I made these Christmas Snowball Cookies for years, then I lost the recipe. I just found it again over on Cooks.com, though, and wanted to share it with you.

These cookies are melt-in-your-mouth tender and wonderfully tasty. They are also easy to make and the snowball shape is perfect for the Christmas season.

Christmas Snowball Cookies

(Cooks.com)

Ingredients

• 8 tablespoons sugar
• 1 pound butter
• 4 cups sifted flour
• 4 tablespoons vanilla
• 2 cups minced walnuts (I use pecans)
• 1 cup powdered sugar

Method

Cream butter and sugar together. Add flour; mix well. Add vanilla and walnuts; mix well. Shape into balls, about one inch. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 30 minutes. Cool 3 to 5 minutes.

Put powdered sugar into a zip lock bag. Gently shake cookies in the powdered sugar. Place on waxed paper. When completely cooled, shake again in powdered sugar.

If you have a favorite Christmas cookie recipe, click over to Charlotte’s Tips and enter her contest! Look around while you’re there. I think you’ll find lots of great tips and recipes you can use!

Technorati Tags: Christmas Snowball Cookies, Cooks.com, Christmas

If I am ever able to get myself a cabin like I’m wanting, somewhere in the country, I know I’m going to need to furnish it sparingly and make the best use of every square inch of space. I’ve had plenty of practice where I live now, but I can do better, I think.

Having more usable space in the kitchen ties in with shopping for bathroom vanities that will do double duty as both lavatories and well-organized storage space. Of course, this all means I need to reduce the amount of “things” I have to store and keep only the stuff that is truly useful in my home.

Technorati Tags: cabin, kitchen

I have a ton of cook books. Right now, a lot of them are in storage. I really don’t have enough room to keep them all on display in my small kitchen, though I’d love to.

I’d like to have a larger kitchen with lots of shelves for cook books and cooking tool storage, where I could still get my hands on what I need quickly. I’d also like some kind of small office furniture for my desktop computer, since I have hundreds of recipes stored on it. It would be so much more convenient to just have it in the kitchen where I could read the recipe right from the monitor instead of printing it out when I’m cooking.

Technorati Tags: cook books, storage, shelves, recipes

I don’t know if that’s the right name for this dish, but it’s all I could come up with for a vegetable dish that my sister invented years ago, when times were tight. It’s delicious and has become a much-requested dish for family get-togethers. This past Thanksgiving was no exception. Sis made a huge batch of it, and only about a cup of it was left.

We lovingly call it “succotash”, but it’s not real succotash. It doesn’t have lima beans in it. Anyway, this is a crowd pleaser and I wanted to share it with you.

Corn and Green Bean Medley

Ingredients

• 1 can French sliced green beans, drained
• 1 can whole kernel corn, drained
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1/2 sweet bell pepper, diced
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Saute onion and bell pepper in butter until tender. Add corn, green beans, sugar, salt, and pepper. Continue sauteeing until heated through, about 5 minutes. Serve piping hot with any meal.

Simple, and simply delicious!

Technorati Tags: family, Thanksgiving, succotash

I want to introduce you to a new cooking blog called Tinfoil Chef. Though it just began at the end of October, there are already several interesting and yummy sounding recipes along with some nice kitchen tips you might enjoy. Click over and check it out for yourself. I figure Tinfoil Chef will grow almost daily and I look forward to reading the entries!

Technorati Tags: recipes, Tinfoil Chef

I was so very pleased with the number of relatives that were able to make it for our Thanksgiving get-together. Grands and great-grands, nieces, nephews, and babies galore! It was great to sit around the tables and share this very special meal with all those who were there.

My brother-in-law said grace over the meal, and we all ate and talked and laughed through the whole thing. One of my grown sons was able to make it this year, and announced that he and his wife are expecting again. I also got a phone call from my son in Mississippi, which absolutely thrilled me. Hearing from him was better than all the gold jewelry in the world, to me! I only wish he could have made it over for Thanksgiving, but maybe after the first of the year he can get over here.

Technorati Tags: Thanksgiving, Mississippi

I am not usually that fond of places that send me unsolicited emails or ads to my PO box, but I have actually found a few places where there are some really good deals going on. I love a good deal, so when I’m on a marketing list for places I really would, and maybe already do, shop at, I don’t mind nearly as much.

For instance, I get emails from places like Best Buy and Walmart. They save me money on things I am planning to buy anyway. Some that I receive aren’t for places I signed up at, but they still work out to my benefit. It makes me wonder of Martin Worldwide is the source of those emails and catalogs? I don’t really know, but they are among the world’s largest producers of such lists and have the expertise in place to work with demographics to determine which people are most likely to be interested in which products, at which places.

That’s a lot of data to cover, but they’ve been doing this successfully for over ten years now so they’ve got the experience.

Technorati Tags: shop, Best Buy, Walmart, Martin Worldwide

Standard Time means that supper time seems to come way too soon. I am loathe to turn lights on in the house at 5 PM or earlier, yet I have to if I’m to see what I’m doing in the kitchen on those days when I’m not at work. I actually have some solar exterior lighting spotlights that I put inside to see my way around before bedtime, but they aren’t bright enough to work in the kitchen by.

I commented to Brandon the other day that they lend “ambiance” to the room, but that’s about all.

Technorati Tags: Standard Time, kitchen, spotlights

The end of Daylight Savings Time for this year has really thrown me for a loop. I am still not used to the sun going down in what seems like the middle of the day! I’m not hungry at the right times of the day, now, and I get hungry at times when it’s not really mealtime.

Oh, well, maybe soon I’ll get used to it. I just keep feeling like I should be doing “this”, when it’s not really time yet, and I want to do “that” before it’s time. I wonder how long it will take for me to adjust? Have you adjusted to it yet?

Technorati Tags: Daylight Savings Time, hungry, mealtime

Whether you pop your popcorn in a skillet on the stove, in the microwave, or you prefer popcorn machines and hot air poppers, popcorn is a huge favorite in many homes. It’s a tasty, low fat, high fiber snack that’s quickly made for a night’s movie watching or for after school snacks.

Ordinary popcorn can be dressed up and made festive, though, by using the following recipe. We love it and I think you will as well!

Baked Fruited Popcorn

Ingredients

7 cups Cooked Popcorn
1 cup Pecans pieces
3/4 cup Candied red cherries, cut up
3/4 cup Brown sugar, packed
6 tablespoons Butter or margarine
3 tablespoons Light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon Baking soda
1/4 teaspoon Vanilla

Method

Remove all unpopped kernels from popcorn. In a 17×12x12 inch baking pan, combine popcorn, pecans and cherries. In a 1 quart saucepan combine brown sugar, butter and corn syrup. Cook and stir over medium heat until butter melts and mixture comes to a boil. Cook over low heat 5 minutes more. Remove from heat. Stir in baking soda and vanilla. Pour mixture over popcorn; gently stir to coat popcorn mixture. Bake in 300 degree F. oven for 15 minutes; stir. Bake 5-10 minutes more. Remove popcorn to large bowl, cool.

Store in a tightly covered container.

I got this recipe from ChefNorm.com under his popcorn recipes. This is also the recipe my sister uses for a snack popcorn during the Christmas season. It’s delicious.

Technorati Tags: popcorn, Baked Fruited Popcorn, ChefNorm.com, popcorn recipes, Christmas season