Waffle Iron Cookies

Have you ever tried this unique idea?

COOKIES BAKED IN A WAFFLE IRON???

I'm not kidding!

I've even won a BLUE RIBBON for this recipe at Just a Pinch Online Recipe Club.

I use to make these when my kids were young, and was tickled when I came across the recipe recently. 

They're as delicious as I remember them!

I took a picture from this angle because I wanted you to see how thick they are!

Quick & easy too.  I love that about any recipe.

And they bake fast - whoever heard of baking cookies for 45 seconds?  *-*

The dough is thick and fudgy, and the cookies are too.

I mix them by hand because it is so thick.

How fun to make 4 at once!

I frost them when they're cooled, but I wanted to be sure you got to see them pre-frosting. (I used store-purchased frosting, but use your favorite).

Fun huh?  Hope you and your kids will all enjoy this great cookie! 

WAFFLE IRON COOKIES

1/2 c. margarine

4 Tb. baking cocoa (I heaped them)

2 eggs

3/4 c. sugar

1 c. flour

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. salt

In medium bowl, melt margarine and cocoa.  Stir in eggs, sugar, flour, vanilla and salt. Drop by teaspoonsful onto hot waffle iron, baking several at a time.

Bake about 45 seconds. (Each waffle iron temp may vary?) Frost when cool.

And if you really want to splurge, top a cookie with ice cream and fudge sauce!  YOWZA!!!!!!!!

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           Ingredient Spotlight - Baking Cocoa

Sunshine Punch (Sugar Free)

This was a new treat we enjoyed for our Easter brunch....

My family loves having punch. And I love to surprise them with what kind....

I found this simple recipe that's been in my files for a long time...I changed it up just a tad to suit us. It was already sugar free, (or depending on the juice you use...very low sugar) which makes it great since we tend to indulge (pig out) on these special holidays.  And we (our family) need to watch our sugar intake.

I've had this recipe in my files for some time, and have no clue where it came from, but it reads..."Simple enough for a children's party, yet sophisticated enough for adult tastes, you'll find lots of ways to serve this fruity punch."

 

SUNSHINE PUNCH

2 cups cold water

2 cups orange juice, chilled

1 cup sweetener, granular (like xylitol or Swerve)

1 .13 oz. envelope Kool-Aid Tropical Punch unsweetened soft drink mix

1 - 1 lt. bottle diet lemon-lime soda or diet ginger ale, chilled

Yield: 8 - 1 cup servings

I didn't want to have red punch, so I just made the sugar free (Crystal Lite or Great Value) orange drink mix, added orange juice, and then the soda just before serving.

We all enjoyed it!

I mixed the prepared drink and orange juice the night before, then put it in the freezer and took it out in the morning to thaw. This way it was slushy and we didn't have to use ice.

I think it was a big hit!

I tripled the recipe and only had 2 qts. leftover.

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Special Egg Salad and all you've ever wanted to know about cooking eggs

I will share the egg info at the bottom of this post, but am so happy to share this EGG-celent recipe for s-p-e-c-i-a-l! egg salad with you!

I thought this would be a terrific recipe to help use up all those Easter eggs!

Once I tried this delightful dish, I haven't ever used another for egg salad.

I'm a HUGE cream cheese fan, so it's no surprise that I went wild over this egg salad - it was definitely love at first bite!

Besides having a nice thick texture, it lasts a long time in the fridge too...if you can keep from eating it up.

(I'm pretty tickled with that picture!  A non-blogging friend who is one terrific cook and photographer suggested it to me...she even loaned me the cookie cutter!) 

How fun is that????

When this salad is freshly made, I have a hard time getting it into the fridge....

I'll put the (first) dirty fork in the sink...reach for another...then another, so it doesn't last long.

Except for this last time I made it.... 

I guess I got busy making other things and hubby forgot about it too.

Honest to goodness!  When I opened it up after a week in the back of the fridge, it was still nice and thick and creamy - not watery at all.

And as tasty as ever -

A lesson learned....

You can find this deliciously wonderful recipe in my cookbook on page 22!

This salad is great on toasted bread, but I really enjoy it with nice crisp crackers as well.

A 'trick' I use when making egg salad - I cut the eggs in half, place them in a bowl, and chop them using my pastry blender.  Works so much faster for me.

I also soften the cream cheese in the microwave just a little so I can whisk the ingredients together and not have to get the beaters involved.

Enjoy every tasty bite!

SPECIAL EGG SALAD

4 ozs. (reduced-fat cream) cheese, softened

1/4 c. (fat free) mayonnaise or salad dressing

1/2 tsp. sugar

1/4 tsp. onion powder

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

1/8 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

6 hard cooked eggs, chopped

wheat bread - lettuce leaves

In a small mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth.  Add the mayonnaise, sugar, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper; fold in the eggs.  Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour before serving. Toast bread and serve sandwiches with lettuce for added crunch.

Yield: 6 servings

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Everything you have ever wanted to know about cooking eggs...any way you can think of...click on link below and check out this amazing info...

How to...eggs

Two Fun Easter Foodie Nests

I had big plans to make some fun things for Easter posts, and life has kept me hopping (sorry - I couldn't resist =) in other directions.

So I will share what I quickly made, and give you a few links for some other great and creative ideas to help celebrate this special holiday.

I looked around for 'Easter nests' recipes and found sooo many options!

You can use rice krispies, coconut, chow mein noodles, shredded wheat, etc.

Chocolate, marshmallow creme, butterscotch, peanut butter bases...etc.

