Christmas Eve Prime Rib

Every Christmas Eve my family all gets together for a big meal and my grandfather makes an amazing prime rib. This year was our first to be on our own and making the meal for ourselves. We were quite nervous about ruining the roast, but luckily it turned out great and was actually really simple to do, you just need to allow plenty of time for it to cook.

Ingredients:
5 pound beef rib roast
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder

Directions:
Allow roast to stand at room temperature for at least 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Combine the salt, pepper and garlic powder in a small cup. Place the roast on a rack in a roasting pan so that the fatty side is up and the rib side is on the bottom. Rub the seasoning onto the roast.
Roast for 1 hour in the preheated oven. Turn the oven off and the leave the roast inside. DO NOT open the door. Leave it in for 3 more hours.
30-40 minutes before serving, turn the oven back on at the 375 degrees F to reheat the roast.
The internal temperature should be at least 145 degrees F.
Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes before carving into servings.

Soft Sugar Cookie Bars with Buttercream Frosting

I wasn't sure what to make for our Valentine's treats to pass out to friends this year, but I did know life has been extra crazy so we needed to keep it simple. Then I saw these guys on Cassie Craves and knew they would be perfect. What I didn't know is just how absolutely AMAZING they would really be. They are completely addictive so be sure you are sharing them with someone!!! (I doubled the dough recipe but still had enough frosting from one batch to frost them both) I think I may be making these for every holiday from now on :-)!

INGREDIENTS:
For the bars:
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, room temperature
8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
For the frosting:
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups powdered sugar
Pinch of salt
6 tablespoons heavy cream

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350. Line a jelly roll pan (15 x 10 x 1) (I used a regular baking pan so mine were a little thicker) with aluminum foil and spray lightly with cooking spray.
2. In a mixer, cream butter, cream cheese and sugar together. Add in egg and vanilla and mix until incorporated.
3. With mixer on low, add flour, baking powder and baking soda. Mix until just combined.
4. Press dough evenly into your prepared pan. The dough will be sticky. (it's very sticky, I put my hand in a baggie and sprayed it with some cooking spray to push it into the pan)
5. Bake for 20 minutes until edges begin to golden. Cool completely before frosting.
6. To make the frosting, cream together the butter and vanilla. Slowly beat in the powdered sugar and the pinch of salt. Once smooth and creamy, add in heavy cream, 1 tablespoon at a time, then beat at medium-high speed for a minute or two until light and fluffy. If desired, add food coloring and beat until combined.

Valentine Chex Mix

My mom brought this tasty treat for one of our Super Bowl snacks on Sunday. It was so cute and SO delicious. I loved that it wasn't too sweet...so you could eat even more of it :-)! She had posted it on her blog earlier in the week and I had really been wanting to make it, so I was especially excited to see it when they showed up!

Ingredients:
9 cups Rice Chex cereal
1 cup white vanilla baking chips
½ cup peanut butter
¼ cup butter or margarine
¾ cup powdered sugar
½ cup red, white and pink candy-coated chocolate candies
¼ cup red or pink jimmies sprinkles

Directions:
♥Step 1: In large bowl, place cereal. In small microwavable bowl, microwave baking chips, peanut butter and butter uncovered on High 1 minute to 1 minute 30 seconds, stirring every 30 seconds, until melted and smooth. Pour peanut butter mixture over cereal, stirring until evenly coated.
♥Step 2: Place 1/2 of the cereal mixture in 1-gallon food-storage plastic bag. Add powdered sugar. Seal bag; shake until well coated. Spread on waxed paper or foil to cool, about 15 minutes.
♥Step 3: Meanwhile, stir candies and sprinkles into remaining cereal mixture. Spread on waxed paper or foil to cool, about 15 minutes.
♥Step 4: In serving bowl, mix both cereal mixtures. Store in airtight container.

Thankful Cookies

My oldest, Ella, spotted this recipe in the November issue of The Friend and couldn't wait to make them. They ended up being a great activity with minimal clean-up which I loved. We used chocolate chips, peanut butter chips and marshmallows for the filling and were only sad that we didn't have more pie crusts to make even more!

