The Perfect Sugar Cookie

In the seemingly short time of a year that I have lived outside of Utah, a new trend has began taking over; soda shops. An idea that, in my mind, just oozes Utah. These shops selling unique soda concoctions and assorted baked goods. Yup, just soda and baked goods. Only in Utah, right? 

I have yet to try any of these soda concoctions, but my lovely Aunt mailed some sugar cookies from The Slurp, all the way to us in Virginia. And since a 29 hour drive is a little long for cookies, the hunt for a copycat recipe began. Luckily my mom found one that is pretty much perfection.

So here, my friends, is a step by step for these easy, delightful cookies that I promise anyone and everyone will love.

Here's what you will need;

1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

3/4 cup vegetable Oil

1 1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 eggs at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoon water

5 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon cream of tarter

In a large bowl, cream the butter, oil, both sugars, eggs, water, and vanilla together. 

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cream of tarter together. 

Slowly add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Stir until thoroughly mixed. The texture should be very soft and easily scooped with a medium or small sized ice cream scoop.

Drop balls of dough onto either a stone baking pan, or a foil lined baking sheet. Roll the bottom of a cup into granulated sugar and smash each cookie a bit. 

Bake at 350 degrees for about 8-10 minutes. These cookies do not brown, and they are done when they poof up a bit in the center.

Butter Cream Frosting

1 cup butter softened

4-5 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp half and half or milk

Beat soft butter and powdered sugar together until smooth. Blend in vanilla and then just enough half and half to create the spreadable consistency you would like. Depending on humidity, you may or may not need to add extra powdered sugar as well. Tint frosting with food coloring as desired.

Adapted from this recipe from The Recipe Critic.

Enjoy! 

Wildflower's TBA

I was desperately craving a good sandwich a few weeks ago after watching this video. So to the store I went. I bought some thinly sliced, golden roasted turkey, my favorite Muenster cheese, bacon, big, juicy ripe tomatoes, ripe avocados, and most importantly a big, oh so soft, oh so amazing loaf of fresh Tuscan bread, as it's titled at the store. This loaf pictured below is from Wegmans, a east cost grocery store (that the rest of the nation is seriously missing out on) but Target has one that is pretty much identical and just as yummy by Archer Farms.

While this is a simple sandwich, good quality ingredients are important!

The next important ingredient is the sauce. Obviously you could top this with lots of things, but my favorite is my homemade honey mustard. Now this is extremely easy to make. But the taste is pretty delightful. Just the other day I was making myself one of these sandwiches and my dad was tasting the honey mustard. And he didn't take just one taste. Taste, after taste, after taste, I finally offered to make him a sandwich and he said, "Actually, I just want a slice of bread with this stuff spread on it." So that's what I got him. Like I said, it's good stuff.

For the honey mustard you need;
4 tablespoons of mayo
2 tablespoons of honey
1 tablespoon of yellow mustard

Mix all ingredients together, and that's it! I save leftovers in the fridge. Makes enough for about 4-5 sandwiches.

Assemble your sandwich, turkey, cheese, bacon, tomato, avocado, honey mustard, toast lightly, and enjoy! I promise the flavors in this simple sandwich will amaze you!

Shrimp Tacos

We are huge Rubio's fans (if you have never been there, go! I always get their Salsa Verde Shrimp Tacos. They are so delightful, but I have had a hard time finding a copy cat recipe. One of my New Years resolutions was to find and perfect more copy recipes so we don't go out to eat as much and this is my first one of the year! They are not spot on but I am really happy with how these turned out.  

Here is their (Rubio's) descricption for their Salsa Verde Shrimp Tacos --- 

"Sustainable pan-seared shrimp topped with a salsa verde sauce made with tomatillos, poblano chiles and fresh herbs, along with buttery Hass Avocado slices, a melted three-cheese blend, our creamy chipotle sauce, a cilantro/onion mix and cabbage. Served on a warm flour tortilla and garnished with a slice of lime" - from the Rubio's site

Ingredients:

2 lb raw shrimp peeled and deveined (I just bought cooked shrimp because I'm lazy)

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons blackening seasoning 

1 cup sour cream or plain greek yogurt 

2 tablespoons chipotle seasoning

shredded cabbage

cilantro

lime juice from fresh lime

small corn or flour tortillas

chopped onion

chopped avocado  

Directions:

Toss shrimp in blackening seasoning to coat.  Heat oil in large frying pan and cook shrimp for 4-5 minutes.

To make the chipotle aioli, mix sour cream or greek yogurt with chipotle seasoning

To assemble, place shredded cabbage on tortilla, top with shrimp, chipotle aioli, chopped cilantro, onion, avocado, Salsa Verde and fresh lime juice. (I forgot to top the tacos with cilantro and onion before eating them, I was too hungry and excited!)

For the salsa verde 

1 1/2 LB tomatillos

1/2 cup chopped white onion

1/2 cup cilantro

1 Tbsp fresh lime juice

1/4 teaspoon sugar

2 Jalapeno Pepper or Serrano Peppers, stemmed, seeded, and chopped (optional)

a few garlic cloves (optional)

1 Remove papery husks from tomatillos and rinse well.

You can then boil, bake or pan roast your tomatillos. I pan roasted them;

2 Pan Roasting Method Coat the bottom of a skillet with a little vegetable oil. Heat on high heat. Place the tomatillos in the pan and sear on one side, then flip over and brown on the other side. Remove from heat. This takes 3-5 minutes.

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend till combined. Pop it in the fridge to cool off while you continue cooking.

Enjoy!