Holiday Cranberry-Orange Slices

It’s always nice to have something citrusy (is that a word) on a holiday cookie platter. This cookie combines cranberry with orange to make a flavorful, shortbread-type cookie with flecks of red in it from the chopped dried cranberries. This is a versatile cookie, as well. They can be eaten plain, of course, but can also be jazzed up by dipping half the cookie in melted chocolate or dipping the whole cookie right out of the oven in powdered sugar and then dipping them again after they cool. This recipe is from the December 2010 issue of Midwest Living magazine.

Ingredients
1 C. butter, softened
1/2 C. sugar
1 egg yolk
1 t. vanilla
2 1/4 C. all-purpose flour
1/2 C. dried cranberries, finely chopped (I used my mini food processor)
1/2 C. chopped pecans
2 t. finely shredded orange peel

1. In a large bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer for 30 seconds. Add sugar and beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg yolk and vanilla until combined.
2. Beat in as much of the flour as possible and stir in the rest of the flour by hand.
3. Stir in the cranberries, pecans, and orange peel making sure they are evenly distributed throughout the dough.
4. Divide dough in half. Shape each half into a 9-inch log. Wrap in plastic wrap or waxed paper.

Ready to Refrigerate

5. Chill an hour or two until firm enough to slice.
6. With serrated knife, cut rolls into 1/4 inch slices. Place 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
7. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes or until edges are firm and lightly browned.
8. Cool on cookie sheet for 1 minute then transfer to wire rack to let cool.

Variations
1. When cookies are slightly but not completely cooled gently shake them in powdered sugar. When cooled completely shake them in the sugar again.
2. When cookies are completely cool dip half the cookie in 12 ounces of melted semi-sweet chocolate chips. Lay on waxed paper until the chocolate has cooled and hardened.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Dipped in Chocolate

Cherry Fruit Bars

These fruit bars are one of those “go-to” kind of recipes when you need a quick dessert or want to take something into work that people can eat with their morning coffee. This is an old recipe of my mom’s that I can remember her making when it was her turn to host her card club. They are very moist and flavorful and are great served with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, or just plain. The only ingredient you need to keep on hand, other than standard baking essentials, is a can of pie-filling. You can use any flavor you like. I’ve made cherry, blueberry, and apple in the past and they’ve all been great.

Ingredients

1/2 C. butter, softened
1 C. sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 C. flour
1/2 t. baking powder
dash of salt
1 t. vanilla
1 C. chopped pecans or walnuts
1 can of pie filling of your choice

1. Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the beaten eggs and vanilla and mix well.
2. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt and mix until blended.
3. Stir in the nuts until well incorporated.
4. Reserve 6 T. of the batter and evenly spread the rest in the bottom of a greased 9X13 inch pan.
5. Spread the pie filling on top of the batter then dab the reserved batter over that in a random pattern.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

Apple - Blue Cheese Salad w/Toasted Pecans

This is simply a great tasting salad that is good in both the summer and winter. I had a bought a big tub of blue cheese at Costco for another recipe and came up with this combination. The salad dressing really adds to the flavor of the salad but if you want to use a bottled dressing I think a sweet poppyseed dressing would be good.

Salad Ingredients
6 C. Romaine Lettuce, torn in bite-size pieces
1 Granny Smith apple, cored and diced
1/2 C. crumbled blue cheese
1/2 C. toasted pecans, coarsely chopped

1. To toast pecans, place pecan halves on a plate and microwave on high for a minute, stir, and continue to microwave in 15 second increments until toasted. Cool and then chop
2. Place the lettuce in a bowl, top with the apples, blue cheese, and pecans. Drizzle with the cooled dressing to taste.

Dressing
3/4 C. canola oil
1/2 C. sugar
1/4 C. vinegar
2 T. soy sauce

1. Combine the dressing ingredients in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil. Simmer for one minute. Remove from heat and cool.
Serves 4

Lemon Surprise

A few weeks ago my husband and I hosted a small group fellowship service in our home and I like to serve some snacks or dessert afterward in order to create time for more informal sharing with each other. I decided to fix something sweet and something savory. This lemon dessert was a big hit as you can see from the picture. It is really refreshing and is a great dessert during hot weather. By the time I got around to taking a picture it was almost gone! For the savory item I made my Zesty Ranch Pretzels.

