Grandma Vita Cookie Recipe

6 large eggs

1 cup granulated sugar

2 sticks melted butter (slightly cooled)

pinch of salt

2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp anise extract

5 tsp baking powder

4 1/2 cups flour

In a large bowl, place melted butter and sugar and mix well. add eggs all at once

and mix well, add baking powder and mix very well till it looks thick and light yellow.

add vanilla and anise extract and mix well. add flour one cup at a time.

when it gets too hard to mix by spoon, mix with your hands and form a ball of dough

make cookies into small golf balls and place on ungreased cookie sheets (with or without parchment paper) about l " apart...
bake at 350 degrees for at least 15-18 minutes (light golden and watch carefully)
Cool on wire rack. Makes around 60 or so.

frost cookies with confectioners icing and decorative candy sprinkles

frosting recipe:

mix confectioners sugar, milk and drop of anise extract until thick and spreadable.

Typically an Italian holiday cookie. I get numerous requests for these. Never seem to be able to make enough!

Oreo Truffle Balls

Ingredients:

1 (16 ounce) package Oreo cookies, crushed

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, very softened

12 oz. bag of Semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/4 bar of paraffin wax

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, add cream cheese (microwave for 20 seconds if necessary)

Open each Oreo, with a butter knife, scrape out white filling and add to cream cheese.

Finely crush all now empty Oreo halves by hand and add to bowl.

With a wooden spoon mix together.

Store mixture in fridge for 1-3 days.

Roll into quarter sized balls. Melt chocolate and wax in a double boiler.

Dip in the same process as the recipe below (Buckwild Balls)

Sprinkle with "jitchaleans" before hardened.

(The sprinkles in the picture, but that's what my Grandma used to call them )

"Buckwild" Balls

The actual name of these at Buckeye Peanut Butter Balls, but....while first adding these to my family's holiday traditions, my sister and I were at the moment obsessed with VH1's reality stars Real and Chance and New York. Another character on the shows was named "Buckwild," a fabulously trashy broad who was a ball to mock. Hence, Buckwild Balls.....

1 stick of margarine/butter (softened)

1 lb (box) confectionery sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups of creamy peanut butter

12 oz ( 1 1/2 cups) semi-sweet choc. chips

1/4 bar paraffin wax

Mix together sugar, margarine, vanilla and peanut butter with an electric mixer.

the mixture may be a bit crumbly, but as you roll it together, it will become smooth.
You may choose to mix it by hand when the electric mixer starts to slow down a lot.

Roll into small balls and place on parchment paper (cookie sheet).
I roughly yield about 77 of them.

Refrigerate for 2 hours (but up to 24 hours is alright too).

Melt chocolate chips and wax in a double boiler, it will take a while on low heat,

mix occasionally with a rubber spatula.

Put a toothpick into the center of a ball. Using the toothpick, pick up the balls,

one at a time, and dip into the melted chocolate, then place back on the parchment paper. (I use a method of one toothpick in the ball, and one to help assist dropping it back onto the paper and repeat.)

When you have dipped all of the buckwild balls, go back and using a spoon, drop some of the chocolate onto the hole to fill it.

Refrigerate the balls to harden the chocolate!
I store mine is super clean sushi containers, but they don't last long.

Homemade Biscuits

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon white sugar
1/3 cup butter, diced into small cubes
1 cup milk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Cut in the butter by hand until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Gradually stir in milk until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl.
Turn out onto a floured surface. Pat or roll dough out to 1 inch thick. Cut biscuits with a wine glass dipped in flour. Repeat until all dough is used. Brush off the excess flour, and place biscuits onto an ungreased baking sheet with parchment paper.
Bake for 13 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges begin to brown.

Makes 6-8 biscuits depending on the size of your wine glass. Must serve with butter.

Buffalo Chicken Meatballs

Let me apologize in advance for no photo of this recipe, but these were inhaled and there was no time for that! :)

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
1/3 cup Frank's Red Hot sauce
1 pound ground chicken, I used Perdue
1 large egg
1/2 celery stalk, minced
3/4 cup breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Yields: 40 3/4-inch meatballs

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Drizzle the vegetable oil into a 9 x 13- inch baking dish and use your hand to evenly coat the entire surface. Set aside.

Combine the butter and hot sauce in a small saucepan, and cook over low heat, whisking until the butter is melted and fully incorporated. Remove from the heat and allow the mixture to cool for 10 minutes.

Combine the ground chicken, hot sauce mixture, egg, celery, bread crumbs, and salt in a large mixing bowl and mix by hand until thoroughly incorporated.

Roll the mixture into round, 3/4-inch balls, making sure to pack the meat firmly, make 40. Place the balls in the prepared baking dish, being careful to line them up snugly and in even rows vertically and horizontally to form a grid (8 by 5). The meatballs should be touching one another.

Roast for 20 minutes, or until the meatballs are firm and cooked through.

Allow the meatballs to cool for 5 minutes in the baking dish before serving.

I dipped mine in three cheese ranch dressing that I mixed crumbled blue cheese in.

Larry dipped his in a mix of regular ranch and hot sauce.

(Reciped adapted from Rachael Ray and The Meatball Shop)

Eggnog cheesecake

(Adapted from allrecipes.com)

Ingredients

Crust:

• 1 1/3 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 4 tablespoons melted butter
• pinch of nutmeg
• pinch of cinnamon sugar
  

Filling:

• 3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup eggnog
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons rum
• 1 half cupful of vanilla extract
  
• 1 large pinch ground nutmeg

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl combine graham cracker crumbs, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon sugar and butter. Press into the bottom of a 9 inch spring form pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Place on a wire rack to cool.
4. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
5. In a food processor or with hand mixer combine cream cheese, sugar, flour and eggnog; process until smooth. Blend in eggs, rum, vanilla and nutmeg. Pour mixture into slightly cooled crust.
6. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes.
7. Reduce heat to 250 and bake for 45 minutes, or until center of cake is barely firm to the touch. Remove from the oven and immediately loosen cake from rim. Let cake cool completely before removing the rim.