I like Pork Butts and I Cannot Lie...

I totally cooked something in the crock pot today.

All by myself.

And it was good.

I know millions of people do this all the time, and for some people it is a way of life, but I spent the past 12 years with a crazy food obsessed dog who would stop at nothing to get at a tiny morsel of anything, so a crock pot full of simmering meat was definitely off limits. Norm could leap 2 babygates high with no problem, anything on the counter was always in reach if the mood struck him, and short of putting it on top of the refrigerator (which still might not have deterred him)I just couldn't make a crock pot work. So we never tried it. This is a whole new world for me.

I got a $10 pork butt and threw it in my like new crock pot (I think I used it once for Halloween) with a cup of apple cider and 1/2 cup of water, let it sit on low for 8 hours and it shredded up pretty nicely. We ate it on wheat buns with a little bbq sauce, and there are at least 4 more meals left, so I'm doing AWESOME on my budget with this meal.

Crock pot confidence level: rising.

Romp in the Swamp Louisiana Halloween Party - Recipes!

I'm falling behind. I just finally sucked up all the feathers and pulled the last of the 3M strips off the living room ceiling yesterday. But I promised recipes and rundowns of all the Halloween 2010 highlights, and I intend to deliver, so today here are the recipes I tried out for NOLA themed food. Keep in mind, I'm the pickiest eater on the face of the planet, and add pregnancy on top of that. I don't eat anything spicy, seafood, white sauces, vegetables, sour cream, or a million other things that most people do. So...I didn't actually try most of these. Yeah, that's right. I have no idea how they taste other than the reviews my guests gave and how much was left over at the end. But I can comment on the process of making them, from the eyes of someone with zero experience.

First Up, Confetti Rice:



I knew I needed some vegetarian dishes to balance out the meaty main courses I was bringing in, and I wanted something that still had relevance to the theme. I started googling "Cajun recipes" and wandered onto Zatarain's site, where I found "confetti rice." I decided to try it because it fit the theme & was vegetarian friendly, and also since it was served cold I could make it ahead and didn't have to find another chafing dish or crock pot to keep it hot.

Confession: I have never cooked rice. Seriously. I'm scared of it. I assumed it was hard. On Hell's Kitchen, people always get yelled at for bad rice. But guess what? I followed the directions on the box, and it worked just fine. I couldn't find Zatarain's Long Grain & Wild Rice in the 3-4 stores I looked in, so I ended up grabbing another brand (Rice a Roni maybe? It was right next to the Zatarains stuff). The boxes were remarkably similar, so I convinced myself it would be fine. I quibble a little with the "preparation time" being listed as 5 minutes...maybe if you are used to chopping onions and peppers, but I surely am not. I'm also terrible at estimating how many peppers and onions I needed to get a cup or half cup (this was a recurring theme in everything I cooked). I made a double batch of this recipe, and I used less than one onion, and less than two really small peppers (I got a 4-pack of small but pretty colored sweet peppers. I figured something called "confetti" needed a few more pops of color). It did look pretty, and at least one person told me they liked it, so I consider it a success. There was a lot left over, but in general I make too much food, so it's hard to say if that meant anything.


Next Up - something I did actually try, and it was WAY BETTER than I had thought! SWAMP JUICE punch:



We asked guests to bring a bottle for the bar (for the first time ever, usually we've provided everything) but with myself + a bunch of other pregnant ladies in attendance, I knew I wanted a few NA beverage options too. In addition to all the mixers, a punch seemed like a good idea. I went with this "Green Punch Recipe" from allrecipes.com. I think I may have added too much ginger ale, and my husband added way too much ice...but I'm glad he did. I had planned to float chunks of rainbow sherbet on top, but I didn't...which was also good. This is actually a REALLY sweet punch, and cutting it just a bit with more ice and not adding more sweet sherbet wasn't a bad decision. You might even consider leaving out some of the sugar or adding more water to taste. The color is a very vivid green (perfect for the name "SWAMP JUICE"), and the taste was more citrus than limey, which I prefer. It was quick - I dissolved the jello early in the day, let it cool, and then mixed in everything else except the ginger ale and refrigerated it till party time. I'd definitely make this again, would be perfect for St. Patty's day.

