Melt-In-Your-Mouth Holiday Cookies

Melt-In-Your-Mouth Holiday Cookies

Usually my mom makes these every Christmas but I found a Halloween cut out for these cookies so I decided to make them for Halloween!  These cookies are early easy if you are patient and it’s worth it because they taste so good!  Usually for Christmas cookies we use raspberry jam for the filling but for Halloween we decided we wanted a darker jam so we used grape jam.

I found these cookie cutters at a dollar store in Canada but I have also seen the same brand at Joann's for around $8.  These are the Wilton Linzer Cookie Cutters.  If you cant find these you can just use a large and a small cookie cutter.

Serving Size: Approx. 2 dozen

Ingredients:

3 sticks butter

2 cups powdered sugar

3 egg yolks

3 ½ cups flour

1 cup seedless jam (Pick your favorite flavor!)

Directions:

1. In a mixer, cream the butter and 1 ½ cups of powdered sugar.  Mix together until they are light and fluffy.
2. Slowly mix in yolks one at a time and add flour a 1/2 cup at a time.
3. Place dough into a bowl and refrigerate for approx. an hour.
4. Roll out the dough to about ¼ an inch thick.  Using a 3 inch cookie cutter cut out the base of the cookies.  Use the same cookie cutter to cut out the top of the cookies but use a mini cookie cutter to cut out the middle of the cookies.  Make sure you have the same amount of tops as bottoms.
5. Carefully place the cut out cookies on a buttered baking sheet.  Make sure you do not squish the cookies.  If the tops and bottoms don’t match up it will look funny at the end!
6. Bake at 325 degrees for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.
7. Take cookies out and transfer them to a cooling rack.  They will be very delicate so be careful to not crack them.
8. In a pot bring the jam to a boil over medium heat.  Make sure to constantly stir so the jam will not burn on the bottom. Reduce heat to medium-low and stir until the jam has thickened.  Let cool.
9. Flip the bottom cookies over so the pretty side is on the bottom.  Spread the jam on the bottom cookies to preferred thickness.  Place the cookie tops carefully on top of the cookie bottoms.
10. Using a sifter, sift the remaining powdered sugar on the tops of the cookies.  In the picture above I only put a little on my cookies so you would be able to see the shapes better but they also look really nice with more on them! Enjoy!

Maple Butter Tarts

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

I decided to make Maple Butter Tarts to celebrate! I had never made these so they were new to me and tasted very good!

Serving Size: 12 cupcake size tarts

Ingredients:

12 mini pie crusts (Homemade or store bought)

¾ cups brown sugar

½ cup maple syrup

1/3 cup melted butter

2 eggs

1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar

½ tsp. salt

½ cup chopped walnuts

¼ cup raisins

Instructions:

1.       Whisk together all of the ingredients one-by-one into a bowl.
2.       Pour enough of the mix into the pie crusts to fill about ¾ of the mini pie crusts.  If you made the curst by hand you can use a cupcake pan to create the mini tarts in.
3.       Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
4.        Let cool for 20 minutes and serve!

Original recipe found at: http://www.canadianliving.com/ 

Momma's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Momma’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are my favorite chocolate chip cookies! They are really easy to make and taste so yummy!! I love substituting the chocolate chips for mini M&M’s for a fun change!! My secret trick is adding a tiny bit more brown sugar!

Makes: About 2 dozen

Ingredients:

1 cup butter

2 eggs

1 ¾ cup brown sugar

½ cup sugar

1 tbsp. vanilla

1 ½ tsp. baking powder

1 ½ tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

3 ¾ cup flour

1 package of chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Cream the butter and eggs together in a mixer.
2. Mix in both sugars.
3. Mix in Vanilla, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
4. Mix in flour a ½ cup at a time.
5. Mix in Chocolate chips slowly.
6. Scoop out chocolate chip dough onto baking sheet leaving an inch in between each cookie dough ball.
7. Bake each cookie for approx. 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees. 

Chick-Fil-A Quesadillas

Chick-Fil-A Quesadillas

This past weekend Brian and I found a copycat recipe of our favorite Chick-Fil-A sauce recipe!  We were brainstorming different ideas for what we could eat it with and we decided to make Chick-Fil-A Quesadillas! These would also be good with some grilled chicken in them!

