Home Cookin'

Eggnog Cookies with a Creamy Spiced Glaze

December 20, 2016 by Laura Tucker 1 Comment

Who’s ready for Christmas?! Can you believe Christmas will be here in just a few short days? Man, this year has really flown by! I’ve been so caught up in checking things off my my to-do list and wrapping presents like it’s going out of style, and I’ve been craving a moment of relaxation where I could just sit down, snuggle up in my husband’s recliner and watch Christmas movies. Seeing as how I have a 1 1/2 year old, that sort of thing is pretty much out of the question, but I CAN still have a little me time once in a while and indulge a little! I’ve always had a really big sweet tooth, so I knew that Christmas cookies would be just the thing to help me unwind a little.

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Eggnog Ice Cream Coca-Cola Floats

December 12, 2016 by Laura Tucker 5 Comments

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and The Coca-Cola Company. All opinions are mine alone #SmartWayToShareJoy #CollectiveBias

Have you ever had an encounter with a ‘nog hog? You can usually find them during the month of December lurking around the refrigerator and guarding the carton of eggnog like their life depends on it. They’re the people who get crazy excited when the holidays come around, simply because it means they can spend a portion of the money they’ve divvied for presents on that liquid gold beverage they love so much. I just so happen to come from a family full of ‘nog hogs, and I’ve even seen my own siblings scuffle over who was going to get the last swig of eggnog out of the carton during a family gathering. Ah, sweet memories! 😉…

Simple Holiday Snowman Cheeseball

December 6, 2016 by Laura Tucker 2 Comments

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #HolidayRITZ #CollectiveBias

Some people love the holidays for the the presents and gift-giving. Others like it for the lights, carols, ribbons, bows, reindeer games and jolly plump men in Santa suits. And sure, all of those things are some pretty fabulous elements of this special season, but there’s something that really warms my soul more than anything else during this time of year. For me, it’s the people. I love to visit folks. I love to be surrounded by family, friends, love and laughter. I love to entertain. I love to serve. I find my joy in being with others, and everybody knows that when there’s a group of people gathered, there’s a spread of delicious food nearby waiting to be surrounded by others, too.

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Little Deer Sugar Cookies

December 5, 2016 by Laura Tucker 1 Comment

I’ve mentioned once or twice before that my family rarely buys ground hamburger meet. Because my husband is an avid hunter, we primarily eat venison instead of beef. Deer season just recently opened up here, and my husband has been in the woods every chance he gets hoping to snag a trophy and keep our family’s freezer filled with enough meat to last us the year. I’m certain that I don’t vocalize it nearly enough, but I’m so proud of my husband for being the amazing provider that he is.

To celebrate the opening of deer season this year, I decided to make my husband a special treat to come home to when he came out of the woods. I found this super cute little deer cookie cutter online and snatched it up just in time for opening weekend. I knew that making a batch of sugar cookies shaped like little deer would be just the thing to celebrate!

What really makes these cookies so wonderful is the dough. Friends, this is THE perfect sugar cookie dough recipe. At least, in my eyes it is. 🙂 The texture is so smooth, it’s not too sticky, it’s easy to roll out, and it bakes to perfection every time. The flavors are spot on – almost like those addicting little seasonal sugar cookies that Pillsbury pushes during every holiday.

After mixing up my dough and letting it chill in the fridge, I poured a little flour out on my counter and spread the dough out using a rolling pin. I went to town cutting out the little fawn shapes and spreading them out on a greased cookie sheet. (Note: You kind of have to be delicate with this cookie cutter as the legs are pretty thin and the dough shape can break easily!)

After the cookies baked in the oven and completely cooled down, I added a little gel icing to finish them up! Here’s a free printable copy of my sugar cookie recipe. If you don’t have a deer cookie cutter, you can still use this recipe with whatever shape of cookie you’d like!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Deer Cookies

Prep Time2

Cook Time8

Total Time2 8

Course: Desserts

Servings: 40

Author: Southern Made Simple

Ingredients

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter or 3/4 cups butter - softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder

Instructions

In a large bowl, combine butter and sugar until creamy
Add in eggs and vanilla and blend well
In a separate bowl. combine flour, salt and baking powder
Blend flour into sugar and butter mixture and beat with mixer until thick dough forms
Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours
Once dough is chilled, preheat oven to 350F
Clean off counter space or use a large cutting board and dust a little flour over surface
Using a rolling pin, smooth out dough into a thin layer and press the cookie cutter to form shapes
On a greased baking pan, cook cookies for exactly 8 minutes
Remove from oven and transfer to plate to finish cooling
Frost as desired
Yields roughly 40-45 cookies

Tried this recipe?

