Sugar Cookies

This is one of my favorite cookie recipes and it's so simple!

Ingredients

2/3 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg

1 Tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees.

2. Beat butter w/ electric mixer (I used my stand mixer) on high speed for 30 seconds.  Add sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Beat until combined.  Beat in egg, milk, and vanilla.  Beat as much of the flour as you can w/ mixer. Stir in any remaining flour.  Cover and chill dough for at least 30 minutes.

3. On a lightly floured surface, roll half the dough at a time until 1/4 inch thick.  For best results, keep the half you're not working with in the refrigerator.  Cut into desired shapes.  Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

4. Bake 16-18 minutes or until edges are firm and bottoms are lightly browned (Add 3-4 minutes for insulated baking sheets).  Transfer to a wire rack (or counter) and let cool.  Let cool completely before frosting - I used Wilton Cookie Icing that I found at Target.

Enjoy!

Christmas Festivities

Instead of doing multiple long posts to recap the last couple of weeks, I'm just going to do one really long post :)

Last weekend, all of the girls from Mr T's side of the family (aunts, cousins, cousins' wives, etc) were planning on taking his grandmother to the Rockette's Christmas Show that was showing in Boston.  However, she had hip replacement surgery just before Thanksgiving and while she is doing very well, she wasn't up to going out for a night on the town.  The rest of us went anyway and had a great time!  We had dinner at a great family-style Italian restaurant and enjoyed the show (despite getting yelled at to stop taking pictures - we arrived as the show was starting and missed the announcement about no pictures - oops!)

The day after the show, Mr T and I hosted our annual holiday party - I don't have any pictures from it, but we had a wonderful time with our friends and family and I have many recipes to share!

Then, my favorite night of the year - Christmas Eve!  Ever since Mr T and I have been dating, I've attended the T family Christmas Eve "Extravaganza" (as I've designated it).  It is one of the two holidays that basically no one in the family misses (4th of July being the other).  In all, 28 people gathered at his aunt's house for dinner, gifts, and quality time together.  My love for this night as only grown since being privileged enough to experience this family gathering - I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful second family.

 my father-in-law

Mr T and his dad

 The grab (basically a Yankee swap)

my brother-in-law and Santa

family love - the "kids" and great aunt G

And last but not least, Christmas Day!  Mr T and I spent the morning opening our gifts to each other and getting ready to host our parents, my sister, and Mr T's brother for dinner.

Mr T and the beer-brewing kit I gave him

he got me the Kinect for our XBox - this thing is awesome

playing with the Kinect - who says you can't get toys when you're a grown up?!

Sox and me

 Sox tired from the morning gift-opening

my mom, sister, and parents' dog, Lucy

my dad and his baby girl

Lucy and my mother-in-law

We actually have one more day of festivities awaiting us - our Christmas with Mr T's parents, brother, sister and brother-in-law.  But we're in the midst of a blizzard (12-18" expected by tomorrow morning!) so we postponed our get-together until next weekend.  Instead, I'm curled up on the couch, in front of a roaring fire and the NCIS marathon on TV, hoping we don't lose power!

Happy Holidays!

hopefully I'll start blogging more regularly in 2011!  I have a lot to post from the last 2 months!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies

Last, but certainly not least, my favorite product from this weekend's baking extravaganza...the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies!  Another winner from my good friend MrsD!

Her recipe includes the from-scratch versions, I cheated a little and made the brownies from my favorite boxed mix, but I did make the cookie dough from scratch.  I have no pictures of my finished product - I cut them up and put them away before I remembered the camera, so I'm borrowing MrsD's image

I also didn't make the ganache for the top - I'm not really a fan of chocolate frostings, and I didn't want to ruin these for myself!

Ingredients

For the brownie part:
1 box of your favorite brownie mix + whatever you need to make the mix as directed

For the cookie part:
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup butter, softened
¼ cup plus 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
¼ cup plus 2 Tbsp. packed brown sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels (I used mini-morsels)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease 9x13 inch pan.

2. Prepare brownie batter as directed on box.  Pour batter into greased pan.

3. For the cookies, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt in small bowl and set aside.  In separate large bowl, beat together butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla.  Add egg and mix well.  Gradually add in flour mixture.  Fold in chocolate chips by hand.

4. Drop by spoonfuls into brownie batter, pressing down lightly on the dough.

5. Bake 35-40 minutes.  Let cool in pan for about 1 hour.


And even though I didn't use it, I wanted to include the recipe for the chocolate ganache in case you want it:

For the ganache:1½ cups semi-sweet chocolate morsels
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
6 Tbsp. butter
In a small saucepan, heat cream and butter until just before the boiling stage. Pour over the chocolate morsels. Let stand for about 20 seconds, then stir until smooth. Pour over the brownies, and smooth to cover completely. Let set before cutting. (This takes a crazy long time, but make sure to wait before cutting into them. I usually let them sit overnight, then cut them in the morning.) Cut into small pieces and enjoy!

