Candy Corn Popcorn Balls

This recipe comes from Cooking Light and it's another fun way you can make a treat with your kids, that welcomes the Halloween spirit. What could be better than popcorn, marshmallows and candy corn. It would be a really fun treat to take to a school class, or to share at a party. They are yummy if you are a fan of rice krispy treats you will definitely love these.

• 8 cups popped light butter microwave popcorn (about 1 [3-ounce] bag)
• 1 cup candy corn
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 (10-ounce) bag marshmallows
• Cooking spray

Preparation

Combine popcorn and candy corn in a large bowl.

Melt 1/4 cup butter in a large saucepan over medium heat; stir in 1/4 teaspoon salt and (10-ounce) bag marshmallows. Reduce heat to low; cook for 7 minutes or until the marshmallows melt and the mixture is smooth, stirring frequently.

Pour marshmallow mixture over popcorn mixture, stirring to coat well. Lightly coat hands with cooking spray; shape popcorn mixture into 20 (2-inch) balls.

Easy Donuts

I love homemade donuts, it's something that reminds me of Halloween when I was growing up, probably because we made them a number of times on Halloween. When I saw this recipe on realsimple I knew I had to give it a try, afterall, we love making pride biscuits when camping with biscuit dough, why not donuts in the fall. Though they aren't quite the same as a true homemade donut, they are close enough for me!

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 8-count package large refrigerated biscuits (such as Pillsbury Grands)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Heat 1/2 cup of the oil in a medium skillet over medium-low heat.
2. Place the biscuits on a cutting board. Using a 1-inch round cookie cutter or old pill bottle, cut a hole in the center of each biscuit, reserving the extra dough for "holes."
3. Test the heat of the oil by dipping the edge of a doughnut in the pan. When the oil is hot enough, the edge will bubble. Place 4 of the doughnuts and holes in the skillet and cook until golden brown, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes per side. Transfer to a wire rack or paper towel–lined plate to drain. Add the remaining oil to the skillet, reheat, and cook the remaining doughnuts and holes.
4. In a large bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon. Gently toss the warm doughnuts in the mixture a few at a time. Serve warm or at room temperature.
   
   This recipe makes 8 doughnuts, plus holes.

Perfect Cookies

I found this on AllRecipes.com the other day and thought it might be something useful to share with others. Hope you enjoy it and that it's helpful! Thanks to the cooking staff at allrecipes.

Some cookies should be crisp and delicate, while others ought to be chewy and tender.
Troubleshooting

If you have a cookie recipe that you love, but aren’t getting the desired results, use these tips to get your perfect cookie:

•Flat If you want your cookies on the flat side, you can do some or all of the following things: Use all butter, use all-purpose flour or bread flour, increase the sugar content slightly, add a bit of liquid to your dough, and bring the dough to room temperature before baking.

•Puffy For light, puffy cookies, use shortening or margarine and cut back on the amount of fat; add an egg, cut back on the sugar, use cake flour or pastry flour, use baking powder instead of baking soda and refrigerate your dough before baking.

•Chewy Try melting the butter before adding it to the sugars when mixing. Remove cookies from the oven a few minutes before they are done, while their centers are still soft but are just cooked through. The edges should be golden. Use brown sugar, honey or molasses as a sweetener. Let cookies cool on the pan for several minutes after baking before transferring to cooling rack.

•Crispy For crisp, crunchy cookies, use all butter and a proportion of white sugar. Use egg yolks in place of a whole egg. Cookies should be baked completely. Let cool on the baking sheet for one minute before transferring to a cooling rack.

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Ingredients

Using the correct ingredients is key. Follow the recipe closely and measure ingredients carefully for best results.

Fats Cookies are made primarily with butter, margarine or shortening. Fats play a major role in the spread of a cookie--whether a cookie keeps its shape or flattens in the oven. Shortening and margarine are stable, and will help cookies keep their original unbaked shapes. Butter melts at a much lower temperature than other solid fats--it melts at body temperature, resulting in a “melt-in-your-mouth” burst of flavor. Cookies made with butter tend to spread out. Butter is essential in certain cookies, such as shortbreads; if they don’t hold their shape, consider lowering the amount of butter, sugar, or baking soda in the recipe. The amount of fat also affects the cookies: in general, more fat equals flat, crispy cookies while less fat equals puffier, cake-like cookies. Whipped spreads are not suitable for baking: use solid sticks of margarine instead.

Flour Flour also affects how cookies behave. Most cookie recipes call for all-purpose or pastry flour. Both bread flour, with its high protein content, and cake flour, which is high in starch, produce cookies that tend to spread less. (The gluten in the bread flour and the absorbant starch in cake flour are responsible for the similar results.) Higher flour-to-liquid ratios are needed in shortbread and crumbly-textured cookies.

Baking Powder and Baking Soda Baking powder and baking soda are the two most common leaveners in cookies. Baking soda is simply bicarbonate of soda, while baking powder is a combination of bicarbonate of soda plus cream of tartar, an acidic ingredient. Baking soda neutralizes the acidity of the dough, allowing the cookies to brown in the oven. Since baking powder already contains its own acid, it will not reduce the acidity in the dough, and the resulting cookies will be puffier and lighter in color.

