Cookie Carnival—Double Chocolate Cookies with Vanilla Chips and Macadamia Nuts

It’s Cookie Carnival time!  The cookies I decided to make for July (we always have two to choose from) were the Double-Chocolate Espresso Cookies from Taste of Home by Cindi Paulson.  Since the cookies had espresso in them and I don’t use coffee in baking, I changed a few things, but the basics of the cookie dough were just as written and I added vanilla chips and macadamia nuts to half the dough and tried something fun with the other half and added a little balsamic syrup!

Double-Chocolate Cookies with Vanilla Chips and Macadamia Nuts, adapted by Katrina, Baking and Boys! from Taste of Home

• 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 1 cups (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup butter, cubed
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup white chocolate or vanilla chips*
• 1/2 cup macadamia nuts, toasted and chopped*
• 1  1/2 tablespoons of balsamic syrup (or vinegar)*
• *With half the cookie dough I used the chips and nuts and only put the balsamic syrup in the other half with some added semi sweet chocolate chips (probably about 6 ounces-which is 1 cup)

In a small saucepan, melt unsweetened chocolate, 1 cup chocolate chips and butter,  stir until smooth. Remove from the heat; set aside to cool.  In a medium bowl, beat sugar and eggs for 3 minutes or until thick and lemon-colored. Beat in the chocolate mixture. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; add to chocolate mixture. Stir in vanilla chips and nuts.  Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 in. apart onto greased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes or until puffed and tops are cracked. Cool for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks.

Both were good and I liked the subtle fruity flavor with the added balsamic syrup.  The balsamic syrup was super easy to make.  I’d made some the day before for a caprese panini I saw Shelby at The Life and Loves of Grumpy’s Honeybunch (love her and her blog!) that was delicious.  I made mine with some whole wheat pita.  Layered in the pita was some fresh mozzerella cheese, tomatoes, fresh basil and drizzled with some balsamic syrup.  I could eat that sammie everyday!  Just for fun, I thought I’d see if I could make some balsamic syrup.  I put about 1/3 cup of vinegar in a small glass microwave safe dish and cooked it in 30 second intervals.  After only about 2 minutes in the microwave, it was a great syrupy consistency and reduced nicely!  Can’t wait to make more!

The other day I also made a “pizza” with the pita bread with mozzarella cheese, sliced fresh peach, basil and balsamic syrup and then grilled in the oven on broil for a few minutes.  That idea was inspired by Maria at Two Peas and Their Pod.  Also very good!

 

Back to the cookies!  I knew I’d heard of chocolate paired with balsamic vinegar, so I decided to just give it a try.  I added about 1 1/2 tablespoons of the syrup to half the cookie dough.  I almost wished there would have been a little bit more of the balsamic flavor, but I was too afraid to really overwhelm the cookies.  I’m sure I’ll try chocolate with balsamic again. 

Of the two ways I made the cookies, the ones with the vanilla chips (white chocolate would be even better, I just had some of those vanilla chips to use up) and macadamia nuts were better.  I loved the nuts in the chocolate cookie.  I added one cup of vanilla chips and half a cup of nuts to half the cookie dough.  They would have been fine with a little less chips, but tasted great!

Even though I left the espresso out of these Double Chocolate Espresso Cookies, turns out they are a great base for a nice brownie-like chocolate cookie with all kinds of acceptable mix-ins!

What a fun summer we’re having with so much company coming all the time that we love to have stay with us, we’ve named our house the Smith Hotel.  (Anyone is welcome anytime, we’ll leave the light on for ya!)  My parents just left this morning after spending the weekend with us as one of my niece’s got married on Saturday.  Such great times!

Wedding photo courtesy of my sister-in-law, Heidi.  (She took some fabulous pictures!)

Here’s my parents with me and the kids just this morning before they left to head back to Idaho.  And if I learned anything from this picture, it’s that my boys all really need haircuts!  (Actually, we already knew that and that’s on the list of things to do this week.)

