Stampin' Up! Sugar Cookies

Its a cookie throwback over here! WHO remembers the cookie press from Stampin’ Up! ? Who still has theirs? We use ours all the time and I realize that I should share the recipe so that it can be accessible to everyone and I am less at risk to losing it! You just need to have a cookie press of some kind so that you can add a fun pressed detail to the top.

These are the perfect cookies to make for a fun Cookies & Cards evening!

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs yolks

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

2 1/8 cup flour

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Cream the butter and sugar and beat until fluffy. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, mixing well. Add vanilla, salt and flour. Mix well. Dough should be stiff and not sticky. If it is sticky add a bit more flour. Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls (I use the large Pampered Chef cookie scoop). Place cookies 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet and press with the cookie stamp/press. I have the best success if I press the stamp into some flour first to reduce the risk of the press sticking to the cookie. Bake 12-15 min or until cookie bottom is lightly browned. ENJOY!

Oola-la French Toast

Years ago our friends Bailey and Jeremy gave Reese a Star Wars cookbook for Christmas. This French Toast recipe has been made so many times the page is covered in eggs and batter and then basically fell out of this cookbook. What makes this recipe perfect is it makes french toast for ONE!! So in the mornings when my kids would be like “I want french toast” I would pull this out and it would make about 3 pieces of french toast which is perfect.

When you want to make a family batch, I usually quadruple the recipe and off we go!

Ingredients:

1 egg

1/4 milk

1 1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

3 bread slices

3 teaspoons butter

confectioners’ sugar

strawberries or other fruit you enjoy

maple syrup

Directions:

Preheat frying pan/skillet.

Break your egg into a shallow bowl and add the milk, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Beat with a whisk until blended.

Add bread slices one by one into the egg mixture. Let each piece sit for a bit to absorb the mixture on both sides.

Add butter to your frying pan or skillet and add bread. Fry until golden brown on the underside, aprox 3 min. When ready flip the bread and repeat on the other side.

Once cooked you can add all of your favorite toppings! Enjoy

Haystacks, Fiddle Diddles, No Bake Cookies Oh My!!

These are one of my kids favorite things! Shepard and I just made a big batch together and I realized that I should add this recipe here so it can be logged as one of our Family Recipe’s. At least my kids will all know how to bake when they leave home—KD, Ichiban and baking—they are covered! hahaha!

This recipe also has several names as I have discovered. These No Bake cookies remind me of being a kid, but this was a recipe shared with me by an old friend who got it from her mom.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup milk

6 TBSP Cocoa

3 cups rolled oats (not quick oats)

1 cup shredded sweetened coconut

1 tsp vanilla

pinch of salt

Directions:

Put butter, sugar and milk into a saucepan. Heat on medium, stirring often until it comes to a boil. Remove from heat. Add all remaining ingredients. Stir well. Drop by tablespoon onto waxed paper. Place in fridge to set. Also taste great straight from the freezer! Enjoy!

Best Ever Bruschetta

Years ago I got this recipe from a friend and I recently pulled it to make some for a girls board game night! It is a recipe that is easier to make and serve in your own kitchen as this Bruschetta is toasted in the oven! It is delicious and is a recipe everyone who enjoys wants me to share, so here it is!

Best Ever Bruschetta

1/2 cup Mayo

1 cup grated mozza

2 medium tomatoes, seeded and diced

1/4 cup fresh parmesan

1 teaspoon oregano

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon basil

butter or margarine

1 long baguette

Directions:

Mix first 8 ingredients in a small bowl. Cut the baguette into 1 inch slices and butter each slice on one side. Arrange, butter side up, on a baking sheet. Divide mixture evenly amongst slices.

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes until hot and cheese is melted.

Enjoy!

Best Ever Guacamole!

Years ago in my pre-kid life, my awesome friend Kelsey shared her Guacamole recipe with me. It’s actually quite simple to make and tastes so delicious. I recently made it again by request for my niece and realized after searching for the scrap of paper I wrote it on, that I really needed to be recorded somewhere more permanent so everyone can enjoy it! You can thank me later!

Easy Guacamole

4 ripe avocados

1/4 cup seeded and diced tomatoes

3 Tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice (seriously, go for fresh, it makes a big difference!)

2 cloves of fresh minced garlic

1/4 chopped white onion

1 tbsp of cilantro

Salt and Pepper to taste

MIx and mash everything together! Enjoy with taco chips!

Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

This recipe has a special place in my heart as it reminds of some cookies that my auntie used to make when I was a little girl. I think that is what is special about recipes is they can serve a conduit for us to remember events and emotions and experiences.

This is a recipe I originally found in a Company’s Coming Chocolate Everything cookbook that I modified. I almost always double this recipe too as they don’t last long!

Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

1/2 cup hard margarine or butter

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup cocoa, sifted

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup peanut butter chocolate chips

Directions:

Cream margarine, brown sugar and cocoa in a large bowl until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla until fluffy.

Add the remaining 5 ingredients. Mix well. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto a greased cookie sheet. Flatten slightly with fingers.

Bake at 350 for 10 to 12 minutes. Let sit on baking sheet for a couple of minutes before transferring to a rack to cool. Enjoy!

Spinach Dip Extraordinaire!

Last holiday season I had a girls potluck and my awesome friend Jessica brought this AMAZING spinach dip. Of course I convinced her to share the recipe and now it’s become my go to appetizer to bring to events. We are even enjoying it on Christmas Eve. What I love about it is how simple it is! You only need 4 Ingredients!

Spinach Dip:

1 pkg (10 oz) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

1 cup sour cream

1 cup mayo

1 pkg Knorr Vegetable Soup Mix

Directions:

Add all ingredients to a large bowl with a lid. Mix together and let sit for a couple of hours in the fridge so the flavors can blend.

Serve with your favorite crusty bread!

Peanut Butter Cheesecake

Recently my son Reese turned 16 and he requested a favorite dessert of his, Peanut Butter Cheesecake! Of course this mom can’t say no and I also suspect that it this recipe could become a family favorite of yours as well! I do enjoy making cheesecakes and they are not as difficult as you might think. I hope you enjoy this recipe. I have been making it for a few years and originally found it on Pinterest from OMG.Chocolate. Desserts.

For the Crust:

2 cups Oreo Crumbs (I used the pre-crushed in the box, but you can smash up your own Oreos if you don’t have these on hand)

4 tbsp butter—melted

Peanut Butter Cheesecake Filling:

4 blocks of cream cheese—softened (32 oz)

1 1/3 cup sugar

4 large eggs

1 cup smooth peanut butter

2 tsp. vanilla

1/3 cup whip cream

1 1/4 cups mini chocolate chips

For Chocolate Ganache:

1/2 cup whip cream

1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips

For Garnish:

1 bag of mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, chopped in half

How to make this delicious cheesecake:

The Crust:

1. Mix Oreo crumbs with melted butter and stir until evenly moistened.

2. Press the mixture into the bottom of your springform pan and set in the fridge to set while you make the filling.

The Filling:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Beat cream cheese with sugar until smooth in a stand mixer.

3. Mix in peanut butter, heavy cream and vanilla.

4. Add eggs, one a time, beating after each egg just to combine. Do no overmix.

5. Stir in mini chocolate chips and spread the mix over the chilled Oreo crust.

6. Place the springform pan on a baking sheet and bake for 55-70 minutes until the cheesecake is set around the edges and slightly loose in the center.

7. Set the cheesecake on a cooling rack and let sit for a least 5 hours to overnight.

Ganache:

1. When the cheesecake is completely cooled, run a knife around the edge of the springform pan to loosen and release the pan. Place on a serving plate.

2. On medium heat, bring whip cream to boil. Place half the chocolate chips in a bowl and pour the cream over top stirring constantly until chocolate is completely melted. Add the remaining chocolate chips and stir until melted and smooth. Set aside to cool. The ganache should be pourable but not too thin.

3. Spread the ganache over the top letting some drip down the edges.

4. Add chopped Reese’s Peanut Butter cups to the top.

5. Place in the fridge to set and ready to serve.

I am going to believe its this cheesecake making Reese so happy in this picture!

Harvest Bounty Cheesecake

I realize that it has been a while since I have shared a recipe! Well I could not miss the opportunity to share one of my favourite cheese cake recipes with you just in time for Thanksgiving! I have been making this recipe since Michael and I got married from a cookbook called Treasuring of Baking. I haven’t kept too many actual cookbooks over the years but this is one that I reach for a lot!

This is a great alternative to a classic pumpkin pie! I hope you try it and begin a new tradition with your family.

