Banana Oreo Milkshake

On Wednesdays, we wear pink.

Everyone in Africa can read Swedish.

Oh my god, Danny Devito! I love your work.

She doesn't even go here.

I'm not a regular mom, I'm a cool mom.

Stop trying to make fetch happen!

**My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard**

Okay that last one is technically not a quote from "Mean Girls" but the song reminds me of the movie. And anytime I make a milkshake, I sing that song. Yes, I did that when I made this banana oreo milkshake. And if you ask me, I think it will bring all the boys to your yard. Or at least your kitchen.

Banana Oreo Milkshake 
Ingredients:
1 frozen banana, cut into chunks
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 double stuff Oreos

Directions:
Combine the banana chunks, milk, and yogurt in a blender. Pulse until fairly smooth. Add the Oreos and pulse until you reach your desired consistency.

Serves 1.

Chocolate Mint Cookies

Christmastime is the time for baking cookies. Pull out your KitchenAid mixer (or hand mixer or wooden spoon) and start to cream some sugar and butter together. Stir in some flour and something to give it a little bit of flavor. Shape them and throw them in the oven for about 15 minutes. There you go. Cookies.

When I'm home to my parents for the holidays, we have certain cookies that we always make. It just wouldn't be Christmas without cutout sugar cookies, peanut blossoms, and pecan thumbprints. What are your cookie necessities?

But I can never just leave it at that. If you know me, you know I love a new recipe. So last year I tried out gingerbread cookies. This year I made some chocolate mint cookies. They are perfect for the holidays. Do me a favor and throw them in freezer-- divine! They may be reminiscent of another cookie you've had before...

Chocolate Mint Cookies (adapted from Taste of Home November 2011)
Ingredients:
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup 2% milk
3/4 tsp mint extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup baking cocoa
1/4 cup cornstarch
dash of salt
1 lb chocolate candy coating
Sprinkles

Directions:
In a stand mixer (or with a hand mixer), cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the milk, mint extract, and vanilla extract. Stir together the flour, cocoa, and salt. Add the dry ingredients gradually to the stirring creamed butter and mix well.

Shape the dough into two 1 inch diameter rolls and wrap in wax paper. Freeze for about 2 hours until dough is firm.

Preheat oven to 375 F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Unwrap and cut into 1/4 inch slices. Place prepared baking sheets. Freeze additional dough if you can't fit it all on the baking sheets. Bake for 12-15 minutes until set. Let cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Melt the candy coating in a glass bowl according to the package directions. Dip the cookies into the melted chocolate, allowing the excess to drip off. Place on waxed paper and decorate with sprinkles. Let stand until set.

Makes about 7 dozen cookies.

Peanut Butter Candy Cookies

Question: is it still considered candy if you mix it with flour and sugar and bake it into a cookie?

This is the time of the year for candy! Halloween is around the corner and whether you are looking to bake up some treats for the office or make some of the candy disappear so you don't eat it by the handful, this recipe is for you. The pudding makes the cookies so soft and the peanut butter AND chocolate chips WITH the Reese's pieces makes them heavenly. You will need some milk to wash this down.

Seriously no evil spirits in these cookies at all.... unless you're counting calories. :)

Peanut Butter Candy Cookies (adapted from Sweet Pea's Kitchen)
Ingredients:
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
dash of salt
3.4 oz box instant vanilla pudding
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1 cup peanut butter chips
1 cup Reese's pieces


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment (or in a large bowl that you can use your hand mixer with), beat the butter, peanut butter, and sugars on a medium speed until fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until combines. Beat in the vanilla extract.

Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and pudding in another bowl and whisk to combine. While your stand mixer is beating on low, add the flour mixture until combined. Remove the bowl from the mixer and stir in the candies until incorporated.

Roll dough into balls about 1 tbsp in size and place on your prepared baking sheets. Flatten with your hand until they are about 3/4 inch thick.

Bake 10 minutes. Cool on the sheets for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Peanut Butter Cookies

This one time...

no, not at band camp.

Although I have been to band camp. Technically marching band camp in the summers before high school. You gotta practice if your band is going to make a script Chemics at halftime. Knees up! Knees up!

 

Anyway, back to my story-- this one time, in middle school, my friend Erin and I decided to make peanut butter cookies. I can't really remember what recipe we were following or if we were just making it up as we went along, but regardless we didn't read how you are supposed to roll the cookies in sugar before you bake them. Instead we ended up with a sticky mess- like all over her parents' kitchen covering the cabinets and floor, all over our hands, and all over the cookie sheets. I'm not even sure if we had any edible cookies at the end of the debacle. I'm guessing we ate a lot of the dough along the way though.

