Honey Pecan Granola

Honey Pecan Granola
From Martha Stewart 

I have a love-hate relationship with Martha Stewart.  On the one hand I want to be her (minus the divorce, then I'd have to change the name of my blog! jk).  She makes everything look perfect and effortless.  She makes you think things like "why wouldn't you give beautiful homemade gifts to everyone on your Christmas list??"  So true, Martha!  I'm on it!  I saw her show about homemade granola a few weeks ago and was immediately compelled to do what she was suggesting - make a massive batch and put it in adorable jars and give it to everyone I know.  Great idea!

But following every great Martha idea comes the inevitable moment when I hate her guts for causing me such grief.  This time that moment came in the form of a Ball Jar wild goose chase.  I'd decided to use Ball Jars with special storage caps to package my granola because they are cheap and I have been seeing them in every grocery store for months now.  Little did I know, the "months" I had been seeing them are also known as "summer."  Since Illinois is not one for a December harvest, the canning season officially ended about a month ago.  So after driving to 3 city grocery stores during rush hour 4 days before Christmas, I was about ready to compose some hate mail to one Ms. Martha Stewart.  In a last resort I started calling every grocery store in the city (side note, most customer service people have never heard of a Ball Jar and a few almost hung up on me for what they thought was a prank call...), I finally located the ONE store that still had some in stock.

Long story short, anyone who doesn't read this blog and received this granola was probably very impressed and will forever think that I am that much closer to being Martha Stewart.  As for the rest of you, you'll always be able to imagine me wearing sweats and glasses in a fit of rage at my 3rd grocery store, seriously contemplating punching the bell ringing Santa guy and/or bursting into tears...  At least the granola itself is easy to make!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!


Ingredients

• Pam or other nonstick cooking spray
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 cups rolled oats (there's a million kinds of oats out there, make sure you buy ROLLED OATS)
• 2 cups pecans, coarsely chopped
• 1 1/2 cup dried fruit (any kind you like)

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees and place racks far enough apart to allow 2 baking sheets at the same time.
2. Lightly coat two baking sheets with cooking spray.  Set aside.
3. In a small bowl, combine oil, sugar, honey, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and salt.
4. In a large bowl toss oats and pecans to combine.
5. Pour liquid mixture over oats and pecans, scraping the small bowl to get all the liquid out.  Stir until thoroughly combined.
6. Spread mixture out on baking sheets.
7. Bake for 27-30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.
8. Remove from oven and immediately add fruit and toss.  It will seem a little soft, but don't worry, it hardens before you know it.
9. Allow to sit 10 minutes or until granola is cooled and crunchy.
10. Store in airtight containers for up to 3 weeks, or freeze.

Makes about 7 cups of very addicting granola.

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Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE HONEYMOON KITCHEN!!!

We've got a delicious recipe for granola coming tomorrow, and then we'll be taking a break until the new year.  See you in 2012!

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Caramelized Onion Mashed Potatoes

Caramelized Onion Mashed Potatoes
From Cooking Light 

After 4 months of food blogging, we've become very familiar with the question "is it blog-worthy?"  It's always sad to admit it, but some of the stuff we make just doesn't cut it.  It may be a decent dinner, but it's not something we'd recommend to a friend, so into the recipe dumpster it goes.  It's fairly common, actually.  What is not fairly common is a night where the actual meal goes straight to the dumpster.  If taking a nice picture of recipe that never gets posted is sad, tossing an uneaten meal is down right depressing.  But alas, we were plagued with such a situation last week.

As you may recall, we cooked up a massive quantity of pulled pork for our Labor Day BBQ.  Despite making nearly 6 pounds of pulled pork, our first CostCo experience left us with 4 extra pounds which we froze and vowed to find a later use for.  I saw a recipe for an apple cider pork pot roast and thought we'd found the perfect cold-weather use for that puppy.  Being the smart lady that I am, I moved the meat from the freezer to the fridge a WHOLE DAY before I needed it!  Fail.  In case you didn't know (yeah, you probably knew) 4 pounds of frozen solid meat takes more than a day to thaw in the fridge.  And with that error, our window of opportunity was gone.  John started traveling more for work, and before we knew it the meat had been in the fridge for 2 weeks.  In a last ditch effort on a Sunday night when we weren't even that hungry we decided to make the pot roast happen.  In hindsight, I'm not sure the meat smelled quite right, but we went with it.  In 2 hours time we had a lovely grey-brown mass that smelled putrid when we cut into it.  Double fail.

