The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies I Have Ever Made

Yup. You read that title correctly.

I'm a bit of a cookie junkie. A fan. An aficionado. A chocolate chip cookie-aholic if you must. I have baked and consumed more cookies than I would ever like to count, and many of them from different recipes. I take copious notes. I print recipes and highlight them. I then keep the bad ones, just to be sure I never accidentally print and bake them again. This week, with all of the madness swirling around, I needed to do some baking. Chocolate chip cookie therapy.

I pulled out my hot mess of a binder, full of scraps from magazines, torn out newspaper sheets, and print-outs by the dozen. Inside was a recipe I had photocopied from a cookbook belonging to my old boss. I had written in a few changes, and remembered that they were pretty good. Of course, I was missing a few things, so I had to change it up. And I was oh so pleasantly surprised. Right from the oven they looked promising. Aren't they pretty? Then I ate one. Crumbly, not to sweet, ultra chocolatey bliss. I will never use another chocolate chip cookie recipe again.

My New Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup raw sugar

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg, at room temperature

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. kosher salt

2 cups Bob's Red Mill White Whole Wheat Flour

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp. almond extract (Yes. Almond. NOT vanilla!)

2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

Preparation:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar until fluffy and pale. Add egg and almond extract and beat until just combined. Sift flour, baking soda, and salt and add to the mixer at low speed. Scrape the bowl and mix until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips. Drop dough by rounded spoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets and bake for 12-14 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool for five minutes on the sheet before transferring to wire racks.

Slimming Down

As the weather begins to warm up here in the Jerz, I have been feeling the need to do some serious slimming down. Not like, of my waist line or any of that crap, (cause I could kind of give two rats about bikini season and all as I don't wear them anymore) but of the menu planning, grocery shopping variety. I took a look around my kitchen the other day and realized I had nothing to eat. Now my pantry and fridge are both chock full of food, but not the kind I want to eat in 65 degree sunshine. It's time to slim down the kitchen, clean out the stew meats and root veggies, and lighten things up.

I started where most inspiration starts these days: my overflowing Pinterest boards. I have been guest pinning this month for Circle of Moms and POPSUGAR, so I have been focusing on family friendly meal ideas. Of course, I pin them like crazy and then never cook them. But I kept peeking back at this recipe for Zucchini Chips from Table for Two and had to make them. I also just bought a mandoline, so it was perfect.

Jude gobbled them up and would probably have eaten them all had I not hidden a few out of sight for myself.   They are also a touch time consuming, so I tried to do a bit of portion control. With my share, I threw together this Grilled Salmon Salad with Asparagus and my favorite Green Goddess Dressing. It's lovely with leftovers, but I would definitely make this as a weeknight meal, too. Try this Asian Salmon recipe if you want to try something new, or just grill it simply with salt, pepper, and olive oil. The dressing is really flavorful!

Oven Baked Zucchini Chips
courtesy of Table for Two

Ingredients:
2 medium zucchinis
salt
Two Tbls. olive oil
*You'll also need a mandoline and baking sheets lined with parchment or Silpat mats.

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 225 degrees. Slice zucchini on the mandoline with the thinnest setting (I did mine of the bias so they'd be a bit bigger). Lay each slice on paper towels and blot dry. Transfer to prepared baking sheets, taking care not to overlap slices. Brush with a bit of oil using a pastry brush, and sprinkle lightly with salt. Bake until just browned and crisp, about 1.5 - 2 hours.

*Tip: If your slices are super thin like mine were, a few of them may want to stick to the Silpat. A handy trick (one I picked up from paper crafting) is to bend the Silpat up and peel it from the chip, instead of bending the chip to peel it from the Silpat. Get it? You can store your chips in an air tight container for up to three days, but they won't last that long!

Caution! Mudslide Birthday Cake

• 
  
• This cake was the big hit at The Boy's birthday party this weekend, but it's chocolate, so that wasn't a big surprise. Everyone loves chocolate! I doctored up my favorite Devil's Food cake recipe to make it taste like a mudslide and work with the party theme. No worries, of course, as the alcohol bakes out, so it is still safe to serve to children! Just don't eat to much of the batter as you are making it, or you'll find yourself with a happy buzz:) This makes a big cake, so make sure you have enough people to eat it or pack it up to take home or else it will be your breakfast for the next week. Which actually may not be a bad thing.
• 
  
• Chocolate Mudslide Birthday Cake

adapted from Martha Stewart

• Ingredients:
• 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, plus more for pans
• 3/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder, plus more for pans
• 3 Tablespoons instant espresso powder
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup Bailey's Irish Cream
• 6 cups of your favorite fudge frosting. I ordered mine from ShopRite (gasp!) but it's hella good, yo. Better than any recipe I have tried, honest!

