Our table at Camp Run-A-Mutts adoption event

This weekend Lindsey and I had a table at Camp Run-A-Mutt‘s Save A Life adoption event, selling Echo’s Friends’ Cookies.

It was an awesome day meeting people, meeting rescue groups, selling treats, meeting awesome dogs and their foster families, and eating great food from Ragin’ Cajun, and Cake Bar.

Please check out Cake Bar’s website if you are in the LA area, the owner Grace is wonderful and we were so happy to see that she was a vendor at this event as well!

Also check out:

Echo’s Friends’ Cookies Website and Facebook Page!

Filmmaking & Cookiebaking’s Instagram

Sister site: Craft Making and Drag Racing

Lindsey’s Jewelry: Hard Wear by Lindsey (Awesome stuff)

Rustified.com – Lifestyle Inspirations from a Renaissance Man (I love his blog- 365 page book for this year, recipes, & daily inspirations)

Rusty J’s Music Site

What we’ve been up to with Echo’s Friends’ Cookies!

Hi all! Sorry for being kinds of missing in action this week, Lindsey and I have been busy making puppy treats and launching Echo’s Friends’ Cookies!!

Saturday Lindsey and I made Puppy Truffies to take to Camp Run-a-mutt Sunday.

We also made:

Peanut butter Banana Crunchies

Carrot Banana Sticks These now have flax seed meal instead of corn meal, which we all like even better.

Apple Cinnamon bites

We took all these to an event at Camp Run-A-Mutt! Julie (the awesome manager) set us up with a spot and a table to sell our treats/cookies! The pet parents reactions were very positive and the dogs loved them!!

And Sunday night after the event Lindsey came up with a new one!!

Chicky Crisps!
These came out so good once again we couldn’t stop eating them. We think they need to be a people treat too!

Also check out:

Echo’s Friends’ Cookies Website and Facebook Page!

Filmmaking & Cookiebaking’s Instagram

Sister site: Craft Making and Drag Racing

Lindsey’s Jewelry: Hard Wear by Lindsey (Awesome stuff)

Rustified.com – Lifestyle Inspirations from a Renaissance Man (I love his blog- 365 page book for this year, recipes, & daily inspirations)

Rusty J’s Music Site

Weekend ramblings…

This weekend was full of friends and cleaning.

Saturday Nicolle came over and we got started editing Rusty J’s next music video!!

( I can’t tell you anymore about that, I’ve been sworn to secrecy, shh this is between us 😉

Sunday after church, Riley (my roommate) and I deep cleaned our floors, the kitchen got the most TLC, it looks so nice now!

Saturday – Thai with Lindsey and Riley!
Since I am trying to track calories more lately, I decided to try their incredible Garlic Salmon with sautéed spinach, yum! Ooh but when you try this place you should try this… Ice cream surrounded by cake batter and coconut, then fried, it’s incredible! (I was good this weekend, Riley ate it)

Then I had the silly puppy that thinks my face should be her pillow….

Baking the Snickerdoodles posted yesterday!

Plus there’s always silly little chickens around

What did you do this weekend ? Was it nice and relaxing, or busy busy? I’d love to hear!

Also check out:
Sister site: Craft Making and Drag Racing

Lindsey’s Jewelry: Hard Wear by Lindsey (Awesome stuff)

Rustified.com – Lifestyle Inspirations from a Renaissance Man (I love his blog- 365 page book for this year, recipes, & daily inspirations)

Rusty J’s Music Site

Snickerdoodle Cookies, Gluten-free (and regular)

I think I have mentioned this before but my mother has gone gluten-free and I am thinking about it, so today I am taking a standard snicker doodle recipe and making it gluten free! You can always make it with regular flour though!

• Add sugar and butter to your mixing bowl, mix well.

• Add 2 eggs, mix well. (I added 3 because I made 1 1/2 x the recipe)

• Add baking soda, salt, cream of tarter, cinnamon, and GF flour, mix very very very well!
( Start very slow or flour will go everywhere, oh I have done this, it’s no fun)

• Next in a separate bowl combine sugar and cinnamon.

• Roll your dough into consistent sized balls for whatever size cookie you wish, then roll in cinnamon sugar mixture.

