Amazing Cranberry Sauce

This is the best cranberry sauce I have ever had...

1-1/2 C sugar
1 navel orange
1/2 t grated ginger
4 C cranberries
1/2 C (2 oz.) toasted pecans

Grate the orange peel and add to a pot with the sugar and ginger.
Add the juice from the orange into the pot and simmer over
medium heat until the sugar is dissolved.
Add cranberries and cook until they pop - about 5 minutes.
Add pecans and cool sauce.

Aubrey's Note:

I didn't use pecans. I'm not a nut-lover, so I typically leave them out of recipes. But, I do highly recommend the happiness of the orangey cranberry sauce.

Crock-Pot Chicken

4 chicken breasts
2 cans cream of chicken or cream of mushroom (or mixture of both)
1 8 oz pkg of cream cheese, cubed
1 pkg Italian or Ranch seasoning

Throw it all in the crock pot in the order listed, and cook on low for 6 hours.

(It will look something like this...)



Give it a quick stir and serve with either rice or mashed potatoes (<--- I completely endorse that option...)

Voila! Easy Peasy, and everyone will be salivating. (If you don't tell them how easy it is, then they will never know.) You can add more chicken if the size of your slow cooker will allow it, the sauce-to-chicken ratio doesn't seem to matter, but be prepared to have people complaining that there isn't enough sauce to go around. I use it like it's gravy, so I love to have a lot.

Maple Butter Blondie

Brownie

* 1 1/2 cups flour
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 1/2 cups margarine or butter
* 1 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed
* 2 eggs
* 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
* 1 cup loosely chopped walnuts or pecans
* 1 cup white chocolate, chunk (or chips)

Maple butter sauce

* 1 1/3 cups sugar
* 1 cup whipping cream
* 2/3 cup butter
* 2 teaspoons maple flavoring (be very careful with the maple flavoring. I only
added 1/2 a teaspoon, and it turned out fine. Maple flavoring can be pretty
over-powering.)

Directions

For Brownies:

In mixer blend butter, and brown sugar. Then add baking powder, salt, vanilla, and then eggs. Mix in flour. Fold in chips and nuts. Grease a 9 by 13-inch pan and smooth brownie mixture in with a spatula. Bake 350°F for 22-25 minutes. Top should be shiny and firm when you touch the center with a finger -- do not over bake or it will be dry (oven temps may vary so watch brownies closely).

** I found that in the oven I was making it in, 25 minutes was perfect. You just have to let it cool just wee bit before you serve it. But, not too much. You still want warm brownies.**

Sauce:

Combine first 3 ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Cook for 2-3 minutes, remove from heat and add flavoring.

To assemble:

While they are still warm, cut brownies into 12 pieces, they may be a little crumbly--they are more cake like in texture. Place a brownie on a plate and top with 2 scoops of ice cream. Then drizzle with sauce and sprinkle with more nuts.

Twilight Vampire Cookies

Vampire Cookies

3/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp almond extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup (Approximately)red jam (raspberry/strawberry)

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light.
Beat in egg and extracts.
Add flour and salt to the bowl and mix them into the butter-sugar mixture at low speed until dough is just combined.
Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 325F.
Divide dough in half and keep the portion you are not using in the refrigerator.
Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface until it is about 1/8-inch thick.
Use a cookie cutter to cut out 2-inch rounds.
Place rounds on a baking sheet, put a teaspoon of jam on each of them and cover with another round of dough.
Press edges down lightly, pinching the edges onto the cookie sheet.
Use a toothpick and poke two small holes (like a vampire bite) in the top of each cookie.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, until cookies are set.
Cool for about 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Dip a toothpick in some extra red jam and re-insert in the “bite” holes you made before baking to emphasize them, if not already red.
Draw a blood trick down from one of the bites with the jam, if desired.
Cookies are best the day they are made.

Makes roughly 2 dozen.