Christmas is over, but the goodies do not stop!

Christmas is an interesting time for me. For the the last three years, I have been s in western New York enjoying a perfect white Christmas with my husband's family. The downside is that I tend not to cook up there. I have difficulty letting people into my kitchen and don't like to take over others. So I sit back and enjoy the cooking of others. My sister in law makes these amazing cheesy potatoes that I actually salivate over. She's given me the recipe, but since it uses heavy cream, I can't bring myself to make it- only enjoy that serving or two I have at Christmas! I have taken a lot of the same idea and make my own cheesy creation


Cheesy Boiled Potatoes

1. Boil 3-4 cubed potatoes- drain
2. Drain and add 2 tablespoons of butter and coat potatoes.
3. Add parmesan cheese and coat.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste

Trust me, these are good and give some good cheesy flavor without the calories of the cream....

Is there anything better than baking on a snow day?

A strange thing happened today in the somewhat deep south- snow in December! It's a real rarity for the south, but for December, it's almost unheard of... but yet here I sit at 2:20 in the afternoon watching snowflakes fall in Shelby, North Carolina.

I did manage to hit Wal Mart before heading home for some baking needs. Today I will bake some chocolate-peanut butter chip cookies for my sister. It's an easy recipe that I found a year or so ago; you use yellow cake mix as the base! What's easier than that?

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 yellow cake mix
1/2 c oil
2 eggs
1 c chocolate chips
(or 1/2 c chocolate chips and 1/2 peanut butter chips)

1. Blend all ingredients well.
2. Fold in the chips and drop onto cookie sheet-
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 14 minutes. Watch these... don't over bake!
4. Cool on sheet then move to rack.... yummy!

Off to bake on this snowy day in the Carolinas!!

A nice little addition to coffee!

I was thinking about making some chocolate and peanut butter chip cookies tonight, but I think I will wait until tomorrow night. Why am I making chocolate chip and peanut butter chip cookies? Because that is what is my pantry! So basically I have two more batches/types of cookies to make; in addition to the chocolate chips, I will make my Daddy's favorite Cherry Wink cookies... He loves them.

I did take a wonderful baked ham to my school's Christmas potluck today, and it smelled soooooo good on the ride over to the school. Lots of good food and fun today.. and that's what it is all about...

One thing I will share today is how I spice up my coffee... I add a teaspoon of cinnamon to the grounds before I brew. It smells awesome and is a great thing to wake up to on a cold winter's morning!

A once a year treat: Coca Cola.

I gave up real calorie filled Coke years ago... but once a year I bake a ham on Thanksgiving. It is on this day that I indulge my coke fetish. Years ago, my best bud Dawn's mother baked a ham with coke and I have been hooked ever since.

Basically, I bake a ham with about 16 ounces of coke, a medium onion, and about 1/3 cup of brown sugar. It's great!

And while I bake this ham, I get to sip on a real coke! Does it get any better than that? So today, I am baking a ham for our school potluck. This year, my coca cola treat came twice!

Christmas Cookies Galore!

I am attending a cookie exchange this week.. Thursday evening to be precise. I am taking my Nana's molasses cookies to exchange. I love these cookies...I think I remember the last time I had them baked in her kitchen: I was in college and she had made them special. I don't ever recall these always being something that she did special for me, but I know that I loved them. I found the recipe when I found her recipe box; it was cut out of a newspaper and photocopied. She had about three or four of these recipes there. I have one in my recipe book right now. When I got married, Dave and I made cookies to serve to our guests that represented our grandmothers- who amazingly died on the same night in 1992- we thought it would be a way to have them both there and honor their lives.

So here is the recipe... it's a easy one, but so wonderful!

Molasses Cookies- Nila Henson Kinder

1 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup molasses
1 egg plus one egg yolk
4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cloves
1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350*.

1. Cream shortening and sugar together. Add egg and molasses.
2. Mix dry ingrediants; add cup at a time until combined.
3. Chill dough for at least an hour.
4. Roll into small balls and flatten with fingers; dip in sugar and cinnamon mixture.
5. Place on greased cookie sheet and bake for 11 minutes- watch them!!
6. Allow to cool on sheet, then on a rack. These are GREAT to freeze!!

I hope you enjoy these cookies as much as I do.. with the cinnamon, ginger, and cloves, it's just a perfect holiday cookie!! I have found that by adding one egg yolk, the cookie is softer! Ah the joys of cooking!

A very special breakfast... Cinnamon Biscuits!

When Dave got up today, I asked the 'question' and got the 'response':

ME: What do you want for breakfast?
HE: I don't care.Whatever is fine.
ME: Mushrooms, ok?
HE: Going to McDonald's now

So.... I decided to make biscuits, but do something different with them. Years ago, for maybe my 8th birthday, I was given my first cookbook. It was a cooking for kids thing that had recipes for spicy hotdogs and other kid friendly meals. Once recipe that I have done from time to time basically was using canned biscuits, dipping them in melted butter and dunking them in cinnamon and sugar, then bake. Yum, right? So going on that idea, since I am a big girl now who makes a decent biscuit herself, I thought: how about something like that? So here goes:

Make your biscuits - whichever recipe is best for you.  I added 2 packets of Splenda and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon to the dough to make these officially cinnamon biscuits!  Cut them out about an inch thick-- however you do them is fine. I put mine, about 7, in a buttered deep dish round baking pan and them them rise. Put them in for 13 minutes at 400*, but now here's the twist and oh, what a twist it be!


3 tablespoons of butter
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 tablespoons of light brown sugar
1/2 cup pecans- cut into pieces

1. Toast the pecans on the stove top in a stainless saute pan- just enough to heat the nuts and begin to release the  oils. Remove pecans from pan and set to the side.  Keep pan off the head for now
2.  Add 2 tablespoons of butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar to pan- it will begin to melt.  Add back to the heat and mix together.  When the mixture comes together, remove from heat and add 1 more tablespoon of butter.
3.  When the biscuits have baked 13 minutes, put the biscuits out of the oven and warm up the butter mixture while adding the pecans back.  Once it warmed up- about 3 minutes, spoon over the biscuits. Return to oven and bake for another 3-5 minutes.  Just watch these beauties!
4.  Serve warm with maple syrup- we use sugar free just to save some calories!  :)

Dave LOVED this breakfast so it was a good morning indeed!

Beginnings....

I have created yet another blog, but this one is dedicated to one thing that I love to do: cook!

I grew up what you might call a 'fat girl'.... yes, fat! I wasn't actually that fat at one time; I was chubby, but when you get labeled the 'fat girl' in school, it tends to stick with you and with my personality, well, let's just say it was easy to become a fat girl....

Long story short: I got wise about age 28 and took control of my life and lost about 80 pounds. While I will never be skinny, I am very comfortable with myself today. I am happily married to a wonderful man and love to cook for him... and that has led to about 15 extra pounds that I would LOVE to lose, but alas....

So this is a blog dedicated to my own recipes, twists on others, and some of my family's favorites!