Archive | October, 2012

Nutella Filled Cookies

29 Oct

Be aware- these are good. Really good.

If you are like me, you can eat Nutella with a spoon right out of the jar.  Then these are the cookies for you.  But if you are also like me- you should only make these if you have guests over so you don’t have 24 of these starring you down begging to be eaten.  =)

the trickiest part of this recipe

Here is the recipe that I found on this wonderful website:

Ingredients
  • 2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon of salt
  • 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter [Make SURE you brown the butter]
  • 1 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon plain greek yogurt
  • 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
  • 1 jar of Nutella, chilled in refrigerator
  • Coarse sea salt for sprinkling
Instructions
  1. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. The butter will begin to foam. Make sure you whisk consistently during this process. After a couple of minutes, the butter will begin to brown on the bottom of the saucepan; continue to whisk and remove from heat as soon as the butter begins to brown and give off a nutty aroma. Immediately transfer the butter to a bowl to prevent burning. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.
  2. With an electric mixer, mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Beat in the egg, yolk, vanilla, and yogurt until combined. Add the dry ingredients slowly and beat on low-speed just until combined. Gently fold in all of the chocolate chips.
  3. Chill your dough for 2 hours in the refrigerator, or place in freezer for 30 minutes if you are super eager, although I cannot promise the same results if you do this.
  4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Once dough is chilled measure about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough and roll into a ball. Flatten the dough ball very thinly into the palm of your hand. Place 1 teaspoon of chilled nutella in the middle and fold dough around it; gently roll into a ball — it doesn’t have to be perfectly rolled! Make sure that the nutella is not seeping out of the dough. Add more dough if necessary. Place dough balls on cookie sheet, 2 inches apart and flatten with your hand VERY gently. (Really only the tops need to be flattened a bit!)
  5. Bake the cookies 9-11 minutes or until the edges of the cookies begin to turn golden brown. They will look a bit underdone in the middle, but will continue to cook once out of the oven. Cool the cookies on the sheets at least 2 minutes. Sprinkle with a little sea salt. Remove the cooled cookies from the baking sheets after a few minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.

look at that ooey gooey goodness

yeah they are a bit messy

Have fun and enjoy!

Goodnight Garden

25 Oct

Last week we got out shovels and cleared out the garden.

Taking all the weeds and remnants out of a garden in an essential task to do in the fall.  The bummer part is, there is not anything amazing to wait for or look at once you are done.  Clearing out the garden took us at least three hours.  Thankfully it was a beautiful evening and the girls had some shovels too.

It is nice to know that our garden is resting peacefully and will be rearing to go once the snow clears up and the sun starts to get warm again.

the strawberries are the only thing that remains in the ground

before

after

See you in the spring wonderful garden, you have served us well- now sleep well.

Sesame Chicken Recipe

17 Oct

Here is a wonderful fall crock pot recipe.  Super easy and pretty darn delicious.  I found it over on this blog.

Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (thighs would be fine too)
Salt and pepper
1 cup honey
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup diced onion
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (could also use olive oil or canola oil)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional – doesn’t really add heat, just adds more flavor)
4 teaspoons cornstarch dissolved in 6 Tablespoons water
Sesame seeds

Directions: 
Season both sides of chicken with lightly with salt and pepper, put into crock pot. In a small bowl, combine honey, soy sauce, onion, ketchup, oil, garlic and pepper flakes. Pour over chicken. Cook on low for 3-4 hours or on high 1 1/2 – 2 1/2 hours, or just until chicken is cooked through. Remove chicken from crock pot, leave sauce. Dissolve 4 teaspoons of cornstarch in 6 tablespoons of water and pour into crock pot. Stir to combine with sauce. Replace lid and cook sauce on high for ten more minutes or until slightly thickened. Cut chicken into bite size pieces, then return to pot and toss with sauce before serving. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve over rice or noodles.

*You can also sprinkle more red pepper flakes on top if you want more heat.

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Sheet Coloring Craft

11 Oct

I love doing crafts with Aleah when it is just the two of us hanging out.  I think I saw this idea on pintrest and was excited to give it a try.

action shot

We filled up two squirt bottles with water and food coloring and started squirting away.  We used, purple, green, pink, yellow, red and blue.

Doesn’t she look like a little artist?

Isn’t that more fun than a boring white sheet?

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Just in the Nick of Time

7 Oct

Wednesday we had a high of 75 degrees.  We were all outside thinking, wow, we are hot.  And also thinking- is there really snow forecasted for tomorrow?

Thursday morning as Jared headed off to work the girls and I (still in our jammies) headed outside to plant some tulip and daffodil bulbs.

Sure glad we got out there and planted because look what happened the same day:

Thrifty Thursday

4 Oct

This is the entryway into our house:

Definitely needed some sort of coat hanger.  Right?

Went to a garage sale this summer where I found this great coat hanger AND mirror.

Doesn’t it look like it was meant for this space?

Okay, the kicker is that this mirror/coat hanger only cost me 25 cents.  Yes, that’s right one quarter.  You can buy a gumball or this mirror.  When I first saw the 25 cent sticker I thought maybe they meant $25 or perhaps was not marked right.  I brought my purchases up to the lady having the garage sale and gave her the money and she didn’t bat an eye.  Wow, I was pretty pumped and am so glad we have a place to hang our coats and do a final teeth check on our way out the door.