Valentine Cookies

Williams Sonoma had an unusual cookie cutter in their February catalog - an enormous heart!  It's about 6 inches tall, and almost 8 inches across.  I had to search for it in the store, and found a bunch hiding on the bottom rack of a display in a basket.

I rolled the cookie dough out a lot thinner than usual since the cookie is so large.  They were lots of fun to decorate!

 I had white and red fondant at the house, so I stopped at a local cake shop to pick up some pink fondant, and found some purple/pink/red heart sprinkles. 

 I baked 6 of the large hearts.  Our neighbors received a selection of the smaller cookies, spritz, and 1 or 2 of the larger cookies.

 On the trays, you can see the spritz cookies I LOVE to make!  I bought a Hershey's chocolate cookbook, and it had a chocolate spritz recipe.  The dough was not as nice as my butter spritz recipe, but they tasted fantastic.

 I like to dip the spritz cookies in the Wilton dark cocoa candy melts, and add sprinkles.  With these, I dipped them in the dark cocoa, then in white and added the sprinkles.  It was much easier to see them!

You can get a copy of my Sugar Cookie recipe (it really is fantastic) HERE, and the Butter Spritz cookie recipe I use HERE.  One comment on the Butter Spritz - I don't like almond flavoring in cookies, so I use  butter extract.  Makes the flavor amazing!

DELICIOUS Breakfast Egg Muffin Cups

I am sharing these with you simply because they are so fantastic!!!!!

VERY easy, too!!!

 One thing I'd recommend is that you use silicone cupcake cups.  I didn't do that the 1st time I made these, and it was a terrible mess! 

So, what do you need to make these delicious little things?

12 eggs beaten with garlic powder, garlic salt, and lots of ground black pepper

1 pkg.  Turkey sausage crumbles
1 pkg. real bacon (salad dressing aisle)
shredded cheese
freshly ground pepper
1 - 2 T. Worcestershire sauce

Now comes the easy part.....  preheat the oven to 350, lay out the silicone cups on baking sheets....  I got 21 cups filled with the above amounts.  Give each cup a spray of Pam.

Whisk the eggs with garlic powder, salt, and ground pepper.

Mix the remaining ingredients in a large bowl, and divide evenly between the muffin cups. Set aside any remaining meat.

Using a ladle or a measuring cup with a pour spout, add the egg mixture to within 1/4 inch of the top.  They will souffle, so they won't run over.... just rise as in the top pic.

Add any remaining meat mixture to top off the cups.

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.
Cool.
Refrigerate for up to one week.

Cookin' with Mom!

My parents were here visiting for a few days, and of course, Mom and I had to get into the kitchen to do a little cooking.

My husband LOVES LOVES LOVES coconut cream pie, and though I'm quite a good cook, I've never made one.  I thought this would be the time to get one made.

I found 3 recipes, and after some discussion, we made the one out of the Taste of Home Baking cookbook.  I added more coconut in the custard base and topping the meringue than the recipe called for - because I knew Bennie would love that.

It turned out GREAT!!

Good quality time with Mom in the kitchen, and we all had some fantastic pie.

Winner, Winner, Coconut Pie after Dinner!

LOL  Sorry, couldn't resist.



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