White Chip Orange Cookie

Who doesn't like an orange creamsicle? Please there is something about vanilla and orange that just makes me think of summer...and brings happiness to my heart. You know, I've been told to not get too creative with the cookies until I use up some of those chips falling out of my cabinet. So I went searching for something, not listed on the back of the chip bag and I stumbled upon this recipe. Everyone who has tried one (had to try two) absolutely LOVED these cookies.

Recipe comes from the Nestle website.

Ingredients
 
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
2 to 3 teaspoons grated orange peel
2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Premier White Morsels

Directions

PREHEAT oven to 350° F.

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar in large mixer bowl until creamy. Beat in egg and orange peel. Gradually beat in flour mixture.

Look at those naked oranges! Always remember that the pith is very bitter..so go lightly on your grater when grating oranges or lemons..you just want the skins not the white underneath.

Stir in morsels. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

That is all there is to it! What are you waiting for? Do you have chips falling out of your cabinet too? If not go get some and get baking! Thanks for stopping by the kitchen...next time I'll be sharing some of my "must haves" tools of the trade!

Mint Chocolate Delights

Mr. Incredible made it clear that there were too many chips in the cabinet. Every time we opened up that particular cabinet, chips would fall. He was kind about it, just kept reminding me that everything has an expiration date...so we could fill up the cookie jar with chip cookies until some of these are gone. That is what I did...and the results have been absolutely amazing.

Before I give the recipe, which I got from the back of the bag of Nestle Dark Chocolate & Mint morsels, I just wanted you to see that precious picture. Did you ever notice on the side of Nestle's chips the directions say.."Tear Here To Make Sweet Memories"...I just love that so much! Makes me smile!

The recipe and very top photo from Nestle:

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Baking Cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 2/3 cups (10-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Dark Chocolate & Mint Morsels

Directions:
PREHEAT oven to 325° F.

COMBINE flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels. Drop by well-rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 11 to 13 minutes or until cookies are puffed and centers are set. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

These were amazing! They didn't even last 3 days. Of course if you stop by you get some..always. Don't be a stranger! I hope you can find these chips..they may be a seasonal type! If not, no worries, we're always here and my next cookie is unbelievable! See you next time..and thanks for stopping by the kitchen today!

Chewy Coconut Macaroons

This was Mr. Incredible's pick this week. He loves macaroons. These were the easy and fun to make and it made me look like a professional. Got the recipe from my new Ultimate Cookie Book that I got for Christmas. :)

Ingredients:

2 3.5 oz. cans (2 2/3 cups total) flaked coconut

2/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 egg whites

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

2 ounces semisweet chocolate (optional)

1/2 teaspoon shortening (optional)

Go ahead and preheat your oven to 325 F. 

Lightly grease and flour a large cookie sheet, set aside. (Personal note here: I never grease anything..I've ruined one too many cookie sheets...I LOVE parchment paper!!) I line everything that goes in my oven with it!

In a medium bowl stir together coconut, sugar, flour, and salt. Stir in egg whites and almond extract. Inhale..because it smells amazing!!

Drop egg white mixture by rounded teaspoons 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheet. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Like below...oh and the smell. You'll want to invent a candle with this scent!

Transfer to a wire rack and let cool. If desired, in a small heavy saucepan heat and stir chocolate and shortening over low heat until smooth. Drizzle melted chocolate over the cooled cookies...and look like a pro! That's what I'm talking about. These totally wrecked my superheros and Mr. Incredible.

I won the Spouse & Mother of The Year Award with these...you might be next. Hey, thanks for stoppin' by the Kitchen...see you soon!

I Love Pizza But I Love You More

So I don't have to give credit to anyone but me this time. It's Valentine's month and I wanted to make it special for all the children in my charge. As you may know from another post, every week I get the chance to hang out with some pretty special kids. My superheros and 2 special friends. They were thrilled last week when we did the Chocolate Pretzel Buttons so I decided we will do at least one fun Valentine's Day treat each week until the actual day! This week I thought about a great after school snack! Who doesn't like pizza? (I know there are some of you who don't like pizza..but most children do).

