I'm a sucker for most holidays.  During December you will see me giggling with glee, as I make my husband trek up to the attic in search of my boxes of holiday wonder (aka, Christmas decorations). He faithfully does his duty, perched precariously on each attic board designated as "safe", to prevent falling another falling-through-the-attic-floor incident.  To this day we have a hole - curiously the same size as my husband - in our garage ceiling.

In November, I start scouring my cookbooks to plan the big turkey day meal, and browse the internet for fun table decorations that I always say I'll have time to make, but never do.  July 4th is the epitome of Americana here; Red, white and blue, stars galore, strawberry pie and sparklers too:)  This balmy summer night, we sit in our very classy walmart brand lawn chairs, to watch the fireworks overhead and set off our "city approved" fountains in the driveway.  See what I mean?  Holidays are fun.

Valentine's Day has never really been a big deal at our house though.  Why?  I don't know.  Maybe because we get tired of being saturated with red hearts and pink polka dots the second that Christmas is over.   Maybe we think it's ridiculous how much restaurants charge for a meal on this day.  Maybe we're just crotchety Valentine's scrooges:)  Don't get me wrong, we still celebrate it in our own way, we just don't shower ourselves in copious amounts of roses and giant boxes of chocolate.  While way shy away from some of this holiday's festivities, there's no denying how much I love my family, and I love to show them in my own way- like these Valentine's Fortune Cookies:)

I thought it would be fun to create something with my son for a Valentine's post, and we turned out these super cute Valentine's Fortune Cookies.  They are quick and fairly simple to make, are a great kid friendly activity, and chances are you already have most of the ingredients in your kitchen.


Valentine's Fortune Cookies
Prep: 5 min; Cook: 12 min; Servings: 24

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 large egg whites
1 tbsp water
1 tsp vanilla extract
semi sweet chocolate chips for melting
red decorator sugar
heart shaped sprinkles
paper and pen to write your valentine notes

In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, cornstarch, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add the oil and egg whites, whisking until smooth. Whisk in the water and vanilla.

Drop a rounded teaspoon of batter onto a well-greased baking sheet. Using the back of a spoon or an offset spatula, spread the batter into a 3" circle. Repeat with another rounded teaspoon of batter. Bake at 300F for 8 to 12 minutes or until lightly golden.  The cooking time will depend on your oven, mine were done at 8 minutes.  If the cookies break when you are trying to shape them, try cooking them for less time.

Working quickly, immediately remove each cookie from the pan with a spatula (an offset spatula works well), and flip over into gloved hand. Place your prepared valentine message in the center of each cookie and fold each cookie in half. Grasp the end of each cookie, and place over the edge of a bowl, pulling the edges down to form a crease. Place cookies, ends down, in a muffin pan to maintain shape while cooling. Let cool completely. Repeat procedure with the remaining batter, baking only 2 cookies at a time.

To Decorate: Microwave the chocolate chips in a small bowl at medium power for 2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds. Dip the outer edge of the cooled cookie into the melted chocolate, then into decorator sugar or sprinkles. Place on waxed paper to let the chocolate harden. You can place the cookies in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes to harden the chocolate faster.






Happy Valentine's!

Well, the snow continues to fall here in the Ozarks, and like a bear I have been hibernating inside my cave (read: house).  Unlike a bear, however, I have not been packing on my winter layer of fat:)  I have endured my healthy week, which included daily trudges to the gym and countless moments of questioning my sanity.  But at the end I was happy to be able to indulge in this yummy treat over the weekend.  A moist coffee cake with a slightly gooey center, sitting on a shortbread like crust.  It was well worth the wait!

Coffee House Coffee Cake
Prep: 15 min;  Cook: 45 min  Servings: 9


2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp instant coffee granules
2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 (8-oz) container sour cream
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Combine the flour and coffee granules in a large bowl. Add brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Stir well. Cut in the butter with a fork or pastry cutter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Press half of the mixture into a lightly greased 9" square baking dish. Set aside.
In a small bowl combine the sour cream and baking soda, stirring until well mixed. Add to the remaining crumb mixture, stirring just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Add the egg, stirring gently to incorporate. Pour the sour cream mixture over the crumb crust in the pan. Sprinkle with nuts.


