Best Ever Monster Cookies

I make these cookies for many different holidays so this week they're for Valentine's Day!

Monster Cookies are not new and the recipes for making them are endless. Probably 95% of my cookies are homemade, but sometimes you just need a quick and easy recipe. 

I decided to come up with my own version of Monster Cookies which are easy and great to throw together when we have unexpected visitors or to serve at club meetings or any other last-minute function.

Grandma Coy's Caramel Chocolate Bars

This recipe came from my mother-in-law Coy. 

She cut it out of a magazine years ago and has been making them for holidays and her grandkids ever since. 

My son Daniel especially loved these delicious cookies and Coy always made sure to bring him a special container all his own.

Sadly, Coy recently passed away, so I wanted to share her cookie legacy and recipe.

Salted Caramel Pumpkin Cheesecake

 

I had a request to do a blog post about this cheesecake because the kids think it just delicious!

I found the original recipe for this decadent cheesecake in a Paula Dean Cookbook, but for time and convenience sake, I made a few small changes to make it lots easier.

For one of the changes, I use a pre-made graham cracker crust and I use a bottled caramel sauce instead of melting caramels. 

I also add a little vanilla. We just love our Homemade Vanilla. 

WWII Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

My daughter Alexis always wants a homemade chocolate cake for her birthday nearly every year. 

In the last couple of years, she has bugged me to try a recipe she got from the mother of a friend she met while in college. 

The Chocolate-Mayonnaise Cake became really popular during War World II when some food staples such as eggs and butter were in supply and housewives had to make do with what they had on hand. 

 

Grandma Elder's Carrot Cake

This is a moist delicious carrot cake that's not too sweet and gets rave reviews when I make it. 

I usually make it as a sheet cake but it is so much prettier as a layer cake!

My mother-in-law Coy Lynch handed down her mother's Carrot Cake recipe to me many years ago. Her mother was Annabelle (Sharer) Elder from Alexis, Illinois. 

I never got to meet Annabelle but the cousins all talk fondly of visits to her house. Annabelle and her husband John H. had 5 children, one of which is the famous and highly successful high school coach John K. Elder. 

Grand Champion Pumpkin Cake

It's November already (yikes! how did that happen!?) and I just finished packing away all my Halloween decorations.
I've been busy making a list for our Thanksgiving dinner and corresponding grocery list. I usually try out a new dish or dessert every year at Thanksgiving so have been scanning through a few cookbooks for ideas.

I found this recipe in a Pumpkin Cookbook I purchased way back in 1992. The cookbook was put together by The Crusader Sunday School Class at Calvary United Methodist Church for a fundraiser. 

 

Blackberry Cobbler (or One Cup Cobbler)

This is a really quick and easy dessert, and it quickly becomes nearly everyone’s favorite.  
You will get repeated requests for this dessert! 

A berry cobbler is a very homey comfort food. It's a dessert that’s not really fancy but gets the same reaction every time:  Dessert Heaven!

Blackberry is our favorite berry to use but just about any fruit works well.  Our next favorite fruits to use are peach and cherry.  

Strawberry Pie Filling

Strawberries are among the first fruit to ripen in the Northeast.  

In my area of Ohio, strawberries are ripe around the first week in June. 

Every year we make Strawberry Freezer Jam and freeze cut-up strawberries to use during cold winter months. Sometimes we use fresh strawberries for other recipes like Strawberry Schnapps.

This year I decided to try homemade Strawberry Pie Filling.   There is nothing better than a cool dessert on a hot summer day. But a strawberry pie with whipped topping is a great dessert anytime.

For me, strawberries mark the passage from spring to summer each year. And besides, making delicious fresh strawberry edibles gives me something to do while I eagerly wait for my garden vegetable to ripen.

Aunt Janey's Sour Cream Coffee Cake

My daughter Jami met her husband Donnie, fell in love and got married a few years back.  (Seems like yesterday!)  

We are really pleased with her choice for our son-in-law, just a great guy.  We also have had the pleasure of meeting many of his family members, which, happily we love too!

Donnie's mother Julie and grandmother Mary are wonderful cooks and I'm still trying to get their Apple Pie recipe (best I've ever tasted) and homemade Chicken and Dumplings recipe. 

Donnie's Aunt Janey and Uncle Eddie live in southern Ohio in a beautiful hilltop home.  Aunt Janey shared this recipe with me after bringing it to one of our fall parties. She told me she originally found the recipe in a magazine years and years ago.
It is absolutely delicious!

Make in the Morning Cinnamon Rolls

I am anxiously awaiting the perfect outdoor temperatures so I can once again tap my maple trees to make maple syrup.  The temps need to be above 40 degrees during the day and below freezing at night. This causes the sap to run.  

While waiting all I can think about are recipes using maple syrup.

