Peppermint Snowballs and Chocolate-Dipped Treats

It's been a while since I've posted anything. In the past month I have been busy with two baby showers, many OB appointments as my due date quickly approaches, and closing on and moving into my new house (finally!!!). So not much cooking has been done since I moved, but I'm slowly getting back into that now that the house is mostly in order (mac and cheese is going in the Crock Pot as I type). But, this post is not about cooking, as you can probably tell by the title. It's about baking! And dipping things in chocolate... mmm... who doesn't love anything dipped in chocolate!? Ok... maybe not anything, but these things are definitely better with chocolate.

First up, pink peppermint snowball cookies. I found this recipe on Pinterest and thought they would be perfect to make for my December baby shower! I'm pretty sure that you're not supposed to help plan your own shower, but my mom was throwing it for me and she's been super busy lately, so I wanted to help out any way I could. Anyway, I love planning a party and don't have enough reasons to do so, so I was more than happy to step in and help, even if it was for myself. :) 

Anyway, back to these cookies... 

They're essentially a Mexican tea cake (at least that's what I've always known them as) but they have chopped candy canes and red sanding sugar instead of nuts. I'm not going to spell out the whole recipe here since it's not mine and I didn't do one thing to change it, but here is a link to it. 

And here are a couple pictures of my cookies during the process: 

My little pink dough balls before they went into the fridge. 

This is what the cookies look like post-baking and pre-powdered-sugaring.

 Next: chocolate dipped goodness!

First of all, I must say that when I say "chocolate" I actually mean those pretty little colored melting wafers and white melting chocolate, which I'm not convinced is actually chocolate at all... but for the sake of making things easy, I'm just going to keep calling it chocolate.

First up were chocolate dipped strawberry wafer cookies. I thought these would be great for the baby shower because they're already pink! All I had to do was melt down some of the white chocolate, which I did in a mug with a bit (very technical term there) of shortening to thin it. I then dipped the cookies in about halfway, laid them on a strip of wax paper, and then sprinkled them with either pink sanding sugar or tiny heart sprinkles. Easy as that! The strawberry cookie and white chocolate were such a yummy combination, too! 

All of my supplies: mug of melted chocolate, sprinkles, cookies, wax paper, and shortening.

The finished product. How cute are they!? 

Next were marshmallow baby rattles (marshmallow pops) that I made as favors for the shower guests. I had never made marshmallow pops before, but I did see The Pioneer Woman make them once, so I had an idea of what to do. It took making a couple of them before I really had it figured out, though.

Here's what I needed to make my marshmallow rattles:

• Large Marshmallows
• Small Marshmallows (I used the fruity colored ones, but white ones are fine, too)
• Lollipop Sticks
• Melting Chocolate 
• Sprinkles/Sanding Sugar
• Styrofoam Blocks

Here's what I did: I started by taking my lollipop sticks and twisting them into the big marshmallows to make sure they were in there really good. I then went on to melting some chocolate with a bit of shortening in mugs again. This time I had both white and pink! Then I took a marshmallow and dipped it into one of the colors and tapped the stick on the side of the mug so that the extra chocolate would drip off back into the mug. At first I dunked the whole marshmallow into the sanding sugar to coat it, but that ended in a mess, so I learned to just sprinkle the sugar over the marshmallow after it had been coated in the chocolate. After it was coated and sprinkled, I stuck the stick into the foam block so that it could harden without having a flat edge on one side. I also put the foam blocks over wax paper so any chocolate that dripped off could be easily cleaned up.

The marshmallow work station. My kitchen was starting to look verrrry pink!

I left a few of the pops without sprinkles so that I could go back and dip it halfway into the opposite color for a different effect.

The almost-finished product.