Ingredients
10 T. butter
1 1/4 C. flour
1/2 C. pecans, chopped
1/3 C. powdered sugar
8 oz. cream cheese
1 C. Cool Whip
1 C. powdered sugar
2 small pkgs. instant lemon pudding
3 1/2 C. milk
1 1/2 C. heavy cream
1/2 C. chopped pecans

1. Melt butter and mix in 1/3 C. powdered sugar, flour, and 1/2 C. chopped pecans. Press into a 9 X 13 inch cake pan.
2. Bake in 325 degree oven for 15 minutes or until brown. Allow the crust to cool.
3. Mix the cream cheese and 1 C. powdered sugar with a mixer until smooth. Fold in the Cool Whip and spread over the cooled crust.
4. Combine the lemon pudding mix and the milk in a medium bowl. Mix for one minute and allow to rest for several minutes to soften the pudding mix. Then mix on high until smooth and set. Spread on top of the cream cheese layer.
5. In a large bowl, whip the heavy cream with 2 T. sugar and 1 t. vanilla. Spread over the pudding layer. Sprinkle with 1/2 c. chopped pecans.
Serves 12

Blueberry Streusel Coffeecake

A week ago I volunteered to make some coffeecakes for a meeting we were having at church on Saturday morning. Just about everyone likes blueberries so I thought I’d try one using frozen blueberries. They worked just fine but be sure they are thawed and WELL drained before adding them to the batter. I took the picture before garnishing it with powdered sugar so you could see how delicious the blueberries look! This was a hit and several people wanted the recipe. I hope you enjoy it!

Ingredients
1 C. butter
2 C. sugar
2 eggs
1 C. light sour cream
1/2 t. vanilla
2 C. cake flour (or 1 3/4 C. regular flour mixed with 1/4 C. cornstarch)
1/4 t. salt
1 t. baking powder
1 C. frozen blueberries, thawed and drained well
Garnish: powdered sugar

Streusel
1/2 C. brown sugar
1 t. cinnamon
3/4 C. chopped pecans
Mix the stresel ingredients until combined.

1. Cream butter and sugar; add eggs and mix well.
2. Stir in the sour cream and vanilla.
3. Mix together the dry ingredients and add to the wet ingredients.
4. Gently fold in the blueberries.
5. Pour 1/3 of the batter into a greased and floured bundt pan.
6. Sprinkle with half the streusel.
7. Pour another 1/3 of the batter over top and sprinkle with the rest of the streusel.
8. Top with the remaining batter and gently swirl through the layers with a knife.
9. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Cool and invert onto a plate. Dust with powdered sugar.
Serves 12 – 16.

Green Olive Cheese Ball

My son-in-law loves chopped green olives mixed with cream cheese and then spread on crackers. His grandmother used to make that when he was little so I think it conjures up many good memories for him. He wanted me to make Rotel dip for our tailgating venture in Ohio but we didn’t have an electrical outlet at the site so I made this cheese ball for him instead. It was a hit and very easy to make. It is adapted from a recipe I found at cooks.com and makes a BIG cheese ball so make sure you’ve got lots of friends and family around to help you eat it!!

Ingredients
2 – 8 oz. pkgs. cream cheese
4 C. (1 lb.) of shredded cheddar cheese
.6 oz. Italian salad dressing mix (I used Good Seasons)
1 – 5 oz. jar of pimento stuffed green olives, drained
1 C. chopped pecans

1. Place cheese in a large bowl and allow the cheeses to come to room temperature for easier mixing.
2. Chop the drained olives.

Chopped Green Olives

3. Add the chopped olives and salad dressing mix to the cheeses and mix well with a hand mixer.

Mixing up the cheese ball

4. Chop the pecans.
5. Spread the pecans on a piece of waxed paper and roll the cheese ball in them to evenly coat the outside.
6. Serve with an assortment of crackers.

Pecan Cookie Bars Ready to Eat . . . YUM!

Ya gotta love cookie bars! They are so quick to make because you bake them all at once in one pan and then cut them into the size cookies you want and DONE! These bars taste a lot like pecan pie but without so much goo. They are crispy on top with just a thin layer of sweet goo to give them a little chewiness along with the crispness. I think it would be fun to experiment with this recipe and instead of using pecans use a mixture of chocolate chips, coconut, and butterscotch chips. If any of you try other combinations let me know how they turn out!

