Sweetheart Lollipops

You're sure to win over all of your Valentines with these sweetheart lollipops! Flavored with sweet Cherry or spicy cinnamon, there's a favorite for all ages.

What You Need
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup corn syrup
6 TBSP water
candy thermometer
food coloring
cinnamon or cherry flavoring
lollipop sticks
heart shaped candy molds
ribbon (optional)

What You Do
Prepare the lollipop molds by lightly spraying with vegetable spray. Place lollipop sticks into the slots in the molds.

In a medium pot, combine sugar and light corn syrup, stirring until the sugar is completely dissolved. Once all of the sugar has dissolved, stop stirring and continue to cook until it reaches a temperature of 300* on your candy thermometer.

Remove from heat, then stir in food coloring and flavoring.

Pour the hot syrup into the molds. Allow to cool thoroughly before removing the lollipops from the molds. Tie ribbon around the sticks to decorate.

Makes 8-12 lollipops depending on the size of the candy mold.

Conversation Heart Cookies

It wouldn’t be Valentine’s Day without Conversation Hearts. I've created a way to express your feelings in a BIG way by making these conversation heart cookies. Don’t hold back…show your Valentine how you really feel!




What you need for cookies:
1 roll of refrigerated sugar cookie mixor your favorite sugar cookie recipe**
Heart-shaped cookie cutter

What you need for icing:
Red, yellow, green, blue and purple paste food coloring
4 cups powdered sugar
4TBSP water


Making Cookies: ** See Tami's favorite sugar cookie recipe below.**

Roll out chilled dough on a lightly floured surface to a 3/8-inch thickness. Cut out hearts and bake as per directed on the package or follow the directions in the recipebelow. Cool completely before icing.


Decorating Cookies

Mix the powdered sugar and water in a bowl until smooth; adding more water, if needed, a few drops at a time. Divide into 6 bowls for pink, yellow, green, blue & purple and leaving one bowl to color red - it will be used to write the words on the cookies. Color the icing using the paste food coloring. **Tip - you only need just a dab of the food coloring to get a light pastel color for the cookies but you will need to use slightly more red for a nice, deep red writing color. Ice cookies following the outline of each heart, stopping short of the edge of the cookie.

Add the red icing to a plastic baggie. Push the icing into one corner of the baggie. Snip off the very end point to make an icing bag. Print Valentine’s Day words and sayings onto the cookies. (Refer to the cookies in the picture above for ideas)

To store these cookies, line a baking sheet with wax paper, then lay cookies in a single layer onto the paper. Freeze. Once frozen, the cookies can be stacked on top of each other. To thaw, place cookies in a single layer on a baking sheet or plate—do not thaw cookies while they are stacked together or the icing will stick to the other cookies.


**Tami's Favorite Soft Sugar Cookies


1/2 cup shortening (part butter or margarine)

1 cup sugar1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

2 2/3 cup flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. nutmeg (optional) - I leave it out for white cookies

1/2 cup sour cream


Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Mix shortening, sugar, egg, & vanilla thoroughly. Blend dry ingredients. Add to sugar mixture alternately with sour cream.

Divide dough; roll out on a well-floured board. Cut with cookie cutters (metal cookie cutters w/ open tops are the easiest) You can make these as thick as you want... the thicker, the chewier.

Place cookies on lightly greased baking sheets. Sprinkle with sugar unless you are going to ice them. Bake 7-8 minutes or until very lightly browned around the edges. Makes 3-4 dozen but I never get this many because I make mine thicker.

If you use the nutmeg in them, you don't even need the icing but it will give your cookies a slight off-white appearance if they are left un-iced.

If you like chewy cookies, roll them out a little thicker. If you like thin, crispy cookies, roll a kind of thin but not real thin or you wont be able to remove to them from cookie pan.

This dough is very easy to work with too! I always double it because I like the thicker cookies.

Exciting news - More awards!

Happiness filled my inbox when I read that Barbara from Barbara Bakes had given me 3 awards for my blog! Thank you so much, Barbara! My blog will wear them with pride!

If you haven't checked out her blog, be sure to do so...it's awesome!







I will be working hard during the next few days to share the love of these awards with others!

Oatmeal Cookies - Cooking with Alicia & Annie Contest

We like cake mix cookie recipes for the convenience and ease of making after dinner during a busy week. This recipe for oatmeal cookies is simple enough that you can get the kids involved, too!

Although this recipe will never take the place of our family recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies, they were really good as a quick dessert. My kids took them in their lunch boxes the next day, too.

You can find the original recipe here.

In my version of the recipe below, I used 2 C. of raisins instead of raisins & nuts. A good tip for soft, chewy raisins is to soak the raisins in very hot water for at least 10 minutes. Make sure to drain well before adding the raisins into the batter. I used light brown sugar instead of dark brown because that's what I had on hand and they turned just fine.

Oatmeal Cookies

1 pkg. spice cake mix (2 layer)
2 1/2 c. uncooked rolled oats
2 eggs
3/4 c. cooking oil
1/2 c. milk
1 c. raisins
2 c. chopped nuts
1/4 c. light brown sugar

Instructions

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Drop from
a teaspoon onto an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes.

This is other entry into the February edition of the Cooking with Alicia & Annie contest.



Second photo deleted while I try to find out what I did to have it violate Photobucket's policies. I'm at a loss on this one. I uploaded it like any other photo.

Broccoli Rice Casserole - Cooking with Alicia & Annie Contest

This is my first entry into the Cooking with Alicia & Annie Contest -Feb. edition.

It's a simple side dish made with rice, broccoli and Velveeta cheese. I don't normally have Velveeta on hand but I happen to buy a big box of it for a Superbowl dip, so this dish was a perfect way for me to use up some of the leftovers. I would make this again. This would also travel well if you were in need of a side dish for a party.

You can find the original recipe here.

My version is below. The only thing I did differently was to leave out the onion and celery. To me, it would be out of place in this recipe. Everything else stayed the same. At the end of the cooking time, I stuck the dish under the broiler for two minutes to brown it a bit--this step is optional.

Broccoli Rice Casserole

1 can (10 3/4 oz.) Campbell's Cream of Broccoli Soup
1/4 c. milk
1 c. diced pasteurized process cheese spread
1 pkg. (10 oz.) frozen chopped broccoli, thawed and drained
2 c. cooked rice

Instructions

1. In saucepan, in hot oil, cook celery and onion until
tender-crisp.

2. Combine soup and milk; stir in celery-onion mixture,
cheese, broccoli and rice. Pour into 10x6 inch baking dish.
Sprinkle with paprika.

3. Conventional: Bake at 350 degrees F. for 30 minutes or
until hot, or microwave: Microwave on high 10 minutes or
until hot, rotating dish halfway through cooking.

Serves 8.