Malted Milk Ball Chewies

I have a favorite cookie!  And this is it!  These cookies for me are BAD news!  I can not have them in the house for too long.  It just takes to much self control!

Malted Milk Ball Chewies

These cookies take a little attention to make, but they are well worth the end product.

A few little tips:

*Chop up the milk balls in the food processor.  I use a large milk box looking box of milk balls (you can find it in the candy isle at Publix)

* Don't put too many on a cookie sheet.  They really spread out.  I usually only do 6 on a sheet.

*Bake cookies at 350 for 8 minutes.  Remove from oven but let cookies sit on cookie sheet for about 6 minutes before you remove them and place them on a cooling rack.  Carefully scrape cookies with a spatula.  They should pop right off the pan.

These took me a couple tries to master...but I am so glad I didn't give up.

I use a food processor to chop up the milk balls very fine

It always says to put dry ingredients in a seperate bowl....I never do unless it is a large amount of flour.

That is one more bowl to clean!

Malted Milk Ball Chewies Recipe

The recipe came from a blog I love too.  I have gotten a lot of great recipes from her blog.  

It is a great one to visit every once in a while!

Your Homebased Mom Blog

Enjoy!

Cookie Balls

I do a lot of baking....but sometimes the kids just want a few cookies when they come home from school, or maybe for a snack in their lunch, or a little nibble before bed.  These cookie balls are my best friend!  You do all the mixing ahead of time, freeze the dough in little balls and then when your little ones (or big ones :) want a cookie or two....you just pop them in the oven and fresh baked cookies!  Yum!

I got this from a cookbook I have used so much!  It has some great ideas for time saving tips and ways to make cooking at home easier.

Recipes for making homemade a little easier

Here are the recipes for Sugar Cookie Balls

2 cups butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
3 teaspoons vanilla
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer.  Beat in the eggs and vanilla until well combined.

In a seperate large bowl, stir together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.  Gradually blend dry ingredients into creamed mixture.  Combine ingredients well.

Take a teaspoon and form cookies dough into balls, place on cookie sheet (one that will fit in your freezer) and freeze until solid.  When solid remove from cookie sheet and place in freezer bag to use whenever you want.

To bake remove however many cookies you want to eat....1 or a dozen....place on cookie sheet.  Turn on oven and wait for oven to preheat to 350 (this gives the cookies a little time to unfreeze a bit) .  Bake in oven 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

Rolled balls going into freezer

No...they don't turn into m&m cookies after they are frozen! 

These are chocolate chip cookie ball, recipe to follow! ( I added the m&m for a little holiday cheer :)

Frozen cookie balls going into bags

Frozen balls going on the cookie sheet and into oven

Yummy!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Balls

2 cups buttter, softened

1 1/3 cups granulated sugar

1 2/3 cups packed brown sugar

4 eggs

1 Tablespoon vanilla

5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 (12 ounce) packages semi-sweet chocolate chips

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugars with an electric mixer until well combined.  Beat in the eggs and vanilla and mix well.

In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, salt, and baking soda.  Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and mix well.  Fold in the chocolate chips until mixed.

Using a teaspoon roll dough into cookie balls and place on cookie sheet (one that will fit in your freezer) place in the freezer until frozen solid.  Remove from cookie sheet and place in freezer bag.

To bake:

Place desired cookie balls on cookie sheet.  Turn on oven to 350.  Let cookies sit until oven is preheated.  (this gives them a little time to unfreeze)  Bake 10 minutes.  Eat!  Yummy!

Carmel Corn

We like popcorn around here.  And we love our popcorn popper!  I won't take a picture of it because it doesn't look this good.  This makes some YUMMY popcorn.  One of our favorite things to do with our popcorn is to make carmel corn. 


This recipe I got from my mom.  It is a great recipe to adjust to your taste.  If you like your carmel corn heavy on the carmel, use less popcorn.  If you like your carmel corn light on carmel heavy on corn use more popcorn.  My kids like the light on carmel heavy on corn version so I use two popped pots of corn.  It takes 1 cup unpopped kernels to fill up my popcorn pot.  

