Easy Peanut Butter Cookies

These peanut butter cookies are super easy!

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 cup peanut butter

With an electric mixer, blend sugar and egg. Blend in peanut butter until smooth. Roll tablespoons into balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet. With the tines of a fork, press down, then turn and press down again to make a criss-cross design on each cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sugar and bake at 375 for 8 minutes. Allow to sit on cookie sheet for 2 minutes, then remove to cooling rack.

Honey Cinnamon Butter

This butter is really, really good! It would be great on a variety of holiday baked goods (pumpkin muffins, cranberry nut bread, Sister Schubert rolls, etc.).

Here's what you need:
2 sticks butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup honey
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Use an electric mixer to whip the butter until fluffy. Add the sugar, honey, and cinnamon. Scrape sides and whip until blended. Place in little ramekins, teacups, little jars, etc. and refrigerate. You could use 4 oz canning jars and give them as gifts!

Chunky potato soup

This soup is really good. I made it twice in one week. That means it is reeeeeally good. And it is actually healthy, too. Winner.

4-6 red potatoes

2 tsp olive oil

1/2 cup diced onion

1 1/4 cups fat free/ low sodium chicken broth

3 Tbsp flour

2 cups low-fat milk, divided

1/4 cup sour cream

salt, pepper

and for toppings:

bacon, cooked and crumbled

cheddar cheese, grated

scallions, sliced

Cook the potatoes until soft (in the microwave for 13 minutes, or in boiling water for about 20 minutes). Discard peel (you might want to do this before hand so you don't have to peel a hot potato). Meanwhile, cook onion in olive oil in a Dutch oven or pot. Add chicken broth. In a bowl, whisk together flour and 1/2 cup milk. Add to pot, along with 1 1/2 cups milk. Let cook several minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and add sour cream. Add potatoes to pot and mash coarsely.

Best Sweet Potatoes

Our friend Rachel made these last year in France for our American-Canadian Thanksgiving feast. They were a huge hit, so I made them for my family at Christmas last year and then again this year at Thanksgiving, and again for a Christmas party this weekend... pretty much they are going to be our go-to holiday dish!

3 cups sweet potatoes
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter -- melted
2 eggs

dash cinnamon

dash cloves, nutmeg- optional

Cut the potatoes in thirds and boil them until soft then the skins come off really well. Cut them up and mash them and measure to 3 cups. Add all the ingredients to the potatoes and mix. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.

For the topping it's 1 cup of nuts (pecans or walnuts) ground
1 cup of brown sugar
1/3 cup of flour
1/3 cup melted butter
mix and add on top of potatoes then bake for 5 more minutes.