Preparation:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Arrange two racks in center of oven. Butter three 8-by-2-inch round cake pans; line bottoms with parchment. Dust bottoms and sides of pans with cocoa powder; tap out any excess. Sift cocoa and espresso powder into a medium bowl, and whisk in boiling water. Set aside to cool.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter on low speed until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes, scraping down sides twice. Beat in vanilla. Drizzle in eggs, a little at a time, beating between each addition until the batter is no longer slick, scraping down the sides twice.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Whisk milk and Bailey's into reserved cocoa mixture. With mixer on low speed, alternately add flour and cocoa mixtures to the batter, a little of each at a time, starting and ending with flour mixture. 

Divide batter evenly among the three prepared pans. Bake until a cake tester inserted into center of each layer comes out clean, 35 to 45 minutes, rotating the pans for even baking. Transfer layers to wire racks; let cool, 15 minutes. Turn out cakes, and return to racks, tops up, until completely cool. 

Remove parchment from bottoms of cakes. Sliceone cake layer in half, from top to bottom, set aside. Place one full cake layer on a serving platter; spread 1 cup chocolate frosting over the top. Add the second full cake layer, and spread with another 1 cup frosting. Add one of the half layers, spread with frosting and top with remaining half cake layer. Using a serrated knife, carve the top two layers on the diagonal to create a hill shape. Cover outside of cake with the remaining 3 cups frosting. Decorate with chocolate graham cracker crumbs, malted milk balls, and trucks! Serve with Rocky Road Ice Cream!

Happy Birthday, Jude!

Somehow in the midst of our crazy life, our Little Boy Who Was Once The Bean turned two. E-freaking-gad! I have no idea how he is a two year old who is over three feet tall, driving trains and singing "California Dreamin'." It's kind of insane. He is one of the oldest in his little kid crew of 12, so of course we had to have a party. Inspired by his current favorite book, I'm Dirty, we went with a construction truck theme. And yes, I gleaned the internet for everything truck-ish, Pinning as I went, until I had a plan. E happened to be out of town on business the entire week before the bash, so I did one thing each day to keep The Boy and I busy, and to prevent a stress-filled weekend of last minute mania. Here's the picture laden run down...

The invitation: A big ol' dump truck complete with coloring page envelopes and washi caution tape. 

They are not yet in the shop, but just hit me up if you are interested until I post them:)

We asked Jude's friends to make donations to St. Jude's Children's Hospital instead of bringing him presents, since with an in home day care in our basement, he pretty much has everything a kid could ever want. This is definitely going to be our annual thing. St. Jude's is the best childrens' charity ever.

 The decor: Jude and I built a paper mountain to cover the oh-so-pretty wall AC unit that currently resides in the dining room. He had a blast rubbing glue sticks on paper (and then his face) while we worked on it. 

The food: Dirt cups, pretzel lumber, Pirate's Booty, a bacon jalapeno cheese mountain, a tool box veggie tray, dried pineapple rocks, Boulder Cookies, and a Chocolate Mudslide Cake. 

I will try to post a few more of those recipes soon!

 

A closer view of the cake, decorated with chocolate graham cracker crumbs and malted milk balls.

I made a table runner from the coloring pages left over from the invitations.

Luckily we had gorgeous weather, so the kids got to play with the split pea and rice sensory boxes on the deck. It took only minutes for them to start tossing it, so I am thrilled we didn't have to do it inside!

In case of rain, we set up a demolition city in the basement playroom. 

It was great motivation to get my craft room in order and unpack the last lingering boxes from our move!

I painted this dump truck based on the one from his invitations. I think it will hang around a while!

He actually ate sweets! Well, this is yogurt, but it has chocolate crumbs on top!

This morning I finally let him pull some of the decorations off the walls. 

He has been driving cars on this road all day!

Best.Party.Ever!

Wedding Season?

It's almost that time of year folks! Wedding season. I know, I know, for most of you that means June through August, but for those of us in the invitation business, wedding season starts now! Couples start researching ideas now for spring and summer weddings, so it's time for me to get my creative juices flowing. I have a bunch of new designs in the shop already, but my favorite thing to do is work one on one with couples to create something really special. My best invitation designs come from working with couples, rather than creating something on my own.