Another themed attempt - also from the Zatarains site, I made "Creole Mustard Dip" for veggies. Since I don't eat either veggies or dip, I have no idea how this tasted. I do know I made WAY too much (a double batch), even the "normal" batch seems big for veggie dip.



This was really easy to make as well, my only difficulties were finding the creole mustard (finally tracked it down at Byerly's) and again, estimating how much of an ingredient I really needed. I failed on the latter situation at EVERY possible turn -I bought 3 of the tiny jars of mustard, and used 1. And again, that was for a double batch. I bought at least double the sour cream I used. Oops. I clearly need to learn my conversions before shopping for ingredients :) I also saved time by pairing this with a store-bought veggie tray from Target - I'm not fast at washing & chopping fruits & veggies, and it's not stuff that can be done very far in advance, so it was worth it to me to pay a little more and save the time for more pressing needs.

A final recipe I used, that I don't have a photo to share of, was a Bananas Foster recipe cooked in a crock pot. This got rave reviews! I used AllRecipes.com again, and on their site you can scale recipes to the number of servings you want - I used 10. I wouldn't go much more than this in a standard size crock pot, but 10 servings fit okay. I also used a crock pot liner, since I knew I was going to end up with sticky caramelized sugar and I did NOT want to scrape that all off! For rum I used Malibu, because we had it on hand, and because there was coconut being added anyways I figured the flavors would mesh just fine. We offered pound cake and vanilla ice cream to serve it over, and it was nearly gone by the end of the night. I meant to try this, and somehow was too busy till it was about wiped out. Heard great things though, and I'll probably try it again on a smaller scale.

None of these were showstoppers on the scale of last year's "Peppered Pigs in a Blanket," but they were all easy enough to make and fit the theme, so I'd recommend them for a Mardi Gras/New Orleans themed event.

Peanut Butter Rats

Hello faithful followers (if any of you exist?). I'm off on an adventure in the land of cowboys and conservatives, but for once I've planned ahead and have a few posts scheduled to publish in my absence, starting with:

Peanut Butter Rats!

My 2nd dessert for the Goth Party was a bit more time consuming, but much more creative as well. I had an idea in the back of my mind that skulls, spiders, bats, and rats were all dark and "gothy," so food in any of those shapes would work. From that came Peanut Butter Rats.

I started with my go-to peanut butter ball recipe.

When the filling had chilled, I molded it into mouse-like shapes (thinking of a computer mouse actually was pretty helpful) and laid them on a wax-paper coated tray. I added a pretzel tail - using pieces that had been broken off of large pretzels, particularly curves. I had considered using licorice, but I much prefer the taste of pretzels, especially when dipped in chocolate. For ears, I used Wilton Candy Melts - I happened to have a few peanut butter ones left over from my last project, which would keep the taste consistent. They were the perfect size.



The chocolate dipping part was fairly complicated. Curse Bakerella for making it look so easy with her cake pops :)

When the peanut butter gets warm, it droops and melts immediately, and the rats were larger than the 1" balls you usually make for this recipe. I ended up balancing them on a fork and scooping the chocolate over them (from a double boiler), trying to do as little damage as possible when removing them from the fork and placing back on the waxed paper (this was a challenge), and then once they cooled I flipped them over and added more chocolate to the "naked" parts the fork was covering during the first dip.

I was having problems keeping my chocolate consistent temperatures, so I burnt myself a few times and got a little gun shy in handling them - if you had a steadier hand you could probably get a smoother coating, but I don't think I did too bad:



I'd dip 3-4 and let them sit for a moment before adding the eyes, which were thick yellow sprinkles that came in a pirate decorating pack (I think they were supposed to be gold coins). Since the chocolate coating was still soft when I added them, I didn't need to mess around with making tiny dots to secure them, I just pressed them into the cooling chocolate. They were simple but creepy with their bright yellow color.



