Baking

Kicked-Up Chewy Peanut Butter Cinnamon Chip Cookies

/ Jodi / 4 Comments

Kicked Up Chewey Peanut Butter and Cinnamon Chip Cookies

The other evening while surfing around on Pinterest, I came across an intriguing recipe via FoodieCrush for Flourless Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies that led me to Averie Cooks.  These peanut butter cookies intrigued me because they were rolled in cinnamon and sugar.  I had never thought of combining peanut butter and cinnamon.  And who doesn’t love peanut butter and who doesn’t love cinnamon and sugar?!

Well – I NEEEEEDED to make some cookies to take to our regular Thursday night trip to John’s Bar for dinner and drinks with our friends because I had missed and had to make up for a very important birthday the week before (Sorry Donna – you know I love you!).  These sounded different and worth a try.

The original recipe called for vanilla extract – of course – a staple for cookie bakers – but can you believe I was out of it?!  I had orange extract and mint extract and root beer extract and maple extract and RUM extract…. Hmmmm… Rum extract might work.  Thought I’d give it a shot.  And then to Jodify it and kick it up a notch, I decided to throw in some cinnamon chips too.  Couldn’t hurt – eh?  And instead of granulated sugar to roll them in, why not the coarser brown raw sugar to really add crunch and texture.

Well – oh my – I gotta say – they kinda kicked butt!

This recipe makes approximately 2 dozen large cookies.

Ingredients:

2 cups creamy peanut butter

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed

2 large eggs

1 tsp rum extract

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup cinnamon chips

1/2 cup raw sugar and 3 tsp cinnamon for rolling

Mix the first six ingredients on medium-high speed of a stand mixer for 2-3 minutes.

Flourless Chewy Cinnamon Sugar Peanut Butter Cookies by Averie Cooks

Add cinnamon chips.

Flourless Chewy Cinnamon Sugar Peanut Butter Cookies Kicked Up Batter

Chill dough in refrigerator for 1 hour or more.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the 1/2 cup raw sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and stir to combine. Set aside.

cinnamon and sugar

Form 1 inch balls of dough and roll in the cinnamon-sugar mixture – TWICE – to create a thicker cinnamon-sugar coating and produce cookies with more texture and more intense cinnamon sugar flavor.

Place balls onto a baking stone about 2 inches apart. Flatten slightly with the tines of a fork, creating a crisscross pattern.

cookie sheet 1

Bake for 8 – 9 minutes. They will look slightly underbaked on top and a little fluffier than you expect when you pull them out, but allow cookies to cool on the baking stone for AT LEAST 10 minutes or until they’ve firmed up.

cookie sheet 2

Once completely cooled, store cookies in a Ziploc bag in the fridge or freezer for best yumminess.

ENJOY!

Cheers and Hugs,

Jodi

Stella Star – remembering grandma

/ Jodi / 41 Comments
Grandma & Grandpap, Johnny & Jodi - 1968

Grandma & Grandpap, Johnny & Jodi – 1968

Grandma was my F-A-V-O-R-I-T-E person in the whole wide world growing up.

I have so many happy memories about Grandma I could probably write an entire book.

I took a walk on my lunch break yesterday afternoon in between raindrops and thunderstorms, and for some reason, I thought about Grandma an extra lot on that walk.

I think everything about early summer – the sights, the sounds, the smells – remind me of Grandma.

Maybe it is because I spent almost EVERY SINGLE DAY of EVERY SINGLE SUMMER growing up at Grandma’s house.

Oh – it was the BEST camp ever!

I learned so much from a lady that had to quit school in 4th grade to stay home and take care of her three younger brothers after their young mother passed away. At the ripe ole’ age of about 9 or 10, Grandma became mother, housewife, laundress, seamstress, cook, repair person, gardener and lawn tenderer. Can you even imagine? And this is long before automatic washing machines and dryers and sewing machines, disposable diapers, microwaves, cell phones, Google and Youtube, even indoor bathrooms! This was hard work – all day long – every day.

