Ranger Cookies

Last night while my biggest "boy" and littlest one were both napping (gotta love being post-call, right?), Evan and I had about 30 minutes until dinner would be ready and everyone would be up. He asked me if we could make cookies. Now I'm not much of a cookie person, but I had one of those mothering moments where I just couldn't say no. So I dragged out some cookbooks (yes, cookbooks, since I have about 2 cookie recipes in my recipe box and I knew I didn't have enough chocolate chips in the pantry to do any good) and found a recipe for Ranger cookies. It instantly reminded me of the Front Range and I just had to make them. I had all the ingredients to boot! Even the coconut, left over from Hawaiian Haystacks! They were fun and easy to whip up and even better to eat!!

Ranger (Front Range) Cookies
Yield: 4 doz

• 1 stick butter - softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/4 t baking soda
• 1 egg
• 1 t vanilla
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup coconut
• 1 cup any combination of raisins, craisins, dried cherries, chocolate chips

--In a large bowl beat the butter until creamy (30 seconds)
--Mix in sugars, powder and soda until combined
--Mix in egg and vanilla until combined
--Then add the other ingredients one at a time until all combined
--Drop small mounds (with teaspoons) onto a cookie sheet and bake for 8 minutes at 375 or until the edges turn a light brown.
--When done, transfer cookies to a cooling rack and wait...patiently...

Grab a glass of milk and just try to restrain yourself from eating half the batch before they're completely done cooling!

Braised Tarragon Chicken

I was appalled that this recipe wasn't up here all ready!! I could have sworn it was, but alas, you all have been missing out. I'm so sorry! This is one of my favorite dishes for chicken. The combination of the white wine and tarragon are a perfect pair. It's a very flavorful meal and it always turns out moist and tender. Mmm...so yum yum yum. I serve it on a bed of rice (sometimes with a little chicken broth substituted for some water), but you can serve it with whatever you have on hand for a starch! I just prefer the rice because it soaks up the "sauce" you drizzle over the chicken.

Braised Tarragon Chicken

• 4 boneless/skinless chicken breasts
• 2 t chopped garlic
• 1 t dried tarragon leaves
• 1/2 c white wine
• 1/2 c chicken broth
• 1 T Corn starch
• 1 t cold water
• 1/4 chopped fresh parsley or dried (to taste)

--Lightly brown chicken breasts (each side) in large skillet with a little oil, garlic, and tarragon
-- Stir in wine and broth. Cover and cook over medium for about 15 minutes or until done. Stir occasionally.
--In small bowl, combine cornstarch and water. Slowly add to chicken and stir until slightly thickened (you may not need all the cornstarch liquid) 3-5 minutes
--Sprinkle with parsley and serve

Red Wine Lasagna

I'm pretty sure this is the best lasagna I have ever had. If I've had better, I'm not remembering. It's so healthy, too, with the replacement of the Ricotta with tofu. If you're not into tofu, don't worry, you won't even notice it in this dish. It takes on the creamy texture that you would typically get with the Ricotta without all the fat that comes with it! And since it's tofu, it just tastes like everything around it, and really, you can't go wrong with that since this lasagna is bursting with flavors! We received this as a post-pregnancy meal and Scot and I both rated it as one of the top three dishes we ate in that wonderful time period where I did no cooking due to the fact there was a newborn in the house. Anyway, I finally got around to recreating the meal and it was fabulous, just like we remembered!

Red Wine Lasagna
Serves 8-10

• Oven ready lasagna noodles
• 1 lb sausage (you can do Italian or spicy it you'd like -- I just add a ton of Italian seasonings. I"m sure you could do, beef, too, the possibilities are endless!)
• 1 box firm tofu drained
  
• 1 box frozen spinach - thawed and squeezed dry
• 1 large can tomato sauce (I use the Traditional, but you could use whatever you wanted)
• 1 cup grated Parmesan
• 3 eggs
  
• Cheese for the top (about 2 cups Mozzarella or a combo of Italian cheeses)
• 1 cup red wine

--Cook sausage until done. Drain and add tomato sauce.
--Mix the tofu, Parmesan, spinach and egg together.
--In a 9x13 pan:
--Layer: noodles, cheese mixture, meat. Repeat. Top with shredded cheese.
--And now, the fun part. Drizzle the wine over everything and watch the cheese turn a wonderful purple!
--Bake at 400 for an hour (covered for the first 45 minutes)

**This is very easy to freeze! Just wrap and freeze before you pour the wine. When you're ready to bake it, pour the wine and bake 90 minutes instead!

