Chocolate Chip Cookies: a Recipe

This is a post from the archives. I wrote this a few years ago and never published it so I decided now is the perfect time to post it! (sorry for the dark photos, at the time I thought it looked good hahaha)

Cookies!!!

Who doesn't love a good cookie? So I had an afternoon to whip up a few, like 6 dozen! Wow, I didn't realize the recipe I was following was a double batch of the original so I made like a ton of these bad boys!

Blue Ribbon Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/2 cups Flour

1/2 tsp. Baking Soda

1/4 tsp. Salt

1 cup Brown Sugar

1/2 cup Sugar

1 cup Butter (2 sticks)

2 Eggs

2 tsp. Vanilla Extract

1 cup Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

In a small bowl combine flour, baking soda & salt.

In a large mixing bowl or stand mixer beat brown sugar, sugar & butter.

Add eggs one at a time and vanilla.

Slowly add dry ingredients.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop spoonfuls or use cookie scoop onto prepared baking sheet and bake for 21 minutes (depending on your oven).

They are so yummy and delicious!

There were so many I didn't know where to put them all! I need to invest in a dang cookie jar, one that won't let the air in so they don't get all hard. That's one thing I hate about cookie jars.... 

yummmm

Enjoy!

What have you been baking lately?

Click here for printable recipe!

OUR FIRST HOME: a tour

I recently found this post that I thought I published a long time ago... Here is a tour of our first home right before we moved out.


If you don't know this about me already, I'm a little OCD and I tend to go overboard for absolutely no reason and do things that normal people just would never care to do.... Case and Point: here is the floor plan to our home.

I don't know anyone else that would spend all night sketching this just because I thought it would be fun and I thought I needed it.....

PS: I am in no way an artist or a good drawer at all, so please, don't judge me :)

I forgot to get a photo of the front, so I cheated....

Okay so, let me take you on a tour of our first home!

Welcome! This is our home!

We live on the bottom level of this lovely 4 plex and that open garage door happens to be ours. One great thing about this place is all the parking, there is this driveway and the carport between the house and the garage.

So now that you found a place to park your car.... Let's go through the front door

It took us about 15 months to get this place looking like a home.

It was a lot of fun, we gathered things little by little and eventually we were able to make this feel like our home.

Don't just stand there, take a seat.

We didn't have a couch starting out, we had one piece of furniture,

THE FAT SACK. 

It was awesome! But there came a time when we decided we needed a little bit more :)

We spend a lot of time hanging out here chatting, reading and watching TV.

Take a few steps to the right and visit our kitchen.
Check out all that counter space and all those beautiful cabinets.

Just sit down here, in our dining room, while I make you something:

Don't mind Kokua, she will move for you....

Wait a minute while I whip up some cookies for you in my most favorite spot in the house.

Now that your tummy is satisfied it's time to see the rest of the place....

let's go

you will find this

This door stays shut unless we are hunting for something in there :)

Then

This is our Bedroom!

Nice and cozy and those curtains.... just what I needed to block out that sunlight, lots of peaceful sleeps thanks to those.

As you can see, Kokua loves to follow me around...

 And the bathroom.... many hours spent in here getting beautified. This is also the spot where my girls and I got ready the morning of my wedding. Such special memories!

This place has been so much fun! It was way more space then we needed but it was an answer to our prayers and the perfect place to live our first year together!

Now lets go back out and

Here is our extra Bathroom

It's decorated and there is even soap and shampoo but we have never used that shower :)

And last of all.... the puppies room!

Kapone is my "King of Fuzz" and I just can't keep up with him. I don't know where he get's it all, I swear it appears out of thin air!

And here we are back at the front door.

Thank you for visiting!!! I'm so glad you stopped by!

Come back and see us anytime at our NEW place!

Super Cool Site!

Are you wanting to paint a room in your house or even the outside of your house but can't decide on the color? Take this site for a test drive: https://secure.olympic.com/colorclix/colorclix-online

I was in reader one day looking through my unread blog posts and came across a post about ColorClix. I wish I could remember who posted it so I could link you to her site but I can't remember.