Bake at 350F for 45 minutes. Cool and cut into squares. **Note: When the cake is removed from the oven after 45 minutes, the center will still be slightly jiggly to the touch.  This is okay.  After cooling, the center will set up and the texture will be moist.  If you bake longer, your cake will dry out.

I almost succumbed to temptation today.  Almost.  I have planned to make a particular calorie laden dessert for my weekend treat, but being snowed in with this midwest blizzard had me itching to make it today.  Instead of giving in to temptation, I settled on a compromise instead.  A dessert surely, but a lighter one with a substantially lower amount of calories and fat.  I scavenged through my refrigerator and cabinets to see what I could make, and settled on a Strawberry Apple Crumble Crisp.  I used sweetener in the fruit, and not much sugar and butter in the topping, so the final outcome was something that soothed my sugar craving nerves, but kept my scale happy:)


Strawberry Apple Crisp
(preparation time: 10 minutes; cook time: 20-25 minutes; servings: 2)

Filling:
1 1/2 cups sliced strawberries (fresh or frozen)
1 small apple, peeled, cored, and diced
lemon juice
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cornstarch
3 packets Truvia sweetener (or sweetener/sugar of your choice)

Topping:
1/4 cup oats
1 1/2 tbsp whole wheat pastry flour (all-purpose and whole wheat is fine too)
1 Tbsp brown sugar
pinch salt
1 Tbsp butter (or reduced fat spread if you prefer)

Preheat oven to 400F.  In a small bowl combine the oats, flour, brown sugar, and salt.  Mix in the butter until mixture forms coarse crumbs.  Set aside.



(Nutrional Information per serving: Calories: 170; Fat: 3g; Carbs: 34g; Fiber: 5g; Protein: 3g)

We've had a bit of snow lately, not a lot, but enough to make going anywhere not much fun.  Consequently we tend to stay inside, puttering around the house, guiltily enjoying being lazy and unproductive.  As most people do, I rashly resolved with the new year to eat more healthily. (healthy = eat only 5 cookies instead of 10).

However, being confined inside a house on a cold snowy day, with my cabinets piled with sugar, chocolate chips, and marshmallows, and my refrigerator well stocked with butter - my resolutions went out the window.  Since I'd been wanting to make some form of s'mores cookies for a while, and that bag of mini marshmallows looked awfully lonely on that shelf, I used this as an excuse and whipped up these little bites of heaven.

I have to say, these cookies are up there with my Chunky Twix Cookies, and I foresee a happy future with lots of S'mores Cookies, studded with little pillows of happiness (read: marshmallows) and full of sinful, melty goodness (read: chocolate).

This recipe has made it's away around food blogs, but it is originally from Anna of Cookie Madness.  And while my taste buds may praise her genius in creating these bad boys, my waist line a month from now may not:)  Eat one warm and fresh from the oven, you won't be sorry.


S'mores Cookies
(adapted from Cookies Madness)

1-3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups mini chocolate chips
1-1/2 cups mini marshmallows, or large ones cut up
2 Hershey bars, chopped

Preheat oven to 375F.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla to the butter mixture, and mix until combined. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, graham crackers, salt, and baking soda. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix well. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Use 2 tablespoons or a medium-sized ice cream scoop to drop rounded tablespoons of dough onto cookie sheets. Bake for 7 minutes and remove from oven. Push a few marshmallows and pieces of chocolate into each cookie and return to the oven to bake an additional 3-4 minutes. Allow to cool on a wire rack before inhaling the entire batch!

I like vegetables, but I get bored with fixing them the same old way.  It doesn't help that I have a picky husband whose list of "approved" vegetables can be listed on one hand.  Add to the mix a veggie cautious preschooler, who peeks curiously at his Daddy whenever a new vegetable is served, waiting to see if this is something he should eat or not.  Because of this, I have threatened - er - nicely requested that my husband give a big grin and two thumbs up to any veggie served, to avoid the dreaded picky-eater-syndrome being passed on.

My husband complies with me on this, since I nonchalantly pointed out that the aforementioned "non-approved" veggies could come back to haunt him...anywhere, at any time.

Stuffed in his socks for instance.

Or piled under his pillow.

