Sugar Cookies

  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1/3 cup shortening
  • 1/3 cup butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 3 1/4 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  1. Cream sugar, shortening and butter. Add eggs, vanilla, and milk. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture and mix well. Shape dough into a ball and refrigerate at least an hour.
  2. Roll out dough on floured wax paper, in two or three batches. Stack up the rolled out dough on top of a cookie sheet and refrigerate another hour or so.
  3. One batch at a time, remove the dough from the refrigerator and cut with cookie cutter. Working quickly so dough is still cool, combine scraps and roll out again to cut out more cookies.
  4. Bake at 400 degrees on lightly greased cookie sheet, or sheet lined with nonstick aluminum foil, about 8 minutes or until golden. Cool cookies on racks.

I like to ice these with a thick glaze of confectioner’s sugar, milk and vanilla that I paint on with a pastry brush. Then sprinkle with colored sugar.

Sweet Muffins

  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup oil
  • 1 egg
  1. Preheat oven to 400F.
  2. Whisk together milk, oil and egg. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl; stir in milk mixture until just barely combined (will be lumpy).
  3. Drop into muffin tins. Bake until tops are golden (mini-muffins about 12 min; regular muffins about 18 min).
  4. Makes 2 dozen mini-muffins or 12 regular size muffins.

Chicken Stew

One of my family’s favorites. And very flexible. I usually get a larger package of chicken, and scale things up accordingly. We like carrots and potatoes, so I’ll use 3 to 4 large carrots, and 4 or more potatoes. Using College Inn chicken broth makes a big difference … the sauce comes out velvety smooth.

  • 1 pound boneless chicken breasts, sliced into bite-sized pieces
  • 1/3 cup flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • dash pepper
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1 medium onion, sliced
  • 2 stalks celery, sliced 1/4 in thick
  • 1 1/2 cups chicken broth (College Inn is best)
  • 1/2 teaspoon thyme
  • 2 tablespoon catsup
  • 2 (or more…) potatoes, peeled and cubed
  • 2 (or more…) carrots, peeled and sliced
  1. Toss chicken with flour, salt and pepper.
  2. Melt 2T butter in large skillet. Add chicken, reserving excess flour; sauté 3 minutes to brown.
  3. Push chicken to the outer edges of pan; add remaining 2T butter to the middle and stir in reserved flour. Then add onion and celery on top of butter/flour; sauté everything 3 minutes longer.
  4. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to boil. Cover; simmer 15 -20 minutes, or until vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.

Waffles

  • 2 egg yolks
  • 2 cups milk
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 T baking powder
  • 1/2 t salt
  • 1/3 cup oil
  • 2 egg whites, stiffly beaten
  1. Combine yolks, milk and oil.
  2. Beat in dry ingredients until smooth.
  3. Fold in egg whites.

Makes about 18 waffles.

Berry French Toast

  • 2 cups frozen blueberries
  • 1 ½ cups frozen blackberries
  • 1 ½ cups frozen raspberries
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 cup nonfat milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 4 large egg whites, lightly beaten
  • 1 large egg, lightly beaten
  • 1 (8 ounces) French bread (cut into 1 inch slices)
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Combine first six ingredients in a 13 by 9 baking dish coated with cooking spray.
  3. Combine milk, vanilla, egg whites, and egg in shallow bowl.
  4. Stir well with a whisk.
  5. Add bread, turning bread to coat.
  6. Arrange bread in a single layer on top of berries.
  7. Sprinkle evenly with 1 T. sugar.
  8. Bake at 350 degrees uncovered for 30 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.
  9. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.