Bake Sale Goodies!

These iced lemon cookies have been seen flying off the tables at recent bake sales. No more waiting until the next bake sale to taste these delectable treats!

Cherylann's Iced Lemon Cookies
1½ cups powdered sugar
1 cup sofened butter

1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp almond (or lemon) extract
2 ½ cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar

Combine powder sugar and butter, add egg and extracts. Mix in dry ingredients. Chill dough for 3 hours. Roll out to med/thin, about ¼ to ½ inch thick. Cut with round or other cookie cutter shapes. May be also cut in squares. Bake on parchment paper at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Remove and cool.

Lemon Frosting
½ cup softened butter
2 ½ cups powdered sugar (more or less as needed to achieve desired texture)
¼ cup lemon juice
¼ tsp salt

Combine butter and sugar, blending well with mixer. Slowly add the lemon juice. Add salt last, as you wish. Frost generously after cookies are cooled. Refrigerating the frosted cookies for about 15 minutes helps top set the icing; they can be refrigerated longer if you wish.
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Always in demand, these mixed nut bars have been a staple treat at Women's Club events for as long as anyone can remember, and now we've talked the baker into sharing her recipe with us!

Arlene's Mixed Nut Bars
adapted from a Taste of Home recipe

1½ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup packed brown sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons cold butter or margarine, divided
1 can (11.5 ounces) mixed nuts
1 cup butterscotch chips
½ cup light corn syrup

Preheat oven to 350. In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and salt. Cut in ½ cup butter or margarine until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Press into a greased 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with nuts. Melt butterscotch chips. Add corn syrup and remaining 2 tbsp butter; mix well. Pour over nuts. Bake for 10 minutes. Cool. Cut into 48 bars.
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Sometimes the simplest (and best quality!) ingredients makes the tastiest variation of a recipe, and this adaptation of an old time recipe just proves it.

Wendy's Peanut Butter Cookies
adapted from an old Betty Crocker Cookbook recipe

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup natural peanut butter (the kind you have to stir)
1 egg
1 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Cream sugars, and butter in large mixing bowl, add peanut butter and egg, mixing thoroughly. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl and then add to the creamed mixture. (At this point, the dough may be covered and refrigerated if desired for convenience.) Heat oven to 375ºF. 
Shape dough into about 1 inch balls, 
placed about 3 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten in crisscross pattern with fork (dipped into sugar or water if need be). 
Bake 9 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. 
Cool 5 minutes; remove from cookie sheet and finsih cooling on wire rack. Makes 3 dozen.

Baked Omelets

These breakfast casseroles were a hit at a recent Easter breakfast gathering, and are easy to make if you have overnight guests and don’t want to spend the morning at the stove.

All American Style Cheesy Baked Omelet

Adapted from Country Inns of America cookbook, published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1982.

6 cups of white bread cubes, about ½ inch in size

2 cups of medium cheddar cheese, grated

12 large eggs

4 cups milk

4 Tablespoons butter, one half of a stick

One teaspoon dry mustard powder

One half teaspoon salt

One half teaspoon ground pepper

Extra butter or cooking spray to grease the pan

9 x 13 cooking pan, glass or metal

Butter a 9 x 13 inch pan or spray it with a cooking spray. Layer half the bread cubes in the bottom of the pan, then half the cheese. Layer the rest of the bread cubes, followed by the rest of the cheese. Break the eggs into a blender, and pulse briefly to break the eggs. Add two cups of the milk and the dry mustard, salt and pepper, and pulse again. Melt the 4 Tablespoons of butter and add to the blender. Add the rest of the milk (if your blender jar is not large enough to hold all the mixture, pour the mixture into a two quart bowl, preferably one with a pouring spout), mix well with a whisk, then pour over the bread and cheese layers in the pan. Push down the bread cubes with a wooden spoon so that all the bread gets wet.

Cover the pan with foil and refrigerate overnight, or at least 4 hours. In the morning, remove the pan from the refrigerator and heat the oven to 350 degrees. If you used a glass pan, make sure the pan is at room temp before you put it in the oven or it may shatter. Bake the omelet at 350 for 55 to 60 minutes uncovered—it will puff up and brown. Let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes before serving. Makes 12 generous servings.

Southwestern Style Baked Omelet

Adapted from Country Inns of America Cookbook and cooking.com

6 cups of white bread cubes, about ½ inch in size

2 cups of grated Mexican cheese blend (mix of Monterey jack, medium cheddar, queso quesadilla and asadero cheeses) or your favorite Mexican cheese

12 large eggs

4 cups milk

3-4 Tablespoons butter or oil for frying

One large onion, diced

One large poblano pepper, sometimes called a pasilla pepper—it’s a large green mild chile pepper that looks like an elongated bell pepper.

One jalapeno pepper, two if you like more heat, or even a serrano

One teaspoon ground cumin

One half teaspoon salt

One half teaspoon ground pepper

Extra butter or cooking spray to grease the pan

9 x 13 cooking pan, glass or metal

Cook the onion and chile peppers in butter or oil until soft. Butter a 9 x 13 inch pan or spray with vegetable oil spray. Layer half the bread cubes in the bottom of the pan, then half the cheese. Spread the cooked onions and chiles over the cheese layer. Layer the rest of the bread cubes, followed by the rest of the cheese. Break the eggs into a blender, and pulse briefly to mix. Add two cups of the milk and the ground cumin, salt and pepper, and pulse again. Add the rest of the milk (if your blender jar is not large enough to hold all the mixture, pour the mixture into a two quart bowl, preferably one with a pouring spout), mix well with a whisk, then pour over the bread and cheese layers in the pan. Push down the bread cubes with a wooden spoon so that all the bread gets wet.