They ended up being a little big as far as eating - about 3" X 2", so that's a pretty big peanut butter cup, but they were still tasty! I didn't want to make them any smaller and have to spend twice as long dipping, so it was a trade off :) A few times I melted the ears off and had to repair. Several of the rats looked like they'd eaten radioactive waste or gotten smashed in a trap, but I felt that was still acceptable for a goth party :)

Clearly this would also work well for Halloween, or you could try other shapes - I'd never do these for my own Halloween party because it's too much work with everything else I try to get done, but for an event where I'm just bringing a dish, I'd be willing to try it again.

Moody Mini Cheesecakes - for Krista's Goth Party

When charged with bringing a dish for a Goth theme party, how do you reflect that in the food? Same way you turn regular hair and makeup goth, dye it black, of course!



Moody Mini Cheesecakes:

I took the super easy route, and used Philadelphia Cream Cheese's ready-to-eat cheesecake filling, which I first tried for the Wicked Wonderland party and found to be a huge time saver (and still tasty). I dripped a few drops of black food coloring into the container and stirred.



And a few more drops. And more. And at around 50 drops I got worried about the effects of that much coloring and decided that an angsty grey color was just fine too:



I set it back in the fridge to firm up before piping, and worked on the graham cracker crust. I followed the directions on the back of the graham cracker crumb box (definitely use pre-ground graham cracker crumbs, in the baking aisle by the ready made crusts. Both Keebler and Honeymaid make them, huge time saver). It's a very easy combination of crumbs, sugar, and butter. I scooped a heaping teaspoon into each foil mini muffin cup (foil is necessary to come off clean - don't use paper), then pressed it down till it was hard.



I baked them at 350 for 10 mins, until golden brown, then cooled completely in the fridge:



Then I used a pastry bag with a large star tip to pipe a swirl into each cup:



and topped each with a fresh raspberry.



This is a super easy treat, sort of the "half homemade" style of baking that minimizes time use without just buying something off the shelves. I think they look pretty cute and obviously you could dye them to match other party themes as well.

Once again I praise Puffs Plus...

I've been waylaid by the dreaded spring cold. I'd avoided it while comrades fell all around me, charging forward with my busy life, because - to paraphrase Jesse Ventura - "I ain't got time to [blow snot bubbles]." But this weekend it finally overpowered me and I was bedridden with a sore throat and way too much phlegm. Today I'm still snarfing and snotting, but I've been without Internet too long to stay at home, so I'm here subjecting my coworker to an unpleasant soundtrack as I snurf and blow and hack - hey, she can close her door if she wants :)

And in other news...

I've done zilch crafting while flat on my back. But I have had a few thoughts:

I find myself very annoyed by this. Tell me you just roll your eyes as well. Seriously, KFC, stop trying to pretend you are healthy. You're not fooling us. And regardless, I'm a sucker for your fake mashed potatoes and blend of secret herbs and spices. Take a cue from Burger King and just embrace the truth of what you are.

I'm super excited for Krista's goth-themed dinner party/housewarming party this weekend, and I've been planning to make peanut butter rats for my dish to share. In poking around I came across this:
(source)
And I'm severely tempted to try it.


I also love NotMartha's spider cakes, but I think they'd be hard to transport.

Thanks to Etsy, Ebay, Hot Topic, and the Salvation Army I have my outfit all nailed down (with several possible variations), but strange realization: Hubby has no black clothes. Seriously. It has something to do with a certain shedding rat terrier. He also can't decide if he will acquiesce to guyliner, so his attendance is on the fence. I, on the other hand, am GREATLY looking forward to it and think costume parties are much too rare these days.

Help! I Need a Pumpkin Cheesecake Recipe!