The silver lining?  We made these trusty mashed potatoes as a side dish.  And no one in their right mind scoffs at curling up with a big bowl of mashed potatoes for dinner.


Ingredients

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups onion, diced
• 1 1/2 lb baking potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper

Preparation

1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
2. Add onion, saute 15 minutes or until golden.
3. Place potatoes in a medium sauce pan and cover with water.
4. Bring to a boil.
5. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes, or until tender.  Drain and return to pot.
6. Add buttermilk, butter, salt and pepper to potatoes and mash together.
7. Stir in onions.

Serves 4.

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Caesar Salad Deviled Eggs

Caesar Salad Deviled Eggs

From Smitten Kitchen 


As I'm sure everyone knows, last night was the epic basketball match up of Western Illinois University versus University of Illinois at Chicago.  What's that?  You didn't watch???  You didn't even know it took place?  Well by golly, you missed a heck of a game!  John, my parents and I were lucky enough to procure 10th row seats thanks to my dad's active membership in the WIU alumni association.  Since my parents are WIU alums, my dad is also a UIC alum, I am currently a grad student at UIC, and John has the honor of paying for my UIC tuition, this was clearly a very meaningful game to us.  So much so that we left with 2 minutes remaining and missed UIC's come-from-behind victory in the last second.  Woops.


Ok, so the game wasn't the highlight of the evening, but it did give us an excuse to get together and have a few drinks.  And since those drinks took place at our house, it FINALLY gave me a reason to cook something!  Last time I served deviled eggs was at my book club, and I was stunned to discover that a lot of people don't eat deviled eggs or are scared to try one.  Since they're a bit of work to do, I've been hesitant to make them again lest they go to waste.  But with just my parents and John I was sure they'd be a hit, so I whipped up a batch.  And since John's all time favorite salad is Caesar, they were enough to ensure a speedy departure from work to make sure he got a few before we left for the game.


Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 3 Tbsp mayonnaise
• 2 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice
• salt, to taste
• pepper, to taste
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 1/2 tsp anchovy paste (original recipe called for 1 anchovy, minced, but paste was all I had on hand)
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/4 cup panko break crumbs
• 2 Tbsp Parmesan cheese (obviously fresh is ideal, but I used the green can and it was perfectly fine)

Preparation

1. Boil the eggs.  I put the eggs in a pot, covered with cold water.  Brought to a boil.  Removed from heat and let sit, covered, for 10 minutes.  Immediately place in an ice bath for at least 5 minutes.  This makes very pretty, but somewhat tender hard boiled eggs, so take care when slicing and scooping the yolks.
2. Peel eggs.
3. Slice eggs in half, long ways.  If you don't have a deviled egg platter, slice slivers from each side to create a bottom for them to sit on.
4. Scoop egg yolks into the bowl of a small food processor or small bowl.  Set whites aside.
5. Add mayo, mustard, Worcestershire, and lemon juice to the yolks.  Mix in food processor or by hand until creamy.
6. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, stirring and tasting to check flavor.
7. Spoon yolks back into whites, or pipe them in with a pastry bag.
8. Heat olive oil in a small skillet over medium-low heat.
9. Add anchovy and garlic to olive oil and cook, stirring constantly, for about one minute or until anchovy dissolves into oil.
10. Add panko and saute until golden, about 2-3 minutes.
11. Stir in Parmesan cheese.
12. Sprinkle panko mixture over eggs and serve.

Makes 12 pieces.

