Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 cups quick cooking oats

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, cream together butter, white sugar, and brown sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in oats. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour.
2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets. Roll the dough into walnut sized balls, and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Flatten each cookie with a large fork dipped in sugar.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Snickerdoodles

 Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Cream together butter, shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar, the eggs and the vanilla. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls.
3. Mix the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from baking sheets. 

 If the dough still looks a little wet go ahead and add a little bit more flour.  I kept running into that problem.

Getting vanilla extract in Mexico was the best idea ever, it really makes a difference in taste.  If you ever visit Mexico make sure to pick up a huge bottle.  You won't regret it!

Doggy Treats

 Ingredients

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/3 cup margarine
• 1 cup boiling water
• 3/4 cup cornmeal
• 2 teaspoons white sugar
• 2 teaspoons beef bouillon granules
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3 cups whole wheat flour

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). In a large bowl, combine rolled oats, margarine, and boiling water. Let stand 10 minutes. Grease cookie sheets.
2. Thoroughly stir in cornmeal, sugar, bouillon, milk, Cheddar cheese, and egg. Mix in flour, 1 cup at a time, until a stiff dough has formed.
3. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface, mixing in additional flour as necessary until dough is smooth and no longer sticky. Roll or pat out dough to 1/2" thickness. Cut with cookie cutter (I prefer bone shaped), and place 1 inch apart onto the prepared cookie sheets.
4. Bake 35 to 45 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown. Cool before serving. Store in a loosely covered container. 

I found this recipe off of allrecipes.com.  For these since it is Christmas time I molded the dough into pans with Santa faces, snowmen and Christmas trees.   My mom and I had been making cookies all day and her dogs were calm until these came out of the oven.  They knew these treats were for them!  

Buffalo Chicken Dip

 

Ingredients

• 2 (10 ounce) cans chunk chicken, drained  (Cooked a chicken breast and a half and shredded the chicken)
• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup Ranch dressing
• 3/4 cup pepper sauce (such as Frank's Red Hot®)
• 1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

Mix the ingredients together in a bowl and cook it at 350 until it's warm, enjoy with tortilla chips or pretzels!

Collard Greens- Slow Cooker

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound smoked meat or 1 smoked turkey leg
• 1 tablespoon House seasoning, recipe follows
• 1 tablespoon seasoned salt
• 1 tablespoon hot red pepper sauce
• 1 large bunch collard greens
• 1 tablespoon butter

Directions

In a large pot, bring 3 quarts of water to a boil and add smoked meat, house seasoning, seasoned salt and hot sauce. Reduce heat to medium and cook for 1 hour.

Wash the collard greens thoroughly. Remove the stems that run down the center by holding the leaf in your left hand and stripping the leaf down with your right hand. The tender young leaves in the heart of the collards don't need to be stripped. Stack 6 to 8 leaves on top of one another, roll up, and slice into 1/2 to 1-ince thick slices. Place greens in pot with meat and add butter. Cook for 45 to 60 minutes, stirring occasionally. When done taste and adjust seasoning.
Serve with favorite dish as a side.

House Seasoning:

• 1 cup salt
• 1/4 cup black pepper
• 1/4 cup garlic powder

My first experience with cake pops!

I've been catching on to the new genius idea this is cake pops or cake balls.  I've always loved cupcakes but these little things are almost just as cute.  My mom is amazing so she went out and bought this cake pop maker

So we made two types of cake pops our first time.  One was in the cake pop maker and the other is the 'by hand' way. 

Ok so for the ‘by hand’ batch we made caramel apple pops.  We cooked a caramel cake and used apple juice for half the water.  Once the cake was cooked and cooled we broke the cake up in a big bowl and added vanilla icing mixed with caramel and apple juice.  We found that we didn’t need the entire can of icing, our cake balls turned out to be a little too moist.  Next time we’ll add icing until it reaches the desired consistency.  Once we formed all of the cake and icing into the size of golf balls stuck them in the freezer to get them good and cold.  We melted white chocolate in a makeshift double boiler (we’re going to need a real one if we start making a lot of these.)  We coated the cake balls, set them in small muffin wrappers and placed them in the refrigerator to cool.  Of course feel free to decorate.  I think next time we’ll craft something so they don’t touch anything while they cool they were a little messy from sitting in the wrappers.  

For the cake pop maker we made chocolate covered cherry cake pops.  So I took a devil’s food chocolate cake mix added maraschino cherry juice to the batter in place of water.  Then all you do is fill the holes in the maker ¾ full of batter, put a half of a maraschino cherry on top and close the maker, they sit for 4-6 minutes and they’re ready to go.  We popped them out of the maker, let them cool and then coated them in melted milk or white chocolate.  The cherry in the center was really good! 

They took a long time to make.  Next time I’m making them in the cake pop maker and using an actual double boiler.  I think the process would go a lot faster.  I’ll be making the chocolate covered cherry pops for my birthday next week.  Pictures and exact recipe to come!

Beer Cheese Dip with Bacon

Ingredients

• 2 (8ounce) packages of cream cheese, softened
• 1 packet (1 ounce) Hidden Valley® Original Ranch® Dips Mix 
• 2 cups of mild shredded cheddar cheese
• 6 to 8 strips of cooked bacon, chopped
• 1/2 of beer (or pour some more in if it makes you happy :)
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Directions

1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl
2. I really did all the measurements to taste after starting out with the cream cheese

Served best with pretzels, beer and football!