Oatmeal Slice And Bake Cookies

Another Christmas has been celebrated! The joy of family and friends is unmatched with any other time of the year! I love baking cookies and am part of an annual cookie party. My friend Georgia Jarvis plans, decorates and makes the party a favorite event every year! We each bake, package and decorate each cookie gift trying each year to come up with something new and special to exchange at the party. The recipe is attached to each cookie gift. My recipe this year is an old recipe that I updated for today’s lifestyle. I replaced ½ cup butter with 1 Tablespoon canola oil, an egg was removed and I replaced some of the flour with whole wheat pastry flour. Enjoy the final recipe I am sharing today! Parchment paper allows for easy clean up and avoids the need to grease the pan before baking. I leave the cookies on the paper when I slide them off the baking sheet to racks to cool.


OATMEAL SLICE AND BAKE COOKIES
Makes 18 Cookies

½ cup butter, softened to room temperature
1 Tbsp. canola oil
½ cup sugar
½ cup golden brown sugar, packed
1 egg
½ tsp. vanilla
¾ cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup whole wheat pastry flour
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup quick-cooking rolled oats, uncooked
½ cup walnuts, crushed
½ cup coconut, shredded

Beat butter, oil and sugars in a 2-qt. mixing bowl till smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla till fluffy. Whisk together flours, powder, soda and salt. Beat in with dough hooks. Fold in oats, walnuts and coconut with a spatula. Flour hands and shape dough into an 8-inch log on a 12-inch piece of waxed paper. Roll in the waxed paper and twist ends like a hard-candy wrapper. Chill several hours or overnight. Slice cookies with a thin, serrated knife, 3/8-inch thick, with a sawing motion, turning cookie dough after each slice to retain the round shape. Bake cookies, 2-inches apart on 2 parchment paper lined cookie sheets. Bake at 375 degrees for 14 minutes or till lightly browned. Cool one minute before transferring to cooling racks.

Mandarin Yogurt Fruit Salad

November is always special for me because it is my birthday month! I was born on Thanksgiving Day. I loved to hear the story of my birth from my Great-Aunt Mabel. In today’s connected world it is hard to imagine not having a home phone or cell phones with pictures and video! My family gathered for Thanksgiving waiting for my Dad to join them and share the details of my arrival! Whether it was made by my Mom or my Grandma Ethel, I enjoyed a decorated cake with candles lit for a birthday wish! Today’s recipe is an easy fruit salad and the orange color is perfect for a Thanksgiving table. Purchase brand name mandarin orange segments to get whole segments instead of pieces. Vanilla yogurt can be substituted for the orange crème yogurt and sugar free gelatin for restricted diets. May you begin each day with a grateful heart!


MANDARIN YOGURT FRUIT SALAD
Serves 6

3-oz. box orange gelatin dessert mix
1 cup boiling water
1 cup cold water
6-oz. container orange crème yogurt
2 cans (11-oz. each) mandarin orange segments, drained

Pour gelatin dessert mix into a 2-qt. stainless steel mixing bowl. Stir in boiling water till dissolved. Add cold water. Chill, uncovered, 30 minutes to partially set. Whisk in yogurt. Stir in mandarin orange segments. Chill 6 hours or overnight. Serve cold.

Sweet and Salty Treat Cups

Fall truly comes into it’s own in October. Leaves change color and the air is fresh and crisp as Halloween approaches! I enjoy Halloween and it is the perfect time for a party! I grew to love candy corn as a child when my Grandma Ethel kept a stash and shared with me every fall. Like the rest of her candy, she kept the corn in the side door of her refrigerator always ready to share! The recipe today is a simple one and is perfect for a holiday buffet or a treat with dessert and coffee. I always keep 2.5-oz. stainless steel condiment cups on hand to refill. They are easy to use and wash in the dishwasher. At Halloween and Thanksgiving, look for seasonal disposable condiment cups that add a festive flair to the treat! Happy Halloween!


SWEET AND SALTY TREAT CUPS
Makes 6 Treat Cups

9-oz. pkg. premium candy corn
6.5-oz. cocktail peanuts with sea salt

Layer candy corn and peanuts in treat cups. Serve open and ready to eat!

