And what family get together would be complete without an assortment of desserts. So not only did we enjoy Kyle’s family’s famous Nut Butter balls at our Easter dinner yesterday but I also decided to make a new dessert as well. Chocolate and peanut butter candies in a blondie, topped with vanilla ice cream. What more could you need?! Enjoy 🙂

Ingredients

• 2 cups brown sugar
• 10 tablespoons butter, softened
• 3 large eggs, whisked
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 9-12 Reese’s 6oz peanut butter eggs (usually individually wrapped)
• 1 bag peanut butter M&Ms

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Prepare 9×13 baking dish sprayed with cooking spray and sprinkled lightly with flour.
2. Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add in eggs and vanilla and blend until combined.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Pour into the butter mixture and stir with a wooden spoon.
5. Press 1/2 the dough into the pan (coat your hands with flour and spread with your hands if needed).
6. Cut the Reese’s eggs into small chunks and lay them on top of the dough.
7. Place the remaining cookie dough on top of the Reese’s by dropping in spoonfuls.
8. Gently press the peanut butter M&Ms on top.
9. Bake for 35-40 minutes. When done, the bars will look puffy and the edges will be golden brown. The dough should still be soft in the center as it will finish cooking a bit while cooling.
10. Allow bars to cool. Eat while warm with ice cream! Heavenly!

Original recipe available HERE.

From our family to yours.. Happy Easter!

I love it when my husband tells me stories from when he was growing up. There is something so sweet about family traditions and stories from a long time ago. This recipe and these cookies are one of those sweet stories. When KH was growing up his Grandma used to make these cookies every Christmas. Then his mom began helping and over the past several years took on the tradition herself once Grandma was in a nursing home.  Grandma passed away last year and we didn’t have the cookies for the first of many Christmases. Somehow the idea came up to make these for Easter and so here you go.. nut butter balls that have in a way doubled as what I like to call “tombstone cookies” because they remind me of the large tombstone that was rolled away on Easter morning where Jesus was buried. Despite my (what I like to think) clever tie in to Easter,  KH is pretty firm on the fact that these will remain a Christmas tradition. Still sounds perfect to me!

Beat together thoroughly:
1  cup butter
½  cup sifted confectioners’ sugar
1  tsp vanilla

Sift together and stir in:
2 1/4 cups sifted flour
1/4 tsp salt

Stir in:
3/4 cup finely chopped pecans

Chill dough. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll into 1″ balls. Place 2 ½” apart on ungreased baking sheet. Bake until set but not brown, about 10-12 minutes.
Gently remove from baking sheet while still warm and roll in sifted confectioner’s sugar, then cool on cooling rack. Roll again when cool, then store in an air tight container.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Today our staff had a PotLOVE in honor of February and Valentine’s Day. I made Chocolate Lasagna which was a big hit but I had my eye on these incredible s’more cookies. Of course due to Whole30 I did not try these tasty treats but I did eye them pretty closely. I’m definitely making these ASAP.

This is another great recipe from our friend and neighbor Jenny. She made it as a welcome home treat for her husband after he returned from a long work trip and now I’ve decided to try it on our family.  The end of summer is almost here and so the entire family is coming over this weekend for a BBQ and pool party. A cold and tasty treat sounds just perfect for our weekend festivities and should satisfy even our pickiest eaters. This pie is so easy and yummy- perfect to make ahead of time so have one less thing to think about when entertaining guests. I hope you enjoy it!

Ingredients:

• 25 Oreos (a little less than one package)
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• One 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
• 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
• One 8-ounce package Cool Whip, thawed

Directions:

For the crust: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Crush the cookies until they’re fine crumbs. Pour the melted butter over the top and stir with a fork to combine. Press into a pie pan and bake until set, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.

For the filling: Beat the peanut butter with the cream cheese until smooth. Add the powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Add in the thawed Cool Whip and beat until smooth, scraping the sides as needed.

Pour the filling into the crust, evening out the top with a knife or spatula. Chill for at least an hour before serving (best if chilled overnight).

Original recipe available here.