Ingredients
3 C. Homemade Holiday Cookie Mix
3 T. butter
1 – 14 oz. can sweetened condenses milk
1 large egg
1/2 C. brown sugar, packed
1 t. vanilla
2 C. coarsely chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 13 x 9-inch baking pan with foil so that foil extends to the top edge of the pan. Coat with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Combine the Homemade Holiday Cookie Mix and butter with a pastry blender or two knives until evenly blended. Pat evenly into bottom of prepared pan.

Pressing Mix Into Cake Pan

3. Bake for 15 minutes. Meanwhile whisk sweetened condensed milk, egg, brown sugar, and vanilla until blended. Stir in pecans. Spread evenly over the partially baked crust and return to oven.

Cookie Bars Ready to Bake

4. Bake 25-28 minutes or until golden brown and center is set. Cool completely. Remove from pan by lifting up the foil. Cut into 48 bars. Makes 4 dozen cookie.

Cookie Bars Lifted From Pan and Ready to Cut

Sweet N' Spicy Sweet Potato Casserole

We celebrated an early Thanksgiving with my husband’s side of the family. We also got to tailgate together at the Ohio State-Iowa football game! We divided food prep for our Thanksgiving among all of us and I was assigned my banana bread and the sweet potato casserole. This sweet n’ spicy sweet potato casserole was a hit and everyone wanted the recipe (they already have the banana bread recipe in the family cookbook) so I thought I’d post it here in time for Thanksgiving.

For our large family gathering I doubled this recipe and for the small children I scooped part of the casserole into a separate dish before I added the cayennne pepper and left off the nuts. Sorry the picture looks a little out of focused in the corner but that’s the steam rising from the casserole!! This recipe is adapted from myrecipe.com.

Ingredients
3 pounds sweet potatoes
1/3 C. packed brown sugar
2 T. butter
2 T. orange juice concentrate
1 1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t. cayenne pepper
1/2 t. salt
2 large eggs
1/4 C. chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pierce potatoes with a fork; arrange in a circle on paper towels in microwave oven. Microwave on high 16 minutes or until tender, rearranging potatoes after 8 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes.

Cut each potato in half lengthwise; scoop out pulp into a large bowl. Discard skins. Add sugar and next six ingredients and beat until smooth.

Spoon mixture into a 1 1/2 quart baking dish; sprinkle with pecans. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until thoroughly heated.
Yield 8 – 1/2 Cup servings

Ready to eat!

My husband was given this recipe by a woman who owned a walnut farm when he was in California on business. I made these for a party we went to to watch the Ohio State-USC football game. Go Bucks! They have a sweet, savory, spicy flavor that is wonderful! I’ve made these with walnuts, pecans, and almonds and boxed them up for Christmas gifts for co-workers. They are always a big hit and really easy to make. DON’T use imitation maple syrup . . . it won’t work . . . I tried it once.

Ingredients
5 C. nuts
2 T. olive oil
1/3 C. real maple syrup
1/2 t. of each of the following dried herbs: rosemary, sage, marjoram,thyme, and oregano
1/2 t. cayenne pepper

Whisk the olive oil slowly into the maple syrup in a medium size bowl. Stir in the herbs and cayenne.

Spices & Maple Syrup

Mix in the nuts and stir to coat them well. Spread on a cookie sheet.

Everything mixed together before baking

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown and toasted. Cool. Sprinkle liberally with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Nuts after baking

Store in an airtight container. These will keep frozen for a month. Refresh in 350 degree oven for 5 mintues after thawing.

Double Chocolate Zucchini Cake with Pecans

Yum!

Ingredients

1/2 C. softened butter
1/2 C. oil
1 3/4 C. sugar
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
1/2 C. sour milk (place 2 t. vinegar in bottom of 1/2 C. measure and fill w/milk)
2 1/2 C. four
4 T. cocoa
1/ t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
2 C. shredded zucchini
1-12 oz. pkg. Hershey’s Special Dark chocolate chips
1 C. chopped pecans

Cream butter, oil, & sugar. Add eggs, vanilla, and sour milk and beat well. Mix the dry ingredients together & add to creamed mixture. Beat well. Stir in zucchini and 1 C. of chocolate chips.

In a greased and lightly floured bundt pan sprinkle the pecans followed by the remaining chocolate chips. Pour the prepared batter over the top of the nuts and chocolate chips. Bake at 325 degrees for appoximately 1 hour or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes and invert on a cake plate. When completely cooled sprinkle with powdered sugar. Serve with whipped cream as garnish. Serves 12.