Fruit Dip

Fruit Dip

1 8 oz. package Cream Cheese, softened
1/4-1 cup brown sugar (depending on how sweet you want it)

Mix ingredients with a mixer until sugar is dissolved and mixture is smooth. Enjoy with fruit!

Christmas Crack Chex Mix

Christmas Crack

1 12.8-ounce box Rice Chex cereal
1 12-ponce box Golden Grahams cereal
1 7-ounce bag shredded coconut
1 4-ounce bag slivered almonds
1 1/2 cups butter (3...yes 3...sticks of butter)
2 cups sugar
2 cups corn syrup

Combine Rice Chex and Golden Grahams, coconut and almonds in a large mixing bowl. Stir to combine.
In a large sauce pan, cook butter, sugar and corn syrup to the "soft ball" stage...about 234 degrees on a candy thermometer. Pour over cereal mixture and stir until all is well coated. Pour mixture out onto 2 large cookie sheets to cool. Stir it around occasionally to prevent clumping. Store in an airtight container.

Soft Almond Sugar Cookies

1 1/2 cup white sugar
2/3 cup cold butter
2/3 cup shortening at room temp
2 eggs
2 tsp almond extract
2 3/4 cup cake flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 TBSP cornstarch
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
sugar in the raw (any coarse sugar will do fine)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare a baking sheet.

Cream the sugar, butter and shortening. Stir in eggs and almond extract. Combine flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt and then add to butter/egg mixture. Use electric mixer to ensure dough is thoroughly combined.

Chill dough in fridge for 30 minutes.

Roll 2 tsp of dough into a ball and roll in raw sugar. Place on prepared pan.

Bake cookies for 7 minutes. Remove from oven and gently press rounded tops of cookies flat with the back of a spoon while the cookies are still warm and pliable. the cornstarch will keep the dough from spreading.

Return remaining dough to fridge between baking each batch.

Allow to cool on pan for 1 minute. Remove to cooling rack and allow to cool completely.

Do NOT bake longer than 8 minutes. they may seem under-baked but when they cool they will firm up.

Snickerdoodles

1 1/2 cups sugar 
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened 
1/2 cup shortening 
2 eggs 
2 3/4 cups flour 
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda 
1/4 teaspoon salt 

1/4 cup sugar 
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 

Mix Sugar, butter, and shortening until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. 
In a separate bowl, combine flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Add flour mixture to Butter mixture. Chill dough for 15-30 minutes. 

 In a small bowl, combine remaining sugar and cinnamon Roll dough into balls and roll into the sugar mixture. Place on cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. I like to slightly under-cook my cookies. 

I take them out of the oven and let them sit for a few more minutes on the cookie sheet. Let them cool on a baking rack and store in an airtight container.

When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Food!

I'm in a lemony kind of mood today, so I thought I would share a bunch of lemony recipes. Because lemon is YUMMY!!

Lemon Brownies
From the seasidebaker.com

¾ cup all purpose flour

¾ cup granulated sugar

¼ tsp salt

½ cup (1 Stick) butter, softened

2 large eggs

2 ½ tsp lemon zest

2 Tbsp Lemon Juice

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time until completely incorporated. Add lemon juice and zest, mix until incorporated. With a wooden spoon, mix in flour and salt.

Pour into a greased or lined 8x8 inch brownie pan and bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Remove and cool completely.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

4 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp lemon zest

1 Tbsp milk

Cream the cream cheese and butter together until fluffy. Turn mixer to low and beat in powdered sugar, add milk and zest. Beat on high for 5 minutes

Pour glaze over brownies and allow to set for 30 minutes before cutting, Enjoy!

Low Fat Crinkle cookies (Lemon Cookies)
From myfavoritethings-miranda.blogspot.com

1 box lemon cake mix

1 egg lightly beaten

2 cups cool whip, thawed

1/2 to 1 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350

In a large bowl, combine cake mix, egg and cool whip. The batter will be sticky!

Form dough into tablespoonfuls and roll into powdered sugar.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until the edges are golden. Allow to cook  1 minute on the baking sheet, then remove to wire rack to cool completely.

Lemon Truffles
From thesugar-coated.blogspot.com

1 cup white chocolate

5 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 tablespoons heavy cream

Pinch of salt

1 teaspoon lemon extract

Powdered sugar for dusting

Melt chocolate, butter and cream over a double boiler or in a microwave. Stir until smooth. Stir in salt and extract. Allow to cool slightly before covering with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 2 hours or until firm enough to handle. Whit a melon baller, or a small spoon, scoop out mixture and form into 1 inch balls toss with powdered sugar to coat.

Store covered in the fridge for up to one week.

Freeze for longer storage.

Grilled Lemon Chicken
From West Side Market NYC

½ cup fresh lemon juice
½ cup soy sauce
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
4 6-ounce skinless, boneless chicken cutlets

Combine lemon juice, soy sauce, ginger, and black pepper in large resealable plastic bag. Add chicken. Seal bag, then toss several times to coat chicken. Marinate chicken in refrigerator for 20 minutes to 2 hours. Preheat outdoor grill for medium-high heat, or heat grill pan on stove until hot. Remove chicken from bag, discarding marinade, and grill chicken 4 to 5 minutes per side. Serve with grilled or steamed vegetables.

