Soft Sugar Cookies

Sugar cookies with buttercream frosting is one of my top five favorite foods in the world. There are so many things I love about these cookies. 1. They taste like butter & sugar. 2. They can be made into shapes to match any occasion. 3. The frosting can be colored to match any occasion. 4. Will helps me push the cookie cutter down & says each time, "Yeah, I'm cooking!" 5. These cookies always get me compliments, like a 4 year old in my church class, "You did a good job making these cookies." then he gave me a thumbs up.

1 cup butter
1 egg
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cream of tarter
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon

In a large bowl cream butter. Add egg & mix. Add sugar & beat well. Add remaining ingredients and mix. On a floured surface, roll out douag 1/2 -inch thick. Add flour if dough is too sticky. Cut dough into desired shapes. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Cool on wire rack & frost with your favorite buttercream or cream cheese frosting. Makes 2 to 3 dozen cookies.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:

1 stick butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
2 tsp. vanilla

Beat butter until smooth. Beat in remaining ingredients until smooth, anout 2 minutes. Add additional milk a little at a time if thinner consistency is desired.

Peanut Butter & Banana Muffins

Will received the book If You Give a Moose a Muffin from Santa this year. Currently, I have read it 1, 637 times. Obviously I had muffins on my mind when I decided to make a dozen of Will & Audrey's favorite muffins for breakfast. This is another recipe from Deceptively Delicious one of my favorite cookbooks. These muffins are so full of goodness & my babies LOVE them. Will ate 3 for breakfast partly because they were so yummy and partly because he was pretending to be a moose. I usually make 2 batches at once & freeze them individually. If I know we will be having a busy morning I put 2 in the fridge the night before to thaw & then Will & Audrey have a fast & nutritious breakfast waiting for them. So much better than a Pop-Tart!

Note:Stirring 1/2 the sugar in at the end gives these muffins a crunchy swirl on top!

Nonstick cooking spray

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup natural peanut butter

1/2 cup carrot puree

1/2 cup banana puree

1 large egg white

1 cup whole-wheat flour

1 t baking powder

1 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Coat a 12 cup muffin tin with cooking spray or line with paper baking cups.

2. In a large mixing bowl, mix 1/2 cup of the brown sugar with the peanut butter, the carrot puree and banana puree, and the egg white, using a wooden spoon.

3. Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl & stir. Add the the bowl with the peanut butter mixture and stir until just combined ( the better will be a little lumpy-do not over mix). Add the remaining 1/2 cup brown sugar and stir once or twice.

4. Divide the batter among the muffin cups and bake until the muffins are lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center, 15 to 20 minutes. Turn muffins out onto a rack to cool.

5. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days, or wrap individually & freeze for up to one month.

Kristin

Santa Cookies

Santa successfully made it to Gigi & Papa's house to deliver presents to Will & Audrey. Will was very excited to leave these cookies for Santa since they looked just like St. Nicholas. Although he was too excited with the Christmas Eve festivities to be my cookie helper, I loved making these cookies. They are easy & fun, and I liked that the more I made, the more life-like they began to look to me. There's enough to do on Christmas Eve without having to get out bags of flour & sugar & make homemade icing. Best of all, Santa ate them all & left word that they were deicious. Thanks Santa for stopping by! See you next year!

1 bag white choclate chips

1 package Nutter Butter cookies

Red colored sugar

64 mini semisweet chocolate chips

32 red M&Ms

Reserve 32 white cholate chip. Melt the white chocolate chips using the instructions on the back of the bag. Dip each end of the cookie into the white chocolate & place on wax paper. Then immdeiatly use colord sprinkle to make hat & then a white cholate chip to make the pom pom. Place a M&M on his beard for his mouth. Dip 2mini cholate chips in a little melted white chocolate for the eyes. Repeat 31 more times. Let set on the wax paper & enjoy!

Kristin

Will's Jack-o'-Lantern Pancakes

Sometimes it's the littlest things that can bring Will the most happiness. In this case, it was making a normal Bisquick pancake into a jack-o'-lantern pancake. Will, usually NEVER wants his picture taken so you can see just how HAPPY these pancakes made him by the adorable pose for the camera!
Just pour a little of the Bisquick batter into a little bowl, add a Tablespoon of cocoa powder and a teaspoon of sugar. Make the pumpkin face on the griddle first using the chocolate batter then intermediately pour the regular batter over the face completely covering the face. Flip, cook the rest of the way. I also make a little "stem" separately & put it at the top of the pumpkin.

Kristin