Homemade Instant Oatmeal

September means the start of a new school year. There is anticipation of a new teacher, new classmates and sometimes a new school. I attended grades 1-8 at Gardner Elementary School then took the bus to Grandin High School, 7 miles away. It was the beginning of school consolidations that would continue to evolve to larger school districts operating today. There were 9 students in my class at Gardner Elementary and I attended with the same 9 students all 8 years! For my family, there was the annual trip to K-Mart for school supplies. It was a 20 mile journey into town and was one of the highlights of the year! The most important supply to me was the 64 count box of crayons. Not only did it have to be the big box but it had to have the sharpener! Oatmeal was a breakfast staple at our house. It was inexpensive and we all liked it. My Dad had a bowl every morning with his medication and the rest of us joined in! I make packets of Instant Oatmeal every month and it is perfect on busy work mornings! You can add ¼ tsp. cinnamon, 2 Tbsp. chopped dried apples, 1/8 tsp nutmeg or 1 Tbsp. raisins to each packet for variety.

HOMEMADE INSTANT OATMEAL
Makes 6 Bags

3 cups quick-cooking rolled oats, uncooked
6 plastic zipper snack bags

Process 1 ½ cups of the oats till powder. Spoon 3 Tbsp. powdered oats into each snack bag. Put ¼ cup of the remaining oats into each bag. Seal. Store in an airtight container.

For each serving, empty one bag into a bowl. Add ¾ cup boiling water. Stir and let stand 2 minutes. Serve with milk and sweeten to taste with sugar, brown sugar or sugar substitute.

Green Beans Almondine

The promise of Easter is celebrated by my family at Nora Lutheran Church. School was closed in the 1960’s for Good Friday and no businesses were open on Easter Sunday. We started the celebration with new spring clothes and an annual picture before the services. My sister and I had different dresses in the same color. I think that is why I still love the pastel colors of light blue, mint green and pink! The Sunday School sang a special hymn for the Easter celebration so I always was part of the service! The night before Easter is egg dying time with real hardboiled eggs. It was fun watching the shell color change! Easter dinner followed church. The traditional glazed ham, scalloped potatoes and baskets of chocolate bunnies and eggs were in abundance. Today’s recipe is easy and the perfect side dish for Easter or any holiday meal. The new microwave steamer bags are handy for a holiday meal when all the pots and pans are already in use! Enjoy!

GREEN BEANS ALMONDINE
Serves 6

16-oz. pkg. frozen French-style green beans
¼ cup butter
¼ cup slivered almonds
Freshly ground sea salt

Pour green beans into a medium steam cooking bag. Add 3 Tbsp. water. Seal. Microwave on high 8 minutes. Cool 1 minute. Open bag. Cut one bottom corner to drain.

While the beans are cooking, melt butter in a 3-qt. non-stick chef’s pan on medium. Add almonds and cook, stirring constantly, till lightly toasted. Remove from heat. Add beans. Season to taste with sea salt. Toss to mix. Serve hot.

Cracker Chili

January brings storm days and the fun of a day off from school! All storm days are not created equal! When you lose the electricity for 2 or 3 days, it is not near as much fun as when you are just playing in the snow and watching TV! I remember for us, we had the radio set on WDAY and would anxiously await the announcement for our school. When “Gardner” was announced, we moved to a day of play! There was usually snow pushed from the driveway to the side of the house where we climbed the hill and slid down on our sleds. Grandma Ethel aggressively took a straw broom to the snow on our clothes before we got inside. I took off the wet, snowy clothes drying them, as well as warming myself, on Grandma Ethel’s floor heating register in the living room! Storm days are perfect for making soup and baking cookies! Today’s recipe is easy and a favorite of mine since “storm days!” I removed 1 tsp. salt and added more chili powder to the original recipe. The crackers soak up the spicy juice for a special winter treat!

CRACKER CHILI
Serves 6

1 white onion, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
1 green bell pepper, washed, seeded and coarsely chopped
1/4 cup chili powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
28-oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained
14.5-oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained
2 15.25-oz. cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
Saltine Crackers

Brown onion and beef in a non-stick, 4-qt. chicken fryer. Drain. Add pepper, chili powder, salt, sugar, tomatoes and beans. Stir. Cover and simmer 60 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve hot in bowls with crushed Saltine Crackers.