St Patrick's Day Cookies!

I'm not Irish. I'm Mexican and German, quite a combination. However, I really like St. Patrick's Day and I like playing it up. When I was younger it was more about the green beer, and now with kids it's more about the leprechaun traps, but it's all fun. This year Laylah has had an especially busy Irish season. She's made leprechaun traps at school where they have their own leprechaun, Jamie, who makes all sorts of mischief but never gets caught. She had a St. Patrick's Day party at school and was invited to another at a friend's house. We've gone on leprechaun hunting walks, and read books about how to catch one. We're making our own traps to place in every room of the house, just in case, so that no matter where that sneaky leprechaun goes he'll be sure to be caught somewhere. She painted shamrocks for the windows, walls and doors. We're having shamrock shaped french toast for breakfast with green eggs baked inside shamrock shaped green pepper slices. We're going to watch "Darby O'Gill and the Little People" for the first time. I highly recommend this old Disney movie; a pre-Bond Shaun Connery ain't too bad on the eyes either. All is in readiness. Today we added the last touch for our numerous traps. Leprechaun Bait. Minty green little morsels of shortbread just perfect to lure a leprechaun into our clutches. I came up with the idea from a recipe I found on Pinterest, but I added my own spin. They are quite tasty too, if someone larger than a leprechaun had to, say, go around to all the traps in the middle of the night taking said bait and eating it herself while leaving a leprechaun sized mess behind. I don't know if they taste good with green beer, but the Pear Vodka and Midori martinis we're making tomorrow night might be the perfect bonus. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Leprechaun Bait

1 cup butter
2 cups flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp mint extract
two drops green food coloring
1/3 cup green sugar

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. Mix butter and sugar (both green and white) until creamy then add the mint extract and green food coloring. Add flour a little at a time until all incorporated. The dough is a little dry so you'll have to kneed it a little to get it into a nice smooth dough. Lay the green dough on a parchment lined cookies sheet and roll out into a rectangle-ish shape approximately 3/4 inch thick.

Take a knife or pizza cutter and cut into little squares about 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch, small enough for a leprechaun to handle easily.

Put the whole thing in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. It will get slightly golden around the edges. After they are done take the same knife and go back over the lines of the squares to separate the individual cookies. Let cool a few more minutes then place strategically in leprechaun traps, possibly in little sealed baggies so the ants won't be tempted but the leprechauns can still get to them. I'm hoping they work. I want to re-do the master bath and a nice big pot of gold would do nicely.

Sick Day Cookies

When you have small children, especially if any of them spend any amount of time outside of the house, at playgrounds, school, play dates, the store, the mall, daycare, etc., it is inevitable that they will bring home some kind of virus that will get everyone sick, no matter how many times you wash their hands or slather them in anti-bacterial stuff. They put things in their mouths, they lick things, they hug and kiss each other, they wipe things. There really is no avoiding it. In our house this year we spent the time between Halloween and New Years taking turns being sick with some form of cold, ear infection, or flu. I tried everything to make it stop. In January it seemed to calm down a little and we've only been slightly sick once since then. Knocking on wood as I type. During this last episode (because I was desperate not to have another three months of stuffy noses, coughs, and sore throats) I decided I would make a treat that put everything in it that could help prevent a cold, and also treat one if it's already invaded your home. All the stuff my daughter refuses to take when she's sick. Echinacea, flax seeds, honey, wheat germ, blueberries, prunes, ginger, elderberry syrup. If I could have figured out a way to squeeze garlic and lemon juice in there I would have. Hence, Sick Day cookies were invented. And, I'm proud to report that they not only taste great, but this last cold lasted only two days, the adults did not catch it, and we have not been sick again since. Again, knocking on wood. Connor loved them too. These, along with chicken soup will be my new go-to remedy when we have sick people. Now if only I could figure out how to get someone to make them for me when I'm sick, too.

