My Christmas gifts for you

I couldn't believe when I logged in today that it has been almost 2 weeks since my last post.  I knew it had been awhile, but I really didn't think it had been that long. It definitely isn't because I don't have anything to tell you.  In fact, a lot has been going on around this pigpen and that may be why it has been a few days since my last post.  I know I've said it before, but I'm really going to try to do better.

So as you know my good friends over at The Real Farmwives of America and Friends launched a new project a few weeks ago called In the Cookie Kitchen with Gooseberry Patch.  I happened to be lucky enough to be one of the ladies that participated in their virtual cookie swap.  In fact, I "gave" Graham No-Bake cookies to Miss Marybeth of Alarm Clock Wars.  In addition to the virtual cookie swap, the ladies are also hosting a big cookie linky party with the opportunity for one of their readers to win a Gooseberry Patch cookbook.

Now who doesn't love a Gooseberry Patch cookbook especially one of their Christmas cookie themed cookbooks.

This being said, I couldn't pass up the chance to purchase 4 different Gooseberry Patch cookbooks a few weeks ago.  As part of a big sale, I was able to acquire Christmas Cookie Collection, Magic of Christmas, Old-Fashioned Country Cookies, and Jolly Holidays.  (Per Gooseberry Patch, a few of these are even retired.)  I was so excited and knew these cookbooks would be a great way for me to help share the spirit of Christmas with all of you and my fellow realfarmwives and friends.

So here is where it gets fun for me and you...

I decided to keep Old-Fashioned Country Cookies for myself.  Merry Christmas to me!

Since my fellow realfarmwives and friends aren't eligible to enter any of the contests held on their blog, I decided to use two of these cookbooks as a giveaway of sorts for my ladies.

So unknown to my fellow realfarmwives, they were secretly entered into my giveaway by two different ways.

My first winner is Miss Liz from Two Maids a Milking.  She will be receiving Magic of Christmas. (I used random.org to determine this winner amongst all of the ladies that participated in the virtual cookie swap:  Jane, Megan, Liz, Jeanette, Meggie, Marybeth, and Cris.)  Merry Christmas to Liz!

My second winner will be receiving Jolly Holidays.  The winner of this cookbook will be determined by random.org with all of real farmwives and friends that enter the linky party before it ends and those that participated in the virtual cookie swap except for Miss Liz since she already won.

And now one of my lucky readers has to chance to win a copy of the now retired Christmas Cookie Collection complete with a set of Christmas cookie cutters.  You have several chances to enter and you can use as many or as little of the entries as you want.

NOTE: To be officially enter you must enter through the widget and click, "I did this" for each of your eligible entries.  


Good luck!

Angel Sugar Cookies

I've had a bit sweeter than normal sweet tooth lately so it was of no surprise that I thought I needed to make some cookies this past weekend.  It's also no secret that I'm a big fan of The Pioneer Woman so I thought a recipe from her cookbook was only appropriate.  This is how I came to make Angel Sugar Cookies over the weekend and they did not disappoint.

Ingredients
2 large eggs
1 cup canola oil
1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar, plus extra for the tops of the cookies
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Directions
Cream together eggs, oil, butter, granulated sugar, powdered sugar, and vanilla.

Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

Refrigerate the dough for 1 hour.  When you take the dough out of the refrigerator, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Use a cookie scoop or spoon to drop balls of cookie dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  (I did line my cookie sheets with parchment paper.)

Smear butter on the bottom of a glass, then dip it into granulated sugar.

Use the glass to flatten the balls of dough, dipping into the sugar each time.

Repeat until all are flattened.

Bake for 9-11 minutes, until the cookies are just barely turning brown around the edges.

Cool before eating... I dare you to wait. :-)

Linked to the following party:

Is it possible?

As you know my pal Miss Ott, A likes to keep me on my toes in the kitchen with her monthly Iron Chef Challenges.  From duck to lamb to canned tomatoes and more, we've tried it all thanks to her.  Thankfully, this month's challenge fell a little bit closer to home as the secret ingredient for July is flour, but not just any flour, King Arthur flour to be exact.

We love to bake at this pigpen so we use a lot of flour around here; however, we don't normally buy King Arthur flour so I was very excited to have a reason to try it for this challenge.  (My mother-in-law bakes with King Arthur quite frequently so I am familiar with its goodness.)  And to even sweeten the deal, I received a coupon from King Arthur for a free bag of flour so I was pretty pumped to get baking for this challenge.

