Recipes: Fudge pie and homemade vanilla ice cream Topic: Crickl's Recipes I got to thinking you might want the homemade ice cream recipe to go along with your Fudge Pie. This is a recipe given to me by Nancy, the pastor's wife at our first official church position (Charles was the youth minister) after seminary, in a small town in Oklahoma. And I think she got the recipe from her mother in law. I've never found a better one!
Ice cream
1 qt half and half 2 c sugar 1 can sweetened condensed milk 2 tsp vanilla pinch of salt
1 gallon of milk (I use 2 percent)
Pour all ingredients, except the gallon of milk into a large bowl and mix with a beater. Pour into ice cream churn. Pour in milk (not skim, but any other kind) to 'fill' line and churn as directed.
Makes 1 1/2 gallons
Fudge Pie
Melt together: 1 stick of margarine or butter 1 square of unsweetened baker's chocolate
Add: 1 cup sugar 2 eggs 2/3 cup flour 1 tsp vanilla
Pour into greased pie pan and bake for 30 minutes at 325 degrees. The texture is crunchy on top, then custard like in the middle. Serve hot with ice cream.
On conferences and company Topic: Crickl's Recipes
It's been a fly by week for me. Things to blog about go through my head during the day but when I sit down here to write, nuttin....
We had our denomination's state women's conference today and last night, so it was a good couple of days. Mary Kassian was the main speaker and is a really great Bible teacher. I was a little comfuddled this year about the schedule of the conference. It was changed all around, so I only go to go to 3 break out sessions, instead of 5. This morning I went to a lovely breakfast for the state pastor's wives, then to one on party ideas, and finally to one on writing. I don't know what I wanted or will use from that class on writing, but I am tucking it away for future reference and gathered some good ideas.
I wish I could have stayed for the last main session, but I had things at home to catch up on. We have company coming tomorrow, so I stopped by the store. When I walked in the door, the smell of floor cleaner in the air put a smile on my face and as I looked around at my clean house, I felt a heavy load release from my shoulders. My husband and kids had the house all ready for company. All I have to do is cook.
I got a brisket from Smart and Final which I will put in the electric roaster in the morning with some Claude's Texas Brisket Marinade over it. (it makes it taste like it was cooked in a wood smoker) And I'm making a salad, oven roasted zucchini, mashed potato casserole, rolls and a pomegrante/cranberry coffee cake (from Smart and Final) with fruit salad for dessert.
Oven roasted Zucchini Here is my 'how-to', but it is not a precise recipe. Wash zucchini squash and cut off the ends. Slice in diagonal chunks or slice lengthwise. Cut an onion (your choice, I use a sweet onion) into wedges. In large bowl, toss squash and onions with enough olive oil to coat, but not enough to leave a puddle in the bowl. Dump it all onto a baking sheet (or baking stone if you have one) and sprinkle with kosher salt or sea salt, grated parmessan cheese and coarse ground black pepper. Bake at 450 for 20 minutes, then stir and bake another 5 minutes.
Mashed Potato Casserole Cook enough potatoes for your family or company, then mash, using half a stick of butter and a little bit of milk. (go easy on the milk) Add salt and pepper to taste. Then add a half a block (4 oz) of cream cheese, about 1/4 cup of pureed onion (slice fresh onion and put in food processor or blender for a few seconds...you may need to add a few drops of water to get a good puree), and enough sour cream to make it the right consistency....good and creamy. You can make this ahead of time and put it in the refrigerator or freeze an extra casserole of it for another day. You can also top it with Durkee French Fried Onions. Bake for about 30 minutes at 350.
Oh and ps to MJ....please send me your new email address! crickandchas@yahoo.com
Brown rice and black bean salad Topic: Crickl's Recipes
I am trying to include more whole grains in my diet, as well as my family's (yes, husband, that's you). So here is a really good recipe which uses brown rice. Since I'm not a big fan of brown rice (I grew up on Minute Rice and Rice-a-Roni), I love finding ways to make it more tasty. And this is truly a yummy salad!
This is from my friend Sally. It is a vegetarian main course as well as a good side dish or a filling for tortillas. (cold or warm!)
