Ginger Cookies

Pillsbury Ginger Cookies
1 cup sugar

3/4 c Crisco

1/4 c molasses

1 egg

2 1/4 c flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

2 cups white chocolate chips

Beat Crisco and sugar till creamy. Beat in egg and molasses. Beat in baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, salt, nutmeg, and cloves. Gradually Mix in flour till well combined. Mix in 1 cup white chocolate chips. Roll dough into golf size balls; roll each ball in sugar. Place 2" apart on cookie sheets. Bake at 350 for 8 min. Melt remaining 1 cup white chips with 2 teaspoons Crisco, 30 sec intervals in microwave, stirring in between each interval. Dip cookies in white chocolate, coating 1/2 of each cookie.

Blue m&m Cookies

After making colored sugar cookies, just the other day, I started wondering why we sometimes add color to sugar cookie dough but never add it to chocolate chip cookie dough, so that's exactly what I decided to do and it turned out great. I used my new favorite m&m cookie recipe and added just a few drops of Betty Crocker gel blue food coloring. Here's the recipe (again) and a picture (below)

Blue m&m Cookies

1 cup sugar

1/2 c brown sugar

1 cup crisco

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 (3.4 oz) pkg vanilla pudding mix

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 cups flour

Few drops Betty Crocker blue gel food color

1 cup mini m&ms

3/4 cup mini white chips

Beat Crisco and sugars till creamy. Add baking powder, salt, vanilla, eggs, and pudding mix. Beat till well combined. Gradually add flour till dough comes together and is well mixed. Add drops of food color, couple drops at a time, till dough reaches right color. Mix till color is even and well incorporated. Add m&ms and white chips. Shape dough into golf size balls and bake 8 min at 350

Smart Cookie Company

Smartcookie is a cookie store where you can make customized cookie-ice cream-sandwiches or you can just order cookies, or you can use it to place cookie orders for missionaries. My mom goes to American Fork about once a week to pick up clothes from the dry cleaners so she decided to check out this AF Smartcookie store once and for all. I don't know what the selection was like since I wasn't there and I've never been, but She bought me 2 really pretty sugar cookies. I was skeptical about trying them since I hadn't heard much about "smartcookie" The 1st one I tried, the yellow one, was not that great. It was a lemony sugar cookie and I don't like lemon. The 2nd cookie, the flower cookie, was a normal sugar cookie, not lemony. It, however was really good. In fact I might have even liked it more than the sugar cookies from Provo Bakery. It was really doughy and I love doughy cookies. It was as doughy, if not maybe even more doughy than how I make my cookies. And the frosting, I believe, was a fantastic tasting cream cheese frosting. So a doughy professional bakery style cookie with super good frosting. What could be better than that? SmartCookie= A+ except for the gross lemon cookies (:

Marshmallow Fondant

Oh My Gosh!!!! omg omg omg i cant stop saying it. I just made fondant!!! And it was so easy. For so many years, I just thought "I cant make that, but it looks so cool" But then after reading cookies and cups, and Bake at 350, I realized I might be able to pull it off. It really was so much easier than I thought and it really tastes so good. I was looking for meringue powder today at wallmart and then harmons so I could make Royal Icing, what I thought could serve as an alternative to fondant, and what I thought would be easier, but forget royal icing when you can have fondant, which is so much better (in my opinion). better looking and better tasting, and so easy!!! So 1st I made the fondant, then stuck it in a ziplock and let it chill in the fridge. Then I whipped up some of sugar belles sugar cookies which are basically the same recipe as my sugar cookies. I added some food coloring to the sugar cookie dough just for kicks. I used halloween cookie cutters for both the cookie dough and the fondant. I then I topped each baked cookie 1st with buttercream frosting to make the fondant stick, and then I layered the rolled fonant over top of the buttercream. These cookies tasted A-MAZING. Favorite cookie from now on and for ever.

recipe source: thedomesticsugar.blogspot.com

Marshmallow Fondant:

• 4 c (9 oz pkg) miniature marshmallows
  
• 4 c (1 lb) powdered sugar + plus extra for dusting
• 2 tbsp water
• Food coloring or flavored extracts, optional
• 1-2 tbsp shortening (for hands)
  

Directions:

1. Place marshmallows and the water in a large glass (safe) bowl. Microwave for 30 sec, stir marshmallows, microwave for 20 more sec. Do this until the marshmallows are puffy (melted).

2. Stir the marshmallows with a rubber spatula until they are melted and smooth. Make sure there are no lumps at all. At this stage, add colour or flavor (if desired) and stir.

