Oatmeal Cherry Cookies for Tom

Our good friend Tom came out for a business meeting, and he'd already had a hard day dealing with a lost package at the post office. So, I decided it would be a great time to surprise him with some cookies. He said they are the best cookies he has ever eaten!!!

Oatmeal Cherry Cookies

2 1/4 c. flour
1 c. oatmeal
1 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1 c. light brown sugar, packed
1/2 c. sugar
2 sticks butter, softened
2 eggs
1 1/2 c. dried cherries
1 t. vanilla extract
1 t. almond extract


Heat oven to 300˚.

Combine dry ingredients—flour, baking soda, salt, and oatmeal—in a small mixing bowl. Set aside.


In a larger, deep mixing bowl, combine butter and sugars; beat with electric mixer until pasty.


Add eggs and extracts; mix well.


Add about half the flour and beat it as best you can with the mixer.


Then stir the rest of the flour in by hand; then mix in the cherries.


Measure out dough by heaping tablespoon onto an ungreased cookie sheet.


Bake at 300˚ for 18-20 minutes, or until lightly browned.
Do not overbake—these are supposed to be chewy cookies.

These are the cherries; I get them for a good price at Aldi's.



And this is Tom's new car....isn't it COOL?!

Peppermint Bark!

I made this for my friend Brenda. Just for her. We had a conversation this past summer about food (I know, go figure! LOL!) and she had said how much she liked the Fannie May "little pink crunchy candies." So, you see, I had to do this... :)

Peppermint Bark

1/2 package (10 oz.) Fisher Vanilla Flavored Almond Bark Squares
2 medium-sized candy canes, crushed
1 drop peppermint extract
2 to 3 drops red food coloring (optional)


Melt the almond bark squares in the microwave (or use 1 1/4 c. white chocolate chips) and stir until smooth.

Mix in the peppermint extract; stir well.

Add two drops of food coloring, and mix it in, to see if it is the color you'd like it to be. You can also omit the food coloring, if you choose.


Stir in the crushed peppermint.


(NOTE: you can place 2 medium candy canes in a heavy-duty ziplock bag, fold it over, and smash the candy with the flat side of a meat hammer. It is okay to leave some chunks—that will just add to the texture of the peppermint bark.)


Once everything is blended well, pour it out onto a waxed paper lined cookie sheet. Spread flat with a spatula, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.


Once it has cooled and solidified, you can just break it with your hands into various sized pieces to serve. This makes a nice addition to a holiday cookie plate gift!

Tiramisu Blondies

This recipe was a sort of challenge I made to fellow cooking blogger Bob of Cooking Stuff. I proposed a "tiramisu brownie" concept and wanted to know what his thoughts were, and how he would create a cookie bar which would fall into this general description, but I did not outline any actual requirements. This is what I came up with...and please visit icookstuff.blogspot.com to see Bob's version of a "tiramisu brownie".

Tiramisu Blondies

dough:
2 1/4 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
1 c. (2 sticks) butter
3/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. brown sugar
2 t. vanilla
2 eggs

chocolate:
1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 T. fine ground espresso coffee (no substitutes)
10 - 12 plain butter cookies, broken into pieces

Melt chocolate in microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring well in between.


Mix in espresso; blend well!


Stir in butter cookie pieces. (NOTE: I made the mistake of leaving the cookies whole and just pressing them into the chocolate. This ended up making the chocolate harder to chop up. I'm writing this recipe out the way I should have done it!)


Pour chocolate mixture onto waxed paper covered dish or pan. Smooth out to about 1/4-inch thickness; remember, you're going to have to be able to cut through this with a knife. Place in fridge to harden. (Give it an hour or so, and then check it.)


Remove chocolate from fridge; chop into chunks. Set aside.


Heat oven to 375˚. Grease 9 x 13 baking pan.
In small bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.


In large mixing bowl, beat butter, sugar and brown sugar until creamy.
Add vanilla and eggs; beat well. Gradually add in flour mixture; mix well.


Stir in chocolate pieces by hand.


Spread into prepared baking pan.


Bake at 375˚ for 30 minutes, until golden brown.



Here's a better look at how the chocolate with the whole cookies in it came out:

Again, I should have broken the cookies up and spread the chocolate thinner.


The 12th was our anniversary, and we had a few people over; this is all that was left of the cookies by the end of the party:

random amusements

Do you find yourself needing last-minute gifts for people who are impossible to buy for, or someone you don't know well? Try some of my ideas below, and customize them to suit your gift-giving needs! It can start with a trip down the trial-size/sample aisle at Target or Walmart...

Goldie's Quick Gift Ideas List

NOTE: You can usually find decorative holiday cellophane or cloth bags at your local craft/hobby store to put the items into.


1) "Save Yourself!"

• chapstick
• hand lotion
• Purell sanitizer
• purse-pack Kleenex

2) "You're Beautiful!"

• lipgloss
• nail polish
• emery boards
• barrette

3) "Festive Holiday"

• mini bottle of booze/assortment
• 2 plastic cups/mugs
• chapstick
• ornament

4) "Festive Holiday II"

• cocoa packets
• 2 inexpensive mugs
• ornament

5) "You're Sweet!"

• Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix
• cookie cutter
• option: kitchen towel/wooden spoon/ornament

6) "Keep Warm!"

• knit gloves
• fuzzy socks
• ornament

7) "Warm Toes"

• foot soak packet
• fuzzy socks
• foot lotion

8) "Deck The Halls"

• candle
• ornament
• garland
• mistletoe

9) "Make A List"

• shopping list pad
• holiday pen
• plastic coupon envelope
• ornament

10) "Green Christmas"

• Put your gifts in a recycled material shopping tote

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!

