C is for Cookie!

Making up a batch of cookies is such a comforting thing to do. 

Sure to put smiles on the faces around you!

Start off with plenty of butter; softened to room temperature.  (You can sometimes catch me with a stick in my armpit working on softening -- if that changes your mind about eating the cookies out of my kitchen)

I wanted to put a fun twist on a good 'old chocolate chip cookie.  When I saw these babies on the shelf I knew immediately they had to be Toffee Chocolate Chippers!

You add brown sugar and regular sugar.

Give it a good mix until the butter and sugar are creamed.  You can tell it's creamed when the color gets lighter (or at least I think I remember my grandma telling me that).

A little baking soda and salt comes next.

Add the toffee bits (I used one cup) and chocolate chips (2 cups)

And voila... like magic the cookies are formed, baked, cooled, tasted, and lined up like little soldiers!

Emphasis on the tasting!  Opps, I broke one!

In hind sight my experiment was fun, however I'm not sure toffee twist is the way to go.  It made a big mess when I was trying to get the cookies off the baking pan.  And (as Mr. Happy pointed out) the toffee gets stuck in your teeth and takes a little fun out of the whole thing. 

I think the next version of these might be better balanced with walnuts.

What kind of twist do you put on your chocolate chippers?

I am hardly ever prepared.

I am hardly ever prepared with a post that is related to the holiday being celebrated.  That is what makes today so special, because lo and behold here is a post that relates to St. Patricks Day!   

Over the weekend I had a strong urge to bake.  I wasn't sure what I wanted to make, but I knew it had to be some that I could decorate.  You see I had this gel frosting pen left over from Christmas.  I had originally bought a green and a red one.  Well, Katie ended up get a hold of the red one and a few teeth marks later left it unusable.  So, I have had this lonely green gel pen in my pantry with no purpose for a few months. 

I landed on frosted sugar cookies.  I started with one of the cheater bags where you dump the dry ingredients from a package and add one egg and some butter.

I did make the recipie that allowed for making cut out shapes.  It was a tough choice looking at my shapes.  I have a flamingo, longhorns head, and hearts.  Nothing very in spirit with the holiday, so I ended up just using a glass to cut these out. 

They smelled so good coming out of the oven!

Then I had to wait for them to cool!  I still adore these stacking cooling racks!

Then the fun really began.  I gave all the cookies a coat of white/vanilla frosting with a butter knife and then went to work doodling on the cookies with the gel pen.

I made shamrocks:

 And it was pretty easy to write words:

This started off as "luck" but it turned out a bit gooey in the beginning there.

Which lead to making phrases like this one:

And what do you suppose this one means?

Go ahead... take a guess or two!

Yup.  That's a mug of beer.

Put the phase together and you get Green Beer!!

Yes, I'm a dork

Yes, I was having way too much fun with this. 

Yes, Mr. Happy got a nice laugh from this one!

Ok.

Now, try this one.

Any guesses?

I was thinking Spring when I was making this!  Get it?  Spring?


I can see getting more of those gel frosting pens in the future.  They were really fun, made a big impact.  And most importantly made me really happy!!  Oh, and don't you think they would make a cupcake look fantastic?

The pens also said that you could use them to decorate the cookie before cooking which would leave a nice shiny baked in version of the decoration.  I may have to give that a try in the future!

No matter how you decide to celebrate, I want to wish you a Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Apple stinkin pie

There is something about apple pie that always makes me happy.  From the moment I pick out the apples and all the way through to putting that first bite of warm pie in my tummy. 

I made an apple pie on request for Thanksgiving (yes I realize that was already eons ago) and snapped a few pictures along the way.

So here is a feast for your eyes... apple pie... happy style!

Any apple pie starts with -- you guessed it -- apples!  I like to use 2-3 types of apples to give my pies flavor, texture, and tartness.

Pictures here are granny smiths and cortlands.  Just look at that tiny reflection!

You have to take the skins off the apples.  I peel my with a peeler all at once.  Then I core and quarter the apples.  At this point it becomes hard to tell which ones were which.  I decided to do something a little special with this pie and slice the quarters with the slicer for uniform pie pieces. 

Something about putting all those slices in the shell... made this amazing slice.  Well.. I'll tell you more about that when we get there.

Once all the apples are sliced they end up in a big bowl and I begin to sweet and spice them.  Sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cayenne pepper (remember I told you before I spice everything), and a pinch of salt.  Yup, that's basically it.  Then give the slices a toss to mix it all up.  And dump the apples in the pie crust. 

Crust... that's a whole other thing.  The one pictured uses butter and crisco... plus it's a cheddar crust.  Cheddar cheese just makes apples dance in your mouth!  Yes, I actually put shredded cheddar into the crust.  Heavenly!

Just look at that mound of delicious tart and spicy apples.  Happy yet?

Keeping in mind this was a fancy pie... I had to make a lattice top and fancy forked edges. 

Here's a little peak at those apples all nestled into their crusty home which is about to be warm and golden!  I think you can see the cheddar bits in the crust too!

Then for an extra surprise... brush the crust with water and then sprinkle sugar on that.  
Uh huh.. I know you are getting happier just thinking about making or eating one of these!  Do you see that sugar?

Pop it in the oven... let the crust brown and the filling getting bubbly.  I use a bit of foil to keep the edges from burning.  Once you get it out of the oven -- have your Thanksgiving golden guard your now prized pie while it cools outside (drives your neighbors nuts) in the autumn air.

The finished pie looked something like this.  A bit extra brown in some spots (ok burnt)... at this point I am still getting used to the oven in the new house, but the way we were eating it... you would have thought it was the most amazing thing we ever ate. 

Flaky light crust... touch of sugar hits your tongue quickly followed by those spicy apples I talked about so much.  Some of us put whoopsie cream on top as my grandpa would have said (that's whipped cream for those you who didn't follow).

All of us found ourselves smiling!

I would like to offer that a specially made apple pie = happiness!