Ginger Shortbread

This is a recipe out of Company's Coming 150 Delicious Squares - it is so simple that my 8 year old made it on her own and we finished the pan in two days over Thanksgiving!

1 cup butter (do not use margarine)
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 - 1/2 cup candied ginger
1 tsp powdered ginger (if desired for a stronger ginger flavor)

Measure all ingredients in bowl except chopped ginger.  Cut butter into flour and sugar, ending with mixing with your hands as for pie crust.  When mixture will hold together, work in ginger.  Press in ungreased 9 x 9 inch pan.  prick with fork through to the bottom of the batter (we had a hard time with this as it seemed pretty crumby so we skipped this step).  Bake in 300 degree oven for 50-60 minutes until a delicate golden brown color.  Cut while warm into 36 squares (easiest to cut without crumbling while it is warm).

No-Bake Cherry Crisps

These are from a little book called Favorite Brand Name Recipes (Festive Holiday Cookies).  It was published in 1993 so I presume I have had it about as long but had never tried this recipe before!  Where had it been hiding all these years?  These are so good!

1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 1/3 cup crisp rice cereal
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. mini semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup maraschino cherries, drained, dried and chopped
1 to 2 cups flaked coconut (for rolling)

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter, sugar, and peanut butter.  Stir in cereal, chips, pecans, and cherries.  Mix well.  Shape teaspoons of dough into 1-inch balls.  Roll in coconut.  Put on cookie sheet; chill in refrigerator 1 hour.  Store refrigerated.  Makes about 3 dozen.

They already look good.

My daughter does not care for coconut so I left some without coconut on them.

And these are the finished product!

Nuts 'N Bolts

This is the recipe my mom made every year at Christmas time.

1/3 cup margarine
1 Tbsp. worchestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1/2 tsp. onion salt
1/2 tsp. celery salt
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. greek seasoning
2 cups each cheerios, shreddies, pretzels
1 cup peanuts

Melt the butter and mix in the spices.  Pour over cereal mixture in a large roasting pan.  Bake at 250 for one hour stirring every 15 minutes.

*Because there are a lot of salts in the recipe I use garlic powder instead of garlic salt and find these just as yummy.

This picture shows a double batch!

Peppermint Chocolate Fudge

This recipe is from the November 2010 issue of Today's Parent magazine.  I guess I have kept it that long and never made it; glad I finally did!

1/2 cup candy canes
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
15 large marshmallows
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tbsp. unsalted butter

Crush candy canes in a zip-top bag with a rolling pin or the bottom of a sauce pan.

In a large wide saucepan, set over medium-high heat, stir milk with sugar, until dissolved.  Bring to a gentle boil; be careful because the mixture will bubble up high in the saucepan.

Reduce heat to low and vigorously stir in chocolate chips and marshmallows until evenly mixed and melted.

Remove from heat and stir in vanilla, butter and 1/3 of the crushed candy.  Turn into an 8 inch square baking pan lined with foil.  smooth surface and sprinkle with remaining candy.  Refrigerate until set, at ease 4 hours or preferable overnight.

*We all know huge marshmallows are not going to melt on low without killing our stirring arm standing there forever but you do not want to have too a high heat or your sugar will crystalize.  My suggestion is to rip the marshmallows in half or thirds before adding them and they will melt more quickly!

No Bake Cream Cheese Coconut Snowballs

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1 can (8 ounces) crushed pineapple, well drained
1 cup chopped pecans
3 cups flaked coconut

In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese and pineapple until combined and then fold in the pecans.  Cover and refrigerate for one hour.  Take out of refrigerator and roll into 1 inch balls; roll the balls in coconut.  Refrigerate four hour or overnight.
Yields:  about 2 dozen

Finished product!

Now this is just the dorkiness in me coming out and something my mom used to do....how to get the perfect size wax paper sheet to put between layers in your cookie tin!

Eggnog Fudge

This is another tasty tret from Allrecipes.com

cookiing spray
1 cup eggnog
3 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 cup butter, chilled
1/2 (11 oz) package white chocolate chips
1 cup chopped almonds

1.  Line a 9 x 13 baking dish with aluminum foil and set aside
2.  Spray the bottom and sides of a large saucepan with cooking spray.  Heat eggnog and sugar over medium heat.  Bring to a rolling boil, stirring constantly  .Boil for 2 minutes.
3.  Fold in the marshmallows, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Return to a boil for 6 minutes, stirring constantly.  As the mixture boils it will become brown.  Remove from heat and quickly stir in butter, white chocolate chips and almonds.  Stir untill well mixed and glossy.
4.  Quickly pour into prepared pan.
5.  Cool at room temperature.  Remove from pan, remove foil and cut into squares.

I find fudge a very picky thing to make and altitude often makes a difference in cooking confections.  6 minutes was way too long to cook this and it hardened in my pan and I had to chip it out.  I tried a second batch and boiled it for 4 minutes in step three and I still found it a little long though at least this time it was edible; just a tiny bit harder than I would have liked.