WIUW  My Family's Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies! So Super Soft and Chewy!

I don't know about the rest of the country...But here in Wisconsin we have been having a heat wave! My kids have been begging me to make these cookies, but with the heat I just couldn't do it it would have heated the house up too much even with the air conditioner on! Well Today we finally cooled down a bit.. only about 85 degrees, but the humidity has really dropped off and that is what counts! So I baked!!

Here is a list of ingredients needed:

1 Lb butter softened (I only use butter NO margarine or shortening!)

2 Cups Brown Sugar

1 1/2 Cups Gran. sugar

3 eggs

2 tsp Vanilla

6 cups flour

 1 1/2 tsp soda

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 bag 12oz Milk choc. chips or semi sweet whatever you prefer

Lets get started! First preheat your oven to 350 degrees

CREAM TOGETHER:

The butter, and both sugars, I like to mix this well before adding anything else.

The butter and both sugars not mixed yet! however after the above mixture is well mixed add your eggs and vanilla and mix until nice and creamy.

Before adding the dry ingredients I usually take one cup of flour and place in a separate bowl, then add the salt and soda and mix well before adding to the sugar and butter mixture.

I then dump this dry mixture into my batter and mix well, my reasoning is that the soda and salt will be well mixed into cookie dough....Does anyone else do this when they are baking?? After you feel that this cup of four and salt and soda mixture is mixed in well you can start adding one cup of flour at a time into your cookie dough.Next add your chocolate chips and mix. DO NOT ADD MORE FLOUR than what is called for (Please) I think this makes your cookies hard! If for some reason you think that your cookie dough is too sticky  then put the cookie dough in the fridge for a 1/2  to 1 hour. 

Now you are ready to bake your cookies! (although my kids think that it is now time to eat the cookie dough!) I usually just use a tablespoon and drop the cookie dough by spoonfuls onto the cookie sheet as such

Sorry as you can see my cookie sheets are well used!!! Bake your cookies 8-10 minutes, however try not to overbake them. I usually cook them until they are starting to get brown around the edges, according to my husband he thinks that they look a little doughy in the middle (This is a good thing!) I pull the cookies out at this point and let them sit on the hot cookie sheet. They will continue to bake a little more while they cool off and will not be doughy when you eat them but they will be soft and chewy and YUMMY!

Of course in between baking cookies I had to feed this little guy some baby cereal with bananas!!

but it won't be long and he'll be enjoying these cookies with the rest of my kiddos!! Hope you all enjoy these cookies as much as my family does!!!

Bread Sticks YUM!!!

Are you ready to Whip it up with us? Here's this week's whip it up Wednesday.

This week I found a recipe here of course it was from Pinterest that just made me giddy.  I was so excited to try it!  For many of the Utahans you’ll know what I’m talking about.  This recipe is for breadsticks like you get at Salt Lake Pizza Factory.  You know the twisty ones on a stick that are the real reason you go there (oh wait it’s the real reason I go there).

They really are like melt in your mouth fantastic breadsticks and how fun that they are twisted around a stick.

So once I found the recipe I had to try it.  I was really excited. And really they are easy so we know that’s a plus in my book.

Here what you need

1 Tbs yeast

2 Tbs Sugar

1 ½ C Warm water

1 Tbs Oil (Olive oil worked great)

1tsp Salt

3 ½ C Flour

¾ C Melted butter, divided

3/8 tsp garlic salt

½ tsp dried rosemary

1 Tbs Parmesan cheese

8-  ¼” wooden dowels, cut to 18” lengths (or 8 – 12” skewers – I used these but I won’t next time.  You need the longer length.)

First combine the yeast, sugar and warm water.  Let that sit for a few minutes to active the yeast.  I’m too lazy to measure the temp. of the water and my mom told me a great trick for the temp.  Just use water that is the temp. of what you would use in a bath.  So that’s what I do and it works every time!

