Brrrrrrrrr.... we had a lovely week and a half or so of perfect weather. Mid to upper 70's during the day and down to the 50's at night.

Now we're in the 50's for the day and 30's at night. Definitely time to break out the cold weather recipes! The nice part about warm weather recipes means running the oven more... which helps heat my house and lowers the use of that oh so expensive fuel oil, lol.

I'm going to make this for a cold weather treat. Hopefully I'll be able to refrigerate it so I can make a large batch and then heat up in the microwave.

You may have noticed that last weeks menu changed a bit. It was a weird week. I had a HUGE work event on Wednesday night. That wore me out and left me just flat out exhausted for 2 days. Plus Tuesday was our wedding anniversary and we ended up buying an Olive Garden Dinner last night. I didn't really want to, but Joe was determined.. I've come to realize he's the one that likes to eat out more then me. The good thing is that I tried a couple of great comfort food recipes that were so easy!

Sunday - sausage and penne pasta with steamed broccoli tossed in oyster sauce
Monday - Beef Stoganoff over noodles
Tuesday - Kate's baked mac and cheese - recipe below
Wednesday - Frozen Bertolli meal - will update after grocery shopping today
Thursday -Salisbury steaks and mashed potatoes
Friday - Slow cooker turkey chili with home made taco bread
Saturday - Slow cooker Jambalaya

Kate's Mac and Cheese - very easy and oh so good. The cheese sauce also makes a nice cheese soup however I'd recommend using 2TBS of cornstarch so it's not quite as thick.

4tbsp corn starch
1tsp salt
1tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp pepper
3 3/4 cups milk
4 cups (16 oz) shredded cheddar cheese
entire box of elbow mac (16 oz)

1. in med saucepan combine first 4 ingredients; stir
in milk; stirring constantly, bring to boil over
med/high heat and boil 1 minute. remove from heat
2.stir in 1 3/4 cup cheese until melted. add elbows
(already cooked). pour into greased 2qt casserole
dish. sprinkle with reserved cheese.
3.bake uncovered at 375 degrees for 25 min or until
lightly browned.
4-6 servings

My boss has expressed an interest in my providing a fresh baked treat in the office for our patients. Not too overwhelming as it's any day I choose and only 1 day a week. As I'm trying to re-establish a name as a baker it benefits me as well. This week I chose to make No Fail Sugar Cookies with a topping of granulated white sugar and granulated evaportated cane juice. The cane juice gives the cookies a mild maple flavor. They went over very well. here's the recipe I used, this was found on Cake Central.com

No Fail Sugar Cookies

Difficulty: Easy

This recipe is GREAT when using complex cookie cutters. The dough holds its' shape and won't spread during baking. Make sure you let your oven preheat for at least 1/2 hour before baking these or any other cookies.
6 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
2 cups butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract or desired flavoring (I like almond myself)
1 tsp. salt
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Mix dry ingredients and add a little at a time to butter mixture. Mix until flour is completely incorporated and the dough comes together.

Chill for 1 to 2 hours (or see Hint below)

Roll to desired thickness and cut into desired shapes. Bake on ungreased baking sheet at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes or until just beginning to turn brown around the edges. This recipe can make up to 5-dozen 3" cookies.

HINT: Rolling Out Dough Without the Mess -- Rather than wait for your cookie dough to
chill, take the freshly made dough and place a glob between two sheets of parchment paper. Roll it out to the desired thickness then place the dough and paper on a cookie sheet and pop it into the refrigerator. Continue rolling out your dough between sheets of paper until you have used it all. By the time you are finished, the first batch will be completely chilled and ready to cut. Reroll leftover dough and repeat the process! An added bonus is that you are not adding any additional flour to your cookies.
Source: kitchengifts.com

The hint at the bottom works wonders, not only is there less mess.. but it;s faster and more efficient. I actually added my topping after they were baked and cooled. I used a simple sugar glaze brushed on with a pastry brush. I had the cookies on a cooling sheet over a baking pan and then liberally covered them with a half and half mix of sugar and evaporated cane juice. Shake off the excess.. put back into your container holding the mix and repeat until all cookies are covered. I'm making another batch of these this week to send to troops overseas for operationsbakinggals.blogspot.com. Hope the officer rcving them likes them as much.

I love ham and this just looks and sounds amazing. I have to grab the magazine from work, there's an entire menu with this that sounds devine. I'll post the works when I can.

Honeycomb spiral ham

Ingredients

1 (8- to 10-pound) bone-in, fully cooked, spiral-cut smoked ham half
1 (11-ounce) honeycomb square
1 tablespoon orange zest (from 1 orange)
1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
Freshly ground black pepper
Rolls or mini croissants

Homemade Oreo Cookies

Cookie Wafers:
1 (18.25 oz) box Dark Fudge Cake Mix (Do not follow directions on box!)
1/3 Cup Water
2 tablespoons Shortening (no substitutions)

Creme Filling:
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup shortening (no substitutions)
3 tablespoons HOT water

Preheat oven to 325*F. Blend all ingredients for wafers, then knead with you hands until pliable like dough. Form 3/4 inch balls and press flat (the bottom of a glass works great for this.) space 1/2 inch apart on cookie sheet. Bake 4-6 minutes or until cookies are crunchy. (I do 7, but that's just my oven).
Now, combine the filling ingredients and mix well. Form into balls about 1/2-3/4 inch. Sandwich between two cookies and press until filling is almost to the outer edge of cookies.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies (I got away with 3 dozen though..depends on how thick you want them.) or 4 dozen wafers.