Alphabet Soup

Several years ago, my mom gave me an old cookbook, it was hers but I'm not sure she ever used it, Favorite Recipes from Southern Kitchens:  Desserts .  I love this cookbook!  I thought it would be great to go through it and pick a recipe or two to use for this year's 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats series.  For this week, I chose a super easy one, Hello Dolly Cookies.  I have absolutely no idea where the name came from.  I'm really not sure I've ever eaten one before, though the ladies I shared the finished product with knew about them!  I did an internet search too, and it seems they go by a lot of names, including Magic Layer Bars.  Honestly, they are so easy to make.  There's no mixing required.  Kids could absolutely help with these.  The cookies smelled divine while they were baking, and I barely waited for them to cool before trying one. At first I thought "these taste almost like German chocolate cake", then "or d...

I admit, I love snickerdoodles.   Cinnamon and vanilla?   Yes, please.   What’s funny is that I never really had them much as a kid, just occasionally in the school cafeteria.   I know, ew. Anyway, snickerdoodles were one of the first cookies that the Munchkin helped make when he was little.   He could help dump everything in the mixer (or “loud noise” as he would call it!) and then it was fun for him to roll the balls of dough in the cinnamon sugar before putting them on the baking sheet. Even since then, my go-to recipe for snickerdoodles has been this one by Emeril.   It’s a great recipe, baking up a thin, crispy cookie (at least when I make them!).   However, I was looking for something different this time, something thicker and chewier.   I found this recipe from the blog How Sweet it Is .   I decided to try it, and while I did keep the ingredient list the same I changed up the method a bit to suit me better.  ...

On Tuesday I had lunch with some former co-workers.  We went to this little cafe, and I enjoyed warm food and conversation with wonderful company - two great people that I haven't seen nearly enough of in the last few years.  I was also reminded that I am Katy.  Meaning, I am more than "just a mom".  My children each carry a piece of my soul around with them.  That will never change.  But there is more to me than "mom."  However, being a mom and now a homeschooling mom has consumed so much of my energy, that I've had a tendency to forget about Katy, about my dreams and desires.  So, when I decided to make the time to get some cookies created and post about them today, it felt that much better to slip on my purple apron, turn on some music, and dance around the kitchen while baking up these treats.  I'm a sap, I know, I hear it from my husband all the time! While we were at the cafe on Tuesday, we tried several differ...

Hello, hello, hello!  I could babble on about what's been going on lately, or you could just go here and read , so I won't.  ;) Anyway, it's that time of year again, if you can believe it, to start the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies , being hosted this year by Brenda of Meal Planning Magic .  Now, we just got running water back temporarily last night, and for real this afternoon, so suffice it to say I haven't exactly had time to whip up a batch of something yummy, take pics and write up a blog post about it, so I'm going to go back in time to last year and remind everyone about one of my favorite holiday cookies, the Chewy Ginger Snaps .  I've already got a list of goodies I want to make for this year's blog hop, and in the meantime enjoy what everyone else has been working hard on!

  I honestly don't even know how to start this post.  I've written it a thousand times in my head, and now that I'm sitting at the computer, the words won't come. Earlier this week Jennifer Perillo of In Jennie's Kitchen lost her husband suddenly.  There was no chance for a goodbye.  She has two girls, 8 and 3.  Though I've never met her in person, I follow her through her blog and on Twitter.  And even though I don't know her or her family, when I read what had happened, it brought me to tears.  On Tuesday she posted on her blog.  I don't know that I would have had the composure to do so.  This is part of what she wrote : For those asking what they can do to help my healing process, make a peanut butter pie this Friday and share it with someone you love. Then hug them like there's no tomorrow because today is the only guarantee we can count on. So I baked today, along with many others . I made our family's new favorite chocolate chi...

No, this  is not some sort of weird April Fool's Day joke.  You really are viewing an actual blog post from me!  :) I mentioned before that we've had a lot of changes hit recently, and that we are homeschooling our 9 year old Munchkin.  We've been on that adventure for a little over a month and it is going quite well!  It is definitely a work in progress and we are certainly learning as we go, but for the most part we are all enjoying it. During the last month, the Sprout turned 3.  Three years old!!  Can you believe it?  We had his party at home, a Toy Story 3 theme of course.  I had all these grand Martha Stewart-ish plans, but forgot that I'm me, and ran out of time to get them all done.  However, I did get some "3" cookies made and decorated and was pretty proud of myself.  It was something new for me -- I'd never decorated cookies like that before.  I'd always wanted to, I just never had!  They may not look ...

