A Few More Holiday Treats

Chocolate Surprise Cookies

3/4 cup peanut butter (generic brands or low fat peanut butter not recommended for this recipe)
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar

CHOCOLATE DOUGH:
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg white
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup baking cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

ICING:
2 tablespoons shortening
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons milk

In a mixing bowl, cream peanut butter and confectioners' sugar until smooth. Roll into thirty 3/4 inch balls. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, cream butter, peanut butter and sugars. Bean in egg white and vanilla. Combine flour, cocoa and backing soda; gradually add to creamed mixture. Roll into thirty 1-1/2 inch balls.

Using floured hands, flatten chocolate balls and shape one around each peanut butter ball, sealing edges.

Place 2 in. apart on greased baking sheets.

Flatten with a glass dipped in sugar.

Bake at 375º for 7-9 minutes or until cookies are set and tops are cracked. Cool for 1 minute before removing to wire racks.

For icing, in a small mixing bowl, cream shortening and confectioners' sugar. Beat in vanilla and enough milk to reach spreading consistancy. Spoon into a resealable plastic bag or pastry bag; cut a small hole in corner of bag. Pipe icing over cookies in zigzag pattern.

Yields 2 1/2 dozen.

*****
World's Best Peanut Butter Fudge

4 cups white sugar
1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
1 (7 oz) jar marshmallow cream
12 ozs. peanut butter
2/3 cup all-purpose flour

1) Grease a 9X13 baking dish, set aside.
2) In a saucepan, combine sugar, milk, and butter. Bring to a boil and cook 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in marshmallow cream and peanut butter. Gradually stir in flour. Spread into the prepared pan and let cool.

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Chocolate Layered Pie

1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup cool whip
1- 8 oz cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
1 (5.9 oz) instant chocolate pudding
milk- as directed on the pudding box
2 cups cool whip
sprinkle of pecans

1) Mix together pecans, butter and flour. Pat into a 9X13 (or slightly smaller) dish. Bake at 375º for 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove and let cool.

2) In mixing bowl, blend 1 cup cool whip, cream cheese, powdered sugar until creamy. Spread into cooled crust.

3) Whisk pudding mix with milk- spread over cheese layer and then spread 2 cups cool whip on top, sprinkle lightly with chopped pecans.

Refrigerate 1-1/2- 2 hours before serving.

Desserts and Treats, Oh My!

Thought I would share a few of my favorite recipes for desserts and treats for the holidays today.
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Spicy and Salty snacks-

Bisquick Sausage Balls
2 1/2 cups of Bisquick
1 lb tube of mild sausage (Tennessee Pride, or your favorite)
1- 8 oz Shredded Mild or Sharp Cheddar Cheese

1) preheat oven to 325 degrees
2) Combine sausage and cheese until well blended
3) Mix in Bisquick and roll into balls
4) Place on baking sheets and bake for 20-25 minutes

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Cheese Ball with Ritz
(this recipe is for 2 balls, so you can divide it if you only want 1)

2- 8oz packages of Cream Cheese
5 bunches of green onions
1 teaspoon Accent
1 Tablespoon Worchestershire Sauce
1 package of thin sliced Ham (such as Deli Selects or Buddig)
1/2 teaspoon of Salt

1) chop ham and onions into tiny thin pieces and combine them in a bowl
2) Mix together cream cheese, Accent, Worchestershire sauce and salt
3) Mix 1/2 of the ham and onion into cheese ball
4) Form into two balls, then roll them in remaining ham and onion
5) Refrigerate until ready to serve
6) Serve on Ritz Crackers

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And now for something sweet-

Super Easy Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup Peanut Butter
1 Cup of Sugar
1 Egg

*Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1) Mix together all ingredients and drop by teaspoonful onto ungreased cookie sheet.
2) Press cookies out so they're not completely flat, but still slightly ball shaped.
3) press with fork prongs in a crisscross fashion
4) Bake for about 8-10 minutes. (I keep an eye on them and check them after the first 6 minutes to be on the safe side.)
5) Let cool on sheet for a few minutes before removing.

****
Pineapple Surprise Dessert

1 Box plain Cheesecake Mix
1-8oz. box Cream Cheese
1 small can of Crushed Pineapple, drained
1/2 cup of Pecans, crushed

(you'll use the cheesecake powder mix, but not the graham crumbs)

1) Mix Cheesecake mix by the directions and add the cream cheese to it, until well blended.
2) Drain Pineapple *the less liquid the better or the dessert gets runny
3) Fold in pineapple and pecans into cheesecake mixture
4) Top with a few nice looking Pecan halves
5) Cover and Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Have Yourself an Animated Little Christmas

A while back I had posted in reference to blogging about Christmas cartoons after the movies. Well, I figured now is as good a time as any. :D
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The holidays abound with wonderful animated cartoon shows for kids and adults alike.

There's a serious theme in most of them- being a misfit, an outcast- until everyone realizes how special the characters are and how their differences actually help when it really counts the most. It's all about acceptance.

Rudolph has his red beaming nose, which caused him to be ostrisized and made fun of, but in the end he saved Christmas and everyone realized how wrong they were. But he wasn't the only misunderstood one- Hermie the elf felt out of place among the other elves, simply because he aspired to bigger dreams than the others. The misfit toys weren't loved- until Rudolph made sure Santa found homes for them.

