Daring Bakers--Twelve Days of Cookies!

Good morning, everyone!!
Its time for another Daring Bakers challenge!!! This month we were challenged by Peta of Peta Eats to bake some yummy cookies! One of the recipes needed to be from the 12 recipes suggested by Peta, and the other could be a family favorite or just any other cookie, bar, or candy.

For the first part of the challenge, I chose to bake coconut chocolate cookies!!! Originally, the cookies were supposed to be like little drums, but due to our different flour, my first batch spread out like regular cookies, so we baked the second batch in mini muffin tins. Not as cute as the original, but still yummy!

Recipe (taken from Baking Glory)

Ingredients

Coconut Filling
• 6oz / 175ml Cream Cheese, softened
• ¾ cup Sugar
• 1 Egg Yolk (the only thing that I changed was to omit the yolk, and the filling still came out great!)
• 1 ½ tsp Vanilla Extract
• 2 ¼ cup Coconut Flakes, unsweetened
Cookie Dough
• 1 ¾ cup All Purpose Flour (I ended up using about 2 1/4 cups and my dough still wasn't stiff enough)
• ⅓ cup Cocoa Powder, sifted
• ½ tsp Baking Soda
• ¼ tsp Salt
• 1 ½ sticks Butter, unsalted
• 1 cup Sugar
• 1 Egg

Preparation Instructions

Beat the cream cheese with the ¾ cup of sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolk, and vanilla extract and continue mixing for another minute.

Add the shredded coconut and continue beating until everything is well incorporated.

Preheat oven to 375° F / 190° C.

In a medium size bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda. In the bowl of a mixer add the butter and sugar and beat together until light and fluffy, add the egg and beat until smooth.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until the mixture is stiff but still pliable.

Using a tablespoon, scoop some of the cookie dough into your hand. Flatten the dough into a circle that’s about 2in to 3in (5cm to 7.5cm) in diameter, add about a teaspoon of the coconut mixture into the middle of it and then fold the sides of the dough but do not seal it at the top.

Repeat this with remaining cookie dough.

Place the cookies on a greased cookie sheet and bake the cookies at 375° F / 190° C for about 18 to 20 minutes

Cool on a wire rack.

All in all, these coconut cookie s were fabulous and we all really enjoyed them!!!

Next up, I made two versions of pb cookies. My dad's birthday was this month, and he requested peanut butter!! The first recipe that I made was a traditional peanut butter cookie recipe, and the next, was a peanut butter cookie with peanut brittle that I found here. And here are the recipes:

Peanut Butter Cookies w/ Peanut Brittle (I halved the recipe and got 8 cookies)

Ingredients:
Brittle: 

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup chopped peanuts

Cookies:

• 6 T room temp butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 T corn syrup
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup + 3 tablespoons flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/16 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 recipe peanut brittle

Directions:

1. First make the brittle but pouring the sugar into a heavy bottomed saucepan and melting over medium heat, being careful not to stir too much in the beginning so that the sugar doesn't crystallize. Once it is more melted, start to stir so that it doesn't burn. Cook until deep amber, about 3 minutes. Once melted, remove from heat and stir in nuts, immediately pour onto a well-greased baking sheet. It will start to set really quickly so try to get it as thin as possible. 
2. Then, start on your batter by creaming the butter, sugar and corn syrup together for  2 minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl and beat in the peanut butter, then the egg and beat for 30 seconds on high. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat on medium-high for 3 minutes. During this time, your batter should double. 
3. Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly add flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix no longer than 1 minute just until dough comes together. 
4. Crush half of your brittle by putting it in a ziploc and rolling with a rolling pin. Then add to your cookie dough, mix on low for 30 seconds. 
5. Using a a1/3 cup measure (I didn't fill mine up all of the way), portion out dough onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet at least 4 inches apart and refrigerate for at least an hour. 
6. Preheat oven to 375 and bake for 16-18 minutes. They should still be soft in the middle. 

These tasted best on the second day because the texture of the brittle really came through by then!!! These were probably everyone's favorite of the three that I made and were really, really delicious!!! 

Finally, the traditional peanut butter cookies were delicious too!!!! I just used a recipe that was in our family Better Homes & Gardens cookbook....basic cookies, so I'm not going to share here but I really , really enjoyed this challenge and making two cookies that were so unique and different!!!

Can't wait til next month!

Daring Bakers October....Mille Feuille!

Hello!!

