ITALIAN BISCUIT COOKIE

This recipe is for an Italian Biscuit Cookie or as my husband likes to call the " Dream Cookie."  You may be wondering why he calls these cookies the "Dream Cookie"?  These cookies are so good you feel like you are in a dream?  The sugar, butter and almond flavoring combine together and literately melt in your mouth.  Add the buttery & creamy icing to the top and you feel like you have died and gone to heaven!!!!  I found these biscuits on Pinterest and they were called "Spring Biscuit Cookies".  Let me tell you....you can make these cookies in the spring, you can make them in the summer, you can make them in the fall, you can make them for Easter, Christmas, Birthdays....etc....No matter when you make them or where you bring them I promise you they will be gone, gone, gone! I have made them for Easter & Mother's Day and I tinted the frosting pastel colors or left them plain white and sprinkled pastel sugars on them.  This time around I made them for a trick-or-treat broker open house (yes, we are trying to sell our home).  As you will see I tinted the frosting a light orange, placed a candy corn in the middle and wrapped them up as a "thank you" goody bag.  I doubled the recipe and brought some over to a friends house as a gift for Halloween and brought extras to my parents Halloween party.  Make these cookies once and you will make them again, and again, and again!  People will request you bring these to their parties!  These are the types of cookies you will not be able to eat just one.  You eat one and then you just keep eyeing the platter of cookies and sooner rather than later you just go ahead and grab another...because they are just that good!  Believe me..or rather believe me husband when he says these truly are a "Dream" Cookie!

GRANDMA'S EASTER LEMON KNOTS - " TARALLI "

I would like you to take a moment and think about your childhood. Think about the recipes and dishes that your grandmother's or your mother's made for you.  Is there one dish that really stands out from all of the others.  A dish that when you walk into a restaraunt, a bakery or into someones kitchen that is making something that smells like  the dish you remember,  all of a sudden it just brings you back.  That smell or flavor just brings you back to your childhood.  It brings back memories!  I have many recipes that bring me back to my childhood when my grandmother's would put together the big family holidays, but one recipe in particular that just encompasses my childhood is my Grandma's  Easter Lemon Knots or " Taralli ".  For some odd reason when I was little I did not pay too much attention to the Easter holiday.  Don't get me wrong, it was fun...the whole Easter Bunny thing and eggs were great...., but in the overall picture of  all the holidays, Easter for some weird reason was at the bottom of my totem pole.  Which is why I find it so surprising, now that I am an adult, I find myself getting very emotional the last few years around Easter time.  While it was mundane when I was a child, I would give anything now to have it over again....just for one day...just to bring it all  back.  So that is why last year I decided to bring the memories back for my family and for myself and make my Gandma's Lemon Knots.

IRISH OATMEAL COOKIES

McCann's brand Irish Oatmeal is imported from Ireland which makes it not only great tasting, but authentic as well.  They have an outstanding recipe for Irish Oatmeal Cookies on the back of their box.  I actually made these cookies last year for a St. Patty's Day party we were invited to...they are great!  This year I am going to have to omit the walnuts from the recipe only because my daughters cannot eat nuts and I want them to enjoy them too.  Makes these great cookies for a party or just for your family on St. Patrick's Day...they will love them.  Just a little note:  on the side panel of the McCann's box is an Irish blessing that I pass on
to you:

"May you have warm words on

a cold evening.

A full moon on a dark night.

And the road downhill all the

way to your door."

IRISH OATMEAL COOKIES 

• 1 1 /4 cups softened butter
• 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg slightly beaten
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 1 2/ cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 3 cups McCann's Quick Cooking Irish Oatmeal
• 3/4 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars.  Add the egg and vanilla.
3. Combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.  Add tot he butter mixture.  Mix well.
4. Stir in the oatmeal, raisins and walnuts.
5. Drop rounded teaspoons of batter on an ungreased cookie sheet.
6. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes at 350 degrees.  Cool for 1 minute before removing to wire cooling rack.

*Makes approx. 36 cookies

** Recipe and photo courtesy of McCann's

Oatmeal - Chocolate Chip Cookies

Okay...am I crazy?  Did I not just get through the holidays and just get rid of all the dozens of Christmas cookies I had made?  Yes...but....I made some more!!  We were invited to have dinner over at our neighbors house last friday night.  They have two kids, we have two kids....everyone loves cookies right?  I found a recipe in my Southern Living cookbook for Nutty Oatmeal-Chocolate Chunk Cookies, of  course I cannot follow any recipe to the "t" so I came up with my own adapted version of this recipe.  They did come out a bit flat...but the way they tasted totally made up for the flatness!