And finally, just have to throw in these great action shots of my dad taking Parker on in a game of tetherball out on the driveway before they left.

Nice shot, Dad.  Wait……

Um, yeah, Dad, you’re not supposed to get all tied up in the rope.  Just sayin’.  Love my parents!  Great times!  (Sorry you have to see the neighbors property in the background.)

Cookie Carnival—Chewy Peanut Butter Coconut Oat Cookies Recipe

Whew!  I’m in just under the wire again for June’s Cookie Carnival.  I’m glad I remembered this afternoon and decided to whip out half a batch of one of our choices, the Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies.  The recipe (on the link) are actually cookies from the Smucker’s website.  But I didn’t use Smucker’s peanut butter and I made a few other changes, so I’ll leave you with the recipe as I made them.  These cookies are fantastic and just what they claim to be—chewy!  I love the addition of oats and coconut in these.

Right after I decided to make these, I realized I am completely out of all purpose flour.  I know—pretty much a cardinal sin here.  The half recipe for these cookies only needed half a cup of flour, so I looked at my choices of other flours I had on hand and decided to use bread flour.  I also just realized that when halving the recipe, I didn’t halve the amount of oats, but the cookies are so good, I’m sticking with it!  Here’s my version--

Chewy Peanut Butter Coconut Oat Cookies, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

2 ounces unsalted butter, softened (4 tablespoons)

6 tablespoons creamy peanut butter (96 grams) (I used Jif Natural)

1/2 cup granulated sugar (100 grams)

1/2 cup light brown sugar (110 grams)

1 large egg

1 tablespoon milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup bread flour (all purpose flour is fine, too)  60 grams

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

pinch salt

1  1/2 cups quick cooking oats* (120 grams)

1/2 cup flaked coconut

.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  Set aside. 

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter, peanut butter and both sugars until creamy, about two minutes.  Beat in egg, milk and vanilla.  Mix well.  In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Stir in oats and coconut.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix just until all combined.  Cover and chill the dough for 30 minutes, during the last 15 minutes of chilling time or so, preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Drop by heaping tablespoonful (or with a cookie scoop) onto baking sheets.  Bake for 12 minutes.  Cool on the baking sheet for a couple minutes, then move cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.  Makes 18 cookies (or more if smaller, these were about 1 ounce each).

Homemade Strawberry Cream Cheese Ice Cream Recipe—Cookie Carnival

The “star of the show” today, even though it’s a Cookie Carnival post is this perfectly creamy Homemade Strawberry Cream Cheese Ice Cream I made to go with the Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches. 

I’ve made it just under the gun for the May Cookie Carnival.  We had two recipes to choose from this month.  One was some strawberry rhubarb bars, which I know would have been good, but I just haven’t been able to get my hands on some rhubarb yet, so I made the Easy Ice Cream Sandwiches from Better Homes & Gardens.  The cookies are made with a pretty simple chocolate sugar cookie dough.

I’ve started getting into my homemade ice cream making mood lately, even though we’ve barely seen just a touch of spring around here.  I’m ready for some nice warm springtime weather.  I’m just sure if I keep making ice cream, summer will be here, right.

  

The recipe from Better Homes & Gardens is on the link above.  I made it exactly as written.  The cookies are okay and the recipe says to just use some store bought ice cream or yogurt.  I had some strawberries that needed to get used and after realizing I had three bricks of cream cheese in the fridge, I decided that I’d use one to make ice cream.  I Googled “strawberry cream cheese ice cream” and looked over many different recipes, then came up with this of which none that I’d found were like this.  Just like my recent Cherry Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, I pureed the fruit and strained it over a fine mesh sieve to make sure there were no pieces of fruit and to remove the strawberry seeds. 

