New Recipe for 2017 #36 - Crispy Chewy Oatmeal Cookies

This recipe came from "The Cookies & Cups Cookbook" by Shelly Jaronsky. I'm not a huge fan of oatmeal cookies, but these were quite tasty. Instead of white chocolate chips, I put in semi-sweet chocolate chips because white chocolate is evil. I got best results when I turned the cookie sheet 180 degrees halfway through the baking time.

Most importantly, Joel at the barn thought they were delicious. (His favorite kind of cookie is oatmeal chocolate chip)

New Recipe for 2017 #35 - Cheesy Taco Pasta

This recipe from Dinner then Dessert was really easy to put together and very delicious. I put the salsa in right after putting in the taco seasoning so that the hamburger could soak in more spicy goodness. I used a Mexican cheese blend instead of just cheddar cheese. These were the smallest pasta shells I could find at my local King Soopers, so I'll use another kind of pasta next time I make it.

New Recipe for 2017 #34 - Tuxedo Brownies

Chocolatey, yummy, deliciousness from "The Cookie & Cups Cookbook". Rich chocolate brownie covered with frosting and then covered with chocolate ganache - yummmmmm. Cut these into small squares or you will be overwhelmed by rich chocolate goodness.

A work colleague told me he loved me after he ate one. He then wrapped one up to take home to his girlfriend.

New Recipe for 2017 #33 - Monte Cristo Pizza

This recipe is from Shelly Jaronsky's "The Cookies & Cups Cookbook". The crust is puff pastry and the cheese is a combination of cream cheese and Gruyere.  The instructions say to spread the cream cheese mixture over the baked puff pastry. I have no idea how the write accomplished that. I made little patties of the cream cheese mixture and placed them on the baked puff pastry. I didn't have any raspberry jam, but lingonberry sauce fit the bill. I'm glad I halved the recipe since I have the feeling that this would not warm up well.A half recipe was plenty for me. It was good, but it didn't leave me craving for more.

New Recipe for 2017 #32 - Turkey Meatballs with Herbed Gravy

The blogger Mom on Time Out calls these The BEST Turkey Meatballs with Herbed Gravy. I'm not sure they are the BEST. They are easy to make. They are a bit on the bland side for me. I'd probably add more pepper and garlic.

New Recipe for 2017 #31: Peanut Butter Cup-Filled Brownie Cookie Sandwiches

Why do I keep doing recipes from The Cookie & Cups Cookbook? Because they are delicious!

This weekend I made Peanut Butter Cup-Filled Brownie Cookie Sandwiches. It's two chocolate cookies with a peanut butter cup sandwiched between while the cookies are still hot. Yumm!

I didn't like how the dough looked with only a cup of flour, so I added an extra half a cup. I also noticed that after the dough sat out at room temperature for 10 minutes, it was easier to scoop. Because of the extra flour, I ended up with 25 sandwich cookies instead of only 12.

This would be interesting to repeat but put Rollos between the cookies.

New Recipe for 2017 # 29 and #30: Pound Cake Cookies and Flourless Chocolate Cookies

Two more recipes from the wonderful Cookie & Cups Cookbook by Shelly Jaronsky.

I'm not sure why I keep trying out Pound Cake Cookie recipes. Every time I end up with a soft, bland-tasting cookie. People seem to really like them, but I'm more "meh".

The Flourless Chocolate Cookies are supposed to be decorated with flakes of salt. I'm not a fan of this whole salt/sweet trend so no salt decoration. The batter didn't look very scoopable at first so I Devo-d it. I whipped it real good. They are delicious and chocolately. I heartily recommend this gluten-free recipe. These are basically meringue cookies, so they can be crumbly.

Pound Cake Cookie (left) and Flourless Chocolate Cookies (right)

New Recipe for 2017 #28: Strawberry Cake Mix Cookies

I found this recipe with a cookie spatula I bought. They are very tasty cookies. It would be interesting to try this recipe using different flavors of gelatin like lime.

Recipe:
1 box yellow cake mix
1 3 oz. box of strawberry-flavored gelatin
2 eggs
6 Tbsp butter, melted

Stir together. Drop tablespoons of dough on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 9-12 minutes at 350 degrees.

New Recipe for 2017: Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies

This recipe can be found on the side of a box of Duncan Hines Red Velvet Cake Mix. They were OK. Nothing to write home about. I've never been able to make my crinkle cookies look as good as the recipe photo.

New Recipe for 2017 #26 - Orange Shortbread Cookies

This recipe came from the blog My Baking Addiction. I'd suggest starting at the lowest baking time and then adding minutes because they can quickly burn on the bottom. They're OK. They don't melt in your mouth like Muriel Boyd's Scotch Shortbread.

Sorry, no picture.

New Recipe for 2017 #25 - Chocolate Cherry Bread

This recipe came from the Betty Crocker "The Big Book of Bread" cookbook. I didn't have any dried cherries, but I did have some frozen cherries. I defrosted the cherries, chopped them, and threw them in. The result was a delicious quick bread that is probably a little moister than if I used dried cherries.

New Recipe for 2017 #24 - Blueberry-Basil Loaf

This recipe was taken from the Betty Crocker "The Big Book of Bread" cookbook. This makes a very moist quick bread, but I'm still not sure about the combining of blueberry and basil. I'll be interested to see how the people at work like it.

If you do make it, I suggest lining the loaf pan with parchment paper so that you can lift it out the pan instead of flipping it out since you'll lose a lot of the topping.

New Recipe for 2017 #23 - Sour Cream Cranberry Bread

I got this recipe from the Betty Crocker "The Big Book of Bread" that I got in a General Mills Christmas box a few years ago. Because I knew I'd have leftover cranberries, I decided to use lingonberries instead. This recipe is ok. If you want a good recipe using cranberries or lingonberries, I'd use this one instead.

New Recipe for 2017 #22 - Chocolate Brownie Cake

This recipe is from the I Am Baker blog. This cake is rich, moist, and delicious. I love ganache as much as the next person, but I would halve the ganache recipe as the ganache should complement this cake not overwhelm it.

The log bundt cake pan was unable to hold all the batter, so I put the extra batter into a mini loaf pan I have. My friends Chris and Lorian got a mini cake as well as Swedish meatballs last Saturday night.

New Recipe for 2017 #21 - Texas Sheet Cake Cookies

Another delicious recipe from the Cookies & Cups blog. I messed up the frosting, but they still turned out to be delicious. I made them on Saturday, but they tasted better on Sunday.

Yes, I know Texas sheet cake has walnuts, and these cookies have no walnuts. That's fine with me as the walnuts were my least favorite part of Texas sheet cake.

New Recipe for 2017 #20 - Coconut-Almond Brownie Cups

This recipe is from the Betty Crocker Cookies and Bars recipe booklet. I didn't have any Almond Joys in my freezer, but I did have Mound bars, so I used them instead.

These are boring and not a keeper.

New Recipe for 2017 #19 - Chocolate Craving Cake

This recipe comes from the blog I Am Baker, It is a quick and easy cake to make. Plus, it doesn't make a lot of cake. Alas, it was a dry cake and the frosting, while tasty, did not get fluffy. Not even my Kitchen Aid mixer could get it fluffy.

Whole cake. Popped it out of pan and then spread/poured frosting on top

Piece of cake

New Recipe for 2017 #18 - Raspberry-Almond Foldovers

This recipe came from the Betty Crocker recipe booklet "Cookies and Bars". I decided to make them because I had a half a brick of cream cheese in the refrigerator that I had to use up.

These are really boring cookies. They are pretty tasteless.

New Recipe for 2017 #17 - Supersoft Coconut Lime Cake

Yet another winner from The Cookies & Cups Cookbook. From previous experience with cakes in this cookbook, I reduced the sugar from 1 1/2 cups to 1 cup. I also only used one cup of sweetened coconut on top. The colorful addition are some Easter sprinkles I wanted to get rid of.

The whole cake 

Piece of cake

New Recipe for 2017 #16 - Merry Cherry Swirl Brownies

I got this delicious recipe from the recipe booklet Betty Crocker Cookies and Bars. I did not use maraschino cherries. Instead I defrosted some sweet cherries that I had in the freezer. You're supposed to spread half of brownie batter on top of the cream cheese layer and then swirl with a knife. This is far harder than the recipe leads you to believe. First spreading batter on top of the cream cheese layer is very difficult. Then that batter did not want to swirl. The top of them did not look that good, but they tasted delicious.

New Recipe for 2017 #15 - Chocolate Macaroon Pie

My friend Sarah says that macaroons are simply a delivery system for chocolate ganache. I saw this recipe from Crazy for Crust and realized it was just a big macaroon covered in chocolate ganache.

I thought this would be gluten free, but it has 2/3 cup of flour. You could use gluten free flour, but I had none on hand. My tart pan does not have a removable bottom, and I had no problem removing tart pieces from it.

The recipe is extremely easy to make, but you need time for the macaroon part to cool completely before putting on the chocolate ganache which needs to cool before you can serve it.

As for taste, oh so tasty. So very good. One warning is that it is very rich. You'll be tempted to cut a big piece, but cut into small pieces and have seconds if you like.

The whole tart

A piece of the tart. Mmmm, look at that layer of chocolate ganache.

