Triple Layer Raspberry Delight

Yay!  I've finally been able to recover enough from all the computer and internet adventures to start working on this blog again!  ("and they all cheered...yay...")  And what great timing: just in time for some Independence Day fun!  So just to add a fun new treat to everyone's 4th of July picnic, I'm sending you a really great "red, white, and blue" food option: Triple Layer Raspberry Delight (which is really just a fancy version of a layered jello.  What, I'm from Utah! lol).  It is a major favorite around here during the hot months, especially with my kids since it is soo easy they are the ones who get to help make it!

Ingredients:
4 boxes (8 servings) Raspberry Jello
4 1/2 c boiling water
24 oz. Cool Whip (set 8-12 oz to thaw)
Raspberries to taste (I usually go through about 12 oz of frozen fruit, since I am more impatient than I should be (the frozen fruit helps set the layers faster) as well as being a little cheap during the "off seasons" for the fruit I'm using)

Directions:
Pour 2 1/2 c boiling water over 2 boxes of the jello, and stir until completely dissolved (watch out for hidden granules since this is such a thick mixture).  Pour into a 9x13 pan, then refrigerate for about 1 1/2 hours (or until almost solid).  Scatter the berries on top (make sure you try to cover most of the surface) and press in gently (you can just leave them, but it makes the layers separate quickly).  Set back in the fridge until you finish the next layer.  Pour remaining 2 c boiling water (make sure it is boiling again) over the remaining 2 boxes of jello.  When the jello has completely dissolved, begin cutting in 12 ozs. of frozen whipped topping.  Try not to stir too much as the more you stir, the less air will still be in the whipped topping once everything has been incorporated.  As soon as the whipped topping has been completely incorporated, pour this over your jello and berries.  Place back into the fridge to chill until set (this usually doesn't take more than about an hour or two at our house).  Just before serving, cover the top completely with the remaining whipped topping.  I like to also add more berries on top of the finished dish for decoration, though this is not a requirement.  For storage purposes, be sure to keep covered with plastic wrap so that the whipped topping doesn't dry out.  (Serve within a day or two of preparation as the berries (fresh or frozen) will begin to break down and release their water/juice which will cause the gelatin to break down as well.)

One additional note: You can adapt this recipe to include all kinds of fruits and jello flavors...raspberry is just one of my all time favorites!  Especially for something like the 4th of July, try using raspberry or blueberry jello flavor with the opposite berry and cool whip...a real "Red, White, and Blue" treat that will have everyone cheering!

My apologies to everyone for not posting lately.  I'm afraid that we are having some rotten luck with computers lately, but I am hopeful that this will be cured in the next couple of days.  However, I did want to point everyone in the direction of the comments as for the winning recipe for our Christmas recipes contest.  Congratulations to Kaelee Teide!  I will be getting things posted asap, so check back in with us soon!

Santa's Favoritest Contest: Molasses Cookies

These cookies are made at my house and my parents house every year in large quantity at Christmas.  Often they are found on treat plates we deliver to friends, and definitely show up at parties and all day on Christmas. Without fail, I am always asked for the recipe, and I am happy to oblige every time.  Mom found it on the back of the bottle of molasses about 15 or 20 years ago, and they have been a hit ever since!  Spicy and gingery, these are a great soft and chewy alternative to the hard gingersnaps! They always disappear quickly...in fact, I made them yesterday and when I took a picture of them today, 3/4 of them were gone!

Molasses Cookies

3/4 c shortening
1 c sugar, plus extra for rolling
1/4 c molasses
1 egg
2 c flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt

Cream together shortening and sugar, add molasses and egg and beat well.  Add flour and continue to mix.  Add baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and ginger and beat to combine.  Refrigerate at least 2 hours before baking.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Roll dough into small balls (about a tsp and a half), and then roll the balls into the extra sugar, place about an inch apart on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes.  Cool on racks.

Last minute Gift Shopping?

Looking to give one of our terrific Handmade treats or treasures like you can through The Handmade Heritage, but are having a difficult time figuring out just which one or which color or which flavor?  Or are you looking for an easier to way to give a gift to someone overseas?

Well, here is one of the old stand-bys: give a Gift Certificate!

