S'Mores Cookies

Last fall, I spent a few weeks in North Dakota administering reading tests to kids on the reservations there. North Dakota was a pleasant surprise for me - not at all how I had pictured it. It was beautiful - lots of rolling hills, wide open skies, little towns with old churches in the center, and lots of beautiful farmland. I loved the acres and acres of sunflower fields (who wouldn't?) and the wheat fields broken up every couple of hundred feet by tall rows of trees planted as a windbreak by the pioneer settlers. Loved it. I hope I get to go back someday. I'm pretty sure I could live there quite happily.

At one of the schools we visited, the reading coach had made some S'Mores Cookies and shared them with us. They were sooooo good. Her family owns a large organic flax farm and she had put flax in them, so when I made my own version, I included it as an ingredient. I tried a few recipes for these cookies that I found online, but they didn't work very good - I think maybe because of the altitude where I live. I got a little frustrated last fall and gave up, but I was thinking about them this week and gave it another try. So this is what I came up with and it worked really good this time:


S'Mores Cookies

1 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs, coarsely chopped (you want big chunks in there)
1/2 cup milled flax
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups chocolate chips
about 1 cup miniature marshmallows
1 large Hershey bar, chopped in pieces

Cream butter and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla and mix together. Sift flour, graham cracker crumbs, flax, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl and slowly add to creamed mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips. Drop by spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for about 7-8 minutes. Remove from oven and quickly place 3 -4 pieces of chocolate bar and 3-4 marshmallows into each cookie. Return to the oven and cook another 3-4 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Crock Pot Pork and Potato Stew

This is one of my favorite soups. The pork is so tender, it's unbelievable. Plus, it's a crock pot recipe, and is best if you start it early in the day. That's great, because my day's usually deteriorate into craziness as dinnertime nears. I got this recipe from a friend of mine, at our monthly "cooking club."

1 T. oil
1 lb. pork tenderloin, cut into cubes ( I usually use 2 pork tenderloins--I'm serious, the pork is really good! Plus, my kids tend to pick out mainly the meat.)
1 cup sliced carrots
1 cup sliced onions
4 medium potatoes, cubed
3 T. chicken bouillon
4 1/2 cups water
1 T. cider vinegar
3 T flour
2 cups thinly sliced cabbage

Season cubed meat with salt, pepper and garlic salt. Sear meat in hot skillet with oil. Make sure to only brown the meat, do not cook all the way. Add meat to crock pot, then dump in the rest of the ingredients. Cook on low 8 hour, or high 4 hours.

Aebleskiver

Don't worry if you can't pronounce the name -- my kids call them "evil schemers." Whatever works. These are Danish pancakes that are traditionally served on Christmas morning. I have a lot of Danish ancestors, but never tried these until I visited one of my Ricks College roommates at her parent's house. Her mom always made them on Christmas morning, and apparently on other special occasions like when roommates come to visit! They were delicious, so when I got married, I found myself an Aebleskiver pan. You will need one for this recipe, but it's worth the $15 because they are so good. The pans are cast iron and usually have small cups for 7 aebleskiver to cook at a time.

I'm not much of a breakfast casserole person, so this is our special Christmas morning breakfast. We also have it on General Conference Sundays.

Danish Aebleskiver

2 eggs, divided
1 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup buttermilk (or stir 1 tsp lemon juice or vinegar into a cup of regular milk and allow it to sit for a few minutes)
4 Tbsp butter

Beat egg yolks until light and fluffy; add the sugar and salt. Sift the flour with baking powder and baking soda, add to egg mixture alternately with the buttermilk. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff. Gently fold into batter. Heat the Aebleskiver pan over low-medium heat. You don't want it too hot. Place a small pat of butter into each of the Aebleskiver cups and heat until butter is foamy. Drop about a tablespoon of batter into each cup - fill them about 2/3 full. Cook for a few minutes until brown on the bottom and then use a fork to turn and allow the other side to cook.

Remove from pan and serve with a variety of good stuff - my favorite combination is butter and cinnamon-sugar. Floyd likes strawberry jam and powdered sugar or maple syrup poured over the top. However we eat them, we never have any left over. In fact, I've recently started doubling the batch because my kiddo's gobble up so many.

Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies

I made these cookies from the Pioneer Woman last year, but didn't actually like them too much. The cookie itself was just to dry and tasteless, so this year, I tried them again by modifying a different recipe for chocolate cookies to make them a little firmer so they would dip well. The recipe worked wonderfully and I think this will be my new favorite Christmas cookie.


1/2 cup butter or shortening (the original recipe called for shortening, but I prefer butter)
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
5-6 Tbsp cocoa
4 cups flour (I used just short of 4 cups, they seemed to be getting a little dry)
1 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 pkg. white almond bark or white chocolate chips
Crushed peppermint candy

Cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well. Sift dry ingredients together and add to sugar mixture. Roll into small balls and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Immediately flatten cookies when they are removed from the oven.

When cookies are cooled, melt white chocolate chips or white almond bark. Dip half the cookie in the melted chocolate and then dip in crushed candy canes or peppermint lozenges. Set on waxed paper to cool.

Gumdrop Cookies

This is an old family recipe. It's been around at least since my great-grandma, Grandma Daines. Although you can make it anytime of the year with regular gumdrops, I always think of it as a Christmas cookie with red and green gumdrops because that is what I remember my Grandma Donna making when I was a little girl. I think I have eaten about 1.5 dozen of these since I made them yesterday. I really like them.



Gumdrop Cookies

1 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
3 eggs
1-2 cups gumdrops
2 cups flour
2 cups oatmeal
1 cup coconut
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

Cream shortening and then add sugars and vanilla. Beat well. Add eggs one at a time. Add the gumdrops and set aside. Combine the remaining dry ingredients together and add to the gumdrop mixture. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees.

Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake Bars

These tasty little treats combine two of my favorites--cheesecake and pumpkin. Yum! I got the recipe from a Kraft Food and Family magazine.

Ingredients:

25 Ginger Snaps, finely crushed (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
1/4 cup butter, melted
4 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar, divided
1 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
dash ground cloves

Heat oven to 325 degrees.

Mix crumbs, nuts, and butter; press onto bottom of 13x9 inch pan.

Beat cream cheese, 3/4 cup sugar, and vanilla with mixer until blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each just until blended. Remove 1 1/2 cups batter. Stir remaining sugar, pumpkin, and spices into remaining batter.

Spoon half the pumpkin batter into crust; top with spoonfuls of half the plain batter. Repeat layers; swirl with knife.

Bake 45 min. or until center is almost set. Cool completely. Refrigerate at least 4 hours before serving.

Apple Butter

So, so easy. And it makes your house smell so, so good.



5 pounds apples (about 10 large)
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Peel, core, and dice apples. Place in a crock pot and add sugar and cinnamon. Stir a bit. Cover and cook over low heat for 10 hours. Remove lid and cook another 2 hours. At this point, you could be finished and put the apple butter in jars. I like it to have a smooth consistency, so I put it in the blender first and then put it in jars. Allow it to cool and then refrigerate or freeze.

This is great on toast. You can use it in the fruit salsa recipe I posted a few weeks ago. My favorite way to use it is as a dipping sauce for ham.