Fondue!

Book Club...

This month, we read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.  I really enjoyed reading this book, but the group was split on whether they liked it or not.   If you like murder mysteries and can stomach some graphic descriptions of abuse, you will enjoy this book.  Despite a slow start, the book is a quick read. 

Anyway, onto baking.  I hosted book club this month, and I wanted to make something easy but different to enjoy.  The other week, I started to crave fondue, and I thought, "Duh.  Make fondue for book club!"  I made two cheese fondues (is that the plural of fondue?  Or is it like the word moose? Who knows...don't judge me) and one chocolate fondue.  The first of the cheese course was a spicy parmesan fondue and the second, a cheddar beer fondue.  I chopped up lots of bread, carrots and apples to dip.  YUM!  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture.  Sorry :( 

The Chocolate Fondue was a simple chocolate fondue recipe from an article I ripped out of a Rachel Ray magazine.  I bought some rice crispy treats, strawberries and apricots and made some brownies, chocolate chip cookies and sugar cookies for dipping. 

See those brownies in the corner of the first picture?  Those are actually Raspberry with Cabernet Wine Brownies.  Yep, you read that right.  What could be better than raspberry, chocolate, red wine and brownies?  My good friend, Patricia, bought me this mix for my birthday a month ago, and I've been saving them for book club.  She bought the mix at a craft fair that our employer was running.  (She got shushed at the craft fair for laughing too loud.  Clearly the person didn't know that this laugh is Patricia's trade mark).  I'd love to be able to hook you up with a website of wherever this brownie mix came from, but I could not find a website on the tag.  Have any of you seen this brand before or know where I could get a more of it?

The recipe called for only a cup of wine, so we drank the rest of the bottle during book club with these wine glasses that I found at HomeGoods a few weeks ago.  I couldn't resist.  I just found them way too cute.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

An American Classic...

Who doesn't love a chocolate chip cookie?  Simple.  Delicious.  Enough said.  I, like most people, was using the recipe off of the back of the Nestle Tollhouse bag of chocolate chips.  Although they made for decent cookies, I was getting frustrated by the inconsistency of the batter.  Sometimes they were soft and chewy, but most of the time, they were crisp and spread out too much on the cookie sheet.  I decided to go for a new recipe.  Martha Stewart's Chewy Chocolate Chip  cookie recipe.  I compared the two recipes, and Martha's called for the same total amount of sugars, but decreased the white sugar and increased the brown sugar.  After some reseach, it completely makes sense.  Brown sugar contains molasses, which is what gives a cookie its chewy texture.  They turned out FANTASTIC.  Perfectly chewy and delicious.  Martha's recipe also calls for course salt, which I thought was strange at first, but after tasting the cookies, I realized that it reallly cuts the sweetness and adds a nice taste.  This will now become my "go-to" chocolate chip cookie recipe.

Snow Day #3 of the Season

Snow Day =  Cookies!

Not much to say except, today I baked these...

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Because of this...

I have never seen so much snow.  Today was the best day. Matt and I each took a couch in the living room, curled up in blankets, read, and watched the snow fall out the window.  When the snow started to slow down, we went outside.  Matt shoveled, I built a snowman! 

SNOW DAY!

Baking Cookies on a Snow Day

As I have posted previously, I like to bake cookies on snow days.  It was always a deal my brother and I had...he shoveled, I baked.  Luckily, my husband seems to like the same deal.  I made some chocolate chip cookies for us to enjoy and some sugar cookies to take to a Super Bowl party tomorrow evening.  Matt agreed to be my "artistic director" as I had no idea what the Saints or Cults uniforms looked like.  This was my first attempt at seriously decorating sugar cookies, so I guess they turned out ok.  I think I need some more practice on piping.  Judge for yourself.

Some goodies for us to enjoy today.

Are you ready for some football!?!?

Go Saints!

Go Colts!

Snowman Cupcakes

SNOW DAY!!

My brother, Jimmy, and I always had a deal growing up.  He shoveled...I stayed inside and baked cookies.  Once, I even felt bad and tried to help shovel, and he said, "What are you doing?  You need to be baking cookies!"  Well, we're both grown up and married now, but I still bake cookies every time it snows out, and today was no different.  I was so excited to get the phone call last night that work was cancelled for today...mostly because I haven't had time to make Christmas cookies!  I've baked all day, but I still have more to make. 

In addition to cookies, my friend, Denise, asked me to make some cupcakes for her school Christmas Party.  Considering that two feet of snow is currently laying on the ground, I thought snowman cupcakes would suffice.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Icing

Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookies

Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies...my Uncle Sean loved them two years ago when I made them, and since he and his family are coming for Christmas Eve, I thought I'd make them again.

Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies