Peanut Butter Friday!!!!!

I had another recipe that I had wanted to make today, however, my 16 year-old son has been patiently waiting for peanut butter cookies. Each day he asks me. "is TODAY the day for peanut butter cookies?"

He forget to ask me this morning *wink*

While in culinary school, I had the coolest job ever. I still cannot believe that I got paid to do something that I loved so. I worked behind the scene on a cooking segment that aired nightly during the news.

I would take each featured recipe & do all of the prep work twice. I would them prepare one of the recipes and give the chef the prepped ingredients for the other. He would prepare the second set of the recipe on the air and the one that I had made was the display.

Seriously? Most. Awesome. Job. Ever.

In this episode we made stuffed bologna.

don't ask.

One episode that we filmed featured 3 ingredient recipes. Here is a 3-ingredient peanut butter cookie!


Since I like to live on the edge (  being the wild child that I am) I pushed the limit & made it a 4 ingredient recipe!!!!

Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg.


(this is where I get wild.. brace yourselves...)

a bag of Hershey's kisses

directions~

preheat oven to 350 degrees


Beat egg in a mixing bowl. Add peanut butter & sugar; mix well. Drop by rounded Tablespoons ( I use a cookie scoop) onto parchment-lined cookie sheet about 2 inches apart ( these babies spread).

Unwrap Hershey's kisses & place in the center of each cookie. Bake for 10-13 minutes, depending on your oven.


Since the ingredients were so simple, it was easy to double the recipe, which I did


I didn't even need a calculator!!!!!

what can I say? I'm a mathlete!

The cookies came out great. Ryan will be very happy today.. not only because it's Friday..... but also because he has this whole tray of cookies waiting for him form his crazy mama!


oxox
michelle

Today's recipe is *EASY* PEASY*

After shopping all day with my closest friend, I'm a bit tired... So I decided to make the simplest of simplest recipes. This is actually the first time that I've made it, but I've had it many times at potlucks ( my sister-in-law makes it often)
Yummy Layer Bars

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup of coconut flakes
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1/2 cup mini marshmallows
1/4 cup butterscotch chips ( only because I had them)

Preheat oven to 350. Line a 9 x13 in pan with aluminum foil, overlapping on the ends (for easy removal) & spray lightly with cooking spray. Mix butter with graham cracker crumbs & pat gently into the bottom of the pan.

Pour sweetened condensed milk over butter/ graham mixture and spread with a spatula. Sprinkle remaining ingredients in to order in which they are in the recipe. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Remove & let cool.

Using the overlapped ends of the aluminum foil, pull the entire bar out & place on a cutting board, allowing to cool completely.

Cut into bars when fully cool.

These are yummy & gooey and oh-so-wonderful!!! I was afraid that they would stick, so I only placed them single-layer on the platter. I'm thinking that maybe next time I'll try the recipe with 2 cups graham cracker crumbs, possibly making a sturdier base.

I highly recommend trying this recipe.. it literally takes minutes to get into the oven.

maybe next time I'll time myself....hmmm.....?????


now..I'm off to wrap all of my treasures that I found today!!!

xoxo
~michelle

PSST......I have a secret

I * know*.....shhh.........Santa!!!

It's true! I've known him for many years.. he is just your everyday average joe ;) Except that he is awesome~ he's Santa!!!

Here is my niece, Alexis sitting on his lap. No doubt asking for the American girl doll that  she asked for that year..(which , of course, he delivered ,, because he's SANTA!!!)

Now this may come as a surprise to most, but Santa has a thing for cranberries. Given the fact that in 'in' with the big guy... he had asked me to create a special cookie for him when he is visiting his weekend home on Cape Cod.
SO I created just for Santa

'Cape Cod Cranberry Wine Cookies'

I know.. leave it to me to make a cookie with wine in it..... insane, right?

Well, happen to know that Santa likes a little bit of wine now (never when he is driving his sleigh) & then so I thought how perfect to incorporate it into his special cookie.

