Christmas Treats

So one of my favorite traditions is to make treats at Christmas time to deliver to friends and neighbors. This year I decided to make a couple of the old staples that I know I like, but also to try something new. I made a batch of English Toffee and I also made some Cinnamon Popcorn. These are probably two of my favorite treats and since I always taste test the treats before I give them away, why not make something I like. I also decided to try some Lime Meltaway cookies. They were delicious, but I'm a sucker for anything citrus.

Dan and I also made gingerbread house for our FHE (Family Home Evening) activity one night. It was fun to create them. Dan even a miniature replica of his truck.

And of course a special Christmas treat for you from Hailey.

General Conference Treat

So typically for general conference I make cinnamon rolls, but this year I decided to make something a little easier. I found a recipe for cinnamon pull apart bread on pinterest (the recipe is actually from foodsnots.com) and decided that it would be a good replacement for this year. It was really easy to make and super delicious.

Cinnamon and Sugar Pull-Apart Bread

Dough

     2 3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour

     1/4 cup sugar

     2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast (1 packet)

     1/2 tsp. salt

     4 Tbsp. butter

     1/3 cup whole milk

     1/4 cup water

     2 eggs (at room temperature)

     1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Filling

     1 cup sugar

     2 tsp. cinnamon

     1/4 tsp. nutmeg

     4 Tbsp. butter, melted

In a large mixing bowl, mix 2 cups of flour, sugar, yeast and salt. Set aside.

In a small sauce pan, melt the butter and milk. Once the butter is completely melted take off the burner and add the water and vanilla. Let the mixture cool for 5 minutes.

Pour the milk mixture into the large bowl with the dry ingredients and mix well. Whisk together the eggs and add to the batter. Keep mixing. Add 3/4 cup of flour and mix well. The mixture will be very sticky which means it's perfect. Place the dough in a medium greased bowl. Cover with wrap and let it sit in a warm place to rise for about 30-45 minutes. Once the dough has doubled its size, knead in 2 tablespoons of flour. Cover the dough again for 5-10 minutes.

Meanwhile, start on the filling. In a medium bowl, mix together the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a small bowl. Set aside.

Once the dough is ready, roll it out on a floured surface. Brush the melted butter on the dough and add the sugar mixture. Make sure everything is covered. Using a shape knife or pizza cutter, cut the dough into equal sized strips (about 2 to 2 1/2 inches wide). Then cut the strips into equal sized squares. Stack the squares on top of each other and place them in a bread pan. Cover the dough for another 10-15 minutes to rise.

While dough is rising, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Place a cookie sheet under bread pan and bake for 30-35 minutes until outside of bread is golden brown.

Shining Star Cookies

This is a recipe that my sister made last year at Christmas time and decided to make again this year. They are really fun cookies and relatively simple. This recipe is thanks to the Friend magazine.
Ingredients:

• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1 cup colored hard candies

Directions:

1. Mix butter and sugar together until they are smooth.
2. Add egg and vanilla to the butter mixture.
3. Add flour and stir until combined.
4. Take the batter out of the bowl and wrap it in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least an hour.
   
5. On a flour surface roll out dough to 1/3-inch thick.
6. Cut out the cookies with star-shaped cookie cutter, and then cut out the middle of the cookie cutter with a smaller star-shaped cookie cutter.
7. Cover a cookie sheet with foil.
8. Bake the cookie at 350 degrees for 4 minutes.
9. Meanwhile unwrap the candies and put them in a plastic bag. Break the candy into small pieces.
10. Carefully put the candy pieces inside each star cookie, filing the tips of the stars.
11. Put the cookies back int eh oven for 5-7 minutes, or until the candy is melted and the dough is light brown.
12. Let cookies cool and ENJOY!
    

Cinnamon Rolls

So it was a little tradition that I started I think when I was in college, but I always make cinnamon rolls over conference weekend. So since it's conference weekend I decided to make cinnamon rolls. This is my favorite recipe, because it's super easy and really good.