I often visit my blog to recall past recipes and previous information- its the original reason I started blogging in the first place, to capture everything I want to remember and have it all in one place. So tonight I came to the blog looking for this recipe and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t posted it yet. This is one of my favorite recipes for traditional chocolate chip cookies that are anything but ordinary. Trust me….your taste buds will thank you! Served best warm with a tall glass of cold milk. 🙂 Enjoy!

Ingredients: (see below before you start measuring! – this makes a TON- save this quantity for a bake sale or a neighborhood block party) 🙂

• 1 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
• 6 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tablespoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 4-5 cups semisweet chocolate chips (4 cups is 2 bags)

• 1 stick and 3 tbsp butter
• 2/3 cup packed brown super
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 tbs baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream butter and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until smooth. Add in eggs and vanilla, and cream on medium high speed.

2. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl and slowly add to mixture. Mix until fully incorporated, but do not over mix. Fold in chocolate chips with a wooden spoon.

3. Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls onto baking sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until starting to brown.

I am finally starting to feel like myself again! After weeks of exhaustion and morning/all day sickness, I’ve hardly cooked at all, let alone bake. Today my hubby and I spent the day resting (as we are both trying to get over a cold) and then shopping- a treat for my upcoming birthday next week. His one request at the end of the day was that I make these sugar cookies.. and considering his birthday is just around the corner as well I could hardly say no! Enjoy the easiest (and yummiest) sugar cookies around!

Ingredients (I usually half this recipe to make around 20-24 cookies)

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla.
3. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients.
4. Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and place onto ungreased cookie sheets.
5. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

Original recipe available here.

Spring is in the air and summer is not too far away which means its officially berry cobbler season. This is one of my favorite desserts.. for some reason peach cobbler makes me think of the fall but berry cobbler is a spring/summer recipe, especially when topped with vanilla ice cream. It’s also incredibly simple if you need an easy recipe that tastes great. Oh and ignore the colored egg plate-I made this for our Easter dessert 🙂

Ingredients:
2-3 cups berries (I usually prefer a combination of blackberries, raspberries and blueberries)
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
I stick butter, softened

Directions: 
Preheat oven to 350.  Wash berries and drain well. Put berries in a buttered 1 quart baking dish. Mix all remaining ingredients and crumble over berries.  Bake uncovered for 40-45 min or until crust is light brown….top with vanilla ice cream and serve. Yummy!

I’m not the kind of person that needs an excuse to bake something new or a holiday to feel inspired to try my hand at a special dessert but when the opportunity presents itself I love to seize it! I stumbled upon this tasty recipe, got the two thumbs up from my hubby that it sounded good and decided to give it a whirl. Definitely a different spin on traditional sugar cookies. They are a tasty treat that is almost borderline with a shortbread cookie but are so good you’ll be going back for more. Give them a try and tell me what you think! (Warning this recipe does require some down time in the fridge so you’ll have to plan ahead with this one.)

In one bowl combine:

• 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. each baking soda and table salt.

In a second bowl beat:

• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp pure almond extract

Directions:

• Combine the two mixtures; beat on low speed until combined.
• Divide dough into two portions.
• Wrap each portion in plastic and chill several hours or overnight.

After several hours:

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Spray baking sheets.
• Roll one dough portion on floured surface to 1/4 inch thick.
• Cut out desired shapes with your choice of cookie cutters (In this case Valentine’s Day hearts of course!)
• Place onto cookie sheet.
• Repeat with remaining dough
• Bake cookies until edges are set and bottoms are golden brown (about 10 minutes).
• Eat warm or cool on a cooling rack and then decorate cookies with icing & top with sprinkles!

Icing:

• 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 3 tbsp. milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract to taste

Original recipe available here.

Some of my extended family is coming in to town tomorrow to meet our little man for the first time. Special occasions call for special meals and so my mother is making her homemade lasagna and meatballs. (I’ll be sure to get her recipe soon & post it- its legit, straight out of Italy, homemade yumminess). In honor of the occasion I decided to make some chocolate lasagna for dessert to go with the theme. Can’t wait to dive in!

Chocolate Lasagna