Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

To die for!
I'm late for work so more to come.

Ingredients
CUPCAKES
3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ cups light brown sugar, packed
4 large eggs
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips (semisweet or bittersweet)
FILLING
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 tbsp. light brown sugar, packed
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
7 oz. sweetened condensed milk
½ tsp. vanilla extract
¼ cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
FROSTING
3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
3½ cups confectioners’ sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
¾ tsp. salt
3 tbsp. milk
2½ tsp. vanilla extract
Instructions
CUPCAKES
Preheat the oven to 350° F. Using the paddle attachment on your mixer, combine the butter and brown sugar. Cream together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl . Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. Alternating add the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl with the milk on low speed, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, mixing each addition just until incorporated. Blend in the vanilla. Fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula.
Divide the batter evenly between 24 cupcake liners. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
FILLING
Cream butter and sugar in a mixing bowl on medium-high speed until light and fluffy(about 2 minutes). Add flour, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla and beat until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the mixture has firmed up a bit, (about1 hour).
After cupcakes have cooled, fill the cupcakes by cutting a cone-shaped portion out of the center of each cupcake. Fill each hole with a chunk of the chilled cookie dough mixture.
FROSTING
Beat butter and brown sugar with the paddle attachment on high speed until creamy and fluffy. Mix in the confectioners’ sugar until smooth. Beat in the flour and salt. Mix in the milk and vanilla extract until smooth and combined.
Frost… Decorating… EAT!
 

Happy Everything

Happy Belated Blogoversary! … this year marked 11 years of blogging. Crazy.
Happy Belated Thanksgiving/Birthday! … lucky spoiled me had the two combined this year. It was delicious.
Excluding Thanksgiving I’ve been pretty MIK (missing in kitchen) this last month. So when my Early Bird copy of Gooseberry Patch’s cookbook “101 Soups, Salads & Sandwiches” showed up I was extremely excited. I miss food. I miss my kitchen. I really miss sharing recipes. So here’s what is going to happen. I am going to sit down with a hot cup of peppermint tea, read my cookbook and plan out next week’s menu.

On Monday I’ll share my menu and kick off a giveaway for this cookbook. You could be the lucky winner to own it before it’s even out at stores. Throughout the week I’ll blog and share with you like I use to. Back when I was a SAHM and life was good. I miss that life but I’m loving my paychecks. So bittersweet.

Blueberry Buckle

Surprise!
I really am hoping that this a step back into the blogging world. Oh how I miss you all. Not only am I sharing this recipe I already have tomorrow’s weekly menu planned out and ready to post. We shall see how the week goes.
It’s blueberry season and my fridge is overflowing. My first thought was to make a Blueberry Pinwheel Cobbler. BUT someone forgot to buy the butter flavored Crisco. Duh! So I settled for Blueberry Buckle which I’m taking into work tomorrow to share with the gang. It smells so good!

Ingredients
1/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
2 cups fresh blueberries
TOPPING
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/3 cup cold butter
Directions
In a small mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in the egg. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with milk. Fold in the blueberries. Pour into greased 9-in. square baking pan.
For topping, combine the sugar, flour and cinnamon in a bowl; cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over blueberry mixture. Bake at 375 degrees F for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

Pie Cake

Does that grab your attention or what? I was lucky enough to receive this delicious baked goodie from my good “real life” friend Trudy.  The concept just blew my mind. When she dropped it off we couldn’t wait to try it and so it was our dinner. I had to share it with you so I have asked Trudy to be my very first guest blogger.

So, since I am a Food Network junkie, I decided to try one of the latest desserts mentioned on one of their shows. A Pie Cake. Sounded just as crazy to me. But, sounded intriguing and sinful as well! Not sure how they put theirs together but I got to thinking. How hard could it be? So here's how I made mine.

Pre-heat oven to 350-
1 cake mix (prepared)
1- 8 inch pie (any flavor)
1- 9 inch springform pan
Prepare cake mix according to package directions. Set bowl to the side. Unwrap pie and set to the side.
Spray bottom and sides of springform pan with non-stick baking spray.
Pour 3/4 cup of cake batter on the bottom of the springform pan.
Invert pie and set in the center of batter.
Cover pie with the remaining batter. Tap the pan a few times to make sure there are no air bubbles.
This is the tricky part. I baked the cake for almost 80 minutes.
I recommend checking the cake after one hour. I used a long wooden skewer to check doneness and to check for any remaining wet batter, remembering of course that there is a pie in the middle. Check with your finger for a "solid" center to the cake baking longer if necessary.
When cake is done and you remove it from the oven, let it cool completely before removing from the springform pan. I inverted the cake onto a plate so the pie is upright when you slice into it. (sorry Michelle I forgot the right side up for yours ... lol).

