Saturday, December 20, 2014

#Sweet Goodness


SewCal Gal is at it again!  She's so sweet, and she's asking us to share our sweet goodness, too.  Go HERE for more info!  And if you happen to recognize my post from last time on her blog, she featured me!! Little ol' me!  I'm so honored!

Well, it just so happens that I had a sweet day!  My son, who I don't get to see often enough, had today off.  He works 2 jobs, and although he lives about 30 minutes away, his jobs are in the opposite direction, so I cherish the time we do get to spend together.  And Hazel totally adores having time with her boy.  She barely lets him sit without leaving balls and frisbees in his lap.  At one point today, he was leaning against the couch with his right leg crossed in front of the left, and Hazel dropped the ball in that little "shelf" where his jeans bunched enough to hold it.  It was pretty funny.  He won't be able to attend the family Christmas in NY this year, so this was our Christmas.

His favorite #SweetGoodness thing that I bake is Nestle's Toll House Pie.  It's a chocolate and pecan pie in a cookie like base, all in a pie shell.  It takes about 15 minutes to prep, and the house smells so good while it bakes.  Here's the recipe.  I often use the Pillsbury pie crusts, and always have the ingredients for this on hand.  It's great for pot-lucks and dinners with friends, too.  Just make sure there's either vanilla ice cream (or chocolate chip) or whipped cream, available.  I told him to take 1/2 the pie home today.  He loves it cold, too.
 Nestle's photo is actually better than mine.  I need to work on food styling photos!

I also wanted to try baking Snickerdoodles.  Bernie gave me the recipe a few years ago, and I've never made them.  But since Matt isn't as crazy about chocolate as I am, I figured I would bake these today, too.  When he was young, we baked together.  I miss that time, and now, he usually would rather play video games, but I dragged him into this.  And I totally loved doing it with my grown son, just like when he was young.  That was Sweet Goodness for me.  More memories, and him eating the dough instead of making cookies.
 I asked him to mix the cinnamon and sugar, It was about 2 Tbsp of each, and we put it in a bowl.  I beat 1 cup butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar until creamy.  Then I added 2 eggs, and beat that.  Mix in 2 tsp Cream of Tartar, 1 tsp baking soda, and 2 3/4 cups sifted flour and 1/2 tsp salt.  I grabbed my 2 large cookie sheets and the parchment paper, and handed him the cookie scoop from Pampered Chef.  He liked using the tool to drop the rounds of dough in the cinnamon sugar, and I rolled them around and placed them on the cookie sheets.  They do spread out, so leave room!  Bake at 400* for 8 to 10 minutes.  I do plan to make these again.  They were perfectly crunchy at the edge and wonderfully tender and buttery in the middle.

And, one more Sweet Goodness is my Christmas cookies!  I use the basic Spritz recipe from the cookie press package.  I double the recipe, and press 1/2 of it with the round disk.  I add green food coloring to the rest, and press out the trees.  I add sprinkles or colored sugar to those, and dip the round ones in melted chocolate chips (place in a bowl, and microwave for about 2 minutes.  Make sure the bowl is completely dry, or you get gritty chocolate) and then dip in sprinkles or other decorating things.

This is another thing I bring to holiday parties and share with friends.  I found it really funny, that after re- connecting with a friend from 6th grade, on Facebook, the one thing she really remembered about me back then was my Christmas Tree cookies!  She said they were the best. I thought she would remember my guitar playing and singing.  She's already asked for a plate again this year.  I guess I'll have to bake some more of these.  

What's your #Sweetgoodness?

Thanks for visiting!  

Maryellen

1 comment:

SewCalGal said...

Yumm. All your cookies look absolutely yummy. I had never heard about the chocolate chip cookie pie. I'll definitely give it a try as my DH's favorite cookie is toll house chocolate chips.

All great #sweetgoodness. Thanks for sharing in our weekly #creativegoodness party.

SewCalGal
www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com