Cinnamon Spice Chex Mix

 Thanksgiving dinner went off without a hitch.  The oven miraculously held the ham, scalloped corn, stuffing, AND the green bean casserole.  My mom broke out the china and silver.  We even put a tablecloth on the table, it was fancy...well as fancy as we get.  It was so good to spend time with my parents, brother, grandparents, aunt, and cousins; to have the day free to just be together. 

I made the ham, stuffing, scalloped corn, whipped potatoes, butternut squash, triple berry pie, cranberry salsa and cinnamon spice chex mix.  Everything was good; the dressing might have had a little too much rosemary, the pie didn't hold together as well as I had hoped, and the cranberry salsa was only a hit with my brother, but all in all it was a wonderful meal. 

Cinnamon Spice Chex Mix (adapted from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chex-Pumpkin-Pie-Crunch/Detail.aspx?src=rotd)

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tbs. pumpkin pie spice
1 Tbs. vanilla
3 cups wheat chex
3 cups corn chex
2 cups oatmeal squares
2 cups cinnamon or honey nut cheerios
1 cup peanuts


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line an half sheet pan with foil and coat with cooking spray.  Microwave the butter until melted and stir in the sugar, spice and vanilla.  In a large bowl combine cereals, peanuts, and butter mixture.  Spread onto the prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes, stirring halfway through. Cool and store in an air tight container.

French Onion Home Fries

Today my brother got home for Thanksgiving break from University of Oklahoma.  It is so good to have him home for the week.  Tonight we made one of his favorite meals.  My dad grilled steak and I made these home fries and sweet corn we saved from this summer.

French Onion Home Fries

5 medium baking potatoes, scrubbed and chopped into 1/2 inch chunks
1/4 cup olive oil
1 packet of french onion soup mix (If you don't have this just follow this recipe: http://www.food.com/recipe/copycat-liptons-onion-soup-mix-24952)
1 Tablespoon Italian Seasoning

Preheat oven to 400.  Line a half sheet pan with foil and grease with cooking spray.  Mix all ingredients and pour onto prepared pan, and shake the pan until all the potatoes are in one layer.  Bake for 45-50 minutes, stirring halfway through, until lightly golden brown.

Mint Inception Cookies: a cookie within a cookie

My roommates have made Inception cookies a few times.  They are these massive, but beautiful chocolate chip cookies with an oreo on the inside.  These cookies are fabulously delicious, not to mention funny.  Have you seen Inception?  Well it is about dreams going on inside other dreams.  So a cookie inside a cookie is hilarious, right?  Either way these cookies are good.

I am currently obsessed with Cool Mint Oreos, so I wanted to rework the original inception cookie recipe to make it minty.  I exchanged the chocolate chips for Andes Mint Pieces.  You can buy the mints and chop them yourself or just get the bag of prechopped chunks. I also decided to use only a fourth of an oreo in each cookie because they bake faster and turn out the size of a normal cookie.

From the outside they look like your average chocolate chip cookies.

I should be studying Food Chemistry, but look how beautiful those cookies are!!

Mint Inception Cookies: a cookie within a cookie

Based on a recipe by Picky Palate: http://picky-palate.com/2011/01/06/oreo-stuffed-chocolate-chip-cookies/

1 cup butter, softened

¾ cup brown sugar

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 Tablespoon vanilla

3 ½ cups of flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup Andes mint pieces

8 cool mint oreos

Cream butter and sugars until fluffy.  Mix in eggs and vanilla.  Add flour and soda, mix on low until combined (dough will be thicker than normal cookie dough).  Mix in Andes mint pieces.  Cut oreos into quarters.  Take a rounded tablespoon of dough and break it in half.  Put an oreo quarter between the dough and form dough around the cookie.  Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes on 350 °F.  Yield: 32 cookies

Oatmeal Everything Cookies

½ cup butter, softened

½ cup unsweetened applesauce

2/3 cup white sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. Vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups old fashioned oats

1 tsp. baking powder

4 cups goodies like baking chips, nuts, dried fruit

Preheat oven to 350°F. Using a stand or hand mixer beat butter, applesauce, and sugars on medium high for 3 minutes or until fluffy. Reduce speed to medium low and add eggs and vanilla, scraping the sides of the bowl if necessary. Add the flour, oats, and baking powder, mix until combined. Stir in the goodies. Scoop by level tablespoon onto greased cookie sheets and bake for 8-10 minutes until golden brown on the edges. Remove from the oven and let sit for 1 minute before moving to a cooling rack. Enjoy.

If 4 cups of goodies is seems like too much goodness for one batch of cookies you can substitute more oatmeal or some rice crispies for part of the goodies. J Otherwise just use whatever is in your cupboards. This is a great recipe for emptying out all the partially used bags of goodies sitting in your cupboards that wouldn't be enough for a normal recipe. I did 1/3 cup peanut butter chips, 1/3 cup pecans, 2/3 cup toffee bits, 2/3 cup coconut, 1 cup dried sweetened cranberries, and 1 cup chocolate chips.

This is the AWESOME vanilla a friend gave me. It is a full quart of vanilla. Good times.

My sugar and flour canisters are cute, but not very wide.  My 1/2 cup measure only fits halfway into the jar.  This is ridiculous.

4 cups of goodies: peanut butter chips, chocolate chips, dried sweetened cranberries, pecans, toffee bits, and coconut

The dough.  Yum.

Pretty little cookies.