Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients 

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, 

softened 1/2 cup chunky or smooth peanut butter 

1/2 cup granulated sugar 

1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed 

1 egg 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 

1/2 teaspoon baking powder 

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

 1/4 teaspoon salt 

Preparation:  

Preheat oven to 375°. Cream the butter, peanut butter and sugars until light. Add the egg and mix until fluffy.  Blend the flour, baking powder, soda and salt together well. Add these dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Add the chocolate chips.  Drop cookie dough by teaspoonfuls onto lightly greased baking sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 375°.

These cookies are so much fun,

you might want to make a double batch if your like me, (I can't get enough of them)

They were super easy to make and also very easy to consume :)

Love 

~ Marie

Easter Cake

I have been planing on making this Martha Stewart cake for the last two weeks and today it happened. I got cozy in the kitchen and baked away. This cake was fun but as usal I was impatient. So I rushed to have it ready for 4:00 tea. My nest started floating down stream by the time I got to take pictures :) Next time I will give myself enough time for the chocolate ganache to cool.

And and guess who I caught licking the cake while I stepped away for a split second?

This little man decided he had waited too long for his tea.

One lick was not enough.

Aha!!! Caught him red handed!!!

So the floating nest cake also had a couple of tongue marks on the side. No biggie,

but will it survive mommy's pony tail that whips into the chocolate ganache when she leans down to clean little boys chocolate face from getting on the couch?

It survived :)

And was worth it all!!

Honey Man's Granola

Can't get enough of this yummy granola :)

Ingredients
(Dry)
4 cups Old Fashion Oats
 1 cup almonds
 2 cup pecans (Halved)
1/4 cup flax seeds
1/2 cup sun flower seeds

(Wet)
 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons honey
 1/4 cup vegetable oil
 1/2 cup cranberry juice

(Dried Fruit)
3/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup raisins

 1 cup craisins

In a large large bowl combine all dry ingredients.
In a sauce pan combine all wet ingredients and bring to a simmer.
While still hot poor wet ingredients into the dry ingredient bowl and then and stir well. Line two cookie sheets with foil. Place in a pre heated oven at 250 degrees.
cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes (or until golden brown), flipping with a fork or spatula every 20 minutes.

Pour back into large bowl and mix in dried fruit.

Ejoy!

Christmas Cookies

Enjoying yummy cookies in this house. 

Russian Tea Cookies and Jelly Thumbprints.

We will see if I can get some others made before Christmas arrives. 

:)

 ~Marie 

My Not So Flopped Chocolate Mousse

*There's nothing better than a good friend, except a good friend with CHOCOLATE Linda Grayson, "The Pickwick Papers" 

Yesterday I was trying to come up with a dessert idea to bring over for my dear friend Julie and her husband who just had their first baby boy 2 weeks ago. I got the craving for chocolate mouse and looked inside my fridge and found the necessary items for the recipe.

Once the chocolate was good and melted in its double boiler I got out the cream and found that it had gone bad already Oh no!! So I switched my recipe around and followed another that I had read up on by adding some egg yolks. My chocolate ratio was way off so I added more egg yolks. 

Very doubtful it was not going to thicken I poured my flopped mousse into expresso cups and put them in the fridge while I whipped up something else for my friends. 

After arriving home after my lovely visit of holding such a beautiful baby ( little Andrew had gorgeous blue eyes and such long blond hair and oh he felt so good in my arms) I checked on the mouse and found out that it wasn't such a flop as I had first thought. 

IT WAS TO DIE FOR!!!!

I won't be leaving a recipe below because I can't even remember what I did. I do know that I added 3 ounces of decaf coffee which gave a yummy flavor. 

"Mmm, Mmm, Mm"

This little lad wanted some too!!

Poor baby :(

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend sabbath!
Love
 ~ Marie      

Chocolate Chip Cookies and Honey Man

• Today I made these yummy chocolate almond cookies. 
• I have been craving homemade cookies for some time now, yesterday my Honey Man cleaned out the refrigerator to the point that it shines and sparkles every time I open the door. he knew that my stomach can't quite handle cleaning it right now, what a dear he is. I have such a wonderful feeling now whenever I get hungry which is like every hour LOL! and instead of gaging when I open the door I search high and low for yummy food. And because of his kindness I got inspired to bake cookies. 
• Here is the recipe:
• Enjoy :)
• 
  
