White Chocolate, Cranberry, and Macadamia Nut Cookies

This was not suppose to be my next blog, however, I will be traveling to Baltimore next week and wanted to use up any items I already had in my pantry. Honestly, I shouldn't be baking dessert (considering the few extra pounds I picked up while in London), but I have a guest coming over for dinner and felt it was only appropriate to have something sweet!

After going through my pantry and cabinets, I noticed I had white chocolate and macadamia nuts. Perfect...cookies! But I need to make sure they had a little kick to them. It was a toss up between milk chocolate and cranberries. I decided to go with the cranberries, then, my recipe search began. 

Thank goodness for GOOGLE! I stumbled upon www.epicurious.com and found a recipe. I had all of the ingredients so I decided to give it a try!

They were delicious! I am not a fan of crunchy cookies and these were still a little chewy. Just be careful not to over cook them!

Recipe:

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups dried cranberries (about 6 ounces)
• 1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips (about 8 1/2 ounces)
• 1 cup coarsely chopped roasted salted macadamia nuts (about 4 1/2 ounces)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Sift first 3 ingredients into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Add both sugars and beat until blended. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, then vanilla. Add dry ingredients and beat just until blended. Using spatula, stir in cranberries, white chocolate chips, and nuts.

For large cookies, drop dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto prepared sheets, spacing 21/2 inches apart. For small cookies, drop dough by level tablespoonfuls onto sheets, spacing 11/2 inches apart.

Bake cookies until just golden, about 18 minutes for large cookies and about 15 minutes for small cookies. Cool on sheets. 

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/White-Chocolate-Cranberry-and-Macadamia-Nut-Cookies-236823

Fresh Apple Cake with Caramel Icing

This is one of my mom's cake recipes and my grandmother's icing recipes. I was having a real sweet tooth and found a bunch of apples at work that were about to go bad. Everything else I had in my cabinet at home. I put half the batter in a 9x9 pan to take to the office and I made the rest into muffins for my brother and his wife. It was delicious and even better paired with some hot tea or a cup of coffee.

Fresh Apple Cake:

Mix in order:

1 1/2 c. oil

2 c. sugar

3 lg. eggs

3 c. plain flour, sifted with 1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. cinnamon (opt.)

1/2 tsp. allspice (opt.)

3 c. finely diced apples

1 1/2 c. chopped pecans

1 tsp. vanilla

Pour into a greased and floured 9x13 inch pan and back at 350 degrees for 1 hour. 

Never-Fail Caramel Icing:

1 1/2 c. brown sugar

1 1/2 c. white sugar

3/4 c. butter

3/4 c. milk

Combine all ingredients and let boil hard for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally to keep from sticking. Let cool slightly. Put in mixer and beat until thick enough to spread on cake. If for any reason it gets too thick, just keeping adding a little bit of milk at a time.

Oh So Easy Lemon Cookies

These cookies were first introduced to me by a friend I went to high school with. These lemon cookies are the easiest thing to make, as long as you don't over bake them. I came home after work and had these mixed up and baked in a half hour. 

Recipe:

1 pkg. lemon cake mix

1 T. lemon juice

1 egg

1/3 cup oil

Combine ingredients and drop by teaspoons (1 inch balls) onto an ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minute, until the edges are slightly golden. Allow cookies to rest on the baking sheet for 1 minute. Make a glaze of powdered sugar and lemon juice to drizzle over cookies when they have cooled.

Banana Pudding

When I asked my brother what type of cake he wanted for his birthday, he mentioned he did not want a cake, but banana pudding. Sad to say, but I never made banana pudding. It was something my mom or Aunt Sherry would make, so I never had to learn the recipe. Lucky for me, my Aunt Sherry's recipe is in our church cookbook and it was very simple to make. I almost felt this recipe may be too "easy" for a blog post, but I feel everyone should know how to make one of the easiest and most delicious desserts around!

Recipe:

1 large package of instant vanilla pudding

3 cups of milk

1 large carton of Cool Whip

8 ounces of sour cream

1 box of Vanilla Wafers

6 large bananas

Mix pudding with milk until thick and smooth. Fold in whipped topping. Layer wafers, bananas, and pudding, starting and ending with pudding. Sprinkle top with a few crushed wafers.