I love Snickerdoodles

I love to make Snickerdoodles. I remember the first time I made them. It was in Mrs. Shrewsbury’s Home Economics class at Clay Jr. High.  She gave everyone a packet of recipes of things we were going to make.  I had eaten snickerdoodles before of course but, I hadn’t made them. It was a really good recipe and I lost my packet of recipes. I thought about going and asking for a new packet even after I was out of jr. high.  I was pretty sad that I couldn’t find the packet anymore.  As you might know I keep cookbooks for forever. I still have my 4-H cook book and my cookbook from when I was 8. I had to find a new Snickerdoodle recipe.  I found my new one on Crisco’s website. I think it was originally on the package of Crisco sticks, which are really convenient when you don’t want to mess with measuring shortening.   We have made these many times. We even made them in the shapes of fish and other sea life.

Here is the recipe from Crisco’s website:

Snickerdoodles

• 2 cups sugar, divided
• 1 cup Crisco® Butter Flavor All-Vegetable Shortening
• OR 1 stick Crisco® Baking Sticks Butter Flavor All-Vegetable Shortening
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 3/4 cups Pillsbury BEST® All Purpose Flour
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

PREPARATION DIRECTIONS:

HEAT oven to 400°F.

COMBINE 1 1⁄2 cups sugar, shortening, eggs, milk and vanilla in large bowl. Beat with electric mixer at medium speed until well blended.

COMBINE flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Add gradually to shortening mixture at low speed. Mix just until blended.

COMBINE remaining 1⁄2 cup sugar and cinnamon in small bowl. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE 7 to 8 minutes. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheets. Place on cooling racks to cool completely.

What kinds of cookies do you like?

Mardy's Munchies Review and Giveaway!

As you all know, I love cupcakes. They are my favorite dessert. Not all cupcakes are created equal. I have had some not so good cupcakes in my life. Recently I had one from the store when I was visiting my sister. It was from the grocery store bakery. I decided to put a banana nut muffin in the container that Noah wanted to finish later. Big Mistake, my chocolate cupcake became banana flavored. I am not a huge banana fan. So, it was a huge disappointment. The worst part was I wanted cupcakes for weeks before that. I was so excited when I got one and I was crushed when it tasted awful.

Thankfully my cupcake guardian angels emailed me. My cupcake guardian angels were none other than Steve and Jana of Mardy’s Munchies. They wanted to send me cupcakes and other goodies. I was so excited and waited for my special delivery of goodies to arrive all the way from their bakery in Los Angeles. Mardy’s Munchies is a mom and pop bakery, they make everything themselves and they use no preservatives. Mardy’s Munchies is named after Steven’s late mother Mardy, who instilled a love of baking and inspired him to create delicious treats for over 20 years. They are a fixture at local farmers markets and often attend local festivals. Steven and Jana are both really nice and they even subscribe to my blog! I follow them on Twitter at @Mardysmunchies and I am so jealous of those of you that can constantly get goodies from Mardy’s Munchies. They are someone you must follow if you live in the LA area.

When I received my treats, I couldn’t wait to dig right in. They were packed perfectly; they weren’t crumbled or smashed at all. I was a little concerned about receiving baked goods like that. I was confident that Mardy’s Munchies would make it work. The first thing I tried was the Double Trouble Cupcake. It was hands down the best cupcake that I can ever remember eating. It was chocolate with chocolate cream cheese frosting. It would only be fitting that my cupcake guardian angels would send me such a heavenly cupcake. I savored every single bite. They were perfectly moist and the frosting was amazing. I love cream cheese frosting but I had never had chocolate cream cheese frosting. Oh man, I am drooling thinking about it.

I also received a Punk Mama’s Red Velvet cupcake that I shared with my mom. She thought it was amazing and so moist and delicious. It had normal cream cheese frosting on it. My mom loved it. She is not a cupcake fan but she really enjoyed eating the Punk Mama’s Red Velvet cupcake. I had a lot of goodies to try and the only right thing to do was to share with my family. I mean it would be rude of me to stuff my face with delicious treats and not offer them to others right?



I decided Noah would like the Coomer cookie they sent us. Noah is a cookie monster. The Coomer cookie is a Vegan cookie that is a Delicious Oatmeal mixed with bananas and vegan-approved chocolate chips. It also comes with pecans. Noah is not a vegan but he sure did love his Coomer Cookie. He kept asking for more cookies. I thought this is a healthier version of some of the cookies that I could get for him because it also contains no preservatives.