Green Bean Casserole

Almost everyone loves a good green bean casserole. Some, though, don't like the 'traditional' Campbell's version with the mushrooms (something I myself am trying to come to terms with) and fried onions. For those people, I have a solution! And for everyone else who was like me and thought that green bean casserole didn't get better than French's and Campbell's combined -- have I got news for you! This feeds 8-10 and if green bean casserole just isn't the same without fried onion - just substitute!

**I apologize for the lack of a picture. I forgot until after it was too late (read: until after it was all gone).

Green Bean Casserole

• 2 T butter
• 2 T flour
• Pepper to taste
  
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup finely diced onions
• 2 (16oz) bags frozen green beans (the long skinny kind) -- thawed
  
• 1 cup grated Co-Jack cheese (or cheddar)
• 1/2 (or more) crushed buttery rounds/Ritz crackers
• 2 T butter

--Melt the 2 T butter in large skillet. Whisk in the flour.
--Add sour cream, onions, and pepper to taste. Stir well.
--Stir in the green beans and coat well
--Transfer to a greased 2 Qt baking dish
--Sprinkle cheese on top
--Melt the 2 T butter and toss with cracker crumbs. Sprinkle on top.
--Bake for 30 minutes at 350.

Holiday

I just wanted you all to know that I recently went through and tagged all my holiday meals! So if you go to the sidebar, you'll now be able to search meals by that classification! Hope this helps with all your holiday meal planning!

Granny's Cranberry Salad

This is my all time favorite Thanksgiving item on the menu. For those who know me, this is saying something huge since I love green bean casserole and sweet potatoes! Truly, though, when I think of a laden-down table full of good food to eat, it is not complete unless we have the cranberry salad. Very simple to make (you can make it up to 48 hrs ahead of time!) and tasty! It feeds about 12-15 (depending on how much people put on their plate) and if there are any leftovers, it keeps super well!

Granny's Cranberry Salad

• 2 cups boiling water
• 1/2 c sugar
• 3 (3oz) boxes Jello - 2 Raspberry, 1 Cherry
• 1 bag (no more than a pound!) of raw cranberries
• 1 orange - thinner skinned is best, and seedless is even better
  
• 3-4 ribs celery - diced
• 2 small McIntosh apples - diced (I'd imagine you could use Gala's if you had to, I'm just partial to Macs!)
• Chopped Pecans (opt)
  

--Fully dissolve the sugar and Jello powder into the boiling water in a large bowl (what you'll serve it in). There can be no particles floating around in there or the salad just won't be the same.
--Put the bag of cranberries along with the orange (cut up with skin still on) in a food processor and pulse until everything is pretty little. Add to jello mixture.
--Add the diced celery and apples (pecans, too, if you choose to go that route) and stir to evenly distribute.
--Put it in the fridge to set and then cover with plastic wrap until you're ready to dig in!!

Parisian Chicken

I don't know where I got this recipe. It's on one of my old index cards that I had in college and I never tried it because of the mushrooms. But I've since gotten over my dislike for mushrooms (as long as they're disguised somehow) and so I was willing to give this a try. I think this is probably the single easiest chicken dish I have ever put together. Maybe BBQ Chicken or Catalina Cranberry Chicken are close competitors, but my goodness this is easy! As always, tasty, too! I used all 'light' ingredients, so it wasn't unhealthy considering it's a cream-based dish. Something I never do.

Parisian Chicken

• 6 chicken breasts or 3 big ones cut in half
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup (98% fat free)
• 1 cup sour cream (light or fat free)
• 3/4 cup sherry or dry red wine

--Mix ingredients and pour over chicken
--Bake 75 minutes at 375
--Serve over rice with some extra sauce