Grilled Lemon Rosemary Chicken

From ediblecreativity.com

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
salt and pepper
2 T. olive oil
1/4 t. crushed red pepper flakes
1 large onion, sliced
4 garlic cloves, sliced
several sprigs of rosemary, stripped off stem and finely chopped
zest of 2 lemons
1/2 c. white wine
juice of 2 lemons
1 c. chicken stock
salt
freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Season chicken with salt and pepper. Grill on both sides to sear. When chicken is caramelized and nicely marked on the outside, remove from grill and place in baking dish.
Meanwhile, in flat sauté pan, heat oil and cook red pepper flakes, onion and garlic until they begin to brown. Toss in rosemary, lemon zest and white wine. Simmer for a couple of minutes, then pour in lemon juice and stock. Taste for salt and add sparingly. Add pepper liberally.
Pour the sauce over chicken in baking dish. Bake for around 30 minutes at 325 degrees, or until breasts are done.
While chicken is resting, pour off juices into a small saucepan and reduce on medium high for ten or fifteen minutes, or until sauce is reduced by half. Serve with chicken.

Peach Dessert Pizza

For this dessert pizza, we kind of made up our own recipe. The crust is the recipe from this post: http://www.nataliesrecipebox.blogspot.com/2013/02/homemade-pizza.html



We made the dough to make pizza and decided to save one for a dessert pizza. Here is what we did:

Ingredients:
1- Can of Peaches (We used peaches that we had bottled last summer)
4 Tablespoons melted butter
2 Tablespoons cold butter cut up into small pieces (pea size)
1 cup dry oatmeal
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp Cinnamon
Glaze:
1/4 cup powedered sugar
1 Tablespoon milk

Directions:
Prepare your crust and put on a baking sheet or pizza stone. Spread 1 Tbsp melted butter on the crust and sprinkle with a little bit of sugar.
Drain the peach juice into a saucepan and reduce to make a syrup.
Place peaches on the crust and drizzle syrup over them.
Combine 3 Tbsp melted butter, 2 tbsp cold butter, brown sugar and oatmeal in a bowl. Work the butter in with your fingers. Sprinkle mixture over the peaches.
Bake at 500 degrees for 3 minutes, roatate pan and bake an additional 3 minutes. Turn the oven to broil and broil for 1-2 minutes, watching to be sure it doesn't burn.
Take out the pizza and let it cool for 5 minutes. In the meantime, make the glaze by combining powdered sugar and milk. Drizzle over the pizza.

Homemade Pizza

We got this recipe from bonappetit.com. It has been the best pizza dough recipe we have ever had and it's so easy! The crust comes out nice and chewy and flavorful!

** You must make the dough at least 18 hours before you need it. We usually do it the night before.**

INGREDIENTS:
7 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp. fine sea salt
1/2 tsp active dry yeast

DIRECTIONS:
Whisk flour, salt and yeast ina medium bowl. While stirring with a wood en spoon, gradually add 3 cups of water; stir until well incorporated. Mix dough gently with your hands ot bring it toghether and form into a rough ball. transfer to a large clean bowl. Coer with plastic wrap and let dough rise at room teperature ina draft-free area until surface is covered with tiny bubble and ough has more than doubled in size, about 18 hours.
Transfer dough to a floured work surface. Gently shap in to a rough rectangle. Divide into 6 equal portions. Working with 1 portion at a time, gather 4 corners to center to create 4 folds. Turn seam side down and mole gently into a ball. Dust dough with flour; set aside on work surface or a floured baking sheet. Repeat with remaining portions.
Let dough rest, covered with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel, until soft and pliable, about 1 hours. DO AHEAD: Can be made up to 3 days ahead. Wrap each dough ball seperately in plastic wrap and chill. unwrap and let rest at room temperature on a lightely floured work surface, covered with plastic wrap, for 2-3 hours before shaping.

TO MAKE THE PIZZAS:
During hte last hour of dough's resting, prepare oven, if using a pizza stone, arrange a rack in upper third of oven and place stone on rack; preheat oven to it's hottest setting 500-550 degrees, for 1 hour. If using a baking sheet, arrange a rack in middle of oven and preheat to the oven's hottest setting 500-550 degrees. (You don't need to preheat the baking sheet).
Working with 1 dough ball ata time, dust dough generously with flour and place on a floured work surface. Gently shape dough into a 10" to 12" disk as follows:
Sprinkle your hands with flour and with your hands spaced a few inches apart, begin stretching the dough, starting at the edges, while miving it in a circular motion. Resist the urge to flattent he dough too much; you want to retain as many small bublles as possible. Continue gently rotating and stretching the dough across the work surface until it is roughly 8" in diameter.
Transfer the dough to your knuckles. Slowly rotate the dough witle gently stretching the edges - letting gravity do the work until you've got a 10"-12" shape. Don't worry about making a perfect circle. the pie will have more character if it is oblong.
Flop the dough onto a lightly flour pizza stone or baking sheet and gently pull the edges outward. Timing is critical here!

TOPPING THE PIZZA:
Drizzle some olive oil on the dough and sprinkle sea salt.
Place desired toppings on dough and put immediately into the oven.

BAKING:
Bake the pizza for 8 minutes at your oven's hottest temperature and then turn to broil and broil about 2 minutes to get a nice browning. Immediately remove from the oven and take off of stone/baking sheet. ENJOY!

TOPPINGS:
Here is a list of some of our favorite toppings;

For the sauce: Take 1 can of italian stewed tomatoes. Puree to desired consistency and that's it!

Grilled chicken with mozarella, fresh basil and carmelized onions, pepporoni ** Our Favorite**
Pepporoni, mozarella
Ham, pineapple

We also like to top it with some crushed red pepper before eating.