Another goodie I received was the Georgia White Brownie. They are rich, chocolate brownies with white chocolate chips dancing throughout. Covered with our chocolate frosting and then we drizzle white chocolate all over these and then for fun throw on some chunky chopped pecans- from the website. It was a nice big brownie and it was so moist and fudgy. I prefer fudgy brownies to cake like brownies. My favorite part was the chunks of pecans and the white chocolate on the top. I thoroughly enjoyed the brownie and Noah did too. So am I making you hungry yet? I know I am definitely craving some Mardy’s Munchies.

The next item I tried was the Triple Shazam Baby Bundt Cake. mini chocolate bundt cake is smothered with a dark chocolate glaze and then showered with white and dark chocolate chips. It was so cute. It was also very delicious. There is just something festive about a bundt cake. I think it is because my grandma used to make them all the time. Most bundt cakes are kind of tough on the outside, not the baby bundt cake I received. It was so moist and there is even a surprise when you eat it. I won’t ruin it for you though. You will just have to wait and see!

The last but not least goodie was the Raspberry Crumble Tart. Delicious Organic Raspberry fruit surrounded by buttery shortbread crust and streusel topping all nestled inside a gorgeous tart. I decided I should also share this one with my mom. She really enjoyed it too. She doesn’t really like tart shells but she said that the shell was perfect and the raspberry filling was not too sweet and not to tart just right. She said the best part was the crumb topping. I really enjoyed all the treats I received from Mardy’s Munchies. The only thing I didn’t like about the goodies I received was that when they were all gone, I didn’t have any more. I will have to visit them the next time I am in LA and bring home treats with me.

If you live in Los Angeles or traveling there, you can visit Steve and Jana every Tuesday at the Old L.A. Farmer’s Market located in historic Highland Park. Or if you want to end the week on a sweet note, then come on over to the El Sereno Farmer’s Market, an exciting, supportive community gathering with music, food and art that happens every Friday afternoon. If that doesn’t suit your fancy, then stop on by the famous Antigua Coffee Shop on Figueroa in Cypress Park or Casa Princessa on York Blvd for a varietal look at Mardy’s Munchies goodies. I know there are a lot of bakeries in LA but they are a dime a dozen compared to Mardy’s Munchies. Please keep them in mind if you want delicious homemade desserts that contain no preservatives.

For more information please check out Mardy’s Munchies

Thanks to Steve and Jana at Mardy’s Munchies for sending me some yummy desserts to try out and review and providing the giveaway prize.

I have a giveaway for you. One lucky winner will win a dozen gourmet cupcakes your choice of flavor!

Mandatory Entry: Go to the Mardy’s Munchies website and tell me what looks good. Please tell me the exact name of the item and what it is. They have such cute names for everything.

You must do the main entry for the bonus entries to count.

Bonus Entries:

Subscribe to my blog via email

Follow my blog

Follow @Sheilacakes7 and @Mardysmunchies and tweet about this giveaway including the link. This can be done once a day

Like Mardy’s Munchies on Facebook

This giveaway is open to US Residents ONLY

This giveaway will end on June 21, 2010 at 11:59 pm EST.

Thank You Berry Much Girl Scout Cookie Review

It’s Girl Scout Cookie Time. I love Girl Scout cookies so much. When I was younger I was a Daisy, A Brownie and a Jr. Girl Scout. I had so much fun. The Girl Scouts is an amazing program for young girls. I have many fond memories of scout meetings and going to camp a few times. It was so inspiring. I love all of the morals and values you learn in Girl Scouts. When I was in Daisies, my troop made place mats for our families for Christmas. I still have the place mats that I made and they still go on the table at Christmas time every year. I still remember the Girl Scout Pledge and all of the songs. My favorite one is: There’s something in my pocket and It belongs across my face, I keep it very close to me in the most convenient place. I am sure you’ll never guess it if you guess a long long while. So, I’ll take it out and put it on it’s a great big Brownie smile.

My favorite Girl Scout cookies are Thin Mints and Tagalongs, although they are all pretty good. So when I had the opportunity to try the newest flavor of Girl Scout Cookies back in November. I was excited. The newest flavor of Girl Scout cookies is called Thank You Berry Much. They have cranberries and white chocolate chips in them. Noah loved them. The box was eaten very quickly. I only got a couple cookies out of the box. Noah gobbled them up and they were his snack when we had them. He didn’t pick anything else for his sweet treat. I let him pick what he wants for snacks and it was always cookies. They were a huge hit here. My three year old loves them. I like how the Girl Scouts come up with new cookie flavors.

Unfortunately, I don’t think anyone sells Girl Scout cookies in my neighborhood because they never come around. I used to love selling them door to door and seeing what everyone picked and then watching the customer smile when their cookies arrived. Thankfully they sell them outside some stores here and in the front of stores. I remember doing that as well when I was a Brownie.

