Lemon Meringue Pie



Grandma Reed's Lemon Meringue Pie

This pie was passed on from my Grandmother Reed to my mom Karma to me.  I love it.  It is probably my favorite pie and as far as I am concerned no one has a better lemon meringue recipe, but I might be a bit bias.  As delicious as I believe this pie to be, it is not a favorite of my children.  So although it is a family recipe it will be shared here so it is not lost even though it will not be passed to the next generation. 
Grandma Esther Reed's Lemon Meringue Pie

Ingredients:

Pie Filling
1 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups water
1 Tbs. butter
1/4 cup cornstarch
3 Tbs. cold water
6 Tbs. lemon juice
3 egg yolks
2 Tbs. milk
1 8 in baked pie crust

Meringue
3 egg whites
6 Tbs. white sugar
1 tsp. lemon juice

Directions

1.First off a disclaimer, I purchase Pillsbury ready to roll out and bake pie crust.  I have never made a good flaky pie crust and I like Pillsbury's.  So bake a 8 inch pie crust, whether you use Pillsbury or your own recipe you can choose.  Let cool.

This next part is what I do know how to do.

For Pie
2. In a large pot; combine sugar, water and butter.
3. Cook until sugar is dissolved, stirring regularly. 
4. Blend cornstarch with the cold water until the cornstarch is all dissolved.
5. Slowly pour into sugar/water mixture - stirring while adding. 
6. Cook slowly until mixture is clear about 8 minutes.
7. It will be clearer but not see through.
8. Add lemon juice and cook 2 more minutes.
9. Beat eggs yolks with milk and then slowly add to sugar/lemon mixture.
10. Bring to a boil.
11. Cool slightly and than pour into cooled pie crust.
12. Let set.

For Meringue

13. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
14. Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry.
15. Add sugar gradually and beat a little more.
16. Add lemon juice and beat slightly.
17. Spread over cooled filling, shaping with peaks.
18. Brown in oven for about 13 to 15 minutes.


Meringue browned just right

19. Remove and let cool before serving.
20. Enjoy.


So good



Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge

What dessert or treat do you have to have for Christmas? For me, my dad's famous toffee reminds me of Christmas so much. Christmas caroling to friends and family especially, while sharing with them his delicious buttery toffee. My dad has simply perfected toffee making, and he recently shared his recipe and tips with me. But I was a bit intimidated, and still am in fact. I know how many years it has taken him to get this recipe just right, and I know that even with his expertise he has undercooked or overcooked the toffee.  I know that new candy thermometers and new pots changed the length of cooking time. I know that moving to California with the change in altitude changed the recipe complete.y And I'm scared to pieces to try it for myself. So, even though I really want to share this recipe with you, its not time for that yet, because I can't exactly share a recipe that I haven't made, now can I? How about I make this promise to you, I, Aimee, solemnly swear that by this time next year (sorry, that's the best I can do) I will have made my dad's toffee recipe and will share it with you. 


Another thing that has always intimidated me is fudge. I never grew up with my mom making fudge because she always complained that it wouldn't turn out. It would be too grainy, or overcooked, or who knows what else. So until this week I had only made microwave fudge, but this recipe looked way too good to pass up. And we needed something to share with our new neighbors. So I decided to try it. And it turned out perfect. I'm sorry to say that I didn't really change the recipe at all (okay, except for using crunchy peanut butter instead of creamy, milk chocolate instead of semi sweet, and a little more vanilla). But its too delicious not to share with you anyway.

Chocolate Layer
1 1/2 cups sugar
6 TBS margarine
1/3 cup evaporated milk
6 oz milk chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla
3.5 oz marshmallow creme

Peanut Butter Layer
1 1/2 cups sugar
6 TBS margarine
1/3 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
3.5 oz marshmallow creme

1. Combine 1 1/2 cups sugar, 6 TBS margarine and 1/3 cup evaporated milk in a medium pot, over medium high.
2. Bring to a full rolling boil, stirring often.
3. Boil for about 1 minute.
4. Lower the heat to medium and continue to boil for another 3 minutes, stirring constantly.
5. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips, until melted.
6. Add half of the jar of marshmallow creme and 1 tsp vanilla.
7. Stir until well blended.
8. Pour into a greased 13x9 pan.
9. Repeat steps 1-7, replacing chocolate chips with peanut butter.
10. Spread peanut butter mixture over chocolate.
11. Cool completely, at room temperature.
12. Cut into squares and enjoy.

