Enjoy a Serious Sugar Rush

Good Morning, Blog Land!

My posts have been kind of

few and far between these past few days.

Busy, busy, busy.

Who isn't?

We are in the

home stretch

and

here is a bit of

sweet inspiration

and some great recipes

for those last-minute

gifts/goodies

of the season.

Have a wonderful day!

Candy Cane Marshmellows.

Need I say more?

I've always been facinated by the whole

idea of homemade marshmellow.

Light, fluffy, gooey, sweet.

Perfection.

Looking for something a little different to give this year?

Over at Skip To My Lou

there is a great recipe for

gummy candy.

Who doesn't love gummies?

What a great tutorial, too!

Nothing says Christmas like

homemade candy canes

Aren't these great?

I may actually

give these a try.

For the ultimate

in

do-it-yourself

sweet treats

this season,

try

these

homemade candy bars.

I mean, come on.

Homemade Snickers.

The freshest ingredients.

Made with love.

Heaven.

And last, but not least,

my fudge recipe.

Now, this is not a picture of the fudge I make.

No.

It never lasts long enough

to get a good picture of it.

Nor have I made any

yet this season

because,

well,

having this stuff laying

around the house

causes me

to loose all self-control

and

I

will

eat the

whole

pan

all

by

myself.

Seriously.

So, I'm waiting until just

before Christmas

when the house is

full of people

to eat it

and leave me

just

enough

to feed

my serious

fudge

addiction.

Seriously.

Five-Minute Fudge

3(6 oz) pkgs of chocolate chips

1(14 oz) Eagle Brand Sweet Condensed Milk

1-1/2 t. vanilla

1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Melt morsels and condensed milk in microwave

1 minute on high.

Stir.

Melt 1 more minute on high.

Mix vanilla and nuts.

Pour into a buttered 8" square pan.

Chill 2 hours.

Cut into squares.

Cover and store at room temp.

This only takes about 5 minutes to make.

It is by far the easiest, best fudge

EVER!

Sew Happy,

Sugar Overload or What to Leave Santa With That Milk

These just scream

LEAVE ME FOR SANTA,

don't they? 

Recipe @ Blissfully Domestic 

Cupcakes being all the rage,

it's natural to expect them to

show up at some point in cookie form. 

Aren't these pretty? 

Inspiration found at the The Cupcake Blog. 

Here's a friendly little guy. 

What's Christmas without Gingerbread Men (and women)? 

AllChristmasCookies.Com

Has tons of great gingerbread recipes! 

The Food Network is a great source

for some fabulous holiday treats like

these Swedish Christmas Cookies

3-D Christmas Cookies! 

Wow!

I love ways to get more cookie

into a cookie!

That means more cookie in the mouth! 

Yes!

 Obsessed With Baking

brings us some buttery, light

Spritz cookies,

aways a Christmas favorite! 

And last but certainly not the least,

my mom's
best,
ultimate,
totally awesome

Combination cookies. 

Christmas NEVER happened without

dozens made well in advance,

stashed in the freezer, then

carefully packaged and

handed out to neighbors and friends. 

Try them with red and green M&Ms!

No matter what comes out of your

ovens this Holiday Season,

may there be many

loved ones around you to share! 

Sew Happy,

Dream Balls AKA Oreo Balls

I do hope all of you had a

WONDERFUL HALLOWEEN!

Ours was quiet with hardly any

Trick'er Treters at all.

Not unusual for my neighborhood, though!

That's okay.

More candy for the rest of us, right?

We had a friend deliver to us some of these Oreo Balls a few weeks ago.

It was love at first bite!

My daughter and daughter-in-law decided

that Halloween night

would be a great time to try out the

recipe out for the first time.

They really aren't that pretty looking being our first time but they were....

FANTASTIC!

In fact, we renamed them...

Dream Balls.

They leave us dream'n for MORE when they're gone!

Deam no more...here's what they did.

You will need:

**1 Package of Oreos (I think we will try the chocolate variety next time)

**1 Large package cream cheese, softened

**Almond bark in white or milk chocolate...or both!

That's it.

Simple.

Then:

**Crush the Oreos. 

Some recipes call for you to

separate the cookie from the cream

and then crush the cookies and mix the cream filling
with the cream cheese.

They didn't and it all turned out fine

but may we will try it that way next time to see

if there is any difference.  I suspect it would
make a better presentation.
**Add crushed Oreos to the cream cheese.

**Mix.

** Roll into small balls.

**Referigerate until nice and firm.

**Melt the chocolate per directions on package

**Dip balls into chocolate (we put them on toothpicks for easier handling)

**Place on waxed paper and refrigerate until they are really cold.

YUMMY!!!

Sew Happy,
Suzie

I am attending these LINKIE PARTIES

This recipe was featured on

Grandma's Combination Cookies

I do hope all had a WONDERFUL WEEKEND!!

I know that we sure did.

One of our favorite things to do on Sunday nights

is to make something yummy.

These cookies are right at the top of the list.

This was my mom's recipe

and when I was growing up

It was not uncommon to come home

from school and find a huge batch

of these babies

waiting with ice cold milk.

Pure HEAVEN!!

They are called a combination cookie

because you can put any combination of

goodies inside the cookie to to make

all sorts of great cookies.

The ones pictured are plain milk chocolate chip.

My mom used to put coconut, chocolate chips

and some kind of nut in them as a rule.

Be creative.

Use M&Ms, raisins, nuts, dried cranberries,

chocolate chips, coconut, or anything your heart desires.

These are by far the best cookie I've ever had but, then again, I'm pretty biased on that count.

Fall is a great time to start baking for the holidays and these cookies

freeze like a dream. 

Doubling or even tripling the batch can get you a long way in putting together those goodie plates for neighbors and friends and you can do them well in advance!

If you try them, I would love to hear what you put in them and how you like them. 

You will need:
*1 cup of brown sugar
*1 cup of white sugar
*1 cup of shortening (use the good stuff, not a store brand, and can be buttered flavored if you wish)
*2 eggs
*3 tablespoons hot water
*2-1/2 cups of flour, sifted
*2 teaspoons baking soda
*1/2 teaspoon of salt
*1-2/3 cups oatmeal (this was my mom's sneaky way of getting oatmeal into us)
*1 teaspoon vanilla (use the pure vanilla, not the immitation vanilla)
*1-1/2 cups of add-ins (basically anything you want to total about 1-1/2 cups)

Cream shortening and sugars together.  Add eggs one at a time mixing each carefully.  Sift flour, soda and salt together.  Add to sugar mixture.  Mix well.  Add hot water and vanilla.  Mix.  Add oatmeal and add-ins.  Mix well.  Use a cookie scoop to place balls of dough on a cookie sheet (aprox 1-1/2 inch balls).  We always put parchment paper on our cookie sheets, especially if we are using one of the battle scarred ones. :)  Bake at 350 degrees for about 7-8 minutes.  Now, 7 minutes (at least in our oven) produces a soft, chewy cookie.  You will need to experiement a bit with your own oven to determine what kind of cookie you want and how long to bake them. This will make about 3-4 dozen cookies depending on the size you make them. 

Please let me all know what you put in them and how you like them.  I would LOVE to hear about them.

*  Ammended the item "soda" to "baking soda" for clarity - 11/01/2010. 
Thanks whoever pointed that out to me!
Sew Happy... er...Bake Happy,

Suzie
I'm linked up to these parties