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Curried Egg Salad

Curried Egg Salad
From 101 Cookbooks 

Things in the HMK have been busy busy busy lately.  Well, not the "K" part so much, since the kitchen hasn't been seeing much action these days.  In between Christmas shopping, running errands, working and heading out to endless festivities, restaurants and takeout have become pretty common around here.  So today when I had a few hours at home mid-day, I couldn't pass up the opportunity for a home-cooked lunch.  I managed to swing through the grocery store on the way home from work and grab the short list of ingredients for this egg salad.  It comes together pretty quickly - while the eggs are cooking you can get everything else chopped up and ready to go.  The title makes it sound punchy, and the apple seems a little suspect, but it really melds together and no one flavor dominates the dish.  Serve it on crackers, toasted bread, or on top of a bed of lettuce for a refreshing little lunch any day of the week!


Ingredients

• 5 eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp curry powder
• 4 Tbsp plain Greek yogurt
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp finely minced onion
• 1/2 medium apple, chopped fairly small, but not minced
• 1/4 cup pecans, toasted and chopped
• 2 Tbsp chives

Preparation

1. Hard boil the eggs.  I think I use a different method for boiling eggs every time, but in this case I went with the recommendation in the recipe, which was to place the eggs in a pot, cover with cold water by 1/2 inch, bring to a gentle boil, remove from heat, cover, and let sit for 7 minutes.  Immediately remove eggs and place in ice water for 3+ minutes.
2. Combine yogurt, curry powder and salt in a large bowl, mixing to combine.
3. Add onion, apple, pecans, chives, and peeled eggs to bowl.
4. Mix everything together using a wooden spoon, smashing the eggs with the back of the spoon.
5. Serve as a sandwich, on crackers, or on a bed of lettuce.  Or just eat with a spoon!

Serves 3-4

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Taco Stuffed Shells

Taco Stuffed Shells
From My Friend Laura's Grandma

For the first time since starting the blog back in August, I've been at a bit of a loss for recipes.  There's a million reasons - December is hectic, we recently acquired an adorable but time consuming new family member (Ralph, our new puppy - be on the lookout for pics), and I haven't spent much time in front of a computer, which is when I do most of my recipe stalking (most people Facebook stalk, I recipe stalk...ok I do both).  But probably the number one reason is that John has been traveling a lot for work, and at the end of the day cooking for one isn't as fun.  Once upon a time it was my main form of cooking, but over the past three years I've gotten used to cooking with two, for two.  It's still doing dishes with one - our marriage isn't that perfect.

Luckily, I have friends ready to step in!  I mentioned my blogging woes at a party over the weekend and my fabulous friend Laura jumped in with not only a fantastic recipe, but an offer to come over and make/eat it with me!  Pretty sweet deal, especially since this is the perfect weekday recipe.  It's super easy and the only ingredient I didn't have laying around was ground beef and the pasta shells.  I *almost* felt bad John missed this one...then I remember that our puppy has to go out every 6 hours and travelling for work = 8 hours of CONTINUOUS sleep...


Ingredients

• 12 jumbo pasta shells
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1/8 cup water
• 1 envelope taco seasoning
• 4 oz cream cheese
• 1 cup salsa
• 1 cup shredded cheese (we used a mix of chihuahua and cheddar, but pretty much anything would work)
• 3/4 cup crushed tortilla chips
• sour cream, to serve, optional
• green onions, to serve, optional

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cook pasta according to package directions.  Drain and toss with butter.  Set aside.
3. In a medium skillet cook beef over medium high, until browned.  Break up with a spoon while cooking.
4. Drain fat.
5. Add 1/4 cup water, taco seasoning, and cream cheese.  Stir to combine and melt cream cheese.
6. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes. 
7. Grease a 9x9 baking dish.  Spread a few tablespoons of the salsa across the bottom of the dish.
8. Divide beef mixture across the 12 shells and place in the baking dish. 
9. Top with remaining salsa, cover, and bake 30 minutes.
10. Remove cover, top shells with cheese and tortilla chips, and return to oven for 15 minutes, uncovered.
11. Serve topped with sour cream and green onions.

