Italian Cookies II

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• 12 cup softened butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 8 ozs ricotta cheese
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 12 tsp baking soda
• 14 tsp salt
• 2 tbsps softened butter
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 14 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 12 tbsps milk

PREP TIME

30 min

TOTAL TIME

45 min

SERVINGS

 

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Preparation

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together 1/2 cup butter and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla and ricotta cheese. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; gradually stir into the cheese mixture. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are golden. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
4. In a medium bowl, cream together the remaining butter and confectioners' sugar. Beat in vanilla and milk gradually until a spreadable consistency is reached. Frost cooled cookies.

Santa Hat Pretzels Dip 1/2 of twisted pretzel in white chocolate
and dip in red sanding sugar. Use mini marshmallow for ball.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/marYvelous-Cakes/151904264875055

Meltingly tender onions, meaty stock, and rich, nutty melted cheese—these are the indispensable elements that make this boldly flavored soup a hallmark of French cuisine—and a favorite of American tables, too. Take the time to make your own stock and you will be rewarded with deep flavor and savory goodness.

French Onion Soup

2 Tbs. unsalted butter

2 1/2 lbs. yellow onions, halved and thinly sliced

1 Tbs. all-purpose flour

1 cup dry white wine

8 cups beef stock

2 tsp. minced fresh thyme, or 1 tsp. dried

1 bay leaf

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

1 crusty baguette

2 2/3 cups shredded Gruyère cheese

In a large, heavy sauté pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onions, stir well, cover and cook for 5 minutes. Uncover, reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender and deep golden brown, about 30 minutes.

Sprinkle the flour over the onions and stir until combined. Gradually stir in the wine, then the stock, and finally the thyme and bay leaf. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer, uncovered, until slightly reduced, about 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Discard the bay leaf.

Meanwhile, preheat a broiler. Have ready eight 1 1/2-cup broilerproof soup crocks. Cut the baguette into 16 slices, sizing them so that 2 slices will fit inside each crock. Arrange the bread slices on a baking sheet and broil, turning once, until lightly toasted on both sides, about 1 minute total. Set the slices aside. Position the oven rack about 12 inches from the heat source, and leave the broiler on.

Ladle the hot soup into the crocks. Place 2 toasted bread slices, overlapping if necessary, on top of the soup and sprinkle each crock evenly with about 1/3 cup of the Gruyère. Broil until the cheese is bubbling, about 2 minutes. Serve at once. Serves 8.

http://blog.williams-sonoma.com/french-onion-soup/

Peanut Butter Reindeer Cookies~ 3/4 cup peanut butter
1 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup shortening
3 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon vanilla

1 egg
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
Chocolate-covered mini pretzels
Mini brown M&Ms
Regular-sized red M&Ms


Preheat oven to 375°F.


Combine brown sugar, peanut butter, shortening, milk, and vanilla in large bowl. Beat at medium speed until well blended. Add egg; beat until just blended.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/marYvelous-Cakes/151904264875055

https://www.facebook.com/familytree

Ingredients

Box brownie mix

Green icing (or vanilla icing with a few drops of green food coloring)

Sprinkles, mini m&m’s, etc. for decorating

Candy Canes, broken

Directions
■Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Line 9-inch square pan with foil so foil extends about 2 inches over sides of pan. Grease bottom only of foil with cooking spray or shortening.
■Make and bake brownie mix as directed on box. Cool completely, about 1 1/2 hours. Remove brownie from pan by lifting foil; peel foil away. To cut brownie into triangles, cut into 3 rows. Cut each row into 5 triangles, see diagram. Save smaller pieces for snacking.
■Stir food color into frosting. Spoon frosting into small resealable food-storage plastic bag; partially seal bag. Cut off tiny bottom corner of bag. Squeeze bag to pipe frosting over brownies. Sprinkle with decors.
■Break off curved end of candy cane; insert straight piece into bottoms of triangles to make tree trunks

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Christmas-lovers/371710542898366

Oh So ShAbBy By Debbie Reynolds shares

http://www.ohsoshabbybydebbie.com/

Easy Cheese Danish 
Ingredients:
2 cans ready to use refrigerated crescent rolls
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese

1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg white

Glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:
Preheat oven to 350* degrees and grease a 13X9-inch baking pan. Lay a pack of crescent rolls in the pan and pinch the openings together. Beat the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and egg together until smooth. Spread the mixture over the crescent rolls evenly and then lay the second pack of crescent rolls on top of the cheese mixture and brush with egg white. Bake for 35-45 minutes until the top is golden brown. Top with glaze after cooling for 20 minutes.