• 
  
• *I didn't have chocolate chips so I used white chocolate chips instead and only used half the bag. And then I chopped up a cup of almonds and also chopped up a Chirardelli Intense Dark Midnight Reverie 86% Cacoa bar.
• 
  
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large egg
• 1 (12 ounce) package NESTLE® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
• 1 cup chopped nuts
• 
  
• Directions  PREHEAT oven to 375 degrees F. COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets. BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Barbie Day

I have had a fun baking day! I am making a Barbie Birthday Cake for my friend Amanda's little girl. Her Birthday is Sunday. I made 2 dozen cupcakes which I will frost tomorrow and 2 nine inch round cakes for the dress. I also baked a cake in a 9 inch glass bowl which will be part of the dress for Barbie. Tomorrow I will frost the cup cakes and design Barbie's outfit! I hope it doesn't flop! I will post pictures when I can.

Wilton Course 2 Class 4

I didn't make it to my last Wilton class last Tuesday, because of being ill. Later in the week I figured out how to do our finale cake which involved the basket weave. My cake probably could have been better if I had a teacher with me but I'll take what I can get!

These are all the royal icing flowers we had been working on the last couple of weeks.

And here they are on my cake!

It took me awhile to figure out the basket weave by myself, but I'm proud to say that my efforts were not in vain :)

Wilton Course 1 Class 4

Sorry it took me forever to post the pictures of my last cake for Course 1

I am already in the second week of Course 2, it is really different than the first course because we are working with Royal icing and Color flow. I like Royal a lot more than the butter cream that we used in the first course. The only bummer about the Royal icing is that I have to make sure I don't get any grease or oil in it, thats really hard because all my tools I use for buttercream. I have to boil everything and make sure that nothing touches it. I had to buy new plastic containers also.

Wilton Course 1 Class 3

We had cupcakes as our assignment for class three. I made very large cupcakes as you can see! We learned some new flowers and figures in this class. I felt like I got to practice more in the class which was very nice! 

There is supposed to be 8 cupcakes but John and I got into one last night :) I have to figure out how to get rid of so much cake, I will bring some of these guys over to the other neighbor next to us whom I haven't met yet. I know they have children and I'm sure this would be an easy way to get so much cake off of my hands and an opportunity to meet them I will have to start sending cake to work with John, there is no way we can eat a cake a week! 

Next week is my last class for Course 1. I will be starting Course 2 which I am very excited about! 

2nd Wilton Class for Course 1

My first cake came out alright. The class is two hours long and is jammed pack of information. We were required in the second class to bring a cake frosted and ready to decorate. The first class we learned all about the tools and products and what we needed. I had a lot of fun trying to find the cheapest price for colors or tools. Hobby Lobby gave us a 40% off coupon so we could buy a lot of our products there. I still need to buy stuff but I still feel the hole my money burned in my pocket for the products I had bought last week. This is certainly an expensive hobby but is definitely worth it!

The 2nd class we learned how to use a star tip and a round tip for dots and borders. We also learned how to write and how to make roses. The roses we rushed though because of lack of time. I practiced those when I got home. We decorated our cakes with the last 15 minutes of the class. My writing certainly needs improvement but its a start! I am so excited about this class! It has been so worth while! I really want to get certified in all 4 Wilton classes! Maybe my hobby will pay off in the future! :)

Semi Home Made

I know, Another cake!!! This cake I did not bake! I just bought it from the dollar store for a buck! I had one at Himilce's and it was very tasty. I melted some chocolate chips and cream in a bowl over a pot of boiling water. I then poured it over my pound cake.

We had a very cozy night because it was raining out and the house was clean!!! The dessert was quick, sweet and simple!

Cake Decorating!

Sunday I had the creativity itch. I have been wanting to buy a little  small round cake pan but haven't been able to afford it lately. So I started looking through my cupboards trying to find something circular and small that can bake a cake! I found one of my round glass Tupperware dishes that worked beautifully!!! 

My creativity can only go so far I'm afraid using the internet and watching videos. I need some help. My cake decorating  is beautiful for a little girl of 5 maybe!! I definitely want to start taking classes at Michael's!!

Now that John is working a great Job, we can hopefully afford it!!!

Black Forest Cake ( with strawberry's)

I had forgotten to post my black forest cake I had baked a week ago!! It was a lot of fun! I used a cream cheese/whipped cream frosting. I melted chocolate chips with a little half & half and put it in a zip lock bag to decorate with! That part was so much fun and really easy! The cherry part was not as good. I didn't have cherries to place on each layer. All I had was some strawberries to garnish on top! It was still really yummy!