Peanut Butter Cookies with Milk Chocolate Chips

Peanut Butter Cookies with Milk Chocolate Chips

Everyone says these are really good (although I thought they were kinda sweet). So I'll be making them again, much to the happiness of those around me! I don't really do anything special to these cookies-just use the peanut butter cookie recipe in the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook (no idea what publication! my grandma copied it onto a recipe card). I just added milk chocolate chips and baked like any other chocolate chip cookie. This recipe is double the recipe that was published, and I always double it. But maybe the first time, try it as follows and then see if you need more. I happen to live with cookie monsters (myself included), so we need a lot!

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 cup peanut butter (not natural)
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
2 cups milk chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 d F.
2. In large bowl, mix butter and peanut butter. Add sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, and baking powder. Beat until combined. Beat in egg and vanilla till combined. Beat in flour until mixed. Mix in milk chocolate chips.
3. Shape dough into balls and place onto cookie sheet (I use a pizza stone) about 2 inches apart. Bake at 375 F for 7-9 minutes, until lightly browned on bottom and slightly on top. Cool for one minute. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Makes approximately 48 cookies.

Pumpkin Pecan Muffins

Pumpkin Pecan Muffins

These were super quick and sooo yummy!! I had my husband whip up some cream cheese frosting for the top (I'll add the recipe later), made them absolutely delicious! But they were super tasty even without the frosting.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 c coconut oil
4 eggs
2/3 cup water
2 cups pumpkin
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp flax seed meal
1 1/2 cup wheat flour
2 cups white flour
1 cup chopped pecans

Directions:
1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2.) Cream sugar and coconut oil. Add eggs and beat thoroughly. Add water and pumpkin and mix.
3.) Sift spices and flour. Stir into liquids until mixed. Mix in nuts.
4.) Pour into muffin pans (I use stoneware muffin pans rather than tins, cooking time may vary if use tins). Bake 20 minutes-test with toothpick in center to be sure done. Cool then remove from pan and place on cooling rack.

Mama's Chili Beans

I tried making chili beans from this recipe from "Creme de la Crumb"-it was okay...my husband liked it, but I thought it was quite bland. Plus when I actually make the effort to cook, I like to make it as difficult as possible for me. So I've started making it with dried beans rather than canned beans. And I've messed with the other ingredients a bit too-just to make it tastier. My new version of the chili gets rave reviews!

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups dried beans (I use "chili bean mix" from winco)
2 tablespoons baking soda
6 cups water (estimate)

1 tsp salt
1 onion, diced

1 bell pepper, diced (red, yellow, or orange-I use whichever I have on hand)
2 teaspoons minced garlic (I use pre-minced in a jar, can use fresh-about 2 cloves)
2 vegetable bouillon cubes
1 can tomato paste (6 oz)
1 can diced tomatoes (14.5 oz)
3 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder

Directions:
1. Place beans and baking soda in a large pot.  Add water to 2-3 inches above beans, approximately 6 cups. Let soak (room temperature) for 6-8 hours.

2. Drain and rinse beans, then return to pot. Add salt and onion. Then add water to 1 inch above beans. Place on stove (with lid) on high and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer and cook until beans are soft, approximately 1 1/2 hours. Stir every half hour or so and check on water levels-if water reduces too much (to level of beans, add more, about 1/2 cup at a time). If beans are nearly soft, but too liquidy, take lid off.

3.  Add bell pepper, garlic, bouillon, tomato paste, diced tomatoes, cumin, paprika, salt, and garlic powder. Raise from simmer to low-medium heat, and cook for 15-20 minutes. If flavors need a little more time, reduce back to a simmer at 15 minutes and simmer for another 15 minutes. Serve with shredded cheddar on top. Can also add sliced green onions and/or sour cream if you'd like.










No pix to post-always disappears too quickly!! I'll try to add some the next time I make it.

Mexican Wedding Cookies

Mexican Wedding Cookies

I've been making these cookies every year at Christmas since I was little. I got the recipe from my mom-no idea where she got it or where the recipe is originally from.

