This is a cookie recipe made for kids!  The results are always surprising and very very pretty.  Use the cookies as decorations or simply eat them… either way, these cookies are great!

1 cup butter (melted)
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup water
3 cups sifted flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Bright colored hard candies
Cookie cutters

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix the butter, sugar, and honey in a large bowl. Then add the water and mix until smooth.
Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a separate large bowl.  Add butter mixture to flour mixture and knead the dough a little with your hands.

Wrap up dough in plastic food wrap and place in freezer for approximately 20 to 30 minutes.

While the dough is chilling unwrap a selection of round hard candies and set aside.

Once the dough is cold roll it on a lightly floured surface and cut out shapes using cookie cutters.  Using the tip of a knife cut out a shape in the center of the cookie to approximately fit the hard candy.  If your cookie is meant to be an ornament make a hole at the top using a straw.

Bake at 350F for approximately 6 to 8 minutes or until lightly golden, remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes.  Place the hard candy in the center of cookie and bake for another minute or so (just until the candy slightly starts to bubble).  Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before removing from pan.

This is a hearty beef stew that takes a bit of effort to prepare, but it’s worth it!  There are a lot of good, fresh ingredients that make this stew perfect for a special, long winter night.

3/4 teaspoon coarse salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon black pepper, divided
1 pound boneless flank steak, cut into small chunks
1/4 cup all purpose flour
3 teaspoon canola oil, divided
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped yellow onion
8 ounces sliced white mushrooms
3 cups beef broth
4 teaspoons tomato paste
3-4 large thyme sprigs
1 large bay leaf
1 pound red or baby white potatoes, scrubbed and cut in quarters
8 ounces baby carrots, coarse chopped
4 teaspoon finely chopped parsley

In a heavy zip lock bag place the flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper.  Close and shake to incorporate all ingredients together.   Add meat to bag and shake to completely coat the meat.

Add 2 teaspoons of oil to a large Dutch oven.  Heat over medium high heat until oil is hot.   Add meat and brown about 3 minutes, stirring around until all the chunks are browned.   Remove meat to a plate.

Add onions and mushrooms to oil.  Cook until onion is soft about 5 minutes.   Add broth, tomato paste, salt and pepper.   Mix until all ingredients are combined.

On medium-high heat bring mixture to a boil.   When it BEGINS to boil add bay leaf and thyme.   Let mixture come up to a rapid boil. Add potatoes, carrots and meat to boiling liquid.  REDUCE heat to low and simmer, covered with lid tipped just a bit, approximate 15 minutes.   Remove bay leaf and thyme before serving.

My good friend Susanne Myers, “The Hillbilly Housewife”, comes up with the best things!  She just published a fun e-book “The ABC’s of Christmas” and after a bit of coaxing, I convinced her to let me share it with you!  You see, she runs a really fun club, called the Hillbilly Housewife Club, (that I am a member of) and in the club the past few weeks, we’ve been talking a lot about homemade and frugal gift ideas.  To really get our creative juices flowing, one of the members started a post in the forum called the ABCs of Christmas Gift Giving.  This e-book is a compilation of the best ideas from those forum posts.  So for every letter of the alphabet there are several gift ideas.  These are really fun and creative – a lot of things I hadn’t thought about!  For example B:  Baking Lessons and I:  Ice Candles  (I had never heard of those!)

Before I tell you how to grab your copy of the e-book, I also wanted to let you know that Susanne has decided to extend her Thanksgiving special offer, to you, for a Hillbilly Housewife Club Membership.  This is such a great deal!  (I honestly can’t believe she is offering memberships this cheap, but SHHHH don’t tell her I said that – I don’t want her to change her mind.)  It is normally $15 per month to be a member of the club (see
here:  http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/christine )  But until Wednesday – Dec. 9th, she is offering a year membership for $50 or a 6 month membership for $30!  That is like paying for a little over 3 months to get a YEAR worth of access, or paying for 2 months and getting 4 months free!  That is a total no-brainer to me!  At any rate, obviously she can’t extend this offer much longer (it took work to convince her to leave it up for you guys until Wednesday) so hurry over and grab your membership while you still can!  http://www.dinewithoutwhine.com/hbhwsale

And no, I didn’t forget.  Here is your ABC’s of Christmas Ebook http://www.dinewithoutwhine.com/abcgifts-christine.pdf Enjoy it, I know I did!

C-

Using pears in this blueberry pie recipe really helps sweeten up the blueberries very nicely.  Serve this pie slightly warm with a dollop of vanilla ice cream for a very special treat.

