It's Time For The Virtual Cookie Exchange Blog Hop

I've been so anxious for today to arrive because...

 It's time for the Virtual Cookie Exchange Blog Hop! 

Woohoo...new cookie recipes!

Look who's baking this week:

December 5

Just Let Me Quilt - Giveaway

Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats

Kris Loves Fabric

December 6

Creatin’ in the Sticks

Brenda’s Quilting Blog

Bumbleberry Stitches

December 7

What’s Up With Kim

Granny Can Quilt

Rosemary’s Recipe – posted at Just Let Me Quilt

December 8

Deb’s Rustic Quilting

Treasured Nest

Just Let Me Quilt

Plus, there's a sweet $20 giveaway from Quilt Taffy! 

The winner will love shopping in her store!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks for stopping by!

It's The Last Day Of The Virtual Cookie Exchange Blog Hop

I've been in sweet treat heaven this week!

Have you been loving all the recipes that were shared during the 

Virtual Cookie Exchange Blog Hop? I have! 

 It's the last day (darn!) and I really wish everyone had come to my house to exchange cookies 

 so I could taste those treats right now! What's a few extra calories among friends!

Thank you, sweet ladies, for sharing your recipes.

Well...now it's my turn to share some recipes!

I love chocolate.

 I love oatmeal.

I love nuts.

 I love anything with the above combination, so...

I made some Double Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies!

Layering the ingredients in a one quart Mason jar makes for a great way to share them with others.

Baking instructions:

*Right click on the candy cane framed recipe and instructions to save them to your computer.

Hints to make adding ingredients easier:

Wash bottles and make sure they are completely dry.

Use a wide mouth funnel to add ingredients.

Be sure to tamp each layer down firmly before adding next ingredient.

Using the flat bottom of a narrow glass works for tamping down.

Use a spatula or paper towel to wipe bottle edges after each addition.

Want a little variety in those gift bottles?

You could replace the walnuts and chocolate chips with...

 M&M's

White Chocolate Chips

Peanut Butter Chips

Almonds, Craisins, Chocolate Chips

I ran across an easy recipe using Ritz crackers, which were yummy in the recipe I made a couple

years ago using them with chocolate and mint (find it HERE.) These were pretty darn good, too!

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cookies

It's surprising that a Ritz cracker can taste so good as a sweet cookie!

. 

The Monkey Boys made some, too. The little monkey ate his own cookies,

because for some reason no one wanted the ones he made.

One more cookie recipe...

My side of the family came from Norway, so I grew up eating lefse and hearing my
great-grandmother talk with her heavy accent. I thought we were the only Norwegian's around!
Then I met my hubby and learned his family was also Norwegian.
His mom had a recipe from "Aunt Emma" for Norwegian Butter Cookies.
They are delicate cookies shaped like a wreath or pretzel. Mine never turned out so good.
Of course, my mother-in-law's were always perfect.
I gave it another try for this hop and tada...success! Okay, a little lopsided, but still good.

I used a cookie scoop to get consistent sized balls/cookies.

Since I don't always have success making those little loopy cookies,

and sometimes I'm a bit lazy, I just made them into balls, flattened them,

sprinkled them with sugar, and baked. They are just as yummy!

More yumminess:

December 1

Kris at Kris Loves Fabric

Selina at Selina Quilts

Karen at KaHolly

Deonn at 3^rd Degree Bakery

December 2

Colette at What About Rheema?

Carla at Creatin’ In The Sticks

Velda at Granny Can Quilt

Mary Ellen at That’s My Home

Karen at Sugar Free Quilted Designs

December 3

Beth at One Old Goat and Her Little Farm

Carol at Just Sew Quilter

Theresa at Bumbleberry Stitches

Brenda at Brenda’s Quilt Blog

Mary Pat at Quilting Quietly

DECEMBER 4 - TODAY'S RECIPES

Linda at Food Storage Moms

Susan at Super Mom – No Cape!

Kathy at Just Quilt it

Lindsay at Lin's Kitchen

Carol at Just Let Me Quilt

My Christmas quilt for 2015...including a Monkey Boy

Merry Christmas...a long time ago

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed the recipes!

Peanut Butter Blossoms Are Just The Best Cookie

I know, I know...there are lots of "Best Cookies" but I just love

Peanut Butter Blossoms!

I think Santa would love to find a plate of these waiting for him on Christmas Eve!

I bought the traditional Hershey's kisses and then...whoa...is that a caramel kiss in the bag?

Yep!

It adds a whole different taste to those Peanut Butter Blossoms!

Here's the recipe I always use...it makes a lot, but it's a great cookie for the kids to help with.

Peanut Butter Blossoms

One big bag of Hershey's Kisses (unwrapped, of course), about 100 of them

3 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup of butter, softened (that's two sticks)

1 1/2 cup of peanut butter (creamy or crunchy)

2/3 cup white sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar, packed

2 eggs

1 tablespoon of milk

2 teaspoons of vanilla

Extra white sugar to roll the cookies in

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Beat the butter and peanut butter until combined.

Add white and brown sugar and beat until fluffy.

Add eggs, milk and vanilla; beat until well combined.

Gradually beat in the flour.

Shape the dough into 1-inch balls and roll in white sugar.

Place on ungreased cookie sheet an inch or so apart.

Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Remove from oven and immediately press a Hershey Kiss in the center of cookie.

Let the cookies sit on the pan for a couple of minutes before removing them to a wire rack.

Cool.

Eat.

Yum!

I think my sewing machine is lonely. Too bad! I'm baking for Christmas!

What do you think is the best cookie ever?

Let There Be Cookies, Snow, And A Giveway

We still have snow and ice...beautiful, but so unusual for this area.

It does make beautiful backdrops for photos, so I'm totally taking advantage of it!

My very first Virtual Christmas Cookie Exchange ends today and I just want to 

thank those baking elves who linked up their recipes...so sweet!

I've started trying some of the recipes beginning with these two...

White Chocolate and Cranberry Shortbread from Sew We Quilt

and

Snowball Cookies from Creatin' in the Sticks

Oh, my, gosh, they are so delicous!

I plan to do more baking and I'm loving these new recipes.

This has been just a yummy good time for me!

I still have my Sew Mama Sew giveaway going on, but it ends tomorrow so you better hurry to enter!

Click HERE for my giveaway.

AND

Sew Mama Sew has TONS of links for giveaways...it's incredible!

Click HERE to check out all the other giveaways!

The "Best" Chocolate Chip Cookie

Have you noticed how many recipes on the internet say they are

"THE BEST" of whatever they've made?

I've made a few of those recipes that aren't even close to being "THE BEST."

These chocolate chip cookies are a combination of two recipes

that said they were "The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie."

The Pretty Good Chocolate Chip Cookie

Makes about four dozen cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cream together:

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

Add to above and mix:

2 eggs (add one at a time)

Add to above and mix:

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

In a separate bowl, dissolve:

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon hot water

1/4 teaspoon salt

Add dissolved baking soda and salt to batter and mix.

Add to above and mix:

3 cups flour

*1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Add to above and lightly mix:

2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Drop by large tablespoon-sized scoops of batter onto an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges are slightly golden brown.

Remove to wire rack to cool.

*The cream of tartar gives a different texture to the cookies,

but does not affect the taste. You can leave it out if desired.

Don't forget to add your cookie recipes to my

Virtual Christmas Cookie Recipe Exchange Party!

Sugar and Spice Christmas Cookies

We woke up this morning to snow which got me a little closer to being in a Christmas mood!

Perfect day for baking, don't you think!

Sugar and Spice Christmas Cookies

Mix until creamy:

1 1/2 cups butter or margarine

2 cups sugar

Add and mix:

2 eggs

1/2 cup molasses

Add and mix:

4 cups flour

4 teaspoons soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoon cloves

1 1/2 teaspoon ginger 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Form dough into walnut size balls (or use small cookie scoop) onto greased cookie sheet.

Bake for 8-10 minutes (not much longer or they will be hard when they cool.)

Remove from oven and cool on wire rack.

Sprinkle powdered sugar over the tops when slightly cool.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

This was a similar recipe my mother-in-law made for years and is one of my family's favorite Christmas cookies. She said the original recipe came from Betty Crocker and used 1/2 shortening and 1/2 butter instead of all butter. 

I love using a cookie scoop to get the perfect size cookie

Yes, that's a purple cookie turner

Sprinkled cookies, ready to eat...so yummy!
I wrapped up some of the extra dough and put it in the freezer to slice and bake later.

Ritzy Christmas Mint Cookies

The very first Christmas cookie exchange that I went to had some amazing cookies, but the one recipe that caught all of our attention was the thin mints Susan made....out of Ritz crackers.

Yes, you read it right---RITZ CRACKERS! 

I'm sure the recipe was on a Ritz cracker box, but I'd never seen them.

 Really, they were so good! 

Here's the recipe for these Ritzy Chocolate Mint Cookies:

1/2 lb semi-sweet dark chocolate chips
2-3 drops peppermint extract
1 sleeve of Ritz Crackers
Some crushed candy canes

Melt dark chocolate over low heat or in a glass cup at 15-second intervals in the microwave (stir after each 15 seconds.) Stir 2-3 drops of peppermint extract into the melted chocolate (don't use too much peppermint--the 2-3 drops is plenty.) Using a fork or dipping tool, dip each Ritz Cracker in the melted chocolate. Place on a foil covered cookie sheet making sure they don't touch each other. Sprinkle each chocolate dipped cracker with a small amount of crushed candy cane. Chill. Eat. Enjoy.

"Nestle Toulouse" Chocolate Chip Cookies

I loved the episode on "Friends" where Phoebe's grandmother told her not to share the family's cookie recipe with anyone. Her grandmother told her she got the recipe from her French friend, "Nestle Toulouse." (If you never watched the show and you don't get the joke, they were actually Nestle Toll House cookies.) 

I made some of those "Nestle Toulouse" cookies tonight so my cookie jar wouldn't look empty sitting on my counter. It sounded logical to me AND they were so yummy!

Years ago I had someone I knew tell me that she never liked to share her family recipes, but if she did, she would change or leave out a portion of the recipe so they would never be as good as hers. Thankfully, Nestle's was willing to share their real recipe so I could have a full cookie jar and satisfy my sweet tooth.

P. S. I never did like that lady very much nor did I ever ask for one of her recipes.

Here's the recipe just in case you're feeling the need to have a little chocolate chip cookie:

2 ¼ cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups Nestle Toll House Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix flour, soda, and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, sugar, and brown sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beat well. Add vanilla. Add flour mixture. Stir in chocolate morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 9-11 minutes and remove to wire racks to cool.