Once the yeast is activated mix in the oil, salt and flour and knead for 5 minutes.  I put my dough in my kitchenaid mixer with the dough hook, but it wasn’t mixing well.  Maybe if I would have let it mix longer it would have eventually mixed in all the flour but I wasn’t very patient so I just started kneading it by hand. But it kind of seemed like maybe there wasn't enough dough to mix well.

Pull your dough out and spray / oil your bowl then put dough back in and bowl and turn once to coat with oil.  Then cover and let rise until double in size.  I then went for a nice Sunday drive with the hubby and I think that the dough actually ended up rising too much. (oops the Sunday drive may have not been the best idea I didn't get too many pictures)

Next split the dough into 8 sections.  And then grab the kids.  Let them help roll the dough into snakes about 16-18” long – This is where the longer sticks would be nice.  I had almost too much dough to fit on the 12” skewers.  Plus you don’t have handle for your bread stick if you use the skewers.

As you can see some of our "snakes" were struggling to become snakes.  Then you just need to roll them onto the skewers and use a little water at the ends to help the dough stay.  Again because I used the 12" skewers I had to squish the dough to get it all on the stick.  Which I think also resulted in the "falling" that happened during the next rise.  So you place the sticks over the edges of a pan and then let rise until double again.

Before baking use 1/4 C of melted butter and brush on bread sticks.

Bake on 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

While baking mix up the other 1/2 C melted butter with the garlic salt, rosemary and parmesan cheese.  use this mix to immediately spread over bread sticks when they come out of the oven!  YUMMMM!

Okay so these totally did not last very long at my house! They were downed pretty much before anything else made it to the plates.  But I need to tweak it just a little.  I used wheat flour instead of white so that kind of changed the taste.  Also I think the fact that I let the dough rise too long the first time and not having long enough sticks to wrap the dough, really contributed to the fact that my dough was really sagging.

It's a little embarrassing to show you this next pic but remember I told you I am NOT the cook right?

Ok see what I mean look at the 2nd one back it was sagging so much it was touching the pan.  But hey no worries it still tastes great!!

So next time you need a bread stick give these a try.  I promise you will like them!!

Thanks for stopping by
--Naoni

WIUW Fruit Delight!

Now I have to tell you that the original name of this dessert was "Cherry Delight" But I love to mess with/alter recipes and found that this recipe works great with many different types of fruit in fact our family's favorite is Peach! 

OK so the original recipe called for

 1 can of cherry pie filling

1 white or yellow cake mix

1 cube of butter

But as you can see in the picture above I like to keep lots of different variations on hand: cherry, strawberry, peach and lemon...I have NOT tried blueberry but I bet it would be good too!! The reasons I love this dessert, besides the fact that it tastes yummy, is it is very easy and fast to make plus great for the summer because it doesn't heat up your kitchen on a hot day!

Alright lets get started! First take one can of pie filling of your choice and dump it into your crock pot. We used peach.

Now melt one cube of butter, and add your cake mix to it, mix the 2 together well.

After you've mixed your butter and cake mix well spoon drop the cake mixture over the top of your pie filling in the crock pot.

Cook on low 3 to 4 hours or on high 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Spoon into serving dishes, and serve with whipped topping or ice cream, if desired. This is pretty close to a fruit cobbler without all the work! I hope you'll try this recipe out and let me know what your favorite fruit is. I've also been thinking about trying this recipe out with a chocolate cake mix and cherry pie filling or lemon pie filling and a chocolate cake mix....as strange as that may sound at least it used to sound strange to me until my sister-in-law introduced me to chocolate cake with lemon and boy is that good!!! If I get a chance to try one of these options I'll post my my family's reactions! 

Also if you haven't noticed there seems to be a trend going on here, I really go for those quick n easy recipes! And if I can find a way to make a recipe easier and it still tastes good I do it.....does this mean I'm lazy? 