Kitchen Notes:
I have made this danish using low fat cream cheese and splenda (sugar substitute) and it was delicious! Also, the amount of filling the original recipe calls for makes a VERY heavily filled danish. I have halved the filling using 1 package of cream cheese, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 whole egg, and a 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract and it was still very good. If you use the half filling method, bake for closer to 30-35 minutes.

http://kitchengirljo.blogspot.com/2009/07/easy-cheese-danish.html

http://thewhoot.com.au/whoot-news/chummy-mummy/snowmen-cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 12 cupcakes, baked in colored foil liners, cooled
• 1/4 cup each red and green decorating sugar
• 24 mini vanilla wafers
• 1 can (16 oz.) vanilla frosting
• 4 orange fruit slices
• 1/4 cup dark chocolate frosting
• 1 cup white decorating sugar
• 6 each red and green licorice twists
• 24 pink large sprinkles
• 24 mini brown M&M’s

Directions:

1. Place the red and green sugars in separate shallow bowls. Spread a thin layer of vanilla frosting on top of the mini vanilla wafers to cover. Press the top of 12 wafers into the red sugar to coat. Repeat with the remaining 12 wafers and press into the green sugar. Set aside.

2. Cut 12 1-inch triangles from the orange slices to make the noses. Spoon the dark chocolate frosting into a freezer-weight ziplock bag. Spoon 1/4 cup of the vanilla frosting into a freezer-weight ziplock bag. Place the white decorating sugar in a shallow bowl. Spread the remaining frosting on top of cupcakes and make a smooth mound. Roll the tops of the frosted cupcakes into the white sugar to cover completely.

3. Add the cut orange candy as the nose in the center of the cupcake. Add the chocolate candies as the eyes. Snip a very small corner from the bag with the chocolate frosting and pipe a mouth. Add the pink sprinkles as cheeks.

4. Cut the licorice twists into 12 6-inch lengths for the bands of the earmuffs. Insert the 2 cut ends into either side of the cupcake for the headband. Snip a small corner from the bag with the vanilla frosting. Pipe a dot of vanilla frosting on either side where the licorice enters the cupcake. Add the like colored vanilla wafers as the muffs. Repeat with the remaining cupcakes.

http://www.ucreateparties.com/2012/11/3-ways-to-serve-pumpkin-pie-by-sweeter.html

http://www.ucreateparties.com/2012/11/3-ways-to-serve-pumpkin-pie-by-sweeter.html

3 Ways to Serve Pumpkin Pie by Sweeter Than Cupcakes

Hi, I’m Courtney from Sweeter Than Cupcakes. I love to fill my time sewing and baking then sharing things I learn along the way. This post was inspired by the dessert table I did for my daughter’s recent shabby chic pumpkin first birthday. With Thanksgiving around the corner, I put together a few new ways to present the traditional pumpkin pie. This is just a new spin on a classic.

Materials Needed:

• Prepared pumpkin pie – I simply mixed and baked the pumpkin pie based on the directions on the can of pumpkin puree. The only change is to omit the crust. Bake the pie filling in a greased pie dish without a crust.
• Cool Whip
• Packaged roll out pie crust
• cookie cutters
• push pop containers (you can find these here)
• canning jars (I used 4 oz. regular mouth jars)
• piping bags and large round tips
• cookie sheets

The three techniques I will show you are cracker style, push pop pie, and pie in a jar. For each technique I baked the crust before assembly. Let’s get started!

Roll out the pie crust on a floured surface. Cut the dough into your desired shape. For the cracker style, I used a flower cutter and a round cutter around 1.5 to 2 inches in diameter. If you cut these too big, the flaky crust may not hold up to the topping. For the push pops, use the container to cut the crust circles. For the pie in a jar, use the canning jar ring to cut larger circles.

For the cracker style and push pops, lay out the crusts flat on a cookie sheet. For the pie in a jar, press the crust discs to the bottom and slightly up the sides of the jars. You will bake the crust in the jar. Prick the crusts with a fork. Bake the crusts at the recommended temperature but reduce the time. For me, the cracker and push pop crusts took about 8 minutes, but the jars took the full recommended time. Let the crusts cool.


Fill you pastry bags fitted with large round tips with the baked pumpkin pie and Cool Whip. 
Cracker Style Pumpkin Pie

For the crackers, pipe a small dollop of pumpkin pie on the crust.



Then top with Cool Whip.