• Place on parchment lined baking sheets. (You can even sprinkle on a little more cinnamon before baking if you so desire)

• Chill your dough in the refrigerator for 10 minutes or the freezer for 5 before baking. (if you don’t do this your cookies will become very flat, like my first batch)

• Bake at 350° for 8 to 12 minutes depending on the size of your cookies.

Enjoy!

Calories per cookie, (if your dough only makes 24 cookies – 180 per cookie)
This is great compared to most Chocolate chip cookies!

Soft Snickerdoodle Cookies

Adapted from Food.com

1 C Butter
1 1/2 C Sugar
2 Lg Eggs
2 3/4 C Gluten Free Flour (or AP flour)
2 tsp. Cream of Tartar
1 tsp. Baking soda
1 tsp. Salt
2 tsp. Cinnamon

Separate bowl:
3 TBSP Sugar
3 TBSP Cinnamon

Also check out:
Sister site: Craft Making and Drag Racing

Lindsey’s Jewelry: Hard Wear by Lindsey (Awesome stuff)

Rustified.com – Lifestyle Inspirations from a Renaissance Man (I love his blog- 365 page book for this year, recipes, & daily inspirations)

Rusty J’s Music Site

Skinny Banana Cookies

Last night after I dragged Lindsey and Echo on a 1.25 mile walk with me I decided to try creating a recipe for a lower calorie but still satisfying cookie!

Here’s what I came up with:

Skinny Banana Cookies

3 Bananas (Mashed)
2 TBSP Oil (I used blood orange olive oil)
2 Eggs
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
2 tsp Vanilla
2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
1/2 C Flour
1 1/2 C Oats
3/4 C Puffed Rice Cereal
1/4 C Mini Chocolate Chips (I used 1/2 C which was a little to much)

• Add banana and oil, mix.

• Add 1/2 C Sugar, mix.

• Add 2 eggs, mix.

• Add Vanilla, Cinnamon, & Nutmeg, mix.

• Add Baking soda, Baking Powder, & Flour, mix.

• Add 1 1/2 C Oats, mix.

• Add 3/4 C Rice Cereal, mix

• Add 1/4 C Mini Chocolate Chips, mix.

• Scoop onto parchment lines cookie sheets, Bake at 350 for 8 minutes!

Also check out:
Sister site: Craft Making and Drag Racing

Lindsey’s Jewelry: Hard Wear by Lindsey (Awesome stuff)

Rustified.com – Lifestyle Inspirations from a Renaissance Man (I love his blog- 365 page book for this year, recipes, & daily inspirations)

Rusty J’s Music Site

Gooey S’more Cookies!

We are all so exhausted from this whirlwind of a week but it was so awesome! Having Rusty J, Sabrina, and Sierra here was fantastic, we all had a blast with the whole group.

After everyone left yesterday Lindsey called and wanted to bake, I was so tired we decided to wait and relax last night instead. But I want to share these cookies I made for Sierra. She loves S’mores so I made:

Gooey S’more Cookies

I started with a basic Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.

2 Sticks Butter
1 C Sugar
1/2 C Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Salt
1 TBSP Vanilla
2 to 2 1/4 C Flour

After the base batter is done:

• Crush some graham cracker

• Add Chocolate Chips and the crushed graham cracker.

• Add mini marshmallows or if you only have large ones cut them up.
(That’s what I did – this gets messy so I used powdered sugar to help ease the sticky mess when cutting)

• Mix that all up well

• Scoop onto prepared pans, due to the marshmallow I recommend a little cooking spray on the parchment.

• Cut up a bit more marshmallow for the top of each cookie

• Bake at 350 for 8 minutes

Also check out:
Sister site: Craft Making and Drag Racing

Lindsey’s Jewelry: Hard Wear by Lindsey (Awesome stuff)

Rustified.com – Lifestyle Inspirations from a Renaissance Man (I love his blog- 365 page book for this year, recipes, & daily inspirations)

Rusty J’s Music Site

Peppermint bark cookies & a little catching up

I love feeling productive. I have been off for a couple weeks over the holidays and I love keeping busy even when I’m off. This past week I have been catching up on all of life’s little tasks that needed my attention.

