Cookie Carnival - Strawberry Shortcake Cookies

After spending 4 days on the couch with an aching back, I decided that I needed to try to get back into the swing of things. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to squeeze in the time to make the cookies for this month's Clean Plate Club Cookie Carnival. Since we ate dinner early tonight, my son and I decided to go ahead and make them.

The recipe was simple enough for him to follow. As I cut up the strawberries, he measured out all of the dry ingredients. I didn't have enough all-purpose flour so I ended up using self-rising flour and leaving the baking power out of the recipe. I also didn't use sanding sugar, I just topped mine with extra granulated sugar.

Looking at the batter, I'm wondering how these will turn out--it looks a little soupy to me. I'm going to go ahead and bake them anyway.

I'll write more later on once they are done baking.

It's starting to smell really good in here. :)

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I just took the cookies out of the oven. They baked for 25 minutes. They've spread a lot more than I thought they would so I have really big strawberry cookies. lol!

They're really pretty cookies. Great for a July 4th celebration where you want to add touches of red color in your dessert table.


They really do taste like strawberry shortcake. My husband and daughter liked them. Me, I'm not crazy about them. That shouldn't take anything away from these cookies because I really don't care for real strawberry shortcake.

While we were busy trying the cookies, my son was busy filling a bowl with chocolate pudding and whipped cream. I grabbed his spoon and added a dollop of whipped cream (with a little chocolate pudding in there, too!) in between 2 shortcake cookies. Much better! :)


Thanks, Kate, for another great month! I'm looking forward to next month!!

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

My husband really likes pineapple upside down cake. Me, I've never really been a fan of it. Every once in a while I make it for him.

I found this recipe in an old cookbook of mine. I decided to give it a try since it didn't require much time in the kitchen.


Most of the ingredients in this recipe are staples in most kitchens.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

1/4 C. butter or margarine
2/3 C. packed brown sugar
9 pineapple rings (from 14-oz can), drained
9 maraschino cherries
1 1/3 C. all-purpose flour
1 C. granulated sugar
1/3 C. shortening
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 C. milk
1 egg

Heat oven to 350°F. In 9-inch square pan, melt butter in oven. Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over melted butter. Arrange pineapple
slices over brown sugar. Place cherry in center of each pineapple slice.

In medium bowl, beat remaining ingredients with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on high
speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour batter over pineapple and cherries.

Bake 50 to 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Immediately place heatproof serving plate upside down
over pan; turn plate and pan over. Leave pan over cake a few minutes so brown sugar mixture can drizzle over cake; remove pan.

Serve warm.

Store cake loosely covered.


***Comments*** The cake turned out really moist but I think that it's lacking flavor. I should've added some vanilla to the cake mix. It has potential but it definitely needs some added ingredients to please me.

***Update*** My husband loved this cake. He took two pieces of it to work with him since he didn't have any dessert last night. He told me that he doesn't want me to change a thing with the recipe.

BBQ Beef Sandwiches

I'm trying to come up with simpler meals for our busy summer schedules. Tonight's dinner worked out great because I cooked beef for the sandwiches in the crockpot during last night's beef stir fry dinner. The homemade bbq sauce took just a few minutes to put together and cook.


BBQ Beef Sandwiches

2 lbs beef, cooked and shredded
12 oz. ketchup
1/4 C. brown sugar
1/4 C. sugar
1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 TBSP liquid smoke

Cook beef and set aside.

In a medium pot, over medium-high heat, stir together remaining ingredients. Once mixture comes to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Stir in shredded beef and heat thoroughly.

I served these bbq sandwiches on store bought Ciabatta rolls.


I had planned on corn-on-the-cob and microwaved potatoes to go along with the sandwiches but there wasn't a decent ear of corn to be found around our area. So...on to plan B....BBQ sandwiches, potatoes and canned corn.

Chocolate Covered Popcorn

My kids and I usually break out the popcorn for movie nights. Holding true with our tradition, we decided to make some popcorn before our movie on Saturday night. Because it was rather late, we decided on microwave popcorn instead of popping our own.

For an extra sweet treat, we decided to make a quick version of chocolate covered popcorn. You have a choice when you make this... to either use plain popcorn or butter flavored popcorn. The latter happens to be my favorite.


If you've never tried chocolate covered popcorn, you don't know what you're missing!

This version is quick and easy....

Pop 1 bag of butter flavored popcorn.

Spread the popcorn out on a baking sheet.

Melt 2-3 squares of almond bark the microwave.

Using a fork, drizzle the chocolate all over the popcorn.

Either leave the tray on the table for the chocolate to air dry or pop the tray into the freezer for 2 minutes. (Of course, we did the latter! We didn't want to wait.)

You can make this ahead of time and store it in plastic Ziploc bags.

It's great for gift-giving, too!


MMM!! Delicious!

Thrifty Thursdays - Thrifty Finds

I love, love, love to shop at thrift stores and yard sales! I have found some really good things during the last two weeks.

Since this is Thrify Thursdays the cooking edition, I'll only talk about my kitchen finds.

At GoodWill, I found a spice rack:


I've been searching for glass containers for my array of different spices and herbs that are taking up cupboard space. This set is brand new with plastic shaker tops and screw on lids. They are just waiting for me to find the perfect little labels for them. ;) $2.99 for the this set.

Last weekend, I found this wok at a yard sale.


It was pretty dusty from sitting in the lady's basement but other than that in excellent condition. It was never used. She even kept the booklets that came with it. There's lots of recipes included in the booklets. Yay! For $1.00, I couldn't pass it up!

Has anyone else had luck at thrift stores or yard sales? I'd love to hear what you've found.

I'm still searching for a set of ramekins. I know that there's a set of 4 or more out there somewhere for a really good (aka cheap) price. I know that someone like me has them sitting on a shelf collecting dust and that one day they are going to set them out for me to find. I know this because I did just that... I bought 8 new ramekins from an Oneida outlet store in NY years ago. I never used them so I gave them to GoodWill....and now I'm kicking myself for it. Yes, I could go buy a new set of 4 for $10. or more but what fun would that be?!?

Are you searching for something like this?


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