Best Sugar Cookies EVER!!

This is a staple recipe in our house. These are the BEST sugar cookies you will ever eat. I don't know if it's the shortening or the sour cream, but SOMETHING in them makes them SO SOFT & they will literally last WEEKS. We make these for friends at Christmastime & we had a few friends say they ate theirs 3 weeks after I made them & they were still soft & delicious. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

Grandma Cherry's Sugar Cookies:

2 cups THRIVE White Sugar

1 cup THRIVE Shortening Powder reconstituted (or 1 cup Shortening)

2 teaspoons Vanilla

3 teaspoons THRIVE Baking Soda

1/2 teaspoon THRIVE Iodized Salt

4 Eggs (or 4 Tablespoons THRIVE Egg Powder + 8 Tablespoons Water)

1 cup THRIVE Sour Cream Powder reconstituted (or 1 cup Sour Cream)

6-8 cups THRIVE White Flour

Cream sugar & shortening.

Add soda, salt, eggs, & sour cream & mix well.

Add 6 cups of flour & mix well.

Keep adding flour until the dough forms a large ball & is no longer sticky. . . similar to bread dough. Knead the dough a minute or two & form into a ball.

Roll the dough out & cut with cookie cutters & bake cookies at 375 degrees for 5-8 minutes. The softer the better. But I guarantee these will stay soft for a VERY long time if you cook them just right. I usually cook mine 7 minutes.

This batch I decided to roll 1/2 of my batch onto a pizza stone & baked a GIANT cookie the size of a pizza.

Once my giant cookie cooled, I spread some strawberry cream cheese on top. . . mmmm.

Then added fruit for a FABULOUS fruit pizza.

If you are interested in purchasing any ingredients used in this recipe, comment below or visit my website: dani.shelfreliance.com

Goulash

Here is another recipe that's been in my family for generations. My kids LOVE this. It's basically a "healthier" version of Hamburger Helper. My husband always asks me to make a TON of it so he can eat it for lunch at work every day. Enjoy!

Goulash:

4 cups THRIVE Macaroni

1/2 cup THRIVE Red & Green Bell Peppers (or 1 fresh bell pepper)

1/4 cup THRIVE Freeze Dried Onions (or 1/2 fresh onion)

2 cups Tomato Sauce (or 1/4 cup THRIVE Tomato Powder + 2 1/4 cups water)

Salt & Pepper to taste

2 1/2 cups THRIVE Freeze Dried Ground Beef (or 1 lb. ground beef)

If you're using Freeze Dried foods, rehydrate your peppers, onions, & ground beef in water for 10 minutes.

If using fresh, cook your ground beef, peppers, & onions in a saute pan until done.

Drain, & add tomato sauce. Boil your macaroni until tender & drain.

Mix everything together & add salt & pepper to taste. It's SO EASY & you will have a nice warm, comforting dinner to fill your family up with. YUM.

If you'd like to purchase any of the ingredients listed in this recipe, comment below or visit my website: dani.shelfreliance.com

Buttermilk Caramel Syrup

I was looking for a recipe for buttermilk syrup for pancakes & found this recipe on the allrecipes.com website. It made the yummiest CARAMEL SAUCE ever! It wasn't really a breakfast syrup (way too sweet!), but it would be GREAT on ice cream. Anyhow, it was just yummy so I thought I'd post it on here so you can make it at home too.

Buttermilk Caramel Syrup:

1 1/2 cups THRIVE White Sugar

3/4 cup Buttermilk (learn how to make your own butter & buttermilk on my homemade butter post)

1/2 cup Butter (or THRIVE Butter Powder reconstituted)

2 Tablespoons Corn Syrup

1 teaspoon THRIVE Baking Soda

2 teaspoons Vanilla

I used homemade buttermilk for my recipe & it was SO SO SO good!

Mix your sugar, buttermilk, corn syrup, butter, & baking soda together in a TALL pan. Boil for 7 minutes & stir constantly. It boils up REALLY high & WILL boil over if you're not careful.

As your syrup is cooling add your vanilla. Stir well & you've got some yummy caramel syrup.

If you'd like to purchase any of the ingredients used in this recipe, comment below or visit my website: dani.shelfreliance.com

Homemade Butter - Super EASY & Super YUMMY!

I just thought I would post this because

#1: It's FUN to do with the kids

&

#2: It tastes FABULOUS!!!

You can do this in a jar quite easily with some serious shaking, but sometimes it's just nice to put it in a mixer & let it go. I make homemade butter all the time now. It's SO easy.

All you need is some

HEAVY WHIPPING CREAM.

Yup, that's it.

Pour your whipping cream into your mixer & start mixing. Just let it go (it will take 10-20 minutes for it to turn into butter so be patient.) First you'll get a bowl of beautifully fluffed whipped cream. You'll want to eat it up with a spoon right then & there, but keep it going.

After it whips REALLY fluffy, it starts to get clumpy. Pretty soon it doesn't look so appetizing anymore. The clumps will start to turn yellowish in color. You're getting close when you hit this point.

Then out of nowhere, you'll hear a "CLUNK" & a bunch of "SWISH SWISH" noises. All of a sudden your butter will clump up into a ball & you'll have a LOT of "milk" at the bottom of your bowl. That is FRESH BUTTERMILK. Yum!

The best way to deal with fresh butter is to strain it.

Get all that delicious buttermilk left over into a container & save it in your fridge for some homemade ranch dressing or some buttermilk pancakes. It's the freshest buttermilk you can get! YOU MADE IT!

This sounds disgusting, but it's fun, especially for kids. You are going to need to knead that butter ball. Get every last drop of buttermilk out of it. It holds a TON so keep squeezing. If you can get that buttermilk out, it will last longer & won't spoil. In fact, I rinse my butter in the sink to make sure every last drop of milk is out of it.

Once it's all rinsed, add salt & knead it really well. Just taste it & keep adding salt until it tastes good to you. SIMPLE. Then it's ready to eat. Just put it in a container, bake some homemade bread, & you're set.