Happy Holidays from Matt's Delights!

Hello Everyone!!!!

I know its been awhile since I last posted, but I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Mine was fantastic. I visited family, cooked a ton and laughed a lot.

As for the holiday baking extravaganza..I did it and it was fantastic! I made a ton of different cookies and bars and will be sharing which ones I made very shortly.

I am checking in and will be posting very soon. Enjoy your day and keep checking for recipe coming up!

Butter Pecan Cookies-so easy!

Hello. How is everyone doing?  I’ve made two cookies on my holiday extravaganza list. So far I am going good, and different from what I normally do. So exciting! 

 I wanted to wish everyone a great weekend and if you are doing any baking I have such an easy cookie you can make. If you like soft and moist cookies this is the one for you. And the best part of it all it only takes four ingredients, but you can add more if you would like.

Cake Mix Cookies. Yes that is right cake mix cookies. For me it’s a little bit of cheating, but sometimes its nice to take a shortcut, especially during this busy time of year. This is what you need

1 Box of Cake Mix (any flavor you feel)

½ cup of oil

2 eggs

Yep. That’s it. That’s all you need. Now the fun part. You can mix in anything you would like to this. Do you want chocolate chips? Add them. Want nuts? Add them. The possibilities are endless. Here are my Butter Pecan cookies. (I actually got the recipe from my Grandmother. This is her favorite type).

Ingredients 

1 Butter Pecan cake mix

½ cup of oil

2 eggs

Place all ingredients in a bowl. Mix until combined. Bake in a oven preheated to 350 for 8-10 minutes.

I added Christmas sprinkles to mine. These are buttery and delicious and easy. Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies

Did I ever tell you I am the self proclaimed King of Christmas? I am a little behind in all my Christmas activities, but I will hopefully get it all together this week. I almost have all my baking needs, and I am starting to write out my Christmas shopping list for others.  

I always love the Christmas time and all the Christmas commercials, all the holiday shows, which I have recorded a TON! My dvr is going to be filled, mainly with Food Network Holiday Shows.  I normally bring out all my DVDs of all the holiday movies, and play Christmas music, I love it!

On to the bars. This Bar is great for parties or your cookie tray this Christmas.  I recently made these for a few people as a thank you and it is from Betty Crocker and you really can’t go wrong with her lol. These are moist and chewy and really rich but so worth it. If you don’t make the frosting homemade just buy the canned stuff. I used a cocoa frosting from Everyday with Rachael Ray and it was amazing! I hope you guys try this and enjoy!

This is what it looks like after baking, pre frosting, these would be really good like this too.

Here they are covered with the frosting OMG soo amazing, check out the link to see what they look like inside

Here is the Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip Dough Brownies

Here is the frosting from Everyday With Rachael Ray

These were soo good and rich theres are a must try!

Happy December 1st, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Can you believe it is December 1^st already?! I am still getting my decorations up! Talk about the holidays being overwhelming. I feel like my list to do is getting longer and longer. What I really need to do is get on the ball and start my holiday baking, which still needs to be done. I am really trying to get my Christmas decorations up, so hopefully after this weekend I will start. 

Since we are talking about baking here is a cookie I tried during the summer. This is the cookie I made for my Mint chocolate chip cookie ice cream. I found the recipe from one of the blogs I visit Brown Eyed Baker and I really loved them. They stayed moist and chewy and I even messed up. I was adding just an egg yolk when I noticed the white got into the batter because I was taking the yolk out wrong. I also didn’t weight my ingredients ( I don’t have a scale) and I made them into normal size cookies. They still came out great and here is my version!

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Original recipe found here

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons (10 5/8 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm
1 cup packed (7 ounces) light or dark brown sugar
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or spray them with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl; set aside.

3. Mix the butter and sugars until blended. Beat in the eggs, and vanilla until combined. Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed just until combined. Stir in the chips.

4. Roll about 2 tbs of dough into a ball or scoop out with a cookie scoop.

5. Bake until the cookies are light golden brown and the outer edges start to harden yet the centers are still soft and puffy, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool the cookies on the sheets. Remove the cooled cookies from the baking sheets and enjoy but in a tightly sealed container.

Enjoy

Going Greek

Good morning! How is everyone? Have you recovered from Thanksgiving yet? I had such a great Thanksgiving. It was wonderful seeing family and friends and eating a ton of food! What did you eat this year? Did you make anything new or just your normal line up? I had the normal food and it was all delicious and I wish there was more. 

I am excited about Christmas coming up and starting to plan a few meals with my family when I see them. I am also switching into Christmas mode and trying to take care of a ton of things like decorating and finishing up my planning for my holiday baking. I never finished planning it all out because I decided to change a lot of the cookies that I make to try new cookies. It will be an ongoing process that I will be keeping you updated with.

Today I wanted to give you guys something healthy after this thanksgiving. A egg mug! I did one of these in August but I wanted to revisit this one because I have a great take on it. A Greek Egg mug! Yes if you love olives, and feta cheese you will love this one!