I've been charged with creating a dessert for Thanksgiving this year, and I'm not quite sure what to do. After Halloween I'm a little sick of all the chocolate for a while, I don't have pie pans and have never baked a pie, and cupcakes just seem too sweet after a big rich meal. I know I can make a cheesecake fairly easily, so I started poking around the web for a more unique yet still easy variety, but I'm just not finding what I want. Anyone have an easy pumpkin cheesecake recipe, where I can use Keebler ready-made crusts? I don't have spring form pans, so I can't do anything New York style that really rises. Ideas?

Tips & Tricks: Wicked Wonderland - Tiny Tea Sandwiches

My original food plan this year was to downsize (FAILED) and to focus more on the "savory" food than the "sweets." This was based on last year's party review, where I noticed I had spent most of my time making cupcakes, cookies, and various chocolate-dipped lovelies, but people really ate the artichoke dip and meat & cheese platter. So this year I thought a great "main course" of savory filler food would be tiny tea sandwiches. Simple, finger food (another main focus - I purposely avoided stuff that needed utensils), and a wide appeal. Speaking of wide appeal, I started with a vegetarian-friendly platter of classic PB&J:



I actually do have a secret trick for making great PB&J's that hold up over time - are you ready? Peanut butter on BOTH pieces of bread. It forms sort of a barrier so that the jelly doesn't just soak into the bread and go all hard and ugly on you. Of course, it makes it more likely that the jelly will squirt out unexpectedly, but them's the breaks. Another tip from watching Erberts & Gerberts make my occasional "Pudder" sandwich is to use a rubber scraper to get all the PB out of the jar - especially when you're making so many of these, I emptied 2 jars of peanut butter. I went with classic white bread, creamy peanut butter, and strawberry jelly, mostly since that was my favorite. Hubby stole several during the building process, so they must have been appealing. Since they were a bit messy at times, I cut a square of parchment paper to put between the layers when I stacked them. I debated cutting squares or triangles, and ended up with some of both.



The ham & cheese were on both white and wheat breads for variety - the white went much quicker. I made them like a normal sized sandwich then chopped the whole thing into fourths - I considered cutting the crust, but decided it wasn't worth the extra time & wasting the sides. Since they weren't "drippy" I just stacked them on top of each other on the platter - the toothpicks with the card suits on top were both decorative and functioned to keep the pieces together - found those in the "poker party" area at Party America, I think they're 48 for $2.



Mmm, the turkey bacon is my favorite, I'm a sucker for bacon. I got a huge slab of pre-cooked bacon from Costco that I HIGHLY recommend - it's way better and cheaper than the Hormel I've tried before. Actually, the label still says Hormel, but also Kirkland. I'm pretty sure it was this:



Cooking bacon from scratch has always eluded me - it's too messy and nuanced and I have no patience, plus I honestly love cold bacon so this stuff is the ultimate snack. But I digress. These were just turkey & bacon on white or wheat bread - again, only wheat was leftover at the end, though lots of that was eaten too. I did heat up the bacon per the package directions before I made the sandwiches, just to crisp it up a bit - I prefer soft, but I know not everyone does so I went for a more middle ground.

All of the meat & cheese came from Costco, and it was a good deal, though I don't remember the prices now. I went through 6 loaves of bread but could have gotten by with 3, so I ended up bringing these for lunch all week - not bad by any means, but I'm ready for a change now! I didn't bother trying to save the leftover PB&J, and didn't act soon enough to force anyone to take them home, so there was some waste there. I made all the sandwiches "plain" and set out squeezable mayo, mustard, and ranch as toppings or dips - I highly suggest this over putting it on the actual sandwiches, mostly because I don't actually like any of the sauces but also because it makes them much more perishable. The plain meat & cheese has held up really well over the week in the fridge, though some of the bread is getting a little hard. I'm really glad I used traditional sandwich bread - even though the tiny appetizer loaves are cuter, I used them for another party a few years back and nobody liked the taste (they're really dry in my opinion), plus it was quicker to make one sandwich and cut it into fourths than it would be to make 4X as many smaller sandwiches. Just passing on the wisdom of my experience for you there :)

Tips & Tricks: Wicked Wonderland Recipe - Mini Cheesecake Bites

I've been baking cheesecakes for a few years and they're not too terribly hard, but I was intrigued when I found this Philly Cream Cheese "ready to eat" cheesecake filling in the grocery store. I figured I'd give it a try.