This Henna Aspen invitation idea came from a bride who found me on Etsy. She liked my Tree of Love invitations, but was getting married in a forest of Aspens and all of the bridesmaids would be adorned with henna. From that came this sketch, and one of my favorite sets ever!

This Vintage Floral invitation design was inspired by a fabric pulled from a bride's stash of vintage scarves!

This is the newest design, which I finished literally minutes ago, so it isn't in the shop just yet.
(UPDATE: Here it is! The Emily Invitation Suite!)

Can't you just see it done with scraps of lace from a bride's veil or dress? Or from her mom's? Love.

With all that in mind, 

if you or a friend will be married this spring or summer, 

contact me for a custom design. 

I am offering to waive my custom design fee

for the entire month of March! 

That means you will pay only for the invitations themselves: 

a $50-$75 savings! 

Feel free to Pin or share this on Facebook 

and Twitter to get the word out to your pals!

Breakfast with the Primes

It's been quite a long time since I shared one of my oddball early morning conversations with E. Years actually. Before Jude our breakfast chats were about fruits and zombies, now they are about toys. This week E passed his most beloved toy down to Jude: Optimus Prime. It's only the best Christmas gift my husband ever got, and our little dude broke it within minutes. The thing had clearly seen better days, but it still works. Jude loves playing with it and feeding it gas and oil (like it's a baby), but the best part is listening to our almost two year old try to say "Optimus Prime."

E: Jude, who is that you're playing with?

JUDE: Prime.

E: Yes, but which one? Optimus Prime. There are lots of Primes. 

ME: There are?

E: (eye roll ) YES. Optimus Prime, Rodimus Prime, Megatron was a Prime and then he was Galvatron and Unicron. 

ME: Did he turn into a unicorn?

E: (huge eye roll) NO. He turned into a PLANET. 

ME: That doesn't make sense. If his name was Unicron he should have turned into a unicorn.

E: THAT doesn't make sense. Unicorns aren't real things. Why would he turn into something that isn't real?

***
I'm only partly sure he was joking.

Last Minute Love

Well, folks, Valentine's Day is tomorrow. If you have been a Last Minute Larry, no need to fret! There are plenty of shops that will be open late for you procrastinators looking for an expensive gift, and I'm pretty sure Hallmark will be able to hook you up in the early AM if necessary. However, if you are looking for a tiny something, a handmade little crafty something, maybe for a kid or a pal, here you go. These little bird seed valentines make a great last minute craft project for your kiddos and work as a sweet gift at the same time.

I found several recipes online for making bird seed cakes, but some of them actually required baking, and some included weird ingredients. I ended up with a modified version of a recipe like this one from Folk Lifestyle, a blog to which you will now become addicted. You're welcome.

Anywho, I had to add an additional ingredient to the mix because we happen to have a squirrel issue. By issue I mean serious-frigging-problem-with-giant-house-cat-sized-squirrels-who-dig-up-and-eat-anything-they-can-get-their-dastardly-paws-upon. So I added a generous 1/4 cup of red hot pepper flakes. Take that you little punks. We made lots of sizes and shapes, including bird seed beads in my mini muffin tin. These we strung along a length of twine and tied up in a tree as garland, hoping the little birdies would feast. Sadly it rained like crazy that night and most of the seed cakes dissolved and fell in a heap to the ground. I suggest hanging these outside where they won't get too wet:)

If you plan on giving these as gifts, decorate them with little tags! I stamped ours on plantable seed paper and tied them up with baker's twine. They just happened to fit into the heart printed treat bags I send out with my shop packages. Kismet!

Birdseed Ornaments
Ingredients:
3/4 cup of all purpose flour
4 cups mixed birdseed
5 Tbls. corn syrup
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup red pepper flakes
wax paper
baking sheets
baking molds/muffin tins/cookie cutters
a chopstick
ribbon

Preparation:
Line your baking sheets with wax paper. Spray any tins or cutters with cooking spray. Place cookie cutters on the wax paper. In a large bowl mix all ingredients until sticky and combined. Pour into molds/tins/cutters and press firmly. Poke a hole with the chopstick for hanging your ribbon. Let sit for 3 hours, remove from tins and flip over, let sit another 3 hours or until very dry. Add twine, ribbon or string to hang.