Coffee Punch

At my niece's baby shower last weekend I made most of the food and beverage items.  The two punches, Pineapple Strawberry and Coffee, both went over very well.  The Pineapple Strawberry Punch is one I've made many times.  It is refreshing, very tasty and EASY!  (Search my blog by punch or beverage to find it.) This Coffee Punch was a new recipe.  I love coffee-flavored everything, so I knew it would be good.  It was delicious and very well received at the baby shower.  This will go into my "save" file for future parties.  

Coffee Punch (The Red Hat Society Cookbook)

Ingredients

1 cup boiling water

1 (2 oz) jar instant coffee (I used four single serve packets)

3 cups sugar

1 gallon milk

½ gallon chocolate ice cream (softened, but not soupy)

½ gallon vanilla ice cream (softened, but not soupy)

Directions

In a large saucepan boil the water and stir in the coffee and sugar.  Cool and refrigerate.  When ready to serve, transfer the coffee mixture to a punch bowl.  Stir in milk and ice creams.

Makes 60 servings.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I never tire of pumpkin.  If you've followed my blog for any amount of time you know that I have posted several pumpkin recipes.  Back in 2010 I posted a pumpkin cookie which had cranberries in it and it was NOT made with butter.  Of the two recipes I like this one better.  Maybe because of the butter...maybe because of the dark chocolate chips that I used.  Regardless these are quite tasty. 

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies (Taste of Home 2011)


48 servings Prep: 10 min; Bake: 15 min./batch + cooling

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened

¾ cup sugar (I used splenda)

¾ cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour (I used 1 cup white & 1 cup whole wheat)

1 cup quick-cooking oats

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 ½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used dark chocolate)

Directions

In a bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Combine the flour, oats, baking soda and cinnamon; stir into creamed mixture alternately with pumpkin. Fold in chocolate chips.

Drop by tablespoonfuls (I used a medium cookie scoop) onto greased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-13 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool. Yield: 4 dozen

Nutrition Facts (original recipe): 2 cookies equals 112 calories, 6 g fat (3 g saturated fat), 15 mg cholesterol, 68 mg sodium, 15 g carbs, 1 g fiber, 1 g protein