Peppermint Patty Cookies

From Neighbor, Paulanne G in December, 2000

These are my middle brother’s favorite Christmas cookie. He shared the recipe with me this year. I’ve never had them! I am sure they are very good. A Chocolate and Peppermint cookie. 

Ingredients:

2/3 Cup Butter - softened

1 Cup Sugar

1 Egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 Cups all purpose flour

1/3 Cup Hershey’s cocoa

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon milk

12-14 small (1 1/2”) York peppermint patties

Directions: 

1) In a large mixer bowl, beat butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla, blending well. 

2) In a separate bowl, stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. 

3) Add butter mixture alternately with milk, blending well. 

4) Refrigerate dough about 1 hour or until firm enough to handle. (Dough will be a little soft.) Lightly grease cookie sheet.

5) Heat oven to 350 degrees F. 

6) Shape small portion of dough around unwrapped Peppermint Pattie, completely covering candy. 

7) Place on prepared cookie sheet; flatten slightly and crimp with tines from a fork, if desired. 

8) Bake 10-12 minutes or until set. 

9) Cool 1 minute, remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. 

10) Cool completely. 

Makes about 12-14 cookies. 

Goodreads

 Are you on Goodreads? I am. It’s how I keep track of books.

My dad was an author of a bunch of books that you can find on Amazon and probably eBay. 

I am an author now, too!

I want to add my dad’s & my books to Goodreads and it’s a struggle because I am on an Apple system - I have an iPad and an iPhone, but I don’t have a Windows machine. 

Goodreads is particular. 

They say they can import books from a website, but it doesn’t seem to be working.

Anyway, if you subscribe to this blog because you love my recipes, I put some of them (and new ones!) in my latest book! 

“Simple Book of Shadows: Basic Secular Witchcraft for Witches.” 

You know in “The Wizard of Oz,” how there is “The wicked witch of the West,” and “Glinda, the good witch of the North?” Think of me like Glinda. That’s what the book is like. It’s a beautiful book with full color photos and nothing to be afraid of. It’s nothing like the wicked witch of the west. I promise. 

So, if you subscribe to updates from this blog via email and you see a bunch of updates today, I am so sorry I have spammed you inadvertently. I didn’t mean to. I figured I could post some book things on here (I thought it would just be the one thing, but that didn’t work for Goodreads, so I tried again!) …. And that didn’t work either. So now I am in a holding pattern. 

Anyway, sorry for the spam today, hopefully this note here clears things up!

You Can Afford a Car Telephone

 Title Author ISBN My Rating Publisher Rating Publisher Binding Year Published Original Published Year Date Read Date Added Shelves Bookshelves My Review 

You Can Afford a Car Telephone Stuart F. Crump Jr. 978-1-892428-01-1 5 5 FutureComm Publications, Inc. Paperback 1985 1985 2022-10-04 Non-Fiction To Read

Title: You Can Afford a Car Telephone 

Author: Stuart F. Crump Jr. 

ISBN: 978-1-892428-01-1

My Rating: 5

Publisher Rating: 5

Publisher: FutureComm Publications, Inc.

Binding: Paperback

Year Published: 1985

Original Published Year: 1985

Date Read: 2022-10-04

Date Added: 2022-10-04

Shelves: Non-Fiction Technology

Bookshelves: To Read

My review: coming soon

Importing ISBN numbers to Goodreads

Title Author ISBN My Rating Publisher Rating Publisher Binding Year Published Original Published Year Date Read Date Added Shelves Bookshelves My Review 

You Can Afford a Car Telephone Stuart F. Crump Jr. 978-1-892428-01-1 5 5 FutureComm Publications, Inc. Paperback 1985 1985 2022-10-04 Non-Fiction To Read

Title: You Can Afford a Car Telephone 

Author: Stuart F. Crump Jr.

ISBN: 978-1-892428-01-1

My Rating: 5

Publisher Rating: 5

Publisher: FutureComm Publications, Inc.

