Rob and I are going to see a middle school production of the “Lion King”. My goddaughter Lyndsey is working on the set design and we are looking forward to seeing her work. I never come empty handed to anything, so I am making two kinds of cookies – chocolate chip and chocolate cookies with Reese’s pieces and peanut butter chips. The chocolate ones are for Lyndsey, who loves peanut butter and the regular chocolate chip are for Sara, her sister and my other goddaughter, who hates peanut butter. So here are the Lyndsey cookies. Sara’s cookies are on another blog entry.

Ingredients

1 cup of butter, softened to room temperature

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup baking cocoa

3/4 cup cake flour (you can add 3/4 tbs cornstarch and 3/4 cup all purpose flour if you don’t have cake flour)

1 1/2 cups flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tbs cornstarch

1 cup Reese’s pieces

1 cup peanut butter chips

Direction- cream sugar, brown sugar and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Add dry ingredients. Fold in Reese’s and chips. Scoop into 1/4 cup dough. Chill. Preheat oven to 410 degrees. Line cookie sheet with nonstick baking liners. Stagger mounds of dough, eight to a sheet. Bake 10 minutes. Let cool on sheet 5 minutes. Cool completely.

Store in covered container.

When I make cookies (or any treat for that matter), I say “the bigger the better.”. And these cookies are no exception! I use my ice cream scoop to scoop out 1/4 cup of cookie dough and then I chilled it. I find it much easier to scoop then chill, as opposed to chilling the dough and then trying to scoop it out. Also, then you can just plop the ready made cookie dough mounds on your sheet. These are for my goddaughter Sara (I made her sister Lyndsey, my other goddaughter peanut butter chip cookies and Sara hates peanut butter).

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened to room temp.

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups cake flour (or you can use 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour and 1 1/2 tbs cornstarch)

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tbs cornstarch

3/4 tsp baking soda

2 cups chocolate chips

Directions

Cream butter, sugar and brown sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. fold in dry ingredients. Stir in chips. Scoop out 1/4 cups of dough. Chill. Preheat oven to 410 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with nonstick baking liners. Stagger cookies on sheet. Bake 10 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes. Remove from sheet and cool completely.

Store in covered container.

Check out @FoodSided’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/FoodSided/status/978290595625095169?s=09

My husband, kiddingly reminded me I had not baked in 3 days, which is an incredibly long time for me. Our girl,Gracie has been keeping us busy and the time flies by. I am not sure how people with kids do it, or people with kids and pets! 😃

“Am I getting some of that peanut butter treat?”)

So today I went with a semi homemade treat. That’s what I call a treat when I use a mix.

Brownie cookie ingredients -1 brownie mix, 1 egg,1/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup oil, 5 tbs water, 1/4 cup hot fudge (microwaved for 15 seconds)

Peanut butter filling ingredients – 1cup peanut butter, 1/4 cup butter, 4 tbs brown sugar, 1 cup powdered sugar, milk (optional).

PB filling ingredients – melt butter and peanut butter. Add brown sugar and powdered sugar. Add a tbs or two of milk if you think mixture is a little dry. Roll into balls. Put in fridge.

Brownie directions – preheat oven to 350. Line a cookie sheet with nonstick baking liners. Combine all cookie ingredients. Scoop out 1/4 cup of dough and stagger on lined cookie sheets. Bake 13-15 minutes. Immediately place a peanut butter ball on each cookie. Cool completely.

Topping ingredients – 1cup milk chocolate chips, 1 tbs shortening

Combine and microwave in 45 second increments until you can stir smooth. Pour on top of each cookie, using a spoon.

Store in covered container.

Hi again friends! I am loving my new life! And I love learning new commands bc every time I do, I get a treat! I have been working on “leave it” and “release” today. To be honest, I sometimes just grab things bc I know I will get an extra treat after I hear “release.” (Hee hee). Also Rob had to get me a new toy bc I may have ripped the arm off my other one. Ok,time for another nap now. ❤️

Today Christine pulled out this big white box… It made had a flashing light, moved around a little and made a lot of noise, so I barked at it a few times.