Ingredients:
1 egg
1 teaspoon water
flour
1 package uncooked piecrust
sugar
Choose any of the following filling ingredients:
chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, peanut-butter chips, mini marshmallows, canned raspberry or cherry pie filling

Directions:
1. Wash your hands with soap and water.
2. Heat the oven to 375ºF.
3. Beat egg and water together in a small bowl.
4. Sprinkle a little flour on work surface. Spread out piecrust, and use a rolling pin to flatten it until it is about 1/8 inch thick.
5. Use any large cookie cutter to cut as many shapes as possible.
6. Spread 3–4 tablespoons of chips or pie filling on half of the cut shapes. Leave 1/2 inch around the edges uncovered.
7. Brush the edges of the shapes with egg mixture. Place a second shape on top, and press the edges together to seal.
8. Brush the tops of each filled cookie with egg mixture. Sprinkle the cookies with sugar.
9. Use a spatula to move the cookies to a baking sheet. Bake for about 12 minutes. Let cookies cool for several minutes before moving them.

Sourdough Cornbread and Sausage Stuffing

This is the stuffing my mom brought to our Thanksgiving dinner and everyone loved it. I didn't personally get to try it, but Mike commented to me about really liking it and if it was good enough for him to do that, then it was GOOD! She found the recipe on Picky Palate and said the only change she would make is to use a little less bread the next time around.

Ingredients:
1 lb Sourdough Loaf, cubed
12 oz baked cornbread, cubed
14 Tablespoons butter (1  3/4 sticks)
1 large onion, diced (about 1 1/2 Cups)
1 bunch of celery, chopped (about 3 Cups)
3 large carrots, chopped (about 2 Cups)
8 oz baby bella mushrooms, chopped (about 1 1/4 Cups)
2 Tablespoons minced garlic
2 1/2 Cups chicken broth
1/2 Cup fresh chopped parsley
2 Tablespoons fresh rosemary
1 Tablespoon fresh sage
1/2 teaspoon ground thyme (or 1 T fresh)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
1 lb Jimmy Dean Sage Sausage

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.   Place cubed sourdough and cornbread onto a large jellyroll baking sheet.  Bake for 25 minutes, until lightly toasted.  Remove from oven.
2.  Melt butter into a large dutch oven or large rimmed skillet over medium heat.  Saute onions, celery, carrots and mushrooms for about 10 minutes or until veggies turn tender.  Stir in garlic and cook for another minute then pour in chicken broth, parsley, rosemary, sage,  thyme, salt and pepper.  Stir and reduce heat to low to simmer.
3.  Brown sausage in skillet, drain if necessary then add to vegetable mixture.  Place bread cubes into a large bowl and slowly pour mixture over cubes gently stirring throughout to ensure all pieces get coated.  Taste a couple pieces and season with additional salt and pepper according to taste.  I added a few more pinches of kosher salt and pepper at this point.
4.  Divide stuffing into a 9×13 inch baking dish and a 11×7 inch baking dish.  Bake for 25-30 minutes, until just golden brown on top.  Should still be nice and moist.  Remove from oven and serve!
12 servings, each dish

Creamed Bean Casserole

This is a dish my Grandma makes for our special occasion dinners and I always LOVE it! In fact I love it so much I have avoided getting the recipe because I knew I didn't want to know what was in it to make it so delicious :-)...and I was right. Sometimes we have to live a little though and holidays are definitely the right time, so make this to go with your Christmas dinner and you won't regret it!

Ingredients & Directions:

1 small bag frozen baby peas
1 bag frozen cut green beans
2 bags frozen baby lima beans
*Cook, DRAIN, salt and pepper

8 oz whipping cream
8 oz mayonnaise
3/4 c grated parmesan cheese
*Whip the cream and then fold in mayo and cheese.

Mix the beans and the creamy mixture together and place in an 8x8 dish.
Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake

Years ago I tried a sample of a pumpkin cheesecake at Costco and fell in love :-). This year I decided to try making my own and was surprised at how easy it was! The other good news is that this is a much more manageable size so I wasn't tempted to keep eating it for days and days and days! I once again went to allrecipes.com for this holiday hit. It got rave reviews from everyone at dinner!!!

Ingredients:
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 pinch ground cloves
1 pinch ground nutmeg
1/2 cup frozen whipped topping, thawed

Directions:
1.Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2.In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Blend in eggs one at a time. Remove 1 cup of batter and spread into bottom of crust; set aside.
3.Add pumpkin, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg to the remaining batter and stir gently until well blended. Carefully spread over the batter in the crust.
4.Bake in preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until center is almost set. Allow to cool, then refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight. Cover with whipped topping before serving.