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
1 cup finely chopped pecans

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Cream butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt until fluffy. Stir in flour and nuts until well blended. (I use pecans-my husband is allergic to walnuts. I grew up using walnuts in this recipe. Either one works-just make sure they are finely chopped).

3. Chill for at least 30 minutes, or until firm enough to handle. Shape into one inch balls and place one inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet (I use my pizza stone). Bake until golden brown, 12-15 minutes.

4. Roll immediately in powdered sugar. Place on cooling rack.
 

Overnight Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

 I always have some pumpkin left over after making pumpkin pie, muffins, or bread. I hate throwing it away, so I always put it in a container in the fridge with great plans to use it later. Never fails-I find it shoved into the back corner of the fridge months later. Saw this Pumpkin Oatmeal recipe and thought it would be a great way to use up the leftover pumpkin right away. I modified it just a tad...

I threw everything into my crock pot, and when I woke up the next morning-oh.my.god. My whole house smelled sooooo good!!! Tastes super yummy too! I have definitely found a great way to use up leftover pumpkin! :-)

Overnight Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

Ingredients:
1 cup steel cut oats
2 cups water
2 cups almond milk
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 dash nutmeg
1 dash ground cloves

Directions:
1. Place the oats, water, milk, pumpkin, brown sugar, and spices into crockpot. Mix and set to low for four or more hours.

2. Mix. Add additional milk and/or sweetener, as desired. I like it with a dollop of butter. :-)

This is such a yummy breakfast, that it didn't last for pictures! And I've made it several times...someday I'll add a picture!

Pecan Pie

Pecan Pie

I made the BEST EVER pecan pie for Thanksgiving!
I've tried three or four recipes in the past-the first one was pretty good, but I never found it again (hence the reason for this blog...so I can find things again!!). The others were never as good as the first one. But this pie was better than any of them! And so pretty too :-)
 This is definitely the prettiest pecan pie I've ever made!

 I used The Pioneer Woman Cooks recipe from Recipe Girl  for most of the pie, but I took a hint from Gimme Some Oven for the topping-looked and tasted PERFECT!

Ingredients:
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup granulated white sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup (2/3 stick) butter, melted and slightly cooled
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups finely chopped pecans
1/2 cup pecan halves-enough to be placed over filling and cover top
1 unbaked pie crust, fitted into a pie pan (edges crimped)

 Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In medium bowl, combine corn syrup, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, butter, salt, and vanilla. Whisk until smooth.
3. Place chopped pecans in bottom of crust. Pour contents of bowl over pecans.
4. Line the top of the filling with pecan halves.

5. Cover with foil and bake for 35 minutes. (I put foil on the bottom rack of the oven so it can catch anything that boils over-makes clean-up a LOT easier!) Remove foil and bake for 25-30 minutes longer-if crust or pecans are close to burning, re-cover with foil. Pie is done when the filling is set-should be a little bit jiggly but not sloshy. If pie is still sloshy, continue baking, checking every five minutes.
6. Cool on rack (3-4 hours) before slicing.

Seriously-this is the BEST pecan pie I've ever tasted!!

Chili Beans

Chili Beans

I made delicious chili last year from a recipe I found and modified on pinterest. I thought this was it:
Five Bean Vegetarian Chili, so I tried to recreate it...

I thought it turned out quite bland, but my husband loved it. I still thought it was good, but not spicy chili that I wanted.

Ingredients
2 red bell peppers, chopped
2 red onions, diced
4 teaspoons garlic, minced
4 cups vegetable broth
2 cans tomato sauce
10 cups Bob's Red Mill 15 Bean Soup beans, presoaked and cooked
5 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons garlic powder

Directions:
1.   Add red peppers and onions to a large pot. Saute over medium high heat until onions are translucent. Add garlic and saute another minute until fragrant. Add broth, tomato sauce, and all beans. Bring to a boil.
2.  Add cumin, paprika, salt, and garlic powder. Reduce heat to simmer and cook 15-20 minutes longer, stirring throughout. Serve hot with sliced green onions, cheese, sour cream, or other toppings as desired.

