Make it Monday! Quadruple Chocolate Chip Cookies.....

Your drooling right... 

Just the title alone make you drool right... 

Well that's what I thought when I saw this recipe over at Simply Baking!

I found her on a blog linky party back in May and I am so glad I found this recipe!

These cookies have a definate personality disorder... they really aren't sure if they are brownies or cookies but either way they are awesome! 

 They don't look like much (maybe because these were the last two left) but let me tell you Y-U-M!

And since I love them soooooo much I wanted to share (cause I'm nice like that)! 

Quadruple Chocolate Cookies/Brownies

Ingredients

1c (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

2c all purpose flour

2/3c unsweetened cocoa powder ( I prefer Nestle)

1tsp baking soda

1/2tsp baking powder

1tsp salt

1 pound semi-sweet chocolate chips

2c firmly packed brown sugar

4 large eggs, room temperature

2tsp pure vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups white chocolate morsels

2/3c milk chocolate (or semi - sweet) morsels

Directions

1. Pre heat oven to 350 degrees

2.  Melt 1 pound of semi sweet chocolate chips in a double-boiler or in the microwave for 30 second intervals, stiring in between each 30 seconds.  Set aside once chocolate is smooth.

3.  Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa, and salt in a medium bowl.

4.  In a stand mixer, or using a hand mixer, cream together the butter and brown sugar.  Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each egg addition.   Add the vanilla, then add the cooled chocolate to the mixture and blend well.

5.  Add half the flour mixture to the wet mixture and mix on low speed, then add the remaining flour mixture and mix until the batter comes together, then add Chocolate chips.

6.  On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, drop spoonfuls of the cookie dough.

Bake for 7-9 minutes until puffy.  Do not over bake!  You want them to resemble a brownie texture.

Allow to cool for 10 minutes.

 

That is the original recipe that Ashley over at Simply Baking posted but I did make one change.... 

I added the new Hershey Drops... The cookies and creme ones...  

You know you've seen them in the store and resisted buying them knowing that you'd get the bag home and eat the whole thing (I only know this because I bought a bag  three bags of these to make this recipe and we ate the first two before I could make them). 

I have to give lots of credit to my hubby because he was the one who suggested that the Hershey Drops would be great in this recipe! 

To add them I just cut them into quarters so they were around the size of a chocolate chip and folded them in at the end with the other chips! 

 

 

Got some time? You should stop over and check out Simply Baking and have a look at her other recipes too she has lots of cupcakes (my obsession!) like this Strawberry Cupcake that may be making its way into my oven very soon! And she's a girl after my own heart with a recipe for Egg Salad too! Gotta Love it! 

 

Hope you like these cookies as much as we do... 

One word of warning they make a big batch and they get gobbled up quick! 

Fathers Day!

Happy Fathers Day!

Today for me is more about celebrating my Husband and my Mom.... sounds strange... 

Well for a long while, most of my life I feel, my Mom has also been my Dad.... and I always try to do something for her on Fathers Day as well as Mothers Day. 

I feel like if you are doing both jobs you get both days! 

My Mom has always been my rock and one of the people who shaped my life teaching me right from wrong, how to be a lady, how to be myself and most of all how to be sure your treated the way you deserve! She always believed in me and to this day still tells me how proud she is of me! 

Happy Fathers Day Mom!

My Husband is one of the most amazing men I know and he is the light in Delaney's eyes! When she sees him come home she screams and runs to him, when she hasn't seen him in a couple of days like last week when he stayed at work due to car issues she woke up at night crying that she wanted her Daddy! 

We are so grateful for such an amazing man and I thought that the rest of this post ought to be dedicated to him!

Happy Fathers Day Robyn!

I hope that you and your family have a lovely Fathers Day with whom ever you consider your Father figure to be!

Inspiration for the Kiddos room!

As I have mentioned before Delaney and Baby Max (whose arrival may seem far away to some, much closer to me as I get bigger and bigger and less able to walk the length of myself without 1. having to pee and 2. stop to catch my breath....) will be sharing a room for as long as we are living in this apartment. 

As I very well know he will not be spending lots of his time in there but, I still want to redecorate the room which is now purple so that its not an obvious GIRLS room when he gets here. 

I mentioned here that I am planning to paint the room green (we finally picked the perfect green  "New Grass" by CIL and picked it up today) and that Max's side will be accented with Blues and oranges, and Delaney's side with Pinks and Purples! 

Well here is a better idea for you of my "vision..." Whether it looks like the photos below or not when complete I can not guarantee but here is what I see in my head... 

I am in love with the owls and the circle/bubble themes available right now and I think that this "Retro" owl from WallFry is the perfect combo of the colors I love and the owl and circle theme I am liking for Max's side of the room.

Photo and art credit: http://wallfry.blogspot.com/
 
This one is a close up of a canvas for sale on etsy its actually very big and is a picture of three trees, but I am thinking I just like the bubble look up close.

 

Photo and art credit: http://www.etsy.com/listing/52173614/modern-orange-aqua-poofy-flowers-fabric

 

And this was just too cute not to add plus this was the song that we used as the processional song at our wedding... well "All you need is love" but I think this is such a cute idea!

photo and art credit: http://thecolorbee.blogspot.com/2011/04/owl-you-need-is-love.html

 

I plan on incorporating these ideas in the art work I make myself because as we all know I like to do things myself!

