Mint Chocolate Cookies

Mint Chocolate Cookies

My hubby loves Andes mints and I was so excited when I saw Crafty c0rn3r's Mint Chocolate Cookies  on Pinterest. I rarely make cookies and I am not very good at making them but I gave it a try and they were a hit! There is room for me to improve of course…One thing I did wrong was that I mixed in the mint chips too soon instead of folding them in at last. So please be careful. Also, the cookies fell flat and turned out thinner than I would have liked so I will skip flattening the dough balls before baking next time. She used regular Andes mints and had her kids unwrap them and then chopped them. I was lucky and I got a bag of baking Andes mint chips at walmart.  Other than that, I followed crafty c0rn3r’s easy recipe! DELICIOUSLY MINTY!

Ingredients:

2 3/4 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup unsalted butter (at room temperature)

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp mint extract

20 drops green food coloring

1 bag (10 oz) Andes baking mint chips

Directions

Preheat oven 375 degrees.

Sift the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt) together and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and mint extract.

Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Add green food coloring and mix until even colored.

Lastly, fold in the Andes mint chips.

Use a cookie scoop or roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls using a spoon or your hands, and place onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake for 8-10 minutes. Let stand on cookie sheet for 2 minutes before moving them to wire racks to cool.

Jewelry Hanger

How cool is this jewelry hanger?? I got the idea from Pinterest and asked my hubby to make me one. I got the little ceramic knob pulls from World Market and Pier 1. They range from $3.00 - 98 cents! ( what a bargain, right? ) Hubby found the perfect piece of wood from his parents' yard and Viola! We got THE coolest jewelry organizer. Hope you make one and share your picture with me.

Cranberry Apple Crisp

Prep Time: 30 Minutes                           Cook Time: 1 Hour
Ready In: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
Servings: 12 Ingredients:

Filling

6 apples - peeled, cored and chopped
1 (12 ounce) package fresh cranberries,roughly chopped
11/2 cups white sugar
1/3 cup quick-cooking tapioca

Topping

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup unsalted butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large bowl, combine apples, cranberries, and sugar.
Cover, and set aside for about 20 minutes.
Mix in tapioca, and set aside for 15 to 20 minutes, until tapioca has absorbed fruit juice.
Spread mixture into a 9 by 13 inch pan.
In a medium bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, and butter.
Work mixture with fingertips until crumbly. (Tip: easier if the butter is frozen hard enough to grate with a grater).
Spread mixture over the apple-cranberry filling.
Bake 45 to 60 minutes on the bottom rack of the preheated oven, or until apples are tender when tested with a wooden pick.

Wild Orange Marmalade Recipe

My in laws gave me many tiny oranges from their orange tree. I couldnt figure out what kind of oranges they were. They were a little bit smaller and more round in shape than Kumquarts. They have very thin skin and no white part between the fruit and the skin. They have big seeds inside and are tart so I decided that they were wild oranges!

I peeled and juiced all the tiny oranges I had. I got about 2 cups of peel and about 2 cups of juice. I will do my best to share "the recipe" with you but this is one of those things I made without a recipe and with what I have on hand. So take the basic methods of jam making and apply.

Here is how I made the marmalade:

About 2 Cups wild orange Peel, finely diced or in strips
1 1/2 Cup wild orange juice from the fruit
1 1/2 Cup sugar
1 package Sure Jell fruit pectin

Put everything in a sauce pan and bring to a boil till all the sugar melted. Lower the heat to low and let simmer for 30 min. Put in mason jars and enjoy!

Lemon Curd

My in laws have a Myer lemon tree and they gave me some beautiful lemons. I was trying to figure out what to do with them and eventually decided to make lemon curd using Ina Garten's delicious lemon curd recipe I found on food network's site. This recipe uses all the zest and the lemon juice so I felt like I am fully using the pretty lemons. Also, I can enjoy the lemon curd in the fridge for a while.

There are many ways to enjoy this delicious spread and many recipes are available on the internet world.

Here are a few of my favorite ways to enjoy lemon curd..
               Over fluffy ricotta pancakes
               Filling inside raspberry or coconut cupcakes
               Spread on a cheesecake
                Make mini lemon tarts
and many more.....

The recipe is as follows:

Prep Time: 20 min   Cook Time:10 min   Level: Easy
Serves: 3 cups

Ingredients

3 lemons
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 pound unsalted butter, room temperature
4 extra-large eggs
1/2 cup lemon juice (3 to 4 lemons)
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions

Using a carrot peeler, remove the zest of 3 lemons, being careful to avoid the white pith. Put the zest in a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Add the sugar and pulse until the zest is very finely minced into the sugar.
Cream the butter and beat in the sugar and lemon mixture. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, and then add the lemon juice and salt. Mix until combined.
Pour the mixture into a 2 quart saucepan and cook over low heat until thickened (about 10 minutes), stirring constantly. The lemon curd will thicken at about 170 degrees F, or just below simmer. Remove from the heat and cool or refrigerate.


I canned mine in mason jars and stored them in the fridge.