Super Chewy Sugar Cookies

I remember when I was in college, they used to sell some of the best sugar cookies in the on campus cafe.  The other day I found an awesome recipe for sugar cookies, "The Best Chewy Sugar Cookies Recipe" from AddaPinch.com and I have to say, it is one of the best sugar cookies I've ever made.

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

• 1½ cups granulated sugar*

• 1 egg

• 2¼ cups all-purpose flour

• ½ teaspoon baking powder

• ½ teaspoon Kosher salt ( I just used regular as it was what I had on hand)

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• ¼ cup granulated sugar for rolling cookies

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350º F. 
2. Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.** Add egg and mix until well-combined.
3. Stir in flour, baking powder, salt, and vanilla.
4. Scoop cookie dough by the tablespoon full and roll into a ball.
5. Add granulated sugar to a large bowl for rolling cookie dough in before baking. Place each ball of cookie dough into the bowl of granulated sugar and roll to coat well. Place cookie dough onto baking sheet, spacing about 1½-inches to 2 inches apart. Lightly press each cookie down. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned.***

Things we did

1. *Sugar - Now, I have a sweet tooth and I loved them, but some of my kids said they were too sweet (can you believe it?)  so you may want to decrease the amount of sugar.

2. **Creaming the butter and sugar. I usually always cream the butter and sugar in a recipe with just a wooden spoon but this time I decided to use the mixer for the three minutes and the dough came out so light and fluffy!  It was probably the softest cookie dough I've ever worked with.

3.  ***The directions call for cooking them 8-10. After 8 minutes they didn't look so done to me, so I left them in for 10 and I still wasn't satisfied so I ended up leaving them in for 15 minutes. I think this produced a crispier cookie than if I had left them in for the time specified, but they still had a great deal of chewiness to them, so I was satisfied.  I definitely want to try these again, in shaa Allah and I may reduce the time in the oven some from what I did this time as I know they still continue to cook on the cookie sheet for a bit.

Vinegar & Sugar Cucumbers

The name's not fancy, but this is one of my favorite foods from my childhood. My kids also love this. We made this today and my 11 year old told me that he firsts remembers eating cucumbers like this so when he had a plain cucumber some years ago he was disappointed  because he thought the cucumbers naturally tasted like this.

This is one of those recipes that you kind of have to tweak to fit your own tastes but here is a basic recipe:

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 - 3/4 cup white vinegar
• 2 cucumbers, peeled and sliced

Directions:

Whisk the sugar, vinegar and salt together. Add cucumber slices. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. The longer it sits, the better it tastes.  The  next day is even better (but we can never wait that long).

Like I said, this is one of those recipes that you will probably end up tweaking. The original recipe that I used called for 1/2 cup sugar but I thought this was too much.  You can also add other things as well to add more taste.  Some additions or variations I've seen:

• Add 1/4 teaspoon celery seed and 1/4 cup of onion and 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Use 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar and 1/4 cup white vinegar instead of only white vinegar
• Addition of 1 tablespoon dill or chives
• If it's too tart, you can add in some water.

Pumpkin Fever!

I have to admit, there was a time when I couldn't understand what all the excitement over pumpkin was.

Chewy Oatmeal Cookies

My 11 year old son and I made these cookies the other day. These may have been some of the chewiest cookies I've ever made. They were delicious!

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 cups quick cooking oats

•  

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, cream together butter, white sugar, and brown sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in oats. (We also added a packet of cocoa at this stage). Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour. (We skipped the chilling part this time around).
2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets. Roll the dough into walnut sized balls, and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Flatten each cookie with a large fork dipped in sugar.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Easy Streusel Topped Banana Bread

Banana bread is one of our favorite sweets.  The majority of the time I have made it with a streusel topping which makes it even yummier!

The recipe that I have been using lately is from Taste of Home, one of my favorite recipe sites.

Ingredients

Banana Bread

• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 2 medium ripe bananas, mashed (1 cup)
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon buttermilk*
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

The original recipes calls for an optional 1 cup of walnuts to be folded in after everything is mixed, but a few of my kids experience side effects from some nuts so I don't put them in.