Strawberry Cream Cheese Ice Cream, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

2 cups strawberries, washed and hulled (about 3/4 cup strawberry puree)

8 ounces 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened

1 cup skim milk

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Put the strawberries in a food processor or blender and puree until no chunks remain, about one minute.  Place a strainer over a medium sized bowl and pour the puree into the strainer.  Press it through with a spatula or spoon until all the remains in the strainer is seeds and any other pieces that may not have blended up enough.  Set aside.

In the bowl of a food processor, blend the cream cheese until smooth.  Add the sugar, lemon juice, salt and blend.  Scrape the sides of the bowl.  Slowly add the milk while the food processor is going.  Scrape the sides of the bowl again.  Pour the mixture into a medium sized bowl and fold in the cream, vanilla and strawberry puree. 

The mixture is already cold enough to immediately churn it in the ice cream maker, do so according to the manufacturer’s instructions.  This took about 25 minutes.  Remove the ice cream and put it in an airtight container to firm up in the freezer for a few hours.  (Though I love soft serve, so that’s acceptable, too.)

  This ice cream has a perfect amount of kick from the cream cheese and a great balance of strawberry flavor.  Give it a try!

This month’s Cookie Carnival is being hosted by Krista from Meet the Swans.  She’ll be posting a round up for all the participants’ cookies soon!

Chocolate Brownie Oatmeal Cookies for Cookie Carnival

Somehow I let January and February get by without joining in the cookie goodness for Cookie Carnival and here I am  posting during the last hour of March!  Both of the cookies we could choose from looked good, so I made sure I got it done this time.  Today I’m going to tell you about the Chocolate Brownie Oatmeal Cookies from Quaker Oats that I made a few healthier changes to and still got a really good cookie.

The cookies are nice and chewy with chocolate and oaty goodness as well as toasted pecans and some added semi sweet chocolate chips I threw in at the last minute.  I kept thinking that the cookies don’t look like much, but after tasting one or two to make sure they were good,

Chocolate Brownie Oatmeal Cookies, adapted by Katrina from Quaker Oats

4 ounces 1/3 less fat cream cheese

4 tablespoons Bestlife Buttery Baking Sticks

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 large egg

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup (6 ounces) semi sweet chocolate chips, melted

3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

1  1/2 cups quick oats

1/2 cup toasted pecans, chopped

1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips (optional, but good!)

Cream the Bestlife butter and cream cheese together with electric mixer.  Beat well.  Scrape sides of bowl and add the sugar and combine well.  Beat in the egg and vanilla.  Add the melted chocolate and beat well.  Stir in the whole wheat pastry flour, baking soda, oats and nuts and extra chocolate chips.  Chill the dough for about one hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.   Scoop the dough into about one inch balls spacing them about two inches apart on the baking sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes.  Let cool a couple minutes on baking sheet.   Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.  Makes about 2 dozen.  

These taste great and were actually better than I thought they’d be with my substitute butter and whole wheat pastry flour.  I have made cookies with cream cheese a couple times before and they have always been good cookies.

 

Cookie Carnival—Sassy Cinnamon Cookies

I really can’t believe how fast November has come and gone.  I thought I’d get my post up for Cookie Carnival. 

One of the cookies we could choose to make this month is Sassy Cinnamon Cookies found at the Betty Crocker website.  These cookies are snickerdoodles on steroids.  They are a thick cookie with that familiar snickerdoodle taste with pecans and cinnamon chips added for extra flavor and crunch. 

The recipe suggests making the cookies with 1/4 cup balls of dough.  HUGE.  I make them with about two tablespoons of dough and they still turned out plenty big.  They are good.  The only change I would make if I made them again is to either bake them less time (I baked mine 12 minutes and they are just a little too crispy) or I would bake them at 350 degrees instead of the 375 degrees in the recipe.  We like soft and chewy snickerdoodles, they are actually one of Kevin’s favorite cookies.  But he didn’t care for how crispy these were.

You can join and bake along with Cookie Carnival, too.  Check out how over at Tami's Kitchen Table Talk.  She’ll also posts a round up of everyone’s cookies each month.  (Thanks, Tami!)