After they were completely dry, I took my mini marshmallows and twisted them into the other end of the lollipop sticks. Since I had the colored ones--of course I only used the pink--I didn't dip this end in chocolate. If you're using these right away, that choice is ok, but I learned that marshmallows go stale pretty quickly, so if it's going to be a couple days before you serve them, dipping the small end in chocolate is probably a good idea because it keeps it from going stale. I put them into a clear plastic treat bag with a packet of hot chocolate as my baby shower favor, and they looked pretty darn cute! 

Here they are on the tables, ready for everyone to take them home!

The last treat I made were chocolate covered pretzel rods--one of my favorite chocolate-dipped treats! I don't think these need a whole lot of explanation, but just in case you're out there reading this and you don't know how to make them, I'll write it out just for you. 

Start with your melted chocolate. Dip the pretzel rod in, and if your dish isn't deep enough, spoon chocolate over it until it's mostly covered (I usually leave about an inch at the end uncovered). Lay the rods on wax paper and add sprinkles at this time if you are going to (I usually do, but opted not to this time). I dipped half of my rods into the white chocolate and half into the pink chocolate. After they were all cooled, I took the opposite color of melted chocolate and drizzled it over one side. I think they turned out really pretty! 

The work station, again.

You may notice the little chunks at the top that look quite sloppy... When making these for other people, I always use up the extra chocolate on the broken ones and save them for myself :) 

So there you have it. Lots of delicious little pink treats! Have I mentioned that I'm having a girl!? I bet you couldn't figure that one out...

Applesauce Muffins

An update from my last post: I tried canning again. The next day I made another batch of applesauce--on the stove instead of the crockpot this time. I boiled my jars, lids, and rings right before my sauce was finished and left them in the hot water until it was time to use them. I put the sauce straight from the pot into the hot jars using a funnel (so nothing to wipe up afterward), left an inch of space at the top, and sealed them as tight as I could. Then I waited. Aaaand.... only 1 out of 4 pints sealed. I don't know why it's not working, but I give up for now. Maybe I'll try again next fall...

But for now I've got 7 pints--nearly a GALLON--of applesauce to use in the next 3 weeks or so before it goes bad. Yikes.

So what do you do when you have that much fresh applesauce to use up quickly? Go to Pinterest! I looked up a bunch of different applesauce recipes--cake, muffins, waffles, pancakes, etc... and decided that I would try one out today.

Today I made applesauce muffins and found the recipe from Spoonful.com on Pinterest (check it out here!). They were so simple to make, with simple ingredients that I already had on hand. The only thing I did different from this recipe is that my applesauce had been blended up, so it was smooth and not chunky. I don't really like chunks of fruit in my muffins anyway, so this wasn't a big deal to me.

I just tried out one of the muffins and they are yummmmmy! They are very moist from all the applesauce and have just enough cinnamon to get that flavor. The only thing I think I would change if I make them again--which there's a pretty good chance that I'm going to--is that I would make some streusel topping for them.

So there you have it. A short and sweet post today. Go try out these muffins!

Crockpot Applesauce

Last Sunday, Hubby and I and his parents went to an orchard and did some apple picking. It was a beautiful, crisp, sunny fall day and we had a lot of fun. We got there and took a hay ride out to the orchards, where we found SO many kinds of apples! Some of them, I had never even heard of, so that meant lots of taste-testing! In case you've never been apple-picking, taste-testing is acceptable, and you'll see that most people are walking around the orchard with an apple in hand that they're munching on. We chose our favorites--some really sweet, some pretty tart, some in between--and filled our bag (which was supposed to hold 10 lbs, so I weighed mine at home and it was 11.5 lbs... score!). 

 

Hubby, not wanting his picture taken. 

Hubby and myself

Hubby and his parents on the hayride.

The orchard--there was much more to it than this picture shows!

Now, what do I do with 11.5 pounds of fresh-picked apples? Make applesauce! I don't love applesauce--it's a texture thing, I'd rather just eat a fresh, crispy apple--but Hubby sure does! So I make it for him every now and then. Usually I use my 4 quart crockpot and it makes a good amount, but since it has to be eaten within 3 weeks of cooking, some of it usually gets thrown out. This year I had the thought that I would try my hand at canning and make enough applesauce to last us a while.

