Cookies are my favorite thing, so today I’m sharing 8 of My Favorite Cookie Recipes! They’re are such an easy treat in the summer, and get the kids to help – they’ll love it! There are so MANY cookie recipes on Plenty Sweet Life that I really had to pare them down. Here’s a nice variety for you to try!
Coconut and Date Oatmeal Cookies
On the blog today I’m sharing how I made a Strawberry Galette. Last season I froze some locally grown strawberries, and after using most of them this past winter, I still had just a few of them left. Because there were not enough to make most recipes with, I decided to try to make a galette with them! These locally grown berries are so amazingly delicious, I didn’t want to let them go, but we’re investing in a new freezer and I’m trying to use up everything extra for an easier exchange of the freezers (plus, I want to make room for this year’s fresh berries.) Yes – we’ve finally decided to let our old freezer go – the freezer that was Grandma and Grandpa’s on the farm. I’m sure it goes back to the 1960’s or 1970’s. They just don’t make them like that anymore, and it’s really scary to get a new one, but the old one just can’t be very efficient at this point – cracked inside plastic and all. Ugh. Oh well, we’ll see what happens. Fingers crossed that this new one lasts as long! 🙂
Here is the recipe as I made it:
Strawberry Galette
I had an extra pie crust left in the freezer (from the holidays) and there was about 2 cups of strawberries left. I let both the berries and the crust thaw (just on the kitchen counter, but you can do it in the refrigerator).
After thawing, I drained the berries and it ended up looking like less than 2 cups, but this is all there is. I added 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup flour (because the berries also seemed very juicy), the zest of a lemon, and the juice of 1/2 of the lemon.
Mix it all up and it’s ready.
I rolled out the pie crust right on top of a piece of parchment paper (using another piece on top just like I do when I use two pieces of plastic wrap to do this) and moved it to the baking sheet so I could bake it right on that paper.
The strawberry mixture goes right in the middle.
Fold the edges up, brush with an egg wash, and sprinkle with sugar. If you have more berries, the edge won’t be so wide – that’s ok, too.
Bake at 375 for 30-40 min – I went 45 minutes, until the center was bubbling a bit.
Yum!
It turned out so, so pretty!
My first thought – tastes just like a pop tart!
You can use any fruit to make a galette. It’s great for using up any fruit or berries that may be at the end of their life – the ones that just don’t quite get used up in time and may not look the best. Add a little sugar and some lemon and you’re golden. Well, the crust is, anyway! 🙂 This is also the time of year for fresh berries, and those will work beautifully, too. I’ve made Rhubarb Galette, Apple Galette, and Tomato Galette – the possibilities are endless! Go through your freezer – who knows what fruit you may find in there! Haha! I just happened to have strawberries and this Strawberry Galette was born!
Today I’m sharing 8 Summertime Classic Picnic Recipes for all your summer gathering and picnic needs. I’m sure most of us have all these recipes, but as always, I’m here to remind you of them. We’ve waited a long time for summer here in Minnesota, so we’re ready to get out there and picnic our tails off! Let’s go! 🙂
Today’s recipe for Date Cookies is an old-fashioned one that is another family favorite from my childhood. The recipe card looks like it’s an old one, and because Grandma still had it in her recipe file tells me that it’s a good one. She only kept the very best ones to serve to her friends and family. 🙂 I love this photo of Grandma and Grandpa from on the farm. On the corner of the shed in the background was the black raspberry bush that we would wait for every summer. Grandma would serve them on vanilla ice cream and we’d be so lucky if we happened to be staying with them when the raspberries were ripe!
Back in the day, dates would have been more readily available and less expensive than chocolate chips, so that’s why Grandma had so many date recipes like Date Rocks, Date Squares, Date Drops, Date Bars, Coconut and Date Oatmeal Cookies, Date Crumble Bars, and on and on and on. These cookies take a little work, but they’re just as delicious as all the other date recipes she kept in her file.
Here is the recipe as I made it:
Date Cookies
Cream together:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
Mix in:
2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Chill – roll – fill with date filling.