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

I had been talking to one of my friends at work about how I was planning on baking all weekend and his request was "oatmeal!".  I wanted to try some new stuff, so I went in search of another cookie that has oatmeal, but something different than your usual oatmeal raisin cookies.  I found this recipe and couldn't wait to try it.

Ingredients
3/4 C shortening
1 C packed brown sugar
1 egg
½ C mashed ripe bananas (~2 bananas)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 C all purpose flour
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground cloves
3 C oats (I used old-fashioned)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease cookie sheets

2. In large bowl, cream together shortening and brown sugar.  Beat in egg, banana, and vanilla

3. In separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cloves.  Gradually mix into banana mixture.  Fold in oats by hand.

4. Drop spoonfuls onto cookie sheets. Bake 8-10 minutes (add 3-5 minutes if using insulated baking sheets).  Cool on pan for ~5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool comletely.

Makes 3 dozen cookies.


Adapted from AllRecipes

Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

Sticking with the pumpkin theme, I found this recipe online and made a couple of changes to it.  I made the same cream cheese frosting that I had for the Banana Cupcakes.

I'll admit that I have no idea how these taste - my coworkers are my taste-testers when it comes to pumpkin recipes.  But they came out exactly as I'd hoped texture-wise and they smell amazing, so I'm guessing they're good.

Ingredients
3 eggs
2/3 C vegetable oil
3/4 C white granulated sugar
1 15oz can pumpkin puree
2 C all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp salt

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In large bowl, mix eggs, oil, sugar, and pumpkin.  In separate bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cloves.

3. Gradually add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture until combined.

4. Spread batter evenly into ungreased 10x15 inch jelly roll pan.

5. Bake 25-30 minutes.  Cool completely before frosting.

Makes 2 dozen bars.


Adapted from AllRecipes

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've been a slacker with blogging lately, but I have 4 new recipes to make it up to you.
After the success of my pumpkin bread, I started gathering more pumpkin recipes to try out.  I came across this Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe on my friend, MrsD's blog and it could not have been more perfect!  I've made 3 batches in the last 2 weeks - they're so easy and everyone l.o.v.e.s. them.  I've actually had coworkers ask me if I put drugs in them (but no worries, these cookies are drug free!).  The only addition I made was a teaspoon of ground cloves.

Ingredients
1 C canned pumpkin puree
1 C white granulated sugar
½ C vegetable oil
1 egg
2 C all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp milk
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
2 C chocolate chips (1 12oz pkg)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a medium bowl, mix together flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and cloves. In a separate, large bowl, combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg.

3. Dissolve baking soda with milk and add to pumpkin mixture.

4. Gradually add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture.  Mix well.  Then add in vanilla and chocolate chips

5. Drop by spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet.  Bake 10 minutes or until light brown and firm (add 3-5 minutes for insulated cookie sheets).  Let cool on pan for 2 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 3 dozen cookies

2 years ago today...

I married my high school sweetheart
Today is also the 8 year anniversary of our first date

And ironically enough, the weather today is like the weather on our wedding day.

A quick look back...

8 years ago...first day of senior year of high school - a couple weeks before we started dating

2 years ago...

Happy Anniversary to my amazing husband!!

family room carpet

as promised (and a little late), pictures of our family room put back together with the new carpet

Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread

If you haven't noticed, I've been in baking mode lately.  I can't help it - fall does that to me (even though it's about 85 and humid here today).

I always bring my baked goods into the office and the other day I had a few people ask me if I baked anything with pumpkin, since it's "that time of year".  I honestly never have because I don't like pumpkin and neither does MrT.  But in response to the not-so-subtle hinting by my friend, I decided to try it this weekend.

I browsed recipe sites for a highly rated pumpkin recipe (since I won't taste-test it, I wanted to be sure I picked something that was already tried-and-true).  I found THIS recipe and decided to give it a go.

Beware, the recipe makes a LOT of batter.  I made 3 mini loaves and 18 cupcake-sized muffins.  I hope my coworkers like it because they're getting it all!

Ingredients

1 15-oz can pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1 C vegetable oil
3 C white sugar
2/3 C water 
3½ C all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1½ tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp ground ginger

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease the pan(s) you'll be baking with or line cupcake/muffin tin with paper liners.

2. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin, eggs, oil, sugar, and water.

3. In separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger.

4. Gradually add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and stir until well-blended.

5. Distribute batter evenly amongst the pans.  Bake until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Baking times will vary based on pans used.  The mini loaves I made took about an hour (however, I believe this is due to the fact that I used disposable foil tins - based on size I thought it would only take about 45 minutes); the muffins took 30 minutes.

