Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

This recipe comes from a lady whom I work with. I am not going to lie, I am not a huge fan of Oatmeal Raisin cookies and usually turn my nose up at them. However, these cookies are to die for! The first time I brought these cookies home I told Krista she had to try them. When I told her what kind they were she too turned her nose up. I broke off half a cookie for her to try, no more than 2 minutes later she asked where the rest of her cookie was. =] They are that good!

The secret is this recipe is made with very special ingredients. No butter, if you can believe that and golden yellow raisins. Golden yellow raisins are 100% different then normal raisins and give the cookie a great taste.

Here is a glimpse at the dough before it gets baked. No mixer needed just your own two hands.


This is what the cookies look like pre-baked. You want to get about 1/4 cup of dough, make it into a nice ball, and then flatten it slightly to look like a saucer. This give the cookie optimal shape while baking.



Here is what the cookies look like post-baking. They are HUGE! You can seriously only have one cookie and you get your fill.

Here is a whole slew of Oatmeal Raisin cookies. I am craving one now just from looking at these pictures! YUM!

So apparently we are on a cookie kick in the baking department. Tomorrow night we are once again getting creative with cake pops. Here's a hint - think cartoon character.

Maddy's Birthday

Continental Flight 3407 went down on February 12, 2009 just outside of Buffalo, NY. Unfortunately, my dear friend Maddy Loftus lost her life in that night's tragedy. My friends have hosted many wonderful events and fundraisers since that day to help fuel a scholarship fund in Maddy's name. They wanted to make her birthday a special day when we could remember and cherish the wonderful girl that Maddy is. I was put in charge of the birthday cake, which was not an easy task. It was a lot of pressure, and after many mishaps and tears, I came up with this.




Maddy's favorite color was teal and she loved chocolate. I was proud of how it turned out and we all had a wonderful time celebrating our beautiful friend's life.

M&M Cookies

Hello, gorgeous!

M&M candies are a weakness for our entire family. Starting with my mother who is obsessed with the plain M&Ms (me too) and always has a bag in her purse. Dad and Krista enjoy the peanut M&Ms. Bre's favorite are the peanut butter and Bethany's love belongs to the originals.

One night last week I whipped up a batch of cookies. Making M&M cookies and chocolate chip cookies (Mindy, can I have your recipe?) in our house is dangerous because we usually only get about a dozen baked cookies and the rest of the dough disappears. However, this night I was at the house all by myself and I only ate a smidge of the dough. But seriously, how could you resist?

My cookies came out a little flat, too much mixing I suppose, but that didn't stop them from being devoured!

Little Bethany

So our younger sister Bethany is quite special. She is challenged in the cooking/baking department and we are not quite sure how she will fare at college but all we can do is hope for the best.

Her best friend Kasey, who is pretty much part of the fam, had a birthday on Tuesday and Bethany attempted making her a cake. Lets just say it didn't go the greatest. Our oldest sister, Breanna, also played a part in this sad tale. Bre decided it was time to take the cake out of pan - lets just say it was a bit premature. The cake ended up crumbling and Bethany was not happy AT ALL. Bethany and her friend Eleanor carefully created a mound of cake and started decorating. To say the least Bethany will not be asked to participate in the cake business.

Ice Cream Sammys

So while I was out of town over Fourth of July weekend Krista was at home slaving away over baked goods. I am pretty much a slave driver ;)

Krista was quite bad at taking pictures but her baking activities included Americana Cake Pops and Ice Cream Sammys. This is the only picture she got and of course it was taken on her cell phone.

If you have never made Ice Cream Sandwhich I would strongly suggest it. They are a great summertime treat and super easy to make.

A Brief History Lesson

So I thought I would give you all a brief history lesson on where the baking all began.

This is my boyfriend Tyler, he is pretty studly. I met Tyler at the good old University of Wisconsin Eau Claire. Tyler's hometown is Appleton WI - pretty much on the opposite side of the state. So our freshman year came and went and we were faced with the uphill battle of a summer apart. I know every person enjoys receiving mail so I decided that I would mail him a different type of cookie every week. So began the baking! He told me his favorite type of cookie was Snickerdoodle. I had never even heard of it but I attempted them anyways. They have since become a staple in the cookie making.


Tyler's birthday is July 2nd. Happy birthday last Friday Ty! So we had ventured into cakes quite yet so for his birthday I brought frosted sugar cookies in 2006. Check out that American flag action.


Apparently for 2007 Tyler didn't get anything special for his birthday. I am sure the treats included molasses cookies, snickerdoodle cookies, special k bars and whatever other weird treats I concocted.

Moving onto July 2008 Krista and I tried our hand at our very first fondant cake. We made homemade fondant and as far as I can remember we struggled. So this was Tyler's big 2-1 birthday and his cake pretty much looked liked it should have been for a 2 year old. Sorry babe, thanks for always saying you loved it!

In 2009 I tried a different approach. I told him to give me an ingredient and I would run with it. Can anyone guess the ingredient of choice?? Mint! So Tyler got some sort of mint chocolate chip chocolate cake. I'm pretty sure it was good. Do you like my artistic touch on the top?

So this past week, I'm not going to lie, I was caked-out. Cake ball overload! So Thursday night as I debated what to make for Tyler's birthday treat I settled on the old standby, Molasses cookies. These are one of Tyler's favorite and he loved them!

So we do bake other things besides cake balls! But here we are in 2010 and I am still baking all thanks to the boyfriend. So I guess I owe it to him when we make it big.

Because It's Friday

Well I want wish all of our avid followers a Happy 4th of July weekend. I will be traveling out of town with the boyfriend and Krista will be holding down the fort at home, complete with cake pops. Americana Cake Pops! Pictures to come next week. I will leave you with this platter of cupcakes that should make anybody smile.