The (Continual) House of Good Lovin’

I have to admit I can’t technically remember how the name The House of Good Lovin’, or HOGL for short, even got started but it is definitely one that stuck with us and even followed us when we moved to another apartment. The were the original founders of the HOGL- Winter, Leslie, Katie-A, Amber, and myself, but there were plenty of girls who gained membership into the group once they moved into a founders space in the house… Carrie, Stewy, and Melanie. There was seriously a revolving door on the HOGL and I made some of my best friends because of that. Anyway, since there are SEVEN girls I need to write about for this one I’m gonna keep the blurbs kinda short. I am just going to mention one of my favorite memories (by the way it was very very hard just picking one) I have from each of the girls and hopefully they will still all know how much I love them and how much their friendship means to me….


Winter: I remember that Christmas that I had a horrible earache and we laid our mattress’ in the living room and you took care of me. And when you did have to leave for a little while you left the Law & Order marathon on for me.

Leslie: My favorite memory has to be we went shooting with your friends and got to blow things up. Of course with that memory comes my interpretation of how a gun actually sounds…. Pewwwwwwwwwww pewwwwwwwwwww!!!

Amber: I know this sounds funny but I remember on Sunday mornings you would walk around “scantily clad” (or at least as much as you could). I just thought that was so funny and loved that you were just so comfortable.

Katie-A: I think my favorite memory/memories was/were our summer of Bees games. I remember dragging you to so many of those games that summer. I especially remember the never-ending but AMAZING game and when that old coach gave me a baseball. Hahaha!

Carrie: Anytime I had the chance to listen to you sing… honestly you are AMAZING!!! I think my favorite was your CD release party (at least I think that was what it was)… you rocked it on the stage and we had tons of fun dancing!!!

Stewy: Just before both of us were about to leave Utah we were driving in your car and listening to “The Call” by Regina Spektor. It was such a fitting song for the time, with both of us leaving, that we both started crying. To this day whenever I hear that song I think of you!!!

Melanie: Playing Quiddler and eating your dad’s cornbread at your parents’ house with your family and especially Freaky.



Soft Gingersnaps
By: Shawn Barto
"With molasses and spices, these cookies deliver the old-fashioned flavor everyone loves. --Shawn Barto, Clermont, Florida"

Original Recipe Yield 66 servings

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups butter (no substitutes), softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup molasses
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Additional sugar

Directions
In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in molasses. Combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, salt and nutmeg; gradually add to creamed mixture. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until dough is easy to handle.
Roll into 1-in. balls; roll in sugar. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees F for 8-12 minutes ( 11 minutes seemed to be perfect for my oven) or until puffy and lightly browned. Cool for 1 minute before removing to wire racks.

****I actually did not change anything to this recipe and the cookies came out pretty damn good!!!****

The Peters’ Clan and the Sweetheart Cookies

This really isn’t too hard but see if you can follow (since there will be a quiz at the end... haha just kidding). Sandy, the mother of the Peters’ clan, is my Aunt Sharon’s, my mom’s sister, sister-in-law. But whenever I talk about the Peters family, I always just say “Oh she’s my other aunt” or “They are my ‘cousins’” because really we act more like family than probably some families do. We have gone on vacations together, get pedicures on a regular basis, Darien Lake, swimming, tutoring, sleepovers, YANKEES games, and so much more!!! Now let me just say a little something about each person: Bob is hilarious and a dedicated father, Boo is someone I can tell ANYTHING to and an amazing mother, Danny is probably one of the most responsible college kids I know- I’m not saying he doesn’t have fun but he also always does what is asked of him, Katie is an incredible dancer and extremely caring, and Jaco (Jacob) is an awesome hockey player and sweet young man!!! If any family deserves these cookies, it is the Peters!!!!!!!!

Sweetheart Cookies
By: Taste of Home's Fast Family Favorites
"These rounds filled with fruit preserves were blue-ribbon winners at a New Jersey county fair."

Original Recipe Yield 2 dozen

Ingredients
• 3/4 cup butter (no substitutes), softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons raspberry or strawberry preserves
• confectioners' sugar (optional)

Directions
1. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add egg yolk; mix well. Stir in the flour by hand. On a lightly floured surface, gently knead dough for 2-3 minutes or until thoroughly combined. Roll into 1-in. balls. Place 2 in. apart on greased baking sheets. Using the end of a wooden spoon handle, make an indention in the center of each. Fill each with 1/4 teaspoon preserves.
2. Bake at 350 degrees for 13-15 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Remove to wire racks. Dust warm cookies with confectioners' sugar if desired. Cool.

*** The only changes I made were:
- Not to grease the baking sheets as the cookies were buttery/greasy enough by themselves
- Add a little more than ¼ teaspoon of preserves on each cookie

Dad, Therese, Shannon, and Danielle and The Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

The random generator must have known that if I made cookies for my mom one week it would only be fair to make cookies for my dad the next week. So this week, the Kashishian household (or at least one of the households) are getting some hopefully delicious cookies. Also I think a more appropriate title than household would be zoo. Now I am not trying to be mean here at all, and I don’t mean zoo in a crazy/chaotic kind of way, but in a ton of animals kind of way. There are (I believe) 6 dogs, 1 cat, and some fish… oh and 4 people. Needless to say there is always something going on over there haha. Anyway, the people are all wonderful, caring, and would bend over backwards for anyone. My dad has never said no to fixing a car for someone (or anything at my house too ). Therese is always there with a delicious meal for people in their times of need or really any day of the week. Shannon knows how to make you laugh when all you want to do is cry. And Danielle is always there with sweet and kind words and a hug for you when you the laughing just didn’t make it better. Like I said they are all great people and I love them all!!!



Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies
By: Debbi Borsick
"Everybody wants this recipe when I take them in for a carry-in. To make them award winning, my daughter, Tegan, made them for a cookie baking contest and won a red ribbon! You can use any flavor pudding you like for this recipe."

Original Recipe Yield 6 dozen

Ingredients
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 (3.4 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)


Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be golden brown.


******As always here are my changes to the recipe:

1. I cut this recipe in half… it just seemed like a lot of cookies for four people haha.
2. As always, no nuts!!!
3. One baker suggested for the original recipe to the 2 teaspoons of vanilla to 2 tablespoons, and adding ½ teaspoon of salt… so when I halved the recipe I ended up putting in 1 tablespoon of vanilla and ¼ teaspoon of salt.
4. I also only cooked the cookies for about 9 to ensure they were more chewy than crispy.

My Mommy & Fred and the Scottish Shortbread Cookies

Well what can I say about my Mommy and Fred??? Here is one of those posts where if I am not careful I will go on for pages and pages and probably still will not have said a lot of the things I would’ve wanted to. So in an effort to keep it short and sweet I am just going to list words that describe them (most of them will apply to both of them but let’s see if you can pick which ones are only one of them  ). Anyway, here we go… amazing, loving, helpful, caring, hairy, extraordinary, best friend, fun, genuine, smart, smart-ass, respectful, sports nut, wonderful parents, even better grandparents, hilarious, beautiful, and most importantly MINE!!! I am so lucky to have them both in my life and I am thankful for that every single day!!! I love them more than words could possibly describe!!! I hope these cookies can represent an incredibly small token of how much I love them and appreciate all that they have done for me!!!! So please enjoy the cookies, and enjoy your cruise (yeah they are going on a cruise Monday for their 20th Anniversary- sooooooooooooo jealous of, I mean excited for, them!!!)

Scottish Shortbread IV
By: Linda
"This is the most basic cookie recipe there is. Real butter and brown sugar give it an irresistible flavor."

Original Recipe Yield 4 dozen


Ingredients
2 cups butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour


Directions
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. Cream butter and brown sugar. Add 3 to 3 3/4 cups flour. Mix well.
3. Sprinkle board with the remaining flour. Knead for 5 minutes, adding enough flour to make a soft dough. Roll to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut into 3x1 inch strips. Prick with fork and place on ungreased baking sheets.
4. Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for 20 to 25 minutes.


Here are a couple of the suggestions I tried:
1. It suggested to soften the butter (not melt) before creaming with the sugar.
2. I cut the flour to 4 cups instead of the 4 ½ cups… many of the bakers suggested this one.
3. Instead of kneading or rolling the dough I just took golf-ball sized balls and placed them on an ungreased sheet. I then made a thumbprint in the middle of the cookie. (Yeah that suggestion was tried because it sounded a HELL of a lot easier haha!!!)
4. I also sprinkled some powdered sugar on top of the cookies right after they came out of the oven. I did this so it would melt right into the cookie and it would give it just a little bit of a sweeter taste (I mean when is sweeter ever a bad thing???)

"The Asians" and the Chinese New Year Chocolate Cookies

*** Disclaimer: Anyone reading this blog who needs to understand that it is in no way racist! “The Asians” mentioned in this blog were a self-titled group of friends from Utah and not some name I came up with. Having said that…..

“The Asians” were well Asian, at least in one way or another. Most of their “Asianess” was obvious, while one (Taben) was not so much. Taben served his mission in Thailand and therefore was admitted membership into the exclusive group. This group was self-governed and depending on offenses committed, members’ level of “Asianess” could be decreased or even terminated, although they were always able to earn it back. Anyway, enough about the group and now let’s move onto its members. Dennis is a great friend who you could always count on for anything. He was a pretty good date too haha! Dwain is one of the sweetest guys ever and would bend over backwards for anyone. Spencer is hilarious and incredibly sweet. Although if you let him get to second base he makes really weird faces. And last but certainly not least, there’s Taben. Taben is an amazing friend who could always make me laugh and sometimes made me cry bbbbbbbwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!! As a side note there was at least one other member of the group but she is more so a member of another group that will be mentioned in another blog. Anyway, I love these guys tons and miss them all the time. Enjoy these most appropriately named cookies……


Chinese New Year Chocolate Cookies
By: SAMMEIY
"An easy recipe to make!"
Original Recipe Yield 2 dozen


Ingredients
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 cups butterscotch chips
• 2 1/2 cups dry-roasted peanuts
• 4 cups chow mein noodles


Directions
1. Butter a 9x13 inch dish.
2. Melt chocolate and butterscotch chips in the top of a double boiler over simmering water. Remove from heat and stir in peanuts. Stir in noodles until all is well coated. Press into prepared dish. Chill until set; cut into squares.


*** Here are my changes:
1. As noted by another baker it would be hard to cut this into squares as they tend to fall apart so I instead scooped them into heaping tablespoon sized piles.
2. I also doubled the recipe so that my boys would have enough  and it did come out to be exactly 4 dozen cookies.