Brown Rice and Black Bean Salad
2 cups cooked brown rice (I use long grain), room temperature 1 15-oz can of black beans, drained 1 11-oz can of corn, drained 1 medium red onion, diced 1 medium green bell pepper (I prefer yellow) 1/3 cup cilantro (or parsley or even spinach)
Combine all of these ingredients. Then prepare dressing:
Dressing 1/2 cup tomato salsa 1 tsp olive or canola oil 3/4 tsp ground cumin 1 orange, juiced (about 1/2 cup) 1 lime, juiced (about 1/4 cup) Salt and pepper to taste
Combine dressing ingredients in small bowl and whisk until blended.
Both Sally and I have found that for the best taste, dress the salad just before serving.
Serve as a salad or in a pita bread, cold or in a tortilla with shredded cheese, warmed up.
Makes 4 servings. Each serving counts as: 1 1/2 vegetable 1 whole grain/bread 1 bean/protein
Each serving has: 325 calories 12 g. protein 3 g. fat 10 g. fiber
Additional information that was included in the recipe from a health magazine...the name of which, I am sorry, I do not have.
Most of the ingredients are rich in fiber, folate, antioxidants, and other phytochemicals that are thought to protect against cancer. The onion is a rich source of allium compounds, which may decrease the production of tumor cells and block the action of cancer causing chemicals, and the citrus juices contain a host of protective phytochemicals. And most importantly, this powerful combination of nutrients delivers a salad that is bursting with flavor.
Banana Pancakes Topic: Crickl's Recipes
My 3 oldest daughters love to listen to Jack Johnson's music. And last week Emma was playing one song over and over....Banana pancakes. It's a silly song about being lazy, but I've had banana pancakes on my mind ever since. I've never had them before, but we made them this morning and YUM....they are worth writing a song about. =)
Banana Pancakes
INGREDIENTS 1 cup all-purpose flour 1 tablespoon white sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 egg, beaten 1 cup milk 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 2 ripe bananas, mashed
DIRECTIONS Combine flour, white sugar, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together egg, milk, vegetable oil and bananas.
Stir flour mixture into banana mixture; batter will be slightly lumpy.
Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Cook until pancakes are golden brown on both sides; serve hot.
****I tripled the recipe because Emma had some friends spending the night. And I used brown sugar instead of white and used about a teaspoon of vanilla. Next time I may try using my whole grain pancake mix from Sprouts with mashed bananas in it.
Toffee making Topic: Crickl's Recipes I did a bad thing one Christmas. Not thinking it was a bad thing at all when I began, it turned into a holiday obsession that I will never be rid of....
While reading a ladies’ magazine with cute decoration ideas and recipes for the holidays, I came across a recipe for English Toffee. I was newly married and on a strict budget….we were both seminary students and as poor as dirt. As a teen and college student, I had my own tradition of getting a can of Almond Roca for my family for Christmas. The candy is not expensive, but I knew making it from scratch from very simple ingredients would be cheaper, I could make some for each family member and it would be more special.
Little did I know that 22 years later, my family and friends await that toffee every year, like crazed addicts! Some of them even keep the jar or tin I gave it to them in and hand it back to me the following year.
“So you won’t have to buy so many this year WHEN you make the toffee.” Uh huh…..
So I am going to share the recipe with you, but I will include this warning: you may not ever be able to stop making it once you’ve dabbled in it. So beware!!
I am including all the tips and tricks I have learned from making toffee every Christmas for 22 years. It is not complicated, but trust me, the tips are tried and true! One tip is that you cannot make a decent batch of toffee if you live in a high elevation area! Don’t even try it. When we lived in the mountains of Arizona, I had to make the toffee on trips to Phoenix or when we went to visit my husband’s family in Oklahoma for Thanksgiving. They don’t take elevation as a valid excuse. I must make the toffee.
First is a very detailed explanation of candy making. Please do read it all if you are going to attempt it. It is not hard, but it does need to be done correctly and in a very timely way. At the end are very concise instructions so it’s easier to read them as you are making the candy. I put the basic recipe, including ingredients all in bold in case you want to copy just those into a recipe card.