Spiced Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Found this draft unpublished from a month ago - not sure what I was waiting for!
_______________________

Like most of the recipes I have, I can't take credit for this one, I got it HERE.  I love it because the spices make it my kitchen smell wonderful.

I also can't tell you firsthand how these taste because I don't particularly like oatmeal raisin cookies.  But MrT requested them once so I found a recipe.  He loves these and so do some of the people I work with.  In fact, "love" may be an understatement - I brought a batch into the office a few weeks ago and they were gone by the following afternoon.  A good friend I work with had eaten 4 before he left work that day!

Ingredients
1 stick margarine (softened)
1 stick butter flavored shortening (I typically just use a stick of (real) butter, softened)
2 eggs
1 cup light brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground cloves
½ tsp salt
3 cups oats
1 cup raisins

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. In a large bowl, mix together margarine, butter, eggs, sugars, and vanilla.

3. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt.  Then add this mixture to the sugar mixture.  Mix well.

4. Mix in oats and then raisins.

5. Drop spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes.  Cool on sheet for 2 minutes then transfer to cooling rack.

Makes 2-3 dozen cookies

Banana Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

I can take zero credit for this recipe, as I got it from my good friend, MrsD, but it's too delicious not to share!

One of the best things about this recipe is how easy it is!  It's very easy when you need a quick dessert or need/want something to bake on a weeknight.

Ingredients

Cupcakes
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2/3 cup shortening
2/3 cup buttermilk
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (I used 3 bananas; frozen, then thawed)

Frosting
1 8-ounce package of regular cream cheese
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract


Directions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease your desired baking pan: either a 13×9x2 inch pan, two 9-inch round layer pans, three 8-inch round layer pans, or line cupcake tins with liners.

Measure all cupcake ingredients into the bowl of stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Blend for 30 seconds on low speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Next, beat for three minutes on high speed. Pour the batter evenly into the prepared pans, or fill cupcake tins about 2/3 of the way full.

Bake oblong 45-50 minutes, layers 35-40 minutes, cupcakes 20-25 minutes. Cool completely on racks.

To make the frosting, beat together cream cheese and butter. With mixer on low speed, gradually add the powdered sugar until completely incorporated. Add the vanilla, and blend. You may add extra sugar or add a little bit of milk to thicken or thin the frosting to the desired consistency. Frost cupcakes as desired.

Source: adapted from Vintage Victuals 

Enjoy!

bathroom progress - 95% complete

I am happy to report that after almost 2 months, our bathroom renovation is basically done.  The reason it's not 100% is because we're waiting for our shower head/tub spout set to be delivered and MrT still needs to hang the shower curtain rod (but drilling through porcelain tile is not easy.  It takes over 1 fully charged drill battery per hole.  He needs to drill 4 holes - he's done 1.  And he broke a drill bit.)

Long story short, we hired this plumber.  He was good in the beginning, got the plumbing in, etc.  Then he had to wait on us before coming back to finish.  We had to do the electrical work, new walls, tile, etc.  Basically he just had to come back at the end to hook up the sinks and the shower.  Well, we've been ready for him for about 4 weeks now.  Week 1 - he just plain forgot.  Week 2 - he apparently hurt himself and spent all day at the hospital.  Week 3 - he was later than he'd planned to be and we were having people over so we told him not to come.  Week 4 - we didn't hear from him (and still haven't - and it's been 9 days since we last talked to him).

So MrT decided to take matters into his own hands.  We've been talking about him finishing it for a couple of weeks now, but we kept thinking the plumber was coming THIS time.  But when T couldn't get a hold of him at the end of last week, that was the last straw.

To say I love it is an understatement.  I stand in there and stare at it on no less than 2 occasions per day.  I can now brush my teeth, use the toilet, and do my hair in there.  And hopefully after this weekend, I can shower and even take a bath!

Without further ado - pictures!

In the midst of this project, we also got new carpet (I think I mentioned that in my last post with the pictures of the hardwood floors.  Well the new carpet was installed last Thursday and I am in love with that too.  I don't have pictures of the room set up yet, but here is my beautiful new carpet, in all its glory!

Before:

After:

more pictures tomorrow probably with the furniture back in place!

"new" flooring

While we have a dumpster here during the bathroom renovation, I took the opportunity to rip out some of the carpet in the house.  There is hardwood floor underneath it all, but we'll be re-carpeting the family room and stairs so that still has the old carpet.  But the hallway looks amazing!  The floors are in pretty good shape, minus the small nail holes from the tack strips.

Before

After

We've been working on the bathroom all weekend - it's really coming together!  I'll have pictures of that tomorrow I hope!