Chocolate Chip Cookes {Times Three} . . .

I love baking. I especially love baking cookies.  And though they aren't my absolute favorite {find those here}, I do think you can't really go wrong with a batch of good ol' fashioned chocolate chip cookies. My choice of recipe depends on the day.

When I'm in a hurry, but want warm, gooey, chocolatey goodness I totally go this route:

Oh yeah - I'm not afraid to use the premade dough.  Now if I could only get my kids to quit telling dinner guests that "she made them from a tub she bought at Costco", we'd be good to go. {Note: we are on a hiatus from this stuff right now since some of it has recently been recalled due to positive ecoli testing.}

When I've got some extra time on my hands and a good sized bag of chips in my pantry, I like to up my game a notch and make these bad boys:

They're definitely more substantial - and I like to pretend more healthy - than a regular chocolate chip cookie because there is blended oatmeal in the dough. They're pretty easy to make and oh, are they tastey.

But when I'm in need of some therapy or I've had a terrible day that can only be fixed by drowning my sorrows in a glass of milk accompanied by some truly special cookies {no judging, please} I get serious and make these fellas:

The recipe for these is very similar to the second recipe, but these are like the bigger, more popular and altogether much cooler brother of the second cookie because they contain a grated Hershey's bar which means stealthy chocolate flavor in every bite.  They take some time to make, but my gosh, they're yummy.

I made these cookies this week.  I also ate a lot of these cookies this week.  Then I gave some to a few friends and decided I should give you some cookies too - or at least the recipes to enjoy.  So little bloggy readers, here are my three chocolate chip cookie recipes.  Happy Baking!

Recipe #1 "Meh. Cookies."

Go to your grocery store.

Buy the dough.

Break the little squares off.

Bake them.

Recipe #2 "Really Yummy Chocolate Chip Cookies"

1 C butter

1 C brown sugar

1 C sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

2 C flour

2 1/2 C blended oatmeal*

1 bag chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugars.  Add eggs and vanilla.  Incorporate dry ingredients, adding oatmeal and chocolate chips last.  Bake at 350 degrees for 13-14 minutes.

Recipe #3 "I Want To Marry You Chocolate Chip Cookies"

1 C butter

1 C brown sugar

1 C sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

2 C flour

2 1/2 C blended oatmeal*

1 C chopped pecans

1 bag chocolate chips

1 8 oz. Hershey bar {grated}

Cream butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla.  Incorporate dry ingredients, adding chips, nuts and Hershey bar last.  Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes.

*I blend my oatmeal in my food processor until it's a fine powder.

Teach Me Momma . . .

On Christmas Eve day Hannah asked me to teach her how to make Ginger Snaps. I feel at peace knowing that some day she'll make them for her babies.

{and yes, I look super nasty in this picture and cropped it tightly because my bottom was looking big, thanks to said Ginger Snaps.}

Ooh Baby!

For the past two years I have blogged about these cookies. This weekend I made thirteen dozen of them. They are now gone. Today I will make thirteen dozen more and they will not last 'til the end of the week. In our house these babies are the quintessential Christmas cookie - filling the air with the spicy aroma of my childhood and making all mouths water. If you click on the link above, you too can have the recipe for this deliciously soft Ginger Snap.

Do you have a favorite Christmas cookie or treat? If so, would you be willing to share the recipe in the comments section? My waistline and I would be ever so grateful.

I'm off to wrap presents {of the birthday kind!} because today is Big C's twelfth birthday. Being 12 is a HUGE deal around here. I'll talk more about that on Thursday. Don't forget, you have until 5:00 EST today to enter the December giveaway! It's been a real treat to read about all the special gifts you've received over the years. I can't wait to send this package to one of you . . . maybe I should include some cookies.

Three Word Thursday . . .

Somebody. Stop. Me!

Gosh these Grannies sure look naked. Crisp, sure. Green, check. But some how lacking.

The solution? A half hour of unwrapping these bad boys! {Seriously though, do they have to make the wrappers so thin and static clingy?} Of course I had to sample a few to make sure they were fresh. And they were. I added a few tablespoons of milk, let 'em melt in a double boiler and . . .

Peace. Harmony. Synchronicity. A perfect pairing and all seems right in the world. But wait! It gets even better. {Ooh, weird, I can see my reflection in that caramel. I've never looked so tasty.}

Yeah, we had to go there. Double dipped. In milk chocolate. And rolled. Oh, the rolling is what makes it, people! Our choices today were Skor bar, roasted almonds and M & Ms for the kiddies.