Cookie Carnival---A Happy Halloween Cookie Pizza

Hope you all had a SWEET Halloween.  We have a lot of sweetness going on here at our house right now, that’s for sure.

Here’s the best photo I snapped of our Tricker and Treater.  (Scott and Sam)

For weeks before Halloween, whenever I’d ask Sam what he wanted to be he’d always say, “I just want to be a “treater with a bucket”.  Knowing he would not be putting up with me dressing him in any kind of fun, cute costume, he was just that, “a treater with a bucket” for Halloween.  Orange shirt (the front has a monster on it, so I couldn’t fit the word “treater” on the front.

Scott is in that phase of life where you want to trick-or-treat because you want the candy, but you don’t want to dress up anymore.  So using the brilliance of my friend, Suzanne and her idea, Scott was a “tricker” and Sam was a “treater” (with a bucket).  Then in trying to get them to pose for a quick picture, of course Sam wouldn’t cooperate.  In fact, he was screaming and throwing a fit.   So, so sad to have to take one little picture before heading out for treatin’ with a bucket.   People sure thought that was a cute idea though!

 

Here I’ll throw this picture of Sam in that I took a few days before Halloween after he’d eaten some chocolate pudding.

  

Parker was Ash from Pokemon which was a fun costume to make up, since it isn’t one you can just find available anywhere.  While we were in Idaho a few weeks ago, my mom helped me with the blue and white jacket.  I found a men’s white button up shirt at a second hand store and we used that for the sleeves and collar and mom sewed it to the t-shirt that we cut to work as the jacket.  Thanks, Mom!  I made the green gloves with some white knit gloves that I colored with permanent marker and cut out the fingers.  I searched hi and lo for a green backpack and finally found one.  Then I hand sewed the yellow and orange stripes on.  As well as the white on the red hat.   Cute Parker!

Taylor was the resident policeman and kept us safe through the night.  I love his missing front tooth!

  

Let’s close out October with a Halloween Cookie Pizza, which is our Cookie Carnival recipe this month.  The recipe is from the Hershey’s website.  I made the cookie pizza a couple weeks ago and am just now getting around to posting it.  The cookie was a big success.  The boys each had a slice  the evening I made it.  I ate one tiny little bite, then we took the rest over to Cindy’s house and gave the rest away.  I love to share the goodies I make and I love not eating too much of some of these things.  I knew I’d just keep eating too much of this “pizza”, so it had to go. ;)  Cindy and family later told me they LOVED the cookie pizza.  This is definitely a fun treat to make with so many different options for things to put on top of it.  I did switch up a bit from the recipe on Hershey’s, including using butter instead of shortening and white whole wheat flour instead of all purpose flour because the unthinkable happened when I made this—I was out of all purpose flour!

Here’s my adapted version.

Halloween Cookie Pizza, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, adapted from Hershey’s (linked above)

3/4 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 large egg

1 tablespoons water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup white whole wheat flour (I was out of all purpose flour!)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips, divided use

1/2 cup fall colored M&Ms

1 cup mini marshmallows

1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Chocolate glaze*

Orange glaze**

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly spray a 12-inch pizza pan with cooking spray. 

Beat the butter and brown sugar together until well incorporated.  Add the egg, vanilla and water and beat for 1-2 minutes.  In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt.  Add to the creamed mixture and blend just until combined.  Stir in one cup of chocolate chips.  Spread the cookie dough evenly in the pan.  Bake for 12 minutes.  Remove from the oven  and sprinkle with the half cup of chocolate chips, mini marshmallows, pecans and M&Ms.  Bake for another 5-7 minutes until marshmallows are puffed and getting toasty.  Cool the cookie in the pan.

Chocolate glaze---1/4 cup milk chocolate chips melted in glass bowl in the microwave with 1 1/2 teaspoons butter.  Put the glaze in a sandwich-sized plastic zipper bag and snip off a little bit of one corner.  Drizzle chocolate over the cookie pizza.

