The Absolute Best Most Fabulous Cookie Recipe Ever!!

Hope that Headline got your attention.

Seriously, these are the greatest!!

Here's Silver holding one of our prized cookies.

They are called Lebkuchen - a German Christmas cookie that we made every year and reminds me so much of Christmas time.  We were able to eat these for breakfast Christmas morning.

Lebkuchen means "life cakes".  We used to take cookies to school and put on a puppet show for our classes about the story of Lebkuchen:  A princess grew ill and hadn't eaten in days.  The King grew worried and had a contest (I forget what the prize was, but I'm sure quite a generous gift).  The winner of the contest was a baker who made these healthy cookies made of nuts, fruit, honey, eggs, etc. which the princess ate and whos energy returned her to health.

These truly are magical cookies for me.

Germans cook using a scale to weigh all of their ingredients.  Thanks Mom for converting everything to  measurements that I can more easily use :)

From my heart to yours:  ENJOY!

1 1/2 cubes (3/4 cups butter)

1 C sugar

1/2 container Citron (after much searching through the store - this is found on the baking isle.  These are the candied fruits similar to the ones in Fruit cake, but trust me, these are nothing like fruit cake).

Candied lemon zest or/and orange zest.  Either candied or made fresh.  I left this step out and they still turned out amazing.

1/2 cup of nuts (either 1/4 cup almonds and 1/4 cup hazelnuts, or 1/2 cup of either one).  I enjoy almonds.

Put your citron, zest, sugar and nuts in the blender until you have a fine mix.

1 tsp vanilla

2/3 C honey

2 eggs (You can either put in 2 whole eggs or 1 whole egg and one egg yolk, saving the egg white to frost the cookies with - the egg yolk gives the frosting a shine.

3 3/4 C flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp spices:  mix the following together and only use 1 tsp of the following mix:

1/4 tsp ground anise

1/2 tsp cardamon (this smells like Christmas trees :)

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp ginger

Depending on how the dough is, if it is too dry add 2-3 Tbsp milk.  Keep in mind that the less flour you put in these, the softer the cookies will be.

Put your dough in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Again, when rolling and cutting out your cookies, use the least amount of flour that you can get away with.

I find that when I cut out the cookies - if I cut them out rather thick, they turn out better.

Cook at 350 for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.

Frosting:  This Makes these cookies!

3 Tbsp lemon juice

1 egg white

powdered sugar until thick. 

(I personally use 2 eggs in the recipe and skip the egg white in the frosting).

I also find that I use quite a bit more frosting than this, so be pretty generous with the lemon juice and then add powdered sugar till spreadable.

Use a pastry brush to brush the frosting on the cookies.

Now, because these cookies have honey in them, they are rather hard.  Put them in the freezer overnight and then let them thaw or put them in a tupperware with an apple to soften them up.  They are soft and oh, so delicious.  Oh, one other note:  I have found that Lebkuchen is an acquired taste.  Some people that I have shared this with have not cared for them, but as for me and my house, we think these are fabulous!!

So I thought there would be plenty of picture taking times with these great cookies because we made so many of them.  But quick as a wink (after eating most of them myself) there was just this one little lone star left.  Quick!  Grab a picture before Mom eats it!!  I had a couple of attempts at taking the picture myself - I could only seem to get at most 3 things in  the picture:  Cookie, Silver and Mom, Cookie River and Silver, or just the girls without the cookie.  Time to call Daddy to take the pic for us:

Apricot, Peach, Berry Delish!

We LOVE Smoothies!

I did a blog post recently about Icees and Slushies - these are frozen juice, but a Smoothie is a creation indeed!

 River and Silver are my big helpers to create our smoothie masterpieces!

 Add any fruit:  Some ideas:  Peaches, Apricots, Pears, Strawberries, Blueberries, Bananas, etc.

Add ice cubes, frozen fruit, Strawberry shake powder (Available at Costco "Breeza Brand" a big tub for $3), milk, yogurt or frozen juices like orange juice.

The possibilities are endless and delicious!!
They each turn out different and oh so yummy!

 My Omi (grandma) gave us a vita-mix for our wedding, and we use it ALL the time :)  It is fabulous to make shakes with - it really blends all the pieces up so finely.  Even the peach or apricot skins it cuts up so fine.

 We also love vegetables!

Have you heard of Bountiful Baskets.  This is seriously the best thing ever!

Every other week we get to pick up two large bags of veggies and fruit for $15. 

http://bountifulbaskets.org/

It has a large variety of different fruits and vegetables.

They also include ones that I don't buy regularly, so we have quite a bit more variety in our diet these days - yams, artichokes, pomegranates, pineapple, berries, etc. 
The girls go with me on Saturday mornings to go pick up our healthy stuff - they tell me the colors and what it is called as we gently (sometimes) put it in our bags.

It is available all over the Western States.  Fabulous!

