Now if you go visit the site where the original recipe came from, you will see beautifully edited pictures with perfect lighting and perfectly shaped cookies. Kudos to that girl. I, however, am not that girl. You can find those pictures here. Although I can’t give you those super awesome perfect cookie pictures, I can give you the same amazingly wonderful tasting cookies. These cookies are sweet and moist and yummy!

You Will Need:

-12oz fresh strawberries, cut up

-2 Tablespoons sugar

-2 teaspoons lemon juice

-1/4 teaspoon lemon zest

-1/2 cup sugar

-2 cups flour

-2 teaspoons baking powder

-1/2 teaspoon salt

-6 Tablespoons butter

-2/3 cup heavy cream

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 375 degrees

-Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper

-In a small bowl mix together cut up strawberries, 2 Tablespoons of sugar, and lemon juice

-In a large bowl whisk together lemon zest and 1/2 cup of sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt

-Cut in butter until a crumbly dough forms

-Mix in cream

-Stir in strawberry mix (At this point the dough becomes kind of runny, be patient with it)

-Use a spoon to scoop out the dough and strawberries onto the cookie sheets

-Bake for 14 minutes

I also took this cake/pie to The First Sunday in May & it was gone so fast! Huge hit with everyone! I only got 1 piece of it & I wished I could have eaten it all, but I will definitely be making it again soon because it is fabulous! The original recipe was great, but I didn’t have some of the stuff it called for so of course I altered it, as usual. You can find the original recipe here. Yes, that is fried catfish up there with my pie! Yummy!

You Will Need:

-2/3 cup all-purpose flour

-1/3 cup sugar

-2 teaspoons baking powder

-1/4 teaspoon salt

-1/2 cup melted butter (1 stick)

-2 eggs

-2 Tablespoons lemon juice

-1 teaspoon vanilla

-zest of 3 lemons (The outside of the lemon scraped off)

-8oz cream cheese

-3 Tablespoons melted butter

-1 egg

-1 teaspoon lemon juice

-1 cup powdered sugar

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 325 degrees and grease a 9″ springform pan

To make the filling:

-In a large bowl beat the cream cheese until smooth

-Add powdered sugar and mix well

-Add 1 egg and mix

-Add 3 Tablespoons melted butter, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, and lemon zest from 1 lemon. Mix until completely combined and set aside.

To make the cake:

-In a large bowl mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt

-Stir in 1/2 cup melted butter, 2 eggs, 2 Tablespoons lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, and lemon zest from 2 lemons. Do not overmix.

-Pour cake batter into springform pan

-Pour filling mix over cake batter in pan. Smooth out over cake batter almost to the edge, but not all the way to the edge. (It’s actually really hard to spread it out so I just did the best I could and it ended up like the picture below)

-Bake for 35-40 minutes. Until the edge of the cake comes out clean with a toothpick

-Let cool for 10 minutes

-Remove springform sides and let cool for an hour

-Refrigerate for at least an hour

-Sprinkle top with powdered sugar and serve

Every year on the first Sunday in May Andrew’s Dad’s side of the family has a family reunion at their farm. It’s called The First Sunday in May lol. I’ve always thought it was a really cool thing and I wish my family did something like that. This year I brought a couple of dishes, Butterfinger Pie, Lemon Butter Cake, & Twice Baked Potato Casserole. I didn’t come home with a single bit of leftovers.

You Will Need:

-8 mini butterfinger bars (They come in packages of 8)

-1 tub of Cool Whip

-8oz cream cheese

-Graham cracker crust (I was making this to take somewhere so I bought a premade crust in those tin pie pans)

Directions:

-Crush up 6 of the butterfinger bars

-Mix together cool whip & cream cheese

-Stir in the 6 crushed up butterfingers

-Pour mixture into graham cracker crust

-Top with the other 2 crushed up butterfingers

-Refrigerate for an hour before serving

Until recently I never knew how many things you could use cake mix for, but you can use it for all kinds of things! Like these cookies for example, or the Birthday Cake Fudge I made for my birthday last month. Speaking of that fudge, I only used a couple of tablespoons of yellow cake mix for it and then I had basically an entire box of cake mix that I’ve been looking for something to do with. These cookies were the solution. The best part about them was that I already had all the ingredients in my kitchen. I love when you don’t have to go buy more stuff! These cookies are really great too! I took them to the farm late one afternoon and they were all gone by the next morning! As usual, I have altered this recipe. Quite a bit this time. You can find the original recipe here though.

