It's that time of year...

Goodie Plates!!!!  Someone commented to me that I make too many things, that they wouldn't go to all the work.  But then I thought.  If I only made a few things, but still took around the same amount of plates, there wouldn't be very many leftover's for me!!!  I'd rather make all my favorites (let's face it I was going to make them all anyway) and double the recipe (no extra time that way) and have plenty for plates AND my own enjoyment!  Plus it isn't hard, just time consuming, and OH so worth it!  So here is the set up around the island while I'm making the plates.

A sample plate.  I should have gotten bigger plates so I could have fit 3 of each thing (but that mean's less for me... hmmmm maybe these plates were the perfect size).  So we have (starting from the top and going counter clockwise) Sugar cookies, caramel brownies, candy cane marshmallows, peanut butter squares, almond brittle, sandies and chocolate pecan fudge.  I didn't get around to making truffles, but they wouldn't have fit on the plate very well.
 
And here is Tonight's round of plates.  I'm sure I'll be making some more (you always want one for that person that drops off a plate that you weren't expecting to so you can reciprocate right away) and Santa has to get one...  And since I know I'll get some request's for recipes see below.  I'll be posting each recipe for your enjoyment!  Merry Christmas!

Sugar Cookies

These are actually from my Grandma Houghtaling. My mom talks about how she always had some of this dough in the freezer ready for a batch. But since my mom and her siblings would sneak some every so often that by the time Grandma pulled out some dough there wasn't much left. I have about 120+ different cookie cutters and my kids and I make these cookies for EVERY holiday. My husband complains that the peppermint icing should only be for Christmas so I do experiment with other flavors, but my favorite is still the peppermint I grew up with. I use these 13x20 pans for my kids to decorate on, it catches the extra sprinkles which I pore into a misc sprinkle bag that they love to use up, you can see the misc sprinkles on the trees above.

Sugar Cookies
3 ¼ C flour
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. baking powder
½ C Butter and margarine
1 C sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
½ C thick sour cream
Sift flour, soda, salt, nutmeg and powder. In separate bowl cream butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, sour cream. Mix in dry ingredients. Chill in fridge for 3-4 hours roll out to 1/4 inch cut into shapes. Cook at 350 for 15 mins

Frosting
4 ½ C powder sugar
¼ C milk
1/3 C butter
1 ½ tsp vanilla
1 tsp peppermint extract
Food coloring (optional)
Mix butter, powdered sugar, milk, vanilla and peppermint add more milk if needed

The secret is in the thickness of the cookie's, don't be stingy when you roll them out. The dough can actually stay good in the freezer for months (if it last's that long without being eaten!). For icing flavors I've tried almond and been happy with it, and even substituted some of the milk for a flavored creamer and had success. So ENJOY! The decorating possibilities are endless.

Peanut Butter Cup Squares

I actually got this recipe from my Aunt Lynne years ago. I'm not really into peanut butter, but these are my husbands favorites. In fact I made a batch last week for a cookies exchange and it only lasted one day. So I made another batch and it's actually already gone too! Lucky it's so easy to make, I think I'll make him another one tomorrow. My chocolate actually tempered very well, and was cooling perfectly right up until the very end. I made these too late in the evening and the FREEZING temp's here in UT ruined my nice looking finish, but hey, they still taste great, right?

Peanut butter cup squares
1 ½ pkg graham crackers crushed
1 lbs powdered sugar
1 C melted Butter
½ C peanut butter
Mix all together and press into buttered 9x13 pan. Top with 12 oz milk chocolate chips melted. Refrigerate.

Almond Brittle

This is a family favorite. My mom always made two batches. The first never seemed to work, but the second always did. We always thought that it was weird, but couldn't figure it out. Then I moved to AZ! Dry, DRY desert, and it worked EVERY TIME. Perfectly. It also worked in UT. Then I moved to TX and it NEVER worked. Turns out candy making is affected a lot by the barometer range. SO if it's going to rain DON'T bother! In the house we're in now we actually bought and installed a whole house humidifier. While it's nice for our nose/throats/etc... It doesn't help with candy making much. This batch started to separate right before I was about to pour it out! FRUSTRATING. But I caught it JUST in time and after soaking up the separated butter it turned out almost perfect! Not at all grainy, very crunchy, really quite nice! One of the FEW nice things about dry places (I still prefer humidity, but it is nice to get to make this treat this year).

Almond Brittle
1 C butter
1 C sugar
1 C chopped almonds
King size Hershey bar chopped
Mix butter and sugar in sauce pan heat till at “Cracked Stage” on candy thermometer or when caramel colored and smoking. Mix in Almonds. Pour onto cookie sheet spread chocolate on top and finely chopped almonds

Fudge!

My mom loves fudge, but we've never found a successful recipe that we could count on. Then a few years ago she found a box mix for fudge! You read that right, a box mix for fudge, AND it not only worked it tasted GREAT! So I bought a box, measured out everything (from the prepackaged baggies) and created this recipe. Easy, quick and, so far, perfect every time! I double the recipe and use a 9x13, but just so you know it's a VERY thick fudge, I might use 2 pans next time.

Chocolate pecan fudge
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips (or a mixture of semisweet and milk chocolate)
1/4 cup butter
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans (optional- you can also use walnuts)
Place chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, and butter or margarine in large microwaveable bowl. Zap in microwave on medium until chips are melted, about 3-5 minute, stirring once or twice during cooking. Stir in nuts, if desired. Pour into well-greased 8x8-inch glass baking dish. Refrigerate until set.