Binding: Paperback

Year Published: 1985

Original Published Year: 1985

Date Read: 2022-10-04

Date Added: 2022-10-04

Shelves: Non-Fiction Technology

Bookshelves: To Read

My review: coming soon

New Book!

I wrote another book !

I wrote it during the month of September. I published it on Amazon and Amazon Kindle last week, in time for October / Halloween season. I just hired a narrator to read it for Audible.com and iTunes! Very exciting!

My book is called:  Simple Book of Shadows: Basic Secular Witchcraft for Witches

I designed the cover, wrote the blurbs and wrote the book. I also took all the photos inside the book. If you have any witchy friends, or people in your life who love to talk about the moon and Mercury retrogrades or crystals or even people in your life who blow out candles on their birthday, will you please tell them about my book? Better yet, buy them a copy for a surprise Halloween gift! I would sincerely appreciate it. 

You can purchase my book on Amazon dot com, or read it on Amazon’s Kindle. 

You can see my Author page on Amazon dot com here: https://www.amazon.com/Jodi-Rose-Crump/e/B07H1MMVFN/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_ebooks_1

If you read and like my book, send me a note on Facebook or Instagram or if you have my email, send me an email … Thank you for reading my book! I can’t wait to hear from you! 

I have a new book coming out, and I am planning to write a lot more books on many different topics. Sign up to learn about my newest books, when they come out! I promise not to pester you every single day. 

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Mere Creativity: And Also Some Circus Skills

Did you know I am an author? My published book is called “Mere Creativity: And also some circus skills.” 

You can get a copy on Amazon and on Amazon Kindle, or even read for free on Kindle Library. 

You can purchase the book here. 

If you go to that site and click on the cover of my book, the first few pages of the book will show up & you can read those, free!

How I See Things

 I now have a new blog - 

Www.HowISeeThings.com 

I hope to see you over there. 

Rosemary Bread Machine Recipe

I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com - It's a recipe by Stacy.

I didn't save the link - but here is the recipe & my modifications. I have modified it a little each time I have made it. My boys eat it up in less than 2 days. Yummmmm.

Ingredients:
1 cup of warm water (I do room temperature from our Brita filter, then I warm it up for 30 seconds in our microwave)

2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

3 Tablespoons white sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

3 Tablespoons oil (olive, safflower, vegetable, sunflower - I have used all they are all good. Next time, I'm going to try hemp!)

1/2 teaspoon (handful) of each:
ground thyme, garlic powder

2 teaspoons of crushed rosemary (I use about 2 1/2 teaspoons or 2 handfuls)
Plus, if I have it on hand, I cut up one sprig of fresh rosemary and throw that in there too.

3 cups of all-purpose flour

I have used wheat, banana flour. I may use peanut flour next time I find it.

All purpose bakes up the best, though. Light, flakey, easy to eat.

Directions:

dump all the ingredients in to the bread maker in the order you see them here. Turn the bread maker on to "light crust setting" (for me and my bread maker - it is setting #3) and press start.

YUM.

Tonight, I doubled the garlic, left out the other spices, and then added about a cup of Mexican shredded cheese. Smells so good. Can't wait to try it!

No Noodle Vegetarian Lasagna

So, last week while grocery shopping, I saw butternut squash (kind of unevenly) cut into "lasagna noodle" style. OOH. Had to do this. 

It's roughly based on my chef mom's lasagna recipe. she does sort of an easy dump method, to cook for large crowds, like sorority size or jazz club restaurant size ....

See photos for better descriptions ... "a picture is worth 1,000 words"

--------------------

This could easily be made with any kind of squash "noodles" .... pumpkin, zucchini, yellow squash....

If you cut your noodles fat, then I suggest maybe boiling them in water until they are a bit more floppy. I didn't do that with my raw butternut squash "noodles" so they were hard to cut through.