Streusel Topping

The original recipe does not call for a streusel topping but we love it! Works well on other quick breads such as zucchini bread, coffee cakes, etc)

• ½ cup packed brown sugar

• ½ cup all-purpose flour

• ¼ cup quick-cooking oats

• ¼ cup (4 tablespoons) butter, room temperature

What to Do

1. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. 
2. In another bowl, combine the eggs, bananas, oil, buttermilk and vanilla; add to flour mixture, stirring just until combined. 
3. Mix up your streusel: Mix together brown sugar, flour, oats and butter until about pea-sized crumbles form. Set aside. (You can find the recipe for this again in my Streusel Topping for Quickbreads post)
4. Pour batter into a greased 9-in. x 5-in. loaf pan. 
5. Sprinkle streusel topping over the batter.
6. Bake at 325° for 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 hours or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on wire rack. 

Yield: 1 loaf 

*Buttermilk 

I hardly ever ever buy buttermilk so I make a substitution by combining lemon juice (or white vinegar) with regular milk.

Here is the substitution I've been using:

For each cup of buttermilk, use 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice plus enough milk to measure 1 cup. Stir, then let stand for 5 minutes. (Source: Taste of Home)

Why use buttermilk?
I wondered the same thing so I googled and found out that the reason why buttermilk is great to use in cakes and baking is that it combines with the baking soda to produce bubble of carbon dioxide gas. These bubbles are what gives your cake more volume. In addition, I read that this acid interferes with gluten formation to help keep your cake tender and light (Why Use Buttermilk - LifeMadeSweet)

"Tastes Like A Restaurant" Orange Chicken

Last week I was in the mood for something different and I was walking down the store aisles trying to think of something to do with this chicken that I had just put in my basket.  In the frozen section I saw some orange chicken. I love Asian food so that settled it and I googled an Orange Chicken recipe right there on the spot and came up with this one at Food.com.

There were many versions of orange chicken, some baked, some fried. This one fries the chicken in a batter.

Ingredients (Amended)

Batter:

The original recipe called for rice wine in the sauce; I omitted that because of the alcohol.

• 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken, chopped into bite sized pieces
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• white pepper
• oil ( for frying)
• 1/2 cup cornstarch, plus
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/4 cup flour

Orange Sauce:

• 1 tablespoon gingerroot, minced
• 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon red chili pepper flakes
• 1/4 cup green onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tablespoons water
• 5 tablespoons sugar
• 5 tablespoons white vinegar*
• Zest from 1 orange**

*In some comments, reviewers said they used brown sugar instead of the vinegar, so I did too.
**Could use orange juice as well

A few notes about this recipe:

• Several people in the comments said that this amount of orange sauce was not enough, so some even quadrupled it (which I did).
• Many complained about the directions being confusing.  I amended the directions below to reflect what I did, but you can see the original recipe here.

What to Do

Cooking the Chicken:

1. Place chicken pieces in large bowl, set aside.
2. In a medium bowl stir egg, salt, pepper and 1 tablespoon oil and mix well, set aside.
3. In a medium bowl stir together 1/2 cup of the cornstarch and all the flour.
4. Fold the cornstarch/flour mixture into the egg mixture to form a batter. (This is what I did differently).
5. Heat oil for deep-frying in wok or deep-fryer to 375 degrees.
6. Add chicken, small batches at a time, and fry 3 to 4 minutes or until golden crisp. 
7. Remove chicken from oil with slotted spoon and drain on paper towels; set aside.

This was my chicken after frying! So happy with the results because I generally am no good at deep frying things.  This time deep frying, I used our candy thermometer that came with our candy making kit to get the temperature just right and I think that made all the difference.  I set the microwave timer and cooked the pieces for 3 minutes, sometimes a skosh longer.  It was hard to keep everyone from eating the chicken at this point and I got a lot of "yums" and this is "awesome."

Making the Orange Sauce

Now the instructions were also unclear here about the orange sauce because at one point it said "add the orange sauce" but didn't say previously how to make it.  So this is what I did:

1. In a tablespoon or so of oil, I stir fried/sauteed the green onion, garlic, and gingerroot in a saucepan. (I put in the garlic last because I know it can burn quickly). At this point you could add the red chili pepper flakes, but I, unlike my kids, do not like spicy, hot foods, so I omitted it.
2. Then I added the water, sesame oil (my new favorite thing), soy sauce, white sugar, and brown sugar (I just used the same amount as I would have for the vinegar--but I did make more than one batch worth so I adjusted it accordingly) and I added the orange zest (some reviewers said they used orange juice. I can't remember, I may have added some orange juice as well).  I stirred and let simmer for a few minutes. 
3. Next, I mixed the 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with some water to form a liquidy mix, and I added that to the sauce and let it simmer until it thickened up.
4. Add the chicken to the sauce in a skillet and let simmer for a few minutes.