Harvest Bounty Pumpkin Cheesecake

Crust:

1 package Duncan Hines Spice Cake Mix

1/2 cup butter, melted

Filling:

3 packages cream cheese (8 oz packages)

1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk

1 16 oz can solid pack pumpkin

4 eggs

1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

Topping:

2 1/2 oz sliced almonds

2 cups whipping cream

1/4 cup sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375

2. For Crust: combine cake mix and melted butter in a large bowl; press into a 10 inch ungreased spring form pan

3. For Filling: combine cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk in a large bowl. Beat at high speed with an electric mixer for 2 min. Add pumpkin, eggs and spice. Beat at high speed for 1 min. Pour over crust in pan. Bake at 375 for 60-70 min until set. Loosen cake from sides of pan with a knife. Refrigerate for 2 hours and then remove from pan

4. For Topping: preheat oven to 300. Toast almonds on baking sheet for 4-5 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely. Beat whip cream in a medium bowl until soft peaks form and gradually add sugar. Spread over chilled cheesecake and garnish with almonds. Refrigerate until ready to enjoy!

Brenda's Banana Bread

If you have came to a stamp class or worked with me for a while at lululemon, than you have probably tried my banana bread! I thought I would share the recipe with you as I have had a few requests for it recently! I typically make my recipe into these individual servings using this Pampered Chef Brownie Pan. You can however cook it as a loaf and I will include bake times for both. I don’t know what is better in life than some warm banana bread with butter on top! And also note, I do add chocolate chips into my banana bread recipe from time to time and that is what is pictured below.

Brenda’s Banana Bread:

1/2 cup of butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, beaten

4 bananas, mashed

1 1/2 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 vanilla

optional: chocolate chips

Grease your chosen loaf pan (hint, if I don’t have spray I take a paper towel into my butter dish and use that to grease my pan). Add butter to sugar and cream; add the beaten eggs and bananas and combine. I use my potato masher to blend this all together. Separately, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add to mixture and combine. Stir in the vanilla. At this point you can add a generous handful of chocolate chips into your batter if you like.

Bake Time: 60 minutes at 350 if you are using a normal loaf pan

Bake Time: 25 minutes at 350 if you are using making smaller loaves

Tropical Chicken Salad

So if you didn’t know, I am from Saskatoon, and one the awesome things about Saskatoon is they still have a Fuddruckers! So its a tradition to try and eat there when we go home for a visit. This salad is a spin on the Hawaiian Chicken Salad that they serve there. I am always excited when BBQ season rolls around so I can start making this salad again! I thought it would be a fresh and yummy salad for you to whip up. Really, you can mix up the ingredients to anything you want. Don't have almonds, fine, use walnuts! Get it? There are also no measurements because its a salad, you can’t go wrong!

Tropical Chicken Salad:

Romaine lettuce, washed and roughly chopped

Grilled Chicken breasts (I usually just season with a lemon pepper spice, but I have glazed them with teriyaki sauce too which is also super yummy)

sliced cucumbers

diced tomatoes

canned, sliced mandarin oranges, drained

toasted coconut (spread coconut on a baking sheet and toast at 300 for about 5-8 minutes)

chopped nuts (in this salad I used raw almonds as that is what I had on hand, but I have used walnuts and cashews in the past)

shredded marble cheese

Put all the ingredients into a large bowl, drizzle with poppyseed dressing (there is a photo of my favourite below), toss and enjoy with some garlic toast or bread of any kind. Because as we have established, bread is just good.

Tropical Chicken Salad

I can usually find this dressing at Safeway (in Canada) in the US I was able to find it at Walmart for a third of the price I might add. When I went on my girls trip back in August I bought 3 bottles! Hahahaha!

Scratch-My-Back Cowboy Cookies

or AKA Michael’s favourite cookies. The other day Summer and I wanted to do something nice for her dad so we decided to pull out his favourite cookie recipe. Michael was watching a cooking show where they made these cookies and he wrote down the recipe while they were making them. This was pre-internet people! Can you even remember a time! Since then, they have been referred to in our house as Dad’s Favourite Cookies but in my recipe box it still reads Scratch-My-Back Cowboy Cookies.

Dad’s Favourite Cookies:

3/4 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 1/4 cup flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup rolled oats (not quick oats!)

