Tasty Tuesday – Oatmeal Chip Cookies

Happy Tasty Tuesday!  Ready for a recipe for some yummy cookies?  If so, you are in the right place.  This week’s recipe is for Oatmeal Chip Cookies from the cookbook, “Reiff’s Recipes” which I picked up last fall while up in Amish Country with my momma on the Buggies and Buds Shop Hop.    We had stopped at a new-to-us farm market in Ephrata, PA,  Reiff’s Farm Market, which had lots of pumpkins and gourds out front – that was what caught my eye first.  Inside was all sorts of produce, fresh picked flowers, baked items, and refrigerated/frozen items.  And their selection of apples was amazing – lots of varieties that I had never heard of.  It was a nice little market and one we’ll stop in again.  And of course, when I saw their cookbook, I just had to get a copy.

This week’s recipe is the first recipe for me to fix out of this book.  I was looking for a cookie to make for Danny to take to share with his disc golf buddies (I usually try to make something sweet for them every other week as a special treat – they have big sweet tooths) and our neighbor who I take dinner to once a week during this virus, since she lives alone and can’t have her friends stop by.  She also loves her sweets.  Who doesn’t, right?

So if you are in the cookie making and eating mood, try out this week’s recipe…

Oatmeal Chip Cookies, page 121, “Reiff’s Recipes”

2 c. butter, softened

2 c. sugar

2 c. brown sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

6. quick oats

3 c. flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2 c. chocolate chips

Cream butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla.  Add remaining ingredients.  Chill dough 1 hour.  Bake at 350 degrees for 11 to 13 minutes.

These turned out quite yummy and were devoured by the disc golf crew in record time.  I want to keep this recipe handy for Christmas cookie baking too, since it makes a nice size batch of cookies.  Don’t they look delicious?

Hope you are doing well and staying healthy.

Blessings…

My Review of Amy Clipston’s “The Farm Stand”

Being part of Amy Clipston’s Bakery Bunch allows me the chance to read Amy’s books in order to review them for fellow readers.  I was given the chance to read her newest release, “The Farm Stand”, and wanted to share my review with you.

Synopsis of the story:

“Experience some sweet, garden-fresh romance in the next installment of Amy Clipston’s Amish Marketplace series.

Salina Petersheim runs her own booth at the Amish market, where she’s known for having the freshest and most delicious produce in the area. Her father is the bishop of her church district, and her brother is a deacon. They are a very close family, yet sometimes she tires of being compared to her older brother, Neil, who is married and has two children. She also feels the pressure of having to be the perfect daughter for her parents.

Salina has been dating Josiah for almost a year now, but he feels more like a friend than a boyfriend. Her parents approve of Josiah, who is a hardworking roofer. He’s handsome and easy to talk to, but he just doesn’t warm her heart the way she feels a boyfriend and future husband should. She secretly longs for more.

Along comes William “Will” Zimmerman, a Mennonite chef who runs a restaurant located next door to the Amish market. He wants Salina to supply the produce for his restaurant, and as they forge a business relationship, they both feel themselves falling in love. Salina especially tries to deny her feelings for Will since her father wants her to marry within the community.

Both Salina and Will feel stuck in their current relationships, but they cannot deny what they feel for each other. Will they follow their hearts or bow to the pressure of family? Or will God provide a surprising new road for them?”

My review:

The second book in Amy Clipston’s Amish Marketplace Series, “The Farm Stand”, does not disappoint.  Amy’s characters, Salina Petersheim and Will Zimmerman, bring this story to life page after page.  Once starting a business relationship together through Salina’s produce, things start to progress on an other level.  Amy brings “all the feels” within her story.  You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll be happy, and you’ll be sad throughout all the pages of Amy’s newest release.

This can be read as a standalone novel, but in order to really know the characters, I suggest reading Book One in this series, “The Bake Shop” first.  You won’t be disappointed in this series.

If you haven’t started reading Amy’s Amish Marketplace Series yet, what are you waiting for?  With everything going on right now in our world, it’s a great time to curl up with a good book to just escape.  And if you can’t venture out to the stores to get it, you can always order it on Amazon.