 My cooking friends

 Our Day of Tears:

     When onions were on the shopping list Colt brought me home a 25 lb bag of onions. WoW - maybe I may need to be more specific of what I had in mind on those shopping lists! The next day my project was to dice and get all the onions in the freezer. Now, I love onions, but I have a hard time peeling and cutting them up. I cry buckets of tears for each onion. I couldn't get through an onion before tears were flowing too quickly and I'd have to step away. Between my tears, Silver's tears, Summer's tears, and countless interruptions.....it was a long morning. After 30 onions I called it quits until nap time. To finish up the bag was 33 more onions - I didn't shed a tear. Either I was completely out of tears, or the open window blowing cold fresh air against my eyeballs was a wonder! We now have a freezer full of chopped onions :)

Another of my favorite things is scents.  We have a scent warmer that heats up wax to release the scent.  Think a scented candle without the fire.  Here are the girls finding their favorite scent:

Some better than others, heh?

River found a keeper!

Oh, my precious girls! 

You're growing up so fast.

Kid Tested Mother Approved

I LOVE to see River sit up and eat. Even if she likes something, she rarely eats more than a couple of bites. I've started doing this with her, and it really works for us: She has to eat one bite of everything on her plate. If she doesn't like it then she doesn't have to have any more, but if she does like it, then she can eat more of it. Also, dinner is dinner, she knows that when she gets
up from the table, that's the food for the night.
Here's River making her shopping list:

So, here are a couple of dishes I've tried this week that River has eaten well and liked it! (I'm always open for dishes that other families like, so I thought I'd pass these ones on)

SOUR CREAM PORK CHOPS: Just tried last night, and definitely a keeper!

6 Pork Chops seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder and other spices - I like Emeril's original essence, then dip the seasoned pork in flour. Lightly brown the brown in some oil.

Put in a 4 quart baking dish and top with 2 sauteed onions. I put about 4 cups of water with about 4 tsp chicken bouillon base in the pan after the pork and onions were out of it to get all the flavor out of the pan. Pour that over the pork and onions. Cover and cook at 350 for 1 hour then turn down oven to 200 and cook for another hour. Remove the meat and add to your meat juices 8 oz sour cream and some flour to thicken it, put back on heat for a bit until sauce has thickened.
You can also do this in a slow cooker: Put it on low for 7 to 8 hours instead of in the oven.


River at first turned up her nose, Mom, I don't like that kind of meat!! I said "You have 1 bite and if you don't like it, you don't have to have any more" Okay. HHHMMMM! This is SO yummy Mommy! We also had two of Colt's YM over for dinner and they Loved it too.
This is very tender, and just is SO good! I served it with wide egg noodles and a pack of frozen vegetables - cook the vegetables with Teryaki sauce. Yum!


WHITE CHILI:
I have had this a variety of ways, and they are all yummy.
1 can chicken broth or 2 cups water and 2 tsp chicken buillon base
2 cans great white northern beans
1 pint cooked chicken (I love this because I just throw in the cooked chicken I've canned) You could do it with 1-2 chicken breasts
1 onion
Cumin
Garlic powder
Sour cream - I use around 8 oz
1/3 pound monterey Jack cheese
Actually the sour cream and Monterey Jack cheese amounts are for a larger batch of this chili, so you may want to tone it down a might, or leave it full strength for more kick! We don't mind calories in our home :) The larger recipe calls for 2-3 cans chicken broth and 5-6 cans white beans.

I really like onions, so sometimes i put 2 onions in and I like to coarsely chunk the onions. I like big onion pieces.
I serve it with green salsa on the side. That way the main dish is non-spicy but then Colt can put in his green salsa. Also good with green chilies. Sometimes I add Cilantro too.
You can do it without the sour cream too, that way is good over some rice.
River: Mom, This is the BEST Meal You ever MADE!

We had one of River's friends over for lunch one day. "Yuck, I don't like Soup!" was the first response: After hearing our rule that "you just need to have 1 bite" the friend tentatively tastes it ....hhhmm, I'll have to try some more to see if I like it, and ended up eating 2 bowls. "You have to give my mom the recipe, I'd like to eat this every day!!" The funny thing was that River after hearing someone else say they didn't like it turned up her nose at it and didn't eat it. We had it later that night for left overs and she again liked it :) Silly kiddo!


CREAMY AU GRATIN POTATOES
5 large potatoes, sliced
2 onions, sliced into rings
Preheat oven to 4-- degrees and butter a 4 quart baking dish. Put potatoes and sauteed onions in the dish. Melt 6 TBSP butter and mix in 6 TBSP flour. Stir in 4 cups milk. Cook until thickened. Stir in 3 cups chredded Cheddar Cheese. Pour this cheese sauce over potatoes. Stir around. I put on crushed cornflakes on top for a crunch. Bake 1 1/2 hours.

TIP: Don't try to make Blueberry Waffles - Grandma and Grandpa gave us a belgium waffle maker for Christmas. It makes wonderful waffles. Well, River and I tried blueberry waffles........I'll save you the effort and whole day clean up to get the waffle maker clean again :)