What I like most about making pizza, is that it makes me feel like a real chef. You know, I'm not a cook, or even a baker, I'm just a girl who likes to bake. But making pizza makes me feel like a cook. Why? Because I don't need to weigh or measure anything. I can throw ingredients together and it is pretty safe. (I might add that my uncle owned a pizza place on the boardwalk in Seaside....Yes..that would be the Jersey Shore.)

OK..you see the ingredients up above. The only thing you don't see is olive oil and mozzarella cheese (for those children who might not understand the beauty of Cheddar on a pizza. (Secret ingredient for a famous Jersey pizza place). Go ahead at preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

So I chose the perfect size heart shaped cookie cutter and had the children press all the way through the dough, but still keeping it in the dough. (See below) This way the heart can just pop out!

 Then we painted the heart with olive oil. Now, I painted the whole round dough and then sprinkled some garlic powder on it. I tried this in two ways. First, I thought let's make one with sauce just on the heart and garlic on the outer part of the dough. Hoping it would turn out like garlic bread or something. While it worked this way, it is much better they way all the children did it. Slather that thing up with olive oil and then

paint the pizza dough with sauce. I used tomato sauce with garlic, basil and oregano.

Be sure not to use too much sauce. Too much will make for a soggy pizza. We put about 3 heaping spoonfuls of tomato sauce on each little pizza and then added our cheese. Here is my plug for cheddar. If you haven't had cheddar and/or jack cheese on a pizza...try it. It gives it a special tang...really really good!

Here is the one that I did...see I left the crust plain...the plain garlic crust around the heart wasn't as tasty as the rest of them.

Really the toughest part is getting that cookie cutter to go through that dough. But..they had no problem.. after all, they do have superpowers. ;)

Really, we are convinced that there is no such thing as too much garlic...so sprinkle away. After we trimmed our pizza's with cheese and pepperoni, I placed it in the oven..at that point turning the oven down to 400 degrees. Baked those beauties for 8 minutes..or until it looks perfect!

Let it cool for about a minute so you can handle it and pop that heart right out. 

You can see that it leaves a cute little cut out heart (and his crust is all yummy with extra cheese and sauce.)

Here is my youngest superhero and his heart shaped pizza. He was so proud and very excited to taste!

Just look at that! I had 5 very happy children today! Below is our friend...look at that adorable smile! It just makes my heart full of joy!

So it was a success...we made heart shaped pizzas...everyone loved them..and hopefully they all knew how much I loved seeing them smile!

Don't you want to show your kids how much you love them...buy giving them a loving snack that makes them smile. Just look at that beautiful girl below - she says it all with her smile! Happy Valentine's Month! Enjoy and thanks for stopping by the Kitchen this afternoon!

French Breakfast Muffins

These were by far, the best muffins I have ever tasted. Seriously! I am so glad I tried them this morning. I already had every ingredient in my house...nothing out of the ordinary...staples really. You could probably go make them right now....and you WILL NOT BE SORRY!

Yes...found it on Pinterest..from this website.

First the ingredients:

1/3 c. butter, melted
1/2 c. sugar 1 egg (preferably room temperature)
1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 c. milk

Topping (option: cut topping in half*)
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. butter, melted
1 tsp. cinnamon

While you are getting your supplies together, you might as well preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray the muffin tins with some non-stick spray. You know, I use muffin cups..the paper or tin kind...but I still spray them a little. I've had the muffins stick to the paper liners...that is not pretty at all!

I think this first step is what makes it so special...sifting all the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl.

Then go ahead and add your wet ingredients to that. Melted butter..really I knew it was going to be delicious when I added that ingredient. OH and the nutmeg...very special too.

Mix the wet and dry ingredients just until combined. Still going to be a little lumpy.


Using a large ice cream scoop, I was able 8 medium-large muffins out of this batter; I think you could get 10-12 muffins by distributing the batter a little less generously.  (Personally I think bigger is better here!) Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until they just start to turn a bit golden at the edges.

