Soooo Simple Meringues!

If you're bored on the weekend in the kitchen, and you get a craving for something sweet, these would be perfect! (Especially if you don't have many ingredients.) I made mine slightly green for St. Patrick's Day----if you can tell!!

I am posting this at Tasty Tuesdays and you can link up here:

I am also posting this at Tempt My Tummy Tuesday and you can link up here:

Ingredients:

4 egg whites

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon mint extract

or, 1 tablespoon lime juice

 (I used mint for this recipe)

A dab of food coloring

 ( I used green for St. Patricks day) 

Beat Egg whites until stiff and glossy peaks form. Beat in sugar, adding a little bit at a time. Add the flavoring ( Lime or Mint) and the food coloring. Beat at medium speed for about 20 minutes.

 Heat the oven to 250 degrees. Grease, and lightly flour a cookie sheet or use parchment paper.  Put mixture in a decorator tube with a size one wide tip. Push out mixture into globs that are about 1 1/2 inches wide. Bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until you see only the very first hint of browning on the top or bottom edges of the cookies. Cool the finished cookies for about 1 hour on the pan.  They will only expand only a little bit, so they will not need to spaced out a lot. Make sure you beat the mixture for 20 minutes before baking, or the cookies will not turn out right! (They taste even better the next day!)

These are really pretty and simple cookies!

H is for Hot Lava Cakes!!!

This is my post for Alphabe-Thursday and Foodie Friday! This is a favorite of mine, they are fun to make and amazingly good and chocolatey all the way from the crumbly outside to molten gooey lava on the inside! This recipe is from my Aunt Jackie's amazing cook book!

Ingredients:

1 cup milk or semi-sweet chocolate chips

10 tablespoons butter

3 large eggs

3 egg yolks

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup flour

Melt your chocolate chips with butter in the microwave. Stir after 1 minute.  Be careful as chocolate burns easily.  In another bowl, mix 3 eggs, and 3 egg yolks. Add to chocolate. Mix in powdered sugar, and flour.

Butter 6 (6 ounce) custard cups. Fill each with about 1/2 cup batter. Put on cookie sheet. Bake at 450 for about 12 1/2 minutes.(Or until the outside is crumbly, and the inside is gooey, you can use a tooth pick to see what the middle looks like.)  You have to experiment with this as ovens vary. 

You can either invert it onto a plate, or leave it in the ramekin. To invert, run a knife around the edges, turn it upside down on a plate. Makes about 6 cakes.

Raspberry Sauce:

Put about 1 cup raspberry jam into a bowl. Add as much powdered sugar and water that you would like, depending on how thick or runny you want it. Microwave the mixture and stir well. Serve it on top of lava cakes.  We use jam because it is easy and it is good; you could also make a raspberry sauce.

Super cute St. Patricks day gift!

I love these. I have done them before, except it was for Valentine's Day! If you want to see my Valentines ones, it should be labeled in my blog archive, or under holidays!

All you will need is a candle holder, a cupcake liner, ribbon, and any kind of treat you would like to put inside.( I used the Lindor Balls!)

Here is the end result!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!!

My First Cake Pops!!!!!!!!!

Ever since I've seen cake pops, I've wanted to try them. Finally I did! My aunt did some similar to these for a wedding, but she used Oreos instead: I used Nutter-Butters.  My Aunt and I got this idea from Bakerella at this web address:  http://www.bakerella.com/category/pops-bites/cake-pops/. She has awesome cake pops!  I am going to give them away to my friends.  I am also posting this to Foodie Friday at this web address:http://designsbygollum.blogspot.com/.

 The green ones would be fun for St. Patrick's Day!

The white ones would be fun for a wedding!

The recipe is pretty easy. Make sure you follow all  the steps and they should turn out great!

1 package of Nutter Butter Cookies

1 (8 ounce) package of Cream Cheese

Dipping White Chocolate (I used the kind in a block.)

Sprinkles for decoration 

Sucker sticks

Floral oasis (for drying cake pops)

Crush the Nutter Butter cookies with a food processor or in a baggie with a rolling pin.  Take the crushed Nutter Butter cookies and mix with cream cheese.  You can refrigerate this for 10-15 minutes to harden the mixture.  Then, roll in small balls, one inch or less, and put in refrigerator for another 10-15 minutes to harden again. 

Melt dipping chocolate according to instructions on the package.  Then dip the ends of sucker sticks in the dipping chocolate and place stick in the middle of the cake pop. Wait to dip until chocolate on stick is dry. 