Filling:
1 box dates (8 ounces)
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
Cook about 10-15 minutes, or until the dates are soft.
Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.
After mixing the dough, wrap it and put it in the frig to chill for an hour or so.
While the dough is chilling, cook the date filling.
I let it cool before filling the cookies.
A wide mouth canning jar ring did the trick to cut the cookie circles- I didn’t have a big enough circle cookie cutter, but in the end, the smaller cutter would have worked better. I always make my cookies bigger than Grandma would have made them.
It just takes a spoonful of the filling to make these – too much filling and it won’t fit inside the cookie. Press the edges shut after filling to keep the filling inside.
They look like little pockets of delisciousness.
Did I mention that these cookies go perfectly with a cup of coffee? How appropriate for a “Grandma” recipe! 🙂
These are a good old-fashioned cookie. They’re nothing fancy – just cookie dough and date filling. I want to think that these were popular before the chocolate chip thing happened. The dough is made with very few simple ingredients and the filling is also made with simple and readily available (though, still exotic) dates. They taste like date filled sugar cookies – so good! Try this recipe for Date Cookies and put on the coffee pot!
Today I’m sharing 10 of My Favorite Rhubarb Recipes. It’s that rhubarb time of year, and there are just so many delicious recipes in which to use it! Find yourself some rhubarb and make up some of these amazing recipes for your family – they’ll love you for it!
Refrigerated Rhubarb Cream Squares
Rhubarb Cake with Orange Sauce
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We all had a version of Better Than Sex Cake back in the ’80’s, and this one comes from a good friend of my mom’s. I had to change it just a bit, as you’ll see later, because this was my son’s request for his birthday cake this year, and he has very specific tastes. There is also a handwritten recipe for this cake in my recipe book, and while it’s not exactly the same as this one, it is very similar. This cake is so decadent and so delicious – it’s amazing, really. I hadn’t made this cake in years, and when my son asked for it for his birthday cake this year, I was glad to make it again. It’s so easy to make, too. We had all forgotten how good this cake is! Wow! I made it in a square pan instead of a regular cake pan, and after one bite, I was regretting my decision. From what I remember, this cake is very rich and can get to be a bit much. I thought a whole pan of it – just for our family – would be a lot of this cake. Wrong. It had me wishing I had made the whole cake pan, but then we’d have to eat the whole thing. On no – that would be the worst (insert eye roll here). But seriously – a while a piece or two of this cake is great, a whole cake is a whole lot. If you’re serving a crowd – go ahead and make the whole recipe in a regular 9″ x 13″ cake pan and enjoy. It holds pretty well in the frig, too, so I say – go for it!
Here is the recipe as I made it:
Better Than Sex Cake
Bake according to package instruction:
1 German Chocolate Cake mix (we didn’t need a whole cake, so I divided the batter into 2 pans and froze one to make Baked Alaska at a later date – a bonus is that I made the cake the day before)
Cool and poke holes in cake with the handle of a wooden spoon.
Pour on:
1 can sweetened condensed milk (my recipe says 1 cup)
1-12.25 ounce jar Caramel Sauce (ice cream topping – my recipe says 1 cup, and my son likes butterscotch better, so we used that instead of caramel)
At this point I put the cake into the refrigerator until ready to serve – I didn’t want to make the whipped cream and have it fall before serving the cake. If using Cool Whip, you can put it on, have it in the frig, and have the cake ready to go.
Spread over top:
1 large container Cool Whip (I used 1 cup heavy whipping cream, whipped, on our 9″ square cake)
Sprinkle on top:
3 Heath candy bars, chopped or crushed (I used 1 1/2 bars for the 9″ cake – you can also use Skor candy bars)
Can also top with strawberries (this comes from my recipe).
Keep refrigerated.
Poke the holes and pour in the “plenty sweet” ingredients!
It seems like a lot to pour on/in, but it will all go into the holes and soak into the cake.
Cool Whip (or in my case, whipped cream) goes on top and then sprinkle on the chopped Heath candy bar pieces.
I added a few strawberries, and I think they added just the right touch.