But I used what I had on hand and that was cornflakes with melted butterscotch chips and peanut butter.  Very tasty.

Simple too!

I think the next time I would hand-crush the cornflakes a little bit before stirring them into the candy mixture. 

I put them in muffin cups to form them easier.  The paper is easily removed after they're chilled.

I tried making a well in the center, but they wouldn't cooperate very easily.  Crushing the flakes some might make a difference?

This recipes comes from Cooks.com

They're more of a candy than a cookie...

EASTER COOKIE BIRD NESTS

1 (6 oz.) butterscotch morsels

1/2 c. peanut butter

5 c. corn flakes

Jelly beans

Melt peanut butter and morsels. Stir in corn flakes and blend until coated. Drop on waxed paper and make a center. Chill and fill with jelly beans or whatever candy you want or even peanuts. 

I made this adorable big nest as a centerpiece for our family get together!

It was simple and we all enjoyed bites of it too.


EDIBLE CHOCOLATE ROBIN'S NESTS

1 cup shredded coconut
4 cups Frosted Mini Wheats (Regular or Chocolate)
2 cups milk chocolate chips (or leftover chocolate bunnies)
wax paper
round bowl for shaping
Cadbury Mini Eggs or jelly beans or fruit (for eggs)

Place Frosted Mini Wheats in a large bowl and break up. Add coconut and toss until mixed well. Using a double boiler, (or a heat-safe bowl set over pot of boiling water) melt chocolate. Pour melted chocolate over wheat mixture and mix up until the chocolate evenly coats.

 Using wax paper, line a round bowl that you will use for shaping the nest. Form the nests, either in the muffin tins or on the tray. Make sure to make a little center for your eggs. Place bowls of nests in your refrigerator to harden. When they are hardened, simply pull the wax paper and they should pop right out.

Place your choice of eggs in the center of your nest and use as a table decoration.

(Freezing Directions)
You can make these ahead and simply place them in a gallon freezer bag until you are ready to use. Take out of freezer and serve. (Displaying them frozen can help them last longer as a display item.)

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Our Easter Brunch

Trust all of you enjoyed a lovely Easter weekend and are 'recovering' nicely. *-*

Last week, my good blogging friend, Lark of

Lark's Country Heart  tagged

me in a 'virtual' Easter dinner Round up...

I simply didn't have time to put it all together with pictures, so I figured I would go ahead and share what we really had for our Easter family get together.

We like to do brunch with our kids on Saturdays - it gives both our daughter-in-loves freedom to plan something with their own families, and frees us up on Sundays...as they are normally a busy day in our lives.

Sooo I thought I'd share some pictures/recipes from our meal...I would love to get a glimpse of the dishes you enjoyed with you and yours too.

I found this adorable 'nest' recipe at Once a Month Mom  It was easy to make - using shredded wheat, coconut and melted chocolate.  It was our edible centerpiece and was a real hit.

I looked at many ideas, and am so happy I chose this simple recipe. I would highly recommend it to anyone.  Check out the recipe and ideas at the link above. 

This is Sunshine Punch - I loved the name too!

It was delicious and sugar free too!

I will share this recipe in a post later this week...

We also enjoyed ham and havarti croissants. I've previously shared this in a recipe post on my blog...it was the first time my family had tasted them and I did hear quite a few raves!! 

I also made some using turkey as a few family members aren't wild about ham...both flavors were wonderful. 

Melt-in-Your-Mouth goodness!

We tried french toast made with hawaiian bread.  It was delicious.

The recipe can be found here at Cooking with K

This is her picture there...

We had ham and cottage potatoes (cheesey) that my family expects for all our get togethers. It's a dish I have fond memories of my mom making often.

Instead of adding water to the pan before putting the ham in the oven, I added ginger ale.  I'd read that recently and am not sure what it does, but the ham was terrific. I didn't measure, but mixed a honey/mustard/brown sugar glaze and poured over the top the last 30 minutes.  MMM!

COTTAGE POTATOES

10 lg. potatoes, cooked in skin (I used red)

1 med. onion, chopped

1/2 tsp. salt

1 slice fresh bread, torn into pieces

1/2 lb. Velveeta cheese, cubed

8 Tb. margarine, melted, divided

1/4 c. milk

2 c. crushed corn flakes

Cool potatoes - peel and cut into bite sized chunks.  Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease 2.5 qt. baking dish. Mix together potatoes, onion, salt, bread and cheese.  Mix with 6 TB. melted margarine and place into prepared dish. Pour milk over potatoes. 

Topping:

Mix corn flakes with remaining margarine and spread evenly over top.  Bake uncovered for 35 - 45 minutes or until brown and bubbly.

For a flavor boost - may add small can of chopped pimentos.

(That's how my mama always made this dish, but I have too many picky eaters in this family to try it =)

We also enjoyed some fresh fruit and a cream cheese/marshmallow cream dip.

That fresh pineapple sure was delicious with the ham!

We enjoyed Cookies & Cream Brownies from Mandy's Recipe Box for dessert.

I crushed Nutter Butter cookies on top of brownie batter before baking.  I didn't add the glaze and they were plenty sweet for us.  What a delicious idea!  I don't know why I haven't thought of it before.

Our daughter-in-loves both brought dishes too, so we had more than enough to enjoy.

I will share another post later this week showing the craft idea my granddaughters made.  It was so cute & so fun...not to mention delicious!

Hope you all get caught up on your rest and have a wonderful week ahead.