Freezer Rules For Food

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Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies

I thought I had come up with a great recipe that no one else had thought of...peanut butter and jelly cookies!  They sounded fabulous, especially if you love peanut butter as much as I do.  Peanut butter and chocolate are the best two flavors ever put together!  Whoever thought of that should have won some sort of award, in my opinion.  I sat down at my computer and immediately did a Google search.  To my dismay, I was not the first to think of this delicious recipe.

I flipped through several pages of recipe's to find the one that looked the best to me.  There were lots of results, but I finally found "the one".  I found it on a website called "Pip & Ebby", interesting name, I thought.  The picture that won me over is below.

I know it, they look as good as they taste!  I decided I absolutely had to share these with my readers because I would feel guilty keeping them all to myself.  This recipe will make approximately 2 dozen cookies, depending how large you make them.  I suggest you follow the recipe exactly, though.  Here it is....the recipe that has been a big hit with my friends and family.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. 

In a medium bowl, combine:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine:

1/2 cup butter-flavored shortening

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup dark brown sugar

1/3 cup granulated sugar

3 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

With a hand-held mixer, beat the mixture on medium speed until just combined. Add 1 egg and beat until incorporated. Gradually add the flour mixture and mix until combined.

Roll heaping tablespoons of dough into balls with your hands. Place them onto ungreased baking sheets and press into the center of each cookie with your thumb to create a divot. 

In each divot, place 1/2 teaspoon of jelly and 1/2 teaspoon of creamy peanut butter.

Bake in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes. Let cool.

This recipe was copied exactly from the "Pip & Ebby" website.  I would like to personally say a big thank you to them for posting this recipe, which has now become my favorite cookie recipe!  I hope your friends and family enjoy them for years to come.

Delicious Strawberry Cupcakes And Strawberry Frosting Recipe

Strawberries were on sale, so it was time to figure out what to do with them. Because of my health, I am unable to do very much. However, baking seems to make me happy, well at least the menopausal side of me, hehehe. I can do a little..take a break..do a little more...take another break (okay, you don't want to know ALL the details)...and voila...strawberry cupcakes!

I always search the Internet to try and find the best recipe. You can pretty much pick out the good from the bad if you know anything about cooking or baking at all. Just mosey through the ingredients and see what's what! Sometimes you are just looking for easy. That's alright as well, but make sure you check out at least a few recipes for the same item. Trust me, you want to do this.

So as I was looking around at some strawberry recipes, I remembered having strawberry cupcakes with strawberry frosting when I was young. My Grandma raised me....miss you, Grandma! =)  Everything she made was wonderful. I wish she had written a cookbook, the world would be a better place. But, I remembered her making a cake for one of my birthdays. It was strawberry lusciousness! I wanted to try and recreate that cake in the form of cupcakes. And that I did! I found the recipe on food.com. It was posted by Marsha D., but she actually got it from The Martha Stewart Show.....uh-huh..after you taste them, it all makes perfect sense!

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup fresh strawberries , sliced in half
• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ cup milk
• ½ cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 large egg whites
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

• 3 tablespoons fresh strawberries , pureed
• 
  

• For Frosting

  1 cup unsalted butter

• 3 ½ cups powdered sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 dash salt
• 
  

Directions:

1. 1
   Preheat oven to 350'.
2. 2
   Using cupcake liners, place 12 liners in a muffin pan and set to the side.
3. 3
   In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt and set a side.
4. 4
   In a food processor or blender add strawberries and process until pureed.
5. 5
   Empty pureed strawberries into a 1/3c measuring cup and set aside. Add rest of strawberry puree to a small bowl and set aside to use in the frosting.
6. 6
   Using a electric mixer with bowl, cream butter on medium high speed until lightly fluffy.
7. 7
   Gradually add sugar and continue to mix until well blended. Reduce speed to low and slowly add one egg and egg whites and mix until lightly blended.
8. 8
   Add vanilla extract if using.
9. 9
   Mix together milk and 1/3c strawberry puree.
10. 10
    Alternate flour and milk mixture to mixer slowly ending with flour. Scrape down sides of bowl and continue to blend well.
11. 11
    Using a ice cream scoop or tablespoon, add batter to prepared muffin cups.
12. 12
    Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until lightly browned.
13. 13
    Cool cupcakes completely on a wire rack before adding the frosting.
14. 14
    To make the Strawberry Frosting:.
15. 15
    Using a electric mixer with bowl, add 1 cup butter (soften) and salt and blend on medium high until fluffy.
16. 16
    Reduce speed to low and add powdered sugar and blend well.
17. 17
    Add vanilla extract and 3TBS of the strawberry puree, blend well.
18. 18
    Using a knife frost the cupcakes and top with strawberry slices and/or decorative candies. (I personally like the strawberry slices the best)
    
    
    This recipe makes 12 cupcakes, however if you would like to change the recipe to suit your needs for more or less...OR you would really like to see the nutritional information (though I do not recommend this!) just follow this link: Delicious Strawberry Cupcakes And Strawberry Frosting Recipe - Food.com - 307154
    

    And speaking of strawberries...when you don't have the real thing, sometimes it's nice just to have a little peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I said jelly, but you have to try the

    preserves. Get it on Amazon, today!

