My copy of Cookies for Christmas is falling apart, this is our favorite recipe for these cookies and I don't want to lose it.

1 cup sweet butter (2 sticks, room temp)
1 cup margarine (2 sticks, room temp)
1/2 cup sugar
1 T vanilla
4 cups AP flour
2 cups finely chopped pecans (8 oz or 240g)
Powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter, margarine, sugar, and vanilla
Add about 3/4 of the flour and blend. Add nuts, blend. Add rest of flour, blend.
Form into 1-1 1/2 inch balls. Go ahead and pack them on the sheet...these do not spread.
Bake 15-20 minutes
Roll in powdered sugar immediately and place on cooling rack.

Notes:
To make these gluten free, add another 4 T of butter. Change AP flour to a GF AP Flour (Better Batter, Tom Sawyer, and Gluten Free Mama blends all work well)
If you use a #70 scoop you should get 100-110 cookies

This morning I woke up to the fact that Gray is now a year old. Ut! Where did the time go? Anyway. Hrmm. Need to bake a cake. I don't want to bake a chocolate cake...Hmmmmwhat's a good cake for a one year old baby? Ooo! I know! Gram's Banana Cake. This is actually her mother's recipe. I called her this morning and she read the recipe to me over the phone.

As its written:
1.5 C sugar
2 C flour
4T sour milk
1t vanilla
1t salt
1/2 C shortening
1 C mash banana
1t Soda
2 eggs beaten

Pour into 8 inch cake pans bake 350 30 mins. Frost with Brown butter frosting

Brown butter frosting
6T butter
1 1/2 C powdered sugar, sifted
1t vanilla
4T Cream

That's it, no instructions. Just a list of ingredients.

Here's the GF conversion
In a mixing bowl put
104g trans fat free shortening
1.5 C sugar

Beat until combined, add
1t vanilla
2 eggs
1/4 C water

In a separate bowl combine
236g Gluten Free Mama's Almond Flour
1T buttermilk powder
1t salt
2t xantham gum
1 1/2 Soda

Add to sugar mix until combined, add
1 C mash banana

Pour into prepped 9x12 sheet pan, bake at 350 for 35 minutes. Frost with Brown Butter Frosting

Brown Butter Frosting
8T butter
8oz powdered sugar
1t vanilla
1/4 c whole milk

Put butter into small pan over med-low heat. When melted turn heat to medium and start swirling pan. Butter will go from yellow to clear to brown. When it hits tan, remove from heat. Let cool. Add to sugar, beat. Add vanilla and milk. Frost cake

Next time I'll cool the butter before dumping it immediately into the sugar. I ended up with a really tasty but runny frosting.

This cake is frickin' amazing. I gave Gray a piece after singing Happy Birthday, he grabbed it and immediately shoved it in his mouth. And he devoured the entire thing in 2 minutes flat. This cake is not going to last long in this house!

Randy (allanh's husband) gave me permission to post this. Its his altered recipe from some cookbook. These are AWESOME. Easily doubles or triples. I keep losing the piece of paper the recipe is copied and scribbled on, so I'm posting it here.


4 slices of bacon diced
2 teaspoons Dijon style mustard
3/4 Cup brown sugar (6 ounces)
1/3 Cup BBQ sauce
1/3 Cup ketchup
1/2 onion chopped
1 teaspoon molassas
1 Tablespoon chili powder
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper or to taste
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke
1 Cup chopped beef brisket or carnitas (I've done both. Excellent either way. Buy your carnitas from Costco.)
3 15 ounce cans baked beans

In a big stock pot saute bacon until bits are crisp and well browned, remove and drain on paper towels. Remove all but 2 Tablespoons of drippings. Cook onion in bacon drippings. Throw everything else in and heat through. Serve

Or
Put everything in an oven proof pan and bake at 325 for an hour.

I've never done the oven thing, but putting everything in the crockpot and letting it sit works well too. Awesome with cornbread.

I keep losing the location of this recipe, so I'll post it here.

This recipe is the one used by my second grade class as a present for our parents. I clearly remember taking part in the mixing and preparation of this bread at school. My Mom still pulls out the original purple mimeograph recipe that came attached to the loaf of bread whenever she makes it. This is my favorite quick bread. And it makes a beautiful transition to Gluten-Free. I am also weird and like eating the batter straight from the bowl. Delicious!

Makes 3 loaves

3 1/3 Cup Flour (I use Tom Sawyer's Gluten Free AP flour)
3 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
3 Cups sugar
1 Cup Oil
4 whole eggs
2/3 Cup water
2 Cups (one big can) pumpkin puree
1 Cup chopped nuts (optional and whatever kind you like. I like walnuts)

In a LARGE bowl, mix wet ingredients. In a smaller bowl mix dry ingredients. Add dry to wet, add nuts if you are going to. Pour into three 9 X 5 X 2 loaf pans. Bake at 350 for 1 hour 10 minutes.

EDIT 12/12/11 I just noticed, while making a normal wheat flour version that it didn't work....I made a mistake in transcribing the recipe...its baking SODA not baking powder. No wonder my GF loafs didn't rise and were flat! Silly Jen

CRAB

1 Crab shelled or 1 lb shelled. I have used cans of crab and it works too.
3 green onion chopped or minced
1 stalk celery chopped or minced
2 hard boiled eggs mashed or blended
3 Tbsp or more mayonnaise till spread-able
Lowrey Seasoning Salt sprinkle on to taste
1/4 to 1/3 cup parsley chopped or minced I go by looks and taste

Mix all ingredients. Cut off crust from sourdough bread, cut in small rectangles or bite size pieces.

Saturday (Today!): BBQ London Broil, Asian Coleslaw*, Potato Salad, Grilled Peaches with Ice Cream
Sunday: BBQ Chicken Dinner Salad
Monday: Hitchhikers Palak Paneer, Monsoon Diary's Chana Marsala, Brown Rice
Tuesday: Pasta with Greens and Red Sauce
Wednesday: BBQ Pork, Greek Salad
Thursday: Crockpot Mac N Cheese, sauteed summer Squish
Friday: Pizza and Salad
Saturday: I'll figure something out later in the week after I get the box on Thursday.

*Oh my god, this was freaking amazing allanh and Randy missed something really good. I should have called them this morning. Sorry guys!

And just so I don't misplace it, here's the recipe for the Slaw Sauce.

• 6 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 5 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger root
• 1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic

The only change I made was 4 Tablespoons of oil, rather than 6. I don't like very oily sauces.