OATMEAL - CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES 

• 1 1/2 cups uncooked oats
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 TB. vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3 cups chocolate chips
• cooking spray

1. Beat butter and sugars at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy. 
2. Add eggs and vanilla; beat until blended.
3. Combine oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Add to butter mixture, beating until well blended.
4. Stir in chocolate chips.
5. Spray a cookie sheet generously with cooking spray.
6. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls onto cookie sheets.
7. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 - 10 minutes or until golden.
8. Remove to wire racks and cool.

*Makes about 3 dozen

Making Christmas Cookies with Kids!

About three years ago my husband and I started a tradition of having my nephews come over to our house to make Christmas Cookies.  We have kept that tradition alive again this year!  We make a really big deal out of it. Chase is 7 and Nick is 4 so they are very excited to come to "Auntie Ra and Uncle Mike's" house to make cookies, eat cookies and chocolate milk, watch Christmas movies and then the finale'...they get to sleep over at our house!  Yes!  We are crazy!  My mom and sister n' law come over to help. So we have a total of 4 adults and 5 kids running around, singing, dancing and making cookies! 

We have come up with two different Christmas Cookies that are very, very easy to do with all these kids.  Check out the recipes and try to make a Christmas tradition with the kids in your family!!!!

Wax Paper - Vs- Parchment Paper

Is there a difference between wax paper and parchment paper.  The answer is plain and simple...YES!  What is the difference you ask?  Well parchment paper does not stick to your cookies and wax paper does! 

I always choose one outstanding, beautiful and more complicated cookie to add to my Christmas cookie trays.  This year I chose a recipe from December's issue of Bon Appetite, called Lemon Cranberry Florentines.  The recipe seemed a bit more complicated then my regular flour, sugar, butter cookies that I make...but what the heck I was up for the challenge. If you do plan on making these cookies just know that they are a two day cookie making process, because you have to make home-made candied lemon peel that has to sit over night.  Also....please....if there is one thing you take away from this post is please, please...when a recipe calls for parchment paper...just use parchement paper....do not...I repeat...do not use wax paper instead. 

Holiday Spritz Cookies

If there is one Christmas cookie that just looks joyous and festive it is the Holiday Sprtiz Cookie.  They are so simple to make.  You do need a cookie press.  You can find cookie presses basically at any place that carries baking needs.  You can use food coloring and color your cookies different colors.  You can put icing on them or use sprinkles to make them colorful and cheerful.  This super simple recipe came from Betty Crocker's Best Christmas cookbook. 

HOLIDAY SPRITZ COOKIES 

• 1 cup butter softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. almond extract or vanilla
• few drops of food coloring if desired

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. 
2. Beat butter, sugar and egg in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed, or mix with spoon.
3. Stir in remaining ingredients
4. Place dough in cookie press.  Form desired shapes on ungreased cookie sheets.
5. Bake 5 to 8 minutes or until set but not brown.

6. Immediatley remove from cookie sheet to wire rack; cool completely.

BUTTER RUM GLAZE 

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp. rum extract or vanilla
• 1 to 2 TB. hot water
• food coloring

1. Melt butter in sauce pan; remove from heat.
2. Stir in powedered sugar and rum extract.
3. Stir in a bit of water until glaze is desired consistency.
4. Tint glaze with food coloring if you wish to match cookies.

Peanut & Raisin Candy Clusters

I love the sweet and salty taste of chocolate covered raisins and peanuts.  My husband calls it the "ying and the yang"!  So this year I thought I would put all these flavors together...the saltiness of the peanuts, the sweetness of the chocolate and the chewiness of the raisins.  You put all these ingredients together and make a yummy candy cluster!  The recipe is very simple and the presentation looks great on the cookie tray!

