Irresistible Peanut Butter Cookies

Nothing fancy today, just plain old PB cookies! These are on the crisp side and very tasty.

 Here are the ingredients

 I love this pampered chef measure all cup!

It is so awesome to measure peanut butter and crisco and other sticky things. It also measures liquids when you flip it upside down. 

check it out here

http://www.pamperedchef.com/our_products/catalog/product.jsp?productId=210&categoryCode=KW

Cream peanut butter, crisco, brown sugar and vanilla.

Add egg and mix.

Mix in flour, baking soda & salt.

Complete

Roll dough into balls and place on cookie sheet.

I am a bit traditionally when it comes to PB cookies. I like those little lines in them, like grandma & my mama made. Just dip fork in flour and press down one way and then another.

Bake 7min @ 375*

 Kid tested and approved!

Irresistible Peanut Butter Cookies

Cream together:

3/4 c peanut butter

1/2 c crisco

1 1/4 c brown sugar

3T milk

1 T vanilla

Add and egg, mix well.

Add dry ingredients 

1 3/4 c flour

3/4 t salt

3/4 t baking soda

Mix well

Drop by teaspoonfuls or roll into balls and flatten w/ a fork

Bake 375* for 7 or 8 min

Mother's Best Molasses Cooky

This is my husband's grandmother's amazing molasses cookie recipe.

We live in my husband's grandparent's previous home and one day I was cleaning out the kitchen cupboards and came across this

It is hard to see, but it says Mother's Best Molasses Cooky 

Most people would have thrown this away. But, upon further inspection I realized this was the recipe she is 'famous' for. I had to frame it! 

Here are the ingredients (full recipe to follow)

Cream shortening, sugars, egg & molasses

Add the dry ingredients and mix (forgot to take of pic of those, so pretend you see a bowl full of flour,soda, cinnamon, cloves &salt)

The dough will be somewhat dry and crumbly, but that is good because we will be rolling these into balls.

Rolled cookie sitting in a bowl of sugar :) Be sure to roll the ball in the sugar

Ready to go into the oven

Baked to perfection

Such an easy recipe but they are so delish!!!

Mother's Best Molasses Cooky

350* oven bake 10-12 min

Cream these together

3/4 c shortening

1/2 c brown sugar

1/2 c white sugar

1 egg

1/4 c molasses

In another bowl

2 c flour

1/2 t salt

2 t soda

1/2 t cloves

1 t cinnamon

Add the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture

Mix well

Roll into balls

Roll each ball in sugar

Place on baking sheet

I usually use baking stones to bake most everything, but this is one cookie that I prefer to bake on a metal baking sheet. 

Happy Eating

EASY Garlic Bread

We love bread at our house and make it often. I needed to come up with a quick and easy way to do it so my family can enjoy this if I am gone!  This is so easy but still delish!

Cut up a loaf of french bread or you can use regular sandwich bread. Be sure that it is cut thin enough to fit in your toaster!

Toast up the slices

Melt a couple tablespoons of butter

Add some garlic powder,

1/2 teaspoon (more or less to your taste)

Brush the garlicky butter onto the toasted bread

EAT!

 Happy Eating,

Homemade Chocolate syrup

My kiddos LOVE chocolate milk! One day I look at the back of the bottle and see this nonsense:

There are so many ingredients my camera couldn't even focus on them! 

This is the ingredient list:

High fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, water, cocoa processed with alkali, sugar, conatins 2% or less of: potassium sorbate (preservative), salt, mono and glycerdies*, xanthan gum, polysorbate 60, vanillian (artificial flavor). *adds a trivial amount of fat

WHAT?!

So, I began to search pinterest for a recipe. This is what I found:

http://pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=chocolate%20syrup%20recipe

LOTS of other mom's thought this was a good idea too.

The ingredients for the homemade syrup:

Cocoa, Sugar, Water and vanilla. 

HUH? That's all!? 

And the taste?? Rich, dark, delicious!!!

Here's how:

Cocoa!

Sugar!

Add cocoa to the sugar!

Whisk in water!

Heat until it boils! Watch it doesn't boil over. Stir until nice and smooth!

Let it cool! I kept an store bought syrup bottle to store this in. Plus it has the nice spout to squeeze it out. Store in the fridge!

And that's all I'm gonna say about that!

Happy Eating

Homemade Taco Seasoning & Quesadillas

Over the years I have tried to find different items to make homemade so that we are not eating all these artificial flavorings & additives. Taco Seasonings is one thing that always gave me tummy issues. So, I decided to look around for a homemade alternative. I tried different recipes and then came up with the one I use all the time! This recipe hangs on the inside of my cupboard door with a few other basic 'go to' recipes. This is something my husbands Grandmother did when she lived in this house.

 

And in the middle of my spice cupboard this is what I found:

Yes, we are a weird family. My 11 yr old daughter is currently running a "GIVE FORKS A CHANCE" campaign. She feels strongly about the use of forks for things you wouldn't normally use them for...ice cream, soup, cereal. I have found at least 5 of these post-its reminding us to use our forks. I am unsure why the poor spoons are being left out tho!

Back to business....

Brown your ground beef. 

I use cast iron skillets. Maybe it's the redneck in me, I don't know, I just love them.

While the meat is browning you can start warming up the tortilla shells

I heat the smaller cast iron skillet to medium and just warm the tortilla's until they these great looking dark spots on them:

When the meat is browned:

Add 1/2 c water into the skillet.

I turn the heat to high & simmer it pretty hard.

See the icky grease?? UGH

Drain that nasty stuff off. And set the skillet aside.

To make the taco seasoning. {recipe to follow}

We need some friends from the spice cabinet. 

Dried onion, garlic powder, chili powder, Italian seasoning (there might be something wrong w/ using Italian seasoning in a Mexican type dish??), cumin, & salt. 

I love these magnetic spice holders. They have a strong magnet on the back and you fill them with the spices, label them and hang them in your cupboard. If you are like me and have metal cupboard from the 1960's. Or they do make metal strips you can hang. I can't find this exact kind but these are similar

http://www.amazon.com/Kamenstein-Piece-Colored-Magnetic-Storage/dp/B00AHUSEK6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368140438&sr=8-1&keywords=magnetic+spice+tins+red

They really make the cupboard look organized

You can turn the lids around so that you can pour or shake out the spices and herbs. Very handy!

You mix the ingredients like so:

Add 3/4 c of water and the seasonings:

Simmer for 5-7mins

Shred some cheese:

Place a tortilla shell into the smaller skillet, top with some cheese, then taco meat and a bit more cheese (the cheese acts as the glue that holds it all together)

Top w/ another tortilla. Cook on both sides until crispy.

Cut and serve!

I would garnish w/ some salsa and sour cream but the kids ate these just the way they are. 

Very simple but delicious. And you can feel better that you made the seasoning yourself!

I am sure you can make a large batch of the seasoning and keep it in a sealed container for quite some time. 

You can also experiment with cayenne pepper if you like the seasoning to have a little kick!

Taco Seasoning recipe

2 t. minced dried onion

1/2 t. salt

2.5 t. chili powder

2 t. garlic powder

1 t. Italian seasoning

2 t. ground cumin

Mix all together. Add seasonings and 3/4 c water to browned ground beef. Simmer 5-7 min. 

                                                                               Happy Eating,