jim bosley's cookies

 my mom got this recipe from the late Jim Bosley on an episode of AM NW

Jim Bosley's chocolate chip cookies

cream together:

3/4c. shortening

1/4c. butter

1c. brown sugar

1c. white sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

add in 3c. flour

2 tsp baking soda

12oz chocolate chips

bake on 375 degrees for 8-10min

makes about 4 dozen cookies

soft, buttery, chewy

mystery biscotti

 

the murder mystery dinner kit came complete with recipes for all the food

Kelly gave me the chocolate biscotti recipe to try out

chopping up the almonds

folding the almonds into the dough

the next step was to smooth the dough into a 14x5in rectangle, about 1in thick

this was more difficult than I had anticipated, the dough was sticky

which made it hard to shape into an even rectangle

after brushing with egg yolk and generously sprinkling with sugar

the dough is baked for 15min, then left to cool

the loaf is cut into pieces, then put back in to bake for 5min on each side

the middle of the dough didn't get fully baked, so some pieces ended up gooey

and almost brownie-like after the 2nd round in the oven

but the ones that turned out crispy were delicious w/a mild cinnamon flavor

mystery dinner cupcakes

I attended a murder mystery dinner party and my character was the owner of a winery

so I took cupcakes decorated w/grapes and vines

love red velvet cake batter

using a box mix because of limited time

baking

cakes done, now onto the frosting

 this is a frosting recipe from allrecipes.com

it was the picture that sold me on it

fluffy white frosting

1c. white sugar

1/3c. water

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

2 egg whites

1 tsp vanilla extract

stir together sugar, water and cream of tartar in saucepan over medium heat

until sugar is dissolved and mixture is bubbly

whip the egg whites and vanilla together to soft peaks

add sugar mixture a little at a time, whipping consistently until stiff peaks form

takes 7-10min

this frosting tastes delicious and is easy to pipe

it has very similar taste (a bit sweeter) and consistency as marshmallow fluff

(for which I'm guilty of eating directly from the jar)

I used jelly belly raspberries & blackberries for the grape bunches

added some green coloring to the frosting for the leaves and vines

grape & vine cupcakes

I was pretty pleased with how they turned out...until I woke up the next morning

there were a few blackberry casualties

and in true fluff fashion, the frosting failed to maintain it's integrity

I will definitely make this frosting again, 

but needs to be made and pipped right before you serve it

frosting doesn't work well for detailed piping/decorating

it's probably best to stay away from heavy decorations too

just stick to nonpareils

since I used a box mix, I had remaining batter that I used for a mini cake

my new cake leveler worked great...so easy

if you plan on sprinkling crumbs on a cake, be sure to let it cool

first so you don't get crumbs that clump together

chomp!

wookiee-ookies

the wookiee cookies from my star wars cookbook are also known as wookiee-ookies

for those of you who aren't familiar with the holiday special

you can also find the recipe on the starwars.com

adding in the milk chocolate chips

unexpectedly ran low on semi-sweet chips

so I substituted 1/2c. semi-sweet for 1/2c. white chocolate chips

love my cookie scoop

the first batch came out a bit more done than I was hoping...

...so I had to test one out

I especially like the flavor that the tsp. of cinnamon gives to the cookies

a little surprised to find that they weren't as "chewie" as I thought they would be -

consistency was just fine for a chocolate chip cookie though

and they make great gifts!

raisin bran cookies

 

raisin bran chewy cookies 

(recipe from allrecipes.com)

they taste just like raisin bran cereal...delicious

Chad made these a while back but with corn flakes and they were just as good

football JELLO jigglers

these molds came from a bowl game tailgater a few years back (thanks Barry)

 

orange helmets 

6 sm. pkgs s/f orange jello, 2 c. boiling water, 2 c. orange vodka

black helmets

4 sm. pkgs s/f black cherry & 2 pkgs s/f lime, 2 c. boiling water, 2 c. vodka

football helmets or darth vader helmets?

desserts on a stick

tailgate theme this week was food on a stick...

chocolate football cookies

(recipe from cookiemadness.com)

dessert kabobs!

started out making the rice krispie treats

cut 'em up

brownies w/milk chocolate frosting

white cupcakes w/orange colored vanilla frosting

 added quite a bit of orange color to the white cake batter...

 orange-colored cake w/milk chocolate frosting

yum

marshmallows dipped in water...then sprinkles

as I began to assemble the kabobs, the cupcakes would slide all the way down the stick

orange and black gumdrops worked great for holding the kabob in place

done

 decorating cake pops

(devil's food and orange-colored white cake, both w/dark cocoa coating)

cake pops on display at the tailgater

football rice krispie treats made w/left over ingredients
(no,not on a stick...I took these to work)