Cookies for Santa! The perfect Cut-Out Christmas Cookie

WHO else has tried forever and ever to find the perfect cut-out Christmas cookie?? I have tried so many recipes. You know, the cookie that holds its shape perfectly.. that you can cut into shapes and that is perfect for decorating. The cookie that stays soft in the middle, but firm and crunchy enough to be durable for icing and transportation and gift giving?!

LET me tell you... I have found it! When I finally perfected this recipe, the cookie angels sang and the cookie Gods shined their precious lights down upon me.

Santa would love these. I have been dying to share.

These are not just any cookie..

The BEST part? (other than the lengthy rambling I did above...) they are CHOCOLATE! Yes that is right, Chocolate sugar cookies. See? Cookie Gods. and Angels. Heavenly. I mean it.

These will be the perfect cookies for santa! With or without icing.

I used my KitchenAid, lots of flour, and my favorite cookie cutters! Read more of the details and the recipe below.

I hope you are all having a fabulous week of Christmas festivities! Let me know how these turn out!

XO

Full Recipe

2 cups butter

2cups sugar

2 eggs

3 tsp vanilla

4 cups flour

1 1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp salt

1. Cream together butter and sugar using stand mixer with attachment. If you really want your cookies to hold their shape, do not over mix the butter and sugar. Just cream together until combined.

2. Add your eggs one at a time, still only mixing until combined. Add your vanilla and mix until combined.

3. In a separate bowl, sift together dry ingredients: flour, cocoa powder, and salt.

4. Add your dry ingredients to your wet ingredients (in mixer) one cup at a time. Beware- this can get messy :) It seems like a LOT of dry ingredients, but it ends up being just right! You will know when your dough is right, it is a thick consistency, all is combined, and it sticks to your mixer. Be SURE to scrape the edges of the bowl between each step to ensure everything is incorporated evenly.

5. Place dough in plastic wrap and set in the fridge for one hour.

6. Roll dough out on heavily floured surface. Flour is going to be your BEST friend when rolling out and cutting this dough. Roll it out until it is about a half an inch thick. Each time you go to use a cookie cutter on the dough- rub the cookie cutter in a little flour to keep from sticking.

7. Once you have all the shapes you want, place them on a cookie sheet and BACK into the fridge for 10 more minutes. I am telling you- best tip ever! It helps the dough keep its shape.

8. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes!

9. Don't forget to save some for Santa, with a glass of milk, too!

Three Cheese Stuffed Shells

Two words: three. cheese.

THREE CHEESE. doesn't that sound like a dream?

This recipe has become one of my favorites! This time of year I really look for hearty warm, stick-to your-ribs kinda dishes. This is definitely one of them. The recipe makes a large batch and it heats up really well the next day.

Two for one, yes!

There are three steps in the cheese-shell process.

1. Make your filling.

See why they are called three cheese stuffed shells? Ricotta, Mozzarella, & Parmesan.

Mix those together with an egg and some fresh herbs (key word fresh.)

2. Stuff your (cooked) pasta!

Lay the shells in marinara sauce.

3. Top with more marinara and lots more cheese, and bake!

Pull them out when they are bubbly. Serve with a salad and garlic bread! I promise, everyone in your family will love these. 

Hope you are all having a great week!

XO

Full Recipe

3/4 box jumbo shell pasta

Your choice marinara (I made from scratch)

1 cup Ricotta cheese

1 1/4 cup Mozzarella (and additional for topping)

1/4 cup Parmesan

1/4 tsp salt

1 Tbls fresh parsley

1 egg.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook shell pasta according to box directions until al dente.

2. Pour 1/2 marinara in bottom of baking dish.

3. Mix cheese, egg, and herbs together. Spoon cheese mixture into cooked shells (around a heaping tablespoon in each shell.)

4. Lay stuffed shells in the marinara sauce in baking dish. Top with rest of marinara sauce and Mozzarella cheese.

5. Bake covered for 30 minutes until bubbly.

Cake Batter Christmas Cookies / Saving your Christmas cookie dough

I am a Christmas obsessor. I wait all year to pull out the Christmas decorations, the lights, pick out a tree, and watch Christmas movies. My tree is (finally) up and decorated, the stockings are hung... more details on this later.

Nothing, I mean nothing, gets me more in the Christmas spirit, than Christmas cookies! Of course I have my go-to favorites that I make all year, but I love that this time of year gives me the excuse to try new ones, (and eat them too.)

These were pretty low on the difficulty scale.. Just throw in your ingredients and mix em' up! Sorta.

Cream your butter and sugars, add your dry ingredients... and your favorite additions.