So though grandma was not formally educated, she was one of the smartest people I knew, and I learned so much from her – more than I realized at the time and even more the older I get looking back. She taught me important STUFF about real life – about cooking – about nature – about relationships – about acceptance and being the best of yourself. It was often disguised in humor or tough love or late night talks or swings on the porch or while picking blackberries. She wasn’t really trying to teach me by telling me how to be or what to say or how to act (or was she?). She lived her life in a way that demonstrated it and allowed me to experience it.

Oh she did some pretty UN-smart things too……. Like cutting off half of her middle finger on the lawn mower blade while trying to remove stuck grass without shutting off the mower…. Or cleaning some tough grime off the kitchen floor with gasoline and getting too close to the oven and catching the house on fire….

She never got her driver’s license after driving THROUGH the garage door, but she somehow managed to get around.

G3

Grandma, Jodi & Jake 1987

She couldn’t balance a checkbook, but she was the best penny pincher and gift giver ever.

She did, however, make the absolute best blackberry pie, coffee soup (half coffee/half milk and lots of crumbled up saltines or chunks of toast), homemade sauerkraut and pierogies and halupkis and liver ball soup and apricot bread and nut rolls and salmon patties and dandelion salad and dumplings – oh my!

She also taught me things like how to make beautiful, colorful bouquets of Queen Ann’s Lace (many consider a weed) by putting food coloring in a mason jar vase of water so that when the flowers “drank the water,” their white petals turned pink or green or blue.

She taught me how to build a tent and a fort and how to camp out in the woods (about 500 feet from the house – but oh so far and vast when I was young). Thought I must admit I’m still not very good at that woodsy stuff…. Trying!

She could also splice electrical wires and do plumbing repairs.

She even allowed me to learn through crazy experiments like the time my friend, Janet and I decided we were going to boil worms (in her kitchen) for a science fair experiment! Or clean myself up in her bathroom with her yellow towels after experimenting with a mud mask facial – with REAL mud from the gravel road! (Oh the breakout after that escapade…)

What a sport she was – what a mentor – what a hero!

When grandma got older and became sick, it was my time to repay her. I hope I made her feel as loved as she did me.

G4

Grandma, Jodi, & Nick 1990

I’ll never forget the time when she was recovering from a surgery and stayed with Marty and me in our small home in the spare room so we could look after her closely. I was pregnant with my first son, Jake at the time, and still working full time. Grandma was having trouble sleeping at night and would get chilled and shake and couldn’t get warm. She called out in the middle of the night and Marty got her an electric blanket, but nothing worked. She kept trembling and shaking until I climbed on top of her – pregnant belly and all – wrapped my arms around her and calmed her until the shivering stopped – warmed from my body heat – and love. And we slept through the rest of the night. I know she would have done the same for me. That is the kind of love she taught me.

Her name was Stella, and I thought that was the silliest name when I was young. She loved her name, however. She would proudly tell me that Stella meant “star,” and as I look back, I realized she was – and still is – my shining star.

Do you have a Stella Star in your life?

G1

Stella Star & Her #1 Fan – 1985

I sure hope so. There’s nothing better.

Love you Grandma – then, now, and at all the stages of Life In Between…

Cheers and Hugs,
Jodi

Got Milk?

/ Jodi / 5 Comments

chocolate chip cookies

Could hardly go to a Gable family picnic yesterday without taking some of my “Jodi’s Almost Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies.”

For this batch I mixed semi-sweet chocolate chunks, white chocolate chips and milk chocolate chips.

If you would like the recipe, it is the same as I used for the White Reese Peanut Butter Cup Cookies here.

A couple tips:

Refrigerate the dough before baking at least an hour and up to a few days if sealed well.   (The dough also freezes well in a Ziploc bag – you can even make balls and freeze them for easy fresh pop-in-the oven warm cookies on the spot when needed.)

I always bake on baking stones.  I use a large tablespoonful scoop of cough and roll it into a ball and then slightly flatten before backing.

