Monday, April 25, 2011

Oreo Sugar Cookies



 The Mixing Bowl is one of my favorite sites to visit.  It sort of takes me back to the first days of the Internet where you joined groups and chatted (via email)  amongst your friends through them.  My favorite groups to join were the ones that shared recipes.
     A recent recipe intrigued me... could it be that two of my favorite cookies (Oreos and sugar cookies) would make an awesome creation?  Here's the original post.
Oreo Sugar Cookies
Adapted by Vivian
Ingredients:
• 1 ½ cup butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 5 tsp vanilla
• 2 tsp almond extract (I would omit next time)
• 3 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup crushed Oreo cookies (I would increase amount by half a cup)

       Directions:
 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, vanilla and almond extract. Mix until fully incorporated.
n a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt and baking powder.  Whisk together until combined. .
Slowly pour in to butter and sugar mixture. Mix until fully combined.
Fold in crushed Oreo’s

Scoop by the tablespoonful onto a lined baking/cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes.  Remove from cookie sheet and let cool.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Christ has Risen... He has Risen indeed!



Happy Easter Everyone!  I spent Saturday with my beautiful grand-sweetie yesterday.  At eighteen months she is just the ideal age to have her first egg hunt.  Thought I would share a few of my favorite pictures

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Monthly Challenge for April: Sandwiches - Fajitas!!!!!




April's Monthly challenge was sandwiches.  I love bread (my thighs will prove it to you!) so I was very excited about this challenge. I love mixing up stuff for sandwiches to make a quick meal.  I had some round steak that had been in my freezer for a bit too long and I knew it would be tough. One way to rescue tough meats is to put them in a marinade to help break up some of those connective tissues.  I Had some chicken breasts as well so added them into the mixture as well.  Hubby is a veggie-phobe (I'm working on him but he is still very picky) so I cooked up the peppers and onions on the side with just a bit of the marinade I had made.  Was a very yummy meal!  I served it up with some Spanish quinea (using the recipe from a previous challenge but kicking it up a notch).

For the Marinade I used:
Juice of two limes
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 crushed garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
about 2 teaspoons soy sauce
I have a jar of sliced jalapeƱo peppers in my fridge so I added a tablespoon of those into the marinade and about 1/4 cup of the liquid as well. 
Two tablespoons water
4 green onions

I sliced up the meat (thin), put it into a ziplock bag and added the marinade ingredients into it.  I gave the bag a good squishing then placed the bag into a bowl (in case it leaked) and let it set for about three hours.  When it came time to cook it I just heated up my cast iron skillet and got it really hot.  I took the meat out of the marinade (other wise the meat would have steam cooked with all the marinade liquid) and cooked the meat through.  Really quite yummy!