Toffee - Week 9 of 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies!

 I hope that each and every one of you had a fantastic Thanksgiving.  I know we did...I'm still feeling full from all of the delicious food we ate.  I'm finally getting around to my cookie post for the day.  We've been having so much fun decorating for Christmas that I haven't gotten around to it...until now.  I made toffee this week to share for our Thanksgiving dinner, but we had so much food that we barely ate it!  :)  It's super easy and fun to make.  The recipe says to use foil, but next time I would probably try something different.  The toffee stuck to the foil pretty bad and I had to use some strong forces to get it off!  Maybe parchment paper or a silicone mat would work better. 
Toffee
adapted from: Cooks
40 saltine crackers
1 c. butter
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. milk chocolate chips
Arrange 40 saltine crackers on foil on a jelly roll pan. Melt butter and brown sugar in pan and boil 3 minutes. Pour over crackers. Bake for 5 minutes in preheated oven at 325 degrees. Pour chocolate chips over and let stand 5 minutes to melt. Spread around with knife. Place in refrigerator until hard. Break up into bite-size pieces. Yum!



This would look great on any holiday cookie tray!  I can't wait to see what every one else is baking this week for the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies!  Christmas Season has officially begun - time to pack up the pumpkins and pull out the trees, angels, Santa's, nativities, and stockings!  Our house is starting to feel like Christmas!

Week 9 Twelve Weeks of Christmas:

The Cutest Turkey Shirt

I've been wanting to make Little Man a turkey shirt to wear on Thursday.  Of course, I waited until this week to actually put it into action.  I searched the entire town to find a plain white short sleeve t-shirt in his size with no luck.  I finally found a long sleeve white shirt at Target today and decided that I had to use it.  I had already drawn my own turkey template, but then I happened upon this one over at The Cottage Home.  I decided to use it instead of my own.  The shirt turned out super cute if I don't say so myself.  I found some fabric scraps at the store that semi-coordinated and got to work.  Don't forget to make sure you have Wonder Under in your craft stash before you get to work.  I searched and searched this afternoon in my craft closet and couldn't for the life of me find it - so I had to make another trip to Hobby Lobby!  That's not always a bad thing...

Here's the super cute shirt for Thursday.  I still need to give the turkey eyes and a beak, but it's basically finished!  I'm so happy with it!

Thanksgiving Day Menu

Thanksgiving week is here!  Are you ready?  I think I'm ready, but we will see when Thursday rolls around!  We are having a little get together, 6 adults and Little Man so we are keeping it low key this year.  I'm sure most of you have your menus finalized, but I just wanted to share mine in case you are still looking for that last minute side dish!  Here's the plan:

Turkey and Cornbread Dressing
My aunt has offered to cook the turkey and dressing for us.  I'm so very thankful for this, because I've never actually cooked a turkey before.  I can't believe that I am admitting that to you...

Hashbrown Casserole
Cheesy, potatoey, ooey-gooey goodness.  You need this crunchy cracker topped goodness in your life!

Cheesy Bacon Green Bean Casserole Pot Pie
The name says it all: Cheese+Bacon+Green Beans+Puff Pastry=Deliciousness.  I might not need the rest of the sides once I start eating this!

Sweet Potatoes
My mom's recipe which I have yet to perfect.  It contains sweet potatoes (obviously), some brown sugar, a touch of honey, a little Karo syrup and lots of marshmallows toasted on top!  It's like eating candy!  Delicious.Sweet.Potato.Candy!  Enough said!

Rolls, Gravy, Cranberry Sauce
The essentials.  Can't have Thanksgiving Dinner without these!  I'm using a little help from the store on these items....shhh don't tell anyone!

Desserts - yes please!
Pumpkin Praline Pie - yep it's pumpkin pie on the top with a crunchy pecan praline layer on the bottom!  Courtesy of my mother-in-law!
Pumpkin Bread  - I haven't made this one myself, but I have several friends who have and it is delicious!  It makes a ton of bread though, be prepared to gift some of it off to your guests when they leave! :)
Toffee - I'm thinking of substituting Graham Crackers for the saltines in this one.  I'll let you know how it goes.  This might end up being Christmas Cookie of the week! :) 

After stuffing our faces with such good food, I don't know if I'll be able to waddle my way to the laptop for Friday's cookie post!  I hope that you and your family have a blessed Thanksgiving and enjoy spending time with each other.  Remember the spirit of this holiday, be thankful for all that we have been blessed with!  I'm blessed beyond measure and I hope that you feel the same too!  Happy Thanksgiving!

Pecan Pie Cookies - Week 8 of 12 Weeks of Cookies!

I had a request from C this week for some type of Pecan Cookies.  After browsing through a few recipes, I finally settled on this Pecan Pie Cookie recipe from the Land O'Lakes website.  I have to admit that I'm not the biggest pecan pie person.  I prefer pumpkin pie over pecan pie any day of the week, especially Thanksgiving.  Nevertheless, I thought it might be good for me to try pecan pie in a cookie form.  They aren't my favorite cookie by any means (I know, who bakes a cookie they don't like and then blogs about it?), but C said that they were really good.  I guess that I'm just biased when it comes to pecans.  For some reason I don't want them in my baked goods!  Call me crazy! :)  Enough of that, on to the recipe:

Pecan Pie Cookies
From: Land 'O Lakes
Ingredients:
Cookie

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

Filling

1 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/4 cup whipping cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:  Heat oven to 350°F. Combine all cookie ingredients except flour and baking powder in large bowl. Beat at medium speed until creamy. Reduce speed to low; add flour and baking powder. Beat until well mixed.  Shape dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Place 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Make indentation in each cookie with thumb; rotate thumb to hollow out slightly.  Combine all filling ingredients in small bowl; fill each cookie with 1 rounded teaspoon filling. Bake for 8 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets.

So, moral of the cookie story is:  If you like pecan pie or pecans in general, you will like these cookies.  If you are like me and prefer pecans to stay away from your cookies, then maybe you want to avoid making these!  :)  I find it hard to write much about a cookie that I'm not fond of, I feel like I am leading you guys astray!  You come to this blog to find things that I love, so it seems a little weird to me to be doing this.  It makes me feel better that C says they are good.  At least the cookie has his support!  He wouldn't lie to me about the way something tastes.   I've heard the good, the bad and the ugly about some of my recipes, so trust him!

Alright, I'm off to bake something with chocolate in it!  That makes my tummy happy!  Don't forget to check out the other cookie posts that are part of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies!  Happy Baking!

Week 8 Twelve Weeks of Christmas: