Saturday, May 31, 2008

Best Sugar Cookies Ever

Another family favorite. Sour Cream Christmas Sugar Cookies.
Despite the name, they can be made at times other than Christmas. These sugar cookies are so thick and fluffy, you'll never want a flat crunchy one again. These cookies freeze well and this recipe is very easy to double, or even triple. :D

What you'll need:

1 cup butter (or margarine, or such)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon baking soda and baking powder. You need one of each.
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
4 cups all-purpose flour or the like
colored sugar, sprinkles and red hots or any other similar things for decorating. (Optional but fun!)

Electric mixer (can do it by hand, just takes longer), a sifter or a fine mesh strainer, or a whisk in a pinch, a refrigerator(to chill the dough), a rolling pin, cookie cutters or a knife to cut shapes out, a couple cookie sheets for baking, wire racks for cooling, and zip bags or glad ware for storage. Plastic wrap, two mixing bowls and a wooden spoon.

How To:
Cream the butter and sugar. Then blend in the sour cream, eggs and the vanilla (sometimes I add an extra splash of vanilla). If you're lucky and have a stand mixer you can start sifting while its still mixing. Me, I haven't earned my KitchenAid yet so I'm the stand for the hand mixer. Once you're done blending, sift together the flour, and baking soda and powder (1 tsp of each!). Slowly add the dry mix into the bowl with the wet ingredients. Use the mixer as long as possible, but it will get too stiff for it and you will have to mix in the remaining dry mix my hand with a spoon or your fingers. Wrap up the dough in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for two hours.
Roll out the dough until it is about 1/3 of an inch thick. Cut out into desired shapes, decorate as you please with the sprinkles, colored sugar and red hots (we usually use them for the eyes and buttons on gingerbread shaped cookies).
Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for about 9 minutes. Watch them after 5! Leave on the cookie sheet for about a minute then transfer to the wire racks to cool. Make sure to let the cookie sheets cool in between batches otherwise the cookies could cook unevenly.

Enjoy!
Meg

* Will add photos after I make them this weekend.

Friday, May 30, 2008

Sour Cream Strawberry Salad

This one is a family favorite. We have it every year at Christmas, now that I've got my own house though, I plan on having it a lot more often! It is delicious and simple, and it isn't even all that bad for you. Especially compared to a fudge sundae.

What you'll need:
1 pkg. strawberry jell-o (the normal size one)
1 bag frozen strawberries
1 (6 oz.) can of crushed pineapple
1-1 1/2 cups sour cream
1 cup boiling water

A mold, we usually use a large round one with the hole in the middle.
A medium bowl, whisk and a rubber spatula.

How to:

Pour the powdered jell-o into the bowl, add the boiling water and mix until dissolved. Add in the strawberries and the pineapple. Pour half the mixture into the mold, reserve the other half at room temperature. Chill the mold until the jell-o is set, remove it from the fridge, spread the sour cream over the surface of it then pour the remaining jell-o on top of that. Return to the fridge and chill until set. Flip it out onto a pretty serving dish to serve, leave it in the fridge until ready to eat though. Its best nice and chilly.

Will add photo after I make it this weekend. :D

Meg

**NOTE: I made it, came out yummy, I had to use my phone to take the picture since I couldn't find my camera...and now I can't find my cable that connects my phone to my computer...so once I figure out how to get the picture off my phone onto my computer, I'll post it.