The Girl Scouts use the proceeds from cookie sales to fund things for their troops and to go to Girl Scout camp. After my years as a Girl Scout going to camp was a lot of fun and I will remember it for the rest of my life. I was talking about an experience I had at Girl Scout camp with one of my friends the other day. Girl Scout Camp was definitely a worthwhile experience. I highly recommend nurturing your daughter’s desire to be a Girl Scout. You also get lots of delicious cookies.

For more information please visit The Girl Scouts of Nassau County or your local Girl Scouts chapter.

Thank you so much to The Girl Scouts of Nassau County for sending me some delicious Thank You Berry Much cookies for my family to enjoy.

Late July Cookies Review

“Cookies Cookies” Noah is a cookie monster. I sometimes wonder if he is a direct descendant of Cookie Monster himself. Not because he is blue or furry but because he loves cookies that much. So when I had the opportunity to try out some cookies from Late July I thought these would be perfect for my little cookie monster.

Late July is a family owned and operated organic snack company. It was started by Stephan Bernard and Nicole Dawes. Late July makes cookies in both full size and mini sandwich cookies. The full sized sandwich cookies flavors are Vanilla Bean and Dark Chocolate. The mini sandwich cookies come in mini milk chocolate and mini white chocolate. They also make two flavors of full size crackers Classic Saltines and Classic Rich crackers. There are mini peanut butter sandwich crackers too.
Everything they make is USDA certified organic made with fine ingredients.

Late July has been featured on The Food Network show Unwrapped. I learned a lot about Late July when I saw them featured on Unwrapped. One of the things I learned is the little boy and the dog is the Nicole’s son and dog. You can also find a secret number written in the sailboat that has to do with her son’s birthday. See if you can find it while you are snacking on these gourmet organic goodies.

We had the chance to try both varieties of the organic mini cookies. Noah loves them. He gobbles them up. The mini cookies they have animals on them because 10% of the profits go to the Jane Goodall Institute. Noah really likes to name the animals on the cookies as he eats them. It is really cute to listen to him talk about the animals. He asks for the cookies all the time. He calls them the cookies with the animals on them. I had to try them too. I love cookies too. I think they taste good. I have tried other organic cookies before and Late July tastes so much better than the other ones I tried. They don’t taste like they are a healthier option. We both like them a lot. We like to sit together and share a small bowl of cookies. I usually only get one or two though. I feel confident giving him Late July Organic Mini Cookies because they don’t have all the extras like High Fructose Corn Syrup in them. They are made with whole grain and are a good source of calcium.

You can find Late July products in stores. You can use the store locator on the side bar of the website to find a location near you!

For more information please visit Late July. Please visit the Late July store to order delicious cookies and crackers that your little one are sure to love.

Thank you to Late July for sending me some samples of mini organic cookies for me to review.

In my Pantry...

I decided to clean out the pantry today. There was so much stuff in there. It seemed like if one more thing was put in there everything would fall out! I did half of it. There was all kinds of food that I didn't even remember having. I sorted through it all. I threw away all the expired boxes of food. I found some Jell-o that was really old. Jell-o is small so it can get hidden away at the bottom of the basket. I also found 4 yes FOUR boxes of Swiss Miss. They were all open but only missing a couple each. I threw two of the boxes away because they had since expired. I did learn that Swiss Miss has really small expiration dates on them. You have to squint to see it even. It's Summer so I don't see me drinking much Hot Chocolate. I did realize I have a bunch of snacks too. I put them all in a basket. I love sweet stuff and Candy. I had to keep saying to my adorable little helper to stop trying to get in the cookies. Meh I only had to say that a few times. He was very curious about what was in there as was I. I was excited to see that I have 7 tubs of frosting in there as well. I should probably clean out my linen closet and check out if any of my many skincare products have expired as well.

I love cupcakes and cakes and cookies oh and brownies. I really wanna try the Fairytale brownies that everyone is always talking/blogging about. Other than that we have been just hanging out at home. I have been watching Harry Potter all day it seems like. My son seems to be interested in what is going on. I needed a break from Caillou, Thomas, Zooboomafoo, Barney and Blue's Clues. Those are shows that are always on at my house. Yesterday I bought a Panini maker from Macy's for 20 dollars so we are having Cuban Sandwiches for dinner. I love them. I love my kitchen gadgets and goodies.

I love to cook and bake so naturally I would spend lots and lots of time in the kitchen. I have always loved to cook and bake. As soon as I was old enough I was helping my mom and grandma in the kitchen. When I was in Third grade I was making bread from SCRATCH (mixing,kneading the whole shabang) all by my self. I used to make bread on snow days. One Christmas I really wanted an Easy Bake Oven but instead of getting one I got a big box of Jiffy mixes from Santa and was using the real oven. You know what is weird? I love to cook but I have never really had an apron. My grandma always had aprons for me to wear but I never had one. I hope everyone is having a great Saturday.