Moms soft raisin cookies

This is one of the recipes that I've been hoarding without trying for at least a decade...

Originally from Taste of Home cookies...

2 cups raisins

1 cup water

1 cup shortening 

1 3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla

3 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Combine raisins and water in a small saucepan, bring to a boil. Cook for 3 min. Remove from heat and let cool - do not drain.

In a large bowl, cream shortening until light and fluffy . Gradually add sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Combine dry ingredients; gradually add to creamed mixture and blend thoroughly. Stir in nuts and raisins.

Drop by teaspoonful 2 inches apart on greased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes or until set. Cool on wire racks.

And now... The review. This recipe should have a caution on it - SO SO ADDICTIVE!!!!! These are delicious. I brought them to work and no one could eat just one. A very risky recipe to make if watching your diet but the best recipe ever if trying to please a crowd.

Snack Time - Jose's Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

A snowy day has to mean baking, right? Today was the perfect day to bake. So I wandered over to see what I had in the pantry to put into some cookies. Slim pickings (especially once I through out some of the items I came across, ewwwwe) but I found mini M&M's, peanut butter and oatmeal. Then I needed a recipe so I turned to epicurious.com and found 2. I didn't have the nuts required for the first so I tried option two.

It took a couple of tries to get the baking right, not a recipe fault but operator error.  I was trying to short cut and do two sheets at once, they were too soft. So I turned up the oven a bit and then they were too hard. When I did one sheet at the correct temperature for the exact time they were perfect. Go figure. LOL

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Joses-Oatmeal-Peanut-Butter-Chocolate-Chip-Cookies-11797

These were great. 

I will make them again. 

Banana Choc Chip Cookies

When Tamara post THIS recipe, I knew that I had to try it.  I'm a sucker for a good cookie and her declaration that they were delicious was too tempting not to bake this.

I even packaged some up and fed them to the work vultures.  The kids both really liked these.  Husband of Cheerios liked them too but we both felt that they were less like a cookie and more like a loaf in cookie form.  :)  

While I would not say that they are the best cookies in the world (choc chip) or even the second best cookies in the world (oatmeal raisin)...they were pretty tasty.  A great way to use up bananas turning brown on your counter top!

Delicious Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies!!

Ok so as I sit here licking my lips waiting for my cookies to bake I realized it's been a while since I posted here so I'll let you in on a most delicious recipe.

2/3 cup butter (152 g)
1 cup sugar (201 g)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cup flour (288 g)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup mashed bananas
1/2 pkg chocolate chips

Directions

cream butter until it's nice and smooth, add sugar, eggs and vanilla and mix well.  In a small bowl mix dry ingredients, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt then add to wet ingredients and mix well.  Then add mashed bananas and chocolate chips.  Drop by spoonful onto baking sheet, I covered my baking sheets in parchment paper but that's not usually a necessity but it sure helps with the dishes!

Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes (my oven was 12 minutes exactly) or until golden brown. Makes about 3 dozen or so.

Last time I made these, they never even made it off the cooling racks before they were gone, definitely a hit!!

Oh yeah I know you wanna get in there and eat that cookie dough, come on you KNOW you want to...but I would never do that...no no, someone told me that was bad for me so I never did it again...nope nope never again....ya ok so I lied, cookie dough is one of the best parts of life!!  I've eaten cookie dough since I was a kid and never once did I get sick except of course when I ate too much!! heehee!!

BEEP!! There goes the oven timer, just in time... cookies are DONE YAY!!!!  Who wants one???

An introduction........and SCRUNCHIES!!

Hello everyone! My name is Tess and I am honored to have been made an honorary cousin by Melanie and am excited to blog here with you all!! I have been reading your blog from the start and have tried several of your recipes out...not to mention drooled over everything else that has been posted!

I have known Melanie for about 5 years now, and she is one of my favorite peeps on the planet! I don't get to see her nearly as much as I would like, but I sure do love our crafty time together when we do connect.........AND I love eating popcorn with her on our movie dates too :)

Today I have decided to share with you a recipe that is simple, easy and deeeeeeeeeelish!! In our house, they are known as SCRUNCHIES. Perhaps you will know them by another name, but they are a wonderfully sweet, salty & crunchy treat that I only ever remember to make during the holidays!

I will have you know that it is 6:49AM and I just whipped a batch of these bad boys up.....just to testify to their simplicity :)

Start by combining equal amounts of chocolate chips and butterscotch chips into a microwave safe dish of some sort, and heat until melted. Or, if you prefer, melt them over low heat in a pot on your stove as I do!

In this case, I have used one package of each type of "chips" which is a perfect sized batch for our small family of three.

Once you have your chips melted, mix in your peanuts and crunchy chow mein noodles and stir until well blended.....and coated in the gooey melted mess!

In this case, I have used aprox. 1 1/2 cups of peanuts.......and 2 1/2 cups of noodles. Some of the peanuts may or may not have been eaten during this process. Er.....I mean, they may have fallen on the floor. Yes. That's it...

Once you are satisfied that your nuts & noodles are covered tastefully, the fun part starts! I always use 2 tablespoons so that I can shape the mounds as I slide them onto the pan. But whatever method you prefer to use, to get the gooey sticky bowl full of crunch into bite sized mounds of heaven on your cookie sheet, will be just fine.

I set mine into the fridge to set, for about 20 minutes before placing them into freezer safe containers where I will hope that I can hide them from my two men until Christmas.

In this case, however, a few samples fell right off the pan and onto a plate for a great photo opp of completed mounds.......and some enjoyable sampling. Later. When it is NOT 7:00AM. This batch made about 30 cookies, which is too many for us really, but I will include some of them into the tins of treats I am making for a select few special people this year.

Hope you will give these cookies a chance, and let me know what you think of them if you do!!

Signing off for now..... Tess :)