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!

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