Now anytime I make peanut butter cookies I always make sure to roll them in sugar. Well, at least most kinds of peanut butter cookies, maybe some don't need it. These do. Maybe it is the sugar coating that makes them addictive. Or maybe it is the peanut butter. Whatever it is, I'm sure you won't be able to just eat one. ;)

Peanut Butter Cookies (adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook)
Ingredients:
1 stick unsalted butter (1/2 cup), softened
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 tbsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
additional granulated sugar for rolling

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 F.

Using an electric mixture, beat the butter and peanut butter on high for 1 minute. Add the sugar, brown sugar, baking soda and baking powder and beat until combined. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined. Add the in flour and continue to beat until completely mixed. Chill dough for about 10 minutes.

Shape the dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in the additional granulated sugar and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten each by making a criss-cross mark with a fork.

Bake for 7-9 minutes until browned. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

    L is for the way you look at me

    O is for the only one I see

    V is very very extraordinary

    E is even more than anyone that you adore

Did you have singing valentines (aka members of the choir) when you were in high school? They sang songs like "Wind beneath my wings" and other classic things. I wonder if high school choirs still do this and if they sing songs by Taylor Swift, One Direction and Rihanna.

Even better were those giant lip suckers that came in just about every flavor and turned your tongue and lips strange colors that you could send to your friends and crushes. I think it was only 50 cents to send one. Probably these days with inflation and all, they would cost at least $2.00. Would kids do that anyone? Or would they just text lovu lomy etc. Hmm... now I want a giant lip sucker.

Now, if you don't want to, or don't have the opportunity to, send a singing valentine or lip sucker, you could make your loved ones heart shaped cookies! May I suggest oatmeal raisin? That's my valentine's favorite! To tell you the truth, I wasn't really sure if my quest of making a drop cookie into a heart would work. It is very easy to cut out hearts using a cookie cutter from rolled dough, but I was prepared to fail on the oatmeal raisin. I learned a few things-- 1. You can make hearts! 2. You should definitely roll them into deep v (like a deep enough v that if it was a sweater you better be wearing a cami under it) 3. They will spread a lot during the baking process so it doesn't matter how sharp your edges are, your hearts will be rounded.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook)
Ingredients:
3/4 unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
dash of salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup raisins

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 F.

Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat the butter on medium high speed for about 30 seconds. Add the sugars, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Beat until combined. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Beat in the flour. Stir in the oats and raisins.

To make heart shaped cookies-- roll about 1-2 rounded tsp of dough into a rod, fold over into a deep v and place on a cookie sheet. Makes about 3 dozen heart shaped cookies.

To make round cookies-- roll about 1 rounded tsp of dough into a ball and place on cookie sheet. Makes 4-5 dozen round cookies.

Bake for 8-10 minutes until bottoms are light brown. Cool on the cookie sheet for 1-2 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Mini Gingerbread Men (and others!)

Did you ever have those gingerbread men cookies that were covered with some granulated sugar from the bins at the grocery store? I used to love those; the thick and crunchy perfection of cookies. I think it was the memory of those cookies that made me really want to make gingerbread cookies this year. When I came across this recipe in my Cooking Light Holiday edition, I figured I should try them out. The original recipe called for a combination of golden cane syrup with molasses but since I couldn't find the syrup in my grocery store, I upped the molasses slightly and subbed in some corn syrup. They are probably not as "light" anymore, but they did turn out well.

They are quite the crunchy thick cookies I was imagining, but even the non-gingerbread lovers will enjoy the flavor. The ginger isn't over the top and if you use 1-inch cookie cutters like I did, you'll get bite-sized goodness that is just enough.

Gingerbread Cookies (adapted from Cooking Light December 2012)
Ingredients:
For cookies:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
dash of salt
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 tbsp light corn syrup
3 tbsp molasses
1 large egg

For frosting:
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tbsp meringue powder
3-5 tbsp water (more or less to thin as desired)
green and red food coloring

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Cover baking sheets with parchment paper.

Combine the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a bowl. Whisk well to mix.

Beat the brown sugar and butter in a large bowl with a mixer at medium speed for 3-4 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the corn syrup, molasses and egg and beat until combined, about 1 minutes. Add the flour mixture and stir using a wooden spoon until just combined. Form into a ball with your hands and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill in fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Divide the dough in half. On a lightly floured surface, working with half of the dough at a time, roll to a 1/8-inch thickness. Use cookies cutters to get the desired shape and cookies, rerolling to dough as necessary. Continue cutting until you have used almost all the dough, placing the cookies on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, until lightly browned. Let cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes and then remove and let cool completely.