Perfect Pumpkin Pie

This year for our big Thanksgiving feast I was in charge of bringing the pumpkin pie and the mashed potatoes. I ended up making a traditional pumpkin pie and also a pumpkin cheesecake, which I'll post the recipe for soon. I love pumpkin pie! It's so yummy warm with vanilla ice cream and as far as pies are concerned one of the healthier options out there. The other reason I love pumpkin pie? It's sooo easy to make! I found this particular recipe on allrecipes.com and it was perfect!

Ingredients:
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin
1 (14 ounce) can Sweetened Condensed Milk (I used FF)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust (this is a good one!)

Directions:
1.Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Whisk pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, spices and salt in medium bowl until smooth. Pour into crust. Bake 15 minutes.
2.Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F and continue baking 35 to 40 minutes or until knife inserted 1 inch from crust comes out clean. Cool. Garnish as desired. Store leftovers covered in refrigerator.

Halloween Chex Mix

This was definitely a big hit...even amongst the candy corn haters (like myself :-). Easy and festive and yummy! I'm sure we'll be making another batch before Halloween arrives.

Ingredients:
8 oz. white chocolate baking bars, coarsely chopped
4 cups Corn or Rice Chex cereal (we used corn)
2 cups bite-size pretzel twists (we used gluten-free pretzel sticks)
1/2 cup raisins (optional, we left out because they didn't seem to go in the mix)
1 cup candy corn
1/4 cup Betty Crocker orange and black candy decors (I KNEW I had these in the house, but couldn't find them so we used some Halloween sprinkles instead)

Directions:
*In large microwavable bowl, microwave chopped baking vars uncovered on high 1-2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds until melted and smooth. (I melted out chocolate in a pan on the stovetop)
*Gently stir in cereal, pretzels and raisins until evenly coated. Stir in candy corn and decors.
*Spread on waxed paper or foil to cool and let chocolate set. Break into chunks.

Bunny Buns

My oldest saw this recipe a few weeks ago in the Friend magazine and has been begging to make them ever since. We finally squeezed it in this past weekend just in time for Easter. The dough itself isn't actually sweet, so I actually preferred them without the glaze as a dinner roll. The kids, of course, LOVED them frosted though! It was a fun little activity that we'll be sure to repeat next Easter!

Ingredients:
1 package active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1 cup milk, warmed not quite to boiling
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons grated orange peel
5 1/2 cups flour, sifted
Glaze: 2 cups powdered sugar, 1/4 cup hot water, 1 teaspoon butter

Directions:
1. Wash hands with soap and water.
2. Sprinkle yeast in the warm water and set aside.
3. In another bowl, blend milk, sugar, shortening, and salt. Cool until lukewarm, then add eggs, water with yeast, orange juice, and orange peel.
4. Stir in flour a few cups at a time to make a soft dough. Let stand for 10 minutes.
5. Knead dough 5–10 minutes on a lightly floured surface until dough is smooth and elastic. Place it in a lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease surface. Cover bowl with a clean towel and put it in a warm place. Let dough rise for 2 hours, or until double in size. Punch dough down and let stand for 10 minutes.
6. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into a rectangle 1/2 inch thick. Cut dough into strips 1/2 inch wide and 14 inches long. Roll between hands into rounded snake shapes. Cut one strip into pieces 1/2 inch long, and roll into balls.
7. Place one long piece of dough on a greased cookie sheet. Place one end of the strip over the other to make a loop; bring the end that is underneath up and cross it over the other end. Place a ball of dough on top of the bottom loop.
8. Cover bunnies and let rise in a warm place for 45–60 minutes, until nearly double in size. Bake at 375ºF for 12–15 minutes.
9. For the glaze, stir powdered sugar, water, and butter together. Frost bunnies with the glaze while they are still warm.

Coconut Nest Cupcakes for Easter

I saw these adorable little guys on The Recipe Club and knew I had to try them! They were soooo good! I doubled the recipe and ate way too many, but we shared lots of them too :-). They weren't even hard to make, especially since I used store bought frosting (I have bad luck with frosting), but they look super impressive. The kids LOVED helping with them and then eating them when we were finished.