So this time, since I still happen to be living with my parents (we've had a setback with our house, but we're starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel... more on that another time), I decided to use my mom's--used to be my grandma's--6 quart crockpot and fill it up to the brim to make as much as I possibly could in one batch. 

Now, I have one of those fantastically awesome apple peeler/slicer/corer things, and I used it the last time I made applesauce. It makes the process go so much faster! The problem? It's currently buried in a box... and that box is in a sea of boxes... somewhere in my storage unit. So I decided that I was going to suck it up and peel and chop the apples by hand. 

I sat down at the table with my station all set up--crockpot stoneware in front of me to toss the apples into, trashcan beside me to toss the peels/cores into, and a cutting board in front of me--and began to peel. I got about 3/4 through peeling one apple when I decided that it was time to go out and buy a new peeler/slicer/corer. Seriously. I am HORRIBLE at peeling apples. I think it took me a few minutes just to not even peel 1 apple. So off to Kitchen Collection I went (they have them on sale for $13 right now if anybody out there needs one). Once I got home and started on the apples, I think I filled the crockpot in about 10-15 mintues. That magical little machine cut my time waaaaaaay down! And it slices the apples so thin that it cuts down your cooking time, too. 

If you're making anything where you need to peel/slice/core apples, do yourself a favor and buy one of these. Definitely worth the money. 

My crockpot stuffed as full as I could get it!

I was surprised that it only took a little over half my apples to fill up my crockpot. After it was filled to the brim, I added 3 small cinnamon sticks, the juice of 1 lemon, a slice of lemon peel, and 4 tbsp brown sugar and set it on high. Every 30 minutes or so I would go check on it and stir it up, but I don't think it's necessary to do that often. I just love the smell that punches you in the face when you take the lid off! After about 4 hours my apples had cooked down to mush with some big chunks. At this point I dug out the cinnamon sticks and the lemon peel. I used to just take a whisk to the apples at this point to get most of the chunks out, but that was before I got my handy-dandy immersion blender! I stuck that thing in there and it blended up beautifully! It was as smooth as what you would find in a store. Perfect-o! 

It's amazing that all of those apples cook down to that small amount!

At this point, I had my taste-tester (Hubby) come in to see if it needed more cinnamon or sugar. It was good on cinnamon, but needed a bit more sugar, so I think I added another tablespoon or two and mixed it in. 

Next is the fun part. Time to can my creation. 

I have never canned anything before, so I went to Pinterest and did some research on canning applesauce. Here's what I came up with: I washed my jars in hot, soapy water earlier in the day and let them dry on a kitchen towel. Then, right before the sauce was ready, I sterilized the jars, lids, and rings in boiling water and pulled them out right before I filled them. I used a funnel and a soup ladle and filled my pint-sized jars, leaving about 1 inch at the top. I had enough applesauce to fill 4 jars. I then put the lids and rings on and tightened them as much as I could. Literally right as I was about to put them in the boiling water bath, a family friend who happens to can things came over and told me that she doesn't do the water bath when she does applesauce and that my sauce was hot enough that they should seal on their own. If they didn't seal, I could do the water bath later. Sounded good to me! 

So I let my jars sit over night and.... they didn't seal. Boo. So I tried the boiling water bath that morning and.... they still didn't seal. Oh well. Now we have half a gallon of applesauce to eat in the next 3 weeks. It's like a new challenge for us. The lesson I learned? Next time I try canning, I'll do the boiling water bath as soon as the jars are filled, even if I think I don't need it. 

Fresh, homemade applesauce almost makes me want to eat it... almost...

Overall, it was a good experience, and maybe later on this winter I'll try canning again... maybe.