*If I make this again, I will add a can or two of tomato paste, a 28 oz can of crushed or diced tomatoes, and some chili powder. Seems strange to me that this chili didn't include chili powder :-/
*this can be a quick dinner if use canned beans-would need about ten cans different beans.

Traditional Corn Bread

Corn Bread

I always double this recipe and bake it in my square iron skillet. Perfection!

Ingredients:
1 cup yellow corn meal
1 cup white flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg, beaten lightly

Directions:
1.  Combine corn meal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl.
2.  Combine milk, oil, and egg in small bowl.
3.  Add milk to flour mixture, stir until just blended. Pour into greased pan. Bake in preheated oven at 400 for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Serve warm.

*Muffins:  spoon into 10-12 muffin cups 2/3 full and bake at 400 for 15 minutes.

Angel Hair Pasta with Fresh Tomatoes

Angel Hair Pasta with Fresh Tomatoes
It is important to peel the tomatoes-the first time I made this, I left the peels on and they all came off when I added the warm pasta-kinda yucky!
Feel free to use heirloom tomatoes-will change up the flavor and add more color. SUPER yummy!
Can use other pasta, just be sure to cook according to package directions. Can also use whole wheat pasta.

I modified this recipe from one I found here: Spaghetti with Raw Tomatoes

Sorry for the blurry pic! Was the only one I took :-/
 
 Ingredients:

 About 4 ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
About 10 leaves fresh basil, chopped
2 cloves peeled garlic
12 ounces angel hair pasta
salt and pepper-to taste

Directions:

1.  Place tomatoes in a large bowl. Add olive oil, fresh basil, whole garlic cloves, salt, and pepper. Toss gently, then cover and set aside in a cool place. Allow flavors to meld for about 30 minutes.

2.  Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the pasta  al dente according to directions on the package. Drain.

3.  Remove garlic from sauce and discard. Add pasta to sauce, mix, and serve.


Serves 4.

Sweet Potato Farfalle

Sweet Potato Farfalle

This is sooooo good!!
The first time I made it, I was unsure-it sounded a little strange to me, but I tried it anyway. I'm so glad I did! Even my youngest loves this, and she doesn't like anything with onions or that has any flavor whatsoever!

Ingredients:
6 ounces farfalle pasta
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 medium yellow onion, sliced
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and diced
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons Herbes d' Provence
kosher salt
4 cups kale, washed and sliced
1 can cannellini beans (14.5 oz), drained and rinsed
1 clove garlic, minced
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Parmesan cheese-to taste

Directions:
1.  Bring a large pot of water (with a heavy pinch of salt) to a boil. Add pasta and boil for 8 - 9 minutes, until al dente. Drain and set aside.
2.  While pasta is cooking, heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add olive oil, pecans, onions, and sweet potatoes-saute for 5 minutes.
3.  Add in the balsamic vinegar, herbes d' provence, and a sprinkle of kosher salt. Cook until sweet potatoes are tender.
4.  Add in kale, beans, garlic, cooked pasta, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine and cook until kale is wilted and cooked down-about 3 minutes.
5.  Add parmesan cheese to top after serving.

Makes 4 servings.

I modified this recipe from one I found at The Fresh 20 when I was a member-they are a great source for healthy meal plans! Great simple recipes with tons of fresh ingredients.

Clean Dishwasher?

Today I thought would be a good day to clean my dishwasher. So I looked for my pin about cleaning my dishwasher with lemonade Kool-Aid, and gave it a try. Here is the link: http://www.realsimple.com/home-organizing/new-uses-for-old-things/lemonade-kool-aid-10000001575551/index.html
I emptied out the dishwasher, put the lemonade Kool-Aid in the dispenser, and started 'er up. I didn't think my dishwasher was all that bad, so I was expecting to see a brand, spankin' new dishwasher when I opened it back up. Here are before and after pictures:

Is it just me? Or does it look pretty much the same?
So...I would say this super cool, super easy way to clean a dishwasher failed for me. :-(
I guess I'll have to try something else.

Vegetarian Pot Pie

This is a perfect dish for the vegetarians (and everyone else) in your life! 

A perfect addition to any holiday meal. 

