Red Raspberry Jelly Crescent Cookies

Here is a yummy treat that can be a bit habit-forming to eat.  It’s the Red Raspberry Jelly Crescent Cookies.  “I bet you can’t eat just one” of these.  When made properly, they are small and bite size.  They are like little “poppers” that you can pick up and pop right in your mouth. 

One bite, IF you can eat just one of these red raspberry jelly crescent cookies, can satisfy that sweet –tooth craving. 

The recipe below is one of my favorite homemade cookies for the holidays, however they can be made at any time of the year.  These Red Raspberry Jelly Crescent Cookies can be made for any event – weddings, baby showers, bridal showers, birthday parties, anniversaries or any time you want to make a special treat for your family. 

You can replace with strawberry, blueberry or any other fruit flavor that you desire, if raspberry is not your favorite flavor.

 

The ingredients needed for the Red Raspberry Jelly Crescent Cookies are as follows:

8 oz room temperature cream cheese

1 1/3 cups softened butter
2 2/3 cups flour

Mix the cream cheese, butter and flour.  Blend the ingredients well.  Separate the dough into five (5) dough balls.  Wrap the dough balls separately in plastic wrap, then refrigerate overnight.

Roll dough ball on lightly floured surface to form circle.  Cut into approximately twelve (12) wedges  (however, if you wish to have smaller, bite size cookies; you may wish to cut the dough ball in half before rolling to form a circle to make smaller wedges). 

Spread a thin coat of Red Raspberry Jelly (or your preferred flavor) on the rolled out dough circle – wedges.    Roll the wedges to the point and shape in crescent formation. 

Bake at 350 degrees on an ungreased cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes.  The bottoms should be lightly browned.   Cool them on a rack. 

After they are cooled, drizzle frosting on the cookies. 

The ingredients for the frosting is as follows:

 
1 cup confectioner sugar
4 tsp lemon juice

Blend these ingredients well and drizzle on the cookies.  

 

Helpful tips:

Butter should not be replaced with margarine. 

Be sure to refrigerate the dough overnight.  There is definitely the need for refrigeration-for a minimum of no less than 10-12 of refrigeration. 

When spreading the jelly on the rolled out dough, be sure that it a thin layer.  If you put too much jelly on the dough, it will squish out, baked out of the cookies and cause your cookies to stick to the pan and/or cooling rack. 

Do not drizzle the frosting on hot cookies.  They need to be cooled.  Otherwise, the icing will melt and run off of the cookies.

These Red Raspberry Jelly Crescent Cookies can be frozen for up to 3 months (sometimes longer, if package properly in a nicely sealed container.

Don’t leave them out on the counter unless you want them to disappear quickly, as each person passing by with “pop one” and before you know it, they are gone.  Enjoy!

 

JLMarkerKitchens.com 

Cream Cheese Pizza Dip

Want to serve the best enjoyed appetizer at the next party you attend?  I’m always looking for great ideas, that can be easy to prepare and easy to transport as well as easy to enjoy. 
 

Here is a great recipe for a Cream Cheese Pizza Dip that everyone will enjoy and will wish you had made more for the party. 

The ingredients required for this Cream Cheese Pizza Dip is as follows:

                8 oz of cream cheese, softened

                ¾ cup light mayonnaise
                1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
                3 oz sliced pepperoni, chopped
                2 ripe plum tomatoes, chopped
                10 large black olives, chopped
                                                                            4 crusty Italian rolls – ½” pieces

 

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, mix together the cream cheese, mayonnaise, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, tomatoes and olives.  Spoon into a 6 cup baking dish. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, until lightly browned and bubbly.  Allow to cool slightly.  Serve with the bread pieces for dipping. 

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I do make a few changes to this recipe which helps to make preparation and serving of the dish a little easier. 

First of all, I don’t always use the crusty Italian rolls, instead, I will by the Tostitos Dippers.  They don’t get stale as fast as the rolls.  They are in a bag ready to be served. 

Secondly, I often used regular mayonnaise or salad dressing (Miracle Whip) to give a little different taste. 

Finally, because some people don’t like to bite into a tomato or olive, and prefer a smooth texture dip, so I will chop them real fine or even puree them.  You can use a pizza sauce and use the smaller - tiny pepperoni so to save time on cutting up the pepperoni. 

I also like to lay a few pepperoni and black olives on the top as garnishing for decorative look. 

Share and enjoy at your next party. 

Pool Party and Summer Fun Ideas

It is summer time and it's a great time for you to be creative with your next pool party and have summer fun ideas with the snacks that you provide at your summer fun picnic or pool party.  You could be the nice and generous host or hostess and serve up regular snack likes chips, oreos and other purchased goodies.  However, think how much more fun it would be to serve up cute little snacks that provide entertainment and conversation.   You would be fun and exciting hostess!

Here are a few ideas:

Consider decorating your small sandwich cookies by using colored icing to create beach balls.  You can easily decorate a purchase cookie like the vanilla cream sandwich cookie or similar or, better yet, make your own sugar cookie, putting icing between two cookies to make a sandwich look.  Then decorate the top.  What Fun!

Here you can fill disposable wine glasses with blue jello and top with gummy fish candies to make it look like the fish in the water.  You can mix smaller gummies inside the jello as well. 

The beach scene is one that everyone will ask -- "how did you come up with such a cute idea"?  Using nutter butter sandwich cookies, you can ice them to look like flip flops.  Laying them on a bed of finely crush graham crackers and adding a few star shaped candies and other beach themed ideas will be a creative tray to be serve for all of your outdoor festivities. 


Be your creative self and enjoy.  If you have a great idea, we would love to share your ideas with our readers.  Feel free to comment below and give us your most creative ideas. 

One word of caution.....  People will love your ideas, your creativity and may request that you throw all of the parties or at minimum make all of the snacks for it.    

JLMarkerKitchens.com

Strawberry Spinach Salad

Love strawberries?  Love a nice fresh salad?  Nothing better than a nice and refreshing salad that uses fresh ingredient from your garden.  Get yourself some fresh strawberries or other mixed berries, add some spinach leaves and other lettuce if you prefer, and stir in other vegetable such as onions, black olives for example.  Below is a very yummy strawberry spinach salad that you will absolutely love and enjoy.  

Cooking Spoons, Gadgets and Tools

What do you do with your stirring spoons when you are cooking?  Do you have a little dish, spoon holder or do you simply place your messy spoon on the counter?  Many times when I'm cooking, I wonder what to do with the sloppy cooking tool once it has been in the pot.  Knowing that I'm going to use it again, I don't want to throw it in the sink, but then again, do I want to leave a message on the counter. 

If I leave the cooking spoons, gadgets or tools in the pot, they get too hot for me to handle, so I don't like to do that.  So....

I did get myself one of those spoon holders that I keep by the stove, but it only holds one cooking tool.  Therefore, I typically have a mess on my counter.

Then I found these nifty slotted, notched spoons.    The Rachael Ray Lazy Solid Spoon-Blue is awesome for your cooking and stirring needs.  With the notched side it easily sits on the edge of the pot and will not fall in.  Furthermore, because of it's silicone material, it does not get hot, so you can handle it easily.  Finally, because it stays on the edge of the pot, there is no messy counter because you placed the cooking spoon on the counter.

So keep the drips off your countertops for less clean-up with the Rachael Ray Tools and Gadgets Lazy Solid Spoon. The spoon is made from silicone material that's comfortable in your hand and heat safe up to 500F. When you're all done, the spoon is dishwasher safe for quick and easy clean-up.






JLMarkerKitchens.com