Cookie Dough Dip and Alfredo Sauce

It's been another busy week around here! After two weeks in the hospital, dad finally got to come home, so things are getting back to normal around the house. I managed to make a couple of tasty treats this past week, but unfortunately didn't snap any pictures as I was whipping them up.... but I didn't have anything else to write about, so just use your imagination and picture them. Better yet, try them out yourself!

Recipe #1 - Homemade Alfredo Sauce

This is one of my favorite dishes to make from scratch! It's so simple, yet soooo delicious! In the past couple of years, I've made alfredo sauce many times and tried probably 3 or 4 different recipes for it, so this time I decided to make it without one and hope for the best! (I mean, how can you go wrong with butter, half-n-half, and cheese?) So, here's my recipe:

Ingredients:
4 T butter/margarine
1 clove minced garlic/1/2 t garlic powder
2 T flour
16 oz half-n-half
1/2 t pepper
6 oz shredded parmesan cheese
salt to taste

Step 1: melt the butter in a sauce pan over medium/med-low heat. After it's melted, add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds. (note: you can use more/less garlic. I don't like an overwhelming garlic flavor in my sauce, so I only use a little. If you love it, use more. If you hate garlic, just omit it all together.)

Step 2: add flour and mix until it forms a paste.

Step 3: add the half-n-half and pepper and mix until all is combined and it comes to a simmer. Reduce heat to low. Stir frequently until it starts to thicken.

Step 4: Add parmesan cheese and stir until the cheese has melted into the sauce. If it's too thick, add a little more half-n-half until it reaches your desired consistency. Add salt to taste. (note: freshly grated parmesan cheese is the way to go with this dish! It gives it a much better flavor. However, if you're like I was this week and looking for an easy dinner one night, it's still going to be delicious if you use pre-shredded cheese.) 

Step 5: Serve immediately over your favorite pasta (I like to use the tri-color veggie pasta... makes me feel good knowing I'm getting at least a little bit of extra veggies... sort of... ok, and it's pretty) and enjoy!

Once you taste homemade alfredo sauce, you're never going to want jarred sauce again! (but if you're like me, you'll still use it when you want something fast... it just doesn't taste as good any more.) And it's so simple! It just takes about 15 minutes of standing in front of the stove, but oh is it worth it!


Recipe #2 - My other treat I made this week was Cookie Dough Dip.

Personally, I don't think it tastes much like cookie dough... It's more like cookie dough meets cream cheese icing. But whatever the case, it is yummy! I actually found this recipe on Pinterest, so I'm just going to link over to it from here. I like giving credit where credit is due. Click here for cookie dough dip! The only thing I did differently than this recipe is that I used mini chocolate chips instead of regular ones, and I used half a cup of Heath pieces with chocolate instead of a full cup of just plain toffee pieces. My husband says there's too much chocolate in it... I say NEVER!

It's delicious and so simple to make. So here you have it. I've given you a great recipe for both dinner and dessert! Sorry for the lack of pictures and exciting things. I'm going to try to do better next time... Until then, enjoy! I'm going to go get my cookie dough dip out of the fridge right now and enjoy some myself...

My Own Episode of Grey's Anatomy (at least it felt that way)

This is not going to be a typical post, but it's a big enough event that it's worth writing about.

Let me start off by saying what a week it has been! 

As I mentioned in my last post, I am still living at my parents' house. So Tuesday morning I woke up and heard my mom talking out in the hallway. My first thought was that it was really early and I needed to go back to sleep (because she's usually up getting ready for work around 6:30 am). Then I realized that it was light in my room, so my next thought was that it was the weekend (I was still really groggy). Nooo... it was definitely Tuesday. So I look at my phone, and it's 8:30 am, so I go out into the hall to see what's up. Mom and dad are both up and it looks like they're getting ready to go out... now I'm really confused. I asked mom why she was home and she said that about 4:30 that morning they got a call from The Cleveland Clinic that they had a donor and my dad was getting his transplant! For those that don't know, he's had type 1 diabetes for 40 years, and about 3 years ago went into kidney failure, so he's been on the donor list for the past 2 years waiting for a kidney and pancreas.

