Homemade Christmas Cookies

Start Now

If you haven’t already started baking your holiday cookies you need to do it now. At the very least you can get a head start on things with a little planning.

• List what cookies you want to bake for the holidays.
• Divide the list into cookies you will give away, cookies for parties, cookies for school activities, etc. and also list the ones you will be serving for your own family closer to Christmas.
• Make the list of ingredients you will need and then go buy them so you will have them on hand. Stock your pantry.

Get as much as you can done ahead of time (now).

• Most cookie dough can be refrigerated or frozen so mix as many batches as you can. Some great doughs for this are basic chocolate chip or sugar cookie dough. You can take these two and add almost anything to them: chips, dried fruit, candy etc.
• Freeze the dough in small batches. If you only want to bake one or two cookie sheets at a time you don’t have to thaw the whole batch. I do this all year around. I keep small rolls of dough in my freezer. When I hear the grandkids are on their way, I pull out the dough and have a hot pan of cookies when they get here. It makes the house smell good for them, too.
• If you will be using colored sugar or coconut, mix it up now. To make either one, place the sugar or coconut into jars with a couple of drops of food coloring and shake. Store it in there until ready to use.
• If you love shortbread and like to give it as gifts, do it now and store in an airtight container. Shortbread cookies are one of those cookies which are better if they are aged for at least a couple of weeks.
• If nothing else at least measure out your dry ingredients. Place them in plastic bags so they’re ready to use.

Baking

• Be sure to use what the recipe calls for, whether it is butter, shortening or margarine and never use margarine that is whipped, soft spread or reduced fat. Your cookies will spread everywhere if you do.
• Pre-heat your oven
• It is best to bake only one sheet of cookies at a time but if you must do more, leave a couple of inches around the sheets for air circulation.
• Let the baking sheet cool between batches because placing dough on a hot sheet can make the cookies spread too much.
• If your recipe calls for oatmeal or nuts, toast them before using them.
• Fill a container that has large holes (like a sugar shaker) with flour to sprinkle your board before rolling out cookies.
• Make sure when you roll out cookies to cut that they are all the same thickness. Each individual cookie must not have thin or thick spots either or they will bake unevenly. You can buy rubber bands to put on your rolling pin to get an exact thickness, but they are expensive.
• I have always used 2 strips of cardboard (the thickness that I need) covered in foil and just lay them on each side of the dough with each edge of the rolling pin laying on a strip.
• If you don’t have cookie cutters or enough time to use them, just roll out your cookies and cut in squares or diamond shapes with a pastry cutter or pizza cutter. Sprinkle with colored sugar and bake.
• Use a wire cheese cutter to slice chilled refrigerator cookie dough.
• If you are making huge batches of cookies and do a lot of baking, you might try using old oven racks to cool them on. Just place something under each corner to make sure it is raised up slightly off of the table.

Storing and Shipping

• Cookies keep very well for a very long time without freezing. Most cookies don’t have ingredients the health department calls "toxic" (their words not mine) and are very safe to keep for long periods.
• Always completely cool cookies before storing and never store crisp cookies and soft cookies together. Store soft cookies in an air tight container and crisp cookies in a container with a loose lid.
• I find that tins work best for storing cookies because sometimes the cookies pick up the flavor of plastic ware if it was previously used to store something like spaghetti with garlic. This is especially true if the cookies have a lot of butter.
• If you have cookies that have ingredients like cream cheese, they will need to be stored in the fridge, but the recipe will usually tell you if you need to do this.
• You can freeze cookies up to 3 months.
• When shipping cookies, be sure to give them plenty of time to get there and always mark "perishable" on the package.
• Soft moist cookies, cookie bars and drop cookies ship the best.
• Metal tins are really the best shipping container for cookies, but if you don’t have one then a sturdy cardboard box will work. Line the box with plastic wrap or foil then place the cookies in it. Crumble up wax paper to place on top sides or anywhere you need cushioning. I then slip the whole thing into 1 or 2 plastic bags.
• I wrap that box in bubble wrap and place inside another box. You could also use newspaper, peanuts or even popcorn for cushioning at this point.