Orange glaze---1/2 cup powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon water, 3 drops yellow food coloring, 2 drops red food coloring.  Whisk ingredients together in a bowl until smooth.  Put the glaze in a sandwich-sized plastic zipper bag and snip off a little bit of one corner.  Drizzle the glaze over the cookie pizza.

Slice the cooled and topped pizza and serve.

Looks like my kind of pizza!

August Cookie Carnival—Zucchini Carrot Bars and Coconut Cherry Bars

Giveaway reminder at the bottom of this post!

  Wanna join the carnival?  Bake along with us once a month. 

Quick post here for this month’s Cookie Carnival.  I made both recipes a couple weeks ago.  First up—the Betty Crocker Coconut Cherry Bars.

I made the crust in the food processor.  Pulsing until crumbly and the butter was mixed in.  I pressed that into an 8x8 inch square pan.  The recipe is quite simple.  I used chopped almonds, the recipe just calls for nuts, but coconut and almonds are meant to be. 

Kevin doesn’t like maraschino cherries.  So I just dotted a few halved cherries over half the pan.  These bars baked just fine.  They taste good—coconutty.

With the other half of the bars, I cut them, then drizzled each piece with some melted chocolate.  (Almond Joy!) 

We thought these were pretty good.  I just had a few bites.  Knowing what was in these (a lot of fat and calories), I chose not to eat much.  Kevin said they were pretty good. 

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Next up—the Zucchini Carrot Bars from Kelloggs.  These bars were simple to make, though I did not enlist the help of any of the boys.  (They would not have liked knowing we were putting vegetables in something yummy.)  When they saw the finished bars and asked what they were, I told them they were spice bars.  I left the cloves out of the recipe, I sure thought I had some, but cannot find any.  I used freshly grated nutmeg and for the egg whites, I used powdered egg whites.  Worked great.

I liked these, but did think the lemon glaze on top overpowered any other flavors.   I would rather have had a vanilla glaze to have the spices stand out more.  And I wished there would have been nuts in the bars for some crunch.  I might make these again and use coconut oil and whole wheat flour, maybe even try agave instead of some of the sugar.

These bars worked great for using up a little more of that zucchini.  The recipe from Kelloggs says to use Raisin Bran cereal in the bars, I kicked it up a bit and used some Raisin Bran Extra with cranberries, raisins, yogurty clusters, sliced almonds.  Good stuff, love that cereal. 

And that’s all I have for you today.  Oh wait—have you entered the giveaway I’m having to win an EatSmart kitchen scale?  Leave me a comment on the giveaway post.  You have until Tuesday, August 31 to enter.

July Cookie Carnival—Pillsbury Oatmeal Raisin Cookies & Thyme-Cheese Crackers

We had two choices for the July Cookie Carnival this time around.   One was for Pillsbury's Oatmeal Raisin Cookies.  These are GREAT oatmeal cookies.  I made them back at the beginning of July for our family reunion and they were a big hit.  I’d also made some other oatmeal cookies for the same event and this Pillsbury recipe by far was better than the other.  These were the perfect thickness, crispiness, chewiness and had great taste.  I will for sure make this recipe again—over and over.

Get the recipe off the Pillsbury link above, but know that I made a few small changes.  I used salted butter and omitted the salt in the recipe.  (Just happened to be what I had at the time.)  I also used white whole wheat flour instead of all purpose flour.  I would totally do that again—as soon as I find a store around here that sells white whole wheat flour.  I’m out and haven’t found any yet.  Sigh.  I haven’t looked farther than our two closest stores, so I know I’ll find it. 

