Happy December!
Clearly, I am a blog novice, so although I *made* a page just for cookies, I cannot get it to post as I can the main page.. so here is the link to that little page right up there which will be
all
about
cookies!!
And the winner of the puppy biscuits is….
December 15, 2009 3 Comments
Not Fenway… I took this pic a few days ago. She isn’t sad about wearing the hat.. she sad because she was out her home made biscuits. This was when she was a good girl…. Today, she was a bad girl….
I set the eggs & butter on the counter to get to room temperature for today’s recipe.. and.. she ate the 2 sticks of butter. Good times in the Hagg household 😉
I was only mad for a minute..ok, maybe longer. She has been forgiven & I just gave her a biscuit ( … so it took me all day) Lucky for her I had another cup of butter in the fridge so that I could still make today’s cookie…
Double Chocolate Chunk cookies!
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 sticks butter, softened (far enough on counter so that your special loved ones can’t get to them)
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 Tbsp vanilla
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cups chocolate chunks ( chips would work as well…)
Ignore my apple in the bowl in the background..
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a mixing bowl, cream butter & sugars together; add eggs, 1 at a time allowing each to fully incorporate. Add vanilla & cocoa powder.
In a large bowl, add flour, salt & baking soda. using a whisk, whisk together.
Ad flour mixture to butter mixture in 3 parts. Stir in chocolate chunks.
Drop by tablespoons ( I use a cookie scoop) onto parchment- lined cookies sheet. Bake 10-13 minutes. Allow to cool on a cooling rack.
This is a very tasty recipe.. Alison usually makes these for us, but since she was at school getting her learning on, I made them today 😉 Very fudgy… I’ll bet that you could just spread the dough in a 9 x13 inch pan ( greased) and bake like brownies….
ok.. so the winner of the biscuits is
*insert picture of winning pup here*
Morgan!!!! ( Breezy’s pup!!)… I’ll be shipping out the biscuits tomorrow! Congratulations!
I made a fresh batch last night,, this time I didn’t puree the carrots & peas mixture, just kind of rough chopped. I think that they look better. Fenway seems to like them. Much better than raw butter.
oxoxox
michelle
p.s. tomorrow I have a special guest for the ‘classic’ Christmas cookie!!!
And Jason & Amanda are still on the road … good thoughts are always welcomed 🙂
PSST……I have a secret
December 9, 2009 5 Comments
I * know*…..shhh………Santa!!!
It’s true! I’ve known him for many years.. he is just your everyday average joe 😉 Except that he is awesome~ he’s Santa!!!
Here is my niece, Alexis sitting on his lap. No doubt asking for the American girl doll that she asked for that year..(which , of course, he delivered ,, because he’s SANTA!!!)
Now this may come as a surprise to most, but Santa has a thing for cranberries. Given the fact that in ‘in’ with the big guy… he had asked me to create a special cookie for him when he is visiting his weekend home on Cape Cod.
SO I created just for Santa
‘Cape Cod Cranberry Wine Cookies’
I know.. leave it to me to make a cookie with wine in it….. insane, right?
Well, happen to know that Santa likes a little bit of wine now (never when he is driving his sleigh) & then so I thought how perfect to incorporate it into his special cookie.
I’m thoughtful like that *grin*
Ingredients:
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup shortening
1 egg
1/4 cup water
2 tsp red wine
1 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground cloves
3 cups oats
2 cups dried cranberries
ok…. the baking powder just snuck into the picture.. we won’t be using that today.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix sugars & shortening together; add egg, wine & water. Mix well.
In a separate bowl, whisk all dry ingredients (except for cranberries).
Slowly ad the dry mix to the sugar mixture. Mix until well blended, but don’t over-mix.
Stir in cranberries.
Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto parchment-lined cookie sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Remove from oven & let cool to a wire rack.
I know that Santa has been waiting patiently (for the most part) for these cookies. He’s going to have to wait just a little bit longer to try them…. hang tight, Santa…..
These are an excellent choice to leave out with a glass of milk on Christmas Eve…
p.s…….
Santa, I have been very, very good this year
oxox
~michelle
If you haven’t yet registered your pup to win a dozen of my home made biscuits… you still have time ! just comment on yesterday’s post!
My most prized possession….
December 7, 2009 3 Comments
Other than my family, of course… I have one favorite item in my home. If my house was on fire, I would run back in for this item.
I had wanted the Betty Crocker cookbook as a wedding/ shower gift, but I did not receive it. When I was married for about a year, my grandparents, my memere and pepere, (who btw~ absolutely ROCKED) gave me the cookbook for Christmas. We lived about 3 hours away from them.
After spending Christmas at their house I had returned home and my grandmother had called me; She asked me to plan a visit in the near future for me to bring back the cookbook. She was upset that she did not write in it. I thought this was the silliest thing ever, but a month later, I made the drive to go visit, and she wrote in my book.