So they tell me that surgery is tentatively scheduled for 4:00 pm, and they head up there around 9. Me, Hubby, and my brother all hang out at the house for a while--no point in us hanging out in the hospital while they do all the pre-op stuff--and then head up to Cleveland around 1, which got us to the hospital around 3, and gave us about an hour and a half to hang out with dad before they wheeled him off the the O.R. 

Surgery was going to take around 6 hours, so we (me, Matt, my brother, my mom, and the pastor of our church) headed to the surgical waiting room to spend the rest of the evening. When you check in, they give you a pager that will send you updates about your family member that's in surgery, so around 6:10 we got a message that surgery had JUST started. So we thought they would be done around 10:30, but now we're realizing it's going to be after midnight. Oh, and then he was going to be in the PACU for another 6 hours after surgery... 

Around 8 pm, Hubby decided to go home because he had to work a 12 hour shift the next day, so he couldn't stay until dad was out of surgery anyway, so he figured it would be best for him to head home and get some rest. This left my brother and I to spend the night at the hospital with my mom.

The surgery went on, and around 9 pm we got a message that the kidney was in and they were beginning to put in the pancreas. Then around 10 pm, we found out that the waiting room we were in was closing and we had to relocate to another one... which ended up being tiiiiiny. As in, it had 6 seats in it. Sometime after 11, one of the surgeons came out and said that the pancreas was in and both organs looked beautiful. The only issue they had was that dad wasn't able to stop taking Plavix soon enough (because who can predict when organs are going to be available?) so, in the words of the surgeon, "he was oozing" and that made it difficult to choose when they would close. They had given him blood and platelets and gotten to a point where the team felt comfortable closing and letting nature take it's course and hoping his blood would start clotting soon. So, for that big of a surgery, we were all so thankful that was the only issue they had! We all hung out in the tiny waiting room and waited for them to tell us when they were done closing and where they were moving dad to afterwards. I finally fell asleep for a little while and was awakened around 1:30 or 2 by someone telling us dad was being taken to the ICU and we could go up there to see him. We headed up there, got put in yet another waiting room while they settled him in, and then finally got to see him around 2:30, I think. He was pretty much out of it, but his nurse said that everything looked good and that they were still giving him blood and platelets. 

We went back to the waiting room, I made a bed on the hard floor, and finally went to sleep around 3 am. Let me just tell you that when you can only sleep on your sides (let's not forget that I'm 5 months pregnant), and the surface you're sleeping on is a hard floor, you will wake up in some pain. Man, did my hips and shoulders hurt that morning! But, it was worth it to be able to be there. 

Wednesday wasn't too exciting. After sleeping about 5 hours, I got up, got breakfast with my mom and brother, and hung out for a little while. I think we went to see dad around 10 am and he was awake, but still pretty out of it. We visited for a little while, then went back to hang out in the waiting room. This was pretty much how the rest of the day went. We would check in on dad every couple hours, but he was sleeping for most of the day, so we spent the majority of the day in the waiting room and wandering the halls of the Cleveland Clinic. We headed home that night so that we could all get a good night's sleep--and let me tell you, I slept better that night than I had in months! (Nobody tells you that sleep deprivation begins at pregnancy, not birth... but that's a post for another day.)

We stayed home Thursday--mom had to work, and Hubby had the day off so he and I headed out to do some shopping and spend some time together. Then mom, brother, and I went back up to Cleveland on Friday (yesterday) to spend the day with dad.