Ingredients:
8 oz cream cheese, softened (when I doubled I used 1 regular and 1 lowfat)
1/4 cup oil
2 eggs
1 cup water
1 boxed white cake mix
1 tsp vanilla

1 can cream of coconut (I found a Goya can of these in the international aisle of our grocery store)
prepared whipped cream (I used a tub of Duncan Hines fluffy cream cheese frosting)
2 cups toasted coconut
1 bag candy eggs

Directions:
In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, cream together cream cheese, oil & eggs until smooth. beat in water, cake mix & vanilla. spoon into lined cupcake pans, filling about 2/3 full.
bake at 350 degrees for 18-22 minutes.

Pour cream of coconut into a small bowl. stir until all combined.
while cupcakes are still hot, poke a few holes into the top of the cupcake with the back of a wooden spoon. spoon cream of coconut over each cupcake one tablespoon at a time, you might have to use your spoon to guide into the hole.
let cool completely before decorating. when cooled, spread whipped cream onto the cupcake. sprinkle with toasted coconut & top with candy eggs.

my crazy helpers :-)

(Valentine) Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

I saw these in All You magazine and they were too cute to resist! In the magazine they were circles, but we used a small heart cookie cutter to make them even more festive. My dough was pretty crumbly, but they turned out still thank goodness and got rave reviews from everyone who tried them!

Ingredients
* COOKIES:
* 3/4 cup sugar
* 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 3/4 teaspoon salt
* 15 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into cubes
* FILLING:
* 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
* Pinch of salt
* 2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
* Red food coloring

Directiones:
1. Make cookies: Arrange racks on bottom and top thirds of oven; preheat to 350ºF. Line two baking sheets with parchment. In a bowl, using an electric mixer on low speed, combine sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Gradually add butter; slowly increase mixer speed to medium. Mixture will look crumbly at first, but continue mixing for about 8 minutes and it will come together in large clumps.(mine never came together in large clumps so I dumped it on the counter and smooshed it all together...it worked)
2. Transfer dough to a well-floured work surface and knead briefly, then press into a small rectangle. Cut dough in half. Working with one piece at a time, roll dough to 1/4-inch thickness. Using a 1 1/2-inch round cutter, cut circles. Gather up scraps, reroll and cut as many cookies as possible. Transfer them to baking sheets.
3. Bake cookies for 6 minutes, then rotate pans (top to bottom and front to back) and bake 6 minutes longer. Remove baking sheets from oven and place on wire racks for a few minutes to cool before transferring cookies to racks to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.
4. Make filling: In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on high speed, beat butter until light and fluffy. Reduce the speed to low and gradually add salt and confectioners' sugar.(I added a little bit of milk to help it cream together) Add food coloring, drop by drop, until filling takes on desired pink hue. Transfer filling to a pastry bag. Pipe filling onto half the cookies, then sandwich them together with remaining cookies.

Rainbow Cupcakes

I wanted to do something festive for Saint Patrick's Day and I knew the girls would have a blast helping me make these cupcakes (not to mention they thought the rainbow inside was beautiful). They took a little time to prepare, but they were just as easy as making plain cupcakes and the results are impressive :-). I found this idea (and many others to choose from) in the latest Family Fun magazine.
Ingredients:
* White cake mix
* Food coloring (red, blue, green, and yellow)
* Baking cups
* Whipped cream or icing
Directions:
1. Prepare your favorite white cake mix, then divide the batter evenly among six small bowls. Following the chart below, dye each bowl of batter a rainbow color.

RAINBOW COLOR DROPS OF FOOD COLORING
Purple: 9 red and 6 blue drops
Blue: 12 drops
Green: 12 drops
Yellow: 12 drops
Orange: 12 yellow and 4 red drops
Red: 18 drops

2. Line 16 muffin pan wells with baking cups. (I only had enough batter for 12, but mine were a little too full) Evenly distribute the purple batter among the cups, then the blue, and so on, following the order shown. As you go, gently spread each layer of batter with the back of a spoon to cover the color underneath.
3. Bake the cupcakes according to your recipe directions. Before serving, remove the paper wrapping, and if you like, top each cupcake with a whipped-cream cloud.