They come out beautiful! But just wait until you jazz it up a little more.

For the topping, mix sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Place melted butter in another small bowl.

Dip the warm muffins in melted butter (you can dip just the top, but it's even tastier to dip the whole muffin!),

then dip/roll the muffin in cinnamon sugar.

Is that not the prettiest muffin in the world!? WOW!  So just a few of my own opinions here...I used 1/4 cup of salted plus 3 tbsp. of unsalted butter for my topping. I just thought..the salt and sweet would go nice! ABSOLUTELY! I ended up rolling the tops and then some of the sides too...I'm a push over for yumminess!

You can ask my superheros what they thought. And I quote..."OH my goodness Mom..it tastes like Christmas morning..my mouth is so happy!" "I think it tastes like a Snickerdoodle Muffin!" Well, then I really got the Awesome Mom award when I let them dip and roll pieces of their nice warm muffins in the butter and sugar...why waste all that deliciousness. I certainly cannot be eating that! ;)

Mr. Incredible got to have one when he came home from school. He put his in the microwave for a few seconds...and it rendered him helpless! He was in love..(with me)..hugs and kisses followed. Great day!

Baked Smores

We love Smores--by the fire, playing my guitar singing with my family...nothing better. Well, maybe this: Picture it....in my living room, with all of our friends, a nice big ice cold glass of milk and our favorite board game and these amazing Baked Smores! YUM! Ok...pretty easy and a lot of fun to make. Of course I found this on Pinterest..see the source link below. The ingredients are as follows:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 king-sized milk chocolate bars (e.g. Hershey’s)

1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme/fluff (not melted marshmallows)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.

I wanted to share a secret for impatient bakers. If you are like me, sometimes you want to bake and you don't want to wait for the butter to soften. You just want to bake NOW! I get it, because later an emergency may arise, you may be having to mend a costume for your superhero or iron Mr. Incredible's uniform...so many possibilities. However, again, if you are like me, you've tried to "soften" that butter in the microwave only to find a dish full of melted butter. Or maybe, you've placed it on your oven, waited for it to soften then went to pick it up and it was mush..so you do what any good baker would do...you place it back into your refrigerator until it hardens again...oh wait...you come back and it is rock solid. OH I've been there. OK...so here is my secret..come a little closer...If you slice the butter and place it in your bowl..it will soften in no time at all!!

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg and vanilla. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix at a low speed until combined.

Divide dough in half and press half of dough into an even layer on the bottom of the prepared pan.

If you know me...I weighed my dough on my scale to be sure it was even..you don't have to be that...obsessive. ;)

Place chocolate bars over dough. 2 king-sized Hershey’s bars should fit perfectly side by side, but break the chocolate (if necessary) to get it to fit in a single layer no more than 1/4 inch thick.

This is my favorite part. I think because with an 8X8 pan...these king size Hershey Bars fit absolutely perfectly! It just felt rewarding. I'm crazy I know.

Spread chocolate with marshmallow creme or fluff.

Caution: Some may get on your fingers..you know when you go to clear off the spatula. I recommend saving the spoon for when you are done and licking it clean. OH my goodness, I love fluff. Visions of fluff and peanut butter sandwiches dancing in my head. I digress....

Place remaining dough in a single layer on top of the fluff.

This is the trickiest part of the recipe. Once you place that dough onto the fluff...there is no taking it off. It is a one shot deal. So I rolled the dough in a gallon size bag into an 8X8 square. Then I cut the plastic bag around the edges...used a manila folder and placed the dough that sat on the bag onto the folder..gently lifted it and flipped it onto the fluff. Perfection! Slam..right down evenly and a perfect fit. I only sweat it for a second.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool completely before cutting into bars.

Look at those delicious baked Smores....still really warm. The top picture was taken the next day..when it was fully cooled. I'm not sure why you are still reading this....have you preheated your oven yet?...you know you want to try these. Hey, thanks for stopping by the Kitchen!

Source: Pinterest linked to this blog

Chocolate Pretzel Buttons

I really don't need to type any words for this recipe. However, I'm particularly fond of words...so here we go!

