No guesses?

No guesses were even made! Texas Ranger cookies! (get it huh huh huh? Chuck Norris =Texas Ranger???)
Anyhooooo - recipes for a similar cookie started appearing in cookbooks and magazines in the 1930's! They have also been known as Cowboy cookies. You'll make them and call them what I want in the cookie jar cookies!
The close up is to give you an idea of the texture - I love a chewy crispy cookie and these meet my requirements big time.

Texas Ranger Cookies

yield - at least 5 dozen
1 stick softened butter

1/2 cup Crisco

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon bakng powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups oatmeal (I used regular but some recipes call for quick cooking oats)

2 cups cornflakes

1 cup chopped pecans

1 cup shredded coconut

Using a power mixer, cream together the butter, Crisco, sugars and eggs. Turn off the mixer and add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set the mixer on low and combine dry ingredients with the creamed mixture. Add vanilla and mix in. Add oats, cornflakes, pecans and coconut. Put spoonfuls onto a baking sheet (not greased) Bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes.

I had to fiddle with the baking time a while - we have a convection oven and I'd set the temp at 350 - found it took at least 8 and a half minutes to be properly done. Don't make these too big - they don't get done in the middle before being overcooked on the edges. I wish I'd chopped my pecans smaller - just did a rough chop with a big cleaver and the dough would have been better with smaller nut pieces.

I read enough variations on the recipe to know that some heretics use rice krispies in place of corn flakes - a dangerous bit of blasphemy and not nearly so good -trust me on this.

We are experiencing sugar and fat overload at the moment here on Buhlaland - I think high protein and a plain veggie will be a good choice for supper tonight (right after I eat that broken cookie I just spied on the platter! can't have broken cookies leaking their calories all over the countertop) . Likelihood of posting tomorrow - high with moderate allowance for interruptions due to housecleaning and/or hurricane related power issues. What's coming? You know the chocolate cake PioneerWoman makes and we all love? I have a white cake version of it - oh so cleverly named - White Texas Sheet Cake.

Perhaps you should be planning a bake sale or freezing ahead for the holidays? You can do what I did and take a ziploc bag of cookies to your acupuncturist!

Beautiful warm fall day on Buhlaland and it is good.

Oatmeal,fruit and carrots - it's gotta be healthy!

DH is such a great guy - and I'd be a better wife for him if I didn't cook goodies - that said - here is what I cooked today:

Yep - look innocent enough don't they? My adaptation of an older B. Crocker recipe -

I've cut it down to a half of the original recipe - portion control don't you know? Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Have an 8 inch square pan at the ready. No need to oil it but if you want very neat results - you can line it with aluminum foil so when they cool you can lift 'em right out and cut into squares.

Ingredients in bold letters: 1/2 cup softened butter, 1/2 cup packed brown sugar, one cup quick cooking oats, 3/4 cup all purpose flour, 3/4 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt. Stir the butter and brown sugar together in a medium sized bowl - get it well mixed and soft. Then add in oats, flour, baking soda and salt. When the mixture looks very crumbly (I ended up using antique utensils - yes fingers were here before forks!) pat half of the mixture into your pan. Bake about 10 minutes or until it looks as if it is beginning to brown.

The filling - one cup dried cranberries (usually called craisins), 3/4 cup white chocolate chips, 1/2 cup sour cream, 1/3 cup sugar ,one tablespoon all purpose flour, finely grated peel of one large lemon, one teaspoon of vanilla extract, and one egg. Stir together in a bowl. When your crust part is done - pour filling over the crust and crumble the remaining oat mixture over the filling. Bake for 35-40 minutes. Allow to cool before you try to cut them up - they are very crumbly.

Lest you think I am only a dessert maker - well here is proof we eat veggies in forms other than zucchini bread. Carrot salad - yummy!

Shred 10-12 ounces of carrots - Add one shredded cored apple - don't peel it ( I used a gala apple but almost anything other than a very tart apple would be fine). One cup of raisins (I always rinse off raisins before I use them - I've seen how they are made!) one cup of toasted, chopped pecans (I live in the south y'all).

