Caramel Chocolate-Filled Peanut Butter Cookies

Since Shaner has been in Young Men's, I have had more opportunities to bake. Apparently bribery works well in getting his boys to come to mutual :) This week, we asked one of them what treat he likes the most, and he said he's always loved peanut butter cookies. The first thing that came to my mind was the good old days on the farm when Aunty-X would have freshly-made peanut butter cookies ready when we went out to haul hay. (Her's, of course, were made with none only than Adam's All Natural Peanut Butter). So, I called her up for the recipe. She was very willing to send Mrs. Field's Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter Cookie recipe down to me. I have included Mrs. Field's original recipe below.

The second thing I thought about was Cassie's old recipe. She said that she and her mom used to stuff Rolos in their peanut butter cookies. (And then I think they would cuddle and watch a movie together afterward...) You know me - everything is better with chocolate involved... So I took her idea! I have included some photos of the "extra" steps involved in making these perfect little cookies. A little bit more effort makes a whole lot of difference.

Instead of the 2 c. of flour that the original recipe stated, I added an additional 3/4 c. to make the dough less sticky and more formable (word?). Then I took Tbsp-sized servings of dough and rolled them in a ball WITH a Rolo inside.

After that, I rolled them in some additional sugar, just to give them a nice sweet crunch on the exterior.

Since all the good peanut butter cookies I've had have the nice criss-cross design, I did not skip that step. 

I was worried that the Rolo would melt out all over the place, but no such thing happened! They melted and formed the most beautiful, gooey interior you will ever experience :)

However, because I'm kind of a snacker...I ran out of Rolos before I was completely done! Ha, oops. So again, I added chocolate. This time, in the form of chopped up M&Ms.

You may be wondering why I chopped them up. Well, true to form, Costco has INCREASED the size of the M&Ms that they sell. Not just the bag, but the actual candy. They're humongous! As you can see, they're much larger than even my wedding band!

After rolling the dough into balls, I dipped the tops into the chunks of candy and baked them as is. They turned out looking very rustic. I liked it. 

I did not add the additional sugar to these ones, and they actually seemed to have more of a peanut-buttery taste to them, which I enjoyed. Shane, however, is not a huge peanut butter lover. He thought the Rolo-filled cookies were fantastic. And guess what? The tupperware was completely empty when he got home from Young Mens. Success.

How To: Can Tomatoes

Our tomato plants did so well this year! They are actually still producing as we speak. I have canned spaghetti sauce, salsa, plain tomato sauce, and these dice tomatoes that I will share today. Matter of fact, I have a pot of fresh tomato soup simmering in the crock pot right now. I can't wait for dinner! 

We grew some beefsteaks, Romas, and something between a cherry and a grape tomato. (That plant came from our neighbors and it was perfect! Each tomato was perfectly round and ruby red.) I like having the convenience of canned goods right in my pantry, and it makes it even better knowing that we grew the produce in our own back yard. I have noticed that I use cans of diced tomatoes in SO MANY recipes, and it's really not a hard process.

The first thing I did was prep the tomatoes. First, bring a pot of water to a boil. Drop a few hand-fulls of CLEANED tomatoes into the water and let boil for about 1 minute, or until the skins start to crack. Remove from the boiling water and place in a separate bowl filled with ice water to stop the cooking process. After all the tomatoes have been blanched, you can easily remove the skins, seeds, and inner core. Last, just chop the tomatoes up to desired sizes and continue using the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving instructions:

Add 1 Tbsp. bottled lemon juice to each pint jar, 2 Tbsp. bottled lemon juice to each quart jar. Pack tomatoes in hot jars, pressing gently on tomatoes until the natural juice fills the spaces between the tomatoes, leaving 1-inch headspace. Add 1/2 tsp. salt to each pint jar, 1 tsp. salt to each quart jar, if desired (I did). Remove air bubbles. Adjust two-piece caps. Process pints and quarts 25 minutes at 10 pounds pressure (at sea-level with a weighted-gauge canner; see below for adjustment chart) in a steam-pressure canner. 

