First off – I love my cookie jar. that is all.

Now, As I’ve mentioned before, I have a slight, slight, peanut allergy. Meaning when I was 16 I went for allergy tests and they said I was allergic. Funny, as I had definitely consumed my fair share of peanuts and peanut butter in my 16 years and hadn’t experienced any type of reaction. So I quit it. Cold turkey.  No Pb&J sandwiches, no Reeses Peanut Butter cups, no Oh Henrys. Zilch. I was livin peanut free. Which was good I guess. But a girl can only go so long without peanut butter. So dare devil that I am, I decided It was about time I ate them again, seeing as how I’d lived 16 years with it. So now whenever I have a craving for peanut butter I go right ahead and eat it. In small quantities that is.

And I just purchased some new mixing bowls! I was getting mad the other day as somehow all the bowls seemed to have dissapeared. We moved two years ago, downsized, and I think half of our stuff is still packed up I swear! So I decided it was about time I bought some new ones. So I got a set of glass Pyrex ones. Their great!

Back to the story, yesterday as I was visiting some friends in town at their work, they had kindly requested, for the 1000th time, that I bring them baked goods. I decided this time I’d give in. The boys, as i’ll call them, work at a TV and Stereo store in town and spend the majority of their day “working” and taking time out of their busy day to talk to me whenever I stop by before work or on my break (as I work across the street.) So they requested the following types of cookies: Chocolate Chip, Vanilla Cookies (what are those?? he just likes vanilla), Sugar Cookies, Peanut butter (which I could make because the other guy who works with them who is actually deathly allergic to peanuts wouldn’t be there today.) So I thought of what I could make to satisfy them all. I thought of making a couple different types of cookies, but that takes too much time and quite frankly, I didn’t want to = ). So I thought I would satisfy them all with these Chunky Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. Hopefully they’ll like em.

After looking for some recipes online I combined a few ideas and recipes to satisfy their cravings.

Ingredients – in nice little prep bowsl! (that’s a first!)

Mix it up good!

Roll em into ball and dip em in sugar!

Flatten with a fork – and put in oven!

Chunky-Peanut-Butter-Chocolate-Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 Cups All Purpose Flour
• 1 Tsp. Baking Soda
• 1/2 Tsp. Baking Powder
• 1 Cup Butter, Room Temperature
• 1 1/4 Cups Crunchy Peanut Butter
• 1 Cup Brown Sugar
• 3/4 Cup Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 2 Tsp. Vanilla
• 1 1/2 Cups Chocolate Chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Lightly grease a baking sheet.
3. In a bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder. Working with a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium until smooth and creamy.
4. Add the peanut butter. Beat on slow and add the sugars.
5. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each one. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula or wooden spoon, and on low speed, add the dry ingredients, mixing until just combined.
6. Mix in the chocolate chips.
7. *Optional* Pour 1/2 cup sugar (fine, granulated or large decorating sugar) into a small bowl. Use a small ice cream scoop or spoon to scoop dough and then roll the dough into small balls and then roll the ball into the small bowl of sugar, coating it evenly.
8. Place on the backing sheet. Using a fork, press it into the top of the cookie, to make the signature criss cross pattern on the cookie, flattening it just slightly.
9. Bake for 12 minutes, until slightly browned and just about set in the center.
10. Carefully transfer the cookies to a cooling rack. Make sure they are fully cooled before storing them.

    Note – You can make these in advance, and roll the cookie dough into the little balls, storing them in a container and freezing them until ready to use. When baking from frozen cookie, place them on the sheet and into the oven for a few minutes til they get soft, and then pull them out and make the criss cross pattern with the fork, and then stick em back in the oven to fully bake =) baking time may need to be increased by a minute or two since they are baking from frozen. You can also make these with smooth peanut butter, or if you want crunchy add peanuts to them.

Enjoy = )

As everyone knows one of the greatest performers, and King of Pop has recently passed away. After yesterdays event, of his memorial ceremony I wanted to dedicate a post to him. I remember being in grade 7 and being absolutely in love with Michael Jackson! My friend Amanda and I were obsessed at 13 years old! We loved all of his music, and I remember after school we would go to each others house and listen to all of his music and have dance parties. We thought we were sooo cool listening to MJ. I remember for Amanda’s birthday I really wanted to get her something to do with Michael, so I went looking in town for a gift. The only music store in town was a small CD store that had old and new CD’s and music posters. I remember finding two, now thinking back I wish I had bought one for myself as well! I finally decided on one of them, it was a collage of pictures of MJ and I can still picture it today. Actually, I sorta wished I kept it! haha. But birthdays are about giving!..and not to yourself. But today I bought a People magazine to have a small memorial of him and his life. I loved all his music, and my friend and I would watch all his music videos on our old computer, waiting patiently for it to download! My mom actually saw him in concert, and now wishes she had kept her ticket stub! ( this is why I keep all of mine! You never know! )

So today while I was shopping I needed to pick up ingredients to make cookies for an upcoming trip! Tomorrow morning I’m heading up to Merritt for the Merritt Mountain Music Festival. For all you non-canadians, or even non-BC’ers it’s a four day event of country music in the interior of BC. Lots of concerts and cowboys!! Im super excited to go, and Im leaving tomorrow morning veryyy early with my friend Justine! She’s been before but I haven’t! So I’m looking forward to it! And I promised her baked goods!

While I was at the store I had Michael in mind and came up with the idea of black and white mini chocolate chip cookies. Because as Michael said “it don’t matter if you’re black or white” (more…)

So i’ve been stuck inside for the past 5 days, studying. It has been absolutely gorgeous outside this past weekend and I haven’t enjoyed any of it. So at exactly 3:30 today, as I walked out of my first exam I decided two things. 1. I feel like baking. 2. Good god I need to go to the gym! Now, some people may think those two things don’t go together, but I think they go just well. I feel like i’ve been cooped up not doing anything & I need to get moving! And, as long as I’m burning all those extra calories, why not eat some cookies while im at it?? So I decided to buy some white chocolate wafers, and use the macadamia nuts we had at home to make cookies! These are really really really good. I don’t love white chocolate, but I like it in these cookies.

White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies

Recipe from Joy Of Cooking, 75th Anniversary Edition.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 1 1/3 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup coarsely chopped macadamia nuts
• 1 cup coarsely chopped white chocolate

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350. Line or grease cookie sheets.
2. Whisk together flour and baking soda. Set aside.
3. Beat in a large bowl until light and fluffy, butter and both sugars. 
4. Beat in one at a time eggs and vanilla.
5. Stir in dry ingredients. Stir in macadamia nuts and white chocolate.
6. Drop by heaping measureing teaspoons 1 1/2 inches apart and bake for 15-18 minutes depending on how large you make them!

Her and I enjoyed a cookie, both macadamia and chicken flavored

These little babies are melt in your mouth good! Especially when you eat them straight out of the oven and place the toblerone on top..mmmm. OK back to the recipe. I make these every year, and I think they’re my moms favorite! The recipe comes from Kraft Canada, but they used segments of Terry’s Chocolate orange. Im sure either way would be good!

Toblerone Shortbread

Ingredients: