Ranger cookies

I broke up with sugar.  We cut the ties last week.  It was hard but it had to be done.

So why not take this opportunity to blog about my favourite cookies! (smart thinking, Kathryn)

These cookies are simply delicious because they are crunchy and soft and chew all at the same time. 

With these cookies you can have it ALL! (but I can't even have one) So enjoy!

Ranger Cookies

preheat oven to 350

1 cup shortening (I use butter - softened)

1 cup sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp Vanilla extract

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

2 cups quick rolled oats

2 cups rice kripies (I sometimes use some cornflakes if I have them around too)

1 cup flaked coconut.

You know the drill - 

Cream shortening and sugars til fluffy, add eggs and vanilla.

In an other bowl combine dry ingredients and gradually mix together.

drop by tablespoon onto baking sheets and bake for 7-9 minutes.

Cream of Carrot Soup

Today I am going to share with you, a family soup recipe.
My mother in-law gave me this recipe the first year we were married.  Since carrots are one of the cheapest things to buy in the fall, this soup is budget friendly and delicious.

Cream of Carrot Soup

Ingredients:

1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cups carrot
3 cups of chicken soup base
1/2 cup long grain rice
1/2 tsp salt
1tsp thyme/basil (depending on your taste)
Add any herbs and spices that you like, this soup really takes on flavour and it's great if you want to add nutmeg or cloves for fall flavour.
2 cups milk

Sautee onions in butter until golden. Add carrot until coated with butter. Add soup base, herbs and rice, cover and simmer until carrots are tender. Add salt.  And puree (Usually I can do this in 3rds without it overflowing on me.  Put back in the pot, and add milk. Feel free to garnish with whatever fresh herbs you have around.

This soup is pretty filling.  The rice makes it more than just 'soup' (since my husband needs more than just soup for dinner) and I serve it with some garlic bread or fresh buns... YUM!

Enjoy!

Birthday Brownies!

OK, well, a few weeks ago I made these brownies, took a photo and now I can't seem to find it anywhere on the computer.  Yet, it is still my hubby's birthday tomorrow.  This is my go-to recipe for scrumptious, delicious brownies.

Even though I know I won't have time to make Eric these brownies (because we have rugby early am and then we are headed to my parents for the evening) I will share the recipe in honour of his birthday.

I found my photo!

This is the only photo I have of it.
 It is crumbled along the sides of the cone

Amazing Brownies

This is the only thing you need to know in order to try this recipe.

1/2 cup butter

3 Tbsp Cocoa

1 cup white sugar

Melt in a pot.  Once smooth remove from heat and add - 

2 eggs

1 Tbsp Vanilla

1/2 cup flour

Put it into an 8x8 pan and bake at 350 for 20 min

Let cool and then lightly dust with icing sugar! (you can make chocolate icing too, but I love them by themselves, I find the icing sugar is the perfect addition.

That's it.  Serve! and Serve!  and Serve!  An 8x8 pan is never enough for us, we always need to double the recipe and use a 9x13 pan.  if I make a single batch during the day, Eric may come home and there would not be a trace that I even made them!

So try these next time you are craving some amazing brownies!!

Don't forget to come over to Facebook and "Like" my fan page! 

Here is the link: http://www.facebook.com/MakingLightOfMyLife?ref=hl

Left-over ham??

I have some favourite, tried, tested and true recipes....  This one, is everyone's favourite!
This recipe was given to me at my wedding shower, which had an AMAZING theme.... FOOD.  Everyone brought me one of their favourite recipes and any non-perishable ingredients that went along with it.  This one came from my cousin.... I tried it soon after and have been eating it regularly since then.  It is sooo yummy!

When we have ham for dinner, everyone is excited because that means that one day soon, we will be having....

Ham and Cheddar Chowder

2 cups water
2 cups cubed potato
1/2 cup sliced carrot
1/2 cup sliced celery
1/4 cup onion
salt & pepper to taste

In a large sauce pan, bring all ingredient to a boil and let simmer for approx. 10 minutes and remove from heat.

1/4 cup butter
1/4 flour

2 cups milk

2 cups shredded cheese

in a med sauce pan melt butter.  Blend in flour, add milk, cook until thick and bubbly and add cheese.  Pour into the large saucepan with the cooked veggies.

1 can of peaches and cream corn

1 cup of cubed ham (approximately, if you have a little more or a little less left-over, use what you got!)

add to the rest and devour!!