Enjoy! (but beware!)
Materials needed: -Heavy bottomed saucepan of medium size -A wooden spoon or spoon made for cooking candy and stirring constantly at very high heat. The type of spoon that works best is one with a flat end, so you can scrap the bottom of the pan constantly. After several batches of toffee, the wooden one with crack but it still works best. -A candy thermometer. I brake candy thermometers that are made of glass, so I tend to use my plain old meat thermometer most. It works fine, but make sure you don’t hold it to the bottom of the pan. Try to suspend it in the candy so you get an accurate reading. The trick is holding it there while constantly stirring, so clip it on the side of the pan and kind of tip it so it’s not hitting the bottom of the pan while taking the temperature. -Metal cookie sheet. Metal cools much more quickly than a stone or glass one. Spray the sheet with cooking spray very lightly. The toffee will not run over the sides of the sheet if it is a regular sized one, so it’s ok to used one without edges.
****Children should not be under foot while making candy. Should it spill or bubble and splatter, it will cause very severe burns!****
English Toffee Makes 1 pound
1 cup butter (do not use margarine) 1 cup sugar 3 Tablespoons water 1 teaspoon vanilla (splurge and get the really good kind from Trader Joes) 1 Hershey bar 3/4 cup chopped nuts (if desired) pecans or almonds taste best
To prepare for quick steps when toffee is cooked, have these things ready before cooking ingredients:
-Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray and set it on a dish towel on the counter. (the dish towel protects your counter from being scorched) -Open the wrapper of the Hershey bar and break each square apart, ready to top your toffee. You can also use ? to a full cup of chocolate chips. -Prepare your nuts for topping if you use them. Chop finely or bash them to bits in a ziplok bag with a coffee mug or rolling pin…..as finely chopped as you can.
Cooking:
Put butter, sugar and water in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Cook on medium heat (or just a little higher, but be careful not to used too high of heat or you can scorch it and ruin the batch) until mixture reaches 300?, stirring constantly. (this is where it gets tedious as you stir….it usually takes about half an hour to get it to hard crack stage…300?).
As toffee cooks, it will turn from yellow and bubbly to thick caramel color, which is when you want to put the thermometer in. Move the thermometer periodically to prevent scorching in that spot. Never (EVER) stop stirring….it WILL scorch very easily. Let the answering machine get the phone, let the baby cry, let the dog piddle on the carpet, just don’t let the toffee burn! =)
When it reaches 300?, turn heat off and remove pan from burner, then quickly stir in vanilla. It will splatter a little, so take care. I hold the pan over the sink while adding vanilla.
Pour immediately into sprayed cookie sheet. It will at once begin to harden, so do not try to spread it out. Let it flow where it will.
Putting the hot pan in the sink or back on the stove is all the time it needs to harden enough to begin laying the chocolate squares onto the hot toffee. It will begin to melt immediately, so begin spreading it to cover the top with a spatula.
Lick spatula as to not be wasteful of any chocolate. I may point out here that you should NOT, EVER, under any circumstances (!!!!) lick the spoon you just stirred toffee with. You will not have skin on the roof of your mouth for a week. Please don’t ask me how I know that.
While chocolate is still soft, sprinkle surface with finely bashed nuts and enjoy how pretty it all is! After it cools completely, lift edges of toffee and randomly break it into appropriately sized pieces. Any inappropriate sized pieces may be eaten by the cook at his/her discretion.
Place into air-tight containers which you can decorate if you wish and enjoy a job well done and accolades as plentiful as the sand of the sea!
Okay, now that you have read the way too detailed instructions, here they are in simple form that is easier to read.
Basic instructions (with no snarky details): Put butter, sugar and water into saucepan on medium heat and stir constantly until mixture reaches 300?.
Turn off heat, stir in vanilla, and pour onto greased cookie sheet.
Lay broken chocolate bar on top, spread as they melt, sprinkle with nuts, cool thoroughly.
Break into pieces and store in air-tight containers.