Sandies

You might also know these as Mexican Wedding Cookies. I've heard a few other names for them too. Everywhere I move I have to learn new names for recipes and ingredients I use often. But these are also from my Grandmother. She grew up in Mexico and has a lot of wonderful recipes. These are very delicate when they come out of the oven so be careful when you cover them with the powdered sugar. Of course if some break feel free to eat them!

Sandies
1 C butter
¼ powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 Tbs water
2 C sifted flour
1 C chopped pecans
Cream butter and sugar. Add vanilla and water, mix. Add flour, mix. Add pecans, mix. Form balls bake at 300 for 20 min, while hot roll in powdered sugar

Christmas cookies

I got an order for 8 dozen Christmas cookies on Monday. I have a family sugar cookie recipe that is just wonderful. I love it. Anyway I made the cookies Wednesday night, and last night frosted them and delivered them this morning. The cookies turned out great. But I had MAJOR issues with the icing. It just wouldn't stay consistent. I like to outline with a thicker icing tip 3, then once it dries fill in with a thinner icing. It just looks so nice. But this time the thicker icing was too thick then too runny and after awhile it started to separate. I don't know if my recipe needs tweaking or if it's something else. It's the same recipe I've used for the last 20+ years, and my mom and grandmother before that! I think I did something wrong. Maybe added too much milk when it was too thick, then couldn't get the balance right after that. It's a lesson in only adding a tsp at a time when thinning icing!  Either way I wasn't as happy with these results as last years. Oh well. Doing 8 dozen in one night I didn't have alot of time so I just got it done. Here is the recipe if your interested!

Sugar Cookies
3 1/4 C flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 C Butter and margarine
1 C sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 C thick sour cream
Sift flour, soda, salt, nutmeg and powder. In separate bowl cream butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, sour cream. Mix in dry ingredients. Chill in fridge for 3-4 hours roll out to 1/4 inch cut into shapes. Cook at 350 for 15 mins.

Frosting
4 1/2 C powder sugar
1/4 C milk
1/3 C butter
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp peppermint extract
Food coloring (optional)
Mix butter, powdered sugar, milk, vanilla and peppermint add more milk if needed.

On the Twelfth day of Christmas...

We made sugar cookies! My mother got us a nativity cookie cutter set last year, and we finally got to use it! It seems to be missing shepards, I guess I could turn a wise man into one. Also it had cut outs for a stable, but we didn't make that this year. Merry Christmas!

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas...

I made Coconut "Mounds" cookies. They are Wonderful, I make them with Milk chocolate for my mom, but Dark chocolate for myself! MMMMM!

On the Tenth day of Christmas...

I made peanut butter cups/squares. I usually use milk chocolate, but prefer dark chocolate, so I gave it a try only to find that I'd accidentally used bitter sweet chocolate (yes I have a lot of chocolate around the house!).

On the Ninth day of Christmas...

I made my Hot Chocolate, with a Candy cane to stir it... MMMMMMM. And yes, this picture is from October, but I forgot to take a picture!

On the Eighth day of Christmas...

I made Mini Cheesecakes. My mom always made these for her annual party, well, back when she used to have annual parties. And I always loved them, but never got more than 2 it seemed. Well now I have 48! I've always wanted to do an annual Christmas party, but moving every year, and bed rest every other year, has put a kink in that plan... NEXT year...

On the Seventh day of Christmas

I made Caramel's. I've always enjoyed getting them on goodie plates, but scared to try them. But with all the new stuff I've challenged myself to learn I thought it was about time to tackle them. And they turned out GREAT! Definitely one to repeat every year.

On the Sixth day of Christmas...

I made my Homemade Egg Nog! Well I made most of it last night, but it has to sit overnight before you add the final whipping cream. It wasn't my best batch to date, I was doing too much at once and over whipped the egg whites, but still much better than store bought! We both love egg nog, but Bill likes it that much more than me, and I love making it for him!

On the Fifth day of Christmas...

I made Pumpkin Chocolate chip muffins. And I started tomorrow's goodie (It's a 2 part recipe).

On the Fourth day of Christmas

I made Sandies! These were a yearly Christmas staple growing up. I think they might also be known as Mexican wedding cookies, but I'm not sure... They are simple to make, not too sweet, and I love them! I believe they came from my Grandma, who grew up in Mexico.

On the Third day of Christmas...

I made Almond Roca! This has been a family favorite since I was a little girl. I have many MANY memories making this and eating it with my mom. When we lived in AZ it seemed I had perfected it and made it almost every week. But then we moved to UT and it only worked half the time. So I was nervous, what would the TX humidity do to it? But it worked out beautifully!

On the Second Day of Christmas...

We made Christmas Colored Scones for breakfast (and lunch and snack, we ate a double batch in one day, they are THAT good...). They looked like little Christmas trees, the kids loved them.

On the First Day of Chrismas

I made Peppermint Candy Cane Ice Cream! Happy first Day of Christmas!

Thanksgiving and Christmas

Holiday's 05

We got to Host Thanksgiving at my house this year! It was so much fun having my parents and siblings and cousins at MY house. I ended up making about 4 desserts, and of course one HAD to be a cake. This Turkey (with cookie tail) was SO much fun! Although if you look closely you can see where my 3rd child go to some of the cookies (bottom right).

And then for Christmas Eve with My husbands family we took the wreath cake. I can do alot with cakes, and I think I'm pretty good, but I CAN NOT write on cake's I feel bad I even tried. It would have looked better without my scribbles. Oh well, live and learn. The poinsetta is still one of my favorite royal icing flowers! And since you can'd do ready, this dark pink is the closest I could do. I've since learned a few more tricks. *trick alert* when trying to do red on your own use burgundy first, and get it as dark as possible, then use red. You still won't achieve RED, but it will be much closer than this.