My husband, Rob, texted me the other day that the national,chain where he got his iced coffee had sugar cookies too. They looked good, he thought, but were probably dry. I said yes, probably. I think he was dropping a hint that he would like a sugar cookie. I felt lile Monica in a “Friends” episode..being challenged to make a better cookie than a billion dollar company. So voila, here are a dozen. He can eat one and I take the rest to work.

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 egg
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 11/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

Directions – cream butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla. Stir in sour cream. Blend in dry ingredients. Scoop out 3 tbs cookie dough. Roll into balls and flatten 1/4 inch thick. Chill a couple,of hours. Preheat oven to 300. Stagger on cookie sheet, lined with baking liners. Bake 10 to 14 minutes, until lightly golden on bottom. Cool completely.

Frosting ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2-3 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tbs Milk
• 1 tsp,vanilla

Directions – cream butter and powdered sugar. Add milk and vanilla. You may want to add more powdered sugar to get desires level of consistency.

Store in covered container.

Today is our 16th anniversary, so I asked Rob what dessert he wanted. He said “a hostess cupcake cake.” And the most important part – the squiggle! Now, as you can see, decorating is so not my strong point, but I wanted to do my best. So I bought a wilton’s cake decorating bag set. And each piece will have a squiggle!

1 chocolate cake, baked in 8 inch rpund pans, as directed and completely cooled.

Filling ingredients

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup marshmallow fluff
• 2-3 cups powdered sugar
• 3 tbs heavy cream or milk

Directions – cream butter, fluff and powdered sugar. Add enough cream or milk to get the desired consistency.

Frosting ingredients

• 6 tbs butter
• 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
• 2 tbs corn syrup
• 1 tba vanilla

Directions – melt butter, chips and corn syrup in 30 second increments until you can stir smooth. Chill 15 minutes.

Squiggle ingredients

• 1/4 cup butter softened
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tbs Milk or cream
• 1 tsp vanilla

Squiggle directions

Blend well. Scoop into decorating bag or a zip lock bag. Cut tip of bag by 1/4 inch.

Assembly directions -Place one layer, top side down, on cake platter.

Spread filling over flat side.

Place other layer, flat side down on top of filling.

Chill 15 minutes. Frost.

Chill 15 minutes. Decorate with the super squiggle!

Store in covered container.

What sort of treat to make when it is 93 degrees and horribly humid? Anything no bake, of course! I opted for a no bake Oreo pie because I have 3 containers of them bc they were on sale. And God knows in case anyone has some sort of Oreo emergency, I have you covered! You can use whatevwe kind of crust you want. You can bake a regular pie crust and let it cool completely before filling it. I opted to use some homemade chocolate chip cookies that spread out in the humidity. I find flat cookies unacceptable to serve people, so they served another purpose.

Crust ingredients

• 3 cups cookie crumbs
• 1 stick of butter, melted.

Directions – combine and press into pie plate. Let set in fridge 30 minutes.

Filling ingredients

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened (I used fat free)
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 8 oz cool whip (again, I used fat free. Ridiculous, I know)
• 1 container of Oreos, finely ground
• 2 tbs cornstarch

Directions

Blend cream cheese, powdered sugar and cool whip. Add cornstarch. Mix in Oreos. Spread over crust.

Topping ingredients

• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1 tbs oil

Directions – melt in 20 second increments until you can stir smooth. Spread over Oreo layer. Chill.

Store in covered container in fridge.

Happy 4th of July! What better way to celebrate than turning on your oven and baking when it’s 90 degrees and humid! Today’s treat combine a white cake mix and sugar cookie mix for the bars, and a buttercream frosting. I misplaced my sprinkles, so there are no sprinkles. And I did not put m&ms on top,bc they would be soft when I bring the treats into work. You could also mix up what cake and cookie mixes you use, like chocolate and chocolate or lemon and sugar cookie.