Nestor, the sad little long-eared donkey, was made fun of for his differences too. His mother sacrificed herself to save him in a snowstorm and he went on to carry Mary to Bethlehem.

Kris Kringle was shunned and considered an outlaw- a criminal, in Santa Claus is Coming To Town. He and Jessica, the Kringles and the Winter Warlock had to leave their homes and move north to escape imprisonment by Bergermeister Meisterberger- who hated toys and all that kindness represented.

Good vs. Evil, Naughty vs. Nice, Rejection vs. Acceptance.

One of my favorites is Jim Henson's Emmett Otter's Jugband Christmas- a roundabout retelling of The Gift of the Magi. Ma Otter hocks Pa's toolbox, which Emmett used for odd jobs to get fabric to make a dress to enter the talent show contest with a song. She did it so she could win the contest and get Emmett a guitar for Christmas. Emmett puts a hole in Ma's washtub to be in a jugband for the same talent contest to win the money and get Ma a piano- or at least put a down payment on a used one for her. Both had good intentions but neither win. They accept their losses but end up with a paying gig at the restaurant in town after they combined their talents and music. By working together, instead of separately, they actually accomplished more.

Another favorite is 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. Alfred, of the Mouse family got together with his friends and sent a letter to the paper stating that Santa was a fraud and no one believed in him. The consequences of that letter caused Santa to send all their letters back, unopened, with no intention of coming to their town at all on Christmas Eve. Father Mouse shows Alfred what his letter has done to the town- to the children in the Trundle family as well as the sick children in the hospital.

Mr. Trundle, the clockmaker, comes up with a towering clock, built in the middle of town, that will play a song of pleading to Santa to forgive the town and encourage him to come. Again, Alfred, who's full of book smarts, but not much in the way of imagination, accidently tears up the new clock and ruins it for everyone. Eventually though after seeing the Trundle family working together in hopes that Santa will still come, Alfred realizes his mistake and fixes the clock just in the nick of time and Santa comes after all.

But then, there are lots of good Christmas cartoons-
Frosty the Snowman, Frosty's Winter Wonderland, Frosty Returns
Rudolph's Shiny New Year (Happy and his big ears)
Mickey's Christmas Carol (and the other various ones that go with it- Chip N' Dale in the tree, Donald and his nephews and the snow fort, etc)
How The Grinch Stole Christmas
The Year Without a Santa Claus
Jack Frost
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus
A Charlie Brown Christmas
Garfield's Christmas
Winnie the Pooh and Christmas, Too
The Forgotten Toys
The Bear Who Slept Through Christmas
I Want a Dog For Christmas, Charlie Brown
It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown
The Little Drummer Boy
Vinson's Claymation Christmas
Looney Toons Christmas

The last two were ones I'd forgotten for years, but my husband's mom had them on tape where they recorded them when he was a kid, so we all watched them last night. The claymation one was from 1987- exactly 20 years old. The tape really shows it too...it's full of static and just about wore out. I'd love to be able to find that on DVD for my husband. Maybe not this year, but soon. It's one of his favorites.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but that was quite a bit to recall as it is! LOL

Do you have a favorite? Please feel free to share.

Looking Back (crosspost from myspace)

It might not seem like, but my life has changed a lot in just a little over a year. In the middle of 2006 I decided it was time to pull out my first novel and finish it. And that I did. And then I finished my 2nd one before the year was out. I've gone through a lot of emotional, personal changes in my point of view and feelings about who I am and where I'm going in my life.

The biggest changes started around that time, around the end of last year and the beginning of this year. I got more ideas than I know what to do with for novels and I found a lot of new friends online- writers like me. I finished my 3rd novel at the beginning of August and I'm working on my 4th.

I don't know if this would be possible, if not for all the changes that have gone on in my life. I have some very supportive people in my life. My mom, who tells me that she knows I will be published some day, she only hopes she's around to see it happen for me. She says she's so proud of me for working so hard this past year or so. I have friends from back home, who think it's a great thing I'm endeavoring to do and they know I'll be successful.

And then I have all these new writer friends. Albeit, it's a bit presumptuous to say they are friends- since we have only known each other through myspace and other blogs, but I consider them friends nonetheless because I have received so many encouraging messages and so forth from them.

Even with all the crap we've gone through in the past year or so (my dental issues, water lines, dead dryer, getting rid of the condo, etc....) this new phase in my life has been embellished and enhanced by all my new aquaintances online through writers groups and blogs and RWA and KYRW already.

Over a year ago, I would never have thought I'd mingle with other writers. That seemed a far out dream. Now I feel like I'm a part of something. I have a community I can chat with about writing, I have support and encouragement and help when I need it.

It truly is an amazing feeling, especially when I used to think that writing, for me, was a distant star I couldn't reach nor capture. I didn't dare try before. I had given it lots of thought and though my insides gnawed at me that writing was what I REALLY wanted to do, I still didn't hope to believe there might be a future in it.

Now I recognize that deeper stirring and acknowledge it. I have that feeling that it is possible and it is something I should strive to achieve. I have more confidence than I ever had before and I want to take it as far as it will let me go.

So to all my friends- I want you to know that you have all been my blessings this year. For those who encourage and cheer me on and check in on me to see how my writing is going. I have a long road to pave- lots of editing to do, but each little message from you spurs me forward toward reaching my goals and following the dream of my heart.

Thank you!