*Toppings: For the chocolate cake with cherry pie I made a simple chocolate gnache topping. 8oz of semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1/4 cup cream.
For the cinnamon swirl I did a simple glaze. 1 cup confectioners sugar, 1/4 cup milk and vanilla.
I was thinking icing would be way too sweet, but its all a matter of taste.
We served ours with ice cream! Delicious!
*Note: Remember to play with flavors! The cake I made for Michelle was a cinnamon swirl cake. I used a yellow cake mix. I set aside a cup of batter and added 1 tsp. of cinnamon and a half teaspoon of vanilla. I swirled it into the cake batter on the bottom and top for a little extra flavor.
Enjoy and have fun with this. I can't wait to see pictures.
God Bless!
Trudy

Waffle Of Insane Greatness

Snow day!
Even Christopher has a snow day which is rare. That makes this morning waffle time! A couple of post ago I shared my pancake recipe and a virtue friend of mine shared this waffle recipe with me. At the time we were waffle ironless. It is just one of those appliances that when it broke I kept forgetting to replace it. Well over the weekend Christopher remembered we needed one. Oh how we missed waffles. This will kick Bisquick’s waffle recipe’s butt.

Recipe from Food Network via Lynn (thank you!)
Download Recipe
Ingredients
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup whole milk or buttermilk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1-1/2 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
Butter and syrup, for serving
Directions
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; mix well. Add the milk, vegetable oil, egg, sugar and vanilla and mix well. Let the batter sit for 30 minutes.
Preheat a waffle iron. Do not use non-stick spray on the waffle iron; the oil in the batter will allow the waffle to release easily. Follow the directions on your waffle iron to cook the waffles. Serve immediately with butter and syrup.

Valentine Goodies

I am slightly behind on my Valentines. The goodies are done but I have to finish up on my family’s cards. I just lots track of time and before I knew it the day was here. Oy. First I had a Valentine exchange to mail out. We were to keep it under $10 but I actually didn’t spend a cent on mine. First I started with a sheet of scrapbook paper cut into an 8.5” square.

I printed out my Valentine on the white side and then followed the instructions on how to make an “Antique-Style Puzzle Purse”.

I wanted to give a gift as well so I went through all my leftover fabric and picked out four different patterns. I then printed out two different size hearts to use as my cut outs.

Sowed them up with twine going through and stuffed them with cut up Walmart bags. Ta-da! A cute heart garland for the holiday.

Now onto my family. For Christopher and Abby I made a batch of Homemade Oreos. I will be posting a recipe later but if you’re impatient I got it from “Bake @ 350”. I loved her idea of the smaller heart indent in the middle. Too cute.

For Haillie I made Chocolate No Bake Cookies. To make them extra holiday special I spread them out onto a cookie sheet, chilled for a few minutes and then used a heart cookie cutter. Chilled some more and then broke them apart.

Enjoy your Valentine’s Day with your loved ones.

To: You

Let the spirit of love gently fill our hearts and homes. In this loveliest of seasons may you find many reasons for happiness.

I have so much to post and so little time. Tomorrow will be a catch up day for sure.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Birthday

Thank you to all my family and friends for the birthday wishes. I tried to reply to all the Facebook messages I received but it was overwhelming as the day was busy. I spent my day baking and baking and baking some more, a perfect day for me. I wasn't expecting anything for my birthday as Christopher already gave me a pink cordless mouse, Abby gave me a new griddle for her pancakes and yesterday Christoher took me out to an amazing Italian restaurant. I never ate so many courses in one sitting. We started out with homemade bread followed by salads with the restaurant's own Ranch dressing. I'm a Hidden Valley Ranch kind of gal and this was 10X better. Our appetizer were huge crab stuffed portabella mushrooms that melted in your mouth. Then I had gnocchi smothered in butter, onion and garlic. The portions were so big I ended up bring home two mushrooms and half of my gnocchi. And of course we had to have dessert, which was a huge slice of Italian cheesecake with raspberries. OMG. We waddled out of there. So today when Christopher came home from work I was shocked that there was more for my birthday. Along with a mushy card and flowers was the cutest little cake. Sorry for the bad photo, should of had a redo. He also stopped by my new favorite home interior shop and bought me the mirrored home sign I wanted for Christmas. I was very happy and couldn't of asked for anything more. That's when he surprised me with a Droid. He rocks at special days and surprises. I wish I was as good as he is. I love you Christopher!

Fall Festival

We were invited to a Fall Festival (with a suprise!) at the home of Major & Mrs. A day with Christopher, grown ups, delicious food, apple cider making and a surprise. *yippee* Our first task was to head to the apple orchard and help pick the apples and load up the tractor. Easy enough.

After the tractor was filled we were ready to start. The Major rinsed off the apples while I got harassed about my issue of worm contamination. I was promised these were the "good" apples. Apparently the bad apples are only used for cider that won't be passed along to me. *eye roll* Whatever. *lol*

The rinsed apples then went through a hand turning cutter contraption. Hence chopping and cutting up any worms hiding within. Just kidding. After all these were the "good" apples, no worries. They fell into a cheese cloth netting.

