Sugar Cookies

Sugar Cookies

1 cup Butter- soft

2 cups Sugar

2 Eggs

1tsp. Vanilla

1 cup Sour cream

½ tsp. Baking soda

4 tsp. Baking powder

5+ cups of flour

½ tsp. Salt

o   Preheat your oven to 350 degrees

o   Cream butter, eggs, sugar, and  vanilla until light and fluffy

o   Add in sour cream

o   Sift in dry ingredients

o   Add flour to batter until it isn’t sticky- which for me is usually another 1- 1 ½ cups

o   Dump dough onto plastic wrap and wrap it up

o   Refrigerate dough for an hour

o   I like to roll out my dough to be about ¼ inch thick

o   Bake cut out cookies for 12-15 minutes (mine take 13 minutes to be perfect)

o   Yields around 6 dozen

Frosting

 *my coveted recipe*

1lb. Powder Sugar –which equals 3 ½ cups

8 oz. Cream cheese- Soft

2Tbl. Evaporated milk- you can use regular milk too-

1 tsp. Vanilla

Orange zest to taste

o   Combine all ingredients in your mixer.

o   I like to sift my sugar to break up the clumps

o   Be careful with you milk because too much will make it too runny and it is hard to get it to equal out again without making it taste like powder sugar.

o   The secret is the evaporated milk. It makes it have creamier taste. Using milk will still taste really good though.

o   Add any desired food coloring

o   I also like to pipe the frosting onto my cookies. I find it easier and less messy.

White Chili

(sorry so late; lost my recipe)

4 lg. chicken breasts/rotisserie chicken

1 T olive oil

1 med. onion

3 cloves garlic

1 32-oz box chicken broth

2 cans Great Northern beans - drained & rinsed

2 4-oz cans diced green chilis

2 15-oz cans white corn w/ juice OR frozen

1 T cumin

1/2 t oregano

1/2 t coriander

1/2 t salt

fresh cracked pepper

1 lime

1/3 c chopped cilantro 

Garnishes: limes, shredded monterey jack cheese, sliced avocados, sour cream, cilantro, tortilla strips

In large pot, sautee onions until translucent.  Add chicken and garlic  and cook until done (if raw, I cube--if not I add shredded rotisserie with next step).  Add chicken broth, rinsed beans, green chilis (w/juice), white corn (w/juice), cumin, oregano, coriander, salt, a few turns pepper.  Bring to boil, then simmer 10 mins.  

Remove from heat, add squeezed lime and cilantro.  Best served with garnishes!

Christmas Cheese Ball

2- 8oz. packages of Cream Cheese -softened

3- Green Onion tops- chopped

1/2tsp. Dry Mustard

2 1/2 tsp. Bon-Appetite (it's a seasoning)

a few shakes of the dry chives

Mix all ingredients together and chill to refirm cheese. After it's chilled, form it into a ball and roll it in slivered almonds or any chopped nut. Serve with crackers of veggies.

Lemon Meringue Pie

9 in cooked pie crust
1 1/2 c sugar
2 1/4 c water
2 big lemons, juiced
7 1/2 T cornstarch
6 T water
3 extra large egg yolks

Put 2" of water in bottom of a double broiler. Mix sugar and water in top of double broiler. Add lemon juice. Stir over medium heat until hot.

Mix together in a small bowl cornstarch and water until creamy. Slowly add cornstarch mixture to lemon mixture. Stir constantly so that it will not be lumpy. Stir over medium heat until mixture thickens

Beat egg yolks slightly in a small bowl (I use the cornstarch bowl:)) Add 4 T of hot lemon mixture into egg yolks and stir. Slowly pour into lemon mixture. Cook a little longer and pour into cooked pie shell. Top with Meringue.

MERINGUE

3 egg whites
4 T powdered sugar
1/2 t vanilla
1 t cream of tartar

Beat egg whites adn cream of tartar until frothy. Add sugar gradually and beat until stiff. Add vanilla and pile on pie.

Bake at 325 for 15-18 minutes

Recipe can be doubled but not trippled

Apple Cream Pie

2 cups sugar, divided
1 cup flour
2 T flour
1/8 t salt
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 c sour cream
5 apples, cored, peeled and grated
9 inch pie crust, unbaked
1/2 c butter, softened
2 t cinnamon

Mix together on cup sugar, 2 T flour, salt,egg, vanilla, sour cream and apples. Pour into pie crust. Set aside.

Mix remaining flour, sugar, butter and cinnamon. This mixture should look like little pebbles. Sprinkle on top of pie.

Bake at 400 until bubbly about 35-40 minutes.

Pie Crust

6 Cups Flour
3/4 teaspoon Salt
3 Cups Shortening
1 Cup Water
3 Eggs
1 Tablespoon Vinegar

Mix with beater; flour, salt and shortening.

In a 2 cup measuring cup mix with beater; water, eggs and vinegar. Add liquid to flour mixture and combine well. If to sticky add flour a little bit at a time.

Form into fist size balls. Roll out on floured surface. Put in pie tin, prick crust with fork tines. Bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes. For best results put a cheese cloth on top of pie crust and then fill with dried beans when there is three minutes left remove beans and cheese cloth.

Fill with your favorite pie recipe, quiche, tart, chicken pot pie.

The remaining dough balls can be frozen(up to six months) or refrigerated(up to three weeks). When ready to use put on counter and let the balls thaw. Use when they are just colder than room temperature.

Garden Soup

2 cups Chicken-cooked/cubed
1 cup Minute Rice- uncooked
1 cup Carrots- grated
1 large Zucchini -grated
2 stalks Celery- chopped
1 can Cream of Chicken
3 cans Chicken Broth or 6 cups water & 6 Chicken bullion
1Tbl dried Onion
Salt and Pepper to taste

Put all the ingredients in a crock pot and heat all day on low.

2Tbl Butter 2Tbl Flour 1 cup Milk Green Onions- chopped

About an hour before serving brown butter in a sauce pan and then add flour and milk and stir until smooth. Heat on med until it thickens and then add it to the soup. Add green onions. Salt and pepper to taste.

Limeaid

32 oz of freash squeezed lime juice (if you use the bottled kind-don't bother to make it because it its just not the same!!)

6 QTS cold water & ice

6 cups of sugar- give or take depending on how tart you want it

stir stir stir!!

Shrek Margaritas

Shrek Margaritas

1/2 small can white grape juice concentrate
1/4 lime including rhine
1/2 orange peeled
1/4 pineapple
ice
couple handfuls of raw spinach

Blend well in a blender

My children absoutely love this drink. They ask for it all the time!
Don't be scared of the Spinach you can not taste