Sick Day Cookies

1 cup butter
2 cups flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
one packet Celestial Seasonings (or other brand) Echinacea tea
1/4 cup ground flax reads
1/4 cup wheat germ
2 tblsp Elderberry syrup
Choice of blubbery preserves, prune "amazins", dried cranberries, or honey for garnish

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix butter and sugar until creamy. Tear open tea packet and add dry leaves to the mix. Add Elderberry syrup. Add flour in increments. When it's all mixed in start adding the flax and wheat germ. This will form a nice solid smooth dough.

Place walnut sized balls about two inches apart on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Here's the fun part. Depending on your preference you can just flatten them with a criss cross fork pattern (like peanut butter cookies) and leave them plain, Laylah's preference. Or you can make them into thumb print cookies and add a dollop of blueberry preserves. Or you can make thumbprints and fill them with prune pieces, dried cranberries or cherries, whatever strikes you or it handy.


Bake for about ten minutes or until slightly golden around the edges. Let cool, they will be soft when they first come out but harden after cooling. I like to put raw honey on them and eat them that way. Addicting!!! Plus honey is so uber good for colds it's ridiculous. They were a big hit at our house and I'd like to think they helped us get over our colds faster. More experimenting is probably in order, but I hope I won't have to make them again too soon!

The perfect cookie for Valentine's Day

Hi everyone. I haven't written in what seems a very very long time, since before Christmas. This is because Christmas was very busy, January was filled with getting everyone healthy and putting in ear tubes, and now February has come along way too fast and I need to write something quickly before it's over. Valentine's Day is one of my favorite times to make treats. Along with Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Fourth of July, my children's birthdays, or just wednesday. But on Valentine's Day you can make them pink. Pink makes me happy. Pink is Laylah's favorite color. This year instead of pink frosting on something (kind of overdone in my opinion) I decided to actually make a pink cookie, and....wait for it....NOT USE RED FOOD COLORING!!!! Dear God, is that possible??? Yes, yes it is. And they are very pink, and very yummy. I did kind of steal the idea but I added my own twist, as usual. So here they are White Chocolate Maraschino Cherry Valentine's Day Cookies!

Pink Wonderfulness Cookies filled with LOVE

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup for the dough and 1/4 for the coating
1 cup butter
3/4 cup finely chopped maraschino cherries, drained and saved
2 tblsp maraschino cherry juice
1 cup white chocolate chips for the dough, 1 cup melted for the coating
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 teaspoons shortening
Sprinkles

With batter attachment on your mixer, if you have one, if not a normal whisk is probably fine, add the flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and butter. Mix until crumbly, like you're making pie crust. Add the maraschino cherries. The dough will be crumbly so add the cherry juice and almond extract to help it come together to make a smooth dough. Add the white chocolate chips and mix till evenly distributed.

Make cherry size balls of dough and place about two inches apart on a parchment lined baking sheet. Get a glass with a nice smooth bottom and wet it a little then stick the glass in the reserved 1/4 cup sugar and press the cookies with the sugared glass till they are flattened rounds about a 1/4 inch thick. They will be bumpy because of the chocolate chips. Bake at 350 degrees for about twelve minutes, they will get a little golden around the edges.

When the cookies are cooled melt the rest of the white chocolate chips with the shortening in the microwave for one minute at a time until smooth. Dip half a cookie in the white chocolate and put on parchment paper. I added Valentine's Day Sprinkles I found at Michael's on the melted chocolate so that it would stick, but you can leave them off or just use red sugar. Let the chocolate harden, this takes about five minutes. Then try not to eat them all at once. Since these cookies are so small this recipe made about sixty of them. We gave them to Laylah's teachers in their goodie bags as well as a few friends and family. This one is a keeper! Happy Valentine's Day! Enjoy!