Misc. Tips

• Cookie ingredients can be very expensive, especially for Christmas cookies. If you need to save money, choose your family’s favorites that have the least expensive ingredients.
• For example, my family loves sugar cookies about the same as chocolate chip cookies. The sugar cookies cost much less because they don’t have things like chocolate chips and nuts in them, so I would bake the sugar cookies.
• Another way to save on ingredients is to use less of things like nuts and baking chips. You really can get by with putting half a bag of chips instead of a whole one into chocolate chip cookies. The same goes for nuts. If that same recipe calls for 1 cup of nuts, use just 1/2 cup.
• When giving cookies as a gift, make them look more attractive by putting them in cellophane bags and tying with a ribbon.
• Instead of just slapping cookies on a platter for your Christmas dinner or party, add a couple of votives or one large candle in the center of the platter for a more festive look.
• Save those dried out cookies or that handful of leftover cookies. Freeze them and use them in place of any recipe or dessert that calls for a graham cracker crust.

       -Jill

For lots of great recipes and tips about scratch cooking and frugal living, take a look at our Dining On A Dime Cookbook here! You’ll find almost 500 pages of very helpful information to help you learn to work all kinds of magic in the kitchen!

photo by:princessindisguise

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Meals in 30 Minutes or Less

I was having dinner at my son’s house the other night and my daughter-in-law had made "old fashioned" baked potatoes. You know– in the oven and not the microwave. Boy, they were good. It seems so many things taste better slow cooked in the oven.

We started talking about how much longer it took to cook them in the oven compared to the microwave. That started me thinking. Yes, it does take longer in actual cooking time but in some ways it is easier. When I bake potatoes in the oven, I get them ready and in the oven an hour before dinner and then just forget about them until dinner is ready. Then, all I have to do is set them on the table and dinner is served.

When I microwave them, I tend to start cleaning them and preparing them at the same time that I’m trying to make a salad and heat up the veggies. While I’m doing all of that, I have to remember to keep turning the potatoes and if I am cooking several, I have to put a few in the microwave and when they are done, pull them out and add more, all of this at the same time that I am trying to prepare the rest of the meal.

Why is it that, even though we have faster methods of cooking our meals, they seem to have become more frenzied and hurried than years ago? Then it dawned on me — With the introduction of the microwave and the idea that meals can be prepares in 30 minutes, most people do nothing to prepare or plan their meals until 30 minutes before they are going to eat. So 30 minutes before dinner you find yourself trying to thaw something, cook it, and slap it on the table and at the same time talk and deal with tired, hungry, cranky kids. Let’s not forget how exhausted you are at this time of day, too.

We need to warm up our ovens and start using them again the way our grandmothers used to do. Here are some tips and ideas that prove that cooking meals in a conventional oven instead of a microwave can be just as quick and easy, not to mention how much more delicious they taste and smell.

I think we underestimate the power of coming home and smelling something yummy cooking. We automatically seem to relax, feeling that "all is well with the world". I really think it can change the whole atmosphere of your home for the evening.

I am not living in a dream world. You can prepare meals the way our grandmothers did. I hear some readers saying, "Our grandmothers weren’t ever as busy as we are so they had time to cook large meals." I can hear our grandmothers chuckling at that statement. My husband’s grandmother had to help on the farm from early in the morning until evening. She took care of a large home garden, canned, cleaned house every day, did laundry without a washer or dryer and still provided meals not only for her family, but up to 20 farm hands as well. She had to do it all without a refrigerator, microwave, or a grocery store and the nearest water was a mile away from her house.

My mother-in-law would go to work as early as 7 am and work until 9 pm 6 days a week, but she still managed to make three large meals each day. If you’re thinking, "That’s great if you want to spend all your spare time in the kitchen," consider that they spent less time in the kitchen than we do with less of the conveniences and still managed to have well balanced delicious meals each day.

What was their secret? They had never heard of 30 minute meals. Even if they had they would probably have laughed and wondered who would spend so much time on a meal? They knew that the key to a quick meal wasn’t how fast you could cook, but how organized you were. You can easily have a meal on the table in 15 minutes if you are organized and plan ahead.

