I have been wanting to make these for months now.  I finally found the time to do it.  And this recipe was in this month’s issue of Cuisine At Home magazine.  These were very easy to make and tasted great!  I ate at least half for my dinner tonight dipped in ranch dressing.  Yummy!  Enjoy!

Fried Pickles

Vegetable oil

1 jar dill or sweet pickle slices (I used Famous Dave’s Spicy Pickle Chips)

1/2 cup ranch dressing

1 egg

1 cup flour

2 cups panko bread crumbs

1 pkg dry ranch dressing mix

Heat 1 inch of oil in a large fry pan over medium heat to 360 degrees.  Drain pickles, reserving 3/4 cup of pickle juice.  Whisk pickle juice, dressing, egg and flour together until smooth.  Combine panko and dry ranch mix in a shallow dish.  Pat pickles dry with paper towels.  Dip pickles into batter, letting excess drip off.  Then coat in panko mix and drop into hot oil.  Fry pickles in batches until golden, 2-3 minutes, then transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.

I found this recipe in the most recent Martha Stewart Everyday Food magazine.  I actually had some pure maple syrup in the refrigerator that needed to be used up, so I thought I’d give this a try.  These cookies were very easy to put together

Maple Oatmeal Cookies

3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1 cup flour

1 t salt

1/4 t baking soda

3/4 cup butter, room temp

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

1 egg

1 t vanilla extract

1/8 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a medium bowl, stir together oats, flour, salt and baking soda.  In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugars on high until pale and fluffy, 3 minutes.  Beat in maple syrup, egg, vanilla and 1/8 cup of water, scraping down bowl as needed.  With mixer on low, beat in oat mixture in 2 additions until just combined.  Drop dough in rounded teaspoons, 2 inches apart onto sprayed baking sheets.  Bake until edges are golden, about 11 minutes.  Let cookies cool on sheets until set, about 2 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Wow, I can’t believe my nephew is 6 months old already!  How the time goes by!  Everyone in my family and my extended family has had this cold/flu bug for what seems like the past two months.  Poor little Henry has been sick for the past couple weeks with a nasty cold.  We tried to get his 6 month pics done last Sunday, but he was definitely not in the mood and we had to give up.  But this Sunday went much better.  He was such a happy little camper, smiles all the way and very happy for his Aunt Cookie!  Love you little Henry Paul.  You are such a blessing from God to our family!