Lemon Oatmeal Cookies – The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap!

A little bit about ‘The Swap”…

I was hanging out on Twitter late one night when I happened upon Love and Olive Oil and The Little Kitchen‘s tweets about their Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap.  I was in luck as it wasn’t too late to sign up, which I immediately did.  I used to attend a local mother’s group cookie swap every year and it was a lot of fun.  I am no longer a member of that club and while I still participate in smaller swaps, I wanted to do a bigger one.  At the time I had signed up, they had about 550 bloggers from around the world signed up to swap cookies.  I thought that was pretty darn cool and it was fun being a part of it.  I got to exchange 3 dozen of my cookies with 3 other bloggers, blogs I had never read before!  They estimate that over 22.000 cookies were swapped across this big ole world!  That’s a lot of cookies and I’m happy I got to be a part of it!  If you missed it this year and would like information on how to participate in the next one, sign up here.

A little bit about the cookies I received…

1.  Sisters’ Snacktime ( AJ & Jas Hwang) provided me with my first cookies.  They sent me two kinds (!) –  Peach and Crisp Salted Oatmeal with White/Dark Chocolate.

2.  I got my second set of cookies from Lana Watkins at Bibberche.  They were called Roses and were Serbian recipe from her Grandmother.

3.  My final set of cookies arrived from Chrissy and Dana Marie DeCapite at Sorelle e Cibo.  They were a really yummy white chocolate macadamia and cranberry cookie.  (Mr. Foodie ate them all.)

Thank you to all of my Cookie Swappers!  I enjoyed the different cookies and stories.

A little bit about the cookies I swapped…

I wanted to make a cookie I had never made before and I wanted it to be a little bit different.  Don’t get me wrong, I love your standards like chocolate chip or peanut butter, but I definitely wanted to go in another direction.  When I was pregnant with Foodie Jr., I became part of an internet message board for moms delivering in the same month and year.  I immediately made friends with a gal named Jen and we’ve been friends ever since.  And although we haven’t even met in person, I still consider her one of my best, dearest friends.  One thing we have in common is a love of food.  I sooooooooo trust her taste in food and have not disliked any recipe she has ever passed along.  She gave me this recipe for her favorite cookie a few years back and I’ve never gotten around to trying it.  I have no idea why I waited so long because these are definitely on MY list of favorite cookies now!  This recipe came from her father’s mother and I just love that – recipes that are passed down from one generation to the next.  These cookies are pretty simple to make and generally are things you would normally (well, I would) have on hand.  These cookies can be made chewy or crunchy.  While I think everyone here preferred them on the chewier side (my friend Jen included) the crunchy ones are good too and great for having with coffee or tea.  I adore this recipe and am going to make it several more times this holiday season – my new go-to cookie.  These would be great iced too so I might have to try that!

LEMON OATMEAL COOKIES

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Shortening

1/2 Cup White Sugar

1/2 Cup Brown Sugar

1 Egg

1 1/2 Tsp Grated Lemon Rind (I used the rind of an entire lemon)

1 1/2 TBS Molasses

1/2 Tsp Vanilla

3/4 Cup plus 2 TBS Flour

1/2 Tsp Baking Soda

1/2 Tsp Salt

1 1/2 Cups Rolled Oats

Directions:

1.  Preheat Oven to 400 Degrees (once dough is done chilling.)

2.  Mix the first seven ingredients (shortening, white sugar, brown sugar, egg, lemon rind, molasses and vanilla) thoroughly.

3.  Sift together the next three ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt) and add to the first mixture.

4.  Stir in rolled oats and mix thoroughly by hand.

5.  Press and mold into a long smooth roll about 2 1/2′ diameter.  Wrap in wax paper and chill until stiff (several hours or overnight.)

6.  With a thin, sharp knife cut into thin slices 1/8′ thick.  Place slices on an ungreased cookies sheet and bake until lightly browned, about 8-10 minutes.

A few notes:  These overcook really quickly so if you prefer them on the chewy side, they won’t look quite ‘done’ when you take them out.  Just let them sit on the sheet for another 5 minutes before moving to a rack to cool.  Also, this recipe doesn’t double well, so make each batch individually.