That doesn’t mean microwaving and frying everything to have a quick meal either. Slow cooking something in the oven not only makes things taste better but sometimes is quicker.

Our grandmothers’ secret to quick meals:

• Keep your meals simple.
• Be organized.
• Decide what you are preparing the night or the morning before.
• Thaw anything you need the night or the morning before.
• Prepare as much of the meal as you can during the slow time of your day and when you are most refreshed. (This is very important.)
• Slow cook meats in the oven or in a crock pot.
• Keep your kitchen clean so you have an uncluttered work area.

Here are some ideas about what to prepare. These aren’t elaborate gourmet meals. If you are too busy to cook dinner, then you are to busy to make gourmet dinners. Stick with the basics and keep it simple like our grandmothers did.

Slow cooked roast: Place a roast in a crockpot or pan. Peel five potatoes and carrots and drop them in with it and turn on the oven. This takes five minutes. Clean and cut broccoli, celery and cucumbers for a salad — five minutes. At dinner time, chop lettuce and tomato for the salad, adding the already prepared veggies. Then put the meat and the fixings on a platter — five more minutes. Voila! Dinner in 15 minutes.

Stew: It takes me seven minutes to cube meat*, peel five potatoes, carrots and onions, toss it into a pot and to season it. At dinner time, I put bread or dinner rolls on the table — one to two minutes and I have dinner in nine minutes.

*Ask your butcher to cube or slice all your meat for you. They usually charge nothing or just a few cents per pound. It saves not only time in cutting but in clean up too.

Chicken: Toss a chicken in a pan or crock pot — two minutes. Clean potatoes to put in with chicken or to bake in the oven — three minutes. At dinner time, warm a veggie — two minutes. Slice some fruit — three minutes. Dinner in 10 minutes.

Lasagna: Put noodles in a pot to boil — one minute. Fry hamburger, get out cheese, tomato sauce and the rest of the fixings; mix sauce while noodles boil, 7-8 minutes. Layer everything — two minutes. Cover and put in the fridge for dinner the next day or that evening. Put the lasagna in the oven to heat while getting out of your work clothes, checking the mail, etc. Set the table and cut a salad — five minutes. Dinner is served; 15 minutes.

Beef stroganoff: Make your beef stroganoff in your crockpot. (If you don’t want to use a crockpot, this recipe usually takes very little time, even when you’re just stirring it up in a pan.) Dump everything but sour cream and noodles into the crockpot. This takes three minutes’ work  and then you can simmer all day on low. Clean carrots, celery sticks and broccoli for a relish dish (five minutes) and put it in the fridge. At dinner time, boil egg noodles (5-7 minutes). While they are boiling, add sour cream to sauce and set the table. Total time: 15 minutes.

Chili: Mix everything in a pot the night before. Depending what you put in, it should take 5-10 minutes. Simmer throughout the next day.

Soup: Do the same as with the chili.

These are just general examples of ways to prepare quick and easy meals. It isn’t really a matter of time as much as it is a matter of being organized and getting things done before you are too exhausted to think.

If you have meats thawed and the ingredients on hand, most things can be tossed together in about the same amount of time it takes to order and wait to get your food at a fast food place.

Also, remember when you have your oven going to try to cook more than one thing in it. For example, if you are going to be baking a casserole, bake a pan of brownies, muffins or baked apples at the same time.

-Jill

For lots of quick and easy meals that you can make ahead of time, check out our Menus On A Dime e-books The Menus On A Dime e-books include pre-made menus and recipes to make it easier to put dinner on the table and get out of the kitchen faster!

photo by: ella_marie

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Quick And Easy Home Cooking — Mmmm Good!
(easy ways to make fixing meals at home doable)

OK — There’s no way around it. Just accept the fact that tomorrow your family will eat three meals — again. People have been doing it since Adam and Eve started munching fruit in the garden of Eden. Burying your head in the sand and not thinking about it will not make it go away. I know that even the thought of making a meal at home strikes terror in some of your hearts and the only reason the rest of you aren’t feeling terror is because you are probably so tired you can’t feel terror or any other emotion. But with going out to eat being one of the top 3 causes of credit card debt and child obesity and diabetes on the rise, I think we need to start reconsidering cooking at home. With a little preparation, it’s easy to prepare quick and easy meals at home.