Hope everyone is having a nice Saturday so far! If you remember, a couple of months ago I said that I had joined the Daring Bakers club and made the cappuccino eclairs. Well, I haven't been able to do any challenges since then, so when I read what this month's challenge would be, I absolutely had to do it!! We're making mille feuille, also known as napoleons or custard slices, which are basically layers of puff pastry, custard, and an icing.

  Our October 2012 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Suz of Serenely Full.
Suz challenged us to not only tackle buttery and flaky puff pastry, but then take it step further and
create a sinfully delicious Mille Feuille dessert with it!

Well, since I'd never made puff pastry or anything like this before, I didn't want to stray too far from the traditional dessert, but instead of a regular vanilla creme patisserie, I decided to incorporate a local fruit that is in season right now, the delicious passionfruit! I got three of the fresh fruit, boiled them with the milk and sugar for the creme, and then strained out the seeds to make a delicious, beautiful creme patisserie! Here's my full recipe:

Passion Fruit Mille Feuille

For the pastry:

• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup cold butter, cubed
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons cold water 

        beurrage:

•     14 tablespoons room temp butter
• 3 1/4 tablespoons flour

Pastry Directions:

1. Cut the 1/4 cup of butter in to the 1 3/4 cups of flour and salt until the mixture resembles dry crumbs. 
2. Add the water to this mixture, kneading on a lightly floured surface for about three minutes or until the dough is smooth.
3. Chill the dough for 30 minutes. 
4. While the dough is chilling, combine the room temp butter with the small amount of flour. Place between two sheets of plastic wrap and work into a 4in square. Chill for 10-15 minutes until the butter slightly firms up. 
5. Roll the chilled dough into a 6 inch square, place the beurrage in the middle, with each corner of the beurrage touching the center of one of the sides of the dough. Fold the corners of the dough over the beurrage and seal the edges. 
6. On a well-floured surface, roll the dough until it is a rectangle with about 1/4 in in thickness. Fold the right side towards the middle, and the left side over that, so you have a thin rectangle with three layers. Repeat the folding process, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for thirty minutes. 
7. Do two more folds and chill for 30 minutes.
8. Do the final two folds and chill until needed. (Note: If your kitchen is really warm, like mine, you might want to just do one fold at a time and refrigerate)

For the Pastry Cream:

• 2 cups milk
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 whole passionfruit
• 3 egg yolks
• 2 whole eggs
• 1/4 cup butter, cubed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pastry Cream Directions:

1. Combine 1/2 cup of the milk with the cornstarch, whisk until fully incorporated.
2. In a medium sized pot, combine the rest of the milk, the sugar and the pulp of the passionfruit (including the seeds!). Bring to a boil, remove from heat, pour mixture through a strainer to remove seeds and set aside. 
3. Add yolks and then the whole eggs to the milk/cornstarch mixture, whisk to combine. Pour in about 1/3 of the warm milk mixture, always whisking in order to prevent the eggs from cooking. 
4. Bring the remaining milk back to a boil, add egg mixture, whisking as you pour. Cook, whisking constantly, over medium heat until it thickens. 
5. Beat in the butter and vanilla until incorporated, whisk until cream is smooth.
6. Pour into a bowl, place plastic wrap on the surface of the cream to prevent a skin from forming, and refrigerate overnight so that the cream will thicken. 

For the chocolate sauce:

• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup sugar
• 8 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons flour

Directions:

1. Heat milk, butter and vanilla in a medium pot. 
2. Combine sugar, cocoa and flour, and when the butter melts, add the dry ingredients to the pot. 
3. Stir constantly until the mixture thickens, about 5 minutes. 

Making the Mille Feuille:

• 1 batch pastry dough
• 1 batch pastry cream
• 1 batch fudge sauce
• 2 cups icing sugar 
• 2 egg whites
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice

Directions:

1. Roll the dough out into a 12x18 in rectangle and cut into 3 equal parts. 
2. Place one of the sections on a piece of parchment paper and refrigerate the other two, place paper on a baking sheet, top with another piece of parchment and a pyrex dish. 
3. Bake at 400 or about 15 minutes, remove the pyrex and top layer of parchment, bake 10 more minutes or until dough browns. Repeat for the other two sections. 
4. Once the pastry has cooled, place one sheet on a flat board or dish, spread with half of your chilled pastry cream, place another sheet on top of that, top with remaining cream. Place the last sheet of dough on the top of everything, place in the fridge. 
5. While the pastry is chilling, make the royal icing. Whisk the whites and the lemon juice until frothy, stir in the sugar. It should be thick enough to make trails across the surface. If not, whisk in a bit more sugar. 
6. Remove pastry from fridge, pour glaze on it. Immediately drizzle the chocolate sauce over the top and refrigerate for a couple of hours so that everything sets. 

