Chocolate Mint Andes Cookies - 2016 Cookie Contest Winner

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 eggs

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 (4.5 ounce) packages Andes Mints

Directions

1. In a saucepan over medium heat, cook the sugar, butter and water, stirring occasionally until melted. Remove from heat, stir in the chocolate chips until melted and set aside to cool for 10 minutes.
2. Pour the chocolate mixture into a large bowl, and beat in the eggs, one at a time. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt, stir into the chocolate mixture. Cover and refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets. Roll cookie dough into walnut sized balls and place 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets.
4. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, be careful not to overbake. When cookies come out of the oven, Press one mint candy into the top of each cookie and let sit for 1 minute. When the mint is softened, swirl with the back of a spoon or toothpick to make a pattern with the green filling of the mint wafer. For smaller cookies, break mints in half.

Debbie's Yorkshire Pudding

5/8 cup flour
4 eggs
7/8 c milk
sunflower oil or bacon grease or pork/beef drippings
salt & pepper for seasoning

Heat oven to 446 degrees.  Drizzle oil/grease/fat into each hole of a 12 muffin tin.  Place in oven to warm up. 

Mix ingredients together and pour batter into heated holes.  Place tins back in oven and leave undisturbed (do not open oven door) for 20-25 minutes. 

Brittany's Shrimp Dip

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/4 cup chives, or minced green onions
• 1 red bell pepper, minced
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese
• 12 ounces SeaPak Shrimp Scampi
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 lemon, zested
• 1 tablespoon cajun seasoning
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 sourdough bowl

DIRECTIONS:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
• Defrost the shrimp and chop the shrimp into 1/2 inch dice.
• In a large bowl add the chives, bell pepper, mayonnaise, cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, shrimp, lemon juice and zest, cajun seasoning and Worcestershire sauce and stir until combined.
• Cut the top of the sourdough loaf off the bread.
• Scoop out the insides until the walls of the bread are 1/2 inch thick.
• Put the dip into the bread bowl.
• Bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes or until the mixture is bubbly and the bread is nicely browned.
• Serve with crackers or baguette slices.

Brittany's Frito Corn Salad

Frito Corn Salad

Ingredients

• 2 (15 ounce) cans whole kernel corn, drained
• 2 cups grated cheddar cheese
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1 cup green pepper , chopped
• 1 ⁄2 cup red onion , chopped
• 1 (10 1/2 ounce) bag coarsely crushed regular Fritos corn chips or Fritos chili cheese corn chips
• Fritos Scoops for serving

Mix first 5 ingredients and chill. Stir in corn chips just before serving. You may not want to add all of the corn chips. Add a little at a time. Some people prefer to just serve the Fritos on the side or crumbled on top. You can eat this with a spoon or as a dip with Fritos Scoops for serving.

Sharon's Cabbage Ramen Salad

Sharon's Cabbage Ramen Salad

1 3 oz package of ramen noodles (any flavor)
1/4 c sliced almonds
1/3 c canola oil
1/4 c cider vinegar
2.5 Tbls. sugar
1 bag shredded cabbage/carrot mixture
3 green onions, sliced

Remove flavor packet from soup mix.  Break noodles into pieces and place them and the almonds on a lightly greased baking sheet at 350 degrees, stirring occasionally until toasted (5-10 minutes).

Whisk together flavor packet, oil, vinegar and sugar until well blended.  Chill for 1 hour.

Toss together last two ingredients and dressing.  Top with noodles/almonds.

Gina's World Famous Cookie Cake

Cookie Cake:

1.5 cup (3 sticks) butter, softened
1.25  c. sugar
1.25 c. brown sugar
3 eggs
3 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
4.25  c. flour
1 full bag chocolate chips (plus 1 extra cup if desired)

Bake in greased 9x13 pan for 32 minutes.  It will still be very soft in the middle -- it will harden.  Don't overcook or the edges will be too hard to enjoy.


Frosting:

1/2 c. shortening
1/2 c (1 stick) butter, softened
1 tsp. vanilla
4 Tbls. milk
4 cups powdered sugar

Beat together for 5 minutes.  Spread atop cookie cake.  

Beer Beef Sliders on Hawaiian Rolls

Ingredients
3-pound beef chuck roast
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
4 garlic cloves
1 red onion, sliced
1 cup Italian dressing
1 cup beer (use your favorite!)
2 bay leaves
Hawaiian slider buns
Sliced colby jack cheese

Directions
1. Place the chuck roast into a 6-quart or larger slow cooker. Sprinkle the roast with the salt and pepper. Place the garlic cloves on top of the roast. Add the red onion, then pour in the Italian dressing and beer. Place the bay leaves on top.

2. Cover and cook on high for 6 hours or on low for 8 to 10. Don’t open the lid during the cooking time.

3. Discard bay leaves and shred the meat with two forks. Smash the garlic with the back of a fork, and stir the garlic into the shredded meat. Discard any fat, and drain off the grease. Serve the shredded meat on Hawaiian slider buns with the colby jack cheese. Melt the cheese under the broiler in the oven if desired. Enjoy!

Instant Pot: Honey Sesame Chicken

PRESSURE COOKER HONEY SESAME CHICKEN

yield: 6 SERVINGS

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 large boneless skinless chicken breasts, diced (about 2 lbs.)
• Salt and pepper
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 1/2 cup honey*
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 3 tablespoons water
• 2 green onions, chopped
• Sesame seeds, toasted

DIRECTIONS:

Salt and pepper chicken. Preheat pressure cooking pot using the saute setting. Add oil, onion, garlic, and chicken to the pot and saute stirring occasionally until onion is softened, about 3 minutes.

Add soy sauce, ketchup, and red pepper flakes to the pressure cooking pot and stir to combine. Pressure cook on high for 3 minutes. When timer beeps, turn pressure cooker off and do a quick pressure release.

Add sesame oil and honey to the pot and stir to combine. In a small bowl, dissolve cornstarch in water and add to the pot. Select Saute and simmer until sauce thickens. Stir in green onions.

Serve over rice sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Sugar Cookies

1 cup slightly softened butter

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated white sugar

2 extra large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

4 (or 4 1/2 cups) flour

Cream the butter and both sugars together. If you have any brown sugar lumps, you should crush them up or pull them out. They make weird dents in your baked cookies. Add the eggs and the vanilla and mix thoroughly. Add the salt and baking powder and again with the mixing of the dough. 

Before you add the flour, let's have a little chat. Different altitudes need different amounts of flour. Differences in humidity will the change the amount of flour you should add. Is there a storm coming? That changes things. Add only 3 cups to begin with. Then add additional flour 1/2 cup at a time until the dough is no longer sticky. (This happens at about 4 cups of flour for me...except in the winter time when it happens at 3 1/2 cups flour.) That's when you should stop if you are going to chill the dough, or just wait for another day to bake it. If you are going to roll it out right away, add another half of a cup of flour so it will be thick enough to move from rolling out surface to your baking sheet. 

Bake at 350F. If you roll to 1/4" thick, bake for about 7 minutes. If you roll to 3/8" thick, bake for about 10 minutes.