Here are a few suggestions to help you get started:

1. One of the biggest reasons people hate cooking at home is their dirty kitchen. Take the time to clean and organize the kitchen. If you need to get some help, then do, even if that help means hiring someone to help you get it organized. In the long run, it will pay for itself (probably after the first one or two weeks cooking at home).

2. Once your kitchen is clean and organized, keep it that way. When your kitchen is clean it should only take you about 15-20 minutes to clean up after each meal. For the $40 or more you would have paid plus all of the time you would have spent going out to eat, keeping it clean and organized is time well spent.

3. The evening or day before you go shopping for groceries, clean out the fridge and check your pantry. Remember that once it has been organized, if you do minor cleaning and organizing weekly, it won’t take much time. Plan a leftover night that evening (and use up that leftover roast), too. This will help reveal what you have too much or too little of, what you need to use or buy and empty the fridge so you have room for the new groceries.

4. 4. Make a week’s worth of menus. Sit down with grocery ads, your recipe file and your favorite cookbook (hopefully that is Dining On A Dime ). This is a good time to throw in one or two of those new recipes from magazines that you have wanted to try. If you get stumped or you need help to get you started, flip through your cookbooks or recipe files. You will be surprised how much this will help motivate you.

   • In a notebook, write a weeks worth of menus. You only have to do this for 3 weeks, because at the end of that time you will have 21 menus. You now have almost months worth of menus for quick and easy meals (since most people will go out at least once a week to eat and have a leftover night once a week this helps to fill in the days for the rest of the month). You can then just use these same menus over and over.

   • Don’t restrict yourself by saying that you have to have fried chicken on Monday, roast on Tuesday, etc. Instead, list the menus in categories like elaborate (for the days you have more time) and quick menus (for those "nothing has gone right today, so what can I fix when I am blurry eyed and have only 5 minutes" days). I usually make about 3-4 menus in each category.

   • Be flexible. If you get to the grocery store and they have some thing unbelievable on sale then adapt your menus to save money on groceries.

5. 5. Plan what you are going to have for dinner the night before or first thing in the morning.

6. 6. Make sure you have all the ingredients on hand and take out anything that needs to be defrosted from the freezer.

7. 7. Prepare as much as you can the night before or first thing in the morning to make it quick and easy when you need it. Clean carrot sticks and veggies and make Jello, pudding or desserts. Fry hamburger for a recipe or even make a whole casserole so all you have to do is pop it into the oven. It is much easier and less stressful to do as much as possible ahead of time than to try and do it at 5 o’clock — the busiest time of day (when everyone is tired, fussy and needs your attention). Besides, it is easier to concentrate on fixing 2 or 3 items ahead of time instead of trying to take care of 5 or 6 things all at the last minute.

8. 8. Give yourself a break. You will be saving a great deal by eating at home, so use some convenience foods like bagged lettuce or sliced and buttered French bread. Line your pans with aluminum foil and don’t feel guilty about using disposable pans or paper plates. We are funny creatures. We don’t feel guilty spending money to go out to eat (where people throw away the trash for you), but feel awful about buying much less expensive disposable pans and paper plates. Go figure.

9. 9. Don’t forget the meal is not finished until the kitchen is clean and left ready for the next meal.

If you need help making quick and easy home cooked meals that your family will love, check out the Dining On A Dime Cookbook. The print book version is on sale this week for up to 50% off! Go check it out now!

Photo By:  cosmic_bandita

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Jello Makes A Great Quick Dessert!

If you need a quick dessert and don’t have a thing on hand, make some Jello. (Most everyone has a supply of Jello.)

