Russian Tea Cookies, Mexican Wedding Cakes, Snowball cookies!

 I have no idea how this cookie got so many names and still is the same cookie?  When I was a kid we always called them Mexican Wedding Cakes, but now I've morphed into calling them Russian Tea Cookies.  This recipe is a favorite of mine at Christmas.  I only make them then and I have no idea why..they aren't that hard to make, but they definite are a Christmas cookie to me.  I use the recipe from a very old Betty Crocker Cooky Book from 1963.  It was one of my first cookbooks and has a lot of great cookie recipes in it.  Thought I should put it on my blog in case it gets lost at some point or destroyed because it's the best recipe.  Some of them are so bland and tasteless.  

RUSSIAN TEACAKES:

1 cup room temperature butter (only!) no substitutes

1/2 cup confectioners sugar (powdered)

1 tsp vanilla

2-1/4 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup finely chopped nuts (I use pecans)

Mix butter, sugar and vanilla thoroughly.  Add flour and salt together; blend in.  Mix in nuts. (I use my hands to combine it well)

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Press dough into 1 inch balls.  Place on an ungreased cookie sheet pan.  Cookies do not spread so you can place a lot of them on the pan.  Bake 10-12 minutes until set but not brown.  While warm (not really hot though) roll in confectioners sugar.  cool.  can roll in powdered sugar again if desired.   

CHEESY TUNA HOTDISH

 Cheesy Tuna Hotdish:

1/2 or so bag of wide egg noodles cooked as per directions to el dente. 

Sauce: In a medium sauce pan stir together:

in a little butter -sauté a small amount of finely chopped onion until caramelized.  If you like green pepper you can also add a small amount of finely diced to this.  Pimentos would also work well.  Then add:

1 can Campbells cream of celery soup

1 can tuna, drained (I use the water style)

about 1 cup cheddar  or Velveeta cheese, shredded

salt/pepper to taste

1/4 cup Miracle Whip (use THIS for a little tang)

a small handful of baby frozen peas

some milk to make it into a medium thickness

ONCE the cheese is melted and it's all smooth, combine with the cooked noodles and spread into a casserole dish.  Top with crushed regular potato chips lightly over the top.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes uncovered.  

My granddaughter's college dorm room afghan is finished!

 I started this afghan for my granddaughter Sam a few months back, but then ended up having a messed up shoulder and couldn't tolerate crocheting for a few month.  It finally felt better this month, so I got going on it and finished it today.  Her dorm room has gray tones with girly clear lights hanging in it and this will match it nicely.  I love the feel, it's all squishy and soft.  I actually saw the afghan on a show I was watching "Married at First Sight" in one of the couples apartments and luckily while searching for the pattern I found a lady who developed it because she also loved it from the show!  It's call Ashley and Anthony's Bubble Wrap Blanket" and written by Aunt Debbie Designs.  I found all the yarn on sale and added a usable coupon besides so it brought the cost way down as the Bernat Blanket yarn can add up really quickly.  I love how it turned out.  

Frozen Fruit Cups

I tried these frozen fruit cups yesterday and liked the versatility of them, so posting so I can make them again some time.  They are pretty, refreshing and fast to put together.  I like the individual ones, but if someone wanted to put the whole recipe in a 9 x 13 pan and freeze it, then cut into serving sizes, it would work great too.  You can vary the fruit to whatever you want and have in your cupboard or fridge pretty much I think also.  Berries would be good in them, cut up in tiny pieces.

FROZEN FRUIT CUPS:

In a medium/large bowl combine: (I used a hand mixer so sugar was completely dissolved)

1/2 pint heavy cream, softly whipped

1/2 pint sour cream

3/4 cup granulated sugar

5 Tablespoons maraschino cherry juice (from the jar of cherries)

Add: 

1/2 cup seedless purple grapes quartered

1/3 cup chopped maraschino cherries

1 cup pineapple tidbits, drained

2 medium bananas, finely chopped (I didn't have these and used 2 fresh peaches I had)

1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice 

1/2 cup sliced or slivered almonds, optional

In a cupcake tin (18 cupcake size if you have it or enough to equal that) put 18 foil lined cupcake papers.  divide the above fruit mixture between them, sprinkle almonds on top if desired.  cover and freeze.  Remove from the freezer 15 minutes before serving.  