When full the cheese cloth netting was closed and put into the apple press. Man power turned the crank and out came the fresh worm free apple cider. Once all of the juice was all squeezed out of the apples it was then strained to remove the froth. Apparently the froth is sickening sweet. Then it was bottle and ready to go. I did take a sip of it was very yummy.

Now here was the surprise part, they were celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary and renewing their vows. It was a secret because they wanted people to come because they wanted to come not because they felt like they had to. They had a string ensemble and those kids were amazing. I felt honored that they invited us to share their special day. The ceremony was both touching and comical. Mrs sister did an outstanding job.

Congratulations Major & Mrs 

We hit the jackpot with goodies! Apple dumplings, apple butter and apple cider. I already have tomorrow's boneless spare ribs marinating in some apple cider. I can't wait to marinate chicken in it as well.

Two Wines & A Champagne

Congratulations to the new Mr. & Mrs. !

I love weddings! We get to dress up, it's usually an adult night out and there's dancing. Then there is the actual ceremony. Sigh. Christopher and I hold hands while the groom and bride exchange their vows. It's bliss. What's not to love?

It was the perfect day for an outdoor wedding. The weather was beautiful for our two hour drive with the top down. I didn't worry about my hair because it was an adult day out. Then we get there and the place is amazing and the first thing Christopher and I notice is how much it looked like our vacation in Ohio.

Remember all the step pictures from our Ohio trip? I love photographing steps. These steps led to a beautiful alter.

The wedding was beautiful but the service at the reception was out of this world. It started out with a cocktail hour and wine glass #1, #2 and #3. There were a variety of appetizers being served and I don't think I saw the same thing come around twice. Then it was time to head to the reception and be seated at our table. That's when the chaos of the glasses began. I still had half a glass of wine left from wine glass #3, then was poured wine glass #4. At this point I had two glasses going and every time I turned away they were being refilled. Time to toast the happy couple and in enters champagne. This too was refilled once that I caught. My three glasses were always half full the entire night. Life is good.

blog award…

What a sweet surprise! Hugs & Thanks to Paula @ Queen of My Castle, if you aren't following her you should be. Her blog is both inspiring & delish!

Here are the rules:

1. Thank the person you received the award from (because she's an awesome & amazing lady).
2. Name 10 things that make you happy.
3. Pass it on and contact the lucky winners.

Here are the 10 things that make me happy…

1. Christopher … my husband is my best friend. He can walk in the door and change my bad day mood into a smile in less than 5 minutes.
2. Haillie & Abby … our girls are growing into some interesting and fun to be around teens. They both still amaze me.
3. Mocha … my furbaby! I just learned how to get pig tails into her hair. I'm surprised that no one has called the SPCA on me for animal cruelty.
4. Opened windows & warm summer breezes ... I love that fresh clean home smell.
5. Fresh baked bread … my second favorite smell.
6. Ice Coffee … Dunkin Donuts now has Mocha Ice Coffee *delish*
7. Hulu … it's sad I know but I constantly have some TV show playing on my laptop while I'm cooking & baking.
8. 10:00 pm … I love when the house is still & quiet. Everyone is home where they are suppose to be. Girls are tucked into bed and fast asleep. Christopher & I are snuggled together on the couch. So peaceful.
9. Convertibles … I love driving with the top down, wind in my hair & sun blazing down on me. If only someone would be better about sharing his/our car. *hint, hint*
10. And last but not least … my Friends … I have a variety of different girl friends both online and off. You gals give me strength when I need it and a good kick in the butt when necessary. Love you all!

Time to pass this award on…

1. Tasha @ The Hooah Wife
2. Taylor @ The Lumberjack's Wife
3. Renee @ Me, Myself and Mommy
4. Kris @ Suddenly Routine

New Blog Alert

My friend Paula just started her own blog. She's the one responsible for my weekly menu and recipe postings. Such a great idea! If you enjoy checking out new recipes head over to her blog at Queen Of My Castle. Welcome to the blog world Paula!

Signs I’m Getting Old

I'm heading out with the gals tomorrow night for dinner, drinks and dancing. I should be excited but have run into a few issues that wouldn't have come up in my younger years. Like no longer being able to pick out a grown up outfit that doesn't include a t-shirt and sweats. I didn't realize how fashion senseless I have become. Or overly concerned on how late I will be out. Back in the day I was dancing till close then it was time to go out for breakfast. I really don't want to be out that late, I have things I want to accomplish on Saturday. Then there is the distance we are driving, it's an hour away from home. Why so far? Which brings us to the designated driver, I don't even know her. Is she really responsible enough not to drink? And the number one sign that I'm getting old…
While I'm out Christopher and the girls will be ordering pizza and watching "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs". If I could get out of this and stay home with them I would do it in a heartbeat! Whatever happened to that adventurous, fun, spontaneous, would rather be out than at home girl? I know I will have fun but my heart will be at home snuggled on the couch with my family.