Enjoy! Chelle

Happy 4th of July - WIUW

Well we really couldn't do a Whip it up Wednesday on the 4th and not have it be a patriotic dish.  So we were trying to decide what we wanted to do for today.  We wanted it to be something Red, White and Blue.  But Chelle and I determined that we neither of us had a great go to recipe for the 4th that fit the bill.  So this week I took a new approach.  I really wanted a trifle type of dessert.  I had plenty of fresh strawberries and blueberries so I searched for a recipe that would work.  And here is what I found.

So as I was finding what to make I did some soul searching and I realized a few things. 1) I'm really not a cook my husband is the cook in our family and really he makes fantastic dishes some day I'll be like him 2) I am easily intimidated by recipes from too many ingredients or too much detail to follow 3) I really don't like the clean up.  There are others but those were some of the main.


The next step in my searching was to decide how to share recipes with you so here's where my journey kind of changes...  I decided that more of the recipes I share with you will be a way for me to challenge myself to try a new recipe and I'll share that with you.  So are you still following here?


To sum up.  Not a great cook = stepping out on a limb to try new recipes and then share them with you.  Okay Pinterest here I come.


So if I haven't lost you, here is the recipe that I tried this week.


Patriotic Berry Trifle 
And really it ended up being pretty easy.  It took a little time but really everything was easy about it.

This is all of the ingredients.  Not too many.  I have all of the cream cheese cut up because I didn't leave it out to get to room temp. in time.


To get started you need to slice the angel food cake into slices then make the sauce to spread on both sides of each slice.  For the sauce just mix sugar, lemon juice and water until sugar is dissolved and then add almond extract.  (the recipe calls for sugar but I used agave and it worked well)

Then take this sauce and spread on the angel food cake and cut the cake into 1" cubes.

Next mix together cream cheese and sugar until smooth and light.  Then add cream until smooth and consistency of whipped cream.

Now the fun part begins.  Of course this part worried me too because I didn't want the bowl to get dirty up the sides and whew I made it.


So start layering starting with 1/2 of the angel food cake then blueberries (I used 1 pint for each blueberry layer) 1/2 of the cream mixture and then strawberries.  Then start over, angel food cake, blueberries, cream mixture and then make the top fancy with your strawberries and additional blueberries if you choose.

So once you're all done with the fancy top chill for an hour and then enjoy.

Here's the full recipe
1/4 C plus 2/3 C sugar (I used agave)
1/4 C fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 angel food cake cut into 1" slices
1 pound cream cheese at room temp
2 C heavy cream
2 pints blueberries (I used 3 pints)
2 pints strawberries


Heat 1/4 C sugar, lemon juice and 1/4 C water in saucepan over med-high heat until sugar dissolves.  Remove from heat and stir in almond extract. Brush both sides of cake with sauce and then cut slices into 1-inch cubes.


Beat 2/3 C sugar and cream cheese on medium speed until smooth and light.  Add cream and beat on med-high speed until smooth and consistency of whipped cream.


Arrange in a trifle dish with Cake (I poured left over sauce over the cake layers) blueberries, cream, strawberries and repeat with decorative last layer of strawberries (this is where I put the 3rd pint of blueberries)


I hope you enjoy!  I loved using the cream cheese mixture as a change up from the often used pudding mixture.


Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have a great 4th of July.


--Naoni

Whip It Up Wednesday: Mexican Shells

Okay, so today in Wisconsin we are supposed to be almost 90 degrees, with some serious humidity! Meaning I want a meal that isn't going to heat up the house too much, here's a pretty quick simple meal that will taste like it was a lot harder to make Then it really is! Let's get started!

So you'll need Hamburger I used 3 pounds, 1 box of Jumbo shells, and then your favorite CHUNKY Salsa, also some shredded cheddar cheese (Not shown in the picture).

To get started cook jumbo shells as directed on the box, DO NOT OVER COOK! Then pour into strainer and run cold water over and let cool.

Next Fry up the hamburger and drain off any excess fat, put the pan back on the stove and add in enough salsa to cover the meat well depending on how much meat you use, I used about 2 cups of salsa.