1 cup coconut (I always use sweetened flaked coconut)

A good sized handful of chocolate chips (this was our variation to add in, as chocolate makes everything better)

Preheat oven to 350. Mix butter, sugar and egg. Add remaining ingredients and mix. Drop by teaspoon onto baking sheet and bake 10-15 minutes until slightly browned on the bottom

Healthy Corn Chowder

Hey friends! I wanted to share this really really easy corn chowder recipe that my family loves! You might even have all of these basic ingredients in your pantry and freezer already! I like to add some shredded cheese and enjoy bread of any kind, literally, bread of any kind is delicious, with this soup! It doesn’t take long to make so it is a go to on busy nights! I should note that I have had this recipe for years, pre-kids, and I think I got it from a fitness magazine!

Healthy Corn Chowder: this servers 4 and doubles easily
2/3 cup skim milk

1 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch

1 bag of frozen veggie combo—broccoli, cauliflower, corn, green beans etc

1 can of Cream of Corn

1/2 thinly sliced scallions (I will admit I rarely have these on hand so I make this soup alot with out!)

1 cup chicken broth

1/2 teaspoon of pepper

In a large saucepan, dissolve cornstarch in milk using a whisk. Add all of the veggies and the broth. Bring to a boil, stirring often. Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer under veggies are tender (approx 10 min). Add paper and enjoy!

Valentine's Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies

What is better than a peanut butter surprise cookie? Well a Valentine’s Day version! I posted this recipe in early December and simply revised it today by using Reese’s Peanut Butter HEARTS! So fun! Now to hide these from my family until Friday…I have reposted the recipe below so you have time to make them for your family! They will love you for it!

Valentine’s Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies

Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies

1/2 c peanut butter

1/4 c butter, room temp

1 c brown sugar, packed

2 eggs

1 tsp pure vanilla

1 1/2 c flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 c sugar (spread on a plate)

mini peanut butter cups

Using an electric mixer, cream the peanut butter and butter until smooth. Add brown sugar; beat until combined. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat until incorporated. In a small bowl whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. With mixer on low, gradually beat in flour mixture in two batches.

Scoop dough by tablespoon and roll into balls. Roll balls into sugar and place 2 inches apart on a baking sheet. Bake until the cookies begin to puff in a 350 degree oven, approx 7 minutes. Remove from the oven and place a peanut butter cup in the center. Return to over and bake another 6-7 minutes. Let cool on baking sheet.

link here

Dill Snacks--A Christmas Staple!

My awesome friend Jeanette shared this recipe for me many Christmases ago and it has made it way into so many hearts and tummy’s! I want to share it with you as I get asked for the recipe all the time when I put it out over the holidays. The best part about Dill Snacks is the recipe makes A LOT and it stores well in a sealed container.

Dill Snacks:

Note: You will need a LARGE paper bag for mixing

Dump all dry ingredients into said LARGE bag!

2 boxes/bags of original Bugles

2 boxes of mini cheese Ritz crackers

1 box of Cheese Nips

equal amount of mini pretzels and Shreddies (depending on the size of the pretzel bag, that is how many Shreddies I add)

In a bowl mix:

1 1/2 cups of oil

8 tbsp DILL

4 pkgs of Hidden Valley Ranch Dry Mix (sometimes tricky to find, so you can substitute Uncle Dan’s if you find that)

Pour this mixture over the bag of dry ingredients in the paper bag and shake up until well mixed. SO EASY!

Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies

This is another cookie recipe that I have been making for years! I think I got it from a Martha Stewart magazine. Today Summer helped me make a double batch of these! I have been getting my kids involved in baking since they could wield a wooden spoon!

Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies

1/2 c peanut butter

1/4 c butter, room temp

1 c brown sugar, packed

2 eggs

1 tsp pure vanilla

1 1/2 c flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 c sugar (spread on a plate)

mini peanut butter cups

Using an electric mixer, cream the peanut butter and butter until smooth. Add brown sugar; beat until combined. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat until incorporated. In a small bowl whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. With mixer on low, gradually beat in flour mixture in two batches.

Scoop dough by tablespoon and roll into balls. Roll balls into sugar and place 2 inches apart on a baking sheet. Bake until the cookies begin to puff in a 350 degree oven, approx 7 minutes. Remove from the oven and place a peanut butter cup in the center. Return to over and bake another 6-7 minutes. Let cool on baking sheet.