 

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Another recipe we could choose to make for July for Cookie Carnival was for Rosemary-Cheese Spritz Cookies from the Food Network Kitchens.  I decided to make those, too.  But I’m not calling mine that.  They are hereafter known as Thyme-Cheese Crackers.  I don’t love the taste of rosemary.  Mostly when it’s the only herb in something.  I think it’s okay when it’s mixed with other herbs.  As I was making the dough for the crackers, I actually was just going to leave any herbs out, but as the mixer was stirring for the last few rounds, I decided to throw in some dried thyme.  (The rosemary recipes calls for fresh rosemary.  I wish I’d had some fresh thyme.)  I can’t wait to start growing some herbs here.  Probably won’t happen this summer, but I did just buy a few basil plants and a pot and started those growing.  Basil is probably my favorite herb.

Back to the crackers.  The original recipes has you make the dough and put it in a cookie press, which is why they call them cookies.  These are not cookies.  They are crackers.  Cheese crackers.  I don’t have a cookie press.  Someday.  I chilled the dough, rolled it out, froze it for 15 minutes or so, then cut shapes out of the dough.  (The cookie press dough was way too sticky to roll out as cut outs.)  I’ve made cheese crackers before.  They are good and a little addicting.  But the ones I’ve made before are made with cheddar cheese.  This recipe calls for Pecorino and Parmesan.  Yum.

 

These are crispy and cheesy and flaky and again, addictive.  Here is the recipe as I made the crackers.  (I halved the recipe provided by Food Network.)

Thyme Cheese Crackers, by Katrina, adapted from Food Network-Rosemary Cheese Spritz Cookies

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

1/2 an egg yolk (1 yolk was 14 grams, so I used 7 grams of yolk)  (GET A KITCHEN SCALE!)

3 tablespoons heavy cream

1/2 cup plus 6 tablespoons all purpose flour (105 grams)

6 tablespoons finely grated Pecorino cheese (30 grams)

1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese (28 grams)

1 tablespoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme (I’d double that next time or use 1 tablespoon fresh thyme)

1/2 teaspoon salt

pinch freshly ground nutmeg

Beat the  butter and lemon zest with an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth, about 30 seconds.  Slowly beat in the egg yolk and cream.

Whisk the flour, cheeses, sugar, salt, thyme and nutmeg together in a bowl.  Gradually add the flour mixture into the butter mixture while mixing slowly.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then beat on medium speed until combined and dough is sticky.  Wrap the dough in plastic and chill for at least 30 minutes.

Roll the dough onto a wax or parchment paper lined baking sheet dusted with a little flour to about 1/8-1/4 inch thickness.  Freeze the dough for about 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Cut the dough into desired shapes.  I just baked the scrap pieces in the shape they were in as well, instead of re-rolling it. 

Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden.  Let sit on baking sheet for a few minutes.  Transfer to wire rack to cool completely.  Store in airtight container for up to 1 month.

  

Look it’s the Eiffel Tower!  Or a teepee.  Or, okay, it’s just a scrap.  Look it’s my goofy boys!

Couldn’t leave Kevin out of the pictures.  He’ll be so happy that I put these pictures on the blog, he says I only ever put goofy pictures of him on here.  (You ever played Hawaiian Charades?  You must.)

Love you, Hon!

S’mores Sandwich Bar Cookies from Hershey’s—July Cookie Carnival

We’ve been BUSY!  The drive from Kansas to Utah went well, two LONG days of driving in the car.  This is how the boys were the whole way--

Bwah!  You believe that?  Come on.  Peace was minimal, but the boys actually did quite well, minus the fact that Taylor is always quite carsick and that yogurt container next to him in the back seat is a barf bowl—he used it frequently the day we left for half that day’s drive, like every 10-15 minutes for about six hours.  Fun, fun.  Had to just keep putting the lid on it until we’d stop so I could clean it out.  Between he and Parker’s frequent stops for potty breaks, and Sam’s occasional loud dismay at being locked in his car seat and the almost constant sound of Wow Wow Wubbzy and Max & Ruby playing on the DVD, we all made it in one piece.

