Cookie Dough Brownie Bombs

So today I thought I'd share with you a recipe I made for Easter this year. I was looking through my pictures and realized I hadn't posted these yet! They're actually pretty easy to make, it just takes quite a while. First  you make cookie dough. If you're worried about heath stuff you can use the recipe at the bottom of the post which has no eggs, but I think cookie dough with eggs tastes better so I'll probably make them that way next. After you've made your cookie dough roll it into balls that are pretty small and place them on a lined cookie sheet like so:

 I didn't realize how big they were going to end up once you added everything to them, so next time I make them I'll definitely start with smaller cookie dough balls! Put the pan in the freezer and let them harden for at least 30 minutes. While they're hardening bake brownies. Make sure you get the fudgey kind, otherwise they won't mold around the cookies. When the brownies come out let them cool for a little while or they'll burn your fingers (yes I learned that the hard way, I'm homeschooled ;)). Once they're cool enough to touch cut the brownies into 1" squares and mold them around the frozen cookie dough balls until they look like this:

 You don't want to wait too long otherwise they'll be harder to mold. Put the pan back in the freezer for another 30 minutes. Before you take them out melt one package of chocolate bark (or chocolate chips, whichever you prefer) in a double boiler. Keep a CLOSE eye on this. Burning chocolate neither tastes nor smells delicious... Take your frozen brownie covered cookie dough balls out of the freezer and drop them one at a time into the chocolate. Thoroughly coat them in chocolate and put them back on the pan like this:

Freeze them for about another 30-45 minutes. Until they're hard enough to not melt when you eat them, but not so hard that you break any teeth. It's a pretty wide margin, and if you forget about them you can always heat them in the microwave. When they come out of the freezer for the last time they should look like this:

If they don't, hey, it's cookie dough, brownies, and chocolate, it's going to taste good anyway!

I had some left over peanut butter icing in my fridge from this project so I melted some of that and drizzled it on top of the bombs. They were pretty incredible, I have to say. :)

Eggless Cookie Dough (recipe found here)

3/4 C Butter, softened

3/4 C Brown Sugar

1/4 C White Sugar

2 T Milk

1 t Vanilla

2 C Flour

Pinch of Salt

Scarf Tying

So I was browsing Pinterest (I know, surprise, right?) and came across a pin that I knew I had pinned before, but I had forgotten about it. I decided to try it. Several (hundred) tries later I was completely frustrated. Of course, my mom got it right the first time. Anyway, I give you...the bow scarf! You can find detailed instructions here, but I'll give you an overview. She tells you to start with one end of your scarf longer than the other, but I found it easier to do with the ends the same length. You then take one end and loop it to make a circle and pinch in the middle to make a bow. Then you want to take your other end and wrap it around the pinched middle. You will be coming up from the bottom with the end on the opposite side of the bow from your body. Wrap that end around it once, then when you bring it back to the top you tie it in a knot. This is the part that messed me up. I thought you were supposed to be knotting it with part of the bow end, but it turns out you knot it completely with the same end. I didn't realize how hard it is to explain in words. Go to her site, she shows you with pictures! If you have any questions I'll do my best to answer them!

Belt Refashion

So on Saturday my mom and I helped with a fundraising yard sale. You know what they say about yard sales? You bring a box to donate and come home with two boxes of stuff you bought! While that wasn't quite true with us, I did find several things for us to buy! The good thing about yard sales though, is that you get a ton of stuff and you only spend $2.50. Anyway, back to the project at hand. While we were at the yard sale I saw a super cute belt that I had to have. I love belts. I just recently found out that I love them, so now I'm expanding my collection. I used to hate belts. My mom would always bug me about how my pants were too loose and I needed a belt, but I never wanted to wear one. Totally different story nowadays! I wear them even when I don't need them. So I convinced my mom to buy this belt (I didn't bring any money in a valiant attempt to not buy anything...you see how much good that did...). It was only 50 cents for goodness sake! The only problem was it went around my waist a time and a half. It was WAY too big. But we bought it anyway because I knew I could cut it down and resize it. What do you know, I was right!

Before. As you can see, it does no good

The first thing I did was measure how much smaller I wanted it to be and cut off the extra with a sharp scissors. I then glued the end so it wouldn't move around while I sewed the end shut. Well, I say "I" sewed the end shut. However, my mom was so excited that the sewing machine was out again (for the first time since we moved) that she hijacked my project and sewed the end shut. (see a hilarious depiction, written by my dad, of her sewing addiction here)

 The rest of the project is super easy if you have one of these thingymajigers. Nice technical name, huh? I thought so too. I have no idea what they're really called. Anyway, you just measure where the middle is and how big the previous holes were (that will tell you how big the hole has to be for the buckle to go through). I did all the measuring for the first hole, but then I thought of the genius idea to just overlap the piece with the original holes onto the piece I wanted my holes to be on and punched away.

And voila! Project complete!

 

It's Cookie Time!

So I finished my psychology papers in time to send them in! Yay me! Now on to the important stuff. ;) Today I made Chocolate Mint Sandwich Cookies. Surprisingly, the recipe did not come from Pinterest, but a normal cook book! Shocker, I know. Anyways, the recipe is at the bottom of the post :)

Freshly out of the oven

I didn't add the food coloring to mine because I couldn't find it, so that is why my filling is just plain white.

Chocolate Mint Sandwich Cookies

6 T Butter

1 1/2 C Packed Brown Sugar

2 T Water

2 C Chocolate Chips

2 Eggs

1 t Vanilla Extract

2 1/2 C Flour

1 1/2 t Baking Soda

1 t Salt

Filling:

2 1/2 C Confectioners' Sugar

1/4 C Butter

3 T Milk

1/2 t Peppermint Extract

3 drops Green Food Coloring (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a saucepan, combine the butter, brown sugar, water, and chocolate chips over medium heat until the chocolate chips are melted. Cool

Mix in eggs and vanilla. Gradually add flour, baking soda, and salt. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes or until firm. Cool on wire racks immediately.

In a large mixing bowl, combine filling ingredients until smooth. Spread between two cookies and enjoy! 

PS- This is my 100th post! How cool is that??

Life of an Army Brat

So what do you do on May 9th when your house looks like this:

And you have 6 psychology papers due tomorrow?

You (or at least I) make Christmas ornaments!

I saw this idea on Pinterest (I'm addicted) a while back, and my mom had seen it somewhere else too, and we knew we definitely had to do it this move! Every Army family (and maybe other branches too? I'm not sure) knows that when you move your entire house is covered in these stickers (red, yellow, or blue, sometimes a combination because you had too much crap...). Why not make a keepsake out of them? You're going to peel them off anyway (or maybe you'll just leave them on to confuse the next movers. We've done that a few times, it's pretty hysterical :) But anyway, back to the point. It's super easy to do: go to a craft store and buy those decorate it yourself (a whole new DIY!) Christmas ornaments, peel off your moving stickers and stick them too the ball. Viola! You're done! Now back to psychology...

It's WARM!

Just a little update on my life because I haven't posted in a while, I'm officially in New York now! And it's WARM!!! For real, it was at least 80 degrees yesterday! I can finally wear something that isn't a sweater! 

 A couple of photos demonstrating my continued lack of selfie ability... But the tree is pretty!

 And then the ones my mom took after I gave up.. :) I'm wearing my long red, white, and blue skirt as a dress with a belt, my red scarf as a vest, and my black wedge flip-flops.

Just so you can see the back. I got this idea from Pinterest (I'm addicted). You fold your scarf in half, then take one folded corner and tie it to the corresponding end and viola! A vest! Hope everyone else is enjoying the weather as much as I am! 

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