For a dial gauge canner, which we have:

• 1 - 1000 ft: pressure of 11
• 1001-2000 ft: pressure of 11
• 2001-4000 ft: pressure of 12
• 4001-6000 ft: pressure of 13
• 6001-8000 ft: pressure of 14
• 8001-10000 ft: pressure of 15

For a weighted gauge canner:

• 0-1000 ft: pressure of 10
• 1001-10000 ft: pressure of 15

Cream-Filled Chocolate Cupcakes

These were the cupcakes I made for V-man's first birthday. I figure, since I wasn't going to make him his own full-sized cake - WAY too messy and wasteful - I better put as much bang into one bite as possible. Thus, the cream filling. 

I used the same chocolate cupcake recipe that I always turn to (see recipe here). To fill the cupcakes, I simply filled a piping bag with vanilla Buttercream Frosting and stuck the tip into the baked, cooled cupcakes from the top. I squeezed in enough filling to make it come out the top just slightly. You will notice the cupcake kind of plumps up as you fill; that's a good sign.

After the cupcake has been filled, it is time to frost it. I used this swirly piping tip, but you can just slather it on with a knife if that's how you role. For the frosting, I used the same Buttercream Frosting, but I added a pinch of almond extract for a little flavor diversity. It worked.

As a note, I prepared one full batch of Vanilla Buttercream Frosting (using half as the filling and half as the frosting), and it made enough to frost and fill 16 cupcakes. Additionally, the 16 cupcakes came from halving my Chocolate Cupcake recipe.

Since V-man only ate one cupcake, we had plenty of leftovers. So, I sent them with Shaner to the YM activity where they were preparing dutch oven meals...while watching the BYU football game :) I received quite a few compliments. They were a hit!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

I found this recipe a while back when I told one of my co-workers I would make him a treat for helping me out at work. He loved it! I decided to try it again with a few changes, and I think it was even better. In fact, it was practically perfect in every way. Cassie would agree, All Recipes is quite  the website.  

The only change to her recipe that I made was that I added 1 tsp. of vanilla and 1 tsp. of almond extract to the cake batter to add a little bit more flavor. You can't go wrong with almond extract in my book. I did, however, use a buttercream frosting recipe that is tried and true among my desserts already. It comes from Our Best Bites Seasonal Cookbook (which I love because I totally choose my foods according to the seasons! I'm weird like that). 

I used both chocolate and vanilla buttercream. The recipe is the same for each except for the addition of cocoa powder in the chocolate version. Both delicious. Both...not so nutritious :)

Cinnamon Roll Cookie Bites

I think these are Shaner's favorite cookie that I bake for him. If I ever ask him what to make for potlucks, courts of honor, or other big group gatherings, he often requests these. They really are delicious. They're like a cute cross between cinnamon rolls and snickerdoodles. Those are two very scrumptious things, making these cookie bites spectacular!

They have a very similar dough to snickerdoodles, but instead of plopping a ball of dough on the cookie sheet and sprinkling some cinnamon sugar on it, I take a couple more minutes and actually roll little ropes of dough into a spiral shape, and then dip the top and bottom of the dough cookie into the cinnamon sugar mixture. Even at this step the cookies smell delightful! However, as you can imagine, a few minutes in the oven causes a sweet, cinnamony aroma to take over the kitchen. That, to me, is one good way to kick off the Autumn season!

I first discovered them in a Thanksgiving edition of "Taste of Home Magazine". I baked them up and they have been a Christmas cookie staple ever since. I don't always save my magazines, but when I do, they are Thanksgiving and Christmas editions! Tis the season for baking, and I get the most inspiration from colorful photos and festive happenings around this time of year. It's the most wonderful time.

The finishing touch on these cookies, a white chocolate drizzle, kicks them over the top in appearance and in taste. Shaner always looks for the "ugly" ones  - the ones with big globs of white chocolate on them - so that I can give away the neater ones. So thoughtful of him :)

How To: Can Green Beans

Green beans is one of the best things to learn to can, especially if you grow them in a garden. Last year we had a garden but didn't have a pressure canner until the end of the season, so we were only able to can a couple jars of beans. The other ones we ended up blanching and freezing. Sure, that preserves them okay, but they don't taste NEARLY as good as home-canned green beans.