Truthfully, the big challenge for me was finding the time to actually bake as it's been a little crazier than normal around this pigpen.  Well tonight, Bubby decided we needed to make some chocolate chip cookies so we thought we would see if it was possible to make the Original Nestle' Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies even better with King Arthur flour.

Bubby can be a tough critic at times, but I'll let you be the judge on if the cookies were a hit or not.

The recipe we used was straight off the chocolate chip cookie bag, but in case you don't have one handy, here it is:

Ingredients
2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
1 c. butter, softened
3/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. brown sugar
1 t. vanilla
2 large eggs
2 cups Nestle' Toll House Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
1 c. chopped nuts (optional at this pigpen)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.

Beat butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla in a large mixer bowl until creamy.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Gradually beat in flour mixture.

Stir in morsels and mix.

Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets (we lined ours with parchment paper).

Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes ; remove to wire racks.

Enjoy and Thanks again to King Arthur flour!!

Sour Cream Drop Cookies: Recipe #6 from Sunday Dinner at Grandma's

Big Sissy, Bubby, and I went on a cooking binge on Sunday afternoon making recipes #6, #7, and #8 from Gooseberry Patch's Sunday Dinner at Grandma's as part of Gooseberry Patch and The Real Farmwives of America and Friends "In the Kitchen" series.  This means I only have 2 more recipes to go until it it time to give-a-way a copy of Sunday Dinner at Grandma's to one of my lucky readers thanks to Gooseberry Patch.




So with the Sour Cream Drop Cookies recipe in hand, Big Sissy got busy.

Sour Cream Drop Cookies

Ingredients
3/4 c. butter, softened
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 t. vanilla extract
1/2 t. lemon or orange extract
8 oz. sour cream
3c. all purpose flour
1t. baking powder
1t. baking soda

After figuring out the mixer was not plugged in, Big Sissy got started on blending together her butter and sugar.

Fold in sour cream; set aside.

Combine flour, baking powder, and baking soda.

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased baking sheets (we linked our baking sheets with parchment paper instead of greasing them).

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.

Enjoy!!


 Special thanks to Gooseberry Patch for providing me with this great cookbook to try and share with you. If you would like to purchase this or other cookbooks, please visit their store. If you would like to see other great recipes, check out www.realfarmwivesofamerica.com .

Cookies and more cookies from the pig pen

Last week our two oldest children, Big Sissy and Bubby, had Vacation Bible School and I was asked to provide the cookies for snack time on Friday for 68 kids and around 20 teachers and helpers.  So more or less, I needed 100 cookies.  The kids probably would have been happy with store bought cookies, but as I've said before I love to bake so it was a good excuse for the kids and I to bake. 

We decided to make Monster Cookies.  We love these cookies; however, we never make them.  They are easy to make but the batter becomes so large it requires several bowls to make them.  The recipe says that it makes 100, but the last time I made them we only got 80 so we 1 1/2 the recipe and ended up with more than enough, around 12 dozen actually. 

Per the recipe, you are to simply mix together all of the ingredients in a large bowl.  From my experience, it is not quite that easy so as you can see I have created several small steps with my notes in the cookbook.  (My mother-in-law gave me the amazing idea to write notes about the recipe in the cookbook. Often I just keep notes on if the recipe was a good one or not, but on the Monster Cookie recipe, I wrote myself directions on which bowls to use and such.  This is such a great tip.)

By following my own steps, we were able to minimize the number of dirty dishes created; however, we did have to get out my big Christmas bowl. The positive of this is it did give both Big Sissy and Bubby their own bowl to stir.

Bubby cracking the eggs.  He loves to crack eggs.

  

The egg, corn syrup, butter, peanut butter, and vanilla mixture to be mixed with my Kitchen Aid mixer.

Bubby using his hands to keep the mixture in the bowl.

 

Bubby's yummy mixture

Big Sissy mixing up the dry ingredients with the exception of the oats, chocolate chips, and M&Ms. 

The oats, chocolate chips, and M&Ms got their own bowl. 

  

Big Sissy adding Bubby's yummy mixture to her dry ingredients. 

Big Sissy and Bubby adding the oat mixture to the batter.

Finally, everything is mixed together and in one bowl.

Using the Pampered Chef scoop is a great way to make cookies a uniform size.

Although my kitchen looked like a disaster after we were done, it was worth it. 

Since we had more than enough, there were extra for us to eat at home.  I'm glad that they are almost gone as I have no will power and have been eating these cookies for breakfast and for an afternoon and evening snack.  At least they have oatmeal in them so they have to be kind of healthy.