Blessings…

Finally!! Tasty Tuesday – Chicken Pie

Finally!  I am getting around to posting a new Tasty Tuesday.  Like many of you, I’ve been cooking and baking up a storm the past couple months.  Each week I’ve been trying at least one new recipe, but never get the chance to type up a blog post.  Electrical is considered essential, so I am still going to work each day, and it seems like we are busier than normal.  It’s crazy around the office, and I am enjoying our weekends spent at home.  Spring cleaning, cooking/baking, working on thinning out my Thirty-One inventory from previous seasons, making cards, online church on Sunday mornings…lots to keep me busy on Saturdays and Sundays.  It’s weird to not hop in the car and go anywhere, and I’m sure a lot of you are thinking the same thing.

For this week’s recipe that I am sharing, I took it from Wanda E. Brunstetter’s “Amish Friends Cookbook”.  This cookbook is filled with 200 hearty recipes from Amish Country including full-color photographs of Amish life.  A few weeks ago, I fixed us the Chicken Pie on page 146.  We enjoyed it, and we had plenty of leftovers for lunches too.

Chicken Pie, Rebekah Mast, page 146, Wanda E. Brunstetter’s “Amish Friends Cookbook”

2 cups chicken broth

2 T flour

2 cups diced cooked potatoes

2 cups diced cooked carrots

2 cups cooked peas

2 T chopped cooked celery

1 small onion, chopped and cooked

2 cups diced cooked chicken

Buttered bread crumbs or pie dough rolled out to fit oblong baking pan

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Heat broth.  Add 2 tablespoons flour to make a thin gravy.  Mix with vegetables and chicken.  Pour into oblong baking pan and cover with bread crumbs or pie dough.  Bake for one hour.

I opted for the bread crumbs since I had them on hand.  For the vegetables, I used a bag of frozen mixed vegetables that I had on hand as well.  One thing about doing lots of cooking is that I’m clearing out the pantry and freezer.  For the chicken, I baked a huge tray of boneless chicken, cut it up, and then froze it in two cup servings for future recipes.  A great way to have it on hand to fix a quick casserole when needed.

We enjoyed this dish, and I’ll most likely fix it again.  It was easy to put together and toss into the oven.

Hope you are doing well and staying healthy during this time.

Blessings…

 

 

Tasty Tuesday – Peanut Butter Cookies

Welcome to the first Tasty Tuesday of February.  Another day in the 60’s for us – definitely not our typical February weather, but we’ll take it.  This week’s recipe is another cookie recipe I made over the Christmas holiday.  This time it’s for Peanut Butter Cookies from the “Lanc. Co. Amish Cookbook” again.  Another yummy cookie added to our cookie tins!

Here’s the recipe if you’d like to bake up a batch yourself…

Peanut Butter Cookies, Mrs. Naomi Esh, “Lanc. Co. Amish Cookbook”, page 224

1 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup brown sugar

2 t. soda

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

2 cups flour

Bake 350 degrees.

And there you have it, such detailed directions!

What I did which is pretty normal for cookie recipes was cream the peanut butter, butter (I don’t use shortening – cookies just taste better with butter in my opinion), sugars, soda, and eggs.  Once that was good and mixed, I added in the flour.  Mixed that all in and then dropped the dough onto the ungreased cookie sheets with a cookie scoop.  Flattened them with the fork in the crisscross pattern and then baked them for 11 minutes or so.

Some of the recipes in this cookbook don’t even give you any type of directions, so I at least got the baking temperature with this one.  Ha!

These were really good and would be perfect too with a chocolate kiss on top.

Hope you have a great first week of February.

Blessings…

Tasty Tuesday – Chocolate Chip Cookies

Happy Tasty Tuesday a day late this week.  Yesterday was a blur, and I never got a chance to type this up.  This week’s recipe is for some yummy Chocolate Chip Cookies that I made for Christmas.  Chocolate chip cookies are my dad’s absolute favorite, so they get made each year.  I got this recipe from the “Lanc. Co. Amish Cookbook” that I picked up at the Good’s Store in Lancaster County.  This cookbook contains over 1,000 recipes – that’s a lot of cooking and baking that one can do.

