Twisted Peanut Butter Cookies

My coworker, Craig, celebrated his 40th anniversary with Graco the other day. I was in charge of bringing in the treats. I found this recipe online and decided it has the trifecta of perfect ingredients.

What doesn't say dessert better than

Chocolate,

Peanut Butter,

and Pretzels?

Using these three ingredients I made a peanut butter batter and added in crushed pretzels and chocolate chips. Nothing like the perfect combination of sweet and salty. These were a huge hit in the Duffey household, as well as at work. Look for this as our July Recipe of the Month!

Twisted Peanut Butter Cookies

Check out the pretzel chunks!

ERHS Cake Pops

Woodbury had a new high school open up last school year, East Ridge High School. This past school year, 2010 - 2011, had the first graduating class from East Ridge. We were asked to make cake pops in ERHS's colors, which are gold and black. We did a basic cake pop dipped in black candy melt and added gold drizzle.

Slew of ERHS Cake Pops

Go Raptors!

WHS Cake Balls

Our great family friend, Kayla, graduate from Woodbury High School this month. We were in charge of making cake balls for her graduation party. We stuck to true Woodbury colors, royal blue and white. These were very simple but turned out great.

Slew of WHS Cake Balls

Go Royals!

Congrats Kayla, Holy Hannah's is very proud of you! We know you will do great in whatever comes next!

Cinnamon Banana Muffins

Round three of Banana Muffins were a huge success. This recipe is very similar to the usual recipe I use from my Grandma but there was one special ingredient. Cinnamon! I am currently kicking myself because this idea is genius. Cinnamon is one of the best spices and it compliments bananas well.

Cinnamon

I ended up making a double batch of these and making 3 different types of muffins. We have very picky people in our house. Bethany only eats plain banana muffins. Mostly everyone loves chocolate chips in their banana muffins however, not everyone loves nuts (like Krista and my mother). So if you are looking for some banana muffins stop on by the Duffey house.

Cinnamon Banana Muffins with Chocolate Chips and Walnuts

Picture Perfect Cinnamon Banana Muffin

I did a rough count of the bananas in the freezer, we are down to 5! That is some serious progress in banana consumption. I have enough sour cream left to make another batch, so there might be more muffins or bread to come this week.

Nutella Banana Muffins

The second banana bread recipe I ran across was Nutella Banana Muffins. Ever since I got back from Arizona I have had an obsession with Nutella. It is delicious on a bagel, Ritz crackers, or drizzled over popcorn.

Nutella

Breanna and Krista were the first guinea pigs to try the muffins. They decided they tasted best when lathered in butter, but lets face it what doesn't taste better with a little bit of butter.

Nutella Banana Muffin

Slew of Nutella Banana Muffin

Gorgeous Chocolate Color

Banana Muffins

The other morning before I went to work I was digging in the freezer. I noticed we had an absurd amount of bananas waiting to be turned into delicious banana bread or muffins. And when I say absurd, I did a rough count and we had 20 bananas!


I did some Internet browsing and decided I would experiment with a few different recipes. The first one I gave a go had a special ingredient.

Cream Cheese

Bethany was quite skeptical about the muffins because they had a brown sugar topping but after her first bite she was in heaven. I will be adding this to the recipe rotation.

Slew of Banana Muffins

Banana Muffins with Brown Sugar Topping

Keith Urban

Krista and I had a fantastic time in Florida this past weekend. We got a healthy fill of Vitamin D and junk food. You know we cant pass up our dessert when we get a 6 dollar meal voucher at the airport and spend it all on cookies. =]

We were lucky enough to meet Keith Urban before his concert. We were star struck! His voice is dreamy, I feel like Marsha from the Brady Bunch when I use that word but, that is the only word that provides a good description. I cant wait to see him when he comes to Minnesota in October!

Emilee. Keith. Krista.

Talk about shit grins...we were excited!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Reese's Pieces Cookies

Chocolate Peanut Butter Reese's Pieces Cookies. Talk about a mouth full. From Krista's baking adventures a few weeks ago we had leftover Reese's Pieces candy. I figured I could save a few bucks and use these instead of chocolate chips. The cookies turned out delicious. Krista thought they tasted best fresh out of the oven, Ty had no problem devouring 3 later in the evening.

