A delicious cookie bar.... Enjoy. My mom makes these for very special occasions...

Norma's Pink Frosted Maraschino Cherry Bars

          Layer 1

2 1/4 c. Flour
1c. Butter
1/2 c. Sugar

Mix three ingredients until crumbly.  Press into a 9  x 13 pan.  Bake at 350° for 20 minutes.

          Layer 2

2 eggs
1/2 t. Salt
1/2 t. Vanilla
1/2 c. Cocoanut
1 jar maraschino cherries ( chopped and save juice)
1c. Brown sugar
1/2 t. Baking powder
1c. Pecans (chopped)

Mix all ingredients together.  Pour over crust.  Bake again at 350° for 20 minutes.


          Layer 3

1 T. Butter
1c. Powdered sugar
2 T. Reserved maraschino juice

Mix all ingredients together.  Spread over bars right after they have baked their second 20 minutes.  Let cool slightly, but cut in squares while still warm.

Holiday Icebox Oatmeal Cookies

Holiday Icebox Oatmeal Cookies 

Makes 6-8 dozen
2 c. margarine or butter, softened
2 c. confectioners’ sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
3 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 c. uncooked, quick-cooking oatmeal (I measure, then grind the oats in the blender)
red and/or green sugar crystals
In large mixing bowl, cream margarine and confectioners sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in vanilla.
Sift together flour, soda and salt. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture. Stir well.
Stir in oatmeal.
Chill dough until firm enough to form into rolls. Shape into four rolls and roll in red or green sugar crystals. Cover with foil or plastic wrap. Chill until firm. (Or freeze at this point until needed.)

Slice into 1/4″ to 1/2″ slices and place on ungreased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake in preheated 325* F oven about 15-20 minutes or until set and lightly browned.
From Country Folk Art’s magazine Quick ‘n Easy Home Cooking, p. 15, December 1995

From Christmas Notebook blog featured on side bar.

Harvest Moon Cookies from THE GOOD WITCH

Tonight would be a great night for a nap...  Cool air, candles snapping happily..

However, it's Autumn...  who wants to sleep when it's so beautiful outside?  I have decided to finally bake the cookies featured on "The Good Witch" series, Harvest Moon cookies.

Here is the recipe.  Stay tuned for results...  Hey, it's an almond cookie dipped in chocolate.  I think it will be fine, huh?

Harvest Moon Cookies
1 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 egg

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup ground almond meal ( I ordered mine from Amazon)

Preheat the oven to 350˚F

Cream the butter and slowly add in the sugar.  Add in the vanilla and almond extracts and the almond meal.  Work in the flour gradually. Wrap the dough in wax paper or parchment paper and refrigerate for 2 hours. 

Line a cookie sheet with a silpat or parchment paper. These are delicate cookies, so don't handle them too much. Divide the dough into 2 batches, leaving one in the refrigerator. Divide the dough into small 1 teaspoon sized balls and place them on a cookie sheet and slightly flatten with the heel of your hand or a spatula. Bake until just slightly golden brown on the bottoms, about 12 to 15 minutes. Cool the cookies and drizzle with white or dark chocolate or cover 1/2 of the cookie in chocolate. Serve with cocoa or chocolate milk for dunking.

Scotcheroos

Halloween Goodies!

Just in case you have forgotten your recipe.....   Scotcheroos

Nonstick cooking spray
1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
6 cups toasted rice cereal
1 2/3 cups NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Butterscotch Flavored Morsels
1 cup NESTLÉ TOLL HOUSE Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels

1. Coat 13 x 9-inch baking pan with cooking spray.
2. Combine peanut butter, sugar and corn syrup in large saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until melted. Remove from heat. Add cereal; stir until thoroughly coated. Press onto bottom of prepared baking pan.
3. Microwave butterscotch morsels and semi-sweet chocolate morsels in large, microwave-safe bowl on HIGH (100%) power for 1 minute; stir. Microwave at additional 10- to 20-second intervals, stirring until smooth. Spread over cereal mixture.
4. Refrigerate for 15 to 20 minutes or until topping is firm. Cut into bars.