Feel like some cookies this week?  Check out this week’s recipe for these Chocolate Chip Cookies…

Chocolate Chip Cookies, Mrs. Fannie Fisher, page 223, “Lanc. Co. Amish Cookbook”

Cream:

1 cup Wesson oil

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 t. vanilla (till light and fluffy)

Fold:  2 well beaten eggs and beat entire mixture

Sift:  3 1/4 cups flour

1 t. salt

1 t. soda

Add to creamed mixture and stir in 1 cup chocolate chips.  Bake 375 degrees 10 minutes.

Recipes like this drive me batty not having all the ingredients listed out first and then the instructions, but with cookies, it’s fairly the same ingredients needed – flour, sugars, eggs, etc.

These were really good and reminded me of the Tollhouse version minus the butter of course.  And we all know butter makes anything better.

Now let’s see who won my blog prize from last week which included a copy of the cookbook used for these cookies and an autographed potholder by Amy Clipston…

Random number generator picked 15, so that means our winner is:

Suzanne Hawkins

Congratulations Suzanne!

Please send me a message with your address, so I can verify what I have, and I will get your prize pack sent out.

Have a great day everyone…

Blessings…

 

Tasty Tuesday – Cookbook Giveaway

Happy Tasty Tuesday!  Let’s have the first giveaway for 2020 – a Lancaster County Amish Cookbook and a signed “The Amish Heirloom Series” potholder by Amy Clipston.  Over the next couple weeks, I’ll be sharing a couple cookie recipes I made over the holidays out of the Lancaster County Amish Cookbook.  It’s a really nice cookbook full of all sorts of recipes.

For your chance to win, just leave a comment here on this blog post telling me one thing you love to cook or bake.  Besides desserts, I love making macaroni and cheese and usually fix my Nan-Nan’s recipe.

I’ll announce the winner next Tuesday.  Good luck!

Blessings…

Tasty Tuesday – Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Happy New Year!  Welcome to my first Tasty Tuesday for 2020.  I baked a variety of cookies over the holidays, and one of those was the Chocolate Crinkle Cookies from Wanda E. Brunstetter’s “Amish Friends Christmas Cookbook”.  This cookbook had been revised and expanded for a new season of Christmas baking back in September.  It contains all sorts of wonderful recipes to bake at anytime, not just for the holidays, including breakfast, salads, soups, main dishes, gift ideas, and desserts.

If you are in the mood for a yummy chocolate cookie, check out the recipe here for this Chocolate Crinkle Cookie…

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies, Mrs. Albert Yoder, page 169, Wanda E. Brunstetter’s “Amish Friends Christmas Cookbook”

1 cup vegetable oil

4 cups sugar

4 teaspoons vanilla

8 eggs

1 cup cocoa powder

4 cups bread flour

1 teaspoon salt

4 teaspoons baking powder

Powdered sugar

In large bowl, mix oil, sugar, and vanilla.  Beat in eggs.  In separate bowl, combine cocoa, flour, salt, and baking powder.  Slowly work into wet mixture.  Mix well and chill.  Drop by teaspoonfuls into powdered sugar and roll into balls.  Do not flatten.  Bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes.  Do not overbake.

With eight eggs and four cups of flour, I knew this recipe would make a whole lot of cookies, so I cut the recipe in half.  And even cut in half, there were a lot of cookies to help fill my cookie trays that we give as gifts.

These cookies were delicious.  It’s imperative not to overbake the cookies too.  Even though the cookies might not look done at the 10 minute mark, make sure you remove them from the oven.  They “bake” a little more on the hot cookie sheet while they are cooling.

It looked like it snowed on the kitchen table with all the powdered sugar.

Since it has been a long while since I have posted a Tasty Tuesday, I never announced the winner from my fall giveaway for this little prize pack:

So congratulations are in order to:

Dianna Nance

Congratulations Dianna!  I will get your package out in the mail to you soon.

