Snapshots Into My Life

What I am seeing through my lens this week.

This picture is actually a few weeks old. My mom and I drove up to Ikea so I could pick out a desk for my craft room/home office. I knew exactly what I wanted to see just had to navigate through the wandering crowds. I am pretty happy with how it looks. If I ever get my craft room in shape, I will share it.

When I was in NYC a few weeks ago, we had Thai food. I had been craving it ever since. It is so yummy! I was able to satisfy my craving with my favorite Pad See Ew.

I have been in the mood to make cookies for a while, but since I have so many frozen from Christmas I didn't feel it too necessary. I finally caved and made these to-die-for Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. This will not and forever be my go to recipe. I also froze the cookie dough so I could have some self control.

This week we found out if my brother and sis-in-law were having a girl or a boy. I chose the blue nail polish, but I was wrong. It is another GIRL! I couldn't be more happy!

Since my mom and I couldn't be at the reveal, I got us cupcakes to celebrate. I think I need to get cupcakes to celebrate more things....like finishing a load of laundry or going to the grocery store. These need to be celebrated too!

Baking Center With a Holiday Spin

How can it be December already?!?!? I feel like I missed fall and all the wonderfulness it brings. Nevertheless, time moves on and the holidays are right around the corner.

I am hosting my first Christmas Open House in my new home on Friday, so my schedule is packed with cleaning, cooking and, of course, baking. My baking center is going to make my holiday baking - and all my baking throughout the year - a little bit easier is because everything is close at hand.

Along with my flour and sugars, this cute little Santa basket holds some of the special holiday baking items like M&Ms and Peppermint Hershey kisses. It provides a little fun holiday cheer to this area.

With flour, granulated sugar and brown sugar kept on the counter in pretty canisters, the top cabinet is left with lots of space for baking staples - cocoa, powdered sugar, vanilla, yummy baking spices. It also keeps some of my back stock items and some bowls.

Please don't pay too much attention to my messy drawer, but I know what is in here. Measuring spoons and cups, spatulas, pastry cutter. I am sure as I bake more and more this drawer will become more filled making organization a priority.

The cabinet below is the home for all my baking pans. My cookie sheets are missing, but that is because they have a special spot right next to my range that holds all those big flat items, like my cookie sheets and cutting boards.

Time is ticking away and I need to get baking. First on my list are these yummy White Chocolate Peppermint M&M cookies. Definitely give them a try!

Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Cookies

Making cookies is one of my favorite things to bake. My dad made cookies all the time so I think I inherited the making-cookie gene from him. And who doesn't love the smell the baking cookies.

Since cookies are a fun treat to have on hand, I decided to use Saturdays during the 31 day challenge to share some cookie recipes.

Last year, I couldn't find Pumpkin Spice M&Ms for the life of me. This year, I got my stash early. In my excitement over finding this autumn delicacy, I may have been a little ambitious with my stash. So off to Pinterest to find something to do with all these M&Ms.

Cue in Inside Bru Crew Life and her Chocolate Pumpkin Spice cookies. They have a little pumpkin, some chocolate and have a enough cinnamon and nutmeg for this cookie to taste like fall.

Definitely give these cookies a try!

Candy Bar Cookie Redo

On Sunday, I posted about my disappointment with the final result of these cookies. Well, I am happy to stay that I modifications were successful this time. 

I used the Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe that is printed on the back of the package. Instead of adding the chocolate chips, I added a bunch of candy. And I add a lot! I used the same candy - mini M&Ms, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Kit Kats and Nestle's Buncha Crunch - as I did on Sunday. But I used A LOT more. The original recipe calls for a cup and a half of candy. I used well over 2 cups in this version.

I also made the cookies  a little bit bigger this time. All in all, I am very happy with the redo of these cookies and highly recommend using some of your left over Halloween candy for some cookie making!

Candy Bar Cookies

These cookies looked so yummy in this pin, but I was less than thrilled with the final result. The cookies were flat and hard. I prefer a chewy cookie. I didn't even take a picture of the final product because I didn't like how they looked.

I loved the idea of adding lots of different kinds of candy to the dough. I picked out my favorite candy, which included LOTS of chocolate.

I used 4 different kinds. The recipe called for 1 and half cups, but I would definitely use more the next time. Even with cookies spreading out, there didn't seem to be a lot of candy in the cookie. I was hoping these would be chock full of candy. 

Even though I was disappointed with how these cookies turned out, I still really like the concept. It is a fun take on a Halloween cookie with all the candy. Of course, these would be great any time of year. Next time, I am going to use my chocolate chip cookie dough as the base and add lots more candy. I have lots of left over candy and a Halloween potluck this week so my second attempt may come this week!

Pumpkin Spice Cookies with Pumpkin Kisses

These cookies are a fun twist on the tradition peanut butter blossoms, if you love pumpkin. And I do! 

The pumpkin kisses can be a little hard to find. I found mine at Target and I either see tons of bags or no bags of these little treats.

So if you can find these little gems, I highly recommend trying these cookies out. Click here for the link to these wonderful cookies.

Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies

My dad came across this recipe several years ago. While I am not sure if this is the same recipe he used, it is probably pretty close. There is something about adding the pudding that makes these chocolate cookies stay really soft...and really good!

I was hoping that adding the pumpkin spice pudding mix would give it a little pumpkin flavor, but it didn't. There might be an ever so slight taste, but nothing to write home about. The original recipe calls for vanilla pudding mix and there isn't an overwhelming vanilla flavor with those. But I was crossing my fingers that these would have a little special fall flavor.

One thing the pudding mix did was darken the cookie dough. So I guess you could say that they have a seasonal appearance. :)

Even though I was a little disappointed that the pumpkin flavor didn't shine through, the cookies still turned out very delicious. I can't complain about that. 

The recipe that I used came from See Aimee Cook. If you stick with the traditional vanilla pudding or try the pumpkin spice cookie, you can't go wrong with this recipe. It is a definite keeper!

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Last year, I found a cookie recipe on Pinterest that I had to try - Pumpkin Snickerdoodles. I love snickerdoodles and adding pumpkin seemed like it would only make one of my favorite cookies that much better.

These are fantastic cookies. They are really easy to make. They stay soft when many snickerdoodles get hard after a few days. Last year, I brought these to my brother and sister-in-law's for Christmas. They were a hit. We would eat them for breakfast because the go extremely well with coffee. I am not saying this is the best time to eat cookies, but it was the holidays.

I made 2 minor adaptations. The first was that I used butter in place of the margarine. The second was not adding ginger to the cinnamon sugar coating. But that was only because I didn't think I had any on hand. I did find a rather large completely full jar a few days later. Either way, these cookies are a great way to introduce the fall season.

Click here for the recipe. It is a must try!