Dessert Three Ways

I really enjoy being a part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program.  I was recently picked to try out Duncan Hines and Comstock products for this go round.  I was given some coupons for myself and to share with others for free products.  All my friends and family were very happy!  I chose several products to try:  Duncan Hines Decadent Triple Chocolate Cake with the Amazing Chocolate Glaze, Duncan Hines Brownie Mix and the Comstock Lemon Pie filling.

I made the Decadent Triple Chocolate Cake with the Amazing Chocolate Glaze as- is for my mother’s birthday party.  This cake was to die for!  We all really enjoyed it.  I made it as a bundt cake and it was so moist and rich.  The Glaze was so, so easy to use and I personally think it is much more yummy than regular frosting.  This is definitely a must-try, even if you are partial to scratch baking.

I used the Brownie mix to make a peppermint mocha brownie by just adding one tablespoon of instant espresso powder and 1 cup of chopped white chocolate peppermint bark.  I based this around popular holiday drinks as I thought the brownie would lend really well to the flavors.  I used a lot more instant espresso than I normally would as I really wanted to drive the mocha flavor home and it worked!  The brownies were very easy and turned out just as I had planned so I was really happy with them.

For the Comstock Lemon Pie filling, I made a bread pudding.  It was my first time making bread pudding but I really thought that lemon would go well with the texture and mild flavor.  Again, I was really happy with the result!  It came out creamy with a mild lemon flavor, our family really enjoyed it!

I really urge you to try any of these products, whether to bake as-is or to experiment with putting your own twist on them!  Thank you to Foodbuzz, Duncan Hines and Comstock for giving me the opportunity to try these great products!

LEMON BREAD PUDDING

Ingredients:

12 Cups of Croissant or Butterflake Rolls, cubed

6 Eggs

1 Cup Sugar

2 Cups Whole Milk

1 Tsp Pure Maple Syrup

1 Cup All Purpose Flour

1 Can of Comstock Lemon Pie Filling

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Generously grease a 9×13 pan.

2.  In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs, sugar and maple syrup together.  Gradually mix in the milk and the flour until well blended.

3.  Add bread cubes to the mixture and stir until all bread cubes have soaked up the liquid.  Add half the can of lemon pie filling to the bread mixture and mix well.

4.  Add half of the bread cubes to the baking dish.  Spread half the can of the lemon pie filling over the entire the layer.

5.  Add the remaining bread mixture on top of the lemon pie filling.

6.  Bake for 45 minutes, toothpick inserted should come out clean.

The Pumpkin Pie Post

Some say it might be obligatory, it being Thanksgiving and all.  Either way, here it comes:  my pumpkin pie post.

Recently, I’ve been pinning the heck out of things on Pinterest.  (I’m on there as Foodie Interrupted – follow me and you will see proof of my obsession.) I kinda feel like I’m a serial re-pinner.  I oogle over peoples boards of food dishes and fun  crafty projects and re-pin away.  I do this, of course, because I will make every single one of those dishes and crafts one day.  I swear.  No, really…  Well, one of the things I pinned recently was a cinnamon roll pie crust.  With this pie heavy holiday upon us, I thought this was a perfect fit, so I went for it.  I also needed something to take to the in-laws and who better to experiment on?  (Besides, I was asked to bring the pumpkin pie.)  My crust didn’t look as pretty as the original one I pinned over at Pinterest, but I was still very happy with it.  Here’s a pic of the cinnamony goodness:

The cinnamon roll crust only goes to the top edge of the pie plate so I decided to get all fancy and make a nice leaf crust around the top.  You don’t have to do this at all but I thought it looked better and there may be some crust lovers in the crowd that this move would please.  Please note that I sort of did the fancy schmancy leaf thing as an afterthought, so when you read my directions for adding it – BE CAREFUL!

I have not actually made pumpkin pie in a few years, somebody else is usually in charge of that!  I generally don’t have a set in stone recipe, either.  I know, who doesn’t have a pumpkin pie recipe, right?  Well, this girl doesn’t.  I contemplated doing something different with the pie filling but since I had already done the cinnamon roll crust, I didn’t want to mess too much with the filling.  Sometimes, less is more.  I was already sweating bullets debating whether or not to add more cinnamon to the filling with the given crust and concerned about serving a ‘cinnamon pie with a hint of pumpkin’ to my in-law family.  Well, what I ended up making worked, it was a good pie.  Foodie Jr. and Baby Foodie woofed this pie down.  Baby Foodie even screamed at his big brother to share more.  Brothers fighting over pie, who woulda thunk it?