Prepare the icing by beating the powdered sugar, meringue powder and about 3 tbsp water in a large bowl on low speed until the sheen has disappeared. Separate into two bowls and color with red and green food coloring, adding more water as necessary. Spoon into disposable pastry bags fitted with size two round tips. Pipe on to cookies in desired designs.

White Almond Bark Chex Mix

This is a Christmas cookie tray staple at my house... and it is probably my favorite Christmas treat ever! Oh my, it is so addicting that I could eat an entire bowl in an evening and feel sick later in the night, just to consume more the next day. That is why whenever I start a new job, I always make it for my new coworkers. It is soooo easy to scale up to however many people you need to give treats to and it takes no time at all.

There is one kitchen utensil (?) that is essential in making this: you must have a large glass or ceramic bowl (I recommend this Pyrex 4 quart bowl). The key is to use a bowl that conducts heat. You will have a lot of trouble if you use a plastic bowl; take it from my difficult experience in grad school. A bowl that retains the heat will allow you to stir everything and get them nice and coated before the bark starts to solidify again.

Please forgive my fail of purchasing normal peanut M&Ms instead of holiday ones. I do not know where my head was... For a Christmas effect, just use green and red M&Ms.

Also, please forgive my lack of "amounts" in the directions. This is really a pour, mix and observe type of a recipe. This year I used two 24-oz packages of white almond bark, a full 8-oz box of cheerios, almost a full 12.8-oz box of rice chex, almost a full 15-oz bag of pretzels and two 12.6-oz bags of peanut M&Ms. It made lots. I filled up the 10 bags above with about 3 cups each plus a larger tin and two quart sized ziploc bags (not including everything I stuffed in my mouth while I was making it ;)).

White Almond Bark Chex Mix
Ingredients:
Rice Chex
Cheerios
Pretzels
Peanut M&Ms
White Almond Bark

Directions:
Working with half of the brick of almond bark at a time (if you have a really big bowl you could probably use it all), heat in microwave for 90 seconds in a glass bowl. Remove and stir. If it is not completely melted, microwave for another 15 seconds. Stir and repeat if necessary.

Add 1-2 cups of chex, 1 cup cheerios, 1-2 cups pretzels and 1 cup M&Ms. Gently mix using a large spoon trying not to crush the cereal or pretzels. Add additional chex, cheerios, pretzels and M&Ms if you have still have melted bark that has not coated everything.

Spread out on wax paper and allow to cool.

Break into pieces and devour. Or package into pretty bags or tins to hand out. Store in airtight containers at room temperature.

Fudge Covered Cookie Bars

I have discovered a new Pandora station that I'm loving right now- The Pitch Perfect soundtrack. It is lots of acapella music and Glee songs interspersed with some current pop music. It is perfect for data analysis in lab as well as cookie baking and Christmas card addressing at home. Truth be told, it makes me want to get up and dance. That is perfectly acceptable in the comfort of my own home but probably not the best idea for work. ;) 

Anyway, one of the things I made while dancing rocking to this station was these cookie bars. I was inspired by these chubby hubby cookie bars that sounded delicious and just looked beautiful. However, I decided against purchasing the malt powder and wanted to skip the peanut butter drizzle if case anyone I was sharing with had a peanut allergy. I chose instead my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe in bar form, topped with the delicious chocolate-y fudge and garnished with chocolate covered pretzels. You could certainly skip the pretzels, but I would suggest sprinkling the top with a little kosher salt because the salty sweet combo is what really makes these bars. They would be any easy addition to any cookie platter this season because you can skip the rolling or dropping of individual cookies; just spread it into your pan and go from there.

Fudge Covered Cookie Bars
Ingredients:
For cookie bar (adapted from Better Homes and Garden Cookbook)
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup shortening
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
dash of salt
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
6 oz mini semisweet chocolate chips

For topping (adapted from Shugary Sweets):
14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
2 tbsp unsalted butter
12 oz milk chocolate chips
30-40 chocolate covered pretzels (such as Flips)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 F. Line a 9x13 pan with parchment paper.

Beat the butter and shortening in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer for about 30 seconds on medium high speed. Add the brown sugars, baking soda and salt and beat until combined well. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until combined. Beat in as much flour as possible with the electric mixer. Change to a wooden spoon and stir in the rest of the flour. Mix in the mini chocolate chips.

Press the dough into the prepared pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden.

