Valentine's Day Cookies

We've been cooped up inside for the last few days due to weather. A rare event in Dallas! We finally got above freezing today and what did we do? Made it another pajama day and baked cookies. :) My absolutely favorite cookies are my mom's sugar cookies with buttercream frosting. YUM!

This is a NON-refrigerated dough. When I make cookies, I like to make them right away, not wait for my dough to chill, then come back to partial room temp. Here's our super-secret family recipe.

Gram's Sugar Cookies
1 cup margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tsp baking powder
3 cups flour
1 tsp butter flavoring



Cream together margarine & sugar, then add the egg and butter flavoring.

Mix together 2 cups of the flour and the baking powder, then add them in slowly to the sugar mixture. I take it off the mixer and mix in another 3/4 cup of flour by hand. If you're keeping track, we have used 2 and 3/4 cups of the flour so far. Keep the other 1/4 cup set aside. We'll work that in as we roll out the dough. Putting in the entire 3 cups, plus using more as you roll it out can over-flour your cookies and make them dry.

Allow some time for a little Quality Control:

Next, you want to roll out your cookies. My mom taught me this neat trick for rolling out your dough so that it is a consistent thickness. Take a dowel rod and cut it in half so you have two dowel rods approx the same length. I use a 5/16" dowel rod. Tape one dowel rod to the counter. Place your rolling pin on top of it so you can see how far apart you want your second one to be. Once you have figured that out, tape down the second dowel rod.

Of course, if you have rolling pin bands, this isn't necessary, but I don't have any, so this is my method. :)

Flour your working surface with part of the 1/4 cup of flour that we held out. Be sure to give your rolling pin a little flour too. Take 1/4 to 1/3 of your dough and roll it out. Keep the edges of your rolling pin on the dowel rods and all of your cookies will be the same thickness.
Take your favorite cookie cutters and start cutting out as many shapes/sizes as you want.

With the "extras" you have leftover, work it back into the dough instead of continuing to roll it out over and over until it's all gone, then starting with a new part of the dough to roll out. If you keep working the same dough into more and more flour, it will make your cookies hard.

Once you have your baking sheets filled up, bake at 400 degrees for 7-8 minutes. At the 7 minute mark, check one of the cookies and just as it is starting to get very, very, very lightly brown, take the cookies out of the oven and immediately move them onto a cooling rack. Keep in mind, if you leave your cookies on the baking sheet, they will continue to cook, so get them off ASAP.

Don't they look pretty? This is how my husband likes his cookies. I think there might be something wrong with him...he doesn't like icing!

Use whatever icing recipe floats your boat. I'm a buttercream fan, so that's what I used on these.

Happy Valentine's Day!

...9 days early. :)

Linking up at Tatertots & Jello.

Cinnamon Roll Cookies

Every year, I attend at least a couple of holiday cookie exchanges. This year, my step-mother wins the award for having hers the earliest...November 13th! She has pretty specific rules for her cookie exchanges: no chocolate chip, peanut butter, oatmeal raisin, bar cookies or snickerdoodles. I don't know about you, but she just cut out all of my favorites (except for oatmeal raisin...eww!)! This makes me have to be creative, though, and that's not a bad thing. :)

This year, I came up with a cheaters version of snickerdoodles. Please don't tell her! LOL Cinnamon Roll Cookies!

Here are some quickie directions on how to make these.

Take your favorite sugar cookie recipe. It can be from scratch, a package mix or even a pre-mixed dough log from the refrigerated section of the grocery store. Take about 1/2 of a scratch recipe or 1 package or log and roll it out into about 1/8" thick rectangle shape onto a well-floured surface (ding, ding ding...this is KEY! Also, if you are using a premade log, I would recommend kneading in about 1/8 cup of flour so they don't spread out too much.) The thickness part is not an exact science, but keep in mind that you don't want it to be too terribly thick since we're going to roll this up like a pinwheel.

Once you have it rolled out, sprinkle the top of it liberally with cinnamon. Then, starting at a long side of the rectangle, start tightly rolling the cookie dough onto itself, creating a long pinwheel. I would recommend putting the rolled log into the refrigerator for at least an hour, but overnight would be best. You can take that advice or leave it, but if you're not in a hurry to get them done, I would definitely refrigerate.