He had been moved out of the ICU and up to a room in the transplant unit Thursday evening. When we got there on Friday, he was looking much better and, though still slightly confused (they gave him the good pain meds), he was pretty much with it and knew what was going on. He was still in quite a bit of pain, but at least now they were allowing him to have clear liquids and get out of bed a time or two. Overall, things were looking good, and hopefully will continue to look good! 

We headed home that night, and then mom worked this morning and headed back up there to spend the next 3 days with him. I love my dad, but I just cannot handle sitting around all day in uncomfortable chairs. My poor pregnant body woke up so achy this morning, and I'm pretty sure it's just from all the stress, excitement, running around the hospital, and sitting in uncomfortable chairs that has happened this week, so I am hanging out on the couch today with my parents' dog and Netflix. Dad is supposed to be home either Monday or Tuesday, and mom's staying at the hospital with him until he comes home, so I'm taking this opportunity to enjoy a little quiet time around the house (ok, so there are still 3 of us here, but occasionally the boys are both gone and I get the whole house to myself, as is the case right now. It's rare, so I enjoy it while it lasts).

I had some new recipes lined up to try out on the family this week, buuuut clearly there was no time for that. Maybe my next post will be a new recipe... 

Oh, on a final note, if you aren't an organ donor, seriously consider changing that. You don't know how many lives you can change by donating! And anyway--what do you need them for after you're dead? Give them to someone who's still alive that needs them! 

A New Start!

Where to begin...

Well, it's been a year now since I've touched this blog, but with everything that is (and currently isn't) going on in my life, I thought that it would be a good time to jump back in. The past year has probably been the most life-changing year of my life, and here's a quick look at just a bit of what's happened:

When I left off with this blog, Hubby and I were preparing for a Disney World vacation for my birthday! That was an awesome vacation, and I've pretty much been dying to go back since we got home. (I loooove all things Disney!) After that things slowed down for a little while. We weren't able to go home to our families for Thanksgiving, so Hubby and I had our own little dinner by ourselves and put up our Christmas decorations that day. In December we went home for Christmas--which happened to be the first time we had been home in a year--and spent time with our families and also met our realtor. We went out with her mostly just to see if there were houses out there in our price range that we could be happy with, because we knew that house hunting would be coming upon us in the spring! Spring quickly came, and again, we had a little Easter dinner by ourselves (Matt may have even had to work a few hours that afternoon... I'm not sure). We flew home in April because Hubby had to do some stuff in Ohio for his Ohio pharmacist licence, so we took that time to meet up with our realtor again and check out a few houses. We found one we loved, but unfortunately, we weren't going to have the finances soon enough to make an offer, so we had to pass. This brings us to May, where the real fun starts! We had been packing the apartment up and getting ready for our big move back to Ohio! Matt's family came into town right before his graduation, we all went to graduation, out to lunch, then packed up the car and headed to Hilton Head Island, SC for a few days of relaxation before the move! After that trip, we came back, packed up the apartment like mad, spent an entire day playing Tetris with the furniture and boxes in the moving truck, left way later in the day than we planned, and drove away from Atlanta for the last time. We finally made it home (in Ohio) around 3 a.m., I believe. Oh yeah, in the midst of that, we flew down my parents (they couldn't make it for graduation and vacation due to other circumstances) to help us drive our 24' truck home.

So, by the time we made it to Ohio, I think I slept for that whole next week. Ok, not really, but there was a lot of sleeping happening. I mean, I had been working full time, packing in my free time, and then spent a solid 3 days packing the apartment and the truck, and then a day of driving. So I had good reason to be tired. Oh, and did I mention that at this point we don't have a house yet, so our new residence is in my childhood bedroom at my parents' house? Yeah. Oh, and Hubby had a class to review for his pharmacy licensure exam the week that we moved back up here... back in Atlanta. So we drove up here, and the next day I drove him to the airport where his company paid for him to fly back down and stay in a hotel all week. And I thought I was tired...

