When it gets below 100 out its baking weather!

(Imagine a dog laying by a couch)

Izzy wiped out by the heat



This summer it has been crazy hot!  We have not had any rain in our part of the country in weeks so I have been to hot to bake.  But we had a few days where it did not reach 100 until late afternoon making me believe that it is baking time!  A baking weekend was declared!

Friday
I found this fun recipe for these Chocolate-frosted Peanut butter Cookie Bars on Our Best Bites.   I believed them when they said they are quick to make only 15 min and with things found in your own pantry!  Yea!  lol so this was about 7pm.  I went to my pantry and quickly found that I did not have many key ingredients (read: peanut butter, butter, vanilla) so off to Walmart.  Then as I was precisely following the directions apparently just dumping all the ingredients in the bowl.  Lets just say many things happened between starting and pulling the finished product out of the oven around 9:50pm.  Just a note I found that I needed to add more water to the icing to make it spread and I needed to cook the cookie about 7 more min to get it to set up enough to put anything on top.  I must say it was worth it they are so yummy!

Saturday

I decided to try out a vanilla cake from scratch.  This was my first scratch cake that is not one of the tried and true recipes in my mother's recipe box.  Lets just say it did not go so well. This time I actually followed the directions.  Something was off.  I had more of a cornbread consistency that was a super yummy batter but a not so good cake.  I also had some trouble with the crust.  It was super thick and started popping off so I pulled it off made a lackluster frosting and called it good.

So I think I am going to work with the vanilla cake.  Make sure I have the ingredients on hand for the peanut butter cookie bars because they are oh so good!  And try out a cinnamon roll recipe this week.

What yummy quick recipe do you whip together when you have company on the way?

Cookies Galore!

Saturday I woke up wanting to make cookies!  Not just any cookies.  I had not yet tried out my new cookie press or Taste of Home Cookies cookbook both from Christmas.  So around 3:00 I got down to cookie making business.  I picked out a Pecan Spritz recipe and, after one quick run to the store when I realized I was out of butter, I was off!

 I have to admit I was surprised at how much butter was used in these cookies.  It also took a cup of crushed pecans and a lot of flour.  I used pecans off our tree outside that had already been shelled but my food processor was playing hide-and-go-seek so I resorted to crushing them with a mallet.  Apparently I did not get them all crushed up good enough and had some problems with the dough getting stopped up when I used the cookie press.  

 Finally some were done and it was time for taste testing.  Verdict:  No good.  They did not really taste like anything at all.  So the batter went in the trash and the baked cookies are going to a good home in small children's tummies.

I was so sad that my cookie experiment failed so later that night I got together with a friend and we made Sugar Cookies and Snickerdoodles.  They were amazing.  Moral of the story:  Always have sugar cookie ingredeance lying about for emergancies!