Dressing: in a separate bowl - whisk together 1/2 cup mayonnaise, one tablespoon cider vinegar, 2 tablespoons applesauce, and 1/4 cup honey - it may sound too sweet but it won't be. Once the dressing is thoroughly mixed - pour over the combined fruits, nuts and carrots and refrigerate until ready to serve.

There you go - Linda Sue's healthy foods for the day. I served this today with spaghetti, steamed broccoli and iced tea. We are all overly full and have plenty for tonight or lunch tomorrow. See I can take healthy ingredients and zap up the calorie levels without any stress at all! It is good in Buhlaland and we are all too full!

Does oatmeal make it healthy?

Ah my dear DH - he is a smart man and a wise guy some days! I made what we call Ethel's cake - MIL fave. Simple old fashioned cake. But I don't think the oatmeal offsets the stick of butter! As usual - ingredients are in bold - be bold and make this cake - but don't pretend the oatmeal makes it anything but delicious!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9X13 cake pan.

To 1 1/4 cups boiling water add 1 cup quick cooking oats and two teaspoons vanilla extract and 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon.

Cream together 1/2 cup (one stick) of butter, 1 cup white sugar, 1 cup packed brown sugar, 2 eggs. Beat until fluffy. Add 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon baking soda to sugar mixture and stir in. Add softened oats mixture - beat until well combined. Pour batter (it will be very runny - don't panic) into prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes and test for doneness. Remove cake from oven and turn on the broiler.

In a saucepan, combine 3 tablespoons butter, 4 tablespoons milk, 3/4 cup packed brown sugar, 3/4 cup flaked coconut and 1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts. Heat until melted, pour over warm cake (you'll need to spread it around a bit) and put under broiler for 2-3 minutes until it bubbles and turns a golden brown.

Eat - obviously it is eaten quickly - at least if photos are evidence!

Good eats tonight on Buhlaland!

Too much is JUST enough

Cookies and candies and cakes Oh MY! We had a group of friends over to Buhlaland for a luncheon but what is the focus of MY picture taking? You got it - the dessert table. Starting at the bottom of the picture is cranberry cheesecake, next coconut pound cake, the tiny pies are my MIL's specialty - Butterscotch Tarts (we won't tell her that they are really tiny pecan pies also called Pecan Tassies) a tall bowl contains praline pecans and the white platter is macadamia, craisin oatmeal cookies. Next shot shows the fudge platter - yep - too much is JUST enough for Christmas. Lest someone fear 13 of us actually ate all this - most of it went to our church youth ministry's big Open House on the evening of the 16th. Whew - 'cause I've been doing some damage to those pecans and cookies. Life is a bit waist expanding on Buhlaland - we are upping the cardio and getting rid of leftovers!

Early morning rain

The small toads around here have rebelled against my camera - I almost had a good shot of 5 of them out enjoying the early morning soaking we got. Alas - ended up with only decent shot being this one tiny fellow up near the large cedar log we have in the side garden. We use pecan shell mulch - it looks so pretty when it is wet! No big news here - other than the blessing of over an inch of much needed rain.

It is a little muddy in Buhlaland!

Nuts you say?

Tis the season for pecans to give up their glorious treats - the tree picture is what a pecan tree looks like - I probably should have also done some shots of the leaves of a pecan but I'm not quite that botanically complete today. The other picture is a study in pecan - from how they look on the tree (green husk around the nut shell) to ripened and on the ground - (brown with ridges showing where the husk has dried up) then the familiar appearance of a pecan. Last is how pecans look when we have too many pesky squirrels! Found these littering all over the front porch at our real estate office. If we want any of our own pecans we'll have to get over there soon and pick them up.

Next shot is of the goats (what - you thought I'd go more than a couple of posts without goats?) They are browsing intently under some trees to gobble up the acorns which dropped during the night. Entering from the left of this picture are a few latecomers - running like mad in case there were suddenly no more acorns. The no more acorns situation won't happen for a month or so - then the trees will have finished dropping acorns and goats will forget what the big deal was all about. Final study of "nuts" is a few of the different acorns just along our drive and front pasture - cannot honestly tell you the different varieties of oaks - other than pretty and prettier and some keep their leaves all year. So - there you go - nuts to this whole thing - it is great on Buhlaland when goats get goodies from the sky.