Ever year the wives or girlfriends of my husband’s co-workers will bake dessert to give out at his work.  This year I baked two types of cookies.  They were white chocolate chip and butterscotch cookies and peanut butter round up cookies.  Each type of cookie I have made through the year and they love them, so I decided to make them this year.  It was relatively easy.

Here is what the process looks like:

And the end product:

Recipes:

White Chocolate Chip & Butterscotch Cookies

Same Recipe I used on February 20, 2009, except that I used one cup of white chocolate chips & one cup of butterscotch chips.

Peanut Butter Round Up Cookies (makes 6 dozen)

1cup soften stick butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 or 1.5 cups natural peanut butter ( I used about 1.25 cups of creamy peanut butter)
2 cups sifted flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp salt
1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup pecans (I didn’t put these in, obviously)
1 cup chocolate chips

Beat butter and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and peanut; beat well. Sift together flour, baking soda & salt in a separate bowl. Add to creamed mixture. Stir in oats, chips and pecans. Shape dough into 1 inch balls (I couldn’t do this, so I dropped about a tablespoon of dough onto the cookie sheet). Place on greased or parchment lined cookie sheet. Press tines of for to make a criss cross on each cookie. (I did not do the last step either)

Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 8-10 mins ( I baked 10 mins in our gas stove).

Hope you Enjoy!

Sausage Balls!  I don’t know if this is a southern thing or not, but both my family and the hubby’s family make these for the Holidays.  The hubby’s family makes them at almost every holiday or special event, but mine only makes them for Christmas.  The hubby asked me to make them this week because he had a special craving for them.  His special indigent is that he uses Bass Farms sausage (my mom uses Jimmy Dean).  I don’t think it makes a difference, but it does in his mind.  So of course, I made them just like he likes them.

Recipe:

1/2 pound sharp cheddar cheese

1 pound sausage

3 cups Bisquick

Bring cheese and sausage to room temperature.  Mix with Bisquick. Make into balls.  Bake at 350F for 15-20 minutes or until brown.

Outcome:

They came out wonderful.  Even better than I remembered.  I did heat the mixture up for about 15 seconds to melt the cheese and make into better round shapes.  The hubby liked them too!

Sweet Potatoes are one of my favorite foods, along with biscuits.  However with Thanksgiving, everyone generally makes sweet potato casserole.  I’m not a big fan.  Too many nuts, too much sugar.  So this time of year, I makes these for either my or the hubby’s co workers.

Recipes:

Ingredients:

2 to 3 medium sweet potatoes (about 1.5 pounds)

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into chunks

2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar

2 tablespoons white sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

Heat oven to 400.  Scrub sweet potatoes, prick them in several places with a fork, and microwave them until tender, at least 10 minutes. Carefully slice them in half, scoop the hot flesh from the skins, and add to a mixing bowl along with the butter.  Using an electric mixer, whip together potatoes and butter until well combined, about 2 minutes.  Beat in sugars, salt and spices.  Let the mixture cool for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile stir together flour and baking powder in medium bowl with a fork.  Add flour mixture to potato mixture and use the fork to combine well.  You may have to knead the dough by hand a bit at the end.  On a floured surface, roll out or pat the dough into an 8 by 8 inch square about 3/4 inch thick.  With a sharp knife or square biscuit cutter dipped in flour, cut out 2 inch square biscuits. (Making them square means you can use all the dough in one go, rather than rerolling it.)

Place the dough squares 2 inches apart on a baking sheet that has been greased or lined with parchment paper.  Bake until they’re golden brown on the bottom and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Outcome:

I used a the top rim of a glass instead; however, I still used all of the dough.  The only other thing is that I made them a little too thin, still soft in the middle, but I will definitely make them thicker next go round.

With Thanksgiving in mind last week, I did a lot of cooking, some for work, some for home, and some just to make the hubby happy.  A friend from work gave me a recipe for sour cream biscuits.  Biscuits are one of my favorite things to eat and make.  So of course, I just had to try it.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup self rising flour

Mix all together and drop mixture into a mini muffin pan.  Bake at 325 for about 20 minutes until golden brown on top.  Recipe will make 12 mini muffins.

Outcome:

I will definitely half the butter next time I make them.  They were so greasy, it went through four sheets of paper towels, and the grease made me a little sick.  The friend from work said she usually adds a little more flour if the mixture looks too “wet.”

A few weeks ago, I found a recipe online for Banana Peanut Butter  Bread.  I LOVED the idea since I love bananas and peanut butter, but I don’t like nuts.  It was a fairly easy recipe to fix; however, it did make quite a mess!  It was well worth it!  I found the recipe at Lickable Spoon.   She has tons of other wonderful recipes, but this is the only one I have tried so far.

Here is how it turned out!

Last year, I had spaghetti squash for the first time.  I had it at a restaurant and LOVED it!  I literally thought that it was mashed up squash made into noodles.  I didn’t realize it until I went to work and was asking all of my co-workers where to find it that it was actually a squash.  Yes, sometimes I am not very smart.  (And only lately have I became interested in all of the “domestic” stuff like cooking, sewing and crafting).  I found a recipe online for lasagna made from spaghetti squash and zucchini and I just had to try it.  It was not only looked and sounded good, but it created vegetables in a whole new way.

Here is the final result:

I loved it!  It was perfect for me; however, the hubby thought that the spaghetti squash just tasted like not cooked enough pasta.  (I think the next time I make the spaghetti squash, I will have to bake it a little longer)

The recipe is from here: Green Lite Bites.

Hope you enjoy!

I made a whole cake, including icing, from scratch. This is a pretty big accomplishment for me, since I have never done it before!   I saw a recipe online on how to make a Blue Velvet Cake and I had to make it!

I found the recipe on the Food Network’s website. The only problem with it is that it called for 2 fluid ounces of blue food coloring and I had 0.25; therefore, it ended up looking a blue moldy color instead of the actual blue it is suppose to be. It was very good or at least I think so! Below are pictures:

As you can tell, I’m not a very good icer.

What do you think?

(By the way, sorry for the small photos. Apparently flickr is doing something weird and I can’t copy the larger picture’s location.)

All of a sudden, I got into a mood for cooking and since, I have to test out what I’m making for a baby shower in a few weeks, I decided to go ahead and cook the things on the menu.  Everything turned out much better than expected (at least in looks).  I made Junk Food Sushi, Caramelized Apple Cupcakes (100% made from scratch), and BLT Wraps.  I can’t wait to get a taste it all, but I am waiting for the hubby to get home.

Here are the pictures:

Recipe Taken From: Blue Cricket Design

Recipe Taken From: Cupcakes and Crinoline

Recipe Taken From: Cupcakes and Crinoline

Years ago in nursing school, I had a clinical instructor that made this wonderful chicken salad that wasn’t too dry or mayonaise filled with grapes in it.  I love it!  I haven’t seen grapes in chicken salad since until recently.  I found this recipe online at LollyChops.  She even created a recipe card for you in a pdf format.

The only version I made was used 1/4 cup mayonaise and 1/2 cup sour cream.  Next time, I will probably just use sour cream, since I do not like mayonaise at all!  You will have to try it and tell me what you think!

When I got up from working night shift, I ran a few errands and then came home to make cookies!  YAY!  Cookies!!!  As you can see, I love sweets.  Below is the recipe that I made, a friend from work gave it to me.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs

Mix together

• 2 1/2 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt

Mix & add to dry mixture.  Mix together and add 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips & 1 cup butterscotch chips.  Bake for 10-11 minutes.  They will not look completely done, but will continue to cook after you remove from the oven.  If you are using air bake cookie sheets, keep in the oven a little longer.