My imagination could come up with any number of possibilities I told him...and that was the end of my wifely persuasion:)

So, after being on the search for a new vegetable dish one day, I came across this recipe that I just had to try.  Roasted Butternut Squash and Apples.  I quickly headed to the store and picked up the squash, loaded a few apples in the cart, and was on my way home to roast the heck out of some veggies.  This dish is packed with vitamin A, vitamin C, and is a great source of fiber, magnesium, and potassium.

Not to worry, you're kids will never know it's good for them, once you sprinkle a little brown sugar, cinnamon, and melted butter on top.  My little guy even ate his with no prodding, while my big guy kept wisely silent.

I'm guessing he didn't wan't to find squishy squash in suspect places.

Roasted Butternut Squash and Apples
Prep time: 20 minutes / Cook time: 40-60 minutes / Serves: 8

1 Tbsp vegetable oil  (to grease pan)
1 butternut squash (about 2 lbs, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes)
3-4 medium apples (peeled, cored, and cubed)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350F.  Lightly grease a large baking dish.  In a small bowl combine the brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Peel and cube your butternut squash.  Peel, core, and cube your apples.


Combine the butternut squash and apples in the pan.  Sprinkle the sugar mixture over the squash and apples, then pour the melted butter over the top.  Cover the dish and bake for about 45 minutes, until the squash is fork tender.  Uncover the dish, and continue baking until the apples and squash turn golden.  About 15 more minutes. 

Hello! Yes, I know...it's been a while.  Yes, I've been playing hooky....but I had a really good excuse - I promise.  I've been out of town for a while visiting my brother and sister-in-law who just had a new arrival. Here she is, my new niece Lilly Joy.

Would your mind be on blogging when you had this much cuteness to behold?

I thought not:)

I did manage to bake up my Twix cookies while I was there, and was wheedled by my brother to make a second batch so he could take them to work.  He called that morning and said the entire plate was gone by 8:15am.

I was also in the mood to bake cinnamon rolls, and made this version, which is a great cinnamon roll, but a bit too sweet for me.  Yes, I know! Cinnamon rolls are meant to be loaded with a sinful amount of sugar:)  When my husband (who stayed home) found out that I had made cinnamon rolls for everyone, he guilted me into agreeing to make some for him as soon as I got home.  So, once home I decided to make my usual recipe to see which roll I preferred. 

I have to say that I still prefer my tried and true recipe.  I don't even remember where I found it - I've had it for years - but the dough has real mashed potato and sour cream mixed into it, which keeps the dough tender and moist.  The filling, called "The Smear", is soooo good.  These rolls are best the day they are baked, but if they are still around the next day, just pop them in the microwave for a few seconds.  If they are still around a third day...well, then something is wrong with you:)  Give 'em a try, they're good!


Preheat oven to 350F.  In a small bowl, combine the water, yeast and sugar; set aside to foam for about 5 minutes. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the warm mashed potato (just plain mashed potato, nothing added to it), sugar, sour cream, melted butter, eggs, and salt. Add the flour and yeast mixture.  Using the dough hook, mix the dough on speed 2, for 2 minutes.

Add additional flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, until dough just cleans the bowl, but is very soft. Cover with plastic wrap and allow the dough to raise until doubled in bulk, about 2 hours. Punch down and let rise again (about another 2 hours.) On a lightly flour surface, roll the dough into a rectangle and spread with smear. (The size of the rectangle will depend on how large you want the finished rolls.) Roll dough into cylinder. Cut into 1 1/2 inch slices. Place in a greased 9x13 oblong pan.

If baking immediately: Allow the rolls to rise again until doubled. Bake for 30 - 35 minutes at 350. Remove from oven when done and brush with melted butter. Drizzle with glaze while still hot.

Overnight method: Cover the rolls with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator to raise overnight.  When ready to bake in the morning, remove rolls from the refrigerator and let stand at room temperature for about 15 minutes.  Then bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and brush with melted butter.  Drizzle with glaze while still hot.



While the rolls are baking, combine the powdered sugar, butter, and enough milk to make a thick pouring glaze.  Use a spoon or the tines of a fork to drizzle the glaze over the rolls.  Use as much or as little as you like.

I had intentions to make a step-by-step tutorial, but since these were made the night before to bake in the morning, my step-by-step photos had horrible lighting and did not turn out well.  Maybe next time.

**02/2013: I recently posted these Cinnamon Rolls in a new post, you can see the updated photos here.**