Sweets for your Sweets

David and I aren't much for going out, so when we do, it's nice to eat alone...no kids fighting, food flying, milk spilling adventures, all while we're trying to eat.  All of you with chittlins' know what I'm talking about!

Last year for Valentine's Day, I made these incredible burgers, homemade steak fries, and a peanut butter chocolate cake.  It was divine y'all...simply divine. 

This year, we got lucky.  One of David's clients gave us a gift card for Christmas, and friends of ours voluteered to babysit (provided I cooked them dinner for them beforehand).  Well I can handle that!

So I really don't have a big, lovey post for Valentine's Day...but I will make some suggestions if you want to make dinner for your special someone. 

BBQ Chicken Pizza

Rum Glazed Shrimp and Mango Skewers

Grilled London Broil with Roasted Vegetables

Fettucine with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce and Grilled Shrimp

Turkey Sliders with Caramlized Onions

Chocolate Cherry Cake with Chocolate Glaze

The Pioneer's Red Velvet Cake (turned into cupcakes)

Last but not least, I made these for the kids this week:

I just used my sugar cookie recipe, frosted, and decorated with red and white sprinkles.  Simple but pretty. 

Hope you enjoy a special meal with someone you love.  God bless your table tonight!

Christmas Cookies

During the holidays...I bake...cookies, cakes, quick breads...but I usually focus on one type of dessert, instead of making something from each catagory.  This year is the cookie year.  I made 6 different kinds...and I've had to put severe restrictions on the hubby so he doesn't eat 'em all up before Christmas.

The best thing about cookies is the fact you can bake them in advance and freeze them.  My MIL is famous for making 12-14 different kinds of cookies every year when David was growing up.  She'd always store them in the freezer...which didn't deter David or his brothers one bit...they'd just go get some and eat them frozen. 

I will say I don't like eating frozen cookies...but I do like to ,make and freeze them in early December.  Then I just pull out some whenever I need them...for a potluck party...a last minute gift (packaged up in a pretty bag), or just a plate out when the neighbor's kids show up (and when word gets out...count on MORE kids coming around hoping for a cookie too).

Anyways...here's what I made this year.  If you want the recipe, just click on each one. 

Sugar Cookies

Molasses Cookies

 (I absentmindedly used it instead of the gingerbread recipe, but the kids still love 'em). 

Jam Thumbprints

Andes Creme de Menthe Cookies

PW'S Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies

Toffee Squares

(special request from David, but no picture...sorry)

Hope you get to try one of these tasty treats.  From our family to yours...Merry Christmas everyone!

Apple Dippin' Peanut Butter Cookies from "Picky Palate"

Last week was Spring Break for us, and I promised Rebecca we'd make something fun. I saw these cookies on "Picky Palate," and showed Rebecca--who immediately approved of the idea. So off we went to the grocery store to buy the necessary ingredients. We had everything except the sugar and the granola clusters--I found some in the bulk food aisle at HEB.

If you don't want to use turbinado sugar, granulated or white sparkling sugar will work fine. We loved these cookies...if your kids like apples and peanut butter, they will gobble these up in no time flat :-) I'm pretty sure David ate more than the kids...those darn husbands!

I'm going to give you the link to the cookies, just click here on "Picky Palate." Both my girls helped me with these cookies, so I got some cute pics; of course I just had to share them with y'all.

Here's Rebecca peeling the apples. She did a good job, let me tell you.

We used an apple corer/slicer to cut the apples (Rebecca did this too). Then we cut the slices in half, (to make thinner slices), and cut them into small dice.

Here's the granola we found at HEB:

Time to fire up the mixer. I usually let Rebecca man it.

Creaming the butter and sugars together.

In goes the peanut butter...

then the vanilla and egg.

The girls stirred all the dry ingredients together. I make sure one stirs and one holds the bowl with BOTH hands; otherwise your bowl and everything in it may wind up on the floor.

Put your rolling sugar in a shallow dish (I like to use a pie tin). Use a small ice cream scoop to scoop out the dough...

roll the balls in the sugar...which the girls both liked doing until the neighbor boy showed up to play ;-)...

Lay them out on a cookie sheet, and make a criss cross on top of 'em with a fork.

Bake the cookies at 350 degrees for 8-9 minutes. I had to bake mine for about 10 minutes, otherwise, they were too soft.

My kids ate these so fast, I didn't even get a picture. They were also outside at the time...that didn't help either....oh well!

God Bless your table tonight!

Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Cookies

About 2 years ago, my uncle brought these cookies to a family get-together. They were so good...I just had to have the recipe. I have been making chocolate chip cookies using only this recipe ever since.

These cookies do not contain any white, all-purpose flour. Instead, they contain whole-wheat and whole-barley flour. This gives the cookies a bit more of a chew, but they still have plenty of butter, sugar, and chocolate chips in them, so these are not healthy cookies by any means! It just makes me feel better knowing I am giving the kids some whole grains in their diet (about 6 grams per cookie). And you can bet I eat these too...more than I should, but what the heck!

