Cranberry "Margarita"

I needed an excuse to use these cute sugar swizzle sticks from Trader Joe's.


They are perfect to sweeten up a tart drink!

Juice of half a lime
2/3 a glass 100% cranberry juice from Trader Joe's
Top with Pellegrino or other sparkling mineral water.


Stir!

The pure cranberry juice is very sour, so the swizzle stick adds just a bit of sweet!

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Orange Pecan Snowflake Cookies

 

I had picked up a Wilton Snowflake Cookie pan after last Christmas in the markdowns at Lobby Hobby. After my success using a cookie mix for the Cranberry Pistachio Cookies, I decided to with experiment  a variation using the same recipe as a base to use in the cookie mold pan. 

This recipe worked perfectly - it didn't puff up out of the pan, stayed tender and chewy, and had a nice golden crust on the outside.  The cookies look so pretty and it was awesomely easy!

Orange pecan snowflake cookies

Ingredients:

1 (1 lb 1.5 ounce) pouch Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix

1 box (4 serving size) vanilla instant pudding and pie filling mix

1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled slightly

2 eggs

3/4 cup pecans, chopped fine

peel of one orange, grated fine

3/4 teaspoon orange extract flavoring

Directions:

1.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

2.  In a large bowl stir the cookie mix, pudding, flour, pecans, and grated orange peel together. Add melted butter, eggs, and orange flavoring. Stir until blended.

3.  Take a ball of dough and press into greased cookie pan so that the dough is slightly smaller than the mold (or drop by spoonfuls onto parchment paper if you don't have a cookie pan).

4.  Bake for 8-10 minutes. Do not over bake or they will not be soft and chewy!  Take them out when when the outside edge is golden. Let them cool for about 5 minutes, then remove and let them cool on a wire baking rack.  (I was able to use my fingernail to flip them gently out of the mold - they stayed together perfectly.) Store in an airtight container.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

Cranberry Pistachio Cookies

I've been finding way too many yummy looking Christmas treats via Pinterest recently.  I thought these cranberry pistachio cookies from The Girl Who Ate Everything blog looked quite yummy and decided I needed to try them.

I was quite surprised to find that they were made using a Betty Crocker cookie mix. I normally do not make cookies from a mix, but decided to give them a try.  Well, they are ridiculously easy and amazingly rich, soft, and chewy! They are my new favorite! Since pistachios are quite expensive, I made a slight change to the original recipe by using less pistachios (a half cup).

Cran-Pistachio Cookies

Ingredients

1 (1 lb 1.5 ounce) pouch Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix

1 box (4 serving size) pistachio instant pudding and pie filling mix

1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled slightly

2 eggs

a few drops green food coloring (optional)

1/2 cup pistachios, chopped

1/2 cup dried cranberries, chopped

Directions:

1.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

2.  In a large bowl stir the cookie mix, pudding, and flour together. Add melted butter, eggs, food coloring. Stir until blended.

3. Add pistachios and cranberries and mix well.

4. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet that is lined with parchment paper.  (I used a Silpat mat instead, and it worked perfectly!)

5.  Bake for 8-10 minutes. Do not over bake or they will not be soft and chewy!  Take them out when they are set but not browned.  They will still look unbaked, but let them cool for about 2 minutes, then remove and let them cool on a wire baking rack.  Store in an airtight container.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

Italiana Albero DI Natale

When I finished decorating my Christmas tree last week, it just seemed blah.  So I gathered a stash of vintage postcards from Italy that I collected after my trip last summer and tucked them into the branches.

Seeing these pictures of all the lovely places that I visited during the summer makes me smile every time I look at the tree.

A friend gave me this cute passport ornament that goes perfectly with the postcards!

Posted with Blogsy

Shutterfly Book - test post

Just finished making a Shutterfly book.  Will post more about it later, just testing if I can embed a copy of the book into a post.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Visit Shutterfly.com to create your own personalized photobook.

Doughnuts for Lunch at the Rochester Cider Mill

A trip to the cider mill is an autumn tradition in Michigan.

Unfortunately, most of the apple blossoms in Michigan froze after an early warm spell last spring.

Cider is VERY expensive!

But who needs cider - we all know what we really want is the doughnuts!

A good chance to do some pumpkin peeping!

The doughnuts at the Rochester Cider Mill are only $3.50 for a half dozen.   Here's a peak inside my bag - cinnamon, maple, blueberry, and chocolate glazed. Sugary sweet with that slightly crunchy crust on the surface. MMMMMM!
(Photos edited with the Vintique  app)
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The Flowers of Ireland

A final post about Ireland - simply some shots of the lovely flowers in the country, both wild and cultivated:

Ring of Kerry Tour - Ireland

On Saturday we joined Easy Cork Tours for their Ring of Kerry tour.

Along the way, we stopped at the Kerry Bog Village - a cute little reproduction town showing the peat bog cottages that were typical in the area.

A stop looking out at Dingle Bay - across the water is the area we drove along when we toured the Dingle Peninsula.

A little dramatic effect with the Snapseed app on my phone.

A stop at the town of Waterville, loved how someone wrote Ireland in the sand.

The road winding through the hills was stunning, especially as it wove in and out of the coastline.

An old church in the village of Sneem

The Ladies' View of the Lakes of Killarney.  One of the most spectacular vistas in Ireland.

On our way back, we had a stop at the small city of Killarney.  It was one of the nicest places that we stopped for souvenir shopping - a lot of variety, several streets of shops, and not too junky. 

The tour was very professional and ran right on schedule.  The tour guide had lots of information about everything that we saw.  A nice way to see some more of the amazing sights of Ireland!