The Gee Family (Kurt’s Family) and the Cherry Almond Cookies

Kurt is a great friend from high school. Kurt and his family moved to Niagara Falls when we were in ninth grade and all of the girls went CRAZY. Kurt became the instant heartthrob and the cat fights began. With most trends, I don’t usually catch on to them until about a year or two after everyone else. Well the Kurt trend was no exception. I waited my turn and then we dated. I guess maybe he was worth the wait. Anyway, regardless of what happened in the past Kurt is still someone I consider a very close friend and someone I know is always there for me. Right now Kurt is living in California with his beautiful wife Wendy and their two adorable kids, Maddie and Austin. And although California is a great place, there are a bunch of people, myself included, who would love if they lived just a tad bit closer. I have to admit I was a little nervous sending them cookies because Wendy is an amazing baker and I am sure mine don’t quite compare, so here’s hoping they aren’t too bad!!! Enjoy!!!


Cherry Almond Cookies
Makes about 100 cookies
Ingredients:
Cookies:
-1 ½ Cup Marchino Cherries, Drained and Chopped (You can save some juice to add to frosting)
-7 ½ Cup Flour
-1 ½ Cup Sugar
-3 Cup Cold Butter
-1 Bag (2 Cups) White Chocolate Chips
-1 ½ teaspoon Pure Almond Extract
-1 teaspoon Cherry Extract


Almond Frosting
4 cups sifted powder sugar
4 Tablespoons softened butter
1 teaspoon almond extract
5-6 teaspoons milk
Add Marchino Cherry Juice for coloring is desired.
Beat until smooth, add more milk if needed to make it more spreadable.


Directions:
-WARNING: This recipe makes a lot of dough so make sure you have a big enough bowl.
-Slightly soften butter, although you still want it somewhat hard.
-Cream butter.
-Add sugar. Mix until thoroughly mixed. Gradually add other ingredients. I did the cherries next, then the extracts, and then the white chocolate chips. Mixing in between each ingredient.
-Finally add the flour to the mix, about 1 cup at a time.
-Using a medium cookie scoop, scoop dough balls onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
-Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.
-Remove cookies from tray and place on cooling rack directly from oven.
-Allow cookies to cool.
-Mix frosting ingredients. The Marchino Cherry juice can be added for coloring if desired so use as much or as little as you want.
-Heat the frosting in the microwave if you want it thinner and easier to use. Place frosting in plastic Ziploc bag and cut the tip off of one of the bottom corners.
-Drizzle the frosting over the cookies. Let sit to allow frosting to harden.

The Adams' Fluffernutter Cookies

The Adams, Matty and Marisa, are some friends from middle/high school. They are high school sweethearts, they even won best couple in our graduating class. And when they got married this past July they proved to everybody that they deserved the title of best couple!!! (Not to mention that their reception was a blast with ALL music from the 90s so needless to say I had A LOT of fun!!!) Matty and Marisa are both extremely caring and thoughtful people and are always there if you need them. Although we have drifted apart a little over the past few years, I still consider them great friends. I know that if I ever need them they are there for me, and I hope they know the same about me!!! Now I have to explain the cookies a little… I was just stumbling through some recipes on-line and I came across these ones and knew they would be perfect for The Adams (still feels a little weird to say that lol). The reason being that every year Matty still has a HUGE birthday party with bounce houses, games, and food we loved as kids- including Fluffernutter Sandwiches. (Peanut Butter and Fluff for those of you who don’t know what they are, although shame on you for not knowing!!!) So when I saw a recipe for a Fluffernutter cookie I had to make these cookies for them… here’s hoping they enjoy them!!!!


Fluffernutter Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 jar Fluff (marshmallow cream)

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray two baking sheet with cooking spray and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, mix the peanut butter and sugars together until creamy and smooth.
3. Add in the egg and vanilla extract. Mix until well combined.
4. Add the salt and baking soda. Stir until mixed together.
5. Spoon dough into balls, about 1 Tablespoon of dough for each cookie. Place the cookie dough balls on the greased baking sheets, about two inches apart.
6. With your thumb, press down the dough ball to make a puddle in the middle of each cookie. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove baking sheets from the oven. Press down the cookies with your thumb again. Do this quickly because the cookies will be hot (really hot apparently- ouch!!!!!!!). Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet for two minutes.
7. Move cookies to a wire rack and cool. Once cool, take a spoonful of Fluff (marshmallow cream) and fill the center of the peanut butter cookies. The Fluff (marshmallow cream) will be sticky, but try to smooth it out as best as you can. Fill all of the cookies and serve.

**** No changes to this recipe****

“Little” Fred and The Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

To call my favorite stepbrother “Little” Fred at this point is probably one of the biggest oxymoron statements ever!!! While at one time “Little” Fred was a short, scrawny, boy he has grown into an extremely tall, still pretty skinny, and handsome man. Fred is a die-hard Buffalo and Notre Dame fan. Come rain, snow, blizzard, or freezing temperatures, on Sunday you will find him down in the 100s at Ralph Wilson. And on Saturdays you will either find him on a road trip to an ND game or at Gadawski’s watching it with the rest of the family. Fred is one of the sweetest, kindest, and funniest men I know. He always knows how to make you feel better whether it’s through a joke, a hug, or completely bashing the person who has hurt you (the last one is always my favorite). Anyway, I love my stepbrother very much and am so thankful to have him in my life. In an attempt to try and make Fred gain some weight (although all previous attempts have failed) I tried to pick a fattening recipe. Enjoy!!!


Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
By: BUCHKO
"These cookies have a sweet peanut butter cup center."
Original Recipe Yield 40 cookies

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk
40 miniature chocolate covered peanut butter cups, unwrapped

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda; set aside.
2. Cream together the butter, sugar, peanut butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg, vanilla and milk. Add the flour mixture; mix well. Shape into 40 balls (about ¾” diameter) and place each into an ungreased mini muffin pan.
3. Bake at 375 degrees for about 8 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately press a mini peanut butter cup into each ball. Cool and carefully remove from pan.

***Additions/Changes***
1. I unwrapped the mini PB cups and placed them in the freezer for a while so they wouldn’t melt as I was putting them into the cookies.
2. I refrigerated the dough for about an hour before rolling the balls so the dough would be easier to work with.
3. I did not have a mini-muffin pan so I just placed the dough balls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
4. Lastly, I placed the cookie sheets in the refrigerator after they came out of the oven for about 7 minutes before putting the cookies on the cooling rack.

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???)