Tag me on Instagram: @SouthernMadeSimple or use the hashtag #SouthernMadeSimple and share your love of southern cuisine!

And just to make things extra fun, you can add a red nose and transform these fawn cookies into reindeer cookies for Christmas!

My husband was really excited to see all of the deer cookies that were made just for him when he came home. This recipe is really fun to get children involved with…especially if they’ll be making these for Santa and his reindeer to nibble on at Christmas time! 😉

Do you have a fun or whimsical cookie that you like to make on special occasions? Do you have a deer hunter in your life that you’d love to make these for? Be a dear and leave a comment below! 😉

The BEST Ever Meat Loaf Recipe: Venison Edition

December 2, 2016 by Laura Tucker 33 Comments

I’ve been on a huge sweets-kick here lately with the holidays being in full swing. I looked back at my recent recipe posts and realized that most of them were sugary concoctions, so I thought I’d throw a little savory into the mix and share one of my go-to, fool-proof recipes that my family absolutely loves. I love to prepare it on nights when I don’t feel like doing a whole lot of prep work in the kitchen, and when I need something that’s totally easy to pair any sort of side dish with.

This super simple meatloaf recipe only requires 4 ingredients, yet it’s loaded with flavor and is super moist & delicious! There’s nothing worse than a dry meatloaf, but this one is totally perfect every time!

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Fresh Apple & Brown Sugar Cake

November 30, 2016 by Laura Tucker 2 Comments

I’ve mentioned a few times in previous posts about this fabulous little grocery store that I have nearby that always has an amazing deal on produce. They’re really good to slash their prices on the produce that needs to move out very quickly because it’s approaching it’s expiration date, and they almost always mark everything down to 99 cents for a large bundle. It’s a crazy good deal if you anticipate cooking with them pretty quickly, or taking the produce home and freezing it for later use. (For example, I got a 5 lb bag of organic carrots and a bag of key limes for 99 cents once. It was a total score!)

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Salted Caramel Peanut Butter Cookies

November 28, 2016 by Laura Tucker 2 Comments

No matter where you are in the world, there’s always that one thing that immediately takes you right back home. One of the most beautiful things about the United States is that each and every state has something unique that sets it apart from the rest. I pride myself on having roots planted deep within the Alabama clay, and I love to celebrate my Southern heritage because it’s a building block in the foundation of who I am (and this very blog, too!)

Out-of-staters may think of many different things when they think of Alabama (football, accents, farm land, etc.) but many people don’t know about the history of one little gem and how it completely turned this state around and revived it just a century ago:

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Chocolate Chip Spinach Muffins

November 21, 2016 by Laura Tucker 19 Comments

Over the past 2 weeks, it seems like my diet has primarily consisted of cookies and things smothered and covered in some sort of cheese. To be clear, I’m not really complaining about that (I love my cheese and sweets,) but I realize that a continued pattern of eating those fatty foods is going to wreck havoc on my waistline and on my health in general.

So in order to get some green back into my diet, I’ve been eating a whole lot of spinach here lately. I love spinach WAY more than lettuce (not to mention it’s way healthier than lettuce,) so I don’t have much of a problem eating it as a salad. My problem is that I’m sort of anti-leftovers and I get burned out on foods very quickly. When I say I’m anti-leftovers, I really mean that I’m not crazy about eating something as a leftover more than once. I can eat something twice, but then my taste buds have to move on!

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Brown Sugar Pecan and Cinnamon Apple Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

November 18, 2016 by Laura Tucker Leave a Comment

There’s just something about a big golden sweet potato with butter and brown sugar that gets me so excited. I absolutely love sweet potatoes, so naturally when November rolls around I start planning my entire Thanksgiving menu around them. You may have seen me recently post about how I like to spice them up every once and a while, but sometimes I like to stick with something a little more traditional, too.

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