Peppermint Bark

I was in the mood for a festive treat and now that I'm trying to be better about not cheating on my gluten-free diet, I needed an alternative to cookies. I came across a bag of white chocolate chips and thought, "Peppermint Bark!" It was easy and turned out very pretty and tasty (if I do say so myself). I think it will be my new holiday trademark treat :-).

Ingredients:
1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 bag white chocolate chips
6-8 candy canes (I think I used about 7)

Directions:
-Enlist the help of some eager hammering hands to smash the candy canes. I unwrapped mine, placed them in a thick Ziploc bag and let the kiddos hammer away.
-Spread a sheet of wax paper on a cookie sheet (I didn't have any and used aluminum foil which I sprayed lightly with my canola oil spray)
-Melt the semi-sweet chocolate in a double broiler (or if you do it the ghetto fabulous way like me, boil some water in a big pot and put the chips in a smaller pot inside the boiling water). Once melted smooth, spread into a thin layer on the cookie sheet (I put about 1/2 t oil in help make the chocolate more smooth). Place in freezer until it is cooled and hard.
-Melt the white chocolate chips the same way. When it is smooth pour in most of the crushed candy canes, saving some for the top. Spread this layer on top of the chocolate layer quickly, before the dark chocolate starts to melt again.
-Sprinkle the top with the remaining candy canes and push lightly into the soft white chocolate.
-Freeze again. Once cooled, break into pieces of the desired size and enjoy!

Mummy Dogs

I see these every Halloween and we finally made our own this year.
I found these cooking instructions from Pillsbury.

Ingredients:
1 can refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
2 1/2 slices American cheese, quartered (I didn't put these in)
10 large hot dogs
Cooking spray
Mustard or ketchup, if desired (or peppercorns - my mom used them for eyes when she made them last year)

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 375°F.
2. Unroll dough; separate at perforations, creating 4 rectangles. Press perforations to seal.
3. With knife or kitchen scissors, cut each rectangle lengthwise into 10 pieces, making a total of 40 pieces of dough. Slice cheese slices into quarters (1/2 slice cheese, cut in half).
4. Wrap 4 pieces of dough around each hot dog and 1/4 slice of cheese to look like "bandages," stretching dough slightly to completely cover hot dog. About 1/2 inch from one end of each hot dog, separate "bandages" so hot dog shows through for "face." On ungreased large cookie sheet, place wrapped hot dogs (cheese side down); spray dough lightly with cooking spray.
5. Bake 13 to 17 minutes or until dough is light golden brown and hot dogs are hot. With mustard, draw features on "face."

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

This yummy recipe comes from Joy The Baker, which I heard about through Sarah. I doubled the recipe, using 1 c mini-chocolate chips and 1 c regular ones. They are DELISH! We shared these and the pumpkin bars with our librarians and they both got rave reviews :-)!

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves (I didn't have this and they still were great!)
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola or corn oil
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips, or any chip you like

Directions:
Position a rack in the middle of the oven . Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and butter the paper.

Stir the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices together in a medium bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the eggs and sugar until smooth and lightened in color, about 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing. On low speed, mix the oil, pumpkin, and vanilla until blended. Mix in the flour mixture to incorporate it. Mix in the chips.

Using an ice cream scoop with a 1/4-cup capacity, scoop mounds of the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing the cookies at least 2 1/2-inches apart. You could also simply use a 1/4-cup measuring cup if you don’t have a scoop. Use a thin metal spatula to smooth and flatten the rounds.

Bake the cookies one sheet at a time until the tops feel firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry, about 16 minutes. Cool them on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then use a wide metal spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool cimpletely.

Dust the cooled cookies lightly with powdered sugar. (I ran out of powdered sugar making the frosting for the bars, but I want to try them again with the sugar on top!)

Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

I saw this yummy Paula Dean recipe on The Sisters' Cafe and decided to give it a try for my church recipe swap this week (which had a "pumpkin recipe" theme - check out the other recipes here). I have always loved the combination of pumpkin and cheesecake and these bars were delicious...and you know they were easy to make if I didn't mess them up :-)!
(I followed Mindy's suggestion to split the batter between 2 9x13 pans and thought they turned out perfectly)

Bars:
4 eggs
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil (I used canola)
15-ounce can pumpkin
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
Icing:
8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix at low speed until thoroughly combined and the batter is smooth. Spread the batter into a greased 13 by 10-inch baking pan (I used 9x13). Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting. Cut into bars.