Serves 4.

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Molasses Cookies

Molasses Cookies
From Framed Cooks 

Holy smokes, these are some delicious cookies.  I've been following the Framed Cooks food blog for about a year now, and have been meaning to make these cookies for nearly as long.  But as I mentioned earlier this month, I try to not make cookies very often, in order to avoid eating cookies too often.  However, I have a few girlfriends coming over for dinner tomorrow night, and having a batch of cookies on hand seemed appropriate.  I'm not sure if molasses cookies really count as Christmas cookies, but I don't see any reason why they couldn't be.  Obviously gingerbread really steals the show in the spiced holiday cookie category, but my mom and I tried a different recipe every year when I was a kid and they never came out quite right.  These, on the other hand, I'm pretty sure are fool proof.


Ingredients

• 3/4 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup sugar, plus more for rolling cookies
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 egg
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp salt

Preparation

1. Place butter, 1 cup sugar, molasses, and egg in a large bowl, stirring until combined.
2. Place flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and salt in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk to sift together.
3. Add flour mixture to butter mixture, stirring until combined.
4. Refrigerate batter until it is hardened.
5. Scoop dough and roll into 1-inch balls (a sturdy ice cream scoop works well).
6. Roll each ball in additional sugar and place on a cookie sheet or a baking sheet lined with parchment.  (I like using parchment because these cookies come out of the oven pretty soft and it allows you transfer them all to a wire cooling rack in one fell swoop).  Space cookies well apart, with about 12 to a sheet.
7. Use your thumb to lightly press down the center of each ball.
8. Bake for 9-10 minutes.  Transfer to a cookie rack immediately to cool.

Makes 3 dozen.

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Beef Tenderloin

Beef Tenderloin
From the Pioneer Woman 

First, let me just say, LOOK AT THAT PICTURE.  Sweet, sweet nearly raw meat, how we love you in the HMK.  On nights when we can't afford to go pick up a beef tenderloin (99.9% of nights) we just pull up this picture and drool a little.

The exciting event that spurred the purchase of this beautiful piece of meat was one of our signature dinner party test runs.  We are planning to do a surf and turf extravaganza for a few friends on New Year's Eve, but until recently we had very little experience with turf.  Far be it for us to make everyone chip in for expensive meat on NYE only to over cook it (just typing it makes me sad inside).  So we splurged on a random weeknight to test it out, and boy are we glad we did.

If you've ever cooked large hunks of meat before, you know that the most important tool, hands down, is a meat thermometer.  We know this.  That's why when we started the recipe we rummaged through our big bin of crap potentially useful kitchen gadgets and found one.  We popped it in the meat, set it on the grill, and...EXPLOSION.  As it turns out, our meat thermometer is NOT, I repeat NOT, the kind you can leave in the oven or grill.  Considering it was Pyrex brand and their supposed specialty is awesome glass capable of cooking on the surface of the sun, this was a very shocking discovery.  So now our [expensive] dinner is cooking away, our thermometer is ruined, and we have absolutely no idea what temp we are at.  Back to the bin of [lifesaving] gadgets.  The only other thermometer we have is a candy thermometer...also not heat stable, but it does have a really long metal part.  SO, John runs back to the grill and Macgyvers some sort of extensive temperature reading station (being honest, I avoid going outside in the fall/winter in Chicago, and thus never actually went out to see this invention.  I'm sure it was marvelous).  In the end: IT WORKED!!!  I'll refer you back to the majestic picture above for proof.

Bottom line: if you are looking for an impressive and delicious holiday protein, consider beef tenderloin...but buy a heat stable meat thermometer FIRST!!!