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1/4 cup corn syrup

Melt above together over medium heat until bubbly.
Continue to cook 5 minutes.
Remove from heat and add

1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Stir above ingredients into melted butter and sugar.  It will turn a carmel texture and color.
Poor over popped corn and mix (I like to use 2 table knifes to mix, watch out the carmel is HOT!)
Spread out on 2 cookie sheets and bake at 200 for 1 hour stirring every 15 minutes.

Allow to cool.  Break up and enjoy!
Keep in sealed container.

corn going in the oven

corn cooling

All yummy and ready to eat!

Enjoy!

Puffed Up Pancake

This was a fun recipe to make.  The recipe is called a puffed up pancake.  It does puff up when you cook it and them slowly deflates once you take it out of the oven.  I told the kids we were doing a science experiment!  It was yummy!  We served it with powder sugar and whip cream....just to sweeten things up a bit :)  Try it, it is easy and a good new breakfast treat!

Puffed Up Pancake Recipe

Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

If you are a peanut butter lover you will love these chewy peanut butter cookies with peanut butter chips in them.  The recipe calls for chocolate chips and we usually do half with chocolate chips since we have a chocolate chip lover in the family.  I prefer the peanut butter chips...so yummy!  I put them in my new Longaberger tea basket!  So cute, what a great gift!  It is my new favorite basket!

Enjoy

Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

Dipped Oreo Cookies

Here is a quick and fun idea.  Get a package of Oreo's (double stuffed are the best) and melt a package of white chocolate chips in the microwave.  Dip the cookies in halfway and let them cool.  I drizzled some melted chocolate over them and they were quick and yummy!

Enjoy!

French Breakfast Muffins

I am making a goal!  Goals are scary, but I thought I would make one anyway.  I am going to add to this blog every day...well ok maybe every other day...

So here is one of my childrens favorite breakfast on school mornings

French Breakfast Muffins from Family Fun.com

shown here of course in my Longaberger small entertaining basket (love it)

I change the recipe a bit.  I make them in mini muffin tins for tiny little bites.

I butter the tins (you can use spray)

Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in liquids.

mix well with a wooden spoon

and bake.  I set the timer for about 7 min and watch after that.

Muffins waiting to be dunked in butter and cinnamon sugar-Yum!

I like to freeze them and take out as many as my little ones want in the morning and just pop them into the microwave for 5 seconds.  Just like hot out of the oven!

I have this picture to show you two of my favorite things..my glass 2 cup and 4 cup measuring cups.  They come in handy for mixing small amounts and melting items like butter or chips in the microwave.  Couldn't live without them!

Heath Bar Yummies

Ok here it is everyones favorite cookie bars!  Yum!

Yummy Heath Bars

This is a make ahead dessert!  It tastes so much better the next day once 

it all settles and cools!  

Enjoy!

We had a 70th birthday party for my mom this past weekend.  We served all our favorites.  

Vanilla cake, with butter cream frosting, peanut butter peanut butter chip cookies, oatmeal cookies, and our favorite bars.  We also had some banana pudding back there.  It was a lot of fun and everyone loved all the yummies!

Butter Cream frosting is so easy.  Just mix 2 sticks butter in blender and beat until fluffy.  Add 1 tsp of vanilla.  Slowly add in 4 cups of powder sugar.  Combine well.  Add cream a very small amount at a time to get the consistancy you desire.  

Homemade butter cream is so yummy!

Enjoy!

My daughter celebrated her 6th birthday with a Pinkalicious Tea Party!

 

We were covered in pink, pink gumballs, pink marshmallows...

We made a pinkalicious tee to go with her tutu with printable iron on paper.  I copied an internet photo onto a project page and wrote 'Happy Birthday' (be sure to flip the photo and words to a mirror image before you print) and just printed it onto the iron on paper with my printer.  I then followed the directions on the iron on paper and instant pinkalicious tee.  Super Easy!

We made pinkalicious bottle cap necklaces.  Here is the link to make them. 

 So easy, loved it!

We served pink cake with pink icing...yum!  We had pink mini cupcakes with pink icing and pink sprinkles (of course) We served pink sugar wafers and pink spritz cookies.  It was a sugar delight!  Nany brought over her china tea cups for us to put our strawberry cool aid in (Nany is a pretty cool lady!)

MMMMM......

A pink feast was had by all.  We did have a green plate with lots of yummy broccoli, green grapes, green pepper and green apples just in case we ate to much and everyone turned PINK!  

