Jell-O Easter Egg Cookies

Although it may be storming

outside,  it is Spring in my Kitchen.

Welcome to Red Couch Recipes.

Yesterday, a horrible thing happened...I only had two mini-bags of cookies
and three lunches to put together!  My youngest daughter didn't get cookies
 in her lunch -- and she let me know about it!

This morning, being the wonderful and great mother that
I always am  -- :) I woke up early and played in the kitchen
making Jell-O Easter eggs. 
Today, I made sure that her lunch was packed with cookies. 
Let's face it, cookies can always brighten our day!

This is the pan I used.  I have owned it for many moons. 
It is stamped Wilton 1993.  If you don't have an egg pan, you can still play and
make normal cookies.

I am linking up with Beverly at Pink Saturday.  The strawberry Jell-O eggs are more pink than red.

 
I used lemon, lime,

and strawberry Jell-O to make my Easter egg cookies.  I am sure your

children and grands would like to make some. 

You can make them single colored.

Recipe for Jell-O Cookies

3/4 cup butter or shortening

1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 (3 ounce) package of Jell-o
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2-1/2 cups flour

Mix all ingredients.  If dough seems a bit dry add the tiniest amount of water.  Spray egg mold impressions with Pam that contains flour or Baker's Joy.  Press ball of dough in egg mold and press dough firmly to fit the egg mold.   Bake in 350 degree oven for about 6 to 8 minutes.  If you don't have an egg mold, you can make normal cookies.  Allow the cookies to bake longer from 8 to 10 minutes.  If desired, drizzle with powdered sugar icing.  Just add a very small amount of water to powdered sugar to make the icing.

You can make them multi-colored.. 
 I used lemon, lime and strawberry flavored Jell-O's.   
For two flavors, just combine two colored balls of dough;
for three flavors, just combine three colored balls of dough.
 

I hope you have a wonderful spring day! 

Posted with the following:  Weekend Wrapup, Favorite Things Friday, Home Sweet Home, Craft-O-Maniac Monday, Motivate Me Monday, Just Something I Whipped Up, Easter and Spring Party, Polish the Stars Link Party, Tuesday Night Supper Club, Take-A-Look Tuesday, Wow Us Wednesday, Hump Day Hoorah

Chocolate Bunnies in Spring

Welcome to my Chocolate Bunnies in Spring Tablescape and to Tablescape Thursday!

My chocolate bunnies welcome you to my first tablescape outdoors after a long winter for my poor bunnies and me!

I was so excited to set an outdoor table and remembered I had these bright placemats.  I think they were a quarter a piece on clearance.  Kathleen, do you approve?  I love going to Kathleen's site, Cuisine Kathleen, to discover all the bargains she finds.  It's like vicarious shopping -- much easier on the pocketbook...

It really is still a bit too chilly to dine outside, but the sun is shining and so beautiful.  These happy little guys and gals are soaking up the sun!  Faux chocolate bunnies are able to soak up the sun and remain intact.

The polk dot footed bowls were also a great buy I scooped up at Tai Pan Trading last year.

Here is a glass view.

I love this shot of my bunnies in silhouette.  Break out YOUR bunnies to herald in SPRING!

Thanks for dropping by Red Couch Recipes.

Posted with the following:  Show and Tell

Maple Iced Cinnamon Rolls Tutorial

Hi and Welcome to my Red Couch!

Over the weekend our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, held it's Semi-Annual General Conference.  On this weekend we don't attend church and we watch the televised conference messages.  It's a weekend full of wonderful, positive, faith-filled talks that encourage us to take action to be better people.

 I usually try to make something special on General Conference weekends, and over the weekend I made Maple Iced Cinnamon Rolls.  I have been making this recipe for years.  Make sure you have enough people to eat these because they taste the best fresh from the oven!  Although not difficult to make, these take a little under three hours to make, but they are worth every minute of time.  You can also use quick-rise yeast to speed up the process; I didn't.  I have included some pictures of the cinnamon roll process.  Hope you enjoy.

Many moons ago as a parting gift to the staff where I had interned for the summer I made cinnamon rolls.  Their comment was, "We didn't know you could bake!"  They implied that I should have been baking and bringing cinnamon rolls in to the office throughout the summer.

Maple Iced Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

Adapted from a Betty Crocker Recipe

The Sweet Roll Dough
1  package regular active dry yeast

1/2 cup warm water (105 to 110 degrees)

1/2 cup lukewarm milk (scalded then cooled)

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup butter, softened

1 teaspoon salt

1 egg

3-1/2 to 4 cups all-purpose flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water in a large bowl.  Stir in milk, sugar, butter, salt, egg and 2 cups of the flour.  Beat until smooth.  Stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a dough easy to handle.  Turn onto lightly floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes or put in Bosch or Kitchen Aid mixer and mix for about 5 minutes on low.  Place dough in greased large bowl; turn greased side up.  Cover; let rise in warm place until doubled, about 1-1/2 hours.  Don't short the rising time!  Punch down dough.  This makes your basic sweet roll dough.

Cinnamon Roll Stuffing Ingredients

4 tablespoons butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

On lightly floured surface, flatten dough with rolling pin into 15 x 9-inch rectangle. 

Spread dough with softened butter. 

Mix sugar and cinnamon.

Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar mixture over dough.  Sugar and cinnamon spice make the cinnamon rolls so nice!

Roll dough up tightly beginning with the 15 inch side. 

Continue to roll dough.  Stretch and work roll to make it even.

Cut dough into 1-1/2 inch rounds making 12 to 16 cinnamon rolls.    I use a serrated bread knife to do the cutting -- it seems to work best.  In a pinch, I have also used floss!

Don't you just love the look?

Place closely on buttered baking sheet.  You can also place them separately, for individual rolls.

Let rise until doubled.  Look how nice and fat they are!  This only takes about 40 minutes.

Bake in a 350 degree oven, on a middle rack, for about 25 to 30 minutes. 

Maple Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon milk, and 1/2 to 1 teaspoon maple flavoring or flavoring of your choice.

While fresh from the oven, drizzle rolls with maple glaze.

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial and as always thanks for stopping by Red Couch Recipes!

Linked with the following:  Skip to My Lou, Show and Tell, Sweet Tooth Friday, Foodie Friday, Weekend Wrapup, Favorite Things Friday