Christmas Cookies - part 1

Tonight I made 2 types of Christmas cookies since I am unable to be at the Cookie Baking Day on Friday - only Saturday. I thought I would make some early! One of the cookies goes way back to when I was little at Christmas. Dad, Mom , and I would always make the sugar cookies pressed with a glass in colored sugar. I also tried a new cookie - Old-Fashioned Molasses cookies. They had a strong smell that I didn't like but the taste was wonderful!

Molasses Cookies

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup margarine, melted
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 cup white sugar

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, mix together the melted margarine, 1 cup sugar, and egg until smooth. Stir in the molasses. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger; blend into the molasses mixture. Cover, and chill dough for 1 hour.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Roll dough into walnut sized balls, and roll them in the remaining white sugar. Place cookies 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until tops are cracked. Cool on wire racks.

It's as Simple as Soup!

I decided a light dinner was in order tonight since we have been eating so much this past weekend. So tonight I will be making one of my favorite Weight Watcher's soups! It's light and you can add chicken (or in our case -turkey) to it to add a little "umph"!

Tortellini Mushroom Spinach Soup
Ingrediants

• 2 cups of chicken broth
• 1 package of spinach leaves
• 1 16 oz. package of refrigerated cheese tortellini
• 1/2 cup of water
• 1 package of sliced mushrooms
• 2 cloves of garlic (minced)

MAKE IT
Bring Chicken broth and water to a boil. Meanwhile sautee mushrooms in garlic until mushrooms are browned. Add totellini to chicken broth and boil for 10 minutes or until tortellini is cooked through. Add mushroom and spinach until spinach leaves are wilted. Serve immediately!

Emily's First Thanksgiving Dinner....

It was 5:40 AM and Emily Wurmnest awake in her bed.
She was going over all of the lists she had made in her head.
Would everything go perfect? Would everything go just right?
She was thinking about the dinner she would be hosting that night.
Thanksgiving dinner came and went without a hitch.
She was proud of her work without one single glitch!

Yes... this was the first year I got to host Thanksgiving dinner. It went perfect and was actually a lot of fun to prepare for. I can't believe how quick it went by! I can't believe my timing even went good. That was my biggest worry. But everything is now over .

Now it's time for Christmas and I will be including a lot of recipes for cold winter nights as well as some of my holiday baking recipes! For starters I want to share an easy recipe for a HOT (literally) item this year in many popular food chains. Peppermint Hot Chocolate!

Peppermint Hot Chocolate

 What You Need

1 Tbsp. finely crushed candy cane

1  serving of hot chocolate mix (your choice) 

1 Tbsp. thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping

Make It

PLACE candy in mug.

PREPARE T DISC in same mug; stir until candy is completely dissolved.

TOP with COOL WHIP.

Kraft Kitchens Tips

Special Extra:

For a festive twist, add a candy cane to filled mug; use as a stir stick. Or, sprinkle additional crushed candy over hot chocolate in mug.

Substitute:

Prepare using a crushed peppermint stick or hard peppermint candies

Favorite Christmas Cookies (test run)

A few weeks ago I decided to make a test run batch of cookies for our annual Cookie Making Day with Diane, Carol, Vicki, and Grandma Knapp! I really want to find some staple cookies I can call my own! Out of the cookies I have tried so far one sticks out above the rest! Thumbprints!

Yield: 2 dozen (serving size: 2 cookies)
Cost per Serving: $.28

Ingredients

• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 large egg, separated 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup walnuts, finely ground
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/4 cup apricot or seedless strawberry jam

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF and line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in egg yolk (reserve white) and vanilla. Reduce mixer speed to low and beat in flour and salt. Continue mixing on low until dough comes together in a ball.
2. In a bowl, mix walnuts and sugar. Roll dough into 1-inch balls, dip each in egg white, then roll in walnut mixture, turning to coat. Transfer to baking sheets. Using your finger, make a deep indentation in center of each ball. Transfer pans to refrigerator; chill 20 minutes.
3. Fill center of each cookie with some of jam (do not overfill or jam will leak out while baking). Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until cookies are golden brown, about 10 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes on baking sheets on wire racks, then transfer cookies to wire racks to cool completely.

