Mexican Wedding Cakes

Preheat Oven to 375 degrees

Ingredients:
2 Sticks Unsalted Butter, softened
1/2 Cup Powdered Sugar (10x confectioners sugar) (plus additional for rolling in later)
2 Cups Flour
1/4 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Vanilla

Cream Butter and Sugar. Beat in the rest of the ingredients (will be stiff). Roll into 1" balls. Bake 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 13 minutes @ 375 degrees. (Don't let the tops brown). Roll in powdered sugar after slightly cooled (or shake in bag of powdered sugar) Sprinkle with colored sugar if desired.

**NOTE! I made these cookies this morning with "salted" butter, and omitted the added salt in the recipe. They still came out delicious! :)

Enjoy!
Louise

Powdered Sugar Cutouts (Orange Peel Cookies)

Ingredients:
1 Cup of Butter room temperature
1 and 1/2 Cups Powdered Sugar (10x confectioners)
1 Egg
1 and 1/2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
2 Tablespoons Grated Orange Peel (or) Lemon Peel
2 and 1/4 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder

Egg Yolk Paint ...
1 egg yolk
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of water
Assorted Food Colorings

In Medium bowl beat together butter, powdered sugar, egg, vanilla and orange or lemon peel until light and fluffy. Add flour and baking powder, beating until blended. Wrap in clear saran wrap well and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours. To bake cookies, preheat oven to 375 degrees. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough 3/16 to 1/4 inch thick. With lightly floured cookie cutters, cut dough into desired shapes. Place 1-1/2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Prepare egg yolk paint. Using pastry brush, brush on egg yolk paint..Sprinkle cookies with desired sprinkles. Bake 8-10 minutes or until the edges begin to slightly brown. Remove cookies from baking sheets, cool on racks.

*This recipe doubles nicely

Enjoy!
Louise

Royal Icing

This icing makes about 2 1/2 cups. Do not double the recipe...you'll have plenty!

Ingredients

5 Tb. meringue powder
1/2 cup water, plus more for thinning as needed
1 pound confectioner's sugar

In a bowl of electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat meringue powder and the water on low speed until combined. Add sugar, scrape down the sides of bowl, and beat on medium speed until soft peaks form, about 10 minutes. Thin with a bit more water, as needed. Icing should be used immediately, as it hardens quickly. This is a great icing that is used to make gingerbread houses. It works like glue!

Gingerbread Cookies

This is a must-have recipe for your holiday baking. Makes about 4 dozen.
Chilling the dough before and after cutting into shapes makes for neater, crisper cookies. You can bake and ice the cookies up to one week ahead; store in an air-tight container at room temperature...or put them in the freezer...they are sooo good cold with a glass of milk!!!!

Ingredients

6 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for baking sheets
1 cup firmly packed dark-brown sugar
2 large eggs
4 tsp. ground ginger
4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup unsulphured molasses
1 recipe Royal Icing

Into a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and baking powder. In a bowl of electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and brown sugar on medium speed until fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add spices, slat, and beat until combined. Beat in molasses.

Add flour mixture to butter mixture; beat on low speed until combined. Turn out dough onto plastic wrap; flatten into a disk. rap; chill 1 hour or overnight.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface; roll out 1/8 inch thick. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters, and arrange on greased baking sheets.

Bake until firm, about 12 minutes, rotating pans halfway through. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely before icing. Decorate with royal icing and anything you wish.

Fudge

Here is a very simple recipe for very tasty fudge. :)

FUDGE

Ingredients
3 Cups of semisweet chocolate
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup butter cut up in chunks
1 Cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions
1. Place chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, and butter in large microwaveable bowl. Cook in microwave till chips are melted, about 1-3 minutes, stirring once or twice during cooking. Stir in nuts, if desired.

2. Pour into well-greased 8x8 inch glass baking dish.(I used Butter Pam baking spray), Refrigerate until set (hard).
Then, cut into slices when hard.

Orange-Scented Cranberry Sauce

I'll make this every year now...it's sooo yummy with turkey!

