Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Cracked Sugar Cookies and Family party pictures


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Wow have I been exhausted.  I am finally catching my breath.  I was on vacation last week but I was cleaning house and fixing food to celebrate our 25th Wedding Anniversary with family.  Monday last week I was cleaning and making about 17 dozen cookies.  These Cracked Sugar Cookies pictured above is one of my new favorites.  Tuesday, Cally and I put together 8 big pans of lasagna and put it in the freezer so it could be thawed out and baked on Saturday.  Wednesday I cleaned, went to a doctors appointment and then finished shopping for my last minute things because we had company coming on Thursday.  We had a nice time on Thursday, we picked Dudley and Rosie (our cousins from Georgia) up from the airport and headed down to Cincinnati to see a Reds afternoon game.  We had a really nice time spending the day in Cincinnati only thing that could of made it better is if the Reds would have won. 


On Friday I was back in the kitchen again.  I baked all my cakes, made my fruit dip and cheese balls and had a cook out for out with family and friends.  It is such fun to have family in from out of town.  Bill and I love to spend time in our back yard with our family and friends!  We put our fire pit to good use all weekend long too.  In the evening we all sat around the fire and laughed, had a good time and made smores........Reeses' cup smores......oh YUMMY.  On Saturday we set up and I iced and decorated the cakes.


We served appetizers when the guest first arrived.  We had Dried Beef Cheese Ball and crackers, Buffalo Chicken dip, Strawberries and fruit dip, Meatballs and Little Smoke Sausages in a BBQ Sauce and lots of Cookies.  Then we served dinner consisting of Lasagna, Bread Sticks and Salad.  After that we had Cake.  


The precious moments cake topper is the cake top we had on our wedding cake 25 years ago.  Everything went well and we had a terrific time celebrating with family and friends.

Cracked Sugar Cookies
Source:  Simplysogood.com


2 ½ cups sugar
1 lb. (4 sticks) butter, softened
6 egg yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla
5 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease cookies sheets or line with parchment paper.

Cream the sugar and butter until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the yolks and vanilla. Sift the dry ingredients together, then add to the batter in 4 parts, mixing well after each addition.

Form dough into balls or use a 2 tablespoon ice cream scoop to form cookies. Roll in sugar (I used coarse Wilton Sugar)  and place on prepared cookie sheets. Bake for approximately 10-13 minutes. Cool cookies on a wire rack. Makes 3 ½ doz.


Also a shout out of Congratulations to Michelle Hagewood from Just Married Mom of 3 for being selected the winner in the Snap it or Bake it giveaway.  Michelle choose the camera!

Linking up at these great parties!

Cast Party Wednesday
Pint Sized Baker
Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream


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Sorry I have been mia  missing in action lately.  I have been busy getting ready for a family get together for our 25th wedding anniversary.  I have been making cookies and lots of lasagna that I have put in the freezer until the party is here this weekend.  Today I am finishing up my cleaning and going to run to the store again.  Seems like I have been to the store everyday this week so far and I know I have to go back on Friday to get my last minute things and my fruit.  I will be sure to take lots of pictures of everything so I can share with you all next week.

I did find time to make this scrumptious Strawberry Ice Cream.  I think we are about done with the strawberries now so after this we will move on to different recipes.  This ice cream was really smooth and creamy.  I do not like chunks of strawberries in my ice cream but Bill does so I did put little chunks into the mixture and I really did like them.  I think because I cut them up small.  The bits of strawberries were frozen and good.  I think this ice cream base would be good with other flavors also.  I am thinking about trying it with some peanut butter and chopped Reese cups.  Then serve it with hot fudge on top.....just typing this is making my mouth water!

Well on to the recipe because my break from cleaning is almost over......lol



Strawberry Ice Cream

1 C whipping Cream
1 C milk
5 egg yolks
2/3 C sugar
vanilla bean (optional)
1 t vanilla extract
2/3 C strawberry Puree
1/2 C chopped Strawberries

Mix egg yolks and sugar until light and fluffy.  Combine milk, whipping cream and a sliced open vanilla bean (if using vanilla bean) in a sauce pan and heat until scalded.

Take out the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds and put the seeds into the milk mixture, discard the vanilla bean.  Put some of the scalded milk mixture into the egg mixture and mix well so the eggs do not cook.  Then add the egg mixture into the pan and cook until the mixture reaches 170 degrees.

Take pan off the stove and add puree, chopped berries and vanilla extract into the pan.  I put my pan into a sink of ice water to cool down.  Once it was cold I put it into mix ice cream maker and made as directed (mine churned for almost 40 minutes before it shut off)  You can also cool the mixture down and then place in the refrigerator until you are ready to put it in your ice cream maker.