The method I use is the same one I used to use growing up. It comes from the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving. I will simply list the steps involved below. Keep in mind that because of the acidity level, these DO require a pressure cooker to preserve appropriately. Make sure you are familiar with how your canner works so that you can prevent any issues associated with inappropriately preserved foods! ie: Botulism!!! 

Canned Green Beans

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 lbs grean beans PER QUART
• Salt
• Sugar (we always added sugar WITH the salt in our home-canned green beans. It adds more flavor. I recommend it)
• Water

Instructions:

1. Wash beans; drain. Remove string, trim ends and break or cut freshly gathered beans into 2-inch pieces. Pack beans tightly into clean, hot jars, leaving 1-inch headspace. Add 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. sugar to each pint jar, or 1 tsp. salt and 1 tsp. sugar to each quart jar. Ladle boiling water over beans, leaving 1-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles.
2. Let new lids soak in simmering water for a few minutes. Make sure to clean off the mouth of the jars prior to placing lids and caps. Adjust the two-piece caps. 
3. Process pints for 20 minutes, quarts for 25 minutes, at 10 pounds pressure AT SEA LEVEL (with a weighted gauge) in a steam-pressure canner. Please refer to bullet points below for quick charts on allotted pressures for different elevations. (Again, refer to the canner's specific instructions on how much water to fill, how long to allow it to steam prior to pressurizing, and how to properly and SAFELY utilize your pressure canner to preserve foods). Allow the canner to come to the proper pressure and STAY at that pressure the entire processing time. This will allow proper seal and preservation for the vegetables.
4. When finished, turn off the heat and allow the pressure gauge to lower completely to zero before removing the lid and taking the jars out to cool on wire rack or dish cloth. 

The following is a chart of how to adjust pressure depending on the elevation:

For a dial gauge canner, which we have:

• 1 - 1000 ft: pressure of 11
• 1001-2000 ft: pressure of 11
• 2001-4000 ft: pressure of 12
• 4001-6000 ft: pressure of 13
• 6001-8000 ft: pressure of 14
• 8001-10000 ft: pressure of 15

For a weighted gauge canner:

• 0-1000 ft: pressure of 10
• 1001-10000 ft: pressure of 15

Allow the pressure cooker to reach that pressure and STAY at that pressure the entire processing time.

Quiet Book Tutorial

I've been trying to think of what to make Little Man for his 1st birthday and after the first hour of church one week, I knew what he needed! A quiet book. I'm not saying that this will make him the most reverent child in the building, but it will at least distract him for a few minutes longer than the hymn book does!

I got ideas for these pages from a lot of different sources so I'll post the links to their tutorials as well. I obviously added my own twist. I think it turned out adorable! I'm so excited to see how he does with it in church. (I've already ran some tests by giving him a few pages every once in a while to see how he reacts: he loved them!) Some pages are a little more advanced, but for now, I think the colors and textures will be okay for him.

 
This is the inside cover. I actually used half-sheets of felt, where most quiet books use the whole page. I just preferred something a little smaller for my first one, especially since we're already carrying around all of Little Man's stuff, plus primary and young mens' notebooks.

If you want, you can always make a little cover page. I was running out of time before his birthday though, so I didn't :) However, the good news is, the way I structured the book makes it possible to add more pages as desired.

For the zipper page, I decided to do a tent, as shown here. I sewed the zipper onto the back of the tent shape where I had cut a slit in the felt. Then I sewed it on the two sides and not the bottom. I think I may surprise him with a photo under the zipper when he gets old enough to realize what's going on.

This is one of the favorite pages. I got the inspiration for the barn from The Quiet Book Blog.

However, I decided to put finger puppet animals behind the doors, as some other tutorials have done.

I found these cute shapes on Designs by Megan Turnidge and decided to cut my own templates in similar shapes. I chose the cow, the chicken, and the sheep. Aren't they adorable! I basically cut the body and head together in one piece, and doubled it up for the back. Then I cut individual ears, faces, noses, and other accessories and sewed them all onto the front piece prior to sewing the front and back together completely, leaving an opening for the fingers. 