Make the topping by heating the sweetened condensed milk and unsalted butter over medium low heat until melted and warmed. Stir in the milk chocolate chips. Pour the topping over the cookie bars when they come out of the oven, using a spatula to spread evenly. Place the chocolate covered pretzels evenly on top of the fudge layer, pushing in so that they stick well. Cool completely.

Refrigerate for at least 2 hours (or overnight) until cold. Remove from the pan until the parchment paper to pull out. Cut into squares.

Brown Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Can I just rant for a few moments? 

This is for you, bicyclists of the UIUC campus:

I don't understand you. Don't understand you in the least bit. Some of you ride on the sidewalks and believe that you have the right-away no matter what. You don't look to see if there are pedestrians in your way before you almost bowl us over. You cut us off and make us move around you. Let alone the times that two of you are about to cross paths and neither of you wants to slow down so you practically squish a pedestrian between you. Then there are the other half of you that ride on the street. You never follow the rules of the road. You never stop at stop signs. You never look both ways. You never yield to pedestrians. You are never careful when you slide up to the right side of a car that is turning right at a stop sign or light even though there is a possibility that they may not see you in their rear view mirror.

Don't get me wrong, I understand that riding a bike can get you to class faster than walking. I know it can give you some good exercise. I know that you are being green. BUT, you do not rule this campus. You should always be aware of those around you who are walking or driving (or even riding another bicycle). It's common sense, dudes and dudettes.

Slow yourselves down and observe the world around you.

And make these cookies. Actually, everyone, cyclists and non, should make these. They are scrumptious. The brown butter and cinnamon are great flavors together and there are so many chocolate chunks that you taste one in every bite. Delicious!

Brown Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies (adapted slightly from How Sweet It Is)
Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 brown sugar, loosely packed
1 large egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup old fashioned oats
dash of salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks

Directions:
Melt the butter over medium-low heat in a small saucepan, whisking constantly. Cook until bubbling and brown flecks start to form in the bottom of the pan, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and continue to whisk for an additional 30 seconds. Let cool completely.

Combine the dry ingredients (flour, oats, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon) in a small bowl.

Add the cooled butter to a large bowl and whisk in the sugars until smooth. Add the egg and vanilla and whisk until smooth. Mix in the dry ingredients until completely combined. Fold in the chocolate chunks.

Refrigerate the dough for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Cover two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Form the dough into 1 1/2 inch balls. Place them about 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown and cooked through.

Makes about 20 cookies.

Sandwich Week- Day Four- Funfetti Sandwich Cookies

I'm a little sad... :(

My closest friends in IL are moving away (actually one of them has already left). It is exciting for them because the husband is graduating and they are moving back to the east coast and closer to family. They are starting new jobs and moving on to bigger (and better?) things. Of course, those of us still in the cornfield are a little sad. Selfishly, sad.

But, mostly I'm happy for them.

To celebrate one of Mary's last nights in IL, we went to dinner at a restaurant she really likes. Then we came back to my place for dessert. I enlisted Vince's help in picking out something for Mary and he said she really likes funfetti. Since I had these funfetti sandwich cookies on my "to-bake" list since they popped up around the 4th of July on one of my fav blogs, I figured they would be perfect. Mary's favorite color is purple so I went with that for the buttercream icing filling. You can dress these up for any holiday using appropriate sprinkles and frosting color. The cookie itself is crispy and sweet.

And these fit perfectly into this week's theme of sandwiches--- little decadent dessert sammys. :) Ideal for lifting your spirits and celebrating a friendship that has been too short.

Funfetti Sandwich Cookies (adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod)
Ingredients:
For cookies:
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
5/8 cup sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 egg white
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 cup cornstarch
3/8 tsp baking soda
dash of salt
1/4 cup multi-colored sprinkles

For frosting:
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2-2 cups powdered sugar
dash of salt
1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp milk
food coloring (I used purple)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 37 F.

Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Cream together butter and sugar using a hand or stand mixer for about 2 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and egg white and beat until combined.

Mix the flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl. Slowly add the flour to the butter and mix on a low speed until everything is combine. Stir in the sprinkles using a spoon.

Form the dough into 1 tsp balls and place on the baking sheets.

Bake for 8-10 minutes until the cookies are golden brown around the edges. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

To make the frosting, beat the butter at medium speed with a hand or stand mixer until smooth. Add the powdered sugar, about 1/2 cup at a time, beating on a low speed. Add the salt, vanilla and milk and beat on a high speed for 3 minutes. Check the consistency of the frosting and add more powdered sugar or milk to get it right. Mix in the food coloring to get your desired color.

Pipe or spread frosting on the bottom on one cookie and top with another cookie to form sandwiches. Store in an airtight container.

Makes approximately 15 sandwich cookies.