Still Alive...

I'm not sure if you were worried, but I am still alive and baking!Since I got a new job and Mike and I moved into our house, I've been a bit busy, but I'm back in action!

This past weekend, my aunt had a party for my cousin Brady. He is turning 9 on Saturday. I know you've all seen this cake before, but Brady requested my vanilla bean cake with strawberry buttercream frosting.

It looked a bit girly, so I tried to boy-it-up a bit by piping in blue.

And I love to add the strawberries around the outside of this cake, thanks for the tip Chelsea :)

A silly one because I forced him to take a picture with the cake...

I can't believe our little Brady is all grown up and turning 9! Stay tuned for more from me this week :)

Pasta Salad

Pasta salad and baking have nothing to do with one another. However, instead of baking last night I made pasta salad so that's the recipe you are getting. Plus it was hotter than Hades in Minnesota again last night so turning on the oven didn't sound like the brightest idea. Nothing is better in the summer than a nice, cool, refreshing pasta salad (none of that lettuce salad stuff!)


This pasta salad is very easy to make and you only need a few ingredients.

Rotini Noodles, Italian Dressing, Suddenly Salad Supreme Seasoning, Tomatoes, Cucumber, Onion, and Pepperoni

Start by cooking the noodles according to the box.


While the noodles are cooking, chop up your onions

Chop up your cucumber

Chop up your tomatoes

Chop up your pepperonis

Once the noodles are cooked to al dente allow to cool before adding your ingredients

Now grab an ice cream bucket, yes, we are classy like that. And of course we had to pick up the limited edition Joe Mauer ice cream bucket.

Dump in your noodles.

Add a generous portion of the Italian dressing. Again this salad is meant to be easy and there is no measuring to be done. Mix until noodles are covered.

Add in the onions

 
Add in the cucumbers

Add in the tomatoes

Mix it thoroughly. I just liked this action shot so that is why you are getting the picture. Krista is really getting into it!

 
Add in a heaping amount of Suddenly Salad Supreme seasoning. If you have never used this stuff before, stop what you are doing (well finish reading the post), drive/walk/run to the store and pick some of it up. To die for!

Add in the pepperonis

Give it one final mix, and try a sample. It might need more dressing, or more salad supreme, or even an extra bit of onion. It really comes down to your personal preference. So don't be scared if you have the urge to add more of something. As my mother always says more is better.

Pasta Salad

Enjoy!

Potato Chip Cookies

So because we are a bunch of fools, we forgot to take pictures of all 250 cookies...I know I am sad too! I really would have like to a have 1 picture with every cookie accounted for! I suppose between rushing to the wedding and packing up cookies from two different houses it slipped our minds.
But no worries, I baked some more cookies over the weekend that I thought you might find intriguing. This is the only word I could think of when I got the recipe.

Here are the ingredients you will need

Butter, Sugar, Brown Sugar, Eggs, Vanilla Extract, Potato Chips, Flour, Baking Soda, and Butterscotch Chips

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees

Start by mixing 2 sticks of softened butter, 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of brown sugar, 2 eggs, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract ( I only had vanilla bean paste on-hand so just pretend its extract).

Now this part of the recipe is therapeutic. Put a handful of potato chips inside a Ziploc bag and pound them to smithereens!

Add in 2 cups of crushed potato chips to the batter.

Mix in the dry ingredients, 2 1/2 cups of flour and 1 teaspoon of baking soda.

Stir in a bag of butterscotch chips

My mother is quite particular about her treats. One thing for certain is she does not like butterscotch chips. So in order to appease her I made her own separate batch of potato chip cookies with chocolate chips in them.

Roll the cookies into 2 inch balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 8 minutes or until golden brown.

Potato Chip Cookies

Stack of Potato Chip Cookies

Potato Chip Cookie

I had a lot of fun making these. Especially since no one knew what the secret ingredient was. Everyone assumed the butterscotch chips were meant to make them special (remember, the forgotten chip). These cookies definitely had an extra crunch to them but I was hoping the chips would make more of an appearance. Maybe I took my chip crunching therapy a little far and I crushed them up too tiny? Not quite sure, but these cookies were definitely delicious enough to be made again, and again, and again.

Side note, these cookies tasted better with butterscotch chips, no matter what my mother tries to tell you.

Just a thought for all my Minnesota readers, doesn't this cookie sound like it should be deep-fried, put on a stick and sold at the state fair?? I cannot wait for the fair to start in T-minus 3 days!

Monster Cookies

This is it! The big HOO-RAH! To cap off our Cookie Week off we will be featuring a Monster Cookie. The great thing about this recipe is that they are dang delicious and gluten intolerant people can eat them. It's great to be able to please everyone.

Monster Cookies

1/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 cups crunchy peanut butter
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
4 1/2 cups rolled oats (certified gluten free, if necessary)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup M&Ms
1 cup chocolate chip morsels
Cooking Spray

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Combine butter, sugar and brown sugar at medium speed of an electric mixer until smooth. Add peanut butter, eggs, corn syrup and vanilla; mix until just combined.

3. Stir in oats, baking soda and salt using a large wooden spoon. Gently stir in M&Ms and chocolate chip morsels until well-combined.

4. Drop 1/4 cup portions of dough about 4 inches apart on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 for 12 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned. (Bake less time for a chewy cookie, more time for a crunchy one.) Let cool 3 minutes on baking sheets. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely. But eat at least one while it's still warm.

Yield: 2 1/2 dozen cookies

My favorite sister Krista forgot her camera so this old picture will have to do the trick.

Monster Cookies

The wedding is tonight and all 250 cookies are baked and ready for the guests to enjoy. Stayed tuned, next Monday we will show you what 250 cookies look like!

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Well if you can believe it...we finished 1 full bag (72 ounces of chocolate chips!)and half of the of the other! Here is the proof!

I think by the end of baking the cookies, only 50 more to go, we will have used 144 ounces of chocolate chips. I find this fact to be glorious!

Now onto the cookie for today, a Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie. I think most people shy away from making their dough chocolate flavored but I think it makes for a nice change of pace. These cookies have Krista's name written all over them.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/4 cup sugar

1 cup butter

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Combine sugar and butter and beat with an electric mixer

Beat in vanilla and egg

Slowly beat in flour, soda, and cocoa

Stir in chocolate chips

Bake for 9 minutes or until golden brown

50 Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Stack of Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Who doesn't love a chocolate chip cookie? I have finally found my go-to, all-time favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. It makes for the softest chocolate chip cookies around. Make these tonight, please, and bring me one to eat!
Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 package instant vanilla pudding mix
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Stir flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
Combine butter, sugars, and pudding mix; beating until fluffy.
Add vanilla and egg; beat until smooth.
Add dry ingredients, mix well.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

50 Chocolate Chip Cookies

Stacks of Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Peanut Butter Cookies

Today's featured cookie is a good old fashioned Peanut Butter cookie. This recipe comes from my Grammy and it is pretty darn delicious!


Peanut Butter Cookies


1 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup peanut butter
3 cups flour
3 tsp baking soda
A dash of salt


Preheat oven to 375.


Cream shortening, sugars, and vanilla. Add eggs and beat thoroughly. Stir in peanut butter. Mix in dry ingredients. Form into balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for ten minutes, half way through press in criss-cross pattern with fork.

50 Peanut Butter Cookies

Stacks of Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut Butter Cookie