Tag Archives: Christmas

The Perfect Sugar Cookies {+A Very Merry Christmas}

Posted in Cookies, Dessert by

Merry Christmas friends!  I hope that everyone spent the day with loved ones.   My mom and dad are in town for the week visiting from Jersey.   Unfortunately, they both have terrible colds <insert emoji wearing facemask>.  We are making the best of it and they are getting plenty of r&r.

Check out this great shirt my mom stumbled upon a couple of weeks ago at TJ Max.  I have been sporting it all day.   I wonder if I can wear this all year long.  Hmmm…

IMG_7656

This year for Christmas we each bought one gift per person and it was perfect!  My parents got me a gift card for Stitch Fix, eeeee!! Have any of you ever used Stitch Fix?  I am so freaking excited.  My first delivery is to arrive on January 5th and I cannot wait.  I also got a new laptop from Husband and it is perfection.  Love love love.   My old laptop was dying and this could not have come at a better time since I will start studying for my pediatric dental board exam soon, whomp whomp. I am truly thankful for this holiday season.

FullSizeRender 6

I have a fantastic sugar cookie recipe to share with you.  Last weekend my friend Kait and I made these and they turned out fantastic.  I like this recipe for several reasons:
1. The dough does not require a long chill time.
2. They don’t expand and flatten in the oven.
3.  They hold their shape.
4.  The recipe is simple.

This will absolutely be my new go to sugar cookie recipe! Enjoy.

FullSizeRender

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1¼ cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 3 cups of flour
  • 1½ teaspoons baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt

Instructions: 

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add in egg and vanilla extract, mix until combined.

2.In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until completely combined.

3. Chill dough for about 20-30 minutes.

4. Roll out dough to about 1/4 inch thickness.   Use flour on table and rolling pin to help eliminate stickiness of dough.

5. Cut dough into shapes with cookie cutters and transfer to a baking sheet.

FullSizeRender 4

6. Bake at 350 degrees for 7-12 minutes. Cool on baking sheet 5 minutes, then transfer to a baking rack to cool completely.

7. Decorate as desired!  We decorated ours with a simple buttercream frosting and sprinkles.   They even tasted great without icing.

8. Store in an airtight container. One batch makes about 30-40cookies.

FullSizeRender 3

Moms Christmas Rice

Posted in Entrees by

Merry Christmas! Christmas this year was low key and quiet, but I loved every moment of it.  We celebrated with my in-laws the weekend before Christmas.  Christmas day was spent with Mom and Husband.  We stayed in pjs, watched movies, and ate endless amounts of food all day long.  Perfection!

For dinner on Christmas day mom made us her famous Christmas Rice, it was delicious! This is one of my favorite dishes, once you start eating it, you can’t stop… consider yourself warned.

Enjoy 🙂

Ingredients: 

  • 1 Pound Lean ground beef
  • 1.5 Cups rice 
  • 3 Cups water
  • 4 Tablespoon butter
  • 1/2 Yellow onion, chopped
  • 2 Teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 Teaspoon salt
  • 1 Package sliced almonds

Instructions: 

1. Cook ground beef in skillet, drain excess fat.  Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

2. Place 2 tablespoons of butter in pot and chopped onion.  Saute onions until bright golden yellow color.

3.  Add rice, water, cinnamon and salt.  Bring to boil. Cover pot and simmer, until rice is cooked.

IMG_1050

4. While rice is cooking add 2 tablespoons butter and almonds to skillet.  Saute almonds until lightly browned.

IMG_1051

5.  In serving dish arrange cooked rice, ground beef, and almonds as desired.

IMG_1053