Cherry Limeade Sandwich Cookies Recipe

These cookies are very similar to the strawberry lemonade sandwich cookies that I posted a few days ago.  However, when I made these cherry limeade cookies I altered the recipe for the cookie a little bit in order to try to get a little softer, more moist texture on the cookie itself.  It worked.  The recipe below is pretty yummy if I do say so myself!

Cherry Sugar Cookie:

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter softened
1/2 cup (1/2 stick) shortening
1/2 cup granulated sugar (plus more to roll cookies in)
Coarse red decorator sugar
1 3oz. box Black Cherry Jello mix (I couldn't find a 3 oz. size for Black Cherry, so I poured the 6 oz. package into a measuring cup and poured half into the mix)
1 teaspoon of vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons milk

2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees or 375 degrees using a true convection setting (recommended.)

Begin by creaming the shortening, softened butter, sugar and Jello mix.  When ingredients are well mixed add eggs and vanilla and beat well.  Next take the baking soda and, in a small bowl, stir together with the milk.  Add this to your mixture along with the baking powder and mix well.  Finally, add remaining dry ingredients and stir slowly at first then on medium for about 3 minutes.

Unlike many sugar cookie doughs, this dough does not need to be refrigerated before manipulating.

Lightly grease two cookie sheets.  Prepare a bowl with granulated sugar.  Spoon dough out of the bowl in roughly consistent amounts using a spoon and roll the ball of dough in the sugar.  Then place dough on the cookie sheets.

Once all balls are down, take the bottom of a glass and press the cookies to about 1/4" thickness.  Sprinkle red sugar over the top of each cookie.  Bake for 6 minutes.  Allow to thoroughly cool before frosting.

Lime Butter Frosting:

1/2 of a 2 lb. bag of Confectioner's Sugar (approximately 3 3/4 level cups)
1/2 cup butter (1 stick) well softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 shake salt
1 tablespoon milk
zest from 2 limes
juice from 2 limes

Mix all ingredients together in a mixer on low until just blended and then on medium for 3 minutes or until fluffy.  Spoon mixture into gallon size Ziplock bag and refrigerate for approximately 15-30 minutes.

When cookies have completely cooled, snip the tip off the Ziplock bag and squeeze frosting onto the unsugared side of half of the cookies.  Lightly press the other cookies on top to form the sandwich.  Refrigerate cookies that are not immediately eaten in an airtight container.  They are even better on day 2!


Enjoy!

Strawberry Lemonade Sandwich Cookies Recipe

This may be the perfect summer cookie recipe.  It's that good.  These things are incredibly addictive.  Bursting with flavor and oh so pretty...don't say I didn't warn you.

Strawberry Lemonade Sandwich Cookies:

Strawberry Cookie:

2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
(1) 3 oz. box of Strawberry Jello
1/2 cup (1 stick) shortening
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 400 degrees or use true convection setting at 375 degrees (I highly recommend convection for these cookies if you have that option available.)

Start by creaming the shortening, butter (well softened first), sugar, Jello and vanilla.  After these ingredients are creamed then add both eggs and beat well.  Finally, add remaining dry ingredients.  Unlike many sugar cookie recipes, this batter does not need to chill before manipulating it.

Prepare a bowl of granulated sugar.  Scoop dough from bowl in reasonably uniform amounts (I used a melon-baller.)  Roll ball of dough in bowl of granulated sugar and place ball on lightly greased cookie sheet.  After all balls are laid on the sheet, use the bottom of a glass to flatten dough to approximately 1/4-1/2 inch thickness.   Finally, go back over the cookies and sprinkle coarse pink sugar over the tops of the cookies.

Bake for 6 minutes.

Remove cookies and cool thoroughly on the sheet.  While cooling, you can make the frosting.

 Lemonade Butter Frosting:

1/2 of a 2lb. bag of Confectioner's Sugar (approximately 3 3/4 level cups)
1/2 cup butter (1 stick) well softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 shake salt
1 tablespoon milk
Zest from 1 1/2 lemons
Juice from 1 1/2 lemons

Mix all ingredients together on low until well blended and then on medium for approximately 3 minutes or until fluffy.  Spoon mixture into gallon size Ziplock bag and refrigerate for approximately 15-30 minutes.

When cookies are completely cooled, cut tip from Ziplock bag and pipe frosting onto inside of each cookie, adding another cookie on top to create the sandwich.  Once you create the sandwiches, you should refrigerate the cookies and store in an airtight container.  I thought that they tasted better the day after.

There you go!  I think these cookies just taste like summer...let me know what you think!

Sweet & Spicy Slow Cooker Meatballs

I am a huge fan of Sandra Lee and her semi-homemade cooking show on Food Network.  Don't get me wrong, I'm also a fan of completely from scratch cooking, but sometimes I have to choose between completely homemade and occasionally sleeping.  I also like to indulge in semi-homemade because it works well with couponing.  Frozen meats tend to go on sale with coupons more often and for deeper discounts than fresh meat.  For example, I got the meatballs for this recipe on a 2 for 1 sale with a coupon to boot. 

