Joyfully Weary

This past week has been full of cold cloudy days. On days like those I prefer to curl-up on the couch and read/nap. My kiddos usually have different ideas though and they talked me in to making some sweets. We decided to tweak the traditional rice krispie treat recipe and make something a little more festive.  Ingredients   stick of butter 2 - 10oz packages of marshmallows  1/2 cup of pumpkin 1 t pumpkin spice 1 t vanilla  1 box (12oz) rice cereal tootsies rolls 1 T butter   Directions Melt butter in large saucepan. Slowly add marshallmallows and stir until melted. Stir in pumpkin, pumpkin spice, and vanilla. Slowly stir in rice cereal. Coat hands with butter and create small balls with the rice mixture. Place balls on wax paper and push a tootsie roll into the top. Let cool. Mini Man and Little Lady are pretty self sufficient in the kitchen and made the recipe all by themselves with just a little g...

These babies are currently my cookies of choice. Today will be the third time I've made them in less than two weeks - just a bit obsessed. Not only do they combine two of my favorites, dark chocolate and peppermint, but their texture is also amazing. The outside is crunchy while the inside is incredibly light and airy.  Ingredients 1/3 cup soften butter 2/3 cup brown sugar 2/3 cup dark cocoa powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 2 egg whites 1/3 cup vanilla yogurt 1 teaspoon peppermint extract 1 1/2 cup flour 1/4 - 1/2 cup white sugar Directions preheat oven to 350' cream brown sugar and butter add cocoa powder, baking soda, egg whites, yogurt, and peppermint extract, beat until combined add flour and mix until combined pour white sugar in a shallow yet wide bowl, then drop rounded teaspoons of dough in to the sugar, roll dough around in sugar while forming a ball place sugar coated balls on an un-greased cookie sheet bake approximately 9 minutes ...

I mentioned in last week's Small Graces post that Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Covered Ginger had become a recent favorite treat. I decided to mix it in with another one of my favorite treats - banana bread. I can't help but feel happy whenever I eat banana bread because it makes me nostalgic for some of my favorite times during high-school. Before every cross country meet my senior year, the team would get together for pasta dinners and banana bread was always the dessert. The evenings were full of encouragement, anticipation, and laughter. I attended three different high schools so by the time I was a senior I wasn't sure I'd ever find my "place" or my "people". These dinners changed that. They made me feel part of something bigger than myself, being part of a team, and I found friends I knew I'd cherish forever .  Ingredients 1 C sugar 1 stick butter (soften) 2 eggs 3 very ripe bananas 1/2 C vanilla yogurt 1 C all...

Thursday evening I got a special treat - some one-on-one time with Mini Man. It's the end of the school year at Jeremy's university and he had planned to take the boys to the seniors awards gallery, but Mini Man wanted to stay with Mommy and Little Lady is currently obsessed with her daddy. While we watched the rest of our crew head out I asked Mini Man what he wanted to do and he excitedly replied "make cookies with chocolate pieces!" It's nice baking with just one kid because I didn't have to worry about controlling the chaos as much and therefore he got to do a lot more. I read him the recipe but Mini Man pretty much did the rest all on his own. This did result in flour flying all over the kitchen and a few chocolate chips rolling around the floor, but it was just us in the house so clean up was a breeze. Since it was just us, I also let him taste every ingredient that went into the bowl (except the the egg - i drew the line there)....

Have you ever had cream cheese mints at a wedding or graduation?  You know...the really addictive ones? This recipe is those mints in cookie form. The basic recipe is: Ingredients 1 cup white sugar 2 sticks butter (room temperature) 4 ounces softened neufchatel cheese 1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp peppermint extract 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 1 egg yolk 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour Directions 1) Beat everything except flour together until smooth 2) Stir in flour until well blended 3) Refrigerate dough at least 8 hours 4) Preheat oven to 375 degrees 5) Shape cookies as desired 6) Bake 7-10 minutes The dough is really easy to work with so you can do lots of things with it. The first time we made these cookies, we made candy canes.  Immediately after blending in the flour I removed half the dough (leaving it white) and added several drops of red food coloring to the other half. I then placed both halves in the fridg...

It's not too hard to see from the first Christmas cookie  I shared that I have a thing for peppermint. I also have a thing for Oreos. A serious, boarding on scary, thing - I've been known to consume a whole package in less than 24 hrs. A cookie that combines both loves is bliss.  I actually used a Thin Mint recipe (found here ) to make the cookies. finished dough rolled into logs (i doubled the recipe) * to avoid a flat edge i've found it helpful to take the logs out of the freezer after about an hour and roll them a few more times with them still wrapped.   sliced cookies Once your cookies are baked and cooled you'll want to frost half of them. This is the recipe I used for the frosting - 1/4 cup softened butter 1/4 cup vegetable shortening 2 tsps vanilla extract 2 cups powdered sugar 1 tbsp red food coloring gel  batman (aka big buddy) enjoyed helping with  the frosting frosted cookies, you want a lot of ...

I believe that foods and flavors have certain seasons. In the summer blueberries and lemons should be thrown in to as many things as possible.  The fall is all about pumpkin and in the winter I'm obsessed with peppermint. It makes a great tea and is perfect in coffee but my favorite way to enjoy peppermint is in cookie form.  Our family has a couple recipes that are our particular favorites, the one I'm sharing today is super easy and fun to make with kids. Husbandie and I made them our first Christmas together and have enjoyed them ever since, we call them candy cane doodles. You start with a basic snickerdoodle dough recipe , omitting the cinnamon and sugar step at the end. Drop the dough in balls on to a cookie sheet and bake 8 minutes.  While your cookies are baking make frosting (we use this recipe ) and smash up a dozen regular size candy canes. Placing the candy canes in a ziploc bag and using a rolling pin works really well, we however, prefer hamme...