Chicken simmering in the pan

1. Serve over rice (the recipe said jasmine rice, but I just used regular white rice and threw in some steamed carrots and broccoli, along with canned corn.)

The final product!

This was such a hit. One of my high schoolers came home from football practice and ate some and he said he thought it was from a restaurant at first.

I encourage you to view the original recipe as well as the comments below it as they were very helpful for me.

Popcorn Balls!

For Eid, we made popcorn balls. They were super easy to make and tasty. I used a recipe from Taste of Home.com

Ingredients

• 7 quarts popped popcorn
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Food coloring, optional

Directions

1. Place popcorn in a large baking pan; keep warm in a 200° oven.
2. In a heavy saucepan, combine the sugar, corn syrup, water and salt. Cook over medium heat until a candy thermometer reads 235° (soft-ball stage).
3. Remove from the heat. Add the butter, vanilla and food coloring if desired; stir until butter is melted. Immediately pour over popcorn and stir until evenly coated.
4. When mixture is cool enough to handle, quickly shape into 3-in. balls, dipping hands in cold water to prevent sticking. Yield: 20 servings.

Things We Did:

-7 Quarts of popped corn is about 28 cups. We used 3 bags of microwave popcorn which yielded around 28/29 cups.

-I made up one batch of the sugary sweetness and poured it over the popped corn but it didn't seem like enough to coat them enough so I made another batch.

-Our corn syrup had vanilla flavoring in it already so I probably could have skipped adding vanilla but I added it anyway.

-We used two colors of food coloring (each batch of the sugar mixture was a different color). Although you can't really see it in the pictures, our popcorn balls were red, green (and yellow from the popcorn itself)

-We got about 31 balls, not sure how big each ball was, we might have made them smaller as we got more balls than the 20 the recipe says it yields.

Our mixture bubbling

Right after we poured the mixture over the popcorn

These were really good and pretty easy to make, however they make you feel like you want to run to brush your teeth directly after eating them :)

Easy Cornbread!

This is a super easy recipe and great if you like really sweet cornbread (if not, just decrease the sugar). I whipped some of this up the other day for our chili.

What You Need:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup yellow cornmeal

2/3 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon salt

3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 egg

1 cup milk

1/3 cup vegetable oil

What You Do

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Spray or lightly grease a 9 inch round cake pan.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder. 

3. Stir in egg, milk and vegetable oil until well combined. 

4, Pour batter into prepared pan.

5. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

That's it! 

Source: AllRecipes.com

Just for the record:  I didn't have milk on hand but we desperately needed something to go with the chili. So, being desperate, I used the half and half we had on hand, mixing 1/2 cup of half and half with 1/2 cup of water. Everybody raved about it. I would probably decrease the sugar a bit the next time, but the kids said this was the best cornbread I made ever!

Streusel Topping

If you've never made streusel topping for your quick breads such as muffins and banana bread, you definitely HAVE TO give it a try. It really spruces them up by not only making them look prettier but also making them even more tasty!

I have been putting streusel on my banana breads for years and yesterday I branched out and tried it on some cinnamon quick bread that I made. I've tried many recipes over the years, but I found one the other day and it's the best one I've made yet!

After mixing up the streusel, you top the bread/muffins with it THEN you bake it.

Streusel Topping

What you need:

• ½ cup packed brown sugar

• ½ cup all-purpose flour

• ¼ cup quick-cooking oats

• ¼ cup (4 tablespoons) butter, room temperature

What you do:

Mix together brown sugar, flour, oats and butter until about pea-sized crumbles form.

 Top the muffin batter with the streusel topping, then bake.

My 11 year old made banana bread all by himself this week (under my supervision and it sure was fun) and we used the streusel topping. This is the consistency after we mixed it up:

And this was our banana bread after baking:

Homemade Syrup

I made some banana pancakes this morning before realizing that we didn't have any syrup. So I googled some recipes for homemade syrup. I love making homemade versions of products that I would normally buy at the store. It's so rewarding when they come out right.

What you need

• 1⁄2 cup brown sugar
• 1⁄2 cup granulated sugar
• 1⁄2 cup water
• 1⁄4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 pinch salt

What you do

1. Microwave for 50 seconds. Stir.
2. Microwave for 50 seconds more or until mixture boils. Stir.
3. Serve hot or let cool.