Luckily that did not happen.

It truly was a SWEET party!

Sugar Cookies

My son had a fall party in his class today so I got to bake the sugar cookies shaped into yummy pumpkins. The cookies were a big hit so I thought I would pass along my recipe.  I wish I would have taken pictures along the way while making these cookies.  I am a visual person and can usually figure things out better when I see them.  Next time I make them I will take pictures.  But for now I will try to explain the process I use.

Great way to travel with cookies in a Longaberger basket

I think one thing that makes these so yummy is I use wax paper to roll out the dough instead of using flour. That seems to cut down on making them taste like flour! Prepare the recipe for no-fail sugar cookies and simply refrigerate the cookie dough for at least 2 hours, when you are ready to begin cut outs take a small portion of dough and place between two sheets of wax paper.  Roll out dough (you will get a serious work out!) to desired thickness and cut out shapes.  Place cookies gently onto cookie sheet and bake.  Be sure not to over bake the cookies.  I always feel they are almost not done yet when I remove them.  As long as you can get them off the sheet they are done.  Let cookies cool on a cooling rack.  Remove the cookies as soon as they have cooled enough to stay together and place them in a single layer on a cookie sheet in the freezer.  You only need to have them in the freezer a short time and then they can placed in a freezable container or I use a gallon ziplock.  They will not stick together once they have been frozen.  The cookies can stay frozen right up until you use them.  I will even frost them while they are still frozen.  Great recipe for Christmas cookies, or even give aways.

I hope you enjoy them!  We sure did!

No Fail Sugar Cookie Recipe link here!

More Baskets and Baking

I am loving this Longaberger medium entertaining basket! With the liner you can do so many thing with it.  We served cookies in it one day and cake in it the next!  

I have baked in my woven tradition baking dish several times since it came.  The cover made it nice for delivering it to the fire station and keeping the cake fresh.  Longaberger baking dishes are great for baking and can be placed in the microwave, dishwasher, and even in the fridge with all those yummy left overs.  I can tell this is going to be a classic favorite at our home.

I wanted to share my yummy cake secret!  To make the best homemade cake ever is so easy!  All you need is your favorite boxed cake, and a box of your favorite instant pudding.  Spruce up your box cake recipe by replacing the water called for in the directions with milk instead.  Continue with all the other ingredients called for.  Throw your box of pudding in and follow the directions on the box and you will have a cake better than from the bakery!  Be sure not to over bake your cake.  Try different combinations of cake boxes and pudding boxes and come up with your own special creation!  

Enjoy!

Ohio State Buckeye Basket and Accessories

My husband is from Zanesville, Ohio so as you can guess we are Buckeye fans!  What fun that Longaberger has out this month a Script Ohio 75th Anniversary basket and lid!  It is only available for the month of October.  Head on over to my Longaberger site for all kinds of fun 

Collegiate baskets and accessories.

Morning Waffles

 This is another one of my inspirations....my baby girl.  Ok, she is almost 6 but she is my baby!  I can not call her my main inspiration because she does not like everything I bake....kids!  One of her favorites is waffles-YUM!  This morning she was up early saying in her sweet voice.. Mommy, I am hungry!  I suggested waffles and got a beautiful little girl smile.  How could I not jump right out of bed and whip up some waffles.  She is my official helper in the kitchen and did most of the work this morning, even mixing with the hand mixer, that was a big thrill for her!  

The final product served up on a Longaberger woven tradition dinner plate in paprika and a little whip cream.  You can't have waffles without some coffee.  It was a great morning!

Don't forget to freeze your leftover waffles for easy morning breakfasts.  Just pop in the toaster and you have a warm homemade breakfast any time!

My inspiration

I have always had a passion for baking, desserts mostly!  I mean who wouldn't want to make yummy desserts?  There is always a great reward at the end!  A while back I started to make dessert for my husband and his crew on Squad 8.  They loved it and became my 'official dessert testers'.  They loved my successes and they even ate some of my failures.  So the men at Squad 8 are my official inspirations for my desserts (my husband is the cute one holding the yummy bars-he has always been my true inspiration!)  I hope you enjoy this site.  I will be sharing my favorite recipes along the way.  Anyone can make great desserts.  All it takes is some passion and some willing testers.  Enjoy!