Sugars Like fats, sugars liquefy in the oven. The type and amount of sugar used play a big role in cookie performance. White sugar makes a crisper cookie than brown sugar or honey. Cookies made from brown sugar will absorb moisture after baking, helping to ensure that they stay chewy. Most chocolate chip cookie recipes contain both brown and white sugars. If you lower the amount of sugar called for in a cookie recipe, the final baked cookie will be puffier than its high-sugar counterpart.

Eggs and Liquids Eggs are a binding agent. Liquids can either cause cookies to puff up or spread. If egg is the liquid, it will create a puffy, cake-like texture. Just a tablespoon or two of water or other liquid will help your cookies spread into flatter and crisper rounds. Egg yolks bind the dough and add richness but allow a crisp texture after baking, whereas egg whites tend to make cookies dry and cakey. To make up for the drying effect of the egg whites, extra sugar is often added. This is why cookies made with just egg whites tend to be so sweet--think of macaroons.

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Mixing
Cookies are not as delicate as cakes, but proper mixing is still important. Some recipes require a creaming step in which the fat and sugars are beaten together until light-colored and fluffy. Other cookies require a sandy texture, so the fat is cut into the flour. Over-mixing can incorporate too much air into the dough, resulting in flat, overly spread-out cookies. Follow the recipe instructions. Once you combine the dry and wet ingredients, mix until just combined.

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Temperature
Unless otherwise specified, ingredients should be at room temperature before mixing. Cookie dough that is chilled before baking will hold its shape better. Rolled and cut-out cookies should be refrigerated before baking for sharper, clearer edges. Drop cookies, such as chocolate chip or oatmeal cookies, can be at room temperature before baking; the spoonfuls of dough will spread and flatten out to the desired result.

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Equipment and Baking

Different baking sheets and ovens produce different results. Thin baking sheets may allow the bottoms to brown too fast. Special insulated baking sheets allow air movement and help cookies bake evenly, but they can be expensive. Semi-thick rimmed baking sheets--also called jellyroll pans--are available just about everywhere, and are a fine multipurpose baking choice. Rather than greasing each baking sheet, consider investing in a roll of parchment paper or a nonstick pan liner to make cookie removal and clean-up easy.

Follow the recipe’s instructions for baking. Invest in an oven thermometer to be sure your oven temperature is calibrated correctly. Generally, cookies are baked in a moderate oven--350 degrees F (175 degrees C)--for 8 to 12 minutes, depending on the size of the cookie. For chewy cookies, allow them to cool on the pan for 3 to 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. For crispier cookies, let cool for one minute on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack.

Girl Scout Samoa Cookie Bars

Don't these look divine. They are so much simpler than making the shaped cookies like the post I put up last month. I have been on a search for a simpler version of these, when I came across this recipe on Baking Bits, a new favorite of mine, I am amazed how many food blogs there are out there, and just when I think I have found my favorite I find about 10 more that I love. I hope you will enjoy this simplified version of the girl scout samoas, I know I will!

Cookie Base:
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

First, make the crust.
Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 9×13-inch baking pan, or line with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, cream together sugar and butter, until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla extract. Working at a low speed, gradually beat in flour and salt until mixture is crumbly, like wet sand. The dough does not need to come together. Pour crumbly dough into prepared pan and press into an even layer. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until base is set and edges are lightly browned. Cool completely on a wire rack before topping.

Topping
3 cups shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
12-oz good-quality chewy caramels
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp milk
10 oz. dark or semisweet chocolate (chocolate chips are ok)

Preheat oven to 300. Spread coconut evenly on a parchment-lined baking sheet (preferably one with sides) and toast 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until coconut is golden. Cool on baking sheet, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

Unwrap the caramels and place in a large microwave-safe bowl with milk and salt. Cook on high for 3-4 minutes, stopping to stir a few times to help the caramel melt. When smooth, fold in toasted coconut with a spatula.
Put dollops of the topping all over the shortbread base. Using the spatula, spread topping into an even layer. Let topping set until cooled.
When cooled, cut into 30 bars with a large knife or a pizza cutter

Once bars are cut, melt chocolate in a small bowl. Heat on high in the microwave in 45 second intervals, stirring thoroughly to prevent scorching. Dip the base of each bar into the chocolate and place on a clean piece of parchment or wax paper. Transfer all remaining chocolate (or melt a bit of additional chocolate, if necessary) into a piping bag or a ziploc bag with the corner snipped off and drizzle bars with chocolate to finish.
Let chocolate set completely before storing in an airtight container.

Makes 30 bar cookies.

Golden cheese/broccoli chowder

There were no images on the Internet to do this amazing soup justice. I took this to a relief society dinner last week and it was the only soup gone at the end of the night. It's good stuff!

