My mom is a COOK. Not the fancy kind of cooking you have in restaurants but down-home, old-fashioned, mouth-watering good cooking that makes you think of home and holidays. Every holiday at parents’ house is filled with food (Oy!) and may include but not be limited to:

turkey, ham, sweet corn, pickled corn, green beans, shuck beans, homemade biscuits, mashed potatoes and gravy, yams, greens, casseroles, cherry pie, blueberry pie, apple pie, pumpkin pie, dressing, and so many more dishes I can’t begin to think of them all, much less name them. All home made and usually from their garden.

One of my all-time favorite holiday desserts???

Lily Cookies.

Now, you know me and my penchant for chocolate so cookies have to be all that for me to like the non-chocolate kind. It’s just the way I roll. LOL But for the holidays I thought I’d share my mom’s recipe for my favorite, non-chocolate cookies. Make. Eat. Enjoy! (And let me know how you like them!!!)

Lily Cookies

4.5 oz cream cheese
1 c butter or margarine
2 cups plain flour

Have cream cheese and butter at room temp. Mix all ingredients. Roll out and cut with biscuit cutter (round cookie cutter). Fill with your favorite jam (Strawberry is my fave!!!) and fold in middle (looks like a lily when folded). Bake 350 degrees for 15 minutes. After baking sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar. That’s it! These are absolutely delicious!

Do you have any simple but fantastic recipes to share???

Kay

Not being fond of cooking, I steer clear of doing so as much as possible. But, over the years I’ve learned a few fabulous (and easy) recipes. And since I don’t share recipes often, I thought I’d share one for easy-peasy Fettucini Alfredo. It’s not exactly healthy, so once a year is probably enough to do some heart damage. LOL

In a saucepan melt one stick of butter, slowly stir in one small container of half & half, and then add a container of shredded Parmesan cheese, stirring until it melts and thickens to the desired consistency.

That’s it. Easy-peasy, right? Just add to pasta and you’re done. And trust me, this is gooooooood. Hope you enjoy!

Any easy-peasy recipes you want to pass along for those of us who don’t like to cook?

Kay

As you all know, I’m in the middle of some pretty intense deadlines so I’ve been scarce. Thanks for being patient while I get these taken care of. In the meantime, I thought I’d pass along a story that popped into my head a bit ago…

I grew up on a small Kentucky farm near the Ohio River. It wasn’t very big but at various times we had cows, chickens, even a horse or two. More than anything, we had a garden. My parents didn’t know the meaning of “small” and every year our garden seemed to grow bigger and bigger. The one thing we always had in abundance? Tomatoes.

When I was young, I remember going into the utility room where my mom would do her canning. Corn, beans–you name it, she pretty much canned it. So while she was busy working she would shoo us away from the gas stove and old-fashioned canner, which meant we were on our own for lunches during the summers when we were out of school. And because we had plenty of them, tomato sandwiches were often on our menu. A little cheese, a little mayo and bread and we were good to go because it was quick and kid friendly.

Well, right now I have a deadline house. Nothing is clean, my cabinets are bare–but books are due. Just now I went into the kitchen to find lunch and scrounged around quite a bit until I finally resigned myself to the fact that a trip to the grocery store had to be made because I couldn’t put it off any longer. But what I did have on hand?

A tomato, a little cheese, a little mayo and bread. Yup. Good to go. (We won’t talk about how I’m not supposed to eat bread. It’s a deadline emergency. LOL)

I can’t think of tomato sandwiches and not think of those hot, carefree summers at home. Do you have any foods or meals that bring back instant memories?

Kay

As some of you know I’ve recently discovered I’m carb sensitive, which basically means every piece of bread or pasta or dessert I put in my mouth might as well be glued to my stomach and hips. No one wants that!

So as I jump into low-carb living with both feet because I don’t really have an alternative, I’ve purchased some cookbooks and looked online for some wonderful recipes. This one is divine for those of us who has to watch our desserts. It’s low carb, low sugar and OMG good. Best of all if you double the portions, you’ve got a great dessert to take with you to church or family gatherings. Stick a little sign on it that it’s diabetic friendly and you’re guaranteed to be a hit! Warning: it’s *very* rich so a little goes a long way when cutting those portions.

Peanut Butter Pie:::

Crust:
1 cup dry roasted peanuts, chopped fine
1/4 cup Splenda
3 tablespoons melted butter

Mix and pat in pie pan, bake at 375 for 13 minutes. Cool.

Filling:

1 8oz. cream cheese
1 cup Splenda
1 cup peanut butter (I used peanut butter sweetened with agave instead of sweetener and it tasted great!)
1 8 oz. carton of cool whip

Mix on high speed by mixer. Pour into crust. Top with whipped cream if desired.

Hope you enjoy! Do you have any low-carb recipes to share??? I’d love to have them.

Kay