Cooking Tips - Ripen Bananas Quickly

Cooking Tips - Ripen Bananas Quickly

I needed to ripen bananas quickly to make some banana bread a few days ago.  I jumped online and started looking around to find a way to make it happen.  I saw several different solutions to my problem, unfortunately most of them required that I wait at least 24 hours.  Some of them required an apple, a tomato, a brown paper bag and time.  I didn't have time, I had four teenagers craving banana bread.  I will tell you if you have a couple of days to wait, you can put the bananas into a paper bag with either an apple or tomato.  You just put the bag somewhere dry and in 24-36 hours...voila!  This solution came up on many websites in my search to ripen bananas quickly.  The reason this works is all because of ethylene gas.  Give that a try if you have a little time.

Back to my search!  I would not take "no" for an answer, so I kept searching.  I ended up following a link, and then another link, and then several other links......long story short, I found the solution to my problem.  There it was..."how to ripen bananas quickly."  The website is called Buzzle.com.  But I found the banana information here.  It was written by Mrunmayi Deo, who seems to be quite an author on Buzzle.com.  Well, I would like to thank him because he made four teenagers very happy.

Drum roll, please..........ripen bananas quickly by putting them in a 300 degree oven!!  Yes, that's right, in the oven.  You need to watch them closely because you don't want to burn them beyond recognition.  I believe it took my bananas about 20 minutes.  Obviously this will differ depending on where your bananas are in the ripening process.  I just made sure they were mostly black with a little bit of yellow showing through here and there.  The bananas were absolutely perfect for banana bread.  I hope this makes someone in your home happy too!  Happy ripening!

Income for Life — Start Earning Money Now

Even though it is not related to Cooking Tips or Recipes, I wanted to share with you my new website that makes it easy to work from home. Anyone with a computer can do this, so at least go watch the video..Income for Life — Start Earning Money Now. I wouldn't share it with you if I didn't believe in it!

Tucson, Arizona Recipes are Coming Soon!

In the spirit of this wonderful city that I live in, Tucson, Arizona, I am going to do a series of recipes from Tucson. Tucson does not lack in the great food category! Tucson is known for it's wonderful Mexican restaurants. Even some past President's of our country have graced the seats of some of these fabulous restaurants as well Adam Richman with an episode of Man vs. Food. Let's not leave out some of the other restaurants that deserve to be spotlighted for their ability to tantalize the taste buds here in Tucson. 


When I moved away from Tucson, (I always come back) I used to sit and daydream about some of my favorite restaurants and my favorite dishes. So I thought it would be a good idea to put together a collection of these recipes for people who cannot just stop in, sit down, and have a bite.  Bookmark this page or subscribe to get updates because you do not want to miss this!

Bacon Cheddar Deviled Eggs

Ingredients

Happy Easter!! What can you make with the Easter eggs after they have been found? Make this recipe!

This is a great recipe! I made them for my husband's office, for their potluck this week. Apparently, they were gone in a matter of minutes and everyone loved them. Next time I make them, I will add some green onions. I think that's the only thing that would make these taste better than they already are. I got this recipe from allrecipes.com.



Ingredients:
12 eggs
1/2 cup mayonnaise
4 slices bacon
2 tablespoons finely shredded Cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon mustard (dijon might work as well??)

Directions:

Place eggs in a saucepan, and cover with cold water. Bring water to a boil and immediately remove from heat. Cover, and let eggs stand in hot water for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from hot water, and cool. To cool more quickly, rinse eggs under cold running water.
Meanwhile, place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium-high heat until evenly brown. Alternatively, wrap bacon in paper towels and cook in the microwave for about 1 minute per slice. Crumble and set aside.
Peel the hard-cooked eggs, and cut in half lengthwise. Remove yolks to a small bowl. Mash egg yolks with mayonnaise, crumbled bacon and cheese. Stir in mustard. Fill egg white halves with the yolk mixture and refrigerate until serving.