If you cannot find whole-barley flour at your local grocery store, you can substitute white all-purpose flour. Do not use whole-wheat flour for the entire recipe, or your cookies will be dense and hard. So far, I have not found whole-barley flour anywhere close to me (David found some for me at a whole-foods market one day not too far from his office). And I know espresso powder and cider vinegar are unusual ingredients in cookies, but the espresso powder brings out out the flavor of the chocolate, and the vinegar contributes a "barely there" tang.

All righty...are you ready? If you start the dough in the morning, you can bake these up in the afternoon, and make the house smell great. Better yet, bake some just as the kiddos are getting off the bus like I did, and you will be a hero--at least for the day!

Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup whole-wheat flour

1 cup whole-barley flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks)

3/4 cup dark brown sugar, or light brown sugar and 1 tablespoon molasses

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon instant espresso powder

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1 large egg

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Makes about 4 dozen cookies

*NOTE: I made a double batch, so it will look like more ingredients in the pictures. But I had to make enough to send to my brother who now in flight school with the Texas Army National Guard. My kids can scarf down cookies like nobody's business...so I needed to make more than 4 dozen.

In a large bowl, combine the flours, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the butter, sugars, and espresso powder. (You'll see I used the light brown sugar and molasses; I don't buy dark brown sugar very often.)

Cream together on medium speed until the mixture is light and fluffy.

Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture in the mixer in about 4 increments, and mix until the flour is all incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand.

Angel Boy must have smelled the chocolate because the minute I opened the bag, he came running. So of course I gave him a few chocolate chips :-).

Cover the bowl with some plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for about 2 hours. This will make it easier to scoop out the cookies later. You can bake the cookies right away if you are pressed for time.

Now, take a small ice cream scoop (a must-have tool if you're making drop cookies), and scoop out the dough, placing the balls about 3 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for about 12-14 minutes at 350 degrees. Rotate your cookies halfway through. Once your oven gets nice and hot, you'll likely need to bake the cookies for about 12 minutes (and maybe even only 11 minutes. Oven temps vary greatly, so just keep an eye on them).

Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for about 1 minute, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Serve these with a cold glass of milk, and you might feel like the world's greatest mom! My kids think so, (even after I taught Joshua how to clean his bathroom yesterday). Enjoy!

God bless your table tonight!

Gingerbread Cookies

I had tried to make gingerbread cookies a couple of times, but I didn't like the dough, it was either too soft or lacked a true gingerbread flavor. So for the past couple of years, I just used my Molasses Cookie recipe and cut the dough out with a little boy and little girl cookie cutters. When I explained this to Christina's preschool teacher, she said,

"I have the perfect gingerbread cookie recipe for you. I'll get you a copy."

I tried it today...it was fabulous. The dough was incredibly easy to work with, and the cookies tasted great...my kids gave them 2 thumbs up! When Christina saw these cookies cooling, she said,

"Mommy, did one of the cookies run away?"

I told her, "no," they were all accounted for. Apparently, the kids made some of these cookies at school, and when they went back to the oven to check on them, one was missing. The teachers explained that one cookie ran away, like the gingerbread man in the story. Too cute.

So thanks Ms. Miller for this recipe! This one's a keeper...for sure :-)

Gingerbread Cookies

1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 package (4-serving size) butterscotch flavor instant pudding

1 large egg

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon ground ginger (I used 1/2 the amount)

1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

In a stand mixer bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the pudding mix and egg, beat on medium speed until well blended. Combine the flour, baking soda, ginger, and cinnamon in a bowl. Gradually add to the creamed mixture, beating well after each addition. Turn dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap, cover, and refrigerate for 1 hour, or until firm.

When you're ready, take the dough out of the fridge and let it warm up for about 15-30 minutes so it's not too stiff to roll out.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly flour your work surface. I have 2 cookie cutters that I use for making little boys and little girls. And in case you're wondering, Joshua will only eat the boy cookies and Rebecca and Christina will only eat the girl cookies :-). Kids!

Divide the dough in half, and sprinkle one portion with a little flour.


Roll the dough out to about 1/8 of an inch thick. Cut your cookies out with a cutter dipped in flour.  Transfer the cookies to an ungreased, non-stick baking sheet.





Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are light golden brown.


I had some frosting left over from my Molasses Cookies, so put the rest in a bag and decorated the cookies. This is easy to do, and you don't need a fancy piping bag. A quart-sized zip top bag works great. You just need a piping bag adapter and a coupler. These can be found in the cake decorating aisle of your grocery store or craft store.


Here's how to put it all together. Snip a little bit off the corner of the bag and insert the adaptor. The edge of the bag should lay on top of the threads of the adaptor.

Now slide on the metal tip you want to use, and screw the coupler on. All done! See...easy, right?


I pipe a little bit of a design on the cookies. Feel free to do whatever you'd like. I love making these, and the kids love to watch. I suppose I should let them have a go at it...maybe next year.

Aren't they CUTE? They're sure to be a hit with your kiddos too...mine had already eaten some by the time I published this post, lol. I hope you try this recipe out!

God bless your table tonight!