Do you take a Christmas treat to your friends and neighbors? What do you like to share?

Chocolate Mint Surprise Cookies

One of my favorite kind of cookies are rolo cookies even though I've only actually made them once or twice. The chocolate cookie is so easy to make but once you take a bite and get a taste of the caramel middle you'll never want to turn back. I absolutely love rolos, and I've bought them a couple more time to try to make these cookies, but they made it into my mouth too quickly to make it into the cookie middle.

When a couple of our friends invited us over to a hot chocolate party, they told us to bring a dessert. I asked Nate if I could make rolo cookies, and he said, why don't we make something Christmasy. So instead we decided upon these cookies, rolo cookies, except not with rolos in the center. Instead the center is a delicious peppermint or mint truffle kiss. And for me, mint is the perfect Christmas flavor.

The only thing these cookies were lacking is the peppermint ice cream I wanted to go with them. Yum.

1 box devil's food cake
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
peppermint kisses
mint truffle kisses
sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine cake mix, eggs, vegetable oil in a medium sized mixing bowl.
3. Unwrap kisses.
4. Cover each kiss in a little chocolate cookie dough and roll in a ball.
5. Roll each ball in  sugar.
6. Spray a cookie sheet with nonstick spray.
7. Place cookies on cookie sheet.
8. Bake in preheated oven for 9 mins.
9. Cool for a couple of minutes on baking sheet and then move to a wire cooling rack.

Enjoy these cookies warm with a glass of cold milk.

If you have any left over the next day, microwave for 15 seconds to make the middles gooey again. 

What is your favorite Christmasy treat?

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Nate and I are pretty much completely unpacked and organized in our new house. You can see some pictures of our decorated home on our family blog here. We are still absolutely in love with our home, and my parents were even able to spend the night in our lovely guest bedroom on Sunday night, as they spent Thanksgiving in Idaho.

Anyway, I think all of our boxes are unpacked, or at least mostly unpacked (we have maybe 2 or 3 that have only been partially unpacked). Yet even with 99% of our things in their proper place there are a couple of very important things that seem to have gone missing. Our measuring cups and spoons. Of course. And I swear to you that they are not in the bottoms of any of these partially unpacked boxes (believe me, I've checked) and so it appears they have vanished into thin air. It must be magic. Well, as you know, with cooking, and especially baking its fairly important to know the proper measurements of every ingredient in a recipe. Especially when you have a cooking blog, and want to provide your readers with the utmost correct recipes possible for them. Fortunately, we somehow managed to have our 1/3 measuring cup, and our 1 TBS measuring spoon. And we also have our liquid measuring cups, so I've used those for bigger measurements as well (Is that bad?!)

So the point of my ramblings are, that I used a 1 TBS spoon to figure out how much approximately 1/2, 1 1/2 and 2 tsp are. So, hopefully I did those right. All I really know is that these muffins turned out amazing. And if you don't trust my recipe, based on my current lack of measuring cups and spoons, here are the two recipes I looked at for inspiration. Here and here.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins 

1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup oil
4 eggs
1 3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup water
3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
20 cloves, ground (or 1 tsp)
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp allspice
10 oz chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2.  Mix sugars, oil, and eggs in a large mixing bowl.
3. Stir in pumpkin and water.
4. In a separate mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices.
5. Add dry mixture to wet mixture, while stirring until completely mixed.
6. Stir in chocolate chips.
7. Grease muffin pan with cooking spray or use muffin liners.
8. Fill muffin cups about 2/3 of the way with batter.
9. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes.

Enjoy.

I'm always so tempted by the mini pumpkin chocolate chip muffins I see in the bakery section of grocery stores. I think pumpkin chocolate chip muffins (or cookies) are my favorite way to eat pumpkin. These turned out super delicious. And even though my measurements were maybe approximates, I think you should still make this recipe, and let me know what you think. You won't be disappointed!

Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

A couple of our friends invited us to a "pumpkin party" on Friday of last week. I was happy to have a reason to make a treat, and especially happy that it was pumpkin themed because I've wanted an excuse to make these pumpkin cheesecake bars. I got the recipe from Amanda. And it turned out great.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

1 cup flour

1/3 cup brown sugar

5 TBS butter, softened

1 cup finely chopped pecans 

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup canned pumpkin

8 oz cream cheese, softened

2 eggs

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp allspice

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Combine flour and brown sugar in a medium bowl.

3. Cut in butter to make a crumbly mixture.

4. Stir in pecans.

5. Set aside 1 cup of mixture for topping and press the remaining mixture in the bottom of a greased 8x8 pan.

6. Bake for 15 mins.

7. Cool slightly.

8. Meanwhile, combine cream cheese, sugar, pumpkin, eggs, cinnamon, allspice and vanilla in a large bowl.

9. Stir until smooth.

10. Pour mixture over baked crust.

11. Sprinkle with reserved topping.

12. Bake for an additional 30 to 35 minutes.

13. Cool and Enjoy.

Although this probably wasn't my favorite dessert, it was tasty and was a fun change to the typical (brownies, chocolate chip cookies, etc.) Especially cause its autumn, and I love fall themed desserts.

What is your favorite fall treat?

Oatmeal Cranraisin Pecan Cookies

Every month my ward's Relief Society has a luncheon on Camp Pendleton.  The idea is to unite our sisters with those who live in Fallbrook and those who live on base.  It works sometimes. Today we had 4 base sisters and 5 Fallbrook sisters.  Each month we have a food theme, for November we had Thanksgiving food and comfort food.  I brought olives because Thanksgiving dinner must have olives to eat before, during and after.  I also brought these cookies because my favorite cookie in the whole world is oatmeal raisin cookies but I think these are just a tiny bit better.

The recipe was taken from the recipe cards you get with the Crisco sticks you purchase and tweaked ever so slightly.

3/4 stick Crisco Butter Flavored Baking Sticks

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar ( I love brown sugar and always sneak a couple of pinches to eat straight when I bake)

2 eggs

1 Tbs. vanilla

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

2 3/4 cups rolled oats

1 cup cranraisins

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Lightly coat baking sheets with cooking spray.

Beat together shortening and sugars until creamy.  (My electric hand mixer is dead so I did this with a wooden spoon and it works just fine)

Beat in eggs and vanilla until mixed.

Add flour, soda, cinnamon and salt; mix until well blended.

Stir in oats, cranraisins and chopped pecans.

Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets.

Bake 10 minutes (this were the perfect softness on the first day but crisper on the 2nd and if you want them to stay soft maybe baking a little less will do that - be warned though they will fall apart easier)

Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes, remove to cooling rack to cool completely.

I am guessing they passed the taste test because several of them were snatched up to go home for later.  I hope you like these.  I think the secret was the cinnamon, the original recipe called for 1 tsp but I wanted more flavor and I loved it with the 2 tsp.

Microwave Mug Brownie

I know I have mentioned this many times before, but sometimes Nate gets mad at me for making too many desserts. And most of those times I'm still convinced that I want something sweet and I am going to make something. But some of those times he says that even if I make something he won't eat any. Not even a single bite, or even one cookie. And of course I don't want to make a full bath of cookies, or a cake if he's not going to eat any. We can't have those delicious morsels going to waste, now can we?

So, after I was looking through my pinned desserts on pinterest I decided upon one. A single serve scrumpdiddylyumptious brownie, cooked in the microwave, in a mug. I got this delicious recipe from here, and followed it, almost exactly, but its one I want to remember, and its good enough that I want to share it with you as well. Don't worry, you can thank me later.

1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 TBS cocoa powder
1/8 tsp salt
2 TBS vegetable oil
2 TBS water (or milk)

1. In a microwave safe mug (or maybe a ramekin) stir together the flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder and salt.
2. Stir in the oil and milk until you have a thick paste.

3. Microwave on high for anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute (depending on your microwave - mine was 45 seconds). It will be done when its springy on top but still a little gooey in the midle.
4. Enjoy warm. Maybe with a cup or milk, or topped with ice cream. **

**I had mine plain, but it was still delicious.

Nate did have one bite, and he thought it tasted a little like pudding, and I thought it tasted like a Betty Crocker Warm Delight. Either way, I hope you can enjoy this absolutely easy tasty dessert.