Ingredients

• 1 whole beef tenderloin (butt), about 4-5 lb
• seasoned salt, to taste (be liberal with it, since only the outside touches seasoning)
• lemon pepper seasoning, to taste (be liberal with it, since only the outside touches seasoning)
• olive oil
• 4 Tbsp butter, divided
• whole peppercorns (about 1/3 cup or more, to taste)

Preparation

1. Preheat grill or oven to 475 degrees.
2. Rinse meat and trim off any fat and cartilage (we're spoiled and our butcher did this for us, which saves a lot of time).
3. Generously sprinkle seasoned salt on the meat, rubbing it in with your hands.
4. Generously sprinkle lemon pepper seasoning on the meat, rubbing it in with your hands.
5. Heat a skillet and add enough olive oil to lightly coat the bottom.
6. When oil reaches it's smoking point, place the tenderloin in the pan and toss 2 tablespoons butter in next to the meat.
7. Sear each side of the meat for a minute or two.
8. Remove seared meat from pan and set aside.
9. Place the peppercorns in a plastic bag.  Smash them with a mallet or whatever aggression-releasing tool you have lying around.  They don't need to be dust, just broken up a bit.
10. Use your hands to rub the peppercorns into the surface of the meat, covering all sides and pressing to make them stick.
11. Place the tenderloin directly onto the grill or in an oven pan with a roasting rack.
12. Top the tenderloin with remaining 2 tablespoons of butter.
13. Insert meat thermometer and cook until meat reaches just under 140 degrees.
14. Place meat on a cutting board and allow it to rest for 10 minutes.
15. Slice and enjoy!

Serves 8.

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Pantry Garlic Bread

Pantry Garlic Bread
From AllRecipes.com 

If you've ever made or ordered Italian food (ummm, if you're human, I assume you have), then you know that it's a week-long effort to consume all the leftovers.  Obviously we can't control absurd restaurant portions, but for whatever reason even when we cook Italian food at home we make WAY too much.  It does reheat relatively well, but all leftovers start to lose their intrigue a few days in.  Usually the night we actually make the Italian dish we go out of our way to buy some delicious garlic bread, make side salads, and get out the fresh Parmesan cheese.  Three days later it turns into an unceremonious bowl of noodles eaten sitting on the couch in front of the TV.  (The image I've just planted is a 100% accurate portrayal of me right now...John's out of town, motivation for dinner making has waned).

So what's a leftover ridden person to do?  Make pantry garlic bread!  If you have a loaf of bread on hand and a fairly normal pantry/fridge, YOU CAN MAKE THIS!  Right now!  The beauty of it is the bread base, which can pretty much be any bread.  Of course, if you have some fabulous crusty Italian bread on hand, more power to you, but I did it with 4-day-old bakery white bread and it was absolutely mouth watering.  Keep the butter and olive oil as written, but you could probably change the seasonings to suit you.  Jarred crushed garlic instead of fresh, sure!  Italian seasoning instead of oregano, why not!  Toss in some crushed red pepper, scrumptious!  I'm hungry just thinking about it (yes, I did just eat it 30 minutes ago, don't judge).


Ingredients

• 8 1-oz slices of bread
• 5 Tbsp butter, softened but not melted
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp coarse salt
• pepper, to taste
• 1 cup mozzarella, shredded (I imagine just about any cheese working fine)

Preparation

1. Arrange oven rack to highest position and preheat broiler.
2. In a small bowl mix the butter, oil, garlic, oregano, salt and pepper.
3. Spread the butter mixture evenly on the bread slices.
4. Arrange slices on a baking sheet.
5. Broil 4-5 minutes, keeping an eye on them to watch for burning.
6. Remove bread from oven, top with mozzarella cheese, and return to oven for 2-3 more minutes.

Makes 8 slices.

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Breakfast Souffle

Breakfast Souffle
From John's Grandma ABC (Rosemary)

Actual conversation:

John: Geez, this is easy to make, I don't know why my mom only makes it Christmas morning.
Tera: Well it makes so much food, it's not like you can just whip it together for 4 people or something.
Pause.
Tera: Wait, that's how many we're making it for.
John: Yeah.....

So yes, this is John's family's official Christmas morning breakfast casserole, and it most certainly serves their family of 6 and then some.  But it's also really delicious and super easy to make, and since it calls for 9 eggs we decided it just couldn't be cut in half.  In retrospect, all the ingredients are pretty simple multiples of 3, so it could actually be cut down quite easily, but there's no Monday morning quaterbacking allowed in the HMK.