Ingredients
2 bags(12 ounces each) fresh or frozen cranberries
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 wide strips orange zest,
plus 1 cup fresh orange juice
coarse salt and ground pepper

In a medium saucepan. combine cranberries, sugar, orange zest, and 1/2 cup water; season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil over medium-high. Reduce to a simmer and cook until thickened, 20-25 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in orange juice. (to store, refrigerate up to 1 week. Bring to room temp. before serving)

Makes 3 1/2 cups

Spice-rubbed pork loin with butternut squash

Ingredients
4 Tb. extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cp. packed light-brown sugar
1/2 tsp. ancho chile powder or other single chile powder
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
2 lbs. butternut squash, seeded and cut into 1 inch thick cubes
1 boneless pork loin (5 lbs.), tied
coarse salt and ground pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a large bowl, stir together 3 Tb. oil, sugar, chile powder, cinnamon, cumin, and 2 Tb. water. Add squash and toss to coat. Set aside.

Generously season pork with salt and pepper. Heat a heavy skillet or pan over high. Add 1 Tb. oil and swirl to coat. Cook pork on all sides until deep golden brown, about 10 minutes total. Place pork on a rimmed baking sheet; pour oil from skillet onto sheet and spread evenly.

Arrange squash around pork. Brush pork with sugar mixture from bowl. Bake until pork is cooked through (an instant-read thermometer inserted in center should register 135 degrees), 40-45 minutes, brushing meat with sugar mixture and turning squash every 15 minutes. Tent pork with foil and let rest 10 minutes before slicing.

Enjoy! Serves 8

~submitted by Nicole

Black Cat Cookies

Happy Halloween!!!

This recipe was given to me a few years back by my very sweet sister, Louise. I've made these cookies with my daughter Autumn every year since then and hope to continue till I have a grandchild! Autumn loves to pinch the ears, taking care not to "over-pinch" and they always come out so cute. They're in the oven right now...I wish you could smell them! There's nothing like candy corns to make you feel like it's Halloween.

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
3 tsp. vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup baking cocoa
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
candy corn
Red hot candies, Reeses Pieces, or M&M candies

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; gradually add to the creamed mixture. Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls. Place 3 inches apart on lightly greased baking sheet. Flatten with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar. Pinch top of cookie to form ears. For whiskers, press a fork twice into each cookie.

Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes or until cookies are set. Remove from the oven; immediately press on candy corn for eyes and candies for noses. Remove to wire racks to cool.

Yields: 2 dozen

Enjoy!
~Nicole

Homemade Pretzels

I found this recipe and made them for my preschool class last year. The children loved stirring and measuring and then kneading the dough and shaping it into letters. When I made them last I just rolled out pieces the size of a cheese stick and they plumped up nicely in the oven.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups Warm Water, NOT HOT!
1 Tb. Sugar
1 tsp. Salt
1 packet yeast
4 cups Flour
1 egg
coarse salt

Measure 1 1/2 cups warm water, 1 Tb. sugar, 1 tsp. salt and 1 packet of yeast. Pour the ingredients into a mixing bowl and stir. Add four cups of flour to the other ingredients, and mix thoroughly. Remove the dough from the bowl and knead it on a floured tabletop. Knead until smooth. When complete pull off a piece of dough and shape it any way you would like. Place the shapes on to a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Brush the pretzels with the beaten egg and sprinkle with coarse salt.

Bake at 425° for 12-15 minutes or until they are golden brown. Let cool before eating.

I like to serve these pretzels with honey mustard sauce, or ranch dressing.

Enjoy!
~Nicole

Picnic Pasta Salad

Today is our church picnic, and we were asked to bring our favorite picnic side dish!
This is one of our favorites and wanted to share with you. :)

Picnic Pasta Salad

2 Boxes of Spiral Pasta
1 16 ounce block of Mozzarella Cheeze
1 Cup of chopped Celery
1 Cup of Chopped fresh Carrots
1 Onion Chopped
2 Green Bell Peppers Chopped
1 Bottle of *Kens Light Ceasar Dressing

Cook Pasta , drain and rinse in cold water, making sure pasta is no longer warm.
Cut up Block mozzarella into small chunks.
Chop up all remaining ingredients.

Mix all ingredients in large bowl.
Add bottle of Ken's Light Ceasar Dressing and mix well.

Refrigerate overnight for best results to let flavors mix together.

(You can add more dressing or less depending on your taste, sometimes if I put more dressing, it seems too overpowering, I do like just one bottle for two boxes of pasta)..This does make a large amount..you can half the recipe if you want less.