Apple Cinnamon Cookies

I've been snowed in for a week and so therefore lots of cooking and baking has been going on.

I have the craziest stash of hershey's chocolate chips left over from Christmas--all kinds (peanut butter, dark chocolate, white chocolate, cinnamon) and so today I decided to use what I think is the most obscure kind--Cinnamon. Turns out they don't show up at many grocery stores and lots of people go searching for them. Because of that, there just aren't that many recipes including them. But then I found this recipe for

Cinnamon Chip Apple Cookies (which I thought wasn't a very good name) and renamed them...

Apple Cinnamon Cookies

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1 egg

1 tablespoon apple juice

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats

1 (10 ounce) package hershey's cinnamon baking chips (use half if you want a milder taste)

1 cup apple, peeled, cored and chopped

1/2 cup raisins (optional)

1. Heat oven to 350°F.

2. Lightly grease cookie sheet.

3. Beat butter, brown sugar, egg, apple juice and vanilla in large bowl until creamy.

4. Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

5. Add to butter mixture; beat until blended.

6. Stir in oats.

7. Add cinnamon chips, apple and raisins; stir until blended.

8. Drop by teaspoons onto prepared cookie sheet.

9. Bake 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.

10. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.

(they are easily breakable when still warm so transfer carefully)

11. Cool completely.

These are really good cookies. I added half the chips based upon reviews. My husband doesn't like overwhelming tastes in cookies so i'm sure he'll like that better. I on the other hand think that next time i'll use all the chips. I think I'd like a stronger cinnamon taste. I do have cinnamon extract though, so perhaps i'll just use a drop or two to up the flavor. Although, they taste really good as they are...I just have more of a sweet tooth than my husband. :)

 http://www.food.com/recipe/cinnamon-chip-apple-cookies-48976#ixzz1D80PJIkA

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Citrus Snowflake Cookies

Being snowed in always inspires me to bake,.so in honor of our recent snow days I decided to make  citrus snowflake cookies. These cookies are so easy to make, and look so festive.

Their subtle citrus flavor is a wonderful spin on regular sugar cookies.

They'd be great for Christmas or winter parties.

What you Need

1 tube (16 oz) refrigerated sugar cookie dough.

                                                                 1/4 cup orange juice

1 tbsp orange zest

1 3/4 cups flour

Royal Icing

Royal Icing is a pure white icing that dries to a smooth, hard, matte finish.

It is perfect for decorating sugar cookies.

1 box (16 oz) confectioners sugar

3 tablespoons powdered egg whites

6 tablespoons orange juice or water

1. Let your refrigerated cookie dough set out in room temp. for a bit, to soften

2. Heat oven to 350. Beat cookie dough, orange juice and zest. Stir in flour (dough will be soft)

3. Generously sprinkle flour onto countertop and rolling pin. Divide the dough in half and roll out one half to about 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out snowflake shapes if you have a snowflake cookie cutter or cut out circles (I used a plastic butter lid to cut out circles.)

4. Transfer to ungreased cookie sheet.

Now....you can bake them at this time and make your snowflake designs after they cool (skip to the bottom for the rest of the directions),

Or you can use the 

ORNAMENT PRESS METHOD

 I have no drawing or artistic ability whatsoever and I wanted a beautiful snowflake design so I came up with this method last year when I made these. If you have a plastic snowflake ornament left over from Christmas (we have a ton) then you can use it to press a snowflake design into your cookie. That way you can just trace the design with your icing!

Take your snowflake ornament and if it has glitter, scrub as much glitter off as you can. Then, cover both sides of your ornament with flour (the flour keeps it from sticking AND keeps any extra glitter from transferring) and press it into your cookies while they are on the cookie sheet.

make sure you press the ends well

See, it leaves a pretty clear indention to use as a guide for icing!

OR

of course you can just bake them and skip the ornament step alltogether since they taste great without pretty icing snowflakes too! 

5. Bake them at 350 for 14 minutes. Cool on racks.

6. Prepare royal icing.

Beat Sugar, powdered egg whites and juice or water for 5 minutes. Add water if if you want to thin the icing. Add confectioners sugar if you want to thicken it.