To make: I used foil mini muffin wrappers to line two mini muffin trays (48 cups). For the crust, I googled a recipe and while making it I found out it was totally bizarre, so I just ended up doubling some stuff and cutting back others - it worked out fine, but I don't know exactly what it ended up being, so I can't share :) There should be one on the box of graham cracker crumbs, and I've used that before, so I'd go with that - they're all some version of crumbs, butter, and sugar.

Mix the crust, press firmly into the base of the muffin cups, and I baked mine for about 10 mins @ 350. Let them cool completely before filling - I alctually made the crusts one day, and filled them another.


To fill, I scooped the ready-to-eat filling into a pastry bag with a large textured tip, and swirled it into each cup. There was enough to fill 47 of the cheesecakes.

I put them in the fridge to set, and later topped each with a single raspberry. I thought they looked adorable, and they got rave reviews! I'd definitely use this stuff again, it was so easy and saved so much time vs. baking cheesecakes. The foil cups are great because they come off cleanly and allow you to eat the cheesecake bite like a cupcake.

Tips & Tricks: Wicked Wonderland Peppered Pigs in a Blanket

Well these were the big hit of the night, so big, in fact, that I never got to taste one! I guess that just reinforces how much everyone liked them, every time I filled up the chafing dish they were instantly gone again!

This dish came about rather haphazardly, I knew I wanted something about "Peppered pigs" and I was already having mini cocktail weenies, so I didn't want more hotdogs. I did a google search and came up with a bunch of peppered bacon ideas that I blogged about here, and eventually settled on the middle one, with a few changes.

First, I don't like nor could I find cornbread twists, so I got Pillsbury breadsticks (same as I used for the mini bread bowls). I also got a huge bag of pre-cooked bacon from Costco that was AWESOME, and I might have to keep around all the time. I'm a total bacon junkie.

My good friend Al volunteered to come over early and help, and she cranked these out while I was frantically slathering on my makeup and wig. Here's how to do it:

The recipe is simple:

Coating:
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
This is for 1 can of breadsticks, we made 4 and just quadrupled the above.
I couldn't find or determine what "cracked black pepper" was, so I got black pepper. Seemed to work just fine. The initial recipe says to seal two breadsticks together, but we used one and it was fine - in fact, we still cut them in half to a more "finger food" suitable size.

Al wrapped the bacon & breadstick in a twist, rolled it in the sugar mixture, and baked them @ 375 for around 13 mins - until golden.

I served them in a chafing dish, but didn't need to - they went faster than they would have gotten cold anyways :) These seem to be a perfect party food - quick, fairly easy, mixture of savory & sweet, and not too rich. I highly recommend them, and if you're having a party, can you save me one this time? :)

Sneezing & such...

Well, I'm not quite sick but definitely fighting something; yesterday I never got out of bed so that explains the lack of crafting & posting. I'm hoping that my 36 hours of sleep + this huge carton of OJ I'm drinking will magically ward off all of the "crud" all my nearest and dearest have been passing around. This is exactly why I start decorating & crafting early - something always comes in and steals a few days you thought would be productive...

Anyways, since I accomplished nothing yesterday I have little to write about today, so I've decided to do some research instead. I've been struggling for an appetizer that involves peppered bacon - evoking the pig baby the Duchess keeps peppering. Here are a few I'm considering (typos and "creative grammar" are to be attributed to the original sites please), any feedback?


Peppered Bacon Twists
Ingredients
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
1 can refrigerated 11 ounces pillsbury cornbread twists (bought next to biscuits in store)
8 slices of any ready to serve bacon heated as directed on pkg

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees f.
mix brown sugar ,pepper in shallow pan dish, set aside
unroll corn twists dough, separate into 8 long strips; press perforations together in each strip to seal, top each dough strip with bacon slice. and to sugar and pepper mixture turning and coating it all over, then twist topped dough strips slightly, then place on greased baking sheet
bake 11 to 13 min or until lightly brown , don't over cook them lightly brown.