3. Slowly add the powdered sugar and begin to stir with the spatula. Stir until the sugar begins to incorporate and it becomes impossible to stir anymore.

4. Scrape the fondant mixture out onto a sugar-dusted, smooth surface. It will be sticky and lumpy, with lots of sugar that has not been incorporated yet--this is normal. Place some shortening on yoru hands to keep the fondant from sticking, and begin to knead the fondant mixture like bread dough, working the sugar into the marshmallow with your hands.

5. Kneed until smooth and not sticky (you may need to coat your hands every now and again to prevent sticking). Be careful - too much sugar will make the dough stiff and hard to work with, juse only enough where the dough stays a little sticky, but can be handled. Let fondant sit for 1h or use right way. Fondant can be stored in an air-tight bag until ready to use. I coat mine in a little shortening, then wrap it in plastic wrap, THEN stick it in a ziplock baggie. But that's me :)

Recipe Source: sweetsugarbelle.com

To make my basic sugar cookies you need:

• 1 c. REAL unsalted BUTTER
• 1 1/2 c. confectioner’s sugar
• 1 egg
• 2-3 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/2-2 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt

Cream together softened butter and confectioner’s sugar. Beat in the egg, vanilla, baking powder, and salt till thouroughly combined. Gradually beat in the flour till dough comes together. Roll out to about 1/4" thick, use flour for dusting as necessary. Then, cut and bake at 350 for 8-10 min

Sugar Cookie Dough Balls

This recipe is a copycat recipe for the original cookie dough cookies created by Annie the Baker. You can order the original cookies online at this site or you can just try to make them at home like I successfully did. These cookies are catered towered "those who love cookie dough more than the cookie." So they're basically cookies that taste like cookie dough. The key to this recipe is not to overbake. Even if the cookies don't look done at ten minutes, they are.

Sugar Cookie Dough Balls
(original recipe: click HERE)

1/2 cup (slightly less) crisco

1/2 cup + 2 Tablesoons sugar

1 egg
1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

PILLSBURY FROSTING

Beat crisco and sugar till creamy. Beat in salt, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla, and egg till thoroughly combined. Gradually beat in flour till dough comes together and is well combined. Use a small cookie Scoop to form perfect round balls of dough; place balls on baking sheet. Bake exactly 10 minutes at 360

REMOVE COOKIES FROM BAKING SHEET AND DECORATE WITH FROSTING

Puffy M&M Cookies

I Love Puffy Chewy doughy cookies. That's why Ive always liked chocolate chip pudding cookies, but Ive always thought the main pudding chip recipe was a little too flat for what I like. I'm more into the Thick, chewy, doughy, puffy cookies. Luckily a lot of other bloggers like their cookies that way as well. Almost every current baking blogger has at some point tried to replicate the Levain Cookie and then Diana from TheChicLife started a new hype when she created a copycat recipe for Annie The Baker's Cookie Dough Balls. All of these Cookies have the same attributes, extra flour, and less baking time, which lead to a thick, chewy, doughy, puffy cookie. The cookies I made today turned out exactly how I was hoping they would. They're basically the original pudding chip cookie recipe with the addition of extra flour a specification for reduced baking time. I got this recipe from penniesonaplatter.com and then modified it just slightly. These are definitely thick doughy and puffy cookies. Of course Brooklyn Bently and Caleb loved them (they're kids,) so did I, so did everyone in my household. If u like thick, doughy, puffy cookies, you definitely need to try this recipe, its a no fail.

Puffy m&m Cookies
(original recipe here)

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup Crisco
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 (3.4 oz) package vanilla instant pudding mix
1/2 tsp salt
1 t baking soda
3 cups four
1 1/2 cups mini m&m's

In a large mixing bowl, beat the sugars & Crisco till creamy. Beat in the eggs, vanilla, pudding mix, baking soda, and salt; beat till light and fluffy. Gradually add the 3 cups of flour and then the m&m's. Mix till thoroughly combined. Roll dough into golfball-ish sized balls and bake on lightly greased cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes (do not overbake, these cookies are only good if underbaked.) Using plastic or rubber spatula, Remove cookies from cookie sheet to let cool. Makes 30 cookies.

Flour Girls and Dough Boys

My mom brought home a sugar cookie from Flour Girls and Dough Boys Bakery. She knows I'm on a sugar cookie craze and even though we decided Provo Bakery has the best and always will, she still thought we should at least try other ones. This cookie was really big and puffy. The cookie itself was good but kind of dry. And I'm Not sure if its because it was maybe dried out or if maybe its just not the best recipe. However, The icing was incredible. I wanted to eat it all off with a spoon. I think it was a 7 minute frosting recipe. That's what it tasted like anyway; tasted granulated sugar based, not powdered sugar. And the icing shimmered, like it had some sort of baking glitter in it. My goal now is to buy some baking glitter and find a good 7min frosting recipe.