The Dough

These would be perfect in the Fall around Halloween

Using the new baking mats

Cookie Perfection

Slew of Chocolate Peanut Butter Reese's Pieces Cookies

Baptism Cake

Our littlest and last cousin, Ashlyn, got baptised last weekend. Krista, being the nice cousin she is, made her a baptism cake.

Baptism Cake

It was a basic 8 inch round vanilla bean cake with strawberry frosting. She added slices strawberries to the bottom for a border which added a nice touch.

Ashlyn Ann

Random

You know its been a long time since you posted when holyhannahs.blogspot.com no longer comes up in my history. I decided that that is pretty sad. I have done minimal baking still but I figured I will give you a general overview of our lives at the current moment.


Emilee


Over Memorial Day weekend I got to spend a wonderful 6 days in Arizona. I got some much needed Vitamin D and was able to spend time with my family. However, my favorite Uncle Rick was not home and Keegan was only home for one night. =[ It's ok, it is the perfect excuse to plan another trip down there.


Here is the one and only picture I took from the trip. I cant say I look the greatest but it will have to do!

Cousin Keegro and Me

After returning from my wonderful vacation, I had approximately 7 days to study for my last and final APICS exam. I have been working on these 5 exams since December. I had a few slip ups along the way so I was really hoping and praying this would be it. And sure enough I passed!!! Woohoo what a HUGE relief.

Internet Picture

After passing I was the happiest girl in the world. I cried because I was so relieved. I finally felt like I could have my life back. To celebrate I hit up the Mall of America and went to lululemon. This store has wonderful workout clothes and I kinda spoiled myself, oh well I deserved it!

I bought this sweatshirt jacket and I am absolutely obsessed!

Sing, Floss, Travel Jacket

I bought it in black but am really tempted to go get it in purple as well.

After all the excitement during the day on Friday we went out to celebrate at Acapulco. Nothing like a tasty raspberry margarita. YUM! The rest of the weekend Tyler biked the MS150 race. Its a bike ride from Duluth down to the cities, which equates to 150 miles. They threw a big party Saturday afternoon in Hinkley so I went up for the festivities. The casino treated both of us well and Tyler successfully finished the race on Sunday.

Again, here is the only picture I took of him over the weekend

Tyler John

Thank you to everyone who donated Tyler and supported him on his race.

I did do a little baking this week. Krista gave me 2 silicone baking mats as a present for passing my exams. 

They were perfect for making Oatmeal Raisin cookies. Tyler politely asked that since my exams are over will I start baking again? He is too funny.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Well, that is currently my life in a nutshell. I plan to do some baking tonight but probably wont update you until next week. Krista and I are heading to Florida to see this guy in concert. Dreamy!

Keith Urban

Krista

She has been quite busy preparing for some big things happening in her life at the moment. Her and her boyfriend put in an offer on a house and it was accepted! They are so very exciting and cannot wait to close on it at the end of the month.

Here is a picture of their new abode

Krista also got a new job! She started this last Monday at Thomson Reuters. She was sooo happy to start on a new journey and has been loving her first week.

Krista has been doing more baking then I have. For her last week at her old job she made the infamous Softest Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Softest Chocolate Chip Cookies

She also changed it up a little bit and added Reese's Pieces to some of the cookies. They were pretty tasty.

Reese's Pieces

Another thing Krista baked was the Recipe of the Month, only she made it in cake form for our cousin Ashlyn's baptism. Krista didn't like the way the cake look so she refused to take pictures. However, its the taste that counts and let me tell you, to die for!

Vanilla Bean and Strawberries

This picture will have to do because no pictures of the actually cake were taken

The both of us joined a new studio in Woodbury. Its a Pilates studio and so far we are loving it. We have a summer membership so hopefully come September we will have some nice toned arms and legs!

Hopefully once we get back from our weekend in Florida we will be relaxed and ready to start baking again! And just because I can I will leave you with one more picture of Keith Urban.

June

Well if you can believe it, it's already June. I most certainly cannot! May was a very busy month with baking but obviously not blogging (my apologies, June will be better, I promise!) I have taken the honor to update the Recipe of the Month to the Vanilla Bean and Strawberry Cupcakes Krista made back in April. I thought they were pretty tasty and since strawberries are on sale at Rainbow this week its the perfect opportunity. Happy Baking!