Roasted New Potatoes

I know you have all been waiting in anticipation for what I (and the rest of my family) thought was THE most delicious of the 5 new recipes we tried this weekend.

Roasted New Potatoes
Spring 2011 What's cooking magazine


2 lbs new potatoes, halved length wise (I didn't know there was a length wise on round potatoes, but I quartered some of the bigger ones)
6 slices of bacon, chopped
3 Tbsp. Italian Dressing


Preheat oven to 400.
Spread the above ingredients on a baking sheet and cook for approx 45 min. flipping as needed.


While this is cooking mix up this delicious DELICIOUS sauce to serve on top of them.


1/3 cup Miracle Whip
1 Tbsp. lemon Juice
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 Tbsp Parmesan Cheese
2 tsp fresh Parsley  (I didn't want to buy parsley just for putting on top of these, so I didn't, but you can do whatever you choose)


I wish I had read this earlier, but it says if you want the sauce to be a bit thinner to just add a Tbsp of milk... mine was thick, but I didn't care, it was sooo soo yummy!!

What looks brown is purple potato, I chose multi coloured ones...

I know I don't have to say this again, but these were soo stinkin' yummy.  They remind me of something Boston Pizza used to serve called Southwest Potato Skins... Eric and I used to go to Boston Pizza late at night and order those, so these were perfection on a potato.  I love potatoes.


Just looking at this photo is making my mouth water!  I am definitely going to be making this one again and again!!

Rocky Road Bars

I am a desert person.  Thankfully I also love baking (and I think I am pretty good at it).  When I was leafing through these magazines this recipe, (mostly the photo) jumped out at me and made me start craving toasty marshmallows and chocolate.

This recipe is easy and a TON of fun to let the kids assist.

Rocky Road Bars
from festive 2011, 'What's cooking?' mag


1 1/2 cup of graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cup coconut
1 1/2 cup pecans
1 pkg chocolate chips
1 1/2 cup marshamllows
1 can sweetened condensed milk
3 squares semi-sweet bakers chocolate


* Side note: I would use 2 cups of crumbs and 3/4 cup butter next time to line the dish better.
**Other side note: I let the kids take from the bags of coconut, pecans, chocolate chips, and marshmallows (and did not use the whole pack of chips) and probably did not use the full amount of any of those ingredients.


Preheat oven to 350


Line a 13x9 inch pan with tin foil or parchment paper.


Mix crumbs and butter and press into the bottom of the pan.  Top with layers of coconut, pecans, chocolate chips, and marshmallows.  Drizzle with sweetened condensed milk.


Bake for 25-30 minutes. (til marshmallows are browned)


Melt chocolate squares (I just melted chips) and drizzle over top of desert and let it set.


When you pull it out of the oven, it will still be wobbly.  It's OK!  It will settle and firm up.

TIP:  If you do not like coconut or pecans (and if you don't like chocolate and marshmallows you're crazy!!) substitute them for anything like raisins, almonds, peanuts... anything!




Tomorrow I will be back with the tastiest dish from the weekend.  Roasted New Potatoes.  Don't be unimpressed, I really love new potatoes, but the sauce you serve with these ones is to DIE for!  (I'm just kidding... please don't die)

Pizza, Pizza, Pizza

The reason this 'New Recipe' weekend started was because Eric wanted to try his hand at homemade pizza.
Now that we have, I think we will be doing it more often!

Perfect Parmesan Pizza Dough
this recipe is from the Spring 2011 'What's Cooking?' mag


Ingredients  (This makes 4 - 12in pizzas)


5 cups flour 
1 cup parmesan Cheese
1tsp quick-rise yeast
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups cold water
1/4 cup olive oil
(Eric wanted to ass some Italiano Seasoning, so we did, but I'm not sure it was noticeable)




Mix 4 cups flour, cheese, yeast and salt (and seasoning) in a large bowl.  Add water and oil and stir until it forms a soft (and sticky) dough.  Knead on a lightly floured surface for 5 min.  (Our kneading lasted a bit longer because everyone in the house, with the exception of the baby, wanted to do some kneading)

Cut the dough into 4 pieces and spray with cooking oil.  If using right away, cover with plastic wrap and let rise.  If freezing, shove it in a plastic bag and toss it in the freezer. (This recipe says you can freeze it for up to 3 months, thaw it in the fridge when you want to use it)
We used half, and froze half.


Now you need to let it rise for 15 minutes.


Come back, shape it onto a pan that has been sprayed with cooking oil and leave for an other 10 min. (this would be the perfect opportunity to cut up veggies and grate cheese)


Preheat over to 450


Spoon the sauce on top and load it with whatever you want.


Cook on the bottom rack of the oven for 17-18 minutes.  Out comes delicious satisfaction!!

Did I mention that I LOVE, love, LOVE pizza??


I especially love my pizza with lots of toppings and we feared that the crust would not be strong enough to hold all of our toppings, but it stood up to our topping abuse and was definitely strong enough for our 'Hawaiian' pizza which was stacked sooo super high with tomato, ham, pineapple and onions.


I will let you know how the next one turns out after a thaw.... I am always skeptical about freezing dough, I have no validation for this fear, but I will let you know how it goes anyways.


Tomorrow be back for a recipe for Rocky Road Bars.
**  If I did this in order of what Eric liked best, he would have put the desert before the asparagus, but I am definitely a desert person, and on this blog - only my opinion counts!

Grilled Prosciutto & Asparagus Bundles

Don't be dismayed.  I shared the spinach bake recipe yesterday and I know I said I was sharing in order of least-most liked recipes... but everything else we made was simply AMAZING!


This was the easiest of all of our chosen recipes.


Grilled Prosciutto & Asparagus Bundles
this recipe comes from a Foodland Ontario 2011 calendar


1 bunch of thin asparagus
1 pkg of Prosciutto


I am a stickler for clean veggies, so be sure to wash your veg before you cook!


Toss Asparagus in a little Olive oil and salt & pepper.


Bundle the asparagus in 3's and wrap in one slice of prosciutto.


This recipe called for a grill, so Eric pulled out our little tiny George Forman grill.


Grill and Serve!

In my unprofessional opinion... These were delicious!


A bonus here is that it takes about 5 minutes to make them and they look kinda fancy.  


My conclusion; A fantastic veggies option when you have company for dinner!  (Mind you, we ate them with our hands, so they could also be a great snack at a luncheon or potluck!)

Food Galore!!! Spinach Bake

We stayed home this weekend.  This is something we don't do very often.  We usually have places to go, people to see or people over to our house.  This weekend we were home with nothing planned....

Eric suggested on Thursday that we try our hand at home-made pizza on the weekend.  I was so excited to try this since I love love love LOVE pizza.  Then on Friday I opened one of my scary cupboards, the one that holds a bunch of loose recipes and 'What's cooking' magazines and I thought "We really need to try some of these recipes we have been holding onto!"

Thus, our first ever, weekend of FOOD.   Since we already had pizza on the menu, we all chose an other recipe from the many options.  Miriam wanted pizza.... she found a pizza recipe in a magazine and her mind was set, so she didn't really make a choice.  

This week I will share one recipe everyday from our random feast.  Starting from the least favourite to the most amazing!

Saucy Spinach Bake

from the festive 2011 Kraft 'What's cooking?' mag

3/4 cup Herb & Garlic cream cheese

1/2 cup Milk

2 pkg  fresh spinach (227g each)

1 cup grated cheese (we did half mozzarella & half cheddar)

25 ritz crackers

Preheat Oven 425

In a large pot cook milk and cream cheese over medium heat until smooth. (do not boil)

Add spinach in batches being sure to cover all of it with sauce; cook for 2-3 minutes until spinach is wilted.  Stir in half of the cheese.

Pour into an 8x8 baking dish.

Sprinkle with remaining cheese and crushed crackers.

Bake for 10 minutes and let stand 5 min before serving.

If I was ever going to make this again I would only use 1/2 cup of cream cheese, and a little less milk.

To start, you will NEVER guess who chose this recipe...  Seth!  Every time we  have spinach in a salad or cooked in anything else he picks it out.  He is not, generally, a picky eater, but I assumed he did not like spinach.  There isn't many kids out there who will knowingly devour spinach.

I assumed correctly.  Although tasty and flavourful, this dish was nothing special.  I watched as Seth took a bite and shuddered.  He doesn't like spinach.

If you like spinach, it's worth a try, but we won't be trying this recipe ever again. (once was enough)   **** Revision:  Seth enjoyed this much more when we warmed it for lunch the following day and had 2 helpings.... maybe we will have to try to make it again!

Return tomorrow for the Grilled Prosciutto & Asparagus bundles.