7. When your cookies are cooled, pipe your icing into snowflake patterns OR if you used my ornament method, you can just follow the lines! If you don't have a pippette, you can use a plastic baggie with a tiny hole snipped at one end (thats what I did). Just make sure your icing is thinned a bit.

Not only are they pretty but they are super delicious!

These are perfect Christmas cookies but can be enjoyed as Snow Day Cookies

as we are doing while we are snowed in this weekend.

Happy Snow Day!

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Sun Tea

I love the idea of sun tea. Natural, fresh, summer, patience...don't some of these words come to mind when you think of Sun Tea? This was my first time making it and the part I loved the most was going to the natural market to pick out dried herbs, spices, and loose tea blends. I picked up some strawberry green tea, juniper, camomile flowers, spearmint green tea, peppermint, lavender, mulling and cider spices, and had I the time to savor and sample smell the 3 tall rows of dried herbs and spices I would have left with many more. I could hardly resist some of the more exotic herbs and spices but I need to have a plan for their use first. 

Anyway, back to the tea! 

I chose a spearmint green tea blend, added a bit more spearmint leaves and some mulling and cider spices as well as some organic honey. I loosely put this into the pitcher, but you can use tea bags or tea tied up in a little cheesecloth as well. I like loose tea but it needs straining before drinking of course.

....5 hours later

DELICIOUSNESS!

Tips

Be generous with your spices! It takes more than you think to make strong flavoring.

The longer you leave it out in the sun, the better

Don't be afraid to experiement combining different mixes and spices but having a good base will help (green tea, black tea, earl grey, etc)

You can add all natural concentrated juices to make sweeter tea. (Try adding some pure concentrated cherry juice to give it some sweetness and make it a bit more kid friendly)

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Homemade Hidden Veggie Pops

I've been going nuts lately trying to get L to eat his vegetables. He has NEVER been a picky eater until a few weeks ago when he just decided that all the food he used to love was "yucky."  I always blamed picky eaters on parents...but now I know better. I exposed that kid to alllll kinds of different foods since he was old enough to start solids. He ate EVERYTHING, including almost any vegetable! And then one day....he just refused...everything. So, now I know that a picky eater can develop on his own, and not be the result of a non food versatile parent.

I had made a yummy batch of

STRAWBERRY BANANA

POPSICLES

which are just strawberries and bananas blended into a puree with a little water added so its not so thick and then frozen with a popsicle stick. These are soooo good and all natural and L LOVES THEM! Plus, its something I don't mind him asking for all the time because they are good for him.

Well, after another veggie battle at lunch (sweet peas that used to be his favorite like 3 weeks ago)...I  took that can of peas, some strawberries and bananas, then blended them together and made

Hidden Veggie Pops

Talk about SUCCESS! 

He didn't question his popsicle for a second and I just watched him eat it with a HUGE smile on my face...as I ate my strawberry banana popsicle (no peas for me). haha!

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Homemade Banana Ice Cream

"L" loves bananas so when I found this recipe for banana ice cream I knew I had to make it for my little boy! Its super easy and absolutely delicious! You could also add strawberries for strawberry banana ice cream which I will probably do next time. Yummmers!

Ingredients

3 bananas

2 tbsp lemon juice

1 cup confectioners sugar

2 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

Directions

1. Peel the bananas and put into a blender

2. add lemon juice and blend until its a completely smooth puree

3. pour into a mixing bowl

4. add confectioners sugar and beat until well mixed and it becomes very thick

5. Freeze in a freezerproof container (uncovered) for 1-2 hours.

6. Return mixture (now frozen) to the blender. Add cream and blend until smooth.

7. Return to freezer for another 2-3 hours.

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Frozen Orange Cups

Frozen Orange Cups
a healthy summer treat






Super Simple
Juice some oranges (takes quite a few to get enough juice)

2. scrape out the insides of the orange

3. Blenderize (my own personal word for "put it in the blender") the squeezed juice and orange guts (eww hehe) so all the chunks are gone.

4. Put the orange halves in a muffin tin and pour the juice back into the organge halves.

5. Freeze and Enjoy!

L and I really liked these!

They were even sweeter after frozen....and you just lick em like a popsicle. When I ate the second one, I let set out for just a bit until it became a tad slushy then ate it with a spoon. YUM!

 

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