No Holiday cooking for me :(

Genny · Dec 11, 2012

Our oven broke

I went to turn it on to make some cookies & the darn thing won't work. I don't see that much extra money in our budget before Christmas, so I guess I won't be doing any Christmas cookies.

I guess I'll have to stick to fudge and things like that

I love fudge

Seifenblasen · Dec 11, 2012

I am sorry to hear about your oven.

You may want to give these little guys a try. They are half way between cookies and candies, and can be quite additive.

Bourbon Balls

3 cup vanilla wafer crumbs
1/2 cup pecans, finely chopped
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup bourbon
3 Tbsp light corn syrup
tiny pinch salt, if desired

Blend together the crumbs, nuts, cocoa, 1 cup confectioner's sugar, bourbon, corn syrup, and a dash of salt. Form into small balls the size of small walnuts. Roll each ball in the remaining 1 cup confectioner's sugar and place on a cookie sheet. Chill in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight. Alternatively, instead of rolling the balls in confectioner's sugar, they can be dipped in melted chocolate.

Adopted from Craig Claiborne's "Southern Cooking".

Hazel · Dec 11, 2012

Genny -

I'm so sorry to hear your oven broke. What are you going to do about meals?

I shared these No Bake recipes on another forum but you may already have them.

No Bake Cheesecake - my sister's variation of Cool Whip's recipe

For 1 - 9 inch graham cracker crust

8 oz cream cheese (softened)
8 oz Cool Whip
1 t vanilla
heaping 1/2 C powdered sugar*

Blend cream cheese, Cool Whip and vanilla well then slowly add in sugar. Spoon into graham cracker crust, cover and put in frig to set up. This tastes better if it's made a day or two before serving it. Take out of frig and let it come up to room temperature before serving. Also, she has occasionally crushed up graham crackers with a little butter and sugar and used it for sprinkles across the top. She sets out bowls of cherry pie filling and blueberry pie filling for people to spoon onto the cheesecake but you could use whatever your family would prefer. You can also just cover the top with pie filling. She doesn't since some people prefer it plain and a couple of people hate blueberry pie filling and one person hates cherry pie filling. She likes to please everyone. lol

Variations:

Chocolate - add 2 T-3 T cocoa powder while blending and put it into a chocolate graham cracker crust. Then sprinkle shavings of regular chocolate and white chocolate on it. She also added dabs of cherry pie filling on it.

Lower calorie - low calorie cream cheese and low calorie Cool Whip. I tried this and it didn't set up very well. I thought next time I made it, I would use more cream cheese and less Cool Whip to make it more solid. I never did get around to attempting it again but it might work.

*She said you can use up to 3/4 C powered sugar if you prefer a sweeter cheesecake. She uses powdered sugar because it blends more easily but said if you use granulated sugar, you need to use more - approximately 3/4 C to 1 C depending on how sweet you want it. Also, she buys a special type of vanilla extract that has a wonderful flavor. I never knew there were different types of vanilla extract until she told me. So, you could add a little more vanilla (1.25 t or a little more) if you like the taste of vanilla. Everyone loves the taste of her cheesecake - less sweet with a slight vanilla taste to it. But you'll probably want to add more sugar if you have a sweet tooth.

No Bake Cookies

This makes a big batch. You might want to consider halving
the recipe.

2 sticks of butter
4 C sugar
1 C milk
6 C quick-cooking oatmeal
3 t. vanilla
1 C peanut butter
1/2 C cocoa

Bring butter, sugar, milk and cocoa to soft ball stage* over low heat on stove. (This generally takes about 5-7 minutes according to my notes.)

Remove from heat and add the peanut butter, stir well; then add the vanilla. (This prevents the vanilla from getting too hot, sizzling when it hits the mix and scaring you.) Add oatmeal, stir well and quickly spoon out onto wax paper.

*approximately 234F-243F – I’m not very good at judging the stage so I use a candy thermometer.

Genny · Dec 11, 2012

Thanks for the recipes you guys

I wonder if I can make the Bourbon Balls without the Bourbon? We don't drink & the only time we ever have alcohol in our house is when I'm soaping with it LOL Ooh, I wonder how Bourbon soap would smell?

My husband let me know that we should be able to get a new oven in January. I think I'll be using my slow cookers a lot this month. I've got 3 of them (2 for cooking, 1 for soaping) and I don't use them nearly as much as I should. I was looking through my slow cooker book a few minutes ago & was surprised to learn that you can make cakes and brownies in it. :shock:

Thankfully this year's Christmas dinner was already scheduled to be at my MIL's, so at least I don't have to deal with that.

Now I'm off to search for more no bake cookie recipes