Stained Glass Sugar Cookies

This recipe is from a website (given at bottom) for heart-healthy, low-cholesterol cookies. The "stained glass" effect is made from melted crushed candy canes, and is both pretty and yummy.

Ingredients:

Cookies:
2-3/4 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 c butter
1 c sugar
1/3 c canola oil
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp lemon zest (grated lemon peel)
1/3 c buttermilk
1 box candy canes

Frosting:
1 egg white
1-3/4 c icing sugar
1 tsp water
food colouring
sprinkles

How to Make:

Preheat oven to 375.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, and salt. Set aside.

In a different, larger bowl, whip butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed (about 30 seconds). Add sugar. Beat until fluffy, scraping the side of the bowl occasionally. Beat in oil, egg, vanilla, and lemon zest.

Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk, about 1/3 at a time. Beat on low after each addition until combined. Divide dough into quarters. Cover and chill for at least an hour.

Line a cookie sheet with foil. On a well-floured surface, roll dough to about 1/4" thickness. Thinner cookies will come out hard, so be sure to keep them nice and thick. Cut dough into desired shapes using cookie cutters.

Transfer dough to foil-lined cookie sheet. The colder your dough is, the easier this will be. If need be, use a flat, metal surface (like a pie server) dipped in flour. Cut out centres.

Unwrap a candy cane and place it in a freezer bag. Whack it with your rolling pin until finely crushed (about 5-10 whacks).

Spoon crushed candy into the cookie cutouts. For the square cookies shown here, 1/2 tsp of crushed candy per cookie was ample. Leave lots of room between cookies: I baked 8 per sheet.

Be careful not to put too much candy in, or it will boil over the edges and ruin the look of your cookie. As a general rule, the candy should be level with the cookie, or slightly lower than the dough, while still covering the entire cutout space.

Bake for about 5 minutes, until the edges are firm but before the cookie becomes too hard.

As soon as you take the pan out of the oven, lift the foil off and place it and the cookies on a rack to cool. Allow to cool COMPLETELY, and then gently peel cookies off the foil. If you try to do this step before the centres are cool, they will stick and pull out of the soft cookies. You can reuse the foil for another batch -- my one piece of foil was good for 48 cookies.

How To Make the Frosting and Decorate the Cookies:

Beat the egg white on high for about 15 seconds, and then start adding icing sugar. I put in about half a cup at a time and beat it in, using a spatula to get the sides of the bowl. If the frosting is too stiff once all the sugar is nicely blended in, add the water a little bit at a time. Add food coloring and beat in until the frosting is the colour of your choice. This frosting dries fast, so make sure you decorate as soon as you have it mixed.

Use a spatula or a butter knife to apply the frosting as desired, and sprinkles to make the cookies irresistable. Enjoy!




Original Recipe at: http://my.hearthealthyonline.com/recipe/cookies/buttermilk-sugar-cookies/

Jennifer J's Sticky Spicy Chicken

This dish has a nice bite of heat and just a hint of sweetness.

Ingredients:

3 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs (about 12)

3/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup salsa
1/4 cup honey
1 Tbsp mustard (Dijon if you have it)
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin

1 Tbsp flour
How to Make:

Preheat oven to 400F.

Combine all ingredients except chicken and flour in a bowl and mix well.

Arrange the chicken in a single layer in a glass baking dish. Pour the sauce over the chicken and turn to coat, making sure each piece gets nice and saucy.

Put in oven and cook for 40 minutes at 400F. When done, place the chicken pieces onto a cutting board and slice up into bite-size pieces.

Strain off any visible fat from the sauce and pour into a pan. Sprinkle the flour over the mixture and whisk in over medium heat until the sauce thickens (about 1 minute). Then add the cubed chicken to the sauce and stir well.

Serve over rice. Easy and delicious!

Jennifer J's Chili Cheese Chicken Breasts

This chicken has a crispy seasoned coating, and is stuffed

with a tangy, creamy mushroom filling.

Ingredients:

6 chicken breasts

Filling:
2 Tbsp margarine
1 onion, chopped
1 cup mushrooms, chopped
1/2 box light cream cheese
1/2 cup chili sauce

1 cup sharp cheddar, shredded
12 oz mozzarella, cut into thick strips

Coating:
1 1/3 cups white flour
2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp each: dried thyme, paprika, and salt
1/2 tsp each: garlic powder and black pepper

1 1/2 cups crushed cornflake cereal or cornflake crumbs
2 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

1 cup buttermilk



Pound each chicken breast nice and flat. You don't want holes in them, but they should be thin enough to roll up easily.


To make the stuffing, saute the margarine (2 Tbsp), onion, and mushrooms until the onions are cooked (about 5 minutes). Add the cream cheese (1/2 block) and chili sauce (1/2 cup). Bring to a boil and remove from heat.

Lay out a pounded chicken breast and spread the filling on it with a spatula. Sprinkle with grated cheddar cheese. Lay a strip of mozzarella at one end, and loosely roll the breast up around the mozza.

Secure with a couple of toothpicks and set aside. If the chicken got pounded too thin and filling is oozing out, don't worry. The coating will hide all flaws. Fill and roll up all six breasts.

In a shallow dish wide enough to roll the chicken in, combine flour (1 1/3 cup), oregano (2 tsp), thyme (1 tsp), paprika (1 tsp), salt (1 tsp), garlic powder (1/2 tsp), and pepper (1/2 tsp). In a second shallow-wide dish, combind corn flake crumbs (1 1/2 cups) and Parmesan cheese (2 Tbsp). Pour the cup of buttermilk into a third dish.