Gnocchi and Cookies

Happy Friday, everyone!!!! How have ya'll's weeks been???? What do ya'll have going on this weekend? I've had a pretty good week.....like I said Wednesday, mostly school. As for the weekend, as far as I know, we don't have much going on, which will be good for us all!

Besides school, I've been up to some ktitchen experiments this week!!! Wednesday, I made homemade gnocchi (so that is one more thing to check off my list!) and yesterday, I made some super easy peanut butter cookies (mainly just because I wanted some cookies and they required little effort....15 minutes to fresh cookies!). Here are the recipes for ya:

Homemade Gnocchi (based off of this recipe) 

 

(not my picture)

Ingredients:

• 2 lb potatoes 
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• dash of pepper
• dash of oregano
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 cup flour (more if needed) 

Directions:

1. Wash potatoes, pierce with a fork, and either bake at 400 for about 45 minutes, or microwave for about 15, flipping them after about 7 minutes. Once the potatoes are tender, let cool until they are easier to handle, about 15 minutes.
2. Scoop the insides of the potatoes out of the skins and push through a potato ricer. Gather the potatoes into a mound on a well-floured counter, sprinkle with salt, pepper and oregano and let sit about 15 more minutes to cool off some more. 
3. Pour the egg yolk on top of the potatoes and then sprinkle the cup of flour on top of it. Gently incorporate the yolk and flour into the potatoes, being careful not to overwork the dough. The gnocchi dough should be sticky, but if it is too sticky to handle, add more flour 1 tablespoon at a time. Pat out into a disc about 1 1/2 in thick and cut into 4 pieces. 
4. Roll one piece out to make a 2 foot long "snake". Cut into pieces about 1/2-3/4 in in size. Repeat with the rest of the dough. 
5. Bring a large pot of water to a gentle boil. Drop about 1/4 of the gnocchi into it. When the gnocchi floats, they are done. Remove with a slotted spoon and repeat with the rest of the dough. 

These were really yummy! I didn't saute them, but served them with a garlic cream sauce! So, so good! :D 

Nooow, for the cookies (most of you have probably already seen this recipe before...:D): 

Quick Peanut Butter Cookies (flourless)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 cup of peanut butter
• 1 egg
• 1/4 tsp vanilla (optional)

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a medium sized bowl. 
2. Drop by teaspoonfulls onto a baking sheet, flattening each cookie a little bit after you drop it. The dough doesn't spread very much while baking, so you can put the cookies close together. 
3. Sprinkle each cookie with some sugar and bake at 350 for about 10 minutes. R
4. Remove from oven and let cookies cool for about 5 minutes or until they firm up a little. 

Easy, no? I bet these would be great with dark chocolate dreams or nutella or something! 

Well, that's about it for today...I'm off to study for some tests! 

See ya'll later!

Snacks and Thoughts

Morning!!! Who else is glad that it is Friday? I've done a lot of studying and test prep this week, so I'm definitely looking forward to relaxing this weekend!!! What have you been up to this week, and what are your weekend plans? 


As for the holiday baking list, I haven't gotten very far on putting it together, but here are the ideas that I have bouncing around right now....just things that I've seen (mostly on blogs :D) that look delicious.....I'll probably know for certain what I'm baking next week!

Hot Cocoa Cookies

Caramel corn

Thin mints

Sugar cookies

homemade oreos

Caramel-Filled Snickerdoodles (!!)

and maybe some spiced nuts for something a little savory

That's about all I've got for that list right now.....like I said, mostly just things that look good, I don't exactly know that I'll bake any or all of these things!

I do have a couple of really yummy snacks to share with ya'll today!!!! First up, single serve rice pudding based off of the recipe from this site!

Single Serve Rice Pudding

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup plain rice, cooled
• 1/3 cup plus 1 T milk
• Cinnamon to taste
• Honey to taste ( I used a couple of tsp)
• 2 tsp flour (I didn't have cornstarch)

Directions:

Combine rice, milk and cinnamon in a small saucepan. Heat over medium-low temperature, and whisk in the flour. Cook for a few minutes until the pudding has thickened. Turn off heat, stir in honey, and enjoy! 

Seriously, this was a great, different breakfast!!! :D Some cocoa powder would have been wonderful in it too!