Makes 30 bars.

 Halloween makes me think of these easy but oooooh so wonderful cookie bars.  My room mate in college made these every weekend, and we were always sooo happy to have cookies in our bottom dresser drawer.  My grandma always sent her Delicious Cookies, and I have temporarily lost that recipe.  (It doesn't matter because it never tastes as good as hers anyway...)

With my cat aglow, and the room filled with candles, my "lair" is becoming quite a witching paradise...  I will try tomorrow night to capture some of the glow but alas! my camera batteries were haunted tonight...  I'm lucky to get this picture.

Enjoy the season...  The moon glows through my west window in the wee hours of the morning when I sneak off for a few winks before school time arrives. My College Prep class finished reading The Crucible today...  such psychologically and spiritually powerful dialog...  I love it.  We're watching the movie tomorrow.

Oatmeal Cake

Happy Autumn!

Welcome in, oh favorite of seasons!  Soul drenching-color and life-giving chill....  So welcome this year after the dry, thirst summer.  

Tonight my son is coming for supper, but today at 4:40, the Queen Autumnal Equinox arrives...  Nothing more appropriate to greet her than a little nod to the season on the front porch, a table setting of a favorite stoneware, and warm oatmeal-cinnamon-raisin cake, and a steaming cup of cappuccino...  

Mom is feeling a bit spry today...  She has been a little under the weather (literally and metaphorically...). I'm so happy she is on the mend.  

I wanted to have my cousin here to celebrate at exactly 4:44, the equinox itself, but she has the flu bug.... So I took her a little recuperation/Autumn snack...  The photo with the cream tablecloth, crow, and pumpkin is her pretty library table...  Home baked warm oatmeal cake (recipe follows) and a little GooGooCluster popcorn...  The popcorn is also a new recipe, but I think it needs tweaking before I share...   

We have a little tradition about candles...  So I tucked a battery votive in a little kitchen tussy-mussy I made with the baking powder can I finished today...  I'm suddenly in touch with my artsy side!  Look out, World.

My new Paula Deen Baker!

Here is the recipe.  

Quick & Easy Oatmeal Cake

1 cup quick or old-fashioned oats

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup butter or margarine, cut in small pieces

1 cup boiling water

2 eggs

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 to 1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts, optional

Confectioner’s sugar

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and lightly flour 8-inch pie plate or square baking pan; set aside.

Place oats in large bowl. Sprinkle brown sugar over top. Place butter pieces on top of sugar, and pour boiling water over all. Let stand for 10 minutes, or until room temperature.

Beat eggs and add to oats. Sift together flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Using mixing spoon or electric mixer, add dry ingredients to oat mixture, beating just until blended. Add nuts if desired.

Pour into prepared pan. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool slightly.  (I had to bake mine about 35 minutes today.)

Sprinkle top heavily with confectioner’s sugar. Serve warm or cold. Cold cake may be frosted with favorite frosting instead of sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar, if preferred. Cut in wedges to serve.

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Oatmeal Cookies

Oatmeal and Snow Days...

What could be better for the author of a blog called "Oatmeal and Whimsy" than warm oatmeal cookies, a cup of raspberry mocha, and a little nap.....  Well, probably an ice water, exercise, and grilled chicken, now that I think about it.  But I had that yesterday. 

After yet another named snowstorm zipped through yesterday, my son cleared out our drifted drive and then drove my car up and down the road.  Then, through the night, the winds rearranged the snow, and I couldn't get out again...  So today I made him a batch of broccoli soup, (with almond milk because he is doing the Paleo, non dairy thing).  Mom made potato soup for us.  Then, after he fixed the roads once more and left with a friend to see the movie, Olympus Has Fallen, Mom made chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.  Her recipe, on a little, yellowed newspaper clipping, is wonderful!  Crisp outside and chewy/soft inside...  She bakes hers for ten minutes at 375.  These had chocolate chips, but she often uses nuts, raisins, etc.  if you can find a little time to bake, I recommend these-----enjoy!