This is a pretty easy homemade Cinnamon Roll recipe and perfect for a lazy Saturday morning.

These can be started in the early morning hours before everyone wakes, and are ready in about 1 to 1½ hours, start to finish.   Their also just as good the next day! (if any make it that long)

Quick and Easy Strawberry Cake

This is an easy sheet cake or layer cake that's ready in no time using a pre-packaged cake mix and frozen strawberries. 

We pick our strawberries at a nearby farm every year around the first week of June to make our own natural Homemade Strawberry Jam.  And I always buy extra strawberries to chop and freeze to use with desserts, on ice cream, or in salads.  

There is nothing like the taste of summer fresh strawberries!  

Well It's January and June is quickly approaching so I decided to use up some of last summer's strawberries to bake a cake for my husband Bill’s birthday.

This cake is also perfect if you’re looking for a Valentine’s Day dessert.  Or bookmark or Pin this recipe for summer and use fresh garden strawberries.  Great to serve at outdoor barbecues and summer dinner parties too!

Coconut Macaroons

Here's another of our favorite Christmas cookies: Coconut Macaroons.

These are easy cookies to make, have just a few ingredients, but pack a big punch of flavor.

Adding a little almond extract gives the cookie just enough extra flavor, but not enough to over shadow the coconut.  
If almond is the flavor you wish to dominate add a little more extract.

These store well in a sealed air tight container.

These can be made Gluten Free, just use GF flour.

Lemon Bars

I usually bake cookies to give out as gifts during the Holidays.  Some years I have made as many as 50 to 60 dozen cookies!
Each year I get the most requests for this cookie recipe.  And I have to say it is one of my favorite cookies too.

Many Lemon Bar or Lemon Cookie recipes call for lemon zest or grated lemon rind added to the cookie.  I have found that the zest or rind added makes the cookie slightly tarter.  Without it, the cookie is a perfect delicate lemon flavor with a delicious crust.

These cookies are best kept in the refrigerator but after tasting them they may not last long enough to worry about it.  If giving as gifts, I suggest you wrap each individual cookie bar in Sarah Wrap so they store better, do not stick together and do not absorb the odor or flavors from other cookies.

Easy Banana Cream Pie

I usually keep bananas on hand just to snack on and as one of my staple food items.  Besides just eating them, bananas can also be added to fresh fruit salad, cereal, yogurt, on a sandwich with peanut butter and added to ice cream.  

When they start getting a little too ripe I use them in homemade Banana Nut Bread or Banana Cream Pie.  

Click here for the best Banana Nut Bread recipe ever!

I love easy recipes that taste fabulous and look as if you spent a lot of time on preparation! And this is one of those recipes. It also comes in handy for last minute company or if you need to take a dessert to a dinner party, book club or church pot luck.

Lemon Ice Box Pie

An old-timey favorite, simple to make and simply delicious. This is a great summer dessert to share at BBQs and gatherings.    

Fluffy and creamy smooth with a refreshing hint of lemon and the tropics, this will become one of your summer time favorites.

Lemon Ice Box Pie is considered by many to be a southern dish, but I can remember my mother making the most wonderful Lemon pies when I was little in central Ohio.  

Ice boxes date back to the days of ice harvesting which ran from the mid-19th century to the 1930s, or until refrigerators were introduced into the home. The Ice box had hollow walls and were packed with blocks of ice to keep food cold. It is most likely this pie recipe was created around that time.

Homemade Vanilla

Making Vanilla is Easy!

Real vanilla is quite pricey but is one of the best flavors to use for wonderful desserts and in treasured recipes.  I myself absolutely love double strength vanilla. Making your own insures a high quality product that is free of artificial colors or sweeteners.  Homemade vanilla also makes a wonderful gift similar to a bottle of fine wine. And like fine wine, vanilla matures with age.

Making your own vanilla is cost effective and has only two ingredients:  Vanilla beans and vodka. Most commercially bottled vanilla is 4 ounces which is ½ cup.  I can't think of many things I pay that much for and get so little.

The first and most important question is: How many vanilla beans are needed to make vanilla?

Raspberry Sponge Cake

Valentine's Day Easy-Peasy Raspberry Sponge Cake

Let me just put this out there: 
I love raspberries and desserts with raspberries. 

I like them on salads and with breakfast cereal or oatmeal. 
But wait, I love them with ice cream too!

This could go on forever……

This is a pretty vertical recipe, meaning you can use many different types of fruit.  Blackberry is wonderful and another of my favorites,  but try apples for autumn, it delicious too. 

And this is a perfect dessert to serve after a romantic Valentine’s Day dinner.  Or serve it to guests at a tea party, dinner party, book club or garden party, etc.
But serve it…… all of it…… to other people.
Do not make it,
and then eat nearly the entire thing,
over a two day period.
Do Not……