Ingredients

• 1 white cake mix
• 1 sugar cookie mix
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup butter, melted
• 1 tbs vanilla

Directions – preheat oven to 350. Spray a 9×13 pan with baking spray. Combine mixes, eggs, butter and vanilla. Mixture will be thick so drop by spoonfuls onto pan and spread (you may want to spray your hands with Pam to make this easier). Bake 20 to 30 min. (Edges will be golden brown). Cool completely.

Frosting ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 3 tbs heavy cream or milk
• 1 tbs vanilla

Directions

Combine butter and powdered sugar. Add cream and vanilla and beat well. You may want to add more powdered sugar to thicken frosting.

Store in covered container.

These are super simple, and super sinful. Brownies topped,with oreo truffles and melted chocolate. You can use any brownie recipe you want, made as directed. The truffle layer is simple – crushed oreos and melted butter. You can use whatever chocolate you want for the topping. I went w the classic Hershey kisses option! Also put some melted chocolate on the brownies and then put the truffle layer on top so the truffle layer stays put.

Ingredients

• 1 batch of brownies (made in a 9×13 pan), made as directed and completely cooled
• 1 bag of Oreos
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 bag of hershey kisses or Chocolate chips
• 1 tbs oil

Directions – crush oreos completely in food processor. Mix in melted butter., you may need to add more melted butter 1 tbs at a time.

Melt chocolate and oil in microproof safe container, in 30 second increments, until you can stir smooth. Spread chocolate on cooled brownies. Add truffle layer and pour remaining chocolate on top. Store in covered container.

Today’s recipe originates from one from Pillsbury that I discovered during Thanksgiving break during college. I always found the recipe fabulous and when I found it again online, I wanted to make them again. plus, they are a piece of cake (or is it cookie) to make. this time, the dough seemed a little dry, so instead of adding more water, I went with hot fudge.. because… why not? Hersheys hot fudge was THE BEST when I was a little girl!

I also added chocolate chips because I have two of these huuuuuge bags of Nestle chips (one of the wonders of BJs).

ingredients

• 1 brownie mix
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 cup oil
• 5 tbs water
• 1/4 cup hot fudge (microwaved for 10 seconds in microwave save container
• 1 cup chocolate chips.

directions

combined brownie mix, egg, flour, oil and water. Stir in hot fudge. Blend in chips. using a cookie scoop, form 1/4 cups of dough. shape into high piles (you may want to use a little extra flour for this. chill dough at least 1 hour. preheat oven to 350 degrees. scatter mounds of dough on a cookie sheet, lined with nonstick baking liners. bake 12-15 minutes. cookies will seem a little doughy, but that is ok, the bottoms will be brown. let them sit on cookie sheet for 10 minutes. cool completely.

store in covered container.

Got a request from my husband today for Chocolate Chip cookies. this is one of the 257 I have in my recipe box! (give or take a few). It is super simple, uses a cake mix, eggs, oil, water, flour and chocolate chips. I added a little extra flour because the dough was a little sticky and I prefer my cookies to come out puffy and use the flour to stiffen the dough so I can pile it high to keep it from spreading too much. I used a yellow cake mix today, but you can use any flavor you want and any chips that you want (think chocolate cake mix and peanut butter chips). These are super simple and look great!

and here’s another tip I found with my oven (shout out to Stanley, the tech who helped me realize why our new stove was not cooking and baking properly).. to preheat your oven properly, set your oven temp and hit start… then start your timer for 20 minutes. when that timer goes off, your oven will be at the right temperature. something about cycling and increasing and decreasing temperature. if you follow that, your baked goods will cook more evenly

ingredients

• 1 cake mix
• 1/2 cup oil
• 2 eggs
• 2-4 tbs flour
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Directions

Combine cake mix, flour, oil and eggs. Plenty in chips. Maybe add a little more flour to make dough easier to handle. Using a cookie scoop (about 1/4 cup of dough), scoop out door and form into high piles. Let chill at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 350. Scatter on a baking sheet lined with nonstick baking liners. Bake 10-15 minutes. There will be golden spots on top and bottom will be lightly browned. Cool completely.

