Welcome to My Kitchen

Valentines Day calls for some special treats. Hot Cocoa Crinkle Cookies are a delicious chocolate cookie studded with Hot Cocoa and Marshmallow Chips. Sarah Voise made these for a recent coffee hour and they were a hit. The chips are a specialty, seasonal item made by the Nestle Company, so you may want to try this recipe soon. These cookies would make a nice addition to a bowl game buffet.

Hot Cocoa Crinkle Cookies

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup Nestle Toll House Baking cocoa

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups (9 ounces) Nestle Toll House Cocoa and Marshmallow Flavored Morsels

1 cup powdered sugar (for coating)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Have baking sheets at the ready.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt and baking cocoa.

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar together. Add egg and vanilla and mix until combined. Gradually beat in flour mixture.

Stir in morsels. If needed refrigerate dough until firm enough to scoop into tablespoon size balls.

Place powdered sugar in a bowl. Toss dough balls in powdered sugar to coat. Place on baking sheets. Bake 10 to 12 minutes until edges are just firm and centers are set. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes, then remove to wire racks to cool completely. Yield: 3 dozen cookies.

Note: you may use salted butter in this recipe, just omit the 1/4 tsp salt. Also, Sarah stated she could not find the Nestle Brand cocoa powder, so used what she had on hand. The recipe did not say to grease pans, but I lined mine with parchment paper because it make cleanup easy.

Taking a trip back to the 1980’s, I recently tried a recipe for Hot Buttered Cheerios, a very basic recipe with many variations. Several bowls of the various varieties would make great game day munchies. This recipe comes from bhg.com and is attributed to Sarah Martens.

Hot Buttered Cheerios

1/4 cup butter

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

4 cups Cheerios cereal

Melt butter in an extra-large skillet over medium heat. Stir in Worcestershire sauce. Add cereal and cook and stir just until starting to brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from skillet and serve warm. Yield: 4 cups.

Cinnamon Sugar Version

Omit Worcestershire sauce. After melting butter add 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and cereal. Cook and stir until just starting to brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove skillet from heat.

In a large bowl combine 1/4 cup granulated sugar and 1 tsp ground cinnamon. Add hot cooked cereal to bowl and toss to coat. Serve warm. Yield: 4 cups..

Cheesy Garlic Version

Omit the Worcestershire sauce. After melting the butter, add the cereal. Cook and stir until just starting to brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove skillet from heat. In a large bowl combine 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, 1 tsp crushed dried parsley and 1/2 tsp garlic powder. Add hot cereal to the bowl and toss to coat. Yield: 4 cups.

Finally got to my quarterly pantry purge, and I am pleased with the results. Having done a quarterly in October, I am doing a much better job of keeping things from going to waste. Only two things needed tossing, some long past dated butter milk powder and a chickpea pancake mix. The quail loved them. Two boxes of Chex cereal that didn’t get used at Christmas went to the food bank, and the jar of fancy olives is getting used in the intended bread recipe this week.

All that said, I highly recommend doing a quarterly assessment of pantry items, and planning them into menus so money you have already spent does not go to waste.

Pumpkin and squash recipes are a favorite in our household. Pumpkin Custard is a go to recipe when I have milk needing to be used up. As the custard bakes it forms a pumpkin pie like top layer with a rich custard underneath.

Pumpkin Custard

2 cups canned or fresh cooked and mashed pumpkin or winter squash

6 eggs

3 cups whole milk

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place a pan with 1/2 inch of water in the oven. Make sure that pan is big enough for the dish you place the custard ingredients in to hold the dish with space around it.

In a large casserole dish combine pumpkin, eggs, sugar and spices, and whisk vigorously until smooth. Gradually whisk in the milk until thoroughly combined. If you like a sweeter custard you can also add the 1/2 tsp vanilla extract at this point.

Place casserole in water in pan in the oven. Bake for 1 1/2 hours or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool and serve with a dollop of whipped cream. If you happen to have some smoked cinnamon a dash of that on the whipped cream a is nice flourish.

Share your favorite last minute game day snack recipes, clearing out the pantry recipes, and rolling into spring recipes with your fellow readers by sending them to: Welcome to My Kitchen, Attn: Laura, P.O. Box 151, Odessa, WA, 99159 or email [email protected]. Please put Recipes in the subject line. Eggs are expensive, so don’t let the shells go to waste. Rinse them and dry several days, then grind to add to potato hills, carrot or other root crop rows when planting your garden this spring. This is scratchy and discourages garden pests.