The Best Snickerdoodle Cookie Recipe

This is my favorite cookie, soft and chewy. Growing up in the small town of Chico California my sister Lois would make these for dessert with fresh picked raspberries. What a wonderful time in my life...

Ingredients:

1 Cup Unsalted Butter, softened
1½ Cups Sugar
2 Large Eggs
2 TSP Vanilla
2¾ Cup Flour
1½ TSP Cream of Tartar
½ TSP Baking Soda
1 TSP Salt

Cinnamon-Sugar Mixture:

¼ Cup Sugar
1½ Tablespoons Cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350˚F. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar for 4-5 minutes until light and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl and add the eggs and vanilla. Cream for 1-2 minutes longer.
Stir in flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt, just until combined.
In a small bowl, stir together sugar and cinnamon.
If time allows, wrap the dough and let refrigerate for 20-30 minutes. Roll into small balls until round and smooth. Drop into the cinnamon-sugar mixture and coat well.
Using a spoon, coat for a second time, ensuring the cookie balls are completely covered.
To make flatter snickerdoodles, press down in the center of the ball before placing in the oven. This helps to keep them from puffing up in the middle.
Place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Bake for 9-11 minutes. Let cool for several minutes on baking sheet before removing from the pan.

Read More

McConnell Golf has agreed to a long-term deal with the Virginia Tech Foundation, Inc. to lease the Pete Dye River Course of Virginia Tech in Radford, Virginia, expanding its portfolio of premier golf courses into the Mid-Atlantic region.

The unmistakable elements of design by legendary golf course architect Pete Dye, along with Virginia Tech’s commitment to excellence and tradition are apparent from the moment you arrive at “The River.” There is the distinctive look and feel of links golf in a unique setting, where the extraordinary clubhouse rests on a rock cliff 70 feet above the historic and pristine New River. With two and one-half miles of frontage, every hole at The River Course offers memorable views of the New River Valley. 

The River Course hosted the 2011 NCAA Regional Championships and the 2016 Virginia State Amateur Championships, and is widely considered one of the best and most challenging courses in the region. It is also the proud home of Virginia Tech and Radford University’s golf teams. This layout has also been featured in multiple golf course rankings in recent years, including:

• No. 7 Golfers’ Choice 2022: Best golf courses in Virginia
• No. 7 in GolfLink’s 25 Best College Golf Courses in the U.S. for Student Golfers
• No. 10 in Virginia in Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play 2022: State-by-state rankings for public-access layouts
• No. 14 in Golfweek’s Best 2022: Top 40 Campus Courses in the United States

“This place has all the ambiance and qualities that make a golf course really good,” said Dye, who passed away in early 2020 at the age of 94. “Here you’ve got the sound of the river up and down the whole golf course the entire time. The river and scenery are unbelievable.”

Dye was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2008. Among the hundreds of highly regarded Dye-designed golf courses around the world are The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra, Fla., The Ocean Course on Kiawah Island, S.C., Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island, S.C., and the Straits Course at Whistling Straits in Sheboygan, Wisc.

McConnell Golf is no stranger to Pete Dye courses, having had the master himself renovate his original design of The Cardinal in Greensboro, N.C., in 2006.

Founded in 2003, McConnell Golf is the largest owner of private clubs in the southeast. McConnell Golf’s ownership collection — comprised of 14 golf courses, including 13 private courses and one semi-private course — includes Raleigh Country Club in Raleigh, N.C., the last design of fabled golf course architect Donald Ross, and another Ross design, Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, annual site of the PGA Tour’s Wyndham Championship.

The latest addition to the Raleigh-based company’s stable of premier golf courses and clubs is a homecoming of sorts for company founder and CEO John McConnell.

McConnell grew up on a farm about two hours south of The River Course in Abingdon, Virginia, where he and his brothers would hit rubber balls with homemade golf clubs into tuna cans that were used as cups. He played high school golf and continued to play casually as a student at Virginia Tech, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance prior to his career in software sales. McConnell remains an avid and supportive Hokie alumnus.

The Pete Dye River Course of Virginia Tech is McConnell Golf’s second course in Virginia, joining The Water’s Edge Country Club on Smith Mountain Lake outside Roanoke.