Then, dip cake pops in dipping chocolate and pour or dip sprinkles on wet chocolate.  If you are having a hard time dipping (the ball falls off the stick), you may need to refrigerate for longer.  I actually put them in the freezer for a few minutes.  Push end of sucker stick in oasis to dry.  After drying, refrigerate (because of the cream cheese). 

Last Minute Valentine's Gift!

These are way fun! I got them from a Better Homes and Gardens magazine, and I decided to make them. They are fun, quick, and easy!

I know... I went a little over board with the pictures!

Here's what you will need:

1. votives (candle holders)

2. Valentines colors, Hershey's kisses

3. String or ribbon

4. cupcake papers

Take your votive, and fill it with 7-8 hershey's kisses. Put cupcake paper on top of your votive. Tie string around it and...... viola! Now wasn't that easy? Your friends, family, or special someone will love these!( You can put anything you want in these, like lipgloss, movie tickets, jewely, or anything else you can think of!)

Valentine's Tea Party Tablesetting--My First Tablescaping Post!

Come join in the fun at Tablescape Thursday!  I have posted pictures of a Valentine's Tea Party that my mother hosted for young girls from our church.

Red Chargers:  Wal-Mart
Clear Plates:  Walmart
Paper Plates and Napkins:  Smith's Grocery Store
Napkin Holders:  Wal-Mart
Table Runner:  TJ Maxx (many years ago)
White Table Cloth (Dillard's)
Candy Dish with the Kisses:  Target (many years ago)
Plate Holder:  Target
Candle Holders (Wal-Mart)
Red/Silver Heart-Shaped Bowl (mother inherited from my grandma)
Silver Pitcher (Wal-Mart)
Punch cups (from when my mother was married 22 years ago!)

As you can see many of the items are from Wal-Mart.  We live in a small town and Wal-Mart is the happening place!

Linzer Cookies

These cookies are so pretty! My mom suprised us all, when she made them for valentines day last year. They would also be perfect for a valentines party!

Makes about 20 to 24 sandwich cookies:

1 1/2 Cups ground almonds or hazelnuts
1 1/2 Cups flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick (8 Tablspoons) butter
1/2 Cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Raspberry or strawberry jam
Confectioner's sugar for dusting

If you're starting from raw hazelnuts, toast them in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Then transfer them to a kitchen towel and use the towel to rub off as much of the skin as possible. Transfer the skinned hazelnuts to a bowl and shake out the towel outside so the skins don't fly everywhere.(Yikes!)

If you're starting with raw almonds, follow these instructions to blanch them. Squeeze the nuts out of the skin and toast them in a 350 degree oven until they are dry and lightly goldent but not browned, about 5 to 10 minutes.

Cool the nuts completely before grinding them. Pulse them in a food processor until they are finely ground.

Whisk the ground nuts, flour, cinnamon, and salt together in a mixing bowl, set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. In a small bowl, beat the egg with the vanilla and almond extract. Add half of this to the butter, beat and scrape down the bowl, beat until combined then add the rest of the egg mixture. continue to beat until combined. Add the dry ingredients and continue mixing until all the ingredients have been combined.


Divide the dough in half, shape each piece into a disc, and wrap in plastic wrap and chill, 2 hours in the fridge or 45 minutes in the freezer (the dough can be stored in the fridge for 3 days or 2 months in the freezer).

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Keep one disc of dough in the fridge and roll out the other disc. Lightly flour your work surface and roll out the dough until it is about 1/4 inch thick. Cut out as many cookies as the dough can fit. Gather up the scraps with the second disc of dough and continue to roll out the dough and cut out the cookies. Cut out the centers of half the cookies.


Transfer the cookies to the baking sheet and bake for 12 - 14 minutes or until the cookies are golden, dry, and firm to the touch. The cookies don't spread so they don't have to be spaced out too far apart. Cool the cookie sheets completely before baking a second batch.

Heat up some jam in the microwave or on the stove top until it it warm. spread about a half a teaspoon to a teaspoon of jam on the cookie and place a cookie with a cut out center on top. Lightly dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Finally after all that hard work you can ENJOY!

Peanut Butter Blossoms

These are my second favorite cookies. They are so perfect for valentines day!

1 3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup margarine
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 bag Hershey kisses

Cream sugars and margarine. Beat in egg. Add milk, peanut butter and vanilla. Mix in dry ingredients. Kneed with hands. Roll into balls,walnut-sized, and roll in sugar. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes. When cooked, lightly press Hershey kiss in the middle. (Make sure you put Hershey's kisses on after the cookies are baked and cooled.) And the final step is Enjoy!

Make sure you roll the dough in sugar before baking!