New Recipe for 2017 #14 - Brown Butter Brownies

After the deliciousness of the Brown Butter Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars, I was definitely attracted to this recipe. I made them up on a Friday night and then posted the picture on Instagram. A very pregnant friend teased that I was posting food porn.

These were very easy to make. I whipped them up after work in plenty of time to get to bed by 9:00. I did not put in the walnuts because walnuts are evil and should not adulterate the innate goodness of brownies.

These bars were good but greasy. Yes, that sounds odd for brownies, but it's something I've encountered in Denver. Maybe it's the altitude.

New Recipe for 2017 #13 - Raspberry Crumb Bars

I was flipping through my copy of the recipe booklet "Cookies & Bars" and came across this recipe for Raspberry Crumb Bars. One of the ingredients was raspberry pie filling. I'd heard of apple, cherry, and blueberry pie filling but never raspberry.

While at the grocery store looking for ingredients for other recipes, I came across raspberry pie filling and put it in my cart to make these cookies at a later date.

 I was taking them to Swedish School, so I used unsweetened coconut instead of pecans because there are students there that are very allergic to nuts. These bars are good, but too sweet for my taste. I blame it on the raspberry pie filling.

Sorry no picture.

New Recipe for 2017 #12 - Hazelnut Lace Cookies

I got this recipe from a Betty Crocker booklet called Cookies & Bars that I got in a General Mills box that my darling Aunt Mary sends me every Christmas.

I had made another recipe that day and realized that it didn't make enough food, so I tried this recipe. There is a real sweet spot as far as baking these cookies. Don't bake long enough and you won't be able to get them off the cookie sheet. Bake them too long and they burn. The line between those two is quite thin.

These turned out well. They were delicious, but not my cup of tea.

 A single cookie 

Three cookies

New Recipe for 2017 #11 - Kerry Apple Cake

For the March meeting at work, I decided to make something Irish for St. Patrick's Day. I grabbed the cookbook Best of Irish Home Baking by Biddy White Lennon that I had purchased in Ireland in 2005. Going through the recipes I came across Kerry Apple Cake and gave it a try.

First thing, don't follow the mixing directions. They are hopeless. Mix the sugar, butter, and egg and then put in the flour. I ended up putting in an extra egg to get anything resembling dough. I have a sneaking suspicion that large apples in Ireland are a bit smaller than apples in the U.S. It took awhile to get the apples mixed in. Apple pieces were flying out of my Kitchen Aid mixer left and right -  even with the bowel shield on.

For the topping, the recipe only calls for a 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon or nutmeg or cloves. I put in 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg plus a bit of cardamon. 

This cake was delicious!

New Recipe for 2017 #10 - Brown Butter Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

I got this recipe from the blog She Wears Many Hats.

It is so delicious that I had to get them out of the house before I ate them all. Had to get them out so fast that I didn't have time to take a picture.

They really don't need the pecans, so you can skip that ingredient.

New Recipe for 2017 #9 - Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies

This recipe is from the blog Eighteen25. I love chocolate chip cookies, and am always looking out for a new, maybe better recipe.

Alas, these cookies are good, but not any better than the recipe on the back of the bag of Nestle semisweet chocolate chips.

This recipe did teach me to stop watching the funny video on Facebook when the oven timer goes off. The second two pans of cookies ended up darker and harder.

New Recipe for 2017 #8 - Confetti Cake

So I made the Mini Chocolate Pecan Cheesecakes and realized that I did not have enough for the meeting at work. I grabbed The Cookie and Cups Cookbook and looked to see what I could make without having to go to the grocery store. Confetti Cake won.

This is a really good cake. It stays moist in dry Denver - always a plus. The one complaint I have is that it is too sweet. It has 1 1/2 cups of sugar plus the 1/2 cup of sprinkles. In future, I'll cut the sugar to 3/4 cup and will hopefully avoid a diabetic coma.

New Recipe of 2017 #7 - Mini Chocolate Pecan Cheesecakes

I got this recipe from My Baking Addiction. The cheesecakes are made in a standard muffin tin. It says to line the tins with metal baking cups. I used paper ones. They baked up fine, although I think I overbaked the crust just a little bit because my muffin tin was a dark metal. One thing to note is that the recipe only makes 12 cheesecakes. 

This recipe is OK. My favorite cheesecake recipe is still my Aunt Betty's. The ganache recipe she gives did not work for me. The ganache stayed in a liquid form despite spending several hours in the refrigerator. I dumped the whole thing back into the saucepan, heated it up, and poured the hot mixture over another 4 ounces of semisweet chocolate. Then, it finally got solid enough to put on the cheesecakes.

I spread the leftover ganache on Girl Scout Trefoil cookies and sprinkled pecans on top.