Be better than me and sift your dry ingredients to avoid lumps... :)

These technically don't fall in the "Christmas" cookie category (like gingerbread or molasses)... but with red and green M&M's? Pretty damn festive if you ask me ;)

I had a bag of M&M's... and picked out all the red and green ones.....

Not a red or green in sight.

.......... Desperate times call for desperate measures :).

These turned out so rich and buttery. The cake mix really gives them an extra kick.. these will be pretty hard to beat!

My best Christmas cookie tip: what to do with all of that extra dough? I never end up using it all, most recipes yield around 60 cookies, too many in my house.

Lump your extra dough on a piece of cling-wrap. Use the cling wrap to push the dough and begin to roll into a log.

Lay the cling wrap rolled log onto a sheet of foil and roll again. Twist the ends, and voila!

Throw in the freezer and it's ready to slice and use, all year long ;) 

Great for gifts too!

I think these will make Santa very happy.

So much more holiday fun coming soon! Hope you wall had a fantastic weekend.

XO

Full Recipe

1/14 cup flour

1 1/4 cup yellow cake mix

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup of butter (1.5 stick), softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 1/12 tsp vanilla extract

Semi-sweet choc chips/M&Ms

1. Sift together flour, cake mix, and baking soda.

2. In a kitchen mixer with paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Add egg and vanilla extract.

3. Slowly add your dry ingredients one cup at a time, on low, until a smooth dough forms. Add chocolate chips and M&M's.. as much or as little as you'd like!

4. Place dough in the fridge for half an hour to chill.

5. Roll dough into 2-inch balls, bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes.

6. Don't forget to save some for Santa!

3 Year Celebration / Peanut Butter Carrot Pupcake

This weekend I celebrated three years with my sweet boy. I can't believe he came into my life three years ago, and at the same time it feels so much longer because I can hardly remember what life was like before him. 

My sister Alex called me up October of 2013 and said, "I know someone who found a litter of puppies abandoned in the woods, I think I am going to bring one home." We were both living at home at the time and I said "I don't know, that sounds pretty risky."

She called me back 10 minutes later, and was on her way with a chubby puppy in her lap.

In a nutshell: in the coming weeks I woke up with him in the morning and in the middle of the night, I was home more than Alex was.. I fell 100% in love. When I moved to Atlanta a few months later, I took him with me. We have been inseparable ever since. Alex and I joke, she was my surrogate for Hudson. :)

Hudson, my sweet hound, starts and ends my day every single day with laughter, joy, and unconditional love. I have never known the unwavering love of a rescue pup. He has filled places in my heart I didn't even know existed. 

So, to celebrate year three for Hudson, I got in the kitchen and showed him love the best way I know how; I baked him a cake.

These pupcakes are so easy! I thought finding mini loaf pans was going to be difficult, but I ran to Marshalls on my lunch break and there they were, 

All you need is peanut butter, egg, a cup of carrot shavings, and your dry ingredients; flour and baking soda. The best ingredient though?

A quarter of a cup of raw honey.

Mix your wet ingredients, then add your carrot shavings, your flour and baking soda.

Stop!

Let your puppy lick the spoon.

Now, add your batter to your mini loaf pans. It fills two perfectly!

Bake at 350 for 35 minutes...and pull them out to let them cool.

Once cooled, ice with peanut butter!

I think we can say, the pupcake was a success.

The best picture I could get.

We ended the weekend with full hearts and full bellies.

Happy three years to my sweet boy! He truly makes every day so much sweeter.

Let me know how this pupcake turns out for your furry babes!

XO

Full Recipe:

1 egg
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup honey
1 cup shredded carrots
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
Extra peanut butter for icing!

1. In a mixing bowl. combine the egg, peanut butter, oil, and honey.
2. Stir in the shredded carrots, then gradually add the flour and baking soda until well combined.(side note: to shred your carrots, take your carrot to a cheese grater! Works perfectly.)
3. Pour into a greased mini loaf pan.
4. Bake 35 - 40 minutes at 350. Let cool and ice with peanut butter :)
5. Watch your puppy devour with joy.

Monster Munch & Halloween Movies

Happy Halloween friends! It's a little bit of a bummer if you ask me, that Halloween is falling on a Monday.. am I right?

I don't have kiddos to take trick-or-treating, however our pups will be dressed up and ready for a good movie night! What does a Halloween movie night call for?

Monster Munch! I wish I had better photos, I threw some of this together a few nights ago. But this stuff is so addicting! It is the perfect movie night Halloween treat!