Once your log has been in the fridge for at least an hour, take it out and start slicing one of the ends, making them approx 1/4" thick. See? You're just making your own slice and bake cookies! LOL Bake your cookies according to their package directions.

For for the glaze, mix together 1 and 1/8 cup powdered sugar, 2 Tablespoons of milk and 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla. Once these are mixed together and it's nice and smooth, pipe it in a zig-zag motion onto the cooled cookies.

Don't they look delish? They are!

Linking up at Tatertots & Jello

Early July 4th Post - Flag Cake Directions

I have had several emails about how I made the flag cake in this post. Here are some quickie directions on how I did mine. I'm sure if you make one, you'll find where how you can save some time. If you do, let me know! :)

You'll need enough cake mix (white) for three layers of cake. Use food coloring to dye one layer of the mix red and one layer blue. One layer needs to stay white. To get good thick layers, I used two cake mixes and had one layer worth of batter left over, so I made those into cupcakes. :)

Bake layers as noted on the box. Once baked and cooled (cool completely!), cut the red and white layers horizontally. So now you have two small layers each of red and white and one regular sized layer of blue. Set aside one each of the red and white layers...those will be the bottom stripes of the flag.

Now, of the layers that you didn't set aside, stack them one on top of each other (do not ice them yet). Using a sharp knife, you are going to cut a circle directly out of the middle of all three layers. I used a bowl as a guide and just stuck the knife from the top...ALL the way through to the bottom using the edge of the bowl as my round guide. So now you have a ring of red, white and blue and three inner circles of the same. Does that make sense?

Take a break now and commence eating the inner circle of blue and the outer rings of the red & white cakes.

ASSEMBLY:
Frost the bottom two layers of red & white that we set aside earlier...the bottom stripes of the flag. Just place a layer of frosting between those layers. Then frost the top of the red and place the blue ring on top of that. I put a small amount of frosting on the inside of the blue ring to help cut down on any crumbs and to hold the next two stripes in place. On the inside of the ring, place the small white circle cake, top with a bit of frosting, then place the red circle cake. Frost the entire cake, as normal.

Is that clear as mud?

FYI - after I sent my cake pictures to my mom? She told me that you can use a checkerboard cake pan and it would be easier. I don't have a checkerboard pan, so this is how I had to roll. :)

Happy Memorial Day!

UPDATE: Go here for a quickie (non picture...sorry!) tutorial.

These pictures are proof positive that I am neither a food stylist nor a photographer. But the kiddos and I had fun creating our flag cake today. :)


Iced and ready to eat:


Surprise!

UPDATE: Directions can be found here.

Recipe Time

A friend of mine gave me this crock-pot Creamy Italian Chicken recipe a few years ago. The first time I made it for the family, I knew it was a keeper. My oldest thought it would be better with some broccoli mixed in, so we adapted the recipe a bit for us.

Behold! Holly's Oldest Child's Adaptation of Cream Italian Chicken!

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
• 1 envelope Italian salad dressing mix
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 package (8oz) cream cheese, softened
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 can mushrooms (optional...I leave these out)
• 2 heads fresh broccoli, torn in to tinier "head" pieces (does that make sense?)
• hot cooked noodles

Place the chicken breast pieces into the crock-pot. Combine salad dressing mix with water and pour over chicken. Cover and cook on low for 3-4 hours. In a small bowl, use a fork or whisk to mix together the softened cream cheese and soup. Stir in mushrooms, if desired. Cook another 2-3 hours on low. Add in cut broccoli pieces and cook for an additional hour...just until broccoli is tender enough to not fall apart. If you put the broccoli in with the cream cheese mixture? You'll just have a delicious mess on your hands. :) Serve over hot cooked noodles.

TIP: Usually, I have to add a bit more water to get it to a consistency that I like. Most of the time, I add 1/3 to 1/2 cup water when I put the broccoli in because I think it helps steam the broccoli better.

I usually serve with some buttered french bread and a small side salad. YUM!