3 1/2 cups warm water
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup oil
5 Tbsp yeast

Combine above ingredients in a large bowl and let it rest for 15 minutes. This will allow the yeast to activate and rise. 10 1/2 cups flour
1 Tbsp salt
3 eggs
1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
4 Tbsp cinnamon

Mix 5 cups of flour into the yeast mixture. Add salt, eggs and remaining flour. Pour onto floured board and knead until smooth. Let dough rest for 15 minutes.
Divide dough in half and roll each half out to approximately 12" x 30". Melt butter and spread evenly over each rolled dough (1/4 cup on each). Sprinkle each rolled dough with 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 2 Tbsp cinnamon. Roll up and slice into 20 rolls (I usually use dental floss to slice the rolls that way they don't get squished). Place on a large cookie sheet. Let the rolls rise for 20 minutes. Bake for about 10 minutes at 400 degrees.

Now for the best part... the icing.

8 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups powdered sugar
1 Tbsp milk

Combined above ingredients. Frost rolls when warm and enjoy!

Santa Fe Enchilada Bake

So I will periodically pull recipes out of a magazine but it always takes a while to get around to making them. I decided to pull this one a couple weeks ago and decided that it was time to make it. It turned out pretty tasty so I decided to share the recipe with all of you. Enjoy!

What you need!

• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
• 1 large onion chopped
• 1 large green pepper chopped
• 2 cups salsa
• 10 oz frozen corn, thawed drained
• 12 corn tortillas
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 cups cheese grated

Make it!

• Heat oven to 400 degrees.
• Cook and stir chicken, onions, and peppers in large skillet sprayed with cooking spray on medium heat for 10 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Stir in salsa and corn.
• Arrange 6 tortillas on bottom of 13x9 inch baking dish, cover with layers of half each chicken mixture, sour cream and cheese. Repeat layers, cover with foil.
• Bake 40 minutes or until heated through removing foil after 30 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes.

Enjoy!

Crock Pot White Chicken Chili

So I love any recipe that can be cooked in a crock pot because it's super easy. I tried this one on Sunday and it was great, so I figured I would pass it on.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 lbs boneless skinless chicken
• 2 cans great northern beans or navy beans
• 1 can hominy or white corn
• 1 envelope taco seasoning
• 1 can of chopped green chilies
• 1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
• 1 can chicken broth
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• monterey jack cheese

Directions

• Place chicken in a crock pot.
• Top with beans and corn.
• In a medium bowl, combine taco seasoning, chilies, condensed soup, and chicken broth. Pour over top of ingredients in the crock pot.
• Cook for 6 to 8 hours on low.
• Before serving, stir gently to break up chicken, then stir in the sour cream.
• Serve topped with jack cheese and chips.

It was really tasty, so if you are looking for something new to try I would recommend it.

Christmas Treats

Yes... this post is a little late too :)

It's always a tradition at home in California. We spend the days before Christmas making all kinds of treats and delivering them to friends and neighbors. Since I knew I wasn't going to be home in California the couple of days before Christmas I decided to make treats here and make some deliveries. I decided to make the following treats. (I don't have pictures of them all, but they were all delicious.)

Holiday Pretzel Treats

Chocolate Cookie Bark
Mexican Wedding Cookies
English Tofee

I combined all the treats to make some little treat plates. I took them over to my neighbors, delivered some to my friends and took a couple into work. I was very happy with how they turned out.

Thai Cooking Class

After Cambodia a group of us headed down to Phuket, Thailand. Phuket is very different from Cambodia. Phuket is an island province located in the south part of Thailand. The island is basically covered with resorts. It was a wonderful end to our vacation. We got to relax in paradise. The first day that we were in Thailand we had a Thai cooking class that we had scheduled. The class was really cool, we learned how to cook a few different Thai dishes. The location of the school was amazing. It was located right on the beach in a cove.The first thing that we did was make curry from scratch. It consisted of grinding up seeds and peppers and other ingredients with a mortar and pestle. It was cool to see all the ingredients eventually end up as a curry paste. So with each recipe that we cooked, the teacher would show us how to make it, than we would get the opportunity to cook for ourselves. We made lots of tasty dishes. Coconut with chicken soup, spring rolls, a seafood salad, paneang curry, sweet and sour vegetables and pumpkin in coconut milk. One of the best parts of the cooking class was that we got to eat what we cooked. It was a fun little place to take a cooking class and I learned a few things. We'll just have to see if I can find some of the ingredients here in the states so that I can make the recipes again.