The next stage is just too messy to take a picture. But the mess is definitely worth it.

Working one at a time, gently roll the stuffed chicken breast first in the buttermilk, then in the seasoned flour, in buttermilk again, and finally in the crumb-Parmesan mixture. Arrange chicken in a roasting pan, leaving some space between pieces.

Bake, uncovered at 450F for about 30 minutes. If you're using this coating with bone-in chicken pieces (rather than stuffed pounded breasts), cook for 40 minutes. Serve immediately.

Jennifer J's Curried Corn

Pictured here with Chili Cheese Chicken

Ingredients:

4 cups frozen kernel corn
1/4 cup margarine

1 onion, chopped

1 tsp curry

1 cup sour cream

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper
How to Make:

Put first four ingredients into a medium sized pan and saute until the butter is melted and the onions are cooked (about ten minutes). Stir often during this time.

Add sour cream (1/4 cup), salt (1/2 tsp), and pepper (1/4 tsp), and mix in.

Cook for another 5 minutes on medium-low, and serve.

A great side!

Graham's Fried Chicken

This fried chicken is just terrific: juicy on the inside,

crunchy on the outside, and much lower in fat than usual.

Ingredients:

12 pieces of chicken
1 egg white
1 cup flour
3 Tbsp Hy's seasoning salt

How to Make:

Separate the egg, discarding the yolk, and lightly whip the white. In a shallow dish, combine the flour and seasoning salt.

Boil the chicken for about 20-25 minutes, until it is fully cooked. The chicken at this point will have a rubbery texture. Drain and run under cold water until the chicken is cool enough to touch.

Dip each piece of chicken in egg white, and dust with the flour and salt mixture.
Deep fry for about 5 minutes, until the chicken turns a crispy golden brown. The chicken is already cooked, so we're just going for a good outer texture here.
Fast and SO good!

Jennifer J's Rice Pudding

Ingredients:

6 cups whole milk
3/4 cup white rice (not instant)

1 cup cream
3/4 cup white sugar
3 egg yolks, beaten
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt

cinammon (to sprinkle on top -- optional)
raisins (a handful or two -- optional)

How to Make:

Rinse a large saucepan in cold water (to make the pan cold). Shake water out, but don't dry the pan. Immediately pour in milk and bring to a boil over a medium heat. You will need to stir OFTEN, making sure you slide your spatula along the bottom of the pan, to make sure the milk doesn't scald (cook and stick to the bottom of the pan).

When the milk is at full boil, add the rice and return to a boil over medium heat. Once boiling, reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, until the rice is FULLY cooked (about 20-30 minutes, depending on what kind of rice you're using). If you don't cook the rice enough, you'll end up with rice bullets covered in cream (right, Terry? :).

As the rice simmers, the milk will occasionally get a skin over the top. Just mix it in as you stir, and be sure to use your spatula every few minutes to make sure the milk isn't scalding on the bottom of the pan. This process can be a little time consuming, but the end result is worth it!

Meanwhile, combine the cream (1 cup), sugar (3/4 cup), egg yolks (3), vanilla (2 tsp), and salt (1/2 tsp) and beat together with a fork.

When the rice is tender, pour the cream mixture in and return to the boiling point, stirring occasionally.


Remove pudding from heat and pour into a serving dish. Add a handful or two of raisins at this point, if you like. Sprinkle with cinammon. Chill for at least eight hours or overnight -- you might be tempted to eat it sooner, but it's best when served very cold.

Mmmmm!

Terry's Hamburger Pizza

Ingredients:

1 kg bag frozen hash browns, thawed
1 can cheddar cheese soup
1 egg
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

1 lb ground beef
2 Tbsp finely chopped onion
2 Tbsp flour

1 can tomato soup
2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder

2 cups grated cheddar cheese

How to Make:

Preheat oven to 450F.

Spray a round, flat pizza pan with non-stick spray. A rectangular cookie sheet is okay too.

Check to make sure your hash bowns are thawed. They can be very cold, but if you can't bend them, they need to thaw more. If necessary, help them along by dumping them out of the bag into a glass bowl, and microwaving them on high for 1 minute. Stir, check, and repeat as necessary.

Pour hash browns, cheddar soup, egg, salt (1 tsp), and pepper (1/2 tsp) into a large bowl and mix well. It's easiest to use your hands to mix this, but a large spatula works well too.

Grandma K's mixing bowl

Turn mixture out onto pizza pan and press it tightly down to form the crust. You can make a little ridge around the edge to make it look even nicer, if you like, but it's not necessary.
Put the crust into the oven (it should be at 450F by now) and bake until the edges are nicely browning (about 20-25 minutes).

In a large frying pan, start browning the hamburger. Once you see some of the fat from the meat bubbling on the bottom of the pan, add the onion. Fry the meat and onion, breaking up the chunks of meat, until there is no sign of pink.
Sprinkle the flour (2 Tbsp) over the meat and mix in, letting the flour coat the meat. Then add the tomato soup, sugar (2 tsp), salt (1/2 tsp), pepper (1/8 tsp), and garlic powder (1/4 tsp) and mix into the meat until it has a rich, thick texture.

Sprinkle about 2/3 of the shredded cheese over the cooked potato base.

Spoon all of the meat mixture evenly over the cheese. This is easier to do if you wait a minute after putting the cheese on, because it will melt and stick to the base, and not get mixed up with the meat.

Top pizza with remaining cheese.

Return to oven and broil until cheese is melted and bubbly (about 5 minutes).

Really good! If there are any leftovers, they freeze really well in individual slices, which can then just be heated up in the microwave for delicious meaty goodness later.