Wow! December is kicking my ass.

So I made some very lofty promises about a yearly grocery trip. Let's all be real here: no one is saving any money in the month of December. The grocery trip will happen. I am going to document it all when it does happen. You will come with me as I prep and plan for that madness. Right now though I am taking a break from the wiping of butts and counters, from the wrapping of presents, and from the menu planning. I am doing this because I would rather type to you wonderful people than anything else! Instead of trying to hash out all of the details of a grocery shopping trip that takes two days; I want to talk about cookies.

Every year I host a cookie baking party. I let everyone in who wants to do some of their holiday baking in my kitchen and I eat some of their tasty cookies. I get to chat while all the kids play and the hubs gets all the cookies he can eat. I look forward to it every year.

This year I am going to share my very special holiday cookie recipe. It is special to me because it was the first cookie recipe I ever created. I knew how to make dough. I knew what I liked in a cookie, but I had never put it all together before. This was my first one. I love it. It is a very pretty cookie and not terribly sweet. Now this year I did make a chocolate cookie that is ridiculous, but you won't get that recipe until next year!

Elyse's Christmas Cookie

2 1/4 Cups AP Flour
1 Teaspoon of Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon Salt
2 Sticks of Softened Butter
Zest of One Orange
1 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup White Sugar
2 Eggs
1 Cup White Chocolate Chips
1 Cup Shelled Roasted Salted Pistachios Chopped
1 Cup Dried Cranberries Chopped

Preheat oven to 375. Combine first three ingredients in a large bowl. Mix and set aside. In another bowl cream butter, sugar, and zest until well mixed, but not light and fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time. Add flour mixture slowly into wet ingredients. Fold white chocolate, nuts and cranberries into batter. Bake for 9 -11 minutes.

This dough freezes well too!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful December. I am in my element and having a blast with all of the planning and chaos. I love seeing people happy and being around my family. Now go bake something and then clean it up! You are not done with December yet!

Best Cornbread Ever!

I am a Georgia native. I like for my cornbread to be sweet and to eat just as hardy as the main dish. In the winter sometimes a meal is just a slab of cornbread and a big bowl of greens. I like to add things into my cornbread base depending on what it will be eaten with. The other night we had chili so in the cornbread I added poblano peppers and white cheddar. There are so many possibilities though.

Basic Cornbread

2 boxes of jiffy corn muffin mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup milk
1 can cream corn

Mix everything together and bake at 400 for 35- 45 mins. Keep an eye out for it. Some people like it dark up top; some don't. All about personal preference when it comes to the doneness of cornbread.

Now for the fun stuff:

1 cup of white cheddar and 2 finely diced poblano peppers for spicy cornbread.
4 crispy strips of bacon, 1 finely chopped jalapeno for the bacon lover in your life.
1 diced onion cooked in 1 tbsp of oil and 1 tsp of salt until caramelized for a sweet and savory taste.
1 diced apple and 1 tsp of cinnamon for something a little more dessert like.

I could keep going, but it is almost bus stop time. I would love to hear any ideas for cornbread that you have! Hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving!

Monday = Motivated

I know, you don't like Mondays.

(Insert some sad cat picture here)

I for one am happy to see a Monday. My kids take long naps on Monday. I feel very optimistic about the week. There is so much that can go right!

I pull out the menu planner and create a plan for dinners throughout the week. I put away the laundry (if I washed it). I go on an extra long walk in the morning. I make a real breakfast.

It is almost like New Year's Day every week for me. A new beginning every seven days.

Blueberry Crumb Muffins

1 Cup All Purpose Flour
3/4 Cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon Salt
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Cup Buttermilk
1/3 Cup Butter (melted)
1 Egg
1 Cup Blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Crumb Topping
1/4 Cup All Purpose Flour
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1/4 Cup Cold Butter (diced)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine first five ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well. Combine next three ingredients in a separate bowl ( I use a very large measuring cup). Create a small well in the dry ingredients. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture. Fold them together until almost all the dry mixture has been mixed in. Add the blueberries and fold very gently. Line a muffin tin and spray the muffin liners with nonstick spray. Scoop mixture evenly into each muffin cup. Mix together crumb topping ingredients until butter is the size of small peas. Sprinkle on top of muffins. Bake for 18 minutes.

Remember to thank a Veteran today and say a prayer for those still out there.

Happy Monday!

Fish for Dinner

Paprika Tilapia

My husband loves smoked paprika. He wants me to put it on everything. I personally love it on chicken thighs, but in order to loss some size in my thighs we are eating tilapia. I serve this with some roasted sweet potatoes (with a little paprika) and roasted broccoli. This recipes serves our family of four, but you can mix up a large batch of the spice rub to store in an air tight container.

Spice Rub

1 heaping tablespoon of smoked paprika
1 tablespoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of cayanne pepper
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
1 teaspoon of onion powder
1 teaspoon of pepper

Mix together in a bowl. Use now or store for later.

Now for the fish:

4 Tilapia filets
2 Tablespoons of Spice Rub
1 Lemon
Non Stick Spray

I went easy on the rub with the piece for the baby.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Zest lemon and add to spice rub. Sprinkle spice rub onto both sides of the fish. Spray a pan with non stick spray. Lay the fish on the pan and bake 10-12 minutes. When the fish comes out squeeze the lemon juice over the fish. Enjoy!

We eat so much tilapia in our house. The baby loves it, the boy not so much. Do you do the short order cook thing in your house or do they get what they get?

Peach butter

A few weeks ago we went apple picking. We go right before apple season really begins because our orchard has peaches too.

"Pick all the apples!"

In our house my husband and I always go overboard when it comes to buying fruit. In the spring we are up to our eyeballs in strawberries, summer it is peaches, fall is apples, and winter it is clementines.

These are apples. I didn't take a picture of the peaches. Oops!

So we came back with about 40 peaches. Truth be told no one needs that many peaches. We do however need peach butter.

It is not hard. It just takes a while to simmer.

20 Peaches
1 Cup Sugar
1 Apple
2 Cups of water
1 Tablespoon Cinnamon

Cut peaches in half and remove the pit. Quarter each peach half and pile them into the pot. Do the same with the apple. Pour in the sugar and water. Bring to boil. Reduce to simmer for 6 hours. Use a blender or an immersion blender to puree until smooth.

I like to eat this like apple sauce, but it can be kind of rich. It is great on apple cider doughnuts too.

Got a better recipe? I want to make it. I would stay in the kitchen all day if the kids would let me.