2 C water
1 C celery, chopped
1 C carrots, chopped
1/2 C onion, chopped
1 pound fresh broccoli, washed and chopped

Cheese Sauce:
1/2 C butter
1/2 C all-purpose flour
2 tsp salt or to taste
1/4 tsp white pepper (I use regular black pepper)
4 C milk (this is good with milk and even better with half-and-half!)
hot pepper sauce, as desired (I have never desired any, so I have never included it at all)
1 pound process cheese spread cut in 1/2 inch cubes or 4 C shredded cheddar cheese (my family makes it with the process stuff and I like it, but have changed to the cheddar and I like that too)
2 C ham, cut in 1/2 inch cubes

In large saucepan, combine water, celery, carrots, and onion. Bring to boil; reduce heat. Simmer, covered for about 5 minutes or until tender/crisp. Add broccoli; cook until broccoli is tender/crisp, about 4-5 minutes. (to keep broccoli bright green, leave the cover slightly ajar.) Do not drain vegetables. To make sauce, melt butter in large saucepan; blend in flour, salt, and pepper. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Stir in milk; cook until mixture thickens. Add several drops of hot pepper sauce if desired. Stir in cheese and cook until melted; add the ham cubes. Combine cheese mixture with undrained vegetables; stir to blend. Yield 12 servings.

Clam (or bacon!) Chowder

My mom used to make this all the time when I was a kid. Then one day I started refusing any seafood, so she would dish me out a bowl before she put the clams in. Then one day she had the quite brilliant idea of replacing the clams with bacon! Genius!

1 C onion, finely chopped
1 C celery, finely diced
2 C potatoes, finely diced
2 Cans (6 1/2 ounces each) clams, undrained (I use one package of bacon cut in small pieces and cooked until it's crisp)
3/4 C butter
3/4 C flour
1 quart half-and-half
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Combine vegetables in small saucepan. Drain clams; pour juice over vegetables (I just skip that part); add enough water to barely cover. Cook, covered, until tender - about 15 minutes. In meantime, melt butter in large heavy saucepan. Stir in flour until blended and bubbly. Remove from heat; stir in cream until smooth and blended. Return to heat; cook and stir with wire whip until thick and smooth. Add undrained vegetables and clams (or bacon!); heat through. Season with salt and pepper (I ended up using less salt than called for because bacon is salty too).

Old fashioned chicken noodle soup

This is a recipe my mom had from somewhere and put in the recipe box she gave me when I left home.

1-3 lb stewing chicken, cut up
2 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp dried basil leaves
1 bay leaf
4 sliced carrots - cut into 1" slices
celery to equal amount of carrots - cut into 1" slices
1/2 lb small white onions - washed and peeled (or regular white onion diced large to equal amount of carrots)
1 C fine noodles, uncooked (I use wide egg noodles)

Wash chicken, place in large pot and cover with water. Add seasonings, simmer covered for 1 1/2 hours or until chicken is tender. remove chicken from pot. Prepare vegetables, bring stock to a boil and add vegetables. Simmer for 45 minutes. Remove skin and chicken from bones 10 minutes before the vegetables are done. Add noodles and chicken pieces. Cook minutes longer.

Zucchini Whoopie Pie

I got this recipe from Real mom kitchen, and they are delicious! I must say that is has got my mind going in circles for other recipes I could use this same idea with. Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies sandwiched with a chocolate cream cheese frosting, or just plain cream cheese frosting. Yummy!!! My winter cookie months just got a little more exciting!!

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1 cup finely chopped nuts (optional, I didn't use)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 large egg
1 cup grated zucchini-squeezed
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Mix shortening and sugar. Add in egg. Mix. Add milk and mix.
2. Add in dry ingredients and stir.
3. Blend in the zucchini and vanilla.

Bake on a greased cookie sheet at 350* for about 12-15 minutes, until the bottom gets browned.
Cool and sandwich cookies with cream cheese filling.

Filling:
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
2 1/4 cups confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Scant 1/4 teaspoon salt

Beat all ingredients together until light and fluffy.

German Pancakes

The kids are off track and asked for something different for breakfast this morning. We tried the pancakes, my first time ever, they were super SIMPLE and a big hit!

Ingredients

6 eggs
1 C. flour
1 C. milk
1/2 tsp. salt
3 Tbsp butter


Cut up margarine into a 9x13 pan, place in oven while it preheats to 400 degrees. Combine remaining ingredients and blend smooth. Once margarine is melted pour batter into the pan and cook for 20 minutes. It will puff up and get light brown around the edges. Serve warm with maple syrup.

Egg Salad Sandwich

I haven't had one of these in years, but I remember growing up these were one of my favorite sandwiches my mom would make. I love it when the eggs were still warm and they had that tangy sauce...my mouth is watering already. This is the classic simple recipe my mom used, you can't go wrong with that!

2 eggs
2 Tbsp Miracle whip
Mustard to taste
S&P to taste

Scramble eggs in skillet, once eggs are cooked thru, add Miracle Whip, mustard and salt and pepper to taste and texture preferences. Serve on warm toasted bread while filling is still warm.