You may have to adjust the cooking time due to microwave variations. You can also cook it over the stove top as well. 

The recipe is from Food.com. One of the commenters suggested starting with 1/3 cup of water. I didn't see the comment until after I had already made up my batch (and I didn't measure my water) so I ended up having to add more of the sugars. So I definitely would recommend adding a smaller amount of water first and then adding water as needed for consistency.

Our syrup:

Ummy, How Do You Make Deviled Eggs?

My 15 year old son came in and asked how to boil eggs. (He wanted some for breakfast).

Well, when I cook, if I'm not specifically following a recipe, I just... do...stuff..

Ok, put them in the water, let it come to a boil....... but he needed specifics.

So I wanted to give him a good set of instructions that he could carry with him to adulthood (When I got to college, I did not  know how to boil an egg at all!)

I turned to Better Homes and Gardens (an oldie but goodie). I told him verbally, but I wanted to have a good recipe that I could refer to when the next child was ready to boil an egg.

How to Boil an Egg

• Arrange the eggs in a single layer in a large saucepan so they cook evenly. Do not stack them.
• Add enough cold water to cover the eggs by 1 inch.
• Heat saucepan over medium-high heat until the water comes to a rapid boil (water will have large, rapidly breaking bubbles).
• Immediately remove pan from heat.
• After removing from heat, cover the saucepan and allow it to stand for 15 minutes.
• Drain the eggs, then run cold water over them or place them in a large bowl filled with ice water until the eggs cool.
• To peel an egg, gently tap it on the counter to crack the shell. Use your fingers to peel off the shell.
• Rinse the peeled egg under cold water to remove any remaining bits of shell.

Well, after the eggs were boiled, he asked me, "How do you make those devil's eggs?" (He was being funny, he's knows their real name.)

Again, when I make stuff, sometimes it's just a throw together kind of deal. But, again, I wanted him to have a good recipe to be able to follow to get the proportions right.

So, I came across another BHG recipe  (via Food.com), tweaked it ever so slightly for clarity and let him have at it.

This is what he needed:

• 6 hard-boiled eggs
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon vinegar
• 1 teaspoon prepared mustard
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 dash ground black pepper

And this is what he did:

Cut 6 hard boiled eggs in half lengthwise.

Removed the yolks

 and mashed them with a fork.

Mixed the egg yolks with all other ingredients.

Filled the egg whites with the yolk mixture.

Sprinkled paprika on top of each yolk mixture.

And voile!

He loved them.  

He--loved--them! 

How do I know?

He made more for lunch.........

Want more great kids' cooking basics resources? 

I've started a collection of them in a Pinterest board:

Follow TJ HOMESCHOOLING's board Cooking-Kids Basic Cooking Skills on Pinterest.

Fluffy French Toast

One of our favorite breakfasts is French Toast.  I started out the master (main) French Toast cooker. But, because we have a large family, it takes me forever to make it when I have to make it for everyone.  It's one of my husband's favorite breakfasts so I get requests for it often. If I've just make a small batch for him and the older kids wake up and smell it and want some, well now, they make it themselves.  I even get treated to some at times!

I make my recipe a little different from a lot of recipes I see in that I use flour in my batter.  I stumbled across a Fluffy French Toast recipe on All Recipes that is similar to what I do (I just throw things in at this point, but I needed a recipe that the kids could follow, so this fit the bill).

What you need:

• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1 pinch salt
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 12 thick slices bread

What you do:

1. Measure flour into a large mixing bowl. Slowly whisk in the milk. 
2. Whisk in the salt, eggs, cinnamon, vanilla extract and sugar until smooth.
3. Heat a lightly oiled (I use margarine) griddle or frying pan over medium heat. 
4. Soak bread slices in mixture until saturated.
5. Cook bread on each side until golden brown. (Now for cooking, as I said above,  I use margarine or Crisco and although it adds more calories, I put in a new pat of margarine with each batch (I generally cook two slices at a time). I find it comes out "ugly" if I don't re-margarine the griddle/pan). Make sure it is cooked well because it came come out "liquidy" in the inside if not.
6. Serve hot with powdered sugar or syrup.

This recipe makes 12 slices, so I wanted to reduce it for the kids (hey, makes a great math exercise for homeschooling, but I cheated and used All Recipes' recipe adjuster gadget).