If you need it fast instead of adding the cup of cold water like the package says, add 1 cup of ice cubes and stir for a minute or two, dissolving the ice. The ice cubes won’t completely dissolve but that’s okay. Just keep stirring until the Jello thickens a little.Remove any little bits of ice then place the Jello in the refrigerator so it can finish gelling. The Jello thickens twice as fast as when you use just water and will be ready by the time the meal is over.

Don’t toss the ice cube pieces that are left over. Give them to the kids. My brother and I would fight over who got the ice from the Jello because the ice tasted so good with that little bit of Jello coated on it.

Serve with whipped topping or with cut fresh fruit on top. Even a simple cookie would be a nice addition.

Also, if you need something easy and different for your school or church bake sale, make different colored Jello and put it in paper cups to sell.

Another cool Jello treat is to replace half of the water with ice cream then let it set up. Oh yum.

With Jello the possibilities are endless.

Jill

photo by: colon+right.bracket

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Menu:

Cheeseburger Soup*
Assorted crackers
Relish dip
Glorified Spice Cake*

Recipes:

*Cheeseburger Soup

6 medium potatoes, peeled, cubed and cooked
1/2 lb. ground beef, cooked
2 chicken bouillon cubes
2 slices of bacon, fried and crumbled*
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp. onion powder or to taste
4 cups of milk
8 oz. American cheese (don’t grate, slices melt quickly)
1/4 cup sour cream

Cook your potatoes in Dutch oven and drain. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the sour cream, and cook just until heated through. Make sure bouillon cubes are dissolved and cheese is melted. Do Not boil. Remove from heat and add sour cream.

*I always fry an extra piece or two of bacon when I cook it to keep in the freezer to use in recipes like this one.

*Glorified Spice Cake

1 pkg. (18 1/4 oz.) spice cake mix
1 can (21 oz.) apple pie filling
2 eggs
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
Nuts

Mix everything at medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour into well greased 9×13 pan and bake at 350° for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted into it. Frost with caramel frosting* or top with caramel ice cream topping.

*Caramel Frosting

1/2 cup margarine or butter
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup milk
2 cups powdered sugar

Heat margarine over medium heat in a 2-quart saucepan. When margarine is melted, stir in brown sugar. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to low and boil 2 minutes longer, still stirring. Stir in milk and heat to boiling. Remove from heat and cool. Slowly stir in powdered sugar. Place saucepan of frosting in bowl of very cold water and beat frosting until smooth.

If frosting is too stiff, add an additional 1 teaspoon of milk at a time until frosting is smooth. Frosts one 9×13 inch cake.

Photo By: theogeo

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Homemade Breakfast Biscuits

From: Linda

I loved your breakfast menu tips. I had forgotten that I used to make breakfast sandwiches.

Whenever I made baking powder biscuits (for chicken & biscuits, shortcake, etc.) I made a double batch.  I fried an egg for each one, added a slice of cheese, wrapped them in plastic wrap and froze each individually. We zapped them in the microwave l or 2 minutes right out of the freezer (can’t remember how long exactly).

Thanks for reminding me of a quick tasty breakfast. Don’t know why I’ve forgotten about making them!

We often think of making double batches of casseroles and things for dinner but I thought it was a great idea to make a double batch for breakfast which is something we don’t often think about. 

Check out your menus and see what can be doubled and used for breakfast the next day. Here are a couple of my ideas:

Take your biscuits and use peanut butter and bananas for breakfast or lunch for the kids. Add jelly and a couple of slices of bacon or a sausage patty.

I use the Ninety Minute Roll recipe in the Dining on a Dime Cookbook. It makes 1 dozen dinner rolls but I double it (everything but the yeast) and use half for dinner rolls. I quickly roll out the other half, spread with margarine and sugar and cinnamon, roll and cut and I have cinnamon rolls all ready to warm for breakfast the next morning. 

When I make rice, I always make extra. I leave it in the pan I made it in. Then I pour just enough milk on it to cover the rice and let it sit in the fridge overnight. In the morning, I just heat it up and add sugar and cinnamon for a nice hot cereal.