One more "recipe" that I would like to share is based off a couple that I have seen online, like at HEAB. Two ingredient fudge!!!!!! My recipe turned out a little different, because measurements here are different than in the states, but it was still really tasty!

Two Ingredient Fudge

Ingredients:

180 mL (scant 3/4 cup) full fat coconut milk

1 large bar of your favorite chocolate (I used a really yummy dark chocolate bar....but you could use whatever you want for this!)

Directions

Combine coconut milk and chocolate in small saucepan. Heat until the chocolate has melted completely. Pour into a small pyrex and freeze for 45 minutes to an hour. Take out, slice and store the fudge in the freezer. I got about 24 smallish slices.

Because the ratios that I used were different, my "fudge" is a little softer than traditional fudge but still delicious!

I realize that this post is getting kind of long, but I just want to talk about one thing quickly before I go. I have recently received some emails concerning my blog. For the first time, they were pretty negative. Being a relatively new blogger, and having a pretty small blog, I had never really come in contact with that side of things until now. Don't really want to go into detail, but I would like some advice on how to deal with negativity in the blog world. I mean, I realize that not everyone is going to like what I talk about, and never really expected that, but it was still a bit of a shock when I read what some people think of me. Either way, I know who I am, and who God wants me to be, so I'm not about to change that just because a few people don't like that. I'm just trying to keep a positive attitude about it all, because I really have enjoyed blogging and "meeting" all you awesome people out there!! :D How do you deal with blog negativity?

Well that's about it for today....hope you all have wonderful weekends!!!

Another Holiday

Hey!!!! I took yesterday off of blogging because it was yet another holiday here!!!! I actually have no idea what holiday it was, but I was happy to have some more time with my family!

Quick weekend recap: Saturday we did virtually nothing, which was nice. Sunday, we left early for a children's day party in the community, went to the baby shower in the afternoon, and had taco night at a friend's house later on that evening. We were all pretty tired when we got home and glad that yesterday was a holiday so that we could sleep in a little bit.

Over the weekend I came across a very interesting article. A model, in order to demonstrate just how wrong and impossible Barbie's body is, was photographed with outlines where she would need to have surgery in order to achieve Barbie's proportions. Here's the article:

The plastic surgery a model needs to look like

 Barbie

We know that Barbie’s body is anatomically impossible. So why are we still trying for it?

Every day a new plastic surgery promise emerges: scooped-out backs, rear-end lifts, sculpted kneecaps. If it’s possible, it’s suddenly necessary.

But what exactly would you have to go through to get the 'perfect' Barbie body? In the latest issue of O Magazine, model Katie Halchishick becomes the human diagram. Posing for photographer Matthew Rolston, her glamorous, Marilyn Monroe-type features are surgically outlined according to Barbie's proportions.

Here’s a breakdown of what she'd need done to be the kind of doll women aspire to: a brow lift, a jaw line shave, rhinoplasty, a cheek and neck reduction, a chin implant, scooped-out shoulders, a breast lift, liposuction on her arms, and tummy tuck, which would also have to be sculpted as if it were lined in whale-bone from the inside. And that’s just the half of her.

Halchishick doesn’t actually need or want any of these procedures. She’s proving a point: just because our distorted image of how a body should be is medically attainable, that doesn’t mean it should be attained.

And if you doubt that anyone actually wants to look like Barbie, meet Cindy Jackson, a 55-year-old woman who’s had 52 cosmetic surgeries to look like her plastic idol."This is the way I should look,” Jackson told Good Morning America. "It's evolution. It's medical progress." There's also 10-in-one-day record-holder Heidi Montag, and a revolving door of on-screen personalities who look more like each other and less like human beings by the day.

Not everyone would call that progress. “The number one wish for all teenage girls is to be thinner,” said Halchishick, a former Ford Model who now mentors high school students about body image issues. “They think what makes a girl beautiful is skinny with big boobs, perfect hair, perfect make-up.”

Last year a total of 13.1 million body parts were surgically altered. Five percent of patients were under the age of 20.

Halchishick, who co-founded the website Healthy is the New Skinny, doesn’t place all the blame on surgery or a pint-sized rubber and plastic doll. She believes change has to start in schools, as well as in the fashion industry. “Girls want to know how to lose weight so badly, and the schools don’t want to talk about it, because they’re worried they’ll develop a complex,” she told The Gloss in March.

“There need to be models to show [girls] to wish for more.” She now heads up her own modeling agency for women with natural figures. She’s also campaigned to get plus-sized designers into New York Fashion Week. But her spread in O magazine, the first nude pictorial they’ve ever featured, has been the most buzz-worthy.

