Cookie Time!

December=ultimate baking month. 

Cookies are kinda my thing. 

I have about ten [yeah, 1-0] go-to recipes each year, and this one's super yummy!

So uh, want my favorite chocolate sugar cookie recipe?

Duh. You do! 

You'll need:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temp

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup melted and cooled vegetable shortening

1 large egg

1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 375.

The size of your cookies depend on how long you bake them. I make smaller cookies, so mine only need to bake about 6-8 minutes. Plus I like a crunchy outer cookie and a gooey inside. To get that I normally squish them with my spatula straight out of the oven, and then cool them for 1-2 minutes on the pan, and then let them finish cooling on a cookie rack. 

You can vary your cooking times or sizes depending on how you like your cookies! 

This batch made 4 dozen small chocolate sugar cookies. If you're like me, and give away cookie boxes around Christmas then this would be prime freezing time. Keep 2 dozen for your family to snack on, and freeze 2 dozen for cookie assortment boxes.

You can either freeze your cookie dough, and make fresh cookies closer to the date you want them. OR they freeze wonderfully wrapped tightly in freezer paper and then zip lock bags or freezer safe containers. 

 They taste just the same, just defrost them and pop into a heated oven for a minute or so and you'd never know the difference. 

It saves a lot of back ache and clean up time in the kitchen if you normally make 100 batches of difference recipes in one day.

Oh yea, and since I'm the boss, I do give you permission to eat these for dinner-with a glass of milk, of course... only if your the momma though.

... don't judge me!  ;)

Quick and Easy Monkey Bread

My time spent in the kitchen while pregnant is really next to none. 

I just don't like to cook, smell, or  most of the time even eat food. 

My family has taken a bit of a hit, and has to for the  most part either fend for themselves or well... eat cereal or easy things like I do.

I did get a mini guilt trip from my husband though requesting a breakfast other than cereal. 

So he got my cheaters monkey bread. I call it cheaters monkey bread since the dough is actually just a premade biscuit. 

Ain't no shame though.

Last year at this time they were getting homemade pumpkin walnut muffins, but this year until Momma feels better they're lucky they even get something requiring oven baking.

Ingredients:

-canned biscuits (I used Pillsbury Flaky Grands)

-melted butter

-sugar

-cinnamon

-and a cute little helper and her pal, Pup.

uh, yea you know.. buscuits. Yea that would be biscuits.