I have been a lacto-ovo vegetarian (I eat eggs and dairy, but no meat or meat products, including meat broths and meat oils) since 1990. My children have been raised on a vegetarian diet, but have been free to choose for themselves. At this point, my 18 and 19 year olds eat anything but my 14 year old is still a vegetarian.

As a vegetarian, I struggled with a "main dish" for holiday meals. We generally celebrate with others, so there is usually the traditional holiday fare: turkey or ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, some sort of yam/sweet potato dish, a vegetable dish, a salad, rolls, ... I make sure that we have stuffing and gravy made without traditional broth. So we used to just eat the side dishes. But at one pot-luck Thanksgiving, someone brought a pot-pie that was absolutely delicious! So I worked on making my own... 

Ingredients in THIS pot pie: 

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 russett potatoes, diced

1 sweet potato, diced

1 yellow onion, chopped

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 yellow bell pepper, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

4 carrots, chopped

4 spears celery, chopped

1 pear, chopped

2 handfuls kale, sliced

1 cup water

1 vegetable bouillon cube

1 can cream of broccoli soup 

Directions:

1. Make crust. Use your favorite crust recipe (if you are making this for vegetarians, make sure your recipe does not include lard!) or mine: http://mamasnotperfect.blogspot.com/2013/12/pie-crust.html

I make this in a large dish, so when I make this crust, I divide it into two, and use one full plus half the other for the bottom. Then I make another batch and use one and a half for the top. I use the other half for a pumpkin pie or something else. (My crust never works out if I double the recipe, so I always make it in two separate batches.)

2. Heat olive oil in a large skillet (I use a large deep dish iron skillet) over medium-high heat. When oil is warmed, add potatoes, sweet potatoes, and onions. Saute over medium-high heat until potatoes start to soften.

2. Add salt, pepper, bell peppers, carrots, and celery. Continue sauteing over medium-high heat for about five minutes. Heat 1 cup of water with the bouillon cube in microwave for about one minute, enough to dissolve bouillon. Add the water/bouillon to the vegetables and continue to saute. Cook until the vegetables are soft (but not mushy!).

3. Add pear and kale. Stir to combine, cook for about 2 minutes. Add the can of cream soup. Mix.

4. Oil the dish, put in the bottom crust, then pour everything from the skillet into dish. Then add crust on top. Poke a few holes in the top, then bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees (F) for 50 minutes.

This is always DELICIOUS! Everyone raves about it, vegetarians and non-vegetarians.

Notes: I never make this the same. I always use sweet potatoes or yams, just because they are so yummy. I use whatever potatoes I have on hand: russets, new potatoes, red potatoes, whatever. I've made it with yellow or red onions. Leeks work too. I use any color bell pepper or the little sweet peppers. I nearly always put carrots and celery in it, unless I run out when making stuffing. Sometimes I use apples instead of pears. Fruit seems odd, but it adds something so yummy! And I throw in spinach or kale, depending on what I have. I have also added frozen peas (at the end, when I add the pears and kale) or corn or green beans (fresh-add with the carrots, frozen or canned, add with the pears). You can use canned vegetable broth instead of water and bouillon. If you are serving this to vegetarians, just be sure it is VEGETABLE broth and not chicken or beef broth. I don't add tofu, as I have to be careful about ingesting too much estrogen, but if you want to add tofu, saute it first and add with the pears. I haven't tried adding beans, but that would be another easy way to add protein. Add canned beans in step 3, with the pears. I'm thinking kidney beans would be best.

Pie Crust

I'm going to post a couple of recipes that use pie crust, so I thought I should begin by posting my family's pie crust (above is a completed apple pie using this crust). I have no idea where this recipe came from, just that my family has been using it for ages. I'm sure someone got it from a magazine or a box a long time ago-I highly doubt it was "created" by a member of my family. But I do know that my great-grandmother used it, my grandmother used it, my mom uses it, I use it...
 
 Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup milk


Directions:
1. Fluff flour and salt in bowl.
2. Combine oil and milk in a measuring cup.
3. Mix both in bowl (but not too much!).
4. Divide in half-roll each half between two sheets of wax paper to size of pie pan.
5. Flip into pie pan.
6. If pie with no top, press crust between thumbs of both hands to make the pattern (right). If pie with a top, leave draped over the edge (but trim edge so it is slightly hanging over pan). Fill pie, then place other half of crust over top. Then smoosh the ends of the crust together with thumbs as for crust below.
There are a lot of pie crusts recipes around. This is what I always use-it's my favorite.

Flour Tortillas

I used to make homemade flour tortillas all the time when I was younger. My mom made EVERYTHING from scratch, so I grew up that way. As a teenager, I think I made tortillas weekly-we lived on Mexican food!! When I started living on my own, I didn't really make anything "from scratch" for ages!! I was happy to go to the store and purchase a package of tortillas, or a thing of bread. Didn't see the point in spending hours making any of that. But, life goes on... And don't our memories sometimes make things seem perfect?!?

I do remember loving homemade flour tortillas. And I've been talking about them with fond memories for quite some time. My kids were tired of hearing about them! Truthfully, I don't think they believed that I had ever made homemade tortillas.

I had been looking at recipes for a while, making sure that I had everything I would need, so that when the desire to make them actually hit, I'd have everything I'd need. I couldn't find the recipe I used when I was younger, so I used a recipe that I found on pinterest. (See?? I'm trying out some of those recipes I pinned!!) Find the recipe that I used here: http://therecipecritic.com/2012/08/homemade-tortillas/.
 

The only change I made to Alyssa's recipe (at therecipecritic.com) was that I used 2 cups of white flour and one cup of whole wheat flour, rather than the 3 cups white flour. I know-everyone talks about anything wheat as being the devil right now. Gluten is BAD. But I still eat it. So my attempt to make them a little healthier meant that I would add wheat flour rather than all bleached white flour. If you don't eat gluten, feel free to substitute for a gluten-free flour. I have no idea how that will work though. Truthfully, my wheat flour attempt didn't go so well...
 
The dough looked fine, so I was excited about how they would taste.

After the dough sat for an hour and I started rolling it out, it still seemed okay. But it was a little difficult to roll out. Pretty near impossible to roll it into a circle like the beautifully perfectly circular tortillas I get at Costco. But whatever, who needs perfectly circular tortillas?? As long as they taste good...

 

So I flopped my first tortilla into the pan. As you can see, it looks oddly shaped. But like I said, who cares, as long as it tastes good, right?? Well........................

They taste okay...But I think I made some mistakes!

First, since I hadn't made tortillas in ages, I should have followed the directions EXACTLY. I shouldn't have added any wheat flour. Also, I have a shoulder injury. What was I thinking?!?! Rolling out a bunch of tortillas was really painful for me! I should have known, as I just made a bunch of pies for Thanksgiving. Rolling out the pie crusts almost killed me!! So why I thought I could roll out 12 tortillas, I'll never know. Chalk that one up to denial.... maybe stupidity is a better word??

So, since I couldn't really effectively roll, they were very oddly shaped. And quite thick. But they tasted okay. Unfortunately, we couldn't really use them for burritos. Instead, we just added butter and ate them as a snack. Isn't everything better with butter??

And for the burritos we had for dinner?? I pulled out the tortillas I'd purchased at Costco. :-)

Mama's Famous Cookies

These are soooo good. All chocolatey, peanut buttery, walnuty. Mmmmm!!
I adapted this from a recipe on the back of a Ghirardelli chocolate chip bag ages ago.

 Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup butter (2 1/2 sticks) at room temperature

3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons flax seed meal
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teasppon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 cups oats (I prefer old fashioned, but quick oats work okay too)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup peanut butter chips
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. I always bake cookies on a pizza stone. I place it in the oven when I turn it on to preheat. That gets the stone the same temperature as the oven. It makes the cookies bake more evenly-when I used to make cookies on a baking sheet, they would always burn a little on the bottom. I never burn them when baking on a stone! I use the same stone throughout so that it is always hot. As you can see from the pictures, my stone is "well-loved"!
2. In a large bowl, cream butter with sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla.
3. In a medium bowl, mix flours, flaxseed, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
4. Slowly mix flour mixture into creamed mixture (I use a handheld mixer on med-low). Stir in oats. Then fold in chips and nuts. 
5. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto stone. Bake 9 minutes (time will vary depending on what you bake them on. Nine minutes is perfect on my stone!)
6. Cool for about one minute then place on cooling rack. Store in tightly covered container.