-Jill

photo by: mastermaq

 

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Corn Casserole

1/4 cup margarine, softened
3 eggs
1 carton (8 oz.) French onion dip
1 pkg. (8 1/2 oz.) cornbread mix
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 can (15 oz.) whole kernel corn, drained
1 can (15 oz.) cream corn

Mix first 6 ingredients well. Then add corn. Pour into a 9×13 greased baking dish. Bake uncovered 35-40 minutes at 350° or until lightly brown.

Photo By: CarbonNYC

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Here are some easy tips for your 4th of July picnic:

• It’s hot. Keep it simple. We often love to take our fanciest desserts or dishes to a potluck but if you can’t do something elaborate, don’t worry. Whenever I go to a potluck, it is the simple dishes that disappear first.

• Something as easy as a platter of sliced tomatoes layered with sliced cucumbers on a bed of lettuce will look and taste lovely on a hot summer day. A plate of fruit lined up in rows on a pretty platter will disappear quickly. If you have some whipped topping to use as a dip for it, great! If not, don’t worry. They will eat it anyway!

• A pan full of brownies or a pile of rice krispy treats never last long either. Of course, plain old chunks of cold watermelon and cantaloupe are a must for July 4th picnics!

• To reduce your expense for soft drinks, serve cold sweetened ice tea or lemonade instead. One thing to remember when making tea, lemonade or Kool aid is to be sure to not add as much water as the recipe calls for because if you are going to add ice later, the ice will dilute the drink. There is nothing worse than a watery tasting drink. Of course you can freeze some of the drink itself to use for ice and that will help prevent the dilution.

• Add 1-2 tsp. of mint apple jelly to your iced tea for something different.

• Add any of the following to lemonade for a cool and refreshing drink:

  • 1/4-1/2 cup cranberry juice

  • 1/4-1/2 cup cherry juice

  • 1-2 tsp. of Kool-aid powder– strawberry, cherry, raspberry, lime or punch.

      -Jill

photo by: genbug

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Menu

Mini Burgers
Baked Onion Rings
Mushroom Spinach Salad
Tater Tots Rocky Road Brownies

Recipes

Mini Burgers (like white castles)

1 lb. ground beef
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cheddar cheese, shredded
1 Tbsp. mayonnaise
1 (1 oz.) pkg. dry onion soup mix
24 (2 inch square) dinner rolls, split

Preheat oven to 350°. Mix everything but rolls. Spread even amounts of ground beef mix on bottom half of rolls. Place top halves on top of the meat mix, making sandwiches. If your rolls came in a foil pan then replace them on the pan if not then place on a baking sheet and cover tightly with foil. Bake for 30-35 minutes until meat is cooked through.

Baked Onion Rings

2 large sweet onions
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cup crushed corn flakes
2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. garlic salt
1/4 tsp seasoned salt*

Cut onions into 1/2 inch slices and separate into rings. Place eggs in shallow dish. Mix everything else together in another dish. Dip onion rings into eggs first, then in corn flake mix and lay on a greased baking sheet. Bake at 375° for 20-25 minutes until tender.

Seasoned Salt
Here is our recipe for seasoned salt from Dining on a Dime. You can make it and use it on many other things like meats and stews.

8 Tbsp. Salt
3 Tbsp. Pepper
2 Tbsp. paprika
1/2 Tbsp. onion powder
1/2 Tbsp. garlic powder

Mix and store.

Mushroom Spinach Salad

8 cups fresh spinach
1/2 lb. fresh mushrooms, sliced
4 green onions, chopped
6 bacon strips
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 Tbsp. water
1/2 tsp. ground mustard
1/4 tsp. pepper
3 hard cooked eggs cut in large chunks

Combine spinach, mushrooms and onions. Fry bacon and remove from pan. Add everything else but eggs to the bacon drippings in the pan and heat through. Drizzle over spinach, sprinkle with eggs and crumble bacon on top.

Rocky Road Brownies

Bake your favorite brownie recipe. While still hot, sprinkle with mini marshmallows, coarsely chopped peanuts or nuts. Melt together 1 cup chocolate chips, 3 Tbsp. margarine and spread or drizzle over marshmallows.

Photo By:  Marshall Astor

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