Snickerdoodles

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and got to enjoy tons of good food, friends and family! We had a busy but great holiday week, and I'm sure looking forward to getting back into blogging again.

I don't know about you, but I did tons of baking last week. I spent the entirety of Wednesday baking cookies, breads, etc. I found this recipe in my Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book. If you're looking for a recipe that's extremely kid-friendly, this is it. My kids loved rolling the cookies, in between trying to sneak bites of raw dough, of course. :) These cookies are so little and cute, and they made perfect gifts for our neighbors.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375.

In a mixing bowl, beat butter for 30 seconds. Add baking soda and 1 cup sugar and mix well, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg and vanilla until well-blended. Then add flour. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Combine 2 tablespoons sugar and cinnamon. Roll dough into 1 inch balls, then roll balls around in sugar mixture. DO NOT PRESS DOWN. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet.

Bake at 375 for 10 or 11 minutes, or until edges are golden. Cool on a wire rack.

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Pumpkin Cake Squares

This yummy recipe came from my Taste of Home magazine. The original recipe was to make a cake roll, but I didn't feel like fussing with rolling, unrolling, frosting, rolling again.....So I just made them into quick-and-easy squares. Oh. My. Goodess. So yummy! The entire batch was gone in less than a day!

I've had a can of pumpkin in my pantry for quite a while now that I wanted to use up, and this was the perfect way to do it. This recipe doesn't call for a whole can, but there's the perfect amount left over to make a pumpkin cheesecake out of (recipe coming hopefully next week!), you could add it to pancake batter, waffle batter...the list goes on!

Ingredients:
3 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2.3 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
3/4 cup flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt

For frosting:
6 ounces cream cheese, softened and cubed
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar

Line a 15x10x1 inch baking pan with parchment. Coat with cooking spray. (If you're having trouble getting the parchment to stick, use cooking spray or a little butter as "glue" to hold it to the pan.)

In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs for 3 minutes. Slowly add sugar, beating for 2 minutes. Add pumpkin and almond extract.

Combine flour, cinnamon, baking powder, ginger and salt in a separate bowl. Fold into pumpkin mixture.

Spread batter evenly into pan.

Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes. While cake cooks, combine cream cheese, butter, vanilla and powdered sugar. Blend until smooth. Remove cake from oven. Cool for 5 minutes, then invert onto a kitchen towel that is sprinkled with a little powdered sugar. Peel off paper. Transfer cake to a large platter and frost that baby! Cut into squares (I got 12) and refrigerate for 1 hour.

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Kettle Corn

I love kettle corn! I always love going to the fair, just for the kettle corn. Making your own popcorn is a super easy way to save some money. If you're anything like me, you cannot watch a movie without a bowl full of popcorn (or kettle corn, depending on my mood). And we love to watch movies at our house, so we go through a lot of popcorn. Our kids would each eat an entire bag if we'd let them.

We were having a fun movie night at home a few months ago, and I decided to browse around online to find a yummy kettle corn recipe. I came across this one on Food Network, courtesy of Rachael Ray.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup unpopped corn kernels
1/3 cup white sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt

Place oil, sugar and kernels in a LARGE pot with a tight fitting lid over medium heat.

When kernels begin to pop, shake the pot constantly (it will burn FAST if you stop shaking it, even for a second!). Transfer to a bowl, allow to cool for about 3 minutes, then enjoy!!

**To make it more "grown up", Rachael says you can adjust the sugar to 1/4 cup and then throw 1 teaspoon chipotle powder in. I haven't tried doing it this way yet, but it sounds really interesting!**

Is there anyone out there? Tell us, do you prefer regular popcorn or kettle corn? Light or extra butter? Any particular brand you prefer when you buy it?

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Granola Bars

My kids LOVE granola bars. They go through them so fast it was starting to get really expensive so I started looking for recipes to make them. I tried one and didn't really like it much. Then I tried another and I am in love with it. They are sooooooo delicious. If I know we have some, I'm craving them. And you can do anything with them too.

Granola Bars
Cooks.com


4 c uncooked oats (not instant)
1 c. packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
½ tsp ground cinnamon (I just dump some in… we love cinnamon)
½ c. dried fruit (raisins, apples, apricots, cranberries, anything)
½ c. shredded coconut
1 c chopped nuts (we leave them out)
¾ c. melted butter or margarine
½ c. honey



Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Mix well, with greased hands, (I use a wooden spoon) and

press into well greased 15 ½ x 10 ½ jelly roll pan. Bake at 450 for 8-10 minutes until light golden brown.

Cool thoroughly and cut into bars. Store in airtight container.

**April’s notes**
- spray your measuring cup before you measure the honey, then it slides right out
- I spray my hands with cooking spray before pressing into pan… it’s still sticky.
- our favorite is to chop dried apricots and apples (baking isle at walmart) and mix them in for the fruit.

- I put the pans into the fridge after they’re mostly cool. It makes the bars very easy to cut without them falling apart.
- I also store them in the fridge. They crumble very easily at room temperature. They’re delicious chilled and hold their shape.

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Rice Krispies Treats

Alright, I don't know a single person who hasn't made rice krispies treats before. You can find this recipe on pretty much any box of Rice Krispies Cereal. And the best part is it's super easy (as you probably know) and so much fun to let the kids help with.

Rice Krispies Treats



½ stick margarine
6 cups rice krispies cereal
Marshmallows… lots, of marshmallows. (4 cups minimum but I probably use 6)

Grease 9x13 pan.


Measure cereal into large bowl.


Melt margarine


and add marshmallows.


Stir until marshmallows are melted.


Pour marshmallow mixture into cereal


and mix well.


Spread into 9x13 pan. Allow to cool.


We added mini chocolate chips to ours.


Cut into squares and enjoy!

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