Swedish No Names

 

These pastry type cookies have been a part of our Christmas traditions since the 1970s. Our recipe is a version of a large pastry recipe from a church cookbook that we make into cookies. They keep well in the refrigerator or freezer if you need to keep them longer. They're a time consuming labor of love and very much worth every minute!

s

4 sticks butter (cold)

4 cups flour

1 pound small curd cottage cheese (large curd won't work)

Combine and mix like a pie crust with a butter knife or pastry knife. Make into 6 balls and wrap in waxed paper and then store in a baggie or container to keep from drying out. Refrigerate for at least one hour or up to 10 days.

Topping:

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 to 3/4 cup chopped walnuts

1 1/2 cup brown sugar

Roll out a ball like a thin pie crust. Use a dinner plate for sizing and trim off extra and set aside these scraps, or as my mom calls them, "utches", in refrigerator. Top the circle of dough with brown sugar mixture (about 4+ Tablespoons) Depending on how much topping you use, you may need to make another 1/2 recipe of the topping.

Cut into 16 wedges with pizza cutter and roll up in crescent rolls.

Bake at 375° for 10-14 minutes. Turn cookie sheet half way through baking. Repeat with remaining dough.

Frosting:

4 Tablespoons water

4 Tablespoons brown sugar

Boil 1 minute, then cool. 

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

1 pound (3 3/4 cups) powdered sugar

Add vanilla to cooled sugar mixture. Add small amount of sugar mixture to egg to temper before adding to the pan with remaining sugar and vanilla. Add powdered sugar and stir until smooth. Add teaspoon of water if needed.

 

Put gallon baggie in large cup and pull opening over edge of cup. Pour frosting into baggie and snip off a corner to frost cookies. Allow to set.

Best Ever Puppy Chow

This really is the Best Ever Puppy Chow Recipe!

I've sampled a lot of different puppy chow recipes and this is the only one I can't stop eating! That's probably not a good thing. I would recommend measuring out how much you should eat, put it in a cute little dish and find a cozy spot to sit and savor each bite. I too often stand at the countertop and mindlessly eat until the guilt sets in. I don't recommend that method.

I've tried using various rice square cereals and each one creates a slightly different end result. My favorite has been Kellogg's® Crispix® cereal.

Best Ever Puppy Chow
10 cups rice square cereal
1/2 cup melted butter
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1 3/4 cups (16 ounces) smooth peanut butter
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Place cereal in a large bowl. In a medium saucepan, melt chocolate chips over low heat. It's very important that it's low heat so the chocolate doesn't burn. Add peanut butter and butter, stirring until smooth. Once everything is melted and mixed together, remove from heat and pour over cereal. I usually stop pouring and mix it up a little to start coating the cereal. Better yet, if you have helping hands, one person can toss the cereal in the bowl while another slowly pours the mixture over the cereal.
Once all the chocolate mixture is in the cereal bowl, continue to toss to coat all the pieces.

Now I get a clean paper grocery bag and pour some powdered sugar in the bottom. Then I pour some of the coated cereal into the bag, add more powdered sugar over the cereal in the bag and repeat until all the cereal is in the bag and the powdered sugar is in the bag. I don't ever actually measure the powdered sugar. I just keep pouring more in until I think it's enough!

Fold the bag closed and gently flip the bag upside down and upright again repeatedly to get the cereal coated with the powdered sugar.

Lay out a long piece of waxed paper and slowly pour out the puppy chow onto the waxed paper to cool. I like to separate the big chunks into individual pieces and I then dunk the pieces into extra powdered sugar so each piece is covered in powdered sugar. This isn't always necessary if you use enough powdered sugar in the bag. 

Once cooled, about an hour, store in an airtight container.
Yield: about 13 cups of snack mix

Crepes with cherry topping

Crepes are very easy and fun to make. They're also so versatile. You could have them for a meal or for dessert. Of course, dessert is my favorite and this recipe is delicious! I found it written on an index card in my recipe box so I don't know where it originally came from. It could have been from a Taste of Home magazine since they have fabulous recipes.

Crepes
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup flour
butter, softened

In a bowl, whisk eggs, milk, sugar and salt. Add flour; beat until smooth. Let stand for 30 minutes. Melt 1 Tablespoon butter in 8" skillet. Pour just enough batter in pan to cover bottom - lift and turn the pan to cover the bottom. Cook until lightly browned; turn and brown other side. The first one usually doesn't turn out the best, expect that. Remove to a wire rack; cover with a paper towel. Once they're cool, I piled them up in a gallon baggie and put them in the refrigerator to enjoy over the next few days.

Filling:
2 pkgs. (3 oz. each) cream cheese softened
1/4 cup sour cream
2 Tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Beat until smooth. Spoon 2 Tablespoons down the center of each crepe; roll up. Heat cherry pie filling in microwave and serve over crepes. If you think it would be wonderful with the cherry pie filling inside the crepe, you want to be careful not to overdo it. My taste testers thought they wanted a LOT of cherries inside and couldn't even eat one crepe dessert. I made mine like in the picture and I might have had two.