Serving Size: 2 quesadillas

Ingredients:

2 medium sized tortilla shells

1 tbsp. Chick-Fil-A Sauce (Recipe below)

¼ diced green peppers

¹/₆ diced onion

½ cup shredded cheese

Seasoning salt and pepper to taste

Chick-Fil-A Sauce:

½ cup Ken’s Steak House Honey Mustard (Do not substitute)

1 tsp. Sweet Baby Rays Barbecue Sauce

Mix well and refrigerate

I found these at Walmart

Directions:

1. Sauté the green peppers and the onions in a pan on medium heat and season to taste with seasoning salt and green peppers.
2. Lightly spread the homemade Chick-Fil-A sauce on one half of the tortillas.
3. Layer the cheese and the veggies on top of the Chick-Fil-A sauce half.
4. Fold the tortillas in half and place in a pan on low heat.
5. Flip the quesadillas over every few minutes until golden brown.

Chick-Fil-A copycat sauce recipe from: http://fantasticfamilyfavorites.blogspot.com/

  

Pizza Quesadillas

Pizza Quesadillas

A few months ago Brian and I were stressed out with schoolwork and did not have much time to prepare dinner so we were trying to decide what we could make.  We thought about making quesadillas or somehow making pizza on just some bread.  Then, the idea came to us: Pizza Quesadillas!  This recipe is made with our favorite ingredients and toppings but any favorite pizza toppings would work!

Serving Size: 2

Ingredients:

2 medium sized tortilla shells

½ cup tomato pizza sauce

1 small package of pepperoni

1 small can of sliced black olives

1 small can of diced pineapple

¼ diced green peppers

½ cup shredded cheese

Pizza seasoning/Italian seasoning to taste

Directions:

1.  Lay each tortilla out flat and spread the pizza sauce on half of the tortillas.
2. Lay the pepperoni down on the halves with the sauce.  We like a thin layer of pepperoni but feel free to stack them if you like them thicker.
3. Place the olives, pineapple, and green pepper on top of the pepperoni.  Try to make it even so it cooks better.
4. Sprinkle the cheese on top of all of the veggies and top it off with a light sprinkling of the pizza seasoning/Italian seasoning.
5. Fold the Pizza Quesadilla in half and place in a pan on low heat.
6. Rotate the Pizza Quesadilla every few minutes to make sure it does not burn.  My favorite Pizza Quesadilla is when the tortilla has started turning golden brown and the cheese is melted. Enjoy!

Grilled Cheese 2.0

Grilled Cheese 2.0

Lately Brian and I have been obsessed with sautéed vegetables.  One day after work I decided that I wanted to try something different with my sautéed veggies so I decided to put them into a grilled cheese sandwich and I was not disappointed!  This recipe would taste really good with some soup on a cold day!

Serving size: 1 sandwich

Ingredients:

2 slices of your favorite bread

½ cup of sliced cheddar cheese (enough to cover the bread)

¼ sliced green pepper

3 or 4 medium sized onion rings

½ tsp. garlic

Seasoning salt to taste

Black pepper to taste

Enough butter to spread on the bread

Directions:

1. Slice the green peppers and onion thinly.
2. Put saucepan on a low temperature and sauté the green peppers and onions.   Stir every few    minutes.  Stir in seasoning salt and pepper.
3. Sauté veggies until soft but not soggy.  A few minutes before the veggies are done add the garlic to the pan.
4. While veggies are cooking butter one side of both slices of your bread.
5. Slice cheese and lay on top of one of the non-buttered slices of bread.
6. Transfer the veggies on top of the slice of bread covered with cheese.  Make sure the veggies are well mixed on the bread so you get an even bite of each. 
7. Lay the second slice of bread on top of the veggies, butter side up.
8. Carefully place sandwich on to a fry pan on low heat. 
9. Watch your sandwich so it does not burn and carefully flip it over when the cheese starts to melt.  If you flip it before the cheese starts to melt there is more of a possibility for your veggies to fall out.
10. Keep rotating your Grilled Cheese 2.0 Sandwich until it is perfectly cooked for you!