Category: Food

Categories
Food

The Green Hornet

My mom & I tend to make martinis when we’re together. I got her this very festive martini shaker a couple of years ago & a friend gave her two green martini glasses that are aluminum and great for martinis because they keep them very chilled. These just motivate us even more to make yummy fun martinis!
When I’d been up to help decorate we used the last of the midori in the cabinet trying to make melon cosmos. We couldnt find a good recipe, faked it just mixing stuff and it was pretty good. This weekend we couldnt remember what we’d made then so we tried it again and they turned out brown & not so good. Then Santa gave me a mini cocktails for dummies book in my stocking to the rescue!
The Green Hornet was the first martini recipe in the book that used what we had on hand. It was very yummy (not too strong but not too weak), very Christmasy green, and a great cocktail hour refreshment!
Ingredients
1 oz Vodka (we used Sky citrus)
1/2 oz Midori
1 oz Sweet & Sour Mix (we used virgin margarita mix that we had on hand)
Directions
Depending on how much we wanting or if it was a refill, we sometimes doubled or tripled this. Shake with with; serve straight up or over ice. Enjoy!

Categories
Food

Praline Pumpkin Dessert

This recipe is an old favorite of my mom’s (so old she’d forgotten about it!). A coworker mentioned before Christmas that it was now their family’s tradition to make “Nancy’s pumpkin cake” so my mom asked her for the recipe back. 😛 I thought I’d share because its easy & festive for the fall.
Ingredients
1 15 oz can pumpkin
1 12 oz can evaporated milk
3 eggs
1 c sugar
4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 box golden vanilla cake mix
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans (we used more like 3/4 cup because I don’t love a lot of nuts in sweets)
3/4 c melted butter (recipe says can be little more)
Whipped Cream or topping
Directions
Heat oven to 350. Grease 9×13 pan. Beat pumpkin, milk, eggs, sugar, and pie spice until smooth (seems like original recipe called to do this with a whisk but notes say to use mixer b/c its easier!). Pour into pan. Sprinkle cake mix evenly on top, then sprinle pecans, then pour melted butter evenly on top of everything.
Bake for 50-60 minutes. Knife inserted in center should come out clean. Cool Slightly. Serve warm or chilled. Add whipped cream just before serving. If top completely with cool whip, store in refrigerator. We just cut pieces, microwaved then topped with cool whip individually. Enjoy!!

Categories
Food

Crescent Wrapped Raspberry Gouda

Mom pulled out this new recipe last weekend. It was a big hit with out family so I thought I’d share. Its a little twist to the standard Baked Brie appetizer.
Ingredients
1 can Pillsbury crescent rolls
1 round (we used wedge) Gouda cheese (we also removed the wax coating)
1 tablespoon raspberry preserves (we just spooned enough to cover cheese, maybe little more than one tablespoon)
1/4 cup toasted sliced almonds (we omitted)
1 egg, beaten (we omitted)
fresh raspberries and apple slices
Directions
Heat oven to 350. Unroll crescent rolls and press perforations to seal. Set cheese in middle of crescent on a cookie sheet. Original recipe calls to divide crescents in half placing cheese on middle of one half.
Spread preserves on top of cheese. Sprinkle with almonds. If divided crescent in half, cover cheese with second half and press dough evenly over tog edges to seal. If place cheese in middle (which we did), pull dough up and over cheese and press to make sure completely covered.
Can top with beaten egg and additional teaspoon of almonds if desired. Bake 20 to 24 mintues or until golden brown. Cool 5 minutes. Serve warm with raspberries and apple slices. We also used crackers to scoop up the yummy goodness!

Categories
Food

Christmas Cookie Exchanges

I love holiday baking! And I better with three cookie exchanges in the next week!!
Tomorrow I’m going to our Raleigh Chi O Alum group exchange. I bought a huge thing of Craisins at Costco a few weeks ago so I wanted to make cookies with them. I thought I’d make the oatmeal white chocolate cranberry cookies that I made for Thanksgiving for one of the exchanges but I wanted to see what else was out there with Craisin’s.
I searched on Kraft Foods this afternoon and thought this Kris Kringle recipe sounded yummy. I halved the recipe since I thought I only needed 3 dozen. I made the dough then realized after looking at the evite that I needed more like 4 dozen. So although Kraft Foods calls these “Big Batch” cookies, mine are little and I was able to make 43 ~ 6 bags of 6 cookies plus 6 on a plate to share and 1 for me to try later as dessert!

Kris Kingle Cookies, adapted from linked recipe (I halved)
Ingredients
1 c (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 c sugar
1/2 c firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 packages baker’s white chocolate, chopped (I used 2/3 c of white chocolate chips)
2 c dried cranberries (I used 2/3 c Craisins)
2 c chopped pecans, toasted (I used a lil bit of chopped pecans I had in the pantry, not a huge fan of nuts in sweets)

Directions
Heat oven to 375.
Beat butter and sugars in large bowl with mixer until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Blend in flour, baking soda, and salt & mix well. Stir in nuts, cranberries, and white chocolate.
Drop rounded spoonful of dough onto baking sheets. I lined my kinda crappy ones with these and my good nonstick sheet was fine.
Bake 9-11 minutes (My oven worked best baking right at or a lil less than 10 minutes). Cool on sheet for 3 minutes then transfer to cooling rack.

Categories
Food

White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

I’ve been trying to come up with cookie recipes for the two cookie exchanges I’m going to in December. I think I might have to make these as a trial before Thanksgiving to see. I loved making white chocolate cranberry sugar cookies last year around the holidays and I think adding oatmeal might be a great addition!
Cranberry White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
from Good Things which she adapted from recipe on the back of Craisins

Ingredients:
3/4 c. butter, softened
2/3 c. packed dark brown sugar
a little more than 1 1/2 c. oatmeal
1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 c. dried cranberries
2/3 c. white chocolate chips

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment.
-In bowl of stand mixer, combine butter and brown sugar and beat on medium high until light and fluffy in texture and color, about 3 minutes, while you gather other ingredients.
-In large bowl, combine oatmeal, flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt, stirring to combine.
-To butter and sugar add eggs, one at a time, beating to combine well after each addition, then add vanilla.
-Stop mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl and turn back on lowest setting.
-Add oatmeal mixture, then cranberries and white chocolate, beating just until barely combined.
-Remove bowl from stand mixer and bring over to baking sheets.
-Best way to do this is with your fingers (although messy) – pick up loose balls of dough about 2 to 2.5 inches in diameter and place onto baking sheets at least 2 inches apart (I place 11 cookies on each sheet, dividing dough into 22 cookies total).
-If you have leftover cranberries and white chocolate chips, top cookies with a couple of each.
-Place in preheated oven and bake for exactly 10 minutes.
-Remove from oven, cookies will be slightly golden around edges and middles look a bit underdone.
-Let cool 5 minutes on cookies sheets and then place on wire racks to cool completely before serving.
*I will edit her recipe instructions once I make them and add my own pictures. I don’t have a kitchenaid stand mixer so I’ll be using my electric mixer. *