Moving my living room around so it feels less full,

Cleaning my desk clutter,

Doing ALL of my 2012 filing (this really helped the desk clutter, ha),

Worked on my 2012 bookkeeping to prep for tax time ( I have started trying to get my paperwork in as soon as I have all my W-2’s, rather then waiting till the last minute when I’m much busier. So much less stress)

Cleaned out the chicken coop (this severely annoyed my girls, they proceeded to spend 2 hours moving all the fresh clean hay around after I upset the balance, I think I have the only chickens that hate hay in their nesting boxes)…. ( oh! And they still are NOT laying yet, soon hopefully)

Cleaned out, detailed inside, and washed my car. (It was a disaster, so nice to have it clean inside and out)

Lots of baking

Learning about California’s new Cottage Law so I can renew my efforts at Elle & Olle’s Goodies and Noms!

I would love to hear in the comments what you have been up to over the holidays!

Okay, on to the real reason for this post: COOKIES!

Peppermint Bark Cookies

This recipe is my base for all my chocolate chip cookies, and I just consistently change what I add in (milk chocolate chips, dark, white, oats, coconut, corn flakes, cocoa nibs, peppermint, etc) I don’t take any credit for this base it’s an adaptation of many tested Internet and cookbook cookies, when I found a combination I liked I memorized it. Here is the base:

1C Butter ( I use unsalted)
1C White Sugar
1/2 C Brown Sugar

Cream together.

Add:

1 Tsp Vanilla extract
1 Tsp Baking Soda
1 Tsp Salt … ( since I use unsalted butter)

Mix well.

Add:

2 Large Eggs (one at a time)

Then:

2 1/4 to 2 1/2 C AP Flour
(I add it 1/4C at a time, leaving the mixer running)

When that’s all mixed well making a beautiful base I add whatever I’m mixing in.

Bake at 350 – until the edges are barley browning. I usually do mine 8-12 minutes depending on size.

Peppermint bark cookies :

1 Tsp Peppermint extract, (added with the vanilla)
2C Semi Sweet Chips
1C White Chocolate chips
1/2 C Peppermint Candy bits

Chocolate chip with crunch:

(Sorry I didn’t get a very good picture of them)
2C Semi Sweet Chips
1C White Chocolate chips
1/2 C Cocoa Nibs
(I made these for New Years Eve)

Fall decorated sugar cookies

After the Pioneer Woman posted about this amazing book, I immediately ordered it. Today i used Bridget’s recipes for my cookies and icing, i highly recommend this book. If you don’t have it just start with your favorite sugar cookie dough!

Roll out and cut your shapes! I went and bought pumpkin and leaf shaped cutters for fall.

( sorry it’s upside down, oops)

Bake (of course)

Now for the really fun, creative, choose your colors part! Royal icing for piping and flooding.

Note: this is not a sponsored post, all opinions are my own. I was not contacted nor compensated for this post.

Waiting for election results

I am nervously waiting for polls to close on the huge Election Day!

Baking cookies, making dinner, praying, and waiting to see what happens with fingers crossed. I sent my ballot in a week or so ago, as I tend to vote by mail.

What are you doing today? Baking, cooking? What was your experience at the polls today ? I would love to hear how you spent election day!

I put some chicken and rice into the crockpot, with organic Italian seasoning, chicken broth, and garlic cloves. Let it cook for the afternoon. Yummy!

I also made some chocolate chip cookies. They were organic until I added the red and blue M&M’s for Election Day

Here are the truly organic ones

Chunky chewy cookies

I was totally craving cookies this week and I had finally bought more chocolate chips, so here they are! I even made a double batch so I could freeze part of it.

This is my same base recipe I always use, just with different mix ins.

1- Cream butter, white sugar, and brown sugar.

2- Add eggs, vanilla, baking soda, and salt

3- Add flour

4- Add mix ins – chocolate chips, etc.
Today I added: semi-sweet chips, milk chocolate chips, cocoanut, and Heath pieces.

5 – Use an ice cream scoop to scoop the dough onto parchment lined cookie sheets

6 – Bake (I baked mine for a couple extra minutes to get crispy edges.)

What are your favorite mix ins for your cookies ?