Key Lime Cheesecake Bars

Just in case you thought that last one was the last of my baking ones... you are wrong. Like I said I've been doing a lot of it. This recipe is actually one that I wanted to make for a while. We are having dinners tomorrow for our Ward, so I decided it would be a good place to try this one out.

Key Lime Cheesecake Bars

6 squares graham crackers, finely crushed
2 Tbsp margarine, melted
1 tsp sugar
1 small pkg lime flavored gelatin
3/4 cup boiling water
1 16-oz container cottage cheese
1 8-oz pkg cream cheese
1 8-oz container whipped topping

Combine graham crackers, margarine and sugar. Press crumb mixture into the bottom of a 2-quart square baking dish. Refrigerate while preparing filling.

Combine gelatin and water. Stir until gelatin is dissolved. Set aside.

in blender or food processor combine cottage cheese and cream cheese. Cover and blend or process until smooth, stopping several times to scrape down sides. Whisk 1/2 cup of the cottage cheese mixture into the gelatin mixture. Whisk in remaining cottage cheese mixture until smooth. Fold in whipped dessert topping. Spoon filling over chilled crumb mixture.

Cover and refrigerate 8 to 24 hours or until filling is firm. To serve, cut in squares.

I have tried this one yet, but I'm pretty sure it's going to be good. Enjoy!

Turtle Pumpkin Pie

So I must be in a baking mood, because I've done a ton of it lately. This week Michelle and I decided to try to find a recipe for the rest of the pumpkin that we had in our fridge. We found this recipe and I was really excited about it... plus it is delicious.

Turtle Pumpkin Pie

1/4 cup caramel topping
1 graham cracker crust
1/2 cup pecan pieces, divided
1 cup cold milk
2 pkgs vanilla pudding
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tub (8 oz) whipped topping

Pour caramel topping into crust; sprinkle with pecans.

Beat milk, pudding mixes, pumpkin and spices with whisk until blended. Stir in whipping topping. Spread into crust.

Refrigerate at least 1 hour. Top with whipping topping, caramel and pecans before serving.

It wasn't all the way set when we tried it, but it was definitely tasty. Enjoy!

Orange Creamsicle Cake

At work we do the crossword puzzles together at lunch time. It's usually a nice break from working. Usually I will glance through the rest of the entertainment section just to see what there is. I usually glance at the comics... we have Drabble which is cool (the guy who draws the Drabble comic is in my family's ward). Every so often there are some good recipes that I take when we are done with the paper. This time I was told that I couldn't take the recipe that I wanted unless I promised to bring it into work. So the following recipe is the one that I wanted... and brought into work today. It was good... you should try it.

Orange Creamsicle Cake

3 cups flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 small orange yogurt
3/4 cup milk
3 egg whites
2 tsp grated orange zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 2 6-inch cake pans.

In a medium bowl sift together flour and baking powder; Set aside.

With mixer, cream together butter and sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy; add vanilla and yogurt, beating well. Add flour mixture and milk alternately to butter mixture, starting and ending with flour and beating well.

In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form, but not too dry. Fold into batter gently along with orange zest. Divide batter into the two pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until toothpick in the center comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 cup butter
2 tsp shortening
8-oz cream cheese
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup orange juice

In a large mixing bowl, add butter, shortening, cream cheese, powdered sugar and orange juice. Mix until well blended. Adjust consistency with powdered sugar or juice.

Sorry I didn't take any pictures to show you, but it is a good spring treat. ENJOY!