Lemon Crinkle Cookies

When my mom told me she was trying out a new Lemon cookie for a family function I never could have imagined how amazing they would turn out. These cookies reminded me of some similar ones that friends have bought and shared with me that they got from the expensive cookie shops around here. They were really good, and super easy to make, my kids even got to help out on these ones. My mom said these were the cookie that won first prize for best cookies in a contest for LDS Living.com. These are truly amazing cookies, I think they would be fun to add some lemon heads to them to spice up the lemon flavor. Yummy!!

Ingredients:
½ cups butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 whole egg
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
¼ teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoons baking powder
⅛ teaspoons baking soda
1-½ cup all-purpose flour (i needed 1/4 - 1/3 c. more flour to get it the right consistency to roll out)
½ cups powdered sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease light colored baking sheets with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest, and juice. Scrape sides and mix again. Stir in all dry ingredients slowly until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly. Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.

Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte {not melty or shiny}. Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

*If using a non-stick darker baking tray, reduce baking time by about 2 minutes.

Pecan Pie

I love pecan pie!!! When i was dating my husband he had a roommate who was from the south, and that boy would make southern pecan pie like no other. Mmmm it makes my mouth water just thinking about it. I hope you can find some time to enjoy some Pecan Pie sometime soon.

3 eggs beaten

2/3 C. Sugar

1 C. Corn Syrup

1/3 C. Melted Butter

1 C. Pecan Halves

Dash of Salt

1 unbaked pie shell

Combine eggs, sugar and salt in a bowl, then add corn syrup and butter and mix together, stir in the pecans then pour mixture into an unbaked pie shell. Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes. Cool for 2-3 hours before serving

Peanut Butter Popcorn

I had a friend in high school who use to make this all the time when we would all be sitting around chatting late at night, and I use to love the flavor of it. It's rich and positively divine, trust me, you will love it if you like peanut butter!!

1/2 C. Honey

1/2 C Karo Syrup

1 C. Sugar

1 C. Peanut Butter

1/2 Tsp. Vanilla

Combine Honey, Karo and Sugar in a pan until it boils, boil while stirring for 2 minutes, then add peanut butter and Vanilla and stir until smooth, then pour over 1 batch of air popped popcorn.

Corn Bread

This has been my go to recipe for corn bread for quite awhile. I remember growing up and having this for breakfast many times. I always have loved it with a little butter and some honey, it makes my tummy growl just thinking about it.

1 c. corn meal
1 c. flour
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 c. shortening
1 egg
1 c. milk

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Cut in shortening until well blended. Beat egg and milk together. Mix with dry ingredients until just blended. Pour into well greased 8x8 pan. Bake at 200 for 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

For sweeter bread add 2 more Tbsp sugar.

Sweet and Sour Sauce

This is a recipe that my Aunt Jill got when she took Chinese cooking classes after she and my grandmother went to China to pick up an Uncle of mine who was serving an LDS mission there. This has always been what sweet and Sour Sauce tastes like to me. I hope you enjoy it as well.

1 C Water
2 Tbsp Ketchup
1 tsp Sugar
1 tsp Red wine Vinegar

place ingredients into pan and bring to a boil. Add cornstarch to thicken mixture. Pour over your desired ingredients or use as dipping sauce or marinade.

Hot Fudge

This was always my mom's go to recipe for hot fudge sauce and I have learned over the years that it makes an excellent Chocolate Fondue sauce as well. We use this sauce all the time for Ice cream and Fondue, or anytime I want a nice thick chocolate sauce. It's amazing and very simple to make. I hope you enjoy it.

1 Square Semi Sweet Cocoa
1 C. Sugar
2/3 C. Evaporated Milk
1/2 C. Margarine
1 tsp. Vanilla
2 Tbsp Karo Syrup

Melt Butter and Cocoa in a pan over low heat, then add Milk, karo and Sugar. Stirring constantly boil until sugar has dissolved. Once Sugar has dissolved add vanilla and remove from heat and serve while hot.

Two Tone Brownies

This recipe originally comes from Taste of home cookbook, but my dear friend Kristi makes these and they are to die for. Soft moist brownies topped with a cookie dough frosting. What could be better? They are amazing and I know you will just love them.

Brownie Layer:
1 12-ounce bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup (2 cubes) butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs at room temperature
1 1/2 cups flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt butter and chocolate chips. Stir constantly and remove from heat when chips are fully melted. In the same pot, blend in the sugar. Then add eggs, blending fully one at a time. Add flour and salt and beat until air bubbles form in the batter. Pour into a greased 9 X 13-inch pan. Bake for 20 minutes. Turn heat down to 325 degrees and bake for 10 more minutes.

Cool completely and then top with the cookie dough layer.

Cookie Dough Layer:
1/2 cup (1 cube) butter, softened
1/2 cup dark brown Sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

In a small bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in milk and vanilla. Gradually add flour and salt. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by tablespoonfuls over cooled brownies; carefully spread over top (this can be tricky but I found the best way is to slightly wet my hands and pat the dough down gently so it doesn’t pull up the brownies). Cut into squares. Store in the refrigerator.

Raspberry Banana Bread

My raspberries are on and we have been making freezer jam, freezing raspberries and trying a new banana bread recipe. This is not your mother's banana bread, but it is YUUUMMMY! I found this little gem in my ward cookbook. Very moist and delicious. The white chocolate chips and raspberries take it to another level.


Liquid Ingredients:

2 eggs
2 c. mashed bananas
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1/4 c. applesauce


Dry Ingredients:

1 3/4 c. flour
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg


Additional Ingredients
1 c. white chocolate chips
1 c. fresh or frozen raspberries
(if frozen, do not thaw before baking)

Directions:
In a large bowl, whisk all dry ingredients together. In smaller bowl stir all liquid ingredients together until well combined and eggs are beaten up. Slowly pour liquid bowl into dry bowl and stir together. Fold in white chips and raspberries. Pour into greased bread pan and bake at 325 for 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Simple Éclair Cake

My fabulous sister in law made this for us for Mother's Day this year and it was yummy! I called her for the recipe over the weekend and made it for our little Pioneer Day BBQ on Sunday, it got rave reviews. The best part is how simple it is to make, you can whip it up in under 10 minutes, enjoy!


Ingredients

2 (3.5 oz) pkg vanilla instant pudding

1 (8 oz) container cool whip

3 cups milk

16 oz graham crackers

1 container prepared chocolate frosting.

Directions

Prepare pudding with 3 cups milk then fold in cool whip. In 9x13 layer graham crackers, pudding mixture, graham crackers, pudding mixture, ending with crackers on top. Top with chocolate frosting (this goes a lot easier if you microwave the frosting for just 20-30 seconds to get it nice and soft and pourable). Spread the frosting to cover all crackers. Allow to chill in the fridge at least 4 hours to soften crackers.

Lemon Water

My Aunt Lou always makes this when we have large family parties at her house, it's kind of like a mild gatorade, but not nearly as sweet. It's great for large parties and it's especially nice for summer BBQ's. You could put any fruit in it, I've seen her use Oranges as well in the winter time. It's light and mild in flavor and pretty easy to mix together quickly once you get the citric acid. I get mine at GNC.

2 tablespoons citric acid (you can find this at most natural food stores and some pharmacies)
5 quarts water
2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons pure lemon extract
3 sliced lemons
3 sliced limes
Crushed ice

In a large pitcher or punch bowl, stir water, sugar, citric acid, and lemon extract together. Add sliced fruit and ice.