I'm thoughtful like that  *grin*

Ingredients:

1 cup  packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup shortening
1 egg
1/4 cup water
2 tsp red wine
1 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground cloves
3 cups oats
2 cups dried cranberries

ok.... the baking powder just snuck into the picture.. we won't be using that today.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix sugars & shortening together; add egg, wine & water. Mix well.
In a separate bowl, whisk all dry ingredients (except for cranberries).

Slowly ad the dry mix to the sugar mixture. Mix until well blended, but don't over-mix.

Stir in cranberries.

Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto parchment-lined cookie sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Remove from oven & let cool to a wire rack.

I know that  Santa has been waiting patiently (for the most part) for these cookies. He's going to have to wait just a little bit longer to try them.... hang tight, Santa.....

These are an excellent choice to leave out with a glass of milk on Christmas Eve...


p.s.......
Santa, I have been very, very good this year


oxox
~michelle


If you haven't yet registered your pup to win a dozen of my home made biscuits... you still have time ! just comment on yesterday's post!

A cookie party story

I know that I have mentioned that I host a cookie party each year.. but how did I start it? .....

Many years ago I worked with a girl who was  close in age to me,Cheri. Although close in age we could not have lived more different lives...... I was married with 2 (maybe 3 children, I forget what year this happened).. she was a bar-hopping local -band loving diva...  Don't get me wrong,.... there is nothing wrong with that....

Anyway, she was also a bargain shopper (something that we both had in common); one day while combing the shelves for a deal she came across 'cookie exchange ' invitations. ... I had never heard of such a thing (I had previously baked for  entire months in order to have a variety of cookies...) but .. how cool did it sound???

She decided to have a cookie exchange;  Another  that we both worked with,  Cheryl, decided to host it at her house. In addition to the three of us, Cheri invited all of her night-club friends.

The night of the party (a Friday night in mid-December)... we three were the only ones who showed.   I t never occurred to Cheri that her bar-hopping friends might not exactly be the cookie-baking kind of crowd, especially on a Friday night.

Since we worked together, we had talked prior to the exchange about what kind of cookies we were making.... I was making pecan balls, Cheryl was making Mexican wedding cookies, and Cheri was making snoballs.

This is interesting only because well, they are actually all the same cookie.  (we obviously didn't figure this on until the exchange ).

So we all came home with the same cookies that we brought with us. That night we decided that I would host the next one ; I would have the quests tell me which kind of cookie that they were bringing when they RSVP'd.

Now that I just went on way too long about this, I can tell you that pecan balls.. are quite possibly my favorite cookie.... and I think of this story each time that I make them ;)
And now....

The recipe...

If you notice in the picture, I had to go way back into my files, to  before computers, to get the old beat up index card that I wrote the recipe on so many years ago...I will always keep that recipe card.. it's the nostalgic side of me... somehow even typing it here seems wrong..

1) 1 stick of butter, softened
2) 2 TBSP granulated sugar
3) 1 tsp. vanilla
4) 1 cup finely ground pecans
5) 1 cup flour
 powdered sugar


*** preheat oven to 300 degrees. Beat butter until soft ~add sugar and blend until creamy. Add vanilla, pecans & flour. Roll into small balls.

Bake on a greased ( I use either a silpat or  parchment paper, neither of which I had or knew about back then)... for 30 minutes.

Roll in powdered sugar while hot.**

ok... this picture is just horrible.. please don't supersize it. I put the picture in to actually show my mistake. The reason that they look like this is that after I rolled them in sugar, I just put them in a pile, so the coating came off of some of them  & I 'tried' to fix it.

In the future, after I roll each one, I would let them cool INDIVIDUALLY on a cooling rack. Rest assured... these cookies were just as awesome as I remember them. .. I almost didn't get any of them to the freezer because my family was all over them.

I created a diversion in the other room & snuck in to save some for them freezer *grin*
I'm good like that!

oxox