Sounds easy enough, I don't love corn bread but I bet it would be fine with regular bread stick dough.

No photo for this one, but I like the idea of being able to make it ahead and freeze - and that I don't have to be baking it during the party:

Mini Bacon Pinwheel Appetizers
Take some time to make a batch of these little savory appetizers and freeze them for holiday entertaining.
Prep Time: :25
Cook Time: :13
Ingredients:
1 lb. loaf firm white sandwich bread
2 (8 oz.) pkgs. cream cheese, softened
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 Tbsp. dried parsley flakes
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. dried Italian seasoning
1 lb. smoked bacon
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease cookie sheet and set aside.
Cut the crusts off bread slices, then cut each piece into three equal rectangles.

In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, garlic powder, parsley, pepper, and Italian seasoning. Spread an even, thin layer of the cream cheese mixture on each bread rectangle, and roll it up, starting with the short side.

Cut each slice of bacon in half crosswise, and wrap a half slice of bacon around each of the bread rolls. Secure the rolls with toothpicks and arrange on prepared baking sheet.

Bake at 375 degrees until the bacon is crisp, 8-11 minutes. Makes 25 appetizers.

To freeze ahead, prepare rolls, then freeze in single layer on cookie sheet without baking them. Store in freezer for up to 3 months. Store in single layer in freezer containers, separating layers with waxed paper. Bake at 375 degrees for 11-16 minutes until hot and browned.


If I had a lot of money I'd buy these Pepper Bacon Wrapped Filet Mignon from costco:



These also sound savory and simple:

Bacon and Tomato Cups
INGREDIENTS
8 slices bacon
1 tomato, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
3 ounces shredded Swiss cheese
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 (16 ounce) can refrigerated buttermilk biscuit dough

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease a mini muffin pan.
In a skillet over medium heat, cook bacon until evenly brown. Drain on paper towels. Crumble bacon into a medium mixing bowl, and mix with tomato, onion, Swiss cheese, mayonnaise and basil.
Separate biscuits into halves horizontally. Place each half into cups of the prepared mini muffin pan. Fill each biscuit half with the bacon mixture.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven , or until golden brown.

Any reviews or requests?

Sneak Peek: Stolen Tarts - With Recipe!

How lovely are these?!?!? This is how JoyofBaking.com dresses up their linzer-style shortbreads - with raspberry and white chocolate. It was this recipe I altered last December for my cookie exchange contribution. Remember these gorgeous stained-glass looking beauties:



They were time consuming, but a HUGE hit - and I think I can handle it again provided I'm not making 12 DOZEN this time :) So, these are what I'm planning to make for part of my Halloween spread - the Queen of Heart's stolen tarts!

I know these are not tarts. But seriously, when you think of the nursery rhyme, do you really picture a tart? Tarts are kind of annoying, they aren't stackable, they fall apart when you bite into them...These seem much more appropriate. Here's the recipe, based on JoyofBaking's but co-opted with my own commentary as necessary:

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup salted butter, room temperature
(they listed the recipe as unsalted butter + 1/4 tsp of salt...but of course I had salted butter, so I used that and omitted the salt and they were just great - so I'd save the step).
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Jam for filling

To make: In one bowl whisk the flour with the salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of your electric mixer (who loves their kitchen aid? Mine is harvest gold and from 1963, but I'm in LOVE! Or you can also mix with a hand mixer, if you're more patient), cream the butter until smooth - about 1 minute. Add the sugar and beat until smooth - about 2 minutes. Beat in the vanilla extract. Gently stir in the flour mixture just until incorporated. Flatten the dough into a disk shape, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill the dough for at least an hour. Don't skip this, or the dough will be sticky and too hard to work with.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees with the rack in the middle of the oven. Line baking sheets with parchment paper - if you haven't used parchment paper before, it's awesome - saves you a lot of scrubbing, especially of you are making a ton of cookies and have to re-use cookie sheets over and over. LIFESAVER!

