Coconut Crispies

Time to take a treat to work tomorrow. I had coconut left over from the carrot cake, so this seemed a good recipe to put that to use.

COCONUT CRISPIES

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups flaked coconut
Additional sugar for sprinkling

Cream butter lightly and then add sugar, cream again, add egg and vanilla and cream again. Add flour, soda, and salt. Add coconut and mix well. Use a cookie scoop or roll into balls about walnut size. Roll in sugar and flatten down with your fingertips, or you can use the bottom of a glass. Bake for 15 minutes at 325 until light brown. Remove to a rack to cool completely. Makes 3 dozen.

Chicken and Dumplings

Dumplings are usually a cold weather food, but I am seriously wondering if we will ever see cool weather again. I have a friend whose husband likes these very much so I made up a batch this weekend to take over for them to enjoy.

CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS
1 whole chicken cut into pieces or 4 large chicken breasts
Salt and pepper to taste
1 can chicken broth
1 carrot shredded (I do not use carrots)
1 medium onion chopped
2 ribs celery chopped fine

Place chicken in a large pot, add vegetables if using, season to taste. Cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 1-1/2 hours or until chicken is tender. Remove chicken. Cool enough to handle. Remove fat and bones from chicken and cut into pieces. Add back to broth and add one can of chicken broth. Simmer while making the dumplings.

DUMPLINGS:
3 cups flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1 stick of butter, melted
1 cup milk
1 egg

Mix milk, egg, and cooled melted butter. Stir dry ingredients together. Add wet ingredients to dry. Stir until dough forms a ball. Chill 15 minutes. Roll out dumplings onto a well-floured surface until about 1/8 inch thick. Use a pizza cutter or knife to cut into squares. Toss dumplings together with flour from cutting surface. Drop dumplings one by one into broth that is at a rolling boil. Cook for about 15-20 minutes on low heat until dumplings are tender.

Tropical Carrot Cake

Another birthday at the office today. Little did I know when I was looking through recipes and found this Tropical Carrot Cake that the tropical would be so appropriate. While I was preparing this cake there were weather announcements talking about Tropical Storm Humberto threatening the Texas coast. I went to bed and woke up to stories of HURRICANE Humberto stirring up a mess more east of us. We were spared this time, but we still have 6 more weeks of hurricane season to worry through. Kind of scary to think this can come up during the night while one is asleep.

TROPICAL CARROT CAKE
3 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups finely shredded carrots
1 cup raisins (optional - I did not use)
1 can (8 ounces) crushed pineapple, undrained
1 cup toasted chopped pecans
1 cup flaked coconut

Frosting:
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter softened
4 to 4-1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons milk or cream
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. In a large mixing bowl, beat ggs, oil, and buttermilk. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Add to egg mixture and mix well. Stir in vanilla, carrots, raisins, pineapple, pecans, and coconut. Mix well. Pour into 3 greased and floured 9 inch cake pans. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes or until cake tests done. Cool. Combine frosting ingredients in a mixing bowl. Beat until smooth. Frost cake layers and entire cake. Sprinkle some pecans on top.

Rooty-Tooty -- Fresh and Fruity

I took a vacation last week and went to Canada. I have friends who live in New Westminster, B.C. which is near Vancouver. My friends took me to an area called the Okanagan which is apparently notable for its abundance of fruit. There are lots and lots of fruit stands along the way. We stopped at this one and it was decorated so nice. If you look in the trees behind the cars you can see some orange gourds in the trees. My friend's husband pointed them out to me and said 'see how they grow them in the trees?' I have to admit to being gullible for just a minute until I realized they are just hanging in the trees for decoration. The drive was absolutely beautiful. I loved seeing the lakes and mountains and feeling some COOL temperatures.

Another birthday at work today and so I decided to make a fruit salad. I took an angel food cake also with some Cool Whip.

FRUIT SALAD

Fruit glaze:

3/4 cup orange juice
1/2 cup pineapple juice (drained from an 8 ounce can of pineapple tidbits)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons corn starch

Mix all ingredients and bring to a boil until thickened. Cool and pour over fruit of your choice and chill. For this bowl I used grapes, nectarines, strawberries, pineapple tidbits, apple. and banana.