I planned to show these wrapped up all cute for our friends and neighbors, but unfortunately, they didn't make it. {How fortunate for us!}

A Little Fall Yumminess For You . . .

I think I'll just let this picture do the talking for a few seconds.

Oh, you've got a little drool spilling out of your mouth - that kind of reminds me of Ollie. Cute on him, but not on grown adults, so let's get down to business.

This cake is good looking, isn't it? I entered it in the Harvest Carnival Bake-Off at our Church this weekend full well knowing it could win based on looks alone. The good news is that this cake tastes as good as it looks! My dessert took home one of the three prizes awarded not because I'm an amazing chef, but because it's a fool-proof recipe. And now, because I love you so much {and because I believe every gal should have hips like mine}, I'm going to give you the recipe. Just don't tell anyone else how easy it is to make . . . because it's totally faux gourmet.

Decadent Four-Layer Pumpkin Cake

1pkg. yellow cake mix

1 15 oz can pumpkin divided

1/2 cup milk

1/3 cup vegetable oil

4 large eggs

11/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened

1 cup powdered sugar

1 8 oz tub Cool Whip

1/4 cup caramel or caramel chocolate topping

1/2 cup candied pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 9 inch cake pans. Beat cake mix, 1 cup of pumpkin, milk, oil, eggs and 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Pour evenly into prepared pans.

Bake 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Leave in pans and cool completely on wire racks. Meanwhile, beat cream cheese in small bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until creamy. Add powdered sugar, remaining pumpkin and remaining 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice; mix well. Stir in Cool Whip.

Remove cakes from pans; cut each layer in half horizontally with serrated knife. Stack the layers on a cake plate, spreading cream cheese mixture between each layer. Do not frost top layer. Drizzle with caramel sauce {I prefer caramel chocolate sauce from Target} and top with candied pecans. Store in refrigerator.

Now, please go make this cake and share it with a bunch of people you love {it feeds about 16}. You can thank me later.

On Our 'To Boo' List . . .

A talk given in General Conference by our prophet has been on my mind lately. In the talk President Monson mentioned a man who asked his children each night at dinner what they had done for someone else that day. This idea really resonated with me. The Hubby and I decided we should implement it in our own family to help our children become more natural at serving others on a daily basis. We also realized we had the perfect venue to teach them this idea at our weekly Family Home Evening {Monday nights at our house}.

Traditionally during the Halloween season we "Boo" families in our neighborhood with some goodies and a ghost to put on their door. This year we decided we would "Boo" four new families in our church congregation to help welcome them. Here's how we accomplished our service oriented goal:

First, we gathered supplies. I found darling bat boxes at Target and filled them halfway with sweets. Did you know DOTS makes ghost and bat candy at Halloween? Consider yourself informed! Each family needed a box of goodies, a note explaining the "Boo", a ghost and some ribbon to tie it all up.

Next, we turned to my little blue and white superhero for some semi-homemade yumminess. We love these little Halloween cookies with the ghost and pumpkin themes. They're cheap, easy and frostingless, which makes it easy to package them without a mess. My friend Angela came over while I was baking the cookies and stated with alarm, "Oh, I didn't think you did THAT." I guess my dirty little secret is out . . . I'm a premade cookie dough lowlife.

But see how festive they look in the bat boxes? You can totally understand my inability to resist, right? If not, just remember, I have a cranky, non-sleeping newborn.

I found a great ghost graphic, a poem about the "Boo" {which I altered slightly to fit the parameters of our families} and a little "Boo" tag over at the Blonde Designs Blog. These girls used to work for Martha Stewart and are a class act.

We tied it all up with some appropriately colored ribbon and then let the kids ring and run as they dropped goodies off on doorsteps in the night. If you haven't done this before, you should try it! The kids love plotting out their getaway plan and we get a huge laugh out of watching them try {and fail} to be stealthy, especially when it involves setting off motion detector lights that freak the kids out!

If there is one thing I've learned, it's that when serving other people is fun, my kids love to do it. Another fun activity and gift to others checked off our "To Boo" list.

Make This Now, Thank Me Later . . .