On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough until it is about 1/4 inch or 1 cm thick. Using a 2 to 3 inch cookie cutter (I used stars for Christmas, will use hearts for Halloween) cut out the dough. Place the cookies about 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheets. Use a smaller cookie cutter to cut out the centers of HALF of the cookies on the baking sheet. You will be sandwiching two cookies together and there will be a small 'window or cut out' in the top cookie so you can see the jam underneath. Don't make the top cookie with the cut out too thin by using a big cut out, or it'll break too easily. Mine were borderline - I might go with a smaller cut out this time. Place the unbaked cookies on the baking sheet, in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes. This will firm up the dough so the cookies will maintain their shape when baked. I actually followed this, and yeah, it worked. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until cookies are lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack.

Make more than you think you want - these suckers are fragile, and you have a lot of handling to do.

JoyofBaking has a fancy schmancy recipe for filling, but I just used organic jam and it got great reviews. I chose based on what colors looked prettiest, as I am want to do - and ended up with apricot and raspberry. For Halloween I'll probably stick with raspberry and maybe a blueberry or blackberry for a black looking heart.

You can figure out the sandwiching, right? Full cookie, pretty side up - then slap on some jam, then carefully set the cookie with the cut out on top. Poof! You'll want to steal these pretty "tarts" too :)

Holiday Cookie Exchange

I'm a little late for Christmas in July, but it occurred to me in going through my bucket list post that there are a couple things I've checked off but not featured on my blog. One was #36, be part of a cookie exchange for the holidays.

I think I first heard about this idea from my friend Al, whose family does one yearly and always sounded like great fun. I love to bake, though I'm not very adventurous and for some reason don't know how to bake most of my holiday favorites. A cookie exchange was the perfect solution - everyone can make their specialty, and leaves with a huge assortment!

I've apparently developed this motto in life, "if at first you don't get invited, then it's time to host your own!" This is certainly how I ended up hosting the big Halloween bash (years of scrambling for something fun, it finally became clear I needed to make my own fun!). Sometimes it gets annoying (doesn't anyone want to invite me to a New Year's Eve party, so I don't have to cook and clean on my birthday?) but usually it's a fun experience. It definitely was with the cookie exchange.

I started a few months before the holidays sending out emails to people I thought might be interested, and how I thought it should work. I asked everyone who wanted to participate to send me 2-3 types of cookies they'd like to make, and I'd choose the option that best fit the group in terms of avoiding repeats, etc. I ended up with a lot of interest - ELEVEN people!

I picked the date that worked for most of the group and was about a week before the holidays - this meant people would have their cookies for entertaining on Christmas and the week before. In retrospect, we might move it a little earlier next year, as more people wanted them for entertaining and the parties were generally in the week before that. But all groups will differ.

Everyone was asked to bring 10 dozen cookies (1 dozen for every guest other than themselves) packaged by the dozen in containers they didn't need back (i.e. saran wrap, pie tins, gladware). This didn't sound outrageous to me because I grew up with a mom whose basic recipes were all set for 12 dozen, but if that is more than you can handle you could always limit the number of guests, or bake only 1/2 dozen for each person. I also asked that every participant share their recipe, so we could each build a treasury of our favorites for future entertaining. For those who couldn't make it that evening, I asked that they send their cookies ahead of time, and they could pick up their assortment at the end of the evening or next day.

I got everyone a huge re-usable bag from Costco to take home all of their goodies, and even then they were very full bags! These are great if you haven't tried them - they come in a 3-pack for under $3, have two sets of handles, and are super durable. I use them all the time and I think we have about a dozen floating around out home & cars.
I tagged each bag with a name and set them up on two tables, so as guests arrived they could distribute their goodies into everyone's bags. Boy did it smell GREAT! We each introduced our cookie to the group, drank wine & cocoa, and enjoyed a few snacks and the festive mood. I was excited to show off my decorations for my first Christmas in our new home, and this was such a great opportunity!