3  cups sliced frozen or fresh pears
2/3  cups sugar
3  tablespoons flour
1  teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2  teaspoon ground nutmeg
3  cups frozen or fresh blueberries
1  teaspoon lemon juice
2  piecrusts, 9-inch
1  tablespoon butter, chilled, cut up

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Place pears, sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large mixing bowl.  Stir until all ingredients are combined.  Carefully fold in blueberries and lemon juice.

Using a 9-inch pie plate, place one crust in the bottom being sure it fits snuggly to the bottom and sides of the pie plate.  Place the pie filling into the crust.  Dot the top of the pie filling with the cut-up pieces of butter.  Place the second piecrust on top.  Crimp the edges and cut off any extra.   Make 4 small slits in the top crust to vent the steam.
Bake 1 hour at 375 degrees or just until the crust is a golden brown.

Tip:  Cover the crimped edges of the pie crust with strips of aluminum foil when they get the desired shade of golden brown so they don’t burn.

If you’ve never cooked with a jar of sun dried tomatoes, you are in for a treat.  The tomato taste just about jumps right out of the jar!  This dish is easy and pretty enough for company – and tasty enough, too.

1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes in oil
2 cups breadcrumbs
whole garlic cloves
2 large eggs
4 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless
1-1/2 tablespoons canola oil
1 jar Marinara Sauce, brand you like
2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded (or Italian Blend shredded cheese)

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Combine tomatoes, breadcrumbs, and garlic in a food processor. Pulse food processor to chop tomatoes coarsely, then add salt and pepper to taste.  Put into large bowl.

Beat the eggs in a large mixing bowl.

Season chicken and with salt and pepper.

Dip chicken into the egg mixture then breadcrumb mixture and set on a rack.

Using an oven-friendly skillet, heat oil to medium heat. Place the coated chicken in the skillet and cook 10 minutes and turn over half way through cooking. Place skillet in the oven and cook for 10 minutes.

Add sauce to chicken and bake for an additional 10 minutes or until chicken is cooked thoroughly. Add cheese on top and cook for 5 more minutes or until melted.

This was always the first dinner my mother made when the weather started to turn cold after a long, hot summer.  Now that we have a crock pot, I make the same roast, potatoes and gravy at my house without having to think about it even once after the crock pot is covered.

2 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon  oil
1 large onion, cut into wedges
3 pound boneless top round or rump roast
3 carrots, peeled and coarse cut
3 medium Yukon Gold or red potatoes, scrubbed and cut in half
2 bay leaves
2 envelops onion soup mix
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon cold water

Heat oil and butter in a large skillet and place the beef and onion wedges in the hot oil.  Brown the beef on one side, flip and brown the other side.
Put the carrots, potatoes, and bay leaves in the crock pot.  Once meat is browned nicely, place meat and onions on top of the veggies in the crock pot.  In a separate bowl, dissolve onion soup mix in 3 cups of boiling water and add the salt.  Pour over top of the meat and vegetables.

Cook on HIGH about 3 to 3 1/2 hours or until meat is fork tender.  If you choose to cook on LOW, then let cook for 6 to 7  hours or until meat is fork tender.

To make gravy:  Place cornstarch and water in a medium saucepan.  Whisk or stir with a fork until mixture becomes a paste, add 2 cups of liquid from crock pot, then put saucepan on a burner turned on to medium high.  Bring the mixture up to a boil, turn down immediately and let simmer until liquid thickens into desired consistency.  Flavor with freshly ground black pepper if desired.

These little snowball cookies get their name by rolling them through powdered sugar just after baking.  Because they’re loaded with pecans, they have a bit more appeal than a plain sugar cookie dipped in powdered sugar.  They’re so adorable all piled up on a plate looking just like a snowball fight waiting to happen.  Enjoy!

1 cup butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour, sifted
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl by mixing with a beater, then add vanilla and continue beating until totally blended.  Sift flour and salt together and add to the sugar/butter mixture.  Gently fold in the chopped pecans.  Shape mixture into golf ball sized balls.  Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for approximately 15 minutes at 350 degrees F or until slightly golden.

While cookies are baking place a little extra powdered sugar in a bowl.  Once the cookies are done baking roll through the sugar and set aside to cool.

This is one of the simplest beef stew recipes for the crock pot that I’ve ever used.  You can add just about anything else you want, but when you’re in a hurry to get your crock pot cooking, this is a real winner.  I’ve left the onions out also so this stew is very kid-friendly.

1 1/2 pounds cubed beef stew meat
4 medium red potatoes (scrubbed & diced)
3 medium carrots (peeled & diced)
1 cup frozen or canned corn kernels
2 cups beef broth
1 (14oz) can diced tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste

Place potatoes, carrots, and corn in crock pot. Sprinkle meat with a little salt and pepper and add to crock pot. Add beef broth and canned tomatoes. Cover and cook on LOW for 7 to 8 hours or until everything is nice and tender.