Take a 13x9 cake pan and coat with a thin layer of crisco shortening. Now you are ready to start stuffing your shells with your meat mixture. I take one shell at a time and use a spoon and spoon the shell full of the meat then place each shell into your cake pan close to each other, Now if you cooked up the whole box of shells you will probably have enough to make up another smaller cake pan like an 8x8 if you have one. Once you have stuffed all of your shells just top off your shells with shredded cheddar cheese and cover your cake pan with foil and cook in your over on 350 degrees for about 20-30 minutes. Just until the cheese is melted and your shells are heated well throughout. This is a meal that you can make up ahead of time then just throw in the oven before you are going to eat. I hope you enjoy this meal as much as my family does and no one has to know how easy it actually is! Sorry I did not take as many pictures of  the different steps as I should have!   If you have any questions please feel free to ask! Chelle

Hawaiian Haystacks with a Twist

Whip it up Wednesday...
A couple of weeks ago my husband was whipping up dinner and really it was just more of a throw it all together type of meal but it was such a hit with all of us that we couldn't wait to make it again.  It has for sure become one of our family favorites.  In fact my son declared this is what he wants for his birthday meal. Ok I'm good with that!  So what we ultimately had was Hawaiian Haystacks with a twist.

My family has been working on eating more of a plant based diet so we've had to get creative especially to keep kids happy at the dinner table.


This meal is really so easy!  Rice - Veggies - Beans - and what ever toppings you want


First get your rice cooking - we like brown rice
While that is cooking start your chopping and if you have helpers get them going too!

Get all of your favorite vegetables or toppings ready

This time we had cheese, tomatoes, green onions, pineapple, celery, carrots, yellow and orange peppers


The sauce 

Heat up the beans with juice - don't drain (we used Great Northern).  While they are warming, add 1 to 1 1/2 Tbs Bragg Liquid Aminos and 1 Tbs chicken bullion.  Just mix and heat until warm. If you don't have liquid aminos you can use soy sauce they taste similar.

 Now you're ready to assemble however you like!!!

See easy, yum, filling oh and don't forget totally healthy!
Okay total side note after I took this picture and sat down to eat it I was so sad when I realized that I totally forgot the avocado...I mean who does that?  I should have just hurried and cut one but I didn't.  Don't worry the next night when this was leftovers I totally made the full effort and cut the avocado.


Here's the full recipe kind of not much too it


Enough cooked rice for your family
Veggies, cheese and whatever other toppings chopped how you like
Mix and heat next three ingredients
2 cans Great Northern beans
1Tbs chicken bullion
1 - 1 1/2 Tbs liquid aminos


Layer / assemble to your desire.


I hope you try this it really is great! If you do let me know how it goes.


Thanks --Naoni

More Red, White and Blue

Yes I have more red, white, and blue to share with you today!  But this one is for you not the kids however if they are like my little one they will think it is for them too.

Can you tell what it is?  This has quickly become one of my very favorite accessories!  I love these.  And wow all the colors we have available!  But really how perfect are these colors to accessorize with on the 4th of July?  And I love the little bit of silver on the edges.  Okay so if you've been to the shop then you probably know what this is but incase you haven't I'll let you know.

Yep its a fantastic summer scarf.  You can't tell in this picture but I'm wearing a jean skirt and my favorite little red sandal heels.  I totally love this scarf.  But like I mentioned it really is one of my favorite accessories and really it is super light weight so its a perfect way to dress up any outfit.  And really there are sooo many color options.  I'm working on getting them all photographed so you can see them.  Oh before I deceive any of you, please don't be fooled I did not make this.  Me and needles (crocheting, knitting, doctors - really any kind) DO NOT go well together so yes the credit for this scarf is all my moms!  Yep the same mom that I drug through the experience of the blessing dress (ok - sewing needles are an exception).  She's pretty amazing!


Oh and don't forget your little ones that will love it too.  Just think Fancy Nancy style!

She loves having her picture taken but rarely do I ever get her looking at the camera she is just on the go too much so I didn't expect to have much but here is my little Fancy Nancy with her scarf and ready for her picture to be taken!


Thanks for stopping by
--Naoni