She passed away the following year just a few days before Christmas. That had been my last Christmas with her.
I treasure this book. I miss my grandparents each and every day…….
they were two very special, selfless, loving people
from that beloved cookbook comes this recipe.. a recipe that I make every year, chocolate crinkles….
Ingredients:
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp. vanilla
4 ounce unsweetened chocolate, melted & cooled ( I use bakers’ chocolate)
4 eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup powdered sugar
Mix granulated sugar, oil, vanilla, and chocolate. Mix in eggs one at a time. Stir in flour , baking powder & salt. Cover and refrigerate at least 3 hours.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Drop dough by teaspoonful into powdered sugar ; roll around to coat . Shape into balls. Place about 2 inches on greased cookie sheet. Bake until almost no indentation remains when touched… 10-12 minutes.
now, I have to be honest and let you know that despite the fact that I make these annually, I’ve never had them come out correctly. Until this year 🙂
Last year the looked beautiful, but could break a tooth. I used it as my centerpiece for my cookie party because they looked pretty, but we had to put up a sign that said
‘for display only’
thank you for letting me share my memory with you….. I think that this story has much to do with my passion for cooking….
on another note….. I am SO excited for tomorrow’s cookie!!!!
I am practically bursting at the seams!!!!!!
thanks for reading!
oxox ~michelle
A cookie party story
December 6, 2009 2 Comments
I know that I have mentioned that I host a cookie party each year.. but how did I start it? …..
Many years ago I worked with a girl who was close in age to me,Cheri. Although close in age we could not have lived more different lives…… I was married with 2 (maybe 3 children, I forget what year this happened).. she was a bar-hopping local -band loving diva… Don’t get me wrong,…. there is nothing wrong with that….
Anyway, she was also a bargain shopper (something that we both had in common); one day while combing the shelves for a deal she came across ‘cookie exchange ‘ invitations. … I had never heard of such a thing (I had previously baked for entire months in order to have a variety of cookies…) but .. how cool did it sound???
She decided to have a cookie exchange; Another that we both worked with, Cheryl, decided to host it at her house. In addition to the three of us, Cheri invited all of her night-club friends.
The night of the party (a Friday night in mid-December)… we three were the only ones who showed. I t never occurred to Cheri that her bar-hopping friends might not exactly be the cookie-baking kind of crowd, especially on a Friday night.
Since we worked together, we had talked prior to the exchange about what kind of cookies we were making…. I was making pecan balls, Cheryl was making Mexican wedding cookies, and Cheri was making snoballs.
This is interesting only because well, they are actually all the same cookie. (we obviously didn’t figure this on until the exchange ).
So we all came home with the same cookies that we brought with us. That night we decided that I would host the next one ; I would have the quests tell me which kind of cookie that they were bringing when they RSVP’d.
Now that I just went on way too long about this, I can tell you that pecan balls.. are quite possibly my favorite cookie…. and I think of this story each time that I make them 😉
And now….
The recipe…
If you notice in the picture, I had to go way back into my files, to before computers, to get the old beat up index card that I wrote the recipe on so many years ago…I will always keep that recipe card.. it’s the nostalgic side of me… somehow even typing it here seems wrong..
1) 1 stick of butter, softened
2) 2 TBSP granulated sugar
3) 1 tsp. vanilla
4) 1 cup finely ground pecans
5) 1 cup flour
powdered sugar
*** preheat oven to 300 degrees. Beat butter until soft ~add sugar and blend until creamy. Add vanilla, pecans & flour. Roll into small balls.
Bake on a greased ( I use either a silpat or parchment paper, neither of which I had or knew about back then)… for 30 minutes.
Roll in powdered sugar while hot.**
ok… this picture is just horrible.. please don’t supersize it. I put the picture in to actually show my mistake. The reason that they look like this is that after I rolled them in sugar, I just put them in a pile, so the coating came off of some of them & I ‘tried’ to fix it.
In the future, after I roll each one, I would let them cool INDIVIDUALLY on a cooling rack. Rest assured… these cookies were just as awesome as I remember them. .. I almost didn’t get any of them to the freezer because my family was all over them.
I created a diversion in the other room & snuck in to save some for them freezer *grin*
I’m good like that!
oxox
And so December has begun
December 4, 2009 4 Comments
Many years ago, when my children, now 14, 16 & 22 were little, I took the month of December and baked a different cookie recipe each day. I would freeze a good portion of the cookies… On Christmas Eve I pulled from my freezer a wonderful array of cookies!! I had the kids in the kitchen helping me all the time.
Remembering that year with fond memories, I have decided to do that again this year, and I will share my recipes & experiences with you!!
oxox ~michelle
P.S… that adorable little Elf in the corner up there, is Farkle.. our elf on a shelf…. He is very good to us….
He surprised us with a lovely Advent Calendar on Monday..
He magically fills it with all sorts of surprises!!!!!
barefootgirl in the kitchen 
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