Peppermint Topped Shortbread Cookies

 Hi friends!!

These cookies aired on Fox19 this past Monday morning.  Please enjoy this easy holiday cookie recipe.  Note: You can shape your cookie dough into a circle (1/4-1/2 inch thick) and then score triangle shapes by cutting them into wedges...after they come out of the oven.  Any way you slice it...these are great shortbread cookies.

Xo,

Karri 

Peppermint Topped Shortbread Cookies

Blue Ribbon Kitchen’s Karri Perry 2019

Ingredients:

1 cup butter-softened

½ cup sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ teaspoon salt

Topping

Melted chocolate, dark, milk or white

Candy Canes-crushed into a fine powder with a rolling pin

Directions:

With a mixer, cream the butter and sugar for 2 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and salt.   Add the flour slowly until a soft dough forms.  Lightly butter the bottom of a small 9x12, rimmed baking sheet. Press the dough evenly into the baking sheet, use waxed paper to help the dough from sticking to your hands.  Press the dough until the cookies are just shy of ½ inch in thickness—it is ok if the dough does not reach every corner of the baking sheet.  Prick with a fork all over the surface of the dough.

Bake in a 300 degree oven, on the middle rack for 35-40 minutes or until the edges are golden.

When the cookies emerge from oven, immediately cut into squares with a knife.

Let cool 15 minutes, before lifting the cookies from the tray and onto a cooling rack with an off-set spatula.

Decorate cooled shortbread cookies with a drizzle of melted chocolate and crushed candy cane pieces.  Use a piping bag to help direct the chocolate, be sure to cut a very tiny opening so that chocolate lightly flows onto the cookies.

Whiskey Slush and Happy Birthday Grandma!

My Grandma would have been 94 years young on December 8th.  

She was born in 1925 and she was one of my very favorite people. 

 Grandma LOVED Christmas and she made it her mission to pick out

 just the right gift for everyone on her list. 

 I am sharing my grandma's holiday drink recipe for 

"Whiskey Slush" because I know she would be so

 tickled for you to have a copy too.  

We had whiskey slush drinks every year at Christmas...in fact, it 

wouldn't really be a Christmas celebration without one.

One of the the last Christmas gifts I received from my grandma 

was a handwritten recipe for her whiskey slush and 

all of the ingredients to make it. She sweetly measured

 everything out and placed it in a festive holiday bag...including a

 set of pretty holiday glasses,

in which to to serve my very own whiskey slush.

(I still have the gift bag and the 

measured ingredients... just as she left them for me...

along with my favorite part, her handwritten recipe...it's a treasure.)

Please enjoy this recipe...as many of you have 

written to me on Facebook 

regarding this recipe...your families

 have a very similar...if not the very same drink recipe 

at your gatherings!!  

Some add sprite or ginger ale to the drink and

 others serve cherries...and some simply have it plain... 

frosty and delicious!  

However you serve your whiskey slush... 

Let's raise a glass to the ones we

 love --and cheers to my grandma on  what would have been her 94th year...

and cheers to all the good grandmas that make the holidays

 so extra special.

  The recipes, the traditions, the lasting 

memories...that's what it is all about.

Cheers!!

Xo.

Karri

Grandma’s Whiskey Slush

9 cups water-boiling

4 tea bags

1 12 ounce can frozen lemonade

1 12 ounce can frozen orange juice

1 ½ cups sugar

2 cups whiskey (Jim Beam-says Grandma)

Make tea with the water and tea bags.  In a pitcher add the tea, and the rest of the listed ingredients.  Stir well.   Freeze for at least 2-3 hours (overnight is better), until ready to serve.  Scoop 1 or 2 ladles of the semi-frozen drink into a holiday glass and serve. Cheers!

Rosemary Bourbon Appetizer and Orange Cranberry Bread

Hi friends!!  These recipes are from Fox 19 Morning Extra.    ...And you'll never guess... we taped extra recipe segments that will air on Christmas morning.  Stay tuned for Peppermint Shortbread with White Chocolate Drizzle and Holiday Pot Pie with a Rosemary and Cracked Black Pepper Crust. 

Enjoy these delicious recipes, as the season speeds along.... I don't know about you...but I an feeling like I am a week behind schedule.  I think the late Thanksgiving has me feeling that way.  All the best to you as you plan your holidays and enjoy all that is December!

Xo

Karri

Saucy Rosemary & Bourbon Holiday Appetizer

1 ½ cups ketchup

¾ cup bourbon

1 cup brown sugar

1 tsp grated onion

1 tsp dried rosemary

 Pinch of salt

Directions:

Mix all the ingredients together in a medium saucepan.

Cook slowly, at a low simmer on the stove top, for at least two hours.  Add mini cocktail sausages and meatballs; simmer for 35 minutes more, until meats are hot and cooked through, serve.  Garnish with fresh rosemary sprigs. 

Orange Cranberry Quick Bread

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

¾ cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar packed firmly

1/3 cup sour cream

2 eggs lightly beaten

1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest

1/2 cup fresh orange juice

¼ teaspoon orange extract-optional

5 tablespoons melted butter, slightly cooled

1 cup chopped fresh cranberries

Directions:

Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, set aside.

In a large bowl, or in a stand mixer, mix sugars and zest for 1-2 minutes to release the oils from the zest.  Add the eggs, sour cream, juice, extract, and melted butter.  Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture.  Do not over mix the batter. Fold in chopped cranberries and nuts (if using).  Fill a (9-inch), loaf pan lined with parchment paper and sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.   Add the batter to the prepared loaf pan.  Batter will fill the pan to about half way. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes on the middle oven rack.  Bake until a tester comes out cleanly from the center or the internal temperature reaches 200-205 degrees. Remove from the oven and let the bread rest in pan 5 minutes and turn out onto a cooling rack.  Option: Once cool drizzle with glaze, allow glaze to dry.

For Muffins: Fill Muffin tins with paper liners, or spay muffin tin with vegetable oil cooking spray.  Fill each cup ½ full.  Bake 24-26 minutes or until tester comes out clean.  Cool in muffin tins, drizzle glaze if desired. Makes approximately 18 muffins.

OPTIONS:

½ cup chopped toasted walnuts or pecans

Optional orange glaze drizzle: 3 tablespoons fresh orange juice, ¾ cup powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest.

Optional Crumb Topping or Filling: ¼ cup brown sugar, 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar, 2 Tablespoons quick cook oats, 2 Tablespoons softened butter, ¼ cup flour, 1 tsp orange zest: mix until combined, (will look like wet sand) Pour half of the batter into prepared pan, sprinkle a few tablespoons of the crumb mixture evenly across batter, cover with remaining batter, and top with the remaining crumb mixture and bake.

**For smaller loaf pans or gift sized loaves: fill with batter to half way, place paper loaf containers bake on a baking sheet.  Adjust the baking time to accommodate smaller loaves.  (My small 5-inch loaves baked for 40 minutes