When he came back from Atlanta is when our summer really started to get exciting. The day after he came back, we found out that we're having a baby! Shew, no wonder I was SO tired! Along with everything else that was happening, I was growing a person! We couldn't have been more excited, or had more perfect timing. About my 8th week, I started feeling horrible, and pretty much didn't leave the couch for the next 2 months. It was bad, and I was thankful that I wasn't working at this time. In the meanwhile, Hubby was supposed to start working, but there were paperwork issues between Georgia and Ohio, so he got to sit around at home with me (I wasn't too upset--who else was going to get me popsicles all day?)

That brings me pretty much to now. I'm 23 weeks pregnant (with a girl!) and feeling much better, Matt passed his pharmacy tests and is now working full time, aaaand we're still living with my parents, *BUT* we are in contract with a house and have a tentative close date of October 25! After looking at LOTS of houses, and right when we were about to give up, we found one that is perfect for us and we're so excited about it! (especially after not having our own space for the past 4 months...) Oh yeah, and today is my birthday!

So that's the past year of my life. This ended up being a bit longer than I thought it would, so sorry about that. If you've stuck with me this far, just know my updates shouldn't be this long in the future. I still plan on using this blog for recipes and crafts, but as we move and the baby is born, I'm sure there will be plenty of stories to go along with everything else.

Cake Mix Cookies - one of my new favorite things.

Who doesn't love a simple homemade dessert? I know they are my go-to recipes when I want something sweet. I have recently discovered (thanks to Pinterest) the wonderfulness of what a cake mix can do. Personally, I don't love cake. Don't get me wrong, I do like it and if it's offered to me the answer is always yes, but it's just not my favorite dessert. I love cake flavors, but I think it's just the texture. Box cake mixes always make really fluffy, airy cakes. If I'm going to eat cake, I want it to be a good, moist, dense cake. I've never made a cake from scratch, though... maybe that will be my next adventure...

Ok, done ranting about cake.

Back to cake mixes. They have SO many uses I never would have thought of if it had not been for Pinterest. I've made cake batter puppy chow (and it's deeee-licious! I'm making some soon to take on vacation... I'll try to post about that later), cake batter "fudge", cake bars, but my favorite is cake mix cookies.

I love cookies and can honestly say that there aren't many things better than a warm cookie right out of the oven with a glass of milk (cookie dough might be one thing better than a warm cookie). Cake mix cookies are great for those times when you really want fresh baked cookies, but don't have (or want to get out) all of the ingredients to make them from scratch. Here's the recipe:

1 box cake mix

1/4 c water

1/4 c vegetable oil

1 T applesauce (or 1 egg, I prefer applesauce)

Preheat oven to 350. 

Mix all ingredients together. 

Drop spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet. 

(I have one of those nifty little cookie dough scoops that I use) 

Bake for 15 minutes. 

Cool on wire racks. 

Eat.

It's so simple! The thing I love most about these cookies is that the options are endless! I've made them with funfetti cake, lemon cake, red velvet cake (with homemade cream cheese icing... mmm), and my most recent ones were made with yellow cake and I added mini chocolate chips and a dash of coconut flakes. Yumm-o! 

AND-- the greatest thing about this mix: no eggs (if you choose)! So you can eat as much dough as you want and not feel one bit guilty about it! Does any one else out there eat so much cookie dough that you almost (and I did say almost) don't want any cookies after they're baked? I do. All the time. Anyway, the original recipe I found for these cookies called for an egg, but I was out of eggs and really wanted to make cookies that night. So I looked up egg substitutes and found out that I could use applesauce. I did use egg once, but using egg made the cookies fluffier--and going back to my rant about cake, the more dense, the better. So I decided that applesauce was the better option for me (and my love of eating cookie dough). But you can try both ways and decide which way you prefer. 

Final thoughts: there are infinite combinations that you could do with these cookies. Use your imagination, experiment, come up with something new and delicious and share your recipe with me! I hope you all try these delicious little desserts and love them as much as I do!