Greek Egg Mug

1 tbs of chopped olives

¼ cup of frozen veggies (onions, celery, bell pepper…your choice)

3-4 eggs or you can use egg whites

1-2 tbs of feta cheese

a pinch of dried oregano 

Salt and pepper to taste

Put everything into a mug, mix well. Put in microwave for 3-4 minutes, stirring about half way through the cooking time.  Take the mug out of the microwave, check the bottom of the mug to make sure there is no liquid. If there is  a little bit of liquid, microwave for about 30 seconds, if not enjoy!

I hope you guys try this it is so good. Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving! Quick Treat revisited Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Hello and Happy Pre-Thanksgiving! The big day is just a day away and I have been cooking and baking left and right. I really challenged myself this year with my Aunts Perogies which was a recipe passed down from her mother in law from Poland, and I have been working on a Paula Deen cake.  I have to finish up everything today so I hope I can do it. 

I wanted to repost a recipe from a year ago because they were so good and so simple and a perfect treat for Thanksgiving. Pumpkin Whoopie Pies! You get that great pumpkin flavor and a delish cream cheese filling. You don’t need a special pan just put about one forth of cookie batter one the pan and bake.  Make sure you have a even amount so you can make the right amount of bottoms and tops. These are super delicious and make a great treat for after your Thanksgiving dinner. I hope you guys like them and have a wonderful and Happy Thanksgiving!

Recipe from Rachael Ray magazine found here.

I'm Behind and Mac ‘N Cheese Jalapeño Poppers

Hi and greetings to all. It is Thanksgiving week and do you guys have all your holiday plans set? I will be cooking and baking up a storm this week and I also have been requested to make a cake for someone’s birthday. It is going to busy, busy, busy, but I am going to love every minute of it.

So I know I was suppose to update last week with sides and appetizers for Thanksgiving, but I had some car trouble, major trouble, and then my roommate’s car started acting up. Last week was a rough week to say the least. I hope you can accept my apology.  Things are ten times better now and I am back to blogging.

Here is a another appetizer, but it kind of doubles as a side.  Mac and cheese stuffed jalapenos.  I followed the recipe pretty much to a T. The only thing I would do is roast the jalapenos or blanch them for a few minutes to soften them up. Mine were a little too crunchy. Remember to remove the seeds and ribs to take the heat down. I also had left over Mac and Cheese and served that as a side and it was amazing. This is a must try! Very cheesy and fun. I hope you guys like this!

It is from Rachael Ray and the recipe can be found here. Enjoy!

2 Year Anniversary and Appetizers Stuffed Spinach and Artichoke Mushrooms

It’s a new week and another Monday. I hope everyone had a good weekend. I loved having the weekend off but it went way to fast. The weather has been so crazy this weekend too! The wind could have blown me away yesterday and today there was reported tornado in the area! Wonderful November weather.

While I was looking at my site this weekend I noticed that it has been two years since I started this blog! I started in November of 2009. How exciting! I gave the blog a slightly new look, and hope to do a few more things to the blog in the near future.

I have been planning my Holiday Extravaganza this weekend and have been challenged to make new and exciting cookies, bars, and pastries. I am always up for a challenge so I can’t wait to see what I can do.  I am narrowing down the list and going to start soon.

Since Thanksgiving is very close I wanted to give you guys some quick and fun side dishes and appetizers. This post was one of my first posts I did for my blog in 2010, but it’s a great appetizer. Stuffed Mushrooms! These are actually stuffed spinach and artichoke mushrooms. They are super simple and if you loved spinach dip you will love these.

clean those shrooms!

take out the stem

getting ready to chop the artichokes

Mix your cheese's, spinach and artichokes

stuff those mushrooms

yummy goodness

 I found this recipe on Taste of Home found here. I hope you guys try these this year. I lighted it up a bit. See my notes in ( ).

Stuffed Spinach and Artichoke Mushrooms

• 1 package (3 ounces) cream cheese, softened (low fat)
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise (I used Olive Oil Mayo)
• 1/2 cup sour cream (low fat)
• 1 can (14 ounces) water-packed artichoke hearts, rinsed, drained and chopped
• 1 package (10 ounces) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• 1/3 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
• 4 tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese, divided
• 3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 30 to 35 large fresh mushrooms
• Breadcrumbs added to top, about 1/2 cup

In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese, mayonnaise and sour cream. Stir in the artichokes, spinach, mozzarella cheese, 3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese and garlic powder and salt and pepper.

Remove stems from mushrooms (discard stems or save for another use). Wipe mushrooms with a damn cloth, do NOT run them under water, otherwise they will become rubbery. Fill each mushroom cap with about 1 tablespoon of filling. Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese and breadcrumbs.

Place on foil-lined baking sheets. Bake at 400° for 16-20 minutes or until mushrooms are tender

These are so good and tender and whats even better it really only takes about 10-15 minutes to whip together. Also you can place filled mushrooms in the refrigerator until you are ready to bake them. Just cover them while in the refrigerator.