Cranberry Oatmeal White Chocolate Cookies

Happy Easter! With the holiday upon us, I decided to make a tasty dessert to take to my family's Sunday gathering. This is a personal favorite of mine and one that I've made several times and always gotten great reviews on. These cookies are very addictive so be careful!! The first time I made these cookies, I loved them so much I ended up making three batches in one week. :) You will need:

2/3 cup butter, softened

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 Tbsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups rolled oats

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/4 cup dried cranberries

2/3 cup white chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375 and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper (the parchment paper makes cleanup a breeze because there's no sticking)

2. In medium bowl, cream together brown sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Blend in vanilla.

3. Combine oats, flour, salt and soda in a separate bowl. Stir into butter mixture one cup at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in cranberries and white chocolate chips.

4. Drop by spoonful onto cookie sheets.

5. Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

These cookies could also be made with nuts in them if you're a fan of nuts in your cookies. They stand on their own just fine however and nuts are definitely not necessary.

Crescent Lemon Honey Buns

I decided to try these because they looked fairly simple yet very tasty. After finishing the recipe, I'm pretty disappointed. Flavor is ok, but the texture of the dough is stiff and not flaky at all. I expected these to be much lighter and honestly, bigger. They are very small at least if you cut them into twelve pieces as suggested. The one in the picture is if you were to cut them in to fours. Big difference here. They also made a huge mess and the filling was too runny. It spilled out all over the place. You would need:

3 oz cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 Tbsp honey

1 tsp lemon juice

1 can (8 oz) refrigerated crescent dinner rolls

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp butter or margarine, softened

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1. Heat oven to 350. Grease cookie sheet with shortening or cooking spray. (I used cooking spray, it did NOT help make the rolls easier to get off the sheet.)

2. In small bowl, mix cream cheese, granulated sugar, honey and 1 tsp lemon juice with wooden spoon until smooth.

3. Unroll dough on to work surface and separate into 2 large rectangles. Overlap long sides to form 13x7 inch rectangle; firmly press edges and perforations to seal. Spread cream cheese mixture on rectangle. Starting with 1 long side, roll up; press edge to seal. With serrated knife, cut into 12 slices. Place cut sides down on cookie sheet.

4. Bake 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. In small bowl, mix powdered sugar, butter and lemon juice; spread on warm rolls. Cover and refrigerated any remaining rolls.

Overall I would probably give this recipe a 2.5 out of 5. I wasn't happy with the mess, the small size of the buns, or the baked texture. On the plus side they have a nice lemony flavor and don't take a lot of ingredients.

Apple Berry Upside Down Cake

Ok this cake is sooooo pretty! I am so proud of how this turned out! I've never tried to make an upside down cake before and I usually don't like pineapple so this was a great recipe to try! You will need:

3/4 cup butter, softened and divided

1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup honey

2 large Gala apples, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch thick slices

1 cup fresh or frozen blackberries

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350. Melt 1/4 cup butter in a lightly greased 9 inch round cake pan(with sides that are at least 2 inches high) over low heat. Remove from heat. Sprinkle with brown sugar; drizzle honey over brown sugar. Arrange apples in concentric circles over brown sugar mixture, overlapping as needed; sprinkle with blackberries.

2. Beat granulated sugar and remaining 1/2 cup butter at medium speed with an electric mixer. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until blended after each addition.

3. Stir together flour and baking powder. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition. Stir in vanilla. Spoon batter over blackberries in pan.

4. Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife around edge of cake to loosen. Invert cake onto serving place.

Breakfast Croissants!

These tasty little breakfast croissants are the essence of adaptability. The original recipe is actually for the sweeter version, while the more savory version is based on what I had on hand. Original recipe is first then followed by my changes. You will need:

4 large croissants, split

1/2 cup cream cheese spread (from 8 oz container)

8 tsp cherry preserves (I actually used blackberry jam)

1/4 cup chocolate chips

1 tsp powdered sugar

1. Heat oven to 400. Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray.

2. On bottom half of each croissant, spread 2 Tbsp cream cheese and 2 tsp preserves; sprinkle with 1 Tbsp chocolate chips. Replace top half of croissants. Place on pan.

3. Bake uncovered 7 to 9 minutes or until heated through. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, serve warm.

My savory version followed the same technique, but switched up the ingredients a little. I still used cream cheese, but then added shaved honey smoked turkey breast and sliced roasted red bell peppers, fully drained and patted dry. I also left the powdered sugar off of these. You could do a ton of different ingredients for this and I think it would still turn out great. You could even use a chive and onion flavored cream cheese for variety! Go wild and enjoy!

Baked Ziti!

Well most of you are familiar with ziti I'm sure but I've never tried to make it before and I found a really interesting (albeit simple) recipe to try. I am very excited to take this in my lunches this week! You will need:

Non stick Foil

1 pound ground beef, browned and drained

4 cups (32 oz) chunky garden style pasta sauce (I used a garlic and onion flavored sauce)

1 Tbsp Italian seasoning, divided

1 package (16 oz) ziti pasta, cooked and drained

1 package (8 oz) shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

1 container (16 oz) ricotta cheese

1 egg

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided.

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Combine cooked beef, pasta sauce and 2 tsp Italian seasoning in large bowl. Stir cooked pasta into meat sauce; spread hal of mixture into 13x9 baking dish. Top with half of mozzarella cheese.

3. Combine ricotta, egg, 2 Tbsp Parmesan cheese and remaining Italian seasoning. Spread over mozzarella cheese layer in dish. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses.

4. Cover with foil, non stick (dull) side towards food.

5. Bake 45 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking 15 minutes or until cheeses are melted and lightly browned. Let stand 15 minutes before serving.