Cinnamon Rolls

Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls are so good, and I know I'm not the only one who thinks that. I ran across a blog the other day that claims to have a recipe for cinnamon rolls that are better than Pillsbury so I'm gonna have to make them some time. Problem is, No one in my family has ever been good at bread baking so we always only buy store bought bread stuff, but I'm totally OK with it because I like Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls much better than any Homemade cinnamon roll Ive ever tried. And when it comes to homemade bread recipes, The only Homemade "Rolls" Ive ever absolutely died over are my moms friend Helen's rolls that she always made at thanksgiving. Ill share the recipe if I'm ever able to get ahold of it. But Until then, Pillsbury Great Harvest and Rhodes will have to work(:

Provo Bakery

So as you know I love cookies and Bakeries and I love the big sugar cookies from sweet tooth fairy, but then I came across this blog the other day that asked which Utah bakery has the best sugar cookies, and no one said sweet tooth fairy, everyone said Provo Bakery. So I figured I had to drive down to Provo Bakery and see for myself, and I would have to agree, they're the best I've ever tried. My mom and my son Caleb and his little friend Britton would have to agree as well. I gave Caleb and his friend the Smiley face sugar cookie as well as a big red letter U cookie (for University of Utah) and then I kept the 2 helmet university cookies for my mom and myself(: They're not as thick as Sweet Tooth Fairy Sugar cookies. They re still just as soft, they have a more precise shape and I think they taste a little more short-bready. And they use a fondant icing that's really really good. I thought that the only kind of sugar cookie they would have was the smile sugar cookie, because that's all that the blog had mentioned, however they re are several different sugar cookies, all about the same size, and definitely the same recipe, and then there are tons of other different kinds of pastries (crumb bars, donuts, cinnamon rolls, chocolate chip cookies, etc...) The store itself is kinda small and dumpy looking from the outside (which is probably why I've never cared to go in before,) but inside its a whole different bakery. Surprisingly its really crowded and there were like 4 workers behind the counter and the line was super long, so obviously it does well. (Lesson learned: Can't judge a book by its cover, LOL)

Recipes to try

CLICK ON picture BELOW FOR A LIST OF FABULOUS BLOGGER RECIPES

Pigs In a Blanket

I'm going to apologize early for this post. I don't have a photographer for my food pictures so my pitures always look ghetto especially this picture. Anyway, regardless of the ghetto picture, Pigs in a Blanket is one of my favorite-quick meal time recipes. Caleb likes it too so! Just about everyone's already heard of it, but I'll share the recipe anyway just in case, especially because I make it w/ a couple modifications.

Pigs In a Blanket

6 oscar mayer cheese dogs

Pillsbury Butter Flake Crescent Rolls

Provolone Cheese Slices, each cut into strips

Heat oven to 360°F. Slit hot dogs to within 1/2 inch of ends; insert 3 strips of cheese into each slit.

Separate dough into 6 rectangles. Wrap dough rectangle around each hot dog. Place on ungreased cookie sheet, cheese side up.

Bake at 360°F for 12 minutes or until golden brown.

IHOP French Toast

So I went to Great Harvest Bread Today and bought a loaf of white bread. I NEVER eat bread unless its from Great Harvest. They make bread exactly the way I like it: Thick and chewy. And then tonight I noticed a carton of fresh whipping cream in the fridge. And I started thinking back about the IHOP french toast recipe off of thesisterscafe.com that Iv'e been wanting to try forever, so I knew I had to make it right then, and I'm so glad I did! The results were more than perect. And I'm not sure if it is because this is such an amazing recipe or if its just because great harvest bread makes awesome french toast, but whatever the reason, it really was the BEST french toast EVER. So I'll for sure be making this one on the regular.

IHOP FRENCH TOAST

(original recipe: thesisterscafe.com)

(my modifications are printed in red, and of course they're just optional)

2 eggs (I used 1 whole egg + 2 yolks)

1/2 cup whole milk (i used 1/4 C vanilla almond milk + 1/4 C cream)

1/8 t salt

1 t vanilla

3 or 4 Tablespoons Flour 

4 slices Great Harvest white bread

Whisk ingredients together in med size bowl. Dip bread front and back allowing each side to soak a couple min. Fry bread in butter in nonstick skillet over med heat till lightly golden on each side. Sprinkle w/ powdered sugar. Top with Coconut syrup and whipping cream or whatever other toppings you'd like.

