Favorite Sugar Cookies

Dominic has been asking me lately to make "cookies with a few sprinkles."  I've been thinking of making sugar cookies for a while now, so I dug way back in my archives for my favorite sugar cookie recipe.  I know that I've been making these cookies since at least 1976, because I know that I sprinkled red, white and blue sprinkled sugar on these for the Bicentennial.  I can also remember that I wore a pair of overalls a lot that year that were very patriotic (I think they had liberty bells all over them), but I'll spare you all the picture of that!! You don't need fancy cookie cutters to make these - just use the bottom of a drinking glass :)  I had some leftover vanilla frosting from some brownie cake that I made last week, so I used some of the frosting on the cookies. Feel free to skip the frosting if desired.  I think Dominic was very happy that "cookies with a few sprinkles" finally made it onto the "menu" this week!!

Ingredients:

1 cup white sugar
1 cup margarine (softened)
1 large egg
3 cups white flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In large bowl mix sugar, margarine and egg with electric mixer or by hand with large spoon. When well combined, add the remaining ingredients and mix together well.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2-3 hours or overnight.  Remove from fridge and with the palms of your hands roll into medium-sized balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet.  In separate bowl, put two tablespoons of white sugar.  Dip the bottom of a small glass in the sugar, then press down on cookie. If you want, you can add sprinkles also at this point.  Bake for 15 minutes or until slightly brown.  Let cool 3-5 minutes on cookie sheet, remove to wire rack to continue cooling.  Makes 3 1/2 to 4 dozen cookies.

Zucchini and Potato Soup

In the "reduced for quick sale" area in the grocery store last week,  I bought a big package of zucchini very cheap.  After looking at it on my counter for a few days, I decided I better hurry up and figure out what to do with it pretty quick.  I came up with a couple of ideas.  Muffins? Soup? Roasted? Steamed?  I decided on soup :)

We eat soup year round in our house.  The more I experiment with soups, I've come to realize you can make soup out of just about any combination of vegetables and meats and it will taste good.  I love that I control what goes in the soup (amount of salt, etc.).  You can make this soup with or without the smoked sausage.  I made it with, but if you want to go totally vegetarian, skip the sausage.  If you like a spicier soup, you can use a spicy sausage and/or add hot sauce to taste. 

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons margarine
1 cup onion, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
2 cups zucchini, peeled and chopped
2 cups potatoes, peeled and chopped
14.5 ounce can fired roasted diced tomatoes (undrained)
6 smoked sausages, chopped
10 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

In large stockpot, melt the two tablespoons of margarine.  Add the onion and celery and saute slowly until they start to become tender.  Add the remaining ingredients and simmer on low-medium heat, covered for about 30 minutes or until the vegetables become soft, stirring occasionally.  Serves 4-6.

Chocolate/Peanut Butter/Oat Candy

The weather where I live can't seem to make up it's mind. It switches back and forth between cool and hot.  This week it's been pretty toasty during the day.  When it's warm inside the house as well as the outside, I would rather not turn on the oven to bake. So, when the urge to make something sweet hit today, I made this candy.  I have never used a candy thermometer (too confusing with all the different markings - soft ball, hard ball, etc.).  You can make this candy without one of those, because the only "cooking" you do is a quick two minutes on the stove.  To make it a little more fancy (and portable), I used a cupcake tin with the liners.

 Ingredients:

1/2 cup margarine
2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
3/4 cup peanut butter
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups old fashioned oats

In saucepan put margarine, sugar, milk and cocoa.  Bring to a boil slowly, stirring constantly.  Once it comes to a rolling boil, stir occasionally for two minutes.  Remove from heat and carefully pour mixture into large bowl.  Add peanut butter and vanilla extract and stir until creamy.  Last, add the oats, one cup at time.  Stir until well combined and pour evenly into cupcake tins.  If you prefer not to use the cupcake tins, you can drop by tablespoonfuls or teaspoonfuls on a cookie sheet covered with waxed paper.   Put in refrigerator at least one hour until the candy gets hard.  These have to be stored in the fridge and will stay good up to two weeks :)

Homemade Double Chocolate Brownies

One of my favorite desserts to make for my family is boxed brownies.  I like to wait until they go on sale, use coupons and stockpile them in my pantry :) Today seemed like a good day to bake something chocolate (isn't everyday a good day for that)? These are "double" chocolate because I used cocoa and semi-sweet chocolate morsels.  Making these brownies from "scratch" take just a few extra minutes to prepare than boxed brownies (I promise)!!!
 

 
Ingredients:

1/2 cup margarine, softened
1 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup unsweetened powdered cocoa
3/4 cup white flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly spray a            9 x 9 inch square pan with cooking spray.  Put all ingredients in the order above into a large bowl and mix well by hand until all ingredients are well combined.  Pour into prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let cool on rack about 1/2 hour.

If desired, you can use powdered sugar for decoration on the top of  the brownies.  Here's a dual duty tip - since the holes on a salt shaker are small, it seemed like the perfect size to use to sprinkle powdered sugar. Somehow,  I ended up with two extra salt shakers and no pepper shaker in my cupboard (not sure how that one happened). I filled one of the extra shakers up with about a third of the powdered sugar and then sprinkled the top of the brownies. You can certainly leave the brownies plain if you want and/or add a small scoop of vanilla ice cream :)