Candy Cane Brownie Cookies

After a chocolate chip cookie failure, I gave holiday cookie baking another try. My hubby dubbed this "superb" and he knows better than to lie to me about my cooking. Why? Because I warned him, "If you are not honest, I'll keep making this dish the same way for 30 years."

I bought inexpensive candy cane white chocolate Hershey's kisses this morning before work.

As an aside, you can find the best deals on protein on a weekday morning. For example, I bought skinless, boneless chicken breast for $1.97 per pound today at Ralphs.

It might not be good enough for the church cookie swap on Thursday but I was pleased with them. Two warnings: Do not substitute ingredients. Just omit the peppermint extract if you don't have any. Texture is everything for this quick brownie-like cookie. These are based on Betty Crocker's Chocolate Mint Crinkle Cookies recipe.

Heed Betty Crocker's advice to press the kisses immediately upon pulling the cookies out of the oven. This means unwrapping the kisses beforehand. You have about 15 minutes to do this before the cookies are done. You don't want to fumble with foil and Hershey's flag removal during this critical window. If you are too slow, the kisses won't adhere.

Suggestion: If you have time, allow these cookies to cool for 45 minutes. If you are in a rush, use individual cupcake or muffin liners to separate your crinkles. Why? Because I tried packaging 13 cookies in a decorative carrier without separating the cookies. I only lined the carrier with parchment. What happened? Only two coworkers tried the cookies and they didn't go back for seconds. The candy cane kisses had spilled over and melted into unattractive craters. The brown blobs were not fully disconnected so you can imagine that it looked like ribbons of bloody bird dookie on dog poop. Bad!

In contrast, the ones double-layered in another container looked pristine and inviting. Again, I highly recommend the individual liners for each cookie. Use an ice cream scoop for uniform cookies. I usually split the dough scoop into two after I roll each ball into the powdered sugar.

Did you know you can avoid all this and just reduce the water in a package of box mix brownies? It's true, I taught my younger brother this trick when he was in junior high. Any cake mix can be made into cookies just by omitting the water and using only two eggs. Try it and let me know the results.

Budget Casserole After Thanksgiving

I finally found chicken breasts under $7 per pound. They cost $3.49 per pound. Not great but much better priced than the past two months.

Since chicken isn't cheap anymore, I wanted to use a fool proof recipe. When I need recipes that work the first time and every time, I rely on Betty Crocker. It's also my guide to Western comfort foods for my husband. I chose Green Bean Chicken Casserole. If your family is craving something creamy after a week of dry turkey leftovers, this is the recipe for you!

I didn't have canned mushroom soup so I made my own with heavy cream, butter, caramelized onions and sauteed button mushrooms. Rachel Ray gives instruction on how to caramelize onions. I also made my own herbed Panko crumbs. Panko gives food the appearance of being fried even if oven baked as in the picture above. I seasoned Panko, in a zip top bag, with thyme, seasoning salt and a tiny bit of Herbs de Provence.

Ingredients
12 oz sliced mushrooms
1/2 onion diced
3 TB Herbs
Seasoning salt
1 stick butter
6 oz heavy cream
3 cups bread crumbs
3 pounds of chicken
16 oz haricot verts
butter flavored cooking spray
powdered sugar

1. Saute the sliced mushrooms and diced onion in a dash of salt, 1 TB butter and 1 tsp sugar.
2. Layer the raw haricot verts. Snap these beans in half. Pour the sauteed vegetables on top and pour cream on top.
3. Slice chicken breasts into 1 inch pieces. Lay these on top of the vegetables.
4. Use 1/3 stick of butter and disperse pieces over chicken. Top with seasoned bread crumbs. Spray with cooking spray to brown crumbs.

Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour 20 minutes. Test to make sure chicken is no longer pink.

Note: If you make your own mushroom soup base, it is lower in sodium than if you bought the canned version. In addition, you don't have to worry about MSG if you make homemade. This is low-carb. You can reduce the bread crumbs or choose a gluten-free substitute for the topping.

80 cents per serving