Accompanied by an essay by writer Amy Bloom, the photograph is intended to make women rethink their body image ideals. But it hasn't had that effect on everyone. When one 15-year-old girl saw this photo of Halchishick, her first thought was of her own imperfection, according to a blogger for Healthy is the New Skinny. “I thought if a girl as pretty as that has to change so much to be perfect, it made me wonder how much more I’d have to change.

(source)

What do ya'll think about this article?

Besides that, I baked this morning!!! I made these banana crumb muffins again. The difference is that this time, I made some of the brown sugar glaze that Jessica has been talking about! So, so delicious!!! I did have to make a change because we didn't actually have any heavy cream, and I halved the recipe, so here's what I did:

Brown Sugar Glaze

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/8 cup granulated sugar
• 1/8 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• a little butter (maybe 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon?) 

Directions:

1. Combine everything in a saucepan. 
2. Simmer over medium-low heat until all of the sugar has dissolved. 

The butter was to make up for the fat that would have been in the cream if I had been able to use it. I would definitely make the glaze again!!!! Soooo awesome, especially if you love brown sugar as much as I do! :D 

Well, that's about it for today!!! What are ya'll up to this week? 

Thank Goodness its Friday!

Here's a quick Friday post!

I can't believe just how fast this week has gone by! Luckily, I don't have a whole lot of homeschooling left to do....just watch some Julius Caesar and maybe an algebra test!

Thank you all for your input on yesterday's bread dilemma!!! =D I think I'll follow Erica's suggestion and bake one per week! After I've made all of those recipes, I'll try out my great-aunt's scary rolls!!! I'll probably cook some other stuff in between, so that I'm not just bread-baking all the time!! I'll keep ya'll posted!

Speaking of cooking, though, last night's dinner was fabulous!! We had peppercorn steak, baked potatoes, steamed veggies, rice and beans! Soo good! Gotta love a country were decent cuts of beef are priced reasonably as well! Not like filet or anything, but tasty nonetheless!!!!

I have NO idea what our weekend plans are....what about ya'll?

Have an awesome Friday!!!!

Can't make up my mind....

I'm feeling a little indecisive.............baking those bagels the other day made me want to bake even MORE bread-y carb-y goodness, but I cannot decide what to make. I have my great aunt's top-secret delicious dinner roll recipe, but it scares me, so I'm saving it for when I've had a little more bread-making practice. So, here are my options for now:

Lindsay Cotter from Cotter Crunch emailed me these two recipes:

GF english muffins from Clean Eating Chelsey:

http://cleaneatingchelsey.com/2010/12/28/incessant-english-muffins/

And Nutty Biscuits from Cotter Crunch:

http://cottercrunch.blogspot.com/2010/11/defeated-i-think-not.html

Also, yesterday, Erica from Itzy's Kichen informed me that on the Favorites page of her blog, she has more yummy bread recipes, so of course I checked it out, and these jumped out at me:

http://www.itzyskitchen.com/2008/04/brown-bread-and-french-fry-substitute.html

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Oatmeal-Whole-Wheat-Quick-Bread/Detail.aspx

So, as you can see, I have a bit of a dilemma here.....of course, not all of the recipes on my to-bake list have to do with bread....actually, they're mostly entrees or desserts.....I'm just in carb-loaded heaven right now! =D

Which of these looks good to you?Do you have a faaavorite bread recipe?

I desperately need something to cook, because otherwise, I'll be stuck doing this all day:



AAAAAAAAAH!

While my cat does this:



Whatcha' doin? You gonna bake me some cat food or something?

Speaking of my cat....the other day I was eating some Dark Chocolate Dreams and he walked up, so of course I gave him a little bit. Now he runs into the kitchen whenever I open the jar. I've created a monster. But, what else was to be expected from the cat who jumps on the table to eat peanuts and likes chocolate glaze (he licked it out of the pot when no one was looking)? Clearly, he had to like the stuff. =D

So, I guess I had better go finish up my algebra before lunch....ah and before I forget, today's workout was awesome! I did the fitsugar circuit that I think I posted last week and can be found on my Workin' It page, but I made sure that I had correct form, and did a minute of jump ropes/jumping jacks between each circuit. The supermans killed me at the end!!!!! I followed it up with some light cardio, because all I want to do now is exercise to maintain my fitness level and because I love it....definitely not to lose weight!

Gotta run!

Happy Thursday! =D




 

 

 

Whoohoo!!!!!