Salt Dough Ornaments

I first learned to make these when I was a little girl in Germany while my father was stationed there. I don't remember exactly who taught us to make them, or when, but I've been making them since about the age of five and have made probably a thousand. My mom actually has a cute story about how once when she has a migraine I told her, don't worry, I'll entertain myself and do salt dough. Apparently there was some in the fridge. I got it out and made what turned out to be my mom's favorite work of art in the house, little brown and white salt dough people, all crooked and wonky, but to this day I'm very proud. So, when I tried to think of a home made decoration to make with Laylah this year (we've made something different together every Christmas since she was born) I thought it was time to introduce her to salt dough ornaments. I've made salt dough with her before for other things. It's a super easy play dough type substance that I usually always have all the ingredients for, but we've never made Christmas ornaments out of it. This year our goal came in the form of the Pottery Barn Christmas catalogue. It had several really pretty snowflakes in it. I'm a sucker for snowflake ornaments. The sparkle, the individuality, the romance. So we made our dough, put the catalogue in front of us and got to work copying the $12 a piece ornaments with .50 cents worth of dough. I think ours turned out better than theirs and they will always mean more.

Salt Dough Ornaments

2 parts flour
1 part salt
1 part water


Mix everything together until it forms a smooth dough.

You can add food coloring or natural coloring (in Germany we added instant coffee to the water before adding it, making a nice warm brown), or you can paint the pieces after you bake them. Make into whatever shapes you wish. We've made little people, handprints, we've used cookie cutters, wreaths, hearts, whatever, just make sure to put a hole somewhere to thread a ribbon through to hang them up on the tree or the wall. Another things we always did in Germany was used whole cloves for the eyes and a garlic press to squish out some ropes of hair. This time Laylah and I made snowflakes and other christmassy figurines. Bake in a 250 degree oven for around two hours depending on the thickness of the figure you've made.
For thicker figures you'll want to take them out and turn them over half way through to make sure the underside gets cooked. They are ready when they are hard all the way through and pushing a fingernail into the back doesn't make a mark.

Let them cool then decorate. This time Laylah and I painted our snowflakes silver and added white glitter, they turned out spectacular!

Easy Eggnog Cookies

I came up with these cookies about two years ago and they have been a huge hit ever since. Actually, upon hearing of them, a local coffee shop owner asked my husband to bring some by for him to try! I, of course, immediately saw myself supplying all of his cookie needs, branching off to my own cookie shop next door, raking in the moola. I haven't actually taken any in to him to date, but I hope to by the end of the season.
Anyway, I made up these cookies after reading one of my favorite mystery novelists (who also includes cookie recipes and is about a cookie shop owner) Joanna Fluke. They were a super easy cake mix recipe which left a lot of room for someone to experiment with flavors. The first opportunity I had to make them I decided hmmmm, eggnog! And this chewy, nutmeggy, rummy, concoction that kids love to get their fingers into is what I came up with.

Easy Eggnog Cookies

1 box vanilla cake mix
1 8oz container cool whip (vanilla cool whip is even better)
1 egg
1 tsp rum exract
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 cup powdered sugar for rolling

Mix everything together except the powdered sugar.

Let cool in the refrigerator for at least an hour to harden up the dough a little because it's very sticky. If you are in a hurry you can make them right away but they are very very sticky.

Take tblsp sized scoops of the dough and roll them in the powdered sugar then place 2" apart on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown around the edges. Transfer parchment paper off the hot pan and let cool completely before removing them. You end up with wonderful, crackled, round yummy disks of eggnoggy chewiness. Laylah loves to roll the balls of dough in the powdered sugar. Very easy. Very good.

Baclava Cookies

Disclaimer: these cookies do not look at all like the Greek honey and nut pastry Baclava, however, they taste remarkably similar. I made these cookies by accident a few years ago because I was making my first batch of baclava at home and had some ingredients left over. It happened to be around Christmas time and I was also making my Heidesand cookies (German Sand Cookies) and thought, why not? I'll add what I have left from the baclava to the Heidesand dough. What came out of the oven was a revelation. I honestly didn't think Heidesand cookies could get better than they are, but these? WOW! They also have the wonderful ability to stay tasty after being frozen for a few months. I think I had some of these in the freezer for over six months, making a batch here and there to savor. This year we have my whole family coming for the Holidays so I thought I'd make some ahead of time to put in the freezer and make when we need them. I am sure they will be a big hit. Oh, and if you don't like the name, or think they do not taste at all like baclava because you are some kind of baclava expert, you can call them Spicey Nutty Sandies.