Salted Caramel Brownies for Kevin's Birthday Dessert Request

My daughter, Kim's, boyfriend, Kevin requested salted caramel brownies for his birthday this year.  I found this recipe online with high ratings so after getting all the ingredients together, made them for his party today.  Everyone said they were really good, so I decided to post it just as written by the author, Sabrina Snyder.  I had vanilla ice cream with them too.  I did reduce the flake salt though.

SALTED CARAMEL BROWNIES:

1 cup butter-she recommends unsalted-I used salted because I had that.
14 ounces semisweet chocolate chips DIVIDED (I used mini chips because I had those)
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate-I used the bar type and chopped it up
3 large eggs
1 Tablespoon instant expresso-I had a hard time finding this, so ordered it online-it has a very fine texture, so would recommend using it, but you maybe could use regular instant coffee if in a pinch.
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour DIVIDED
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt-I used regular
11 ounces wrapped caramels-one bag-unwrapped
2 Tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons flake salt-also ordered online

INSTRUCTIONS:
1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a 9 x 13 pan with parchment paper
2. In a larger sized microwave safe bowl add the butter, half the semisweet chips, and unsweetened chocolate together in a microwave in 30 second increments until fully melted and mixed. set aside to cool.
3. In a separate bowl add the eggs, instant espresso, vanilla and sugar and whisk well.-add to chocolate mixture.
4.  Add 1/2 cup of the flour, baking powder and salt also into the cooled chocolate mixture.
5. Mix the remaining 6 ounces of chocolate chips into the remaining 1/4 cup of flour in a small bowl and add to the chocolate batter.
6. Add milk to the unwrapped caramels and microwave in 30 second increments until melted and fully whisked together.  (mine took 3 times I believe)
7.  Add half the chocolate batter to the pan.  smooth out.  Pour HALF the caramel on top in a thin pour.  then top with remaining brownie batter.

Bake for 35 minutes, remove from oven and drizzle the rest of the caramel over it (you may have to re-melt the caramel to get it to drizzle) sprinkle with the salt.  (I didn't add as much salt, just a slight sprinkle). 

**I messed up when I made mine and put the whole batch of caramel in the middle-I have rewritten the directions here because I didn't get what she was trying to say on what to do with it and they turned out just fine doing it that way so don't worry.  I just sprinkled the salt on the warm brownie top lightly instead. 

Fireworks Birthday Cake for Shellie's 49th Birthday

The kids had their annual 4th of July/combo birthday party for Kevin (Kim's guy) and Shellie today.  I always make the lunch and desserts for it.  This year I made Shellie's traditional jello poke cake (recipe on blog) but decided to make some fireworks to put on the top to hold the candles.  They were so easy and I thought turned out cute!  All you have to do is use regular sized marshmallows and dip them in red melting chocolate, stick them on waxed paper and put the birthday black candles in them.  I found these with gold glitter on them, and let set in the fridge.  I sprinkled some americana sprinkles around them on the cake and at the party I added the happy birthday in the center of the cake.  

Pickled Eggs experimental batch

I saw a post on facebook re pickled eggs yesterday.  My son used to like them at the bars up in northern Minnesota, so I thought I'd do a test batch to take to our 4th of July little celebration coming up.  I found a few recipes, decided I definitely wanted the beet juice style for the colored eggs, and sort of adjusted another one that I thought he might like because it was similar to garlic jalapeno pickles.  Will find out after they sit a week if it's worth making a bigger batch next time.  I only made 8 eggs.

Make 8 hard boiled eggs, peel and wash and place in a glass jar or container.

Meanwhile make the brine of:

3/4 cup cider vinegar
3/4 cup beet juice (or water if you don't care about the color) I just bought a generic brand of sliced beers and drained the juice and it was perfect-we'll eat the beets for supper)
1/4 of an onion thinly sliced.  I used a yellow onion, but red would be pretty in the jar too
1/2 cup sugar
6 whole cloves
2 jalapeno peppers, deseeded and sliced lengthwise
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp dry oregano
1 garlic clove peeled

put brine ingredients in a saucepan, bring to a boil to dissolve the sugar and simmer about 5 minutes.

set aside until just warm, not really hot because the eggs with get tough.

when cooled down, pour over eggs and refrigerate..will keep for up to a month in the refrigerator.  it says you can eat them the next day, but a lot of recipes said to wait a week.