Oreo Dirt

I used Milano cookies for gravestones and cool whip for ghosts with mini chocolate chips for eyes.

Dirt Recipe From: Mom
3 ½ cups cold milk
2 pkgs. Jell-o chocolate instant pudding
1 tub cool whip, thawed
1 pkg. Oreo cookies, crushed

1. Pour cold milk into large bowl and add pudding mixes
2. Beat with wire whisk 2 minutes
3. Stir in 3 cups of the whipped topping and ½ of the cookies.
4. Spoon into 13 x 9 inch baking dish
5. Sprinkle with remaining cookies.
6. Refrigerate 1 hour or until ready to serve
*Store in refrigerator

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Everyone has their favorite chocolate chip recipe and here is mine!

Chocolate Chip Cookies (Recipe from: Momma W8)

1/3 cup butter (not margarine!)

1/3 cup shortening

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 cups flour

Chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375F
2. Cream together butter, shortening, white and brown sugar
3. Mix in egg, vanilla, salt, and baking soda
4. Mix in flour
5. Mix in chocolate chips
6. Bake for 9 minutes

Perfect Mashed Potatoes

We made like 10 lb.. of potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner for about 17 people and we have probably half of the bowl left over. I guess we are going to be eating mashed potatoes for like a month straight ...

My deluxe mashed-potato makin' tool.

Perfect Mashed Potatoes (serves 4-6)

2 lb. Yukon Gold Potatoes (they are the best for mashed potatoes)

1 cup milk

1/4 cup cold butter

Salt (I just keep adding salt at the end until it tastes good)

Directions:

1. Peel and cut potatoes into chunks. You want the chunks uniform in size so the cooking time is even.
2. Place potatoes in a large saucepan or pot. Cover potatoes with water.
3. Bring to a boil over high heat then reduce heat to medium and allow to simmer uncovered.
4. Mix occasionally so the potatoes get evenly cooked.
5. Cook until a knife or fork slips in easily about 20-30 min.
6. Warm milk on stove over medium heat or in the microwave.
7. Cut up butter into small pieces and place in serving bowl.
8. I use a potato ricer so that they are extra smooth to mash them but you can use an electric mixer, hand masher, Kitchen-aid, etc.
9. Mix potatoes with butter. Add milk in a slow stream and mix. Add salt until it reaches desired amount.

Vanilla Bean Whip Cream

The yummiest whip cream ever. Once you have real whip cream you can never go back to store bought. So only make this if you are willing to accept the risks.

The Holy Grail of Vanilla extracts ... Vanilla bean PASTE. It is kinda like extract but is more syrupy and has vanilla bean specks in it. Trust me, you need it. I got mine from Williams Sonoma but I'm sure you could find it online or other places

Vanilla Bean Whip Cream

1 cup heaving whipping cream

1/4 cup sugar (I use normal sugar because my mom always made it that way but most people use powdered sugar)

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste

1. Slowly add ingredients to whipping cream while you whip with electric mixer or beaters until fluffy.

Easy Pesto Pasta with Chicken

Since I feel like I have been posting a lot more complex recipes recently I decided to post an oldie but a goody. My mom used to make this a lot while we were growing up and it is super easy, super fast, and super yummy.

Pesto Pasta with Chicken
2-3 Chicken breasts (depending on size)
1 box pasta
Italian Dressing (I use Wishbone or Kraft)
1 jar Classico pesto sauce

Directions:

1. Cut up chicken into small chunks. Put chicken in a ziploc bag and add italian dressing until chicken is completely covered. Then, add 2 spoonfuls of pesto. Marinate for a couple of hours or overnight in fridge.
2. Cook pasta according to package directions.
3. Cook chicken on "The George" (Forman grill) or saute in frying pan.
4. Drain pasta and add cooked chicken and the rest of the jar of pesto. Mix until evenly covered with pesto sauce.

The Bestest Sugar Cookies

Pumpkin cookie (these looked the best)

Thick & Yummy

Aerial View (I didn't have black food coloring so it's kinda hard to tell what the witch is)

These are the sugar cookies that I grew up with and they aren't just the memories that make them good. They are favorite. They are so soft and scrumptious! Garrett even likes them and he doesn't like sugar cookies! I decided to make these sugar cookies for the kids in our sunday school class as a Halloween treat. If you make this recipe you have to promise not to use store bought frosting on these bad boys because in my opinion it ruins them ;-)

P.S. I'm not the best froster ...

*SECRET TIP: I make my sugar cookie dough 2 days before I want them and I bake and frost the cookies the night before I need them.  You have to store them in an air tight container though or they will dry out.  For some reason these cookies are softer the next day!

Sugar Cookies (Recipe from: Momma Weight)
1 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, slightly beaten
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1 cup sour cream
5-6 cups flour (I usually use 5 because you add more flour when you roll them out)

1. Cream together shortening, sugar, and eggs.
2. Add vanilla extract, salt, baking powder, and sour cream until well mixed.
3. Add the flour gradually. (If it seems sticky don't worry because you will add more flour when you roll it out)
4. Refrigerate OVERNIGHT.
5. Preheat oven to 375.
6. Sprinkle countertop with flour so dough won't stick.
7. Grab a hunk of dough and place it on the floured countertop (you will want to do this in batches because it makes a lot of cookies)
8. Sprinkle some flour on top of the dough and around the edges so it won't stick to the rolling pin.
9. The more you work with the dough and the more flour you add the tougher the cookies will be.
10. Spread dough out to about 1/4 inch thick (because thick sugar cookies are the yummiest!)
11. Cut your shapes out of the dough and place on cookie sheet.
12. Bake for 9 minutes, let cool on a wire rack. (If cookies brown around the edges you may want to reduce the cooking time so they don't get overcooked and hard)
13. Wait to frost the cookies until they are completely cool or else the frosting will melt.
14. Frost with frosting and store in airtight container. (I don't like to leave the cookies out too long or else they will dry out)

Frosting
1/3 cup softened butter
3 cups powdered sugar
3 T. milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract (this is the secret ingredient)

1. Whip ingredients together until fluffy. Add food coloring if desired.