In the mood for something Sweetzel? Topic: Crickl's Recipes
I keep getting hits on my stats counter from people doing internet searches for Sweetzel Spiced Wafers. To help in their quest, I am reposting this from last year in hopes of satisfying the former New Jersey/Pennsylvanians out there looking for cookies! (I know your quest...your pain!) The recipe, texture and taste are extremely close to Sweetzels! (the orange box is up to you)
Once the weather gets cool, I consider it Fall. We get Fall weather here in the mountains earlier than normal. So I am already in the Fall mode….thinking about mums in my garden, looking for changing leaves, and rooting out my Fall recipes. Pumpkin bars, apple pie, soups, aaaaaaaaand the ever Fallish of Fall recipes….ginger snaps. We lived in New Jersey for almost ten years and every Fall we would go to the store and see tall stacks of orange boxes at the end of the grocery isles…..boxes of Sweetzel’s Spiced Wafers. By the second Fall we lived there, I had to buy a box of them since there were so many stacked up in every store you went to, that it made you curious as to what was so special about these cookies….well it made me curious anyway. From the first bite, they became my favorite cookie. They weren’t like other ginger snaps…..they were almost black with spices and hard as a rock, so you has to dunk them in your coffee or milk, which just added to their charm.
When we moved to Arizona, I was sorely disappointed when Fall came and there were no Sweetzels….anywhere. A friend of mine from New Jersey sent me 2 boxes of them one Fall because I had talked about it so much…..er, whined about it probably. She felt sorry for me. =) The next season, I decided I would go on a search for the perfect ginger snap recipe. I don’t know if you’ve made ginger snaps before, but there is a lot of variance in ingredients and taste. It took 2 years and probably 4 bottles of molasses to find a good recipe. And now I’m sharing it with you…cuz I’m so nice. I just want you to have a wonderful Fall and to have the snappiest ginger snaps to lead the way. They are best if you have a tall glass of ice cold, freshly pressed apple cider with them, but if not, use the beverage of your choice….coffee, tea, milk.
Ginger Snaps
3 sticks butter 1/2 cup molasses 2 cups sugar (or 1 c brown sugar and 1 c white sugar) 2 eggs 4 cups flour (I use half whole wheat flour) 4 teaspoons soda 2 teaspoons cinnamon (or more) 1 teaspoon ginger 1 teaspoon cloves (heaping tsp)
Soften the butter. Add the molasses, sugar and eggs. Beat well. Sift together the spices, flour and soda. Add the dry ingredients to the molasses mixture. Mix well. Refrigerate overnight. When thoroughly chilled, form into small balls about 1 inch in width. Roll the top side of these balls in sugar. Place on greased or parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Makes approximately 6 dozen cookies.
Tip: Use sugar in the raw, or turbino sugar to roll the cookies in before baking. The larger sugar crystals make them look cool.
Oatmeal Muffins Topic: Crickl's Recipes
Someone shared this recipe for oatmeal muffins on a forum I go to. All the ladies there were raving about it and telling what changes they made to it to make it more healthy. So I had to try it and it's good!
Using old fashioned oats adds the best health benefit. Soaking them in buttermilk cuts down on digestive problems and adds good enzymes to your tummy! Next time I'll try making it with canola oil instead of butter (or maybe use half applesauce and half the oil) and use 1/2 whole wheat flour and 1/2 white. I also added a smidge of vanilla and some cinnamon to mine because I didn't have any fruit that sounded good to put in.
OATMEAL MUFFINS
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats 1 cup buttermilk 1 large egg, beaten lightly 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled 1 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 cup dried currants (or use shredded apple, peach, dried cranberries or mashed bananas)
In a large bowl, combine oats and buttermilk and let stand 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 400?F. and butter twelve 1/2-cup muffin tins. Add egg, sugar and butter to oat mixture, stirring until just combined.
Into another large bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda and add to oat mixture, stirring until just combined. Fold in currants.
Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin tins. Bake muffins in middle of oven until golden and a tester comes out clean, about 20 minutes.