Electric ovens (mine is also convection) provide the most even heating.

Underbake slightly and then let cool for 10 mins. on the baking stone before removing to wire rack.  (I usually bake for 8-9 mins).

Once completely cooled, I like to throw them in gallon size Ziploc Freezer bags in the freezer – even if just for a few hours or overnight.  They keep fresher and thaw very quickly – 10 mins.

My family even likes to eat them right out of the freezer.

 

It was so nice to spend time at Jake and Colleen’s, and see the rest of the gang too. The weather was perfect, and Jake made some AMAZING ribs on the grill and his delish potato salad (with bacon crumbled in it – what isn’t a bit better with bacon added?!).

They have been working hard on their yard, and it is really looking nice. Freshly edged and mulched with cute little touches everywhere. Their sweet little home has so much rich history from the couple who built it, raised their family in it, and lived their entire married life in before them, so there are little treasures everywhere – inside and out. I especially love the stone stairway in the back yard leading up to their vegetable garden and bonfire pit.

memorial day 2104 colleen flowers

Hope you are enjoying the beautiful holiday weekend with those you love most and in honor of those who served to give us the freedom and good lives we have.  (Thank you Pap – we miss you!)

Cheers and hugs,

Jodi

Mountain Dew Cake with Mountain Dew Glaze

/ Jodi / 1 Comment

Birthday Cake Colleen-Style
IMG_7787

If you like lemony, citrusy dense deliciousness, give this one a try.  I found the recipe at:  Our Humble Hearts blog here

White Reese Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

/ Jodi / 6 Comments

White Reese Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

 

Today is a VERY special day!   It’s the birthday of a very special girl…   Our sweet daughter-in-law.

Happy Birthday Colleen McKinney!  (Has a nice ring – huh?)

In honor of the first year we get to wish Colleen a happy birthday as our “daughter,” I had to make a special cookie – right?!

Well – Colleen’s favorite sweet treat is  (you’ll never believe it) White Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.IMG_7702 Did you even know they existed?  They are surprisingly pretty amazing!

So I used my trusty chocolate chip “base” cookie recipe  and tweaked it up by switching the chocolate chips for CHUNKS of White Reeses’s Peanut Butter Cups.

They turned out pretty yummy.

Pretty simple recipe that I know by heart:

White Reese Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Mix together:

1 lb softened butter (YEPPERS – you heard me right – I did say O N E   P O U N D – 4 sticks – 2 cups)

1-1/2 cups packed brown sugar

1 -/2 cups white sugar

2-3 tsp vanilla (just pour some in)

4 eggs

Then add:

5 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp salt

Lots of chopped up White Reese Peanut Butter Cups (about 24 oz)

Drop by heaping tablespoons on baking stone, and bake at 375 for 9-11 min.

VOILA!     Enjoy!

With a cup of cold milk (traditional style)……..

Or a glass of red wine (Jodi style) …….

Or with a can of room temperature Mountain Dew ( COLLEEN STYLE!)

Love you sweetie!  xoxo  

the first post – so how do I begin?

/ Jodi / 22 Comments

So I have a good idea what I want to write about… for the most part. My BFF’s oldest daughter told me I should start a “lifestyle” blog.  I guess she thinks my life is interesting….  or at least enough that one or two people might want to read about things I do….  (Hopefully I’ll have at least one subscriber – Jacyln Rae – hint hint!)

Or maybe she just thinks I would enjoy doing it, and that is enough.

Hmmm…. I think I like that…

You know…. that’s one of the perks of growing – err – older and wiser – you get to the point where you realize you can do things just because you want to. Yes – there are those things most of us HAVE to do – like paying bills, doing laundry, working – you get the gist – but what do you like to do in between all that?

That’s the real “living” part.

“Life in between” can mean so many things…

The main reason I titled this blog with it is because I want to share the things I choose to do in between the things I “have” to do.

It can also be a stage of life that is in between stages – and aren’t they all?!