The next time you're looking for a delicious, seemingly gourmet appetizer to take to a summer party, think of your friendly Dragonfly and how kind she is to shower you with her recipes that make people think she can really cook. This recipe combines the tartness of one of summer's best fruits - the pineapple - with the sweetness of a homemade tortilla chip. All I can say is YUM!

Get ready . . . this is major . . . you'll need six whole ingredients.

Summer Fruit Salsa & Homemade Cinnamon Chips

Fruit Salsa

half of a fresh pineapple, coarsely chopped
one ripe mango, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 Tbsp minced cilantro (don't be afraid of it - just embrace it)

Combine all three ingredients in a bowl one hour before serving time to let juices flow and flavors combine.

Cinnamon Chips

1/2 stick melted butter
4-8 6 inch flour tortillas (for this photo I used whole wheat)
cinnamon sugar (combine cinnamon to sugar at a 1-2 part ratio)

Brush melted butter on one side of flour tortilla. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Place on a cookie sheet and cut into triangles with a pizza cutter. Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown and bubbly. Let cool, then remove with spatula.

I'd Wolf That Down . . .

I could learn to like werewolves. Being a Jacob fan never looked so good. I'm just sayin'.

(Don't know what I'm talking about? Go here:http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2009/04/twilight-new-mo.html)

Oh, and here's a tasty family recipe I actually did "wolf" down with the Hubby last week. It'll drive you crazy when you eat it- but maybe not as much as the picture of those four wolf boys. Enjoy both.

Sticky Chicken Wings

(affectionately known as "Chings" in the Carlson family.)

1 cup packed brown sugar plus one heaping Tbsp cornstarch

3/4 cup pineapple juice

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 tsp dry mustard

20 chicken wings, thawed

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Remove wing tips (part with no meat) with a sharp knife. Place wings in shallow baking dish. Mix remaining ingredients in a microwave proof bowl and heat in microwave for five minutes until thickened. Pour sauce over chicken wings. Bake for 2 1/2 hours, turning wings EVERY HALF HOUR and basting with sauce. Serve with warm washcloths at the table - they don't have the name "sticky chicken wings" for no reason!

What Not To Wear . . . (and recipes!)

Normally little Miss Hannie B has some serious fashion moxy. She throws together outfits that are so cute and coordinated it makes me a little jealous. But yesterday I let her go to school looking like this:

It was "Mismatched Day" at school, part of a spirit week that gets the kids pumped up for the Teacher vs. Fifth Grade parents basketball game - the same game the Hubby will participate in, in a desperate attempt to redeem the parents, who have lost for the past three years straight. Even though Hannie was mismatched, I still thought she looked totally sassy and cute. My girl loves her some pattern.

This kid, on the other hand, really just looked like a complete geek - and I love him for it.

Big C was way to cool to go mismatched, but I did convince him to wear two different colored socks. Today is hat day and tomorrow is crazy hair day (my personal fave). Stay tuned for some awesome locks tomorrow! And now, here are two tried and true recipes that won big money at the dessert auction:

Hand Dipped Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls:

1 stick margarine
2 cups creamy peanut butter
1 lb powdered sugar
3 cups rice crispies cereal
2 bags semi-sweet chocolate chips
paraffin wax

1. Combine margarine and peanut butter in microwave safe bowl and heat for one minute in microwave until margarine is melted. Stir well to combine.

2. In large bowl combine peanut butter mixture, powdered sugar and cereal, stirring until all ingredients are incorporated. Mixture will be a little bit crumbly.

3. Shape tablespoon sized amounts of mixture firmly into balls by hand and place on cookie sheet.

4. On stove top over a double boiler, melt chocolate chips adding paraffin wax sparingly until you get a smooth, glossy chocolate with a consistency like syrup. Once chocolate is at right consistency, turn double boiler to low, just to keep chocolate melted, but to prevent it from drying out.

5. Drop balls three or four at a time into chocolate. Use a toothpick or small wooden skewer to roll balls in chocolate. Remove balls from chocolate by gently spearing with a toothpick. Place balls on wax paper to cool by carefully rotating toothpick in a clockwise motion until ball slide off.
6. Cool completely before eating or gifting.