My biggest complaint with this dish is the prep and cooking time. Between the cooking time for the beef and the pasta, mixing it all together and baking it for an hour, this easily took an hour and 45 minutes. Not something that is really feasible for a weeknight dinner. It is very good, and the dish size is enormous (suggested serving size is 8) so I'll have plenty to take with me for lunch! Adding the egg really made the ricotta more spreadable. I didn't actually use all of the Italian seasoning since I don't really care for it that much.

Grapefruit Bars

Ok this was the dessert I decided to attempt this weekend. It's my third recipe out of a huge collection of recipes but the first two have not turned out. They were both dismal failures, including one that didn't even set up and just looked like a bowl of cereal. Not very promising for the book... I decided to give it one more go though. I thought Grapefruit Bars looked interested because I like cookie bars and I LOVE grapefruit. The recipe itself was pretty easy but even now I'm not sure what I think of the end result. You will need:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup vegetable shortening

1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs

3 Tbsp fresh grapefruit juice

3 Tbsp fresh grapefruit juice

1. Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 9x9 square baking pan.

2. Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

3. In a large bowl, cream the shortening and brown sugar. Beat in eggs. Beat in grapefruit juice and zest. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared baking pan. Bake 25-30 minutes, until lightly colored on top. Cool in the pan on a wire rack before cutting into bars.

So what did I think? First, I was afraid the batter was too dry so I added about 1 Tbsp lemon juice. Also, it took a lot longer to bake fully through.. At 25 minutes, it was still gelatinous in the pan. I believe it ended up baking for about 38 minutes before I felt like they were done. I also made a simple lemon frosting to go over the top (3/4 cup powdered sugar, 1 Tbsp water, 1 1/2 tsp of lemon juice). After the bars were baked and cooled, without the frosting they had almost no discernable citrus flavor at all. They almost taste like a spice bread or gingerbread to me. The lemon frosting made a lot of difference for me. As for texture, I expected them to be like a cookie texture, just in a bar form but that isn't really the case. These are more like a denser cake or brownie texture. Very different. Not bad, but also not something that makes you go "oh wow! I HAVE to make these again!" Try at your own risk. :)

DFF anyone?

So this weekend I gave deep fat frying a chance, as that is not something I have ever done. I made chicken fried steak! It was a lot easier than I expected, and the whole dinner turned out nicely, including a pan gravy (which I've also never done before!) Dinner together was chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans and salad. Here's what you need for the chicken fried steak and gravy. (I just used instant mashed potatoes this time)

2 1/4 tsp salt, divided

1 3/4 tsp ground black pepper, divided

6 (4 oz) cube steaks

1 sleeve of saltine crackers, finely crushed

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp ground red pepper

4 3/4 cups milk, divided

2 large eggs

3 1/2 cups peanut oil

1. Sprinkle 1/4 tsp each of salt and black pepper over steaks. Combine cracker crumbs, 1 cup flour, baking powder, 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp black pepper, and red pepper. Whisk together 3/4 cup milk and eggs. Dredge steaks in cracker crumb mixture; dip in milk mixture and dredge again in cracker mixture. Pour oil into a 12 in skiller and heat to 360 degrees. (Do not use a nonstick skillet). Fry steaks, in batches, 10 minutes. Turn and fry each batch 4-5 minutes more or until golden brown. Remove to a wire rack on a jelly roll pan or cookie sheet. Keep steaks warm in a 225 oven. Carefully drain hot oil, reserving cooked bits and 1 Tbsp drippings in skillet.

2. Whisk together remaining 1/4 cup flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp black pepper and 4 cups milk. Pour mixture into skillet; cook over medium high heat, whisking constantly, 10-12 minutes or until thickened. Serve gravy with steaks and mashed potatoes.

With this being my first experience with true frying, I wasn't really sure what to expect. The batter was good on the steaks, although the cube steak was a little chewy. The gravy took a lot longer than 10-12 minutes and I ended up having to add a little extra flour to hurry the thickening up. The gravy also didn't have a ton of flavor so I added some extra salt, pepper and onion powder. Overall the experience was good, no burns or fires (always a concern for me, which is why I've never really tried frying before now). :) A very heavy meal to be sure, but a tasty one as well!

Bacon? Check. Bread? Check. Bacon Bread? Heck yeah!

Ok so this weekend I tried several new recipes.. the first of which is a Bacon Breadstick Focaccia. It was way easier than I thought it would be and this stuff is sooooo delish! Here's what you need:

11 slices packaged precooked bacon

1 can (11 oz) refrigerated breadsticks (12 breadsticks)

1 egg, beaten

1/2 tsp chopped fresh parsley if desired

1. Heat oven to 375. Finely chop one slice of bacon and set aside. Unroll dough; separate into 12 strips. Starting at center of ungreased cookie sheet, coil remaining 10 bacon slices with dough strips into a loose spiral, pinching ends together securely as strips are added.

2. Drizzle or brush egg over dough using all of egg to fill in crevices. Sprinkle with chopped bacon and parsley.

3. Bake 20-25 minutes or until edges are a deep golden brown. Cut into wedges; serve warm.

Obviously, as you can see from my picture, I didn't use the parsley. If I'd had some on hand, I probably would have tried it, but since I didn't, I didn't worry about it. Also when it says start in the middle of the cookie sheet - DO IT. I didn't pay much attention to that and had a heck of a time getting the bacon/dough moved after it was all assembled. This would be great with an Italian meal, or also as a breakfast bread. I'm going to take a wedge of it and put it with some fruit for a breakfast or two this week. I'm planning on making baked ziti this week as well and am going to use it with that. Hope you enjoy!