Decorated sugar cookies

I love to bake.  It's stress relief for me.  Bonus points if I have a genuine reason to bake (other than just wanting some sort of goodies to eat).

I am very proud of these cookies.  My hand was killing me afterwards, but they were totally worth it. :)

My husband and I are Tampa Bay Lightning fans.  We were season ticket members (not this season though, since school and work keeps us from going to the games this year.  Next year, we'll be back).  We make the two-hour drive to Tampa for the games, or we watch from home while we wear our jerseys.  We've been there for the good times and for the bad times.  During the playoffs in 2010-2011, we were kicking butt and taking names.  And it was awesome.  And I was excited.  That time called for cookies!

Since I didn't take many pictures of the process, my step-by-step is not that great.  See the link at the bottom for more in-depth step-by-step directions.  Ignore her poor choice of team. :)

Start with your favorite sugar cookie recipe.  Roll, cut into desired shape, bake as directed (I had to reshape my lightning bolt cutter to get the correct shape).  Allow to cool completely.  Any touch of warmth will cause the icing to melt and run.  Not fun.

Then make your royal icing, and outline.  When the outline is dry, you're ready to flood.  By the time I finished the last outline, the first ones had dried and were ready for flooding.

To flood, thin your royal icing with a few drops of water, and fill a squeeze bottle.  Pour the thinned icing into the outline, making sure to get the icing into the corners of the outline (I used toothpicks to make sure I got it all in the corners).

Let your flooded cookies dry overnight.  Do not rush this, do not try to do this too early, do not pass go, do not collect $200.  If you try to decorate these too early, you end up making a mess.  Notice the smudge on Malone's jersey (and a couple other ones)?  I got too excited.  Also, Malone is my favorite Lightning player.  It has nothing to do with his eyes that could look into your soul, I promise.  Lol.

Once decorated, allow the cookies to dry again.  I left mine for a few hours until the decorator icing had hardened.  

Then, enjoy, while watching your team sweep the Caps.  Sweet, sweet victory.  :)

I have to thank the Brown Eyed Baker for the idea, although she is definitely rooting for the wrong team.  I'm just saying...

Golden Mushroom Meatloaf

This meal is a comfort food for me.  My stepmom taught me how to make this when I was about nine years old, and it was one of the first meals I was able to make all by myself.  This is perfect to make for dinner that night, or for the freezer. Even meatloaf haters will love this meatloaf.  One of our friends who hates mushrooms loves this meatloaf.

This recipe makes a double batch.  You will need 2 cans of the golden mushroom soup - one for the recipe, one for the "gravy" and the top of the meatloaf. If you make a single recipe, you'll just use the other half of the can of soup to top the meatloaf and make the "gravy".

Golden Mushroom Meatloaf
3 lbs ground beef
2 eggs
1 can golden mushroom soup
~2 c italian seasoned breadcrumbs (I have never actually measured, this is an approximation)
salt and pepper to taste (I use garlic salt)

 Mix it all together in a large bowl, until the mixture could hold its shape if you formed it into a ball.  

Bake now directions: Place in a loaf pan, bake at 425 for about an hour.  During the last 15 minutes, top with half of leftover soup (if you kept the recipe doubled, open a new can and use 1/4 of that can).  Warm remaining soup in small saucepan with a small amount of water.

Freezer directions:  Separate mixture between two gallon-sized bags, squeeze out air, and flatten.  Label with baking directions and freeze.  Follow directions above on cooking day.

Enjoy!

Freezer Meals, step by step

I've been getting a lot of questions about how I do my freezer cooking.  Most of them have been "isn't it hard?" or "how do you do it?"  Really, it's easier than it sounds, I promise.

When I restocked my freezer yesterday, I took pictures, step by step, just to show everyone how I do it.

This was the sad state of my freezer after we had been eating nothing but freezer meals for a month.  Frozen assets FTW!  :) (You can see that I do still have a nice stash of meals left)

On of our local stores is amazing, and sells fresh produce and meat relatively cheap.  I got all of this for less than $100.  

The first thing that I do when I get home from the store is wash and prep my veggies, no matter if I'm freezer cooking or not.  Otherwise, they get put away and I forget about them.  This way, they're prepped and ready to go.  I also had a bag in the fridge of broccoli, green peppers, squash, and zucchini that I washed and prepped from a shopping trip a few days ago.  Great time-saver on freezer meal day.

Try not to be grossed out by what's left behind after you clean your produce.  This is exactly why I started using the vinegar-soak method.

While your produce is soaking, make up any marinades that you'll need.  This is Korean BBQ chicken marinade.  In case you were wondering, it is amazing.  

I start by labeling my bags, then folding over the tops to make a bowl, and lining them up on my workspace (in this case, my counter). 

Then I fill them up with my protein (in this case, chicken).  I try to work with one protein at a time.

Then I add all the veggies, and then add the marinades, seasonings, sauces, etc.

Once you squeeze all of the air out and seal the bags, it is important to freeze the bags flat so that you can store them in the freezer.  In cases where you have things in a lot of marinade (KBBQ chicken, for example), I freeze it on top of a cutting board so that it freezes flat instead of inbetween the slats of my shelf.

The other bags just get stacked and frozen flat.

Yesterday I made:

2 KBBQ chicken (for the grill)

2 Italian chicken (for the crockpot)

1 creamy ranch chicken (for the crockpot)

(against my own better judgement, I hate ranch, but the Husband and the Boy love it.)

1 balsamic chicken (for the oven)

1 BBQ chicken (for the crockpot)

1 pineapple BBQ chicken (for the crockpot)

Today I'll be knocking out two different types of meatloaf, some stuffed peppers, and hopefully some burritos and sandwiches for the Boy's lunch since school is starting up again soon.