Baclava Cookies (Spicey Nutty Sandies)

1 cup butter
1 1/4 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 cup each of two kinds of ground nuts (I used pecans and walnuts because I had them, but pistachios are also fabulous)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp almond extract

The morning or night before you wish to make these cookies brown the butter and let it cool in the refridgerator to harden again. Browning the butter means to let it melt and burn slightly until it has turned a light brown color. It takes about 15 minutes and you have to watch carefully so that the butter doesn't boil over or burn. After the butter hardens again beat it with the sugar until creamy, add the almond. Add the flour in small increments until a dough forms.

In the meantime put your nuts in a food processor along with the spices and grind them to a find powder. Add the nuts and mix again. Form into even logs and wrap in parchment paper then tin foil.

Refridgerate at least an hour, or freeze up to six months (maybe longer). When ready to bake cut logs into 1/4 inch cookies, bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until slightly brown. Let cool, then gobble.

Mexican Bombshell Cookies

I've been thinking about making a cookie in honor of my mother for a long time, but hadn't quite hit on something that made me think of her until now. November 15th is my parent's 49th wedding anniversary and I'm sending them a package with some goodies, so I thought, what better time to make a cookie all about my Mommy? First off, a little background. My mother was born and raised in Mexico by an expat American father and a second(?) generation expat English mother. She grew up in Mexico city speaking English and Spanish from birth. When she decided to go to college she picked the University of Miami, where she met my dad at a party where she was a little, um, tipsy. They fell in love and have now been married for 49 years, through four children, thirty years in the Air Force, 27 moves, a deployment where my dad was gone for over a year and my mom gave birth to my brother alone, and battling cancer. It's pretty impressive. So that's kind of the Mexican part and the part about why I'm making them now. The bombshell part. My Mom is a stunning example of a blonde, buxom, beautiful sex symbol. She came of age right when Marilyn Monroe (name possibly chosen over Norma because she saw my mom, Marilyn, at some point in her past) was at her most sexy. Talk about a set of measurements! My Mom was and is the ultimate bombshell if ever there was one. Here's something to give you an idea. When my great grandfather talked about why he married my great grandmother he said it was because she had a great set of, well, boobs. I don't know what they called them in those days, but insert appropriate slang. My Mom? She totally inherited that. Like I said, she's a looker. So, Mexican Bombshells, in honor of my beautiful mother on her awe inspiring anniversary. They are a version of Aztec or Mayan chocolate cookies, meaning chocolate with a kick of chili, cinnamon, and nutmeg, plus a dab of cajeta on top (cajeta is Mexican caramel sauce made with goat's milk, found in Latin grocery stores). They are quite the exotic adventure for your taste buds and with chocolate and chili in them, they are totally also an aphrodisiac. What better way to celebrate an Anniversary?

Mexican Bombshell Cookies

1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1/2 cup Aztec Hot Chocolate mix (I got mine from Whole Foods)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tbsp Adobo sauce from a can of Chipotle peppers
1/2 tsp baking powder
Cajeta

Cream the Butter and brown sugar and add the vanilla. Sift together flour, hot chocolate mix, cinnamon, nutmeg and baking powder. Add dry ingredients a little at a time while mixing. Add adobo sauce.



Get equal sheets of parchment paper and tin foil. Make about three even logs of the dough and wrap in parchment paper then tinfoil (see technique in the Maple Bacon cookie recipe) and refrigerate for at least an hour.

These can also be frozen for a few months. When the logs are chilled, cut them into 1/4 inch cookies and bake at 350 degrees for about 12-15 minutes or until set and not shiny. Let cool and then spread with cajeta, about a tsp on each cookie. Enjoy them with someone you love and watch out for the kick at the end!