Sinful chocolate cookies

Holy delicious cookie guys...I was really in the mood for a chocolate cookie that was easy too so I searched online and combined a few recipes to make what I think it probably the best cookie I've ever had.  I'm not just tooting my own horn, they are so easy and so delicious!!!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.  Also grease 2 baking sheets with cooking spray.
• Put the confectioners' sugar into a little container and set aside as you will use this later to coat the cookies.
• In a medium bowl, mix flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt
• In another bowl, using your mixer, beat butter and sugar until it's combined and creamy.  Add one egg at a time and mix until blended.  Then add your vanilla to this mixture.
• Add the two mixtures together and beat until blended
• Using a tablespoon, scoop some of the dough out
• Roll the dough into small ball's using your hands (time to get dirty guys!)
• Roll the ball in the confectioners' sugar that you set aside in the beginning
• Place the balls on the baking sheets (12 on each) about 2 inches or so apart
• Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until they are cracked and puffed!

It's almost my birthday month!

July marks my birthday month and although I have to wait pretty much the entire month for my birthday to actually roll around, I love July for more than just my birthday.  July, in my eyes is the best month of summer.  It's beautiful weather, barbecues, the 4th of July, pools, the beach, and my boyfriend.  It's amaaazing.  Next week Tim and I are kicking off the first week of July with my family in Buffalo.  We'll be attending a bridal shower for my Uncle's fiance as well as a rodeo...random, I know.  I'm just so excited to kick off my favorite month with the people I love most.

How are you guys planning to spend the month of July?  I'm looking for some birthday ideas as well as great day trips for Tim and I!  Comment, comment, comment....or email :)

In honor of my favorite month and of course, my birthday I created a July wishlist!

1.  A Pandora charm bracelet
2.  Erin Condren Life Planner
3.  J.Crew necklace
4.  New cookbook
5.  New bag

What are you wishing for?

Delicious Blueberry Muffins

Is anyone planning on cooking brunch for Easter?  Whether you are or aren't this easy-to-make muffins can be changed to your liking (chocolate, strawberries, bananas, etc...) What I've created is an simple muffin base that can change depending on the day you want to eat them!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 milk (I always add a splash more but you really have to eye this one.  Don't let them get to watery, but don't let them be too dry)
• 1/2 tsp  vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups chopped blueberries (or something else if you'd prefer that)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees and spray muffin pan to set aside.  You can either cook these in cupcake holders or without, it doesn't matter
• Mix butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl.  Add in egg and beat.
• Add flour, baking powder and salt into the bowl and mix.  Add in your milk and then vanilla.
• Gently stir in your choice of fruit (or chocolate)
• Sprinkle some sugar on top!
• Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean!

Enjoy!

Cinnamon toast crunch cupcakes and the battle that ensued

It's no secret that I love to bake but sometimes I just shouldn't do it.  For example, last night I decided really late that I wanted to make Cinnamon Toast Crunch cupcakes!  I was baking them loosely off of a recipe but was also altering it based on my own experience and I was exhausted.  Well the first issue of the night was that I didn't have eggs.  That morning Tim and I used them to make the perfect sunny side up eggs (I'll post that recipe..so easy!) and I totally forgot to get more.  So I call my neighbor and solve my egg issue except for the fact that I bring them into my room and sit them in a basket until I need them.  We will return to the eggs momentarily.

So I start my batter and everything is going just fine, changing the recipe having a grand ol' time and I put in my baking powder.  Seemingly, all is well.  I return to my room to get the eggs and as I go to turn around one slid out of my hand, smacked the doorknob and cracked on my grey carpet.  Great.  I can't get the stain out by the way.

I put the cupcakes in the oven after scrubbing endlessly in hopes of getting the egg stain out of my rug and wait.  I generally am the type to check the oven a million times to see what the cupcake looks like but instead I just went about my business.

When the timer went off I was so excited because the kitchen smelt delish.  Well...to my surprise....I open the oven to find cupcake batter EVERYWHERE.  I exploded the cupcakes.

In utter shock I decided to reread my recipe and go over what I had done and realized that because I was tired and changing the recipe without paying attention...instead of putting 3/4 teaspoon of baking powder, I put 3/4 cup.  How on earth did that not register as odd?!  Who knows...but it was a mess!

This morning I woke up and tried again and with the right amount of baking powder they turned out great.  Recipe below!  Enjoy!

Cupcake Ingredients:

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• salt
• 1/2 milk (whole or skim, I use skim)
• 1/2 stick butter
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup +2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

The frosting is a simple butter cream frosting which you can find a recipe online for. I simply added some Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal and cinnamon to the recipe.

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line your cupcake pan to set aside
• In large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt
• In a small sauce pan on the stove, melt butter with the milk and set aside
• Using your electric mixer, mix in eggs, sugar and vanilla extract with the flour mixture you set aside earlier.  
• Once that is incorporated, add in the milk and butter and mix until all together
• Fill cupcake tins 3/4 of the way and bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean!

So easy!

Happy Monday! I'm having a crisis...

It's snowing or raining outside..I'm actually not at all positive which one it actually is.  I'm in class and writing on this blog which should tell you all that I am bored to death.

Lately I've been thinking a lot about life considering so much is changing.  This weekend, while my boyfriend and I were lounging around, he very candidly asked me if I still wanted to do public relations as my career.  We were watching the new show "The Taste" and I had been discussing with him how much I loved to cook and really thought I could go on the show.  Well, I suppose at some point I made the comment that I could go on that show and then I wouldn't have to sit in a cubicle every day for the rest of my life, I could just do what I love.  So he asked...and I don't blame him for asking.  What scared me in that moment was the fact that I didn't know the answer.  Instead I got quiet and mumbled a very quiet "I don't know."  

To be completely honest with all of you, I didn't have the best semester this past fall.  Classes were rough for me and I struggled, even within my major. It was upsetting and frustrating and I left for Christmas break feeling very sad.  Like someone had burst my PR bubble.  When I came back for the Spring I was offered an amazing internship at a small PR firm in the city, a mentorship program with the Vice President of TBS, and I had a wonderful conversation with my adviser in which she assured me that I was good at what I do.

Well...I should feel better right?  I should want to do this again, right?  Wrong. So terribly wrong.  I am literally having a quarter life crisis and I have no idea what to do about it.

I have been taking the time, upon realizing I was having a quarter life crisis, to think about what I really want to get out of life.  What are my dreams?  What do I see myself doing?  While not everything fits into a picture perfect, step-by-step, scenario, it is what I want in my life and I am going to try my hardest to accomplish it.

1.  I will continue my education with public relations and graduate from my University
2.  I will search for a job as a wedding planner and obtain any extra necessary documentation to do so
3.  I want to eventually open either my own wedding planning company or a bakery
4.  I want to have the opportunity to stay home with my children when that is the case
5.  I want to have a successful blog in my lifetime

That's what I want as a career.  A compilation or variation of all of that.  So no, it's not exactly public relations, but it's my dream.  My degree will help me achieve all of it.