The Quiet Book Blog also had a belt page like this! I had an extra belt that I don't use anymore, so I cut it the size to fit the pants I cut out, and sewed it on VERY WELL so that V-man can learn to buckle and unbuckle a belt!

I basically straight-up copied these pages from The Quiet Book Blog. I eyeballed the train shapes and cut them out from there. You can get creative, however, and maybe even do a Christmas train!

This Button the Pocket page is quite simple, but it does teach important motor skills...like buttoning buttons! 

I like the page a lot because it's perfect for hiding something new, like a treat or a toy, in the pocket each week. That will peak his interest!

Sugar Bee Crafts had this adorable sneaker page. V-man LOVES strings, tape measures...hair, etc so I think, even as a youngster, he'll have fun with this page. I used eyelets to string the shoelace through so the page would be less likely to tear. Well, so the page would stay tear-free for a LITTLE BIT longer :) If you decided to use more eyelets - 5 on each side instead of 4 like I did - you could have a couple more criss-crosses in the lace. 

Memory will be a fun one. I think someday, when V-man knows what Memory is, I'll add another page to this game to make it a little more tricky. For now, he already likes to pull the "cards" out and have me put them back in the pockets. I got the pocket idea from Sugar Bee Crafts as well. I have seen other tutorials that just have a place for the cards and then you don't secure them to the page when you play. I assume velcro would also work, but you'd have to place it appropriately around the picture, etc. Too much of a hassle. I just sewed two long gray strips on, sewing lines in the middle to break them into 3 pockets each. Then did the same with a shorter strip on top. (I realized that Memory needed an even number of pockets :))

Some people did shapes/colors on the back of their cards. I decided to pain music symbols to the back. Got to star them young, right? I did a bass clef, 2 sixteenth notes, 1 sixteenth note (I didn't realize I had doubled up until later. Oh well, I can always make different ones), and a half note. 

Apparently I really like The Quiet Book Blog when I was making this! I made my own template for the glove and ball. I sewed all the glove fingers in place on the page, but left the bottom open for him to put his little hand into. (I've given him this page already. He likes the ball, but he hasn't quite figured out how to put his hand in the glove).

I thought it would be fun to have the baseball velcro onto the glove so he can pretend he's "catching" the ball with his hand in it. Cute!

This last page was my way of throwing some more sports into the mix :) It's a "Shapes" page, but instead of your typical triangle/star/square/oval/etc. shapes, I decided to do big square (backboard), little circle (tennis ball), bigger circle (soccer ball), and oblong (football).

I painted an outline of each shape underneath so that when he took it off, he could match it on its correct spot.

Here's how I did the cover. I got inspiration from here and here and kind of improvised the rest. First, I had V-man pick between four different scrap materials I had laying around (he just learned how to point), and then I chose a corresponding back fabric.  I cut them out to easily wrap around the pages of my book. Keep in mind, that if you have large rings, you will need to cut the material so that the front cover is a little bit longer so it will reach over and around the hard rings to cover the pages. (I did not do that at first. So I will need to get smaller rings).

The first step I would do (which I actually didn't do) is sew a back side of velcro onto the front of the book (to close it in the end). 

For the middle rings (or ribbons if you want a more flexible book), I measured the middle of the fabric and then moved out about 3/4 inch on each side to place 6 total eyelets matching the holes I had punched and placed eyelets on my pages. After that, sew all three sides together, (good side of material facing good side), leaving the back page side open to allow for the ribbon to be sewn in. Flip it right side out.

For the ribbon, I sewed the other velco half on the back side, and then hand-sewed a button on for decoration. It looks cuter that way :) This last step is actually more difficult, but you will need to fold in the ends like a hem from the wrong side. PIN AS YOU GO! It will unfold easily. When you get to the middle of the seam, place the ribbon in to be pinned as you go along. Sew that side. (I sewed over the ribbon seam three times to make sure it was securely in place.

And there you have it! A quiet book! I think it turned out rather cute, for my first one. Thanks to all those good ideas on the internet already! I think Mom would probably be able to come up with some goodies. Until next time, I'll stick with these pages though.