She was trying to chose paint colors for her daughters room and used this tool to help her. Of course I wanted to try it so I uploaded a photo and in about 5 minutes had awesome new paint on the walls.

The before is a photo I took of our old place.

Wow! I know those colors aren't for everyone and I probably wouldn't seriously do that exactly but man, I wish I could have painted that place! I do really love that GREEN!

And here is a house I found on the MLS that is for sale. I think they needed a little color to all that grey.

I think I prefer this house green.

Anyway.... I had fun playing on this site and just thought you might too. LATER GATOR!

Moving Announcements

I was so excited about these!! I just couldn't wait to share them.... but I had to at least wait until after they were sent out.

So... We moved!

And the most fun part about the move is that I got to make announcements!

I got my inspiration from Vandella Design.

I love Diana, she is beautiful and amazing! And she creates such wonderful projects!
~please spend some time browsing her site, you will be glad you did~

The quatrefoil background I got as a FREE stencil from HERE.

I have been dying to make a little envelope like this for something so this was my perfect chance! Aren't they just so dang cute?

Then I just taped the label on to close it up!

These were so much fun to make!

I created the whole thing on the computer and printed them off on white card stock so they would be stronger than regular paper. Then I cut them out!

The label is printed on regular paper, there was no need for card stock there because it was just being taped to the front.

After I had one envelope made and the announcement in it I realized it needed something else, there was just too much white. So I grabbed black card stock and glued them to that. This made them look so much better, also they stood out from the envelope that way.

All done and ready to ship out!!

This was such a fun project for me, I can't wait to make something else like this.

Don't you just love to send and receive things in the mail? I just love it!

Now, I'll leave you with a shot of my darling little boy!

Happy Wednesday!

mmmmm

I've made a few things recently that I need to post about!

First off, the Aloha card!

This I made for a friend's wedding reception/baby shower. They were married in December and had a BBQ Luau to celebrate this summer.

I think it turned out super cute I love the palm tree!

So my birthday was earlier this month and I decided to whip up a chocolate cake with strawberry frosting. It was supper yummy!

So here is a great frosting:

Take 1 Strawberry Jello packet and dissolve in a little water or milk then add the powdered sugar, vanilla extract and butter. Tastes great as long as the Jello packet is dissolved otherwise it is very grainy.

It was a very yummy cake, but not very pretty :)

Last weekend I decided to try a new cookie recipe. 

I used a chocolate chip cookie recipe that I have but instead of adding the chocolate chips I added a few chopped up mini-Butterfinger bars! MMMM it was so good!

A couple of weeks ago there was a birthday at my office and one of the girls made these chocolate cupcakes! So I had to snap a few shots!

Doesn't it look delicious!
And the last thing I must share:
D's cake!

He did such a good job on this, he made it all by himself while I was at work then I came home and made some frosting and he decorated it all by himself! I'm so proud of him, it was such a yummy cake!
mmmmmmm

Blueberry Pies: a Recipe

I made Blueberry Pies this weekend!

And they were delicious!

First I made the CRUST!

2 cups all-purpose flour

I teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

6 tablespoons butter

6 tablespoons shortening

6 to 8 tablespoons ice water

Warm the butter in the microwave until it is soft, but not melted.

Mix in a large bowl:

2 cups all-purpose flour

I teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

Then cut in using the dough blender:

6 tablespoons butter

6 tablespoons shortening

6 to 8 tablespoons ice water

Wrap your pie crust in plastic wrap. Then place in refrigerator for 20 or more minutes, while you make the PIE FILLING.

3/4 c. sugar

3 tbsp. corn starch

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 c. water

4 c. fresh or frozen blueberries

1 tbsp. lemon juice

2 tbsp. butter

In saucepan combine sugar, salt and corn starch with water, blueberries and lemon juice. Cook over medium heat until thick. Remove from heat and stir in butter.

I made mini pies:

Aren't these so cute!!!

The minis baked for 15 minutes each @ 400.

Then I made a regular sized one:

This baked for about 50 minutes @ 400.

DE.LISH!

Fun Photos