Alphabet Soup

So it seems like everyone is doing a "Top 10 of 2010" post on their blogs.  I've always been a rebel, but this one sounded like fun.  I'm doing a Top 5 based on pageviews, and then a couple of my personal faves from the year that didn't make the list.  5.   Molasses Spice Cookies 4.   Pumpkin Butter Cookies 3.  Frijoles a la charra 2.  Mocha-Toffee Truffle Bars 1.  Chewy Ginger Snaps And there are a couple of recipes that may not have made the top 5 based on pageviews, but were some of my favorites: Chicken Enchilada Chowder Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas Homemade Cinnamon Dolce Latte And what was one of my favorite things from 2010?  Welcoming a new member of our family!! I hope you all have a wonderful New Year's celebration, and may 2011 bring many amazing things for everyone! Enjoy!  :)

Have you ever read something, either online or in print, and forgotten to bookmark it so that you could go back and find it later?  Well, that happened to me recently.  Before Christmas I read a blog post somewhere about “painting” sugar cookies before they were baked, but when I went to find it again, I couldn’t.  A (not so) quick Internet search revealed quite a few posts about the subject.  I found one at She Wears Many Hats that I remembered reading, and also one at Pioneer Woman .  Both of those, like most of the others, uses an egg yolk as the base for the paint.  I thought I remembered reading about a technique using evaporated milk instead, which was what I wanted to do.  I never did find one, so I decided to try it anyway and see what would happen! For this little experiment, I used a sugar cookie mix.  I needed something fast and easy, and since I had bought some mixes when they were on sale I figured why not use one.  Start ...

I recently professed my love of coffee and fancy coffee drinks.  After the success of the Peppermint Mocha , I decided to tackle the Cinnamon Dolce Latte, another one of my favorites.  According to the Starbucks website, it has flavors of "cinnamon, butter and brown sugar".  Well, I covered the cinnamon and brown sugar components, but left out the butter.  And you know what, I think it turned out quite well, if I do say so myself!  I honestly wasn't sure if the cinnamon flavor in the syrup was going to be strong enough, but it was.  I will admit to being impatient and not letting it steep for very long, so the cinnamon flavor might develop more if you do actually let it sit and cool off first.  If you wanted it to be even stronger, you could always add a tiny bit of cinnamon oil to it as well.  But be careful -- a little of that goes a long way! How much to make depends on how much you'll actually use.  I just made a single batch this f...

Can you believe that in one week, it will be Christmas?  Yeah, me either.  So not ready.  :) The other thing I can't believe is that it's the last week for the 12 Weeks of Christmas cookies.  It has been a lot of fun.  I'm very glad to have participated, and would like to thank April for putting this all together. My contribution this week is to put the spotlight on a post from last year about peanut brittle.  It's just not Christmas without peanut brittle, in my opinion, and it's perfect for sharing!  Click here for the link. Enjoy, and I hope everyone has a great weekend, and a wonderful holiday!  :)

It's Friday?  Again?  I think we have the same conversation every week.  Sorry about that.  If you'll remember, last week I talked about a cookie exchange that I was co-hosting.  It wound up being a small group of people, but it was a lot of fun.  I really should dedicate a post just to the cookie exchange, and the baked brie that fought back! This week's recipe for Mocha Nut Cookies was one of the two recipes that I made for the exchange.  It was a new one for me, and with some modifications I think I like it.  The original recipe said that it would make balls, but mine spread a little more during baking, losing their rounded shape somewhat.  I'll be honest, my notes trail off about halfway through the recipe, so I'm not 100% sure what I did!  I guess that means I need to make the recipe again to double check things.  This cookie seemed to be a hit at the exchange, so I'll take that as a good sign.  I replaced the instant...

You might have noticed that I haven't been posting about Tuesdays with Dorie lately.  I thought I should give an official update about that.  See, I joined TWD when the group was a year old.  I was so excited!  I've learned new things, and made dishes I never thought I would.  And I've found some new friends along the way.  :) However, lately I just haven't been able to keep up.  I've taken a few breaks, due to being pregnant and having a baby, and picked back up here and there.  I thought I could do it.  I really did.  But one of my more (or less!) endearing traits is the habit of over extending myself.  It's something I've done all my life!  I'm learning to say "no"...occasionally!  Since I didn't post enough in October or November, I have been officially removed from the TWD blogroll.  At first I thought about protesting, then I pouted, then I decided that maybe it was for the best.  I have enough commi...

I'm participating in (okay, co-hosting) a cookie exchange tomorrow.  When I got up this morning, I had two double batches of cookie dough in the refrigerator to bake.  I'm currently halfway through the baking process.  This is one of the recipes that I decided to try.  Yep...I tried not one, but two new recipes for a cookie exchange.  Eek!  I know there have already been a ton of molasses and/or ginger spice cookies made for the 12 weeks of Christmas cookies...but hey, why not another?  :) If you like molasses, then these are a cookie for you.  If not?  Then walk on by.  You can most definitely tell they have molasses in them.  Which is not bad.  Unless you don't like molasses.  I happen to love the stuff, so I'm good to go.  They spread a bit more than I expected, and are actually crispier than I thought they would be.  These cookies are good though!  And my little cookie monster approved of them...