Store in covered container.

Today’s treat is in honor of one of my co-workers, Marty Smith. He and Ryan McGee host “Marty and McGee” on ESPN Radio Saturday mornings. They are fabulous, funny, kindhearted guys who’s show is among the best ESPN has to offer. I love doing updates during their show because the provide a relief from all the crappy stuff in the world. Anyways, Marty loves lemon Pound Cake and even though he is in North Carolina (along w Ryan), I brought that treat in today. It’s a simple recipe, courtesy of Duncan Hines. If you don’t want to make 🍋 frosting, by all means use the canned stuff.

Lemon pound cake ingredients

• Lemon cake mix
• 3.4 oz pkg instant lemon pudding mix
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup oil

Directions – preheat oven to 350. Spray large bundt pan with baking spray. Beat cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, water and oil 2 minutes on medium speed. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 40 to 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out with a few crumbs. Cool completely. Turn over on plate.

Frosting ingredients

• 3/4 cups butter, softened
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tbs lemon juice
• 1-2 tbs heavy cream
• 8 oz container cool whip, defrosted

Directions

Cream butter. Slowly blend in powdered sugar and lemon juice. Add cream. You may want to add more cream or powdered sugar to get the consistency you want. Blend in cool whip. Frost cake.

Store in covered container.

I loved all “Little Debbie” treats when I was little, especially the brownies! That weird frosting on top was awesome! It is funny how all the stuff you love when you were little was so appealing (twinkies and hostess stuff, boxed mac and cheese etc). Then as you when.. Ahem… Get older, it’s not so appealing. Do the formulas change for the treats or is it more our tastes change? Anyways, now, I like to make homemade versions these treats… And today, it is the Little Debbie brownies. They are very fudgy and soft. The frosting is a ganache..(melted chocolate chips and heavy cream). I can’t find a way to duplicate her frosting.

And, btw, is there really a little debbie?

Ingredients

• 10 tbs butter, melted
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup + 3 tbs baking cocoa
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1 yolk
• 1 tbs corn syrup
• 2/3 cup flour
• 2 tbs cornstarch
• 1 tsp salt

Directions – preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 8×8 pan with baking spray or butter spray. Combine butter, sugar and brown sugar. Add cocoa. Mix in eggs, yolk, corn syrup and vanilla. Fold in flour, cornstarch and salt. Spread into pan (mixture is thick). Bake 17 to 22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely

Frosting ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup heavy cream

Directions –microwave chips in a microwave safe bowl for one minute. In a separate microwave safe container, microwave heavy cream. Pour cream over chipa and let stand 10 minutes. Stir smooth and spread over brownies.

Store in covered container.

When I get a recipe request from my husband, it’s usually chocolate chip cookies. So today, I went into my chocolate chip cookies recipes (yes, that is with an “s”. I have roughly a billion of ccc recipes) and found this one. It is a pretty good one. I always chill my cookie dough to try and get a puffy cookie, which I prefer to make (I like my cookies to look good in addition to tasting good. Flat cookies are a no no!) Remember to scoop your flour from your container into your measuring cups to get the right amount. I added 3 1/2 cups flour to make the cookies less flat.Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, melted
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed into measuring cup
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 1/4 -3 1/2 cuos flour cups flour
• 2 cups chocolate chips

Directions – mix butter, sugar and brown sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Stir in baking soda and salt. Mix in flour, one cup at a time (then the quarter cup or half cup). Fold in chips. Scoop dough into quarter cup cookies and form into tall mounds. Chill at least 4 hours. Preheat oven to 350. Stagger 6 on a sheet that has been lined with parchment paper or nonstick baking liners. Bake 10-12 minutes. Let cool on sheet 5 minutes. Store in covered container