Mom's Gingerbread Cookies

 Every year mom would make a bunch of sugar cookies and gingerbread men. Well rather, she made the dough and we cut it out and decorated it. I think she had the good end of the deal--make the dough and eat the cookies! Dad liked to help decorate the cookies, especially the gingerbread men, as I remember it. This recipe comes fromfrom the Scovil Bakery in Nauvoo, Illinois.

1 cup sugar

1 cup molasses

3/4 cup oil or lard

1/2 cup hot water

2 eggs

1 teaspoon soda

1 heaping teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups whole wheat flour

4 cups white flour

1. Combine, sugar, molasses, and oil. Add hot water, measuring it in same cup as molasses so that you get all molasses out of cup.

2. Add eggs, then beat.

3. Sift together remaining ingredients then stir into wet ingredients.

4. Divide dough in two onto plastic wrap. Form into discs and wrap. Refrigerate dough for 1 hour (some say 3 hours minimum), then roll out onto floured surface to 1/4" and cut with cookie cutters.

5. Place on lightly greased cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes at 350° F (180° C).

Notes:

Many other recipes use more spices. A few of them look more like this: 1 T ground ginger, 1 T cinnamon, 1/2 t allspice, 1/2 t cloves

5 minute Microwave fudge

3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 can sweetened condensed milk
4 T butter
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt

Put first 3 ingredients in microwave safe bowl. Microwave on high for one minute then stir. Be patient and let the heat of the bowl help the melting. If needed, put back in for 30 seconds and stir. Repeat as necessary. Stir in salt and vanilla. Spread in greased foil lined square pan. Refrigerate 2 hours. Remove foil and cut. Yum!

Caramel Brownies

I found this yummy recipe over on StacyJulian.com. We are already done with our Christmas baking for the year, but that doesn't mean we can't try these for New Years! :)

Caramel Brownies

1 German chocolate cake mix
1 bag of small wrapped caramels
2/3 cup evaporated milk
3/4 cup margarine1 cup walnuts (choppped)
6 oz. chocolate chips

Melt the caramels and 1/3 cup evaporated milk together in medium saucepan and set aside. Mix together the cake mix, margarine, 1/3 cup evaporated milk and walnuts. Spread one half of the cake mixture in a 9×13 pan and bake at 350 degrees for 6 minutes. Sprinkle chocolate chips and drizzle melted caramel over partially baked mixture, drop remaining cake mixture on top. Bake 15 minutes more and cool completely.

Banana Bread

I keep finding new and better banana bread recipes. This one is especially moist and perfect. I found it in the Worldwide Ward Cookbooks...Mom's best recipes.  It is called Anna's Banana Nut Bread, but I usually leave the nuts out of bread recipes. In the recipe, it says, "My friend calls this 'gourmet' banana bread because it is so moist and flavorful."


1 c. sugar
1/2 c. butter
2 eggs
3 bananas, mashed
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda dissolved in 1 Tbsp. warm water
2 c. flour
3/4 c. walnuts, chopped

Cream margarine or butter and sugar toether. Add eggs and mix well. Stir in mashed bananas, mixing well. Add salt. Stir in baking soda and warm water mixture, stirring well. Mix in flour and stir in nuts. Put batter into two small well-greased loaf pans. Bake at 325 for 45-50 minutes or until loaves test done with a toothpick. Cool on wire rack. When cool, wrap in aluminum foil. Makes 2 small loaves.

Sheffer Green Jello

Kyle doesn't ask for a lot on holidays. I mostly get to do my holiday foods the way I like them. This is the one recipe he requests for special occasions. Green jello salad. Thanks, Beth, for the recipe. :)

1 large package of lime jello
1 package of cream cheese
pineapple if you like it!

Make the jello and let it set up. Put half the jello in the blender and add some cream cheese. I don't usually use all the cream cheese, just add as much as you want. depending on what you like. Then blend the second half. Mix the two together with a spoon. Put it back in the fridge to set up again. 

Mock Apple Crisp...a.k.a. Zucchini Crisp

If you have ever grown zucchini, you know that overnight your perfectly sized zucchini can morph into a monster-sized squash.  When they are that big, the seeds are huge and you can't resort to the normal methods of cooking. This recipe is a great way to use these gargantuan zucchini from your garden, and it is one of Kyle's specialities.  


Zucchini Filling
4-5 c. zucchini
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/4 t. allspice
1 1/2 t. cream of tartar
2 T. flour or cornstarch
pinch of salt


Crumb topping (I already increased the topping amounts to make it extra yummy)
3/4 c. flour
3/4 c. brown sugar
1 1/2 c. oatmeal
1/2 c. melted butter


Preheat oven to 375 F.  Peel, de-seed, and slice zucchini to look like an apple. Boil 2 minutes. Drain and cool. Mix the dry ingredients for the filling and stir into the zucchini. Pour filling into the casserole dish (9x13). Combine ingredients for the crumb topping--mix until crumbly and sprinkle over the filling. Bake for 30 min. at 375 F. Top with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. Serve warm.

Zucchini Bread

3 c. flour (sifted)

1 T. cinnamon

1 t. salt

1 t. baking soda

1/4 t. baking powder

Mix together in separate bowl.

3 eggs, beaten

1 c. sugar

1 c. brown sugar

1 c. oil

1 T. vanilla

Mix in large bowl.

Stir in sifted ingredients.

2 c. zucchini, grated

1/2 c. nuts

Blend in.  (Can mix w/electric mixer.)

Pour into 2 greased and lightly floured 4 1/2 x 8 1/2 loaf tins.

Bake at 325 60-70 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.

Turn out on cooling rack.

For what it's worth, someone tried this with chocolate chips and her grandkids told her not to do it again.