Italian Meat Pie Topic: Crickl's Recipes The Old Fashioned Pie Auction was a success today. People in the church made pies to auction off to rasie funds for our youth mission trip this summer. They had around 70 pies and made about $5700!! Awesome, huh? A group of our high school youth will be going to Gulf Port, Mississippi to help repair rooves on houses damaged by hurricane Katrina.
I made a really cool Italian Meat Pie I found on allrecipes.com. Here is their recipe. I did not use all the different kinds of meats, but only used Italian sausage. This is a really good recipe and it was pretty easy. I made it in a 10 inch spring form pan. Don't worry if a little egg mixture leaks out while putting the top crust on. It all cooks and looks great too.
The texture and taste are kind of like a quiche with a top crust. Very savory and yummy!
I'm cookin' Topic: Crickl's Recipes I was really in the mood to cook today. It helps get me in the mood when I know company is coming to dinner, and we had some friends from Williams coming.
I put some country beef ribs in the crockpot all day (which is too long because they fell completely apart!), Charles cooked chicken on the grill, I doctored up some canned baked beans, green beans, baked mac and cheese, and buttermilk cornbread.
Tomorrow I have to bake 2 pies for a pie auction fund raiser for youth camp. I'll let you know how that goes.
1 1/2 cups cornmeal 1 cup dry biscuit mix (I never have this around, but just a cup of flour works) 1/3 cup sugar 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 cup butter, melted 1 cup buttermilk 2 eggs
Heat oven to 425. Grease a cast iron skillet (or 9 inch round or square pan). If using skillet, heat this in the oven after greasing for 5 minutes before adding batter.
Stir all ingredients until smooth. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake skillet 15-18 minutes, other pans bake 18-22 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm with honey-butter mixture or jam.
Best Homemade Brownies Topic: Crickl's Recipes I had a nice relaxing day today. We are finishing up the few subjects of school that are left at the end of a homeschool year. We spent a couple of hours of this 105 degree day in the pool....niiiiiiiice.
I also watched cooking shows while browsing blogs on the internet, particularly this one called Two Many Cooks. It has lots of down home type recipes, so I copied down a lot of them to Stickie Notes. Then I realized I hadn't posted a recipe in a loooooooong time.
So this is your lucky day! Here is a recipe for thick, chewy, chunky brownies....from my sister Julie. I like this recipe because even if you don't have baking chocolate around, you can whip up some excellent brownies with chocolate chips...don't you always have a bag of chocolate chips in the cupboard? =) I buy the huge bags of semi-sweet chips from Sam's Club.
Double Fudge Brownies
In a pan, melt together: One stick of butter 1 cup chocolate chips
Add to pan: 1 1/2 cup sugar 3 eggs 1 tsp vanilla
Mix together, then add to pan: 1 1/4 cup flour 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt
Stir in: 1 cup chocolate chips 1 cup nuts (optional....opt out, I say)
Bake at 350?. 45 minutes for thick brownies in a 9x9 inch pan. or 30 minutes for thin brownies in a 13x9 inch pan.
What I do is use 1 1/2 a recipe and have semi thick brownies in a 13x9 inch pan......=) Here are the measurements if you need LOTS of semi thick brownies.
Double Fudge Brownies (1 1/2 batch)
In a pan, melt together: 3/4 cup butter 1 1/2 cup chocolate chips
Add to pan: 2 cups sugar 4 eggs 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
Mix together, then add to pan: 1 3/4 cup flour 3/4 tsp baking powder 3/4 tsp salt
Stir in: 1 1/2 cup chocolate chips 1 1/2 cup nuts (again, optional...but don't)
Coconut Cranberry Chews Topic: Crickl's Recipes These are what I'm baking today. I found this recipe last year and loved them! I found it doing a search on dried cranberries, to use them up.
It is a contest winner from Sunset magazine a couple of years ago. They come out crispy and have an addictive flavor. I use the orange flavored Craisins and add about a fourth a teaspoon of orange extract instead of orange rind.