Thumbprint Cookies

A Delicious Breakfast Treat for Everyone to Enjoy!

Yesterday morning (Thanksgiving morning) I made a delicious breakfast for Dad, Lori, Chad, and Grandpa Aupperle to enjoy! They came early to help me put the turkey on so it would be ready at 4:00 for dinner. So I decided to treat them to a new recipe that was kind of amazing!!! This could be something special for any holiday breakfast event! We sampled it at Sam's Club which it also where we got the recipe. It is delicious in every way possible! We served it with scrambled eggs!

Pillsbury French Toast Bake

INGREDIENTS

1/4cup LAND O LAKES® Butter, melted

2 cans (12.4 oz each) Pillsbury® refrigerated cinnamon rolls with icing (Cinnabon Pillsbury works well)

6  Eggs

1/2cup heavy whipping cream

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons vanilla

* Garnished with Fat Free Whipped Cream

DIRECTIONS

1 Heat oven to 375°F. Pour melted butter into ungreased 13x9-inch (3-quart) glass baking dish. Separate both cans of dough into 16 rolls; set icing aside. Cut each roll into 8 pieces; place pieces over butter in dish. 2 In medium bowl, beat eggs. Beat in cream, cinnamon and vanilla until well blended; gently pour over roll pieces. 

 3 Bake 20 to 28 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 15 minutes.

4 Top with whipped cream OR frosting from Cinnamon rolls!

French Fries are SOOO last year...

One of my favorite unhealthy foods is french fries. McDonald's, Steak N Shake, etc pack amazing amounts of golden crispiness and salty deliciousness into each and every fry. Unfortunately even a small fry at McDonald's can cost 6 points on Weight Watchers. So I decided to look for a healthy alternative. We tried this recipe on Chad's 29th Birthday and it was delicious! We paired it with a tomato basil marinated pork roast... YUMMM!!!

Roasted Herb Potato Wedges
Makes 4 servings
Prep: 15 minutes (or less)
Cook Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients
2 sprays of cooking spray
1 tsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. Dijon Mustard
1 Tbsp. Rosemary, fresh, chopped
1 Tbsp. Oregano, fresh, chopped
1 Tbsp. Parsley, fresh, chopped
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 pound potatoes, cut into thick fries

Preheat oven to 425°F. Coat a nonstick baking sheet with cooking spray.

• Combine all ingredients, except potatoes, in a mixing bowl; add potatoes and toss to coat. Place potatoes on prepared baking sheet and bake, turning occasionally, until potatoes are tender but crisp, about 25 to 30 minutes. Yields about 1/4 of potatoes per serving.

A Timeless Classic

Every year at Thanksgiving and various other holidays there is one dish that always manages to appear on the buffet line.... Green Bean Casserole! I have always liked green bean casserole but never realized how truly amazing it can be. My friend Lindsey and I were shopping at Sam's Club and of course we were sampling our way through the store. One of the samples was green bean casserole. I hadn't had this dish since last Christmas (maybe even Thanksgiving). As the green beans entered my mouth a flood of emotions and memories flooded me. This was a timeless family dish - one that brought back happy memories of holidays gone by. So I decided I needed to try this recipe and perfect it for this Thanksgiving which we are hosting. I was amazed to find out this dish wasn't only delicious but easy to make as well.
Attempt #1 was last night and was amazing and perfect! Chad gave it a 5 star rating! Here is my recipe that I used. (I altered it slightly to make it more Weight Watchers friendly.)

Green Bean Casserole
Ingrediants
28 oz can of french style green beans
1 can of 98% fat free cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup of skim milk
2/3 cup French Fried Onions
(reserve another 1/3 cup for the top)
optional - pepper to taste (I left this out)

Mix the ingredients together in a dish and bake in the oven on 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Top with last 1/3 French Fried Onions for last 5 minutes.
ENJOY!