Read More

Red Velvet Cake Cookies

October in North Carolina seems to be the ideal wedding season. This includes my wife and I, which is why I wanted to share a little treat from our wedding. We passed around these delicious cookies on our wedding day. I hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:

½ Cup Vegetable Oil
½ TSP Kosher Salt
2 Eggs
1 15.25 Ounce box of Red Velvet Cake Mix
¾ Cup White Chocolate Chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together oil, salt and eggs until well combined. Add the cake mix and mix until fully combined, about two minutes. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.
Line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Portion out heaping tablespoons of dough and roll them in your hands to form round balls. Place each ball about two inches apart on the baking sheet. Note: The cookies will spread out considerably, so it's important to leave plenty of space.
Bake in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes, just until the edges begin to brown slightly. Allow the cookies to cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet before removing them to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Read More

Pennsylvania Dutch Soft Sugar Cookies

Growing up in a small Pennsylvania town, the Amish community, along with their culture and cuisine, was a major part of my childhood. My father, who owned a hardware store, always joked that the Amish put me through college, due to their loyalty to my father’s business and their affinity to only pay with cash. This cookie was available at every bakery I went to as a child.

Ingredients:

4 Cups AP Flour
2 TSP Baking Powder
1 TSP Baking Soda
⅛ TSP Salt
1 Cup Unsalted Butter, room temperature
2 Cups White Granulated Sugar
1 Vanilla Bean, split lengthwise
1½ TSP Pure Vanilla Extract
3 Large Eggs
1 Cup Buttermilk
2 or 3 tablespoons of regular Granulated White Sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375˚F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl. Take whisk and stir until thoroughly combined.
Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, about three minutes. Take the vanilla bean and using a sharp knife, scrape the seeds out of the pod into the batter. Add the vanilla extract and then beat until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula and add one egg. Beat until incorporated and scrape down the sides again. Repeat with the other two eggs, pausing to scrape down the sides between additions.
Add ⅓ of the flour mixture to the batter and beat until incorporated. Scrape down the sides and add ⅓ of the buttermilk. Repeat, alternating with the flour and buttermilk, ⅓ each, remembering to scrape down the sides between each addition. Drop tablespoons of the dough about three inches apart from each other (the cookies will spread). Sprinkle the top of each mound of dough with granulated sugar. Bake until the cookies have spread, risen and turned lightly golden, about 13 to 15 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes and then remove them with a spatula to a wire cooling rack to cool further.

Read More

Blueberry Cream Cheese Cookies

When I first became Chef at the Water’s Edge, I had no idea the talents that were hidden inside one of the ladies that cleaned the club. I slowly noticed all these wonderful and delicious desserts randomly appear around the club. I soon found out the hidden secret of who was creating these amazing desserts. Mrs. Mary Moore is a beloved staff member here at the club and makes some of the best down home cooked desserts I have ever had. These blueberry cookies are a monster hit when she makes them for the members. I hope that everyone enjoys them as much as we do here.

Cookie Ingredients:

½ Cup Unsalted Butter, softened
¾ Cup Sugar
1 Large Egg, room temperature
1 TSP Vanilla Extract
1 TSP Corn Starch
1½ Cups All-Purpose Flour
¾ TSP Baking Powder
¼ TSP Salt
4 Ounces of White Chocolate Chips
¾ Cups Fresh Blueberries

Filling Ingredients:

2½ Ounce Cream Cheese, softened
1 TBSP Powdered Sugar
½ TSP Vanilla Extract
4 TBSP Blueberry Jam

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Parchment cover baking sheets.
In a small bowl, mix together the dry ingredients; flour, corn starch, salt and baking powder.
In a mixer bowl, cream butter and sugar on high for two minutes until light and creamy. Beat in egg and vanilla extract.
On low-speed, mix in dry ingredients.
Fold in ¾ of the white chocolate chips and reserve rest for topping the cookies.
Fold in blueberries very gently with a rubber spatula. Dough will be thick and sticky. Cover and refrigerate for two hours.
For filling, mix cream cheese, vanilla extract and powdered sugar just to combine and place in fridge.
Once the dough is chilled, scoop one tablespoon of cookie drops on cookie sheets. Make a deep bowl in middle. Fill with one teaspoon of cream cheese, mix in ¾ teaspoon of blueberry jam. Top with ½ tablespoon of cookie dough and seal roll gently into a ball. Press white chocolate chips on top and sides of cookie ball. Put in freezer for 10 minutes before baking.
Bake 16-18 minutes. Cool on sheet pan for 10 minutes before removing then transfer to a cooling rack.

