A Day in the Life: Chocolate, peanut butter cookies

My husband has a sweet tooth. That suites me just fine because I love to bake. It's one of those reasons we were made for each other. But not only does he have a sweet tooth, he appreciates my taking a recipe, deconstructing it and putting it back together in a completely different form.

The look of enjoyment on my husband's face is really all the inspiration I need. That he calls me a Sweet Genius doesn't hurt. Of course it is in his best interests that I continue baking but let's not go there. ; )

Take these cookies for instance (And note the awesome silicone baking sheets my husband bought me for Christmas. I'm honestly not sure how I baked without them...okay that's stretching it a little, but they make clean up so easy!)

Sorry, got sidetracked.

These cookies are from a lemon cookie recipe. Yup. I looked at the recipe and thought it would work with chocolate and then, as I was craving peanut butter, I poured in some Reeces Pieces and there you go. Divine. Oh, did I mention easy? As in it takes longer to bake then to whip together?

Yup.

Leave a comment if you want the recipe, I'll  gladly share.

A little competition is good for the soul

Ok... last night, when I couldn't sleep, I had the perfect title for this section. Of course now I can't remember what it was.

Besides writing, I love to play in the garden or kitchen. My husband is as enthusiastic about food as I am. Not just eating it, but cooking as well. He was like a kid at Christmas when our Pampered Chef order came in. Gardening... not so much.

Back on subject.

So, on Mondays, I decided to torture share with you a few of my adventures in the garden or as I experiment with food.

This weekend I got to play with a lot of oil! Really hot oil. I don't usually deep fry. It's messy and I hate pouring a bottle of oil into a pot. It just seems like so...much. But my husband and I were talking about what to make for dinner and he mentioned he was in the mood for hamburgers. I usually jump at anything that has to be cooked outdoors so I agreed. Then he innocently asked if I'd ever made onion rings. I hadn't. So, as he knew it would, I was challenged.

After searching through recipes on the Internet, I have now made onion rings!

What do you think? Of course that was only part of the meal. While I fried bacon, and cut veggies (all fresh from the local state college...and oh so good.) he added spices and such to the hamburger meat, threw the patties on the BBQ and Voila!

I know, not much on presentation but Oh. My. Gosh. I swear my husband put magic in those patties. So, so good.

After dinner, as we sat on the couch, unable to move, my hubby turns to me and says do we have anything sweet in the house? I mention brownies. He says, nah, that'll take too long. So I bet him I could make brownies in 30 minutes. Of course he took me up on that bet. (We're a little competitive) Besides. I won.

Chocolate, chocolate chip brownie with walnuts. Also not the best plating, but hey, I was under a deadline. After he ate his brownie and downed a glass of milk, I asked him if he knew how long it took brownies to bake. He didn't and was surprised when I told him. (25-27 minutes) See, I have a little magic of my own.

What did you last cook/bake that really excited you?