Frankly, it's probably for the best that we made so much of it since we enjoyed it while drinking Bloody Marys and screwdrivers at 9am before the Bears game this past weekend.  Considering the amount of cocktails that we ultimately consumed on Sunday, I'm sure we needed all the food we could get to soak up some of the alcohol.  (As you probably noticed, I'm breaking my perfect record of 7am Monday posts thanks to the ensuing hangover...what's that?  you didn't notice...oh, well, sad but true).  In the end the Bears may not have won, but at least this casserole didn't let us down!


Ingredients

• 1.5 lbs bulk breakfast sausage (the stuff that comes in a big log 'o meat)
• 9 eggs
• 3 cups milk
• 1 Tbsp dry mustard
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 slices white bread, cut into 1/4" cubes
• 1.5 cups cheddar cheese, shredded

Preparation

1. Brown sausage in a large skillet over medium-high, using a wooden spoon to crumble it up.
2. Whisk eggs, milk, mustard and salt in a large bowl.
3. Stir bread, cheese, and sausage into egg mixture.
4. Pour egg mixture into a greased 13x9 pan.
5. Refrigerate overnight, covered.
6. Uncover and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Serves a lot more than 4...probably closer to 8-10.

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Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies
From John's Family

The month of December is special for a number of reasons, not the least of which is my sudden willingness to make batch after batch of cookies.  Don't get me wrong, I have a desire to make cookies year-round.  But in the interest of my waistline, I generally only cave to this desire when I can use "'tis the season!" as my excuse for all culinary indiscretions.  Sure, I have space in my diet for the occasional year-round cookie, but in the honeymoon kitchen, a whole batch of cookies for the household = a whole batch of cookies minus two for Tera.  For example, this is how last Saturday played out:

Tera and John bake Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies together.  Tera offers John one of the mixer whisks with cookie dough on it.  John proclaims he doesn't like raw cookie dough.  Tera licks both whisks.  And the bowl.  Batch one of three comes out.  Tera tests a cookie, you know, just to check.  John takes a bite of one and sets it back on the rack.  The minute he turns his back Tera eats the remainder.  He doesn't even notice.  Batch two comes out.  Tera tests it to check for "discrepancies between the two different cookie sheets used."  They taste the same.  Aka still really good.  John is bored so he leaves the kitchen to do other stuff.  Tera sticks around to "supervise the oven"...eats 3 more cookies out of boredom.  Final batch comes out, taste test says all three cookie sheets worked marvolously.  John's mom and sister stop by.  Tera shoves as many cookies as she can fit into some tupperware and begs them to take it away.  About 2 dozen cookies remain on the counter.  You get the picture.  (Speaking of, I obviously had to take a bite of another one for the sake of the above picture...and then eat the rest to reward myself for getting a good shot.)

So in the name of all things merry, enjoy the first of a few Christmas cookie recipes this season, and then don't expect any more until next year!  Happy December!


Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cups vegetable oil
• 1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 10 oz bag mint chocolate morsels (here's the deal, back in the day when John's family made this recipe a Christmas tradition, Nestle made these wonderful mint chocolate chips...in the past year or two they discontinued them and now sell a bag that's a mix of chocolate chips and minty chips...not nearly as good...this year I found bags of Andes mint crumbles and it turns out they work really well) (UPDATE: apparently Ghiradelli makes a good option too, so be on the lookout people, and don't be afraid to stock up!)

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.
3. In a large bowl combine vegetable oil and 1 cup sugar.  Mix well.
4. Beat eggs and vanilla extract into oil mixture.
5. Gradually beat in flour mixture.
6. Stir in mint chocolate chip morsels.
7. Shape into small balls (a little smaller than a ping pong ball).  Roll each ball in remaining sugar and place on ungreased cookie sheets.
8. Bake for 8-10 minutes.  Cool completely on wire racks.

Makes 4-5 dozen, depending on how big you rolled them.

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