Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Let’s BlogOff - Cookies!

It’s time for Let’s BlogOff – Cookies!

Is there anything better with glass of cold milk than a couple of warm ooey-gooey chocolate chip cookies? Mmmmmm! I can still remember the cornflake chocolate chip cookies my mom made when I was a kid. The cornflakes gave the cookies a great texture – a little crunchy, a little chewy – and a whole lot of chocolatey goodness :-) If you’ve never had cornflake chocolate chip cookies, here’s a link to a recipe that I think is similar to my mom’s.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
The absolute best part about making chocolate chip cookies – the cookie dough! YUM!
Image via Kaitlin With Honey

As much as I loved those cookies, I found another recipe that I love even more. I have no idea where it came from – I wrote it out on a yellow sticky note, just the list of ingredients and the baking time & temperature. I’ve made a few changes to the ingredients & quantities, and now they’re the perfect thin & chewy & buttery & sweet & super-chocolatey cookies. Get out your measuring cups & spoons and whip up a batch right now – you won’t regret it! I know everyone says that their chocolate chip cookies are the best. But you can forget about all those other alleged best cookies, because these ones really ARE the best! Although my friend Paul at Kitchen & Residential Design says that his Ultimate Shortbread Cookies are the best. Guess you’ll just have to try out both and see whose cookies are REALLY the best! ;-)

Triple-Threat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Image via labregeo91

Ingredients

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • ¾ cup white sugar
  • 2 large eggs, beaten
  • 2 tbsp. milk
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • ¾ tsp. salt
  • 2 cups oats
  • 2 cups (or more) combination of chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and Skor bits

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper or spray with Pam.
  3. Combine butter, brown sugar, and white sugar in a large bowl with a wooden spoon or in your KitchenAid mixer.
  4. Add eggs, milk, and vanilla and stir until just combined.
  5. In a medium sized bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add to butter & sugar mixture and stir until just combined.
  6. Add oats and stir until combined.
  7. Add chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and Skor bits and stir until combined. (If you’re using a KitchenAid, you’ll probably have to stir the chips in by hand, because the cookie dough is pretty thick.)
  8. Use a dessert spoon to drop cookie dough onto cookie sheets. Leave about 2” between each cookie (cookie dough will spread).
  9. Put one sheet onto middle rack in oven and bake for about 5 minutes.
  10. After 5 minutes, turn the sheet 180 degrees and place on upper rack. Put second sheet of cookies onto middle rack and bake both sheets for about 5 minutes (about 10 minutes total cooking time for each sheet). Cookies on top rack are ready when the edges are just barely brown and the center looks slightly unbaked.
  11. Remove top sheet from oven, turn other sheet 180 degrees and place on upper rack. Continue this rotation until all cookies are baked.
  12. Let cookies cool on sheet for a few minutes, then carefully remove cookies with spatula and let cool completely on a wire rack.

Makes about 50 cookies, unless you’re a cookie dough fiend like me and eat a few cookie’s worth of dough before all the cookies are baked :-)

Be sure to visit all the other Let’s BlogOff – Cookies participants and see what they have to say about cookies.


And today over at my other blog DTTD imagine.design.create, I’m participating in the It’s a Cinch blog party. I’m sharing an easy-to-make Maritime map letter project. Come on by and check it out :-)

sig turquoise

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Keep Merry and Bake Cookies

I haven’t been intentionally ignoring my JAX does design blog, honest! I’ve just been busy working on the new DTTD imagine.design.create blog that I’m writing with my friend Victoria. If you haven’t been by yet, what’s keeping you?! I had originally planned to close down JAX once we started up DTTD, but I’m still kind of attached to this blog. Plus the focus at DTTD is all about home decor inspiration, whereas here at JAX I can write abut whatever I want because, well, it’s my blog and I can! :-)

So, next Tuesday I’ll be participating in Let’s BlogOff – Cookies and sharing my uber-yummy Triple Threat Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe right here. You won’t want to miss it, ‘cause trust me, the cookies are DEE-LISH!

And also on Tuesday, over at DTTD I’ll be participating in the It’s a Cinch blog party. It’s all about easy-peasy, quick-to-make DIY projects. I haven’t actually started my project yet, but it’s supposed to be easy-peasy and quick-to-make, so how long can it take? {Answer: Potentially VERY long!} So after you check out my cookie recipe here on Tuesday, head over to DTTD to see my It’s a Cinch project. And trust me, it’s something easy and fast to do. Not like the other DIY project I’m working on that just about maimed my thumb last weekend.

And now here’s something cool for you to check out – animal art by Jason LaFerrera.

animal art 2 animal art 1

Pretty, yes? And you’d never guess how he creates these pieces of art… with old maps!

bear vacardinal2

How cool is that!? John sells his amazing animal map art through his Etsy shop.

See you on Tuesday!

sig turquoise

Friday, March 2, 2012

To paraphrase Elton John…

THE BLOG IS BACK!

My friend Victoria and I are so excited to announce that we’re re-launching DesignTies today with a brand new (sort of) name and a whole new look & focus. Click here or on the logo below to hop on over to DTTD imagine.design.create and see what it’s all about.

dttd header

I hope all my JAX does design friends & readers will join Victoria and me over at our new blog home. We’ve got lots of great things planned, and we’re starting it all off by participating in a blog party that’s all about blog goals. So now is the perfect time to find out what DTTD is all about :-)

To everyone who’s read my blog, commented on my blog, and/or followed my blog, a great big THANK YOU for being a part of my little corner of the blogosphere. Let’s keep the fun rolling over at DTTD!

sig turquoise