When you order your gift certificate, there is a question on the end of the order form which asks what card you want sent.  That is where you can tell us if this is for Christmas, a birthday, anniversary, graduation, whatever gift, and we will put the gift certificate inside a handmade card for that occasion.  Please also state if you have a special note you want included, and what that note should say.

If you want your gift certificate emailed, just enter the email address you want us to send the gift certificate to in the address line of the order sheet.  We will usually get the gift certificate sent out within 12 hours of less of your order.Are you looking to give something from one of our products but just don't know which one?  Do you have a niece who would love a headband but you just don't know which color?  Or do you want to give one of our delicious batches of fudge, but just don't know which flavor?  One of the best ways to deal with such a predicament is to just give a gift certificate so they can decide!  With so many options and so little time, what could be simpler?

Gift Certificate

$10 Certificate $10.00    $15 Certificate $15.00    $25 Certificate $25.00    $30 Certificate $30.00    $50 Certificate $50.00    $75 Certificate $75.00

Santa's Favoritest Contest, Sunrise Recipes, and Finger Nibbles Contests!

Well, we had so much fun with the last contest, we thought we would do it all over again...times 3!

"Santa's Favoritest" is what we are calling our first recipe contest.  All the world over, cookies have been played with, enjoyed, and perfected to the degree that each family seems to have their own tradition for what is the best to lay out on Christmas Eve.  So we thought that we would ask Santa to take a break from getting ready for his midnight flight to pick out his favorite from all of the recipes we are looking for everyone to contribute!  You have until Dec 22rd to get all those terrific cookies recipes entered, just put it into a comment at the end of this post, or in an email to handmadeheritage@gmail.com (just make sure that no matter what you leave the info for us to reach you).  No cookie mixes, please.  We'll send out the winning announcement Dec 23rd, just in time for you to lay that favoritest of treats out on that special thank you plate...with the winner receiving a special Christmas Eve plate full of treats and goodies of their very own!

The second contest I spoke of is our Sunrise Recipes competition.  In our house, we keep a tradition that has been passed down in my family of having a special Christmas Breakfast Feast.  I will go into the traditional details later, but suffice to say we thought we would see what everyone's favorite breakfast recipes are and how they stack up with each other.  The deadline for submissions is Dec 22nd, with the winning announcement scheduled for Dec 27th.  With a prize package of a breakfast tray, hot drink mixes, and scones how can you not try for this one?!

The third contest is just in time to help everyone with those late night munchies you and your friends and family suffer while waiting for the final countdown to the new year.  So to really help kick the party into a celebration, we are hosting a recipe contest to see what kinds of appetizers everyone really likes to enjoy and share!  The deadline for this contest is again Dec 22nd, with the winning announcement coming Dec 29th...just in time to get stocked up for your New Year's Celebration!  So everyone submit those recipes, and we'll find out just who gets to have their own special service platter filled with goodies and customized just for them to show off their win!

Thanksgiving Recipe Contest...and the winners are...

Well, after going through all the wonderful recipes submitted for our fun contest we realized that with so little time, everyone who submitted a recipe won!  So our congratulations to each of you!  We will be in touch to arrange delivery of your prizes.

Our prize winners are:

Sarah's Cherry Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients:
8-10 sweet potatoes
2 Tbsp cherry juice concentrate
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp melted butter
1/8 tsp ground ginger
Green onions, sliced, to taste
Directions:
Cut cleaned sweet potatoes in half (but don't peel them).  Spray a cookie sheet with Pam, place the sweet potatoes with the cut-side down on the sheet.  Bake 30-40 mins. at 400 degrees.  Stir cherry juice concentrate, brown sugar, melted butter, and ginger together.  Flip the sweet potatoes over, and brush with the cherry  mixture.  Bake at 400 degrees until tender (an additional 5-10 minutes).  Sprinkle with green onions and serve.