New Recipe for 2017 #6: Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies.

This recipe for Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies is from the blog She Wears Many Hats.

These are basically just chocolate chip cookies with orange zest and ginger. You have to chill the dough for at least an hour before baking it. Not sure why. What I do know is that the cookies took over  15 minutes to bake.

The cookies were OK. Nothing to write home about. The addition of orange and ginger may have been better in a chocolate cookie instead of a chocolate chip cookie.

My Second Quilt

After I made my first quilt, I decided to make a quilt for my older sister, Suzie. The main problem is that most of the fabric from my purchased scrap bag were gone. No problem. Mom had plenty of scrap fabric. Mom was fine with me using her old fabric. So off I went cutting squares.

Here is the result:

Now I was the first quilter in the family since my paternal great-grandmother (long dead), so there was no one to tell me the "rules" of quilting, like you should only use woven cotton fabric. Thus this quilt has some interesting fabrics in it like polyester double knit, velveteen, corduroy, and fake fur.

Inadvertently I had created a memory quilt for my sister. These fabrics were from items our mother had made through the years.

Next to the lovely beige double knit is the eyelet fabric my mother used to make my flower girl dress for my cousin's wedding.

The purple fabric is from the dress my mother made for me for Easter when I was third grade. I got the measles that year so I wasn't able to go to church on Easter Sunday. As for the orange corduroy, who knows, it was the 1970's.

The polka dot fabrics were from bathing suits. the blue and green print was a bathing suit cover up my mom made for herself. More of the beige doubleknit and some gray corduroy.

More of the gray corduroy next to the fake fur that my sister had a bedspread made of when she was in high school. Above the lovely yellow strip doubleknit is a blue flowered fabric. My mother made matching dresses from that for my sister and I. Note to parents, do not make your 15-year old daughter wear a dress that matches the one her 4-year old sister is wearing. 

New Recipe for 2017 #5 - Cheesecake Stuffed Chocolate Cupcakes

I got this recipe for Cheesecake Stuffed Chocolate Cupcakes from the blog Handle the Heat. Honestly, I found these to be a bit dry. If a recipe can't handle the dryness of Denver, it doesn't stay in my recipe box.

The recipe calls to top the cupcakes with melted chocolate chips.

But, the recipe also only calls for 6 tablespoons of cream cheese. Most bricks of cream cheese have 8 tablespoons. I took the extra 2 tablespoons of cream cheese and made cream cheese frosting. 

New Recipe for 2017 #4 - Pound Cake Cookies

Pound Cake Cookies recipe comes from the blog Food Fanatic. These yummy cookies are basically a soft sugar cookie. They have lemon zest and lemon juice. I added a little more lemon, because I like a good lemon cookie.

You could halve the glaze recipe and still have plenty. I think I'm the last person to discover that I could put the glaze in a plastic bag and cut a corner to make nice little stripes.

New Recipe for 2017 #3 - Chocolate-Almond Torte

This recipe for Chocolate-Almond Torte came from the December 2009 Food Network Magazine. This is a gluten-free cake and is very rich. I highly recommend serving with whipped cream or Cool Whip (although a friend of mine says that Cool Whip isn't food).

I wasn't so impressed by this recipe. I personally think it's because I didn't grind the almonds fine enough.

New Recipe for 2017 #2 - Movie Munchers

The recipe for Movie Munchers came from a little holiday cookbook in a Food Network Magazine. Basically, they are chocolate chip cookies baked in a muffin tin. To make things interesting, you can add items other than chocolate chips such as raisins, chocolate covered raisins, M&Ms (plain or peanut), peanuts, craisins, etc.

These are delicious. One thing I caution is the color of your muffin tins. If you have dark coated muffin tins, keep the cooking time to about 20 minutes. For light coated tins, stick to about 22 or 23 minutes. Remember I'm baking in Denver, so baking times at your elevation may vary.

I did try putting a Rolo on top before baking, but as you can see, the results weren't that great.

New Recipe for 2017 #1 Almond-Coconut Macaroons

Last year I tried one new recipe a week. Actually, it was supposed to average out to one new recipe a week - 4 one week and none for the next two weeks, etc. I only got to 47. I hope to to better this year. One problem I found using Facebook was keeping track of what number I was on. So, I've decided to use my blog.

The first recipe for this year is Almond-Coconut Macaroons from Martha Stewart Living. I mainly made this recipe because I had three egg whites to use up. Plus I'm always on the lookout for a good macaroon recipe. I didn't find this one a keeper. The macaroons tasted greasy. It was probably due to the oil that left the almonds during baking.

My preferred macaroon recipe is from Cookie & Cups. Alas, you will not find it on the website. You'll have to buy her book or check it out from the library.