Topping Ideas:

buttermilk syrup, strawberry syrup, marshmallow fluff, peanut butter, butter, whipping cream, bananas

((tonight I got carried away and used all of the above(: except for the bananas))

Oreo Pudding Cookies

These are so good! I don't think I can ever eat regular chocolate chip cookies again after trying these):

Oreo Pudding Cookies

(recipe adapted from thegirlwhoateeverything)

1 cup butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1 small package instant Oreo Pudding mix

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups Hershey's cookies&creme drops

1 1/2 cups mini m&ms

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine flour and soda in a small bowl and set aside. Cream together butter and sugar. Beat in pudding mix until blended, then eggs and vanilla. Add flour and soda mixture. Stir in cookies n cream drops and m&m's. Using a cookie dough scooper, place dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. Let cookies cool for 5 minutes on baking sheet before moving to a cooking rack. Store in air-tight container. Makes two dozen.

The Cocoa Bean Cupcake Cafe

Tonight I also stopped at The Cocoa Bean Cupcake Cafe. Their cupcakes are way better than sweet tooth fairy's cupcakes. Actually ALL of the cupcakes at cocoa Bean are better than sweet tooth fairy cupcakes especially their Ultimate Brownie cupcakes (which they only have on Mon, Wed, and Fri.) The Ultimate Brownie ones are hands down the best, that's why I bought 2 and nothing else. They don't sell cookies and other treats at Cocoa Bean, just cupcakes, so I guess that's their only draw back. But they do sell keychains. The purple one in the picture above is cocoa bean, and the pink one is sweet tooth fairy

Sweet Tooth Fairy

Lately Sweet Tooth Fairy is my favorite bakery. Not because of their cupcakes, but because of their sugar cookies. I LOVE soft sugar cookies, and this bakery definitely has them. Today I bought 2 giant flower sugar cookies, 2 small sugar cookies, a Cranberry Bliss Bar, a Fairy Fetti cake bite, a Fairy Fetti cupcake, a peanut butter cupcake, a smores cupcake, and a cupcake key chain. I'm having to freeze most of it cuz no way could I eat all that in one night. My favorite treat there is for sure the giant flower sugar cookies. Everything else is just OK.

SHRIMP MAC&CHEESE

1 box Kraft sponge bob mac&cheese
1 box Kraft Velveeta shells&cheese
Seapak shrimp poppers
Kraft Shredded Italian 5 cheese blend

Boil sponge bob mac for 11 min. Drain. Return cooked pasta back to pan and stir in velveeta cheese pack (from shells&cheese box.) Save cheese powder mix and dry shells for later use on something else. Bake 24 shrimp accrding to pkg directions. Stir shrimp into mac&cheese mixture. Sprinkle cheese over each individual serving. Makes apx 3-4 servings.

Chicken Enchiladas Creamas Verde

ORIGINAL RECIPE: CLICK HERE


Chicken Enchiladas Creamas Verde

Ingredients:

• vegetable or canola OIL for frying tortillas
  
• 1 lb. cooked chicken (a shredded rotisserie chicken would work well)
• 3 T butter
  
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 jar tomatillo salsa divided (my jar was 16 oz.)
• 1 small can diced green chilies
• 8 oz. cream cheese
• 1 doz. flour tortillas
• 1 cup cream
• 3 cups shredded itallian cheese blend
• 1 small can (mild) green or red enchilada sauce
  

Directions: Pour apx 1 cup oil into deep(ish) frying pan. Preheat oil over medium high heat for about 10 minutes. Deep fry each tortilla in oil 10 seconds on each side (or till tortilla bubbles up.) As you go, Stack tortillas w/ a paper towel square between each fried tortilla, and then set tortillas aside. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Coat a 9x9 or 9x13 baking dish with non-stick spray. Heat butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat; Saute onion 5 minutes. Add chicken, 1/2 jar salsa, cream cheese and chilies. Reduce heat to medium; stir, melt cream cheese and blend mixture well. Heat tortillas briefly, then fill each with about 1/3 cup of chicken mixture and a handful of shredded cheese. Roll up tightly and place in baking dish, seam-sides down. Combine remaining tomatillo salsa with cream; pour over enchiladas and top with shredded cheese. Bake 30 minutes or until cheese melts. Microwave enchilada sauce in glass bowl for 60sec. Pour over baked enchiladas.