Savory Meat Strudel

This was fantastic! I threw it together using a sweet bread dough that was new to me (i.e. untested) and the friends who were over LOVED it. Claire aptly named it "Breakfast In Bread" because it sort of had a sausage-biscuit taste.

Cheesy Crumbled Meat Thing a.k.a. "Breakfast In Bread"

dough:
1/4 c. warm water
1 pkt. yeast
3/4 c. sour cream
3 c. flour
1 t. salt
3 T. sugar
1 egg

meat filling:
1 lb. ground turkey
1 t. dried minced onion (or fresh)
salt, pepper, garlic powder, marjoram
1 c. cheddar, shredded
2 T. melted butter

1. Brown meat with seasonings first. Set aside and allow to cool. Melt butter separately; set aside.
   
2. Mix yeast packet with warm water; stir well.
3. Blend in other dough ingredients; mix well.
4. Set dough aside to rise for 20 to 30 minutes.
5. Roll out dough to about 18" long by 14" wide.
6. Brush surface of dough with melted butter, allowing for edge margins and seam ending.
7. Sprinkle meat evenly over buttered dough. Top with cheese.
   
8. Roll dough to encompass filling. Seal seam edge with water. Make sure it sticks!
9. Place on well-buttered cookie sheet; allow to rise, covered, for 30 minutes.
10. Bake at 350˚ for 30 minutes. Slice and serve immediately.

It's like a meat-filled coffee cake! Mmmmmm.....

Pumpernickel Bread II

This was requested by Casey, and I used a slightly different recipe than the last time. It came out much darker and richer, and I baked it in a round cake pan, rather than a normal loaf pan. He likes the large, round, rustic style loaves of bread.

Pumpernickel Bread II

1 1/4 c. water
1/2 c. molasses
2 T. butter, softened
2 2/3 c. white flour
1 1/2 c. rye flour
1/4 c. cocoa powder
1 T. instant coffee
2 t. salt
1 pkt. bread machine yeast
1/2 c. sunflower kernels

1. Add ingredients to bread machine pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer.
   
2. Set machine to "dough" cycle.
3. Wait.
4. Butter a 9" round cake pan.
   
5. Add dough to pan, and bake at 375˚ for 20-30 minutes.
   

NOTE: there is no wheat flour in this one.

random amusements

This is fun...

Sponsored by Sonic fast food restaurant, you can send your friends a virtual taunt with regards to their favorite sports team.

It features a tater tot dressed in a football helmet (which you can color coordinate to a specific team!) and the text box allows you to create a script for the sassy little tot to "read". It can be sent in an email, as a URL, or you can 'grab' it and post it to a blog or networking account.


Let's pick on the Chicago Bears, shall we?

http://tatertaunt.com/?mId=32288235.3
(NOTE: These are only saved for a short time, but here is the message I had used for this taunt:
"The Bears are awful. And Jay Cutler can't read. Why do you bother to hold on to any hope? It's over!")


Enjoy!!!!
http://www.tatertaunt.com/

Stuffed Mushrooms

These were actually our dinner one night last week. I had intended on making something else as a main course, but it just never happened, and the mushrooms were so good, we ate most of them. I think the leftovers were only in the fridge until breakfast the next day! LOL!

Stuffed Mushrooms

1 lb. fresh mushrooms (make sure they are fairly equal in size)
2 T. butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 oz. cheddar, shredded
2 t. dried onion flakes (or 1 T. minced fresh onion)
1 can crab meat

Pull stems off of mushroom caps; set caps on a cookie sheet:


Chop or mince stem pieces...


Meanwhile, in small mixing bowl, blend cheeses, crab meat and melted butter:

Add minced stems and onion flakes. Stir well.

Fill mushrooms caps generously, and bake at 350˚ for about 30 minutes.



Nom, nom, nom...





NOTE:
I made a second batch of these over the weekend, and I had intended on using that Louis Kemp imitation lobster stuff in the filling rather than the crab, but....I forgot! LOL! I had put all of the ingredients into the food processor, and I was thinking about all of the other things I had to do for our party, and I never got the lobster package out of the fridge. Also, I had realized that I ran out of cream cheese, so I substituted Parmesan, and they turned out great. I will post those photos when I get around to downloading them from the camera.

Breakfast Pot Pie

This was something I invented spur-of-the-moment because my husband and I had decided we wanted breakfast for dinner. Casey gave it the name.

Breakfast Pot Pie

1 can Roast Beef Hash
1/2 small onion, minced
2 T. butter
1 c. cheddar cheese, sliced
4 eggs
2 c. Bisquick
1/3 c. milk
1/4 c. sour cream
salt & pepper

1. Heat oven to 375˚.
   
2. Melt butter in an oven-proof pan on top of the stove (for example, you can use your cast-iron skillet, if you have one). Cook chopped onion until opaque, then add canned hash and break it up, stirring to mix.
3. Flatten a layer of the hash on the bottom of the pan; you're going to allow this to cook and brown a little over medium heat. Top with cheese; do NOT stir. Turn down heat to low.
4. Meanwhile, in a small mixing bowl, combine the Bisquick, milk and sour cream to form a dough.
5. Drop biscuit dough on top.
   
6. NOTE: at this point, I had added the eggs into the pan, but I think they got too done, even though my husband liked them just fine. It's your call on when you want to add the eggs.
7. Bake at 375˚ for 10 minutes.
   
8. NOTE: this is when you'd add the eggs and bake for an additional 5 minutes, if you want your eggs with a slightly runny yolk. Be sure to season eggs with salt and pepper to taste.
   

It looked yummy and it made the house smell fantastic:


Here are tasty little crusty meat bits on the bottom of the pan:


On the plate:




what I used...
Roast Beef Hash:






P.S.
Yes, Bob, I know it does need some bacon in there somewhere, doesn't it?!! LOL!