Kitchen Dweller's Refrigerator Rolls
YUMMYYY!  This is a recipe that lots of people use on Big Daddy's side of the family.  They are so light and fluffy, and practically melt in your mouth.  The batch makes 32 and they usually don't last two days.  We may like them a little too much, if that is possible.
Ingredients:
2 pkgs dry yeast (1 1/2 Tbsp)
1/2 c warm water
1 Tbsp sugar

2 eggs
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp salt
3/4 c warm water
1/2 c melted butter
4 3/4 c flour
melted or softened butter (additional)
Directions:
Dissolve yeast in 1/2 c warm water with one Tbsp sugar and set aside for at least 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs.  Add the sugar and mix.  Mix in the salt and warm water, then add the melted butter and dissolved yeast mixture.  (Make sure the better is not super hot, we do not want to make scrambled eggs!:) ).  Stir in the flour (the dough should be a tiny bit sticky, I also just usually mix in the flour with my hands).  Cover the dough and refrigerate for two hours or over night.  Grease two large cookie sheets.  Split dough into two balls and roll out into big circles.  Spread on the melted or softened butter (this is where I like to melt it and use my pastry brush).  Using a pizza slicer cut each circle into 16 pieces.  Roll up into crescent shapes and place onto greased cookie sheet.  Cover rolls with a towel and let rise for about 1 1/2 hours.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Cook one sheet at a time for about 10 minutes or until golden brown.  If you are feeling crazy right when you take the rolls out of the oven spread some butter on the top!

Kaelee's Sweet Potato Casserole
This is my favorite Sweet Potato Casserole recipe we have every Thanksgiving!
Ingredients
2 cans sweet potatoes-mashed
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs beaten
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 c butter
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c sugar
canned milk
(topping)
1/4 c butter
3/4 c brown sugar
3 Tbsp flour
Directions
Blend all ingredients together.  Add canned milk until smooth.  Pour into casserole dish, and crumble topping on the top.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Stacie's Cranberry Sauce Extraordinaire
Ingredients
1 c water
1 c white sugar
1 (12 oz.) package fresh cranberries
1 orange, peeled and pureed
1 apple, peeled, cored, and diced
1 pear, peeled, cored, and diced
1 c chopped dried mixed fruit (can be anything you want it to be)
1 c chopped pecans (optional)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
Directions
In a medium saucepan, boil water and sugar until the sugar dissolves.  Reduce the heat to simmer and stir in cranberries, pureed orange, apple, pear, dried fruit, pecans, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the cranberries burst.  Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

Thanks so much for joining with us for this contest, and especially all you who shared your favorite recipes with us!  We'll be posting the next recipe contest shortly, so stay tuned!  Congratulations again to each of you!

Pie Crust

An essential part of a good Thanksgiving dinner is a delicious pie.  The basis for said pie is a well made, tasty, flaky crust.  As a kid, my mom never bought our pies; we always had homemade pie.   Because of this, I grew up never eating frozen pie or store-bought pie (and I still won't eat that stuff).  Mom didn't like pumpkin pie, so it was usually warm homemade apple pie.  I'll be posting that traditional recipe in a bit, but first we need to go over some pie crust basics.  Pie crust is an easy recipe to master and so worth not going and buying a frozen crust, I promise.  I'll walk you through the steps and show you pictures along the way--don't be afraid, you can do this!!

Pie Crust

2 1/2 c all purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp salt
3/4 c COLD shortening
3 tbsp COLD butter
6-8 tbps COLD water

Simple recipe, and it's all about technique.  And YES IT DOES MATTER THAT THE FATS AND WATER ARE COLD!!!  REMEMBER THIS--IT'S VERY IMPORTANT!!

Step 1: Sift your flour and salt into a large mixing bowl.  This one recipe where sifting does make a difference.  You want to incorporate air into it so it stays light and fluffy.

Step 2:  Measure out your shortening.  You may need to press it into the measuring cup with a knife or spatula.  Add this to your flour mixture.

Step 3: Add your butter to the shortening and flour.  Cut it into pieces so it breaks up when you cut it in with your pastry blender.

Your bowl should look like this:

Step 4: You'll now use a pastry blender which looks like this:

to combine the flour with the butter and shortening together until it looks like this:

Step 5:  Adding your water.

You'll want to add half of the water (about 4 tbsp) at first.  Then you'll lightly mix it with a fork, and add the rest of the water 1 tbsp at a time and stirring in between each addition until it looks like this:

Step 6: The dough is done. Don't continue to mix.  Don't over handle it.  At this point, you need to pull out your handy box of plastic wrap.  Pull out a piece of the plastic wrap and place it on your counter or table.

Step 7: Divide the dough in half, and form each half gently with your hands into a disc.  Place this on top of the plastic wrap and wrap tightly.

And you are done!   Put the tightly wrapped bundles in the fridge, and in a couple of hours you will be ready to roll it out!!  I'll show you how to do that in the assembly recipes.