• 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
•  2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons milk
•  1/8 pinch salt
•  1/2 eggs (we'll just round that to 1 egg)
•  1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
•  1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
•  1/2 teaspoon white sugar
•  2 thick slices bread

Make Homemade Pizza with the Kids!

Making pizza at home is the best! Not only do you get a pretty healthy meal, but it's a great family activity.  At our house, sometimes each child makes their own pizza, and other times, we leave it up to the girls to handcraft each pizza.  I usually make the dough, but sometimes my middle schoolers help.

Speaking of dough, all great pizzas start off with a great dough. I've found a terrific pizza dough at Sally's Baking Addiction. Ok, it's a recipe for cheesy breadsticks, but she said it would be great for pizza dough...and she was not wrong.  We've made pizzas with it three times and it comes out great every time.

Here's what you'll need for the dough:

• 2 and 1/4 teaspoons yeast (1 standard packet)
• 1 and 1/3 cups (320ml) warm water (105-115 degrees F degrees)
• 3 and 1/2 cups (440g) unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more as needed
• 2 Tablespoons (30ml) olive oil
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon (13g) granulated sugar

This dough makes about 2  12'' pizzas. We usually have to make 9-10 pizzas, so we usually make 4 batches of dough.

So here's what you do:

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the yeast and warm water. 
2. Stir  the yeast around and let it sit for 5 minutes of until the yeast is foamy and dissolved. (If the yeast doesn't dissolve, bummer, it's dead, so you'll need to start again with more yeast.)
3. Add the olive oil, salt, and sugar and stir. Then add the flour. Mix by hand. (I generally add the flour 1 cup at a time and stir after each addition). I try to go with the minimum amount of flour (or even less). I have found that the less flour the better. You want a dough that feels light in your hand, not hard and dense, like a brick.
4. Once all of the ingredients are mixed, knead for 7 minutes by hand. If you are new to bread making, I found a great, short video that shows the basics of kneading:

If your dough is too wet, add up to 1/4 cup more flour. After kneading, your dough should be smooth and elastic. (If you poke it with your finger and it slowly bounces back, your dough is ready to rise. If not, you need to keep kneading.)

5. Shape the dough into a ball and place in a large mixing bowl that has been coated lightly with olive oil. Turn it over to coat all sides. Cover tightly with plastic wrap (we use a plate) and allow the dough to rise in a warm place (about 75F-80F).  Depending on your type of yeast, your dough will have doubled in size in about 1 - 2 hours. 

6. After your dough has doubled, punch it down to release the air. Divide your dough into half.  Roll each half into a ball and let rest in two separate bowls lightly covered for 10 minutes. (Ok, you got me, we usually skip this resting deal, but mostly because we're anxious to get to the party started....)

7. Spread each ball into a greased 12-in. pizza pan to your desired diameter and thickness of pizza crust (We just use cookie sheets and sprinkle some cornmeal underneath). Some of the kids roll it thin (which is probably a good idea since it poofs up) and some go a little thicker.

8. Next, pour and spread  your pizza sauce on the dough (ok you can make your own pizza sauce, but we don't "got time for that." We use Ragu Pizza sauce generally.

9. Then comes the cheese! We use shredded cheese (though I am sure it would be cheaper to shred it ourselves, but again, time.....). A lot of recipes call for mozzarella cheese, but we just use a cheddar fiesta blend)

10. Then, top with your toppings. These are our favs:

• Pepperoni (We just found some turkey pepperoni the other week, so it was finally great to have pepperoni again! That's one of the many things I miss about being overseas in the Middle East---Halaal pepperoni and any other kind of meat you want)
• Onions
• Mushrooms
• Pineapple
• Green Peppers
• Black olives (my favorite)

11. At this point, some of the kids mix melted butter and garlic salt and some herbs to create a garlic butter and spread around the edges. (Wow is that good!)

12. Now for the cooking part. You may have to fiddle with the cooking times and temperatures to get it just right for you, but you can use this as a starter:

• 400 degrees F (you can find Celsius and Gas Mark conversions here) for 20 minutes

and voile!  

The best pizza on earth 

(cuz you made it!)

One of our most recent pizzas. Yum! We could eat this every weekend!

If you have kids, you've probably made your own pizza many times and found it makes a great family tradition. 

If not, you've got to try it! The kids will love it! All my kids say it's loads better than commercial pizza.