Monday, February 28, 2011

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

Another blog sans pictures. I'm bad at this.

A couple weeks ago at the grocery store, best friend snuck 2 bags of Nestle dark-chocolate-and-mint chips into the cart. He knows me so well. :)  (The Nestle brand is a few cents cheaper than the Andes mint chips.)

This weekend, we whipped up some cookies.

You'll need:
1/3 cup of butter
1/3 cup of shortening
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1 egg
1 teasp of vanilla
1 1/2 cups of flour.

Mix the sugars, butter, and shortening.  Once that is well mixed throw in the eggs and the vanilla.  Gradually add the flour, mixing well.  Once everything is mixed in, toss in as many chocolate chips as you want. We put in almost an entire bag...technically I think most recipes call for 2/3 cup.
Cook at 375 for 8-10 minutes.

My favorite thing about these cookies is that they are super easy to make, and they don't require getting a mixer out.  I just use a fork and a wooden spoon.

Enjoy!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Rice Krispie Treats

Ok, I'm already failing at taking pictures when I bake.

But a few days ago, best friend and I made some delicious Rice Krispie treats, so here is the recipe!

Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan. Put 40 large marshmallows (10 oz) in the saucepan and stir continuously until they are melted.  Remove from heat and mix in 6 cups of Rice Krispies.  Once it is well mixed, spread into a greased 13X9 baking pan using a buttered spatula. 

If you are fortunate enough to have a cooking buddy/best friend/husband, have them melt 2 squares of chocolate almond bark in the microwave.  Take it out and stir the chocolate every 30 seconds.  If chocolate starts having the consistency of chalk, chuck it. You can't go back. Start over.
Dump that chocolate on top of the Rice Krispie Treats.

Give it to your cooking buddy/best friend/husband for breakfast for the next 3 days.

We are so healthy ... 


P.S. I can't stand the word "hubby."  So for future reference, "best friend" = Garrett. :D

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Valentine's Day Cookies

These cookies are probably the most unhealthy sugar cookies of all time.  That said, here is the recipe.

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream together 2 WHOLE LARGE EGGS, 1 CUP OF CANOLA OIL, 2 STICKS OF BUTTER (softened), 1 CUP OF POWDERED SUGAR, 1 TEAS. VANILLA, and 1 CUP OF WHITE SUGAR. 









In separate bowl, mix together 4 CUPS + 2 TABLESPOONS OF FLOUR, 1 TEAS. SALT, 1 TEAS. OF BAKING SODA, and 1 TEAS. OF CREAM OF TARTAR.


Gradually add the flour mixture, mixing well after each addition, until all the flour is mixed in.  It will get pretty hard to stir, but if you have an awesome husband, you can volunteer him for stirring duty.


(he was okay with helping, I promise!)



After it is all mixed together, refrigerate for one hour.  (I skipped this part for time's sake, which was dumb.)  I used heart cookie cutters to cut out the dough before putting them on the cookie sheet.  However, I had to make the cookies pretty thick because they were so buttery that it was really hard to get the heart cookies off the cutting board and onto the pan.  I really think that refrigerating the dough would make this process less difficult.

(these cookie cutters were 2 dollars at Ross for a pack of 6 different sizes - WIN!)


Throw those babies in the oven at 350 degrees for 9-11 minutes, until they are just barely brown.  Don't over-brown, because they will cook a little bit more on the cookie sheet after they are out of the oven.



While they are in the oven, make icing!  All I did was mix together 1 CUP OF POWDERED SUGAR, 1/4 a TEAS. OF VANILLA, and MILK together in a bowl.  I started with 1 Tablespoon of milk, but gradually added a little more until the frosting was the consistency that I wanted. Add whatever food coloring you want to the icing.



Then have the cute girls you babysit decorate them!

Pressly

Paedyn

Pryce - too little for a sugar coated mound of sugar but pretty cute anyway.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Introduction ...

I love to cook, but I mostly love baking.  Since I can't afford to lease a building and open a bakery, I am starting this baking blog.  Basically it will have different recipe experiments. Mostly the recipes will contain desserts or other baked goods, but occasionally there will be a few recipes of something that I cooked for dinner or something like that.
I will do my best to provide specific instructions and pictures.

Also, if you read a post and think you might like what I just made, feel free to come over and have some.  That way my husband and I won't gain 300 pounds.

Enjoy!