Coconut Cranberry Chews
Ingredients:
? About 1 1/2 cups (3/4 lb.) Challenge Butter, at room temperature ? 2 cups sugar ? 1 Tablespoon grated orange peel ? 2 teaspoons vanilla ? 1 large egg ? 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour ? 1 teaspoon baking powder ? 1/4 teaspoon salt ? 1 1/2 cups dried cranberries ? 1 1/2 cups sweetened flaked dried coconut Instructions: 1. In a large bowl, with a mixer on medium speed, beat 1 1/2 cups butter, sugar, orange peel, and vanilla until smooth. Beat in egg, until well blended. 2. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to butter mixture, stir to mix, then beat on low speed until dough comes together, about 5 minutes (see notes). Mix in cranberries and coconut. 3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls and place about 2 inches apart on buttered 12" x 15" baking sheets. 4. Bake in a 350?F regular or convection oven until cookie edges just begin to brown, 11 to 15 minutes (shorter baking time will yield a chewier cookie; longer baking time will yield a crispier cookie). If baking two sheets at once in one oven, switch their positions halfway through baking. Let cookies cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then use a wide spatula to transfer to racks to cool completely. Yield: About 6 dozen cookies
PREP AND COOK TIME: About 1 hour
NOTES: The mixture may look dry until it comes together as a dough. If its too crumbly to form into balls, the dough need to be mixed longer; it should be a smooth homogeneous mass.
Per cookie: 92 cal., 45% (41 cal.) from fat; 0.7 g protein; 4.5 g fat (2.8 g sat); 12 g carbo (0.4 g fiber); 58 mg sodium; 13 mg chol.
Source: Recipe developed by Sunset Magazine Test Kitchens for Baking with Challenge Butter. www.sunsetmagazine.com Remove from oven and let cookies cool on sheets for 5 minutes.
Christmas ideas! Topic: Crickl's Recipes
I’ve been gleaning ideas from TV cooking shows and magazines!
From Rachel Ray’s Christmas cooking show....2 recipes:
Snowball macaroons
2 egg whites, beat til thick 1/3 c sugar, beat til stiff peaks form
Fold in gently: 1 1/2 c sweetened coconut (start with half, then add rest) 1/4 tsp nutmeg 3 T flour 1 tsp almond extract
Use an ice cream scoop for good sized cookie piles onto parchment paper lined pan. Bake for 12 minutes at 350. Cool on wire rack and decorate with melted chocolate chips and candies.
Italian bread pudding
Half a loaf of pantone (or sweet bread or cake) cut in cubes, put in large mixing bowl.
Pour over bread cubes in mixing bowl. Let sit for a few minutes. Scoop into greased muffin tins. Place muffin tin into larger baking dish with an inch of water in it under the muffin tin. Bake til lightly browned on top. The water underneath keeps the puddings moist.
I didn’t hear how long to cook these (she got to the bake time when I was away helping Maggie turn off the water in the shower), so I’m just going to wing it, but they sound wonderful!
I saw Martha Stewart on a morning show and she did this:
Dip rim of holiday coffee cups into melted white chocolate, then into crushed peppermints. Fill with eggnog or hot cocoa! (I think you could use it for coffee too.)
crickl's scalloped potatoes:
4-6 large russet potatoes 1/4-1/2 sweet onion Butter Coarse salt, cracked pepper Dried or fresh rosemary Garlic cloves (1-3), crushed 1 cup milk
Grease a 9x13 baking dish (a stone dish really makes crispy edges!). Use a slicing plain set on thin setting or hand slice potatoes as thin as you can. Do this also with the onion…long, thin slices, not in chunks. Melt butter (amount is up to you) and put the crushed garlic in the butter. Layer potatoes and onions in dish, sprinkling each layer with spices and melted garlic butter. When top layer is in place, pour milk around the edges. (It will be soaked up by the end of baking.) Cover with foil and bake at 375 for an hour. Take foil off and bake uncovered for about 15 minutes or until the top is crispy and browned.
This is really good with ham or meatloaf. If you add cheese into the layers, it is almost a meal in itself with a salad or asparagus.
White Chocolate-Raspberry Slices Topic: Crickl's Recipes Another really fancy cookie that is easy to make. It's like a tea biscuit. I found it last year in a magazine. It is a Challenge butter recipe.