Yield: approximately 46 cookies. Hard to count though... the kids and I sneak a few as they come out of the oven...

Yummy Pasta!

I'm not a fan of cooking... But I'm working on it!!

I didn't feel like cooking dinner, so thought I'd try a simple pasta recipe I had pinned. It is from the PopSugarFood website--here is the link:  http://www.yumsugar.com/Spaghetti-Garlic-Olive-Oil-Chili-Flakes-21398824/

It looked quick and tasty, and I was pretty hungry. I followed the recipe pretty much exactly (although I will admit-I did not measure anything. Just estimated). It was soooo good!

My younger daughter doesn't like spicy food-or pretty much anything with any flavor. (Unless it is sweet. She loves "sweet" flavors!) So first I mixed everything in except the chili flakes and dished some out for her. Then added the chili flakes for my older daughter and I. We all added shredded parmesan. It was surprisingly tasty!! I say "surprisingly" because it was so simple.

My youngest said hers was kind of bland, so she added a little bit of chili flakes. And liked it! I was impressed!

Here is the recipe:
Pasta with Garlic, Olive Oil, and Chili Flakes
Ingredients:
10 ounces angel hair pasta
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon red chili flakes
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Directions:
1. Cook pasta al dente according to directions on package.
2. Strain pasta and place in serving dish. (I put it back into the pot I cooked it in. No need to get more dishes dirty!!)
3. Add garlic, chili flakes, oil, salt, and pepper. Mix well.
4. Serve. Add shredded paremesan to taste.

Mmmmm!!! COOKIES!!

I have become completely, totally addicted to Reese's Minis the past year. I seriously go through withdrawls when I don't have any to snack on!! Soooo.... time to break my addiction AND test out some of the yummy looking cookies I have pinned!!

Since I am addicted to the peanut butter-chocolate goodness that are minis, I looked for a cookie that had both peanut butter and chocolate. I figured it wouldn't be any help if I included minis in the cookies-there are tons of yummy recipes that include minis or chopped up bits of regular sized reeses. Looking through the hundreds of dessert recipes I have pinned (I almost got sidetracked!! Almost started looking for MORE recipes to pin rather than actually trying one out!!), I decided to try Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies with Sea Salt from Recipe Girl. Here is the link to her recipe: http://www.recipegirl.com/2012/03/12/peanut-butter-chocolate-chip-oatmeal-cookies-with-sea-salt/.

I couldn't follow the recipe exactly...

The is what I did to her recipe...  
PB-CC-PBC Oatmeal Cookies   ;-)

Ingredients:

 1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter flavored Crisco
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup peanut butter chips
1 cup chopped walnuts
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. I used a pizza stone instead of a cookie sheet-I love how cookies bake on stoneware! I placed the stone in the oven when I turned it on to preheat. I have found that heating up the stone first helps.
2. In medium bowl, mix flours, baking soda, and salt.
3. In large bowl, mix butter, peanut butter, and sugars with an electric mixer on medium. Add eggs one at a time. Then slowly add the dry ingredients from bowl until mixed.
4. Stir in oats. Stir in peanut butter chips, chocolate chips, and walnuts.
5. Drop the cookies by teaspoonful onto cookie sheet. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt.
6. Bake for 13 minutes. Cool for 1 minute, then remove from stone.
(See the note on baking time from the original recipe-13 minutes is what worked for me)

 I wanted to make them a little more nutritious, hence the wheat flour. I was going to add flax seed meal as part of the flour as well, but didn't want to change too much. I used Crisco instead of butter because I had some that needed to be used. I generally prefer butter in baked goods... Also-I only had old fashioned oats on hand-so that's what I used. I was going to use oat flour as well, but since I'd already swapped some of the flour, I didn't want to add oat flour...

I LOVE walnuts in cookies, that's why I added them. I think I should have added more than 1 cup. Also, I wanted to use peanut butter and chocolate chips, so I did one cup of each instead of 12 ounces of chocolate chips.