As organizer of the exchange, I kept my cookie flavors a secret, and also made a few extra treats for everyone.

The cookies were linzer-style shortbreads, and it was my first time ever making them! This was quite an ambitious undertaking, not only are you making 10 dozen cookies (+ a dozen for yourself) but since they are a sandwich cookie you are really making twice that! I spent an entire day working on these, but they were worth it. There is a shortbread cookie on the bottom, raspberry or apricot filling, and a "window" shortbread cookie on top. I think they look like stained glass and are really beautiful.

And since I cherish my title as "hostess with the mostess", here are the extra treats I threw in for everyone:

Neapolitan cupcakes - two each of chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla

Carrot Cake bites with cream cheese frosting and slivered almonds

S'mores on a stick, peanut butter balls, and dipped pretzel rods.

I probably won't be making quite as many side treats next year (sorry ladies!) but I've heard from several of the participants that they'd love to do it again, and a few who missed out were quite jealous! If you want to go all out, you can read this lady's guide on her crazy cookie exchange (it's apparently a competitive event!)For resources on recipes and ideas for cookies to try, I recommend Joy of Baking which is where I got my amazing peanut butter ball (AKA "Buckeyes") recipe.

We each went home with 10 dozen cookies + all the extra treats, more than enough to share at the office, relatives, and even re-gift. With so many different varieties, even if you didn't like one kind there were still plenty of other options. I know since I have very limited food likes, my husband certainly appreciated having goodies around I wouldn't normally bake.

Heather’s basic cheesecake recipe:

I was slow to come around to cheesecake, and truth be told I still don't much like cream cheese, but I have grown to love cheesecake nonetheless. We even had cheesecake for our wedding cake, which I drove up to Duluth from Muddy Paws in the cities. I've already written about how much I loved my wedding cake in this post, but let's face it: buying cheesecake is expensive.

MAKING cheesecake is not. Seriously. I can't quite figure out why a cheesecake costs $40 from a bakery, and under $5 to make - nice profit margin I guess! I don't claim this to be anywhere near as good as Muddy Paws, but for a more limited budget it's an easy, impressive dessert I've had a lot of luck with. Here's what I do:

Graham Cracker Crust:
I used a Keebler Ready Crust in the “2 extra servings” (10”) size, mostly because I don’t own a pie pan and it’s great for parties not to have to worry about bringing a container home. But if you want to go totally homemade or if you want to do muffin sized cheesecakes, an easy basic graham cracker crust is:
• 1 & ½ cups graham cracker crumbs (self crumbled or store bought)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup melted butter
Mix dry ingredients first, then add melted butter and press into the bottom of a pie pan or muffin tins to your desired thickness. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Cool before filling.
Variations: you can really play with this a lot since it is so basic – add more sugar, cinnamon, allspice, etc. We actually like this crust BETTER than store bought, but I'm too lazy to make it most of the time, and again, I have no pie pans, so I've only done it when I accidentally broke the initial store bought crust (and re-used the pan it came in)or when making mini cheesecakes in cake pans or muffin tins.

Cheesecake
• 8 oz cream cheese (2 packages) – room temperature
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
Beat the cream cheese on medium speed until fluffy. This is the most cumbersome part – I use a stand mixer, my amazing original 70's harvest gold kitchen aid from the in-laws, but still have to repeatedly clear out the beater to ensure it is whipping and not just stuck inside. This takes much longer if your cream cheese is at all cold - room temp is much better.
Slowly mix in lemon juice, vanilla, eggs one at a time, and sugar. Continue to beat until smooth.
Pour into crust, bake at 350 for 30 – 35 minutes, or until center is set. Overcooking will crack, but still taste good.
Cool completely then chill – preferably over night. Top as desired – fresh fruit, fruit compote, chocolate syrup, whipped cream, white chocolate curls, mousse, etc.