--------------------

What you need:

- practically any kind of squash vegetable cut to look like lasagna noodles i.e.: long, thin strips

- lentils (1-2 packages of Tasty Bite Indian Madras Lentils)

- cauliflower rice, at least thawed. cooked is fine.

- brown rice, pre-cooked, thawed, whatever. not raw.

- garlic salt

- cracked pepper

- ricotta cheese

- some water so I could stir the cheese

- mozzarella

- red chopped tomatoes in sauce (2 cans)

mix the whites and mix the reds. in this case, the cheeses and veggies are white. the lentils and red sauce are the reds.

put something on the bottom of the pan, either the white cheese mix or the red sauce mix. whatever you have more of.

layer from there - one thing, the next thing, the next thing, repeat. About half way up the pan, sprinkle with the garlic salt and cracked pepper. Then continue the layers. Sprinkle the top with the rest of the mozzarella cheese, then add the garlic salt and cracked pepper on top of that.

fold a piece of tinfoil length wise (like a very wide, very long hot dog bun). "Tent" it over the top of the lasagna. Put in oven:

350 degrees F in the oven for 35 minutes. then 250 degrees F in the oven for 20 minutes. Let it rest after you pull it out of the oven, at least 20 minutes.

See photos for what I used.

7 ingredients, 7 pancakes. For the Win!

A post from a guest today - she posted this on Facebook and I just so enjoyed it, I had to share here too. This is from Liz Fuller-Wright (with permission)

Pancakes rule the world. They're forgiving, easy, and need 7 ingredients, nearly all of which you almost certainly have. (If you've ever baked cookies in your kitchen, you're golden.) And the recipe is memorization friendly because nearly all the measurements start with 1:

1 C flour
1 T sugar
1 t baking soda
1 pinch salt
1 C milk
1 egg2 T vegetable oil

That's it. Then you mix in whatever you feel like. Today, I went with a liberal sprinkling of cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, and nutmeg, a splash of vanilla, and a handful of frozen blueberries.
It makes 5-10 pancakes, depending entirely on how big you make them. When I'm at the griddle, this recipe always produces 7 pancakes.
7 ingredients. 7 pancakes.

FOR THE WIN!

S'more French Toast

Jodi's version of S'more French Toast: 

Scramble an egg with milk (almond milk works fine; so does cream, I'm sure), nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla extract to taste. 

Slice a bagel really thin. Dip into egg mix. (Rolls sliced thinly or bread works too - whatever you have on hand!)

Crush up a bunch of graham crackers (2-4), cover dipped bagel in graham crackers. (My 7 year old went to town crushing the graham crackers; it was great!)

Fry for 3 minutes on each side. When doing 2nd side, add chocolate chips. Put marshmallows in pan next to French toast and turn every 30-40 seconds to get every part of the marshmallow golden. 

Just before serving, put 2 marshmallows on top of French toast.  Serve hot with love and smiles!

Easter

Time to start planning the Easter menu. Having 16 people to my home.

Snowman Cupcakes

Thanks to being on Twitter, I found these adorable snowman cupcakes another mom made; and thought I would share them with you all!

Link: http://www.lifetimemoms.com/food-family-recipes/blog/snowman-cupcakes-0

Vegan Cookie Recipes

Just stumbled upon this blog - and wanted to share with those who are interested!   Enjoy!!

The Unintentional Vegan - Cookie Recipes

Tastebook

I spent today updating my family recipe cookbook!!  You can see & order it here:  Jodi's Family Recipe Cookbook

Let me know in the comments if you sign up for Tastebook & if you order a cookbook!

Baked Brie Cheese with Apricot Preserves

1/3 cup apricot preserves

1/4 cup chopped pecans (optional)

1 sheet puff pastry (from 17.3-oz package), thawed (Pillsbury crescent rolls works nicely)

olive oil or vegan “butter” spread

1 round (8 oz) Brie cheese, cut horizontally in half

Heat oven to 400°F. Line cookie sheet with foil or cooking parchment paper; lightly spray foil or paper with cooking spray. In small bowl, mix preserves, pecans and onion; set aside.