Cover the pan with foil and refrigerate overnight, or at least 4 hours. In the morning, remove the pan from the refrigerator and heat the oven to 350 degrees. If you used a glass pan, make sure the pan is at room temp before you put it in the oven or it may shatter. Bake the omelet at 350 for 55 to 60 minutes uncovered—it will puff up and brown. Let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes before serving. Makes 12 generous servings.

We served bottled salsa on the side, but you could also layer some in the omelet, just use a little less milk so the omelet isn’t too runny. You could also substitute canned diced chiles for the fresh chiles.

Feel free to experiment, improvise, and use whatever ingredients you like. Substitute bell peppers for the chile peppers, and basil and oregano for the cumin in the recipe above, and sub a mixture of mozzarella and romano cheeses for the Mexican cheese blend, sprinkle some parmesan on the top, and voila—it’s Italian! You can also add cooked meats to the omelet, too. Chorizo for the Southwestern style, Italian sausage or pancetta in the Italian version, or ham or cooked bacon in the all-American. Make sure you cook and drain the meat first.

Quick Rustic Pizza Crust

Adapted from Quick and Easy Pizza Crust Recipe found at allrecipes.com.

A pizza stone gives the most "rustic" crust of all with this quick and easy pizza crust recipe, but very impressive results are also obtained with a ventilated pizza pan, the kind with lots of little holes in it. It's so good though (especially combined with the companion sauce recipe below) that trust me, no one is going to complain no matter what kind of pan you have available to make it on! Recipe makes enough for two 12 inch or one 16 inch pizza. This dough also makes a wonderful focaccia bread.

1 slightly rounded tbsp (or two packages) active dry yeast, quick rise or regular, either are acceptable

2 tsp sugar

2 cups warm water

5 cups bread flour (all purpose is fine to substitute in a pinch)

4 tbsp olive oil (3 for dough, one reserved for brushing pan and crust)

1-2 tsp sea salt (preferably 2, but 1 will work)

Prepare pizza pan(s) by brushing with oil and sprinkling with cornmeal. Pizza stone requires no oiling.

In a large mixing bowl, place yeast and sugar in warm water and allow to dissolve completely, about 5-10 minutes. Add 3 tbsp olive oil, salt, and half the flour into the yeast mixture, mix until smooth and well blended. Add remaining flour and mix in to form a soft dough, knead for about 5 minutes. A mixer with a dough hook makes this fast and easy to do because the dough is very soft and sticky. (Not saying it can't be done by hand, but the soft texture and inherent stickiness of this dough is what makes it, and doing it without a mixer makes it hard to keep the dough "wet".) Allow dough to rise for about 10 minutes in the bowl, do not punch down, then turn out on lightly floured surface and do not knead, just roll out into a round slightly smaller than your pizza pan or stone. Place round on oiled pizza pan and press into place to fit. Brush dough with remaining olive oil, then allow to rest for 5-10 minutes before topping. Place topped pizza in oven preheated to 500 degrees, lower temperature to 450 immediately and bake until crust and toppings are browned, about 20 minutes, depending on your oven.

Quick and Easy Pizza Sauce

Adapted from Cat Cora's Easy Pizza Sauce

Surprisingly complex flavor in this simple recipe that creates enough sauce for three 16 inch pizzas. The "extra" freezes beautifully.

2- 6 oz cans tomato paste

6 ounces olive oil (just use the empty can)

12 ounces water (ditto on the empty can)

1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano (or 1 1/2 tsp dried and crumbled)

1 tbsp chopped fresh basil leaves (or 1 1/2 tsp dried and crumbled)

2-3 cloves chopped or crushed garlic (optional)

Whisk all together in a medium bowl and let sit for several hours to blend flavors. If you didn't happen to prepare ahead of time and need to use it right away, you can also bring the mixture to a simmer in a medium saucepan, then cool briefly before using.

Cool Whip Frozen Dessert

Adapted from Kraft Foods Strawberry Whipped Sensation

Prepare a large loaf pan by lining with heavy duty foil, making the foil large enough to cover the top of the loaf pan and to be securely folded as this "package" will be going into the freezer.

2 cups chopped fresh strawberries

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

2 cups frozen whipped topping, thawed

Mix above ingredients and pour into foil lined loaf pan, press lightly into pan to make level.

8 chocolate sandwich cookies (such as Oreo) finely chopped

1 Tablespoon melted butter

In a small bowl, drizzle melted butter over cookie crumbs and combine thoroughly, sprinkle evenly over frozen mixture in loaf pan. Fold over foil and press lightly to level and fold foil around pan to seal. Freeze until firm, overnight is best. Open foil and invert frozen mixture onto serving plate, remove foil. Spread with remaining thawed whipped topping and decorate as desired with fresh strawberries.

This dessert needs time to thaw before serving: approximately 30 minutes at room temperature or 1-2 hours refrigerated.