The best Peanut Butter Cookies!

Have you ever gone home for Christmas or whatever family get together and grabbed a peanut butter cookie and it's super crispy? It's OK, and I still eat them, but for some reason I like them soft and chewy better.

I made these the other day and they turned out just like Mrs. Fields cookies. The only difference is that they are still soft 4 days later, not hard as rocks. 

I got the recipe out of a cook book, but only used the ingredients, all the cooking and even some of the measurements I just did my own thing, and ended up with the perfect (in my opinion) cookie. I will give you the instructions the way I did it. 

1/2c. butter or margarine, softened (I melted mine completely)

1/2c. creamy peanut butter (I used more like a cup)

1/2c. brown sugar (I use dark)

1/2c. sugar

1 egg

1/2t. vanilla

1/2t. salt

3/4t. baking soda

1 1/4c. flour (I used 3 cups)

The cook book tells you to mix things in various orders and then combine wet with dry and chill the dough for an hour and grease the pan and all that. I didn't do any of that. This is what I did. 

I mixed it all together, used my cookie scoop to scoop them onto a cookie sheet and put them in the oven at 350 degrees until the bottom edges were golden brown. 

The recipe said to let them cool completely on the cookie sheet (very important) and I didn't do that either. I took them off right away and put them on my cooling racks. As you can see I put candy or chocolate chips on the tops of some and left others plain.

Even my chocolate chip cookie only husband likes them. They are soft and chewy and full of peanut buttery goodness. 

Enjoy!

Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake Recipe

If you read my other blog http://madysmommysblog.blogspot.com/ I told how my husband had to leave for two weeks starting on Easter and so I didn't make the big meal I wanted to, but I made Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake for breakfast. I also said the recipe was on here. I'm just now getting around to actually doing that! It's from Bisquick. Here it is:

It makes six, so I cut it in half so we each had one and no extra since he was leaving. 

1 quart (4 cups) fresh strawberries, sliced

(I used frozen (thawed) strawberries)

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups Original Bisquick mix

1/3 cup unsweetened baking cocoa

2 tablespoons sugar

2/3 cup milk

2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted

1/3 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

(I used regular size)

1 1/2 cups frozen (thawed) whipped topping. 

1. In medium bowl, toss strawberries and 1/2 cup sugar until coated. Let stand 1 hour. (As I used frozen, I left mine in the fridge overnight the night before.)

2. Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray. In medium bowl, stir Bisquick mix, cocoa, 2 tablespoons sugar, the milk and butter until soft dough forms. (Chris didn't think there was enough sugar, so I will add a bit more next time.) Stir in chocolate chips. Drop dough by about 1/3 cupfuls onto cookie sheet, forming 6 shortcakes.

3. Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until tops of shortcakes appear dry and cracked. Cool 15 minutes. Using a serrated knife, split warm shortcakes. Fill and top with strawberries and whipped topping. 

There you go! An easy, yummy, sugar filled start to your day...or a dessert as my husband said, "Dessert for breakfast?"

Mady Birthday Link

http://madysmommysblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/plans-for-madys-birthday.html

This is a post on my other blog that is about my craftiness for my baby girls first birthday.

Easter Eggs-periments

Chris and I will be together for three years this July, married three in December. Our first Easter he was in Afghanistan, our second one in Guam. This year he is leaving on Easter Sunday for two weeks for classes in Virginia so I'm not making the big meal that I was originally. I am attempting some craftiness though.

I am actually crafty, but each time a person tries something new, it's not necessarily perfect the first go...and you will see how true that is for me if you follow this blog at all.

I got the idea for marbleized boiled eggs off pinterest. They are actually the most perfect boiled eggs I've made in a while. Sitting in cold water in the fridge overnight made the shells much easier to get off.

Pretty shells in the drain.

I made deviled eggs with them so you can't really see the colors anymore. Hopefully I will actually get my husband home next Easter, forth time's a charm! And I will do it different. Boil them, peel and cut them, remove the yolks, and then dye them. So they will be completely pastel colored. 

I piped the yolk back in rather than using a spoon, but I was too impatient to wait for the yolk to warm up a bit so it was a bit of a pain to get out of the tip...and therefore, globby.