You Will Need:

-1 box of cake mix (I used yellow cake mix, but you can use any flavor you like)

-8oz cream cheese, softened

-1 stick butter, softened

-1 teaspoon vanilla

-12oz bag of milk chocolate chips (You could also use semi-sweet chips, peanut butter, nuts, etc..)

-1 egg

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 375 degrees

-Cream together butter and cream cheese

-Add egg and vanilla. Mix well

-Mix in cake mix. Mix together until all powder is gone

-Stir in chocolate chips

-Place “lumps” of dough on a greased cookie sheet

-Bake for 10 minutes

The other day Andrew’s dad got us some strawberries from the little fruit stand on the side of the road. Now if you don’t live in an area that has little fruit stands on the side of the road, I’m terribly sorry. So of course I had to make some shortcakes for Andrew to eat with these yummy strawberries. This recipe is my Great Grandmother’s. I found it clipped out of what looks like an old newspaper or magazine and stuffed in the pages of one of her cookbooks. These are absolutely wonderful shortcakes! This recipe only makes 6 cakes so you may need to increase it.

You Will Need:

-Strawberries (However much you like)

-Sugar for the strawberries

-2 cups all purpose flour

-3 Tablespoons sugar

-1 Tablespoon baking powder

-1/2 teaspoon salt

-1/2 cup shortening

-1 egg

-1.5 teaspoons vanilla

-1.2 cup milk

Directions:

-In a medium size bowl but up strawberries and add sugar (I just kept adding sugar until I thought it was sweet enough)

-You may have to smash the strawberries a little to get the juice out

-In a large bowl mix together flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder

-Cut in shortening (Flour mix will form tiny balls)

-Add milk, vanilla, and egg

-Preheat oven to 425 degrees and grease a cookie sheet

-Form dough into kind of flattened blobs and place them on cookie sheet

-Bake for 12 minutes or until tops are golden

I LOVE Pesto! Like really really seriously love Pesto! I can eat it out of the jar and be perfectly happy. Something that I love very closely, if not just as much, as Pesto? Pasta! So let’s add the two together! Yummy! These little stuffed shells are soooo good and they’re great party food. I also made them for our end of the semester party and they were gone in no time and with people asking me for the recipe! I stuck pretty closely to the original recipe on this one, but you can find it here

You Will Need:

-1 box of Jumbo Pasta shells (I bought the Great Value Walmart brand and they worked fine)

-4oz softened cream cheese (That’s half of a block)

-1 cup of fresh Parmesan cheese and 1/4 cup for topping (Unfortunately, that does not mean the green bottle stuff…dang)

-3 Tablespoons of Pesto (I always buy the Classico brand. It is my favorite and personally I think it’s the best)

-2 cups of shredded cooked chicken

-Garlic (Original recipe calls for 2 cloves of garlic minced. Who actually buys/has garlic cloves? Not this girl. So of course I just threw in some garlic powder)

-Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

-Cook pasta shells according to package, but only until al dente. Don’t overcook!

-Cook chicken & cut up/shred

-In a large bowl mix together Pesto, cream cheese, garlic, salt, pepper, 1 cup of Parmesan cheese, and chicken

-Grease a 9×13 baking dish

-Fill shells with Pesto/chicken mix and place in the baking dish

-Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees

-Bake for 30 minutes

Last week we had a “Last Day Of Class Pot Luck Party” and I made these delicious little ham and cheese sandwiches. These are really really great. I mean how can you not like honey ham, melted cheese, and a super fabulous sauce that just makes them over the top amazing!? They are super easy to make and are a great party food/ appetizer! I’m kind of a picky eater & I always change recipes to fit my tastes, but you can find the original here

You Will Need:

**Note: The amount of everything you need depends on how many you want to make. I made 24)

-Honey ham (You can use any kind of ham you like, I just used the tub lunch meat)

-Swiss cheese slices

-Dinner Rolls (I used Mrs. Schubert’s, they’re my fav. rolls!)

-1/2 cup mayonnaise

-1/2 cup miracle whip

-1.5 Tablespoon yellow mustard

-1/2 cup melted butter

-1 Tablespoon minced onion (I hate onions so I used onion powder)

-1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Directions:

-Bake dinner rolls according to package.

-In a small bowl mix together mayonnaise and miracle whip

-Split the dinner rolls in half and spread the mayonnaise mix and spread onto both sides of each roll

-Place a piece of cheese & ham in the center of each roll

-Place the finished rolls on a cookie sheet pretty close together

-In a small bowl mix together melted butter, mustard, onion, and Worcestershire sauce

-Brush the sauce over the tops of all the sandwiches (You don’t have to use it all, I had a lot left over)

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees

-Bake for 13 minutes or until cheese is melted