To make the icing:
Combine the cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the sugar and mix at low speed until combined. Stir in the vanilla and mix again. Spread on cooled pumpkin bars.

Patriotic Poke Cake

I was looking for a festive dessert for the 4th of July weekend and found this recipe on Kraftfoods website. It doubled as Mike's birthday cake and was SO good! The Jello makes the cake super moist and you could use any colors you wanted to. We made the cheesecake frosting (which was SOOOO delicious), so that is what I'm including, but you can also just use plain cool whip.

Ingredients:
2 baked round white cake layers (9 inch), cooled (1 box white cake mix is what I used)
2 cups boiling water, divided
1 pkg. (4-serving size) JELL-O Strawberry Flavor, or any other red flavor
1 pkg. (4-serving size) JELL-O Berry Blue Flavor

Directions:
PLACE cake layers, top-sides up, in two clean 9-inch round cake pans. Pierce cakes with large fork at 1/2-inch intervals.
STIR 1 cup of the boiling water into each flavor dry gelatin mix in separate small bowls 2 min. until completely dissolved. Carefully pour red gelatin over 1 cake layer and blue gelatin over remaining cake layer. Refrigerate 3 hours.
DIP one cake pan in warm water 10 sec.; unmold onto serving plate. Spread with about 1 cup of the whipped topping. Unmold second cake layer; carefully place on first cake layer. Frost top and side of cake with remaining whipped topping. Refrigerate 1 hour or until ready to serve. Cut into 16 slices to serve. Store leftover cake in refrigerator.

Variation - Patriotic Poke Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Beat 2 pkg. (8 oz. each) softened PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese
and 2 cups powdered sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed or wire whisk until well blended.
Gently stir in whipped topping (1 8 oz. tub cool whip) until well blended.
Spread onto cake layer on plate as directed; top with second cake layer.
Continue as directed.

4th of July Menu

We are blessing Preston at church this coming Sunday and we'll be hosting the 4th of July BBQ as a result. I have had fun coming up with menus for that day and for a brunch after church the following day.

Here is our plan:

4th of July BBQ
Hot Dogs
Lemon and Garlic Grilled Chicken
Potato Chips w/Ranch Dip
Black Bean Salsa w/Tortilla Chips
Craisin and Sugared Pecan Salad
Classic Potato Salad
JELL-O cups for the kiddos (w/red & blue jello & cool whip)
Butterfinger Cheesecake Bites
Patriotic Poke Cake

Blessing Brunch:
Brunch Puff
Southwestern Quiche
Basic Breakfast Potatoes
Sausage
Fruit Salad
Breakfast Pastries (store bought)

Sugar Cookies with Buttercream Icing

We never got around to making our sugar cookies at Christmas time so we made them for Valentine's Day instead. As much as I despise the mess and amount of work involved, Ella thinks it is THE best thing ever...so I'm sure we'll do it again :-). They are delicious though!

Cookies
Ingredients:
-1 c. shortening
-2 c. sugar
-4 eggs, beaten
-1 t. vanilla
-4 1/2 c. all-purpose flour (I add quite a bit when rolling the dough out)
-1/2 t. salt
-4 t. baking powder
-2 T. milk

Directions:
-Cream shortening, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Combine in a separate bowl flour, salt, and baking powder.
-Add flour mixture to creamed mixture. May need to add 2 T. milk to bled dough together.
-Put additional flour on counter before rolling dough. Lightly wet the roller and sprinkle flour on roller to avoid dough sticking to it. (in my experience the dough is quite sticky, so like I mentioned I do end up adding handfuls of flour here and there to work with it)
-Roll dough about 1/4 inch thick on counter. Cut shapes with cookie cutters. Place the cut shapes carefully with spatula onto cookie sheet.
-Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 350 degrees 10 minutes. (makes about 6 dozen)
Icing
Ingredients:
-1/2 c. shortening
-1/2 c. butter
-1 1/2 t. vanilla
-5 c. powdered sugar
-3 T. milk

Directions:
-Cream shortening and butter with mixer. Add vanilla. Add powdered sugar one cup at a time to mixture.
-Icing will be dry, may need to add up to 3 T. milk (1 T. at a time) beating at med speed. Cover icing until ready to decorate.