Hope you all have a wonderful day.

Blessings…

“Cookies and Cheer” by Amy Clipston

Where did this year go?  It’s the next to last day of 2019.  It’s been a crazy, busy year that just flew by.

One of my sweet reads for December was Amy Clipston’s novella, “Cookies and Cheer”, from “An Amish Christmas Bakery”.

One of my favorite things to do during the Christmas season is bake several different kinds of cookies, so this novella was one I wanted to read.  Check out my quick review below of this Christmas novella by Amy.

My review:  I love when Amy Clipston writes about baking – one of my favorite things to do.  I absolutely love Christmas cookie baking, so I knew this novella would be right up my alley.  And I sure was not disappointed at all.  I loved watching Alyssa and Kyle’s relationship grow from business to something more.  And I found it interesting that a blacksmith could and would make custom cookie cutters.  That was really neat.  This sweet novella is a perfect read for the holiday season. Grab some Christmas cookies, find a corner to crawl up in, and enjoy Amy’s story.

So if you are still in the Christmas spirit, I’d recommend getting a copy of “An Amish Christmas Bakery” and reading all of the novellas in it, or you can just download Amy’s “Cookies and Cheer”.  Here’s the Amazon link for “Cookies and Cheer”…  https://www.amazon.com/Cookies-Cheer-Amish-Christmas-Bakery-ebook/dp/B07PNZ5SJB/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=amy+clipston+cookies+and+cheer&qid=1577737357&sr=8-1

Have a happy and safe New Year’s Eve.

Blessings…

Tasty Tuesday – Fall Giveaway

Hard to believe it is the last Tuesday of November…

For this week’s Tasty Tuesday post, I’m giving away a Fall bundle of kitchen goodies including a homemade pumpkin potholder that I purchased at September Farm in Honey Brook, PA, a set of kitchen towels, and a Gooseberry Patch Harvest cookbook.

For your chance to win, just leave me a comment with the one dish you are looking forward to on your Thanksgiving table.  Mine would be sweet potato casserole.  Seems like the only time I fix it is for Thanksgiving.

What about you?  I’ll post the winner next Tuesday.

Good luck and Happy Thanksgiving!

Blessings…

Tasty Tuesday – Pumpkin Pancakes

Happy Tasty Tuesday!  Here’s a recipe perfect for this time of year…Pumpkin Pancakes; however, I used this recipe to make waffles.  And it’s perfect for a large family too, since this recipe makes a lot of batter.  This recipe comes from the “Recipes of the Hearts and Homes from the Amish and Mennonites of Wisconsin”.  These waffles were very flavorful and just made you think of fall in each bite.  Do you need an idea for breakfast this morning?  If so, try out this recipe.  I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Pumpkin Pancakes, Mary Ella Martin, Stanley, page 91, “Recipes of the Hearts and Homes from the Amish and Mennonites of Wisconsin”

2 c. all-purpose flour

4 t. baking powder

1 t. cinnamon

1/4 t. ground nutmeg

1/4 t. ground allspice

3/4 c. sugar

1 1/2 c. solid pumpkin

3 eggs

1 c. milk

1/4 c. oil

1 t. vanilla

4 oz. chopped pecans

Sift dry ingredients and set aside.  Using a large bowl, combine pumpkin, eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla.  Add dry ingredients and stir until blended.  Stir in pecans just before ready to cook.  A hot, greased griddle is best for cooking pancakes.  Pour 1/4 cup batter onto griddle and cook until bubbles form and bottom is brown.  Turn and brown other side.  Serve with warm pure maple syrup.  If preferred, omit the pecans from the batter and add to the syrup.

I knew this recipe would bake a lot of batter, and with just two of us, we’d be eating pancakes or waffles for quite a while, so I cut the recipe in half the best I could.  I didn’t use pecans in either the batter or syrup.  These waffles turned out fantastic and hubby said the recipe is a keeper, so that’s always a plus.  He fixed eggs while I did the waffles,  and that was all we needed for a perfect breakfast for dinner.

Hope you have a wonderful first week of November.

Blessings…