Push Pop Pumpkin Pie

For the push pops, begin with dropping a crust disc to the bottom of the container. This disk may be slightly large for the bottom of the push pop. As you can see in the photo, I gently broke up the crust a little to get it to lay flat. (Don’t worry, no one will notice!)

Pipe in the baked pumpkin pie and Cool Whip layers. Top with another crust disc. This one should fit just fine. Repeat pumpkin pie and Cool Whip layers ending with a nice swirl of Cool Whip.

Mini Jar Pumpkin Pie 
For the pumpkin pie jar, pipe in a thick layer of the baked pumpkin pie, and top with a nice swirl of Cool Whip.
Do one variation or all three. Either way, guest will be pleasantly surprised by a unique presentation. By the way, these help with portion control too! Most importantly, enjoy!

Tip:Keep the Cool Whip piping bag chilled in between use. By the time I got to the pies in jars, my Cool Whip did not stay quite as smooth.

Courtney, you did a great job!!! I am so inspired to serve my pies in a nontraditional way this Thanksgiving! Thank you for sharing it with us!
To find Sweeter Than Cupcakes:
Blog: Sweeter Than Cupcakes
Facebook: Sweeter Than Cupcakes
Pintrest: Courtneyd

Easy Chicken Salad

Pull the meat from the bone of one Broasted Chicken (tear in bite sized pieces)

6 boiled eggs diced.

1/2 very small diced onion

1/2 teaspoon of celery salt

2 teaspoons of seasoning salt

1 1/2 cups of Miracle Whip

Mix well and serve on soft bun of choice with a leaf of lettuce.  

Meat Balls

Mix 2 lbs of good quality ground beef

1 lb of loose Italian sausage

2 eggs

1 cup Panco bread crumbs

1 small can tomato paste

1 envelope of French onion soup mix

Make 25 golf ball size meatballs

Brown in cast iron skillet (Do not cook through)

Put in crock pot 

Mix 3 cans tomato sauce

1/2 cup Spaghetti seasoning

1/4 garlic flakes

1/4 onion flakes

Pour over meatballs in crock pot and cook about 3 hours.

Serve over warm pasta or on a fresh roll with provolone cheese. 

Cookie Monster Cake

Cute and very simple.  

Vegetable Flowers 

Fill the cups with celery 

Stick the veggies on the celery with toothpicks

Use a  cookie cutter to cute out cucumber flower 

Stick carrot center on with cream cheese

From Amy Locurto @ Living Locurto 

Fall Popcorn - put two bags of popped popcorn and a bag of candy corn in a bowl, drizzle 1 package (16 ounces) of white almond bark over the popcorn and candy corn, then spread out on to wax paper. Sprinkle with halloween sprinkles and let cool 15-30 minutes. Then break it up and enjoy!!

Repinned from Autumn🎃Thanksgiving by Robin Neer

Easy White Pasta Dish

Ingredients:

About 3 cups of pasta, I used small shells this time but any will do

1 cup of frozen peas

1 small can of mushroom pieces
touch of salt

Boil all together until pasta is just past al dente

Put cooked ingredients in colander and leave set while you make the sauce

Using your original pan add:

1 8oz bar of cream cheese

1/4 cup of butter

1/3 cup milk

Heat over medium heat, stir often until all melted together

  Mix altogether and serve.

I sometime add bacon or ham if I have leftovers.  (Who would think you would have leftover bacon?) 

Enjoy

Taco Salad 

Fry 1 1/2 pound of ground beef, rinse and put in big bowl

When beef is cool add shredded head of lettuce

Add chopped tomatoes 

chopped onion 

1 can of red kidney beans (rinsed)

bag of shredded cheese (I use Mexican)

At this point it can be made a head of time and refrigerated or over night.

Right before serving:

Mix in a bag of Fritos to the salad and the salad dressing.

Dressing:

Large bottle of Western Dressing and envelope of Taco seasoning, mixed well.     

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Sour Cream Coffee Cake


Ingredients:
1 pkg yellow cake mix (without the pudding in the mix)
1 pkg instant vanilla pudding (4 serving size)
3/4 cup warm tap water
1/2 cup oil
3 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream - Add Last


Put 1/2 cake mixture in greased 9 x 13 pan
add 1/2 topping mixture (see below)
Repeat, bake @ 350 for 30 to 40 minutes


Topping:
1/3 cup white sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 to 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar


                                                            Thank you Sara Bartolomucci for sharing!!


(If you don't have sour cream you can use vanilla yogurt).