Tag Archives: cranberry

Food

Fancy Schmancy Snickerdoodles

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My friends Julie & Betty want to help you out this holiday season with some semi homemade cookies that will surely get you, and anyone else you may share them with, into the spirit.

White Chocolate Cranberry Cream Cheese Snickerdoodles 

Sounds fancy, right? Fancy, yes. Lots of work, no.

First, you need to procure some Betty Crocker Snickerdoodle mix. I found mine at Target, but I’m sure a lot of places have it as a seasonal item. If you see it, pick it up because I understand it can be hard to come by.

Ingredients:

1 pouch Betty Crocker snickerdoodle cookie mix
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 tablespoon water
1 egg
1 cup sweetened dried cranberries
1 cup white chocolate chips

Beat together cream cheese and butter until smooth.
Open cookie mix.
Set aside cinnamon sugar packet.

Add water, egg and cookie mix to cream cheese mixture.
Stir until soft dough forms.
Add in cranberries and white chocolate chips.


Cover & refrigerate 30 minutes.

After that horrible 30 minutes is over, drop rounded spoonfuls of dough into cinnamon sugar.
(You need to ask Santa for this cookie scoop. Perfect, uniform cookies every time.)
Roll in cinnamon sugar mixture to coat.

Place two inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake a 375º for 8-9 minutes until edges are set.
Cool one minute then transfer to cooling rack.

Makes approximately 2 1/2 dozen.

They are to-die-for. Guaranteed to make back injuries feel a little bit better. True story.

These can be baked up in a jiffy and are perfect holiday treats for the special people in your life. Package up a half dozen or a dozen, attach a little festive handwritten note and deliver cinnamon sugary happiness.

 You could change it up and do dark chocolate chips and chopped dried cherries or keep the white chocolate chips and sub dried blueberries. Adding some orange zest would also be a nice touch to the cranberry variety. Or what about some fresh lemon zest to the blueberry ones?

OK, go. Log off now and get the goods to make these.

Enjoy and Happy Tuesday!

Fiestas & Fetes, Food, Friends, Fun

Superbowl Eats

OK, this will be the last of the recipe posts for a bit…I’ll be eating rice cakes and water for the next week and those two aren’t very blog worthy! I feel like ALL I’ve been posting lately is FOOD, FOOD, FOOD…so this next week, I am going to shoot for some calorie free topics. But……..

Today we had some neighbors over for the Superbowl and I tried to keep things simple with some quick and easy favorites, but I’ve been wanting to try these Cranberry Meatballs since the holidays, so I HAD to make them for the big game today. The verdict is that they were a hit because when I went to take a picture of them all nestled in the crock pot swimming in their sweet cranberry sauce, there were only about 5 remaining:

This recipe is a keeper and next time I may try them with turkey meatballs although they were just perfect with the beef variety. Super easy AND a big hit? That’s a good recipe in my book.

Then there was the always popular Sonoma Salad…

which again, when I went to the bowl to snap a pic this was all that was left:

This is a great salad because it’s so versatile and can be switched out with different goodness:

{switch out the butter lettuce with spring mix or baby spinach}

{substitute gorgonzola or goat cheese for the blue}

{use dried blueberries, cherries or raisins in place of the Craisins}

{honey roasted almonds can easily replace the glazed walnuts}

{pears can take the place of the apple}

The possibilities are endless and that is why I love this go-to salad! Again, thank you Melanie for bringing this to us almost 3 years ago when we brought our sweet baby Holden home! This salad also brings back happy memories every time I serve it!

And then there is the Artichoke Dip that tickled my taste buds so many years ago in the Qualcomm Stadium parking lot! I’ve loved it and made it LOTS ever since. No oven necessary!

Normally I use quartered artichoke hearts, but Albertson’s was fresh out of them this morning so I tried these artichoke bottoms and there was nothing sacrificed. I just chopped the bottoms in my mini food processor and that was that ~ not any real difference than with the quarters.

And there she is….served with a multigrain baguette and some Ritz crakers…sheer perfection on a carb! Can’t go wrong with this one folks, believe me!

I realize that my decor looks more like a bridal shower or Mother’s Day brunch and not reflective at all of Superbowl Sunday, but nobody seemed to care…these recipes are all a hit and I hope that you try them sometime soon! Whoever is on the receiving end will thank you!

We washed all these yummies down with a good ‘ol Cape Codder or vodka cran with lime!

It was a great game with a great menu spent with great friends….another weekend down! Bring on Monday!

I hope you have a “super” week ahead!