This could be one of the worst iphone food pics in the history of the world.

CINNAMON ROLL PUMPKIN PIE

Ingredients:

1 9-inch pie shell, pre-made or homemade is fine

1 TBS Butter, melted

Cinnamon, enough to sprinkle all over single pie crust

15 oz. of Pumpkin (canned or fresh – I used canned Organic)

1 Cup Evaporated Milk

1/2 Cup Whole Milk

2 Eggs

3/4 Cup Dark Brown Sugar

1/4 Tsp Salt

1/2 Tsp (scant) Cinnamon

1/4 Tsp Ground Ginger

1/4 Tsp Ground Nutmeg

1/8 Tsp Ground Clove

Directions:

1.  Preheat Oven to 400 degrees.

2.  Place pie crust on a lightly floured surface and brush with melted butter.  Sprinkle cinnamon all over the entire crust – as if you were making cinnamon rolls.

3.  Tightly roll the pie crust up and cut into 1/2 inch segments.  Line a 9 inch pie plate with the cinnamon rolls by placing them flat side down and pressing them into the dish, all the way to the edge.

4.  For the pie, place all remaining ingredients in a large mixing bowl and blend together very well – I used a hand held egg beater and it worked great.

5.  Pour the pumpkin mixture into your pie shell and bake in the oven for about 40-45  minutes (ovens will vary.)

6.  Remove pie and cool before serving.

NOTE:  If you wish to make the additional leaf crust: Use any extra pie crust you have and cut leaves out (I used the Wilton cut-outs.)  Keep them refrigerated and then dip them in an egg wash and add to the edge of your pie, the last 10-15 minutes of cooking.

Cranberry Jalapeno Sauce

Or ‘cranapeno’ sauce?  Whether you go with the long drawn out name in the title or the cutesy nickname I gave it, it tastes the same – good.  I’ve known a lot of people over the years who make a version of this and I generally put my feet up and let someone else make the cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving but this year, I thought I’d give it a try.  (Frankly, I did not even start eating any kind of cranberry sauce until maybe five years ago, it never did anything for me.)  And though I now love my beloved can-shaped, congealed, whatever that is that graces family tables every year (I know, I know) this kicks butt on that.  I love the sweet heat of this sauce and can’t wait to try it with my bird tomorrow.  Confession?  I can’t wait to try in on my leftover turkey sandwiches after Thanksgiving.  Even bigger confession?  I will probably dump this on cream cheese or ricotta and eat it with crackers before it even takes it’s place on the table next to that stinkin’ bird.  So, from my table to yours, I hope you have a really great Turkey day and relish is all the things you are most thankful for.  Oh, and if you need something to be thankful for – make this.

Okay, so once I threw the jalapeno in, I just loved the festive color of the dish.  It made me want to start playing Christmas carols, almost.  So, I wanted to share this photo because well, I thought it was pretty.

CRANBERRY JALAPENO SAUCE

1 12 oz Bag of Fresh Cranberries, washed

1 Cup Water

1 Cup White Sugar

1-3 Jalapeno Peppers, cleaned, seeded and chopped (This pepper amount is dependent on how big of a spicy kick you want your sauce to have.  I used one larger one and one medium one and liked it just fine.)

