Grandma's Cut out Christmas Cookies

Christmas wouldn't be the same without these yummy cookies!  Grandma would always roll and cut them out the day before we decorated them, she was always the one to put the frosting on while the we kids decorated them.  I don't know who is going to put the frosting on this year.

Ingredients:

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

3 3/4 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Cream butter and sugar together

beat in eggs and vanilla

mix in flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder

Roll out dough and cut out cookies

Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.

These are the cookie cutter we use every year.

Grandma always made the frosting with powdered sugar, melted butter, milk and vanilla.  I think it is the recipe on the bag of powdered sugar.  This video is from last Christmas when Grandma made WAY to much frosting and all of us were dying from laughter!  I'm bummed I didn't pick up my camera sooner.

Making icing with Grandma

Grandma frosting the cookies

Kristen doing more eating then decorating

I'm not sure Eric is awake yet

Cookies in desperate need of sprinkles!

Mom and Nicole decorating cookies with Grandma

Enjoy!

Grandma's Chicken and Noodles

Grandma's Chicken and Noodles is an awesome fall/winter meal.  Grandma hasn't made this in awhile because she hasn't made the noodles so I had to ask Aunt Diane and Mom what exactly went in this recipe because of course like some of the best family recipes they live in someone's brain. This is a culmination of the three of us talking it out and this is what we came up with. 

I was so excited to make this that I forgot to take my normal ingredients picture so you will just have to imagine them.

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken - brokendown into 4 pieces

1 medium onion - chopped

4-6 celery stalks - chopped

4 bay leaves

salt and pepper to taste

Grandma's homemade noodles

Water

place chopped onions, celery and seasonings in pot

add chicken

cover with water, bring to a boil and then reduce heat to med/low cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours

Remove chicken, let it cool a bit then remove skin and bones and shred chicken

time for noodles

Bring stock to a boil and add noodles

boil noodles for about 5 minutes or so the flour on the noodles should thicken up the stock. add more flour if you need to thicken it more

Grandma always served her chicken and noodles over mashed potatoes with a side of coleslaw.  

Enjoy!

See Grandma's Homemade Egg Noodles for noodle recipe. 

Grandma's Handmade Egg Noodles

These noodles are a family favorite.  My Grandma's kitchen table covered in these noodles drying is a fond memory. You always knew a good dinner was in the future when Grandma made noodles.  These noodle also hold a bit of sadness for me, Grandma and I were always going to make them together but sadly we never did.  I actually had plans to make them with her and video the process for this blog, but she passed away about a month before my trip home that we were going to make them.   These is her recipe but I wasn't sure how Grandma mixed up her noodles so I used the method my friend Sadie recently taught me. 

Ingredients:

2 cups of flour

2 eggs at room temperature

3 Tbsp cold water

1 tsp salt 

I cut this in half and made 2 different balls of dough, I thought this would be easier to roll out

pour 1 cup of flour on the counter mix in 1/2 tsp salt

make a well in the flour add 1 egg and 1 1/2 Tbsps of cold water

use your fingers to break up the egg and mix it

slowly add more and more flour to the egg mix until you form a ball of dough

knead dough for about 5 minutes until dough is smooth, 

after your done kneading it let it rest under bowl on the counter for 10 minutes or so

after dough has rested dust the counter with flour and get your rolling pin ready

Start rolling dough, if the dough is sticky at all add more flour

You want the dough to be pretty thin.

Cover dough with a towel and let it dry out for a few hours

Grandma always rolled her dough out on her cutting board, I just transferred it on to mine to cut it.

I used my pizza cutter to cut linguine sized noodles

 I cut long strips and then cut those in half

Handmade hand cut noodles

Lay the cut noodles out to dry, I covered mine with a towel

See Grandma's Chicken and Noodles to see them cooked

Grandma/Kristen's Peas and Potatoes

This is a classic Grandma side dish, with a new Kristen twist.

I will be making the classic version but I will give you the Kristen version as well, and who knows maybe it will become the new classic! 

"It was wonderful with a hint of blueberries. Yum" I love that it sounds like Kristen is describing wine, not her new blueberry/potato/pea dish!

Grandma's classic version

Ingredients:

2 cups milk

4 Tbsp flour

5-6 new potatoes - large dice, skin left on

1 cup peas - can be fresh, frozen or caned 

wash and dice potatoes

boil them until they are tender enough to pierce with a fork

in the mean time

in a sauce pan mix milk and flour together and cook over medium heat until thickened, stirring often 

after sauce thickens add in peas and cook for a few minutes more

drain potatoes

pour milk and pea sauce over potatoes

season with salt and pepper

Enjoy!

Now on to Kristen's twist on Grandma's side dish.

Kristen loves this dish and wanted to make it one night, after calling her mom to get the recipe and starting to cook it she realized that she didn't have any flour.  Of course she called her mom to see what she should do. Kristen not being a cook has a limited pantry and of course didn't have any of the other items that could be used, so they came up with an interesting choice.

Blueberry pancake mix!

Kristen of course picked out the blueberries first and used 4 Tbsp of blueberry pancake mix instead of the called for flour.  Kristen said it turned out great, and had just a hint of blueberry flavor! 

Ingredients:

2 cups milk

4 Tbsp blueberry pancake mix (I only had regular pancake mix)

5-6 new potatoes - large dice, skin left on

1 cup peas - can be fresh, frozen or caned 

Frosted Pineapple Squares

This is another one of those family recipes that I have never had or heard of but was given the recipe by my mom and aunt and told it was yummy.  I have been intrigued by this recipe for a long time because it does indeed sound good but kept putting if off because it involves using yeast and yeast and I don't always get along.  Whenever I use yeast I can only get it to work about half the time.  This time it about 3/4 worked.  I got a little rise out of the dough but I feel that it probably should have rose a bit more, maybe my house is to cold.  It was still yummy but I'm betting it could have been a bit more light and flaky.  This turns out like a huge pineapple toaster strudel!

Ingredients:

Pineapple filling

1/2 cup sugar

3 Tbsp cornstarch

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg yolk - lightly beaten

1 14 oz can Crushed Pineapple - undrained

Dough

2/3 cup milk

1 tsp sugar

1 package active dry yeast

4 egg yolks - lightly beaten

4 cups sifted flour

1 cup butter

Mix sugar, salt and cornstarch together in a sauce pan

Separate your egg yolk

stir yolk and pineapple into pan with sugar, salt and cornstarch

cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thick and smooth about 7 minutes

let cool while making dough

scald milk

add sugar  and let cool to lukewarm

cut up butter so it is easier to mix in with flour

Measure and sift flour

use a pastry blender to cut the butter and flour together

keep blending until butter and flour are a pea sized consistency

dissolve yeast in warm water to activate

add yolks and yeast to lukewarm milk

add milk mixture to flour

kneed together until dough forms

divide dough into two pieces and put one on a floured surface

roll out into a big rectangle

put on a parchment paper lined pan

pour pineapple filling over the top and spread out, leave some room around the edges to seal it with the top piece of dough

roll out the second piece of dough to be roughly the same size

place it on top of the pineapple filling

pinch the edges together

I decided after pinching the edges together to roll them up and make it a litter prettier

cut some slits in the top for steam to escape

let the dough rise for about an hour

*it rose a little but I'm sure it could have rose more*

Bake at 

mix together some powdered sugar and a little milk to make a glaze, drizzle it over the top

cut squares and serve warm

Enjoy!