I drove the van with the four boys and Kevin rode in the big moving truck with our friend, Dan.  They got to the house a few hours before we arrived and this is what I walked in to our house and saw---

We dug our way out and have been unpacking and organizing since Saturday.  Did I mention we’re tired?  Each night my feet are killing me and I almost can’t walk from room to room anymore.  I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned, but this house we were able to buy is, well, HUGE.  I’m talking 7700 square feet huge.  It has two full kitchens, 7 bedrooms, 3 family rooms and a game room and only four bathrooms ;).  It has two big pantries and a gigantic laundry room with a huge island, a table for a sewing machine and tons of cupboards and two big storage rooms downstairs.  There are two fireplaces and a fantastic master bathroom and bedroom.  Oh, it also has a theater room (the only room in the house unfinished).  It is Kevin’s dream to finish that room SOON!   Oh, don’t let me forget the two large built in fish tanks Kevin is also excited about.   The house is on one acre and there are mountains all around us with Utah Lake visible in the distance.   I know, how in the world did we get THIS house?  For one, Kevin is amazing and we worked out many, many obstacles to get this house.  It was a short sale (almost foreclosure), so we got the house for an amazing price.  I don’t tell you any of this description to brag, just wanted you to understand the magnitude of our task to unpack and settle.  Sigh!   And we have company coming in a few days.  Oh, and speaking of company, our Kansas friends, the Rowleys were in town yesterday and stopped by for a short visit.  Great to see them!

There are still boxes in almost every room.  Guess which room has no boxes left to unpack?  The kitchen!  Had to get it up and functioning, for sure, so when I need a break from the boxes, I could bake up a little something.  I didn’t mention, because the house was a short sale, basically, the people here had to get out of the house.  So, I was hoping, but knew it wasn’t going to be, that they’d CLEAN the house.  Nope.  Kinda gross.  That is really the thing that is taking so much time is all the cleaning.  I’m sick of it.  Really.  But lots still must be done.  I’m tired of scrubbing bathrooms, toilets, shower, laundry room floors, etc.  I took a cute picture of the boys all playing inside of some big boxes at the bottom of the stairs, but the picture is embarrassing to me because you can see how dirty the railings are.  Oh well.  It’ll all get done.  We love the house.   So I’ll stop sounding like I’m complaining here.

Please excuse that our white refrigerator doesn’t match the stainless steel appliances.  We’ll get that replaced at some point.

We’ll also be getting new bar stools soon.  A few of them are broken.  The house is 10 years old.

Love this cabinet that I’ve decided to put my cookbooks on.  I don’t have them all out yet.

I had packed up one huge bin full of the kid’s toys and sent it out with the first truck Kevin and Dan drove out in April.  You’d have thought we’d have just won the lottery when Sam discovered the toys after I’d put the bin in the game room. 

He’s in the big, empty game room.  Future purchases—pool table, ping pong, foosball, air hockey, bowling lane—haha, jk about the bowling, it’s not THAT big.

Get on with those “delicious hot Schmoes”, you say.  Taylor laughs and laughs whenever he sees that part in Toy Story 2 where Buzz Lightyear is talking to Woody about how fun cowboy camp will be “sittin’ around the campfire makin’ delicious hot schmoes.”

The recipe chosen for June for Cookie Carnival was for Hershey's S'mores Sandwich Bar Cookies.  I was able to just get them made just under the wire, although my post will say July 1.

I doubled the recipe and made the bars in a 9x13 inch baking pan.  At first I thought they were going to be underdone and a gooey mess, but after they were substantially cooled, they sliced nicely and are actually really good.  Each of the boys had a piece when they were still gooey, they were completely cooled, but had melty chocolate.  That’s what a Smore is, right?  I actually didn’t take the greatest pictures of them and have decided my photos don’t do them justice.  I froze most of them to share at the family reunion starting this weekend. 

“Delicious Hot S’chmoes Bar Cookies”, these are certainly perfect for any upcoming July picnics, family reunions, or Independence Day celebrations. 

Taylor and Sam enjoyed helping me make them.  And I loved especially having them unwrap all the Hershey bars!