Right now – I’m kind of in between the mom stage and the empty nester and grandma stage. And Oh I Can’t Wait to be a Grandma!  (No hint hint Jake and Colleen – whenever you are ready…  well – maybe a little hint hint)

I think I was born to “mother.”  And oh poor everyone around me that I “mother” – sorry! It’s just in my DNA – I want to nurture, I want to comfort, I want to make happy. Could be worst things -right?!  (clear throat)  But don’t ask my boys…

So anyway – the things I love to do “in between” the things I have to do – that’s what I want to share with you here.

French Macarons

I love to bake.  I love how it makes the house smell.  I love how it makes people feel when they bite into a buttery, chocolately, caramely yummy thing.  I love surprising someone with a special treat of something they love.  Here is a picture of my first attempt at French Macarons.  I was so excited these testy little buggers turned out.  Not sure I’ll ever make them again – so much work – so temperamental – and what if they don’t turn out the next time?  Was it beginner’s luck?  I’ll just believe I’ve MASTERED them….  and leave it at that….

I also love to decorate – my home that is.  And it’s not all about it being House and Garden perfect for those of you that know me and are thinking  “Jodi – you are NOT an interior decorator!”

My ultimate goal (in deocrating) is to create a place that is warm and welcoming.  A place where someone can just drop by (no formal invitations needed around here) and feel comfortable and welcomed and loved.  No shoes off in my house.  So what if the carpet has stains…  Those stains represent someone who I shared my home with or that spilled a drink or our dog who came in after a rainy spring day – so what…  I grew up in a house that was House and Garden perfect… that meant NO SHOES inside…  it meant that you could see sweeper marks in the carpet from the daily vacuum…. it meant that you could literally eat off the garage floor if you were so inclined because it was so clean….  and that’s all good…  Mom was an awesome “cleaner”…  but it’s not me.  I want comfort, warmth, welcoming.  I want my house to feel like your favorite worn slippers or most comfortable fleece hoodie or your “go to” black yoga pants.  That’s what trips my trigger.

Here’s a little peek at our home – and that’s my little buddy “Mikey” who is never far from my side.  After this LONG COLD winter, it was so nice to see the daffodils and grass recently.

signs of spring

And I also love to craft.  It’s been various things through the years…  I’ve tried knitting and crocheting and cross-stitching, tole painting, slate painting, wood crafts, and ceramics.  My most recent crafting obsession is papercrafting – stamping, coloring, cutting, punching, pasting, tying – anything with paper and ink.  I guess it feels comforting being that I (and so many of us) spend so much time on the computer.  It feels extra special to create and send a special handmade something to someone and hope they realize the time and love you put into it – just for them. Here’s a card I made for a very special cousin and friend – Oh Rob! (I’m sure you’ll hear more about him in coming posts). Oh how I love that guy – and his amazingly talented and loving wife and superhero to me, Joyce.  Rob’s “One Little Word” this year is “reflection,” so I wanted to create a birthday card acknowledging and celebrating “reflection.”

rob reflection birthday card 2014

And then – I love to photograph it all.  Dear hubby got me my first good camera for Christmas this year – and I think he might regret it….  I know my boys do…. but I just love taking photographs of crazy, silly, normal, everyday things.   Not a trained professional by any means – not even a class – haven’t even read the whole manual (sorry Patty – I will get there!) – just have fun with it and love seeing what it captures.  My BFF, Jill, honored me with the privilege of capturing  her daughter, Jackie’s bridal shower recently – oh what fun that was – and even allowed me to do a “photo shoot” with her in-laws (I think George and Alice are going to be more famous than all of us) for a work campaign.

Recently, while Marty (that’s the dear hubby’s name) was cutting grass, I was doing very important things like taking pictures of dandelions and bees on them….  and HE snapped this little gem with his phone while on the tractor…. Not flattering – but yep – that about sums it up.  The silly things I do in my life in between…..

Untitled

So we’ll see how this goes….  I now have my first post under my belt.

Cheers and hugs,

Jodi