SPICED OATMEAL RAISIN COOKIES

Feeloi's favorite- an adaptation/simplification of a Granola Bar Bar Cookie recipe devised a few years ago. "Bar Bar" is not a typo! They're baked in a 9x13 and cut into "bars." The Granola Bar variety has diced apples, coconut, walnuts, and dates, and is softer.

These are not too sweet. The sugar should total about 1 cup, but you can vary the kind you use. More white sugar results in harder cookies; brown sugar gives you a softer consistency.

Spicy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

1/2 cup softened butter
2/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 T. maple syrup
2 eggs
1/2 t. vanilla extract

1 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. cloves

3 c. oats
1 generous c. raisins, soaked

Combine butter and sugars in mixer until fluffy. Add maple syrup, eggs and vanilla and mix well. Sift together flour, soda, salt, cinnamon and cloves and mix in. Mix in oats and raisins.
Use a rounded teaspoon (we use the Pampered Chef small melon baller, I think it's called) to drop balls of dough onto greased baking sheets. Bake about 15 minutes at 350º F.

Makes about 5-6 dozen smallish cookies.

HOT DRINK MIXES

I served these at a crafting get-together last night and they were a big hit! The kids also really like them. We added crushed candy canes to the cocoa mix and served with "Merry Marshmallows" at Christmastime. Fun!

Since I know you're a big fan of Chai tea, here are the recipes!

COCOA

1 cup sugar
3 cups powdered creamer
1/2 cup Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder
A few grains of salt (very scant 1/8 tsp.)



CAPPUCCINO

1 cup sugar
2 cups creamer
2 T. Hershey's Dark cocoa
1 1/4 cup instant coffee granules
1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1/4 t. ground nutmeg



CHAI

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 t. vanilla extract
(Mix in bowl and let dry, then add to other ingredients to blend.)
1 cup powdered milk
1 cup powdered creamer
1 1/2 cups instant tea (unsweetened)
2 t. ground ginger
2 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t. ground cloves
1 t. ground cardamom


Pulverize in blender until uniform consistency. Each recipe makes about enough to fill a quart sized jar.
Use 2 tablespoons of mix per 6-8 oz. boiling water.

HOMEMADE HARD CANDY

Our first attempt at ho-made candy was (mostly) a success! Made the lemon batch first, but didn't have enough corn syrup and didn't boil long enough, so it didn't set up. We weren't sure it would work to put it back on the stove, with the food coloring and flavor already added (as they are supposed to go in after taking the pot off the heat) but it did work! These hard candies are HARD! The pink ones are raspberry flavored.




Here's the recipe- it's super easy, but you have to boil it for a long time.

1 cup white sugar
3/8 - 1/2 cup Karo (corn) syrup
1/2 cup water
1/4-1/2 tsp flavored extract
1-2 drops food coloring
1-2 Tbsp powdered sugar

Put the sugar, corn syrup and water in a pot over medium heat, stir until sugar is dissolved, then let it sit and boil. And boil. It needs to get to 300 degrees F. It will start to look thick, and if you drop a bit into a glass of water, it should form hard brittle threads. If you drop some in water and you can't decide if it's hard brittle threads, then it isn't. Keep boiling.

When it's 300 degrees, turn off the heat and add the flavoring and food coloring. Stir quickly but thoroughly.

When you pour the candy out (we greased waxed paper and laid it right on the counter) it will look very bubbly. The bubbles seem to disappear as it sets up, but you want to see thousands of tiny bubbles when you pour it out. In about a minute or two, run a pizza cutter through it to cut into squares, diamonds, triangles...the shape is up to you.

If it's not setting up, by all means pour it back in the pot and try again! The waxed paper made this easy. We just folded the paper into a cone and let it run back into the pot. Then I ran two fingers down the length of the paper to squeeze out as much as I could. Toss that paper and grease a new sheet while it reboils.

Let it cool. It will be hard! Pull up on the waxed paper and rows of it will start to pop off. Break along the scored lines, drop into a baggie with 1-2 Tbsp of powdered sugar and shake to coat. (This is a good step for an excited little helper to do...or your husband!)

One batch makes enough to fill a 10 or 11 oz. jar. I heart fancy jam that comes in these cute, reusable square jars!

Easy Dipped Pretzels & Animal Crackers

The kids did a great job dipping and sprinkling these fun Christmas treats yesterday. The boxes were folded from 8.5" squares of card stock (blue) and glossy white heavy paper that Punk brought home from the office recycling bin. The boys prefer the curling ribbon trim on the white box. The wired cream colored ribbon is too fancy for them, I guess, but I think it's pretty!

Illegal Cupcake Transport

I volunteered to take 4 dozen cupcakes to church, then realized we could only bake 18 at a time...so it was a long time in the kitchen! Then the next question was how to carry them all safely. Ainsley and I came up with this, and he did the photography =*)
Cut across the front of an illegal 12"x13"x2" shipping box.

Cut off the sides of the 2 top flaps on the fold.

Expose adhesive, fold in corners. Stick the flaps you cut off in there to cover the whole side.

Mission accomplished!

It'll carry 27 cupcakes. It also makes a great Lego mini figure play house (or in our case, space station) when properly decorated!

Happy Pi Day

Do you love pi? We love pi AND pie! I made these Pasteis de Nata today while Punk gave a lesson on pi to Ainsley and Feeloi. (Nerd alert!) I only used one sheet of puff pastry, and we dusted the top with cinnamon and powdered sugar. We had these for the first time at Christmas- my sister-in-law's mom is Portuguese and she made them. They are DEADLY!

Inaugural Post

Am I really doing it? Posting to my very own blog? Hopefully this is a picture of the little cherry tarts I told you about =*)

Recipe:
1 can of 8 refrigerated biscuits
1 pkg cream cheese, softened
1/3 - 1/2 cup sugar
Cherry preserves

Cut the biscuits in half to make 16 little pie shells, and put them in a greased muffin tin. Combine the cream cheese and sugar, and spoon into the shells. Top with a little dollop of cherry preserves and bake. I followed the temp./time recommendations on the biscuit packaging. Fun!

Sunday, March 14, is "Pi Day" so I might be making these again!