Important Note: I made these last night and doubled the batch. It was very hard to work with the dough....very crumbly...so I had to sprinkle the dough with water. If I made it again, I would not use the whole amount of flour. I suggest just using a cup of flour for the regular recipe and add more flour if you can't form it into the ropes. Otherwise, this is a very good recipe!
White Chocolate-Raspberry Slices
Ingredients 1/2 cup Challenge Butter, at room temperature 1/4 cup sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 1/4 cup raspberry jam 2 ounces white chocolate, chopped
Instructions 1. In a large bowl, with a mixer on medium speed, beat butter, sugar, and vanilla until smooth. Stir in flour, then beat until dough comes together. 2. Divide dough into thirds. On a floured surface, with the palms of your hands, roll each portion into a 9-inch long rope about 1-inch thick. Place ropes 3 inches apart on a buttered 12" x 15" inch baking sheet. Press your finger into dough to make 1/2 inch wide indentations at 1-inch intervals along each rope. Spoon 1/4 teaspoon jam into each indentation. 3. Bake ropes in a 350?F regular or convection oven until edges are lightly browned, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool on baking sheet. 4. Place white chocolate in a plastic sandwich bag, pushing to one corner; secure bag just above chocolate with a twist-tie or knot. Immerse corner of bag in a cup of hot water until chocolate is melted. Dry bag, then with scissors, cut off the tip of the corner. Squeeze bag to drizzle white chocolate decoratively across ropes. Chill until white chocolate is firm to touch, about 1 hour, then cut each rope diagonally into 9 slices with the jam in the middle of the slice.
I got to thinking you might want the homemade ice cream recipe to go along with your Fudge Pie. This is a recipe given to me by Nancy, the pastor's wife at our first official church position (Charles was the youth minister) after seminary, in a small town in Oklahoma. And I think she got the recipe from her mother in law. I've never found a better one!
I did a bad thing one Christmas. Not thinking it was a bad thing at all when I began, it turned into a holiday obsession that I will never be rid of....
Once the weather gets cool, I consider it Fall. We get Fall weather here in the mountains earlier than normal. So I am already in the Fall mode….thinking about mums in my garden, looking for changing leaves, and rooting out my Fall recipes. Pumpkin bars, apple pie, soups, aaaaaaaaand the ever Fallish of Fall recipes….ginger snaps. We lived in New Jersey for almost ten years and every Fall we would go to the store and see tall stacks of orange boxes at the end of the grocery isles…..boxes of Sweetzel’s Spiced Wafers. By the second Fall we lived there, I had to buy a box of them since there were so many stacked up in every store you went to, that it made you curious as to what was so special about these cookies….well it made me curious anyway. From the first bite, they became my favorite cookie. They weren’t like other ginger snaps…..they were almost black with spices and hard as a rock, so you has to dunk them in your coffee or milk, which just added to their charm. 
Sift together the spices, flour and soda. Add the dry ingredients to the molasses mixture. Mix well. Refrigerate overnight. When thoroughly chilled, form into small balls about 1 inch in width. Roll the top side of these balls in sugar. Place on greased or parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Makes approximately 6 dozen cookies. 
The Old Fashioned Pie Auction was a success today. People in the church made pies to auction off to rasie funds for our youth mission trip this summer. They had around 70 pies and made about $5700!! Awesome, huh? A group of our high school youth will be going to Gulf Port, Mississippi to help repair rooves on houses damaged by hurricane Katrina. 
I was really in the mood to cook today. It helps get me in the mood when I know company is coming to dinner, and we had some friends from Williams coming. 
I had a nice relaxing day today. We are finishing up the few subjects of school that are left at the end of a homeschool year. We spent a couple of hours of this 105 degree day in the pool....niiiiiiiice. 
These are what I'm baking today. I found this recipe last year and loved them! I found it doing a search on dried cranberries, to use them up. 
From Rachel Ray’s Christmas cooking show....2 recipes:
then into crushed peppermints. Fill with eggnog or hot cocoa! (I think you could use it for coffee too.)
Make internet snowflakes 
Another really fancy cookie that is easy to make. It's like a tea biscuit. I found it last year in a magazine. It is a 
