the same shelf in the same room. It’s amazing how time just stood still at my grandparents’ house. Every time we went there, everything was just the same- as if time had just stopped while we were gone: someone pressed the pause button on the Abilene, Texas remote control until we pulled into the driveway of the little green house again. It was kinda comforting… There was Paul Harvey on the radio, Wonder Bread and Club Crackers in the bread box, Post Toasties in the cabinet, vanilla ice cream in the freezer, Coca Cola in the pantry, and 10 leftover green beans from dinner the night before because it’s a sin to throw out any food if you lived through the Depression Era. Since there was nothing to do besides read Aunt Jane’s old Nancy Drew books or watch “Big Country” News, we always went over to the park near their house, just on the other side of Catclaw Creek. That is, unless it was the middle of summer, because all the playground equipment was too hot to touch- especially those old metal slides, which you could fry an egg on and sometimes your legs when you were dumb enough to think that you could slide down wearing shorts without actually touching the slide with exposed skin. If you weren’t burning your legs in the summer, you burnt them in the winter when you went to the bathroom because they had a small gas heater with an open flame built into the wall right next to the toilet. For fun, while you were sitting there, you could roll up some toilet paper and light it. It was great entertainment, but it didn’t take long before there was incentive to finish the business at hand- your right leg got so hot you had to get up or risk injury!
Anyway…. the fudge is great. It must be. Fast-forward to 2006 and that same recipe, unchanged, has been on the back of the marshmallow jar since my grandmother started making it eons ago.
Filed under Stinkin' Good Recipes, Misc | Comments (3)Stinkin’ good dessert bars
I made these bars for snack time after our church bible study group last night. They were really yummy and came from the Kraft Food and Family magazine. You can get this magazine free: click here. We have really enjoyed it- lots of good recipes (including Kraft products, of course). I used a double boiler instead of the microwave. Also, I couldn’t get it to spread enough to cover the whole pan- I think an 8×8 would have been better.
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3 Tbsp. corn syrup
2 Tbsp. chunky peanut butter
2 Tbsp. butter
2 cups POST HONEY BUNCHES OF OATS Cereal
TOPPING
5 squares BAKER’S Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup chunky peanut butter
1/4 cup PLANTERS COCKTAIL Peanuts, chopped
LINE 13×9-inch pan with foil; spray foil with cooking spray. Microwave brown sugar, corn syrup, 2 Tbsp. peanut butter and butter in large microwaveable bowl on HIGH 2 min. or just until melted, stirring after 1 min. Add cereal; mix to coat well. Press firmly into prepared pan.
TOPPING
MICROWAVE chocolate and 1/3 cup peanut butter in microwaveable bowl on HIGH 1 to 2 min. or until melted, stirring after 1 min. Spread over cereal mixture in pan. Sprinkle with peanuts.
REFRIGERATE 1 hour or until firm. Cut into triangles. Store tightly covered in airtight container in refrigerator until ready to serve or up to 4 days.
Filed under Stinkin' Good Recipes | Comments (2)Stinkin’ good deviled eggs
We found this recipe in an RBC cookbook, contributed by Mrs. Wilcoxon. I’ll never make deviled eggs the old way, with mustard, again.
1 dozen eggs
6 slices of bacon, crumbled (by the way, I realized recently that you get a much better result by snipping the bacon into small pieces with kitchen scissors before you fry it, instead of crumbling it after you fry it)
Mayonnaise or Miracle Whip (personally, I think they’re better with Miracle Whip - a little zippier taste)
A few drops of Cider Vinegar
Boil eggs and cut in half. Scoop out yolk and mix with enough mayo to get to the right consistency, and add a few drops of cider vinegar, salt and pepper to taste. Refill egg halves with mixture.
Stinkin’ good meatballs
We got this recipe from a Better Homes & Gardens magazine. The recipe calls for ground turkey, but I made it the other day with ground chicken and it was even better! The fresh basil and bacon are what make them so good.
1 slightly beaten egg
8 slices bacon, crisp cooked and finely crumbled
1/2 cup fine dry bread crumbs (or crushed crackers)
1/2 cup snipped fresh basil
1/4 cup plain yogurt or dairy sour cream
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1/4 tsp. salt
2 lb. uncooked ground turkey (or chicken)
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line two small (or one large) baking sheets with Reynolds Wrap Release (or foil sprayed with non-stick spray).
2. In a large bowl, combine egg, bacon, bread crumbs, basil, yogurt, pepper and salt. Add ground turkey; mix well. Shape into approx. 1-inch balls. Place on pans (pretty close together to get them all on there).
3. Bake 15-20 minutes or until no longer pink. Serve with sauce if desired (though I don’t think they need any sauce).
Filed under Stinkin' Good Recipes | Comment (0)Stinkin’ good stuffing
Thought I would pass along this recipe which has become a favorite in our house recently. It’s a Rachael Ray 30 Minute Meals recipe. We double the amount of smoked sausage so it’s more main course than side dish.
Linguica Corn Stuffing
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup beef stock (we usually use chicken stock)
1/2 pound linguica or chorizo, chopped (we use just Jennie-O Turkey Smoked Sausage with the casing removed)
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 small red bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
4 corn muffins, crumbled
1 teaspoon smoked paprika, eyeball it in your palm
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme leaves, 4 to 5 sprigs
Heat a medium nonstick skillet over medium high heat with 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1 turn of the pan. When oil smokes, add linguica or chorizo and brown, 2 minutes. Add the celery, onions, peppers, garlic and season with salt and pepper. Cook 5 minutes then crumble muffins into the skillet and combine with vegetables. Dampen the stuffing with remaining 1 cup of stock and season with smoked paprika and thyme. Reduce heat to low and keep warm until ready to serve.
Filed under Stinkin' Good Recipes | Comment (0)
