Lasagna Pan Winner and Trial Run Baking

I'm just as pleased as punch to announce the winner of Rachael Ray's Lasagna Lover pan set is...

Katherine of Smoky Mountain Cafe!

I'll be contacting you by email to get your snail mail address to get this to ya!

This contest was made possible by the folks at CSN stores and was chosen randomly by my daughter drawing a name out of a big butter bowl.

I decided to join one of those blogging groups that sends baked goods to the troops overseas, and in my reading found that butter is frowned upon since it turns rancid quite rapidly.  I was aghast...no butter?  What the heck??

So I tried a couple of recipes using butter flavored shortening instead.  And you know what?  I think it worked out okay.

First I made Ina Garten's cranberry orange scones, which I usually make with dried apricots, but just happened to have some craisins around so that's what I put in them.  

I've always loved these scones and thought the shortening did a pretty good job.  You get a little bit of the fake butter thing, but I figure "fake" tastes better than "rancid". 

I found a recipe for a kind of cookie I had never heard of before, it's called a ranger cookie.  You can see the recipe here at Epicurious.

I loved these and thought they were also good leaving out the butter and substituting the butter flavored shortening.  These are just chocked full of yummy stuff (pecans, coconut, crushed corn flakes, and oatmeal) and I imagine you can put in whatever tickles your fancy.  I'd definitely include the corn flakes though, I think they are what make them really special.  

I made these cookies with Eggland's Best Eggs I was able to try for free for being a member of Foodbuzz's Tastemaker Program.

Look how cute, they stamp each one!  I want that job :)

If my spelling seems extra sucky, I changed over to blogger's newer blogging format and can't find the spell check. Any clues?