You will need:

1 bag of frozen meatballs (this recipe calls for a 2.4lb. bag of approximately 76 meatballs)
Jasmine rice
2 cups ketchup
1 1/4 cups raspberry chipotle sauce (from Costco...a lot of things can be substituted for this: BBQ sauce, grape jelly, or even hoisin sauce)
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon jarred minced garlic (or one clove finely minced fresh garlic)
2 teaspoons jarred or "tubed" minced lemon grass 
2 teaspoons jarred or "tubed" minced ginger

Mix all of the sauce ingredients together in a bowl.  Place the frozen meatballs in the crockpot/slow cooker and pour the sauce over the meatballs.  Stir together.  Set the crockpot/slow cooker on high and cook for 1.5 - 2 hours or until warm.  Serve over jasmine rice.

Super Easy Homemade Donuts Recipe

Tonight I had not planned very well for Sunday dinner.  So we were left dessertless and wondering what we could whip up with what we had on hand.  I ended up making homemade donuts with whipped cream and raspberry preserves to dip in...and they were amazing!  AND amazingly easy...which is my kind of recipe.

Here's what you need:

For Donuts:
1 can refrigerated biscuit dough
vegetable oil (for frying)
cinnamon
sugar

For Whipped Cream:
whipping cream
powdered sugar (confectioner's sugar)
vanilla extract

I used a deep fryer to cook the donuts, but you could just as easily heat 2 inches of oil in a cast iron skillet and it would work great.  While my oil was coming to temperature (350 degrees is ideal) I took each biscuit out of the can and cut a hole in the middle using a Christmas cookie cutter I had lying around.  (Happened to be in the shape of a heart, which made the donuts look really cute!)  As soon as the oil is hot enough, just drop the donuts in.  Let them cook to golden brown on one side (just about 2 minutes in the oil) and then use tongs to flip them over.  Cook the other side to golden brown as well.  Have a paper plate with paper towels ready to soak up the grease and bring the donuts right from the oil onto the paper plate.  I had a bowl all ready with cinnamon and sugar mixed together and immediately after draining the donuts I rolled them in the cinnamon sugar mixture.  They came out perfectly and it was ridiculously easy!

For the whipped cream, I simply take one small carton of whipping cream, add what I think is the appropriate amount of sugar, plus about one teaspoon vanilla and whip on a high setting in my stand mixer for a while.  (By the way, you can just as easily use regular, granulated sugar for whipped cream.  I did this today because I was out of powdered sugar.  Tastes the same, you just have to whip it a little longer.)  When the cream starts to form peaks I check the sweetness and add more sugar if needed before continuing to whip it until it is perfect.  I served each plate of donuts with a big dollop of the whipped cream and a spoonful of raspberry preserves.  Oh my...I could gain a bit of weight on this recipe.  Easy, delicious and fattening.  Dangerous.  Very dangerous.

Chili Lime Glazed Shrimp Recipe

This is my second addition to the "Lemmon tested - Lemmon approved" Pinterest recipe log.  I see so many recipes that look great on Pinterest, but not all of them end up being yummy.  So I've started a list for you of recipes that I have found on Pinterest, tested, and found to be full of lovely deliciousness!  Of course, in many (OK most) cases I've changed the recipes from their original form...sometimes a little, sometimes a lot.  Also, as I've noted before, I tend to cook by adding a little of this and a little of that.  I almost never measure anything unless I'm baking.  So, sometimes my recipes can be a little vague.  But that allows you to experiment as well...to adjust things to your own taste.  The fact is that great cooking isn't rocket science!  It's personal.  It's finding your own perfect balance of flavors.  I am trying to measure a little though for recipes that I know I will be posting on the blog.

So here's what I made tonight...Chile Lime Glazed Shrimp.

It was yummy.  Really yummy.  I did not have a single shrimp remaining.  My boys loved it as did my hubby.  The baby was not interested in trying it.  But, then again, she isn't interested in much if it isn't shaped like Dora or covered in chocolate.

Here are the ingredients:

1 1/2 - 2 lbs of shrimp...deveined, peeled, tails off.  I bought a big bag of frozen shrimp (with coupons) and thawed them overnight in the fridge.  Then I made the marinade and as I peeled each shrimp I dropped it in the marinade bowl.  That way I only had to marinate them for 15 minutes in the fridge after I finished peeling them and they were great. 

Juice from 2 limes

2 Tbsp light virgin olive oil (you could substitute almost any light flavored oil here)
1 1/2 inch squeeze of diced Garlic in the tube (or 2-3 cloves if you dice it yourself)
1 1/2 inch squeeze of Ginger in the tube (1 tsp crushed fresh ginger)
3 Tbsp brown sugar (lightly packed)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp smoked paprika (very approximate...a little more...a little less)
1 tsp Mesquite seasoning (or you could use almost anything else that sounds good)
1 tsp cayenne pepper flakes (again, subjective)

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and drop shrimp in.  Marinate for at least 15 minutes but up to an hour.  Heat a small amount of olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat.  Saute shrimp for a couple minutes on each side...just enough to cook to opacity and get a nice glaze on each side.

That's it!  Super easy and I promise you the sweet, hot crunch will bring you back for more!