The birthday boy was happy.
This cake is very easy to make and comes together very fast – that’s why you can make it any day – not just for a special occasion. It’s just a ridiculously good cake. I might even say that it’s light at the same time as being rich and decadent. I’m just glad my son requested this so it can move back to the top of our recipe rotation. Go ahead and make it this weekend. Whoever you make it for will be very, very happy. Maybe just don’t tell them the name – or maybe they’ll guess that it’s Better Than Sex Cake!
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Today I’m sharing recipes for 10 Fresh and Delicious Vegetable Salads just in time for summer! Each of these recipes are perfect for any summertime gathering – picnics, graduations, bridal showers, or bonfires! I know you’re going to love them – why not try them all?!!
Today’s recipe for Sauce for Meatballs or Ham Loaf comes from one of Grandma’s sisters, and according to the recipe card, she and Grandma BOTH loved to serve this sauce! The little glass pitcher in the photos below is the one that Grandma always used for serving gravies or sauces – “so each can take their own”! 🙂 This is one of those recipes that smelled just like so many Sunday dinners at the farm. When my kids came for the Sunday dinner where I served this, they all agreed that it smelled just like Grandma’s cooking. They were all lucky enough to be able to know their great-grandparents and had close relationships with them. Grandma lived to be 7 months short of 90 and Grandpa had just turned 96 when he passed. We all miss them still, and making this recipe brought them and the many memories we share of them close. These recipes are all made with so much love – now AND then, and that’s what Plenty Sweet Life is all about – sharing food, making memories, and doing it all with a LOT of love.
Here is the recipe as I made it:
Sauce for Meatballs or Ham Loaf
Mix all together:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar)
1/2 cup mustard with horseradish (maybe they had this back in the day, but I used regular yellow mustard and 1 teaspoon horseradish)
1/2 can Campbell’s Tomato Soup
3 egg yolks
2 Tablespoons butter
Cook in a double boiler until it thickens.
I happened to have some turkey meatballs in the freezer, so that’s what I used this time. This sauce would also be really good on Ham Loaf, like Grandma states in the title of the recipe, or any other kind of meatball.
I didn’t realize how tangy and mustardy the sauce would be. There is quite a bit of mustard in there.
I don’t own a double boiler, so this is what I use to substitute. Just a glass bowl on top of my pan that has about 1″ of simmering water in it. I mixed the sauce right in the pan.
The butter did eventually melt.
It didn’t get too thick, but cascaded nicely over the top of the meatballs.
They’re just beautiful!
I served the meatballs with mashed potatoes and Frozen Corn that we left on the cob (just to try it – I wouldn’t do that again – corn on the cob is too good when it’s fresh, and frozen doesn’t do it justice – I’ll stick with freezing it cut off the cob, which is absolutely delicious).
My husband thought the sauce tasted like a nice steak sauce! He was glad there was some extra for leftovers. Grandma wrote on the card that it was enough for 3 pounds of meat, and I didn’t have that many meatballs, so we had some left to enjoy with other things later. In fact, my husband was still asking for the leftover sauce waaaay after it was gone and used up.
This sauce was a tangy and delicious addition to these turkey meatballs. This is one I might make again – just to keep some in the refrigerator for anything we want to try it on. It might be even be nice on a sandwich! It’s really, really good. The mustard in this sauce goes so well with ham, I’m sure that’s why Grandma noted it would be good on Ham Loaf (just make sure to leave off the sauce that goes with that original recipe). Hopefully you have some leftover Easter Ham left to make some Ham Loaf or ham meatballs, and I think you should all try this recipe for Sauce for Meatballs or Ham Loaf, and let me know what you think!
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Today I’m sharing 8 Special Occasion Cake Recipes! Every person in my family has requested most of these cakes for their birthday cake at one point. Each one is easy to make, is amazingly delicious, and is perfect for any special occasion or special person! Try them all and let me know what you think! 🙂
Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream
Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing
Orange Cup Cakes with Buttercream Frosting
Chocolate Cake with Fluffy White Frosting
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