Juice from 1/2 a Lime

1/4 Cup of Cream Sherry

Directions:

1.  Add sugar and water to a sauce over medium-high heat and bring to a slow boil.

2.  Add cranberries and lower heat, simmer for 10-12 minutes.

3.  Add Jalepenos and lime juice and continue to simmer another 10-15 minutes, until you get the consistency you want.

4.  Add in Cream Sherry and simmer a few minutes longer.

5.  Remove from heat and serve either room temp or chilled.

Flipped Sausage and Apple Cornbread

I was given this recipe a long time ago from a friend and with the abundance of
apples I have, I thought I would try it out again.  I think it is a good brunch recipe.  It is not too sweet and the cornmeal definitely gives it its own texture which got mixed review from my crowd.  I love the idea of this recipe and will definitely play with it in the future to give it a more smooth, cake-like texture as I think that would go better overall with the balance of savory and sweet.  Having said that, I think the recipe stands alone just fine, I would just be tweaking it for my own personal taste.  I do love the combination of apples and sausage though – definitely high on the yum factor scale!  If you are looking for a good holiday recipe or simply went apple picking and find yourself saying, “What am I going to do with all these apples?” you might want to give this one a try!

FLIPPED  SAUSAGE AND APPLE CORNBREAD

Ingredients:

1/2 lb. Sausage Links (pork or turkey is fine)

4 TBS Butter

1/2 Cup Brown Sugar

4 Small Apples (of your choice) – peeled, cored and sliced

1 Cup of Flour

3/4 Cup Yellow Cornmeal

3 TBS Brown Sugar

1 TBS Baking Powder

1 Tsp Salt

1 Egg, beaten

4 TBS Melted Butter

1 Cup Milk

Directions:

1.  Grease 9 inch round cake pan and preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2.  Brown sausage in skillet over medium heat, remove from pan once done, leaving about 1-2 TBS drippings in skillet.  Cut links into small pieces and set aside.

3.  Add butter and brown sugar and stir until sugar melts.

4.  Add apples and saute until soft, about 10-12 minutes.

5.  Add sausage pieces and apples slices in a single layer to prepared baking pan and pour skillet juices over the top evenly.

6.  Let apple-sausage mixture sit until room temperature while you prepare the rest of the recipe.

7.  In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, cornmeal, brown sugar, baking powder and salt.

8.  Add egg, melted butter and milk and stir until well combined.

9.  Pour batter over apple sausage mixture, smoothing out to cover entire pan.

10.  Bake for 25 minutes, or until your cake tester comes out clean.

11.  Remove from oven and immediately invert onto serving dish.

Cajun Spiced Pumpkin Seeds

Happy Halloween!  We did our pumpkin carving last night (kudos to Mr. Foodie for his Ninjago pumpkin) and like everyone should, we roasted the seeds.  Foodie Jr. isn’t a big fan of the pumpkin seeds, so Mr. Foodie and I agreed that it would be a yummy twist to do Cajun spiced seeds for us, since we like a little heat.  I didn’t so much use a recipe for this, as much as I eyeballed it, but I did put in some basic amounts.  I suggest you just play with yours –  to your liking.  Wishing all of you a happy and safe Halloween night – lots of treats and not so many tricks!

CAJUN SPICED PUMPKIN SEEDS

Ingredients:

-Seeds from one pumpkin, cleaned and dried (They say a regular sized pumpkin will yield about a cup to a cup and half of seeds, we got about a cup out of ours.)

~ 1-2 Tsp of your favorite Cajun Seasoning Blend

~ 1-2 Tsp Paprika (per your taste, mostly for color)

~1 Tsp Worcestershire Sauce

~1 -2 TBS Olive Oil

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

2.  In a small bowl, combine all your ingredients and toss well, making sure the seeds are evenly coated with olive oil and seasonings.

3.  On a foil lined cookie sheet (you can also spray with cooking spray, but not needed) spread seeds in an even, single layer.

4.  Bake for about 45-55 minutes, turning seeds once about half way through cooking time.

Easy Strawberry Trifle

We recently had a new grocery store open up close to us and they had a special on strawberries.  Never one to pass up a deal, I purchased a whole bunch of them!  Foodie, Jr. is a big lover of the strawberry but even with his voracious berry appetite, I still needed to find a use for the strawberries overflowing in my refrigerator.  Enter Fourth of July.  We were headed to a family get together and I decided to throw together something to bring, involving – you guessed it – strawberries.  I threw together this very easy trifle.  So easy, it will make your head spin.  Everyone really seemed to like it a lot, it was gone anyway.  So, if you find yourself needing to use a bunch of strawberries or hard pressed to bring a potluck dish, I highly recommend this!

EASY STRAWBERRY TRIFLE

Ingredients:

4 Cups of Fresh Stawberries, sliced plus a few whole for garnish

1 Box of Instant Vanilla Pudding

1 Tub of Whipped Topping

1 Angel Food Cake, cubed

Directions:

1.  Prepare instant pudding then fold in whipped topping until well incorporated.

2.  In a trifle dish, or similar, start with a layer of about 1/3 of pudding mixture.  Next a layer of angel food cake and then a layer of strawberries.  You should be able to repeat this twice and then end with a layer of pudding mixture on top.

3.  Garnish with strawberries, whole or sliced, as you desire.

Butterscotch Hot Chocolate

A warm, tasty adult treat for the holiday season.  This recipe was given to me by a good friend, Jen, some years ago and it’s my favorite hot chocolate!  It’s the perfect combo of creamy, chocolaty and buttery!  The original calls to be topped with whipped cream but I felt like marshmallows when I made this batch – both are good!

BUTTERSCOTCH HOT CHOCOLATE

Ingredients:

5 Cups Half & Half

3/4 Cup of Chocolate Syrup

1/2 Cup of Butterscotch Schnapps

Whipped Cream or Marshmallows for topping (optional)

Carmel Sauce or Powdered Cocoa for garnish (optional)

Directions:

1.  Heat the Half & Half, Schnapps and Chocolate syrup until hot but not boiling, making sure you mix well.

2.  Pour into mugs and top how you desire.

Iced Pumpkin Butterscotch Cookies

Fact:  I am a firm believer that homemade baked goods are the way to go.  However, I am also a believer that sometimes you just gotta take a short cut.  Last night was definitely a short cut kind of night.  I am a class mom for Foodie Jr.’s kindergarten class and was running around like a chicken with its head cut off prepping and packing for his big Halloween shindig at school today when I realized that I should probably make a little something for his teacher.  And while I was at it, I figured Mr. Foodie’s staff at work probably should not get neglected either.  So off to my pantry I went…

After much hunting and pecking, I decided to make some pumpkin cookies from a yellow cake mix I had in the pantry.  Ideas went swirling around in my head – Oats or no oats?  Chocolate chips?  White Chocolate Chips?  Butterscotch Chips?  Nuts or no nuts?  Frosting?  Icing?  Plain?   Decisions, decisions.  I actually have an iced pumpkin cookie recipe that I have used forever but seeing that it was almost 10 p.m., that recipe was not happening, hence the quick and easy shortcut.  Both Mr. Foodie and I were pleasantly surprised with the final product.  Foodie Jr.’s teacher loved them, well she ate the whole plate right in front of me so either she is really polite or she really did like them!

This recipe made just over 30 cookies.   It was easy to throw together and really just a no hassle dessert.  The best part is that you can probably just interchange a bunch of ingredients, keeping the general ratios the same, and come up with other simple cookies to do in a pinch.

ICED PUMPKIN BUTTERSCOTCH COOKIES

Ingredients for Cookies:

1 Box Yellow Cake Mix

1/2 Tsp Cinnamon

1/4 Tsp Ground Ginger

1/4 Tsp Allspice

1/4 Tsp Nutmeg

1 15 oz. Can of Pumpkin (I really like the Organic from Trader Joe’s)

1/2 Cup Chopped Walnuts

1 Egg

2 Tsp Vegetable Oil

1/2 Cup Butterscotch Chips

Ingredients for Icing:

Powdered Sugar (I used a heaping cup and it was enough to ice all cookies)

Spiced Apple Cider

Directions:

1.  Pre-heat oven to 350 Degrees.  Line cookie sheet with parchment paper or Silpat.

2.  Combine cake mix with spices and walnuts in a large bowl.

3.  In a separate bowl, combine pumpkin, egg and oil.

4.  Add pumpkin mixture to dry ingredients and stir until well combined.

5.  Add butterscotch chips to batter and mix.

6.  Drop by teaspoonful onto cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes.

7.  Allow to cool on wire rack.

8.  While cookies are cooling, place powdered sugar in a bowl and add spiced cider in small (tablespoonish) increments, stirring until you get a desired glaze consistency.  Ice the cooled cookies and let the icing set a bit before serving.