Holiday Baking #2: Chocolate Chip Cookies

We love soft cookies...maybe even a little doughy! I found this recipe on pinterest and knew I wanted to try it. The problem is, that when I make chocolate chip cookies, I can't just eat one or two. I want to eat like 4 or 5!! I decided since it's the Christmas season, I had a good excuse to make them, and add some red and green M & M's just for fun! The recipe is from: Two Peas and their Pod.

Vanilla Pudding Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3.4 oz. package vanilla instant pudding mix
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (or 1 cup chips and 1 cup M & M's)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Using a mixer, beat together butter and sugars until creamy. Add in pudding mix, eggs, and vanilla extract. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
• Drop cookie dough by rounded tablespoons onto prepared baking sheet.  Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until slightly golden and set. Remove cookies from oven and let cool on baking sheet for two minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Christmas Celebration #1

The kids and I are leaving for MN on Saturday. We decided to celebrate Christmas with our little family today so the kids have a couple days to play with their new toys. Here's some pictures of our celebrations!

After school snack: cookies, fancy marshmallows and hot chocolate!

Time for a picture before presents are opened.

A few of the kids' presents:

For the girls last presents, I gave them each identical size boxes. Here was their reaction after opening:

They were not happy about fruit snacks (I didn't even have to tell them not to smile for this pict)...until I told them to open the boxes!

Then Mommy opened her and Daddy's present:

Here's the kids and their loot!

A good time was had by all! Merry Christmas, kiddos!!!

Holiday Baking #1: Chocolate Crinkles

If you are looking for a yummy, easy recipe for cookies, this is the one for you! Just a few ingredients, and really good results. Kids love to help too with rolling the dough in the powdered sugar.

Ingredients: 

1 package Devils Food cake mix

1/2 cup oil

2 eggs

(optional)1/2-1 cup Andes Creme de Menthe baking chips 

Powdered Sugar

Directions:

• Heat oven to 350.
• Stir dry cake mix, oil and eggs in large bowl using a spoon until dough forms. Add baking chips and fold into mix.
  
• Dust hands with powdered sugar; shape dough into 1-inch balls.  Coat balls with powdered sugar; place about 2 inches apart on un-greased cookie sheet. 
  
• Bake about 10 minutes or until crack appears on top of cookies.  Cool completely, about 30 minutes.  Store tightly covered.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Wordless Wednesday: Fun in the Leaves

Got to get the piles ready to jump in!

After jumping for a bit...the war against the parents started!

So thankful for my little lovelies!

A Visit From Grammy

Ever since we moved to Virginia, Emily has been wanting and waiting for Grammy, my mom, to come visit. A ticket was booked, and Grammy arrived on Nov 1 for a 2 week visit. We packed a lot of fun and a lot of down time into the days she was here.

Here are a few of our favorite pictures from Grammy's visit:

I picked up the girls early from school and we went inside the airport to surprise Grammy!

I love this! Shows how excited they all were!

We took a day off school, and drove up to Baltimore to visit Discovery Cove Children's Museum...it was worth the drive!

We loved the 50's style diner!

Singing a little karaoke!

Random "sculpture" along the street!

 The girls had 2 days off since it was the end of the quarter and we took advantage of the time and drove down to Colonial Williamsburg.

In front of the Governors Palace.

The kids loved running through the maze...Grammy is in the pink at the very top!

Inside the original cellar from the 1770's, original brick work directly behind the girls.

Next, we hit up Washington DC and spent some time in the Smithsonian Museums.

Julia Childs kitchen.

Touching a piece of Mars!

 Grammy also had some down time with Andy while the girls were at school.

Playing with Moon Dough.

 Grammy birthday is on November 19th so the girls and I surprised her with an early birthday celebration dinner at Friendlys!

Before we left MN, Emily had a lot of sleepover's at Grammy's and Grammy indulged both of their sweet tooths with dark chocolate Dove Bars at bedtime...the tradition continued a couple days in VA as well!

Grammy's flight left VA at 5:15 in the morning. Emily really wanted to go, and I gave in. Here they are with one final hug, at 4:00 am!!!!

 It was great to have her here, and we can't wait for another visit!

Wordless Wednesday: Trunk or Treat

The Saturday night before Halloween we decided to go to a local church that was having a Trunk-or-Treat. For those who don't know what that is, the church organizes a community outreach and families sign up to park their cars in the parking lot, open up the trunks of their cars, add some decorations, and kids come around to each car to Trunk-or-Treat instead of going house to house to Trick-or-Treat. A bit safer, more family friendly event in my mind.

But, before we went to this event, the kids played in the SNOW!! We got about 2 inches on the deck, and a dusting on everything else! The weather channel informed us that since weather records were started in the 1890's, it's only snowed 3 times in Virginia in October! I guess we're just lucky!

Next it was time to make the transformations...

Emily to Taylor Swift:

Belle to Disney's Princess Belle:

Andy to Elmo:
(this pict is not actually from when we were at the church...he was too excited to walk around to stand for a picture so this is from earlier in the week!)

Playing a game for a treat!

A pirate gave Em 10 extra pieces of candy to sing a song for him...she obliged!!!

These next couple pictures are especially for my mom and sister, just to show how long the girls eye lashes look with a bit of mascara on them! Incredible!

Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites

While surfing around on my favorite new obsession, Pinterest, I found these yummy looking snacks and I knew they would be a bit hit!! Though I did find a couple problems with them: their a bit time consuming and putsy to make, and they are highly addictive. Here's the recipe, my friends, enjoy! And please don't blame me for the extra calories that you will consume if you make these!

I forgot to take a pict until only 1 was left so this is from the original blog.

1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 tsp butter at room temperature
2/3 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
bag of small pretzels
2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips

In a small bowl, beat the peanut butter and butter together until smooth and creamy. Beat in the sugars and vanilla extract until well mixed - you may need to add more powdered sugar to get the filling thick and stiff enough to hold its shape.

Roll teaspoons of the peanut butter mixture between your palms for form balls. Sandwich the PB ball between 2 pretzels and put on a cookie sheet. Freeze the pretzel sandwiches for about half an hour.

Melt the chocolate chips, using the microwave (30 second intervals) or a double boiler. Dip half of each pretzel sandwich in chocolate. (I acutally used a frosting spatula and spread the chocolate on as dipping made it look uneven.) Return the cookie sheet to the freezer and chill until chocolate sets. Store the Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites in the refrigertator until serving time.

Makes about 45-60 sandwiches depending on how much PB mixture you put in the sandwich.

Belle wanted a picture of her taking the last one!!

The original blog that the recipe is on can be found here: 17 and Baking