Rob told me it was just a breadmaker, like a harmless R2D2. I felt better, grabbed my stuff friend, who lost an arm yesterday (I may have done that 😉). Then I went on a few walks. Also, Christine made chocolate chip whoopie pies for work.. but I did not get any, despite sitting next to her like a good girl as she made them. Happy Wednesday! ❤️

What a day I had today! We took four walks. I met a new friend, Vinny. He is a big, furry black dog. He did not mind I jumped up and down and barked like a crazy dog until we met. Then I laid down on the ground and we said hello and wagged our tails. I also found this big stick in the backyard. I carried it around for a while until Christine threw it over the fence. I am leaving soon to sign up for obedience classes at Petco. Have a great Tuesday! 😉

Why hello there. This is my second full day in my new home in CT.. already, we have gone on two walks, with a third and fourth on the way. On my second walk, there was a small black dog who did not seem to care for me. Christine deduced it was bc he had on a Red Sox collar and she was wearing a Yankee jacket. I also walked around the backyard early today with Rob a bunch of times, tried to eat a stick or two.. I ihad a few puppy fits, ran round in circles with a toy in my mouth like a Tasmanian devil. I was hoping I would get more treats. I mean, I sit down like a good girl all the time, look at Christine and all I hear is ” good sit, Gracie.”. That’s great, but I prefer a milkbone! I have some things to work on, but I am pretty smart and eager to please, so I will be a good pup in no time! Anyways, we are off to the vet soon for a checkup. I am not sure what that is, but I will soon find out. Have a magical Monday, everyone! Love, Gracie

Around Valentine’s Day, I kept seeing all these “death by chocolate” cakes, brownies and cookies. So I thought why not try a vanilla version? All I did was swap the chocolate cake mix with a French vanilla one (you could also use white or yellow), I used white chocolate chips instead of semisweet the chocolate chips , and made vanilla buttercream frosting instead of chocolate. Feel free to mix it up and use different flavors of cake mix, chips and frosting. Also I cheated and melted the butter and made a ton of frosting. Probably too much, but I don’t think anyone will complain.

Cake ingredients – 1 yellow, white or French vanilla cake mix, plus ingredients called for on box.

Directions – preheat oven to 350 degrees (325 if you are using a dark coated nonstick pan). Spray the bottom of a 9×13 pan with baking spray. In a bow, mix cake mix and ingredients 2 minutes with a mixer or by hand. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few crumbs. Cool completely. Using the bottom of a wooden spoon, poke holes throughout the cake, but don’t go all the way to bottom of pan.

White chocolate fudge layer ingredients- 1 cup white chocolate chips, 1 can condensed milk (14 oz)

Directions – melt chips and combine with condensed milk. Pour over holes in top of cake.

Frosting ingredients – 1 cup butter (softened), 3 cups powdered sugar, 3 tsp vanilla, 1/4 cup heavy cream.

Directions – beat butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Add heavy cream by the tbs until consistency is creamy. Frost cake.store in covered container.

I wanted to bake a treat for Valentine’s day and bring the rest into work tomorrow, so I asked my hubby what he wanted and he said “red velvet cake with oreo filling”. This dessert is very easy, messy and delicious. I used to never really like red velvet cake..It’s not really chocolate, and not really vanilla either. But with adding a few other ingredients besides the usual oil, eggs and water, THIS red velvet cake is amazing. The filling is just ground up Oreos and melted butter and the topping is chocolate ganache (which let’s face it, is a fancy word for melted chocolate and heavy cream).

Ingredients – 1 red velvet cake mix, 3.4 oz package instant vanilla pudding mix, 3 eggs, 1/3 cup oil, 1 1/4 cups water, 2 single ounce containers of Greek yogurt (mine were 5.2 oz each)

Directions – preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray the bottom of two cake pans with baking spray. Mix all ingredients together just until blended. I used a large wooden spoon. You can use a hand mixer if you want. Divide evenly and spread into prepared cake pans. Bake 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out with just a few crumbs.. cool completely

Oreo Filling – 36 Oreos (one regular size package, any flavor), 1/2 cup butter (melted)

Finely grins oreos in food processor. Combine with butter.

Ganache ingredients – 1 bag of milk chocolate chips, 2/3 cup heavy cream

Heat cream 75 seconds in microwave proof bowl. Plave chips in a separate bowl. Pour cream over chips. Let stand 5 minutes. Stir smooth. Let stand at room temperature for at least 20 minutes to thicken up. (Note – if you find the ganache has thickened up too much, you can microwave it in 10 second intervals)

Assembly

Place one cake layer (flat side up) on your cake dish.

Spread a little ganache on top.

Spread most of Oreo mixture on top of ganache layer

. Put a few more dollops of ganache over Oreo layer and spread as best your can. Place second cake layer, flat side down on top.

Pour or spread rest of ganache on top and sprinkle with remaining Oreos .

Chill in fridge for an hour. Store in covered container.