Luscious Orange Cake

Cake:

1 pkg yellow cake mix (I always use Duncan Hines)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 (11oz) can mandarin oranges, drained
1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp orange juice
1 tsp vanilla

Frosting:

2 (8 oz) cans crushed pineapple with juice
1 pkg vanilla instant pudding mix
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 (8 oz) tub Cool Whip

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three round 9 inch cake pans. Combine cake ingredients in bowl and mix with hand mixer for one minute on low and then three minutes on medium. Mixture should be smooth with small bits of mandarin orange. Pour equally into three pans. Bake for 25 minutes until cake is spongy to the touch or a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes IN PANS on wire rack. Then remove from pans and cool completely on wire rack.
While cake is cooling, make frosting. Drain pineapple juice, adding it to pudding mix and combining well. Add pineapple, powdered sugar and vanilla. Fold in cool whip.

To assemble cake, frost between each layer, then outside of cake. I added toasted coconut and a sugared orange slice to the top of my cake for display purposes only.

Luscious . . .

I am really bad at remembering to take a picture of my family on Sunday. Especially the day after a huge event when I feel like I've been run over by a bus. We haven't captured our brood for two weeks now, and by the time we do, I will have increased in girth by at least three inches!

Part of that is due to the fact that we bid on a chocolate truffle pecan pie at the dessert auction and it was delicious. With ice cream. And a cookie on the side. We also won a plate of soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies made by one of the Young Women and my children were foolish enough to bid $30 on a basket filled with candy. It's their teeth that will rot, and the money was for a good cause, so the Hubby let them.

My "Luscious Orange Cake" (pictured) was the first item up for bid in the live auction and went for a sweet $45. Of course the lovely family that bought it let me have a bite. Now I might have to make this as a companion to the homemade samoas I'm planning on crafting this week. Or maybe I will wait until I've seen my doctor one week from today - where he just might tell me to slow down on the baking and eating of the baking.

Recipe for peanut butter balls coming tomorrow. They went for $60 in the live auction because someone in my ward is totally crazy. (anyone want the cake recipe?)

You Can Stop Drooling Now . . .

Every day this week I have been in the kitchen, apron wrapped tightly around my burgeoning belly, crafting delicious baked goods for a great cause.

Tomorrow night I will head up a Spaghetti Dinner and Dessert Auction at our church with the sole purpose of raising money for our Young Women to go to a week long Girl's Camp this summer. We're expecting close to 200 people! We always get such fantastic array of desserts and sweet delectable, so this year I'm taking my camera.

My addition to the dessert auction comes in the form of two dozen hand-dipped chocolate covered peanut butter balls and a delicious three layered cake I'm calling "Luscious Orange Cake". It's a recipe from the Queen that contains a can of mandarin oranges in the cake mix and a can of crushed pineapple in the frosting - moist, delicious and dreamy!

The rest of my baking has been focused on a table of $1 bagged goodies that the little kids love to spend their money on. I've made some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, Snickerdoodles, and with the leftover chocolate from my peanut butter balls I dipped rice crispy treats and added sprinkles and a lollipop stick. Why are kids such suckers for sprinkles?

Of course I have been a very good girl and have only sampled my creations for quality control purposes. They weren't very good at all (excuse me while I lick my chocolaty fingers.)

Have a great weekend!

I Surrender . . .

(photo courtesy of Baking Bites)

I'm afraid to say that my goal of gaining only 25-30 pounds during this pregnancy has just jumped out the window. Of a twenty story building. And is now kersplat! in a messy pile on the sidewalk below.

Because I just came across this recipe for HOMEMADE SAMOAS (are you reading this Christy?) and I am going to make them, lick the bowl, eat them all by myself and then roll around in the crumbs while giggling like a small child (or a woman with a serious Samoa addiction).

Afterwards, I'm going to drink a large glass of milk. Cuz I'm all about being healthy for my baby.

PS. Another Charlie Horse in the middle of the night - after bananas and stretching! Will try for pickle juice and flexing mid-attack tonight. Thanks for all the great advice (and funny stories - Audrey)

Are You Quick AND Clever?

Dear Readers of this Silly-Little-Blog-About-Nothing,

This is a test. What in the world do the above things have in common? Try not to go for the obvious.

It is time for all you lurkers and non-commenters to venture a guess in the comments section of the blog. Don't be afraid. I'd really love to hear from you.

The first person to guess correctly will win a beautiful handmade card from the much admired Queen for the occasion of their choosing.

Good luck. The winner will be announced tomorrow.

Love,
The Dragonfly

ps. Mom, will you make a card for my winner? Thanks! You rock.

For A New Little One . . .

