Classic Cream Wafers

I love these cookies. I hadn't made these cookies for about 10 years...I don't know why it took me so long to make them again. I love them. They are so yummy and they look so pretty. I made these for the bridal shower I helped throw yesterday and they were a huge hit. They are delicate cookies, with flaky wafers that just about literally melt in your mouth. I had M's pricked into the top of half of the cookies (I didn't get the idea until I was done baking all but the last pan), but those got eaten first, so the pictures are just of the "normal" grid pricked cookies.

Wafer Ingredients:

1 c. butter or margarine, softened
1/3 c. whipping (heavy) cream (NOT whipped cream)
2 c. flour
Granulated sugar

Creamy Filling Ingredients:

1/4 c. butter or margarine, softened
3/4 c. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
food color

Wafer Instructions:
1. In medium bowl, mix butter, whipping cream and flour thoroughly with spoon. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

2. Heat oven to 375 degrees. On lightly floured surface, roll about 1/3 of the dough at a time until 1/8 inch thick (keep remaining dough refrigerated until ready to roll). Cut into 1 1/2 inch rounds. --my note: I had to work the dough together so that it was a dough and not a bowl of crumbles. This is normal. Once the butter warms up more it sticks together like dough.

3. Cover a piece of waxed paper with a thick layer of granulated sugar. Transfer rounds with spatula to sugar-covered waxed paper. On ungreased cookie sheet, place rounds about 1 inch apart. Prick rounds with fork about 4 times.

4. Bake 7-9 minutes or just until set but NOT brown. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes. Put cookies together in pairs (bottoms together) with Cream Filling.

Cream Filling Instructions:
1. In a small bowl, beat butter, powdered sugar and vanilla with spoon (I used beaters) until smooth and fluffy.
2. Stir in a few drops of food color.
3. A few drops of water can be added if necessary to make filling more spreadable.
4. This will not seem like enough filling at first, but it fills the cookies nicely. If you want really full creamy filling cookies, double the filling recipe.

Lemon Cream Cheese Cookies

I helped to throw a bridal shower for a good friend and made some cookies to take to the party. I wanted the cookies to be nice and pretty looking though, so I found two recipes. This was the first cookie I made and I LOVE it. It is so yummy and simple. They are like the Russian Wedding Cookies, but better.

I found this recipe in the "Recipes from Home" by the Stanley Homemakers' Club. It was submitted to the cookbook by Nancy Sowle.

Ingredients:

3/4 c. butter, room temp

3 oz of cream cheese

1 c. powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla flavoring

1 T. lemon zest

2 tsp. lemon juice (about 1/2 a large lemon gives you the lemon juice and zest that you need)

2 c. cake flour (I just used normal flour)

1 c. chopped pecans (I didn't add the pecans)

1. Cream together butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. 

2. Gradually add sugar and beat hard. 

3. Stir in vanilla, lemon juice and lemon zest. 

4. Add flower, mixing well. 

5. Stir in nuts. 

6. Push small amount from spoon onto a greased baking sheet (I wasn't exactly exactly sure what size this meant, so I made them tsp. drop size).

7. Bake at 300 degrees fro 20-25 minutes or until light brown. While cookies are still hot, roll them in powered sugar. 

Kung Pao Pork and Noodles

I found this recipe in one of my cook books and decided to try it out. I used some of my Pork Roast meat from my freezer, but you could use whatever.

What you need:

1 TBS vegetable oil

1 bag (1 lb) broccoli slaw mix (you can use regular cole slaw if you want but you miss out on the great texture the broccoli gives)

1 lb pork boneless loin, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1 med. red bell pepper, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup spicy Szechuan stir fry sauce (I didn't want spicy so I went with regular stir fry sauce)

1 TBS honey

1 pkg (6-7oz) rice stick noodles

2 tsps sesame or vegetable oil

2 TBS salted peanuts

What to do:

1.Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add vegetable oil; rotate skillet to coat bottom. Add slaw mix; stir-fry 2-3 minutes or until crispy/tender. Remove broccoli slaw from skillet; keep warm.

2. Start a pot of water boiling for the noodles. Add pork to same skillet you cooked the slaw in; stir-fry over medium high heat 5-6 minutes or until brown. Stir in bell pepper and water. Cover and cook 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until pork is tender. Stir in stir-fry sauce and honey; reduce heat. Simmer uncovered 1-2 minutes.