Friday, June 14, 2013

Meghan's Birthday Strawberry Salsa


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Happy Birthday Meghan.  Today over at The Tasty Fork you can see all the birthday dishes that were made for Meghan.  You can click here on Meghan's name and it will take you over to The Tasty Fork so you can help celebrate Meghan's Birthday.

birthday


For Meghan's birthday surprise I chose to make her Strawberry Salsa from strawberries in my garden.  We have had strawberries coming out our ears this year.  This is the best strawberries we have ever had out of our garden.  In the past we had a lot of little berries but these this year are really big!


I hope you have a terrific birthday Meghan and may all your dreams and wishes come true.

Strawberry Salsa

6 cups chopped strawberries (not too small, bite size pieces)

1/2 cup light corn syrup

2 1/2 cups sugar

1 cups chopped onion (a mixture of sweet onions and red onions works best)

1/2 cup chopped seeded Jalapeno’ Peppers (chopped fine).

2 ounces Lime Juice 

1 tablespoon dried cilantro

1/2 tablespoon cumin

2/3 cup red bell peppers

1/4 cup green bell peppers

1/2 teaspoon canning or sea salt

1/2 cup vinegar

Boil the sugar, vinegar and corn syrup till all the sugar is dissolved. Add the spices,onions,lime juice and peppers and bring back to a boil. Turn off heat and add the berries. Let cool.  When cooled some put into a container and store in the refrigerator.  
Monday, June 10, 2013

Strawberry Cream Cheese Bites and a Giveaway!!!


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These Strawberry Cream Cheese Bites are cute and super easy to make.  You just need to take the stem off the berry, take sum of the center out and cut the tip off so it will sit flat.  Then you make my cream cheese dip (click here for the recipe)  and you can either spoon some of the dip down in the strawberry or do as I did and using a cake decorating tip and pipe some of the dip down into the berry.


Good morning and Happy Monday! Boy have I got a great giveaway for you! giveawaysnapitorbakeit Have you been dreaming of owning a new DSLR Camera? Perhaps you want a brand new KitchenAid Standup Mixer. Well, you are in luck! Now you have your chance to enter a giveaway to win your choice of a Canon Rebel T3 DSLR Camera or a KitchenAid Mixer plus a $100 Amazon eCard! This giveaway is perfect for all bloggers. If you aren't a baker, you can choose the camera! If you're a baker who already has a DSLR camera but are in the market for a standup mixer, you can choose the mixer and the Amazon ecard. Already have both? One of these would make a great gift for one of your family members or friends. Whatever your situation, we have you covered. Say hello to the lovely gals who made this giveaway possible:
Before we get to the fun stuff, we'll need to cover some basic legal stuff with you. For the full disclosure, please see the rafflecopter.
  • This giveaway is open to all US and International residents. However, international residents will receive a $450.00 Amazon eGift Card in lieu of the camera or mixer.
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  • The winner will be announced on Monday, June 24th.
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Sunday, June 2, 2013

Strawberries and Cream Shortcake


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Another Strawberry recipe.  We have strawberries galore in the strawberry patch.  I am hunting for a strawberry salsa recipe so that could be the next thing you see get posted to my blog.  We also made strawberry freezer jam today.  We made it two different ways.  The first one was a lower sugar recipe and the Sure Jell directions said to put the sugar and pectin in a sauce pan with water and bring to a boil then add it to the crushed fruit.  It made a really red but clear jelly with fruit bits.  The other method we used the regular Sure Jell and that method said to only put the pectin and water on to boil and you add the sugar to the fruit.  This resulted in the jelly looking really grainy. I am guessing the first way looks clearer because of boiling the sugar with the pectin.  The less sugar recipe does not seem like it has not set up as well so I am thinking about trying it over a scoop of vanilla ice cream.


Strawberries and Cream Shortcake
pinch my salt

4 cups strawberries, rinsed, hulled and sliced
4-6 T sugar (adjust to your own taste)
1 1/2 C flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
4 T sugar
1/3 C cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 C cold milk
1/2 t vanilla
whipped Cream

In a medium bowl combine the strawberries and sugar.  Set the strawberries aside to get juicy while you make the shortcakes. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and sugar.  Using a pastry blender or your finger tips, cut or rub the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs.  Add milk and vanilla all at once to the flour mixture and stir until just combined.

Using a large spoon, drop mixture into 4 equal piles on an ungreased baking sheet.  Bake 12 to 15 minutes at 425 degrees.  Remove biscuits to a cooling rack and let cool for a few minutes.  To serve, split a warm biscuit in two, spoon 1/4 of the berry mixture over the bottom half top with whip cream and the other half of the biscuit.