tutus and leopard print

I'm getting so far behind in my posts! I have so many cookies I haven't posted, so I'm going to try  getting several short posts over the next week! These were for a baby shower, here is the invite...

I'm a sucker for girly themes - I just don't have enough pink in my life! Not with having 2 boys anyway. This zebra was one of my favorites...

And I got a lot of feedback when I posted the leopard print on instagram!

This little lion was another of my favorites, I love the leopard print in his mane!

I loved these zebra print cookies as well... with a name like Killer Zebras I feel like I should do more of this kind of thing but I really haven't done many animal prints! (so many possibilities there, I'll have to explore it more!)

And here are all of the characters... seriously I could never resist a combo of pink, tutus, and cute animals. So sweet!

the best chocolate chip cookies

I've been baking all my life. I mean as long as I can remember! I still have this vivid memory of being maybe 6 or 7 and deciding I was going to make cookies. I pulled out one of my mom's recipes and the first direction was to "cream butter and sugar together". For the life of me I could not imagine what "creaming" meant. That was the first time I ever read a recipe on my own and no one had ever mentioned the term before! I went and knocked on her door and I remember yelling through her bedroom door (I think she was sleeping) "Mom what does it mean to cream butter and sugar!?"

Anyway.

When I was about 16 I decided that I had never had a chocolate chip cookie that was exactly the way I imagined one should be... so I decided I had better come up with one. Chocolate chip cookies are tricky... everyone has their own idea as to what makes one ideal. Is it chewy? Crunchy? Cake-like? Maybe dark chocolate or milk chocolate or with sea salt sprinkled on top? I spent years coming up with this recipe, and even then I still tweak it every so often. This is my most recent version, to which my husband has claimed is better than the recently famous NY Times chocolate chip cookie recipe. That's his opinion, but I'd love to hear yours!

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Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/4 cups (10 oz.) dark brown sugar

1 egg

2 tablespoons milk or cream

1 tablespoon vanilla

1  5.1 oz. pkg vanilla instant pudding

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups (240 grams) all purpose flour

1 pkg semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. cream butter and brown sugar
2. add egg, milk, and vanilla. beat until fluffy
3. add pudding mix, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. beat on med to med-high until fully incorporated and mixture if fluffy
4. add flour all at once, beat on low until fully incorporated but but no more than necessary
5. add chocolate chips and mix on low or by hand until chips are distributed evenly
6. refrigerate dough for 3-4 days for best flavor, but feel free to cook them right away!
7. shape into balls about golf ball size and bake at 350 degrees for 17-20 minutes 

Printable Recipe

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I love the way these cookies look... if you look closely you can see the outside is almost crackly looking... these are chewy but they have a sort of crunch to them on the outside!

Some notes about this recipe... 

1. Do not use the "cook & serve" vanilla pudding mix instead of instant. One might think it wouldn't be that different... and one might end up with a very weird consistency of cookie that doesn't hold it's shape!

2. You don't have to use dark brown sugar, regular brown sugar is fine, but I find the stronger flavor very complimenting of this cookie. 

3. Some people like to sprinkle a little coarse sea salt on their cookie before baking... you are welcome to do what you want, but in my experience it doesn't go well with this particular recipe. 

4. Letting your dough sit for a few days can be hard... and it will certainly taste good if you bake it right away... but to me it is worth the wait. The flavors really develop and the consistency is smoother.

5. This is my personal preference - I like to make a double batch of this, let it sit a few days in the fridge, then roll it into balls and freeze them. Then you can just pop a few in the oven any time you want fresh cookies!

**I'd like to note that this is the third batch of cookies (and I make double the amount in the recipe!) I've made ever since deciding to put this recipe up! I had to make three batches because the cookies disappeared so fast I never had a chance to take any pictures!**

Matthew was very afraid of not getting one of these... so I promised him I'd set one aside for him but he was convinced that if it didn't have a note then it would get eaten anyway (he dictated exactly what the note should say so that there would be no...

Printable Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

free cookies anyone?

That's right - for those of you who follow me on Facebook, you may have seen my post yesterday... I have had a few ideas in my head that I've wanted to play around with but I really don't need more cookies sitting around my house... because I will eat them! And I'm supposed to be losing this baby weight! So come enter my giveaway!

PS this giveaway ends Sunday night so be sure to do it soon!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

pinwheel day

I will not pretend to be the best with words, so bear with me on this one...

 A year ago I made a bunch of pinwheel cookies that I thought were adorable, but I couldn't find it in me to post about them. They were made for a sweet little boy, Lincoln, who loved pinwheels and who tragically passed away far too soon. I have two boys of my own, and the idea of losing one makes me sick to my stomach. Literally. I couldn't think of any possible way to write about it... and to pretend I had made them for something else just seemed disrespectful to his memory. So the pictures were tucked away, and in my mind they were just something that would probably never resurface.

 

 A few months ago I stumbled on them and it occurred to me it had probably been about a year, and I had the thought that maybe I could make a few for the family... but as we are not all that close, I didn't know if it would be received well or if it would just be a painful reminder. So I tucked them away again.

{Matthew a year ago}

 Then a month ago a friend of mine set up a Facebook page in Lincoln's honor for Pinwheel Day, a day to do good things for others in memory of what would have been his 3rd birthday. I couldn't help but think that this was such a great way to remember him. Not to dwell on the fact that he died, but to celebrate the fact that he lived!

 And how could you not want to, with a face like this!

 

Nothing can change what happened, but at least there will be a little more good in the world because he was here. Isn't that what we all want in the end? To have made a difference?

So I made a new set of pinwheels this year, and we are giving them to neighbors to spread the word. March 19th - go do something nice for someone! For that matter, do something nice for someone every day, just be extra nice on the 19th.

Don't forget to go to the Facebook page to check it out, and if you want to learn more about Lincoln and their family you can check out their blog here

Side note - I promise my next post will be cheerier

Second side note - I find it hilarious that in the picture of Matthew holding the pinwheel from a year ago he is dressed like Buzz Lightyear and in the picture from this year he is dressed like Woody. That was not planned, we just have some solid Toy Story fans in this house.

*linking up to Simply Sweets by Honeybee

ahoy it's a boy!

A friend of mine is about to have a baby and about a week ago I made some cookies and a cake for her shower. Another friend of mine was the one throwing the shower and it was adorable. Here is the invitation:

 The party was just perfect, down to the last detail.

 She even made that tabletop out of old pallets! (it's just resting on top of her normal table)

these spoons were just too adorable...

Karen looks so pretty! When I had only a month left to go I definitely didn't look this good.

 Here is my cake - the gradient (or ombre {please do not pronounce that "om-bray"! ...sorry, pet peeve of mine}) color was a bit of an experiment. I wasn't sure how it would look with the color fading diagonally but I like it! If there's any interest I'll definitely do a tutorial on how I did it! The texture ended up looking a bit like fish scales... which is just as well with the theme! But I'm not sure anyone was paying attention once it was served... chocolate cake with strawberry swiss meringue buttercream and vanilla buttercream on the outside. SO. GOOD. Or at least I felt that way! Though I'm guessing I'm not the only one, based on the rate at which it disappeared!

Here's a closeup of the cookies hanging up...

 So congrats Karen, happy baby-making and all of that! I wish you an early delivery (because seriously what pregnant woman wants to drag that last month out any longer than necessary). She's due the same day as my sister... whose shower I never really took photos of since I was the one actually hosting it! I'll have to see if I can scrape together enough photos to do a post on that one because it was so much fun! In the meantime, one last shot of these sweet little whales...

conversation hearts - kid's edition

Valentine's Day is almost here and over a month ago I drew up lots of cookie ideas... and then never had a chance to actually make any. Matthew really wanted to make Valentines this year though, so I came up with a simple idea for him... conversation heart cookies!

 We cut out some heart and frosted them in red, and then I let Matthew pick out the sayings. Then with a black food marker he wrote out his Valentine messages (and I have to say, for a kid who only just turned 4 I think his handwriting is pretty good)!

Then he wrote out the names in his Valentines... he chose Avengers, of course! He is obsessed with the Avengers right now.

Lastly we sealed them in bags and stapled a cookie to the back of each card. So easy to do, and he is so proud that he did the work himself! And these could easily be adapted to something other than a cookie... pretty much anything the food pens will write on. Maybe I'll try chocolate next time!

So these may be the only Valentine cookies I get around to making this year, but I love them. So proud of my boy, maybe one of these days I'll be posting his own cookie designs!

And in case I don't get another post in...

Happy {early} Valentine's Day!

an early Valentine's Day party

 

Matthew has been begging to decorate cookies, so on Monday we invited a few friends over and had an early Valentine's Day cookie decorating party!

  

The kids had so much fun - we had icing and sprinkles to decorate with, and I also iced a few in advance so that the kids could use my food markers to draw pictures.

But of course my child was writing things on all of his cookies, he is so proud to be learning to spell! Here is his "Mommy Daddy Miles Matthew" cookie (complete with cheesy grin)...

There was lots of taste testing going on...

 

But the kids got the hang of it pretty quick, and they did such a good job!

 

And this little lady can certainly hold her own with the boys 

(which is fortunate, because just look at that face)!

 Love the cheesy grins!

The cookies turned out great, if a little over done in some cases.

 

 Wait, I think that one deserves a closeup...

According to Charlie, "Matthew told me that my cookie looks incredible!" 

Seriously, we had a lot of fun. Matthew absolutely loved it and keeps asking to do it again! Which we will, when I'm ready to combat that mess again.

And now for me to start on my own Valentine's cookies...