Baking and cooking Peggy style

We all have our own talents and hobbies.

Mine does NOT include cooking or baking! Well, I do love sweets so I do bake, but this is my idea of baking and I'm okay with that.

First go to the grocery store in the refrigerator section where the butter and yogurt usually are.  This time of year they are almost always on sale so stock up. They look like this....

I have no shame.

The time consuming part is if you want gingerbread men or sugar cookies shaped like something, you have to actually roll the dough out.  That reminds me I forgot to get a rolling pin for this year ~ I used mine to roll clay at work a few years back and never replaced it.

Enough about baking.

For cooking all you need is this... 

  
 and a crock pot. Actually, I like to use the "Golden Cream of Mushroom soup", but didn't have a can of it handy.  Put this in the crock pot with chicken, pork, vegetables etc. and when you get home...Waalaa!

Making life a little easier. :)

Peggy ~ GG ~ Goodgosh

Some of my Favorite Christmas Cookies

I am going to follow what VE and Pepper started this week and give a couple more recipes.

These are two of my favorite Christmas cookie recipes. The first one was my Grandmothers recipe and the thinner they are sliced the better.

Luckily My Grandmother had written down measurements instead of just a pinch of this and a dash of that. 

Mother’s Icebox Cookies:

2/3 cup brown sugar

2/3 cup white sugar

1 cup melted butter

2 eggs

2 ¾ cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 cup chopped nuts (we use walnuts, but you can use your choice)

Mix together.

Form into a long loaf shapes.

Chill in refrigerator until stiff.

Slice thin and bake in moderate oven until brown.

(moderate oven= about 325.  being so thin they don’t take long to bake.)

The nice thing about these is you can bake as many or as few as you want at a time.

The next recipe is a simple cookie but stands well on its own.  This is not your common shortbread cookie, these are actually rolled out and cut.

Brown Sugar Shortbreads:

1 cup softened butter (or margarine)

½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar

2½ cups flour

Cream butter and sugar until light,

add flour

Refrigerate if necessary.

Roll out and cut. 

I keep these on the thin side also.

I use small cookies cutters and sometimes I top them with chocolate sprinkles.

Bake 10 minutes, until light golden brown 300- 325 degrees

decorated brown sugar shortbreads

This link gives a little history about Christmas cookies.

History of Christmas Cookies

My mom always used to try and bake a least a dozen different kinds of cookies each Christmas. So a lot of the cookies she would bake also freeze well.

We always love when my mom brings us a plate of her cookies. There is always something everyone likes.

Happy Baking

jj