What do you make when you need a dessert for one on the spot?

Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Candy Bar Chunks

Last week while we were shopping at Costco we discovered that Costco sells Whipping Cream and Half and Half. We had been wanting to make ice cream for a while and with a quart of Half and Half for only 2 something dollars, we just had to get it. Right? Am I right? Well with so much Half and Half we've made two things of ice cream along with fettuccine Alfredo, and we probably have another cup of the stuff left.

One of the recipes we decided to make with the Half and Half was a Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Candy Bar Chunks. Of course if you wanted plain peanut butter ice cream you could just do that, or you could choose to add other mixins, instead of candy bars. Make this your own! If you like peanut butter, I can guarantee you will love this ice cream too.

3/4 cup sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 1/4 cup milk *
2 cups cream *
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
16 snack size candy bars (we used reeses and snickers)
** 1/4 cup cocoa powder
**2 TBS malt

*You can use whole milk and heavy cream for extra creamy ice cream, or lighter milk and half and half for a little healthier, but still delicious option. We always use 1 % milk and sometimes use cream, sometimes half and half.

** optional ingredients. We added them. But we've made this recipe before without them.

1. Add peanut butter and sugar to a medium sized mixing bowl.
2. Mix for 2 minutes using a hand mixer on low.
3. Add milk and cream to the peanut butter mixture and mix until combined.
4. Add vanilla extract.
5. Pour mixture into ice cream maker and mix for 35 minutes.
6. Meanwhile chop candy bars into small pieces.
7. After ice cream is frozen stir in candy bar pieces with a spoon.
8. Enjoy, or place in a Tupperware container and freeze for another 2 hours for extra hard ice cream.

We topped our ice cream with peanut butter chips and chocolate syrup (the first time we had it) to make it an extra special treat. Enjoy.

For tips on how to make ice cream with out an ice cream maker see my post here.

Caramel Apple Bars

So, one thing you may not know about me is that 3 years ago I went to Austria for 4 months. I lived with the perfect little Austrian family, and I studied with some of my fellow BYU students at the Austro-American Institute in Vienna. It was seriously the most lovely time I had (as a single).

The friends I made while in Vienna will last a life time. And one thing we try to do every few months to keep in touch is have a "reunion". Well, on Saturday we had a reunion at our program director's home. It was so lovely to see her and her family, and although there were only about 10 of us girls there, it was so great to reconnect.

The theme for the party was "apples" and since I needed to make something with apples and caramel for this challenge, I decided upon this bar recipe from Betty Crocker.

Now, you can make this dessert really easy by buying everything preprepared from the store, or you can make it a little more difficult by making things yourself. I wanted to go the more homemade route by making my own oatmeal cookie dough, and my own caramel sauce. But after creating a failure with the sauce (because I tried to make my own sweetened condensed milk - since I didn't have any) I washed it down the sink and ran back to the store to get some caramel icing topping. The recipe turned out great though, so I think either path you decide to choose, this is a good recipe to make.

Funny enough I don't really love having apples in my desserts. They just aren't my favorite fruit, and most the time I would rather eat a chocolate dessert than something fruity. But this dessert is really good. And next time I need something appley, this might just be my go to recipe.

1/2 cup butter
1 egg
1 1/2 cup apple, peeled and chopped
1 cup caramel syrup
1/4 cup flour

about 20 oz oatmeal cookie mix

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spray 13x9 inch baking pan with nonstick spray
3. In a large bowl combine cookie mix and butter using a fork or pastry blender.
4. Add egg to mixture and stir.
5. Press 2/3 of cookie mixture into the bottom of the pan.
6. Bake for 15 minutes.
7. Sprinkle apple pieces over cookie crust.
8. In a small bowl combine caramel syrup and flour.
9. Drizzle caramel over apples.
10.Sprinkle reserved cookie mixture over apples and spread over top.
11. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
12. Cool for 30 minutes or until completely cooled for 2 hours.

Enjoy.

Cake Balls - Guest Posting

Hey friends! I'm guest posting over at Sloanbook today. Sharing a delicious recipe for Cake Balls. I decided to make funfetti cake balls, (funfetti cake mix, rainbow chip frosting). But the great thing about cake balls is you can make them in any flavor you'd like.

