Another recipe from the White River. Doug's mom used to make these and Myra passed the recipe along to me when I was wrangling horses for them.

Molasses Sugar Cookies

Doug Vaden on the White River

Cream Together:

1 1/2 Cup Shortening

2 cups sugar

1/2 Cup molasses

2 eggs

Sift together and add to above:

4      Cups flour

4      Teaspoons baking soda

2 Teaspoons cinnamon

1 Teaspoon ground cloves

1 Teaspoon ginger

1 Teaspoon salt

Mix well

Form into 1 inch balls and flatten with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar or roll out and use cookie cutters. 

Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes

Half recipe:

3/4 Cup Shortening

1 cup sugar

1/4 Cup molasses

1 egg

Sift together and add to above:

2   cups flour

2 Teaspoons baking soda

1 Teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 Teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 Teaspoon ginger

1/2 Teaspoon salt

We like to cut out bears and decorate them. We've also made house fronts and little houses with this dough and decorated them. We all love this cookie. One thing, when we do use cutters, we don't reuse the rolled dough. We just bake off the little bits and eat them. Too much flour added, like you need when you re-roll the dough, makes it tough and not quite as tasty.

This cookie will keep for ages in a zip-locked bag or airtight canister. They are really yummy dunked in coffee.

Halloween Party Snacks

We had a Halloween Party this past weekend. The girls hosted a murder mystery, written by Bethany, and a costume party. Lots of fun was had by all.

And lots of snacks were eaten!

I thought the Mummy Dogs were very cute...and so easy.

We used one package of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls and cut the dough into very thin strips. We wrapped the strips around hot dogs that we had cut in half. We were looking for finger food, not an entire entree. Then Delaney used a toothpick to put green food color eyes on the mummies. Baked them at 375 for 12-16 minutes. The hot dogs were Cheddarwurst, Beef, and Turkey dogs. The Cheddarwurst sort of "blew out" which made them even creepier looking!

Also on deck were Monster Eyeballs... Devilled eggs with green olive eyes! To add an extra measure of creepiness, I let the peeled hard boiled eggs sit in a some red food coloring with white vinegar for a few minutes.

To top the evening off, Amanda and I made Broken Glass Cupcakes! We've seen several of these posted at Pinterest and we used portions of EasyBaked's Recipe for the most part.

For the glass, we used almond flavoring.

I think if we made it again, we'd spray Quick Release Aluminum Foil instead of waxed paper. 

Don't they look yummy? And they really were easy.

Microwave Caramel Corn

Fifteen years ago a lovely friend, Debbie Burgett, gave me a recipe for Microwave Caramel Corn. This stuff is heavenly! It was medicinal during some edits that I've done. Got me through them. I'd edit a couple pages, grab a handful of this, pace around the house...then get back to editing. Yep, medicinal!

This is the closest thing to Cracker Jacks that I've ever seen. I think it's the baking soda that makes the kernels separate.



Debbie Burgett's Microwave Caramel Corn

2 bags microwave popcorn (we use the air popper and guesstimate amounts)
1 1/2 cups of peanuts (optional)

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup corn syrup

1/2 tsp salt (we don't add this)

1/2 tsp baking soda

 

Pop corn and place half in a large brown paper bag

 

Combine butter, sugar, syrup and salt in a large microwaveable bowl

Microwave on high for 3-4 minutes, stirring after each minute

 

Once it comes to a boil, microwave for two more minutes

 

Remove from microwave and stir in baking soda

 

Pour half of the mixture over the popcorn in the bag

 

Put the rest of the popcorn in the bag and cover with the remaining mixture

 

Close bag and SHAKE WELL

 

Microwave for 45 seconds and SHAKE again

 

Microwave for 45 seconds and SHAKE again

 

Microwave for 45 seconds and SHAKE again

 

Pour into a roasting pan

 

Cool and stir to separate kernels

 

YUMMY!

 

WARNING: The butter, sugar, and syrup mixture is VERY HOT. BE CAREFUL when pouring it over the popped corn. I try to make sure that I don't get any on the SIDES of the bag. It's never happened, but I worry about the bag catching fire. Nope, hasn't happened, but I worry anyway.

 

Options:

 

Add cereal to the popcorn. Quaker Oat Squares are a yummy alternative.

MIXED nuts makes a fun crunch.

 

HALF this recipe is more than enough for two hungry people.

Roasted Veggies

At one of the Chinese restaurants that our family likes to visit, they have these green beans that are heavenly. Kind of crispy and roasted, with some garlic bits stuck to them.

A google search and I had the basics of making some of my own. When I shared a post on Facebook that a friend had posted, I was told that ANY veggie can be roasted. You know I had to try it.

I've roasted fresh green beans twice and frozen ones twice. And they all disappeared quickly.

Today I'm trying frozen broccoli and a yellow squash. It smells so good! This is going to be one of those recipes where nothing is set in stone...or measured out exactly.

Roasted Veggies

A bag of frozen broccoli (or a stalk of fresh, cut into pieces)
One medium yellow squash (or a zucchini!) sliced thin

In a bowl mix together about 1/4 cup olive oil and a heaping tablespoon of minced garlic (and I did use a TABLE spoon, not a measuring spoon. You can add more or less garlic to taste. We LOVE garlic, so the more, the better)
Put a couple "grinds" of sea salt and fresh pepper (I have a salt grinder AND a pepper grinder)

Toss the veggies in the oil mixture and spread on a cookie sheet
Sprinkle with "some" Parmesan cheese, use your best judgement about how much ;)

Bake at 375 for 30 minutes
Stir the veggies around at 15 minutes

Now, you can use ONE kind of veggie or mix and match. I've used fresh green beans and also a bag of frozen. It was all good. This combo (the broccoli and yellow squash) was quite lovely.

My best guess is that if you use FRESH brocoli, the pieces would be more "crunchy." But I have to say, this with the fresh squash and frozen brocoli was really tasty.

The Family gives this

FIVE out of FIVE!