Pop your favorite bag of popcorn, crush pretzels over the popcorn, and pour melted white chocolate over the crunchy mix.  (Buy melting white chocolate - in the baking aisle. Follow the melting directions on the package!) After you drizzle the white chocolate over the popcorn and crushed pretzels. Then top with M&M’s or your choice of candy while the popcorn mixture and white chocolate is still warm.  Toss it all together to cover the popcorn with the white chocolate. The candy gets melty and the white chocolate begins to harden so it all sticks together.

Warning: you will not be able to stop grabbing handfuls!

Here are my top 5 Halloween movie picks:

1. Hocus Pocus

Is this even a question? It's the go - to Halloween movie!

2. Psycho

  This 1960's thriller will have you on the edge of your seat!

3. Practical Magic

This is my favorite spooky movie of all time! Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock play sisters raised as witches! Who doesn't love a good 90's throwback/thriller? Sandra and Nicole too? The best!

4. Murder By Numbers

This is somewhat of a new movie for me, I just saw it recently. But, as one of Ryan Gosling's first flicks, it is definitely the top of my murder-mystery-thriller list!

5. Fracture

I am mainly including this as my favorite movie of all time - but suspenseful and murder-mystery category enough to be perfect for Halloween night! Yet another one of Ryan Gosling's fist flicks. The film has a bit of courtroom drama, and the perfect amount of suspense!

I hope you all have the best Halloween! We will be snuggled up on the couch with a bowl of chili, Monster Munch, and these great Halloween flicks!

XO - Enjoy!

Burrito Bowls & Roasted Poblano Corn Salsa

 Are you as obsessed with Chipotle as I am? Can you say, basic? No shame.

 However, I am so inspired by their cilantro flavors I thought I would whip up my own version of a burrito bowl and let me tell you, it was so good.

I marinated my both chicken and steak for 3-4 hours in a mixture of soy sauce, worchtershire, tiny bit of lime juice, cilantro, and a lot of spices.

I threw the chicken in the crockpot with a little chicken broth and seared the steak on the stove top.

I slow roasted the fajita veggies on the stove top in the same pan and started on the best part; the poblano corn salsa.

Now this does take a little extra work, but it is worth every second!

Start by roasting your poblano pepper in the oven until it gets really soft and charred. Use gloves if

you wish.. these peppers are no joke! Once it's nice and toasty, slice open the pepper and rinse the

seeds out. Dice it up and throw it in the food processor with a handful of cilantro and a fresh squeeze of lime.

Meanwhile, I poured two cans of corn (yes.. canned.. lazy gal confession) diced red onion, a generous handful of cilantro, and lots of fresh lime juice in a mixing bowl. 

Toss your cilantro, poblano, lime mixture over your corn. Give it another squeeze of lime, and generous amounts of garlic powder, fresh salt, and pepper.

Now, you should have all the perfect fixens for your burrito bowl. Dice up your steak, shred your chicken, put it all over your favorite rice, with your roasted veggies, cheese and sour cream of course!

Enjoy! XO

Full Recipe

For the fajita steak:

- 1 lb skirt steak/sirloin

- 3 tsp garlic powder

- generous amounts salt & pepper

- 1/4 cup soy sauce

- 1 Tbs worcestershire sauce

- handful of fresh cilantro

- squeeze of lime

Combine all ingredients into a freezer bag, allow to marinate for 3-4 hours.

Once marinated, cook on medium to high heat on the stove-top, dice into chunks.

For the fajita chicken:

- 1lb boneless skinless chicken breast

- 1 tsp garlic powder

- 1 tsp onion powder

- 1 tsp paprika

- 2 tsp cumin

- generous amounts of salt & pepper

- squeeze of lime

- 1/2 cup of chicken broth.

Combine all ingredients into a freezer bad, allow to marinate for 3-4 hours.

Once marinated, cook chicken in chicken broth on low for 3-4 hours or until tender.

For the Poblano Corn Salsa:

- 1 Poblano pepper

- 2 cans whole kernel corn

- 1 red onion

- 2 fresh limes (lime juice)

- handful fresh cilantro

- 1/2 tsp garlic powder

- generous amount of salt and pepper

1. Roast the poblano pepper in the oven on 400 degrees until roasted and soft. Once roasted, peel, and  rinse inside for seeds.

2. Dice the pepper and put into a food processor with a handful of cilantro, and a squeeze of lime juice.

3. Pour drained cans of corn into a bowl. Add diced red onion, handful of cilantro, spices, and add the diced poblano mixture from the food processor.

4. Squeeze juice of two fresh limes over the corn mixture. Allow to sit for 2 hours prior to serving.

Serve meat, poblano salsa, fajita veggies, (dice peppers and onions and cook over low heat, in a tbs of vegetable oil until soft), cheese, sour cream, over rice.