3. Add noodles to the boiling water. Boil 3 minutes; drain. In large bowl, toss noodles and sesame oil. Divide noodles among 4 individual serving bowls. Top with broccoli slaw and pork mixture. Sprinkle with peanuts.

Sweet and Sour Pork

This is another one of the dishes that I make with my Pork Roast. It's quick and easy and yummy.

What you need:

1 bag cooked pork meat (see Pork Roast post)

1 bell pepper, chopped into bite size pieces

pineapple chunks (however many you think looks like enough)

1 onion, diced

1 can/bottle sweet and sour sauce(whatever you can find at the store)

cooked rice

What you do:

Saute your onion and pepper in a little bit of oil. You don't want your veggies totally mushy, but you don't want them raw either. You decide how crunchy you want them to be. Toss in the rest of your ingredients and cook until hot all the way through. Serve on top of your rice and enjoy!

Southwest Spaghetti Pie

Abigail participated in the 4-H Favorite Food Contest again this year. She wanted to make Stuffed Manicotti but we found out that it would take longer to bake than the time she was given, so she decided on this dish instead. She worried that a casserole would be ordinary, and it doesn't look very fancy, but it tastes delicious! She won the red ribbon in the Junior category and had lots of fun at the contest. She chose her place setting with Stuffed Manicotti in mind and she got dinged a couple of points on her score card because the judge felt that she should have had a more southwestern theme reflected on her table.  But, she'll have a chance to change the place setting when she goes to the district food contest later. I've posted more about the contest here.

Southwest Spaghetti Pie

6 oz. uncooked spaghetti, broken into thirds
½ lb. lean ground beef
½ cup chopped green and red bell peppers
1 cup prepared salsa
1 can (15 oz.) diced tomatoes, do not drain
1 can (15 oz.) black beans, drained and rinsed
¾ cup frozen corn, thawed
½ -1 teaspoon cumin, according to taste
6 oz. (1 ½ cups) shredded Cheddar cheese, divided
½ cup small curd Cottage cheese
1 egg

Cook the spaghetti just to al dente. Drain and set aside. Meanwhile heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 1 ½ quart casserole with nonstick cooking spray. Cook ground beef with peppers until no longer pink, stirring often. Drain. Stir in salsa, tomatoes, black beans, corn and cumin. Cook 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Stir in ½ cup of the cheese.

Beat egg in a medium bowl until well blended and foamy. Add cottage cheese and cooked spaghetti; toss to coat. Spoon spaghetti mixture into sprayed casserole. Spoon meat mixture on top of spaghetti. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Sprinkle remaining 1 cup cheese over top and return to oven for 10 minutes or until crust is light golden brown. Let sit for 10 minutes or so before serving. Makes 6 servings.

Vernal Equinox and St. Patti's Day Dinner

Cameron wanted to do an Irish meal for St. Patrick's Day, but we were gone to Mesa for a fabulous wedding on that day, so we decided to make our Vernal Equinox meal do double duty. Sunday the 20th was the Vernal Equinox, so we had the dinner then. Ed and Kayleen (just friends), came to visit us for the weekend, so we included them in the dinner and had a ball.

We found pint glasses at Dollar Tree (for a buck each), and then Kayleen helped me come up with a cool way to fold the napkins. I found the fabric in the discount bin at WalMart, but it wasn't quite big enough to be a table cloth, so I just put it as a runner, and then found a green crocheted washcloth that I hadn't used yet (so it was still crisp and pretty) and put the beeswax candles on it as a center piece. Simple, but it did the job.

Here's what we had to eat:

Corned Beef

Cabbage

Boiled Potatoes

Green Bean Casserole

Green Trifle for dessert

and to drink...

Cream Soda! (not Irish, but it looks like Ale in the pint glasses, lol)

We had a lot of fun with this, and stuffed ourselves silly.

Cabbage and Potatoes

We had sautéd cabbage and boiled potatoes as 2 of our side dishes for the equinox/Irish dinner. Both were pretty simple, so I didn't want to make 2 separate posts for them.

Cameron sauted the cabbage (along with chopped onion) in butter, a little bit of bacon grease (he loves cooking with bacon grease), and some of the brine/juice from boiling the Corned Beef.

Cameron boiled the potatoes in the leftover juice/brine/water from boiling the Corned Beef. I think he had to add a little bit of water just so there'd be enough.