Kiss Me Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate chip cookies are almost the perfect cookie. Stuff a Hershey kiss inside and viola! it IS the perfect cookie! I searched for a recipe online, but was delightfully surprised to find it printed on the bag of mini Hershey's kisses! As long as you don't mind getting your hands dirty, you'll have a great time making and eating these. Anyone you share these with will definitely want to kiss you, so choose wisely :)

Kiss Me Chocolate Chip Cookies (original recipe here)

1 cup butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 bag of Hershey's Mini Chocolate Kisses

1. Cream together butter and sugar until smooth and delicious, then add in vanilla.
2. Mix in flour and then chocolate chips.
3. Take a tablespoon of dough and split in half, pop in the Hershey's Kiss and then cover with remaining dough. Place on cookie sheet.
4. Bake cookies in 375 degree oven for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. 

Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies

A recipe with chocolate in the title twice means guaranteed deliciousness. These cookies are chewy and chocolatey and decadent. I had to taste test a few of these just to make sure. These yummy morsels were a perfect addition to my Christmas baking - which also included Snickerdoodles, Easy Rolled Shortbread, Peanut Butter Blossoms and Kiss Me Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies (original recipe here)

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup lard
2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
3 tsps vanilla
2 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 bag white chocolate chips

1. Cream butter, lard and sugar together until light and fluffy, then add in eggs and vanilla and mix until smooth.
2. Sift in dry ingredients and mix until just combined and then hand stir in the chocolate chips.
3. Drop teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheets at lesat an inch a part as these will spread out quite a bit.
4. Bake in 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes and let cool before transferring to cooling rack so they don't break apart on you!
5. Now you can taste test your cookies, or share with friends... Whatever suits you!

Shelly's Snickerdoodles Recipe

Merry Christmas ya'll! I wish you lots of turkey, baked goods, presents and joy!

You might want to sit down for the news I'm about to share... This is the first of four cookie blogs I'm hoping to post over the next week (Kiss Me Chocolate Chip Cookies, Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies) !  I had a marathon Christmas Cookies baking session spanning three days, which was super exciting for me and now hopefully for you! Stay tuned!

So if you don't know what a snickerdoodle is, don't feel bad. I'd never heard of them until a few weeks ago when in am across them on a top 10 Christmas cookie list. Essentially they are a light and fluffy sugar cookie rolled I'm cinnamon sugar. They taste like cinnamon buns and heaven.

Shelly's Snickerdoodles (original recipe here)
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup lard
11/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsps vanilla
2 tsps white vinegar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsps cinnamon
3 tbsps white sugar

1. Preheat oven to 400. Ideally you want your butter and eggs to be at room temperature. 
2. Cream butter and sugar together then add eggs one at a time, followed by vanilla and vinegar. Don't worry you won't be able to taste the vinegar- but it's important as it acts as a leavening agent.
3. Mix in the dry ingredients until just combined. 
4. Mix cinnamon and sugar together in a small bowl. Roll 3/4 inch balls and drop into cinnamon sugar mixture until evenly coated.
5. Pop on a pan at least two inches apart and bake for 8-10 minutes. Remove from pan immediately and place on cooling rack. This makes about 4 dozen.

Cheesy Garlicky Scalloped Potatoes Recipe

Lately my blog has been full of potatoes and cheese. I am not ashamed of that. I had to finish off the rest of the 10 lb bag of potatoes I bought and Jess said she was thinking of making scalloped potatoes, so of course I stole her idea and viola - Cheesy Garlicky Scalloped Potatoes were born.

Of course I didn't follow the recipe and used almond milk instead of cows, which always makes me nervous, but the garlic covered up any almondy taste that might've made it weird. I also used a Tex Mex cheese mix and parmesan because those are my favorite and i didn't have cheddar. The sauce got really thick and was almost gloopy. I don't really know why. I'm sure it wasn't supposed to be like that, but it baked up fine and tasted delicious. I made this the night ahead because, as per usual, I had a lot of free time on my hands. 

Cheesy Garlicky Scalloped Potatoes Recipes (here's the original recipe)
1/4 cup butter
4 tbsps flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp black pepper
3 garlic cloves
1 tsp parsley
1 1/2 cups almond milk
1/2 cup tex mex
1/2 cup parmesan
2 lbs potatoes (I used 10 small) peeled and thinly sliced
1 sweet white onion thinly sliced

1. Peel your potatoes and slice them thinly. Then do your onion. Layer half the potatoes in a SPRAYED 9x13 pan, then layer half the onions.
2. In a pot, melt your butter, then add flour, garlic, salt and pepper. Mix until smooth. 
3. Add milk in slowly, mixing continuously until all your milk is added. Bring to a boil and stir until thickened. Remove from heat and add cheese.
4. Pour half the cheese sauce over the potatoes and onions. Then do your second layer or potatoes and onions and top with the rest of the sauce.
5. Cover and bake at 350 for 50 minutes. Uncover and bake for 10-15 minutes longer. At this point add more cheese if you love cheese. 

PS  if you like this, you're probably going to love my Shepherd's Pie Recipe - read it here.

 

Avocado-Banana-Berry Super Smoothie

Liquid Breakfast... because sometimes chewing is just too much work!

I make a smoothie every morning before work, even though its minus a billion degrees out and it makes my hands numb. I just love them that much. I mix up the ingredients occasionally and thought this version was worth sharing. The avocado added a delicious flavor and made the texture luxuriously smooth, almost like mousse!

Avocado-Banana-Berry Super Smoothie
1 banana
1 avocado
1 cup frozen berries
1 1/2 cup almond milk (or however much you can fit in and still close the lid)
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
1-2 tbsps of flax seed
a dash of cinamon

Put everything in your magic bullet and blend. Do it in the order listed of your protein will stick to the cup and then you will cry. Oh you don't have a magic bullet? I feel sorry for you... You should probably ask Santa for one.

Chocolate Fig Cake with Chocolate Glaze

Fig fig fig. What a fun word. Oh what, you don't like it? Fig off then!

If dried figs are new to you, I can tell you that they are sweet and very seedy. They aren't my favorite dried fruit, but I have a Costco-sized bag of them that need to get used, so. I decided they would go fantastic with chocolate, because, well, everything goes with chocolate! I found a recipe here that looked really great, and with a few minor adjustments they turned out lovely.

One warning though, this cake is a million times better the next day. The flavors get a chance to meld together and the cake gets really fudgey.

Chocolate Fig Cake
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
10 dried figs (finely chopped)
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup apple sauce
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat over to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two round cake pans. 
2. Finely chop your figs and pour 1 cup of boiling water over them. Let them sit for 30 minutes. I mashed mine a bit with a fork. You could probably even puree them to make sure they are lump free.
3. Next, sift your dry ingredients together. Then mix in your wet, followed by the figs and water mixture. Pour into your cake pans and pop into oven for about 30 minutes.

Chocolate Glaze
2 cups chocolate chips
1/2 cup margarine

1. Microwave chocolate chips and margarine together and stir until smooth.
2. When your cakes are cooled, top with chocolate glaze. You can stack them or keep as individual cakes.