Marshmallow Fudge

I always make a nice big batch off fudge to go along with my Christmas cookies.  I use the Toll House Famous Fudge recipe, which is pretty simple and straightforward.  Last year, by accident, I created my own version that somehow included large chunks of marshmallows.  The recipe calls for miniature marshmallows. I doubled the recipe and when it came to adding the miniature marshmallows I realized I did not have enough so I added a handful or the large marshmallows.  Well...those large marshmallows did not melt into the chocolate like the miniatures did, they remained large and intact!  I followed the rest of the recipe and cut the fudge into little chunks like I usually do.  They turned out GREAT!  The large chunks of marshmallows just added to the flavors and made things just a bit more interesting!  I loved my "mistake" version of this fudge so much that I decided to make the same mistake this year!  So now here is my version of
 Marshmallow Fudge!

Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies

Bon Appetite Magazine came out with a bunch of new cookies in their December 09 issue.  I always like to try a few new cookie recipes just to have something different on the cookie tray.  I made their Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies and they turned out awesome!!  These shortbread/peppermint bark cookies are so easy to make!  I loved the mix of shortbread, chocolate and peppermint!  Tastes like Christmas!

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies are a must have on my Christmas cookie list for sure! Every year I have to put several of these cookies on the trays, not just one or two.  At first I thought it was all the kids that were eating them, but then I paid close attention and realized it was mostly the adults scarfin' these down.  They are very easy to make....alls you need is a mini muffin pan and some great ingredients!

Eggnog Teacakes

Eggnog Teacakes are the snowball of a Christmas cookie tray.  They not only taste great, but they look wonderful on a cookie tray.  The powder sugar on the teacakes makes them look like snowballs!  The hint of nutmeg and rum extract  gives you the flavor of eggnog.  They are very tasty!

Two Kinds of Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Chip cookies are not the most "Christmasy" of cookies...but who does not enjoy a nice chocolate chip cookie no matter what time of year it is.  My cookie trays are filled with all kinds of cookies, but I always make sure to leave room for my Chocolate Chip and White Chocolate Chip with Walnut cookies.  Super simple and super delicious!

Holiday Thumbprint Cookies

I make about a dozen different kinds of Christmas cookies each year.  A handful of these cookies are my designated cookies that I make each year.  One of my designated cookies that I make each year are the Holiday Thumbprint Cookies.  I actually double the recipe because I believe they look pretty on Christmas cookie trays and also they go really fast!  I make them with an apricot preserve filling and a rasberry preserve filling.  You can fill them with chocolate, carmels, nuts, cherries, or anything else you can think of that would taste good.

Aldi - The Super Saver Store

I will be the first to admit that I completely looked down upon Aldi grocery store.  That is until a few months ago.  I really started to pay attention to how much I was spending at the grocery store and was shocked to see the receipts at the end of the month.  Dominick's, Jewel and Whole Foods were my "go to" grocery stores.  A few friends and family members told me that they had recently been to Aldi and they saved a ton of money and were surprised by how nice they were.  I reluctantly gave it a try...wow...was I pleasantly surprised!  Snack foods, cheese, milk, eggs, butter, sour cream, crackers, frozen pizzas, etc.... My cart was stocked full and I did not spend more than $60.00!  For the last few months the bulk of my grocery lists are bought at Aldi.  There are a few things like parsley, deli lunchmeat and other speciality items that I do have to buy at another store, but for the most part Aldi had it all.

Every year I make about a dozen different kinds of Christmas cookies.  I buy the ingredients from a higher end grocery store like Dominick's.  I usually spend about $150.00 on ingredients. Think about that...$150.00 or more on flour, sugar, butter and eggs....This year I went to Aldi and bought the same ingredients for under $60.00!  Now that is a savings!  The purpose of this post is to let you know Aldi is the place to go.  Even if you don't want to do your every day shopping here, I would at least reccommend  you buying some Christmas baking supplies here.  Chocolate chips, vanialla, shortening, pecans, spices...I could go on, but you get the point. 

Staring in December I will start sharing my Christmas cookie recipes with you.  For now here is the list that I have come up with....maybe this list will inspire you to create your own Christmas cookie list!!!

1. Thumprints
2. Cinnamon Crinkles
3. Chocolate Chip and White Chocolate Chip
4. Decorative Sugar Cookies
5. Chocolate Fudge
6. Lemon Cranberry Florentines
7. Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies
8. Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
9. Peanut & Raisin Chocolate Candy Mounds
10. Eggnog Teacakes
11. Spritz Cookies
12. Pizelles
13. Strawberry Almond Paste Shortbread Bars