I recently helped host a baby shower for a friend who's due to have a boy (after three girls!) any day now. The shower was held out in the country at my friend Marci's fabulous house. It was a simple and classy affair. I thought I'd share a few ideas from the shower.

We attached these simple cards, which I bought at Michaels Craft and stamped myself, to a nice branch from a tree on Marci's property using jute twine. The branch was placed in a galvanized bucket - blue, of course - and weighted down with some glass beads. Each of the guests was able to write a little message to the mom, dad and baby-to-be. At the end of the shower the entire tree, bucket and all, went home with the honored guest to decorate the little one's room until he's old enough to tear it apart.

We also had each guest custom design a plain white onesie. I taped off a 2x2 inch square on the front of the onesies and provided cardboard to insert between layers so that the Sharpie markers wouldn't bleed through. Have I ever mentioned my love of Sharpie markers? It's bizarre, but unwavering.

Some of the guests felt a little overwhelmed by the task of making a cute drawing, so we suggested catch phrases, like "Rock Star" with a simple gold star. They all turned out really cute!

I can't take responsibility for the food at the shower, but I can tell you, it was beyond yummy. Marci is my gourmet cook friend and she never disappoints. I'm totally getting the recipe for this salad that was part of the menu. I have dreamt about it no less than three times since I ate it. And yes, those are HUGE chunks of dreamy avocado. Sigh.

The mom-to-be's favorite dessert is cheesecake and I put together an array of toppings so guests could personalize their individual slice. While fruit toppings like strawberry and raspberry may appeal to some, I went straight for the chocolate caramel with candied almonds. Have mercy.

Here's the happy mom-to-be (doesn't she look fantastic?) enjoying a few hours with good friends and good food and doing what she should do - celebrate herself!

What's Red, Delicious and Full of Love?

Our Valentine's Day, of course! The morning began with a tradition from my childhood - heart shaped biscuits with raspberry jam. It's always fun to start the day off with a little warm flaky love covered in butter! This year, since I had a previous engagement in the morning, I totally cheated and bought Pilsbury Grands biscuits and cut them out with my trusty heart shaped cookie cutter.

Then this afternoon the cookie cutter did double duty as the kids and I continued another family tradition of making Valentine cookies to take to our neighbors. I cut out and baked, Hannie B and RedDog frosted (amply) and sprinkled. I am definitely going to post my friend Ronalin's sugar cookie recipe in the next week. It has sour cream in it and these cookies are perfect - soft and thick, not too sweet - they let the frosting do all the work.

Time to set the table for the Big Dinner! Little known fact: My mom (The Queen) happens to have the largest dish collection this side of the Mississippi. Wait, I think a bunch of you already knew that. I think I may have to do a post on all her dishes sometime - it WILL amaze.

She loaned me a set for tonight's dinner under the condition I feed her and my dad. Clever how she bribed a meal out of me - but can you blame me? These dishes were just meant to be at our Big Red Valentine's Dinner!

Each place setting got a cracker place card and a box of the the best Valentine sweet ever - conversation hearts - which were fun to read aloud after dinner.

The menu for the night:

(Sorry, this is where the lighting in my pictures goes bad. I'm still learning how to use Edward and haven't had a lesson yet from my brother . . .)

Feast your eyes on the "Raspberry Fluff" - a jello/tapioca/cool whip/frozen raspberry confection that we include as a fruit salad but should really be a dessert.

Warm rolls with a parmesan herbed topping. Mmmm - butter, I love you.

Mixed greens with pear, Gorgonzola and craisins, in a perfect bowl for the picky people who don't like avocados. Can you believe I'm related to people who don't like avocados? It's a crime.

Bless you Mindy for bringing this recipe into our lives. It makes my Hubby weep with joy - red pepper sausage cream sauce over farfalle. I wonder how many blog comments I could get in request for this recipe . . . hmmm.

We topped it all off with this beauty - a fresh strawberry cake topped with whipped cream and sliced berries. Got this recipe from Country Living magazine a few years ago and knew it should be the grand finale for our Valentine's dinner.

After dinner we spent some time on a little project that will send some serious love in the direction of my Uncle Kirk who is in the toughest part of his cancer treatment.

We ended our fantastic night by sharing a familiar scripture with the kids from John 3:16 -

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

What better way to end a day filled with love than by talking about the greatest love of all? Hope your day was full of love, lovely memories and loved ones.