So check out my recipe for cake balls over here, and while you're at it check out Ashley's adorable blog, where she writes about life in Colorado with her handsome husband and adorable pup Katinka.

Ps. They are a little time consuming, but the steps are all easy, and the result is delicious. You won't regret it!

Pudding Chocolate Chip Cookies

've had a couple of failures in the past when making chocolate chip cookies. Shouldn't chocolate chip cookies be one of the easiest things to make? But no, baking with butter vs shortening makes a huge difference, and halving or doubling a recipe doesn't always work. But, I got this recipe to work. Hooray.

I first had pudding chocolate chip cookies when my friend Ali was my roommate. I never got the recipe from Ali, unfortunately. But Friday when I was going visiting teaching, I wanted to be able to take a treat, so after scanning a few recipes I found one for pudding chocolate chip cookies that looked delicious. 

And trust me, they tasted delicious too.

Inspired by this recipe from All Recipes

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature (2 sticks)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 3.4 oz package vanilla instant pudding mix
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups milk chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven. **
2. Using a mixer beat together butter and sugars in a large bowl.
3. Add in pudding mix, eggs and vanilla.
4. In a separate bowl (medium sized) combine flour, baking soda and salt.
5. Slowly add the dry mixture to the wet mixture while running the mixer.
6. Stir in the chocolate chips.
7. Drop cookie dough onto a pregreased baking sheet.
8. Bake, until golden brown and set. **
9. Remove cookies from oven and let cool on sheet for 2 minutes.
10. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack and cool completely.
11. Enjoy with a big cup of cold milk.

** For smaller cookies preheat oven to 375 and bake for 10-12 minutes. For larger cookies preheat oven to 325 and bake for 18-19 minutes.

chocolate dipped peanut butter cookies

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1 TBS shortening

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl mix together, butter, shortening, peanut butter, sugar and brown sugar.
3. Beat in the egg and vanilla.
4. In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
5. Slowly combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients as you are mixing.
6. Spray a cooking sheet with Pam
7. Using a cookie scoop, or your hands make heaping tablespoon sized balls of cookie dough.
8. Put balls on baking sheet, a couple of inches apart.
9. Slightly flatten the balls with a fork, making a criss cross pattern.
10. Bake in oven for about 10 minutes for softer cookies, 12 for a little harder cookies.**
11. Meanwhile, put chocolate chips and shortening in a small (microwave safe) bowl.
12. Microwave for about 1.5-2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds, until chocolate is completely creamy.
13. After cookies are done cooking, cool them for about 5 minutes on the baking sheet.
14. Remove cookies and place on a wire rack. Cool for another 10 minutes or so.
15. Dip one edge of the cookies in the chocolate bowl and lay out on waxed paper to dry.
16. For a quicker hardening of the chocolate, put the cookies in the freezer for a few minutes.
17. Enjoy with a nice big glass of milk.

**The slightly crispier cookies are easier to dip in the chocolate.

Even after putting the cookies in the freezer, once removed (thankfully) the chocolate stayed hard, and the cookie got soft. Even the cookies that I baked a little longer, were still relatively soft and chewy. And as this was my first time making peanut butter cookies on my own, this will definitely be my go to recipe every time in the future.

These were seriously so good! And if you don't feel like dipping your cookies in chocolate you can use this recipe anyway. They taste so good fresh out of the oven that they melt in your mouth. Yum! Plus these cookies store well in an airtight container and will be good for about 5 to 7 days.

Personal Pineapple Cobbler

One of my favorite camping desserts is dutch oven cobbler. And thankfully a few months ago we got a dutch oven for ourselves, as you can read here. A sad fact that I just realized is that we have actually never made cobbler while we've been camping, though we thankfully have made it a couple of times from our front porch, while enjoying the beautiful summer evening weather. 

Everyone around me has been saying how excited they are for the weather to cool off, and for it to be fall. And don't get me wrong, I love fall. I love wearing boots and scarves. I love the colors of the changing leaves. I love eating pies, soups and other warm foods. But, still, I am not ready for fall. 

I just love summer too much. 