It's almost amusing to talk about the snow day we had a couple of weeks ago, considering that the temperature the last few days has been in the 70's!  Crazy, I know.  But anyway, we had a snow day at the beginning of the month.  Well, honestly, it was more of a snow-covered-ice with sub-zero windchill day.  The schools closed.  My husband even stayed home from work!  So, of course I wanted to bake.  And bake I did! I was able to cross making challah bread off my learn-to-do list , which was awesome!  My loaf of bread certainly wouldn't win any beauty contests, but it definitely tasted good.  I used this recipe from Red Star Yeast  (which I love by the way!), and I would use it again.  I mixed it up in the bread machine, then shaped it by hand and baked it in the oven.  I must make challah bread more often!! I also tried the Baking Illustrated chocolate chip cookies via Brown Eyed Baker .  I don't know...

Have you ever read something, either online or in print, and forgotten to bookmark it so that you could go back and find it later?  Well, that happened to me recently.  Before Christmas I read a blog post somewhere about “painting” sugar cookies before they were baked, but when I went to find it again, I couldn’t.  A (not so) quick Internet search revealed quite a few posts about the subject.  I found one at She Wears Many Hats that I remembered reading, and also one at Pioneer Woman .  Both of those, like most of the others, uses an egg yolk as the base for the paint.  I thought I remembered reading about a technique using evaporated milk instead, which was what I wanted to do.  I never did find one, so I decided to try it anyway and see what would happen! For this little experiment, I used a sugar cookie mix.  I needed something fast and easy, and since I had bought some mixes when they were on sale I figured why not use one.  Start ...

It's Friday?  Again?  I think we have the same conversation every week.  Sorry about that.  If you'll remember, last week I talked about a cookie exchange that I was co-hosting.  It wound up being a small group of people, but it was a lot of fun.  I really should dedicate a post just to the cookie exchange, and the baked brie that fought back! This week's recipe for Mocha Nut Cookies was one of the two recipes that I made for the exchange.  It was a new one for me, and with some modifications I think I like it.  The original recipe said that it would make balls, but mine spread a little more during baking, losing their rounded shape somewhat.  I'll be honest, my notes trail off about halfway through the recipe, so I'm not 100% sure what I did!  I guess that means I need to make the recipe again to double check things.  This cookie seemed to be a hit at the exchange, so I'll take that as a good sign.  I replaced the instant...

I'm participating in (okay, co-hosting) a cookie exchange tomorrow.  When I got up this morning, I had two double batches of cookie dough in the refrigerator to bake.  I'm currently halfway through the baking process.  This is one of the recipes that I decided to try.  Yep...I tried not one, but two new recipes for a cookie exchange.  Eek!  I know there have already been a ton of molasses and/or ginger spice cookies made for the 12 weeks of Christmas cookies...but hey, why not another?  :) If you like molasses, then these are a cookie for you.  If not?  Then walk on by.  You can most definitely tell they have molasses in them.  Which is not bad.  Unless you don't like molasses.  I happen to love the stuff, so I'm good to go.  They spread a bit more than I expected, and are actually crispier than I thought they would be.  These cookies are good though!  And my little cookie monster approved of them...

Wait, it's Friday?  How did that happen?  Well, I guess since yesterday was Thanksgiving, that would make today Friday.  In light of this revelation, I will be revisiting another past favorite for this week's addition to the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies:  Double Shot Mocha Chunks .  They were good.  Very good.  Sorry for the short post.  I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Enjoy!  :)

For this week's recipe, I am revisiting a cookie from early 2009 -- the Chocolate Fudge Cookie with Toffee and Dried Cherries .  It's a recipe that I received while participating in the Cookie Carnival (it is being hosted by someone different now, but still going on!).  Anyway, this week has been just too crazy for me to get any baking done, so I thought I'd pull out an old recipe to share.  It was a really good one, and I may be baking it again for a cookie exchange that I'm co-hosting in a couple of weeks (eek!).  When I first got the recipe, I wasn't sure how they were going to turn out, but I liked them a lot!  I hope everyone has a great weekend! Enjoy!  :)

This week's recipe comes straight from Betty Crocker herself.   Er, well, the Betty Crocker website anyway!  On a side note, I almost thought about trying to be Betty Crocker for Halloween, but ran out of time and didn't.  Maybe next year... These bars are super rich!  They have a great chocolate flavor though, and the toffee bits blend in nicely.  Don't try one if you have a loose filling though.  Can you say sticky and chewy?  I would suggest cutting them into bite size pieces, especially for gift giving or treat platters. I sent about half of them to work with D and apparently they disappeared quickly, with lots of requests for the recipe coming soon after! The original recipe can be found here .  It is quite quick and easy to whip together, since it starts with a packaged sugar cookie mix.  Now, I admit that I don't usually like using mixes, but they can definitely be nice to have on hand, especially when you need to get s...