I sprinkled sea salt on the first two dozen cookies that I made. After that, I skipped the sea salt. I didn't think they were all that great with the sea salt. I thought they were just as good without...

Overall, the cookies were good. I think I was more in the mood for a more traditional oatmeal chocolate chip cookie dough rather than a peanut butter cookie dough. I thought maybe there was too much going on-maybe that was because of all the modifications I made?? My kids didn't find ANY problems with them at all though, lol.

They were yummy, just didn't exactly match my mood!
One batch made approximately 52 cookies.
My son came home from college for a couple of days. Between him, the girls, their friends, and myself, the cookies were gone in about three days!! :-/  I'll take that "proof" as another success.
Maybe tomorrow I'll make some more cookies...
I'm dying for some Reeses right now...

Baked-on Crud

So I've become quite addicted to Pinterest.
I may have mentioned that before...
I find amazing ideas and pin them, and then never try them...

But last night, I actually tried one!!

I baked chicken about two weeks ago (I may have also mentioned I don't cook? tried that night, kinda unsuccessfully). Only one of us in the house eat chicken, and I baked two breasts, so there was a leftover breast in the fridge for about two weeks, in the dish it was roasted in. That alone is quite disgusting. I tossed the chicken and soaked the dish overnight in hot water. The baked-on marinade and chicken stuff did not budge. So I soaked it again, this time in hot soapy water. Again-the baked on crap stayed glued to the dish. I am not one who loves to scrub my arm off, especially with my shoulder/neck issues. So luckily I found a blog with an idea!!!
Here is the link:  http://www.realsimple.com/new-uses-for-old-things/new-uses-cleaning/print-index.html. The baking soda part is about 3/4 down...

Here is a picture of the dish after soaking in hot water for a day and hot soapy water for another day:

All that baked-on goodness was still stuck on there. I sprinkled baking soda all over the dish, as directed in the blog post linked above:

I let the baking soda work for about an hour (even though the directions said five minutes).
After a little scrubbing and rinsing, I saw very little change:

So I POURED the baking soda on. Thought more might help...

I added water, created a paste, and spread it thickly all over the baked-on crud. Then I soaked it overnight. In the morning, I added water, scrubbed lightly with a scrub brush, and this is what I found.

Hardly any crud left!! Yay!! I scrubbed lightly with a scrubber and the rest just fell off.

See?! Now beautiful!!
It took some time, but very little scrubbing and effort on my part. :-)

Hooray for Pinterest!!

Single Dad Laughing article

http://www.danoah.com/2011/04/worthless-teenagers-and-parents-who.html

This is a really great article.
As a mother of teenagers, it is particularly poignant.

I definitely have my bad days. At times, I say or do things that I regret.
But I do try...

It is important to apologize. I do apologize to my kids when I realize I've made a mistake.

I recently arrived at my daughter's volleyball game late. It started at 4. I work not to far away and thought I could make it easily by leaving at 3:40. But by the time I got out of school, it was closer to 3:50. And by the time I parked and arrived at the game, it was 4:25. I seemed to hit every red light, there was tons of traffic, lots of things make the drive take longer than I expected. I felt bad. And frustrated. I went in to the game and said something to my daughter about how long it took me to get there. She said, "you didn't have to come" and went back to her teammates. I totally missed on that conversation. She thought I was complaining about being there, and I had meant to express frustration at being late. And meant to apologize. Totally not what I said or what she heard though. Later I apologized. I wanted to be at the game and I wanted to see her play. I felt bad for being late and I expressed it wrong.
I think it is important for them to know that we make mistakes.

I'm sure there are plenty of mistakes I have made that I have not apologized for. Plenty of mistakes I haven't even noticed.

Hopefully I am not like the parents written about in the above article.
I know I have my moments, but hopefully they are rare. And hopefully the good moments outweigh the bad.

Also, I am new to blogging. I hope I haven't done anything wrong by linking an article. He said to share!! But if I have erred, please let me know nicely. I will delete it or will add whatever I need to add to make it right.

Thanks!