Can you tell I'm happy????

The thin mints were a success!!!!!

Here's the recipe I used (from Cakespy):

Cookies:

2 and 1/4 cups flour

1/4 cup cornstarch

6 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp salt (I used  less, and didn't notice a taste difference)

1 C sugar (I used the full amount this time, but I could definitely reduce it in the future)

1/2 C butter (I used a "light" butter because that's what was in the fridge)

1/3 C milk of any kind

1/2 tsp vanilla extract (could be omitted)

3/4 tsp peppermint extract (More or less depending on preference)

For chocolate coating:

10 oz dark or semi-sweet chocolate (I used semi-sweet chips)

1/2 C butter

1. Whisk together flour, cornstarch, salt, and cocoa.


2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. With mixer on low speed, add milk and extracts. Gradually add in flour mixture until fully incorporated.


3. Shape dough into two even logs, wrap in plastic wrap, and freeze for at least an hour and a half. The longer you freeze the dough, the easier it is to cut.


4. Preheat oven to 375.


5. Remove dough from freezer. Slice into rounds. For a more "thin mint" texture, make sure that the rounds are no thicker than 1/4 inch. They won't spread very much, so you can place them closer together on a lined baking sheet.


6. Bake for 13-15 minutes, remove from oven and set on a wire rack until cooled.


7. Melt butter and chocolate together in a medium saucepan. It will make a nice, thick chocolate sauce. Drop in cookies, turn with a fork to coat with chocolate. If the sauce begins to harden, you can heat it up until its back to the right consistency.


8. Place dipped cookies onto parchment paper, and let cool until chocolate hardens.

Note: The dough is incredibly thick, and I ended up not even using the mixer while adding the flour mixture to the butter-sugar mixture. I kneaded it pizza-style, and trust me, if you do the same, you can call it your workout for the day. The next morning, you'll have arms so toned that Madonna will be green with envy! =D

Makes about 40 smallish cookies.

I wish my cookies looked this good... at least they're yummy!!!!

So besides baking, yesterday I took one test and studied for another. Then we went to our friend's house, and brought some cookies with us!!!! This is the same friend that recently had surgery, and she's doing really well!!!!!

Today, its super-duper cold outside (like 17 degrees) and I'm really dreading getting out!!!! But, we're going to church, so its not like its something unimportant or anything...=P.

What has been your favorite thing that you've baked recently?

Hope ya'll  have a wonderful Sunday!!!!!

On the Road Once More

Yep we're sitting in the car again. I had an awesome time in WV visiting family! I can't believe its been 5 years since I've seen some of them. One thing that I won't miss however, is the extreme cold. At least, I think that it's extremely cold. Which is why I've had a cup of coffee with every meal so far, something that I don't usually do, by the way. But it was soooo worth it to get to spend time with my family!!!!

Anyway, now we're headed to Ohio to visit some more friends. We're just gonna be there tonight, and head home tomorrow morning. It's really perfect, because, as I've said, its a halfway point between West Virginia and home.

I am actually doing school in the back of the car. Its a Monday, so school as usual for me. Except for Algebra, which I absolutely cannot do in the car. See, my "book" is on a CD, which makes it had to work with in the back seat. I think that I still have 2 lessons from last week to do, 3 from this week, and 2 tests to take. I think that I'll just do a lot of the other classes today and tomorrow, and spend the rest of my week on Algebra II. Ugh.

Folks, I need new recipes!!!! I actually have a ton written down in my little recipe notebook, but none of them are calling to me right now. Sad, huh? I've been wanting to buy some ground turkey and do something with it, that doesn't require a whole lot of work, but still tastes yummy. I've been eyeing a ground turkey chili recipe, but I sort of want something a little more creative. Maybe I'm just too picky???? Well, if anyone has a recipe that has anything to do with ground turkey, could you please comment and tell me what it is??? Or email me the recipe at healthychocoholic@yahoo.com. Whichever you want. I need some inspiration!!!!! =D I promise that if I make someone's recipe, I'll give them credit for it!!!! =D

Oh and this week, I will begin my holiday candy box trial period. What is this you ask? I'm planning on making boxes of chocolates to give out for Christmas, but of course I need to make everything before I just give it to my friends. So far, I've got peppermint bark, chocolate covered cherries, chocolate pretzel rods, pb truffles, and chewey caramels on my list. Anyone have any other ideas? Is there anything that I should take off???? Please help me!

Well, I know that you are all busy with your own lives and all, so I'll let you get back to them!!! Happy Monday!