Valentine's Day. I use to think it was just for couples...until I had children. Clearly it is more my opportunity to show my children how much I love them. (My husband too, but it is just so much more fun doing sweet little things for my superheros!) So the ingredients...you can see in the above picture!

• Chocolate Kisses and/or Hugs
• Pretzels...I used the snaps, but I think the original buttons were done with circle pretzels.
• Festive M&Ms...thinking you could totally do this at Christmas time too with red and green M&Ms.

 I have issues with kid germs. Yes, even my superheros. So when they are in the kitchen with me I'm totally picky about washing hands..over and over again. Or I can be less picky when they are preparing their own food and they will be the one's eating it!

 So knowing I was going to have my three plus two additional children doing their own buttons..I labeled the parchment paper with their initials. Each child prepared a row of candies for themselves...each child touched only their row. Call me crazy..but I don't know where those fingers have been.

Here are the other two children in my charge during the week as their Mom & Dad entrust me with their care after school. My goal is to do something sweet once a week before Valentine's Day. We made a row for older sister, Mom and Dad too...so when they got home there were hugs and kisses in the refrigerator for them.

 Once the you've covered your cookie sheet with parchment or aluminum foil, laid your pretzels down and placed your chocolate kisses in the center of each on. Place them in a 350 degree preheated oven for 2 minutes.

Note that the hugs must have a bit more fat or something in them because they melt a little faster..so depending upon your oven..you just want them to be soft enough to place that M&M on top. This is precisely why I decided to let each child do their own row of buttons...because they couldn't help themselves...they would place an M&M and then a little chocolate would get on their fingers and...yes, they would lick their fingers and place the next M&M. Using a straw to hold the M&M steady on the kiss would make it a little less messy (and a little more sanitary). :) Place in the refrigerator for a few minutes so they can set..or eat them all warm and messy...it tastes good no matter what! You can't go wrong with salt and sweet!

One thing I forgot to do was make sure my Ms were not face up (which isn't bad if you are making them all for...Mom or Mike or Mary.) You get the idea! Hope you enjoyed!! Have fun with this - they're delicious and addictive!

Source: Pinterest linked to this blog.

Sticky Bun Breakfast Ring

Pinterest has changed my life. I promise I'm not addicted to it. I spend just a little bit of time on it almost every night (I only fell asleep once at my computer). It started with my desire to spruce up our breakfast time. I homeschool, so cereal just begins to look really boring after you actually watch your children eat it every single day. I don't think I ever had time to sit and eat breakfast with my children when they were in school...too busy getting everything ready to get everyone out on time.

So, I found Pinterest, it is a virtual bulletin board where you pin your favorite things or things you want to try. You are linked to websites and blogs about food and whatever and it is absolutely wonderful. I've made tons of things. Here is the recipe for this one.

Source: Found on Pinterest and linked to this blog.

Here is the easiest recipe ever:

• 2 small tubes refrigerator buttermilk biscuits OR 1 tube Pillsbury Grands buttermilk biscuits
• 3 Tbsp. butter melted
• 1/2 C. pancake syrup
• 1/3 C. packed brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 C. chopped pecans, opt.
• 1/4 C. chopped almonds, opt.

Spray a fluted pan with non-stick spray. Combine the melted butter and syrup in a small bowl and set aside. In another bowl, combine the brown sugar, cinnamon, and nuts (if desired).

 

Half of my children are not so nuts about nuts..so I just sprinkled nuts on half of the bottom of my pan.

Place about half of the syrup mixture in the bottom of the pan. Then sprinkle half of the brown sugar mixture on top.

Lay the biscuits on the bottom of the pan, overlapping edges (closely together) to form a ring. (I just used the 2 small tubes of buttermilk biscuits...it was perfect!

 

Top with remaining syrup and sugar mixtures.

Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Cool for 1 minute in the pan, then invert onto a serving platter and enjoy!

Caution: I have 3 boys (ages 8 & 10)..who polished off the entire ring in one sitting...and NO I didn't even get one.