Friday's Letters [02.22]

Happy Friday, folks!!

Dear TOMS ballet flats, Oh, how I adore you! You were so comfortable and so cute that I had to get another pair. Welcome your cousins to the fam:

Dear weekend, I am excited for your arrival and the travels you will bring!

Dear Peeps, You continue to amaze me with your creativity and yumminess. I was happy with the plain marshmallow chicks. Then, you took it to a whole new level of awesome with the chocolate-dipped chicks. Now, you have totally blown me away with your newest treat-cherry with chocolate! Keep 'em comin!

Dear Spring, Please hurry! Your warm temps and warm colors are just on the horizon, and I couldn't be more excited. I am SO over this cold weather and these dreary days.

Cookie Dough Dip

Today I am linking up with Tamara and Brianna for Tasty Tuesdays!

This sweet treat was a HUGE hit the first time I made it. I mean, cream cheese and butter, how could you go wrong? I'm thinking about switching up some of the mix-ins and making different flavors. This is great to set out at get togethers and gatherings. Let me know what you think!

Ingredients

1 stick of unsalted butter at room temp

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 package cream cheese

1/2 cup powdered sugar

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

 In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and brown sugar.

 Stir until the brown sugar dissolves.

Remove from heat, and whisk in the vanilla. 

Set aside.

Beat the cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth. 

Slowly beat in the cooled butter mixture and beat again until all ingredients are combined.

Stir in the chocolate chips.

Place in the fridge to set.

Serve with graham crackers.

Enjoy!

Note: Remove it from the refrigerator about 15-30 minutes before you plan on serving it. This way it has time to soften up and guests can easily eat it up.

Saturdays

One of the great things about living so close to family is being able to see them on a semi-regular basis. We're about 45 minutes from David's parents and about an hour from mine. Well, this past weekend we were able to celebrate David's birthday a smidge early (a week) with some of his fam!

We started the day catching his cousin's basketball game. It was a hard-fought game, but unfortunately this tough group of 10 and 11-year olds lost. Cameron still had fun, though!

Afterwards we hit up a local restaurant for lunch. When we finished, David's aunt insisted we slip into this little boutique in the shopping center. Thirty minutes and $40 later I was the newest owner of a pair of TOMS ballet flats. For all you TOMS fans out there, I highly suggest investing in a pair. They are extremely comfortable and offer great support for those of us always on our feet!

 What's a birthday lunch without a celebratory treat? We wandered over to the local cupcake shop for a sweet treat. Ever seen Cupcake Wars on the Food Network? Well, this shop won! We tried a hazelnut latte (my favorite!), a peanut butter cream cheesecake, a red velvet, a chocolatey chocolate, and a crab cake. You read that right, a crab cake cupcake. It wasn't as bad as it sounds. It was very dense with cream cheese frosting, and the crab taste was more of an aftertaste. They also had a chicken wing flavor!

On the way home we stopped at IKEA to pick up a bookshelf to aid in cleaning up the office. Here is the before. . .

It's still sitting patiently in it's box. I'll keep you posted on that adventure!

Coconut Brownies

It was a Tuesday (Community Group night) and we needed dessert, what's a girl to do? Raid the pantry of course! I knew I had a boxed brownie mix on hand and a few other things, but didn't want to go the traditional brownie route. Thus, these delicious treats were born. Be prepared to enter a sugar coma in 3, 2, 1. . .

Ingredients

1 package brownie mix

 3 eggs

 1/4 cup water 

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 cups flaked coconut 

1 cup chocolate chunks (I chopped up Hershey kisses, but chocolate chips would work too!)

 1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk 

1 cup almonds, chopped

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. 

Spray 9x13 pan with nonstick cooking spray. 

Prepare your favorite brownie mix according to package directions.

The amount of eggs, oil and water included above are common to most prepared brownie mix instructions, but follow your box says

 Bake 16-18 min or until brownie is set.

You are just trying to set the batter, not finish it. 

 Layer coconut and chocolate chunks over brownie base. 

 Drizzle sweetened condensed milk evenly over coconut and chocolate chunks. 

Sprinkle with nuts.

Bake 20-25 minutes.

Cool completely. 

Enjoy!

These taste especially yummy with vanilla ice cream:-)

Pumpkin Butterscotch Cookies

I am a sucker for anything pumpkin flavored. My hubby? Not so much. What to do, what to do. . . I pondered it for a while and then decided to try a recipe that had the pumpkin yumminess for me, and a little something else for him. Thus the deliciousness of pumpkin butterscotch cookies was discovered. These are some of the best pumpkin-flavored treats I have ever had, and that is saying a lot considering how often I try new sweet treats!

Ingredients 

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 can of pumpkin

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup butterscotch chips

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together.

In another bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until smooth, about 1 minute.  

Mix in the oil, pumpkin, and vanilla until blended.  

Mix in the flour mixture.

Mix in the chips. 

Scoop onto cookie ungreased cookie sheets and flatten the rounds before baking.

 Bake cookies 14-16 minutes. 

Enjoy!

A Bit of a Problem

My name is Lauren and I am addicted to ice cream. Whew, it feels good to let that one out. Y'all have probably figured out that I have a wee bit of a sweet tooth. I mean just take a gander at my foodie page, a good 50% of the list is comprised of sweet treats! If we want to get down to the root of it, the truth is I love ice cream and when I can't have ice cream I fill the void with other sweets. I told you it was a problem! I mean, look at our freezer:

 In my defense, our local Lowe's Foods was closing and was practically giving it all away. I couldn't just say no, I might hurt their feelings. As you can see there are no real favorites, we eat just about any flavor in this family. I do enjoy a good bowl of mint chocolate chip every now and then while the mister could kill a container of chocolate chip cookie dough in a sitting.

So, now you know my weakness. Want me to be your friend? Offer an ice cream date. Want me to commit a crime? Just place a big bowl of ice cream in my hands and I'll be willing to do anything. Pathetic? Yep. Am I ashamed? Nope.

Please tell me I'm not alone in my crazy. What's your favorite flavor?!?

Cake Cookie Bars

What's one to do when they have a box of cake mix but want to do something different than a boring 'ol cake? Get creative that's what! This sweet treat is a compilation of a few recipes I stumbled upon and turned into my own. Let me know what you think!

Ingredients

1 box white cake mix

2 large eggs

1/3 cup oil

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 stick butter, cut into small pieces

 Directions

Heat oven to 350. 

Grease a 13x9 baking dish.

 Beat cake mix, eggs and oil in a large bowl until blended.

Press 2/3 of the batter in pan.

Microwave condensed milk, chocolate and butter in a bowl for 1 minute. 

Stir until smooth. 

Pour mixture over crust. 

Top with teaspoonfuls of reserved cake mixture.

Bake 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned. 

Cool; cut into bars. 

Enjoy!

Nutella Brownies

I could eat an entire jar of Nutella in a sitting. And I'm not talking about one of those puny jars either. I'm talking the big honkin' jars. That's how much I love Nutella. When I stumbled upon this recipe I knew I had to make it! Any other Nutella lovers out there? You must give this a try!

Ingredients 

1/3 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup Nutella

3/4 cup flour

pinch of salt 

Directions 

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 8x8 pan.

Cream together butter and sugar. 

Mix in eggs and vanilla until combined. 

Stir in Nutella until smooth and fluffy. 

Add in flour and salt until just mixed.

Scoop batter into prepared pan and spread evenly. 

Bake 30 minutes or until set in the center.

Cool at least 10 minutes. 

Enjoy!