However the other side, Delaney's side may look a little more like this as she is a bit obsessed with a certain girl who is berry sweet....

Photo from and item available at: http://strawberry-shortcake.allaboardtoys.com/strawberry-shortcake-live-to-dance-pillowcase.html

Photo from and item available at: http://www.roommatespeelandstick.com/walldecals/strawberry-shortcake-wall-stickers.aspx?affid=cj

However in all honesty I will likely be just putting up the art work that my sister made for her as well as her butterfly 3d art (my sister made these too and I will be posting about them very soon!) and maybe a Strawberry Shortcake picture or two... 

So there you have it bubbles and owls in orange and blue opposite Strawberry Shortcake in purple and pink. 

I only hope that it turns out as cute as it is in my head and not completely opposite and disjointed as it looks here on the blog....

RSS and Email Subscriptions!

As you may have noticed... or not.... I have made a few changes.

One that my sister will appreciate for sure!

I've added an RSS and Email Subscription gadget to the blog making it easier for all of you lovely followers to well follow me...

I honestly thought about doing this right from the get go, day one, page one and then as I was setting up my blog and having a look at what I was writing and posting I thought to myself....

"That's a little cocky.... and hey its only me reading this dribble anyway why add that stuff to a blog that no one will read...."

Well since then I have been posting so frequently, joining linky parties, adding myself to blog hops, and even got featured on Dollar Store Crafts!, not to mention I got an comment asking me to add it as the poster had wanted to add me to her email subscriptions and couldn't (flattering to say the least!!!). 

So now that I am getting a bit more blogging experience under my belt I've added it for you, so please go ahead and subscribe with your favorite RSS reader or by email if you prefer!

I'm Back!

I feel like I've been neglecting the blog for so long... I know I have good reasons and I know that its all that can be done when life falls in your lap and says hey you thought it was all smooth sailing from here well here's a hiccup for ya!

So here are the basics of the situation my husband Robyn has Crohn's Disease which is an autoimmune disease which causes chronic inflammation in the gastrointestinal track. It can be quite painful and limits his activities and what he can eat at times. He became very sick just before I met him and was diagnosed just weeks before we started dating. In a very short time he became progressively worse and required surgery in May of 2004. He recovered quickly and has been relatively healthy since then, through watching his diet and taking better care of himself he has rarely had any pain or issues. Then a few months ago he had noticed a bit of a change and requested through our family Dr to see his specialist (whom he had no need to see for 5 years) once he finally got into see the specialist he requested a routine test to be done in his office in a week or two. 

Which just happened to be last week, Tuesday to be exact. 

On Tuesday morning he went for his test and was told that everything was fine and that he would follow up with the Dr soon and that they wanted to do another test (an upper GI)  but it could be a long wait as this is done through X-ray. Tuesday afternoon he wasn't feeling very good and I could see he was finding it hard to get comfortable. I recommended that he go lay down for a while and that it may help him feel better. Not long after he became violently ill and started vomiting he called the emergency nurses' line and they recommended that he go to the ER to get checked out. After a 9 hour stay in the ER, a set of X-rays showed that he had a small bowel obstruction. We caught it early and were very lucky as this can rupture quite suddenly and be fatal in some situations. 

So he was admitted and watched very closely for a few days as it resolved on its own, they believe that it was just caused by a flare up of his crohn's which could mean that he could be sick again anytime or it may have resolved completely and will settle on its own. 

I think that is the worst part about having this disease you never know whats happening because everyone reacts differently to the meds and to different foods and to different situations. But that is the nature of the beast when your body attacks its self on a regular basis.

We were very lucky to have 7 healthy years with little to no complications and are hoping that he will be able to have another very long stretch between this flare up and the next but since there is no cure for this disease we will deal with this for the rest of our lives.

It was very scary and hard to deal with knowing that as a wife there is nothing I can do other than bring him the things he needs, visit as frequently as I could and take good care of myself and Delaney while he was recuperating in the hospital. I admit that I broke down a time or two (maybe from the stress, maybe from the fear, maybe from the hormones.... ) and its hard not to worry knowing that there is not a thing I can do! 

He was released from the hospital early Saturday morning and returned to work Sunday claiming he was feeling well enough... I took him at his work but worried all day! 

I also had my baby shower on Sunday and was busy having fun with my girlfriends when I got a call that our car had broken down/wasn't working properly...

So now we are in the process of figuring out what is going on with our car and making sure that Robyn is doing ok. The worst part of this is that he works about an hour from home and is staying at work while we figure out the car situation, so after being without him all of last week we got him home for one night and lost him again (aka I cant keep my eyes on him to be sure he isn't over doing it or eating things that are really bad for him...) So in the middle of all of this I have not been crafting or cooking or baking or doing anything relatively creative, and since we were all in and out of the house so much over the last week or two the house work got neglected and I spent all day yesterday picking up toys, doing laundry cleaning out the fridge and on my hands and knees cleaning floors. 

I am hoping to get some crafting done over the next few days even if its just to ease my mind and give me something to do to relax... hopefully there will be something new up soon!

But in the mean time if your interested check out this link to the 

Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of Canada 

for more information.