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving last week.  We did, even if it was crazy...but it always is!  It has decided to get cold lately, so I though it would be the perfect time to try out this new slow cooker recipe.  Also, for a variety of reasons, we have decided to crack down on the unhealthy eating around here.  Yes, during the holidays.  I'm crazy like that.  In light of that, I used reduced fat dairy products in this, and while I didn't actually figure out what the nutrition facts would be, it is makes for a pretty healthy recipe. Like many slow cooker recipes, this one came together rather quickly.  I did add an extra step of lightly sauteing the vegetables at the beginning, but that's because I wasn't getting the dish on as early as I'd planned, and I wanted to make sure they were well cooked.  You could most likely omit that step with no problems. This was mostly a hit all around.  D and I really like...

Wait, it's Friday?  How did that happen?  Well, I guess since yesterday was Thanksgiving, that would make today Friday.  In light of this revelation, I will be revisiting another past favorite for this week's addition to the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies:  Double Shot Mocha Chunks .  They were good.  Very good.  Sorry for the short post.  I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Enjoy!  :)

It's almost Thanksgiving.  Can you believe it?  I thought I'd share what's on our menu this year, and see what everyone else is cooking up.  :) We are having a hard time deciding what to serve as the main dish this year.  Munchkin is convinced that it's not Thanksgiving if we don't have turkey "it's tradition!"  Actually, tradition around here is to serve something non -traditional.  I'm thinking pork loin.  We shall see. Here's what else we have cooking up: Cornbread dressing (family recipe) Bacon Wrapped Green Beans by Our Best Bites Sweet Potatoes from Pioneer Woman Mashed Potatoes also from PW Cranberry Sauce ...ummmm, also from PW Corn on the Cob (self-explanatory) Yeast Rolls Pecan Pie from Southern Plate Sweet Potato Pie (my recipe) Chocolate Cupcakes from Martha Stewart and I'm debating Banana Pudding (my recipe) That's what we've got so far.  We always make enough to feed an army, I swear.  What...

For this week's recipe, I am revisiting a cookie from early 2009 -- the Chocolate Fudge Cookie with Toffee and Dried Cherries .  It's a recipe that I received while participating in the Cookie Carnival (it is being hosted by someone different now, but still going on!).  Anyway, this week has been just too crazy for me to get any baking done, so I thought I'd pull out an old recipe to share.  It was a really good one, and I may be baking it again for a cookie exchange that I'm co-hosting in a couple of weeks (eek!).  When I first got the recipe, I wasn't sure how they were going to turn out, but I liked them a lot!  I hope everyone has a great weekend! Enjoy!  :)

Let me just get this out of the way and say that I love coffee.  I do.  I also love fancy coffee drinks.  It's a fact.  And in the winter, that means peppermint mochas.  But I don't really want to pay upwards of $4 for one every day, so I've come up with own little version to make at home.  I must say that it tastes very good, and is actually quite easy to make.  I know that several companies make flavored creamers, but I'm not a fan.  I have never liked the non-dairy creamers.  I've even tried the newer ones that are supposed to be made from milk and cream, but they didn't do it for me either.  This recipe is what works for me.  Feel free to adapt it to your tastes {obviously}.  I don't have an espresso machine of any kind, so I just use strong brewed coffee.  I have a Keurig machine and love that I can make one cup at a time, and each cup can be different from the next.  No, I was not paid by the company to s...

Taco seasoning is something that's used a lot around my kitchen.  I wanted to share my recipe that I use.  One nice thing about making it yourself is that {obviously} you can adjust the seasonings to fit your preferences.  This is what works for us.  I will usually just make this up as needed, but you could certainly make a larger batch and store it with your spices to have on hand.  I will add this to whatever recipe I'm using it in, and then taste and adjust as needed for that particular use.  Sometimes it needs more salt.  Other times I'm in a garlic or oregano mood.  You get the idea!  :) I keep the recipe on a little recipe holder thing that I made a few months ago.  How's that for technical?  It allows me to keep it handy, and is easy to clean if things get messy.  You'd think I would have it memorized, but no.  Taco Seasoning Mix 1 tsp chili powder 1/2 tsp onion powder 1/2 tsp garlic powder 1/2 tsp ...

I've been blogging for two years now! It's hard for me to believe it's been that long. I know I haven't been all that consistent with it, but it really has been fun! This little anniversary actually snuck up on me. I was thinking last night that I needed to see when it was. I checked, and eek! November 6th. Guess maybe I should put it on my calendar or something so I don't forget it. :) I wanted to do something special on the blog to celebrate. In typical Katy fashion, I'm going to be late to my own party, but I have a couple of things in the works that I will share soon! I've been doing a lot of thinking (stressing) lately about blogging. I never set out to try to be a big-name blogger, land a book deal, or even make a little money off my blog. I am certainly not knocking those that have those aspirations. I just...don't. I just want to have fun, but I also tend to have a "if it's worth doing, it's worth doing well" attitude. So...

This week's recipe comes straight from Betty Crocker herself.   Er, well, the Betty Crocker website anyway!  On a side note, I almost thought about trying to be Betty Crocker for Halloween, but ran out of time and didn't.  Maybe next year... These bars are super rich!  They have a great chocolate flavor though, and the toffee bits blend in nicely.  Don't try one if you have a loose filling though.  Can you say sticky and chewy?  I would suggest cutting them into bite size pieces, especially for gift giving or treat platters. I sent about half of them to work with D and apparently they disappeared quickly, with lots of requests for the recipe coming soon after! The original recipe can be found here .  It is quite quick and easy to whip together, since it starts with a packaged sugar cookie mix.  Now, I admit that I don't usually like using mixes, but they can definitely be nice to have on hand, especially when you need to get s...