On lightly floured surface, roll pastry into 10x14-inch rectangle. Using the round of cheese as a pattern, cut a pastry circle 3 to 4 inches larger than the cheese. Set aside excess pastry.

Spread half of the preserves mixture in center of pastry circle, leaving 3-inch edge. Place 1 cheese round (in rind) on preserves. Spoon remaining preserves over cheese. Top with remaining cheese round.

Gently fold edges of pastry up and over cheese to cover, folding and pinching edges to seal. Place seam side down on cookie sheet. Cut out decorative pieces from excess pastry. Brush pastry with oil or margarine; place pastry cutouts on top. 5 Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.

Oma's Lasagne

This is my Mum's lasagne recipe.  I remember her making it when I was a little girl.  She made it for a dormitory of girls when we lived in Princeton, NJ.  And she also made this when she was a chef in Princeton at a restaurant, and for various restaurants in Northern Virginia when she lived there too.  She's also made it for me on special occasions.  I see her about once every decade (I'm not joking - we never see each other) - and so my mum makes her lasagne for me approx once every 10 years.  I've had it about 4 times in my life. Now, I have the recipe, and it turns out I've gone vegan.  But hopefully others will enjoy!!

Oma’s Lasagna

Meaty sauce layer

Sauce

1 Pkg of ground meat

1 lg can crushed tomatoes

2 T or more oregano

2 T basil

salt & pepper

1 Lg chopped onion

1 T minced garlic

1/2 cup red wine (rinse out the tomato can) with it

chopped mushrooms if you like

-

Cheese layer & noodles

1 container ricotta cheese

2 large eggs beat into the ricotta to make a paste

grated Parmesan, Romano and shredded mozzarella

2 pkg ready to use no boiling first lasagna noodles

In a large pot, brown the meat first. Add all the rest of the ingredients and cook on low heat for 45 minutes stirring often so it doesn’t burn.

In a lasagna pan, put a layer of sauce first then the noodles then the ricotta and cheeses. Continue layering until almost full. Finish with mozzarella cheese. Cover through first 1/2 of baking with a sheet of foil sprayed with cooking spray so it doesn’t stick to the cheese.

Uncover through last 1/2 of cooking. Total time will be about an hour at 350.

Let sit a good 1/2 hour or 45 minutes so cutting will be good.

Easy Vegan Wheat Bread

2 1/2 cups warm water
1 T molasses
2 yeast packets
3 cups whole wheat flour

Mix water, yeast and molasses in a large bowl.  Pour in the 3 cups of wheat flour and mix well.  Cover the bowl with a towel and place in a dry place.  Let sit for 20 minutes to a full day.

1/2 cup minus 1 T molasses
1/4 C vegetable oil
1/4 C soy milk
3-4 C unbleached white flour
1 t salt

Pour in the molasses, oil, soy, milk and salt.  Mix.

Add white flour a 1/2 C at a time.  After about 3 cups, the mix will get pretty dense.  Begin to knead.  It will still be sticky.  Add another 1/2 - 1 C flour and knead the bread.  Knead it for 5-10 minutes until it is smooth and elastic.

If making loaves of bread:
Cut into 2 equal parts.  Shape into loaves and put into 2 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 greased bread pans.

If making 24 rolls:
drop blops of dough onto a cookie sheet

You can also make 1 loaf of bread and 12 rolls

Cover the pans with the towel - put in warm place.  Let dough double in size.  It takes 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Bake:
Loaves of bread at 350 degrees F for 35-40 minutes.
Rolls at 375 degrees F for 20 minutes.

Vegan Chocolate Cake

VEGAN CHOCOLATE CAKE
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
3 heaping tbs cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
6 tbs oil
1 tbs white or rice vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup cold water

Mix dry ingredients. Mix wet ingredients, add dry and beat well. Bake at 350° for 35 to 40 minutes. For a layer cake, double the ingredients.