I love summer because we can take a few days of work and go on vacations. I love summer because its hot. I love going to the pool or the lake, and attempting to tan and swimming with the pup. I love going camping on the weekends. But most of all I love summer evenings. The temperature of summer evenings is so astounding to me, and I really don't think it can be beaten. It may be my favorite time of year/day, ever. 

And although this scrumptious dessert slightly heats up kitchen, due to the use of the stove. Its completely worth it. And its a perfect dessert to have on a summer evening. Or any time of the year.

And if you really brave (okay, so its not bravery, its easy too) get your own dutch oven. And enjoy a cool summer evening on your porch making some delicious peach or pineapple cobbler.**

**You can follow this same recipe with a dutch oven just increasing the amounts of each ingredient used.

Personal Pineapple Cobbler

8 pieces of pineapple chunks

pineapple juice

a heaping 1/4 cup yellow cake mix

1/2 TBS butter

Yield: one personal 4oz cobbler. (Copy amounts used to make more)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. (A toaster oven might be a cooler substitute, if you don't want to heat the whole kitchen)

2. Cut pineapple chunks in half to make them easier for eating.

3. Put chunks in the bottom of your 4 oz ramekin.

4. Cover pineapple pieces with pineapple juice.

5. Pour cake batter on top of pineapple pieces. Spreading evenly. 

6. If there is space in your ramekin add more cake batter.

7. Cut the butter into tiny pieces and place pieces evenly over the top of your cake batter.

8. Bake for 30 minutes.

9. Enjoy with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.

I was craving something sweet, and since I had pineapple left over from another recipe, I decided I'd make myself a miniature cobbler. It was absolutely perfect. I really did only make enough for myself to eat though, but like I said, this is one of the easiest recipes ever, so you could make a lot more for others if you'd like a quick and delicious evening treat. 

This was so good I made myself the same dessert two nights in a row, and I might make it for myself again tonight. Yum Yum.

What is your favorite part of summer?

Chocolate Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies

On Sunday, Nate told me that I should make some cookies to give to our neighbors for watching Aspen while we were gone. If you know me, I relish in the opportunity to make desserts, because Nate hardly ever wants me to. Given the opportunity I wanted to take full advantage and try out a new recipe that I had pinned.

While I was making these cookies, Nate and his brother Dain (who is staying at our house for 2 weeks in between apartment contracts) were in the front room playing Madden. Every few minutes they would peek their heads into the kitchen to see what I was making, and by the time the cookies were done they were very eager to try a few. Each boy gobbled up about 6 or 7 cookies without a single pause for thought. And by the time the boys were done, and after I had snatched one up (to taste my handiwork) before they could eat them all, I stopped to see how many cookies were left to deliver to our thoughtful neighbors and the number was very few. The few cookies got thrown into a pyrex to stay fresh and sadly never made it to the neighbors empty bellies.

Needless to say, these cookies were obviously delicious for us to have eaten them so quickly. And also, this means I need to make another batch of these, or try a new recipe to thank our neighbors. So, if you have any cookie recipes you think I should try, please send them my way. If they turn out tasty enough I'll probably post the recipe on the blog, and I'd love to feature you.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 cup peanut butter, divided

1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 TBS milk

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.

3. In another medium bowl beat together, sugar, brown sugar, butter, and 1/4 cup peanut butter.

4. Add vanilla and egg.

5. Beat to combine.

6. Pour in the flour mixture slowly, stirring while pouring.

7. In a small bowl combine the remaining 3/4 cup peanut butter, powdered sugar and milk, until smooth.

8. Separate a heaping TBS of chocolate cookie dough and flatten with your hands.

9. Take about 1 tsp of of the peanut butter mixture and place it in the center of the chocolate dough.

10. Wrap the chocolate dough around the peanut butter middle and roll into a ball with your hands.

11. Roll the cookie in the extra sugar.

12. Repeat until you have used the rest of the chocolate dough and peanut butter filling.

13. Place the cookies onto a cookie sheet, sprayed with non-stick.

14. Flatten each cookie slightly with a glass.

15. Bake in oven for about 8 minutes.

16. Leave on baking sheet for about 2 minutes.

17. Remove to a wire rack and let cool.

18. Enjoy cookies with a nice big cup of milk!

What cookie recipes can you recommend for me to try next?