Read More

Raleigh Pro League is coming to The Country Club at Wakefield Plantation! Founded in 2010, Raleigh Pro League was created to showcase the best adult tennis players in the greater Raleigh area. Wakefield has been granted the opportunity to host one of their events on Friday, August 12 at their sports club, located at 3350 Canes Way in Raleigh. Wakefield's assistant tennis professional, Caitlin Whoriskey, will be joining Wake Ortho's team and competing that day. Whoriskey, who was a touring pro until 2020, has a long list of tennis achievements which includes being named a three-time NCAA Division I All-American while at The University of Tennessee in addition to playing Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.

Join us at the sports club at Wakefield as Team White Dahlia takes on Team Wake Ortho, beginning at 6:30 PM. The matches begin at 7 PM and admission is free for everyone. We will have a full bar and grill open in addition to live music, starting at 9 PM, from Dizzy Melon. Outside coolers are not permitted. For more information about this event at Wakefield, please contact the tennis shop at (919) 488-1930.

Read More

Since its debut in 1927, Holston Hills Country Club on the northeast side of Knoxville, Tenn., has played an integral role in the game of golf.

Set near the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains on 180 open acres of rolling old farmland tucked into a bend in the Holston River, Holston Hills boasts a magnificent, Donald Ross-designed golf course.

Holston Hills has always been highly regarded among the country’s most prestigious golf course rankings. Such recognition continues in 2022.

In Golfweek's prestigious “Best Classic Courses 2022” — the top 200 golf courses built before 1960 — Holston Hills ranked No. 101 in America. In Golfweek's “Best Private Courses 2022” — a state-by-state ranking of private courses — Holston Hills ranked No. 2 in Tennessee behind the Pete Dye-designed Honors Course in Ooltewah.

In the 2021-22 Golf Digest state-by-state rankings of all courses, public and private, Holston Hills was ranked No. 6 in the state. In addition, as it approaches its 100^th anniversary, the Ross design is consistently ranked among the country’s top 100 by Golf Magazine.

“Holston Hills takes great pride in its consistent recognition as one of the most well-preserved Donald Ross courses in the country,” said Chris Dibble, General Manager and Director of Golf at Holston Hills. “We believe this philosophy is the reason the golf course continues be recognized as one the country’s top classical designs.”

The co-founder of the Donald Ross Society, Michael J. Fay, has said that he would rather play Holston Hills on a regular basis than any other golf course in the South. Acclaimed golf course architect Tom Doak says Holston Hills is the closest golf course around to what Ross originally designed.

The club has played host to many national events in its history, including the PGA Tour’s Knoxville Invitational, which was captured by Byron Nelson in 1945 during a historic season that included a record-setting 18 victories. Holston Hills welcomed the 2004 USGA Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship and has also played host to numerous Tennessee PGA Championships.

McConnell Golf purchased Holston Hills in late 2015 and has invested millions in capital improvements. In 2019, the PGA Tour and TOUR Vision Promotions signed a five-year agreement with Holston Hills to host the Korn Ferry Tour’s Visit Knoxville Open.

McConnell Golf Founder and CEO John McConnell said he knew Holston Hills was a special place from the moment he set foot on the property. “It immediately reminded me of Shinnecock Hills,” McConnell recalls, referencing the storied eastern Long Island golf club that was a founding member of the USGA and has hosted five U.S. Open Championships.

McConnell Golf is the only individual golf course proprietor in the world that owns four Ross-designed courses.

“I knew when I saw Holston Hills that it would be a great addition to our golf portfolio,” McConnell said. “It’s a ‘must-play’ for our members. Holston Hills enjoys a proud past and we think that it has a great future as well.”

Read More